Who would have thought that after I moved to Georgia that I would continue to deal with flooding!? But I guess the flooding issues I experienced in New Orleans, while at Tulane, did follow me to Georgia, but took a few years to surface. Although Rian and I are VERY lucky that our house was not one of the houses that was completely flooded, we did experience some issues with water coming into our basement. The small crack that the water entered the basement through seemed to cause some major water damage. On Monday morning Rian and I spent our morning ripping out carpet soaked with water and taking turns changing dripping towels that we used to stop the water from running through the basement.
The week was filled with numerous calls to AllState and lots of waiting on hold for agents to answer. We also experienced a great deal of trouble as many of our friends, getting out of our neighborhoods and finding open road to get to work. It took both of us double the amount of our regular commutes to get to work, when we finally made it out on Wednesday!
My parents came into town on Thursday night. They had already booked the flight before the flooding, but it was perfect timing. We spent a good deal of the long weekend, ripping out drywall and carpet, purchasing fans to help dry out the foundation and house frame and taking TONS of pictures of the already growing mold.
I learned on Friday that the AllState mold adjuster was not going to be able to make it out to do an inspection until half way through October! What were we supposed to do? leave all of the wet carpet and drywall in the basement to continue to mold and infect the house?! Well that is what they suggested so the inspector could assess the room to determine if there was mold from the leak. Sounds like a shotty plan to me.
My parents were such a HUGE help, that we are now in a much better place, no more molding materials in the basement, and we are ready to call Busy Dog to come give us an estimate on possible solutions to stop the water from entering the basement in the future and for the mold inspector to assess the room. Boy, he did not know who he was talking to when he told me to take pictures documenting anything that we did to the room to "show evidence of molding". I think I am going to burn him a CD of about 200 pictures of mold in our basement. HAHA!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Taste Buds
I think it is amazing to look back at what my husband was doing professionally when we met a few years back compared to today. In the past few years Rian has started to make his dreams a reality.. he has published his own cookbook, started his own business, and is really starting to make a name for himself in the world of culinary. I am so proud of him! Although sometimes it is difficult for me to deal with all of the extra work that comes along with a small business and helping Rian, I have to frequently remind myself that it is all worth it.
Recently, Rian has been working almost every weekend at a book signing and cooking demonstration. This does not seem like it entails that much, but in reality it starts on Thursday night with the grocery shopping, continues on Friday with all of the food preparations and continues on Saturday with the event itself.
The past weekend Rian did an event in Country Walk, which we thought was going to be well attended due to the exposure and interest he has had at other social events in the neighborhood, but ended up being slightly disappointing. The Mayor of Powder Springs stopped by and made a few calls to some neighbors, who stopped by as well, but overall, the attendance was not what was expected.
This weekend Rian is doing a cooking demonstration at the Decatur Book Festival. He is very excited about the opportunity and slightly nervous at the same time since he does not know what to expect. If you do not have plans for Sunday, come on out to the Book Festival and see what it is all about.
Recently, Rian has been working almost every weekend at a book signing and cooking demonstration. This does not seem like it entails that much, but in reality it starts on Thursday night with the grocery shopping, continues on Friday with all of the food preparations and continues on Saturday with the event itself.
The past weekend Rian did an event in Country Walk, which we thought was going to be well attended due to the exposure and interest he has had at other social events in the neighborhood, but ended up being slightly disappointing. The Mayor of Powder Springs stopped by and made a few calls to some neighbors, who stopped by as well, but overall, the attendance was not what was expected.
This weekend Rian is doing a cooking demonstration at the Decatur Book Festival. He is very excited about the opportunity and slightly nervous at the same time since he does not know what to expect. If you do not have plans for Sunday, come on out to the Book Festival and see what it is all about.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Sad Life-changing news
As most of you knew Rian and I were expecting our first child in March and were thrilled to be starting a family. Yesterday, we received some sad news: the doctors could not find a heartbeat when conducting an ultrasound. This harsh, unfair and horrible reality has been indescribably hard for us to wrap our head around, but through the supportive words of friends and family throughout the day and night yesterday, we have come to a place where we are individually doing okay and together are moving forward to the future.
In the words of many of you yesterday, "Everything happens for a reason!" Rian and I strongly believe this as well. Just think about our relationship and how it was surely fate, destiny, or an act of a high being, that brought us together that night back in 2003 at Doc's Bar and Grill. There surely was no reason for either of us to be out at 4AM, but we both were! Things happen for a reason! Doctors had just told us in May that it was unlikely that I would get pregnant naturally, clearly doctors do not know everything and we proved them wrong. (Good Work Rian!) Things happen for a reason! Someone knew that our baby was not developing correctly or knew that it was just not the right time for us to be starting a family. Things happen for a reason!
We are thinking about the bright future that is in store for Rian and his business, for me and my first graduating class, and for what opportunities lie ahead for us that we are not aware of yet. And when the time is right, we are looking forward to starting our Macdonald Clan.
In the words of many of you yesterday, "Everything happens for a reason!" Rian and I strongly believe this as well. Just think about our relationship and how it was surely fate, destiny, or an act of a high being, that brought us together that night back in 2003 at Doc's Bar and Grill. There surely was no reason for either of us to be out at 4AM, but we both were! Things happen for a reason! Doctors had just told us in May that it was unlikely that I would get pregnant naturally, clearly doctors do not know everything and we proved them wrong. (Good Work Rian!) Things happen for a reason! Someone knew that our baby was not developing correctly or knew that it was just not the right time for us to be starting a family. Things happen for a reason!
We are thinking about the bright future that is in store for Rian and his business, for me and my first graduating class, and for what opportunities lie ahead for us that we are not aware of yet. And when the time is right, we are looking forward to starting our Macdonald Clan.
As most of you knew Rian and I were expecting our first child in March and were thrilled to be starting a family. Yesterday, we received some sad news: the doctors could not find a heartbeat when conducting an ultrasound. This harsh, unfair and horrible reality has been indescribably hard for us to wrap our head around, but through the supportive words of friends and family throughout the day and night yesterday, we have come to a place where we are individually doing okay and together are moving forward to the future.
In the words of many of you yesterday, "Everything happens for a reason!" Rian and I strongly believe this as well. Just think about our relationship and how it was surely fate, destiny, or an act of a high being, that brought us together that night back in 2003 at Doc's Bar and Grill. There surely was no reason for either of us to be out at 4AM, but we both were! Things happen for a reason! Doctors had just told us in May that it was unlikely that I would get pregnant naturally, clearly doctors do not know everything and we proved them wrong. (Good Work Rian!) Things happen for a reason! Someone knew that our baby was not developing correctly or knew that it was just not the right time for us to be starting a family. Things happen for a reason!
We are thinking about the bright future that is in store for Rian and his business, for me and my first graduating class, and for what opportunities lie ahead for us that we are not aware of yet. And when the time is right, we are looking forward to starting our Macdonald Clan.
In the words of many of you yesterday, "Everything happens for a reason!" Rian and I strongly believe this as well. Just think about our relationship and how it was surely fate, destiny, or an act of a high being, that brought us together that night back in 2003 at Doc's Bar and Grill. There surely was no reason for either of us to be out at 4AM, but we both were! Things happen for a reason! Doctors had just told us in May that it was unlikely that I would get pregnant naturally, clearly doctors do not know everything and we proved them wrong. (Good Work Rian!) Things happen for a reason! Someone knew that our baby was not developing correctly or knew that it was just not the right time for us to be starting a family. Things happen for a reason!
We are thinking about the bright future that is in store for Rian and his business, for me and my first graduating class, and for what opportunities lie ahead for us that we are not aware of yet. And when the time is right, we are looking forward to starting our Macdonald Clan.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Well the first week of school is over and I am home sitting on the coach trying to figure out exactly how the week went. A lot of things have certainly happened since I last posted.
On July 23rd I has gotten sick on not being able to sleep at night, being extremely tired around mid-day even if I had not done anything to make me tired. I was not sure what was wrong with me, I thought, I just might be having back-to-school blues, but decided to take a pregnancy test just to rule that out. Well it did just the opposite; it ruled it in! Rian and I found out that we are expecting a child! The doctor confirmed the pregnancy the next day. Rian was so excited, that he jumped up, started dancing and hugged the nurse a bunch of times. Despite a scare early in August, everything is going great! If the doctor had not show us the baby's heartbeat, I would not believe that I am pregnant. I feel perfectly fine, no morning sickness, not really any more tired than I normally am, just seems like normal.
Well I guess this now means that I really do have to keep up with my blog since I did make a promise to Suzie that when I got pregnant I would start blogging about the experience. Maybe Suzie knew something that I didn't and knew that I would be starting this blog sooner than I expected!
Well I went back to work on July 27 to Communities In Schools of Atlanta training for the week and managed to have my Macbook stolen out of my rental car. As if that was not enough, my external hard drive which I thought was backing up my laptop, is corrupt and I am unable to restore all of my old material to my new laptop which my parents so graciously bought for me as an early birthday present. I am hoping that the Genius Bar will be able to figure something when I take it in this week. But until then, I am slowing restoring all of our files from CDs I had from a back up a long time ago. It is going to be a process.
The first week back at school was interesting. Atlanta Public Schools has decided that they needed to change and rewrite the Graduation Coach's job description and responsibilities even though we are employed by Communities in Schools. It seems as though they have been working on these subtle changes since the middle of last year and they are still not finalized. Tomorrow I will be staring the 3rd week of my job and I still do not have an official job description. What I do know is that I am now reporting to two different principals in two different schools on campus, both of whom are very different people with very different ideas about what a Graduation Coach does. Thus I expect this school year to continue to be VERY interesting.
Things with Rian's business are really taking off and at times can be slightly overwhelming. I think it is AMAZING how much he has accomplished in such a short period of time. I know that he is looking forward to the day that he is only working for himself and not having to work a full time job on top of working for himself. He has a new publisist who is GREAT. She has been working to get Rian and Taste Buds out there in the public eye. It seems as though every weekend from now until the new year is already booked with some event. It has gotten to the point where we have to sit down in Sunday nights and sync our calendars in order to make sure that we are both operating on the same page. It is crazy, but at the same time exciting. I am so very proud of him and honored to be his wife.
Suzie and Brad just went home after another food-orgy at our house. Rian is entering two new recipes in a Mac-and-Cheese contest with Tillamook cheeses. Both recipies tonight were delicious: a chicken pot pie mac and cheese as well as a crab and panchetta mac and cheese. But as those who know Rian well know, he does not just make a little of a few things, he cooks a bunch of things and makes enough to feed an army. We also had pork chops and a potato hash, and steak and cheese subs; something I wanted all weekend, and he promised he would make since it was my birthday weekend.
Well, I think that brings you up to date on the major events over the last weeks while I was without a computer.
On July 23rd I has gotten sick on not being able to sleep at night, being extremely tired around mid-day even if I had not done anything to make me tired. I was not sure what was wrong with me, I thought, I just might be having back-to-school blues, but decided to take a pregnancy test just to rule that out. Well it did just the opposite; it ruled it in! Rian and I found out that we are expecting a child! The doctor confirmed the pregnancy the next day. Rian was so excited, that he jumped up, started dancing and hugged the nurse a bunch of times. Despite a scare early in August, everything is going great! If the doctor had not show us the baby's heartbeat, I would not believe that I am pregnant. I feel perfectly fine, no morning sickness, not really any more tired than I normally am, just seems like normal.
Well I guess this now means that I really do have to keep up with my blog since I did make a promise to Suzie that when I got pregnant I would start blogging about the experience. Maybe Suzie knew something that I didn't and knew that I would be starting this blog sooner than I expected!
Well I went back to work on July 27 to Communities In Schools of Atlanta training for the week and managed to have my Macbook stolen out of my rental car. As if that was not enough, my external hard drive which I thought was backing up my laptop, is corrupt and I am unable to restore all of my old material to my new laptop which my parents so graciously bought for me as an early birthday present. I am hoping that the Genius Bar will be able to figure something when I take it in this week. But until then, I am slowing restoring all of our files from CDs I had from a back up a long time ago. It is going to be a process.
The first week back at school was interesting. Atlanta Public Schools has decided that they needed to change and rewrite the Graduation Coach's job description and responsibilities even though we are employed by Communities in Schools. It seems as though they have been working on these subtle changes since the middle of last year and they are still not finalized. Tomorrow I will be staring the 3rd week of my job and I still do not have an official job description. What I do know is that I am now reporting to two different principals in two different schools on campus, both of whom are very different people with very different ideas about what a Graduation Coach does. Thus I expect this school year to continue to be VERY interesting.
Things with Rian's business are really taking off and at times can be slightly overwhelming. I think it is AMAZING how much he has accomplished in such a short period of time. I know that he is looking forward to the day that he is only working for himself and not having to work a full time job on top of working for himself. He has a new publisist who is GREAT. She has been working to get Rian and Taste Buds out there in the public eye. It seems as though every weekend from now until the new year is already booked with some event. It has gotten to the point where we have to sit down in Sunday nights and sync our calendars in order to make sure that we are both operating on the same page. It is crazy, but at the same time exciting. I am so very proud of him and honored to be his wife.
Suzie and Brad just went home after another food-orgy at our house. Rian is entering two new recipes in a Mac-and-Cheese contest with Tillamook cheeses. Both recipies tonight were delicious: a chicken pot pie mac and cheese as well as a crab and panchetta mac and cheese. But as those who know Rian well know, he does not just make a little of a few things, he cooks a bunch of things and makes enough to feed an army. We also had pork chops and a potato hash, and steak and cheese subs; something I wanted all weekend, and he promised he would make since it was my birthday weekend.
Well, I think that brings you up to date on the major events over the last weeks while I was without a computer.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Its sad to say that this was the last weekend of summer for me. I start back on Monday with Communities In Schools of Atlanta training and then it will be Atlanta Public Schools pre-planning days before I know it. Kinda excited about going back to work and get back to a schedule, but I certainly will miss being able to go sit by the pool and sleeping late.
Spent the last week of vacation catching up on doctor appointments. Went to the dentist and the orthopedic surgeon. Learned that I do in fact have Plantar Fasciitis, which means lots of physical therapy in my future in order to get better and get rid of the pain in my feet. Not exactly looking forward to making those trips to Emory 2 times a week for the next month or two. Hopefully it will be worth it in the long run.
Spend Friday night with Rian, we went on a movie date to see the new Harry Potter movie. Neither of us were too impressed with the movie. I thought back to the book and tried to remember, since I read it so long ago, but really did not gain much from that. Seems as though there is a lot left unexplained for the last two movies.
Saturday night we were going to go out to Nava for dinner, but decided to stay in instead. Andre and his cousin came over to hang out for a while. While getting the corn hole game out of my car, Rian realized that my car battery was entirely dead. We jump started my car, and charged my battery for a while. Have to wait to see what happens in the morning. We played corn hole and ate some amazing burgers with bbq sauce and grilled pineapple and went to bed full and happy.
Looking forward to hanging out and relaxing today after I finish sorting through the office and dealing with my car battery.
Spent the last week of vacation catching up on doctor appointments. Went to the dentist and the orthopedic surgeon. Learned that I do in fact have Plantar Fasciitis, which means lots of physical therapy in my future in order to get better and get rid of the pain in my feet. Not exactly looking forward to making those trips to Emory 2 times a week for the next month or two. Hopefully it will be worth it in the long run.
Spend Friday night with Rian, we went on a movie date to see the new Harry Potter movie. Neither of us were too impressed with the movie. I thought back to the book and tried to remember, since I read it so long ago, but really did not gain much from that. Seems as though there is a lot left unexplained for the last two movies.
Saturday night we were going to go out to Nava for dinner, but decided to stay in instead. Andre and his cousin came over to hang out for a while. While getting the corn hole game out of my car, Rian realized that my car battery was entirely dead. We jump started my car, and charged my battery for a while. Have to wait to see what happens in the morning. We played corn hole and ate some amazing burgers with bbq sauce and grilled pineapple and went to bed full and happy.
Looking forward to hanging out and relaxing today after I finish sorting through the office and dealing with my car battery.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Trying to compete with Rian
Seems as though living with Rian has spurred a competitive edge in me, so I decided to try cooking some summer recipes myself and see what I could come up with.
Grilled Georgia Peach with Blueberry Crumb Cake Filling and Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
6 Peaches
3 pint Blueberries
½ cup Granulated White Sugar
½ cup Light Brown Sugar
5 tablespoons Butter, softened
¼ cup cinnamon
10 whole Graham Crackers, crushed
Whipped Cream
12 sprigs of mint
For Sauce:
1 cup Cranberries
2 tablespoons Honey
1/8 cup Granulated White Sugar
Zest from 1 lemon
¼ cup Riesling wine
¼ cup Cranberry Juice
Procedure:
1. Cut peaches in half and twist to separate the halves, much like an avocado. With a spoon, remove the pit and fibrous center of the peach to form a pocket.
2. Drizzle olive oil over the flesh of the peach halves and slightly sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar. Reserve in refrigerator until ready to use.
3. Place a sheet of foil, shiny side up, on flat surface and put a coffee mug in the middle. Fold the sides of foil up around the mug forming a cup shape with the foil. Then remove the mug. Repeat this to form 4 foil cups.
4. Wash the blueberries. Separate evenly into the foil shaped cups.
5. In a separate bowl, combine butter, 1 tablespoon of honey, granulated white sugar, graham crackers, and ¼ cup of brown sugar, cinnamon and mix with a fork. Mixture should be clumpy, like coffee cake topping.
6. Evenly spoon sugar mixture into each foil cup, reserving ¼ of the mixture for later use. Pinch edges together tightly to close.
7. Put blueberry foil filled cups on the grill and cook covered for 5 minutes.
8. Lightly grease grill, put peach halves skin side up to grill-mark the flesh of the peach. This should take about 2 minutes in one direction, than 2 minutes in the opposite direction.
9. Remove peaches and foil cups filled with blueberries. Let rest for 5 minutes.
10. To make the Cranberry Sauce, combine all listed sauce ingredients in a food processor, and mix until smooth.
11. Transfer sauce from food processor to sauce pot and let cook over medium-high heat until the sauce reduces by half.
Assembly:
1. On the bottom of the skin side of the peach, slice off a sliver, so the peach sits flat on a plate.
2. Add the blueberry mixture to the formed pocket in the center of the peach. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top of each blueberry mixture.
3. Pipe out some whipped cream on top of the blueberry mixture and garnish with a sprig of mint.
4. Drizzle Cranberry Sauce to the side of the peach, and then serve.
Makes 12 servings
Monday, July 20, 2009
Busy Weekend
Lately is seems like our weekends are just, if not more, busy that the work week. This week Rian taught a class at the Cook's Warehouse in Decatur. He did a great job, although he has already thought of many places he would like to improve. That is a great store, I really enjoyed walking around the store looking at all the unique cooking gadgets and wines.
Saturday night we went to Chef Jennifer Booker's birthday party out in Liburn. Quite a drive! We had a good time, but stayed out way too late!
Rian played in two soccer games on Sunday, good thing that we slept all day.
I cannot believe that my summer is almost over and I will be back at work on the 27th. Where did the summer go?!
Saturday night we went to Chef Jennifer Booker's birthday party out in Liburn. Quite a drive! We had a good time, but stayed out way too late!
Rian played in two soccer games on Sunday, good thing that we slept all day.
I cannot believe that my summer is almost over and I will be back at work on the 27th. Where did the summer go?!
Friday, July 17, 2009
New to Blogging
Okay, I guess since I have finally joined Facebook, it was time to start a blog. Suzie has been trying to get me to start one for a while now, and I guess since I am off for the month of July, I finally have had time to start it up. I am not sure how often I will be able to post once school starts, but I will see.
Just got back from a week long vacation in New Hampshire, Matt and Andre spend the week with us and we had great time. Andre experienced many firsts during the trip, including flying, tubbing, etc. Rian also had a book signing while we were there, it was a success, he sold 20 books as well as signed a few that friends has already purchased online.
Busy rest of the month with both of us in training at the end of the month and with schools starting back up in August.
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