2013 Year in Review

So much happens in the course of a year.  I love to throw together a list of some of the major events that occurred so I can look back and remember them.  It feels like a REALLY long time ago that I ran in the Charleston Half Marathon and it was still less than a year ago.  Of course, we did lots of other stuff in 2013, but here are some of the highlights.....

January 2013
Made some resolutions... more on how things went in a later post
Completed the Charleston Half Marathon with a personal best time!
Spent lots of time visiting my niece in the NICU

February 2013
Hosted a Supper Club Super Bowl Party!
Celebrated my niece coming home from the NICU
Celebrated Ryan's 29th Birthday
Got together with friends to start Nooks & Grannies book club
Found some lovely fabric for re-decorating our den

March 2013
Ran in my first 10K - Get To the Green St. Patty's Day Run
Discovered Thursday night jazz at Hunter Gatherer

April 2013
Spent a long weekend at the beach!
Trained & ran in the Heart & Sole 5-miler
"Ran for Boston"
Celebrated my sister & niece at a belated baby shower
Helped with my JWC's Annual Yard Sale
Played Ultimate Frisbee for the first time (my team was awesome!)

May 2013
Served as a guest speaker for a group of nurses state convention
Spent Memorial Day Weekend at the Beach!

June 2013  
Quit Monthly Menu Planning
Began serving as the President for JWC of Lake Murray
Attended Brandon & Mary Kathryn's wedding!
Went Kayaking with friends... got inspired & bought our own kayaks!
It started raining... and it rained and it rained and it rained.  Longest streak of rainy days in history.

July 2013
Celebrated my nephew's 3rd birthday & my niece's Baptism
Ryan started a new job... I went on vacation to the beach
I completed my PHI Pilates Instructor Certification
Hosted Nooks & Grannies book club at my house!

August 2013
Went on a weekend trip to Greenville
Started training for Georgetown Half Marathon
Taught my first Pilates class
Talked about and decided to put our house up for-sale-by-owner....
Were completely shocked when it was under contract in a quick 2 weeks
Packed liked crazy & searched for a new home

September 2013
Quit training for Georgetown Half (too busy moving!)
CLOSED on the Sale of our first home
Shopped and shopped and shopped for a new home
Moved in with my parents
Put a contract on our new home!

October 2013
Completed lots of inspections & paperwork for our new house
CLOSED on the purchase of our new home
Helped to host a baby shower for my college roommate Elizabeth
Attended Heather & Jeff's Wedding

November 2013
Ryan started another new job... a much better fit!
Moved into our new home!
Celebrated 10 years together (we started dating in November 2003)
Made a big long list of things "to-do" for our house & got started working

December 2013
Volunteered at our JWC 2nd Annual Tour of Homes
Celebrated our 4th Anniversary
Celebrated Christmas & New Years with family & friends
Celebrated my 29th Birthday

Menu Plan Monday (Year 2, Week 36)

Sheesh!  Despite the holiday and short week, this week is busy!  Luckily, we're getting the hang of this crazy schedule so here's what we're eating....

9.3.12 - Labor Day Cook out... Burgers w/ Pimento Cheese
9.4.12 - Stuffed Peppers (Combining a few recipes to make a new one, if it is a success, I'll share it here later!)
9.5.12 - Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw
9.6.12 - Celebrating one of our favorite kid's b-days
9.7.12 - Dinner out with friends
9.8.12 - Making Hashbrown Casserole for Tailgate, Making a Yummy Icecream Sandwich Dessert for Supper Club
9.9.12 - TBD

2011 in Review

I think it is pretty cool to look back and see what the heck happened over the last year, especially when I feel like I was JUST looking back at 2010.  Seems like 2012 has always been a year that was WAY far in the future, but here it is, just around the bend!

Started my first full year of menu planning!  **First New Year's Resolution I ever kept!**

Joined the NOMA Dog Park... best place ever.

Started sticking to a budget to save money to replace Ryan's car & pay off school loans

Bought our first piece of furniture (all the rest we have is inherited/gifts) -- a new couch!

Got snowed in! You know it's bad when even the federal government cancels work!

Hosted our 1st Supper Club...  I made MEXICAN food (I know you're shocked!)  It was the first time I pulled out all my fancy china & crystal that we got for our wedding... all went well until the dog put his face in the sourcream :)

Celebrated Ryan's 27th Birthday

Had a long weekend at the beach & a weekend in Spartanburg for Josh & Jennifer's wedding

Helped host a wedding shower for Ryan's best bud and his fiance

I met THE PIONEER WOMAN with my sister at Ree's book signing in Georgia

Did some big projects for our backyard - new addition to deck, planted shrubs, painted the shed

Celebrated my great aunt's 90th Birthday!

  Decided to sign up with Team-in-Training for my first half-marathon
FINALLY sold the Rodeo & bought a Truck for Ryan
Had our second major mishap of homeownership & had to replace our A/C unit
Travelled to Chicago, IL and Holland, MI to celebrate the wedding of Christian & Stephanie

Celebrated with our friend's Gray & Leigh when they brought home their son from Ethiopia!
Finally got to make the Blackberry-to-iPhone switch

Watched excitedly as our GAMECOCKS rose to the top of the pack again and brought home their SECOND NCAA Baseball National Championship!

Celebrated our nephew Cooper's 1st birthday
Spent a week of vacation at the BEACH!
My friend Jenny moved back to town!

The summer of broken appliances continued with a washing machine that tried to flood our house!  Luckily we found a great deal on a new washer/dryer set at Home Depot -- our 3rd major purchase for our house.

Travelled to Charlotte to kick off the USC Football Season!
Suffered from tendonitis and had to break from training for my half marathon :(

Spent one awesome & relaxing weekend in the mountains with my college girlfriends
Resumed training and kicked it into high gear for about 6 weeks before my race.

RAN my first half-marathon in Savannah, GA!!
RESTED from all that running.
Ate TONS of food at Thanksgiving.
Decorated for Christmas... except, never got around to putting ornaments on the tree.

Celebrated the holidays by eating with pretty much everyone we knew.  And eating lots of food.  Our celebrations lasted ALL month.  
Celebrated our 2nd Anniversary with dinner at Mr. Friendly's & decided we need to go on more fancy dinner dates
Vacationed to the beach, relaxed & got all our Christmas shopping done
Spent Christmas with our families
Celebrated my 27th Birthday
Prepared to bring in the NEW YEAR!

Tons more things happened throughout the course of 2011, but I couldn't possibly remember them all. We are truly blessed and excited to see what 2012 is going to bring!  Happy New Year!

Menu Planning - Week 20!

Wow, can't believe we've been at this menu planning thing for 20 weeks!!!  I'm fairly sure this is one of the only new-year's resolutions I've ever kept.  AND, one of the best.  In just 6 short weeks, we'll be half way through 2011.  I can hardly believe the year is passing us by so quickly, but I do believe menu planning is in our life to stay!

My half marathon training starts this week, so I'll be planning lots of things that can be popped in the oven or crockpot or cooked by hubby or thrown together at the last minute until I get the hang of the new schedule.

5.14.11 - Monthly Dinner Club @ Scott & Meredith's - we're in charge of bringing a veggie so we're taking Asparagus  for grilling!

5.15.11 - Supper Swap - Making Saucy Pork Chops for Crockpot, Rice & Okra

5.16.11 - Parmesan Crusted Chicken w/ Spinach, Tomatoes & Goat Cheese

5.17.11 - Spaghetti w/ Italian Sausage

5.18.11 - Leftovers/Sandwiches/Salads

5.19.11 -  Girl's Night Out for Dinner 

5.20.11 - Grilled Flank Steak w/ Tomatoes, Red Onions & Balsamic

Menu Planning - Week 15 - How it Happens

So this is how I normally do my menu planning.....

First I list out the days of the week and any special activities or plans that we have going on.  This week it seems like we have a lot of out-of-the-ordinary things going on.  Our usual stuff is listed under each day (Ryan softball on Mondays and Tuesdays, Pilates for me either on Monday or Thursday, and Bible study for both of us on Wednesdays) and that helps me figure out what type of food to plan based on how much time I have to put effort into a meal.  

Then I put in anything when we won't be eating at home, or if people are coming to our house (ie. Supper Club, Aunt Eudean's birthday, and in-laws coming over).  I try to put in at least one date-night or out-to-eat night, and at least one freezer meal or something that the ingredients won't go bad if plans change throughout the week.  I'm ATTEMPTING to include leftovers as one day since that is a way for food not to go to waste (cooking the right amount of food for just two people is pretty difficult for me.)

Then, out to the right you can see where I've started a grocery list of things that I need to grab in order to make the things on our menu.  I add those things to my breakfast, lunch and household items, and I'm good to go.  If I can, I try to stock up on things we use often when they are on sale so that there aren't too many things we need to buy for our dinner recipes unless they are rare ingredients.  One day when I have more free time, I'm going to attempt both meal planning AND couponing to maximize our grocery saving.....key words "when I have more free time".... HA.

So, since that photo is pretty bad and doesn't include recipe links, here's what we're going to be eating this week:

4.9.11 - Monthly Dinner Club at Jimmy & LIndsey's House - We're in charge of the side dish (read: CARBS) so I'm making Pioneer Woman's Perfect Potatoes au Gratin

4.10.11 - My Great Aunt Eudean is turning 90, so we'll be attending her birthday party in the afternoon, and then come home to watch the final round of The Masters, and in honor of the tradition at the tournament, we'll be eating Homemade Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

4.11.11 - Chick-fil-A on Bush River Road gives away free sandwiches with your church bulletin! Sign us up for a cheap dinner!

4.12.11 - Southwestern Pasta & Cheese - I've been DYING to try this recipe since I found it

4.13.11 - LEFTOVERS!

4.14.11 - Italian Casserole (still in the freezer from Supper Swap)

4.15.11 - Grilling Out for my MIL and SIL's birthdays that we missed while at the beach

And I'll leave you with a picture to show you how much my husband enjoyed our latest recipe this week... this is his response to Wednesday night's sandwiches and onion rings..... this week's meals were a total hit:

Can't beat a happy husband who cleans his plate and goes back for more!  

I'm up early.....

Well, as you know, I'm generally ALWAYS up early, but today has a lot in store.  I'm super excited about all of it, too!

First things first, I've got to get to the store and grab a few things to make dessert for tonight's supper club.  I'm thinking a strawberry trifle (because nothing says spring/summer like a nice strawberry dessert!)

Then, today is the day we start planning the big back-yard re-do.  Todd (my friend Andrea's husband) is coming over to scope out the job and give us some ideas and price quotes on what we want done.  You can definitely expect some BEFORE, PROGRESS, and AFTER pictures coming your way in the next few weeks as we get this thing started.  

Finally, this afternoon I'll be hopping in the car with my sister to go meet THE PIONEER WOMAN!  I'm beyond excited about this.   We are going to Evans, GA (outside of Augusta) and hopefully we'll get our books signed by and some pictures taken with PW, herself!   AND, shamelessly, we are taking along my nephew, because if you've ever read her blog, PW cannot resist an adorable baby!

Happy Saturday!!!!

Menu Planning - Week 8

OH, so perhaps this is lazy, but since we hosted our dinner club last night and the girls from work and I are doing supper swap today, I'm totally calling this a leftovers and whatever is hiding in the freezer/pantry week.  For the meals we eat at home, we'll be deciding as we go.  We've had a lot going on this past week and there's lots to do this week as well, so sometimes making a detailed plan doesn't make much sense.  We've got plenty of food in the freezer/pantry, so we'll just save some cash money by cooking what we already have here at home.

2.19.11 - Made these awesome Chicken Enchiladas and Smothered Beef & Bean Burrito Casserole for our monthly dinner club
2.20.11 - Having my parents over to finish off the fiesta leftovers (ie. FRIDGE CLEANOUT MEAL!)
2.21.11 - Eating Chick-fil-A (Bush River Road has free sandwiches with your church bulletin on Mondays!)
2.22.11 - FREEZER/PANTRY CLEANOUT MEAL
2.23.11 - FREEZER/PANTRY CLEANOUT MEAL
2.24.11 - Ryan's 27th Birthday... out to eat with family!
2.25.11 - Celebrating Ryan's Birthday some more on our way out of town for a wedding!

Hopefully next week I'll be back with some better planning and maybe even a new recipe!

Yummy Spinach Dip

We have our monthly dinner club tonight and I'm in charge of bringing the appetizer, so I'm making this yummy spinach dip recipe I got from a co-worker after she brought it to a work luncheon. It's a little different than any spinach dip I've had before since it has some other vegetables and it's made with greek yogurt instead of sourcream. I guess that makes it healthier for you, too! So enjoy this recipe next time you host a party or need something quick and easy to throw together and take along with you:

Ingredients:

1 Knorr Vegetable Mix packet

16 0z Nonfat Greek Yogurt

1 cup Reduced fat mayonaise

1 lb plum tomatoes (diced)

1/4 cup red onion (diced)

10 oz frozen chopped spinach (thawed & squeezed dry)

1/3 cup green onions (thinly sliced)**

Preparation:

Stir together yogurt, mayo, and Knorr vegetable mix until smooth. Fold in tomatoes, onions, and spinach until evenly mixed. Cover and chill for 2+ hours. Serve with bread, crackers, chips, and veggies for dipping.**

**I left out the green onions since there are already red onions and I didn't want to buy a whole bunch of green onion since I didn't have a use for the leftovers. I'm serving it up in a white mountain bread loaf from Publix with extra bread, veggies, and chips for dipping**