The First Real MD post

Greetings from Maryland! We’ve been here almost a week now, and I feel very blessed. It’s lovely to know that my little world is now solely concerned with my home and husband.
I would have posted sooner, but the soonest the company can install our internet, landline, etc. is October 9th!!! So I’m typing this at our “dining nook” table, and I’ll post it the next time we camp out at an Internet café for an hour.
We got in last Thursday, but the movers didn’t make it until Saturday. We spent the time cleaning in preparation for our furniture and exploring with the friend who owns this house. It was a huge blessing that he was in town this weekend, as he helped us find the important places and even introduced us to new friends! Thursday night we ate at a French café downtown, where I had tomato bisque soup with lump crab meat. Mmmmm. . . . After the movers came Saturday and we got the bed put together, we went to a party and met lots of new people, many from Tulsa and in the same field as K. Sunday we visited a little Lutheran church here in town, and the people were very kind and friendly. They are in the process of calling a new pastor, so we may visit a couple other places and then go back in a few weeks.
I’m still unpacking, of course. We got the master bedroom and bath in livable order over the weekend, and then we quit working and explored our new town. (The downtown area by the harbor has 3 (THREE!) ice cream parlours, and I think there’s a FOURTH getting ready to open. And one of them is a Ben & Jerry’s! Obviously, I am meant to live here.) Then Monday and Tuesday I got the kitchen cleaned and unpacked, so we could have home-cooked food again, and today I’m working intermittently on the front room and breaking down empty boxes to store until we need them again. I actually went to the grocery store last night (that’s a whole post in itself. . .), so life is settling down admirably.
The carpet cleaners are coming in half an hour to clean the basement stairs and rooms--that’s the only place that’s carpeted, and there was once upon a time a cat whose legacy remains in the form of runny noses and scratchy throats for the two of us. Actually, since I sprinkled carpet deodorizer and vacuumed, it’s not so bad. But we want them cleaned before we spend any amount of time down there. Fortunately, the master bed and bath are upstairs, and the kitchen is on the ground floor, so we haven’t needed to go downstairs at all.
Once everything is unpacked, I’ll post a detailed photo-tour of our new home. Until then, here are a few pictures I took on the road and around town thus far.

The view from the MD welcome center on the Youghiogheny (sounds something like "Yuckugeeny") River:


MD state flower, the black-eyed susan:


You know what this is:


My first foray into the world of brussel sprouts. . .don't ask K if he's glad I'm staying home to come up with new vegetables for him to eat. :-)


The roast I fixed for our first "real" dinner in our new temporary home:

On Moving

A last glimpse of our apartment:


Proof of my Stellar Packing Skills:

Farewell Party, Part 3

And a few more. . .by now you'll have noticed that my mother is conspicuously absent from any of these photos. It amazes me that someone so fond of being behind the camera always manages to evade being in front of it.

Farewell Party, Part 2

More pics. . .

Farewell Party, Part 1

Greetings all, and sorry to be gone so long! We are happily arrived in Maryland, but more on that later. First, some pictures from our farewell party in OKC. No captions, just my favorite pics.

Catching up Cakes

Here are 2 pictures I haven't shared yet, one a wedding and one a first birthday. Please note the impromptu cake-topper arrangement made by yours truly. . .communication is a good thing.

Bagels!!!

Whole-wheat bagels are becoming increasingly difficult to find in the grocery store, at least in my part of the country. Solution? Make your own! Here are the pictures of my scrumptious bagels! The recipe may be found here.
Shaped dough:

Boiling Bagels:

Ready to bake:

Finished!


Next time, dutch apple walnut bagels, almond crunch, orange craisin. . .the possibilities are endless. . . .

Long Time, No. . .Blog?

Hello all. It's been a while since I've really posted anything of substance (Have I EVER posted anything of substance?), I know. Since we disconnected our Internet at home (in preparation for the still-awaited move to Somewhere), my opportunities to blog are not abundant. So, some updates. . .
On the job/move front, we're still waiting. K is wading (and I mean wading as through a thick, murky swamp, not in the clear blue waters off a Hawaiian beach) through the paperwork and such that must be completed and approved before he can be hired. In June, they gave us a 4-6 month timeframe, so I suppose we're sitting at 3-5 now. We'll likely live in or around Annapolis, though we haven't delved into those options too deeply just yet.
In wider family matters, things are going pretty well. My youngest cousin got married last month and moved here. They live about 15 minutes from us, and it's nice to see her more often now. I got to help her do all the little things that have to be done when you change your name and move to a different state. Also, they're expecting a baby in January, so I foresee some garage sale and consignment shop maternity clothes shopping in the future. That will be fun.

I went to the Farmer's Market with a friend this morning, bright and early. It's really grown since I first started going a couple years ago. It used to be that, if you went around 7am, there were very few people there and you could have your pick of things. Now, traffic is already crazy at 7, and it's already crowded. That's good, I guess. It means more vendors and more produce in the future. This morning I bought a Roasted Garlic and Bell Pepper spice mix, and I picked up a couple recipes to go with it. The Spice Hunter vendor booth is amazing. I also got some black cherry tomatoes. They're a dark gray-red color, and I hadn't tried them before. But I ate one this morning, and they were good. I think, when I have a house and garden space, I should try to grow those along with regular cherry tomatoes, sungold cherry tomatoes (orange-colored), and these others I saw this morning that are a bright yellow. Wouldn't that make for great table presentation? And think of the fresh salsa! I like colorful food.

I also bought some fresh yogurt this morning. I've never been a huge yogurt fan, but I'm trying to learn. I don't like milk that much, and there is only so much cheese a girl can eat. So I'm working to expand my dairy (read: calcium) options. Flavored yogurt, though, has so much sugar that I avoid it. A couple months ago, we had breakfast at a friend's house. I made baked oatmeal, which we normally eat with yogurt and fruit. She buys plain yogurt, so that's what we had. While not my favorite thing (as if yogurt were even close, anyway), I didn't hate it. So a couple weeks ago, I bought a small container of plain yogurt. I mixed it with fresh blackberries (from the market. . .mmmmm!) and homemade granola and a teaspoon of sugar. I didn't like it much, but I ate it. Then, last week, I bought more, but a better brand this time. It was much more palateable. I even liked it. So today I bought some fresh-made yogurt from a dairy farm booth. They let me try a spoonful of a sample container they had open first, and I think I can handle it. . .properly sweetened with fruit and granola, of course. I think I can forego the teaspoon of sugar now. So we're making progress, and I feel like I'm making great health strides. I will probably get tired of it quickly, as I do cottage cheese, string cheese, and snacks that make milk worth drinking. But if I can gather enough options, I can just switch every couple of weeks and still get my daily calcium dose. Next on the list? Yogurt cheese and recipes that use it.

That's all my rambling for now.

Thursday, June 28

Today, I am sad.

The Story

This post and the accompanying picture is for. . .you better know who you are.

While making one of the lovely cakes in the post below, I inadvertently made a BIG mess. And I mean bigger and unrelated to the inevitable big mess I make any time a cake is made and decorated. You see, several weeks ago, I splurged. I bought real maple syrup. It was expensive. It was in a glass bottle.

After it was opened, it had to be placed in the refrigerator. I put it in the door, behind round jars so that it would not slip through the hole made by the door shelf and the bar that holds things in it.

A few days before this cake, I used all of the mustard in one of the barrier jars, leavng a hole. I did not realize this. So, of course, during one of my trips to the fridge for eggs (the 5-tier cake used 70 whites!!! I make LOTS of trips to the fridge for eggs. . . .), it fell out. It made a great crash and covered my kitchen floor in sticky, liquid maple syrup. Needless to say, I had to suspend my baking to sop, mop, and mop again. I took a picture, in (you know who you are)'s honor. I apologize for not thinking of that BEFORE I started cleaning up the mess.

The moral of the story? Do NOT put glass containers that will slip through the crack in the door of the refrigerator, EVEN if they are protected by larger containers in front. You will NOT remember when said larger jars are emptied and disposed of.

June Cakes, Part 1

Part 2 to follow in a couple weeks. :-)

CO

A few pictures from our backpacking trip in Golden Gate State Park. . .in Colorado, not California, as the name might lead you to believe.

My Favorite Goddaughter

Isn't she beautiful?

May Cakes

Yes, This is What I Think

I have issues with people making comments about teenagers, particularly to young children, in the vein of "Well, wait until the teen years hit." No wonder we have such a teen problem; we tell our kids from the time they're in pre-school that we expect rebellion and attitude as soon as they hit the big 1-3. And don't get me started about asking 5 year-olds how many boys they've kissed. . . .

Anyway, I like this article .

Just Two More. . .

Two of my Favorite Men

And, perhaps, my favorite graduation picture. . .it was obligingly windy (Would it be an Oklahoma graduation if it weren't?), and I think this one is great.

Graduation

Hooray! We're done! Look! See!