Weekend Getaway

So last weekend, Jesse and I decided to take a little trip down to Louisville.  We stayed at The Brown Hotel, and went to 4th Street live in the evening.  If you've never been to 4th Street Live, I would highly recommend it.

Anyway, we first went to The Horseshoe Casino in Elizabeth, IN, where I proceeded to lose all of our hard earned money...Okay, I didn't lose all of it, but $50 seems like a lot when it's gone in 30 minutes. 

We then headed over to the hotel.  Jesse told me to stay in the car while he checked in.  First of all, let me tell you that we got a REALLY good price on our room through Priceline negotiator.  If you've never tried it, you should.  We've stayed at some beautiful hotels, for extremely cheap! So after he checks in, he comes out to get me and says that they upgraded our room for free.

"Really?" I said. "To what?"

"Well, we are now staying in a King Suite on the Club floor." Jesse proceeded. " I told them it was our one year anniversary, so we got an upgrade." Jesse said they were extremely friendly, and asked what our plans were. "Well, I'm going to take her to King Fish for dinner." Jesse said.

Okay, it was not our one year anniversary and I don't usually condone lying, but I was pretty excited to stay on the Club floor, so I let this one slide. And I was really excited about King Fish because all of the guys that Jesse works with had highly recommended it.

So we're all dressed up and drive on over to King Fish.  The place was pretty busy, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that we were the nicest dressed people there. We were definitely in Kentuckiana! We finally sit down and we're less than two feet away from the table next us. Not very romantic...

 So, we order some crab legs, and in the meantime our waitress brings out some hushpuppies as an appetizer. Only she said they we were out of plates and gave us a stack of napkins to eat our appetizer on.  Really?  How are you out of plates? Napkins? 

We finally get our food (that was served in a basket), and Jesse spills his little cup of butter and there is butter everywhere! We get that half-way cleaned up and Jesse proceeds to crack open his crab legs, when all of a sudden a piece of crab flies over the table and into the hair of the lady sitting two feet away from us.  And...we didn't tell her...

Now, I'm not a food snob at all, it's just that we were all dressed up and planning this romantic weekend.  Plus, so many people had recommended this place.  Not to mention, Jesse had bragged to the hotel receptionist that he was taking me here.  I can't imagine what they were thinking....

But we laughed the whole way through dinner, and I will definitely never forget our fake one-year anniversary dinner!

Here are some pictures of the awesome hotel:

Super Duper Tired

Yuck!  It's way after my bed time (it's only 10:15), and I still have a crap ton of things to get done tonight.  Of course I've decided to put off most of them until tomorrow, but I really do need to finish the bacon and cream cheese pinwheels I made for our pitch-in at work tomorrow.

I don't want to brag or anything, but it's the second new recipe I've tried this week.  Oh yeah, I've stepped up my game.

Back to the work pitch in, I really need to find my "thing".  We have had a thousand pitch-ins, and I'm still waiting for someone to say, "Oh my, these are delicious. Can I have your recipe? or "Valerie, are you going to bring your (fill in the blank)?  Mmmm...I love it when you make that." 

Nope, that has never happened.  I need my own signature dish.  Any suggestions?

Anyway, here is the recipe for the awesome taquitos I made yesterday. For some reason I just can't get enough Mexican food lately!

I don't like red peppers, so I used green chiles instead.  Delicious!

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers, drained (from water-packed jar)
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 1 1/3 cups shredded pepper jack cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and saute 5 minutes, until browned on all sides. Add roasted red peppers andliquid smoke and cook 1 minute to heat through. Arrange tortillas on a flat surface. Top each tortilla with an equal amount of chicken mixture, to within 1/4-inch of the edges. Top chicken mixture with cheese (1/3 cup of cheese per tortilla). Roll up tortillas and place on a baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray and bake 10 minutes, until cheese melts.

Well, I'm off to the kitchen!

A Little Secret About Me

I get anxiety about EVERYTHING.

I get nervous when I have to get my own cart at Wal-Mart.  The carts are always stuck together, and it seems that there is always a line full of people staring at me, huffing and puffing, and judging me because they are in a hurry and I am standing in their way. Which makes me feel rushed and frustrated, and then I really can't get the carts apart.

I am the same way about taking the time to put my change in the little change pocket of my wallet.  I just can't do it.  I always end up throwing all of my change in the bottom of my purse because I don't want the person behind me to think that I am being incredibly slow.

I also get extremely nervous about meeting people for the first time too. Should I go in for the handshake? Are they a hugger?  What if I put out my hand for the handshake and they don't reciprocate?

Which brings me to goodbyes. Also nerve-racking. What if I say goodbye and nobody is paying attention and no one says anything in return.  Should I say it again?  Maybe they aren't saying anything because they don't care that I'm leaving. Or maybe they just didn't hear me, and might be offended if I leave without saying goodbye.

Seriously, I once fake-pumped gas. How ridiculous is that?  I couldn't get the pump to work and there was a long line of military men behind me. I didn't want them to think that I couldn't accomplish a task as easy as pumping gas, so I faked it.  I even did the old tap-tap-tap, when I was finished to make sure I got out every last drop of imaginary gas.

I've had bad experiences with gas stations. I once fell down at a gas station and took down a whole rack of salsa with me. Another time,  I fell into the newspaper rack outside of a gas station because I was too busy staring at my frizzy hair in the window and completely missed the curb.

Ugh...I'm anxious just talking about all of this.

So now, the simplest things make me super nervous because I always feel like someone is staring at me or judging me or even super irritated by me. And lets be honest here... I am well aware that there is a good chance no one is staring at me.  I am getting uncomfortably close to thirty, I have blindingly pale skin, and I recently had to dig my fat jeans out of my closet.

The good news is that I've dealt with this anxiety for a long time, so I am slowly starting to relax a little and just laugh at myself.

Does anyone else ever feel like this?

Abby "The Monster"

Over the weekend, Jesse and I went on a little "weekend getaway".  It was a last minute decision, and we just really felt like we needed to "get away" from our normal, go-to-work-cook-clean-and sleep life that we live over and over every single day.

Anyway, it is such a rare occasion, when we can just take off and leave for a weekend because we can never find a babysitter...for our dog.

We have a puppy named Abby who is some sort of Retriever mix.  We got her when she was 6 weeks old, and she was the cutest puppy I had ever seen!

Little did we know that she would become what some like to call "The Monster".  

Seriously, when she was about 6 months old we decided to take her to PetSmart to get a bath.  Every time you go to pick your dog up, they give you a little report card with gold stars.  Well on this particular occasion, there were no gold stars.  They might as well of given her a big fat F!  The groomers were not completely happy with her, and proceeded to tell us she was "A Monster", and then handed us a brochure for obedience training.

She was a little puppy...how bad could she really be?  And how could you not melt at the sight of her ridiculously adorable puppy dog face?!

So we refused to take her to PetSmart again, and decided to make the switch to Petco.  You don't get a report card at Petco (which is probably a good thing).  Well, on our second visit they informed us that if we ever brought Abby back, they would have to charge us a "Special Handling Fee". Which really meant, "You're dog is a monster and we're hoping that if we charge you $40 to give your dog a bath, then hopefully you will never bring her back here again."

When we went on our honeymoon, we had to pay $13 a day to have her boarded because our friends and family refused to watch her.

What were we doing wrong? Why in the world would our dog not calm down! It's so embarrassing to even take her out in public because she gets so excited and wants to jump on everyone and everything.  And when you try to hold her back she starts making these really loud gagging sounds like you are choking her. I'm pretty sure she does it just to embarrass me...

Poor Abby...She is so good when it's just us, but as soon as a new person comes over, it's like she can hardly contain herself.  She goes bonkers.  She just wants to be all up in your business all the time.

 I know I'm not a Doctor, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that she might suffer from ADHD. Our vet actually gave us prescription sedatives to calm her down.  Is it bad to drug your dogs when friends come over?  I'm just kidding, we don't really do that...all the time.

Well this weekend we had to board "The Monster" again, and you will never guess what they said about her....

(Drum Roll Please)

They said she was "An Angel"!   An Angel!  When Jesse first told me this I really thought he was lying, but he swears it's the truth.  They said she was such a good girl and we were welcome to bring her back anytime.  I know we are paying them to say that, but it was the happiest moment in my dog parenting life!

Maybe we are good parents! 

Lets Talk Football

The end of the football season is rapidly approaching, and I believe it is going to be a bittersweet day for me.  I really do enjoy watching football, but I also enjoy Sunday nights on HBO or NBC Thursdays. I really just miss watching anything but Monday/Thursday/Sunday/and sometimes Saturday Night Countdown...

I never really cared about football until Jesse and I started dating, but now I end up watching more of it than he does.  Which is mainly because he falls asleep on the couch and then wakes up every time I try to change the channel. 

This year Jesse talked me into playing in his fantasy football league with all of the guys he works with.  My team was absolutely horrible. Which is probably because I felt bad for my players and refused to drop any of them.  If they had a bad week, I had faith that they would do better next week and it would be okay... 

I'm sad to say that this never really worked out for me...

Unfortunately, Gingers Unite (my awesome team name) ended the season with a 4-8 record, and lost to Jesse in the first round of Playoffs.  But not before I got in a little smack talk and earned the respect of all the men he works with. 

Dear Deem Team,

There's still a chance that Tom Brady could pull out another 40 point game for me tonight. I hope you're ready to lose. Don't worry though, I will pick up a box of tissues for you to dry your sad, losing tears. And just think, next week you'll still get play in the "Winner's" Consolation Bracket. That should help take the sting out of the tremendous upset that is about to end your fantasy football career.

Love,
your wife

This was a seriously proud moment for me.  I might of had to google smack talk, but I came up with most of this myself.

So, I don't exactly know where I'm going with this ridiculous post about football, but I want to leave you with a few of the football conversations that took place in the Deem household.

Convo #1

Me:  Do football players wear cups?

Jesse:  Why would you ask that?  No, they don’t wear cups.

Me:  Well, I can see their penises.

Jesse: (shaking his head) They would probably get chafed if they ran with a cup on.

Me:  Hahahaha….you just said chafed.

Convo #2

Announcer:  The defense is providing deep penetration to force the quarterback into escaping out the back door.

Me:  Did that announcer just say ‘back door’?

Jesse:  (chuckling) Yes, he did.

Me:  He just said deep penetration and back door in the same sentence.

Jesse:  Seriously Valerie, just watch the game.

Convo #3

Jesse:  Wait!  What happened?  What was that penalty for?

Me:  Well, Manning knew that the other team was doing substitutions, so he performed a quick snap and forced the other team into a penalty because they had too many players on the field.

Jesse:  (with a tear  in his eye)  I’m so proud of you babe.

Oh, what will we talk about now?

<

Always say Good Morning

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a morning person.  It doesn't matter if I go to bed at 7 pm.  Waking up at 6am will never be an easy or enjoyable thing for me to do.  

I do feel sorry for Jesse sometimes. He usually has to be completely silent in the mornings, just to keep the peace. This is mainly due to the fact that we both leave for work at the same time and we only have one bathroom in our house.  Yes, one bathroom.  If you've ever lived with a man, surely you can feel my pain when I say that we have only one bathroom.  But I am also sure that Jesse feels the same way about the situation.

So, not only do I not like getting up early, I actually have to get up earlier than I need to.  Just so both of us have enough time to get ready.  A few months ago, Jesse did set up a vanity area outside of our bedroom, which has helped immensely.

Anyway, yesterday I read an article online that said "Happy Couples Always Say Good Morning".  

Hmm....interesting...We should be doing this.  We're a happy couple.  Is this why the rest of the world is so happy when they get out of bed?  These two words.  Really?

Well, as Jesse and I were laying in bed last night, I mentioned the article and told him maybe we should try it. 

I'm pretty sure he thought it was kind of stupid, and I'm also pretty sure he is a little scared to say anything to me in the morning, so in his head this was probably not a good idea.  After that, I think he grunted and rolled over, and that was the end of that.  

But then, my annoying alarm started going off at way-too-early 6am, and my adorable husband rolled over and said, "mmm...Good Morning".  

And that was the highlight of my day...

Why am I doing this?

So, I'm not completely sure why I have decided to share my "Oh-so-interesting married life" with the rest of the world.  All I can think is..."All the cool kids are doing it."

It seems that I have a ridiculously long list of friends who have taken up blogging, and I thought I would give it the good ole' anything-to-keep-me-from-doing-dishes try.

I'm still not exactly sure how much information I am going to share on this blog. I would love to talk about the ups and downs of being a newlywed, and how hard it can be to find your own identity in the beginning steps of marriage, or how crazy awesome it is to spend every single day with your best friend.  Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to go into that much detail, but if anyone has some awesome advice they'd like to share with me, please feel free. :)

I would also love to put up pictures of all the crafts I do in my spare time, or pictures of the amazing recipes that I'm brave enough to try. But... unfortunately that probably won't happen either. Mainly because I don't do crafts in my spare time, or try awesome new recipes.  And also because it takes me 6 months just to upload pictures onto my facebook page. 

I'm seriously hoping this blog will make me try harder.  Maybe it will turn me into the domestic goddess that I've yearned so long to be. Maybe I will be so excited about this blog, that it will make me want to make crafts and try recipes.  Or maybe it will keep me from doing anything that relates to being domestic because I will be spending all of my time on this darn blog.

 We shall see my friends...