What to do...what. to. do.

There was a time in my life that I once loved living alone.  I loved coming home from work and doing my own thing.  I would go run, come back, put some chicken in the oven while I took a shower, and then watch a good lifetime movie while eating dinner.  If it was fall I would make a batch of some comfort food, open a bottle of red wine and watch Harry Potter until I realized it was way to late for me to stay up on a work night.

Now.  As I sit in my living room at 8:36pm on a Wednesday I am bored out of my mind!  Preston won't be back until Friday.  As it normally goes when one of us goes out of town, Ashe is no where to be found.  He stands at the back door meowing for at least an hour waiting on the other person.  When he finally realizes they aren't coming home he eats his feelings and then disappears upstairs.  Annnnnd as soon as I finished typing that sentence he came down stairs and is now sitting on my lap. ::blink::  Oh well, I'm not going to complain.

So, back to me! I have pulled up a Netflix movie and it's really bad.  Like bad acting, bad story line, bad everything.  I literally have no idea what is going on, but I'm not going to turn it off.  What else do I have to do.  Oh' text messages just came in.  That was fun! got to talk to some people for awhile, yippee.

Ok - Random Thought Time:

1. Sometimes when Ashe is hitting me over and over again with this head and I get annoyed I remind myself that someday I will give anything to have him nudge me with his head for some petting.  So I stop and give him some love.

2. When I'm not trying to eat healthy, a salad always sounds good.  As soon as I tell myself I will eat good...I want State & Allen chicken strips with fries.  Life's a Challenge.

3. My job has taught me to live for today and not to think about the what ifs.

4. The new Sandra Bullock movie has reminded me of my fear of space.  I remember learning about space and how if the astronauts let go of the space ship the will float away forever.  That really had an impact on me as a kid.  This has been on my mind for weeks now and I have told several people about my thoughts on space.  No one seems to share the feeling except Preston.  He also finds space scary.

5. In the past 6 months several of the friends we hang out with on a regular basis have gotten engaged.  We think we finally have my group of married couple friends. cool.  We already do game night and stuff so that's a settled.  And the guys have golfed together, so all we need now is matching polos and some trips.

6. I know that not everyone is a facebook fan, but if you are on facebook then you can't really complain about it.  By creating a profile and accepting friendships, you accept and open the door for all things tagged and posted.  You are either a Lurker (Lurk-er): a person that doesn't post, but merely looks at everyone's profile to find out what they are doing. Or you are a Poster (Po-Ster): a person who likes to post their every move, bite to eat, and feelings.

7. I never used to be a nail person and then I discovered gel/shellac nails.  OMGoodness.  I get my nails done about every month and I love it.  Garden Spa in Uptown.  I'm sorry Marco if you are reading this.  I stopped going to your location because it was no longer on my way home.  I found a new way home and well....Q and Avy are really good!  Still friends?

8.  I really feel like I should have 10 things so this is getting harder for me to have random thoughts. Thinking, thinking...

9. Last night our neighbors behind our house were playing really loud music.  It was 1:17am.  I finally called the police.  Well first I called 311 (the service not the band) and they told me to call 911.  So I did.  The music stopped.  I wasn't the only person that called though.

10. Oh! I have my 10. Mushroom Sage Olive Oil.  The best thing in Portland.  On its way to Dallas and I will make you mushroom soup if you leave a comment.

Thanks for reading!

Welcome Fall

The weather is finally starting to cool off.  Today we have had our back door open and our front windows pulled up!  A nice breeze is going through the house and it smells great.  The only thing that would make it better is if our back door had a screen.  We hate flies and bugs in the house. Gross!  So, we went to Home Depot this weekend and got a new door AND storm door for the back of the house.  Yeah!  I can't wait for it to be installed.  Pictures of that process will be posted for sure.  This weekend was pretty packed with events.

Saturday morning we were up early and headed to the Perot Nature and Science Museum.  They had a new exhibit that was opening to the public on Sunday, but because we are members we got a sneak peek.  They wouldn't let me take any photos inside the exhibit, boo, but I got one of the entry way.  It was Animals: Inside and Out.  It's like Bodyworks, but with animals.  The display had slices of a giraffe which bothers me to type those words, but inside the exhibit they were full animals!  You could see all of their muscles, tendons, etc.  It was pretty cool!  The bull was the most impressive.  It is so big and so much muscle! I would not want to ride or run with a bull.

That evening we headed to our friends parent's house for the Texas Tech game.  They grilled fajitas and we all stood around watching/talking.  Our friends had a baby in June so of course he was the star of the show.  However he wanted to sleep the whole night.  Silly baby!  The next morning though he was up and ready to play.  He is such a happy baby!!

This afternoon was spent relaxing, getting things done around the house, and trying new recipes.  I made zucchini and squash lasagna roll ups.  It was super easy, but super messy. 

Boil the noodles: I used whole wheat

In a food processor, chop up the veggies.  You pretty much can do any type you want, doesn't matter.

In another bowl mix the follow:
1 1/2 cup marinara sauce
15 oz of cottage cheese
1 egg (beaten)
Add the veggies when mixed.  

Place the cooked paste flat, put about 4 T of the sauce mixture on the noodle and top with chicken.  It's hard to see the sauce in this picture because the noodles are similar in color.  Then you roooooooooll it up!  This is messy, but easy.

Place it in the dish, seam side down.  I put about 3/4 cup of marinara sauce on the bottom so it didn't slide around.

I made 2 rows of rolls.  It made about 10 total.  I placed 2 left over pasta noodles on the side as buffers to hold them in place.   When finished, pour the remaining sauce on top and then cover with low-fat mozzarella cheese and cover with foil.

You cook it at 475 for about 35 mins.  I took the foil off the last 5 mins to brown the cheese.  It was a hit with the husband so it will be a repeat.  Next time we will do more veggies and chicken to make it a little thicker.  Hope everyone else had a good weekend!  Hoodies are coming soon.....I can feel it.

I Love You Portland! xoxo

I have never been to Portland so I didn't really have an idea of what it would be like.  Boy was I pleasantly surprised!  This city is wonderful.  I know it helped that the weather was awesome. When I uploaded these pictures, they got allll out of order. So, in no particular order....here is our trip to Portland!

We walked for what seemed like forever and went to the Japanese Gardens.  So peaceful and zen.  Made me want to sit down and take a nap.

Oh' this is a fun gem!  There are hiking stores all over the place and I just loved this outfit.  I'm sure I'm wrong on what it is, but it basically looks like a sleeping bag that you can unzip the arms too.  It's like a sleeping bag snuggie!! 

Again, these photos are way out of order and I'm too lazy to correct them.  When walking through the International Rose Test Garden (pictures to come) I got a text that our friend Kacie was engaged! I yelled very loudly...everyone around me knew that, "Preston!! Kacie and Derek are engaged!"  They were in Colorado on vacation.

China Town!  This wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, but none the less it was great.  The food was perfect. 

They have Chinese Garden's too, but we didn't go in there.  Just sneaked in some photos.

 On our last day we went to a place called Tasty N Alder that got really good reviews on the internet.  Everything is true on the internet so we went!  It was the best place we ate all weekend.

 When I got off the plane they had flyers with wonderful directions on exactly how to get to the airport from your hotel.  This is very helpful to outsiders.  Thanks Portland!

Oh' we're back in the Japanese Garden!

Now we are in the Rose Garden! (where I announced K & D's engagement)

Yellow Rose of Texas!

Lunch at Clyde Common.  Tasty food in a cozy setting.  The whole place is nothing but big common tables.

I ordered the club sandwich.  This is NOT my idea of a club sandwich, but it was yummy!  Preston helped with this bad boy. 

Dinner spot: Clam Chowder and Salmon. 

My Bahn Mi from the Food Truck!

Preston ordered a lamb schwarma. However he was handed a chicken schwarma.  Then we had to wait for them to make the lamb.  It took about 15 mins, but it was good.  Side note: Fadi's in Dallas still has the best Schwarma I've ever had.  And I've had at least 2 different kinds in my life so I know I'm right.  

Thanks Starbuxs.

This is what I did Wednesday - Friday.  Coffee Water, Water Coffee...repeat.

 These dougnuts were crazy!  I couldn't bring myself to actually eating one, but I did have a bite to taste. Sugar.

Across from our hotel was this Frozen Yogurt place called Tartberry.  You could fill your own cup with any flavor yogurt and the toppings of your choice.  I liked this place!

So that is our trip, in no particular order.