A Great St. Pat's Day!

I have always loved St. Patrick's Day. Partly because it's holiday with no real traditions to follow and partly because you can have a good time no matter what your doing. The weather this year for St. Pat's couldn't have been better. Here is a great example of just how beautiful it was yesterday.

This is one of the trees growing in Sam's yard. It seems that the tree is under the impression spring is already here, and I'm ok it.

In year past, my St. Pat's day was always celebrated the same way- with a hockey game with my family. Like I've said before, I'm from Michigan and we just really like hockey. However, for St. Pat's it wasn't just any hockey game, it was the "Green Ice Game".

Since moving from Michigan and getting old enough to drink, St. Patrick's Day hasn't been the same. In the last few years, I have used the day as an excuse to get friends together and socialize. And this year was no different.

I started my day off yesterday meeting up with my college roommates and getting some lunch. With the weather being so nice, we had to eat outside.

Lunch lasted just over an hour and we all got sunburned. Lucky for me I have a light base tan because of my office window so I didn't burn too bad. However, I can't say the same for the roommates.

After lunch, I had to head to Sam's and get ready to the St. Pat's Day grill out that I decided to have and host on Thursday night. I love putting together parties on the fly- there is no need for extensive planning.

In honor of the holiday, I made my traditional "St. Patrick's Day Punch". (I'm not sure when something becomes a "traditional" item, but I created this drink my first year of grad school- so it's like 4 years old tradition.) Making this drink is pretty simple, and it taste a lot like a fruit roll-up. 

I love really sweet girly drinks, so this is prefect and you get the green color needed for St. Pat's Day. 

Normally for our grill outs, we ask our friends to bring something so no one person spends a lot of money on the party and it usually works out pretty well. For this party I asked my college roommate Jen to bring a dessert, and I know she loves to make cupcakes so it worked out great. However, her cupcake making talents really need to be showcased. This is what we got to eat- S'more Cupcakes!

These were very tasty and very cool looking. 

The grill out went well. We had a few rain drops at the beginning of the night, but by the time it got dark it had cleared up. We had a bone fire, got caught up on each others lives, and shared old stories. 

Out of the group of friend we had there last night, 4 of them have known each other since junior high. That makes for over 15 years of stories that could have been told.

It's kind of cool to still have a solid group of friends that you have had so many experiences with over the years. I feel blessed when it comes to my friendships. 

It was a great day and I can't have asked for better company.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's March but Feels like May

I can't believe that I got to do my first lunch outside already- it so early in the year. I mean it's MARCH!! I'm totally not complaining, but I'm from Michigan and this is just really weird. I'm taking total advantage of the nice weather, because you never know if it's going to last.

I understand I have a bowl of soup with my lunch which doesn't seem like a warm weather food- and that may be true. However, if you know me, you know one thing- I LOVE SOUP!  I will eat soup in the middle of the summer and you can judge all you want.

After lunch for the past 3 days, I made a point of walking around the outside of the campus to burn off some of those lunch calories. Plus I haven't been good about going to the gym, so a 30 minute walk should help a bit.

While on my walk, I was surprised to see these little guys out and looking beautiful.

If you are lucky enough to be having this great weather- you should take advantage it. For tomorrow the plan is a St. Pat's Day grill out with friends, food, and booze!

Happy Friday! I hope you have great/ safe weekend!

Wedding Registry Wrap Up Party

Considering Sam and I have been married four and half months now, you would think all the wedding stuff would be over. Well, like I said before, this is the wedding that never ends. There is still a few things still left to do-

1. Get our wedding photos and video from the photography company
2. Change my name (which has many steps of it's own)
3. Move into our own home (so we can use all our new stuff we got from our wedding)

Tonight we checked another thing off the post-wedding list- buying the last few things we wanted from our registry.

We had a Bed Bath & Beyond wedding registry, so about twice a year the store invites the newly wed couples back to by any thing that wanted from their registry at 20% off. You don't just have to buy what was left on your registry, you can by anything in the store at 20% off. So I wanted to make sure we took full advantage of this sale.

Also as a part of the "Registry Wrap Up Party" you are entered into a drawing to win prizes, they had refreshments, and different vendors showing off their products. And as luck may have it we won one of the prizes!

The prize was a "Tote-A-Ton" bag with a retail value of $19.99. It should come in handy when we move.

With the 20% off everything- we saved a total of $89. Also, we had a lot of gift cards and in store credit from the wedding, so we only spent $50 of our own money. I have to say- I think we did pretty well at the sale. Here's what we got (minus 2 pieces of wall art not pictured).

After our shopping spree- we went and got some dinner. We haven't really spent much time together lately so it was good to talk about what we got going on in our lives.

Sam didn't want to smile for the camera- so I just took the picture any way.  Oh the fun of being married to a blogger.

Question: How was your weekend?

A Walk Down High School Lane

This morning I was at my mom's house and my sister had this desire to find the movie "Good Burger" that we had taped off TV many many years ago. As she was going through all the VHS tapes, she found a gem that I had almost forgotten about- my "video year book".

I guess I have always had a need to document my life in some type of form. Now I'm using this blog, back then I was using a video camera. Considering I hadn't seen this tape in probably 7 or 8 years, it was time to pop in it and walk down memory lane of my senior year of high school. 

The video consisted of school football games, trips to Michigan, choir & dance shows, class projects, and some good old fun.

I couldn't believed how many people in that video I do still see on a semi-regular basis. In the video there was both of my college roommates, all my bridesmaids, many of Sam's groomsmen, and a handful of other friends we may see once a year a big gatherings. I feel very blessed to have some many great friends. Some people have come and gone from my life since that video was taken, but they will always be a part of the story of my life.


Question: Are you still friends with people from high school?