ALMOST All About Bilbo

Hello Blog Readers!

 I hope your week has been great!  Ours has been pretty nice.The weather has been funky (Monday was warm...and the rest of the week was between gross/wet/painfully cold)  I was able to be officially hired as on office assistant with CNT (College Nannies and Tutors) as well as a Nanny and a Tutor!!  I was able to work for about an hour putting together Nanny Bags with another guy named Mike.  He was really nice and it was fun to make a new friend!  Rich has been enjoying work as well.  He's said its been much more exhausting because his training meetings are getting more extensive.  It's been a lot to take in!  His work has an onsite cafeteria, coffee/hot cocoa machine and there's a gym in the corporate park!  It's been a very convenient place for him to work!  We just feel so happy here and there are so many signs that tell us we're meant to be living here in Wilton.  :D

Bilbo has been enjoying his time as well.  We live in a VERY wooded area so that has been a blast for him.  There are quite a few dog parks around town as well - there needs to be!  There aren't any sidewalks for Pete's sake!  We've been taking him to Cranbury Park in Norwalk (even though it's basically in Wilton...the two cities just kinda mesh together).  The park is huge and has a lot of trails and pastures for the dogs to walk and play in.  On the days I have the car (it's not close enough to walk to), Bilbo and I have enjoyed going.



Here's a picture of Bilbo that I took today.  There are so many unmarked trails within the park that I got lost a little bit! ;)  We were heading in the right direction when we ran into a nice lady who confirmed we were heading the right way.  You can see in the picture how wooded and how many trees there are.  Can you IMAGINE how beautiful it will be when there are leaves on the trees??  You can see off the trail there is a HINT of Spring coming...there's new growth popping green out of the ground...I'm excited to see how our surroundings change in the next several weeks!



This is in the same park.  I took this a few days ago on a day where in the morning it was warm and then it got colder throughout the day, so I was under-dressed in just a cardigan.  This is the Gallagher Mansion (I think).  Not sure when it was built...I want to say 1800s....but I'm not sure.  It hasn't been warm enough to stroll around casually and read the signs on display yet.  Behind me (not pictured) is another pasture where dogs can romp and play.  The one you see here is no dogs allowed (even though the first time we came - like 3 days after we arrived - it was all icy and wet and NO ONE was in the park....we played fetch and Bilbo may or may not have pooped somewhere amid the grassy field.... -oops!)

Anyway on the same day I was at the park, there were a LOT of other dogs.  Bilbo got to play with like 10 dogs that day which was great for two reasons - 1.  Bilbo gets to learn social skills and have fun! 2. He also gets worn out!!! - so when we get back in the car, he is much more relaxed and when we get home he's more than happy to take a nap in his crate for a few hours.

While the dogs were playing, I was able to visit with the very friendly dog owners.  They were 2 mostly older folks, mostly talking to themselves but they were more than happy to chat with me, one lady in particular.  As we were chatting, another older lady showed up and starting telling the group about a couple small dogs  that were killed by COYOTES!  Apparently, coyotes are very common around here!  When I told Rich about that he said that seems odd because when you think of a coyote you think desert...like maybe UT, but...in all of our days living in Utah...neither of us ever once saw a coyote!  Am I worried about Bilbo...no.  He's 50 lbs....and probably weighs more that a coyote.  ;)

Speaking of wildlife, after I dropped off Rich this morning at work, I spotted 4 -5 white tailed deer!!  It was cool to see them - I never have before.  They look slightly different from deer in Utah...they're still bigger than you expect them to be.  They were about 25 yards away on the hill behind our apartment complex.



This morning Bilbo found a friend.  He found Alps.  (Alps was my teddy bear... I slept with him at night through high school and college.  Rich has since replaced him haha).  I was getting ready...took my eyes off him for a minute or two and low and behold he's gotten into something.  Some dogs would just snuggle their stuffed animals - like Lucy, our Golden Retriever back home.  NOT BILBO!  I would have loved for him to keep Alps, but I would not love having to clean up the fluff mess haha!  Can you tell we take a lot of pictures of Bilbo??



Here's another one!!  Last Friday, Bilbo and I surprised Rich when we picked him up from work.  He was very anxiously waiting for his best friend to come out of the building, and of course when he saw Rich his tail started waggling like crazy!!  He definitely knows his family.  Today we played hide and seek with him.  Rich would say "Where's Tara?" and he'd start looking frantically all over our little apartment (which we had to get pretty creative with hiding places haha) for me until  he found me, and vise versa.

Do you see how brown parts of his fur is getting?  That's a new trait that he's developed that past month.  Rich is worried he's going to turn all the way brown, but I don't think he will.  He's our handsome boy!!



And here's 2 handsome boys!!  Rich was sitting in front of Biblo's crate so he couldn't get in, so Bilbo just snuggled up right next to his daddy.  ;)

One day as I was taking Bilbo out to go potty I ran into our next door neighbor, Lynn (who is incredibly nice and sweet).  She's a realtor in the area and on our first day here she introduced herself.  She lives next to us with her cat, Timothy.  (I love pet people!!!!).  Anyway, she got to meet Bilbo, she told me how beautiful of a dog he was and what a sweet boy he seemed.  She also told me that a year ago she had been attacked by a dog!!  She explained that she was on a property and the dog (a pitbull/boxer mix) came out of nowhere and she had NO TIME to react when it attacked her!  She said it did some serious damage, she didn't say what though.  This is why pitbulls are no good.....!  Anyway, she asked me what else Rich and I have in apartment.  She was saying she's been hearing screeching, squealing sound...and I was SO PUZZLED at what she could possibly be hearing!!  I didn't think it could be Bilbo....she thought it was a monkey or some kind of parrot or tropical bird.  Later in the day, after visiting with her it HAD to be Bilbo's squeaky toy!!  So I quickly wrote a little note to her, explaining what the noise was and to PLEASE let us know if the sound bothers her!  She's SO INCREDIBLY SWEET!!!



She put this on our door!  She's such a cutie!!! :D

Tonight (Friday night) Rich and I were itching to get out of the town and DO something!  We wasted a lot of time watching Key and Peele while eating our Cheeseburger Soup (one of our FAVORITE recipes)...so at about 9:30 (WAY passed the time when everything closes in Wilton) we decided to get off the couch and go exploring in Norwalk for some good dessert!  So, after a little bit of searching, arguing and almost turning back to go home, we decided to go to this little hipster place called Chocologie.  It reminded me a lot of The Chocolate in Orem, except this place was SO crowded.  There was a guy there playing live music, and the ambiance was really very pleasant.  It was kind of loud because he was playing acoustic style music on an electric guitar so his amplifier was making it so to hear the person next to you, you needed to shout!  Honestly though, it was really cute and cozy.  Not bad at all.  Anyway, it's a dessert place and we tried a tasty (overpriced) dessert.  You can see it's all gourmet and such.  It had a cheesecake ball, vanilla ice cream, a hot chocolate shot and molton lava cake.  The description on the menu sounded like it might be a lot of food...but really it was just a little sampler of everything.  It was actually very delicious!  Who knows...maybe we'll go again!



We decided we're very glad we don't live in Norwalk.  There's only 3 streets with any "night life" (granted...it's still a little more exciting than Wilton) and the rest - especially the residential areas are what I'd say is "homely" (as Rich put it).  The homes and buildings in Wilton are much nicer.  We don't have much space in our town, but Norwalk seemed even more squeezed.

Anyway...it's not almost 1 am...so it's bedtime!!  As Marta says in Sound of Music (while Rich was at work I was able to watch that movie and fully appreciate it in is musical beauty) Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight!!  xoxoxo 

Taco Pizza

Hello Again!

Today was a wonderful day here in Wilton.  Bilbo was happy all day, Rich enjoyed his day at work and tried out the corporate cafeteria, and I had a meeting with College Nannies + Tutors so I can start work soon.

We had taco pizza for dinner!  None of the 1,000 local pizza places have taco pizza so, thanks to my skills learned at Papa Murphy's and at Pizza Pie Cafe Provo - I made us our own.  We have made this before, but I posted a picture on instagram and some people have requested the recipe, so here it is!

Recipe for the pizza CRUST can be found here - which I found through seaching homemade pizza crust on Pinterest.  To be honest, I couldn't find the crust which I really love which had cornmeal on the bottom, so it wasn't my favorite, but it'll be easy enough to find any pizza dough recipe on the internet - should you chose another.  The point is, any pizza crust recipe will do.  Feel free to use your own if you'd like!


Ingredients for toppings:
2 Tablespoons of water
.5 - 1 lb lean ground beef
1 can re-fried beans
1.5 cups salsa of your choice (we used Tostinos Thick and Chunky)
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 can sliced olives
2 scallions (green onions)
1 Roma tomato
1 packet taco seasoning
Your favorite cheese to sprinkle on top (we used a taco blend and Parmesan cheese powder)

Instructions:
Brown the ground beef, rinse and drain out the grease, and then add the taco seasoning and about 2 TBS of water.  Stir it all up and set it aside for later.  You can possibly do this while the pizza dough is rising.

Chop up the scallions/green onions and tomato.  You can make them as big or small as you like.  I chopped the green onion to be about a centimeter (about the size we used at Papa Murphy's) and the tomato we diced up fairly small.  (Rich doesn't like them if they are too big haha)

This next step is to in a bowl, mix the can of re-fried beans and salsa.  This will make your sauce that you will put directly on the uncooked pizza dough (for the above crust recipe, you will bake JUST THE CRUST for 10 minutes - and then add your toppings, it just depends on what recipe you decide to use for crust).  *Note I did not use the entire mixture - we had about a cup leftover that I just put in the fridge to use as chip dip later ;)

Add your 2 cups of mozzarella cheese and cover it evenly over your pizza.  Then, sprinkle your taco beef over your pizza, spread it out evenly just like the cheese, on top of the cheese.  Next add the olives (we had a few leftover that we just threw away).  Then add the diced tomato and green onion.  Again, make sure that each topping you add is spread nice and evenly over the pizza.

Last step - the topping cheese!  Top it with as much or as little as you want.  The finishing touch is to sprinkle on the powdered Parmesan and then throw it in the oven for about 12 minutes at 425  (this will depend on the crust you choose).



We may or may not be Coke addicts (as in the drink) so we have our dinners often with an ice cold Vanilla Coke Zero, or Diet Coke.  :D

Enjoy!

New to New England

Hello all!  This is my first ever blog post so......it could be bad.

Anyway, my name is Tara.  My husband is Rich (that's his name also) and we recently moved out to Wilton, CT from Pleasant Grove, UT, with our dog, Bilbo.  Neither of us have EVER lived out east so it's really an eye-opening experience in a way.  It's pretty cool to be so close to NYC - though we haven't been yet.  Here is a list of things that are way different here.

1. Architecture - the houses/buildings here look like doll houses.  I don't know if the buildings are actually old/colonial buildings or if they are just made to look like that way or what - either way they are beautiful. I've told a lot of my family that I feel like I'm living in the set of a movie - it doesn't seem like a real life place, where people actually have their LIVES.

2. Trees - there are woods EVERYWHERE!!  I'm not complaining about this at all, don't get me wrong - it feels like I'm in the mountains but....I'm not.  There's a Walmart 10 minutes away from where I live (again, not complaining)!  Rich and I were walking Bilbo recently and he made the comment that, it feels like we're in the woods...but the air isn't quite as crisp and cold as it is when you are actually in the mountains (like in UT).  I agreed with him and sniffed their air to confirm.  It's true!  Almost deceiving!  I am just so excited to see what this place looks like in the Spring/Summer/FALL!!  All the trees are leafless and bare right now (except for the pines), so I'm really looking forward when they start budding out.

3. Alcohol - Living in UT, where there's Mormons (like ourselves) everywhere...there's not as much alcohol. Here, there's the "Wilton Wine Shop" and the "Little Pub" and many many more!  This, is more of a shock to me because I've never lived outside of UT, Rich however has lived in Argentina and Puerto Rico for 4 years of his life - so it's more news to me than to him.  He did mention that his coworkers love to drink and frequently do "happy hour"!  I wonder what people will think when they realize that we don't drink at all!

4. Humidity and EXTREME temperatures - UT is a desert.  It's dry.  Here, we're only about 30 minutes from the beach and so the air is much more humid.  Because it's winter - I haven't noticed much of a difference, but when we first moved in the temperatures were EXTREMELY COLD!!!!!  Rich's mother told us we were moving into a "POLAR VORTEX" - and that's basically what it felt like!!  I felt like I'd freeze to death if I were outside more than 5 minutes - no joke!!

5. Pizza Restaurants - It's pretty unbelievable how many pizza places there are.  There are like 5 pizza restaurants within walking distance from where we live.  And I swear we see a new place everywhere we go (within Wilton).  We've lived here a week (almost) and we've already tried 2 of them.  Pinocchio's Pizza and Wilton Pizza - where you can get the best pizza in town or your money back!  It was quite good pizza - so we didn't ask for our money back haha.

6. No Sidewalks - How am I supposed to walk the dog around here?  There's a few sidewalks here and there in random places, but they end suddenly, or lead to nowhere.  As Rich has been at work the past few days (the reason why we moved to Wilton in the first place - he got a job at Nielsen - yay for supporting the hubz), I've been in charge of the dog.  As I'm out walking him I have to walk along the grass or the narrow road and people look at me like "She must be new to town...doesn't she know we don't have sidewalks?"  Of course I know that - but the dog needs to get his exercise!  I don't really understand why any town wouldn't have sidewalks....anyone want to answer that question for me?

7. Cost of living is HIGH -  Ok, we're paying what most people out in UT pay for a MORTGAGE!  And we have a dinky little 1 bed 1 bath apartment!  And I've been told by a few realtors in the area that what we pay is a GREAT deal and is low for New England.  Groceries are about the same as they are in UT, as well as restaurants.  Movies are a bit more, but not too bad.  It's been crazy how much we've eaten out the past two weeks (with the move and getting settled and such).  I definitely feel it taking a toll!  And I think I'm done with pizza for a while.....

8. EVERYTHING CLOSES EARLY!  I'm learning to love our new home town of Wilton but I don't love that most of the shops close between 5 and 7 pm!  It seems like as soon as the sun goes down, the city goes to sleep!  5 is when Rich gets off work and we want to go walk around together, but when we do - everything is already closed, it seems like.  In UT stores stay open til about 8 - 10.

9. Everything is close!  Local stores are close for us (I can literally walk to the local Stop and Shop), and so are major cities - like NYC and Boston!  So far, it's been pretty convenient.

I couldn't think of a 10th thing, so if anyone reading this has OCD, my apologies.  Overall - we like Wilton.  It's definitely a change - and we're working on making friends!  I start nanny and tutoring next week so hopefully I won't be quite as bored!  Rich is liking his new job - although it's mostly just been training - which can also be boring.

Prayers are still appreciated and welcomed.  We also welcome anyone willing to come out and visit!

Sincerely,
The Wilton Wilkins