A Little Late But...SPOOKY SPIDER COOKIES

My new favorite blog is this one. I found these oh-so-cute cookies on Bakerella's blog and knew I HAD to make them. Here's how they turned out.

Instead of using Trix cereal puffs like Bakerella, I used M&M's. They were very yummy if I do say so myself. Earlier in October I also made Bakerella's cake pops and used some Halloween sprinkles to decorate. Also VERY cute.

Next up are these delicious looking mini pumpkin pie bites.

I'm leaving you with a few pictures from Halloween...

Summer Reading

I decided a little while ago that I really wanted to start reading-for pleasure-again. I LOVE to read, but I have been super busy and just haven't had much time. Well, I decided to make time.

I'd like to share a with you a couple of the books I've read recently. They were both fantastic and you should definitely give them a try.

The first is by one of my favorite authors. I have read everything she's written and have loved them all. This was no exception.

This book was so fun and sweet and sentimental--and I cried my eyes out at the end. Soooo good!

The next book...Well, I must admit that the previews for the movie made me want to read it. After reading online that the movie definitely did not live up to the expectations from readers I decided to not see the movie (yet) and dive into the book.

I can't even really find words to express how I feel about this story. So inventive and wonderfully romantic. A fantastic love story. And of course....I cried and cried and cried through multiple parts of the book. Fabulous.

So what is next? Well, I'm not sure at the moment. My Fall t.v. schedule is using up most of my free time at the moment (more on that later). I'll keep you posted, though.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Update----Shock!

Wow...it has been quite a long time. I am ashamed of how long it has been. I really am going to try and keep up with my blogging more-I promise.

So what's been going on with me lately? Work. More Work. Some more work.

Yeah, that's about it.

Husband and I went to visit his parents over Labor Day and that was a blast! Extra fun since they live at the beach :)

My SIL got a new puppy, Charley. She is the cutest and I can't wait to meet her! Come visit your cousins soon, baby Charley.

Let's see...what else? We're going to Lexington in a couple of weeks for the Alabama vs. Kentucky football game. We still don't have tickets. If you know anyone that does happen to have 4 tickets that they would like to get rid of, please let me know.

I think that's about it for now.

Let me leave you with this: Have a Happy, Happy Tuesday!!!

Summer is a time for...

WEDDINGS

So in honor of the wonderful wedding season please enjoy this video of the best wedding toast ever. (Yes, I cried and I don't even know a single person in this video. I don't even know anyone who knows someone who had anything to do with any of the people you will see in the video. Pathetic, isn't it?)

I would also like...

I did leave one thing off my birthday "Wish List". I would also like this please.

Very nice, don't you agree?

And before any of you say anything...Yes, I do know that I am married. Husband is aware of my obsession. I believe he is choosing to ignore it.

A little late...

This post is coming a little late but...

Who watched the Tony Awards the other night?

I really want to see Rock of Ages!!!



I think this show looks like soooo much fun! And it has fabulous music (if you like 80's tunes).


I also thought Next to Normal looked really interesting. This video is from the pre-Tony Awards concert.

Wishlist

So even though I'm quite depressed about my birthday this year (I fell very old!) I have a wishlist for what I might like to receive from my family/friends this year.

#1...Twilight DVD

(I already have the movie downloaded on my laptop and I've watched it about 15 times in the last month, but I'd still like to have the DVD)

#2...Wii Fit

I've been wanting this for a while.

#3...Spa Day

Boy do I need this!!!

Giada's Pork Chops with Fennel and Caper Sauce

I made this for dinner Tuesday night. Quite yummy and Husband liked it as well. Here's the recipe...

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

4 boneless (2 inch thick) pork chops

3/4 teaspoon salt (and more for seasoning chops)

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (plus more for seasoning chops)

2 fennel bulbs with fronds-thinly sliced

2 large shallots--thinly sliced

1/3 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley--plus 1/3 cup

1/2 cup white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)

1-28 ounce can diced tomatoes in their juices

1/2 lemon, zested

2 tablespoons capers

Directions:

In a large heavy skillet heat the oil over high heat. Season the chops and brown on both sides (about 4 min on each side). Set chops aside and cover loosely with foil.

Add fennel, shallots, 1/3 cup parsley and cook over medium heat until beginning to brown-about 5 min. Add the wine and using a wooden spoon scrape the bits from the bottom of the pan. Add tomatoes and stir. Add the chops back to the pan nestling them between tomatoes and fennel so that they are mostly submerged in the juices. Cook until fennel is tender and pork is done--about 12 to 15 minutes.

Place pork on serving dish. To finish the sauce add lemon zest, remaining parsley and capers. Stir. Spoon over pork chops and serve immediately.

Blah

I don't have much to say. I have been so super busy with work I really haven't felt much like blogging. I've been working all weekend and will be working Memorial Day as well. In fact, I don't have another off day until Saturday the 30th. So sad. Being a grownup is no fun sometimes.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Think of me. I'll be inside at Walgreens from 9am-5pm.

Addict

I'm the type of person that finds something she likes and completely immerses herself in it. I do this with television shows, books, places, etc. Case in point--my Harry Potter obsession.

I have tried to stay away from it. I have tried to convince myself that I wouldn't like it even though countless people have told me otherwise. This weekend I gave in.

Husband was out on a man-date watching Wolverine at the movie theater and I was home alone with the puppies with nothing too interesting to watch on t.v. I walked out to the family room, opened the bookcase and there it was...the book I bought over three months ago and decided not to read. I went back in to the bedroom, snuggled under a blanket, and cracked the cover.

I. Am. Completely. Hooked.

I started reading around 9:30 p.m. and I finally put it down around 5 a.m.!!! Ridiculous...but I loved it. I talked Husband in to taking me to the library tonight (my car is at the shop for service so we're down to one car for the next 24 hours) so I could get the next book. I'm off to begin New Moon now. Thank goodness I'm off work tomorrow.

Searching

So I've decided that it's time for some new bedding in the master bedroom. I love, love, love the bedding we have now (and have had since October 2006), but it's time for a change. Here's what we have now.I love the colors! But as I said, it's time for a change. I don't want anything too feminine. No flowers. Not sure what colors I'm looking for. I found this on the Bed Bath and Beyond website.
What do you think? Too similar? I think the paisley might be exactly the same now that I'm looking at the picture again. Hmm... What about THIS? Oooh I love that plum color! I saw this in the new catalog that came in the mail yesterday, but I don't really like duvets. They always seem to bunch up.
Oh well. I'll keep you posted. I'm off to the dentist now.

Getting Old

Husband and I discovered something last night/early this morning. We are getting old. We just can't stay up late like we used to. Remember when you were in college and you could go to class (or not go as some of us did not) all day, take a quick nap in the afternoon or early evening and then stay up until 3 or 4 am??? How did we do that?! These days if I'm working the morning shift (with my job I either work 8am-4pm or 2pm-10pm) I get home at about 4:45pm, start thinking about dinner, make dinner, eat dinner, watch a bit of tv and by 9pm I'm ready for lights out. I lay in bed and I'm asleep by 10pm. Sad, isn't it?

What has prompted this blog post is our outing last night. I am a BIG Dave Matthews Band fan. I have been since high school. So when I found out DMB would be making a stop in Birmingham for their Spring tour I jumped at the chance to get tickets. I took off work yesterday so I wouldn't be completely exhausted for the concert. Husband still had to work until 6pm so I met him out at the store and we drove to the amphitheater. The concert started at 7pm and ended around 11pm. We didn't make it back home until about 12:30am due to a traffic jam in the parking lot and having to stop for food because we were starving. We both had to get up around 7:30 this morning to get to the store around 8:30. Let me tell you....this was no easy fete. We are both tired and grumpy--to say the least.

The only consolation is that the concert was FABULOUS! I have seen DMB live 3 times now and can say with certainty that it is the best live show I've ever seen--and I've seen to my fair share of concerts.

Just a few things

Hello all! I've not been so great about blogging lately, but I'm working on it. Things have been super busy around here. Friday we had the grand opening at the pharmacy complete with a ribbon cutting and the mayor of Chelsea. Husband's parents were in town for the big event. We also participated in a health fair Saturday. We did blood pressure and blood glucose screenings. I think we had a really good response from all the folks that made it out to the fair. Hopefully we'll be seeing some return on investment in the form of some customers!

We went to see Wicked about a week and a half ago. It was phenomenal!!! I absolutely loved it!!! Husband--not so much. But he stuck with it and humored me.

I wanted to share a couple of things with you guys. These are things which I beleive I absolutely could not live without.

This lip balm is so fantastic! It is super moisturizing and has SPF 15 too. I don't wear a lot of lipstick. I usually just use this and some gloss on top.

This is Smashbox Photo Op Under Eye Brightner. I don't really have dark circles (not too bad anyway) but this stuff is great. It makes you look WIDE awake.

Happy Monday to you all! I hope you have a great week!

So Excited

Husband and I are going to see Wicked tonight!!! I am much more excited about it than he is. He's not a huge musical fan. Actually he's not a musical fan at all, but he said he would come along. I have the soundtrack with the OBC (original broadway cast) on my iPod and it is fantastic! Check out the links below for some great bits of the musical.

Popular
Defying Gravity
The Wizard and I

Funny Man

I'm sure many of you have not heard of Brian Regan so I would like to introduce you to this oh so funny man. I first encountered his comedy in a friend's car riding to and from a mexican restaurant in college and have been obsessed ever since. I got Husband (then Boyfriend) hooked too. He took Brian's first cd to the hospital where he was working at the time and got all of the pharmacists and technicians there hooked. I try to tell everyone I can about him becaus I really love his comedy THAT much. I've seen him Live several times and I am NEVER disappointed. Click on some of the links below and see what I mean. Have a HAPPY day!

Brian Regan UPS

Brian Regan Walkie Talkie

Brian Regan Emergency Room

Kids say (write) the darndest things...

I am usually not a fan of "Fwd"s. My mom sends me at least 3 or 4 a week and I sometimes don't even open them (sorry, Mom), but today I did.

These are just the cutest!

Mint and Groceries

So, I'm sure you've heard the economy is pretty bad right now...

Ha! That's an understatement. Everywhere you turn there are news stories about bailouts, layoffs, store closings, etc. I wanted to share with you all some tools I use to help me save. Maybe it will be useful to you during this rough time (and after).

Mint is a fabulous website (there's an iPhone app too!) to help you budget. You can add all of your accounts, credit cards, etc. and create a budget. You can also use it to see where you are spending all of you moo-lah so that you can come up with some ways to cut back and save more. I read about this site in Real Simple a while ago and have been using it ever since. I think it's been about 6 months or so and I am obsessed with it.

Something else I do to save some money is play the Grocery Game. You sign up (you can try it for a whole month for only $1) and pay $10 every 8 weeks. That gets you 1 store list. (You can pick however many lists you want and it just costs extra.) Anyway you clip your Sunday coupons from the newspaper, go online and print the "list" and it tells you which coupons to use to get the best deal. This seriously has saved me a LOT of money!

What do you do to save money?

Not much

I'm sure you have noticed my absence lately. I am just now starting to feel back to my old self--my self before the flu, that is--but there really has not been much going on. I have been busy, busy, busy with work and working to get the business open. The official first day open will be March 30th unless something big changes in the next week or so. So please keep your fingers crossed that everything from here on out goes smoothly.

Have a great week, everyone!

Flu

This is me.

I have the flu.

I started feeling bad Tuesday night. Just cold symptoms and whatnot. So I went to work Wednesday and blew my nose a million times, bought some Dayquil and took a couple of doses. Then yesterday morning when I woke up I was burning up still with sinus congestion and I was achy all over. I had a feeling that it was the flu. At the pharmacy we've been seeing more and more cases pop up. So I went to the doctor, they did a nasal swab--which, by the way, was possibly the most unpleasant thing I've ever gone through during an office visit...I swear he poked my brain with that thing--and a chest x-ray. And, sure enough, I have the flu.

So now I am fully medicated with Tamiflu, amantidine, tylenol/ibuprofen, Dayquil, and a Medrol dosepack. I'm in my pj's snuggled in the bed with my puppies and watching Friends and Gilmore Girls all day.

First Recipe!!!

I am trying to be more domestic in the form of learning to cook. My mom always cooked for me growing up. We only ate out maybe once every couple of weeks and hardly ever ate fast food. I really want to build a library of wonderful recipes for our family so I always cut out things that sound good in magazines or online when I find them. Here is one I tried tonight that Husband and I LOVED and can't wait to try again.

Smokin' Macaroni and Cheese

1 lb. uncooked elbow pasta

2 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

1 cup milk

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

2 cups (8 oz.) shredded smoked Gouda cheese

1 (3oz.) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground red pepper, divided

1 (8 oz.) package chopped cooked, smoked ham

2 cups cornflakes cereal, crushed

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

1--Preheat oven to 350. Prepare pasta according to pkg directions. Transfer hot pasta to a large bowl.

2--Melt 2 tbsp butter in med saucepan over med heat. Gradually whisk in flour until smooth; cook, whisking constantly, 1 min. Gradually whisk in milk and evaporated milk; cook, whisking constantly 3-5 min or until thickened. Whisk in Gouda, creak cheese, salt and 1/4 tsp ground red pepper until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in chopped ham.

3--Combine pasta and Gouda mixture. Pour into a lightly greased 13x9 inch baking dish. Stir together 2 cups crushed cereal, 2 tbsp melted butter and 1/4 tsp ground red pepper; sprinkle over pasta mixture.

4--Bake at 350 for 30 min or until golden and bubbly. Let stand 5 min before serving.

This made a TON (for 2 people) and was delicious!!! Let me know if you try it and what you think.

Wow..

I saw this pharmacy while we were trying to find our hotel in Lexington this weekend and made Husband take me back there to capture it on film (or digital camera)--I thought it was hilarious! I mean, have you ever seen a pharmacy like this? I certainly haven't!

Love Ya

Yay! My first award! This was given to me be ASC at A Prepsters Guide To The Waiting Game. I love her blog and know you all will too. Thanks, ASC!

Rules do accompany this honor:

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I would like to give this award to...

Fun With The Fleniken's

Casa del Platt

In pursuit...

The Justiss Family at the Beach

Two up two down: This girl's journey from OK to VA

My Journey Toward: The Glamorous Life of a Housewife

Texas Dawg

The Benton Bunch

Homemade Valentine's Day

The past few years we have always made reservations at a fancy restaurant in Birmingham with all the hundreds of other couples for Valentine's Day. However, in the interest of saving some money this year-and because I had to work all weekend-Husband decided to make me dinner and just have a night in. (See previous post for his gift.)

So I arrived home from work to find these. Please ignore the mismatched placemats and table runner.

He had cleaned the house and cooked veal parmisean and made ceasar salad. He also baked a cake! A caramel cake! I was shocked! And I mean he made this cake from scratch--not a box of cake mix in site--he even made the caramel sauce.
It was all ridiculously delicious (especially the cake) and just made my day. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a happy Vday!

Just a quick note

Happy Valentine's Day

Apparently...

Because we're opening a business and he'll soon be putting in 50-60 hour work weeks I really wanted to get Husband a great Valentine's present.

He grew up Kentucky and is a HUGE University of Kentucky basketball fan. He hasn't been to a game in about 10 years. So I decided to buy him two tickets to the UK-Tennessee game next Saturday. He has a couple of friends here in Bham who also grew up in Kentucky and share his love of UK b-ball so I thought he could take one of them to the game. I bought the tickets today and-true to form-I couldn't keep the secret. So I told him tonight even though V-day is still a few days away. He was super excited (yay me!). And when I told him he could take whomever he so chooses he tells me he wants me to go. Don't get me wrong. I like sports. College football (Roll Tide! Go Noles!) and some baseball every now and then...but basketball...not so much. Is this what's in my future?Geez! Let's hope not. Hopefully it will be fun. And maybe I'll get to see Ashley Judd...

I have a confession

I am a self-proclaimed Harry Potter "nerd".
I love this series! J.K. Rowling is incredibly creative and imaginative and I can't get enough. I own all the books in the series in hardback including the Deathly Hallows Deluxe Edition which I have never even opened (this is in addition to the regular Deathly Hallows version, of course). I also own all of the companion books and The Tales of Beedle the Bard collector's edition. I have read each book least twice-some of them 4 and 5 times! I own the audiobook versions and listen to them often. I have dragged Husband to the theater to see each and every movie the day of its release. I have all of the movies on dvd and watch them over and over...when they're on t.v. too. I visit a Harry Potter website most every day. The girl who runs the website wrote a book recently (Harry, A History: the true story of a boy wizard, his fans, and life inside the harry potter phenomenon) so I bought that too. I found it fascinating and am a little ashamed to admit that I cried during certain parts of the book. I even listen to Pottercast, a Harry Potter podcast, every week.

Maybe I need help...

Quick update

Just a quick update on Husband and my business venture...Things are progressing. By the end of Saturday all of the carpet, fixtures, etc. will be installed. They put up our "coming soon" banner Thursday and we are just super excited that things are moving along. That's all for now. Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

Vegas Recap (finally)

Husband and I go to Las Vegas every year with another couple (for the purposes of this blog post I will call them Bob and Betty). The past two years we have stayed at MGM Grand, but this year we decided to change things up a bit so we stayed at Caesar's Palace. At check-in we got upgraded (no charge) to a suite. Bob and Betty got the upgrade too, but they paid an extra $40 per night for the upgrade. Here is the view from our room.

Yes, those are the Bellagio fountains you see. Not a bad view of the strip.

We always go to a few shows while we're in town. We really like all the Cirque du Soleil shows. Well, not really all of them. Last year we saw Zumanity and did not enjoy, but we have seen Ka, O, La Nouba (Orlando, FL) and Mystere and they were all wonderful. Anyway...this time we went to see Criss Angel's Believe and Jerry Seinfeld. We were severely disappointed in the Criss Angel show. It was cheesy and the magic/illusions were not great. The one plus was that we were in the third row (and could see how he did some of his "magic"). We saw Jerry Seinfeld at Caesar's at the end of the week and he was great. Very funny. We had pretty good seats for that one too-about 15 rows back.

Another thing we do in Vegas is EAT. Really good food. There are sooo many amazing restaurants in Las Vegas and we find new favorites every year. We always joke that our trips get longer and longer because we keep adding restaurants to our "must eat" list. Husband and I are fairly adventurous diners. We like to try new things. Bob is pretty adventurous too, but Betty...she eats chicken. As plain as it can get. Without the skin. Basically as flavorless as possible. So it's always a gamble (ha!) whether she will find something on the menu to order. The most amazing restaurant in Vegas (according to Husband and Bob) is Mesa. For those of you Food Network fans, this is Bobby Flay's Vegas restaurant.

I'm not a huge fan of spicy, southwestern fare, but the margaritas are really good (and by good I mean strong). Here are some drinks we ordered before being seated. Note the pretty pink one on the far right. That is what Husband ordered--Cactus Pear Margarita. He says he knows it's girly and he doesn't care...it's that good.

Every year Husband and Bob order the same thing, New Mexican Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Bourbon Ancho Chili Sauce and Sweet Potato Tamale with Crushed Pecan Butter. It is always amusing to see them eat this dish. Pure joy on their faces and then determination trying to finish the entire dish after having had a couple margaritas and appetizers. Husband ate every bit of his and bragged about it for the entire trip.

I ordered a special sea bass that was not on the menu and it was fabulous! The dishes I usually order at Mesa are good, but this was by far the best thing I've had there.

We also eat at Craftsteak each year. For the Top Chef fans out there this is Tom Colicchio's restaurant and it is exceptional. Great dishes: lobster bisque, mushroom risotto (and pretty much everything else on the menu). We ended up having the same waiter that we had two years ago and he brought us a free creme brulee (mine and Betty's fav) for dessert. Yum! Other restaurants we tried this year were Olives at Bellagio (I did not go but heard it was pretty good) and Bradley Ogden at Caesar's (OK but not great).

Husband and Bob planned a surprise for Betty and myself one night and took us to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at Paris. It was beautiful and very yummy! The way the restaurant is situated you have a perfect view of the fountains in front of Bellagio and you can see the beautiful mountains that surround Las Vegas. We were there at sunset and it was gorgeous! What a great romantic surprise! This restaurant is a keeper. We'll definitely go back.

Overall, we had a wonderful time (as always). I didn't do much shopping this time. Maybe I'll make up for that next year. I actually got to sleep a lot and we didn't lose too much money so I think it was a pretty good vacation.

Another Vacation

I am back from Las Vegas and will be posting many, many pictures (hopefully tomorrow) and telling you all about the wonderful fun that was had. But right now I am exhausted from traveling all day and am needing a vacation from my vacation. Until tomorrow...

Bright lights

I'll be gone for the next week. The husband and I are headed to Las Vegas for our annual trip. I'll be back soon with pictures and a full report of what we did and how much fun we had.

Thanks to everyone for the recommendations on what reading materials to take. Here is what I've decided on: Southern Living Feb '09, Lucky Feb '09, Real Simple Feb '09, US Weekly and People (couldn't resist)--I really wanted to get Pride and Prejudice. I've been wanting to read it for a long time and since Camille recommended it I put it on my list. Can you believe that they don't have a copy at the Hoover Library?! I was shocked. Anyway I did get two Marian Keyes novels (thanks ASC!), Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married and Angels. I am really excited to read these. She seems a lot like this other author that I love...Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham...she writes the Shopaholic books and various other wonderful novels. Does anyone read her? So I also got The Tennis Party while I was at the library. I think it's the only novel of hers that I haven't read yet.

Thanks again for all of the wonderful recommendations. One of my "resolutions" is to read more and not watch so much t.v. (yeah right) so all of these suggestions will come in handy. Have a great week!!!

Taking Suggestions

So the husband and I are headed on vacation next week and I am looking for suggestions. I need a book-or a couple-to take with me. Any suggestions?

Join Me

Help me fight cancer.

I'm participating in Relay for Life. This year I am compelled to donate my time and effort toward raising money for the great organization that is The American Cancer Society as well as honoring friends and family who have fought against this disease.

Every amount, no matter how small, makes a difference and provides hope. My challenge to you all is to get involved. Join a local Relay for Life team (or start your own!) or if you would like to make a donation, please visit my personal Relay page.

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/JenRelay