First Date in our New Car!

This is our new car, and we love it! 

We went on our first date in it Friday night.

Here we are!

We ate at Mama Santas, for Pizza Friday. 

Then went to Picadilly for dessert. 

And saw a movie at the Cinematheque. 

I love pelicans, and was waiting so long to see this movie, it was so cute! http://pelicandreams.com

How to Bake a Thanksgiving Pizza

Here's the best way to use thanksgiving leftovers.

Step 1: Pre-bake your crust and spread gravy all over

Step 2: Add mashed potatoes and smash around

Step 3: Spread squash over the whole pizza 

Step 4: Divide in half and add turkey to one half

Step 5: Give your dog and cats turkey too.

Step 6: Add pearled onion to the side with no turkey, and stuffing on top of the turkey

Step 7: Put green bean casserole over the whole pizza

Step 8: Top with cheese

Step 9: Add cornflake crumbs and bake!

Mmmmm, you will be Thanksgiving full all over again!  

Snowy Christmas Tree Getting Day

We had such a beautiful snowy day at our tree farm, Mountain Creek!

Snow covered pines are one of my favorite things ever, and especially make Getting Day even more special.

Here's the one!

A soft, fragrant fraiser fir!

Our family by our tree.

Robb is the official tree cutter! I'm so glad that he does this so I don't have to lay on the cold ground.

In our sled, ready to go.

Charley LOVES the tree farm.  He runs around and bounces the whole time.  I think he really remembers it.  He lead us down the path to the fraiser fir patch.

Sliding down the hill back to the barn.

So pretty!!

All bundled up, ready for the ride home.

Here we go!

Bye Mountain Creek, until next year!

No Poo

Made you look!  No, it's not what you thought... ;0)

I'm trying the "no poo" (no shampoo) method of shampooing and conditioning my hair. My scalp is pretty oily, and I'm SICK of washing and drying so much. So now I wash my hair with baking soda and water and condition with cider vinegar and water. This is quite an experiment, designed to trick my scalp into not producing so much oil because of the ph combination of the baking soda and vinegar on my scalp. Supposedly it's supposed to make my scalp think there's already enough sebum and not make more. It's only been a few weeks, but I can say that my hair is clean and now I can go three days without washing, instead of two. It feels strange in the shower, like it's not cleaning, but strangely totally does! It's a small victory, one extra day, but I'll take it and hope it continues to grow. 

NJ - Day 5 - Belmar Beach

Janet had to work, so I headed off to Belmar Beach.  It was hard to top Ocean City, but this was a beautiful day!  Perfect temperature, clear cool water, not a lot of people.  I could've stayed all day!!

I thoroughly enjoyed my little beach break, and spending time with Janet.  I'm already thinking of next year!  :o)

NJ - Day 4 - Volleyball Double Header, Barcade, and German Beer Garden

Janet asked me to sub for her volleyball team.  I said I would, not knowing it was a double header.

I mustered through both games, and then we went to a German beer garden to relax after.

We had our fill of pretzles, splatzle and a refreshing grapefruit beer.

Then I could hardly walk for 3 days because of the soreness.  Another example of my 30 something mind thinking I still have an 18 year old body.  

NJ - Day 3 - Ocean City, Beach Day #1

What a wonderful beach day! I LOVE the ocean!

Finished off with some fudge. :)

NJ - Day 2

The next day, when Janet got off work, she took me to downtown Philidelphia, where we saw the Liberty Bell, the old congress building where George Washington was president, Betsy Ross' house, and the oldest street in Philidelphia.

After our sightseeing, we went to a park which had a pop up beer garden to relax. Apparently a pop up beer garden is just a random place people set up a beer garden for the summer. This one was right on the Deleware river, and they brought in a ton of sand to make it feel like a beach. 

We got some drinks and fries and relaxed in one of these hammocks hung over the water for the rest of the night. 

There was a big tall ship to look at

And I think this was the Betsy Ross bridge.

People even yarn bombed the light poles.  

The beer garden was in an outdoor park, where there were dozens of hammocks hanging from trees, lit up by Christmas lights. Also along the sidewalk were food vendors and carnival games. It was a really neat place for people to hang out and relax. 

Some Catching Up...Visiting Janet in NJ - Day 1

I had the chance to visit my dear friend Janet, in NJ, for a long weekend this summer.  Her and her husband Nick were so hospitable to me, and made my trip very special.  

The first day for lunch, they took me to this most magnificent pizza restaurant I had ever been to. It was like pizza Friday times a billion.  They must've has forty different pizzas ready to order.  I got a spinach, tomato ricotta pan pizza, and a rotini vodka cream sauce new your pizza.  So delicious!

After shopping around a cute little town and getting settled in, after dinner we walked to her neighborhood ice cream parlor for a Skookie. What's a Skookie? The most delicious, worth-every-calorie dessert around. They take a warm fresh baked while you wait chocolate chip cookie, top it with two ice cream scoops and two toppings of your choice.  Add whipped cream and a cherry, and all you have is yummines!

Ready to eat our Skookie! And devoure it we did!  

Happy 4th Birthday Sweet Pea Charley Roo!

Yesterday, our sweet puppy turned 4! I can hardly believe we've had this fuzzy bundle of pure happiness four whole years! I can't imagine my life without him. 

We did almost everything that my dog likes to do yesterday, except swimming, since it was too cold, riding in a boat, because we don't have one, camping, but we just went, and running around in pachysandra, cause we don't have any of that either. 

In the morning, we played fetch with the ball for a really long time in the backyard, with some agility jumping, weaving, and teetering. Then, we went to Pattersons for apples and squash, snacked on some popcorn together, and after went on a really long hike through all of Chapin Forest. Charley carried his new squeaky ball and played fetch through the whole park. When we got home, he chewed a pile of sticks, licked some peanut butter, chewed some ice cubes, and got a new Dino, his favorite kind of Nylabone. For dinner, (in addition to doggy food) we made pizza with an extra large parmesan sprinkled crust, which is Charley's favorite food in the whole world. 

Charley finished his fun day by snuggling on the couch, and went to bed exhausted and happy. 

Today the celebration continues at school, I'll make doggy peanut brittle and a people cookie cake. 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLEY! I hope you know how much I love you, and how very special you are to me. I'm looking forward to a really fun four year old year with you and all the things we do together. You are the sweetest, smartest, happiest, most loving pup I know, and I'm so glad to be your mommy. XOXO!

We Love Us Some Burger Fi

I cant believe Ive never shared about another favorite restaurant, Burger Fi! I guess we're pretty lucky to have a Burger Fi in our little Mentor, OH, it's the only one in Ohio. Most others are in big fancy cities. 

Lat night when we went for dinner, there was a giant Burger Fi truck outside and all these little Burger Fi cars blinking around. They're doing a Cavs promotion here on Friday and bringing in all their promo stuff. 

This giant burger was hanging out of the truck, Robb said instead of a refrigerator. 

Burger Fi has the BEST veggie burger I've had. It's a quinoa burger, not a black bean burger as so many are. You get it topped however you want. This time I got mine Green (wrapped in lettuce), with tomato, neon relish, grilled onion, and tomato. The fresh cut fries can be ordered limp, soggy the way I like em, and they have a great Burger Fi sauce to dip in. Robb says the carnivore burgers are fabulous too. 

Glow Golf

Friday night, we went to the Rocky River Reservation Metropark for some Glow in the dark golf. 

It was sticky, hot, dark, but a lot of fun. 

All the balls lit up, and so did the home and pins. 

We played 9 holes, and managed not to loose our balls at all! This was quite impressive for me as I haven't played in three years. 

All in all we did pretty good, we had some nice shots, and had a great time. 

Looking forward to the next night golf!