Weekend Happenings

This weekend was actually not too eventful, which was perfectly fine with me.

Friday night MG and I stayed in, ordered pizza, and caught up on shows on our DVR. He was trying to take it easy because he had to be up at 5:30 am the next morning to make his way to the Tough Mudder in WV.

We decided a bit ago that it would be pretty boring for me to go and be stuck there all day waiting for him and his team to complete the Tough Mudder, so he went with his coworkers, and I went to visit my parents who I hadn't seen in a few weeks. It was nice to spend some time with them and catch up...and Cooper enjoyed the extra attention from my parents, too :)

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MG completed the Tough Mudder...he came home hobbling around and in some pain from all of the activities/obstacles, etc. He even had a burn mark on his back from one obstacle that has electricity running through ropes that you have to get through. This whole thing sounded like my own personal Hell, but I'm glad that he enjoyed doing it lol.

Saturday was another low key night, as MG wasn't really in the mood to do anything but lay on the couch and rest.

And then Sunday we ran errands, and then went to a local restaurant/bar and watched the first half of the Eagles/Cowboys game and the Redskins/Bears game  and then took ourselves home to watch the Skins WIN (finally!) and the Eagles lose. We decided to take advantage of the nice weather (and the fact that Cooper needed a bath) to walk up to the dog park near our house and let Cooper socialize. It was fun and nice to get out and get some exercise. After rolling around in dirt and sticks, Coop definitely needed a bath. Now we have a clean and fresh-smelling pup!

The most "eventful" thing of the weekend, for me, was dealing with a situation with our cake people. Last Thursday night we got an email from them asking if we were still interested in using their services. I found this odd, because we had signed the contract AND paid in full for their services. I let them know this and they said they had no payment on file but would look into it and get back to us.

No money, no cake...

Cut to Friday morning, I was emailing back and forth with the owner, who was asking for the exact amount and date of the charge, which I couldn't find out since we had used MG's card and he was at work. I told her I'd let her know when he got home from work, but that I wanted to make sure they still had our wedding date on file. No response.

Later that night I emailed her that we HAD been charged, the date and the amount, and then asked again about the date. No response.

I called the store on Saturday morning and was told the owner was not there but my number was taken and I was told she would call me back. I JUST got an email from the owner's assistant (at 8:30 this morning) apologizing for not getting back to me since she was out (doesn't explain why the owner didn't tho), etc. And she FINALLY told me that they still have our wedding date on file.

Let's just hope they give us SOME kind of compensation for all of this hassle and stress. As a business owner, that's the smart thing to do. 

This place has amazing reviews, and we were really happy with them, up until this situation popped up--I'm less than impressed with how it's been handled, to say the least.

So there ya have it. My boring (and I'm totally ok with it) weekend! :)

  

5 on Friday

Another Friday is here, and for me, this one came kinda quickly (but that probably had to do with not having to work on Monday :)

Time for some 5 on Friday!

{1}-Gravity

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MG and I saw this movie last Friday--I'd heard good things about it, and the reviews were awesome, but I wasn't sure about it. I didn't get how a whole movie could be about being "lost" in space...or something. But, let me tell you, it was really good! The movie is only an hour and a half, but it is heart pounding and just really well done. Sandra Bullock was great in it (p.s. did you know she's 49? She has a better body than I do at 30...). I don't think you'll regret going. I kind of wish we had seen it in 3D because I think it might have been that much cooler. Either way, I'd totally recommend seeing it!

{2}-Wedding Suit/Tux 

So, I thought MG and I had finally gotten the suit/tux thing figured out and settled on (I even checked it off on my checklist at theknot.com). We were going to do a gray tux from Jos A Bank for him and the guys. We went into a store on Friday (we had already been to one in our local mall which was of no help) to get everything put into the system, picked out, etc. After over an hour of nonsense and incompetence, our wedding party's info hadn't been saved in the system (despite trying 3 times), and MG and I left feeling very discouraged and not even sure we want to work with Jos A. Bank because of how inept their staff have been, at multiple locations.  Now, MG is working with a friend of his brother-in-law's at Men's Wearhouse to potentially do suits there. I took it upon myself to scan their site online yesterday and found something that looks great, and is within a good price range. I sent it to MG and he liked it enough to send it to his groomsmen for opinions (and the Men's Wearhouse guy for a hook up). Fingers crossed it gets done soon, so I can REALLY check it off of my list!

{3}-Furlough No Mo' 
The furlough and government shut down are over and MG is back to work as of yesterday. It was weird being back in our normal routine again, but also nice, too. And nice to know that we will be getting paychecks again, which are much needed. The whole thing was a complete waste of time, and money, but I'm glad that it's over...at least for the next few months anyway.

{4}-Cake Topper and Great Friends

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After many helpful comments yesterday (thank you to all of you who commented!), we are going with the true silver Philly love sign for the cake topper. After reading my post, one of my friends and bridesmaids, Trish, offered to get it for us for a wedding present which was incredibly sweet of her. Now, not only will we have the cake topper that is perfect and I've had my eye on for MONTHS, but when it's in our home after the fact and I look at it, I'll smile knowing that it was purchased with love from a great friend, and made our day just that much more special :)

Special shout out to Jess for doing some research of options for me, too. You all are too too sweet and make me realize just how lucky I am to have you in my life!

{5}-Bachelor Spotting

Do you happen to recognize that guy in the picture? It's Chris from the Bachelorette (and Bachelor Pad). He and his business partner opened up a bar in Arlington a little while ago, called Bracket Room, which was touted as a "female friendly bar" (I'm not sure exactly what makes the place female friendly, but I did like it). MG and I went to check it out for happy hour last night since we hadn't been yet and two of our couple friends came out and met us, too. I didn't actually expect Chris to be there, and especially not when we were there, but when we were waiting for the bathroom, there he was! So we had our waiter ask him to come to our table, and he did. He was nice and talked to us for a bit and then he obliged my picture-loving self and took a pic with us. Fun times!

Happy Friday!

Wedding Cake Topper: Opinions Wanted

This may seem dumb, but I'm having a hard time deciding on our wedding cake topper. I know what I want, but....well, you'll see.

We are doing a two-tiered cake that is purple ombre, kinda like this (the middle two layers) and no flower:

Pretty right? :)

The rest is going to be cupcakes, so kind of like this, but the 2 tiered cake on top:

I know the topper I want...it's actually the LOVE topper in that picture above. Since our colors are purple and silver, and our cake is purple, I thought the LOVE sign in silver would be cute and a good way to incorporate some silver into the cake. MG is from Philly, that's where we got engaged, we LOVE each other; it works on lots of levels....

My 'issue' is that I can only find this on etsy, and only from one seller, for $110-130 (plus who knows what for shipping). That's a LOT more than I want to spend on something that goes on top of the cake (and is a significant portion of what we actually paid for the cupcakes and cake itself). But I like the look of it, and we'll be able to keep it after....so maybe it's worth it....? MG isn't a big knick-knack person so I don't even know if we WOULD use it after, or not...but I'd definitely try to.

The only thing that I've found to come close, kind of, is this:

It's looks kinda silver in the picture, but it's actually white porcelain with the silver heart in the middle. It's also about $20.

This is where my OCD attention to detail comes in. If the heart was laid the other way (the same way the O in the sculpture goes) I think I'd be 100% in. It's cheaper and there's some silver. The end.

But, I really like the Philly LOVE sign. A good majority of our guests are from Philly and I like the idea of incorporating that element into our wedding...but, realistically, people may not even notice the heart going the wrong way. (I didn't until I looked back at the original picture. When I showed MG he didn't notice either.) I was also thinking the white porcelain might pick up some of the lights around the room too, which could look cool.

I dunno. What do you think? Spend the extra money and get the love topper on Etsy, or save a little and get this one that's not quite what I had in mind, but is pretty darn close?

 I feel like I should note, I DO realize just how absolutely trivial this is. I'm just at a point in planning where I can focus on small details and that's probably not a beneficial thing haha.

You all did a nice job of convincing me that the yellow chairs weren't a big deal, so tell me your opinions!

After looking at the above picture, I also now realize I need to find something to put in our cupcakes that's silver and/or purple...crap...

What's Cooking? Wednesdays: Chicken Enchilada Chili Recipe

It's Wednesday which means it's time to see what's cooking!

This week I have the best, and pretty easy recipe for you all. As the temps are dropping, this one is sure to warm up the tummy and make you smile!

Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Chili, courtesy of A Year of Slow Cooking

What You Need:

-1.5 lb. chicken breast
-2 cans of kidney beans (we did reduced sodium)
-2 cans diced tomatoes w/ seasoning (we did garlic and onion flavored)
-2 celery stalks, chopped
-1 yellow onion, cut/chopped
-1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce (we used 2 cans)
-1-2 tsp chili powder (depending on how much kick you want)
-1 tsp cumin

What You Do: (it's SO easy)

1. Using a 6 qt crock pot, add in the enchilada sauce, and canned tomatoes into the crock pot.  Then add the onions, beans, spices and celery. Stir it up and place the chicken on top. 

Cook on LOW for 7-8 hours (we did 8 and it was great). Try and make it to the 8 hour mark when your house smells SO mouth-wateringly delicious! It's hard!

this was after it had cooked for about 7 hours)

2. When it's close to being done, shred the chicken with a fork. When it's done cooking, serve it up in a bowl . 

Top with whatever toppings you'd like. We did sour cream and Mexican cheese and it was delicious! 

It wasn't as spicy as I had anticipated it being, but it was perfect. The chili was hearty, had a great flavor to it, which wasn't as strong in the Mexican flavor department as I'd thought, but still had a unique chili flavor. We absolutely LOVED this dish and will be making it again for sure!

Link up below and share what you've been cooking, or wanting to cook, lately!

Puppy Visit

Ok so it wasn't ALL about the puppy....but it kind of was.

MG and I went up to Philly to see his parents, the family, and the new puppy, Ginger this past weekend. It was a long weekend for us which was nice.

She is an energetic little thing--when she plays, she plays hard, and when she crashes, she crashed fast. Cooper didn't enjoy Ginger as much as the rest of us did because Ginger wanted to play with Cooper....in the form of biting his ears, butt and legs, and jumping on him.

My dog is the most gentle dog ever, and you could tell it took a lot out of him to even growl at her.

This was about as tame as the play was and it was right after we had arrived. Note Ginger's spring board paws...she doesn't run, she bounces:

Let me also point out that she was so small that MG's mom had to get her a cat collar because the dog collars were too big. And we added a cat bell on her collar so that we could tell where she was. So, basically, she's a cat :)

She's 2 pounds of furry fury, especially when she nips at you with those razor sharp puppy teeth. But, she's adorable as all get out. Especially when she's sleeping, which she did a lot of on me (and my heart melted the entire time).

Just look at that little face...I die...

When MG and I came back from grabbing lunch, I sat down on the floor to play with Ginger and she crawled in my lap, and then proceeded to pass out, in various positions

MG's two sisters and all the kids came over on Sunday night, with the other family dog who is 92 pounds. So we had a lot of Poodle (or part-poodles) in the house: 

Cooper-12 lbs, Gunther-92 lbs, Ginger- 2 1/2 pounds

It was a lot of fun to see everyone and play with all of the dogs.

We did torture Ginger a little by putting her in a Halloween outfit--she did not enjoy it nearly as much as we did. 
And then Sunday morning came and it was time to say good bye. We helped MG's mom give Ginger a bath for the first time, got her all clean and fluffy and dried, which took it out of her completely. And lent itself to more snuggle time before we left because she was passed out cold. 

I did try and put her in the pouch of my hoodie, but surprisingly she didn't fit. If she had, you'd better believe that we would have had another puppy in our house. I'm pretty sure Cooper is glad that this did not occur, though :)

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. There's not much better than being loved on by a cute little puppy. Add in some good family time and you've got a phenomenal weekend!

Hopefully you enjoyed the cuteness in this post as much as I enjoyed it :)

Happy Tuesday!

5 on Friday

T.G.I.F.!

I feel like I say this a lot of weeks, but this week felt long. On Tuesday it felt like Thursday to me, so you can only imagine how the rest of the week felt....Draggy.

I'm glad it's Friday...so let's do some 5 on Friday, shall we?

{1}-Philly (again)

MG and I are planning to head up to Philly this weekend. We were just there, but that was when there wasn't an adorable, brand new puppy there to see and snuggle (Cooper, try not to be too jealous!). Since it's a long weekend for us (well, MG is still on furlough so every day is a weekend for him... lucky bastard), we can head up early Saturday morning and get some quality time in with the fam....and the puppy. Since the last time we were there, a lot of it was centered around MG and his dad doing the MS bike ride, we'll get some more time with the kids, too. (Altho, realistically, we'll also probably play second fiddle to the puppy...oh well).

{2}-Rain

It's been raining since Wednesday mid-morning here in the DC area. Monday was a horrible downpour (of course that was the one day that I had a meeting elsewhere so I got caught in it), and there is no end in sight until Sunday. Phooey! I even looked at the forecast for Philly, hoping it would be less rainy, and it's not. Double phooey! I don't mind a day or two of rain, but when it rains so hard, it screws up traffic and the roads. Driving to work yesterday morning on the Parkway I hydro-planed about 5 times. SCARY when there are two lanes and the only thing separating you from oncoming traffic is NOTHING.

{3}-Save the Dates

They are OUT! I've heard from so many people that they are getting them in the mail. I love getting texts/messages from people, telling me they got them--it shows me how excited they are for our wedding day, too. MG's mom texted us yesterday and said "Just got invite to this adorable couple's wedding....Did have a few tears realizing that this is really really happening and my heart is so full of joy"....love my soon-to-be Mother in Law!

Here's a sneak peek (without the personal info that's on the bottom, sorry)...what do you think? They are magnets, so this is what is hanging on everyone's fridge:

this is a photo of the magnet, so it's not as clear as it really is
but you get the idea :)

{4}-Lunch Date

Yesterday MG drove all the way down to my work to have lunch with me. He asked me ahead of time what I wanted and I put in a request for a sandwich from my favorite deli close to my school. It was nice to have lunch with him during the work day--gave me something to look forward to, and to brighten up the otherwise rainy and dreary day. It's the little things....

{5}-LOFT

Damn you. Sending out all of these tempting deals and sales in email. And right after I swore I wasn't doing any online shopping this month if I could help it. You're like a bad boyfriend--you know when I've sworn you off, and you come back to lure me back in. Well done, Loft. I just hope the 4 pairs of pants I bought (at 50% off, thank you) all fit, otherwise they are going back to the store pronto, and then I swear, no more online shopping this month!....I hope? 

Happy Friday and happy loooooong weekend! :)

Jealousy vs. Envy

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We've all been guilty of falling victim to the green eyed monster.

I've definitely had moments in my past where I've been jealous of someone else. Where I wanted what someone else had, and I didn't want them to have it because I didn't have it.

But at some point I realized how selfish that was. Just because I didn't have it, I shouldn't want to deprive that person of it. Who was I to dictate what someone else should or shouldn't have in their life? And what did their life have anything to do with mine? If they didn't have something, it didn't somehow enrich mine any more or less.

Now, that doesn't mean there aren't moments where I'm not ENVIOUS of someone else, their situation, or what they have. See, the difference with envy is that you can want something, wish you had it, but you don't wish it against someone else.

Am I envious that some of my friends are already married? Sure!

Does that mean that I wish them unhappiness? Absolutely not. That would be totally selfish of me.

Am I envious that some of my friends have kids, and are in that different stage of life already? Yeah, sometimes. (And then there are the times that I'm not at all haha).

Does that mean that I wish they didn't have their kids? No way!

I think as I've grown up, I've realized that the world doesn't revolve around me (most days anyway :), and whether someone has something or doesn't have something, it doesn't really have any bearing on my life. Unless I let it have an impact or effect.

Comparing my life to someone else's was always harmful. Those people hadn't been through the things that I had, and I hadn't been through what they'd been through. So how could I compare? And who's to say because someone had something I THOUGHT that I wanted, that it was what I NEEDED? Especially at the time that I wanted it? Because looking back now, it was never what I needed at that point.

I've also realized that being around people who think that way is toxic. You can't share happy things with them, because they can never be truly happy for you. And, if you can't share something happy or exciting about your life with a friend, what kind of a friend are they really? I recently was able to put a friendship completely in my past, and not dwell on it any longer (which I had been off and on since our friendship ended, and slightly more recently since planning the wedding and doing all of the things I thought she'd be involved in), because I realized that that person is not capable of being truly happy for anyone who has anything that she does not have. I don't need someone like that in my life. If a friend of mine shares something with me that they're excited about, I'm happy for them and I can (and want to) share in their excitement. I don't say "yay" and then secretly wish they didn't have it, or complain about how it's not "fair" behind their back. That word 'fair'...there's a good saying in our school that I love: 
"Fair doesn't always mean EQUAL." 
And why is it not 'fair' that someone has found happiness and you haven't yet? What does their life have to do with yours? Have they made the same decisions that you have? Have they put up with the same things that you have? If the answer to that is "no" (and it's likely to be), then how is it not "fair"? That doesn't make sense.
  What I recently got hit hard with, in this situation and dealing with the other dramas lately, is that I don't need jealousy in my life. Envy has its own issues--I try and keep myself in check there, too. But, jealousy (and the people who carry the jealousy bug) can get the heck out of here, thank you very much.

Sorry for the more serious post. I just wanted to brain dump a little bit. Back to normal happy-go-lucky posts tomorrow :)