#152 He Works Overtime

Weekend I’d Forget

I have had, yet again, another jam packed weekend.  I'm starting to think that ever since I began holding myself accountable for reporting one positive from my weekend, subconsciously, I've been making sure to pack my weekend with so much that I have to fight with myself over what to write about.*

*It's really been that good.**

**I dare you to take the challenge.  Find something good in your weekend and report back to me.

This past weekend my brother, Joel and his wife, Mallory, were back in town. You might remember my recent post about them and their new job.  We all have been so fortunate. They left in August expecting not to see family again until Christmas, maybe.  Their route has placed them in NJ for the past few weekends leaving them plenty of opportunity to visit immediate family.

Hubby worked a ridiculous amount the past two weeks, so the only negative of my weekend was that he was at work instead of with us.

After experiencing firsthand that no major city or state in their travels has pizza that compares to New Jersey, Joel and Mallory were craving the best pizza on earth.  Our original plan was to get some, then go apple picking.

If you were out and about on Saturday, you know that was a laughable option for the day.  It poured all night and into the morning, leaving us staring at the empty pizza boxes, bellies full, wondering what to do.

Mallory and I still had pie on our minds so to Johnson's Farm we went.*

Johnson's has recently opened a second location, and even though it is much closer to my house I couldn't risk that they would have the exact same experience I was looking for, in other words, the sweet potato pie I had been craving.

*Mallory had never been, and it was only when we arrived that Joel remembered having taken field trips there.  

No one can go to Johnson's Farm and simply go into the bakery.  It just feels so wrong.  They have their animal farm, Halloween shopping, a hayride, pumpkin picking and apple picking all going on at the same time.  Though stopping in the bakery had been our original intention, the hayride immediately took precedence.  The rain had stopped, but we still decided apple picking was a bad idea.  The ground was still wet and muddy.*  While most people get on and off of the hayride from the designated stops for pumpkin picking and apple picking, we stayed on and enjoyed the ride, taking in the corn fields, the pumpkin patch, and the rows and rows of apple trees.

*Naturally, Sunday was the perfect apple picking day and we had already made plans to do something else!

When we ended in their bakery, I had to look the other way from the apple cider donuts.  They were calling my name, but so was the sweet potato pie and I knew only one could* win.

*Not really could.  Both of them really could win.  Should is probably the right word.

I'd love to own a farm one day, but Hubby always tends to shoot this dream down.  Every time I talk about owning a farm he tells me that I only want to live on one, and have other people to do all the work.

I don't want to admit that he's right, but he has a pretty good track record of times he's been right vs times he's been wrong.  

#146 He Loves Fall

I peeked through scrunched morning eyes from underneath the fortress of my heavy feather comforter as Hubby got ready for work this morning.  "It's 47 degrees out," he said

"Right now?" I asked as if he might be talking about next week or the weather in Canada for some odd reason.

New Jersey's weather has been so unpredictable it has put me in quite the moody state.  Of course, I loved our summer days that felt like fall and wished that they would remain.  But the current days where the mornings start cool and then turn into a muggy 75 by the afternoon make me want to cry.

Today's temperature seemed like the perfect true start to fall.

I've been ready for fall since the end of winter.  Winter is bearable for me, except last winter--I'm not sure what happened there.  I despise spring and while I enjoy some elements of summer, it gets old after a week or so.

I'll spare you the generic lists you've seen on social media for why girls like fall (hoodies, pumpkin spice lattes, boots, cooler weather, etc).  Naturally, if you like fall you must be a fan of cooler weather.  I don't necessarily have a fall favorites list, but here are a few things I'm looking forward to now that it is fall:

1. Hot Chocolate

The best hot chocolate I have ever experienced was from Eleven Madison Park in NYC.  It was several years ago, so who knows if they even serve it anymore, but it was like drinking melted milk chocolate.  The next best thing I've found is at The Bent Spoon in Princeton, NJ.  Warning!  It is extremely thick, but full of chocolate deliciousness.*

Then of course, there is always homemade which sometimes is just as good.  

*It is so thick that leftovers in my fridge turned into a chocolate pudding-like state. 

2. The Colors of Fall

I recently realized that I keep some items that really should be labeled as "fall decorations" up all year.  The only reason I can assume that I do not take them down is that these items fall into the color scheme that I love.  Bright summer colors are nice, but warm fall colors set my mind at ease.  

3. Fires

We've used our fire pit once or twice this summer.  While it's nice to have a fire in the summer, it's better in the fall.  In the summer you have to battle mosquitoes while balancing not being too close to the fire.  Because the fire is hot, and chances are the day is still hot--because it's summer.

In fall the mosquitoes are gone, the weather is cooler, and bundling up near a fire with a stick packed with sugar just seems like the right thing to do.     

4. Pumpkin Carving

I was in my twenties before I carved my first pumpkin.

Shocking, I know.

I've done it a few times since then and discovered it to be too much of a hassle for me. (You'll note that I do not have a pumpkin in the above picture).  However, I love to see what other people can do with them.  In case you can't tell, and I'm sure you can't for some of them, the first pumpkin pictured above is Gizmo from Gremlins, the second is one that Jonathan taped pictures to (much safer than giving him a knife to hack at it with), the third pumpkin is Hubby's carving of the world (it looked much better from a different angle, I promise), the fourth pumpkin is Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas, and the last pumpkin is Edgar Allen Poe.  

Carving pumpkins is so much more fun when done with family or friends.

If all else fails, I like to purchase plastic pumpkins that have had inspirational sayings "carved" into them for decoration.  It saves the whole rotting step from happening.

5. Thanksgiving Breakfast

I have been thinking about Thanksgiving breakfast since summer.  Now that it is fall I'm actually allowed to begin thinking about it.

In case this is your first time here, my Thanksgiving breakfast is a little---different.  For well over ten years now, my family begins Thanksgiving morning by having dessert for breakfast.  It's pretty much my favorite thing about Thanksgiving, aside from the turkey...and the parade.  I usually get a little out of hand and make about ten desserts too many.  I promise, this tradition didn't begin this way.  It started with my mother and my aunt eating one piece of their pumpkin pie in the morning and it has turned into something that perhaps one day I will seek therapy for.

This year I'm thinking of making pie the theme.  The only problem is I have never experimented with the perfect pie crust.  

Looks like I'm going to be busy this October.

6. Hot Coffee and Holiday Coffee Cups

In the summer I usually give up my hot coffee for the cooling delight of iced coffee.  When fall comes and I can begin ordering my hot coffee again, it warms my heart--literally and figuratively.  Poor Hubby then has to endure the shrieks and childish giggles that I somehow produce at the sight of holiday coffee cups.  It means, just as the start of fall means ultimately for me, that Christmas is almost here.  

#123 He Shovels

Here are the top ten things you must know about the past month of my life.  These things have literally given me brain freeze which has forbidden me to post about anything else.  I think of something wonderful to write about, but when I realize I haven't addressed these issues, I come to a stand still.

1. It has been ridiculously cold in New Jersey.

I don't know what is going on with my state.  We've experienced cold when it should be warm, and hot when it should.  We've had freezing weather one day, then fall like weather the next; we've had comfortable spring like weather followed by days that are well below freezing.

2. Hubby was away in LA when New Jersey started to get crazy cold.

While Hubby was away, I heard on the radio that the temperature has been so low in New Jersey that if you are under the age of 40, you have never experienced such temperatures before in your lifetime.

That, of course, does not take into consideration those who have visited a location that experiences these temperatures regularly.  In that case, however, I have to wonder why you were even there to start with!

I was afraid for Hubby's sake that he would miss out on this life changing experience.  Lucky for him, the cold has been persistent.

3. The school that I teach at already has four snow days to make up.

Four days!*  And winter isn't even over yet!

*I don't event want to mention the delayed openings we've had.

4. New Jersey has had more snow this year infinity times more than last year.

Out to breakfast with Hubby one Saturday morning last October I jumped like a child on Christmas morning at the sight of monster snowflakes which within moments covered the shopping plaza with a white blanket of beauty.

And that was all the snow I saw last year.

I'm not going to lie, this saddened me a little.*

*Okay, a lot.

5. We had more days off last year for hurricane weather than winter weather.

Hurricane Sandy and her vicious winds brought so many downed trees and therefore power outages that we were off three days last year because of Sandy.  It got to a point where it was actually annoying to be stuck home for another day in a row.

6. The novelty of how cold it has been in New Jersey amazed me at first.

Then I stepped outside early in the morning and after five minutes of trying to defrost my car I began to wonder where the feeling in my gloved finger tips had gone.  It was that moment that I decided I was done with the cold.*

*Let me not forget to mention that the frost was INSIDE my car because there was moisture on the floor from melted snow, etc.  Boy, wasn't that fun!

7. Although there have been enough snow storms that I could compete in the Winter Olympics event of Snow Shoveling* I have only had to shovel snow once.

We have street parking and a short distance of sidewalk to shovel, however, shoveling is shoveling.  It's a thankless task that although you start it thinking, "Golly gee, I'm going to use this instead of my workout today", by the time you have shoveled for five minutes you are ready to plop down on the snow, curse your workout, and cry like a baby.

Thank you Hubby for keeping me from having to do this too often.

*I'm working on the proposal for this event.  It seems like a 'duh' event to me.

8. For the first time in my life, I have disliked snow.

While I was attempting, horribly, to climb on top of a foot of snow to push snow off the top of my Hummer, a man across the street from me said, "You know what I think?"

Me: "What's that"

Man: "I think that when they (nods towards the bar he's shoveling for) go to pay me I'm going to say, I want a ticket to Florida. (He pauses to shovel a little more).  I'm done with this snow!"

Me: Sounds good to me.

Man: "And that'll be a ONE way ticket!"

While I wouldn't agree with the location (Let's see...Rain everyday?  Retirement capital of America?  No thanks....) I certainly shared the sentiment.  I've definitely said, "I'm tired of snow", "I hate the cold" multiple times already.

9. I've allowed myself to grow so sick of the added bite to the temperature that I've forgotten to just deal with it and try to find some beauty in it. 

I know, I know, the cold and the snow starts to give us all cabin fever, especially during a year like this.  We've been treated roughly.  We've had to bundle up.  We've had to start our cars early.  We've had to shovel and scrape.  But, let's face it, we can't change it.  If we can't change it, we might as well try to find a little beauty in it.  After all, things that are beautiful aren't always the most pleasant.

10. Gram turned 81 today.

I know this one is totally un-snow related, but let's see if I can work it in.  Last year when we threw Gram a surprise 80th birthday party it snowed the night before.  So much that I had to wear my fuzzy furry boots with my party dress so that I wasn't heel deep in snow as I filled my car with party supplies.

My Gram rocks.  If you want to know how we celebrated her birthday this year, go over to The Orange Strainer.

Final Note: You would think with a post like this that I would have beautiful pictures compiled of the snow to share with you.  Sorry to disappoint.