My Birthday!

Wow, I'm finally getting around to telling you about my birthday weekend!  My twin sister and I turned 30 last Saturday!  We celebrated at my parent's house last Thursday so we could open gifts.  You see, I bought my sister a Coach handbag (This was a BIG birthday, after all), and all she kept talking about making her way to the Coach Factory Outlet while she was going to be away....I couldn't let that happen!  Turns out she bought me the cutest Coach wallet!  Remember, twins?

I also got a lovely fabric set to make a new quilt for myself, some of my favorite candles from Our Own Candle Co.  Do yourselves a favor, buy the Lemon Pound Cake and the Snickerdoodle, you won't be sorry!  I love me some Yankee, but these little guys smell amazing and are a fraction of the cost!

I also got a little birthday money in which I immediately used to buy MYSELF a Coach handbag to go with my new wallet!  Listen people, I don't splurge much, Target and Kohl's are about as expensive as I will go on just about anything, but I am now in love with the Coach Factory Outlet.  And who cares if they might be "so last season!"  I'm all about the bargain people.  And to all you designer snobs....you know what you can kiss.

I digress.  My fabulous husband!  He put together an amazing night for me!  We went to Atlantic City, NJ.  I've lived in this state my entire life and I've never been!!  We stayed at The Borgata in a beautiful suite.  The room was so perfect!  He made reservations at the Old Homestead Steakhouse and we ate the best steak and burger of our lives.  Of course we also had yummy appetizers and chocolate cake for dessert.  I lost a little money at the casino.  We didn't go crazy.  The next morning we went down to the buffet for breakfast and the couple in front of us randomly paid for our meal!  How sweet was that?!  Then we went back into the casino and I made 1/2 of my money back!  It was going to be an AWESOME 30th!!

We drove home that day and later that night we went to the local pub and had a dinner and drinks with my brother and some great friends.  It was the PERFECT birthday weekend!!

Us before dinner:

Shutter Love Tuesday - Cookies!

My absolute favorite subject!  I bake a TON, so I have lots of recent cookie pictures!  Here is my most recent of my favorite Peanut Butter cookie on steroids :o)  Recipe to follow:

1 3/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 c shortening
1/2 c peanut butter
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
About 1/2 bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Minis
AND if you're feeling frisky, throw in some Reese's Pieces too :o)

Preheat oven to 375
Cream shortening, peanut butter, sugars, egg, milk & vanilla.  Mix in the rest of the dry ingredients, chips and pieces.  Roll dough into 1" balls and place on un-greased cookie sheets 2" apart.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the tops start to crack slightly and turn golden.  Immediately press 1 mini cup into center of each cookie.

I make this cookie a million ways...on may occasions, instead of using a cookie sheet, I use a mini muffin pan.  Bake for 8 minutes exactly...you won't think they are done, but they are, press in peanut butter cup the same way, but let cool a bit before you try to remove them from the pan.  I also love m&m's in the center too! 

Enjoy!

The House That Broke Me

I've been MIA in bloggy land for good reason.  I have been reading, but just not very involved lately.  Our leak got so much worse on Tuesday.  I can't even bring myself to put pictures of it up.  This has now been going on for about a month and our property manager is not being very helpful.  If we owned our own home, we would have called a roofer by now and moved on, but living in a condo restricts what we are allowed to do considerably. 

I walked into the condo on Tuesday and all I heard was water pouring down.  The first thing I noticed was my brand new lap top sitting in a puddle.  I could have cried.  Then noticed the couch was soaking wet.  And this wasn't going to let up any time soon.  I called Matt and he immediately called our dimwitted property manager.  She sent over the maintenance man and he felt bad, but there was nothing he could do except for give me some big pieces of plastic to try and save the couch.

The computer stopped working that night, but by the morning it was fine.  I think it just needed to dry out.  We borrowed a de-humidifier and got the couch dry, but it looks terrible. 

We already closed the first claim with our insurance company, who were wonderful, by the way.  We called them back and they said to just wait on filing another claim because there is a huge chance that it's just going to keep leaking until it's fixed.  And we really don't want to keep paying $500 deductibles every few weeks.

To sum it all up, I hate it here, I hate this house and I want OUT.  I am ready to just try for a short sale (surprise, surprise, our condo is worth less than we owe) and get the hell out of here.  I want a house that I can fix myself and not have to rely on anyone else to do it.  I am packing up my living room today so that nothing else gets damaged.  I'm not worried about furniture, just my things with sentimental value.  Everything else can be replaced, but I can't replace old pictures and my things from the wedding.

Lord, give me strength. 

Our Un-Valentine's Day

I'm not sure if I have shared this here before or not, but Matt and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day.  We made that decision at the very beginning of our relationship and have stuck with it.  Neither of us need candy and he hates buying flowers because they die.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's a cute holiday and I happily hang hearts and "XOXO" decor in my home.  But it's weird to us to give gifts to show that we love each other.  But for everyone else who celebrated...I hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day!  Including my parents who had their very first date on Valentine's Day, 35 years ago!  So wild!

But anyway, I asked him if there was anything special that he wanted for dinner and he tells me, "Spaghetti."  Seriously?!  So to go the extra mile to try and make plain old spaghetti more snazzy, I decided to forgo the jar sauce and make my own!  You will laugh at how easy and versatile this is!

You will need:

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 c. chopped onion
2 small yellow squash, sliced into little half moons
1 box frozen broccoli, defrosted
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 14 oz. can sliced stewed tomatoes (or diced)
Italian Seasoning (I didn't measure this, just sprinkled around the pan a couple of times)
Salt & Pepper to taste

In a large pan, over medium heat, add olive oil and saute onions for about 5 minutes, until tender and translucent.  Then add your squash, cook for about 5 minutes.  Dump in broccoli and all of your canned tomato products (if using sliced stewed tomatoes, break them up a bit with your spoon).  Sprinkle with Italian Seasoning, S&P and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  DONE!

Cook what ever pasta you like and serve!  Feel free to change up or omit the vegetables, or add ground beef or sausage (I would cook your meat after the onion step).  This has been the star of my lasagna the last 2 times I've made it!  You can also use fresh herbs too, I just forgot to buy them this time, but basil and parsley are yummy in this sauce :o)

We snuggled for a bit and before he rolled over he whispered in my ear, "Happy Monday, love you..."  Hehe, yes honey, Happy Monday :o)

Ice, It's not so Nice.

Pretty, right?  The way it encases my front porch light...

And glistens so beautifully in the day light.

The way it puddles up in my living room ceiling, and drips down the walls...

(The stain has gotten larger since this picture was taken.)

And last, but certainly not least, has turned the spare room into something completely uninhabitable.

(Hard to see, but that's the pink insulation...soaking wet)

This is what we have been dealing with for the last week.  We just discovered the spare room mess on Sunday.  We packed everything up and are storing everything at Matt's parents house.  The insurance company has been wonderful.  So great to deal with, but unfortunately, nothing can be done until we are thawed out...in how many months?  So we have no idea what the total damage will be.

Had I known that water was going to destroy parts of our house, I would not have taken those first 2 pictures, I would have gotten a hammer and destroyed them.  Honestly, it wouldn't have mattered because there was still ice caked to the whole front of the condo anyway, but it might have made me feel better.

And by the way, we are getting another winter storm today and tomorrow.  Spring...just 47ish days away.  Is that all?  :o\

Rough Weekend

I am so glad this weekend is over.  Matt went away on an ice fishing trip with the guys (my father, brother and a friend all drove out together and met up with my uncle and his buddies in Northern Michigan).  My mom stayed with me, which was great because she hardly comes over.  We just hung around, met up with my sister on Friday night for a Walmart run and made yummy food to snack on.  But sleeping was just not happening. 

Not only was it hard to not have Matt next to me, but on top of that I had to deal with my mom's noisy sleeping habits.  I never knew my mother was such a loud snorer!!  The first 2 nights I ended up on the couch.  The Breathe Right strip worked for a few hours, but for some reason completely stopped working after that.  For the next 2 nights she slept on the couch, but I just couldn't get a good night's rest.

On Saturday I woke up with a migraine.  I started my routine, popped an Imitrex, and made a cup of coffee.  I felt the medicine working so I decided to go back to my bed and thought I'd get back up and restart the day, fresh as a daisy.  Wrong.  This thing did not want to let up.  I took another Imitrex and laid down again...an hour later, still no change.  I stayed in my bed until about 3 and then came down to the couch for a change of scenery. 

Unfortunately this made me feel even more nauseous so as i was running to the bathroom to get sick, I spooked my cats and they took my feet right out from under me and I face-planted just outside the bathroom door.  There I lay crying, in pain and wondering what my neighbors thought was going on in my house.  Thankfully the impact didn't make me lose my cookies right were I had landed. 

I finally choked down a 3rd Imitrex and it eventually took effect.  I have NEVER had to take 3.  This is just getting ridiculous.  I have been working with my doctor who has me trying some medications, but so far not much is working.  I made another appointment for this Friday to see if we can change things up.  I am determined to find something to fix this.

Anyways, I can't wait for Matt to be home in a few hours...I need a hug!

And so this post isn't picture-less...here is one of my favorites from last weekend of when we went to check on the boys' other ice fishing adventure.  I used my brother's sunglasses to get a neat mirrored shot :o)

Shutter Love Tuesdays - Tints

This is my first time participating!  I think I'm supposed to tell you to vote for my picture, but I'm still not quite sure how that works, lol!

This is my In-Law's dog, Kramer.  He's a Portuguese Water Dog and LOVES to be outside.  We took him to the frozen lake so he could run around for a while.   I cropped him a bit and used Coffee Shop's Splendor B&W action and adjusted to my liking.  This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend!

Head over to  Trendy Treehouse to participate!