May 23, 2014 by Stephanie

Friday Filter: Book “A Bend in the Road”

I recently finished A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks.

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Miles Ryan’s life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. As deputy sheriff of New Bern, North Carolina, he not only grieves for her and worries about their young son Jonah but longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews, Jonah’s second-grade teacher. A young woman recovering from a difficult divorce, Sarah moved to New Bern hoping to start over. Tentatively, Sarah and Miles reach out to each other…soon they are falling in love. But what neither realizes is that they are also bound together by a shocking secret, one that will force them to reexamine everything they believe in–including their love.

from Goodreads synopsis

This book was pretty typical of a Sparks read. Two unsuspecting people meet in the South, and albeit difficult circumstances they fall in love.

This particular book, I managed to guess the ending to the plot twist about a fourth of the way through. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I still ripped through the pages to make sure I was right.

I am a huge Sparks fan. I don’t care how predictable or how much each book is similar, I love his books. I think he is a great writer for love. He is able to describe emotions very well that always tug at my heartstrings. I read a review that stated Sparks is like “comfort food.” And that I think is the best way to depict his work for me. I know what that I am going to get into emotions and get wrapped in the character stories, even if I know how it ends. I always am invested in his process and the story he unfolds. It is why whenever I am in a book rut, I turn to him because I know he will bring me back easily. He is my book safety net.

This particular book was not my favorite that I have read of his, but it was decent. I did appreciate that it was a little romance and mystery. It also gave way to a lot of thoughts on forgiveness. Depending on the circumstances we are put in, we are all capable of things we never could have imagined. Sparks does a good job of exploring all kinds of emotions.

Do you love or hate Nicholas Sparks?

Friday Filters offer a review that are my own opinions. I was not contacted by anyone associated with these works or compensated for my review. My review has not been influenced by anything other than my love for entertainment and art.

May 21, 2014 by Stephanie

Whitener Wednesday-The Engagement Year

If you missed the first few parts of Whitener Wednesdays, you can read the first three parts of Tom and I’s love story here, here, and here.

Today’s episode is all about…you guessed it: The Engagement.

I left off last week with a trip to Savannah before our big move to Ames, IA.

Let me give you a brief back story before I get to the engagement story. Tom and I had only gotten back together about 6 months before this trip to Savannah. We both knew we were going to end up getting married, but we discussed that we would not get engaged until we lived in the same zipcode for awhile. Tom was very adamant about this fact, and I agreed that it would be a good idea. I was pretty adamant with wanting to physically go ring shopping together in person before Tom decided to pop the question. I wanted to ensure that he didn’t pick out something that was way too big and not my style at all. Maybe the month before this trip, I had started looking at ideas for rings to know what we may be getting ourselves into before we went to a store.

But again, we had agreed that we would wait until we lived near each other to make this trip to a jewelry store.

We had planned on making this trip to Savannah as carefree as possible, which meant that I was not allowed to make any definite plans. We would just do anything that our heart desired that particular day. It was to celebrate the end of grad school and a new chapter of being in the same time zone again.

So the first night we were in Savannah, we had a nice dinner (where we found out Mint Juleps are gross). Tom suggested we go find a mini-golf place, which is something we always do when we travel and were some of our favorite dates in Kansas City.

We tried finding several on our GPS but each place no longer existed or we just weren’t the best navigators.

It was also at this point that I started to get a severe case of food poisoning. So it was back to the hotel we went because my insides were on fire and did not want us to have a good time.

The next day, I still wasn’t feeling great. Tom, however, was very insistent on going miniature golfing. It was very uncharacteristic of him to be some emphatic about our plans, and my sick brain just wasn’t getting it. We actually got into a little bit of an argument because I thought we could just go another day, and I thought we weren’t making any plans. Tom, however, said we had to go that night and promptly went to the concierge to find out where a real mini-golf place was. He was very persistent.

So I put on a smiling face and tried to be pumped about mini-golf which we did find on the first try.

It was kind of a lame course, and it was being over-run by 8th graders hopped up on energy drinks and sweets.

This whole time I am trying to be positive and not roll over from dehydration, and Tom is cursing under his breath at the teenagers. He was so visibly upset the whole time, I just tried getting out of there as soon as possible. I think our night was even further soiled when on the last couple holes, some kids started putting AS WE WERE STILL GOING! Seriously, our balls were still on the green and they just started running over us.

We went inside the arcade to cool off on a few rounds of skeeball and try to win some tickets for a way awesome prize (if we were still in elementary school). When we went up to the prize counter, Tom said, “Hey, here is an engagement ring for you,” as he pointed to a plastic ring in the glass case. I just rolled my eyes at him and walked to the car.

We were both kind of spent at this point. I was still exhausted from the food poisoning. And I thought Tom was just being paranoid about the middle schoolers. He had been acting really strange all day.

We ended up going to the river walk to watch the sunset and just relax. As we sat on a bench there, a street musician started playing nearby, a saxophonist no less.

And then I am not really sure what happened. It was a blur.

Tom was on one knee and said some things. As I registered that he just asked me to marry him when he pulled out the ring, I slapped him in the face.

I was in shock and thought he was pulling a prank since we had agreed not to do this until we went ring shopping together and lived in the same city! This wasn’t really happening!

In fact, it was. He had to repeat it and he apologized for not doing it on the mini-golf course, but he didn’t want it ruined by those punk kids.

Obviously, I said yes and apologized for slapping him.

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And then we celebrated over french fries because I still couldn’t eat much (hmm it sounds like how we celebrated finding out about George…)

The next day we went para-sailing and then did a walking tour de Margaritas from our hotel to the river to celebrate in style. Tom ended up winning the tour from our hotel to the river because I got another visit from the food poisoning fairy, which coupled with the few margaritas I did have made for just a wonderful night of celebrating…

Super awesome.

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Anyway, so that is our fun engagement story. Tom had it planned for months. He had gone shopping for a ring long before I was looking and just made up that rule about living near each other to throw me off track. He told all of my grad school friends before graduation a few days prior to our trip as well as my whole family. This also explains why he was so nervous. He had the ring in this backpack (in a waterproof box) the entire time because he was afraid something would happen to it, and he wanted to ask early in the trip so he could just relax the rest of the trip and celebrate our future. I just thought he was being a weird end of the world prepper with the back pack the whole time since he wouldn’t let it get farther than an arm’s length from him.

So much for our no-plan trip…

I had no idea. Complete surprise, and I love it that way.

We quickly started making plans for the wedding to be the following summer. A year was a great timeline to plan especially considering I would be in a new job, and that gave Tom time to finish his degree and find a job in Iowa as well.

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He had been job searching as soon as I found out that I had the job in Ames in April. He was scheduled to graduate with his Bachelor’s that December. So we signed on for long distance just a little longer since a job didn’t pan out by the time I moved to Iowa in July.

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He kept job searching, but the economy was not great back then and so many people applied for one police position in a department.

He did join me the semester after he graduated without a job, but with some great prospects. We were just sure with our connections and his experience that he would have gotten a job in Ames and were willing to bank his move on it.

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On the plus side, it was great to finally have long distance behind us. Tom finally got to see what I did first hand, which was great to finally share with him on a daily basis.

All this time, we planned the biggest party to celebrate our nuptials that June.

Unfortunately, the months kept passing, and Tom was not able to find a job like we thought. It was a very frustrating time seeing our dreams within grasp but not being able to reach them as we had thought.

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So here we were, 26 years old, ready to walk down the aisle but with an unsteady future ahead of us.

Come back next week to hear about our wedding day!

Did you have a knee-jerk reaction to your proposal? Did it happen as you thought? Or have you already dreamed up your future proposal?

May 20, 2014 by Stephanie

Crochet Clamshell Blanket

I finally have a new project to share! I know I have said it before, but I love making blankets for presents.

This particular project was for a graduate student I worked with at Iowa State. She just recently finished her Master’s program, and I wanted to congratulate her graduation.

I chose Iowa State colors for her to commemorate her time in Ames. Happy times Angie!

I bought these large skeins at Walmart in red, yellow, and white. I cannot remember how many skeins I used, but I know I had to make at least two different trips because I ran out.

I used an N (9.00mm) hook.

I followed this pattern here. She does an excellent job with her instructions. It is probably one of the best written instructions I have used.

I will say this was a tricky pattern at first. You work in a three row pattern, with each row in that triple being a different stitch combo. The first dozen rows were a pain in the rear end until I finally got a hang of the pattern. I think a lot of the trickiness at the beginning is just figuring out the varying stitches and how to hold it with not much blanket there.

I believe it took me about a month and a half to finish this.

In the end, the pattern looks really lovely.

It is a square shaped blanket that is about the width of a queen-sized mattress.

What do you think?

I have two more blankets I need to whip out here in the next two months, so I better get cracking!

Do you have any good crochet patterns to suggest?

May 16, 2014 by Stephanie

Friday Filter-Movie “Neighbors”

Last weekend as part of birthday weekend, Tom and I went to see the new movie Neighbors, which star Zac Efron and Seth Rogen.

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image via

This is a comedy about new parents and their struggles when a fraternity moves next door. At first they try to be cool and friendly with the fraternity to remain hip, with it and now. They eventually realize that the fraternity’s party ways will interfere with their child’s sleep routine and their sanity.

After trying to go about it the nice way, the two parents call the cops for a noise complaint which ignites a war between the fraternity and parents.

There are a lot of ridiculous prank antics and debauchery that ensue.

The movie was absurd. There were so many far stretched scenarios that I feel were just put in to fill time. There were some funny moments, but a lot of it was “um that would never happen.”

I also think it is funny that Hollywood still thinks that college is done after 4 years, no questions asked. It is not like we kick them out once that 8th semester hits.

I will say that we probably found it funnier than maybe we would have a year ago because we are about to be new parents ourselves. A lot of the conversations that the parents in the movie were having about their life being centered around breast-feeding and sleep cycles and the feeling of not being young anymore are conversations that we are having ourselves. My favorite scene is where Mac and Kelly (the parents) were laying in bed saying what “grown up” things that get them jazzed about life like the smell of coffee and tupperware. Tom and I love being grown-ups (except the bill paying part).

This was a fun light-hearted movie. It was one of those that was just so silly and stupid that it makes you laugh. However, I will say that it is better than some other films that Seth has starred in, so there is that.

And a movie with Zac Efron and Dave Franco? I mean come on, that is at least a few points in the win column.

Will I ever watch this movie again, probably not. It was fun for the birthday weekend extravaganza, and it meant I got an ICEE and a soft pretzel.

Have you seen any good movies lately?

May 15, 2014 by Stephanie

Homemade Dried Strawberries

It is strawberry season! This is my favorite fruit, so I am always excited with spring and the beginning of summer for the best strawberries.

I apparently was over-zealous on our last grocery trip because I got more than I could eat quick enough. Normally I just freeze strawberries when they get past a couple days of fresh eating but are still good. I am a little bit of a strawberry snob, and if they get a little bit mushy into a freezer bag they go. I use them for smoothies, but I saw this recipe on Pinterest and though I would give it a whirl to add some goodness to my morning cereals.

Oven-Dried Strawberries

Ingredients

Strawberries
Lemon Juice (ratio of 1/4 tsp per pound of strawberries)

First wash your strawberries. Then cut the caps off and cut into 2 to 3 slices depending on the size of the strawberries. You don’t want the slices too small because they will shrink up enough that you may not be able to get them off the pan.

Put them in a bowl and put lemon juice over them. This a guess helps with the drying process. I also probably put a little more than the recipe called for, and it didn’t affect the taste that I could tell.

I used parchment paper to alleviate having a sticky cookie sheet at the end, at the recommendation of the Pinterest find.

Lay the strawberry strips on the cookie sheet.

You will bake them for 4 hours at 200 degrees. I checked them at every hour.

Hour One.

Hour Two.

I flipped them at hour three.

This was the final product. Some of them will still be a little sticky, chewy, and spongy. I found that the ones in the middle didn’t dry out as much those on the edges.

They taste great! And they are perfect on top of my cheerios!

It is a lot of work, so I do not think I will do it very often. I think I may try them in our dehydrator to see if it is a little easier since I won’t have to flip at all. It is a nice change of pace though with my left over strawberries, and I don’t feel like I am wasting them.