Friday, February 26, 2016

life lately

Not up to anything crazy lately. I'm working 6 out of the 8 next days, sooo looking forward to that. But after that, my family will be in town! So I am really looking forward to that. What I need to be doing is getting my act together about my online class. It's a research class and I just don't care right now. But I really need to be reading and summarizing articles so I can write my paper. Just cannot get motivated.
One kinda funny thing is I got a text of a recipe from my cousin's wife. My cousin has the same exact name as me and maiden name, and so occasionally she tries to send herself a text to remind her of something and she sends it to me. It was a recipe for a vegan shepard's pie, so I thought I'd try it!
Pretty good! I told her to please feel free to accidentally text me more delicious recipes :)
One little thing that makes me smile, this fat little chubbster eating at my bird feeder. This little guy has no tail, hence his name 'no tail' and I've been watching him a couple years now.
What a cutie. Eat up!
It's really cool watching birds and squirrels outside our window, we've had several large turkeys in the yard again, kinda cool, feel like I live in the country again.
Last night Doug and I rented Bridge of Spies from redbox, it was pretty good. Made me miss my paralegal job. Today we relax and do some errands and back to work tomorrow!

Monday, February 22, 2016

shower, food, and living room update

This weekend my friend had her baby shower. It was fun to celebrate this exciting event in her life and to help her get ready for her new baby. I got her some stuff off her registry and made her a couple things:
a little brown bear hat
baby bib
Cooking this week I tried a new dish.
Used the spiralizer again for zucchini noodles, and made breadcrumbs
The recipe I mostly followed, but didn't have cream so I made the sauce with tomato sauce and a jar of light alfredo sauce. It was really good. We had leftovers and it was really saucey so tonight I am going to have it again over gnocchi. Mmmmm.
I had also gotten these new spring towels
:)
So Doug and I had been talking awhile about getting a new couch. We were using the futon my parents gave us when we got married.
Here was the before. Perfectly adequate, and I actually liked the futon, altho Doug thought it was uncomfortable.
Our new couch from Art Van. It's ok, I can't believe how expensive furniture is. We went with the low end of the selection because we will probably only be in this house 4 more years or so. But even the lower end is still a lot of money.
And here it is with a new rug, swapped out lamps, and a little wall art. World map, classic.
And the opposite view into the den/bonus room/second living room, whatever that room is!!
Doug even said the other day, "I have to admit it's looking nicer around here", I'll take it!

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

my funny valentine

Doug and I had a very nice Valentine's day weekend.
The first half of Saturday we spent on a double date shooting with our friends Brad & Erin.
This is the one we'll probably buy
me & Erin
After the range we all went to Panera and had a late lunch and talked several hours, it was fun. Then Doug and I went home to pack for the surprise weekend he had planned.
my sweetie got me these roses, he started giving me one a day, but then I accidentally found his secret stash while organizing the closet so then he gave me the rest.
We get in the car and start heading towards Detroit, eventually I figured out we were going to a casino hotel. I had once mentioned to Doug I wanted to stay at a fancy hotel so he had booked us a night at the MGM Grand.
Except we get there and they can't find our reservation. So after some investigating we find out that Doug had somehow booked a night at the MGM Grand- Las Vegas. Whoops! The concierge swapped out our reservation and we headed up to our room.
There was a "fireplace" on the tv, fancy Sanders chocolates on the bed, and jazzy music coming from the bathroom. Fancy
Doug had packed some goodies for the evening
We went down and ate dinner at one of the restaurants.
The next morning we slept in and then went out for breakfast. We found this gem Rose's Fine Food and I ordered the "Babe Squad Breakfast" which was wonderful. 2 fried eggs, garlic sauteed greens, housemade beans, and toast with goat cheese and honey. Doug had pancakes with bacon crumbled in the batter.
Doug said he'd take my picture and he gave my camera back with like 20 pics of me chewing, haha
After breakfast we headed back home. We made a stop on the way looking for a new rug, unsuccessful, and then relaxed at home. Later in the evening I made Doug a "heart" shaped pizza.
Yeahhh.... it's no night in a fancy hotel, but he liked it. I gave him a Groupon I found for a flight lesson, and I can come with! So looking forward to that adventure in the spring/summer. For a brief period Doug was considering being a pilot and had some flight lessons, so I thought it would be fun to go again for a bit.

Friday, February 12, 2016

making stuff

Was in a bit of a mood to get back on track with making healthy meals last week.
I bought one of those veggie spiralizer things and made some zucchini noodles
sauteed with some olive oil, salt and pepper and garlic powder. It really shrinks down, that was one zucchini, enough for dinner for 2 but no leftovers.
Made a tomato lentil sauce from the oh she glows cookbook to go on top
it was good
That same night I baked lemon chia seed muffins for work snacks and made that delicious toasted coconut almond granola. Doug's been eating it like crazy even tho he "hates nuts".
I've also been working on our 'family yearbook' for 2015 and finally finished it and ordered it. So excited! A nice neat way to keep track of our life together.
And I made another bib, this one for my cousin who's baby shower is on my work weekend (of course). I think it's a fun print because it's so cute, and she actually used to have a pet hedgehog!
This morning Doug and I slept in, I made breakfast
turkey bacon, eggs with gouda, and roasted potatoes, mmmm
A guy came to check the furnace (a - ok), talked to my brother while walking on treadmill, went to work for 1/2 hour to learn about strokes, and now back at home and about to work again on our bedroom trim. Wish us luck!

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Jill got married

Friday I rode down to Detroit with another bridesmaid Kim, the girls got dressed up and went to Andiamos for happy hour to do a little bachelorette party. Then back to her hotel room for popcorn and girl time.
Me & Jill's sisters. Sadly preggo Kim was feeling bad so she went to her room.
Jill's friend Erin from Canada treated Jill to a pedicure
the bride!
The next morning we woke up early for breakfast and then went downstairs to the salon for hair and makeup.
They had some kind of screen on the window, but the sunrise over the Detroit river was beautiful
curls!
Kim getting made up
Jill coiffed and ready for make up
Jamie getting her hair done
Next we went up to the very top to the Coach Insignia for the rehearsal and rehearsal lunch. One thing that was nice was everything was all inside. The only time we ever went out of the building was for a brief, freezing, windy very-short photo op.
The view from the Coach Insignia. So pretty! We did the rehearsal, had catered Mudgies for lunch, then went back to our hotel room to get ready
me & Kim
Jill was getting her 'getting ready' shots
ready to get married!
Jill and Damon were doing that 'first look' with their photographer around Detroit so the bridesmaids hung out and watched HGTV a bit, then we all headed back up to Coach Insignia for the ceremony.
I was imagining something different at first for Jill's dress but she really looked amazing
Jill's grandma holding the flower girl
lots of shots of Jill's rear, but hey, that looked pretty good too! ;)
her nephew was a 'Thomas the train' bearer
husband and wife!
They also did this cool idea of calling up different groups of people for pictures with them, and then that group would be dismissed over to the cocktail hour
The cocktail hour was sad for Anne, I am particular in my alcohol tastes and pretty much only like peach schnapps with cranberry, or coconut rum and cranberry. Most people would think it was cool they only had alcohol from Michigan, but that meant no peach schnapps or coconut rum. So I had some drink made with vodka from Ferndale, and only a sip because I didn't like it. Also there was only fancy cheeses and odd looking things with no labels, and I'm a regular taste buds kind of person, so just had a couple raspberries and cracker or two until dinner.
For dinner both Doug and I chose the chicken and risotto. The risotto was amazing, and it came with Brussel sprouts. The only thing I wish was different was that there were more sprouts! There was just a small pile of mostly the outer leaves. But otherwise everything was good.
No dancing, so we ate and talked with friends and had a good time.
me & Dougie
me and Emily
the prayer group girls!
We left around 10 because I had to work Sunday. Now Jill is off enjoying a wonderful Cancun honeymoon. Congratulations Jill and Damon!