Home for the Holidays

As many of you know, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and that’s where I am for the holidays! Happy Christmas Eve to you!

It’s nice to be home again! It’s been a while, and though I was home for a few hours last week, I went to Florida right away.  Let me tell you all about the trip.

My best friend, Melissa, picked me up last Tuesday morning to head to our flight from Pittsburgh.  We had an 11:10 flight, but it turns out we didn’t leave until 6:30.  We sat in the airport for over 8 hours.  Not okay.  In those 8 hours, I also discovered that I didn’t get the job that I went on two interviews for .  I wasn’t really telling you all about that, but unfortunately it fell through.  Which means I will definitely be heading to live with Travis in a few weeks!

But back to vacation.  We finally got to Ft. Lauderdale about 9 hours later than hoped.  Which kind of took away a day of vacation. Our hotel was GORGEOUS though! Check out the lobby holiday display:

And the view from our hotel room:

For the first few days there was a lot of this:

The hotel was so  great and the staff so friendly.  We had complimentary padded chairs on the beach. It was awesome.  After two days, though, the weather was FRIGID.  Like went from 80 to 60 and even into the 40s at night.

Once it got colder, I spent more time looking outside at the gorgeous gym.

Or laying poolside in my sweats…

And eating of course, too. A huge bowl of froyo:

Some drinks…

And some amazing chicken nachos of course… Lulu’s is AMAZING.

We also went out a few times.  Here is one of us at the hotel before we went out!

Overall, it was great to spend time with my bestie and to relax, but the weather and some other factors kind of put a damper on the week.  Such is life, right!?

Now I’m off to spend tons of time with family and friends and enjoy a few weeks relaxing at home. Sounds pretty great, right?!

Happy Holidays, folks!

PMB Florida

This week’s physical, mental, and life brags are all going to be wrapped into one. Thanks to Hollie for the weekly bragging.

Life is good because this is where I am spending my week:

It has been a journey to get to Florida, but now we just get to relax. Thank goodness. I’m sure I will fill you all in on the journey soon!

Have a great day!

Getting Up to Date

I have pretty much been slacking when it comes to blogging and commenting on blogs, and I totally apologize for that.  You’d think I’d be all about spending time on my new computer, but truthfully, life has been more about spending time with family and stressing out about the last month of graduate school.  I will go one more step and say that I’ll probably continue to slacking until at least December 14th, when school is over.  Unless faculty strikes, which could happen considering there is currently not a contract.

Here’s just a quick round-up post for you to fill you in on how I’d been since my fancy ravioli family time

1.  I went to my aunt and uncle’s house to spend time with my family on Thursday.  Cillian adorably chowed down on a turkey leg.

Meanwhile, I chowed down on apple/cranberry crisp and Creamery ice cream.  We had pumpkin and chocolate chip cookie dough! Yum!

2.  I left my family’s Thanksgiving quickly after dessert to drive 4 hours to Trav’s family.  I immediately got wrangled into Black Friday shopping, which I’m not the biggest fan of.  I do all of my shopping online! haha

That’s our shopping group around 4 am after we got back and before some of us heading out to shop again! I am going to blame the fact that I’m closer to the camera as the reason my face is kinda looking large haha. 

3.  I signed up for a half Ironman distance triathlon! EEK! It’s not until September 8, 2013, but it’s still crazy nonetheless!

4. I got to spend Friday night visiting with a college roommate, Anna! It was great to see her, catch up around a bonfire, and see her family!

5. I got to spend the weekend with Trav’s family as well as a wonderful addition to their family! They hosted a foreign exchange student from Spain while Travis was in high school, and Carlos came back to visit while he is spending a semester studying in Boston!

Travis, Carlos, and Trav’s brother! It was awesome to spend time with him, and to hear about his first experience watching Honey Boo Boo (eeekkk…).

6.  Can’t forget the good eats at Trav’s! 

Coffee and pumpkin crunch for breakfast 

Shoofly Pie! – DELICIOUS!

Grilled chicken salad from Chili’s – with corn salsa and beans! Amazing!

Alright – it’s back to the grind for three more weeks! At least Hollie is visiting currently! She spent the night last night on her way back to NY, so be prepared for recaps!

Happy Monday! How was your weekend/holiday??

How I Spent My Tuesday

Let me just say one thing: I am moving on up in the world.

Yesterday, I got a new computer! Ahhhh! So exciting, right? After Best Buy screwing me over a few weeks ago, I finally got the Lenovo Yoga, which has a touch screen and it turns into a tablet.  It’s incredible Once I figure out more of the features, be on the lookout for a post allll about it.

As for yesterday, I got up, went to the dentist, and then headed to Eat’n Park with my best friends, Missy and Emma!

I got a BBQ chicken salad that had sweet potato waffle fries on it.  It was spectacular. 

Afterward, I headed home to clean up the house a bit because my cousins and family are coming over today to make ravioli that will be frozen until Christmas!  I got the ricotta ready to make the filling!

After that, I made some blonde crisp, which is a family and personal favorite.

6 cups Crispix, 1 cup Cap’n crunch, 2 cups mini pretzels, one can mixed nuts, 1 cup dry roasted peanuts – all covered in melted white chocolate. Yum.

From there, I did some laundry before making dinner!

I know the pictures may not be the prettiest, but here’s a little Crescent Roll-up I made! Half a package of Crescent roll on the bottom, 2ish cups of shredded chicken mixed with a half cup BBQ sauce and topped with a cup of cheese.  Cover with the rest of the Crescent rolls, and bake at 375 for 18-22 minutes.

We had it with some veggies and applesauce.   So simple and tasty, too!

The rest of the evening was spent playing with the computer and watching my favorite Tuesday night shows

Be on the look out for a recap of my family fun! Not too sure how much time I’ll have this week, but it will come to you eventually!

If I’m not back for a few days….

HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!