If I haven't mentioned, I heart Tina Fey.

Another killer Sarah Palin sketch... I particularly enjoy the call for more "dollar menus" and the request to use a lifeline. And Katie Couric's face...

Still awaiting my Aunthood...

Good morning Sophie,

Hey, how are ya. So yeah, guess what? It's September 26 - already! Can you believe it? Well yeah, don't know if you've been keeping track as much as we have, and I might add, your mom & dad have, but that's actually *supposed* to be your birthday. So here's the plan, all you have to do is decide to come out. Really...everything else will be taken care of for you! :) And I don't want to spoil anything, but you'll be greeted with more love than you can handle.

So in short, come out!!

Love,
Aunt Jamie

If only it was a cash prize.

I kept wanting to title this post "Hold my trophy while I kiss your girlfriend." Anyone remember that obnox No Fear tshirt? I remember kids wearing it in elementary school - anyone from my generation who says "kids these days are awful" needs to remember that tshirt! Good morals.

Anyway, here's the story. You know I'm training for a half marathon now... and last weekend my "long run" was replaced by a 5K according to the schedule. I was in Myrtle Beach with my friend Amy & her bridal party for a getaway weekend, so I googled it and lo and behold there's a race in N Myrtle! I registered that morning... it was very small. VERY small - my bib # was 70. It was fun, low key, ON the sand. I did pretty well time-wise so it was good. Well, they happened to give out trophies to the top 3 in each age bracket (which, if you think about it was the vast majority of runners in an 80 person run.) It was fun - made me feel like a winner.

I owe the blog some pics of Maine...I've been super busy with school. Though I'll be honest right now I'm watching The Hills and rolling my eyes. It's gone from vapid entertainment to absolutely pointless. Why can't I turn it off? Ugh.

Watch and laugh

I will update with all our wonderful Maine pictures and stories, until then, enjoy the funniest sketch ever from SNL this week!! :)

The Maine Event

...well, we're off tomorrow morning at 6am. Yes, take off. Ugh, why do I book these flights to dang early? Oh yeah, bc they're the only cheap ones.

We're super excited - we're flying into Portland and renting a car to drive up the coast to Bar Harbor for some Lobstah. Then on Friday we're trekking over to Sugarloaf for the Desrochers wedding and fun w/ Susquehanna friends! On Sunday we're spending a few hours in Portland before our flight takes off in the evening. I.can't.wait.

Tune out Sarah Palin Granola Recipe

Sorry - I had an elaborate post repudiating the RNC, and in the interest of not making my blog a terribly hostile place, this was the most passive aggressive way I could think of to get my message out. And the granola is actually quite good, no matter what your political leanings!


peanut butter granola
From blog: Everybody Likes Sandwiches
2 1/2 c oats
1/2 c wheat germ
1 t vanilla extract
2 T canola oil
3 T natural peanut butter
2 T brown sugar
3 T chopped chocolate (optional)

In a large bowl, mix oats and wheat germ together. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat up oil, peanut butter, vanilla and brown sugar over medium high heat and let it all get melty together. Pour hot mixture over oats and stir well, so that everything is covered. You may have to use your hands if your peanut butter mixture is extra stiff. Add chocolate, if using, and mix well. Spread mixture on a baking sheet or large glass baking pan and toast in a 325 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, checking on it and stirring it occasionally until mixture is dry. When cool, store in a tightly lidded container.

*The chocolate chips thing initially weirded me out - like how do they not get all melty and ruin the granola (since it's combined with the heated up stuff off the stove)...but it's kind of a small miracle, they stay pretty much in their shape and keep to themselves.

I like it in vanilla yogurt or in applesauce! We'll be toting it along when we go to Maine later this week too! Enjoy!

Babies and Showers - weekend in PA

We had a great trip back home to PA over Labor Day weekend! I got to go out for a two hour breakfast with my girls, visit with Susanna, see my grandparents' new house and help them set up their new computer, and spend lots of quality time with Scott's family! And SURPRISE! Kelly's shower was Sunday! Sadly I don't have pictures of all the fun stuff I did, but here's a smattering. Yes, I said smattering.

If you give a baby a cellphone...she will never give it back to you. And you'll need to grab it when it's time to go and run away from the sobbing. She does love cell phones - it's funny!

Action shot - mid sneeze! LOL!

Erica plays "baby" with Susanna. Still has my cellphone...

Shower stuff! First off - my big project (and let's be honest, a big portion of my gift budget! diapers ain't cheap, folks!) was a diaper cake! It was so fun and pretty easy to make... and a really cool centerpiece for the refreshments table. And Kelly and John will be able to use the diapers too!

Next project, a watermelon baby carriage...kinda like a jack o lantern but with a watermelon and making it into a carriage...you get the picture. It was hard work, but I got to stab a watermelon and people seemed to be a little scared of me that day... not sure why.

The refreshment table!

Kelly and Carol

All of the guests wrote Johnny & Kelly a message for when they're changing Sophie in the middle of the night... Tammy and Adrienne had good ones... so true, really.

SO MANY PRESENTS!!!

A Run Down Memory Lane

So, back in Etown this weekend, I took part in a 10k! It was the Nike+ Great Human Race, which I must say is a really cool concept. It was a virtual race - all you had to do was log a 10k on your nike+ system. I'm doing a 1/2 marathon training program, and doing 6.2 miles was a little preemptive, but I survived.

What was fun about it though was that I got to run around my old hometown, and since it's pretty small, I got to see all kinds of things that reminded me of the old days! I ran to Briarcliff Ln, past the first place I lived where I have real memories (which, btw, it looks like it's empty - no landscaping and looking abandoned...I digress), to my first grade bus stop, through the college where I had God knows how many swim practices and where I graduated (from HS, I realize this will confuse most ppl) and the gazebo on the lake... It was a nice nostalgic run!

On to the 1/2 marathon on the OBX - November 9th! I am so excited - Nikki is coming down to run it w/ me! Woohoo!

The drive home was fun - I ended up reading out loud from my Linguistics textbook to Scott the whole time about language acquisition and how babies learn sounds, meaning, grammar, launguage, etc. We were both really interested... and I turned to a random page in the book, and it turned out to be a "case study" in regional dialects concerning Lancaster, Lebanon and Berks counties. OMG, we laughed so hard. I mean, we always knew there were weird things about the way we talk, and I've seen random email forwards like "You know you're from Lancaster County when..." but to hear if from experts was pretty funny.

Here's what we do:

• Add "awhile", meaning now. Like "I'll go get the pizza awhile" Funny story...Scott never realized this little gem of PA dialect...he said he's said it to co-workers on numerous occasions which he now thinks they thought he meant he'd do it "in a while"...like, later. So due to his "heritage" he's now a slacker...
• Omit "to be" from certain sentences, like "The car needs washed" instead of "The car needs to be washed" like normal people would say it. We're totally guilty
  
• "All" as in "The salt is all"... meaning the salt is all GONE. I find this one sad bc I remember saying (or maybe hearing my sister or another baby saying) "Allie All!" when their bottle was gone. I feel like a fraud, my first words are junk.

It makes me happy on some level that Scott and I both do this though... maybe we can keep our accents and weird talking habits...

I'm blaming school...

For the reason I'm such a delinquent blogger, that is. It started up about 2 weeks ago, and already I'm reading a ton and pretty busy! I've cut back my hours at work to 20/week, so that def helps but I am still getting the feeling this semester could be rough for me.

We were up in PA this weekend though, and had so much fun! I have a few pictures to post so I'll get to that this week for sure!