Happy Birthday Meg!

Today is my sis' 19th birthday! I know this sounds cheesy, but it does just seem like yesterday that I was trying to figure what to name my real life "baby-doll." We are just about 8 years apart, so I felt like I waited forever for a sibling. I wanted one so bad I even had make-believe friends (don't judge me, I was a lonely, only child!) My parents really did let me name her... I have no clue why, but they did. I seriously treated her like my own child. She slept in my room until she got to "cool" for that. I was so happy to have a sibling, but because I was so much older, I also tried to be her boss, which did not work out so well. She did not appreciate having 2 moms (and probably still doesn't.) I feel so old now that she is in college, but oh so thankful to be living int he same city with her. She is amazing. She has a great heart and has such a love for others. I'm looking forward to these next few years of growing closer together.

So Happy 19th Birthday Meg!

 meg and her baby, Bruiser

A look back from this past year...

I love you Meg!

Love,
Sister

Vegas Baby!

Well I secretly snuck away to Vegas this past weekend with some friends. It was soo last minute and probably the most spontaneous thing I have ever done, but it was such a BLAST. It was my first time, so I was way overwhelmed with all of the sights! We spent one day at the Bellagio spa which was just incredible and just what I needed after a crappy week.  We did some gambling and lots of walking around. I was amazed at all of the casino and resorts there. They are all so elaborate and wonderful. It makes me think of cruise ships on steroids. Ha!

 

 We also tried out Serendipity 3 (same as the one in NYC)!!!

It was super yummy!

We also went to the Cirque de Soleil Love show. It was awesome and plus I love me some Beatles music!

Sorry, I have no really great pics, because I definitely forgot my camera in the midst of my lack of planning for this trip. Oh well, I always have the images in my head!

 On a different note...

Sorry I've been a little MIA in the blog world. I have just felt a little un-inspired lately. I have lots of posts that I write in my head but I just never sit down and take the time to do them, nor am I brave enough to actually post them on here. I hope to start writing about it soon though. Thanks for sticking with me all you faithful blog readers.

My new Obsession

Meet Mr. Dolce Gusto.

He is my new found love in my kitchen

He makes me yummy lattes in the mornings

when my eyes won't open.

He has many other great flavors, such as the vanilla macchiato latte, cappuccino, or mocha!

He can make hot, cold, or decaf beverages.

I love him.

Ok for real though, this thing is awesome. I'm not a regular coffee drinker. If I do partake in any type of regular black coffee, it is because I'm simply desperate to wake up and by the time I get finished doctoring it up, it looks like milk. On the other hand, I do love me some starbucks mochas and lattes. Since the Keruigs have come out with their fancy "pod" technology, I have thought to myself (well over a year now) someone should really invent one of those machines that can make lattes and mochas.

Well Marc and I were at Walmart right after Christmas because we had some gift cards burning a hole in our pockets and lo and behold I came across this little beauty and was in love instantly. I was so happy to have finally found something that would instantly make me a latte.

Now I went home that night and did my research on this thing, because I didn't want to buy some crap machine. I looked at all the reviews on several different sites, and I honestly could not find one bad review. Everyone rant and raved about this one particular brand. So I was instantly sold. I ordered it online from Walmart.com, because they were currently out in the store (side note, site to store is awesome, free shipping). I made my first one last week and it really was yummy and had a great taste to it. How it works is that a box of pods comes with 16, 8 coffee and 8 milk pods. Its a 2 step process. You put the coffee pod in, then the milk pod. It steams the milk and voila you have an awesome latte. It literally takes 2 minutes and it makes about 7oz.

I promise I'm not getting paid for this, I just really was impressed with this machine. You can check it all out at http://www.dolce-gusto.us/Public/Default.aspx

They also have other styles that are larger than the one I have and they look really cool!

Operation: Garage Project

Our goal while we were off work was to clean out our garage. We had tons of crap in there that needed to be hauled off to the salvation army. So Marc had the idea to build some shelving in our gagrage since we don't have a ton of storage in our house. We went to Lowes and bought all of our material, the the fun began on Sunday.

painting

 hanging chains

 all hung w/ Christmas bins on top!

ta-da!  Finished product.

I'm so impressed. He constructed this all on his own and then had a couple of people help hang them. I love it. It is a great use of that wasted space above the garage door. He also was able to take a huge load to salvation army and now we don't have near as much junk! That always feel good, especially at the beginning of a new year.

Happy 2011!

Better late than never I guess. We had a great new years eve with several of our friends over at the Smiths household. We had yummy food and played some fun games. I may sounds old, but it definitely beat the heck out of fighting all the crazy crowds!

 all the girls!

 katie and I

 marc wasn't quite ready for this

 classic louise and i

Kara (& baby Ellery), Ben and Leah

I hope you all had a great new years. We had a great few days off and go tons done around our house. We did lots of cleaning and purging. I will show you a fun project Marc did in my next post, I was pretty impressed so I can't wait to show you.