Tag: Monday Mash-Up
10 pics as of late!
Hello Friends!! It’s been a hot minute since I checked in… here are a few pictures to enjoy 🙂
A view from our backyard! Yup, we are blessed with this beautiful view each time we step outside onto our patio. I know, it looks like a park, right?
I have a hard time focusing on reading because my attention is always drawn to the yard 🙂
We traveled to Montreal during the 4th of July week.
The best farmer’s markets are in Montreal!
Lunch at the farmers market- a fruit beer with Greek yogurt and organic fruit- YUM
While riding our bikes we came across some amazing wall art.
We also came across this beautiful portrait of Leonard Cohen painted on a building in Old Town.
I’ll do a full post soon on how we spent our time in Montreal and Kingston, CA.
Auf Wiedersehen-
Karen
Monday Mash-up!
Happy Monday friends! What a wonderful time of year- I just love the light that comes through the house and the way the evenings are getting a little cooler. We can even sleep with our windows open!
We have enjoyed this back porch so much this summer. I am glad all of my new items from the At Home store worked out. The gray and black work nicely with the beige cushions and the entire vibe is very calming. Many books have been read on that couch:)
Even the sun inside the house is different this time of year.
The granite was installed for the small bathroom and I couldn’t be happier! The color is graphite brown and we went with the leather look. We ordered it through Take us for Granite in Shelby Township and I would highly recommend them.
The new toilet was installed this morning and now I need to order the wallpaper and be done with this little guest bath. 🙂
I was able to spend quality time with Ryan and KJ this weekend!
On Saturday evening we had a date night with one of Dave’s brothers and his wife- we ended up at the movies. We saw a double feature- Crazy Rich Asians and Won’t You be My Neighbor? Both were very good. I especially liked how kind and gentle Mr. Roger’s was in person. I remember seeing his show on PBS when I was a kid and it did bring back some memories for me, but I really like the way the documentary portrayed him in his “real” life. He was so kind. I love the idea of 143 as well. Click on the number 143 to see a fantastic video of Mrs. Roger’s on the Tonight show.
Sunday we spent time shopping for a new mattress. We settled on a Sleep by Number bedding system- expensive but hopefully worth it. It will be delivered in a few weeks and we have 100 days to return if necessary. More on that in a later post.
We both ran 6 miles this weekend, worked-out at the gym, and we managed to get a little biking in last night. That’s it my friends, how was your weekend?
Karen
It’s Monday again!
Hello all, hope you had a wonderful weekend. We were busy again seeing friends and narrowing down a new SUV for Dave. Here’s what we did this weekend. On Friday I was so happy to spend the entire day with KJ! I got to Lauren’s house early so she had plenty of time to get to work. As I was driving there I almost hit a dear. It ran right out in front of me and I slammed on my brakes and just missed it. Thank God. My heart was racing and I was thinking that today was not my day to meet my maker. I am so glad the deer made it across the road without causing an accident. Anyway, I got to Lauren’s in plenty of time and we even had a few moments to go over KJ’s schedule for the day. Whenever I babysit KJ, I also make arrangements to make dinner for Lauren and Christopher so when they get home all they have to do is relax and enjoy each other. My mom used to do that for me and I appreciated it so much. I made a wonderful beef barley soup in the crock pot. I had a bowl for lunch and it was delicious. Super easy recipe, you can click on the link to view it. It’s so good that I made it today before work for our dinner tonight. Beef barley soup recipe
Here is my little buddy! He is such a character- he must laugh at least 50 times an hour. I feel like a kid when I spend time with him.
We stayed home Friday night and watched a movie I picked up from the library- Atomic Blond with Charlize Theron. We really enjoyed it. Her body is amazing and she did plenty of her own stunts in this action packed movie set in Berlin 1989. The film is based on the graphic novel titled The Coldest City. I am sure there will be a sequel to this movie.
On Saturday we ran first thing. We were able to log another 3 miles on the calendar. Errands the rest of the day. We met friends for dinner at a local restaurant called Bigalora- a wood fired pizza Cucina. We chose this place because of the Brussel sprout thin crust pizza and the craft beer selection. We were in heaven. They had so many wonderful stouts to choose from. I ended up with Founders Backward Bastard and Dave ordered a Dragonmead Armageddon Grand Cru. Sehr Gut!!
On Sunday we decided to go to the North American Auto Show in Detroit.
This is one of the SUV’s Dave is interested in. He wants to purchase the new vehicle from the factory in Volvo’s Overseas Delivery option. Volvo pays our flight to Sweden and two nights in a hotel in exchange for purchasing a new car/SUV. We would add a few days more to explore and make it a real vacation. We will see what he ends up purchasing. He is still in the research mode.
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| This could be my dream car 🙂 |
The Auto show was packed, they are expecting record numbers this year. A good sign for the auto companies and for Detroit.
Since we were already downtown, we headed to the new Founders Brewery. The brewery opened its doors on December 4th to a large crowd and it’s been crowded ever since.
While there, we of course had to have a few samples!! We also bought a couple of shirts in the gift shop. 🙂
I posted this pic on Sunday night on Instagram. Spring really is just around the corner (58 days away).
How was your weekend? How are your New Year goals going?? We are still plugging along and trying to eat healthy foods, exercise daily, and drink beer only two days a week. So far, so good. We have also cleaned out the pantry and reorganized it and today Dave is home cleaning out his closet; all in an attempt to get organized and make our lives simpler.
Let’s catch up!
Hello Friends! We have been so busy over here with the holiday prep for parties. Last weekend we had Dave’s family over, not the entire family, just a fraction of them. We served up a family favorite- two large dishes of Lasagna. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meal and we spent hours around the table telling stories and planning upcoming trips. I included the lasagna recipe for you. It is truly the easiest and best lasagna I have ever made or tasted. You can prepare it the day before with uncooked noodles, refrigerate it and then bake it the next day. I hope you enjoy!
I can’t believe Christmas is only 15 days away. We are still shopping, wrapping and cooking over here. How are things in your neck of the woods?
Lasagna: Taste of Home Classic Cookbook from Amazon for a whopping $1.35. This book has amazing recipes- I use it all the time especially for entertaining groups during the holidays. I bought my copy at a used book sale at my public library.
Dave has been searching for CBS- Canadian Bourbon Barrel Breakfast Stout from Founders for the past two weeks. I will tell you about that on Wednesday. Check back because he actually wrote something for the blog. Surprise, surprise. 🙂
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Catching Up!
Hello Everyone! The weatherman predicted rain this week and I guess he was finally right. It has been nonstop pouring. 🙁
I can’t believe Xmas is only 62 days away. I hope to plan early this year. We have a busy work week ahead of us, but let’s talk about what we have been up to. How was your weekend? Ours was busy as usual. We started our weekend with a play at the Fisher Theater in Detroit. The play was the latest from Andrew Lloyd Weber, Love Never Dies. To be honest with you we almost left at intermission. It was that bad. The performers were very good- it was the material/story that was bad. Nothing memorable, unlike the Phantom of the Opera. I will tell you this, the ending was a surprise- I won’t give it away, but I was stunned and Dave looked over at me and realized I was upset, so he put his forehead on my forehead and held my hand till I felt better. You know how you are connected to people and they can read your feelings- Dave did that at that moment and I felt soooo close to him for caring about my feelings so much.
On Friday Dave ran 4 miles outside and I did 45 mins. on the elliptical. Friday night we rode our bikes (14 miles) into Rochester to enjoy a beer at the B Spot, a Bell’s Best Brown and dinner at Chipotle’s. We love when we can ride our bikes to dinner. Even though it’s quite a few miles away, we would much rather get in some exercise, especially if we are including a good craft beer with our evening meal. When we got home from our ride we sat in the hot tub! We are loving the hot tub- our goal is to use it at least every other day. So far, so good!
Saturday we ended up going to Royal Oak Stagecrafters to see a play titled Detroit ’67. The acting was superb! We ate dinner at Lily’s and enjoyed another craft beer, New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk. We are really into the stouts right now.
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| Also stopped in at the HopCat in Royal Oak. That would make three HopCat’s in 10 days, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Royal Oak. We shared a great stout, Ellison’s Tiramisu, sehr gut!! |
The stage for Detroit ’67
Sunday was spent with family at a celebration of birthdays! We got to meet the newest member of our family, Ethan. KJ loved holding his new cousin!!
This week already included a night in Ferndale looking over some new bands, a craft beer talk at a local library later in the week and parties over the Halloween weekend! I’m tired already, I think we might need to relax in the hot tub soon. 🙂
Is your week as busy? How do you manage your time when there are so many commitments? I’ll check back in on Thursday for a discussion on My Love of Cookbooks. 🙂