Friday Favorites!

1) Cleaning - Yep, I spent most of Saturday getting a head start on Spring Cleaning and I loved it. Josh worked on Saturday, so I didn't feel guilty by not spending time with him. I actually don't mind cleaning, I just don't like doing it after a full day of work. I got up early and got to work! We still have some stuff to do (mostly sort through things to donate and clean out the garage), but our house feels much cleaner now that I've dusted all those tiny crevices I don't get to on a weekly basis!

2) Prison Break - Josh and I finally finished the series last weekend. It's nice to know how everything ends, but I didn't like how it ended. It was just too sad. 

3) Guest Room - I bought a new comforter for the guest room with my Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards! We decided on this one. There were several others that I liked, but they were either more than we wanted to pay, or Josh didn't like them. We wanted something that wasn't too feminine. I really love the one we got, I just kind of wish the color was different. I LOVE the way it feels and I love the design. I do like the color, it's just kind of close to the colors in our living room. I was originally thinking of a navy color, but I haven't been able to find a navy comforter that doesn't look like it belongs in a little boy's room anywhere. I was just tired of the guest bedroom looking so...blah. We still need to paint and get some more furniture, so I'll post real pictures then.

4) Bailey - Josh has a big deadline coming up soon, so he's been working a lot of hours (see #1). I've been working my normal hours, so I come home to play with Bailey and start dinner before we go get Josh. I love having our family time together, but it's nice for just the two of us to hang out too. She's such a sweet baby!

5) Re-Finance - Yes we did...and we haven't even been in our house a year yet! Even though the rates were low when we bought our house, they're even lower now! Our lender called up a few weeks ago and said we could save quite a bit of money. We went to settlement on Wednesday so it's a done deal! Our payment is lower now, but we're going to continue to pay what we're paying now. That will equal an extra payment per year. YAY for extra principal without increasing our payment! 

Friday Favorites!

This week could have been better. We got some not so great news and that has kind of put me in a foul mood for the last day or so. But, life happens. That's why I do these things, to remind myself that the week wasn't all bad.

1) Passport Progress - Since I'm just renewing my passport, I was just able to send in my application with the required documents and a check. Well, the check posted to my account this week. I know it will probably be a while before I get it, but at least there's progress!

2) Pub Dog - Josh and I decided to grab dinner while we were out running errands Saturday. We decided on Pub Dog. We went there for the first time when we came up to look for apartments. It's a local brew pub/restaurant. They have lots of unique and DELICIOUS pizza flavors. It's a really fun place. We'll have to go more. They have an outdoor patio where you can bring your dogs. Saturday was NOT a day we would have wanted to do this! It was one of the rare days over the past few months when it actually felt like winter.

3) Valentine's Day - I love Valentine's Day! I love getting flowers (Josh gave me my flowers a day early this year because he knew I wouldn't be expecting them) :-). We decided to cook a nice meal in. We don't really go out ON Valentine's Day for V-Day dinner anymore. The restaurants are just too crowded and we're not fans of the overpriced V-Day menus. We decided to make Steak, steamed asparagus and mushroom risotto. It was all SO good! We shared some really good red wine we got from St. Michael's Winery when we visited a few weeks ago. I love when we can put a date or some sort of story to a bottle of wine we share rather than just picking one off the shelf at a store. I don't mind that either though. Haha. Anyway, I've been wanting to decorate our guest bedroom so Josh got me a gift card to Bed Bath and Beyond. Josh has been wanting to go fishing, so I got him a tackle box and a gift card to Bass Pro Shops. I may or may not have made a super cheesy card that may or may not have had something to do with fish.

4) Yappy Hour - I'm sure I've mentioned before that Camp Bow Wow has monthly Yappy Hours. We went to one this past Wednesday. Not only is Bailey's daycamp cheaper on those days, but we get to drink wine, snack on delicious cheeses and socialize. A few months ago, I met a Mastiff and her owner. She was huge but still growing. I saw her again yesterday and she's even bigger! She's already 135 pounds and she's only 9 months old. It's so hard for me to believe a baby weighs more than I do! She's a sweetheart though. Her feet are just ginormous! I think Bailey would love to have a big sister that she could run under! By the time we get a second dog, she'll probably be a grouchy old lady though.

5) Happy Hour - Josh's company hosted a happy hour yesterday afternoon. We both had a great time mingling and getting to know Josh's co-workers better. 

Kitchen Decorating

I have been really bad about updating things, especially with the house. We're also really bad at actually finishing projects, so that may have a little to do with it. It's not very exciting without AFTER pictures, is it? Well, hopefully I'll be able to get a few of those up here at some point in the near future.

For my 101 in 1001 list, I wanted to make something to display in our house. I actually have the materials to make at least 2 other items, but I finished my first one back in...Octoberish? Haha. Yea, like I said...way behind!

Remember when we adjusted our cabinets so we could put in a microwave over the stove? Well, that left 2 awkward looking empty spots on either side of the stove. I thought about putting plants up there, but I didn't. Then I decided to put decorative plates up there. I liked that idea better, so I started searching. Everything I found that I liked was a bit more than I wanted to pay, so I decided to make some. I still had some glass paint left over from some of the gifts I made for our wedding party, and luckily, we're decorating our kitchen in our wedding colors. I love polka dots, so I decided to go with that. I used the wrong side of a few paintbrushes (because I wanted  my dots to be different sizes). I use the wrong side so the dots will be consistent in size/shape. It's a LOT harder to do this with the actual brush. Trust me!

I went to Goodwill and found 2 Crate & Barrel plates that I loved for $6 total! The decorative ones that I was finding online that I liked were more like $15+ EACH. Not too bad!

I would love to decorate some other items to match these, I have plenty of space above the rest of my cabinets that could be decorated :-)

Friday Favorites!

1) Productive Saturday - Josh and I decided that we would clean our carpets over the weekend, so we removed all the furniture from the State Room and Living Room before we went to bed Friday night. I got up early Saturday morning (just like every Saturday morning) and hit the ground running. I had a quick breakfast, planned our meals for this week, worked out and started prepping to clean the carpets. I vacuumed the floor and all those little crevices, dusted the baseboards, cleaned the glass doors, etc. I played with Bailey a bit then woke Josh up. The actual cleaning took a while longer than we thought, but we were cleaning the higher traffic areas of the house. We finished the den then took Bailey to her play date with Pete. We came back home to "finish up". We were  only able to clean the living room and dining room before it was time to leave. I was a little disappointed at first, because that meant we would have to spend another weekend cleaning the stairs and bedrooms. Once I realized how long it was going to take for the carpet to dry, I was glad! We're planning on cleaning the rest of the house this coming weekend.

2) Dinner Date - We worked literally all day Saturday. As a reward, we went to El Nayar, a local Mexican restaurant armed with a Groupon and some Corona since it was a BYOB restaurant.The food was cheap, so we got appetizers and some stuff to go, just to use up the Groupon! They had cactus salad (we had some on our honeymoon and it was delicious!), so of course I had to get a side of that as well. It was good, but not as good as what we had on our honeymoon.

3) TV - We got a TV for the State Room!

4) Shredding - As I predicted, I didn't keep working out through all the visitors we had over the last couple weeks. I got the motivation to start again and I've been sticking with it pretty well. Day 2 was pretty rough since I was still a bit sore from Day 1. After Day 3, it seemed to get a little easier. I'm not cheating on the push-ups anymore, but I'm still doing the girl version. I'm such a wimp, but I'll work my way up :-). I'm clearly not seeing results yet, but I already feel much better about myself. I had Josh take pictures of me so I can visually see the progress. I plan on taking them every week, hopefully that will keep me motivated! I had intentions on posting them, but then I looked at them and decided otherwise. They're not flattering at all! Hopefully they will keep me motivated.

Bailey doing her yoga :-) She still enjoys when I work out too. She thinks crunch time is time for her to chew on my ponytail. Haha.

5) Paying Down Debt - This has been a HUGE goal of ours since before we were even married. The house obviously slowed us down a LOT. Well, as of today, we have all our interest bearing credit card debt paid off! We do have a credit card that is carrying a balance, but it's 0%. We'll just pay a little more than the minimum on that one for now so we can focus on getting our student loan debt paid down! If all goes well, we should have all our student loan debt paid off within a year! That will be a HUGE step for us! 

Healthy Sweet Potato Skins

I know it's been FOREVER since I've posted a recipe. I found this recipe for Healthy Sweet Potato Skins on Pinterest and I decided to give it a shot. I'm SO glad I did! I wasn't sure I would like it, but I had a can of chick peas I needed to use, so I went for it. I'm sorry, but I don't have any pictures, I didn't realize my camera was dead until I tried to turn it on. 

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes

1 tablespoon butter

1 shallot, minced

1 bag of fresh baby spinach

1/4 cup sour cream

2 ounces cream cheese

1 cup chickpeas

1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1) Bake sweet potatoes at 350 until fork tender

2) Cut sweet potatoes in half and let cool. Saute shallots with butter over medium heat until translucent. Add spinach and heat for a few minutes. Set aside.

3) Hollow out the sweet potatoes, leaving a small layer with the skin. Place the skins in the oven for about 5 more minutes. Mash the sweet potato with softened cream cheese and sour cream. Stir in Spinach and shallots. Mash chickpeas and add to mixture (I did this because I don't particularly care for the texture of whole chickpeas...and Josh doesn't like them so I was trying to hide them from him).

4) Remove skins from oven and re-fill with mixture. Top with mozzarella cheese and bake for an additional 15 minutes. 

I made a few minor changes from the original recipe. I didn't have light cream cheese or sour cream so I used regular. I didn't add any salt or pepper, I used less butter to saute the shallots and spinach, and I didn't oil the potato skins. I also used slightly less sour cream. 

I really really liked this recipe and I'll be making it again. Josh got really excited at first because he thought I put crab in them (which I may try at some point!). I have no idea why he thought this, but he did. I told him I would tell him what was in them after he told me if he liked them. Bad idea. I should have just let him think it was straight sweet potatoes. He was a bit turned off when he found the leftover chickpeas, but he was a good sport and tried them anyway. He said he didn't mind them but he couldn't look at them objectively since he knew they were in there. I'm personally not a fan of chickpeas either. I don't like them whole, I don't even like hummus. If I tried these without knowing what was in them, I would never be able to guess, so even if you think you won't like them, this recipe is worth a shot. 

This recipe is from Pinch of Yum, and I'm so glad I stumbled upon this blog. There are lots of other tasty looking recipes I just can't wait to try! Umm...Crab and Avacado Nachos, Skinny Chicken Enchiladas...YES PLEASE!

Friday Favorites!

This week has been one of those really long weeks. The kind where the last thing I wanted to do is get up and go to work. But, that's why I do this, right? I'm glad I do.


1) Family - My dad, sister and niece came to visit us this weekend. Friday night we had dinner and Natalia and I baked treats for Bailey. She's such a good little helper :-) She just loved it and she kept asking when they were finished, "can we give Bailey a Bailey treat?" Haha.

 Not sure what's going on here, but she was into it! Please ignore the cluttered counter, we had just finished dinner dishes.

 I let her play with a little bit when we were finished

 She even washed her own dishes! When I told her she didn't have to do that, her response was "Well, somebody has to clean up around here." Famous quote from her Uma.

Oh, her silly faces.

Toy Story! We couldn't figure out why nothing was 3D, but we kept the glasses on anyway. Apparently you have to unlock those games.

Bailey was super interested in the wiimotes we kept swinging around. Haha.

2) Lasik - Josh got Lasik on Saturday. I'm really excited for him to not have to wear glasses or contacts anymore. It was initially a bit painful for him (he said it felt like having sand or salt water in your eyes and not being able to rub them or anything) but that has gone away. He still has a little bit of discomfort at times, but he's steadily improving. He will have to use preservative free eye drops several times a day for 3 months.

3) Lazy Sunday - Sunday morning we had to get up early for Josh to get his eyes checked. The Dr. said everything looked fine. After that we went to get breakfast with my family before they left to go home. We were mostly lazy for the rest of the day. I took a nap (which hardly ever happens anymore) while Josh played X-Box. We made BBQ together (YUM) then we watched some movies and shared some wine that we bought at a winery we visited in October. It was a very relaxing end to the weekend :-).

4) Bailey - I wrote a while back about Bailey's separation anxiety. Well, we've been working really hard on getting that taken care of and she's shown SO much progress. I read a book called I'll be Home Soon and it gave us some great ideas. It's tedious, but it works. We started by just doing part of our morning routine, crating her and stepping outside the door. We worked our way up to actually cranking the car, etc. We have been recording her some days for the first hour or so after we leave for work. She still barks some days, but not as loud and as long as before. Some days, she may just whine or howl a little bit. Some days not a peep. Either way, she's improving a lot and I'm so proud of her :-)

Date Night Inspiration

Date night is very important to Josh and I. We try to go on at least 2 dates a month, more if possible. They don't have to be extravagant...they can even be at home dates. They just have to get our minds off the stressful stuff, and on each other. The day to day things like work, home improvements, etc. can be stressful or just annoying. We just have to get away from all that every once in a while and just BE together. 

Sometimes it's easy to fall into a routine. You know, dinner, a movie...same ole same ole kind of thing. We've been pretty good about doing different things lately, but sometimes you just run out of ideas. Well...while searching on Pinterest this week, I found a new blog that I love! The Dating Divas. There are so many date ideas on this blog. I'll be the first to admit, some of them are a little too cheesy for my taste, but there are some really cool, unique ideas that I would like to try. There are ideas for group dates, at home dates...you name it.Some of the at home ones may be a little challenging for us since we're ALWAYS home together. We work the same schedule and share the car, so there is no time to prepare for anything before he gets home. I'll just have to get creative.

Here are some of the ideas I really like:

The Fate Burger - This one would be a lot of fun if we knew more couples up here. Burgers are Josh's favorite food, and this would be a great way to try some new things while hanging out with friends.

My Choice, Your Choice - This is a good way to make sure we're both doing something we like while we're on a date. And it's one of those things you can do at home, so that's always nice for when we're short on time or when the date budget is gone for the month. 

The Post It Date - No explanation needed for this one.

Discovering a new town together - This one would be good for us since we're in a new area.

I haven't had a lot of time to check out much more of the blog, but I have a feeling I'll be borrowing lots of ideas in the near future. I'm glad I found this in time for Valentine's Day!