Cooking, unpacking and packing!

November 29, 2011

Today Ben and I spent most of the day unpacking from Connecticut and packing for California. It's weird when you are trying to unpack while also figuring out what you need for the next trip!

Ben took a few more pictures of our apartment so here is another glimpse of where we live... (These pictures are taken from right outside our apartment door)

And for lunch....

And some sweet and salty treats!

Home sweet home!

November 29, 2011

After being out on the road for so long I have been SOO anxious to do some cooking in a real kitchen! Ben is probably incredibly annoyed with how much I talk about the things I'm going to make and how excited I get about it. But the good thing for him is that he gets to benefit from the cooking; atleast I REALLY hope that whatever I cook will be better than potatoes and brats in a microwave!
So since we are only back for a short amount of time before heading out to California for Christmas with the Logan family, I am trying to squeeze in all the cooking I can!


Last night I made some Chicken Cacciatore and sweet potatoe fries...

One great thing about Ben, among the MANY, is that we share the same exact birthday, only we were born a different year. So I am really excited that we get to celebrate our birthday together every year and this year will be the first! Another great thing about Ben is that he is JUST as crazy about ice cream as I am! So our perfect cake for out birthday... Ice cream cake! So last night after we ate dinner I made a large ice cream cake. The only problem now is getting us both to wait until our birthday to eat it:)

After the cake was made, we began our next adventure... My hair gets darker in the winter when it doesnt see the sun; so I decided I wanted to color it dark for the winter. Ben and I had been talking about it and I asked if he would do it for me... I'm very trusting of my talented husband! He agreed and last night he colored my hair dark and I gave him a haircut; we had our own little salon right in our apartment!

Before...

After!

Before...

After!

28 hours to go...

November 25, 2011

Today we found out we were done with work in Connecticut! So we packed up and headed South for our vacation home in Texas:) As we were driving through West Virginia Ben asked me if I wanted to visit Covington, West Virginia, which is where Nana and Gene grew up (Ben's nana and great uncle). We were in no hurry so we thought it would be fun to stop and see their old house. Here are a few pictures of it!

After driving for about 17 hours we stopped and spent the night in Nashville, Tennessee with Ryan Loofbourrow. Ryan is a good friend of Ben's whom he roomed with his sophomore year of college. He is living out there and going to law school at Vanderbilt University. We spent the evening catching up and hanging out, it was a lot of fun to see him!
In the morning we headed out around 7:00am on a straight away shot to Lago Vista, Texas!

You can hardly see it... but it's the Tennessee sign :)

Our first Thanksgiving as the Logans

November 25, 2011

Yesterday Ben and I spent our first Thanksgiving together... it was great! We didnt have any appointments scheduled, as you can imagine nobody wanted to have their home inpected on Thanksgiving! So we slept in and just hung out and relaxed in the morning. We didnt really want to just sit in the hotel all day, we wanted to be around people! So we went to Starbucks and played a few different games and just hung out there for while since nothing else was really open. (You realize how difficult it is that everything is closed on the holidays once you are not with family and you dont have much to do!)

Then we went to Wal-Mart, got some good snacks and headed to the movie theaters for the beginning of our date. We saw two different movies: Tower Heist and Jack and Jill. We thought they were both pretty good, and we both stayed awake through BOTH of them:) The more impressive part of that is that BEN stayed awake for both of them. Yes, I am quite sure he is changing... the man who could hardly stay awake once the TV is turned on, stayed awake in a dark theater through 2 movies! I was pretty impressed.

Once the movies had ended we headed out for dinner. After a little researching, we found that Cracker Barrell does it's own Thanksgiving dinner, how great is that?!!? So we decided that that is where we would have our Thanksgiving meal. It was really good and we had such a great server! It is a bummer to be working on the holidays, so we tried to brighten up her day a little so she would enjoy her job and her Thanksgiving away from her family.

It came with a lot of food! It had sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing and gravy, cranberry sauce, corn bread,  rolls, a drink and pie at the end!

Our first Thanksgiving together:)

Big Dogs+ Insurance adjuster in backyard= a mess

November 22, 2011

A few days ago as we were inspecting the homeowner's backyard for storm damage, from a distance I see Ben almost slip and fall on the lawn. Then I hear the homeowner say, "Yea be careful, I dont think the dog's mess has been cleaned up recently so it is all over back here." Putting the two and two together made me laugh a little. Then later as I was holding the ladder for Ben I noticed some of the dog poop had gone from Ben's shoe to the ladder. I looked up at him with a gross look on my face and he responds, "Yea... I'm not very happy about that." So on the way home we stopped to get some cleaning supplies that that we could give the ladder a wash when we got back to the hotel.

That was about enough excitement for one day...

The finished product! Looks like new:)

Proof Todd really was with us the past few weeks

November 20, 2011

A few days ago Ben recieved an email from his supervisor asking who would be able to stay longer for this storm. Since we still don't have much of a reason to go back to Texas, we figured making money would be the better option, (since we have MUCH to pay off on our school loans still!) and we said we would be willing to stay a little longer.

Unfortunately for us, Todd has a beautiful family to get back to; so he did not respond with the same answer as us. He wanted to do his best to make it back to his family in time for Thanksgiving, so he is planning on leaving tomorrow to go back to Texas.

Because it was our last night with him, we decided to go find some really good seafood. We picked a place that sounded like a lot of fun, only to arrive and find out it was closed. Option 2: we followed the GPS and it brought us to a non-restaurant restaurant, so that wasnt going to work either! Our 3rd option was to ask someone in the parking lot where the best seafood was and he gave us directions on how to get there. So we went to a little local place called Lennes. It was a fun restaurant, and we found out that lobster lasagna is really good! Who would have thought?

Proof that Todd really WAS with us for a few weeks! Sad that I did such a poor job of documenting out time with him!

The Lobster lasagna was the favorite thing that was ordered there

Costco... enough said.

November 12, 2011

Not much is new since I last posted. We are still in Hartford, Connecticut and still getting more claims. We got 23 new claims in the last 2 days, so it looks like we may be eating a microwavable dinner for Thanksgiving! Haha, we may have to get REAL creative for that one. I wonder how well turkeys cook in the microwave? I'm not sure so I want to find out...
Things are a whole lot better around here as far as damage. We are no longer driving over and under fallen power lines, thank goodness! Things have been mostly cleaned up and power has FINALLY been restored to all the surrounding areas.

In other news, we haven't scared Todd off yet. He is still with us in the hotel room and tolerating our dinners! Though I doubt he will go home to his wife Shaina and suggest microwave dinners in the near future. We are having a good time and are looking forward to the Republican debate tonight. (There isnt much to do in hotels, or much to look forward to, so we decided that the one thing that will stay consistant that we can follow for the next year is the presidential election). So we make popcorn, or eat ice cream, while playing games and watching the republicans argue back and forth about different issues. Sounds entertaining, right??

That's about all the news here for now. I will keep you all updated when we find out where/when we are leaving for our next destination. But as of right now we are staying in Connecticut for at least another week. 

One really nice thing about this job is that we get done inspecting usually around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. So after inspecting four claims Ben and I drove to the nearest Costco to get some free samples and buy a few things. But of course we couldnt pass up the $1.50 ice cream bars with chocolate and almonds from the food court! If you havent tried it, I would highly recommend it; it's one of our favorite things to get... and you can't really go wrong, it's ice cream!

So our highlight for today (because the debate hasnt happened yet ;)...) was our ice cream bars!

Yea, they're HUGE... and delicious!

And then there were THREE...

November 5, 2011

We seem to have added another member to our family! And no, we are not pregnant (sorry family, you still need to wait on either Melissa or Brianna for that one) Todd Kounse, Ben's older cousin was recently called up here for the same storm and he arrived today. We decided to all stay together and we all moved our stuff into the hotel room today.
After getting all of our stuff situated in the room it was time for dinner and Todd asked what we were planning on doing for dinner. We informed him of our "usual" dinner while on the road and he decided to be adventurous and daring, and tried a brat and potato with us for dinner. Unfortunetely, it was not a good night for him to try it! The sweet potatoes normally get soft in the microwave after just a little bit, but not these ones! Maybe it was the microwave or something, I'm not quite sure, but as Ben was eating it, he said it seemed like he was eating carrots!... not so appetizing when you are actually eating a sweet potatoe.
So all in all, Todd will hopefully be willing to try it again sometime. But dont go asking Todd about our meals on the road; I dont think he will have very positive feedback as of yet.

Who knew snow could cause SO MUCH damage??

November 4, 2011

After being here only a few days I am amazed at the damage and disorder that is surrounding us. As we drive to each claim we see power lines wrapped around trees EVERYWHERE. Cables are streaming across the roads, trees are on top of houses and in the middle of the road; it literally looks like a warzone. Apparently the reason it caused so much damage was due to the fact that the leaves had not yet fallen off of the trees, and the snow was more like really heavy slush. With those two combined, the trees just could not hold the weight of it all and MANY have come down all around the surrounding areas. This has also caused a major power outage so there are still thousands of people without power. We have come to find out that most people around here are not very happy with Connecticut Light and Power, which is a big company that people are relying on for the restoration of power. It seems that they are taking an incredibly long time and people are pretty on edge about the whole situation and frustrated by the fact that they are having to either live in hotels, or in a freezing cold houses. I havent taken pictures of any of the damage we have seen so far, but I will try to take a few shots and post them so you can see a bit of what it looks like up here.

Tomorrow we move into our hotel, so tonight is our final night staying with the Johnson family. They had dinner plans so Lydia had kindly left out all sorts of ingredients and things for us to make pasta, so we made speghetti with chicken. What a perfect way to end our stay. I just also have to note that tonight I found out Ben has NEVER had a s'more in the microwave... Although it is not as authentic as cooking one over the fire, they are really good and I told him I would have to make him one sometime. The good news to that is we always seem to have a microwave handy while on the road! :)

Campfire, friends and S'mores!

November 3, 2011

One of the best things about our Australia study abroad trip is the friends we made during that time and the fact that we came from all over the United States works out pretty well for Ben and I. We have been so fortunate to get to see so many people from Australia during the past few months as we've traveled and we were lucky again to be able to add another to the list! Lydia Johnson, one of my roommates at my homestay while in Australia, lives right outside of Hartford, Connecticut. When we found out we were going to be so close to her house for work she invited us to stay there. She said they were one of the few fortunate people in the area that actually had power. So once we were finished with work we headed to Lydia's and came home to hamburgers, cooked sweet potatoes and vegetables. We sat down to eat dinner with her and it was such a wonderful and yet odd thing to be at her house in the middle of Connecticut after not having seen her for almost 3 years! However, it felt like it had been no time at all since our Australia trip and we enjoyed spending some time relaxing and catching up with her. She has a BEAUTIFUL backyard set up with a river running through the woods and a really nice firepit that she already had burning when we arrived. So we sat outside and roasted s'mores over the fire until it was time to go to bed, it was great!

Hartford, Connecticut

November 2, 2011

We woke up around 7:30 and headed back on the road. We stopped at a Starbucks to again search for a hotel that is somewhere in the vicinity of where we will be working, and found one that is about an hour outside of West Hartford.  We plan on staying there temporarily in hopes that the power will come back and spots will open up in hotels closer to Hartford.

Beautiful fall colors. Dont mind my unprofessional photography skills with all the vehicles!

We came here for a snow storm... who would have thought that this is all the snow that we would see?


Our plans for tonight... we have big ones. Dinner, (most likely brats and sweet potatoes... gotta love being back on the road!) movie, cards and sleep!!  

"On the road again..."

Tuesday November 1, 2011

This morning we got up around 6:30, planning to head out at 7:00am. We just about made our goal; we pulled out of the hotel around 7:20am and headed on our way.

We added another state to our journey! We passed the Alabama sign about 20 minutes into our trip; Ben gave me the warning that it was coming so I actually was able to get the picture of it! The fun thing about driving today was not only that we got to add a few new states to our list for this year (Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia), but we also got to see fall colors again! The drive was absolutely beautiful along the way and we got to see a new scenic route since we took a different way.

We drove through the entire day listening to audio books we rented from Cracker Barrel, catching up with friends and family on the phone, snacking and playing car games such as “if you could be…” Around 11 we began looking for hotels because we were getting ready to be done for the day and get some sleep. We figured we only had about 4 hours to go and we could finish that up tomorrow. Unfortunately we came to find that EVERYTHING was booked even 3 hours outside of where we were heading. The snow storm was so bad that it shut off the power of MANY houses (we actually saw a whole bunch of power cable vehicles heading up North from Texas and Louisiana as we were driving), and apparently the radius of the power outage was more significant then we thought. We literally called every place that we passed and looked things up on the internet and GPS and could find NOTHING available! So as the night went on and we continued to get more and more tired, we just decided to find a place to park the car and get some rest. We parked the car, loaded on the blankets and sweatshirts and eventually fell asleep. Sleeping in the car is not ideal, especially when it is cold and the parking lot lights are shining in your eyes. I think that is why I ended up in a complete ball with the blanket over my entire face when I woke up. The good news is we stayed safe, semi-warm and we got some sleep, so that was good!