Day Trip: Cherry Blossom Festival

On the 28th we headed to D.C. for a look at the famed Cherry Blossoms. The trees were just starting to bloom, and it was pretty rainy and foggy all day, but we didn't mind. We may head back again next week.

Getting There: It took us about an hour and a half to get to the subway station, and less than $13 between parking and subway fees. We haven't tried the park and ride before-but it was very easy and we stumbled onto the metro within seconds of its departures both ways. It worked out well.

While in Town: We spent a few hours at the Smithsonian Museums. We are still not able to equitably determin which museums and exhibits to visit; it is hard since our interests are so different. We took in a few exhibits at the Museum of Natural History, including the orchid exhibit and the marine life exhibit.

We also enjoyed the American Art and Portrait Museum, and relaxed at the indoor courtyard.
After getting popcorn at one of the little red wagons, we made our way over to the trees and spent the rest of our time there strolling around the trees. It was quite a romantic little getaway.

Mini Quilt: St. Patrick's Day

I haven't done any quilting in a while, so I did a small project to get myself back in the hang of things. I made this little ditty for St. Patrick's day, and it can be used in the kitchen as a hot pad or in some kind of centerpiece.

It was my first time working with setting triangles, and I learned a lot. I did a little better getting all of my square blocks to line up. I still need help with my binding, especially the corners. I am always so anxious to be done by that point that I don't put a lot of time into it, but I really need to get better before I try my next wall quilt. I'm planning one with a star design, that uses golds, blues, and red fabrics. It may end up being my July quilt-if the motif ends up looking too patriotic.

Genealogy Find

Every winter it seems, I go back and work on one of my hobbies: genealogy. Going through old census records, finding marriage certificates and old family photos is very interesting to me. It brings out the side of me that got a minor in anthropology in college.

Now that I am living on the East Coast, it is pretty exciting to be finding records so close to home. Many of my ancestors came through either Pennsylvania or Maryland. We recently went up to Wilmington (originally known as New Sweden) and found the area where my Poulson ancestors first lived in America (not the best area to live now). Pal Jonsson Mullica arrived on a ship called the Eagle in 1654. More information about him can be found in The Swedish Colonial Society, specifically in this article.  

With the great computer crash of 08, I lost a lot of my information (I'm still hoping someone can retrieve some of it from my hard drive). Now, I'm more dedicated about having paper trails for everything I find now. I also invested in Family Tree Maker 2009, and have had a lot of fun entering information on there.

This week I found a yahoo group dedicated to one of my ancestors, and was able to join. I was very excited to find information on the family pictured below. Pictured are some of the children of Jeremiah Roser (front row center), who would be my GGGG Grandfather, including the woman to the right of Jeremiah, Mary Jane, who would be my GGG Grandmother. He was born near Harrisburg, PA in 1826, lived in Ohio, Alabama, and Indiana, and was graced with 91 years on earth.

Appoquinimink

An article covering my school district.

Not in Arizona Anymore: Snow Days

One benefit of moving to Delaware was the hope and anticipation of eventually getting a snow day or two. However, it hasn't worked out as nicely as I liked. A few weeks ago, we had a snow day, and I was sick the whole day. Yesterday we also had a snow day, and it was the same situation. I was sick 5 times, and couldn't eat a thing. They called another snow day today. It was called at about 9 last night, and would never have been a snow day in Indiana, but I'll take it.  Though still weak, I feel mostly better, and was able to enjoy the day. Apparently this was the biggest Nor'Easter in a few years.

Visit from the Alaskans

My older sister and our nephew flew down from Alaska in February. We haven't seen them in over a year, so it was awesome getting to spend some time with them!

She started her trip at her father's house a couple hours from here in Maryland. Brian and I headed down there and spend a very relaxing weekend with them, enjoying playing the WII with the 2-year old (he beat us in bowling), exploring the outdoors with the 2-year old, having a cookout, and shopping. It was a beautiful weekend, and was more like early fall than late winter.

Then, the next weekend, our grandparents, mom, and the rest of our siblings came to Delaware and we got to enjoy a carriage ride around old Philadelphia, taking the nephew to his very first zoo (The Smithsonian), showing both my younger sisters and Matthew D.C. for the very first time, and enjoying time together.

This was the first time we were all together since my wedding over 2 1/2 years ago.

At the Smithsonian Zoo.

Aydan loved playing "The Baseball", and always required anyone playing to put on a Diamondbacks helmet.

Uncle Brian was his favorite. Again.


Grandma got us these awesome sweatshirts.

Aydan's Second Favorite Game.... Locking Brian in the room, and then throwing the ball at Brian and making him fall. He got to the point where he didn't allow us to catch the ball, we had to let it hit us. He is going to be shocked in dodge ball once people dock out of the way, or don't automatically fall over.

Winter Movies

The hubby and I have always liked going out to the movies... there is just something nice about seeing the movies on the big screen. January and February didn't yield very good movies, but it was still something to do on chilly weekend nights. Ranked from best to worst are the movies we have saw in the past couple months: (Brian gave the star ratings.)

****Gran Torino-Clint Eastwood, reminded me somewhat of No Country For Old Men... not sure why.
***The Curious Case of Benjamin Button-A long, "Forest Gump" like movie, but very entertaining.
**.5 Frost/Nixon- Not bad... this one was ok, we saw it too late at night though, and I had a hard time staying awake.
*.5 The Reader-I don't read the preview summaries, so I don't know what I was expecting from this movie, but it wasn't this. Very sad movie.
*Revolutionary Road-Really wanted to like Leo and Kate in this, but it was just an annoying movie.

Charcoal Pit

After passing this restaurant a few times, we finally felt adventurous and decided to stop at the Charcoal Pit for supper. Apparently, "the pit" is a Delaware tradition... and we could see why. We had pretty good burgers, and ice cream for desert. The ice cream was a big of a melting mess, but it was still fun.

They have sundaes for all of the different high schools around the area. Very 1950s.



What I ordered:

What Brian wants to try for dessert:




Update:
The Bear location is closed!! (We found out the hard way.)
The Price's Corner location is a lot bigger-not quite as cute-I'd recommend putting in the extra couple miles to get to the Concord Pike location.

Craving Mexican-Influenced Foods

Lately, I have been craving Mexican foods. There really aren't a lot of places around here to eat authentic stuff. However, I'm really not too good at cooking this stuff.

Empanada

Tortilla soup with black beans and corn.

Homemade guacamole-very easy to make, just avocados and spices. Very good!

Market Street Grill

My grandparents traditionally take Brian and I out whenever we are home. A place I have come to prefer is Market Street Grill in Wabash, IN.  It is an excellent restaurant, with very hearty portions and tasty food. We tried the following this time:

FOOT OF RINGS
Put our foot in your mouth… a foot of our onion rings that is. They're big, they're crunchy, they're fantastic; served with cocktail sauce.

STUFFED MUSHROOM CAPS
Mushroom caps stuffed with Cheddar and Mozzarella cheeses and bacon - broiled to perfection and served with horseradish sauce.

PECAN CHICKEN
A large chicken breast, dusted with a chopped pecan, corn meal breading, fried and served with honey butter on the side.

All were excellent, especially the mushrooms and honey butter!

Cheeseshop Trip 2

We stopped in at the cheese shop again on our way home for Christmas. We wanted to add the mango ginger cheese to our grandparent's baskets. My grandma K especially liked this rich desert cheese, as she likes mango. I think it may have been Stilton cheese, but I'm not sure.

We also tried a Gaymer Cider cheese, it had a very distinct flavor, and was pretty tart after a couple days. Not my favorite cheese, but something different. Finally, we got a good Rembrandt Extra Aged Gouda. It is a Dutch cheese, and is very dry. Brian's sister especially liked it, and I definitely like it for shaving thin onto pasta dishes.

Holidays 2008

We were home for nine days this year, and were busy for each of them. I actually had all my shopping done early, and everything wrapped and ready to go before we went home. It made the holiday a lot easier. We were able to attend most all of the family get-togethers, and also see a couple of friends at home and in Indianapolis. The following are some "sights" of the season:

Our Christmas card photo:

I made two needlepoints this year: one for my mother and another for my mother-in-law. My mother thought that her's was a baby bib when she opened it (as if we were making an announcement). It was pretty funny-she is way too anxious for more grandchildren.



Toboggan Run at Pokagon State Park: Megan and Aaron Aaron hit the toboggan run with us this year. It was fun, and we got up to 37 mph on one of the runs.



Our New Year's Eve tradition is to visit the lights in Marion and those in Sunken Garden's in Huntington. The Huntington lights were off this year, but we still enjoyed the Marion ones. My favorite parts include the "Twelve Days of Christmas" lights.

3 Calling Birds

5 Golden Rings

10 Lords a Leaping

11 Pipers Piping

12 Drummers Drumming


On Jan. 1, we competed in my cousin Joel's 7th annual meatball contest. Brian made some mojo meatballs. Very good, but needed a little kick to go with the citrus flavor.
 


I love getting new Christmas ornaments based on new places or events in our lives. These were some of this years: