The Art of Racing in the Rain

So I just finished reading my first book as a member of the No-Obligation book club from Real Simple called The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Let me just tell you: it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Narrated by the family dog, the book follows a family through life. Being a dog lover, I just ate this up. It makes me look at Sugar in a completely different way now and I find myself talking to her as if she were a person in the chance that she might understand what I'm saying. And I'm just sayin', she has started cocking her head to the side as if she is truly pondering what I'm saying to her. The book definitely has its sad parts but it also has parts that made me laugh out loud in inappropriate places : ). I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good, easy read.

David and I went to North Carolina this weekend...

to visit my sister, brother-in-law, their dog, and their bun-in-the-oven , Emily, Paul, Lucie and (insert the baby-girl name of your choice here....as the sibs have decided not to share their kiddo's name until she arrives : )    ). We had such a wonderful time. Em and Paul are quite the hosts!! Sugar and Lucie hit it off from the get-go (no pun intended...Sugar literally spent the weekend hitting Lucie in the face with her paw).

Unfortunately, I got to take one picture with David at the farmers' market in downtown Durham. And then, in true Megan fashion, I placed my camera down at one of the vendor's tables to look at something and then walked away completely forgetting about it, never to see my camera again. : (.  Emily has been calling the vendors and the farmers' market in hopes of tracking it down, but no luck yet. Say a prayer for my cute little pink camera.

Besides that unfortunate event, we had a great time!! I found some pictures online of some of the things we did to give you an idea of what we saw.

First thing Saturday morning we went to Elmo's diner, my favorite breakfast spot in Durham. I've been looking forward to it for a number of weeks now and they certainly didn't disappoint.

Then we made our way over to the Durham Farmers' Market. (RIP little camera). It was such a neat place, with a ton of vendors selling various veggies, meats, plants, wine. E and P got some vegetables and meat and I got some pictures of pretty places in Durham that I've been to over the past couple years of visiting.

Then we made our way over to the Handmaid Market. This is an indoor market of, see if you can guess.........handmaid things!!  So fun to walk around and see all of the pretty things people have made. The boys were good sports and walked around with us, pretending to be interested and then took off explore downtown Raleigh while we continued to shop. I love things like this...great for Christmas shopping which may or may not have been done ; )

On Sunday we went for a hike along the Eno river with the dogs. We hiked to this spot called Bobbit Hole. This is a picture of it, but instead of dead winter trees, imagine all of these trees with golden yellow and red fall leaves. It was so beautiful. Sugar loved playing in the river and almost caught a fish!! (Go girl!!).

Thanks Emily and Paul for such a fun weekend!! Love you both!

...and the list grows on

Another slow night at work. It's crazy to me that we have been lucky to keep 1-2 patients at this time of year. Notoriously, the fall and winter months are when the pediatrics department blows up. This time last year there were a few nights when I didn't have time to eat my lunch. But here it is 12am and I am scratching my head trying to come up with things to do to keep me awake as I have exhausted all of my reading material PLUS the reading material of my co worker and all of my regular websites. WHAT IS A GIRL TO DO??? Thats right, do what I always to: make an over-ambitious list. On the list of things to do tonight:

1. Join the RealSimple No-obligation Book Club (!!). This month we are reading a book called The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. I am pumped as this is a book about a family seen through the eyes of the family dog. I so wish that Barnes and Noble was open at 7am so that I could go and pick up a copy when I get off work in the morning. Its probably better that I don't though, seeing as how I have to wake up a bit earlier tomorrow afternoon in order to make it to my kickboxing class (my hamstrings are SCREAMING tonight from Monday's class)
2. I am going to learn Spanish. I took three years of it in high school so I'm hoping it will come back easier than I think it will. At the start of the summer I took care of a special-needs girl who was non-verbal. Her mother, however, was not. Her mother was VERY verbal! Spanish verbal, that is. Everytime I went into the room, girlfriend started talking to me in Spanish. Didn't try to give me hand motions to help me understand what she was talking about, draw pictures - nothing. But I was suprised at how much I actually understood of what she was saying. It took my a little while to get my ears accustomed to deciphering the words, but I stood there and listened as best I could interjecting an occasional "lo siento" as she told me of the hardships she and her family have faced sice they moved to Florida from California. In the morning before I left, I got a HUUUUUUGE hug from the, at this point, sobing mama who explained that she doesn't normally have anyone to talk to and was so grateful that I just listened to her all night! I think Jesus gave me ears to hear her that night. All that is to say that I think I would like to learn a little espanol so the next time I am in a situation like that I have a little more to say than "lo siento." Especially if I find myself living in, say, So. Fla one day and taking care of LOTS of spanish speaking kids and families.
3. Learn to play piano. This desire started almost a year ago when David and I were driving back up to Tallahassee from a visit to So. Fla and listening to Chris Rice's Living Room Sessions album. It was so pretty. I remember hearing my Mom play paino after dinner when I was little and have very happy memories of that. My sister knows how to play paino too, so I decided that there was no reason that I  shouldn't know how to play. It will give me something to do on my days off from work and allow me the possibility of having a really pretty grand piano in my home some day when I'm a "grown up" without being looked at as a poser : ). I had looked into "learn to play paino books" a number of months ago but decided that I amd not really a disciplined reader (a trait I'm hoping to kick with number one on this list) so a book on learning to play piano may not be the most effective way of learning. I think I need someone to teach me. Anyone have any suggestions of someone who wants to take on this task?

I realize this is a pretty ambitious list. So I'm going to leave it with that. Although, who knows. I'm on page 90 of 336 in this months RealSimple Magazine, so I may just add a few more things in a little bit : )

Pumpkin Yuck

Growing up, I always remember my Mom decorating the house for the different seasons. Obviously, Christmas was a big one, because we always decorated the house together as a family after church. And. It was Christmas. What kid in the their right mind doesn't love Christmas decorations? Because where there are Christmas decorations, there are PRESENTS!! 

SO, being inspired by mommy dearest (as I often am) I have decided it is time in my life to begin decorating my house for the seasons. Im not big on Halloween. I am actually a claimed "month-of-october-hater" because everything is so scary everywhere. Every single day I have to cover my eyes and ears at least once while I'm watching TV because some zombie monster is walking through smoke towards me swinging a hatchet over is head. Im a wimp, I know. 

Having confessed all of that, I decided that instead of decorating this season with Halloween decorations, I would go for a more happy, pretty fall decor. I'll post more pictures of everything I have put in place in another post. This one is strictly devoted to the fun I had last Saturday night with the BF and BF (boyfriend and best friend) carving pumpkins. 

Now I know what you're thinking. Megan, you just said you hated Halloween. Why did you decorate with Jackolanterns???  Thank you for asking. 

A month and a half or so ago I was reading Eddie Ross' blog and saw his project for perforated pumpkins. I was totally inspired. SO. I asked David to have a date to the pumpkin patch with me. He obliged. Because he is the best. 

Now. I have learned that there are two kinds of people in this world. People who appreciated the inside-of-the-pumpkin yuck and those who do not. I am one of those people who DO NOT appreciate the yuck. Teri Hill is. Teri Hill is also a person who thinks its funny to shove the pumpkin yuck in front of people who do not appreciate it until they touch it. Exhibit A.

I eventually gave in just so the pumpkin yuck would not be forced upon me. Teri was happy she won.

Back to perforated pumpkins. David took on the roll of top-cutter-offer.

....while I did the drilling (drilling of pumpkins??? Read Eddie's blog, seriously. He is a genius!)

and Teri played with the yuck and drew the letters for the monograming on the pumpkin

Oh yea. And posed with the pumpkins

She's fun. I like her : )

And look what they looked like when they were done. Quite possibly the cutest thing of your life, right?

And I will say, that now when I walk through my front door I am pleasantly greeted with NOT SCARY October appropriate decor.

"Come on in, the mud is fine!!" -Sugar Malone

Have I ever mentioned how much Sugar LOVES to get muddy at the dog park??

I will have you know that she is the ONLY dog who does this at Tom Brown Dog Park. Sure, she is a social butterfly and plays with all of her furry friends in attendance. But when its time to play catch, all the dogs chase her around the perimeter of this mud puddle while my little Sugar goes straight through the deepest part.

Have I also mentioned how equally she HATES baths.

Just a little weekend fun I thought I would share....Happy Monday : )

FLAN!

Remember how I said that work inspires me to make lists?? Well last week on my last night the inspiration juices were flowing...again; and I suddenly felt like I needed to tackle the art of making flan. David and I have gone to visit my sister and brother-in-law a few times and have been taken to a spanish restaurant after church. It was here that we decided that we LOVE flan.


SO. I googled "flan" and stumbled upon this recipe that didn't seem like it would be too hard. And indeed, it wasn't. I feel like maybe you should try making it. I think your life my be greatly enhanced once you have this little piece of heaven!

Here is what you'll need:

1 cup of white sugar
4 eggs
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 12 oz can of evaporated milk
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
A 9 inch glass baking dish
And some sort of pan (vague right? I'll explain in a minute)

And here is what you do:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Take your random pan and fill it with water. Careful not to spill (I of course did ; )   ) and place it in the oven. Place your empty glass baking dish in the "water bath" and allow your dish to heat up while the oven is heating up.

2.  While all of that is happening, in a saucepan melt the cup of sugar over medium-low heat. This takes a little while. Make sure you don't stir the sugar...just tilt to saucepan back and forth, like so:

It will look nice and golden brown and yummy when its done

3. Once the sugar is melted, remove your baking dish, carefully, and pour the hot syrup into the dish. Turn the dish in order to coat the bottom and sides.

4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Beat in the condensed milk, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract. Pour the mixture into your baking dish.

5. Cover it with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 60 minutes. When its done baking immediately put it in the refrigerator to cool. Let it cool for a number of hours.

6. Wait to serve it until its completely cool. Carefully invert the baking dish onto the serving dish. And this is what it should look like right before you indulge (obviously without a slice cut out of it)  : )

 

Enjoy

Christian's with fiery coals- look out!

I was reading through Romans the other day and stumbled upon the passage where Paul cites a Proverb (25:21-22)

If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in doing so you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.

Isn't it great (and a little comical) that God knows the temper of his creation so well that he knows how satisfying it would be to heap fiery coals on the head of someone who has made us mad : ).