Doug's Birthday Recap

My hubby's birthday landed on a Saturday this year, and his birthday request was to just have a low key day. He's been working so hard lately (who am I kidding - it's not just lately - he always works hard), and he just wanted a quiet day and nice fancy dinner with his girls.

A few decorations for a festive atmosphere...

Doug opened his gifts in the afternoon before we headed out to dinner. We knew we'd be out kind of late, so we did gifts and sang "happy birthday" early...

I got him a rolling workbench for the garage...

I baked a small BB8 cake for my Star Wars fan...

A gift card from Bri for a daddy/daughter date at Starbucks...

My sis gave him a "Shark With Frickin Laser" pointer...

Wine and a wine glass from my parents - nice!!!

Doug picked out the restaurant. It was phenomenal! Seriously, some of the best food I've ever had. I highly recommend...

Birthday pics...

We ordered a few appetizers because we didn't know what Bri might like. She scarfed down the meatballs and fried lobster tails...

Doug's dinner and sides for us all...

Bri and I both had filet and bearnaise sauce...

Bri's dessert choice (cookie with ice cream) - so delish...

Doug's dessert...

There was so much food - some of it came home with us. We were all pretty full when everything was said and done.

I think Doug had a really nice day. I hope so!

Bri and I are very lucky girls to have this great guy in our lives.

3 Years With Mei Mei

Three years ago today, this black and white, chunky monkey, ball of fur entered our lives and helped heal our hearts. It took me an entire year to deal with the loss of my sweet Asia (who still has a big piece of my heart) before I could even consider getting another cat. We went to the PetSmart and spotted Mei Mei right away. Doug and I wanted to look at several cats, but Bri immediately had her heart set on Mei. Once we took Mei Mei home, it took a few weeks for all of us to get adjusted to one another, but then Mei fit right into our family.

A year ago, Mei had hernia surgery and she is doing great now. I'm so happy there are no more surgeries on the horizon.

She is the sweetest, relaxed, most loving, cuddly, non-aggressive, playful, affection-seeking (and sometimes big pain-in-the-butt) cat in the world.

She makes our whole family so happy.

As you can see below, she has the ability to be quite chill...

She has been loving our fireplace on these cold winter nights...

She spends a lot of time lounging on our laps...

Or sleeping on the bed (and look who is finally letting her fur grow slowly back on her tummy!)...

And she still has quite an unhealthy, crazy, obsessive unusual attachment to her "Angry Bird babies"...

(I don't know what I am going to do when the manufacturer stops making them. And Angry Birds aren't really all that popular anymore. I have no idea what I can replace them with.)

Some people don't like cats (people think they are aloof, etc), but I promise, if you find the right cat (like Mei), you will become a cat person too. :)

January 2018 So Far

Happy 2018 everyone!!! 

So far, January has honestly been a weird and wacky month!!!

Doug sent me these beautiful flowers right before January 1st...

Wishing me a happy new beginning in 2018...

I have been actually feeling pretty good this month so far ~ until today unfortunately. My throat is hurting a bit. I'm praying this is not some kind of bad omen. I am going to really try to look at the positive and pray it's nothing. I want to be as well as possible in 2018. The last two years have been rough in the health department!

Briana finally headed back to school on January 4 (after holiday break) but the day before she did, Doug, Bri and I had one last fun lunch at Steak and Shake...

And we made a trip to Target...

I finally let Briana dive into her disgusting overly sweet yummy chocolate pizza that she got for Christmas...

She ate a bit of it over a few days and then she thankfully got tired of it.

We drove to school after the long break and our cow friends greeted us along the way...

Bri got her report card when she returned to school. 4 As and 2 Bs!!! I am so proud of her. For a kid that struggled at the beginning of middle school, is in 4 advanced classes and doesn't like school all that much, she did really great!

 For Christmas, Doug got me a new treadmill!! It is a really great one. I have worked out on it and I plan to hopefully have a nice long relationship with it throughout the year...

 Now for a quick moon report...

There was a supermoon in December...

And another one at the beginning of January...

And there will be another one at the end of January. I love looking at the moon.

Now can I talk about the weather a minute? It's been crazy and all over the place this January. Warm at times and then cold. Mainly cold though.

It's been super mega cold. It was a high of 33 degrees one afternoon...

Another morning it was 27 degrees...

And I woke up one morning to freaking 13 degrees...

As soon as Bri went back to school (two whole days), school was cancelled on a Monday due to possible freezing rain. And...we ended up having no freezing rain that day.

Mei Mei kept warm that day by sticking her bum by the fire...

Bri went to school for 4 days after that and then she was off on Monday for the MLK holiday. I took B to see The Greatest Showman again that day because she loves the movie so much...

She has the soundtrack now and listens to it over and over again.

Bri went to school for one day after MLK day...

It rained in the afternoon that day.

And by evening time, it started snowing...

Bri was thrilled as you can tell...

Bri "tapping" in the snow...

 So, school was obviously canceled on Wednesday...

And the temps never got above freezing for 3 days. So Bri had no school Thursday or Friday of that week either.

By last weekend, I was we were going a bit stir crazy, so D, B and I went to have lunch on Sat, ate some yogurt and did a little shopping.

Bri was happy eating her yogurt with 5000 different toppings on it (yuck)...

She was also happy because she ended up with a porg (she put her glasses on him for fun)...

And Bri is finally back at school today - hallelujah!!! And it is 59 degrees right now (I'm good with staying in the 50s)...

With being stuck in the house so much, I've done a bit of cooking.

Doug got me an instant pot for Christmas...

I tried making 6 hard boiled eggs in it. 4 came out great, 1 cracked and 1 broke open completely. Not sure what I did wrong. I followed a recipe but it didn't work too great. The eggs that survived were pretty good though...

Honestly, the instant pot scares me a bit (lol!). Hey - pressure cookers are kind of scary when you are not used to them. But, I am definitely going to practice with some different recipes. So, I decided to slow cook a few things instead until I put my big girl panties back on and try the instant pot again.

I did make a delicious slow cooker pot roast (if I do say so myself)...

And some loaded potato crock pot soup...

On a celebratory note in January, my parents celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary...

And my amazing hubby celebrated his birthday (a separate post on that coming next)...

So that has been our January so far. Crazy weather, a bit of cooking and some celebrations. Hoping I stay healthy (cause the nasty flu is going around - yikes!). Fingers crossed!!