Awards on Awards {what what}

Kate at Another Clean Slate nominated all the blogs on her Let's Be Friends page to have a Sunshine Award, and since I'm one of those ladies, yeahh it's Q&A time!  ALSO to double your fun, Amy at The Crazy Wise Woman nominated me for my fourth ever Liebster!  So I'm also going to answer those questions.  Enjoy learning more weird facts about me everyone!  

The rules are pretty simple....answer the questions and pass the love on for others to answer.  I'm answering the same ones Kate answered since that keeps it easy and I will also just pass the same ones along to anyone who is reading this and thinks it would be fun to do! 

Where were you born? 

I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  
Do you prefer romantic comedies or suspense thrillers? 

I think I like both, but it depends on my mood.  I probably like dramas more than either of the above categories.
What is your favorite sport (to watch or to participate 

Football to watch, always.  I don't know there is another sport I will watch as intently as football.
What is your favorite sound? 

I love the sound of a wine cork coming out of the bottle, or when I hear Barley's tags jingling towards me when I come in the door after a long day of work.

Coke or Pepsi? 

HA.  Up until September 26th, 2013, I had never had a real Coca-Cola.  At least that I can remember.  So maybe when I was a kid I probably did, but Coke and/or Pepsi are not something that have been a part of my "adult" life.  In fact, Bryan gives me crap a lot for not being able to finish those 8 oz. cans of Diet Coke.  So yeah..um Diet Coke is my answer.

Do you have a special talent? 

I don't know...I think I am good at being a puppy mom and wife.  And I'm also very detail-oriented, so that makes me good at reviewing documents and finding small details others might overlook, which also makes me well-suited for my job, weird.

PC or Mac?  

PC now, but I don't totally detest Mac like I used to.  I still have a rough time using them though.  Wow, just aged myself about 20 years.  Cool.

What is your favorite vacation spot?  

We don't really go anywhere regularly, but I always loved going to northern Wisconsin and spending a week at a cabin, just relaxing in the summer by the lake.  So probably at a lake.  OR let's go big and go to Italy.

Do you collect anything? 

I collect Christmas ornaments!  Well, I buy one every time I go somewhere new or we go somewhere new together.  My goal is to have a tree dedicated to our travels and memories one day.  

If you could instantly be an expert in any field, what would it be? I would LOVE to be an epidemiologist.  I think studying how a disease spreads, originates, etc.  would be amazing and fascinating and wonderful.  I love reading books that trace the history of diseases (And the Band Played On..., The Great Influenza, seriously I've read a bunch.

And here are Amy's questions, I removed some duplicates that were repeats or similar to the ones that Kate had, etc.  No one cares enough to read twice where I grew up/am from, haha.

What do you do for a living and is it what you thought you would be doing?  

I work in an industry I didn't picture for myself, but I really love it.

Who inspires you the most?  

Gosh, cliche maybe, but my mom.  She is gracious and kind and tough and thoughtful and remarkable.

Describe your perfect Friday night?  

It's two scenarios:  Dinner and drinks after work with friends OR at home, in pj's ordering Chinese and watching Netflix by 7 PM.  We do both regularly and I truly love them both equally.

What is your favorite holiday and why?  

Christmas because it's so many of my favorite things:  food, family, Christmas music, a real reason for celebration (yes, we're talking about the birth of Jesus here), and just relaxing and enjoying the company of those your with.  So in that vein, Thanksgiving is a close second for me.   

What is your favorite family recipe? And please share it with us!  

Ohh wow.  My mom has passed so many along.  Her recipe for Slow Cooker Swiss Steak is the best though. I don't know that it's a "family" recipe, but it's become a favorite in recent years.

Ingredients:  

1 1/2 lbs. of round steak or whatever beef cut into 1'' chunks/pieces/slices (you could get stir fry beef, etc.)

8 oz. of sliced mushrooms

1 yellow onion, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced

1 Tablespoon of minced garlic

1 can of fire-roasted tomatoes

1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce

1/2 c. of water

1 package of brown gravy mix.  

1/2 tsp. each of salt and pepper.

Directions: 

1.  Combine steak, mushrooms, onion, garlic, and pepper into slow cooker.

2.  Combine tomatoes, tomato sauce, gravy packet, water and salt and pepper, then pour over steak and veggies.  Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours.

3.  Serve over mashed potatoes.

Your tummy will thank you! I plan on sharing our recipe for Caramel Pecan Rolls this holiday season so stay tuned for that because it's ridiculous.

Give me one guilty pleasure...

Anything that includes both peanut butter and chocolate.  My husband does not buy me valentine's boxes of heart chocolates, he just gets a bag of reese's hearts and puts them in the freezer.  The man knows me, what can I say?

Describe yourself in 5 words.

hard-working, spirited, tough, sarcastic, and loving

Post me a great selfie or one that you think just sums you up!

If you could sit down with anyone for an hour and talk... living or dead... who would it be?

Former First Ladies, especially Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush.

How do you like your eggs?

Scrambled or in an omelette. 

Ok so now it's your turn, if you are one of my readers then I already adore you so I pass any and all of these questions along to you! Find my other Libester answers here!

The Grinch Who Stole Fall {aka me}

Oh hey there everyone loving fall and posting the million awesome fall things you're going to do...let's talk about why I'm over fall before it's even hit Texas, and despite the fact that it's only October 1st.

FYI everyone, it will not be "fall" by weather definition until like, December here.  All other Texan readers feel free to correct me, but last year on Thanksgiving I remember it being in the 70s.  So maybe that's considered Texas fall?!

So maybe it is the weather, maybe it's jealousy, I have no idea, but I am so tired of reading about fall bucket lists.  This might be unpopular of me to say but it's too late now, and no, I am not sorry.  So I am a little bit like the Grinch who stole fall now, and I shall embrace that title!

Proof that at least one other person agrees with me and this is what inspired my post today.

Although I *do* genuinely enjoy fall things and pumpkins and halloween candy, here are three things I won't be doing this fall and three things that I will get past my grinch-ness to do. 

1.  Making pumpkin s'mores while crafting a pumpkin garland while wearing pajamas made of pumpkin while drinking liquefied pumpkin infused with cinnamon pumpkin vodka while watching a show about how to integrate pumpkin into 100% of your life all the time always.

I love pumpkin in bread, pie, and cake form. But I seriously feel like the envelope is being pushed withe the pumpkin stuff on Pinterest lately.  Roasting pumpkin seeds is also totally acceptable!

2.  Being murdered or worse, just touched by a character at a haunted house/forest/corn maze/basement.

I hate haunted houses so much.  Along the same premise of the scary movie, WHY would I pay anyone to scare me?! One time in high school I faked puking at a haunted house so I didn't have to go in. I get anxiety even thinking about it now.

3.  Wearing awesome boots, sweaters and leggings combos.

So this one is just pure jealousy!  Not gonna lie, I miss the fall wardrobe options I used to have in the Midwest...sweaters, boots, scarves, cute hats and coats.  Yes, this one is all jealousy.  Sunday I tried this..I got leggings, and a slouchy striped sweatshirt out which was warm enough, so I ended up with sandals on.  That's literally as close as I will get to a fall outfit and I just need to accept it and move on.

Ok, so here are three fall bucket-list things I will  happily do!  This is the portion of the list where I prove I do not hate all things fall.

1.  Baking a pie.  

I will not bake it until Thanksgiving, but I will bake at least one or two pies for Turkey day.  I made my very first pumpkin pie last year, and also made an apple crisp we loved.  So I'm all about the warm fall desserts.

2.  Eating lots of Honeycrisp apples.

Weirrrrddd (heavy dose of sarcasm here), but I haven't seen this on a lot of bucket lists despite the fact that HC apples are only available in fall.  Truly, HCs are one of my favorite things about the fall season, so I definitely look forward to this every year.

3.  Decorating for fall.

I kind of want to shun this, but I was out at Target and saw lots of nice decorative items, and I'm thinking of taking a lunch-hour detour to Kirkland's this week at work. I am actually planning on making cheesecloth ghosts for us; here is the pin I will be working from, hopefully get this done during the week or over next weekend!


I am also going to haul out some of the other fall decorations we have.  I usually put a strand of pumpkin lights into a big glass bowl or vase thingy and have mostly neutral fall decs, not huge into having to do Halloween AND Thanksgiving, so I stick to pumpkins and things of that nature for the most part.  Honestly I think a nicely scented fall candle just about does the trick for me now, and is pretty low-maintenance.

What will you be passing on and going for this fall season?!  Do you ever feel like the holiday/seasons get totally over-done online?

Bye September! {weekend recap}

So this was totally one of those weekends where you thought you were relaxing the whole time but it turns out you were just making yourself tired most of the time, which you find out Sunday night when you're utterly exhausted.  We were supposed to have our anniversary pics taken, but the good old Texas weather put a stop to that.  It rained on and off ALL DAY here on Saturday, so we deemed it too unpredictable.

Anyways, Friday night we went out to El Tiempo with some friends--we had never been to an El Tiempo and I gotta say, I was impressed, really good food!  I had fajita chicken tacos and was pleasantly surprised at how fresh they tasted.  Also, I maybe had like four margaritas.  They were well-deserved, don't worry.

Most of these pics are from Saturday I think.  Bryan and I en route to our friend's house to watch the A&M and Badger games and the delicious chili they made in a HUGE enormous giant pot.  I've only seen that stuff out at crawfish boils...actually maybe that's why they have it.

ANYWAYS, down in the corner we have one of their dogs, Penny, who is a delightful little wiener dog.  The guys rag on her for being annoying but I think she's cute.  Barley had quite the weekend...he had two mornings at the dog park, and this resulted in a nice long nap with his dad on the couch Sunday afternoon.

Yay for new nail polish!  I picked up the dark blue/teal-ish one a week or two ago, it's called "go overboard" and I kinda love it.  I was being against dark polish since it's still so nice out here, but it feels right.  Then I went to Target on Sunday and found the other new one, "the lace is on", which I'm super excited to try out. 

And I think we all know this wouldn't be a weekend recap without me mentioning food, so I will just share that Sunday night I grilled up a bunch of jalapeno spiced chicken breasts, veggie kabobs and some brown rice and put together my lunches for the whole week.  I am pretty proud of this!  I did the same thing last week minus the chicken, and I felt really good about what I was eating, but I needed some mid-day protein.  Little wins make a big difference, right?! 

I also need to mention all of the TV from Sunday night.  No, I don't watch Breaking Bad, but I was anxiously awaiting the return of Homeland.  I won't spoil it for anyone, but it was kinda meh in my opinion.  It will be interesting to see where they take this season since right now I feel like it could go a million ways. Also watched Betrayal on ABC last night and I'm semi-intrigued.  Everyone loves a good (fictional) affair and legal drama, right?! We also DVR'd Masters of Sex, the new Showtime series, so more to come on that.

Overall, a great weekend, and this upcoming week is chock full of plans and things to do!  Wednesday early evening is a reception for work, Thursday is BINGO with other lovely Houston bloggers, and Friday night it's party time again for the owner of my company's birthday!  So mostly just need to break through the first couple days of the week.    

Happy Monday everyone!

Four Pics, Friday Five {hello weekend}

K, no one smack me but this is the first Friday I have worked all of September, and fittingly, it is the last Friday of September!  This week kinda flew by, I was busy in a good way at work, we potty-trained puppy to about an 80% success rate, and I got my first blow-out.  Next week is also jam-packed with activities, so I'm happy to have a pretty low-key weekend planned.

1.  I made this recipe for Thai Noodles and Chicken this week.  It was awesome and easy and delicious.  Total keeper. 

2.  Puppy had a winning week prancing around in his new Packers bandanna.  He got a full day of Dad time when Bryan had off on Monday, and as I mentioned earlier, he is about 80% there with being fully potty-trained to go outside.  We are still working on the "holding it" concept...like you can't just go potty in the corner because you feel like it and you just polished off your water.  So win for us!

3.  A few things here--it was 91 degrees out at 6:30 pm on Monday.  So I'm kinda done with hearing about everyone's awesome fall weather and their awesome fall outfits and their super fun fall bucket lists.  We don't get fall here, it's not a thing.  I am probably having a little trouble accepting this as it's only my second "fall" in Texas.  Post next week to follow on this.  Also point two here, 4,000 miles on the Jetta!  Seems like just yesterday she was coming home with us and we had 25 miles.  Womp womp. 

4.  I got my first blow-out.  Didn't love it.  I am a far bigger fan of my hair when it's curled the way I usually do it with my curling wand.  I ended up straightening it for work on Thursday, oh well.  It was a Groupon so no one's mad about it, and I think I would do it again, just at a different place! 

5.  No photo in sight to share of this, but tomorrow we are getting our one year anniversary pics taken, and I am so excited.  I don't think we are bringing Barley because he would probably freak out a little and not be so great at sitting or posing.  Maybe next time, buddy!  Fun fact:  I will be wearing some of my wedding jewelry and jewelry that Bryan bought me for my wedding gift for the photos.  Cannot wait to share these bad boys when we get them back from Meg! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend, cheers!

  

Dear Future Baby {your name isn't Grape.}

Last week, Lauren posted a letter to her future child as a part of a link-up.  Well I'm a little late to the link-up party, but I wanted to join the fun of writing a letter to our one-day baby.

You will look like a combination of us...so if you're a boy you will wear a bowtie (dad genes) and yell at people on the phone (like your mom did), and if you're a girl, you will look angry (me again) and have elaborate costuming (me again), but also be amazingly photogenic as a child (your dad's good genes)

Hi Baby M.,

Welcome to the world!  Mom and Dad are thrilled to have you here, and Barley is probably a little jealous, and so is the other dog we probably got before we had you!  But we are so excited, and happy to share with our families that your name wasn't chosen after a weird TV character, selection from the produce aisle, or random map point.  In fact, your name is probably Elizabeth if you are a girl or Cole if you are a boy because those are the only two names we like.  So, there's that...your parents are picky, yay!

Some things you should know--your nursery isn't all blue or all pink, because I think that kind of thing is overkill.  And if you are a girl, you will wear real Packers jerseys, not pink ones, because football fans are fans, no gender discrimination necessary.  If you're a boy, your dad is already teaching you how to grip a football so you can be a state champion like him.  (This will be hard because we live in Texas now...he had it easier because he was in Wisconsin, but shhh, I didn't say that.)

Truth be told, we will support any path you decide to take as long as you are following your passion.  After all, I got a degree in political science and government, which most people would tell you are dead subject matter areas!! Your dad is a scientific rockstar, and I imagine you will probably have a healthy appetite for beer one day if he's still working for the same company.  If you get some of my reading and writing skills and his math and science skills, well, you will probably go to MIT.  No pressure though.

You will love watching TV, especially shows like 30 Rock & The Office re-runs, Parks and Rec, Mad Men, Homeland, The Wire, Band of Brothers, and The Soup....mostly because those are the only things we watch!  You will probably love dogs as much as we do, and I pray that you try to ride Barley one day like he's your personal pony.  I'm not going to lie, I bet one year you actually do get a puppy for Christmas...because secretly, we will want another one too.

Even though life with us will be lots of fun and include vacations and certain privileges like having a TV in your room one day, probably getting a crappy car when you turn 16, and Oreos (dang we are going out on a limb here), we hope that you will work hard and be nice.  That's sort of the family motto.  Do your best at whatever you do, work hard to achieve your goals while following your passion, and always be nice.  You don't always have to agree with popular opinion or kiss everyone's butt, but be nice and respectful to those around you.  Life is more fulfilling as a nice person, and if you can, go the extra mile and volunteer once in a while.  We love you.

Love,
Mom and Dad