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March 26th, 2012

spring is in the air

I apologize for my absence. The last few weeks have involved lots of work traveling (and I still have one more upcoming trip!), but also lots of good times with my hubby.

The weather has been beautiful, so we’ve taken a couple of walks with our pup to soak up the sunshine and warm weather. I’m a little bummed it looks like we’re supposed to have frost tonight. I guess we’ll be bringing back in all the plants we just put out on the deck last week! Either way, I’m happy it’s spring!

Here’s a little snap-shot as of late:

Our kitties are enjoying the springtime air too!

Our dining table finally arrived & I’m in love!

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March 13th, 2012

beantown: part 2

Boston is a place I never seem to get tired of visiting for work, but I really look forward to one day traveling up there with my hubby for a fun trip so we have more time to explore and enjoy what the city has to offer. We lucked out last week that the weather wasn’t TOO cold for a New England winter, but by the end of the evening, once the sun went down, I was pretty much freezing and ran back to the hotel to make myself presentable for dinner. As much fun as I think it would be fun to live there sometimes, I just have to remind myself that I am not a cold-weather girl.

Either way, it’s a beautiful place to visit!

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March 12th, 2012

beantown: part 1

So I know I’ve been a bit absent lately: lots of work travel equals not much time for blogging (or anything else really!). Last week I was in Boston (and the suburbs of the city) and I had the rare opportunity to spend a couple of hours exploring downtown with my camera. I don’t normally have much of any down time when I go on these trips, so I was pretty excited to put on some comfy shoes between work events and wander around a bit. I took WAY too many pictures and am having a hard time narrowing them down to share, so I’ll do a few today and a few tomorrow – OK?:) Consider yourselves lucky that I am not posting all 227!

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March 5th, 2012

bring on springtime

This past week has almost felt like springtime and I love it! We spent the weekend antiquing, enjoying shakes at Carl’s in Fredericksburg (the best!), taking walks with our pup and just enjoying a couple of days off.

Unfortunately it looks like we might have a few more chilly days ahead before it stays warm, but the budding blossoms in the garden are keeping me hopeful that we don’t have much longer!

I’m really looking forward to working in our garden for the first spring in our new home and enjoying our deck and outdoor spaces! Who’s with me?

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March 1st, 2012

dinner is served

For dinner last night I decided to try something a little different for us, and judging by all of the good comments from my hubby, it was a success!

Roasted Jalapeño Burger

1 large jalapeño, sliced in rings, deseeded
1 large ripe avocado, diced
cilantro, chopped
salt & pepper
pepper jack cheese, sliced
mayo
burger meat of choice (ground beef for us)
burger buns

1. Place sheet of aluminum foil on baking sheet. Arrange jalapeño slices on foil. Roast in oven at about 300 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until they start to look just slightly charred and softer. (You can also roast whole jalapeño and then slice later, whichever you prefer!)

2. After cooking burger to preference (we seasoned with a little salt and fresh ground pepper), warm buns in microwave (wrap in paper towel) for about 10 seconds. Place sliced pepper jack cheese on bun and top with burger to melt cheese.

3. Put a thin layer of mayo on top bun, and top off burger with chunks of avocado, cilantro and roasted jalapeño.

Enjoy! We ate it with a side of Salt & Pepper Kettle Chips. Yum-o!

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February 27th, 2012

home sweet home

Today was a busy Monday after being on work travel last week in Jacksonville. Not that I didn’t love the 80 degree weather, but I think I have quite possibly the worst travel luck of all time.

Coming home on Friday, I was supposed to connect in Atlanta with 45 minutes to get from one flight to the other. While sitting on the runway waiting to take off in Jacksonville, we find out that the weather in Atlanta has taken a turn for the worst and the plane starts heading back to the gate. Apparently a storm caused the Atlanta airport to close and we had to go and sit and wait and wait and wait until we heard they reopened. That added about 2 hours to the travel time. Which also caused me to missed my connection flight home. Of course.

So the next flight home didn’t leave for another 4.5 hours, which meant more sitting and waiting…and reading…and playing iPhone games…and then sometime Friday night I finally made it home! My sweet hubby went out and got me a Panera salad and mac & cheese before I completely passed out on the couch with my puppy dog curled up on top of me. Aww. He missed his momma. And nothing makes me more thankful for my beautiful home and my wonderful husband than being away and missing them to death!

I have another trip coming up, but for now I am just happy to be home.

By the way, if you don’t think that qualifies as bad travel luck, I have also been stuck on the tarmac on a plane with faulty brakes that couldn’t take off, taxi or be towed back to the gate for more than 4 hours with a terribly loud noise blaring at us (only to have no option in the end but to convince the rental car company to give me a car so I could drive back home) AND I’ve been on a plane in the air that was struck by lightning. No joke.

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February 21st, 2012

show some insta-love

So I was browsing through Instagram today (add me!: gepriley) and realized I have a recurring theme. I clearly have an obsession with pretty, tasty food & my lovely, furry family members!

Oh, and a chair we bought for our living room! It’s a recliner…amazing, right? It doesn’t look like a typical recliner! We also replaced the artwork in my office that I posted about before. The picture before just didn’t cover enough of the electrical box for my taste, so we moved it and replaced it with this taller painting that we spotted at HomeGoods. Perfect colors; great find!

 

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February 17th, 2012

reading day

Happy Friday! Today I am off of work and have all kinds of exciting activities planned…you know, like a trip to the DMV that we’ve been putting off since, um, October? Ha. Seriously. Wish me luck.

Plus I have a sick puppy on my hands this morning, so I probably won’t be venturing too far today. Poor little guy does not feel good. The rest of my exciting day will probably consist of cleaning the house a bit and maybe finally starting this:

I mean seriously, am I the only person in existence who hasn’t read this book yet? Sorry guys, I’m so behind the curve on this one! I keep hearing how amazing it is, so I figured I needed to check it out…especially since the movie trailers have already started and I’m one of those people who won’t go see a movie based on a book unless I’ve already read the book first. This often results in me needing to wait for the DVD to come out, but I don’t mind. Watching the movie first always ruins a book for me because all I can think of are the movie characters. The only exception I’ve made to this is watching the Harry Potter movie series without getting past page 2 in the first book. I don’t plan to ever go back and read those books, so I’m kind of OK with it.

Also on my current reading list is A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers, which was loaned to me by one of my sweet friends. Does anyone have any other suggestions?:)

What about fun weekend plans? I don’t know what we might get in to; we’ll just have to wait and see!

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February 14th, 2012

happy heart day

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Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Today is a day to be especially thankful for the people in this life that you love.

I feel blessed every day to have found the love of my life in my best friend. My husband is truly amazing. I’m so proud of him every day and am so thankful to have someone to share my life with that loves me, makes me infinitely happy and takes such good care of me. I couldn’t have asked for anyone more wonderful to spend every day with and I truly look forward to each new day and adventure together.

I have wonderful, supportive parents who always believe in me (even when I don’t believe in myself) and are always there for me through thick and thin. I love the relationship we’ve built over the years and am so grateful to them for putting up with me growing up and showing me what real love means.

My family and friends… Without them, I’d be lost, and I am thankful to have a handful of really great friends in my life who have been with me over the years that I know I can depend on.

The three furry babies in my life make me smile. I love watching them play and show us that they know they’ve been rescued and are happy and thankful for this home. My puppy never fails to make me feel loved by greeting me at the door with slobbery kisses or cuddling up with me on the couch or bed at night. He is also an excellent foot warmer and I definitely love him for that too!

xoxo

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February 13th, 2012

it’s back!!

So a couple of months ago we had quite the adventure in getting appliances (namely a refrigerator) up the staircase to the second floor of our house. It has a horrible turn in the middle, with only half a landing, and is really narrow. Took three tries, three sets of delivery people, having the general manager of Best Buy on speed dial, and a husband with more faith in all of the above than I did, to finally make it happen!

In the process, we removed the handrail (three times?) and at some point, to make a couple more inches, hubby decided it would be a good idea to remove the windowsill on the window in the middle of the stairwell turn. He looked at it for a while and believed it had been off before…until he had it ripped off the wall and realized…nope. That should not have come off.

Well, it may have helped us with getting our beautiful appliances, but I’m sure he’s been tired of my griping over the missing windowsill for months.

After a lot of sanding, patching, painting and learning to use a nail gun, yesterday my windowsill returned!

Honestly, it looks even better than it did before (moving definitely took its toll). And now I’m really excited to get the stairwell painted and get rid of that yellow! (It’s the little things, I tell ya!)

Yesterday was 20 months since our wedding so hubby said it was an anniversary present.:) I couldn’t be prouder of him for this and all of the other projects he’s always doing around the house that I bet he never imagined he’d have to figure out how to do. I love this guy.

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