Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the McCurleys!

New Picture!

Well! Here we are, it is the middle of December already! Dan and I are not going back to Iowa for Christmas, but we will be enjoying Ohio this year instead. Dan is actually working on Christmas cards as I type this, so check your mailboxes in a few weeks! Though, we are not going home, I must say that I am much less stressed about the holidays this year.
Below is a survey our friend Catherine filled out! I am copying her!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
I am partial to hot chocolate, but I will never turn down a good nog!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Neither. Santa put them in our stockings by the fireplace!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Colored lights on the tree! White is OK, but color is better!

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
I don't. I don't think I have ever.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
This is my first year decorating in columbus. I put stuff up 2 week ago.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Puppy Chow and Chex Mix. That counts right?

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?
We used to go to my Grandparents' in South Dakota and would see our cousins. Also one year our cat chased a mouse up our Christmas Tree. It was pretty exciting!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I think the 3rd grade. I really trust what people tell me.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yes we did, mostly because my parents could not wait...

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
Growing up, it was covered in a bunch of random decorations. Now I have small tree that lights up when I plug it in. The decorations don't fit too well.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
I can live in it. I do not like how other people drive in it. I like to look at it from the warmth of my home.

12. Can you ice skate?
Yes, with double blades or on my ankles.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
My crimp and curl cabbage patch kid and my kid sister!

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you?
My family and reflecting on or blessings! Also, time off of work!

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?
Pinwheel Cookies!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
English Crackers! I don't really have any traditions yet!

17. What tops your tree?
Growing up it was an Angel. Now it is a Star.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?
I love to give gifts! It stresses me out trying to find a good one, but I do like it!

19. Candy Canes?
Sure!

20. Favorite Christmas show?
Dan calls it the Holy Trinity of Christmas Movies: Home Alone, Love Actually and Christmas Vacation.

21. Saddest Christmas Song?
Christmas Shoes, both because it is a bad song and because it is depressing.

22. What is your favorite Christmas song?
I am not really a huge Christmas music fan, probably because they start playing it before Thanksgiving....I like Hark the Herald Angels Sing and All I Want for Christmas is You!

Shaking my fist!!!

That is right, I am bringing back the fist shake.
Here is a list of things that I am raising my clenched hand up and am shaking it violently to...Just like this!

1). Jack and Jill was the second highest grossing film last weekend. This movie which looks like one Tracy Jordan from 30 Rock would have starred in, was filling up theaters. Don't get me worng I used to love Adam Sandler movies, but when I saw this preview, I thought it was a joke, a really bad joke...What is wrong with you America?!?



2) Leggings as pants...They are OK for SOME people under LONG shirts and short dresses. They are not pants and I don't care what to know what you look like under your clothes...

3)Community has been shelved...Don't get me wrong I can't wait for 30 Rock to come back, but can't Whitney go away instead?

4) Nicholas Cage...You are awful!

5)Congress blocking more nutritious school lunches. Wow...Who is running this country??

6) The drivers in Columbus...You are awful!

7)Fur Vests...I don't get it...You look like an ewok, or a wookie if you are a tall person...



8) People that rant and rave on the internet...Wait...Wahh?


That's it for now. I couldn't think of anything else to say. I was going to try to get to 10, but I am tired. Yes, I am shaking my fist at myself right now...

Fall has arrived...

SUNDAYS are my most dreaded days, and they always have been! I think it is because it means my weekend is over and it is back to the grindstone...

Last weekend we went to Akron for John and Lisa's wedding. It was a beautiful day for a wedding and it was a wonderful wedding! The reception had the drink the Sidecar, which I never had before, but it was delicious!
We also went to the cracker barrel for breakfast the next day. It was delicious!

This weekend we were able to stream the UNI/SDSU game on ESPN3. We had a few friends over to watch the game. It was a lot of fun! I also bought some more yarn at the Knitters Mercantile for gifts for the nieces and nephews! We also had some amazing Venezuelan food at the Yerba Buena food truck today. I love me some plantains!

For Halloween this year, I think Dan and I will be Pete and Pete from the Adventures of Pete and Pete. I will be big Pete and Dan will be Little Pete.




For work, I think I am going to do Toddlers & Tiaras. This may require a fake tan....


Other than getting excited about seeing Aziz Ansari next weekend, boot and sweater season, digging Foster the People, and getting sick of horrible Columbus driving and people obsessing over their new iPhones...There isn't much going on here!

Come on ride the train, and blog it!

It is officially fall now, which means everyone will start blogging again...I think...
I figured I better get back on the blogging train!

We had family visits in June: Dan's mom and sister and my parents, sister, brother in law, and nephew. It was great to have our families here. Dan's dad is even coming this weekend too!!

We also traveled to two weddings (Sarah and Tom in Iowa and Sarah and Sean in MI). Both weddings were so beautiful and fun!

We also went to Montreal and Quebec City Canada in early September, to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. You can see the pictures here and here. It was a blast, which made it hard to come back to the real world!

I have been pretty homesick lately, but I think we may be heading back to Iowa around Nov. 3rd to see Kirsten's (Dan's Sister) musical and my new nephew Leo!

I have also been knitting and crocheting like crazy getting stuff done in time for birthdays and Christmas. I got some great yarn in Canada.


My next biggest challenge for this month is coming up with a Halloween Costume...Any suggestions???

Things I am enjoying lately:
-The Movie: Drive
-Aziz Ansari
-Pinterest- it is a great way for me to keep track of the crafty stuff I want to do and stuff I want to buy =] (tell me if you are on there!)
-CraftGawker
-Jason Derulo -it is fun to workout to
-Roots!-love my new sweatshirt!
-TV shows are starting up!
-Cider and Maple Leaf Cookies

Saturday

Happy Saturday!!!

So....

I should probably blog more....Oops!

Her name is The Barefoot Contessa, and you will never be like her. Starting with the barefoot part...

We have been busy lately!
I made some blueberry cobbler and it was delicious!! It wasn't an Ina recipe, but it was super good. Also, it was pretty easy to make. Too bad I cannot find cinnamon ice cream in Columbus, because it would have been delicious!!
I have been pretty infatuated with German Chocolate Cake lately, so maybe I will make that next...
I really enjoy baking the only problem is that Dan and I are the only ones around to eat it!





Dan and I decided that we should try gardening a few random weekends ago. We don't really know much about it, but thought it would be fun to try. We picked out some herbs and planters. It has rained here almost everyday the last 20 days, so I was getting worried our plants would not grow. But when we got home from Chicago on Sunday, I looked in the planter and saw some sprouts. It is pretty exciting! Maybe someday when we have a yard we can have a real garden.






My nephew turned 4 last month and to keep up with my crafty traditions, I made him a Lawerence Welk Shirt. Dan made the design. I think it is pretty schnazzy! Next, I am going to try and crochet a pug toy for my niece, as her birthday is up next!



This last weekend we went to Chicago. I went to bachelorette party for my friend from college. We went to the Cubs/Reds game and out to dinner and out around town! It was a lot of fun! I miss my friends a lot, and I am glad we were all able to make it. Dan stayed with his friend and had a great weekend as well. We also got to visit with some of our friends that moved away last fall! It was great to see them all!



Other than that, not a lot going on with us!

The Manda/Ina Project

Back in December I talked about Julie/Julia, and what neat idea I thought she had. So with this entry I feel like I pretty much ripped off the idea, but it was fun!

I wouldn't call myself a cook or even a baker. I baked a lot when I was younger, mostly for the Hardin County Fair when I was in 4H. My mom is a great cook! She made most of our meals and desserts growing up, and even convinced my siblings and I to eat beet cake.

In High School I would bake, but it wasn't from scratch but it was easy enough and I would get brownies out of the deal.

In college, I really didn't have an interest in cooking or baking...
Over the least few years I have developed an irrational fear of baking for others. What if someone finds my hair in their food, they wold clearly know it was my hair! Also what if everyone hates what I make, but feels bad and eats it anyway? Or worst of all what if I get everyone sick?

So lately, things have been a little stressful at work. And as most people do, you vent to other coworkers. One of the other managers for another department and I have been spending a lot of time together lately, mostly because we are trying to implement new procedures and our departments directly effect one another. I notice every time I go to her office she has baked goods. I always ask her why she bakes so much an she says is it is relaxing for her and she ENJOYS doing it. I always tell her how I should bake more...

A few weeks ago a mini-series on HBO called Mildred Pierce started. I honestly didn't know much about it, but it took place in the 30s (I like the hairstyles and dress of that time) and star Kate Winslet, so I thought why not...I won't tell you about the story, but Mildred does a lot of cooking. She made really good pies! As I watched the show, I kept thinking to myself I could/should make a really good pie! It also made me think of the movie The Waitress with Keri Russell and she also made pies. And when I watched the movie I was like I could/should do that!

Like I said earlier, work has been pretty stressful lately. I like to bring bagels or doughnuts for everyone when things are like this, but this time I wanted to do something different.
When I lived in Milwaukee, my roommate Alli always made the best scones. They were the best scones I had ever had! I asked her the recipe and she sent it. I also found a a recipe for orange cranberry scones (my favorite) from Barefoot Contessa (Dan's Favorite ;0)).

Dan was playing in a concert for most of the day Sunday, so I decided that would be the best time to start baking (you know what they say about too many cooks in the kitchen!).
And bake I did... I made a lot of scones and a few muffins (in case someone did not like scones).

I knew I was probably in over my head, because I wasn't even sure how to zest a lemon, or what that meant really...Thankfully Dan was able to educate me.
Once I got over the initial fear of actually trying something new, I was fine. I really enjoyed it!! And Holy Moly do we have a lot scones!!! They were a big hit, so I will probably keep up the tradition!










Earlier this week, Dan was at band practice again and we still had some lemons ( I am a zesting machine now!), so I decided I was going to try some lemon bars from Barefoot Contessa...

Though I hit some snags (my room temperature butter was a little too warm, I mixed the sugar with the flour at first instead of the butter, etc.) I think they turned out great!








I learned that we should probably invest in a zester, whisk and probably a nice mixer. the hand mixer does not do well with cold butter! And most importantly, there were no hairs in scones, no one got sic, and everyone liked them!

So what should I try next? I am thinking the chicken salad!

Spring has Sprung!

And now it is April!

We have been keeping busy with visitors already this month! Don, Dan's Dad, came and visited us last weekend. It was really great to see him. We ate a lot of good food and went to a Blue Jackets game. We had the highest seats in the place, and we got some free food. Even though the Blue Jackets lost pretty bad, there were some good fights, and the whole day was pretty fun!

Our friend Sarah, who moved to Kansas last fall, is here this weekend for a conference at OSU. It is great to hang out again. We have also decided we are gong to make our own reality show much like the Real Housewives on Bravo!, keep your eye out for us!

Our bowling league has ended, and our team got 4th out of 8 teams! We are pretty proud of ourselves.

March Madness is over, which means College Basketball is over. The tournament was crazy with all the upsets and my bracket imploded, but I really enjoyed the watching the games. I took Friday the 18th off work and watched Basketball and crocheted all weekend! It was amazing!

Dan and I got a Kinect a few weeks back. Pretty much it is a Wii, but better, because you don't have to have a controller. We have the Sports game and Dance Central. It has been a lot of fun. The sports game has Bowling, Track and Filed, Beach Volleyball, Soccer, Table Tennis, and Boxing. It is a really good workout! It will be interesting to see what other games will come out.

Dan has been blogging away on his other blog: Advertisements Explained. Please check it out and pass it along if you haven't already!

We have also been throwing the idea of moving closer to home someday. I think we just miss our families ad friends and would like to be closer to home. Fortunately, we have good jobs here and don't have a real reason to move just yet. Hopefully, someday soon we can make it closer to Iowa! If it was meant to be then it will happen, I guess!


That's all for now!

Vacation plans

We've been trying to plan a vacation for a while now, but we couldn't bring ourselves to decide on a destination. Also, Amanda was still waiting for her new McCurley passport to return from the State Department, so we weren't really in a rush to book anything in case there was a problem with that. Now, however, the McCurley passport has arrived, and we've finally decided on a destination. It's a perfect storm.

Our destination - can you guess where we're going?

We had been trying to decide between a few different destinations: Sweden, Spain, Iceland (again), Canada, and Scotland/England were all in the running. Especially with Amanda's brother's family moving to Germany soon, we thought we could go to Sweden and then use Europe's outstanding transportation network to travel down to visit them for a while, too. We kept checking fares as we were waiting for the passport, but, just like flying to Iowa in December, flying to Europe is really expensive. If you're going to sink that much money into a vacation, it should be a long trip, and we were only planning to be gone for 7-10 days due to our jobs (as well as our anemic paid vacation allowances - Go USA!). So, we decided Europe might not be the best bang for our buck.

Once we made that decision, we decided to check out Canada. I have been there twice - once when I was young and we just drove across the border for about 30 minutes, and the second time when I went to Quebec City for a linguistics conference. Neither time was a real vacation, so we thought it would be cool to spend actual vacation time in Canada and see what there is to do/see. Plus, we were able to get round-trip tickets and hotels for the whole time for about the same price as just the flight to Europe. Also, the short flights from Ohio to Quebec will let us use more vacation time on the ground, instead of spending a whole day traveling across the Atlantic.

So, in early autumn, we will be traveling to Montreal and Quebec City, both in the province of Quebec. We're spending a few days in Montreal, then taking the VIA train from there to Quebec, where we'll spend the rest of the vacation. Thanks to Expedia.com and their great multi-city, multi-hotel search tool, we were able to get flights into Montreal and out of Quebec and save some travel time. Also, the same search let us find hotels in each city for the exact dates without any extra searching. Seriously, I've used Kayak, Priceline, Orbitz and other searchers to do multi-city flights before, but none of them have the same integrated hotel search as Expedia. I really recommend it if you're looking to schedule multiple-destination vacations!

Why do we want to go to Montreal/Quebec? From what I've read (and experienced from my linguistics conference trip), it's like going to Europe but here in North America. Plus, I've always wanted to go to Montreal since we watched the cultural video about it in French I at UNI. If you want to see what it's like, here's a two minute video from the Montreal Tourism site:

Also, Montreal supposedly has the most restaurants per capita in North America, so we should be able to eat pretty well! Quebec (the province) is especially famous for one dish in particular: Poutine. Poutine is a dish made up of french fries, gravy and cheese curds:

There are many varieties of poutine, and I'm sure we'll try more than our share of them.

Those are our vacation plans. Now it's just a matter of counting down the days/weeks/months until we get to go... Luckily, we have a few weddings and other trips to make this summer to hold us over in the meantime. Also, if any of you have been to Montreal/Quebec, we'd love to hear any recommendations or suggestions for the trip!

New Advertising Blog

Hey everyone,
I actually followed through with something and started my new advertising blog: Advertisements Explained. You can check it out here: http://advertisementsexplained.blogspot.com

Let me know what you think, and let me know if you see any terrible ads that you'd like to see in the blog!

Like a Fox....

I know I have been talking a lot about how I want to be more crafty. Well, I finally feel like I have made some progress.

Dan helped me move my Desk out of the guest room and set up a little craft area for me in our living room. I like the setup, because I can still watch TV or Dan play Xbox while I am crafting!





First, I made some hair clips for my nieces out of buttons. I just needed to by the special bobby pins and buttons. I used a glue gun to attach the button to the bobby pins.
It was pretty easy, and I liked picking out the fancy buttons to use.






My next adventure was making magnets. I made some out of bottle caps and some out of the decorative glass pebbles. The bottle cap ones were fairly easy. I just need to sand out the inside of the bottle cap, glue a nut a magnet then to the back of the bottle cap. Next, I will try to flip the magnet over and put a picture in and fill it with resin. I just need warmer weather so I can open our windows, so I don't gas myself with the fumes of the casting resin.





The glass magnet were my favorites, I cut out cool designs from magazines and glued this to the back of the pebble with fabric glues. That way the glue will not eat through the paper. then I glued a magnet to the back of the paper.





I also started to make paper beads out of magazines. I love finding pages that will make interesting beads.






Lastly, I started making stencils and making T-shirts! This was a hard process. I found the template online, then printed them off on card stock. I cut out the stencil with an exact-o razor and then taped the stencil to the shirt and used a roller brush to paint on the shirts. I am very pleased with how they turned out. We have a white chair from Ikea that I would like to stencil on, but am not sure what design to stencil on. Any suggestions? I did get this book, Stencil 101, so I am excited to keep stenciling things! My nephew is obsessed with Lawrence Welk, so I think I am going to try and make him a shirt for his birthday!








When I finally finish my granny square blanket I will post pictures, but it won't be for awhile.



What are you making? What should I try next?

Update from Dan

Hello readers. It's Dan again. It's been over a year since I wrote in our blog, and Amanda always asks me when I'm going to write in here. I've started a few entries here and there over the past year, but I've never finished any of them. Today, however, the sun reading on my horoscope said the following:

Mars and Pluto supply raw power for enhanced opportunities today. The planets help you cut through red tape and attack matters with decisive action and resourcefulness.

Clearly, I took this to mean that I should write a post in our family blog. Decisive action has never been my strong suit, but with the raw power of Mars and Pluto flowing through me, I will summon the energy to write a short blog entry.

The last time I wrote in our blog, I was just about to start my new job. I'm now starting year 2 of that job, and it's going pretty well. It's not super demanding, it's fairly flexible, I get to work with students, and I have my own office. I also get to take free classes and utilize all the benefits of the university. I can't really complain. Amanda's job is more stressful than mine, but it's also pretty good company to work for. They have a bowling league, too.

The problem I find myself with now is what do I do with my life? Yes, I work full time, but I've never been too eager to define my life by what I do at work. When we were in school, it was easy to defer this question - your only calling is to study, go to class, work occasionally, and fill the rest of the time playing video games, drinking with friends and sleeping. Once that's over (and including any grad school, internships, study abroads, volunteer corps, etc.) and you actually find stable employment, it's easy to think that you're on track. But if you're like me and not a workaholic career-driven individual, you find that your life is no longer on a track. You've left the railroad tracks and now you're just rolling across the open desert in an American Gladiators Atlasphere steel ball - no direction and very little momentum other than what you provide yourself.

What the hell do we do now? We're happily married, I'm actively saving for retirement, and we're not planning to have kids for a few years. It seems like my days are spent in a 50/50 split waffling between a) frantically investigating new life or career opportunities online and b) being completely at peace with my current life situation and seeking out new activities to enrich it: reading, working out, playing music, freaking out about political news, thinking up small business plans (to reduce the need for regular work) etc. Does this ever go away, or is this a constant life deal? It's actually probably unchartered territory, at least in terms of previous generations, because ours was really the first generation to grow up with creative spelling, "everyone's special, unique and wonderful" and "you can do whatever you want in life if you set your mind to it" guidance. With our "limitless" yet guided upbringing, our first steps into the uncharted real world are a tough adjustment. It's just one big game of Atlasphere.

Lately, though, I've been seeking out more things to actively pursue instead of watching TV and freaking out about what to do in the future. Amanda has been helping with this too; it's easier for me to do stuff when I see her working on crafts and printing t-shirts, etc. I'm still taking Swedish at school, and I've been reading books on the bus everyday. I've also decided to try and write more, both in this blog and in another blog I'm starting about how much I hate advertisements. Amanda, as much as she loves me, does not love my constant deconstruction and criticism of TV and internet ads, despite the fact that they're hilarious and thought provoking. Since we don't have kids yet to listen to my stories and learn from them, I'm forced to turn to the great void of the internet to share my opinions. Hopefully I will gather a large following and become an invited speaker at internet events and daytime TV shows.

So that's my update. I hope you've enjoyed it. I will be sure to try to write in here more, and I'll also post the link to my new advertising blog if/when it gets off the ground.