Recap

Holy buckets time is flying by! Feeling a little stressed about the 5 birthdays (hubs, b-i-l, Oscar, s-i-l and dad) in December, our wedding anniversary (tomorrow - Happy 2 year anniversary sweetie) and Christmas! Not to mention a few holiday parties, get-togethers and a few added items to my workload at my job. So since I don't have a ton of time on my hands, I figured I'd share a few amazing recipes I have found on pinterest and have tried out.

double crunch honey garlic pork chops

We had these for dinner tonight and they were so delicious. I used chicken instead of pork chops (cuz that's what we had and we don't eat too much pork). The sauce alone is to die for. Chris told me to "dog ear" the recipe. LOL!

easy parmesan knots

I made these for Thanksgiving and got many compliments on them! I used crescent rolls instead of biscuits since I had bought them ahead of time (before pinning it). They turned out great! I did not roll them in knots, just made them look like crescent rolls.

nutella ice cream

I made these last night. So tasty! I am still in shock that it's just bananas and ice cream. Chris and I shared one tonight after dessert. He ate more than I did and he's not one for sweets! I halved the recipe since that's all I had on hand, but I could see myself making more of these. They are only 140 calories, pretty good in my book! 

Last Saturday was Chris's (age purposely deleted) birthday.

Enjoying his free mug (seriously, any drink you want in there - I've had a Long Island) at the Valley Bar in Eagan. Hole in the wall bar, but such a great deal for  your birthday! And they give you a mug to take with you ;)

We went out to lunch with his dad at Bonfire (so yummy) and then came back to the house to rest from our food coma. Then we went to Best Buy to get a tripod for our new camera (oh yeah, we bought a DSLR - so excited to figure it all out!!). We have met the most interesting people at our local store. We bought our Mac from the store in August and had a girl (mid 20's) helping us out. She was super nice and had just started out there. We've been in the store a few times since we bought our computer and never fail, she's always there and always comes up to us and remembers BOTH of our names. We both find it shocking/creepy she remembers our names. Of course on Saturday creeper nice saleslady sees us and comes over to check on us and remembers our names. Wasn't much help to us in the camera dept, but just had to stalk check in with us, I guess. After we got home, I made Chris get dressed up for our Christmas Card photo shoot. I thought it would go soooo much better than it did, haha! Either way, we got a picture for our card and I have them ordered. Can't wait to get them and send those suckers out! Saturday night, we met up with some friends at Ansari's in Eagan, Kind of a crazy night, but I think we left before the worst of it :)

Sunday, I don't think I could get enough sleep. It felt so nice to sleep in. The hubs ended up going in to work and I made may way to the neighboring cities for some Christmas shopping. Finally got some stuff checked off my list, still a LOT to go.

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to spending the evening with my love and celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary. I'm also excited that we were able to book tickets to go to Florida and visit his amazing family in February. The next 2 months are going to go by sooo fast. I can't wait!

December 6, 2009 Captiva Island, Florida

My New Journey!

If you thought this is where I was going to be posting about us expecting our first child...sorry, this is almost the opposite (as far as my body goes).

Last week (after reading another blogger's post) I decided that it's time for me to start losing some weight again and I figured what better time than just before the holidays. Maybe I can try to restrain myself when indulging in all that the holidays have to offer.

Last Saturday I downloaded a new app on my iPhone called MyFitnessPal. You may have heard of it or already have it. I think it's so cool and I've been logging my food and workouts since Saturday. It even has a bar code scanner on it so you can just scan stuff and it will input all of the nutritional info in it. I used to carry around a planner with my workouts, food/calorie intake and daily weight. Now it's all in my phone. Soooo cool!

As of this morning, I've lost 4 lbs already. YAHOO! I know it always comes off fast at first and then you plateau, but it's still exciting. And this morning, I could even button my dress pants. Sometimes A lot of times, I will not button the top button and just wear my belt. Today I have them buttoned and haven't had to go in the bathroom to use the belt trick.

Somethings I'm doing to help me shed some pounds:

• Drinking little to no alcohol. If you see me (friends and family, especially you m-i-l and s-i-l) and I do not consume an alcoholic beverage, this does not mean that I'm pregnant. Please do not make any assumptions or ask me if I'm pregnant.
• Controlling the portions of food that I consume and documenting each and every thing that I eat, the best I can. Sometimes it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for and how many calories are in it
• Working out at home. I've been logging miles on the treadmill and outside. I've pinned (yep, joined pinterest too) some workouts to try.
• Joined the gym at work. It's $10/YEAR, how could I not join at the incredible rate. It's not a huge workout room - about the size as one at a hotel or apartment building - but it has the machines that I used when I had a gym membership at Lifetime and a locker room with showers. I mainly just plan to go down and walk or go on the elliptical during my 15 minute breaks.
• Buying more fruit and making it a goal to eat it before it goes bad. Having a fruit bowl on the counter has enticed me to grab an apple or banana for a work snack instead of the crackers, cookies, leftover Halloween candy.

I'm excited to see how it goes this time around. I got pretty lazy in the summer and I think that having my new, amazing, fun job should help me to stay on track with this.

Any other suggestions to help me on this new journey?

Hope you have a great week!

Great Deal on Tide!!

Thanks to Sarah at http://moskemonkeybusiness.blogspot.com/, here is a great deal on Tide detergent! I just orderd mine, yay!!

There is a fantastic deal on Tide right now. Better move fast!!

You can get a 50 oz. bottle of Tide for $5.99 and shipping is free. If you log into your amazon.com account, you will also find a coupon that you can apply to your order for $2 off, which makes this $3.99!

Too Much HGTV/DIY Network Leads to....

Every Saturday and Sunday morning we tune into HGTV. This is dangerous/knowledgeable because it makes me want to try the things I see. It can also inspire us. We're pretty handy. We finished our basement last winter (not completely on our own). Those pictures would make some good blog posts later...


Anyways, here is what we got up to this weekend. Friday I met up with an old co-worker at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was good to catch up and have some of these

You're supposed to add Champagne, but I didn't think they would do that at Buffalo Wild Wings

After happy hour, I went to help out Chris's mom watching the kids niece and nephew). They were sleeping/on their way to bed by the time I got there...not much help. I provided entrainment/company for my m-i-l. Then Chris was home so we watched a few shows on the DVR and called it a night.

Saturday we slept in and watched HGTV. We went to Olive Garden for lunch to try their new paninis.

Much to our disappointment, they only serve them during the week. We ended up just leaving (NEVER dome that before). Our server was soooo slow for how un-busy they were at 11:15. We didn't want to stick around for crappy service. We went to Burger Jones and got nachos...they were soooo disappointing. Probably one of the worst meals we've had out for a long time :(

That evening when Chris went to work, I started working on a project that's been around for a while. Still not quite done, but here's what I got finished so far.



The beginning of the end table



After I removed the original finish/Mud from when we finished the basement...



After I applied the first coat of stain/sealer. I still have at least 2-3 coats left. I'm happy so far :)

Sunday, slept in again and watched HGTV again. I ran some errands in the morning and then came home and started preparing PF Chang's lettuce wraps. After our not great experience out Saturday, I decided we were staying home on Sunday for lunch. They turned out pretty good, not the same as the restaurant. While I was running errands in the morning, I decided to pick up 2 gallons of paint to start some more projects. Here is one of them:



 Here is the start (sorry I got really excited and forgot to take a pic)

Here is the finish. I LOVE it!

That evening I also started painting our laundry room and the storage room connected to it. Those pictures to come soon!

Today I went to work an HOUR early so that Chris and I could go golfing tonight. It wasn't too difficult to get up earlier and it was really nice to leave at 3 instead of 4.

Here are some pics of him golfing tonight. It was beautiful weather for October 24



Putting it in like a Pro!

I did surprisingly well considering this is my 2nd time out this year:)

A special birthday wish to my niece who turned 1 today. Love you Leah!

Hope everyone has a great week!



Weekend Recovery

On Friday, I worked a half day and then stopped by Target on my way home to pick up the necessities for recovering from my wisdom teeth removal.

Your standard items: Mac & Cheese, pudding, ice cream, soup, instant potatoes, yogurt (for smoothies), bananas and notice the one item in the middle...the crack gelato imported from Italy. I have eyed that stuff over in the freezer section for a while, but it's $4.99 for the container. I figured, how often do I get my wisdom teeth removed...I can splurge. So.freakin.good! It's creamy and delicious. I got the dulce de leche flavor . It's gone. I polished it off tonight. Chris had a spoonful or two. I ate the rest. I don't feel bad. It felt AMAZING on my sore gums and it tasted pretty dang good, too!

Moving on...After getting the above supplies, I had to go get some lunch. Something that would be satisfying since I won't be eating my faves for a few weeks. I didn't want to over eat since I would be going to the dentist and also nothing too garlic-y or onion-y. This is what I ended up with. I was definitely happy! It made me feel like I was back home since we have 3 Taco John's in the small town I'm from and was pretty much eaten once/week growing up. I had1 taco and potato oles. Perfect amount of food.

During my surgery, I got laughing gas and I swear there was a rock concert in my operating room. I was in my own little world. Chris thought it was pretty funny when I told him my random thoughts during the procedure. I was shaking when I left the office. I don't really know why, but I wasn't a fan of that feeling. Chris brought me home and we watched a couple of shows before he headed to work for the night. I wasn't really in any pain, just groggy. I watched some shows I had on the DVR for the next few hours until Chris got home. I went to bed early



 Saturday:
I woke up late, felt fine, just groggy still. We went for a walk with the pups in the morning, did a little bit of yard work (I raked some leaves and he moved some rock). He had plans to play golf with some friends that afternoon so he left to go golfing and was gone until about 6. I went shopping, cleaned our house and just bummed around. Chris came home, we watched some TV shows that night and just relaxed. I went to bed pretty early again.

I picked this up for Kirby on Saturday. They're puppy pj's. So cute and he doesn't even mind having them on.

The pj's provided a lot of entertainment for Chris and I over the weekend. Plus, they're fitting - he is the "bad" dog out of the two

Sunday:
I woke up late, still feeling fine and started cleaning the house -again! I got confirmation from my mom that I will be hosting Thanksgiving this year for my family (parents, brother and his family and us) so I have started to do some of the deep cleaning now.

We went in the backyard and laid out some plans for the garden and fire pit area we want back there. Still a work in progress, but I'm happy to hear that I can have a veggie garden next year. Now I need to figure out what I want in it. I spent the rest of the day cleaning and went on an interesting shopping trip. More details later...

Working on a craft project Sunday night. Kirby is my "helper" I told Chris we should see if Santa is hiring!

Overall a great weekend! I hardly feel any discomfort at all with my teeth extraction. Just restricted on what I can eat, which is a bummer at times but overall a lot better than what some people go through.

Hope you have a great week! I'm excited to volunteer at a local charity for work tomorrow - should be a fun day!

Disclaimer: I often post pictures of my dog Kirby, but not many of Oscar. I (we) do not like one of our dogs more than the other. Oscar does not like his picture taken. As soon as I point the camera at him, he turns his face the other direction or buries his face in a blanket or pillow. Kirby looks directly at the camera - even if there is evidence (toilet paper/leaves/grass/ANYTHING) of something on his face. So that is why Kirby gets a lot of blog love around here. 

The Good and The Bad

The good news is that I only work half a day tomorrow (YAY)!

The bad news is that I only work half a day tomorrow because I'm getting 2 of my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow afternoon (BOO)!

I got my other 2 wisdom teeth pulled about 10 years and the whole process went incredibly well. I was in and out of the dentist in about 30-45 minutes. I couldn't believe that I was done and the dentist had to show me the teeth to prove it to me. I had no issues with my recovery.

I am hoping this time around goes that well! I have heard quite a few horror stories over the past couple of weeks from people getting theirs removed...kind of freaks me out.

Not a whole lot planned for this weekend. I will be recovering and hopefully we can continue working on our front yard. We got some of the mulch put down on Tuesday and we are loving the look of it so much.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! Think of me tomorrow and the next few days every time you're eating your delicious food! I will be surviving on shakes, pudding, mashed potatoes and soup...yum :(

It's been a while...

So...I'm finally back from my blogcation.

• I have been busy with wrapping things up from my previous job and starting/training in my new position.
• Chris's grandpa came up from Florida for 2 weeks and we spent a week's worth of evenings with his family then went to the cabin for the weekend.
• Throw in a number of birthdays that have passed and are coming up 
• Amazing weather that does not make we want to sit inside and type on my computer and you get me not blogging for about a month!

Here are some pics from the cabin

The crew fishing Saturday, Oct 1 (Janeal, Brad, Grandpa, Hubs)

Grandpa, me and Hubs

Later that night we went out on the lake the cabin is on. Chris and Kirby - later on Kirby had that hook in him...he's always getting into stuff

Me and Oscar - LOVE my jacket - not stylish but it was super warm for that weekend

Oscar and Kirby were going crazy over that bucket. We put the fish we caught in there and they wouldn't leave it alone

Kirby was obsessed!

Beautiful sunset on the lake. So peaceful up there and so happy that we have the cabin to go to :)

This is what we got up to this weekend - our new project started today

Kirby with a leaf stuck to his beard. I swear there is glue on his beard cuz he's ALWAYS got stuff on his face

We started removing all of the rock - we're going to put in rubber mulch - this will be done in stages all around our house

There were a lot of leaves to rake out of the rocks



Close up of the perennials we planted. We can't wait to see this all filled in next year



This is where we got today. We have some more rocks to remove and we have to put fabric and mulch down.
We also have some bulbs to plant in front of our retaining wall. I've never planted bulbs before, I'm really excited to see them blooming next spring!!

Other than that, the Vikes finally pulled off a win today (YAY)! Minnesotans can be happy again! I went for a walk with both dogs all by myself tonight. I was impressed on how well we did, it's usually a mess and I come back frustrated but tonight was peaceful. The weather is so perfect right now. Winter is going to be rough when it gets here. I'm enjoying every second of this I can.

Hope you have a great week!

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 12

Hello, I'm doing a 30 day blog challenge found here. Link up if you'd like to join!


Day 12: Share your goals you would like to accomplish in the next year


1. Get a new job...check! Start that next Monday, yippee!
2. Finish up projects around the house (basement complete, paint laundry, paint office, paint main floor bath, paint master bath)...yikes!
3. Get new plants for the front yard
4. Get a fence for our backyard
5. Run in an organized race...will check this off this coming Saturday. Chris and I are signed up for a 5k
6. Meet more of our neighbors, Chris and I both want to do this!
7. Get more involved in volunteering opportunities (I think my new job will enable me to do this)
8. Start doing more meal planning. Tried this last week and we loved it!
9. Don't let minor things bother me so much (it's ok that Chris has 20 bottles of Gatorade scattered throughout the pantry...)
10. Continue on my weight loss goal/plan. I got super excited when I lost 25 lbs last winter/spring and then kind of let the whole thing go. I would like to pick up where I left off and lose some more weight :)


That's all I can think of for now. 

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 11

Hello, I'm doing a 30 day blog challenge found here. Link up if you'd like to join!


Day 9: Something you're afraid of


Well aside from all things creepy crawly, I would say my biggest fear is losing a loved one or dying myself. My husband, relatives, parents, brother, in-laws, friends, future children, nieces, nephews, pets are always on my mind! What would my life be like if I lost one of them. Not something I like to dwell on, but my crazy mind goes there. I especially don't like when my hubby has to work in bad (mainly winter) weather. I trust him driving (most of the time) but it's other drivers that I don't trust. 


I will also think up situations when I could get in really bad car accident (mostly driving to and from work in crappy weather) and what I should do if the car next to me swerves into my lane. I also creep myself out at night when Chris is working late and I'm by myself. If I hear a noise in the house, I immediately think what I should do if there is a burglar in the house. And finally, if there is something (minor) wrong with me, I always think it's got to be the worse case scenario. 


I know that I'm not the only person that dreams up this kind of stuff and when I think about random scenarios it just reminds me to be thankful for everything and everyone I have and how happy I am that they're still here with me :)

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 10

Hello, I'm doing a 30 day blog challenge found here. Link up if you'd like to join!


Day 9: Tell us about your special someone

I'm a very lucky lady to have snatched up my hubby, he is an incredible guy! We met November, 29 2005 through a mutual friend (aka Cupid). Pretty much inseparable ever since!

Newlyweds Dec 6 2009 - Captiva Island , FL

He LOVES golf and got me started playing - Mississippi Dunes - Fall 2008

He loves cheering on MN sports teams (bball, football, baseball)

He works HARD - he owns 2 businesses, works at a restaurant and a golf course. Most weeks he works 60 + hours.
I love him for all that he does for our little family!

He is goofy and puts up with me! Enjoying a fishbowl in Minot, ND - July 2011

He LOVES nachos!

Those are just a few reason for me to love this guy! There are many, many more!

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 9

Hello, I'm doing a 30 day blog challenge found here. Link up if you'd like to join!


Day 9: Tell us about your must watch TV shows


We have quite a few shows that we DVR and I'm soooo excited to get the new seasons going! These are in no particular order

We haven't seen all of the last season, so we're trying to catch re-runs over the summer!

This show is so hilarious and probably one of our favorites

Little bit of mystery

This show is pretty funny...can go a little far sometimes

These are my guilty pleasures...

Still liking the show, some episodes last year weren't that intense...

I only watch the OC - can't stand the other ones

I still like my Sunday night desperate, I just can't kick the habit!

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 8

Here is the link up for the 30 Day Blog Challenge

Day 8: Share a picture of your friends

I'm not including family on this (although, you are my friends/family). 

These are some peeps that you can find me hanging out with (if you're not on here and I am friends with you in real life, I apologize, I probably don't have a -good- pic of us)

Jen, me, Tara, Megan and Jen out last spring - fun night, need more of these!

Me and my good friend Sarah at her graduation party - I've known her my entire life!

30 Day Blog Challenge - Day 7

Hey there, already behind on this....


You can find the link-up here


Day 7: Tell us about your favorite vacation

Cruise

My favorite vacation was when Chris and I went on a cruise together in February 2007. We had been dating just over a year and booked a cruise on Princess Cruise Line to go to the Eastern Caribbean. It was so much fun! I can't locate any of the pics from the cruise on our computer, but it was beautiful. We flew to Ft. Lauderdale and stayed the night in a hotel near the beach and then headed to board our cruise ship the next day. Lucky for me, Chris went a cruise the previous year with his mom, sister and brother-in-law (I was super jealous) so he kind of had an idea of what to expect and do on the cruise ship. We ate a ton, laid out in the sun, played mini golf (I had a few hole in ones), watched movies on the ship deck, went to the comedy club, ate, had lots of drinks (we brought a LOT of alcohol with us, we're thrifty), did some shopping, went on a catamaran, did scuba diving and ate some more. 


I really hope that we can go on another cruise again. We upgraded to a balcony room and it was so worth the extra money. We didn't spend a ton of time out there, but we did go have a drink (or 3) out there each night.