eighteen months later

As of Saturday, Hannah is home from her mission, safe and sound. It sounds like she did a great job and had a wonderful experience in Buenos Aires. We look forward to seeing her in person (hopefully soon and optimally before fall). Today is the first Monday in almost three years that we haven’t had a missionary to write, and that feels a little strange.

(I’m sure it’s not as strange as returning home after an extended stay in a foreign country, though.)

WELCOME HOME!

things that happened*

*I find it increasingly difficult to come up with new titles that mean “Random stuff that is going on in the life of the Frosts” but don’t sound as dismal as “The Frost Weekend Depository”, which is what I almost called this post.

- We had gorgeous weather a couple days last week. Now it’s just cold.

- I had a nice phone conversation with Grant while I was waiting for the shuttle on Thursday night. On Friday I found this picture on my dad’s Facebook.

It’s tiny and I should really get ahold of the original, but it perfectly captures the quintessential Grant. He’s always been content and chill while the chaos of the Pullan family goes on in the background. When he was really little, my dad worried that he never got a chance to talk (which was true), so Dad would (try to) make us all be quiet so Grant could get a word in. It’s weird that he’s not a little baby anymore.

- On Saturday morning I made pancakes and Jason helped our friends move out of the ward. Lame. Afterward we took naps and read and watched some basketball and waited until it started snowing to do our grocery shopping.

- We celebrated Groundhog Day in the usual Pullan fashion by watching Groundhog Day. We did not make a groundhog cake, partly out of laziness and partly because it is someone’s birthday this week and there may be ice cream cake (or so I’m told). I love Groundhog Day.

- We placed our first ever online glasses order. I tried on all the tester pairs, including Jason’s.

Jason pointed out that not one of these pictures shows the glasses I actually purchased. Hint: they are similar.

- Jason didn’t have meetings on Sunday until noon, so we slept in and read the paper. It was nice.

- After church, we made minestrone soup and Grandma Pullan’s French bread. Both = culinary wins. The bread recipe makes three loaves, so I cut it in half and made two (what I thought would be) smaller loaves. They were still massive, which is good because the bread was awesome and we will eat it all.

“nee-oh-kee”

This is a thing I saw this morning. We’ll see if the snow sticks past lunch time. I’m optimistic that it will not, but a delayed start on Thursday might be nice.
I came home last night to two packages at our doorstep. One I recognized as my new running pants and Christmas sweater. Ignore my valley girl pose and super-enthusiastic grin.

The other, from my Grandma and Grandpa Pullan, was unexpected. I cut the tape and pulled out the packing peanuts to reveal the best sight of all for a lonely girl: our Christmas “stockings”. Every year, my grandparents put together sacks of candy and treats for the kiddos on Christmas Day. They used to come in mesh stockings, but now come in cellophane bags. The carefully packed candy and perennial favorites (fruit snacks! tiny boxes of cereal!) were just as they always are and made me feel so close to my Utah family. It was a wonderful surprise.

Last night and the night before, I got home late from work and though I was famished, nothing sounded good for dinner. I wandered the aisles of Safeway aimlessly, which is quite different than my militant, list-in-hand style when Jason is here. On Monday I decided that the only thing to quell my hunger was a caramelized pineapple quesadilla. On Tuesday, I decided to make gnocchi.

I’ve been wanting to try homemade gnocchi since Jason’s birthday dinner at Gloria’s Little Italy in 2009. As I point out to Jason often, what’s not to love about sweet little potato pillows? Smitten Kitchen provided the recipe yesterday, and I went to town.

Problem is I started at 7:15 PM. I talked on the phone to my grandparents and Adam while the potatoes were baking and to my mom while I was mixing up the dough with my hands. After a while, I had some respectable rustic little gnocchi, ready for boiling.

[They are not the prettiest. I am okay with that.]

I ignored the tomato broth portion of the recipe and tossed my little potato pillows with some Trader Joe’s arriabata sauce and parmesan cheese. At 8:30 PM, I finally sat down to supper and the UK vs. Tennessee game. It was worth it, and now I have three units of gnocchi in the freezer for another day…perhaps tomorrow.

sunday

We did church on Sunday (11 am is glorious, as is not feeling terrible as you drop off your exhausted husband at early morning meetings). The Page Ward had changed a whole lot since I last visited–apparently the result of boundary changes and moving families. I bet I didn’t recognize half the people there (and that those 50% think my parents have only two children). It was fun to see people I did know, though.

The Pullan/Frost ladies, sans Hannah.

After church we had a sort o progressive family party, based on everybody’s schedules. One issue with a surprise visit is that you can’t really plan these things in advance. The Heber Pullans stopped in around 3:00 PM.
I made the mistake of telling Nathan I liked his sweater. Apparently it needs to be called a sweater VEST. It’s hard to believe he can talk now; my prevailing memory of him is four years ago at Chuck-a-Rama when he growled at Jason all evening.

We heard all about Rachel’s adventures in Israel and how she would be coming home in ten days. I hope the last semester felt longer for her than it did me; I swear, the weeks just fly by.

Soon after the Heber bunch headed home to the Christmas Devotional and Mariel went back up to BYU-I (which made me terribly sad), the Joel Riverton Pullans stopped by. Their kids have changed so much since the last time I was home. Sarah is in love with Bink and spent much of the evening chasing him around (until my dad convinced her the kitty cat was taking a nap).

My Grandma and Grandpa came a bit later and brought cookies to add to the bounteous dessert table. We missed the Taylorsvillains and other Riverton Pullans!

The fam (sans Mio).

After everyone left, Mom and the boys and I stayed up until 3:30 AM talking and laughing. Adam and Grant are hilarious (and lucky. I’m pretty sure I had a bedtime when I was their age).

good day (sunday) sunshine

This is what Utah looks like right now.

This is what the District of Columbia looks like.

It’s positively balmy.

My Uncle Derek is in town at a conference, so we got together for dinner on Saturday night. We had planned to get Vietnamese, but Four Sisters had an hour-long wait; sometimes I forget there are a zillion other people in the greater DC metropolitan area who want to eat dinner at the same time I do.

I executively decided we’d head to La Sandia instead, which was great. The wait wasn’t bad and I’m always up for chicken tinga tacos and their muy bueno salsa. It was great to catch up and Derek very kindly brought a package from my mom: my nine-inch sugar loaf pan, two of my favorite trivets, and a gallon-size freezer bag full of cinnamon bears! He also provided some great book recommendations and a family update.

When I got home, I watched a little bit of the BYU football game slugfest and decided to go to bed at halftime.

Today was the primary program. It went pretty well. I hiccupped in a quiet moment before one of the songs and a kiddo from my class turned to me with a disappointed look on his face and said, “That was terrible timing, Sister Frost!”

Uncle Derek came to our ward, and then I conducted the Dolley Madison Boulevard/GW Parkway mini-tour. We went into Georgetown by way of the Key Bridge and found parking in Penn Quarter. For lunch, we picked up sandwiches at Potbelly’s and ate them outside a Cosi (because there was insufficient patio seating at Potbelly’s).

After lunch we went to the National Gallery. It was awesome, as usual. We did the West Wing’s east second floor, so Sargent, Homer, some giant portraits, Cezanne, Cassatt, Monet, and Van Gogh. My favorite piece of today was this one:

It’s an olive orchard.

I love the National Gallery and especially love that it is close and free. I should get down there more often. That’s one of the nice things about having people come see us: excellent excuse to do touristy things.

While walking back to the car, we spotted this excellent capitol view.

Thanks to Derek for making time to hang out with me this afternoon! Now it’s 9:51 PM and I am full of chocolate chips and pizza and want to go to sleep.

Superstorm Sandy, Day II

We knew last night that we wouldn’t have work today, so we didn’t set alarms and woke up around 8:30. The power was still on and the bedroom leak had stopped and the crazy wind was over, so we settled in for a(nother) relaxing day at home.

We:

- watched a lot of CNN
- were grateful we do not live in NYC
- talked to both Pullans and Frosts
- made crock pot beef stew and homemade rolls for dinner, which made the apartment smell phenomenal.
- played three games of chess, of which I won two (though one of those was by accident). If Jason hadn’t told me he was checkmated, I would’ve continued playing. I wish I were a more strategic chess player.
- crocheted (me) and finished his Wendell Berry book (Jason).
- watched Law & Order.
- ate more delicious brownies.

Tomorrow we’re back to work, which means showering long before 3 PM and not eating snacks all day long. Here’s hoping the commute is not a nightmare.

autumn bingo: eleven things for which to be thankful

As you can see, I’m a little behind on autumn bingo (but could be winning had I been more judicious in my box placement). In the interest of crossing off more activities, I’ve put together a quick list of ten eleven things for which I am thankful (because having only ten makes number ten seem like it has to be significant. Maybe I’m the only one who feels that way about even numbers).

1. That Jason will be home tomorrow. That he is funny and smart and kind and patient.

2. Our apartment complex is not kicking us out at the end of our lease to remodel, as I have uneasily suspected they would since we moved in. This time next year, Virginia will hold the new record for Frost’s Longest-lived-in State/Commonwealth/Domicile.

3. I live in a place where I get to vote.

4. I worry more about what I am going to eat and how much I have eaten than whether I have food to eat.

5. Done with school. Great jobs. Good health. Wonderful families. {Those all seemed to be in the same vein}

6. The gospel, which is comforting and wonderful and meaningful, but also the church, which provides us with a community wherever we go. Along with this: The Book of Mormon and the temple and General Conference and the opportunity to teach primary (even when I think the kids like Jason better).

7. Friends: old, new, near, far, work, high school, college, church, lifelong, Utah, Connecticut, Kentucky, Virginia, best, etc.

8. My knee is doing great. I’m (fingers-crossed) signing up for another half.

9. Books, especially cheap ones from Amazon and free ones from the library.

10. Hannah returns from Argentina on March 29th!

11. We have a dishwasher.

[Ignore the lack of parallelism. I did.]

snippets + a Mamas & the Papas reference

- I think I’m caught up on sleep after crazy reunion weekend thanks to a long nap Sunday afternoon/evening and sleeping through two hours worth of alarm on Monday morning. (“Maaaaaaake your own kind of music. Siiiing your own special sooong!” over and over and over. Jason: I know you are so sad to have missed that).

- We got some very exciting mail last week all the way from Jerusalem. Thanks, Rachel, for taking the time to write us; I love getting letters.

- I bought my 2013 Moleskine planner yesterday. I know, 2013 is still sixty-nine days away, but I didn’t want to repeat the drama of procuring my 2012 planner.

- The election is almost over. For the second presidential contest in a row, Jason’s absentee ballot has yet to arrive. Let’s hope it actually comes before the election this time. Meanwhile, I have located my polling place and practiced pulling the levers. No hanging chads from this girl! (Kidding. I’m sure we use electronic devices here.) (Idea, Roni: maybe we can watch the 2nd Bartlett election episode that night? When Donna accidentally votes for the GOP candidate and switches her vote with the attractive military man whose name escapes me?)

- Tomorrow my little brother turns sixteen. What?!

- Like ice cream, bananas are no longer to be found in our house. This is a problem, as I eat a banana in my oatmeal every morning. Every single morning. I’m a creature of habit. Anyway, in light of the banana dearth, I tried a new breakfast: coconut quinoa with walnuts and fruit. It was possibly the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten, and I ended up picking out the pieces of kiwi with a spoon so as not to waste them.

balance of the pullan visit

I remembered while my family was here that I am lousy at remembering to take pictures, which is why there are so few photos of my actual brothers and their actual faces. Also, half of these photos came from my mom (and I’m waiting with bated breath for a CD of images from the trip).

Until there are more pictures, here’s how the rest of last week played out:

TUESDAY
- Jason and I went to work.
- Fam went on Capitol Tour and to the Library of Congress with my Aunt Amy and cousin Robbie. I met them at Good Stuff Eatery for an Obamaburger and Milky Way milkshake.
- Post-lunch, the Pullans went to the Air and Space Museum.
- We ate homemade pizza for dinner and Trader Joe’s ice cream sandwiches for dessert and played Settlers of Cataan. As always, Adam didn’t want to play and still won.

WEDNESDAY
- Fam went to the National Gallery, the Building Museum, and the American History Museum and ate at the food trucks.

- Jason and I went to work.
- I showed the fam my office and metro-ed home with them.
- We went to the temple in the evening, and picked up Safeway take-and-bake pizzas on the way home–and also quite a lot of ice cream.

THURSDAY
- Jason and I each worked a half day.
- The fam went to Falling Water and the house where my Grandma Henderson grew up in Pennsylvania.

- Jason and I attended a work picnic, then went home and fell asleep while sort of watching the Nats game. We keep late hours when guests are in town.
- I made roasted poblano corn chowder for supper, after which we played Boggle on the floor and half-listened to the VP debate.

As much as it pains me to admit it, Grant beat me at one round of Boggle.

FRIDAY
- The fam went on a midday White House tour.
- Jason metro-ed in with them and picked me up at work. It was a beautiful day, so we strolled through downtown and headed up to Georgetown. We had lunch at Clyde’s, then grabbed a sundae at Hagaan-Dazs.
- We hit some traffic on the Circulator bus and finally met my family at the National Gallery in the late afternoon.

- For dinner, we met Kathleen and Bruce at The Cheesecake Factory.
- Following dinner, we drove into the city to see the monuments at night. Per usual this trip, Grant fell asleep before we’d hit the GW Parkway. I kept poking his leg to rouse him (“Grant! Grant! You’re going to miss the Barlow Center where Jason and I lived in early 2010!”) until my dad told me to give up.

SATURDAY
- We were all exhausted from the many adventures of the week, so no alarms were set and we slept in.
- The fam checked out of their hotel and came over to our place.
- I made blondies–since I hadn’t had a chance to yet during their visit–and ate many.
- We went on a walk around the neighborhood, then sent the Pullans on their merry way to the airport.

fact(s)

- It is much easier to get a passport in Virginia than a VA driver’s license. As of today, I have one of those two things (and it is the more exciting of the two).

- This week at work is going to be crazy.

- BYU football can be so disappointing. Sometimes I think the intensity of watching is going to give me an ulcer.

- Our apartment seems so quiet with everyone gone. I miss my family more in the twenty-four hours after they leave infinitely more than I’ve missed them in the months before their visit. I become accustomed to having them around and I have to remind myself that even if we lived close, life wouldn’t be a party all the time (like it is when they come see us).

- It is far easier to host visitors in the greater DC metropolitan area than in Kentucky. It is far easier to live in Kentucky.

- Yesterday, Rosemary Wixom (a.k.a. Primary General President) came to our ward and I met her and she gave me a hug instead of a handshake.