Blogger Men Tell All

Becca at Becoming Adorable hosts a monthly "Men Tell All" linkup and I am FINALLY joining!  I asked Kevin these questions on Sunday night.  I wrote his responses just as he said them, and my comments are in parenthesis.



Do you like to cook?  If yes, what's your favorite thing to make?
Yes, I make a mean jambalaya.
(It's true, his jambalaya is amazing.  And he is great on the grill).

What is the last movie you saw in a theater?
You know the answer to that, we were there last night.
(He was so confused as to why I was asking him this question, when we were just at the movies together haha.  BTW, the movie was "Get Hard" with Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell).

Can you name five makeup brands?
Revlon, Loreal, CoverGirl, Michael Kors, and Estee Lauder.
(I was pretty impressed with his answer on this one.)

What are your biggest pet peeves?
People that call women "dude."  And when my wife makes me late places.
(Ummm I don't make him late anywhere...whatever.)

What are your biggest goals in life right now?
To get promoted at work.

Make sure you head over to Becca's blog and read all the answers from other blogger men!

Weekend Recap: Dog Cuddles Are The Best

I hope you had a great weekend!  Ours ended with a snow/rain mix coming down on Sunday, but lets not talk about that.  We didn't really have much going on this weekend.  We caught up on shows on the DVR, went to a housewarming party for some friends, went and saw Get Hard (it was pretty funny), did a little yard work, caught up on laundry, and enjoyed lots of cuddles.  AND we enjoyed seeing MSU make it in to the Final Four!  I am a UofM fan, but I'm not anti-State.  I cheer for them whenever they are not playing UofM, so I am happy to see them doing so well in the tournament.   Here are a few pics from the weekend:

Admiral hoping to get a little popcorn from Kevin...

Admiral was super cuddley on Sunday night and I loved it!

 I hope you are lucky enough to have a four-day work week like me...counting down to a three-day weekend!

Get to Know Me

A couple weeks ago, my blog friend Sam from Away She Went nominated me to do a fun "get to know me" post.  I love reading these types of posts because it's a great way to quickly know a little more about other bloggers.  I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little better too :)

What's Your Favorite....

City...I do love Grand Rapids, MI.  Not only is the place I live, but I love that has a big city feel, but it's not a big city.  There is always so much to do, close enough to beaches, and it's Beer City USA :)

Book...Anything by James Patterson.  I love his Women's Murder Club Series.  His books are always such a fun, easy read.

Movie...A League of Their Own.  It's been my favorite forever!

source

TV Show...My favorite show is 24, but it's not on anymore.  My current favorites are Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder

Perfume...I'm really not partial to certain perfume.  I like floral smells over fruity smells.

Nail Polish...I don't have one favorite nail polish either.  I like to change my colors with the seasons.  Right now, my nails are a pale pink for Spring.

Skincare Item....moisturizer.  I ALWAYS have to put moisturizer on my fave after I get out of the shower--it's a must.

Lipstick...I don't really wear lipstick.  Usually just a gloss with some color in it or chapstick.  I'm pretty simple when it comes to makeup.

Food....Mexican is my ultimate favorite.  I could eat it all day every day.  Especially chips and fresh salsa--my weakness for sure.

Dessert...Carrot cake.  Or anything mint chocolate.

Carrot Cake on my 21st Birthday

Place to Eat...Hmmm good question.  I do love BoneFish Grill for their Bang Bang Shrimp.

Alcoholic Drink...In the summer, I love drinking sangria outside on the patio.  I'm not a big fan of fruity/sweet drinks, but I do love margaritas.  When we go out, I usually just drink beer.

Non-Alcoholic Drink....I don't drink pop, so I usually drink water.  In the summer I love infused water and lemonade.

Actor/Actress....I've always loved Eva Mendes because I think she is absolutely beautiful.  I don't really have a favorite actor or actress though.

Singer/Band...*NSYNC has been my favorite since I was like 12 and Justin Timberlake has been favorite since them too!

source

Weekend Recap - The Sing Off, Casino, & Flowers

Happy Monday friends!  I hope you had a great weekend--I sure did.  How are your brackets doing after the games this weekend?  I admit, I didn't do a bracket this year, so I'm just cheering for MSU and enjoying the games.

THURSDAY:  I'm starting my weekend recap with Thursday night, because Kevin and I went to The Sing-Off Tour.  The Sing-Off is a show on NBC that usually only comes on around November-December.  It's a singing show of a cappella groups.  We love watching the show, and were excited when the tour made a stop in Grand Rapids.  Kevin bought tickets for me for Valentine's Day.  The tour featured three groups from the show: The Exchange, Voice Play, and Street Corner Symphony.  The Exchange was both of our favorites that night, but all three groups are amazingly talented.

FRIDAY:  After work, I headed to my parents house.  My Dad and I went to the casino for the night (he had a free room).  We've been going to the casino together since I was old enough to gamble haha.  It's just one of the things we enjoy doing together.  Even though I lost, I still had fun.  I never go thinking I will win...so I'm never shocked when I lose.

SATURDAY:  When I got home from the casino, Kevin and I ran some errands and did some yard work.  We cleaned out the flower beds since the snow is finally gone.  We have some little signs of Spring popping up in our yard.  I can't wait until everything starts coming up and blooming!!

SUNDAY:  I spent Sunday catching up laundry and cleaning.  We took Admiral for a walk in the afternoon.  It was cold, but the sun was out, so it was bearable.  The rest of the night was spent relaxing and blog reading.

I hope your Monday goes by quickly and Friday is here before we know it!

Life Lately

Life lately has been...

-Warmer, sunnier, longer days.  We pulled the grill out of the garage last week and it has been amazing (less cooking and cleaning in the kitchen for me).

-Seeing Patton Oswalt perform during Grand Rapids' Laugh Fest.

-Enjoying a shamrock shake.  'Tis the season.

-Getting Admiral a bath and hair cut, only to have him roll in the mud the next day.  Good thing he's cute.

-Lots of walks with Kevin and Admiral.  And getting to run outside again, now that the snow is melting.  First race of the year is in May!

-Looking forward to the days when I can enjoy a drink on the deck while wearing shorts...instead of wearing jeans and a sweatshirt with snow on the ground.

What have you been up to lately?  Ohhh and Happy St. Patricks Day :)

What Kind of Sleeper Are You?

When I came across Casper (they make mattresses that ship right to your door in the box the size of a mini-fridge--how cool is that?), I thought it might be kind of fun to share about my night time rituals.

My husband doesn't understand why it takes me so long to get ready for bed…am I the only one that has a routine I go through every night?  When I’m ready to go to bed, these are the things I have to do before I actually get in bed:

Take out my contacts

Wash my face/remove my makeup

Brush my teeth

Put in my bite guard (I clinch my teeth at night and my guard/retainer is soooo nice—I don’t wake up with headaches or jaw aches when I wear it)

Change in to my PJs

Set my alarm

Plug my phone in

After all of that, I am finally ready to lay down.  My husband on the other hand, just comes to bed.  No routine for him.  Must be nice.  If I don’t do all of those things, I can’t sleep as well.  It’s weird.  And now that I have to be to work at 7:30 am (yes, I'm still complaining about how early that is), getting a good night's sleep is super important to me.  Casper's blog has some great tips for making sure you get a good night's sleep.  You can check those out HERE.

This all got me thinking…once you are in bed, what kind of sleeper are you?  Does your pet sleep with you?  Do you use one pillow?  Two?  None?  I usually sleep on my side or my back.  And I only use one pillow, if at all.

Admiral sleeps in bed with us pretty much every night.  I know some people are totally against it, but when we first got him, he slept in a crate at night.  When he was about a year old, we stopped with the crate and I really tried to get him to sleep in bed when me, but he wouldn't.  I just wanted to cuddle with him :)  Then, when he was about two years old, he slept in bed one night with us and has never looked back!  He doesn't shed, so I don’t have to worry about my bed being full of dog hair.  The only problem is…he is a total bed hog and has no idea what personal space is.  Just a couple examples:

See what I mean?  He does not care how much room Kevin and I have.  If he is comfy, that's all he cares about.  We definitely stay warm with me, Kevin, and Admiral all cuddled in a queen size bed! ha!  

Since Admiral sleeps in bed with us, I'm a mix between The Cat Napper (well actually dog napper) and iSleeper.  I check my phone before I go to bed and when I wake up.  It's a habit now.

What is your nightly routine?  Is there something you HAVE to do every night before you can sleep?  What kind of sleeper are you?

Weekend Recap

Oh Monday, you are here too quickly...I need at least one more day in my weekends.  Anyone else??  We had a good weekend with friends and family, and I didn't take one picture to document any of it.  Oops.

Friday night we went to game night with some friends and had fun playing Cards Against Humanity for a few hours.  Saturday we went to lunch with family and then went to the Home and Garden Expo in Grand Rapids.  It was my first time going and it was a lot of fun--lots of ideas of things to do to our house :)  Sunday we headed to our hometown to visit my Grandma and help her with some things at her house, then headed to Kevin's grandma's for lunch with family, then we went bowling with the other side of Kevin's family.

Like I said, a fun weekend and no photos to show for any of it.  I need to get better about that.

I did not like losing an hour of sleep on Sunday morning, but I do love that it is staying light out longer now.  AND our temps are getting warmer here in Michigan.  It was in the high 30's the past couple of days and it was wonderful!  We took Admiral for a walk on Saturday and Sunday.  Now we just need all of the snow to melt and the temps to keep climbing!

I hope you had a great weekend and are enjoying some sunshine where you are!  I'm sharing this super cute printable I saw last week on It's Overflowing:

printable from It's Overflowing

Five on Friday

Happy Friday!!!  As usual, the week seemed to drag, so I am really happy that the weekend is finally here.  We have a low-key weekend planned filled with friends and family....and of course cleaning and laundry.

ONE.  Our dryer has been making a loud screeching noise for a while now.  It got to the point where I literally wanted to pull my hair out as soon as I turned the dryer on because it was so loud and annoying.  I was over it, so I started doing some research and sent Kevin to the store to buy some parts.  And guess what??  WE FIXED IT!  It only took us about an hour and cost about $15 for the parts we needed.  We have now fixed our washer and dryer ourselves, and our dishwasher with the help of my Dad.  If you are looking to work on any appliances yourself, definitely check out the Repair Clinic website (here).  I've never ordered parts from there, but I use it to look up the parts for a specific appliance and they have GREAT videos on how to replace each part.  It's been a life saver for us.

TWO.  Kevin somehow accidentally broke our shoe holder....so that means I now get to design my own shoe storage for our breezeway/sunroom!  He doesn't know what he got himself in to :)  There is so much I want to do in that room, but here is some inspiration for the shoe storage I want to create:

source

source

THREE.  I don't know about where you live, but winter in Michigan lasts WAY too long. I am so ready to put away my winter clothes and break out some spring stuff!  Just not having to wear boots and a winter coat every where would be great any time now...

FOUR.  This Easter Marshmallow Bark looks amazing.  I'm pretty sure I will have to make some this year.

source

FIVE.  I don't think I mentioned this yet, but a couple of weeks ago, Kevin and I finally upgraded from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 6 and we LOVE our new phones!  Now I just need to find a cute, but protective case for it.  Do you have a favorite place that you buy phone cases?

I hope you have a great weekend!!

Garth Brooks in Detroit!

On Saturday night, I finally got to see Garth Brooks in concert.  I had wanted to see him for several years, but he hadn't toured in a long time.  He had been in "retirement" since 2001 and then did a few years in Vegas, but that has been it.  Last year he announced he was doing a world tour, and I knew that if he came to Michigan, I had to go.  I was so excited when he announced the Detroit concert dates!  But didn't want to get too excited, because I knew it would be hard to get tickets.  Luckily, I was able to get tickets (great seats too), thanks to my husband :)

My mom, sister, and I headed to the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Saturday to see Garth perform.  We booked a hotel, since Detroit about 2.5 hours from my house, and another hour for my mom and sister.  We decided to make a weekend out of it.  The concert was AMAZING.  He is such a great entertainer.  He involved the crowd, sang all the classics, and sounded great the entire time.  Enough of me telling you how great the concert was....here are some pics from the night!

Me and My Mom waiting for the concert to start!

Me, my mom, and my sister

His wife, Trisha Yearwood, joined him on stage for a few songs.

Have you ever seen Garth Brooks in concert?  If you get the chance to go to his concert, you need to go!  You won't regret it!