Birthday Weekend

Well, today is officially my 26th birthday. I'm officially closer to 30 than I am to 20, which is strange, but in a good way. Like my friend Molly, I'm not the type who dreads getting older. I think getting older is fun. There is so many milestones that I've gone through, becoming a teenager, driving, college, drinking (legally), first job, getting married, buying a house, getting a dog, etc that I couldn't imagine not getting older. There are so many fun and exciting things to come that I look forward to many more birthdays!! Thanks to everyone for the texts, calls and card...they really made my day that much more special. Those who know me, know that I love my birthday. Its not just my bday, I just love birthday's in general. Its so exciting that there is one day where people celebrate just you, no other symbolic event. I tend to like to celebrate my birthday all week long. Nothing extravagant, just the casual, "Andy can you get me a soda...please, it is my birthday on Sunday." I use the power of my bday for little favors, so I'm not completely out of control. Andy indulges me as much as he can stand as it only usually lasts less than a week and he knows how much it makes me happy. He started the festivities off with fresh flowers on Thursday, so pretty!! Then Friday night we went out for margarita's and Mexican food, muy bueno! Saturday, he took me shopping to the mall then we had a night out on the town. We went to 202 for happy hour martini's. This bar/restaurant is very cool, very modern which is far cry from our typical Applebee's, haha. Then we went to Fork in the City, which is this small local restaurant in downtown Roanoke. It was soo good and one of our new favs!! We shared some apps and had a few more drinks. After a night of a few drinks, I was on a roll so I made Andy take me back to 202 for a dessert drink, Snicker bar martini. That was the perfect ending to a great meal. Too bad I'm not in my prime anymore because I was not feeling so hot today. This all brings us up to Sunday (my actual birthday). We went to Panera for a bagel and then grocery shopping. Then I went to get a Mani/Pedia. When I got home, Andy and I took Trubs for a nice long walk. It was 60 degrees today!! Needless to say, if you didn't know I loved my birthday before reading this, you probably do now. It was a great weekend!! Now back to the real world...Monday is just around the corner, boo!!!

Valentine's Weekend

Andy and I had a great weekend relaxing. This was the first weekend that we haven't been snowed in all month and the sun was shining, so we can't complain. Unfortunately, it was still cold, but at least it wasn't so glummy! We started Friday night by having a nice dinner in. I went to Fresh Market and splurged on some delicious stuff. We had brushetta and Gouda cheese for appetizer, crab cakes and twice baked potatoes for dinner, and a lemon square for dessert. We also had a bottle of our favorite Blackberry wine from our favorite winery out here!! Then we exchanged gifts. Andy got me this box of amazing truffles from a local candy shop. I have pictures, and will upload them this weekend. These things were not only huge, they were so pretty with airbrushed colors and everything. One of them is even a Paprika flavored chocolate...very food network. I can't wait to try them all...although, they have been super addicting and not good for the healthy eating kick I'm trying to stick to. I got Andy this CD with his favorite new song, Hell on the Heart by Eric Church. (We don't have Internet at home at the moment, so we can't download from I tunes.) I also got him some pink, hot pink and white colored fishing bait. Andy and I have become quite the trout fishermen and we are vowing to go even more this year! I love going because its such a beautiful hike and I can bring Trubs and she can just run along the trail with us. She looks so cute!! More to come on that if it ever gets warm enough to go!!
Then Saturday night we went to a new restaurant in Blacksburg called Bull&Bones. It is a very modern brewery with a huge bar and great atmosphere. The food was great too, so all in all, I think we have a new favorite restaurant!! We spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning, organizing and doing our taxes (fun stuff). We have been on a real organization kick lately. Its amazing how fast you can fill up a 3 bedroom house!! Unfortunately, we don't have a basement or garage, so we have to be inventive when it comes to storage. We've put up a ton of new shelves which have really helped. I can't imagine having kids and collecting any more stuff because we are already filled to max capacity!! At least it keeps us from holding on to things we don't really need and not buying a lot of junk that just creates clutter. Of course, I still probably have clothes I haven't worn since college in my closet, but you never know when you might need them (haha). I think that will be one of my next projects...cleaning out my closet...yikes!!
For now, I'm focusing on more exciting stuff. My bday weekend is this weekend, then in 2 weeks I'll be visiting Molly and then 2 weeks after that I'll be in Illinois for about 10 days (see family and work conference). I have a feeling it will be April before I know it!!

Jason Aldean concert....more snow and sledding...and a giant TV

Andy and I went to the Jason Aldean/Luke Bryan concert in Salem on Thursday. It was awesome!! The Salem Civic center is probably one of the best places to have a concert because its small which makes everything seem much louder. Andy and I love Jason Aldean, so it was fun getting to see him in concert again. Two summers ago we saw him in this little outdoor venue, which was a lot of fun, so when we heard he was coming here, we thought we should get tickets. Turns out, it was a good thing we went out on Thursday night because we didn't get out of the house much more of the weekend.

On Friday morning, we woke up to about 3 inches already down and it didn't stop snowing until 12pm on Saturday!! All in all, we got about another 12 inches....on top of the 16 inches we got last weekend that hadn't melted yet. Needless to say, it is a mess around here and this is officially the second weekend in a row that we have been trapped in our house!! Its just funny to me because everyone says that this is the most snow Virginia has gotten in like 15 years...I guess we brought it with us!

Friday night we did some sledding down our hill of our subdivision. It was all fun and games until we decided to go down this super steep hill that leads to our cul-de-sac. Unfortunately, it was covered in snow and we didn't think about the fact there is giant boulders shooting out of it as they are still grading it. Andy and I went down together, which was not intelligent in and of itself. It was so steep that we were flying, so we finally both just bailed off the sled. Then our neighbor Matt goes down, but he ends his ride with some more serious injuries. He hit a rock and either tore some ligaments in his foot or fractured it...he goes to the doctor Monday morning. You would think a bunch of 20 somethings would be a little more intelligent than this!!

Saturday, Andy and I cleaned and chilled around the house. Then we started to get cabin fever so we left for the mall. Our last stop was Sam's Club, where decided to impulsively buy a 47 inch Flat Screen TV!!! It wasn't completely impulsive...we had looked at them last year, but decided to buy our couch instead. Sam's had them for like $400 off the regular price so we decided to just to go for it. It has really revolutionized our TV watching and is perfect timing for the Superbowl today!!

We capped off our night by having Matt (broken foot and all) & Emily and Kevin, Erin & baby Hayden over for dinner....Taco bar. A delicious way to end the day!!