The makings of a bridal shower

While Adam was off at Regionals I was busy all weekend preparing for the Bridal Shower I’m throwing next weekend for Tara.  Actually I’ve been working on and planning this shower for the last 4 weeks.  This is the 2nd time this year I am maid of honor…and I think this (fingers crossed!) will be the last time! It’s a lot of friggen work!!
I scored some invited super duper on sale from Michael's last month and they set the color scheme.
 
I did some photo hunting and added the bride to the plane invite which had a brown ribbon tied atop it and fit nicely in a green sleeve with the word Pleas Join Us visible through a window. (Jeeze Steph a photo would be nice )
After batting around “themes” with the other bridesmaids we decided on a Champagne Shower. Tara loves champagne…and who wouldn’t want to spend a Sunday afternoon in the back yard drinking champagne??
So right away I looked up “foods that go with Champagne” on Google and came up with a great site that listed a bunch of different options.  Krista and I went over the menu and came up with this:

We'll be cooking away on Saturday to get everything ready.. yes-we’re making it all!! 
With the menu set I began the fun part. The favors and the prizes for the games! When we were in North Carolina we were at a Dollar store and they had martini glasses for $1. Glass martini glasses. Do you know how hard I looked for inexpensive martini glasses for my wedding with no luck??? Anyway I thought Champagne flutes would be a nice favor.  So begun my research.  And it quickly ended at IKEA. $5 for 6 glass flutes!  Score!!  Krista and I knocked around ways to personalize them or mark them, but it was when we went into Pier one that we got the answer. Chalk board paint!
It was perfect. Tara’s wedding is at the shuffle board club and they use chalk boards and she’s been trying to incorporate them into the wedding stuff…so it was perfect.   And the best part I found Brown (with the color scheme of course!) chalk board paint. 
I had every intention of doing a nice pattern for the “board” but quickly realized my best bet would be to use painters tape and make a rectangle…so I did.

Enter in some colored chalk and we’ve got a fun favor!
We’re going to put some sweet wrapped up in the glasses as well for the ladies to take home.
Now what would a Bridal shower be without silly games?  We’re going to have 4 games! One will be just for Tara-How well do you know Doug?
We’re also going to play how well do you know Tara?
Famous Couples-Name her other half.
And Which one is Tara? 
This will be a surprise for Tara because her aunt, who can’t make the shower, contacted me wanting to send some baby photos of Tara to incorporate into the shower.  So I thought it would be fun to pass them around, matched with another baby photo, and have the guests guess which is Tara, A or B.

For the prizes I decided to use my handy skills.  I found a free pattern online for a jewelry roll and thought it would be a perfect prize and a way for me to learn how to sew a zipper !
My first attempt wasn’t what I had hoped, but it wasn’t bad…Adam thought it looked fine.  So I made two more, one being for Tara. The best part was I used the upholstery fabric from my work! (free!)

I also made an apron (with no pattern) using left over material I had around the house.

The last prize will be 3 more champagne glasses so that one guest will have a set of 4 chalk board glasses to take home.

Finally the last thing I thought to do was to make an apron for Tara…using the bridesmaid dress material.  I did tell you that she’s have us have our dresses made from silk she ordered from New York, right? I am attempting to make my own bridesmaid dress…

Anyway she gave me 2 yards too much so I have enough extra to play with.  I think I used under a yard to make her apron.  But it turned out really good considering I didn’t have a pattern for this also.  Tara likes pin tucking and pleating and hand made details…so I did what I could and pleated the top of the apron.

Then I attached the waist band

And then the ties…and I was all set!

It turned out super cute and only took me about an hour to do.  I’m so excited to give it to her-I know she’ll love it!

I just hope she doesn’t mind it’s Dry Clean only! ha ha ha
So there you have it! This is what has been taking up all my time lately and what I did while Adam was away.  I’m looking forward to next weekend and throwing Tara a wonderful shower.  I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures to share…so stay tuned.

Soooo Close!

Adam had Ultimate Regionals this past weekend in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Thursday evening he loaded a bus with 3 different teams and made the 15 hour drive North.  They began playing on Saturday with what is called Pool Play. They were in a pool of 4 so they played each team then they played a cross over game to determine their position in Sundays elimination pool.  They went 3-1 and were pretty happy!

I believe there were 20 teams and the top 3 teams would move on to Nationals in 3 weeks. 

Sunday their first game is at 8 am. Luckily USA Ultimate has live score updating so I was able to “watch” his teams score.  They one their 1st game and were pretty pumped. Then they played a really tough team and lost. 

BUT! because there are 3 seats for nationals (or is it seeds??) they went into another bracket for the “back-door bid”.  They beat the 1st team they played and were now only one game away from making it to Nationals. Something Adams never done at the Club level. (He won collage Nationals back in 99?)  Anyway the team they were playing was the 1st team they played on Saturday…the no. 1 seed in their pool and the team they beat.

Something must have happened with the score reporting because I was checking and refreshing my computer his game was the only one w/o a score.  Then finally after an 1.5 hrs of play the score popped up and it was 11-11!! Uggggg knowing it was close to the end of the game ( I think they play to 13 or 14) I kept going back every few minutes to check.

Now let me say here that I NEVER thought they’d have a chance to win at regionals and go to Nationals.  I also was super excited to have him be DONE with Ultimate and to get some time with my husband back.  But despite my selfish reasons for wanting them NOT to win….I was rooting for them!

I know that Adam has wanted to go to Club Nationals for as long as I’ve known him and now it was right there…

But in the end they lost by 3 points. They were thissssss close to winning. Even though I didn’t actually see him play I’m very proud of how he and his team did.  I also can’t wait for him to get home. 

Frustrated

So I’m still brewing de-caff and each day I think…hmm I bet I could have one regular cup of coffee. But I don’t. There’s no going back. Each morning I drink my coffee flavored water and enjoy the warmth…but I miss the bold robust flavor that comes with REAL coffee.

I still have not heard from my Dr. regarding my biopsy. 2-3 days my A**. I called twice last week and finally found out that they hadn’t received the results yet…and it seems my Dr. is only in that office on Wednesdays..so I guess we wait and see.

We got through our 1st month of Clomid with no success. But I think part of the reason is that we kind of messed up. I was told to take the pill from day 3 to day 7 then use the ovulation kit from day 10 –20 or until a positive result and to not go overboard until I got the positive result. So we waited. And we missed the window. The test never got darker than the sample line…but it was close. Then the next day it was lighter. So I did some reading and found out that when it gets dark you’re close and should maybe test twice a day. Lesson learned. Adam also has to go back in for his testing since his results came back borderline and the Dr. wants to compare the two results.

Here we are another month, another round of drugs, waiting, peeing, watching, interpreting…it’s not supposed to be this hard! And it wasn’t.  That’s what gets me. It wasn’t this hard the first time. 3 months is all it took. And to be honest the first 2 months we weren’t even trying that hard. What the F happened? Seriously I want to understand.  But I can’t, you can’t question God and his plan. You just have to be PATIENT and TRUST that it will work out. I’m sorry, but that is HARD. Really hard…so hard I’m ready to say F*c! it and give up. However as anyone who has “tried” to have a baby knows…you never really give up. You just can’t.

Dog Day Afternoon

Since we have been so busy and rarely home I thought it would be nice to take the dogs to the park this last weekend. Oh they were sooo excited.  Beyond excited to go in the car.

And even more so when we parked downtown and started to walk towards the park. Jordan wouldn’t even give a group of kids dying to pet her the time of day.

We took them to Curtis Hixon Park Downtown on the river front.

The last time we were there it was packed, but the park had just opened. 

This time is wasn’t near as busy and to our joy the dog park area…empty. So even bruiser got to go in.  And when another dog showed up he showed us that he didn’t need his leash and got along great with the new dog!

Adam and I worked with Jordan to go through the concrete tunnel structure. 

We were so excited when she finally did!

Then she started going on her own…

…and not coming out.

She realized it was MUCH cooler in there…so there she stayed.  

After Adam perched Bruiser in one I suggested he get in for a photo op. 

He obliged and I turned down the nice lady who offered to get us all in. I was not climbing in that dirty dog thing.

We ended our time downtown at a pub across the street with some cold beer and good food.  The dogs even got a bowl of ice water. It was a great afternoon and the dogs really enjoyed getting out.  We decided we need to take them out more often.  The next step in their “coming out” is trying to get them to swim in Tara’s new pool…which we headed to after the park. We almost got Jordan in … but she’s still unsure. And bruiser had too much fun with his girlfriend Roxy. So much fun both of their feet were bloody and soar from running around.  Saturday night we had two very tired doggies. Mission Accomplished.

A 77 year old Sunday Chicken

I’ve talked about my grandma’s chicken many times on this blog.  And I have yet to make it like she did, I probably never will…but I won’t give up trying. 
I recently bought a whole chicken at the store with the intent of using my “must have” Dutch Oven…that I rarely seem to use.  So Sunday was the day (of course).  When Adam got up early to go into practice I pulled my recipe box out and started looking for a recipe for roasted chicken. I found some recipes…but none that sounded as easy as I wanted ( you see this was the same day as the beans fiasco).   Anyway as I was sitting in bed with magazines and clipping all around me I saw this little book on my dresser that my mother had sent me after cleaning out grandmas house.

Do you see that date on there? 1934. This is my grandma’s recipe book from…well 1934?? I don’t know. but it’s old. Apparently her pumpkin pie recipe is on page 53 and the chicken A La king on page 27 is good too.  I love that my grandma left notes on everything. She had a bad memory (most of the time) and always left notes so she wouldn’t forget. I leave myself notes all the time. I guess I get it from her. 
Back to the book.  I gingerly open it and see that it’s basically a 1st times book for everything. How to cook corn on the cob how to make a pie crust  chicken a la king….and Roast Chicken.

can you see it…

The recipe sounded very similar to the one my aunt gave me that grandma used.  I guess this is where she got it.  So I put all my recipes and clipping away and decided to go with the 77 year old recipe for chicken.
I love that there are no listed ingredients. And that they assume I know what dressing a chicken is. And the fact that I first put the chicken in a HOT oven. really? how hot? like 100 degrees? cause I think that’s pretty hot.  But I see that I need to reduce the temp to 350…so hot must mean Hotter than 350. 500 it is.  On a side note the recipe called for stuffing, but I wasn’t up for that, so didn’t do that and instead stuck some fresh basil inside.
After having Adam pull out the inside stuff I prepare the chicken as directed and pop it into my HOT oven.

An hour or so later (after basting every 10 min!) we take it out and determine it’s done.  Sitting down Adam cuts into it and proclaims “mmmmmmm it’s good” And it is. It’s moist and juicy and almost…almost tastes like grandmas. But not quite.

I have no idea what I’m doing…

Remember back in June when we went to that fancy restaurant in Chicago? Remember how I ooed and ahhed over the green beans?

Well Adam and I had decided we wanted to make them for thanksgiving. Didn’t I tell you? we’re hosting thanksgiving this year!

Anyway as any good hostess knows you can’t serve something you haven’t tried. And I have Tried Tried Tried to find the recipe for that sauce. It was labeled fish sauce vinaigrette on the menu. I think I can figure out the sautéed green beans with cashews part…but it was that sauce that made the dish. So I’ve scoured the internet and found lots of people who have done their own “take” on Stephanie Izards dish.  But after reading their ingredients…I didn’t buy it. I even went as far as to email the restaurant explaining that I wanted to make this for my dying parents who were walking from Michigan for their one last thanksgiving meal and that I was in no way a chef trying to steal the recipe for my own monitary value…well maybe I didn't say all that, but I should have…they probably would have sent me the recipe!

But they didn’t. So I was stuck with the few hint from food critiques describing the dish, my own faint memory and the title; fish sauce vinaigrette.  I went to the store to buy this fish sauce stuff and was lucky I found it right away in the Asian section of Publix.  I also picked up the green beans and cashews (the two ingredients I KNOW I had right!)

Back at home I started small (small pan, small amounts…) I put in the fish sauce (must be the main component if it’s in the title) Then I added some butter and Dijon mustard and a little salt n pepper.

When I finally thought the consistency was right I tasted it.

WHOA!!!!!!!!!! SALT!!!!

So I tried again…with less salt.

Same result. Then I thought…maybe I should taste this fish sauce stuff. Sure enough it was like soy sauce on crack. Yikes!

I had pulled some other recipes off line that sounded similar (but had no way indicated they were inspired by Chef Izard) So after my first few fails I tried again.  Adam suggested some lime juice to cut salt so that was brought into the mix.  As was rice wine vinegar (you know to make a vinaigrette…)

Well after 3 or 4 MORE attempts and the rest of the meal waiting to be started I created something that wasn’t horrible. It was no where near what we had in Chicago and I’m not making it for thanksgiving, but it was edible.  Adam made a good point “I really can’t remember what it tasted like, I doubt Jonathan will and your parents never had it…so make something that’s good.  So that’s what I’ll do. I’m going to make the sautéed green beans with cashews, but the sauce is going to be how I remember it; a creamy tangy sweet Dijon sauce. Which by the way the internet has tons of recipes for.  Score.

Good Times

Adam’s Dad, Russ, came for a quick visit a week back and we had a great time with him.  He arrived on a thursday night and stayed through saturday, leaving early sunday morning before we got up.  While he was here we took him to a preseason hockey game, we won. 

That same night He took us out for an anniversary dinner (to the place we went on our 1st date).

Adam & Russ got in a few rounds of golf too.  On Saturday it was free museum day so we went to the new Tampa Bay History Center, which I thought was kind of disappointing.  But we did get some interesting pictures (no flash of course)

We had a picnic in the park complete with fresh home made pretzel rolls. 

In Ybor I found a cigar bar for the boys to smoke their new cigars and watch football…

…that is until I suggested a game of cards!

Yes…we played cards…until the wee hours of the morning. 

And yes I went into work one day a bit ‘tired’.  For such a short trip we sure did get a lot in…and then sunday…we crashed on the couch.