Hello Michigan!

So, here we are in Michigan. We’re here because I wanted to see more snow and go skiing. So, of course, the day after I leave Maryland it gets hit with about two inches of snow. That’s ok, if there’s two inches of snow in MD, there must be five in MI, right? I mean, it IS 5 degrees outside, and that’s what they get here, right? Snow? NO! There’s about 5 or 6 feet of dirty, filthy, icy snow sitting in piles in the parking lots. I wanted to make a snowman out of it just because that’s all the snow there is, but I would have made it the most disgruntled snowman ever. I mean like Frosty after getting fired and going through a divorce. I decided not to.

Snow Angels anyone?

The drive here was ok, but there’s no radio in my car. So, my time was filled with games such as, sing all the street signs, “What am I touching in the back seat now?” (I felt around in the back and tried to …guess what I was touching, how high can I sing, breath hold (how long), I also figured out by doing the math completely in my head that my tires rotated an approximate 902,880 times. Which actually sounds like a pretty conservative number, if I had to guess it would be up in the 5 or 6 million area.
We've now been here a week and we're actually having a great time! It's been raining and no skiing yet. We actually went to the ski resort, which is literally 10 minutes from us, to look at the ski resort and we looked so sad just staring through our rain soaked windshield at the muddy remains of what used to be plush snowy ski runs. Either way, we've heard of a lot of great things to do here and we can't wait to sink our teeth into them. We'll be going to Chicago this weekend so stay tuned.

Good Morning Baltimore!

Inner Harbour and Robert

View from our room

Submarine

Aquarium

Being a Fish

We really had a FANTASTIC time in Baltimore! Robert had booked this trip as a Christmas present so we could experience the city before we left for our next placement. We toured the Inner Harbour, ate great food, shopped, went to a symphony, stayed at the brand new Hilton on the 15th floor overlooking the city, and went dancing. We left our camera at the symphony so we don't have any pictures of our night time fun when we were all dressed up but did get some pictures of the city in the daytime.

Michigan

We're going to Michigan!

Our next placement is in the works and scheduled to begin March 2 and continue through June 5. Robert and I will be working in the same hospital. Robert will be in the hospital's adult outpatient clinic and I'll be working in the pediatric and adult outpatient clinics. We're very excited to move to an area where we can ski and snowboard on the weekends.

We've enjoyed Maryland and all the wonderful cities and history it has to offer. It will be a bitter-sweet goodbye to the friends we have made and school's paperwork that I have finally gotten the hang of.

Christmas 2008

Yippee!!!! It's Christmas and I'm with my entire family! Life doesn't get much better than this. God, Thank you for blessing me!

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and these are two golden apples.

Nicole, my sister-in-law, chatting with her mom. We missed the Roberts this year.

Madison and Mom- Madison loved her new kitchen and played with Grandma Jane for a long time. They made pretend icecream and pizza. Madison found humor in cooking the Little Eistein's Leo.

Madison looking adorable!

Robert and Corey: What cuties!

My brothers: What great guys! I think I'll keep them around... forever!

It was great having Corey with us. He's working so hard in college with his classes and music. I'm so proud of him!

The Horn Family!

We really had the best time in NC! Scott and Nicole were great hosts! Thank you Horns for a wonderful Christmas. We love you!

Ice Skating

We went ice skating with some friends and had a great time. I wasn't sure how well Robert could ice skate so I had my camera ready to take pics of anything that may occur. He actually did better than me (not that that is saying much at all) but as you can see, I did catch a slip and giggled as I clicked away. Actually, I only captured it because he was attempting ice tricks...you know, the kind where you stop real hard and the ice sprays up, yup that'd be what he was doing. I didn't want to miss out on the trick shots so I handed him the camera and my "tricks" consisted of skating on one leg (while holding onto the wall) and twirling (yeah right, I just put my arms up like those fancy ice skaters do and told him to take the picture). Who knows maybe next time we'll try tricks for couple skating?!

The Story of the Black Pecan Pie

Hmmmmm, homemade pecan pie, am I right? I'm right. So, that's what I set out for. I asked around and got a good recipe for us to make our very own Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving. Meticulously, I followed marthastewart.com's directions, except, of course, when the recipe called for arranging the pecan halves in concentric circles around the pie. I mean, really, what am I? Betty Crocker? It's not going on the cover of Southern Living, it's going in my mouth. I scattered the pecans about and ensured they covered the entirety of the pie. In the oven it went and off to play the Wii... wii went. 15 minutes to go and, and from the kitchen, the sweetest and most innocent voice managed to utter the most horrific question: "umm, why is the pecan pie black?"

"What?!?!?!..." and I'm sure you can imagine, the pie was black because, quite simply, it was burnt. Lacking the resilience of delicious Omaha steaks (see "Historic St. Mary's City"), the pie was subject to overexposure of the oven elements. Misinformed by Stewart's online recipe, the pie I had been looking forward to for well over three weeks, now sat like an exile on the counter. It's not a total loss, though. Masked by gratuitous amounts of ice cream, the pie can be eaten, but the taste is bitter sweet, both literally and figuratively. And now, Martha, you owe me a pecan pie. So, if any of you see her around, squeeze her until a pecan pie pops out.

So, off to DC we went after Thanksgiving day. Unfortunately, no amount of city walking could possibly offset the 7700 calories consumed in one sitting, but apparently Lincoln couldn't care less. He just stared.

Tia standing in front of a tree and looking good as can be. I'm digging the winter look.
Here we are with Bill, the mascot of the US Naval Academy. During the first Army-Navy football game, in 1980, the Navy needed a mascot and picked up a goat on the way to West Point. They beat Army 24-0 and three years later, the goat became the permanent Navy mascot.

This is the bell, which was given to the Navy by the Japanese, which is rung everytime Navy beats Army in football. There was another bell which was rung everytime Navy beat Army in any other sport.

That's a cannon.

They say the first thing most people learn when they go to USNA is "Go Navy, Beat Army" and sure enough that was one of the first things we learned, the first was that the Navy has an academy.

Thank you Jane and Marty Horn for a wonderful weekend. Can't wait for Christmas!!