Chinese leftovers for lunch ... at 10am

It's official. We have a move in date. I repeat, WE HAVE A MOVE IN DATE. And I'm so stinking excited!!! I've known it was on the horizon for a little bit now, and there was even possibility it would be this weekend. But, it's scheduled and the movers are on the calendar ... Wednesday, July 19! And therefore I can focus on NOTHING but that thought. Which include all things life ... like getting the dog food, preparing summer camp lunches ... all the things I'm responsible for have completely gone by the wayside.  It's been a long time, and I can't believe it's finally coming to an end.

If you need to catch up, here ya go:

• We announced we were moving home - September 2016
• We shared the realtor images from the house we purchased - October 2016
• We worked to draw new house plans and finalize the designs - January 2017
• We worked on selecting some finishes and decided on a farmhouse theme - January 2017
• We began demolition and pouring a new foundation for the addition - February 2017
• We finalized framing, plumbing, HVAC and electrical - April 2017
• We shared some cabinet design sneak peeks - April 2017
• We talked drywall and exterior paint colors - May 2017
• We chatted the home stretch of the renovation - June 2017

And here we are today with the final installment before the big reveal once we're all moved in!!  Back to the slacking at life thing for a minute though ... My poor family. I gave up on the grocery store, cooking and really all things domestic a little over a month ago ... I blame it on the fact that we haven't had a working stove in well over two months, but I think we all know that really isn't the honest reason :) Therefore, I'm eating Chinese leftovers at 10am. Sigh. We are getting to the point though where even takeout doesn't taste that good anymore.  And we're all really craving some back-to-normalcy and a lot of that is my fault.

It's kind of like that point in your first couple of weeks at home with a new baby ... everyone you know is bringing you food and goodies and the first couple of weeks you're like GIVE ME ALL THE THINGS. And then you hit that point where you really just can't continue to eat cheesy noodles for every meal; and it's totally time to get your booty back in gear. We're pretty much there (and have been there for a little too long), but in a different sense. But the end is in sight ... ONE WEEK AWAY! And that means Lainey will actually have a bed again and no longer has to sleep with Maggie in the dog bed!

(Guys, I'm TOTALLY kidding!)

I'm so excited, so overwhelmed and working my tail off to get all of my ducks in a row. When we moved from Nashville we were still in transition back here in Kentucky (ahem, we still are) so we didn't have a "home" per say to put all of our belongings inside. And therefore, EVERYTHING we owned was placed in the garage of our new house. No climate control, no order, just literally unloaded off the truck into a heaping pile of mayhem. So I'm currently trying to wrap my head around having to orchestrate the unload of the garage into the house and all of that hooplah.

Amidst the madness, I'm working on securing furniture plans for each room. This couch will go there, that chest goes to that bedroom etc. And - hoping to narrow down some furniture purchases as well. I've been eyeing these couches for the new great room. And I think I'm going to pull the trigger this week. I couldn't decide for the longest time whether or not I wanted to choose a new fabric and have them made - or if I wanted the ones they have in stock (pictured below) and call it a day. And I think I've finally decided we're going to go with the in stock sofas and call it a day. YippEEE! So, I've got the chair dilemma to solve, but couches - check yes.

Other happenings include, choosing the stain for the refurbed floors. I had the hardest time for a couple of reasons. One, my cabinet color combo made it a bit more challenging to match. With the dark island and side bar, I knew I didn't want to compete too much with the floors. Also, when we moved into our home in Nashville I LOVED our floors. They were dark, rich and beautiful when we moved in. Fast forward to two months of living in our house and OH. MY. DIRTY! I literally couldn't keep those things clean to save my life. Every spec of dirt and dust  (hello crumbs with two toddlers) showed up constantly and it was always a hassle. So, I knew without a shadow of a doubt I wanted to go lighter this time around. And I was trying to force myself outside my comfort zone so I told the flooring guy - all grey all the way.

We started on the top right of the picture below -- and if you look REALLY close you can see a white wash stain. He was telling me all about how great it is, and how much I'd love it and he put it on the floor and I just kind of stood there. Until I realized he was finished and I audibly laughed out loud. Uhm no. While I agree, I think that would look cool on certain spaces and floors, when I said I wanted to go lighter I didn't mean THAT light. I was cordial, but wow really missed the mark.

Second we tried gray (top middle of the above photo) and I took a deep breath - whew that maybe we would accomplish what we'd come to do. Third we tried ebony (bottom right) and I loved it, but had to tell myself "REMEMBER KATIE, you're going for something DIFFERENT"- so I nixed it. Fourth we tried walnut (bottom left above photo) and it was just entirely too warm and drastically clashed with the cabinets. So, while pretty, it didn't work in the space and we nixed it. At that point we were basically left with gray and I liked it but I felt it was missing something - so we cured it with both a water based poly (bottom half of the top middle stain) and an oil base (bottom half of the top middle stain above photo) and decided the oil base pulled too much amber and we lost some of the gray. But, I was still not 100% sold. I wanted a little more of the grain, so we added 50% of the ebony I originally liked (but nixed for some change) and 50% gray and made our own color (top left above photo) and whew it certainly popped the grain! But, once again it was coming through too warm and it got tossed out as well.  ~ is anyone able to follow this story?!

At that point I was just about ready to commit to the gray, when our flooring guy suggested we add 50% true black and 50% gray to a mix - and we would be able to pop more of the grain, but still keep the stain cool and expose the gray I wanted -- see stain bottom left in picture below. And he was right. It kept it on the "cooler" side and the grains were certainly more pronounced and I thought maybe we'd nailed it. But this thought in my head kept creeping up that the finish was pretty dark and was I going to be super disappointed after the first snacks were dolled out on move in day?! So you know what I did, I made a game time decision, trusted my guy and went back to our original gray stain (top left picture below)

I'm nervous about it. But the decision is made. The floors are being poly coated as we speak and I get to see them tomorrow! Fingers crossed I'm not super disappointed when I get there. I've been going to the house every day to peek in the windows - but I can't get a real feel for what's there without actually being in the space. And I'm nervous because in the window they look really brown and not grey. AHHHHH! Lol :) so these are the obvious reasons why I can't grocery shop right now :)

However, my builder did send me a picture of the stained banisters (old stain is still on the steps and floor in these pics) and I'm super happy with those, so that makes me feel a lot better!

And aside from my crazy house projects, I may bite off an ever bigger project all my own if I can get the courage to actually pull the trigger. I've been thinking about it a lot. Talking about it with my family a lot. Praying about it a lot. Drawing, googling, and planning about it a lot. But will I ever share with you about it a lot?! HA! I don't know ... that depends on if I do it or not ... but either way it involves a really cool space, a really fun idea, and a potentially really fun venture on the horizon that involves this really cool space.

So, let me get my ducks in a row, get moved in ... think on this space for a while longer and I'll get back to you. I've got a soggy egg roll to finish and that's enough for me right now :) Have a great week gang!

peanut butterless

It just became a sad, sad Wednesday my friends.  Three weeks ago I brought a fresh jar of peanut butter to accompany me at my desk to help me combat mid day hunger, keep my sweet tooth at bay, to give my morning banana a little something special, and if I'm really being honest - mainly because I'm pregnant and have been craving peanut butter like it's going out of style and enjoy eating monster spoonfuls of it for no good reason {THERE I SAID IT!}.  

To be clear, there is only 1 kind of peanut butter I like: JIF | CREAMY | REDUCED FAT. Otherwise, I am sad.  But, I wanted to share with all of you ... today, Wednesday, April 24th at exactly 2:45 pm the unthinkable happened.

We've reached the bottom of the tub, and I AM HEART BROKEN.  How did I not see this coming?!  I could have had a spare ready, I could have grabbed some at lunch, I could have brought different snacks to work to cope. But no, nothing. I am now stuck at my desk with nothing but an old package of saltine crackers and water.  Cue my first set of "food pregnancy tears" beginning NOW.

Exactly Bill, exactly. "If you can't control your peanut butter, you can't expect to control your life." So, there it goes. I've lost all control.  I'm blogging about peanut butter, I may or may not have shed a real tear when I at the last bite .. this is what my life has come to.  Way too pregnant and not enough peanut butter. GASP!  

Meanwhile, I imagine little man in my belly just swimming around in an endless supply of my daily consumption. Oh Baby U, how jealous I am of your endless PB tasting.  Can't you just picture him?  All smiles and licking delicious peanut butter off his fat little fingers. 

Alas,  I will try and make it through the last few hours of my day, peanut butterless.  Please no one come visit me ... because I'm in a sad state and you may or may not find me under my desk -- resembling the following picture -- poor pup. I feel your pain.

Recipe Monday: Inspired by Tuesday

Alright friends, let's get down to it.  Everyone has that one restaurant dish that simply thinking or driving by the neon sign makes your mouth water.  And although if you had the recipe you would either mess it up or you'd cook it so often it would no longer be a tasty treasure - you still secretly wish you could decode the recipe and have it anytime you want it, RIGHT (or is that just me)??

Well, I'm not ashamed to admit I have SEVERAL of these items.  And I am by no means above throwing the waiter a few extra bones if he could let me in on some of the secrets.  That being said, the recipe I'm after today was first discovered about two years ago.  Ruby Tuesday is one of those restaurants that I have always seen, but never actually frequented.  And truthfully for no reason other than we chose O'Charley's or something over Ruby's when we were looking for that kind of place, because we knew the menu better, maybe? I don't know ... it just wasn't a place we frequently dined.

However, a couple of years ago when I started working at my new marketing job, I was located directly across the street from a Ruby Tuesday's.  Since then there have been several additional restaurants that have been put in on this exit (Qdoba, Zaxby's, Logan's Roadhouse - to name a few) that have really upped the ante around lunch hour - which was much needed. But prior to this, any quick lunch meetings that needed to be held at an off-site location, and needed to be at a classier establishment than say a McDonald's or Arby's ... Ruby Tuesday's became a great meeting hub.

What I quickly learned is Ruby Tuesday was harboring one of the greatest items on their menu known to man ... plus they offer free garlic cheddar biscuits (SCORE!).  What I'm trying to say is: I'm glad I gave it a chance. You see Ruby Tuesday has an unlimited Garden Bar for about $8.00 and the ingredients are pretty fresh for a salad bar.  So it's a super simple pick up if you're needing a healthy "at your desk" lunch as well.  But the hidden little gem that is also located on said Garden Bar is their Ham and Pea Pasta Salad. OHH-EM-GEEE is this stuff good.  Now, if you don't like peas or ham - don't stop reading yet.  Because, ironically I'm not a huge fan of either item either - but in this salad - they WORK IT.

So, I set out on a mission to find a copy cat recipe for the mouthwatering, delicious concoction you see pictured above.  And here is what I've uncovered:

1. This pasta salad has a bazillion raving fans other than myself (who knew?)
2. There are many copy-cat recipes
3. Lots of the copy-cat recipes call for ingredients that are CLEARLY NOT in the Ruby Tuesday pasta salad, so why do these at-home chefs think they can just add them in on their own accord?? - WHY

Alright, so I have narrowed the copy-cat recipes down to the three that sound the closest to what I taste.  I'm going to share all 3 with you, and over some time I will make all 3 and announce the winner. But for now, I just have to hold onto hope that one of these babies will be my saving grace and present us with the best pasta salad dish there ever was.  My current (pre-tested) vote goes to Recipe #3 -- I'd put all my money there just reading ingredients and what not.

.......................................................................................

Recipe #1

Ingredients:

• 1 lb box of rotini pasta
• 1 cup ranch dressing
• 1 cup mayo
• 1 package of diced ham
• 1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas, cooked and drained
• 1 bag of shredded cheddar cheese (note: there is no evidence of cheese in RT's recipe)
• 2 TBS of  Paula Deen's seasoning salt (P.D.'s seasoning mix - 1 cup salt, 1/4 cup pepper, 1/4 cup garlic salt -Put it in a small bowl and mix it well. Put mix into empty salt shaker.)

Directions:

• Cook pasta, drain and rinse
• Mix all ingredients
• Serve cold 

Thoughts:

• We could be onto something with the seasoning salt, sometimes I can tell a more garlic-y or more pepper-y flavor and if they add too much or too little of one, I could see where this would effect it
• As mentioned above - NO USE OF CHEESE in the RECIPE!

.......................................................................................

Recipe #2

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces macaroni, cooked and drained
• 8 ounces ham, 1/4" cubed, about 2 cups
• 8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, 1/4" cubed
• 1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas, cooked and drained
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise (not salad dressing)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
• 2 teaspoons dried tarragon
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

• In a large bowl combine salad ingredients.
• In a smaller bowl, mix dressing ingredients. Pour dressing over macaroni mix and toss to blend well. 
• Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.
• Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before serving. (More mayonnaise or sour cream may be needed.) 

Thoughts:

• I think this recipe will be the last one I try
• It sounds great, and there are a lot of items - but some of them I don't normally keep in my pantry, and I'm not even sure I taste them in the recipe anyways - so this just may be a fun rainy day - but I'm not betting on it
• As mentioned above - NO USE OF CHEESE in the RECIPE!

.......................................................................................

Recipe #3 - MY VOTE FOR FRONT RUNNER

Ingredients:

• 1 pound rotini pasta
• 3/4 cup reduced-fat ranch dressing
• 3/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 8 ounces diced ham
• 1 cup frozen green peas, defrosted
• 4 ounces (1 cup) shredded cheddar cheese, optional and not in the original recipe
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper

Directions:

• Cook the pasta according to package directions. 
• Drain well and place in a large mixing bowl.
• Whisk the ranch dressing, mayonnaise and seasoning salt. 
• Toss the dressing with the pasta and then gently stir in the ham, peas, cheese and bell pepper. 
• Taste and add more seasoning salt, if needed. 
• Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
• Makes 8-10 side dish servings.

Thoughts:

• This recipe gets my vote and I will be trying it soon.  I'll keep you updated on how it goes :)

.......................................................................................

So that's all folks, Ruby Tuesday Copy Cat Pasta Salad -- Easy Peasy (no pun intended)! Have a great week.

White Elephant meets Porcelain God

Like many families, offices, and friends ... i fall victim to White Elephant games MULTIPLE times every Christmas.

For those of you who have been living UNDER A ROCK,

White Elephant works like this:

1. Have guests sit in a circle with White Elephant Gifts in a pile in the middle.
2. Each person draw a number from the basket (put numbers from 1-number of guests) or you can do it by Birthdays. January 1 would go first, December 31 would be last.
3. The person who draws the number 1 or has the earliest birthday begins by unwrapping one of the gifts and showing it to the group.
4. Person #2 can now choose to either open a new gift or steal the open gift from person #1. Then person #3 follows and so on and so on.
5. Play continues until everyone has a gift.
         Optional — You may want to give the #1 person a chance to steal a different gift at the very end of the game since they otherwise do not get the chance to do any stealing
        *NOTE: If your gift gets stolen, you have the option of either
1. A) opening a new gift or
2. B) stealing an open gift from someone else. Once a gift has been opened it can be stolen by anyone whose turn it is, with two exceptions:
1.  A gift that has JUST been stolen from you is now OFF LIMITS (for you).  No stealing gifts back that have just been taken from you (but you can steal it back if it is stolen later in play)
2. Once a gift has been stolen 3 times it is out of play and stays with the 3rd and last “stealer” - It's now on LOCK!

And, because I've never understood exactly why it is called White Elephant ... I went to work with google and found out. 

In case you're interested too...I'll share:

In Thailand and other Asian countries, the white elephant was considered a holy being. But, the upkeep of this animal was outrageous to say the least. They needed special food, holy housing, and all sorts of special treatment. So much in fact, that usually only a king could afford a white elephant. The death of a white elephant spelled DISASTER  so these animals were pretty pampered pets. The origin of our white elephant gift began when ancient kings became EXTREMELY DISPLEASED with their assistant. They would make a gift of the white elephant to the assistant. At first, this appeared to be a great honor. But soon, the assistant would become crippled by the financial burden of the white elephant. Hence, when we give silly, ELABORATE gifts of little value, we call them WHITE ELEPHANT GIFTS.

Usually, at our family Christmas we play White Elephant, but most of the presents aren't a joke or white elephant-ish. The majority of them are nice, but every person picks their own gift, so it's fun to play with steals, etc.  (note: i say MOST because EVERY year my brother brings some ridiculous gift no one wants - and somehow i ALWAYS end up getting it). This year I lucked out with his hand picked Gnome Chia Pet and an As Seen on TV Tortilla Bowl Maker.  Thanks Jon Ryan. Thanks.

My gal pals and I also have an ornament exchange every year in which we play White Elephant to try and head home with the cutest, most sparkly colored decor.  Leave it to my friends however to mix in some questionable Christmas scenes and ugly, UGLY ornaments.

However, our office Gift Exchange is MUCH more fun and includes a healthy mix of white elephant items and good ones.  This makes the game great because steals are truly coveted and it really is complete luck of the draw combined with strategy.

About 3 years ago, i decided to participate with a White Elephant gift that played both sides of the fence. In other words, i supplied some nice alcohol (because what else do co-workers really want?) and combined it with some funny bathroom trivia books.  That same year another co-worker brought an infamous As Seen on TV items.  So, the following year we agreed to stick to our themes and stay the course.

I stepped it up that year, and purchased a full on white elephant gift.  You can find it here if you'd like to gift one.  I give you ... Potty Putt Putt:

And this year...I was so proud of myself when i found this little fella online.  That's right a Toilet Mug.  I made sure to wrap it extra pretty and this thing is SO MUCH bigger than i expected that everyone was eye balling this baby, and it was chosen at a perfect time - PRIME for steals.  The Toilet Mug was stolen twice and ended up heading home with my co-worker Barry.  I can't wait to sit in a morning meeting with him and watch him drink his watery brown coffee from a toilet - SICK.  You can purchase it here if you are interested :)

If you need more White Elephant Ideas, I'd be glad to help pick some out.  They're so fun to shop for and the look on people's faces when they are expecting something so great and wind up with a Chia Pet or worse is PRICELESS.

I'm already on the hunt for next year's potty themed present ... What magical Porcelain God gift will i come up with...?!?! Muuuahhhhh---hahahahahahha.

How do I put this gently?

When i went to bed last Sunday and woke up Monday morning, i had no idea the week i was about to encounter at work.  well, that's not entirely true - i sort of did. it's 2 weeks before Black Friday. i work in retail marketing/advertising and the last couple of weeks have been a bit brutal getting everything together, so i guess somewhere in my mind i did know.  perhaps i was just trying to be optimistic for once, and think it would be better this week, silly me! By no means was it really THAT bad, things could have been much worse i suppose. BUT - it was more of just one of those "ARE YOU SERIOUS" type of weeks where a gal just can't catch a break at the office.

So, "How Do I put This Gently?": It was an epic FAIL of a week.

MONDAY

for starters, and lack of a better description

Monday went a little something like this....

one of those days where you're just walking along completely minding your own business and then WHAM! knocked flat on your back.  every meeting was running behind schedule, deadlines were creeping up entirely too fast and conveniently my sweet little dachshund Maggie decided to use our Ralph Lauren Down Comforter as her relief area. Just frick'n perfect.

So, i decided to call it an early night and hopefully wake up with a better attitude.  Good Morning Tuesday!

Tuesday

Ha, how quickly bad turns to good.  So, Tuesday is always a day of meetings for me.  I'm talking like every 30 minutes there is some meeting i have to be present for.  Normally Tuesdays aren't too bad, because they tend to go by really fast. HOWEVER, this Tuesday we had a meeting that isn't usually scheduled on Tuesdays - and we had A LOT to squeeze into a little amount of time.  In reality, the meeting is something i am really passionate about and usually genuinely enjoy (I will share this great cause with you at a later date), but for sake of time the story goes like this:

1. I was responsible for bringing lunch to the meeting, scheduled through lunch hour for everyone attending - of course i forgot - which started everyone off is a pissy mood. Grrrrrreat
• shout out - Thank you Domino's pizza for coming to my rescue - you took about 30 minutes, but your thin crust $5.99 medium pizza deals on our bellies made for much more pleasant co-workers
2. We had a HUGE excel sheet to get through (each person has their own excel sheet for voting, and then the votes and tallies are combined later in an even more massive excel doc) - about 3/4 of the way through the meeting 2 co-workers computers crashed (well -- hold that -- co-worker A's computer crashed, and co-worker B's died because Co-worker A decided to slyly steal her power cord - causing her computer to die before the documents were saved) and yep you guessed it COMPLETELY DELETED ALL ITEMS WE HAD BEEN WORKING ON!
• I'm not talking went to the saved, archived folder, or even the most recent items area in digital land in which we could pick up where we left off. I'm talking, NO WHERE to be found - THE JOYS of working on an old migrated server. Sooo, that means we have to start 100% over and finish the ENTIRE meeting (which has been spread over 3 days) in one day.
• This is to be completely by Friday. Yippee!

After that, the rest of the day was pretty much down hill from there and everything that happened i just felt like this

(oh look something great...NOT!):

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday actually did get a little better.  The morning was very blah, and then we were invited to Churchill Downs for AdFed Day.  Can't really complain about betting the ponies during work hours, except i may have had a bit better of a time if i actually won some money as opposed to losing it all.

i always go to the track expecting to walk out like this:

when in reality, i come out more like this:

THURSDAY

Thursday, you were lackluster. But the week was getting to me and all i wanted to do in this dreary, gets dark at 2 o'clock in the afternoon weather was PLOP:

BUT of course, life had a MUCH different plan for me and plopping on the couch, was the farthest thing from what happened.

FRIDAY

So, now we say HOORAY FOR FRIDAY!  Seriously, T.G.I.F. has never been said by me with such compelling force.  I'm looking straight past this day in the office and right on to the weekend. Happy Dance!

WEEKEND

No matter the outcome of what Friday has to bring: I will, I tell you, WILL find time this weekend to live like this.  Hunkered down, and doing absolutely nothing! ~ WHEW - FINALLY!

Giving credit, where credit is due.  I wish I were clever enough to

make these little clips myself, but instead I'm re-blogging them from

 "How Do I Put This Gently"