Friday Favorites: Vegas Baby

In honor of my trip to Vegas I just booked, I thought I'd bring back Friday Favorites VEGAS style. This November, #theHahns will be taking over Vegas on account that my dad and Donna are finally getting married (after 12 years).    If you have not been to Vegas, you should probably squeeze your trip in sometime between now and Thanksgiving because after November 26th, Vegas will be burned to the ground. 

Any way, on to some picture favorites from Vegas (definitely a happy place-- even when you go swimming with your purse). What happens in Vegas.. umm sometimes stays in Vegas and sometimes ends up on Facebook. 


Taryn and I visit Vegas for the 1st time & decide we can only visit biannually. We spotted Hef and the Girls Next Door. Little did we know we'd co host Extra! with Holly in an few years time. 

 

 

American Airlines tried to steal Vegas from us or slow us down.  It worked for 24 hours.  Stuck at LAX airport, ugh.

 

 

After knowing Beth for a few months, and "convincing" her to come to Vegas, we celebrate her arrival by throwing her in the pool with her clothes on.

Who does this? Cirque du Soleil on the lawn of the Bellagio & walking the strip in our bikinis.  #Vegasbaby

Taryn and I tied the knot in Vegas. May 2009.
 

"Taryn, get out here.  I'm in the limo with the dance floor. Free ride!!"

Two bodies.  The end of a Vegas trip.

 See you in November.

My Happy Place

Today is the day I turn September around.  I am washing away my negative thoughts and feelings today.  No complaining. And no talking about tiresome situations. 

So here's to a new day: September 20th.  (Yes, I just raised my passion fruit iced tea into the air as a moment of embrace for this new day.  And yes, Starbucks is the answer if you'd like to start your day off right.) 

The best way to be positive and happy is to think positive and happy thoughts.  On my drive to work, I thought of a handful of things that I would consider my happy place.  And here I am to share them with you to help brighten my day (and maybe even yours.)

In no particular order---

• Flowers.  Which I happen to have a beautiful vase filled with beautiful flowers sitting on my dresser right now.  I should probably be spending more time in my room admiring them. I think I've said this a million times, but flowers just brighten your day no matter who they are from or what the reason.  They make you feel loved. 

My "just because" flowers from G <3 td="td">

• Winning.  I love winning random prizes or contests or raffles.  Most people would say I'm pretty lucky (#LuckoftheBlonde), but I think I just try to see the best in things.  Winning even something small & silly can really make my day.  I really like winning parking ticket refutes, but I have not accomplished that in awhile (tear).  Occasionally, I win something awesome like a $50 gift card to Binnys.  Thanks XRT!! 

• My six babies.  How can you just not smile at those precious gems?

• Finding a song that fits your exact mood at that exact time.  It's like therapy on the radio.  Song of choice for today: "Love, Love, Love" by Of Monsters and Men.

• Speaking of therapy, a sweaty run with my favorite running buddies or with an awesome playlist.  Sometimes I enjoy venting and talking through any frustrations while running, and sometimes its just better to pump it out to some energetic tunes.  Either way, running is definitely a happy place/ stress reliever.  Unfortunately, I am only still slowly working back into running, so I'm working on some alternatives to help me sweat it out. 

• When things work out with little to no effort.  Such as an impromptu girls night dinner where the people invited are actually randomly free on a Tuesday!! (Thinking of Roots: wine & sweet potato tater tots! Yum!)  Or getting a text for free sporting events or concerts and actually being able to go.  Even something as simple as walking out your door and getting a cab instantaneously or catching the El without running is a day brightener. 

Sox Game for Wilson's Birthday-- thanks for organizing Cassie!!

• Finding something you thought was lost.  Has anyone seen my silver watch?  That would make me happy right about now =)

• Seeing old friends.  Not bumping into high school acquaintances and have to have awkward small talk with, but hanging out with your friends that you, for some reason or another, don't get to see as often as you'd like.  It just gives you a sense of "home" and "normalcy" feeling.  Makes you feel grounded and remember where you came from. 

• PAYDAY! Which happens to be today. Self explanatory. 

And with that, I hope you have a fantastically bright and shiny day. 

(In fact, I already received word from my coworker, Leanne, that I have turned her day around since she walked into my room.  She left singing something about me being Sunshine.)
 

 

Bear Down: It's football season

After all the rush rush and busy joys of summer, its so great to come to the lazy-as-you-want-it-to-be football season of fall.  One of the best parts of football fall are that you have the option to rally on a Thursday night or lounge on the couch all day Sunday because there are football games to be watched.  For me.. I only really care about watching the Bears, but I have no arguements about watching an extra game or two just for the excuse to be extra lazy.  Did I say no arguements? I could do without 12 straight hours of fantasy football talk. But other than that, no arguments. 

I am pretty attentive during the Bears game, so I don't like to be too productive, but during the other games I mostly enjoy making soups and stews with the other miscellaneous games on TV.  Finally the weather is breaking, not complaining because I love the heat, but I can respect the fall weather for a change of clothes and activities.  One activity being soup making.  The weather is perfect to leave the windows open and the stove top boiling all day.  This past Sunday I prepared my Crock Pot Chicken Divan for Monday (which was divine) and this Sunday I plan on whipping up some beef stew (hold the beef for me.)  Football viewing is a great excuse to just eat all day long and almost not feel guilty about it. 

Another tribute to this great and holy Sunday, people are able to get a little crazier Saturday night because it is quite possible that it is the only night of the week you have plans.  Gone are the bridal showers, family birthday parties and festing that most traditionally occur on Summer Sundays.  No one has to hold back on a Saturday because now their only Sunday plans are football. AND.. If you're lucky enough, your plans on Sunday will already include "the hair of the dog" at a Bears party!  Remember when we used to have those guys??  Let's do that again, okay? Thanks. 

 

#HeadsofTails ?

 

 

 

Two Cents for CPS

While I appreciate people's concern, I am not a teacher in the CPS. I do however have a few comments or reactions to the situation at hand. I am not going to pretend that I have read the proposed contracts or even follow the story that closely, but since my school district went through this process for over two years, I have some credited insight.

For starters, support your teachers. You are being fed a one-sided story. The board's side. Teachers' Unions are not airing their business, issues and disagreements with the contract. You are only seeing the positive changes presented by the CPS board who are trying to make teachers look selfish and greedy. For example, you have probably heard (without even following this story) that CPS teachers want a 30% increase in pay. You may be thinking that's ridiculous, but consider the following: When was the last time CPS teachers received a raise? How is their current salary compared to the rest of Chicago's workers? And further more, they want to extend their work time by an hour. Shouldn't that be compensated monetarily? I know it doesn't seem like a big deal to add time to a teacher's day, but your just adding time that is directed by administration in addition to the extra time that teachers already put in just to keep up with their daily work load. Also, aren't these extended school days just another example of how teachers are the new nannies and parents aren't responsible for the children anymore?

Something else to keep in mind.. it is very frustrating when negotiating teachers' contracts because the people on the board making these decisions have never been a classroom teacher. They have no idea the effects of each new stipulation they place into the contract. Police officers and fireman wouldn't want me weighing in on how their facilities are going to be run and their job expectations just because I'm a tax payer and they are in a tax-paid position. I have NO IDEA what their day is like even if I have been to a police station or fire house before.
It seems that Chicago and news broadcasters are really taking this opportunity to push Charter Schools, which by the way, "are still open today." I'm not sure what they are trying to prove, but if charter schools could strike, I'm sure they'd already be doing it. They are the perfect example of why every work field needs unions. Those without unions are clearly taken advantage of. Talk about having zero respect for teachers. While the Charter school system might be an excellent learning establishment, they take full advantage of their teachers by having them work extremely crazy hours including lunch supervision and 2 hour impromptu after school meetings.  I don't see how that's fair.
My point is this: Teachers are not selfish and greedy. We are caring individuals who put in a lot of time to give your children the best education possible.  We work hard, and sometimes we like to be recognized for our hard work.  We most certainly do not deserve to be taken advantage of, pushed around, and made out to be the villains. 

And that's all I have to say about that.

Summer Slacking

Lately its as though I've been slacking at everything in life.  Blogging, cooking, keeping my room clean.  Obviously this means the beginning of the school year and the end to another summer.  It's funny because the lack of productivity really starts in the summer when you should be cutting down your to-do lists with all your free time.  But somewhere between the pool, rehab for my knee and wedding festivities, the list has been built up and put off for quite some time now.  Since school has started again, the to-do list has been amplified and categorized as: "Home to-do lists," "Work to-do lists," "Suburb to-do lists," and "Weekend to-do lists."  It's all just very stressful.  So yes Mich, I too have an obsession with Post-its.  (I'm also convinced I'd get more done if I stopped making lists and just completed tasks as they came on.) 

Once school starts back up, you start to wonder what you did with your whole summer.  One thing that I really didn't do this summer was cook.  I'm going to chalk that one up to the never-ending heat.  Who wants to turn on a stove or oven on a 100 degree day?  As for grilling, I have two outdoor grills.  An electric grill that is slow as molasses to heat up and to cook and a good ole Weber charcoal grill.  I actually used each of these grill exactly one time this summer and decided they were just too much work.   I resorted back to my stove top grill pan which smokes up the house quite lovely.  As a result, I didn't cook very much this summer.

As school started back up, my friend Leanne started bringing in these awesome left overs for lunch which inspired me to want to look into some new recipes. Well I didn't have to look far because apparently I have a million recipes in a folder in Gmail, and another handful on pinterest and in my recipe box.  So while I was awake at 3:30am on Sunday morning, I decided it was the right time to sift through them (probably because I was trying to fight off my hunger until a reasonable breakfast time.)  I came across so many great recipes that I had once found or been sent and never made. 

That led to me being impractical about cooking dinner dinner every night.  Even though this would be wonderful in theory, I'm too lazy to make massive dinners for 1 and I'm not even home for dinner 5 days a week.  So.. if you're interested in coming over for dinner... call for your reservation =)

For now.. I've cooked one dinner since Sunday titled "Easy Garlic Chicken" that I found on Pinterest. 


Picture & Recipe taken via Pinterest from food.com
http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-garlic-chicken-5478
 

I'd like to call this recipe a little something different:

Brown Sugar & Garlic Chicken
2 pieces of boneless skiness chicken breast
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
a lot a lot of garlic (more than the recipe calls for), minced

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
2. Saute the garlic in the oil for a few minutes.
3. Remove from heat when its translucent.
4. Mix with the brown sugar.
5. Spray down the pan you're using. Place chicken in the pan. Pour the mixture over the chicken. (I like to put slices in the chicken so some of the juices soak in and the thick meat cooks all the way through.)
6. Bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy =)