A Little Breather

It's that time of the semester. Mid-term time. Cory has been chained to his desk, completing assignments and studying his tooshie off for the past few weeks.

He finally had a little breather this weekend and we got to go on a date. A real date! I wore pants and everything. 

We hit up Momo's Pizza, where they make pizzas the size of tractor wheels. We ordered a medium this time, (Margarita style: Basil, Tomato, Feta and Mozzarella. My absolute favorite way to eat pizza ever. Sooo good.) but once before I have ordered the "XL". I seriously had to clean out the trunk of my car and open up the back hatch to get it home (where it was shared with many, many people). 

Cory hates taking pictures. I got him to agree  to take one picture with me, and this is what we got:

This is the face he makes when I ask him to look pretty:

Saturday morning I woke up early and finally tackled one of those dirty jobs you avoid for as long as possible (if you're really good, you NEVER have to do these ones. Ours was too gross though. I couldn't put it off any longer): Cleaning out the underneath of the kitchen appliances. I pulled out the oven, and cloroxed the heck out of many nameless horrors. There was a rusty 7 inch knife down there! We suspect foul play.

Saturday night we went on ANOTHER date! Two dates! Ah! We met up with Danny, Joanna and little Ava for dinner and game night (Sour Apples to Apples. I totally dominated). 

I also recently indulged my inner 85 year old lady (I also strongly support cardigans and floral print.) and bought this tiny gnome for my herbs on the porch. The basil has never felt so welcoming! 

Happy Leap Day week! Let's do something crazy, okay?

I love chair

We did it. We went back and bought the chair today. The man running the little barn/shack place told us he'd sell us the chair for $60.00 on Saturday. They only took cash, and we didn't have any cash, so we didn't buy it then. I dreamed about it all day Sunday. 

A different guy was running the joint today, and he told us he'd sell it for $35.00. SOLD. 

My parents are going to bring it down to Florida when they come visit in April. Until then, I'm posting this picture of it so I can can just sit and look at it throughout the day while we're apart. I love chair.

Sometimes I just get on planes and leave.

I decided on Friday morning that I really needed to come to North Carolina to see my parents. (Everything is okay, don't worry.) So, I talked to my boss, arranged my schedule, bought a plane ticket, and arrived around 11:30 Friday night. Apparently, I do what I want.

Cory is stuck at home studying his little tooshie off. Sorry babe. I miss you!

I so needed this trip. I really, really love my Mom and Dad. My mom and I can just talk and talk. People listening to our conversations probably thing we're crazy (i.e. my Dad.) but oh well. It's what we call a cyclical conversation. We find ourselves starting one conversation, interrupting each other, moving on with the new conversation, and four hours later, "Oh, so like I was saying about food storage..." and never miss a beat.

I might buy this super awesome mid century arm chair tomorrow. Amazing things are so cheap here! America's best kept secret, ya'll.

We made some chocolate chip cookies this afternoon after church. We always double the recipe, because we're awesome and can put them cookies away like there is no tomorrow. My mom always tries to "save" the cookies by putting them in the freezer. They've never lasted past a week in our house. And now my family has developed a very particular taste for frozen cookies.

Here is the recipe, as Betty Crocker intended. (Double it if you're awesome and can handle putting 2.5 sticks of butter into one recipe. I know. )

2/3 c. shortening
2/3 c. butter, softened
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 package (6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven the 375 degrees (Fahrenheit).

Cream shortening, butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla together. You want this part to be light and white and fluffy.

Stir in remaining ingredients (flour, soda, and salt). Combine thoroughly but do not over mix. Finally, add chocolate chips.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light brown on edges, still a little gooey in the center. Allow to cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire cooling rack.

Betty says this will yield about 7 dozen cookies. Betty's cookies must be the tiniest little things. It would make about 4-5 dozen Hansen style. Also, when I think about it...we eat a lot of the cookie dough before it even gets a chance to be a real cookie. So, maybe Betty's right. I don't think we'll ever know for sure.

Back to reality on Wednesday, but for now I'm just going to enjoy some family time while missing my boo.

Things of Note

1) I painted our dining room table yesterday. I've been talking about it for the past 7 months, and yesterday, I up and did it. Cory wasn't too excited about it but...I've learned that you can't stop it if you're not awake for it. No pictures yet--its not quite ready. Fingers crossed I'll be getting some new chairs at the end of this month and I'll do a big reveal then :)

2) Cory took me out to dinner on Friday night. After driving a huge loop around town for about 30 minutes and passing multiple options, we decided to eat at a sushi place called Mr. Roboto. A place that is pretty much within walking distance of our front door. Nice. It was delicious.

3) I got a new calling at church today. Second Councillor in Relief Society. I'm nervous and excited. Can I really do this?? Cory thinks so. He says, "Now maybe you'll be too busy to paint all the things in our house." Don't count on it.

4) Have you ever cried in front of your boss at work? I hadn't until this week. It was a pretty bad day. Luckily I have an awesome boss. And my girl Freya works just down the hall so I was able to cry it out in her office too. Thank you! I wish I could promise that would be the last time but...I can't. 

5) Cory and I both love a good murder mystery. Castle, Bones, Lie to Me...all over it. We've started watching the crime documentary show "Wicked Attractions" on Netflix and now I'm pretty sure I'm never going to let my kids out of the house. Ever. But I can't look away.  

That pretty much sums out the past week. Bring on the month of love!

Food Glorious Food

I made a goal to explore Tallahassee this year. Best new year's resolution ever. I technically already had my adventure for this month last weekend, but I wanted to hang out with my BFF Lara, so we planned another one.

She took me to the blood bank to donate my blood. I'd never been to that blood bank before, so technically it counts as a new Tallahassee experience. Although I don't think I'll ever enjoy giving blood. I turn into a huge whiney baby. It's not so attractive.

Then I took her to a restaurant called Food Glorious Food. Obviously I'm much better at picking fun activities than she is.

We ordered sandwiches (The Addy and the Dagwood, respectively), and then split them with each other because we wanted to try both. That's why our friendship works. We share.

 The sandwiches come with a side of pasta salad, but we also ordered a special side of Mackin Cheese after our waiter told us they were known for it.

It was so good. Sooo good. The green pasta stuff is the Makin Cheese. And who knew Tuna and Mushrooms went together?? Our minds were telling us no, but our mouths were telling us yes.

We couldn't even finish our sandwiches and pasta, so we had to make do with just taking pictures of the dessert. There were three full cases of cheesecake, cupcake, regular cake, and other sweet things that may or may not have been cake related. So, we'll be going back soon to take care of that unfinished business.

We were supposed to do an intense day of shopping/errand running after lunch, but we were both feeling pretty woozy from having 2 pints of blood drained out of us, so we compromised for just going home and watching Benny & Joon on Netflix.  It was a good day.

Today's post was going to end there, but then this just happened. Things are about to get weird, ya'll.

Cory discovered Words with Friends (online Scrabble). We've had an ongoing game for the past few days. The game ended just now, in his favor.

So now he's marching around my desk and singing this song:

I win, I win, I am the champion!

I win, I win, I am the champion!

Even  with your degree

You must bow to mee!

And it just keeps going on like this. He has a few other improvised verses, but they all have the same general theme. Every now and then he'll shout, "This is really happening, Lindy! It's really happening!"

Maybe I should let him win things more often??

In my defense, my words were much better, but his strategy couldn't be beat. Curse you triple word score.

I should probably keep our weirdo moments to myself, but that one was too good not to write down somewhere.

Okay, that is all, for real.

A Saturday Morning Adventure

Saturday morning I had an appointment to get a hair cut. It was my second time with Angela at Hair on Earth. And it will not be the last.  She actually listens to what I want, and works with my hair to make it happen. She cuts my hair so that I never have to do anything to it. It just dries and does itself. It takes me less than 15 minutes from shower to finish to get ready these days. I love her.

Anyway, the hair cut got me out of the house bright and early. So, once I was finished with that I was out of the house, and had awesome hair. I couldn't just waste awesome hair on Saturday morning chores. So I went exploring.

As this was a last minute decision, I didn't have my camera with me. And that was a real shame.

I've been so blind. I've lived here for 4 years now and still haven't been anywhere! I'm working  on that.

Yesterday I checked out local produce. There is a tiny market called Tomato Land I've meant to check out for a while. I've been a little wary of places like this that claim to be "organic" so they charge twice as much but seem to have all the same labels that I see at our local Publix. But I wanted to see.

It was actually pretty cool. The little shop had a bunch of local honey and sauces. And the produce was  outside in crates. While  I was there a guy pulled up in a pick up truck and started unloading cabbages. He has a farm north of Tallahassee, and he was bringing in his morning harvest. Does it get fresher than that?

So, I got some cabbage. And lemons from south Florida were a quarter each, so I got some of those too. A mango too. Just because it looked good.  And some cilantro, because I actually needed it. And it cost me about $4.50, which is just as much as it would anywhere else. So I'd call it a win.

I don't know where the mango and cilantro came from. Mexico?

(Note: What does one do with cabbage?)

Then, since I was already halfway there, I finally checked out the Farmer's Market in Tallahassee. There were only 5 booths, so it wasn't a huge deal (I think its a little bigger in the summer time. Which makes sense). The Farmer's Market is in the center of this shopping center called Market Square. Its full of little local shops, and an antique mall (way overpriced though), a '50s Style Diner, and an old fashioned Ice Cream Parlor!  Also, there was a french pastry shop!

I bought some pastries and tiramisu at the pastry shop.  By the time I got home, Cory was finally awake and taking a shower. I told him of my adventures, and he told me about his sleep. Then we ate the pastries. Gotta balance out that cabbage, you know?

Later, I made homemade pizza for dinner with green peppers, onions, and dough I actually made from scratch! I also forgot to take a picture of that,  because seeing as all we'd eaten that day was pastries, we were very hungry. So,  no picture, but it did happen, and I 'm writing it down because I don't want to forget the first pizza I've made that Cory actually liked. (Southwestern BBQ Pizza did not go over well, and Ground Turkey Alfredo Pizza was a nightmare for the both of us which I will not soon forget.)

Anyway, I can't believe it took me  so long to finally check those places out. It's like a whole new world out there. I might make it a goal to check out one new place every month. Then I would actually know whats around here when people ask. Let me know if you want in :)

A Baby Shower and Pigs

This weekend I was able to be a part of a very sweet baby shower. Melissa requested a hot air balloon theme, and I think it's safe to say we delivered. :) 

Also, can I just say the more the merrier when it comes to party planning? It's sooo much easier/stress free when you're only in charge of one tiny aspect of a party.

Also, there are like, zero pictures of people because every. single. picture. I took of people came out blurry. I have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to pictures of people. And  its really starting to annoy me. 

So, for those of you that weren't able to attend, let me walk you through it.

You walked up to the cutest blue house, with cloud streamers flanking the porch. 

The first thing you did when you came in was fill out an advice card for the mommy to be (in my case it was a theory/good luck card.) and then clipped it to the frame on the mantle.

Then you got some yummy brunchy food. Fruit, cupcakes, cake pops, breakfast casserole and chicken sandwhiches. Delish.

After eating you could make a little hot air balloon for the baby's mobile.

And then we played "Gift Bingo" while Melissa opened up her lovely presents.

On your way out you grabbed a vellum printed hot air balloon candle. Or two. I like candles.

There you have it! The only things I was in charge of were the yarn wrapped hot air balloons and bringing a few decorations/frames/platters I already had lying around the house. It was awesome.

After the shower I had the whole weekend to just relax, clean out closets, vacuum, and it has been so amazing. Cory and I watch a lot of netflix/hulu when we're hanging out these days, but I didn't realize how much we were depending on that until the internet went down for a few hours yesterday.

Cory was momentarily distraught, but he rallied and a few minutes later I hear: "Lindy, what are these little pigs????"

Pass the Pigs, baby. Thats what those are. If you're not familiar...you're missing out.

You roll the pigs like dice, and get points depending on how they land. You keep rolling until you reach 100 points. If they land on their side though, you lose all your points.

It makes sense. Trust me.

Lets just say, Cory might have a gambling problem. He keeps on rolling and rolling until he loses everything. I save up my points methodically and was definitely going to win on my next turn. I just knew it. But then, the Pass the Pigs gods smiled down upon him and Cory rolled 102 points in one long stretch. It was NUTS!

And now we know what people did before the internet.

We didn't put the pigs away, and all day today I've caught him practicing. A lot. It's all in the wrist.