Birthday Celebration x 2

Yesterday, Saturday, we celebrated Jenny's (Feb. 24) and Patrick's (yesterday!) birthday's. We got together at my parents house and ate delicious snacks that consisted of meatballs, taco dip, veggies, and of course - cake! We all ooo'd and aaa'd as they opened their gifts... which was mostly gift cards, and grilling stuff! It really put me in the mood for spring. Even though Carmel Landing doesn't allow grilling, I am still looking forward to grilled food from cookouts with family and friends.

Jenny made sure Pat didn't get to blow out the candles, and then we all enjoyed cake (Angel Food cake with whipped icing - yum!)!

They both turned 27 this year.

And of course, no gathering would be complete without a full-on wrestling match between at least one adult and Lucy & Eli. Patrick was the target this time!

This picture pretty much sums up the day - Mom admiring Graham, Cara hoping neither of her kids get another boo-boo and/or nothing gets spilled, Lucy sitting on Jenny, and Laura and Eli attacking each other.

Ah, good times.

I can't imagine Jenny's knee's being the most comfy spot in the room.

Also, my Mom and I started working on the flower girls dresses for the wedding. An update to come soon!

Friday Night Shenanigans

We started out at our current favorite go-to, Tomlinson Tap Room. It's a cool place because you can get food from the city market, which is just right downstairs. This was the first time we got food from there and we were very happy we did! Since it was a Friday in Lent, we played it extra safe and went for bread sticks.

Bearded Sean with our MASSIVE bread sticks from a cute pizza place at the Indianapolis City Market.

Did I mention they were massive? But scrumptious!

After enjoying some yummy Indiana beers with our best brew friends, we traveled back to the Carmel side of town and decided to check out Matt the Miller's Tavern. We were very happy with their beer selection and the servers were all very nice. We're definitely adding it to our list of places to go. However, we did manage between the two of us to spend $50 on beer! That's the thing about fancy beer, it's more expensive than your average Coors Light. But, I must say our time there was a good one and we found a new favorite beer so it was money well spent.

Sean admiring the beer list, me admiring... myself. Ha.

Well, isn't that the truth!

My new favorite beer, Matilda from Goose Island.

 

 

 

 

Stuffed Peppers

Happy Friday!

Last night I made stuffed peppers.

I followed this {click here} recipe from Table for Two.. for the most part. I used ground chicken instead of ground turkey. I don't know, there's just something about ground turkey that gives me the eebie jeebies.

I had good intentions when I first started making these peppers, but things went down hill pretty quickly.

I got a little confused about what she meant when she said "place the peppers on the baking sheet up right"... what the heck? Up right as in the inside of the pepper is up, or up right as in the outside of the pepper is up? I tried to call my Mom for clarification, but she was busy so she couldn't answer. I was prepared to go down the list of my sisters until someone answered. I figured Cara or Jenny may have made stuffed peppers in the past so they might know, and if neither of them answered I knew I could laugh with Laura about how I was totally confused over such a simple thing. Thankfully Cara answered, technically Joe answered, but handed the phone over to Cara. I explained to her my confusion and she said, "well, how did you cut the peppers? long ways or side ways?"

DANG IT.

I cut the pepper long ways. You're supposed to cut them in half on the side, "to make little cups" as Cara explained it.

We decided it would still work, the cups just wouldn't be as deep as they normally would be. I thanked her for her time, and got back to cooking.

I decided since I had already kinda screwed things up, this was going to be a process that needed wine.

I drizzled the peppers (inside UP!) with olive oil and stuck them in the oven.

While the peppers were roasting, I diced 3/4 of a red onion and cooked the ground chicken and onion together. Once the chicken was thoroughly cooked, I added I cup of frozen corn and 1 and 1/2 cup of black beans.

I piled the mixture into the peppers, covered them with cheese (hey! the recipe said to "sprinkle a good amount of cheese"! I was just doing what I was told.) and plopped them in the oven. The recipe says to turn on the broiler and allow the cheese to melt, but I have a gas stove which means you basically have to lay your food on the floor to use the broiler... not happening! I miss using an electric stove like whoa.

The result was... they were okay. I felt like I put a TON of cumin, salt, and pepper in the mix but it was just kind of bland. I liked the yellow pepper better than the green pepper.

I think next time I will use pepper jack cheese instead of Monterrey Jack, and I would have added some other veggies to give it some more flavor. I dosed mine in Frank's Red Hot and that really kicked the meal up a notch.

Cheers to the weekend!

Wedding Dreams

I haven't felt much stress yet when it comes to wedding planning. I have a pretty good plan, and all of the big stuff is already addressed. You already know the bridesmaid dress caused me a little bit of stress, but once that was resolved I haven't really felt much anxiety. I love the details in things, so even the little things haven't really got my stress levels rising.

However, I've already had THREE wedding nightmares. Two I remember, one I do not. I expected these to start creeping in once we get closer to the wedding, but they seem to know no timeline. No matter how relaxed I am about the process, my subconscious or whatever my dreams are made of just doesn't care.

The first one came pretty early, right after the holidays. I was roaming around our reception venue and I couldn't find Sean, or any of my immediate family. All of our wedding guests were lounging around all over the place - there was no music, no food, it was chaos. I remember at one point Elizabeth and I were walking around with presents wondering where I was going to put them. She decided it would be best to lock them in her car for safety reasons, and that's the last I saw of her. I remember thinking, "this is a disaster!" ...And then I woke up.

The second nightmare happened not long after the first, but I honest to goodness cannot remember what happened. And I think I'm okay with that.

{Source}

The third nightmare happened last week. I went to pick up my dress and they told me the dressmaker couldn't make it and had sent a different dress for me to wear. It was AWFUL. It looked like something that a beginner sewer had attempted to make from a pattern she found on Pinterest. The material was that super shiny fake-looking satin material, and it had no train. No bling, either. It was either suck it up and wear that dress or, they said I could try on a dress that I had previously tried on and just sorta-kinda liked. It looked almost exactly like Khloe Kardashian's wedding dress but my curves were not being accentuated in the nice womanly way that Khloe's are... and it most definitely was not Vera Wang like Khloe's dress. But I knew it was better than the shiny fake-looking satin dress they had presented to me. We paid the rest of the bill (in real life, they had better given me that dress for close to nadda!), and as we were leaving the store I stepped down a stair and turned to say something to my oldest sister... and then I woke up.

I've just laughed these wedding nightmares off, mostly because I don't put much stock into what my dreams mean. I know every bride-to-be has them, and they typically never come to fruition.

Besides, as I've said before I have been feeling pretty darn confident about wedding planning...

Until last night.

I realized we are only six months and one week away.

Six months doesn't seem like enough time to get everything done that I want to get done. I could feel the knot in my tummy growing, so I made a list for myself to complete this month (with the help of The Knot wedding app on my phone). I told myself to relax, that I have a great support system in my family and friends, and it would all be perfectly fine. I rolled over, and fell asleep.

My last thought was, "Well, here comes another wedding nightmare..."

Nope.

Instead I dreamed about my sisters and I having a cookout at some house that I have never been in before, and they were grilling mice. Mice. To eat.

To me, mice are single-handily the grossest creatures on earth. I don't think they're cute. I don't think they should be kept as pets. I don't see anything good about them. I think they're sneaky, dirty, and ratty.

And my sisters were going to eat them, grilled & seasoned.

As they were beginning their feast, I remember walking into the back room thinking "this is NOT happening..." ...And then I woke up.

On my drive into work I let this all sink in.

No, no wedding nightmare. No dream about the bridesmaids dresses being the wrong color, or the ice cream cake melting before anyone gets to take a bite... not even a dream about the flowers dying before I walked down the aisle. No wedding nightmare at all the night I had my first mini anxiety attack over wedding details.

Instead, I dreamt that my sisters were eating mice for dinner.

Wobbly Wednesday & Life Update

Ah, it's been too long.

I'm not keeping up with my 13 in '13 by posting something everyday.

It seems like I'm not keeping up with anything I promised myself as of late.

Guess I better get back to that! And by that I mean blogging, excercising, logging my food, etc.

I'm ready for the weather to get warmer, I don't need 70's or 80's yet, but 50's and 60's would be nice!

And here's a crazy turn for you...

I had an interview yesterday.

In Bloomington.

I'm not ready to make the move back to Bloomington yet, but Sean and I have agreed that either Mooresville or the Greenwood area might work for us. And if that's the case, it opens up a whole new world of job opportunities for me. Which makes me happy, and very excited! Bloomington was home to me for a solid ten years and I'd be lying to you if I told you I didn't miss it. I feel that if we move to the southern part of Indy, I could have a better balance of family, friends, and work life. We shall see!

The interview went very well, and I rocked out (what I thought, at least) a super cute interview outfit. The two people interviewing me were more interested in learning about me and my personality, than they were about my past experience. They have a culture there that promotes happy living, balance, and creative problem-solving.

Sounds about right to me.

They have not offered the job to me, and they might not. If they do offer me the job, I'm about 80/20 on whether I'd take it or not.

And don't get my wrong, it's not that I mind my current job... it's just that there's no where for me to go here. My future here isn't bright, and that's mostly because there is no position above me that I would be able to take or that I would even want to take. No es bueno.

I'll keep you updated.

Onto some motivation to get us through this snowy (hopefully the last one of the season!) Wednesday...

And this post would not be complete without this adorable picture of my nephew, Graham. I think he was a little tired of seeing the back of my phone at this point.

Lucy, the artist. Graham, the perfect subject.

you + me = bff

I already have three besties, and I've been known to say "I don't need anymore friends, I have all I need." But this is a cute idea that some other bloggers have done, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I think it would be interesting to challenge my besties to put a list together of what it's like to be my bestie... but they all have super busy lives right now so I'll just go with my own perception of myself. Lucky you.

You can also check out Notably Neurotic and splendid actually to see what it's like to be besties with them. I have become hooked on their blogs and to be perfectly honest, I've never met either of them in person. Ah, the joys of the internets.

So you want to be my bestie?

Mexican food and I have a serious love affair going on.

I'm not a morning person so don't even try.

One of my favorite things to do is get a group together, make dinner and imbibe scrumptious drinks. Any day of the week works for me.

On a similar note, learn to love Porch Beers.

I'm not athletic. Like, not at all. However, I am  a GREAT fan. So if you play sports, I'll be there to watch... with a beer in hand... yelling at you to run faster.

I have three sisters, so I know how to play nice with other girls.

I rarely see someone that I think is ugly. So if you want to sit around and be judgmental about others looks, I'm probably not going to see it. Unless they've been mean to you or me, then I'll see it big time.

Sean and I LOVE craft beer. And each other. A lot.

Also, sometimes Sean and I act like super-old people and sit at home all night.

I can't stand girls that say "I just can't be friends with girls." If you can't get along with your peers, then you might want to do some self-examining.

I already have three besties, and in the past we've tried adding another to the crew and it just doesn't seem to ever work out... so you need to be pretty awesome.

I love Sex & The City, the television shows and the movies.

I love God, I am Catholic, and I am proud of it.

I love girls nights. And yes, they tend to get a little nutz. They usually carry a theme and we do not take it lightly.

So, there you have it. The very basic of the basics of what it's like to be my bestie.

Happy Friday!