Spic & Span

I initially intended to spend today outside doing some much needed yard work.  However when I saw what the temperature was going to be, I changed my plans.  Too hot for doing yard work!  Instead I did a lot of work inside.  Specifically-cleaning.  And boy, do I mean cleaning!  Peter had to run out and do some errands so I started with a deep scrub down of the kitchen.  All appliances, walls, cupboards, floor and windows included.  When Peter got back he joined in on the cleaning by attacking the bathroom.  I dusted the entire house and Peter followed with sweeping all the floors.  It feels really good to have everything clean.  I even did some laundry, changed the bedsheets, cleaned all the ceiling fans and managed to squeeze in a few episodes of "The Office" in between :)  Peter thinks I'm a little bit OCD about cleaning, but I just can't explain the feeling of having a nice clean house.  

T-fal has passed the test!

Tonight for dinner I made some yummy chicken lo mein with veggies.  It was pretty simple and tasted good so another successful recipe that I just made up haha.  I was also planning ahead and boiling enough chicken for tomorrow's dinner as well so that when I got home it'd be a quick 5 minute fix and dinner would be ready.  Well Peter and I came in to watch some episodes of "The Office" from our DVD collection and got completely enthralled in the show that we totally forgot about the extra chicken we had boiling.....until Peter smelled smoke and then I was like UH OH.  I asked him if he thought the stove was on and he said no we turned it off (referring to the burners used for tonight's mea-which were off).  We got into the kitchen and it was completely clouded with smoke.  All of the water in the 5 quart pot had cooked up and the chicken was burnt to the bottom.  We opened the door, turned on the fan to draw the smoke out, and then poured cold water on the pot.  To much of the surprise of both of us, the pot literally wiped clean.  All of the burned on chicken, chicken fat, water, etc. just wiped off!  I was worried at first because of how bad it looked, but after washing it out, you wouldn't even know this little incident happened!  I'm glad because I love my t-fal and use this pot all the time.  It's good to know that t-fal won't let me down haha.

Good News & Bad News

Good News: Today I got to sleep in and just relax a bit after waking up.

Bad News: I had a 9:15 AM dental appointment.  

Two hours later, I was done.  And it didn't hurt...at least not yet.  I'm glad I had a bite to eat when we stopped by our house on the way to work.  Peter had lunch and I just ate a little bit, still being very numbed up.  We also used my free milkshake coupon at Chick-fil-A the way to work so I had that.  About 20 minutes after arriving at work, I had a throbbing pain in my mouth where they had done the work and took ibuprofen right away.  The throbbing gave me a headache and what was supposed to be a short day felt like a long day.  The pain has subsided now, thankfully.  I'm just glad that I only have 3 more appointments and all of this work will be done!  I haven't had a whole lot of teeth worked on, it's just everything they do is 2 or 3 appointments for the same tooth.  So my next appointment will finish up these 2 teeth I had worked on today and then two more appointments for the last tooth and then I'll be on to only 6 month check ups!  I won't know what to do with myself.  

Memorial Day Fun!

Since we drove home to Orin Street last night, we had another full day together before having to return to work tomorrow so we decided to make the most of it. We headed out around lunch time and it was actually warm out-but a bit muggy since storms were on their way.

Can you tell Pittsburgh hasn't seen much sun lately? Peter and I are looking especially pale haha.

While we were gone, my 2 rhododendruns bloomed! One is behind us in the previous picture and this pink one is my favorite. So bright and pretty!

Here we are en route to a fun filled day at The Waterfront:

Our first stop was TGIFridays for lunch. I had an $8 coupon towards a free appetizer and got the Jack Daniels Sesame Chicken appetizer as my meal. It's my favorite thing and I always get it haha. And this time it only costed me 19 cents! Peter got the Jack Daniels Pulled Pork sandwich and we shared a lunch size Cobb salad. It was all very yummy and only cost us $20 and that included the tip!

After lunch, we headed to Loew's to get our movie tickets for the 3:30 showing of the new Chronicles of Narnia movie. We had an hour to kill in the meantime and just walked around the waterfront, stopping in a few stores and Barnes & Noble. Loew's theater is my favorite because they have stadium seating and the armrests fold up between seats. The seats also rock a little bit. Since it was a weekday matinee, it was only $5 per ticket. I can't rationalize spending twice that to see the same movie in the evening or on the weekend haha. With my coupon for AMC theaters for a free small popcorn with any soda purchase, another $4.75 got us a large cherry coke and a small popcorn. The movie was great, but I think it may have been a little much for some of the young kids that were in the theater. (There were some as young as infants). And I also think the kiss at the end was highly unnecessary haha. We stopped at Giant Eagle to do a big grocery trip and then headed home.

It was a fabulous day just bopping around The Waterfront. And lunch, the movie and snacks only totaled $34.75.  Can't beat that!  

After conquering the task of unpacking all the groceries and putting them away, we made pork roll sandwiches to have with macaroni salad and vegged out for a bit.  Now we're just getting ready for getting back to the ol' grind tomorrow.  After my dentist appointment.  Yuck.  But we have another 4 day weekend on June 7-10!  

Philly Family Visit

After leaving the reception last night, we traveled to Philadelphia to stay the night and visit with family. The drive was nice. The sun had just set and it was a clear and cool evening with not many cars on the road until we got near Philly. We arrived safely at 11 PM, saw mom, dad, Andrew and Mima and hit the sack around midnight.

This morning we went to church with everyone and heard a great message on unity from 1 Corinthians. Proclamation built a new addition so we took a brief walk-through to check it out. The church is really pretty in the sanctuary with wooden ceilings and a great stained glass window in the front.

After arriving home from church, we hung out for a bit until Aunt Marian and Nana arrived. We had a delicious meal and great fellowship with the whole family. Tim and Bella came a little later. Vasti couldn't make it but we sure missed her! Since it was a beautiful day outside, we brought chairs out onto the porch and continued talking and having a great family visit. It was really good to see everyone again and we debated staying until Monday when it came time to pack up. We realized though that we'd have to leave Monday and wouldn't be able to do much this evening anyways so we decided to just pack up and get on the road. We stopped to pick up pork roll since western PA doesn't sell it and were on the road by 7-ish.

Here are some pictures from our visit:

Bella is growing so much with each time we see her! She's talking a bit now and is so interactive. My favorite is when she says "daddyyyyyy" or "Poppi" to Tim. It's adorable!



Peter took this family photo of all that were in attendance:


A great picture of mom and dad with their moms!


A candid of Nana and her 2 girls looking at the flowers:


Us with Mima:


Us with mom and dad:


We had a great time visiting with family albeit a short trip, it was very enjoyable to see everyone!

Ben & Kelly get married!

Today our friends Kelly and Ben got married.  It was a beautiful day for a wedding and a beautiful ceremony.  Kelly looked stunning walking down the aisle with her father.

Her dress was so pretty from the front and back:

Exchanging vows:

Mr. & Mrs. Ben Polen!  I missed a picture of the kiss because I'm still getting used to our digital camera we got on our 1 year anniversary.  It takes a second longer to focus than I'm used to so I totally missed it on film haha.  Oh well!

Best man and Matron of Honor, Jeff and Steph Schindel:

Another beautiful day in the country....we were waiting a while for them to come out from the church so we took a picture of ourselves enjoying their special day:

Yay!

Their yummy cake:

First Dance:

Jeff couldn't see what was going on so he needed his special spoon glasses.  Hilarious!

Cutting the cake:

We all thought it was going to be nice and calm...until Ben smashed cake up Kelly's nose!  We think he had a plan because he waited until his piece was all in his mouth until he smashed Kelly's piece in her face!

Peter and Jeff enjoying the reception:

Unfortunately we had to leave the reception a little early for our drive to Philly.  We pushed it back as far as we could, but didn't want to get in too late so we left shortly before 9 PM.  We got in one nice dance though and had a lot of fun while we were there.  Before getting back in the car, we traded in our dress clothes for something comfier and snapped one last picture of the day.

On the road again...

TGIF and we had an extra day off!  We had a great day driving to Berwick.  We got up, packed and were out the door at 11 AM.  We stopped at Pittsburgh Mills Mall on the way.  I like it up there and we never really go because we have Monroeville Mall closer.  We got Peter a new shirt and tie from JCP for $38.  They were on sale plus I had a 15% off coupon.  We also returned some dishes for my aunt to the Corelle Factory store and were back on the road around 12:30.  

Happy to see the sun shining and having the day off:

The part of route 28 that goes north of Pittsburgh Mills Mall is absolutely gorgeous.  It was an added bonus to the drive to be able to gaze at the beautiful scenery around us.

And the clouds spread across the sky looking heavenly...

It was very much country for the northern part of route 28.  We drove through this quaint little town and "main street" had the typical barber shop, pharmacy, etc.  I didn't get any pictures of it but it was so cute.  I also saw this great old school church from the road and quickly snapped a picture as we drove past.

Can you believe how nice of a ride this is?  It was hilly and every time we crested another hill, we were greeted by more beautiful scenery.  With it being springtime, everything was lush and green which added to the great scenes.

On the outskirts of the little town with "main street" that we drove through, there was a gravel road that paralleled route 28 which was old train tracks.  The railroad ties were tossed off to the side as seen in this picture.  It was neat to see and see all of the farms and pastures that bordered this area.

We stopped at a rest stop after getting on 80 to stretch our legs.  We had packed a cooler with PB&J sandwiches, macaroni salad and bottled waters and had initially planned on stopping somewhere for lunch to eat it picnic style.  We brought Sunchips and some other snacks too.  Unfortunately along 28 there was really no place to pull over to eat so we just ate while driving since it was a good 2 hours or so until we made it to interstate 80.  And just our luck, the first place we stopped had cute picnic tables all over the place.  Haha-oh well!

I love taking road trips with my hubby.  He usually drives and I help for like an hour haha.  But it's just fun to get away and see new places or visit familiar places together.

This rest stop was very scenic and a nice place to walk around for a bit.

We reached our destination shortly before 5 PM.  We crossed the Susquehanna River right before our exit and the scene was breathtaking.

As we were unloading the car, Jeff found us.  We went across the parking lot from our motel and caught up for a bit until he had to leave for the rehearsal dinner.  He and Peter ate Arby's but since I wasn't too hungry yet, I waited.  I grabbed some McDonald's as we heading back to the hotel.  There isn't much around except for beautiful countryside so then Peter and I took a little snooze.  After our snooze, we decided to go to Wal-Mart that was about 15 minutes away.  We actually backtracked on 80 to get there.  We originally went for toothpaste because we had forgotten to pack it and a card, but I don't make it to our Wal-mart very often so I picked up bodywash and Q-tips too because I knew I'd need them eventually at home.  

When we got back, we watched some "Everybody Loves Raymond" and just rested.  We both had a long week so it was nice to just take it easy.  Peter just went out to visit with his guy friends that are also staying at the motel, but I have a headache that I can't shake so I am just here in the room resting up some more.  I am looking forward to a fun weekend of wedding and family fun and don't want to be run down while trying to enjoy it.  

Shark Season Finale

I just finished watching the season finale of Shark....'nuff said.

ACM's!

The Academy of Country Music Awards were on tonight.  I was totally pumped to see Garth Brooks perform a medley.  He chose great songs and many of my faves from having his "Double Live" CDs.  Other performers I enjoyed included Brooks & Dunn, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban and Sugarland.  The best performance, in my opinion was Rascal Flatts with "Every Day".  It's a great song and I think it could even be an awesome contemporary Christian song.  I was glad to see RF get the Humanitarian Award.  I am a huuuuuge fan :)  I missed some of it as I was flipping between channels a bit, but from what I saw, it was another successful ACM.  I even made some changes to my iPod music list that I take to work everyday.  It needed it, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to listen to, but am glad to have updated it with more country.  :)

Fri-Sun Summary

Weekends seem to go so quickly and the weeks between are just filled with hectic chaos.  Too bad that it didn't work out that weekends are 5 days and weeks are 2 days haha.  

This weekend was really fun and that usually equates to time going by even faster.  

Friday:

After work we just came home to unwind and recover from our crazy weeks.  After making eggplant parmesan for dinner, I discovered I'm not really a fan of eggplant haha.  Peter likes it and eggplant was on sale at the grocery store this week which is why I made it.  It was ok but just not my favorite.  I'll make it again though because Peter likes it :)  The rest of the evening was spend on the couch watching movies/TV.  

Saturday:

We got up shortly after 9 AM and were packed and out the door by a quarter to 10.  After stopping at McDonald's for Peter to get a mcgriddle and coffee and Panera for me to get a bagle with cream cheese, we were on our way to Johnstown.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  A nice clear and sunny Spring morning.  We arrive in J-town around 12 and picked up lunch for ourselves and my aunt Paula and met her at her newest rental.  After checking the place out and eating lunch, we got to work.  We helped her in the yard digging out plants and also wiping the ceiling and floors down.  It's a cute little ranch house and we were glad to help her out for once since she did a lot of yard work for us when we first moved to Orin Street.  The weather held out nicely until 6 PM when we called it quits since it was raining.  We went home and soaked in the hot tub, took showers and had dinner.  Afterwards we watched "America's Most Wanted" and then headed to bed.  I actually got sunburnt since it didn't even cross my mind to put on suntan lotion.  Oh well-that's fair skin for ya!

Sunday:

We awoke to rain but it was so peaceful out so it was really enjoyable.  We made breakfast and then just putzed around at her house watching TV and resting.  We went to check out one of her other rentals that was empty because we've never seen the inside.  It's very cute with huge rooms and a nice level fenced in backyard.  After coming home and having a late lunch/early dinner at 3, we packed up and headed home.  It was another enjoyable car ride and we got home in a little over an hour.  After a brief nap, we had our new "buffet" delivered.  I bought it from a guy on Craigslist and it's going to be used in our kitchen.  I'm going to paint it the color of our cupboards and it'll ultimately provide more counter space.  We are going to put it under the window with the microwave and toaster oven on it and all other appliances down below with storage containers.  We have a microwave stand there right now but this buffet piece is a bit wider so it'll be more spacious and be able to hold the toaster oven too which frees up another portion of my countertops.  Now I just need to find a dry day to do this and it's supposed to rain all week....hmm maybe when we get back on Monday...

Andrew Fat Formica

On Friday night after work, Peter and I spent hours reinforcing the steel support beams in our house in preparation for Mr. Tub-o-lard himself visiting.  

Saturday was a gorgeous morning and early afternoon.  We bummed around for a bit and went out to get Andrew at the airport.  We sat outside at Starbucks for a while to kill some time.  It was a lovely spring day--sunny skies and cool breezes.  I did a bit of shopping while Peter drove the 15 mins from where we were to the airport.  I had to get a present for my boss-it's her birthday tomorrow.  And I did a bit of grocery shopping since Fatso was going to be in town.  After being picked up, we all went home and Peter cut the grass, Andrew did some studying and I ran back out to another store.  I was planning on doing some weeding but didn't feel like it by the time I got home and the boys were hungry.  So I started on dinner.  We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and had macaroni salad and chips-BBQ and Garden Salsa Sun Chips-yum!  We watched "The 6th Sense" which was pretty good.  Before the movie finished, the rain set in so we just stayed indoors.  The boys kept playing Warcraft and I eventually called it a night out of sheer exhaustion haha.  

The rain continued into Sunday (with a bit of a hailstorm at one point).  I made lasagna and put it in the oven right before we left for church so that after the service we could come home and eat.  I made salad and bruschetta with it.  We watched "Pinky & the Brain" while we ate.  The boys played more Warcraft and I putzed around the house and watched some TV.  I also baked some chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip brownies :)  We hit up the mall and bookstore in the late afternoon for a bit.  I had to return something at Yankee Candle and Peter and I walked around a little bit, leaving Tubb-o at Barnes and Noble to get some reading done for his paper he needed to write.  When we joined up with him to read some ourselves, we found him snoozing away!  So we all decided to read for a while and head home for dinner.  While we ate dinner, we watched "Bicentennial Man"-soooo lame!  Andrew chose it and we'll never let him pick another movie again :P  

The weekend again went way too fast but it was nice to relax and see Andrew. 

Cinco de Mayo

2 years ago Peter asked me to marry him.  

2 years ago I said yes.

2 years ago my life changed for the best :)

I still remember all of the details.  The thought and energy Peter put in to the entire magical evening.  I remember being blown away that he had driven to Hollidaysburg two days earlier telling me he was "going to an interview" and asking my dad for his blessing.  I know that was really special to my dad and it was also really special to me :)  I remember it being 11 months that we had been dating, he took me to 11 places that were special to us, there were 11 diamonds in my engagement ring and there were 11 gerbera daisies (my absolute favorite flower) waiting in a beautiful floral arrangement waiting at the final place.  I remember how amazing the entire evening was and will always treasure that night. 

Weekend Wrap Up

No yard work this past weekend.  It rained all day on Saturday and then Sunday we had other things to do.  

On Saturday we did some shopping.  I had to get a baby shower gift and we also went grocery shopping and stopped at Dollar Tree.  In the afternoon I was so tired so I took a nap for about an hour.  It felt good but at the end of the day, it didn't feel like I got much accomplished.  I guess I needed a rest day since I've been doing so much work on the weekends lately.  

Sunday was the celebration day for the Going Higher ministry at church.  Peter gave a brief testimony as to what we were contributing to the $2 million needed for expanding and updating the two church buildings.  It's so awesome to see a rapidly growing church near the city.  The church we used to go to was also growing rapidly but they had tons of space and land around to expand.  Hebron doesn't have as much, but they have some great ideas going.  We're excited to be a part of it all and experiencing it.  After church we came home and just relaxed.  We watched U.S. Marshalls and just bummed around.  Peter picked up a great weight set that I had found on Craigslist.  It has weights, a stand for the weights, 2 dumbbell bars, 1 barbell bar and clips.  They were asking $100 and Peter got it for $60!  Compared to what you'd pay at Dick's or Dunham's, it was a really great deal.  

Again the weekend flew by.  I can't believe it's already May.  Andrew is coming this weekend so that's something to look forward to.  Peter can watch 3 Stooges and Pinky & the Brain with him :) 

4 days later...

and my jaw still hurts.  At least I can tell it's getting better.  I have to go back to the dentist in a week and a half and will let him know what's going on.

In other news...I'm so glad that it's the weekend.  Unfortunately, it's already flying by.  Peter and I have been having busy days this week again.

On Wednesday, we had our weekly chiropractor appointment and went out to do errands afterwards.  I've planned so that we do grocery shopping or whatever needs done on the same day of our chiro appointment so that we're not out every evening after work.  For one, it makes us not be able to relax as much in the evenings.  And it also means we grab dinner out.  I prefer cooking and eating at home because it's definitely less expensive, and I enjoy it, and I make more than 2 portions so that we have lunches the next day.  When we eat out, I have to figure out alternatives for lunch.  Which sometimes isn't hard, but sometimes is.  So our errands for Wednesday included shopping for gifts.  In the coming month we are going to a wedding, my boss is having her birthday, and the ceo's daughter at my company is having a baby.  We went to Bed Bath & Beyond first since that's where the couple getting married was registered and I also had a $10 coupon off a $30 purchase.  While waiting for the registry to print, Peter and I found two lounge type chairs that we're planning on purchasing.  They're $40 but I have coupons for 20% off any item so they'll be $32 each.  I didn't have those coupons with me so we'll go back another day.  We did manage to pick out a wedding present so that was check off my to-do list.  I found a cute baby outfit at Target, but realized I purchased the wrong size.  I wanted to get 6month and got 9 on accident.  Other than that, we had dinner and also returned the cfl bulbs at Lowe's.  

We came straight home from work on Thursday which is something I was looking forward to.  I made swedish meatballs in the crockpot so when we got home, it smelled soooo good!  Instead of having them with rice as planned, Peter picked up some rolls and we had meatball hoagies instead.  I made mini tator tots and broccoli to go with them and it was a very yummy dinner.   Of course we didn't just have steamed broccoli, we had the special little concoction I make which Peter loves.  It's just steamed broccoli with italian dressing and grated parmesan cheese.  Very tasty though.  We also watch "The Prince of Egypt" which Peter had rented on Monday night with the "No Reservations" movie we watched.  The latter was due back Tuesday since it was a new release so we had watched that one Monday night.  "The Prince of Egypt" was a good Disney movie.  I had never seen it and it was fun to just veg out with my hubby.   

After work on Friday we met up with friends at The Waterfront.  We had a "girls night" and "guys night".  Peter met up with Barney and Jeff and went to Dave & Busters.  I met up with Steph and Kelly and we went to dinner and a movie.  We had burgers at Red Robin which none of us had ever been to.  It was very good and they serve bottomless steak fries which had some great seasoning on them.  We went to Loew's theater to see "Made of Honor".  I love that theater, but rarely go because it's like ten bucks per ticket.  Except they do offer discounts Mon-Thurs which I just recently found out about.  The movie was good, but I don't think as good as any of us had expected.  It had some quite unnecessary scenes.  I definitely liked the last movie I saw there better-27 dresses.  After the movie, we met up with the guys at Uno's for dessert.  I had also never been there but Steph had been and recommended their desserts.  I had a deep dish chocolate chip cookie with ice cream that I shared with Peter and Barney.  It was good, but I probably would have preferred it without the ice cream.  My teeth were still very sensitive from the dumb dentist.  We didn't get home until about midnight which is very late for us.  Towards the end of the evening I started getting very tired haha.  

And here we are on Saturday.  I wish Saturdays were 48 hours long instead of 24.   I just need more weekend time, it seems to pass so quickly!  I did "sleep in" until about 8 this morning.  But now I'm just lounging on the couch and watching my usual home makeover shows.  It's raining which is good because my grass and flowers need it, but I was kind of hoping it'd rain all week (which it barely did even though they forecasted it) and stop on the weekend so I could get some yard work done.  Oh well :P