2nd Attempt at Green Thumb

Again, I start another blog post with I haven't posted anything in a long time and my goal is to be more mindful of the timing. This is the perfect example! How am I supposed to talk about my vegetable garden over the summer if that was over 6 months ago??!! Well here is my attempt. I think I was more successful this year then my pots last year-but alas, I think that is all I can say.

First, I had to find a space in the garden for the garden. Second, I had to prep the space. This was not fun. AT. ALL.

Woah now! Hello tomatoes and something else I forget what you are now.

I threw in some peppers too.

Then I decided to move the peppers and cucumbers (Ahh that's what that was in the picture above)

Oh and we have an intruder...DO NOT PLANT MINT IN THE GROUND!!! It will spread ALL OVER YOUR YARD!

All the tomatoes are together and happy.

Summer Vacation!

First of all, I still don't know how we managed to both take off 2 weeks from work-but we did it! This is definitely going to be "that" trip when the inside jokes and reminiscing starts. "Remember that time in... or Remember when you did..."And to think...it all started with a dinner at El Caporal (El Cap. for people in the know). For over a year the D'Antonio's and Peters' enjoy double date night at least once a month at our local "authentic" Mexican restaurant, housed in the old Long John Silvers building. How do we know this, you ask? The door handle swords clearly give it away. This is only one of the reasons why we love this place. The 4 of us had been talking for a while about how fun it would be to go on vacation together, which lead to destinations, which lead to California, which lead to Pine Mountain Lake! Clearly, an obvious choice! After talking and talking and thinking it over, the Peters' buy their plane tickets and the D'Antonio's didn't. Why not? All this talk about California and vacation turned into Steven turning to me one night and saying "Why don't we just drive across country"? So I agreed and it was set.

Day 1: Steven and I set off on Friday night after work around 4:30 and landed in Frankfort, KY late Friday night.

Day 2: Saturday morning we set off, for what was clearly going to be a record amount of driving, to Fort Collins, CO. Yes, you read correctly, Frankfort, KY to Fort Collins, CO. That's over 1200 miles!

Day 3: Compared to Saturday, Sunday was a breeze with an easy 970 miles! We had to make it to Reno, NV for one reason and one reason only-TO PICK UP TEMPA AND AUSTIN! We of course gambled and had fun that night.

Day 4: The 4 of us hop in the 4Runner and head on into California to the lake for our week long vacation of floatin'. The drive was beautiful going through Yosemite.

Some time during the trip we make the trek back into Yosemite for a hike up the Nevada and Vernal falls.

After dropping Tempa and Austin off at the San Fran airport, we started our journey back home! We stayed in beautiful Sedona, AZ. We both decided this was our favorite place and would love to come back and enjoy the scenery (and Steven could play golf).

We were on a mission to get to Lawrence, KS to see Sarah, but we took a little time to see the sights. From Sedona we traveled to Amarillo.

Monday, July 3rd we got to Sarah's! We stopped in Oklahoma City to have lunch and see the bombing memorial. Just an easy 575 miles!

We stayed with Sarah on the 4th and left after brunch on the 5th. We were headed to Lexington! We got there in the evening and settled in and planned our tourist attack for the next day! We drove into Richmond to see Nannan and Pa's house and stop by their memorial, headed to the horse park, White Hall, Rupp Arena, then onto Cincinnati for dinner with "aunt" Marlene!

Saturday we were going to make it home because we were going to a cookout at Erin and Will's for a late 4th celebration! Just an easy 500 miles home!

And that, my friends is how you drive across country and enjoy a lake vacation with your best friends in 2 weeks! Lessons learned? Yes, there were plenty! 1. You don't need a GPS-that's what road signs are for. In a pinch, the iPad and iPhone map app came in handy. 2. Having TripAdvisor was awesome! For example, did you know Oklahoma City is the only place in the country that has a museum dedicated to the American Banjo? 3. Every married couple should do this trip early on. The communication skills we enhanced were really wonderful. We both came back understanding more about each other and a deeper appreciation for the love that we have. :) I know it's sappy, but it's true.

Snow Day!

For those who have been following the weather for Richmond, VA this year-you already know that we didn't get the snow we all were anticipating! Clearly we were hoping for a repeat of the 2009 snowpacolypse, who doesn't love a snow day! Cali really enjoys pretending she's a bunny as you'll see in the video.

Fall catch up!

How to cram everything from Halloween to Feb. 6th in 1 post? I don't think that's going to work! I'm going to start a list and we'll go from there!

1. Tailgating at Hampden-Sydney

We always try to have a spread! These events are a breakfast, lunch and dinner affair! This is just one of the three tables in a U formation.

Steven and his mama at Homecoming

Papa D is working the grill

The boys back together!!

The D'Antonio fam

Our tailgate spot!

Another angle.

2. Decorating the house for fall

Not sure I have enough pumpkins

The back of my car!

3. First blended Quinn/Hanneman/Salyer/Cereghino/Schneider/D'Antonio family Thanksgiving in California

Yes, this is a setting for 20!

Steven and little Jake!

4. Wine festival

Just a little picnic at the wine festival! Enjoying some vino and bluegrass music!

5. Little KLJ is born
6.Steven buys a new car and a mattress
7. Lara thinks running might be her new thing
8.How many Christmas trees do the D'Antonio's need?
9. Making Christmas holiday traditions
10. Steven's favorite Christmas present
11. First Drudge/Baker/D'Antonio road trip to ATL and the discovery of Catch Phrase!
12. Tom gets married
13. New year, more organized!
14. Fun Friday nights on Stuart Ave.
15. J.Crew sale
16. First D'Antonio/Peters family road trip to RDU
17. Super Bowl at the D'Antonio home

This list doesn't include the home improvement projects like, turning the sun room into Lara's reading nook and craft inspiration room, and finally getting the front guest bedroom set up and functioning. This list also doesn't include the craft projects like how I learned to sew and made 17,924 pillows for the living room and kitchen nook. And finally this list doesn't include the recipes I have perfected!

I've got a lot of writing to do!

New Year, new posts!

Clearly, by the date I'm very behind on blogging! Among other repetitive NYR, I am going to make catching up on displaying my photos/projects(house, craft, recipes)/events a PRIORITY of 2012! I think it's going to be a great year! Steven and I are already looking forward to some mini vacations planned, holidays, tweaks in our routines, spending time with friends and family, and purchases we're saving up for!

I'll share a picture and a story from NYE to get us all in the spirit of 2012!

Yes, this is a picture of a bottle of champagne and 2 plastic cups clearly positioned on a hotel tv stand. I'm sure this comes to all of you as a big shocker (said very sarcastically) I don't believe NYE is a real holiday! GASP! The night was spent in Atlanta at a dear friend's wedding (more on that later) with Ashley and Will. After dinner at an Irish pub, the nights festivities included yoga pants and a sweatshirt playing catch phrase, drinking a glass of champagne and falling asleep at 12:01 am.

Happy Halloween!

If you were to ask me growing up what my favorite holiday was-the answer would surely NOT be Halloween! How could a child pass on Christmas or Birthday? Even the girly girl in me loved Easter more then Halloween because of the pretty dresses and white gloves we got to wear to church. Now don't get me wrong, Halloween wasn't my least favorite holiday by any means especially when we were younger. Aunt Susan would come up from San Diego and we would make the best Halloween shirts using men's undershirts, googly eyes, orange and black ribbon and puffy paint. Talk about an exciting afternoon-encouraging creative juices and having a fashion show to display our masterpieces! Fast forward several years to when Steven and I buy our first house together. Our closing date happens to be October 30, 2009. An empty house is obviously the best place for a Halloween Party, right? Yes! That's where it all started! So now October 2011 is our 3rd annual Halloween Party.

Cali of course had a costume!

Erin and Will

Ashley and Will

Emily and John & Austin and Tempa

I think you know who these folks are

Scott and Sally

The candy bar and party favor

My FurBaby

Cali is almost 18 months now! Every day it feels like we've had her for longer then just a year. She has truly developed a personality that exudes German Shorthair. Steven and I like to say that she still is a puppy as our excuse for her "ooops(es)". That being said, we're very proud of her and thankful she hasn't taken any of the destruction cues from Mom and Dad's previous 2 GSPs Boo and Schnee. Cali knows a few tricks up her sleeve to woo the attention from others. Her latest is "shake". In true lady like form and pointer instinct the front leg comes up with the paw flopping down and eyes saying "OK folks, you gotta meet me half way here".

German Shorthairs are not new to our neighborhood, in fact- there are at least 7 others just in a couple block radius around our house. She has a favorite, named Lily. Sometimes Lily's parents stop by on their evening walks and Cali and Lily will run around in the backyard. As everyone knows, these dogs can ALWAYS use more exercise!

Because of our work schedules, Steven and I found a dog day care place where Cali goes 2 times a week. Diamond Dogs is great! Aunt Dodie (as she calls herself) loves Cali, in fact just this morning she met Cali in the office with a very loud "YAY, Calidoodle is here today" and got down on the floor with her for a second. Aunt Dodie knows what she is doing! She runs the dogs like crazy! Cali's participation has helped with her socialization and has made new friends.

It's not just about the pepperoni :)

What could be better on a summer sunday night for dinner then something on the grill! One of the D'Antonio favorites is pizza on the grill! We love using Tyler Florence's dough recipe-you can find it on Foodnetwork.com

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/pizza-dough-recipe/index.html

I'm a big fan of tomatoes, goat cheese, basil, caramelized onions, and mozzarella

SO DELISH!

A pizza stone on the grill.

Steven's man pizza-italian sausage, pepperoni, roasted red peppers and mozzarella 

My Job

Put yourself in my position: it's college graduation, you look down at your diploma from Sweet Briar and see the little sticker on the outside that says Salyer/BA Philosophy and Sociology. Panic starts to hit-What the HELL am I going to do with a degree in Philosophy and Sociology. What does this mean-well it means I know how to think and interact with/study people...hmmm. OK Folks! This is my first attempt with writing a blog entry on a topic on the complete opposite end of the spectrum in terms of house renovations! I’d thought I would start out with by talking about my job! Why? Well for several reasons-I love it, I love it, and I love it. When you meet someone new one of the first questions either you ask or “new person” asks is “What do you do?” My response 9 times out of 10 warrants a raised eyebrow and a head tilt in either confusion or what I like to call the “uh oh” face. My title here at The Virginia Community Healthcare Association is “Government Affairs Specialist”. I think the reason for confusion or the “uh oh” face is that people think I’m going to dive right in to politics-especially the future of health care. I’m not going to lie-I might give someone the “uh oh” face to if I was in a public setting, having a pleasant conversation and someone told me they wanted to discuss the future of healthcare in this country! I’m not going to go ahead right now and give you my opinion (that’s for another entry) but mainly because I’m straying from the topic. So what does a Government Affairs Specialist do at the Virginia Community Healthcare Association? My quick answer is A LOT! The state of Virginia has 29 Community Health Centers that operate in 110 sites all over the state. VCHA is the same organization for our state that Oregon Primary Care Association is to Oregon. Each state has a PCA (primary care association) that assist the FQHCs (Federally Qualified Health Centers) with grant writing, policy updates, establishing clinical programs, and technical support to maintain the high quality of care that each CHC (community health center) provides! My job has 2 avenues: policy and advocacy. The policy side of my job is challenging but people say-there is no better way to learn something unless you get thrown into the lion’s den! That is exactly what I’ve had to do! I spend time downtown speaking with the General Assembly, specifically the health care and appropriations committees. I need to make sure our Association is aware of every budget/healthcare bullet point in each brief, statement, amendment etc. I also hang out with VA’s congressmen and 2 senators. If you follow closely, VA Senator Marc Warner was one of the original “gang of 6” as they called it on the hill several months ago when 3 republicans and 3 democrats first started working on a budget agreement. Like I said before this part is very challenging but there are a lot of perks! I mean not everyone gets to hang out in Washington or Richmond with the suits that run our country. Can you say you’ve had a conversation with Eric Cantor? (Most of you know me well enough that he’s NOT someone I brag about talking to if you catch my drift…) So in short I communicate legislative updates to our 29 health centers. The other part of my job is the reason I LOVE working here-Advocacy. Most of the time (especially in this current time) our health centers are fighting for funding from state and federal levels funding to these health centers means more clinical programs, more staff, more hours, more up to date technology. I’m going to digress and talk you through what is in a typical health center. Central Virginia Community Health Center is located about an hour and a half away from Richmond in a small town called Buckingham. Buckingham is 50 minutes away from UVA medical center and 1 hour and 45 minutes away from VCU medical center. So where do people go when they need to see a doctor? CVCHC! One of the philosophy’s of CHCs is to provide quality primary care services over a long term period to prevent patients driving straight to the emergency room at a hospital if they don’t feel well. Some of the primary care services include: diabetes management, smoking cessation, weight loss management, mental health services, and dental services not to mention well child visits, pre-natal care, mammograms, school physicals and immunization days. CVCHC provides all of these and more including their very own pharmacy! One of the advocacy words we throw around to people is access. It’s very important to me as a “lobbyist” to let people know how many rural areas that Virginia has! We use the terms MUA and MUP standing for Medically Underserved Area and Medically Underserved Population because there are more than you would think here. The other portion of advocacy is to educate people on what an FQHC is-you would be surprised about how many people think CHC’s are the same as a Free Clinic. WRONG. We just updated our website –this particular page describes more in depth what I’m trying to say. I strongly encourage you all to read over the lists. http://www.vacommunityhealth.org/about_chcs.cfm

I hope you enjoyed reading this and got to know a tiny bit of what I do.

Future of this Blog

After many glasses of wine and walks around the neighborhood I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to use this blog to voice my opinions about relevant topics, craft projects I'm working on, recipes I'm trying and yes, continuing to post pictures of home improvement projects and even some of our travels! I hope I don't loose any readers! Please continue to share your feedback!