The One With Double Icicles

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Brad and I decided to get a head start on our Christmas decorating. Since this is our first Christmas in our home, we were especially excited to finally be able to put up our own lights on the house. Our plan started with us driving around the neighborhood at night and scoping out the competition/generating lighting ideas. We finally decided to go with the fake icicle lights on our house, which then prompted my question- “Should we do single icicles or double icicles?” Since our house is 2 stories, we would have 2 roof ledges to hang lights from- so would having icicle lights on the first and second story be too much? Brad thought so, but then we saw a house like this and decided that double icicles would look really good. (Obviously the house in the picture looks great for other reasons besides the double icicles.)

Then we drove home and saw this…

That’s right- we don’t even have 2 ledges! So all our debating back and forth was for nothing. And now our next issue was going to be a ladder, since the highest one we own is 4 foot tall step stool.

Finally, after shopping around Home Depot for ladders and lights we came to the conclusion that we weren’t going to be able to buy ALL the lights and Christmas necessities we needed to achieve the above pictured house (at least, not if we wanted to buy Christmas presents this year!)

So, for our first Christmas, these are our lights:



Next Christmas we’ll get the ladder and do the double icicles. (Notice the tiny 2nd ledge over the front door - we can totally still do double icicles!)

Also, here’s our first real Christmas tree’s before and after photos. You’ll see that the bottom portion of the tree has no ornaments- we have Copper to thank for that.

The One With The Reason For The Season

I read this amazing news story yesterday and felt that it was a great reminder of what the holiday season is all about. Read below and be inspired!

Mystery Couple Start “Magical” Chain Reaction

It played like a scene from a holiday movie -- a mystery couple, who didn’t leave their names or numbers, walked into a restaurant, finished their meal and then set-off a chain reaction of generosity that lasted for hours.

That’s just what employees at the Aramingo Diner in Port Richmond said a man and a woman did during their breakfast shift last Saturday morning.

“It was magical. I had tears in my eyes because it never happened before. I’ve been here for 10 years and I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Lynn Willard, a waitress.

Willard and other waitresses told NBC Philadelphia that the couple started the chain reaction by paying double: for their own meal and for the tab of another table of diners at the restaurant. There's no evidence that one group of diners knew the others.

“I could not believe it … and it continued and continued, it was very nice,” said Willard. “They asked us not to say anything until they left, but we said ‘Merry Christmas, that person picked up your tab.’”

For the next five hours, dozens of patrons got into that same holiday spirit and paid the favor forward.
The diner’s manager said not one person was concerned about price of the check -- which averaged between $12-$30.

“It was a surprise to all of us, the girls were even taken aback,” said Linda. “Those who took the check also tipped the waitress. So nobody had to do anything other than pass it on and that’s what they did. They just passed it forward.”

It’s a true holiday story that proves how a small gesture of kindness can create some magic.

Click here to view video clip of story…

The One Where Alex Got Married

I’m a little behind on posting these pictures, but they’re just so pretty- I wanted to share!

Our good friend Alex and her now husband, Steve, were married on November 20th in Silverado, California at the amazing Rancho Las Lomas preserve.

Photos of friends, the happy couple and beautiful event below- Congrats Alex & Steve!

The One With The Fort

Remember when you were a kid and on rainy days you would stay inside and make forts? Well, at the age of 25, Brad and I are still making forts on rainy days- this time it’s for our dog.


I’ve always said we’re pretty spoiled in San Diego, but now I actually see why- this is only our second day of rain since adopting Copper in June. And being an Arizona born/San Diego raised dog- she’s not quite used to the rain yet. Her first time experiencing rain was over Thanksgiving weekend, where she stayed inside and barked all day long. Not a good day for any of us in the house.

Today is her second day of rain and first time having to deal with it alone outside. Since we don’t have a covered patio and leaving her inside is not an option (the house would be in ruins), we decided to block off part of our garage so that Copper would have some coverage during the day. Unfortunately, I don’t think Copper gets the excitement of having a fort, like we did as kids. Luckily, we are blessed with good weather in San Diego, so hopefully there won’t be too many days filled with fort making- for our benefit and Copper’s.

The One With 6 Days Of Turkey

For this year’s Thanksgiving, Brad and I decided to take on the task of hosting dinner at our place. I’m not much of a cook (Brad has only said “you can definitely make this again” to only one or two of my dinner dishes), so needless to say, this Thanksgiving dinner was going to be interesting. By the way- this is what I get for responding with “For when we host Thanksgiving or something” whenever Brad asked why we were registering for a certain piece of china or serving dish.

In anticipation of Thanksgiving Day, Brad and I decided to do a trail run turkey on the Monday before, so we roasted a 4 lb bird and made gravy from it. Unfortunately, this idea did not make us any more prepared/comfortable for the big day since our little turkey came out undercooked and the gravy was way too sweet tasting. After cutting up one side of the turkey, we threw it back in the oven for another hour or so, hoping that would cook the other side enough to eat for the next night.

Now after having turkey for Monday and Tuesday’s dinner AND eating turkey sandwiches (deli turkey- at least) for Wednesday’s lunch, we weren’t really looking forward to cooking a 19 lb turkey the next day and eating it.

However, we got lucky and our big Thanksgiving Day turkey came out great and the gravy even turned out decent! And no- we did not buy canned gravy, we made it from scratch. Our one little mistake was that we only pulled out one bag of “goodies” from the carcass and didn’t realize there was a 2nd bag until we started carving into the cooked turkey. Whoops! I did mention that I’m not much of a cook and this was our first time cooking a turkey- right? (The trail run doesn’t count since there was no bag of “goodies” inside.)

The rest of our weekend was spent being lazy. I never left the house or changed out of my PJs all day Friday and Saturday (Brad golfed on Saturday), which meant we ate turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls (oh- that was our 2nd mistake- we forgot to bake and serve the rolls at Thanksgiving dinner!) and pie all weekend long. Thankfully, Brad’s aunt, uncle and cousins came to visit Sunday afternoon, so not only did I finally shower and dress, but we also went out and ate something other than turkey- Mexican food!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving Holiday!

The One With The Nordstrom Sign

I always knew I liked Nordstrom...

The One With Hot Lips

Last weekend, a group of us girls got together for lunch and some wine tasting in Temecula. Some highlights from our limo riding/wine tasting day:

- Sauvignon Blanc at Hart Winery
- Pot luck lunch outside Stuart Winery
- Hot Lips wine cider at Falkner Winery (So good- we’ll be serving this at Thanksgiving!)





Side Note: I’m a firm believer that holidays should “wait their turn” when it comes to being advertised and displayed. For example, Christmas decorations should not be put up until the day after Thanksgiving- at the earliest. Any sooner and you’re just skipping/ignoring the Thanksgiving Holiday all together. However, just this once, I was able to overlook that holiday violation when I saw this amazing table set up at Callaway Winery! (Note to self: must remember that Megan wants this exact set up when she gets married- upside down Christmas tree and all!)

The One With The Three Amigos

Halloween was spent in Valencia at Jason and Michelle’s house- and it was truly a scary night! There were dogs dressed as people and people dressed as Dog.

Normally, I’m very against dressing up dogs, but the Browns had bought their dogs a superman and snow white costume- so we had to put Copper in an outfit for just one night (or at least one photo!) So here we are- the three amigos!

Copper hated her sombrero so we tied it to her harness instead. Overall, she was a pretty good sport about the costume and let us take more than one photo of her.

Then there were only 2 amigos…

The Boys- Dog, the bounty hunter; Robin with feminine glasses; Amigo; and Nerd

The girls- Dog’s wife, Beth; Amigo; Ballerina; and Nerd

The One With The European Honeymoon

When catching up with people this past summer a lot of the time we were asked how our honeymoon was. Our response: "Great!" It was a 2 week vacation with stops in 6 different cities- so we couldn’t go into too much detail and we usually just left it at ‘Great’. Well, with a blog, I can now tell/type as much as I like and you can read whatever you want. So here goes the story of our honeymoon….

A quick background: We flew into Paris and stayed 2 nights. Then we took the train to Nice for a couple of days and then headed to Monaco/Monte Carlo for one night. After that, we left France and took another train to Monterosso, Italy- which is one of the 5 coastal cities of Cinque Terre. After a few nights stay, we were off to our final destination, Florence, where we stayed for our last couple of nights. While staying in Florence, we did sneak in one last city with a day trip to Rome.

As you can imagine, we have tons of stories and pictures to share, however, we thought it would be best to highlight our favorite things and stories and share a view words of wisdom when traveling in Europe.

Favorite Dessert: Crème Brulee Waffle at restaurant Bouillon Racine in Paris. Seriously. Amazing. We’re usually huge fans of chocolate anything- but this dessert was incredible.

Favorite Wine Bar: Enoteca da Eliseo, in Piazza Matteotti in Monterroso, Italy. We loved coming here in the evenings before dinner (and sometimes before lunch!) to have a glass of their house red wine which was served with peanuts, capers and THE best olives.

Favorite Pasta: Pear and Gorgonzola Cheese Ravioli in Monterosso. Sounds bizarre, but it was so good that we went back the next day to have the ravioli for lunch as well! I can’t remember the name of the small restaurant, but it was down the alley in the picture below.

Favorite Hotel View: La Spiaggia Hotel in Monterosso. No explanation needed- just view photos below:

Favorite Memory Overall: Hiking the 5 cities of Cinque Terre. The cities are all located on the Italian coast overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The trails have incredible views, each city is unique and fun to explore, AND with the hike being 5 hours long, it was a great way to work off all the wine and food we had consumed so far!

Best Spot To Leave Your "Mark": On the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. The Ponte Vecchio is the oldest bridge in Florence that’s lined with jewelry shops and in the middle of the bridge is a statue with a gate around it. The legend is that you and a loved one should attach a lock to the gate and throw the keys away in the river- forever “locking” your love to the bridge. Well, it’s actually illegal now to place locks on the bridge, so we had to be sneaky about “locking” our love- see pictures below:Most Random “Character”: Security guy at Frankfurt Airport. Our 2nd flight home was on an US Airways plane leaving from Frankfurt and heading to Philadelphia. When we reached our flight’s gate we were greeted by a security guy who looked kind of like Al Pachino, but totally acted like the dad from ‘Meet the Fockers’. These were only SOME his questions for us:

- Hello, my name is Pierre Something, have you been inspected for customs? No? Allow me….

- Where are you coming from? (Answer- Florence)
- What was the temperature in Florence- colder/warmer than here? (Brad says warmer, Lindsey says colder at the same time- oops, strike one)
- Where did you pack your bags this morning? (In our hotel)
- Who packed your bags this morning? (We both did)
- Did I tell you my name? (Yes)
- Has anyone approached you and asked you to carry something aboard? (No)
- No one gave you a cell phone or other electronic device to carry? (No)
- Do all the items that you are carrying belong to you? (Yes)
- You sure? (Yes)

At this point we began to wonder if we looked like terrorists to him, but once we were finished and through security, we saw the same guy grilling an elderly couple. I think it’s safe to say he takes his job seriously.

Words of Wisdom: Pack Light. Seriously. Even if you’re going to a high fashion place like Paris or the French Riviera- pack as little as you possible can. We had 3 rolling suitcases (1 large, 1 medium and 1 small carry-on), a duffle bag filled with shoes (I’m not kidding), a garment bag, plus Brad had a backpack and I had my purse. So basically, we were traveling with 7 (SEVEN!) pieces of luggage. Now imagine having to walk to a train station (on uneven and sometimes unpaved roads) and load, store and unload all those pieces of luggage onto/off of a train. It’s exhausting and your husband will not be happy when he has to carry all the heavy bags. And even if you take a taxi, they charge you for every piece of luggage you have. My suggestion- take a backpack or good traveling purse and one large, rolling luggage. You’ll have to be creative when packing and planning outfits, but you’ll have a better trip when you travel with fewer bags.

That was our honeymoon- in a nutshell. We took about a million pictures (okay, more like a thousand), but instead of posting them all, I've created a slide show below of some of our favorites. Enjoy!

The One With The Honeymoon Pictures

The One Where We Play Catch Up

October has surprisingly turned into a busy month for us, so I’m just going to try and list all our most recent activities in this one post. Here goes….

We celebrated Chelsea’s birthday in the beginning of the month by going to a Brad Paisley concert in San Diego. And yes, we made her wear that birthday hat all night long!



The 2nd Friday of every month is dedicated to Supper Club. This idea was suggested by our friend Chelsea and its where a group of us gets together once a month for a potluck dinner. For October, Brad and I were responsible for hosting the dinner at our house and providing the main dish. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of the group or food, but I did get a picture of our dining table being set for its first dinner party.


Also in October, was Alex’s bridal shower which was hosted by her sisters at her childhood home. Alex looked adorable of course and the table setting was just as cute! November 20 is her big day and we can’t wait!



Another big event this month- a new car! In an attempt to be responsible adults, we traded the very fun and fast (yet gas guzzling) GT Mustang for a sporty, easy-on-our-wallets Mini Cooper S. We’re hoping this turns out to be a wise decision, but at the moment, Brad is still mourning the loss of his girlfriend- I mean- mustang.


Those are all the pictures I have to share, but there are a couple of other “honorable mentions”:

- We celebrated Scott’s (Brad’s brother) birthday on October 10th by visiting Kobey’s Swap Meet and having lunch in Little Italy at Mona Lisa. They have delicious and cheap lasagna! (Mona Lisa that is- not Kobey’s!)

- We also attended a party at Chelsea and Jeremy’s new house on October 18th where we celebrated both their birthdays and new home with family and friends.

That’s it for the start of October. Up next is Copper’s graduation from intermediate obedience school (tonight!) and Halloween! Stay tuned…

The One With The Awkward Run-In

As I headed to my car yesterday in the grocery store parking lot, I walked passed a man who was loading his groceries into his car and he turned, smiled and said hello to me. I said hello back and kept walking. It took me about 3 steps for me to suddenly realize that the man looked familiar. I turned around and sure enough the man was the manager of Chevys restaurant in Del Mar who hired me about 5 years ago! We said hello, had a quick chat and then parted ways. As I drove home, I thought about how funny it was to run into him and then I remembered a time when it was NOT so funny when I ran into another Chevy’s manager a couple of years ago.

I think it was about 2 years ago when Brad and I decided to try Ruth’s Chris for dinner one weekend. We had never been there before since we’re usually not steak people, but it was restaurant week in San Diego and we had a gift certificate- so we gave it a try.

As soon as we sat down at our table, a man walked by and said, “Hiya folks, I’ll be with you in just a minute!” My jaw dropped as I instantly recognized the southern accent of my last manager at Chevys. And yes, he was going to be our server for the night!

Now I know some people would LOVE the idea of having their former (or current) bosses serve them, but I actually liked this manager when I was at Chevys, so I was beyond mortified. My old boss, being the very loud and outgoing guy he is, just laughed and rolled with. However, it was still incredibly awkward for both Brad and I to be waited on by him all night.

In the end, the dinner went as best as it could- the food was actually really great and we drank THE best glass of Riesling wine. However, to this date, we still have not gone back to Ruth’s Chris. It could be because it’s not a cheap restaurant, but I’m guessing it’s because we don’t want to figure out how much to tip my old boss again.

The One With The 3-Legged Dog

Does this dog look familiar? She should...

.... its Copper’s sister!

While looking over the Helen Woodward website (where Copper was adopted), I found a “success story” about a 3-legged dog who I thought looked a lot like Copper. I was about half-way through the story when I came across a sentence that mentioned the dog’s siblings being Emma and Emmit. Wait a minute- our dog WAS Emma! After talking to the adoption center, they confirmed that the 3-legged dog, Savannah, did have the same birth date as Copper. And just like Copper, she’s super cute! Click here to read Savannah’s story and see a video of her and her progress.

She isn’t available for adoption yet, but if you have an interest in adopting her, keep checking the website to see when she does become available. We’d love for a friend or someone in San Diego to adopt her so we can visit!

Also, click here to see a photo of Copper and Savannah’s brother!

The One With The Mexican Table

Brad and I have been hooked on going to our local swap meet, Kobey’s, ever since we started looking for silver vases/containers for our wedding. Since our wedding has come and gone, we now visit the swap meet to find stuff for our house. (And occasionally we pick up more silver pieces that catch our eyes!)

One of our latest finds was a coffee table- that can only be described as “Mexican”- with metal fixtures and grommets. We thought it had some potential, so we brought it home and purchased a sander to help with the project. Here are the before and after pictures:

I’m still not sure it’s the perfect look/color for our living room, but I think it’s an improvement from what we had before. Plus, with only spending $30 + paint, you can’t go too wrong! :) (PS- the mirror and blue chest in the pictures below are also Kobey finds!)

Living Room Before

After