finished early - yay!

Worked from home today so that i could focus and finish my audits early - success! So happy that I am done early! I did not want to work on Saturday as I will be flying out Sunday for a week to Seattle. Going for work and I am super excited - will be a fun trip and I get to go with my work bestie Monica - yay! 

Some photos from this week....warning food pics ahead! I have been cooking a lot it seems lately!

First - check out the beautiful flowers I picked up at the Farmers Market Saturday - so pretty! We hung out at the market then enjoyed the sunshine & awesome weather on the patio at iTap - fun!

Took Bebe for a walk on Sunday....she had her first "run" off leash since her surgery - she was so excited to frolic in the grass - was so cute :) I am so happy she has made such a great recovery - hopefully no more surgeries!

Made an angel food cake for the first time this week - was easy to make but....didn't realize it had to cool upside down on a glass bottle! The only bottles we have in this house are beer bottles! So - this had to do - but it worked great actually! The cake turned out really good!

Finished product - YUM! Wanted a semi-healthy desert in the house and this hit the spot - so good!

 I seriously may need a chicken gyro intervention.... i LOVE these! This is actually on a whole wheat pita - I think I prefer the white - and the white actually has less calories but - this was still DELISH! The tzatziki sauce is made with greek yogurt, cucumber, dill, lemon juice & red wine vinegar - delicious! Loving the greek salad too - in fact, I am making this again for dinner tonight.... not joking when I say I need help...addicted!

Last night we decided to go to Iron Barley for dinner as we have not been in ages...pic of the beer taps

Chad and I both ordered the same thing - Scnitzel and Spaetzle - good german food - I ate about 1/2 of this and Chad took the rest to work for lunch today but - DAMN, this was amazing! So so soooo good!

I had to try this margarita as it sounded so intriguing - Mango & Chipotle - wow!! I loved it as it was more sour than sweet and had a hint of spicy hotness from the pepper - was fantastic! But - I would say you would only need one - otherwise the spice may get the best of ya....but, definitely tasty!

Then for dessert we had the Peanut Butter Blaster - i have blogged about this dessert before - SO AWESOME!

 So today I have been working hard and now - time to walk the girls and think I may actually head out to the mall and shop for a bit - need some new duds for Seattle next week!! :)

Catch up!

I really need to blog more than once a week - makes it hard to catch up on everything! Let's see - first off I tried two new recipes this week from SkinnyTaste - they were both soooo good!

I had been eyeballing these Broccoli and Cheese Mini Egg Omelets for quite some time, and a friend of mine made them and said the were awesome so, thought I would give them a try. WOW - loved them! I  love the fact that you can make a batch and wrap them up for quick a breakfast during the week = more sleep time for me!

Pics aren't so hot but trust me - these were so yummy! And healthy - double bonus points :) I also tried out the recipe for the Santa Fe Stuffed Peppers as I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand and needed to use them up. these were AWESOME! It was great to have leftovers - I topped mine with about a tablespoon of fat free plain greek yogurt and oh wow - delish! So easy - will be making these again soon. I did tweak the recipe accidentally - I was adding some more chili powder....uhhh or what I thought was chili powder - to give it some more kick and whoops grabbed the cinnamon - DER. And guess what - it was still delish! I do think I will omit the cinnamon next time however ;)

In my quest to up the veggies & fruits - check out the mutant blackberries I found at Costco.....crazy! Now yes I do have smallish hands but - DANG - this was one huge ass blackberry!

Love love LOVE these new sandals - I have already thought that I should go and get a second pair - once i fall in love with a sandal I tend to wear the hell out of it. Picked these up at Marshall's for under $20 and - so comfy, so cute & the silver matches damn near everything - LOVE!

 Thursday night was Girls Night Out! Met Erin & Laura for our favorite martinis at Sidney Street Cafe -  slightly dirty with blue cheese stuffed olives - Oh. So. Yummy.

We had an absolute blast - i laughed so hard I cried more than a few times. Love my girlfriends!
We decided to order apps for dinner & share  - went with the Veal Dumplings, Lobster Turnovers & Artisan Cheese plate .....fantastic!!

The veal dumplings are ah-may-zing! soooo gooooood! Sorry baby cow :(

Big fail on getting a pic of us together but - about to hit the farmer's market with them for veggie shopping and bloody mary's so... will try and get better pics today :)

Chad surprised me with tickets to the Symphony! What an amazing hubby I have :) love him! It was my first time and i loved it - can't wait to go back! The hall was stunning - the chandeliers were gorgeous and look at the ceiling - hand carved and just amazing....

It was an official date - Chad wore a suit and everything :) Fantastic Friday night!

This weekend is already off to such a great start - Hope everyone is having an equally awesome weekend! Cheers!! :)

Great Weekend :)

What a great weekend! I have enjoyed my three days off to the fullest :)

Friday - we had a few drinks at 33 - this is a wine bar up the street from us - the wine list there is intense, actually overwhelming for me. So - I like to just tell them what type of wine I usually drink (white and dry) and let them pick for me. Love it - and once the weather warms up - they have an awesome patio.

Chad being goofy for my pics :) I told him he looked like he just got off of a crabbing/fishing expedition here lol... he is loving his beard :)

Saturday was Microfest at Forrest Park - we had free VIP tickets compliments of iTap - YAY! This was such a fun afternoon/night!

Will on the brewer's panel - we were making faces at him from the back row :)

Sunday morning belly rubs with my sweet girl... love her so much!

Chad made french toast for us Sunday morning - he even made the bread from scratch Friday afternoon - was delish!

Sunday afternoon drinks at The Shanti - blues band and margaritas - yes please!

Chad's 500th beer at iTap - officially can check that off the bucket list!

We had a lazy day today but stopped into the Flying Saucer downtown (across from the stadium) for a couple afternoon beers - perfect way to spend a day off!

Great way to spend Monday - Cheers to a fantastic week! :)

New Hair!

So i finally made it into the salon - my hair was looking terrible - can't believe I went soooo long without a cut and color. I decided it was time to change things up a bit.....BANGS! Pics I snapped for my seeester :)

Love how creepy i look in this pic lol

 aaaand the white washed glossy one for FB :)

So excited - love them! Chad was funny when I walked in with my new 'do....

Me:  So....what do you think?!

Chad: WOW....you look like a porn star!!!

Me: huh?? What does that mean?

Chad: HOT!

haaaa! This made me laugh. Not sure if bangs equate to porn star....maybe it was my new bra. Anyway....excited to be blond again and have a change. Hope everyone is having an awesome Saturday!

Weekend!!!!

gotta say - i am especially excited for Friday to be here. This week has been tough! Work wise it has just been an intense week with some stressful moments - all resolved and over but day-um I am really looking forward to a few days off! I decided to take vacation on Monday so - YAY for a 3 day weekend. Even if it is suppossed to rain a majority of it - I will take it!

So, confession time....the past few weeks in dealing with my emotions - I have not been the healthiest. What can I say, I am an emotional eater and pair that with some situational depression and a few fat smacky pinterest recipes and yep....that equates to a diet disaster!

Like this Lemony Lemon Cake.....

I may or may not have made this cake and ate almost the whole thing (ok Chad had about 2 pieces and I sent Will home one night with 3 pieces) but yep...I ate the rest of it. Boo. But wow - talk about a damn good cake! Recipe is HERE on this site if you are interested - Damn. Good. Cake.

And yep...I also made some homemade Cinnamon Banana Bread....this was pretty freaking good too but - I thankfully only had a few slices over a week - but YUM - perfect with a cup of coffee! Very easy and quick - recipe HERE

Oh and on top of all those goodies at home - an awesome bakery just opened in our neighborhood - The Sweet Divine - they have won twice on Food Network's Cupcake Wars - YUM! Chad and I stopped in last Sunday and picked up a few - Salted Carmel is still hands-down the BEST!

So yeah....while it was fun while it lasted - time to get a grip and put down the cake/cupcake/banana bread!  I have focused this week on upping my fruit and veggie uptake, egg white omelets for breakfast, cut back on booze, portion control, even switched my coffee creamer to non-dairy coconut milk...you know the routine. So - back to 90/10 healthy eating and feeling much much better :)

Been spending a lot of time on our patio - love it so much - here is a shot - still have a lot to do but - i love it so much!

I saw this water fountain at Lowe's - i adore it but - still not sure how to make it work on our patio...I am going to see if I can find a spot for it - LOVE!

Here are some beautiful flowers my sister Mykla sent me..... love the color!

 I also picked up some fun polish colors.... love the blue and orange!

Flower is Drew Barrymore's line - love it! OK - Friday is here - off to have a drink with Chad and Will - later taters!

Some sad news -

So i have been debating on when or even if I would share this on here but - I think it will help me to heal and get some closure so - will just put it out there. The past six weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions for me - for us. We found out the Monday after our last big snow that I was pregnant - we were so very excited! But we found out at my doctor's appointment two weeks ago that the pregnancy had stopped developing a little before the 6 week mark. I can't fully describe how difficult it was that day to hear the news - see the empty ultrasound and deal with such disappointment. I was truly heartbroken. I think I cried harder that day (and night) than I have ever before.

We had told a few family members and friends that we were expecting (out of necessity...people were curious as to why on a Saturday night I was asleep by 7:30 versus having an adult beverage lol) and although it has been painful to explain our loss - it has really helped me to accept and move forward. Everyone has been so comforting and I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart. It has also surprised me how common it is - I have found out that many of my friends have experienced this as well. My doctor said her estimation is that 25-40% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage.

Of course I have racked my brain wondering if it was somehow my fault - or something I could have done differently. But what we found out is that my blood type is rh negative - Chad's blood type is positive. The baby was likely a positive blood type and my body rejected it based on that, which stopped the development. Luckily there is a shot what will prevent that in any future pregnancy and I had that once we found out about our loss. Of course - there is no way to know if that was 100% why it happened but - the good news is that my doctor is very positive about a future healthy pregnancy & was very encouraging. She said the chances of it occurring again are very slim & it was great news that we conceived easily at my ripe old age of 38 - ha. So - she was encouraging that in time, we will be blessed with a healthy pregnancy. I know in my heart that when the time is right - it will happen for us.

And so...with that I am going to take the next few months to focus on my health - physically, emotionally & spiritually. As my sister Stacy says - Upward & Onward :) Again -not sharing this for sympathy, it just helps me to process our loss and move forward. My life has been so fortunate thus far and continues to be - I am such a lucky girl to have my supportive & loving husband and all my sweet family & friends - thank you to each of you for being in my life! And the good news is that I am healing and starting to feel like myself again - almost there 100% :)

Much needed FUN weekend :)

I have been slacking on the blogging lately - not because I have not wanted to blog - just have had a lot going on. This week was a downer - for reasons I won't go into :( sad week but - I am ok. Sorry to be so cryptic, just not ready to share yet. But - no worries - I am doing good. So - after muddling through the week - I needed a positive and fun weekend!

I took Bebe for her morning walk yesterday - even though the temperature was cooler - spring is finally here and flowers are starting to bloom! I love our park - it is beautiful this time of year and I can't wait until everything starts to fully bloom.....not so good for Chad's allergies but, everything is starting to look gorgeous! Bebe stopped about every 10 feet to smell all the flowers :) so cute!

We have been busy getting our patio ready for spring/summer - we are doing square foot planters in the back and planting veggies - so excited! Chad did an awesome job and made these himself - my hubby is the best :)

After we finished that morning project - we decided to check out Food Truck Fest at 4Hands - it was a smaller version of the big Food Truck meetups that will kick off here in a month or so - there were about a dozen food trucks - Chad got his Seoul Taco (so good!) and I went with a chicken gyro from My Big Fat Greek Food Truck - what can I say, I have been on a gyro kick lately - it was delicious! No pics - sorry - next time :) From there we met up with everyone for the Tap-N-Run race - we decided to skip the race portion this year and take it all in as spectators - so many crazy costumes, was awesome!

Erin & Alan.... Erin looked so cute with her little Sombrero!

Alan and his wigs - love it....

Les & Alan - always have a bromance going on!

Me & Chad - my hair was so messy yesterday thanks to windy weather...

Ran into my friend Jude! She was running with a team of peeps - Her bib said "Drink A What?!??!?!!" - Gotta love it! :)

Will tried on the wig.....we almost forgot what he looked like with long hair since it was chopped at last years tap-n-run!

Erin & Alejandro - he was The Hamburglar - loved his home-made costume! Such a funny guy :)

Me & E!

Me & Will - looks kinda Joe Dirt here lol

Chad and the mullet.... grizzly adams lookout!

The crew at Nadine's - such a fun Saturday!

So today is full of more yardwork - we are finishing off the square foot planters - time to plant the veggies - I also found this little project on Pinterest that I am going to try.....looks somewhat easy to do and i think it would look nice on our patio..... Flower Tower! Trying to insert the pin but cannot figure it out - here is a pic of the pin and you can view the girls youtube instructional video HERE

I think once it fills out will look really pretty on the back patio - I am going to try one and see how it goes - hopefully it is a success and not a Pintrosity! Also going to work on cleaning up our front yard - we had a bunch of small trees/bushes die over the winter due to some sort of tree blight - there are dead ones all over the neighborhood....taking those out and planting new ones - maybe some grilling out later -  hope everyone has a fun Sunday ahead!