Do Dah Day

Yikes! Sorry it's been OVER A WEEK since my last blog update! We've been slightly busy. This weekend we got to slow down for a bit and take Bailey out to enjoy her 2nd Do Dah Day. We had a good time and Bailey had a blast playing with all of her friends!! We got there early enough to watch the parade. We saw an 8 year old tortoise, named Franklin, who weighs 65 pounds and can live to be as old as 80 years old! And apparently Bailey doesn't like brown horses. She never barks, like ever, and when she does it is usually just one "bark." Well, she was hanging out, watching the parade, ready to pounce on the next treat that someone threw to her, when all of the sudden she started going crazy and would not stop barking at this big horse! She finally calmed down, but I've never seen her like that before. Maybe she had a bad experience with horses before she came to live with us? Who knows. Enjoy the pics. I promise to update more often!

Franklin the Tortoise

Bailey's enemy

Jack and Bailey

Bailey's not so sure about Briar

Taking a break in the shade

Me & Paige

Remmy & Wynn

This little puppy kept trying to climb on Bailey! He was so cute but Bailey wanted nothing to do with him!

Casper and his new lady friend

3rd Annual Destin Trip

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. We just got home from our 3rd Annual trip to Destin, FL. It was wonderful, everything a vacation should be. And it was much needed! I wasn't sure if we would be able to enjoy the beach or not because of the BP oil spill, and it didn't help that this was the front page of the paper the day before we left. We drove down Thursday afternoon/evening and sat on the balcony overlooking the ocean just taking it all in. Friday we slept in, cooked our own breakfast, and hit the beach for a day of relaxation. The weather was perfect and there was plenty of entertainment....from the college kids playing buzz ball to the little kid behind us who let his family bury him up to his neck in the sand and then tried to wiggle his way out! I enjoyed my beach beverage of choice (Corona) and Tom enjoyed some of the hoppiest (barf-i-est) beer we've ever had! (Hopslam - his favorite - and Hopsickle on draft from Dee's). Then we spent the evening on the balcony just enjoying being on vacation and watching a couple get married. I toasted them but I don't think they saw me :) Saturday was partly cloudy and the water was a little cooler but it was still a perfect day to spend at the beach. I finally finished (read) a book that I had borrowed from Stacy last August, so I'm sure she'll be happy to have that returned to her. Saturday evening we did a little shopping at the outlets and then enjoyed our own crableg dinner at home. Sunday we packed up and drove home to pick up our little one from her vacation.

Goal Update

Soooooooo I didn't do so hot in April with sticking to my goals. Work got pretty busy and then I tried to change my entire diet....long story. Anyways, here's the breakdown.

1. Complete an online Harvard Leadership course for work. Pass!! I only did one though.
2. Go to the gym before work every Tuesday and Thursday (Oy.) This would have to be a fail the way it is written. I did however make it to the gym several other days in the morning before work. Still impressive considering it's been probably close to a year since I've gone to the gym in the morning before work!
3. Not spend more than $50 for supplies for freezer cooking day (this includes chicken, which I need to buy A LOT of....hopefully it will go on sale soon!!!) I think I failed on this too. I was buying food when I was in the middle of changing my diet, and then I started having mental status changes (not really) so my judgement may have been clouded.
4. Take a break from all of my couponing. I'm not really sure what this will entail but Tom thinks I need to "give it a rest" for a little while. I actually kind of agree. Big fat fail. Instead I decided to start a frugal blog in the middle of my "couponing break."
5. File our taxes. Pass! Taxes were filed on time!
6. Keep doing back exercises at least 3x/week! We're going to say pass for this one. I don't know if I actually did them "3x/week" but I felt like I did them a lot.

Stay tuned for May goals!

Barons Game

Last night we went to the Birmingham Barons game with Tom's lab. Unfortunately, they lost to the Huntsville Stars, but we still had a good time. I really wish they were playing the Montgomery Biscuits instead, because, look at their mascot, it's a biscuit, with a piece of BUTTER as it's tongue!!! We had a little area off of the first base side complete with picnic tables, brats, and burgers. They even had fireworks after the game! Here is my favorite story from the night (and believe me, I heard A LOT of interesting stories...particularly about the fine delicacies like squirrel and racoon for Thanksgiving dinner).

Tom was wearing his Phillies World Series Champs shirt and went to go get some ice cream at one point. That's how he met his new little friend. The conversation goes as follows:

Philly Kid: Hey, are you really from Philly?
Tom: Yeah, are you?
Philly Kid: Yep.
Tom: What are you doing down here?
Philly Kid: Better neighborhood.
Tom: So what do you think about McNabb being traded to the Redskins?
Philly Kid: Good, I hate him, it's about time.
Tom: I dunno, you think Kolb is going to do much better?
Philly Kid: Who cares? Vick should be starting anyways.

Yep, the kiddo was definitely from Philly!

Weekend of Potatoes

Last weekend we ate a lot of potatoes. I bought an 8 pound bag at Aldi for $0.99, and I wanted to use them before they started growing the little spud things (they gross me out!) So here are some yummy recipes that we enjoyed, all featuring potatoes!

Herbed Potato Soup (A little bland, but a good base)
World's Best Potato Salad (Quite good)
Potato Pancakes (Very good, but the leftovers were too dry for my taste)
Roasted Cajun Potatoes (Yummmmmmmmmm, great dipped in ranch dressing!)

Fun weekend

Ahhh, what a fun (and much needed) relaxing weekend we had! Saturday was a rainy, windy, stormy day so we enjoyed it indoors by relaxing and watching the Blue-White game on tv. No trash cans were damaged during the viewing of this game :) Saturday night we went to Tom's friend Ben's surprise 30th Birthday party.
Ben was pretty surprised. The food was delicious and the cake was huge!

Ben decided to see if he could get some birds to answer his bird call/turkey call. No such luck.

He then decided to show our friend Doug's son how to shoot a gun. Good times were had by all.

Sunday the weather cleared up and we went to Magic City Art. It was soooo beautiful outside. We looked at some art but I didn't make any ill-advised purchases like I did several years ago. Bailey and I spent the rest of the afternoon going on a long run/walk. We just couldn't get enough of the beautiful weather!!

Blue White Game

I am so excited that the Blue White game is nationally televised!! It looks like it's rainy everywhere today! The last time we were at a Blue White game (2005...gasp!) it was raining too! I think we spent most of the afternoon tailgating and trying to stay dry under a tent, but we managed to make our way into the game to snap a pic!

Another Freezer Cooking Success!

We got a little bit of a late start but we still managed to make a ton of food! We got to everything except for the pesto/pasta/chicken/cheese casserole and Fiesta chicken marinade. Our freezers are now practically overstuffed! But that was kind of the point!! Here's a pic of our mess and our little helper, us, and us making Southwest Rollups!

Jamie's Wedding

Saturday night my friend Jamie from work got married! It was a really nice (short) ceremony and the reception was a lot of fun. They had a band, which was fun, but definitely not as fun as Velveeta! A lot of people from work were able to come so it was fun to see everyone all dressed up! They had a bagpiper at the ceremony as people were walking in and out. They also had a quesadilla bar and a potato bar at the reception! Here's a pic of us with our "potato martinis" and a group pic of some of the fabulous people I work with every day!

Sushi Night

Sushi Night was a success!! Kind of... We had waaaay too many ingredients and we tried to overstuff the first roll, but then we got it down! And it was sooo good! So, FYI, here is the amount of ingredients you need to make sushi for 2 people: 1 package of Sushi Seaweed, 1 avocado, 1 cucumber, 1 block of cream cheese, 1 cup (cooked) sushi rice, a small package of crab. And even that will be too much. We have so much leftover that we may be hosting a Sunday night Sushi dinner in the next week or so!!

Freezer Cooking Day # 2!!

Here is our menu/plan for our 2nd Freezer Cooking Day

Chicken Tortilla Casserole
Pioneer Woman's Pie Crust (for the Broccoli Quiche and the Chicken Pot Pie)
Broccoli Quiche
Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie
Southwest Rollups
BBQ Pork in the crock pot (for sandwiches and BBQ pork pizza)
Fiesta chicken marinade
Pesto, chicken, cheese, & pasta casserole (Made up in my head with leftover frozen pesto that needs to be used up)
Italian Spinach Pie (Payton's recipe)
Broccoli Casserole (Payton's recipe)

We've got quite the day planned! Wish us luck!

Sorry.....

......that my life has been so boring lately! I mean, what's the most exciting thing I blogged about recently? A strawberry smoothie??? Come on!! Fortunately (for me and for you) this weekend should be pretty fun!

Friday night Kelly and I are having Sushi Night. Yes, we're going to try and make our own sushi! I'll definitely keep you posted on how that goes. We tried to win a trip to visit the Pioneer Woman's ranch and learn from a pro, but sadly, we didn't win. Saturday night my friend Jamie (from work) is getting married...and a lot of people from work are going, so that should be a good time. And Sunday is going to be the Second Ever Freezer Cooking Day with my friend Payton. Stay tuned for plenty of updates!!

New Project

You may have noticed I've been kind of MIA lately, that's because I've been working on a fun new side project.......drumroll please..............A NEW BLOG!! A frugal blog, to be exact, full of tips and ideas on how to save money and make the most of what you have. I had been toying with the idea for a while now, and finally just decided to do it. I'm kicking off my new blog with 100 Frugal Tips in 100 Days! Be sure to check them out.

Now that I have an outlet to post about all of my awesome deals and finds, I won't be writing about them on this blog and the people that don't care if I spent $8 at Publix and saved $30 won't have to read about it! I'm planning a couple of series as well, including Couponing For Dummies, How to save money grocery shopping without using coupons, and How to get started paying down debt and saving more money.

Go check it out and let me know what you think! Suggestions for blog topics are more than welcome!

http://frugalmadefun.blogspot.com **Update 4/13: apparently frugalmadefun.blogPOT.com (without the "S" in blogSpot) is the 1st internet church. What a random typo to make. Sorry for any inconvenience...my blog is a frugal blog, not the World's First Internet Church!!**

Best Ever Strawberry Smoothie

Stop what you are doing right now and follow this recipe exactly. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

April Goals

April is Health Month! One of my friends from work and I decided we would try to be really healthy this month because 1) Bathing suit season is fast approaching 2) We're both in weddings in the next couple months 3) We are trying to get as many points as we can for the Virgin Healthy Miles program at work. So far I've been failing miserably at the "eating healthy" part of it. But weekends don't count, right? Right??? So before I list my April Goals, here is how I did in March.

1) Open a Roth IRA. PASS!! Woooooooo!
2) Increase our savings by 9.25% Pass!! Increased by 9.5%!! Although we won't be able to save much in April, due to paying for upcoming costs/events, but that's why I made it a goal in March.
3) Get back into the habit of doing my back exercises at least 3x/week. Pass? I haven't really been keeping track, but I've been pretty good about going to the gym and doing my exercises this month, I think. Except for when I was sick.
4) Get halfway to Level 3 of the Health Miles program at work Pass!! I'm 2/3 of the way to Level 3!!
5) Complete another course for this Harvard online leadership course that I'm taking at work. Big Fat Fail. Hopefully next month. I did complete this other online course that we needed to take though. Does that count?
6) Book our Destin trip for May Pass! CANNOT wait!!!
7) File our Taxes Fail. Although not entirely my fault!! It takes 2 peoples information to file married filing jointly!!!!!!!! Ahem!
8) Menu Plan for the whole month of March Pass!!! This was so awesome, required minimal planning, and made dinner sooooo easy. I'm definitely going to try and stick with this!!

Goals for April
1. Complete an online Harvard Leadership course for work.
2. Go to the gym before work every Tuesday and Thursday (Oy.)
3. Not spend more than $50 for supplies for freezer cooking day (this includes chicken, which I need to buy A LOT of....hopefully it will go on sale soon!!!)
4. Take a break from all of my couponing. I'm not really sure what this will entail but Tom thinks I need to "give it a rest" for a little while. I actually kind of agree.
5. File our taxes.
6. Keep doing back exercises at least 3x/week!

I'm so excited....

I'm so excited right now I can barely contain it!! Mostly, since Tuesday at least, I've just been so happy that I'm not sick anymore!! It's such a wonderful feeling and has truly re-energized me! Tom and I have so many fun and exciting things coming up in the next few months that I'm overflowing with anticipation!

This month Tom has his annual AACR Conference which is going to be a great networking and learning opportunity for him. He's not looking forward to the travel part, but pretty excited about the rest of it. While he's gone Bailey and I are going to make many trips to the dog park, attend a co-worker's wedding (just me, not Bailey), and have another Freezer Cooking Day with my friend Payton.

Next month we have our 3rd Annual Destin Trip which we CANNOT wait for! The condo is booked and it's the same one we stayed at last year....RIGHT on the beach, 18 stories up!! :) The following weekend we are making an impromptu getaway to Nashville because of an opportunity that we couldn't pass up! It will kind of be Tom's "30th Birthday Trip"/our FOUR YEAR anniversary trip since we will be somewhere else for our anniversary. Where will we be?

We'll be flying to Erie for Sarah and Pat's wedding the following month! Then right after I get back from that I'll be going to Boston for a few days (with some of my favorite coworkers ;) for PT Annual Conference 2010!! We'll be staying right downtown and the programming on pediatric hospital based PT should hopefully be amazing!!

I'll have a few weeks to recover from the Boston trip to prepare for my 30th Birthday!!! I'm going to take the day off from work (it's on a Friday) and I have quite the lineup planned up for me and Tom. Well, it's mostly for me but Tom gets to tag along and be my chauffeur and buddy for the day :)

Top 10 Things I'm Thankful for Even Though I'm Sick

10. Nyquil!!! SO glad that I've been able to sleep through the night for the past 3 nights!
9. Beautiful weather outside. I think relaxing in the fresh air has definitely helped me feel better.
8. That I worked my way up to being able to eat whatever I want.
7. My stockpile of magazines that has been building up because I've been too busy to read them the past few weeks.
6. Simultaneous back pain. While I am never "thankful" that my back is hurting, I'm glad that it decided to flare up when I'm already missing work because I'm sick so I can just rest.
5. That I did my weekly shopping trip to Publix on Wednesday, right before I started feeling bad. My goal for today was going to be to make it back out to Publix for a few more things but there's no way that's going to happen.
4. HGTV and The Real Housewives of NYC.
3. Bailey being (relatively) calm and completely house trained. Tom's been at work a lot so I've been Bailey's only option when she needs to go out. Luckily she only goes out 2x/day.
2. That I've had enough energy to shower every day. I have to gather my energy on the couch for a few hours first, but afterwards I feel much better.
1. Finally, I'm thankful that I don't feel like this all of the time!! Although I'm beginning to wonder when I'm going to start feeling better. Hopefully by tomorrow morning because I'm planning on going back to work!!

The search....

...for the little black dress is OVER!! Wooooooooooooooooo!! I found this perfect J. Crew dress that someone was selling on ebay last month. The only problem? She was selling it for about $30 more than I was willing to pay for it. Why not just order it brand new from J. Crew? Because they were selling it for about $90 more than I was willing to pay for it! So that dress came and went but fortunately I found another one about a week later and bid on it and won! A few other people were bidding on it too, so I knew if it didn't fit or if it wasn't what I was looking for that I would be able to turn around and sell it. It arrived after a hectic/stressful day at work so imagine my glee when I tried it on and it was perfect!!! Also, Tom and I bought our plane tickets for Sarah's wedding this week!! Can't wait to see these two get married!!!

Happy Spring and March MADness!

Happy First Day of Spring!! In true Alabama fashion, it's absolutely gorgeous here on the first day of Spring. Bailey and I enjoyed a nice walk in the sunshine and now I'm taking advantage of our balcony and my favorite recliner chair.

As for March MADness, I filled out a bracket and am playing with Tom's lab. Winner gets a 4 pack of high gravity beer from everyone else. I am 24 for 33 of the first round games. Not too shabby. I'm pretty MAD about Georgetown and Vandy blowing it but I picked a few other upsets that saved me a few points. I picked Kentucky to win it all, mainly because of someone I met recently who is from Kentucky. Completely not based on basketball at all :)

Baby Shower

Things I learned this weekend:
1) People who have babies give the best baby shower gifts (note to self - remember this for the future)
2) I'm actually not horrible at darts
3) I don't like games...wait, I already knew that (I really don't know what my problem is with games. I might need to get professional help for it someday)
4) The "other guy" in the Twilight series is actually a werewolf, not a normal person.

Saturday I went to my friend Ashley's baby shower at our friend Paige's house. Ashley and Tony got married last spring and are expecting their first baby, Noah, in May. Jack waited patiently for Bailey, but she never came :(
The shower was cute and Ashley is now well stocked with numerous baby supplies. There were multiple games played at the shower, of which I felt obligated to participate in a few. Kelly and Stacy played "Name the Song/Artist" fairly successfully. I passed on this one because I am TERRIBLE at "Name the music-related title/artist/genre/era/etc/etc/etc." Ashley threw back a few....but not in the sense that she is used to!! (another game....maybe this is why I don't like games? Because there is a chance that you may have to drink water out of a baby bottle??!!) After the shower we went over to our friend Tara's house to hang with the boys (who weren't invited to the shower). Shenanigans may or may not have ensued.

Chinchilla Death Wish aka Tom's Tuesday Night

Tom thought it would be "fun" to put Chimu on top of the cage and see what he would do. And yes, that's Bailey's HEAD inside of their cage!!

Currently

Excited about Destin trip!! Hosting my first coupon class!
Worried about where we'll move to when Tom is finished with grad school
Reading don't judge me......still reading On Becoming a Leader...I'm just not that much of a "reader"
Creating meals for the whole month of March
Loving weekends with nothing to do
Hating that we will miss The Drankas when they come to Bham
Wondering when I'm going to start feeling more energized
Craving a new couch
Hoping 1) work becomes less stressful/busy and 2) my back doesn't flare up after this year's beach trip
Watching on TV The Office reruns, My Name is Liz, Gossip Girl!
Listening to NOTHING BECAUSE LIVE 100.5 WENT OFF THE AIR :( :( :( :( :( :(
Looking forward to weekends, Destin, my birthday (yes, it's 4 months away and I already have it planned out. Hey, it's a BIG one!), and coffee on the balcony as it gets warmer!

I'm deficient....

Hmmmph. I'm deficient in iron and Vitamin D. So now I have to take prescription supplements. And did I mention I'm not even 30 yet??? I shouldn't have to take prescription supplements for at least another 30 years!!! I've always been anemic....well, since high school at least. I remember dragging on the basketball court and always being so tired. A teammate had suggested that I get my hematocrit tested, and sure enough, I was anemic and given some iron supplements to take. It was amazing what a difference it made! Within 2 weeks I could tell a huge difference, especially during basketball (and so could my coach and teammates).

Honestly, I've been really exhausted lately, but I just chalked it up to working really hard and being super busy. I guess I didn't really allow myself to realize how tired I actually was, I mean, all I do is go to work and hit up the gym a few times a week. It's not like I have a baby to take care of or like I'm training for a marathon!

As for the Vitamin D deficiency? Well, let's just say I'm sitting in the sun on my balcony writing this blog right now :) I know my diet isn't crammed full of fruits and vegetables and I probably don't drink as much milk as I should, but I still think I'm a fairly healthy person.

Here's hoping to feeling energized and rejuvinated in a few weeks when these supplements start to kick in!!

Updated Goals

Okay, I already accomplished TWO of my March Goals!! Awesome :) I have opened a Roth IRA (I know, there were probably some of you that were betting I'd never do it. Procrastination and I are good friends). AND I booked our Destin trip (unfortunately for the same weekend that Anne and Brian will be back from Wisconsin :( )

So after reading some friends' blogs and remembering/realizing some other things that should be goals this month, here are two more goals for March.

1) File Taxes
2) Menu Plan for the whole month of March, completely eating out of the freezer and pantry!

Number 2 was my neurotic goal that I wasn't sure if I was going to share or not. Thanks to Publix and my awesome couponing skills, we have quite the stockpile of food and general ingredients. Last weekend I sat down and planned our weeknight and weekend meals for the whole month. I honestly couldn't believe how easy it was!! I'm excited to get through a little bit of our stockpile, and so far I am LOVING the convenience and speed of already knowing what's for dinner when we get home after a long day of work and the gym! Also, I'm going to try to limit my grocery spending this month (except for the essentials...you know....milk, beer, etc) in hopes that this will help us achieve or surpass Goal Number 2!

Sickly Saturday.....

Saturday started off so well for me! I was able to sleep in a little bit and then enjoy my coffee before being productive. We stopped by the bank (deposit checks) and Good Will (got rid of the 7-8 BAGS of stuff/junk/clutter behind the bar) on the way to the dog park. Bailey got to play for a good 45 minutes with Tom while I ran a couple of errands.

On the way home my throat started hurting. I thought I would feel better after I had some lunch, but I ended up feeling worse. (It may have had something to do with one of my baby patients sneezing in my face Friday afternoon???)

Soon, Emergen-C, Cold Eeze zinc lozenges, Black tea, and tissues became my best friends. I was still able to be slightly productive (opening a Roth IRA - YES! I finally took the plunge - and finishing an online class for work). And of course, watching the Gold Medal game (or match?) of men's Curling. What a weird sport.

Luckily, by Sunday morning I felt back to normal. Other than the disappointing end to the hockey game, Sunday was a pretty good day! I thought of a few more goals for the month of March and started working toward them. I'm still deciding if I want to share them publicly and reveal how truly neurotic I can be :)

March Goals

I don't know if you've noticed but I kind of stopped doing monthly goals sometime at the end of last year. I have a few things I'd like to get accomplished in March so I decided to set a few goals for the month. Here they are:

1) Open a Roth IRA (FOR REAL THIS TIME)
2) Increase our savings by 9.25%
3) Get back into the habit of doing my back exercises 3-4x/week. I was doing really good until Januaryish.
4) Get halfway to level 3 (which will earn me $125...sweeeeeeet) of the Health Miles program at work.
5) Complete another course for this Harvard online leadership class I'm doing at work.
6) Book our Destin trip for May

Tune in at the end of the month to see how I did!

Pillows and Hockey

Here is a pic of my new throw pillows and mirror that I talked about here. I heart them.

Tom and I have been watching the Olympics, and I would have to say that hockey has been my favorite so far. The USA v. Canada game Sunday night was intense!! This is one time of the year (4 years?) that I wouldn't mind watching hockey with Penguins fans ;) Go USA!!

Hello my name is Anne....

...and I'm addicted to Publix. Seriously. I've been there 3 times in the past 5 days. They're having a really good sale right now...and I keep finding coupons...I've saved 67%.

This weekend was fun but busy. Saturday I went to a bridal shower for a friend from work who is getting married in April. Then I went over to another friend's house to help her learn how to use coupons and pair them with sales. We then went to Publix (trip #2 for me) and tried to work our magic. She was seriously overspending on some groceries so we had to have an Intervention. Hopefully she'll stick with it! I'm actually going to have a few people over from work in the next month or so to teach them how to use coupons and save money. That should be fun!

Sunday was a great day. I forgot to mention that the temperature BOTH days this weekend was in the mid 60's!! Bailey and I went for a loooooong walk with another friend from work and today I'm so sore. Going to the gym after work today probably wasn't the best idea. How on earth I ran a marathon a few years ago I have no idea. Seriously.

This week is going to be another ridiculously busy week at work. I'm looking forward to this weekend though. Mom and Dad are possibly coming to visit! If not I'm going to enjoy a quiet, relaxing weekend! Either way I'll be happy because this week will be over :)

Where will we end up?

So it's no secret that our time here in Alabama is coming to an end. We still don't know exactly when Tom is going to finish but we should have a better idea in the next several months. It's been so challenging for me not knowing where we will be living a year from now. I'm such a planner and I need to plan EVERYTHING, especially a big move with new jobs for both of us! Also, I'm failing miserably at my New Year's Resolution of not obsessing over where we'll be. Every time Tom mentions a lab that he may be interested in this is what I do:

1) Log onto Craig's List in that city and find us a place to live (1-2 bedroom, 2 bath, and a fenced in yard for Bailey)
2) Search the internet to find what jobs are available for pediatric physical therapy
3) Mapquest the distance from my parents and his parents
4) Count the number of people we already know living in the area


It's a vicious cycle. I've wasted countless hours planning our new lives only to hear about a new lab in a new city several weeks/months later. Since last April (Tom's AACR Conference), here is a list of the cities (in chronological order) that have been mentioned:

1) Memphis, TN
2) Washington DC
3) New York
4) Boston
5) Chicago
6) Frederick, MD

And yes, I found housing and jobs in all of them :) So I guess my obsessive-compulsive behavior may pay off when we actually do decide on where we'll be moving. Until then....I'll try to stay off of Craig's List.

Random List of Updates

Because, I love to make lists

• The Saints won the Superbowl! Old news, I know, but I haven't had time to really sit down and blog since before last Sunday! We watched the game at the house of one of the post-doc's in Tom's lab. Him and his wife are about 10 years older than us, have 2 kids, a dog, and drink a lot of beer. Tom and I always joke that they are us in 10 years. It's funny because when Doug told his wife that we were coming, she was like "I love Tom and Anne, they're so fun! Remember when we were that fun??" I hope we're still fun in 10 years :)

• Avocados were on sale last week, so I bought a bunch and figured I'd make some homemade guacamole. I had never made it before. Don't ever put extra virgin olive oil in your guacamole. Ever. Bad recipe!

• We finally got some SNOW!!! Almost 2 inches!!! I forgot how pretty it looks right after it snows and it's all undisturbed on the trees and the bushes. Bailey had fun sniffing the snow and trying to eat it. (This was the next morning, so it was already melting away)


• Happy Valentine's Day!! Tom and I celebrated with Pizza Hut, Verdi, and Fatso draft from Dee's. It was perfect. And he sent me pretty flowers at work on Friday. Awwwwwwwww ;)

• My friend Penny ran the Mercedes Marathon today. My other friend and I went to cheer her on! We even made signs!!


• Even though we are moving sometime in the next 6-12 months AND despite the fact that we're trying to save money like mad by June, I've had the strongest urge to redecorate. So today I went to Tuesday Morning and bought a mirror to hang above the couch and 2 super cute new throw pillows for the couch. The damage wasn't too bad (you know I got a good deal) and I think my urge is satisfied....for a little while at least. I'll post a pic after Tom hangs the mirror. Although I may get impatient and try to do it myself. The last time that happened our clock ended up being a teeny bit uncentered. Ooops :)

• I made gnocchi tonight. It was an easy recipe I got online. It made me reminiscent of the last time I had gnocchi....at gnocchi night with our friends. Sad.

Busy busy!!

The past week and a half has consisted of:

Work

Work

Work

Work

John Mayer Concert with the girls!!

Work

Work

Work

So back to the fun part......my awesome friend Paige (who ALWAYS wins things) won 2 sets of tickets to see John Mayer Tuesday night! So four of us girls went out to dinner and then enjoyed the concert :) It was a fabulous break to the monotony of my week!

My search for THE little black dress....

The little black STRAPLESS dress, to be exact. The little black, strapless, KNEE-LENGTH dress, to be more exact.

So, my kick-a** cousin Sarah is getting married this June. And she asked me to be in the wedding (SO EXCITED!) And her only request for bridesmaid dresses? Black and strapless. Easy, right? You would think, you'd also be wrong. It's only January and I've been to countless stores in search of the perfect strapless, knee-length black dress. I've found some strapless black dresses, but they come about 2 inches below my butt and are entirely inappropriate to be worn in public period, let alone to be worn in a wedding.

Last weekend alone I went to 4 different stores in search of the dress (TJ Maxx, Macy's, J. Crew, and Express). Instead, I came home with this dress, in a deep turquoise color (for only $20 including tax!!!) I actually have had my eye on it for a little over a year. But I digress......

Anyways, I actually do already own a black strapless, knee length dress. (Don't yell at me!) But it is just plain cotton and I was hoping I could find something a little nicer for Sarah's wedding. The search continues...........

Freezer Cooking Day Success!!

I now have 6 meals in our freezer and plenty of leftovers in the fridge! We were able to make all 5 meals in a little under 3 1/2 hours!! It was more prep work than I had bargained for, but well worth it. And the cooking goes soooooooo much faster when there are 2 people!! Especially when you're adding/mixing ingredients. We are going to try to make this a once a month occurrence. Except next time we decided we would have the husbands clean up in between each recipe while we take a wine break on the couch!

Prep work

Busy bees

The freezer...stuffed!

Enjoying wine after a busy afternoon of cooking!