Mar 30, 2016

What's Up Wednesday

My favorite post of the month is here. What's Up Wednesday with Shay, Mel, and Sheaffer. I love doing this monthly link-up, for more reasons than I'm a terrible blogger when I'm busy.


What we're eating this week....
Aside from way too many Reese's Eggs (the little ones thankfully), I'm working towards a Whole30 again. I'm tired of feeling like a run down busted can of biscuits, so Whole30 it is. There will be breaks for special events and I'm not going to beat myself up over it. It is what it is. But anything will help. Since most of our meals are Whole30/Paleo, the most difficult part is snacking and wine. Oh, the wine! Anyways.. last night I made this Thai Steak & Green Bean Stir Fry. Oh. My. Gosh! We all devoured it. I threw in some red pepper just to get it used and subbed cauliflower rice for actual rice. So, so good! I want to make it again asap. And probably will tomorrow.


What I'm reminiscing about...
I honestly can't think of anything I've been thinking about. That is so unlike me, but I'm just not.

What I'm loving...
I came up with a very refreshing drink a couple of weeks ago. A local red wine + lemon lime seltzer water. Its basically a spritzer. Delicious.


Also loving that we are down to the last few steps of the mudroom. My handy hubby got the flooring done a few weeks ago. I am in LOVE with it. I want it everywhere in the house. Of course, I said that as it was freshly completed and Danny told me I was shit out of luck on that one. 


I got all of the trim painted last week and its ready to be hung. It was a LOT of trim and a LOT of work. But worth it. 


What we've been up too...
Getting back into our "normal" routines. Its taking a lot longer than I expected. I really thought March 15th would get here (end of my busy season) and everything would just magically be okay on March 16th. No. Not how that works. I apparently have forgetting just how often I really did do laundry and cook dinner and workout and sleep and do anything. Danny has only not had a clean uniform twice. Getting sick didn't help anything.

We've been playing at a new park. Our park in town is just kind of "meh" so driving 15 minutes to get to a much better one is totally worth it.


What I'm working on...
No longer working on trim or losing my mind at work. So, I'm moving on to actual projects. I am hosting a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law in less than a month so I'm slowly plugging away at that. I should probably pick up the pace.  I've also got materials for something like this for our living room, thanks to this tutorial at A Girl and A Glue Gun.

We have this bare space over our couch that needs some attention. I can't wait to spruce it up.

What I'm excited about...
Next weekend the hubby and I are going to Louisville to see GARTH BROOKS in concert. I'm excited to cross an item off my bucket list and spend a night with Danny. I've been so busy lately and he's about to get busy so the trip is needed. Plus a customer of mine told me about a really good restaurant in Louisville so that is something I'm also looking forward too. I will report back.

What I'm watching/reading...
Still reading Big Little Lies. I'm almost done though!

I'm watching Law & Order: SVU and getting caught up on my Chicago shows, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. Still on the fence about starting Chicago Med.  A new show came out that I think Danny and I will enjoy and that is The Catch on ABC.

What I'm listening to...
For the next week it will be mostly Garth to get myself pumped up for the concert. I get this from my dad. On the way to concerts, he would always have to listen to the artist. I haven't been listening to much music though. After spending sometimes 5 hours a day in the car by myself 2-3 times a week, I got kind of burnt out.

What I'm wearing...
I'm wearing one of these Portofino Shirts from Express. I got kind of burnt out on wearing them since that was my "meeting uniform" so I haven't worn one since my last meeting 2 weeks ago. In all seriousness though, I loved having a uniform. Do you know how refreshing it was to have one less decision to make every day? I need to find my summer "uniform" now because it was just awesome.

What I'm doing this weekend...
The only thing I really want to do is go watch my niece's play volleyball on Sunday. I don't really care what happens this weekend since next weekend is going to be the BEST!

What I'm looking forward to next month...
Garth, obviously. The bridal shower. I really love throwing parties! And hopefully getting the camper ready and the mudroom done. April is shaping up to be pretty busy and exciting!

What else is new...
Tucker is now in a big boy bed!

Danny sent me the top picture while Tuck and I were out shopping with my mom and future sister-in-law and I showed it to Tuck to get him excited. Because of that picture, he thinks Diesel "opened his bed for him."  And why did Diesel open his bed? So Tucker can "get out."  Its gone much better than I anticipated after that response.

Also... I am now a Beachbody Coach!! I fell in love with PiYo so much that I became a coach. There are other reasons that I became a coach, but PiYo was the biggest. I'm very excited to see where this little journey takes me!

Bonus: What's my best spring cleaning tip...
Have a drink while doing it. Really though.

Mar 28, 2016

Easter Weekend

Hi! Crop insurance sales season is over, I barely survived, and I'm hopefully back to blogging regularly. I was told that my posts were missed by my mom and a blogging friend and I've missed it too. A holiday weekend is the perfect way to get back in the game.

Easter weekend started Thursday for us. I left work around 3:45 so Danny and I could take Tucker to see the Easter Bunny. It went sooooo well....


Our good friends that moved to Ohio over the summer were in town and the guys went out with my brother and to my brothers because they were told they were not allowed to stay and watch Pretty Little Liars with us. No even playing. We enjoyed too much wine, chit chatted and literally jumped out of our seats a couple times when we finally got around to watching PLL. We have soooo many questions and ended up talking about it the next night on the way home from dinner!

I was in desperate need of a mental health day, so I took Friday off. Which is probably what led to me drinking so much wine I was convinced the headache at 4:45am was the end of me. Since it wasn't I'll probably make that same exact mistake again and again. 2 cups of coffee and ibuprofen did nothing for my headache. I caved and broke my no pop rule as a Hail Mary and thankfully I did because the Diet Mountain Dew cleared that bad boy right up. Friday I lounged, Easter and meal planned, took a short nap and showered at a leisurely pace. It was lovely and much needed.  I picked Tucker up to play at home for a bit before our friends arrived to go to dinner. We dropped the grumpy toddler off at my moms and went to eat. Our first stop was packed due to IU playing, so we went to PF Changs which wasn't crowded at all. After dinner we walked to Cheesecake Factory to pick up dessert to take back to our house after making a pit stop for some wine. Told you I don't learn.

When we got home we watched old home movies. Amber and I have been friends since 1st grade and participated in our school's talent show when we were in 4th grade. She wanted to watch the recording. Our husbands were questioning the fact that they asked to spend the rest of their lives with us while we were laughing so hard we were crying. Danny went to a private catholic school that didn't have gym AND talent shows and Noah went to a smaller public school. We also watched a 30 minute "news special" that Amber, myself, and 3 other friends recorded at one of my birthday parties. It was 30 minutes of nothing but horrible video camera operating. Again, the guys were concerned about their intelligence. Before they left Amber and I got a picture with our wine glasses that I made for us. I saw similar ones at a winery in the fall and told Danny I wanted to get a set for Amber and I, but couldn't stomach paying $20 for just one. So I made some!
 

If I look sick, its because I am.

Saturday I got up and did 2 PiYo workouts then headed off to the grocery store before it got crowded.  I prepped an Easter dessert then met my mom to pick Tucker up to head to Easter #1. Danny was at work so it was just Tucker and I. We ate, hunted for eggs and played wiffle ball(which I shouldn't have done). Tucker really enjoyed the egg hunt. While Danny's brother was throwing them on the ground, he kept putting them back in his bag because he "was dropping them on the ground" so that was pretty funny. Then during the actual hunt he would yell the colors of the eggs as he gathered them. So cute!




Easter Sunday rolled around and I sent the boys off to church and headed to MedCheck to figure out what was wrong with me. My mom thought I had bronchitis and.. of course she was right.

But, Easter doesn't care about bronchitis, so I left and played Easter bunny at my father-in-laws and hit about 60 eggs. I picked up my meds then went home to sleep for a bit. I woke up feeling much better, but only for long enough to make it through lunch and an egg hunt. Oh, and to smash a raw egg on my forehead. My niece thought it would be funny to do Jimmy Fallon's egg challenge. There were 3 raw eggs out of the entire bowl. Of course I got handed a raw one. Tucker made out like a bandit with the egg hunt unfortunately. I've eaten all of the mini-Reese's eggs. We snapped a family photo then came home so I could rest and we could wait on my family. We were classy with our dinner and ate Taco Bell while we sat around watching Tucker come down from his sugar high. I wasn't too worked up about it since I was pretty sure it was par for the course for a toddler on Easter. Even Diesel was nuts.


Now its over and I'm still eating Reese's eggs. I'm eating them from the comfort of my living room this morning. I took the morning off to relax and cough up the crap in my chest. Relaxing morning, right?