Lazy day

Thank goodness we're off for Good Friday because after staying up and watching the exciting 3 OT Blues-Blackhawks playoff game last night, I'm not moving all that fast today.

D's car is at the dealership right now getting some routine maintenance done so we'll have to pick it up later this afternoon but besides that and possibly going shopping for some new summer clothes for each of us and a dress for me to wear to a wedding next month, we're keeping it pretty low key today.
It's nice to finally have a day like this and we're planning on enjoying it to the fullest!

Hockey foes

Most days we're friends, more than friends actually...he's my better half, the PB to my jelly, the cheese to my mac, but today, we're hockey foes.

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You will find us at today's Blues-Red Wings game, sitting in the lower bowl of the Scottrade Center, him wearing a Probert Red Wings jersey, me in my no-named Blues jersey, rooting for our respective teams.  Yes, I still love him to pieces but I have to question his hockey allegiance.
I'm still trying to convince him that he can wear his new Blues #39 jersey t-shirt.  Afterall, another MSU grad will be sporting that number today.  :)

Let's Go Blues!!

A visit to the 'Lou

Gosh, where do I begin?  I'm not even sure where I left off on this blog and honestly, I'm not sure where the past month has gone but I can say we've had some fun.
A little more than a week ago, we had threats of tornadoes and were forced to the basement twice in one day (5 am and 8 pm).  The morning was a bit blurry because we were woken up to iPhone alerts; we made the most of it that night though when D's sister and brother-in-law came to visit us from Michigan and right after our quick hellos, we went to sit in D's car in our underground parking lot.  What a way to say "Welcome to your Missouri vacation!"

The weekend was a great way for me to rediscover the city I've lived in my entire life.  I forgot how much there is to do in St. Louis and we've already started planning Ash & Kalvin's next trip down to see us to visit all the places we couldn't fit in this time.  We ended up having a fabulous 5 days with them, most of it chronicled on Facebook, but I will include a photo dump for your viewing pleasure....

Friday night dinner at Highway 61 Roadhouse

Dessert from Strange Donuts - yes, we got a dozen!

Saturday - walking around Kimmswick, MO

Lunch and Dessert at The Blue Owl

A trip to the wineries - Ste. Gen

Sunday with my dude!

Sunday lunch at Fitz's - U. City Loop

Found Nelly's Star!

Late Sunday night hockey

Lots of Kinny spoiling!

Another adult milestone

Even though I graduated a semester early and saved myself nearly $10K in tuition, it still took me 9.5 years to make that final student loan payment. The monthly payment isn't horrible but it had gotten down far enough that I figured it was smart to save myself the little bit of interest and just call the lender to pay it off. Today was that fateful day.  Felt good to finally say sayonara to my student loans.
Oddly enough, I had been considering going back to school....definitely not for Accounting though!  No, I think that ship has sailed. I just wasn't entirely thrilled with the idea of working full time and trying to take evening classes, especially working the nutty hours that I have been.

Thank goodness, I decided to hold off on that and settled on a more sane activity like cuddling with this cutie.

I may or may not be spending some of the money I used to put towards my loans on cat treats and toys now.
Come on wouldn't you, especially if you got to see this adorable face every day?

Our Newest Addition

After a stressful, stressful 2 days, here's the latest happy news from around these parts:

Meet Kinny aka Kitty Gaga, she found her way into our hearts this afternoon and we brought her home shortly thereafter.  She's talkative, sweet and quite cuddly.
I've always grown up with dogs and D has grew up with a cat, we're ready for this new adventure with our girl.

Checking in or better yet....Oshie Oshie Oshie!

Betcha thought I was stuck in NOLA still, huh?  2.5 weeks of no updates and I'm sure you were wondering if I made a new home at the New Orleans airport eating cajun/creole food and brushing up on my bead throwing skills.
Fortunately, that was not the case and I made it back to STL the night of my birthday, greeted by my Bro at the airport shortly before 6 pm.  I don't think I'd ever been that as happy as I was to come back to zero degree weather as I was that evening and with my frozen face, I grinned from ear to ear the entire drive and quite possibly the entire night.
D made dinner and even made the yummy S'mores ice cream cake I requested and I was so impressed by all the effort put into making this birthday the best one yet!

So since my birthday, what else have I been up to....well, not a whole lot besides work.  We switched roles as of February 1st and while I'm still in the same department, still doing Sales Accounting, my focus has turned to a different mine and now two river terminals.  I was busy before...I'm beyond busy now and most days I don't know if I'm coming or going.  I joked with D just last weekend that I need an assistant and housekeeper to keep up with everything we have going on outside of the office because I'm not doing very well at it anymore....laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, the list of weekend responsibilities sometimes appears never-ending.

And, because I can't post an update without mentioning the Olympics this morning, here we go...did you catch it?  D set our alarm in order to catch the USA vs Russia hockey game this morning and I'm so glad he did!!  What an exciting game!!  If you weren't a St. Louis Blues or TJ Oshie fan before today's game, I sure hope you are now!  This story on the Blues/NHL website summed it up -- nearly everyone (obviously not Russia though!) was overjoyed by Oshie's shootout performance.

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I can't wait to see what else the USA Hockey team has in store for these Olympic games!
Oh and before I forget, I do believe someone in this very household rooted for this very Blues player even as one of his Red Wings was shooting against him...yep, the tides they are achangin'.  Heck by the time we go to the Blues-Red Wings game in April, I'm sure I can get him to even chant "Let's Go Blues!" with the crowd. :)

Another birthday

Today I turn 31 years old.  I guess never envisioned what life would be like when I got here.  And really today is no different than the last 365 have been.

Unlike Oprah, who shares the same birthday as me, I'm not inviting 50 of my friends to take a spin class with me.  I'd love to but unfortunately, I don't know 50 people that enjoy spin or would even pretend to like it to celebrate my birthday with me.  Heck, who knows if I even have 50 friends....50 acquaintances maybe.

No, instead I'm hopefully headed to the airport in New Orleans to fly into St. Louis at a decent hour so I can come home and enjoy the evening with D and my bro.  D is planning on making my requested birthday dinner of turkey burgers and sweet potato tots and he even made the wish list dessert, S'mores cake, I found when scoping out Twitter while I was out of town.
No big parties or wild nights out to celebrate my "birthday anniversary."  My only birthday wish is that I make it home tonight...

Stranded....

If I make it out of here tomorrow afternoon, I will be home celebrating my 31st birthday with D and my brother, if not, I will be spending an additional night in New Orleans, stranded by ice, sleet and snow.
I'm extremely frustraded and ready to rent a car and take matters into my own hand.  Unfortunately I have been instructed to stay put by my boss in St. Louis, who is equally as frustrated by the CFO who planned this trip and has been careless about the whole thing from the get-go.
Fortunately, I am not stuck at the airport but at our hotel.  Unfortunately, I'm not at home and not with the people I want to be with right now.  Equally sucky is the fact that I don't have my laptop nor any of my work and month-end will be here before you know it.  Not really wanting to work the weekend to get closed on Monday.....
Two of our planned flights have already been cancelled, I'm holding my breath I get to be with two of the most important fellas in my life tomorrow night after 3 stressful days of travel.
Trust me, I will not be traveling for work again anytime soon...if ever.

New responsibility

Man, what a week....the Blues beat up the Red Wings Monday night; Biebs was arrested; Polar Vortex 2 unsurprisingly made me grumpy after my walk home Thursday night (negative degree wind chills, yay!); my boss informed me that I am headed to New Orleans Monday morning for a meeting at our export terminal and oh yeah, starting in February, I'm now responsible for twice as much work going forward.
Come to find out the reason for my trip to terminal is that I will be handling more than just our export sales, I'll now be handling all sales and all terminal paperwork in order to send to the new group taking over the Financial Accounting and I must meet with both the old and new group to figure out everything I should be doing going forward.  I CAN NOT WAIT!  (Can you hear that excitement in my voice?  Yeah, me neither.)
I already feel like I'm pushed to the limits with export sales every day and my boss, who when in a closed door meeting with me, told me "I know I'm giving you a lot more and I know you already have a full load, but I know you will find a way to handle it all."  Suuuuuure....or I'll just go certifiably insane soon after my 31st birthday.....we shall see.
I've never been to New Orleans before and while its going to be a short trip (leaving at 7 am Monday morning, back to the St. Louis office at lunch time Tuesday), I hope to see enough to warrant a return visit for something other than work.  Of course, that is if I ever get time to take a vacation with all this new responsibility....

As for today, I'm trying to figure out what I need to wear for both a coal terminal tour and meeting and then pack my "nice clothes" for coming back to the office on Tuesday, then we're headed to my Mom and Michael's for an early birthday dinner.  Can you believe it, 3 short days until I'm 31?  I surely can't, OMG.

1 year and counting

Saturday night D and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary with tickets to the Blues game.  (Technically, our anniversary was a few weeks ago, but the Blues didn't coordinate their home schedule with us.)  These were not just any tickets though, these were "All You Can Eat, Drink and Be Merry Down By The Glass" tickets.  We were 4 rows off of the ice and got to see two powerhouse teams duke it out.  Unfortunately the game didn't end in our favor but it was an exciting one against the Ducks and D was deck

ed out in his brand new Blues jersey his mom gave him for Christmas.

Celebrating a goal

Kid Ells

St. Louis' own Patrick Maroon

Tonight we're at home, watching the Blues smash the Red Wings at Joe Louis.  And while I love D and would do just about anything for him, nothing makes me happier than seeing my Blues win against those guys...even when my dear is dressed up, celebrating his team....

Yes, he actually Snap Chatted this to my fam!  :)

Snowmageddon 2014

We're in the midst of our first snow storm of 2014....

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People went crazy here yesterday clearing grocery stores of bread, milk, eggs and every other "essential" necessary for getting by for a day without being able to travel.  (Really, who doesn't have a 1 or 2 day supply of food at home?  We're having soup for a few days!)

Anyway, as of a couple of minutes ago, here is the latest from our window, I'm guessing there is about 6 inches so far and this is supposed to last through the mid-afternoon.

Thankfully we have no where we need to be today.  It's probably the first day in a good month that we have nothing planned and not much to actually do besides chill at home.  We put away all of the Christmas decorations yesterday and actually found new homes for all of our Christmas "toys" as well.  Heck, D even whipped out his new handheld Shark to do some cleaning too.

Given all of the festivities we've faced with the holidays and then the stressful year-end close on Thursday and Friday, today is looking to be the perfect pajama, movie, sitting by the fire day here.

Merry Christmas!

Time to dust off this blog once again....it seems like its been a never-ending cycle of work, work, housework, getting ready for the holidays and just trying to survive each day.
Thankfully I finally have a day off and while it is Christmas Eve, I think I'm ready for the holiday blitz.  While I joked with D back at Thanksgiving that we are the poster children for the movie Four Christmases, come to find out just this week, D and I actually have 6 Christmases this year, 2 in STL and 4 in Michigan.  OMG, bring on the spiked egg nog because I'm gonna need it!
We had our first Christmas with my dad's side of the family last Saturday and tonight we are hosting my mom and step-dad for Christmas Eve dinner.  Then tomorrow morning we make our trip up north to start the Michigan Christmas Extravaganza.
Despite spending the next week celebrating Christmas away from home, we did buy a tree and decorated our loft a bit, something we decided last minute when we were leaving Michigan at Thanksgiving.  So we bought a tree, tree trimmings and stockings at Meijer on our way home.
Here's our final product:

Yes, some of our presents are bigger than our 4.5 ft tree and yes, some of them are only wrapped in the cardboard boxes they were shipped in, but we are happy with the final product.  Funny story though, D and I both purchased gifts online for each other and who would have thought the box would actually say what's packed in it.  Luckily each one of us has a gift that was leaked via the box so we're even, but I'm fairly certain we both have a few surprises too.  :)

As we make our way to spend time with our families over the holidays, Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

2nd weekend trip

This Friday night as soon as the work day ends, we start the 2nd of our weekend trips.  This time we’re headed 4 hours north to the Chicago suburbs and for an exciting weekend of college football.  D’s alma mater, Michigan State is taking on Northwestern at 11 am Saturday and the two of us, along with D’s aunt, uncle and cousins have tickets to the game.  It’s my first college football experience and I’ve got my MSU green and white ready to go, along with all of my thermal wear too.  The high Saturday is supposed to be a sunny 25.  Wowza!  When D’s uncle asked if we wanted to tailgate before the game or go to breakfast and while tailgating sounded like a lot of fun, it was a no brainer for me….keep me warm for as long as possible and I wasn't the only one thinking that, so breakfast it is!  D may have been the only one really wanting to tailgate.  Of course, he is from Michigan after all, cold means nothing to him.  :)
This is potentially a big game for the Spartans as they hope to make it to the Big 10 Championship game in December so I'm extremely excited to go and experience the college football vibe, plus it's always fun to spend time with D's family.  And, you can bet I'll be rooting for Sparty no matter how many layers I have to wear to be comfortably warm at the game.
 

Holiday splurge

Today I splurged and got myself an early Christmas present and a $2k present at that.  I know, I know...buying a present that expensive is crazy, especially buying it for myself! 

I had to leave work early today in order to make sure all the logistics worked out and to get phase one completed before the actual product will be officially delivered December 17th.
After 4 hours of sitting back, wearing sunglasses and listening to the soothing sounds of the dental equipment, the dentist finished my root canal, made molds of my tooth for my bright, shiny, new porcelain crown, and fitted my temporary plastic one that I get to wear for the next 4 weeks.
Honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although I would have rather spent 4 hours somewhere other than the dentist office.  Thankfully though, after this crazy long appointment, the only other major dental work I seem to be facing is getting my wisdom teeth removed.  Yes, I'm nearly 31 and still have my wisdom teeth and really those pesky teeth are the reason why I had to have this root canal.  I'm saving that fun task for next year because obviously I've already spent enough on Christmas.

1st of the weekend trips

Two years ago I was fortunate to take a girls' trip to Mississippi to see one of the most awesome bands perform a benefit concert for their Better Life Foundation.  It was one of the greatest concerts I've ever been to and I vowed to myself that if I could, I'd try to make it to each year after.  Unfortunately last year, I was unable to take the 4.5 hour trip South because I couldn't get anyone else to commit to going with me.  It bummed me out that I had to stay home but I felt it was for the best.
Shortly after D and I started dating, I told him about the concert and how much fun that weekend was and we talked about trying to go if we had that weekend open.  For the last 10 or so months, I periodically checked the foundation's website to see if the date had been set and more importantly checked to see when and if tickets had gone on sale.
Finally, 6 weeks ago, I was scanning my Twitter news feed and found the golden ticket.  The concert would be November 16th and tickets went on sale the next day.  I was beyond excited because I knew we had that weekend free and I was fairly certain D would agree this would be a great weekend getaway.  Sure enough, when we got home from work and I told D the news, he told me to go ahead and get tickets.
Since that day, I have been patiently waiting for this weekend!

Tomorrow morning, we're headed South so D can experience the amazing band for himself.  We do have a mini game plan for the trip down as well.....stopping in at another Diners, Drive Ins and Dives featured restaurants in Memphis.  It's a place I visited with my Mom and Michael when we took our mini Spring Break trip last year.
Yep, we're going to experience that Sweet Spicy Love from Uncle Lou's Fried Chicken.  Seriously it is the best fried chicken I've ever eaten and while I try to eat healthy most of the time, I will splurge for some Uncle Lou's.  So delish!

After an insane week of work, I'm so ready to hit the road and have some fun!

Happy Birthday Cuz!!

My sweet Nicole turns 17 today!
Saturday night the fam went to dinner to celebrate her upcoming birthday.  There were ten of us at one of our favorite Mexican spots.  Here are a few pics of our celebration:

Celebrating 17!

The restaurant staff sang to her!

I think she was more embarrassed with us singing!

This girl loves her St. Louis Blues!

Cousins with the same taste in shoes! OMG!

I'm not quite sure where the last 17 years have gone and I still remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.  She's been my little buddy since day one and was lucky enough to get to live with her and watch her grow up on a daily basis while I was in college.  Now she's a mature high school junior who is not only super smart but also level-headed, responsible, mature and a popular young lady.  She's doing so many great things and I'm so proud of her.  I can't wait to see what the next 17 years brings! (I just hope they don't go as fast as these 17 have...I've aged enough already!)  In any case....

Happy Birthday Girlie!  I hope you enjoy your day to the fullest!!

The start of the holiday shopping spree

With the next 3 weekends in November booked solid and knowing the holidays are quickly approaching, D and I decided that this weekend is as good as any to start our Christmas shopping.  Typically I'm the one that thinks of gift ideas, starts a budget and tackles all of the shopping for both sides of my family.  This year, we're going to shop together.
D's first request for our join effort -- create a spreadsheet to track all of our gift ideas and purchases. Yes, we're going the high tech route this year, not my typical sheet of notebook paper with scribbled thoughts and places to shop.  Next, we ordered gift cards with D's credit card points and started our online shopping efforts.
Yesterday we headed out to the mall, Kohls, Target and Walmart and made a small dent in the list.  The stores were crowded already and I know its only going to get worse as the days and weeks pass and that December deadline looms.  I may give physical shopping one more go around but beyond that, I'm not sure I have the patience for the stores.

Perfect Fall Weekend for the Wineries

We kept it pretty low key around here this past week and decided that we would spend some time enjoying the fall weather this weekend.  My Aunt and Uncle were down at the wineries in Ste. Genevieve for a mini getaway and asked us if we wanted to come down for lunch and a visit to a winery or two.  Missouri is known for its wine country and considering I have never been to one since turning 21 (watching the grape stomp when you're 14 doesn't really count!) and D has yet to see much of the state, we decided to make the hour trip south.
After missing our turn off and getting lost for about 30 minutes, our first stop for lunch and a bottle of Bouvet Blanc was at Chaumette Winery. The food was amazing and from a girl that very rarely eats a lot of meat anymore, my pork burger was absolutely delish.  (I was the DD for our trip, so a burger paired with my wine was exactly what I needed so I wasn't loopy.)  My uncle, who had done a tasting on Friday afternoon was our wine expert for the day.  Thankfully I didn't have to make many decisions on what wines we were having.
After lunch, we traveled down to the Charleville Vineyard and Microbrewery.  This is one of the smaller of the wineries but it was absolutely beautiful sitting in the countryside enjoying the view and the company.  At Charleville we did a small tasting and what is really neat about this winery is that it is a microbrewery as well so D was in heaven.  He did a sampler flight of some of their regular and seasonal brews and after testing 3 wines, I settled on a Charlerita, which is margarita mix paired with their lovely Genevieve Rivard.  It was refreshing and didn't leave me feeling woozy like most margaritas with tequila do.  In fact, after everyone tested my Charlerita, it became the favorite of our group and everyone else had one the next round.

We spent a couple of hours just chatting with my Aunt and Uncle, catching up on what all of my cousins have been up to, what is coming up ahead for the holidays, and anything else we could possibly think of.  The great thing about hanging out with them is that there is never a dull moment and we have a lot of fun.
As the afternoon started to dwindle, we made our way to our cars and made the hour trip home.  It was nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and enjoy the weather and the company.

The couple that cooks together....

Lately we've been testing out a lot of new recipes at home.  While I've always loved cooking and experimenting with ingredients, I've gotten D into the kitchen madness and we've been pretty successful with our culinary adventures.  We have taken to grocery shopping together so that we can collaborate on ingredients for upcoming dinners.  It's actually been a lot of fun, albeit we do get carried away sometimes with some of our ideas but all in all, we are both enjoying it.
Here are a few of our latest dinner creations:

Ham and Cajun Turkey Stromboli

Gnocchi with Shrimp and Asparagus in Homemade Pesto

Scallops and Brussel Sprouts over Lemon Butter Angel Hair

Loaded Pulled Chicken Nachos for Game Day

And probably my greatest creation to date...cheesy chicken spaetzle, continues to be un-photographed because I always forget to snap a pic before its gone.  I'll work on that!

As we start spending more time at home in the fall and winter months (fingers crossed), we have a bunch more ideas for dinners we want to make.  The great thing is that we've been open minded in trying new ingredients and I have a plethora of cookbooks to pull inspiration from.  Hopefully I can get pics before we dive in!

Doctor Ordered Vacation

I am finally home after a 2 day hospital visit and while the doctors are not exactly sure what caused the GI tract infection (they think it was a combo of a virus and bacteria), I have been ordered to take it easy for the next few days so that my immune system recovers.  Since you all know me, required rest is somewhat difficult but I have been given off the remainder of the week by my boss and I am trying to listen to the doctors orders.
I really didn't think how I was feeling on Monday was anything serious.  I thought it would be a quick bug from something I ate at one of the many weekend events we attended.  I didn't really eat bad but again I wasn't 100% on my healthy eating diet.  I stayed in bed most of Monday morning, checked emails Monday afternoon and scheduled the blog post for Tuesday (which I then had to update a bit before I actually published) and thought I was feeling better.  I actually contemplated going into work Monday afternoon and then decided against it because I thought getting more rest would make me feel that much better at work on Tuesday.
Then Monday evening things took a turn for the worst.  My mom stopped by, brought me crackers, 7Up, a heating pad and made me soup.  Mom left, hoping that I would feel better but I couldn't even eat, I laid on the couch doubled over in pain.  D asked me multiple times to take me to Urgent Care or the ER and every time he asked, I declined.  I told him I'd feel better in the morning and around 10 pm went to lay in bed with my heating pad.  Obviously, D was not happy with my decision and called his mom to see what else we could do to make me feel better.  She urged him to take me to the ER and finally put her on the phone with me and she convinced me to let D take me.
The one thing about living downtown that that there are multiple well known, top hospitals within 10 minutes.  These hospitals are so popular though that actually being seen in the ER would take anywhere from a few hours to a few days.  D called one of our good friends, who is also nurse, and asked which hospital would be the best to get me in and seen within a reasonable amount of time.  She recommended a smaller hospital that she worked at before landing her current position.  By 10:35 we were at the hospital and within 5 minutes I was checked in and headed back to a room.
From there it was all about blood tests, samples, CT scans and monitoring all of my pain.   At 1:30 am, they decided I needed to be admitted and at 3 am, I was headed for a normal room.  They ran more tests, hooked me up to fluids and tried to ease my pain as best as possible, all without letting me actually eat until they could figure out what was wrong.
Besides having an inflammed GI tract caused by some infection, they also accidentally found a gall stone which could be another reason why I have had some other issues lately.
Yesterday afternoon, the doctors finally decided that I could be released after being able to hold down food for 2 meals and around 2 pm, I walked out of the hospital.
Right now, I'm just tired.  Being prodded and poked every few hours and being woken up for vitals and to see how I'm feeling definitely takes its toll but the hospital staff was great.

I'm really glad to finally be home.  It killed me on Tuesday night watching D leave and knowing I couldn't go with him and mostly I just wanted everything to be back to normal.  I have to say though that given all of this, my family, D's family and my friends have been so great checking in on me and wishing me well.  I haven't taken much time off lately and it has been go go go, I guess this hospital visit was my sign to slow down and get some R & R.  It's also my sign to get a primary care doctor and start taking care of myself so my Moms don't have to worry.