August Rush

Well, time continues to FLY by... I can't believe that today is the last day of August! The first day of the 2010-2011 school year was yesterday, which means Fall is right around the corner! August has been quite the busy month for me... even busier than usual... and probably my most hectic month this year, so far! So what have I done this month?

Well, for starters, 1/3 of the month was spent in Chicago with Brian's family. Before we left, my schedule underwent lots and lots of switching and flexing... I worked just about every single day right up until we left. Same thing when we came home! Going there, our flight was delayed for 5 hours! By the time we landed in Chicago, I had been awake for more than 30 hours and I was feeling every minute of it! Things didn't slow down much once we were there. We spent Friday afternoon running last-minute errands for his sister's wedding, then spent the evening at her house going over the details for the next day. Brian and I spent Friday night in a hotel which was kinda fun since that's not something we get to do everyday. On Saturday morning, after breakfast at the hotel, Debbie (Brian's Mom's friend) and I went to get a manicure/pedicure, which was also fun. The wedding went off without a hitch... I'm glad I was able to be there and see Mr. and Mrs. Stan Kuba take their vows and start their life together as husband and wife. The reception was very entertaining... everyone had a blast, especially Brian... by day he may be an electrical engineer, but by night he's a dancing machine!! :)

Brian & I weren't the only out-of-towners who came in for Kelly & Stan's wedding... quite a few of his Mom's relatives drove up from Kentucky, so it was nice to finally be able to put a face with the names I've been hearing about!

Here are some other things we did during our vacation:

• toured downtown Chicago (Navy Pier, Buckingham Fountain, Sears Tower, Millennium Park, etc)
• tasted my 1st authentic Chicago dog
• went to my first White Sox baseball game (they won!!)
• had some Giordano's stuffed pizza
  
• had an ice cream cone that was bigger than my head from The Plush Horse
• spent many hours floating in the pool
• relaxed and enjoyed our time off with family and friends

I had a great time in Chicago but I also got a little homesick by the end of our vacation... I really missed my Myrtle Jean!! The same day we came home, I went back to work for lots more switching and flexing. There's no rest for the weary! :)

Some other notable things that took place this month...

While we were on vacation, my friend Leslie's husband Brad died unexpectedly. Brad was only 35 years old; he and Leslie had two small children, Brooke (2) and Landon (1). I can't imagine how Leslie must be feeling... unfortunately, I wasn't able to be as supportive to her as I would've liked since we were out of town for his viewing and the funeral. Once we came home, I tried to help out when I could... I watched Brooke and Landon a couple times so she could run some errands.

Myrtle also gave me a good scare... the weekend after we came home from Chicago, she started throwing up. Now, I've had Myrtle for 12 years so I'm aware that she throws up occasionally... sometimes even regularly... but when it lasted for 48 hours straight, I knew there was a problem. By the time I was able to take her to the vet on Monday morning, I had more than 20 separate spots of cat vomit to clean up all over the house... literally, TWENTY! The vet gave her some shots to help settle her stomach and they did some blood work to try to figure out what was wrong. $255 later, we found out that she has a feline version of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Only MY cat would have something like that... LoL

Brian & I have been thinking about getting a dog... we've gone to the Humane Society a few times to look at dogs and we've seen a few that we have liked. Brian grew up with dogs and I grew up with cats... Brian has been so good about "putting up" with Myrtle and all her eccentricities, it's only fair that he get to have a dog too. We've discussed it quite a bit and we think we'd like to get a beagle. Hopefully we'll be able to find the perfect guy/gal for us soon! :)

On August 24th, my niece Sara turned 10 years old. I cannot believe it's been a whole decade since my little brownie entered our lives!

At the end of the month was Joppa-Magnolia's annual fire company picnic at Valley Brook Country Club. Brian and I went, along with my mom, sister, niece Hannah and family friend Jacqueline. We had steamed crabs, hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, desserts, etc. We also spent some time having fun in the many pools they have there. It was the perfect end-of-summer event!

Speaking of the end-of-summer... after much deliberation, I finally made the decision to return to CCBC this Fall and finish my 2nd year of the Paramedic program. Completing this program was one of the goals I came up with for myself a few years ago... my 1st year of the program was successful and I walked away as an EMT-I. Last Fall, my plan took a little bit of a detour and I got a little discouraged but with some support and encouragement from Brian, I decided to return this year and finish what I started. With that said, the next 9 months or so are going to be quite busy but I know I can handle it. I've got my eye on the prize... :)

I think that's about it for August... see ya next month for September's Happenings!

30 before 30

I'm borrowing this idea from a friend of mine, April, who came up with it first... but my birthday is 22 days before hers, which means I'll have to finish even sooner than she does... looks like I'd better get started! :)

So here's my list, in no particular order!

1. Bake a cake from scratch.

2. Pay off atleast ONE of my bills.

3. Get down to a healthy weight.

4. Exercise more.

5. Procrastinate less.

6. Plant a garden.

7. Blog more often (once a week).

8. Learn how to drive a stick shift.

9. Have a yard sale.

10. Have a family portrait taken... we've got 4 Generations!

11. Send a message in a bottle.

12. Make homemade pickles.

13. Find a part-time job.

14. Go camping.

15. Go ice skating at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

16. Take piano lessons.

17. Start a new holiday tradition.

18. Practice patience.

19. Have a "Girl's Night" with my Mom & Grandma once a month.

20. Go snow tubing.

21. Come up with a budget and STICK TO IT!!

22. Create a cookbook full of delicious family recipes.

23. Take an impromptu road trip to a place I've never been before.

24. Establish a savings account that I actually USE!

25. Take a cake decorating class.

26. Adopt a pet.

27. Forgive someone who has wronged me.

28. De-clutter my life and learn to be more organized.

29. Learn Sign Language.

30. Organize my MANY pictures, from childhood on, in chronological order.

So those are the 30 things I want to do before I'm 30... and here's how long I have left to do them in!

Sushi Saturday!

Lately I've been on a major sushi kick... I can't get enough of it!! There's a new sushi place in the food court at White Marsh Mall that I've been hitting up to help ease my cravings, but it's a little pricey (crack might be a cheaper habit!) so I decided to try to make some myself at home. Earlier in the week I went out in search of the supplies: seaweed sheets, sushi rice, rice wine vinegar, sesame seeds, imitation crab meat, avocado, cucumber, pickled ginger, wasabi, soy sauce and a bamboo sushi mat. I researched different recipes and techniques and even watched some how-to videos. Today, I decided to execute my plan!

First, I washed and rinsed the rice several times. Then I put it in the rice cooker and waited for it to work it's perfect rice cooking magic! Next I shredded the imitation crab and rinsed it in some cold water. I sliced up the avocado and cucumber and then assembled the rest of my supplies. I read that it would be much easier if I covered my bamboo sushi mat with plastic wrap so I got that all ready to go. By then, my rice was finished cooking so I drizzled some rice wine vinegar on it and stired it around until each grain was covered. I placed my seaweed sheets shiny side down, grabbed a ball of rice and spread it out. Once the whole sheet was covered with rice, I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top of the rice and flipped the whole sheet over to the "dull" side. In the middle, I spread out some sliced avocado... then the shredded imitation crab meat... then some sliced cucumber. I took one side of the rice covered sheet and folded it over the filling in the middle... then I sorta tucked it underneath and continued to roll until I had a sushi log. Then I used my plastic wrap covered bamboo sushi mat to squeeze the roll until it felt a little tighter. After I sliced the sushi into pieces and plated them, I added a side of pickled ginger and a mountain of wasabi... plus some soy sauce on the side for dipping!

I learned a few lessons about what will work better next time but I don't think this was too bad for my first time! What do YOU think??

I'm on a boat...

Not last weekend but the weekend before that (I know, I know... I'm a little late but it's better late than never, right!?) I had the best weekend ever!!

On Saturday, our friend Jith came up to get his windows tinted and to hang out with Brian & I for the day. We spent some time at the pool with my Mom, who brought us a yummy picnic lunch!


here's my Mom, posing for a pic at the pool... LOVE her!! :)

Later that night, Brian & I took Jith to a restaurant in Baltimore called Vinny's Cafe that we stumbled upon a couple weeks ago. Most notably, Vinny's offers a JUMBO slice of a 30" pizza, and we wanted Jith to try it. We got there kind of late and there were no more jumbo slices available, so we decided to order a whole pizza instead. This thing was MASSIVE!!! Massive might even be an understatement! It literally took up half of our table! One slice of this pizza was as big as our forearms!


30 inches of INSANITY!!!


I wasn't joking about it being the size of my forearm!


I couldn't even finish one slice!!

On Sunday, my friend Lynn and her husband Bob invited Brian & I out on their boat for the day. This has become a yearly tradition for me and I love it! Lynn & Bob have a houseboat called "Nauti Dreams" that they keep at a marina in Baltimore County called River Watch, so we met them there at 10:00am on Sunday morning. My mom decided to tag along, which I was very excited about since we haven't been getting to spend much time together lately and she rarely does anything fun like that! Lynn's daughter Jennie and her fiance Jonathan were also coming with us... Lynn lives by the motto "the more, the merrier"!


my Momma and her cool shades that double as safety glasses! LoL


Brian enjoying some shade on the way to Fairlee Creek :)


my Jomi-Mom :)


my sweetie and his sweetie... LoL (inside joke!!)

We brought some snacks with us and set off for a place called Fairlee Creek on the Upper Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Chestertown, MD. It took us about an hour to get from River Watch to Fairlee Creek, but it was a beautiful day for a boat ride!! Once we got to Fairlee Creek, we anchored down the boat and climbed down the ladder into the waist-high water with the sandy beach just a few steps away. The beach forms a little peninsula so we set up chairs where everyone could sit and chat. Lynn & Bob also had some floats that we used in the water, until the current started to carry us away!









A little while later, Bob used a dinghy to take us across the channel over to the Great Oak Landing. We pulled the dinghy up onto the sand and walked over to a place called Jellyfish Joel's Tiki Bar... it features live weekend entertainment, a variety of light snacks & sandwiches, cold beer and frozen drinks!


lots of dinghies! LoL


Jellyfish Joel's Tiki Bar!!

After several hours of relaxation and fun in the sun, it was time to board "Nauti Dreams" and head back to River Watch. There was a live band performing, so Lynn & her future son-in-law busted out with some dance moves while Captain Bob took care of backing us into the boat slip!


Lynn & Jonathan busting a move! :)


here is Lynn telling me not to take any pictures of her... Shhhhh, don't tell her!! :)

Once we docked there, Chef Bob grilled up some delicious hamburgers and hotdogs for us! We sat on the dock and hung out some more until it was time to head home so the two people with "NORMAL" jobs (I'm not mentioning any names!) could rest up for work the next morning!!

What an awesome weekend it was!!

Happy Birthday America... and Myrtle!!

I wish more weekends could be like this past weekend was... my normal days off were Thursday, Friday & Saturday but then I took annual leave on Sunday and holiday leave on Monday, so I secured a relaxing 5 day break from the chaos that is summer at work! On Friday morning, I woke up with a stomach virus very similar to the one Brian had been suffering from earlier in the week. I thought for sure the weekend would be ruined, but thank God I recovered much quicker than poor Brian had! After about 12 hours of good, solid sleep on Friday night, I woke up on Saturday morning feeling much better! I was feeling so much better that I even went to a couple yard sales and ran a few errands before returning home in the early afternoon. Brian's friend Jith was coming up from Virginia to spend the weekend with us, so he arrived about 1:30 or so. The boys were going to order some boxing match that evening and I'm definitely not into that sorta thing, so it sounded like a perfect opportunity to go hang out with my mom & grandma for the evening! My mom made some delicious taco salad for dinner and we rented a movie to watch (The Final Destination). We also went to Baskin Robbins and ordered Cappuccino Blast's that really hit the spot! =)

Sunday July 4th might've been America's 234th birthday but it was also Myrtle Jean's 12th birthday! It's hard to believe that my girl is 12 already... it seems like just yesterday that we brought her home from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as a tiny 5-week old furball. Myrtle has been with me through all the big milestones of my life... turning 18, my high school graduation, recovery from several surgeries, the birth of my first niece (as well as an additional niece and nephew), my first job, my first apartment, turning 21, my first boyfriend, my first breakup, the loss of my other cat (Jake)... you name it, Myrtle has seen me through it! She might be a crazy girl but I love her SO much... every day with her is an adventure! Happy Birthday, Myrtle Jean Jomidad!

the birthday girl!! :)

it's hard to believe she was once this tiny! she might've been little but she's always had a BIG personality!

baby Myrtle!

On Sunday afternoon, Brian, Jith & I went to the community pool for the first time. We were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was! It wasn't too crowded and the water felt just right! We spent several hours there, just hanging out and having a good time!

the boys! :)

that's me... soaking up the sun! :)

While we were swimming, we started to get hungry... while we were discussing options for dinner, I came up with a great idea! Why not drive to Philadelphia for some authentic cheesesteak subs? Brian had never been to Philly before and I've only been there once and that was years ago! We all headed home to take quick showers and then we started out on our mini road trip! Once we arrived in Philly, the real question was... Pat's or Geno's? The long line outside Pat's King of Steaks told us we should start there!




The menu had lots to choose from, and there are even specific instructions on how to order... do it their way or go to the back of the line!



Somehow I was designated to be the spokeswoman of our group, so I bravely stepped up to the window and ordered three cheesesteaks: 1) wit cheez-wiz for Brian, 2) mushroom steak wit american for me, and 3) wit provolone for Jith. Here's what mine looked like!


After we devoured the sandwiches from Pat's, we headed across the street to Geno's to give them a try!


This time I only ordered one sandwich, for Brian and I to share... a wit cheez-wiz. Here's what we were given:

And just like that, we left Philly just as quicky as we had made the decision to come there! Once we were back in good 'ol Harford County, we stopped at my favorite snowball stand for some frozen treats. I ordered a new flavor combination that they've named "Yoo Hoo" - it's a mixture of chocolate, vanilla cream, and ice cream flavored snowball syrups, with a splash of milk. I got mine with extra marshmallow! Sooooooooooooooooo good!!!!!


Then we were homeward bound. Brian, Jith and I played a few games of Wii bowling... I lost every single one! Looks like I need to keep practicing! Even though I was the biggest loser, I still had fun! :)

Date Night!

Since Brian was such a good sport about not getting to play mini-golf during his birthday weekend at the beach, I thought it would be fun if we could have a date night and still play a round of golf a little closer to home... there are two places in Harford County that offer mini-golf/putt putt: Churchville Mini-Golf and Putt-Putt Fun Center in Abingdon. I've been to the Abingdon Putt-Putt Fun Center once, YEARS ago... but I'd never been to Churchville Mini-Golf. I asked some friends of mine who had gone to both, and they recommended Churchville Mini-Golf over the Putt-Putt Fun Center. After Brian came home from work and changed into some more comfortable clothes, we went out for dinner. I let Brian choose the restaurant since technically this date night was a continuation of his birthday celebration... he picked Cracker Barrel! :)

Then we headed to Churchville Mini-Golf. We only played one game, but the course consisted of 19 different holes. It was so much fun, even if Brian did beat me!




After we finished playing golf, we walked across the parking lot to get some ice cream! The Arctic Circle is an old fashioned ice cream stand that opened in 1966 and has been run by the same family for all these years. It's the type of place that everyone needs to visit atleast once... the ice cream is good but the nostalgia is even better!

their snazzy new sign is the only non-vintage thing about them!

a little piece of Harford County's history!


Brian got a large twist cone... I got a medium chocolate cone w/rainbow sprinkles!

when we got home, Myrtle Jean shared a few licks of my ice cream cone :)

I LOVE our date nights! :)

Happy 29th Birthday Brian!

On Sunday, my boyfriend Brian celebrated his 29th birthday! In honor of his birthday, I'd been planning a SURPRISE (shhhh!!!) weekend getaway for the two of us. Originally I wanted to go to Ocean City, because Brian had never been there before and I thought it would be fun. Finding a place to stay proved to be more difficult (not to mention expensive!!) than I thought it would be... I totally wasn't thinking about the fact that Brian's birthday falls smack dab in the middle of the busiest season... special thanks to Serita McGuire, for having a SUMMER baby!! LoL So I considered a trip to Pittsburgh instead, since our first trip together had been there, plus Brian has been talking about wanting to go see a baseball game at PNC Park. Well, as my luck would have it, the Pirates weren't in town that weekend! So, back to the drawing board! I researched places to stay but I couldn't find anything decent or really anything at all that was under about $500 which is CRAZY!! Fortunately, my friend and fellow-midnight shifter Brian and his wife Michelle were going to be on vacation in Ocean City that week and offered to let us stay with them for FREE!! Once I'd found a place for us to stay, I got started on the rest of the planning... there was so much I wanted to see/do and so little time to do it in!

I knew I wanted to take Brian to eat crabs and to try snow crab legs for the first time; I knew I wanted to go to the beach so Brian could go for his first ever dip in the Atlantic Ocean; I knew I wanted to walk on The Boardwalk; I knew I wanted to go do something fun (play mini-golf, ride go-karts, go to the water park, etc); there were several Ocean City must-haves that I wanted him to experience (Thrasher's fries, Dough Roller pizza, Fisher's popcorn, Dumser's ice cream, etc)

In preparation for our weekend excursion, I went out and bought myself a new bathing suit and some stylish new swim trunks for the birthday boy. I also bought some new beach towels, some sunscreen, and a bag to carry our beach stuff in. I asked Brian if he could come home from work earlier than he normally would've, so we could get started on our journey. I was hoping to be packed and ready to go by the time he got home, but I was working on Jomi-time (a.k.a. LATE!!!) so of course that didn't happen!

My lips were sealed... that was until I accidentally ruined my own surprise! :( Fortunately, my little slip of the tongue didn't happen until Friday (the day we were leaving for the trip) so it wasn't a HUGE deal, but I was still disappointed about letting the cat out of the bag!

After a little nappy nap, we got started on our trip... a little later than originally planned, but better late than never! We arrived in Ocean City around 8:45pm, just in time to go to my favorite buffet... Castle in the Sand. It's a clean, affordable restaurant that is tucked away in the basement of an oceanfront hotel. They have a wide assortment of yummy food like fried chicken, prime rib, corn fritters, salad, fresh fruit, steamed shrimp and my personal favorite, Alaskan King Crab legs! Brian is still getting used to my love of seafood and he'd never tried the crab legs before so I was excited for his first time! Check this out...


After dinner, we stopped at the condo to drop off our stuff and say hello to Brian & Michelle. Then we headed to The Boardwalk to check out the sights. We stopped at one of the food stands and ordered some Deep Fried Oreos... they were so rich, I could only eat about one and a half! Brian and I walked along the beach for awhile and dipped our toes in the ice cold water! We had one more stop to make before we headed for the car... we stopped at Kohr Bros. ice cream to get Brian a creamy cone of his favorite flavor... peanut butter & chocolate! We got back to the condo around 2am and got ready for bed, so we'd be rested for the next day!

The Boardwalk in Ocean City! :)

deep fried oreos!!

take a bite out of some ooey gooey goodness!!

On Saturday morning, Brian & I were hungry for some breakfast but there were so many places to choose from... there's Bayside Skillet, Layton's Family Breakfast, English's Buffet, General's Kitchen, Happy Jack's Pancake House... and those are just SOME of the MANY options! We finally decided on Castle in the Sand (again) and we grubbed on some french toast, pancakes, hashbrowns, grilled ham, bacon and sausage. After breakfast, we headed back to the condo to change and get ready for the beach! We walked out onto the warm sand and looked for the perfect spot to spread out our blanket and catch some rays! It wasn't long until we were ready for a dip! We had so much fun crashing the waves and being tossed around in the surf! After about an hour in the water, we took a little break. We slathered on some sunscreen and relaxed on the blanket for awhile before we spotted a Scopes photographer and grabbed him for a few memorable snapshots. We went back into the water to rinse off the sand we had acquired during our photo shoot and we didn't come out for over 2 hours! Despite the fact that we got a little too much sun, we had so much fun! We packed up the blanket and headed back to the condo to take showers and get ready for the evening. That's where things started to unravel...

Brian trying to decide where to put our stuff :)

this one is Brian's favorite...


I can't decide if I like this one better...


... or this one??

As only my luck would have it, I wound up with some freak injury to my legs. The swim shorts I bought from Walmart caused some large open sores on the insides and tops of my legs, which made it excruciatingly painful to walk even a few steps. We stopped at Rite Aid to pick up some first-aid supplies do that I could try to Paramedic myself... it didn't work as well as I'd hoped! I wanted to take Brian to Seacrets for dinner, but there was some band playing and they were charging a $7 cover charge for each person so we changed our minds. Then we decided on Big Peckers for some fried chicken, but the wait was insane and since we were both tired and hungry, the search continued. We finally settled on some Pizza Tugo's, which was pretty yummy even if it wasn't what we had planned on.

We headed back to The Boardwalk for Round Two... first, we stopped at one of the souvenier shops so I could buy a few supplies for my two hermit crabs, Rickie and Charlie. (last summer, on a whim, I bought two hermit crabs and much to everyone's disbelief, they're STILL alive!) $60 and FOUR more hermit crabs later, Brian & I headed to Thrasher's for some famous fries! By the time we got back to the condo, I could barely move... my legs hurt SO bad, I cannot even explain it! I've got a pretty high pain tolerance but this was so painful that I even shed a few tears! I was also disappointed because I had really wanted to do something else fun with Brian, but my stupid legs were preventing me from it! Thankfully, Brian was a good sport about it...

Thrasher's are not your average french fry!!

On Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early to pack up and start heading home. We stopped at Candy Kitchen and picked up some taffy as souvenirs for my family and some fudge as a souvenir for ourselves! Then we stopped at Fisher's Popcorn to get some fresh caramel popcorn (w/peanuts!) for my Mom. After a quick stop at home to shower and change clothes, we joined the rest of the family at my mom's for a BBQ to celebrate Brian & my older sister Kelly's birthdays (hers was 2 days later). Mom made NY strip steaks on the grill, shrimp kabobs, stuffed tomatoes, roasted potatoes and lots more! My Grandma made a german chocolate cake for Brian and my mom bought a chocolate cheesecake for Kelly... she forgot to get candles so she had to improvise! Here are Brian & Kelly making a wish on their giant matchsticks...



Candy Kitchen = mmm!!! :)

Fisher's popcorn for Mom... caramel WITH peanuts!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie... I hope you enjoyed your birthday and that all your wishes come true! I love you, Brian McGuire!!