Stay-cation Day #1

Yesterday 6 pm could not have come soon enough for me- that was when I officially started my vacation! I wasn't going anywhere on this vacation which was fine by me because I needed time to just relax and get stuff done around the house because when I returned from vacation I was going to be in full speed gearing up for the holiday season. 

 So last night I had no real plans to spend my evening and I figured my husband didn't really have anything planned so I headed home looking forward to putting on my comfy clothes and laying around. However my husband had actually asked if I wanted to go out to dinner with him (almost like a date) and rent movies afterwards. This could not have sounded like a more suiting evening. Plus what better way to start my stay-cation with a little alcohol. 

One was my husbands and the other was mine- I wasn't double fisting it I promise

  We had no real plans for Sunday just a few options in mind but the key thing that was on both of our lists was sleeping in! We both turned our phones on vibrate, shut the curtains, and ensured there would be no distractions in waking us up in the wee hours of the morning. Now by sleeping in to me that is 8:30 but let me tell ya it felt fabulous! When I woke up the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky- a perfect way to wake up and best part was... I didn't have to go to work. I got caught up on some T.V. shows while the hubs still slept and I was planning what we would do for the day. Near our home there is a place called Sunny Acres where they have pumpkin picking, hay rides, haunted houses, petting zoo, etc. and it's such a fun place to go- in fact I remember going there as a child with my parents but I hadn't been there in gosh 10 or 15 years. But today was the day that we were going and heck maybe even getting the kid out of us again. When the hubs finally awoke and I told him what I had wanted to do today he wasn't the most thrilled but as long as I fed him and DVR the Bears Game I knew he would be in. 

  So off we headed to good ol' Sunny Acres Farm ... I think us and about 300 other families decided that today was the perfect day to visit also. Now we all know how well I do with kids (not that well) but I figured I'll just pretend to block them out and we will be all good. So the hubs & I bought tickets for the little activites you could do and off we went. 

First stop... the petting zoo. 

   Yes pretty standard animals lambs, goats, lamas, but they are just so cute I couldn't reisist. 

I was to nervous to feed the pig because a sign read on its cage: Warning watch your fingers. I wasn't going to take my chances

Razzle the baby Cow

My husband feeding the lama- she seemed to really like him and not just because he had food

Me and another lama who was just interested in me for the food

They just wanted the food

After the petting zoo and mass amounts of hand sanitizer we headed through the farm and came across some yummy treats! 

It was a tough choice because all the treats looked so yummy but I settled on a Apple Cidar Doughnut (shh don't tell anyone) and it was delicious! After eating some treats we went on a tractor ride that took us through the woods. There wasn't much to look at so hence the no photos. After the tractor ride we walked around some more and then headed home. The day was finished off with cooking out cheeseburgers on the grill! Couldn't have asked for a better first day of stay-cation! 


Tomorrow's Agenda:
Working out, Dentist (ugh), and well it's up in the air from there. 

The Grinch

I know that Christmas is suppose to be a joyous time of year and to spend time with family & loved ones but I have to be honest these last couple of years I just haven't been much in the Christmas spirit. Now you can attribute this to a couple of things:


- I work retail- but not just retail but retail as in one of the busiest malls in the country with insane holiday hours
- I don't have a child of my own yet
- I have a small family
- I don't get along with my in-laws


But even aside from those factors I can honestly only remember one Christmas where my mum went balls to the walls and decorated the entire house and played Christmas music while doing it- the whole house felt magical. The following year she didn't even put up a tree because she told me it's just about the gifts. Don't worry I was already of an age where I knew Santa wasn't real. You may think my mum is a bad person for doing this and I promise you she is not- she just never really got into decorating the whole house aside from that one year. Now a days I'm lucky if she puts up some Garland around the banisters and that is usually done moments before Christmas Day. And let's be honest if my husband can barely buy me a gift ya think he is going to decorate the house? No way! I mean even the gay people who live kitty corner from us go all out but I guess they do for every holiday. First time homeowners. 


Then there is the subject of the in-laws and how they have tainted my view on the holidays. I will say it is nice working retail because during the holiday when most families and in-laws get together I have the legit excuse of "I'm working...Sorry (not really)." However let me share a little story with you about my now in-laws and how they like to celebrate their holiday together. 
  At the time my husband and I were dating but we were serious I mean everyone pretty much knew that it would turn into marriage. My husband's family is straight up Italian so weather you're a cousin, niece, or whatever you were all like brothers and sisters. Now I had belonged to a book club that some of my husband's female cousins put together but after a couple of sessions and ruffling of the feathers (I like to speak my mind) I was kicked out of the book club (I don't know who at the age of 23 gets kicked out of something) so I was already on shaky grounds with the family. So right after Thanksgiving I get an e-mail from the "Christmas Committee" (that's correct you read that right they have a committee- I didn't know this was High School and we were in the Student Council) stating what food was going to be served at Christmas, the timeline, dress code, and the cost...yes I did say cost. Now I understand I come from a small family and we cook for holidays because it is just 6 of us however I have dated other men in my life who have come from larger families and never I repeat never had they had to pay to spend time with their family on Christmas. Needless to say I was speechless and mind you it wasn't like it was $25 bucks here I am talking for my husband, myself, and his son it would have cost us $165 to go to one of his family members house to spend time with them- mind you I don't even really like these people and wouldn't choose to spend my free time with them now to have to pay. Of course the girl who likes to speak her mind did so and let's just say it didn't go well and that is why I am in the spot I am today with his family. Because while they like to talk behind others back I just go straight to the source. Let me tell ya I don't think you would want to get into with me - that is what I have been told anyway. I still think that being a Divorce Lawyer is calling my name. So as a result of the Christmas Committee debacle I now refer to his family as communists and his one cousin as the dictator. I prefer a Democracy personally so maybe that's why I don't get along with his family? 


So that could be one reason why I don't have the Christmas spirit- or maybe it's just that people are so rude during the holidays and of course they come into where I work and want the most popular item the day before Christmas and guess what Shocker it's sold out. Now people Christmas is the same day every year it's not like it changes or is one of the holidays like Sweetest Day where maybe you celebrate it maybe you don't. Pretty much everyone celebrates Christmas in some fashion every year- so plan ahead! 


Maybe...just maybe this will be the year that I find that Christmas spirit and go all out. We shall wait and see. 

Siri + Jessie = BFF

Okay so when they announced the new iPhone I was pretty ecstatic especially because Sprint was finally getting it! I had the Evo which runs on the Android system and it met my needs just fine but it just wasn't the iPhone. Plus I am such an Apple fan I mean I have a Mac laptop, home computer, iPod, and the iPad 2 so it was only natural for me to complete my love affair with new iPhone. I did promise myself that I would try and hold out as long as I could though until I got the new iPhone my plan was to wait until I was on vacation (which starts Oct. 23rd) and that would allow a couple of weeks to go by and let the hysteria of the new phone settle. So the day the phone came out of course there were long lines everywhere! I did check into a couple pre-order options but I told myself I was going to wait. Plus when the iPad 2 came out I got so stressed over getting it ASAP that I ended up settling on the color and size - even though I'm very happy with what I have and it actually fits my needs perfectly! This time around though I wasn't going to settle. Now Chris had done the pre-order at a store and she said it was sort of a joke because really it was still first come first serve. So again I have proved to myself that I would just wait a few weeks until I got my iPhone. My boss had gotten it so I got to play around on it and see if this was really everything it was hyped up about.... it was. Then Chris got hers and could not stop talking about how cool it was and she had the iPhone 4 so really only a few things were different on the iPhone 4s. 
  On Saturday I got out of work at 5:30 so for the heck of it I called a Best Buy near me just to see if they had any and OMG they had 3 left and in exactly the color & size I wanted!!!! It was destiny. I was able to convince the girl to please hold one I was on my way. As soon as I got there I had them ring me up and get me up and going with my new iPhone. I have to say it is everything and more people! However the best part just might have to be the Siri feature. It is pretty much a personal assistant she does just about anything for you. She looks up phone numbers, traffic, sends and reads text messages (no more driving & texting which you shouldn't be doing because it's illegal). However Siri can be a little testy sometimes. Check it out: 

Yes I know very inappropriate but come on you know you would have asked a vulgar question too. I have to say she is pretty fab- I mean she does it all and sometimes it beats talking to yourself-- now at least you have someone who responds. Haha. 

Costume Dilemma

I've never been a big Halloween person- even growing up I never got into dressing up even though I did it and I did have some good costumes when I was little. One year I was a clown, Dick Tracy (I had this crazy obsession with Dick Tracy), Cat Woman, and a Cave Woman (I would like to note that I didn't want to be a cave woman but my mother bribed me to be that and in turn she bought me the newest Crayola kit so I considered that a good wager). But since my Cave Woman days I never really dressed up because it always seemed like a hassle to me. Plus I never felt confident enough to wear a sexy playboy bunny outfit or didn't want to put on all that gross make up to look like a zombie. This year I thought maybe my husband and I can dress up because we've never dressed up before. Plus our friends band always plays on Halloween and you're suppose to dress up. So on our way to our friends house I thought I would throw out some ideas. My first idea was Kim Kardashian and my hubs could be Kris Humphrey's. Okay so maybe my husband isn't as tall or doesn't look like Frankenstein but we could improvise here. He quickly dismissed that idea. So then I thought what about JWOW & Rodger- I mean come on I love fitness so does JWOW and I have dark hair plus I could throw in my extensions so this could work- maybe I don't have big boobs as her but nothing a little water balloons can't help. Again the hubby wasn't digging the idea- I mean come on I'm running out of ideas! His suggestion Snooki- my reply, "Um.. no I'm not short or fat like her." His reply, "Yea but you're not tall and skinny like JWOW either." I was speechless! I get his intention wasn't to be mean even though I was very taken aback I knew he didn't mean for it to come out as it did. So at the end of it we are still left without a costume idea. Hm.... I still have a couple of weeks to think about it. 

Productive Monday

I was lucky enough to have this fabulous day off! I was relieved that it was so nice out because all weekend it was unseasonably warm and I was working all weekend. So of course I started off with a great workout at Crossfit. Today our workout was:

5 Rounds for time:

3 Cleans
15 Wallball

I completed in 6 minutes flat! I was pretty excited with that time. So since we all know that just one workout is never enough and I wanted to take advantage of this weather I also went on a 30 mile bike ride. It was so relaxing and pretty with all the leaves changing. I have to say when the new iPhone comes out and since Sprint is getting it (thank god!) I'll be excited to take pics now on my ride. Finally after my workout regimite was done I was ready to be a great housewife- well after I watched Part 1 of Kim Kardashian's wedding special. I mean come on people I've been watiting for this for months! And let me tell ya it didn't disappoint. Okay so now that I finished that I put away all the laundry- a task that I hate doing and usually put it off until my husband gets sick of looking at it and he does it :) Hopefully he doesn't read this and catch on to my little trick. When I was done I went into the bathroom closet and for some reason this time when I went in there I was disgusted by how disorganized it was and if I didn't fix it ASAP it was going to drive me mad. So I had thought that maybe I just needed to straighten it up and throw out some products. I started there and quickly realized it was more than that I needed bins or baskets to keep everything neat and in place. So a quick trip to IKEA was a definite errand that I needed to take before I started dinner. Now some people don't have an IKEA in their state but let me tell ya it is a fabulous to visit even just once. However here are a few pointers before you enter the big BLUE box.


1. Make sure you pee before you start you're shopping- it is very easy to get lost in IKEA
2. Have a fully charged cell phone- in case you get lost, need to take a picture, or just need to talk or text
3. Have a mental idea of what you want before you go in there with a blank slate- it ends up costing you much more money!
4. Make sure you go with someone who has a good sense of direction


I did do a little looking other than what I intended but I refocused and got to where I needed to be. After looking at my options in the storage dept. I wasn't exactly finding what I needed so I had to improvise a little bit but in the end I found something that would work. I got what I needed, drove home and got straight to work! So in an hour I was able to whip up my bathroom closet into a more organized functioning closet!

Yes there is room for improvement but not a bad start for a project that I started and finished before dinner. 

Nothing says Fall like our first fire

About a week and a half ago I thought for sure that I was going to have to say good-bye to Summer for good because it was getting quite chilly out and I officially had my first Fall drink from Starbucks (Spiced Carmel Apple Cider). So I was mentally preparing myself for the Fall season ahead- which I really do like because I adore fall fashion even though I don't normally wear more than my black & white work outfit or work-out clothes but I can still admire. So when I came home from a long day at work my husband had surprised me with a blazing fire. I always love our house when we have a fire going because it just gives it such a warm feeling besides all the love in the house.

The fire was the perfect back drop to our relaxing evening on the couch catching up on our favorite T.V. Shows. We got the fire in the nick of time because just a few days later it was in the 80's but no worries because I know as always we will be heading into a long dreadful winter but many more fires to come!

A family that cooks together stays together

 So the hubby and I actually had a weekend where our schedules synced and we could actually spend time together- this is kinda a big deal because I work weekends (with the exception of my one weekend off a month) and he works Monday-Friday but normally I am working a funky schedule on the weekend we don't really see each other. However that wasn't the case this weekend! So on Saturday I got home earlier than I had expected so since it has been so incredibly nice here in Chicago and I won't complain at all because it's been the perfect weather to still work out outside in-- sorry I'm getting off topic. So the hubby and I walked our dog together on a nice long walk- now earlier in the day I had left my husband with the task of putting together plans for the evening. For some men this is a piece of cake for my husband it's like pulling teeth- so I was quite curious as to see what he came up with. So he had said he made reservations at one of our favorite restaurants which I was excited about but we got there regularly so it wasn't anything out of the norm with the exception he called this time to make reservations- it's usually always me. But at the last minute he suggested we cook out since it was so nice out. I loved this idea because nothing beats the taste of something cooked on the grill! So we hiked over to the local grocery store to get all the goodies we needed and a little more. First thing was getting the meat- now let me start off by saying I've never bought meat before- usually my mother does because she use to work in the grocery business so she always took care of the meat purchase. I was quite overwhelmed at the choices! I didn't know the different between fillet Mignon, ribeye, strip, etc. The poor woman behind the counter probably wanted to shoot me so I just got so flustered I just pointed to what I thought looked good. So with that now out of the way we then headed over to decide on what sides we wanted- I got corn and the hubby got some potatoes- we then decided to be a little adventurous and get some wine and cocktails- we never drink might I add. So I had heard on Bethenny Frankel's facebook she was coming out with another addition to her Skinny Girl cocktails but it would be a couple of weeks, well to my amazement it already hit shelves! So I had to try her new flavor- Cosmo White Cranberry and then get my favorite White Sangria. The hubby got his selections and then $130 dollars later we were ready to get our grill on correction my husband was ready to get his grill on and I would do the sides. 
  Once we got home I stood helplessly in front of the spices before I haphazardly chose some spices to put on my steak- I didn't do to bad. Check out that beauty! 

Yum!!

 Then some liquid courage to help me whip up some yummy sides to go with our steak...

    

Then while we were at the grocery store they had those sample people and of course I usually have to stop especially if they have something sweet. Well this one lady had the best snack ever!


Buy 1 box of Nilla wafers or any wafer of your choice then...


It's called Mascarpone cheese- I know you're thinking cheese on a vanilla wafer gross! No way! It is a light sweet cheese and paired with a vanilla wafer it is heaven! It is the perfect amount of sweetness.

So the hubby grilled our steaks to perfection and I whipped up our sides and let me tell ya dinner was delicious! I was so excited to eat that I forgot to take a picture of the final product! Ha!
The hubby & I enjoyed a wonderful dinner together.