Happy Birthday to Me!

I've skipped all over the place with my last few posts! This isn't hop, skip and jump class kids, its a blog and it needs order (okay maybe not but it doesn't hurt to try). 

Welp, the birthday has come and gone and I'm 22. Now, I've never had a problem with birthdays, never felt any "different" on my birthday but BAM! 22 hits and I felt old. No clue why. Maybe Freud would have some answers but as for me, I just know I felt old. At least I could count on my best friend to cheer me up! We decided to meet up in Tannersville and hit the outlets for some retail therapy, Indian cuisine and  alcohol to help cheer me up. Angela knows me so well! I have been dying to go to a winery since I hit 21 but have yet to make it. Well Ang was able to find this small winery near the outlets for us to check out and get our girl chat on. We got a wine glass, 6 samples (although we shared so more like 12 samples), and the equivalent of about three glasses of wine for $3. Can you believe it!? Maybe 22 isn't so bad after all ;)

Wedding Season: Part I

Reunited and it feels so good!! Blog world, meet my best friend Angela. She is the peanut butter to my jelly, the icing to my cupcake, the martini to my drunken night on the beach...wait what? Looks like I got a little carried away! Anywho, she is the greatest! Unfortunetly, she lives in New Jersey while I live in Maryland and the distance takes its toll. It had been months since I'd seen the love of my life this girl and I was so excited to get to spend a weekend with her. And not just any weekend, but a weekend celebrating an amazing woman's wedding. She was a stunning bride! And her two step-sons? Couldn't be any cuter (they were eating plants at the reception...). It was a touching ceremony and a heart filled reception. Angela and I tried to make the  best of the limited dancing (she dancing alone on the dance floor at times) and we definitely strategically attacked the cheesecake dessert bar. Wedding #1 this season? Check!

And since the wedding was over by 5pm, we obviously had to continue the celebration in honor of Megan. So we decided to migrate to a local microbrewery and enjoy their fine beer samplers and AMAZING food. While I'm not a huge fan of beer, I did enjoy sampling all the microbrewery had to offer. 

Birthday Dinner

So Boyfriend was super sweet and made me dinner on my birthday this year. He only makes microwavable items NEVER cooks, so you can imagine how nervous I was when he was going to be making me a birthday meal. But holy heck! It was so good! He made this maple, pineapple, jalapeno salmon with rice. The salmon was cooked perfectly and it took everything in me not to lick the plate. I was so proud of my little chef and really soaked up the moment seeing as i'm 97.5% sure its never happening again. 

**Dessert didn't come out as well as he'd hoped, but I appreciated the effort and we still made it work. 

Cookbook: Cinnamon Bun Pancakes

Mikes favorite food is pancakes. So when I Stumbled upon this recipe, I could not pass it up. Since I was up at Mike's, I didn't want to buy all the extra ingredients to make homemade pancakes just to have them go to waste so I opted for boxed mix instead. Other than that, the recipe was super duper easy. After some trial-and-error I was able to master the correct consistency for the cinnamon swirl mixture. Mike was a happy camper and ate two helpings of these suckers! I'd say they will be making an appearance again at the dinner table. 

If you try it for yourself, let me know what you think!

Book Review: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Man! I've been waayyy behind on my reading these days. Normally I'm busting out a book every week or every couple of weeks. Guess that's what happens when your working, living half your week out of a suitcase and dealing with screwy sleep schedules that have you acting like a 4-year-old without a nap (we're talking whiny, temperamental and emotional here people. Not my proudest moments). Oh the joys of post-graduation! But I finally finished Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and while I didn't find it the most captivating of novels, I did enjoy its sweet message and lighthearted nature. It was an easy-read kind of novel that chronicles the transitional phase of a young girl after her bipolar mother passes away and she uproots her life in Ohio to live with her great aunt in Georgia. 

Have any of you read it? What were your thoughts?

In My Opinion:

Two Face

Holy behind on posts batman! 

Well, it seems I'm just now writing about carving pumpkins. What with it being November already, I say why not! So after Roba's Mike and I dug in, pulled out pumpkin guts and carved up our "two-face" pumpkin. Lets just say we won't be turning pumpkin carving into a profession anytime soon, but it was still a fun Halloween past-time. 

{Being a man, wielding a knife}

{Pulling pumpkin guts? Ain't no thang but a chicken wang!}

{Look at that focus people!}

{Why hello Mr. poorly executed Batman character manifested in a pumpkin.}

Happy Be-lated Halloween!

Lost Amid the Corn

ATTENTION ON THE FARM!!

I FINALLY got to go to a corn maze for my birthday weekend. I was p.u.m.p, PUMPED! I waited all day for Mike to get off work, we layered on the clothes, hopped in the car and headed up to Scranton to Roba's Tree Farm. We took the hay ride (minus the hay) up to the corn maze only to reach the entrance and hear: "Attention on the farm, we are currently out of electricity and will be closing at 6:30p. Please make your way to the exits.". It was 6:00p and I was pissed! We paid $11 bucks each for this shindig only to be told we can't do it?! So we made our way over to the pumpkins. I had my pout face on full force, Mike was feeling terrible that once again our plans were fumbled and we were dishearteningly picking out a pumpkin and making our way to the check out. Then, as quickly as the terrible news came, the loudspeaker boomed again and "Attention on the farm! We now have electricity and you can carry on enjoying the activities" filled our ears. I was once again excited. Dear Roba Farms: please don't toy with my emotions. Pleaseandthankyou, Amber.

Post-loudspeaker announcement but pre-corn maze frustration.

Baby lambs fooling around. Sooo precious!

Pumpkin picking!

Ready to get this show on the road!

1 puzzle piece down! 9 to go!

The perpetually taunting ghost that seems to pop up in times of extreme frustration.

Pumpkin and caramel apple (half eaten)? Check!

Turns out our corn maze adventure wasn't as much fun as I'd built it up in my head. We ended up cheating our way out an hour into it. We had only found one puzzle piece, were covered in mud and trapped in a pitch black maze on a freezing night. Turns out we should have taken the rescue flag in the beginning. Damn our corn maze cockiness! 

**Pumpkin carving post to come.