Happy anniversary

       I am not a girl who "needs" flowers, but every once in a while, it's nice to receive them. Today is my 19th wedding anniversary and I wanted to show off the beautiful flowers my husband sent me.
Very sweet! Marriage can be a lot of work sometimes. These were a really nice surprise after taking the boys out to swim at a local river. Thanks, Matt!

Matt

   My husband, Matt, is another source of joy for me and my family. Honestly, we have not always had the easiest time, but I know that I am a really lucky woman to be married to such a great guy. One of the things that first attracted me to Matt was his willingness to share his faith with me. Over time, the biggest thing I'm most attracted to now is what a fantastic father he is. Being "the mean parent," I appreciate watching him goof around or have fun with the boys. (most times..lol) I love seeing them on the tire swing in the back yard, going off for a little bike ride, chasing each other around the yard- I even chuckled the other day when they were shooting each other with NERF guns around the house when I had a friend over for dinner. (Not a usual thing for me) In addition to this, Matt and I work opposite schedules so when I am at work, he is dealing with getting the kids to and from school, homework, dinner, etc. We have committed to eating dinner together every night so he makes dinner most times so he can get to work in time. He's a great cook. I also love that he is willing to grow with me. When I first met him, he was antisocial rather shy. Now, he seems much more comfortable with other people and dealing with my extroverted personality. I love how he makes people feel welcome in our home and that our boys have a great role model.

Blizzard mail

Blizzard!!!!

    Hello from snowy Massachusetts. We're supposed to get 16-24" of snow tonight, which is nothing compared to what some of my friends get for snow, but a lot for here. Here are some pictures of the storm right now:

 Timmy in action

 Matt, David and Timmy sledding in our side yard. (Well, Matt is pushing rather than sledding!)

 David.. who really flies with a good push.

 The side yard/driveway. We live next to a shop, hence the classy dumpster. Past the dumpster, next to the snowy truck, is a huge pile of lobster traps. A fisherman from Gloucester stores them here. (Just some random info. for you :) )

 Looking down toward the highway.

 Across the street.

 Timmy.

Timmy probably secretly hoping to run David over.

     I'll take more pictures for "after" shots.

Incoming....

    Only got 1 letter today. It was from Linda, a penpal from AL. I loved a little sticker she had on there.  It made my day.

  The other day I was super excited because Matt texted me that I got a package from Italy. I wasn't expecting a package from Italy so I was a bit surprised. In fact, I don't even have a penpal from Italy. I got home from work and rushed to my mail. I pulled open the package and found a postcard and a box. The postcard from Postcrosser Lamberto in Italy. (Impressive- he's the number 1 postcrosser in Italy for postcards sent and distance sent!) In addition to being a super postcrosser, he seems really nice. In addition to the postcard, there were 2 pairs of Timberland sunglasses in there. What a cool random act of mail kindness :)

Outgoing....

    What blizzard? Good thing John was working at the post office and waiting for me to come by. lol. (The post office is closed tomorrow here. No mail delivery I'm sure. Maybe this will make Monday and awesome mail day!) 
    Today I sent 3 Postcrossing postcards and care packages to soldiers 2 and 3. May I just say I hate customs forms for the military packages? Thanks. Here's the loot:

 I ran out of shipping tape so duct tape had to work for my top package. (That's a Month of Letter sticker on there too!)

Other...

    We tried the miso soup and Chinese noodles sent in the food swap. They were tasty. It's a good thing we have Ramen noodles because here were the directions:

 In Japanese, I believe it says: "Dear Jen, it's instant soup and noodles. Are you really trying to read the directions? Let me draw you a picture... dummy."  The pictures worked..lol.

      This was tasty. The noodles tasted different than the noodles that are in our similar noodles. I was also surprised that the miso soup flavoring was a liquid. Many times with instant foods in the US, the seasonings are dehydrated. My penpal Akiko said that the curry and the pasta sauce that was sent in the swap should be put in boiling water, heated in the package and then used on the food. Hmm... I'll try them all soon. Timmy wanted to try the soup and he really liked it too. (Tim says: "That soup was awesome- a little spicy but very yummy")

     In other notes, I just got a postable. If you'd like, please update your address for my online (secure) contact book.  A lot of people from A Month of Letters are using it. It will certainly make things easier if I'm trying to send a letter from school or something.
    
    Have I rambled enough yet? Maybe I'll go finish Ashley's letter (seriously) and write a few letters. 

Outgoing...

     I am doing an okay job of continuing to write, but I wanted to get some things in the mail so I didn't take pictures this time. The other day I mailed 5 Postcrossing cards-  4 to Russia and 1 to Germany. I also mailed a letter to Marianne in the Netherlands and a letter to adopted soldier #4.
    I have adopted 4 soldiers now through Adopt A US Soldier.  I send them mail weekly when I can, even if it's just a short hello- which it usually is since I don't always get replies so I'm unsure what to write. (That and penpal guilt.. lol) If any of my penpals want to write out a postcard to one of the soldiers, feel free to include it in your letter. I would just send it to whichever soldier is next. 

Incoming...

     Two goodies in my mailbox today:
BR-243221

This is 2 beaches of Brazil- Arpoador and Ipanema. Looks beautiful.  The stamps are of Jorge Amado, a Brazilian writer.

     The second envelope came from an address I didn't recognize so I was curious as to what was inside.

    I loved this pretty butterfly card. Inside was my first returned friendship book. If you don't know what a friendship book is, it's a little booklet where people write their addresses and if they're looking for new penpals, swappers, etc. and then pass it on to another penpal. When the book is full, they return it to the owner. This friendship book was made for me by someone in the Netherlands. It came back with 12 addresses. I'll send them all a postcard thanking them for writing in the booklet.

The 366 Project

Sent: 25
Received: 12 

Other...

    Contrary to the numbers above, I have not been inspired to write this week... at all. Timmy had a stomach bug on Saturday and throughout the long weekend. It passed to me yesterday and to Matt and David today. It has not been a fun week. (Though I do have to say how much I appreciate Matt this week. He has been working a lot so that I could rest and basically doing everything that needed to be done at home. He also had some not so pretty bathroom trips with David all through the night last night. So grateful.)   I hope to be feeling better this week since I have a concert tomorrow and have to bring kids to an audition on Saturday. This year has been a really bad year for illnesses. Is it the same in other states this year?
     I also saw that I have two more blog followers! I was very excited. Check out their blogs! Angie's and Marijke's    I love seeing what other people get in their mail too :)
    Ok, I'm off to try to write at least 1 letter tonight.

  

My night away

    So, on a personal note, my husband and I went away last weekend for a date night. (I put together a year's worth of date nights for his Christmas gift.  There will be one a month. This was the first.)  We went up to this bed & breakfast in Wakefield, NH. This was our 4th time there. We had gone for our anniversary one year when Matt's parents offered to take the kids for the night. The owner has been trained as a chef in France and makes incredibly delicious breakfasts.
     This was our room:

 A king sized bed would never fit in our apartment. This bed was so incredibly comfortable. The duvet and pillows were made of down feathers. The sheets were super expensive very high quality and soft.  It didn't hurt that I didn't have children trying to climb near me in the night/early morning.

      This is a day bed that is opposite to where the picture above was taken. The door on the right opens to the staircase in the last picture.

      Because I'm a nerd, I had to read the entire journal for the room. People from all over the world had stayed in our room and I came across this fantastic sketch. The view is what you would see from the window on the left side of the first picture.

      I'm not going to lie- I totally wanted to find some ink and write a letter with this old pen and inkwell. I restrained myself (though I know Ashley totally would've encouraged me to go for it!! lol).
                                            

    This is a super cool spiral staircase from the front door all the way to the 3rd floor. The 2nd floor had a stagecoach door where stagecoaches could unload to the 2nd floor. There is a whole gallery of brides who have had their picture taken on this staircase winding up the wall. Very cool.
     I wish I had taken a picture of breakfast, but I forgot. (More like I ate it before someone could snap a picture..  ha ha!) For starters we had a fruit cup with fresh strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe (I just seriously spelled cantaloupe wrong 5x. Wow.), red grapes, and bananas. I don't know how the fruit tasted so fresh in the middle of winter in New Hampshire but it was delicious.  Next came something that seemed like a Yorkshire pudding bowl (or popover type bread) filled with blueberry compote and a few slices of bacon. I also had a glass of cranberry juice.

    Matt has always enjoyed cooking so the reason I decided on this place for a date night is because there is an option to sign up for a cooking class.  We took a class with 4 other people. (Remind me to tell you about the older woman who hacked her chicken apart while we were learning how to quarter the chicken. I had a very difficult time not laughing as she ummm- mangled- her poor chicken carcass.)  We made a 5 course meal- simple bread, chicken glazed with honey and fig, mushroom bisque, butternut squash and cranberry risotto, followed by a chocolate mousse.
     After we cooked, the 6 of us sat down and shared a meal. I actually really enjoy sharing  meal with people. It was interesting to sit down with people who were basically strangers and conversing with them. One of the women was deaf.  She and I talked most actually.
     This is what our main dish looked like:

    This doesn't look so pale in person. The chicken was a golden brown. The dark things are figs. It wasn't bad. We got the recipes so maybe we can cook you the recipes we made sometime.

    No good mail for the past few days.  My 1st lip balm tag got to Finland and she liked it. 

   

Finnish Organic Onion Soup Review

     This summer I did an international food swap. (Check out the post on July 25th) I sent my food to Wales and I got a wonderful package from Finland. Tonight we ate the organic onion soup so I thought we'd write a family review for you. This is the soup we ate.

     As you can guess, it was simple to make. Boil water, add soup mix, wait- very easy. I was surprised a little bit that the soup mix kind of clumped up and floated (almost like balls of dough) while it was boiling but, other than that, it was pretty normal. Here's the finished soup.

    Nope, I don't know what the floaty things are.  Yes, I do have a chipped edge on my bowl.  The onions are minced which is different than a lot of the onion soups I see here. I don't think I've ever had yellow broth with an onion soup either. I've had a lot of French Onion soup that has a brown beef broth as a base.

Reviewers:
Matt (35)- likes to cook. Favorite method: throw a whole bunch of things together and make them somehow taste good.
     Matt says that the soup was "smooth, maybe a little too salty, but good."  I was going to snap a picture of him but I knew I was already pushing it by asking him to review the soup.

David (4)- Mr. Finicky. Favorite dinner conversation: "How many bites do I need to eat before I'm excused?" Favorite food: Turkey and cheese sandwich, no mayo.

     David says he "liked it" and that it tasted "like soup." He also says other people will like it "because it tastes like soup."

Timmy (6)- Mr. I'll Try Anything I'm Not Deathly Allergic To. Favorite food: Broccoli with cheese on it.

 (Action shot)

     Timmy says "I think it was good, a little. It had too much sliced up onions." He did not finish his bowl but he didn't mind trying it.

Jen (me- I'm 34)  I like to cook too. I've been on a diet recently so I've been sticking to some easy healthy recipes. I thought 59 calories for a bowl of soup was very reasonable! Favorite cooking method: Sticking to the recipe- ALL the time. I'm actually getting better at making my own choices, substituting, etc. Thanks to Matt's inspiration I've also just tried throwing a few combinations together.
     I thought the soup was good. It was a little thicker than I thought. When you spooned some soup up it almost looked like there were layers, like the soup might have gelatin in it or something, but it didn't taste gooey.  The soup was tasty but I think I prefer the broth of the American French Onion soup a little more.  This felt like it was missing something but I couldn't figure it out. It was definitely lower sodium than the soup we have here.  I didn't think it was salty like Matt did.


    This was fun. I should make it a reoccurring thing! Do you have a food we should try?  Feel free to send it along. (Timmy is deathly allergic to cashews, pistachios and pumpkin so it can't contain those!)  Recipes would also be fun.

Back from vacation!

    On a personal note, my family went on vacation last week. We went to Ocean City, New Jersey where we stayed with Matt's parents and got to visit with family we don't get to see often. After spending Saturday through Tuesday playing in the sun and sand (and me getting sunburned...as usual), spending time with family we don't get to see all the time, and a lot of walking we traveled to the Poconos in Pennsylvania. In PA we stayed at The Great Wolf Lodge.  This was a perfect place for us to stay with the kids. There was an indoor water park, a few restaurants, an arcade, a small bowling alley, etc.  We all had a blast. It was a bit of a splurge for us but I think we would do it again.


Highlights of the vacation:
- Spending time with Matt, Lowell and Barbara, Nate/Anne and "the cousins", Matt's grandmother, Uncle Rob and Aunt Paula.
- Watching the boys play in the waves at Ocean City.
-Discovering David loves scary water slides
- Timmy becoming a Master Magi in MagiQuest
- Sitting around having "everyday moments" and taking the time to really appreciate them.
Here are some pics:

Timmy:

David "surfing":

 Our family with Gigi:

What we look like in our free time:

 My family :)  We were on a timer. David didn't quite make the ideal pose.

 Brothers

 Why Timmy should never grow a mustache:

 So, after a few days of working on this and procrastinating since I could not finish everything I wanted to put in this post, I've decided to break it up a little.  Next post- Packages I received while on vacation!