Goings On

A full calendar is absolutely necessary right now. Otherwise, I might lose my mind. Luckily, I feel quite busy and some nights I can hardly keep my eyes open until a reasonable hour. Photos of our lives for the past few weeks... all totally random.

Remember that ice cream I made for a friend's birthday? It turned out well! There were two recipes. The first one was amazingly easy to make. Literally, two ingredients (+ the two I added for extra fun). Two cups of heavy whipping cream, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, Hershey's dark chocolate, and peanut butter. Amazing. Lots of good reviews and it was less than 30 minutes of my time. The second was more difficult. Half & half, whipping cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, etc. etc. Mix, freeze, blend, freeze.... many times. It was a pain. I also added a crushed dark chocolate bar which was actually quite good. Unfortunately, I didn't blend enough times and it was a bit icy. What it all boils down to is that I'll likely never make my own ice cream again. I think that if I tried again, I would make some killer-amazing blend, but alas... I just don't have the energy for such things.

 We love this deli, Schmaltz. Super delish. They have amazing bagel chips. Love love. One of our favorite joints in the area to eat.

Two weekends ago, we went downtown to the convention center for a Travel Expo and managed to experience a few things... like seeing this camel and the unsuspecting people in my iPhone shot. ;)

Samantha Brown from the Travel Channel was sharing some of her faux pas in traveling and it was fun to listen to what she had to say...

Then we found ourselves downstairs at the Hunting and Outdoorsmen Expo. It was much more exciting than the travel expo, honestly. There was a beer vendor about every 30 feet and lots of strange things to be seen.

 Here's Ray with a slice of cow. He was very excited about this purchase.

And believe it or not... in the same building was a Lululemon warehouse sale! We waited 1.5 hours in line for this bag that I will hopefully be using as a diaper bag. It's so much better than the ones I've seen in stores and was a steal at $49!

This past weekend, we found ourselves bound on the couch reading The Rules of Inheritance (me) and The Hunger Games. The trilogy has officially taken over our house and my fiction-opposing husband devoured Book 1 entirely on Saturday. He'll be starting Book 2 this weekend and I'll jump on and read the first one. We're quite excited for the movie on March 23rd. Also, my review of The Weird Sisters to come later this week along with Installment II of the photography project (which has been such a challenge due to low-light and winter days being quite the drag!).

We also found ourselves on the road about 3 hours away in Michigan. Have I mentioned before (yes) that Michigan is our favorite Midwest state? Not to be confused with our favorite state in the US, but our favorite in the flatter region of this great nation. We spend plenty of our short road trips traveling in and around W. Michigan. Wine tasting, blueberry picking, admiring the coastline.... anyway... this trip had us in South Haven (once again) and further north about 20 miles in Saugatuck. What a charming little city! Ray bought a Groupon for a cute spa-hotel and we were greeted with my favorite Aveda products, an amazing walk-in shower with multiple showerheads, and a bottle of wine (that is currently shelved in kitchen). I love spas. Scrubs, massages, you name it. Just love being in the presence of one as they relax me. Spending the night away is so rejuvenating.

South Haven, MI

Our hotel room in Saugatuck (using the big Nikon lens was very limiting and I obviously could've taken a better shot that didn't include a lazy husband in the background). :)

Pancakes made by a wonderful husband...

 Ice sculptures in South Haven (on a 40-degree day... but these fared better than most being in the shade)...

We ended our weekend with some delicious pizza at a fairly chic little joint in Saugatuck watching the Super Bowl. It was such a great weekend. Unfortunately, it had to end early with our 5 a.m. drive back to Chicagoland for an early work meeting and two OB/MFM appointments yesterday. The work week is in full force.