Spring is here!

Pollen is on full blast and the flowers are starting to look so nice around here!!


Here are our tulips by the mailbox on one of the first days that the weather got nice:

Our azeala bushes that Trey transplanted (so that Tyson wouldn't eat them all!) are looking great:

And best of all... it's now SPRING BREAK!! Woohoo, Disney World here we come :)

My Weekend in NYC

Last weekend I went to visit Allison in New York. It was an adventure filled, fun weekend. Friday night NCSU was playing in the Sweet 16! I landed around dinner time and met Allison at her apartment, then we went to grab a bite to eat and headed to Brother Jimmy's bar to watch the basketball games. The UNC game was on and the bar was full of Carolina Blue - it's an ACC bar so it fills with ACC fans. We had reservations with the Alumni Association for a table to watch the NCSU game but during the UNC game we had to stand in what is probably the most packed bar I have been to in a long time. It was a really fun night and I got to meet her "New York friends" :) We ended up losing the game by only 3 points, so that sucked but I'm still pretty pleased with the way our season turned out.


Saturday we went to breakfast at the diner down the street from her apartment. Then we went on a long walk with Lola along the river, Allison's apartment building is on the upper east side about a block from the river with a nice walking trail along the side.

Looking back toward's the city (that's the FDR highway)

We went shopping that afternoon near the Empire State building, down near where she works. I got a pretty picture of it as the sun was going down that night.


Allison's view in the mornings


We also went to the Museum of Sex while we were out shopping. It isn't dirty or anything, actually pretty interesting about sex in different aspects - in the movies, how it has changed because of the internet, in animal life, etc. I took a picture of the funny sign as we walked in:


That night we grabbed food and took it home for a nice lazy night watching Sex and the City dvds - like we were back in college :)

Sunday we went to Brooklyn to tour the Brooklyn Brewery. It was a fun experience and we bought beer tokens to enjoy a variety of their micro-brewed beers. Interesting fact: they don't bottle at their brewery in Brooklyn, all bottled Brooklyn Brewery beer comes from Utica, so it uses different water meaning that the beers will taste different bottled vs kegged.

On our way back in to Manhattan we stopped by Artichoke Pizza and got a slice of their signature pizza - it tastes like spinach artichoke dip on pizza. I was slightly skeptical because I just didn't feel like the two went together, but it was AMAZING. Seriously probably the best pizza I've ever had. If you are ever in NYC - you have to go there!



We stopped at the Pony Bar on our way home, I had a beer there and got a badge on my Untappd app :) If you enjoy good beer and have a smart phone check it out!

And to top off a great weekend, my flight out of JFK was ON TIME! Even after a slightly rainy day in both cities!

Wordless Wednesday: Best Buddies

Cleaning my brother's ears



Sleepy



The Last Day of Winter: 80 degrees

Monday was the last official day of winter, but it seems like it ended weeks ago! I love the fact that I get off work early enough to come home and enjoy the nice weather. I leave for work at the crack of dawn, but if I don't have meetings after school I am home by 3:30 :)

On Monday, I got home and it was so nice I decided to get some sun. The dogs had been trapped inside all day and enjoyed the nice weather outside with me.

Sunbathing behind momma



Playing in the backyard



I'm looking forward to doing this many more times now that is it is SPRING!

St. Patrick's Day!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day at the beach with Trey's family! His sister and her boyfriend have been in town visiting so we went down to see everyone. We went out to dinner for his birthday on Friday night.


Saturday morning Trey and I got up early and went for a run with the dogs and then headed down to the beach to let them run around on the beach and play in the water. They had a blast. 

Give me that ball!



Beautiful quiet morning on the beach

 Around lunch time, we headed down to Emerald Isle to celebrate my Irish roots! They have a big St. Patrick's day festival that was a lot of fun. After hanging out there for a while we headed to Trey's aunt & uncle's house for a pig picking and to let the dogs play with his cousin's dogs. Vegas grew up with his cousin's boxer, Bailey, so she is always very excited to see her again.



Me, Bonnie, Sarah & Mandy in EI

 Saturday night we were going to go out and drink a few green beers to celebrate, but we ended up staying at home and enjoyed watching basketball all night!

Sunday we watched NCSU make their way into the sweet 16!! It was an awesome game, all of the tournament games this weekend were pretty exciting - it was a great weekend of basketball watching!



The golf course Sunday morning

 That afternoon was gorgeous - sunny and 75 degrees. We went for another walk to the beach and took Matty this time (Mandy's dog) and they all had a great time playing on the beach again.



Tyson, Vegas, Matty



Matty, Tyson, Vegas

After a fun filled weekend, we had to make our way home Sunday night :( Back to work....



Exhausted



Celebrating Trey's Birthday!

Trey's birthday was last week and we had family over to celebrate with dinner and cake on the night of his birthday :) We are so lucky that my parents, brother, and grandmothers live close to us and enjoy celebrating birthdays with us! 

A little bit of decoration

Our centerpiece

We ordered pizza from Mellow Mushroom and my brother picked it up on his way over. I prepared salads and my mom picked up a reese's cheesecake from Nantucket Grill - it was amazing! 

Salad!

Amazing cake

So delicious!

Trey got an iPhone for his birthday! He loves it and has been playing on it/setting it up non-stop. He also got gift cards - to Total Wine, which he spent the next day, and to go eat at Brasa Steakhouse in Brier Creek - we will have to report back about how it is! And also to eat at Red Lobster - we go every year for his birthday/lobsterfest!

And to top it all off, Trey's cousin, Sarah, came by for a visit to wish him happy birthday! She actually lives in town but we don't see her very often, so it was nice to visit and catch up. It was a very fun filled day!! I love celebrating my awesome husband.

Daydreaming

I will be headed here in TWO WEEKS!!!

It has now been 11 months since we got married and spent an amazing week here.... I daydream about going back all the time.

Recent Recipes

Last week we cooked another of our freezer meals! I made the vegetable beef soup, that I posted about making here. It was pretty good, not the most delicious thing I have ever eaten but it was good. We made twice baked potatoes to go on the side!

I also found a recipe on pinterest for macaroni and cheese in the crock pot from Budget Savvy Diva. IT WAS DELICIOUS and I am pretty picky about a good macaroni and cheese.

What You Need
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 ½ cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 egg
½ cup sour cream
1 (10 ¾ ounce) can condensed cheddar cheese soup
1 cup 2% milk
½ teaspoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder

She also calls for these but I didn't include them:
1/2 Teaspoon of Onion Powder
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of Cayenne

What to Do
Cook pasta for 6 minutes (drain pasta)
In a medium saucepan melt and mix butter and cheese together.
In your crock pot mix all ingredients
Cook on low for 2 1/2 hours, stirring hourly.

I loved it!!

Happy Pi Day!

Yep, I'm a math nerd :)

Pi is the ratio of a circles circumference to it's diameter.  With the use of computers, Pi has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits past the decimal. Pi is an irrational and transcendental number meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating. The symbol for pi was first used in 1706 by William Jones, but was popular after it was adopted by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.

I will be celebrating today with my AFM class (upper level students). We will be bringing in pies to eat, doing an activity where they measure circular items to compare the ratio of the circumference to the diameter and "discover" pi, and going to the computer lab to do a "scavenger hunt" about pi -- basically using the internet to look up some cook stuff about pi.

This is the scavenger hunt if any of you are curious, with answers:

1.       What is the circumference of a circle?

 the distance around a circle

2.      What is the diameter of a circle?

 the distance across a circle through the center

3.      What is pi the ratio of?

 circumference of a circle to the diameter of a circle (C/d)

4.      Is pi a rational or irrational number? Explain.

 irrational -  it will continue infinitely without repeating

5.      What is pi to 30 decimal places?

 3.141592653589793238462643383279

6.      What value of pi did the Egyptians obtain 2000 years before Christ?

 [8d/9)]²  = 3.1605

7.      What value of pi did the Babylonians obtain?

 3.125

8.     Find your birthday in pi.

 http://www.façade.com/legacy/amiinpi/

mine appears after 24,739 digits!

9.      In the year 1997, D. Takahasi and Y. Kanada calculated PI to 51,539,600,000 decimal places. What type of computer did they use? Where did they do their calculations?

 HITACHI SR2201.

10.  Which fraction is closest to the actual value of PI 337/120 or 22/7 or355/113?

 22/7

11.       What does it mean to "Square a Circle"?

To construct a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with a compass and straight edge

12.      People once thought that trying to square a circle was an illness. What was the name of the illness?

Marbus Cyclometricus

13.      What is the symbol for pi? Who first used it and when? What Swiss mathematician was it popularized by?

Babylonians around 2000 B.C.     William Jones

14.      Who were the first people known to find a value of pi? When was it?

Babylonians around 2000 B.C.

15.      In the first one million digits of pi, how many threes are there? How many nines?

3’s,   100, 229     and 9’s   100,106

16.      You can memorize PI by using things called "mnemonics." What is a "mnemonic"?

A device to help a person remember something

17.      What was the most inaccurate version of PI? Explain who, when, and what the value was.

1897 Indiana legislature tried to legally establish the value of Pi as 3, 3.2, or 4.  Edwin Goodwin wrote the bill.

18.     Who memorized 42,195 digits of PI on February 18, 1995? Where was the person from?

Daniel Tammet

19.      What year was the first Pi Day?

1988

20.  How many digits of Pi has the Guiness World Record holder memorized?

42,000 digits

Enoy a slice of pie today!! We sure did:

apple, banana creme, chocolate, lemon meringue and pumpkin pies!

Weekend Recap: Lots of visitors!

We had a great weekend and lots of visitors :) Trey's sister and her boyfriend drove down from Michigan (they recently got out of the Coast Guard up there and came to NC to visit). They stopped through Raleigh on their way home to the beach. They stayed the night with us so we got to hang out for a while. Tyson got to see his favorite cousin, Matty. He loves her. He was so excited and would not leave her alone. Can't wait to head down there on Friday and let them play again.



Tyson and Matty boxing



Can I  come in?!

Friday night we had tired doggies and took it easy. Look how sweet they snuggle:



Belly rubs are her favorite



So tired

Saturday Trey's cousin Lauren and her husband, David, came to Raleigh to visit. We spent the afternoon watching basketball (ACC Tournament!) with my brother and then Brenna joined in on the fun.

Enjoying the sun Saturday afternoon

I really want to make a bay window seat in the kitchen, it's right where the sun comes in - I think they would love it!

We grilled steaks and chicken and I made macaroni and cheese that I found on pinterest - it was AMAZING! I will post the recipe later this week. We all hung out at the house, played apples to apples and caught up. We intended to go out but never made it, we had enough fun at the house. I have also seen people posting pictures of making eggs or their broom stand up on the ends, supposedly because it is almost the spring equinox so gravity does something special. Well we gave that a try too - it worked!

The end of a long night



Vegas loves Aunt B



Tyson snuggled with Aunt B all night

Sunday morning we all went to breakfast at the farmer's market and then Lauren, David, Trey and I spent the afternoon watching FSU win and shopping! We had dinner Sunday night at Los Tres Magueyes in Brier Creek ~ $1.50 draft beers and good food!