Hungry times

I plugged my camera in today to upload my pictures from this past weekend and realized just how much I have been slacking on our meal updates! Cinco de Mayo mister and I went out with some good friends but we decided against going to a Mexican restaurant because we knew they were going to be insane, we were able to order up some queso but it just was not quite up to par.. so we made queso at home a couple nights later! Forgive how sucky some of these pictures are, between school starting and being sick I have been such a slacker!! 

JJ and Erica!

Nothing beats velveeta and rotel! 

Last week was really difficult between being super sick, starting school and losing a close friend and I was in no mood to get off the couch let alone cook so Mister took care of me! Boy did he have some tricks up his sleeve! He cooked some insanely delicious dinners. Starting with a beef/tomato/rice stuffed green pepper situation. Yumm. 

Wednesday nothing sounded good, I was so stuffed up and felt so gross.... and then Salmon was mentioned. Salmon is my absolute guilty pleasure. Salmon breaded served with a delicious cheesy pasta and I am in heaven. Mister had stumbled upon a recipe that involved sauteing garlic, onion, butter and about half a cup of half and half and shredded mozzarella cheese. That delicious combination over some bow tie pasta with spinach and a nice piece of salmon, and this sick girl was in a happy place! 

Sunday I was feeling much better and since I had been taken care of so well over my sucky week I decided to make some pancakes for the mister!! I have been dreaming of making these cake batter pancakes from How Sweet It Is for months and it seemed like the perfect day! The pancakes turned out delicious, we were not huge fans of the glaze but that could be because I used pure vanilla not vanilla extract. The pancakes with maple syrup and sliced up bananas turned out to be the perfect sunday breakfast, who can resist sprinkles?!

I had my first test of the semester today and it went well, have a bunch of homework left to do and Thursday early morning we leave for Georgia!! 

xoxo

EPIC week

We are back from our wonderful week on the EPIC, and I am ready for another! We started our heavenly 10 day holiday driving down to Miami to pick up my dad. After some last minute shopping and dropping my mom and dad at the hotel mister and I had a nice dinner with his friend Alistair and some drinks to start the vacation off right!

Saturday morning we boarded the ship and said goodbye to Miami!

NCL EPIC

bye Miami!

My dad had been traveling from Africa for around 22 hours and with being on planes for that long he caught a bit of a cold. The first night of the cruise is the pub crawl (which we had all been looking forward to) but my parents decided to skip it so my dad could rest a bit. I was sad they missed it, but Sean and I still crawled away. They take you to 5 bars for 5 shots plus a few other games which includes beer. I never do all the shots but it is still really fun!

Pub Crawl 2011

We had two days at sea to lounge around, relax, read and hang out by the pool. Our first stop was in St Maarten. We took a cab to the french side of the island and enjoyed a beautiful beach and the sun! We all managed to get a little sun burnt even though we were all wearing sun screen. It was a beautiful day with great views and the water felt amazing! Later in the day we did a bit of shopping and mister and I had lunch and a drink at a cute place on the beach.

Mister and I in St Maarten

Me and my Dad looking at some shops

Our next stop was St Thomas, lots of fun shops to look at and beautiful scenery. After all the time in the sun the day before we opted for shade and a yummy lunch at a restaurant with a great view. 

Us being silly

St Thomas

Our final stop was in Nassau. I was most excited about this stop because I have always wanted to see the Aquarium at Atlantis. I am so glad we went! It was pretty expensive for a pass just to see the aquarium but there were so many awesome fish and critters it made for a day of fun. The best part was feeding the sting rays! After Atlantis Sean and I went and explored the straw market and found a few things to bring home including two large wood masks, a pretty bracelet and Christmas ornaments. My family always gets an ornament for each trip so every year when we put up our tree we can look and them and remember the fun times. I have always loved this tradition because that way you don't just buy something that will clutter up the house and you always have it to look back on. I also love that Mister and I have done this for all of our trip so far!

love the manta rays

fun fish

mister feeding the sting ray

my turn!

mamma with the sting ray

giant chair

Here are some other highlights of the trip:

I LOVE towel animals and this one won my heart

So many photographers all over the ship, couldn't resist this picture!

We won another bottle of champagne in the casino!!

At the Cirque du Soleil dinner theater

Beautiful parents

Taking Yahtzee really seriously

cheezin it

All in all it was a wonderful week and I am really sad it is over. My parents head back Wednesday morning and I probably won't see my dad again until around Christmas. I will get to see my mom in July, but that is it for the rest of the year. I am so grateful we had this time, and really happy they got to spend more time with Sean and get to know him more. 

We are now back to work and counting down until our next trip in May!

xoxo

holiday

Tomorrow morning I will be driving (let's be honest, sitting in the passenger seat) to Miami with this guy

and this lady

to meet this guy

so we can all get on this ship

and hopefully not get busted for this like our last neighbor

and have fun times like this

So forgive me, but this little blogger is going to be MIA for a week. I will return with lots of pictures, stories and hopefully not a sun burn.

While I am gone, please go to this site and do a trivia question everyday! It donates kibble to pups in need - if you are really feeling awesome, click on free kibble kat above it and donate to kitties too! I do both every morning and hate that I will be missing a week.

xoxo

one more day

A little over a year ago I broke my car key in the driver side door of itty bitty trying to unlock it. Cowboy Flowers rescued me from the HEB parking lot and my mom drove down the next day to bring me my spare key. I have never heard of this happening. Last night I did it again. This time Mister rescued me and my mom by bringing us the spare key. 

sad key

 Today at lunch I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting a truck that cut me off. A venti starbucks coffee went flying and spilled all over the passenger side of itty bitty. It couldn't have been my small frappuccino, it had to be the giant, hot, not for me but for someone at work, venti coffee. If I am ever tired again I can just go sit in my car for five minutes, I'm pretty sure the smell will wake me up.

Clearly Itty Bitty is upset with me. Could be that she knows I am dreaming of a new-to-me car, could be that she is ready to go to sleep permanently and does not understand why I am constantly waking her up. 

When I do eventually get a new car, I would LOVE one of these

One more work day and vacation officially starts!!!! A few last minute things to pick up tonight and then a pile of laundry that I am pretty sure currently reaches the ceiling... whoops!

surprises!

On a usual day in the office mister and I will send each other silly links we have found, recipes and anything else we find interesting. We also tend to announce what/when we are eating. I'll get a message that says "fruit snacks!" or "eggs!" and I will respond with "sandwich!", it may be strange, but it works for us. Yesterday I went to have my car washed on my lunch break and picked up chipotle (yumm) since we have not been grocery shopping and I did not pack my lunch. I was out of the office for about an hour and hadn't heard from him. I went back to work and finally a bit later he was back and was not being very descriptive with where he went for lunch. I thought it was strange but just kind of shrugged and went on with my day. 

Skip to me getting home from work, said hello to mister on the couch, walked into the bedroom, into the bathroom, out of the bathroom, into the closet, finally over to my jewelry box. I opened the box which has a mirror in it and saw this mysterious reflection.... the giant mirror I have been lusting over from Ikea!!! Please note how long I was in room before I noticed the SIX FOOT, sixty pound mirror propped up against the wall. Hello oblivious!!! So this all explained the lack of details in his lunch plans, he was picking up a surprise!

 

I have seriously been dreaming of owning this thing forever, but there was always something else to spend the money on. The day after Christmas we picked up this beauty (which is what I saw the mirror reflection in) and I adore it. I keep the jewelry I wear daily in the top portion, Mister's sunglasses in the top drawer, my jewelry sets below that and then the rest in one of the bigger drawers.  We have it sitting directly next to the matching 6 drawer dresser so it kind of flows like one piece.

We also have the matching giant shelf hanging above the hutch and dresser
(we have had the shelf since November and just put it up last weekend... whoops), so needless to say the new wonderful mirror fits in and matches perfectly!! It was the perfect replacement for the engine that used to live on the floor in that spot (yes I said engine, the engine for the ghia lived in the bedroom for about a year)!!

So now the bathroom is all done and the bedroom is as well! Since we picked up the new duvet cover a couple weeks ago the mirror was the last piece we needed. The only other thing I would add is the 4 drawer dresser for me. Mister uses the 6 drawer one and I have storage in the closet, but when we eventually move into a different place I would like to have a real dresser. 

I am getting my hair done tonight so I will let you know how that goes, debating between a few different looks right now! Enjoy your Wednesday!

DIY Done!

The bathroom is pretty much done! It has taken a fair amount of time but after lots of hard work it is looking pretty darn nice! First we ripped out the old tile and put in new green board, and by we I really mean mister... There was a bit of an issue with getting the old faucet and knobs off, they were stuck on there really well!  

filling in the hole in the bathtub

cutting the green board

Paint options on the wall, green board in the shower!

starting to re-tile

Mister hard at work

patching up the wall & the new faucet

painting in progress

My main job was painting, we decided to go with the blue haze which was the lighter of the two colors. I also ended up painting our top cabinet white. We picked up three little shelves from Ikea to replace the old shelving unit, and a new white fabric shower curtain from target. 

The top shelf has a candle holder, still not sure what do to on the middle and the bottom is perfume/cologne

New light

All around we replaced tile, re-grouted the entire shower to make it look new and fresh, painted the ceiling and walls, painted the cabinet, painted the door and frame, changed out the shower knobs, changed the sink faucet, hung new shelves and a new shower curtain! We also had to change the fixtures in the other bathroom. Since we could not use our shower we discovered that the other bathroom was having a few issues so those had to get fixed in order for us to have a good working shower while we worked on ours! It took a fair amount of time but all in all we are both really happy with our new bathroom! 

We also picked up a bed for the other room since my mom will be here Friday!! It has been a busy weekend getting everything all ready!