Happy Valentine's Day

So far, I'm not doing so hot this Valentine's Day. 

• For Valentine's Day, I decided to take a cue from the 5 Love Languages (the best relationship book out there imo) and cleaned the kitchen til it sparkled this morning (acts of service), but then couldn't remember if that was one of E's love languages. Oops- Valentine's fail #1.

• Sweet E got me flowers and chocolate on Wednesday (before the big snow storm). I already ate the chocolates when I was having a late night, no work, TV watching party. Valentine's fail #2.

• I didn't get Ethan anything for Valentine's Day (he doesn't want anything). Likely a Valentine's fail #3. 

So there you go, how to keep the romance alive after over 10 years together. Any suggestions what I can do last minute to save Valentine's Day?!

Aaaaaand we have fail # 4, this is an ecard for SINGLES! Oh well, it's still how the E and I feel.

December and Christmas recap

Wow- what happened?! I had all these great Dec. post ideas and then poof, the holidays are over!
So, here is what have been up to. We decorated, went to the Kennedy Center for a Christmas music spectacular, went to a couple of Christmas parties (my theme was Christmas pins, much to Ethan's chagrin),

 
shopped, shipped presents out, sent cards out,

 

went to Tennessee and back for Christmas. Drank too much, ate too much, and slept too much. It was the best!
 

 There you have it- 3 weeks in one post :)
Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and is pumped for 2014.

Halls Decked

The day after Thanksgiving, I began to decorate. (Who am I kidding, I started decorating after the dished were done on Thanksgiving).  Fa La La La La! It's taking my all strength to wait to get more Christmas decorations until the after Christmas sales!
My little bro from PA visited us on Saturday and I made him take pictures of E and I for our Christmas card. Christmas card done.
I've been lighting it up online getting gifts. Almost done.
Outta my way- it's Christmas season fools!

Friday Five

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I ate too much, but I made it to the gym and have a good start to my runners streak.
With the holidays fast approaching, here are 5 fabulous things I'm obsessed with today. 


1. I cooked, ate, did dishes, and started pulling out my Christmas stuff!  I love Christmas and have been secretly stocking up on little treasures from HomeGoods (how I love thee).
Since this is our first year in our home, I want it to be perfect (always good to set these high expecttion). I've especially been obsessed with decorating my dining room table. I found a tartan runner and set my Christmas table (for no one but the cats to trot across).
Sidebar: top favorite patterns include tartan, houndstooth, and chevron (paisley is close up there).
 

 I never thought I would like such rustic decor. I wish I could find a picture of my room in college because I loved pink, sparkly & gemstoney junk, and fake plants with white Christmas lights.

2. Leftovers. They are the shizz. Homemade pecan pie leftovers. Heaven. I want to try to make some kind of pecan pie bites for my Christmas treats this year.

3. Black Friday deals (online). I decided against going out with the fevered masses even if going to WalMart TV section at 6am is advantageous training for the zombie Apocalypse.... Make sure to sign up for an ebates account first and get cash back for your online purchases!

4. Wine bottles dressed up like Santa. Yea, these crack me up every year. I'm going to give my boss one.

5. Vaseline. My skin gets so dry in the winter that I grease myself up like a little piggy. One of my favorite beauty secrets is to rub Vaseline on your hands and feet then wear soft cotton gloves and socks to bed. You'll wake up with baby soft skin, plus it helps mani/ pedis last longer. I also put Vaseline on my face too. You think it would clog pores but it doesn't.

Stay warm this weekend my frozen friends on the east coast. 

The Forrest Gump of Turkey

My family from Tennessee was planning on coming to DC to have Thanksgiving with us. Well, my old man got sick and then the weather folks predicted Snowmegedden 2  for travel today, so Thanksgiving was cancelled. However, not before I went out and bought all my supplies, including a 22 lb turkey.
I thought about returning the turkey, but someone at work (while making fun of me for having to eat a 22 lb bird with my husband) said the grocery store would just throw it away. Well, since I’m PETA light, I can’t do that. I mean that poor turkey gave his all.
Here’s what on the Brown buffet. (If you’re in the DC area, c’mon over. We have enough food for a small army.) 
Turkey (all 22 lbs brined, barely)
Gravy (courtesy of McCormick’s since I'm guaranteed to screw up the homemade gravy)
Stuffing (Pepperidge Farm starter bag- hello GMOs and trans fats)
GBC (French’s fried onion recipe)
Sweet potato casserole (Ethan won’t eat this, but I want)
Mashed potatoes
Biscuits (dear God help me, from the Pillsbury tube. I swear I'm Southern, don’t judge)
Pumpkin Pie (I do make my crust from scratch)
Pecan Pie (because 1 pie for 2 ppl isn’t enough)

Then we are going to lie on the couch and watch movies in our sweatpants.

And for the next week, here’s what we’re doing with turkey leftovers:
Hot Brown sandwiches (‘cause it’s our namesake)
Turkey Tetrazzini (I'm going to try to make this more low fat and add mushrooms)
 

Turkey Salad (like chicken salad only with turkey)
Turkey Chili
Turkey Tacos
basically anything that I can use a rotisserie chicken for, I'm going to use turkey for.

What do you do with your leftovers? Oh, and I’m signing up for this, so y’all don’t judge me too harshly.

What do you love for Thankgiving? Do you have fun Turkey Day plans with family?
Happy Turkey Day!

Easter Prep

Easter is this weekend! Even though it's just the E and me, I still want to have a special dinner (in front of the TV).
I found this fab menu idea by Cat Cora. Look out- food porn ahead!

Roasted Boston Butt

(Do I want to make it because it has the word "butt" in it- maybe). Maybe we'll do honey baked ham too. I don't particularly like ham, but it feels traditional.
 

 Church Style Lemon Roasted Potatoes

 

Oregano Green Beans

I really need to be "healthy" especially after these last two vacations,but something about a homemade cherry pie (a la mode of course) sounds so right for Easter. Muumuus come in pastels right?

I would love to decorate, but let's face it, I don't have the room to store anymore holiday decorations since my Christmas crap is already falling out of our storage closet. 

 

The Best VD Ever!

Get your minds out of the gutter, it's the best Valentine's Day ever!

E and I originally  weren’t “doing” Valentine‘s Day this year, after a disastrous dinner 2 years ago.

Late yesterday, I changed my mind (as women have the right to). I texted E to see if he would skip class and go to Chick-Fil-A with me. I had received an email a few weeks ago from our local Chick-Fil-A that they had a special Valentine’s dinner that you could make reservations for, so naturally I was intrigued.

E said sure, why not, and I made reservations. Yes, at Chick-Fil-A.

When we arrived, I received a rose and we were taken to our seats:

 

They had their menus printed off, along with “talking points” for the evening (It must be from their Chick-Fil-A marriage retreat).

We had a waiter, delicious chicken sandwiches served on plastic plates, free desserts, AND then a gift bag on our way out.

Not to mention, it was not crowded nor was parking or service an issue. All that for under $20.

Oh, and I made us late because I was gluing together my "52 Reasons Why I Love You" since I decided yesterday after reading a blog that would be my non-gift.

Too bad Facebook ratted me out and Ethan had an idea that is what he was getting!

I told E that was he best Valentine's Day ever. His response: what, did you say something about low standards? Ahhh, my heart is aflutter.  

L-O-V-E

My little brother is engaged! I can hardly believe it. He will always be the little “bean” to me.

Thomas, I know you haven’t asked yet, but yes, the cats would be honored to be in your wedding. I found the perfect tuxes for them. Just imagine Patrick walking both of them down the aisle with sparkly harnesses!

 Buy here

Also, E and I have lots of (unsolicited) advice for you from our 5 years of marriage to give you.

• Don’t go out on Valentine’s Day when you’re married- it’s overrated & the service is no good. Go out the Sat. after :)
•  Buy your wife chocolates for no reason. 
•  Let your wife have the “booth side” at a restaurant.
•  Have a “date night” or a time where it’s just the two of you can talk. 
•  Always put the toilet seat down.
•  Come up with a good embarrassing nicknames for each other (a la mom and dad). 
•  Get used to gross stuff, one day your wife might get food poisoning and you’ll be in the hospital with her while she barfs. (Or it could be you!)

And finally, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite marriage quotes (but I don’t know where from): Marriage is wanting to murder the other person, but don’t because you’d miss them too much.

Actually don’t listen to us at all.

Happy Valentines Day!

Well Hello Mr. Sun!

What is it about warmer weather after a cold front that gets everyone all giggly?
Today I decided to go outside to the corner CVS and get ready for Valentine's Day. I tore into this bag like the cats tear into E's turkey sandwich bags if he leaves it too close to the counter edge.

Conversation hearts are one of my favorite candies. I also love jelly beans and candy corn. Anything seasonal and nostalgic gets me.
Fortunately for me, everyone in the office deemed these the nastiest candies of all time. I like the taste though (except for the nasty yellow banana ones- that's just wrong), so more for me!
(I did put these in a cut little dish with a spoon).

 Like the "Don't Tell" one showing. What does that even mean?

Do you like conversation hearts or other seasonal kiddie candy?

New Year Silver Linings

This is me.

So far, our new year hasn’t started out so great, but I’m going to try to see the silver linings:

Negative- The Taur-Dogg (our Taurus) failed the VA safety inspection and it’s going to be $1000 to fix.

Silver Lining- The mechanic was very nice and told us we could order a tail light online for $20 instead of the $250 they sold it for. So now, Taur-Dogg will only be $800.

Negative- Poor E threw his back out and can’t walk.

Silver Lining - We got seen relatively quickly at the ER and then he was able to get a MRI yesterday the same day we called.

Negative- I want to buy a house, but our landlord won’t let us out of our lease- we need to find a sub-leasee.

Silver Lining –We can save more money and there will be more places on the market when our lease is up in July.

I made several New Year’s Resolutions, but the big one is to be more fiscally responsible. There is a multi pronged approach for us achieve this (like track our weekly grocery expenses), but between up foreseen medical and auto bills, we are not doing so well!

Oh, but I did win a Perfectly Posh gift card on one of my favorite blogs: Dont Quote the Raven.

More to come since I am waaaay behind on blogging.

Memories of Christmas in MA

I'm back from MA. Our flight was cancelled Thur, but we we able to get on the train back to DC. For $400 (1 way) and for an 8 hour trip. It wasn't that bad though, there's definitely more leg room than on a plane.

Anyhoo, here are some highlights from my Christmas. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays as well.

Oystering:

then eating the oysters:

 

E pulled his back jumping on the rocks, so we spent some time in the house. I worked on a puzzle like an idiot savant (aka, I drank wine and wouldn't stop working on the puzzle until forced)

 

For Christmas Eve, we have a traditional Swedish Smorgasbord. I can be picky, so I avoid the herring, meatballs, ham, and eat a bunch of cheese :)

 

We also visited the Sandwich Glass Museum:

 

 



Now our tree is down and I have some gift cards burning a hole in my pocket...

Massachusetts Oystering

We arrived safe and sound yesterday in Cape Cod, MA. I proceeded to horrify my in-laws by eating my way through their kitchen. Breads, cookies, egg nog, you get the idea.

Today, we had to work for our food. We put on our waders and went out into the ocean for some oysters. We came home with 5 and some mussels we pulled out of the reeds.

Now, we'll be good if I don't impale my hand on an oyster knife or get food poisoning. (Oh, this morning, I fell down the stairs, screaming, and everyone came running over. I don't need any more accidents).

Ho Ho Ho

Christmas on Friday

I am ready for Christmas- shopping, wrapping, and packing done.
Christmas cards were sent out a while ago:

Next year I'm asking Santa for a dog so I can include him in the picture. Too bad E and the cats are against me. (The cats don't really like me and only sit with E, thus I need a dog to be my friend).

Anyhoo, we got out or work early today- whoo hoo! I used that precious time to sit on the couch and catch up on The Wire. I just started- it's good, heart-warming Christmas viewing. I'm also catching up on my taped Real Housewives of Miami (RHMIA). I can't get enough of Mama Elsa:

E and I also opened all our presents from my family today since we're leaving tomorrow. I got a lot of good loot.
I'm pretty impressed the hubs got me these Larimar earrings:

"Larimar awakens feminine power and soothes the emotions." Hmmmm...

Merry Christmas a little early!

A Cheapinger Flies

For Christmas, we are flying to my in-laws in beautiful but brisk Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
The flight we got in Sep. was relatively priced (I saved $100 for the 2 of us to fly out at 7am Sat. instead of 10a); however, now the airline is getting us with the checked bag fees!
This is an insult to my penny pinching ways. $25/ checked bag each way.
Here's what I'd rather get with $50 (that assumes, I get the 1 checked bag and E jams his stuff into the carry-on):

This purse is actually $59.50 at Banana Republic, but I'm sure I could scrounge up a coupon ;)

I have tried to pack in a carry-on, but it doesn't seem to be fitting. I will pare down though. I will not check a bag.

I might have to wear the same jeans and sweatshirt everyday, but the in-laws won't mind, right?

By the way, I've done almost everything in this article. Sweaters take up a lot of room and MA is cold.

The Office Christmas Party- AKA Kim the Scrooge

I did wear my Christmas brooch which makes me happy, even if they aren't really in style. :)

Ugh, not good at and hate "selfies" Hate the word "selfie" as well as "jelly".

Here are my rants.

• It's always the same freaking people that participate. I am getting tired of spending $30 to make a big salad or dessert for every office party and there are some people that NEVER bring in anything, but sure do like to eat.
• If you're going to a party where there's a lot of people (like 50) and there's a lot of food, it's still impolite to eat a bunch of one thing on your first pass. Don't pile up 4 egg rolls on your plate just because you got to the line first. There are people at the end of the line motherf*#@er.
• Please RSVP. I asked multiple times for people to accept their calendar invites so we could get a count. Of course, 7 people are on site today and wanted to "buy in".
• Then, I'm just a baby, our boss had door prizes and prizes for games. The contractors that bought in and are never here (seriously, this was their first day here, EVER) won most of the prizes. Not the employee that's been here for 10 years busting their butts and made food for the party.

I guess I should try to be happy:

• I actually love more than 80% of my co-workers.
• There was more than enough food, even though I thought we'd run out.
• I am fortunate enough to have a job where we have a holiday party and I can make a big salad :)
• My Christmas shopping is DONE!

Holiday Party Time

Tomorrow is the office Christmas (AKA Holiday) party. It's during the day and I'm not sure what I will wear, but my nerdy old lady Christmas brooch will probably make an appearance :)

This is moi walking to the holiday party last year:

The caption that went out to the entire staff was "OMG, they sent TWO trucks"

I do know what I'm bringing this year, a nice Oriental Slaw. Glad I'm back to feeling better, because I can't wait to be a fatty at the Potluck (bacon wrapped lil' Smokies in brown sugar- do want).

Anyway, my brothers are also coming to visit this weekend. One turns, gasp, 30. (He's younger than me, so that's a double gasp).

I plan on making another Paula Deen treat for them, but that will be a surprise for a later post since occasionally the bros read this blog. (One brother said I needed to diversify my posts if he was going to be a follower- I guess he doesn't like thoughts on Real Housewives, baking, clothes, etc.)

Monday Monday

Back in the swing of things & it feels pretty good not to be like this:

and more like this:

Today is Cyber Monday- the day for online shopping. Between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and now Cyber Monday commercials, emails, etc,  I am thoroughly disgusted with consumerism right now.
I just want to enjoy the holidays like when I was a kid. Remember Rudolf? That was my favorite.

If you do participate in Cyber Monday, beware of identity theft. This article made me think!

Deck the Halls

Ho Ho Ho!
The Brown's like to decorate right after Thanksgiving (well, I do ;))
Our pre-lit tree was out in two places. I changed the fuse (which i had to call my dad to find out how to get those little buggers out of the socket- a flat-head screwdriver, not a toothpick) and it was still out, so I fabulously added another string of lights over the "out" section.
We have a lot of ornaments- far too many for our little tree. The phrase "20 lbs of crap in a 5 lb bag" comes to mind (and to E's mouth); however, I like looking at the final product all December!

 

A close up of my favorite ornament(s):

 



I also love these guys:

When I was visiting Tennessee over Veteran's Day, I noticed some of my parent's neighbors had already decorated! I like to decorate "early" but the day after Thanksgiving is as early as I go. When do you decorate?

Thanksgiving 2012

We cooked, we ate, and we conquered Thanksgiving 2012:

 

Everything turned out really good- the turkey was exceptional & I highly recommend taking the time to brine your turkey beforehand.

We took a walk through Old Town after dinner to make room for dessert and gave the ducks (and seagulls and geese) their Thanksgiving feast :)

 

Black Friday, we did not go out into the craziness, and instead went to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, MD. This is a FREE museum and had some awesome exhibits. My favorites were the medical abnormalities preserved (like a crazy leg with elephantitis) and then the kits of the 1800s (oh the dental kits brought a chill down my spine). 

 

 

Finding Money

What a great feeling it is to find money lying on the floor.
Ethan recently found $3 in the parking lot and we started discussing all the times we have found money. Last Thanksgiving was one of the best stories:

Thanksgiving 2011, E and I drove to Pittsburgh where my little brother lives. (We just have been switching between his place and my place every year for Thanksgiving).
Anyway, he needed to run out for some last minute items (as we all do on Thanksgiving), actually I think it's because I was a brat an NEEDED Diet Coke. My brother drove me to the local store, and we are walking into the Giant Eagle together when at the same time we spot a $20 bill lying in the parking lot.

Instinct took over and I shoved my brother to the side and dove for the money. He was like "geesh Kim, you can have it".
I was mortified as soon as I stood up. My brother had purchased a ton of food for a Thanksgiving feast for us, and here I was knocking him out of the way to get a $20. Plus, we are no longer kids fighting with each other.

Ethan did find a $100 bill once which was a cooler story since it doesn't involve violence and it was more money.
Here's to a Thanksgiving with no family fights!