since i've been gone for SO LONG

thought we needed a whole new layout for a fresh start!

boy, summer is here in florida and it is not fooling around!  it was hot hot hot this weekend.  nate and i combatted the heat with a series of indoor activities.  we went to a local brewery (http://www.effinheimerbeer.com/) and had some tasty tasty beer!  then we checked out a new place in downtown clermont - well, new to us anyway.  it's an irish pub and although nate tends to hate irish pubs before he even gives them a chance, this one was great :)


what else... oh!  nate has a new guitar.  it's for playing on the beach and travel in general and is a nice small size (apparently a parlor guitar).  he wasn't sure if he should buy it so i went and got it for him (the guitar store guy wanted to know if i had a sister- ha!)  here he is with it on the beach the day he got it:

also, i'm starting a photography class this week that i'm really excited about.  there's an art school in north orlando that also offers some satellite classes very close to our house- starts tuesday!  i may post some homework here to share :)

we also recently visited cassie, jeff, and cadiem and had a wonderful time!!  i took tons of pictures, of course.  here are a few:

very serious.  ;)

i got cadiem a 'nate' outfit!  how cute is he???

we tried again...

but oysters just aren't our thing!  nate & i were in apalachicola (florida panhandle on the gulf) this weekend for a wedding and it's an area famous for oysters!  we've both had them once or twice in the past, and raw- so we got some cooked that were covered in cheese, jalapenos and bacon.  still totally gross!  the look, the feel, and the taste.  definitely not my thing ;)  oh well!  the shrimp and grouper were DELICIOUS and fresh caught right out of the gulf :)  we had a fun time (pictures are uploading as i type!) and the wedding was beautiful!

pictures from my family's visit

are posted in record time! 

http://floridaiveys.smugmug.com/Category/Bri-Family-FL/12082215_dYqCV#858228853_GHocy

a few samples :)  first, mr. cadiem:

all of us at the water park (thanks disney photopass!)

 nate & i on crush and gusher :)

the ladies in epcot :)

and all the kids playing together :) (well... except cleo of course, she keeps her distance as always)

family in town!

my family is in town this week and weekend!  marty actually flew in for business on monday and we had dinner with him before he headed to tampa for work.  he'll be back tomorrow night and then mom, cassie, and cadiem will all arrive friday.  if only jeff and grandma were here, we'd be all set :)  plans are to do the flower & garden festival at epcot (mom's favorite) and a little beach, and maybe even a little shopping! (shhh.. don't tell nate!)

think that's it for now, work has been busy busy busy lately!  we've also been trying our best to get current with 'lost' -- we're finally in the current season and should be totally caught up in time to watch the finale with the conroys :)

oh and we're also dog sitting for our friends :)  both colt and nittany, although another friend of ours took nittany for a bit so it's just frenchies at the house!  i'll have to post a pic nate took of them when he finally got them to nap near each other on the couch.  cleo likes him better than she likes most dogs, but that's still not very much ;)

a smattering of saturday

i want to start taking more pictures of randomness like i used to.  so expect to see a lot more of me and my camera, and a lot more pictures :)

there are several things i've been meaning to take pictures of and post lately, namely some of the really cool stuff anita has sent us, and a lamp that nina & john gave me :)

here are some of the things anita sent us for easter - really cool citrusy/fruit place mats (the grapefruit matched our candy dish perfectly!)  the flipside has a different fabric in the same color family for each of those little strips (you can see it better on the carrot below):

ps:  those cadbury eggs in that candy dish are the best easter candy EVER.

isn't she talented?  shouldn't she sell this stuff??

next, when john and frank drove down from PA they brought a few things that are harder to take by plane.  one of those things was a lamp that was previously at the river house in the room that nate and i stay in.  i love it!  it was previously nate's nana's lamp.

annnd finally, just a few random pics from our saturday.  cleo was particularly patient with my photos today. 

saturday is also a great time for a nap:

but once i left her alone, she headed straight back to her daddy!

and another random sidenote, april is my favorite month in the cleo calendar :)

my life lately.. in pictures!

i know, i know.  i've been totally neglecting my blog.  normally, i don't try to catch up on all that i've missed, but SURPRISE!  i bring you... an update in pictures!  sorted oldest, to newest :)

first off, mom and i traveled to detroit for courtney's bridal shower (my cousin!).  it was movie star themed.  we had a WONDERFUL time seeing where she lived and meeting her husband-to-be (no husband!) jimmy, and her friends :)  here we are in all our glamour:

next, john and frank arrived for the bottlenecks first paid gig!  but first... a lot of practicing, drinking, and sing-a-longs ensued.  it was like a pennsylvania music weekend with 1/20 of the people and food :)

here's the aforementioned sing-a-long in full swing:

then, sarah's family was in town and they graciously invited us to join them for an evening at bay lake tower (a new resort that overlooks magic kingdom) - check out the view!

that was followed by a wonderful girls' weekend in siesta key with my VA tech girls, best described by this photo:

and a sunset photo from our trip:

after that, it was easter time!  we celebrated with the conroys, and had two signature drinks- a watermelon & cucumber tonic (pictured below) and white sangria :)  we also had mini beef wellingtons, mashed potatoes, rolls, and green bean casserole.  we had salad... but ended up eating that for dinner instead :)

we had all kinds of egg-related events, including: posing with them, dyeing them, hunting them, and egg fights! 

my new favorite photo- i think this is so us:

we hid them for the conroys and they hid them for us.  guess who lost?

and most recently, we traveled to mexico for our friends' wedding, chris & kerri.  a few pics from our adventure :)

ay!  tequila!

and whew!  i think that's it for now :)  sorry it took so long!

the orange blossoms are back!

the scent of orange blossoms rivals arizona rain for my favorite smells in the entire world.  i LOVE when the orange trees are in bloom and my drive home is filled with the scent of them :)  happy spring!

since fletcher is under-represented on the internet...

i bring you... the fletcher 'crawl'...  :)  nate recorded fletcher's unique way of getting around the house.  he apparently has no interest in having his stomach on the ground :)  little monkey!

laura, get blogging!  he's too cute to keep from the world at large ;)

movies i've seen lately that i enjoyed

away we go
secret life of bees
blind side
..

okay short list :)

7 lbs down!

8 more to go!  and only about 30 days left!  :)

paradox

i've been digging through the garage and pulling out old poetry notebooks.  this one is from april 2004.

paradox

at first, i'm not sure what

he means when he says, there is a theme

in your life, so i only look at my wine glass,

twist the stem between my thumb

and forefinger.

reminds me of a street fair when i sat

to have my palm read, waiting to hear

something profound only to be told

what i already know as truth. she looked

into my eyes instead of my palm and i

felt cheated.

paradoxical, he says finally.  i want to find

the word in the dictionary, trace my fingers

over each word next to it.  one exhibiting inexplicable

contradictory aspects.

dst

yay for daylight savings time!  boo for being three hours apart from arizona!

gatorland...

has a lot of gators!  we went a few weeks ago.  very florida kitsch.  here are some pics of our day :)

i don't know why, but this dude totally reminds me of cleo!

ewwww.

i just cleaned out our fridge.. and there was stuff that expired in 2007!  ewwww...  it's all bright and clean and shiny now though :)

jillian michaels is kicking my ass!

on a daily basis!  last week, sarah and i started a 30-day shred.  it's a 20 minute workout that you do every day but man, it's an action packed 20 minutes!  nate has started doing it as well.  for the first few days, i couldn't move!  it hurt to stand up, sit down, walk, walk up stairs ... i must not have used my legs before this!  but now it's much better :)  in fact, i'm calling today a rest day!

it does feel good to finally exercise and having several other people working on the same thing helps too :)  and since you're supposed to publicly commit to your goals so you are more motivated to meet them, my goal is to lose 15 pounds by mid-April!  it's a little late for a new year's resolution but it's either that, or buy new pants.  so i'm going with exercise and eating better :)

nate's (new) favorite chili- con carne!

so we had a thawed out chuck roast last week that i need to do something with, and even though it didn't sound like a good idea for a weekday but hey, why not?  i started at 6 pm on a wednesday and we finally ate dinner at 10 pm - oops!  so word to the wise, plan for dinner about 4 hours after you start this business, but according to nate, it's worth it :)  it's a cooking light recipe (of course!) but i made a few modifications.  the original is here.  we had it with jalapeno corn bread, recipe here.

Chili con Carne

8  poblano chiles

3  lb boneless chuck roast cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 1/2  teaspoons  salt

1/2  teaspoon  black pepper

3  tablespoons  all-purpose flour

2  tablespoons  olive oil, divided

3  cups  chopped onion

4  garlic cloves, minced

2 cans diced tomatoes, 1 drained, 1 not - I bought the ones with jalapeno chiles

1 cup beef broth

1  tablespoon dried oregano

1  tablespoon ground cumin

1  chipotle chile, canned in adobo sauce (I used 5-6 -- depends on how hot you want it!)

3  tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

6  tablespoons reduced-fat cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat broiler.

2. Place poblanos on a foil-lined baking sheet; broil 8 minutes or until charred, turning after 6 minutes. Place poblanos in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel and cut chiles into 1-inch pieces.

3. Sprinkle beef with salt and black pepper; dredge in flour. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add half of beef to pan; sauté for 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining oil and beef.

4. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion to pan; cook 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. 

5. Return beef to pan. Stir in tomato, beef broth, oregano, and cumin; bring to a simmer. Cover and cook 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Stir in poblanos; simmer for 45 minutes or until beef is tender, stirring occasionally. 

6. Rinse, seed, and chop chipotle (I didn't rinse or seed it and I used 5-6 chipotles). Stir in chipotle(s) and cilantro. Sprinkle with cheese.

a conversation regarding valentine's day

nate:  you caught me off guard!
me:  with what?  a national holiday?

vegetarian night!

so we're trying something new this year, we're eating at least one meal a week vegetarian.  for a couple of reasons, (1) i keep reading how hard processing meat is on the environment and i feel guilty (2) in general it's healthier (3) in general it's less expensive and (4) we get to try some new things we hadn't before :)

this week we made falafel - a friend of ours gave us the mix and we've had it forever so we finally decided to try it.  we loved it!  if you've never had it, falafel is ground up chick pea with some yummy spices, then fried into patties (okay, so it doesn't quite fall into the healthy category but who's counting?) :)

here's nate frying them up

 

while he was doing that, i made tzatziki (super yummy cucumber/yogurt sauce) i used a recipe i found here.  i should have seeded the cucumbers and drained them a little longer because mine was a bit thinner than it should be, but it was tasty just the same!  i also chopped up a bunch of veggies (what would vegetarian night be without veggies?!)

and then the falafel was all ready to go

 

and then we wrapped it up in a flatbread! i used these (toufayan whole wheat flatbread), i love them.

i think we're going to try stuffed shells next time :)

cleo calendars have been shipped!

every year, i swear off even doing the cleo calendar because..let's face it, the dog only has one facial expression.  but i think this year is my favorite :)  and we already started taking a few photos for next year, so the plan is to do it for at least one more year!

it's not freezing!

well the weather is finally back to normal around here :)  i'm on the porch listening to a thunderstorm and enjoying the breeze :)

exciting things lately?  john, nina, laura, and fletcher are all coming to visit next week!  we're really excited to have them :)  we have big plans for the beach, and eating tacos at taco palenque (if you're local, you MUST go there), drinking copious amounts of orange juice, and plenty of visiting :)  also exciting, we're getting a screen door!  it should really create a nice breeze through the house so we can really take advantage of the weather :)

cleo's been quite the medical case lately - she's had infections and skin issues and eye infections and whatnot.  but she seems to be on the road to recovery :)  the bad part is, she seems to have figured out when we hide medicine in cheese or meat and has been eating around the pills and them spitting them out!  probably because that just results in more cheese :)  she's also been boycotting her meals when we add medicine to them.  little brat!

we tried a delicious indian recipe from pioneer woman's website (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/06/chicken-tikka-masala-by-pastor-ryan/) it was SO GOOD!  i used two habanero peppers instead of the serranos the recipe calls for and it was ridiculous spicy!  but still really delicious :)  i highly recommend it :)  i usually cheat and buy a premixed jar sauce and add some hot curry paste but this was better :)

off to play some super mario with nate :)

it's freezing!

quite literally and unusually for orlando!  it's a great weekend for curling up on the couch, drinking hot cocoa, red wine, and dark beers :)  we had chili for dinner last night and are working our way through all of the seasons of lost.  it's quite the endeavor!  lucky for us, ryan and sarah like enough to watch many of the episodes twice, so they've been keeping us company while we get up to speed -- we're nearing the end of season 2!

it's been nice to start the new year in a bit of a lazy un-hurried fashion, haven't made a lot of plans or taken any trips so far which has been a nice break from the holidays :)

circa 1992

while looking for a different book, i came across one of nathan's yearbooks.  and i just had to share this picture :)  is that really my husband?  it looks like a picture shot of some extra actors from a lesser known brat pack movie doesn't it?  nate was in a band called 'the ivey league' in high school, and this is them :)

milestones this past decade....

in no particular order  :)
i lived in indiana, louisiana, vermont, virginia and florida.
i graduated college.
i left the country for the first time in my life.
i got a dog.
i became a (joint) house owner.
i got married!
i became an aunt.

i know there are more but that's my list for the time being!

happy new year and welcome 2010!

we had a great new year's eve, we had a fondue night with ryan & sarah -- we've decided it is the perfect meal for new year's eve -- we managed to spread out the three courses from 6 pm until after midnight :)  it was delicious and there was always another course to look forward to :)  we started with a yummy beer cheese (dipped apples, bread, cauliflower and carrots), followed by a yummy seasoned broth which we dipped (and cooked!) steak, chicken, shrimp, scallops, zucchini, mushrooms, and potatoes.  then last we a had a dark chocolate fondue with bananas, apples, sugar wafers and strawberries :)

nate and i went to see the blind side last night and loved it!  i cried a lot.  and then cried some more when we left the movie!  nate was laughing at me but i think he understood :)  it's such an emotional story!  it's also the first time in a long time we've been to a full stadium seating theater (we usually go to our little local west orange 5 that has old style theaters and serves beer!).  we had a little sticker shock at the $9.50 ticket price but i think we just need to get out more ;)  at least to the movies :)

i've posted a bunch of albums on our pics site -- there are updates in november and december from all of the holidays.  i'll be posting our new year's eve pictures soon -- and need to get pictures from our point and shoot - that's what nate uses so those are usually the pictures that i show up in :)

i'm excited and optimistic about the new year :)  not that last year was bad, but i hope we see some (positive!) changes in the economy this year! :)

all things pride and prejudice

have been my preoccupation of late.  well the past couple of weeks anyway :)  it certainly doesn't account for my lack of blogging these past few months, but i tried my first audiobook!  we can rent them from our library so i listened to pride and prejudice.  it was so much fun!  i listened to it in the car whenever i was driving around and it definitely made my commute something to look forward to :)  i finished it a few days ago and watched the movie again.  now i want to see the longer tv miniseries that was done and i also have two books on the subject in queue:  darcy's story (the story told from mr. darcy's point of view in case the title wasn't clear enough) and pride and prejudice and zombies which is apparently the original text with some zombies infused here and there :)  i actually just read they'll be making that last one into a movie.  should be interesting :)

it's been a busy december, nate's been traveling ALL THE TIME.  but hey, i'm glad he's busy and has plenty of work to get done!  we're looking forward to spending time together over christmas, we'll both be off for a nice long time!  hope everyone's holidays have been happy so far! :)

home from thanksgiving!

we had a great time in PA (pictures to come!) and are now getting ready for christmas!  well, the rest of christmas- we celebrated "ivey-mas" as ross coined it over the thanksgiving holiday :)  nate's family moves the holiday whenever everyone can't be in PA for christmas which i love ;)  gets all of us a jump start on the holiday!  it's late so short post - happy holidays all!

thank you!

thank you for supporting our relay team!  relay for life was this past weekend and went well :)  we were all a little worse for the wear on sunday morning, but our team raised over $4,500 and the event overall raised over $100,000!

now that it's cold enough for soup...

i was looking for a healthier version of our family's potato soup (which is DELICIOUS by the way, i'll post that recipe soon) and i think i found it!  this baked potato soup (from cooking light, where else?) was delicious and fed an army:

• 4  baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
• 2/3  cup  all-purpose flour (about 3 ounces)
• 6  cups  2% reduced-fat milk
• 1  cup  (4 ounces) reduced-fat shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese, divided
• 1  teaspoon  salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1  cup  reduced-fat sour cream
• 3/4  cup  chopped green onions, divided
• 6  bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
• Cracked black pepper (optional)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Pierce potatoes with a fork; bake at 400° for 1 hour or until tender. Cool. Peel potatoes; coarsely mash.
3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour in a large Dutch oven; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes). Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup cheese, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat.
4. Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). Ladle 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 8 bowls. Sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tablespoon bacon. Garnish with cracked pepper, if desired.

it makes 8 servings (serving size: about 1 1/2 cups soup, 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tablespoon bacon).  and 1 serving is 329 calories and 11 g of fat - not bad for a very filling soup!)  we had it with salad and rosemary bread.  yum yum!

i didn't take a picture of ours, here's cooking light's, and their link.

november? but it's 80+ degrees!

so it's been a warm fall for us so far!  but i figured out something:  that's not nearly as bothersome when you're lying on the beach :)  we just got back from a fantastic weekend with glen, suzy and family in captiva.  it was WONDERFUL.  much tennis and beaching was had.  and the wildlife!  i couldn't believe all the activity on the beach.  we saw a great blue heron, which i got some great pictures of when he caught a fish!  we also saw a fisherman on the shore catch a shark- twice!  the surf was full of fish.  how do i know?  because they were doing backflips about every 20 seconds while we sat and watched the sunset - it was the coolest thing!

i posted a bunch of pictures on our picture site here:  http://floridaiveys.smugmug.com/November-2009

but here are a few of my heron friend :)

can you see that fish's mouth?  he knows what's coming.

showboating his catch:

happy november ;)