1. Facebook funnies
2. Shameless people of 2012
3. Amazing photos from 2012
4. Golden Globes Fashion
5. Cats!
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Random Thursday
1. Yesterday Hubs and I were in bed before ten. We both declared ourselves exhausted and decided we would go to bed by 10. We beat our deadline and fell asleep. I feel so rested today!
2. The Christmas tree is officially packed away.
3. I haven't accomplished anything with my scrapbook since my last post.
4. I'm currently reading Little Women on my Kindle Fire. It was a free download.
5. We planned all of our meals for the week on Sunday. When we bought groceries we spent significantly less money. When it's dinner time, there is no wasting time asking, "What do you want to eat for dinner tonight?" Meal planning works. Let's see if we can stick with this.
2. The Christmas tree is officially packed away.
3. I haven't accomplished anything with my scrapbook since my last post.
4. I'm currently reading Little Women on my Kindle Fire. It was a free download.
5. We planned all of our meals for the week on Sunday. When we bought groceries we spent significantly less money. When it's dinner time, there is no wasting time asking, "What do you want to eat for dinner tonight?" Meal planning works. Let's see if we can stick with this.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
What to do in Montreal
Hubs and I are planning an upcoming weekend getaway in Montreal, Canada. I'm pretty excited about the getaway as it has been a few months since we have got out of town just for us.
We'll be celebrating our first wedding anniversary. I just can't believe it has been almost one year since our wedding day! Not only is it our one year wedding anniversary, it also marks 8 years of our "togetherness."
Here are some of the fun things we are dreaming up for Montreal:
1. Eating a Beavertail
Have you ever eaten a Beavertail? If not, you are missing out and you should plan a visit to Canada just because.
I haven't had one in AGES. In fact, I think I've only had one once when I was in high school and I visited Ottawa with a friend to go skating on the canal. Well, I haven't forgotten that Beavertail and I fully intend on finding a location in Montreal to savor another with Hubs.
Who doesn't like fried-dough-goodness? Nom. Nom. Nom.
2. Hotel with indoor/outdoor roof top pool
When Hubs and I were in high school, a teacher once described a hotel in Montreal where you could swim on the roof outside in a heated pool while it was snowing. Said hotel is also connected to an underground mall shopping center.
Ever since hearing about this hotel, Hubs and I have said that we would find it and visit. Well, we found it and we booked it and we are both excited to swim outside under the stars in the middle of winter. I personally am hoping for a light fluffy snowfall for the swim. So fun!
3. SHOPPING!
4. Night Life: Bars
Montreal is a party city. We fully intend to hop around and find a couple bars for fun during our evenings.
5. Geocaching
Yes - we will find at least one geocache while abroad. Maybe 2...or 3...
6. Notre Dame Light Show
Notre Dame Basilica is too beautiful to just pass by. The church has a light show with music to detail the history of the church. This looks pretty neat. We think we might check this out!
7. Ice Skating
If weather is reasonable, we hope to find an outdoor skating rink where we can rent skates and just be outside. If it's too cold, we would consider finding an indoor skating venue.
8. Van Houtte Bistro
When we are looking for our"favourite" brew to warm up I imagine we'll stroll into a Van Houtte Bistro for a delicious coffee break.
I'm definitely looking forward to our Montreal getaway weekend. Anyone have any additional recommendations for things to do in Montreal?
We'll be celebrating our first wedding anniversary. I just can't believe it has been almost one year since our wedding day! Not only is it our one year wedding anniversary, it also marks 8 years of our "togetherness."
Here are some of the fun things we are dreaming up for Montreal:
1. Eating a Beavertail
Have you ever eaten a Beavertail? If not, you are missing out and you should plan a visit to Canada just because.
I haven't had one in AGES. In fact, I think I've only had one once when I was in high school and I visited Ottawa with a friend to go skating on the canal. Well, I haven't forgotten that Beavertail and I fully intend on finding a location in Montreal to savor another with Hubs.
Who doesn't like fried-dough-goodness? Nom. Nom. Nom.
2. Hotel with indoor/outdoor roof top pool
When Hubs and I were in high school, a teacher once described a hotel in Montreal where you could swim on the roof outside in a heated pool while it was snowing. Said hotel is also connected to an underground mall shopping center.
Ever since hearing about this hotel, Hubs and I have said that we would find it and visit. Well, we found it and we booked it and we are both excited to swim outside under the stars in the middle of winter. I personally am hoping for a light fluffy snowfall for the swim. So fun!
3. SHOPPING!
- There is an "underground city" in Montreal complete with lots of shopping. We'll be hitting this up for sure!
- Sainte Catherine Street is full of shops, department stores, and restaurants. We'll probably be strolling this street as well. Window shopping perhaps?
4. Night Life: Bars
Montreal is a party city. We fully intend to hop around and find a couple bars for fun during our evenings.
5. Geocaching
Yes - we will find at least one geocache while abroad. Maybe 2...or 3...
6. Notre Dame Light Show
Notre Dame Basilica is too beautiful to just pass by. The church has a light show with music to detail the history of the church. This looks pretty neat. We think we might check this out!
7. Ice Skating
If weather is reasonable, we hope to find an outdoor skating rink where we can rent skates and just be outside. If it's too cold, we would consider finding an indoor skating venue.
8. Van Houtte Bistro
When we are looking for our"favourite" brew to warm up I imagine we'll stroll into a Van Houtte Bistro for a delicious coffee break.
I'm definitely looking forward to our Montreal getaway weekend. Anyone have any additional recommendations for things to do in Montreal?
Sunday, January 6, 2013
January Recipe 1: Chicken Tortilla Soup
In 2013 I am challenging myself to try to cook 2 new recipes each month. This is going to be really good for me.
My first recipe for January: Chicken Tortilla Soup.
I found the recipe in a Slow Cooker magazine from January 2010. This is the only Slow Cooker magazine I have ever received (a Christmas gift that came with the crock pot) so I held onto it. (Sigh of relief from my readers. No I don't have 2 years worth of slow cooker magazines piled up somewhere!)
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Soup:
This was a success and very easy to prepare. The most challenging part for me was handling the raw meat. I always find this so gross...but I survived cutting the chicken into bite size pieces. It wasn't so bad I guess.
You'll notice there are quite a few spices required in this recipe. We didn't own any of them prior to today. We did skip out on spending $5 on a huge thing of minced garlic and instead we minced some fresh garlic that we already had on hand. (Somebody tell me, why isn't there a store where you can just buy spices in small quantities?!)
I also cooked this on the High heat setting for almost half of the time since I got a late start in preparing dinner. (We ate dinner at 8:00 tonight...oops!)
Hubs agrees that it is a repeatable meal. It was delish. We ate it with cornbread. Hubs made lemon sugar cookies for dessert that were also a hit.
My first recipe for January: Chicken Tortilla Soup.
I found the recipe in a Slow Cooker magazine from January 2010. This is the only Slow Cooker magazine I have ever received (a Christmas gift that came with the crock pot) so I held onto it. (Sigh of relief from my readers. No I don't have 2 years worth of slow cooker magazines piled up somewhere!)
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Soup:
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 2 tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
- 1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 carton chicken broth (4 cups)
- 4 corn tortillas cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
- Shredded Cheddar cheese
- Sour cream
- Spray slow cooker with cooking spray. In cooker, mix all soup ingredients except cilantro.
- Cover; cook on low heat setting 6 to 8 hours.
- Stir in cilantro. Increase heat setting to High. Cover; cook 15 minutes longer.
- Garnish each serving with cheese and sour cream.
This was a success and very easy to prepare. The most challenging part for me was handling the raw meat. I always find this so gross...but I survived cutting the chicken into bite size pieces. It wasn't so bad I guess.
You'll notice there are quite a few spices required in this recipe. We didn't own any of them prior to today. We did skip out on spending $5 on a huge thing of minced garlic and instead we minced some fresh garlic that we already had on hand. (Somebody tell me, why isn't there a store where you can just buy spices in small quantities?!)
I also cooked this on the High heat setting for almost half of the time since I got a late start in preparing dinner. (We ate dinner at 8:00 tonight...oops!)
Hubs agrees that it is a repeatable meal. It was delish. We ate it with cornbread. Hubs made lemon sugar cookies for dessert that were also a hit.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Scrapbooking Excuses and Frustration
I really just want to get into this wedding scrapbook. To date I've done 3 pages, 2 of which are incomplete. These pages were done in November. Now that the holiday rush is past, it's time to get back into this. But I get overwhelmed even thinking about it.
Why?
Space:
My desk is a whopping space of 47 x 24 inches. Throw a printer and laptop on top and it's pretty much out of space. To clear the space, I end up shifting my stuff around to the point of not knowing where anything is anymore.
Number of Pictures:
Our photographer took a zillion photos. And I love her for it because there are so many great pictures. And it's so many pictures. And it's hard to focus on one particular event for scrapbooking, or to pick particular photos for layouts. It's hard because I only printed a small percentage of photos leading up to our wedding ceremony and they are all 4 x 6 size. And I wonder if I would rather have a couple 4x7s or 8x10s to incorporate and which photos I should order in larger sizes.
Color Scheme:
In my other scrapbooks the pages and color scheme vary from event to event and pages are pretty bright colors. This is wedding scrapbook will be more formal. My wedding colors were navy and silver. It's hard to pick papers to go with particular photos without distracting from the photos.
Don't-want-to-mess-it-up mentality:
Admittedly I have ripped apart many scrapbook pages in the past to re-start with different colors and layouts. And I'm worried I'll end up ripping things apart so many times that it will become more frustrating.
It takes so much time:
On this beautiful sunny Saturday I haven't left the apartment. I slept in. I read many many pages of Wicked on my Kindle. I even took a nap this afternoon. And I still feel like I don't have enough time to get into this. (Or maybe I'm just procrastinating??)
Just getting started:
It can be so hard to just. get. started. Look at me. Blogging about the frustration instead of working through it.
Okay...back to trying to scrapbook....
Why?
Space:
My desk is a whopping space of 47 x 24 inches. Throw a printer and laptop on top and it's pretty much out of space. To clear the space, I end up shifting my stuff around to the point of not knowing where anything is anymore.
Number of Pictures:
Our photographer took a zillion photos. And I love her for it because there are so many great pictures. And it's so many pictures. And it's hard to focus on one particular event for scrapbooking, or to pick particular photos for layouts. It's hard because I only printed a small percentage of photos leading up to our wedding ceremony and they are all 4 x 6 size. And I wonder if I would rather have a couple 4x7s or 8x10s to incorporate and which photos I should order in larger sizes.
Color Scheme:
In my other scrapbooks the pages and color scheme vary from event to event and pages are pretty bright colors. This is wedding scrapbook will be more formal. My wedding colors were navy and silver. It's hard to pick papers to go with particular photos without distracting from the photos.
Don't-want-to-mess-it-up mentality:
Admittedly I have ripped apart many scrapbook pages in the past to re-start with different colors and layouts. And I'm worried I'll end up ripping things apart so many times that it will become more frustrating.
It takes so much time:
On this beautiful sunny Saturday I haven't left the apartment. I slept in. I read many many pages of Wicked on my Kindle. I even took a nap this afternoon. And I still feel like I don't have enough time to get into this. (Or maybe I'm just procrastinating??)
Just getting started:
It can be so hard to just. get. started. Look at me. Blogging about the frustration instead of working through it.
Okay...back to trying to scrapbook....
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Random Thursday
1. My car is acting up and I'm not liking it! A few days ago I noticed my car was loud...like maybe-you-have-a-hole-in-your-muffler loud. I asked hubs to take the car for a spin to see what he thought. We think there is something up with the exhaust system since the car is kind of smelly after you drive it for a bit and it's pretty loud. Hubs will take my car in on Friday - I will hope for the best.
2. I bought Hubs a car starter for his Subaru for Christmas. This will be installed later this month!
3. My next car will be all wheel drive and it will have a spotless windshield. Just sayin.
4. My brothers were planning on doing some work to their cars on their own while they are home for the holidays. I wonder how that went. I should probably ask them.
5. I have a soft spot for my first car. Nothing like a Mercury!
2. I bought Hubs a car starter for his Subaru for Christmas. This will be installed later this month!
3. My next car will be all wheel drive and it will have a spotless windshield. Just sayin.
4. My brothers were planning on doing some work to their cars on their own while they are home for the holidays. I wonder how that went. I should probably ask them.
5. I have a soft spot for my first car. Nothing like a Mercury!
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Welcome 2013!
Happy New Year!
I am looking forward to the year ahead. I resolve to continue blogging and to keep working away at my 30/30 list.
In 2013 I will definitely take on the following items on my 30/30 list:
1. Learn to cook 2 new recipes each month for one year
2. Try to ski
3. Visit at least 1 new state
4. Send a secret to PostSecret
5. Plug away at my wedding scrapbook
I am looking forward to the year ahead. I resolve to continue blogging and to keep working away at my 30/30 list.
In 2013 I will definitely take on the following items on my 30/30 list:
1. Learn to cook 2 new recipes each month for one year
2. Try to ski
3. Visit at least 1 new state
4. Send a secret to PostSecret
5. Plug away at my wedding scrapbook
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