Travel Themed Home Decor

I have been in the process of re-organizing our spare bedroom for the last few weeks and it’s slowly coming together.  This room is multi-functional, as it’s a guest bedroom, my craft room, post-wedding storage, and my gym (aka my treadmill).  That’s a lot of different spaces to fit into one room, but we have managed to make it work.  We painted the room a light but very bold green hue when we first moved in, and it pops against the white trim.  I guess you could say it’s the color of celery but I promise it looks much better than that sounds :)  The shelves for my craft area have been up for awhile now and they are full, but well-organized with all my boxes and containers from Ikea and Homegoods.  I still don’t know what to do on wall behind the treadmill, so I’m leaving that for last.

I have a lot of memorabilia and souvenirs that I have collected on some of my international trips so I decided to make the room “travel-themed”.  I have searched online for inspiration pictures of travel-themed rooms and all I could find were ideas for kids’ rooms!  Or pictures that were heavily focused on Indian culture.  Those don’t really help, so I guess I’ll be winging this on my own. 

Now I am working on the guest bedroom corner.  We put up a couple of white picture ledges above the bed a few weeks ago, as I bought a bunch of white and black frames at Ikea.  I can’t decide on which pictures to showcase - I want to choose one main picture each from Japan, Italy, Greece, and Mexico…and it’s taken me a good 3 weeks to narrow them down! 

I am also trying to incorporate some travel-themed quotes into the pictures and I realized tonight that is going to be a lot harder than I thought.  Unfortunately, the majority of my travel pictures are only saved in Shutterfly as I don’t have them on the laptop I use now.  So I can’t save the pictures in high resolution, and this is making it really difficult to design things in Microsoft Publisher, which I used ALL the time when designing wedding-related stuff.  I think I will have to print the photos on Shutterfly and then try printing on top of the photos using Publisher, if that makes any sense.  Here’s what I have designed so far:

This will be a 4x6 print with the quote “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page” by St. Augustine on the background of a photo I took in Hiroshima, Japan.  The picture in Publisher is very pixel-y right now, so that’s why I need to print it from Shutterfly first.  The other design I have come up with is a quote by Mark Twain on the background of a photo I took in Greece early one morning:

I think I may want to come up with a few other quotes to add to the rest of the pictures for the other destinations, instead of just leaving the pictures blank.  I’m really hoping this project will come out successful as it took me a long time to work on each design.  Once these are done, this will complete one of the items under my craft/DIY category on my 101 in 1001 list – yay!

New Recipe Review

I forgot to post about this recipe I tried last week, so better late than never!  I had Monday off for MLK Jr Day so I figured I would actually do a meal in the slower cooker for once.  I need to ask myself why do I not use the slow cooker more often?  You just throw everything in, walk about for a couple hours, come back and stir, and then a few hours later, it’s done!  So easy.

This recipe for Pineapple Salsa Chicken is one I will definitely be making again in the future.  It’s healthy and full of ingredients hubby actually likes.

The only thing I added was brown rice, and I added that about an hour before the timer for the cooker went off.  The rice got nice and plump from all the liquid from the salsa and I think it helped to make the mixture a little thicker.  We served this in small flour tortillas with some tomatoes, lettuce and sour cream on the side.  It made tons of leftovers and I only used 4 chicken breasts.  I think this would work well an appetizer for a party – almost like a dip for people to share? 

I would give this recipe a 9/10 for being SO easy to make, very tasty and also a healthy meal I did not feel guilty about overindulging in!

Recipe – Peanut Butter Smoothie

We have been on a serious smoothie kick lately…it’s an awesome way to get in half of your fruits for the day, along with protein from milk and/or yogurt depending on the recipe.  The ones we were making earlier this week included frozen strawberries, blueberries, and bananas.  Last night I had the brilliant idea to try a peanut butter banana recipe which I knew hubby would love :)

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I’m not really a banana fan and I prefer the flavor more than eating the actual fruit itself, but when I was little, I would enjoy them as long as there was a side of peanut butter to go with.  For this smoothie recipe, I didn’t take it from any particular source - I looked through a few food blogs but generally it’s the same idea.  The source for the picture above has a similar recipe but suggests using 3 bananas…that’s just too much banana for me!  Here’s our version:

Ingredients:

- 1 banana (sliced and frozen)

- 8 ice cubes

- 1 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt

- 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

- 3 tablespoons peanut butter

Let’s make a smoothie!

1. Put all ingredients into the blender (does not matter in which order).

2. Blend on high speed for 2 minutes or until completely mixed.

3. Pour in a glass and enjoy!

 

This recipe made two 16 oz glasses – filled them about 3/4 of the way each.  You may need to do a few less ice cubes and 1/2 cup yogurt instead if you just want one glass.  I wanted the smoothie a little sweeter, so I did a few drops of pure vanilla extract.  Other recipes I saw suggested using honey.  Also – we bought natural peanut butter this week and it’s a little more liquid-y but we both really like the taste of it.  It’s perfect for blending since it’s not as thick.

This is probably my favorite smoothie so far because it was more like drinking a milkshake and it’s still totally healthy for you!

New Recipe Review

Tonight I tried out this recipe for Fiber-One Parmesan Crusted Chicken as it’s something I was eyeing for awhile on one of my favorite food blogs.  I pretty much love anything with chicken but I tend to get sick of it pretty quickly.  Lately we have been trying really hard to be more healthy and have been eating a TON of chicken.  So I was hoping this recipe would be a little different, but still good for our diets :)

I only modified a few things.  Instead of using Fiber-One, I bought brand-name bran flakes cereal.  Fiber One is a little pricey, especially since I wasn’t planning on eating the rest of it for breakfast.  We didn’t have any onion powder, so I threw a little ground mustard in.  And I also added another couple of pinches of parmesan cheese since I couldn’t resist :)  My chicken ended up looking pretty close to this…

 

For next time, I will definitely use fresh chicken and not frozen.  We had frozen chicken breasts already so that’s why I used them tonight.  But it’s annoying defrosting them, then trying to dry them off, then dipping in the egg, etc.  Using fresh = less steps! 

I served this with herb and butter mashed potatoes, but any side would go really well – mixed veggies, rice, etc.  I would give this recipe a 7/10 based on it being fairly easy to create and bake, hubby liked it, and it was healthy without giving up any taste.  This is 1 of my 50 new recipes I have on my list for my 101 in 1001 days.

Recipe – Mini Chicken Pot Pies

A couple people have asked me for this recipe and I keep forgetting to write it down so I figured this was the easiest way to share :)  I originally found this recipe on this blog through Foodgawker.  It’s a great appetizer for parties and everyone asks me to make these now.

The recipe I modified this from calls for a homemade chicken pot pie mixture.  I go the easy route and save a lot of time by using cream of chicken soup.  I know some people hate condensed soup because it’s processed, not good for you, blah blah blah.  What isn’t good for you, seriously?  At least I use the Healthy Request or 98% fat free kind!  But if you have a homemade chicken pot pie mixture, it will definitely work in this recipe – you can really adapt to whatever you want the mixture to be made of. 

You will need a couple muffin tins (if you want really tiny pies, you could use a mini muffin tin but I’m not sure how much filling you can get in there!), a rolling pin (I use a very small one that is the width of a piece of bread) and a circular cookie cutter (about 3” in diameter).  Can anyone tell me why it was so hard to find a circular cookie cutter that was big enough????  I looked at Christmas Tree Shops, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart, etc and could not find a basic circular cookie cutter.  I finally found a biscuit cutter at Crate & Barrel and I’m praying it never breaks or rusts since it took so long to find it!

 

Mini Chicken Pot Pies…

- adapted from Lawyer Loves Lunch

Ingredients:

- 2 cans Healthy Request or 98% fat free Cream of Chicken soup

- 2 cans mixed veggies, drained (I use one that has carrots, peas, potatoes and green beans)

- 2 loaves potato bread (I find that the more yellow the bread is, the better – the recipe I originally found suggested using Nature’s Pride and I did not like that kind because it didn’t spread as much when flattening it)

- 1/2 package of frozen chicken strips (we use the Tyson brand and they are awesome – really flavorful)

- spreadable butter or margarine (used to coat the outsides of the bread circles to make the pie crusts)

- seasonings like pepper, salt, basil, garlic powder

Let’s get cooking!

1) Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees.

2) Start by cutting a circle in the middle of each slice of bread with the cookie cutter (try to avoid the crusts). 

3) Flatten each bread circle with the rolling pin until it’s completely flat, but do not make it so thin that it tears.

4) Slather one side of each bread circle with butter and then place the bread circle, butter-side down into the muffin tin.  The butter will act like a non-stick spray.  You may need to squish some sides of the bread circle to form it into a complete pie crust – like it’s a muffin liner. 

5) After you have filled the tin with bread circles, bake them for 10-15 minutes at 325 degrees.  I check mine after 8 minutes or so to see if they are browning yet.  You may need to leave them in a minute or two less or more depending upon your oven.  They should be lightly-browned and crispy.  Remove from oven and cool. 

6) Turn your stovetop onto medium heat.  In a large saucepan, pour in the cream of chicken and mixed veggies. 

7) While that mixture is heating, microwave the chicken strips for 1-2 minutes (defrosted enough so you are able to cut them).  Cut them into bite-sized chunks.

8) Add the chicken chunks into the cream of chicken and veggie mixture.  Feel free to add in pinches of pepper, salt, basil, and garlic powder to taste.  Continue stirring until the chicken mixture starts to bubble, usually takes about 5 minutes or so.

9) Take the bread circles out of the muffin tin and place on a serving plate.  Spoon in a few tablespoons of the pot pie filling into each bread crust to fill it completely without overflowing. 

10) Serve immediately – they are best nice and hot :)

I shared this recipe at:

101 in 1001 Days

I have seen this list on a few blogs now and one I checked out last week finally inspired me to create my own.  The idea is to create a list of goals that you aim to complete in 1001 days or about 2.75 years.  A lot of my goals I know I can finish within the next few months, but some of the travel ones we might not be able complete for a couple years.  I love lists and I love crossing things off lists even more, so this will be a fun thing for me to try :)

Start Date: January 13th, 2011, List End Date: October 10th, 2013

Items completed so far: 0/101

Key:  - items not completed, - items in progress, - items completed

 

Fun

1. Read forty new books (0/40).

2. Go to a Celtics game with hubby.

3. Go to a concert.

4. Host 5 dinner parties w/close friends (0/5).

5. Go to a water park for the day.

6. Watch The Hangover finally.

7. Visit the Museum of Science in Boston.

8. Visit 5 new breweries (0/5).

9. Go to a zoo.

10. Go wine tasting.

11. Finish 3 new TV shows on DVD that we never watched before.

12. See Cirque du Soleil.

13. Get a new tattoo.

14. Go to my 10 year high school reunion.

15. Plan a Girl’s Spa Weekend.

16. Attend a midnight premiere of a movie.

17. Go pumpkin picking.

18. Go snorkeling.

19. Make 5 new playlists on iTunes.

Crafting/DIY

20. Finish my wedding scrapbook.

21. Finish my Italy & Greece scrapbook.

22. Make a diaper cake for a friend’s baby shower.

23. Go to an estate sale and buy a piece of furniture.

24. Make my own Christmas cards.

25. Make homemade vanilla extract.

26. Make homemade candles.

27. Buy something on Etsy.

28. Make my own flower-adorned headband.

29. Find an inspiring quote and work it into a piece of art/home décor.

30. Fill empty picture frames.

Personal Growth/ Hobbies

31. Take a Spanish class.

32. Learn how to use a smartphone.

33. Talk to my boss about possible promotions/other positions at work.

34. Post in my blog 4 times a week for a month.

35. Visit the local library and get a library card.

36. Write a list of 50 things that make me happy.

37. Learn how to hem a pair of pants.

38. Purchase a better camera.

39. Learn basic photography skills.

40. Take pictures of the kitties and enter them in the Cat a Day Calendar contest

41. Attend a cake decorating class.

42. Write a letter to myself to open in 5 years.

Financial

43. Set up a joint checking account.

44. Write a will and have hubby write one, as well.

45. Order new checks.

46. Take over the last student loan my parents still pay for.

47. Contribute a percentage of each paycheck to my 401k.

48. Put away an additional $5000 towards a down deposit on a new house.

49. Don’t use my debit card/credit cards for one week.

Acts for Others

50. Donate to a charity once a year (0/3).

51. Adopt a family for Christmas.

52. Donate blood.

53. Volunteer at an animal shelter.

54. Buy a toy for Toys for Tots.

55. Make hubby breakfast in bed.

56. Clear out my closet and give away clothes to charity.

Health/Appearance

57. Lose enough weight to fit comfortably back into my favorite clothes.

58. Walk a mile in less than 17 minutes.

59. Exercise three times a week for two months.

60. Eat 5 fruits and veggies every day for 2 weeks.

61. Drink at least 3 glasses of water each day for a month.

62. Get a facial.

63. Finish a bottle of multi-vitamins. 

64. Go to the dentist and then get a cleaning every 6 months after.

65. Get a full physical.

66. Style my hair every day for one week (no ponytails/messy buns!).

67. Get my hair dyed professionally.

68. Get my eyes re-examined and purchase new glasses.

69. Buy a pair of nice boots.

70. Don’t hit the snooze button for an entire week.

Home

71. Finish decorating the loft so it’s a completed space.

72. Re-do the kitchen.

73. Re-do the tub in the master bath.

74. Update sink fixtures in all the bathrooms.

75. Add patio stones to our outside space.

76. Re-decorate the bedroom area of the spare room.

77. Re-carpet the bedrooms and main hallway.

Food & Cooking

78. Eat at 10 new, local, non-chain restaurants (0/10).

79. Make lasagna.

80. Make Grandma’s pecan pie with a home-made crust.

81. Go blueberry picking and make jam.

82. Make tiramisu.

83. Bake a cake from scratch.

84. Drink an entire Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day.

85. Buy a teapot.

86. Make a gingerbread house.

87. Barbecue for dinner each night for one week (0/7).

88. Try out 50 new recipes (0/50). 

Travel

89. Travel to Jamaica.

90. Travel to somewhere on the West Coast.

91. Swim in the Pacific Ocean.

92. Travel to Washington D.C.

93. Go on a cruise.

94. Go camping for a weekend.

95. Take a trip with my sister.

96. Take a trip with my parents.

97. Take a trip with my in-laws.

98. Go away for a weekend with friends.

99. Stay at a new Bed & Breakfast.

100. Watch the sun rise and the sun set in one day.

101. Renew passport w/my new last name

It’s Friday…Let’s Have a Drink!

Sooo I haven’t posted one of these in a few Fridays…I need to catch up :) 

Today’s drink(s) of the week is courtesy of Agave’s in Portsmouth.  I'm not just doing one drink this week, as each margarita we tried there was awesome.  We went to Agave’s to celebrate New Year’s and ended up staying there all night.  They have awesome margaritas - though, they are $10 a piece.  I guess they are worth it since they do put 2 shots of tequila in each one…

I started off with a raspberry Chambord margarita…it had pureed raspberries, lots of Chambord and something else.  Is it bad I can’t remember the name of this one?  I have been searching online for it but no luck…

I know I tried a blue Curacao one next that was mixed with peach schnapps, and that was a good type of different.  Then we moved onto the Purple Haze margaritas.  Lots of Purple Haze margaritas…the Purple Haze was really original – something you can’t find at many Mexican restaurants.  I should have taken a picture of their menu because I can’t remember the ingredients (or names for that matter) in any of these drinks!  I looked up the ingredients on Drinks Mixer but I’m not sure if this is the recipe Agave’s uses: 

2 oz Sauza® Hornitos Reposado tequila
2 oz sweet and sour mix
2 oz Chambord® raspberry liqueur
1 oz Rose's® lime juice
1 oz cranberry juice

Overall Agave’s was good margarita-wise…but they are very pricey and I’m not sure we would go there again for dinner and drinks – probably just a drink next time.  Our bill was ridiculous, but it was New Year’s so we sucked it up :)

Different Kinds of Cake

I feel like everyone on Facebook has been exclaiming “We’re so excited to share that we are expecting!”.  Seriously there was one day when 3 different women had something like that as her status.  Except I’m not very close with the people who have shared their baby secret lately.  They are people I know from college but it’s not like I would be invited to their baby shower.

One of my friends or coworkers needs to get pregnant ASAP so I can make this – I keep seeing them pop up on blogs everywhere and they’re so cute!  This is from Cap Creations:

 

They are diaper cakes and you can really put anything inside of them.  Diapers (obviously), towels, onesies, and in the middle of the larger layers, you can even shove in a bottle of baby powder or some bath stuff.  For this cake, she layered the diapers with receiving blankets, which is a really cute and colorful addition.  Love! 

I suppose I could make one of these for a bridal shower and use bath towels and house stuff instead that a couple has registered for?  Hmmmm something like…

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I think I can pull that off…probably wouldn’t do all the ribbon on the sides going up to the top, though.  But I like how they were able to add in kitchen utensils along with the towels.  And I just realized a cutting board was used as the base.  Good thing we have lots of weddings to go this year…I will have to try making at least one this wedding season :)

Future Places to Visit

I’m not sure if or where we will able to travel to this year, but I’m hoping we’ll have enough saved away to do a vacation to the west coast.  I have technically been to the west before – I was in the San Francisco airport for a very long layover when flying back from Japan a few years ago, but that’s about my extent of “visiting” the other side of the country. 

If we do get to go on vacation this year, it will probably have to be in the fall or winter.  We’re hoping we can go away for a little for our first year anniversary to Mexico, again, but that will all depend on my work and if that can be arranged or not.  If we do or don’t go away to Mexico in May, I think we still need some time to save a little so that’s why traveling later in the year would be better.

First place I researched was Seattle…

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I probably thought of this city first because of Grey’s Anatomy.  Of course, I shouldn’t want to visit somewhere because of a TV show, but Grey’s last week was FINALLY good this season so I guess that’s what made me think of Seattle first.  For a fall/winter vacation, it seems like visiting a downtown city makes more sense since we won’t be looking for a beach. 

I’ve always wanted to visit the Space Needle and when researching the Seattle visitor website, it also listed the Pike Place Market as somewhere to check out (where the original Starbucks is and tons of restaurants, shops, handmade crafts, etc).   The reviews on TripAdvisor list Ride the Ducks of Seattle as something to check out – this seems pretty similar to the Boston Duck Tours, which is worth doing once (and only once).

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I was surprised to find that the fee to get into the aquarium is only $19 per adult which seems very cheap to what Boston is charging these days.  Also when on the aquarium’s website, I found that Seattle has a CityPass which is $59 per person for 6 attractions.  My sister did something like this when she visited Atlanta and said it saved a lot of money.  The Seattle CityPass includes admission to the Seattle Aquarium, Argosy Cruises Seattle Harbor Tour, Seattle Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, Woodland Park Zoo and the Museum of Flight OR Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum.  This definitely seems like the way to go since I did want to check out most of those places anyway. 

And, of course, I had to check out to see which breweries are nearby.  Pyramid Breweries has an apricot ale year-round that sounds pretty amazing.  Only thing is they have a restaurant but no brewery tour?  Moving on, I know we would want to check out Red Hook since we love their other brewery location in Portsmouth.  I am a fan of their Blonde Golden Ale.  Everyone on Yelp is recommending the Georgetown Brewing Company and their Manny’s Pale Ale but I couldn’t find any information about tours on their website. 

   

When I was on TripAdvisor, I started looking at hotels downtown first.  Seattle has all the typical hotel chains so it would be just a matter of choosing which is the most reasonable when we do decide to go.  Then I thought of how good a time we had in Portsmouth last week, so I began researching saw some B&B’s and inns and came across this place.

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The Chelsea Station Inn looks like a cool place to stay because it’s not your typical B&B.  Their website says it’s close to the airport and only a 10 minute drive from downtown.  Their location is also close to the zoo, but I don’t know if that’s something we would consider visiting or not.  It seems very modern and the descriptions of their suites make them seem like apartments instead of just typical rooms. 

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I compared their prices in August to November and they would probably be in our budget for November.  But then I realized I had no idea what the weather will be like in November and found out that Seattle’s major rainy season is from late October until March.  Yuck.  I hate rain because I can never have a good hair day, wet jeans and socks are one of my pet peeves, and it always gets either humid or cold after it rains and those weather conditions just make for a very unhappy me.

I thought of this more and decided if we did do Seattle, we really need to do visit in the summer or early fall and I just don’t think that would work this year.  If we visited earlier, it would also give us the chance to catch a Seattle Mariners game.  One of our goals is to visit every ballpark in America, so that would be one more to cross off the list.  Now I’m thinking somewhere in California would make more sense for a late fall trip…or maybe I need to find a city that doesn’t have any ballparks there so we can definitely visit in winter?  I guess hubby and I need to discuss if our goal is to watch a game at every park or if just doing a tour will count, as this will probably have an impact on where we go later this year.

New Year’s Getaway

Like I mentioned previously, we went up to Portsmouth, NH to celebrate the new year.  We don’t typically have huge plans for NYE since most of our close friends are usually busy and if we do plan something, it’s always last-minute.  I wanted to go away but not somewhere too far, so I thought of Portsmouth since it takes a little over an hour to get there from our townhouse.  I started searching for hotels and then focused on looking for something close to downtown, since I found a ton of bars and restaurants there. 

I think I did a Google search and the Ale House Inn popped up on the list as a hotel to check out.  I checked out their website, did a quick search on Trip Advisor (though, you always have to take those reviews with a grain of salt), and then brought up the idea to the hubby.  The only issue was that they were requiring a 2 night minimum stay since it was NYE weekend.  A couple other hotels in the area were not, but they weren’t as close to downtown.  We decided to splurge and do the 2 nights as a Christmas gift to each other.  We still gave each other small gifts this year, but for the most part, this weekend was our big gift.

picture from Ale House Inn’s site

We both really enjoyed staying at the Ale House Inn.  It was recently renovated so the  design is very modern and has a loft-feel to it.  I loved the exposed brick in the lounge and on the insides of our window in our room.  The guide/information packet they leave in the room said the Inn used to be a brewery in the 1800’s and then shut down when Prohibition happened.    

pictures from the Ale House Inn site

The room was small but not cramped – it was cozy and romantic.  The furniture fit perfectly in the room so there was no unnecessary space.  The color of our room was an icy blue and the rest of the color scheme included a lot of greys, browns, and whites.  It was masculine but it was a style I would totally think of using for our future master suite that we will hopefully have some day :)

And my favorite part…they include an iPad in each room!  I loved figuring out how to use this thing and I’m pretty convinced I need one now.   There was also a nice flat screen and a Keurig.  Since it was NYE weekend, the inn owners even through in a bottle of champagne in the fridge for us.

Pros:

- Awesome location – close to Downtown and we walked to all the restaurants and bars in less than 10 minutes

- Close to the Kittery Outlets :)

- Modern, updated and clean, but also homey - felt like you were staying in someone’s guest room instead of a hotel room

- Very private since there are only 12 rooms

- Great amenities, including the Keurig and iPad

 Cons:

- The Inn doesn’t have its own parking lot, so the church across the street allows guests to park at no cost there.  However, you have to move your car on Sunday AM from 8AM-noon.  The Inn suggested to move the car after 7pm on Saturday because the meters stop running then and there’s no charge at all on Sunday.  We first moved the car to a spot a little further down the road when we went out around 7ish since there were no spots open right in front of the Inn.  When we came back at 11ish, there were plenty of better spots open, so we moved closer and ended up a few feet away from where we originally parked in the church lot.  Even though I listed this as a con, it really wasn’t a huge inconvenience.

- The Inn is a little pricey for what we usually spend on hotel rooms.  But I think it’s totally worth it and compared to other hotels in the area, they were all around the same price. 

 

I can’t wait to go back sometime in the spring, maybe with friends next time.  I didn’t realize how great Downtown Portsmouth is, as there are tons of options for bars, restaurants, breakfast places, shopping, etc.  And the spa that me and the girls got our wedding hair and make-up done at is right there, too, so it’s a good excuse to go back and get a massage! 

New Decade

Hope everyone had a great New Year’s Eve!  We went up to Portsmouth, NH for the weekend and had a blast.  Ate way too much food (though it was all pretty amazing) so I need to get my lazy bum on the treadmill tomorrow :)  I will do a couple posts on where we ate this weekend and our reviews of each place later this week to recap. 

It’s crazy to think that a new decade is starting.  I was a sophomore in high school when it was 1999 and we were anxiously waiting for 2000 to come.  Midnight hit, everything changed to 2000, and nothing crashed – everything was fine.  I remember spending New Year’s 2000 with the playgroup crew but I definitely don’t recall any resolutions I had for the upcoming year.  It was probably something lame, like get a boyfriend :)

In the past 10 years, a lot of major events have happened in my life.

- I started working at my first part-time job at the doctor’s office a few months after I turned 16

- I got my driver’s license

- I graduated from high school in 2003

- I was accepted into all four schools that I applied to but decided on FSC and am so glad I did

- I started dating the love of my life in March 2007

- I graduated from college in Dec 2007

- I officially moved out of my parent’s house and rented an apartment with two college friends for a year

- I started working at my current job in summer of 2008

- We got engaged in Oct 2008

- We moved in together in Dec 2008 and got our two kitties the day after Christmas

- We closed on our townhouse in November 2009 and moved in the first week of December

- We got married in May 2010

Those are the biggies that happened, but tons of other things have happened in the past 10 years.  I met some amazing people in college who I really consider some of my closest friends now, but sadly have lost touch with a lot of my high school friends.  I didn’t think that I changed much in college, but I realize that I have evolved a little since high school.  Comparing my 25 year self to 15 year self – I have become more confident and slightly more outgoing.  I am not so much of a goody-two-shoes.  I have many days now in which I think I am pretty while in high school there was never a day I thought I was beautiful.  I thought I would never have a serious boyfriend and gave up all hope the winter of senior year in college.  Then I starting dating the boy I had known since freshman year but was never good friends with, and we ended up getting married a little over 3 years after our first date.

I’m excited to think of what this new decade brings us…most likely it will soon be focused on starting a family, but I’m also curious to see where we decide to travel for vacation next, what opportunities our jobs bring us, if one or both of us decide to go back for graduate school, and how our friendships will progress.  We have a lot more couple friends now so it will be interesting to find out who gets pregnant first.  Here’s to a happy and healthy 2011!

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