Spring... err... End of Summer Cleaning

So I'm a little late on this whole "spring cleaning" thing. Give me a break - I'm new at this lady of the house idea. The point is, I got around to it. And Hubs graciously gave into my whining volunteered to help me out today. Today is kind of a miracle in that Hubs and I don't have anything to do and we both got about 12 hours of sleep last night and aren't in the least bit hungover tired today. That. Never. Happens. I We decided to embrace this fact and made it our goal to clean our bedroom.

I'm currently finishing up my Masters in Education and one of the big concepts we talk about in my classes is that of authentic assessment. Basically this means applying some concept or task in a real-world way. Well... let me tell you what. Instead of the marriage prep class we took last July (which, by the way, we graduated with flying colors, thank you very much), if they wanted to find out if our marriage would last, all they would have had to do was lock us up together in our upstairs bedroom that has one year a few weeks worth of dust as well as all of my both of our clothes and shoes scattered everywhere and told us we had two hours to clean it. I'm happy to say we both survived, albeit with many a few outbursts, and the bedroom now looks ah-maz-ing. Our new goal is to never go a whole year few weeks without vacuuming, dusting and tidying again. We shall see.

In other related news, I have a new favorite vacuum cleaner attachment. (Mom, I know you're about to pass out as you read this right now). But seriously, that little brush thing is really underrated. Forget dusting - just run that thing right over your bedside table and BAM - job's done. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this whole wife thing!

Umm... YUM. And I miss my heated seats.

Lately the Hubs and I have been branching out in our cooking. We both love to cook but we're fairly repetitive with our meals. Not to say that our faves aren't delish - they are, but I thought it was about time we added some new meals into the mix. We've been doing this for a few weeks now, but I haven't really had anything to write home about... until tonight. This. Is. Fantastic. 

Easy Mexican Chicken Crock-Pot Chowder

*Recipe courtesy of SparkRecipes

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=522991

Ingredients:

• 1 can Cream of chicken soup
• 1 can of yellow corn
• 1lb boneless, skinless chicken breast - chopped (we also used some leftover pulled chicken from a rotisserie we had bought for dinner the night before)
• 1 can (4 oz) Fritos Jalapeno & Cheddar Cheese dip (in the chip aisle)
• 1 can fat-free chicken broth
• 1/2 cup canned green chilies
• 1 cup light sour cream
• Shredded Cheddar cheese
• Chopped green scallions

Directions:

1. Combine corn, cream of chicken, chicken broth, green chilies w/juice into crock-pot on low heat.
2. Add chopped chicken to crock-pot and cook for 3-4 hours.
3. After 3-4 hours, in a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of the crock-pot mix with the sour cream and cheese dip and mix well.
4. Add the mixture to the crock-pot and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes. (We turned it up to high and cooked an additional 5 mins to warm it up).
5. Top with shredded Cheddar cheese and scallions. (we didn't have the scallions this time because I was lazy I forgot about them, but I think they'd be good.)

I'll say it one more time. This. Is. Fantastic. Seriously - you should make it right now. Although you probably don't have that Frito dip so actually just put it on your meal plan for next week. You will not be sorry. The Hubs and I are currently enjoying our second bowl EACH right now.

Oh yea... I had to drive the Hubs car to work today and he does NOT have heated seats. I miss my seat warmers. Luckily, the reason for driving his car was that mine was at Best Buy getting a remote start installed. Yay! It was a Christmas present from the Hubs and while I'm thrilled at the thought of getting into a pre-heated car in the morning, I'm still trying to decide if it was a not-so-subtle hint to quit my you-know-what about the cold. 

Why are you still reading?

GO GET THE INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHOWDER!!!

Instant Messenger FAIL

We've all had these... moments when things just come out wrong. It's even better when they're caught on Instant Messenger. I thought I'd share a few of my personal favorites of my recent FAILS.

(3:07 PM) Adcock, Cynthia: F****** told me to buy you with my questions

(3:09 PM) Adcock, Cynthia: oops bug you

(3:09 PM) Adcock, Cynthia: not buy you

(3:12 PM) Adcock, Cynthia: just to be clear... I don't want to buy you.

(10:27 AM) (Boss): So, after you complete the first portion of the project you'll email it to the rest of the team for feedback. Then, use your best judgment and see where we are time-wise and make any necessary edits. Sound good?

(10:27 AM) Adcock, Cynthia: go tit

(10:28 AM) Adcock, Cynthia: OMG... got it. got it. got it. got it.

And now I'll leave you with a link to one of my personal fave blogs: 

http://failblog.org/

Happy Thursday!

Fighting the After-Christmas Blues

So I've been waiting for this moment since the day after the wedding. Everyone said it would come - that it was inevitable. But I just didn't believe them. However, I am now experiencing the post-wedding/Christmas blues. I've heard from other brides that after all the excitement of your wedding is over you kind of have this "well now what?" feeling. Like, why isn't everyone asking me questions? Why doesn't everyone want to take pictures of me? I think the reason I was able to avoid this for so long was that I had so many things to look forward to in the Fall of 2010. The Wedding was in September, Honeymoon went into October, we got back and had tailgates at our Alma mater (M-I-Z...Z-O-U!), two other weddings, Thanksgiving, baby showers, Christmas parties, wedding dress and bridesmaid dress shopping for three of my best friends, engagement parties - not to mention the excitement of getting to decorate our new house for fall and Christmas. Needless to say, I was kept very busy and entertained for the last three months.

This seemed to hit me today as I boxed up all of our Christmas decorations and Hubs took down the Christmas lights. Now I'm sitting in our much-less decorated living room staring at our empty half-dead Christmas tree. On top of this, January, February and March and looking like long stretches of no plans, no holidays to decorate for and getting back to life in the "real world". (Shout out - one bright spot on the horizon is the much anticipated due date of one of my best friends - CANNOT wait to meet Baby G!). So, to try and pump myself back up, I'm going to make a list of all the things I AM looking forward to in 2011. Here we go...

• Baby G's arrival in February (hopefully late January for the mommy-to-be)
• The bridal showers, Bachelorette parties and weddings of THREE (can you believe it?!) of my best friends I've known since middle school - April, May, July - can't wait!
• Celebrating all the "Firsts" with Hubs (1st Valentines Day as a married couple, 1st tax return, 1st Anniversary... things like that)
• My eligibility for an iPhone upgrade on May 16 (but who's counting?)
• New episodes/seasons of all my fave TV shows after the winter hiatus 
• Getting our wedding album and wedding video
• Continuing to work around our house - painting, lawn scaping, finishing the quarter round in our guest bedroom (wow - being married and owning a home makes me FUN)
• All the other fun things I don't even know about yet! (see - look at me being positive!)

 So here's to the end of 2010 - and to the beginning of 2011 and everything it will bring. I wish you six people who read this all a fulfilling and happy New Year!

PS Did anyone else know that iPhone alarms weren't going to work the first two days of 2011??? How did I miss this memo!?

Hubs Made Santa's Nice List

Well he at least made mine. Lately he's gone above and beyond his job of keeping me happy by doing the following:

1. He risked his life so our house could have Christmas lights. This may not seem like an extraordinary task, but let me tell you what...it was one thing after another that day. We didn't have a ladder tall enough to reach the second story of our house. But I HAD to have lights around our bedroom windows and hanging down from the eave (or else what's the point?). So, Hubs spent a good 45 minutes working on the screens that were painted and nailed shut on our windows so he could step out on the roof. Next issue - no outside outlet. So, he rigged up our mailbox so we could feed the wires through that and into our living room. Never mind that our front porch now looks like an obstacle course and I have to hide every time our mail lady comes because I just KNOW she hates us. And also never mind that now our living room has a definite draft at night due to the extension cord hanging out of our mailbox. Point is - lights are up! As you can tell from the pictures below... safety was our #1 priority. 

2. He came home early to save me from a spider. I know, I know... I should have you just killed it myself, but you weren't there! You didn't see it - it was HUGE. And I could tell its only mission in life was to bite me. I was on my way down to the basement to do laundry, TRYING to be a good wife and BAM. There it was. So I obviously spazzed and slammed my hand into the wall breaking the skin on my knuckle and simultaneously doing a spin move on the stairs leading to a minor case of whiplash. I bolted back up to the computer and IMMEDIATELY sent Hubs a message telling him he really needed to come home ASAP. He told me I was being ridiculous overreacting and said no way would the spider still be in that spot when he got there. Little did he know I had plans to stand at the top of the stairs with a can of Raid in one hand and a spatula in the other to make damn sure that thing didn't move. (I also may or may not have been wearing Hubs' tennis shoes so mine didn't get spider guts dirty in case I had to make a move). Thankfully, 45 minutes later Hubs walked in the door and just gave me this look like "you're too much" when he spotted me at the top of the stairs. Then he went down, killed it, came back up and told me that the dinner I was cooking smelled good. What a guy!

3. He inadvertently complimented my decorating skills without me even fishing for it. We were discussing the fact that a good friend of ours was moving in with her boyfriend. The conversation went a little something like this:

Hubs: They're definitely going to have to get used to the adjustments. 
Me: Was it really so bad when I moved in here??
Hubs: I mean... yea kind of. There was a lot to get used to.
Me: (sulking)
Hubs: But it does look a lot nicer now. Smells better too.

Merry Christmas to my wonderful husband! (Now let's see if he really reads this blog like he says he does...)

Vino Vitae

A few nights ago a couple girlfriends and I went to a Wine 101 class at a local wine shop called Vino Vitae. It was the cutest little place in Lafayette Square. (By the way... the houses in Lafayette Square? To DIE for... I wanted to go up to the door and ask them what they did for a living.) Anyway, Vino Vitae means a "Life of Wine" and I think it's my new motto. Who WOULDN'T want a life of wine? The class was great. It started with a glass of champagne (it's like he knew me!) and then we talked about the aroma wheel and sampled 2 whites side by side and 2 reds side by side. He had us try to pick out the different "flavors" of the wine using the aroma wheel (everything smelled fruity to me) and then we would talk about it. It turns out they offer all kinds of classes - some focus on the different regions where wine comes from like France, Italy or California and some focus in on specific types of grapes. With those classes you try to pick out the subtle differences between the wines. Check it out if you're looking for a fun way to spend an evening with friends or your significant other (unfortunately the wine gene skipped over Hubs so he would NOT be interested in something like this). The classes are really reasonably priced and you get a generous amount of wine! Not too shabby for a Tuesday night!

I wonder if Kate Middleton will have to write thank-you notes...

I mean... can you even imagine how many she'd have to write? Which brings up another question... what does one buy for a prince and princess? Are they registered somewhere? What do you buy someone that could live in a fully stocked castle? I'm tempted to send Kate and William a small gift and see what happens.

Anyway, Hubs and I got married on September 24. So I was we were fast approaching the 3 month deadline of needing to have thank you notes done when I finally started working on them a few weeks ago. I'd heard a lot of different guidelines on when you should have them completely finished by - 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year. I personally liked the 1 year 3 month option the best so I went with that. Let me tell you... if you have never written 150 thank you notes then you have haven't lived. Just kidding. I'm actually really jealous of you. Although, now that it's all over and I've regained feeling in my right hand again it doesn't seem all that bad. Thank you notes are a funny thing. I can't name one person that really likes writing them, yet it's something we all do. I totally get that its a nice way of showing gratitude for gifts and that its always fun to get mail from someone, but still. Hubs and I had the above conversation probably about 20 times while I was writing these notes. His solution was just to send a big email and blind copy everyone and just say "thanks for the gift!". However, I know my mother would have absolutely murdered me, so we went with the traditional route.

I really loved the thank you notes I ordered for the wedding. I got them from The Stationary Studio (http://www.thestationerystudio.com//) and they were just what I wanted. We ordered the Classic Monogram Border Flat Notecards and I would definitely recommend them to anyone in the market for thank you notes in bulk.

PS If I do end up sending a gift to the royal couple, I'll definitely let you know what happens.