Closing Time...

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

I'm going to stop blogging. At first I thought it would be a great way to keep in touch while I was gone, but really it has just put me more out of touch...

My hope is that not having a blog, I will hear my family and friends stories too, rather than everybody just reading mine. It's extremely isolating.

I will probably still use this for my menu planning, but that's it.

2 successful nights!

The chicken parm burgers came out SOO good! I was a little threatened by using ground chicken since I never have for anything before, but it was easy. Ground chicken sticks to your hands wickedly, and I found the solution is to wet your hands. I also had to cook them more than what the recipe calls for, maybe it's me being crazy about raw chicken, maybe the temp on my stove top wasn't high enough, either way I ended up cooking it about 6-7 minutes per side.

Here's a picture of the final product

and here's a link to the recipe!

The pulled pork I knew would be a sure thing. Glenn uses this recipe, and it's like fool proof. Perfect for me. I always buy pork butt (not actually butt, its a shoulder cut with the bone in). And wayyy too much because I love leftovers! I bought 4.5 lbs this time. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
Pork Butt (4.5 lbs seems to be enough for leftovers like 2 or 3 times for 4 adults)
2L coca-cola
BBQ sauce (we use Sweet Baby Ray's original)
Sandwich Rolls (also a preference, we like potato rolls!)

Put the pork into the crockpot, cover with coca-cola (it usually takes a whole 2L for me, but I get huge cuts and my crockpot is pretty big). Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until the pork falls off the bone.
Take the pork out, pull it, discard the bone. Shred the pork with two forks, or with your fingers. Discard any fat. (The most tedious part of the recipe, if it isn't cooked enough, this can take FOREVER!) Discard the coca-cola, rinse the crockpot.
Put the pulled pork back into the crockpot, add BBQ sauce to coat all of it.
Cook on low for another 1-2 hrs, stirring every 20 or so minutes.


Tonight I was going to do the spinach stuffed turkey tenderloins, but Miriam is going to home for dinner tomorrow night, so we're going to have leftovers tonight instead and the turkey tomorrow!

Attempting to plan out meals for a whole week...

Stealing Kate's idea for "Menu Planning Monday"... I'm sick of wasting money going out to eat! Hopefully if I write it all out now, I can stick to it. Going grocery shopping now, wish me luck!

Monday: Chicken Parmesan Burgers
Tuesday: Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Wednesday: Spinach Stuffed Turkey Tenderloins
Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner or leftover Pulled Pork
Friday: Beef and Sweet Pepper Pasta
Saturday: Dinner out at Cherry Blossom Festival
Sunday: Steak Feta

Snow?!

While I don't expect any of you NYers to be pitying me, we woke up to snow here this morning! That's just silly, considering last week it hit 80.

Last week started with zumba! (Of course, every Monday is now zumba!!) The week got really exciting when Glenn and I got our tax return back. We are putting most of it towards paying off some credit cards/student loans, but we took a little bit out to plan a trip for our 1 year anniversary. I'm super excited because we got a great deal on a 4 star all inclusive resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We ended up saving 60% off of the original rate. We booked our airfare with frequent flier miles. So this trip, although quite big for an anniversary trip, is quite cheap compared to what somebody less frugal than me would pay for the same exact thing. We booked a superior sea view room. Very important to have a view of the water =]

I am still loving the classes at the gym. I actually took two classes on Thursday. Hopefully I can keep up going at least 4 times a week. I need to get in shape for Mexico in 2 months, 1 week, and 1 day!!

I started little tickers on my phone to countdown to all of the things I have planned up until June. Here it is so far...


I can't wait to add more on to it. Which by the way, brings me to my next topic. I'm coming home for a few days in mid April for Zoe's birthday party. I'll be around April 13-17, with very few plans (Zoe's party on Saturday... that's it...) So... if anybody is free, I would like to see everyone! Please let me know!!

Friday night I finally got to see my beautiful Sam~i~ness. It was so nice to hang out and catch up, I definitely missed seeing her and am very excited that we live so close now!

I'm very excited that the next two weeks are all about the cherry blossoms. I dont know how they are fairing because of the cold weather overnight, but I hope that they're okay. The cherry blossom festival goes on for the next two weeks, with parades, fire works, music, arts & crafts, vendors and food! We are going into DC next weekend to do some celebrating.

Yesterday when DJ got out of work, we went to a Thai/Japanese restaurant in Arlington. I bought a groupon $20 for $40 worth of food. It was so worth it. Very delish. Glenn and I got duck spring rolls, a bagel roll (smoke salmon, cream cheese and jalepeno), and I got chicken lo-main.

If you don't use groupon or living social yet, I would definitely recommend it! It's a good opportunity to save on things you probably would have bought anyway. Glenn and I got 2 movie tickets for $9 from livingsocial. I love saving money.




Random things I did this week.

-Saved a lost puppy
-Made penne ala vodka & chicken
-Found Belle's dress in adult size
-Got some Fruity Yogurt
-Found Waldo

-Almost had a heart attack from the amazingness in the Disney store

-Played DD for a way overloaded civic

Virginia has been treating The Perrigos pretty well. Glenn is quickly learning and excelling at his job (as expected). I'm addicted to the classes at my gym. I'm now a full member of Xsport Fitness, and I love it!

At this point I'm way too scared to go by myself, so I haven't gone all weekend (Mim's been in NY) and it's just about KILLED me to stay away. That is my bedazzled gym card =]

Last week had its stressful moments. Glenn and I attempted on Monday to get our VA licenses. We both failed. Glenn had issues with NYS DMV to resolve (which we didn't know about prior to our VA DMV trip) and the paper I've been using as my birth certificate is not accepted as proper identification in VA! Glenn got the NY thing straightened out and we went back on Thursday and got his license successfully. Miriam and I group efforted corned beef and cabbage for St. Pattys day (not without spilling blood, unfortunately). Mim's okay though, DJ Brotherman is a good little nurse. Along with all of that craziness, I also highly considered dropping out of my program at Johns Hopkins. I attempted to figure out what I'd owe back from my student loans. It was an excruciatingly awful process that nobody in the world seemed to be able to help me with. I finally got an answer on Thursday evening, and it wasn't good. So I made the decision to stick it out, finish the program, and get a degree. Even if it's not what I'm passionate about, it will be able to land me a job.

The weather was gorgeous all last week, feeling much more like summer than spring with temps up to 80*! Spring has sprung and there's evidence all around. I am most excited to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. {{So Soon!}} I'm also excited for the beginning of April because my lovely TwinFace mamBa is coming down to the DC area, and I will be able to see her and hang out for a while.

Friday night we tried dinner at Dogfish Head Ale House. It was delish and the service was excellent. I cannot believe the amount of restaurants there are around here, it's so overwhelming.

Yesterday, Glenn and I went geocaching for the first time since we've lived in VA! We had errands to run, so on our way out and between places we found a couple. It was nice to see that there are still green spaces in all of this smushed residential, urban sprawl chaos. I cannot wait to have an entire day to dedicated just to geocaching again. It was like coming back to life after a winter of conscious hibernation.

Oh we picked up a geocoin too! That was pretty exciting. Glenn and I combined our user names so we don't have to double log every cache, and so we can share geo coins and travel bugs rather than decide who gets to log them. It makes more sense because neither of us geocache without the other. Our new name is pretty clever, if I do say so myself. Mr&MrsDellCreek... =] Get it?? We didn't want anything too literal, and it seemed pretty befitting to make it something "nature-y". I had to get back at a decent hour to work on my mid-term paper. I got a break at night, Glenn and I ventured into DC to take pictures of this "super moon". Too bad it was "super lame". The night before last night though, it was so bright, when it shone in my bedroom window, it woke me up and I thought it was somebody standing in front of me with a flash light. Pretty freaky. I had to wake Glenn up. We took some pictures at the Washington Monument, the White House, and then crossed back over the river and took pictures at the Iwo Jima Memorial. Definitely my favorite view. By the time we got home, we watched some TV and I passed out on the couch. So much for working more on that paper. I did spend the good part of today finishing it (and all of my other homework). I'm very excited to have a week off from school work, it's our spring break! Half way through my first semester of grad school. Only... oh... about a million more to go after this.

So while all of this is very exciting and new and fun, I am missing my family and friends so much. Letters definitely help! Rachel completely turned a really crappy day around this week. It's like, her words just cleared my head and helped me to make a decision. If you know me, I cannot make decisions to save my life, so it was like therapeutic to just read some nice words from somebody I love very much.

It's so hard to know that I'm not picking Zoe up from daycare tomorrow. She seems to change so much between each skype date. She does this hilarious thing when she's thinking now. She makes a concentrating face and puts a finger to her chin. I almost died the first time I saw it. She is such an amazing little human being and it's very very difficult to not be there to hug, play with, and learn with her. Her 2nd birthday is next month, and I cannot even comprehend that this precious little baby is going to be 2 years old already. Her growth and progress since being a tiny little 2lb 3 oz peanut is so miraculous. AWww I miss her.

In other news, Glenn and I are quickly approaching our 1 year anniversary (oh, and 7 years of being together!) We discussed taking a trip, and as of right now, we are talking about going to Mexico. We will see what happens, we get our taxes back this week, so we want to pay off some credit cards and put some aside for a potential trip. We've got frequent flier miles, so we'd just have to pay for the all inclusive resort *$800*. Definitely the cheapest I've found with decent reviews. If anybody has any other suggestions, we are open. Our only requirements are that it's on a beach and it's all inclusive.

This week I am excited to get back into the swing of things with the gym *ZuMbA tomorrow, even if Mim isn't awake after her long trip tonight, I think I might do this one alone. I have to find a Kay Jewelers asap this week. I went to get my rings inspected yesterday, and the guy told me the middle diamond of my engagement ring is loose! Yikes! Gotta send it in and get it tightened and replated. Other than that, I have no solid plans. Hopefully the job search will continue.

Other than that, there's not much else to say. Here's Roxy with a toy that was once Zoe's, then Lola got a hold of it, then it traveled with us to VA and became Roxy's twin.

Trying the Healthy Route...

In attempts to tighten it all up for bathing suit season (which starts WAYY earlier in NoVA than in NY!) I decided to diet and exercise. Miriam brought me along to her gym as a guest for this past week, and it has been fun! We did zumba, body flow which is like a mix of yoga and tai chi, and body combat which is mixed martial arts. The classes are all an hour long, and they all kicked my ass pretty hard. I will actually miss not going to the gym, my guest pass expires on Monday. My mission this weekend is to find somewhere else to take classes for relatively cheap, because I would like to continue, but not at this gym because it's expensive!

So, eating healthy has not been as easy as exercising. I did awesome the beginning of the week, Miriam and I made a delish stir fry on Sunday. Monday for lunch Miriam and I made salads with tuna. For dinner I made steak feta (my fave, but I didn't do it justice compared to Glenn's way of doing it). Tuesday I had soup. Wednesday night was turkey tacos. Glenn and I went out to dinner at Mad Fox Brewing Co on Thursday and it was the first time I wasn't awesome on my diet. I had fried pickles (frickles) and pizza. But the pizza was healthy-ish. Is was Mediterranean, and had olives, tomatoes, artichoke, and spicy chicken. Then last night, I was REALLY bad and had Taco Bell because we were out and about and I was SO hungry. I feel like it was the better choice over Burger King though. I basically have kicked any sweet drinks and have been drinking either water or milk. (Exception for dinner both Thursday and Friday nights, I had root beer).

The way I see it is you cannot completely change all of your habits (eating and exercise) immediately. It would be too hard, and I wouldn't be able to stick with it if it was extremely strict. This way, I'm making healthier choices, and as it gets easier over time, maybe I will be able to be more strict about it.

Ok, so that wasn't really an update on my life, but hopefully I'll pull some pictures off my iPhone and do a life update tomorrow!

Long Overdue

So, my excuse isn't even a good one. I haven't unpacked my computer yet, and I don't really know how to work Glenn's (he's got a macbook pro, it's like a completely different world). I'm just figuring it all out now so I can post some updates.

View from my bed.


It's been two weeks that we have been in VA. We are all comfortable and settled in. Glenn got a job at Hyundai of Alexandria and he starts tomorrow! I have yet to find a job, but the hunt is definitely on.



So, the first week we were here was a lot of unpacking, organizing, and manipulating of things within our space. Oh something fun that Glenn had to do, our outlets here were only for two pronged electrical devices. HUUGGEE problem (tv, mini fridge, laptop?!) So Glenn became a handy man and installed three new outlets! He did AWESOME, it only took like 15 minutes (after we bought everything). Everything is setup and comfortable now. We bought a couch from ikea, it's a tiny little thing and it folds out into a bed. Roxy loves it, I'm not a huge fan.


Last Sunday was awesome. DJ had the day off, so we started out by attempting to go gun shopping. The first two places were closed, and the third didn't have anything of interest for my brother. After that we decided to go to the Marine Corps Museum! I've wanted to go for years, ever since I saw Glenn's pictures. It was GREAT! I would HIGHLY recommend it. Only problem was, by the end of our trip through the museum I was looking for a recruiter to sign myself up. =] Very inspiring.

The guy at the Iwo Jima installment told us thatthe shape of the museum represents the popular picture ofthe 2nd flag raising at Iwo Jima on Mt. Suribachi.

I could say a billion things about the museum, but really you have to just go see it for yourself. There is SOO much information and there are soo many amazing things to see.

After the museum, we all went to a sushi place called Wasabi, where the sushi comes to your table on conveyor belts (so cool!) and Fruity Yogurt.

This past week flew by. It seemed that I worked on school stuff ALL week. Which I choose not to blog about, because it's going so terribly. Well, Monday was pretty exciting. I messed up my hair by trying to dye it back to blonde, but my roots took REALLY well and were like bleach blonde, and the rest was a strawberry blonde, with a VERY definite line between them. So Miriam and I did some research and found a hair dresser. We both got our hair done. It took 5 HOURS! And a lot more money than I EVER care to spend on my hair again. I LOVE my hair now, the color is so fabulous, they did an awesome job fixing it.

The only picture I have, taken with my front facing camera on the iphone. Glenn is going to take a good picture for me when I finally feel like doing my makeup nicely and doing my hair.

This weekend, we had more fun!! We started the day off by going to the gun stores that were closed last weekend. DJ ended up buying a gun while Miriam and I ALLLMOOOSTTTT starved to death. THANK GOODNESS the gun store had a quarter machine with peanut m&ms. (A grand total of 8 m&ms for $0.50) And then after that, we realized there were donut holes RIGHT there, and consumed them.

We went out to Joe's Crab Shack afterwards for some lunch and a celebratory meal for Glenn getting a job! It

was the most AMAZING place ever. So delish!!! Glenn was in heaven, I thought he was going to have a heart attack he was so excited about FINALLY getting to go to a Joe's!

Then, we were all full and happy, and we went to the NRA range. It was an hour wait, so we went to the NRA museum, which was cool. My favorite part was the Hollywood gun room - had all sorts of guns used in movies and who used them as which character.

After we spent some time looking at everything in the museum,

we went back and Glenn and I took our range tests, and got these!

Then my brother and Glenn peer pressured me into shooting DJ's new gun. I am a pretty terrible shot, but it was exciting!

We rounded out the day by purchasing a couple bottles of wine. Miriam has made us all lushes because of this DELISHH wine she introduced to us. It's soo sweet and sparkly. Ok, hardly lushes, but I have had one glass of wine almost every other night.

So begins a brand new week. I've got lots of work to do in terms of laundry and dusting. Spring cleaning has been consuming me lately, so I definitely feel the urge to clean quite often, it's very strange. My plans for tomorrow include zumba and hopefully getting some new flip flops at target. My favorite ones from last summer are on sale and I have a coupon! Yess!!!

That is all for now, but wow that was a ton. I will not go so far in between blog updates any more! Please please please skype me, I have skype on my iPhone and I ALWAYS have my iPhone on me.