6 posts tagged “family”

This morning I woke up with terrible anxiety. I don't know why, it was just there resonating deep in the pit of my stomach and I had that restless leg syndrome thing going on to. I eventually just got up and got ready to go to Phoenix for my nephew's 8th Birthday Party, which was at Peter Piper Pizza.

Generally I don't like Peter Piper Pizza but I must have been so hungry (to the point of starvation?) that it was quite delicious. So delicious that after two pieces I was eying(eyeing? either way it doesn't look right to me.) a third! I didn't have that third but I'm still thinking about it. And then there was cake (well I love cake in general) but it was a Spongebob cake with blue and yellow icing...thick blue and yellow icing. Despite this sounding unappetizing it was pretty good. I didn't have two pieces that though... but my dad did.

I only visited the rest of Peter Piper Pizza briefly, basically I played a car racing game and the Jack Pot Machine Game. I use to be really good at the jackpot game but apparently I've lost my touch. I gave my measily pile of tickets to Alyssa who I helped pick out prizes...and she promptly decided she didn't want them except possibly the rubber snake...and maybe the Skittles.

Possibly the most exciting thing that happened today is the "book loot" I collected from Dani, my sister-in-law as well as a purse that she has had that I have been eyeing for like years! She gave me the following books and I must prephase this with "I am in YA Fiction Heaven".

1. The Summoning - Kelly Armstrong
2. Hunted (A House of Night Series book) - P.C. Cast + Kristin Cast
3. Wake - Lisa McMann
4. Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead
5. Frostbite (vampire academy book 2) - Richelle Mead
6. Shadow Kiss (vampire academy book 3) - Richelle Mead
7. Evermore - Alyson Noel

I will probably read Wake first despite what I've heard about it. I'm curious to find out about it myself.  So basically this Summer I'm going to read...a lot. I can't wait!

After the party I drove home with my mom, who had met us there since she had been up there visiting a friend for the past couple of days. And I basically told her about how my weekend and how my exam went, the B that I earned in Summer School because I was to lazy to earn the A. Like literally Thursday night I hit this brick wall and I was just unwilling to learn any more. I couldn't take it anymore!

I'm so ready for this break.

I am in a bad mood.

Hopefully it will dissipate because my entire family is most likely showing up later on tonight. And it's New Years Eve you shouldn't be in a bad mood.

I am only making one New Years Resolution this year and I'm pretty sure I can learn to keep it. I am going to learn how to cook and I started yesterday by making a Rachel Ray soup recipe for Chicken Tortilla Soup. My mom helped me and she is pretty much going to be my teacher and I will be her student.

Posed

Chicken Tortilla Soup

DONE!

 

What gifts, big or small, are you hoping to find under your tree this year?
Sponsored by Best Buy.

The only thing I know of that I asked for that I am for sure getting is a digital camera which I'm very excited about. The one that I have right now is really old and it doesn't do anything to fancy but you know take pictures. Other then that I hope to get some TV on DVD and surprises...I love surprises and not knowing what I'm getting. Just like I like to keep it secret on what I'm getting for my friends.

I think I just love Christmas and the holidays mostly because I get to see all my family. One of my Aunts is coming to visit this year for Christmas so I'm really excited about that!. We always go on what we call an annual pilgrimage, which is going up to Ventana Canyon Resort and getting drinks by the bar area. Also we have Movie Sundays and generally a good time.

BUT I think it would be pretty awesome if someone got me a blueray DVD player but I don't expect it....I'm just throwing it out there into the universe. 

So this is going to be about all the food I got to eat in Washington...again there are no pictures :o( so you'll have to go by all my descriptions which might not be that great! I'm trying to put more effort in to blogging more even though I don't have much to talk about and I'm still looking for a digital camera which I think I found one that I like.

My grandma was born and raised in Sweden and my mom was born there but not raised there. They came over to the U.S. when she was pretty young so she pretty much grew up in New Jersey. However funnily enough the only Swedish things my Grandma made while I was there were Swedish Pancakes and Swedish Meatballs. My Grandma makes the best Swedish meatballs, I swear. They don't fall apart and I could just eat them for lunch and dinner if I had to, not breakfast because I prefer sweet stuff in the morning. I went back for seconds when she made them and my mom even admitted that hers weren't very good compared to my grandma's. For some reason when my mom tries to make them they always fall apart and they just aren't as good. We had Swedish pancakes for lunch one day to which they've never been my favorite but when she makes them they're still good. Non Swedish food that she made were her cinnamon rolls which she makes every time that we see her, ginger snaps, brownies, and some kind of cinnamon  bread and a crumb cake. She also made lasagna, chicken noodle soup, and I think that's all that I can think of right now. I remember the first week or so Zack texted me and asked me if I had eaten out anywhere good because apparently Seattle has really good restaurants and all I could say was "Umm my Grandma's?"

Which by the way is really good food, nothing beats home cooking especially my Grandma's even though she doesn't believe it.

So restaurant wise my Aunt took us to this place called Bahama Breeze which had really good fancy cocktails. I had tortilla soup and then we all shared a whole bunch of stuff like appetizers and things like that. I can't remember the first drink I had and I wasn't really impressed by it and wished I had gotten the Pina Colada and so my Aunt said go ahead and get it. She ended up treating us that afternoon and then we walked over to the mall to walk off all of that food.

She also had a 25$ gift card for the Cheesecake Factory, so later on towards the end of the trip we went there as well. My mom discovered that they had the best blue cheese dressing, I'm not a fan but she is so I'll take her word for it. My aunt had some huge omelet and my grandma had the soup. I had a the pizza there which was surprisingly good and actually the food there was all really good. I plan to go to the one in Phoenix as soon as possible. Then we all had Cheesecake and we each had different flavors which I actually do have pictures of that!

White Choc. Rasberry

This one was mine

Godiva

My Aunts

Key Lime

My mom's which she couldn't wait so she took a bite out of hers so it ruined the whole effect of the picture :o(

Strawberry Cheesecake

And my Grandma's

Then we went to a place called Julia's which wasn't that great and I had a Belgian waffle. We went to meet my Grandma's friend who has this huge doll collection and all tiny doll things that go with them and she wanted to show us. Personally dolls aren't my thing, they're are some that my Grandma has that I would like and my mom has a few to but I think that's more sentimental then anything. For the most part dolls kind of make think of Chucky or the one x-files episode involving a doll...especially some of the ones that she had. We spent the whole afternoon looking at this ladies doll collection and she was just so excited about it all. It must be the way I am when I'm like "Look at my dvd/tv on dvd/book collection!"

Lastly my Grandma took us to Panera, which sadly we don't have here. I have to drive all the way to California to get to it. I swear that place is food of the gods, I had a broccoli cheese bread bowl and ate almost the whole thing and then my mom and I got bagels to take home. We normally go to this place called the Sweet Addition which is a small local cafe but my Grandma wanted to show us something different. I was so glad she did this...so glad that when my dad met us up there a couple days later I was like we should take daddy to Panera and so we did. Which then I still had the broccoli cheese soup but then I also had half a chicken salad sandwhich. Then I got a chocolate chip bagel for later. I'm craving Panera right now, so much so that I feel like I would drive to California just to have it.

I know I said lastly but it really wasn't since Jennie and I went to the Bite of Seattle which is down at the Seattle Center. There are booths of food going down a road on both sides, the only problem was it was really crowded when we went so it was hard to walk through to get anywhere. The lines were also long for some places, we stopped at a Hawaiian Bar B Que place and a place that had seasoned curly fries. You were allowed to get a bite or a whole plate but the prices went up as you did that. Also we tried fried macaroni and cheese which was really good. We couldn't find any place to get a drink so we just walked in to the food court area of the Seattle Center and bought a drink from the pizza place there. We sat out on the grass and took lots of pictures, silly and nice, and listened to the band play, it was a Johnny Cash cover band. After awhile we decided that it would be worth it to stand in the ridiculously long line to get chocolate covered strawberries and bananas and yes it was, the perfect end to that day.

Any other time food was involved was when Jennie and I would go to Applebees and have our drinks and eat whatever we felt like. Also we went to a billiards place called The Parlor, several times, and had drinks there and a spinach artichoke dip that came with pita bread and it was really good. Lastly lastly my mom, grandma and I had a tradition of sitting out on her back deck and snacking and just talking. By the time my dad came though the weather changed and it was often to cold to do that. Which brings me to the last point I didn't pack properly for the trip so I had to buy a new hoodie at Holister which hey I'm not complaining, it was cute and it kept me warm.

Friday I babysat Addison, luckily she slept until 9:30 in the morning so I got to sneak in a little nap on their couch. Their, Summer and Chris's, cat Gizmo slept on my stomach with me which was ok until he started making bread on it, digging claws. Chris came home early so I went home for a little bit and had a happy hour with my mom while we watched Paula Dean episodes she had DVRed. Then Zack came and picked me up to go back over to Summer and Chris's. Summer and I both had two ideas for dinner and it turned out they were both the same so we made the boys choose, Casa Del Rio or Applebees. They chose Applebees and so we went to the Grant one because it tends to be less of a wait. We all shared mozzarella sticks and boneless buffalo wings and then Zack and I shared the Oriental Chicken roll up, which is insanely good. After that we went back to their house and they made some kind of pinapple drink with grenadine and alcohol which was really good and we played Uno Attack. There was a lot of name calling and "SUCKA," and it was actually pretty fun. Addison kept pushing the button on Uno Attack though, she'd sneak her little hand past us and just push it. Then she'd look at us like "what?!?!"

Saturday I slept in to much and then spent the whole afternoon reading the last of Breaking Dawn and then Zack came over. He brought me his Wii so that I can play it until I go back to school in two weeks. I thought I only had 1 and 1/2 weeks but apparently I'm wrong I have 2 weeks. I've been playing Paper Mario which is really addicting because it's a lot like the original Mario and I've been perfecting my Mario Kart skills. We went out and talked to my mom for two hours, actually it was more like "let's go bug my mom" because she only had like two pages left in her book. Then he took me over to meet his sister for the first time, she made chicken tortilla soup which was really good. I can't tell you what she put in it but it was so good I had seconds and then we just sat around talking about what she's learning in school, past boyfriends and the guy she is currently dating. I found that I liked her and I felt comfortable talking to her. Later on after Zack took me home my jaw started bothering me so I had to take my medicine which pretty much knocks me out.

Then today I woke up and read some of The Book Thief and had a toaster strudel, which I love but the toaster never cooks it enough. I've just realized I'm talking about food a lot but I'll probably talk about it some more. I have no pictures to document any of this either :o(. I need a new digital camera mine is going so I'm in the market. So my brother and his family came down and we all had to watch an episode of Pinks All Out that my dad had dvred while we were gone since it was one that was filmed here in Tucson and one of the racers was one of my dad's really good friends son. Then we had a family (with Zack as well since he wanted to meet Bryan even though I warned him that we didn't know where he came from, he's like the mail man's kid or something) Bar-B-Que which there was a lot of food. There was chicken, steak, a big salad,  dip both avocado, which I can't eat because I'm allergic to, and ranch,potato chips and then there were carrots and other veggies. For dessert there were sugar cookies...bought from the store! After that Zack and I just sat and talked for awhile and then he went home.

My mom and I then watched Vantage Point, which I actually enjoyed and I got in to my watermelon eegee that Chris and Summer gotten me while I was gone. Watermelon is the flavor of the month for July and I was gone for the entire month so I missed out on it. They ended up getting me a 34 oz cup of it! Then I went and played Paper Mario which yeah hard for me to stop playing once I start.

The Instructions:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

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