The Weekend Daily: We ate our way through.

This weekend seemed to be made of food. We were busy, but no matter what, food seemed to be involved. Truthfully, pretty much perfect. Unless you're a calorie/carb counter....ahem. 

First off, we went to a fajita cook-off for my brother in-law's law school program at ASU. It was at a local park in Tempe and the day could not have been more perfect. Warm and sunny. 

The cook-off was great! There were 11 groups competing, all cooking fajitas and various toppings. One table even had catfish ceviche! The great thing about this event was that you could eat all you wanted, and then vote in the end. My entire family went, including our good friends too!

Above: Like I said, perfect weather. 

Above: My fajita plate......

Above: Dan's fajita plate. Let's just say I enjoy the spice!  *Of note: the fry bread featured in the picture above was perfection fried.*

Above: My Dad and my sister Molly..... contemplating their vote via their tummies. :) 

After the fajita cook-off we stopped by my a garden party fundraiser for my mom's choir group and then headed home for a relaxing night.

Sunday we enlisted the help of a great friend and her truck to help us clean out our last storage unit and then headed home to cook some food for a little Oscar viewing party at my parent's house. 

On the way we stopped by our favorite donut shop to pick up Texas Kolache. Basically, a cheesy hot dog wrapped in a baked croissant-like dough. So wonderful. I almost didn't post this picture because it was taken in the car, mid bite and came out blurry, but then, I decided it was an action shot. 

For the Oscar party I made homemade pizza with whole wheat crust and sugar-free {almost} donuts. 

Hope your weekend was delicious too!

Thursday Love

Dan and I try to get out on a date once a week. Generally, we go out on Thursdays, which I think is way better than a Friday or Saturday date. Why you ask? Well.... Thursday is sort of like the start to the weekend, at least for us. Fridays are casual days at Dan's office, the schedule is usually much slower and we are both excited for the weekend come Friday early afternoon. Going out on Thursday kind of gets that mentality flowing for us. 

By "date" I don't mean we get all fancy and make reservations, either. Normally, a date is casual dinner and then a movie, or perhaps a stroll through Target or maybe to the mall. Thats it. Very simple but oh so fun!

Last night, we decided to visit an old favorite, IHOP and see Star Wars Episode 1 in 3D. It was, as usual, a great time!

Above: So, in my last post I talked about how I could never take pictures of my outfits everyday. I love fashion blogs, but this picture tells the story. I finally got this shot after about 10 other failures. This is the best I could do. I took this picture right after getting dressed yesterday morning and thought it would be fun to document what I was wearing. I was wrong. I need a lot of practice in self portrait taking!

Above: Dan got home around 5:30, and we headed out to dinner. In our old neighborhood, we had a brand new IHOP about 5 minutes away. We ate there about once a week. It was always inexpensive and they had some healthier options on the menu. In our new neighborhood, the IHOP isn't quite as new, but just as close. Last night, I had the mushroom, spinach and swiss omelette. It was pretty delish. 

Above: Not such a great shot, but Dan had the Bacon Temptation omelette. It's basically bacon, egg and cheese. Flawless in nature. Another cool thing about this date night? We had a $5 off coupon...this meal was under $20! A Blue Plate Special indeed!!

Above: Have you guys read The Hunger Games?? Oh man....if you haven't I suggest you get right on it! I LOVED this book! I am currently {finally} reading Catching Fire, the second book in the trilogy. Mockingjay is the third and final book and knowing that I have these awesome reads to look forward to makes me smile. This poster was outside our theatre last night. I wanted a picture so badly but every shot made me look more and more like a giant. This was the best we could do. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Above: The movie! Woot woot. I really dislike wearing those 3D glasses...they leave a dent on the bridge of my nose that aches after about an hour. Also--I am an "original" Star Wars fans. These prequel things are not my deal. But the best part of this movie? Yoda! He was a familiar face in a sea jedi unfamiliarity. Also cool: There were three of us total in the theatre. That was all! 

Do you have a date night? What kinds of things do you do? 

And..... We're Off!

This blog has been officially finished for a few weeks now. At first, my intention was to start blogging right away. I mean, I read blogs everyday, all day....so this should have been easy.
Alas, it was not.
I had all these ideas in my head, things I wanted to blog, photos I wanted to share, but none of it came to me when I sat down to write.
So many days I seem to do almost nothing at all, except homework {i'm a library technician student} or run to the grocery store, or wrangle some mutts off of each other. {2 dogs= riley, 4 months and naree, 12 years}It seemed hard to narrow down exactly what to blog.
I love clothes, but I can't see myself taking pictures everyday of my clothes and let's face it...there are plenty of fashion bloggers who do that so, so well. I like to cook, but I don't cook enough to fill an entire blog and on and on and on....
Instead, I have decided that I am going to blog about my life. Even the boring days. The exciting ones. Trips. Days at home. Clothes and food. All of it. Well, maybe not ALL of it. But enough. I hope it keeps you coming back!
For now...I have a  small collection of pictures from the past few weeks that tell a short story of my day to day.

Above: There is a great little grocery store/cafe about 10 mins from my house. {oh btw my fiance and i just bought our first house! we love it!} A few weeks ago I had lunch with my mom at said cafe. Much to her delight, the coffee was prepared with a special note!

Above: This is how I spend many days. In front of my trusty laptop, reading and typing away. I am in my second semester of school and loving it! When I complete the library technician program I can work in a library doing anything from circulation to reference desk work!

Above: I was leaving the house the other day and looked down in the front yard to see this weed {yes, a weed!} fresh with water from the sprinkler. I thought it was so pretty, despite the fact that it was a weed. I had to document it!

Above: Sadly, this was how I spent my Valentine's morning. At the urgent care. Dan {my fiance} was just recovering from the flu when I woke up in the morning with an unhappy throat and a temp of 99.5. Normally, I would write it off as a bug but given the flu germs that had been living in my house I hot footed it to the good ol' UC. One throat culture and blood pressure cuff later, I was home with Tamiflu. Today? 100%!

Above: Who is this you ask? This, my friends is Riley. {mentioned up top too} She is our new puppy and even though she is 4 months old, she is very well behaved. Only a few times has she been "bad." Here, we are preparing for a walk with my parents using her new harness. {it went quite well!}

That's all I have for now! Does my life look like your life?