Better Late Then Never

After reading the lovely introduction given to me by Tiney, I realized I really hadn't introduced myself to any of you bloggers out there. So here it goes.

I am a 26 year old female who grew up all over the map. My life started off in Long Island, New York where I was always surrounded by lots of love and Italians. My mother is not Italian, but as a teenager she left most of her family behind and I was raised mostly among my Dads Italian family. My Italian Grandma taught my mother how to cook because if she was going to marry my dad she was going to learn how to cook for my dad. It was here I also picked up a New York accent that will creep up on me at unexpected times for the rest of my life in words like pecan (like pee + can not pee + con). At the age of 9 or 10 my parents moved me and my older brother to Utah. Now that was a change. Utah was beautiful. Stepping off the plane in Salt Lake City was like walking into a post card. The air smelled fresh and dry. The sidewalks were so clean. The mountains were breathtaking. We had never seen anything like those mountains before. It was like sitting in the the bottom of a cereal bowl and in every direction you're surrounded by Mountains. The word Utah actually comes from the Ute word for "land of mountains". Even in July some snow remains on the peaks. We arrived in Utah on a very big holiday. Pioneer Day. Upon our arrival to SLC the airline even passed out silly hats in celebration of Pioneer Day. Of course my family and I sat there wondering what the hell was Pioneer Day????
Well I'm sure you're wondering too.. Pioneer Day commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon Pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints (nicknamed LDS or Mormons)settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois. Prior to there arrival in Utah, the Mormons were faced with a lot of tragedy. Due to the common practice of polygamy and their strict religious beliefs they were seen as outsiders in many communities and faced a lot of discrimination, even having there homes burned to the ground in Illinois. After that they set out to find unclaimed land... and in Utah, they found it. Rejected many times by the nation due to its popular religious practices, only after polygamy was outlawed in the lands was Utah able to become part of the United States. Pioneer Day is celebrated much like 4th of July. Fireworks, carnivals, cookouts and so forth. Really its a lot of fun, and who wouldn't want to participate in all of that twice in one month!!

Here's a few more cool facts about Utah. Utah has the highest birthrate of any state in the nation. As a family of 4 we were a real rarity in Utah. They also have the youngest population of any state in the nation. In 2008 Utah was the fastest growing state. 95% of the population is Caucasian. The Mormon religion accounts for 60-75% of the population, depending on which poll you read. 16% of the state is non religious and only 10% are Catholic. Now, with some of that info can you imagine why I was just lost as a child??? The point is that moving from Long Island to Utah was a VERY big adjustment for our entire family. It was really like moving to another planet. Not only was the population made up of very different people, my mom couldn't find the right brand of tomatoes for sauce, fresh mozzarella couldn't be found (yup, our beloved Polly-O was MIA), No Wise potato chips, no Cheese Doodles(my moms favorite food), and frozen artichokes were an impossibility. We couldn't find a descent pizza place, Chinese restaurant, or Jewish deli, (less than 1% of the population is Jewish in Utah), and at McDonald's they served some crazy concoction called "fry sauce". At 10 years old I had the wrong accent, I came from New York (which many of the kids thought was another country), I was the wrong religion (they thought I worshiped Satan because I wore a cross on my necklace), and I even got sent to the principals office for uttering my favorite phrase "oh my god!" in class.

Utah was a beautiful place and my parents and brother still live there. In the year 2000 at 17 years old I graduated high school in Utah. Oh yeah! Class of the Millennium Baby! Yep I was a little Millennium crazed, I drank many beers in its honor, too many I think. I have a little proof left on my old leather jacket. lol. I then got 2 jobs working as a nursing assistant, mostly night shift. I worked like crazy for a year and a half saving money while waiting for my braces to come off. Then when I finally had a release date for my braces, I dropped a bomb on my parents. I had been "dating" someone on the internet for 2 years. I had met him twice. Twice, I had picked him up from the airport and spent the week with him. Twice, I had ditched school for the entire week and pretended to be working every day... and come July I would be driving myself to Michigan to move in with him. After many fights, my dad calling me a whore many times and my mom crying many tears I began shipping my stuff in boxes to Michigan. The Day before Pioneer Day 2001 my boyfriend, Michael, flew into Utah and met my parents for the first time. The next day I packed up whatever I could fit into my car and we drove off into the sunset as they say. I'll never forget that feeling of fear and excitement in my stomach, the tears simmering in my eyes and the looks on my parents faces as I looked back through the rear view mirror. We spent the next 4 days driving from Utah to Michigan listening to my kitty cat cry the entire way. I just wanted to take a second here to thank the vet who charged me 50 bucks for the kitty tranquilizers that did not one damn thing to my kitty. All in all I remember that drive across country being total bliss. I couldn't believe what I was doing, I couldn't believe Michael was sitting next to me in the car. It was like getting my wings. It was like a dream. we stopped off here on our way across. Can anyone name all 4 of these guys? I realized while scanning it I can only name 2...
my dad insisted Michael and I stop here for dinner and for some reason I have like 10 photos of the sign.

In Michigan I started going to college. Just doing all my general studies courses with a plan to go into nursing school. After a quick 11 months in Michigan we moved to Ohio. After many struggles, curse words, and tears I finished nursing school. Took my boards (The single most nerve wracking thing I have EVER done), Spent the next day at the bar, and ran up the largest bar tab I've ever had (350 bucks, tip not included), later that evening I found out I was officially a Registered Nurse. I couldn't believe it and I must have checked the website 50 times in the next 2 days to be sure it was real. A year later, in 2006, I got married to Michael (yep, the guy I ran away with). And since I don't do anything the normal way; We had our Wedding in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace. It was amazing, and we can't wait to go back. Shortly after we bought a house outside of Akron, Ohio.

Now its 2008 almost 2009. Michael and I are happily married with 2 kitties. We have one mutt kitty Miko and my princess Buffy, a Siamese ( she is the one who cried for 4days in the car). I love my kitties dearly. Buffy spends her days following me around the house howling stories at me. Miko, my husbands baby, spends her days sleeping on our sectional couch or on the lap of anyone who will let her stay. Despite 9 years of rooming together they are mortal enemies. lol. somethings just never change. I work 3 days a week, 12 hour shifts, at the hospital. I work on a telemetry floor. We get lots of Respiratory and Cardiac patients. My job is always stressful and I'm always busy. I'm lucky if I get to pee and eat lunch in the same day, but I do love my job. Someday I would love to be an ICU nurse, but right now I love my coworkers and there are no openings in ICU. My husband Fixes steam generators, which entails a lot of hands on mechanic work, but he is also the boss. I spend My days off looking at French bulldog websites. FBRN (The French Bulldog Rescue Network) is my favorite site. Right now I don't have the 2 grand for a Frenchie. That is a big reason I check the FBRN site daily. Someday I know they'll have one in my area who needs rescued and is a good fit for me. The other reason I don't have a Frenchie yet is because my kitty Buffy is the apple of my eye and I don't know if she would be willing to share me. That's pretty much all there is about me. Unless I get knocked up or a Frenchie comes barkin up my doorstep. Lookin' forward to bloggin..

Love ya!

Ding FA DA Dong, Ding FA DA Dong

For me Christmas was a time of: laughter, idiocy, compulsive behaviors, and lots and lots of food. My memories of Christmas are filled with chainsaws, awful plane rides across the country, and lost luggage. Often times my day would end with me sleeping in someone else's bed or couch depending on the year (and always with new pajamas). The best of these memories for me includes: cooking marathons where endless pans of lasagna would be made, hours of fighting with the cookie gun for the perfect press cookie, exhaustion moving in with each roll of egg bow cookies, and lets not forget figuring out how to wrap those darn action figure packages all the while swearing about how someone should create a package easier to wrap... and I guess they did, in the form of x-box games. Each year, when Christmas Eve and Christmas day finally came, I would be flooded with the aroma of shrimp scampi, crab legs, artichoke dip, fresh ham, eggplant parmesan, lasagna,meatballs, butter cookies, fudge, peppermint cake, christmas cut-ups, and honey cookies. And all the while the sound of Bing Crosby's Christmas album playing in my head. It's with all this in mind that I put up my first blog. A Christmas blog dedicated to my own memory of Christmas. These first few photos are of my favorite time of year: COOKIE MAKING! After my Grandmother passed away and most of my family moved to Florida cookie making became a big tradition and a way to really keep the memory of her alive. Every year for Christmas my dad would fly our family of 4 from Utah to Florida and if we were lucky we would get there early enough to help make the cookies. This first one is blurry, but you can see my cousin Jill (from Jillsbelieveitornot) the baby must be Alexa (who is 7 now), my Aunt Ginny(her mother), My cousin Jeff (Jills brother) and his youngest son Justin. In this one we're making butter cookies (known to some as spritz cookies). The recipe belonged to my Grandma. These cookies require the cookie gun thingy and the hardest part is always to get the gun to work right followed by precise decorating as you can see. This next one has my Aunt Ginny again, with Jeffs son Jonathan (who gives the best hugs or used to but he's a teenager now, so who knows), and the poor boy with a double cowlick is Justin again. As you can see Jonny took his hat off in this one because rolling out the dough for these cookies is no joke! The dough for egg bows or honey cookies is like 10pounds of flower and 2 eggs (sorry, but it's my Grandmas secret recipe)After you figure out how to mix it all you have to roll the dough nearly paper thin, then cut the dough in strips, shape the strips, fry em, and coat em with honey and sprinkles. These cookies really require a group effort (thats why we try to con the little ones into rolling out the dough. HAHA) I love this photo. This is my mom and me holding my little cousins Alexa and Madison. Don't the babies look soo cute? This was the year that Jill spent like 2 hours curling all of my hair, but I don't think you can really tell in this pic. This is my dad in his usual stance. See my dad like most italians, thinks he knows EVERYTHING! and he thinks he should share his almighty opinion with everyone ... and really its useless to argue unless of course your me, and you also know everything. lol. in which his usual reply would be "yaw craaaaazy". Next to him sitting down is my Uncle Jeff (Jill and Justines Dad). The best thing about my Uncle Jeff is that he is one of few people who can offer my dad any real competition in an arguement. Above is me trying on a scarf my mother made me. The same scarf my father later told me (after too much red wine) looked like pubic hair. Lets just say that 3 years later I still have not found the confidence to wear it out of the house. See, I even have proof about the wine. Does anyone have a camera I can borrow???? In this one from near to far its Uncle Jeff, his son Jeff, My dad, and Justines hubby Jimmy. Awww what a cute snuffy dog. As many of you who follow my cousins blog (Jillsbelieveitornot) may know, Disney was a big part of tradition in my family and the holiday season for me usually ended with a silly day after Christmas family tradition we called "theme park day". Every year we picked a different theme park to go to. Disney, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, Sea World, we did them all. Looking back at some of the photos and listening to my husband recall his one time attending this event I wonder was it really a good idea or just plain catastrophe? While we all had good intentions with theme park day its really just an awful idea for a tradition. First off: any florida resident can tell you that the day after Christmas is like THE worst day to go to a theme park because there are huge crowds. Second: Who the HELL has a dime to spend the day after Christmas? Third: Why the HELL weren't we at the mall taking advantage of those after holiday deals if we had so many dimes to spare?? Fourth: how the HELL can you make it through a theme park with 20 italians? I mean, who is going to be the leader? All 20 italians think that their plan is the best plan. and All 20 italians will argue about that until they die because they all know everything, right? Fifth: Since no 20 italians can agree when its a good time to get a hot dog or a soda it takes 2 hours just to get to the line for the ride, which will also have a 3 hour wait. so if you add that up it takes about 5 hours per ride so you might get to go on 2 rides, maybe 3 if one group of italians accidentally gets lost while going to the bathroom and you run to the next ride instead of waiting for them. lol. All in all I think we had good intentions, but I'll let you be the judge. I only have 3 pictures of theme park day, but I think you'll get the idea pretty quick. This is probably one of our million bathroom, drink, or smoke breaks that the day seemed to revolve around. Notice there is no smiling face to be found? Yet another break which I am apparantly thrilled about. I think this is the only group photo ever taken after theme park day and its hard to imagine after 12hours of treking through a theme park together that everyone appears to be smiling. Sorry some of the photos are weird, but most of my momento type stuff is still back at my parents house in utah, which is a hell of a long walk from ohio. lol. so these will have to do. The last picture is of My Christmas tree this year. I tried to do red and gold theme. I even bought solid red lights and white lights. The only problem is now you can't see what color any of the ornaments are cuz your blinded by red lights. lol. oh well. Live and Learn, right?