Europe!!!

The Hubs and I are going to Europe! YUP!!! Can you believe it?! I can't! I think I'll be on our plane when the shock wears off!! J and I are so beyond excited at this great blessing we have been given. We go on our trip in the Fall of this year. I absolutely can not wait!!!

Long story short, J's uncle had graciously offered to send us on vacation! He told us that he wanted us to go somewhere we may never have a chance to go to again. J has always wanted to go to Egypt and I have always dreamed of going to Italy. We found a cruise that not only goes to Egypt & Italy, but also goes to Turkey and Greece! We are BEYOND thrilled that we get to travel to these wonderful locations! We are so thankful he is doing this for us! This is truly the trip of a lifetime!!! What a blessing!

It's been an interesting year so far with the burglary. We still have items to complete with our home and decisions to make going forward....and there is a lot to do. A LOT. However, J and I are so blessed because we know we have such an exciting trip to look forward to!! This is a truly amazing experience we get to have. There is no doubt about it!

Our plan lands in Rome to begin our trip. I told J that I might just cry when we land! ha ha! Happy tears...but tears nonetheless!

Here are some of the things we are looking forward to seeing on the excursions we are taking!! I can't wait to see them in person and take LOTS of pictures!

*****
The Pyramids



Nea Moni Monastery in Greece



The Terrace Houses in Turkey



Topkapi Palace in Turkey



The ruins of Pompei in Italy



The Parthenon in Greece!! (WOW!!)



The Colosseum in Italy!!!

Valentine's Day 2011

Well, yesterday was one of my favorite Valentine's Days so far=) After work, I came home to start cooking our Valentine's Day dinner. We had:

* Steak au Poivre
* Crab Cakes
* Roasted Asparagus
* Little "Softhearted Chocolate Cakes" (Recipe and Picture below are from BHG.com)

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces (1/2 pound)

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped or 1-1/3 cups semisweet chocolate pieces

• 4 eggs

• 4 egg yolks

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1/8 teaspoon teaspoon salt

• Whipped cream (optional)

• Raspberry Sauce (see recipe below) (optional) and/or fresh raspberries

Directions

1. Lightly butter eight 8-ounce ramekins or 1-cup souffle dishes; line bottoms with parchment or wax paper. Place the prepared ramekins on a shallow baking pan or on a large cookie sheet. Set aside.

2. In a heavy-bottomed, medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; cool slightly. (Or, in a mixing bowl, combine the butter and chocolate. Place mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water and melt butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove bowl from the simmering water pot; set aside to cool slightly.)

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and egg yolks with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes or until thick and lemon-colored. Mix a large dollop of the beaten eggs into the butter-chocolate mixture. Gently fold until combined. Add butter-chocolate mixture to remaining beaten egg mixture and fold. After a few folds, sprinkle in sugar, flour, vanilla, and salt. Continue to fold until the mixture is combined.

4. Quickly divide the batter evenly among prepared ramekins. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 9 to 10 minutes or till cakes feel firm to the touch on top edges, but still soft in the center when pressed with a fingertip. Remove from oven; set ramekins on a wire rack. Let cakes cool completely in ramekins.

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. When cakes are cool, use a small metal spatula to loosen edge of cakes from side of ramekin and unmold onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. The centers of the cakes are supposed to be soft. (If not using immediately, wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.)

6. When ready to serve, place cakes on a microwaveable serving plate. Heat in a microwave oven on 100 percent power for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes or until warm. (Center of cake will slightly pop up.) Serve with whipped cream and garnish with a splash of Raspberry Sauce and/or fresh raspberries, if you like.

Raspberry Sauce: In a blender container or food processor bowl, cover and blend or process one 10-ounce package frozen and thawed red raspberries in syrup until pureed. Use a fine sieve to sieve berry mixture. Cover and refrigerate the sauce till ready to use. Makes 2/3 cup.

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In the middle of finishing up cooking, J surprised me with a SWEET Valentine's Day balloon, a dozen GORGEOUS red roses, and the cutest valentine I've ever gotten! He certainly made a gal who loves Valentine's Day feel SUPER special!!!!!

I have an AWESOME Valentine!

We had a great time eating our nice dinner and relaxing. We definitely know that LOVE should be shown all year round and not just on Valentine's Day. We're certainly advocates of that! However, yesterday was SUPER special with my Valentine! I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

I LOVE Valentine's Day!

It is my absolute favorite holiday! Don't get me wrong, I'm a happy gal at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. However, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Valentine's Day.



Here's why:

1. YES, Love is celebrated all year round as it should be. However, I feel like there is a great deal of people out there who go out of their way to make an attempt to really focus on their significant other on this holiday. I've always enjoyed watching others around me celebrate this day even if I didn't have a date on Valentine's Day. True story! I even handed out valentine's (CHEESY ones at that) even when I was WAY too old to do it! I think it is a fun holiday! One suggestion I heard this year is that people need to make Valentine's Day about THEM as a couple and not just do something traditionally Valentine's Day-ish....like a super expensive dinner. If you two like being outdoors, plan something outdoors!

2. My favorite color to wear is black...not because I'm depressed. Black just looks sharp to me. I like the way I feel wearing black. However, my two favorite colors to look at or have around me are red and pink. Everything on Valentine's Day is red and pink. Hence, the second reason I enjoy this holiday so much!

3. I'll admit it, I KNOW this holiday is very commercialized....but I find it very cute for that same reason. I love the cheesy Valentine's Day cards, the chocolates, and the roses. I DO! They're fun! I've always told J he didn't ever have to get me anything expensive on Valentine's Day....just a rose and a card will make the day special=) He's always been really sweet to get me a cute Valentine's Day balloon and some flowers. I love it!

This year, I'm planning a nice dinner at home for us. I'm sure I'll find a super awesome card and a little something for J as well! Happy upcoming Valentine's Day!

Christmas Clearance...I finally get it.

I never shop. I'm not a smart shopper when I do. However, I'm working hard to get better at it.

So, when J wanted to take our $50 Wal-Mart gift card (Christmas gift from my parents - Thank you!) to Wal-Mart last night and see what we could get in their Christmas Clearance decorations aisle....I finally got it.

For under $60 we got:

* 12 Red chargers

* Christmas Tree Jar to put ornaments in

* Mini Christmas ornaments for above jar

* Linen Table Cloth and napkins for a table that seats 8

* Smaller Christmas Table Cloth for our round table.

* Pre-Lit Christmas Wreath to go over fireplace

* 2 Christmas Kitchen Towels

Honestly, I don't have pictures of these said items because last night was also our night to put up all the Christmas decorations....just thought I'd share. I'm learnin!

Thanksgiving 2010

J and I rotate where we spend the holidays each year. This year we spent Thanksgiving at his parents house and we'll spend Christmas at my parents. Next year we'll rotate it as we always do. This works well for us since his family and my family are located several states apart.

*****

This year we got to meet J's brother's girlfriend's two little boys. This was RIGHT before their bedtime as you can see below.



While we were spending our time with his family, my family was also celebrating the gender revel of the first grandbaby. As you can see below, my SIL and brother are having a boy! So excited! (Thanks Lar for the picture!) Also pictured is my present for them since we couldn't be there. I wanted our little nephew to have a onesie with a joke that is near and dear to SIL and I! If you don't know what the image on the onesie is, google, "Peanut Butter Jelly Time Video." As soon as I saw it, I KNEW the baby had to have it!



When we got back from our Thanksgiving trip yesterday, J decided he wanted to revamp our bedroom. We painted it the same color we have in the hallway. )It's MUCH lighter than it appears in the picture. It's a pretty gray.) Also pictured is the new white duvet set as an early Christmas present from my parents! Pardon the wrinkles. We got everything together to show my parents how it turned out. It will be nice and neat later. I promise! As you can see, our two kitties wanted to be photographed as well!=)

J's Recent Performance

J and his professional partner recently performed a lovely Waltz and Tango at our studios 6th anniversary party this past Saturday.

They did an excellent job! Everyone thought there waltz was beautiful. They REALLY raved about the tango. Yesterday, their coach gave them some great positive feedback regarding their performances as well.

Here is a picture that one of the students captured from the evening. I wasn't able to upload video as I have in previous posts. I was recording video on his dance partner's camera so they could review it later. Maybe I'll ask Jonathan if she can send it to him later via email!=) If you look to the right of J and his dance partner, you can actually see me in the background taking the video. HA!

I was SUPER proud! They did an EXCELLENT job performing on Saturday!

Making the Most out of Your Schedule

Every weekday, I follow a to-do list as part of a weekly schedule I keep. I start off each morning cleaning a different room in our house, completing other household chores, getting my meals ready for the day, then heading out to my 9-5 job. After work, I go to either my workout for the day or to the dance studio (depending on what day it is), then I go home to fix dinner for the hubs and I. J and I are almost always done with our days around the same time...which is perfect! Once he is done with work, we enjoy dinner and relaxation together to cap off the day. We also try to do something fun during the weeknights like little mini dates.

I do all of this during the week in order to be able to enjoy my weekends. I'm able to relax knowing that the house is clean, I've got the bulk of my workouts done, and I've practiced my dancing. So Saturday and Sunday are my play days to spend with special people or doing special things! I definitely prefer it this way! (I do SOME light exercising on the weekends and an occasional special project....but you get the point! You can't expect a multitasker to be not do anything at all!) Keeping this schedule during the week also allows J and I to have more time together when he has the occasional weekend day off from work!

I follow a LOT of blogs based on my interests. However, this blog in particular usually has great tips on time management, making the most out of your day, and being successful in general. This particular entry gives three tips to making the most of your day if you're busy like me!

Dumb Little Man - "Three Things to Help You Make the Most out of Your Day"

Our Saturday Fishing Adventure

J and I got to enjoy some fishing this weekend. His weekends are busy right now with work. However, he had Saturday off.

We spent at least 3 hours fishing at the lake by our house. J found us a great new spot! The weather was beautiful as well.




We caught several Bluegills, but they were very small. We could have brought two of them home, but we decided to release them. J DID catch a decently sized Catfish though! We brought it home and fried it using this recipe:

Pan-Fried Catfish Recipe

Vegetable Oil, Olive Oil, or Butter (your choice)
4 medium freshwater catfish fillets*
1 cup cold milk
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 to 3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red (cayenne) pepper
Lemon wedges

Rinse the fillets under cold water and dry thoroughly with paper towels. In a pie place, lay fillets and pour milk over the top. In another pie plate, combine cornmeal, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Remove the fillets one at a time from the milk and roll in the cornmeal mixture to coat evenly; place on a large platter to dry. leaving space between them. Let dry at least 5 minutes.

Heat the oil or butter in a large skillet. Add the coated catfish fillets and cook for 5 to 7 minutes on each side, sprinkling additional salt on the catfish after each turn. Cook until golden brown and fish flakes easily with a fork. Drain on paper towels. After draining, place the fillets on another platter covered with paper towels; place in preheated oven to keep warm while frying the remaining fillets. The fillets will remain hot and crisp for as long as 35 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges.

Makes 4 servings.

Best Birthday so Far!!!

My wonderful sister-in-law and brother invited our whole family to their home to celebrate my grandfather's and my birthday this past Saturday.

We enjoyed great food and even better company while watching our college football team play a great game! They had got some fantastic barbecue and munchies for us all to enjoy!

At half-time they had my Grandfather and I sit down to open presents. Once we were done, they started singing "Happy Birthday" while bringing out our birthday cake.

I decided to take a picture of the cake before blowing the candles out. As soon as I took the picture, I looked again down at the cake and saw.....



Of COURSE I started SCREEEAMING and jumping up and down!!! My brother and Sister-in-Law are having a baby!!! Everyone was crying/hugging/you name it! Obviously we are all VERY excited for them!!!!!

Best Birthday Cake EVER!!!

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The Next day, I drove home to relax and spend the day with the hubs for my birthday. He had THESE waiting for me! Beautiful Pink and Red Roses!!!



Later that night, my husband and I, along with his dance partner went out to celebrate with great food and wonderful cheesecake!

Date your Spouse!

I'm all about continuing to date your spouse after you get married! I mean, you're married now.....this is when things get REALLY good!=)

My husband's career as a dance professional can sometimes limit the nights and weekends we have together. I've always liked looking at these sites for fun creative ideas when we're a little short on time.

Here are my current three favorite websites that advocate this idea of "dating your spouse." I've got comments on each site included as well!

For Fun Creative Date Ideas, visit: The Dating Divas
This website has really...and I mean REALLY fun creative date ideas. The ideas are very original! The ideas range from not costing anything at all, to ideas you may save for special occasions. There are also really cute ideas on showing your spouse that you love them. The gals are also women of integrity. It's a great blog read all around!

Got $30 for your Date Night this Week? Visit: $30 Date Night
Visit this site for ideas that are all around $30. These dates are also creative!

For a Variety Cheap/Fun/Creative/Meaningful Date Nights, visit: Project 52 from the creator of simplymodernmom.com.
I recently came across this blog from another marriage blog that I read. It's BRILLIANT! This Project 52 was inspired by the author of this great website, simplymodernmom.com. She and her husband wrote up a contract stating they would have a new original date idea (ranging from cheap/creative to special occasion) one night a week for a whole year! If you click on the link, you'll be able to visit all of the blog posts she has written on this project. I like this site especially because it has ideas for all types of budgets!

Have a great weekend! Go have yourself a nice date!

Two Years...and counting!

A few weekends ago, J and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. Jonathan introduced me to one of his favorite things....camping.

We camped at a lovely site by the lake that weekend and had a great time!









After we returned, we had a nice dinner (on the actual date of our anniversary) followed by our anniversary tradition of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries! Yum! (They didn't last 5 minutes!!)

3rd Weekend in July-J's Birthday!

SO the majority of July was also spend on planning a surprise birthday party for my husband. With the help of our friends Karen, Juanita, and Jason, we got it done.

We knew J would wouldn't want something big, so we had about 8 people there total including he and I. We ordered food from a barbecue restaurant close by and enjoyed a few beers and some cake out on the back deck. It was very low-key and laid back, but very nice=)


I would have loved to have included more pictures of the food, but we were in a mad hurry to get everything set up. Our "distraction" for J ran a little bit later than we planned so all of the food was kept in the restaurant's original plastic containers to save time. No time to set it all out in my pretty serving dishes!

I'm Back!

SO....I'll be posting about the last month of our busy lives! July was super busy! I'll post a recap and start by posting the first three weeks in this post. Here goes:

1st Weekend: The very first weekend of the month was July 4th. J was out of the country for business, but I had a wonderful dinner with friends!

2nd Weekend: I has helping execute a large event for my college alumni association. I'm currently volunteering as the student recruitment chair. We held an event for over 100 students and their families. Unfortunately, this is my last event with them as I am resigning my chair position next week. I've got too full of a load between working full-time, training and going to dance practice, getting my fitness on, and spending time with the hubs. I've decided I'm going to need to resign. It's been fun, but I've got to narrow my priorities down. Well, let's just put it this way...I'm going to multitask a little less!

3rd Weekend: My Family and I went to the Aquarium in my state. We have a really nice aquarium just 2 hours from my house. It's LARGE! My family lives one state down and only 1.5 hours away from the place so we met in the middle to spend the day there. We had a great time spending time with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

Here is a picture of my Dad and I in front of one of the exhibits:

I caught one....three actually!

I've learned that one of the joys of being married is experiencing new things/activities/places, etc! Because there is absolutely no way we could marry our clone, we are bound to be married to someone who will inevitably be different than us...even if it's slight. They may very well have a few different tastes, interests, hobbies, etc., than us. The plus to that is that when they share these things with us, we get to enjoy brand new experiences!

I haven't gone fishing in maybe 20 years. Actually, I'm not even SURE that I even fished. I just remember going with my family at one point in my life.

My husband, J, has loved to fish. In fact, his parents had given him some birthday money for a new fishing pole a week or so ago! We thought it would be a fun activity to do together, so we went and got all the supplies this weekend. Yesterday we went and had a great time! J was a very helpful teacher! I ended up catching three. However, they were tiny guys so we let them go back in the lake. Even though we got rained on halfway through the trip, we both agreed this was one of our most favorite weekends!

Here's one of my tiny catches!=)

Our Easter Adventure!

Happy Easter to everyone!

J and I are believers and truly appreciate the significance of the true meaning behind the holiday. I hope it was just as meaningful to you and your family!

*****
This past week, my husband decided to build....a CANOE! Yes, a canoe! We decided to take it out yesterday afternoon for a trial run on the lake by our home! We ended up riding in the canoe for over an hour. It was a beautiful day. The warm Spring air and the breeze on the lake were awesome.

J did a great a job! I kept saying over and over, "You made a CANOE and we're having a blast in it!"=)

50/50

Enjoy this little snippet from my daily devotion from Crosswalk.com . I thought it may bless others:

"Among the problems with "The 50/50 Plan" (in relationships/marriage) is that giving is based on merit and performance. We focus more on what the other person is giving than on what we are doing. Love is withheld until the other person meets our expectations. Since this way of measuring out our love is subjective, the motivation for our actions is based merely on how we feel."

Happy Tuesday all! Be blessed!

Valentine's Day 2010

J and I had a WONDERFUL Valentine's Day!

He surprised me with beautiful roses in my favorite colors and a sweet balloon that said "I love you!=) Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday...always has been. He definitely made it special!

I had a nice dinner planned for us that evening. We ended up deciding it would be fun to snack on it instead of sitting down with the formal china. We had steak, bacon wrapped scallops, steamed asparagus, and roasted potatoes.

We ate our goodies and watched that movie "Couples Retreat." It was funny, but not as funny as we had imagined. Either way, we had a nice time hanging out and enjoying the evening together!

Christmas 2009

I'm so late with this post! Here is our summary of Christmas 2009!

J and I always have a private holiday dinner with just the two of us the weekend before we head out to visit family during the holidays. We have done this every Thanksgiving and Christmas since we have been married. This year for Christmas, it was our turn to visit J's family up North! Here are some of the pics.

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J's really excited about Christmas=)



Our Christmas dinner! Since it's just the two of us, we had ham, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. Obviously, we still had puh-LENTY of leftovers!



We took our furbabies on the trip with us. Love them! This was one of the more quiet moments=)



Here are some of the scenery pictures we took while on our visit.




More snow....



Last but now least....the snow boots J got me for Christmas! (Previously mentioned in below post) This Southern girl had her feet protected. It's kind of ironic that I decided to take this picture on the one patch of land without snow on it=)

Christmas Vacation

This weekend and next few days have been committed to getting ready for our big Christmas trip.We have been packing, wrapping presents, and getting the house vacation ready. J and I live in one state, but our families live in two other states. We alternate spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with both sets of families. I would like to add that both of our kitties will be making the trip with us again this year. That is always interesting=)

This Christmas we are heading to J's hometown. I will be getting my first pair of snow boots. Although, I have had a white Christmas before in my home state, I've never been in colder weather for this length of time before. 

We are looking forward to spending time with family, enjoying some down time, and Christmas in general!

We Danced Last Night!

Last night, our dance studio had their annual Winter showcase! Below is a picture of me and my parents after I danced my Samba. Since I am a perfectionist, and believe I have a ways to go, I'll save my video for mine and my teacher's eyes only=) I did overcome the fear of dancing a showcase routine. Everyone was surprised when I told them I was nervous since I dance in competitions. For me it was a different type of experience and I'm so glad that I did it. I hope to dance in many more! Last night was the first time I was able to overcome a lot of my nerves and focus on the performance. I still have a ways to go on that..for sure...but last night was a good start.

Here is my video of my hubby and his dance partner dancing their Foxtrot. It's lovely!