Carbonara.

I had the brilliant idea to try and make pasta carbonara last night.  I found a recipe on AllRecipes.com (my go to recipe website) and on the way home picked up the ingredients.  The recipe I found was not a true carbonara recipe, no eggs involved.  It did have cream cheese though so I immediately started drooling.  Got home sat on the couch for a little bit and watched Spence finish up his P90X workout for the day and then set about making a meal so dense in calories that we could not eat for 2 days and still not be at a deficit.  Here is the prep in pictures.....I was so excited that once I plated it I forgot to take any more pictures of it!

First we have the bacon.  I was supposed to cook until crispy and then use the bacon grease to cook the rest of the food in.  What I did was cook it till not raw and reserved more than half the grease because there is no way I needed ALL of that! (Neither Spence or I like super crispy bacon, so I cooked it the way we like it and then broke it into pieces once it cooled a little)

On the counter is the rest of the sauce ingredients.  The plate contains, butter, garlic, Parmesan cheese and mushrooms. Then we have a cup of milk and block of cream cheese.  OMG yum. 

I love tortellini and we hadn't had it in ages.  So obviously this meal needed some more cheese and calories so we went with some Bertoli tortellini.

Finally the sauce is done and in the pan. It even looks rich in the picture!

Dinner was a hit and Spence said he really liked it!  On the flip side its something I wont be making for at least 90 days because I promised Spence that once we get back from CO that I will focus on making really healthy meals for dinner so that his P90X work will be more noticeable.  So I'll try and post at least one fun healthy thing I cook a week.  Since I will be cooking them at least 5 days a week that wont be so hard right?!?

whew.

*****FORMATTING HATES ME AND I CANNOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET PARAGRAPHS BACK.  IF YOU ARE READING THIS I APOLOGIZE*** I've decided to add random pictures to break up the post.

Well this weekend flew by! I left work on Friday and hit the gym for a good 2 hour sweat-fest. I cannot at this moment recall what else we did on Friday night. Strike that, I just did. Spencer was stuck at work super duper late doing inventory, and I had a nice man come out to tell me how much it would cost to paint the outside of our house. Because I am dreading it; like for real. Since the amount he gave me was WELL over any budget that Spence and I had agreed on I foresee a serious amount of work in our future. Like my dad said, its not the painting that will be the hard part, its the prep that goes into it. We have neglected the outside of the house for far too long. There are soffits that need replaced, woodpecker holes that need filled, trim pieces around doors that need to be replaced etc. That doesn't even begin to account for the normal prep that goes into painting, caulking, taping off windows and on and on and on. Add to that the fact that we don't exactly have a lot of free weekends in our future until the middle of October and I start to get a little bit stressed about this whole process. Anyway, I can't do anything until the house is scoped and I know when my dad will come over and allow us the use of his many ladders and tools so I need to put that one on the back burner.

Saturday: we were bums. Spencer worked out. I laid on the couch. We went to a friends house for a get together and saw a lot of friends we don't see on a really regular basis. Spencer played flip cup with the boys and we went home early. Nuff said right?

Sunday: LAWRENCE! It was a perfect evening. We went down a little early after having lunch with my parents and brother, to see Spencer's parents and sister. On the way there we stopped at my FAVORITE sushi place and got 2 rolls, not because we were really hungry just because we are never there and I LOVE this place. Hung out with the in laws a bit, met people for dinner at El Mezcal (home of excellent white cheese dip and yummy margaritas) and then hit Mass street for a few hours. Everyone was relaxed and having fun, it was a great night out with friends!

Monday: Monday was our work day at the house. We flipped our living room around, did a LOT of laundry and got the house ready for us to be gone for a few days in CO. I can handle our bedroom being messy up to a point, mainly because I am not ready to do anything about it. I hit the threshold this weekend and was really happy to get things picked up! We got the dresser tops cleaned off, things were dusted and vacuumed and the best part is, no clothes on the floor. Later that night Spencer and I went over to Josh and Katie's house so the boys could do their draft for fantasy football and had pizza. We got home, put up a load of laundry and laid down for bed.....George was still on the bed. George does NOT sleep in the bed at our house. Ever. Well until last night anyway.... He was a happy puppy this morning!

ETA: Spence got his hair cut this last week.  I just couldn't resist posting some pictures I took of him and George this weekend...

I kept trying to get one where both Spence and George were looking at me....it almost worked.

Busy busy bees

Well we are about to embark on a 6 week busy season.  I've noticed our lives seem to go in spurts, we will have several weeks that we don't really have a lot going on and then, BAM.  Until October 16th we do not have a free weekend.  I'm super excited about it though because it involves spending time with our awesome group of friends!  I think over the next few weeks we will see about 80% of our good friends (the other 20% live about 1,500 miles away in a variety of directions). 

Tomorrow we get to hang out with a lot of my high school friends for an annual BBQ at a friends house.  There should be quite a few of us in attendance and I'm excited to see people I haven't seen in ages!
Saturday we are heading to Lawrence for a classic night of El Mez white cheese dip and margaritas, followed by some time spent on Mass street with some of Spencer's good friends from college and their wives.
Monday is another chance to see my high school friends at another BBQ, then Spencer will go hang out with his high school friends for a fantasy football draft. 

We take off on Thursday Sept 9 for Colorado with Spencer's family  for a long weekend in Estes Park to see his grandfather and do some super fun hiking.  I'm really really excited about the trip because for all the world travelling I've done I have only been to Colorado once!  Its sad really, Colorado is an 8 hour (granted a VERY boring 8 hour) drive away and yet I've spent more time in several European countries than I have there!

OK I'm not getting any further ahead of myself!  I will try and post pictures of our adventures in busy-ness on Monday. 

After work today I'm headed to the gym, I re-set my alarm yesterday and forgot to put it back to 5am so I'll have to go today or I wont be able to reward myself with the Swedish massage when we get back from Colorado!

2 days in a row!

Yay me!  I'm posting 2 days in a row.  I know I know, not THAT exciting. 

Today I got up and went to the gym before work, for the SECOND day in a row.  That is pretty big time for me, since I covet my sleep and can usually be counted on to spend "just 5 more minutes" sleeping for the better part of an hour prior to work! 

Today I did 50 minute on the bike, some leg toning and stretching.  I'm pretty excited to say I can feel just the right amount of soreness in my legs now.  Just enough to let me know I worked, and not enough to make me want to die.  I'm making it a goal to get to the gym before work every day this week, and then next week before we head to Colorado.  6 more visits to go.  My reward for this (to me) lofty goal is to get to use my bonus bucks at the gym for a Swedish massage. 

Speaking of getting into shape, Spencer has decided he'd like to jump on the P90X bandwagon.  Last night he bought his resistance bands and pull up bar, tonight we are going to get the DVDs from a (hopefully not shady) man from craigslist.  The DVDs are costing us about half of what they cost new, which is always nice.  On the flip side if he doesn't do it for very long the whole thing will cost us about what a month of my gym membership costs so it won't be too bad. 

Overall its been a pretty good Tuesday so far,  about 2 more hours at work to go and then its time to figure out what to make for dinner!

Hitaus

Well I've been gone for a while!  Haven't really been doing a lot of anything lately, but I have been kind of a bum!  You know what, strike that.  I've been pretty busy now that I think of it! 

Over the past month one of my best friends got married (which has involved showers, bachelorette parties and pre wedding prep), another friend sold her house and bought another one, Spencer changed job locations (and hours), and all of those things have taken me away from my lovely position on the couch in order to participate.

Recap:

This is a picture I took at one of the vineyards we went to for Megan's bachelorette party in July.  We went to Hermann MO and stayed in a super cute bed and breakfast!

Megan's wedding: in a word, awesome. Really just a great time! It was really amazing to see how happy they are and how much love and support they have around them. I rocked my speech if I do say so myself, and even got told that I was funny afterwards. I am NEVER the funny one so that made my night! (Spence was pretty amused at how happy it made me).

Anna's new house: adorable. Seriously so cute. She's very into color and her house reflects it now! I would be scared out of my head to try and have as much color as she does on her walls, but I LOVE it at her house. I will try and get pictures on here soon to illustrate.

Spencer's new location: Well the store he was working at closed, so they have moved him to the downtown store for a "while". We're not sure how long a "while" actually is, but since at this store he doesn't work nights or weekends I'm hoping its at least a few months. I'm really hoping that he will be ready to go back to school next semester, just a class or two to get started back at least.

I have been trying to eat healthier and really focus on getting my veggies in on a daily basis.  I had burnt myself out on salads and was really struggling with it.  I then discovered green smoothies!  It's a fruit smoothie (my usual combo is strawberry and banana), and then you add a cup or 3 of spinach to it and blend!  You cant really taste the spinach but its still there and super good for you.  Here is a picture of one:

I haven't quite gotten Spencer on board yet, but he has been enjoying his chocolate protein shakes for breakfast lately!

One more (in my opinion) SUPER exciting thing.  I went to a bridal shower yesterday in Lawrence.  The bride to be is a HUGE KU basketball fan.  One of the women who was hosting the shower is a good family friend of the Morris twins and asked Marcus Morris to stop by and meet her.  OMG.  Her face when he walked in was priceless, she really had no idea what to even say.  He was a good sport and stayed for a while, took some pictures, signed some autographs etc.  I got my picture taken with him:

Needless to say, I had a very jealous husband waiting for me when I left!  

I think that's all....I will do my best to be more diligent about posting.  The next few weeks are pretty busy for us.  Labor day weekend is jam packed full of friends bbq's and birthday dinners.  Then the next weekend we take off for a trip to CO with my in laws, the weekend after that we have a wedding to attend, then its our anniversary.  The 2 weekends after that we have weddings to attend.....I am exhausted thinking about it!

Dinner

I like to think of myself as a decent cook.  There are several recipes I used to lure Spencer in when we first met, that his former roommates still request when they come over for dinner.  I get nervous when I try to cook something unfamiliar to me though.  I can improvise on things that are familiar to me, pastas, Mexican food etc.  Well I got the hankering (really that was the word I chose?) to try and make something totally outside my comfort zone this week.  I searched Allrecipes.com and settled on Jambalaya.  Kind of random really, and a risk considering I married one of the pickiest eaters alive.  Well I found, of all things, a slow cooker jambalaya recipe!  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Colleens-Slow-Cooker-Jambalaya/Detail.aspx

Sign me up, I love my slow cooker.  LOVE it.  I am all for any appliance that lets me throw things together, forget about it for 8 hours and not ruin dinner.  Spencer looked at me like I was a little crazy because I got so excited when someone got it for us off our wedding registry. 

  I prepped everything last night and put it together, Spencer was off work today and he put it on at about 11am today.  I got home from work tonight and was really excited that the house smelled so great! 
Spencer and I both agreed that this is a keeper recipe for our house!

End in sight?

You know those times in your life where you have been "gogogogogogo" for so long that you really can't remember what it was like when you didn't have 10 things on the horizon?  Welcome to my life.  From the flooring project that wouldn't end (and honestly isn't quite done yet but I can live with the small things for now), Spence's best friends wedding, another wedding (for my best friend) in less than 2 weeks and all the parties that go along with weddings (bachelor/ette parties, showers etc) I cannot remember what it felt like to not be prepping for something.
On a non whiny note I did decide to end my long term neglected relationship with my gym, and kindle a relationship with another gym that is not a 20 min drive in each direction and is, instead, less than 45 seconds from work (the new gym is visible from my work parking lot).
My work schedule has also changed, I'm working from 9-545 now instead of 8-445, which allows me to work out before work!  I'm pretty excited about working out in the mornings, gives me less chance to talk myself out of it while I'm at work. 
I'm boring I know, sorry blog readers......