#tbt... Snowed In With My Ladies

This past Monday I had some of my favorite ladies over for a wine night in.  We had such a great time hanging out and reminiscing about some of the good times we had in the past.  We talked a lot about the great snow storm of February 2010 where we were snowed in for DAYS together at my apartment.  Of course we planned to be snowed in together as everyone came over before the storm it, but we weren't planning for the DAYS that we ended up being together.  Like most normal people we were prepared for the storm... and by prepared I mean that we went out and bought tons of alcohol but no food.  So by the end of the storm we had no food in my apartment, but still had alcohol to keep us going.  It was such a fun time and I would love to be snowed in with my ladies again!  Or maybe we should just plan a massive sleepover when there is no snow... I think that would be just as fun!

Have you ever had a snow day sleepover with friends?

An InLinkz Link-up

Weekends Away are the BEST

As you all know, last week was M's birthday and we had a lot of fun celebrating.  Despite the fact that the morning of his birthday was spent at work for me because we were in trouble and had to have a bar clean/meeting, we managed to have an amazing rest of the day followed by an awesome weekend! M has always wanted to visit the Dogfish Head Brewery, so we decided that this would be the perfect weekend for me to take a night off so that we could go.  And thank goodness we did  because after a horrible night at work on Thursday, a few days away with my hubby was exactly what I needed!

Friday morning we picked up the hubby's car from getting fixed and headed out to Rehoboth Beach, DE to start our mini vacation!  We got to the Dogfish Head Brewery around noon and were able to go on a 12:30 tour of the brewery.  The tour was pretty awesome... lasted about an hour a fifteen minutes and we certainly learned a lot about the brewery.  In fact, M was so in love with it as soon as the tour was over he went online to see if there were any jobs openings that he was qualified for (and found a couple he wants to apply for!).

Posing with the 75 Minute IPA sign... 75 Minute was what we drank to celebrate our getting engaged!

After the brewery we headed to our hotel to check in and figure out our plan of attack for the next couple of days.  

View from our room

Friday night we went to dinner at Dogfish Head Brewery & Eats before heading out for a nice walk on the boardwalk and beach.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and were on the beach before 9am... and let me tell you it was A-MAZE-ING.  To be on the beach that early and to just soak up some sun for hours on end was just what the doctor ordered.  We spent most of our day on the beach with a break for lunch and some mini-golf!

Water looks so peaceful at not even 9am

Saturday night we headed back to Dogfish Head Brewery & Eats for dinner with one of our favorite couples SC & TB.  They spend a lot of their free weekends at the Delaware beaches, so since we were all down there at the same time it was the perfect opportunity to get together for dinner!  We had such a great time with them and it was great to see them both in such a relaxing atmosphere instead of just seeing them at work.  I think we had one of the longest dinners ever... close to 4 hours, but it was definitely worth it... lots of laughs and of course ending the night with some tequila shots with my girl!

75 Minute IPA on cask at the brewery... 1st time we have had this to drink since the night we got engaged

All in all it was the most amazing weekend and it was just so good to get away from life up here.  M and I head out on another mini-vaca in a couple of weeks and I seriously can't wait for another chance to get away!

Have you gone on any good weekend trips recently?

Book Review... Murder Simply Brewed

Murder Simply Brewed by Vannetta Chapman is a murder, mystery novel set in the Indiana where the Amish meet the English.  Amber, an "Englischer", is the manager of a cute little "resort" in the county called, the Amish Artisan Village.  The Village has a few Amish shops as well as a hotel, restaurant and conference center.  The Village seems like the perfect, peaceful retreat until Ethan Gray, one of the shop owners, is found dead in his coffee shop.  The police feel that his death was from a heart attack, but Amber feels differently.  Amber has one of the Amish girls who works in the quilt shop, Hannah, take over the coffee shop after Ethan's death, and both women begin to think that Ethan's death was not of natural causes, but rather that he was murdered.

After Ethan's death, other strange things start happening around the Village... and each strange occurrence seems to have a verse from Daniel left at the scene.  Amber and Hannah start trying to put together the clues to figure out who had it out for Ethan, even if the police don't believe them.  Amber has her suspicions about Ethan's wife, but eventually dismisses them after new, more promising suspects come out.  Using their resources in the English and the Amish community, Amber and Hannah manage to solve the mystery of how Ethan died and they bring a killer to justice.

I hadn't read a book like this in a long time and wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it.  I ended up really enjoying the book and it was a very quick read.  It was one of those books that once I started reading it I didn't want to put it down.  I really liked the way that Chapman combined the English and the Amish way of life to give her readers a good look into how I would imagine life works when the Amish and English try to mix.  Although this book was set in Indiana, I found myself imaging that this is how life is like in Lancaster, PA (near where I live) and it has given me a new appreciation for the Amish lifestyle.  I do wish that I had saved this book to read on our beach weekend getaway because I do think that it is a perfect beach read!  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a quick read that involves murder, mystery and intrigue with a little bit of religion mixed in.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

#tbt... Hubby's 21st Birthday

M and I were friends before we started dating, so it is only natural that I was around to celebrate his 21st birthday with him 8 years ago out at Bucknell.  Granted I was out at Bucknell because I was a Reunion Ambassador for reunion weekend, but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy celebrating his birthday with him. Since yesterday was his birthday, I thought it was only fitting that today's #tbt is to the first birthday of his that we ever celebrated together!

Of course there is not one picture of us together, but that is ok... at least you get the picture that we had fun!

Do you have any fun 21st Birthday memories?

29 Things I Love About My Hubby for His 29th Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!!!!

Traditional homemade bday cake by me for the hubby... chocolate cake with peanut butter icing... his favorite!

That's right, today is my husband's 29th birthday!! Although it is only his 29th (making him one year close to the BIG 3-0!) I feel like today needs to be celebrated because a) it is M's birthday and b) because it is his first birthday as my husband (and I feel like that is kind of a big deal)!  So today in honor of M I am going to share with you all 29 things I love about my husband!

1. He is my best friend.
2. He gets me when no one else does.
3. After being together for almost 8 years, he still manages to surprise me every so often.
4. He gives the BEST hugs!
5. Speaking of hugs, being in his arms can sometimes make all my worries disappear!
6. His baby blues (a.k.a. his eyes... he claims this is part of how he landed me... by batting his baby blues at me... I beg to differ)

Seriously though... look how blue they are here!

7. That although he is definitely a tough guy, he does show his emotions every so often!

One of my favorites from our wedding... using my look at the ceiling so you don't cry trick!

8.  He is so super thoughtful sometimes (i.e. telling me to purchase a spa package for myself as his bday gift because all he wanted for his bday was for me to relax)
9. The fact that he is an engineer (I always have someone who can fix things for me!)

10. The fact that he is way more technologically inclined than I am.
11. That he yells at me when I skip meals (I know it isn't good for me, and sometimes I just need him to kick my butt and remind me of that fact)
12.  He is a great bug-killer.
13. He reminds me to not take myself so seriously all the time (even though I don't always listen to him)

14. His goofy smile when he knows he is being so off the wall.
15. Actually I just love his smile period.
16. The way that he can make me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world.
17.  The fact that he puts me in my place (or at least tries to) when I am being completely irrational.
18. He is my partner in crime.
19.  He is an amazing cook/baker (M seriously makes one banging cheesecake! [among other things])

Proof that he actually does step foot in the kitchen!

20. He challenges me to do things outside of my comfort zone (even when I protest a ton)
21. He reminds me that sometimes we need to slow down and smell the roses... literally.
22.  That when I get into bed after a rough night at work, whether he wakes up or not he always rolls over and puts his arm around me.
23. That he can have full conversations with me while sleeping and not remember a thing in the morning (He might tell you I hate this about him, but it is one of his funny little quirks that I kinda love now)
24. When he does the dishes or laundry or cleans the house a little bit... makes me feel really loved.
25. The way he pesters me to talk about whatever is bothering me (I usually don't want to talk at first but it always feels so much better after I do talk to him about it all)
26. That even when he is super tired he always tries to stay awake until I get home from work as long as he doesn't need to work the next day (9 times out of 10 I find him passed out on the couch when I get home)
27.  That he loves me despite my many flaws.
28.  That he will always defend the ones he loves... be it friends or family... he is definitely a guy that you want to have on your side!
29. And last but not least I love the fact that he is my husband and that we get to spend the rest of our lives together!

What are some things that you love about your significant other?

Liebster Award!!!!!!

Some of you who have been around here for a while may remember that I was nominated for a Liebster Award a while back by Lindsey at Bliss and Blunders of a Newlywed and I was absolutely floored because well I didn't really think that anyone really read my blog, and I certainly had no idea Lindsey did.  Fast forward to now, Adrianna over at Adri's Thoughts has once again nominated me and again I feel absolutely blessed that someone out there who I only know through blogging enjoys reading my blog enough to want to a) nominate me for this awesome award and to b) want to share my blog with others.

In case you missed the last time I was nominated for the award, let me share a little bit about it with you.  This award is given to bloggers by other bloggers... usually bloggers with a smaller amount of followers.  Depending on where you get your information from it is for bloggers who have usually less than 300 followers and it is a way for the blogging community to get to know you better through the smaller blogs.  The nominator then comes up with a bunch of questions for the nominee and then the nominee after answering the questions gets to come up with another set of questions and nominates his/her favorite smaller blogs.

Now without further ado... here are my answers to Adri's questions:

one: Why do you blog?
This is an easy one... I blog for me!  Sure it is great to know that people out there are reading my blog, but the number one reason I blog is for myself.  Sometimes a girl just need a place to write down her thoughts and I have found that I am pretty terrible at keeping a written journal, but that I am way better about writing things down on the computer.  Plus blogging has the added bonus of letting me put pictures into my posts so not only do I have my own written thoughts, I can add the pictures to it as well.  Don't get me wrong, I do write some posts (recipes, book reviews, etc.) with the purpose of having other people read them... but I mean why not share a delicious recipe or a fantastic book with friends?

two: What is your favorite thing to do in your down time?
Down time... what is that?? Unfortunately I don't seem to have much down time these days, but when I do I love to spend time with my wonderful hubby or read.  Unfortunately the hubby and I are pretty much still working opposite schedules which means our downtime doesn't co-inside, so I spend a lot of my down time reading.  I FINALLY finished reading Winter's Tale this past week and can get started on a new book! Look for a book review on the blog next week!

three: What are you looking forward to for the second half of the year?
The 2nd half of the year is filled with weddings and other adventures for us.  In a week and a half we are heading out for a weekend away to celebrate M's birthday.  During this time one of my best friends/bridesmaids should be giving birth to her very first child...a  little girl... and I can't wait to meet her!!  Then a few weeks later we head off for a mini vaca to attend my little's wedding out in Pittsburgh. After that it will be 4th of July at the Jersey shore for my grandma's birthday.  Then August will bring another weekend with friends at Lake Wallenpaupak plus a bachelorette party.  Then we have our FIRST wedding anniversary in October followed by the wedding of another one of our friends.  The November/December will be spent celebrating my birthday (I turn the big 3-0 this year) and spending the holidays with family.  We definitely have a jam packed end of the year, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

four: What is my greatest fear?
My greatest fear is probably not living up to my potential and disappointing the ones that I love.  As many of you know, I graduated from law school back in 2010 and still have not been able to find a job in the legal field.  Despite sending out countless resumes and cover letters, going on interviews, etc. I just have not been able to land a job.  In the past few months I have started applying for things that have nothing to do with the law, but would at least get me out of the restaurant business and have been having just as hard a time getting interviews.  I am so proud of my law degree... finishing law school and passing the bar exam was no easy feat, but I am so fearful that I will be stuck working in a restaurant forever...wasting away my education that I worked so hard to get.  I know my family and friends are my biggest supporters and will love me no matter what I do with my life, but I can't help like feeling that I am disappointing them all at this point in my life and I am so scared that I will never figure out what it is that I am supposed to do with my life.

five: What makes you happiest the most?
As cliche as this may sound, what makes me the most happy is knowing that I married my absolute best friend.  Although there were many times I was convinced that I was going to marry a boyfriend there was always something different about  my relationship with M.  Maybe it was because he knew me through other boyfriends, knew me during my crazy single time in college, knew me through the good and bad and after all that still wanted to be with me.  He is my rock and I thank God every day that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me because I truly can't imagine my life without him.

six: What was your dream job as a child? How has that changed compared to now?
Well when I was a kid... until I was in high school I was pretty convinced that I was going to be a teacher.  Most of the women in my family had been teachers and my friends and I used to "play school" with our younger siblings ALL THE TIME.  My grandma had given me all sorts of old teaching resources and my bff AW and I literally used to force our younger siblings to be our students where we would teach them reading, writing, math, etc.  When I got to high school I started to have an interest in law and even did a senior project where I interned at Sony Electronics in their corporate law department.  That was when I decided that one day I was going to be this fabulous single woman living in Manhattan working as a partner in a major NYC law firm.  Now I have no idea what my dream job was.  Getting married was not always in the picture, but here I am a married woman who hasn't even started her career yet.  Sure I would still love to be a lawyer, but now I am not 100% sure that is what I was meant to do in life.  So as for my dream job... yeah not really sure what it is these days....

seven: Favorite memory of all time.
Probably the night that M proposed to me.  I didn't see it coming and it totally took me by surprise... to the point M will tell you that I looked in his words "dumbfounded" with regards to what was going on.  If you are interested in reading the full story about it, you can check it out here.

eight: If you could travel to one place, where would it be?
This one is easy... Granada, Spain.  Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE Spain.  I lived in Granada for almost 6 months while I was in college doing a study abroad there and there really isn't a day that goes by where I don't wish that I could be back there!

One of my FAVORITE views of La Alhambra

nine: What is your go-to outfit?
Well I am definitely not what you call a "style blogger" and have not been known to be one who is very trendy at all.  If I am lounging around at time my go-to would definitely be yoga pants and a t-shirt.  For going out nowadays it is usually a skirt and top or some sort of dress.  I love the warmer weather where I can wear dresses and skirts ALL THE TIME!

ten: What are some things on your bucket list?
I am ashamed to say that I don't really have a bucket list, although if I did most things would probably be related to travel.  Ever since coming back from Europe I have had a travel bug and there are just so many places I would like to see... Ireland, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Greece... just to name a few.  And I want to go to so many cities in the U.S. as well... Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Boston... and many more.

eleven: What is your guilty pleasure?
Probably Lifetime movies or Hallmark Channel movies.  For whatever reason I just can't get enough of them!  Just ask my hubby... especially at Christmas time those are pretty much the only two channels on our TV!

Thanks Adri for these wonderful questions!  I had a blast answering them and hope you all have enjoyed reading my answers!!

And now for my nominations:

Lisa at Sorority Life to Army Wife
Jordan at Queen of LA
Sarah at Midwest Pillow Talk
Amber at Airing My Dirty Laundry
Lauren at Lot 48

My questions for these lovely bloggers are as follows:

1. How did you first get started blogging?
2. Tell us the story behind your blog name.
3. What are three things you can't live without?
4. What is your favorite holiday?
5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
6. If a celebrity were to portray you in a movie, who would that celebrity be?
7. If you were to be an Olympic athlete, what sport would you be competing in?
8.  Share with us your favorite quote.
9. What is your favorite food?
10. What is your favorite movie?
11.  If you could go back and relive one moment in your life, what would it be?

Looking forward to reading my nominees answers to these questions and to seeing who they nominate for this fantastic award!  I know I have found some of my favorite new bloggers through this award and am looking forward to seeing who these bloggers think we all need to get to know!

Thank you so much again Adri for the nomination!! Hope you all enjoyed getting to know me just a little bit better!!

Book Review... Winter's Tale

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For those of you who know me, you know I love, Love, LOVE to read and that I pretty much go through books like you would not believe.  It is rare that I find a book that I have trouble finishing and I can usually find some redeeming quality in every book I read.  That being said, I had the HARDEST. TIME. EVER. reading Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin.  I don't know what it was about this book but I just could NOT get into it (which might explain why it took me almost 2 months to read all 748 pages of it).

Winter's Tale chronicles the life of Peter Lake and his journey from thief, turned lover, turned whatever it was that he turned into by the end.  It is set in NYC starting in the 1900s and ends in NYC at the millennium... during which time Peter Lake pretty much never ages.  Peter's life changes when he meets a gorgeous (I am not sure the horse is gorgeous, but in my mind he is gorgeous) white horse Athansor who he uses to escape from the Short Tails gang who is out to kill him.  During his travels on Athansor and after an attempt to rob a wealthy family, Peter falls in love with the owner of the house's daughter Beverly Penn.  Beverly had always been a strange and sickly girl and upon her death Peter disappeared never to be seen again.

Except he is seen again... nearly 80 (I think it was 80... or 80ish) years later not having aged a day.  This time he emerges in NYC at the turn of the millennium with no clue as to who he is.  He starts working for The Sun newspaper as a mechanic, not knowing that it is the paper that Beverly's father had owned and that her younger brother Harry now runs.  Peter knows he must have been a mechanic at some point in his life, but that is about all he can remember.  As he slowly gains memories back, the Short Tails reemerge and are on his tail once again, determined to kill him.

During all of this Jackson Meade is lurking around with his two cohorts, Cecil and the Reverend getting ready to try to build some sort of fantastical bridge.  Jackson was also around in the beginning of the book... back in the 1900s and was building bridges even then.  Jackson seems to be a visionary who has helped to make the US what it was throughout the century leading up to 2000.

And who could forget the love story of Virginia and Hardesty or their trip to the Lake of Coheeries where their daughter gets really sick.  Or how Hardesty basically goes insane trying to save the life of his daughter.

As you can see, the book contains a lot of stories within the story.  Each section of the book seems to focus on different characters, but in the end everything ties together and ties back to the main character, Peter Lake.  It had a love story, drama, stories of pain and suffering, and action among other things all packed into one.  It was the past meeting the future.... in a very strange way.

I think people suggested this book to me/thought I would really enjoy it because I LOVE Ayn Rand... The Fountainhead hands down one of my favorite books of all time.  To me this book does not even hold a candle to The Fountainhead or even Atlas Shrugged for that matter.  Not that I am saying that this was a bad book, it just wasn't the book for me and it is something that I will probably never pick up to read again.  That being said, I am still a bit intrigued by the movie because I feel like it had to be super difficult to pack all of this into a movie and I am not sure how a movie would flow from this book as there is a lot of back and forth.  I may have to think about redboxing the movie if I ever see it in there!

Have you ever read "A Winter's Tale"?  What were your thoughts on the book? Has anyone seen the movie? Is it worth seeing?

PS, Sorry for probably the shortest and worst book review I have ever written on here.  I just can't even explain how much I really didn't like this book and don't even know how to describe it to people because to me it was just that strange of a book. I promise I will do better on my next book review... promise!