Photo of the day: birthday cake

I originally put "birthday cake" on the photo list because Alex's birthday is the 27th, but we celebrate about 10 other birthdays this month too. So, this picture is of the "cake" I took to work for a coworkers birthday. She requested a cake with strawberries, so I made a Strawberry Shortcake Trifle. It was very good and very easy. 

My loose interpretation of a birthday cake. Happy birthday to all of our October born friends and family!! 

House Update: Master Bedroom

We have almost lived here for a year and we've done a lot of updates and still have quite the list to do. Apparently that's home ownership. We're working on finishing the basement now (pictures to come). But, I realized that I've not updated pictures of our bedroom since we painted and rearranged. We took our head and foot boards off and flipped the bed around beneath the window. We added a bench at the foot of the bed and now the room feels a lot bigger.  

The paint is a shade of gray (surprise!) called "Cinder Block" by Valspar. The green side table is from a garage sale, spruced up with a coat of spray paint. The lamp, wooden side table, plum curtains and grey quilt are all from Target. I made the throw pillows, the chair in the corner is from my parents basement and... 

Viola! our bedroom is complete (for now)!

Photo of the day: lazy Sunday

Happy lazy Sunday afternoon...for me and Moose at least. Alex is painting while Moose and I are watching old Gossip Girl episodes and playing on the iPad. Happy Sunday! 

Photo of the day: post season baseball

There is nothing sweeter than post season Cardinals baseball. It makes everyone proud to be part of Cardinals nation. We're at game 2 of the NLCS. Let's go Red Birds!!!!

Photo of the day: breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day or so I'm told. In fact, breakfast is my favorite meal of the day we often have it for dinner too! A few months ago I decided I was going to try to make pancakes every Saturday and start a new  tradition. It lasted two Saturdays.... 

However, this morning I woke up and decided it felt like a pancake kind of day. I am not anywhere near as good of a pancake chef as my Noni was or close to as good as my Mom and aunt Linda, but I try. They're either burnt and crispy or gooey in the middle. Today's pancakes did not fall short of crispy or gooey, luckily there were some nearly perfect ones we could eat. Alex is pretty kind about my pancakes and compliments them...as he's picking the scorched parts off....anywho. With no further ado, I present: breakfast. 

(I hid the burnt pancakes at the bottom of the pile. Aren't I clever?!) 

Photo of the day: lunch with friends

This picture is supposed to be "lunch with friends" but in reality it's dinner with friend. Alaina came over to a hangout with me while Alex is shunned to the basement working. 

We reheated left over chicken and noodles and opened a bottle of wine to enjoy. Happy Thursday! 

Photo of the day: walk with Moose

When I get home from work I usually (try) to take Moose on a walk around the block. That way Alex gets a small break from his 24/7 Moose-care. Tonight our walk was interrupted by a pack of taunting squirrels and a neighbor dog. It was a case of who's walking who....

Photo of the day :cup of chai

My work schedule is very inconsistent and weird, to say the least. So, I try to enjoy the mornings of my later days (today I work from 2-8pm) and get some work done. I run errands, blog and today I get to enjoy a nice, hot cup of chai. For Christmas my parents gave us a milk frother and it has really improved my lattes, I recommend everyone add one to their coffee bar. Just look at that fluffy milk!

Happy Tuesday.

half marathon training update

The race is in 19 days! Today we ran 10 miles and it felt (mostly) good. Fall has decided to make an appearance, so it was cool, but we still managed to get sweaty. After our vacation we fell off the training band wagon, so this was our first long run....we skipped 8 and 9 miles. We're doing well for the most part, no injuries (knock on wood), I need new shoes, mine are wearing out and I'm pretty sure Alex is beginning to like running. He hasn't threatened to push me down any hills lately. We have 2 more long runs and then it'll be time for the race. Wish us luck!

photo of the day: fall decor

Today I took a picture of some of our fall decor...there are too many options of fall decor in our society, so I just took advantage of my collection. It's not super fall-y but, there's a pumpkin involved. The candle was at my Grandparent's house for as long as I can remember and now I get to enjoy it here. The crocheted 'Williams' was a wedding gift and the pumpkin was a Hobby Lobby find. Oh, and Alex's Dad made the shelf (he's quite handy)! What kind of fall decorations do you have? 

Photo of the day: morning jog

Sunday mornings before church Alex and I tend to do our own thing. He wakes up early to drink his coffee, read the news and to catch up on his sports teams. I like to lay in bed and snuggle with Moose until its time for our Sunday morning jog. Moose isn't necessarily the best runner with two people, but with me he does great. So, Sunday is our running day. This morning the weather was perfect: brisk, breezy and sunny.

Happy Sunday!

Photo of the day: sleepy puppy

Today Moose and I have been lazy while Alex is painting our basement....#15 Sleeping Pup.

Photo of the day: pumpkin spice latte

Today I met with my friend Alaina at St. Louis Bread Co. for some pumpkin spice lattes. It was good to chat and drink some delish lattes! I think I may like Bread Co.'s better than Starbucks because they put caramel drizzle on top...and I love their big mugs. But, don't get me wrong, I still really like sbux too! Anywho, with no further ado: pumpkin spice latte (objective #4).

Photo of the day: pumpkin

I may or may not be doing the easy pictures first. But, when I was making the list I was very energetic, now I'm a little sleepy and not too ready for a game of frisbee... For now, I took a picture of our pumpkin. Aldi had them on sale for $2.39/pumpkin last week. I thought it was a steal, so we have 3 happy, orange pumpkins.

Photo of the day: night sky

I'm going strong...it's 10pm and I'm doing the second picture of 31. This may be harder than I thought. Time will tell if I can keep up with it! Tonight I took a picture of objective #25: night sky. It's cloudy and really dark so my picture isn't fantastic, but it's a picture! Have a wonderful, one star night.

Oh, hello October.

October has arrived! We had a crazy, fun September and October isn't looking too much different. We have about 15 different birthday's to celebrate, a wedding to attend, a half marathon to run and fall to celebrate with friends and family. 

We're looking forward to all of the fore mentioned excitement, but as if that's not enough, I've decided to to a photo-a-day challenge! I've come across some different photo-a-day's for December and Christmastime, but that's a hectic time of year to try to take and upload a picture, so I'll go with October! 

Fall leaves, Check! Enjoy and Happy October!

Part 2: Napa/San Fran- The Pictures

If you don't understand these pictures, refer to Part 1: Napa/San Fran-The Story from yesterday. Enjoy!

(Click on the picture to enlarge and scroll through)

Jamieson Ranch

 

Artesa Winery

Napa Valley Grapes 

Jelly Belly Factory Tour and Freebies!

Arm Wrestling

Look familiar? This was a scene in the Princess Diaries!

Sea Lions at Pier 39

Point Bonita Park

This little otter knew to stop and look at the camera...

This is just a small snip-it of the 300+ pictures I took...we had a wonderful trip and a big thank you to my parents for watching Moose and to Greg for being our airport chauffeur- Thank You!!

Part 1: Napa/San Fran- The story

I'm a year older since my last post....twenty four. That's almost like a real adult...but not quite. For my birthday Alex and I planned a wonderful vacation to Riviera Maya, Mexico. We booked a flight, an all inclusive resort, we checked to make sure our passports were still valid and we bought sunscreen. On Monday of the week that we were leaving on Thursday, I looked at the weather. There was a hurricane in Mexico and 99.99% chance of rain every day we were supposed to be there. Yay!

So, after some discussion and a phone call to our travel agent, who confirmed the hurricane and rain, we decided to cancel our trip (we always get trip insurance, so this was the first time we used it and got a full refund!). I had already requested time off at work and was planning to pack a bag, so we began madly planning a trip to somewhere- the rain and hurricane ruled out almost all Caribbean destinations. Alex quickly stated that Ireland, Alaska and Hawaii were not options, so I began searching for destinations in the continental U.S.  Arizona, California and Las Vegas were our top three choices 

The winner was....drum roll please......

Napa Valley and San Francisco California!

We arrived in San Francisco on Thursday afternoon and quickly headed up to Napa Valley aka: Wine Country. It was a very scenic, hilly drive. We checked into our hotel and then headed through the valley to see what all they hype was about. It was beautiful! We ate in Rutherford at none other than the Rutherford Grill. I had some stinkin' awesome ribs and Alex ate some ok chicken. 

Friday we woke up and headed to Jamieson Ranch and winery. We were there by 11am and it wasn't very crowded so our tasting was very educational. We learned a lot about the valley, as well as about how the grapes are grown, harvested, crushed, fermented, etc., etc. It was a lot of fun and our favorite wine was "Aurelius" which was a sweeter white wine. But, Alex did learn to like darker red wines with chocolate, I just like the chocolate. We went to a few other wineries, ate dinner and then crashed. 

On Saturday we planned to drive into San Francisco to rent some bikes to see all there was to see, but the rain impeded with the bikes, so we just drove and walked around. We got to see Fishermen's Warf, Pier 39 and the sea lions. We went to the Musee Mechanique and Alex arm wrestled the arm wrestler (featured in Princess Diaries) and sadly lost. We got to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and head on the 101 to Sonoma.

I had someone tell me about a winery in Sonoma that was/is owned by the Jacuzzi (like the bath tub) family and that it was pretty good. So, on our way we stumbled across it and decided to stop. It was very pretty and they had a tasty Moscato. We learned that the Jacuzzi family not only enjoys making bath tubs, but they also made propellers for planes during the WWII era, they make wine and olive oil! They are a very busy family. 

Sunday was a bit touristy. Our hotel was in Fairfield, California- the home of the Jelly Belly factory and of course there was a tour involved! We went, learned a little and tasted several "belly flops"- when a jelly bean is unworthy of becoming a Jelly Belly- ie: too big, too small, weird shaped, etc. It was fun and I'm glad we could spend half an hour of our day there. Plus we got free bags of Jelly Belly's when the tour was over. We headed into Napa and drove through the valley to find some lunch and then we just explored the rest of the afternoon and enjoyed our relaxing, restful vacation. 

Monday- the best day of the year (my birthday)- we packed up and headed into San Francisco early in the morning to beat rush hour and to catch some of the city that we missed. We decided to get back on the 101 and drive south so we could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the sunshine. On our way we saw an exit for a park, so we took that and wound our way to the Pacific. It was beautiful. We watched the sun rise and the waves roll in. It was chilly, but well worth it. We even got to see some adorable little otters. After we soaked in the view, we headed up a trail to see where it led. We followed the path that went onto a rock(?) that split the Bay and the Pacific, giving us a beautiful view of the city and of the big gold bridge. It was very pretty and quiet. We didn't see anyone other than some sea lions the whole time we were there. After we left the park we headed into the city to ride a Trolley. We drove down Lombard street and found the golden fire hydrant. Which completed  almost everything on our San Francisco touristy to do list.

We had a wonderful trip and I would definitely go back. There are some things I would like to do that we didn't get a chance to do and there are things I would do again, all in all, very fun and a highly recommended vacation. As with any trip, I'm happy to go and happy to come home...to plan our next trip! 

Pictures to come tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy happy happy birthday Mama! You're the best mom on earth and I'm glad I get to share a birthday weekend with you. This is one of the few birthday's we haven't spent together, so have fun without me!

                      I love you!

In case you were curious...

To be considered a true and official Napa wine, 85% of the grapes in the wine must be grown in Napa Valley. Also, the big oak wine barrels cost the wineries about $1,100 each (or more) and only last about 5 years. 

I can now taste the oak in wines that have aged in barrels. Alex has developed a taste for very dark red wines and dark chocolate. We may be becoming a little snobby with our wines. Target may no longer meet our wine buying needs. Time will tell. 

A full post will follow in a few days!