it's late

yep... it's technically Thursday at the moment.


everyone is home except those who aren't.

which is to say nearly no one is home.

no Adrianna and Ruth, you aren't no one.

for everyone who isn't home, I love you and miss you.

yes. Adrianna and Ruth, I love you all too... but i don't miss you too much for the moment :)

Grandparent Tuesday!

Hello all.

The little guy
in the back of my head,
who often makes a teeerrible
rukus,
popped up and said
"Dear Richard,
you silly little tot
today is your post day,
and here you've forgot.
Ruthie had reminded you,
and I do again.
Post and talk to your
family,
or things won't go well...ian."

And so, despite the terrible rhyme,
I listened to the little man,
and have come this time,
at 11:fifty-some-odd,
to post and say hallo,
pip-pip-tally-ho,
and offer you marsh-mallooo.

Sadly, I have no marshmellows.
But I do have wonderful news.
IT'S Granddad Tom's Birthday!!! Wooot!!!
(That is to say, now that it's Wednesday June 29th, 12:12 AM)
Happy birthday Granddad :)
You and Grandma are the bomb,

(A good thing

according to today's jargon

[of being one, not having one])

and will continue to be so.

In fact, this post ought to be didicated to our awesome grandparents.
Granddad and Grandma Glass :D
Granddad and Grandma Brock :D
and
Granddad and Grandma Kelly :) (who have already passed onward)

Without these wonderful Grand people :D, we wouldn't physically be here,
and even if we could have, our lives wouldn't be nearly as
sweet and yummy-food-filled as they are.

From financial help to calming smiles to funny jokes, you've
been a great blessing to all of us.

We love you.

I know we can all approve of this,
so not only is my named signed
hereon, but that of your many grandchildren
who agree.

Silly me: Ate ice cream a little bit ago
Silly Granddad and Grandma: Ate some with me :D

Love you all bunches
(grandparents especially!)

Lazy Monday- Dri

Hey! check this out! http://www.ohmyhandmade.com/2010/contributors/homemade-sidewalk-chalk/

Dee-lish (Not Jellyfish)

I know I talk about food a lot in my posts. But really, it makes sense because I spend a lot of time thinking about, talking about, and eating, food in real life. So really, it should just make you guys feel like you're actually with me, right?

Well, we (Dad, Adrianna, Johnny and I) got back from Delaware early early this morning. When we woke, we discovered we had no eggs, milk, or bread in the house (as we didn't buy groceries before we left because we would be gone for a week). So Adri and I raided the fridge. We found: half a stick of pepperoni, some sausage, a mismatch of mostly empty bags of cheese, and some frozen meatballs leftover from spaghetti the Thursday before we left. We took all of these somewhat dubious ingredients and combined them to make something amazing.
STROMBOLI!

I had never made stromboli before, but let me just say: Adrianna and I make delicious stromboli. Really. Why have I not done this sooner?

In other news, I reread the Dubliners over break (Sigh....I love James Joyce). Johnny is leaving for his High Adventure trip tomorrow morning. Adrianna starts orientation for her job on Wednesday. Richard is at Gma Mary's and Gdad Tom's, but will return to us shortly. Hm... Anything else?

I love you all!
Ruth

Also: Ryan Renolds. I DISAPPROVE.

Greetings from Delaware!! - Dri

So far, the vacation has been awesome! We went to the National Zoo, and Richard got his endowments. We arrived at the beach on Sunday afternoon and have been lazing about, playing games and eating ever since. Oh yeeeaaah. In fact, most of the boys are currently playing risk ^^ We also just recently had lots and lots of grapes, they disappeared about 15 minutes after arrival. RIP my lovely grapes.

(Insert amazing transition here.)

I did promise an update after my wonderful cake creation, and it's still coming, but I'm going to hold off until next week when I can post the recipe. It actually turned out wonderfully. It was full of vanilla-ee warmth and vanilla custard goodness, with an amazingly rich white chocolate frosting. yyuummm ^^

 I hope I'll have an excuse to make another cake for Johnny's birthday at the end of the month ^^ I'd love to practice a lot. And speaking of practicing, if you'd like to know what I'm currently learning(though very slowly) on the piano, I've chosen Sakura Kiss for piano (I can't remember who arranged it), and the Merry go Round of Life by Joe Hisaishi. They're both kind of challenging for me, but I know I'll be able to play them with lots of practice :D

Well, I've got plenty of lazing to finish before I hit the sack; so, I bid you all adieu.

Tonight was a momentous night

I almost won Settlers! (I've never won before.)
I had nine points, Joseph had eight, and Jordan (first time player) had eight. Then Jordan stole back his longest road from me and promptly finished off the game.
Oh well.
We got here (in Delaware) around 2:30 this afternoon, explored the house for a bit, an unpacked before heading down to the beach to wade in the waves. Dinner was lasagna (yum). Overall, we have just been hanging out playing games, nothing too crazy. Adri and I played pool (or perhaps more accurately played at pool, as we followed absolutely no rules, not even regular turns) and foosball (she won, by a lot).
The house is pretty nice, but doesn't have internet. I am currently sitting in the driveway with Tennie perched on the truck, mooching off of neighbors' signals. Hopefully we'll be able to access it frequently enough to stay up to date.
It's nice to see all the family here, but of course we still miss you Andrew and Mumsy.
I LOVE YOU!
Ruth

I remembered!

It's Andrew again finally! Sorry that I haven't posted in quite a while, but here I am.
Yesterday at The River Project we had some flooding because of the juvenile black sea bass. It swam down into the pipes and clogged them. We were able to get him out by taking apart the pipes but unfortunately he was dead at that point. Just last week five gobies and a toad fish died.Things have been dying left and right. But we did find a little one inch flounder and a tiny lobster. The lobster is about 3/4 of an inch long and is blue. We don't know if he's going to stay blue or not, but if he does it would be awesome, as there is a blue lobster for about every 2 million red lobsters. We also got a new eel from an elementary class (they're giving Freckles to us for the summer) and because he's smaller than the two eels we have he has the black sea bass's tank. He was trying to get out so my boss rigged a lid of some netting and rocks. He managed to get out of that and crawl halfway across the wetlab though, and so we adjusted the lid so he hopefully hasn't gotten out yet.
So the internship has been great. It's fun and very educational, learning all about amphipods and pipefish and etc.
I also got my departure and other information from SFS. It is quite expensive, so I've been trying to figure out things and I just emailed trying to get the scholarship I got for travel expenses not applied to my tuition so that I can actually use it for travel expenses. I also sent in the paperwork required so they can actually tell me what my financial aid will be next year so hopefully I'll be hearing back about that as well.
Ruth, I haven't answered your survey yet not because it's not awesome but because I still need more time to think of answers worthy of how awesome your survey is.
I love you guys and I MISS YOU!

Fictional What Ifs

Tuesday

Hullo all!

Today is Adri's birthday

(Pahhy berfday!!!)

Not only do we celebrate her birth,
but also her good choice in foods
and friends (aka family :D)

By the end of the week, most of us family will be meeting
either in DC on Saturday
for the Temple

(Yay!)

or Delaware at a similar time.
I am very excited to see all of you :D

(I've gotten tired of having
only 5 of us at the house....
things can occasionally get
quiet)

Not that a little quiet's bad, but a lots o' family's good :D

srry 'bout the grammer and
slingin' apostrophies

Oh, and I'm trying to figure out what would be
yummies for my birthday dinner.
Any suggestions?
So far, I've thought rice of some sort,
possibly pokumpap with sweet&sour chicken

though it has just occurred to me that
Brazilian would be cool
(Whoa! I totally haven't annouced this!
[though I bet everyone knows...
{but just in case}])

I am serving in the Brazil Londrina Mission,
reporting October 19th,
Portuguese speaking!

Yeah, I've known for a while
(MidMay)
but never posted it
until now.

Yay!

Again

Pahhy Berfday Adri!!!

Silly me: Didn't post about my mission until a month+ later
Silly Ruthie: will be appaulded at my grammer and spelling

Love each of you :)

Today is Monday, but tomorrow is my birthday! yay! - Dri

I wasn't entirely sure what to write about tonight. But luckily, Ruth gave me a wonderful idea :D

I want to be a baking/cooking queen. I've been making deserts like crazy for the past few weeks, and I figured that this will be my new goal! yay! So, If you've got any awesome recipes for recommendation, send them my way! I'll try to be dilligent about this and take pictures to post on the blog. I'll start by making some sort of cake this week and I'll make sure Ruth is there to bug me about taking pictures ^^
 

Hello everyone,
I am back! And I have things to say to you all!

First order of business: Overwrought apology

I-am-so-sorry-I-am-such-a-slacker-sister/daughter-and-have-not-posted-in-more-weeks-than-I-care-to-admit-please-don't-hate-me-I-love-you (sad face)! While this whole blog thing is supposed to be "no stress" and all, I still want those of you who are currently not living with me to know what's going on in my life. I also want to be a somewhat reliable sibling. So, I will start by posting this before midnight (what?! Yes, I do do things before midnight on occasion).

Second order of business: Describe my week

This past week was kind of busy, what with a birthday on Tuesday, road trip on Wednesday, concert on Thursday, Johnny's graduation on Friday, and the fiasco yesterday. I will now break each of these down for your convenience.
Tuesday was the entirely non-momentous day which marked extremely momentous day on which I entered and left the birth canal about twenty-two years ago. To celebrate, I laid around, read, and ate. I even suspended job searching for the day. It was amazing. Also, everyone made me delicious food and trifle.
Wednesday I drove up to Richmond to visit Christine. Ethel had a little trouble starting at one of the gas stations, but this really awesome old guy offered me a jump, and when that didn't work he hooked one end of the jumper cables to the battery and the other end right next to the starter, and she started!
Thursday morning Christine and I drove to Manassas to see Zoe and Jyna. We went to the Farmer's Market and walked around old town, looking through used bookstores. Christine and I then said goodbye to everyone and drove up to Columbia to see a concert.
Friday, I drove from Richmond to Charlottesville, to Dobson. Johnny graduated! He is so old now.
Yesterday was busy with many people over, because Mason wanted to throw Johnny a party. We ate a lot and played a lot of games.
And today is Mumsy's birthday! Happy birthday!!!!! :)

Third order of business: Closing

Andrew, Joseph, and Mumsy, I miss you guys!
And I love all of you,

Ruth

Andrew forgot again!

Sorry, Andrew forgot another Thursday. He told me to briefly update you on things as he rushed out to work today.

Andrew has been loving working at The River Project, and is doing a lot of hands on things that he absolutely loves. Everyday he comes home with interesting facts! It is so cool to have seen him grow from when he would shrug when he said he wanted to be a Vet to holding his head up high and being excited when he says he wants to be a Wildlife Conservationist.

Andrew has also been writing and reading a lot lately, and has just started The Things They Carried. He has also come a long way writing wise, as we all know that his stories weren't good at all until he took Tracy's classes.

Our food advetures have also been continuing. Today for his lunch I baked an egg inside a tomato with basil, onion, and garlic, which I then garnished with sharp cheddar. My objective is to make cool lunch food for Andrew! This is the second work day I've successfully made him a cool vegetarian lunch!

Please remember to forward Andrew's mail here!

Pokecount: Seen: 148 Obtained:401
Gotta Catch them all!!

Things that make you go Hmmm Tuesday

hullo.
(PAHHY BERFDAY RUTH)
beyond this introduction,
you can
follow the post by reading the left;
the right side only has unne-cess-ary
but funny comments.

A lot of things happen
that really seem unplanned.

Adri just gave me a carrot slice
and some ranch

twice :D

She may have planned this, but for me,
it seemed as almost randomly that I received
unexpectedly ranch and carrots.

How awesome is that?

It's like:
Surprise! Life is
wowing, bringing things like
carrots and ranch from
unexpected sources

thrice :D

It adds some of the interesting flavor to
life when things come without our direct
planning of them.

I was going to say that
not everything in life is carrots
and ranch,
but I would assume you know that.

But eventually, we get to know that
things will come. After the second time,
the third time Adri gave me carrots and
ranch was less unexpected.

Sadly though, the plate lays empty
behind me,
so I can guess there's no more
ranch and carrots for me.

But ah!
How sweet the thought comes
to know that carrots and ranch
need not be brought by others
hands, but that I may make
its yumminess myself!

The power of me!
I forgot where I was going
(Johnny distracted me with old emails from Granddad)
:D
They were really funny

And then some things just work out

Some don't, I'm sure we all know

But I've seen a number of things turn out
ok

and some seemed only coincidence
but it was perfectly timed,
like some really nice guy figured
it all out, and
thought it would be a treat,
that we would really like
ranch and carrots every once in a while.

Silly me: I fed Adri's fishes for a few days a week ago.
Apparently I gave them a week's worth
in one setting

They looked sooo happy though!!!!

Silly somebody: Did something silly

Actually, I just couldn't think
of something,
and its Ruthie's Birthday,
and I'm supposed to be gone.

Love you all!!

and you all love me :D

A Little Free Food

Hello,


So this morning started today, and I got ready and biked on a borrowed bike to the library, where I whipped out the Presta Valve inner tube I purchased on a rapid bike-in bike-store perusal on my lunch break. The bike store turned out to be pretty nice, with friendly people who actually give you the products you want when you give them money for said products. So at the library this morning (after having whipped out the inner tube as previously mentioned) I took off my back tire, replaced the inner tube, and inflated it, put it back into the frame and adjusted my brakes before taking off to return the borrowed bike and begin work at 8:30.

Work at the garden was nice. We’ve been making and installing wood trellises with nylon netting. The trellises are for climbing plants, like cucumbers, and for the tomato plants as well.

Today turned out to be a bit of a free food day (hooray!). Probably because there are some alumni events and open houses going on this weekend. While I was working the front desk at Clemons, a faculty member came up and gave us a tray of cupcakes, saying that their movie viewing group hadn’t finished them off. Later, a coworker of mine went to greenberry’s (local cafe/baked goods thingy), and they gave her a bunch of bagels they hadn’t sold that they were going to toss.

So Free Food! Huzzah!

Is it Thursday? No? Well this isn't Andrew either.

I apologize that Andrew hasn't been updating here on the blog. I try to urge him to do it, but he ends up groaning, rolling over, and returning to pokemon. Not that this is a bad thing, because we now have 368 out of 408!

Andrew has adjusted very well to life in New York City. We have gone to different parks and to Governor's Island, and to DUMBO a couple times to see some poetry readings. We also got a folding bike (named Charley, if you can figure out what he is name after I will give you a dollar hint: Capcom Video game). We've biked up and down the island, and when we went to Coney Island for my interview at the Aquarium, and wandered around the beach and got hit on by a Russian girl. We wanted to get some Mango on a stick, but unfortunately we had no cash.

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to Stan's house (My mom's BF) in Catskill, NY. We got to see Zozo, who LOVES Andrew! It was really cute to see them play together, all three of us had a lot of fun.

Also, Andrew and I have been cooking up a STORM! We have made: Fresh Pasta for Ravioli (Ricotta, spinach, and sun dried tomatoes inside); Gnocchi with Andrew's awesome tomato sauce and my awesome basil and aged Gouda pesto; Honey ginger Semifreddo; Andrew made and Awesome Apple Tart; Fresh Cranberry Kisiel with a honey Whipped Cream; A from scratch Margarita Pizza; Mexican Rice with Yezmin and Tostadas; Fresh Vietnamese spring rolls; Alfredo with Rotini; Linguini with a cracked pepper, garlic and butter sauce, with a fried egg, fresh cilantro and a baked Parmesan disk; a Rhubarb and Apple Compote and Strawberry Shortcake.

Yeah. We've been gourmet-ing it up!

Food accomplishments aside, we are going to Governor's Island again because Andrew is working one of the World Science Festival events! He gets to go on the VIP ferry!! He's going to be side by side with some highly respected scientists! My mom is SO proud. And so am I! and so are you! And I JUST got hired myself for an internship (like just now)! I will be working at Tungsten Properties, a Boutique Brokerage in Soho!

Andrew really wants to see Book of Mormon the Musical, so I hope we can do that this summer, but it will be expensive so probs not :/

There is a lot of fun ahead of us! Come visit us if you can! (preferably later in July when this place will be less crowded).

Best,

Olivia