Despite eating healthy...

Yesterday I totally gave into my cookie craving that I've been having for a couple days. Like I say, I refuse to deprive myself, and everything in moderation. So as I was discussing this with one of my coworkers, she proceeded to ask me if I have ever made "Monster Cookies" ummm...no...., but now I have, and they are THE DEVIL THEMSELF!!!!


Ugh, so good. And I have eaten one too many.

I mean seriously, what is better than Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, Chocolate Chips and M&Ms?

NOTHING!!
Absolutely nothing. That is the problem.
If anyone wants the recipe, this is the one I used: Monster Cookies

You can thank me later =)

Valued Time

Last night I hung out with my good friend Stephanie. We used to work together at Tanaz, and we both went to the Douglas J Aveda Institute but she did the night class so I did not know of her back then. After I left Tanaz we remained friends and we hang out from time to time and she also does my hair for me. I took her out to dinner last night for doing my hair for me last week. We went to the Macaroni Grill which is an Italian restaurant. I really like it there.

I've only been two times, once after Chris and I got married the first time ;) and then another time when his parents came into town for dinner, but I really enjoy it. I guess Steph frequents the place quite often... For an appetizer we had the Calamari Fritti
And for the main course we both had the Chicken Cannelloni. It was amazing....amazingly cheesy...and totally hit the spot.
And then for dessert...yes we were getting a little full but come on...two girls going out to eat..we had to get dessert. That is the best part of the meal anyways! We got the Amaretto Apple Crispetti. It was carmely, apply, creamy....the perfect way to end the meal.I know you are probably hungry now, I know I am...sorry!

After that we went to Burlington Coat Factory and walked around for a while and looked at stuff. It was fun just to hang out and talk about all the things that is going on in our lives. We had a really great evening despite the freezing cold weather we are getting here right now.

Lately I have just been thinking about how much I value the time I spend with people. The time I get to be with Chris, just him and I...those weekends that we just curl up inside and hang out...the time that I spend with my family since I don't see them often, even if it's a conversation on the phone for an hour and half, and the time I spend with my friends. I know as we get older and our lives change even more that we will become busier and busier, and probably not get to spend as much time with the people we care about.
I value these times.

Weekend Fun

This weekend was pretty good. Chris had to work, so I just kept myself busy. Saturday consisted on cleaning the house and getting some stuff done. I knew I had plans that night with some friends but I could not get motivated to get in the shower and get ready. The snow was falling and our house was all cozy and warm. I ended up falling asleep on the couch for a couple of hours and it was awesome. I love naps. Chris wasn't there to keep me warm but Niles cuddled with me, haha. Finally my friend Julie called me sometime after 5 I finally got up and got ready. I went to the Rivertown mall and saw Bride Wars with her, her sister Katherine and friend Becca. It was a cute movie, definitely a chick flick and was pretty funny at times. Not one of those movies that I came out of it going "Oh I loved that I want to see it again, or I want to buy it!" and probably wouldn't really rent it to watch with Chris because I know that he would be less than interested! I am happy though because I finally found someone who will go and see those movies with me! I am happy that I met my friend Julie at work because she is really nice. After the movie we went and ate dinner at On the Border...I have never been there before. It was pretty good I guess, kind of your typical Mexican/Americanized restaurant; they had a good variety of food to pick from. I love girls night out!

Once I left I went home and picked up Chris and Lauren and we went downtown to Bar Divani and met up with Lauren's bf Joshua. We hung out that for a couple hours..it was fun to be downtown, it wasn't too busy which I am assuming is because of the crappy weather we have been getting. I love their Molten Lava Chocolate cake. We get it every time we go.

Cute!


Love him... :)

New Years Eve

For the last couple years we have been going to our friends Adam and Amanda's house for New Years. They always throw a great little party with amazing food and friends. This year was no different. I only had to work a half day so I headed home, packed our bags, Niles and his things and some goodies I had made and headed over to Norton Shores once again. Chris met me at his parents around 10 after he got out of work and we headed over to the Montambo's.

Here is a nice little glance at all the great food we had to pick from....chilled shrimp, brie, hot crab dip, carmel brownie, pumpkin rolls...yuumm...


Chris and Adam eating food in the kitchen

Amanda and I, love this girl!

Adam and Amanda....can you believe that they have three kids? She looks amazing!

Chris and I


Amanda and friend Nicole from their church

Chris opening our celebratory champagne....

....and me pouring it!!
Happy New Year everyone! May 2009 be absolutely amazingly incredible...

One last girls picture by the tree...

We did not get to bed until after 3 am that night. Niles whined all night long and I slept terrible. I remember waking up in an awful mood. Not the greatest way to start the first day of the New Year! We went out to lunch to a quaint little place called Toast 'N Jams...we have wanted to go there before but never really had the opportunity. Turns out we really loved it and can't wait to go back....once we headed home Chris had to go to work. And I crashed on the couch, haha. Way to spend my day off of work! As much fun as we had, we both remember thinking how great it would have been to just have stayed home in our PJs, curled up on the couch eating good food and celebrating together just the two of us. Wow we sound like old people... =) But that was exactly what we did for the rest of the weekend and it was amazing!

Christmas with the Buchingers

Christmas morning started off very interesting. I was incredibly happy because it had not snowed that night, thank goodness because seriously we have had so much of it up to that point and I was sick and tired of getting stuck in our street every time I was coming to and from our house. We got up early, got the car running and everything in it and then I looked out to the street......they had plowed and there was a ton of snow at least one foot high and like two feet wide blocking the end of our driveway. Chris ran out there to shovel it out of the way quickly because the car was running and there was absolutely no way our little almost to ground Corolla was going to plow through it. That was when he discovered that it was literally rock hard. I have no idea how we got out of the driveway but eventually we did.....then we had to stop at the gas station because we needed gas and we were low on oil (weird?) and then we couldn't get the hood closed...finally we were on our way. We got to the fam's house, unloaded everything and then headed of to Gma Cummings for Christmas dinner and the annual white elephant exchange which was a good time as always. Every year we take our family picture there, and every year it seems to get bigger...can't wait to see how many people are in it next year *hint* there is an unexpected person in it that you will read about a little ways down...!!

Here is everyone:

Afterward we headed back to the house and all sat around and opened presents, one by one..it always takes a couple hours but is so much fun.

Here is a picture of my nephew Samuel, he is getting so big! He will be 2 in March. He is running around all over the place now and really has a personality.

Trisha opening one of her birthday presents....this quilt was made by my sister Meg and Mom, such a great gift, she was so happy!


Chris looooves his Starbucks coffee. Can't get enough of it.


Sam opening one of his presents from us...Trish was making him laugh so hard, it was cute.

Jesse, Megan and Pat...they got a lot of Lowes gift cards I think. Great for their new house!

We got them a mirror for Christmas to hang in the house, it was a really cool mirror! Sam seems intrigued by himself, haha.

And one of the best surprises of all....Nate and Emileigh are going to have a baby! They are due on August 8th, their anniversary! What a present, a baby! Congrats you two!

Sam looking cute as ever in his little Christmas pajamas.

Chris and I at the end of the evening. So happy and in love. I love him!

The Holidays always go by so fast. They always remind me though of how lucky and blessed I am for my family and friends. I am so thankful.

Christmas with the Ostranders

This year we celebrated with Chris' side of the family on the Saturday before Christmas. As much as I loooove Christmas with my big family, I always look forward to this time as well because it's just Chris and I, his parents and his Aunt Barb, always being a little more intimate affair.

Me on the way there...you can notice in the background that we are seriously consumed in a real Winter Wonderland this year. Although the weather has not been quite as romantic as it sounds....
We packed up Niles with us since we planned on spending the whole evening there and drove out to Norton Shores sometime in the early afternoon. It was so fun because we ended up getting some amazing presents that were completely unexpected, and those are sometimes the best. This was one of them and we absolutely love it. We needed a Garmin and are so lucky that we got one...awesome surprise!

Jeanne and Bob with their new pan set.


Family pic by the fire place. Niles' eyes make him look evil haha!

After opening up presents we went out for dinner at one of our favorite restaurant there called The Hearthstone. Great food...yumm.. We are cute. :)


So after dinner Chris wanted to watch a movie with his Dad so I took a little nap for a while and then afterward we met up with his cousin Derek and his girlfriend Amber at Chilis. We have been wanting to meet her for a while. The plan was to drive home that night but the snow started to fall...that should have been our cue to leave but we wanted to spend time with his family and not rush our evening! Well by the time we were driving back to his parents to pick up Niles we realized there was just absolutely no way we were going to be able to make the 45 minute trek back to GR in the dark with the snow coming down the way it was....we ended up getting stuck there. It was fun though, we stopped at Meijer on the way back and I bought some sweat pants, which are now like my fav. thing to wear around the house...we pulled out the futon, scrounged up some toiletries and cuddled up watching the snow come down out the window. Sometimes those spur of the moment change of plans are the best. The next morning we slept in, had lunch, packed up and finally admitted that we needed to get going...we had no idea how long our drive would take.

Bindi and Niles...they only sat nice like that for about a second...


Jeanne and Bindi


And last but not least, here is a time lapse video of our hellish drive home. Gotta love living in the freezing cold tundra we know as MI...



Christmas Eve Chris's parents always host their family party at their house. Chris has not been able to go for a couple years now because he always has to work, so I end up going to represent. It's fun but not the same without him. We had so much food this year! Here are some shots from the night...

His little cousin Brian showing me some of his presents...
Brian and I
Erica and I, love this girl!

And now we wait for next year...only 353 more days...haha.

Seriously. People.

It has been like the Monday from hell.
Ok so I'm over-exaggerating a little. Haha...but come on. The phone, literally, has been ringing non-freakin-stop alllll day long. I am used to it, it's what I do, I'm the receptionist. But today has been exceptionally bad. I think it's because not only is it Monday but the Holidays are officially over and not only that but tax season is almost here, yippeee.
But I cannot wait for this day to be over! I get to leave in 25 minutes.
Then I am off to the Y.
And then I am going home to watch the two-hour season premiere of The Bachelor. I am super excited because it's with the cute/sweet single dad Jason Mesnick. I know it is going to be a good one. Can't wait to see all the women those chose for him...ha.

p.s. More updating to come with a bunch of pics from Christmas....

Merry Christmas Northwestern Mutual

I was so excited for our work Christmas party. For one, it was my first Christmas party there, and I wasn't sure what to expect, I just assumed it was going to be tons of fun. Plus all day long all I could think about was how I hadn't eaten anything bad in a while and I knew that night we were having chicken wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. I also knew they were going to provide us beer and wine. That week I had been helping my friend/coworker Dave do some app input for this thing we do called Operation Issue where all the reps try to get in all their last minute apps to count towards their end of the year goals. Well that afternoon for some reason we were crazy busy. I am not gonna lie, it sucked and I was pissed. We were stuck downstairs until 5:45 while everyone was upstairs at the party. By the time we got out I was all the more motivated that this night was going to be a blast. Needless to say we had a pretty good time.

Me, Natasha and Alisha

Alisha, me, Julie, Dave and Chris

Julie and meWe ended up heading over to Z's for a drink afterward and hung out there for a while. We had more fun there than we did at the party.

me and our roommate Lauren (she is also one of my best friends and works at Z's)

me and Dave-finally done working and having some fun!!

When Chris got out of work he met up with me there. The night ended with me having a flat tire but luckily Dave and some tire inflator thing in his car that got me home. I think it's safe to say that we were all a little tired in the morning...haha. Merry Christmas NMFN.

The Christmas Season

Here are a couple random pictures that I wanted to throw in a post somewhere.

I think it was the first Saturday in December, I drove to Lansing to visit my old roommate Kate. We get together every so often when she needs to get her hair done. She is still a very good friend of mine and I miss her dearly. After I did her hair I went to Riverview Church with her. I used to go there back in the day when I went to MSU and Douglas J. It looks absolutely nothing like it did back then. I was good to visit though. She is so cute! I think this may have been taken the next day, I am not sure. Chris and I were in the car going somewhere...and I was messing around with the camera.
Niles and I cuddling on the couch staying warm. He is so cute!
I got him to lay by the tree for just a minute one morning......didn't last long.

More Bowling Fun

Well my bowling league is done for the season. I am a little sad because I will miss hanging out with my friends every Tuesday night, but at the same time, it is good to have that night back.
Here is a cool time lapse video we took one night:



And after this picture you may officially think I am crazy. But we were just having some good 'ol fun. What movie does this make you think of? =) I look so ridiculous, haha.


And last but not least, here is a picture of my team from our last night bowling. It was right before Christmas and we ate tons of food and exchanged little presents. My favorite was this little ornament that Alisha made me. It was a little bowling pin with a little green ball glued to it and she wrote Lincoln Lanes 2008 on it. It was the cheapest looking ornament ever and I absolutely love it!! I put it on our tree right when I got home that night.

Dave, me, Jeff and Alisha
Team JAAD #25 Foreva