American History for 800

Snow in C-bus today!

Dinner tonight was epic… an epic fail! I would post what I made for dinner tonight but it is not worthy of you trying – it was gross that’s all I’m going to say… Ryan said in his sweet husband tone “It’s like fish sticks” … Let me add that… there is no fish in our house so that should tell you something.. Huge fail!   Ryan did eat everything on his plate – he is a trooper!

Ryan and I have an evening routine of cooking together and watching TV which always includes…. JEOPARDY!

Sometimes we keep score but we always shout out our answers – don’t worry, we aren’t competitive at all

Oh yeah – We also play with Reese, like all night long, she is a ball of energy!  I can’t post enough pictures of her – she has stolen my heart! I never seem to have my camera around for every picture but I try to capture a lot of them!

“You should play with me instead of pretending to be on Jeopardy”

And believe it or not she does get tired!

 

In other news, we booked our flights to NYC today! 2 weeks from today I will be in NYC getting ready to go to see Jersey Boys – I’ve heard nothing but good things!

Looking forward to a fun filled weekend with Ryan! I plan on updating and adding some pages to the blog. I learn something new everyday it seems!

Do you pretend you are on Jeopardy and compete with your roommate/family/spouse on a regular basis like we do?! Please say yes!

Who can get to 500 faster?

After a long weekend it was hard to wake up this morning! Ryan had to work yesterday so I had the day to myself. I cleaned the condo and went to the mall to browse all the MLK day sales before coming back to snuggle with Reese until Ryan came home.

Workout

After work today Ryan and I decided to go to the gym and see how fast we could burn 500 calories – according to the cardio machines – I’ve heard they aren’t the most accurate when it comes to actual calories burned. I usually go to the gym to do cardio with a goal in mind to achieve a certain time or distance, never calories. So this was a new mindset for me!

We started on the stair stepper for 5 minutes and then we moved to the treadmills. I can’t compare myself to Ryan for obvious reasons but he ended up reaching 500 in about 28 minutes. Me on the other hand..   it took me about 48 minutes! I started off by doing intervals for 15 minutes between 3.8 mph and 5.5 mph and then I ran for 5.0 for 10 minutes. The final 18 minutes I went back and forth between 4.0 and 5.0. In the end I burned 500 calories – sounds good to me!

I felt like it was a great cardio workout for me and I liked that Ryan and I were able to do it together – even though we are on different fitness levels! Baby steps but I’m working towards my 2012 To Do list of working out more!

Mexican Tomato Bean Soup w/ Corn Dumplings

Dinner came together so easy tonight – This weekend I looked through our “Cooking Light – Way to Cook Vegetarian” cookbook and flagged a couple meals for the week. Tonight I was in the mood for some soup (it is supposed to be a cold night – maybe even some snow).  I tweaked it a little bit but I think this soup will make its appearance in our kitchen again!

I had high hopes for the corn dumplings but I either used too much oil or not enough cornmeal.. they disintegrated as soon as I made them in the soup – maybe you will have better luck!

Here is the link to the original recipe – I added a can of Pinto beans and eliminated the limes (just because we didn’t have any).

Off to play hide and seek with Reese! She hides under my hanging clothes in the closet….

Have a good night – Thank goodness for a short workweek!

Stand By Me

We had a very productive day in the Potter household! I cleaned the kitchen and living room, organized the closet, and did some laundry all before 11:00 this morning! This afternoon we went to workout, had lunch at Whole Foods, ran to Barnes and Noble, dropped off some things at Goodwill, and picked up some goodies from Hobby Lobby!

Now we are home watching the NFL playoffs and trying to decide what to do for dinner. I’m thinking pizza

This week’s “Project Pin”

This project is one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. It is meaningful and I know we will always have it hung in our house no matter what age we are or where we end up! I saw the idea on Pinterest and I knew I had to try it. This is just a simple matted frame with the lyrics from “Stand By Me” written on the mat. That was the song that Ryan and I danced to at our wedding. I actually made this back in December and gave it to Ryan for a Christmas gift. I also gave Ryan’s mother one, as well as my Dad.

Here is a breakdown:

Inspiration from lovelywrittenwords on Etsy via Pinterest.

13×11 frame with 5×7 opening – Pottery Barn outlet

One of my favorite photos of Ryan and I at our wedding

A fine black sharpie pen

The lyrics to “Stand By Me”

A glass of wine to calm my nerves as I wrote the lyrics out! (very important)

I took a deep breath and started writing out the lyrics. I don’t think I have the best handwriting but the fact that it is my handwriting makes it special – It’s not perfect but it is perfect for us!

The entire song took up about half of the mat so I just repeated it and it ended up that I wrote the lyrics twice and it all fit without even trying!

Like I said earlier, I made one for Ryan’s mom with the lyrics to their first dance, “Georgia” by Ray Charles, and for my Dad we danced to “You are the Sunshine of My Life” by Stevie Wonder. I wish I had taken pictures of the finished product but these are the pictures from the wedding that I used for them.

 

 

My favorite pic of Dad and I!

 

I was able to create something that captures the feelings and emotions that were present during those special moments of our big day and I would have never thought of this idea had it not been for Pinterest!

Our wedding photographers were amazing! Ryan and I both agreed that we couldn’t have been happier with the way everything turned out. We used Lindsey and Craig Mahaffey from Sposabella Photography out of Walhalla, SC. I HIGHLY recommend them and I can’t wait to share more pictures with you!

I plan on adding a Wedding Page and doing a wedding recap post once a week or so. I’ll make sure to start it soon!

Have a good night!