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Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Webs, trees, pies, fire. The normal fall things....

It's been pretty quiet around here lately.  The weather has been beautiful. I love the September blue skies and the cool mornings and the warm afternoons!

Last week we woke up to three large spider webs in the backyard.  I tried to get some good pictures of them but this was the best I could do:





 

The spider that made them was no where to be seen (thank goodness) and they were gone by early afternoon.  It was windy that day so maybe they blew away?

I'm not a huge fan of eggs, but Dan loves them so I made a frittata the other night.  It was tasty, cheap, and easy to make so I will probably put this in the regular rotation. This one had cheese, bacon,  tomatoes, and basil in it. 

Here's a picture of my favorite tree on a foggy morning. The oak tree that Dan started from an acorn (from a tree in his front yard in Wellesley) is getting so big it's starting to block the shot!


And this one always looks lovely in the fog as well:

It was cool enough on Saturday evening that we were able to have our first fire of the season. 


I made a lemon meringue pie last weekend.  Sarah insisted that she wanted one because she loves meringue.  (Which I questioned because I'm not even sure she has ever had it.) I loathe meringue but I always aim to please when making Sunday dessert so I gave her what she wanted.  


 

The pie was delicious but the meringue tasted just like meringue. BLECH!  I think it's a texture issue for me.  Turns out, Sarah had never had a meringue pie and also DOES NOT LIKE meringue.  Next time I will make the base and just add fresh whipped cream because the lemon part was excellent!

And that's about all that's been going on around here. 






Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Parents and Families Weekend

This past weekend was Parents and Families weekend at NC State.That had lots of different activities planned but we were going for two things: 1. To see Peter. 2. Watch the football game.

Peter is rushing a fraternity this year.  His fraternity was hosting a cookout for the parents on Saturday afternoon. So as soon as we got to campus we headed straight to the fraternity house. One of the brother's parents were manning the grill and cooking chicken quarters. It smelled delicious but we didn't eat anything as we were going to dinner right before the game.  Since Peter's a pledge, he had to leave an hour after we got there to go set up the tailgate at the stadium. We talked to him, met some of the brothers and the other boys in his pledge class and as soon as he left, so did we.

We headed to our hotel room to check in and freshen up and then we went to an early dinner.  We tried to go to the Cheesecake Factory at 4:00 in the afternoon not expecting there to be a wait but there were so many people waiting to get in that we didn't even bother to see how long the wait was.  We headed to a Mexican restaurant instead. We wanted to make sure we go to the stadium in plenty of time because we got an email saying that they were short staffed and to expect long waits/lines to get in.  However, we got right in with no problem. 

The Wolfpack won the game and we had a great time hanging out with Peter. 












The marching band was awesome and there was a five plane flyover at the end of the National Anthem and then they circled over head and flew back over.  There were fireworks at the beginning of the game and every time they scored.  We had a really great time!

After the game we said our goodbyes and dropped Peter off at his dorm. The next morning we attended Mass at the Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral. It was absolutely gorgeous inside this church - so breathtaking.  If you are ever in Raleigh, I highly recommend attending Mass there.  And the pipe organ sounded glorious.  I swear, for a minute, I felt like I was in heaven.




After Mass we had lunch with Peter and then we helped him do a few "errands" for his fraternity.  The pledges had to take flowers to the sororities they associate with so we took Peter to pick up the flowers and cards and then we dropped him off at the fraternity house.  

It was a quick trip but it was so nice to be able to spend some time with Peter.  Fall break is in two weeks and hopefully he will be home for four nights! 


Wednesday, September 15, 2021

We partied like we're old.

This past weekend we celebrated our Birthiversary!  

On September 9th, we celebrated 21 years of wedded bliss. And by celebrated, I mean that Dan worked all day, I did laundry and made dinner,etc. and to end the night with a bang, we watched TV before bed.  YAWN.

We're old, what can I say? 

On Friday we went to the football game.  Sarah left at half time because she and some friends wanted to go watch the cross country meet at a nearby park. At the beginning of the third quarter, Dan looked over at me and said, "This is weird. We're here but neither one of our kids is here." But we didn't care.  We enjoy a good high school football game even though our team is once again not very good.  They are improving though so there's still hope!

On Saturday I was up bright and early to make sure Sarah got out the door in time for the ACT.  The one that was near here that she was signed up for got cancelled so she had to drive to Salisbury to take it. That made her even less excited about the whole thing.

But Dan and I invited her to join us for our anniversary dinner  so that put a little pep in her step, especially when we told her we were going to Hakka Chow!


Sarah and I split the spicy salmon rolls as an appetizer.  It was really yummy!

Dan turned 55 on September 12th.  FIFTY FIVE! I continue to be shocked that I am married to such and old man! And I turned FIFTY TWO on the 13th.  I continue to be shocked that I am such an old lady!

We went out to lunch with my mom, my brother, and my uncle and went back to mom's house afterwards for cake and presents.




And that was our wild and crazy Birthiversay Weekend!


Tuesday, September 7, 2021

The boy came home!

We had a lovely Labor Day weekend!  On Thursday night, we watched the NC State football game on TV. Peter was extremely happy because this was his first State game as a student.  I think it was everything he hoped it would be.  The weather was gorgeous (it's finally started to cool off a little bit in NC), he attended some tailgate parties with friends before the game, and State won! 

And the best part of the whole weekend?  Peter came home!  He was worried at first that he wasn't going to be able to come home because formal rush was this weekend.  Peter wants to join a fraternity and knew that formal rush was happening all weekend and he knew he was going to have to stay for that in order to get a bid.  But, he got two bids from his first two choices earlier in the week (he had been attending informal events with them since the beginning of school). He accepted the bid to his first choice on Thursday so that meant he didn't have to stay for formal rush.  

On Fridays, Peter is done with class before lunch, so I headed to Raleigh around 9:30 and picked him up around 11:30.  Sarah had field day on Friday and got home early so the three of us went for a late lunch together.  Dan was working so he wasn't able to join us.

Sarah worked every day this weekend but thankfully is done for the summer but she wasn't around as much as I would have liked her to be.  On Friday evening we watched more college football and even more on Saturday.  Hey - it's what Peter wanted to do, so that's what we did!

We attended Mass on Saturday evening and then went out to dinner and came home and you guessed it, watched more college football. :)

On Sunday, we had lunch at mom's and then ran errands.  Dan and I went to our favorite spot, Goose and the Monkey, for a couple of drinks and then we came home and had a fire in the fire pit.  The weather was perfect for it.

Yesterday, Sarah had to finish up some homework and then headed to work. We spent some time with Peter at mom's house on the front porch and then around 4:00, we headed back to Raleigh.  Dan and I stopped for dinner in Burlington and were home a little after 9:00. 

It was a great weekend and I loved having Peter home but I already miss him. In two weeks though, we will be heading to Raleigh for Parent's Weekend so I'm looking forward to that.

We have Senior night at Bishop this week where we will go over everything Sarah needs to do for her college applications and there's a home football game. And Sarah is taking the ACT one final time on Saturday morning.  We just found out though that they cancelled at the location she was supposed to take it at and now it's further away.  Two thumbs down for that because that means she's got to get up even earlier to take a test she's not excited about in the first place.  

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! Did you guys do anything exciting?