Easters

Easter is a holiday filled with secrets, deception, and surprise. At least it is with my family. 

My parents were driving down from North Carolina to spend the week here in Florida. When my mom got to town, she needed to make a big shopping trip to Wal-Mart. While she was there, she got a beautiful spring bouquet. 

Pretty, huh? She got more than she bargained for, because attached to the bouquet was her first born daughter! My older sister Kourtney and her husband Juan made the trip over from Texas to surprise her!

 I love that they had to hunt her down in Wal-mart. And so began our fabulous Easter holiday.

Friday night we hung out and watched "classic" movies. I'm not sure if they're classic to the general public. In fact, I'm positive they're not, seeing as Juan, Tayna and Cory have never even heard of them.

We have begun to compile a list of "Hansen Classics", that all new family members must watch in order to understand a great deal of the Hansen family humor and thought process. So far: The Shakiest Gun in the West, The In-laws, Singin' in the Rain, The Music Man, and Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang. I'm sure the list will continue to grow with time, as we begin to realize just how many of our jokes our spouses don't get. It little things like, every time I hear the name "Pierre" I cannot resist the urge to say"Oh Pierre! You shouldn't have come!"(Singin' in the Rain).

Fun fact: if you say that phrase in the presence of one of my family members, they will respond with "YES, YES, YES...NO, NOO, NOOOO..." Every single time.

Saturday we all went thrift shopping in Tallahassee. We found the BEST thrift store! I got a sweet retro lamp for Cory's desk (only $15.00!), and a ceramic ear that I thought was hilarious. For $.50, I thought it was worth it.

Cory has not been very amused at my constant requests for him to "lend me his ear." Whatev. I'm hilarious.

We started Sunday out right with Belgian Waffles. Yum.

My mom brought out the traditional Easter scrabble blocks.

It's like they're trying to tell us something. 

But what is it???

Oh. That makes more sense.

We also broke out the permanent markers and did a little egg decorating. If you must know, the fumes were a little, tiny bit strong.

Okay. The fumes were really strong.

Cory wanted to make a "Chuck Norris" egg. It quickly started to take a turn for the more "Homeless Vagrant" look, so he decided to run with that.

Daisy was not amused. 

Here we are with our masterpieces:

And here they are, being the master peices:

What a bunch of egg heads. Am I right?

After our little eggstravaganza, my parents sent us out into the wilderness for a bit so the Easter Bunny could stop by and hide our eggs and baskets.

Yea...we still do Easter egg hunts. They get more intense every year. My parents really, really enjoy hiding things from us.

It was hot in the wilderness. I tried to look brave for the camera, but Cory couldn't even fake it.

That is the opposite of his excited face.

 The wild flowers were very scenic though.

Eventually we caught up to Tanya and Jesse. But not before taking some very stalkerish pictures of them. They didn't even know I was there!

I'm still trying to decide if I should be concerned about the thrill sneaking around in bushes while taking pictures of unsuspecting people brings to me. 

My Dad helped the Easter bunny hide our baskets and eggs this year.  It took us, six fully grown adults, over  thirty minutes of vigilant searching to find the first one. Eventually we had to give up and beg for hints, and at that point he came up with riddles to point us in the right direction.  Our egg hunt lasted the better part of three hours. And even then we had to give up the search with one egg unaccounted for. Easter really is my parent's time to shine.

Of course, there is a lot more to Easter than eggs and bunnies. I love the opportunity to remember the sacrifice He made for us all. It was a much needed reminder for me.

I just loved this weekend. (Now I'm even MORE excited to spend a week with my sisters and Mom this summer! We missed you Jackie!) It really was too bad that it just happened to be the weekend before Finals week. Not that I let that tiny little detail interfere with my plans...

In other news I turned in my last final today at 6:05 PM!! I can't believe I'm done! I promise I'll address the question I'm sure is burning in your heart now: "What next?" in my next post. It's gonna be good.

Pinterest. It's so hot right now.

Hey you guuuuuys!

I can't say that without channeling The Goonies. Which is interesting, considering I've never seen all of that movie. Also, it kinda scares me.

A few weeks ago I heard about this thing called Pinterest. And I was intrigued. If you've already heard of it, good! If not, you really need to look into this.

It's pretty much the equivilant of tearing pages out of magzines and putting them in folders for future reference. Except with the internets instead of paper. And the ability to link back to the original source every time. And see other people's inspiration, and then claim it as your own inspiration.

I was only mildly interested, until I found out that you have to either be invited by a current member, or request to be a part of it! Once they got all elite on me, I desparately wanted to be a part of it. Those sly dogs.

Anyway, I sent in my request a while back, and a few days ago I got accepted! And it has seriously blown my mind.

Anytime I see something I like that I might want to remember, I just click a "Pin It" button on my toolbar, and viola! It's saved, categorized and linked back to the original source for easy peasy referencing!

Seriously. I love it.

This is what a board looks like:

This is my "Kitchen" board. I've got some serious plans for our new place!

 If you wanna check it out, click here to see my boards and get a feel for it. It's a little addictive, but definitely one of the most useful bookmarking tools I've ever used.

You can request to join yourself (it takes them about two weeks to acquiesce to your request), or I can send you an invitation! You won't have to wait as long if I send you an invite. I think. If I can figure out how to send invites...hmm.

Also, I like how I'm calling them "invites." Very casual.

Anyway, I like it.  And if you've ever seen an amazing idea on a website, but then can't find it ever, ever again fwhen you try to tell other people about the awesome idea you found, you might like it too.

Now...back to school work. Only 15 days and one monster final paper stand between me and my undergraduate degree! Where did the time go?

Graduation pictures and reflections coming soon. Look forward to that. I know I am :)

White and Nerdy

One of my favorite thing about this little blogity blog is the ability it gives me to look back and remember exactly what I thought was significant  during the past few years. It makes me laugh to read the things I wrote about, and I know I wouldn't remember most of the events if not for this documentation. History is made by those who write it down, people.

 My other favorite things are funny comments, and stalking people. But that's another post, for another day.

When I look back on April 2011 in a few years, what would I like to remember?

 Possibilities: Work was stressful. Finishing my bachelor's degree in English Literature has never seemed so close, and yet so far. I actually cooked dinner three times this week. All are true, yet none seem to really encapsulate what my life as truly been about recently.

What has taken precedence?

Yea. That's right. 

I'm blogging about Avatar. 

I'm not going to do a huge post about this, mostly because my friend Becca did one a year ago that says it all. Click here to read about her family's experience with the show, and her astute review of the plot lines and character development. (Yes, Becca. I creeped your archives.)

I've been watching it pretty regularly for the past week and half. And by "regularly" I mean, "every moment I can. I'm starting on the third (and final) season now.  All the episodes are on Netflix Instant Play, which has proven to be irresistible to me. I take my laptop around the house with me, washing dishes, cooking dinner, and....watching Avatar. I'm pretty cool.

Cory refuses to join in. He claims that he's not interested in a silly cartoon. But really, its because he's been a little preoccupied with his own nerdy little RPG love:

To each his own.

Herbs, 'Shrooms and Inspiration

Here's a bunch of random things. A smattering, if you will.

Bridget and I planted a garden! We were having a very difficult time picking out a theme for our garden. Herbs, vegetables, flowers....so many options! Eventually, we just picked our favorite of each. We're really good at decisions.

I've never had very much success with growing things, so we're really interested to see what happens with this little project. Hey you veteran gardeners out there, tell me your secrets!

I've amassed quite a collection of "reclaimed" wood objects for future projects. I keep them on the porch. 'Cause I'm classy like that.

I picked the broken ladder up from a day care down the road. I asked permission before I dug it out of their trash pile. It was at this moment that it really hit me how little pride I have. The kids all pressed their faces up against the chain link fence, watching the crazy white lady load a broken ladder into the trunk of her very dented car. Whatev. I got a sweet ladder.

Someday (soon, I hope) I'm going to marry the boards to this quote:

I just need a few more old crappy boards. And my sander!

And, I'll finish off with a little bit of home decor according to Cory. Tanya gave Cory a little Mario 'Shroom filled with candy for Christmas.  He loved the candy. Thanks, Tanya! You'll be happy to know that he's found the little shroom to be more than just a candy jar.

I guess things get pretty lonely in there sometimes.

 He reminds me of the shy, yet gifted kid who sits in the front of the class. 

I seriously think Cory just goes around trying to put things inside of other things.

Hmm...Cory just came out of his study room and said, "Lindy, you never make me cookies or brownies."

Master of subtlety, that one.

I haven't been grocery shopping in a month so...we'll see how this goes! He LOVES when I make creative food solutions. Mayonnaise is so versatile...

Just bangin' around over here.

Every once in a while I like to give Cory a little surprises. I feel that it keeps our marriage fresh and interesting.

Today I was feeling generous, so I let him wake up to this little scene:

Nothing says I love you like a sink fulla hair.

I've always kind of had a thing for cutting hair. I used to try to get my little brother to play "sleep" so I could give him a trim. I think I may have missed my calling.

You know who you should NEVER, under ANY circumstances let cut your hair? My sister Jackie. She convinced me (on two separate occasions) to let her cut my bangs. Both times were terrible. One time was the night before my already bound to be awkward first day of 8th grade. She gave me a prickly two inch fringe that took 3 months to grow to a regular length. It gave me the opportunity to work on my personality.

I like the new bangs so far. I think they held up pretty well to a long day of work and class.

If you look closely, you'll see that I left the tooth paste splatters on the bathroom mirror for our little photoshoot. I'm classy.

Also, I completely forgot to wear green today. But I did make corned beef for dinner! Cory said that it tasted good, but smelled like old people. He has a point.

See ya next fall

Sometimes I get antsy when I think of all the places I want to go. Europe, Hawaii, Redwoods, and this one random waterfall in North Georgia are just calling my name.

But trips like that take money. And planning. And time. 

None of which we have.

Someday. Maybe.

It's nice when Cory reminds me of all the awesome places we have yet to explore that are right in our regional backyard. (Although, the 12 by 8 foot area of our literal backyard probably holds some surprises too)

On our way home from the Orlando Temple, Cory suggested we stop by the most kitschy, romantic, touristy place Florida has to offer (and thats saying a lot). Turns out, he prefers historical sites to shopping in IKEA and the mall (my suggestions). Either way, I win. 

That's compromise, folks.

Without further ado I present to you: St. Augustine. America's Oldest City.

Disclaimer: While I could back up my wild claims with some actual fact checking, I'm choosing to rely on the information Cory recalled from his third grade field trip as accurate. Its quite possible I'm writing my first piece of historical fiction here. Blame him.

Wanna know what makes this place great? I'll show you.

The visitor's center/parking garage looks like this:

They have entire shops dedicated to foods like chocolate.

Not pictured: Shop specializing in exotic jerky. For real. We're talking Yak and Alligator jerky.

It's a place where you spell "Olde Tyme" when you mean "Old Time."

There is also a Fort.

According to my tour guide, the fort withstood the barrage of cannons for centuries due to the unique "bricks made out of tiny shells" construction technique of the Spanish men who built it. 

Also, this guy hung out for a while. Do you think he's yearning for the days of yore? Regretting the terrible things he did to this country's native people? Counting down the minutes until he gets his smoke break? The world may never know.

I thought it made a lot of sense that the oldest town in America would also feature the oldest street in America. We found it, and took a stroll.

The Spanish settlers were all about culture. And gift shops.

The oldest street in America led us to the most inviting windows in America. I want this.

We found a wax museum too. The oldest in America? Probably not.

 We walked in, took some awkward pictures of the lobby as the receptionist stared at us, and walked out. The $6.00 per person fee was a little too rich for our blood.

The complete awkwardness of this picture makes me so happy.

The rest of the trip looked like this:

 I'm now dedicated to satisfying my travel lust with really getting to know the places within a 4 hour radius a little more. 'Cause I think we have some pretty awesome stuff. Suggestions welcome :)

Pillow Talk with my Puff Daddy

Usually right before we go to sleep, we talk. Sometimes we even hold hands and talk. Pretty much anything goes, and we'll gossip, tell funny stories, complain about work (me), complain about lab reports (him), and one time we just took turns saying things we like about each other. Which was very sweet.

Last night, just as we were getting very sleepy, we had this little exchange:

Lindy: Today I made cream puffs with Bridget. 

Cory: You can DO that?

Lindy: Well, I'd never done it before, but my mom used to do it all the time, so I had an idea of how it works. But anyway....

Cory: Wait. How do they get all puffy?

Lindy: I dunno. The salt maybe?

Cory: Yea, probably. How do you get the cream inside?

[Then I got distracted explaining how we filled them up, and had a side story about how we tried to make homemade whipped cream with half and half coffee creamer, which, not surprisingly, failed. So we used a can of Reddi-whip to fill them up instead. It's diversions like this that make a simple story take half an hour. Eventually I got back on track, which is where we'll pick up]

Lindy: But, that's not the point. One of the tips I read said to poke the puffs with a toothpick after baking. So I gave a toothpick to Bridget, and told her to poke them, and I started cleaning up. When I looked back over to see how it was going, I saw that every time she would poke one, they would collapse and deflate! Turns out that is the opposite of what you should do. So we stopped doing that real fast, but we'd already deflated half of the puffs.

So we both laugh over the silly mistake, and I start to fall asleep. Then...

Cory: I want cream puffs.

Lindy: Hmm...I think we have all the stuff to make them.

Cory: Can we make them?

Lindy: Ummm....sure.

Cory: Now?

Lindy: Ummm....okay.

Cory: Yay!!

And that is the story of how we made cream puffs at midnight.

We are basically pastry chefs.

I'm posting the recipe over at Pile o' Craft, so if you'd like to have your own cream puff adventure, click on over. 

Now I've gotta pack, cause we're takin' a trip to Orlando today and tomorrow! Yay for a mini-vacation :)