It’s the small things….

So everyone asks us “Are you over London? Do you feel settled? Etc. etc.”  The answer is NO – I will never ever be over London. It was a dream come true and I will be forever grateful for the experience. But it’s the small things that are really making me love being back home.

• ·       It’s the 10 minute commute I’m used to from pulling out of my driveway and into my parking spot.  (Note – remember the hour long commute at least once a week, when I was holding my computer bag, purse, and workout bag all while getting shoved– ugh – do not miss).

•      Its being able to pick up the phone and call my mom/Nana/family/friends without having to calculate what time it is in the States.  (I always wanted to talk to people on Saturday morning at 4am !)

• ·         Its our gorgeous green grass and yard that’s all ours, we don’t have to share the entire park with anyone else (This means no one has to see how pale I am…not that I was that “pale” in comparison over there anyway, but not all of us can have Molly Suess Thompson’s tan year round).

• ·         It’s having a car to transport things (i.e., toilet paper + paper towels + milk + OJ- all in one go -  amazing)

• ·         Its having a HUGE closet that I don’t have to share at all or have Burr hold the hangers apart while I rip out a shirt because the closest is soooo packed.

And of course, having a savings account is nice too. 

So I will always miss London but I’ve never been happier to be home too!! This weekend we are headed to Hilton Head for a little R&R of course some BASKETBALL!!  Next weekend its Steve’s BDAY extravaganza and Easter, and the weekend after is Wedding extravaganza and I get to see CLARE and ELLIE!!!!!!  Looks like a great few weeks ahead. 

Love

Anne

Love gloating! ROCK CHALK

The days when you truly appreciate living in North Carolina

1.       1. When the weather is generally lovely 75% of the time and you look at the weather in London / Kansas and appreciate NC

       2. KU BEATS Roy and you get to go to work and see all these smug UNC people, and I can just smile and know they know what I’m thinking “We beat you…we beat you…nah nah na na nah….” Do you think Roy is going to have a “I can’t beat KS curse”…could be!

3.       3. When you know the beach is just a 4 hour drive away and you are going to Hilton Head soon! YEAH! 

That’s us….so excited to go lay on the beach with a book, and of course a hat, 50 spf, etc. etc. 

There are tons more things I love love love about NC, but being at work today with all these UNC fans is just about my number one of 2012 

How was everyone’s weekend?  You are never gonna believe it….I made something DISGUSTING! I mean absolutely terrible. It was this “orange chicken”  recipe and it was supposed to be like at a Chinese restaurant but it was so gross. Burr made me eat some of it but YUCK.  Luckily Burr made some delicious fried rice that made up for it, but EWWWWWWWWW. 

I did however, make fabulous oatmeal cookies for Burr on Sunday night with my new Kitchen aid Mixer – thank you Bill and Barbara for the Amazon gift card!  I LOVE it!! 

Weekend consisted of visiting Henry Bowman – age 7 days, lots of basketball, jazzercise, hair appt, PwC spring party, and lots of time with Burr.  Doesn’t sound like we were very productive huh? Well we weren’t.  Burr mowed the grass – so that was productive, we did laundry, and we double checked the maid comes back this week – THANK GOODNESS. 

The PwC party was fine, except for the pre-party Burr made us attend. Remember when you were in college and before the party you would get a close group of friends together to “pre-drink.” – (Note – I said REMEMBER when you were in college, we’re 30 now). So Burr somehow convinces his poor little staff to invite us to the pre-party, poor guy was probably to embarrassed to say NO – YOU’RE OLD! So, Burr convinced 2 other managers to this pre-party as well. After lots of driving around, Burr carrying a case of beer, and us wandering around an apartment complex, we hear the music and we’ve arrived!! O M G…are you kidding me?!  This guy has transformed his studio apartment into a flip cup table, there is chips and dip out and he even has a kegorator.  I notice he has been living there for at least a year and he has 1 thing on the wall – it’s a score keeper, no rugs, no other pictures.  Hello – college dude?  Every girl there has a miniature dress on – like you should really wear leggings dresses – and they’ve had their hair done in “up-do’s” – I die. I was SO embarrassed and that was definitely the longest 45 minutes of my entire weekend. Finally we got to leave and go to the real party, where Burr certainly heard enough of me going “You get you are 30 right?  and those people thought you were uber-weird for coming, right?!” UGH. I think I got us out of pre-parties for a long long time, thank goodness.

 

So in conclusion.  WE ARE GOING TO THE FINAL FOUR, WE ARE GOING TO THE FINAL FOUR, WAOOOOOOO. ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!! BEAK ‘EM HAWKS! - See pic of Clare yesterday :-)

Random pics of our house - this is part of the option kitchen area

Living room - I told you we need furniture!!!

Pics from Colon Cancer Gala

Our weekend and ROCK CHALK

was FULL of college basketball! YEAH ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK. Sorry to UVA and Burr’s team – wagh. Too bad. I have to say I was SHOCKED we beat Purdue last night. I attempted to go to sleep in 5 minutes of play time left, but ended up laying in bed watching gametracker on my iphone and listening to the commentary from the other room. So much for going to bed early! But glad we pulled it out. Now lest beat NC State. 

So Friday night we went to Jeff and Anne Brady Carlsons house for dinner. Jeff went to Kansas too so it was fun to watch (part) of the game together. About 11pm I turn into a pumpkin and have to go home and sleep!  But, same thing happened with the iphone and gametracker in bed…I should really not take my iphone to the bedroom with me!  

Anyway, Friday night was LOTS of fun. Its always great hanging out just the 4 of us, we attempt to get Anne Brady to calm down – but usually only lots of wine works. She made us Beer Butt Chicken on the Green Egg. Or Anne Brady prepped the chicken and Jeff cooked it. 3 out of the 4 of us loved it – Jeff for some reason didn’t, but he’s from Minnesota and weird things happen there. Haha. 

Saturday I went to jazzercise, of course. And Burr weeded with his bum leg – poor guy!  We took a stroll with his crutches but didn’t make it very far…obviously.  Burr ended up making the recipe I wanted and it was A plus – delicious!  You have to try it ASAP!  We rented Contagion and chilled on the couch. Oh, and I made banana pudding for us – but it was from the box – and it is NOT GOOD – real stuff always from now on. 

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/pasta-carbovera/

 

Sunday Ayden and Brooke came over and brought their  little one, Graham, so cute! Sorry I forgot to take pics. I made healthy breakfast casserole and orange cinnamon rolls(this part was not healthy). Then, Burr and I went to church and a bit of furniture shopping. More weeding and basketball finished off our weekend! 

This week it appears Burr has obligations Mon, Tues, and Wed….which makes me believe we are TERRIBLE planners b/c I have nothing and next week I have stuff Mon, Tues, and Wed!?  REALLY!?  Oh well. I’m looking forward to getting things done around the house tonight and tomorrow night.  

Next house tasks:  Find out which flowers Anne can buy, plant, and not kill – this will not be very easy, try to buy ottoman’s for sofas which are not from restoration hardware (my fav and by far most expensive furniture store). 

Well off to work. Happy Monday!

MUAH MUAH

Anne

Pics from KANSAS!!!!

Clare Bear and Grandmere

Clare and Burr - here Clare helped us make fruit pizza. We barely had any kiwi to put on the pizza after she ate most of it!

 Clare playing with her dolls. Isn't her KU uniform cute?~!

Grandmere plus Clare and Ellie

The gals in Wichita. Clare is eating sour candy balls...yummy

Anne and Ellie. Isn't she adorable?

I heart everyone in these pics. 

LOVE 

Anne

Gotta try this

New receipe - It was so yummy!  My, non-casserole-loving husband even loved it!!

We ate it for dinner and we're both eating it for lunch today! Enjoy

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/cheesy-chicken-and-rice-bake/

I'm definitely going to try this one next though -

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/pasta-carbovera/

Is everyone else having fabulous weather?  Its so gorgeous outside. LOVE IT!
XXX
Anne

Poor Burr! He hurt himself - stress facture or mid foot sprain apparently in his ankle.  I came home from girls night (more on Courtney and Ben later) to see an ACE bandage package lying on the island...uhhh ohhh is all I thought. I knew Burr had 2 soccer games last night. GEEZ what have you done?!

I go back to the bedroom and he is wincing in pain.  Poor guy!  We wrapped his ankle up and attempted some meds for the pain.  This morning first thing he went to urgent care. Now, I KNOW when Burr is really in pain if he is not even going into the office first. YIKES.

You know what this means??? Anne is on laundry and cleaning duty - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Oh well, I can be domestic for 10 days (I hope).

So say your prayers Burr recovers quickly. He is hobbling around on crutches right now.

Oh - and as for Courtney and Ben. They are the 2 strangest people and perhaps they do belong together. Obviously she is just one of those girls that doesn't really have girlfriends, you know what I mean. But I am WAY too excited for Emily's season.

WHO IS PUMPED for MARCH MADNESS?  My brackets are getting confusing...too many good teams to choose from.

Love to all.
MUAH
Anne

Hola

Went to KS this past weekend. Saw Miss Clare Anne and Miss Ellie Grace Ziegelmeyer. SOOOOO cute. Ellie is precious and just plays like a perfect baby, smiles often, and only gets mad when hungry. Clare has us all tied around her little finger – with lots of I love you’s, and Anne – do this and that. …or more like Burr. She likes Burr or her Grandmere the best for sure. 

David is doing really well. I was shocked how well he looked, good as new , and just 3.5 weeks after surgery!  YEAH 

Nana is adorable, as usual.

Burr and I spent a lot of time at the WCC (Wichita country club) working out or eating. And of course we went to barnard’s which was fabulous, as usual . 

Look at this link – SOOOOO excited. Emily’s season of the Bachelor starts on May 14^th. You better believe we will be watching this with bells on. I hope I get to see them filming in Charlotte sometime. That would be fantastic!

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Bachelorette-filming-in-uptown-Charlotte--142460915.html

I will post pictures from KS very soon. In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been cooking lately

(1)    Lemon Raspberry Cheescake – this is SOOOO good - http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/no-bake-cheesecake-recipe/

(2)    Quinoa Mac and Cheese – I added broccoli to mine and used low fat cheese -http://aroundthetableri.blogspot.com/2012/02/cheesy-quinoa-mac-cheese.html

(3)    Zuchini Chips – for an app, with yogurt sauce (yogurt +lemon juice+garlic+salt) - http://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,10000001087041,00.html

And I want to try these this weekend with a huge thing of strawberries that are going bad from our fridge - http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/recipes/dried-strawberries-ruscalleda/

In other news, our maid – who we are  ucky enough to have come every Tuesday informed me she is off for 2 weeks! Which means we are cleaning these next 2 weekends.  There is a reason Burr and I spend the money on a maid, its better for us, our marriage, and our house. Period.  Bummer.  I guess this will teach me either (a) how to clean (b) how to appreciate our cleaner or (c) how to get a backup if this happens again. Wish me luck!

Catching Up ...is it March already?!

Blogging I’ve been bad about and I’m sorry!  I have NO excuse. Terrible. Pathetic. I’m sorry!

To catch you up…of course I’ve been doing lots of cooking, which I’m not sure Burr loves. But he did love my Quinoa Mac and Cheese recipe – delish!!! 

Last weekend we attended the Colon Cancer Gala in Spartanburg to support our friends, Anne Brady and Jeff Carlson. It was really fun to get all dressed up and support a great cause.  See pic.  Unfortunately it had rained Friday night and part of the night I was standing in muddy grass, so my feet were pretty gross. Hello pedicure needed anyone?!

Have y’all been checking out pinterest?  Its SO cool. I love to check it out for decorating tips and ideas. Also recipes and random cleaning ideas.  I heart it. I would rather pinterest for an hour than facebook for ten minutes, I like it THAT much. Oh yeah.

Tomorrow I am leaving for KANSAS and Burr comes Friday. I get to see Miss Clare and Miss Ellie (and of course the family) and I CANNOT wait. I hope Clare remembers us! I’m making them some fun easter baskets.  Really really excited (if you cannot already tell).

Lately I’ve been really enjoying girls’night on Tuesdays with Katie, Sally, Sarah, Loucinda, Austin (sometimes), and Lindsay. We watch Bachelor and eat delicious food.  MY friend Sarah has her own design blog and its fabulous – mattersofstyleblog.com – if you want to check it out. She is seriously talented.

 

So we FINALLY picked out a headboard – yeah – thanks to my other decorator friend, Stefanie. She somehow took my gibber gabber and come up with this masterpiece. Ours won’t be white though – hello dirt!  We picked out a light gray velvet fabric. I’m super pumped about it and even more pumped I made a decision.*

* Now, I have been whining how burr has me on this seriously tight furniture budget. But I realized I should go ahead and start shopping for things I want (i.e., chairs, tables, sofas) because it takes me 6-8 months to figure out what I want so by the time we’re ready to buy it least I’ll know what the heck I want! 

Who’s excited for March Madness?!  ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK BABY!

Muah

Anne

A bit of this and that...

Hello friends!!! So sorry its been too long. Last weekend was LOTS and LOTS of cooking on my part.  My favorite thing to do is actually cook, but only when I have time. And since Burr was working he just came home for dinner at night (Friday and Saturday).  Here is what was whipped up last weekend.

Friday Night – Make your own Pizza with ceaser salad and homemade croutons

Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat fresh pizza dough

TraderJoe’s fresh pizza sauce

Low-fat skim mozzerlla cheese

Soy sausage  - also from TJs – FULL of protein

Sauteed mushrooms

Olives (for anne)

Croutons = whole wheat bread with light butter, garlic powder, and garlic and herb cheese broiled to perfection

Saturday Night – Lebanese Night (Now this was a bit difficult!) Seriously – 3 middle eastern grocery stores…hello!

1.       Chicken Swarma Pitas with garlic sauce (You have to marinade chicken overnight)

a.       Garlic Sauce = 1 cup nonfat greek yogurt, ¼ cup lemon juice, 3 smushed garlics, garlic powder if needed, salt

2.       Fattoush Salad

a.       Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, homemade pita chips (pita coated with olive oil and crushed garlic baked for 7 minutes at 400), tossed with dressing of 1/2cup water, ½ cup lemon juice, 1 t. sumac (spice), 1 t. dried mint, salt, pepper,

Sunday I made egg muffins for breakfast for the week, makes 12 muffins

1 cup liquid egg whites

3 regular eggs

½ cup skim milk

Sautéed veggies (mushrooms, spinach, onions, peppers)

Soy sausage

Cook for 20 minutes, then top with low fat cheese and cook for another 5 minutes.

I love these cause you can re-heat a couple in the morning and shove them in on your way to work!

I get to see Ellie and Clare in T minus 13 days. SOOOOO excited – check out recent pics. Are you kidding me?! Ridic.

 

This is a picture of me and our friends, Katie and Drews, little girl - Maggie. Isn't she the sweetest thing ever! I heart her.

 This is pic of the shape of our new bed!!! I picked out a grey velvet fabric to get it covered in though.

I was SUPER productive last weekend and even whipped up this arrangement on our wall! I was SOOOO proud of myself:-)

 

We also had the yard guy come – here are a couple pics.

Oh, and termite update is we don’t have “active” termites; these were old and treated before. At least we can sleep at night!