Thoughts and Reflections

My Favorite Holiday ... Halloween

2011-11-11T09:18:00.000-05:00

For the past six months, I have been attending Toastmasters meetings twice a month. While I had participated in some of the roles during the meetings, I hadn't yet gotten up the nerve to do my first speech. In Toastmasters, they call this the "Icebreaker Speech," and the target is to speak for 4-6 minutes about the topic you know most about - yourself. For my speech, I chose to talk about my favorite holiday, Halloween.

When I sat down to write my speech, I wasn't sure how to get started. So, I decided I would pretend I was writing a blog entry and go from there. I present to you my Icecreaker Speech, which I presented to my Toastmasters group on Thursday, October 27. Final time was 6:38 so it was a little too long, but otherwise it was a success!

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What is your favorite holiday? Though I love the anticipation of Christmas and the lazy warm Fourth of July weekend, there is one holiday that stands out for me as the most fun. It is a holiday to look forward to, one to plan ahead for, one to get really excited about. I love Halloween.

As a child growing up in a small town in South Dakota (population 742), what I remember the most about Halloween was going out Trick-or-Treating with my friends. I must have been 9 or 10 I suppose for the Halloweens that I remember, but we would get all dressed in our costumes, and the goal was to hit every house in town. We didn’t even use those little plastic pumpkins – they didn’t hold enough candy - we used pillowcases. And sometimes, we had to stop back at home to drop off our loot before heading out to hit the rest of town.

One thing I remember about bringing home all of my candy, after visiting as many houses in town as we could, was that my sister and I would sit in the middle of the living room floor and dump all of our candy out in piles. We had to keep our piles separate of course, because it’s not like we wanted to share any with each other. Mom and Dad would come in and check out everything that we got. My dad always suggested that we take all of the “good” candy bars – you know the ones, the Snickers, Kit Kats, Butterfingers – and put them in a freezer bag to go in the freezer for safekeeping. It wasn’t until years later that I realized that I didn’t remember ever eating any of those candy bars out of the freezer. Turns out we gave our parents a secret stash of frozen candy bars. I guess they ate them at night after we went to bed.

In my family, we never carved pumpkins … but my Mom liked to do crafts, and she would always paint funny faces on pumpkins for our front porch.

Through high school and college, Halloween didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. I remember one year in college, we found a box of my aunt’s old clothes from the 70s and we all dressed up like hippies and went out downtown. Otherwise, my love for Halloween didn’t really resurface until after I was out of college.

A good college friend of mine, Leslie, and I moved to Galveston, Texas after we graduated from college. The first Halloween spent in Galveston, we had this big idea to carve pumpkins to decorate the front step of our apartment. In South Dakota, where it is in the 30s and 40s in October, people always carve pumpkins up to a couple weeks before Halloween. Since it is so cold outside, the pumpkins stay preserved and still look great by actual Halloween. So, at some point in the middle of October we set out to carve pumpkins. Now, remember I never did this as a kid – so this was my first pumpkin carving experience. We were so proud of our pumpkins. Unfortunately, in Galveston in October, the temperature is more like 70 every day – not 30 … so our pumpkins didn’t even make it to October 20.

After living in Galveston for 2 years, I moved to North Carolina with my boyfriend at the time, who was in the Coast Guard and got transferred to the Outer Banks. For three years, I lived on Hatteras Island – and one of the best parts about it was the local bar’s annual costume party.

One year on Hatteras Island, I shopped on eBay for us – brown polyester Levi’s and a disco shirt for my boyfriend, and a brown and orange checkered polyester dress for me. His costume was accompanied by a black curly haired wig, and mine a long blonde haired wig. We looked groovy.

The next year, I wanted to be a saloon girl, and he was going to be a cowboy. I shopped on eBay for the perfect dress, and got a little too competitive one night – I spent way more money on my dress than I had intended, but I was determined that was my Halloween dress, so I “won” the auction. Meanwhile, we bought some red and brown canvas fabric for him, and a friend I worked with made him a red cowboy shirt and a brown trench coat. We got a leather cowboy hat at the local beach souvenir store.

After three years of living on Hatteras Island, my boyfriend and I parted ways, and I moved to Wilmington. I bought a house, met my current boyfriend, and started thinking of my next Halloween costume. Two years ago, I found a light pink and white polka dotted prom dress at the thrift store, and I was a psycho prom queen. Last year, I missed Halloween due to a work trip that took me to San Antonio, so I am extra excited for Halloween this year.

I decorated the house last weekend, complete with Halloween-themed paper blacking out my windows, with orange lights behind that make the pictures in the window glow on the outside. We have a few ghosts hanging in the trees, and the candy bowl is ready for Trick-or-Treaters.

I bought us two pumpkins that are perfect for carving, but I learned years ago, you can’t carve them too early when you don’t live up north, so we plan to carve them this weekend. Saturday or Sunday I imagine, so they still look good for the Trick-or-Treaters on Monday night.

To make up for missing Halloween last year, I am going to have three different costumes this year. Friday night, I am going to play Bunco with some girlfriends. The theme is “pink,” to support Breast Cancer Awareness month, so you can wear any kind of costume you would like, as long as it is pink. I am going with an 80s punk look, with pink hairspray, a pink striped vest, black skirt, black nail polish and pink leg warmers. On Saturday night, our neighbors are having a costume party, where I will be dressing in a black robe and going as an insane clown (like the infamous band Insane Clown Posse whose popularity peaked in the 90s), with white and black makeup and spiked braids in my hair. Sunday night, there is a break in the action, but I may dress up as something anyway.

Monday, the grand finale, brings us to actual Halloween. To prepare for the Trick-or-Treaters, my Monday costume is going to be a zombie. I have my outfit nearly ready, with some embellishments from the fabric store waiting for final assembly. My boyfriend is also going to be a zombie, so we have our fake blood and cream makeup ready for application.

We have two dogs – a golden retriever and a beagle. On Halloween night, we sometimes have up to 100 Trick-or-Treaters, and 100 doorbell rings is just too many in one night for the dogs to handle, so we usually just sit on the front porch and wait for the kids to come. We take the CD player outside and play my “Monster Hits” Halloween CD. On repeat … over and over, until there are no more kids.

So, whether your favorite holiday is Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Fourth of July, or another holiday, I suggest to you this – don’t forget Halloween. Wear a costume, decorate your house, bake something with pumpkin in it, carve or paint pumpkins, buy candy for the Trick-or-Treaters. It’s so much fun!

Groceries, Recipes and Dinner

2011-09-19T18:16:00.002-04:00

I seem to be addicted to food. Not in an "I can't stop eating" problematic sort of way, but a "my fridge is always full of groceries I bought or things I made and my collection of recipes may one day take over the house" sort of way.

First, let's talk about shopping for groceries. I'm a bargain shopper. I buy lots of things in bulk at Sam's Club, I love Big Lots, the bins and endcaps of things at the grocery store that are on sale, clipping coupons, and we can't forget about Super Double or Triple Coupon week at the local Harris Teeter! I also recently discovered you can buy grocery coupons on Ebay for super cheap - we're talking $1 for 100 coupons or something with FREE shipping. I haven't bought any yet, I'm waiting for my pantry supply to go down a bit before I start buying coupons on Ebay.

Which brings me to my pantry ... how do we store these groceries? I have a small house. At 1300 square feet plus a storage shed, it's large enough for my boyfriend, my two dogs, me, my home office, and all of our "things." This includes all of my cookbooks (we'll get to that in a bit) and other collections, and Marshall's "room" full of tools and hunting and fishing gear. None of these things can go in the shed because the shed is not climate-controlled, so if you come visit, I hope you don't mind sleeping in a room that smells like boys and has fish and squirrels hanging on the wall. We won't even talk about what's in the closet in there. But wait, I'm getting off track. Back to the storing of the groceries.

I have a cupboard in the kitchen with spices, pasta and rice. Our fridge sits in a little alcove in our kitchen that used to be the pantry. A wise former owner of my house turned the pantry into a home for the refrigerator, and there was plenty of space above and beside the fridge that was being wasted. Marshall built a really nice custom shelving unit around the fridge, which has a big shelf above for miscellaneous things like cereal, cookie sheets, the rice cooker, and all the other random stuff that gets used once a month and takes up a bunch of space. Beside the fridge, there are five shelves that store canned goods, snacks, and other bargains I find while I am grocery shopping. In my office, I have a large cabinet that also stores food, as well as a shelf that stores more canned goods. We also have a chest freezer that struggles to have enough room for ice cream, as well as a refrigerator freezer that also is stocked.

For a certain amount of time, I kept a spreadsheet on my computer that had an "inventory" of the food that was in the freezer, as well as on the pantry shelves. Although I am an organized person, I am also busy ... and this proved to be just a little too much for me to maintain, so we no longer have a spreadsheet. However, I do clean the freezer out every other month or so and take note of things that should be used, and I clean out the pantry and cabinets every few months and check for things nearing expiration so I can add those to the "needs to be used" section as well.

Anyway, let's talk recipes for a few minutes. When I first started cooking for myself when I was in college, I made the basics. Meals I had watched my mom make, things I liked ... macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, tater tot casserole, meatloaf, cheese burritos. As time passed, I started experimenting a bit with new recipes here and there. Today, I have a large collection of cookbooks (should we say 100 or so?) and when I sort through them to see what I can take to the used book store, I end up convincing myself that I NEED them all.

I also have magazine subscriptions. Taste of Home, Cuisine at Home, Rachael Ray Magazine, Food Network Magazine, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens. I'm letting some of the subscriptions lapse ... but I won't be able to get rid of Rachael Ray or Food Network. Or Real Simple. Or Cuisine at Home. Ok so I can keep those four, right? When I read my magazines, I clip out the recipes that sound good that I want to make. I try to be selective, and clip only the ones I think I need (for example, a recipe for a three-cheese pasta? Probably can figure that one out without a recipe.) However, I find myself with a never-ending box of "recipes to be glued" onto cards ... which are stored in photo boxes. I currently have two photo boxes full, and at some point in the future I think I may need to add a third.

I also watch the Food Network. My favorite show is Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (DDD) with Guy Fieri. I also like watching Heat Seekers, and some of the other shows. Again, recipes I see on the Food Network I can go to FoodNetwork.com and search for them and print them out.

And, after all of these cookbooks, magazines, TV shows, websites, and recipe clipping and gluing, what do I do when I make dinner? One of two things:

Make whatever I am making without using a recipe.
Go to AllRecipes.com or www.Google.com and search for what I want to make, and use a recipe from there. (And I print it out and add it to my 'to-be-glued' pile.)

I also recently purchased a small magnetic white board that lives on the refrigerator, where we note "meal ideas." I tried a scheduled meal calendar for awhile, but that didn't work (again not enough time to maintain it.) But, posting a list of "ideas" of things we want to try or make for dinner soon seems to be working well. I can also post things I find in the freezer or pantry that need to be used soon on here so we can use them in upcoming meals.

After all of this food shopping and storing and recipe gathering and menu planning, we usually eat at home. It saves money, and it's so much healthier. If someone asked me what restaurant they could get me a gift card to, I think I would prefer a gift card from the grocery store. :) Sometimes we go astray with a dinner out at El Cerro Grande or Outback Steakhouse, or a take-out pizza from Papa Murphys, but most of the time we cook. We try to cook healthy as well, with lots of vegetables, beans and whole grains. But I can't do without cheese.

Anyway, all this talk about food has made me hungry. I think I'll go choose something for us from the mass of food I made over the weekend that is sitting in my fridge: cheeseburger soup (A DDD recipe), chicken curry, grape and blueberry chicken salad, or Salisbury steak with mushroom cream gravy.

Stay Tuned ... a Sneak Peek of What's to Come

2011-07-25T21:04:00.005-04:00

Tonight, I’m announcing a return to my blog. As I stated in one of my last posts (which I am a little ashamed that readers can see how long ago that was), I had intentions of wanting to do one post a week. I stated that after working at the computer all day, I struggle to sit here and write a blog entry.

However, I’ve been thinking about blogging again lately. Thinking of ideas of what I could write about, what I could share with my followers (and my non-followers who read my posts anonymously). So I’m back. And I’m going to try to do better. I can’t guarantee one post a day. I can’t even guarantee one post a week. But I can say I’m going to try to do better.

What should I write about in my more frequent posts, I wondered. Well … here are some ideas.

• I love to cook. I have subscriptions to several cooking magazines, own several (to say the least) cookbooks, and also make up my own things sometimes. Maybe I’ll share some recipes and/or cooking tips on my blog.

• I am a money-saver. I’m on a budget, which needs to be followed. I am a faithful Sam’s Club shopper, where I buy things in bulk and freeze in smaller packages as needed. I visit the local grocery stores during double and triple coupon days. I look for clearance sections and I go to discount stores. Yard sales and thrift stores? Love those too! Maybe I’ll share some of my bargain finds and money saving tips on my blog.

• I have two dogs. They are the coolest dogs ever (though doesn’t everyone say that about their pets?) I have a 7-year old golden retriever named Dakota and a 2-year old beagle named Mattie. These guys are so entertaining and funny. Maybe I’ll share some stories about them on my blog.

• Family and friends have told me that they love my writing. They tell me that I should write a book. I think you have to do a lot of magazine articles and columns – really get your name out there – before a publisher wants to look at a manuscript you wrote. But … some magazines I subscribe to have some writing contests coming up, and I’m hoping to enter them. Maybe I’ll share some of my contest entries on my blog.

• My boyfriend and I try to be very eco-friendly … or “green” as they are calling it these days. We recycle – and the trash company doesn’t pick it up for us each week. We separate it ourselves, we put it in our cars and drive it to the recycling bins down the road, get out of our cars in the 100-degree heat and throw all of the recyclables in their appropriate bins. We feed the birds, we have a compost pile, and we have barrels that collect rainwater so we can water the garden. Is there more we could do? Probably. Are we doing our part to save the planet? I think so. Do I think other people could do more to do their part? Yes. Maybe I’ll share some eco-friendly tips on my blog.

• The other night, our neighbors invited us to a concert downtown. Hayes Carll, a Houston native, was coming to town to share his (awesome) Texas music. It was held in the Brooklyn Arts Center, which was a dilapidated old church that someone decided to turn into a performing arts center. How cool. There are also live music performances held at local parks and other venues throughout Wilmington. We had a great time, and may be attending more of these events with our neighbors in the future. Maybe I’ll share some of these experiences on my blog.

• Lately, I’ve been trying to find ways to relax. My job has been really busy and stressful, and I’ve had some trouble “winding down” after a day of work. A few things (in no particular order) that I’ve found help me to relax: crocheting, reading, cooking, painting (art … not walls), walking in the woods. I’ve heard that yoga is very relaxing, though I’ve never tried it. Maybe I will. And maybe I’ll write about it on my blog.

How is that for a teaser of what’s to come? Please stay tuned …

Crocheting

2010-09-01T15:25:00.000-04:00

I don't know that I would consider myself a crafty person. When I was a child, my mom taught me how to cross-stitch. I cross-stitched a watermelon "Welcome" pattern onto a bread basket for my Grandma. My mom also taught me how to do simple embroidery. I made 3 or 4 squares of embroidered animals, but I never finished enough squares to make a blanket, or even a pillow. I bought a drawing tablet once and used two pages of it attempting to draw the Ocracoke Island Lighthouse one day. I bought a bunch of jewelry making supplies one time and made one necklace. I bought paints and brushes and some empty canvases, in an attempt to make some abstract art. Maybe I'll get that done one of these days.

Anyway, after all of these attempts at being crafty, I found some yarn for sale at the Goodwill one day last fall. With Christmas vacation coming up, I thought of my Grandma. My Grandma has always crocheted, I think her grandmother taught her. She made me hats when I was younger, and she was always making an afghan or a doily or something pretty. I bought the yarn at Goodwill that day, and came home and emailed her to see if she would teach me how to crochet at Christmas. She said she would love to, so we had a plan.

So, when we had our family Christmas at the local hunting lodge (because my mom's side of the family is really large and there are too many people to have Christmas at just one person's house), I took my Goodwill yarn, and my Grandma brought a set of hooks for me and some instruction books. While the kids played video games, my uncles watched football and my aunts and cousins played board games and visited, my Grandma attempted to teach me how to crochet.

She showed me how to start the yarn on the hook, how to hold the yarn, how to hold the hook, how to pull it tight and keep the stitches even, how to make a single chain, how to stitch single crochets into that chain, how to do a double crochet stitch.

A few things my Grandma said during our lesson:
"You're pulling the yarn too tight."
"You're not pulling the yarn tight enough."
"You're killing it."
"Hold it like this."
"Loosen up."
"Let me try it."
"Let me see what you are doing."
"You are going to need some practice."

A few things I said during our lesson:
"I can't do it right."
"Are you sure that's the right way to hold it?"
"I'm getting hot."
"You're making me nervous."
"I don't think I can do this."
"Can you just make me a scarf?"
"I thought you said this was easy!"

Anyway ... after all that ... we got snowed in at my Mom's house for 2 days, which gave me plenty of time to practice. My Aunt Linda also crochets and was snowed in at my Mom's with us, so after a few tips from her and a few phone calls to my Grandma, I had the makings of a single crochet scarf. Three months later, I finished it!

Since then, I have made coasters, baby washcloths, headbands, a hunting mask for my boyfriend, potholders, a prayer shawl and I'm currently working on a baby blanket. I would still consider myself a beginner, but everything has turned out great so far! I can read the patterns and I'm getting faster with each project I finish. Maybe I am a crafty person after all. :)

Adventures in Blogging

2010-08-25T17:49:00.001-04:00

So, a little over a year ago, I started this blog. I had intentions of writing posts on my blog once a week, maybe more, as I had time - but for sure one post a month at the very least! I hate to admit that 12 months later, I have a measly 7 blog entries and 3 followers. If this was a testament to my blog writing dedication, I would fail. If this was a popularity contest, based upon my 3 faithful followers, I would fail at that as well.

My unofficial title at work is Company Project Manager. I keep everything organized, help us keep our deadlines, help keep everyone on task. You would think a simple task like putting up a blog entry every week or so would be an attainable goal. You would think!

I think part of my problem is that with my job, I am at my desk for 40 or more hours a week. I get involved with what I am doing and though I force myself to take an hour lunch break each day, I usually miss my morning and afternoon breaks. By the time 5:00 p.m. hits each day, many times I just turn my computer off. I actually try to make a habit of turning it off. Since I work from home, I need some sort of separation between office and home ... so turning my computer off during non-work hours is how I manage to get that separation.

This includes weekends too - I try *not* to turn this lovely piece of equipment on during Saturday or Sunday. I mean heck - I get a break, doesn't she deserve one too? Which I guess brings us to the real dilemma - if my computer is usually off when I'm not working, when am I supposed to write these weekly or monthly blog postings for my 3 followers to enjoy? I can't write them during work, and I don't want to write them during my lunch break, because it isn't much of a break if I take my break to keep sitting at the computer.

So ... in an attempt to be a more consistent blog writer, I'm going to try to do better than this 7 posts a year business, because really - 7 posts a year? What's the point? At that rate, by the time my 3 followers read my next post, they may not even remember who I am or why they are my follower to begin with. And what a failed blog this would be if I started LOSING followers!

A friend of mine from the Outer Banks was challenged earlier this year by a friend to do one blog posting per day for a year. She accepted the challenge, and has faithfully posted in her blog every day. She is a great writer, and I enjoy reading her posts each day. Every now and then as I am reading hers, I get mad at myself that I can't make the same commitment - like I said, I'd be happy with one post per week. That will be my new goal, one I am going to try to follow. Whether I post at 7:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m. or sometime on Saturday or Sunday ... guess we'll see.

Stay tuned ...

Things That Make Me Happy

2010-05-06T19:46:00.005-04:00

When I was in college, I discovered a book titled "14,000 Things to Be Happy About," by Barbara Ann Kipfer. I carried the book in my backpack for most of my four years of school, because it always made me smile to read a page of it. I still pull it off the bookshelf once in awhile, my tattered, worn, read copy of this book.

In honor of Barbara Ann Kipfer, I thought I would write my own mini-collection of "Things That Make Me Happy." Though it is much shorter than her list of 14,000 things spanning 612 happy pages, I hope you enjoy it.

"Darcy's List of Things to be Happy About - It's Not 14,000 Things but Hey, who's THAT Happy?"

How excited my dogs get when I come home, even if I was only gone for 5 minutes.
The way the sand feels between my toes.
Wearing a baseball cap in the summer.
Going to yard sales on Saturday mornings.
Live music.
Shopping online.
Finding something I've been looking for at a thrift store.
Drinking coffee. Lots of it.
The minute the plane lands in Sioux Falls, SD.
The minute the plane lands in Wilmington, NC.
The fact that Fat Tire beer from Colorado is now sold in North Carolina.
Working from home but being so busy during the day that it feels like I'm in an office.
Memories of my Dad.
Puppies. And dogs who act like puppies.
My family.
My carefree fishing and hunting boyfriend.
Listening to rain on the roof when it's dark outside.
Opening the windows on a warm spring day.
Sitting on the beach with a chair and a book.
Drinking rum in South Dakota with my family.
Thinking about old friends and the crazy stuff we used to do.
Campfires and camping.
How excited Dakota still gets when people come over, even though she's 5 years old now.
The fact that I remind my Grandma and my Mom of my Dad.
Making dinner and trying new recipes.
The day a new magazine comes in the mail.
Opening Christmas stockings on New Year's Eve.
Pots of bamboo sitting around the house.
Eating seafood.
Waiting for the pizza guy to come.
Buying stuff at The Home Depot because it makes me feel like such an adult.
Thinking about summer during the winter.
Hearing the UPS guy drop off a package on the front doorstep.
Having a job that I not only enjoy, but am good at doing.
Having a fireplace.
Lightning bugs. Or fireflies, whatever you want to call them.
Playing Phase 10 with Marshall, even though I usually lose.
The little green lizards (anoles) that live in my backyard in the summer.
Having money in my savings account.
Owning my house.
The yellow walls in my office. Which I painted myself.
Shopping at the weekend flea market for produce.
The fact that I have lived in South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and North Carolina.
My handful of really good friends who keep me sane when I call them to chat.
Reading books.
Collecting shells on the beach.
The smell of flowers, especially random ones in the wild.
Crocheting projects.
Banana pancakes with peanut butter and chocolate chips.
Looking at the flowers in my backyard.
Walking my dogs ... when they listen.
My 1997 Purple Ford Probe that my parents gave me, which I am still driving and don't want to replace.
Fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Relaxing on Friday night.

And these, my friends, are just a few things that I have to be happy about. :)

Thanksgiving Family Traditions

2009-11-20T16:20:00.001-05:00

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it seemed like an appropriate time to share some thoughts about this special holiday. Let's take a look at some family traditions, which seem to not only vary by family, but by region as well.

Our family Thanksgivings in South Dakota consisted of your basic meal, or at least what we always considered a basic meal. There was turkey, sometimes ham too, Stove Top stuffing (in a separate dish, not inside the turkey), mashed potatoes and gravy, creamstyle corn casserole, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (or pecans and brown sugar at Grandma's house), Grandpa's homemade lefse (a Norwegian tradition), apple cider with red hots, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and banana cream pie (for me.)

The first Thanksgiving I spent in North Carolina, about 6 years ago, was a traditional "southern" Thanksgiving menu. While everything smelled great, I found myself wondering what a few of the items on the menu actually were. What threw me off the most with this meal was the "giblet gravy," which involved cooking all of the parts of the turkey that my mom had always thrown away - you know, the parts that come inside the little bag inside the turkey? The neck, the heart, the liver, things like that. People eat those parts in North Carolina. They boil them up with celery, add some chopped boiled eggs, and mix it with the drippings from the turkey and add cornstarch. And you know what? It's really good! Collard greens with vinegar are also an addition to the North Carolina Thanksgiving meal, which I have to admit I didn't try until recently. Crowder peas were also a first for me at this Thanksgiving. For those of you who don't know, they taste I think a little like a mixture between a pinto bean and a lentil? They are very good and now one of my favorite beans. Five years ago, I had no idea what they were. Homemade dark chocolate pie was also featured here, which was an amazing end to a great meal.

Marshall's family, originally from Ohio, now their menu is similar to what I was used to in South Dakota, with a few slight changes. The turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and sweet potatoes we all agree on. Though my family always made StoveTop in a separate pan, Marshall's family makes theirs from a from-scratch recipe passed down from his Grandfather that involves cubing day-old bread, adding celery and seasonings and actually stuffing it into the turkey before you bake it.

After that, it starts to vary a bit. Marshall's Grandma makes homemade cranberry sauce for the turkey - also something I had never had before, but it is really good. I think she puts mandarin oranges in it. Last Thanksgiving, Marshall and I stayed in North Carolina and made our own Thanksgiving meal. I attempted to make his Grandma's cranberry sauce, and didn't quite nail it. Also included in his family's meal are scalloped oysters, which I'm not sure but I think may have been added to the family holiday menu after Marshall's parents moved to North Carolina 15 years ago and were able to bring fresh oysters up to Ohio when visiting for the holidays. There is no lefse in Marshall's family, but instead homemade yeast rolls. Dessert includes pecan pie and pumpkin pie for everyone. While my extended family was so large that we lots of times ate holiday meals with paper plates, sometimes running out of silverware before everyone was through the line, Marshall's family eats with his Grandmother's fine china and real silver. Bloody marys also make an appearance at the Ohio Thanksgiving, and glasses of wine for everyone at the table.

This year, we are also going to spend Thanksgiving in North Carolina. Since our family menus vary just a bit and we can't agree upon what NOT to make, here is what we are planning to make for the two of us:
1. Turkey
2. Stuffing
3. Cranberry Sauce
4. Mashed Potatoes
5. Gravy
6. Sweet potatoes
7. Creamstyle Corn Casserole
8. Green Bean Casserole
9. Scalloped Oysters
10. Lefse (from my Grandpa, fresh from the freezer)
11. Pumpkin pecan pie (we combine them into one pie)

Would anyone like to join us? We'll be having Thanksgiving all week.

Halloween is Not Just for Kids

2009-10-29T21:07:00.004-04:00

Today is October 29. In two days, it will be Halloween. I love Halloween. On October 1, I decorated the front windows with black Halloween paper and orange lights. I spent nearly $30 on candy at Wal-Mart for the trick or treaters, which mostly has been eaten by my boyfriend Marshall and I over the past month. Mostly by him, a little by me. Saturday, the trick or treaters will come. I think we need to make one more trip to Wal-Mart for just a bit more candy, because all we have left is Tootsie Rolls, which are actually my personal favorite, but we don't want anyone egging the house or toilet papering the tree because we didn't have any chocolate left to give away.

We have a large pumpkin, grown in Ohio courtesy of Marshall's mom, sitting on the kitchen counter waiting to be carved. The dog's faces have been traced on the front from black and white transfers I made in PhotoShop, and it is ready to be carved tomorrow (Friday) night. On the Eve of Halloween, known to many as "Devil's Night" or "Mischief Night", we will be carving our pumpkin.

Some of my favorite memories are from Halloween. As a child, I remember the excitement of getting all dressed up to go out and go trick or treating with my friends. Growing up in a real small town, we got to go trick or treating without our parents at a much younger age than kids get to these days. One year I was a witch, and my mom had a recipe for green face makeup that could also be made into warts. I don't remember what it was made of, but I remember how itchy my face got. I looked cool for awhile, until I itched it so much that it was everywhere but on my face. I still got lots of candy though.

I remember coming home from trick or treating, and dumping out the orange pumpkin bucket with the black smiley face on the front and the black handle. We didn't have green and pink and purple and yellow pumpkin buckets back then, just the standard pumpkin orange. Everyone's bucket was the same. Anyway I remember coming home and dumping my orange bucket out in the middle of the living room floor, while my Dad would come help me to "see what I got." He and my mom would make me pick some candy to keep out that I could eat, but the rest of it had to be put into Ziploc bags and put in the freezer. So I could save it for later. Funny thing is I never remember taking candy back out of the freezer to eat it. I think the bag I got to keep out of the freezer was it -- the rest of my loot went into the freezer for my parents. No wonder all the Snickers bars had to go in the freezer - a perfect midnight snack with ice cream, right Dad?

When I was in college, there were some fun fraternity house Halloween parties that involved costumes and kegs. Once I turned 21, we discovered bars with costume parties, which are also pretty cool. When I lived in Galveston, Texas, my friends and I all went to the bar one year in our costumes. I was a rock star and sprayed that hot pink spray in my hair. I think what everyone loves about Halloween is that for one night, you get to dress like someone you aren't, act like someone you aren't, and just have fun doing it.

When I moved to the Outer Banks, our local bar there, the Sandbar & Grille in Frisco, had an awesome Halloween party each year. One year I was a hippie chick, complete with an authentic 70s dress and a long blonde wig ... the next year I was a saloon girl, complete with a dress that I paid way too much for on Ebay because I HAD to beat the girl who was bidding against me.

Since I have moved to Wilmington, I have gone out to a costume party at the bar one year. Turns out here in Wilmington, no one really wears "costumes" on Halloween night. It seems to be an excuse for the girls to wear as few clothes as possible, and for the guys to look at them. Last year, I put my costume on and answered the door for my trick or treaters and gave them candy. This year, I plan to do the same. I have accumulated several costumes throughout the past few years though, and I'm just not sure yet which one I am going to put on Saturday night before the kids come. The dogs have Halloween necklaces to wear, which they don't know yet but I'm sure they will be very excited about.

So, even though my costume party days of going out on the town seem to have wound down, at least for now, Halloween is still one of my favorite days. An excuse to dress up, not look like yourself, not act like yourself, eat lots of candy, listen to Halloween music, put goofy necklaces on your dogs, and just have a good time.

Fall at the Beach

2009-10-08T15:15:00.008-04:00

So, it seems as though fall officially made its way to the beach. I stepped outside to get the mail one afternoon about 2 weeks ago, and there were leaves in the grass. That night, I stepped out into the backyard with the dogs in my short sleeved shirt, and it was chilly! There are more birds coming to eat out of the bird feeder, the air conditioner is off, the windows are open and it's getting dark earlier in the day.

Fishing is great at the beach in the fall. We haven't caught many fish this summer. A few bluefish, one red drum. Fall normally brings lots of flounder to the table, which are my personal favorite. A friend of ours gave us a great fish dipping sauce recipe for fried fish. Give it a try, let me know how you like it!

Hot Pineapple Fish Sauce
Take about 1/4 cup of pineapple preserves and add 2-3 teaspoons of Texas Pete hot sauce (more or less depending on your preference.) Mix it together, and serve with fried fish.

The fall and winter seasons are my favorite time of year, especially in North Carolina. I grew up in South Dakota, so fall always was kind of a gloomy season because everyone knows what is next - WINTER. Cold, snowy, frigid, miserable South Dakota winter.

Don't get me wrong, it gets chilly in Wilmington in December and January. It gets down to 25 or so at night, the plants all die off, we aren't as lucky as the palm tree loving, fruit eating folks in Florida. But, we rarely get snow. We can still go for walks and don't have to dress like we are traveling to the North Pole. It gets dark at 5:00 p.m. but it's nice to sit by the fireplace and play cards.

Winter in North Carolina is kind of like a long, cozy vacation.

I Wonder About Joe

2009-09-01T09:09:00.007-04:00

I remember the first time I saw a homeless person. I was young, and we went to Minneapolis, MN for a weekend with a bunch of our family. There was shopping for the women and a Twins' baseball game for the men and kids. As we were walking to the baseball game, I remember my uncle saying, "Okay kids, there are going to be people on the sidewalks asking us for money as we walk by. Just ignore them, don't look at them." So, that is what we did.

Since that day, as I have visited other cities, I always think of my uncle saying that to me. San Diego, Las Vegas, Houston, Denver, Raleigh ... it was always my uncle's voice that I heard in my head, saying "Just ignore them, don't look at them."

In Boulder, Colorado, the homeless people hang out in the downtown square and play Chess and guitar. In Galveston, Texas they sleep under the rocks near the Seawall. Here in Wilmington, NC, most of them live downtown. We have one in our neighborhood though, he lives just down the street. He looks kind of like Santa Claus.

One day last summer, we were coming out of the grocery store with some groceries and some beer. Marshall gave him a beer and told him to have a good day. One other day, it was about 105 degrees outside and I saw him sitting on the sidewalk at the CVS. I gave him $5 and told him to have a good day, and he said, "Thank you ma'am, I feel like a french fry sittin' out here."

This guy, let's call him Joe. Joe doesn't ask for money. He doesn't hold up signs asking for food. He just lives there, somewhere near that intersection, where there is a CVS, a grocery store and a McDonald's. I would imagine people like Marshall and me, who see him out there regularly, give him money just like I did that day last summer.

I saw Joe in the grocery store one day. He was buying a 40-ounce can of beer, a loaf of bread and a package of toilet paper. Good choices, in my opinion. Have you ever wondered, if you had only $5.00 to spend at the grocery store, what would you spend it on?

I wonder about Joe. Has he ever been married? Does he have any children? Where is his family? Why is he homeless? How long has he been homeless? Where does he sleep? Does he have any friends? Where does he bathe? What does he eat and how often does he get to eat? Has he always been in Wilmington? What did he do before he was homeless?

Have you ever seen a homeless person and instead of "just ignoring them" and "not looking at them," actually thought about their story? Maybe told them to have a good day? Maybe slipped them some spare change? Oh, don't get me wrong, there are definitely times when you should take my uncle's advice, but not with the people like our Joe.

I wonder about Joe. Maybe someday I'll ask him about his story. He could have the best story in the world.

* Note: This original post was written on September 1, 2009. On November 11, 2009, I discovered that our Joe passed away about 2 months ago. The local grocery stores hung a flyer on their bulletin boards letting everyone know that Joe had left us.

Things Learned on a Cross-Country Trip

2009-08-19T18:37:00.008-04:00

In July, my boyfriend and I took a cross country trip from Wilmington, NC to my hometown in South Dakota. We left Wilmington and went north through the West Virginia mountains, making a weekend stopover at Marshall's parents house in east central Ohio. From Ohio, we went to St. Charles, IL to spend a night with my aunt and uncle. On our third day of traveling, we made it to my mom's house. We spent 10 days in South Dakota with my family and friends, attending a family wedding while we were there. Some of my other family members were visiting from Wyoming at the same time and the house was full, so we slept in a camper in my mom's yard. It was like we were camping, but not really.

When it was time to leave my Mom's, the plan was to drive south from South Dakota and stay with a good friend of mine in Kansas for the night, and then head back east. On the way, we realized that I hadn't done my map research like I should have, and going to see her would have actually been close to 6 hours extra driving time by the time we were back on the road the next day. So, we changed our plans a bit and instead of going south from Kansas City, we went east, driving until we were about 2 hours west of St. Louis and camped at a state park in the middle of nowhere. We bought some bug spray and a pizza from the (only) local gas station, and had a good night. Lesson here: It doesn't do much good to bring a tent if you only bring 1 small pillow and 1 blanket.

After our camping adventure in the woods, we got up in the morning and kept driving east. We drove until we got to Knoxville, TN. We tried to rent a cabin in Gatlinburg for the night but had Miss Dakota with us, and turns out that most cabin rentals in the mountains don't really care for furry four-legged friends ... so a Motel 6 in Knoxville it was. The next morning, we drove from Knoxville back to Wilmington in an uneventful last leg of our 48+ hour trip. We unloaded the rental car, cleaned all of the dog hair out of it, and took it back to the airport.

Along the way, a few observations that were made:

I haven’t yet conquered my fear of driving through tunnels. This was discovered on I-77 North in West Virginia.

When they say “Check the rental car for damages before leaving the parking lot with it,” they mean it. We found the broken driver’s door lock 4 hours down the road. (Six hours later when I finally got the Wilmington, NC Hertz office to answer the phone, I was assured it wouldn’t be a problem and it would be noted on my account. Two weeks later, I was lucky enough to turn the car into the same employee I had spoken with on the phone, who not only didn’t charge me for the broken lock, but gave me a $40 credit to my account for the inconvenience.) Tip to travelers: get a AAA membership and rent from Hertz – they offer a great AAA discount AND awesome service.

The county roads in Columbiana County, Ohio are hilly and curvy and make me (really) carsick, even if I sit in the front seat.

Golden retrievers are pretty good bird hunters, even if they haven’t been taught to do so.

The wind power mills in Minnesota are really cool to look at, but we can’t figure out how the power is used after it is taken from the wind. This question may be a good research item for a future blog post.

Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin looks like so much fun and it was awfully tempting to pull off and stay for a day or two instead of just driving by.

A ground pig is the same thing as a groundhog.

Some counties in South Dakota have such a problem with pocket gophers, that they offer a $2.00 per animal bounty. To claim your $2.00 per animal, you have to turn the 2 front paws into the county office.

After living in North Carolina and seeing the big ugly scary snakes we have here, I’m not nearly as afraid of the harmless South Dakota garter snakes as I was when I was a child. They didn't make me scream or yell or anything.

Dakota, my 4-year-old golden retriever who has never had puppies, adopted a small gold kitten at my mom’s house and thought it was her baby.

You shouldn’t switch to Captain Morgan and Coke after drinking keg beer all night.

There are more fish to catch in my aunt and uncle’s neighborhood in St. Charles, Illinois than there are in the lakes near my mom’s house in South Dakota.

Pulling over to the shoulder of the road in the middle of a construction zone is allowed during emergencies only. It was an emergency in the middle of Iowa on I-29 when Marshall pulled over to let me jump out of the car with Dakota before she got sick in the rental car.

South Dakota has Michelob Golden Light, and it’s really good.

Even though Wisconsin is known for being the state with good cheese, we managed to drive all the way across it without stopping at a cheese store. We kept thinking we would see another one and would stop then, and were in Minnesota before we knew what happened. I bought Iowa cheese from a South Dakota grocery store instead … sorry Wisconsin Cheese Farmers.

My boyfriend doesn’t like the way I drive. I don’t like the way he drives. Try driving for 2,500 miles that way.

There is a great Sinclair gas station in the middle of Missouri that makes an awesome handmade meat lover’s pizza and it’s only $3.99.

There is a gas station in Kansas City that sells liquor. You can get gas, dinner, a movie and rum all in one stop.

I was in the parking lot of a Krystal Burger in Knoxville, TN but didn’t get to eat there. How unfair is that?

Taco John’s has the best Mexican fast food ever. I love Taco Bell, I do ... but there is no comparison.

South Dakota Video Lottery is kind of fun to play. I won $13 one night and was so excited, you would have thought I won $100.

There’s nothing quite as fun or relaxing as a John Deere wedding on a beautiful farm in South Dakota with family and friends.

One of the most refreshing things is to spend time with old friends and realizing that none of you have changed a bit. I think the best part is how you know everyone's secrets and stories and quirks ... you don't have to get to know them because you've known them since you were all 5 years old.

In South Dakota, it isn’t uncommon to bump into someone you know, even if you are an hour or two from home.

There is an off-ramp in St. Louis that requires good direction skills and 3 U-turns just to get back onto the Interstate. Forget to put a sign up somewhere, Missouri?

When you take a cross country trip with your dog and boyfriend, don't forget to take pictures. I don't even have ONE picture to post with this blog! What was I thinking!

Spending 48+ hours in the same car with the same person is a true test to how much you like each other. I think we passed.

Overall, it was a great trip. Are we going to do it again next summer? Probably not. I think we might fly.

Fishing, Reading and Family Portraits

2009-08-19T11:16:00.004-04:00

My boyfriend, Marshall, and I went fishing on the north end of Wrightsville Beach the other day, near the Shell Island Oceanfront Resort. We go to the beach about once a week, sometimes twice, as we live just 15 minutes away. He loves to fish, and I love to read. We normally wait and go at 6:00 p.m., because that gives the beach time to relax from all of the visitors of earlier in the day (and allows us to actually be able to find a parking spot.) Also, the parking meters stop charging at 6:00 p.m. so that’s another bonus.

Anyway, the other day as I was sitting there as the sun was starting to go down, there was a family out there with a photographer getting their family beach portraits taken. This is a popular time of day for families to do this, as it is when the lighting is the best and makes beautiful photos. This family, as most families do when they get beach portraits taken, were wearing all white outfits – everyone matched.

The photographer took shots of them holding hands and walking to the water’s edge … holding hands and walking away from the water ... sitting in the dunes (which you aren’t even supposed to go on the dunes, but for some reason if you are taking family photos then it’s ok.) They proceed to take family photos for 30-40 minutes, until they get to my personal favorite – the photos in the water with their clothes on. With their nice white dress clothes, the family is supposed to wade in the water – ankle deep, knee deep, make it look like they are taking a relaxing stroll on the beach with their feet in the ocean.

Well, the tide was coming up to high tide during this time and some waves were coming in higher than others. As they are taking the knee deep family photo, a wave came and knocked the one woman down. All the way down – she is no longer ankle deep or knee deep in the beautiful ocean, but sitting on her butt in about 3 feet of water. And the photographer is taking pictures of it. And the family is laughing. So was I, because I had given up on trying to read my book because this family was more interesting. The woman gets up and now her white pants are completely wet from her little wave mishap, and the photographer is STILL taking pictures.

This ended their photo shoot. I went back to reading my book, Marshall caught some fish, and then we went home.