A Week Without Blogging... But You Haven't Missed Much

It's been a whole week since I last blogged, but you haven't missed much.

I'm wrapping up my 6(ish) week nanny gig and Joe is studying around the clock.

In my abundant free time I have not been going to the gym (shame on me), but I HAVE been kicking butt on the domestic front. We always have clean clothes (thanks to my weekly treks down to the scary basement), the apartment is consistently presentable (that's decidedly different than CLEAN, but I wouldn't be embarrassed if someone stopped by), and I have made homemade meals almost every night for over a week (the only exception was Saturday night because we went to a frat pot luck... more later).

Just a couple of pics of our recent dinners for proof ;)

Lemon Chicken Romano. Recipe here. Mine is much less pretty because the coating fell off when I fried the chicken. It was still delicious and will definitely be a repeat.

Originally meant to be the french onion chicken sandwich found here, but we added BBQ sauce so it turned into a delicious chicken sandwich with caramelized onions and Gates BBQ sauce.

Lasagna Soup made in the crock pot. Can't find the recipe I used, but there are tons of variations on Pinterest. Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan. The crock pot part was convenient, but I'd prefer to stick to regular pasta or lasagna in the future.

Fish from Costco (here) and delicious green beans that I made for our Christmas date. The recipe for the green beans can be found here.

Looking at the food we've been eating, it sure looks like we eat a lot of potatoes. Which we honestly don't have very often with dinner. However, with my nanny job I get off of work around 6. By the time I get home I am STARVING and so I use my break during the day (while the girls are in school) to prep as much of dinner as I possibly can. That way, Joe can just pop things in the oven and dinner is close to ready when I get home.

Potatoes are super simple to prepare ahead of time - I cut them, coat them by shaking them up in a Ziploc, put the Ziploc in the fridge, get out a baking tray and cover it with foil, and then tell Joe to plop the potatoes on the tray and stick them in the oven around 5:15. That gives me time to get home, prep anything else, and pull them out of the oven when they reach crispy perfection.

***Side Note*** Hey, at least 2 of the 3 times we had potatoes in the above pictures they were accompanied by a veggie :) ***End of Side Note***

As I mentioned, the only time we haven't eaten a homemade dinner over the last several days was Saturday when we went to a pot luck at the fraternity house. It turns out that not many people came because there was going to be a party at the house later that night. Given that dental students don't have much free time, almost everyone decided to attend the party and study during the pot luck. Given the fact that Joe and I are a good 5+ years older than most of these kids, we prefer a pot luck to a party any day ;)

We had fun. We played cornhole, Joe got to BBQ, and I tried my very first Four Loko.

The Four Loko was very strong. So (per advice from more experienced Four Loko drinkers) I drank it nice and slow... which meant that I didn't have time to finish it at the pot luck. So I smuggled it home. And took a ba-zillion selfies.

Joe and I watched some TV and then played rummy again. I beat him by 10! Quite the narrow victory, but a victory nonetheless. I don't know why I resisted learning rummy for so long... it's a really fun game. We had originally planned to do our weekly date also, but were too tired (and, let's face it, too drunk). Instead, we did the date last night after the Breaking Bad finale (when, let's face it, we were also too drunk but we had run out of time). I'll post the date re-cap tomorrow.

I think the moral of this post is that (A) I have plenty of free time - I need to go to the dang gym! (B) We eat too many potatoes (C) We drink far too much. It's a new week and almost a new month, so I'm gonna try to correct those ABC's of diet sabotage starting today!

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Bit By the BBC Bug

I was late to the Downton Abbey party (as I typically am to great TV: see Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead). But when I finally caught up this Spring, I became an equally obsessed fan pining away for new episodes; new episodes which started airing last night for those lucky Brits.

Maybe it was jealousy that we Americans have to wait until JANUARY (wth?!). Maybe I was just bored out of my mind now that Joe is in 24/7 study-mode. Whatever the reason, 11 days ago I was bit by the BBC bug and have yet to recover.

It started with The Buccaneers and was quickly followed by North & South, Bleak House, Wuthering Heights, and now The Forsyte Saga.

That's over 25 hours of BBC miniseries (mini-serieses? mini-seri?) in 11 days.

A feat made possible by sheer boredom and loneliness.

While I have enjoyed them all (well, except for Wuthering Heights because Catherine and Heathcliff are certifiably INSANE), there's something special about Downton Abbey and I can't wait for it to be back!

Since I have 4 more months (ugh), I am on the lookout for another series to start once I finish The Forsyte Saga. Any recommendations?

Also, since 25 hours of BBC in 11 days doesn't scream BORED enough, I took a quiz to see which Downton Abbey character I am most like. I got Mary Crawley. Twice.

Which 'Downton Abbey' Character Are You?

More on Downton Abbey.Created by BuddyTV

I took the quiz twice because I don't like the cold and mean thing. I suppose some people might think that because I am definitely shy around new people, but I don't think I am an ice queen like Mary. 

However, I like the ingenious thing... so I'll say that this quiz isn't too far off ;) Plus, I do like to try to get ahead, don't like my plans foiled, and I am a big fan of both love and money.

Anyone else curious as to who they'd be at Downton Abbey? Take the quiz and then leave a comment letting me know who you got :) Any other Marys in the house?

Indoor Camping Date

It's no secret that I'm having trouble adjusting to Joe's busy schedule, so I am more grateful than ever that we are committed to doing one date a week from our date jars.

***Side Note*** That is, unless plans are derailed by terrible, horrible cramps as they were last week. Darn uterus. ***End of Side Note***

Since he has a test on Monday, Joe drew a green date for the first time (green dates are 90 minutes or less). I was excited to see that while it was an at-home date like the others we have done, it was one that didn't involve watching TV. While I love TV just as much as the next person (ok, more. A lot more), it's really all Joe and I do when we are spending time together because he is so exhausted from school and studying.

So what was this at-home, non-TV date? Indoor camping!

The plan was to cook s'mores, set up a "tent" in the living room, and play cards. I thought it would be fun to also tell scary stories, but given that Joe hates scary stuff, I figured we could scratch that off the list. Heck, he probably doesn't even know any scary stories.

Cooking the s'mores should have been super easy because we have a gas stove, but I kept catching my marshmallows on fire. Eventually I got the hang of it :)

After we plated our s'mores, we headed into the "tent" I made. Since I just draped a sheet over the table (I know, so creative haha), we sat on the edge and kind of ducked our heads in. We made it through a s'more each before deciding we needed a new tent.

So Joe got to work. While his tent was also too low, at least we were bumping our heads on sheet rather than a table.

We decided to play rummy, which was made difficult by the "wild animal" that invaded our campsite.

Joe completely kicked my butt. It's because we were sober. When we play drunk rummy I annihilate him. I'm not sure if that's because I am so much better drunk, or he's just so much worse ;)

And there you have it. Date #4 is in the books. Joe wants to do another date tomorrow as a make-up for last week, so I may have more date tales to tell soon.

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Proof I'm Improving

I am slowly improving on my goal to better care for myself and our apartment. Yesterday I cooked a pretty healthy fish dinner, and here's the proof:

Today, I was supposed to do laundry but ran out of time. The reason I ran out of time, though, is a good one! I finally had a chance to hang out with a dental school significant other. One of Joe's classmates is engaged and they live just down the block from us. She asked if I needed to shop at Trader Joes (which, let's be real, I ALWAYS need to shop at) so we went grocery shopping this morning. Next week we'll probably grab lunch. It's so nice to finally have a female friend in Philadelphia :)

The shopping excursion may have delayed laundry, but I bought a ton of ingredients for my planned meals for the next week or so, so that's definitely a win.

Still no exercise though...

Tomorrow I plan to hit the gym again. I really am having fun with the zombie run app, I am just so mentally exhausted. 

***Side Note*** I guess we should also add that I am emotionally exhausted. Joe just asked what was wrong because I am sitting in his office and apparently have been sighing sad sighs every 1-2 minutes since I got up here. I'll be honest, I AM pretty sad right now. I hate how busy he is. How can I tell him that, though? This is reality and I need to get used to it. It's not fair to make him feel guilty for working hard. ***End of Side Note***

I feel like this blog has been pretty downer lately and not very exciting, and for that I apologize. We had to skip our date jar date last week (driving range) because I had KILLER cramps. With Joe being so busy nowadays, date days are the most exciting things that are going on. But tonight we may do this week's date, so stay tuned :)

On that note, I'm going to try to finish a book I started 3 months ago. At least this former bookworm has time to pick up reading again ;)

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Only Mildly Successful

Despite yesterday's declaration that I was going to try a lot harder to take care of myself and the apartment, I've already proven myself a liar.

So fitting

Since yesterday was a Wednesday, I worked 11 hours straight (the youngest kid I nanny doesn't have school on Wednesdays and the older kid was sick). When the parents arrived home, I couldn't bear the thought of coming home and cooking (I was exhausted and starving), so I swung by Little Caesars. ***Side Note*** The location of which is so dangerously convenient I am afraid it will become our Wednesday ritual until I'm done with this temporary position ***End of Side Note***

Not only was getting Little Caesars a fail because I didn't cook dinner myself, but it was a fail on the diet-front too. The couple of drinks I had to reward myself for getting through another Wednesday certainly didn't help.

Today I re-resolved to do better, and am proud to say that so far I have... mildly.

I didn't exercise and I had more calories at lunch than I should have, BUT I spent over two hours cleaning and prepping dinner for tonight. The downstairs looks AWESOME and once I get home tonight I just need to pop a couple things in the oven and we'll have a healthy fish dinner ready in 20 minutes.

Baby steps.

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I Don't Feel Like It

Lately, my motto has been: "I don't feel like it."

Gym? I don't feel like it.

Eating healthy? I don't feel like it.

Cleaning? I don't feel like it.

Cooking dinner? I don't feel like it.

Blogging? I don't feel like it.

I need to snap out of this and start taking care of myself and our home. I'm sure Joe doesn't want to study all the time (and I mean ALL the time. He wakes up at 6:30 in the morning to start studying and usually doesn't stop for anything but class and meals until at least 9 at night.) I made the promise that I'd take care of as much as I can around the house while Joe is in school, and I'd say I'm getting about a C right now.

I've been cooking more than usual and have been keeping up with the laundry pretty well, but I need to do better. The apartment is in a constant state of disarray and, because I've been cooking more, there are ALWAYS dishes in the sink. 

I need to start giving 100% just like Joe is. So I decided to do some menu planning for the next several days (thank goodness for Pinterest!)

And I'm going to make a cleaning calendar to keep me accountable. I always get more done when there's a plan and I can cross things off a list. 

Hopefully this helps!

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Not Much to Report

Joe's first test is officially done and he got a B! Definitely a solid grade for his first dental school exam. Because he doesn't have another test until 9/23, we were able to spend time together the last couple nights (hence my lack of posts).

It's not that much has been going on, though.

On Thursday, I learned that Buster would be my Achilles heel if ever there were a zombie apocalypse. After three days in the gym, I wanted to try training outside. Buster's been gaining a bit of weight, so I figured he could benefit from coming with me. While he definitely benefited, I certainly did not. He stopped at least 50 times to raise his leg on something and twice to poop. I think I'd have to carry Buster or abandon the poor pup should zombies ever really be chasing me. Either that, or get him doggie diapers ;)

On Friday, I fell down the stairs to the laundry. Remember how I have to go into this spooky basement to do my laundry?

I'm such a klutz, I knew it was only a matter of time before I fell down those stairs. Luckily, I fell from about the 3rd step from the ground so I escaped with just a skinned and bloodied knee (plus probably some of the disgusting bacteria that is certainly living down there haha).

Note to self: I MUST sign up for health insurance today. I've been tempting fate far too long. 

Aside from my fall, the day was pretty uneventful. I did make some delicious cilantro lime chicken for dinner. I am becoming so domestic thanks to my 5 hour breaks in the day ;)

Tomorrow, Joe and I are doing our weekly date and will be hitting some balls at the driving range. Joe is VERY excited. Me? Well... I am more excited that we are going to go to Costco after.

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