Sammiches

I love me some sammiches, y'all. Jimmy John's is my BFF except they don't deliver to my office and THAT is a problem. We're not really doing anything for the SuperBowl because I'm painting the bedroom this weekend (!!!!) and anticipate being really tired Sunday night but I am going to make some mini-sammiches. Otherwise known as sliders. But I prefer mini-sammiches.

They've been floating around Pinterest forever and a day but it's those little ham and cheese ones on a Hawaiian roll? With the sauce? I think I want to make them for the Blue Elephant party that I am currently slacking on planning but I need a test run to make sure they are delicious. I figured the SuperBowl was as good a time as any to test out mini-sammiches.

Here's the recipe I'm going to use: Mini Ham & Cheese Sandwiches

She also has a Cuban version. Not going to lie, I kind of want to make those too because I love nothing more than a good Cuban sammich.We shall see if I'm up to it. If you recall, I made delish pretzels and honey mustard sauce last year. Those lasted about 5 seconds. But they are a lot of work. I think next time I may just do them in a thick roll and then cut off actual bites with a bench scraper. Anywho, I'm a Ravens fan this weekend if for no other reason than my husband is rooting for the 49ers and I have to cancel him out. OH! And I'd totally love to see Michael Oher walk away with a ring. You've seen The Blind Side, right? Tears. I can't even.

GEAUX RAVENS!!!

Bedroom

Let's see what's going on in there, shall we?

• New nightstands
• New bed
• Move file cabinet, bookshelf, vanity, & stool (we actually haven't moved the vanity yet but I don't know if we will.)
• Move mirror & jewelry box to opposite wall
• Paint the walls gray  
• New dresser
• Sunburst mirror above the bed
• New frames for Norah's pictures
• Replace TV
• Bench at edge of bed (I'm not sure if we have room for one now...)
• Reading corner (again with the lack of room...)
• Replace carpet (probably should have done this before assembling the bed...)

We managed to move some furniture around the house and our room looks about a million times better already. Much less cluttered. We also picked out two paint colors, one for the walls and one for the inset on our tray ceiling. Sitters and trimmers have been booked for the first weekend in February where I will get my roll on. I cannot WAIT to see how fab it looks with the new color. I know it's a Valspar color but I can't remember which one. I'll report back on that.

We're still on the hunt for a dresser. I thought we'd found one but it was a bust. Oh well. I think we might hit up some garage sales this weekend. Fingers crossed!

Since it's taking me forever to get together the complete post on how we did it from start to finish, here's a pic of the finished product. This is before the furniture move. See how crowded it looks? So much better now.

What do you think?! Worth the pain and suffering? Should have ordered from Pottery Barn?

Skinny Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo

I have discussed the evils of Pinterest before however it can be pretty useful at times. When making my menu plan for the week, I often head to my Yummies for Dinner board (follow me here) for inspiration. I rarely use the actual recipe I pinned because I've made enough random internet recipes to learn that sticking with a few great sources is the way to go. Also, I can hold my own in the kitchen and often I just need the idea, I can recreate it all on my own, thankyouverymuch.

But the other day I saw this one. It's a chicken & broccoli alfredo made with Greek yogurt. I have a little bit of an unhealthy obsession with Greek yogurt. I didn't even discover it until a couple months ago and now I eat Chobani faithfully. And then I started subbing it in recipes and everything was so damn moist! So I decided to give this a try. Actually, the mister cooked it because I was being lazy on the couch but regardless, it's delicious. Even the little one was all MOAR TOODLES (aka noodles).

He made the exact recipe so I'll just link it. The only thing we did differently was used penne instead of fettuccine. 

http://www.celebrations.com/content/skinny-chicken-broccoli-alfredo 

Enjoy!

Color Run

Before the new year even began, I somehow got wrangled into signing up for the 2013 Mardi Gras Color Run in NOLA. Basically it was a Saturday night and there was beer and a friend texted saying Color Run was coming back to NOLA and I'm all "SIGN ME UP!" Did I mention there was beer?

I'm actually pretty excited. Color Run always looked like loads of fun but they were just in NOLA in November and filled up quicker than I could decide if I was ready. So I thought I'd have to wait a whole year to run it. But alas, the running gods were looking out for me (if the money gods could take note, I'd appreciate that). Also, my husband has decided he's going to run it too which is AWESOME. He's so badass. I love him. Of course this means he only has 5 weeks to train but that is honestly plenty of time. I know the c25k program is 8 weeks but I have no doubt he can start on week 4 and be fine. He has a pretty physical job as opposed to me who is no doubt going to have carpel tunnel before age 35.

So yay! Color Run on Feb 9! I'm super stoked!

Shit I want to do in 2013

I like lists (don't die from shock) and I think my 2012 list helped me stay somewhat on track so here's my 2013 list:

1. Get a new job - this one is a carryover from 2012. Le sigh.... I think I need to redo my resume. And I definitely need to get over my social anxiety (yes, it does exist) and go to more meetings of my professional organization.
   
   
2. Find Jesus. Again. - Another carryover. I swear this is on my list every year...


3. Learn to sew - I've wanted to learn to sew for a long time but never had time. When my great grandmother died two years ago, my mom got her sewing machine and had it fixed with the intention of teaching me on it. But life gets in the way and I finally just asked her for it. Fingers crossed that between YouTube and Pinterest I can figure that thing out.


4. Read 52 books - I love to read. If we aren't friends on Goodreads, we should be. But babies and grad school had me putting my love for reading on the back burner. And even after I graduated, I'd catch myself in a reading "rut". My "to read" list is starting to far surpass my "have read" list. So I'm shooting for at least one book a week. I wish I could commit to more. OH. And first on the list is Harry Potter which I have not yet read but have heard is fabulous.


5. Eat more veggies - I know. I swear I'm not 5. We eat veggies. A lot actually. But more often than I'd care to admit, our meals are carb heavy with little to no fresh veggies on the side. I just want to make an effort to have at least one roasted or fresh or steamed or not-cooked-with-potatoes (yes, I swear he does this) vegetable on the table with each meal.


6. Tackle my house "to do" list - I don't know when we'll sell our house but I'm thinking it's probably sooner rather than later. Once we do make that decision, I'd rather not have 5 million things to do at one time. So along with making my bedroom pretty, I also really want to concentrate on making our house "sell ready".


7. Keep running - I know. I KNOW. I said I was going to run my race and be done. But apparently I lied. I miss it. Stop saying "I told you so".

That's it! Perfectly attainable. Nothing unrealistic. Let's get this party started...

Happy New Year! 

2012 Recap

I know this is such a "shit girls say" kind of thing but seriously, HOW is it 2013 already? I feel like it was just Christmas last year! Looking back, I can say that 2012 was good to me. A little bit of a boring year but that's not always a bad thing. :) There were several things that I wanted to "do" in 2012 and I think I'm at like 50%. Let's see... How did I do in 2012?

1. Finish grad school - CHECK

2. Go to church more - Meh, this was like 50/50. I did go more often than usual but not as often as I'd like.

3. Get a better job - Oh this is a frustrating one. I've sent out more resumes than I care to admit, had several promising interviews, and even had a lowball offer. I wish I was made of money so I could have taken it. Sadly, not the case. I feel like I need to do something different but I'm not quite sure what yet.

4. Get in better shape - I think I can call this a success. I ran a 5k in November and while I am by no means, a runner, if you had told me in January that I would be running 3 miles straight before the end of the year, I'd have offered you another cookie.

5. Do more for "me" - Another win here. I have gotten more pedicures, baked lots of yummies, gone to the gym, started running, spent time with my family, decorated my house, and spent time with friends. And read many, many wonderful books.

So that's 3/5 at least. Maybe closer to like 3.5/5? So...70% success rate according to my trusty calculator. Not too shabby, no?

No worries, I have a list for 2013 too. Stay tuned. Since you're so interested in my fabulous daily life and all. ;)

Birthday Talk

I realized this morning that NJ's third (!!!) birthday is a mere two and a half months away. How the hell did that even happen? I swear she's still sleeping in pj's that were gifts from her second birthday. I cannot believe my little monkey is going to be three.

I've heard through the mommy grapevine that the term "terrible twos" is just something made up so that when two is over you're all "I made it!" and then three hits and you're like "who the fuck is this demon spawn?!" And I kind of believe it because two was really not that bad. I kind of like two. But I see three on the horizon and it's not so much a pretty picture. My sweet child has discovered more than just "no". She has discovered gems like "hang on" and "in a minute" and "nothing" when asked what in the world she is doing that is keeping her so quiet. All served up with a side of teenage attitude. So I'm a little afraid of three but even through all the smart mouth comments, I still see my sweet baby under there so I have faith that we will make it through three just fine.

So I get to plan her party which I love because I really, really missed my calling as a party planner. Like really. She told me a couple months ago that she wanted an elephant party. Then two weeks ago she told me she wanted a blue party. (These are just random statements, btw. I'm not asking what kind of party she wants.) Anyway. That's so spot on with her personality because we went to the zoo in September and she just about fainted over her love for the elephant and has talked about him nonstop and got an assload of elephant themed things for Christmas that she is now OBSESSED with. And blue is her most favorite color in the whole wide world ever, ever so a Third Blue Elephant Party shall be had.