Chicken Nugget Girl

We had our first visitor in Virginia, Chance's good friend Nicole came to see us on her Fall break. It was nice to have some company and get out and do some exploring for a few days. Tim was also very very excited to have a guest. The kind of crummy thing about our rural location is that there is nothing close by to do, but drive a couple hours in any direction and you are in major cities, so besides having to drive a lot of hours, we had a lot of fun! Nicole was only here a few days, but we tried to cram a lot in. It is kind of a funny story how Chance knows her, maybe I can talk him into sharing that story on his blog, it's a good one! I met her for the first time last year when she came to see us in Hawaii, but I got sick and that sucked real bad. This time I got to hang out with her more and it was great to be able to gang up on Chance for a few days :)

Some things we did during Nicole's visit...

•  Went to beerfest, and sampled local microbrewery beers along with national beer companies
•  Drank too much at beerfest, and Nicole informed Chance that she did not want to be a 'chicken nugget girl'. None of us ever figured out what that meant, so we just laughed about it all weekend. 
• Went to Ocean City, MD and had Thrasher fries on the boardwalk and $6 lemonade.
• Nicole got to put her feet in the Atlantic for the first time :)
• We had a failed attempt at making snickerdoodles, they turned out like muffin tops. Weird!
• We tried really hard to cram DC into one day, but it was a rather failed attempt. We did make it there for a bit though.
• We saw the Lincoln Memorial, The Monument, The WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, the empty Reflection Pool, The White House, and 'Occupy  DC'. 
• Antique shopping on the Eastern Shore. 
• Watched Halloweentown and Hocus Pocus
• Became utterly disappointed when finding out that Zachary Binx is in fact Thackary Binx and pretty much our lives have been a lie for the last 18 years. 

It was great to see her, and we look forward to her next visit! Thank you Nicole for coming to see us :)

Hot or Not? :)

Chicken Nugget Girls

Ocean City

The Lincoln Memorial

Occupy DC

Chance's Mom, Carrie, arrives Tuesday! Looking forward to that visit as well :)

Breath Of Fresh Air

Yay!!! I got a new job, and it is in a hospital, and kind of exactly what I wanted. The day I interviewed I had to meet with a woman from human resources and then the manager of the hiring department. Interviews always make me nervous, no matter how confident I am in my abilities to do the job, but I stayed mostly calm. The managers name is Tamey, and well she sort of filled my heart with a great amount of joy from all the nice things she had to say. She made me feel completely natural, and started pulling the confidence back out of me. She was so surprised that this was the ELEVENTH position I had applied to at the hospital, and the first I had heard a peep about. She told me that she was not about to let the hospital lose me to someone else, the position I am currently in is only on-call/part-time. Tamey though, she is the breath of fresh air I am referring to.  Tamey has been advocating for me since I left the interview, she hardly knows me, and yet is willing to push for me to stay there and get on full time. It is nice to know that there are people out there, that still do kind things like this. She owes me nothing, and if anything I owe her for hiring me for the position, but it does not stop her from emailing her colleagues and making phone calls on my behalf. After my two day orientation I walked in to my new office which I share with four other woman. Tamey took me on a tour, and right away pulls up openings in the hospital and says a new one is posted and she thinks I would be great at it, and she would be meeting with the manager of that department to talk about placing me in the position. I kind of love her already! I mean how could you not, she is willing to fight for me, without hardly knowing me. I officially started last week, and I am loving it. The position is for the operating room scheduling department, booking and managing 16 OR's plus 6 Endoscopy rooms. Some of it is stuff I know, I feel there are some things that I can teach them, and there is a lot of new knowledge for me to gain from this position. I am in the works of getting back in to some classes by next semester and most likely pursuing a secondary degree in nursing. Chance and I have decided to use our time in Virginia to finish school/gain work experience.

It is so nice to be working, and the positive of the on-call position is that while our three different sets of guests come this  month, I have most of the days off that they are around. When I got home from the first interview Chance had a huge smile on his face and he says to me "my girlfriend is back" I did not know whether to laugh or cry or smile, because I knew what he meant, but I also felt horrible that I had lost myself in that time. He missed my glow, and I am sure he is happy to have my happy self back, because I know I sure am!


My biggest point of this whole post is that I am so very thankful for the people like Tamey in my life, who I know have been placed there for a very specific reason.

Pinterest-ing

I have in the last month become slightly addicted to this website called 'Pinterest'. It is a virtual pinboard where you can follow people you know or don't who find things on the web that appeal to them and then pin it to their own categorized boards. You can find great recipes on there, home decor tips, ways to make life easier around the house, craft ideas, fashion ideas, and the list goes on. It has become kind of a joke because about once a day I tell Chance of a story of something I saw on pinterest. Well, his favorite dessert is Key Lime Pie, and I am not much of a pie fan, but I found this recipe on there and he LOVED them! They were quite simple to make and really yummy/not too sweet! I thought I would share the recipe, there are also 32 others listed here.

Enjoy! 

Summer Funk

I seem to be trending on a every two month major blog update, but my goal is to not let that happen. With the holidays coming up and family visiting, I think I will find more to talk about. Besides I was in a 'Summer Funk' the kind of funk where you would just rather not talk about it, because there is not much to talk about. Chance and I got to Virginia in the middle of June and the summer was spent adjusting to our new life, needless to say, it was not easy. It is very easy to wake up everyday in Hawaii and be happy. The Eastern Shore, well it does not quite have the same effect on me.. yet.

It seemed like every couple of weeks there was a new obstacle I felt I had to overcome, while the entire time quickly becoming discouraged about finding a job. The majority of my summer was spent hanging out with Tim, and trying to find a job here in the country. It is a very rural area, and the biggest town is about 45 minutes north and still only about 30,000 people. Not working and being busy all the time is really hard to me, I get down very easily doing nothing. I started to miss my friends and family more than normal, wishing I could live closer to them. Chance was quite the trooper all summer though, not only did he take excellent care of me, but he put up with me being a bi-polar pain in the rear end. Some days I tried really hard to be 'happy', but he was not buying it. Other days I did not hide it and I would let my horns show. I felt trapped, with Tim still being such a puppy it was even hard for us to go out to dinner because travel to get anywhere takes about 2 hours round trip, and Chance started working evenings so then I was home at night alone and it was just not a fun situation. I just wanted to find a job and start having a routine, but it felt like it would never happen. I applied to positions every day and yet, I never received phone calls... talk about lifting your spirits.. Chance was very encouraging and tried to keep me positive.

So blogging about being kind of depressed for the summer just did not seem appealing, but I am in much better spirits now and hoping for a happier fall. Some things that happened in the last two months..

I got another year older

We survived a hurricane with minimal damage

Tim has learned to open the doors in our house and his favorite items to snag are toilet paper and socks

We got to explore Ocean City, MD finally

Tim has almost tripled in size since we first got him in July

and as of last week I got a job! :)

Date Night in Ocean City

Timmy All Tuckered Out After Playing

I have always LOVED Summer, but this year I am very excited for this change in seasons...Mostly the change of season in my spirit! 

Puppy Training 101

Tim has been around for about two and a half weeks now, I had no idea puppies were so cute, yet so destructive. I am currently reading two books on how to train this puppy the right way, some stuff works with him and some stuff does not. Overall he is a great dog, and just like a baby he pretty much eats, sleeps, poops, plays, and repeats. Most nights he wakes up at about 4am to go to the bathroom then he goes right back to sleep. He has been a real challenge at times though, it is just an adjustment getting used to a new body in the house, and a very needy one at that. Pointer's require a lot of exercise so my current days consist of long walks/jogs with him, running circles around the house, trying to get him house trained, and then sneaking around when he sleeps so I do not wake him.
He is really smart though, he already sits and lays down on command (usually because he gets a treat). He loves people when we are on walks if he sees another person he just wants to run up to them and play, so I am working on him trying to calm down a little. He gets distracted very easily, and loves to chew on EVERYTHING. We bought some bitter spray and it seems to be helping. He still thinks that peeing in the house is okay, so that is our biggest challenge as of current. He also freaks out if he thinks we left him, he has separation anxiety and it is bad.
The first 20 weeks of his life are the most crucial for the kind of dog he is going to be though, we are at week 12, so another 8 weeks of puppy bootcamp to whip him into tip top shape. He certainly knows right from wrong he just does not always choose correctly.

We took him to the beach this past weekend though and he loved it! I just can not get enough of his sweet face!

He loved the sand!

He kind of loved the ocean

Orange Chicken

One of my goals in starting this blog was to share some of my favorite recipes (old and new). I LOVE to cook and even more so I LOVE to cook new things. I always warn Chance (if it is a new recipe) this could be really great or really disastrous so, be prepared. He then reminds me that he lived on a ship and ate food prepared by guys who were not good at anything else, not sure this makes me feel better about my cooking, but I suppose the thought helps. I try to make one new recipe a week, mixed in with the usual's/our favorites.  I am not super creative and come up with my own recipes, but I do some research online then read reviews and mix and match until I get a solid recipe that I think will be delicious.. and it usually works. At then end of most new meals I will say something like "next time I will add more this, or less that" but overall we have had success!

Where we live currently the closest restaurants are about a half hour away, and the really nice ones are about an hour and a half away. One of our favorite places to go is P.F. Chang's and since there is not one near by I thought I would try to make their version of orange chicken at home. It was very successful and tasted great!

So here is the recipe I found, I was sort of paranoid because there is not actually any orange in the sauce, but it was okay. The peel is enough to add the orange flavor. I halved the sauce recipe because it was just two of us and I was not making that much chicken. Next time I think I would just make the entire recipe because it is certainly a sauce that can be frozen and reheated. The chili sauce does make it a little spicier than I remember, so depending on the level of heat you like you can use more or less. It was fairly simple to make and took maybe 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

Ingredients Sauce: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 2 tablespoons minced garlic 4 green onions, sliced 1 cup tomato sauce 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce 1 tablespoon soy sauce
Chicken: 1/2 cup vegetable oil 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1 egg, beaten 1 cup milk 1 cup flour peel from 1/4 orange, julienned (into 1/8"-thick strips) cooked white or brown rice, to serve
Directions 1. Prepare the sauce: In medium saucepan, heat oil; add garlic and onions; do not let the garlic burn; add tomato sauce; bring to boil. 2. Add sugar, chili sauce and soy sauce; bring to boil; simmer 5 to 6 minutes or until sauce thickens; remove from heat. 3. Prepare chicken: In wok or large skillet, heat oil. Meanwhile cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. 4. In medium bowl combine egg and milk; mix well. Place flour in shallow dish. 5. Coat chicken pieces - first in the flour, then the egg wash and back into the flour. Cook in 2 or 3 batches until all chicken is cooked. 6. When chicken is done, remove oil and rinse out wok with water; reheat pan. When hot, add orange peel and chicken; heat through - about a minute - stirring gently. Add sauce; heat through. 7. Serve with white or brown rice. Serves 4

Hello World... Meet Tim :)

Tim :)

The talk of getting a dog has been going for a while now, we knew we could not have one in Hawaii and decided once we had a house we would get one. When talking about what kind of dog we wanted we both wanted one that was tall, dark, and handsome that loved frisbee fetching and ocean swimming. We talked about German Shepherds, Chocolate Labs, Retrievers... something along these lines of canine breeds. Then fate stepped in and pointed out to us exactly what we wanted. When we went to Zion for Carrie's wedding the ceremony was held at her brother-in-law Randy's house, well Randy had this dog, this beautiful, smart, cuddly kind of dog. I think within about 10 minutes of meeting Tess the German Shorthair Pointer, Chance and I both looked at each other across the room and gave the look... you know the "yup this is exactly the dog we want" kind of look. And the rest is history.

After arriving to Virginia we had to wait for our stuff and internet which seemed like forever, but we both had tried looking up dog breeders on our phones and we just were not having much luck. We got the internet up and running and it took a few solid hours to find anything that was close to what we were looking for. We wanted a male, we wanted a pup, a German Shorthair Pointer, we did not necessarily want a purebred because we heard that they often have more problems, so we continued to look. A lot of the new pups were from championship dogs and they wanted us to fill out these huge applications and pay a fortune. We just wanted a dog we could play and hunt with, not one that can collect blue ribbons. Then I found him! He came from a litter of  four, two girls and two boys. I sort of liked the other boy more at first, but Chance liked the darker coloring on Tim. We called up the owner the pups were born May 1st and had just become available for purchase a few days before we called. We put a deposit down and decided the 5 and a half hour drive to Pennsylvania would be worth it. So Saturday we spent a total of 12 hours in the car driving. Saturday evening we introduced our puppy to his new home. He is already learning more and more each day, he is such a cuddly dog, and we are so happy to have him finally! :)

Tim Loves to Play with His Squeaky Fox 

So Handsome 

2400 Miles Away

Well it took us 4.5 days to travel 2400 miles, through 11 different states. It was a long grueling ride and we were so glad when we had finally reached our destination (our new home). I have a lot of pictures/video of our trip and I will be posting that eventually. We have arrived in Virginia! We had to live two weeks without internet and our stuff so that was kind of rough. We had two camping chairs, an air mattress, and a lot of peanut butter and jelly to get by. Our stuff is now here and we are still settling in. I will post pictures of our house when it is all put together. Our lawn is a work in progress, but this place is quickly growing on me. It is very rural, we live in a golf/yacht club community so there are a lot of retired people here, but my old soul does not mind that a bit. We have a nice club house with a restaurant, indoor/outdoor pool, and other amenities which is nice. It took us some time to adjust to how quiet it is around here, certainly no ambient noise. We see deer on a daily basis right in our front yard and we are less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean! We have done a little bit of exploring, but our goal right now is to get settled in first. This weekend coming up is very exciting! We are driving five hours north to pick up our new puppy!!!! YAY! he is an 8-week-old German Shorthair/Brittany Spaniel Mix. I will be posting pictures of that as soon as he arrives!

I think that is it for updates as of now. I will be posting some videos soon!

And so begins chapter 2....Our first night in our new home! 

Happy Birthday Chance!

After six long years of being in the military and either spending birthdays out to sea, at bootcamp, or alone, Carrie and I were excited to throw Chance an actual birthday party! We invited over our closest friends and family to celebrate! We grilled up a lot of kabobs, and made his favorite chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. It was so nice to spend that time with everyone because it was our last weekend in town. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

The Boys (Chance, Donnie, Glenn)

John and Tammy

This Day Would Not Have Been Possible Without Her Help! Thank you Carrie

Me and Lo

A group of Great Friends! (who can come visit anytime)

Happy Birthday to Chance!!! I am so happy to have known you as long as I have and to have spent the last two years of my life with you. We are beginning chapter 2 of our adventure now and I am looking forward to everything that is to come. I am so thankful for you, for the man that your parents have brought you up to be, and for the love that you have shown me. I am one amazingly lucky girl to have such a handsome stud like you! I look forward to many many more birthdays to come with you. Love you to the farthest galaxy in the universe and back!

Schmoopy ;)

Happy Father's Day to Some Great Dad's

I know Father's Day was a few weeks ago, and Chance and I were not actually able to spend Father's Day with our Dad's. We did get to spend some time with them over the past couple months doing some of the things they love though.

Chance and John got to work on Chance's old motorized scooter. Chance could hardly wait to get that thing up and running and as soon as breakfast was swallowed he was dragging John out to the garage to work on it til it was finished. Then we all got to practice riding it! :) When my Dad came over for the BBQ Chance let him take it for a spin and we were unsure if my Dad was actually going to bring it back.

His now 700CC Zuma

It was the only helmet we could find.. and he HAS to wear one

Papa Vinnie on the Scooter

Chance and My Dad

I was lucky enough to get to go fishing with my Dad over his birthday weekend, and then to make him some yummy dinner and his favorite banana pudding. I cherish these moments and am so thankful for each one that I get!

Love Him! 

Catch of the Day ;)

So Happy (belated) Father's Day to John Pensis and Vinnie Fava! We love you guys very much and are thankful for all that you do for us!

Bocce Ball and Ladderball Tournament

John and Tammy were so kind as to host a Memorial Day Weekend BBQ at their house and invite my family over as well. John set it all up in the front yard and decided to add some friendly competition to the day. I drew up some pretty fancy brackets and we had two tournaments, Ladderball, and Bocce Ball. The top three winners won gift cards! My dad and brothers came over, as well as Tammy's son and his wife. The weather was great and the games were a blast. The Vinnie's took first place in both categories! We cooked up some corn and brats on the grill, and mixed up a pitcher of mango mojitos.

The games were fun to watch and fun to play. Pat and Joey started strategizing a lot in Bocce Ball, but Vinnie came out the winner in that one. I figured my Dad would be good at these games because he is good at outdoor games. In fact just a couple weeks after this he entered in to the Utah Summer Games, which is kind of a big deal for the state, to play horseshoes and he ended up taking home the gold medal. Go Dad! :)

Big thanks to John and Tammy for all the work they put in to this BBQ. It was a blast and I look forward to the next one! :)

Spending Time With Carrie

We were lucky enough to spend some time with Carrie after her wedding and it was great. Chance and I went over on Mother's Day and cooked her dinner, drank some wine, and hung out. We had a wonderufl time. While Chance was around he also convinced his Mom to buy a computer for her house and got her all set up with internet. I never knew it would be so difficult to find a desk but it took us quite a while to find one (Chance and I are still searching for one for our new home). Now we are able to skype with her as well, which is awesome!

Jim, Carrie, and Chance 

Happy Mother's Day to a Great Mom!! :)

We took a day hike with her up to Zion. Last year when Chance and I visited home we went up to Angel's Landing, but it was so crowded and I had worn these crumby shoes and ended up going barefoot most of the way so we only went as far as Scout's Lookout. This time I was determined to make it all the way to the top, and I am so glad I did! It was incredible! I stayed focused on my feet holding on ever so tightly to the chains that pave the way to the top. I was very cautious not to look down at the straight drop on either side of me. It was so nice to go with Chance and Carrie though, this is something they have done together for many years. He used to run up as quick as he could and she would have to chase after him, he was not allowed to go up Angel's Landing until he was 10 or 11 I think because it is not some small hike. In fact the day we went Carrie and I literally saw this man scrambling at the edge, hand waving for balance, and trying not to die right in front of us. It scared me to death to see that! I kept going though! I will post a video of the views soon :)

Walter's Wiggles (I think)

On the Edge :)

Brotherly Love

I got to spend almost 6 whole weeks with my family and I was so very excited to hang out with my brothers! I kind of think they are a big deal and they mean the world to me. The first few weeks I was there they were still in school and it felt like the only time I got to see them was at the ball fields. Pat and Vinnie were on the same this team and Joey was in a separate league, this meant that one or the others had practice and/or a game EVERY night. So I kind of lived at the ball fields, but enjoyed watching every minute of it! My Dad helped coach Pat and Vinnie's team which was fun to watch. Vinnie is good at stopping those grounders at second and Pat is good at catching fly balls in the outfield, always managing to lose his hat and wisp his luscious locks around (haha). Joey's team actually went on to win the championships this year, his team nicknamed him twinkie and although he is good on defense, the poor runt of the team has such a small strike zone that 90% of the time he gets walked or pegged with the ball.

Twinkie

Vin-Nay

Patticakes

I was also able to go on a field trip to Zion National Park with Joey and about 200 5th graders, not to mention the flood of other schools that were going on the same hike the same day. There was a lot of "get down from there" "you  need to slow down" "stay on the trail" "no you can not go swimming in the water" going on that day. It was still a blast though. My Dad and I both chaperoned and the weather was gorgeous!

Dad and Joey at the First Pool 

Headed Off to Middle School Soon

Emerald Pools 

My Dad had to leave town for a couple days so Chance conjured up this master plan to clean the house up really nice for my Dad and in return for their help my brothers would get a new Xbox. It took two days and a lot of elbow grease to accomplish this, but the boys were troopers (for the most part) and had their eyes set on the prize. Now they can play Xbox Live with Chance (woo!).

Summer is in full swing now and the boys have transitioned from snowboarding the slopes, to mountain biking the trails. I think they do a lot of nothing these days. Staying up late, sleeping in, playing video games, floating the river, and hanging out with friends. What else is Summer for? I miss them so very very much every day, but I was able to set them up with my old laptop while I was home and Skype is the closest I can get to seeing their handsome faces!

Lo Lo is 21!

Lauren turned 21 on May 9th, and of course we took off to Vegas for the weekend. Somewhere between the late nights of college and living in one of the most relaxed places in the world I became old. My 22-year-old self could not keep up with the younger crowd and when midnight rolled  around I was ready to crash (sorry I am old Lo). Either way, it was nice to spend some time with Lauren and some of our friends and family in Vegas. We had dinner and cake on her actual birthday with our families as well. Happy Birthday to Lo! 

Cake With Friends and Family

Lo and the Aunts in Vegas

Cheers! Margaritaville 

Chey, Lo and Desire' at PF Changs

From Vegas I headed to California to see some of my family. It was such a short trip and I definitely did not get to see everyone I wanted, or spend as much time with everyone as I wanted, but I will take any time I get with them. I miss them all so much and being away is one of the hardest things. I am thankful I got to see them. 

The McGurks

The weekend after the wedding Chance found out his best friend Donnie had a few days off work and that is all it took for him to be pacing back and forth across the floor with excitement to go see him. Chance was so eager to leave Utah and drive down to see Donnie that his plan was to leave at about 6am and get there as soon as possible, not to waste a minute of time they could be hanging out. I had to bring him back to reality and remind him that there is a time change, they have two kids, and we are not about to show up on their doorstep at 8am (silly boys).

So we packed up our bags and headed to Vegas for the weekend. We were both very excited to go see the Mcgurk family (Donnie, Alex and their two adorable children Brody and Mia). Donnie had been going through some pretty serious health problems and we were anxious to get down there and spend time with their beautiful family (thank you to them for welcoming us into their home). I may not have been as excited as Chance was, but I was pretty excited to play with my pal Brody! We spent the weekend hanging out, Chance and Donnie ventured off to do 'guy stuff', I played 'bolleyball' with a partially deflated balloon with Brody for a few hours, and I was also able to go to his karate class and the park with him and Alex and Mia. Alex and Donnie have a beautiful home, a beautiful family, and we were both thankful to spend this time with them before they took off for a few weeks. Donnie had to go get some treatments but, I am so happy to say that he is now doing amazingly well! :)

Thank you Alex and Donnie for having us over for the weekend. We are so happy that Donnie is feeling well and we are looking forward to your visit out here!

Carrie and Jim Got Married

This is the beginning of a whole string of updates from the past two months! We landed in Las Vegas from Hawaii and had an agenda of things to do for the weekend. Chance's Mom (Carrie) was getting married and we were so excited to be a part of it. I got the privilege of meeting Carrie's three sisters for the first time and actually riding up to Utah with them from Vegas. We spent the weekend with them, Carrie's parents, Jim, his daughter Jenni and her friend, and Jim's brothers as well. The day started with a hike in Zion. It was kind of chilly out that day, but beautiful nonetheless. It was so great to be out in the open and the mountains helped to ease the pain of leaving Hawaii. Carrie and Jim got us all rooms in Zion, after our hike we headed to the hotel to get cleaned up for the ceremony which was held at Jim's brother's house in Springdale. His house is beautiful and it was the perfect setting for the wedding. We all gathered outside for the vows it was quaint, elegant, and beautiful. I, along with all the other females, cried and then we had some amazing dinner and enjoyed each others company for the evening. I thought I had pictures from the hike somewhere, but apparently they are just of the wedding. Either way, it was absolutely beautiful and we were so thankful to be there! CONGRATULATIONS to Jim and Carrie! :)

The Lovely Bride and Groom 

Randy's Backyard is Zion - LUCKY! 

Enjoying the Wedding