Election Day 2010

This may be shocking…but it definitely made me chuckle when I was voting.

This morning as I stood at the voting both I cracked a smile, particularly when I read the names of some of the parties listed under Lieutenant Governor and Congressional Representative. And then I laughed. Out loud. Really? Is that legal?
Only in Rhode Island. 

Oh, and yes, that is a straight party voting option. In Rhode Island you can check a box at the beginning of the ballot to vote for all candidates of one party. It’s quite controversial to say the least. 

In the Meantime…

Okay, so it seems that I’m struggling with regularly updating two blogs.

I think it’s safe to say you should check in on our 365 blog more regularly than this beloved one:( Hopefully soon I’ll be back and full of zest and fabulous stories. But in the mean time, stay in the loop at http://portraitofthepiersons.blogspot.com/
[Note: Yes, I realize I’m over a month behind. I’m working on it.]

Spotlight on Shephard’s

Check it out!

Our photographer did a fun little overview of our reception site. You might even see yourself in the pics:)

http://pilsterphotography.blogspot.com/2010/05/outside-ballroom-shephards-beach-resort.html

Quick Update

My mom came into town for the weekend. We had a great time tasting lobster rolls, enjoying the sunshine, and relaxing.

Hope your weekend was fabulous as well!

Check out the 365 blog for more updates on our daily happenings. And eventually a weekend recap from this weekend:) I should mention there is a multi-week delay in postings. My goal is real-time postings, but I'm not quite there yet.

Day Trip through RI

(Day 71)

Saturday.

Adventure day.

We’re working on being more adventurous and spontaneous.
Last month Andrew had to work in the morning at a conference at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. So we spent the afternoon driving around southern Rhode Island and exploring a few towns.

We had heard of Point Judith on the Discovery Channel’s Lobster Wars and wanted to check out the lobster boats. We also wanted to visit two towns named Galilee and Jerusalem. Who wouldn’t?

So we did. We took pictures. Searched for good seafood. And hung out at the beach. And froze:)

New England beaches are very different than Florida ones. Lots of rocks and little sand.

 

Andrew played with the camera.

View Full Album

 

We drove around checking out the cottages, summer rentals (trailers), and restaurants. We found a lighthouse (not pictured; it was behind fencing and a Dept of Homeland Security sign) and parking area and took some more pictures.

 

You can’t really tell from this picture, but this is a steep cliff into the water.

 

Then we hit the jackpot. Point Judith fishing boats and lobster pots.

 

The streets had hilarious and nautical names.

View Full Album

 

After we ate a seafood snack at Champlin’s in Galilee we embarked on the drive home. We decided to take the scenic route US 1 (which runs from Key West to Maine). And we decided that Andrew should practice his driving skills with the manual transmission, so he drove.

 

I was the worst navigator because I was paying too much attention to teaching and not enough attention to the map. We got lost. US 1-A took us a bit too scenic for our liking. We needed to go north, not due east. And we got frustrated. And hit traffic. So we switched drivers.

 

But not before passing through the famous Narragansett brick arch. Okay. So it’s probably not that famous. Just to us. When Andrew was visiting a while back we were driving down a road in Providence at night and he insisted that we drive straight. He said he saw a brick arch and wanted to know what was under it. So we drove. About 500 feet later we realized it was just a dense tree canopy and not actually a brick arch. Unfortunately, being new to the city, I didn’t realize the road I was driving on immediately merged onto a highway and bridge crossing over to the next town. We got lost. And now we have a new found fondness for real brick arches.

And that was our Saturday. Nothing too exciting, but we got to explore some new territory.

Time for A Change

 

Let’s play a game called….

 

What is this?

 

 

A hint.

 

 

Yep. That’s my ponytail. Pretty gross, huh?

 

I cut off 10 inches to donate to Locks of Love.

 

 

I’m not sure why it seems so gross when it’s not attached to your head anymore, but it does.

 

The new do.

Sometimes it’s okay to dump it

This conversation just occurred:

[Kim walks into the kitchen]

Andrew: “Bad news. The milk went bad.” [Referring to our two week old chocolate milk from the local dairy via the milk man. The milk that’s not supposed to last more than 7-8 days.]

Kim: “Really? I thought it might have. Did it smell bad?”

Andrew: “Foul.”

Kim: “Oh… I’m sorry. Wait, didn’t you just drink some last night? Was it bad then?”

Andrew: “Don’t know.”

Kim: [Looking into the sink at the empty milk bottle] “So did you pour it down the drain?”

Andrew: [Pauses] “No.”

Kim: “WHAT?! Did you drink it?!” [Assuming the obvious answer is no]

Andrew: [Sheepishly] “Yes”

Kim: [Silent shock]

Andrew: [Proudly] “Hey, you’re living with a man now. We assume every meal is our last”

Kim: “Seriously? I have to go blog about this.”

Andrew: “Tell them I drank rancid milk.”

Much About Nothing

So I just got home from work.

Andrew is still working.

I don’t feel like starting on the stir-fry.

So I’m eating chocolate chip cookies and milk. Yep. That’s right. And to be honest, I’ll probably not be hungry when it’s time for dinner. Good thing it’s not Tuesday. I feel fine eating this tonight. But on a Tuesday, before an episode of Biggest Loser, not a chance. I’d be eating my cookies with a big fat slice of guilt on the side. Who could watch people work that hard to get healthy and in shape while nibbling away at greasy wafers of sugar and chocolate?

Yea. Wafers. That’s right. The cookies are pretty thin. We had a bit of a baking mishap last night. We’re still not sure what happened. We’ve used the recipe many times before. I’m sure a picture or two will make it up on the Picture Blog. And we’ll be the butt of your jokes, but it’s okay. They taste good.

Well, when I get caught up that is. I’m super behind on my blog postings and I hate that. I have all these pictures and no time. But that’s a good thing. We’re busy getting the apartment ready for Andrew’s parents’ visit this weekend. Gotta make a good impression with the in-laws, right? Can’t let them think they married their son off to a woman who can’t clean or cook! In which case, these cookies should be hidden or destroyed. Nah, just eaten:) They deserve to be loved just like everyone else.

Traffic is a nightmare. There is a new traffic light between my office and our apartment and it’s all the rage. Road rage, that is. Well, to me at least. I told myself I’d start walking again just so I can get home and not want to run someone over. I stopped walking. Did I mention that? No. Of course not. Well, between the cold and the rain and meetings, I haven’t walked in weeks. But this new light. It’s enough to get me walking. Plus it should be warming up soon.

Our neighbors downstairs are Swiss. They speak French. They have three little boys. We have a French school in our neighborhood so they don’t speak much English. They try to talk to me in English and I try to talk to them in French. But I don’t know French. It doesn’t always go so well, but we tell each other our names about every other day. It’s sweet. Right now they are singing at the top of their lungs in French. Not sweet. 

What else? We went to a Red Sox game this weekend. The Rays swept the series. It was fun to see my hometown team and my current town team. Except everyone in the stadium was a Sox fan. And I was stuck in the middle.

Oop. Andrew’s home. Gotta run! Time to pretend I was cooking all evening:) JK. He sees me sitting here. With the cookies and milk. Busted.

Bye!

PS He brought home donuts! Stolen from work probably. Yay! Now we’re really gonna feel guilty next Tuesday.

When Emy Was In Town

(Day 64)

When Emy was in town we kept her entertained, fed, and busy.

We:

 

Relaxed.

 

Made delicious homemade waffles (actually Andrew did).

 

Played Wii.

 

Visited a Cape Verdean Museum.

 

 

Walked the cliffs along the beach.

 

Played in a tunnel.

And by we, I mean, we told Andrew he looked like a rapper and had to entertain us.

 

  

   

 

Then I played on the rocks while Andrew took pictures.

View Full Album

Spontaneous

This is quite out of character, but yesterday morning (a work morning in the 6:00 or 7:00 hour) Andrew and I sat across from each other with our dueling laptops and spontaneously bought tickets for two concerts.

One is Michael Bublé, which was less spontaneous and much more in character for us. We love him. We used to play his CDs in grad school while cooking and eating dinner together. We played lots of his songs at our reception. And we're excited.

The other: Three Dog Night. Yep. That's right. We'll be the only ones under 55 there. And that's okay. We're still excited. I saw they were coming to RI and had been to a concert of theirs as a kid with my mom (probably kicking and screaming the whole way) so I threw the idea out there. Andrew and I have major problems when it comes to music, so this is a big deal! I like country and 80s. He likes disco and blues. We can basically just agree on oldies and big band stuff, which isn't always ideal to listen to. It's tough for both of us to go on a long ride together. We should get a second car just so we can caravan and jam to our own music. Or use headphones with iPods. I guess that would be the cheaper option, but not terribly safe. Isn't it illegal to drive with headphones on or something? Anyway. Three Dog Night kinda falls in the middle for us. I'm familiar with it. It still meets Andrew's pre-1979 criteria. And we both might enjoy ourselves. Now I just have to convince him that he'd have the best time in the world at a Kenny Chesney concert.

I think we should do a little research and dress for the Three Dog Night concert so we can fit in. What type of followers do they have? Hippies? That could be fun.

And I should note, both are at casinos. One in Rhode Island. One in Connecticut. For some reason all of the venues in Southern New England are event centers at Casinos. Oh well. Maybe we'll just have to play a hand or two of Blackjack:) Ha. Who are we?

Our life as of late

What have we been up to and where the heck have we been?

Andrew has been working a lot. His projects have kept him busy. We’re pretty thankful about that because his job started as part-time and now he’s working over 30 hours a week.

He also turned a year older and a year handsomer so we celebrated for a whole week (well, almost). The week started with good intentions. Food. Lots of food. Particularly, food that Andrew loves.

The theme of the week was:
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach

It’s his favorite thing to quote to me so I took him literally and wooed him all week with his favorite foods.

We had breakfast, lunch and dinner plans daily. Bacon & eggs, homemade blueberry muffins, Swedish pancakes with lingonberries, etc. But by the time Friday morning rolled around it took all I had just to roll out of bed, let alone make a fun breakfast. (Andrew gets up way earlier than I do so I had to get up early all week to get the breakfast made on time.) He also got a different present each day. Nothing too fancy—lamps, throw pillows, a giant clock, tools—mostly stuff we were going to get anyway for the apartment, but it saved him from making the dreaded trips to Target and Home Goods. What a kind wife:)

And then we got a Wii. That was the big present on Friday. We were planning on getting one, so when I saw one I just snagged it up. For some reason, they’re still hard to find and it’s not even December!

Emy came to visit. That was fun. We ran around Rhode Island and made lots of food and kept her distracted from her thesis by playing Wii all the time. But that will be covered in another post. Probably a photo essay on the Pierson’s Blog.

And me? What have I been doing? Trying to catch up. I seem to always feel behind. I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep, my BSF homework, reading, writing blogs, relaxing, etc. But hey, that’s life. If I was all caught up I’d be bored.

Well, that’s our quick Saturday update. We took the day off from all things stressful and have lounged around all day. It was glorious. Now we’re off to finish Lawrence of Arabia. Yep. That’s right. We still haven’t finished. You try to watch a 4-hour movie and see if you can stay awake:) Just don’t tell the Savage’s. It’s their movie. We borrowed in in August. Oops!

Friday @ 9pm EST

Have you seen the ABC show Food Revolution?
Andrew and I saw this TED video about a month ago and were really impacted by it. It caused us to evaluate our knowledge, understanding, and views towards food. The video is very interesting. It’s about 20 minutes, but worth viewing.

Jamie Oliver (former TV chef) won the 2010 TED Prize for his desire to transform the way Americans eat. His goal is to educate youth to prevent obesity and his project in Huntington, West Virginia, is the impetus for the show.
It’s so interesting to Andrew and I. We’re interested in food and health and we can totally relate since it wasn’t that long ago that we were in school. I remember high school having two options everyday: pizza and something else. 4 out of 5 times, I would choose pizza. It just tasted so good. The most popular items at Andrew’s high school were cheese fries and giant chocolate chip cookies (which were only $0.40—he got one everyday).
I’m also excited to see such an important issue resonate with people, cause them to evaluate their lives, and create a little buzz on both the Associated Press and on blogs. 
Food Revolution. Think about tuning in this Friday.
Jamie Oliver’s Wish
“I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

Coming soon!

Plan for tomorrow: update both blogs:)

Stay tuned!

Birthday Blues

Andrew has a birthday coming up and I'm not sure what to get him.

I had seen a really cute sketch from a photo on a blog a few weeks ago and thought it would be the perfect post-wedding present. I even founds tons of other people who do exactly that on Etsy so I could choose my favorite medium and give him an original piece of art of one of our favorite wedding pictures. But I panicked. I didn’t know which picture to choose and I wanted to pick his favorite. So I told him. And I'm back at square one.

Plus, I put a lot of pressure on myself. He's such a thoughtful gift giver. Do you remember the gifts he’s given me? The 12 Days of Kimberly. The milk box I wanted for months. Paper dolls with my head super imposed on them… Um, did I ever tell you about that? No I didn’t. I intentionally kept it to myself for Andrew’s protection. This past year for my birthday he wanted to buy me clothes, but he didn't know what to get. So instead he superimposed my head onto a paper doll and printed it out. Then he went to all these websites and downloaded pictures of clothes options for me, cropped them and shrunk them to fit the paper doll. It was so thoughtful and adorable. I still haven’t taken that shopping spree, so he really won with that deal!:)

Then there is the wedding gift. Did I ever tell you about that? Probably not. I try to keep my bragging to a minimum. No one likes reading a blog and then feeling crappy about their life afterwards. He made me this picture:

He walked the cold streets of Providence in the dead of winter to find these “letters” and make this collage! Again, thoughtful.

And then there are my gifts. Books. Shirts & ties. A baseball hat. A robe. So lame, so un-original. I feel like I'm flying through life by the seat of my pants and can’t find the down time to come up with something fantastic. Now it's even tougher to find time to be creative, thoughtful, and sneaky because we're married and always together. And don’t get me started on buying it. I’ve added more pressure to myself in that area. Now that our money is our money I feel anxious that I’ll spend too much on something he doesn’t really want, which ultimately comes back to kick him in the butt because it’s his money too! Ha. All the petty things I worry about.

Well, I think I have an idea of what I’m going to do for him. Obviously, I can’t tell you yet since he reads this, but I’m sure it’ll be documented with photos on our other blog. His birthday is Wednesday.

Coffee Filters

Are you aware of all the uses for a coffee filter?

For Christmas, Andrew’s grandparents put on a little show called Our Favorite Things. It was very similar to what Oprah does and was hilarious. They listed off some of their favorite things from 2009 and then at the end each grandkid/couple got one of everything!

This list included things like a face scrub brush, digital meat thermometer, Footsie roll slip-ons, a baster brush, electric wine opener, etc.

And coffee filters accompanied with a list of 25 uses for coffee filters.

# 7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.

Andrew and I remembered and filtered our fondue frying oil.

Cookie Cutters

Remember those cookies we decorated the other night?

We were making my mom Get Well cookies, but I couldn’t tell you that or post pictures of the cookies because it would ruin the surprise. We used new cookie cutters I had just gotten from William Sonoma. I saw them on a few blogs last month and happened to see them when I was in the store and couldn’t resist them.

I should mention that the cookie cutters were not easy to use. The dough stuck to the letters making the cookies less than attractive. Next time we’ll use more flour on each letter each time we press them on the cookies. This is Andrew’s not happy face. (Not very intimidating, but I promise, he was actually really irritated and distressed)

This is Andrew’s reason why. Exhibit A. Giant hole in cookie.

Fortunately all turned out well in the end. We just used the cookie cutter to make the outer shape of the cookie and then pressed the letters on individually with our hands instead of in the fancy cookie cutter like you’re supposed to.

We could only fit so many into an envelope for my mom so we got the extras:) A fun one Andrew put in my lunch:

Others we ate while watching the Olympics with friends:

PS My mom’s cookies were more exciting that just “I Love You” over and over. She got:

Get Well Nancy
Miss You
I Love You Mom
Get Well Soon
and my personal favorite, Surgery Sucks (originally misspelled as Surgey Sucks, thanks to yours truly)

As for me and my feet, we’ll be walking

As Andrew and I were debriefing our days over dinner I was telling him about things I had read.

1. I saw this blog. She is one of my favorites. Always great photos. Always encouraging stories. Always wise words. She mentioned Lent. But I thought, “nah.”
2. Then my co-worker sent my this video. It’s about educating children so they will eat healthier. Did you know that we’re the first generation to have shorter life expectancies than our parents? I had forgotten that fact until Jamie Oliver reminded me of it. Sad. I’m actually working on a Dept of Health obesity prevention initiative so I really enjoyed the video. It got me thinking about eating healthier and exercising more. And then I felt guilty about the tacos I was planning to make for dinner.
3. Then I saw this title and it said: Simple Green: Go on a Carbon Fast. “Ah ha!” I thought. “I should give up driving to work for the next 40 days! It’ll be healthier for me, greener for the environment, and a daily sacrifice!”
4. Then I saw this article about the green dilemma and my plan was solidified. I didn’t want to be the person saying one thing and doing another.

So there you have it. An idea was born. I’ll be forgoing driving to work for the next 40 days. In all honesty, I should be doing it anyway. I live a half mile from work. But with the cold weather, rain, snow, wind, construction, tardiness, etc. it’s easy to make up excuses to drive.

Andrew patiently listened and tried to follow as I bounced between my million thought processes and findings that led me to my conclusion. I think we have conversations like this a lot. Me talking about one thing that was derived from a dozen little bunny trails. Andrew looking at me with a blank stare saying: “Wow, I don’t know how your brain works that much.”

He decided that he’d give up his late night snack. He said he loves to stick his hand into the candy jar right before he brushes his teeth. It’s not good for his teeth he decided.

Our conversation ended with me saying, “Ugh! 40 days. That’s how long it takes to form a habit! By the end of this you won’t want candy before bed and I will enjoy walking!”

We laughed.

And he said, “Ugh. Great. We’ll be greener and healthier people?!”

A New Venture

I know that I struggle to post regularly as it is, but I’ve gone and added more to my plate:) Before I tell you what it is, I’ll tell you that I think this new addition will be enjoyable, not terribly time-consuming, and fun to look back on in a year. I’ve started another blog!

It’s sort of a Project 365 blog, but I’m going into it with the expectation that I won’t actually accomplish all 365 days. 

You can read the first post here and then Days 1 through 31. I wasn’t able to post all of the days until yesterday, so unfortunately I’m forcing you to back track and read them in reverse order. Sorry! But now  that I’m caught up it will be updated regularly:)

I hope you enjoy a little glimpse into our lives! We won’t always be exciting, but we’ll always be here!

Check it out!

Just What She Always Wanted!

I realize this post is about 2 months late, but the point of it isn’t about Christmas. It’s updating you on our excitement from last week.
Andrew and I celebrated Christmas early since we spent Christmas in Illinois.
Here is Andrew patiently waiting for me:

We decided that since it was a pretty informal Christmas we'd just wrap everything with newspaper to be more green friendly:D We definitely got black ink everywhere!

I was very excited for the giant box! Check out the adorable bow Andrew made out of newspaper. I was so impressed with him.

Yep. I savored it. I don't know why I opened it so carefully. This is right before I opened the box and saw a gray metal top with hinges on one side. I totally thought he got me a filing cabinet for Christmas, which oddly, I was really okay with. In fact, I was pretty pumped to start organizing! I was only bummed that it wasn't black--We planned to have a black office so I wasn't sure why he had gotten me a gray filing cabinet.  You know you're getting old when you're excited about completely fine with receiving a filing cabinet as a gift.

Well, before anyone starts thinking I married a total loser, I'll let you know it was not a filing cabinet at all. It was A MILK BOX. Yep, you read that right. A milk box. Munroe Dairy to be exact!

In Rhode Island we have access to multiple dairies that still do milk delivery. We log in online, choose our groceries for the week, and the milk man delivers them in the morning!! How cool is that? I have a milk man! (FYI he is actually a man so I’m not just being politically incorrect).
I am such a proud owner of this box. Into which the milk man places things like this:

Or local bread, cheese, butter, etc. I couldn't be more excited.
All of that to tell you that Andrew and I have a milk man. It only takes 24 to 36 hours to get the milk from the moo to you! So if you come visit and we feed you cereal for breakfast, know that it’s the freshest you can get:)
Also, this was part of the Christmas week I mentioned a few weeks ago. We had the most exciting week!
As I also previously mentioned, we’ve experienced the learning curve of getting back into a routine, settling back in at work, adjusting to marriage, unpacking, organizing (still no filing cabinet), etc. In this process, we decided to order our groceries online to have them delivered. Peapod is surprisingly affordable. 6-10 bucks flat delivery fee and they’ll get your groceries for you, bag them, and carry them up your stairs to the kitchen. Who wouldn’t pay that to avoid spending 2 hours at the grocery, loading and unloading the car, and then carrying them up flights of stairs?! So Monday night we were elated to have our groceries delivered! Elated partly because it was such a relief to not go, partly because we didn’t have to go out in the cold, and partly because we had probably been home for a few weeks without going grocery shopping yet! This was a great way to start the week.

Tuesday, day 2. Surprise! A KitchenAid waiting for us when we got home! Unbelievable.

Wednesday, Day 3. We awake to a little sprinkling of snow. Awesome. And as any little kid does on Christmas to see if Santa came, I peered out the window to look for footprints in the newly fallen snow. Yes!! Milk man came! It was our first delivery!!

Fresh milk, bread, cream, eggs, and apples. Ahh:)

Thursday, day 4. Our bedding arrived in the mail!

Friday, day 5. Surprise! A wedding gift was waiting for us when we got home from work. Such a cool picture. We love it!

Saturday, day 6. Some dishes we ordered to complete our set arrived from Macys.

That would conclude our excitement for the week. Most of the things were items we purchased for ourselves so I don’t intend for this to be a bragging post, but there is just something exciting about receiving mail/packages/surprises everyday.
PS I wanted to share a picture of my wrapping. For some reason, I found it hilarious to wrap with newspaper and tried to pick stories Andrew would like or pictures that would be funny.
Exhibit A. Ben Bernanke. He’s wearing a bow tie. I tied the bow right over it. Andrew laughed a lot. I was so proud of myself.

Wheew, that was long!
Sorry!
Love,