Weekend Coming Soon....

Hey guys... 

and welcome to new people from Mish and Kelly!

I had a weekend review planned but before I could get to it last night one of our dogs got himself hurt and I spent the time I was going to blog at the Animal ER.  :-(   

We're still not exactly sure what happened but I heard him whining and soon discovered a pretty nasty torn/ripped wound on his chest.  He ended up having to get some staples to close it up.  He was pretty drugged up and sad looking when we got home.  

Poor baby. I was so sad for him.  :-(  

This is an older pic from an elbow surgery... but I suspect we will see this same sad "WTF is going on?" face once he comes out of his drug haze.

  It seems like he slept well, and my MIL is home with him today.  It was a very superficial wound (even though it looked gory), so he should be back to "normal" in a few days.

Anyhow, I'll get something together and blab about my weekend tomorrow probably.   

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and a nice looooooong weekend!

We Gave Thanks

Hello, friends!

And welcome to my new friends from Mish Lovin Life and Messy.Dirty.Hair!

So, I'm still kind of on vacation, which (apparently) also includes blogging the past few days.  Work was really hectic this week (even for only 3 days) and I didn't get time to prep any posts. 
Anyhow, I'm stealing most of this post...from myself. (I wrote a pre-Turkey Day post on my food blog.)  My plans for the holiday turned out pretty close to reality. We ate a ton yesterday and will be having leftovers all weekend! :-)

I decided to try a couple of new recipes, along with all the old (delicious) standards.  

One of the Pinterest finds I definitely wanted to try were these cranberry and brie cups.  There are only 4 ingredients in this one, and they look so yummy.  I love cheese and fruit, and warm brie... mmmmmm.  I don't think you can go wrong with warm brie. (These were a BIG hit and I should have made more than i did!)

Source: celebratemag.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

One of my favorites every year is green bean casserole.  I literally just make it from the recipe on the container of French's Onions, and, actually, I haven't even looked at the recipe since I was a kid.  I just know what goes in it.  I like it to be on the drier side, with lots of crunchy onions. (It turned out perfect, and we never have enough of it.  Maybe next year I'll remember to make more!)

Every year we always have POUNDS of mashed potatoes (and gravy).  My BF and his brother are usually in charge of that.  We make them do the mashing.  (Correct, they mashed 15 lbs of potatoes!)

Another of my favorites (one of my very favorite foods actually) are the sweet potatoes.  This year, though, I really want to try this sweet potato dish I saw on Pinterest.  Roasted grape, goat cheese and honey stuffed sweet potatoes....umm, yes please!!  
(DONE, and excellent!  Next time I might try a different cheese, but the roasted grapes?? TO.DIE.FOR. We actually had quite a few extra grapes and ate them pre-dinner with some Havarti cheese we had in the fridge. OMG.)

Source: howsweeteats.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

We'll definitely have a turkey, but once in a while we also have ham.   Now, as I may have mentioned (haha), I'm no chef, or even much of a cook. The sauce for the ham comes from my Nana. It's just a small jar of grape jelly mixed equally with mustard. It might sound strange, but TRUST ME, it's sooo good!   What I've done in the past is buy a precooked (but not flavored) ham, lay a bunch of slices out on a baking sheet, cover them in the sauce, and bake for a few minutes, just to warm the meat and caramelize the sauce a bit. (No ham this year, but I'm planning to do this ham for Christmas dinner!)

And of course, DESSERT!  I have never made a pie... maybe next year.  But I will buy one, or three. Pecan pie (my fave), pumpkin is always good, and the BF likes apple. 
(Actually... my BF and his mom did the shopping and we had a cheesecake!? Weirdos. It was still delicious, but I need my pumpkin pie!!) 

I hope everyone had a great meal, with great family/friends, and is enjoying a long weekend...Like I am!!  

Four day weekends don't happen very often in my world so I am trying to take full advantage of it!  

See you guys Monday!!   

(Or maybe Sunday for Confessions, if I can get my act together!)

Me, Myself, & I

Hola, amigas! 

 

I've seen this link up around since I started reading a lot of the lifestyle blogs, and finally got my stuff together in time to participate this month. :-)

In particular I've seen it on Jenna's blog, so happy to link up with her and the other lovely hosts.

It's just a way to find out a few random facts about each other!

 

 

What are your top 5 favorite movies to watch during the Holidays?

My favorite is probably A Christmas Story.  "You'll shoot your eye out!" (My boyfriend hates it.)

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a close second. 

I like some of the oldies... Miracle on 34th Street (the original) is a cute one.

I think Elf is hilarious and touching at the same time. 

My boyfriend likes Bad Santa, and I admit, it's funny.  ;-)

It’s the month of giving thanks, what are you most thankful for?

I'm thankful for...Our house, and these crazy dogs who share it with us.

I'm thankful for...My family and the fun places we go.

 

And, I'm thankful for this guy...of course. :-)

 

If there was a quote or verse to describe your life, what would it be?

 

Source: meggielynne.tumblr.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

Who in your family are you most like?

Hmm.  That might be something that someone else could answer better, but I think I'm a lot like both of my parents, in different ways.  Actually, I think my brother is, too.  So maybe my brother!  ;-)

What is your favorite drink order at Starbucks?

In "winter" (no such thing here) I love the Pumpkin Spice Lattes, but I do want to try the caramel brulee latte this year!!  For the other +/- 9 months of the year I almost always order: Venti ICED tuxedo, with 2 pumps dark and 4 pumps white chocolate, and light ice, and no whipped cream.   :-) 

Valitar!

I don't think I mentioned in my Yellowstone post, but I was born in Cody, Wyoming.  

I spent the first 5 years of my life living on this dude ranch.

Due (I suspect) to being around dozens of horses from a young age, and then having a horse for a few years again after we moved to California, I've always loved them. 

I imagine if we'd stayed in Wyoming I might have a little boy like this by now.  :-)

Source: joaniemcmahon.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

 

When we visited the ranch this summer, the horse barn might have been my favorite part. The horses are so calm and serene, and a few came over to say hi to us.
Oh, and they are so soft.  I forgot how soft they are.  And how good they smell.  :-)

The point is, I like horses. 
So when I saw billboards around town for Valitar, I was intrigued.

My BF and I drove by one of the billboards together last week and we realized we were both interested, so we looked up some info online and settled on a night to check it out.

  I read the "story" of Valitar on their website (which is not very specific), but intentionally didn't watch any of the videos.  So I wasn't exactly sure of what we might see on Saturday night. 

That evening, we headed up the coast to Del Mar to attend the big event!  No photography was allowed as it might distract the horses, so all of these pics are courtesy of Valitar/Equustria Development, Inc. 
Saturday was only the second public performance (EVER!) of this show.  Kind of exciting!

This is what the tent looks like.  I've been driving past it twice a day for weeks on my way to/from work.

Some contortion starts off the show.

 

Once the horses join the show, it's kind of mesmerizing.

These guys were doing all kinds of stunt riding, racing around the arena. 
There was also some trampoline acrobats and 2 guys on rugged skateboards. 
Pretty crazy!

I really liked the trick riding, where the guys were jumping on and off of the horse, riding backwards, STANDING up on the horses backs!!

This was my boyfriends favorite acrobat... the rope lady. :-)
(There may be some more techniocal term for that...?)

We both thought this guy was really impressive. He did a lot of the stunt riding and was entertaining and engaging.

 This woman had 9 beautiful white horses running and dancing around in sync, with no harnesses/leads or anything.

Probably the most thrilling stunt of the night. 
He went underneath and back to the top while the horse was galloping around the arena. Yikes!
(Also, I loved this horse. Light mane, caramel colored with a few darker spots.  I wanted to pet him!!)

I really don't have anything negative that comes to mind about the show itself.  I was kind of expecting maybe a few more "WHOA! OMG!" moments.  But it is more about the beauty and grace of the horses (and the humans!), and relationship between them. 
Don't get me wrong, the guy going under the horse? The people standing on the horses backs and dancing? The guy being pulled by the horse on the mountainskateboard onto a ramp?  Those were all crazy, but the overall feel of the show is more "zen" than "cRaZy".  And I liked it that way. 

I didn't love the 2 people near me who kept whistling, that ear piercing,  sports game kind of whistle.  They mention no pictures because of the DISTRACTION it could be to the horses.  Not only do I think those whistles could have been, too...but they hurt my ears! Plus, one of them, a guy behind me, was also talking through most of the show. Not quietly.

Besides that the entire experience was extremely pleasant.  

All of the ticket takers and ushers were nice and helpful. 
The parking was easy (though a bit of a rip off at $9). 

The food & drinks in the concession tent were expensive (which is to be expected) but there was a pretty decent variety of snack type items to choose from.  We had an iced mocha and a piece of cake before the show. :-)

 The merchandise area didn't have a ton of options, but there were definitely a few cute shirts I liked.  I ended up buying a long sleeve t-shirt, but in large because no XL available (I've now determined it is going to be extremely tight, but wearable).  And it was $45.   Ouch.  I don't think there was anything under $30 besides the printed program.  (Of course, I still bought one, cuz I'm a sucker for a souvenir.)

I saw on their website that Valitar will begin touring to other cities soon.  If any of this sounds interesting to you, I suggest checking it out!  It was really fun and a great way to spend and evening with my boyfriend.  I think it's a great show to see for a date, or for a family night out! 

 

Disclaimer: I was provided 2 tickets to see Valitar, but all opinions are my own. 
They did not ask me to provide a positive review or to fall in love with the caramel horse.