no i have not fallen off the face of the earth

Hi everyone, sorry it's been forever since I've posted! I decided that I wouldn't post while the fam was here so that I could spend every little minute with them! We had such a great time together! We ate, we drank, we shopped, we ate, we drank, we talked (do you see a trend here?)...it was a great time! I'm so thankful that they took time to come up to cold Pittsburgh, it was so refreshing to see them! I think my favorite part of having them here was just sitting around drinking coffee and talking in the morning or sitting around at dinner talking. The visit was fabulous, I'm so, so happy that they came! Love ya'll!!

PS-We love our front porch swing! We've already used it a few times, wahoo!

chamomile tea

I LOVE chamomile tea! My tummy has been in an uproar for most of the day (for some unknown reason) so when I went shopping at Trader Joe's (to pick up yummy treats for my upcoming visitors!) I opted to buy their chamomile tea. I first tried chamomile tea when I was at a gingerbread house party at one of my YoungLife girl's houses and my tummy all of a sudden flared up and I thought I would puke all over their gorgeous houses (sorry for the graphic details, but its true). The mother of my YL girl quickly made me some chamo tea and sent me home. Man oh man does that stuff work! My tummy felt better and I could barely keep my eyes open to make it home (it also makes you sleepy)! And it is still having the same effect today, my tums feels much better and I'm prying my eyelids open just to finish this post. So if you have troubles with an upset tums or you can't go to sleep, make some chamo tea, it does the trick! Love it!

really?!

Yes it's snowing and yes it's April 6! Ahhh stupid (beautiful) snow! I mean, really?! It's stinkin April! Easter is less than a week away and there is snow in the sky!

4 DAYS!!!!!!!

Can you sense my enthusiasm?! My family is coming in 4 DAYS!!!!! Wahooooooooo! I haven't seen them since Christmas and I CANNOT WAIT!! (Can you tell that I love my fam?) Yippee! I already have activities planned for us, but not too strict of a schedule because who likes a vacay with a strict schedule, right? Not only am I excited that I get to see all of them, but my sister is going to stay with us for A WEEK! Yay!!! Man, what 18 year old doesn't want to spend spring break in Pittsburgh with her married sister?! I've got activities planned for her too, even though I'm sure she'll have no problem with sleeping, watching TV, taking baths in our jacuzzi and playing on her new laptop all week (what? I do have to work while she's here). Oh I'm just so happy and excited! I've been told that I wear my heart on my sleeve, well I guess I have a hard time hiding it from my blog too! (was that cheesy? Oh, I don't care!) Wahoo! Reunited and it feeeels so gooood!!

report from the social life extravaganza

Well I said that I would report back to ya'll so here it is:

• Dinner with our realtor and her husband...so great! It was great to see them and for them to see our home. Of course our realtor saw it before we bought it and so she could really appreciate all of the changes we made. And dinner was wonderful! (I'm not patting myself on the back but I mean...it was good!) So that was a delightful evening :)
• Chick Lit book club: It was ok. It would've been better if I'd read the book but by the time I decided I wanted to go, I didn't have to time to read the book. Also we met in a Panera (great that it was a public place because I don't know these women), but the set up was a little odd. It was one looooong table with about 15-20 women sitting at it. I was kind of stuck at the "not so lively" end of the table. But whatever, that won't discourage me from going next time and it got me really excited to read the next book (Something Blue by Emily Griffin). The book they read for this past meeting was Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin (apparently its a series). Of course I will report back and let you all know how the books are!
• Pilates: I skipped (oops!) but John had a free night so I decided that I would skip so I could spend time with him (insert: awwwww)....yes I know I'm a sweet wife (just kidding). But I'm going next week so I can get my tail whipped again, haha!

Well, there's the synopsis of my so called (social) life--Claire Danes reference, anyone?

sweet potato casserole!!

I LOVE sweet potato casserole!! It is so delish! As I've described to my dear readers before, I CRAVE foods randomly and no matter how much I try and think about something else that stupid little craving pops back into my head. Well, I've been craving SPC (for short...I mean it is a lot to type people) for about a week and a half now! So I decided to make it last night. However, I had a road block...I would deem SPC a delicious, but "really bad for you" side dish and that kind of goes against my "trying to be healthy" lifestyle. So the next thought in my head is cookinglight.com! Of course! So I found a recipe there and tried it and it was delicious!!! Mmm mmm!! Here's the recipe if any of you have this particular craving too:

Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:

Potatoes:

• 2 1/4 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• Cooking spray

Topping:

• 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (about 2 1/4 ounces)
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.

To prepare potatoes, place potatoes in a Dutch oven, and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until very tender. Drain; cool slightly.

Place potatoes in a large bowl. Add half-and-half, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and vanilla. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add eggs; beat well (mixture will be thin). Scrape mixture into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

To prepare topping, sprinkle miniature marshmallows over top of casserole. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in pecans, and sprinkle over potato mixture and marshmallows. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Calories: 193

Fat: 6.3 grams

However, I used fat free half and half, which I believe takes down the fat and calories.

no more texts please

Yes, you read correctly...I'm no longer accepting text messages until April 21. (please insert very sad and disappointed face here) See, we changed phone plans around a little bit which limited my texting but I thought the amount that we decided on would be sufficient. I'm not stating the amount because its embarrassing. Well within 9 days I used up all of my texts!! I honestly don't know how (seriously)! I mean, granted, an incoming text counts as one and an outgoing text counts as one...but man do they add up! I'm still convinced that I actually didn't use that many (I haven't seen the actual data, it was reported to me by hubs). So I'm sorry to say that if we were at once text buddies we can no longer continue this line of communication (atleast not until April 21). And yes, we upped my texting limit and apparently with this next text limit I'm able to text all Verizon people for free, so that's great! So yes, please don't send me a text because I will be charged extra. Thanks people!