A Post About Cookies

This blogpost is all about cookies.

On Friday, I hosted my 4th annual Holiday Cookie Swap Party. I hosted my first Cookie Swap in Boston with some of my girlfriends there, and it was so much fun that I've continued it every year since. The idea is this- you bake one kind of cookie. Invite your family and friends to make one type of cookie and bring it to your house. Everyone swaps cookies and then gets to go home with a variety of cookies after only having to make one! Whoever came up with this idea is genius.

Of course, you also have to test all of the cookies during the party and then vote on them too. Or is that just us?

This year we made everyone go around and say which cookie they brought and what it was. People got really into it this year as far as trying new and more difficult recipes. Some turned out really well, and some... not so much. Whether their cookie turned out great or not so great, everyone seemed very stressed by the whole process this year. I have a feeling people may not be as adventurous next year.

Baby Henry got to join us at the party even though he didn't get to try any of the cookies. :( Maybe next year, Henry!

And while we're on the subject, can we talk about how freakin' cute Henry is ALL THE TIME?!?!

After we ate entirely too many cookies, it was time to vote. This year we voted on Best Looking cookie, Best Tasting cookie, and a booby prize for "Aw, at least you tried. Maybe baking isn't your thing."

Of course there were prizes.

And the winners were.... Jennifer for best tasting- SHE MADE HER OWN CARAMEL. WHAT?- Anna for Best Looking -she made the polar bear cookies - and Laura for "aw at least you tried" because her cookies somehow became one giant cookie that was kinda collapsed in the middle and may or may not have fallen apart if taken out of the pan. It's ok. She owned it.

We had such a good time, and even though I was awake with a stomachache most of the night from too many sweets and felt like I had a hangover the next day, it was totally worth it. I can't wait to do it again next year!

(The group minus one- Pat had left already when someone said "hey we should take a group picture!" If I knew how to photoshop I would put her in but just imagine her standing to my right.)

My Five Fall Must-Haves

I love Fall. Who doesn't? I've seen all these online lists and magazine articles lately like "Fall Must-Haves for 2016!" and "Fall Fashion Trends!" I laugh when I read these articles because my own personal Fall fashion trends and must-haves are a little different. So I've decided to create my own Fall Must-Haves list for fun. You're welcome.

#1 - The Grey Sweatshirt

 By far the most exciting part of Fall for me is the day I get to pull the ole grey sweatshirt back out of the closet. When I was 13 I bought a grey sweatshirt from Walmart for $5 in the boys section. I wore that grey sweatshirt every Fall and Winter until I was 26, when I finally upgraded to a new grey zip up hoodie from Nike.

Nothing to wear and leaving in 2 minutes? Throw on the grey sweatshirt! Wanna lay on the couch and be lazy? Throw on the grey sweatshirt! Cold? Throw on the grey sweatshirt! It's perfect for every situation.

#2 - Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix

Ok- I'm not all into the Pumpkin Spiced Latte and pumpkin beer and pumpkin EVERYTHING, but I AM into the Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix. Mix this stuff up for pancakes (my personal preference) and throw some chocolate chips in.... HEAVENLY.

#3 - Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls is one of my all-time favorite TV shows. A lot of the show's episodes were filmed in Fall (it's set in Connecticut) so it just feels right to curl up on the couch and watch episode after episode of it once it's actual Fall. Right now is also the perfect time to watch it as the 4 new episodes come out on Netflix on Thanksgiving weekend!

#4 - Starbucks Salted Caramel Mocha

When Starbucks releases their Pumpkin Spiced Latte, most people go nuts. I am not one of those people. I personally think it's kinda nasty. What I DO go nuts over though, is the Salted Caramel Mocha, usually released at the same time as the PSL. Chocolate, caramel, and salt all in one delicious warm cup. Yes, please. This year they have the Salted Caramel Mocha Frappucino. It was just OK, so I'd stick with the hot version if you're going to try it.

#5 - Capri Blue Volcano Candle

Forget the pumpkin spiced or apple or cinnamon candles. It's all about the Capri Blue Volcano Candle. This is the best candle to ever exist, it smells up your whole house, and it is the perfect background smell for watching football, watching Gilmore Girls, laying on the couch in your grey sweatshirt, or any other Fall activity. When I searched Google for this picture, I found the candle for sale on Amazon and found a review of this candle that is too funny not to share:

"I remember where I was when the smell hit me for the first time: a mere 18-year-old who was lost in the world without a friend, without a purpose, and without a girlfriend. In a world full of uncertainty that one smell became truth to me, and that truth was: this is no ordinary candle.
That candle was Capri Blue’s Volcano, which is one of the greatest creations ever--comparable to mankind, penicillin, and the iPhone.
Since the discovery of smell as a scent, Capri Blue has been mastering the art of good smells that captivate and enslave your nostrils without apology.
Since my first purchase of the candle, my life has started to improve significantly: I have made friends, my grades have improved, my dad finally told me that he is proud of me, and my restraining order from Stacy has been lifted."

 So those are my top 5 Fall Must-Haves. What are yours?

We Bought a House

Last week we celebrated our 4 year anniversary. In 4 years of marriage we've lived in: 3 cities, 5 apartments, Chuck's sister's basement (for a summer when we moved back from Boston) and now, at last, A HOUSE. We close on it TOMORROW and move in this Saturday!

 

We have been casually looking at houses on Zillow for probably a year to get an idea of what we like and don't like so when we went out with a realtor to actually look a couple months ago, we knew exactly what we were looking for. Funny enough, the house we bought is not really what we were looking for. But we walked in and fell in love with it and think it's the perfect house for us where we are in our life right now. It's a ranch. It's a new build. It has a finished, walk-out basement. The kitchen is the definition of the Heart Eyes Emoji. The yard is small. There are built in bookshelves. We CAN. NOT. WAIT. to move in and be homeowners for the first time!

Like I mentioned, we have lived in 5 apartments in our 4 years of marriage. Two in Boston, two in Seattle, and one in Louisville. As we leave apartment life behind, maybe (hopefully?) forever, I thought it would be fun to look back on the apartments we've lived in and some of the ugliness and prettiness that sums up apartment living.

Our first apartment was in Eastgate, a students only apartment building on MIT's campus. We really wanted to live in Eastgate for our entire time in Boston, but the building is in such high demand we didn't win the apartment lottery and only got to live there for our first summer as we were subletting from someone. You might look at Eastgate in this previous post and wonder why we wanted to live there so badly with the 550 square feet, scary hallways, broken ovens and cockroaches. Ask me sometime in person and I'll tell you the difference in rent at Eastgate vs the rest of Boston and you'll understand. Also, the views of the Charles River and Boston were pretty unbeatable and Chuck's walk to class took approximately 30 seconds.

Our fancy AC unit in Eastgate

After one summer at Eastgate, we moved to our "Married apartment" in Central Square. We loved that apartment. It had the fun speaker system to talk to people at the front door that Chuck would sing into and entertain passerbyers with, a nice kitchen, a parking spot in the garage underneath the building, and some of our friends upstairs and in the buildings next to us.  We also had a lady next door who I liked to make up stories about to entertain Chuck with pretty often, including the one time I tried to convince him she had been killed by her creepy cat because a pair of her snow boots sat outside her door untouched for 3 weeks straight.

Small but cute!

In our short 6 month stay in Seattle, we lived in 2 different fully furnished apartments. The first one we lived in we rented site-unseen. Online it all looked great. In person, while clean and cute, it smelled basement-y, had lumpy floors, had plumbing issues, and no cell service on account of we were in the basement of a house. Also the lady in the conjoined apartment smoked outside her door aka outside our door and the smoke crept into our apartment. Fun times.

We had to sit in that exact spot on the counter to get cell reception.

So after about a month, we moved to a different fully furnished apartment in a different part of the city where we could walk to work and downtown easily, and most importantly, could talk on our cell phones without having to sit on the kitchen counter. That was an OK apartment. The best things about it were the location and view of the mountains from our living room and kitchen. The worst things about it were the ants we couldn't get rid of and the dogs next door that barked at every sound they heard all day and night. Also we had no AC and with all those windows it got a little toasty in there during the summer.

Mountains

When we moved to Louisville, we chose to live at the Meridian Apartments which were brand new at the time. I've talked all about this apartment before and how wonderful it is. We have granite countertops! The carpet is super soft! Our closets are huge! This apartment has been amazing and I really think we will miss living here but we are also ready for a change of scenery. The past two years have had their ups and downs as you know, and unfortunately now this apartment is associated with those down times. We're hoping to pack up all our belongings and leave any bad juju behind!

My favorite pic of our Meridian Apartment. So homey!

All of our apartments have had their pros and cons and while it wasn't always enjoyable sharing a wall with strangers or dealing with ants/cockroaches/dogs/cats, all of these apartments have been special to us in their own unique ways. We are so excited to move and can't wait to see what adventures are ahead for us in our new HOUSE!

 

Current Obsessions

Here are some things I'm currently obsessed with that I'd like to share with you so you can be obsessed too.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's twitter. 
Lin-Manuel Miranda, better known as the genius behind Hamilton and many other things he did that you had no idea he was involved with (like writing music for the new Star Wars and writing all the music for the next big Disney movie) has a twitter and it is pure gold. He makes references to Harry Potter and Friends regularly (two of my all time favorite things), tweets inspirational messages in the morning and at night, posts hilarious GIFs, and tweets about his current work, his adorable family and of course Hamilton. It's by far my favorite twitter account and he is slowly working his way to the top of the list of my favorite people who I don't actually know in real life.

Ed Sheeran on Amazon Prime Music while hanging around the house.
I have listened to Ed Sheeran for awhile now off and on, but recently discovered that his music is perfect for "house background music." You know, music you want on in the background that you don't necessarily want to listen to every song but you just need background noise while you read, clean, cook, or eat? His music is perfect for this.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
New Harry Potter story written as a play. Do I even need to explain why I'm obsessed with this right now? Didn't think so.




Summer Olympics
I. LOVE. THE. OLYMPICS. I have no idea why I love them so much, but I do. Especially the summer Olympics. I could honestly watch every sport all day every day for the entire duration of the games but unfortunately I have a job and a life and can't do that. I especially love gymnastics, swimming and track & field. Oh and diving. And the weird synchronized swimming. OH and beach volleyball. Opening Ceremonies are tonight, FYI!

Flavored Water
Chuck and I gave up drinking soda almost 5 years ago. While I don't miss it, I do miss a little carbonation every now and then. Several months ago my mom introduced me to the Sparkling Ice flavored waters and now I have an obsession with trying every brand of sparkling flavored water to find the best. I tried the La Croix in several flavors and don't care for them. Last week I bought San Pellegrino Orange flavor and didn't realize that's actually juice and not sparkling water and has 29 grams of sugar. (Why was it in the sparkling water aisle?!) So I'm sticking with the Sparkling Ice Cherry Limeade from this point forward. Until someone releases an article about why THOSE are bad for you too and then it's back to plain old tap water again.

Laser Tag. 
Our company had our annual summer staff party earlier this week at Main Event off Blankenbaker. We had 4 hours of unlimited bowling, laser tag, and 2 hours of unlimited arcade games. Chuck was in Heaven. We played only one game of laser tag at the end of the night, and then I was mad at myself for not playing more laser tag earlier in the night. Laser tag is one of those things that is equally fun as an adult as it was as kids. Who wants to go play laser tag ASAP?

Actual picture of me and Chuck playing laser tag together

And lastly,

Summer
I am not typically a summer person. I love fall the most (who doesn't?) because of all the fall things people love- the weather, football games, chili, pumpkin butter, holidays, etc.  But this year I've been all about summer. The pool, the lake, watermelon, flip flops, restaurant patios, margaritas, etc. I just can't get enough! I went to Kroger this week and saw they already have Jack-O-Lanterns out front for sale and I cringed. I'm not ready for summer to be over! Stop rushing things, Kroger!



That's all for now. Everyone have a lovely weekend!

Summerness

Remember when I said the blog would now mostly contain cute pics of our nieces and friends' babies? Well. I'm about to deliver on that promise. 

We've spent the last month enjoying our summer, spending time with friends and family, and traveling. Here's a summary of July in pictures. 

We spent 4th of July in Virginia Beach with Chuck's sister and family. It rained most the time we were there so we made the most of it anytime the sun was out!

Colonial Williamsburg

Fireworks on the bay!

I love how their dog sleeps on the steps.

We've been trying to utilize our apartment complex pool this summer more than we did last summer. We've spent a lot of Saturdays at the pool and a super fun Friday night pool cookout with friends.

Chuck's other sister (who lives in Louisville) got a new puppy and he is ADORABLE.

The whole family got together to celebrate my Grandma's birthday!

We went to the lake with friends to celebrate Jen's son Brendan turning 13!

And last but not least, we hung out with this little dude a lot. I CAN'T STAND THE CUTENESS!

That's all for now. An update on the house hunting process coming soon......

House Hunters: Cummings Edition

For about a year, Chuck and I have been talking about buying a house. When we moved back to Louisville 2 years ago, we weren't ready to think about buying a house yet. There was a lot of change happening all at once and we wanted to get established in a routine again before thinking about settling down in a house. Last summer, we decided to renew our lease for another year. We weren't prepared to make all the decisions that come with home buying and also well, we REALLY love our apartment. It was brand new when we moved into it 2 years ago and because the complex let us pick our layout and then personalize it with paint and light fixtures, it really feels like a home and not a standard, cookie cutter apartment. It has granite counter tops and (faux) wood floors and really soft carpet! We don't have to cut grass or pull weeds, and best of all when the fancy light bulbs in our track lighting go out, we call someone to come replace them! We are so spoiled here.

So once again we are faced with the "lease renewal" decision and we've decided that we're ready to leave apartment life behind and find a house. I'm extremely excited to start this process but also pretty stressed about it already. You see, while Chuck and I have very similar taste in most everything and agree on what we do and do not want in a house, we have very different approaches when making big purchases.

When it comes to buying a car or a couch or a headboard for our bed or a TV or anything that comes with a significant cost, on the first day we go shopping for the thing, this is me:

...except in a slightly less bratty, rude, selfish way. I'm a very impatient shopper. I look around and weigh the options some, but typically when I look at something I know right away if I want to own it or not.

When Chuck goes looking for the same item, this is him:

....except he's not an old grandma. But man does that dude love to do some research! He always has an idea of what he wants but he needs time to process, do some research, look at every possible alternative, and make sure he's getting the best deal.

I think we can all agree that while my way of shopping is way more fun, Chuck's way is way more sensible. The good thing is we know this about each other and are able to compromise. We don't make any impulse buys, but we also don't take 6 months to buy a couch. (Just about 2 months...)

But you can see where I'm going with this. The two of us house hunting together is probably going to look a lot like me wanting to buy every house right away and Chuck wanting to buy none. We look for the first time this weekend, so I'll report back soon... Wish us luck!

TMI

Pretty often in life, a perfect stranger tells me too much information. Sometimes I bring it upon myself by asking, what I think is, a simple question. But sometimes people just blurt things out and I find myself running late to work because the UPS lady wouldn't stop telling me her family history. I'm not sure why people feel comfortable telling me the things they do sometimes, but I think it's an inherited trait. My mom has strangers bypass 100 people to come up to her and ask for directions. HER mom, my grandma, used to spend forever at the grocery because she would talk to people in every aisle, and just when you thought it was over, she'd spend another 15 minutes chatting away the cashier.

Just for fun, here are some things people have shared with me in recent years.

Starting with the UPS lady who I mentioned a couple posts ago- I recently went to UPS to ship a birthday gift to one of our nieces in Virginia Beach. When the lady working saw where I was shipping it, she told me she used to live in Virginia Beach. I then made the mistake of asking what brought her to Louisville and she filled me in on her husband's job in the Navy, how old her kids are and what they do for a living, what she loved about Virginia Beach, and every city they lived in before and after Virginia Beach, and finally their ultimate decision to move to Louisville after he retired from the Navy because they wanted to live in the South but be close to her mom in Cleveland because she's old and not in great health but not TOO close because she and her mom have a complicated relationship. Luckily I left before she went into detail about the source of their complicated relationship or I would have been even LATER to work than I already was.

One time I saw a lady cutting cheese and ham for free samples at Kroger and she was bawling her eyes out. Everyone was ignoring her, so when I walked by I stopped and asked "Are you ok?" She then proceeded to tell me what a jerk her boss was, how mean he was to her, and how she hated her job. I mostly just stood there listening and nodding until she finally stopped crying, thanked me for listening, and gave me some cheese and ham on a cracker.

One time a doctor I went to and had never met before, told me all about how her boyfriend wouldn't bite the bullet and ask her to marry him and how she couldn't understand what his hesitation was considering they lived together and owned a dog. I also know a lot of personal information about my dental hygienist and dermatologist.

This story I was reminded of by the recent passing of Muhammad Ali. I was working downtown before we moved to Boston, and I was walking to lunch one day when a guy stopped me and my friend and asked if he could tell us a story. He said he was here for a work trip and had just been at the Muhammad Ali Center by himself wasting a few hours. He said the video at the beginning of the museum ended, the door opened, and Ali himself was wheeled into the room. So he got to meet Ali and have his picture taken with him and he was FREAKING OUT about how cool it was and just had to stop someone and tell them about it. (He showed us the picture too.)

I get asked for directions all of the time, even when I'm a tourist in another city. I've also been asked for restaurant suggestions, my opinions on hummus in the grocery store, and don't even get me started on dressing room conversations at clothing stores.  There are so many more stories and a lot I'm sure I've forgotten. Some I wish I could forget, like the person who told me about her family member's vasectomy. And even though I joke with my friends and family about how annoying it is to constantly be stopped by people or spend way longer in a place than I intended because of these instances, I really don't mind being the random listener or recommendation giver or direction giver. Maybe people think I have a friendly face or I look like I know where I'm going. Maybe when that lady saw me choose my hummus without hesitation she knew she could trust me. Or maybe I just look like a sucker.

My Mom Took a Skull on an Airplane

In April our family took a trip to Denver to see Sami and Austin where they moved this past August. It was the first time we've all been on a trip together since Myrtle Beach in 2009! Sami planned out our entire trip and made sure we saw all the best parts of Denver, and also took us outside the city to Rocky Mountain National Park, Boulder, and Golden. We had perfect weather the entire trip and we ran our butts off. While the parks and restaurants and sites were all glorious and unforgettable, perhaps more memorable were some of the things that happened just in our Air B&B or in the rented minivan that we all 7 rode around in for the long weekend. (Shout out to Dad who drove the entire time and endured the opinions of 6 backseat drivers!)

First of all, on Day 1 of the trip, we were exploring the Red Rocks Amphitheatre when my mom got a news alert on her phone. "Prince died!" she told us. We were shocked! You see, the last time we were all on vacation together in the summer of 2009, Michael Jackson died. Our entire beach trip became unintentionally Michael Jackson themed as every radio station played his songs, stores put up tributes to him, TV stations played his videos and movies about him... Well, sure enough, our Denver trip quickly became Prince themed. The minivan bumped "Kiss" and "Party Like it's 1999" that week more times than I want to remember. Now we are worried to go on another vacation all together because it seems every time we do, a pop star dies. And we can't lose Justin Timberlake!

Another memorable event was on Day 1 when we noticed that the spice cabinet in our Air B&B was meticulously organized, labeled and ALPHABETIZED. The owner of the Air B&B was a 30-40 something year old single male. We became convinced we had a Dexter situation on our hands. Who else is that anal and organized besides a trained, skilled serial killer?

And speaking of creepy things, I should tell you about the skull. You see, Sami is in Denver to get her Masters in Anthropology. She is an archaeology nerd, so naturally we often buy her things like Laura's most recent Christmas gift, a skull painted with chalkboard paint that is also a piggy bank! When Sami flew back to Denver after Christmas, she didn't have room to take all of her gifts, so my mom made sure to pack the skull with her to bring to Denver. But instead of packing it in her suitcase like most people do when they travel with skulls, she brought it in her carry-on. Imagine the look on the TSA guy's face when he saw this thing go through the scanner at the airport.

Because Denver is spread out and we visited places outside the city, we spent a LOT of time in the car together. (We flew to Denver, just FYI. That would have been a serious road trip to drive from Louisville.) The time in the car gave lots of great conversations. We learned about how Laura's friends supposedly led "an uprising" against her in the 4th grade and she's still not over it. We discussed Sami's fear of boats and Mom scared her by saying she thinks her fear of water comes from when she was "submerged in ice water as a baby" before her heart surgery, which led Sami to believe she was killed and brought back to life until Dad chimed in with the important detail that just her body was put in the ice water, not her head/face. On the last day, I had an outburst in the backseat when my sisters were trying to convince my dad to stop for restrooms 20 minutes from home. I was arguing that we should not stop so close to home and when they kept trying to overrule me I shouted "I NEVER GOT SWIM LESSONS AS A KID AND YOU TWO DID!" I have no idea how stopping for the bathroom and swim lessons are related, but for some reason I had a middle child moment and needed to know why I was never taught to swim and only taught to float. And now that I'm thinking about it, like Sami I should probably ALSO have a fear of boats because if one I'm on ever sinks, everyone else will swim to safety and I'll just have to float until someone rescues me.

Austin and Chuck are brave men.

Besides sight-seeing and riding in the van, we did a lot of other things too. We played a lot of games in bars. (Side note: if you have never played the card game "Exploding Kittens," do yourself a favor and order it on Amazon NOW and play it ASAP.) We walked a LOT and Austin lied to us constantly about how close certain destinations were to keep us from getting discouraged. We ate a ton of good food. We toured a whiskey distillery (because, duh). We climbed a mountain, sort of. We looked for Peyton Manning. We debated the origin of elk (are they a mix between donkey and deer?). We went from place to place with a schedule but also with no real agenda at the same time.

Of course the mountains were breathtaking and the elk everywhere in the park were amazing and the food was great and getting to see Sami and Austin's new 'hood was fun... but the best thing about the vacation was knowing that our family could go literally anywhere in the world together and have a good time.

But, unfortunately we'll never get that chance, you know- because of the whole pop star thing.