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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Things I'm loving: June

June has been my favorite month of 2010 so far. So many amazing things have happened in the past few weeks. This list was very easy to put together!!

 1. Our nephew Jacob
Our first nephew made his grand entrance into the world on June 13! He is such a little peanut and we love every opportunity we get to see him. We are loving being an auntie and uncle already!

2. Arla and Teddy's wedding
The week after becoming and aunt and uncle, I welcomed a new brother into our family! Arla and Teddy were married on June 19 on the most beautiful day. Everything they had worked so hard planning came together beautifully. They had a wonderful ceremony and a great party followed. It was such an amazing day!

3. Our newly painted house
We have been wanting our hallways and bedroom painted for 3 years and we finally bit the bullet and did it. We are so happy with the results and I am having so much fun re-decorating these spaces!

4. iPhone 4
I have been lusting for an iPhone for years. I had been with Verizon for 12 years and never wanted to make the change. There had been so many rumors about Verizon getting the iPhone, but none of them have every come to fruition. I finally decided to make the leap when the iPhone 4 was up for pre-orders and I am so happy I did. Both Michael and I made the switch and got the new iPhone 4 and we love it; we are both totally addicted to all the amazing apps available!

5. Summer shows and movies

 One of the best parts of summer is the summer blockbuster movies. I am most excited for the movie you see above, Eclipse! We have seen a few movies this month, Toy Story, A-Team, and Ironman2. I will be doing a review of all of these movies next week. Even though most of our favorite TV shows are on summer hiatus, there are also some great summer TV shows on air this summer. Some of our favorites are Next Food Network Star, Design Star, Real Housewives of New Jersey, Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen and Project Runway is starting next month!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

June and July Goals


June Goals:
1. Weight loss goal - hit 90lbs lost by July 1! Goal Met! I am currently down 92lbs!!!
2. Workout 4 times a week - no excuses this month! Fail. I'd like to blame the weather from keeping me from walking, but I could have done the Wii if I wanted to.
3. Try 4 new recipes this month. Fail. We only made 3 new recipes this month, but they were all delicious! We made: Whoopie Pies, Walnut and Rosemary Oven-Fried Chicken and Grilled Shrimp and Sausage skewers with a smoky paprka glaze.
4. Complete "our week in pictures" twice. Goal Met, here and here.
5. Take a cooking class together Goal Met! We loved it, I hope we can go again before the year is over!

July Goals:
1. Weight loss goal - hit 100lbs lost by August 1! This might be lofty especially since we'll be on vacation half the month but I want to give it my best shot!
2. Workout 4 times a week - no excuses this month!
3. Try 3 new recipes this month.
4. Complete "our week in pictures" twice.
5. Have a fabulous California vacation!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Family Favorite Recipe: Oreo Fudge Ice Cream Cake


Ingredients
1/2 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed
1 tub  (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided
1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding
8   OREO Cookies, chopped (about 1 cup)
12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches

Directions
Ingredients

Chop 8-10 Oreo cookies (approx. 1 cup)

Pour fudge topping into medium bowl. Whisk in 1 cup Cool Whip.

Add dry pudding mix; stir 2 min. Stir in chopped cookies.

Arrange 4 ice cream sandwiches, side-by-side, on 24-inch-long piece of foil

Top with half the Cool Whip mixture

 Repeat layers. Top with remaining sandwiches.

Frost top and sides with remaining Cool Whip, sprinkle with chopped Oreos if desired
 
Bring up foil sides double fold top and ends to loosely seal packet.

Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Enjoy!

Menu Planning Monday


Monday: Chicken Pesto Pasta
Tuesday: Steak tacos
Wednesday: Grilled brats from Jake's Country Meats
Thursday: Pizza
Friday: Date Night

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Weekend Recap

I'm back to blogging! I didn't really have a rough week or anything, I think I was just too tired at night after the wedding and getting things back in order after having the house painted. We had a really nice uneventful weekend for once!

On Friday I worked from home which was nice. I got to fully catch up after being out for a few days earlier in the week. I also got to have lunch with Michael, which is always a nice perk of being home during the day. We stayed in on Friday and made dinner together instead of going out for date night. I made cheddar cracker chicken with asparagus for me and a baked potato for Michael.

Date night dinner at home!

On Saturday, we got up and went to breakfast and then to the Wheaton Farmer's Market. After the farmer's market we headed down to my sister's house to meet my parents and "watch their house" specifically, their pool! Since Arla and Teddy are in Hawaii on their honeymoon we wanted to make sure everything was working ok! We vacuumed the whole pool and got it all clean and ready to swim. The sad thing is that this was the first time anyone has been in the pool all year and it's been open since Memorial Day! The rain has really put a damper on things this year. But yesterday was the perfect day for swimming. The water was 84 degrees and it was nice and hot outside. We spent all day outside and in the pool and barbecued for lunch and dinner. It was great! I got a little fried however, despite my multiple applications of 55 SPF sunscreen. I woke up as a lobster this morning!  

Today, we got up and went to breakfast and then ran around to do some errands. We went to Whole Foods to do our grocery shopping and then went to Michael's, Joann Fabrics, Home Goods, and Crate and Barrel to get some things for our re-decorating projects. We came home and got some things put back together after getting the house painted and Michael put the first coat of paint on the mirror going above our bed. Here's some pictures of our newly painted walls and decorating progress.

First coat of white paint on the mirror going above the bed. The little circles will be yellow and black.

Our newly painted hallway

Newly painted entryway

New entryway table - I'm still working on getting the right accessories

Painted "pewter" master bedroom walls

Close-up of new bedding

New pillow for the chair we ordered (also our curtain fabric)

So those are the updated pictures. I need to work on finding some accessories for our bedroom and a new mirror for above our dresser. I am having a really hard time finding things in yellow and gray. I was really having a hard time finding curtains. I had originally ordered a set of curtains from Anthropologie, seen below.



I love the print, unfortunately the background of the curtains isn't white, but more of a natural linen or burlap color. I couldn't find any other alternatives so I am having curtains made by a seller on Etsy. I had ordered the throw pillow above for the chair we ordered and loved the print so much that I found out what it was called and decided we would use it for our curtains. I think they are going to look great on the pewter walls!


Another project I am working on is in our hallway going upstairs. I am putting together a collage of frames with pictures of all the places we have traveled together. I picked up a bunch of frames at IKEA and I am working on the right arrangement but it will be something like the below picture.

Don't mind Porkchop in the picture!

The frames will be going on the big wall under the window

I can't wait to see everything come together! It's going to take a few weeks for everything to be finished and delivered, but it will be so worth it! I am having so much fun putting everything together, it's been a while since we've done a big decorating project.

So that was our weekend; for not doing much I guess we did end up doing quite a bit! That's usually how it happens of course. I am hoping the week goes pretty fast, because I have a 4-day weekend coming up! I am looking forward to the weather this week too. It looks like we are going to have a mostly rain-free week which will certainly be a change! The only good thing about the rain is that it has been very beneficial to our crops. Things are booming out on our deck!

Our deck crops are thriving!

Lots of tomatoes!

Our strawberries are growing and ripening!

That's all I have, sorry for such a long post! I guess I had a lot to say after not blogging much this week! I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week ahead!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Blogging will resume shortly


Sorry for the lack of posts this week. Between recovering from the wedding, getting our house painted and catching up at work after being out for 3 days, it has been a hectic week! But don't worry, I have lots of posts planned that I will work on this weekend! Stay tuned for new recipes, movie reviews, product raves, a master bedroom decorating update and much more. I'll even give you a sneak preview of the painting in our entryway to keep you coming back! Have a great weekend everyone!

Our entryway with fresh coats of "silver fox" paint

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Family Celebrations this week

We have lots of things to celebrate this week in the family!!!

My Mom and Dad's Anniversary on June 21 - 36 years!

My Dad's Birthday - June 23

Mom and Dad Dworianyn's Anniversary - June 23 - 31 years!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Menu Planning Monday


Monday: Chicken Parmesan
Tuesday: Shrimp Tacos
Wednesday: Chicken Pesto Pasta
Friday: Date Night

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Wedding Weekend Recap


23 months of waiting for one day and it's all over, it's sad. Arla and Teddy tied the knot yesterday on one of the most gorgeous days we've had in a while. Everything was absolutely perfect, they did a great job planning a wonderful day.

The festivities started on Friday night with the rehearsal. Things got off to a crazy start with the wild storms that rolled through our area. It took Michael and I over 2 hours, normally a 35-40 minute trip, to get to Arla and Teddy's house. When we got there we found out that Arla and Teddy had lost power so we were going to be doing the rehearsal by candlelight. It was a warm, but romantic setting for the rehearsal! Many people got hung up because of the weather. Some people who were coming from the city had been in their cars for our 3 hours, yikes! Once everyone got there, we got down to business and started the rehearsal. It was painless and went really quickly thanks to Melissa, the wedding planner. She got everyone wrangled up and knocked it out in about 10 minutes.

The bride and bridesmaids waiting to start the rehearsal with our ribbon bouquets

After the rehearsal we all headed to Clara's in Woodridge for the rehearsal dinner. They have amazing Italian food, and it didn't disappoint. Arla and Teddy picked out a great menu of appetizers, salad, and entrees. Everyone had a great time visiting before the big day.

Teddy made a nice speech welcoming and thanking everyone

The happy couple!

Michael and I

Mom and Dad

Saturday was the big day. Arla and the bridesmaids were meeting at my parents house to get ready together. We were all having hair and makeup done there. Arla started the day by opening her wedding day gift from Teddy. He got her an amazing watch from Tiffany, its gorgeous!

Arla was pretty excited!

Modeling her new gift!

A close-up of the bling!

After opening her gift we all started getting hair and make-up done. My parents turned their kitchen and dining room into the hair and make-up salon!

Arla and Mom getting their hair and make-up done

Arla checking out her bridal do

Mom's hair and make-up is all done!

This is what the boys did while we were primping!

The bride with her make-up all done looking gorgeous!

The veil is the final touch before the dress!

While everyone was finishing up their hair and make-up, the flowers came. This is one of the things Arla was most looking forward to. She has had the vision of these flowers in her head for over a year. She was giddy with excitement when they arrived!
She was like a kid on Christmas morning!

 She watched and waited for the boxes to come in

Checking everything out

The brides beautiful bouquet

Nilam modeling one of the bridesmaid's bouquets

At this point of the day, I had to start getting dressed and help Arla getting dressed. Then the photographer came so I don't have any pictures of that part. I don't have any pictures until the ceremony. Michael was able to put our camera under the chair so that once he seated my mom in the processional, he could take some pictures. The ceremony and reception was at Ruffled Feathers Golf Club. It was beautiful and they did a phenomenal job. Their staff was incredible.

Teddy and the groomsmen waiting

Nilam

Andrea

Erica

Stacy

Me

Teddy lays eyes on his bride for the first time

Here comes the bride!

Ceremony

Ceremony

Pastor told them to turn around and take a look at everyone

Taking their vows

The kiss!

It's official, Mr. and Mrs. Lach!

Very excited for my sister and my new brother!

Me and the best man Jim

After the ceremony, we took lots of pictures of course with the photographer, so I don't have any pictures of that. I can't wait to see how all the pictures come out. The reception started at 7 with the bridal party being introduced.

The proud parents of the groom!

Mom and Dad

Me and the best man, Jim

Mr. and Mrs. Lach!

After being introduced, they cut the cake. Check out the Lego grooms cake!

Once dinner started, I didn't take any other pictures since I had to give my speech. After dinner, Michael brought the camera out to the car because we didn't want anything to happen to it. You never know with people drinking, dancing, etc. The rest of the night was a blast. The DJ was great, it was who we used as well. I danced pretty much all night long. They also had a photobooth, which was a lot of fun as well! They put together a great party. If you didn't have a good time, it was your fault! I think I know who had the most fun though; can you guess who?

Mr. Margarita in his pimp hat!

Today we got up and despite feeling sore from all the dancing, felt good. We headed to breakfast, and then did a little shopping. For lunch, we headed over to Michael's parents house to celebrate Father's Day. They made bulgogi, rice and salad which was great. I was really excited too because I got to see baby Jacob! It had been a whole week! He was so cute!

Auntie Sara and Baby Jacob

Uncle Michael

After lunch, we hung out for a little while and had dessert before heading home. We worked on the house for a little bit since we have painters coming tomorrow. We needed to take things down from the walls and move some things around. I am so excited to get the house painted! I am going to do some shopping tomorrow to try and find some more accessories for our master bedroom and entryway. I found some great finds over the past few days. I found 2 lamps, a pillow, and a new blanket for our bedroom.

The lamps are from IKEA, the blanket and pillow are from Target

We have had a fabulous weekend. I am so glad I took tomorrow off too. I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week ahead!