It's only been a week and...

...and he's already left me.  Man, that was the shortest co-habitation in history!  Ha!  JUST KIDDING!!  Chad left for NY to visit his mom on Saturday.  I'll be joining him soon!  Yay!

Since Chad is out visiting his fam, I thought that I'd post some pics of his brother, sister-in-law and her fam that I stole off of Facebook, so that everyone can see.

Here's a pic of Ryan (Chad's brother), Tanya (his wife) and Nadia (Tanya's sister) on a pub crawl for Tanya's bday in Pilgrim's Rest, S. Africa

Ryan and Tanya live in White River, SA near Nelspruit and a few hours from Jo-burg.  Several of the World Cup games were help at stadiums in both of these cities.  They were very lucky to get to attend some of the games.  Looks like they had a blast!!

Here's a pic of Ryan and Tanya.  Looks like Ryan's enjoying a refreshing Castle.  (That's like Bud Light or Miller Light for us in the Midwest.)

Here's a pic of the group havin' some fun during a game.  Forgive me, I completely forgot the gentleman's name on the left.  The gorgeous girl on the right is Dominique (Tanya's & Nadia's cousin).  Thank goodness for Dom!  She assisted me in understanding most of the slang terms that are used in SA.  Lifesaver!

Nadia & Dominique showing their war paint!

 

 Fun with vuvuzelas!  They must be fun if your there, but I have to admit all they did was annoy me while listening to them on TV.  LOL!

OK.  Enough of the World Cup.  Here's a few from Tanya's cousin, Rachelle's, wedding.
For the bachelorette party, they have some kind of tradition about old hens and young hens.  Forgive me, for not knowing the whole story.  But it's a big deal.  Check out this pic.  No, it's not Halloween.  : )

Looks like a fun party!  Wish we could have been there!

Here are the gorgeous bridesmaids...

...and last but not least...the stunning bride and her parents.

Hope you enjoyed my photo album...courtesy of Facebook!  : )

Not so happy Monday...

I'm sitting here nursing a sore mouth from my afternoon...yes, I said "afternoon"...at the dentist.  I was there for about 2 hours...longer than anticipated.  The dentist is one of my least favorite places on earth...mostly if I have to have something done that requires a Novocaine injection.  I've had two bad experiences with Novocaine.  I'm really not a fan now and tend to work myself up a bit when I have to get it.  Someone how I had managed to crack my tooth from the top all the way down to the gumline.  So today, I had to go in for a temporary crown...something I've never had done and was quite worried about it.  It was going as well as can be expected until he found a crack in the tooth next to the one that was receiving a crown.  Luckily, the fracture was much smaller and required only some bonding, but this made the appointment much long than expected.  Chad was a trooper and went with me, since he knew how nervous I was about the whole thing.  I know that it was difficult for him to miss work, but I don't think it was too horrible for him.  He didn't seem to be too upset about having to sit in the waiting room and play with the new iPad for 2 hours.  : )

On a lighter note, the weekend was quite fun!  Friday was Tour de Belleville.  I rode with my friends, Judy & Vicki.  It was my third time riding in this particular event.  It was Vicki's second time and Judy's first time.  We started out the riding with some food & drink at The Wine Tap...and then we rode over to the starting line a bit before 9pm.  We did well overall!  We finished in 1:25 with only one quick short water break.  Afterwards, Judy, Vicki, Chad & I went to Big Daddy's for a few more celebratory brews.

Saturday night was trivia at Holy Trinity Catholic church in Fairview Heights.  I hadn't been to a trivia night in quite some time.  I almost forgot how fun they were.  We couldn't decide what food to bring and didn't have time to make much.  Chad came up with the idea to hit up The Cupcakery in STL for some gourmet cupcakes.  What a great idea!  They were a hit!  I'm so glad we held a couple back for our BBQ the next day.  Otherwise they would have all been gone!  We didn't do so hot a trivia though.  We were in 5th place most of the night until the last few rounds kick our booty.  I have no idea what place we ended up in...but it was much less than 5th place.  LOL!

Sunday we headed on over to our friends', Ashley & Chad's, house for a BBQ.  We had all kinds of good food.  I even ate some meat and it didn't upset my stomach.  Woo hoo!  I'm on my way back to being a carnivore again.  Ha!  We had a great time there eating, drinking & watching the World Cup Final.  I brought over the last two Graceland cupcakes from The Cupcakery.  Yumm-o!!

Tomorrow it's back to work again with another busy week.  Thank goodness my boss comes back later this week.  Although, I don't think things will slow down that much.
Hope everyone has a great week!!!

TGIF!!!!

Phew!  What a week!  My boss is out of town this week and most of next...and boy am I feeling it!!!!  I guess I should be glad that people look to me for answers when she's gone, but I've barely been able to hit the bathroom this week.  Crazy, crazy!  As you can imagine, I'm super glad that tomorrow is Friday.  I have a half day in the office filled with multiple meetings.  Then I have to head out to on-site meeting at one of the local hospitals.  The best thing is I should be home earlier than normal tomorrow.  Yay!  I'm hoping to get a short nap in before I head out tomorrow night.

It's a busy weekend for me!  Friday night is Tour de Belleville...a night-time bicycle ride in Belleville.  I've participated in this for the last 3 years, and it's always a good time!!  My friends, Vicki & Judy, are riding with me this year.  Let's go girls!

Saturday Chad & I have a trivia night with some family members.  I haven't been to one of those in quite some time, but it should be fun.  I'm just hoping that I can keep my mouth shut when needed this time.  I love going, but I'm not very good at most of the questions.  So I tend to get a bit excited and yell out the answers when I know them.  LOL!  Maybe we'll hit up Olivia's beforehand.

Some time this weekend Chad is moving most of his stuff in.  Tonight's his last night as a "single" man.  The next time I see him, he'll be co-habitating with Smokey, Lucky & myself!  I'm sure he can't wait!!!  : )

I'm exhausted already talking about all the weekend plans.  Maybe Sunday I can squeeze in a few hours of pool time at my cousin's.   That would be a nice relaxing end to a very busy weekend and what appears to be a very busy work week next week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Gotta love a Monday holiday!

I love, love, LOVE when a holiday falls on a weekend and I get an additional day off!!!  Woo hoo for Monday holidays!!!!  Today I had plenty to get done around the house, but I decided not to...and it felt good!  Ha!  


For the last week, I've been planning to make fish tacos for Chad & I.  (Recipe & pics to follow.)  So the first thing I did today was to scoot on over to Dierberg's and pick up all the necessary ingredients.  It's amazing how much better the selection of seafood is at Dierberg's than it is at Schnuck's.  After the fish was bathing in the marinade, I decided to take the rest of the afternoon off...and went to hang out with the fam at my cousin's pool!  I had completely lost my tan from vacay...but I finally got some color back.  Happy days!  Here's a pic of my little cuz, Emily, taking a plunge...

This evening Chad and I made the fish tacos with fresh pico de gallo & sour cream/adobo sauce (recipes to follow).  I topped off the dinner with Bush's Fiesta Black Beans & Zataran's Spanish Rice.

Marinade: 

  1/4 cup EVOO

  2 Tbsp distilled white vinegar

  2 tsp lime zest

  2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

  1.5 tsp honey

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  1/2 tsp cumin

  1/2 tsp chili powder

  1 tsp seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay (I used Emeril's Fish Rub)

  1/2 tsp ground black pepper

  1 tsp hot pepper sauce (or to taste)

  1 lb tilapia filets, cut into chunks

To make the marinade, whisk together the above ingredients until blended.  Place the tilapia in a shallow dish and pour the marinade over the fish.  Cover and refrigerate for 6-8 hours.

Here's mine....

  
 Dressing:
  1 (8 oz) container light sour cream
  1/2 cup adobo sauce from chipotle peppers
  2 tsp lime zest
  2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
  1/4 tsp cumin
  1/4 tsp chili powder
  1/2 tsp seafood seasoning
  Salt & pepper to taste

To make the dressing, combine the sour cream & adobo sauce in a bowl.  Stir in the lime juice, lime zest, cumin, chili powder, & seafood seasoning.  Add the salt & pepper.  Cover and refrigerate until needed.

Pico de Gallo:
  2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
  1/2 white onion, chopped
  1 red jalapeno chili, seeded & finely chopped (I also added a green jalapeno chili for extra heat!)
  2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
  2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Remove fish from the marinade, drain off excess and discard the remainder.  Grill fish pieces until easily flaked with a fork, turning once, about 9 minutes.  Warm tortillas over the grill for about 10-15 seconds on each side.  Assemble tacos by placing fish pieces in the center of tortillas with desired toppings.  (I layered the fish with the sauce, pico de gallo & some shredded cabbage.)  Yumm-o!!!!  I cannot wait to make it again!!  Here's the finished product...

 

Happy 4th!

Chad and I began our 4th of July by ordering an iPad online.  Yes, yes...that's right.  We finally did it!  I'm sure the fact that I often (at least once a week mentioned that "Lisa wants an iPad" had nothing to do with it.  I truly believe that Chad wants one just as much as I do.  I can't wait!  Woo hoo!!!!!

Then we headed out to the Cardinals game against the Brewers!  This was an impulse buy last weekend...but a good one!  We ended up getting half price tickets for an all-inclusive Legends suite.  All-inclusive in the Legends suites means that about 30+ people share a box that includes nachos, hot dogs, BBQ chicken & BBQ brisket...and, of course, all the fixins'.  It also includes beer, soda & water.  The food & bar tables are in an air conditioned area and the assigned seats are outside the box.  It's quite nice to be able to walk in to the A/C when we got too hot.  Here are some pics of us at the game.

The view from our seats

We met up with Ashley & her Chad towards the end of the game.  Here is Ash & I with the ultimate Cardinals' fan...The Cardinal Cowboy.  Yee-haw!

After the game we headed down to the Arch grounds to watch the air show at         Fair St. Louis.  Here are some pics...

...and the best one of all...Vicki's head!  Vicki stood up right when Chad took this pic!  It looks like the plane is going around her head!  Haha!

After the air show, we were hoping to have enough energy to wait around for a couple of hours and watch the fireworks...but that didn't happen.  Instead we came home, grabbed some grub and watched Julie & Julia.  It was a great way to spend the 4th!!