happy 4th!

I'm a little sad that the 4th of July fell on a Wednesday this year.  I can't fully enjoy the holiday because I have to go back to work tomorrow.  We spent the day cleaning, but I did manage to make this trifle this morning (thanks to Pinterest).  It's made with layers of angel food cake, blueberries, cool whip and strawberries (that's for you, Cyn).  Paul is grilling some burgers for us soon, then we're off to watch some fireworks later on tonight.  That is, if we don't fall asleep.

Happy Birthday, America!

PS.  And Happy belated Birthday to Canada on July 1st.  Sorry I didn't get to celebrate you, but I'm sporting some red and white today!

easter

My Easter outfit

My sister just got back from her Europe trip and brought us some macarons from Paris.  Fancy and so delicious!  She also got me a scarf, English Tea from London, chocolates and a Gaudi owl figurine from Barcelona.

My Mom enjoying some coffee and a cookie with B.

Some of the food.  We had ribs, chicken, and bratwurst that Paul barbecued, broiled veggies, hash brown casserole, coleslaw, and Strawberry Pretzel Squares for dessert.  I hope to post some of the recipes soon.

My sister took this picture when she was playing with my camera.

Bailey admiring our food from the couch.  Don't feel sorry for her.  My Mom was giving her food.

The ladies.

I was laughing at my Mom's stance here as she was taking our picture.

Paul holding baby Weston.  He is getting so big!

Playing XBox360 with niece Corinne.

It was quite a productive weekend.  Saturday, we worked on the yard (more on that on another post).  We finished off our day with some Thai food, alchoholic beverage and Starbucks (what a combo).  Paul boiled us some eggs on Easter to bring us good luck (a Polish tradition), and spent time with family over good food.  I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!  I hope you all had a good one!

happy 2012!

I hope you all had a fabulous time ringing in the New Year.  The last few days of 2011 was pretty calm for us.  Did a lot of cleaning for a fresh start.  Here are some Instagram pics from the weekend.

12/30/11 - I spent most of my day off with my Mom.  I played with her new Keurig that us "kids" gave her for Christmas.  This is my first time ever to use one, and I was intrigued by how it worked.  So anyway, this is my analysis on how that k-cup turns into coffee.  Yup, I am a loser. 


12/31/11 - I went for a run to finish off the year.  According to Run My Route,  I ran about 3.26 miles.  Not bad for not running since probably close to Thanksgiving.  Eek!  And I don't even want to mention how long it took me.  I've neglected Words With Friends for a while, but since the holidays, I've had more time to actually keep up.  96 points is probably the highest I've ever gotten.  What is your highest scoring word?

So this was my outfit for New Year's Eve.  We were going to a pub and we had to dress in black and/or white.  Does this scream "off to work", and not so "happy new year"-ish?  Oh well.  I wanted to cover my rolls stay warm (please excuse the white mark on the mirror on my right leg.  I thought I windexed it pretty good).  And this is my first "outfit pic with my phone in front of a mirror" post.  Nervous!  I don't recommend this, but I do send pics like this to my sister and my cousin to get their approval on outfits.  Don't act like you haven't done this before!

I put on some red lips and gold necklace for the night.  The whole time though, I was paranoid that lipstick got on my teeth, and my brother said it was too "bright," but what do boys know! 

We had dinner at my sister's boyfriend's brother's house (did you get all that?) before heading out to the The Londoner.  Justin was the best man at our wedding, and his birthday is on NYE.  I'm glad we were there to celebrate with him.  The picture on the right was taken about 20 minutes before midnight.  That's the birthday boy, and right behind him is an ambulance that came to wheel someone out of the pub.  What a terrible way to end the year. 


After two failed attempts at taking a picture with one hand, I finally asked someone to take our picture.  So this is technically our third picture of 2012.  The one on the right is basically my point of view all the time, since Paul is 6'3" and I'm 5'1", although I think I took this when I was sitting down.  Not too shabby of a view, if I do say so myself. 


01/02/11 - One of my New Year's resolutions is to read more books.  More about my resolutions on another post.  My brother-in-law is staying with us for a month until they can move into their new house, so that gave me a good reason to buy new lamps for our bedroom that I've been bugging Paul about.  More on that too. 

And now I'm back to work, and have the case of the "Mondays" on a Tuesday.  It's always a struggle going back after the holidays.  And it's going to take me a few months to get used to writing 2012 on everything!

christmas weekend

And just like that, Christmas is over.  Here are a few Instagram pics from the weekend.

We left for Houston on Friday.  It was nice to be able to sleep in, actually enjoy a cup of coffee, and take our time.  On the road, I got bored.  I took a picture of my new (and first) pair of Toms from my sister. 

And I would like for you to meet my new love, Stella.  She is a Canon EOS Rebel T3i, and it was love at first shot!  I've been hinting at Paul for an SLR, but completely ruled it out this Christmas since we just recently bought a load of furniture for the house.  So she was a very nice surprise.  It's actually my Christmas and early birthday present.  He loves me, and I'm so grateful!  Oh, and he also got me our very first board game - Cranium!  It's sort of a joke because I hosted a Games Night with some girl friends a few months ago and we had absolutely zero board games (how'd you like that Mr. AZ reference?!).

I've been wearing the same pajamas for Christmas since 2008.  I hope to continue that tradition for as long as I can! 

My mother-in-law made Paul's favorite cherry pie for dessert.  We had wigilia on Christmas Eve, which is the traditional Polish supper held on December 24th.  We shared the oplatek and had salmon, tilapia, mushroom soup, coleslaw, pierogies stuffed with cheese and potatoes (which I helped stuff), shrimp cocktails,  and sauerkraut in observance of the Black Fast (no red meat).  Lucky for me, I love seafood.  This is a complete opposite of what my family does on Christmas Eve.  In the Filipino tradition, we have nochebuena, where is basically another Thanksgiving feast, with turkey, ham, and a roasted pig (or lechon) as an added bonus.  We did sort of combine the two traditions when we had Christmas at our house last year.  We shared the oplatek with one another, but ate meat! 

We've driven this route many times before, and I am just now able to snap a decent picture of Sam Houston.  My excuses are either a) I'm talking b) can't get a good shot, or c) (and most likely the case) I've fallen asleep after driving for less than 30 minutes.  I've come to a conclusion that I can pretty much sleep anywhere, anytime!  We rarely make any rest stops, but, I'm glad we did because I saw this pretty tiling in the restroom.

All in all, we had a fabulous Christmas!  There was a lot of family time and stuffing ourselves with food.  I also drank enough coffee that could last me through the new year - which is, by the way, in less than a week!  Can't believe it!  Make every last day of 2011 count!

How was your Christmas?  Did you get what you wished for?  Are you about 10 lbs heavier?  I hear ya!

be merry

We are on our way to Houston as we speak. I'm looking forward to my first Polish Christmas!

Wishing you all a very safe and Merry Christmas filled with love, happiness, and good food!

deck the halls...

I've been meaning to change our theme this year, but never got around to it.  So we stuck with the same red, green and gold theme.

Our tree is two years old.  I got it at Garden Ridge for I think $79!  It stands at 7.5 feet tall, and pre-lit, although the lights on one side has never worked.  This year, more lights have died on us, so I had to put two strings of lights on the tree instead of one.  I'm not sure if you notice but there are more lights at the bottom of the tree than on the top.  Paul realized this after I'd hung all the ornaments, and I was NOT going to mess with it.  It does make me cringe a little knowing that the lights aren't equally distributed, but there's always next year.  (Ahh, i shouldn't have told you.  Now you're looking at the top of the tree right - RIGHT?)

I kept the same ornaments and the same ribbons as the past two years.  Except we may have thrown away some of the red and gold ones with glitter detailing by accident last year, so I bought some new ones that looked a little similar.  We have some ornaments that Paul made when he was in elementary school and they're so cute!  I did throw away the swirly, glittery sticks that I used last year and bought new ones this year because it had almost no glitter left.  I stuck them in random spots and put more around the top of the tree to emphasize the star. 

Didn't really change a whole lot with the rest of the room.  We had to move our studly chairs so we could put the tree in front of the window.  I replaced the pillows to red ones that we already had to make it more festive.  Our side table is the same, except I added this gold reindeer that I found at Goodwill and filled it with decorative pine cones. 

Our dining table looks a little blah.  I'll try harder next year.

Here's another close up of my pine cone topiaries.

Oh and here are our chairs!  They came in over Thanksgiving weekend.  The cushion is nice on your bum, and they're as solid as the table.  Now we just need to get some head chairs.

For our little console table in the entryway, I put some pine cones and extra ornaments in a cloche and a tall vase.  I wanted real branches to put in the vase, but had no luck finding any large pieces in the backyard.  So, I just bought these at Michael's.  I found this candle on the Square in one of the antique stores.  I don't know if you can see it, but it's called "The Smell of Christmas."

This is our mantle in the family room.  You can't really do too much to it because it's not very wide.  It's always a challenge having to balance these two lit trees and garland.  Everything is the same, except I added ornaments on the garland.  We really need to get new stockings!  I got Paul's stocking for him one Christmas, and then when we got Bailey in 2007, I made her one, and made mine too.  As you can tell, I gave up when I got to mine.  Those are supposed to be bells next to my name.

We had a girls' night a few years ago where we decorated our own wreaths.  I've been hanging mine up on our pantry door every year. 

Next Christmas, I'm thinking about changing our theme to green, blue and gold.  All I really need are blue ornaments and I can reuse my green and gold ones.  They go on mega (Jamie Oliver style) sale after Christmas, so I'll see how much is left. 

The house just looks a lot better with Christmas decorations.  The neighborhood looks more cheerful when houses are glowing with Christmas lights.  I wish it was Christmas every day!