WILW and Oh How Pinteresting

Boo!
Happy Halloween, friends!!!
It's Wednesday and time for two of my fave link-ups with Michelle and Jamie!

I'm loving that today is my first day at work since we had two days off for the hurricane. Luckily our area wasn't hit badly. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who suffered more damage than we did.

I'm loving that I'm now part of a book club with a group of girls. Should be fun! Our first book is Defending Jacob which looks interesting.

I'm loving my new blog design courtesy of Shannon at Page:Twenty-Two! She rocks!

I'm loving that my car didn't get damaged during this storm. Last storm we had a tree hit my car, so I was glad to see no damage this time!

I'm loving  my crock pot. Easy delicious meals with little effort? Yes please!

And, as always I'm loving Pinterest!

This week I've been pinning....

Love these colors!

An idea for something to do around here to make it feel more "Fall"

Best Chili Ever apparently. Looks yum!

Eeeks, so true!!

Happy Halloween!

What have YOU been pinning?

Hope you have a spook-tacular Halloween!

Halloween Costume

Halloween is approaching but this year I didn't dress up or go out for the holiday. But, I did realize that with everything going on with my dad last year, I never posted my costume from LAST year's Halloween.

And what better time than now, right??

MG and I were doing our first Halloween together and decided to do a couple costume. We looked for a while for something that would be easy but cute and finally stumbled upon this:

Waldo and his awesomely dressed girlfriend, Wenda.

We went out with a bunch of friends to a local bar that was hosting a costume competition. We obviously knew we had no shot considering people showed up in some INSANELY complicated and really cool costumes. One guy was dressed like Frankenstein and it was scary how good his costume was.

My favorite costume that we saw that night was this guy dressed up as the kid from Up:

We also saw a really well-done version of those Kia rapping rats

 Luckily their costume didn't have the creepy hanging balls.

It was a good night overall. MG and I had an idea for a costume this year, but we'll hold onto it for next year.

Not sure what Halloween will look like on the east coast this year with Frankenstorm hitting. Hopefully it won't cancel everything for the kiddos!

A New Change Around Here

Did you notice anything different when you stopped by today? While the Frankenstorm here is preparing to wreak havoc on the east coast, my blog was getting a little upgrade!

I figured it was time for a facelift for this little ol' blog of mine, and asked Shannon at Page: Twenty Two to do a redesign for me and she did a great job! (Thanks, Shannon!) I totally recommend using her if you want to re-do your blog!

I'm super pleased with the change...what do you guys think??

~.~.~.~

On another note, how are my east coast friends doing in this crazy hurricane? So far, in DC we've just gotten rain that started last night but they're anticipating us getting 5-10" of rain and high winds this afternoon/tonight.

I just hope we don't lose power, and am keeping my fingers crossed that my parents don't lose power or get too inundated with rain, also. If their basement starts flooding, there won't be much that they are able to do....and I obviously can't do anything from here. *Fingers Crossed*

MG and I made it back yesterday from a trip to Philly to see his family and we got a chance to see my little nugget play in her soccer game. Watching 6-year olds play soccer is pretty comical, but also incredibly cute!

The weather was overcast and rainy while we were there since they're getting hit with the same stuff that we are. Which made it perfect conditions for the kids to have a sleepover at MG's mom's place where we were staying. It was fun waking up the next morning to kid chaos :)

We made it back easily yesterday and picked up supplies along the way. On our way back I found out that school was cancelled for us for Monday AND Tuesday. I love a day off, but it seemed crazy to have two days off when it wasn't even raining yet. This also stinks just a tad cuz after one more snow day, we have to start making these days up. Boo! Guess I'll just have to enjoy the time off now!

So, in the meantime, my electronics will be plugged in, my Kindle fully stocked with books, and me, MG and Coop will be hunkered down for this storm!

Stay safe, East-coast friends!
Catch you tomorrow....if I have power! :)

Friday's Letters

TGIF!!!!

Time to write some letters!

Dear Weekend, thanks for finally getting here. Parts of this week went by fast and others went by slow. I'm glad to have a weekend to enjoy. Dear Hurricane Sandy, please don't come up here and knock out power in the DC/MD/VA area again. I really don't want people to have to deal with power outages for another week plus! Dear Taiji, Japan, stop killing dolphins! You all need to wake up and realize the awful things you are doing to a group of animals who are not harming you. Dear Blog Readers, sign the petition to end dolphin murders in Japan here. There's only 6 more days left to reach 500,000 signatures! Please do it!  Dear construction workers, how much longer are you going to take away one lane of the two lanes I need to get to work in the morning? You're really effing up my morning commutes as of late and I'm getting annoyed at driving 5mph. 

Dear Cooper, thanks for being the cutest, sweetest, friendliest dog ever. You're the perfect snuggle buddy at the end of a long day! Dear iPhone5, would you hurry up and be ready so that they can ship you to me already? #impatientlywaiting Dear MG, thanks for waking up earlier than you needed to yesterday just to make me a hearty breakfast before work. It was delicious and I love you!

Hope you're off to a great weekend! Catch ya on Monday!

A Topic Near and Dear to my Heart

I rarely write things that are super serious on here, but I couldn't NOT write on this topic once I was made aware of this information.

If you know me at all personally, you know that I have a wild mild obsession with dolphins. I've always been fascinated with them since I can remember. I am totally the person who saw a book about dolphins and immediately bought it or checked it out from the library.

When I've gone to the dolphin shows, I sit there like a little kid, super excited and enraptured with the amazing creatures that are before me.

The day I got to swim with dolphins was one of the highlights of my life. It was something I'd said I had wanted to do forever, and when the day came I could barely believe I was there. I got another chance to have a "close encounter" with a dolphin when I was in the Bahamas with a friend. Both of these times were magical experiences for me, and grew my love of these guys even further.

I even made MG go with me to see Dolphin Tale early in our relationship (if that's not love, I dunno what is) haha.

When talking to a friend, my dolphin love came up, and he mentioned that I had to see the documentary called The Cove. I immediately asked if it was going to make me cry and he said "Probably."

So, even though I knew it was going to be sad, I also knew that I had to watch it. And I sobbed.
(If you haven't seen it, you can watch it here.)

There is a dolphin massacre happening in Taiji, Japan. Fishermen lure these dolphins into a cove where dolphin trainers can come to select which dolphins they will take with them to use in their shows like at SeaWorld. The dolphins that don't get selected are then killed, brutally, in masses. Babies, mothers, it doesn't matter. And then this meat, which is full of mercury (contaminated with WAY higher than acceptable levels of mercury), is then sold in markets. Sometimes masked as other, more high-end meats, just hidden within.

My heart broke watching this documentary. These dolphins were murdered horrifically by stabbing them repeatedly with harpoons, while they are all trapped, in a frenzy, creating a sickening sea of blood. Honestly, I would be upset that they were being killed even if it was being done humanely, but what was done here was completely horrific. This was nothing that could come close to being called "humane." All of this is being done in the name of money. And being hidden by these people as ways to stop  the"pests" of the ocean from eating the fish.

Dolphins are amazing creatures. They are intelligent, playful, protective animals with incredibly powerful healing spirits. They are not the ones destroying our oceans. Humans are. And these dolphins are paying the price.

Why anyone would want to brutally murder these animals is beyond me. Please, go to this site and sign the petition to help end this cruelty. They are at 99% and only have 7 more days to reach the number of signatures they need. These animals don't have a voice--but we do. Let's do something to help them.

Please.

WILW and Oh How Pinteresting

Yay! It's Wednesday!

Which means....it's time for two of my favorite link-ups!!

I'm loving how much fun MG and I had this weekend with all of the wedding festivities. It was a spectacular time, and we got some great pictures out of it!

I'm loving that it has been in the 70's all week, and today it is supposed to be in the 80's. These are the temps that this girl is the happiest in. It just makes it a bit more confusing for me when I wake up and it's 40 degrees out, but I'll still take it!

I'm loving that I didn't have to go to my late night "class" last night. Driving over an hour to sit in a 3 hour class on things I already know how to do was not appealing to me.

I'm loving that I thiefed acquired a new desk chair for my office and now my hiney and back are much more comfortable than they've been all school year. Thank goodness for happy hineys!

I'm loving Loft's sale the other night: 3 things for 30% off, 4 things for 40% off or 5 things for 50% off. When I added a 5th thing to my cart, it was less than when I had 4 items, so why not get five?? And now I have another shipment of these to look forward to:

And, as always, I'm loving Pinterest!

This week I've been pinning....

Love this look!

Kinda want this for our bedroom

Too flippin' cute!

Crock Pot Chicken Chili

LOL!!

Ahhhhhh!

What have YOU been pinning this week??

Catch ya tomorrow, lovies!

Tasty Tuesday: Green Chili Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Boy do I have an amazeballs recipe for you!

It's mouth-wateringly, mmmm-mmmm good!

My girl over at Iowa Girl Eats has yet to fail me with these delicious recipes of hers, and this recipe might take the cake in terms of how easy and fantastically good it was.

Green Chili Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This meal EASILY makes 6 adult-size helpings. MG and I had dinner, and then two meals each (4 total) of leftovers. Hello, budget-friendly meal!

Are you intrigued yet?? (Trust me, you should be)

What You Need:

• 1 cup of green enchilada sauce
• 1 cup sour cream (we used the light kind)
• 3/4 cup jarred salsa verde
• 10 white corn tortillas (the original recipe calls for 12. I only used about 9)
• 2 chicken breasts, already cooked and cut into bite size pieces
• 15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup shredded colby jack cheese (I may have used slightly more than a cup...but I'm a cheese fiend)
• Pico de gallo (we bought fresh salsa/pico from the store)

What You Do

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix the enchilada sauce, salsa, and sour cream together. Whisk it together until it's smooth and creamy looking.

2. Tear the tortillas into small triangles (I split each tortilla into half, then quarters, then 8ths.) Add the tortillas, the beans and the chicken to the mixture.

It will look totally strange, but I promise, it will come out good. It'll look something like this tho:

3. Add the mixture into a 9x13 non-stick sprayed baking/casserole dish. Even it out and then add the cheese on top:

4. Put that bad boy into the oven for 20-25 minutes. (We did 20 and it came out great). Let it sit for a few minutes before you dig in. (Or if you're MG, you stand in front of it with spatula in hand for about 30 seconds before you can't take it anymore and slice it up).

Doesn't that look delicious??

5. Add the pico to the top, and eat the heck out of that food!

This was seriously SO easy. The only thing that deterred me first was that we typically don't have pre-cooked chicken on hand, but the night before, when MG was broiling a pork chop, we just threw the two chicken breasts in with his, and cooked it then. Then everything was ready for the casserole the next day. Super easy!

MG said this might be one of his favorite things that I've made. And that's saying something! 

Like I said before, after making this meal we both had two meals worth of leftovers, EACH, to enjoy (and it was definitely still good the next day)! You can't not like that!! :)

Happy Eating!

Wedding Weekend Recap!

Happy Monday, buddies!

I'm coming off of a long, but extremely fun weekend complete with a wonderful wedding, awesome weather, and tons of fun with friends!

MG and I went to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner for our couple friends who were getting married--we had some mingling time and then enjoyed a phenomenal dinner at Sequoia in Georgetown with hilarious and heart-warming stories about the couple.

The next day was the wedding fun. MG's friend was staying with us, so the three of us woke up and spent the morning on the couch preparing for that afternoon/evening's festivities. 

In the afternoon, we made our way into DC for the wedding--the church was beautiful, the bride was gorgeous and the ceremony was lovely.

The main church was so beautiful, I made MG stop to take a picture with me :)

After the wedding we drove back to our other friends' place which was right next to where the reception was and had a few drinks. Sadly, it started to downpour despite a forecast for clear skies. Luckily we caught a break in the clouds and were able to make our way to the reception relatively dry (thanks to MG driving and dropping us off and then walking over himself--good guy!)

The sun was starting to set, and the sky after the storm was incredibly beautiful. We even saw two huge rainbows--that's gotta be really good luck for a wedding day!

We took advantage of the crazy view and took some pictures:

The view from inside

And from the terrance--(My new favorite picture of us)

And, right after we took this picture, the clouds opened up again. Sad face.

Luckily the drinks were flowing inside and the dancing started right after the couple and the wedding party arrived.

The fact that I have no pictures of the rest of the night is a testament to how much fun we had.

The reception moved from Top of the Town to a nearby hotel where we did not last very long. Soon a group of us were calling a cab to head back to MG and my place to hang out. Someone ordered pizza, cheezy bread and cinnastix before we even got a cab, and as we were pulling into our complex, we caught the Dominos guy as he was leaving, luckily. Six of us proceeded to "mow down" on some food like we had never eaten before and might never eat again.

This was what MG and I woke up to the next morning:

Needless to say, the entire night was a success. The next day we stopped by an "after party" in the afternoon to see and congratulate the couple again. They are a great couple and I wish them nothing but happiness for the future! :)

Hope you had a great weekend filled with fun, and a good start to the week!

Don't forget to link up for Weekend Update:

And Mingle Monday

It's OK....

I'm linking up with Amber at Brunch with Amber for It's OK Thursday.

It's OK that.....

.....watching Kindergartners play Jenga makes me laugh

.....almost every Friday is reminiscent of the school-days because, in our house, we usually order pizza for dinner on Friday nights. It doesn't come in the square shape that the cafeteria gave us, but it's still Pizza Friday!

.....I'm taking off my first day of work this year, and I feel guilty about it. That NEVER happens. I must really like where I work!

.....I spent $35 on card games for my kids at school two weeks ago, and spend another $35 yesterday for more card games. Shouldn't I be spending my money on fun things like cute Fall clothes? What is WRONG with me???

....this could legit be my dog (looks, and actions):

He's also been known to take one piece of food, walk into a totally different room, eat that piece, come back, and repeat the entire circle all over again. I guess he's working off the calories as he's eating. Maybe he's onto something.... :)

.....when I'm part of a group text, and the texts continue to go off one after another, I curse the person who made it automatic to "reply all" when you don't know you're part of a group text in the first place. How do you stop it???

What's OK with you today? Go over and visit Amber to link up!