Fall Weekending

We had a really fun, really busy weekend - and I am exhausted this morning sitting at my desk to prove it! From Friday - Sunday, we managed to fit in three "family dates," lunch with a girlfriend and her son, a bunch of errands that desperately needed running,  dinner with my parents, and some online shopping. What more could a girl need?? It was the kind of weekend that just needs to be documented - it was full of simple but wonderful experiences, the kind that can get forgotten but shouldn't!

On Friday evening, we took the baby to the pumpkin patch for the first time! He skipped his afternoon nap, so we were bordering on meltdown status towards the end, but we all had a really fun time. I got a picture of my baby sitting in a pile of pumpkins, and I had a funnel cake, so I'll count that trip as a complete success. (We visited the same pumpkin patch last year - definitely looked and felt a little different this time! I loved every minute of it... we are making family traditions, one holiday at a time!)

On Saturday, C2 and I met a girlfriend and her son at Panera for lunch - her baby is 6 weeks younger than C2, and she and I have been friends since elementary school! We live just a few minutes from each other, and I love when we have time to get together. We made an effort to pick a time when both boys would be awake, and it worked. It was so fun to see them scoping each other out and sizing each other up. Babies are funny with other babies!

Saturday afternoon, we packed up our little family of three and headed to downtown Fredericksburg to walk around, window shop, and grab dinner at Vivify, a local favorite. The weather was absolutely perfect, and it was so nice to get out and enjoy it for a bit.

We had a family coffee date at Hyperion on Sunday morning - babies in jammies are just the best, right?? After that, I made a trip to Wegmans, we did laundry, cleaned house, watched football, and cooked a delicious dinner for my parents. If you are looking for yummy fall recipes, try apple-stuffed pork tenderloin with apple cider sauce and pumpkin cookies with cinnamon chips. Both were huge hits (and my coworkers are loving the extra cookies today!).

I had the windows open, the A/C off, and a fall candle burning yesterday. It was glorious. Even though I'm pretty tired today, I am thankful for so much quality family time over the weekend. It was definitely a "fill my cup" couple of days.

Noteworthy Weekend Bullets

We had a weekend worth noting for the following reasons:

• C & I went on a date (fancy dinner at a local sports bar... don't get too excited)
• There are now Christmas lights decorating the outside of my house - husband and dad rocked that duty yesterday!
• Five kinds of Christmas cookies were baked, mostly successfully, by my mom, my sister, a friend, and I
• I put on real* clothes and attended a baby shower for a friend I've known since elementary school (*real if you include leggings, a cardigan, and black boots. I currently do.)
• On a total whim of a request from me, C made chicken cordon bleu for dinner last night (for the first time ever) and it was delicious
• All of our Christmas cards are addressed and in the mail, and it's not even mid-December yet
• Last but certainly not least, I upgraded my two-year-old iPhone for the iPhone 6S - more memory, better camera, better for taking a million baby pictures with! For now, mostly just cats and Christmas lights. But soon, baby. 

Like I said, definitely a weekend worth remembering. Cannot believe we are just three weekends away from my due date... one of which is Christmas! Ohhhh boy.

Friends since we were little things ourselves!

Three of five varieties... we were on a roll!

My favorite sight.

Behind the Scenes

I have been getting the dreaded "there is not enough space on your phone" message for a while now.... usually every time I try to take more pictures of one of the cats. (#crazycatlady - don't care) but more notably when I went to try to record Ashley's grand entrance at her surprise party on Saturday and couldn't! Sigh.

In the interest of being able to capture more cat pictures, and whatever else strikes my fancy, I finally moved all my pictures to my (extremely old, probably going to die soon) Macbook last night. What a fun exercise in reliving lots of random events! I managed to clear off enough pictures and unused apps to make space to keep the ol' iPhone running for a bit longer, but I thought I'd share a few pictures that never made it past my phone to the blog, or even Instagram. Time travel with me!

I had a craving for possibly the entire month of January for chicken and dumplings - but not regular chicken and dumplings, the kind my mom makes, which is more like chicken stew with biscuit "floaters" (so weird, but so good). I finally made a batch and it was the most delicious bowl of goodness I'd eaten in a while. Love those cute little biscuit pieces!

True story: when I sat at the winery with my girlfriends for a few hours in 60 degree weather in March, I acquired my first sunburn of the season. Please note exactly where the cuff of my jacket started, and exactly where my hair tie was sitting the whole time. Pale person problems.

Toby managed to pour his entire body into this shoe box that was sitting on the floor. There are several pictures of him where just his tail is hanging out of the box - every other piece of him was nicely packaged into a rectangle! Cats are weird.

I found these adorable Sperry flip flops on Zappos and had to have them. How cute is that punch of brightness from the floral fabric? Side note: yes, I also purchased Crocs. Not ashamed. In my defense, they aren't traditional Crocs, but the sandal style that they make. They are great lake shoes, because they can get wet and dry so quickly! whatever.

While wandering through HomeGoods recently, I noticed that they had a large collection of lake house-themed items, so I snapped several pictures to send to my parents. I managed not to buy anything, because you can really only have so many things that say "Welcome to Our Lake House".... I guess. 

Do you keep all your old photos? I have years' worth on my laptop and external hard drive - not even all good ones, plenty of outtakes and things that should have been trash. I can't stand to part with them! Picture hoarding... it's a thing.

wonderful weekend

Our first "no plans" weekend in a long time turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. C told me several times yesterday that this weekend was the most fun one he's had in a while... and that's saying a lot, because we've been doing a lot of fun things! Just goes to show that sometimes downtime is crucial.

We kicked off the weekend with dinner and a concert - totally low-key style. As I mentioned, we got tickets to go see Dierks Bentley with some of my book club girlfriends & their significant others. We started out by meeting everyone for dinner at Chipotle, and hung out for a while debating the merits of getting to the venue in time to see the opening acts. In the end, we just meandered our way over, and got there right before Dierks started. No one minded!

We had a great time, and we were back home by 10:30. How's that for a rowdy Friday night??

On Saturday, we had Stephanie and her husband over for an impromptu football-watching party... and unfortunately had to suffer through a VT loss. The guys cooked up some wings and cheese fries, though, and we picked up a Sam Adams fall sampler box, so at least the eats and drinks were good, though the game was not so much. 

We tried to use our Caps tradition to swing the game's momentum... no such luck.

After S & C left, we deemed nap time necessary, and snoozed for a while before hitting up the nearest Red Box for Spiderman 2 and pizza-making supplies. We were going to order pizza, but as we wandered around the grocery store, we realized that we really prefer making our own. So, personalized naan pizzas it was. Yum!

Look at these cuties who are finally starting to get along! #pileofkittens

Sunday morning called for a lazy breakfast. I pulled out the cast iron skillet and whipped up a new recipe from Iowa Girl Eats - it totally hit the spot!

C & I were brainstorming ways to remake this one, but change it up a bit next time. It's totally versatile and delicious. While C mowed the lawn, I got to work on a major house-cleaning session: from ceilings to baseboards and everything in between. It was a gorgeous day, and it felt so good to open the windows, get some fresh air in the house, and wipe away a season's worth of dust. Ick. Everything gets so polleny in the summer, there's no way to avoid it or ever truly keep it clean. The end-of-the-season wipe-down is critical. And refreshing!

I couldn't let the first truly fall-like day get away without a run, so I headed out for a few miles on a local trail while C pulled together a pot of chili for dinner.

I made the mistake of telling him that I didn't think it was spicy enough when I got home.... the final result had us both sweating! I have been looking forward to chili season for weeks, and I was so happy to have the first pot on the stove. It's been a long time coming!

Next weekend, I'll be getting ready for another business trip, so having some time to spend this way was wonderful. It felt like I recharged my batteries - no crazy to-do lists, no racing against the clock, just moving from one activity to the next whenever I felt like it. There is so much to be said for days like that!

And we allllll slept soundly last night. Hooray!

How was your weekend? How's the weather where you are? Did you do anything fun? Make it a great week!

five words for the weekend

blackberries remind me of Grandpa

last-minute inspection; passed (expensively)

fresh hair means feeling fabulous

experimental kale chips - not disappointed

couldn't skip national tequila day

summer evening: wine, friends, music

produce extravaganza from relay foods

it is harder than you might expect to caption each picture with just five words!
Happy Monday, friends.

Delicious dinner & yard surprises

This weekend was everything that weekends are supposed to be. Relaxation, organization, delicious food, quality time with quality people, and sunshine! I am sporting my first (minor) sunburn of the season this morning, thanks to a few hours of yard work and a little porch-sittin' yesterday afternoon - and I'm not even mad! It's a lingering reminder of all the good stuff we soaked up over the past few days.

A quick picture recap, because seeing is believing!

As promised, Friday night was date night! C & I enjoyed a delicious dinner at a local cafe, complete with live music and no phones or TVs. Just what we needed!

Saturday morning was dedicated to organizing the pantry. We had to pull everything out while the painters were working last week, and I refused t put anything back in until we could do it with some thought and planning. Everything sort of got thrown in there when we moved in last August, and it definitely needed some work. I browsed every aisle of Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Target on Saturday morning, and came home armed with a system. It took us several hours, but we are so happy with the results! Now, maintaining this system is another story...

We had plans with my parents for Saturday evening, and they came down early so my mom and I could squeeze in a run. We hit the pavement at the nearby battlefield and got in a great workout together. It was beautiful and breezy - just how I like it! PS: Have you used the FitSnap app? It's a fun way to track workouts right in the moment. I just discovered it the weekend & look forward to using it more!

We decided to take my parents out to dinner to thank them for paying for the painting (a lovely housewarming gift, indeed) and I made a reservation at a local restaurant we hadn't tried yet. It was definitely a good pick! Our dinner at Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen was one of the most memorable restaurant meals I've had in a long time - can't wait to share more about this amazing local treasure. I chose the salmon served over shrimp risotto for my entree, and was in foodie heaven. It was insane! I practically licked my plate clean. Yum!

On Sunday morning, we went out to breakfast at the same cafe where C & I had our date (Amy's - love it so much we went 2x in one weekend!). It was a good thing we had a big, hearty meal, because when we got home, we decided that some spur-of-the-moment yard work was in order. Several hours and 16 17 gigantic trash bags later, we had done major clean-up damage in the back yard. Everything was in alright shape when we moved in at the end of last summer, but it needed some major TLC, and we just didn't have the time last fall to do everything that needed to be done. No time like the present! We cut back trees, cleaned our flower beds, raked up a bajillion pine needles, and fertilized the lawn. Very glad to have that all taken care of!

We couldn't waste any of the beautiful day, so C & I wrapped up the weekend with a grill meal: steak and asparagus, plus a mayo-less potato salad. It was the perfect dinner to enjoy while we watched the ACMs. Anyone else see the show? I thought it was great! There are some really talented country musicians out there right now, and I am loving seeing how the careers progress (also, I'm really glad that Taylor Swift isn't dominating the scene any more!).

One last picture for the day... I have a running list of what I call "Yard Surprises" - you never know what you'll find in a new yard, left behind by the previous owners. This was definitely one I appreciated:

So tell me...

• Do you have a favorite local eatery? We love all the options near us that aren't chain restaurants!
• Did you fit in a workout this weekend? Tell me about it! I'm so happy that it's outdoor running season again.

Just what we needed

I believe that I had what could rightly be considered one of the most boring weekends, ever. And honestly, I'm not even mad about it. Why? Because of this:

That, my friends, is my beautiful, amazing new couch, which fits my living room just perfectly, and is probably the most comfortable couch, ever. I know that because we tested it by doing nothing but laying on for for almost the entire day on Saturday.

Don't hate.

In my defense, we woke up early Saturday to finish moving things out of the way and get ready for the furniture delivery guys, and while we were doing that, I realized that I really wasn't feeling well. I was shivery, achy, whiny (never!), and tired, and my throat was on fi-yah. Not so good. Official remedy: tea, cold medicine, and a million episode of this brand-new show you may have never heard of: Breaking Bad! Need me to tell you about it?? Ohh.... no? I'm the only one late to that party? Hmmmm.....

(Side story: C tried to get me to watch Breaking Bad with him when Season 1 came out, and I watched two episodes and was all, no thanks, because that show sucked. Turns out, I was wrong. It does not suck. Unless you count the fact that it sucked me right in this weekend and now I want to do nothing but watch it until the very end. It's a wonder I made it to work today!)

Any-hoo. The rest of Saturday (and a lot of Sunday) looked like this:

cuties - cat & husband!

And it was delightful.

We made carnitas in the crock-pot on Saturday (pork shoulder roast, orange juice, chicken stock, onion, garlic, assorted Mexican spices - try it, you'll love it) which were OMG, good, and I made a big pot of beef & vegetable stoup (thanks, Rachael Ray, for that word) on Sunday. I also managed to peel myself off the couch long enough to get to the gym and take a BodyFlow class on Sunday afternoon, which was good, but the teacher wasn't great, soo... maybe I should have stayed couch-bound. I am feeling significantly better today, which is good, because it is my BIRTHDAY-WEEK and who can afford to be sick for their birth-week?! Not this girl.

We had a weekend of no plans on the books, and it turns out that we couldn't have planned that better - lots of downtime was just what the doctor ordered.

Anyone else have a quiet weekend? Or just the opposite?

2013 in pictures

January 

February

 

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Eating our way through Durham (oh, and a wedding!)

We had a really great weekend... and then we woke up this morning to a dead car battery. Womp, womp. Happy Monday??

Anyway. We spent the weekend in Durham, NC, celebrating the marriage of friends from college, and it was a blast. C was the best man, and this was the first wedding we've been to in some time where I didn't have any responsibilities for the weekend! It was definitely a change for us - I'm usually the one in the wedding & C is usually the one hanging out, entertaining himself. Not this time!

We drove down to NC on Thursday morning and got there just in time to grab lunch at Toast (a great recommendation from blog-friend Maddie!) and then head over to The Cookery for the rehearsal. After that, we had a few hours before the rehearsal dinner, so I snuck in a quick treadmill run while C caught up with his friends. The rehearsal dinner was held at Tyler's Taproom, and I loved it. I had a delicious chicken sandwich with garlic fries, and we all enjoyed a few beers from the huge variety on tap, Tyler's was definitely a place I could see C & I hanging out if we lived in Durham - it was a great restaurant, and a fun atmosphere. I love local places!

The groom's mom made him this amazing cake for the rehearsal!

Best man & groom

Friday morning, I weaseled my way into a yoga session with the bridal party (what a great way to start the day!) then a few of us went out to get breakfast at yet another local joint, Daisy Cakes. The carnitas hash with a sunny-side-up egg was absolutely incredible. I was stuffed to the gills!

After breakfast, C went off with the boys to hang out and get ready for the day, and I ventured out with my in-laws (who were also in town for the wedding) to explore the area. We ended up at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. What a lovely way to spend a free afternoon!

Of course I found some maroon & orange - go Hokies!

We wandered the gardens for a while, enjoying the beautiful day and even more beautiful flowers and landscaping, before grabbing a quick lunch at Piazza Italia in Brightleaf Square (Brightleaf was another recommendation from Maddie - she set me up well!). Sun-dried tomato crostini with tomato basil soup was just what I needed to hold me over until dinner at the wedding. So delicious!

The wedding was on Friday night, and it was just perfect. The bride and groom have been together longer than I've even known C, and this was always something that was just meant to be. We had so much fun celebrating their marriage! The ceremony was so personal & so "them," the DJ was great, the drinks were flowing, and a fantastic time was had by all!

Our final stop before heading out of town on Saturday was for barbecue at The Original Q Shack (one last suggestion from Maddie!) - and this was possibly the best choice, ever. I may have died and gone to hangover heaven. The food was incredible! Smoked brisket, creamed spinach with jack cheese, loaded baked potato casserole, and hush puppies on the side. You guyyysssss. #foodcoma

C & I spent Sunday playing catch-up around the house - there was yard work, housework, laundry, grocery shopping, Halloween-candy-buying, and cooking, mixed with football on in the background (Cowboys AND Redskins lost... sad day for us).

This situation had to be addressed... these are the leaves from ONE tree in our yard!

Fun with the power blower. #ilookpissed

Think this is enough?? #nosuchthing

It should go without saying that we were wiped out by dinnertime. We collapsed on the couch with pot roast and wine to catch up on American Horror Story and watch the Walking Dead. It was truly a wonderful weekend for us - minus that darn car battery!