What I am loving today...

It's that day of the week again...



I am loving that we get to spend the 4th of July weekend on the lake! The lake is one of our favorite places to be, but since the Spring/Summer has been so busy this year we have not gotten to spend any time there. We have this lake house rented for the weekend with 2 other couples...that means- lots of grilling and eating outside, being on the boat all day, laying out, fire pits, fun summer dinks ( vodka injected capri-suns...yep, you read that right and they are amazing ), and fun times with friends. 2 PM on Friday can not get here fast enough!





I am loving the exciting news I got at work today!! I got a RAISE!! Praise the Lord! I love my job :)

I am loving that in 8 days we will be on the beaches of North Carolina staying at this amazing house with family! We only get to go for a few days because I am out of vacation days for the year but I can't wait to be on the beach, see my brother, sis-n-law and sweet little nephew and spend time with family!


I am loving this season's "So You Think You Can Dance" I am rooting for Caitlynn Lawson...I LOVE LOVE LOVE her and hope she wins! The duet she did with Mitchell last week to Adele's "Turning Tables" was one of the most amazing performances I have ever seen. I love that it is on Wednesday AND Thursday nights. WHOHOO!



That is all for today! Hope yall are having a great week!

Tasty Tuesday- A Perfect Summer Salad

I came across this recipe on a cooking blog I follow, www.ourbestbites.com, and I have not made it yet but I am going to this week. Sounds so yummy and perfect for Summer!



GRILLED CHICKEN & BERRY SALAD

1/2 head of romaine lettuce
6-8 oz. baby spinach
12-16 oz. grilled chicken ( marinated in Italian dressing )
8 oz. of sliced strawberries
8 oz. of blueberries
4 oz. of crumbled feta or shredded parmesan cheese
1 cup sliced, toasted almonds
Berry Poppy Seed Dressing ( recipe below )

Toss the romaine lettuce and baby spinach together. Then add the almonds, blueberries, strawberries, cheese and the chopped, grilled chicken. Serve dressing on the side. YUM!



BERRY POPPY SEED DRESSING

1/2 c. white wine vinegar
1/2 c. honey (or sugar)
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 tsp. kosher or other coarse salt
About 10 cracks of freshly ground black pepper
1 c. raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries
2/3 c. canola oil
1 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds

Combine the vinegar, honey, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, and berries in the jar of a blender. Blend until smooth and then, with the blender running, add the oil in a steady stream. Turn off the blender and whisk in the poppy seeds. If possible, refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Weekend Recap & Some Half-Marathon News

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Mine was good, minus the being sick part...
Friday night we had dinner at El Real and saw "Bad Teacher" with our friends Kim & Chris! El Real is awesome...for those of you in Houston who have not been. It is quickly becoming one of my fave Mexican ( Tex-Mex ) restaurants in the area. The margarita mixed with sangria is DELICIOUS!! Stong, but delicious :) It is very reasonably priced, the service is awesome and the place is HUGE.
"Bad Teacher was good and really funny...definitley worth seeing. It was a little more vulgar that I thought it would be but we all laughed a lot and had a great time. I love Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake and thought they were great together is this movie!

Saturday we attempted to sleep in ( it did not work ), Chris cooked us breakfast and we started our errands & house projects. We went to Hobby Lobby and I finally found a cookbook stand that I have been looking for! YAY! I serioulsy have looked EVERYWHERE and finally found one at Hobby Lobby. That is the greatest store ever. We ended up buying a lot more than we went for and spending way more than we planned...but it was all stuff we needed/wanted for our house :) We went to Macy's and finished buying a few things we needed that we forgot to register for. Thank goodness for giftcards...luckily we got a TON of them so we did not have to spend any of our own money. I started feeling really bad at this point so we went home before doing anything else. I laid down for a few minutes thinking I would feel a little better if I rested and I ended up sleeping for about 3 hours! While I slept, Chris went shopping for new flowers for our little yard and some stones and planted them on his own. So sweet :)

Sunday I had a bunch of random house projects to do so that kept me busy all day. I am going to post some pics later this week on the progress I have made!
My hubby makes the best ribs EVER and I had made a special request earlier in the week for him to make them over the weekend so he made them for us Sunday night and they were amazing, as always!

This was the first weekend we have both been in town at the same time and home since our wedding! It was so nice to have a weekend at home to get some rest, finish some house projects and cook our own meals... hopefully one day we have more weekends like that!

Now, on to the latest running news...I did not get into the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon lottery. :( I knew there was a very good chance of this happening but I am pretty disappointed. I have ran this half marathon the past 2 years and always have a lot of friends that do it, so it will be sad not to be part of it this year. But I am excited for a lot of my friends who did get in and are running their first FULL MARATHON!!! WHOHOO! I will definitetly be there to cheer all of them on!
Now I am looking for a half-marathon to do sometine in January or the beginning of February. I have quite a few options but would like to try to find one that I know people who will also being running in it... So, I will have to work on that.
Since I was sick last week and over the weekend I only got to run 3 miles. So much for that 10 mile goal, huh? And unfortunately, I am still a little sick...I have an awful cough and can't breathe thru my nose. So, I am not going to expect much this week either. I would like to at least walk the Memorial Park Loop a couple times just to get some exercise in but we'll see.

Hopefully this week flys by... I am ready to spend 4th of July weekend out on Lake Conroe.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Happy Monday!

Sick, Sick, Sick....

Ugh, I am so sick =( Chris had it the past week and now I have it. I think it is just a cold/sinus infection, but it sucks. I have no energy and can hardly focus on anything I try to do. BUT, my sweet friend, Sarah, at work shared half of her red velvet cupcake and a chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookie with me...and all of a sudden I am feeling a tad bit better! It is amazing chocolate has this affect on me. The Mucinex might have had something to do with that too....

So, I had a goal of running 10 miles this week. Thanks to this head cold that is not going to happen I guess. I know that may not seem like much to most of my running friends out there, but I have not ran in a VERY long time and the last time I did run, I ran/speed walked 13.1 miles without any training and it nearly killed me. So, baby steps here people. I decided that every Sunday I would make a running goal for myself for that week and do my absolute best to stick with it. On Tuesday I ran 3 miles...well, let's say I ran probably a mile and a half then had to walk the rest of it because I thought I was going to pass out from the heat and how out of shape I am right now. I am hoping I feel better in the next day or 2 that way I can do at least 3 more this weekend or more...anything to get my a little closer to that 10 mile goal. If not, Sunday starts a new week and I will set a new goal and start over. My running group that I am part of, Houston Fit, has a new session that starts in the middle of July and I plan on joining again and starting completely over with training. I will be back to training for half-marathons! Whohoo!! Speaking of half-marathons... Today is the LAST day to register for the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon Lottery! Sign up before 11:59 PM tonight for a chance at getting chosen in a lottery to run one of these races in January 2012. I signed up for the lottery at the beginning of the month and I really hope I get in. Everyone will know if they did or did not by next Monday. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Happy Running & stay well!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!

I am loving that I am getting my hair done today! I have been really bored with my blonde highlights lately so I am thinking about going a little warmer...more brown with some honey or golden tones!

I am loving that this weekend is the first weekend since we got married that we are both in town at the same time and do not really have any big plans. We have some house projects to do, golf for Chris, mani/pedi for me...I can not wait!

I am loving the rain we are getting in Texas this morning!!! It has been months and months since we here in Texas have seen rain so this is a huge deal. I am praying it sticks around for awhile and helps put out all these crazy fires ( and helps our dying plants & flowers in our yard ).

I am loving these fun Summer dresses-




I found these dresses here- www.shopruche.com
Love this website!

I am loving my hubby ( even though he got me sick ;) ) and my family and friends! And I am loving the time I got to spend with one of my best friends, Jenn from
http://downwiththedearmores.blogspot.com, last night before she moves today ( even though she is only moving 25 minutes away!)

What are you loving today?
Hope everyone has a Happy Wednesday!

Tasty Tuesday- Breakfast Casserole

I am stealing this idea from several other blogs I read...every Tuesday I am going to try to post a new recipe that I made or love!
So, today I am posting about one of my favorite breakfast dishes- Sausage Breakfast Casserole! YUM! It is so easy to make, lasts for days and is always a big hit with friends and family. I made one on Sunday morning so that Chris & I could have for breakfast all week. I have used my Mom's recipe, Step-Mom's recipe and a couple others, so this is a combination of all of them with a few tweeks that I made :) Enjoy!!



Ingredients-
6-8 pieces of bread ( I use wheat )
12-16 ounces of pork sausage or turkey meat ( you can also use bacon! )
2 cups shredded cheese
8 eggs beaten ( sometimes I use 4 egg white and 4 regular eggs )
2 cups milk ( I use skim )
1 tsp. dry mustard
Salt & Pepper

Directions-
Cook sausage in pan until brown, drain and set aside. Cube the bread and spread throughout the bottom of a 9x13 greased baking dish. Next, layer the sausage and cheese on top of bread. Mix the eggs, milk and dry mustard in bowl, then pour mixture over other ingredients in dish.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Add Salt & Pepper when serving.

WEEKEND RECAP

This weekend Chris and I got to be part of our good friends Hunter & Lauren's wedding in Denton, Texas. We had so much fun spending time with our favorite Dallas friends and celebrating with Hunter & Lauren. The wedding was beautiful and so much fun...we were honored to be part of their big day! Chris and Hunter are fraternity brothers from A&M and have been friends for years. I met Lauren at their fraternity's alumni weekend in Dallas last July and Lauren and I have been great friends every since! Here are a few pictures from their wedding weekend:







Congratulations Hunter & Lauren!!!!!

In case you didn't know....

I got MARRIED!! Yes, I realize most of you probably do know that already, but I am feeling the need to relive that special time for just a few minutes.

A lot of my friends told me about this phase they went thru after their wedddings & honeymoons were over...a little sad and down and kind of having withdrawls from all the wedding planning and fun times leading up to the big day. There is an actual term for this- "Postnuptial Depression", kind of like Postpartum Depression after you have a baby. Research actully shows that 1 in 10 spouses go thru this phase immediately after they get married! Well, I am definitely NOT depressed or really going thru this phase but in the past couple weeks I have been thinking about our wedding A LOT. We only got married a little over a month ago so this is probably normal. I miss parts of the planning but mainly I miss the excitement I felt the week before, spending time with family & friends all at once, my dress ( I love my dress A LOT...some days I really consider just putting it on and walking around our house ) and I could go on and on.

Anyways, on to our wedding day... Chris and I got married on Saturday, May 7, 2011 in The Woodlands, Texas. Our ceremony took place at the amazing Chapel at Fellowship of The Woodlands called- Chapel in the Woods. And our reception was in the Emerald Ballroom at The Woodlands Resort and Conference Center. The weather was perfect...high 70's and not a cloud in the sky. I was not near as nervous or stressed as I thought I would be...I owe that to my Mom, MOH, bridesmaids, honor attendants and other friends & family that were there :) It was the best day of my life my hubby has made me the happiest girl in the world!

For those of you who were not there or who are not on Facebook, here is a glimpse into the best day of our lives:








Now, I get to help one of my sweet friends, Lauren, celebrate her big day on Saturday in Dallas!! Chris and I are both in the wedding so it will be a lot of fun.
In the meantime, Grotto Happy Hour is calling my name :)

xoxo

Welcome to my Blog!!

Hi Everyone! I have wanted to start a blog for almost 2 years now but thanks to a lack of creativity on the design part and a lack of time, it never happened, until now! So, welcome to my blog!! I hope to use this as a way to keep my family and friends all over the world up to date on what is going on in our lives.
Here is a little bit about what you might find in my blog over the coming months and years-

Eat- I love to eat and am working on my love of cooking. My hubby and I love to eat out and try new places and over the past couple of years I developed a bit of passion for writing reviews. I write reviews for all the restaurants we go to, hotels we stay at, doctors I use and much more. I write reviews for YELP and Houston City Search and now I will probably bring them to my blog =)

Pray- I pray every day, many times a day. It helps me get thru any situation I am going thru, good or bad. God is good and I have a lot to be thankful for.

Love- "And now these three remain: Faith, Hope and Love, but the greatest of these is LOVE." 1 Corinthians 13:13
I have a lot of love in my life but most importantly I love my husband, family & friends. Much more to come on that...

Run- I am what I like to call a "runner in training." A couple years ago I got this random urge to start running so I joined Houston Fit and started running...or, trying to run. 1 1/2 years and 4 half-marathons later I decided to take a hiatus from running. Now I am working my way back in to my running group and my half-marathon training. It does not come easy for me and it is an enormous commitment, but I am ready to get back into it and tell you ALLLLL the good, bad and ugly of my next try at becoming a runner!

So, there is a litte taste of what my blog will probably revolve around!

Thanks for visiting my blog!! Come back soon for more =)

Love, Leslie