Brunch at the Grand Concourse

Yesterday, my family (well, most of them) went to brunch for my mom's birthday.  We went to the Grand Concourse downtown in Station Square.  This place is amazing.  It is one of the fanciest, most highly reviewed restaurants in all of Pittsburgh.  This isn't a place we would normally go to, but my dad suggested it because their brunch is rated number one.  And I would definitely have to agree with that!  Not only was the food & coffee seriously delicious, the building had the most beautiful architecture & pretty stained-glass windows everywhere.  There was even someone playing tunes like the Beatles on a baby grand piano.  We had a great time!

 

1. My mom, my sister Brita, and myself

2. Delicious breakfast

3. Hubby Brett and my dad

4. Amazing waffles and homemade donuts...

5. A shot of Brett and I in front of the grand staircase

How was YOUR weekend?

Did you do anything fun??

PS - This morning, when I walked outside to go to work... it was already 57 degrees out!  (It was raining too... but I'll take whatever I can get.)  Now that's the way to start a Monday!  Spring, I hope you're on your way!

Fill in the Blank Friday

 

1.   I am currently obsessed with owls and all things feathers.  Oh, and sparkly nail polish annnnd my husband.

2.  Today I am happy because, it’s FRIDAY (!) and it’s raining, instead of snowing (I’ll take anything other than snow at this point).

3.  The age I am is 25 and the age I feel is definitely dependent on the day.  Sometimes I feel like an 80 year old Grandma when I get tired at 9pm and my back hurts… And sometimes I feel like a 10 year old when I dance through the aisles of the grocery store…. And sometimes I feel exactly 25 when I realize that I am married and pay bills and have a grown-up job and responsibilities but still go out to the bar often. :)

4.  My favorite place is multiple places… does that count?!  This is a super hard question.  It can go a number of ways: my home, Hilton Head Island, Rehoboth Beach, ooor any pizza place at 2am…. 

5.  Something I have been procrastinating is finally changing my last name on everything.  Since I got married, I’ve changed the important stuff like my driver’s license, social security, etc… but there are a lot of things that still need changed like credit cards, etc.  It’s just such a pain!

6.  The last thing I purchased was coffee & a bagel from Get Go this morning.

7.  The thing I love most about my home is   our own personal touches.  We don’t have any generic décor or art that we just went to the store and picked up.  All of our décor and little things in our home have a story behind them, and I think it really shows people our personality when they walk in our house.  I love it. :)

Play along here!

And let me know if you do!  I love reading your responses!

Happy Friday!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

 Happy Birthday Mom!!

Happy birthday to the most amazing mother a daughter could ask for.

Not only is she my mother, but she is also my best friend.

I couldn't imagine my life without her.

I can only hope I'm half as good of a mother as she is.

I love you, Mom!!

Happy "32nd" Birthday!! ;)

 

“I had the most satisfactory of childhoods because my mother…

turned out to be exactly my age.”

{Photo: Me & Mom at my wedding - August 7, 2010}

58 Days Until HHI...

Ok, here's the deal.  I'm SICK of Winter.  I know I live in Pennsylvania and it's only February so Winter is expected... BUT.  It was 65 degrees on Friday!  Do you understand how this teased me??  I was running around outside in a t-shirt and jeans and basking in the sunshine.  Then Sunday rolled around and it decided to start snowing again...  I woke up this morning and there was over a FOOT of snow in my driveway.  I can't handle it anymore.  Winter needs to go away.  It's not welcome here anymore.  All I can do for now is close my eyes and dream about our Hilton Head Island vacation... 

Only 58 more days!  (but who's counting...)

I Love the Morning Time...

 

{Photo of Rehoboth Beach, DE - December 2009, Taken by me}

Fill in the Blank Friday

 

Looks like it's that time again!

FRIDAY!!

1.   I am so happy it’s FRIDAY and so happy that I sold my old car last night!

2.  The bravest thing I've ever done was  umm, does walking through the ghetto at night count?  We used to do that a lot when we lived in the city… especially if we were on a hunt for pizza.

3.  I feel prettiest when I just get back from a day at the beach and I have that sunny, sweaty glow.

4.  Something that keeps me awake at night is thinking about all the things I need to do.  Oh, who am I kidding?  As soon as I hit that pillow, I am OUT.

5.  My favorite meal in the entire world is that is a REALLY hard question because I love food.  I’m going to say… Max Mex Happy Hippie Burrito!  YUM!  But there are so many other meals that are my favorite too!! ;)

6.  The way to my heart is through laughter annnnnd bringing me coffee.  That works too. :)

7.  I would like to go to COSTA RICA before we have children!

Play along here!

Random Acts of Kindness Day

Happy Random Acts of Kindness Day!

Some may think this is a silly holiday, but I happen to believe this is one of the most meaningful and important holidays of the year!  It is almost sad that there has to be a day designated to being nice to one another...but I digress.  Do you realize how much one tiny gesture of kindness can mean to someone?  It may not seem like much to you, but you never know if someone is fighting a hard battle and all they need is a little cheerfulness.  So please, go out there today and be the absolute best version of yourself.  You never know how much it can impact someone.

Here are some ideas:

Hold the door open for someone

Compliment someone and mean it

Pay for someones coffee in line behind you

Wipe the snow off someone's car

Tell someone you love them and mean it

Make coffee for your husband/wife before work

Let someone in front of you in traffic

Just smile and greet people as you walk by them

 Can you imagine what the world would be like

if everyone treated everyday like 'Random Acts of Kindness Day'?!

Let's start!*

The Perfect FIT

Ok, first the really exciting news: We got a new car!!  After all the crazy car issues we've been having the past couple weeks (which I'm sure you all are sick of hearing about...), we finally have a new car!  On Saturday, we set out on a mission and found the perfect one (at a GREAT deal)!  It's a 2010 Honda Fit and we are IN LOVE with it!  It is soo perfect!  I'll have to take more photos...

I still had my rental car for the week but since I wouldn't be needing it anymore, we decided to take a mini road trip on Sunday with it (to get it's money worth!).  We headed down to Cooper's Rock, WV (about an hour away) to go on a nice little winter hike!  While I love hiking in the Spring/Summer/Fall, this hike was nice because there weren't many people around.  It was so peaceful and quiet.    

 

And the weather turned out to be pretty decent that day, too.  By the end of the hike, we were taking off layers of clothing because we were hot!  I really think Spring is on its way... (reeeeally hoping at least). 

After our hike, we stopped in Morgantown, WV for a late lunch at the Morgantown Brewery.  We got there before it opened, so we roamed around the college town for a bit, then headed back for some tasty sandwiches and yummy brews.  After that, we headed home and spent the last bits of the weekend just relaxing.  

It was a great weekend!

How was yours??

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

We are having my parents over tonight

for a nice little double date meal at home.

What are YOUR Valentine's Day plans?

xoxo

PS - Our love story is featured today
over on Nicole's blog, My Teacups in Peony!
Go check it out!

Fill in the Blank Friday

 

1.   The TV show/website that I watch/read that I would be embarrassed to tell anyone about is hmm, I’m not really embarrassed about anything I watch or read on TV or online!  We don't have cable TV but if we did, I'm sure I would get sucked into the crappy reality shows.

2.  An item of clothing that is worn and torn but that I love far too much to throw away is the pair of jeans that I was wearing the first time I met Hanson in 2003… ha!  They are completely torn and frayed and not even wearable, but I can’t bring myself to throw them out.

3.  My grocery store impulse buy is nice cheese.  We are always leaving the grocery store with some kind of nice cheese, justifying that it will just go so perfectly with the current bottle of wine we have.

4.  Something I do at work to pass time that I wouldn't want my co-workers to know about is write blog posts… haha.

5.  One thing in my life that I could give up, but never will is coffee! (Except for when I’m pregnant)  I love it!

6.  A little indulgence that I have is fancy lattes.  I don’t get them often, because I love our home brewed Trader Joe’s coffee… but every once in a while on special occasions, I indulge.

7.  The junk drawer/area in my house is the closet in our upstairs hallway and the attic.  Junk gets thrown in the closet until it eventually makes its way up to the attic…

Play along here!

Yesterday, over at Emily's blog, David & Emily,
I shared what I'm thankful for.
Go check it out!
And continue reading Emily's blog...
it's adorable.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!*

So Long Rustibu...

 

{Rustibu...}

So!  It's been a while, I know.  Well, life has been pretty much CRAZY since last Monday.  Let's recap the last week in the life of Anna...  (This is long; I don't blame you if you don't read it.)

Ok, so last Monday I take my car (its name is Rustibu) into a local shop for its inspection after work.  Brett and I had to share a car while mine was in the shop.  So I'm praying that there isn't much wrong with it and it can just pass inspection.  Keep in mind, I have a 1997 Chevy Malibu (don't make fun of me).  I get a call Tuesday saying it needed $365 worth of work to pass inspection, so after a large sigh, I say... fine okay, do it.  I need it to pass inspection so I can drive it.  So Brett and I shared a car for 2 days and I picked my car up Wednesday night...

The next day (the first day I had my car back) Brett and I went out to dinner.  On our way home, oh boy!  My brakes decide to stop working.  STOP WORKING.  As in, I'm driving and I press the brake and it does NOTHING.  Um, most terrifying feeling ever.  Luckily, I was on a flat part of the road and didn't ram into the car in front of me.  I start freaking out to Brett, who was in the passenger seat.  As I'm driving... "Um, my brakes DON'T WORK!"  Brett says, "What?!"  "MY BRAKES DON'T WORK!"  Thankfully, Brett was very calm and coached me through it.  He told me to put on my 4 ways (emergency flashers) and just keep rolling down the road, until we find a flat side street we can turn off to.  Cars are passing me on this main road because I'm going so slow, trying to find a flat street to pull off on.  Finally, we find one.  I turn left onto it and coast until I stop.  I get out of the car and have a mini heart attack.  Brett checked everything out and realized that one of my brake lines had blew out.  AKA no brakes.  Fun.  So we had to call AAA to tow my car because it was obviously not drivable.  After waiting for an hour and a half (!?!), the tow truck finally came and towed my car away to a nearby Sears Auto Center.  I called my dad and he came, picked us up and took us home to our house at 1:00am (THANKS DAD!).  

So Friday rolls around and we are back to sharing 1 car.  This is not fun.  Sears checked out my car and called Brett to tell him what was wrong.  Oh, ya know... just $1,000 worth of things wrong!  Basically, I needed an entire new brake system for it to be drivable again.  Keep in mind, this is a 1997 Chevy Malibu... meaning it was NOT worth $1,000 to fix it.  So we decided to sell it and get myself a new car.

Over the weekend, we were in Erie visiting the in-laws, so we couldn't do much car related.  Then came Monday and I was sick and home from work... yuck.  But I did manage to post my car on Craigslist!  We got a lot of responses.  Tuesday... still sharing a car... yuck.  I decide to get a rental car for the week, so I can get to work easier and so we can drive it around while looking for a new car.  After we picked up the rental car after work, we made an appointment with someone who wanted to come see my car.  So we took them to see it and they said they want it!!  We just have to get all the paperwork straightened out and then it will be off our hands!  I'm so happy it worked out with the FIRST person that looked at it.  It's bittersweet.  That Chevy Malibu was my first car.  Rustibu has a lot of great memories in it.  I hope these people give it love just like I did. :) 

So here we are at Wednesday... I've got a rental car, a broken down car in the Sears parking lot pending sale, and a pre-approved car loan for a new car... sooo, let the car search begin!

THAT'S what I've been up to.... Life has decided to go crazy on me this last week and until I have officially sold my old car and am sitting in my new car, it will probably continue to be crazy.  So please, bear with me!  Hopefully I'll be back to reading your blogs and replying to your comments shortly! xoxo

I did, however, finally update my 365 in Year 25 blog, so check it out!

Under the Weather...

Hi guys...

Sorry I've been MIA the past couple days.

I'm a little under the weather currently...

Here's to hoping I'm back to my normal self again soon!

xoxo

"Life is Uncertain. Eat Dessert First."

A few nights ago, I baked some chocolate chip cookies (as I mentioned yesterday)...  

I made these cookies for Brett (they're always for Brett), since he's been sharing his car with me this week.  And I'm happy to report, as of last night I have my car back again!  And the cookies are already half gone... Oops.  In my defense, Brett has eaten waaay more than I have.  :)

Let me be honest here... sometimes when I make chocolate chip cookies, I just use the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag.  That's how I made these.  And they are still damn good!  I think I use a different recipe every time I make chocolate chip cookies.  There are soo many variation.  But it seems that they always come out pretty good!  So I'm okay with that...  

Oh, and hi... sometimes I get bored while I'm waiting for the cookies to bake... awkward.

Morning Sunrise... and an Early Spring?!

This week, my car has been in the shop for inspection, so Brett and I have been carpooling to work.  Brett has been nice enough to share his car until I get mine back (hopefully tonight).  On normal days when I have my own car, I'm out the door around 6:10am.  It's pitch black when I arrive at work in the morning.  Since we are carpooling, I've been leaving for work later than usual (around 7:10am) and driving into work as the sun is coming up.  Oh my goodness... what a change it is driving an hour later... this is what I've been missing out on!

Snapped this as we were piling into the car at our house this morning:

 

And then, as I drove to work... I witnessed such a beautiful sunrise.

It put me in a great mood instantly.

The clouds almost look like fire, don't they?  It was such a beautiful sight.  And I have to give mad props to Brett for being so great about sharing a car.  I know it sucks when two people, who both work full-time jobs in different parts of town, have to share a car.  Routines are thrown out the window and you have to compromise.  But, I baked him delicious chocolate chip cookies last night as a thank you... so it's okay, right?  (A post on those cookies will be coming later...)

Once I get my car back, I will still continue my normal routine of leaving around 6:10am (there's SO much less traffic at that time...), but it's nice to change it up every once in a while.  You never know what you might stumble upon, like a gorgeous sunrise that just makes you thankful to be alive.

Hope you guys are having a great Wednesday!

Oh, and Happy Groundhog's Day!

 Punxsutawney Phil is predicting an early Spring...

Hallelujah!*

Dreaming of Our Next Adventure...

“Travel…

is more than the seeing of sights;

it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent,

in the ideas of living.”

{Photo I took of my husband on our honeymoon right outside of Yosemite in California}

{August 2010}