Puerto Rico

Peter made Rosetta Stone's "Circle of Excellence" for 2010! As a reward, we received a week-ish long, all expense paid vacation. This year, the location was the St. Regis, Bahia Beach in Puerto Rico.

I'm so proud of him! Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on some of the pictures from the award dinner.

  
Here are the highlights: (I suggest you look at the pictures I posted on my Facebook. Blogger makes the process of posting pictures unbearable)  

Beach in Rio Grande

The narrow streets of Old San Juan

 

Zip lining in El Yunque Rain Forest

I love the bright buildings

Smitten Kitchen

 Smitten Kitchen

Their recipes are pretty amazing.

Check 'em out!

5 Things Friday

Oy. It's mid March and I have yet to post anything.

I'll just get to the gist of things and post my 5 things - it's been a couple weeks since I last wrote a '5 Things Friday' post. This week I've tended to concentrate less on actual things - quite a change for this shop-a-holic - and more on the rest of my life.

1. The Early Bird Catches the Worm - It's official. I'm a morning person. Yes, I just admitted that and the walls are still standing around me. I've had to get up early (+ Daylight Savings) to nanny all week and some of last week, and managed to get up over an hour before the time I needed to leave by. I accomplished so much in that hour!

2. The Return of Peter - He's been gone all week - no surprise there - and he comes back tonight/tomorrow; either way, I'll be asleep! No, it's not an accomplishment, but it's worth noting that I haven't been bored all week, and I haven't killed Kona [maybe that is an accomplishment...] Yay for staying very busy :)

3. Chocolate Milk - I love chocolate milk, but I am so picky about which brands I like that I often don't get any. The family that I have been with this week had the best chocolate milk. Looks like I'll be making a trip to Whole Foods this weekend. It's not only organic, but comes in a glass bottle :)

4. Walks - I am so grateful that the baby I watched this week loved going on walks just as much as I did. As soon as I walked in the door, he would grab his jacket and hobble over to the door waiting to go. Super cute :)

5. Warm Weather - It hit 80 degrees today. I love spring/summer :) Broke out the sandals and capris today.

Five Things Friday

I am so grateful for this break from winter weather the past 2 weeks. Though this week wasn't as nice as last week [today is the first day in a week where the sun has really been out], not having to worry about snow, ice, and the freezing cold has been wonderful.

 

[Tomato paste in a tube] I hate opening a can of tomato paste to only use a tablespoon or two. Though I intend to use it in another recipe, I rarely do and it gets thrown out. I finally found this at our local Martins.

[MacBook Pro Charger] My oh so sweet dog, Kona, ate my charger on Valentine's Day. A week later and my new charger arrived. So grateful to be able to borrow one from a friend, but it's nice to have my own again.

 

[Bamboo Silverware Organizer] I think my obsession with bamboo has gotten a little out of control. From cutting boards to organizers, I love it all!

[Sandals] I love sandals, esp. wedges. This pair from DV by Dolce Vita makes me even more excited for spring. 

Other things from this week: Kona was able to have a raw hide without getting sick, meaning her explosive upset stomach wasn't due to her love of raw hides. Peter was home the whole week [though that is very likely to come to an end next week].

 

Couponing

Growing up, my mom went through phases of couponing - and I dreaded it. I didn't mind trips to the commissary [military grocery store on base], where we could easily fill up two full grocery carts upon my dad's return from a deployment, but that was actually 'normal.' Going to a grocery store off base, which was where a lot of the 'special' deals were, drove me nuts. I hated waiting for the cashier to scan all the coupons and watching everyone stare at us because it took an extra couple minutes - not to mention, sale items weren't anything that I had any interest in.

Now fast forward 10-15yrs.

While I hate paying retail for most things, I never thought I would get into couponing. And I guess I don't really 'coupon' [with the exception of Michaels coupons], but rather skim the ads for weekly VIP-type savings where you just have to have the individual stores member card [which is free]. It allows me to stock up on a lot of things that we go through pretty regularly. So, it's not couponing like my mom would do, but the same concept. Anyway, it's saved us a lot of money :)

5 Things

Too bad "Five Things Saturday" doesn't have the same ring to it as "Five Things Friday." The point is that I did it, right?

[Bamboo cutting boards] Who would have thought that I would be obsessed with cutting boards? But seriously, I love them.

[Fancy cupcake liners] After holiday sales make $3-4 cupcake liners a little more justifiable. Michaels and Target's had some great deals on Valentines Day stuff; Michaels also had select cake decorating supplies on clearance. This is also a great website for some awesome cupcake liners as well.

[Flip flops] 70+ degree weather this week warranted wearing flip flops for the first time this year.

[A dozen red roses] The hubby bought me roses for Valentines Day and we went to the Joshua Wilton House in Harrisonburg for dinner.

[Blueberry Muffins] Probably the best blueberry muffins that I have ever made. And I got to use my fancy new cupcake liners!

At some point I will actually figure out how to add pictures, I swear.

Word of the Week

em·u·late [v. em-yuh-leyt; adj. em-yuh-lit] –verb (used with object)

1. to try to equal or excel; imitate with effort to equal or surpass: to emulate one's father as a concert violinist.

2. to rival with some degree of success: Some smaller cities now emulate the major capitals in their cultural offerings.

*A word that seems to be slipping into my vocabulary a lot this past week. Or month.