What's Up Wednesday

It is time for a What's Up Wednesday.

What we're eating this week:  I only get them a couple of times a month but this week was one of the weeks I got a meal prep delivery box.  I had Korean Chicken Tacos that were very good and this a fried rice bowl thing that was also very good.

What I'm reminiscing about: I have been working on figuring out which photos from our honeymoon to print and put on the walls so it is only fitting that I am reminiscing about the wonderful time we had in Europe. I can't wait until we can take another trip like this but I think it is going to be at least a few years.

What I'm loving: I am loving that after a quiet weekend at home our living areas are all clean and decorated for St. Patrick's Day.  My husband even swept all the leaves off of our patio. Even though our new place is only a few hundred square feet bigger than our previous condo it feels so much more spacious and organized because we have a garage to store things in.

What we've been up to: A couple of weeks ago my husband and I headed down to Monterey for the CSUMB Have a Heart for Students Auction. We don't get too many chances to get all dressed up and I always love seeing my husband all fancy so it was a very fun night. Despite the fact that it is still winter I decided to wear more of a spring floral dress instead.

What I'm dreading: I have had a bunch of doctor's appointments recently and been on some medication recently so I am hoping all of this comes to an end soon. Sorry to be vague but more on this topic at a later time. Nothing life threatening but still no fun.

What I'm working on: I am working on eating healthy and continuing to go to the gym consistently. I am in a weight loss challenge at work. I probably won't win but it would be great if I did. I got a couple of new workout pieces in the mail yesterday but haven't had a chance to try take pictures in them.  I always love the high waisted Zella leggings so when I saw this pair on sale I needed them and I am always on the lookout for a good comfy hoodie and this one fit the bill

What I'm excited about: I am leaving on Friday for a little trip to Disneyland. I have an annual pass and I probably won't renew it when it expires so I am taking advantage of it while I have it. During March and April there is a food and wine festival at California Adventure that is really fun so I am excited to go during the festival. Last year the cheddar ale soup was one of my favorites so I can't wait to see what food they have this year. The festival starts Friday so the menu should be released any day now.

What I'm watching/reading: My husband and I are caught up on the current season of Walking Dead and have also started to watch Peaky Blinders. A few weeks ago all 15 seasons of ER showed up on Hulu so I am slowly working my way thorough that. I have seen some whole seasons and others episodes as reruns but have never watched the whole thing in chronological order. I am all the way through season 4 and just started season 5.

What I'm listening to: Mostly whatever comes on my Pandora which is usually a mix of country and a random mix of 90s-00s pop music.  Everyone needs some Britney in their life every once in a while.

What I'm wearing: 

I got these fabulous shoes for Christmas and have been enjoying adding a little glitter to my outfits this month. Mine are rose gold but they come in all kinds of other glittery colors too.

In preparation for my trip to Disneyland (and for the gym) I got a new pair of gym shoes last week and have been breaking them in.  I have worn them to the gym 3 or 4 times and I think they are going to be perfectly comfy for walking miles and miles around Disneyland.

What I'm doing this weekend: My grand plans are to hop on a plane and fly down to Orange County to visit the Happiest Place on Earth. Disneyland!

Happy Wednesday!

St Patrick's Day Decorations

Now that we are all done with Valentine's Day and the season of reds and pinks I have outfitted my house in green in preparation for St. Patrick's Day.

Since it is only a couple of weeks until St. Patrick's Day I decided to just put up a few decorations in our living room.  I have a hook that the previous occupants left in our kitchen so I put up this little leprechaun. 

I have grand plans for putting a long vertical picture frame on this wall but have yet to find the perfect frame (or print the photos I plan to use) so in the meantime I threw this sign up there.

I put a couple of shamrock accessories on our TV stand. Gotta love the Target Dollar Spot for holiday decorations.

I left the wine corks and silver balls that I put up for Valentine's and added a little leprechaun and a green sparkly quote. I have always loved this quote.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to put on this table but I ended up just putting a wooden shamrock and draping some green garland.  Usually I put this garland in a vase as filler but I needed something to fill the space on the table because the shamrock looked kind of lonely on its own. 

I am going to enjoy the splashes of green around my house for the next few weeks before it is time to put up some Easter and some spring decorations! It is so tempting to buy new decorations since I have a whole new (larger) place to decorate but I didn't buy anything this time.

Valentine's/Weekend Wrap-up

Since Valentine's Day fell on a Wednesday this year we decided to have a low key dinner at home.  Ok in all reality even if it had fallen on a weekend we probably still would have opted for a low key dinner at home. I made twice baked potatoes and roasted some asparagus and then my husband made us some steaks to go with it. Not pictured are the delicious chocolate lava cakes that I got at Costco for dessert. 

I got my husband some fun candy, a card and wrapped all the beer cans in the refrigerator with valentine's messages of love.  He knows me well and got me a card, a big ole Reese's heart and a gorgeous bunch of flowers. There were so many flowers that in addition to this vase of flowers I also had to use a little one to hold all the flowers.

This weekend we went down to Monterey County to attend a charity auction at CSUMB that my mom is the chairperson of. We headed down early in the morning so that we could help her (and the rest of the committee) with the set up for the silent auction and help decorate the tables.

We finished helping set up around lunchtime so on the way to my parents house to relax for the afternoon before getting ready for the auction we stopped at Tarpy's for lunch. I took my husband there a couple of years ago and he fell in love with it and he has declared it his favorite nicer lunch spot in Monterey County. I had the macadamia crusted mahi mahi with fingerling potatoes, tropical salsa and a beet vinaigrette. It was so vibrant and absolutely delicious. My husband had a smoked brisket sandwich with potato salad which was also absolutely delicious.

After relaxing at my parent's house for a couple of hours we got all dressed up to attend the auction. Even though it is still winter I decided to wear a new floral dress and I accessorized with some new gold hoops and my gold tassel necklace.

Once we got to the auction I couldn't resist taking a few pictures to document how cute my husband looked all dressed up in his new green dress shirt that looks at bit more teal in the picture than it is in real life.  We were there right at the beginning so we had time for pictures before it got too crowded.

I also snuck in a few pictures with my mom before the auction really got going.  My dad was there too but he managed to escape the camera this time.

After the silent auction portion was over we headed to our table for dinner and the live auction portion of the evening. The theme of the auction is Have a Heart for Students so it was fitting that the decorations were hearts and roses.  The party favors were a little bag of chocolates from my uncle's Dilettante Chocolate company.

I had the vegetarian dish for dinner while my husband had the filet minion. Mine was good but his was amazing.  While we did bid on some things in the silent auction the live auction is a little beyond our budget at this point.  We had fun watching other people bid on some fabulous things.

The only thing we went home with was a case of Martinelli's but we were happy about it.  Sunday we slept in at my parent's house and then grabbed a quick lunch Fosters Freeze before heading home. Since we hit no traffic going home we got to spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing at home.

I hit the gym Monday morning before heading out to lunch with my husband and running a few errands.  A nice way to end a three day weekend!

10 on the 10th-10 Best Memories with Your Spouse

This week I am linking up with a new (to me) link-up called 10 on the 10th.  Yes, I know today is the 12th but it gets moved when the 10th is a weekend. This months topic is best moments with your spouse.

I met my husband in grad school and we started dating about 6 weeks before I graduated. Even that early in the relationship I knew this was something serious so I was so happy to have him at my graduation. Since we had only been dating a short time the night before graduation was the first time he met my parents since we figured it would be better if he met them before sitting next to them at the very long graduation ceremony. Six months later it was my turn to sit in the stands with his family when he graduated!

I love this picture of us the night we got engaged! He proposed on Christmas Eve outside the church I grew up in with my whole immediate there to witness it. I barley let him get his whole speech out before I said yes.

A few months after we got engaged we went to to Hawaii with my family to celebrate my mom's birthday. This was actually the first long flight (but definitely not the last) long flight we took together. We had such a nice time on this trip just relaxing and doing a bit of weeding research since we had decided to get married in Hawaii the next year.

Due to my husband's mom's health issues we ended up getting married about 7 months before we had planned to. This was one of the best decisions we have made in our relationship.  His mother only lived about another month after we got married so we are both so glad we decided to pull together a wedding early. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception at my parent's house was so much fun.

Even though we legally got married the previous November we went ahead with the original wedding we had planned for Hawaii. This was the wedding I had always dreamed of and it was absolutely perfect. The whole trip with both of our families and all of our friends was wonderful.

We got married in June but didn't go on our Honeymoon until September because we decided we wanted to go to Germany during Octoberfest.  We not only went to Munich but Salzburg and Prague too. Every time either of us is having a bad day all we have to do is think back to all the fun we had on this trip and it brings a smile to our face. It is going to be a while before we are able to go on such a long and far away trip but it gives us something to look forward to in the future.

I don't know whether this is one specific memory but there is something special about celebrating the Christmas holiday and my birthday with him by my side that is special. He humors me and takes me to get a real Christmas tree every year and puts up with boxes upon boxes of decorations being stored in our garage.

This past summer we embarked on a great adventure when we packed up and moved to a bigger place. While it didn't always go as we planned and took much longer than we hoped it was a good decision. While we have been here a little over 6 months and I still feel like we are settling in I just know we are going to have a lot of good memories in this place together.

I will always remember the first holiday we hosted together. Since we finally had a place big enough we hosted Thanksgiving this year for my husband's family and my parents. It was a little bit cramped at the table and we had a few little hiccups but overall it was a success. 

Both for the night after we got married and for our first anniversary we took a little overnight trip to Monterey. I grew up about 20 minutes from Monterey so it is weird and kind of fun to come back here with my husband as a tourist.  As it is only about an hour away from where we live now I predict many little getaways to Monterey in our future.

Five Friday Foods

Rather than do a normal Friday Five Favorite things this week I decided to do 5 things I have eaten recently.  Don't read this if you are hungry because it will only make you more hungry.  

After seeing them all over the internet for months I finally tried the 5 ingredient bagel recipe last week. They lived up to the hype and were delicious.  We cooked some eggs and used leftover ham to make them into breakfast sandwiches.  We added a side of asparagus to make it into a whole dinner.

Last week was my sister in law's birthday so we headed to a Mexican restaurant near our house to celebrate. Can't go there and not get a swirl!

Last weekend I had a date night with my husband. I had been craving sushi for the last few weeks so sushi it was.  We ended up going to Marie Calendars afterwards and having pie for dessert instead of eating there. Such a fun date night!

After a busy December and lots of eating out I am happy to be cooking more again. Last week I got a box delivered by Plated and had fun cooking things up.  This chicken and orzo dish was delicious.

Last week I also made this Thai Peanut Chicken dish.  The serving size was so generous that instead of two servings like the recipe said I actually turned it into three.

Hungry yet?

Stitch Fix #30

My January Stitch Fix box came while my husband was sick so it took me a while to try everything on.

The first thing I tried was this faux wrap dress. In theory wrap dresses should look good on me but they just never do. I like the colors of this one but as usual the chest part just looked awkward on me.

I had asked for some loungewear in this fix so they sent me these black joggers.  While they were probably technically the right size when I wear loungewear I want it to be loose and comfy so I sent these pants back.

This shirt was also sent to me as an option for loungewear. The trouble with oh so many white shirts is that there is a fine line between too see through and too thick. This one ended up on the too think side and even with a nude bra I could see my bra so it went back.

I also asked for some sparkly flats since I pretty much live in flats at work (ok and at home too) and always love sparkly things.  These shoes weren't quite what I was looking for since they were kind of a snake skin pattern. They kind of reminded me of Tieks but less well made.

The fifth item in my box was my favorite and obviously the one I kept. This green jacket is almost identical to a pink jacket I got last year. I wear the pink one so much I decided I could justify getting this one since it was a different color!

If you want your own Stitch Fix box you can get one by clicking here and signing up.