Things I will miss in Austria pt. 3

My big comfy bed. 


I love it. 


I live in it.


It's a desk.


It's a couch.


It's a table.


I know it really shouldn't be all those things but it is.


Because it's just so darn cozy.


and I will miss it dearly.

not my actual bed...but mine is a canopy!

Things I will miss in Austria pt. 2

Zaxby's...I bet I love it more than you.

It is always my fast food of choice. I will become super deprived of it for an extremely long stretch of time come Sept. 14. Recently, they have been messing up my order with decent regularity. I mean, it's not like I am super high maintainance or anything. All I require is "a big Zax Snack with wimpy sauce INSTEAD of the Zax sauce with an UNsweet tea to drink, please!" (and you betta' trust that emphasis is spoken). I thought maybe Zaxby's was trying to make severing ties less painful for me by continually plaguing me with that sugar sweet nasty crap called sweet tea that I, as a terrible southern woman, hate. However, today...was another story. Everything was perfect. Hot food, a perfectly filled cup of wimpy sauce to dip my entire meal in, and an UUUUUNsweet tea. The first time. No corrections. And it was delicious! 

So, Zaxby's, my love, I will miss you. We shall be reunited upon my re-entry into the 50 Nifty United States in February for the wedding of the century.

Things I will miss in Austria pt. 1

This little boy. We have so much fun together. I can’t believe I am going to miss his first months of being a big brother to the unborn little girl I already love so much. He is the sweetest little boy I’ve ever met. Talkative, playful, snuggly, and a little obsessive he is.  Ok, maybe a lot obsessive.  Garage doors, waterfalls, fountains, and lights make his 2 ½ year old world go round.  So much so, that he makes sure at bedtime prayers to not only pray for all his loved ones, but also for their garage doors.  I will miss him like crazy. Thank goodness he is a regular Skype pro; I couldn’t live without his smile for months and months.  Thankfully, his stellar mom, whom I will also miss like mad, is bringing him to Europe for a second time along with his new baby sister to visit in the springtime! How impressive is my sister?!?! Seriously. Amazing.

Maryland here I come!

When you are a really little kid, it is hard to distinguish the many things that make your family different from other families. Kids tend to assume that their experience is everyone's. This is of course not the case. Now you may be thinking I am going somewhere deep, existential or abstract with all this talk. You'd be thinking wrong. 


One of the very first things I can remember being a family thing that (growing up in the South anyways) nobody else did was steam crabs the Maryland (*read: correct) way. 


Now, this is not the "Oh, I have had steamed crab legs while I was at the beach on spring break last year." type thing. This is the real deal. A giant bag of spices, almost too heavy for a 5 year old to carry, being taken out of the pantry to completely cover the dozens of live blue crabs brought home for the feast. I remember one time  at my Aunt Gayle's house in Maryland having to wear shoes in the kitchen. Why? Because the best place for the crabs to go before putting them in the pot was on the floor! Needless to say, my cousin, who was a toddler then, was not allowed to put one toe onto that linoleum. 


The event of it all. The taste, of course. The smell. The brown paper. The mess. <--Yes, you heard me right. The only thing in the world worth getting your hands messy for is deliciously sweet blue crab meat. 


Maryland Steamed Blue Crabs are without a doubt my favorite food. Sadly, I haven't had one bit of that sweet goodness in years. 


But not for long! Tomorrow I will be hopping on a plane with my mom and stepdad to fly to Baltimore for a quick visit with my aging grandfather. And I have made as clear as the water in the Chesapeake, I am getting my hands on some serious crab while I am in town. 


Both at a crab feast, which will be a new experience for me. (My mom is excited for me to experience this) 


And, at the one and only Mr. Bill's. I love this place. It makes me think of family, food, and happiness. 


It is such a funny thing the way it all works up there. I love it. Makes me happy that I grew up picking crabs. You may think it's silly that I talk so sentimentally about eating a certain meal. But it's part of who I am. 


And come on, doesn't that look delicious?

My stepmom's picture from her last trip to Mr. Bill's