Vacation… All I ever wanted, Vacation, had to get away!

So before we went on our Accidental Vacation my friend Lori Beth offered to write a guest post for while we were gone.  And then the accidental part of the vacation happened and it all kindof fell apart.  She still wrote it and this is still a good read.  So we'll put it in the better late than never file.  Oh I added the pictures because I can't handle a post with no pictures:

The Life in Cleveland Clan has gone on vacation.  And while Jeanne is away she has graciously allowed me to be a guest poster on her blog.  So thank you.  Let me introduce myself, I’m Jeanne’s Maid of Honor, a title I’ve taken as a lifetime appointment.  As Maid of Honor – 6 years post wedding – I don’t really have many duties, save for planning trips, picking out the white wines and summarizing the TV shows our friends don’t have the time to watch.  I watch a lot of TV, I could call it my hobby but that makes me sound sad.  So for the purposes of this post let’s pretend I have a job as a TV critic/blogger to make me sound cool and hip.

Her job is never done.

Jeanne suggested I talk about True Blood… but I think we all know that I’m gonna talk about the fine programming on ABC Family.  Here’s why.  I can’t stop.  I might need to join a group or something.  One that doesn’t exist on the IMDB message boards for 90s child stars trying to make a comeback.  I’m very close to removing Secret Life from my DVR list, but I think you all know me better than that.

This weekend ABC Family is playing The Count of Monte Cristo 2 times a day along with the Prince of Persia and the Pirates of the Caribbean.  ABCF likes to do this – find movies they think fit well together and then play them as a “marathon” all weekend.  I guess these have been paired because they are all a “swashbuckling good time.”  Did you miss the Prince of Persia at 8pm on Friday? Don’t worry, catch it again at 2pm on Saturday, or 10am on Sunday.  And every time it will be an “ABC Family movie event.” I mean, how can it not?  Have you seen those special effects?

Oh and in case you missed “A Walk to Remember” when it was popular, don’t worry, it’ll play on ABCF in about a month paired with “The Notebook”.   Oh, and you claimed to have only seen “A Cinderella Story” once?  You’re lying.  That movie comes on all the time, and you watch it every time.  Because right after that plays “Another Cinderella Story”, and you love to hate that movie.  Ever wonder what happens to Paige after she agrees to marry Edward after the Prince & Me?  Don’t worry there’s 3 more “Prince & Me” movies to fill in those details, and ABCF will be playing a marathon soon I’m sure.  Probably as a runner up to the new ABCF original movie, “Prince & Me 5: Heiry Situation”

 Don’t worry, you don’t have to watch it… I will.  It’s the sacrifices I make for my friends.  Did I pretend I didn’t want to see Step Up 2 the Streets? No, I bought the DVD.  Have I seen all the Center Stage sequels – of course.  Do I watch all the original programming on ABCF, including Jane By Design? Yes.  If it’s a movie with a Princess plot, I’m there.  Dance movie, do you have to ask.  Has the plot already been done by Saved by the Bell – yes please.  I watch these shows and movies because, it’s not just a hobby, it’s my job. 

Thanks, LB!  Although I still think you should have posted about True Blood.  If only so that I had an excuse to include this:

The Dude's Base Smoothie Recipe.

So you guys.  Smoothies.  Holy crap.  I'm not sure why it took me 32 years to discover these treats of amazing but DUDE.  A few weeks ago we got plain yogurt in our CSA bag and since then we've been straight-up addicts.

Story time = SNOOTHIE TIME! (the girl calls them Snoothies)

 My daughter summed it up best when we gave her a smoothie instead of her usual bedtime snack:

"This is WAY better than blueberries."

Amen, sister.  But that's nothing compared with her brother's reaction.  He basically loses his mind the second he hears the blender going.

You have no idea how good this is.

We've tried quite a few varieties and I think I've perfected my base recipe.  So I thought I'd share and spread the addiction.

 

 

THE DUDE'S BASE SMOOTHIE RECIPE

Ingredients:
2 cups of plain yogurt - the CSA yogurt was amazing but Dannon is ok, too.
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Scant tablespoon (more like a half tablespoon) of sugar
Ice to fill blender
Fruit and/or other nonsense

So.  First you put in the base ingredients:

Then put in the fruit and other nonsense:

 Then fill the blender to the top with ice:

 Then blend into oblivion:

Done!  This recipe makes enough for two adults and two children.  I serve it to them in the double walled tumblers - or as my daughter calls them "Mommy coffee cups" - so that they don't spill snoothie all over the couch.

Some ones we've tried:

Peach:  Add 3 peaches to the base recipe
Peanut Butter and Banana:  Add 2 tablespoons of Peanut Butter and one Banana to the base recipe
Peach Banana:  Add 2 peaches and one banana to the base recipe

This is our favorite so far.

Honestly you can add whatever you want.  I'm dying to try a berry only one.  And a PB and J one. And maybe I might go completely nuts one night and throw in some Nutella.  Haven't gone there yet, though since I'm trying to keep them relatively healthy.

Oh a note on the sugar.  I've heard that you can use honey instead of the sugar if you're worried about your kid's sugar consumption.  My guy is too young still for honey, though.  Plus if you do the math they are basically getting less than 1/2 teaspoon of sugar per smoothie.  I'm not going to get my panties in a bunch about that small of an amount.  Especially when my attitude on sugar consumption in children is the same as alcohol consumption in college:  Learn how to do it in moderation in a somewhat consequence free situation so that later in life you don't get wasted at an office event and/or choose only cookies for your school lunch.

Enjoy!!!

In other news tonight's plans involve friends, wine, and what the dude is holding:

Obviously this is the best idea ever and nothing can possibly go wrong.  Yup.

An Accidental Vacation: Part 2, The Aftermath.

So.  Part 1 is here.  But to recap we were somewhere in PA headed to our friends' house in DC the day after the Derecho.

Right.  So... a few frantic texts from dying phones later and we determine that our friends have no power, it's 104 out, and their power isn't coming back until Monday at the earliest. But.  We're finally in a car!  We're over halfway there!  We need some funtimes dammit!  So they make the sound decision that we should all meet somewhere with power and awesome things.

Except that they had dying cell phones and no power and we were in the Godforsaken (meaning no cell service) part of the state.

So we solved the problem that we actually had control over at the moment.  We got the kids some food.

The Summit Diner was an adorable place that I highly recommend if you're ever in... Somerset Pennsylvania. 

You will probably never be in Somerset, PA.  But seriously this place was super cute.  The sign above the counter said "Drink Coffee.  Do stupid things faster with more energy!"  That I can get behind.

One of my Life Rules is to never go anywhere without an Atlas in the car.  So while we ate we called random places to stay near anything that looked remotely interesting on the map.

Seriously just get me some food.

And quickly learn that nowhere had power.  The entire Ohiopyle area was completely wiped out.  As was basically anything in Southeastern PA.

And still we refused to go home.  We were going to make a vacation happen dammit even without power and nowhere to stay.  So what do two architects do when stuck in the middle of nowhere PA without a plan?  They take their kids here, of course:

Recognize it yet?  How about this shot:

Aaaaaah yes. Fallingwater.  As we were pulling up Matt wondered if our kids would be allowed in.  I was all Of course they will be - I'm sure some hipster douchebags have brought their inappropriately aged children here before.  We can't be the first ones....   Yeah kids aren't allowed in.  You have to be at least 6 years old to tour the house.  Which, good.  I'm sure that rule exists because some idiot brought their kid and it was obnoxious.   Anyways you can bring your children and tour the grounds which was plenty:

Our girl is just as opinionated about architecture as she is about fashion.  She took one look at the house and said this:

"Why there isn't a train?  It has a moat.  It should have a train."

I feel like FLW really missed a design opportunity with that one....

Not pictured:  The train.

I love the details of this place.

The extensive preservation efforts that had been going on here seem to be pretty much completed.  I love that, btw.  Because no matter how modern and innovative and breaking with tradition your architecture is if it's any good?  Someday it will be in the hands of preservationists like me.

Mwahahahahaha.

Anyways after a quick stop in the powerless and therefore pretty creepy visitor's center we texted our friends  "We're at Fallingwater.  Like you do." and hit the road headed south.  We figured we'd drive until we found power and/or met our friends in the middle.

What we found was this:



Deep Creek Lake.  A beautiful recreation area in the very western corner of Maryland.  We stopped at the visitor's center on the way in to try to get our bearings.  Matt asked for a recommendation on a place to stay.  The guy said "you realize it's the fourth of July weekend, right?"  And Matt's head exploded.  He wanted to say "You realize I've never heard of this place before an hour ago, my entire family was in a huge accident, we're a million miles from home, we have nowhere to go, we have two melting down kids in the car, and WE JUST NEED SOME FUNTIMES DAMMIT"  But.  Instead he said "Yeah."

We went immediately to the nearest beach:

FINALLY you people bring me somewhere fun.  The beach is my jam.

Met up with our friends and even found a motel with a vacancy.  Funtimes could finally begin. 

Stay tuned for Part III - when the trip really gets rolling...

Walgreens Way to Well Health Tour.

So something pretty neat is happening in Cleveland:

The Walgreens Way to Well Health Tour with AARP is a nationwide tour that will be in and around Cleveland 7/12 through 7/30 providing FREE health tests, educational materials and consultations. The tour focuses on prevention and early detection of today's leading diseases: heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Yes.  FREE!  And no insurance or appointment is necessary.  Anyone 18 and older is encouraged to drop in and visit the tour.

The free health tests provided include cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure, body mass index, body composition, skeletal muscle, resting metabolism, visceral fat, and real body age.  All totaled that's over $100 worth of tests.  For free. Can't beat that!  They only take 20 minutes to complete.  And you don't have to wait weeks for your results - they will be given to you immediately.  Afterward, participants will consult with a Walgreens pharmacist or certified wellness staffer about his or her results

If you've been procrastinating basic wellness tests like I have (what.  I went to the doctor all the time when I was pregnant...  A year ago.) this is the perfect way to get it all done quickly, easily, and for FREE.  Prevention and early detection is so, SO important and yet it's something so easy to put off (AHEM).

In addition all participants will receive a free, one-year AARP membership. Participants under the age of 50 can pass the free AARP membership on to an eligible adult, and existing members will receive a one-year extension on their current membership.  I love FREE stuff!

Here's a list of Cleveland area events!

Tour stops are subject to change so please check here for updates.

Can't make it out to visit the tour? You can still contribute to this community outreach campaign by purchasing Walgreens brand health and wellness products!  1¢ from the purchase of each product, up to $3 million annually, will support bringing preventative wellness services to local communities through the Walgreens Way to Well Fund®.

I was compensated for this post and found out about this opportunity through the SITS Girls.  All opinions are my own.

A Vat of Dye and Some Fireworks.

So.  Wow.  I didn't mean to disappear mid story there.  But once things were straightened out with the car (It's totaled.  We're screwed.) I immediately fell into a vat of dye getting ready for my show at River Colors on Sat:

At one point literally.  There was a hole in my glove.

 It was a great show - there was even a goat:

Loved the goat.

A good selection of Destination Yarn including sparkly yarn, Silk Road, and my Olympic colorways will be at River Colors all week!

Olympic colorways - Five Rings, London,  U.S.A.

The new sparkly yarn looks fantastic in Paris!

In other news I hope everyone had a fantastic Fourth of July.

U.S.A.  Had to do it.  I might knit my Olympic project out of this yarn.

Our Fourth celebrations were dampered a bit by the Lakewood fireworks cancellation.  Serious boo to that.  Although we did learn that years ago they were cancelled one other time.  And that my brother - probably in some state of inebriation - stole the giant (think 6' x 3') wooden CANCELLED sign from the park.  It's still in my parents' attic.  The things you learn.

Starklers!

An Accidental Vacation: Part 1, The Derecho.

So you guys.  This weekend.  So many things happened it's going to take awhile for me to unpack it all.  We were supposed to go to the Washington DC area to visit our friends... you can see where this is going.

Wait, no.  It's not going there at all.  Because before we even got there this happened:

We're all ok. 

But let me rewind and start at the beginning.

The plan was for Matt to take a half day on Friday, drive to Pittsburgh at naptime, then on to DC for the rest of the weekend.  Not an epic ordeal  just a relaxing trip hanging out at our friends new house... And then...

Matt got stuck at work late on Thurs night. And also Friday afternoon.  Which meant that I packed up EVERYTHING with zero help with the kids/packing/organizing/logistics.  But dammit I got everyone ready to go the second Matt finally walked in the door on Friday.  Because if we missed traveling at nap time we missed going to Pittsburgh.  And by God we were not going to miss out on a second of this fun family adventure.  Not with the last few weeks we've had....

I only mention all of this because the Matt working late situation meant that I had to cut some corners to get us ready in time.  Corners like not going grocery shopping for travel food.   Also you have to understand the mindset we were in to understand our subsequent insanity as far as sound decision making goes....

We did make it to Pitt in time to hang with Matt's brother and sister in law for dinner.  Had a lovely time.  But we knew that a line of storms were coming so we left a bit early in an attempt to beat the weather.  We figured that cars travel faster than storms so we'd be out in front of all of it.

The storm rolling into Pittsburgh right as we were leaving.

But Derechos don't roll that way.

Derechos travel really fucking fast and by the time you realize how bad the storm is your car is smashed to bits in a ditch in the middle of the turnpike like so:

Again, everyone is ok.

So yeah.  The derecho hit while we were passing a truck at the top of a hill.  The choices were to hit the breaks and hydroplane, speed up and hydroplane, or continue at the same speed and... hydroplane.  Matt knew we were screwed for about 20 full seconds before we actually went off the road and used that time to figure out how to get us away from the truck.  We spun completely around and hit the ditch in the median with enough force to deploy the airbags and give us bruises from the seat belts / car seats.

Again, everyone is ok.

But it could have been a very different story.  I can't tell you how lucky we were.  The median was wide enough that we didn't end up in oncoming traffic.  We spun at a median and not on a bridge.  We spun away from the truck and not into it.   

We all walked away.

At first we didn't know what to do.  The 911 operator told Matt to go find a mile marker so that they would know where we were.  I put that one directly in the NFW column - I was not about to let the father of my children wander around the side of the highway in rain so hard we couldn't see two feet in front of us thankyouverymuch.  Luckily someone passing saw us and phoned it in so we didn't have to wait long for help.  I'm so, so thankful for whoever that was.


Then the logistical nightmare began.  Two kids in car seats.  Undrivable car.  Pouring rain.  A car load of nonsense for a vacation.  Middle of nowhere PA.  Middle of the night.  All of those things.

But we were all ok.

The girl was very upset.  But - as she'll proudly tell you - she did not cry.  The boy did.  But he stopped because according to her she wasn't crying and she told him to be brave.  She was mostly scared because her animals flew off her lap and she couldn't reach them.

In the back of the tow truck  - "I was scared because and accident came to the Maxx car but I'm happy because Main Kitty is ok"

Even her kitties were ok.

I mapped where we were from the crash to home and it was 3 hours 22 minutes.  To our friends' house 3 hours and 20 minutes.  We were directly in the center of our trip.  And after the ordeal trying to get even that far neither of us wanted to turn back in defeat.   So from the back of the tow truck on the side of the highway I sent my friend this text:

"May still drive rental to DC tomorrow.  Fuck logic."

Especially since we were all ok.

The tow truck drove us to the most fleabag of fleabag motels.  Seriously it was infested with ants.  And every time I saw one I internally FREAKED OUT BECAUSE IF THERE'S ANTS THERE'S PROBABLY BIGGER BUGS AND RATS AND GERMS AND HOLY CRAP THERE'S NO WAY OUT OF HERE WITHOUT A CAR AND WE'RE GOING TO BE STUCK HERE FOREVER.  But instead I calmly said "Oh look another ant wandered in.  Don't worry.  Mommy will get rid of it."

But we were all ok.

Once we were in the hotel I called the insurance adjuster and it became pretty apparent that there had been tons of other crashes that night.  Between that and the holiday it was clear that we needed to be in PA if we wanted our car looked at any time soon.  So we were stuck until Monday.  Also getting a rental was going to be an issue....

But we were all ok.

The kids were such troopers.  We had just been through a huge ordeal.  They were hungry and over tired and everything was generally a mess.  And yet:

No meltdowns.  No kid related crises or huge fits because all we had to eat was some crap from the bottom of the diaper bag.  Just dealing with it and being brave.  I can't tell you how proud of them I am.

And they were perfectly ok.

The next morning there was a whole lot of nonsense trying to get a rental car.  Cabs and lines and begging.  All while dealing with two kids and barely any food in a hotel so dirty I didn't want to let them off of the bed:

It was so dirty and we were so stuck.

But we were all ok.

Finally we had a car.  And in time for the 11 check out!  Things were looking up.  We just had to get the kids some food and we would be on our way to funtimes.  And then we got this text from DC:

"Still no power here.  What are you up to?"

Wait....  What?

To be continued...