I’m Thankful for…

This Thanksgiving has turned out to be wonderful.  I had a great Thanksgiving Day and the weekend is turning out quite lovely too.  Before I recap my holiday, I’d like to introduce you to some amazing people in my life – those for whom I’m most grateful.

My Family:

This photo was taken at my Uncle’s funeral.  I still miss him and wish we could have all celebrated Thanksgiving together.  I am very thankful for my family – we’re a great bunch.

My Sisters:

Only one sister was shown above so I wanted to make sure I included the other one.  I’m very grateful for both of them – they have been my best friends since birth.  For as much as we moved around, we really only had each other.  Sisters are the best!

 

My Honduran Family:

My Honduran family has taught me so much.  They are generous to a fault and love me like their own.  I am so glad I was given the opportunity to know them and connect with them.  I am also grateful for fairly cheap phone service to Honduras, Facebook, and IM – because it allows me to keep in touch with them even though we don’t see each other often.

 

My Friends:

These are my friends from college – they are all amazing.  I’m so glad we keep in touch.  Sarah, the girl on the right, is my rock.  I am lucky to have friends like these.

 

This is one of my best friends from high school.  She’s one of my oldest friends that I stay in touch with regularly.  It’s nice having someone who knows and understands you.  I have other amazing high school friends too, but don’t really have a photo of everyone.

 

These are some of my favorite Peace Corps friends.  Love them all!  Another group of people I couldn’t live without.

 

And my wonderful college friends!  I don’t get to see them all very often but I am so thankful for having them in my life. 

 

My Husband:

Of course I’m thankful for my husband.  Although he frustrates me to know end sometimes, he somehow makes me laugh ten seconds later.  He also teaches me so much and makes me a better person.  Love him!

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So that is a snippet of the people I am most thankful for.  I have so many more amazing people in my life, but I don’t have enough space to fit them.  But I think about them all the time and wouldn’t be the person I am today without them.

Who are you thankful for???

Thanksgiving Traditions!!

Today's Plenty to Be Thankful for Blog Challenge is: Thanksgiving Traditions!!!  I love traditions.  I don't feel like I have enough of them in my life.  It is my goal to make as many things a tradition as possible. 

Sadly, for Thanksgiving I don't actually have too many traditions, minus the normal Thanksgiving foods.  Thanksgiving hasn't been a "regular" holiday for a long time.  When I was growing up overseas, our tradition was to invite some host country nationals to come over (that means we invited some Greek friends when we lived in Greece, some Italian friends when we lived in Italy, and some English friends when we lived in England) to celebrate with us.

Actually, now that I think about it, my tradition for Thanksgiving is to celebrate it differently every year!  Here are some photos from past Thanksgivings:

2005

Melanie and me - our first Honduran Thanksgiving

This was my first Thanksgiving in Honduras.  My friend Melanie (also a Peace Corps Volunteer) came and celebrated with me.  I can't remember what we made, but we then headed to some other friends' house for an actual turkey dinner.

Thanksgiving in San Marcos de Colon

After having our little Thanksgiving at my house we headed up to the mountains to have Thanksgiving with a bunch of other volunteers.  Here we had a lot more traditional type foods.  It was yummy and definitely a treat to hang out with a bunch of other volunteers and celebrate the holiday together.

2006

A scrawny looking turkey!

The following year I celebrated with some volunteers too and we found ourselves a scrawny little turkey.  Hondurans don't eat turkey so it's hard to find one!  We celebrated with some JICA volunteers (Japan's volunteer corps) too.  This turkey was the toughest thing I had ever eaten.  It was like turkey-gum.

Full bellies!

Here are some of the other volunteers (and me - on the right) after our meal.  It was a fun Thanksgiving and I was full!  I think I had made the sweet potatoes this time.  I can't remember.

2007

A Texan Thanksgiving - me, in orange, my sister in blue, and my cousin in gray

The following year (I was no longer living in Honduras) I went to Dallas to visit my sister and we headed to my cousin's house in Austin to celebrate.  She had a friend from Washington visiting as well.  We had turkey soup that year, instead of an actual whole turkey.  It was fun to be celebrating with family again.

2008

 Not sure what happened here.  I think I went to my sister's in-law's house.  No pictures....

2009

Me (right) and my sister in Ecuador

In 2009 my sister invited me to go to Ecuador with her the week of Thanksgiving.  So off we went!  The hotel we were staying at in Banos offered a Thanksgiving dinner for $12 so we signed ourselves up!  Ok, we didn't sign up, we showed up and didn't realize we needed to sign up.  Whoops!  It was a fun surprise since we weren't expecting turkey in Ecuador!

2010

I don't have any pictures of 2010.  I think they were on my sister's camera.  It was my husband's first Thanksgiving.  The thing he remembers most about Thanksgiving is that the turkey made him tired!! 

2011

You'll just have to wait and see - but it will be different!!!  One new tradition I'm hoping to start?  I have officially organized a 5k Turkey Trot in my neighborhood.  I have about 10 people signed up and I even made my own race numbers!

So, that's about it.

What Thanksgiving Traditions do you celebrate???

My Favorite Thanksgiving Recipe!!

 

Today is Day 6 of the Plenty to Be THANKful for Blog Challenge.  I have only missed one day!  Amazing!  Friday was too hectic between work and class that it was impossible to get anything posted.  Today was the same – so I figured I would try tonight.  Better late than never, right?

It was hard trying to pick my favorite Thanksgiving recipe.  I love all Thanksgiving food: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, pie.  You name it, it’s on my plate.  Except for green bean casserole.  Can’t get onboard with that one. 

However, the recipe I picked is a simple side dish: Cranberry-Pineapple Jell-O

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That picture is not mine.  And it’s not 100% a picture of the recipe I’m going to tell you about, but it gives you an idea.  I don’t have any pictures of this Jell-O, so I had to improvise.  I’ll try and snap one this year.

I’m not sure where this Jell-O recipe came from, but it’s a good one.  I’d recommend making it!

Cranberry-Pineapple Jell-O

Ingredients
2 3-oz boxes of Jello-O, any flavor (I bought peach this year)
1 3/4 cup boiling water
16 oz can whole cranberry sauce
1 can crushed pineapple, not drained (regular size)
1 cup sour cream

Directions
Dissolve Jell-O in water.  Stir in cranberry sauce and pineapple.
Chill until almost set, pour half into a class bowl.
Chill until firm.
Spread on sour cream.
Pour the rest of Jell-O mixture on top.
Chill

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That’s it!  Super easy!  Don’t let the sour cream turn you off – it tastes amazing with the cranberry Jell-O. 

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving recipe???

I'm THANKful for the Blogoverse!

Today's Challenge is I'm THANKful for the Blogoverse.  And really I am!  The first time I'd ever heard of blogging was right before I left for the Peace Corps.  Some volunteers were talking about setting up a blog to keep their families up to date on their adventures in Honduras.

I had no idea what they were talking about.  What's a blog???

I kept in touch with my family and friends the old fashion way - through mass emails.  And it worked just fine.  I didn't know what a blog was and in my non-internet town of 1700 people, I wasn't about to try to learn.  Having to pay per minute of internet use in the big city was not conducive to learning new internet things.

Now that I sit here and think about it, I'm not sure how I got into the blog world and why I decided to start a blog.  I think the idea of a blog actually came from my cousin, Erika, who was living over in Singapore and started a blog.  She didn't continue her blog but I thought it sounded fun so started one too.  I just wasn't sure what to write about.  But then I read a book called The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner and my idea came to me (read my first blog entry here).  So, I started my first blog 365 Days of Happiness. 

Then when I got engaged and started planning my wedding, I decided to start another blog: Maple and Mud.

This blog was about our wedding and then morphed into our life after our wedding. 

And then this past spring I decided to run the Marine Corps Marathon with Leukemia and Lymphoma's Team In Training in honor/memory of my Uncle Dave so I started my third (and FINAL) blog called In Honor Of...

Yup - I have three blogs.  And I'm horrible about updating them.  But I love them all.  I actually have plans to merge them all into one blog in the very near future.  So maybe one day you'll return and they'll all be together instead of long-lost friends.

Here are the things I LOVE about blogging the most:

    ** I LOVE the amazing people I've met.  I've never met any of my blog friends in real life, but I cherish our blog-relationships.

    ** I LOVE blog swaps and fun challenges like these.  I have given and gotten some really fun things and met new blogs and their owners.  

    ** I LOVE learning about new things and new experiences.  I feel like reading so many blogs helps me see life in different perspectives.  I love reading blogs about running, traveling, marriage, children, cooking, healthy living, and everything in between.

And here are some things that annoy me about blogging:

    ** Although it hasn't happened to me, I am saddended when people get mean comments or get bullied by other bloggers.  Not very nice.

    ** I am annoyed when people do thousands of give-aways and to enter you have to do 90 things that include Twitter, Facebook, selling your kidney, and friending five people who you aren't interested in really being friends with.

Ok, so not many things annoy me about bloggins, which is why I still do it.

So, that's my blogosphere update. 

You are my #1 reason for blogging!!!

What do you love/hate about blogging?  Why did you decided to start a blog??

My Hometown

Today is Day Three of the Plenty to Be THANKful for Blog Challenge and I am excited about today's challenge: My Hometown.  How fun to read about where everyone grew up!

My hometown as a topic is a bit of a challenge for me because I don't have a real hometown.  I grew up all over the world.  So, take a seat, relax, and enjoy this flight through my many hometowns.  These are not any any particular order - I was too lazy to do that!

First Stop: Greece

There is where I was almost born:

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Zeus's Cave.  Yup, where the Greek God Zeus was allegedly born.  Luckily, I wasn't.  However, I born shortly thereafter.

Although I don't remember Greece that much at all, I'm sure it was a nice place to start off my life!  Look at how cute it is!

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Next Stop: New Hampshire

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New Hampshire was a beautiful place to spend some time.  We lived with my aunt and uncle and cousins and so the house was filled with kiddos.  There were five of us (me, my two sisters, and my two cousins).  We had a great time and got into lots of trouble.  Think mountains, forts, hiking, big boulders, and a typical New England town.

 

Next Stop: Japan

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Another place I consider my hometown is Japan.  Although Greece was probably nice, I'm not sure how much of a hometown it really was.  I don't really remember it and although it probably played a small role in my development - I'm not sure what.

Now, Japan I remember.  Japan is a great place!  Although we lived in northern Japan, we traveled a lot and saw many different parts of the country. 

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Things I remember most are the cherry blossoms, the beautiful temples, Buddha statues, SNOW, watching the Japanese street festivals, and going to the hot baths.  A wonderful hometown!

Next Stop: Italy

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I lived in the "heel" of Italy.  It was not the same as living in Rome or Florence.  However, it was home and it was great.  Here is a picture of our house:

Courtesy of Google Earth

Courtesy of Google Earth

Italy was also an amazing hometown.  Our house was on a farm that grew tomotoes one year, wheat another, and grapes another.  There were nut and fruit trees everywhere.  I ate my first fig and pomogranate from trees that grew on the side of our house along with fresh picked almonds and olives (don't eat fresh picked olives - they are gross).  During the summer an Italian family lived below us and we played with the kids all summer long.  Great times and great memories!

Next Stop: England

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We spent a good three years in England and it was great.  London is amazing and the British countryside is beautiful.  Here was our house for the first year we were there:

Isn't it fun!  What I remember most about England is thatched-roofed houses, jacket potatoes, Indian food, trips to London, foot paths, going to the London theatre, and not having to learn a language.  All things that make a hometown great.

The End.

Ok, I'm kinda tired of describing all my hometowns.  I have a few more in there but that's enough.  You get the idea, right!  I grew up in many places and had different experiences in all of them.  Although it was hard at times, I wouldn't change it for anything.  I definitely appreciate other cultures and countries and I have a love of travel.  Nothing wrong with that!

What was your hometown like? 

Plenty to Be THANKful For: YouTube

In case you haven't figured it out, for the next two weeks or so I am participating in Meghan, Kristine, Courtney, Sam, and Caroline's Plenty to Be THANKful for Blog Challenge.  I love Meghan and think we would be great friends if we me in a coffee shop one day.  If I ever make it to Chicago again, she will be on my list of people to see.

Now, on to the challenge, which was YouTube.

To tell you the truth...

I am a YouTube FAILURE!!!

I know, the horror, the horror.  I never look at YouTube.  I don't remember the last time I went to the website unless I wanted to see the Twilight trailer.  Or the Hunger Games trailer.  Actually, I think the last time I went I was searching for a clip from Splash (the one where Madison is eating the lobster at the restaurant). 



Yup, I was trying to give you a mental image of how my husband eats crabs.

I know, my YouTube experience is deplorable.  I just don't have time to search around on YouTube for interesting things.  Also, YouTube was pretty much invented while I was in Honduras so it was one of those things that I had to learn about upon my return.  Same with the iPod.  And it's hard to learn about things late in the game.  That's my excuse anyway.

Oh, I did also enjoy watching the clip of the two little girls singing and dancing to Nicki Manaj:



Does that count?  I think that that is all I have though.  Sorry to be such a lame YouTuber-er!!!

What YouTube videos do you love???

Plenty to Be Thankful For: Guilty Pleasures

 

So, if you read my other blog, 365 Days of Happiness, you will know that I joined Meghan at The Perfect Compilation Tape for her Plenty to Be Thankful For Challenge!

Yay!

Today’s topic – the first one – is Guilty Pleasures!!  I’m not sure I have a lot of guilty pleasures though, so this might be difficult for me.  But here’s my attempt:

** A glass of wine after a long day of work.

In this particular attempt to open a wine bottle the wine opener broke.  In the cork.  It was a nightmare.  Ivan tried to get the cork out but to no avail.  I was so desperate for a glass of wine that I drove to the grocery store and bought a (better) wine opener.

Ivan somehow managed to get the cork out of there in one piece.

I was impressed.  And happy to finally have a glass of wine.  Surprisingly enough I hardly ever have a glass of wine.  It’s one of those things I like but I always feel I need to get up to early the next day or stay up late and since wine makes me sleepy I decide against it.

 

** Coffee!!!

I love coffee!  I am actually trying to decrease my caffeine consumption so I have switched to de-caf for the most part, but I still love coffee.  I try my best to get Honduran coffee when I can. When I visit Honduras I definitely stock up as much as possible.  I don’t currently have any Honduran coffee in the house but every once in a while I see it at the store and pick up a bag.  I think that switching to de-caf has increased my coffee consumption because I’m not worried about becoming hyped up on caffeine.  Yesterday I had 5 cups of de-caf!!  Whoops!  I can’t help it – a nice mug of coffee with some half and half and a splash of sugar makes me feel cozy inside!

 

** New running clothes

I have nicer running clothes than work clothes.  It’s a fact.  I spend $50 on a new pair of running capris but won’t spend half that on a new pair of work pants.  What can I say – I LOVE running gear.  It’s definitely a guilty pleasure!

 

** Reading

I love a good book.  I can’t help it.  My husband does NOT understand my affinity for reading.  He always asks if I get bored reading book after book after book.  How could I get bored????  Never gonna happen.  I should post on the last few books I’ve read – they’ve been winners.  I love cozying up with a good book and cup of coffee on a rainy day.  Pure bliss.

 

** NCIS

I don’t get to watch much TV but when I do I pretty much only watch NCIS.  Good thing it’s on almost every night, at least four times.  LOVE IT.

What are some of your guilty pleasures???