Peppermint Candy Cookie Deliciousness

We had our KTG Holiday Party a week or so before Christmas. This year we decided that not only were we going to do a White Elephant Gift exchange but we were also going to do a Cookie Exchange. So I decided to look on pinterest for some inspiration and found these adorable cookies by Bakerella that I wanted to try. My first batch I attempted to make Vanilla Lavendar Sugar Cookies but you can read about that disaster here.

For my second batch I decided to follow the recipe exactly. I used this recipe from Bake at 350. I got the idea from Bakerella. The recipe for the frosting I modified from Bake at 350's Royal Icing Recipe. She has some great tips for trouble shooting the icing as well.

Peppermint Royal Icing

(This will cover 2-3 dozen 3.5 inch cookies in 2 colors)


4 TBSP meringue powder

scant 1/2 cup water
 
1 lb powdered sugar 

1/2 - 1 tsp light corn syrup 

2-3 drops peppermint extract (optional) 

I also used Americolor's Bright White and Electric Pink for my frosting colors.

First you outline with the royal icing.
Then you flood the icing to fill the centers.
Which means that you fold in a tsp of water at a time
until the frosting flows back together into the bowl easily.

Once the centers are filled let them sit for a minute.
Then use your second color and place dots around the edges

Using a toothpick slide the dots towards the center.

Starting in the center slide your toothpick around in a pinwheel motion.

TA DA! Peppermint candies!

Wrap in clear bags with ribbon. I used self sealing wrap and twine. 

Vanilla Lavender Disaster

Ever get a fantastic idea and had it go horribly wrong? I decided to experiement with Lavender Oil for the first time the other day. I had a recipe for Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies and I had the brilliant idea that I would make them Vanilla Lavender cookies instead. Experimenting can be fun but I don't recommend experimenting when you are trying to make 5 dozen cookies. Let's just say my first batch was a massive failure due to little knowledge of how powerful Lavender Oil really is. Imagine taking a whole handful of lavender and shoving it into your mouth. That, is approximately what my cookie dough tasted like. I exchanged the lavendar oil for the almond extract that the recipe called for in the exact amount which was a 1/2 tsp. That stuff is seriously potent! In fact I just looked it up online and this was the description for the oil I had bought:

Lavender Oil
Lavender's intoxicating scent and distinctive flavor has many gourmet uses. Use it to flavor teas, seasoning blends (herbs de provence), cooking sauces and dressings, apple sauce, jellies and chocolates. 

Pure essential oils are potent. When using as a culinary ingredient, we recommend adding the oil by the drop until desired flavor is achieved. 
Ingredients: Natural Lavender Oil (100% Pur Essential Oil). Food Grade.

My husband and I cannot even smell Lavender right now without gagging slightly. For the record, when something doesn't turn out right, it's not always a good idea to keep tasting it to see if you just had a bad portion! I even tried coating a ball of dough in sugar and it was still awful. I'm hoping that Lavender isn't ruined for me for life.

Party Prep

I know, I know what a slacker. I keep starting blog posts and not finishing them! The past few weeks have just flown by with holiday parties and planning. Currently I am trying to get everything together for what may end up being the smallest New Year Eve's party ever. I've decided on a color scheme. Not the traditional black and gold that you see everywhere, but I decided something more cheerful. White and Robin's Egg Blue. I'm looking forward to my vision becoming a reality. This party may have few attendees but it's going to be fun!




Several weeks ago I swept through Party City and bought everything I thought I could possibly need. Which amounted to...a LOT. I definitely blanched when they added it all up, but consoled myself that they had a 30 day return policy so anything we did not use, ie the hundred and one different colored balloons or the, ahem, fifteen princess tiaras, we could return them no muss or fuss.





















Yesterday Mr Mine finally got bitten by the party bug and we raced around to BevMo, Trader Joe's, and lastly Party City for all of our odds and ends. The more it comes together the more excited I get. Today I realized I am nowhere near as finished as I want to be. There are so many projects that I wanted to get finished before this party. I wanted to finish re-finishing the side chair that I picked up three years ago at the thrift store and still haven't completed. Then I wanted to make some topiaries out of new year's resolutions so that people could just pick them off of the tree. I got the idea from looking at this ribbon topiary. It's hard to curb the craft diy bug even when it is last minute!

We've also been contemplating as to whether we should take down our Christmas tree for the party as well. I don't really want to because I absolutely adore our tree this year. It makes me exceptionally happy every time that I look at it. Decisions, decisions! And only a few days left to decide.

Just A Minor Setback

minor setback

So I had the bright idea to do a 30 days of Cooking Challenge for the month of December. Which was going along swimmingly until I got sick and lacked the energy to do anything other than heat up store bought soup. However when it came to my turn to host our KTG group I rallied and cooked a frozen veggie lasagna. Other than a minor casualty involving oven mitts that were obviously too short and a 400 degree glass oven door. The event went well :) I do hope that I get rid of the last of this cold soon so that I can restart my challenge. I was actually enjoying trying out all the new recipes in my dust gathering cookbooks and magazines!

Clueless

Mr Mine got me sick....again. It's been a week and I am still miserable.

After dragging myself around all morning to Physical Therapy, the Physician, and then to the Bagel Factory to pick up a gallon of vegetable soup. I was grateful to be at my final stop before I could go home and crawl back exhaustedly into bed. I had to pick up some Mucinex DM per my doc's orders and while I was at it I raided the tea section for a bunch of chamomile since we were completely out. Relieved to be in line to pay I was letting my mind wander when out of the blue a voice behind says " Wow, you must drink a lot of tea". My first thought as I am turning to respond to this stranger is "oh great someone who wants to talk, I so do not have energy for this" as I plaster on a wry grin and respond with a croaking "yeah". At which point Mr Friendly and Outgoing says "oh, are you sick?". No mister I always sound like a frog crawled down my throat. Another croaking "yeah". Which any normal person might have just said "oh, that sucks" and gotten the hint that said sick person was exhausted and that talking was costing them much needed strength. But oh no, Mr Friendly and Outgoing then goes on to say a multitude of things ranging from, "I'm a life coach. Do you work out? What do you like to do when you work out? Have you ever thought it(getting sick) could be because of your nutrition?" to "What are your goals?" All the while the voices in my head are screaming at him "shut up, just shut up, the girl is sick, she doesn't want to talk about weight management and healthy living, she just wants to go home and crawl into bed!! Which by the way had already been stated at this point, well, at least the part about looking forward to just going home and crawling into bed. I practically ran to my car from the check out line as soon as I had paid. I've never been so happy to get back in my car.

A note to life coaches out there: Badgering a poor sick girl in the check out aisle will not endear you to her and make her want to hire you!!!! Get a clue! I do understand that part of the problem was that I kept responding. But honestly I didn't even have the energy to be bitchy! And maybe if I had not been sick I might have entertained his pitch. But seriously, I felt like a cornered animal in a cage. Because that line was definitely not moving fast enough and I had way too many people between me and my finish line.

I'm so happy to finally be home. I've downed a quart of soup, taken my meds, and now I am going to crawl back into bed. Hope you are all doing well and staying healthier than I have! This season's been rough.

Travel Bugs

Ok, I have once again been off galavanting. We've been overseas visiting my in-laws and having a fantastic time. The good news, I finally got a new camera! Yay for Canon DSLR's. The bad news, I lost my little point-and-shoot number and my computer has decided it doesn't like Canon's software. I consider this a minor hiccup but I will hopefully be able to get to all my photos from our trips soon! In the mean time I will try to finally catch up here on August, September, and October! Thank you for being patient with me. I promise I have posts coming out my ears that I am eager to share with you!

xo,
Jess

The Escape Artist

Our cat Norman is a bit of a jerk. He acts like the poster child for why people don't like cats. He's exceptionally aloof, he only wants to be pet on his own time. He only truly loves you when he's hungry or he needs his litter box changed. He escapes every chance he gets and comes home whenever he feels like it. Which includes crying outside my bedroom window until 3am because he wants to come back in. He also likes to taunt us by sitting outside the window after he escapes but then runs away if we try to go anywhere near him. He also has a tendency to pee and crap on the couch when he is unhappy. But, our other cats love him so we love him as well. 

Welcome to the Neighborhood!

While Mr Mine and I were making breakfast we happened to look out our front window to find we have a new face in the neighborhood. Meet Paul, the baby possum. He's probably no larger than your average size rat, but oh so adorable! Our cat Norman decided to help us out with our scale system by escaping and sitting in the same place as Paul so that you can see how tiny this guy really is. The cats didn't seem to think that Paul was all that interesting and for the most part ignored him. I of course was absolutely thrilled and couldn't stop myself from take a bazillion pictures of him. I can only imagine what it will be like when we have a child.

Another Marathon

I have been sucked in by The New Girl, and I LIKE IT. I love when I find a new show. It fulfills my need for marathons. Mindless hours of entertainment induced emotions. Laughter, tears, anger, and none of it weighs heavily on your shoulders because it's not your drama. Ok, that may seem weird but it's similar to getting lost in a good book.

I've been watching the episodes back to back on Project Free TV. Which Ms Bliss introduced me to about a year or so ago. It's great for watching shows and movies. I knew I had found something special when after the Pilot episode I had a huge smile on my face and couldn't wait to watch the next one. I was a little disappointed with the absence of "Coach" but over the next few epsiodes I got over the loss. I'm not sure what makes me love this show. I think it's the feel good nature, be true to yourself message on top of it's great to watch people who are good friends interact. Or at least it makes you want that kind of interaction in your life. I think that most of us crave that kind of comraderie with people. Knowing there are people in your life that "have your back" for better or for worse.

I think one of my weaknesses has gotten worse recently. If I start a book, I have to finish it before I go to sleep. Even if it keeps me up until 5am the next morning. And with TV Shows I can't just watch one episode. If it's available I have to watch the entire season, and I will admit I watched the entire first season today. Stop me, it's madness I tell you!

It Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Thursday, Oct 4, 2012
Fantasy Football, it makes the heart grow fonder. Mr Mine joined his first NFL Fantasy League at work this year. So to curb my jealousy at not being invited to join a league with him I decided to join my own league. It's been a little bit of a learning curve but I've been enjoying it. We've watched all of the games together this season so far so it's been some additional bonding time. Talking about players potential, who we have, who we wished we had. Where we are in our leagues, who we're playing against.

Now I was a fan before this, but I wasn't an avid watcher. I was more of a love my Steelers from afar kind of girl. I have my Terrible Towel, my Hines Ward jersey, and if I ever managed to catch a game I always cheered for them. I used to text my girls in Pittsburgh and OH/NC all the time during games. We'd moan about bad calls, cheer for the great plays, and groan over fumbles or turnovers. The texts for the most part have stopped. My gals now have babies, and one of them has brand new twins. So you can imagine that their plates are pretty full. I miss the days of Hines, Bettis, Parker, even Randle El. I don't know a lot about the new Steelers, but it's been an interesting season so far.

It took me a few weeks, but I moved from 9th out of 10 to 3rd out of 10. Wish me luck this week it's projected that I am going to get my butt kicked. I'm hoping that I still come out on top! I'm the only girl in my league and I plan on representing well :)

Please Sir May I Have Another

Wednesday, Oct 3, 2012
I swear the universe is laughing at me. After leaving Mrs Bokeh and her niece at their front door I headed up to the nearest mall to continue my search for pants. I started off by grabbing a quick slice at Sbarros and then headed to the nearest clothing store.

Four hours and several near misses later I found myself in the absolute last clothing store into the mall, Macy's, hurriedly flinging clothes on and off as the announcement was made for the third time that store was not only closing, but was now in fact closed. Stepping in and out of the last two pairs of pants I felt my foot come down a little awkwardly and a twinge in my ankle. Fast forward to me, finally home, lying in bed, and I look down, my right ankle has swollen to the size of a grapefruit! What the hell?????

Honestly first the back and now I somehow screw up my ankle while shopping?! I'm hoping its nothing major and plan on spending all day in bed tomorrow. I don't think backbrace + crutches = good time. I'm hoping I just mildly sprained it somehow. Sigh, never a dull moment.

Reception Deception

Tuesday, Oct 2, 2012
Going shopping while waiting to pick your sister up from the airport is a great idea. Until you realize that you don't get reception in the dressing rooms and that she has been calling for the last 40 minutes because her plane got in 40 minutes early! I only realized that she was calling when I came out of the dressing rooms and got a call from Mr Mine asking me if I had gotten any of her messages. Which of course I hadn't, not a single peep from my phone. Poor Ms Bliss was stuck at the airport for an additional hour. Fortunately for me she forgave me considering I STILL haven't received any msgs on my phone from her and it's been over 12 hours!

Honey Walks

Monday, Oct 1, 2012
Yay for evening walks with the Honey. I love that Mr Mine is home again. Although it has taken some getting used to for both of us. We got in a 3.1 mile walk tonight after dinner. Which is alot for us these days! I managed to get in a total of 8,202 steps today which is a record since I have been injured. I've been trying to strive for 5,000 steps for the past month but I only reached that goal six times in 30 days. Most days I got in only 2,500. So it was a good way to start off the month of October. I'm going to try to hit at least my 5,000 step goal every day this month. Which will be nice if it means that every night I get to walk with Mr Mine. I use a pedometer app called Accupedo Pro on my phone which counts my steps and then I also use the Runtastic app to double check how far I have gone. And then because I am a little crazy I triple check it by using the Gmap-Pedometer.

Ms Bliss Residency Graduation

Friday, August 3, 2012
So unbelievably proud of my sis, Ms Bliss. Today she graduated from the Nurse Residency program at CHLA (Children's Hospital of Los Angeles). I know what an extreme struggle it was for her to get through the program. It's a tough program with a very steep learning curve and apparently it's also the place where residency programs were born.

I teared up several times during the proceedings. Once when they had a bunch of their patients come in and sing a song to the grads and once while the Head Nurse was giving an interview about why she's glad she became a nurse instead of a doctor. I'm paraphrasing here but it went something like "I get to be there for all of the moments, the happy, and the sad. When the doctors go home for the day I am the one who pays my last respects to the patients.."

It's an amazing achievement and I know she is experiencing a great opportunity. For now she will be staying at CHLA and I expect that she will learn a lot more in the coming two years. Congrats Sissy!!! All that hard work paid off!

Broken Dependency

It hurts me when I tell people that I want to hang out with them and that my schedule is completely open and then they never contact me. Maybe I am trying to hang out with the wrong type of people. Maybe people just assume that I am busy or that by the time they have free time that I will have made other plans. Or maybe people just forget about me altogether.

At any rate, something has to change. I am depressed and lonely. I am so tired of being limited by this accident in my day to day life. There is so much I want to do and can't. I try to focus on the things that I can do, but I find myself completely unmotivated. Mired in a dark hole, despairing I lay in bed and read sometimes good books, but more often than not trashy romance novels. Which just seem to increase my feeling of loneliness.

This hasn't gotten better even though Mr Mine is now finally back on normal working hours. I was spending most of my free time with Mrs Bokeh for the past few weeks and the loneliness was subsiding, but now her niece has moved in with her and most contact with her has ceased. I know that it is family and that she is helping her get settled in, but I can't help feeling abandoned. I feel weak saying that. Admitting that I needed someone that much. I don't think of myself as a co-dependent person, but things like this just throw my dependency in my face. The reality that I am not ok being by myself, that I need help. I don't want to be miserable when I am alone. And sometimes I do enjoy it, crave it, need it even, but more often than not I am happier with a companion.

I know that in part this is why me getting a full time job would be good for me. Because I would be around people all day. I think I am just scared. Scared of failing. Scared that my design skills aren't good enough, that I don't know enough, that I am too much out of the loop, that I was never really in the loop to begin with, that my back won't be strong enough for a full day, that this is what my life is going to be like for the rest of my life, that I will always and forever be broken and incapable of doing the things that I have grown to love. Just yesterday after I had lunch with Mrs Verve I threw myself into an Anthropologie shopping frenzy trying on half the store. My back started to ache and I'm sure that all the bending over to put things on and take things off wasn't very good for it. It pained me the rest of the day and once I got home I knew that I needed to lie down and just not do anything for the rest of the night. All over a few hours of shopping. Even just sitting here and writing this my back has started to ache. How am I supposed to sit working for hours at a computer if my back starts aching after only half an hour? This is partially why I am still so far behind. Blogging even has become physically taxing and editing photos, well it seems that I can only manage a few images ( if that) a day. And that's only if I am laying in bed.

I don't want to be beaten by this, but it is so hard not to feel defeated. I know that "you only fail when you quit" but this seems to be something that I can't even "try" at. It's all about having patience and just trying NOT to do certain things. I waver constantly between determination and resignation. I have gained back 16 lbs since the accident and that weighs heavily on my heart. I was doing ok walking with Mrs Bokeh, but we just stopped doing it and I can't seem to motivate myself to do it alone. I know that it's really as easy as just walking out my front door. But I find most days even that seems like an extremely daunting task.

On top of this Mr Mine and I had been trying to start a family when this accident occurred. We had been putting it off for one reason or another for the past 6-8 months. Waiting for me to lose the weight and to get my cholesterol under control. Since I had lost almost 30 lbs we decided that we had waited long enough. We even went to the store and bought ovulation strips. Only a few weeks later this accident occurred and once again our endeavors have been put on hold. I don't talk about this with people because I have so many mixed feelings about it. But I think I am mainly on a low simmering anger. Angry that we finally had made the committment only to have it put off again. Angry that time will not stop and that I just keep getting older. Angry that I am unsure as to whether or not we can even have a kid. I seem to be afraid that I just won't be able to at all and now I feel like I will have to wait till next year to even try again. Another 6 months of worrying about something I cannot control. On top of everything else that I cannot control.

Being a bit of a control freak, it's no wonder I feel like I am going a bit mad. I know that things will get better it's just hard to stay positive all the time.  

Curvily Yours : Spine Update

My compression fracture is of the T-8 and the disc
herniation is the one between T-7/T-8 

Today I went in to see Dr Perri for my 8 week check-up. After waiting about 45 minutes in my room they came and took me for x-rays and then about 5 minutes after I got back in the room the doctor arrived. I'm assuming that Cedar Sinai in a teaching hospital because every time I go to see Dr Perri someone new is with him. After tapping along my spine and asking me a bunch of questions he looked at the x-rays and mainly spoke to his assistant explaining to his assistant of the day what he was seeing.

He said I am on the road to recovery but concluded the following things:

1. I am still not out of the "surgery woods" yet. He wants to see me back in another 4 weeks.

2. He wants me to start not wearing my brace for 2 hour intervals daily.

3. I am still not allowed to lift anything over 10lbs, nor am I allowed to do any sort of chore that involves bending over.

4. No Yoga, but I may continue walking and I may ride an actual bike. I don't see the latter of those actually occurring.

5. Mainly I should just be paying attention and if any pain arises then I should stop.

All those seem like reasonable conclusions. Assistant aside, today was the first visit where I didn't feel like Dr Perri was rushing to see another patient. He stayed and patiently answered my list of questions. Which was mainly about defining what I can and cannot do. When I asked him about physical therapy he said that it was a possibility that I might start after my next check-up. Which will be 4 weeks from today on October 19. All in all not a horrible visit, still no end in sight, but at least I know that things are moving in the right direction :) 

The Pentagons are in Town

Saturday July 28, and Tuesday July 31, 2012
YAY! I know it's only been a few weeks since I last got to see them but I treasure any time I get to spend with my out of town peeps. The Pentagons have been in town since Saturday and Mr Mine and I got to have dinner with them that night. I know that it was a great time, especially for him since he hasn't been getting out much due to his work schedule. The video game industry is a beast at best. The 12+ hour days that he is working are only going to get worse as they get closer to his deadline so we are trying to enjoy what little free time he can muster now.

So Saturday we met Mr & Mrs Pentagon at True Food Daily. I know, I know I went there for lunch as well, but the place seems to have become a staple in my diet the last month or so. You've probably guessed that I ordered the Edamame Dumplings for the table. I can't help it, they're delicious. Sadly none of the pictures I took of our meal together came out. But we enjoyed catching up and hearing about the latest pregnancy shenanigans.

I made plans as we were departing to have dinner with them again Monday or Tuesday night. Plans which we would solidify once I had spoken to Mrs Bokeh about her schedule as well. I called Mrs Bokeh the next day and we ended up scheduling dinner for Tuesday night. Monday I had a flurry of text msgs from Mrs Bokeh about possible places we could go to eat and it fell to me to do the coordination for the evening. Fortunately Mrs Pentagon was also sending me txt msgs about the evening and both of them suggested the same restaurant. Tar and Roses in downtown Santa Monica was their destination of choice. Figuring that since it was a brand new restaurant that we should probably make reservations I turned to Opentable.com. I love this website, it's generally a stress free way of making reservations at a good percentage of the restaurants in LA. Unfortunately I was only seeing reservations open for 9pm or later and that was a bit late for Mrs Pentagon to be eating. So I opted to call the restaurant to see if there were other possibilities. They managed to squeeze us in between when their doors opened for the evening and one of the first reservations. This was earlier than we hoped but was much better than eating at 10pm.

We met at Tar and Roses and it definitely did not disappoint.

Our Appetizers - Bruschetta, Ricotta Gnocchi, Balsamic Glazed Ribs, Braised Lamb's Belly

Mr Pentagon's Shellfish Pot

Top: Our Whole Fried Snapper for Two   |   Bottom : Our delicious desserts which I unfortunately didn't write down the name of!

The Gnocchi, Bruschetta and the Braised Lamb were by far my favorites. I don't think that Mrs Bokeh and I would do the Fried Snapper again. I think it actually frightened her a bit. For me it was just a bit on the dry side. For the desserts I have to say that the Strawberry pastry was much better than my chocolate cake thing. Both Mrs Pentagon and Mrs Bokeh got the Strawberry and after one bite of theirs  I was drooling. It came with a side of salted caramel ice cream. Which if that had actually been written in the description I would of course have been all over in a second!

Having had such an early dinner we decided to stroll around Santa Monica for a while getting in a bit more fun and some added exercise.

Me, Mrs Bokeh, Mrs Pentagon, Mr Pentagon

We were enjoying the sites, watching a listening to the random artists who are always performing on the third street promenade. When I got called upon to participate.

"Hey you! Ms White, Come on over here!"

Ok, I'll participate so I go over and the gentleman playing the bucket drum hands me a overturned pot and asks me to hold it for him. So I walk over, and then he continues to motion that he needs me to get down on my knees. And I told him "honey, not only am I in a back-brace, but I am in pure white linen pants, that is so not going to happen." Fortunately Mrs Bokeh who was all in black came to my rescue. Although when he told her she had to use two hands she decided she didn't want to play either. Oh well. She ended up buying a cd from one of the performers further down.

It was a nice night for a walk and the evening ended too soon. I wish we lived closer together Mrs Pentagon! I miss you!

I love Santa Monica at Night

Women's Soccer Mania

USA vs Australia

Let’s just start with the words Free Tickets. That’s right, my girl over at Fox Soccer is awesome. I was so delighted when she contacted me and said she had two tickets with my name on them if I wanted them I didn’t even bother asking any additional details!

My sister and I met our girl Ms Foxx at the Chili’s around the corner from the Home Depot Center so we could all carpool to the game. Since not only did she get free tickets, but she managed to snag two free VIP parking passes as well! I know right! She was on fire, then once we are heading to the cars she nonchalantly mentions that we don’t really need to worry about getting sunburned because our tickets are for Box seats! WHAT?????????

This day just keeps getting better and better. Well, once we finally got through the parking lot traffic! We made it to the game with just minutes to spare. As they started playing the Australia anthem we were being escorted to our seats. Which had us sitting directly in front of the USA team bench! OMG I could see them, I could see their faces, Solo, Wambach, Rapinoe, Morgan, Heath, Lloyd, O' Hara, LePeilbet, Rampone, O'Reilly, Boxx…and so many more, all legends in my book. I really wished that I had asked Mrs Bokeh if I could borrow her camera for the day! But I made due with my cell phone and my little point and shoot.

women's national team right after anthem - CLICK HERE FOR LARGER VERSION

Left: The Starting Line-up   |   Right: Mr Hopeful

The Gang

Mrs Primerib and I

Ms Foxx and friend

Ms Bliss and I

The girls started off the game a bit rough and it took me a while to discern what the issue was. This team is used to fact-paced controlled passing and the Home Depot field frankly looked like it hadn’t been watered in a month. I’m guessing this was partially due to the crazy heat waves we have been having here in LA over the past few weeks. Including it getting up to 106° just the day before.  I think that the dry grass was creating additional friction on the ball causing it to drag. So passes that would normally easily have reached their teammates were continually falling short. Or….maybe the team starters were just having an off day. But Australia came out strong and the turf conditions didn’t seem to be bothering them at all.

Wambach Pressuring

O'Hara Trapping

Rampone Shutting It Down

At the half we were down 0-1 due to a beautiful goal by Lisa de Vanna but Alex Morgan brought us back into the game second half with a pistol of a shot off a pass by Heather O’Reilly. Neck and Neck it was time for some nail biting. Fortunately that didn't last long, less than ten minutes later Shannon Boxx found herself squaring off on a penalty kick with Australia keeper Brianna Davey. Beautifully done, the ball fired into the back of the net on a near post shot and we found ourselves up for the first time in the game 2-1. 30 minutes after that the winning score was final and there were smiles and thunderous cheers of U-S-A all around.

women's national team making their victory round - CLICK HERE FOR LARGER IMAGE

Victory Lap

Rapinoe and Morgan

Rapinoe and Morgan

After the game was over the Team called everyone together and presented their now retired coach Pia with a guitar signed by all of them. She even gave us a vocal demonstration in the style of Elvis doing a bit of Jailhouse Rock.

Women's National Team and Pia

I don’t know who suggested it but someone mentioned going down to the field as the players did their victory lap so we hopped out of our box and maneuvered our way into some empty second row seats hoping for a better view of our legends. These women, and this team has stolen a little piece of my heart ever since I watched them play their own hearts out during the Women’s World Cup last year. I cried as they were denied their hearts desire by Japan in the final. And I whole heartedly cheered them on to their hard fought victory of taking home the Gold medal in the Olympics just weeks ago. 

Words cannot describe being in such a close proximity to this team. I know that probably sounds a bit weird, but, I guess I was feeling a bit starstruck. I was wielding my little camera like digital was about to go out of style. Much to my sis’s amusement and chagrin. Although I know she’ll appreciate the pictures later.

My excitement over getting to see the girls up close during their victory lap was eclipsed by some crazy mania when I saw the girls split up and head toward the stands each with a black sharpie in her hand. OMG, I think I went a little crazy I lunged forward holding out the only thing I had in hand, my game ticket as Hope Solo stood within 3 feet of me and started signing autographs. I’m still not sure how I managed it since initially we were probably a good 8 or so feet from her but I ended up landing an autograph for myself and two of the other girls who were with us at the game. I even managed to keep my wits and snap a few up-close pics of both her and Heather O’Reilly when she later graced us with her presence. Although I wasn’t slick enough to grab her autograph as well. But hey, I was deliriously happy with just the one!

O'Reilly and Fan

Heather O'Reilly

Hope Solo

Solo and Fan

Solo and Mr Hopeful - Who yelled "she said yes" to his friend as she was taking the pic. 

My Autograph and I :)