Longing for Fall

I know, I know, it's only July but we have been melting here all week. I get that its better than snow but I feel like the extreme heat is just as bad because you can't be enjoying things outside either. Fall really is my favorite time of year. Anyways, this heat has me longing for cooler September days.

The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale isn't helping my Fall cravings because that means Fall clothes are out. Looking at all of the beautiful sweaters and coats makes me wish it wasn't 100 degrees!

So even though it's going to be awhile, I've bought some really cute things for Fall this week. I will enjoy watching them hang in my pretty closet for awhile until I get to wear them!

This week I'm...

Loving: That this month is going by fast, come on August!

Disliking: Feeling like I'm melting every time I step outside.
Craving: I think s'mores pops are going to be made this weekend.

Hoping: To get some good news next week.
Reading: After reading A stolen life by Jaycee Duggard, I needed something different. This week I'm reading, The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Watching: So happy Giuliana & Bill are back for a new season, we love their show!
Listening to: Everyone complain about how hot it is, we're never satisfied!
Looking forward to: To doing some shopping this weekend, all the Fall clothes coming into the stores are tempting me!
Hearing buzz about: Dancing with the Stars is really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel for its cast.

Wordless Wednesday: I see a BLT in my near future

The end of an era

For the past 14 years I have loved Harry Potter and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I was a sophmore in high school when the first book came out. I was completely enthralled from the very beginning. The story about "the boy who lived," took the whole world by storm. To date the books have sold almost 500 million copies. Whenever the latest book would come out, I would buy it and finish it the same day, even the 759 page book 7. I love how J.K. Rowlings' writing draws you in and her incredible attention to detail just paints the pictures in your head. It still amazes me that one person could come up with a story with so many intricate details and create a whole new world. She deserves every success that has come her way.

From Platform 9 ¾ to Quidditch to that trusty old Invisibility Cloak, I love it all. But they say that all good things must come to an end, and so I regrettably find myself here – Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part 2 - the final installment in the Harry Potter franchise, a movie that I was both beyond excited about and dreading all at the same time. The movie didn't disappoint and was a fitting end to this brilliant story. I can't wait to see it again.

I have read the books so many times and when they all come out digitally in the Fall, I will be buying them and reading them all over again. It makes me so sad there won't be anything new from the world of Harry Potter. No new books to read or movies to see anymore. The only thing that I have to look forward to is sharing these books with our future children. I can't wait to read them book by book and watch each movie that goes along with it. I know these stories can stand the test of time, no matter how many generations come along.

So even though it is sad that it's all over, Dumbledore once said, "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remember to turn on the light."

Weekend Recap

We had a fun, but relaxing weekend. On Friday after we were done with work we headed over to Rich and Tif's to have dinner and hangout. Michael and Ken grilled all of us dinner which was yummy. We hung out in their newly renovated basement which looks great! Jacob had us all laughing as he ran around the room grabbing any cell phone in sight and hand delivering them to everyone. He's so funny. When it was time for Jacob to go to bed, we headed home.

On Saturday I was up and out early. I had bought a Groupon for a photography class a couple of months ago. My friend Yolanda bought it as well so we coordinated a date to take the class together. It was a lot of fun to take it with someone, and we had fun catching up on our breaks. The class itself was fabulous. I learned so much about my camera and photography in general. I'm excited to put it all in practice now. I'm already planning on other classes to there. The instructor, Russ, was very knowledgeable but also really funny and personable. The class was really full but he still walked around and helped anyone that needed it. We all definitely got our $50 worth!

After my class I headed home to relax, and I even got a nap in. After I woke up Michael and I decided to go out to dinner. After dinner we headed over to Rich and Tif's to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 to prepare for seeing Part 2. The movie ended late so we headed home and crashed.

Today we got up, went to breakfast and to the grocery store to do our weekly shopping. Then we headed out to the movies with Rich, Tif and Ken. We've been planning on seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 together for months now. I've had our tickets for about a month as well. I was so excited! I even made a special treat for the occasion, golden snitch cake pops!

The movie was amazing! There were of course a few things I wish they did differently like in all the other movies. Because I've read all of the books, I always have a hard time dealing with things that are changed or left out. All in all though, the move was great and I can't wait to see it again!

After the movie we came home and just relaxed in the air conditioning the rest of the afternoon since it was ass crazy hot out today. We are just going to enjoy what's left of the weekend, have some dinner and watch some tv. I hope all of you had a great weekend and have a speedy week ahead!

Our week in pictures: 7/10 - 7/16

Sunday, July 10: A delicious Sunday dinner made by Michael, yum!

Monday, July 11: We harvested our first green onion, it was delicious!

Tuesday, July 12: Michael was having some fun with some dry ice we got in a delivery.

Wednesday, July 13: It's Christmas in July around here. Michael is always looking on eBay for additional houses for our Christmas village and he found one he has been looking for for a long time at a great price.

Thursday, July 14: Birthday boy Porkchop

Friday, July 15: Yay, our cookbook came!

Saturday, July 16: I learned so much at my photography class. This is Russ our instructor.

This week I'm...

Loving: The weather forecast, finally we are getting the Summer we've longed for!

Disliking: That this will be the last Harry Potter movie, EVER! It's really sad.
Craving: I have a special treat up my sleeve for this weekend!

Hoping: I get the ornaments I want at the Hallmark ornament preview this weekend. It's Christmas in July; don't hate me that I'm excited about it!
Reading:  A stolen life by Jaycee Duggard. All I can say so far is, wow, this girl is so strong.

Watching: Two months from tonight is the Vampire Diaries premiere, not that I'm counting down or anything, HA!
Listening to: All the idiots in Washington DC blame one another
Looking forward to: My photography class with Yolanda this weekend!
Hearing buzz about: Melissa McCarthy from the movie Bridesmaids is hilarious, this video with Joel McHale is so funny about her "Emmy Training Day".

Happy Birthday Porkchop!

Today is our furbaby Porkchop's 4th birthday! He will always be our first born no matter how many kids come along! He is spunky, funny, a little crazy and super smart. He makes us laugh so much with all of his crazy antics. He's also incredibly cute and I can't imagine our family without him. Happy Birthday buddy, we love you!

Wordless Wednesday: Old Navy packages make me happy

A Stolen Life

I don't know how many of you watched the Jaycee Dugard special Sunday night with Diane Sawyer, but Michael and I were glued to the TV. I couldn't get over the story of this girl who was held for 18 years by a sick psychopath. We were amazed how level headed she seemed after what she had been through. I could never imagine being handcuffed in a shack at 11 years old, giving birth while handcuffed at 13 and 15 years old and being abused for years. The even sicker thing is that her captor's house was visited over 60 times by parole officers in the years she was held there and they never went into the backyard to investigate. Such a great system we have, huh? Even when people called the police saying there were girls living in the backyard in a tent, they didn't do anything. It just hard to believe. It took the courage of two women police officers who followed their intuition to finally nab her captor and free Jaycee. Her story is so inspiring. I only hope she can live as normal of a live as possible from here on out.

Today Jaycee released her version of the story in her own words. Her book is called, A Stolen Life. I ordered it on my iPad this morning. A portion of the proceeds of the book go to her foundation. I know its going to be hard to read at many points of the book, but I feel like I have to know her story. I will let you know how the book is when I finish it.

Menu Planning Monday

Menu Planning Monday's are back! We've been just throwing things together the past few weeks but we have a real menu this week. We're trying a new recipe this week as well.

Monday: Shrimp Po'Boys (new recipe!)

Tuesday: Taco night

Wednesday: Chicken pesto pasta

Thursday: Cheddar cracker chicken

Friday: Pizza night

Weekend Recap

We have had a really nice, low-key weekend. Last weekend was so busy. So busy, I never got around to writing a recap for it! We were going non-stop the entire 4-day weekend. This weekend was the complete opposite. We had absolutely no plans and it was a nice change of pace. On Friday, I worked from home and after work, Michael and I ordered in some dinner and just relaxed together.

On Saturday, we got up and got some breakfast and then headed out for the day. We started at Chase bank to set up some new accounts there. We are switching from Harris Bank but needed to set up the new ones before we could close the our other accounts. After the bank we headed to Toyota so Michael could pick up his new car. It's pretty much the exact same car as he had before but it has a couple other options. He now has a sunroof and a back-up camera. It took a really long time for everything as usual, but Michael was happy.

By the time we got done with the car it was almost 2 o'clock. We grabbed some lunch and headed home to relax for a while. Later on we headed to Rich and Tif's to hang out, play with Jacob and have some dinner. We had fun as usual and went to dinner at Famous Dave's. 

Today we got up and had some breakfast and then headed to Whole Foods for our grocery shopping. After grocery shopping we headed home to get some things done around the house. I went for a manicure/pedicure and Michael headed to the range for awhile. My mani/pedi was nice and relaxing. I chose OPI's Miami Beet this week.

The rest of the afternoon we've just been relaxing in the air conditioning since it's so steamy out. We've also been watching lots of Harry Potter to gear up for the last movie next weekend. I'm so sad that its going to be all over. 

I've also spent the afternoon finalizing our 2010 cookbook. It's only 6 months late! I've been waiting on some family recipes and I finally got all the details so I could finish it up. Last year I started a new tradition by making a cookbook with all of the new recipes we tried and liked that year, along with some family favorite recipes from both our families. I want to do this every year so that we'll have a whole volume set of our own cookbooks. This is what our 2010 cookbook looks like. It should be here within a couple of weeks. I used Blurb again to create it.

Michael made us a really yummy Sunday dinner of NY strip steaks, baked potatoes, asparagus and biscuits. 

I am really hoping this week goes by fast. I'm really excited for next weekend. I am taking a photography class on Saturday and we are also seeing the last Harry Potter, which we are dying to see! Tonight we are just going to relax and enjoy what's left of the weekend. I hope all of you had a great weekend and have a good week ahead!

This week I'm...

Loving: The weekend is here again, thank goodness!

Disliking: A very rainy forecast starting on Sunday. It's been so nice this past week.
Craving: Pierogi. Luckily the cancelled Pierogi Fest is currently being re-scheduled. Hopefully, sooner than later!

Hoping: The next few weeks go by fast, August is going to be a really good month so I'm rushing July along.
Reading:  I just finished Witches of East End this week. It was really good, I'm so glad I have a new series to read. The only bad thing is that I have to wait a year for the next one!

Watching: One of our favorite shows, Flipping Out started this week. Jeff Lewis is crazy!
Listening to: Fireworks going off all week long. The 4th is over people, save your fireworks for next year!
Looking forward to: A weekend with no plans!
Hearing buzz about: Obviously the buzz this week has been about the Casey Anthony trial. So heartbreaking. I saw this on Jen Lancaster's Facebook and I thought it was genius. "If you hate this verdict (and I know you do) don't allow the defense to profit from it. Don't buy their books, don't see their movie, don't watch them on interview shows. Capitalism isn't the last line of defense, but in this instance it might be the only one."

What I'm Reading

I haven't done one of these posts in a while and I've been reading up a storm lately, so I thought it was long overdue.

Bossypants, Tina Fey

I love a good memoir. I really enjoyed this book. Not only did I have lots of fun reading it but I got to see how incredibly funny and smart Tina Fey is as well as how hard she has worked to get to where she is. She is a big girl in a man's world and a very sucessful one. Her stories of growing up, her early career, SNL, and 30 rock are priceless.

Witches of East End, Melissa De La Cruz

This is the first book in a new series by Melissa De La Cruz. I read her Blue Blood Series about vampires, which is still ongoing as well. The Witches of East End follows the tale of a family of witches who reside in a protected part of the North Hamptons, and these three ladies have lived through a lot. After having been stripped and denied their lineage of witchcraft from prior transgressions, this family just wants to continue on living like normal people. That is until the itch to practice magic turns to each of the women and a whole host of effects run rampant through the town. Some old characters make it into the story from the Blue Bloods series while really bringing us into their whole new world that Cruz has created. This first book in a series was amazing to read, and it has me looking forward to more.

  If you were here, Jen Lancaster

I am a huge fan of Jen Lancaster's. I wish I could write as well as she does. This is her first foray into fiction. At least that's what the book says. But I have to say, it felt more autobiographical than fiction. It's still the fantastic and hilarious writing we've come to expect from Jen, either way. Jen and her lead character, Mia, are admirers of John Hughes. When Mia and her husband Mac (who sounds an awful lot like Fletch, Jen's real-life hubby) go looking for a house, they head to the suburbs in which Hughes set his movies. They buy the money pit and enter into the never-ending struggle to live in a house as it's being renovated. Again, this sounds a lot like Jen and Fletch leaving their former sketchy neighborhood to a bigger house. All in all, I enjoyed it. I laughed out loud as I usually do with Jen's novels. I just can't say that it's fictional.

Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen

This book has been on my to-read list for quite some time and I finally got around to reading it. I really want to see the movie as well when it comes out on DVD. We first meet Jacob a ninety something withering old man remembering the good old days when he used to be able to do whatever, whenever.. and eat basically anything he wanted. Something the nursing home wasn't allowing him to do, much to his dismay. Flicking back between old Jacob and young Jacob we're presented with some humorous banter before delving into the heart wrenching tale of his life. I felt as though I'd been thrust back in time, and was there along with them at the circus, watching everything fall in to place. It all flowed so smoothly. The author did her research. She slipped right into that era without any troubles and I found it really enjoyable. A great summer read that leaves you devouring the pages wondering what is going to happen next. I highly recommend it.

The Warlock, Michael Scott

This book is the most recent in the immortal Nicholas Flamel series and I personally think they just keep getting better and better. I read this book within a few days of receiving it as I just could not put it down. With all the old favourite characters and a few new unexpected ones this book will keep you wanting more. I love that the characters are plucked out history and mythology, yet woven into a story completely its own. Each book has just pulled me into the story and I find myself a little sad to when I come to the end of the book. I can't wait until the final book comes out next year.

Wordless Wednesday: Fun in the sun with Jacob

New recipe: S'mores Pops

I saw this recipe on my Google Reader and I knew I had to make them. They remind me of one of my favorite sweet snacks in Disney World. They sell s'mores bars like these at the Main Street Confectionery. These taste just like the Disney version and they were really easy to make too.


Ingredients
Graham crackers
Marshmallows
Hershey bars
Milk chocolate morsels
Popsicle sticks

Ingredients

Assemble the s'mores the traditional way, graham, chocolate, marshmallow and graham. Microwave for 10 seconds and then put a popsicle stick inside the melted marshmallow.

Freeze the assembled s'mores for 30 - 60 minutes. Before you take the s'mores out of the freezer, melt the milk chocolate chips down so it is ready for dipping. Dip the s'mores pops into the chocolate until they are fully coated.

After the pops are all coated, put in the fridge to set the chocolate. Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone! A special thank you to all of the troops past, present and future who have fought and still fight for our freedom everyday. I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday! I'll be back with a recap of the weekend's activities tomorrow!

Our week in pictures: 6/26 - 7/2

Sunday, June 26: Master closet makeover in full swing

Monday, June 27: I made some homemade raspberry lemonade popsicles and they were delicious!

Tuesday, June 28: Last week we had a moth, this week we had a frog stop by.

Wednesday, June 29: Oh Porkchop, you are so pathetic.

Thursday, June 30: The closet is officially done!

Friday, July 1: The puppies all huddled up looking out on the deck, wanting to go outside.

Saturday, July 2: Mmm...s'mores bars. Recipe to be posted next week!

This week I'm...

 

Loving: My new closet! I'm totally obsessed with it and just stand in it and look at all of my pretty things!

Disliking: How tired I've been this week. I blame the closet since we worked on it all weekend and every night this week.
Craving: Something smores. I'm gonna try making these this weekend!

Hoping: We have beautiful weather all holiday weekend.
Reading: Michael Scott's latest in the Nicholas Flamel series, The Warlock.

Watching: I'm looking forward to watching the new Transformers movie this weekend!
Listening to: A lot of Katy Perry this week.
Looking forward to: A nice long relaxing weekend!
Hearing buzz about: The Royal Newlyweds have landed in North America. I heard Kate has 40 outfits planned for 10 days. I can't wait to see what she wears!