This is What happens

(Photo Credit: Matthew Wahl)

When the Jer comes to town and Seth gets to see him. As you can see they were really excited to be together again.

Adventure #147 of Being Married to Seth

October is Monopoly month at McDonald's and I'm not going to lie, we are completely sucked in. How can you not be when you are one piece away from winning $50,000 dollars? And we are shameless in it too, this has resulted in many trips to different McDonalds, picking up cups off the side of the road and in parking lots, phone call updates throughout the day to check in and find out what ones we scored at breakfast and lunch time. Seth, being disappointed that one of the items he ordered didn't have any pieces on it confessed to the drive thru guy and having compassion on him traded him for a medium cup. Its embarassing, I know. I can't even say that we are victims to the advertising scheme because I am having way too much fun.

Our date night last night consisted of two trips to McDonalds, one parking lot pickup, "looking" in 3 trash cans, picking up pieces off the ground, and two roadside stops to confirm if the cup indeed was from McDonalds(unfourtunately both of those stops yielded no fruit which really should tell us something). And I must add it was one of our funnest yet. I felt like we were on a treasure hunt. I think my favorite moment was when we "had to pull over" to check out a cup at a bus stop and the guy who was waiting for the bus gave Seth a look like "you are completely crazy." He's probably right. Oh the depths we go to all for the sake of a win.

If anyone has Boardwalk out there, we have Park Place and maybe we could split a million?

What do you do?

When you are stuck in traffic for 7 hours on a trip that should only take 3 hours max? Seth found a solution and it ended up keeping me quite amused as we moved a sum total of 10 yards down 95 South on a trip to Williamsburg. He makes me laugh and I am happy to say that is just one of the many things I love about him.

As you can see he also has a gift of making really attractive faces too:

A Kid at Heart

For anyone who knows me, it is obvious that I love shoes, purses, and pretty much any other fashion accesory. And for as much as I love them our budget doesn't always allow so that means being super creative and since God gave me a size 6/61/2 foot I can buy shoes from the kids department. Here is a recent purchase:
And I am oh so excited about them, especially since there is an almost exact pair at J.Crew on sale for $80. When Seth asked me how much they cost by the sound of his voice I could sense some dread, but when I told him I only paid $30 there was a huge sigh of relief.

So for any ladies out there with a size 7 foot or smaller check out the kids department(I personally reccomend Nordstroms for their selection). You can find some really good deals!

The Life of a Wife

or a day in the life. I think we have finally fallen into a routine, hooray! After almost 9 months of being married it took us a little time and it seems that no matter what I expect God always has a different plan, but there seems to be a little more continuity to our lives now. And that includes my lazy butt going back to the gym, with some encouragement from Seth I knew it was time.

7 am-The dreadful alarm goes off sounding AM980. It usually takes Seth about 5 minutes to hear it and turns it off and in that short span of him being in a blissful denial sleep I hear the weather, the actual time, forecast for the day, traffic as well as other randomn useless facts from Paul Harvey. While I listen to the weather my mind scans through all the clean clothes that I have and I have found that it saves me a ton of time if I actually have my outfit picked out before I fall into the dreadful habit orf putting on 5 different tops and pants.

7:15am-Seth finally stumbles out of bed, up the stairs and makes his breakfast. I fall back to sleep after a few snuggles.

7:45am-I am woken by kisses from my love on my forehead, sometimes welcomed, sometimes not depending on if I actually want to get up. Most mornings I love it :)

8am-shower, throw my hair back and makeup on.

8:30am-out the door and work until 5pm.

5pm-off to the gym(Mindy, when are you going? I've been looking for you!). I love it and hate it at the same time. The smell of sweat is like a punch in the face everytime you walk in the door, but you feel oh so good when its time to leave after a great work out.

6:15pm-home and in the kitchen trying to come up with something creative for dinner and if I planned ahead I already have a meal planned (this is a bonus with how busy life is right now!)

6-7pm-Seth gets home, showers and we eat dinner.

7-8pm-dinner clean up, cards, books, errands, grocery shopping, quiet times, CG you fill in the blank. Monday nights are date nights, Tuesday nights are CG nights, Wednesday/Thursday nights are nights home or friends over, and Fridays are always full.

10-11pm-Reading, talking, lights out! This is one of my favorite times of the day, when my head hits the pillow and I have 8 beautiful hours of sleep ahead of me. Such a great feeling. I can't lie, I love sleep. Lord help me when the kids come. I hope they get the Remsnyder genes and love their sleep as much as Seth does :)

More Kids (Not of our Own)

This post is just shameless biased promotion of our adorable niece. She is learning how to memorize God's word already and this post on Allie's blog was too cute to not pass along! It is one of the cutest things I have seen in awhile (but again, I'm biased).

He Went for a Swim

I'm sure many of you are wondering how our short lived parenting time went and I have to say that it went amazingly well. Carson slept through the night both nights, didn't have any meltdowns, and was so obedient when we asked him to do stuff. All this to say his daily return wasn't the most normal with lots of "special treats", "special presents" and video time for more than one hour a day. We had lots of great adventures, discovered new things, and tried out new things. One of the most memorable moments was when we spent the afternoon at the Rio. Walking around, seeing the ducks, playing with trains at Barnes and Noble, and then "blue" ice cream at Maggie Moos. Now if that is all our time was that really wouldn't have been much fun, but coming back from ice cream Carson was insistent that he had to stop and look at the fountain and then walk around the top. During his trip around which he displayed being very capable of doing the loop without taking a swim. Thinking everything was ok, I picked up my phone to call Seth and Carson saw the opportunity and took it. The next thing I hear is "splash"and he is in the fountain having a great time.

There is never a dull moment with the boy. But what a sweet boy he is. I loved spending time with him and although I have never been more tired it was totally worth it!

The sad part is there are no pictures to show for our adventures. Trying to keep up with him kept me busy enough so needless to say there wasn't much time for pictures!

Recipes at Long Last!

It's really long overdue seeing as I was tagged by not one, but two wonderful ladies. And while on that topic there is something to be said for each of them...Jenni, has been a faithful friend and a faithful help when it comes to doing stuff in the kitchen and in many of these things has made these recipes possible. I've asked her the same question 3 times in the span of making the same dish, "just to be sure" and she has always been willing to teach me new things and make suggestions about how to do things faster. It has really been a blessing! Bethany, on the other hand is one of the coolest "New Yorkers" I know and has been one of my favorite blogs to read. From city life to law school I always feel educated and more cultured after a read through.

Now I tag Bexter, Suz, Allie, Tessa, and Jess Marc.

On with the recipes!

Chicken with Lime Sauce (Cooking Light) This is a favorite in our house and I usually serve it with fresh green beans and cous cous. Also, because we both like a little extra sauce on the side I usually double the amount for the lime sauce.

Ingredients

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
Cooking spray
3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons lime juice, divided
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 4 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add chicken broth, sugar, 2 tablespoons juice, and mustard to pan; cook over medium heat, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.

Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add cornstarch mixture to pan; stir well with a whisk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook 1 minute or until sauce thickens slightly. Whisk in remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice and butter, stirring until butter melts. Return chicken to pan; simmer 2 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly heated.

Yield
4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half and 2 tablespoons sauce)

The Lady's Mac N Cheese (This is one of Seth's favorite and because it is a southern style Paula Deen recipe it is loaded with fat and all kinds of bad stuff but it is oh so good and great for a crowd! To make it a little more low-fat I often will use reduced fat cheddar, fat free sour cream and skim milk)

4 cups cooked elbow macaroni, drained
2 cups grated Cheddar
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Once you have the macaroni cooked and drained, place in a large bowl and while still hot and add the cheddar. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and add to the macaroni mixture. Pour macaroni mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Top with additional cheese if desired.

Monkey Bread (another favorite in our house and a great dessert for a crowd. You can serve with Vanilla Bean ice cream.)

3 Packages of Buttermilk Biscuit Tubes

1 cup sugar (divided)

2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

Take 3 packages of buttermilk biscuit tubes (10 per roll) and cut each roll into 4 pieces. Drop roll pieces into 1 cup sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon. Drop sugar coated pieces into a well buttered bundt pan (don't squish roll pieces when placing them in the bundt pan).

Put 1/2 cup of the left over sugar/cinnamon mix and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 1 cup of butter(2 sticks) into a small sauce pan. Bring this mixture just to a boil, take off heat right away. Carefully drizze over the roll pieces.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool slightly in an upright position, then tip pan oer onto a plate to remove monkey bread.

Corn Salad

6 ears of fresh corn boiled and then cut off the cob
2 large ripe tomatoes
2 avocados pitted and diced
4 tbs fresh lime juice (or if necessary you can use the kind from the grocery store)
2 tsp salt (or to taste)

Mix together ingredients and keep cool in the fridge until serving. I often will serve this as a side when we have tacos for dinner. The freshness of the corn really makes this dish so as we are now moving out of that season it might be good to save until later!