Prank calls anyone?

I'm a rule follower, usually. As a kid, I never prank called anyone, but we all know the standard ones. For example:
Prankster- Is your refrigerator running?
Victim-  Yes....
Prankster- Well, then you better go catch it!!!

It's funny right? Well, not when the answer to the question is no...

Alex and I woke up and our refrigerator wasn't working. Yay for defrost #2 this year....(#1: epic May storm= no power for 3 days)! My wonderful parents and aunt & uncle came to our rescue! We now have a jammed packed mini fridge!

Tomorrow we're calling a maintenance dude/dudette and crossing our fingers that he/she can fix it! We'll keep you posted. But, if we show up on your front porch hungry, please feed us, we're working with limited cold resources... :).

Sunday Funday right?!

Changes are coming....

Whether or not you're a fan of our current politicians they have the power to create change. Not necessarily good or bad, just changes. I'm not the most political person out there because I go back and forth on a lot of hot topic issues, I'm not always conservative or liberal, I'm just Abby.
But, with AW Insurance, we have more of an interest in the new ObamaCare. I'm not for or against it but, I will be affected by it and likely, so will you. Alex went to a meeting regarding the changes and brought home this little video that gives a brief overview of some changes to come.  Enjoy.

Welcoming Fall & mini DIY

Fall is here!! Well, not officially, but pumpkin spice latte's are back at Starbucks, which is the Bat Signal for fall lovers to swap their shorts and sandals for scarves and boots. Fall means that crunchy leaves and crisp breezes are coming. It means that the sun will be coming up earlier and that bonfires are always a good idea. It also means that it's the time of year when the décor in your home begins changing. Fall is my favorite season and guess what?! It's HERE!! Alex told me it was too early to decorate, but after my first pumpkin spice latte, I couldn't not decorate! Here are a few pictures of our fall-ified house: 

The bunting in the above picture is just some paint chips that I cut to size and attached with twine to an old frame. The only thing that I purchased this year was the pumpkin in the first picture, it was 40% off at Michael's. The candle/candlestick in the first picture was from my Grandparent's house. 

Now for the mini DIY. Our not-circular wreath...I'm not sure what it should be called, a door hanging? Whatever it's called, I painted a piece of wood with chalkboard paint and attached a ribbon to it to hang on our door. It's been up for a while, but I got the idea from my sister Becky to make the flowers and such attached to it interchangeable with mini clothes pins. She is very clever, isn't she? You should check her blog out too... 

All you need is:

Hot Glue Gun

Mini Clothes Pin

Flower/Leaf/Whatever you want on your wreath

Instructions:

Hot glue clothes pin on flower/leaf/whatever you want on your wreath. Attach to wreath. Step back and smile. You're almost as clever as my sister, but not quite. 

Exhibit A: Clothes pin hot glued to leaf.

Exhibit B: Final Product

Happy Fall, happy decorating, happy crunchy leaves, happy pumpkin spice latte's and happy crafting!

Disclaimer: Fall is my favorite season, not to be confused with my favorite holiday season: Christmas. Two completely different, but very exciting times of the year!

Labor Day Weekend

September is here, which means my Birthday month is here, which means we have a month of celebrating ahead!  So far, we have had quite a busy weekend! Here's a recap:

On Friday my parents stopped by for dinner at none other than Dewey's. After their departure Alex and I met some friends for an evening of bowling! Alex won (I came in last, but I did get a strike)! 

Saturday was our long run day, so we thought going out to jog at noon was a good idea....it was approximately 100 degrees, give or take a few. Needless to say it was hot. We didn't beat any record times, but we got it done. Alex took to the couch for the rest of the day while I made good use of my "shopping" envelope and went shopping! I was the ultimate Maxxinista  and got a pair of jeans,leggings, a sweater and a very chic top all for under $50! Go me! 

On Sunday morning we got to hang out with the 5 and up's of Trailhead and we learned about Solomon. After church we played a rousing game of tennis with our friends Kraig & Stephanie and then we took our competitive spirit to the pool in a game or two of water volleyball. We had a very good and active afternoon. For dinner Stephanie (&Kraig) made Greek nacho's. They were delicious! The fun doesn't stop there either... We played wii and then consumed a s'more concoction that was fantastic...we may invite ourselves over to dinner every night... 

Finally on Monday, a holiday for relaxation and leaving work for Tuesday.... Alex and I decided we should tackle our basement, today. We (I) scoured Pinterest for some ideas and we talked through our options, keeping in mind our budget, we settled on a plan and went to Lowes. The project is underway and I promise there will be pictures as soon as it is more presentable. The phrase "It gets worse before it gets better" comes to mind... That leaves us to where we are now...in bed worn out and with paint in our hair. Good night and happy Labor Day! 

P.S. - More exciting basement details to come...eventually. 

St. Louis Rock & Roll Marathon

Alex and I are officially registered for the St. Louis Rock and Roll (half) Marathon! It is on Alex's 25th Birthday in October! Get excited to hear/read all about our training! Wish us luck!

New York City Adventures...Part II

Yesterday I shared our adventure in words...a lot of words. Today, I'll share in pictures. I narrowed down my 273 pictures to 12 of my favorites.

 Enjoy!

Empire State Building at dusk

Mom & Dad at the Top of the Rock!

Top of the Rock

Rockefeller Plaza

Central Park

Central Park Shenanigans

World Trade Center Memorial (It was pouring down rain...so no fantastic pictures. But, it was a sobering experience.)

Lady Liberty

Enjoying the Statue of Liberty

NBC Studio Tour

"The Voice" Chairs at NBC

Of course Gnome went everywhere we went!

New York City Adventures...Part I

About six weeks ago my parents invited Alex and I to join them for a trip to  New York City, of course we said yes! We flew out early on Wednesday morning and as soon as we landed we hit the ground running. We took a whirlwind tour of Manhattan by bus, walked through Times Square (yes, we saw the naked cowboy) and then we went to the top of the Rockefeller building.

The next day we took a walking/bus tour of the city and got to see a lot! We walked through Central Park, saw Museum Mile, longed to shop on 5th Avenue, walked though the very overwhelming and crowed Chinatown, and made our last stop at the World Trade Center Memorial. We covered a lot of ground, saw a lot and smelled a lot! It was a busy day, but don't worry we're not done yet. After dinner we headed to Broadway to see Motown. It chronicles the life and rise to fame of Berry Gordy and was very well written and performed, two thumbs up!

On Friday, we woke up and hopped aboard the subway to head to Liberty Island. (With a crew of 50 people, the subway is not an easy task.) When we got there we toured the Island and then climbed the 270+ stairs to the pedestal level. Unfortunately the crown level was sold out, so we didn't get to go allll the way up and Ellis Island is under renovation so, we missed out on both. Maybe next time. After visiting Lady Liberty we headed to the famous John's Pizzeria, it was a yummy slice of pie. Our original plan for Friday evening was to head to the Yankees game, but there was a strong chance of rain and an hour subway ride to and from the game so we nixed that and started looking for a show to see. We decided to go off Broadway to see Peter and the Starcatcher. It was an absolutely phenomenal show and I highly recommend it, four thumbs way, way up (Alex's thumbs were included in that count)!

We left Saturday afternoon, but we crammed in one more tour before leaving, the NBC Studio Tour. It was very good and informative. It's crazy how much actually goes into a news production and how much work that the anchors do, we saw the set of Nightly News and Brian Williams and has a lot of weight on his shoulders...and make up on his face. The Page (not Kenneth from 30 Rock) explained that Brian Williams has to be in full make up the entire time he's in the studio, which is usually from 9am to 9pm, just in case there is breaking news. She told us that he writes 80% of his content and is the big cheese at NBC news among other stuff. That's all that I remember- for more information, ask my dad...he's an encyclopedia. We toured the set of SNL and then I got to pretend to be a news anchor and read from a teleprompter, while another girl got to deliver the weather. It was fun, but not a job that I aspire to, to much scrutiny.

Sadly, we had to leave our adventure in the Big Apple, but we were ready to come home and breathe fresh air. We had a great trip and we are both very grateful that my parents invited us. They're the best and we will gladly travel with them again and hopefully they'll travel with us again too!

Thanks Mom & Dad!

Pictures to come tomorrow- same time, same place. 

I'm sure I left something out, we did a lot, but that's most of it...I think. 

Adventure...

I'm working on a blog post or two about our trip to NYC with my parents. Get excited to see a snipit of our adventure! (you can click on my instagram link to see a few pictures if you just can't wait) :-)

Come fly with me...

Regardless of how many times I've been on a plane (or jumped out) it never ceases to amaze me how great God is and how awesome the world He created is. It's amazing and awe inspiring to think about how small we are and how great He is. I love being reminded of his greatness. 

ps- I'm on a plane...

Two very wonderful years and counting...

Today is our second wedding anniversary!! We have had an amazing two years of marriage and I am incredibly blessed to be Alex's wife. He is the best friend, partner and husband I could ever imagine. I could go on and on about how great he is, but then it would probably go to his head . We have gotten to experience so many wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) adventures together but we have grown together and stronger in our relationship with God and each other. I love the life that God has blessed us with and I am very excited to see what the next year has in store for us.

Happy Anniversary Alex, I love you!

I found the cure...

...for mosquito bites! Actually, I saw something on the internet (ie: pinterst) that found the cure. The site said something along the lines of: 

as soon as you're bitten by a pesky mosquito or as soon as you notice the bite, grab a metal spoon and run it under hot (not warm) water and place it on the bite. It will obviously be hot and not the most pleasant feeling, but it does the trick! I didn't pin the original site that explained the science of the hot spoon, but today I was bitten by a mosquito and tried it out and it worked!! Try it on your next, inevitable bite and let me know!  

Celebratory Saturday

Our second wedding anniversary is on Tuesday however, I have to work all day so we decided to celebrate on Saturday!

 We headed downtown to do some exploring and  we started out with lunch at Molly's in Soulard. Then we headed to the Loop. Unfortunately I'm not the greatest with directions and we ended up in a sketchy neighborhood so we played it safe and went to Forest Park. The park is one of our favorite spots to lay in the grass and count the clouds, people watch and just talk. Later that evening we decided to go to a movie and Despicable Me 2 won the coin toss! It was cute, but not quite as good as the first one. We had a really great afternoon and I'm glad we decided to get out of the house and celebrate.

 Happy  2 years on Tuesday Alex, I love you! 

 

Side note- My brother is home from Afghanistan safe and sound!!

We are very proud of you Jim and we love you! 

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday! I forgot to send a card, so I will make a public announcement that I have the best dad on earth and he deserves the happiest birthday ever...this year! 

I love you! 

Oh, what a day!

We take our Saturday's very seriously around these parts amd try to cram as much as humanly possible into our day. A typical (ish) Saturday:

We woke up to the toilet still running, presumably from last night. I couldn't let it be so we made an early morning trip to R.P Lumber for a new flapper thing (Alex did all of the plumbing and I have no idea what all happened in the bathroom). After the flapper was replaced the toilet was still running so we went to Lowes to get a new something or other that, after a big wet mess, did the trick. Alex only shouted profanities once but I'm pretty sure that was after I told him I needed to got to the bathroom.

After we plumbed we headed downtown to the farmers market. We got some fresh mint that I have no clue what to do with but, it smells good. We also got some meat rubs that are fantastic on grilled chicken. The lady felt sorry for us trying to wrangle Moose and stop him from eating her samples so we got a freebie creme brûlée dip packet too. Hopefully it's as good as her other mixes. (Check out my Instagram for a picture)

I was inspired by our trip to Lowes to paint a mirror that I indefinitely borrowed my parents gave us, so we went to Home Depot and Ace to check out their spray paint options. I went with green and I'm very happy with the result, it compliments the rest of our bedroom very well (check out my Instagram for a picture).

After we spray painted, we decided to really paint, with rollers and all! We started in the creepy corner of our basement, cleared out the junk, swept and Alex dry-locked. The plan for tomorrow is to hang peg board and organize the tools and all of our miscellaneous basement stuff, pictures to follow.

Alex mowed, I weeded the gardens and then did our laundry. We've been very busy and I feel quite accomplished! Now to sit back and relax....or go to bed!

Happy Saturday! 

Sangria + a printable

Nothing is better on a hot afternoon than an ice cold drink, especially when that drink is sangria! I got this recipe from my sister a while back and I have no idea where she got it, so I will give her the credit for creating it.

Ingredients:
-2 bottles of white or red wine (we like white and prefer Riesling)
-2 peaches, sliced
-1 orange, sliced
-6+ strawberries, sliced
-3/4 cup triple sec
- Ginger Ale (to taste)
- 1/4 cup sugar (dissolved in the wine/liquor mix)


Directions:
Mix everything, except ginger ale in a one gallon pitcher and chill. Add ginger ale and ice before serving and viola! you've got a pitcher of delicious sangria!


Chef's note:
You can half the recipe if you don't want to make as much. Also, when I make it, I usually just throw in some fruit that I have on hand. There's no wrong way to make this yummy sangria!

Enjoy and now for the printable!

Please enjoy responsibly and 21 and older!

Happy weekend!

Happy (belated) July 4th! I hope you enjoyed your celebrations and day off of work! We are enjoying our four day weekend and trying to squeeze everything into it that we can. Luckily, today is our day of rest and relaxation before we have to re enter the real world tomorrow.

First, a little bit of patriotism. I am very proud to be an American and to have all of the freedom's we usually take for granted. I'm glad that we can speak our minds regarding politics and religion (among other things) with no persecution. I'm very proud of our military, especially my big brother and that they defend our nation's freedom while sacrificing so much. I love you Jim and I'm ready for you to come home.

Moving on....
On the fourth, we went to Alex's uncle's pool party to play some water volleyball and to soak up some ray's. Unfortunately,  we underestimated the power of the ray's and are a little lobster-y. But, we had fun and I'm always glad to be invited over. Later that evening we headed to our friend's, Kyle and Lori, house to barbecue. We had a lot of fun but were eaten by mosquito's (despite our bug spraying efforts), so on top of our sunburn, we're speckled with bug bites. Neat. We saw no fireworks, but heard them and then called it a night. Happy Birthday America.

On the fifth, which I dubbed Abby Day, we slept in, Moose got his hair cut and a bath and  we watched the newest Batman movie which, I highly suggest. After sitting in our bat cave basement for a few hours, we decided to stretch our legs with a walk around the neighborhood. On our walk, we discussed the need for an adventure so, Alex and I invited ourselves to my sister's house to spend the night as a pit stop on our way to Starved Rock State Park (she was thrilled to have us last minute...I think).  We packed up, got our pup and drove north. When we got there Becky and Jared made us a wonderful dinner and we played with Ethan and Nora until bedtime.

On the sixth, we woke up, played with some lego's, loaded our car and headed to Ottowa for some adventure- Jared, Becky, Ethan and Nora in tow! When we got there we ate lunch and then hiked, climbed and played. We had a lot of fun and I even remembered my camera so there is evidence of our adventure!

We had a lot of fun and are really glad that the Collier crew decided to join us! Check out their blog to see some of their pictures from the trip!

Hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend! 

Writer's Block...

Sorry I've been absent, I'm suffering a bit lately from writer's block. We're not doing anything very exciting or news worthy. We went to a wedding last weekend and spent time with family. But other than that we're pretty lame. We have no exciting plans for Independence Day and it feels like we live in Seattle with all the rain we're getting. Hopefully there will be some excitement (and sunshine) in our lives to share soon!

Lemon Cookies

A couple weekends ago Alex and I made cookies for a wedding reception and we made some awesome lemon cookies, courtesy of our friend Lori's recipe. Don't worry it's not top secret or very difficult so with no further ado:

                                                                 Iced Lemon Cookies

Cookie ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 Tbsp. finely zested lemon rind 

Icing:

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp.finely zested lemon rind

1 cup powdered sugar

Cookies:

First, mix butter on high until fluffy, then add sugar and egg. Continue mixing on medium while adding vanilla and lemon rind. 

In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients (you could sift them, but that takes a sifter and extra time). 

Mixing on a low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the creamy/sugary mixture until well blended. Gather the dough into a ball and refrigerate for a bit (the original recipe said one hour, but who's that patient?).

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

Remove the dough from the fridge and scoop little dough balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. You can flatten the dough balls with a glass (dip the glass into a bit of sugar between cookies to reduce the stickiness).  The flatter the cookie the crispier it will be. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden. Let cool and then ice. 

Icing:

Juice 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, zest 1 tablespoon of lemon rind and then mix in one cup of powdered sugar. Mix until it is well blended. Spread on the cookies after they've cooled. You can pipe the icing onto the cookies, glaze the cookies or just ribbon it over the cookies so they're not super icing-y. 

I made about 30 cookies and they were medium sized. 

Happy Baking! 

Baker's note:

I have no idea how long this recipe took from start to finish. While the dough was chilling before I preheated our oven, I had to clean the oven. Because, last time I used the oven I spilled bacon grease/bits all over which made our house very smokey and smelly, so I didn't want to repeat that fiasco...

What a whirlwind!

We've had a crazy, busy, whirlwind week around here! 

Last weekend we were pummeled by a wind storm. There were tornado's in the area but gratefully we were just hit with some crazy straight line winds. Our neighborhood and area of town was hit the hardest. Trees were uprooted, bent in half, on top of houses, in houses and across roads. It was not a pretty sight. We lost power Friday night and it finally came back on around 10 pm Sunday. We tried to make the best of it, so we did what all American's (should) do- we headed to a Cardinal's game, which they won handily! We grilled out a lot and Moose got to go on a lot of walks. Our house was completely spared of all tree and wind damage. We picked up some limbs, sticks and leaves and called it good. We were very fortunate.

We used our Unity candle for light all weekend

Cardinal's Game- Thanks Mom & Dad and Linda & Wayne for the  tickets!
It was a great game!

This limb barely missed Alex' s car! 

The joys of home ownership!

This is an image of some tree damage in our neighborhood. 

The work week went well and on Thursday I got to bake 3 dozen lemon cookies for a friend's wedding reception. They had milk & cookies instead of cake and asked for some help with the baking. Of course I volunteered for lemon cookies, because I love lemon anything. However, I didn't have a lemon cookie recipe. Oops...but, Wednesday night my friend Lori gave me a recipe to use and it was amazing!! I'll post it later. It took a little zesting and squeezing, but well worth it. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a lof of fun! The milk & cookies were fantastic and a good change of pace for a reception dessert. 

Congratulations Jon and Amy!

We rarely take any pictures of us while we look nice, so this was our attempt at the self timer. Alex wasn't very cooperative, so this is the best we got. Most of the other pictures are pretty cheesy.

Finally, today was my friend Paige's bridal shower. Paige and I have been friends for as long as I can remember. It's so exciting watching my friends begin to get engaged and married and I'm so excited for them all as they begin this adventure. Alex and I were the first of our friends to get married so we get to sit back and relax, remembering all too well the eager anticipation and sometimes stress of wedding planning. Paige's shower was thrown by her lovely bridesmaids and they did a fantastic job! Everything was very well thought out and executed. The food was delicious,  the games were cleaver and the company was second to none. I really enjoyed getting to catch up with some girlfriends.

Best Wishes Paige! I'm so excited for you!

Hopefully this week is more relaxing and less eventful! 

What have you been up to?

Strawberry-Banana Bread Goodness!

As of late I have very little time to cook...or energy. But after a long weekend of catching up on sleep and being lazy ie: letting my mom do all the cooking (thanks Mom) I decided to bake! I found a strawberry banana bread recipe on Pinterest and decided that my black banana's didn't have to go in the trash. 

I modified the recipe a little. I didn't use anything organic and I didn't have plain yogurt so I substituted strawberry and I wasn't about to buy unrefined granulated sugar but, everything turned out great!

Yum!

Ingredients (The Abby Modified Version)

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 1/2 overripe medium-sized bananas, peeled & mashed 
• 2 Tbsp plain yogurt (I used whipped Strawberry)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped and hulled strawberries- *quick fun fact-you can hull a strawberry with a straw after you cut the leaves off!

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter, oil, or spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a medium bowl using a handheld electric mixer) beat together the sugar and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

On low speed, slowly drizzle in the oil. Add in the mashed bananas, yogurt, and vanilla extract; mix on low speed just until combined.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture and chopped strawberries just until dry ingredients are fully moistened (no flour streaks should be visible).

Pour batter in the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour, or until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then finish cooling on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information Per Serving (1/12th of the loaf): 222.1 calories

Original recipe, directions and nutritional info from http://www.healthyfoodforliving.com/strawberry-banana-bread/