Book List

Today I made some exciting purchases.

Sweet Little Lies by Lauren Conrad

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Staying True by Jenny Sanford

I’ve read Lauren Conrad’s first book – L.A. Candy which I really enjoyed and it ended with a cliff-hanger. I know these are technically Young Adult books – but I’m not embarrassed. After all, I read all the Twilight books. And loved them. So there.

I’ve heard about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which is the first in a trilogy – which are being published posthumously.  The author, Stieg Larsson, wrote three crime novels before he died in 2004 – the first two have been released and I think the third is coming out this week, maybe? I got this one in paper back for $5.50 on Amazon with no shipping which is pretty exciting!

The last book is Jenny Sanford’s (soon to be ex-wife of former governor Mark Sanford) Staying True. She’s been doing the rounds promoting her book – and today on the View I was super impressed by her. And besides, I’m always interested in hearing about other people’s drama.

So yeah – I have some old books that G dug out of storage before he left that are all crime/mystery/conspiracy novels but other than those – I’m book-less at the moment. My grandma borrowed Nicholas Sparks’ new book and my mom hasn’t finished The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and my grandpa hasn’t finished Sarah Palin’s book. Those are all on my to-read list as well.

Other than that – things have been pretty quiet lately. Wedding planning is crazy hard and I’m pretty sure it’s 50/50 now as to whether I’m willing to elope. My legs are crazy sore for running yesterday and tonight I’ll be tutoring French which is always interesting.

Fill in the blank…

I got this from Suz…who got it from Lauren…

If I had two hours to myself today, I’d well I have the evening to myself so I’ll be working out and vegging out.

If I could travel anywhere today, I would go to where G is.

Sitting in the backyard that G and I re-did with my mom and grandma eating yummy food that he cooked is my happiest memory.

Sometimes you’re alone other times you’re complete.

Beauty is forgiveness.

I would be embarrassed if anyone knew if it would really embarrass me – I wouldn’t put it here would I?

Love at first sight is nice for some people. Oh wait, I totally knew the first moment I saw G that I would love him. I didn’t LOVE him that moment – I just knew I would…is that the same?

Wedding Dress Showdown

So I couldn’t wait to post this until I got home…so if you’re still checking this site then you’ll get to see them early!

I absolutely love these two dresses. I’ve looked at a lot of wedding dresses and most of them are pretty terrible in my opinion. I’ve tried on some dresses at David’s Bridal and they were pretty terrible too. I tried some on at this other whole in the wall sort of place where all of the dresses are well under $1,000 and actually looked pretty good on. The quality wasn’t fabulous or anything – but they looked really nice and for the one time wearing thing – probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.

BUT – of course I don’t do very many things affordably. Moving on…what do you guys think?

The dress on the left is Justin Alexander’s design – which to me says garden chic. It actually comes in a full-length gown now but I still love the tea-length. It’s fresh and fun and I love it. I’ve been obsessing about this one for quite awhile.

The dress of the right is Mikaella which I just discovered this weekend. I love the majority of her dresses – they just look so soft and lovely. I’m TOTALLY obsessed with this dress now.

In a couple weeks my mom and grandma and I are headed to Charlotte (I need to schedule some appoints like TODAY!) to try on dresses. These two are MUSTS. I will be so devastated if I can’t try them on. I know that sounds harsh…but I’m in love. I’ve found two stores that carry the designers – so all is not lost yet.

These dresses are a little pricier than the much less than $1,000 dresses – but they aren’t as extravagant as some…Pnina Tornai anyone? Yeah, $10,000 is a down-payment on a house – not a wedding dress. Just FYI ladies. I guess if you’ve got the money though – more power to you.

ciao. mo.

New Site…

New site!

OK – so I am going to try this out for a little while and see what I think. If I don’t enjoy it, then I’ll move back here…

Let the good times roll!

Friday Night Dinner #2

So I made dinner Friday night – I made the Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Chicken breasts.

Um, note to future-self: You are not intermediate – stick with easy.

OK so it was really harder than I thought and easier than I thought – at the same time. I’ve been surprised at how much of my life comes with that duality…harder and easier than I could have imagined. Anyway, back to cooking…

The hard part was that I didn’t know how to flatten my chicken breasts…(heeeheee) – I suggest using super THIN breasts.

– flattened breasts –

Also – I’m not a HUGE fan of nutmeg – but whatever. I sauteed my mushrooms and shallots and garlic and blended it all together.

– cooking the mushrooms –

– blending –

I added the spinach and ricotta cheese and nutmeg to complete the stuffing.

– stuffing –

I spread the stuffing over the chicken and wrapped it up (which totally didn’t work because the chickens were too thick…) and then cooked them in the pan (which also didn’t work because the chicken wouldn’t cook all the way through). Then I removed the stuffing and just cooked the rest of the chicken – then it started to burn…and smoke and smell weird. Once it was all cooked, I put the stuffing back in and made the sauce (white wine, chicken broth, flour…)

– cooking the chicken –

– burning chicken –

Then voila – dinner!

So yeah – it was harder than I thought but I really enjoyed it (I think). I’m such a picky eater, it’s hard to find recipes for things I like. Oh well. I think I’ll do pork chops this Friday.

Here’s the recipe. Good luck!

Mo’s All New With The Top Six Things You Didn’t Care You Didn’t Know…

Author’s/Photographer’s Note: The boy hijacked my cord to upload photos from my camera so I’ve been using the blackberry to take/upload photos for the blog.

Anyway – I don’t have time for a coherent post so I’m doing the several random thoughts kind…

1. This little girl is saving me as far as G being away. I don’t know what I would do without her to love and hug on and cuddle with in his absence.

– my bunny –

2. I’m loving Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage – anyone who (a) is about to get married or (b) loves good books should read this…she is wonderful (the author of Eat, Pray, Love - my all-time favorite book) and this book is wonderful as well.

3. This past Sunday I may or may not have gone 75% blind in one eye due to my contacts. Awesome. Not really. Not even a little bit. It was terrible. It was like getting punched in the face with your eyes dilated and a vain bursting – well it was weird semi-combination of those things that resulted in me realizing that going blind is now very high on my list of things I’m not willing to try, EVER.

4. Is it Friday yet? This weekend is my FIRST weekend without plans since flying this ship (called my life) solo. I’m actually excited. There are like TWO MILLION things I want to do that I never have time for – like: Watch Season 1 of Army Wives; Start my scrapbook of things that happened between graduating from college and getting engaged; sleep in; organize the boy’s closet; organize my closet; organize…whew I’m exhausting just typing it all out.

5. I really want to see the movie Dear John – on a scale of 1 to 10 – how bad of an idea is that? Just curious.

6. Good night world.

Tomorrow I will post a poll on what I should cook Friday night for dinner. If no one participates then I’ll get really depressed probably and just eat the chocolate ice cream that is left in the fridge…I already ate the WHOLE thing of Chocolate Chip Mint (and it wasn’t one of those little ones either) – at least I’ve been kicking a on the treadmill. So probably barely evening out to where I’m not loosing any weight but I’m not obese now either…

And that’s all folks…

Recipe Time

Instead of trying my hand at cooking tomorrow night (which I hope to make my usual routine) I decided I would try it out tonight. Tomorrow my best friend from HS and mom are coming to town so I probably won’t want to cook – and if I do I probably wouldn’t remember to take pictures or blog about it before the long weekend.

Anyway – I’ve been eating chicken all week because that is what was left in the fridge. Tonight was no exception. Lemon pasta with chicken. I got the recipe from the Food Network – however, in a surprising twist – I changed it up a bit. The recipe is for chicken and noodles – but I wanted to add some veggies. So mine is chicken penne with mushrooms and asparagus.

- chicken and lemon -

I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper and grilled it on the George Foreman.

- sautéed veggies -

For the veggies – I put a little oil, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic and the veggies and sautéed them until the mushrooms and asparagus were ready (about 7 minutes).

Et voila!

- the finale -

I cooked the penne and put it in the skillet once everything was cooked – then I added the grilled chicken and squeezed half a lemon on it. Sooo good! Oh, and I put parmesan on after this…but forgot to get a picture of it.

It was really yummy and pretty healthy I think. Probably healthier if you used whole wheat penne noodles – but I’m not a fan. Also, this was for one but I think if you use two pieces of chicken and cut them up you could probably feed two or three, depending on how hungry you are.

I’ve been pretty good about keeping up with my workout – I didn’t make it today but that’s because I’ve been cleaning the house like crazy – basically known as shoving everything in the guest room closet. It is amazing to me but I think we’ve already out grown our house. There is really plenty of room for us but not for all our stuff — or should I say – my stuff? 90% of G’s belongings are still in storage…oops. Oh well, in the next house we’ll need lots of storage space. For my Kitchen-Aide Mixer box, all the 10+ PartyLite boxes, and all the plastic storage boxes with boxes and extra things that we don’t need. I’ve even taken a bunch of stuff to Goodwill – I’m not a “hoarder” by any means…but we just have TOO much stuff.

ciao. mo.

The old milk period

It still hasn’t really hit me yet about what I’ll endure this year — I keep expecting a panic attack at any minute – paralyzing me from my eyeballs down, since let’s face it – I’ll be crying during said panic attack. Maybe I’ll make it through the whole year, anticipating the meltdown that never comes.

I’m still in that phase where everything still has a little G on it. Meaning – the milk in fridge was bought when he was still here and hasn’t expired yet. The last person to put gas in my car was him. I haven’t had to wash the sheets he slept in yet. The trash hasn’t been picked up since he left. This will be the week of since he’s been gone. New milk. New gas. New sheets. New trash. I know it’s weird, but that’s how my mind starts to operate once he’s gone. I make measurements based on how long he will linger in the physical things in our house. I dread when his cloths no longer smell like him – but like me from hugging on them or wearing them around the house. When I’ve washed all his laundry and it doesn’t end up back in the pile.

Sometimes I get out two glasses for wine, even though it’s just me. I never roll over to his side of the bed. I keep his space in the house, instead of spreading myself into all the space he took up. Sometimes it’s lonley to see his space empty, but it reminds me that he is coming home and that really even though it’s just me this year on my own – it will never be just me again, not really.

I honestly don’t know how couples manage without time apart like this. One of the things you hear all the time from people is, how do you do it? I couldn’t. Well, you just do it. I don’t know how people manage seeing their spouses EVERYDAY. I love him – and want to spend A LOT of time with him – but the time apart serves its purpose and it builds our relationship while we’re busy missing each other and thinking about each other and loving each other from a far.

This will be a hard week – as I transition into the ‘new milk period’ – but that’s Army life and this is preparation for my future job as Army wife. Woo who, that rhymed – which is actually pretty sad but oh well.

And so life continues – for him and for me and for us.

there’s a new sheriff in town

So today, the first day – will end much like it began. Me – in my favorite pair of ratty sweatpants, a sweatshirt that belongs to G but spends more time keeping me warm than him…and a few tears to boot.

For me, the first day he gone is always the hardest…I hate coming home – knowing it won’t be like the night before … that I’ll be all alone and it will be like this for a while. When G left for OK last winter, I couldn’t make it home – instead I went grocery shopping, just to put off the inevitable. This time I anticipated my resistance to going home by saving up all my errands for Friday night. I went to pick up my contacts, headed to Target to get a gift for our newest niece who was born on Wednesday night. I say ‘our’ like G and I are already married – but honestly for me, being family doesn’t start with “I do” – in my heart – he is my husband…my forever mate…my family. In the checkout line at Target, I did something that I don’t do when Glenn is with me – I sneaked some Sour Patch Kids – yummmm. G isn’t a huge fan of candy…or sugar…or delicious yummy treats so I usually go without. But he’s gone – I’m sad…enter treats! Next was B&N where I got a new book and a Christmas gift for my mom’s cousin – tomorrow we are going to celebrate with them. I’m excited to get to see so much family this weekend. Perfect timing. Then I headed to the grocery store – because let’s face it – now that G is gone, I’m probably going to starve to death before the month is out. That or live off take out and Lean Cuisine. Either way.

Then I had to do the dreaded drive home. And I made it. Here’s how I spent my first night sans G.

My laptop – for keeping me busy and talking to my love, wine to help me relax, sushi because I can’t cook – Twilight because G won’t watch it with me anymore and The Knot – North Carolina for wedding inspiration. Not a terrible night in at all.

While he is away my plan is to cook a real meal from scratch on Friday nights – my least favorite night of the week without him. It’s date night – and I’m date-less at the moment. That being said, I think this will be a wonderful year – it doesn’t matter the distance, I will love him and miss him every moment.

ciao. mo.

There’s a first time for everything…

The best gift you could give a woman whose fiancé is about to deploy? An extra day together. And how did we spend this extra evening together? Watching Season 1 of Army Wives. Of course he just laughs at everything and tells me how it isn’t really like that – which is fine. Just hearing him break into laughter when they yell Hooah is enough for me.

This is my first deployment – I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like this year. All I know is that I’m looking forward to our little vacays that I hope we get. Which made me think of our trip this spring to Arizona. It was a wonderful trip.

This has been a wonderful year for us both. Glenn told me he loved me for the first time and it was probably the best moment of the year. The next best? When he told me he wanted to spend forever with me and wanted to marry me – it was the most surreal moment – but it was so very special.

I don’t know if I’m ready for the emotions that will come with this deployment — I don’t know if it’ll be easier or harder than I imagine but I just keep thinking about how wonderful it will be to see him at the end of this – seeing my future husband come home to me.

Until then – I’ll just look back at photos of our time together. Ah, I can’t wish away 2010 – but I can’t wait until 2011 and our wedding and being husband and wife. So much to look forward to!

ciao. mo.