Family Visits & Pad Thai!

My parents dropped Sydni off in Cincinnati today, after their mini getaway over the weekend. Sydni got to go see Shrek: The Musical, as produced by the Mt. Vernon Theatre organization. She had a blast.

I decided to take the gang to Piada, since they'd never been there. We followed up with froyo at Orange Leaf, which made for some very satisfied bellies.

mom & syd @ piada ♥

I love that they had a blast, and was super happy to have been able to spend my lunch with them!

After work, the food obsession continued, but in my own little quest of things homemade & fresh. I found a new recipe for pad thai, which was given a thumbs up by both Rob and me tonight; I'll share it for all you Thai food-loving blogbots.

Super Easy Pad Thai **

so. good.
[& yes, ali - that's an express edwardsville cup in the back :p ]

need:

::for the pad thai sauce::
- 3 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs sriracha
- 2 tbs lime juice
- 2 tbs canola oil
- 2 tbs brown sugar

::for the pad thai::
- pad thai noodles [8 or 16 oz; I would definitely say at least 16 if this is for more than 2 mouths]
- 2 eggs
- cooked chicken [The original recipe calls for 3 full breasts; I used 2 and it was fine]
- 1 cup bean sprouts [we skipped, but only bc we forgot to get them....]
- 1 cup cilantro
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts

do:

::1. Prepare [aka, SOAK] pad thai noodles - I did it by pouring HOT water into a bowl, covering the noodles, and soaking for 30 minutes. I don't recommend boiling pad thai noodles on the stove as you traditionally would with Italian noodles.
::2. Cook your chicken. I just did this on the stovetop, pan-seared. Set aside.

::3. While chicken is cooking, prepare the sauce. Do that by mwhisking together everything for the sauce except brown sugar, in a small bowl. Add the brown sugar at the end, and whisk into the sauce.
::4. While noodles are soaking, scramble eggs for 2-3 minutes or until done, and set aside.
::5. Once noodles are done & chicken is cooked, combine the noodles, chicken, egg and sauce in a large skillet over med-low heat. Stir for a few minutes until everything is at the desired blend. Top off with bean sprouts, cilantro, green onion & peanuts!
** recipe credit : rachel schultz **
Yeah... this absolutely beats ordering pad thai at a restaurant, save for the whole bean sprouts thing, which I will NOT forget next time. I hope you're willing to try that out, if you're a pad thai person!

Haaaaappy Tuesday!

xo | cmd

Nana & Pappy's Visit Begins!

Here's how I greeted Friday:

well then.

^ Two outta three isn't that bad.. haha.
... Of course there was Piada for lunch, so this was pretty much a wash as far as food went today. Hah.

Dinner was a bit of a different story; we left work early [because I work for incredibly generous people!] and I took that opportunity to hustle home and get moving with dinner plans. My parents had picked Sydni up already and were hanging out around Eastgate until I got home.

family fajita night!

Unfortunately for us, Rob had already committed to an outing back in Illinois for this weekend, and was on the road out while my parents were on their way in. It was a little bit of a downer to know he won't be here with us this weekend, but I'm also glad that he'll get to see his parents back home.

As for us here, it was night of board games that Nana brought with her. We gathered around the dining room table after dinner and made a night of playing some Madagascar game, with makeshift rules that probably don't reflect how you're actually supposed to play this thing. Oh well (:

syd & nana

syd & pappy, who she decorated with her key lanyard ;)

My favorite from the evening:

having a blast with grandpa & grandma, aka pappy & nana (:
♥♥♥!!

This is the first time my parents have seen our new place, too. Dad's already made a tentative schedule for the summer, which includes boating, grilling and cornhole at our house. Haha. I can't wait. For now, we're gearing up for tomorrow, which will mean a trip to the Newport Aquarium and whatever else we can get ourselves into.

So goodnight, blogbots - from us and an especially-grateful pair of meatballs who are only getting this luxury tonight because Dad's gone & Sydni's sleeping with Nana. ;)

count your blessings, s&s ♥

 See you with the fishies and the sharks tomorrow!

xo | cmd

Monday Blur

Today started off with all of us here in the office, wrapping up payroll and some other loose ends before 2014 gets here. Halfway through the day, the bosses decided we'd be wasting our time if we came in tomorrow, so now, we're off for the next two days! WOO!

I took a break for lunch to run out and take care of a couple things, primarily dropping off lunch to my dedicated stand-in babysitter.. haha.


hello again, piada (:

I got back to work just as the USPS truck was pulling in. The driver jumped out with two little pink boxes and headed our way; needless to say, Elisa & I were pretty excited about our Julep drops!

julep time!!!

Also in work news, we had our weekly afternoon meeting today, since we won't be here Wednesday. Dave & Nancy [we've collectively coined them Dancy, for short reference] told us that Lizzy will be stepping in to fill Nikki's vacancy as our sales person. We are definitely surprised, but I have a good feeling this will be a great step in the right direction. WELCOME ABOARD, LIZZY!

It looks like 2014 is going to be a big year for this office.. and I'm excited (:

Back at home, Rob and I started knuckling down once again on the logistics [an ever-irritating process at this point] of transporting all of his things from Illinois here over the next couple of weeks. We decided at the last minute that rather than wait until next weekend for me to take him back, we'd just get that part out of the way over the next couple of days. So with that being said, we packed up a couple bags, and along with Sydni and the pups, jumped on the road. I captured our starting point of spontaneity...

t-minus 5 hours. let's do it.

I count myself blessed a thousand times over for such an adaptable little girl and cooperative furry twins for taking this last-minute trip in stride. They did so well for the trip; actually I think Sydni had way more fun than the dogs did, but nobody's really counting ;)

hilarious. allllll. the. way. there ;)

We made it here to Illinois safe and sound, and for now, we're resting up for whatever it is we're bound to accomplish tomorrow. We might even get around to celebrating the new year, too, but we'll play it all by ear :).

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Little Family Friday

This was what I woke up to this morning [after being booted from my own bed, hah..]

my loves: the humans & the furballs alike!  

Our daycare gal closed up for the week for Christmas vacation, so Sydni stayed at home and hung out with Rob while I was at work. From what I gathered throughout the day, they didn't do half bad.

I'm becoming disoriented with my days; I wanted to try and get home for lunch today, but realized halfway through the morning that it's Friday... and of course that means office lunches. Whoooop!

And, Elisa brought me another Christmas present [love!!!!]: facial mask therapy & gourmet chocolate. I'm really not complaining.

Plus, we ordered in from Piada, which is always a good thing, too.

piada delivery!

yummmmmmm....

Since it's the holiday lull, and because my bosses are amazing, we got off work early. Rob & I took that opportunity to head to the new house to meet up with Dave and drop off boxes. Let me rephrase that: The first boxes of our stuff is OFFICIALLY dropped off in the new house!

box #1 in the new house. woooo!!

Back at home, we curled up together to enjoy ourselves for the evening before we launch north to my parents' in the morning. I have to say... this is one of my most favorite things to see, ever...

my little family. i love this more than anything!

Tomorrow we'll be up in Mt. Vernon to see what Santa brough to Nana & Pappy's house.
We'd better get some sleep!

xo | cmd

Farewell, Nikki ... Hello, Illinois

Fun fact of today?

If you were anywhere near Google today, then you know today's the 100th anniversary of the standard crossword puzzle. I searched several unrelated things throughout the day and was met with the interactive banner several times before I actually obliged the thing...

tempting... temptiiiiiing...

I eventually gave in and clicked the blue play buttong... and proceeded to spend the next several minutes attempting to decode insinuating clues to words and abbreviations I never would've known. So, with the moderate assistance of Yahoo! for this one [is it strange that I felt like using using Google itself for this was somehow unethical? haha], I managed to decipher the hints I couldn't grasp on my own. For an English major, I am apparently not that versed:

Now, I had no problem at all with clues like "little bit," "Cleveland's lake" and strangely even "Start of many exclamations," but I really don't feel guilty for not knowing that 'KTS' is an abbreviation for "Chess Jumpers." So uhh, anyway, thanks again, Arthur Wynne!

And because it was Friday, we naturally had our weekly lunch, provided for by the bosses: Nikki's "last meal" as we sadly coined it. Elisa suggested Piada in Hyde Park, and we voted collectively yes.

the carnage....... we were hungry? (:

My first experience eating Piada was today and I have now added it to my official list of YES, PLEASE places here in the Norwood-Oakley-HP area. Speaking of good food, today happened to gift some other edible Christmas cheer in the form of Chipotle gift cards!

yes, please. yesssss, please.. & thank you!

Man, I'm blessed (:
That being said, we celebrated Nikki's last day in style, complete with lunch from Piada, a box of the decadent Express toffees, and some bittersweet farewells at the very end of the day. We'll see her one more time next week on Friday when she stops back by, but I know the office really won't be the same without her. Sad... sad face ):

Once work was out, I hopped in my car that I'd packed up last night and made a beeline for the highway. Fast forward 4-5ish hours and here I am now, in Illinois at Rob's house. He and Jesse rolled in the driveway right after I did; Jesse just left but we're in for a nice run of five days before I head back to Ohio.

*Yawn.

I'm done here, folks (:
Christmas is in .... five days, ya'll. Whoa.

xo | cmd