Cherry Blossoms

Spring time is so beautiful! What a magical place the world is in spring time. :)

On Sunday, my roommates and I went to the Kenwood neighborhood in Maryland to see the cherry blossoms. Since walking around the Tidal Basin in Washington D.C. is highly discouraged due to Covid, we decided to go to this neighborhood in Maryland where the streets are lined with cherry blossoms. 

We thought we would only be able to drive through the neighborhood but they had one side of the road blocked off and they let us walk through. It was gorgeous! What beautiful trees and a lovely neighborhood.

The neighborhood had such pretty houses. 

I really enjoyed seeing the cherry blossoms and the neighborhood! What a lovely way to spend the time in between sessions of general conference. :)

Moving

I'm really stressed out right now. I'm moving again. I moved into my current place June of last year. I've been here less than a year and I'm moving again. Moving is stressful, finding the right place, trying to purge stuff, packing, the actual moving part, the money it costs to move. 

Please send good thoughts and/or prayers this way. I need them.

One Year of the Pandemic

This month it will be a year since the pandemic started and the world as we knew it changed. Here are some links to a few blogposts I posted at the beginning of the pandemic. Click here and here and here and here. I must admit I've been getting a little emotional reading my old blogposts about the pandemic. It was hard. It still is hard, although life has calmed down a bit in the last year. 

We are still encouraged to wear masks inside any public building (although some states are lifting that mandate now). 

We still shouldn't gather in large groups. 

We still are encouraged to wash our hands frequently (which is always a good thing whether or not there's a pandemic happening). 

Professional sports teams have started playing again with restrictions (less fans in the audience and the players live in a bubble). 

Schools are opening up again with hybrid learning (some kids are at home on zoom while some kids are going into school and the kiddos are switching off the days they're going in and zooming).

A lot of people who have office jobs that can be done from home are still working from home. 

Talk show hosts are back in their studios but with a virtual audience and the guests are either zooming in or coming in and sitting 6 feet apart from each other.

Hair salons, department stores, movie theaters etc are open again with limited capacity and masks are required. 

We have a few vaccines available now to the general population and people are getting vaccinated but it'll still be awhile before I can get one.

I can't wait for the day when I can go inside of a grocery store without a mask on and when I can see a musical live in the theater again. But until then I'll keep on collecting masks. (This isn't even all of the masks I own). ;)

 

Food, Glorious Food!

I like food and today I feel like sharing some pictures of delicious food that I've eaten in the last couple of months. The ones that I'm sharing are mostly treats, but I promise I do eat healthy food sometimes too. ;)

One Saturday morning I was in the mood for a doughnut and I decided Astro Doughnuts was my doughnut place of choice. I've had a couple of their doughnuts before and so I knew I liked them. I got a Honey Bun doughnut and it was delicious! It was soft and fluffy with good flavor.

There's something about a Wendy's chocolate frosty that I just really enjoy any day any time! 

One day I saw a movie or a show where they were eating fudge and it suddenly made me want to eat some fudge. I didn't want to make a whole pan of fudge so I looked up places around where I lived that sold some. I found a place and went one day and they ended up being closed at the moment even though their website said they should have been open. Oh well. 

I ended up making a whole pan of fudge and it turned out pretty dang well if I do say so myself. ;) I ate some, shared some with my roommates and then put the rest in ziploc bags and put them in the freezer and ate the pieces slowly over time.

 

I was out running errands one day and had just eaten lunch and decided that I needed dessert too. My first choice was Rita's Italian Ice but it was closed for the season. 

But in the same shopping area was a Duck Donuts and so I went there instead. I had eaten there before but it had been a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed their doughnuts. They were soft, fluffy and warm. :)

 

It is not very often that I get the house to myself. My roommates are ALWAYS here (and I understand why (and I am too) but man sometimes it's hard). There were two evenings recently that two of my roommates were out of town and the third roommate just keeps to herself in her bedroom so I basically had the house to myself. Can I just say how much I enjoyed having the kitchen and the living room to myself those two evenings?! It was awesome! 

I say all of this to say that the first evening I had the main level to myself, I made Tortellini Sausage Soup and French Peasant Bread and binge watched a few episodes of WandaVision (I hadn't seen any of it yet). Both the soup and the bread turned out well! (And I thought WandaVision was interesting.)

 

The Tortellini Sausage Soup and French Peasant Bread.

 

The second evening I had the house to myself, I made Hot Chocolate Cookies and finished binge watching WandaVision. :) I love these cookies! (Overall I enjoyed WandaVision and I'm so curious about how they're going to end the show.)

 

And my last food picture I'd like to share for now. One of my roommates and I had talked about trying this sushi place near us. Recently we finally did and it did not disappoint. It's Yoko Sushi. It's a little expensive but the food was delicious!

As you can tell from this post I like food and I like remembering delicious food I've eaten. :)

Valentine's Day

A few days ago I was on facebook and I kept on seeing friends post answers to questions regarding them and their significant other (for Valentine’s Week). I normally just keep scrolling passed these posts but this particular day I read a few of them and I had this idea come to me. What if I answered the questions for myself?! No, I am not in a relationship, but as I read the questions thinking about them in regards to me, some funny answers came to my head.

So I filled this questionnaire out for myself (with a little help from my sisters but mainly by myself). And here are the results.

Here’s our story:

How’d you guys meet: At a hospital in MN

First Date: January 1… obviously.

How long have you been together: 30-something years… crazy how fast time flies.

Age difference: Exact same age.

Who said I love you first: What’s love got to do with it?!

Most impatient: Me. Definitely me.

Most sensitive: Me.

Most stubborn: Me.

Falls asleep first: Me.

Cooks better: Me. Definitely me.

Better morning person: Me.

Better driver: Me.

Who is the funniest: Me. But the inspiration has to come.

Where do you eat out most as a couple: Freddy’s

Who is more social: What does being social mean?! ;)

Favorite tv show to watch together: Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Goldberg’s

How long did it take to get serious: I’m never serious.

Who plans date night: Me.

Hogs the remote: I have sole control of the remote. It’s pretty dang awesome!

Spends the most: Me. Duh!

Did you go to the same school: Yes, from elementary school to university!

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together: Taiwan

Who drives when you are together: Me. Always me.

Post a picture/picture(s) of you and your valentine.

Happy Valentine’s Day whether you are your own valentine or you have a significant other. :)

 

 

I was giggling the whole time I was filling the questionnaire out. I must admit I was a little nervous about posting it on Facebook because I didn’t want people to think I was crazy, but I decided to just do it. Maybe people didn’t think it was quite as funny as I did but hopefully they at least were entertained by it for a moment. :)

I hope that no matter what your relationship status is this Valentine's day that you'll have a good day and that eating chocolate is a part of your day.

 

An adventure! (Waterford, VA; Lovettsville, VA; Brunswick, MD)

I had the day off of work this last Monday. Yay! Since I knew I was going to have the day off, I decided to go on a little adventure. I visited Waterford, Virginia, Lovettsville, Virginia, and Brunswick, Maryland. 

I learned about Waterford from a facebook ad and decided I wanted to visit. When I mentioned going to Waterford to my sister-in-law, she suggested I go to Lovettsville and Brunswick also. :)

(Side note: In the pictures when I'm not wearing a mask, there were no people around.)

I didn't really do any planning for this trip. I just put Waterford in my GPS and let it take me there. Once I got there, I just wandered. I parked at a nearby church and walked to the Waterford Union of Churches Cemetery. 

You can read about the cemetery in the picture below.

The setting of the cemetery was beautiful!

 

 

 

 

There were both black and white people buried here but they were buried in different sections of the cemetery. The fence line marks the different sections.

Read about the African American section in the picture below.

A grave marker.

After I finished walking around the cemetery, I wandered over to the Second Street School. 

It was a school for African Americans in the area from 1867-1957. It was also used as a church for that community. 

Now the building is used for living history tours for elementary aged children.

Then I found the main street of Waterford and man, was it cool! It kind of felt like stepping back in time (if you picture it without the parked cars). 

I learned that many of the homes there were built before 1861 with only a few being built after 1922. The whole town is considered a National Historic Landmark.

The Waterford Post Office. This building used to be a house and then a store and then the post office (and is still the post office) (1897).

I liked this door!

The barn in these pictures was built before 1875.

The Waterford Mill. This particular structure was built around 1830 and when it was open was the main contributor to the development of the town.

Such a pretty area!

There's a lot of interesting history in Waterford. I won't write about it here, but I enjoyed learning some of its history while I was there.

After I finished looking around Waterford, I made my way to Lovettsville, VA (about 6 miles away). I didn't really do much here. I found this Love sign and then I ate lunch here. (My lunch was okay. I ended up not even finishing it.)

After my brief time in Lovettsville, I crossed the river into Maryland and visited Brunswick. I didn't spend too much time here either but I did run into this memorial to veterans. 

It was a nice memorial in the middle of the street. (It really was in a wide median in the middle of a road.)

A nice church in Brunswick.

I am so glad I went on this little adventure on Monday! I really needed it. I needed to get out of the house and in general I love visiting new places and learning new things. (And being outside and in a low populated area made it even better). (It was a little chilly when the wind was blowing but overall it was a nice sunny day on Monday).

Reading

Sometimes I get the urge to write and I can't do anything else until I do. I think writing is a stress reliever for me. Although I get the urge to write, I don't always know what I'd like to write about. I just know I need to write something and put it out there in the world (the world of my blog) or my personal journal (depending on what I feel like writing about). Right now is one of those times. 

My chosen topic this time... reading.

I read or listened to 42 books in 2020. I'm pretty pleased with having read that amount last year considering I didn't read very much in the first half of the year. (I only read 10 books in the first six months of last year.)

I've read many different kinds of books of different genres. As I've been reading recently I've been thinking about how creative authors can be. Not only do they create consistent and interesting characters (depending on the book) but some also come up with whole new worlds. And I wonder how do they do that? What is going through the author's head before they start writing and as they're writing? (I can't even imagine thinking up a whole new world and being able to create story lines in that world in an entertaining way.)

Basically I say all of this to say that I am in awe of and am grateful for good authors who have the creativity to come up with interesting stories and have the skills to write well.