Happy New Year!

We would like to wish you all a safe and happy New Year's Eve/Day and entire 2011.  Thanks to our family and friends for making our 2010 a year we'll never forget!

Love,

Sarah, Joey and Doc

Christmas Wrap Up

Instead of doing what millions of bloggers will do today (blogging about what they got for Christmas), I’m going to blog about what I GAVE for Christmas.  Since both are boring, I figure I’ll at least be able to explain my rationale for some of the more creative gifts.

My Mom- Disney Gift Card
An obvious choice, her love for Disney combined with an upcoming cruise made this one easy.  Manicure? Massage? A few drinks? Whatever she wants, she gets!

My Brother- PSU Golf Towel and Club Head Cover
PSU Grad, Golf enthusiast. Easy and spirited.

My Sister-Harry Potter Mug
This mug is SO COOL.  It was so cool that I took it out of the packaging to try it out before I wrapped it back up and gave it to her…so it was slightly used…whatever. It is a black mug that says “I solemnly swear I am up to no good” and when you pour hot liquid in it, it changes white and says “Mischief Managed”.  So freakin cool!

I also got her a pair of flats that go in a little pouch and fit in your purse.  Totally useful considering my own experience of walking barefoot through DC because my feet hurt…

Joey- Disney Golf Bag with Embroidered initials, Concert Tickets
Golf is the theme this year apparently.  Joey loves his new golf bag (it has an insulated beverage pocket!) and we are going to Kenny Chesney on June 4th!

My Dad- And this one was my favorite… Fake Parakeet in a Cage
OK this one obviously merits an explanation.  Ever since our parakeet, Noel, died a few years ago my Dad has been campaigning for a new one.  And when I say campaigning I DO mean spam emails, Facebook accounts, “Parakeets Clearing House” notifications in my inbox, etc.  He already has the name picked out and wants a green one.  Well my Mom is totally anti-parakeet.  So it has become a bit of a holiday…tradition (?) in my house.  Dad wants a parakeet and Mom says no.  So this year I did some googling (which I am SUPER good at) and found a life-sized, stuffed green and yellow parakeet.  Perfect.  Paired with a $10 cage from amazon.com, it was all ready to go!

Here are some pictures from the big reveal!  Poor Dad, he almost got his Christmas wish, but at least Mom is happy too!

The initial surprise!

SO proud with his new Keet

Meeting his new "Friend"

Best Friends Forever!

So, what did you guys give for Christmas?  And yes, I know you are there, even though you are all refusing to follow me... I can still see you!!!!

SG

All I Want for Christmas...

Is some FOLLOWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And a side of COMMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I KNOW there are lots of readers out there- I watch my ticker (duh, that's what it's there for) and many of you have told me how much you like my blog.  So why not follow me?! It'll be alot easier to see my updates ;) AND bonus, it'll make me feel all warm and gushy inside. And that's what we all want, isnt it?

Merry Christmas!!

Now, click "FOLLOW"!

~SG

Picture This

7 pound Miniature Pinscher running full speed down the sidewalk, leash trailing behind him, panting, smiling, feeling the sweet rush of freedom.

XXX pound 26-year-old woman chasing him, in a cute dress, heels, dress coat, scarf and gloves, breathing. hard.

26-year-old finally catches Min Pin, tells him what a BAD DOG he is, and goes inside, where she continues to breathe heavily, cough, and otherwise realize she really is in THAT bad of shape for the next several minutes.

And no, to answer your question, I did NOT do Power90 this week. But the above counts as exercise, right?!

WNY? FML.

Today was the first reporting day for my job at the Washington Navy Yard.  “Wait, I thought Joey got a new job, did you get a new job too?” No.  No I did not.  I am lucky enough to work on site with the Government and our entire Command moved to the Navy Yard.  In Southeast. In winter.

Let me go ahead and tell you about my morning.  I woke up, a tad late, due to my Min Pin randomly waking up in the middle of the night and eating a huge meal and then deciding he needed to go outside around 4am.  Luckily, this gave me a chance to check out the Lunar Eclipse!  Anyway, I rushed to the metro station and got there right on time to catch the train.

When I arrived, I had 15 minutes to walk the 7-8 blocks to the Navy Yard. Yep… in Southeast. In winter.  I started walking down 8^th street and after 5-6 blocks I saw the gate to my right.  So I walked over, showed my credentials to a very cute guy in camo, and walked right in.  The place was deserted.  This should’ve been my first clue.  I wandered around a soccer field, outdoor gymnasium, and a few more buildings til I finally found a parking garage where I asked the next cute guy in camo, “Where is Building ###?”.  “I think you are looking for the Navy Yard, ma’am.”  “Ummmm is this not the Navy Yard?” “No, this is the Marine Barracks…”

&#%@*!

So off I went in search of the Navy Yard, which I found right away due to cute Marine boy’s accurate directions, and headed in.  For the next 20 minutes I got a nice little tour of the ENTIRE Navy Yard- from the Officer housing to the Cafeteria, to the Museum, to -FINALLY- is that my building!?! THANK THE LORD!!!!! My legs were completely frozen and I couldn’t feel my face.  I’m probably going to get pneumonia now.

So I went inside, where a slew of other bad things happened such as my access badge not working, my crate full of important papers being missing, and my stomach rumbling….

Can Friday PLEASE hurry up and get here?!?!?!?!

SG

A Little Tini

So I wanted to post about a little project I did this weekend with my friend Kristie.  We were invited to a holiday gathering and the focus of the party was a bake-off!  Everyone was supposed to bake their best holiday treat (there were cookies, brownies, cinnamon-sugar balls, and Ninja-bread men) and all the girls would taste them and vote on whose were the best.  Well Kristie and I, being extremely creative (and possibly alcoholics) decided to create a dessert beverage instead! 

Of course we couldn't just follow a recipe like normal people, so we decided to create our own!  And OF COURSE we couldn't just try it out at the party.  We needed a dry run (har har, not so dry!).  Last week, I went over to Kristie's place after work.  We stopped at the liquor store and got all kinds of chocolatey liquer, rumplemintz, other minty green stuff, etc.  We figured we'd do a choco-minty martini, and add a mini-candy cane to stir it with.

Well, to keep it brief, we tried 4 or 5 combinations, and drank them. All.  Oops. We ended on the "best" one but hey, who knows if it was actually that good, cause we'd had quite a few tries of this choco-mintini...

On Saturday night, I headed back over to Kristie's and we collaborated all of our ingredients:

-Godiva Chocolate Liquer
-Rumplemintz

-Candy Canes (Couldn't find the minis, so I broke off the ends and made stirrers)

-Hershey's Chocolate Sauce
-Whipped Cream
-Cherries

-Crushed Candy Cane (With a hammer!)

-Mini Tini Glasses

When we got to the party, we got to work making our creation.  Of course I took photos to document the occasion.  (Obviously left myself out per my previous posts...)

Martinis pre-glitz and glamor

My broken Candy Cane project



Kristie adding the whipped cream!



Adding the cherries

Close up of the final product

Kristie modeling our Tini

As you can see, I think our product was a success.  Except the semi-gross color of the drink once the whipped cream melted... but hey, it was a good sipper, and if you're nice, maybe I'll post the recipe.... now which one was it???

Til next time!

SG

December 15th PART II

I just wanted to come back to let you all know that after I proudly boasted that I brought my own penut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch (and ate it and all it's friends in .4937 seconds), I went up to the front office (read: big whigs) to drop off a document and was FORCED to fill a plate of tacos, wings, chilli, ETC and eat it because there were so many leftovers from their exclusive holiday party.  Merry Christmas, Sarah.  We're well on our way to those 15 pounds!

DAMN IT.

Freshman 15 (and a bonus rant!)

Of COURSE it’s National Cupcake Day. 

Why wouldn’t it be, on a day when I finally got the balls to weigh myself and was faced with a horrifying number that has been haunting me all day?!

They say you gain weight when you get married.  They also say you gain weight when you quit working out and get your appetite back after not being able to eat for 10 months due to wedding stress…

Sorry to get a little bit personal but hey, it’s MY blog… so go shove a cupcake in your mouth. 

Anyway, I know I’ve been gaining a few pounds since the wedding for several reasons:

1. The cruise. Anybody that has ever been on a cruise knows they practically force feed you 7 meals a day, with dessert. And drinks.

2. It’s SO COLD OUT. Why do I want to walk across the street to the gym? It’s freezing! And the dog doesn’t want to go for a walk either, so we’re out of luck.  Maybe I’ll pop in that Power90 dvd.  Maybe tomorrow…

3. I’m lazy.  I’ll admit it.  I don’t have Red Rockers anymore after work, so I love going straight home and getting some QT in with Doc.  If you know anything about Min Pins, which you probably don’t, they are SUPER snuggly little animals.  Except when they feel threatened…which for him is pretty much all the time… but anyway, he loves to schnuggle me and I would hate to have to put him back in his crate so I could go work out for a while.

I guess it’s officially about time I get back on the bandwagon.  If I ever want to dance again I am going to need to look the part.  Looks like it’s time to sign up for a race.  Ugh. I love to hate running. Srsly. AND I guess I’ll start bringing my lunch to work again (yay! I did it today!) and drinking water and DIET soda…

So when you see me around at holiday functions, please don’t judge me or make any comments like “when’s the baby due?” because FIRST OF ALL (and I am trying to keep it together here) I am EXTREMELY tired of people asking me, talking about, joking around about when we are going to have children.  It was whatever at first, then it got annoying, and now, I’m about to punch the next person who mentions the “P” word to me.  This is MY body, and my husband and I will decide when we want to put a baby in it.  THANKYOUVERYMUCH. 

Moving on… sorry I got a little distracted there…

I think I’ll start by setting a goal. 

Do Power90 some time this week. 

HEY that’s a manageable goal! They say start small!!!  Now I just have to figure out how to use the monster DVD player and the 98364 remote controls…. Sigh.

Yours truly,

Fatty

Pass that Port!

Now that Joey and I are married, we would love to SEE THE WORLD!  Ok, maybe not all of it… But we do both have several places that we want to see/things that we want to do in other countries.  Joey has never left the U.S. aside from our Caribbean cruise, and I have only been to Switzerland, France (for a day), and Italy (to visit family).  So neither of us are very well traveled.  I was thinking of what I should blog about, and this idea sort of magically came to me, so maybe it’s a sign that we WILL be able to afford the trip overseas that we have been discussing on and off for 2011… here’s to dreaming, folks!

Sarah and Joey’s World Traveling Wish List:

1. Munich, Germany

One word.  Oktoberfest. Our friends have gone for the past several years in a row, and we feel left out.  It’s time to join the band wagon.  We are hoping for a trip to Oktoberfest 2011… wish us luck!

2. Tarrenz, Austria

Along the same lines as #1, and thanks to the Travel Channel, we would also like to make a pit stop at Starkenberger Brewery.  Not only do they make delicious beer, but you can swim in it.  Yep. You read that right.  http://www.bierschwimmbad.com/

3. Japan. All of it.

Joey has been talking about wanting to visit Japan for a long time.  The place is just SO COOL.  This would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us and we would have no clue where to start.  If anybody out there has ever been, leave us a comment about what we should do and where we should go!

4. Santorini, Greece.

Joey’s dream honeymoon destination.  Simply gorgeous.  And OH so romantic.  What a lovely place to spend maybe our 5 or 10 year wedding anniversary!  (AKA when we can afford a trip like this!)

5. Alaska.

Yeah yeah yeah, it’s part of the U.S. We are recently more inclined to visit Alaska due to my parents’ upcoming cruise there!   We can’t wait to hear all the juicy details and decide if Alaska will be our next cruise destination.

Those are the top 5, I guess.  There are LOTS of other places we would like to get to in our lifetime, including (the rest of) France and Italy, Ireland, Scotland, the UK, Africa (where, I have no idea), and maybe even Russia, if we can.

It’s fun to dream, isn’t it? 

The First Two Months

So as of today we've been married for 2 months! Wahoo!!! I wish I could say we had some wedding photos to share, but they are not ready yet.  I know it will totally be worth the wait, and I'll be posting the info here so you can check em out. In the mean time, I decided to pick out my favorite pictures that other people took and posted on Facebook.  If you are offended that I used your picture without permission, let me know.  But you did post it to Facebook... :)

Sarah's Favorite Facebook Pics of The Gish Wedding:

Me and A Love dancing on the chairs...

Father Daughter dance

Rehearsal Dinner

Cheers!

Rings

Classy

The cake incident

Well, I hope those provided a bit of entertainment for this Friday.  Have a good weekend everyone!

~SG

GIGANTOR NEWS

Well, if you have been paying attention AT ALL on Facebook, you would have seen my emphatic “AHHHH!!!” yesterday around lunchtime.  Contrary to popular belief, we are not pregnant and we are not going to be on The Amazing Race. So sorry to disappoint.

The big news with us is:

JOEY GOT A NEW JOB!!!

This might not seem like a big deal, but trust me, it’s huge.  Joey’s been working in retail since college.  After graduating, he began looking for jobs immediately, but the job market SUCKS.  In the mean time, he was moving up the ranks at the store in which he worked.  As of yesterday, he was supervising an entire department and all the people in it.  As of today, he is the Assistant Branch Manager for a well known bank and will be managing the entire sales team there.  Holy. Crap. 

I couldn’t shout it to the rooftops yesterday because he had literally JUST gotten the good news and yesterday happened to be his day off.  He informed his old job today, and hopefully he will have a few days off to prepare for this new chapter in life!

Some of the perks of Joey's new job:

-NORMAL working hours!!!!!!!!

-FREE WEEKENDS!!!!!

-Federal Holidays!!!!!

-NO MORE BLACK FRIDAY!!!!

….And many more.  So please join me in Congratulating my husband  on this exciting time!  This really is a game changer for us, as we are interested in purchasing a house in the near future!!  But that's for another post.... ;)

Love,

SG

Disney Planning

We are really looking forward to our January Disney vacation! Joey and I were originally planning on going by ourselves and meeting up with all the GMU Masonettes (Dance Team), Alumni, and Families/Friends that will be there for the UDA College National Championship.  I’d like to take this moment to boast that I haven’t missed one since 2003, the first year I competed.  And last year doesn’t count ‘cause Mason didn’t compete! 

GMU Masonettes competing at UDA Nationals in 2004.  That’s yours truly in the front and center!

We were perfectly content with this idea, and especially looking forward to repeating the Around the World debacle of 2009… when randomly one day over a few beers we decided to invite our friend Amanda to come with us!  She hasn’t been since she was about 11, and according to her mother, only spent a little bit of time in 2 of the parks because “This is what HELL must feel like” is not a positive experience for anybody.

Around The World, 2009.  The entire group before embarking on our journey… J

Then came another night, and another few beers.  Or we can go ahead and blame this one on Four Lokos… Our friend Ryan booked his tickets in a flash, and then there were four! 

So last night, Joey and I held a Disney Planning Meeting.  I was excited because I got to use some of my new hostessy stuff I got from the wedding, and Joey got to make homemade guac with our new food processor (shout out to RR Laura!) and Molcajete (shout out to Scoli!).  We also made a powerpoint presentation with our suggested itinerary, ticket/transportation info, and packing lists.  I think it went very well, was very informative, and Doc and Amanda’s dog, Jax, got to horse around a little bit.

Doc and Jax, post horsing… Things got a little out of control…

If you are a Disney freak, or even if you aren’t, I invite you to comment below with your FAVORITE/MUST-DO attractions for Disney World.  We will not be leaving Disney property, so Universal Studios/Harry Potter World are out of the question.  Yes, we are disappointed but there are much more important tasks at hand… like completing Around The World…

<3

SG

PS: IF you are waiting to find out what our HUGE news is, you only have to wait a little bit longer!!

The Property

What is it? Why do you call it that? What does it all mean?!

Just some of the questions I get when I tell people we are "going to The Property for the weekend".  So here are some answers!

What is The Property?
The Property is 103 acres of land in Drakes Branch, VA owned by my in-laws.  It is mainly used for hunting, and has several different fields, a pond, an old homesite with a rotting tobacco barn, tons of wildlife (to include bears), and opportunities to chill out by the fire pit with a cold beer and look up at the millions of stars in the sky.

Why do you call it that?
My MIL (that's Mother-in-law to you blog rookies) has been saying for years (ok, for the 3 years I've been around) that we need to give the place a name.  Nobody ever bothered sitting down and thinking of one, and it really is just a giant piece of property (aka LAND)... so the name has kind of stuck.  At this point, calling it something different is just going to confuse people.

Where do you sleep at The Property?
In the house! OK it's not a house house... it's a trailer.  But it is fully furnished, heated/air conditioned, and a quite comfortable alternative to a tent.  Although my husband has definitely slept in a tent in the front field before.  Personally, warm bed always trumps hard ground but hey... to each his own.

What do you do there?
Well, I mentioned hunting and star gazing, but we also ride the four wheelers/golf carts, float around the pond/river in a little inflatable boat, set up cameras with motion sensors to check out what critters we have romping around, drink a beer or two, practice our aim/make up shooting games (my favorite was 5 card stud poker), eat delicious food (or hotdogs, if you're me), and sleep IN.

What does it look like?
Well aren't you lucky I have some photos to share :)

The Trailer

The Fire Pit by day

The Hunting House... A new addition!

Front Field

Tobacco Barn... Can you find it?

It looks boring.
Don't knock it til you've tried it!

I hope that gives a little more clarity about what The Property is and why we go there.  Even if you're not into hunting (read: me), there is plenty to do and it's such a great way to relax and recharge on the weekends.  We are so fortunate to have this getaway so readily accessible!

Happy Sunday, all!

SG

Public Service Announcement

I’ve decided it’s finally time I make this announcement on my blog.  While this happened quite a while ago, I didn’t really know how to tell people because I guess I thought they wouldn’t think I was as cool or something…

I am no longer coaching the Washington Capitals Red Rockers.  Professional differences were causing an unhappy working environment, and I’ve moved on in hopes of getting involved with bigger and better things!  I miss my Red Rockers very much, though, and I love getting to see them out and about in DC.

This means two things.

1. I can now openly support my favorite hockey team.

2. I have SO MUCH FREE TIME.  It is seriously amazing.  For the first time in my 26 years of living, I do not have an extracurricular activity.  Yes folks, ever since elementary school, my Mom would pick me up at 4pm and whisk me off to ballet class.  Then came middle school and highschool, where ballet was every day.  Then college, where dance team consumed my life.  Then post-college, where professional dance teams eat up every moment of your life not already consumed by your full-time job.

So here I am at 26, enjoying the fact that I get to GO HOME after work.  It might seem like a little thing to you, but all you dancers out there will TOTALLY know what I mean.

Like I said before, bigger and better things are in the works.  So don’t think this is the last you’ll hear about my dancing endeavors ;)

Love,

SG