So let’s jump right in!  Since Addison was born, and I finally started to feel human again (yes, child birth makes a lady feel pretty alien like for awhile)…I’ve been trying to make sure I cook every night.  Because a.) taking a baby out all the time is not fun, b.) it’s way cheaper, and c.) I love to cook.  So last night I had yummy baked pork chops with a super tasty breading on them all set for the menu.  Those suckers take like 2 hours to prep and bake.  So you can imagine how much I was salivating by the time I was finally ready.  You can also imagine that I would have MUCH rather been hanging out with Jared and Addie…instead of making said pork chops.  However, my motherly/wifely duties called and I made them anyway.  So finally…the timer goes off…and it’s time to eat.  YES!  You can imagine my disappointment as I took my first bite, only to find that the pork chop was stringy and almost slimy.  Gross.  Lesson learned…do not buy pork chops at Wal-Mart…ever again!  I usually get our meat from the local butcher shop…but this time I skimped and took the road less traveled.  Well I certainly won’t be traveling that way again…big waste of 2 hours…and I was still starving afterwords!  To cope with the loss…I gorged on potato chips and snack cakes.  That almost made up for it.

Until my next big adventure…signing out!

-G

Looking forward to a “short” 4-day week in the office (thanks to a day off from memorial day).  We’re leaving for vacation this coming weekend…so anything to get that here faster is great!  We’re going to be heading out for a week in Gatlinburg…which is obviously one of our favorite places to go.  This time it’s extra special because it’ll be our last “big” vacation as a family of 2 and it’s also to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.  Can’t wait!  More to come from there.

In the meantime, we keep ourselves busy plans for the baby and all that entails.  We’re really pumped and can’t wait until November so we can finally meet her/him!  (We’ll be finding out what we’re having in the next month.)  Yay!

More to come…

ittybittysmitty.jaredandginny.com

So this week I went to see “Confessions of a Shopaholic” with a friend…and it was super cute.  It was pretty cheesy…and definitely a chick flick…but every girl needs one of those from time to time.  It made me want to go out shopping…but I stopped myself.  (Like I could afford anything on that movie anyway!)  Last night Jared and I headed over to the city to get some BBQ at 17th Street.  We haven’t been out just by ourselves in quite awhile…and figured we should.  So we stuffed ourselves with yummy food and then went shopping for a bit.  I got a few home things at Gordman’s and Jared did some looking at Guitar Center.  We did some browsing and worked on our ever growing wish list at Lowe’s as well.  We finished up the night with some Krispy Kreme…always tasty.  

So today we slept in a bit…which we haven’t done in a LONG time.  It was so great!  When we finally rolled out of bed we headed in to Vandalia to Hosick’s to look at some new cars.  We’ve somehow got it in our head that we need to buy a new car.  The Grand Prix just hasn’t been the same since it was in the accident over a year ago.  So needless to say…we went car shopping and decided to test drive a few things today.  In the midst of test driving the Dodge Journey…we had an experience.  We were merging onto the interstate, and it totally ran out of gas.  The sales guy thought there was enough in there…but apparently there wasn’t.  So we called back and let him know that we were stuck on the side of the road…and he laughed and came to put more gas in the car.  Which should have been fine…but then the car still wouldn’t start.  So we road back to the dealership with him and they had to tow the car back.  He said that was the first time he’d ever had that happen.  Really, we had a good laugh about it.  So we crunched some numbers…and may or may not be getting something new…we’ll see!

Other than that, we’ve been pretty busy lately.  This weekend we cleaned the house…and I may or may not have taken down the Christmas tree on Saturday.  (whoops!)  It’s fake though…and it was just too pretty!  Either way….the house is back to normal.  (Expect for the guest bedroom…it still needs some love.)  We had Steve and Nicole over for baked potato soup and games on Saturday night…which actually turned into baked potato soup and about 10 episodes of How I Met Your Mother.  (We’re all quite addicted.)  Church went well on Sunday…and was again a great reminder of how thankful we are for our church family.  God has really blessed us with some amazing people in our lives because of Metro…and I know it’s the perfect place for us.  Sunday evening we headed into the city for supper at Maggiano’s with the office.  If you haven’t been there…and you love Italian food…you should probably go.  It’s family style…it’s a humongous amount of food….and it’s just down-right awesome.  So we stuffed ourselves silly and headed back home.  Monday night I made about 60 sugar cookies and some neon colored frosting for a birthday party for my friend’s 2 year old daughter.  I helped her and her little buddies frost cookies…and it was so much fun!  They did such a good job…and it melted my heart to watch their eyes light up at the site of my sugar cookies and frosting.  Good times!  Last night we headed back for our 2nd show at the Fox this year…Spring Awakening.  It was definitely interesting…that’s for sure.  Not my favorite…but the music was really good and it was definitely an experience.  The night was made complete by a huge breakfast for dinner at Cracker Barrel.  Yum!

And now…today…I’m finishing up a lot of busy work at the office.  It’s just one of those days.  I’m looking forward to making a pot roast for dinner and just relaxing.  Should be a nice night!

The next morning I had a haircut (well multiple hairs actually)…and Jared and I were still hankerin’ for breakfast food…so we stopped by Kelly’s Cafe up on the square and had some more!  It turned out to be really good…and a we’ll definitely be heading back again.  We then went back home to find 2 snuggly kitties on our bed…so we curled up with them…and somehow managed to sleep until about 2:30 that afternoon.  Whoops!  I worked on some homework and we headed over to O’Fallon to get some groceries…and met up with a friend for even more food.  This time the target was 17th Street (one of our favorite BBQ joints).  It was super packed…but the wait was worth it…as always.  We were stuffed…but then somehow convinced ourselves that we needed to get some ice cream from Maggie Moo’s.  Since it’s close to Valentine’s Day…they have my favorite ice cream right now….red velvet.  It’s soooo good!  

Sunday we were up early for church, and it was a really good service.  We talked a lot about living your life 100% for God…not 95%…not even 99.9%….but a full 100%.  A good reminder for me!  I had homework to finish up in the afternoon, so we decided to stay at home for the Superbowl.  We made a nice night of it.  I finished my homework before the game started and even got some laundry done.  I made up way too much food for the two of us (potato skins, nacho’s, pizza-rolls, cupcakes…etc.)…but it was fun.  I was more interested in the commercials and watching an hour of The Office afterwords…but it was a good game.  

And now I’m back to work….but it should be a relatively calm week.  Yay!

So back to the weekend…and it was great!  Friday night we drove up to Emden to stay over at my parent’s house.  On the way we made a pit stop at Cracker Barrel for some breakfast for dinner.  I got my favorite breakfast treat….Eggs in a Basket.  (Sourdough bread…grilled…a hole cut in the middle…and fill with fried egg…served with hashbrown casserole and bacon.)  It was so yummy…and just what we needed!  We stayed up late hanging out with my mom and got up early to help dad load some new songs on to his Ipod.  Saturday we headed into Bloomington, grabbed a quick bite at DQ, and I dropped Jared off to hang out with his brother before I headed over to my good friend Amy’s baby shower.  The shower was great and I totally ruled at the shower games!  (I won 2 out of 3.)  After the shower we headed up to El Paso to spend the night at my brother’s house.  We had so much fun catching with Geof and Lauri and playing with our niece, Aubrey.  Aubrey seemed to think that Aunt “Gingy” was pretty cool…which definitely made me smile…a lot!  Jared got to play a lot of Guitar Hero with Geof…and Lauri and I just chatted.  Sunday we headed back to Bloomington and met up with my parents for lunch and I shopped for a bit with my mom.  Before we left town we stopped at Meatheads…a new burger joint….because we had heard that is was mighty yummy.  We were not disappointed!  Best burger I’ve had in quite a while.  So if you love burgers…and are in Bloomington….stop by and try it out.  They also have fresh cut french fries with ultra-yummy dipping sauces.  (This only helped with the yumminess of the whole experience!)  We got home early so that I could finish up my homework (oh joy) and have some time to relax.  Once again…a great weekend that made me want to move back “home”.  

Now…the snow!  It started snowing at some point on Sunday…stopped for a bit…and then started up again last night.  Now we have like 6 inches of beautiful…sparkly snow on the ground!  It’s so pretty!  Granted…I don’t want to be outside running around in it…but it’s so nice to look at.  Maybe if it compacts a little bit…we’ll be able to make a snowman or something.  We shall see!

In other news…Jared and I are now totally addicted to the show “How I Met Your Mother”.  It’s hilarious…and we can’t seem to stop watching it.  I’ve been pretty hooked on other shows before…but this one seems to be taking the cake.  What’s better…is that we both love it.  The problem though…is that we just sit around watching DVD’s of this tv show…when we should be doing work around the house.  We’re both so hooked on it…that there’s nobody to say “hey…we need to clean up the kitchen” or “hey…come help me paint in the basement”.  Oh well…we’ll get to it at some point!