Currently I am...

Currently I am...

Reading: I am not currently reading anything because I just finished reading "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn.  This book got super addictive.  I had really high expectations for the ending so I think it let me down a little bit but still a book worth reading!

Thinking about: What a magnificent birthday I had yesterday and how the whole day went by way too fast.  I got the most beautiful flowers sent to my work from Vinnie (complete with a little teddy bear and chocolates).  My day didn't start out too great because the water pressure in my shower wasn't right so I started my day with a terribly long shower because the water was dripping out.  Not to mention, my shower was screaming at me the whole time.  I was pissed and had a headache.  It was gloomy out all morning, which didn't help my mood, but those beautiful flowers really brightened my day.  The sun finally came out at the end of the day just in time for me to enjoy it on my drive home.  I got a phone call from my sister and she had my niece and nephew sing 'Happy Birthday' to me.  I almost cried it was so cute!  They are precious, those little voices are adorable.  Vinnie took me to Wildfire for dinner and it was soooo good.  Best meal I've had in a while.  And then we stopped in Barcito (felt like we were in Barcelona, or a dream) for an after dinner drink and ONE birthday shot.  This girl is never doing more than one shot in a night ever again (at least for now).  It was seriously one of the best birthdays I've ever had.

Loving: my amazing boyfriend.  He really outdid himself yesterday.  Also, this amazing weather!  Yesterday it was over 70 degrees when I left work.  I wore a skirt and a sweater out to dinner last night (no coat needed).  Today it's a high of 77 degrees (currently 68).  I don't know what is going on with the weather (thank you global warming?) but I am loving it!  It's usually about 30 degrees around this time of the year in Illinois.  I would like to think that the weather Gods decided to make it nice for my birthday week because next week the highs are back in the 40's.  I've also gotta say that I'm loving the pumpkin spice coffee that I bought from Dunkin Donuts.  I've been drinking it every morning for the last month and it just never gets old.  Why does fall ever have to end???

Looking forward to: the weekend, for obvious reasons.  Saturday, Vinnie has something special planned for my birthday and I can't wait!  It might involve one of my favorite activities (drinking?? beer??).  I'm also really looking forward to next month because of Thanksgiving and me and Vinnie's one year anniversary.  I love Thanksgiving because I truly am extremely thankful for everything and everyone in my life.  And who can resist Thanksgiving food?!  My mouth is just watering thinking about it.  My whole family is finally going to be together for that day too!  I already have special plans for our anniversary.  Nothing big and exciting (like a trip to Cancun or a skydiving adventure) but we are going to have a lot of fun!

Wondering: what I'm going to cook first in my new crock pot!  I told you yesterday that I got a crock pot for my birthday from my parents and I truly am super excited to use it.  I haven't had time to prepare anything yet but I may or may not have pinned a website that has 72 amazing crock pot recipes last month just hoping that I would soon get a crock pot to make these delicious foods.  I'm also wondering what the hay I'm going to do for Halloween.  I love Halloween yet I don't have any plans for this year.  It's hard to plan something when your work schedule is every changing.  I probably won't know if I have to work on Halloween until this weekend and by that time it's probably going to be too late to plan anything.  I'm ok with carving pumpkins and watching scary movies that night.  Sounds alright to me!

Eating: well I just finished eating a granola bar but that's not exciting.  I am planning on eating my leftover coconut shrimp from Wildfire for lunch today though!  Now that is exciting because it was so so good last night!  I am happy that I almost never finish all of my food at restaurants and always have leftovers for the next day.  I haven't cooked or baked anything in a while so I've got some ideas in the works that I'm sure you will be hearing about.

Disliking: working so damn much, as usual.  It was so nice to have the whole weekend off plus the first 3 days of this week off as well, but you know I have to complain about something so here it goes:  I have to work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night and that's going to suck.  But I spent way too much money celebrating birthdays last weekend so I do need to make up for it.  Plus, with Christmas only 61 days away I need to actually start thinking about spending money and buying lots of gifts.  Wow, 61 days is really not that many days!  So actually, I can't complain about working.  There just really isn't a lot to dislike in my life right now.  I guess I can dislike the ever-growing pile of dirty laundry and dirty dishes that just won't seem to wash themselves.  That is a dislike fooo shooo.

Happy About: I'm just happy about everything lately.  I'm happy that the Bears won on Sunday.  I'm happy I got to spend my birthday with my love.  I'm happy I got to see my parents and brother last weekend.  I'm happy that I survived the worst hangover of 2012.  I'm happy that I have one more night off tonight and we are finally going to watch some Breaking Bad.  In general, I'm just happy.

Excited About: This is getting a little redundant.  I'm excited about Breaking Bad tonight.  I'm also really excited about our plans on Saturday.  Thanksgiving, our anniversary, my day off Sunday.  There are exciting things in the future!

Welp, that was a long post with a lost of words but it was fun!

Happy Wednesday!

XO. Tarah

 
 

I'm Old

Today is my birthday.  I'm 25.  I am old.

Holy crap.  I am old.

Remember when you were little and you couldn't sleep the night before your birthday because you couldn't wait to wake up the next morning?!?  Well last night I couldn't sleep because I didn't want to wake up today and be 25 years old.

I was so hung over all day Sunday because I'm too old to drink like I'm in college and I definitely tried to drink like I was in college on Saturday.  Reality check...I'm not 21, I can't take shots of vegas bombs followed by irish car bombs followed by shots of rumpleminze followed by who the hell knows what else until I black out and my BFFs carry me home.  Instead I black out and wake up in my dress, tights, and contacts still in wishing that someone would just put a bullet threw my head and kill me already.  Seriously, I wanted to die on multiple occasions Sunday.  I thought it would be easier than suffering through the pain and dry heaves that were happening until 10 pm.  

WTF!?  I hate growing up.  Where is Peter Pan when you need him?!  I want to be young forever!

Side note, Vinnie sent presents to my work today...beautiful flowers, a little teddy bear, and chocolate.  That man really does know the way to my heart.  The good thing about being a grown up and having grown up birthdays is that you no longer get shitty jewelry from K-Mart and hair scrunchies from Claires.  You get real gifts like roses and a crock pot.  Yes, I did get a crock pot for my birthday.  

Alright, but seriously thanks to everyone who wished this old geezer a happy birthday!  It's all downhill from here, right?!

:)

XO. Tarah (the old lady who lived in the shoe)
 

You're not ordinary.

You're not ordinary.  You're one of a kind, and that's extraordinary.

Nobody's Perfect

Stop trying to make your man the perfect man.  Nobody is perfect and this is sometimes easy to forget.  You are not perfect either.  You have to expect people to have flaws.  If someone is really there for you and stands by you even when you show your "unperfectness", don't let him go.  If he loves you even when you show him your unwanted attitude, don't let him go.  Be there for him too.  And remember, he's not trying to make you the perfect woman (because you're not).  Stop questioning, stop worrying, and just live your life to the fullest. 

Weekend Recap

Hi Everyone!  Our enemy, Mr. Monday, is among us yet again :(

I had a pretty fun weekend, although I now think I might be getting sick because I have a pretty sore throat.  I'll be drinking lots of green tea this week in hopes of fighting it off before the weekend.  This coming weekend is birthday weekend!  Vinnie and I are heading to Iowa to visit my parents.  My brother will be visiting too.  My dad, my brother, and I all have birthdays next week so we are celebrating this weekend.  It's very important that I am not sick for this celebration!

Weekend Recap:

Friday - I did what I do every Friday: WORK.

Saturday - I had breakfast hung out with Marley for a while then hit the gym (finally) for a much needed workout.  Let me tell you, I am still feeling it today.  Then I came home, showered, and headed off to work again.

Sunday - Since it was my only day off it rained all day, of course.  Me and Vinnie had plans to go to Six Flags Great America for Fright Fest because this was the only weekend we'll be able to go since we have plans the next 2 weekends and Fright Fest ends in October.  We decided to just suck it up, go, and pray that the rain stops.  When we first arrived it started raining the hardest it had rained all day and we started regretting our decision because it was starting out to be a miserable experience.  We decided to go to a hypnotist show, mostly because it was inside.  The show lasted about an hour and was actually pretty funny.  When we got out, the rain had died down a little but it was super cold.  

Not a very good picture, but this is Vinnie's prize he won.

 Vinnie decided to play one of those dumb carnival games and ended up winning a super sized stuffed animal of Brian, the dog from Family Guy, so we got to carry that around with us the whole rest of our trip.  Why I didn't try to talk him out of playing this game, knowing in the back of my head we would have to drag that dumb thing around all day, is beyond me! 

We headed to the ride X-Flight because we were not going to leave without at least going on one roller-coaster ride.  Although it was cold, it was worth it.  So much fun!  We later discussed how funny it was that that was our first roller coaster ride together and we have been dated for almost a year and it happened in October.  Not very typical, but we're not very typical.

After we rode X-Flight we decided that since it was Fright Fest we wanted to go to the haunted houses.  Of course we had to pay an extra $20 a piece just to be able to enter these haunted houses.  That's a total rip off since we already paid so much just for tickets to enter the theme park, but having fun together is priceless so I can't complain too much.  We went to three different haunted houses and of course got the bejesus scared out of us.  We're both not the bravest individuals and it doesn't take much at all to scare us.  Judging from the nightmares I had last night, I think these haunted houses were pretty awesome though!

Necropolis was by definitely the scariest of all the haunted houses.

We decided to go on one more roller coaster before we left Fright Fest and The Raging Bull was the winner.  It's apparently the fastest roller coaster and judging from the snot that was flying out of my nose (gross but true) the whole time, I think it's true.  After this roller coaster we were both hungry and cold so we left and went to Timothy O'Toole's Pub down the street to enjoy a couple of beers, some food, and of course warmth.  

It was a long day but we had fun and the good part about it being so cold was that we didn't have to wait in any lines at all or worry about avoiding crowds of people.  

This isn't a picture I took but this is the front entrance at Fright Fest.

Vinnie and I trying to get out of the cold waiting for the hypnotist show.

Now I'll leave you with an OOTD (I think that's what they call it in blog world).  This is what I'm wearing to work today:
 

Dress: Old Navy, Boots: American Eagle, Necklace: Ebay

Now let's hope this week goes by fast and I can stay healthy for the weekend festivities!

XO. Tarah

 

Spicy Chicken!

Hiya Hump Day!  I always enjoy myself a nice hump day!



Yesterday work was suuuuper busy and that's not normal for my day job.  I usually have quite a bit of downtime, so I was really glad to have the night off.  I bought groceries because I was going to have to eat my arm that night if I didn't, and of course I spent waaaay too much money.  The number 1 rule of grocery shopping is to not go grocery shopping when you're hungry.  Oh well, we are stocked to the brim now.  When I got home I had time to put groceries away and watch one episode of Gossip Girl before putting in a load of laundry and starting dinner.  I usually use a recipe when cooking dinner but last night I was feeling adventurous so I made up my own recipe.  I was kind of nervous about it, but it turned out extremely well (if I do say so myself).  I was in the mood for something spicy so I ended up making a spicy sauce to serve on chicken breasts.

Tarah's Spicy Chicken (original name I know)

Ingredients:

2 Chicken breasts
1/2 c sliced banana peppers
1/2 c sliced jalapenos
1/2 can diced tomatoes (to make it spicier I used medium spicy diced tomatoes that had green chile peppers in them)
1/2 can cream of mushroom soup
2 tbsp shredded cheddar cheese  
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp garlic powder 
1 tsp onion powder

Directions:

Season the chicken breasts with chili, garlic, and onion powders on both sides.

For the sauce, combine banana peppers, jalapenos, and diced tomatoes in a small frying pan on med-high heat.  Cook for a few minutes.  Add shredded cheese and cream of mushroom soup.  Season with powders.

Sautee chicken breasts for about 4 minutes on each side (depending on the size of breast).  Add sauce and continue cooking for a couple more minutes on each side until chicken is done.  Season to liking.

* I didn't actually measure out any of the ingredients so I'm guessing at the measurements but I think these are pretty close.  If you don't like things really spicy you might want to add more cheese and soup because this sauce was really spicy.  

Not a good pic but they only one I took.

It was really easy to make and really delicious!  You might want to make sure you have a glass of milk while eating this though, it was really spicy.

The rest of the night consisted of Marley, Vinnie, and Breaking Bad.  Successful Tuesday night.

Happy puppy!

There's Marley.  Gossip Girl on in the back obvi!

That's a vodka/tonic in my festive halloween cup. And Marley's possessed eyes in the background eek.

 

P.S. It's finally looking like Fall in Chicago :)



XO. Tarah
 

Happy Columbus Day!

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  In 2012, why don't I have today off of work to celebrate this?  Thanks Columbus, but sleeping in on a Monday would have been much appreciated today!  I mean banks are closed and kids get the day off from school so why is this day not considered a legally paid holiday?  Columbus is kind of a big deal and all!

Anyways enough of my little rant.  I don't mean to complain.  I am thankful for Christopher Columbus sailing the ocean and arriving in America.

 Alright and now for the weekend recap:

Friday night I worked all night (big surprise).  I got my haircut on Saturday and then worked late again that night.  Sunday I woke up not feeling so well and it might have something to do with deciding to stay after work on Saturday night to have a couple of drinks with my co-workers.  It was one of the girls I work with's last night at work because she's moving to Pennsylvania.  Forgetting that I am an extreme light weight now, I allowed myself to drink 2 whole beers and 2 whole shots, so I woke up feeling like shit.  Vinnie made breakfast and then we got cleaned up, took Marley for a walk, and left for the suburbs to visit his Aunt and Uncle and watch the Bears game with them.  After the game we went to his Mom's house to eat dinner with her and her boyfriend.  We got home around 10:30 pm and watched an episode of Breaking Bad (last episode of season 2!) before heading to bed.  So I had myself a nice little Sunday.  I took zero pictures because my whole weekend consisted of me looking like ass.

I used to be really sad on Mondays because my weekends go by so fast since all I really do is work.  I've recently tried to look at it differently so that I can make these depressing feelings go away.  I'm young right now and I can work really hard and get little sleep and still be ok.  I might as well work my ass off now while I can so that in the future I will have more time.  This pretty much sums it all up:

Have a lovely Monday!  And for those of you who are lucky enough to have the day off...go f*@! yourselves!  Haha I'm just kidding!

Happy Columbus Day!

XO. Tarah