Anniversary Trip Surprise

I love surprises...so of course whenever we plan a vacation I like to surprise Jake with something for the trip.  Here is this years:

Celebrity Softball Game tickets!

Now, if you know anything about my husband, you know about his love for Baseball & Softball.  While looking into events for the weekend of our trip, I found out about this fun charity event.  Celebrities--country artists, Tennessee Titans NFL players, actors/actresses, etc--participate in this fun softball game where they are split up into two teams to scrimmage and raise money for City of Hope, a charity that raises money to find cures and better treatments for cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening diseases.

The event typically happens in conjunction with the CMA festival, and this year it's on that Saturday  morning.  I got us tickets, and they came in the mail a couple days ago.  I saw the envelope so I gave it to Jake and said "Oh look, this came for you."   He was a little confused, but so excited when he realized what it was!

Here are some pictures from past years.  Some of the past players have been Carrie Underwood, Jake Owen, Brantley Gilbert, Scotty McCreary, Vince Gill, Chuck Wicks, Sara Darling, Dierks Bentley, Julianne Hough, Randy Houser, Montgomery Gentry, and lots more..

 

 

 

 

Getting excited!!!  44 days til our trip :)

 

  

Week[end] Wrap-Up

Well, I have had a really great week.  I apologize I haven't updated on here, but we have been busy and when I've had time I didn't feel very motivated to do so.  I'm still seeing my chiropractor and things are not back to 100% but I got good news from him this week and it seems like I'm re-aligning the way I should.

Wednesday night the hubby and I decided to have an impromptu movie night.  Thanks to Redbox, the line-up was...

   

They were both great movies!  It has been a few years since I saw the first Taken movie, but I remember that it was really good.  I would say that this one was even better than the first.   Pitch Perfect was hilarious.  I have been begging Jake to rent this movie since it was released on Redbox a few weeks ago and we finally picked it up.  While a couple parts of it are obviously cheesey, we were both cracking up the entire movie.  Entertaining story line and fantastic comedic timing.  

Then on Thursday night, it was the first night of our bowling league! Yep, you heard right.  We are officially in an 8 week bowling league, haha...Our friends Gretchen and Braxton found out about the league and invited us to join with them and another couple.  The first night we found out that it's three-person teams so we split up to girls vs. guys.  There are 5 or 6 teams in the league, and at the end of the 8 weeks we get our own custom bowling ball :)

 

Friday night April and I went to Enso [my fav sushi place in Charlotte] for dinner.  We split a groupon purchase for Enso a couple months back and finally got around to going there for dinner!  We started out with some yummy shrimp as an appetizer, both got some sushi rolls for dinner, and then split a chocolate kahlua toffee cake dessert.  So good!  

Saturday Jake's softball tournament got moved to today due to rain, so we both went down to Columbia to meet sweet baby Presley Jane, my best friend Eden's little girl.  She was born Friday morning and is so precious! She looks just like her momma.  Both of them are doing very well!

We also celebrated my mom's birthday [a little early] with a nice lunch and then little trip to Starbucks.  

Today was church, teaching the Preschool Sunday school class, and then doing some things around the house.  Shanti and Reina went to watch one of Jake's softball games with me, and we're doing our usual Sunday night dinner--Charanda's :)


Once Jake's games are over tonight we might catch some of the Oscars, and I'm hoping to catch up on more Grey's! About 6 and a half years ago I invited Jake to hang out with my roommate and me to watch Grey's Anatomy, and ever since then it's been one of our favorite "us things".  Because of some of my late studio classes in college we have gotten a bit behind so we've been slowly catching up on Netflix.


That's all for now...


XO, Stacey

Apple Cider, Caramel....YUM

So, my phone case came in and I love it!  The prettiest shade of turquoise.  I wasn't sure if the picture was going to be the same as in person, but it was.  I'm thinking about getting a monogrammed sticker to put on the back of it, but I'm not sure if it would stick well to the rubberized texture of the case--anyone tried that before?  Believe it or not, the only thing I got after our wedding with my monogram on it was a purse that was a gift from my parents, but since I tend to wear out purses that one is no longer around :(  I need to get some more stuff!  I have really been wanting a small monogrammed gold pendant necklace, but finding one with a monogram as small as I want is proving hard (or at least, without paying out the wazoo for it).


My parents are up in Cape Cod on their anniversary trip this week and seem to be having the best time!  They have been texting me pictures and it looks like such a beautiful place.  They woke up early at the B&B to get on the morning ferry and they are spending the day on Martha's Vineyard today.  I will try to load some pictures and post on here.
 

I had a really fun weekend...I went to a Bridal show in Columbia with my friend Eden.  It was a lot of fun! I never went to any when Jake and I were engaged.  It was neat to see all the different vendors and all of the raffles/contests, etc.  We registered for a ton of free things so hopefully Eden will get a call this week that she won something!  They were giving away everything from $200 gift cards to full honeymoons. 

Before that, on Friday night I went over to my friend Shanti's and we baked some cookies and snacks for a girl's night in with our interior design friends on Saturday.  The cookies we baked were called Apple Cider Caramel Cookies and boy were they good!!  I love anything involving cider, and these were so easy to make too!  I thought I would share the recipe so that yall can try it out too...

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, nearly melted
1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (7.4 ounce) box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix *Not sugar free*
2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 (14 ounce) bag Kraft Caramels

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. It has to be parchment this time.

2. In a stand mixer, cream together butter, sugar, salt, and all 10 packets of apple cider mix until smooth and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract, then mix in the baking soda and baking powder. Add the flour and mix until just combined.

3. With a standard (size 50) cookie scoop, scoop the dough scrapping off the excess as you go up the bowl. Flatten the dough slightly in your hand and place a caramel in the center. Work the dough around the caramel sealing well. Place the cookies two inches apart on the sheets.

4. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. After baking, carefully slide the parchment with the cookies onto the counter. Let cool until they are no longer soft but still slightly warm. Twist gently to remove, and cool the rest of the way upside down on the parchment or on a cooling rack.

 

 

Seriously, amazing.  I ate like a fatty king on Saturday because before Girl's Night I went up to the Yiasou Greek Festival with Iris and got a gyro & the American version of a  greek salad.  ALWAYS a winner in my book.  

 

That's all for now.  My hubby is finally back in town from his working out of town and softball tournament this past weekend (They got 5th overall :/ ) so we can finally relax and enjoy each other!!  The doggies and I have missed him a bunch...although Kona has been loving sleeping up on our bed:)  He was mad at Jake last night because he wasn't allowed up, haha.  

Fun in the Sun

...we have a lot of that planned for the weekend!  But, first--my Insanity update:

Four days of Insanity down, and lots more to go!  This only shows the first month of the two month program.  Don't let yesterday's workout fool you--"Recovery" only means that all of the reps are done very slowly--which anyone who's ever done weight training can tell you that the slow, repeated reps hurt just as much as the fast, maxed out reps.  My quads were burning for about 4 hours last night...but that's what I call success :)  Also, the fact that I'm only four days in and a pair of shorts that I could barely button a month ago fit pretty darn well last night!



So, back to the weekend plans...

Tonight w/Jeremy & April...not sure what we are going to watch but it should be lots of fun!

Jake has a softball tournament tomorrow in York

My friend Karen is having a Luau tomorrow night which I'm super excited about!

Hopefully some driving range action on Sunday after church

Going to check out a new store in Charlotte on Sunday-pretty excited!

I'm also getting an oil change, grocery shopping, and of course some Insanity workouts, but those don't get a fun picture...