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1.29.2011

Oh, the Snow!!

 
The snow finally hit us.. 4 feet has fallen since Thursday and we 
are suppose to get more this coming week. It has warmed up a bit and we have taken full advantage.
 Being surrounded by the blanket of white snow is beautiful and incredibly peaceful. 


 


 

I confess.. we had a little photo-shoot while out on our walk. We just could not help ourselves. 


1.28.2011

Geo Art Date







Bear and I made a pact with each other for this (hopefully final) semester. The pact is that each weekend we do or see something that we have never done/seen while in New Jersey. 

This past weekend we went to the Geology museum on Rutgers campus. It was small and slightly under construction, but we had fun.  Lots of pretty rocks and minerals and some cool dinosaur bones. The Art museum happens to be right next door so we decided to stroll around there for awhile. In the kids section they had a mini table, probably because it is for children under the age of 10- on the table were colored pencils. The instructions said to draw a picture representing one of the pieces of art that you had seen in the museum. Bear and I plopped right on down in the mini chairs to draw us a pictures. Bear’s was good. 
We thought about asking if they would display it. 
After the art museum we headed out to lunch at our favorite Chinese noodle place. 
Later, we walked to the newly build bookstore and enjoyed the views of downtown. 

1.24.2011

Ryan Came

To the beach (or the Shore as we Jerseyans like to say) we went. 
Snow + ocean was mind boggling, especially for the floridians in the group!!   



Bear looking at something out in the deep blue sea.
 Ryan looking extremely entertained.!!



Ryan found snow that was covered with sand and thought it was AMAZING! 

It was pretty neat seeing all the snow on the beach. 
We walked along the shoreline until we got hungry.
 We ate at this yummy burrito place. 
We walked around the cute town of Long Branch. 

And then we got... 
DESSERT and a warm beverage.. 


This is my favorite place in New Jersey, seriously! 
It is called cake, bake, and roll. They have yummy drinks and fabulously amazing desserts, plus the decor is rad!  
 Ryan is such a sexy model!


The weekend was a lot of fun. 
Thank you to Ryan for traveling to NJ to visit. 
We love having you! 
More bullet points to the weekend are:
Homemade Pizza and a Bad movie. 
Listening to Ryan and Bear laugh downstairs until the wee hours of the morning.
Fireplace talks 
Garlic Bread and Chicken Wings 
Brainstorming Session 
Laughing 
Breakfast Bagels

1.17.2011

A Grad Student's Wife



Being the wife of a Grad Student is complicated. The road is long and very unpredictable.
Fellow grad students expect you, as the wife of an intelligent grad student, to care about their subject with the same amount of passion and increased use of difficult vocabulary words that they have.  I care about their topics but the increased use of large words makes it hard to fully understand what they are saying. Sometimes, due to my lack of vocabulary, I feel like they could be talking in a different language. At that point, I use the smile and nod technique. I try to stray the conversation away from academics and large words and start talking about a good recipe that I newly tried or how taking pictures is such an expression of art. I even once told a great story that I had recently read out of Glamour Magazine. Everyone seemed to do the smile and nod thing to me. I am not your typical Graduate Student’s Wife and I find most of the topics that they discuss to be rather hard to understand and quite frankly, boring.

When you are a wife of a grad student you host dinners, go to dinners, BBQ’s, and other social gatherings. You have to act really engaged when your husband starts talking about his research and you have to be ready at any moment to read, edit, and critique (fine line of criticizing his intellectual mind to analyzing a couple words) 30 pages of lots and lots of scholarly words. Why is it that when people write an intellectual scholarly paper they have to use so many big adjectives. Most academic papers are filled with a paragraph of thought mixed in with so many gigantic adjectives that you miss what the whole paper is even about.  Sometimes that is how I feel about hubby’s papers. But I realize this must mean that his paper must be extremely academically written (is that even a correct sentence?).

I admit, there are times when I daydream about what will be on Grey’s Anatomy or what I will be making for dinner at times of academic conversations between the hubby and I. However, I truly do love my hubby’s work and research. He is superb at what he does and I could not be a prouder wife. And somehow we make our differences in the intellectual area work really well.

The hubby has made it to the last semester of course work. Which means that this is the last semester that he has to take any classes. The next however many years will consist of teaching, researching, and writing his dissertation. This semester is supposed to be a little more relaxing then that past 5. And by relaxing I mean he now will have time to read lots and lots of books.  Again, I am so extremely proud of my HUBBY and all his determination and hard work. Cheers to him…

Cheers to the last semester of course work, and cheers to me and to all the wives of a graduate student - for dealing with the many up’s and down’s of higher education.


 This picture was taken when we first arrived to New Jersey 2 1/2 years ago. 

1.14.2011

Our Everyday Walk




 I realize that these are not the best of pictures but they are funny, so I had to share. 
Shento was jumping so high to get the snowballs we were throwing. 



It snowed the other day. 
Not as much as we were hoping, but at least it turned the ground white. 
The hubby and I took a walk in it. At our usual place by the river, besides this time it looked totally different. The only path was ones created by cross county skis and the trees were beautifully dressed in white sparkles. As much as I (sometimes) complain about going for walks at the same location ever day, I enjoy it. It is our time to be with each other. I need to start being more grateful that we have these opportunities together. 
Loves. 

1.12.2011

Family










It was cold.. oh so very cold!
But everyone was patient and stood outside for our family photo-shoot. 
We got a lot of cute ones and I can't wait to frame and hang them up. 

1.11.2011

Homemade Hot Chocolate



I started making this Hot Chocolate recipe at the start of this winter season
and it has now become a staple in our household. 
I make it in big batches and keep the mix in a canning jar so is ready whenever we are. 
If you are feeling creative you can always add more cinnamon or a candy cane to the Hot Chocolate. 
and Don't forget the whip cream on top. 

This recipe make roughly 5 1/2 cups

3 1/2 cups of sugar or splenda 
2 1/4 cups cocoa powder 
1 tablespoon table salt 
a pinch of nutmeg 
a pinch cinnamon

Whole Milk for serving

In a large bowl, combine sugar, cocoa, and salt. Whisk well. Store the mixture in an airtight container. 
For individual servings, pour 1 cup milk into a mug and microwave on high just until hot. I add about 2 tablespoons of the cocoa mix, and whisk or stir to dissolve (You can add more or less of the cocoa mix, depending on how you like your hot chocolate). 


The picture was taken from here.

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