Mama Knows Best!

Hello friends!


I hope you've had a fabulous weekend and Easter celebration (if this was a holiday you celebrate).  It has been a busy and fabulous 3-day weekend for me.  I had Friday off and that will be my last day off until Memorial Day, but we are in the final months of the school year so I can handle that.  


Today's post is a shout-out to my mama!

It doesn't matter how old we get or what we do, sometimes you just need your mama :)  Through the good, the bad, and the ugly, mom is always there to make it better.  This past week, my mom shared a new discovery with me and I would like to share it with you.

I was headed to Trader Joe's this week to do some grocery shopping.  I was talking with me mom on the phone and she said while I was there I MUST try their Spinach and Kale Greek Yogurt Dip.  We don't mess around when it comes to food in my family so I knew if she said it was a MUST try, that it was going to be good! Ladies and gentlemen, this dip is no joke!  It is delicious! I cannot have the traditional spinach dips because of the dairy in them.  Since this dip is made with greek yogurt, it is friendly for those of us who are lactose intolerant.  It light, fresh, and totally yummy!  "Totally yummy" is professional culinary term in case you were unsure...ha!  

As soon as I got in the store, I made a beeline straight for the refrigerated dip section.  I was thrilled to see that it was in-stock at our store.  My mom said it is so popular at their location, they cannot keep it on the shelves.  I took my mom's advice and also grabbed a fresh-baked multi-grain baguette to go with my dip (Trader Joe's Multi-Grain Crackers also go amazingly well with this dip).  It took all of my will power not to open the container in the car while I was in the parking lot.  As soon as I got home, I sliced up my baguette and spooned some dip into a bowl.

I'm not gonna lie, I may have surpassed the "reduced guilt" line with the amount of dip and bread I ate that first evening.  It was so delicious though!  I told you that we don't take food lightly in our house.  I knew my mama was onto something when she told me I had to try this dip.  Now I am telling YOU, TRY THIS!!!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  If you don't, that just means there will be that much more at the store for me to eat!  Thank you mom for this fabulous recommendation!!  Love you!

I hope you all have a great week!  Happy eating!

xoxo,

d

I've Been Living a Lie

Hello friends!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend!  I had a fabulous spring break getaway with my husband and friends in Puerto Rico.  We’ve had an amazing time filled with adventure, food, and plenty of relaxing!  All of the fun in the sun has really cleared my mind.  Not only do I feel like the creative juices are flowing again, but I also have made peace with a reality that I have tried to avoid all my life. Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves for my obvious bombshell....I can't tan.  

In my fantasy world, this is how I look at the beach…..

VIA

In the real world, it is more like this…..oh the glare!

Seriously, I match the sand.

In my fantasy world, this is how I spend my days on the beach…

VIA

In the real world, this is pretty much what I look like at the beach…just add an umbrella.

VIA

I have tried every tanning lotion and spray tanner available.  While it does make me a darker shade of pale, I often feel that instead of looking like this…

VIA

I look more like this….

 VIA

I have been using self-tanner for 14 years.  While the product has come a long way, I still end up with splotchy patches and streaks.  The feet and hand area are the most difficult parts to cover well.  Sure it might do the job for a couple days, but then it starts to slough off and well, you can imagine how lovely it looks. 

This trip has made me realize that I can pretend all I want, but I am NEVER going to be a bronzed goddess.  Oh the pain!!  This is hard, but it is something I have to do…..

Hello, my name is Danielle. I am a fair-skinned, blue-eyed, reddish/brown-haired, freckle-covered Irish girl.  You can find me slathered in SPF 50+, wearing a hat, sunglasses, cover-up, and laying under and umbrella while at the pool or beach.

There, I said it!  Sometimes we just need to make peace with what will never be.  Anyone else out there ready to come clean with the superficial lie they have been living?

I hope you are all well.  Have a great week!

xoxo,

d

A Time to Reminisce

Hello friends!


I hope you've all had a great weekend!  I've had an amazing weekend filled with friends, family, a fiesta, and celebrating an upcoming special day with my best friend, my husband.  We will be celebrating our 2nd anniversary on Tuesday! I feel so blessed to have married my best friend and one of the most incredible people I have ever met.  I still can't believe I got so lucky!  Since our anniversary falls during the week, we decided to do some pre-anniversary celebrating today!


Our first date was at a fabulous brunch place in the city called, The Bongo Room.  If you live in Chicago, you MUST try this place at least once.  "Our" location is in Wicker Park, but there is one at the south end of the city and a NEW location opening up on the Andersonville neighborhood.  Their  food is delicious, creative, and the portions are huge!!! In addition to our breakfast dishes, we always split a half order of their specialty pancakes.  Ladies and gentlemen, these pancakes are NO JOKE!!!  They have incredible sweet pancake combinations like chocolate pretzel and vanilla bean, banana flapjacks with crumbled bacon pieces, topped with warm praline sauce and fresh bananas, and today we had their graham cracker crusted pumpkin flapjacks with chocolate chunks topped with warm vanilla bean cream.......DELISH!!


After we rolled ourselves out of The Bongo Room, we went to go visit the "scene of the crime," aka, our wedding venue.  We were married at the beautiful Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago.  We had an incredible wedding day and I feel really blessed that we have somewhere to go back to when we celebrate our special day.  We look forward to bringing our kids there one day!   On June 30, 2011 there was a horrible hailstorm that hit the city and did millions of dollars worth of damage to the Conservatory.  They are in the process of raising money and restoring the broken glass panes.  They are working so hard and it is going to take time.  On our wedding day, the Showroom looked like this:

  

Today the Showroom looks like this:

Many of the rooms currently have plastic panes where the new glass ones will eventually go which allows for people to still visit the rooms.  Two years ago we took photos in the Desert Room.

Today we visited the same bench and a sweet employee took our picture for us:

We had such a wonderful day reminiscing about our wedding day, what has happened since then, and what now lies ahead.  It was a great day!  Since the Conservatory is such a special place to us, we wanted to help with the rebuilding efforts.  We were going to make a donation, but then we found something even better!!  Local artist, Bryan Northup, took that hail-damaged glass and created beautiful bowls with the broken glass.  The proceeds raised help with the rebuilding process.  We were really excited to not only help the Conservatory, but to also have a piece of the Conservatory itself was very special too.   

Our beautiful bowl now has a home on our built-in shelving that houses many special items from our wedding day.  I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate our upcoming anniversary.  I am so blessed to have married my best friend.  We've had some fabulous (and not so fabulous) adventures in the past 2 years and I can't wait to see what adventures lie ahead.  I love you, Bubba.

In the upcoming weeks I am super excited to share some of my recent kitchen creations with you all!  I have been working hard on my cooking skills and have some fun recipes to share with you all.  I hope you have a happy and healthy week!

xoxo,

d

Quality not Quantity

Hello friends!

I hope you've all had a great weekend and are doing well.  Last weekend, I had a 3-day weekend for the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. It came at a great time as February is kind of the armpit of the school year.   My husband and I decided it was necessary to getaway and booked a little trip to Florida. My in-laws have been vacationing there since the first of the year and this gave us the perfect excuse to get out of town.  Our time away also reinforced that in life quality is more important that quantity.  We were only there for 3 days and after day 1, it was safe to say I was completely relaxed, stress-free, content, and so happy. How can you feel anything but those things when you........

 wake-up and have breakfast out on the lanai looking at palm trees with the sun beating down....

take a boat to a private beach and layout along the ocean (under an umbrella of course)....

and end the day with a fabulous home cooked meal and constant laughter with family and friends. 

 I honestly felt like a new person at the end of day 1!  I was seriously rejuvenated in less that 24 hours! As we were enjoying our evening,  I started feeling a lot of heat coming from my legs.  I lifted my maxi dress and started cracking up.  I am currently wearing a knee brace to protect my injured hamstring and when my husband was helping me with my sunscreen before hitting the beach, we skipped my lower leg area and decided to wait until I got to the beach.  Well, I may have forgotten to spray my legs once I removed my brace.  When you are as fair as I am, sunscreen is not an option.  When you forget, you end up with sweet burn like this....

Goofy burn aside, it is safe to say that the other two days of our trip were just as beautiful and fabulous as the first.  It was an amazing getaway and I cannot wait to do it again next year.  Our wonderful tripped was capped off with an incredible sunset on our plane ride home.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  I apologize that these photos don't do it full justice, but I tried!

Our mini-getaway really showed me that it is not about the length or quantity of your time away, it is how you spend your time that matters!  I hope you are had a great weekend and enjoyed some quality time of your own!  Have a great week!

xoxo,

d

Please Forgive Me

Hello friends!

This post starts with the disclaimer that this is not a fun or creative post like I usually like to do. I had a great make-up post planned, but was laid-up most of the weekend and didn't do my make-up yesterday.  Next weekend, I will get to it.  Tonight, I am a ball of nerves and can't quite focus enough to make a creative post.  A few weeks ago I felt a pull in the back of my knee while using the reverse sit-up machine machine.....stupid, stupid machine!  I slowed down my workouts a bit and iced my knee a lot.  Last Wednesday I was taking my 2nd WERQ class of the week and while I was busting a move, my move busted me and I felt a pop in the back of my knee.  I kept going and by the end of class I couldn't even pull my leg up to touch my heel to my butt.  I came home and iced it and told my husband that I would be fine to workout by the weekend.......not so much.

Yes, this is the lovely brace I am sporting and trying, really trying, to stay positive.  Honestly though, I am insanely frustrated.  I've been through enough health issues in the past year that have kept me from working out.  I have been going strong, working out since the first of the year and feeling like myself for the first time in a long time.  Now, this darn knee thing!  I have never hurt my knee.  In all my years of dance, nothing but some bruises.  Some of coworkers unintentionally freaked me out by asking me when I was going to have to have surgery.....Surgery?? I am still trying to convince the doctor this is pulled muscle and nothing more.  Ugh.  I have my MRI results tomorrow morning.  I am hoping I get some sleep tonight.

I apologize for complaining, but I am human and some days I just need to vent!  I hope getting some of this off my chest will help me relax and rest tonight.  What's done is done.  All I can do now is follow the doctor's orders and hope that I heal quickly.  I just hope I don't have to miss my WERQ class for too long.  I finally find something I enjoy and now I can't do it :(  Hopefully it's not for long.

Thank you Blog World for allowing me to vent and complain.  I apologize and will make up for my lameness is the next post.  I hope you all have a good week!!

xoxo,
d

AMAZE-BALLS!!!

Hi friends!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend.  I am sure many of you enjoyed all sorts of delicious goodies at various Super Bowl festivities.  I have one more must-try the next time you have a gathering!!  It comes from the fabulous blog,  Smashed Peas ad Carrots . Maggie blogs about cooking, crafting, and her kids.  You should definitely check out her blog!  I saw the recipe for her "Energy Bites" posted on Facebook a few weeks ago and it just so happened I had all the ingredients in my cabinet (all but the ground flaxseed).  These little balls of heaven were super easy to make and ridiculously delicious!  The best part is, you can modify this recipe to suite your own taste!

At work, we take turns providing a staff breakfast on Fridays.  A couple weeks ago it was my turn and I made these little balls.  I was a bit nervous about how they would go over because they look a little funny.  Umm, they were devoured in less than 30 minutes.  This week we are celebrating the 100th day of school and I have prepared the first half of the 100 little balls I will be bringing in as a staff treat to celebrate!

I can't do the original post justice in regards to the beautiful photography and writing, so ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the link to the original post of the "Energy Bites."  They are so easy to whip up, just give them a try!!  Have a great week!

No Bake Energy Bites

Thank you for reading!!

xoxo,
d

Reasons to Smile

Hello friends,


I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Yesterday I mentioned via "The Twitter" that I had forgotten my laptop and was going to have to wait until today to write my post.  I was frustrated because I set a goal this year to try and write a new post each Sunday.  Fittingly, as I mentioned last night, this week's post is on staying positive.  It has been a rough couple weeks and last week I thought I was literally going to have a meltdown.  I have realized that while things have been more stressful than usual, no one puts more pressure on me than me.  I am my own worst enemy.  Total type A personality here!  As I floated between sanity and insanity I had to remind myself that I needed to take a step back and a deep breath.  As the great Billy Ocean sang, "When the going gets tough....tough get going."  Wise words my friend :)


99% of the time I am a positive person.  I am the go-to-girl when you need to find your silver lining or be talked off the ledge.  I need to apply some of that energy and positivity I give to others to myself.  A few years ago, my girlfriend Sonya, who is one of the most amazing and positive I know, gave me the fabulous book, 14,000 Things to be Happy About.  This book is adorable and a must-have in your book collection.  Now, I hope that we can all say that we are happy for our family, friends, health, etc.  This book implies that you already feel that way, so here are 14,000 other fun things to be happy about.  When I am going through a rough patch or having a down day, this book is an instant mood lifter.  As you read the little things to be happy about, you will find yourself laughing and totally agreeing on what they included.  How can these not make you smile......a baby's laugh, a hand written letter, staying home on New Year's Eve, commuter drinking cups, and getting a really good haircut.  These are just a few of the 14,000 things you will come across in this fabulous little book.  

Purchase

For this week's post, I decided to list my Top 5 things that I have to smile about right now......


5.  My husband's meatloaf.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is no joke.  My husband's meatloaf is outstanding.  I don't know what he does, but this ain't yo mama's meatloaf.  It isn't dry and crumbly.  It is delicious and flavorful.  He tops it with a ketchup/mustard/brown sugar topping that is ridiculous.  I was sad today because I finished the last piece and he is out of town so I must wait for awhile to have more meatloaf.  As my brother would say, "I have no idea how you found someone to marry you."  I know meatloaf probably didn't make your list, but then again, you haven't had Jeremy's meatloaf.


4.  The thumping of my Chihuahua's tail.  My Chihuahua princess, Hua, is going to be 9 in March.  She is our baby.  She is the most spoiled Chihuahua ever!  As my girlfriend Meghan would say, she has a princess complex.  She is such a lovey little thing.  We are positive she does not know that she is a dog.  In the mornings, she loves to get in the "big bed" and snuggle down under the covers.  Even though she is not supposed to be in the "big bed" she gets to stay there anyway.  After I have gotten ready for work, I will walk over to the bed and say, "Is there a lump in the bed?"  THUMP,THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP goes her little tail so fast!  It is such a happy thump and you can tell she is so excited to be all snuggled under the covers.  You can't help but smile!


3.  Visits from last year's class.  Last year was my first year teaching and they say you never forget your first class.  It is so true!  Those kids will forever hold a special place in my heart.  As teachers, we often wonder if we make any sort of difference in the lives of the students that we teach.  One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou and it says, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  I believe that wholeheartedly. While my students may not remember everything I teach them, I hope they know how much I care for them.  I tell them that my number one job is to teach them and my number two job is to keep them safe.  Last week, one of my old students stopped by with a beautiful necklace she made for me.  It was such a sweet and special gesture. Today another student stopped by after school just to give me a hug.  On the tough days when I wonder if anything I do matters, it is moments like that, that remind me, YES what I do does matter.  


2. WERQing it out.  You will probably get tired of hearing me talk about this amazing cardio dance program, but I am in love with it.  I love it so much that I would eventually love to get my group fitness instructor certification so I can teach this class.  It is not only great for the body, but it does wonders for me mentally.  I have also met some really awesome women in this class!  We all have the best time and feel  so amazing....and exhausted when this class is over!  We got to celebrate engagements and babies today....those are two things to smile about for sure! Congrats Lauren and Haley!


1.  The little emoticons that my husband attaches to the text messages he sends me.  They are silly, sweet, and strange....they make me smile and that is just another one of the many reasons I absolutely love my husband.  He is always there for me when I stumble and need someone to help me, especially when I am too proud to admit it.  He also sent me an emoticon of a fist and asked me if I needed him to set someone straight.  Love my Bubba.


Ahh, I feel so much happier and calmer now.  The next time you are stressed, try this.  I guarantee you won't be able to help but smile.  Have a wonderful and safe week.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog!


xoxo,
d