room

earlier in the week i finished reading water for elephants, and while i realize i'm on the late train here, i cannot say enough good things about it!! if you love animals, have an admiration for the 1920's, and enjoy a good love story (who doesn't?!) then you, too, will love the book! i cannot wait to see the movie..


so, of course, i am now on the hunt for my next read & i think i have found a good one. room by emma donoghue seems to be very intriguing & thrilling. i have tried to not read too many reviews because most of them say that it is most enjoyable going into the book knowing as little as possible.

here is the blurb from amazon:

In many ways, Jack is a typical 5-year-old. He likes to read books, watch TV, and play games with his Ma. But Jack is different in a big way--he has lived his entire life in a single room, sharing the tiny space with only his mother and an unnerving nighttime visitor known as Old Nick. For Jack, Room is the only world he knows, but for Ma, it is a prison in which she has tried to craft a normal life for her son. When their insular world suddenly expands beyond the confines of their four walls, the consequences are piercing and extraordinary. Despite its profoundly disturbing premise, Emma Donoghue's Room is rife with moments of hope and beauty, and the dogged determination to live, even in the most desolate circumstances. A stunning and original novel of survival in captivity, readers who enter Room will leave staggered, as though, like Jack, they are seeing the world for the very first time. --Lynette Mong

i will let you know how it goes:)

concrete jungle where dreams are made of

i am super excited because shawn & i decided that since we have no plans for this weekend, we might as well take a trip to our beloved NYC!

back in September we had reservations for a wine tasting sailboat tour of manhattan on the hudson through manhattan by sail. so we packed up our bags and we were off for the weekend to sip, sail, sight see & shop through nyc . . . we did all of the above save for the sail part :-/  there ended up being a horrendous storm canceling our sailboat tour. but the good news was that we would just have to plan another trip! 

fast forward to yesterday, and i'm sitting here thinking, what can we do this weekend?..what can we do this weekend??...I KNOW! SAIL ALONG THE MANHATTAN SIPPIN ON SOME WINE! shawn says, great! let's do it!

so this morning, i call and make a reservation for 2.  no problems! yay, i'm thinking this is a great weekend for nyc because most people will be headed to the shore. so i then proceed to visit the website because i'm a bit curious as to what the theme for this tasting just may be.  our tasting back in september was set to be spanish reds.

look down the list.

find the date..

ah ha! 

MAY 29TH - THEME - WEDDING PROPOSALS

whatttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt! um....... wait. a. minute..!?!?

well. now. what the HECK! what kind of wine tasting theme is "wedding proposal"?!

if you know me at all, you may or may not have been enlightened into my very small, slight, miniscule of a desire to be engaged like yesterday. and while i have tried to keep my personal feelings at bay in order to not drive shawn running for the hills, this about knocked me off my chair.  five years of dating mr. wonderful...a sailboat proposal would be quite romantic! but let's not get ahead of ourselves, eh?

anyway, i, of course, proceeded to call the woman back & request some more info on said tasting and she assured me that there will in fact be NO ONE getting married, being proposed to, or anything of the like. 

so, while i may be day dreaming until sunday of my sailboat proposal, in the back of my mind i do not feel as though IT will be happening to me this weekend. had to share my silly story, hope it at least made you smile:)

and let's hope for a beautiful, sunny day!

one day closer to summer..

happy monday . .

. . it's monday night, but i'm still not quite ready for the weekend to be over.

looking forward to a 4 day weekend & memorial day this weekend . .

OMGwen Stefani

the other day while perusing the channels i came across a commercial with gwen stefani in it & i thought to myself, wow she is gorgeousssssss! i love her look lately.. seems as though she is a little softer, less bold with the make-up? in a way?

 not to mention she has some pretty adorable little ones

 and her hubby's not so bad either;)

aw!!

happy friiiiiiday=)

adele

i can't quite put into words how amazing the adele concert was on friday night.

she is absolutely gorgeous & adorable. she came out with her camera, taking pictures of the crowd promising to hang our picture on her wall in London. she was teared up at one point, so humbled, saying that she could not believe that she would come all the way to America & people would be singing her songs. she talked a lot & told stories of what inspired her songs. every song she sang was perfect & if i thought i loved her before, well now i am completely obsessed!!! i will most definitely be seeing her in concert again! 

the video was taken on my phone so the quality is not that great but i thought i'd share it in case you'd like to see a glimpse of the concert!

hope you had a fabulous weekend!

friday night plans

guess who i will be seeing tonight?

can't wait. so excited. will take lots of pics =)

happy friday to you!

xo,

a farewell

i'm so sad that one of my favorite shows will be ending its season tonight! 

i'm not quite sure that last time i saw a show that hit every emotion like bethenny ever after does! although the girl is slightly crazy (hey, who isn't?) i have discovered that i'm in love with her strange little life & awesome family.  

jason is the most understanding & patient man ever..sometimes i don't know how he puts up with bethenney's shenanigans! but that is why i love him even more...have you seen the christmas episode where he wears onsie zip up pajamas?! and farts under the christmas tree?! he is hilarious!

and baby bryn is the most precious thing in the world...i would love to be a fly on the wall in their house just for a day. they must have so much fun!

sidenote: how funny was bethenny with the butt shapewear??

are you a fan of bethenney ever after? will you miss it as much as i will??

knowing bravo, i'm sure they will have something fabulous fill the time slot - i think i'm addicted to all of their reality shows!!!

xo,

a birthday wish & happy mother's day

this weekend is quite busy (as most are) but i couldn't let one more moment slip by without throwing a little post out there with 2 simple wishes. .

1. tomorrow is my best friend's birthday! happy birthday to the beautiful, hilarious, intelligent, caring, thoughtful courty k! 26 will be a big year for you! a wedding, a honeymoon, grad school...most importantly: YOUR WEDDING!! 

i hope you enjoy every second of your special day. i love you!

2. tomorrow is also mother's day!! happy mother's day to my mom & to all the momma's out there.  wishing you a day full of love & laughter =)

xx,

oats post!

a few months back, i took a close look at my daily diet and realized something: i had an addiction to CEREAL! it was around the time Lent was starting & i was considering my options. i thought for sure, no way, could i give up cereal, so i went for the less attractive, but still addicting (to me), option of: pretzels. but after talking to a few people about their breaking the addiction of cereal, i thought to myself, perhaps i should look into it a bit more.

after discovering that even the "healthier" cereals are still loaded up with sugars & other things that i could really do without, i started substituting my morning ritual with oatmeal.  i always liked oatmeal.  it always brought back memories of my dad cooking it over the stove for me when i was little. so, for the past few months i have been trying out different ways to eat my new favorite breakfast! by request, i'd like to share with you my latest & greatest oats recipe..enjoy!

i start with one cup water & 1/2 cup instant oats

pop it in the microwave for a minute & a half 

(you can use stove top oats if you prefer)

i then add a spoonful of flax seeds - flax seeds are a great way to add some fiber & protein to anything! i throw them in salad, yogurt & of course, my oats!

next up, a drizzle of honey

after the honey, i take a half of a banana, slice it up and throw it in to the mix

add a sprinkle of cinnamon

i like to add a splash of milk because the consistency as is, is too thick & pasty for my liking

and that is the final product! what is your favorite way to eat oatmeal? i'd love to try a new recipe!

*****

have you seen shasta's fabulous give-away? if not, check out her blog here! who wouldn't want to win a visa gift card?!

hope you are having a fabulous day!

xo,

whatttta weekend!

talk about bizzzzzeeeeee! this weekend was awesome & one that i will not soon forget.  complete with a wedding, friends, family & a 10 miler...wow i can't believe i'm awake right now haha...

let's start with friday night!... dinner & shopping with momma: a perfect prelude to what was sure to be a fun filled weekend.  mom treated me to dinner and wished me lots of luck on my first race since high school.  (I will not discuss how long ago that was!) her last words of advice to me as we parted ways: "DO NOT SH!T YOUR PANTS!"

ok, thanks mom! i'll be sure to NOT do that:)

saturday: runners expo/grocery shop/wedding/FRIENDS!

sunday: wake up time 4:45 am. race start time: 8:30. as i mentioned, this was my first race since high school.  and while i was a sprinter back then, i have been training for this 10 miler for a few months and felt pretty confident going into it. the broad street run is a ten mile race known as the easiest 10 miler on the east coast. i don't mean to down play the run at any cost...this was definitely an intense run.  but, i will say that i set a personal goal to run the race in 90 minutes, and achieved that goal without feeling overly exerted at the finish.  which means to me that i could have picked up the pace a bit.  however, i was really running this for fun, not as a competitive thing! there were times throughout the race where i had chills all over my body because of the energy of the crowds and people that had filled the streets to cheer everyone on. once we reached city hall, mile marker 5, i practically felt tears in my eyes (dramatic, i know!!) because it was such an amazing view!! i turned back to my awesome running partner (who wishes to remain anonymous) and we both agreed how awesome this whole thing was.  mile 5 came and went...mile 6:feeling tired, take an energy shot. mile 7:exhaustion is settling in. mile 8: energy shot/adrenaline kicking in. mile 9:sprinting to the finish. 

afterwards: feeling pure euphoria. words can't express what i felt upon completing something, at my goal time, that i had been training for for so long. i cannot wait to run the half marathon in november!! i have definitely been bitten by the race bug...a new addiction for sure!

some photos from the weekend:

shawn's eyes refused to remain open long enough for a nice photo: this will have to suffice:/ haha!

*****

so, one may say to him/herself, after such a fabulous weekend, what could be better?

and, i may say to you, well a promotion at work would certainly make the work week after such weekend a bit more bearable!

that's right, shawn received word this morning that he will be starting his new position tomorrow morning, complete with a 10% raise.  thank you to the LORD for this, in these times, we are so thankful & grateful!

i hope your weekend was FAB<3

xx,