happy birthday jb!

today is my hubby's 28th birthday, if we were rounding to the nearest tenth he would be 30.  which would mean i am almost 30, good thing we aren't rounding.  anyway, i love him so much.  he adds so much to my life.  here are a few of my things about my sweet jb. 

• he is the most joyful person i know and consistently so. 
• he laughs easily and often.
• he is the most genuine person i have ever met.  he honestly cares so much for others.
• he remembers the smallest details of what i tell him.
• i look at him sometimes and feel the sudden urge to just make-out. 
• he takes his role as a husband seriously. 
• he leads us in the Word and in prayer often.
• he takes the dogs out at 1 am, 2 am, 3:30 am, 3:40 am and 5 am without complaint.  i hope this arrangment still stands if the Lord gives us kiddos.
• when he orders at a restaurant and is getting a dish that contains a food i don't like he will order it without so that i won't taste it if i want a bite or kiss him.
• he calls and texts me throughout the day.
• he plays air guitar on the dogs which they adore and it makes me laugh...

• not only do the girls adore air guitar but seriously they adore him...

• i love that he tagged the back of our dresser...

• he is such a joyful servant.  here's an example, we took our car to a drive-thru-car wash.  of course, the windows were still wet and there were no paper towels.  he happily hopped out and wiped them all with his jacket sleeve...



• i love the way he quietly takes care of me and makes my life less tangled...

 

• more than anything i love that i am called to be your wife and best friend.  i am more thankful for your life than i was 28 years ago and i am not just saying that because i was 3 months gestation at the time.  i love, love, love you.

happy birthday sweet jb!

in love with...

my new watch!  well...it's not that new but you know i am still trying to play catch-up .  i bought this large watch for $28!  not bad right?  it is rose gold.  when john first saw it he said something along the lines of, "wow it's big and it matches your hair!"  thank you?  i love it because it adds a little bit of dress up to any outfit.  i love anything that makes me look like i tried to pull myself together. 

what accessories are you loving for summer?

weekly menu

happy tuesday everyone!  have you recovered from mother's day weekend?  with a mom, step-mother and mother-in-law i was a busy bee this weekend.  it was filled with so much fun and i am honored to celebrate these women in my life.

so this week's menu is a mix of some new recipes and some recipes that we ate 2 weeks ago.  i was struggling for inspiration!

monday-  the gnocchi kick lives on!  this recipe was up to bat since we bought swiss chard at the farmer's    market this weekend!  playing side kick to the gnocchi was this salad.  i used tangerine juice instead of oj for the dressing, delish.

tuesday- another re-run from a few week's ago...chicken alfredo pizza.  the healthier alfredo sauce was delish and i had enough leftover to freeze.  that means tonight's pizza will come together even faster!  all i need to do is cook the chicken in lemon pepper and then add some frozen broccoli to the mix.  as emeril would say "bam!"

wednesday- this one is a newbie!  pineapple teriyaki chicken  served with basmati rice and snow peas.  i will keep you posted on if this is a success or flop.

thursday- mozzarella-stuffed turkey burgers.  this is my fav recipe for burgers.  to make this recipe even faster i bought trader's joe's bruschetta this week. 

friday- we will be celebrating my hubby's birthday with my dad and step-mom.  whoo hoo!

saturday- same story...we will be celebrating the hub's birthday but with my mom and step-dad.  whoo hoo!  there are perks to having divorced parents, more celebrations! 

sunday-bruschetta chicken pasta. this recipe is speedy and will help me use up any leftover bruschetta sauce from the burger's on thursday night! 


happy eats!  

what are some of the fun traditions you and your family do to celebrate birthdays?  not that i am fishing for ideas for my husband birthday coming up or anything...it's just friendly conversation.

my birthday falls in the middle of flu season and as i gift to myself i usually had the stomach flu on my birthday.  then others would get the flu too.  i mean the flu really is the gift that keeps on giving.  my childhood birthday pictures are of me laying on the couch, pale, with a bucket in one hand and a cold-rag on my forehead.  what can i say?  i was a party animal from the beginning.  if i was a little older in the pictures i may have been able to pass as a wild child that was recovering from a night of partying.  so with that in mind, what was the best and worst birthday you ever had?

the maple kind?

to get your weekend started off with a laugh click below...

thanks to our friends greg and caitelen for introducing us to this hilarious video!

praying for....

you may remember that we weekly draw a picture and pray for the people in the picture.  this week i grabbed this pic...

gianna, coco plum, laura and jess

this ladies are so special to me,  they have all counseled me during the dark seasons of life and have shared with me in the many joys of life too.  gianna was my first roommate, she can be trusted with any secret and is one of my first calls when life is hard.   in my phone she is listed under italian stallion because of her immense love for rocky and all 22 of his movies.  i always forget that she is under that name and when i go to call her it takes me a few seconds to find her number.  i know that i am with gianna i will have a good laugh and an entire bowl of brownie batter, with one egg, because we know how to compromise. 

laura is my sister though not my blood.   she is my example in so many ways.  laura wrote me a letter each week for the last 2 months before i got married.  they are treasured letters that house much wisdom.  laura taught me how to drive a standard car and how to sprout my own oats. 

jess is the sweetest friend. she is that friend that you can pick up with no matter where you have left off.  jess will always be honest, challenging and loving in our conversations.  we use to work together in a hospital and i have cleaned up more poo with that women than anyone.  that is a strong bond that cannot be broken.

what do all of these ladies have in common?  they are either about to have a baby or are already raising babies.  so our biggest prayer has been for them as they prepare or are already doing the hard work of motherhood.

speaking of mothers what are you doing for your mom on mother's day?

sickness go away

sorry for the lack of posts lately.  just when i say i am going to try and catch up, i instead catch a stomach bug.  yuck.  it started on friday which was extra lame because that meant i could not go to my friends kate and will's wedding.  maybe you heard but they had a little wedding celebration on friday.  they must have known i was going to be sick and that's why my wedding invitation never came.  either way, while kate was rocking the 7 meter long train on her wedding dress, i was pulling my chicago bear snuggie's train around the house.  just a notch less glam.

i thought it might be a lil bug until yesterday when i started feeling better and thus decided to eat out at the same restaurant i ate at the first day i started feeling bad. well a coworker and i ordered the same thing (in fact it was the same dish i ordered when i first got sick) and bam! i was back to feel down right punk and my coworker got sick too. then i get an email at work stating that a salmonella outbreak was being a reported with tomatoes. well we both ate tomatoes yesterday and i ate them thursday too. salmonella? who knows but seriously salmonella don't bully me anymore!


whatever it is my sweet husband has been kind enough to hold up his end of the vows, in sickness and in health.  he text my mom friday for tips on how to take care of his sick wife.  he came home from work with soup, saltine's and ginger ale.  nicely played hubs.  while i was out of comission i also watched so much 48 hours mystery, probably 48 hours worth.  please let me tell you if that if watch one of those 48 hours mystery shows, watch the wm3 episode.  it is so unbeliveable.  also make sure it is daylight and lock your doors.  don't be home alone so that you aren't scared.

so yesterday was my only full day back to work and delia did not fail to make me laugh. her line yesterday was, "one bad one ruins the applesauce".  which i think means, "one bad apple ruins the bunch." 

weekly menu

remember when i was so faithful to blog everyday?   remember the good ol' days when i would post my weekly menus on mondays for y'all to read?  yeah...me either. 

this week's menu:

monday: gnocchi with zucchini ribbon, parsley and brown butter  served with trader joe's mix of colorful broccoli and cauliflower!

since i can never follow directions well, even in a recipe, i mixed things up.  after boiling the gnocchi, i sauteed them in a bit of olive oil so they would have a little crunch on the outside.  i highly recommend that method.  instead of butter i did olive oil and substituted shallots for garlic....and tried parsley instead of fresh.  other than that i followed the recipe.  even though it sounds weird i did add the nutmeg and will add it every time.  nutmeg where have you been hiding, you are delish in savory dishes!  may i also say that i love the little squish of flavor that cherry tomatoes add to recipes.  thank you for letting me get that out...i feel better. 

so every week we try and buy one new food to try.  sometimes it is a number 1 hit and other times it's as bad as clay aiken making his 5th album.  gnocchi was our new food last week, we are still trying to pronounce it but as ludacris says, "call up jazze tell him to pop up the bottles cuz we got another hit, hit, hit".   it is some delish stuff.  my favorite is trader joe's whole wheat gnocchi.  it's a bit healthier and just as tasty as regular gnocchi.  the first gnocchi recipe that i made was last week.  it's hard to pick a favorite between the two.  you can find the recipe for the gnocchi dish pictured below here .  give it a whirl, i think you will even like the chard!

tuesday: corn-meal crusted chicken nuggets served with fresh veggies

i made the sauce (included in the recipe) with raspberries instead of blackberries


wednesday:  chicken and broccoli alfredo pizza.   we had this pizza on our honeymoon and went back a few times during our trip to have more!  i have been wanting to re-create this delish pizza at home.  to make it  healthier i am using whole wheat crust and this recipe  for the sauce.

thursday: stir fry

friday: well let's just say we will cross that bridge when we get there.


what new foods have you tried lately?