Whimsical Wisconsin

I had so much fun visiting our friends in Wisconsin this past weekend!  Bob and Natasha met around the same time Neal and I met in college.  Natasha and I are in the same Sorority, Bob and Neal are in the same Fraternity.  When I first met Natasha, I thought she was being sarcastic and making fun of southerners as she said in the prettiest and thickest southern drawl "I'm Natasha from Grundy County!"  Yes, that's right, GRUNDY County, like the John Michale Montgomery song "Grundy County Auction".  I thought 'this girl has to be $h*ting me!'  On the other hand, Bob has a thick norther accent.   They sound cute together :) Throughout the years we have taken a trip to the smokies with the boys fraternity, partook in Greek events together, celebrated engagements, weddings, their little girl's birthday, met halfway from IN and WI to hang out, and are planning on taking an all-inclusive vacation together!  Bob and Natasha became close friends of both Neal and I quickly and will remain that way for years to come!

Natasha is very creative and has her own shop on Etsy where she sells great bows for little girls, monogrammed items like these cute floppy hats, and my favorite, a Nautical Boat Book Case.  Her craftiness doesn't stop their.  Both her and Bob are great at creating items on a dime.  I became obsessed with the details at their home in a cute downtown neighborhood. 

They made this bar/potting station out of barn wood and an old door (items they got for FREE)

They created an outdoor dining section by making a great table and painting some cute chairs red. 

To compliment the dining space, they made the cutest lighting area with hanging lanterns on an old ladder system made from more free barn wood.  I was lucky enough to convince Bob and Neal to make one for our home.  I can't wait to set it up!

Natasha and her almost 2-year-old daughter have planted a little garden.  Heidi, like most kids, LOVES to play in the dirt.  :)

This is one of my favorite photos as it contains both our "babies"  Heidi is very talkative, and and while playing in her little pool, Sasha kept coming over to lick the water.  Heidi was amused and said, 'I love you....(long pause) Sasha'.  It was so sweet! 

Yes, that's a large tin pail.  As I said, Natasha is very creative and has an eye for all things unique.  We picked that up at a yard sale and it made the perfect play spot for Heidi!

One of my favorite things I did in Wisconsin was to go to Monches Farm.  This farm has the greatest gift shop and a wonderful variety of plants, many imported from Holland. 

Inside the gift shop, you can't miss the ceiling covered in dried flowers.

Outside there are numerous 'niches' including this beautiful barn used to house chickens.

Neal's favorite part of the trip was a Meat Fest with Bob's family where all the men spent hours grilling up chicken wings, brisket, bacon wrapped sausage, ribs, prime rib, and so much more.  The women of the family contributed with baked macaroni (Natasha's tasty contribution), chunky potato salad, pasta salad, American pie jello cake, and amazing butterscotch bars.  As you can see, Neal's plate consisted mostly of manly meat (there is more underneath that prime rib):

Prior to leaving, we finished up the trip with a delicious breakfast Monte Cristo sandwich with fresh raspberry jam, turkey and ham between french toast and a spiced Mayan Chocolate Latte from Perc Place. 

I am so glad Neal and I were able to visit Bob, Natasha, & Heidi!  It was such a fun trip, and I totally fell in love with Wisconsin.  I think I have found a new town I would love to visit more often :)

cute wall decor at Perc Place

Walden's Wild Weekend

I have never met a dog with worse separation anxiety than my sweet puppy, Walden.  He drools so much when we crate him that it takes 2 towels to clean up the mess.  He pulls items off the counter, shattering drying dishes like a glass Pyrex baking dish.  He enjoys taking flour out of the pantry and moving it all around the living room.  Also, even if we are in the house, he will sneak a slice of pizza off your plate, or just finish an entire half of a pizza and 3 chocolate chip cookies sitting on the stove top.  Now he has topped them all and finds it so difficult to let us leave without him, so he JUMPED Out a TWO STORY Window!!!

Needless to say, flying out a two story window will cause some pain. Sasha amusingly looked down from the window as Walden cried and cried and cried in pain.  We think Sasha was saying, "Glad you went first." 

His attempt at defying gravity and learning to fly occurred while were visiting friends in Wisconsin  and Walden decided we couldn't leave him behind while running errands...this is the result.  You may not be able to tell in this picture, but the paw on the left is broken in 3 places.  I have a great x-ray, but am still working on getting it opened on this computer.

Look at the poor boy as he waits to be taken care of by the vet. 

 

Walden got to spend the entire weekend by our side attached to the patio table sporting the lovely little wrapped splint.

And now we are home sweet home and he has his little dog bed right next to my office desk.

He is beyond spoiled...and pathetically cute :)

Walden will be in a cast for about 6 weeks.  We hope his paw heals completely and he is able to walk and run without much pain.  Right now, he gimps around adorably :)

Winner Winner Rotisserie Chicken Dinner(s)

I absolutely love a good rotisserie chicken!  My father's girlfriend gave me a great book of hers and other friends recipes for Christmas, and my favorite recipe of hers is the Rotisserie Chicken Enchiladas.  I made them this past Sunday, and we have had the leftovers for lunch!  They are also great to freeze for later consumption! 

We only used a portion of the rotisserie chicken, and the rest of it went to meal number two - a peppered chicken wrap!

Back to recipe one...Rotisserie Chicken Enchiladas:
The ingredients are simple.  I added some cumin and chili pepper to ours for some more kick, not realizing I had grabbed the can of hot enchilada sauce!   Oops!

The recipe is an simple on to put together, and a true crowd pleaser!

We didn't have the smaller 6in tortillas, so I used our 12in whole wheat ones and cut them in half.

Topping them with a little extra cheese to cut down on the spicy enchilada sauce.  :)

I ate mine with some leftover salad from our game night.  Look how cheesy!

Recipe Two - Peppered Chicken Wrap
Since we didn't use all of the chicken in the enchiladas, I saved the rest to make dinner tonight.  I sauteed onion, red pepper, and yellow pepper on medium heat.  I added some honey to give it a sweet flavor! Yum!  Once the peppers were tender, I added the leftover rotisserie chicken and cooked until warm. 

I finished up the meal by putting it all on a whole wheat tortilla and adding some feta cheese crumbles!  Simple and delicious!

Do you have a good recipe for rotisserie chicken?

Dear Gym, I missed you... Sincerely, Tamara Lee

Dear Gym,

I missed you.  I neglected our sweet friendship.  Have mercy on me. 

Sincerely,

Tamara Lee

I cannot remember the last time I went to the gym.  Was the last time really when I did my 45 minutes of cycling?  That was AT LEAST a month ago!  Shame. Shame. Shame on me. 

I haven't neglected working out in all totality,  I simply haven't been doing my workouts at the gym and I also haven't been posting all my workouts lately.  I will update my weekly workout wrap-ups at the end of this week.  It's okay that I haven't posted as much.  I am admittedly no where near perfect, but I do enjoy posting and will get into the groove of it again!

I have jumped back on board with the Tone it Up girls.  I have planned my workouts ahead for the week and I have done an alright job sticking to their workout suggestions. 

Today I started out with a 30 minute run/walk, doing half of the run at a slower pace with the dogs and the other half doing sprint intervals.  I burned a total of 293 calories.  Post work, I did 2 rounds of their Sunkissed Abs routine burning about 50 calories.  The workouts didn't end there!  Once Neal got off work, we went to the gym for a 45 minute workout.  Sadly, my heart rate monitor came unhooked while doing preacher curls, I was only able to guesstimate that I burned about 200 calories. 

As previously stated, I haven't gone to the gym in a while.  It felt so nice to go back, even if I do thoroughly enjoy running outside with the dogs and doing at home workouts and workout videos.  It's easy to become a hermit when I work at home...by myself...8-10 hours a day.  I sometimes have to remind myself to me social, even if that means just going to a public place like the gym where few people talk to others as most are consumed in their own workout.  

Our workout was short and sweet.  It looked roughly like the following

 (I plan on getting a better copy of this in here once I can use the desktop rather than this laptop...Neal is playing a new video game now on our desktop...joy!)

I am off to make dinner!  Happy Hump Day to you!

Game Night & Burgers on the Barbie!

Thank goodness for good friends and the weekend!  Last night's cookout and game night was a great success, very nice! (You have to say that with the Borat voice!)

Lars and Danielle joined us for some super yummy burgers & corn on the barbie, fresh salad, and homemade sangria!  Lars and Danielle (as Danielle says mostly Lars) crafted the yummy burgers and concocted the Sangria earlier in the day to let the drink soak up the flavors of apple, lime, lemon, strawberries, and other fruit!

Neal and Lars did the "Tamara" poses to mock how I always point or give a thumbs up in all my photos!  Thanks guys.

Neal made some awesome melted butter to brush on the grilled corn.  He mixes warmed butter with spices like pepper and Cayenne to give the sweet corn a swift kick. 

I contributed with a crowd pleasing salad...well maybe not the whole crowd since Neal opted to pass on my greens :(  Lars, Danielle and myself enjoyed my mix of fresh greens, red pepper, shredded carrots, feta cheese and homemade balsamic dressing. 

Homemade Salad Dressing

To make fresh and what I consider healthy dressing, you mix 2 parts balsamic to 1 part olive oil, some fresh ground sea salt, pepper and garlic to taste.  I do this in a small Tupperware container so I can easily put the lid on and shake. 

Following our fantastic dinner, we played lot of board games.  Apples to Apples, Taboo and Cranium were all played.

We noticed the cards that each of us one in Apples to Apples really described our personalities quite well!  However, since my memory is failing me, I can't recall our exact cards, just that we all had a hoot when we realized how much our cards resembled our personalities.  Danielle's cards were all those in the "sweet and kind category", Neal's were in what I will call "responsible" category with words like 'Important' and 'Tame', Lars had one card that was 'Naive', and mine were words like 'Nasty' and 'Dirty'...that's not me! ;)

Our friends Heather and Travis joined us later in the evening as we continued our game night.  I am ashamed to say that the boys kicked the ladies butts in Cranium!  I mean just murdered us!  Look at that board.  We were only half-way through when the boys pulled a solid victory!

After that, we did mixed teams in Taboo.  It was a close game, but Neal, Danielle and I pulled out a win against Heather, Lars and Travis!

I had such a great, and very late, night!  I just love the weekends!

Do you have a crowd pleasing game we should try?