Epic Snow Day

This snow day was one of the best days ever. I have to say, that although I’m sure I’m going to regret it when we are making up our snow days at the end of the school year, yesterday was filled with awesome after awesome.

I knew before we went to bed that the school was going to have a delayed start, but I woke up at 6 to my phone ringing with the news that we had the whole day off!

After that I tried to go back to sleep, but I was wiiiide awake. I got up about 7 and found Deb had already made coffee! Since we teach at the same school, we had the day off together. Let the fun begin!

We started out by watching tv and making breakfast- veggie frittata with spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers, and onions, and fresh blueberries! We were also enjoying the Casi Cielo coffee from Starbucks, which is one of our favorites in this house. It’s seasonal, so we’re all enjoying it while we can.

We caught up on 30 Rock and The Office from last week, and sat under the couch under lots of blankets. It was cold outside!

After breakfast, we decided to bundle up and go play in the snow. There wasn’t tons of it, but in Dallas you only get 1, maybe 2 good chances a year to play in the snow, so we decided to brave the cold temps and get outside!

After exploring the front and back we discovered that the snow was not, in fact, snow. It was ice. Sad day. No snowmen to be made. Deborah decided to do a little “snow-ga” in the back yard anyhow.

And she snapped a few photos of me too-

We also tried our hand at a little sledding and luging (more on that later!), before we officially turned into popsicles and had to come back inside. A few minutes later, our friend Tricia popped by to pick up her computer she had left at our house. She’s a Yankee, so she braved the weather over, but she had enough snow-know to realize she probably wasn’t going to make it home safely. Hooray, another friend to play with!

I started a big pot of chicken soup, and we started a movie while I started working on my new header! I liked my old one, but if was downloaded from another site and just wasn’t me. So the blog went from this:

To this:

Lots of pictures I’ve taken that showcase things I adore! Being outside, coffee, travel, books, teaching, being barefoot, going to festivals and fairs, and photography. It was hard to narrow it down! I didn’t even include cooking, friends, spinning, music…I could go on and on…

During the movie I also enjoyed my soup- Lemon Thyme Chicken Noodle. For the enquiring minds (who know I don’t like to follow recipes) I put 1 box chicken stock + 2 c water in a pot and added 2 small carrots, a quarter of an onion, and a few mushrooms on to simmer. Then I cubed 3 thawed chicken tenders (you could use 1 to 1/12 breasts) and dropped them into the water, poaching them. I added 2 bay leaves, s&p, and some thyme. I let it simmer for an hour or so, then dropped in some egg noodles. I finished my bowl off with lemon zest and juice. Yum!

I also served it with a piping hot mug of Earl Grey tea. And we all know how people in this house feel about tea!

Tricia thought it only fitting that we bake some cookies, so I whipped up a batch of cranberry dark chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies, which were only okay. (That didn’t stop me from polishing off several of them.)

Sarah got home from work about that time, and the four of us took our cookies with espresso- Deb and I had lattes, and Tricia and Sarah had theirs straight up with a touch of milk. (I need to branch out my coffee drinking to include straight espresso!)

Since most of our house has hard wood or red countertops, my photos are usually so warm! So I took advantage of the nice white snow to take some cooler photos. What a change! Also, for some reason I put my espresso in my milk before I frothed it instead of after, so my latte looks a bit funny. Woops!

After we had lots of warm beverages and cookies, Deb and I decided we had to introduce Sarah and Tricia to alley luge-ing. (I keep wanting to spell it luging, but that doesn’t look like it’s spelled right…)

We bundled up and headed out to the driveway again. Earlier I had taken this photo of my back alley with my pudding camera app.

Little did I know it was foretelling my doom.

We all sledded down the driveway, and took turns push starting each other into a luge down the alley. I took my turn, and well….you’ll see what happens.

Alley Luge

We laughed so hard for so long. As you can see.

Needless to say, that ended our outdoor adventures. I was soaked and my coat had lost a button, and we were all freezing. We scurried back inside, warmed up, and put on a movie. We had watched 2012 the night before and laughed our way through the ridiculous disaster drama, the bad movie lines, and the stage whispered monologues. So we decided to make a theme of it. Netflix instant viewing had Volcano, so we started that. Another ridiculous disaster drama. Just what the doctor ordered during what people are now calling “Snow-pocalypse.”

About that time we got the call that there was no school tomorrow either, because the roads were just too icy and the temperature wasn’t going up any time soon. Woo hoo! We realized that if we were going to survive another day in, we needed to venture out to the store and pick up a few supplies.

Sarah and I piled into my Jeep and with the help of my four-wheel drive   and lots of slow driving, we made in safely to the store, picked up our staples, and made it back home.

We finished the evening with board games (Balderdash and Taboo) and frozen pizza, along with wine all around. After such a long, fun day of lots of excitement, we got pretty tired. And the wine didn’t help.

Day off work full of friends, baking, movies, soup, board games, wine, and lots and lots of laughter. What’s not to adore?

Frothy Goodness

 

I don’t photograph everything I eat, like some people. But when I eat something I really adore or that really excites me, I try to get some pictures in case I feel like sharing them later. And guess what….

it’s later!

I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the myriad of unshared photos of what I’ve been eating lately.

As you know, I invested (with a gift card) in a Bodum milk frother a few weeks ago. Since that time I have become a latte making machine! (Which is funny because I'm not using a latte making machine!)

I’ve been using our italian espresso maker to make some delicious espresso and heating milk on the stove top. It’s as easy as pour milk in mug, froth, and add espresso. And as you can tell…I’ve been getting my fix lately!

So foamy and warm and yummy. The frother was only $15, so it’s WAAAAY cheaper than buying a muy expensive espresso machine, and it pays for itself in Starbucks after 3 drinks! Win, win, win!

Have something you adore? Leave a comment below or email adoretoday at gmail dot com.

Make It Better

I was supposed to nephew-sit tonight. That didn’t work out- and it ended up leading to crappy thing after crappy thing happening tonight. It wasn’t anything major- not managing my time well, traffic, frustration, and disappointment. I wasn’t able to go to Forth Worth anymore, sot by the time I finally made it home I was really grumpy. I’d been looking forward to nephew-sitting all week, so I was disappointed it didn’t work out for reasons out of my control.

Anyway, I decided to come home and make dinner instead since my plans were cancelled. All week I’d been wanting to make chicken pot biscuit-pie, so I tried (as ever) to look on the bright side of life by finally having a quiet evening at home to make dinner. A glass of wine, my Diana Krall Pandora station (current fav!), a quick trip to go buy butter, and this was the finished product.

Totally hit the spot. I needed the comfort food tonight. I also heard this song, which I love, and fixed everything.

Sarah and I chit chatted, and she made me laugh, I drank wine and cooked, and when it was all ready, we feasted. It may not be how I’d planned to spend my time, but it definitively made my evening better (thought I still wish I had spent the evening giving my nephew hugs!).

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Eat In Month

Diana of The Chic Life is doing a whole month of no restaurants. And I’m joining her!

As I mentioned the other day, I’ve decided to save money (for my camera!) this month and start my year off healthy by eating in. Diana did it last year and had great success with it. So I thought it would be a great way to kick off 2011.

So we’ve now been through 2 days of 2011, and I’ve already had problems. Woops…Yesterday I hung out with Victoria all day, and she, Kathryn and I were sitting around talking around dinner time. Dilemma….

I don’t want to be either the person who says “Oh, we can go eat. I’ll just sit and watch you…” and make everyone with me feel bad while I sit there and starve, nor the person who says “hey instead of doing what everyone wants and eating out, let’s go get groceries and eat in!” So we went to Carinos and got pizza.

First day.

Fail.

And then I realized. I have a bachelorette party Friday. We’re going out to dinner. Oh, yeah. And I have a friend’s birthday party Saturday. And we’re going to Pei Wei, one of my favorites.

So I emailed Diana and consulted her sage wisdom. She told me to relax and enjoy my social events with my friends. So I vowed to only eat out for Summer’s bachelorette, maybe for Julie’s party, and make up the extra days at the end.

We always go out to dinner after church, so I was bracing myself to go and hang out, but not eat. Telling myself that push was going to come to shove and I needed to make the right decision, no matter how tough.  And then we decided to go to Five Guys. It’s just opened nearby, and I’ve never been. There are other locations in Dallas, and I’ve been wanting to go forever! Somehow I’ve just never been, and tonight was my chance!

I arrived a bit after everyone, and they were already eating. I wanted to order a burger so bad! They did look super good, and I even pulled out my wallet at one point, but Kathryn and Victoria talked me into putting it away. Victoria even shared (many) of her fries. And they were so good. Cajun fries!

So, though my first 2 days of eat in challenge involved a cheat or two (though I didn’t technically buy food tonight…) I am reminding myself that it’s all in the journey. Hopefully going back to work this week will keep me too busy to have time for social eating out, since that seems to be the culprit.

If you want to participate in the Eat-In Challenge, check out the guidelines on Diana’s website!

Have something you adore? Leave a comment below, or email it to adore today at gmail dot com.

End of 2010

Well, somehow the last 2 days flew by. How did that happen?

On Thursday I drove home from SA. It took 4 hours on the way down and 5 1/2 to come back. (Boo traffic.) When traffic looked like this:

I stayed glass half full by doing this:

(notice my new scarf I got from Charming Charlie?) As you can tell… I was bored. I choose to think it was a desire for positivity, not narcissism, that lead to the mini car photo-shoot.

While I was driving I ate:

and

 

After the drive home I had meetings Thursday and Friday for church stuff, I did laundry (hurriedly) and played with some of my new toys from my shopping excursion.

My new birds!

Latte made with my bodum milk frother (love it!)

And I even found the book I was looking for that I saw on Allie’s blog last week! Yay! Now all I need is my camera!

I’m participating in Diana’s eat-in challenge in order to save money for my camera and kick off 2011 healthier, so I had my last supper (er…..lunch) at Pei Wei before my meeting Friday.

And after my meeting I came home to get ready to celebrate New Year’s (or New Years?) with friends.

It started with Family Dinner at Rachel’s, Chorizo White Bean Kale Soup and homemade bread, and lots of good conversation. I know I say it a lot, but I am so blessed by these girls.

And then we headed over to Kathryn and Victoria’s for the celebration! Victoria had her DSLR and let me play with it all night, so bring on the good photos now!

Kathryn and I both have extensive Friends trivia knowledge, and though I always beat her at Friends Scene it, we both think she knows a bit more trivia and I have faster reflexes. So we did a trivia-off. Which totally reminded us of this episode! We each won a round, so I guess the champion will have to be determined another day.

We also somehow ended up taking pictures as super models, practicing our best smize.

We had a great time and rung in the new year right.

Hoping to have another post for you soon with all my New Year’s Resolutions (and I have a lot). Keep a look out for that!

 

2010 was an amazing year, and I’m looking forward to a lot of changes and a lot of excitement in 2011!  Happy New Year!

 

Have something you adore? Email it to adoretoday at gmail dot com or leave a comment below!