Easter (and my sweet shoe!)

We had a really wonderful Easter. We went to church and then had Easter lunch with Andy's grandparents. As per usual, Nanny laid out quite a spread. She did a full Sunday Roast - pork, roast potatoes, veggies and THREE desserts, haha. THREE. Oh yea, and a cheese course!

I am 25 (nearly 26) years old and Nanny has done an Easter Egg Hunt for me three years running, haha! I love it. Although this years efforts were sort of impeded because of my surgery. I basically had to look for them from my seat and have Andy get them for me.

Andy eating cheese - how he fit it? I have no idea. We were stuffed.

The spoils of the Easter Egg Hunt

Clever Nanny, hiding the eggs with the dwarves!

Ugh. The bane of my existense. This nasty, horrible, velcro-looking shoe. I have to wear it when I go out to protect my foot. There is NO WAY to make this look good. Haha!
But I only have to wear it one more week : )

Views from around mom and dad's house in PA

Sharon and I went for a walk one morning while we were in PA and I just took a few pictures....

SURGERY!

I love the arrow my doctor drew on my leg - nothing like being sure!!Well I finally had my surgery yesterday afternoon. Some of you may remember that I sprained my ankle quite horribly last September while I was running. Things never really got better and I've been in the process of seeing my GP, then physio, then specialist, then MRI, then results, then setting up surgery, etc. Andy took the day off work to be with me, and is now taking great care of me : ) He is actually off today was well because of the Bank Holiday weekend. But I have to be off my leg for at least two weeks : ( Fortunately I have a lot of work to do, so as soon as I become a bit less groggy I'm going to get on with that. For the moment though, feeling good!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I made a lamb stew - that's sort of Irish, right?

But it's my very American Mom's recipe...
She said she was proud of me when she was this picture.
Andy and I ate it ALL. It was y-u-m.

P.S. - I'm going home on FRIDAY for 17 days!!!
Can't wait to see Mom, Dad and Sharon (who got into YALE!)
P.P.S- I'm going to miss Andy, who will be in Austria snowboarding :(
P.P.S - He will not miss me! Haha.

Projects

Victoria Sponge! (Nanny's Recipe)

Nanny Mayhew gave me her Victoria Sponge recipe
This cake is an English institution...perfect for tea time
YUM! YUM! YUM!

And I've started knitting. Nanny taught me that too - she's the best. I'm making a big scarf :)

Update

I haven't posted in nearly a month. Things have been really busy here - and when I'm not running around like a headless chicken, there's nothing newsworthy to write about! My life has become pretty small these days - between my home, university and work at the pub. Although my course is going very well - I can't believe the things I'm learning. Right now I'm working on an essay about urbanization and slums in developing countries (very current, has anyone seen Slumdog Millionaire? So cute!) And so far, my grades have been really good.
The student pile is growing and now migrating to other areas of the living room! This was for the last essay I handed in on Labour Market Models (yuck! by far the most boring essay I've written). I did clean up after it, but now I'm in the throws of another essay so it's growing again. I wonder what the house will look like when I'm writing my dissertation?!

We did quite a bit of work in the garden yesterday. It's getting warmer out so I thought we had better prep the greenhouse. We moved the table outside and that has freed up so much extra space. I can't wait to put the plants in the ground, but I think I'll have to wait a few more weeks. Because even though it's getting more Spring-like, we did have frost this morning.

This year we're planning on doing: cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, runner beans, courgettes (aka zuchinnis), cucumbers, red/green peppers and a good variety of herbs. I might see about a few other things too when we're at the garden centre. It sort of depends on space.

Valentines Day also happened. I made Andy heart-shaped pancakes and a strawberry smoothie. He loved it. He got me a rose and a card. Inside the card there were details for a day out in Windsor, redeemable at any time. Including a trip to the Windsor Farm Shop, my favourite!

And just because....

We had some friends over for a pizza/movie night last Monday. They had a baby beginning of January, a little boy called Callum. I LOVE clothes with little feet on them! I've decided that when we have a baby it will be dressed only in clothes with feet and probably things like ears and tails, haha. So cute!

6-8 inches of SNOW and it's still falling!!!!

This never happens! I've been so jealous of all the snow that's been happening in America - and finally my wish came true - loads and loads of snow in the UK! And so much that we're snowed in! I can't go to Uni and Andy can't go to work. The roads are terrible - no London buses are running, most trains are canceled and things have pretty much ground to a halt at all the major airports. We've got a fun day ahead of us!

The view down our street to the right

The view down our street to the left

Our picnic table - you can see! Loads of snow!

My feet are nearly lost in the snow :) YEA!

I'm a happy camper. Bring on the soup and hot chocolate! Andy is threatening to get his snowboard out and join the kids sledding on the hill in the park out back. Haha!

"7 Minute Frosting"

This frosting his revolutionized my baking life! I know most everyone loves butter cream frosting, but I don't. I don't like the way it tastes and I find it really hard to work with - first it's too soft, then you put it in the fridge and it's too hard. I know it's a well known thing, but I found a recipe for "7 Minute Frosting" in a book called, "Hello, Cupcake" - and I've never looked back. It looks so pretty & shiny : ) And it tastes like marshmallow fluff! I made these cupcakes for a birthday dinner I had for my friend, Emily. She loved it too :) So if you haven't tried it yet - next time you make cupcakes...or a cake....make this frosting.

It's been a while....a post-Christmas Update

Christmas Eve

Sorry for the lack of posts! I've just been a very busy girl since we got back from America on 7th January. We came home and really hit the ground running...I had class the next morning and had to get up at 6:00am! Ouch. I also wasn't in a rush to post because - the whole family is on facebook now! Including Grandpa! - so if I upload photos to facebook, everyone sees them there. But here are a few Christmas photos. And I guess the difference between this and facebook is that you can actually write something to accompany the pictures here.

This was probably the greatest Christmas ever for me, for a lot of reasons - but I'm always happy when my family is together. Other notable moments:

1) Christmas Day at my parents new house in PA - dad said he felt like this was the inauguration of the house after having a major holiday there. Our dear friends Amber & James spent Christmas Day with us.

2) We did a day trip to Philadelphia to show Andy some of the sites, i.e. Liberty Bell & Independence Hall -but I think he was MOST excited about a hotdog he had with "the works" for $1.25. That was cute.

3) I got to cook and bake a lot with my mom and sister, that was a real highlight for me. Also, I got a cupcake decorating kit for Christmas - you can see my first couple attempts below (haha) - and then there's the mince pies which I am so proud of!

4) We had a New Year's Eve party at the new house with all our close friends from PA and it was great to catch up with them, I hadn't seen most of them since the wedding. Some friends gave us a disco ball, which we hung, and then it turned into a dance party. Fab.

5) Mom, Dad, Sharon, Andy and I went on a trip to Boston which was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing. Highlights there - awesome hotel, shopping, The Freedom Trail, Mike's Pastry and finding a Wagamama's outside the UK!

6) I got some great presents - two really cute aprons, one from Anthropologie and one from here, http://www.sommerdesigns.com/ - check out the website! A new Le Creuset pot, the aforementioned cupcake decorating kit, travel mugs (for taking coffee and soup to school), books, some cute clothes, earrings - Santa was good to me this year :)

7) Oh! And Andy got his first proper suit! My parents got it for him for Christmas and he looks H-O-T in it : )

I think that was all the major moments - but of course there were so many little moments that I cherished as well. Like the night dad and I cooked dinner together, these beautiful lamb shanks that take hours to make. And going for long walks with my sister. Going shopping with my mom. It was all just great. I was so sad to go home, but then that leads to me to memorable moment 8....

8) Being upgraded to First Class on a Virgin Atlantic flight....!!!! I have never flown First Class in my life, and I don't think I will again. Basically Andy's dad knows someone who works for Virgin and well, the rest is history. We often get upgraded to Buisness Class, which is awesome - but this was another level of awesome. Chairs that recline all the way and turn into a bed, champagne, food served on China - there was even a stool so that Andy and I had lunch - sitting together, facing eacother with a table in between! Incredible. Never will I forget that.

The house decorated for Christmas lunchSharon, Amber and me
Andy & Me - Treeside :)

The house decorated for Christmas lunchYes, we had to wait til about 6:00 in the evening to open presents - such is the life of PK's!

New apron!

I guess the greatest thing of all is that it looks like Andy and I are moving back to the States next December. I know it's cheese, but I'm gonna say it anyway: I think that was the greatest gift. Don't misunderstand me, I am so happy in England - and would stay here forever - but I can't wait to be back with my family and friends. It's been a long time, nearly six years of going to and fro, and I want to settle a bit. Although I know that the minute we settle in the U.S., I will pine for the U.K., such is life when you've really had two homes.

Liberty Bell (hotdog with "works" not pictured haha)Sunflower cupcakes = a mess. But a cute idea, the centres are Oreos

NYE Cupcakes!

Mince Pies
The only way to do a puzzle - Mary Pickford in hand.

Andy and Dad chopping wood with dad's new wood-splitting axe - the novelty didn't wear off.

Andy and Dad goofing around at the hotel in Boston - both of them make me laugh so hard.

Papa at the new house

Hot Momma! Looking festive in red.

Dad looking about 12

Decorating the tree in the now-neglected CT house, haha.