A New Landscape

Today was a particularly bad day…we recently found out I was pregnant and had our first ultrasound this morning, however we did not get news that we were hoping for. The baby did not have a heartbeat and the gestational age was a week off from where it should be. Ben and I are sad, but are looking forward to moving on and have resolved that this just was not the right one for us.

I did not feel like going to work and took off the rest of the week since I’ll be having a D&C tomorrow morning. We did not feel like sitting around the house all day…the weather was too gorgeous for that! All weekend I was itching to get outside, get some new bushes and add some color to our landscape. We figured it’d be a great day to plant some new life in our front yard!

We planted an azalea in the very front in an effort to cover up an ugly utility pole. We also wanted a breed of roses and found these great rose bushes, Double Knockout Roses, that are very low maintenance and grow tons of flowers for most of the year.

Not only did it get our mind of things, but we really enjoyed the great weather and spending some QT together!

Later we also received these gorgeous flowers from my brother, sister in law and parents. So many beautiful flowers in and outside of the house…they really cheer us up!

The Worst Chore Ever!

I love a clean house, but I hate hate hate dusting! Maybe I’ve never found a product that works and the dust just gets scattered around. Or maybe I just wait too long in between dusting that there is too much!

Today I was determined to get the house spotless, so tomorrow we can relax and enjoy the clean house without the last few lingering chores hanging over our heads. I remembered I had bought these Pledge Dusters with the Multi Surface spray. They work pretty good…the spray seems to help trap the dust even more, so the duster picks up 90% of the dust. And because I’m pretty lazy when it comes to dusting and hate moving all the knick knacks, it fits into tight spaces so you don’t have to move them every time. These are definitely going into my cleaning supplies. Over the years of living on my own I’ve started to become partial to cleaning products as I find the ones that really work with the least amount of effort.

Happy Spring!

I don’t think I’ve ever been so anxious for spring and warm weather. When stopping at Harris Teeter to pick up a few things for dinner, I decided to celebrate the day with a few bunches of fresh flowers…tulips and Gerber daisies! Let’s hope the weather continues to improve and stay gorgeous.

Our New Toy…

A Canon DSLR!! I’ve been wanting one forever and after a larger-than-expected bonus this year, we decided to splurge. We’ve got a couple of weddings, vacations and other exciting things coming up this year and thought a new camera would be perfect to capture those special memories.

The best part is all our older telephoto lenses from my old 35mm SLR are compatible. Now I just need to sit down with the manual and go through all the fun settings and actually learn what this camera can do! From straight out of the box, it takes amazing pictures and we couldn’t be more pleased with the quality.

I’m sure we’ll have plenty more “test” photos. In less than a day we took 100 pictures!

Snow Day 2009!

After receiving calls from my manager and auto text from the company regarding the Winter Weather Advisory last night, I still was expecting to go to work this morning. Ben woke me up around 3am and the ground was covered. When I woke up at 642am by the alarm, the roads were covered and I instantly decided today would be a “work-from-home” day! By 730am I was logged in online…I was feeling a little anxious since yesterday was a US holiday and many of my Indian and UK clients were waiting on emails and files. Working from home is so nice and comfy…never mind very productive. It’s amazing to be able to work alternatively on the couch or the dining room table all day by the fire! I enjoyed coffee in a mug and took a quick mid-day break to shower, then one for lunch. I thawed out some turkey soup I had froze many moons ago and it was perfect for a snowy day. Ben worked on school stuff, napped and we both watched the Inauguration all day…which was amazing to see history made regardless what party we belong to, what color our skin is or where we live in the world.

Finally after a little pleading from Ben, we set out for a walk in the snow. Freddie has not really ever seen the snow besides a few flurries and he absolutely hated it. He shivered the entre time and tried to pull back towards the house. For the rest of the afternoon he settled down by the fire for a long nap while we enjoyed a big cup of Hot Chocolate with handmade Peppermint Marshmallows!

We ended up with almost 6 inches of snow, but by the evening it had all melted on the roads. I’m hoping to make it into work tomorrow, but we’ll see how the roads are in the morning…ICE is never a good thing!

A Little Work...A Little Play!

As usual with the New Year, I'm in an organizing mood after the dreaded thought of de-Christmasing the house. Plus, we've been in our house for 8 months and are finding out how our routine works with where things are placed. I've already sorted through my closet, so this weekend we organized the garage. Everything finally has a place and there are different zones on our built in shelves for each specific task...grilling, yard/gardening, tools and sports equipment. While everything was drug out, we swept and used the blower in every nook and cranny to get it really clean. Let's see how long this lasts!

Once the garage was complete, we pulled down all the boxes for the Christmas decor from the attic. We collected all the decorations and organized them as well. We decided not to take down our tree since it's still perfectly fresh and we are still enjoying it so much. We'll officially finish de-decorating next weekend once we take down the tree...but for now we're those people!

Of course the weekend wasn't complete without a little play, especially with some of our new things we received for Christmas. Saturday, Ben's friend Chris, who was just accepted for a Beer Master program in Chicago and Munich, came over for a little celebration of helping Ben brew his next beer. My parents gave Ben a turkey fryer to use for brewing, so it was quite interesting to see the new process. I very much enjoyed my house not smelling of wort! If you're interested in his process, check out his blog: Jamm'n Brews. His next batch is a Double Scottish Ale!!



After a much need grocery shopping trip, I spent most of Saturday engrossed in Twilight...falling in love with Edward Cullen. And today we started off the rainy morning by making pancakes on our new griddle.

I also used my Williams-Sonoma Chopper and my Dutch Oven to make a big pot of chili. It's sitting on the stove cooking now, but it smells wonderful. Since Christmas Day, when we missed a chili dinner at Ben parents, he's been craving chili. We found a 5-star recipe from Cooking Light that includes a bottle of beer. We used Ben's home brewed Cinnamon Oatmeal Stout! I hope it tastes as delicious as it smells.

Smoke's Chili (adapted from Cooking Light)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
2 pounds lean, ground beef
3 cups chopped green bell pepper
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 (12-ounce) can tomato paste
1 (12-ounce) bottle beer
2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
3/4 cup low-fat sour cream
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese

Heat 1/2 teaspoon oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add half of meat. Cook 10 minutes or until browned; remove from heat, and drain. Repeat procedure with 1/2 teaspoon oil and remaining meat; set aside.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in pan over medium heat. Add bell pepper, onion, red pepper, and garlic; saute 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add chili powder and cumin; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add meat, sugar, and next 5 ingredients (sugar through beer); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes. Add beans, and simmer, uncovered, an additional 40 minutes or until meat is tender. Serve with sour cream and cheese.

Note: To freeze, cool chili, and place in an airtight freezer container or a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag. Freeze chili up to 3 months.

UPDATE!! The Chili was a success in our new DK Clay pasta blows from my parents! It had an interesting flavor that was very complex...lots of spice and a little sweet from the brown sugar. You couldn't really tell it was made with beer, but I guess knowing it's in there is good enough. It was very very filling and I'm going to freeze half of what we have left for dinner in a few weeks. I'm pretty sure this will become our standard chili recipe with a few modifications.

I'm off to spend the rest of the evening with Edward Cullen!

The 3rd Annual Stafford Cookie Swap!

The 2008 Holiday season has officially begun with our 3rd Annual Cookie Swap. Ben and I were so excited to be hosting it again this year since we've moved into our new house. Not only did we have a ton of space for everyone, but we got to decorate even more with our fireplace, the outside decor and of course or ginormous tree! It's great that we are "forced" to get the house almost entirely ready for Christmas. It's a ton of work, but we get to enjoy the next few weeks with a spotlessly clean house that's completely decorated for the season.

It was a chilly afternoon, but inside where it was warm, we enjoyed a spread of Herb Ranch Cheeseball, Veggies with Spinach Dip, Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Sugar Chips, Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies, Fig & Goat Cheese Bruschetta, Christmas Punch and Hot Apple Cider.

After snacking and chatting the swap got underway. This year Ben and I found actual Christmas baskets for the cookies.

I'm pretty sure this was the best year yet with the cookies we took home! Since this post is a little late and all of cookies are down to the last few bites, let me see if I can remember each cookie.

~Chocolate Almond Biscotti
~Chocolate Chip Cookies
~Christmas Cookies
~Sophie Kisses
~White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
~Whoppers
~Oatmeal Creme Pies
~Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles
~Gingerbread with Vanilla Icing
~Oreo Truffles
~Almond Crescents
~Snikerdoodles
~Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I also made some Doggie cookies, Snickerpoodles since so many of us have pups at home that would enjoy a treat! They were a big hit by all the Pup parents as well as Freddie...he was my taste tester.

All in all, it was another successful swap and we're aleady looking forward to next year's party. In fact I overheard people at the swap talking about ideas for their cookie next year!

Nonstop Weekend...

It's been a Marathon weekend in the Stafford house the past few days. After one of the longest weeks in a while, we've been looking forward to the weekend since probably last Sunday evening. We kicked Friday night off with our usual pizza, but made an extra one and had Chris and Sam over. Of course beer was invloved, tasting a few homebrews and other new microbrews we haven't had yet.

Saturday was really the marathon day. I woke up and ran 6.3 miles in the freezing 23 degree weather. I actually got hot at one point, but the wind kicked back up and I was cold again by the time I finished. It ended up being a great run and I was pretty pleased my Nike + seems to be working again and accurately stating my mileage.

Once home, we started painting the kitchen. It was hardwork and took a few hours longer than we anticipated, but it's done. One more project we can check off the big to-do list. And yes...I have a hand written "House Projects" to-do list.

We had made plans with Tara and Rick to go to the Flying Saucer for dinner and we were literally putting everything back in it's place in the kitchen when they arrived to pick us up. We had so much fun with them and Mike, who also came. Too many funny pictures were taken and several little inside jokes we're started!

Sunday morning we were afford a few hours of laziness before I started cooking sides to take the Stafford's Thanksgiving. We brought Macaroni & Cheese, Pineapple Casserole, Homemade Cranberry Sauce and Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Tarts. There was entirely way too much food and I'm uncomfortably stuffed right now. We even took to-go plates for dessert, which will have to wait for tomorrow. I've also scraped my dinner I had planned for tomorrow since we brought home leftovers. It's always a fun time seeing everyone at once, but it can be a little over stimulating with 25 people...I'm quite enjoying the peace and quiet while I write this!

My catch up grateful list for Friday, Saturday and today:

~Walmart: I've never been a huge fan of Walmart, but lately we've been shopping at the Holly Spring location, which is really nice. I'm always surprised at the total and it's saved us a lot...just in time for Christmas.

~Thankgiving meal: I love turkey, but the sides are the best part...and dessert of course! I'm also lucky that I get 3 seperate Thanksgiving dinners!

~Gas logs on a cold night: They kept me so toasty on Friday night and the ambience of a fire is so nice.

~Allrecipes.com: Another one of my go-to sites for recipes. I never make anything less than 4 stars and that doesn't have a fair amount of reviews.

~Freddie & Molly: They are so fun together and act like little children

~Yogurt and granola: I'm obsessed with this for breakfast!

~Handbags: Another mild obession!

~Funny pictures with funny new friends

~Friday lunches out: I've always been disciplined in bringing my lunch to work every day, but every now and then I treat myself to lunch out on Fridays...so fun!

~Rechargable Batteries: My digital camera eats AA batteries like candy and these always come in handy...only when I remember to charge them.

Happy Veteran's Day

Being that it's Veteran's Day it was a relaxed, short day at work. I didn't have anything have anything I HAD to get done today, but it was nice to have a quiet day in the office to get a few loose ends tied up. I had planned on working until 1 or, that turned into 2, and I finally left at 330!

I was beyond excited to get home with the sun still shining, so I immediately headed out for a short, 3 mile run. Although my Nike + is off now...I ran my usual route of 3.12 miles and it says I ran 2.75, which threw off my pace too. Grrrrr....

Ben left for work and I decided head out shopping. A friend sent me a 25% Friends & Family coupon for World Market and I've been eyeing some chocolate brown velvet drapes. Of course they only have one panel when I needed two. I decided to go ahead and get just one now. I was already out and in the store. But while there I picked up 2 Abita Harvest Pecan beers for our Beer Tasting Dinner Party with Tara & Rick this weekend. I also finally found some cloth napkins and placemats I loved. How precious and it'll will pick up the green, purple, red and yellows in our kitchen.

And wouldn't you know they rang everything up wrong...the girl said she gave me my discount and I was almost ready to head home when I decided to double check...yep...she forgot. So back in the store I went, returned everything and got my discount...25% off was worth it!

Once home, I sat down to awesome leftovers of Lasagna and a side salad. I'm now freezing and think I'll spend the rest of the night curled up on the couch with a cup of tea.

Today I'm grateful for:

~Coupons: I rarely buy anything for full price and sometimes coupons come at just the right time.

~New Friends: I am so excited to host our newest friends, Tara & Rick on Sat. We all share a love for beer and they couldn't be a more fun couple to hang out with.

~Our Veterans: Both sides of my family have military background and I have 2 cousins who are currently serving in Iraq...many thanks for all their hardwork!

It's Almost Done...

Another project is almost complete. We finished painting the living room today and other than finding dark brown curtains and a rod, we're practicaly done. Eventually we'll add crown moulding, but first we need to finishing painting the rest of our rooms downstairs and let our checking account recover from all the Lowe's purchases in the past few months!

We started our day off with a bang...we ran 6.25 miles! It was so long, we needed a map to keep track of all of our turns through the neighborhoods and I found a great site...Google Pedometer. It's similar to MapMyRun, but allows you to print out your map with the distance and elevations. I ran one loop twice...the second time around I thought things looked familar and finally found my way. So, I tweaked my route again and my 6th mile came faster than I thought. It was a great run and I feel good for the 10k next Sunday. I finished today in 1:04:32 with an average pace of 10:14/mile and I burned almost 800 calories!! In just 6 months I've shaved off over 10 minutes on my 10k....yeah I'm feeling pretty awesome!

Other than running and painting we've been pretty lazy today. Watching football, cleaning up the house a little and working through the massive pile of laundry. One day I'll learn to do laundry on a regular basis...doing 3 weeks at a time is not fun!

Pictures of our almost complete living room: We're also getting rid of the large entertainment center...as soon as we can sell it on Craigslist! I love how it all came out. Ben definitely pushed me out of comfort zone with brighter colors and I'm so glad we took the plunge with the colors we chose.

Today I'm grateful for:

~Ben: being my running partner, helping me keep my pace and keeping me going through those tough hills.

~Our decor: I love decorating and I'm so thankful we have the means to make our home exactly how we want it.

~Popcorn: We had a bag for the perfect afternoon snack...so filling and easy. My dad makes a huge bowl almost every weekend for an afternoon snack, so a great memory!

Exhausted...

It's only Sat. night and it's been a super busy weekend! Finally the week is over and hopefully next week at work will go a little smoother as things begin to settle down.

Friday after work, I was successful in convincing Ben we should paint the living room this weekend. So we headed to Lowe's to pick paint colors and then TGI Fridays for dinner. We headed to bed early so we'd be up early to get started.

We choose a Martha Stewart color, Spiney Sea Urchin (bright green) for the main living room picked goldy-yellow called Delightful Moon. It blended so well with our countertops, as well as the other decor we already have.

So, today we've been taping, painting, cleaning...such a long day and it always takes longer than you plan. I never got my run in, which means I'm running 6 miles tomorrow without any other training this past week. After we got cleaned up from painting, we headed to my mom's for Alex, birthday dinner. He will be 20 on Monday and requested my homemade lasagna for dinner!

Tomorrow is another busy day:
~Run 6 miles
~Paint accent wall
~Laundry
~Get 2 tires fixed
~Sam's to buy special beers for our beer tasting dinner party next Satuday

Since Friday was so busy...my gratitude list includes:

~Jeans: I get to wear them every Friday and it's so easy to pick out a shirt. Plus, they are so comfy!

~Paint colors: Looking at the array of colors gets some excited. I love looking at the paint swatches even when I don't need to pick out any colors.

~Getting in bed at 10pm on a Friday: By the end of the week I'm exhausted and keeping on my schedule helps me to get the weekend off to a great start.

Today I'm grateful for:

~Birthdays: In honor of Alex's birthday, I love getting together with family and friends for any celebration.

~Our House: Ben and I have enjoyed being homeowners and making a house into a home. We're slowly checking off the to-do's to make it personal to our tastes and how we always thought our home would be.

~Photos: As I putting everything back in it's place I got a chance to take more than just a glance at the pictures we display...such happy memories from our wedding, travels, and family events over the past several years.

A Frosty Fall Weekend!

Our weekends are always jam-packed and this weekend was no different! We definitely could have used an extra day to fit it all in and catch up on our sleep. Friday it finally turned chilly. I snuck away from work a few hours early...Ben fixed homemade pizza with sun-dried tomato chicken sausage, bell peppers and onions. We enjoyed pizza in front of the fire...our gas logs quickly heated up the downstairs so it was nice and cozy.

I was actually delighted to start Saturday morning's run being cold. It was a very nice break from the sweat-drenched runs for the past few months. I'm sure I'll be hating it in a few weeks. My run was fantastic...not my fastest, but a nice relaxed 5.16 miles at a 10:00 pace!

Saturday also included finally picking up our coffee table and end tables. We rushed home and unpacked them before heading to Kim & Jeff's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding in North Raleigh and we couldn't be happier for them. After an unfortunate event of losing their reception site one week before the wedding, they found a wonderful site in Wake Forest. Despite being a little chilly, we had a fabulous time. Dinner and the cake was amazing...the cake barely looked like cake!

Sunday we continued our hectic weekend heading to Charlotte for the Panther's game. It was me and the boys this time as we celebrated Shane's birthday. What a great game...we were so excited to see Jake and Company pull out an awesome win. With this crowd...good beer is always plenty. Fun fact: Carolina Beer introduced the Red, Wheat and Blue beer this year at the Panther's game and they haven't lost a home game yet. You know we helped continue that tradition at the game!

Happy Fall Ya'll

This past few days have a been a perfect fall weekend...minus my nasty cold! I hate being sick on the weekends, but I guess it's better than suffering at work. And taking a few days off right now is not an option! I just wish I could have enjoyed the beautiful weekend more...there was no running this weekend.

Before I started feeling so bad, my mom and I enjoyed an evening being serenade'd by Michael Buble. I had no idea how funny and charming he was! She spent the night with us and after a few cups of coffee to get us going, we headed out to Lowe's. She offered to help me paint our new adirondack chairs from Kim & Stephen. We decided on "Piano Brown" for the color and the paint went on pretty fast. I'm so pleased with the color and how it complements the front porch.



While we were busy painting, Ben aerated the lawn and applied some weed and feed. Hopefully this will get our lack of a yard off in the right direction.

Since I was a little under the weather, we spent the rest of the weekend being lazy and watching football in between mulitple naps. Late Sunday afternoon I was itching to get off the couch, so we ran a few errands (mainly to get more cold medicine and Shower Soothers) and picked out our pumpkins. Ben wants to carve them, but I'd love to keep them as our front porch decor through Thanksgiving. We'll probably end up carving them and buying more!