Day 5: Your Favorite Comfort Foods

I decided to skip yesterday's challenge. I was supposed to write my views on religion, but I don't think I'm quite comfortable writing something like that on here just yet. So I guess it's more of a 29 Day Challenge.

Today's challenge, My Favorite Comfort Foods. This could get pretty long.

My Mom's Lasagne
My mom has been making lasagne from the same grease-covered magazine clipping for as long as I can remember. It oozes with four different cheeses and just the right amount of sauce. Unfortunately, my mom's awesome lasagne has set the bar pretty high. I tried to recreate the culinary delight over here and it just was not the same. The noodles were too thin and flimsy. I couldn't find spicy Italian sausage. And for a country that takes such pride in their cheeses, there is not much Italian cheese to choose from. No grated mozzerella, no parmesan, just the other day I finally found where they had been hiding the ricotta. Certainly no muenster, which (I think) is the fourth glorious cheese. While my version wasn't terrible, it was by no means anywhere nearly as good as my mom's. For this reason, lasagne is always my first request when I get to America.

Big Fat Cheeseburgers
You can't expect a red-blooded American to write a comfort food post without mentioning some sort of red meat. My weakness is most certainly cheeseburgers with fancy, gooey toppings. Lasagne is always my first hot meal in America, and Red Robin is my first restaurant stop the next day. So many delicious burger choices. And REALLY chocolatey milkshakes. That are actually brown. (Here, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between my chocolate shake and Aron's vanilla. I was even convinced that one time they gave me vanilla due to the serious lack of choclatey goodness, but I digress.) But OH the cheeseburger. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Red Robin seriously needs to think about going international. I would totally be at the Grand Opening.

Mac 'n Cheese
If the neon orange macaroni from the blue box didnt make it on my comfort food list, I think it would seriously cast some doubt if I had really grown up in America. We've all had it and we've all loved it. It needs no explaining. Now that I have a child who is CLEARLY too small to eat a whole box, I just HAVE to help him finish. (Again, this is something only to be found in America unless I'm willing to pay 3 Euro/$5 per box. Which is totally NOT happening.)

So sigh. There is no replacing any of these lovely dishes. And upon the plane touching down, my mouth is already watering after months and months of missing good lasagne, burgers and mac. My tastebuds already know how close they are to being oh-so-satisfied, and that 20 minute drive form the airport to dinnertime seems almost as long as the flight itself. Ok, so I may be exagerating about that. 


Man, I could really go for a cheeseburger right about now. America is still 3 and a half months away, so I'll just have to wait.

Day 3: Top 5 Pet Peeves

Today's challenge is to list my Top 5 Pet Peeves.

1. I am a big fan of crime shows. Criminal Minds, Cold Case, Bones. I'm borderline addicted to them. But Aron isn't. Most of the time I record them and watch them during the Monster's nap. Sometimes, however, the scheduled time for the show isn't 100% accurate and I miss the end. WHAT THE HECK? WHO KILLED THAT GUY?? Sadly, I'll never know. Criminal Minds just turned into Unsolved Mysteries. Worst.

2. The weather here. Oh. My. Goodness. This Spring was pretty nice. When we moved in to the apartment, I remember sweating bullets. That was May. I was thinking how awesome it was that it was already warm in May! Well that didn't last. Summer was over before I knew it even started. Today, I turned on the heat. Uh, hello... it's AUGUST here. Moments like these leave me longing for the long days in the sun at Camp. I'd even love the three-a-day workouts on Lehigh's winter training trips if it meant I could be in Florida for just a couple days.
*Since starting this post, on the radio I heard All I want for Christmas is You. And my friend heard a commercial for winter tires. HELLO RADIO-PEOPLE!!! IT"S STILL AUGUST! even though I had to turn the heat on. Maybe winter tires aren't a bad idea...

3. Some of Aron's family members think I'll understand what they are saying if tehy repeat the word 3, 4, or 17 times. Newsflash: if I didn't know the word the second time you said it, I still won't understand no matter how many times you repeat yourself.

4. I'm starting to run out... but I also really hate when there are two good tv shows on at the same time.

5. Most of the time, it is advantageous to be 6 hours ahead. It seriously sucks though when I wake up to find out that Lady Gaga dressed up as a guy, some Britney tribute I didn't know about was disappointing, and holy moly, Beyoncé is prego! But I'll be the one laughing next summer when I can watch the Olympics in real time.

Day 2: Where you'd like to be in 10 years

In ten years, I'll be 33. We'll be married. We'll have a house with a yard. I'll be done with school, sort of. Because I'll work at school, teaching English to high school students. We'll have more kids. Hopefully two more. We'll be going to America regularly. My little Monster will be 12, and probably not so little. On our regular visits to America, Monster will go to Camp. I hope he loves it just like I did as a kid. I was 12 for my first week away at Camp, but I think Monster will go earlier. I want him to go to mini-camp at like 5 or 6. He has already been to Camp for a visit.

Future Camper on the pier. Winter '10-'11

There is a lot in store for our family in the years to come. But right now, Monster is trying to read The Fire Engine Book and he is calling me back to the present. Can I just say that in 10 years it'll be 2021?! It'll be the Next Roaring Twenties.

30 day challenge

Well I guess now that I explained how I got to where I am, I have to figure out what the heck I'm going to talk about here. I thought a good way to start was to complete a 30 day challenge that I found on randomosityblog.com.

Day 1: Your current relationship

Currently, my boyfriend and I have been together for 3 years and counting. When I got pregnant way earlier than anyone should, we always agreed that when we decided to get married, it would be as a celebration of our love and our relationship. Not because we had a baby. Not because one of us needed a visa. We want our marriage to be about our love and our family.

We also want to do it right. Plan ahead so that family and friends from both sides have time to plan their travel plans (to America). Have enough money to have the wedding of my our dreams. And I did not want to be engaged for the sake of being engaged. I never wanted to be that couple that was engaged for 2 years before we even started to set a date. As soon as he asks, I am going to pull out a calendar, and circle one day with a big red marker. Well I guess I will call my family and friends first. And maybe I'll wait until the next day to whip out the calendar. But you catch my drift.

So yes, we are young. Yes, we are in love. Yes, we are parents. No, we aren't married. That doesn't make us stupid or bad parents. It makes us unique. And I like us the way we are.

The beginning

So I've decided to start blogging. But where do I even begin? I guess I'll start in 2008, when I unexpectedly met the person who would change life as I knew it.

It was summer 2008. I was on summer break from Lehigh University and back at Camp Pecometh where I had worked every summer since '05. This particular camp chooses to hire about 15 or so counselors/staffers from other countries. That summer we had staffers from Australia, Hungary, England, and (most importantly) one blonde-haired blue-eyed Dutchman. The official policy was no romantic relationships should develop during the camp summer. Well rules are made to be broken right? Aron and I started dating a few weeks before the conclusion of summer. We spent every weekend together and after camp, we flew down to Florida and went to Disneyworld. My older sister asked me if I needed to add one more guest for her wedding, but unfortunately, Aron had to be back in Holland for HIS sister's wedding (which was about 30 hours before my sister's).

My junior year at Lehigh was certainly atypical from the average student. Turns out I was pregnant (oops) and trying to maintain a SUPER long distance relationship. It all worked out and May 22nd, 2009 Aron and I became parents. We lived with my parents, flew back and forth a few times, undecided where to plant our roots and grow our family. We knew one thing, we had to have our family together. When Aron couldn't find work in America for a Visa, around Christmas '09, we figured out it was pretty simple for me to get a residential permit in the Netherlands. So after a lot of tearful conversations with family and friends, I boarded a plane with everything I could fit in two suitcases, a diaper bag and a stroller, and took a huge (8 hour) leap.

We were now in February 2010, living with Aron's parents. By September I had my official paperwork, and April 29th, 2011, we closed on our first apartment. We are now homeowners, an independant family of three, ready to start planting our roots and live our own lives, together.

If someone had told me on my 20th birthday (May '08) that by 23 I would have a kid, live abroad, be in a committed relationship, and that we would own our own home, I probably would've laughed in your face. Funny how life happens. And I wouldnt have it any other way