Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone!! Hope you are enjoying some candy.

I remember the excitement of Halloween as a kid. Back in my day, they would let us wear our costumes to school. I hear they don't allow that now. We would also go visit our grandparents and I remember that my Grandma and Grandpa Warren had a neighbor who would always do scary little tricks....and we ate it up!! 

Last year, at a big national meeting for work, this guy got up to talk about the reasons why he loves Southern California (the meeting was being held in San Diego around Halloween time). He was from Buffalo and it cracked me up because one of the reasons he loved Southern California was that people don't have to wear their Halloween costumes over a jacket and pants. I remember doing that when we lived in Rochester. There is nothing worse than having an awesome Halloween costume and then having to wear a jacket under it! 

A little Halloween trivia for you all...did you know that Halloween is always the number one or two day for frozen pizza sales??? Super Bowl Sunday is right there too. SOO guess what we had for dinner? DiGiorno Supreme Pizza and Honey BBQ Wyngz...and Skinny Cow Sandwiches for dessert. 

  

Thank you to the freezer in my office for dinner :)

George and I had a great time in Las Vegas over the weekend. It was a short trip, but really fun. The costumes were a HUGE hit on the strip. We literally just walked around and everyone was asking for our picture (they mostly wanted picture of the Ghostbusters, but I felt pretty cool too!) If you haven't heard, George and his friends have been the Ghostbusters for three years now and they love showing off their costumes. They have all spent lots and lots of time hand-making their "proton packs".

I am Stay Puft...a "bad guy" form the movie. I don't look that intimidating, do I?

Here they are in all their glory! :) 

George and I are going to pass out some candy tonight and then meet up with Sergio, Andi, Keziah, and Sergio's daughters for some Trick-or-Treating. We will not be Trick-or-Treating, but it will be fun to watch the kids. 

One more thing before I go. For all of you non-Facebookers, here is a cute picture of Paisley and Terrisa from Brent and Chrissy's Halloween party on Saturday night. Cutest elephant EVER!

Have a safe and Happy Halloween everyone!!!!!!!!!

Rochester Trip

Well, I had a really great time in Rochester over the past several days. It was great hanging out with my Dad and two Grandmas! Here is a quick rundown of the trip...

My Dad and I both arrived pretty late on Wednesday night. We were welcomed to Rochester with some cold weather and rain. Grandma Warren picked us up and we were off to her house - we stayed up talking for a bit and didn't get to bed until pretty late.

So, we did a bit of sleeping in on Thursday morning and then headed out to lunch with my Grandma Clark. We went to Carmine's for a delicious steak sandwich...YUM! After lunch, we spent some time wandering through Wegman's. Since I work in a grocery related industry and spend a lot of time in grocery stores for work, I have developed an appreciation for grocery stores. Wegman's is definitely top notch - they have a wonderful bakery, huge produce section, tons of prepared hot food items, a cafe (we got a cappuccino)...it was fun just walking around the store! The four of us (Grandma Clark, Grandma Warren, Dad, and me) spent Thursday evening relaxing and eating dinner at my Grandma Warren's.

Friday was the start of some of the University of Rochester Homecoming weekend events. Before we headed over to the U of R, I took my Grandma Clark for a haircut and we also managed to do some shopping. We had fun looking at baby clothes for Paisley :) Our first stop at the U of R, was a panel on "America's Debt Crisis" and although some of the stuff went over my head, it was very interesting! Most of the panel was either U of R alumni or U of R professors. Next, we attended a business school reception and dinner. We closed the day with a talk from a lady who has an album of pictures that belonged to prisoners of Auschwitz (pictures that  they were taken from them upon arrival). Long story short, she discovered the pictures on a trip to Auschwitz and has since dedicated her life to telling the stories behind the pictures and the people in the pictures. I thought it was extremely interesting.

On Saturday, my Dad and I headed back over to the U of R for two events that we didn't have tickets to, Bill Clinton's talk and a panel with Justice Scalia. There were two lines, one for people with tickets and one for people without tickets (who would be let in if space allowed). In typical fashion for my dad, he stood by the line for people with tickets and asked people entering if they had an extra tickets. The first person he asked at BOTH EVENTS said yes and gave him tickets. Doesn't hurt to ask!! :) Both events were awesome.

My Grandma Warren had a bunch of our family over for pizza and wings on Saturday night. It was great to meet Gabe and Katie's son, Caleb, for the first time and see everyone else too! And the pizza wasn't bad either ;) I forgot to take pictures!

Am I boring you all with the play by play of my trip yet?

I spent Saturday night at my Grandma Clark's so she dropped me off at my Grandma Warren's on Sunday morning and we headed out to Buffalo. Check out the delicious Scottish breakfast my Grandma Clark made me on Sunday morning...

We stopped by my Uncle Mark's for a couple hours on our way to the airport. We got to see their chickens! They are getting about 5 eggs per day from them now.

Definitely a wonderful trip and a nice break from work. Thank you to both Grandmas for having us!!!

Uneventful Weekend

Nothing too exciting from the weekend...got a bunch of laundry done...like I said, nothing too exciting. Haha. Actually, I had a Living Social voucher for Whole Foods so George and I headed up to Pasadena to redeem it. I missed the exit on the freeway and the GPS rerouted us. Normally I would be annoyed with myself for missing the exit, BUT the reroute took us through the nicest neighborhood ever. So, we drove through the neighborhood really slowly and looked at each of the houses (or should I say mansions) - and commented on what we liked and didn't like about them. No pictures though because I didn't want anyone to get freaked out :)

One of the things that I really like about California is that you can drive 15 minutes and get an entirely different look and feel. The street we were driving down was tree lined with lots of lush vegetation, but 15 minutes away, there is more of a city feel with concrete and big buildings...and then another 15 minutes away, is the beach.

I head to New York with my Dad on Wednesday!! SO EXCITED for a mini-vacation :)

That's all for now...I need to get going on my Halloween costume (see below!!!!!!!)

Yep, I am going as that...or a version of that anyway. George and his friends are going as Ghostbusters and they thought Stay Puft (another character from the movie) would make a great addition to the theme...so I am the lucky one! We are going to Vegas for Halloween weekend so it should actually be pretty funny. Of course, there will be pictures on my blog when the costume is complete. 

Family Visit

Well, it was a great weekend. George and I actually both worked on Saturday b/c we took Monday off to hang out with Brian, Terrisa, Brent, Chrissy, and Paisley. Friday night wasn't as great knowing that I had to work the next day, but it was a good feeling on Sunday night knowing that we didn't have to work on Monday. And now, I am just completely thrown off! 

So Brian, Terrisa, Brent, Chrissy, and Paisley came into town on Sunday morning. George and I picked up Chrissy's sister, Carrie, and we headed to one of our favorite places, Porto's Bakery (featured on my blog a month or two ago). After lunch, Brian, Terrisa, Paisley, George, and I headed back to our place and the three of them were ready for a little nap :)

George and I took advantage of our time with Paisley and I managed to snap several pictures of her. There are several more, but I had to narrow it down! We met up with some of Terrisa's family on Sunday night. Terrisa is actually originally from Southern California and most of her extended family lives in the area. On Monday, we hung out at the house and then headed to downtown Claremont - lots of cute little restaurants and shops. OK, now onto the pictures...

George gave Paisley a quick piano lesson (she was a natural) 

Paisley was a bit distracted from the bright flash on my camera

She picked up a new little trick...spitting!! It is cute, but Terrisa says we can't encourage the behavior :)

Doesn't Terrisa dress her so stinking cute?!

Shortly after they hit the road, George and I met up with Hannah and Jeremiah's family at Downtown Disney for dinner. It was great to see Hannah too even if it was just for a couple hours. Today, it was back to work. This work seems to be a little less crazy than last week...which I am very thankful for!

AND I just realized I forgot to post the Zuppa Toscana recipe. It was so delicious and I couldn't believe how similar it tasted to the soup at Olive Garden. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
• 1 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I left out the bacon)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 5 (13.75 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 6 potato, thinly sliced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 bunch fresh spinach, tough stems removed (I used Kale instead)

Directions

1. Cook the Italian sausage and red pepper flakes in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crumbly, browned, and no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Cook the bacon in the same Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain, leaving a few tablespoons of drippings with the bacon in the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir in the onions and garlic; cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Pour the chicken broth into the Dutch oven with the bacon and onion mixture; bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes, and boil until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the heavy cream and the cooked sausage; heat through. Mix the spinach into the soup just before serving.

ENJOY!!!!!!

What's Coming Up

Whoa! It has been a busy last few days. We started the integration of our pizza business and ice cream business on Monday morning. I did a bit of prep work over the weekend and arrived for work at 2:00AM on Monday (I was helping out with our kick-off that started at 4:00AM). It sounds crazy, but super early mornings are pretty normal in my company because we need to get in and out of the accounts before the customers arrive. Needless to say, I have been playing catch up so far this week. I need my sleep :)...I'm not one of those people who can function on 5-6 hours of sleep.

Some other work related news - I got a company car on Saturday! It is a black, Chevy Impala (see picture of it getting washed below). I am so excited about this because it means free insurance, free gas, and a free car! We are still going to keep my SUV and George's truck. George will continue to drive his truck until for awhile. We figured that it will be nice to keep the mileage down on the Santa Fe for now.

This picture is from last weekend. George discovered this fondue restaurant/Jazz club in Claremont called the Hip Kitty and we figured it must be pretty hip with a name like that. Haha. So we checked it out and it was so awesome...the music was great!!! George really enjoys jazz so I think we will be back sometime soon.

Hmm...what else, what else?? I am trying to think if there is anything else interesting from the past week, but I can barely remember yesterday. Some things that I am looking forward to:

1. I get to see Brian, Terrisa, and Paisley (and Brent, Chrissy, and Carrie) this weekend. AND I hear Paisley is getting cuter and cuter by the day (no surprise there :))...I will definitely take some pictures to share next week

2. I am heading to Rochester with my Dad in TWO WEEKS

3. Our annual Beaver Creek ski trip is officially on the calendar for December 1-4. We should have a fun group this year: all of us Warrens/Lucases and some Moores! Looking forward to that grotto anyone???!

4. The Zuppa Toscana that I just made for tomorrow night. I found a recipe for soup that is supposed to taste just like the Zuppa Toscana from Olive Garden....preliminary results are looking really good :)

5. Catching up on sleep this weekend

If all goes well with the soup, I will be sure to share the recipe tomorrow. I also made some delicious Chicken Noodle soup over the weekend. I have discovered the wonderfulness of soup.....easy, hot, delicious, and plentiful! 

Goodnight everyone!!