Belated Birthday Celebration

Peter and I have been waiting for The Dark Knight Rises to come out in theaters and were hoping to go on his birthday.  Unfortunately, the movie didn't come out until July 16th so we decided to go the weekend after his birthday for a little post-birthday date.  :)

We both loved the movie and enjoyed a dinner at Bravo! as well.  We even drove down the the Tanger Outlets for a little shopping after dinner.  Simple and sweet dates are the best! :)

New Laptop!

Look what arrived in the mail today!  :)  I'm so excited for a new faster, smaller laptop!

Phipps Conservatory

Peter and I went to Phipps Conservatory this morning.  We had some vouchers that we thought expired, but they actually were good until the end of July.  Oh well!  We got up and got ready to head out after breakfast.  It was a beautiful day and there weren't very many people at Phipps.  

Now, onto a photo dump of our trip...

Sick

I've had a relatively healthy winter, but seem to have caught something over the weekend.  It's funny because we just went to the annual Pittsburgh car show on Saturday and I wasn't feeling well that evening.  By Sunday, I felt miserable.  Lucky for me, I already had Monday off since it was a holiday.  Too bad I spent it sick on the couch.  Today I'm feeling a little better and should be back to work tomorrow.  Maybe it's a reaction to the car show and I have to stop going? haha :)

Transition

We are finally seeming to get into a groove around here.  Ever since Peter started his new job at the beginning of January, we've been figuring out bus routes, schedules, etc.  The first week I drove him both ways and it was kind of horrendous.  I'm glad we've figure out a better alternative.  I drop him at a bus stop halfway on my way to work where he catches a bus downtown.  Then I just drive myself home and he grabs a bus.  He leaves at different times each day so it works best that way.  I'm home much earlier than I used to be which is really nice.  Most days I can run errands, grocery shop, and at least start, if not finish, dinner by the time he gets home.  :)

Peter's job has been pretty busy, but we're both so thankful to God for this new blessing.  Peter comes home tired (which is normal and good) as opposed to frustrated and irritated.  I'm hoping his new work schedule balances out some and he's able to get back into kickboxing since I know he likes and misses it.  

5 Years!

Holy cow!  I can hardly believe that I've been married to Peter for FIVE years!  Time sure does fly!  Five years ago I said these words to Peter.  Time has passed and my love for my husband has only grown with each passing day.  I love you, babe!

I, Mallory, take you, Peter to be my lawfully wedded husband.  To have and to hold, in the presence of God, our family and friends, from this day forward, I promise to love you, comfort you, cherish you, honor and keep you, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, and forsaking all others I will be faithful to you only as long as we both shall live. 

 

Day of Rest

Well, I don't know what happened.  Did I overdo it with decorating yesterday? haha.  I didn't even make it to church today.  I slept the whole time which is very unlike me!  I slept until after noon.  My back was super sore - still is actually.  And I had the worst headache that was so intense and made me dizzy.  Thankfully, the headache is gone.  Not sure what happened, but I'm just resting up and hoping tomorrow this is all gone.

First Snow!

Snow before Halloween?!  Maybe this is going to be a snowy winter.  I hope so!  I love snow.  :)  If not a snowy winter, then I'm hoping at least for a white Christmas!

I ran outside for a few minutes this morning to snap some pictures of our first snow.  Looks weird with fall colors peeking through.  I love it, though!  It'll probably be gone in a few hours.

Flea Free!?

Well, it's been a LONG battle with fleas.  Cadi is strictly an indoor only cat and it boggles my mind that we ended up with fleas.  I found the on her like 8 weeks ago.  We treated her right away.  We tried the less harmful (read: no chemical) versions of trying to get rid of the fleas in the house.  One such treatment included spraying things with lemon water.  Dumbest advice ever!  It was like the fleas thought we were throwing them a lemonade party!  We eventually got spray and carpet powder and were in a furry of washing sheets, towels, etc. every other day, if not daily to try to get rid of the fleas.  Before heading out on vacation, we hadn't seen a flea in 7-10 days so we thought we were in the clear.  Unfortunately, our arrival home from vacation was a DISASTER!  After bombing the house, we had a few flea stragglers, but we have officially not seen any fleas in more than 3 weeks.  We even went to West Virginia and came back to no fleas!  I don't want to jinx it, but I think that we can officially say we're flea free.  I know there's always a chance they will come back and if that happens, then I'll just be prepared to burn down the house.  I kid!  Although, this has been one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of my life.  I'm so glad to HOPEFULLY be done with fleas!

New Sheetz

A new Sheetz opened in Monroeville and we got a bunch of coupons for free items.  Awesome, right?  Well, one of the coupons was for a free "coffeez" so I decided it'd be the perfect opportunity to try out one of their frozen chai beverages.  I saw that there pumpkin beverages were back for the season and asked for flavor shots of pumpkin to be added.  Yum-city.  This newly discovered treat did not disappoint and will likely be enjoyed many times this Fall.  :)

Return to the Fleas

Holy cow.  What a way to return from vacation!  We got home last night around 8 PM and we welcomed by a bazillion fleas!  UGH!  Literally, we walked in the door and I went upstairs and had at least 40 on my legs.  Peter had just as many and he didn't even move from the living room.  We immediately picked them off of us (gross!) and left the house.  Peter made arrangements for Cadi to stay in a friend's basement in a dog cage and he went back to bomb the house.  In the meantime, he checked me into a hotel for the night where I am now.  For the past month or so we've been battling the fleas.  We thought that they were gone before vacation, but I guess not!  So far we've tried everything and these bombs are our last resort.  We tried the natural non-chemical way, but that didn't work at all.  Part of it was to spray things with lemon water.  I'm pretty sure the fleas thought we were hosting a lemonade party because they didn't go anywhere.  Then we tried less aggressive means, but still nothing.  If these fogger bombs don't work, then I don't know what we'll do.  We joke about burning the house down, but that may have to be the next step haha.  I'm just hoping and praying this does it and we never see another flea as long as we live.  They really are driving me to the point of being totally neurotic.

PEC

This weekend was PEC, a conference for Peter's work.  We ended up staying in the Sheraton hotel in Station Square from Thursday night through Sunday.  Since we are a one car family and Peter had to be there almost 24/7, it made it easier to stay there.  Thursday after work, we checked in, grabbed dinner, and then Peter had to do some set up work.

Friday I went to work as normal and then went shopping after until Peter would be able to go to dinner.  I found some great bargains at Target including 2 scarves for $3.24 each, an umbrella for $7, and sparkly black flip flops for the wedding for $3.  

Saturday I had Karen's baby shower, did some shopping at Joann (stocked up on fat quarters for 80 cents and baby flannel for $2.39/yard) and then had a picnic at Peter's work.

Sunday was only half day for the conference so we were out of there by lunchtime.  We hit up Rey Azteca for lunch and then enjoyed relaxing at home for the evening.

When I wasn't shopping, working, or at the baby shower, I just stayed in the hotel room and did some crafting.  I worked my tail off on making the treat bags for Mark and Jackie's wedding.  I got about 3/4 of the way done so that's great news!

Why do weekends have to fly by?

Saturday Fun

My friend, Karen, whom I've known since 3rd grade was having her baby shower today.  Lots of friends and gals I know have been having babies or are currently pregnant, but it still seems weird to me that my grade school friend is having a baby.  Not only that, but two other grade school friends, Jamie and Ann, recently had babies, too!

It was fun to see them again, but hard to believe it's been so long since our days in high school.  Almost 10 years!

Here's a shot I stole from Facebook of all of us.  I'm the only one without baby/not preggo, but that seems to be a theme with my groups of friends lately haha.

Phipps Conservatory

A few months ago there was a groupon for Phipps Conservatory. Peter and I bought one so it worked out to basically be two tickets for the price of one. We've actually never been to Phipps so we thought we'd definitely use it. We were afraid that the weekends would be super crowded so we decided to go tonight after work. There were people there, but nothing crazy so we're glad we did go after work.

As a side note, the weather here in Pittsburgh has been completely up and down. One day it's sunny and warm and the next I'm back in my warm boots. No wonder my allergies are all over the place.

The outside of Phipps:

This is the first room we walked into...

We couldn't believe how many plants and decorations were everywhere!

This room was still being set up for summer. I can't believe how many plants they need to plant!

This room was very lush with greenery and flowers.

Here's my handsome hubby. Too bad he wasn't feel that great this evening, either. I think my allergies have turned into a cold and I passed the germs onto him. :(

I loved the color of this one:

Phipps had many different streams and water features throughout the different rooms. So neat!

We didn't know what to make of these weird human gumby things we kept seeing...?

Some pretty flowers:

The butterfly room was pretty cool, but most of them were on the window ledges far away.

These glass items through Phipps were pretty awesome:

Veggie garden! This reminded me that we still need to plant our lettuce this year, haha.

Another cool room:

Part of the conservatory is outside which is cool. Here's a bleeding heart in bloom. Peter loves bleeding hearts. :)

There was this thing for kids to climb into outside...

...so of course Peter had to try it out!

Another water feature:

Pretty trees:

This is a carved gourd. How amazing is that??

Another stream:

Enjoying our walk through Phipps :)

Peter took a picture of this guy. Kind creepy, haha.

There was even a waterfall!

I'm realizing that since Peter had the camera more that I didn't get many pictures of him. Oops!

I love orchids. I think they're so pretty!

One of our favorite areas was the Japanese garden. So peaceful :)

Somehow we made a turn and ended up in a cactus room...definitely not Japanese! Peter's telling me how prickly everything is in this room. Don't touch!

More cacti:

And a few more...

We both thought that this room was very pretty and "Spring-y".

This was an interactive fountain that you could program to do lights and different things with. Pretty cool!

More beautiful flowers:

This was a room that you could only look at. You couldn't actually walk through it.

After that last room I realized we went everywhere except for the portion of the Japanese garden that we missed when we hit up the room full of cacti. So we headed back around to check out what we missed.

We both loved the Japanese Maple trees and this little bridge.

Bosai trees:

Pond:

I don't know what the pink tree is with this Japanese Maple, but I liked it, too! It looked sort of like a dogwood of some sort.

More cool shots from the Japanese Garden:

It took a little over an hour for us to see all of the rooms. Had we both been feeling better, we probably would've stayed longer, but it was the end of a long week and neither of us were feeling 100% so we headed home for some dinner. :)