Monday tacos

The way I see it, if Mother Nature can see fit to drop a bunch of snow on our heads, wreck the Monday commute, and interfere with what was becoming a very nice spring… Then I can make tacos on a Monday morning.

We had a great weekend as we started to choose baby gear and consider lifestyle options:

– Yes, we should have a pro redo the newel post.
– No we don’t need a pro to install the banister.
– Yes we should get the structural issues in the basement repaired.
– No we shouldn’t take out a new loan to pay for the repairs.
– Yes, technically the car seat fits in the Audi, but no, it’s not practical to keep the car.

I swear we need a weekend to recover from our weekend.

The next best thing I could do was to inject a little flavor into our Monday.  I browned ground beef, sauteed some yellow onion, added some orange peppers for color, seasoned with the home made taco seasoning blend (courtesy of Practical Paleo).  I served it all up on soft tortillas, topped with fresh avocado and salsa.

I guess if I have to say one good thing about the snow, it’s that it makes great filtered lighting for taking pictures of food with my phone 😉

Happy Monday, everyone!

Wipers up, snow down

I said this morning that wipers up means snow will be coming down.  It started early afternoon, and never really let up…

The roads were icy, visibility was reduced… And I had to go to school for class tonight.

Yeah. Good luck getting anywhere.

You know what, though? I got there, checked my voicemail, and heard a message saying class was canceled.

Some days are only good for building snowmen and going to bed early.

Tonight I’m wearing my warrior shirt to bed. Kind of need a reminder to eat better tomorrow and stop getting so frustrated with work.  I ranted at a friend* at work today about all of my frustrations and it just made me want to cry.  Then, I rushed off to school where I was scheduled for an exam…I was feeling crappy, so what did I have for dinner? A chicken taquito, a corndog, a bag of chips, a handful of dark chocolate, and about half a cup of gelato.  Did it feel good at the time? Absolutely. Does it feel good now? Nope. Can I take it back? Nope! Time to move on.

Tomorrow I’ll be well rested, and I’ll make sure to have healthy snacks with me.

Have a good night!

It’s not working..I’m so tired!

I went to iaido last night, after an eleven hour day at work, then spent a couple hours studying.  I got to sleep after midnight, I was up at 5:30..and I’m tired. Exhausted, really.  But I’ve got 8 hours ahead of me at work, plus school.. I won’t be home until 9pm.

What does all of this have to do with the photo above? Well.. raised wipers is a winter omen in Minnesota.  Winter is coming..again. 6-8″ snow expected before I have to go to school. I’ll take a before and after picture of my car..

In the mean time, I’m going to be living on energy drinks.

Happy Monday!!

I meant to write more over the weekend, but the days just got away from me.

So much so, in fact, that I woke up this morning thinking (hoping?) That today was Sunday.

For Valentine’s, not to beat a dead horse, but, I was one if those people in line at the last minute picking out a card. I know it’s contrived, but I like celebrating love. We don’t make a big   fuss, but just a little something.

I ended up buying him a saucy birthday card, abd crossing out “biryhday” and writing “Valentine’s” hehe. I also snagged him a new mug since his favorite one recently shattered.

What’s cute, is that he actually does give up his coffee for me some days. And he’s the one to be a pot 90% of the time.

Love is not something I’ve ever been without, because my mom is a total sweet heart. I got her the same mug as Jeff, and she bought us chocolates and a sweet-as-honey card.

Anyway.. that brings us to today: Snow Drama, Monday edition.

I woke up to big fat snow flakes falling heavily this morning, blanketing the road like thick butter cream icing.  My commute was really good, considering the conditions. I know the plows were out, but they couldn’t keep up with the snow. My car was pulled to the side every time my wheels came again the resistance of packed snow that didn’t go in the direction I was going (think intersections, merging on the highway, changing lanes..).  What doubles the frustration is that I was supposed to have the day off.

The good news is that the bosses sprung for breakfast and lunch, AND, it was healthy. Thank goodness!  What’s even better, is these same bosses cleared off everyone’s cars when the snow stopped so that when we went home, we wouldn’t have to.

I should mention, I don’t work for a small company. There were a lot of cats to clear! It was their way of saying “thank you” and they did it with a smile:

After work, I was able to get the grocery shopping done. I keep seeing it all over the place, so I actually picked up some Brussels sprouts to roast tonight. I also nabbed some fruit that week be quick and easy for grab-n-go snacking this week.  Plus: it’s a super nice splash of color in an otherwise blah landscape. Can winter be done now? ╮(╯▽╰)╭

Oh! Hi, there. (Ohaithere!)

It wasn’t until I saw that my previous post was entitled “Enter, enter, the first of November” that I realized how long it’s actually been since I’ve blogged.  “Busy” doesn’t begin  to describe it.

One thing I’ve been busy with recently is getting the apartment ready for Christmas 🙂

I’ve got a load of dishes in the washer right now, and once I’m done blogging, I’m prepared to go make cookies for a couple of hours.  In the mean time, though, here are some pictures of the Christmas festivities around our place:

We love our coffee enough to hang our love on a tree. Caribou when we’re in the states and Tim Horton’s when we’re not 🙂

Detail of our Tree

Our tree, 2013

Snowman with his extra large double double

Large chai latte with a shot of cinnamon and a shot of espresso. yum.

In memory of Damon

We stayed at the Nicolin Mansion for our Honeymoon ❤

We toured the Coors brewery with Lori and Ross when we went to visit them 🙂

Monogrammed ornament 🙂 It was originally to celebrate Jeff’s first Christmas in the states, but now his initial is mine too! (Our 1st Christmas as a married couple, awe)

In memory of Otis, our duh-dog who was half pit, half bull, all awesome.

In memory of Dutch, my favorite Rottie.

I love the photo ornaments we have on our tree. Get ’em at Snapfish.com

Our tree is topped by a serene angel this year. Her head is just shy of our ceiling.

The paper ones preceded the real ones

Candycanes in the snow

View from the balcony

Skinny Santa

Bowl of Balls w/ Bow

Bowl of Balls 2

Wedding Planning Update

If you’re interested in a twitter-type tracking of my food and fitness, please check out my other blog: http://megsfitnessphototracker.wordpress.com  I update meals as I have them (when I can) and post day-end totals.

So, my own wedding is pretty much planned and now it’s all down to execution.  We’ve got exactly two months left until The Big Day.  Two months from now, we will have had the couple’s shower, the rehearsal dinner, and I’ll be kicking Jeff out of the house for the day/night so that we can have our Bachelor/ette parties on the Saturday before the wedding.

My goodness.  So much fun.

This last Saturday, my mom and I actually headed out to Sephora for make-overs.  I wanted to try on a wedding look and this dramatic smokey-eye is what they came up with.  The pictures seriously do not do it justice.  The lashes are my own but they were enhanced so much by the mascara and the liquid eye-liner.  I don’t like the way the foundation looks in the pictures so I did not buy into that, but I definitely snatched up the liquid eye-liner.  If only it came in water-proof because that stuff smudged at the tiniest provocation.  It’ll be *gone* by the end of the wedding ceremony, lol!

Speaking of wedding stuff… My fabulous sister has schemed with my grandma to throw a couple’s wedding shower for Jeff and I.  That’s coming up on Sunday and I’m super excited.  We were excited AND perplexed when boxes from Target started showing up in the mail randomly.

The cats were also thrilled.  Taz has been attacking the packing stuffs and diving into the boxes like no one’s business.  Toby has been tentative as usual =P  We’ve got some stamps left over from mailing the invitations, so we’re able to be pretty quick about sending thank-you cards back through the mail.  It’s been really fun checking the mail every day because it’s like opening a gift–sometimes there’s an RSVP in there and we get to think about all the wonderful people we’ll get to reunite with in just a couple short months.  At least it’s something to look forward to amid all this mucky-muck:

 

Snow, Snow, Come and Play, Save the Cold for Another Day

 

Dear Minnesota:

Winter is no fun when the only thing you have to show for it is a frozen car and icy roads.  If I can’t have snow, I don’t want any of it, so take the cold and the freezing wind and save it for when you’ve got some snow to go with it.

I’m tired of driving an ice box to work 😦

-Megs

Winter Wonderland

This post dedicated to Craig and Cassie who are wishing for snow:

Confessions…

Cassie at Back To Her Roots posted a Confessions… entry the other day and I always like those.  There are a few of us in the blogosphere who post Confessions… entries and I rather like the idea, so here are my confessions:

1: 230

I am re-starting my weight loss journey at 230.  I’ve re-gained 15 pounds.  I keep placing the blame on my tailspin, but enough of that — the blame rests solely on my shoulders for being to complacent and lazy about my choices.  I read a blog entry this morning about
why intentions don’t matter and basically it boils down to the fact that intentions are not actions.  I need to put my intentions into action and make better choices if I’m ever going to see One-derland. #epiphany?

2: Snow Removal Policy

When I clear off my car in the winter, I HAVE to get every bit of snow off of the top, too.  I see people driving around here with a foot of snow on the roof of their car and think they’re batshit crazy.  The confession part of this?  I didn’t own a shovel of my own before Monday night.  Guess apartment living (and getting dug out by my parents last year) spoiled me…

3: Radio aimed at an older cohort

I listen to talk radio… the trashy kind.  I would love to don my hand-knit cowl and higher-than-thou attitude and claim to listen to NPR, but nope!  I listen to the Dave Ryan in the Morning Show in the morning and I listen to Lori & Julia or Jason & Alexis from MyTalk107.1 (GOSSIP! AND CELEBRITY “NEWS”) on the way home.  What can I say?  Music on the radio just hasn’t been appealing to me lately.  I can tell that MyTalk isn’t aimed at my generation, though, based on the sheer number of advertisements for divorce attorneys and bladder control solutions.. Jeeze haha.

4: Bad Breakfasts

When I don’t pack a breakfast in the morning, I usually go for one of these guys… Sausage, “NC Egg” = egg whites, and chesse sandwich…. And when I see it spelled like that, I remind myself that it is not CHEESE but processed cheese product. Thus the extra “S,” and try to remind myself to have a better breakfast next time.  (I also pronounce it like Dane Cook.. “uhm. Cheesse, some pickles… bun seeds.” google Dane Cook BK Lounge skit if you don’t get it–it’s kinda hilarious.)

Hodgepodge (an update about Canada and the Christmas Season)

I’ve bot Bassnectar Freestyle Music pumping through my headphones at the moment.  Wearing my (awesome) pajamas (pac-man t-shirt and some bad hair day cartoon black pants) and just trying to figure out what to put in this blog.

I’ve been doing a lot of *reading* of blogs lately because they’re delivered straight to my inbox and I’m usually able to scrape a few minutes together to read them on my phone.  I haven’t felt inspired to WRITE lately, though.  There’s not been much that’s interesting going on and anything that IS interesting is so far gone that it feels irrelevant.

Over the week of Thanksgiving last month, Jeff and I went to see his parents, family, and friends.  We were there for the WHOLE week and it was good for the soul to reconnect with the people that we care about and who care about us from afar.  We connected to see our friends Anne, Errol and their son, Landon.  We got to see Jeff’s Aunt Janet and Uncle Greg. I finally got to meet Jeff’s friend Jackie (and play Mario on her SNES ❤ hehe).  PLUS he finally got to see his brother, niece and nephew for the first time since last Christmas.  Like I said, good for the soul.

Driving around the city up there really brought in the Christmas spirit, too!  Thanksgiving in Canada was back in October (on the 8th, I believe) and so they were full swing into the holiday season with lights, and snow, and music on the radio.  It was really nice and I felt like I was indulging to just take it all in and be okay with it without having to defend Thanksgiving’s ‘honor’.

Once I got home, I started decking our home out with Christmas splendor, too.  I feel like time has been flying, though, and there’s never enough of it.  It took me nearly a week to get our tree done because I could only worked on it for a few minutes here and there.  I finished it last night and I’m really happy with it.  For a wonder, I actually used the ‘nice’ camera to take pictures this year, but I forgot that I don’t have an SD card reader on my PC, so it’s going to be a while before I can post those pictures.. le sigh.

We also had the Big Baking Weekend at my Grandma’s house a couple weeks ago, which was lovely.  My sister, her daughter, our mom, and her cousin all descended on my Grandma’s house for eight hours of baking and tom foolery.  Reconnecting with my sister was great.  We haven’t talked much because we’re both in school and life has been busy, but she filled me in on her own wedding plans and even some family planning for the future.  I might have a new little niece or nephew in the next few years if they’re serious about family planning.  I’m excited for her.  She deserves happiness and I think she might have found it.

Of course, being with my Grandma was great, too.  We found some really really old recipes in the archive and I got to hear the stories about having made them in the past and whose favorites they were.  Date cookies, apparently, were my Great Grandpa Ray’s very favorite.

Once I can figure out how to get the pictures off of the good camera, I also have some HILAROUS video of when my 8 year old niece got bored and stole away with the camcorder function of my camera.  I think I’ll work on that today if I can find some time between studying and celebrating my brother’s graduation 🙂