Another Relaxing Day!

Greetings again from chilly CO! I hope everyone is having a wonderful short week of work and a lovely time preparing for the holiday season!

Yesterday I enjoyed a very relaxing day. I cannot tell you the last time I was able to get my workout done in the morning, enjoy the remainder of the day sitting on my butt catching up on blogs/tweets, finish my book, and spend a lovely dinner out chowing down on Mexican food and margaritas. I LOVE vacation.

I have had the opportunity to meet some of my brother's friends here and it has definitely put my worrying older sister mind at ease. Mook is, well, you could say...a tad irresponsible. Especially on the financial front. I have a lot of concerns about him living hundreds of miles away from all of us, on his own, with no money...and as I've come to learn...not even a trash can. But, he's doing well enough. And seems to have really made some friends who care about him of which I am truly glad. It's nice to know your little brother is being taken care of when you're not around.

So tonight, I get to enjoy another meal from my brother (which he prepared...in a marinade...this morning. Yeah. Who is this guy?) and there is a very good chance I have talked him into seeing New Moon! Eek! So excited! And I'm sure so is my husband...who has not been looking forward to seeing New Moon with me...I have no idea why.

I'll be heading home to Indianapolis tomorrow evening...greeted at the airport by my loving husband who I have missed like crazy! I cannot wait to see him!

So if I don't get a second to blog tomorrow...let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very, very happy Thanksgiving!! I have so much to be thankful for, not the least of which is every single one of you!! Enjoy the rest of your week!!

XOXO

Hello from Dever!!

Greetings from Colorado ladies!!

I flew into Denver Saturday evening and my dear brother picked me up in a pick up truck from his work. Did I mention it was bright orange? Yep. And that I thought the door was going to fall off from the noise it made when I closed it? Or that my seat didn't lock into position so that when we would brake...I would go flying into the dashboard? Hm. This trip should be interesting.

We proceeded to go into his work for some last minute things he had to do for a wrestling tournament in the morning. Mook is the equipment manager for the University of Northern Colorado so it was cool to see where he spends his days and all of the sports he is in charge of. Here is me...taking full advantage of my time behind the scenes:

Please forgive the fact that I had been on a plane for 5 hours...and had to squeeze myself into a small jersey so tight that it almost didn't fit over my boobs. But it was my number...so it was a must.

I crashed pretty quickly when we got home and woke up for an early run on Sunday. Did you know there was snow here? Yeah. It's pretty cold. But it is always sunny which I love :) After getting ready, we headed to Golden, CO to visit the Coors Factory! What a great day! Free beer tastings and old friends...loved it.

Brother...posing :)

Kyle (Mook's high school friend), Mook, and me

Hello! I work in quality control! I am so in the wrong field. Beer>Aerospace any day!



Baby free samples...but our three later=full size baby!

I tried the Blue Moon, Winterfest, and Full Moon. I think Full Moon was my fave. Winterfest was a little too bitter for this light girl :)

We had lunch in Golden and then headed out to Red Rocks. What beautiful views! And such a fantastic place to see a show, I'm sure.

View of downtown Denver

View of stage from top


And then from the bottom. Yeah. I climbed down those steps. And then back up. Not. cool. people.

We concluded our night with a steak and potatoes dinner made just for me by my little bro. How sweet is that? And the best thing was that it was delicious...seriously so good :) And I would like to give a little shout out and thanks to my sister who sent him "autumn mix" last week. The candy corn pumpkins were also delicious.

He even put a little candle on the table for me...so sweet :)

I'm not sure what our plans are for today yet...but I've already worked out and now I am sitting here catching up on blogs and watching TV while my brother is at work. If this is all I do, I will be a happy girl.

Leavin' On A Jetplane...

Well ladies...I'm off!

Today is my last day of work until after Thanksgiving!! I am so ridiculously excited about this...you do not even know. Things have been a little crazy around these parts and I sure could use a break. I am leaving for Colorado tomorrow afternoon to visit my brother for a few days...then it's back to Indianapolis for some precious time with the rest of my family for the holidays.

Unfortunately, my dear husband will not be joining me on my trip out west...so keep him in your prayers seeing as he is going to have to fend for himself for 4 whole days without me. I can already see the pizza boxes on my kitchen floor. I will miss him like crazy when I'm gone (in fact I already kind of miss him and I haven't even left yet....weird?) but I'm excited to be able to spend some quality time with my brother. Living across the country...we do not see each other nearly enough.

I am going to be taking my laptop and I plan on attempting to keep up on my blogging from afar...but alas, I cannot make any promises. So I will say ta ta and wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!

But before I dash off, I wanted to give a shout out to a few of my bloggy friends! Since I started blogging many, many months ago I have won three giveaways. Yes, that's right. Three! And even though I won them all at different times, I got all of my packages within the last few days! How fun is that? One day, the only pieces of mail we had in our whole mailbox were from bloggers!

So what did I win??

I won this painted wooden letter in the color of my choice from A Journey Through the Waiting Game:


Isn't it lovely?? Please forgive the spot my flash made on the R. It is flawless in person. Maybe she could do two smaller letters for me to put on each side of the R and I could put our initials on our wall!?! Oh the wheels they are a turnin'...


I won this from Shaina:

It's some super delicious granola and a pedometer! Now we can be twins! Please ignore the fact that the granola is already 1/2 gone and I just got it yesterday.


And finally, very fitting, I won this from Dugout Daisy:


Just in time for New Moon...my very own Twilight coaster!


Thank you so much ladies!! You have no idea how special I felt carrying in all of those packages with my name on them! You rock my world :)

Sugar, Sugar

Recently, my fabulous friends from Happily Ever After and A Journey Through the Waiting Game gave me this award!



How sweet! I don't think I have ever been called a Sugar Doll before. I kinda like it! My husband's mother sometimes calls him a sugar cube...but that's another story.

I'm supposed to list 10 interesting facts about myself. Hm. What don't you know?


I know! I'll tell you about my night last night!


1. Matt and I went to Outback last night because I had a coupon for a FREE Bloomin' Onion that I had to use by the 30th. FREE people! And I love me some Bloomin' Onion.

2. We pretended it was our first date. I got all dressed up and met him there after work. We introduced ourselves and everything. Ha!

3. When we sat down, I proceeded to ask him about his wedding ring and he told me that his "wife" had died in a steel toed shoe accident. Died? Yeah. Apparently the shoe fell on her head. Oh dear.

And if you didn't know, I have to wear steel toed shoes to work on a daily basis.

4. I then told him that I had actually been married before as well. But my dear husband had also died falling off a ladder putting up our Christmas lights. (Matt refuses to hang Christmas lights on our house. Pure laziness I tell you.)

5. We spent the whole dinner talking about our "dead" spouses. Matt's "wife" was a masseuse and used to give him massages almost every night. (Fat chance.) My "husband" traveled the world with me, took me to Paris on our honeymoon, and ordered all sorts of fancy wines for me to try. (Again, fat chance.)

6. I think our waitress thought we were nuts.

7. I realized I am so happy I don't have to date anymore. I was trying to be all proper and first-datey and I did not like it.

What I do like:
eating off Matt's plate without asking
using my fingers to eat my Bloomin' Onion (it kept falling off the fork into the dip!)
eating more Bloomin' Onion than my husband and not caring
even ORDERING a freaking Bloomin' Onion and not just a salad, grilled chicken, or something equally as blah
not caring about my onion breath
talking about how I felt like I was going to explode after dinner

...all things I never, ever would've done on a first date.

8. Matt tried to shake my hand when we parted ways at the end of the night.

9. Our pretend first date was pretty fun while it lasted...

10. But I was happy to get home to my (not dead) husband.

Roll Me Home!

My parents got into town Friday afternoon around 4:30 or so. I gave them the official tour and we settled in for the night with some homemade lasagna and a nice bottle of wine. Yum!

Saturday morning I made a breakfast casserole with homemade turkey sausage, eggs, and cheese! Then we made our way to the West Side Market near downtown Cleveland to shop for some necessary ingredients for our next meal. As you can see, this weekend was all about food! We got some fresh veggies, meat, and seafood and headed home to catch the Purdue game. And that is all I will say about that.

After the game, my parents and I headed to a local winery for some tastings! Matt stayed at home peeling and deveining shrimp. Which would you rather do? Hm. The winery was super low key and relaxing and we had a great time!





Ha! Maybe a little too great a time?

Oh relax....these pictures were staged people!

We headed home and Mom and I whipped up shrimp chowder for dinner. Yum again! What a difference fresh shrimp makes!

Sunday was the day we had been waiting for...The Fabulous Food Show! After a breakfast of yummy pumpkin muffins, we headed out to the convention center to see Bobby Flay!





I think it was the best demonstration ever! He made three dishes (including crepes Lucy...with homemade Nutella!!!) and there was very little audience participation of which I am actually a fan. People always ask stupid questions that just waste the chef's time...like, "Will you come to our restaurant for a Throwdown?" Give me a break people. Quit trying to promote your restaurant and just enjoy the show.

After Bobby, we made our way through all of the vendors and sampled a ton of food including (but not limited to) ice cream, chicken, dips, sauces, chocolate, cheese, cakes, soups, popcorn..seriously so much fun! And I got to have my very first cannoli!


We rolled ourselves home and ended up having a late lunch/early dinner at a local panini place. Overstuffed salami sandwich? Don't mind if I do.

Our night ended with the Colts game where they beat the Patriots in an awesome finish! Couldn't have had a better weekend. And the best part is...I get to see my family again in just 9 days! I heart the holiday season...

Weekend in Pictures

Monday is here...my parents have left...and I had the most amazing weekend I have had in such a long time! I hated to see it end.

Unfortunately, I have not loaded my pictures yet...but here is a little taste of how we spent our weekend...

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Until tomorrow....

The Fabulous Food Show!

As I'm sure you all know by now, my dear, sweet parents are coming to visit today! I'm stoked!

So what are we going to do whilst they are here?? Simple!

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Sunday we are going to the annual Fabulous Food Show! This will be my 4th year going and it is so much fun! Celebrity chef demonstrations, all sorts of free food, and wine tasting! How can you go wrong?


The first year Matt and I saw this little lady:

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Talk about a woman who can put on a show! Love her! We did see some lady with a sign that said, "Paula Dean's biggest fan." Um, if you're her biggest fan missy, why did you spell her last name wrong? Hilarious!


The next year we saw Giada!




We were also able to see Duff and Geoff from Ace of Cakes at one of the demonstrations outside the main theater!



Last year I went with my in-laws and we saw Guy!

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And who, you ask, are we seeing this year??

The one...

the only...

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...Bobby Flay! He is by far my dad's favorite chef so I am really glad all of us are able to go together. Yum! I can't wait!

Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend and I will be back on Monday with lots of updates and hopefully pictures!

XOXO

Preparations!

After three tiresome days of working on our new guest bed, it is finally complete! And why, you ask, did it take us three days to put together a bed when the frame itself was delivered and set up for us? Well, I'll tell you. Because my husband had to build this:


The mattress we bought is one of those memory foam mattresses. You have to lay it on a flat surface and not a box spring so there is no give. Well, the flat boxes they sold online were like $400! Um, for a box? No. So Matt decided to build us one! It was his first really big project and I think he did a wonderful job.

Here he is attaching the tops:


We finished the night by putting the mattress on and dressing up the rest of our beautiful bed! Check it out:



Obviously the room itself needs some work...but you should've seen it before. Picture an empty room because the night stand and the chest are also new. Big improvement people! And the bed is so comfy!

And to make my parents' experience just that much more fabulous...I finally did what I have wanted to do for all of my guests! Yes, you guessed it. I made towel animals!

Duck

It's hard to tell because of the black towel, but this is a cobra.

Elephant

Stingray!

Matt was a huge help with these animals...seeing as I had only figured out the cobra before he got home and had been at it for quite some time. My cow and gorilla were big FAILS. Thanks sweetie!