What $100 buys you at Trader Joe's

 My receipt for this week's grocery haul came out to EXACTLY $100 buckaroo's and it had blog post written all over it.

Joel and I try to do a "light" grocery trip once a week. I'm not sure how much other couples cook, or eat, but we average around $400.00/month on groceries. This week's trip included almost all of our standards, except sea food. We are going out both Friday and Saturday so we decided to skip the typical salmon, shrimp, or tilipia that we would normally grab.

Joel is traveling to Carlsbad this week, so I'm alone for dinner on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then I have plans Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with girls.

With that being said, I had to get a lot of things that would make decent meals for one. I plan to make a and mini pizza tonight, and will have Chicken sausage and leftovers ready for Joel when he's on his own. 

This frozen pulled pork is the fastest, and yummiest dinner option ever. It's high in sodium, but it feels like take-out and it's gotta be better than that!

Another quickie mix that I love to pick up are the pre-cooked turkey meatballs. They are low in calories (about 130 for two), super easy to add to pasta, and they really beef up dinner without adding time to prep. 

 

If you look at this list and buy anything from it, make your buy these bad boys.$1.99 worth of Heaven. They are my dessert every night (60cals for two)

 

Our crowd favorite salad dressing is this amazing Cilantro dressing. I use it all the time and without fail someone always begs for the recipe!

 

This Dubliner cheddar is my favorite appetizer and the hardest part is deciding if I want to pair it with red or white wine. 

 

How much do you spend at the grocery store? Am I missing any TJ's winners? Tell me! Tell me!

Finally!!

I finally found a crocheted shirt - and figured out a cute way to rock it

 

 

We finally took Roscoe on a road trip. This dog loves cars more than anything and couldn't have been more thrilled to spend two hours on the lone road.

It finally got so hot that I seriously thought about flying home and not coming back!

I finally went to my first NFL game - Chargers vs. Titans. Our Tennessee boys did not play so hot, but it was a fun game either way.

 

We finally got to spend some time with Joel's brother and new sister-in-law. We are so lucky to have them.

I finally think today, I'm going to need a lot of both of these...

 

And a maybe a nap.

TGIF

This weekend we're taking a family trip to San Diego to visit Joel's brother and sister-in-law. They always show us such a good time, and this go around we all bought tickets to the Tennessee Titan's vs. The San Diego Chargers game. Until Monday....

Cheers!

Getting back into the grind

 

Finally, after about a 7 month break, I've started to get my ass back on the pavement and get some use out of my running shoes and this non-stop perfect California weather.

Running has always been a passion of mine I've run about 15 races, as long as a 10k, and gotten up to about 8 miles as a personal record. But, with Chicago winter's, I always took a break from Thanksgiving - St. Patricks day.

This year, however, a lot of other things were happening in February and March, and I put running, and exercise as a whole, on the back burner. I had gone from 4-5 workouts weekly, to maybe 1 or 2. My weight hadn't changed and so I decided that exercise wasn't essential to my everyday routine.

 

Now that we live in California, I've been working almost primarily at home, and Joel has been working almost 80-90 hour weeks, which means that I'm home....alone...a lot. It's so easy to sleep in, sit on the couch all day, take naps, and wait for the hours to click by. I've lacked motivation and an all around sense of energy for the last few months. I've chalked it up to lots of things; busy weekends, tons of traveling, wedding planning, and too much booze, but what it really comes down to is that I haven't been working out daily. I haven't put myself on a productive schedule even though I know that I work at my optimal potential when I am.

But good news all....

This weekend, I've finally snapped out of my fog.

I forced myself out for a 2.5 mile run Saturday morning.  When I got back home, I focused for ten minutes on how I felt once I had finished: proud, effective, accomplished, and healthy. It took me about 30 minutes - not even a dent in my long days - and it made my entire day better.

When Monday came around, I set a goal for myself to run the same 2.5 mile route everyday this week.

It's Thursday and I'm 4 out of 4.  It's made an enormous difference in my week, I feel like my eyes are open wider, I'm not staying in my Lululemon's all day, and I'm buzzing with a happier mindset.

It's not rocket science that exercise is so essential to everyday life, but I've finally determined that exercise is so essential to MY everyday life. Maybe it doesn't make the scale move as much as I wish it did - but it makes me feel better. It makes me act better. And that combination is worth making exercise a priority every. single. day.
 

Wedding Wednesday: Trying on THE Dress

Last week while I was home  in Chicago I had the much-anticipated task of wedding dress shopping.

For weeks, I had been nervous about these appointments. I didn’t have a clear idea in my head of what I was going to look like on my wedding day, so I went into these appointments blind.

My first appointment was at a boutique in Lincoln Park, Chicago called Weddings 826. The set-up was perfect for our first appointment since it is a huge room filled with bags and bags of dresses that we were able to pull right off the rack.



My mom and sister Hannah (my other sister Nellie was already back at school in Kentucky) came with and served as my panel of judges. We were told we had exactly one hour in the dressing room and so as soon as the timer started the three of us went crazy grabbing dozens and dozens of bagged dresses.



What I hadn’t really thought through was the fact that I had to get naked with the dress attendant. (So word to the wise, wear some good underwear). We went into a closed off section in the large room and she told me to strip down.  It was a little awkward just standing there basically in the buff while she took each dress out of the bag – but after the first five dresses I finally got used to it.

With every dress that I tried on we started to started to get an idea of what looked good and what did not. We quickly determined a few things that were not going to be a part of the winning dress:

A dropped waist:

Feathers:

Or Straps:

With all of the No’s, we were led to the ingredients that did work: strapless, sweetheart neckline, A-line, a long train, slight ruching, and an off white color.

After three dozen dresses, I finally put on one that worked. It met all of my criteria and looked good. It needed a few additional alterations to make it the dress that I wanted, but I felt great in it. The attendant took my measurements, but I just wasn’t ready to bite the bullet after one round of tryouts, so we left for lunch and decided to sleep on it.

---

I wasn’t looking forward to Round Two of shopping the very next day. I felt like I had picked the winner and didn’t want to go through the whole ordeal again but thankfully my mom pushed me to give it one more shot and so off to Volle’s in Lake Zurich we went.

We got to our room and unlike Weddings 826, the attendant picked the dresses for me after I told her what I had liked from the day previously. She brought out about ten and off my clothes went.
The first dress I put on made us all certain that we were in for a  tough decision. The dress was perfect. It was everything about the dress from the day before, but more. And it felt like me.  As I told my mom, “If I were a wedding dress, this is what I would look like”.

The attendant forced me out of the dress and into a few more, but after about six others I really wanted to put the first dress back on.

She clipped me in and told me to get comfortable in it. As my sister tried on Bridesmaids dresses, I sat in my dress. I could move, dance, twirl – and I didn’t want to stop looking at the mirror. The dress is simple but classic, and is everything I didn’t know I wanted in my wedding dress.

I even got a little teary eyed as I stood on the pedestal looking at myself as a real bride. It was the first time since I’ve been engaged that I was truly overcome with the fact that I will be the one walking down the aisle on June 22^nd’, 2013 – and I’ll be doing it in this dress.

**This post is also featured on TheKnot so come check out here too!**

Peter, Who?

Ever since seeing this top appear across my pintrest I have made the executive decision that this  $75 Peter Pan knit from J.Crew will be making its way into my closet at once.

And I'd layer it with this Old Navy vest if I could ever get my hands on it:

Which would pair dashingly with my my old favs, the ever-popular Steve Madden riding boots...

 

And IF I was lucky enough I had Van Cleef baubles, I'd throw them right on top to give the outfit a little sophistication. This outfit would make the best dressed list no matter where you were! 

 

Weekend Report

I think I've emerged from my after-vacation slump. Since returning to California after my whirlwind trip to Chicago I literally bummed around my house for five days choosing to not clean, do laundry, or wake up before 10am. It was indulgent, and necessary, but I'm finally ready to get back to reality and start acting like an adult again.

Let me back track all the way to last Thursday to tell you a little more about Fashion's Night Out. I literally tried on about 13 different outfit options and finally settled on a Micheal Kors skirt and two layered H&M tops with Sooft shoes and a sock bun to add a little somethin, somethin. 

The event I went to was at Saks in Beverly Hills and was a Susan G. Komen sponsored shindig. There were low calorie drinks, petit fours, and lots of pretty dresses.

Since I was there to work, and work the room, I didn't really get a chance to shop - or indulge in the free champs they were serving all throughout the store which was kind of a bummer. The party ended at 8pm and my friend Shelby, and Joel's bosses wife and her friends decided to continue the girls night at the ever swanky Mr. Chow. I will say the food was amazing, but I still can't get over the tired atmosphere. 

Friday night, Joel's friend came over for dinner and the three of us grilled out and caught up. Since we had our engagement pictures on Saturday, I had given up drinking wine for an entire week. It's seriously the longest I've gone without my beloved drink in a long time, but I found an amazing replacement.

Tequila on the rocks with a spalsh of water and lime. It actually tasted really good and was almost 100% guilt free.

Saturday was the big photoshoot! I finally figured out my casual wear outfit at the exact last minute  and packed in a full day of beauty appointments. I woke up early and got in a good 30 minute run to work off some of my nerves and make me feel skinny.

I decided to go dark on my nails, since I will more than likely go light on my wedding day and chose  my favorite OPI shade, "You Don't Know Jacque".

I've been running low on my Benefit makeup for a while and decided to wait a few extra weeks so that I could get my make-up done and my $50.00 worth of products on the same day. The girl who did my makeup at the Benefit in Santa Monica did a freaking stellar job. It was "Glam Neutral" as she coined it, and I think it made a huge difference in our pictures.

After 2 mimosa's Joel, Roscoe, and our PA for the day Shelby loaded up the car and headed to El Matador Beach in Malibu for pictures.

The first ten minutes were painfully uncomfortable but we finally loosened up and I think we are going to get some amazing pictures.

As soon as I get a few back from our ROCK STAR photographer Jordana of Hazelnut Photography, I will do a full unveiling.

We celebrated after the shoot with tacos and margarita's at our favorite Mexican spot Casa Azul in Westwood and then grilled out with friends on Sunday night to cap off a great weekend.

Ohhh, and I finally got to drink some wine! 

Get Real

1. I finally felt my first earthquake last night a little after midnight. I had fallen asleep like 10 minutes before it "hit". It's a really weird feeling - loud, unsettling, and pretty strange.

2. FNO was...fine. It was more of a fancy business meeting than anything else. No fashion show, or DJ, or celebrity sightings. I was pretty unimpressed.

3. I met up with friends of friends for dinner at Mr.Chow after the event. The food there was spectacular but the ambiance is sub par, and their chairs are so uncomfortable. The whole time I really just wanted to get out of my heels and get home to my boys.

4. I never turned in my article for TheKnot.com this week.

5. I had so many wedding appointments last week and I have followed up on ZERO of them. I just needed a little bit of a break.

6. I've been so lazy/tired this week I have completely neglected all cleaning and laundry.

7. I still have no idea what I'm wearing for my casual look for our engagement pictures tomorrow. I need to go to the mall today to find something but I really don't want to spend any money.

8. I took a glass of wine into bed last night.

9. I did the ever-famous "sock bun" for FNO and you could totally see the orange sock that I used.

10. I haven't gotten out of bed yet, and I think it's going to be really hard to do so.

11. :)

I have a photo shoot, y'all

Which is pretty shitty timing seeing as I just spent a week in Chicago not worrying about anything to have to do with the words d-i-e-t or e-x-e-r-c-i-s-e.

Joel and I finally have our engagement shoot this Saturday at 5:00pm in Malibu and I'm starting to get seriously anxious! We have absolutely no idea what to do in front of camera so I think we are going to practice how to not be awkward on Friday night.

I'm really only hoping for one winner so that I can use it for our Save The Date's that will be sent out in Mid-January (Damn Christmas cards are screwing up my wedding timeline!) but, it'd be nice to have a few shots to choose from.

Since the shoot is on Saturday, I want to feel and look as good as I can in the next 3 days. I'm giving up alcohol (*except for Thursday) and trying to seriously watch the food intakes and adding a few out of the ordinary items to the beauty to do that I figure can't hurt!

Let's see how good it can get with a 3 day cleanse/diet/detox.

*I'm attending Fashion's Night Out tonight at Saks in Beverly Hills. (which I feel makes this post hysterically "LA").

Wedding Wednesday: So much catching up to do!

So, I pretty much accomplished all the tasks that needed to get done in Chicago. It was a non-stop trip but can I just go ahead and tell you that my wedding is going to be freaking awesome? We met with a lot of vendors who just get me. I wish we were having this shindig tomorrow!

 Oh, and the Jimmy Choo wedding collection didn't fit my feet, which was a horrible discovery.

And, in other news, while I was home in Chicago, we celebrated a wedding too. My cousin Cole (who is a writer for the Hard of Dixie, married his longtime girlfriend Brianna).

In horrible blogger fashion, I didn't take any pictures of the actual ceremony or reception - mainly because I was too busy sweating buckets on the dance floor.

But, thankfully, my social media addicted sisters did take quite a few for me to share.

 

On a really sad note, this was our first family wedding where someone very special to us wasn't here. If you've been reading for a while you know that I lost my Aunt Peggy back in March. Her daughter and son are in this picture below, and it was an especially hard night on them.

Aunt Peggy loved weddings, never got off the dance floor, and would have loved to be at Cole's.

She also, and painfully ironicly, loved the song "I Will Survive". It was her song. She used to dance to it when she was pregnant with my cousin Gia, and for the first few years of Gia's life, she'd cry hysterically whenever we played it.

 So, after the first dance, the DJ invited the entire Marino family to dance to the song in her honor. It was cathartic for my family (of 45) and boy was it a cry session (we are not shy Italians), but I promise you, we did her good.

Life keeps moving on.

 It's been almost six months since she left us, but never, ever, ever is there a day that goes by without us thinking about her. We lost a huge, huge part of our lives and this weekend, while meant to be celebratory, was also a reminder of that.