Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday with your friends and family. Turkey Day is a great day because I get to do what I do best - eat and be social. I love gathering with family for a great meal and waiting for the mashed potatoes to make it to my end of the table. I love sitting around that same dinner table hours later to play board games. Apples to Apples is my favorite!

Here are a quick few of the many things I'm thankful for this year (in no particular order):

1. Getting to spend this delicious holiday with my WHOLE family. I'm so lucky to still have all my grandparents. And I can't wait to see my sister, Heather! Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to see the rest of my family either, but it's been nearly 4 months since I've seen Heatheeeeer (as Casey says) and I miss her.
   
2. Having another family to spend Thanksgiving with. Yay, Ritters! And it's my brother-in-law's birthday!
   
3. All the text messages I'm sure to get from all my fabulous friends. And the phone that I'll text them all back with.
   
4. This is the first holiday I'll get to spend with my husband. The first of all holidays for the rest of my life.
5. 2nd Annual Girls' Thanksgiving Feast (11.22.09)

Nerd Alert

I can't wait to see New Moon with A. Fry and JMo tomorrow night. JMo even made us t-shirts to wear, complete with iron-on decals and puffy paint. Juvenile? Maybe, but we should fit right in with all the other Twilight Saga-obsessed 20-somethings that are sure to pack the theatre.

Fashion Frugality

Thanks to Carrie, I am positively smitten with LuLu's. The items are fabulous and the prices are affordable - which was hard for me to believe at first. But I love love LOVE their clothes, especially the dresses.

Since my lady friends began throwing around ideas of what to do for NYE 2009 last week, I have been obsessing over the perfect party dress. A dress from LuLu's may be just what my wardrobe needs.

I'm loving one-shoulder dresses right now.

Feather fetis anyone?

My LuLu's wish list has already grown out of control. And with prices like these, I might be able to get everything I want...eventually.

The Would-Be Joy of Cooking

I'm not good at cooking. The best I can do is a pot of pasta or a batch of brownies from a box. Oh, and I can make decent tacos. And my husband can cook burgers on the grill, chicken nuggets in the oven and pancakes. Our meals aren't very creative, and more often than not we call a bowl of cereal dinner. Sometimes we surrender quickly to the Frosted Mini Wheats, but other times we pace from the pantry to the fridge many times contemplating our meal only to become frustrated by our lack of cooking skills. This lack of cooking skills, I believe, translates directly to our lack of grocery shopping skills. We try and try to purchase food items to make meals, but 9 times out of 10 we are unsuccessful unless we buy a frozen dinner in a bag. It's quite pathetic really.

I blame my mom. And she would probably blame herself too. In her early-40s, she's just now growing a steady pair of cooking legs. Both my grandmas are whizzes in the kitchen and make delicious entrees, side dishes and desserts. But it didn't rub off on me, or my mom really. So without a cooking role model, I have turned to many recipe books with little to show for it. It's not that I don't want to be learn to cook, I would love to. But when it comes to preparing anything extravagant, I lose interest in the length of time it will take to actually enjoy my creation. And maybe that's my problem, I haven't mastered the actual joy of cooking. I know for a fact I have mastered the joy of eating.

So what do you enjoy cooking? What recipes do you really have fun making?

Update 11/16: My mom told me she read this blog post and said she blames her mom (my grandma) for her lack of cooking skills to share with me. Apparently grandma liked to cook alone and never let anyone in the kitchen with her while my mom was growing up. My mom also reminded me of some easy things I do know how to cook and also gave me other suggestions that she uses. Thanks, Mom!

Carousel

Every once in awhile I get in a rut. A rut in which every day seems to be the same mundane routine. I am by all means a planner. I find great pleasure in jotting down to-do lists and scribbling events into my calendar. I love having things to look forward to. Most of my friends are the same way. And most of the time this works for me. But every now and then, I desire to break out of this mold. To be spontaneous. To be random.

What random/spontaneous things do you do to avoid falling in a rut with your every day routine?

Happy Weekend

I just love pictures of pretty fall leaves. Don't you?

So, what are you doing this weekend? I am working at AT tonight and Sunday. I also plan to enjoy this late fall weekend partaking in a hodge-podge of activities (just to name a few):

• catching up on some QT with my hubby
• watching football
• a Saturday morning kickboxing class
• walking the dogs
• a night out with friends
• a trip to Old Navy for a new winter coat that I love, love, love (plus the sale price and my extra 30% off make it all the more appealing)!

I want to wish Mr. & Mrs. Menchen a safe trip Saturday morning to the Dominican Republic. Have a wonderful honeymoon and enjoy some cocktails on the beach for Mr. & Mrs. Ritter!

A Wedding to Menchen

Halloween is a great way to end the month of October. And this year it was a fabulous day as my best friend, KRuff, and Mr. Menchen said "I do" on 10.31.09, a windy and chilly, but beautiful fall day. Congratulations on a wonderful wedding, Mr. & Mrs. Menchen. I love you both whole bunches!