Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Or Happy anti-Valentine's Day if that's more your thing :)  Either way, happy Friday!  Kevin and I are leaving tonight for Chicago for the weekend.  No, it's not a romantic getaway.  Kevin's cousin lives in Chicago, so we are going to visit him and his girlfriend.  Kevin's brother and his wife are meeting us there, and Kevin's mom is going with us too.

We have tickets to a show at the Second City while we are there, and I'm really excited to check it out!  I'm sure we'll stop at Giordano's for pizza at some point, and I know that there is some shopping on the agenda for us girls.  It should be a fun weekend...hopefully the weather cooperates.

Pizzas from Giordano's the last time we were in Chicago.  The best.

Kevin and I do not celebrate Valentine's Day in a big way.  He did get me flowers last year and I heard a rumor there are some coming this year too :)  I got him some chocolates and a card.  Nothing fancy...and that's how we like it.

I'm looking forward to a fun weekend in Chicago...what are your Valentine's Day plans?

Admiral's Different "Styles"

Kevin and I are going to Chicago for the weekend, so my parents are watching Admiral for us.  They are also dropping him off at the groomer’s for a much needed bath and hair cut while we are gone.  This got me thinking about all of the different “looks” Admiral has had over the past few years.

Admiral is a Goldendoodle, and he doesn’t shed (it’s amazing), but we do get him groomed about every 2-3 months.  It took us about a year to figure out the right grooming schedule.  When his hair gets too long, it gets matted very easily.  Even if we brush him, it still happens.  I’m at the point where I can just tell when he needs a cut.  We take him to this great little place near our hometown and it’s $50 for a bath and cut (haven’t found it cheaper anywhere else) and we LOVE the place.  They love on Admiral like he is their own, and when he’s done with his grooming, he gets to just hang out until we pick him up (doesn’t get put in a crate).

Anyway, like I said, he’s had some interesting cuts.  The earlier ones are the most interesting, because it’s when we were still figuring out the whole grooming schedule thing.  Sometimes we would take him for his hair cut and he would be so matted that parts of his body had to be cut shorter than others.  We don’t make that mistake anymore.  But it sure is fun looking back at the pictures at all of his different styles!

When he was a puppy, his fur wasn't long, so no worries.  We just gave him a bath and brushed him at home as needed.

As he started getting bigger, his fur started growing.  We'd have to brush him a lot, and I would trim the hair around his eyes so he could see.

This is on the way home from his first bath and brush at a groomers (Petsmart).

This is after a bad hair cut (not at our current groomer), which is probably my fault.  He was so matted on his "chin" that they had to cut all of that hair really short...so his "beard" was gone and he looked so funny!  And they cut his ears really short, and I like them long.



This is his first "big boy" hair cut at the groomer we currently go to.  They actually used him in a grooming competition they attended in Chicago, because he behaves so well when they cut his hair :)  This was the style they did for the competition.  Like his bell-bottoms?

Photo from Sitting Pretty Pet Spa and Boutique

Another fresh hair cut.  His hair is always so soft and straight after a grooming session.

And of course, long and shaggy :)  Which is about what he looks like right now.  His fur being this long in the winter is hard...even though it keeps him warm, the snow gets stuck in it really easily, so he gets little snowballs that take a long time to melt.

I'll leave you with one final picture...this is my mother-in-law's dog with his Lion hair cut (he's actually Admiral's brother, just from a different litter).  Isn't that awesome?

Photo from Sitting Pretty Pet Spa and Boutique

Do you take your dog to a groomer?  Have they ever had any interesting hair cuts?

Kitchen Update

The kitchen projects are coming along slower than I would have liked, even though no major work is being done LOL.  My dad came over and helped us fix our dishwasher a couple weeks ago, so I'm glad that is done.  However, in order to pull the dishwasher out from the cupboards, we had to remove trim that was in front of the dishwasher (the people we bought the house from installed the trim in front of the dishwasher for some reason).  So now that is one more project we need to take care of.

One of the things I've wanted to do is figure out some additional storage.  We have a small kitchen, so storage is key.  A couple weekends ago we went to Lowe's and picked up some shelves that we ended up putting in the basement.  I'm able to store all of my big appliances that I don't use all the time--crock pots, waffle maker, juicer, food processor, etc.  I also have a shelf I plan to use as an extra little pantry area.  I love having all of these big items out of the kitchen (and we even had some things in the front closet).  It gave me a little more space in our kitchen cabinets.

I decided to keep our Kitchen Aid mixer on the counter, because I use it quite a bit, and it's pretty heavy to be carting up and down the stairs all the time.  But now I need to decide what to do with our knives.  There just isn't a spot for the knife block any more.  I was thinking I could just put the knives in the silverware drawer, or I thought about getting a magnetic knife strip.  Thoughts/suggestions?

This past weekend I cleaned all of the trim/baseboards in the kitchen (and hallway).  The difference is amazing.  I'm almost embarrassed to show you the before pictures, but hey, I'm keeping it real.  These pictures are taken in a high traffic area of our kitchen.  It's where we enter the house from the breezeway, so it gets a lot of foot traffic.  We also used to watch my mother-in-laws two dogs three days a week for several months, and when you have that many dirty paws running to the door to greet you, it can make a mess quickly.

To clean them, I just mixed Mr. Clean All Purpose Cleaner and water and used a scrub sponge.  Then I used a clean towel/rag to dry it up right after.  I even used a toothbrush to get in the tiny areas.

The trim looks a million times better just being cleaned, but when I look at it close up, I can tell that there are areas that need to be sanded, wood filler used, repainted, and caulked.  I know this might be tedious and not seem necessary, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Needs some repainting and major caulking.

may need some repainting...and caulking.

Those are just some of the small things I've been slowly working on.  We're going to Chicago this weekend, but hopefully no plans for the next few weekends means more progress in the kitchen!

Weekend Recap

Another weekend in the books.  We didn't have any big plans, but still did a lot.  Friday night we ate dinner at home and then went out for a couple drinks with friends.  I had to work on Saturday and then we went to dinner with some of Kevin's family that night.

Sunday we went to church and then headed to Lowe's to pick up a few things I needed for the kitchen projects I'm working on.  I'm hoping to do any update on the kitchen progress this week.  I worked a little in the kitchen Sunday afternoon.  We caught up on the DVR and watched the Olympics to cap off the night.

I also used my juicer for the first time on Sunday night.  I was amazed at how the juicer worked, but I was not impressed with the juice I made.  I drank about 60% of it and dumped the rest.  I think I need it to be more fruity, so I've already found some other recipes I'm going to try.

1/2 cucumber, 1/2 lemon (peeled), 2 stalks celery, 1 pear, 2 handfuls kale

Hope you had a good weekend, and happy Monday!

Linking up with Lisa and Bella.

The Intentional Life Project

Today I'm linking up with Bre and Ginny for The Intentional Life Project.

You can read all of the details of The Intentional Life Project here, but basically each month, there is a different "theme" and you create a personal goal within that theme.  February's theme is Staying Healthy.  My goal for February is to drink two healthy smoothies and/or juices (that I make at home) per week.

So far, I'm hitting my goal for week one.  I've made some smoothies, but have yet to try out the juicer that we received as a wedding gift.  I love that smoothies/juices are a healthy snack or breakfast option, and a way for me to get some much needed fruits and veggies in to my diet.

Scoop of ice, 1/4 cup almond milk, handful of spinach, spoonful of peanut butter, 5 strawberries, & 1 banana.

I'm headed to the grocery store tonight and plan on picking up some fresh produce so I can try out my juicer.  I found some great juicing recipes here that I can't wait to try!

Do you make smoothies or use a juicer regularly?  Any tips or great recipes you want to share?

Cookies & Cream Cake Recipe

Over the past month or two, I have been going through my stack of magazines.  When I got to the bottom of the stack, I found a Food Network Magazine that had a bunch of cake recipes in it.  I knew Kevin would love the Cookies-and-Cream Cake recipe, so I ripped it out so I could make it for him for his birthday.

You can find the recipe on the Food Network site HERE, and I've also included it in this post.  This cake did NOT disappoint.  And it was actually really easy to make.  I'm not a good baker by any means, so if I say it's easy, it really is.  I'll be the first to admit that nothing about this cake is healthy, but it tastes soooo good.  It's worth a little "cheat" to have a piece or two.

Ingredients:

For the Frosting

6 ounces white choclate, finely chopped (I used vanilla candy coating)

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups confectioners' sugar

pinch of salt

For the Cake

Basic Vanilla Cake (boxed mix), baked and cooled

15 chocolate sandwich cookies, chopped

1.  Bake the cake as directed on the box (I used two round cake pans) and allow to fully cool.

2.  Make the frosting:  Microwave the white chocolate as directed.  Beat butter, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.  Add the melted white chocolate and beat until combined.  Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until smooth.

3.  Assemble the cake:  Place 1 cake layer on a platter; spread 1 cup frosting on top and sprinkle with 1/2 cup chopped cookies.  Top with the second cake layer.  Cover the whole cake with the remaining frosting, then press the remaining cookies on to the sides.

4.  Let the frosting set for a little bit, and then enjoy!!

Even though this cake tastes amazing, I'd do a couple things differently next time.  First, I had a ton of frosting left over, so I'd layer the frosting on thicker next time for sure.  Also, I would crush the cookies that go on top of the bottom cake (so they are in the middle of the finished cake) so that they are much smaller.  The top cake didn't sit very evenly, which I think was because I had such large cookies chunks.  

If you check out the pic on the Food Network site, it's much prettier than mine.  But don't let that fool you.  This cake tastes like heaven.

What do you think?  Would you try making this cake?  

Weekend Recap

My parents came over on Friday and my dad helped us fix our dishwasher!  Yayy!!  It is working like new again, and all we had to do was take it apart and clean some parts that were super dirty and full of gunk (it was gross, but totally worth getting it fixed).

We got about 5-6 more inches of snow on Saturday, but during a break in the weather, Kevin and I headed to Lowe's to pick up some shelves to help with my kitchen organization (more details coming later).  We went for shelves and came home with two shelving units, a freezer, a Costco membership, and groceries!  It ended up being a productive day putting together the shelves, setting up the freezer, and doing a little work in the kitchen.

Since we got so much snow on Saturday, we got up early on Sunday to shovel the driveway before heading to church.  After church I did a little more work in the kitchen and then I made Kevin a belated birthday cake.  I can't lie, I had a little piece, and it was delicious!  Recipe coming this week :)

I made a couple of dips for us to eat while watching the Super Bowl.  And what a game (or maybe not so much) it was.  I was cheering for Seattle, but deep down I really thought Denver was going to win.  It's too bad it wasn't a better game, but Seattle's defense was on fire and they definitely played better than Denver.  I just felt kind of bad for Peyton Manning.  I thought the commercials were lacking this year.  Although, I will admit, the Budweiser commercial with the puppy and the horse made me tear up!  And I am soooo excited that 24 is coming back in May!  #jackisback

Overall, we had a great weekend, and I hope you did too!