Award!!

Preppy Buckeye, a newer blogger, left me this award yesterday on her blog. Head over and give her some blogger love if you aren't already!!



The Rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they've been nominated.



My seven things:
1. I'm a lefty. On my dad's side of the family every single person is a lefty!! So uncommon. To ensure this continues, I married a lefty :)

2. I broke my thumb as a child (slammed it in the car door), and it was never set or casted. It is definitely weird looking now! My mom is one tough cookie and thought I'd be just fine as long as I put ice on it!

3. My favorite board game is Scattergories.

4. My favorite smells are fresh laundry out of the dryier or off the cloothes line, baking bread, and lemon verbena anything.

5. I will not eat mushrooms no matter how fresh or high quality they are. Blech.

6. One of my lifetime goals is to learn to play the stand up bass and play in a jazz trio on Sunday nights.

7. The five famous people I would like to meet in real life are Reese Witherspoon (I mean, who doesn't?), Jennifer Garner (so adorable on Leno this week), Paula Deen, Rachel Ray, and Morgan Freeman.

I'm going to tag the following people to see what they will say!

Adventures of a Sweet Carolina Bride
Be Write There
Black Labs and Lilly
Mrs Preppy
Simple Yet Classic
The Preppy Apron

New Magazine, anyone??

I just received an email from Amazon saying that InStyle is one of their $5 subscriptions until September 26th. I know many of you jumped on the Real Simple bandwagon when Hopsy posted about it being $5 (I did too!), so I thought you may want to also receive InStyle. I read it regularly at the gym, but I think for this price I may have to pick up my own subscription and then donate it to the gym (as I do with all my old magazines).

Town and Country and Country Living are also in the $5 bin, so if you need either of those, check them out there too!!

Movies and marathoning.......

On Saturday night B and I went to see Julie and Julia. I had read the book when it first came out and loved it and just haven't had a chance this summer to get to a theater. Saturday night we knew we couldn't do much as B had a HUGE run on Sunday, so I was finally able to convince him to see the movie with me. I adored it! Meryl Streep was incredible. She's seriously such an amazing actress. Amy Adams was good, but it's hard for anyone to shine while playing alongside Meryl. I also really loved Julia's husband. I adored how in love they were and definitely had a few teary-eyed moments in seeing their devotion on screen. So sweet. If you haven't seen it yet, I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

I also have to say how incredibly proud I am of my husband. He is nearing the end of his marathon training, and I am so impressed with how well he has done. He hasn't skipped a run (not even the 3 milers) during the 18 weeks, and his devotion to this goal is incredible. The 20 miler (the longest run before the marathon) was Sunday morning. He did it in a group setting through CARA (Chicago Area Runners Association). He did lose his group during the run, but he was able to finish near his goal time. He also learned a lot about what he needs to do and not do during the actual marathon. But seriously, ladies, can you believe he did 20 MILES????? I'm just so impressed with him. And this is a guy who had never run before 4 years ago and does not have a long, lean runners type body. It just proves that if your mind is set on a goal, you can complete it. Really it's just in WANTING the end result that will allow you to do anything. I can't wait until I can cheer him on on October 11th!!

Baking Season!

Who Hoo! Today I woke up cold and didn't want to get out of bed. I love that feeling. The crispness in the air, the few leaves that have changed, the jacket I got to pull on when I left the house- Fall is here!

I like fall for so many different reasons- one of the biggest is because it's finally cool enough to turn on the oven and bake!! Last weekend while we were home watching the Michigan game, I tried a new recipe from one of my King Arthur baking bibles and knew I had to share here. If you need a treat for work, a party, school, anything, these are super easy and the best bar cookies I've ever had! B is so impressed with them, and I know they'll be my "go tos" whenever I need something. Try them out; you won't be disappointed!

Ruth Wakefield's Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

2 3/4 c all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 c unsalted butter, melted
2 1/4 c brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 c chocolate chips (we used 1 c butterscotch chips and 1 c chocolate chips)
1 c chopped pecans or walnuts (we eliminated b/c we don't like nuts in our cookies)

* Preheat the oven to #50. Lightly greats a 10x15 jelly roll pan or a 9x13 pan.
* In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
* In another large bowl, combine the melted butter and brown sugar, stirring until smooth. Allow the mixture to cool slightly. Ad the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the flour mixture, then the chocolate chips and nuts. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
* Bake the bars for 24-26 min (30-35 min if using the 9x13 pan)

GLEE!!

Are you watching? If not, set your DVRs ladies! It's funny, has great musical numbers, and uses catchy phrases like "Rock-a-fellas". It's got all the high school drama, including the seriously hilarious, often bi%&#y cheerleading coach, the lovesick social worker, the awesome glee club leader, and kids who can SING! Seriously, it's going to be my new fall favorite, for sure!!

Gorgeous weekend!

What a wonderful weekend we had here in Chi-town! Sunny and warm- it's like summer just began! Saturday I ended up getting called off from work, so I was able to go to the gym and run errands in the morning before the BIG game. Michigan ended up beating ND - and they're now in the top 25 baby!!! Okay, so they're top 25 in the AP and technically 26 in the Coaches' Poll, but I'll take that anyday :) Thanks to the gloriousness that is the DVR (how did we ever live before it was invented??), we were able to take Junebug out for a nice long walk during halftime and enjoy the sunshine around our neighborhood. That night we ended up going to a local pub to watch the second half of the OSU/USC game.

Yesterday we decided to take Junie to a place we are now calling "Doggie Disneyworld". It's part of the Lake County Forest Preserve. It is 44 acres of off leash are with trails, open fields, training pens, a pond, etc. We walked along all the trails, played fetch in the field, went swimming in the pond twice, and wore her out completely!!! She was exhausted by the time we left. There were tons of other dogs that she could play with all who had great owners. I just love being in an area where I don't have to be concerned about weather or not people are going to be scared of her, as there are quite a few people in the city who are (in their defense, she is a HUGE dog- she doesn't look nearly as sweet as she is!). After we left, we drove to downtown Highland Park and ate lunch outside, drove back into the city along the lake, watched some golf, went to the supermarket, gave the pup a bath, made chicken picatta for dinner, caught up on some tv, etc, etc. It was a wonderful weekend with my husband and my dog. Exactly what we needed.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and I hope your weather was as lovely as ours was. This week it's supposed to be in the high 70s every day!! I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts and save my Pumpkin Spice Latte craving for October!! Have a great Monday!

BIG games this weekend!!

Saturday at 2:30 Michigan and Notre Dame kick off in what should be a HUGE game for both teams. ND is ranked, UM isn't. Michigan had a HORRID season last year (B and I are still recovering), a win this week would be, not only a huge ego boost for the team, but something that could possible earn them a spot in the top 25 next week. While I'm not going to venture into top 10 territory this fall, I can hope for a winning season (and beating OSU would rock my world if they could possibly pull that off!)!! So, LET'S GO BLUE!!! Get em boys! Since I will be at work until 3 p.m., my darling B will be DVRing the game for us to watch together as soon as I get home!!

Also, if you are a Big 10 fan (or a USC fan, I suppose), Saturday night's game of the week is going to be another big game. Are you ready? I usually chose not to root for OSU, but will be a strong supporter on Saturday night. You have to root for the conference, right??

I hope all of your teams do well this weekend! Last week I was resenting fall, but this week have decided to embrace it, so bring on the football, the jeans, the boots, and the pumpkin flavored anything!!

My friend texted me today with a bible verse she thought may encourage me right now. She knows that I have something going on, and she wanted me to read it. However, she does not know two of the other major things that B and I have been dealing with in the past two weeks, and this verse speaks to all of them. I teared up reading the verse and know that she was lead to this verse this morning in order to share it with me. I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who have worries that are hanging heavy upon your lives, and I hope in sharing this like my friend did, it will help you in some way today.

Matthew 6: 25-34

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what your will wear. Is not life more than food and the body, more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your lifespan? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothes like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'what are we to drink' or 'what are we to wear.' All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.

After reading that does your mind immediately go to the hymn, "Seek Ye First"? Mine does!

Long weekend!!

I'm so excited for the last weekend of summer. While I am not ready for it to get cold (it simply hasn't been warm enough this year), this weekend is going to be super fun!

I'm at work today until 8 p.m. (normal hours), and B will be home around 5- 5:30. After that, he has to go out and do his 18 miler. I am SO nervous for this! I feel like he really needs some kind of running tag/id tag in case he is out running and something happens. He'll be gone for around 3 hours (can you even imagine?) and then it'll practically be bedtime. He has to run tonight because tomorrow morning we are leaving bright and early for a wedding in Philly!!

My cousin and her darling fiancee are getting married Sunday night in downtown Philly. Everyone is invited to the rehearsal dinner on Saturday as well. A lot of my extended family will be in town for the weekend, and I cannot wait to spend time with them!! We missed seeing a lot of them this summer up north, so it will be great to have a few days together! Plus, the bride's older brother and his wife just had twins, and we will all get to meet them this weekend. They're about 6 weeks old- precious!!! I will be scooping one up asap! Blair's only boy cousin also lives in Philladelphia, so we'll be seeing quite a bit of him too. The weather is supposed to be great, so I have to imagine this will be a wonderful weekend all around.

Hopefully all of you will have a great time on this holiday weekend seeing friends, seeing family, soaking up the sunshine, relaxing, working out, or whatever it is that your heart desires! I'll be back with pictures next week!

Fabulous Fall Accessory

I walked into Anthropologie yesterday afternoon to check out a few of the sweaters I've seen flying around the blogosphere and ended up with the CUTEST new scarf!



It's ruffley, feminine, fluffy, and so soft! It'll be a perfect accent to a gray, black, navy, or white shirts, and it'll also add a little touch of feminity to my tan trench coat. Since I'm not ready yet to give up on summer, I've been holding off on any fall purchases, but this I could totally justify!

I think many of you would love this, so head in and check it out. It comes in 6 colors on the website, though my store also had it in a very pale yellow. The $28 price tag makes it all the more worth it!!