slightly yellow

today i tried a slightly yellow, but mostly green banana.

my advice to you is... never try a slightly yellow, but mostly green banana.

the ends were turning yellow, but the rest of the banana was definitely green. i had a split second thought that maybe i didn't have to wait for the banana to turn yellow before it was good. why that thought seemed valid, i am just not sure. everyone waits for them to turn yellow, but for a second i thought that maybe we were all being tricked and it was ok to eat slightly yellow, but mostly green bananas. plus i really wanted to add one to my spinach and fruit smoothie. so i peeled it, tasted a bite, spit it out, and threw the rest away. thank heavens i tried it before i threw it into the blender and ruined my delicious smoothie.

now i have one less banana for future smoothies and a new hate for slightly yellow, but mostly green bananas.

Thai is hard

today we got rye's first letter and this was his picture at the end:

you can do it riley! we are praying for you, buddy!

day tripper

yesterday we hopped on a bus and took off for NYC

we met jeremy's family for a day of serious fun.
we had a delicious lunch and fancy desserts at caf un deux trois,
we saw Mary Poppins on Broadway and were quite impressed,
i just had to have the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious bag,
we walked around times square and checked out the street vendors
where i bought a beautiful green scarf for only 5 dollas,
we visited the m&m store and bought some pretty m&ms,
we walked around a bit more and saw the empire state building,
and then we boarded a Boston-bound bus and were home before midnight.

i love a day trip to NYC... can't wait to do that again!

made my day

we recently had a schedule change where i intern and the boys can't go to the Y on thursdays anymore. so me and the other intern volunteered to run some sort of workout group on thursday mornings. we were planning on doing yoga, but we don't have enough mats donated yet, so today i brought in the 50 minute cardio dvd by jillian michaels to do with the boys.

none of them wanted to do it. they thought it would be dumb and too easy. so i told them they must be afraid that they can't keep up with me. well, that got some of them out of their seats and moving. a coworker also offered some dunkin donuts coffee for whoever made it to the end, so that helped too. i started with 5 boys doing the workout with me and 4 others watching from the couch, the lazy bums!

the workout consists of seven different circuits and not one kid did all of them with me. they were dropping like flies! it was hilarious. there were lots of water breaks happening and some would come back 10 minutes later to either workout some more or join the lazy bums on the couches. 2 of the kids ended up pulling themselves together and joined me again for the last couple circuits.

anyways... it was awesome. and i am in way better shape then a whole bunch of teenage boys. okay, only 5 teenage boys, but it was fun... and a killer workout.

riley's turn

little brother #1 came home from his mission in august, and now it is time to send out little brother #2. thank heavens this is the last time we have to do this. i just don't think i can take much more. these two years better fly by! i am going to miss him. we skyped last night and rye was all ready to go. he will be an AWESOME missionary!

he is off to serve the Lord for two years... in THAILAND! i am so proud of him!

i love you riley! be prepared for lots of letters and pictures in the mail.
i don't want you to forget what i look like.

the debate

jeremy was watching the debate, but he had
to turn it off. it makes him too nervous. he doesn't
like it when people argue (or "debate"). he decided
that maybe it wasn't his type of show.
he is such a funny boy.

childhood treat

we started the night planning to make some oven-baked churros,
but the main ingredient (frozen puff pastry sheets) could not be found at our grocery
store. so instead we bought some pie crust dough, covered it in
cinnamon and sugar, baked it for 7 minutes, and voila!

cinnamon and sugar pie crust cookies

my mom used to take the pie crust scraps whenever she made a
pie and make these treats for us when we were little. they are delicious.
one tip: enjoy them with a glass of milk.

turbo brushers

jeremy scored a free sonicare toothbrush
from school. well, all the students did. they each
received some code to order one online last week.
it came today and surprise, he got TWO!

we called the place to see if they were going to let us
keep it or if they wanted us to send it back. this was the
guy's first response, "Maybe you should try your luck
at the lottery."

and he let us keep it. crazy!
they are almost $200.

we are pretty lucky!

WISHLIST wednesday: No. 33

today i wish i could knit this chunky cabled cowl.

i am too afraid to attempt to knit this. it calls for 2 strands of yarn at the same time as well
as cabling, and i haven't done either. someday i will try to knit this, but today i only
wish i could knit it. anyone want to hold my hand and walk me through the pattern?
maybe we should start a knitting group...

pencils are fancy

i have begun using a little thing called the pencil. used one lately??

i forgot how great they were. i have been an avid pen-user since i was allowed to use pens in school during those awkward teenage years. i have really only used pencils for math classes and standardized tests until just recently. i have been using a pencil at work that randomly surfaced at my desk and i have decided that pencils are rrrreally handy. no scribbling on my cute agenda if something gets rescheduled and no scratching out things in my notes if i spell it wrong the first time. erasers are great; random patches of chaotic ink are not so great. i think my notes might be in pencil this semester.

donut run

i like to do something fun for breakfast on a day off, so this morning we checked out
kane's donuts. it was named one of the top ten best places for donuts in the whole country.

well, they did not disappoint! they have TONS of flavors. i loved the chocolate honey-dipped
and the chocolate with chocolate frosting. word to the wise: only get one. these things are
HUGE! (good thing we had buddies to share with!!) i have an old fashioned glazed waiting for me as
soon as i can work up an appetite again. i think we found our go-to donut shop!

bowling: candlepin style

i had no idea there were different types of bowling, but up here in the new england area they have this thing called candlepin bowling. it's different from regular bowling in that the pins are pretty much just tubes, the balls are smaller and all weigh the same, and you get three throws per frame instead of two. candlepin bowling was invented in the 1880s in a town just an hour west of us: worcester, massachusetts (pronounced wuster... figure that one out). anyways... we went candlepin bowling last night and had a blast. i think i almost prefer it over regular bowling.

our scores were pretty low, but we did better the second time around. candlepin bowling is a lot tougher than regular bowling. the record high score is 245 out of 300, which was matched last year by some guy at a bowling alley just 16 minutes away. how crazy!? well, it's a fun game! totally looking forward to more candlepin bowling! maybe next time i won't get so many gutter balls. more info on the game here and here.

eggplant

yesterday i ventured to the yarn store for some yarn. i needed
to knit something. i found this beautiful eggplant super chunky yarn and
deemed it perfect for my new project. this easy knit infinity scarf. i followed
the pattern exactly, but used size 13 needles instead of 19 to make it a little tighter.

i love it! its close to my neck when i double it up to keep me extra warm.
the best part... it only took a few hours. so it looks like i can knit another something
this weekend. back to the yarn store i go... maybe for some orange yarn this time.

something to remember

found on pinterest

just because

i slid these cards into jeremy's backpack yesterday.

he's my favorite.