Weekend in Review: Is it finally spring??

One thing I've read a lot of places is people just being all up in arms about the 'crazy' winter we had this year.  And yes, it has been quite the winter(!) but I feel like this is more normal of a winter compared to what we've had in years past.  I think people especially round these parts tend to have weather amnesia year-to-year.  I especially hear that in the summer where people say it's never been this hot, this summer is the hottest ever, and that humidity - terrible.  Um, it's normally that hot round here and that humid... actually for the most part summers have been fairly mild as of recently, which is very nice.  While we got a TON of snow this winter, which hasn't happened recently, and the temperatures were lower than recent years, I'm not sure it's that crazy of a winter?  I'm not sure... either way, I'm happy for the warmer weather, but I didn't absolutely hate the winter we had... and I don't think I've uttered the phrase 'will this winter get over with already' or anything similar to that.

Wow... that was quite the rambly paragraph... but I am looking forward to hanging out on my awesome deck come warmer weather.  And I do hope that spring in the weather sense lasts awhile... better than going straight to hot and humid like we do some years.

Anyway... off the random soapbox and back to the weekend.

On Friday I had a relaxing day... the last few Fridays I've had plans... but this one I didn't and I was so happy.  I got some breakfast and watched recorded TV from the week and lounged around.  I also did laundry.  When Dan got home we hung out and then went over to Fairview Heights because he just had to have some of this limited edition beer... and that's where he knew it was in stock.  We headed over to the Randall's.  He got his beer (along with another bottle of something he wanted to try) and I got a (big) bottle of cherry cider.

Then we went to dinner at Show-Mes.  I let Dan pick and since the one close to us closed it's where he really wanted to go.  According to him they have better wings than Hooters.  We each had a Blue Moon and enjoyed the ambiance (that's a joke).  When we got back home we watched Anchorman 2 (ok well I did Dan went to bed at like 8:30... in his defense he had to work the next morning at 6am)

On Saturday Dan was at work in the morning.  I made myself breakfast and lounged around.  I really wanted to get a couple of things done during the weekend because we are having a party in a couple of weeks and I've got plans for both Saturday and Sunday next weekend and I'll be out of town the following weekend so needed to get some of the major things done this weekend. 

I decided to clean out the storage closet (which is also where the cat's stuff is.  That closet had just kind of ended up as a catch all for boxes of stuff we didn't know what to do with - which is what I storage closet should be... however we had just thrown things in there without any real order or identification of what was in the boxes.  Worse, I hadn't been able to move the Christmas items back into that closet - so they were just sitting out in the open of the main downstairs part.

So I began to pull out all the boxes and see what the heck was in all of them... that part wasn't the most fun - especially when I encountered a spider that was frighteningly close to my hand... but since I hadn't let the close get too out of control, it wasn't that bad either.

The boxes all pulled out - not even all of them as they stretch to the left too - including all that Christmas stuff I referenced earlier... And Stitch in the foreground... if I'm down there she HAS to be on my lap...

Some of them were mine and others were Dan's.  While Dan refused to get rid of anything... I was able to get rid of some random stuff.  And at the very least was able to condense Dan's boxes down and label them better.

The really fun part was I went through some of my childhood boxes... so it was fun to have a short walk down memory lane.
 

The Beanie Baby collection - weren't these supposed to make me money someday?

The kinda funny thing is the dogs (mostly Bella) use Beanie Babies as toys.  We had a few accidents with them getting holes (at Dan's apartment) but mostly they hold up well and Bella likes carrying them around.  Although I don't think I'll let her have my random stash... a lot of these were given to me by my Uncle Steve, so they have a special place in my heart.

I have the regular and teenie beanie baby - that's gotta be worth something right?

I also found where I kept all my baby teeth (in this creepy cat dish no less)... I ended up finding quite a few more at the bottom of the bin where they had fallen out of creepy cat dish.

Wasn't the tooth fairy suppose to keep these?

Either way I got all the boxes condensed, organized and put back into the storage closet in a way that made sense.  Now here's where I show you the after picture!  But I totally forgot to take one, so you'll just have to believe me.  It felt really good to get that done! 

While I was finishing that up - Dan came back home and had brought BBQ supplies with him.  Caleb also came over and we spent a lot of time outside.  It was so nice to sit in the sun and just relax.  It was one of those days where sitting in the sun feels good but the shade is too cold... we won't have very many of those left, but it was nice to enjoy while we could.

Dan made chicken and shrimp kabobs.  He marinated the meat in a jerk seasoning first and then added them to sticks with pineapple.  It was SO DELICIOUS!  The grilled pineapple was so yummy.  I'm really lucky to have a boyfriend who can grill well!

Dan and Caleb also made some veggies in a pan on the grill (with olive oil and seasoning), jalapeno dogs (I bought some earlier in the week and since the grill was going might as well throw them on there) and the boys also made some steaks.

After we ate we went over to Lou and Amanda's house to hang out with them for awhile.  I'm really liking how often we see them - it's really nice living so close.  They had a fire going so we sat around the fire and chatted for a bit.  The best part of this time of year is the lack of bugs - I know they will be out soon and I'll not like outside as much, so enjoying it while I can.

We hung out there for a few hours and then went over to Dave's place.  He had recently bought a fire pit, so we hung out outside there for a couple of hours too.  I liked hanging out with some of them, but there were some girls there that were pretty annoying... but what can you do?  Once Dave ran out of wood to burn we headed back to our house and called it a night.

On Sunday we considered going to the Queeny Park Art Fair, but then decided not to.  I did what I had already planned on doing on Sunday - which was raking the leaves.  Before I started I thought it wouldn't be that big of a job... and I was wrong, there were WAY more leaves in the yard than I realized... and more dog poop because someone hadn't been cleaning up after them...

Either way, I got all the leaves raked up into piles and Dan headed to the hardware store to get yard waste bags and some over random stuff... It felt good to get all the leaves into piles and hopefully Daniel will pick them all up sometime the week.

The rest of the day was fairly leisurely... I made chili...

Overall I had a good weekend and thought it was productive which is good.  How was yours?

Chili #1

I'm going to admit a not so secret secret... I love chili. Seriously one of my favorite foods ever. To me, chili is not just a fall/winter food. I make chili all year round. I used to only make one particular kind (beef traditional) but as some of the recipes on this blog shows (here and here and at least one I never blogged about - white turkey chili) I've been venturing out of the chili box - and I'm excited to try even more... (and not just making them I order chili from places on a pretty routine basis.) But sometimes I just like a good bowl of the traditional stuff.

Lately I've been trying to vary up the recipe each time. The problem is I really haven't taken note of what I did differently and how it effected the taste. Which means I'm going to start chronicling it here. How exciting for me and probably boring to you :)

Here are some things I've figured out up to this point:

• I like lots of beans
• 2 cans of Rotel is too much
• I don't mind ground turkey instead of ground beef. Since the turkey is healthier I just always use it. Dan probably wishes I used beef but whatever the turkey is good enough. 
• Dan will not eat or even taste chili with ketchup in it. Not even worth it to try to put it in without thinking he'll notice. 

So with that said here's this recipe. Just gonna number the recipes, so this is Chili #1

1 can of chili beans (generic) undrained and fill up with 1/2 water and dumped in

1 can of light red kidney beans (generic) drained

1 can of black beans (generic) drained

1 small can of tomato sauce (generic)

1 can of Rotel Hot undrained

1 packet onion soup mix (generic)

1 packet chili powder seasoning (Brooks)

A couple of shakes of Cajun seasoning

A couple of shakes of cumin

A couple of shakes chili power

A few shakes of crushed red pepper

A few shakes of Worcester sauce

A few shakes of hot sauce (generic like Franks)

1lb of lean ground turkey breast,browned

Everything dumped in and left on low (turned to warm halfway through b/c my crockpot is like super crockpot) on the crockpot for like 6 hours at least (sure it's good to eat whenever but the longer you let it cook, the better it's going to be)
 

Notes:  I really liked it. I think the Worcester sauce made a difference. It needed to be a tad bit spicier though. Next time add fresh jalapeño maybe?  Or buy some cayenne pepper? Overall really tasty!!

My Birthday Recap

Yes... I have now officially been 30 for a whole week... and I survived!

I wanted to share all the amazing things that happened for my birthday.

It all started last Tuesday with a special dinner with my mom, sister and boyfriend.  We went to Quincy Street Bistro.  It was delicious.  Part of the reason we went to this place is when I was born my parents lived on a house on Quincy Street (in South City).  So of course my mom drove by the house and forced me out of the car to take a picture...

We drove around a bit more - looked at the Jenny tree - and then headed home for cake

My mom used her new stand mixer to make me this delicious lemon cake with homemade lemon butter cream icing and lemon curd filling - so yummy!!

On Wednesday I went to my final day of work for last week (took off on my birthday and normally off every Friday).  After work I went over to Michelle's house for our normal Survivor watch party.  She was so sweet and got me a birthday present - lip gloss/chapstick and Uganda Be Kidding Me by Chelsea Handler. 

She also got cupcakes from Jillys

Ugh - I just had this all typed out and deleted all my text from here down... grr stupid blogger...

Jilly's monthly cupcakes were Wonka themed for March.  I forgot the get the descriptions before they switched to may cupcakes - but the one on the left is the Veruca Salt and the one on the right I believe is the Willy Wonka.  The left one had peanut cake with caramel filling and the right one was funfetti cake with marshmallow filling.  They were both so good!  Although waaaay too much icing.  I'm not a huge butter cream icing fan, while it's good - there's too much.  I mean check out that picture below... the green and purple one had like two inches of icing - no thanks!

The Wonka one had an everlasting gobstopper on top which was just a gobstopper with nerds.

 

This brings us up to Thursday, my actual birthday.  I was treated to some lovely cards in the mail.  (not pictured the one Keith sent me since it came a couple days later)

I thought I'd throw this picture in too - it's one of the day I was born with my grandparents.  I was their first grandbaby.  And yes - I took a picture of a framed picture.
 

 

I was supposed to get my hair done, but that ended up not working out.  So instead I went to a couple of stores and bought a few things.  Then headed up to my dad's house.  My dad actually made birthday plans with me almost three months ago (so cute).  He got AMAZING tickets to the Blue's game.  First we went to Joe Bucks for food and then headed over to the game.  It was a fantastic game to go to as the Blues scored 5 and Oshie got a hat trick.  Since we were on the end with the net when people started throwing their hats  some didn't make it onto the ice and I ended up with a free hat!

Yes this was the actual view from our seats and sadly I didn't get my camera out fast enough to capture ALL the hats that were out there.

On Friday I started out by getting my hair done.  I was really ready for a change but I didn't want to cut everything off - so I decided color would be a better way to go.  I haven't had color in my hair in quite awhile.

Here's the before

And here's the after - much healthier and I've finally gotten used to looking in the mirror and seeing a different color :)
 

This picture was taken after Happy Hour and more drinking... so yeah... just throwing that out there

After hair I met up with Susan and we got our nails did.  It was quite the pampering day for me.  I got a manicure and pedicure.  I got pink glitter on each and I LOVE it!!
 

Taking good picture of your hands is tough

After our nails we went to Happy Hour at Patricks (formerly Pujols).  It's my happy hour place of choice.  Susan came along with Dan, Andy, Dave, his girlfriend, my dad and Janet.  It was a really fun time and I'm so happy so many people were able to join us.

Overall I had a wonderful birthday weekend - I'm so happy that so many people made it special for me.  Maybe being 30 won't be so bad... haha

15 thoughts about turing 30

Yes.. I'm turning the dreaded 3-0 in just one short day... and honestly I think I'm still in denial about it... it's like I know it's happening but I don't actually believe it to be happening...

So I thought I'd put together a list of thoughts I've been having before I turn 30  **Originally this was going to be 30 thoughts before turning 30... but I don't have 30 thoughts... when I was struggling to get just 15 I knew there was no way I was getting to 30... but hey 15 is half of 30 so that's good right?

1. While I know I'm only getting a year older it feels like so much more... the jump to 29 to 30 is like a big one.  And it's a stupid reflective age - like where did I see myself by the time I was 30... and let me tell you it's not quite lining up there my friends.
2. I'll just get this one out of the way real fast... a lot of my 'issues' I have is related to kids.  Yes, I want to have them, but now that I'm almost 30 it's like WHEN??  And that only gives me like 10 more baby making years... and what if I can't get pregnant and all those scary kinds of questions that are related to the kid issue.  I really don't want to talk too much about it because I already have with some people... but it's scary... yes there's plenty of time, but yeah, that thought is there...
3. My boss told me that turning 30 was way tougher than any other milestone birthday... so if that's the case it's all downhill from here, right??
4. Looking back my 20s have felt like a LOONG time... I mean I've come a long way in 10 years from a college student to owning a house and being all adult-like.  So hopefully my 30s feel loong too, because I can tell you I'm not ready for 40s yet.
5. I'm a homeowner by the time I'm 30 and I did it pretty much on my own - that's pretty awesome.
6. Is when you hit 30 when you actually really become an adult??  Because I don't think I'm ready to be a full, real adult yet.
7. I know a lot of stores say they card people who look under 30... that means I still hope I get carded for awhile at those type of places... I can't possibly look over 30 at this point... right??
8. I still have my whole life (again) plus some before I'm retirement eligible... how's that for depressing?
9. I'm happy I'm getting closer to 'older and wiser' than 'young and stupid'
10. Wrestlemania turns 30 this year too...
11. When you were younger it was like all the actors and actresses and sports dudes were older than me... and now we're getting to the point where they are younger than me (or around my age) how weird... although the Blues just signed a new guy who's 19... 19! He's just a kid!
12. I didn't used to understand why people would freak out about turning an age... I get it now... I totally get it.
13. I think I should have stopped getting zits by now... that's a teenage problem
14. When I was born a tree started to grow at my parent's house.  Somehow along the way it was deemed the 'Jenny Tree'.  When my parents moved from that house they dug up the tree and replanted it at my Grandparents' house.  My grandparents have since moved from there, but we drove past it last night.  And my goodness that tree is so much bigger.  As a kid it was a good climbing tree, but now those branches we used to climb up to are so high you couldn't climb that tree anymore... it was pretty amazing to see and think about.
15. Can I just turn 29 again?

Here's to the last day of my twenties!

Weekend in Review: Divergent and Anniversary

I had quite a full weekend! 

My mom recently bought some Groupon deals for a trolley tour around St. Louis, so my mom, me, Lindsey and Grandma took the tour.  The tour starts out at Lumiere Casino downtown and takes you to a lot of different sites around St. Louis.  While I knew a lot of things on the tour, he still managed to teach me a few things.  While it's not the greatest tour for those that know and love the Lou, it would be great for out-of-towners.  We enjoyed getting driven around the city and talking to each other.  The trolley driver was a crazy driver though... cutting people off several times, turning through a red light... that sort of thing, but he was nice and informative.

(I would insert pictures of the ride here, but someone hasn't posted them to FB which probably means they really aren't worth posting anyway)

After our trolley ride we got Grandma loaded up in the wheelchair and headed over to Old Spaghetti Factory in Laclede's Landing.  Now you know that Laclede's Landing isn't really meant for wheelchairs, but mom is pretty impressive and navigated with relative ease.  We had a lovely lunch at Spaghetti Factory and headed back home.

That night I met up with Susan and Lindsey to see Divergent!!  We saw it at the same theater we saw Catching Fire late last year.  We weren't in a theater with the reclining seats (boo), but it was still really nice.  The only weird thing that happened - we were sitting in our seats and sadly I bought them too late to all sit together - instead we had 2 seats on one side of the aisle and one on the other.  This dad and daughter came up and started looking at their tickets and our seats a bunch and then went back down the steps.  Soon a theater person came up and asked to see our tickets - and we showed them.  They seemed pretty confused but ended up leaving with the dad and daughter.  I guess they somehow double booked our seats (they have reserved seats there).  I'm not sure if they gave them their money back or something, but they ended up getting seated on the main level - so it all worked out, but kind of strange!

I thought the movie was pretty great.  I'd even say I liked it better than the Hunger Games.  I highly recommend seeing it AND reading the books!

On Saturday after Dan got up with did our now weekly trip to Home Depot.  Then we got some food and headed home.  I laid around for part of the day and then worked on a project I'll share in a minute.

On Saturday night Dan and I went out for our anniversary.  We've been together two years believe it or not!  We went to Sanctuaria in The Grove.  It was so very yummy!!  They are known for their cocktails (although their winter cocktails weren't that appealing to me).  I had White Sangria and a Margarita - both of them where great.  Dan had a scotch drink, a tequila drink (one of their winter ones that was actually good), and a beer.  For food we had

• Jalapeno Cornbread: delicious moist cornbread studded with jalapenos; served with honey butter and topped with pickled jalapenos - SO DELICIOUS!
• Chicken Skewers:  drizzled in cuba libre glaze; served with aji coconut dipping sauce - Very good, although we were surprised they didn't come out with actual skewers...
• Frita Sliders:  Traditional Cuban pork and chorizo sliders topped with monterey jack cheese and crispy yukon potatoes; served on a cuban sweet roll and garnished with chimichurri - These were excellent!  Dan was leery at first when I suggested them b/c of the chorizo, but this was the waitress' first suggestion to us, so happy we got them because it was my favorite
• Chips:  Assorted chips dusted with lime salt; served with bleu cheese dipping sauce - the chips were good, but I'm not a bleu cheese fan (Dan is)
• Beggars Purse:  Crispy phyllo dough filled with seasoned pork and monterey jack cheese; served with local tomato puree scented with chipotle. - I picked this and it was pretty good but by this time I was getting real full!

Finally for dessert we got their Havana Bread on a recommendation from a friend (Made in-house.  Spiced Caribbean cake baked in a vanilla custard topped with Meyer's dark rum raisin sauce).  It was like a bread pudding, however I'm usually not a bread pudding fan - this was excellent!  It is cooked in a mini cast iron dish (the cornbread is too) which gives the edges crisp... I was so full but kept eating.  Overall it was a delicious anniversary dinner and a fun way to celebrate.

Sunday we went and got some food at Steak n Shake (we ate out too much this weekend!) and then did grocery shopping together.  It went fast which isn't always the case when we both go.

The rest of Sunday we did our own things.  My project (which I worked on most of Saturday) included slowly but surely organizing our extra room in the basement.  I decided to buy something to organize my craft supplies.  After debating how I wanted to organized them (shelf, although bookcase) I decided I liked the idea of drawers best.  I ended up getting this set from Target.  It came pretty fast and I was able to put it together myself without any issues. 

I was weirdly excited about getting to organize my stuff.  Slowly put surely I got everything loaded into this little guy and it was just big enough.  Then I was able to go through a big box of stuff my mom brought over for me (free floss!).  Some things just did not fit into the drawers which is currently just sitting on top (an embroidery hoop, batting, my wreath project, that fell apart and a paper cutter.  I also had some books and a scrapbook paper book that I have sitting on on the board game shelf.

Looking much better!  Although if I get anymore craft stuff I'll need a second one

And since I was standing in the room I did a panoramic picture.  I know this is very useful to you, but at least now there's nothing sitting in the middle of the room...  Still a long ways to go as you can see...

I also took the time to organize my decorative items that haven't made it onto the walls yet.  All in time...

Stitch makes an appearance

It really felt good to get some things knocked out in this room.  While I was cleaning up this room Daniel was cleaning up the laundry room - so that's like two for the price of one or something.  Still need more shelves, but I'm not really sure what I want to do yet, so stay tuned... I think the next thing I'm going to tackle is the 'cat closet' where the cats stuff is but is also a storage closet... then maybe moving some of the stuff from this room to that room... we shall see.

That was my weekend - probably could have broken that into a couple of different posts - I forgot how many big things happened!

Blondies

It seems like every weekend involves a baking adventure for me.  Even last weekend did, although I didn't post about it.  I'm not even going to count the brownies I made last weekend because I didn't get a picture of them (that and messed up baking them...) If I want to cross it off my baking bucket list then I have to take a picture of it.  Simple enough but I failed with the brownies.

This weekend I was pondering if I wanted to make if anything (after all it's my birthday week this week which I know will involve some sweets plus I'm just not going to be home for dinner any night except tonight)  I debating going for brownies again so I could get the picture... but I just wasn't feeling great about that... I also debated making salted caramel (which I'm going to be adding to my list) so I could do some other recipes with it - but that stuff only stays good like 2 weeks and this wasn't the best two weeks for that... finally I decided that blondies seemed like a decent idea and I had all the ingredients in the house already so it was easy peasy.

I googled easy blondie recipes and decided to try this one, after all it says it's no fail :)

Now I have a problem... Sometimes I under cook things... actually this is one of those things Dan asks me jokingly about - is cooked all the way?  I made this same mistake with my brownies that blog world knows nothing about.  I didn't get these cooked all the way the first try.  I even did the toothpick test (on the brownies too) and toothpick clean... come to find out I've been using waxed toothpicks so DUH nothing would stick to them anyway.  I thought it was done and then Dan comes over and pretty much sticks his finger into the center to reveal that no, in fact it isn't done.  So yes, I may have mutilated the blondies in the pan a bit (notice no pictures of the pan) - but I did get them nice and cooked.

They are pretty tasty - I used some leftover peanut butter and chocolate chips from the brownies-that-do-not-exist.  The edges got pretty done too - but I like done edges so I'll take that as a win.

B/c one piece is never enough!

Yumm-O

Here's the recipe - from InspiredTaste.net - any comments in red.

 

No-Fail Blondies Recipe

 

Blondies are one of the most simplest, tastiest baked goods you can make. These blondies are perfectly dense with a paper-thin crinkly top and taste like deep, rich buttery caramel.

What You Need to Know: It’s best to use dark brown sugar for these. Light brown sugar will work fine, but the flavor will not be as rich. Feel free to customize this recipe to your liking — add chocolate, nuts, dried fruit or whatever else you adore. We’ve shared suggested amounts in the recipe below. - I only had light brown sugar - so I used that

 

Yield: 16 bars

 

You Will Need

• 1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
• 1 cup (230 g) lightly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, optional - did not use
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour (we use unbleached Gold Medal all-purpose flour)

Optional Extras (Add one or a combination to customize)

• 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips (white, milk, semi-sweet, dark, etc.) - As I said above this is what I added, but I did not measure how much I put in - I just dumped the rest of the bag - it was probably half a bag left
• 1/2 to 1 cup chopped and toasted nuts
• 1/2 to 1 cup chopped dried fruit or shredded/flaked coconut
• 1/4 cup liquor (bourbon, whisky, rum, etc.) Note: Increase flour by 1 tablespoon to accommodate
• 1/2 teaspoon favorings or extracts (coconut, mint, rum, raspberry, etc.)
• 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (177C). Butter or line an 8-inch by 8-inch (20 x 20 cm) baking pan with parchment paper.  Note to self - buy parchment paper...
2. In a medium bowl, stir melted butter and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in egg, vanilla, almond extract (optional) and the salt.  It's a one bowl recipe - love it!
3. Add flour and stir until incorporated then mix in any extras such as chocolate chips, nuts or dried fruit (amounts above).
4. Pour batter into baking dish and bake 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out relatively clean. Cool then cut into 16 squares.  Mine cooked for closer to 30-32 minutes

Read more: http://www.inspiredtaste.net/23801/no-fail-blondies-recipe/#ixzz2wulHJDQt

Weekend in Review: Saturday BBQ

Another weekend has come and gone.

Dan started to work second shift, so he's not home in the evenings - it's been quite the change.

Friday we did get to see each other a bit.  I decided to make a nice breakfast... mostly because I wanted it, but I thought Dan would appreciate it too.  I made bacon (in the oven, that's seriously the way to cook bacon!), eggs with cheese to make croissant sandwiches.  I made some hash browns and cut up a few strawberries - it was delicious!

The rest of the day was pretty much a ME day, it was nice because I had a sorta rough week and a lingering cold.  I rented Catching Fire from Redbox and made a spring wreath for the front door.  I was in the mood to make something.

Not the greatest picture, but whatevs

I did one of those yarn wrapped wreaths.  I had googled around for ideas and kind of combined a couple I had seen.  I went to the craft store and looked at flowers first.  I settled on these mini daffodils in orange and white.  Then I went back to the yarn and picked out a color.  I originally thought a light blue would look nice, but that just felt like a lot of colors going on with yellow/orange flowers, blue wreath and red door so I went with gray yarn.

It was pretty easy to do and took me about 1.5 hours to complete including gluing on the flowers.  I did burn myself pretty good once (sticking your finger in freshly hot glue will do that) it startled me and I screamed, but I was the only one home so at least I didn't scare anyone.  I'm not sure if I love it or not.  I think it's nice enough, but I'm not sure I love the flower area.  The flowers looked way more fake when I separated them from the plastic stem and I'm not sure if I should add more? Of if it's the right amount - thoughts??

On Saturday Dan and I did some running around.  First we ate at Waffle House.  I hadn't been there in quite awhile, but it's pretty delicious.  Then we went over to Shoe Carnival because Dan really needed some new shoes.  I took a look at their clearance rack and ended up getting a pair myself.  They are cute - white and silver in the Jesus sandal type.  They were only $14 seemed like a good enough deal to me.

After shoe shopping we went over to Home Depot where I followed Dan wander aimlessly around the store.  Do guys not know how to do things in order?  It's like walking from one end back to the other and back again....

We finally escaped that store and headed home.  Dan did some things while I cross-stitched.  At some point we decided to have a BBQ that night.  We invited a bunch of people over.  It was a lot of fun.  We made hamburgers and hot dogs.  We also made corn on the cob.  I made some brownies and Caleb helped me with the mac and cheese (It involved a roux and those things scare me... when it didn't look right after my try I threw it out and waited for Chef Caleb to come over and we did it together and by together I mean he did it while I stood next to him and got ingredients ready.  The mac and cheese was delicious!!  It's Pioneer Woman's recipe - I actually had my roux right, but just didn't trust myself enough.  Oh well - I will make this again!

We had a lot of people over - it ended up being Andy, Matt, Dave, Megan, Caleb, Liz, Ken, Amanda, Lou, Erin, Ashley, and me and Dan.  It was a lot of fun and such a nice night to spend out on our amazing deck.

On Sunday we mostly hung around the house.  We were suppose to go out for our anniversary, but decided to wait until next Saturday - which is way more appealing to me since I won't have to go to work the next day.

I can't wait for the weather to be nice all the time instead of that random little bit of snow we got on Sunday.