Sherman!

He was at it again!

At the top of the tower!

Gonna get him!

All fall down....

14 + 15 = 29....

Welp.... It's my birthday! If you split my age in half I'm the equivalent of two young teenagers. My mother also reminded me that I'm now officially the same age as her... yeah... sure....

Between holiday madness and some personal health issues I've been too exhausted to even think about my birthday the last week and a half. We celebrated my birthday dinner while on vacation so we're really just hanging out around the house tonight. Which is fine by me!!

I wanted to do something inspirational with this being my last year in my 20's. I want to start my 30's being inspired and feeling educated (if all my college courses are enough....). Sooooo I decided I am going to read 30 autobiographies / biographies / memoirs before I turn 30. At least.... I'm going to try!!! I also decided I'm going to blog about what I'm reading and how the journey is going. You can find that blog here.... From 29 to 30

A big thank you to all my FB friends who have sent me well wishes because of the little reminder down the side of the screen. I'm feeling important!!!

Disney and Sherman the Elf

Monday night he left a mess of blocks and last night he threw a party.... Man... His first two weeks he was so low key but now its getting out of hand.

The Disney crew and Sherman partying it up

 Connor didn't seem to mind this morning.

Inspecting everyone's food.

Donald Duck's Burrito was quite yummy.

This Week on Pinterest!

Again I only created one new thing from Pinterest this week. Sigh.... There is just SO much to do this holiday season. I'm going to be getting my baking on in the next coming weeks and I'll be using some of my pins left and right!

On Wednesday I did another croissant recipe. I made Pepperoni Rolls. It was simple and yummy. I made them because Kevin wasn't home for dinner so it was just me and Connor. I served them up with a side of sliced apples. Mmmmm....

This is the picture from Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/pin/251779435387309212/

Sherman... Our Elf on a Shelf.

Sherman already build himself a castle before Kevin and I headed off to bed. If I didn't know any better I would think its a Kevin design. Sherman must have been taking notes....

This Week on Pinterest!

I haven't done much doing on my Pinterest lately BUT I've been doing a lot of pinning! I'm hoping to be back to the doing part over the next couple of weeks with Christmas crafts.

The one Pin I did do this week was Chocolate and Peanut Butter filled Crescent Rolls. One of my very best friends, Lindsey, was coming over for a visit so I decided make a yummy treat for us while we got caught up with life.

I really really enjoyed these. They were simple and fast to make and tasted great. A glass of milk would have made them simply PERFECT! Sooo if you looking for a little something sweet that's easy to make for yourself or a  friend, try it out!

Relaxed, Rested and I Have Returned

When I last posted, I was stressed, sick and going crazy while preparing for my vacation.

I'm back. I'm rested. I'm relaxed (for the most part... our dryer broke today...). I'm ready to get back into the grove of things.

We left for Myrtle Beach, SC on Sunday morning and came home Thursday afternoon. I'm not going to get into play by plays of our trip because we were really really low key on this trip.

We had a whole condo to ourselves that included a master bedroom, HUGE bathroom, full kitchen, washer/dryer, and a living room/dining room with an ocean view Our first day we went shopping at the grocery store. We bought stuff for yummy breakfast and lunch as well as munchy stuff. We also bought beer since it was a mommy/daddy only trip :)

The mornings were spent enjoying coffee and a brilliant breakfast then followed by reading until we decided what we wanted to do. From there we decided what we wanted to do and did it. What we did was wander the beach, wander Broadway on the Beach, Barefoot Landing, played Mini Golf, ate awesome food and drank beer. In the evenings we came back to the suite, relaxed on the rooftop hot tub, and read our books again.

Vacations away without a toddler are so much different than our vacations before we had a baby. Its not a bad thing really.... we really just appreciate the uninterrupted reading time, uninterrupted meals and the peace and quiet.

I love being by the water and we had the perfect weather. It was in the upper 70's almost 80's and mostly sunny more than half the time we were there. On our last evening there we watched a thunderstorm leave off the coast. I love love love having my toes in the sand. AND even though it was chilly.... I walked with my toes in the water on Tuesday.

Life was good last week. Life was better when we came home. I just loved seeing Connor's face light up when he saw me there to pick him up from daycare instead of my mom. I LOVED our snuggles the next morning.

We had Friday through today to get caught up on family time. Friday Kevin and I took Connor to Storyville in Woodlawn, MD and let him run and play with us. It was perfect family time until his mini meltdown at Chic-Fila.

Even though I'm struggling getting caught up on some housework, homework, labs and quizzes due to being sick before vacation.... its been nice taking time before having to head back to work. This work week is a three day work week so I'll enjoy the other long break that is coming to me.

I have to give a shout out to my mom for coming in and handling things with Connor. She said he was awesome be we all know toddlers can be a handful!

Soooo I'm back... I'll be blogging.... Enjoy the pictures from our trip!

View from our balcony

Another View

View from the front of our room

First day on the beach. We were right near Cherry Grove Pier.

We walked on Cherry Grove Pier

Celebrated our birthdays and anniversary at Joe's Crab Shack.

I'll have to scan the picture I have from the two of us many years ago in almost the same place.

Our golf balls kissed :)

COLD but worth it.

These birds reminded me of the guys from the movie City of Angels listening to the "music".

This leaf caused me grief....



Mini golfing nerds

This building will freak you out at night.... it freaked out Kevin while driving...

Where we spent most of our time reading.... It was WONDERFUL.

Hiatus

Yes... I've been on a hiatus and I'll be on one for the next week.

Kevin and I are leaving to go on a toddler free vacation on Sunday. VERY EXCITING.

This week however is kicking my butt. I've trying to get the house ready for my mom to visit while she's watching Connor, I'm trying to get my homework caught up and ahead so I don't have to worry about it on vacation and I've been battling a crazy sinus infection that exploded on me the begining of this week.

I had been fighting a little cough for about a week and then this week BOOM! I feel like crap, I have off and on headaches/migraines, at one point my nose was extremely stuffy and the fatigue is awful. I was handling it with the Neti Pot and rest but yesterday I broke down and went to the doctors. He gave me some antibiotics and I'm just waiting form them to kick in now..... anytime now would be perfect.......... really......

I'm trying to focus on the positive but I'm so run down its hard to even get excited about the vacation I have yet to pack for...

Keeping my chin up and I'll see you when I get back!

This Week on Pinterest!

I started this week off trying one of my "For The Home" pins. It says to take a magnetic strip and place it in an area in your bathroom and attach your bobby pins to it. I did it... and its ok. BUT when I go to take one off my fingers bump other and then they fall off. NOT COOL. Soooo I think I'm going to get a small bowl with a magnet in it. This way all of them will gather together and I don't have to worry about them spilling.

Image from Pinterest

NOW FOR FOOD...

On Monday we were going to meet at a friends house for a Halloween get together Potluck event. My problem was it started right after work and I needed to have something prepared. I went to my Pinterest boards and found Chicken Fajitas in a crockpot. YUM! They turned out great and it was very easy to make!

Tuesday I made Spicy Honey Chicken. I didn't have all the spices she was requesting but I made something similar. THEY ROCKED. It was great grilling too because the weather was nice and cool.

The spices I used.

On Wednesday I blogged about how two of my friends came over and we made Snickerdoodle muffins. THEY WERE TO DIE FOR! VERY YUMMY!

Friday I made foil wrapped bacon ranch potatoes and tossed them on the grill with some Italian sausage. These were also a winner.

My potatoes... mmm... soooo good.

Saturday I made Hawaiian Chicken in the crock pot. My family found it funny because my father is in Hawaii for work right now. It turned out ok. Kevin and I agreed that the sauce was a little strong.

Theroy was good but I'm going to have to adjust it.

This morning I made Apple Sauce Pancakes. They were pretty good. I added All Spice, Ginger and extra Cinnamon to it and I'm glad I did... they would have been bland. I made Connor a Mickey Mouse shaped pancake...

Now for the crafts.....

I blogged earlier in the week that we have a Thankful Zone in our house. The idea came from this pin.

Gobble Gobble!

Repeats...
This week I also remade the Red Velvet Hot Chocolate to go with the Snickerdoodle Muffins and the sliced potatoes to go with dinner on Tuesday.

The Love of Blanket Forts

I grew up building blanket forts in the basement, my bedroom, the living room or any room that would hold one. I LOVED building them! I could create elaborate ones that had tunnels to areas that opened up to big spaces. Sometimes I built one that could blow up when we attached a fan to it. And sometimes I would build them and then my sister and I would have a sleep over inside them. FUN!

Every once in a while I get a craving to build one.... now that I have Connor around... its acceptable!

I was sitting at work on Friday and the craving hit me! Kevin was going to be in school for the evening and it would just be me and Connor. I decided building a blanket fort and watching a movie while eating dinner would be a FABULOUS idea.

It was!!

Last time I just used chairs to prop the sheet up. It was fun... but not elaborate by any means. Good... but not my best.

Our first blanket fort

On Friday I dug out my twine, pulled out three sheets, and pulled all the cushions off the couch. I was on a misson! Check out our Friday hide-a-way....

It took up the whole living room... AND included the TV!

I attached the twine from the chairs to other stable things around the room.

We used the cushions and couch pillows as a place to lounge.
Connor insisted on bringing his friends... Teddy, Pluto 1, Pluto 2 and Mickey Mouse.

This is the life Mommy... now where's dinner!?

Sometimes... you have to just enjoy the "bear necessities" of life!

Needless to say we had an awesome time. When Connor got bored with the movie we pulled out the cars and played with them on the cushions in tent. After Connor went to bed, I climbed in the tent and enjoyed an episode of X-Files in the dark until Kevin came home from school. Before bed I took down the tent (didn't want the cat's to try to climb on top of it in the middle of the night and have a big crash). I'm looking forward to more tents as it gets colder and we're stuck inside.

Connor agreed that we should be thankful for Blanket Forts before going to bed... so Day 4 we added "Blanket Forts" to our Thankful Zone.

My Angels!

You've heard of my BFF Alice a few blogs ago and how we love our random hot dog vendors.

There is another BFF in our mix of friendship, Courtney. I haven't known her as long as Alice BUT we've been friends for about 8 or 9 years. I met her in my very very early 20's during our drinking and partying part of life. After the drinking part faded we stayed awesome friends. Even though we don't see each other often enough, I still miss her bunches when she's not around.

we called ourselves The Angels back in 2007

Alice and Courtney came by for a Girls Night visit tonight. I baked them Snickerdoodle Muffins and we ate them with Red Velvet Hot Chocolate. VERY fattening and VERY good!

It was really fantastic getting caught up with friends I don't get to see often. I email with Alice on a weekly basis but Courtney and I aren't as in touch as we should be. Laughing, giggling and playing with Connor filled our evening. Then once Connor was in bed we laughed and giggled some more. Ahhh to be "YOUNG" again!

Sooooo tonight.... Day 2 of being thankful goes out to my Angels. Love you!

Our Dedicated Thankful Zone

The turkey is going to lose some feathers as we add what were thankful for!!

30 Days to be Thankful!

Yesterday I pulled out our paper letters and hung the word THANKFUL on the glass door in our living room. I tried explaining to Connor what Thankful means BUT he was more interested in me telling him what each letter was. In a nutshell, I told Connor Thankful is what makes you happy. We should all stop and think about what makes us happy and then give thanks for that wonderful gift. While we should do it every day and every month of the year... This month is at least the month to start!

Last night I also created a Thankful Turkey. I got the idea from a Pinterest craft. I started of wanting to create it but it morphed into its own thing. I took a paper plate and made a turkey. Then I grabbed 30 clothespins and attached them so they looked like feathers. Each day we'll pluck off a feather and attached a piece of paper or a picture of something we're thankful for on it. I tied a string above the doors. The turkey and the thankfuls will hang from it (I'll post a picture soon). This Thanksgiving we'll have a visual of what we're thankful for.

Our Thankful Turkey!

So what were we thankful for yesterday? We were thankful for Connor!! He was the first "item" to be added. He's truly a solid blessing in both mine and Kevin's life each and everyday.

Happy Halloween!!

I know we're two days passed the holiday but I can't help but share my cute little skeleton!! We met with friends to go Trick or Treating. Connor's first really time out went ok. He did fine the first couple of houses BUT towards the end he started to get hungry and would melt down in between each house. Once we got back to our friend's house Connor was too distracted by all the other toddlers to sit down and eat soooo he kept throwing fits. We decided it was time to get outta there. On the way home we stopped by to surprise as set of grandparents. Once we got home and Connor got some real food in his belly, I let him have his first taste of Halloween candy, Gummy LifeSavers. Enjoy the pics!

Off we go to beg for candy!

Too cute to be scary

First Halloween Treat

Today's Run = Fail

UGH! Nothing but excuses for my failure. However after going over my excuses in my head, I know what I have to do to move forward to prevent future slip-ups. I only made it to 2 miles! Sigh.... I'm proud of myself for listening to my body but sad that my body couldn't be pushed further.

Excuse #1: I let too many days go in between my runs. My last run was on Wednesday! It was great too, made it to my 3.1 mark only let myself slack off and then only make it to 2 miles before feeling like I was going to fall over. I was supposed to run Friday but had a lunch thing at work to go to and then dinner out with family. It left no time to run. Saturday it was raining and icing so running was out of the picture. Sunday.... I think laziness kicked in and I used Connor's upset belly as an excuse not to run.

Solution #1: GET ON A SCHEDULE AND STICK TO IT! I'm officially keeping myself to a Monday, Wednesday, Saturday schedule. NO MORE EXCUSES!

Excuse #2: I started feeling really crappy and my stomach started getting upset around 1.5 miles. Why may you ask? Well... I ate a great breakfast of oatmeal and a protein drink BUT when I got to work I only had coffee... ZERO water and munched on candy this morning. How do I expect my body to run when its fueled with JUNK! I totally undid my great breakfast start!

Solution #2: I need to start focusing on my intake. I haven't changed my diet since I started running. I'm not talking about going on a diet BUT be more conscious of what is fueling my system. I'm drinking way more coffee in the morning than I used to in the last month and a half, and my water intake is slowly decreasing every day. Get on the ball girl!! Start eating better! Drink more water! Its an easy thing to do!!

Excuse #3: Having excuses! The first two excuses allowed me to be mentally defeated and then that lead to a physical defeat.

Solution #3: I'm a procrastinater in heart and I need to recognize legit reasons for missing a run and total bull shit reasons.

Wednesday I'll be sure to fuel myself with the best of anything and everything an push myself to the 3.1!

The Biggest Question During Shower Time...

http://pinterest.com/pin/381797687/

The cool air is starting to surround us and many women around the area are starting to following the shaving legs flow chart during their morning shower routine.

This is just a silly little flowchart / picture that made me giggle. Lord knows I'm contemplating these very thoughts if I'm running late in the morning or just don't feel like it!

It orginially stood out to me because I'm currently covering flow charts and logical analysis in my Object Oriented Programming class. I thought to myself... There needs to be an app that tells you if you should shave your legs in the morning! Just plug the answers into your phone / tablet and BOOM... you know the shower routine for the morning.

Could you imagine.... waking up every morning... plugging in the variables for the day and then the app spits out your agenda for the whole entire day?! Soon we won't even have to think for ourselves. Scary huh?

Just some scary thoughts for a scary day! Happy Halloween!

This week on Pinterest!

This week in Pinterest!!

Lets start off with the Pumpkin Carving!! On Monday I carved our two smaller pumpkins. I carved one that looked like a vampire and one that looked like a cat. I got the cat idea from Pinterest. It looked simple and cute... IT WAS. LOVE IT.

This afternoon Connor and I carved the bigger pumpkin and used cookie cutters to make the shapes. On Pinterest it shows to use a rubber mallet but I used our crab mallet and it worked! We used the star shaped cookie cutters to make a starry sky on the pumpkin.

Ew Mommy... This looks gross.....

Helping mommy bang in the cookie cutters

Finished Product

This week we also made some Halloween crafts. On Thursday evening Connor and I made paper plate ghosts and then I made some mummy bars!

The paper plate ghosts were super easy. You just glue some black construction paper eyes and mouths on to the plate and then tape white crape paper to the back! Connor ran around with the streamers behind him yelling, "Oooooooooo Ooooooooooooo Oooooooooo"

The mummy bars were really simple too. I bought Hershey Bars, wrapped them in white crape paper and then glued googly eyes onto the front. Everyone at the office LOVED them.

Can you tell which one Connor made? :)

Mummy Bars! We're watching you!!!

I did some cooking/baking this week from Pinterest as well. On Monday I made Sliced Baked Potatoes. You slice them real thin but not all the way to the bottom. Drizzle olive oil, butter and salt/pepper on them, then wrap them in aluminum foil and bake! Super easy and very yummy. Next time I'm going to get inventive with the seasonings.

It was yummy with our London Broil and Veggies.

For Saturday's lunch it tried out the wonton mozzarella sticks. The description said baked not fried but then the actual recipe was to fry it. I tried baking them and they were just ok. I'm now looking at other mozzarella stick recipes.

Tonight for dinner we had Spaghetti Squash Lasagna. Now.... for the last year and a half Kevin and I have been eating Spaghetti Squash in place of pasta. We LOVE it and I highly recommend trying it out. This was a little involved because I had to bake the squash, cook the meat and then put it all together and bake it BUT it was WORTH IT! Yummy yummy!!!

SUPER YUM!

Not sure what Pinning items will be accomplished this week... I'm looking at moving towards some Thanksgiving crafts and yummy desserts right now!