Spring Break Trip to Missouri

I (Jenn), trained into Quincy, IL on Sunday night.  On Monday Mom and I took off for St. Charles to stay with Ryan, Aimee, and Ben.  On Monday night and Tuesday we just hung out, played with Ben, and caught up.

On Wednesday we all went to the Zoo and had a good time.

This Ham absolutely loved the zoo. 

 Ben had his first hair cut on Thursday night, but we weren't there to see it.

 Thursday morning we went over to my Alma mater to visit with my Athletic Training Professors.  It was really good to catch up with them and see all the improvements that have been made on campus. 

Cute Lunchbox Fun!

I (Jenn) have started making silly things to put in Brian's lunchbox.  Last week I put a lunchbox minion in his lunchbox and he thought it was too cute to eat, so he left it sit on his desk.

Lunchbox minions

This weekend I made juicebox Easter bunnies and fruit cup chicks.  Today is the first day he has gotten the Easter bunny and chick and I'm sure he won't be expecting them.

Chipmunk Loose In The House!

We had an interesting night last night.  I (Jenn) went down to the basement to do laundry last night.  Before I turned the dryer on I cleaned the lint screen and when I turned it on I heard lots of debris go up the vent pipe to the outside, which I thought was funny because it never does that.  I then started hearing a thump thump and the dryer started to smell like it was burning up.  I turned the dryer off and decided to check the vent pipe where it went into the dryer.  I am happy that I looked before grabbed at what fell out of the dryer when I took the pipe off because a striped chipmunk butt fell out of my dryer and he was alive!  I chased the chipmunk around the basement for a good 30 minutes before Brian came home from work and helped me catch him.  In the process of trying to catch the live one I found another one in the dryer vent hole that didn't survive.

Finally caught him in a bucket and released him outside. 

Unfortunately he didn't survive the dryer.

Weekend in Michigan with Abby

Abby arrived Friday afternoon and met me at the high school for a basketball game I (Jenn) had to work.  We went to Dexter Knights of Columbus before the game to pick up dinner at the Fish Fry.

Saturday morning we got up and went to a Donut Shop that Abby wanted to try and then we headed for the Henry Ford Muesum.

After the Henry Ford Museum Abby wanted to see and eat in Greektown.  Greektown is a section of Detroit known for Greek food.

After a late lunch in Greektown we went home and let this little bundle of joy out to potty then we headed to Ann Arbor to see some more sites and eat dinner.  A late dinner was had at a place called the Blue Tractor, which is a bbq restaurant.

Sunday we got up and went down to Detroit for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  Detroit always has their St. Patrick's Day Parade the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day.

The Ghostbusters care and the Ghostbusters were in the parade. 

Lots of dogs were at and in the parade. 

After the parade we crossed the bridge into Canada and went to the downtown river park and Caesar's Casino.

River Front Park

All in all it was a busy fun weekend!

A night Full of Meal Prep and Cooking

So we have been eating a little different around our house lately. Brian has been eating healthier and Jenn joined weight watchers in January.  I (Jenn), have tried multiple new recipes and experimented with new foods in the kitchen.  I have found that I love roasted whole artichokes, fennel is amazing, and non-fat plain greek yogurt is very versatile and 0 smartpoints.  I have also discovered lots of great recipes such as, Asian Wonton Cups, Moroccan Chickpea Stuffed Acorn Squash (pictured below), yogurt with warm blueberry sauce (which has become part of my usual morning breakfast), Crispy Tomato and Feta Phyllo Tarts, and sauteed veggie noodles with pesto is wonderful.

I did meal prep for lunches next week a little early since Abby will be here this weekend.  This is baked chicken orzo bok choy soup.  

Moroccan Chickpea-Stuffed Acorn Squash

This was my dinner tonight and I have these 2 as leftovers. These were very good, but I added extra spice to them.

Tomorrow Night Fish Fry

Abby my friend from College is coming into town tomorrow to spend the weekend.  Friday night (tomorrow) we are planning on having dinner take out from one of the Lenten Fish Fries around the area.  I'm excited about this one because they have baked salmon as an option.  We are planning on doing the Holy Moly Donut Shop in Detroit for breakfast (per Abby's request) and The Henry Ford Museum on Saturday and Sunday is up in the air.

Blank Slate Creamery Season Opening on Wednesday

Yesterday Blank Slate Creamery opened for the 2018 season.  This is our favorite ice cream place and we really wanted to go, but Brian was working during the day when I was off and he was off last night when I was working.  So, I went down in the afternoon and stood in line outside, while it was snowing, to be one of the first 200 customers in the store to receive a free re-usable blank slate ice cream pint container.  I already had one container that I had purchased 2 years ago to surprise Brain with ice cream.  Yesterday when I went I got Brian pineapple sorbet and raspberry sorbet and I got myself lavender lemon honey and blueberry pancake.  

Couch Repair

The week before Brian left for spring break I was looking behind the couch for the cat when I noticed we had a broken couch leg. There wasn't time to fix the couch before he left so we turned it upset down and opened it up to see what was wrong.  We found that one of the side boards that was stapled in place had slipped and broken at the leg.  This week we repaired it and the couch is good as new thanks to my wonderful Husband!

From 60 Degrees to 30's and Flurries...

Last Wednesday it was 60 degrees outside and Gus and I went out to enjoy a game of fetch.

He rolled in the grass. 

We went from 60 degrees on Wednesday to this on Thursday.  Yikes and yuck!

It has been cold with on and off flurries since last Thursday.