Resolutions

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to begin blogging more.
I even set a goal for myself that I would blog at least three times per week.
I thought this seemed like a reasonable goal.

Apparently not.

So I decided that before I get halfway through the year without blogging, I should get a start on that resolution.

On the subject of resolutions, I have also decided to get back on the weight loss kick I was on last summer. I have realized that my life is just far too out of control from January through mid-April to be too hard on myself about losing weight. I'll be happy with maintaining through the craziness that is interview days and file review time. Now that it is summer and my work life is much less crazy, I'll be returning to my weekly weigh-ins in Tuesdays because that seemed to work really well last time. I have hired a trainer at the gym Matt and I joined a few months ago, and I am committed to reducing my portion sizes and focusing on more fruits, vegetables, good proteins, and whole grains. I am trying to shed processed foods, and junk from my diet. I will always have weaknesses (salt for me), but I can learn how to control them.

We enjoyed a fun-filled and very busy weekend. I joined my friend and co-worker Mackenzie for some sushi at the Urban Wine Company and then sat in the THIRD ROW for a performance of Wicked! It was phenomenal! Amazing show, incredible cast - I would have watched it twenty times if I could have!

Saturday we enjoyed a nice trip to the farmer's market for tomatoes, salsa, cottage bacon, and ciabatta roles - YUM! I love, love, love the farmer's market. After we walked around, made our purchases, and enjoyed a gorgeous spring/summer morning, we met up with Pell and Bren for a trip to the Urban Wine Festival (hosted by the Urban Wine Company - are you getting the weekend theme, here?). We were able to taste several different wines and enjoyed more of a gorgeous day. Our day of fun did not end there though - we enjoyed a late lunch at M's Pub (yes, I had to have some lavosh!) and then headed to Lincoln for some Ivanna Cone and to watch my friend Michelle compete in a women's rollerderby match. I can honestly say it was my first rollerderby match - and I am very thankful that they included a demonstration of how it all works prior to the start of the match. Those girls are viscious! There was one girl taken off on a stretcher during the match and Michelle told us that two girls on her team are out with broken legs, and one is out with a separated shoulder - all caused by roller derby! Michelle's team did not win, but it was a unique and interesting event to attend.

We hosted a small gathering at our house last night and had a great night celebrating the beginning of summer with friends and family. Matt made some homemade ice cream (vanilla and maple-grapenut) and we grilled hamburgers, chicken, and sausages and everyone brought something to share! Fun times!

My camera is out of commission at the moment so I don't have any photos of our fun weekend to share :(

Weekend Recovery...

My houseguests have left and I have finally recovered from the weekend and have time to update. I got up early on Friday morning and headed for some pampering and a pedicure. It was absolutely wonderful. I have extremely ticklish feet and some parts of a pedicure are torture for me, but the scrubber that the girl I go to uses is really gentle and doesn't tickle at all. So, it was an hour of pure relaxation and a great way to start my day. Then I headed to HyVee, grabbed a decaf, non-fat iced caramel macchiato, and picked up all the items I needed for my salad and dessert for Friday night. Well - everything except for a yellow pepper, which looked horrible at HyVee so I had Matt pick one up for me at Target.

I spent all of last week craving chocolate pecan pie (which is strange considering that I had never had chocolate pecan pie before) so I decided to give it a try for dessert of Friday. The recipe for the pie was fairly easy, but I wanted to try making homemade pie crust for the first time. I checked several different recipes before finding one I felt comfortable with and gave it a try. I found it to be easier than I expected and will likely never buy pie crust again. The crust turned out flaky, buttery, and really good - and the filling wasn't bad either. I also made lemon bars and Matt made homemade vanilla ice cream. I was really excited about trying a salad recipe I found with lettuce, red pepper, yellow pepper, onions, artichokes, blue cheese, and a really good viniagrette dressing. It turned out really well and I'll definitely keep it on my list to make again. The artichokes and blue cheese made a really interesting flavor combination.

My mom's birthday party was a big success. It was a fairly small party, just my family, the Hoodys and the Witters. Matt's parents decided to not attend so Matt and his brother came over for a little while, but left before we ate. Brenda got her new fridge delivered about 2.5 hours before everyone was scheduled to arrive. Her old one had slowly been losing the ability to keep cold. Brenda felt that the situation was likely aggravated by the fact that they lost power in the storm in June and the fact that their fridge was over 20 years old. I headed over early to help her set up as her afternoon was a little topsy-turvy. We enjoyed great food (including fabulous bruchetta from a local Italian take-out place that I will be visiting soon!), with great friends. I didn't arrive home until almost midnight!

We got up early on Saturday morning and headed to the Farmer's Market with Matt's folks. I don't know what they really thought of it, but I enjoyed it as always. I picked up some fresh sweet basil, fantastic tomatoes, green beans, and we picked up some of the pre-made enchiladas that we love to keep on hand because they are easy to warm up when we don't feel like cooking. We grabbed some breakfast at the Parthenon. I had an elephant ear that was perfect - flaky, sweet, wonderful. I also enjoyed a fantastic cup of homemade root beer.

The farmer's market was really our only excitement during the rest of Matt's parents visit. We cooked them dinner on Saturday night and my parents joined us for dessert. Then we took them to Summer Kitchen Cafe for a great Sunday morning breakfast. They left soon after breakfast and then my mom, Sarah, and I took my grandma to see Momma Mia! It was a cute movie and I think Grandma enjoyed it.

Work has been crazy the past two days. I've received more emails than I can keep up with and I am trying to get everything set for travel this fall. There are just not enough hours in the day. I'm hoping to get completely caught up tomorrow, but I will likely have to shut myself in my office to make that happen.

Houseguests!

Matt and I are being invaded by houseguests! Matt sent me an email at work today to tell me that his brother would be staying with us tonight. He is supposed to pick up Lauren at a camp at KU on Saturday so he headed up this way today to stay with us for a few days. Matt's parents are scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon and will stay until Sunday. For two people who only had one houseguest between November and June, we have certainly had an increase this month. My parents stayed with us while their floor was being done, Brent stayed with us when he came to see The Dark Knight, and now Matt's family will be with us this week.

I took tomorrow off of work so I have time to prepare for my mom's birthday party. However, I start the day with a pedicure to pamper myself a little bit. I hate painting my toenails, and I love getting pedicures so I schedule myself for one every once in awhile just for a treat. Then I will head to the store and then home to make chocolate pecan pie, artichoke salad, and lemon bars - my contributions for the dinner. We are also having steak, pasta salad, bread, and homemade ice cream. I'm looking forward to the evening.