Ketchup

So it's been awhile since I last posted... whoops! 

Here are some things that have been going on...

• My cousin, Amanda got married back in May.  It was a Friday night wedding and a lot of fun because all the people I'd normally hang out with (i.e. my cousins) were there.  So it was like hanging out with them with free alcohol - can't beat that.  We had a lot of fun.

My hair is a mess and you can blame Mr. Daniel for that...

• We celebrated mother's day what feels like a month ago.  It was a really nice day.  We had an early lunch at Blueberry Hill.  Then we checked out the 250 exhibit at the History Museum (totally recommend this exhibit - very cool to see and it's FREE!!).  Next we headed to Ted Drewes for custard.  It was a beautiful day spent with my amazing mom and awesome sister.

• The following weekend Lindsey, Susan and I went to see the Chippendales!!  I saw they were coming to town and always heard that it's a pretty fun thing to go and see... and it did not disappoint!!  We had a lot of fun!!  Afterwards Susan and I went to my cousin Dave's birthday party.  A very nice night!

• Later that same weekend Dan's nephew, Tanner, got baptised.  He was even a god father.  It was a very nice little ceremony followed by a delicious lunch.\
• 

  
• That started off a pretty busy week for me - Wednesday night was Survivor Finale for which I went to Michelle's place (as always).  I even made these cookies for the celebration.



•  The next night Susan and I took a painting class that was Wine and Canvas and took place at the Lakehouse on Creve Cour Lake.  It was a lot of fun and very relaxing!

 

• Next up was Memorial Day weekend which was pretty tame.  Dan and I bbqed and played washers together, which was nice, but not very exciting.
• This past weekend wasn't that exciting either.  I started working on my cross-stitch again (I needed a break, but it's getting pretty far along!!) and started watching Once Upon a Time on Netflix.
• I'm sure there are other things I'm missing that were good too... I however can't really think of them off hand... life has been good!!

Housewarming Party

This post will cover my weekend in review post for this week... mostly because my weekend (and the week proceeding it) was all I thought about and did things for.  I really wanted us to throw a party for our friends and family.  I wanted people to come, eat and have a good time... and I'd say that was pretty darn successful. 

As you do with lots of events that you plan months for (I'd known I wanted to have a big party for quite awhile since moving in, but finally set the date almost two months in advance).  I wanted as many people as could to come to planning ahead I felt was fairly important.

I did a fair amount of planning for the party including all the food.  Since Dan is an expert griller I let him handle the meat and I handled all the other food.  I debated in my head quite a bit about what to have - I could seriously make so many different dishes.  I was really worried we wouldn't have enough food, but we had SO MUCH food.  I guess it's better to have more than not enough.

Here are the things I decided to make including links to the recipes

• Macaroni and Cheese - I made double the recipe, but would have gotten by with just one batch
• Cheesy Party Potatoes - I made double this too... and this all did get eaten (and for the record I used the hash browns that are cut into little cubes, not the ones that are shredded... oh and since I decided last minute to make a double batch I only used sour cream meant for one batch, and used cream of celery soup instead of chicken for my vegetarians)... also this is not the exact recipe I used, but based on memory it's the closest
• Beans - I got two very large cans of beans,  and most of them did not get eaten.  I added BBQ sauce and brown sugar to them... only needed one can, maybe not at all
• Veggie Tray - I was going to actually all the veggies by hand, but went with a store bought one.  I'm glad I did because people didn't eat very healthy at the party if you know what I mean
• Fruit Salad - I tasked this one to my mom - she always does a good job!!
• Potato Salad - My step-mom wanted to bring something and I let her decide and she brought this, it was good and got eaten well
• Two bags of chips - it was the right amount
• Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting - Made out of a box.  I made two boxes which end up being approximately 40 cupcakes. I really should have only made one batch
• Sheet Cake and Donut Holes - my mom and grandma brought these too - the donut holes nearly all got eaten, and about half the cake.  It was very sweet of them to bring extras
• Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries - I found this recipe a long time ago and always wanted to make it but never did.  I decided since Strawberries are in season that now was the time.  I pretty much doubled the recipe.  They took a bit of time, but not as bad as I thought (especially now that I have a table I can sit at)  They were SO GOOD.  I will make them again, although I'd pipe the cheesecake in them a little differently b/c I didn't put it right into the bag.  These all got eaten fast and I had to save a few for some friends I knew were coming later in the day.
• Lemonade - I made a batch of lemonade to put in a dispenser (I also got about 4 2-liters of soda).  I don't think I put the right amount of powder in there though, but oh well
• Alcoholic Punch - I added more vodka than the recipe called for, it was good!
• Caramel Apple Dip - Susan made this, and this stuff is like crack good.  I'm so happy she made it for the party.

I think that's all the food except the meat which we had hot dogs, hamburgers, brats and pork steaks... see what I mean about all that food?

I prepared what I could (mac and cheese, potatoes, cupcakes) the day before so I wouldn't be running around too much the morning of... of course I still was but not nearly as bad.

Wow, that's a lot of information y'all probably don't need or want!

So the actual party... and I'm about to get gushy here folks... was amazing!!  I am overflowing with gratitude for the people who came and had a good time.  You never know who all will show up especially when a Facebook invite is involved, but we had such an amazing turn out.  I really REALLY wish I had taken pictures, but atlas I have like 3 - and one is a strawberry and the others are the fresh flowers I put around the house.  It was so fun to see our deck so full and people enjoying the beautiful weather.

I'm going to list the people that came, mostly so I can remember since the lack of pictures.  Dan's family came including his parents, sister Amanda, aunt Julie, aunt Michelle  (and her husband and one of her kids), his grandparents.  My family came including my dad and step mom, Grandpa, mom, Grandma, aunt Ruth, and aunt Pat.  My high school friends Amanda (and her husband) and Beth (including her adorable new son).  Friends - Kyle, Randy (Dan's friend), Andy (and Ashley a bit later), Dave (his girlfriend and her friends later in the night), Ben (and his girlfriend Sherelle), Michelle, Susan, Erin and Matt, John and Amanda (and da baby), Charlie, Caleb, and... I hope I'm not forgetting anyone because I would feel bad if I did. 

It was just such an absolutely perfect day.  It meant so much to me to have my friends and family surrounding me having a good time.  I couldn't ask for anything better.  I just love having so many people I care about and love around us together.  It was truly fantastic.

We stayed up pretty late and had a lot of cleaning up the next day - but all so worth it.  Can't say we'll have parties like this very often, but it left me with such a good feeling that I think we'll have to do it again... maybe with not as much food next time :)

Here are the totally lame pictures.  I shouldn't even post them, but I'm going to...

Added some flowers to a planter on our front porch

The strawberries - so amazing!  I really want to make them again like now

All the beer we had left - we're going to have to have another party to get this drank... plus look at the hot dogs we have left too

Fresh Flowers - I arranged them into a couple of little settings - tall shot glasses worked really well for this.  This one was next to the door bell

In the phone holder in the hallway

These flowers are still making me happy every time I go to the bathroom

Like I said, it was a wonderful day filled with family, friends and love.  Thank you everyone who reads this that made it and for those who didn't, you were missed!

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!

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.

Weekend in Review: First Part of February

I've managed to get behind again... here's what's been going on the past two weekends.

On Thursday, January 30th I took the afternoon off because I had to attend a wake.  My step-mom's mom (step-grandma if you want to get all technical) passed away.  She had been sick for awhile although that certainly doesn't make it any easier.  My brother came into town and so I was tasked to pick him up from the airport.  Since he was flying through Atlanta and the winter storm wreaked havoc down there his flight ended up being delayed a couple of hours.  Luckily I knew this information before I left the house so my waiting was in my cozy home instead of in the cell phone lot at Lambert.  Before all of that though, I decided to make some cookies to have at the funeral home to snack on.  I decided to make these again... and they turned out just as good as the first time.

Anyway I picked up my brother (finally) and headed up to the funeral home which was in BFE.  We stayed there until the end and headed back home.  It was super nice to have him in the car with me - made all the driving not nearly as bad.

On Friday we headed back up to the funeral home for the service.  Afterwards we had lunch together at a hotel in Westport Plaza.  It was nice and the food was good (especially the desserts).  We went back to my dad's house and hung out as a family for awhile.  Since not everyone could come in for Christmas it was the first time the whole family has been together in awhile (remember I'm the only kid still in town).  Keith and I stayed over there for awhile and then we headed back home.

That night Dan and I had dinner plans with Liz and Ken.  We went to 54 Street and it was a really nice time of connecting and talking.

I don't recall doing anything interesting on Saturday - I made some chili and some cookie bars - I suppose I'll post about that, but don't expect pictures.

On Sunday we went over to Zoa and Steven's house to watch the Super Bowl with Kyle.  It was fun, although we mostly talked and didn't pay too much attention to things.  Zoa made a taco bar which was delicious!  I brought the cookie bars from the previous day.

The following weekend - last weekend - On Thursday I just made dinner and watched TV.

On Friday we went to the bird store... I got to hold one of these adorable guys (yes, throwing the picture in so there's at least one picture in here)

We also tried a restaurant near our house.  Then the rest of the day I didn't do much of anything.  Dan went out with some friends and I enjoyed having a house to myself by eating Subway and watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies (crazy night haha)

On Saturday we stayed in most of the day, except a trip to the Container Store.  That night we went over and hung out with Kyle.  We got some Mexican food and hung out watching Netflix at his place.

Sunday I was productive in the morning - getting grocery shopping done.  Then I met up with my mom and we went to some thrift stores together.  I found one additional chair (up to 5 woohoo).  I also bought some brand new sheets (in the package still) from a thrift store for like $20/set.  I got an extra set for each bed since we only have the set on the beds... I thought it would be a good idea to have extra ones just in case something happens (namely an animal).

I finished Sunday by cooking dinner and watching TV.

Weekend in Review: Snow and Survivor

These weekends are going by pretty fast... can you believe there's only 2 more weekends in 2013... mind. blown.

These last few weekends have been pretty low key and this one was no exception.  I'll talk more about my Friday-day in another post (hopefully... I really want to take on a post about my mom's Christmas cookie baking problem... but I'm just not sure I will be able to... we shall see).

The bad news about Friday (and the 13th to boot) was that my car did not pass inspection.  I had this weird fear it wouldn't (I worry ok?) but I really didn't think there was any reason why it shouldn't pass... but it failed.  Turns out my car is leaking fuel from the top of the tank.  After I was annoyed and asked the mechanic office where I took it what was wrong and how it could be fixed the mechanic himself called me back to tell me he found information online that this might fall under a recall for my car.  He told me that I should probably investigate that before I put any money into determining and fixing the issue... so that's what I did.

I did remember that I got a letter back in March about a possible recall.  Basically they were fully recalling/fixing the problem in certain states... where it's hot and can cause the fuel tank to crack more easily.  In the other states they are fixing the problem if it comes up.  I called the dealership on Saturday and have an appointment for Thursday.  I'm hoping/praying that the issue is covered under the recall and I don't have to pay... You'd think a fuel leakage problem and a recall that involves fuel leakage would be covered - so I'm very hopeful.  The letter also explained things to look out for which include check engine soon light is on (mine isn't) and fuel smell in the car (never noticed that and no one else has mentioned it)... so I'm at least happy that there hasn't been any reason why I should have noticed this issue sooner... maybe happy isn't the right word, but yeah...  So stay tuned for the conclusion of this story.

That night Dan and I went to a concert of a band he knows at the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill.  It was nice... but I had a headache so that part wasn't as fun.  Nothing too interesting to report on this night.  It did start snowing a bunch, so that was fun to drive home in.  It was pretty to see the next day though.

On Saturday we did some random errands and including some online shopping.  I had a little helper...

Yep... Quina actually flew to me... and then sat on my shoulder for like 30 minutes.  She didn't even try biting my ear or anything... she just hung out up there... so that was nice.  I wouldn't say she likes me yet, but I'm calling it progress!

 

That night Dan made us dinner - we went to Schnucks so I was able to get a fancy cheddar onion bun.  Yum!  He also made bacon with brown sugar (so so good) and baked potatoes.  Nothing about this meal screams healthy... but whatever

On Sunday I didn't to a whole lot during the day - mostly cleaned and did laundry.  That night Susan and Michelle came over to watch the season finale of Survivor (I guess I owe you a post on that).  It was so much fun watching it in a group.  I ordered pizza and Susan brought over some amazing dips including Spinach Artichoke Dip and Caramel Apple Dip... so so good - I ate WAY too much!  I had a fun time hanging with the ladies though.  We are planning to get together for the premiere and finale again next season... and seems like Susan will be joining our Fantasy Survivor game!

Catching Fire

You may remember that I'm a fan of the Hunger Games trilogy.  It's great, if you haven't read it please do!!  I saw the first movie at a midnight showing with Rachel and Susan... and way back then we knew we wanted to do it again for Catching Fire.

A year and a half later Catching Fire was finally in the theaters.  We started making plans a few weeks ago... instead of Rachel (she moved to Des Moines) we subbed in Michelle.  First we picked a theater... and let me say this... the midnight release is dead folks.  Now it's the 8pm release, which just kind of loses it's cool factor a smidge.  We held out and found a 10:30pm showing at West Olive, which is now a fancy theater (more on that in a moment)

We met up around 7:30 (the plan was going to be 8:30, but we moved it up b/c we wanted to get our drink on) and went to Houlihans.  They do happy hour pricing pretty much the entire night - so it works out well.

They even do a mini trivia thing, which is fun and you don't have to pay for, so that worked out really well.  We drank some beers and chatted and ate food... it was the perfect girly night out.

We went over to the theater... and let me tell you I think it will be hard to see a movie any other way.  They had a bar - which would bring drinks directly to your seat.  We also ordered a fun dessert - s'mores pizza and some candy.  And let me tell you about the seat - ah-mazing!!  They have a foot rest and recline back... it's seriously awesome.

Oh... yeah... the movies :) It was great too.  I love seeing what I read come to the big screen and who doesn't love Jennifer Lawrence?

Overall it was a great night out with good friends - what more can you ask for??

Friends

There are times that I there is a good topic to talk about on here.  But at the same time they are topics that just can't be written about on here. 

What I mean is... They are things I would want to write out and put my feelings to words. But they are posts that could unleash a can of worms that it is simply not worth offending people. 

A lot of this revolves around my friends feelings. I crossed this bridge a lot when I wrote during the early stages of my divorce. People thought I was writing about them specifically. (Side note we all do this. For instance taking someone's Facebook status to be about them when in reality it's not that person at all. I know I'm guilty of this). It's just the nature of living in an Internet world I suppose. 

I have a lot of thoughts about growing up and the friendships I have. Sometimes I feel very discouraged... And I while I would love to pour my heart out to my blog citing specific examples... I just am not able to... I mean the last thing you would want to spilling your very sensitive feelings just to get them thrown back in your face. 

I think I like to over share about situations. If you are close to me you know I can babble on about a truly unimportant event just because I want to... Just like right now except I'm being more vague. 

So when it comes to social media how do you balance the need/want to share your feelings because it's your Facebook page or your blog while juggling the sensitivity of your friends/family?

Mostly these days I choose not to put it out there and mostly I think that's probably the best way to handle it. Then it can't get you into too much trouble. Although not everyone chooses to act that way... Which can be frustrating. 

This post's focus has shifted a bit for me haha... But while writing it I realize what I really want to talk about is just one of those things that is probably better if I don't write it...  

Here's what I want to say I guess... Sometimes it makes me sad that I don't have more close female friends. I feel like I'm a good friend, but I keep losing people in my life. After it happens time-after-time I start to wonder if it's me and not them, but looking at the specific examples they all make sense and doesn't point the finger directly at me (not saying it's the other person's fault either). So... It just gets discouraging at times, but at the same time I have to stand up and say I won't be treated this way. 

In the end it's just how time works and how friendships go... I know that. At some point in the future it may swing back the other way... And it probably will! 

I love my friends and so grateful to have them in my life. Nothing recently really spurred this post just thinking about things... I guess that's all

PS I wrote this entire post from my phone so if there are spelling or grammatical errors that's why. 

Weekend in Review: Tattoos, Happy Hour and Football

The title pretty much says it all, haha...

Friday morning before I met Lindsey for the tattoos I actually met my dad at Bread Company for breakfast.  He had taken the day off to play in a poker tournament... and since the casino was down in my area we decided to meet for breakfast.

After that I met up with Lindsey and we went to get tattoos.  Honestly I wasn't sure how long the whole thing would take, but I was expecting to be at the tattoo place MUCH longer than we were.  We got out of there in about an hour... (which means someone got a free hour on my meter haha)

I dropped her back off at home and I headed home and ended up taking a nap.  Being all anxious will make a person quite tired! Then I got up and got ready to head out again.

I met Susan for happy hour at Patricks, our happy hour of choice.  The place was like empty... sad for them, but they have great prices and the atmosphere (other than being empty) is nice - good pictures on the walls, nice tables and chairs, etc.

We had a great time chatting and catching up and I know that Susan enjoyed being baby free for a couple of hours.  We ended up getting FroYo afterwards - I had a great time hanging out.

I headed back home.  Dan was over at my cousin's house hanging out, and it sounded kind of lame, so I decided to rent a movie from Redbox - Pitch Perfect - since I had heard so many good things.  Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie, but I think it didn't live up the expectations that I had just because sometimes things don't when they've been built up in your mind.

Saturday was mostly just a lay-low kind of day.  We went to exciting places like the bank and the bird store.  We did a small barbecue at the house with Dan's friend Caleb... so that was nice and watched the Blues game.  I also baked bread and cookies.

Saturday to Sunday we got that whole extra hour of sleep thanks to Day Light Savings... which I love!!  Also was easy to get up earlish the next morning.

My dad had some extra tickets to the Ram's game so I asked my friend Michelle to come and we joined my dad.  We went down early to tailgate for awhile.  We had so much fun at the game - we got to see some touchdowns and drink some beers.  The Ram's sadly lost, but at least it was an exciting game!

Overall the weekend was pretty great!!

Weekend in Review: Melissa's Visit

This past weekend my college friend Melissa came into town... but before she got here I did a couple of things.

On Friday during the day Lindsey and I got lunch at our favorite Thai place - The King and I.  Then we went down and made an appointment to get tattoos in a couple of weeks.  I'll talk more about the whats and whys at a later time... but know this - I'm already nervous!

After that we went by Target because I needed to grab a couple of pillows for Melissa.  I have like one extra pillow in the house... so figured it was probably time to get something.  After that I went home and cleaned and baked my bread.

Melissa got to my house around 4 - she came in from Des Moines.  I actually went and visited her last year.  We mostly hung around Friday night and chatted and reconnected.  I forced her to watch the Cardinals win the NLCS to go onto the World Series (um, craziness!)

Saturday was our packed full STL day.  First we started off with breakfast at Benton Park Cafe.  Then we headed to the zoo.  It was a wonderful day to be there.  My amazing sister let me borrow her Zoo Friends ID so I could get free parking.  She also gave us some free tickets to the Sea Lion show.  It was nice to not have to worry about where to park!

The animals were all out and the weather was crispy, but not too cold.  We got to see a bunch of animals up close which was really fun!  A lot of the apes were out so I took and sent Lindsey a bunch of photos.

Mel took this pic - I remember his name is Robbie

Ok, not an ape picture - but I took it for Dan

We also went to see the sea lion show.  It was a lot of fun - wasn't too long but really neat seeing them up close doing fun things!

After the show we hit the gift shop and made Melissa a smashed penny we met my mom over at the Missouri Botanical Garden.  We wanted to go there since the rare Corpse Flower had bloomed.  This plant produces a flower rarely and without much warning.  Their flower also smells like a dead corpse rotting (which attracts bugs to pollinate them) They are very unpredictable... we've had a couple of them bloom here in St. Louis but for one reason or another we weren't able to get to see them (the blooming period doesn't last long).  Even with this one we saw, it was no longer smelly... which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing.  Either way we were happy to see this crazy plant - the size of the flower reminds me of something out of Jumangi!

Good pic to show size

The holes were cut on the light green part for pollination purposes

The yellow part collapsed earlier than "normal" however these plants really don't do anything "normal"

We hung around there for awhile to hear the botanist (I think) talk about the plant and then we checked out the rest of the Gardens.  I hadn't been in awhile so it was nice to see all the different things.  Although I will say I was starting to get tired of being on my feet :).

Climatron

Red water for the Cardinals

Japanese Garden

When we were done walking around the Garden we decided to get some lunch.  We tried 3 Monkey, but much like Mother's Day they had something going on so we ended up at City Diner.  Which tasted wonderful!

When we were done with food we said goodbye to my mom.  I drove Melissa around downtown to see things like the Arch, Busch Stadium and Union Station. 

Then we ended up going to the City Museum.  (side note: just realized their slogan is 'always building' how appropriate!)  I hadn't been here in quite a long time - so a lot had changed.  That place is so neat - it takes a really creative mind to come up with that stuff.  There's nooks and crannies of places to crawl, climb and explore.  Really though, I'm not sure how people don't get more hurt, but whatever... It's just so artsy.  You could go there every day and still find something new.  I'm not sure how to express just how amazing this place is!  Although I will say I don't want to crawl in some places b/c I don't like to feel like I'm going to get stuck, but it's still so much fun... and makes me wish I was younger, more nimble and more fearless.

Outdoor area

Mel in the ball pit - I got smacked in the face while in there... stupid teenagers

I thought this was funny - they have a whole museum of archetectual pieces that were salvaged

Mel on the iguana in the caves

We also went down a few slides including their 10 Story slide!  It was a lot of fun (except the walk up to that 10 story slide, that wasn't as fun haha)

We ended the night by coming back to my house and watching Something Borrowed on TV.

Sunday morning we got breakfast at Steak n Shake (she doesn't have them in Des Moines).  Then she headed back up... it was really great having her and hanging out... reminiscing about the old times.

The rest of Sunday I mostly cleaned and did laundry and relaxed my achy muscles.  I think next year I'll head up and visit her... maybe around fair time again :).

Weekend in Review: Surprisingly Full

This past weekend started a bit early for me...

I was sitting around work on Thursday hoping the afternoon would go quickly.  I was actually on a conference call and had another one scheduled later in the day when I got a text from my dad...

In case you don't know what the heck the 'game' is (have you been living under a rock??) That would be Game 1 of the NLDS Cardinals vs. Pirates.  After the conference call I went down and talked to my amazing boss and was out of work by 1:30.

I headed home, got Cardinal-fied up and headed down town to meet my dad.  Of course it was crazy downtown and parking was expensive... and I couldn't decide where to park to save my life (I ended up going with where I normally park even though it's further away).  I was headed to meet my parents.

Red Water in Keiner Plaza

We met by the Stan Musiel Statue and Janet even showed me the brick they bought for my Grandparents.  We've tried looking for it before, but there's just so many!! I would have taken a picture but in the excitement of all of this my phone battery didn't have much juice so I saved it for special occasions haha.

We had some pretty great seats in the outfield.

As you can see above we were in the left fiend right next to the Pirates bullpen.

Panoramic

The game was so much fun... my dad and I had quite a few beers... and best of all THEY WON!!  I was joking around that there's some benefits of being the only kid in town :)  We really had a great time together.  There's just nothing quite like post-season Cardinals baseball and I'm so grateful my parents invited me to come!

After the game we headed over to Flying Saucer. We got some food there... they have a pretty good selection of beers on tap, but honestly I had enough at the game that I just drank water.  Really I couldn't tell you how much fun I had.  It was a perfect night!!

On Friday I slept in a bit and then started my running around for the day.  I went to visit my good friend Susan and her brand new baby Logan.  I brought them Psghetti's and cookies and Pumpkin Beer (hey she can drink now!) and visited.  I held Logan for awhile and he's just so dang sweet and small.  It was nice to reconnect and see the baby.  Since she's on  maternity leave I imagine we might connect a lot on upcoming Fridays.

I headed back home and relaxed a bit more before I got ready and met my friend Beth for a drink.  I found out kind of last minute about a surprise party for a friend.  So we met up ahead of time at 54 Street for a drink (and to catch up!) and headed over to the party.  We thought we got there with enough time to make the actual surprise, but the birthday girl was early so we were kind of a secondary surprise haha.

The party was nice and I enjoyed catching up with my high school friends.  Each of our lives have taken such different directions but always nice to catch up.  I can't believe we are all turning 30... ugh!

On Saturday I made some Apple Pie Shots for a party later in the day and then relaxed.  It actually took a couple of trips to find the Everclear I needed for the shots.  Here's the quick recipe I used:
4 quarts Apple Juice
4 quarts Apple Cider (or whatever that normal size of juice is for these two)
Cinnamon sticks (I used all of them in the container and did not need that many... oh well it was spicy)
2 cups of sugar
1/2 quart-ish of Everclear (probably could have added more)

You boil everything but the Everclear together until the cinnamon sticks lose all their flavor and then add in the Everclear and refrigerate.  They were delicious and made the house smell nice.  I put the shots back in the containers for the juice.  It filled one up completely and the other one half way up.

We ended up watching This is the End and then taking naps.  Then we headed over to Abby's 5th birthday party.  The main part of the party was over, but we knew we'd be staying late so we arrived later.  It was fun... nothing too exciting or crazy...

On Sunday I met up with my mom.  We met for lunch first and then went to the craft store (I'll hopefully share what I'm working on soon) and the antique mall.  We also stopped by a couple of other second hand shops before we parted ways.  It was a real nice time hanging out with her, plus the antique mall is fun.  Seriously if you're looking for a free activity just walk around one of those places I guarantee you'll be entertained!

Sunday night ended with television and Chinese food.  All-in-all a full, but amazing weekend!!

Baby Blanket

The reason I haven't been reading as much this year is because I've been working on this...

That's a cross-stitch baby blanket.  Before my friend Susan got pregnant she asked me to make her one... but I really didn't think I would be able to get it finished.  I mean it took me over two years to complete the first one I did.  So when I first found out she was pregnant back in February I immediately ordered a new one to start on.  I didn't know at the time if she was having a boy or a girl, so I needed something that was gender neutral.  You'd think I had something for the alphabet considering both of the blankets I made were alphabet. (and you would be right).  This one is cute b/c the colors and it was less time consuming to complete b/c there's a lot of blocks of colors.

I can tell that I'm getting better at the cross-stitching thing in general.  Here are some things I did differently this time around with the blanket (which will probably be interesting to about zero people)

1. I was better about not working ahead with color - so often when I do cross-stitches I want to do all of the same color - so I end up counting where the stitches will be and then end up messing up a bit part which is just annoying.  This is more important on counted cross-stitches - but also necessary here too.
2. Even though the directions say to do all of one stitch first and then go back for the others - I didn't work that way.  Instead, I worked letter by letter completing each for all the stitches and then moving ahead.  That way when I got done I was actually done instead of having to go back and fill in all the other stitches.
3. I can just tell I've gotten better at the satin stitches (the fill ins like in the water above the whale and nose of the lion) - experience does come in handy.

Another thing I find interesting about this blanket is I've taken it on so many trips - it's actually been in 10 states!!

Ready to see some more pictures?!?

First letter completed

My progress after the trip to DC to visit my brother

I love the elephant blowing hearts

Not sure why there's a cat on the J...

You can see the satin stitch in the left hand bottom corner

I also just had to sign it.  I worked so hard on it and feels good to just add something to say hey I did this for you.  So I stitched in a signature on the bottom right hand corner of the blanket.  I love that I added a heart where the O would be in Love.

I'm so happy with how it turned out.  I gave it to Susan for her birthday.  She loved it which made me even more happy.  I really thought she would appreciate the hard work I put into it and she really really did.  That means a lot to me.  Maybe making baby blankets for close friends and family will be my thing. 

When I first started I wanted to get an idea of how long something like this would take me.  I just do it in front of the TV to keep my hands and mind busy but never really keep track of how much time I really spend.  I didn't end up keeping up with my time recording but I wish I had.  I should start doing it for my new project, but probably won't.

Onto my next project - another Christmas Stocking.  Don't count on it being done before Christmas though!