Bloggiversary!

Happy Birthday to my little blog! 

Today marks ONE YEAR since I began this journey.

I appreciate everyone one who has read my blog, even if it's every post or maybe just occasionally.

I love doing this, and I look forward to writing for a long time to come!

As always,

Photo credit 

July - The Quick and Dirty

Oh, hello there! Missed me? Clearly, I have become a S-L-A-C-K-E-R with my blog. Poor little thing.. Welp, I am back! And here is the basic summary of half my summer. Yikes.. that sounds worse than it is. 


Fourth of July! What an amazing weekend! A crazy four days filled with more hours in the airports than in South Carolina, floating in our pool with my family in Lexington, driving across the state twice, Mexican food and margaritas on the patio of Taco Boy, raiding Harris Teeter's beer section at 8am, floating for hours on a boat around Morris Island in Charleston, learning that 50 SPF really won't keep you anymore protected than 30 SPF and spending as much time as possible with my very best friends. 


Here's a look..

Pretty sunset from the plane on the way to South Carolina

Jewell, Samantha and I in front of LaFonda. 

Floating in the ocean!

The next weekend I once again hopped a plane to South Carolina to celebrate my dear friend Megan and her fiance Bryan's wedding in Greenville! It was so nice to spend two weekends in a row with friends from college and then high school. Megan's wedding was truly beautiful. All the details were so special and it could not have been more fun. I am so happy for her and I wish her and Bryan a lifetime of happiness! Congrats Meggy Weggy!

Jessica, Kaley and I with the beautiful bride Megan!

Beautiful Lexington girls!

Jessica, Kaley and me

Me and Merey!

Shelley, Jessica and me

Pretty girls one last time!

This past weekend, Mom and my cousin Kathy came to visit me in DC! It was such a packed weekend, but we had a great time. Mom and Kathy were able to take advantage of Friday and yesterday to site-see almost every major landmark in DC: the Natural History museum, Sculpture Garden, the National Mall, Arlington Cemetery and the Capitol. 

On Saturday morning we woke up super early and made it to Eastern Market before the crowds. It was my first trip and I was so happy to find so many eclectic pieces of jewelry, vintage purses and bags and all kinds of fresh market fruits and veggies. It was nothing like I had expected and it was such a nice morning to stroll through and enjoy it all. 

After Eastern Market, we traveled to Old Town Alexandria and toured another neat museum called the Stabler-Leadbetter Apothecary. It was so neat and historic and right in the middle  of Old Town. After browsing some shops, including my personal favorite, The Christmas Attic, we made our way to The Light Horse restaurant for dinner. It was delish! Here are a few photos of dinner.

Our appetizer of hummus, roasted tomatoes, balsamic reduction sauce and baby arugula with toasted flatbread. Incredible.

Kathy's roasted chicken, red-skinned mashed potatoes and corn salsa.

Butchers "Secret Steak," red-skinned mashed potatoes, homemade steak sauce and roasted asparagus. Adam, Mom and I ALL got this. Yum-o. 

So, after a few more glasses of wine, we ordered a piece of chocolate cake that was absolutely DEVINE.* Good Lord, I love chocolate, but this was to die for. Please, please go to The Light Horse for dinner if you are ever in Old Town Alexandria. I promise you won't regret it! 

Sunday morning, we woke up and went to the International Spy Museum. It was COOL. I mean, I am a serious child-at-heart, but this was a neat museum for all ages. I recommend.

I have to say, I was a bit wary of doing all of the touristy things while they visited, but it was really fun to be a tourist in your own town. I appreciate living in DC even more now that I have experienced the neat attractions off the beaten path. And, I am glad I got to show my mom and cousin around my new home. :) I miss you guys!

So, other than that, the rest of July has consisted of watching Lost as much as possible, and I have to say I can not stop. It is out of hand, but I have to finish. I just started Season Four last night, and I catch myself thinking about what may happen to Kate, Sawyer and Jack at random times of my day. I really hope my withdrawals from this show after I finish the final episode won't be as severe as my withdrawals from Sex and the City were. I'm nervous. 

Until next post..

*I mean, I am 98% sure it was DEVINE.. like I said, it was after a few glasses of wine... ahem.


PS: Mary-Kate Rasa, Jessica Weeks, Meredith DuRant and Bridgette Grice: I hope y'all don't mind that I borrowed your photos for this post :) I am clearly a lazy bum and didn't take my own. Love you all!

Pasta and Puppies

So, I got fancy the other night and decided to make my own marinara sauce for me and Adam's spaghetti dinner. I even jazzed it up a bit more and added ground beef to it because we all know how Adam feels about having meat in his meals. It was super easy and I definitely recommend making your own sauce. It tastes WAY better than jarred sauce. And you can freeze it for up to three months! Here is Adam's presentation. He believes he is a master of food style: I just nod my head and take the pictures. ;)

Homemade Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 28 oz. can San Marzano crushed tomatoes (I like these best, you can use brands you like)
1 dried bay leaf
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
S&P

Recipe:

In a large pot, heat the oil over a medium-high flame. Add the onions, garlic and some S&P and saute until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, bay leaf and a bit more S&P and simmer uncovered over low heat until the sauce thickens, about 1 hour. If your sauce starts to thicken and it loses liquid, just gradually add 1/2 cup of water to the sauce over the course of the hour. Add the browned ground beef into the sauce and stir it occasionally for about 15 more minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Season the sauce with more salt and pepper, to taste.

We ate our sauce with spaghetti pasta and added some chopped fresh basil and shredded Parmesan cheese on top! Here's a photo of Adam's artistic plating.. pretty good, if I say so myself. :)

And just for your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of my parents' little baby Cooper. He had some blisters on his feet from the hot pavement so he had to get them bandaged up. Ha!

Adorbs! OK. Now that I have finally finished this post from about a month ago.. look out for the next one that will basically give you the quick and dirty of my July. 
I know, I know.. I have sucked at blogging. But, I promise things will pick up again now that I am settled in my new job and have a steady schedule going.


Have a great week!