our low-key valentines day.

im pretty certain that i have mentioned here before that i have not always been a huge valentine's day fan. as in i have been known to wear all black and be an outspoken advocate for singles-awareness-day. but for some reason, my attitude has been shifting over the past few years. it may or may not have something to do with having the kind of friends that helped me to understand that Valentine's day is about celebrating ALL the love in our lives, even if its not of the romantic variety. oh, and finding the love of my life, too. that was pretty cool.

so i kind of went a little overboard this year. well, overboard for ME that is, which means that our celebration would probably be considered low-key by anyone who considers the kind of romantic overkill found only in rom-coms to be normal or the standard by which all romantic gestures must be measured. but for us, it was pretty close to perfect.

we exchanged our gifts over the weekend. we didn't really plan to, but it just kind of happened. you see, i went a little crazy and decided that in addition to the meaningful little crafty things i was working on that i really loved and i knew would look really cute hung on the walls of our front room, i needed to also get the hubs something that he would actually really like. so i bought him a miter saw. i was really sneaky about buying it and i was going to make him wait until tuesday... aand then i just gave it to him. i didn't wrap it. i didnt sneak it into the house and set it up for him. i didnt send him on an elaborate scavenger hunt. i didnt even put a bow on it. it was just like "hey, i have this thing in the trunk of my car that you said you wanted and i cant come up with any sort of believable lie to keep you from buying one for yourself in the next 3 days. its really heavy so you're going to have to heft it into the house yourself. happy valentines day."

he does really like it. and he proved that by immediately building me this giant awesome bench.

and then he even put a coat of stain on it over the weekend. isn't it fantastic?!? it still needs another coat of stain and a few coats of polyurethane, and a cushion for the top, and some baskets for underneath, but i'm really excited about it and i cant wait until it can move upstairs for good.

so with all the big gift-giving all out of the way we were all set up for a relaxing tuesday evening. we made an uber-romantic grilled chicken salad for dinner, which was made uber-romantic by working on it together while chatting about our days at work and not getting in a fight over having to share our teeny-tiny kitchen.

i gave mark one of the two crafty gifts i had been working on, the one that was mostly finished. the only thing missing is the dry erase marker so we would actually be able to write our love notes. (this morning i just yelled down the hall, 'because you take out the trash! that's why i love you today!' so at least its not a complete waste without the marker) i'm still waiting on my free map of Maine to come in the mail so that i can finish my other project, but i'll be sure to share it when i get it done.

and do you see that rose? that right there is the first flower that mark has ever bought me that has not come wrapped in dirt. its simple and perfect and i hope i can keep it alive for at least a few days.

we spent the rest of our evening snuggled on the couch for a rom-com double feature of Friends with Benefits and Crazy Stupid Love, courtesy of our local redbox because we dont actually own any good rom-coms.

it was a perfectly low-key-but-still-super-special valentine's day, and a great way to celebrate our three-year dating anniversary. (a day early) hope you all had a wonderful day, too!

meal plan monday: feb 13.

this past week was kind of a break from this whole 'meal-planning' thing that i've been doing. i just could not wrap my head around planning anything ahead of time, or motivate myself to make anything that required real cooking. i didnt even make a real shopping list. the hubs finally decided on Tuesday that we no longer had enough real food in the house, so he made his own mental list and just shopped for the basics to get us through the week. he's great.

PS have i mentioned that Mark has been doing ALL of our grocery shopping this year? as in i have not done any grocery shopping since december? it's awesome. usually i make him a list, and he stops at the store on his way home on Monday night. but he has other things planned for tonight, so i'll probably have to be the one doing tonight's grocery run.

so i'm back this week, with a list of (admittedly simple) meals, one of which is new, all of which should be tasty, and some of which might (hopefully) be (not the exact opposite of) healthy(ish).

Monday: soup from a can.
Tuesday: uber romantic grilled chicken salad with fries.
Wednesday: 'Explosive' Chicken Casserole with a veggie.
Thursday: pasta with jar sauce and a side salad.
Friday: shrimp scampi with rice and a veggie.
Saturday: burgers and fries.
Sunday: breakfast for lunch.

i hope you all have a wonderful week!

project preview.

just a sneak peek of what i'm going to be keeping busy with this weekend:

hopefully i'll be ready when my sister brings her sewing machine to visit in a few weeks!

cooking with men.

this post is brought to you by the man with whom i am blessed to share a kitchen.

Episode 2: Manly, Efficient Chocolate Milk 
(can making chocolate milk technically be called cooking?)

Prepwork: the key to this recipe is having a mostly-empty bottle of chocolate syrup. Mark prefers Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate variety. tips for emptying a bottle include but are not limited to: eating lots of ice cream sundaes, making chocolate milk the lame way (in a glass with a spoon), and just eating the syrup straight out of the container.

Step 1: remove cap from chocolate syrup container.

Step 2: add milk. amount may vary based on amount of syrup left in container.

Step 3: replace cap onto chocolate syrup container (this step is key)

Step 4: shake shake shake.

Step 5: (optional) get annoyed that wife makes you do everything twice in order to try and get a good picture. consider getting wife a new, nicer camera.

Step 6: allow container to 'rest' upside down for a minute or two ensure maximum syrup inclusion.

Step 7: enjoy!

Note: this method is manly because it is efficient. it is efficient because 1) it requires no extra dishes and B) it makes good use of every.last.drop. of chocolate syrup. and real men are efficient. obviously.

see the pilot episode here

because actually rear-ending him would not have ended well.

to the old man in the ugly green-gray volvo:

thank you so much for making yesterday's morning commute extra memorable.

you see, i have driven behind you on several mornings. we take allll the same back roads in the morning. in fact, i know your license plate number, and that you work right across the street from my office building. i know this all sounds kind of stalker-ish, but i promise you, i just have nothing better to do with my half-awake mind in the morning than take note of the few cars around me.

i know you in particular because i seem to get stuck behind you quite often. because you tend to drive a bit slower than i would prefer. when i have the absolute pleasure of meeting you on the roads, you tend to add several minutes onto my commute, which means that i have to endure several extra minutes before i can get to the office, with its deliciously free coffee. you see, i love my cup of free caffiene in the morning, and i don't always function well until i have it.

i guess you have noticed me too. my orange car isnt exactly inconspicuous. and i would just like to take a moment and thank you for acknowledging me yesterday morning. it really made my day.

because when you hit your brakes as i drove up behind you, just because you thought i was following you a little too closely because there wasn't a full three car lengths between us? that was super-cool. i can't think of anything i was hoping for more on my morning commute than almost getting into a car accident. and then when you raised a hand in frustration to your rearview mirror? that just poured on the awesomesauce. there's nothing i like more than getting blamed and punished for something i didn't do. you really know how to make a girl feel special.

and i really do hope that 'make a stranger cry on their way to work' was on your bucket list, because if so, i want you to know that you can just go ahead and cross that one off. unless it doesn't count because i had just heard a sad song on the radio. so if that is the case and you still need to make someone cry based solely on your actions without the aid of any outside circumstances, then i am so sorry that i was not able to help you this time. but please let me know if  you need any help with other things on your list like 'trip someone into traffic' or 'punch a woman in the ovaries' and especially ' administer cruel and unusual forms of torture.' that would be super-fun.

if in the future we are fortunate enough to commute to work together, i hope that i can make your day just as wonderful as you made mine yesterday. perhaps i might decide to drive 20 mph all the way to work, or cause you to veer off the road, or even manage to make you feel the need to call your mommy in tears. just to let you know that i do see you there, and i would really cherish having the opportunity to make your day.

with much sarcasm,
Mando.

not airing my dirty laundry.

i thought about taking a picture of my stacked-sky-high-and-overflowing laundry hamper this weekend to share with you all, to really emphasize just how eggregious was my neglect of any and all household chores over the past few days. but then i carried it all downstairs on Sunday afternoon, sorted it, and started a load of towels instead. because its one thing to tell you all that i had a monster pile of laundry on my hands here, and quite another to take an actual picture of my dirty underwear and voluntarily post it on the interwebs for anyone and everyone to see. my oversharing does have its limits apparently. you're welcome.

but surprisingly, there is an actual reason for me to even be telling you about my dirty laundry, and it has to do with my new-ish personal determination to not take my life too seriously. i am trying really really hard to not let the little stuff, combined with the wierd funk that generally comes around this time of year, get to me and bring me down. so instead of stressing about unwashed dishes, our current standstill on house-related projects, and yes even dirty laundry this weekend, i decided to embrace (and kind of ignore) some of the crazyness that is my life right now.

we made spur-of-the-moment plans with some friends of ours for friday evening. the plans included stuffing ourselves silly with italian food and cake. and spending a couple hours proving what awesome bowlers we are...

...and then playing board games and just hanging out until the wee hours of the morning.

this was shortly before we doomed the game by making a complete loop

because we had stayed up so late the night before (seriously we are old fogeys who normally have a 10pm bedtime) we slept in until 11:30 on saturday. the only reason i got out of bed at all was that i had plans to meet a few of my neighbors and spend an afternoon with them being all crafty at a rubber-stamping card-making party. it was a lot of fun and i realized that there are some really neat people who live in my neighborhood and i should probably make more of an effort to meet them.

i got home just in time to turn around again to go back out to dinner to spend time stuffing our faces with more good food and cake with a new couple. well, Mark already knew half of the couple through work, but they were a new couple to me! and if i can just go ahead and speak for everyone, i would have to say that a great time was had by all! i hope we will be seeing more of M and B in the future.

on sunday afternoon all i wanted was a nap. but since Mark declared that there would be no naps because then we wouldn't be able to sleep at night, i spent my time gettin my craft on. i'm working on two projects for Mark for Valentine's day, and even though i'm not entirely sure that he'll really like them, i know i will! i finished one of them, and i would share it with you, but since i dubbed it a "secret project" i'll have to wait til after V-day to show it to you since he has been known to keep tabs on the blog.

and then there was that whole Super Bowl thing. after that first quarter safety, (ha! still makes me giggle) the rest was kind of meh in my opinion. i actually fell asleep for pretty much all of the 4th quarter. maybe if i would have had an afternoon nap, i could have stayed up for the whole game... but i did manage to open my eyes right at the end for the sweet sweet sight of Tom Brady's defeat at the hands of Eli Manning. again. it was kind of beautiful.

so all that to say "hey, i had a good weekend!"

how was yours?

meal plan monday: epic fail.

i'm starting to think that maybe i should switch up this whole meal-planning thing a little bit. because here it is, Monday afternoon, almost dinner time really, and all i have planned for this week is the leftover meals that we didnt make last week because we ate out all weekend. i'm thinking i have a few options as to where to go from here. 1. i give up on this whole meal planning thing. it requires way too much foresight and thinking and planning. 2. meal plan monday moves to tuesday (or any other day) so that i can use monday evenings to plan meals. 3. just buck up and stop being so lazy on the weekends and actually make a meal plan for the week before Monday morning rolls along.

i've got nothin this week. wait, is there anything less than nothing?

To Eat:
Monday: quesadillas. corn?
Tuesday: lasagna. salad.
Wednesday - Sunday: open to suggestions. really easy suggestions.

To Do:
use my new scissors to start cutting up tshirts for quilting.

it could be worse. right?