Halloween

Mock - yeah

Ing - yeah

Bird - yeah

Yeah - yeah

The Halloween party we went to on Saturday was pretty fun. I brought witches fingers

and we hung out with some of Andrew's work friends, and played flip cup. I had never played before, and it was actually kind of fun. Besides the stress reminiscent of high-school gym class relays, it was more fun with beer I guess. I'm not a big drinker, my cup always had like 1/2 inch in it, but the new Bud Light Lime is actually pretty good I discovered!

Before the party we mostly spend the day prepping for the party after sleeping for 11 hours!!

Hubbs learned to use the sewing maching and hemmed his suit.

The most disturbing thing at the party was we met a lady, a neighbor of Andrew's work friend, who started telling us she met her husband when he was married to someone else and traveling here on business. She explained how they started talking, and went out for coffee, and 'that was it' she said. It was the oddest conversation. We both were awkwardly like 'um, great'. What do you say to someone who just told you she helped divide up someone's marriage? Of course in these situations I feel the guy is more at fault, he was the one actually breaking his marriage vows, but still, is this something that should be celebrated? We liked the people, but I just didn't know why she was so up front about something we did not ever need to know.

Anyway

Today Hubbs left for work dressed like this

Dopey the dwarf!

He and the other therapists are going to work today dressed as Snow White and the 7 dwarfs. So fun. They even watched part of the movie the other day to 'get into character'. He was singing 'Hi-Ho' as he marched around the apartment the other day. How fun, and how nice to bring a smile to his patient's faces.

Happy Halloween!

food, delicious food

So my healthy food blog girl is back in. Earlier this week we strayed from our usual making butternut squash soup from the butternut squash my mom gave me, and we roasted it instead, and made black bean and butternut squash burritos. You might wonder if we were skeptical, and yes, we were. First of all, squash in a burrito? And secondly, blog girl said this was her first time making burritos... ?! But well done blog girl, well done.

Delicious. We used regular cheddar cheese instead of her special cheese, but otherwise, pretty easy recipe. And delicious lunch leftovers.

I came home last night to another one of my all time favorites meals

I don't know why I love this so much, but I do. Pierogies, turkey kielbasa, and broccoli, all dusted with cayenne pepper. Yum.

And Hubbs tried the Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier, I thought it had a little too much beer - not enough blackberries, but Hubbs liked it

This weekend is shaping up to be a good one.

Tonight Red Wings game (eh) with friends (yay)

Saturday ....errands...relax... Halloween party

Sunday ... church... grandparents over for lunch... relax

Sounds perfect to me!

work it out

I feel like I've been the laziest slug lately. I used to be so good about exercising everyday. Although in my defense, this is my first time working full-time, but regardless, busy Anne = lazy exercise Anne.

The fact that it's now darker when it's time to get up isn't helping, want to stay in bed!

Anyway, the past couple days I've been forcing myself out of bed and doing one of my old videos. I'm liking it better this time around so far.

I'm still not crazy about her personality. And as someone who has a minor in exercise science, I was taught to give your muscles a day of rest - where this video has you do the same workout every day all week - that I don't agree with. So I do her video and alternate days 1, 2, and 3. So everyday a muscle is being worked, but just not the same exact muscle for 5 days straight.

Anyway, it is a pretty good workout. My shoulders are in pain right now. But it's good. A friend says she has another one by Ms. Micheals and I'm excited to do a video trade. I like the variety and the fact that I can try another video without spending $15 :)

everybody's working for the weekend...

Myself included.

This weekend was so nice. Friday night we had another couple over for an impromptu game night

We played Taboo, which is actually more hard than fun in my opinion, and then my favorite all-for-one pictionary. Yay!

Saturday we met up with other friends for lunch at a Vietnamese place my friend is always raving about. My dish was kind of strange. It was skinny white rice noodles, chicken, veggies like lettuce, carrots and cucumbers and a sweetish sauce- but it was cold. It was ok, I think I was expecting more like thai or chinese. Hubbs got the traditional 'pho' which was like a broth meat/noodle/veggie bowl that he really liked. We also got half of our halloween costume, exciting!

After that we went and got icecream and played Farkel at our favorite icecream place where they have both of our faves, me: eskimo kisses, hubbs: amaretto cherry

Next we stopped by Hubbs' parents for a quick visit, then went back to our apt and watched a blue box movie, Pelham 123, (ok). We wanted to see Bad Teacher, but they charge $3 for new movies apparently, so we didn't.

Movie snacks:

The forementioned homemade crackers (ok, so they are good with cheese) and a cranberry chocolate chip muffin.

ahhh...love....

Sunday we went to church, and then went up to my parents for lunch. It was nice, haven't seen them in awhile. We showed them our Peru pics and then showed my dad how to add/confirm friends on facebook. He was ruthlessly 'ignoring' people. It was funny. We all went on a walk together and then we went home. Hubbs had basketball and I had pumpkin donuts to make.

At first I thought they weren't that good. But that was pretty much because they had cooled down too much. I tried one more, microwaving it for a few seconds before dipping it in butter and cinnamon sugar

tasty!

Last night we watched the premier of 'Once Upon a Time' which I thought would be a different fairy tale in each episode, but it seems like a season long story. Which makes sense I guess, they want you to keep watching. It was ok, maybe worth another try.

baking

I've thought about writing this week, but everytime I go to my page I see that picture of Andrew and I just hated to replace it! There were professional photographers at the marathon and they finally put up their pictures on their website. You just enter the bib number and their pics will pop up. There was this one of Andrew crossing the finish line and just had the happiest look on his face. I didn't see that view since I was in front of the finish line. I wanted to buy the pic, I probably will, but I hesitated because they wanted $16 for one picture!! Yikes!

Anyway, last night after a long busy week I just wanted to relax and bake something. I had rejoiced at the return of cranberries to the stores, so I made a batch of chocolate-chip cranberry muffins. Something tasted different than last time, I think I cut the cranberries too small, but still good.

(and yes that's my favorite sweatshirt again under my apron)

I also had seen a recipe for crackers on a healthy girl's blog I like and I tried making them last night.

Hubbs was making me laugh as I had him take my picture, he kept telling me to 'work it'... 'that's right' as I was rolling the dough out. Haha

(p.s. Hubbs if you see your wife is growing a double chin maybe it's time to tell her to be laying off the baking!)

Anyway, the crackers just tasted dry (probably as a cracker should, but not in a good way). The blog girl was putting almond butter on hers, but they had garlic powder and herbs in them, I thought that would be weird, and we were out of cheese, so I did just have them plain.

I'm starting to doubt my blog girl. We love her mexican tortilla pie and crispy chickpea bites, but the other recipes have been pretty bad. One disaster was 'carrot cake' buckwheat groats. Ew. The other day I made a pumpkin gingerbread smoothie, also gross, and spices were SO strong. I guess Hubbs did really like her butternut squash mac and 'cheese'... but otherwise, I've been kind of disappointed. They are very healthy recipies though, so for the few gems I find, I think it's mostly worth a try!

Marathon Man

HE DID IT!!!! 26.2 miles in 3 hours, 28 minutes and 3 seconds. So great! I was so proud. It was really fun to see him at the start of the race, go to the checkpoints at the 9 and 13 mile markers and then to wait for him at the finish line. I was so excited, I couldn't believe his excellent time! Afterwards we went to Pizza Papalis with his parents and then home to rest where we surveyed the damage:

and

Ouch! You lay there babe, you deserve a break!

That was by far the highlight of the weekend. But other fun things were attending the love and respect seminar. Well, the conference wasn't that "fun" per se, but good info. Based on their book, which is awesome. Our friends Liz and Mark went with us and we went out to Chilis Friday night with them. 3 baskets of chips and salsa later... mmmmmm.

On Saturday after the conference and after cleaning my grandparent's house, Hubbs and I stopped by the cider mill where I got both cinnamon donuts and a caramel apple, yum! I love fall!

Hubbs enjoyed a Knockwurst

The cider mill even had a girl playing the bagpipes, which I really enjoyed, this kid didn't, but he must have picky music tastes because she was good

Hubbs and I had a windy trip down to Detroit the day before the marathon to pick up his race packet. It was fun doing that together with him and seeing how beautiful some parts of our city really are.

It was a great weekend and we are so thankful for friends, our marriage, good health and strong bodies :)

Costumes

Hubbs and I got invited to a Halloween party this year, so last night we were brainstorming ideas. We've only gone once to a costume party together and we went as a spider and fly

so I definitely like the idea going as a 'team'. His sister has raggedy Anne and Andy costumes, which could be a back-up, but Andrew doesn't want to because he doensn't want people to call him Andy!

Anyway, we had a few ideas last night:

Kermit and Miss Piggy

but not sure I want to look like these guys:

freaky four eyed frog guy (but pretty creative)

Then we thought of one of my favorite movies, Beauty and the Beast... and no, Andrew didn't suggest "Beauty" and "Beast" he said that we could be Lumiere and Cogsworth

guess who I'd get to be, and I'm 100% sure I don't want to look like this guy:

We have one more idea. So we're going to pay a visit to the Goodwill this weekend to see if it's possible, and if not, back to the drawing board!

Cheapskate, and pics update

Last night was book club. Before book club I stopped in at the Salvation Army, or Sally Alley as my mom says. I used to hate those places. My dad always wanted me to shop there in high school, but I always refused. And now I can’t get enough! There are still some things that I feel icky about: swimsuits, pjs, shoes (although I did get one pair that I thoroughly scrubbed) but mostly I am just impressed by all the great deals and that I can find stuff other than just the same old thing that’s in every store.

I did go to Kohl’s first, and got these great shoes for only $12.71

Otherwise mostly I walked around thinking that their prices were outrageous, $40 for a pair of Kohl’s no-brand jean?? I don’t think so.

At the Sally Alley I picked up these jeans and another top for work. $8.99, yes please.

Back to book club. My friend Liz hosted last night and treated us to a bunch of different new raw cuisines. She started her own business, and we feasted on homemade fruit salsas, guacamole, raw cream of tomato soup, tacos made with spiced walnuts, cashew ‘sour cream’, red peppers and greens, and a delicious array of desserts including chocolate mousse, pineapple upside-down cake, apples in caramel dip, and pumpkin pie. All raw and all yummy. We had read Bridget Jones’s Diary and it was a short fun read, but mostly we just love getting together. We realized we have been meeting for 3 years, been together through me getting married, 3 people having babies and getting pregnant again, and much more. Last night we spent a few minutes in prayer together too and it was awesome. I’m so thankful for girlfriends!

Last night I couldn’t sleep for a couple hours. So annoying! I kept thinking about work stuff and was telling myself, “Stop! You’ll be there in a few hours, worry about it then!”

A few pics from the weekend. I found this under the bed when I was cleaning, I forgot I had got some stuff for my husband’s graduation- but then he was being all weird about having a party so we didn’t. But I still hung this up for him the other day when I found it.

Hubbs and I finally cleaned the apartment last weekend, and I found my new best friend. Kaboom bathroom cleaner. Our shower walls went from black corners to this. Amazing!

(sorry for a gross bathroom pic, but if you would have seen the 'before', you would understand my amazedness)

And a nice touch to the weekend, Ghirardelli brownies, ala mode, mmmm.

Relaxing weekend, and not-so-good friends

This weekend was the kind of weekend that I’ve been dreaming about for awhile. The past several weekends have been so busy, or we’ve been out of town, but this one was a naps/reading/movies kind of weekend.

On Friday we met up at Friday’s with our friends Mark and Liz. Got dinner, hung out, laughed, it was fun. Saturday we ran some errands, cleaned our filthy apartment, napped, I read a lot of my book club book, did laundry, went for a walk, watched a movie. Sunday was church, grocery shopping, and then more movies, and more reading for me when Hubbs went to play basketball. It was really nice and relaxing. Although a small part of me, the part that likes to constantly be busy, is hoping we didn’t ‘squander’ the possibly last nice weekend of the year. It was really sunny and warm, and I did mention wanting to take a trip out to Belle Isle. We haven’t been there since our wedding! And I’d love to go back. But we stayed on the couch. It was good, Hubbs said I need to learn to relax, but sometimes that inner ‘carpe-diem’ just can’t be ignored.

The worse part about this weekend was when Hubbs called his bff to wish him a happy birthday, he found out that his friend’s fiancée and a bunch of the guys had planned a fun birthday trip for the friend. And none of them included Andrew in the planning, or even invited him. I could tell he was really hurt and I was pissed. This guy was one of Andrew’s best-men. And lately he hasn’t been much of a friend at all. I was so upset I wanted to call the fiancée and ask her why they exclude him. I just don’t get it. There have been other times where we’ve invited them over and they have some excuse, the best one is that they were going to the dollar theatre. Um, guess what guys, we like movies too- how about you invite us? Or how about you go tomorrow, it’s not like it’s going to be sold out. I feel like I am the type of person to alter plans so that we can see friends, and build relationships, and so I think it’s really hurtful when other people don’t seem to care that they never see their friends anymore. I don’t to risk embarrassing him by calling his friend, but I did encourage him to call him himself. And I might take that risk later if this keeps happening. He was so sad when he got off the phone, he was just crushed, and I had to see it. Anyway, I think some of the changes are too since Hubbs has grown in his faith, I think the ‘lifestyle’ differences also play a part in the not inviting him to hang out as much. But that too makes me mad, being a Christian doesn’t mean you aren’t still fun. So we prayed about it, and need to pray for that couple more too.

Duds

In my vast blog reading I have stumbled upon many a recipe that I thought looked good. And I have printed out these potentially delectable dishes and put them into a folder of ‘things to make’. I put them onto my list of weekly meals, grocery shop for the ingredients and give them a try. There have been a few good ‘make agains’, but there have also been some duds.

Last night I was feeling like some cookies, and so I pulled out a recipe called ‘grain-free cookies of awesomeness’. More like cookies of oddness. They puffed up and almost hardened into a biscuit type consistency, smelled like pancakes, and the only good part was my melted Ghirardelli chocolate chips. Not the worst recipe I’ve tried, but that one went in the trash. I don’t even care about grain-free, in fact, I like grains. When I first saw this recipe I thought I’d never make it because it uses ½ cup of almond butter, and that stuff is expensive! But after I made my own almond butter, and didn’t really like it that well, I thought it’d be a good way to use it up.

Other duds have been ‘carrot cake buckwheat breakfast groats’… ew… slimy and gritty. I also made a ‘protein goddess bowl’ that had a strange lemony sauce. I didn’t like it very much, but Hubbs actually did. My little protein goddess :)

One of the next recipes up I’m having a foreboding feeling about. It’s a butternut squash macaroni with “cheese sauce” which is actually some kind of sauce made with nutritional yeast, (which I’ve heard described as “Satan’s dandruff” lol), but it has so many B vitamins! I’ve got to give it another try… we’ll see… we’ve got to get some macaroni noodles first. We threw away all our pasta after the moth invasion, which I think is finally over, hooray!

Freaks

Did I ever mention my love for freaks?

I was excited when I saw this guy in the cherry bag earlier this summer

I also love biting in to a peanut m & m where someone forgot to put the peanut in and it is just a delicious giant plain m & m.

Actually, I’m now trying to think of extra things like that… and on the freaky foods topic, once my brother told me that he cracked an egg, and inside, was another tiny egg! Miraculous!

I guess unless it’s a food related thing, then maybe I don’t like it. I don’t care that much for freaky people,

Unless it’s them tho, love them.

Speaking of cancelled tv shows, I heard the other day that one of my all-time-favorite-shows Arrested Development is going to be coming back for 10 more episodes and a movie, whaaa? One can only keep hoping…. been waiting for 5 years already! Get on it!

Helpmate

I'm so thankful to have such a helping husband. Last night I got home and my sweet Hubbs had done 2 loads of laundry, went to the bank and did an errand at the Dollar Tree for me, and made our yummy dinner of chicken enchiladas and roasted butternut squash and beets. So helpful! I hope I am such a good helpmate to him as he is to me.

So today I am moving offices at work. My new location will not be as conducive for blog reading as this one was, so I'm actually most bummed about that. I just love reading blogs! :(

Manistee River Trail

Over the weekend Hubbs and I went to the west side of Michigan to hike the Manistee River Trail with Andrew's half-brother Jason, and his half-brother Steve. It's a 20 mile loop so we packed up our sleeping bags, tents, food and were off.

If we are going to be serious backpackers someday, we might need to invest in smaller sleeping bags, my sleeping bag took up the entire inside compartment of my backpack!

pretty views

the hikers

The first day we hiked 13+ miles. The last couple miles were pretty grueling. But we finally made it to our campsite, set up camp, and had some 'dinner' aka pouch of tuna and a bagel. We met some people from the Sierra Club and sat around the campfire chit chatting with them, it was nice.

The night wasn't so great. We went to bed around 10pm, and instantly someone who will remain nameless in our party started snoring. Loud. I know I am a light sleeper, and I usually pack earplugs. But I forgot them. I kept trying to sleep, but by 2am, still awake, I woke up Hubbs and had him get up and help me drag our tent 100 yards away. He wasn't very happy, but after we did that I could finally sleep. It was pretty cold though, high 30s, and the ground was pretty hard, but better than laying awake all night.

The next day we packed up, ate some breakfast, aka another bagel, and were on our way.

Day 2 seemed much harder. We had 7 miles to go to get back to the parking lot.

A suicide attempt was contemplated (j/k - Hubbs said that wasn't funny)

But we finally made it. We piled into the Jeep and Steve drove us back to Jason's house. Poor Steve, well all fell asleep instantly and he had to drive. When we got back we all stumbled out of the Jeep, our legs had stiffened so much and my feet had swollen so that I was hobbling. Ouch! Then Hubbs and I made our way home. We stopped somewhere and got delicious pizza

Came home, showered, and went to bed!

My mom had asked me to check out Manistee and tell them if I thought they should retire there. I had to call her this morning and tell her 'no'. It is beautiful, but I can't believe they'd want to leave their only child that didn't move out of state, and I want the future free babysitting! It wouldn't help to have to drive 4 hours for it :)

Manistee on Dwellable