Facts.

1. It's difficult being a devoted blogger amidst the craziness of work, school and my sad little semblance of a personal life.

2. I have gained 12 giant pounds since our wedding in March, I've lost all kinds of muscle tone, and feel like quite the lard ass.

3. Most of my free time this month will involve furiously fighting the lard ass feelings mentioned above (thus "Live, Laugh, Eat. Repeat." may be a little light on the EAT portion).

4. I said "free" time in #3 as if that's actually something that exists in my life. pfff!

5. I love lists.

6. I would like to give MAD PROPS to bloggers everywhere who maintain and update even when you're super busy. Bravo all around... I aspire to your levels of organization.

7. I wish I could post pics of my classroom and kiddos. They are a constant source of entertainment and adorableness.

8. I am going to make this all work, someday! Thanks for sticking with me!

As Promised...

The birthday meal extravaganza!

So apparently, Mr. Willi searched high and low for an equal parts healthy and satisfying meal for my birthday dinner. [Isn't he great?] He pretty much hit it out of the park with the meal he planned—drum roll, please...

Seafood Couscous Paella

A deliciously quick meal from the folks over at Eating Well. The name alone screams "hours in the kitchen," but it was quite the contrary. And thank goodness, because by the time he got home from the grocery store with the ingredients, I was starving. In the end, my belly and I were quite pleased. The paella was light yet hearty, smooth with a little tang, and the textures were just great!

There are few things more attractive than this...

Turns out all the frazzled nerves and stomping around (see tail end of last post) were on account of a lost container of saffron... he actually went out and bought a whole new container. After dinner I found the "lost" saffron on the floor under the sink, pesky little thing...

After the saffron incident, it only took another 20ish minutes for dinner. Paired with a delicious salad, this meal was pretty perfect.

Thanks babe!

They say it's your birthday...

It's my birthday too!

That's right... another year older, and hopefully wiser, but I suppose only time will tell with that one :)

So far, 27 is treating me well...

I got to spend Friday with the hubster, Miss C and Mr. D, three of my most favorite people in all of the land. We traipsed around Bethesda til the wee hours, and literally left the bar with our ears ringing.

Saturday was quite an interesting day– it started with Netflix and then progressed to getting up and getting out so as not to waste the entire day. I was instructed to grab my camera, and told I could wear a t-shirt and jeans to dinner (awesome). We set out around 3:30 and drove on some back roads through the MD countryside. Before long we were in PA, which isn't unusual for how close we live to border— but by that point, my spidey senses were tingling and I was pretty sure the Mister was up to something.

After about another 30 minutes of the scenic route, it dawned on me where we could possibly be going... rewind to Philly Weekend... the first night we were there, a few of us hit up Geno's for an authentic cheesesteak. The name, glitz and glam of Geno's were just undeniable. All the while, competitor Pat's King of Steaks was across the street with noticeably less pizzazz. After we came home, I saw a Travel Channel showdown on Pat's and realized it's THE original cheesesteak place. How in the world did I NOT know that?! Needless to say, I was disappointed in my serious faux pas... so I've been ruminating on this whole Pat's thing since then.

And don't you know it— that's exactly where we ended up!

And yes, how appropriate that I was wearing my Jucy Lucy shirt while I was scarfing Pat's and cheeeeese fries!

Sunday was a much less eventful day, although we did finally venture in to a bakery/deli we've meaning to check out. Turns out it's the very same bakery I've been RAVING about that's catered a bunch of events I've been to over the past few months. What luck! Although now that we've unleashed this little beast, I'm sure we'll be buying larger pants before long (womp womp)!

Oh Royal Bakery, how I love you.

As I type, a very perplexed man (Amwilli) is making me a birthday meal... right about now he's stomping around the apartment searching furiously for the recipe or his keys or both. OK, he just stormed out the door on a mission.

I'll definitely have photos of this sure-to-be-lovely birthday meal :)

Updates, updates, updates!

Ladies and gentleman...

WE ARE BACK IN BUSINESS! Well, I suppose it's just me, but "I AM BACK" just didn't sound that momentous. And this IS quite an occasion...

I love blogging—truly, I do—but it's terribly difficult to get back on the horse after so much time. And speaking of all the time that has passed, here's a quick and dirty update on what transpired during the hiatus.

Let's see...

1) Fostering! JC (foster mommy extraordinaire) hooked us up with the awesome crew at Pet Connect Rescue and we began fostering dogs at the end of August. Our first dog, Brody, was an adorable one-year-old lab mix. We had him for two weeks before he was adopted. Our second dog, Rosalie, arrives today. She's a two-year-old, Australian shepherd/beagle mix and should be a great time. Here's a picture of Brody-kins, as he was affectionately named:

Aww... he was quite the lovable dope! Although, his charm was completely lost on the Teeb. She didn't warm up to this little guy until about three days before he left. C'est la vie, I suppose. Fingers crossed she gets along a lot better with Rosalie.

2) Philly! The weekend before school started we went up to Philadelphia for a couple days with fabulous friends at the The Mac Shack. It was a much needed respite from the craziness of setting up my classroom, and anytime with our friends is always supercharged and oh-so-special (probably because we don't get to see each other nearly as much as we'd like to)!

And because I'm a dork who likes wordplay:

Phood:

Phriends:

Phun:

Good times all around!

3) School started! I'm teaching Kindergarten this year, and it's been a whirlwind. I had photos of my classroom, but they were wiped out in the crash... I'll post some others soon. I must say, I've never experienced anything like this before. I knew teaching wouldn't be easy... but I didn't know I would run the gamut of emotions— Love, excitement, annoyance, elation, disappointment, overwhelmed, underwhelmed, fear, comfort, anxiety, etc etc etc... and this is all in one day :) Here's a pic from the week before school started. We've got A LOT more going on these days!

4) US Open! One of the few traditions we've managed to keep up with (so far) is our annual trip to the US Open tennis tournament. I'm a tennis freak, and this tourney is my Super Bowl. We went for the first time in 2008 and that's where the Mister finally put a ring on it. Needless to say, it's near and dear and my absolute favorite place in the world to be with Amwilli. It's as if once you walk through the gates to the tennis center, nothing else matters except who you're with and the awesome day you know is about to unfold. Sigh... I'm sad it's only once a year— but something tells me it wouldn't be so magical if it were more frequent than that.

We spent the rest of the weekend eating our way through the city... Junior's and Shake Shack and Magnolia, Oh my!

5) Minnesota! A family wedding was responsible for our very first trip to the land of 10,000 lakes. I was looking forward to the getaway, spending time with all the other Willies, and a chance to scope out hotspots from the Travel Channel or Food Network (of course). I knew we were flying into Minneapolis, so immediately the food filing cabinet in my brain conjured up the Man v. Food Minneapolis episode and a delectable little burger called the Juicy Lucy. We stopped for lunch at Matt's Bar, the home of the original "Jucy Lucy." And that's not a typo— legend has it that way back in the day a customer requested a burger with the cheese melted inside the burger. Once he bit into it, he exclaimed "that's one juicy Lucy," but it was put up on the menu as "Jucy Lucy" and the typo stayed. It's still up on the wall, on all their awards and merchandise. Matt's Bar is a hole in the wall— they don't have ice, plates or wine glasses (which didn't sit well with Grandma W, at first), but they do have the BEST burger I've ever tasted... and if you know me, and my penchant for burgers, that's sayin' a lot. I would hop on a plane to MN just for that burger. Mmmm....

Oh yeah, the wedding was great too—

We stopped at a wine bar before the reception... cuz that's how we roll...

And on that note, I think I've sufficiently caught up on my life since the great crash of 2010. A word to the wise: BACK UP EVERYTHING!!

Whew. Done :)

(ALMOST) back in business!

Yeah yeah yeah—I know— "almost" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades...

BUT the macbook is up and running with a new hard drive which I installed and formatted ALL BY MYSELF! As far as I'm concerned, I'm a technological genius.

Unfortunately, nothing else is going on this baby til I have an external hard drive (purchasing this weekend) AND iPhoto... because I currently have no picture platform. And what's a blog without pictures?

I am so close to functionality, I can taste it... until then, I sincerely hope no one's forgotten about me!

Happy Weekend :)