Weekending Highlights

Happy Monday, lovies! Hope your weekend was awesome and you're ready to take on the week!

{via}

My weekend highlights included:

~Friday date night at our favorite pizza spot

~Redbox'ed Inside Out and finally got to watch it (absolutely loved it!) with a fire going. Perfection!

~Slept in Saturday morning

~Picked up some paint samples at Home Depot for our bedroom, and made our selection (Urban Raincoat will be what we sleep and wake to)

~Went and saw The Revenant because MG was excited to see it. My thoughts? It was well done, and well acted, but it just wasn't my kind of movie. And it dragged in the middle a bit. Not my favorite.

~Got ready to head to my principal's house for a "Holiday Recovery Party"....were leaving and realized MG didn't have his wallet. Luckily it was at the movie theater so we swung by to get it, and everything was in it, including the money! Thank goodness for good people!

~Spent several hours with almost everyone I work with, and their significant others, and got to see my principal's huge house which had an elevator and a wine cellar! Super nice! #envy

~Went out in Old Town with some of my work friends and our husbands/boyfriends to Blackwall Hitch. Got to sit upstairs on the couches, listen to live music, and chat

~Stayed out way later than we'd planned to...oops!

~Had blueberry pancakes made by MG for breakfast

~Ran errands

~Started prepping the walls in the bedroom for painting (filling holes, removing old curtain rod holders, etc)

~Made lunch at home, and cheered on the Vikings (felt so bad for our friend who is a coach on the team and was standing outside in the -6 weather for the whole game. They said it was -25 with the windchill!) That was a tough loss to watch--so close!

~While our friends in MN were freezing, we went for a walk around the lake by our house since it was 63 degrees out--really liking all of these opportunities in the middle of "Winter" to be active outside

~Gave Cooper a bath and got to snuggle with his fluffy-ness!

~Watched the Skins/Packers game, another disappointment 

~Made my easy stovetop chili recipe for dinner 

~Watched the Golden Globes while eating the most delicious bowl of ice cream that ever was: 

We didn't do a ton this weekend, but it was nice to accomplish a few things, see some friends, and have an easy weekend to relax after the first full week back at work.

Hoping your weekend was just as nice and restful!

Linking up with Biana and Meghan today for Weekending

Friday Faves

Happy Friday!! We made it to the end of the first full week back after all of that holiday celebrating!

I'm still more than ready for the weekend ahead, though, and sleeping in a bit in the mornings, what about you?

Friday Favorites // Friday Favorites // Oh Hey Friday// 5 on Friday

Let's talk some favorites from this week!

{1}-Favorite Song: Selena Gomez-Hands to Myself
I heard this song on iTunes radio last night while I was listening and making dinner. I hadn't heard it before, but it was pretty catchy:

{2}- Favorite Local Discovery

Last weekend MG and I discovered Dog Tag Bakery in DC (we knew about it, but had never actually been) which has delicious bakery items, and also supports our military and their families. Not to mention, the bakery itself is super cute.  MG's family is close friends with the priest who'd helped to open it, and it was nice to get to visit it after his funeral services on Saturday.

{3}- Favorite Online Funny

If you've been watching Making a Murderer (like almost everyone has been), then you'll find this Buzzfeed article that has the funniest tweets about Making a Murderer pretty entertaining. My favorite?  This one:

How did it take me longer to find the panda in a Facebook picture than it did for that woman to find Teresa Halbach's car? #MakingAMurderer

— Jelisa Castrodale (@gordonshumway) December 29, 2015

{4}-Favorite Read: Savor

{via}

Since the start of the year, I've been reading Shauna Niequist's Savor every day. It's a sort of devotional, and gives me something to think about, pray on, or be thankful for each day. It's been a really nice way to start the year and round out each day.
If you haven't read her other book, Bread and Wine, do it! It was one of my favorite books that I read last year.

{5}-Funnies 
When someone at work, who is supposed to know what they're doing, continually makes the same mistake over and over again, and you have to deal with the mess:

{via}

When you're trying to do a no-spend month and you keep seeing sales and cute things:

{via}

When you wish you worked at this school (and you realize that some white guys can dance):

{via}

When it's below 20 degrees in the morning, so you bust out your warmest headwear:

{via}

I hope you have a quick and easy Friday, and a restful weekend, lovies!

Confessin'

It's been a looooooong while since I did a confessions post, and since it's the start of a new year, why not get to confessin'?

{via}

I confess that....

....on Tuesday, our coldest day of the year so far, I went home after work, took Cooper out, and immediately snuggled under the blankets on the couch and watched two hours of Teen Mom OG instead of working out. No shame.

....Cooper is the cutest pup on our block in his Winter coat. 

I may be biased, but that's ok :)

.....speaking of Cooper: before Christmas I took Coop to the vet for his annual check up, shots, etc. and he was the happiest little clam you ever did see (as always). After being fawned over by the vet techs, the male vet came in and doted on Cooper, couldn't believe that his tail was still wiggling through 3 shots (it was actually wiggling while he was getting the shots) and told me at the end how great of a dog Coop is and that I got extremely lucky with him. As if I didn't know ;) #proudmama

.....I hate getting stuck behind school buses in the morning.  I get that they need to be picked up, but it's annoying when I sit behind 3 or more on my commute to work some mornings, and have to wait for 5 minutes or more for the high school kids to all pile on. The most aggravating is the straggler who walks his butt slowly to the bus while the line of cars waiting to go just gets longer and longer...#hurryyoassup

......I've been deleting every sale email I've been getting to steer myself away from the temptation of purchasing anything unnecessary during our no spend month

.....I slipped and bought one thing, on mega sale ($25), because Pinterest Told Me To alerted me on Facebook to a 40% off sale on a tunic I'd wanted at Nordstrom with amazing reviews....but it's back ordered until late January, so does that still count? 

....I kinda feel guilty for slipping up (I'll just extend my no spending a week into February to make up for it! Problem solved, right?)

.....I may have put more than 20 marshmallows in my hot chocolate one night while we were up in PA for the holidays. Ok, I definitely did. And maybe it was more than that. Oops...

{via} my cup looked like this several times over once the marshmallows melted....just add more!

....all I want to eat for dinner lately is soups. Give me all the soups.

.....I drove about 10 minutes of my commute yesterday morning with ice crystals on my windshield because my car didn't defrost them fast enough and my windshield wiper fluid was frozen. I could still see, but it was a little bit of a challenge, and probably not the safest thing to do.

....I spend my day at work turning the heat on and off in my office. I have an old school heat system in there. I turn it on and gets super toasty very quickly, but there's no regulator to shut it off, so I spend my day going back and forth turning it on, letting my office heat up in a matter of minutes, and then turning it back off, only to repeat the cycle again a little bit later when my office cools down again. At least I'm getting some steps in every time I walk over there and back, right? 

....working with someone who is stupid is annoying. Working with someone who's higher up than you and stupid is infuriating.

....in a meeting at work yesterday when a dad was describing his preschool son and said, "He's delicious" I melted. It was so sweet!

That's it for me today...do you have any confessions?

What's Hap-"Pinning" Wednesdays {#23}

Happy Wednesday! We made it through half of the week, which may have been harder than some weeks since we're all coming off of the holiday high and fun!

Since it's Wednesday, that means today's the day you can share what's hap-"pinning" in your life with Jessi and I! Remember, you can link up about anything, it doesn't have to be Pinterest-related!

What's hap-"pinning" with me this week is that MG and I have put ourselves on a self-imposed no-spend month. In addition to spending for the holidays, MG and I also booked a trip to Aruba in May for our friends' wedding....so we are all about saving a little right now. Which means that all of my "shopping" will have to be through eyesight alone, without any actual purchases.

Since the weather is now raging with Winter temps, these cozy things have been on my radar:

{via}                                                {via}                                                  {via}

I love those booties in the first two pics and think I need to find a pair once our no-spend month is over :)

And, because it's so cold, now I'm really looking forward to our Aruba trip, and I thought I'd tease myself (and you all along with me), with some pretty photos of the views we have to look forward to on that trip!

{via}                                                       {via}                                               {via}

Don't you feel warmer just looking at those beautiful pictures? Bring on the palm trees, turquoise water, white sand beaches and sunsets!
In the meantime, I'll be putting my mittens, heavy coat, scarf and hat on....:)

Now it's your turn to link up with us and share what's hap-"pinning" with you!

{Recipe Files}: Crock Pot Pasta Fagioli

I actually posted about this delicious soup a long long time ago (as in 3+ years ago), but since I made it this weekend, and remembered just how tasty it was, I thought I'd share it again with you guys today. 

It's another one from the crock pot lady over at A Year of Slow Cooking and it's a great one! So full of flavor, hearty, and just downright delicious!

Pasta fagioli in the crock pot--this recipe has a slight kick to it (nothing too spicy, just a little hint of something) that soaks in the longer this soup sits.

This isn't a recipe you'd make before leaving for work because the prep takes a bit more than dumping everything together. It's perfect for making on a Sunday afternoon so you have dinner ready for that night, and quite a bit of leftovers for the next day (or days).

What You Need:

-6 qt crock pot

-1 lb lean ground beef

Imagine salt, pepper and oregano are in the picture

-2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (we did no salt added cans to take away some of the sodium)

-4 cups (32 oz) beef broth
-about 1 cup of dry pasta

-26 oz pasta sauce

-1 can kidney beans

-1 can small white beans

-about 1 cup of carrots (or slightly more if you like)

-about 2-3 stalks of celery (or more if you like)

-1/2 large red onion

-1 Tablespoon of Tabasco sauce

-2 teaspoons oregano

-1/4 tsp pepper

-1/2 tsp salt

What You Do:

1. Brown the meat and then drain it well. Set it aside to cool.

 2. Chop up the carrots, celery and onion. Add it to the bottom of the crock pot.
3. Drain and rinse the cans of beans. Add them to the crock pot.

4. Add in the tomatoes, with the juices.

Im not sure why these look like neon tomatoes in the picture.
 I swear, they were totally not radioactive.

5. Add in the pasta sauce, beef broth, oregano, Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

6. Finally, add in the ground beef and stir everything to combine it.

7. Set the crockpot to LOW for 8 hours, or HIGH for 4 hours. About an hour before it's done, add in the dry pasta (I used more than one cup of dry pasta in mine--closer to 1 1/2 cups). Cook for another hour until the pasta is tender.

Serve with Parmesan cheese (I prefer grated, but shredded would be yummy too) if you have it.

This made two meals for dinner for us, and 5 servings worth of leftovers. Possibly more if you don't go back for seconds *cough cough...MG!*

NYE Weekending Highlights

Happy Monday and happy new year! I'm back to work today after 2 glorious (and really fast) weeks off...it might be a struggle this week. But, since it's been a bit, let's recap the NYE weekend!

My weekend highlights included:

~NYE get together prep--we had cheese/crackers/pepperoni, made buffalo chicken dip (which was a major success), spanakopita, and had pierogies but never ended up making them because there was so much buffalo chicken dip being eaten haha. And champagne and raspberries!

~Had 2 couple friends over for NYE celebrations: we had a pajama/sweats "themed" get together so that everyone who came was in total comfort. Before we knew it, we were counting down the ball dropping and ringing in the new year!

 

~One of the couples stayed over (intentionally...they'd brought an overnight bag), so we had a new years sleepover :)

~Slept in a bit on new year's day and got to watch the Rose Bowl Parade while eating yummy omelettes that MG made. I loved the Downton Abbey float!

~Had a super yummy lunch of grilled cheese and tomato bisque at Yard House

~saw The Big Short at the movies--wow was that movie good, and really informative...and also slightly terrifying of where things are headed. Highly recommend it!

{via}

~My in-laws came into town for the night for a funeral in DC on Saturday for a priest who was also a family friend, so they stayed with us Friday night and we got to watch their pup during the day on Saturday (aka, she played with Cooper the whole time)

~Hung up a new mirror for our entryway that I found at the HomeGoods in PA when we were up there. The bigger mirror totally makes a difference from the small one we had before. Thank you, HomeGoods!

~Said good-bye to Christmas as we packed away our tree and all of the Christmas decor around the house

~Made plans to finally paint our master bedroom since my father-in-law brought us an extendable ladder so we can paint the super high wall on the one side of our room. I can't wait for our room to finally have some color and personality.

~Went into Georgetown to meet up with MG's parents and family friends from the funeral of the priest who had passed. He was also behind creating Dog Tag Bakery, where we all met up, which supports veterans in various ways including a place to work #bakingadifference

If you're in the area, I highly encourage you to stop by Dog Tag Bakery and support this delicious place that gives back to, and supports, our military service members.

~Said good-bye to MG's parents as they headed back to PA after the funeral

~Got addicted to Making a Murderer on Netflix thanks to my bestie--if you haven't seen it yet, you HAVE to! It is insane, and addicting, and maddening....a must watch!

~Went out to dinner with MG in Old Town for a little date night by the water front--I got the mahi mahi tacos and MG got the jambalaya. Both were SO good!

~Got in some good cuddles with Cooper who has thoroughly enjoyed all of the extra snuggle time he's gotten on Winter Break

~Ran errands, put my pasta fagioli recipe in the crock pot for dinner (delish!) and then went for a 4 mile walk over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge from Virginia into Maryland, and then back again

~Watched some football, mainly the Skins/Cowboys game (yay for a win!) and the Vikings/Packers game

~Rested up to prepare to go back to work and watched the first episode of the last season of Downton Abbey

All in all, our New Year so far has been pretty great...and tasty! :) I hope you all are adjusting back into real life again after all of the fun and festivities!

Linking up with Biana and Meghan for Weekending:

Bring on 2016!

Happy New Year!!!

We said goodbye to an incredible year yesterday, and now it's time to look forward to all of the exciting and wonderful things that 2016 holds!

Happy new year, friends!