O-H-I-O

Every time that I talk to my parents, they ask me what I've been up to, and if I say, "Nothing," they say, "Oh, come on, you guys are always up to something fun." And usually they are right. I think that I actually get the drive to explore our city from my parents. I moved a lot growing up, which I didn't love at the time, but I appreciate now. With each move, we had some many new places to explore and my parents always jumped right in and took advantage. They didn't let the fact that they had four little kids stop them from doing some pretty awesome things. We saw Dorothy's rubber slippers in the Smithsonian when we were living in DC, we visited the Grand Ole Opry while we were living in Tennessee, we camped in Goblin Valley while we were living in Utah, we swam at Sacred Falls while we were living in Hawaii. Oh I'm sure there was complaining and moaning, and I know there was usually a very tight budget, but my parents didn't lose their adventurous spirits.

Later, when I wanted to be an exchange student in Japan, they didn't hesitate to let their 16 year old go. And when I decided to study abroad in London, they encouraged me and when my mom saw that my account was getting low, she asked me if I needed her to deposit more money in my account because she didn't want me to miss out on anything. She even encouraged me to tour Europe afterwards, but I was in too much of a hurry to get home to Larry after four months away.

Now when I move, I try to follow their examples and dive right in to local life. It's funny how my friends who've grown up in Columbus often tell me that I've seen way more of the city than they have, and I think it's because I'm used to the idea that my time where ever I live is limited. Most of my life it seems, there's always been another move scheduled so I just tried to use the time I had to its fullest.

Even though I've had seven years in Columbus(by far the longest I have ever lived anywhere), I still have a list of things I'd like to do here. The past year, we've been doing our best to check things off of the list, but it just keeps growing because we keep adding new things. This week we checked off eating at the Banana Bean Cafe, eating at El Arepazo, visiting the zoo one last time.

Can you tell that Creed's shorts are on backwards? We didn't realize until halfway through the zoo.

I guess that's what happens when Dad gets you dressed fast!

We saw Sabrina at the Ohio theater because I HAD to pack in one last movie from the CAPA summer move series (thanks Nikki and David for a great double date)but I've come to accept that there are many things on the list, that we just will not get to. Instead the list has been shoved aside to try to squeeze in as much time with our family and friends here as possible. We celebrated Donny's birthday a bit late, and loved having him stay with us briefly. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie with Kirk and Eva. We've been having regular movie nights with Kirk and Eva where we take turns cooking and then put Creed to bed and watch a movie and we made if through all the Indiana Jones and Back to the Future movies with them so we had to see the new Indy movie with them, even if it wasn't the best. Lucky for us, and not so lucky for Kirk and Eva, their basement flooded in a freak storm this week and there power was knocked out so we got to have a big sleepover here.

We celebrated Father's Day early with the Erneys and Hudsons. I don't even want to think about how much we will miss them.

I guess having so much notice that we would be moving this summer was good in away because it helped us use our time wisely so we wouldn't be full of regrets of things we never had a chance to do and people we wish we'd spent more time with.

So is there anything that you've been interested in doing, but never seem to get around to it? Make a plan TODAY! You won't regret it!

Columbus Corners - El Arepazo

One week before I move away from Columbus, I've discovered a new favorite restaurant, El Arepazo, a Venezuelan restaurant in Pearl Alley downtown. They only serve lunch and it's very busy so I would avoid the noon hour if at all possible, but they serve the most delicious, fresh Venezuelan food (which I have never had before, but will now seek out).

I forgot to take a photo of the outside so this one if from the Restaurant Widow.

Donny and I got fish burritos (the special today)

And Larry got the talapiaBut I'm dying to go back to try the arepa, which they are known for (kind of a mix between a taco and sandwich, the outside is made with a cornmeal cake). Everything comes with a side of cilantro hot sauce and it's so good they have signs telling people they have to pay extra if they want more than two cups of the cilantro sauce.

You might want to try to visit on a Tuesday or Friday during the Pearl Alley Market with some local farmers, bakers, and crafters.

Who needs a dog?

The other day I stepped away from Creed as he was feeding himself some split pea soup that Larry gave him. Looks like he did pretty well, right? Ummmm, not so much. He drank the liquid and put the peas in his lap. Nice!

Columbus Arts Festival

After a day of hanging out around the house and packing a few boxes, we decided to pick up the Erneys and head to the Columbus Arts Festival. I think the Columbus Art Festival chooses booths based on how much money they charge for things, not neccessarily the quality of their art, because there's never much that appeals to me and it's always so expensive. Why don't they gather local Etsy sellers like Eva's Sycamore Street Press and all of the CCAD students who go to school righ tthere to be a part of the festival? (Actually, on a side-note, I've heard that's just what they did for the North Market's Artisan Sundays, and there is an awesome selection of local arts and crafts, but alas, I'll never know because that only takes place on the first Sunday of each month this summer, and I don't shop in Sundays)

So why would I go the the Columbus Art Festival, knowing that I wouldn't buy anything? Well, for one thing, it's always fun to look and people watch. Two, it was a good chance to hang out with the Erneys. Three, because of construction on the riverfront, the festival was moved to the discovery district, which is on the east side of downtown and includes CCAD and the Columbus Museum of Art and my old office downtown. It was fun to be back in the neighborhood.


Sorry no pictures of the art because I felt like that would be rude, but here's a picture of Larry and Creed under the Art Sculpture. And the view of two of my old offices (ok, that's boring to everyone but me).

The most exciting part of the evening for Creed was . . . the bike racks! He thought they were awesome. Who needs art of good food when you can climb on a bike rack?

A glimpse into the life of Creed

Creed is majorly obsessed with one things these days; cars! He loves to watch them, on our walks he stops to pat all the cars in driveways, and he get especially excited when he's riding in the car and he sees a big truck.

This is a horrible photo, but lately we see a lot of this. Everytime we go outside, he goes straight to our cars and pats them until we open them up and let him in to pretend drive. He will sit there for hours. He never gets tired of it on his own, we always have to pull him away. Even with the car off he likes to test out every button and switch. Last night when I got in my car, the windshield wipers were on, my clock was an hour off, the radio staiton had been changed and the lights on the dashboard had been switched off, which I didn't even know you could do and I had to scramble all over looking for the switch behind the steering wheel to turn them back on.

Too bad he doesn't enjoy riding in the car as much as he likes to pretend to drive it.

Hip, hip, hooray!

Larry graduated on Saturday!!!!! Well, sort of, he still has a few more weeks of his residency left, but the graduation dinner was Saturday night.

We didn't remember to take a photo until we were bedraggled at the end of the night after wrestling with Creed several hours at a country club, but I had to include the photo to document how proud I am of Larry.

He has worked so hard through all four years of medical school and three years of residency. I know it's been exhausting, but he patients love him and he has become a wonderful doctor. Seven years down, two more to go!

Changes

I don't deal well with big changes in my life so I'm really nervous about our move to Utah. We're coming to the end of our seven years in Ohio, and I'm in complete denial. We haven't even figured out how we are going to move (we have the moving van reserved, but how do it get the van and two cars to Utah when you have a one year old that loses it after an hour in the car?) We only have two and a half weeks left and we haven't started packing. I should be slaving away, but instead my mind is on some of my favorite things about Columbus summers; it's strawberry picking season, Shakespeare is being performed again in Schiller Park, old movies are playing again at the gorgeous Ohio theater as part of the CAPA summer movie series, Rita's Italian Ice is open again, lightening bugs should appear soon. There are so many things that I would rather be doing than packing!

So instead of moping tonight, here's the beginning of a list of things that I'm looking forward to in Utah.
Café Rio
Startup suckers and lolliflops
Moonlit tram ride at Sundance
Outdoor movies at Sundance
Day trip to the Golden Spike and Spiral Jetty
Jay Dawgs
Checking out places highlighted by Your Heart Out
Reuniting old members of the Children’s Literature Book club
My dad’s cooking
Crafting guidance from my mom
Awesome fabric stores
Ikea
Being near a Costco
The BYU bookstore
Attending the Beehive bizarre http://beehivebazaar.blogspot.com/
And Oh Sweet Sadie http://www.ohsweetsadie.blogspot.com/
Pulled turkey sandwiches from Kneaders
Awesome milkshake and smoothie shops all over the place
Being able to tell what direction you’re going by looking up at the mountains
Cool nights that require jackets in the middle of the summer
Watching the Provo Fourth or July Parade with my family
Buying a new computer
Buying creed a kiddie pool

And a few things that I will not miss about Ohio.
Our crazy loud fridge and dishwasher
Funky humidity hair
Quarry blasts that shake my house
People saying something, “needs done,” instead of needs TO BE done
Tornado watches

Let's not go into the things that I will miss about Ohio right now, because the list would be too long. So what do you love about Utah?

I think someone has a new hero

First, Creed started wanting to wear glasses all the time.

Then he learned to say "David" (So the only names that he knows are Mom, Dad, and David)

Then if it wasn't clear enough, he decided to try out a goatee And is that I little "chest hair" I spy in an attempt to make him look older?I think Creed really likes Audrey's dad, David (Or maybe he knows Audrey loves David so much and figures that's the key to her heart?)

Veggie burgers

If I had to pick just one meal to eat over and over again for he rest of my life, it might very well be the veggie burger from Northstar. I've never thought of myself as a veggie burger girl (actually I didn't eat red meat either until I was pregnant with Creed), but on my first trip to Northstar i decided to branch out at try to Northstar burger. I figured if the restaurant put their name on it, they must be proud of it. Oh, was I pleasantly surprised. It's healthy and delicious.

Photo via jslander

Well, you know that I'm a cooking novice so it didn't even occur to me to try to make my own veggie burger at home until Cat made some this weekend and shared her recipe with me. Monday night, Larry had corn on the cob and watermelon for dinner, but our fridge was empty so I decided to try to cook veggie burgers on my own.

Start with a can of kidney beans (Cat says that black beans would work too). Drain it and rinse. Put it in a bowl with 1/4 cup of oatmeal, one egg, and seasoning salt to taste (I had no idea what that meant so I just put in 1 tsp and Larry added a dash more and that seemed to work well). Mash it all up with a potato-masher until it sticks together. I know it's not exactly lovely, but don't be worried. Let it sit for ten minutes or so to let the flavors meld.

Then form them into patties and put them directly into a skillet with a little olive oil in it and cook. They'll be sticky and kind of hard to form into patties, but it will work and they won't stick. We made four burgers using one can of kidney beans. Just as they finished cooking, we put a slice of provolone cheese over them, but I'm sure any cheese that you like would work as well.

Then just dress them up like a regular burger, the more you add the better it will be. I loved pickles on it and Larry says you have to have onions. We didn't even have hamburger buns so we put them on whole wheat bread and I didn't take a picture of the final product.

The end result? We both thought they were really good! The best part is that it's so easy and quick to make, but they are good for you and it's a good recipe to fall back on when you don't have any food in the house because it's easy to scrounge up a can of beans and an egg. I thought it was worth sharing since I'm always looking for good, simple dinners.

Thank you so much for the recipe Cat! I wish I had her ability for improv cooking. I don't know how she does it.

My mom's got mad party throwing skills

My mom works for a home health care company, and while parts of her job are not so fun, another part of her job is putting together events for doctor's offices to the their name out there and thank them for referrals. She puts together some really fun things like private concerts up at Sundance and golf tournaments, and my favorite, private showings to big movies on opening night. I can't wait until we live in Utah and we can come to some of them.

Last week they had a premier for the new Indiana Jones movie and she brought along some costumes and props and had my dad take pictures for anyone who wanted them. Here's my mom with my Uncle Matt (my mom isn't short, my Uncle Matt is 6' 8") And here's Matt's family with an Idol my mom painted gold a bejeweled for pictures.

Don't you wish that you could have been there?