Oct 30, 2011

Oh I forgot… Happy Sweetest Day!

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So I realized I completely forgot to mention Sweetest Day.. So HAPPY SWEETEST DAY!

I started my Sweetest Day off hanging out with my bestest! Kara and I had purchased a groupon to get a mani-pedi! Those deals are always great- plus this one included shellac and I had been wanting to try it so we went for it! It was a great morning just hanging out and talking with each other and then ran some errands to get some crafts done for Kara’s wedding (post to follow this- it was AMAZING). We went to Hobby Lobby and got lunch together and just enjoyed each other before we headed back to my house for a sleepover =)

In top of our bestest sleepover, Peyton was coming over to spend the night so that was EXTRA special but before Peyton got here Kara and I walked into a little present sitting on the kitchen counter…

YAY TIM! He bought be a charm for my new Pandora bracelet that I got at Mark and Casey’s wedding that was a little silver heart. SOO CUTE and I was so surprised. Since we had just went to Verizon to get my i-phone I thought that was my present but turns out he had other presents in mind!

YAY for Sweetest Day!

My parent’s, who took Peyton out to lunch at Ken Stewart’s Lodge, dropped her off for a sleepover with the girls! She also had to find the birthday cupcake so that was her first task of the day! She was PUMPED when she found Halloween stickers inside the cupcake =)

We also did some taste testing on a new pumpkin martini recipe my mom got from Thyme Restaurant but don’t worry we didn’t have A LOT so we were still perfectly perfect babysitters!

Tasty Pumpkin Martini

On since it was Saturday we also had a massive cheat day complete with Menchies! But we the biggest cheat was the delicious burger  on an onion bun complete with bacon and avocado… literally was perfect.

Tim also tried this brand new banana, peanut butter goodness of a dessert!

Ummmm very peanut buttery and GREAT

After a night of watching Enchanted and having Peyton kick me out of bed we had bfast in the morning with the peanut before my sister came to pick her up! Then my mom and I headed out to the bridal show. Overall I would say it was a very HAPPY SWEETEST DAY!

Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, My family is the best · Tagged: , , , , , , ,
Aug 6, 2011

Weekend in Milwaukee

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This past weekend I made a trip to Milwaukee with Casey to finalize some wedding stuff! We left work just a little early to ensure we could made it to our flight on Friday night and took a straight flight to Milwaukee where we immediately started off on a journey to complete wedding projects! Step 1, head to The Harbor House where Casey and Mark will be having their rehearsal dinner. We didn’t eat while we were there so I can’t give you a review of my food but I can say that this venue is one of the most beautiful restaurants I have ever seen. It is located right on the water and has a ton of outdoor seating, plenty of indoor seating, a nice bar, and a great room in the back where we will be for the dinner in September. It also had a fresh seafood bar you could sit at that smelled wonderful- not like yucky and fishy, but great. The weather was pretty much perfect so it was great to walk around the premise and check out all of the views including an outdoor deck that had beautiful rocks leading out to the water. Across the street there was a fairly large wedding going on outside, under a beautiful tent, and I was jealous because it looked just perfect. I had no idea that Milwaukee was so beautiful or so fun for that matter! There was just a ton of stuff going on. SO while I didn’t eat I can say it is worth going there to see it if you are ever in Milwaukee and I can say that the Pinot Noir they served me was delicious. So go there for at least a drink.
We made our way back to Casey’s parents house where I got to meet her dog and see where she grew up! Who knew that Casey liked to collect spongebob stuff? Well, not me so I just laughed when I saw the ceramic spongebob she made. In the morning Casey and I woke up in enough time to eat some waffles her sister made us and got ready for her 2nd and final bridal shower. The bridal shower was so perfect. Her friends and family in the area were so much fun to be around and the shower food was great! It was a little before noon when we ate so they chose a perfect menu consisting of a quiche and fruit. I really enjoyed it along with the little sticky cinnamon buns that were on the table! After lunch Casey opened up her gifts where she found a lot of unique cool items from Lemon Tree, a store located in Milwaukee. She got a lot of really cool stuff so I may have to go over to her house and use some of her goodies soon!

Some of the bridesmaids at the shower

Casey with her mom

From the shower we went to Casey’s dress fitting. She just looked so pretty in that dress. I know they say that sometimes a bride will find the perfect dress and it will look like it was made for her body and I will tell you what, Casey did just that. This dress just looked perfect on her and she looked so happy in it. I was so glad I got to see it before hand because I probably would have been that friend crying and being annoying at the wedding because I would have been so overwhelmed. Now, I am at least prepared that she will look perfect. After the dress fitting we stopped at the house to change and then headed out to LuLuLemon, or so we thought but turned out they were closed. So instead we showed up a little early to our reservation at a restaurant called Graffiti. We sat outside so that we could enjoy what was left of summer and the perfect weather and pretty much sat their in sweat but it was still great. We got some shrimp and brushetta appetizers and them most of chose a pizza for dinner. Casey and I split the pepperoni pizza and were thrilled with the results! It was this really thin crust and the ratio between cheese and pepperoni were right on. I am not a huge fan of a lot of sauce so this pizza was made for me. I shared my pallet with 2 glass of this 3 lime drink that had vodka, limes, and something else in it. Either way it was delicious and I need to find that recipe online! When I do I will let you know =)
After dinner we dropped Mark’s mom and sister off at the hotel and headed home for another night of good sleep! Before we went to bed we all sat outside and started talking weddings. Casey’s mom was taking her wedding dress to the flower lady tomorrow in hopes that she could use some of the lace on the flowers. Well I had the grand idea to have Reece try it on! Everyone was pretty scared to open this thing because it kind of looks like that scary wedding dress from Beattlejuice and well the way it was packaged was like there was an invisible dead person inside. Everyone refused to cup the box open… well every one except me of course. (Sorry Tim, this may have brought on bad wedding luck!) So Casey’s mom tried this thing on and it was so pretty and elegant! We even managed to get her dog, Bailey, to try on the veil.

Bailey with her veil on!

The next morning we headed out to the flower lady who was well… crazy. This lady looked like she should be on the show hoarders but only one that was geared toward hoarding flowers. Apparently she is the best of the best in Milwaukee she is just a little disorganized and crazy. She was pretty funny so even though I couldn’t find a place to sit or barely even stand I did enjoy myself there. After the flower lady we went straight to the Country Club, Tripoli, where Casey and Mark will have their reception.
GORGEOUS! The beautiful weather only made this club look even more perfect but the course was fantastic. I think her pictures are going to be some of the best I have ever seen. Casey drove myself and her sister around on a golf cart to give us a tour before we headed inside for lunch. For lunch I got a palm of hearts salad that had avocado in it and well I loved it. Casey let me snag a few French fries too and they were delic! I think this wedding is going to taste really good =)

Casey giving us a golf cart ride!

After lunch we stopped at the church which was also just perfect and finally met with someone from the hotel where we were have a brunch the day after the wedding. Needless to say this weekend was FILLED with wedding stuff and I think we were all drained and tired by Sunday night but it was so fun to be there with Casey and see her all excited for her big deal! I can’t believe 2 of my best friends are getting married in just a few months. Kara and Casey- lead the way my friends!
So my trip to Milwaukee was short but so very sweet. It was filled with friends and family that I can practically call my own. I am sooo excited to go back and report to you all on all of the food and fun we will have in September. I am hoping for the same perfect weather we just had because it really made it that much better.
Oh and yes you read all of that right. I found NO time to actually go for a run this weekend which was probably terrible but this weekend was about Casey and we got to do everything she wanted and needed to go (well except LuLu). Not that this is much different than other weekend but just for the record, I had high hopes for myself because I did pack my tennis shoes. They just ended up getting used as a door stop for Casey’s closet door that wouldn’t close rather than their intended purpose.
Filed Under: My family is the best, Wedding · Tagged: , , , , ,
Jul 25, 2011

So I guess your name is Tim now….

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Ever notice how fast the weekends go by yet the weekdays seem to drag on forever? That just really stinks doesn’t it? Well this weekend was jam packed with a lot of fun.

Before I tell you about the fun, yes I made it running Friday morning! We did the last day of this week’s interval

Warm Up 5 min
Run 5 min
Walk 1:50min

This run went really well this morning. Must have been that MaraNatha Chocolate Almond Butter that kept me going or the fact that it was FRIDAY and I only had 8 hours of work standing in my way. Tim and I must be working harder now during our runs because we aren’t able to talk very much during the running parts which means we fit everything in we can during the 1:50min walk we have!

Friday night we headed out to celebrate Mark’s birthday so we went to a restaurant called Whitey’s Booze n Burger. You can probably guess what we already ordered for dinner right? Burgers of course! I had never been to this place but most of the other dinner crew did. It is pretty well known for it’s pretty good burgers and cheap drinks but mostly because it had a sand volleyball court outside that you can just go and play. We didn’t end up playing volleyball because 1) it was kind of raining and crappy out and 2) there were this reeealy competitive guys that were playing the entire time we were outside. So since volleyball didn’t happen our 4 boys decided to play some cornhole and the girls sat around drank beer and hung out!

The fun atmosphere I would give a 8 out of 10 to because it was something different and fun. The guys that were playing looked like they went there all of the time so it was a little intimated to other people to want to play. The good I would give a 7.5ish. It was good but not the best burger I have ever had. I did opt to put mine on a bed of lettuce rather than a burger and they were very accommodating so that was very nice. The burgers are about 8-10 bucks and they don’t include fries or anything so just something else to consider about checking it out.

Saturday morning was a blur but we pretty much just prepared for our friends Rose and Adam to arrive! We spent most of the morning on the couch and just laying around. They got here in the afternoon and we all hung out and ate lunch together. For lunch I decided on a Morning Star veggie burger on a Sandwich Thin with tomato and avocado with Stacey’s Pita Chips on the side. Rose is just amazingly good to me and brought me some wedding goodies!

Magazines from Rose

She ADAM even brought Tim an engagement gift! Something I hope he finds very useful.

Tim's gift from Adam

After lunch we decided to go golfing, which ended badly because after 3 holes it started storming so we had to leave. It was kind of good timing because I was getting a little frustrated- okay a lot frustrated and didn’t even play the 3rd hole. So what this means is that I lasted 2 holes because I was just tired of being so bad at it. Haha- I have been trying but I have a very long way to go! After golf we headed home to make some dinner.

I found a new chicken recipe that sounded great so I thought I would try it. I followed it pretty much exactly except that my box of stovetop was a little bigger than the one specified so I added in some additional water as well. I thought this recipe was REALLY good.  There is a pretty good chance that I am biased because I happen to LOVE chicken and stovetop so the fact that I was able to combine the two made dinner that much better. Rose also made some roasted brussels sprouts in the oven, which I really enjoyed. She just topped them with olive oil and parmesan cheese. I also made some corn in case we needed some extra veggie and added a role on the side with the salad. Rose and I love green olives so we enjoy making salads together!

Dinner conversation turned out to be pretty hilarious. So Tim has this TERRIBLE habit of leaving a glass, yes a single glass, on the coffee table every single night. Well most nights. So every morning when I come down first I take this glass off of the coffee table and put it in the dishwasher. Conversation somehow turned to this glass and I got an earful about being to anal about cleaning up glasses. Haha. It was quite the conversation. I found out that my glass in the dishwasher obsession really bothers Tim! He seems to think that I just go crazy over these glasses lying around and I just think he is silly for leaving the one glass on the table at night. So word to the wise don’t put glasses in the dishwasher until you have asked your other half if they are finished with it! Ha.. see engaged life isn’t always perfect!

After dinner we sat around and talked and finally decided to play a game. No one else seemed to want to pick the game so I decided on Handbandz. This game is from 1991 and I think I must have taken it from my parents house. You play by putting a card in this band that goes on your forehead. You don’t know what is on the card you just know if it is a who, what, or where card. For 1 min you can ask yes or no questions to try to figure out what is on your card. This game is HARD even though I somehow guessed Lucy from I Love Lucy on the first one! Rose ended up in the lead when we decided we just weren’t into the game anymore.

Card on top of my head

However in the middle of this game Adam, who is just hilarious and truly does say the darnest things looked at Tim and said… “Tim or whoever you are now that everyone decided to change your name now that we are in our mid-twenties”. When I met Tim and most of the way through college most people called him Timmy still and then somehow after we graduated I started calling him Tim. It has caught on for most people so it was just so funny to hear Adam bring it up. As I type it I realize it is not that funny for all of you but it was really funny… just trust me! The night ended with a lot of laughing and Adam falling asleep on the couch… which is GREAT because usually I am the one sneaking up to bed hoping that no one notices I am the first to go to sleep!

Anniversary Breakfast for Rose and Adam

Tim and I woke up early to make an Anniversary breakfast for Rose and Adam! They have been married 1 year today so we wanted to do something a little special. We decided on cinnamon rolls, pancakes, and bacon and of course mimosas. It was a good thing we were able to use these candles for 2 anniversaries! I think they enjoyed their little surprise and we enjoyed their company until they had to head home for a full day of anniversary fun! Tim and I ran some errands and I got some dry shampoo (an update will be made when I try it) and then came home to try to do some wedding planning and to watch up on some TV. For now, we are thinking Mexico because it seems like a reasonably well-priced vacation for our guests! We have dinner with Tim’s grandparents tomorrow so we are going to see what they think about it! Their opinion is very important to us.

For dinner we made a quick batch of sloppy joes, which I put on a few pieces of lettuce along, side a rice dish and some corn. Tim’s went on a Sandwich Thin and he seemed to enjoy it!

My sloppy joe dinner

Tim's sloppy joe dinner

I am hoping this week flies by because I am headed off to Casey’s hometown this weekend for a bridal shower! New interval tomorrow… so wish me luck!

Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, Primary Menu · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,