3 Weekend Recap

Gosh I am behind.  The past couple weeks was very busy for us that I have yet to tell you what has been going on.

Well a few weekends back we had big travel plans .. kinda.  The hubby was in New Orleans for the annual Athletic Training Conference starting Sunday.  He had a great time down there meeting up with some friends and enjoying bourbon street in all its glory.

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And he also learned a bit too since I guess that is the whole point of the convention.  Although I wanted to, there was no need for me to go. I just stayed home and work while suggesting that it would be greatly appreciated if he brought me back some beignets from Cafe Du Monde.

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Side note about beignets - They are some of the most delicious deep fried dough you will ever have in your life.  If you are in New Orleans ever you must not skip out on this local coffee shop!  However, I must note that they do not taste as good when they are a day old and were smashed in a duffel bag all day. Oh well!

Anyways, getting back on track - I had to pick him up from the St Louis airport Wed at midnight.  Yeah, seriously! That's what you get for cheap tickets.  We drove the additional 1.5 hours back to his parents house, arriving nice and late.

We had planned to leave Thursday morning for Cincinnati to hang out with my older sister for the day, but because of a lot of complications and frustrations she was unable to get back to her place like she planned.  So instead we spent some extra time with Nate's family.

Friday we left for Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky and met up with my little sister for lunch.  We spent the afternoon together, bringing my doggie nephew to the dog park.

It was nice to see her since I hadn't seen her since my wedding last July.

Then we got to spend the evening with one of my college friends.  We had a nice dinner, some beer, and just catching up.

The next day we had a wedding for one of Nate's college friends.  So we got to our hotel early, did some relaxing, and even made time for an afternoon movie.

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Oh and I didn't mention I got to indulge in my favorite thing about Cincinnati ...

SKYLINE CHILI!

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Oh doesn't that neon cheese just look amazing.  Seriously though their cheese coneys are just simply heaven!  I was determined to make sure I had some skyline before leaving Ohio.   Mission accomplished!

Then of course we went to the wedding.  It was just beautiful and we had a blast!

I was very excited for my dress I found for the occasion.  Twenty dollars on the clearance rack and a medium size!  Also I was very excited for the alcohol.  I might have had two glasses of wine before dinner and I was definitely feeling it.  Hey, this was my vacation so I lived it up!

The next day we made the long trip back to Missouri, which reminded us why we don't go back to Ohio that often.  We had a great weekend  and it was worth it!

The following weekend was just as exciting.  Another day off of work for me, and another trip back to the in-laws place.  We visited with Grandma a bit since we knew we would be moving farther away. Our afternoon with her was hilarious as she kept telling Nate that he needs to get on "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire."  They were very insistent about it.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging with some friends, yummy grilling, and Nate sorting through 10 years of Sports Illustrated magazines.

Here is what we started with:

And we ended up just keeping these:

I would say it was a success.

That Sunday we tried to go to St. Louis for some fireworks and a free outdoor concert with some friends, but it got rained out.  Since we were already there we just ate at the Cheesecake Factory and came home.

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And of course we didn't leave without consuming some delicious cheesecake.

Then on Monday it was our anniversary.  We treated ourselves by sleeping in late. Eating some cupcakes (since we didn't have a top tier of our wedding cake to save).

Took pictures of us eating the cupcakes.

Had a "fancy" dinner at McAllister's (don't judge - The Cheesecake Factory the night before was our treat.)

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Then sweating our butts off at the Cardinals v Reds Game.

Literally we were soaked through.  Luckily the Cardinals got us a win!

Those two weekends were just a whirlwind.  Traveling will do that to you.  Maybe that is why I spent most of this past weekend parked on the couch, except for my obligatory daily workout.  Yes, nothing exciting about this weekend although I was pretty happy to see part of the ABC Family Harry Potter Marathon.

We have so much going on this month.  Only 3 weeks left in Missouri then the big move!

Memorial Day Weekend Laziness

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Ours was nothing exciting, but very relaxing.  Which was very much needed and much appreciated.

We started off the weekend with a movie, checking the Hangover II off of our list of summer movies.

It was one of the ones we were most excited about, and to be honest it let us down a bit.  Probably it was my fault for putting it up on the pedestal of greatness that was the first one.  Pretty much is was an exact replica of the first.  While it was funny and I enjoyed it, the surprise and intrigue of the first was definitely lacking.  If you like R rated comedies I still would encourage you to see it, but please leave before of the credits start.  That was the raciest part, and a little unnecessary.

Saturday I went to town cleaning the kitchen for a good part of the afternoon.  I cleaned out the stove and the fridge and pretty much every inch of the kitchen.  My night was a little more exciting as we planned to watch the Mizzou Women's Softball game.  Since the hubby works in the athletic department, we had free vouchers but the threat of severe thunderstorms scared us away.  Instead we headed over to our friend's place to watch the game with them and eat chocolate chip cookies.  It ended up not raining at all, but we had fun with our friends.

After church on Sunday, we went to out to eat.  Although we wanted to eat at a Middle Eastern place downtown called Casablanca's, it was closed when we got there.  In a last minute decision we ended up at Heidelberg's, which I told you here when the hubby snapped a picture of the tiger toilet.  While I do love the food there, I wanted to go to get the free cups which we didn't take when we were there last time!  It is a goal to collect as many free cups from restaurants in Columbia before we leave.

When we were full from our lunch, we headed home and lazily hung around the house until the softball game that night.  They were playing again for a chance to make it into the Softball College World Series.  Since it was evening I was hoping it wouldn't be as hot out, and it ended up being a beautiful evening!  Although we got there 55 minutes early, we barely got seats.  It was packed and was a very exciting game.  The girls won and are headed to Oklahoma City for the World Series.

The plan for Monday was to go to pool and enjoy some sun.  That ended up not happening.  We just sat around lazy all day.  I did motivate myself enough to do a small 30 minute workout at home, and ran some errands in the afternoon.  The weekend wrapped up with grilling out with friends and playing Clue.

It was hard to get up this morning, especially since since the hubby set his alarm for 3:30am.  Can't wait to tell you about the adventure he is on today and tomorrow but for now I will stay silent until I have more to tell!

Graduation, Dessert, and Other Happiness

Hi all!

I bet you have been wondering what has been going on with the Pickel's lately.

Lots actually.  We have been busy, busy, busy.

First of all, my dear hubby graduated from college last weekend.  He officially has his Master's Degree and is done with school, forever!

Okay I cheated.  That is a picture from his undergraduate graduation at Ohio State.  But in my defense he didn't walk at graduation this time but I still wanted to post a graduation picture.  Who wants to sit at a graduation ceremony on a Friday night?  Not these people.  Instead he celebrated by hanging out with some fellow grads, eating yummy food, and visits from parents.

On Saturday, Nate's parents stopped by for a quick trip.  And by quick I mean less than 24 hours.  They were on their way back from his sister's Junior College National Tennis Tournament in Arizona, and decided to take a detour to Columbia to congratulate the hubby on his graduation.  We had a nice evening of a home cooked meal, lots of stories from their vacations, pictures of the Grand Canyon, souvenir presents, yummy dessert, and our favorite card game, Monopoly deal.

This is the dessert I made for the occasion.

No I didn't get really great at taking pictures of a sudden (But mine looked similar except I may have drizzled a little more chocolate on than suggested).  That is the picture from The Kitchen and check out the link to see how easy this recipe was!  Seriously, it was easy and so very delicious.  We definitely had seconds.

Sunday we had church, followed by a yummy dinner out to D. Rowe's.  If you have been to Columbia, Missouri and have not eaten at this place, you are crazy!  Best baked potatoes you will ever have in your life. No joke!  The portions are big enough you can get at least 2 meals out of it, 3 if you can actually exercise some self control and eat normal portion sizes.  Then we watched some of the Cardinals game before they headed home.  It was fast, but nice to see them again.

I somehow managed to make it out of the weekend without dying.  Remember those allergies I was talking about?  Yeah they only got worse over the weekend.  I polished off over one full box of tissues, and consumed I don't remember how many pills.  However, I am glad to report that I woke up Monday morning feeling very alive and could breathe (which let me tell you - trying to consume that D. Rowe's baked potato was pretty hard when you can't breathe).

Work has calmed down after a busy few weeks.  Another confession - I tend to blog at work, which is why the frequency in my posts decreased as my work load increased.  True story.  So the end of the semester brought with it all kinds of stuff to finish up at work.  Now I am getting into the summer, which is absolutely dead around here.  While we usually have a few summer classes, even those enrollments are down.  At least this time last year I was planning a wedding, honeymoon, and second honeymoon.  Now I am not sure what I will do all day!

Therefore, I am offering up my services as a free wedding planner/ wedding consultant.  Need ideas? Need a timeline? Need help choosing music for the ceremony? I am your woman! Just kidding ... kinda ... but not really.  I always love an excuse to talk wedding.  It is my dream job after all!

On a different note, my car is finally back into my possession.  It is so nice to be driving it again! I missed it so much.  While I have never been one for naming your vehicle, I really feel like she/he? could use a name of affection.  Never have the roads been so smooth, or have I been able to reach my cruising speed on the highway!  Its been just happiness driving home from work, sun shining again finally, and blasting my favorite music while I sing like a crazy person in my own car.

Anyways wrapping up, I plan on sharing how the hubby's job search has been going and some possible plans for the future.  Happy Hump Day!

Anyone still there? Week Recap

Oh my gosh.  Please tell me you haven't deserted me yet! I swear I am still alive and healthy.  Nothing drastic has happened - just life.  Sometimes life just gets in the way of doing the things we planned.  I really do enjoy blogging, but lately things just have felt hectic and blogging is one of the first things to fall to the wayside.

So what has been going in the past week (cough cough week and a half) since I last posted.  Well lots of stuff.

First off I have been car-less.  Okay, maybe not car-less, but my-car-less.  I have been driving around the hubby's car since we don't want anymore damage to mine.  Insurance finally came out to estimate the damage and it was even more than what the collision center quoted us!  Pretty excited since the difference equals about what our deductible is, so that is money we don't have to shell out.  Currently, the car has been in the shop since Friday.  Meanwhile the hubby got to drive this monster around.

For those of you on facebook, no we didn't buy it (like the hubby implied by his post).  We aren't that crazy!  This was the free rental upgrade we got for the weekend. And we may or may not have decided to drive it to a softball game and had some major problems parking.  Oh well.

What else...

I finally finished the first book of the Alex Cross series by James Patteron.  Along Came a Spider has been checked out of the library every time I have looked.  So I just moved on and read the second and third in the series.  Luckily I figured out that one of my friends had it.  She let me borrow it!  Boy was it good!

I finally got to see The King's Speech.  Now I understand how it received all those awards.  It was that good, and surprisingly funny.

I learned how to play bocce ball in real life with some friends.  My only experience before has been playing it on the Wii, which I rock at!  It was fun but not what I expected.  Those bocce balls are heavy and hard to control.  The girls ended up winning against the boys because we are awesome like that!

Last Thursday...
There was a little Cinco de Mayo party at work, because who doesn't like Mexican.  I made these delicious Margarita Cupcakes.  And yes they did have tequila in them!

This is my second baking project in the past couple months that involved icing, and my second fail at making icing.  (Remember this ugly cake I made for the hubby's bday.  Scroll all the way down, you can't miss it.)  I think I need help making icing.  This time it turned more into a glaze.  If I followed the recipe correctly they would have looked like this:

(Homemade by Holman Margarita Cupcakes)

But they still tasted good so I guess it wasn't a complete fail.

I also made some corn salsa:

(Haute Apple Pie Corn Salsa)

There was also Bean Dip, Chicken Tortilla Soup, and Quesadillas.  Oh yeah and these cute sombrero cookies:

Then at home I had every intention of making tacos and real margaritas, but I ended up only making the margaritas - strawberry margaritas to be exact.

I was just so excited to finally use my margarita glasses I got at my shower last May.  In my defense, we did have some leftovers burgers along with the drinks.  We aren't alcoholics here.

What else ...

This past Friday I took a day off of work.  The hubby got us tickets to a Cardinals game in St. Louis for the evening where we met up with his best friend from home and his girlfriend.  We decided to get there early for batting practice - which is more the hubby's idea than mine.  My idea - get to St. Louis even earlier to tour the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour.  Hey it was free and you get free beer at the end!

We got to see the Clydesdale Horses and their stable

Huge barrels of beer stacked on top of each other

Learned the brewing process

And saw some of it in action:

Then I happily took my beer sample at the end (I only drank one because I was hungry but you can have two full glasses) and the hubby had his Pepsi.

Other than that, my life has been a lot of headaches, a lot of sleeping, and a lot of slacking off at the gym.

But I am back!

Let's have a good week!

Weekend Recap: Hail and Tornadoes

My title kind of says it all.  Our weekend was full of yucky weather - rain, hail, and even tornadoes.

It all started on Friday after work...

About a week ago I finally went ahead and bought a new pair of workout sneakers.  I had found a pair I thought would be really great and looked cute too.  Unfortunately they only had them in an 8.5 size, and most of the sneakers I tried on were most comfortable in a 9.  Somehow I talked myself into thinking that the smaller size would fit me.  When I got them home that day I wore them around the house and realized they were too tight.  Dang.  Our store in town did not get my size on their shipment this week, so I thought it would be a good idea to see if any other stores along the way to the in-laws place would have them as we would be headed there for Easter weekend.  No one did, except the store in Jefferson City, MO (which is about 30 min south of Columbia, and not on the way to the in-laws at all).

Anyways, back to Friday.  I decided it would be a good idea to run down to Jefferson City after work to get these shoes.  Then rush back to Columbia to pack up real quick and head out to the in-laws for Easter.  Getting to the store, things went great.  I made great timing, they were already reserved for me, and I was out of there quick.  However when I got just north of Jefferson City, my boss sent me a text that said, "I really hope you are close to home.  There is a tornado headed straight toward Ashland."  I was driving straight toward Ashland with no where to stop along the way.  The clouds started to look scary and I was getting a little freaked out.  I called the hubby to calm me down and that is when I started raining, and then hailing.  Finally I had to pull off to the side of the road with all the other cars, and the hail just kept pelting my car.  It cracked my windshield and put dents on the top of my car.

So these are the cute shoes I got:

And this is the crack in my windshield (which has since gotten bigger over the weekend):

Was it worth it?  I am not sure.  $250 deductible will fix the windshield and the dents on my car, but the shoes were only $60.

But the story doesn't end here.

Once I got home we had to make the decision on whether to go to southern Illinois that night or wait until the morning.  We saw the weather report and there didn't seem to be any more weather coming behind us, so we packed up and left about 7pm.

We didn't take into account the weather in southern Missouri that was moving up and over, instead of over.  What ended up happening was we caught up with the weather just outside of St. Louis.  We heard on the radio and from the in-laws about the tornado warnings, and I insisted we get off the highway at Lake St. Louis, about 25 minutes from the STL airport.  If you have seen the news at all recently, you would know that the tornado actually touched down at the airport.



Lucky for us that we stopped or we would have probably driven right through when the tornado hit.  After waiting 45 minutes for the warnings to lift, we headed out on I-70 which was our best option since 270 was closed both ways.  It wasn't long before we hit traffic.  We barely moved for 3 hours.  It took us that long to go about 5 miles at which point they were re-routing people off of I-70.  We managed to find an alternate route there, arriving at 1:45 (6 hours and 45 minutes for a trip that normally takes 3 hours).

The rest of the weekend was a bit less eventful, but still full of flood warnings.  Easter managed to stay nice enough for us to get out and enjoy service at the in-laws church and a little visiting before we took off with the threat of more thunderstorms headed that direction.

I am so over this crazy weather!

Happy Monday and have a great week.

Weekend Recap

So the end of last week was kind of a fail.  I was so exhausted and just did not feel like blogging.  Oh well, I am sure you dealt.  It was just one of those weeks that was busy at work and felt like an emotional roller coaster with other things happen in my life.  Things will be getting crazy soon, but hopefully in a good way.  Which is why I took a few days off of blogging.

I started the weekend a little early playing hooky from work.  Yeah, I am a bad girl.  In all fairness, I have paid time off days I can use for anything I want, but to be truthful I wasn't feeling great.  I just wanted to sleep.  My boss seemed okay with it, but I still felt nervous like I am skipping out on school or something.  I was like Ferris Bueller, having to put on a show to prove I was not feeling well.

Regardless, it was nice to have the day off.  I didn't do anything worth mentioning during the day.  Just hanging out and cleaning the house.  When the hubby got home in the evening we had a quick dinner, and then went to the movies.  We saw The Lincoln Lawyer, which was excellent.  Some of the best acting I have seen Matthew McConaughey do in a while.

(Image)

Saturday was an eventful day.  First on the agenda was a haircut.  I am one of those people that let my hair grow so much that it all of a sudden hits me that my hair is too unmanageable and I must cut it all off immediately.  Lucky for me, my hair salon is good about getting me in last minute.

Check out my "before" pictures.  This is probably the longest my hair has been in 4 years.

The hubby just couldn't resist getting in on this mini photo shoot.

And the "after" pictures.  I am in love with it!  I do prefer the shorter hair.  The maintenance is so much easier for my thick, full head of hair, and I think it has more style and personality.  I was a little more adventurous and let her cut it shorter in the back.  I think it turned out great!

Next, the hubby and I grabbed some leftover for lunch before going to the Missouri women's softball team game versus Texas A&M.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and I was excited to get some color on my pale skim.  Though, I might have gotten too much.  I am still feeling the pain from the burn on my back.  

After the game, we finally made it out to Lowe's.  I have been wanting some herb pots for my kitchen for what seems like years now.  Especially since we have been making the effort to cook fresh food, I like to use fresh herbs especially cilantro in my Mexican dishes.  Loewe's had some great pots, and I ended up with these yellow and green ones to compliment the colors in my kitchen.  For the herbs I got cilantro, basil, and oregano, which I think I would use the most.  They look so cute on my kitchen windowsill.

All the excitement of the day was really starting to wear on me.  I also blame it on the fact that on the weekends I don't drink as much water, and am probably am dehydrated.  I spent the rest of the evening in bed being a bum.

Sunday was church, as always, and then to the gym and grocery store.  Again, I started to feel like I was having a sinus infection or a fever.  Either way I spent a good portion of the afternoon/early evening in bed trying to find a comfortable position that didn't bother my sunburn.  Around dinner I was feeling better so the hubby took me out to eat so I didn't have to cook.  Our favorite Mexican restaurant was a good way to wrap up the night, and there is nothing like a Margarita to break a fever!

Going back to work was hard this week, but the end is in sight.  I can see it!

Monday Blues

At the end of the weekend you should feel refreshed, especially after a good weekend.

That is not how I feel today.  I was dreading the end of Sunday knowing that I had to be back to work today.  It is so hard feeling motivated at your job when you can see the end in sight.  Also, I have been feeling very anxious about changes possibly coming soon, and where it will take us.  My emotions are definitely getting out of control lately and today I just feel ughhhh.

To get me through the day, I just try to think of the great stuff that is going on in my life.

A beautiful weekend which I had the window open all day long, reaching highs of 87!

A fun game night with wonderful friends and yummy food.

(Not taken this weekend because I was kicking butt at Funglish)

A hard two-hour workout, the most I have done yet, and knowing I can continue to push myself farther toward my goals.

Fitting better into a pair of pants that didn't fit last summer.

A late Sunday run downtown to Yogoluv - my new obsession

Knowing that I have the most supportive and loving husband.

And looking through wedding photos all day - reminding me of how dreamy that day was, and how I get to live every day of my life with that man.

(Chris Aram Photography)

Full From the Weekend

After all of the food this weekend, I think I am still full!  It seems like whenever we travel home we always end up meeting our

We made a quick weekend trip out of town to visit my in-laws in Southern Illinois.  The hubby's birthday is coming up soon so we wanted to visit a bit with his family.  Plus his friends were having a baseball draft party for their fantasy team, so it made for good timing to come into town.

I had a little time off at the end of last week, so we left in the afternoon on Friday and met up with the family at Lindenwood University to watch his sister's tennis match.  The weather was gorgeous and sunny finally, so we took that as our cue to wear shorts and flip-flops - not the best decision when the sun went down.

Hubby took off to join his friends and I stayed around to watch the end of the match and grab some food with my in-laws.  We decided on a restaurant I have never heard of - Lotawata Creek - and oh my gosh you would not believe the food there! It was huge!  Since I knew that absolutely none of this southern style cooking was good for me, I went ahead and ordered the Big Hillybilly Fried Pork Sandwich which was covered in sausage gravy and cheese.

Bad Picture taken with my phone camera

It took up the whole plate.  I am glad I took the waitress' advice and ordered a salad instead of fries.  I ate about maybe 1/4 of the sandwich and barely could fit the rest of it in the to-go box.  I had plenty leftover for at least 3 more meals!

Saturday was a bit of a lazy day, watching Buckeye basketball and playing video games.  For the hubby's celebratory birthday dinner we went to Lonestar and enjoyed some serious steaks.  On the way home we stopped to pick up some birthday Wii Games to entertain ourselves for the night.  Then finished up the evening with homemade chocolate pudding dessert, the hubby's favorite, and Wii Games until we passed out.

Sunday after church, we ate some Mexican food at a local place that filled me up so much I didn't eat for the rest of the day.  Then watched the Buckeye game and headed home.  I was wanted to stop by World Market to shop around, but had a headache and needed to get groceries since there was no food in the fridge.

It was a great weekend and we loved visiting our family.  Now I am back to work this week and mother nature graced us with some snow on a Monday morning.  Nothing like being back! Happy Monday All!

Weekend Movie Marathon

This past weekend I finally had some "me time" I have been needing really bad.  Just a day to sit back on the couch in my sweatpants, throw my hair back in a ponytail, and watch some movies.  The hubby did some extra work this weekend, so I had the couch all to myself and was free to choose any movie of my liking.  I was prepared for this lazy day by borrowing some movies from a friend the night before!

While I did start the day off productive doing about 4 loads of laundry, I quickly succumbed to the comfy couch and started my movie marathon.

First up, Inglorious Basterds.

(IMDb)

Since I don't believe in re-inventing the wheel, here is the synopsis according to IMDb (the best website for anything related to movies!):

"In Nazi occupied France, young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the slaughter of her family by Colonel Hans Landa. Narrowly escaping with her life, she plots her revenge several years later when German war hero Fredrick Zoller takes a rapid interest in her and arranges an illustrious movie premiere at the theater she now runs. With the promise of every major Nazi officer in attendance, the event catches the attention of the "Basterds", a group of Jewish-American guerilla soldiers led by the ruthless Lt. Aldo Raine. As the relentless executioners advance and the conspiring young girl's plans are set in motion, their paths will cross for a fateful evening that will shake the very annals of history."

I am a fan of Quentin Tarantino movies, so I have been dying to see it since it came out years ago.  Since I am no movie critic, and talking about the "cinematographic elements" or whatever movie snobs talk about is boring, so I will talk about the enjoyment factor.  This movie is enjoyable to those who can get past bad language, and some gore.  Out of all of Tarantino's movies, this is the least graphic and easiest to digest.  I came away from it not feeling completely disturbed, which is different than his other movies like Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction (which are good in their own way).

Next, I watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine:

 (IMDb again)

This movie tell the back story to Wolverine that the X-Men movies touch on a bit.  Any movie with Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds is good in my eyes.  Other than the eye candy, it was fun to watch.  There were some cool fight scenes.  While it wasn't the most amazing movie I have seen, I think it a must see for those who like superhero movies.

My movie watching marathon was interrupted by the hubby home from work.  However, I forgave him when he suggested going to the movies so see something new.  Although I wanted to see Cedar Rapids (but it wasn't at any of the local theaters anymore) and The Adjustment Bureau (but the hubby doesn't really like dramas) I compromised with Take Me Home Tonight.    

For me it wasn't the greatest comedy - or the worst.  It was nice to sit through but I probably will never watch it again.


My movie marathon weekend ended with Sherlock Holmes on Sunday after church and brunch.  That was probably the best movie I watched all weekend.  I really enjoyed the humor of Robert Downey Jr. and the action of the movie kept up nicely.


And if you think I sit around and act like a bum every weekend that is not true! A girl just needs one of those days every once in a while....

Weekend Fun

The hubby and I were looking forward to this past weekend for a while.

This is a fun story: For my birthday in September, he bought me tickets to one of our favorite artists, Joshua Radin.

I was so excited! We drove a few hours to St. Louis on a weeknight for the concert, not getting back until really late at night. The next day we were so dead tired, only to find out that day that Joshua Radin was coming to our current city in February. We laughed it off and agreed that we had to go again.

Well this weekend was the night of the concert, part two, and this time we were joined by some friends.

We started at the Heidelberg. It is a restaurant located in downtown Columbia, Missouri close to the University of Missouri campus. I absolutely loved this place! The food was pretty inexpensive and so delicious. I had a club sandwich with the warm German potato salad as a side, and the hubby got the fried pork loin. I failed to get pictures of the food (the pork loin was HUGE!) but the hubby did snap this picture.

Yes, that is a Missouri Tiger toilet ......

Anyways, after we headed into the Blue Note for the concert. The opening acts were really good. Lara Jansen was just amazing. I am a sucker for singer-songwriters just playing the piano. Her first album is coming out late March, so I am really looking forward to her stuff.

Cary Brothers was the other opening act (and yes that is correct grammar. He is a single musician- first name Cary, last name Brothers- not a group of brothers). He was pretty good, but I had mixed feelings about some of his songs. And of course we loved Joshua! His music is just so smooth and he has such a pure voice! It was a late night for old married couples like us, so we passed out when we got home.

Saturday was office clean-up day for me and studying for the hubby. That evening I did have a Mary Kay Makeover party to go to with some of my lovely friends. Scored some awesome goodies!

Sunday, we went to church and then out to eat at Cracker Barrel. I am not even sure the last time I have been there. Probably when I was really little! Of course I got breakfast - the Wholesome Breakfast Sampler. It has a yogurt, fruit, and granola parfait, 2 eggs, turkey sausage, and a huge muffin. And I mean Ginormous!

I couldn't finish it so I brought it home for breakfast this morning!

Finished off the weekend with some fun with friends and a little Super Mario Bros - we just can't get enough of that game.

Happy Monday and last day of February! Have a great week all!