eleven weekend realizations

1. Find out who your true friends are, sooner rather than later
2. Do not, I repeat, do NOT - use the internet inappropriately at work
3. Inevitably, when you look and feel cute, you won't see anyone you know when you go out on the weekend. But when you look a hot mess and feel like crap, you will see ten people you know
4. The sound of a box fan in the window on a sunny day makes my heart go pitter-patter
5. One day of sunshine in Seattle = six days of rain
6. It's ok to stay in on a Saturday evening to catch up on laundry, do your dishes, and cuddle with your husband who is playing x-box - ps, I make a pretty good grilled cheese sandwich, or so I'm told :)
7. It always feels good to come back to Mom and Dad's house - especially on holidays - food for days!
8. 'Love and Other Drugs' had a lot more sex in it than I was expecting, alas, it was still a really good love story.
9. Pepsi slurpees from AM/PM are not, I repeat, are NOT as good as Coke slurpees from 711.
10. I should've video taped me teaching my dad how to use/download apps on his new iPhone4 - pretty funny
11. New mascara always makes me feel better

Here's to a better/less emotional/up-coming week.

But to be honest, I'm already looking forward to next weekend: hopefully going here and seeing this

Until then just for good measure, I wanted to share this with you, found it on Pinterest this weekend and I kind of love it :)

weekend loves

not having to set an alarm


being woken up by him

rolling over [with half still sleepy eyes] to see if Bryan is awake yet


secretly creeping out of bed if he is, time to catch up on my SVU, do the laundry, and have me time


if he is, cuddling between Harley and him, and laughing about our silly dreams during our slumber


pulling the blinds open to let the day shine in, and the sunshine if I'm so lucky


making breakfast burriots, my weekend speciality


lighting candles and turning on the Scentsy to make it smell better than 'sleep'


greeting the day, at about eleven - I'm okay with that


spending time with family, making it a late night of laughing, games and contentment


taking road trips up, up, up into the mountains


picking up dirty clothes that have been strewn on the floor from the day


the weekend'ly trip to the grocery to buy groceries for the coming week


snuggling back into bed, finding the cold spot in the sheets, and ready to do it all over again 


what are the things about your weekends that you love?


ps - HP7 came out this weekend - makes me excited all over again for the second part to come out in July!!! Until then:

weekend wrap-up round four!

Good morning!

I trust you all had amazing weekends! I got to sleep in a little, hang out with these lovely ladies AND have a -

sleepover with Sophie!

I spent most of the weekend in bed, surrounded by tissues, sniffling. Needless to say, I'm sicky. However, Friday evening was the highlight of my weekend. I got to pick up Sophia for an evening of Auntie/Niecey fun :)

1. If you can't see, she was picking dandlions for me. How did she ever know they are my favorite?! ;)

2. The our shoes - wouldn't it be fabulous if you didn't have to grow up and just wear princess high heels forever? She walked through 711 and Walmart clicking those little suckers like there was no tomorrow! 

3. In the car singing 'Baby Beluga' and telling me about what letter she learned on Friday at school. It was 'W' by the way, then we proceeded to talk about words that started with 'W' - white, wiggle, waffle, etc. 

4. All snuggled up, full of yummy pizza and juice, watching 'The Legend of the Guardians' - which by the way, is kinda scary for little kids!

I loved every minute I got to spend with her♥

can't wait to tell you my favorite part in tomorrow's Tuesday Letter :)

weekend wrap up round three!

Sunday = Funday

We spent the afternoon at Alki, Pike Place Market, the Seattle waterfront, and ended up on Queen Anne Hill for some fabulous Thai food - whew! It was still pretty overcast and chilly, but one thing is for sure in Seattle, if it's not raining - GET OUTSIDE! 

We had to visit Pike Place so Bryan could get some of the roasted candied nuts we had seen when we went for Valentine's day

[insert numerous extremely immature 'nut' jokes here]

We then enjoyed a stroll down town. I absolutely love Seattle in the spring. Pike Place is booming with gorgeous flowers, fresh produce, and lots of interesting people. But most of all I just like being in the city. I'm not gonna lie, I was channeling my inner Carrie Bradshaw strolling down the cobble streets, arm in arm with Bryan, and cafe latte in hand. Not sure if the 'city life' is for me but it definitely is great for a fun afternoon.

We also marveled the beautiful architecture and again, gorgeous flowers!

And just had so much fun I was smiling THIS big at the Ye Old Curiosity Shop!

I hope your weekend was so fun whether you stayed at home in your jamies or were out on the town with friends and family :)

PS - Please pray for Bryan, he is down with a cold this week :( Also! I have a couple of fun posts in store for this week - stay tuned!

that's a wrap - round two!

Whew!
We had a mighty full weekend indeed!

Bryan and I enjoyed a wonderful date night on Friday evening. Complete with Italian food, Redbox, and our faithful friends - Ben & Jerry's. We watched:

[Which was fabulous because I have a serious girl crush on Rachel McAdams]

[I think Shia Labeouf  and Carey Mulligan are super cute, and Michael Douglas is classic]

Saturday was spent at none other than the bowling alley with Bryan's dad and his girlfriend. I gotta say, I'm not a HUGE bowling fan. I like to go and watch, but that's where it ends for me. I know, I know it's not American - I'm sorry! :) But I did get a cute picture out of it :)

Saturday evening we treated ourselves to another amazing dinner, this time to celebrate a few birthdays! Steak and lobster for Bry and steak and crab for me - oh boy were our bellies full and wallet a little lighter. It was well worth it though. I caught this super cute scene - the boys playing pretend with Sophie, they were all on their cell phones talking with each other :)

Sunday was Christine's birthday. In 2004 Bryan came home to tell his mom and sister that he was dating a cheerleader. His sister exclaimed, "What the he**?! Are you crazy?!" And that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship :)We've been through so much through these short six years - and I can't wait to see what our friendship and futures hold!  I love you Christine!

[We always know how to have a fun time!]

And last but not least we ended the night off cuddling with this chunkamunk.

Successful weekend?! I think yes!

ps - I logged onto Blogger this morning and saw I won a giveaway from Ashly @ Moon Walk! Heck yesss!

that's a wrap!

Good morning my friends!

I've had a couple cups of coffee and I'm finally ready to greet the day!

I hope your weekend was wonderful! We enjoyed a little bit of sunshine here, it was glorious! I woke up on Saturday morning [please note I woke up BEFORE Bryan] and it was so beautiful outside I HAD to be in it. I bundled up [because even though as much as I'd like it to be summer, it's still late winter/early spring and it's chilly] and when outside to bask in the beautiful firey ball in the sky :)

Our weekend was great but as always went by extremely too fast.

Here are some of the highlights

On Friday I saw this movie with my mama - love her and this movie!

The Lincoln Lawyer -

Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, AND Josh Lucas

 Bought these new shoes, they are SUPER comfy and kinda cute!

New shoes!

On Saturday we attended a Luck-O-The-Irish party and drank my share of Leprechaun juice...obviously.

and hung out with some pretty wonderful people :)

On Sunday we attended an awesome fundraiser for the Amanda Knox Defense Fund. I haven't talked about this yet but I plan on blogging about it on Wednesday and giving you credible sites to read about Amanda's story and ways you can help. Bryan's family grew up with the Knox's, Curt and Bryan's dad are best friends, and we support the entire Knox family 100%. We were happy and excited to help in any way we can!

My mom and Hanna even came to support

Bryan bowling

via 

Rocking my 'Free Amanda and Raffaele' shirt

After the excitement of the afternoon it was time to come home and snuggle with this little man, so precious.

All in all our weekend was great. Eventful, family filled, and busy - just the way we like it! Hope you all had a great weekend as well! Check out my post from Saturday if you missed it, it might make you giggle a little :)

Happy Monday!

Let's make it a great week :)

Ready for the weekend & a yummy recipe

Ohmylanta! I thought the weekend would NEVER get here!

Monday was great, Tuesday was ok, Wednesday is when it all started going down hill - I've had an emotional latter part of the week, but I am in full belief that this weekend holds much happiness! 

I'm hoping to visit this baby girl after work

You might rememer her from here - she was still in her mommy's tummy :)

Welcome to the world Iyla Vonn Sas <3

After that my best friend Kelsy - who you might remember from here and here, is coming to spend the weekend with me. I love her more that Harry loves Ginny.

AND we will be going out for some pomegranite margaritas with a few amazing co-workers who you might remember from here and here.

Ahhhh yes, just what I needed after a crazy-busy-hectic-tearful week!

But before I depart to spend a weekend relaxing and with good company, I had to share this recipe with you! I've made it before and Bryan and I absolutely love it and I hope you do too! I tweaked a little bit since it calls to grill it (which I'm sure would be delish) but it was in the 40's here last night I decided to stay inside. Serve it over rice or with some garlic toast, either way it's a crowd pleaser :)

Mock Lobster - from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 packed TBSP brown sugar

1 tsp dry powdered mustard

2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup pineapple juice

6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I use the filets)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400degrees F

2. In a saucepan, combine the soy sauce, oil, garlic salt, pepper, brown sugar, mustard powder, ginger and pineapple juice. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for about 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. When cooled, place the chicken into a large resealable bag and pour the marinade over it. Press out as much air as you can, seal and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to marinate.

3. Place chicken and a little bit of the marinade in a glass baking dish and bake at 400degrees F for about 30 minutes, flipping the chicken over after 15 minutes. Cut into the chicken to make sure cooked all the way through and the juices run clear.

My two cents:

-Again, I put in the oven instead of grilling it and it turned out really nice. Just keep an eye on it, since there is soy sauce in the marinade the juice tends to burn a little if you leave it too long.

-The chicken is nice and tender after sitting in the marinade, try and leave it in longer than 2 hours if possible so it soaks as long as possible. I try to use thin filets as opposed to thick breasts, I just like the taste better.

-The marinade is pretty salty so no need to add additional salt.

What are you doing on this fine weekend?

Making any yummy recipes?

Going somewhere fun?

What ever you do or make  I hope it's wonderful♥

Recipes up the WAZOO!

This weekend went by entirely too fast! Anyone else agree? Dang I wish there were more hours in a day!

We had such a busy weekend - but so much fun! Hope this isn't too big of a post.

First, my baby sister went to her first dance... with a boy! If you remember, back in October she had gone to Homecoming but it was just with her group of girlfriends. I went over to my parent's house on Saturday, curled her hair and applied her make up for her - I can't help but get choked up when I look at her, she looked absolutely beautiful!

B-E-Autiful

The theme was 'Beauty and the Geek'

Proud big sissy right there :)

And yesterday, I managed to make some really tasty things for Superbowl 45 yesterday! Let me just show you!

Jalapeno Popper Dip

Ingredients:

2 8oz bricks of cream cheese (I like Philly but you can use the store brand too)

1-1 1/4 cup of mayo

1 6oz bag of Parmesan cheese

 1 4oz can of diced jalapenos

 1 4oz can of diced green chilies

Directions:

1. Soften the cream cheese to room temperature, combine with mayo, can of chilies, half can of jalapenos, and half the bag of Parmesan cheese.

 2. Pour into an oven safe dish, sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese on the top of the mixture

3. Bake at 350degrees F until bubbly golden brown on the top.

My two cents:

-Depending on how spicy you like things, you can add the entire can of jalapenos but beware like Nelly says - It gets a little hot in here!
-You can serve with cut up chunks of crusty bread or Triscuits (my favorite)

Buffalo Chicken Potato Skins
Ingredients:
4 chicken breast fillets (or thin cut chicken breasts)
4 TBSP butter
1/2 - 1 cup buffalo sauce (I use Frank's)
5-10 Russet potatoes
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
2 TBSP olive oil

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400degrees F
2. Wash, dry and wrap in foil the potatoes, place in preheated oven for about an hour or until you pierce it with fork and it's soft inside.
while potatoes are baking
3. Dice raw chicken into small bite size pieces (about 1/2 inch)
4. Melt 2TBSP butter over medium/high heat and saute chicken for about 5-8 minutes (or until juices run clear and chicken is no longer pink inside), add salt and pepper to taste.
5. In another saucepan, melt 2 TBSP of butter, add the hot sauce and mix together.
6. When chicken is done, toss together with the hot sauce.
7. When potatoes are finished baking, remove from oven and immediately open from foil. Wait until cool enough to handle, cut in half and scoop out the guts. Be careful not to scoop down too far or you will break the skin.

8. Turn potato skins over and brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake in oven for about 5 minutes

9. Remove skins from oven, flip back over and fill with buffalo chicken pieces, sprinkle each little 'boat' with a little bit of cheese.
10. Place potato boats back in the oven for about 3-4 minutes until cheese melts and serve immediately - enjoy! :)

My two cents:
-These little guys are spicy, so again, depending how much spicy you can handle, go easy on the hot sauce to coat the chicken.
-I gotta pat myself on the back for a minute because I've never been able to 'gut' a potato for twice baked potatoes or anything, so I was really excited I was able to do it this time! :)
-Spoon a little of the extra juice in each boat to make spicier

I also made a super easy salsa from 5th Belle Avenue! Here are the ingredients, just chop the cilantro and onion and mix everything together. Serve with tortilla chips and enjoy!

it made a LOT more than this, I just forgot to take a picture before everyone dished up

Whew, that felt good! Hadn't cooked like that in a loooong time!

Also, I have a confession, I did not get things unpacked like I'd hoped - I got a few things here and there but not thing big unpacking I was shooting for, hopefully this week and weekend I can continually work on it, I'm not giving up on me yet! :)

How were YOUR superbowl weekends?! Any must try recipes?! Leave me your link if you did make something yummy! :)

PS - did anyone else LOVE Glee last night? The Lady A song was soo good!

Kenny Loggins says & Happy Friday

"Love the girl who holds the world in a paper cup, drink it up,
Love her and she'll bring you luck.
And if you find she helps your mind, buddy, take her home,
Don't you live alone, try to earn what lovers own.

And even though we ain't got money, I'm so in love with ya honey,
And everything will bring a chain of love.
And in the morning when I rise, you bring a tear of joy to my eyes,
And tell me everything is gonna be alright. "


Happy Friday my friends! What does the weekend have in store for you?!

You'll have to check back with me on Monday, I'm going to be cookin up some yummy recipes this weekend!

-Jalapeno popper dip

-Stuffed mushrooms

-cupcakes? Oh my!

Oh Superbowl, how I love thee, not for the game, but for the oh-so-yummy treats, funny commercials, and smokin' half time shows!

PS - wish me luck, I'm diving into those plastic tubs this weekend, I will get everything unpacked and hung up, afterall, I made a contract with myself. AND, it's nothing special, but I bought our first piece of art for our home, [oh you fancy huh?] No... It's just from BB&B but it's pretty and I can't wait to hang it up :)