I Love the 90s

I’ve been on a real 90s kick lately. 90s music, in particular. We switched music providers at work and with the new company came new stations, including a fab 90s station. It’s plays allll the good jams. From rap to grunge to R&B to pop.

Maybe it’s just the nostalgia of listening to it now, but it seems that music was so much better back then. Am I right? Of course there’s good music now too, but some of the junk played on the radio today pales in comparison to the mainstream music of the 90s. Or at least that’s my opinion. You’re entitled to your own, I suppose.

Last night, out of nowhere, I got the urge to go for a run. Something I should have confessed on Sunday is that I’ve really been slacking on working out as of late. Not that I’ve ever been super consistent. It’s just that it had been a LONG time since I last did anything even remotely worky outy.

I have no idea what got into me, but the boys said they were going to get ice cream (okay, one of them said it, the other got really excited and started jumping around all over the place) and I thought “I should go for a run!” I’m not even sure I know who that girl was, but she picked up her phone, tuned Spotify radio to the 90s station and off she went!

My plan was to alternate walking and running, song by song.
But “Believe” by Cher was the first jam & it got my blood pumping so I started running right away.

Next up: “Pony” by Ginuwine. A fantastically naughty song, great for a walking a couple of blocks.

I’m an *NSYNC girl, through and through. Perhaps you guessed that from my obsessive JT posts?
But when “Everybody” by BSB came on, it was just the boost I needed to get my run on again.

I ran a bit, walked a bit to “Spice Up Your Life”. I must admit that I really had to refrain from “slamming it to the left” and “shimmying to the right”.

Then I sped things up again for the last little leg of my run. With help from MC Hammer, of course.

It was epic. I couldn’t have picked a better playlist if I’d tried. None of my favorite 90s songs, but just the songs I needed to keep up the momentum. I have no idea how far I went, but I do know that it took me a little over 20 minutes. Just long enough for me to be feeling it today.

It hurts so good. (But that’s from another decade.)

I’ve tried to make running “a thing” before and it’s never really stuck, but I do know the next time I get the urge, it’s 90s genre radio all the way.

What are your favorite 90s jams? I feel like music changed SO much from the early 90s to the late 90s, but I’m a fan of it all. Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, No Doubt, Destiny’s Child, The Fugees, *NSYNC, Jewel…I could go on and on and on! There were also so many great one hit wonders and awesome soundtracks. The Craft and Romeo + Juliet soundtracks are still some of my absolute favorites.

Sunday Confessions

It’s Sunday and I feel like confessing.

Confession 1: I can’t quit Google Reader. I joined Bloglovin as soon as I heard that Google Reader was being shutdown, but I just can’t get used to it. This countdown uber depresses me.

Confession 2: I’ve eaten out far more times that I should have this week. Just one example:

Confession 3: I’ve had too much to drink this week. Again, an example:

Confession 4: I love my family. Edit: This isn’t a confession. You already know how much I love these guys, I just wanted to include their smiling faces in my post.

Confession 5: Pretty Little Liars season 3 came out on NetFlix this week. I spent three hours of my day off like this.

Confession 6: I kind of want my strawberries to stay green. They’re so cute!

Confession 7: I’m that girl who can see the same musicals over and over again. I saw Wicked at the Overture Center this past week and it was just as fabulous as the first time I saw it a few years ago. So fabulous, in fact, that I’ll probably go see it again sometime!

Confession 8: Sometimes I forget how much I love juicing. Then I whip up a couple batches of yummy goodness like this and I can’t get enough!

Confession 9: I don’t have anything more confess, other than I simply couldn’t end on an even number.

Hope your weekend has treated you well!

I’ve Been a Bad Bad…

Blogger.

But don’t worry, I was singing Criminal too.

It’s been two weeks since my last post. If this was a paying job, I’d totally fire myself.

Mostly, I’ve been swamped at work.

But also, I’ve been trying use what little spare time I have to hang with some of my favorite people. You know, so they don’t forget who I am.

Here’s a little look at the past two weeks:

I finally went to my first Brewers game of the season!

They’re sucking it up pretty bad right now, but I’m not just a fair weather fan. Go Brew Crew!

We kicked off Memorial Day weekend by having some friends over for drinks and snacks last Friday night. I had the best of intentions of photographing the festivities, but this is all I got. Fail!

I had the most fantastic plate of biscuits and gravy EVER last Sunday morning.

Last Tuesday we bid farewell to a co-worker the only way we know how. A pie in the face! Or maybe 6 pies in the face and a few in other, um, areas…

There were shots.

And smiling faces.

I went to Target, ohhhh, a few times… and fell in love with the Small Talk line of cards.

I turned this:

Into this:

We spent the night at my parents’ house this past Friday. Saturday morning I headed to the tiny little Farmer’s Market.

I spied this awesome bumper sticker.

And then had a bold cup of fair trade coffee and a very-likely-not-organic-but-ever-so-freaking-awesome cream puff.

Did I mention I’ve been swamped at work? I spent 18 of 23 hours there over Saturday night/Sunday morning. Needless to say, I turned to an iced red eye to keep me moving yesterday.

And I’m sure you can guess the one thing I still haven’t done. Still no real camera, but I think I’m closer to finding the one for me. I’m still willing to hear your suggestions though.

I hope the past two weeks have been splendid for ya’ll and I hope to “see” you again sooner rather than later.

One last thing before signing off… this little lady is celebrating a birthday today. She happens to be one of my favorite people on this very earth and I hope that her day has been absolutely splendid!

We go way back.

Happy Birthday Lexi!!! XOXOXO

Sunshine

HI friends,

I don’t have much to say. We had a record breaking weekend at work. I was there for it all, which means I feel like I ran a marathon without training.

I had the day off today but had to go in for a meeting. I had a drink. And then another. And then I came home to sit on my patio in this gorgeous, sunny weather.

For dinner, we had morel mushrooms  hunted by my husband and father-in-law.

You might have to pay me to move from this spot.

Seasons in Wisconsin can get a little crazy, but you know what? We know how to do summer.

This is what I live for. Summer. Sunshine.

Summer Veggie Grilled Pizza

It’s been a pretty rad few days around here for numerous reasons.

First of all, I haven’t worked since Saturday. Technically speaking anyway. I did stop in yesterday for about an hour to take care of a few things, and I have checked email periodically, but I haven’t been scheduled to work since Saturday. This is well with my soul.

Secondly, Mother’s Day.

The boys and I drove to my parents house late Sunday morning with no plans other than eating some food, drinking some drinks, and hanging with the ‘rents. And that, we did.

MOMosas with mom.

There were also a few unpictured bloody Marys.

My mom loves being in the kitchen even more than I do, but since it was her day and all, I decided to take over her kitchen and do the Mom’s Day cooking. I worked until 9:00 on Saturday night, which made for very little meal prep time so I turned to my two most-trusted kitchen geniuses, Kristin and Annie for quick and easy recipes to cook for mom.

I settled on Fresh Margarita Chicken with Mexican Quinoa and BLT Panzanella.

It was all pretty delish!

My mom and I had a bonus Mother’s Day on Monday when we were able to meet up for lunch and a little shopping. World Market was on the itinerary. I snagged two of these cute, summery pillows for our otherwise neutral couch. The hubs isn’t a huge fan of floral patterns, but Fielder likes them soooo, we win!

Monday night my co-workers and I dressed up like superheroes and Bowled for Kids’ Sake.

While all Great Dane locations took part in the fundraising and bowling, my location took the fundraising prize (more than $3000 donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters) and definitely had the most team spirit!

I was up bright and early this morning to wash our bedding and clean the bathrooms. While putting the sheets back on the bed, I made a funny discovery.

Four different pillow cases! Oops! The matching sets are around here somewhere…

The weather took a major turn for the better around here, with beautiful sunshine and temps in the 80s so it was a top knot and maxi dress kind of day.

The day just kept getting better when I got a check from my insurance company in the mail. No, not a bill. A check. FROM my insurance. We get partial reimbursement on office co-pays. How cool is that?!

I made a trip to Trader Joe’s and got a pretty good haul for $47.

We made a trip to pick up plants for our awesome new raised garden (my handy hubby built it, see it back there on the right?) and for flowers for the crappy, old planter that came with the house. A storm was brewing while we did our planting, but it was a beautiful night nonetheless.

I’ll get into more detail about our garden as it starts to grow a bit.

My day was pretty jam packed, but I managed to spend some time slicing veggies for the fabulous pizza we noshed on for dinner.

Summer Veggie Grilled Pizza

I suggest you make this pizza. STAT.

You’ll need:
1 zucchini squash, quartered and thinly sliced
1 yellow squash, quartered and thinly sliced
1 orange bell pepper, de-ribbed, seeded, and thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
handful cherry tomatoes, halved
olive oil
pepper and garlic salt
your favorite pizza crust
your favorite pizza sauce
shreedded Italian four cheese blend
handful mixed greens, torn into small pieces
2 fully cooked spicy chicken sausages

Directions:
Place prepared vegetables in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with pepper and garlic salt. Place lid on bowl and shake to combine. Place in refrigerator for an hour or so.
Place veggies on vegetable grilling pan and grill for about 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare pizza crust as directed. Roll out on 12-inch pizza grilling pan, sprayed with cooking spray. Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce on crust. Sprinkle with mixed greens. Sprinkle with as much cheese as desired. Top with veggies and chicken sausage. Add more cheese, if you please. Grill for 10-20 minutes, until cheese is melted and crust edges are brown.

*This recipe is totally customizable to fit your household tastes. You could omit the chicken sausage to make it vegetarian. You could omit the cheese to make it vegan. (I used Trader Joe’s pizza crust, which is vegan.) I also used TJ’s pizza sauce, cheese blend, and jalapeno chicken sausages. It was seriously SO good. I already can’t wait to make it again. I had leftover vegetables too so you could probably even make two pizzas with these ingredients. I’d maybe add another chicken sausage or two though.

I served ours with little berry salads, dressed with a drizzle of agave and olive oil. J went back for seconds on both pizza AND salad. Win!

What have you been up to? Is it summery where you are? Our weather has been downright wacko. Saturday night I went to bed with socks on. Plus flannel pants and t-shirt AND a sweatshirt. Today, it’s so hot we considered switching on the A/C. I’m holding strong on keeping the windows open, but I can’t pretend I’m not somewhat fearful of a repeat of last year’s night visitors.
*Note: I just realized I ended numerous sentences here with prepositions. Alas, I am much too lazy to re-diagram them at the moment. Three days off is exhausting!

P.S. My mom is the best.

Friday Fluff

I work a closing shift tonight. I’m starving. It’s cold and cruddy outside. I have zero motivation. It’s noon and I’m still in bed. Here’s some random crap I’ve been looking at…

This photo popped up on my Facebook news feed. A sweet picture of the “little girls” watching the “big girls” in preparation for their dance recital this weekend. Of course I blurred out their innocent little faces, but you get the idea.

This was one of my very favorite things about my 13 years in dance. Watching the “big girls” perform just never got old. They were SO COOL!! It’s funny now, thinking back, when I was one of the big girls, it didn’t even occur to me that the littles looked up to me.

This little gem has been floating around and I’m not yet sick of watching it.

Scholastically speaking, I’m not a Wisconsin Badger. But the energy in this city during a Badger home game is undeniable and I couldn’t be happier to call the Nation’s Best College Town my home.

Two of my Facebook friends who don’t know each other posted nearly the exact same status, seconds after one another.

It was creepy. Admittedly, I had to Google “Separate Ways”, but upon hearing the first chord, I got it.

I love Spotify radio, but why in the heck can’t I listen to Rihanna’s “Stay”? I want to listen to it over and over again. On repeat. And I want to sing every word. Apparently this is only because I don’t listen to traditional radio, ummm, ever. I hear the radio stations are playing the crap out of it and everyone is sick of it. Not me, no way, not yet.

Also, I kind of hate Rihanna for getting back with Chris Brown after their whole “incident” a few years back, but I just heard that they broke up again. Despite all that, who else can rock a half-shaved head like hers in this video? I have your answer. Nobody. Girlfriend is B-E-A-U-tiful!

Confession 1: I hate bowling. Confesion 2: I’ll do just about anything for a kid. Therefore, I’ll be Bowling For Kids’ Sake on Monday.

Donate to my team, if you’d like.

Why didn’t anybody tell me about theBERRY? So much random. Doesn’t hold a candle to Buzzfeed but still highly entertaining.

Last thing. Thug Kitchen is rocking my world. I don’t know how I didn’t know about this sooner, but I simply cannot get enough this dude’s blog.

As a lover of both and appropriately placed f-bomb AND a healthy recipe, this blog is the fu&k!ng best.

That’s all for now, time to watch some RHOC!

Happy Weekend!

Finally!

It’s finally time for my tulips to bloom.

It’s finally time to race home from work and put my bare feet up. (And time for the husband to put his “just mowed the lawn in these old shoes” feet up.)

It’s finally time for a crisp, refreshing beer outside while watching the sun go down. I swear it tastes better like this.

It’s finally time for salads like these to become dinner every night without feeling forced.

I think it just might be time to finally say goodbye to the longest winter ever. And that, my friends, makes me one happy girl.

Hope you’re having a splendid, springy Tuesday wherever you may be!