Weekend Recap & Random Info

It was a pretty good weekend even though I had to call in to work periodically.  I didn't take any pictures, I need to get better at doing that.

Friday

Hubs and I went out for sushi and it was delicious.  I don't think that we've ever been out for sushi just the 2 of us but it was nice.  We got to get rolls that we both liked and finished them all!  After that we spent the evening home together and just caught up on some TV shows.  It was nice to just spend a quiet evening together just the 2 of us.

Saturday

We spent most of the day cleaning the house, working outside and doing little things (I had to call in to a conference call for work).  We made some chili in the crock-pot, for probably the last time this year. :-(  For dessert I made Rocky Road brownies and they were pretty good.  I made some modifications - doubled it, used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar for "cake-like" brownies, pecans instead of almonds and 1/2 of the chocolate chips were butterscotch chips instead of chocolate, yum!  We'll be adding these to the keepers list.

Sunday

We had some beautiful weather on Sunday and I went for a 5 mi walk on one of the trails around a local lake and it was beautiful out!  After the hubs got out of work we had softball practice.  Hubs has never played before and he did great.  I'm so happy he'll be playing on our team this season.

We had some birthday dinners to celebrate so we went to Brasa the Brazilian Steakhouse.  If you've never eaten at a Brazilian Steakhouse, it's an experience.  You're meat comes out on swords (anywhere from 10-12 different kinds/cuts) and you have a little stone (or coaster-like object) in front of you that is green on one side and red on the other.  If you want them to stop by you when they bring out new meats, then you have the green side up and if you don't then you put the red side up.  I would recommend not eating much for the day before you go!  There is also a cold/hot bar that goes along with your meats.  I enjoyed some of the cuts of meat better than others, but definitely ate too much.  The pineapple with cinnamon is my absolute favorite!  It was a bit pricier than we had all remembered but we were celebrating 2 birthdays so, I guess it equaled going out 2 different times.

Source

Random Info

• A new Stampin' Up order is coming in today, hopefully I'll be able to spend some time making some cards and card sets for gifts for people.  New supplies always make me excited!


• I finished my first 4 times through the first circuit of the 30 Day Shred and will be starting the second work out this week.


• I really really want spring to come and quickly!  The weather was a tease!


• We might be going skiing again in a few weeks!  We had so much fun at Snowshoe Mountain over Valentine's Day weekend.


• We got a Save-The-Date in the mail for a destination wedding next March!  I'm really pushing hard to go, it's just so far in advance to plan already, who knows what we'll be doing 1 year from now.


• I finished "The Last Song" last night.  I liked it, I didn't cry as much as I normally would because I had been reading it in small chunks.  It wasn't my favorite Nicholas Sparks book but I'm glad I finished it before the movie comes out.


• I'm swapping my books for March and April because someone is going to give me "The Help" instead of me going out and buying it.


• I added a picture to my sidebar listing what I'm reading now and I what I just finished reading.


• Hubs is out of town this weekend again, but that makes for a fun meal planning week (I'll explain more in my next post)


• We watched the Academy Awards last night briefly.  I don't usually watch them, but I enjoyed what I saw last night.
  
  
  
  • I thought Sandra Bullock looked fantastic (and I loved "The Blind Side")
  
  
  
  

Source

• 
  
  
  
  • I didn't recognize Cameron Diaz at first, but I thought she looked great as well
  
  
  
  

Source

• 
  
  
  
  • There are many others that I liked and disliked, but those are my favorites so far!  I have pretty simple fashion tastes so there were quite a few popular ones that weren't my favorites.
  
  
  
  

Have a great day!

Recipe Round-Up

(Source)

I like to think I can cook fairly well (though I'm better at baking than cooking I think).  Most of what I've learned and cooked in my repertoire is from my mom.  She's passed some great recipes on to me and I have some from my grandmother as well.  The only thing is, my family tends to eat fairly "simply".  Chicken was a staple at my house when I was a kid and because of that, we don't eat chicken as often at our house.  We try to spread it out and venture into new areas as often as possible.

My hubs is a good sport and tries everything I make.  He also likes to look for recipes and he'll even suggest them sometimes.  Once it's been tried at our house, and liked, it get's moved to the "approved" list.

(Source)

I use one of the Recipe Organizers from the Hallmark store (the binder type) thanks to my MIL last Christmas.  It works great for me and allows for plenty of expansion opportunities.

I've decided to add a page to the blog, that is a round up of all the recipes I have gathered from around the internet that I would like to try or have tried and loved them, etc.  You can check out this page for the listing so far.  I'll try to update it frequently.  If you have any suggestions for sites to visit for recipes or cookbooks to buy, let me know, I'm always interested in new suggestions.  If you've tried any of them and liked them, let me know as well.  When I try a few of the other recipes, I'll try to post pictures as well.

Also,  For those that visit the blog directly, sorry for all the changes, I'm trying to find a layout and background that I like.  I'll get there eventually!

Happy Cooking!

My own "My Boys"

Source

I went out to the bar (our version of Crowley's) last week for dinner and a drink and there were 7 of us, 6 "boys" and me. I feel like I'm living in my own Raleigh version of "My Boys".

Left to Right:  Mike, Kenny, Bobby, PJ, Andy, Brendan (Source)

It made me think, I have my own version of everyone.  Some are quite similar to the characters on tv too!

• Bobby (actually he was dating P.J. last season) - The hubs - loves baseball and has the "nice guys finish first" attitude (no hubs didn't call off a wedding prior to ours)


• Brendan - Brendan - no really, my friend's name is Brendan, dating or in a relationship - maybe, depends on the week, care free and always has interesting ventures to pursue


• Andy - Bryan - not my real brother - or married, but he's very much like him in with a 'stuck in the middle' mentality, as the oldest he can't decide to be the responsible adult or go out for a pitcher of beer


• Mike - Jason - a toss up really,  he's the perpetually single guy, who could be a hit with the ladies,  he would be a great catch


• Kenny & Stephanie -  Matt & Fav Roommate - They had an encounter and started seeing one another behind everyone's back (only I knew).  My friends are now getting married this fall, I'm waiting to hear about Kenny & Stephanie.  (They weren't out this Thursday evening in particular)

(I think TBS needs to update their character descriptions a little.)

There are still 2-3 more guys that hang out as well on a regular basis.  One just got engaged so that brings another girl into the mix, but she doesn't always come.  On a normal dinner outing, there are 5-6 boys and myself.  If we all went out we might be a little bit more balanced, but that only happens on rare occasions.

Here we are at the beach-house we rented in 2008, plus 2 extras.  (Big guy in the back moved to SLC and one girl (far right, floor) no longer hangs out with us)

Minus the couple on the far left, here's my own "My Boys" cast at our wedding last year (May 2009). (Taken By)

Sometimes I think I need to find some more girl friends or that these boys need to find some girls on the dating scene, but there are other times when it doesn't bother me that much.  Like PJ, I work in a male-dominated field and it can have it's pluses and minuses.  I usually take my share of the jokes, but have also been known to dish out a few without missing a beat.

Luckily we have a few other couple friends (the ones in the far left in the above photo) that we hang out with on other occasions, otherwise I might not be able to handle all the testosterone.  I would love a good girls night or couples night but I know that will come in time as we all grow up and make new friends.  Plus, I would only trade 1 or 2 of them in for a girl or another couple (kidding, kidding!).

Looks like "My Boys" is returning this fall, until then, I like my own version.  :-)

Jillian - 1, Me - 0

I consider myself an avid gym-goer.  I go to the gym anywhere from 4-7 days a week (average about 5-6).  I don't feel like I am completely out of shape, but I definitely could stand to shape up and lose a few.  My problem is that at the gym I usually stick to cardio workouts for 40-50 minutes and maybe 5-10 minutes of strength training.  Hubs and I get there at about 6:00AM so we don't have too much leeway in how long we're there, unless we get up earlier and that's not happening.  We used to get there more like 6:15 and I've already pushed us 15 minutes earlier (to a 5:30AM wake-up call) and that's pushing it (for both of us).  We don't go to the gym in the evening because it is just packed to the max then.  You can barely get a cardio machine or a mat or anything and it makes me have panic attacks, I swear.  We don't go to a fancy gym, $99/yr is a steal, so no classes or anything.  I can't justify our work gyms because we wouldn't be able to go together, crappy weekend hours and one of us would have to go home to let out Miss Maya.

All that said, the hubs thinks I need to get in some more weight/strength training and I'll see better results.  I agree but I have trouble doing it on my own, so I bit the bullet and bought Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred.



I'd heard about it while I was planning my wedding and reading Weddingbee (which I still read today!), but I didn't try it then.  My sister and I stopped at Target on Saturday and I bought the 30-Day Shred and she decided we should also get No More Trouble Zones for a mix-up in the workout.

Yesterday I did Level 1 and let me tell you, it kicked my butt.  I thought it was a great overall workout (though I may need to do some more abs on my own to see desired results).  I was sweating immediately and I do not sweat much when I workout indoors.  I think the biggest help with this is that someone is telling me what to do, I'm just not aimlessly walking around the gym figuring out which machine to do next.   It doesn't help that I did get in a pretty decent arm workout the day before at the gym, but wow am I hurting.  By last night I was so sore I could barely walk up the stairs  And this morning, we went to the gym and it was torture to get on that cardio machine!!

I'm planning to add this in to my workout every other day (with cardio most days as well) and hopefully I'll see some muscle toning.  I'm guessing after 10-12 days I'll try Level 2.  Maybe, sometime I'll work in the other DVD as well, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.  I'm really just hoping that I'm not the only one who visits the gym regularly (mostly cardio) and has experienced this.  I have a friend who's going to start P90x this week.  We'll see how he makes out and then maybe I'll give that a try too.

Jillian may have one this time, but I'm not giving up yet!!

BTW, I loved watching the Olympics but I'm glad they're over and we can get back to regular TV this week.  Jillian will be on The Biggest Loser tomorrow night, and I'm looking forward to watching it.  This is the first season I've watched so it's still interesting to me, but I wonder if the 'novelty' will wear off and I'll watch again next season?

Come on Spring!

Last weekend was a bit of a tease.  Saturday we reached the low 60's and Sunday we were in the mid-60's.  It was fantastic and I certainly took advantage of it, by taking Maya (the doggie) for a walk.  A tease is all it was though, the rest of the week was a mix of upper-40's to maybe 50.

I am so looking forward to spring.  I never thought that living in the 'south', I would be so cold.  This year has been unseasonably cold for NC!   Hailing from Upstate NY (like way up there, think Canada) and going to college in western NY, you'd think I'd be used to the cold weather.  After living down here for 3yrs, my tolerance to the cold is zero!  Going home during the winter is torture, I'm bundled up in sweaters and jackets all the time.  I'm so glad we moved here, it's 2hrs to the beach or 2hrs to the mountains and 2 months of winter a perfect combination.

I want to see days like this in my very near future:

I wanna pack up the car and head to the beach, enough of this cold!

(all photos by me)

Come on spring I know you can do it!  Ok, well if it's too early, maybe more sunshine for the next few weeks.  Please?!?!