Happy Halloween!

Isn't that picture the most adorable thing? We're not dressing Spencer up this year (Sailor Boy wouldn't let me). We have a few Halloween parties to go to tonight, as well as handing out candy to the neighborhood kids. I'm happy to get rid of all that candy thats been staring me in the face all week!

We have a pretty fun and funny costume planned for tonight. I'm not going to say what it is, because I think the pictures will be better than the explanation. I'll be sure to post them this weekend.

Oh and Happy Birthday to Sailor Boy today!! hehe...he's the big 2-9! One more year of his 20's. I was a nice girlfriend today and made him breakfast in bed. I also baked him cupcakes last night to take with us to the parties tonight. Let's just hope Spencer doesn't eat them like she ate my birthday cake!!

Hope everyone has a great and spooky Halloween!

Giggles

I have been emailing back and forth with one of my brides who is getting married in a few weeks. She added her fiance to our email chain so he would be in the loop with what we were discussing. Well as I was looking at the email after she put him in the "CC" line, I noticed it said "Pooh Bear" before his email (like where you can put in nicknames for people on your email). Obviously everytime she types his email address in her email, it pops up "Pooh Bear", but I'm not sure if she realizes that the other people she sends it to can see it too. I got quite a kick out of that.

Then I noticed that in my Outlook Express, everytime I would go to enter his email, it now pops up "Pooh Bear" in my email address box too!! haha...I'm tempted to call him Pooh Bear the next time I see him!! It reminds me of Legally Blonde!

Day 2

It's my 2nd day off from work and I promised myself I would actually do more today than I did yesterday. I had all these shopping plans yesterday, but I was just so exhausted that most of the day, I snoozed on the couch with Spencer.

Speaking of Spencer, she must have known I was tired yesterday and I just wanted a nice relaxing day. She was quite a naughty little dog. I had been laying on the couch, eating my chocolate cake right out of the pan. Wow, I can't believe I just admitted that. Oh well, it's true...I was an extreme lazy butt yesterday. Anyways, I set the pan on the coffee table and walked into the other room for a minute to get a load of laundry in the washer. When I left, Spencer was dead asleep on the couch...literally snoring. I return a few minutes later to see her standing next to the coffee table with her whole snout IN the cake, licking and eating as fast as she could!! I literally almost died. My delicious cake was now dog food...not to mention I had to call the vet to make sure she wasn't going to die from chocolate poisoning.

After the cake incident, I decided she might be better off playing in the yard for the rest of the day. I let her out back and I'm sitting in our office, checking email. I look out the back window in that room to see what she's up to and I notice she's playing with something and then I see she has something hanging out of her mouth....by the tail. Yes, a mouse. She's running around with it like it's the greatest thing in the world. I get some rubber gloves on and grab my dustpan and brush and I head outside, only to have Spencer think it's really fun to play "keep away" from me. She did not want to give that mouse up without a fight. After quite a game of chase, I finally get her to drop it and then I have to basically sweep it up in the dustpan and then throw it into the woods. Let me just say, she must have been playing with that thing for a while...absolutely disgusting!!

Even though she may be a little terror, I still love her...she's too cute to stay mad at.


So I didn't really get to have the relaxing day that I wanted, but it's ok. I'm heading to the new J.Crew outlet today, complete with some birthday money and tips from work. This could be dangerous!

The Big 2-7

So my birthday was FABULOUS!! It's still a little hard to believe I'm 27. Yikes. That is definitely a little too close to 30 for me. Even though I had to work all day, I still had a really great day. I woke up late (ok, 8:30...but that is really late for me) and then Sailor Boy and I went out to breakfast. I had to be at work at 11am, but we still managed to have a nice meal. I was tempted to order a mimosa, but since I had to deal with a crazy wedding all day, I decided against it.

Work was another story...my wedding was insane. The families of the bride and groom were just NOT nice. In fact, they were downright rude and nasty. Even the bride was rude little you know what. I had actually be dreading this wedding for a while - I knew they were not going to be nice and since it was on my birthday, it was even more of a bummer. I mean, the mother of the bride never called me by my name (even though I introduced myself to her no less than 10 times)...she called me "girl" and kept snapping at me (no, I'm not exaggerating) But I got through it, and I smiled the entire time. Yes, I'm a true professional...haha.

Oooh...one good part of my work day - my office had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me when I got in on Sunday morning! I love them!!I got home around 7pm and I was pretty exhausted from running around all day. But I perked up when I pulled in our driveway and I realized that Sailor Boy had invited my BFF K and her fiance B over for dinner! He told me he had a special dinner planned for me when I got home from work, so I was happy to have a little impromptu dinner party! Sailor Boy also made a DELICIOUS meal...Shrimp Creole over rice! That's the meal his mom made both him and his brother for their birthdays growing up. I had actually never had it before, but it was SO good! And we have a ton leftover, I'm excited to eat for lunch again today.

He also made a chocolate cake - complete with sprinkles! It was yummy, I even had a piece for breakfast this morning. I was super impressed with his baking skills! Here's the cake after we cut several large pieces.
I also got some fun presents. My bff K got me an amazing yellow scarf. I had mentioned to her a few weeks ago that I really wanted a yellow scarf (I know, random) but she found me the cutest one ever...it's super soft and really long, which I love!! She also got me an electric wine opener, which I'm obsessed with!! I have been wanting one for a while, since I'm a super spaz at opening wine. This one is rechargeable and will open 40 bottles of wine with 1 charge!! I love it!

Sailor Boy and I had talked about not doing presents, since we just bought our new TV a few weeks ago, but he got me something small so I would have something to unwrap on my birthday. He got me reusable grocery bags!! And I never even told him they were on my birthday list!! There's a new store in Annapolis called "Shag Bags" and he went in last week to check it out and realized that I would love the bags. Here's the one he got for me:
Yes, he really does know me very well...pink polka dots with a green strap...I'm totally obsessed!!

So it was a wonderful birthday! I'm off of work today and tomorrow to make up for the fact that I worked ALL weekend. I'm absolutely exhausted, but I'm definitely not too tired to go treat myself to a pedicure and a little belated birthday shopping!

Busy Busy Busy!!

Sorry for the lack of posts...this week is CRAZY! We have 3 wedding here this weekend...Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night. Yes, that's correct...we have a wedding here ON MY BIRTHDAY!! haha...I guess the bride and groom aren't as into celebrating my birthday as I am! I'll be back next week to post about this weekends craziness and a birthday review!! Hopefully I can manage to still have some fun even though I'll be at work all weekend!!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

HELP!

I need a baby shower gift idea. I got invited to Sailor Boy's cousins wife's baby shower in a few weeks and I need a cute gift idea. I've already looked at her registry and I'm not that excited by it. This is actually one of the first baby showers I'm going to, so is it really rude not to buy anything off the registry? She's registered at Pottery Barn Kids and Babies R Us. I was excited about the Pottery Barn registry until I looked at it and realized there's just 3 things on it...her bedding set. I don't really feel comfortable buying her that, because I think it should come from a family member. I'm not a huge fan of Babies R Us at all. This is their first baby and they are having a boy. I've seen TONS of cute stuff on blogs recently for baby boys, but I'm having brain freeze now! They aren't telling anyone the name, so anything monogrammed is out...unfortunately!! I could find tons of cute monogrammed options. I think I want to get her some baby clothes and maybe one fun useful baby item...and I want it all to be really cute and preppy, as she is very preppy herself. Any suggestions on online stores or anywhere I can find really adorable baby stuff would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!!

Fall Soup

I found this recipe in this month's Southern Living. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to try it! It sounded like a great soup for a chilly fall night. We had it last night for dinner and I DEFINITELY recommend it! Even Sailor Boy liked it, even though he was convinced it was "girly" and he was not expecting much.

Red Pepper and Pear Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 3 large red bell peppers, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 2 Anjou pears, peeled and sliced
• 1 (32-oz.) container fat-free chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Dash of ground red pepper
• Garnishes: thinly sliced fresh pears, plain yogurt, chopped fresh chives
  
  Preparation

1. Melt butter with oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add bell pepper and next 3 ingredients, and sauté 8 to 10 minutes or until tender.

2. Stir in chicken broth and next 4 ingredients. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes.

3. Process soup, in batches, in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. (I just used my Cuisinart stick blender and it worked great...much easier since I didn't have to keep pouring it into the food processor) Return to Dutch oven, and keep warm until ready to serve. Garnish, if desired.

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We garnished ours with some sliced pears and a dollop of nice zesty greek yogurt! The fresh sliced pears were great in this soup, they added a nice sweetness! YUM!