what to eat... what to eat

You'd think making a grocery list would be a simple task. Alas, it is not. Most of you ladies out there know that it is a lot of prep work. You have to look at your calendar at the beginning of the week, think about your upcoming plans and decide which days you'll need to cook (some nights B has class, some nights we go out with friends, some nights you can eat leftovers, etc). Once you decide how many nights you'll have to cook, you start thumbing through your recipes. So I'm a tad on the OCD side. Okay a lot. I have a HUGE binder of recipes I've collected over the years (from magazines, websites, friends, family, etc) and they are organized alphabetically by category (appetizers, desserts, meats/poultry, mexican, etc).

So you if you have 4 nights this week that you have to cook you think to yourself, "I am going to try to cook healthy meals, with variety, try a few new things, and also try to appeal to my husband's tastes... who could eat mac/cheese every night and be happy." So I pick out a pasta dish, grilled chicken recipe, a veggie soup, and a new fish recipe I've been wanting to try. My rule of thumb is to only do 1 new recipe a week. That way if it bombs, it's okay because the other nights we will be having tried and true classics. So once you have your recipes, you have to start thinking of sides. This stresses me out to the max. Like with this fish recipe, which veggie would be best? Asparagus? Salad? Wait, we are having salad with the pasta on Monday. AHHHH. Sides stress me out.

SO... once you have your main dishes and sides picked out, you have to rummage through your fridge and pantry to see what ingredients you already own, then add the items you don't own to your grocery list. THEN you gotta rifle through your coupons (online and cut from the paper), and that's no fun.
Finally... you go to the grocery store. Despite all the build up, the grocery shopping is actually fun to me. My sweet hubby goes with me 90% of the time so we can tackle it together and accomplish it in 1/2 the time. And it's fun bonding time.
Then you get to eat your delicious meals and look back on all the hard work you put into planning the meals for the week. Oh and at the end of every meal, Brian and I rate the food on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most delicious thing in the world) and I write the average of our numbers in the top left corner of the recipe and place it back in the binder. So when we go back through and find that we gave that recipe a 9, we'll know we should eat it again. Don't worry, I toss the recipes that score anything below a 7.

Sips n Strokes

My mom & I went for a fun night out on the town and did Sips N Strokes. We had heard such great things about it but we were very hesitant, as neither of us are artists. Seriously. We can't even draw stick figures, it's sad. We were pleasantly surprised with our finished products though. Nothing a bottle of wine & step-by-step instructions can't help...

mom's

mine

Mem Day Party

We hosted a Mem Day party at our house yesterday. SO much fun. Our original plan was to spend the day at the pool and then just grill out down there, but Mother Nature had a different plan in store for us. She decided to rain down on us for about 90% of the day, so that was neat. We moved the party to our house, which you know I never complain about. I LOVE to host!

the boys played Bocce Ball outside

while the girls gossiped inside

Adam & B

B & me

Greyson & me

Mem Day pup

Girls Weekend in Bham

I just had a lovely weekend in Bham with my mom (Carolyn) and Brian's mom (JoAnne). It is always SO nice to get away for some R&R with the girls. Our weekend consisted of all of my favorite things...
*ate Ocarrs for lunch
*saw the movie "Date Night" - so funny!
*dinner at Cocina--> Mojitos!!!!
*overnight at Renaissance Ross Bridge
*massage in the morning
*brunch at Jackson's

Renaissance at Ross Bridge
view from our rooms

if I were on death row, this would be my last meal

Carolyn, me, JoAnne @ Cocina

FINALLY!!!

Well I finally graduated! I have spent the past 2 years working all day and going to class at night. It has been rough, to say the least. But now I am finished and officially have my Masters of Arts in Teaching Early Childhood Education. Looking back on the past 2 years of school, it seems like it flew by! But being in the moment each of those grueling nights in class, it seemed to creep by slowly. I couldn't have completed this program without the support of my sweet hubby. He was SO supportive and helpful every step of the way. He would cook dinners for me on the nights I had class and sit with me while I ate when I got home. He took over the grocery shopping and cleaning of the house on the days/nights when I had a huge project or paper. Brian listened to my many stories of complaint and always had sweet words of encouragement for me. To sum it up, if I didn't have Brian in my life, I truly do not think I could have endured the past 2 years of school. Thanks babe!

my school friends - Jill, Lisa, Reese, me, Lauren

my love

my fam - also SUPER supportive (helping me with projects & ideas)

my school bff & twin... we met on day 1 and were instant bffs