We're Engaged!

Two days ago, Ryan and I were finally able to celebrate our 7th anniversary! The actual day was December 19th, but if you have read our last couple of posts, you will recall a blizzard that dropped nearly 2 feet of snow on our anniversary, thus altering our plans. We had tickets to see ICE at the National Harbor and were able to change them to the 28th.

Our revised celebration began shakily with me falling asleep while watching a movie on the DVR and meeting Ryan at work about 45 minutes to an hour later than I should have. It became shakier when our directions to get to the Harbor weren't very clear and we missed multiple turns and off-ramps, going even further off schedule. To make things even worse, we were slightly speeding to make up time and got caught by an evil camera! Horrible start, as you can see!

After arriving at the Harbor and waiting in line to pick up our tickets and then go in to ICE, we finally shook off the bad start and were amused by the following sign which was displayed everywhere:


Do I even have to describe how often we pictured "A Christmas Story" and how tempting this was? It was nine degrees inside so there was no way I was going to do it... but I was thinking it!

Here are some more awesome pictures from ICE!

They give you parkas so you don't freeze and are able to ride the slide! This is our last picture together as boyfriend and girlfriend!!




How romantic!

You know how much I love penguins!


Ice slide!

What do you want for Christmas little boy? Courage!



Ice nativity scene.


When we had successfully been turned into human popsicles, we left ICE and walked over to the convention center to see what else was going on, take in more of the sites, and find a place to eat dinner. Inside the convention center hung a huge candy glass Christmas tree:

They also had a nice train set on display:


We didn't find a place to eat inside, so we ventured out into the 18 degree wind chill to find another restaurant and decided to eat at McCormick and Schmick's. We forgot people still have visitors in town! Every restaurant had an hour wait! We were very lucky to find a seat at the bar and enjoy some tasty dinner. There was a huge tree in front of the restaurant that reminded us of the tree at Disneyland. It looked so beautiful on the Potomac River bank with the lighted boats in the harbor and Virginia skyline in the background.

On our way out of the restaurant we decided to take a few minutes to admire the tree.

Out in the freezing cold, in a beautiful location, after seven years and nine days, Ryan proposed!! Of course I immediately started to bawl and enthusiastically replied "yes"!! This is our first picture as future husband and wife:


We're getting married and we can't wait!!

Historic Storm (After the Storm)

Our blizzard was pretty awesome! I know that's probably not the best thing to say about an extreme weather event, but before now, we'd only experienced one blizzard in Mammoth while we were on vacation. It's a regular occurrence to have blizzards way up in the Sierra Nevadas, but not here in Maryland! We ended up with between 20 and 22 inches of snow... on our anniversary! We woke up on the 19th to about 6 to 8 inches of snow and another 12 to 14 fell throughout the day which meant we had to reschedule our anniversary plans for tomorrow, but we got to enjoy the day being snowed in together. By early afternoon, we literally were snowed in. The trains stopped running on the outdoor tracks which means they were stopping about 6 miles before reaching our stop! Plus, our truck isn't all wheel drive and the streets couldn't be plowed fast enough, so we weren't able to drive anywhere either!

Here's our patio, after all the snow fell. Ryan wiped off the table and then the winds blew away what landed on it, but there's at least 20 inches on the ground.


Our neighbor's roof.


The front of our building.


I decided to walk to work after Ryan and I had this conversation... Ryan: "I think the roads are ok, I'll drive you to work." Renee: "It's ok, I think it will be safer to walk." Ryan: "I want to get out though, I'll drive you." Renee: Sits down to watch the news... "Hey! There's a car stuck on the side of the road just outside our building!" Ryan: "Nevermind, you can walk."




Ryan figured out how to build a tower with a storage bucket.


It later became a snowman!


A seven-foot tall snowman!


Our trains didn't start running again until the 21st, so it ended up being a pretty awesome snowed-in weekend.

Historic Storm (Halfway through the storm)

We are caught in the midst of an historic storm, trapped together in the house experiencing our first "White Anniversary"! We are getting so much snow, it looks like we'll have our first "White Christmas" too!!

The first forecasts which I read Thursday night predicted only 5 inches of snow, which is no big deal at all. I went to work Friday without checking the weather thinking it would be a normal, pre-Christmas Friday in retail, but it was no normal Friday! We were swarmed with people! I thought, maybe people didn't want to be out in the snow Saturday, so they were getting their shopping done a day early, but then realized people were in a shopping panic! The latest forecasts predicted up to 2 FEET of snow between Friday night and Sunday morning! Ahh!

Three thoughts crossed my mind after coming to this realization: 1) we have to cancel our anniversary plans because they involved driving about forty five minutes during the height of the blizzard both ways, 2) I now have to grocery shop because we were planning on eating out all day and I had nothing for dinner, and 3) that much snow is going to be freaking awesome!

So, we changed our anniversary plans. We will now be enjoying dinner and "ICE!" at the National Harbor on the Monday after Christmas. Today, we are playing in the snow and watching movies instead.

I went to the grocery store last night to get some stuff for us to eat this weekend since we would be snowed in and was shocked by the number of cars in the parking lot. I have never seen Giant to crowded! Even the day before Thanksgiving! Inside was an absolute zoo! I literally could not find a banana!! I got the last zucchini! And, poor Ryan, is stuck having veggie burgers with me because they were completely out of ground turkey as well as 80% of their other meats. It was crazy! When I finally got out of the store, it was beginning to snow and it was sticking immediately.

At 11 pm last night, there was probably a half an inch of snow on our patio, maybe an inch at the most. When we awoke this morning, we already had a good six inches! By the time we got outside to play, after Ryan took care of seeing to all of his employees and eventually closing all of his stores for the day, we had 8 inches on our patio table and 10 inches on the ground! That was around 11 this morning and it just keeps on snowing.

This is a historic storm because this area has never had this much snow fall in one storm in December, it has been 6 or 7 years since we have had nearly as much snow, and when you think about it, it's still only autumn! Winter doesn't begin until next week! Around us, everything is closed. Even the Metro is only running at their underground stations, so we are pretty much stranded! Our station is above ground. The roads are really bad because there aren't enough snow plows for the area and the snow is just falling too fast, so cars are sliding off roads and left stranded all over the place. Ryan and I are happy to be cozy inside, well, and outside playing in the snow!! We tried to build a snowman, but the snow is still too powdery. It sure is beautiful!

No Cali for Christmas

Well, this is going to be the first time Ryan and I don't spend Christmas with our friends and family in California. We're really bummed we don't get to be home for our typical traditions but are looking forward to starting some of our own. Flights were just so expensive this year! Way more than last year for the two of us! With the cost of flights, my decreased income, and our work schedules, it just seemed less stressful to stay here this year. We're going to miss eating dinner on the patio at my mom's, our seven seafood stew at Ryan's parents, wrapping up the holiday with my Dad, and seeing all of our friends, but we should be in California in February for Ryan's 30th birthday! We're keeping our fingers crossed for our first white Christmas! We do have snow in the forecast for next weekend and it already happened last week, so it just might happen!

Thanksgiving Week

I'm taking a break from my Christmas decorating to write a quick blog about our fabulous Thanksgiving week. The weekend before Thanksgiving was awesome! We are happy to be so close to New York and Ryan's extended family because we were able to attend a special party for his grandpa who very nearly died 50 years ago in a horrible car accident. The party was a celebration of his life and the family triumphs then and thereafter. I was able to meet all of the rest of Ryan's family except one uncle and his family, and it is not easy to meet them all because Ryan's dad is one of 7 brothers and sisters! We didn't take any pictures, but hopefully Aunt Irene will email them to us. The party was very sweet and I got to see the beach community where his grandparents live and where Ryan played when he was a little kid. I also learned that it is a Joyce legacy that our children must be good swimmers but if not, it's acceptable to be baseball players!

After the party, we went into Manhattan to walk around and get some dessert. We walked along 5th Avenue, saw the unlit Rockefeller Christmas tree and had a delicious dessert at Dylan's Candy Bar. It was fun to go to Dylan's Candy Bar because there was a recent episode of Dinner Impossible filmed there and we love that show. We stayed with more of Ryan's family that night and the next day, on our drive home, stopped in South Jersey to have lunch with my sister Stacy. Stacy was supposed to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us, but I ended up working every day that weekend so we made sure to spend some time with her on our way home. It's always nice when I have a chance to catch up with my sisters!



Now that I'm working retail, I worked the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving as well as every day of Thanksgiving weekend, including Black Friday, which wasn't as bad as we anticipated... good for our sanity, bad for the economy. Thankfully, Ryan and I had Thanksgiving Day to ourselves, to just be at home in our jammies. He played video games while I cooked up a feast: deviled eggs, salad, mashed potatoes, corn bread, baked squash, stuffing, turkey breast for him, and a gingerbread pumpkin trifle for dessert. It was pretty delicious! Even though I made a lot, it was a relaxing day. I'm very thankful for that!



Happy Holidays!

Writing Blog

I deleted it today. Even though Ryan wholeheartedly believes my destiny is to be a writer, he's not in my head when I'm supposed to be writing. Maybe one day I will write something, but it will have to be something that doesn't torture me in the process. Right now, writing for "fun" hurts my soul! Really, it's like torture. Maybe one day something will come along that inspires me.

November's half over already?!

Where has the time gone?! I need to catch up on October!! Ryan's been working his butt off as usual and I've been working hard at applying for full time jobs and keep myself occupied so I don't go stir crazy! Here's what we were up to in October...

The weekend before Halloween, I was able to head down to Virginia to spend the weekend with Averi, Max, and the kids, Kalee and Bear. It was great to be able to cook dinner with Averi and Kalee, celebrate Averi being cancer-free (and doing wonderfully) with vegan cupcakes and spiced tea, and chat the night away with good old friends! We spent the following day sight-seeing in Colonial Williamsburg which was just awesome! You all know I'm a history nerd so I would have been in heaven going through it all on my own, but it was so much better seeing it all through the eyes of a curious six-year-old. Kalee was my sweet little student all day. Spending the day with everyone brought me so much joy, it was so hard to leave!


An old, old cemetary!


A Kalee monkey on my back to see the live history over the crowd.


Showing Kalee what different kids might have carried with them in colonial times. One child was a drumming soldier, one a slave, another an aristocrat.


Averi and me.

The week before Halloween, Ryan and I were able to sneak away to a pumpkin patch and it was the Disneyland of pumpkin patches! It had a live music (a guitarist was playing "Puff the Magic Dragon" as we walked in), hot cider, a corn "maze", tractor rides, farm animals (including llamas), slides, a swinging rope, and, of course, a cornucopia of squash and pumpkins! We really wished we had a kid to enjoy it all with! We picked out two great pumpkins for carving and got two little ones to accessorize the big ones. We had a fun night carving them on Halloween eve and received lots of compliments from our trick-or-treaters on Halloween. They especially loved Ryan's! I do feel bad for disappointing my trick-or-treaters though. Ryan suggested I look for something a little healthier to give out this year and I thought it was a great idea because I was unable to eat chocolate because of the vegan study, so I got mini bags of pretzels. We set them up on a little table right inside the door and were shocked when we heard kids coming up to the door and continue walking right on by saying, "that's not candy!!" Oh, no! We knew it be a disappointing night if all kids felt that way, so we closed the door! I feel so bad for disppointing the kids, but I bet moms loved me!!



The bridge rocked side to side! I'm carrying hot apple cider! Yum!


A prized pumkin!




The wine was making me happy, therefore my pumpkin was happy!


Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater!

Autumn Picnic

I have a couple of Autumn posts to catch up on. We've had a lot of fun so far! A few weeks ago, we went on a picnic at Fletcher's Cove on the Poyomac River. It was one of our last gorgeous weekends for the year and a great time to be outdoors. We were so fortunate to choose the day we did because two weeks later, the temperature took a nosedive to the low 40s! Here are some pics from our gorgeous picnic:


All vegan and homemade! We're so cute!