This Weekend I...

 This weekend I….

+ Had dinner with my momma and sister before she heads back to school

+ Watched the snow fall, and then more snow fall

+ Thought we might be snowed in since neither of us have very "snow-friendly" cars

+ Played tricks on Ollie while he snoozed on the couch

+ Watched him sprawl out on our freshly made bed

+ Finished taking down Christmas decorations

+ Watched football, ate mac n cheese & ice cream and didn't go to the gym

+ Painted my toes and touched up my 4 week old shellac manicure

+ Tried new recipes for dinner

+ And of course, studied, but what else is new!

 

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Time off from med school is hard to come by so this last weekend was spent soaking in as much time with my husband, relaxing, seeing our families, and getting things ready for Christmas. 

Following a lovely exam on Wednesday morning and brunch with my favorite soon-to-be-doc ladies it was Christmas-galore at our house. Outside the lights were hung, inside the tree was trimmed and even Ollie joined in on the festivities. Later in the evening J and I even went on a date and saw Catching Fire in the theaters (movies never happen around these parts). We spent Thanksgiving up north with J's mom's side of the family complete with so much laughing, maybe a bit too much wine and some fantastic conversation. A little bit of Black Friday shopping (without any fighting) followed by a Nuggets game (and win) and Friday turned out fantastic as well. Med school always seems to poke it's pesky head up and my exam on Monday was calling which meant some good study time was in order before the weekend was up. Throw in a bunch of holiday coffees, a bit of Netflix watching and some holiday crafting too. End with a birthday celebration downtown at a Brazilian steakhouse and more meat than you could possibly shove down and I'd chalk up Thanksgiving weekend to be pretty dang wonderful.

This Weekend I

This weekend I....

+ Spent 2 hot & fun days at the lake

+ Played with puppies and our friends' cute little boy

+ Laughed too hard at my goofy husband on a mini motorcycle

+ Played drinking games, floated in the lake and officially started my summer tan

+ Cried when J cut open his head walking under the trailer because it breaks my heart to see him hurt

+ Broke my favorite pair of sunglasses which dictates a trip to Charming Charlie's sometime soon

+ Finished reading The Language of Flowers and started on Handle with Care

+ Enjoyed a yummy dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings with my momma

+ Repainted my nails and had a relaxing Sunday at home

+ Loved being back in Colorado

Linking up with Syndal & Sar

Summer Sangria

This past weekend, J and I attended a Surprise Birthday Party (which also turned out to be a surprise engagement party!) for one of our friends. Her now fiancé planned the whole thing & provided the basics and asked that everyone who came bring something for the party. 

Instead of going the typical chips & dip or potato salad route I decided to make Sangria! And it was a huge hit!

This drink totally screams summer to me! An outdoor BBQ wouldn't be complete without a super refreshing, ice cold drink like this. I ended up throwing a ladle into the top at one point during the party and people started munching on those watermelon cubes like hot cakes but I will warn you, the fruit and the drink itself and be quite dangerous if you're not careful. ;-) 

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Cherry Lime Watermelon Sangria

Recipe from here (with a few changes)

Prep Time: 10 min || Cook Time: 4 hours || Makes about 2.5 gallons

• 6 cups of watermelon
• 4 cups of bing cherries
• 6 limes, sliced
• 2 750ml bottles of white wine (Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay work best)
• 1 1/2 cup white rum (we used Bacardi)
• 2 liters of lemon-lime soda (we used Sprite Zero)

Cut up fruit and place in large pitcher or drink dispenser. Carefully pour the wine and rum over the top. Cover and place in the fridge for 4-5 hours. Add the soda right before you're ready to start drinking. Pour over ice and enjoy!

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This drink will most likely be my go-to summer drink for the rest of the season!

This Weekend I

This weekend I...

+ Painted my nails with Red Lights Ahead...Where? from the OPI Holland Collection

+ Made another camera strap cover for my D5100 (tutorial coming soon)

+ Played many games of cribbage with my handsome husband over glasses of sparkling wine

+ Went on a journey through Costco on a Saturday which is always an adventure

+ Dined at The Habit and went on a Starbucks run

+ Snuggled with my pup and gave him some much needed attention

+ Made a new fob for my keys since the latest one was getting pretty worn

+ Did some gardening in hopes that our sad dirt will soon have lots of growth

+ Made homemade pizza for dinner

+ Finished reading Cinder and started on The Sun Also Rises

Linking up with Syndal and Sar

Weekend Recap

After a week/end with my mom in town last week it was nice to have some time with my just my two boys this past weekend.  I worked a little late on Friday and then we spent a quiet night at home, watching movies on TV and grilling for dinner.

J got up nice and early to hit the gym while I slept in and ran a few errands in the morning, complete with a Starbucks and doughnut run! I've really been meaning to get back in the swing of things with going to the gym after taking about a week off but I'll start today. (hopefully!) While my mom was in town we got our Save The Dates printed from Target (more details about those to come) and I picked up some clearance markers from Staples to address the envelopes with. 

I camped out on the couch when I got home to start the process of addressing the envelopes. I had to handwrite our address on the back of each envelope and make sure I had everything correct for the fronts. We have so many friends getting married this summer it was hard not to address these to "Mr & Mrs ____" already! J helped me stuff the envelopes and even did most of the licking for me. I can't stand the taste of envelope glue so he was a huge help!

Once they were all finished we took a lunch date to Panera and enjoyed the nice weather sitting on the patio as we ate. We ran a few other errands and came home for a relaxing day spent watching TV and reading my book.

Sunday morning was spent snuggling with my sweetest pup and then taking him to the vet for his annual check-up. This big boy weighs 88lbs now and just like always, all the staff at the vet commented on how sweet and calm he is.

We brough our boy home and headed out to lunch (again) but this time for good mexican. I always say I'm going to order something different but like usual I went with my favorite, the California burrito. I spent a little while working on application stuff when we got home but eventually gave up because I was uncomfortable. I've been using one of our kitchen chairs as a desk chair and it's just not the best so we headed to IKEA to fix the problem. One desk chair, a set of forks (we somehow always run out of them) and some new glasses later we were home drinking margaritas and assembling my chair. I thought I would get more work done but decided to make our favorite Spicy Shrimp recipe for dinner and call it a night.

J and I usually got to bed pretty early, I love my sleep and he gets up before 5am but last night was a little rough. Ollie always lays on the bed with us before we go to sleep and around midnight he ended up getting sick. We thought he was acting funny, then he suddenly started dry-heaving to which I pushed him off then bed (I feel bad about that but it had to be done) and we spent a good 30-45 min cleaning up and comforting our sick boy. We made him sleep in the guest bathroom and he seems to be doing okay today but we're going to take him back to the vet just to be sure.

THEN, around 3am, J and I woke up to the sound of animal screaming/fighting out our window. My first thought was a dog fight but after a while it seemed like something was being attacked. We have had an issue with possums and raccoons before and we think a neighbors dog was getting attacked. It was actually pretty scary because it sounded so violent! Needless to say we're both pretty exhausted this morning so hopefully Monday doesn't decide to be too difficult.

Happy as a Clam and TGIF

While I am very happy that it's Friday and the start of yet another weekend, I have to say I'm not as "TGIF-giddy" as I sometimes am. There are some weeks that drag on, are super stressful, and you can never seem to get enough sleep, get enough done or take a moment to relax until Friday rolls around. But, I'm happy to announce I had a splendid week overall.

+I start my new job at Panera on Monday

+I aced the couple quizzes I had in my classes

+I made it to the gym a few times and felt really good afterwards

+I was offered a second Med School interview that will be in March

+I've been using my free goodies from my birthday like a free Einstein Bros Bagel and a free noodle bowl from Noodles and Co.

+and I even had a chance to stop by Joann Fabrics to pick up supplies for a few new projects

I ended up spending a good 45 minutes in Joann's because I just couldn't decide what I wanted to work on. I knew I wanted something that was a little less "I-can-finish-this-in-one-day" type and more of a "make-progress-slowly" type. Here's a preview.... what can I say, it's in the works.

I also scrounged around in the remnant bins because I've been able to find some great things in there before. And this was no exception. I have a project in mind that I'll work on this weekend and I can't wait to show it off next week sometime.
However, even though I'm very happy to have had such a good week it's nice that it's finally Friday. J and I will get to spend some quality time together and hopefully get to spend sometime outside in the warm weather (in the 80's hopefully) we're expecting here. I'm also looking forward to...

+buying new workout clothes with my Kohl's gift card from my bday

+working on the projects mentioned above

+going to Red Robin for dinner tonight

+heading to Costco to stock up our kitchen

+and celebrating the Valentine's Day weekend with my love ♥

Overall: I'm happy as a clam right now.

TGIF ladies!