Your Questions Answered Part VIII: Some Final Thoughts

This last series of questions comes from Ryan at This Must Be the Place.

1. Any sad, tragic or difficult times you'd care to share such as losing a loved one, a job, or something you cared about?

I wrote a lot about this in this post.  The first loss I ever experienced was my best friend at age 9.  He and I had a really strong connection, particularly for our age.  He succumbed to leukemia just three days after his 9th birthday. The loss was really hard on me and truthfully, I still think about him to this day.  I thikn it's had a huge impact on me, and gave me a lesson pretty early on how important it is to appreciate the people around you while they're here.  There are no guarantees in life and really, all we have is one another.

2. Were there any moments you recall as true breakthroughs in any area of your life?

When my husband went to Iraq, I eventually realized that all the stupid concerns I had about us or about life essentially evaporated.  It was the first time that I was jolted out of the sheltered life that we Americans don't always realize we exist in.  It was also the first time that I was able to give up control of a particular situation and accept that there were things I couldn't and wouldn't understand, and that all I needed to do was be there for him.  It was a whole new moment in our relationship and I felt like we knew each other on a somehow even deeper level.

3. If you could do one thing differently in your life, what would that be?

I wish that I could relax and enjoy the present rather than focus on worrisome events on the horizon.  Sometimes I let my anxiety get the best of me and ruin an entire day by worrying.  This is the best time of my life so far and I spend far too much time worrying about needless things. I wish I would learn to be more confident in myself and in my relationships and to not worry so much about what other people think.  It's a process, but I think I'm slowly getting there.

4. What have you learned over your lifetime that you'd like to share with the younger generation?

So I know that every old person ever says this to every young person ever, but appreciate being young and not having to worry about all the concerns of adulthood.  I spent too much time trying to grow up and when I finally got to adulthood I realized that I had rushed it.  With a few exceptions, there are no summer vacations in the real world, you generally need to spend a considerable amount of time at work, and money is always a concern unless you are fortunate enough to be wealthy.  While being an adult is pretty badass, I still find myself pining for simpler times, as we all do.

5. If you and Rob could plan a perfect vacation, money not being an issue, where would you escape to?

I would love to go to New Zealand and Australia, personally.  I think we'd spend the time looking at all the natural beauty but not putting any pressure on having to see every little thing.  We'd enjoy some beach time and some ocean time, and just bask in the glory of each other and our love.

Things I Love Thursday

Nova shared this last week and I had to pass it along - PUNtries of the World.

This video from Portlandia made me laugh out loud - Is it Local?

I've heard a lot of people ask for this - Alternatives to Pandora and Last.FM.

Who doesn't love the Holstee Manifesto? Click the image to make it bigger.

This funny Amazon review made me laugh. And who doesn't enjoy laughing?



If you have never seen the Drunk History series on YouTube, watch it NOW.  Click here, here, and here for my favorites.

I just saw HP7 the other day, so this is fitting: the Parseltongue Translator.

One of my favorite videos (and one that Rob and I quote all the time), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.

The entire version of "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" from 30 Rock.

How cute is this dress? Too bad the color would wash me out.

The story of Disney's Pocahontas Avatar.

Words on Pictures.

I used to watch this video over and over again when I was in Russia and Rob was in Iraq. Always made me laugh.

Sorry for the shorter post today. I hope you all have a great Thursday!

By the way, I finally went hiking with Rob and his coworkers...will write a post on that for Friday with lots of pictures.



Our Anniversary Weekend, ¡Ahora con Muchas Fotos!

We are back!

As you all know, Rob and I went on a little trip to the sunburn factory BEACH for our anniversary this weekend.  It was in a word lovely and I wanted to share it with all my fantastic blog readers.

Quick note: I didn't bring my DSLR on this trip, only because I knew from experience that I'd worry constantly about getting sand in it/getting it stolen.  My point and shoot worked just fine for what I wanted to accomplish, which was to chronicle this wonderful weekend.

On Friday Rob came back from his seemingly interminable camping trip in the White Mountains at around 5 pm.  He wasn't quite as eager as I was to hop back into the car for another 2 hours after already driving 3 that day, but he was a trooper and did it anyway. After stopping to get some yummy, delicious, healthy food Taco Bell for him (yes, I did the cross-out joke twice in one post, wanna fight about it?) we were on our way.  We stopped at my favorite restaurant in the entire world, Chipotle, for dinner.  Can I just say how excited I am that Chipotle is gluten-free friendly?

After satisfying my addiction for the time being, we finally made it to Old Orchard Beach.  I had a little bit of a freak out while driving over the train tracks (train phobia alert!) but we got to our room unscathed. We stayed in a lovely little hotel right on the beach, far away from the boardwalk and Jersey Shore wannabes. It was absolutely perfect.  Plus we had a neat little kitchenette and a bed that came out of the wall (WHAT?!)!

We went for a little walk down the beach and admired how far away we were from the melee of downtown:

As a quick aside, I'm pretty sure that we are be the only people below the age of 60 who intentionally try to stay away from crowds of people while on vacation.

Anyway we spent the entire day on Saturday laying on the beach and swimming in the ocean (as much as we could, anyway...was a little chilly).  It was absolutely amazing to just relax with my husband and feel like we were a million miles away from everything.  A few times I forgot I was in Maine, what with the white sand, sunshine and swim-able water.

We covered ourselves in SPF 45, but apparently it wasn't enough, because both of us got extremely nasty burns. Rob, on his chest and stomach, and me, on my chest, thighs and knees, of all places. 

After we were sufficiently cooked we decided to go out on a date to a nice restaurant in Portland. We chose Grace, which is located in a former Methodist church.  The menu was extensive (and mostly gluten-free) and it had just the ambience we were looking for.  Because it was our anniversary date, we went all out with appetizers and desserts...we even tried tuna tartare in the spirit of adventure.  We had a blast together, as usual, and the restaurant was absolutely amazing.  Plus my husband was freaking adorable in his dress clothes and I got to wear my new wedges!

 On Sunday, our actual anniversary, we got up early and got ready before taking a final walk on the beach. I wanted to be like all the other cool couples so I wrote Robbie an anniversary message in the sand.

That's right.

(1) I hate my feet, (2) they are not diseased, just sunburned.

Look, a sheagull!

We finally made it home and reunited with our dog, in agony from sunburn sadness but extremely happy with our weekend.  We topped the weekend off with dinner at our favorite local restaurant before enjoying an evening filled with Netflix awesomeness (if you guessed more 30 Rock, you're right!).

We had such a blast that I'm hoping to make Old Orchard Beach an anniversary tradition for years to come.

Hoo boy, if you made it through that ginormous post than we must be friends.

What did you all do this weekend?

Bits and Pieces from This Week

Today is my Sunday since I have to travel to a new project tomorrow, so I figured I’d write my write-up of our last few days now. I’m sure you’re all excited to hear about it! :-)

We’ve had a pretty busy week. Robbie finished his finals, thank god, and now is preparing for his 2-week May term course covering ground-penetrating radar (exciting, no?). We’re still anxiously awaiting his grades, particularly for physics, but otherwise the semester is finished and he couldn’t be happier to start his summer job in a few weeks. Although he’s working all with young college girls so…there’s…that.

He also got a new tattoo this week on his inner bicep (not his thigh, as this picture makes it look):



Very well done, if I do say so myself. Also, I took the matryoshka concept page to Adam and he seems really excited to move forward with it. I absolutely can’t wait to see what he comes up with, but now is the time for patience. Here is the page I brought him (I don’t have the credits for any of the individual pictures, but most were from Google Images or Flickr after searching for ‘mastryoshka tattoo’):



The phrase is "From Russia, with Love" in Russian.

On Thursday we decided to have a bar food night. Since I was diagnosed with celiac disease, easy bar food is pretty much impossible. We looked up a fried chicken recipe with gluten-free breadcrumbs mixed with parmesan cheese and spices and it was absolutely delicious! Rob even said that he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference if he didn’t know gluten-free breadcrumbs so well, which he does. We paired them with red potato fries with olive oil, garlic and parmesan (honestly, these were from a bag, but still delish!):



In other news, I’ve decided to start a new cross-stitch project. When my sister-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer I learned to cross-stitch so that I could make this:

From Subversive Cross Stitch - check it out, awesome designs and they're easy!



After months of hard work and a meeting with a professional framer, I gave it to her for Christmas and she loved it. She proudly displays it on the wall in her hallway.

This is the new cross-stitch I’d like to make, as a reminder to myself:

Have any of you done any cross-stitching?

Finally, we took our dog, Cypress, to a field nearby to play with her two best friends, Nigel and Jago. I got some pretty awesome pictures of them all frolicking together:

Cypress (right) and Jago

Modesty always wins!

Is it just me or does Nigel (black dog) look like Frank the Bunny from "Donnie Darko" here?

Cypress and Jago, a push me-pull beast.

And two more pictures for your enjoyment:

This is one more of those "moments" where I realized how lucky I am to wake up to this face every day.

Yay it's spring!

Did you all have a good week?

Featured on She Got Married!

A month or so ago I read my friend's feature on Emma's blog, She Got Married.  Emma's awesome and I love reading her blog, especially all her great meal plans and ideas! 

I decided to share some information about me and Rob and our marriage, as well as some pictures of us, and today our story got posted!  Go check it out and follow her blog, she is lovely!