Why my wife needs work, by Dan.

'Nuff said.

Beach Bum.

Just thought I'd share.

Coming Home

Last week, Dan and I went to the Outer Banks, NC, for a family trip to the beach. It was a lot of fun and quite relaxing. I'll post some pictures and stories from that trip, but I have more pressing things to share.

Sunday, when we got home, our fridge was barren. Empty, except for the end of a half-gallon of milk and the ever-present condiments. When Bruce and Sue dropped off Gram, we ordered Chinese take-out, so we were saved for the night, but the next morning the reality of our empty fridge struck: I found a piece of bread in the freezer to make toast and Dan used the last cup of milk for cereal, but other than that, we really needed some food.

I've been hoping to find fresh produce somewhere besides Giant Eagle, so I googled "local produce" and "Gibsonia, PA" and landed on a website that pointed me to the Dillner Family Farm, located up the road. They do a CSA program, which I'd like to try some year, but they also have a farm stand. I drove the several miles to the farm and was instantly in love. It's a serve-yourself and pay-before-you-go kind of place, and it was FANTASTIC.

I bought fresh lettuce, $2.

1 bunch of onions, $2.

1 head of fresh garlic, $1.

4 red tomatoes, first of the summer, $2.50.

1 pint of unshelled peas, $2.50.

1 container of thyme and 1 container of rosemary, $2 each.

2 quarts of ripe strawberries, red through to the center, $7.

And, just because I could, 1 zucchini, $1. It wasn't on the list, but it looked so delicious, so fresh, so summer-y that I just had to. So I did.

Flowers

As of tomorrow morning, we will be enjoying our vacation. Outer Banks, here we come! We'll be combining family time with a wedding and several birthday celebrations, so I'm anticipating a week jam packed with excitement. The only bad part about our vacation is that I'm going to have to toss these beautiful daisies that Dan picked for me. We'll be gone until next Sunday, and by the time we return, they will no longer be cute and perky. I snapped a few pictures so that you could enjoy them for me!

It is my turn Hilary

As most of you know I have been applying to jobs for quite some time. By quite some time I mean a year. If you are applying to jobs at schools, colleges, and universities, you end up doing the same thing a lot of the time. Cover Letter, Resume, and then what I call crap. You have to do all this crap to apply. You get to enter the same information multiple times online. Here...

notice the fun red print. Does that make sense? Seriously. I can't even say anything more other than I hate it. I'm applying to four jobs today, and three of them require this crap.

Goodbye.

A Few Cute Kids

Before Memorial Day, Dan's sister Kristy, her husband Tyler, and their three adorable kids visited Pennsylvania for a different family event -- a birthday party -- and we capitalized on their proximity and invaded my in-laws house to enjoy their company! We spent the warm afternoon with them in the pool, climbing trees, and playing Kub.

I might be a bit biased, but I do think that they are some of the cutest kids in the whole wide world. Please witness the following:

Caleb eating a popsicle. (Later in the day, Caleb said, "Tell me all about what life was like when you were little, Aunt Hilary." How cute is he!?)

Kylie hamming it up. (I'm not sure how she managed to only cross one eye, but it does make for a crazy picture, which is what we were going for.)

Athletic Craig climbing a tree. (He's got some skills!)

One of the best parts of marrying into the Sahli family (and there are lots of great parts) is that I had ready-made nieces and nephews. Besides the girls making adorable flower girls at our wedding, they bring lots of excitement to family gatherings and make me laugh more than I thought possible! We're spending all of next week together at the beach, and I'm sure I'll have more pictures of them when we return.

The small things

Today I'm thankful for our printer. We bought it a day or two before my interview at the Ellis School, so I could print off the rest of my portfolio. Since then, I've used to print off recipes from my mom, scan things from books, and for proofing and completing multiple job applications, including one today. And today, I used it to scan multiple documents into a job application for a local, one-year substitute position. I don't know what I would have done without it!

So today, I'm thankful for this small thing.

Family

I like living close to family. After living 10+ hours away from my 'rents, it's nice to be within 3 hours. Even better, we can meet for lunch halfway, as we did on Saturday. We picked Meadville, PA (home of Allegheny College) to dine, and eschewed a cute cafe (deemed by the gentlemen to be one of those places that only give you 5 bites and call it a meal) for a delicious Mexican cantina. Afterwards, we walked through building that housed a few vendors and picked out delicious desserts.

The women folk picked Walnut Brownies by the Cookie Lady.

Dan chose pineapple bits (plus a few bites of brownie).

And Dad went with his perennial favorite, maple candies.

Thank you Meadville, for your tasty treats and your perfect location.

I'm not sure how many 88 year olds use video games, but Dan's Gram owns a Wii. This is the first time in my life that I've lived in the same house as a video game unit, and accordingly, I mostly forget that it is there. We play maybe once a month. My little sister Joanna is visiting for the night, and to entertain her, the ladies decided to play a couple of games of Wii Bowling. To give you some background, Gram is pretty good, I'm rather mediocre, and Joanna uses her unique "double-pump" method. During our second game, Joanna revealed that her first time Wii Bowling she had scored 240 points!

Well, during the third game, as her strikes mounted up, we thought she might beat her score, and...



Yay Joanna! Now that she has experienced such success here, I'm thinking she'll come back to visit again.

Baklava!

I discovered baklava while visiting the beautiful country of Greece after my freshman year of college. My friend Kate and I were in Athens, bone tired from an exhausting semester, but determined to explore the city. We spent our first day there trying desperately to stay awake, but failing miserably as we rode the subway around the city. However, after our first night of sleep -- which was at least 12 hours long -- we were ready to take on the city. We saw the Parthenon, observed dogs roaming the streets, ate moussaka, and then tried to find a piece of baklava. We had no luck on our own, so finally we resorted to asking perfect strangers for their help. We ended up asking a nice young woman who spoke perfect English, and she led us through dark alleys to a nice, bright bakery that we would have never discovered on our own. She did, however, correct our pronuciation of the treat -- baklaVA, not BAKlava. We each bought a piece of the sticky, nutty dessert and walked up to see Athens from rocks that were outside the main part of the city.

While on these rocks, licking our fingers as we ate our baklava, Kate observed that we were probably in a spot quite similar to the location that Paul once stood, as described in the book of Acts. We sat there, looking over the city, and flipped through our Bibles to the passage. That I was standing where Paul once stood was an amazing realization. There are Bible tours of Israel and Jerusalem, but I don't think they can quite compare to making that connection on your own.

Anyways, since that day, I've had a special affinity for baklava. I've contemplated making it, but all that phyllo dough and butter and nuts and syrup has scared me off. However, when I was shopping this morning, a Greek Orthodox Church was selling plates of baklava for a fundraiser. I was more than happy to buy five triangles, snap a picture, and recall fond memories of traveling in Greece. Someday I hope to return, husband in tow, and enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of Greece again.

Lake Erie & An Anniversary

Dan and I have been married for 2.5 years. We dated for a year and were engaged for 9 months. All that time together means that he has spent quite a few days and nights in Fredonia, NY, my hometown. Yet somehow, he had never been to Lake Erie until two weekends ago, when we were visiting to celebrate a wedding and my mom's birthday. After cake and presents, we loaded up two cars for a visit to Point Gratiot. We (illegally) took the dogs for a walk on the beach and enjoyed the sunshine. (We justified it by observing that no one had cleaned up the park yet for the summer.)



Since we had our cameras, we stopped for a few pictures on the way back. Here's one of my mom and dad, who celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary on May 22. I am so thankful for them.

It's a Wonderful Life (and I'm not Jimmy Stewart)

Does anyone even read check this anymore? Gosh, it doesn't even really deserve to be linked to anyone else's blog -- Dan and I are not cut out to be bloggers of any repute. But in reality, the reason I haven't posted is because I keep hoping that we'll have something newsworthy to post. Mostly like a permanent job (or even two!), but that still hasn't happened. So we're still in the waiting place, hoping and praying and trying to remain positive, even when life doesn't turn out as expected.

The waiting game provides plenty of time for introspection, I've found. There have been many wonderful days since moving in with Dan's Gram, but also many stressful moments and tears of frustration. It is easy to point a finger at a specific circumstance in my life and to believe that as soon as that problem is resolved, I'll be totally content. But the problem is, human nature isn't ever content. I always want something more. When we were in Wisconsin, we wanted to be close to home. When we were in Belfast, I wanted a different job. When I was a senior in college, I wanted to be married and done with school. And the pattern continues further and further back. And you know what? I'm tired of being discontent with my life. I have a wonderful life.

So I'm choosing contentment. And I'm going to document these moments, creating a visual journal to match the written memories of this time. Here it begins.

This is from over a month ago, on a fateful day when Dan attempted to teach Lander to run alongside his bike. Lander was making good progress when suddenly his boxer-brains took over and he ran in front of the bike. His paw was hurt. (Dan felt so bad about it that he bought him a Kong and made him a Kongsicle, and Lander has been enjoying his toy ever since.) Anyways, Lander wouldn't leave his wound alone, and my husband, being the very resourceful person that he is, made him a cone out of an old Halloween bucket. I'd like to imagine that Lander was rather indignant about this, but he was probably just confused.

He has since recovered from his collar of shame, but I like to look at it every once in a while to feel intellectually superior. I'm so glad I'm not a dog.