Friday, September 13, 2013

Mediterranean Cucumber Salad.

As I was walking through the grocery store today, I noticed some yummy looking cucumbers calling my name. I have a hard time getting my husband to eat vegetables, so when I come across some that he actually likes I have to take advantage and buy them. He loves cucumbers and so I decided to throw together a yummy salad for our lunch today!
 
It's probably one of the last "summer" recipes that I'll come up with this year since it's about to be fall (even though it seems no where close to feeling like it in Florida) so I hope you guys try it and enjoy!
 
Ingredients
2-3 Cucumbers
1 medium onion
1 large tomato
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. parsley flakes
1 tsp. paprika
salt
pepper
 
Peel and slice cucumbers. Chop the onion and tomato. Add ingredients in a large bowl and stir in a few squeezes of lemon juice, the parsley flakes, paprika and a few dashes of salt and pepper.
Mix until evenly distributed and serve!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

TBT - One year (dating) anniversary.

Nick and I started dating in November 2008, so when our one year anniversary rolled around in 2009, we headed down to Ft. Lauderdale for a nice weekend just the two of us.
The company I work at has hotels in the area so we ended up getting a beautiful room with an amazing view right on the beach.
This weekend consisted of a lot of lounging around on the beach, soaking in the sun. One of the nights we ate at the hotel's restaurant for a nice dinner to celebrate our relationship.
The pianist congratulated "Mr. and Mrs. Lombardi" on our one year anniversary (assuming it was our wedding anniversary I guess) and played a song for us. It was funny that he thought we were married and I remember really liking the sound of being called Mrs. Lombardi. ;)
It was a beautiful weekend to spend one on one time together and celebrate our growing relationship. 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Barb's Birthday Part Two.

If you missed the first to posts related to this weekend you can catch up by clicking on the links below.
 
 
Nick, his sisters and his dad put together a beautiful presentation called “Sixty Facts with Flowers of Yellow for Your Years of Giving”. They purchased sixty yellow carnations and each answered a series of questions and stories relating to Barb. After each one was read, one of Barb’s grandsons would go and put a single carnation into a vase. By the end we got to learn a lot more about Barb and she had a beautiful bouquet of sixty yellow carnations.
After that she opened her cards and her final gift from us.
It is a pin with the birthstones of her children and grandchildren. I just love this idea, it is so unique!
Once the cards were read and Barb opened her gift, the rest of the night consisted of devouring yummy cake, with a lot of conversation, laughing and just enjoying each other’s company.
I am so happy with how perfect Barb’s birthday turned out and I am even more thankful that we were able to be there to celebrate with her. She is such an incredible woman and we are all very lucky to have her in our lives.
 
Happy Birthday Barb!


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Barb's Birthday.

We pulled into the garage after celebrating a friends marriage, got out of the car and walked into the house. Barb was the first one through the door and to her surprise she walked straight into a beautiful birthday cake and decorations.
Once we all settled inside, we told her we would be leaving within the hour to go out to dinner. When 5:00 p.m. came around, there was a knock at the door, Barb answered it and there was a chauffeur ready to pick us up and take us to the restaurant. We all piled into the party bus, popped the champagne, turned up the music and headed to Mount Pleasant.
We had a reservation at Camille’s on the River in their private dining room.
There was a screen and projector set up to display a picture and music slideshow highlighting Barb’s life and family from her childhood to now.
Dinner was a blast and the food was delicious! Once we were done, we hopped back into the party bus and headed back to the house.
To be continued (again!)…

Monday, September 9, 2013

Our Weekend in Michigan.

Thursday, Nick and I flew to Michigan for a very eventful weekend! While waiting at the Orlando airport Nick spotted Lee Corso at our terminal. He was on the same flight as us to Detroit. He was going to Ann Arbor for College Game Day at Michigan - GO BLUE!  Once we landed, Nick got to say hi and I snapped a picture of them together. It was pretty cool for Nick to get to meet him!
 Thursday evening was spent with his parents, catching up with each other, playing euchre and munching on pizza. Friday morning was nice and relaxing too; we just lounged around the house until the afternoon and then Nick and I went for a drive through town and out into the country.
I seriously am in awe when we drive around Michigan. It is so beautiful in every way. I can't wait until views like this are in my backyard.
 
 When we got back to the house I spotted a cute little humming bird eating off of the feeder and decided to try to snap a few pictures of him. I actually got some decent ones (thanks to my camera’s major zoom function)!
Later that afternoon, we all got ready and headed to Eaton Rapids for my nephews football game. He is a senior in high school this year and we were very excited to go to one of his games and cheer on the Mason Bulldogs!
It turned out to be a great game (Mason won!) and the weather was just beautiful!
The next afternoon Nick, his parents and I went to our friend Troy’s wedding celebration. He had a small destination wedding earlier this year and had this “reception” to celebrate with more friends and family.

It was so nice to catch up with all of our friends that we hadn’t seen since Memorial Weekend and it also made for a good excuse to get Barb out of the house; you see, Saturday was a big birthday for her and we all planned to try our best to make it as special as possible! So while we were out, Nick’s sisters, brother in laws, niece and nephews worked on decorating the house for what was planned to be a fun surprise birthday party!
 
To be continued…

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

I'm Back.

Nick was off of school for August so after my last post I decided to take a little break from the blog and spend the evenings and weekends with him before he had to go back to school. I am so glad that I did that because we really got to spend quality time together and do some work on the house. We’ve started painting the inside and so far we have done the guest bedroom, guest bathroom, the office and our room. I am so excited to have color on our walls instead of white everywhere! It is really coming together and I can’t wait to work on the rest of the house.
I don't have a picture of our room completed but I do have these in progress pictures.
Even though I got to spend a lot of time with my husband the past couple of weeks, I truly missed the blog and I have some exciting things to tell you guys about! I had my sixth riding lesson on Saturday, August 17th and it went wonderfully!
I was pretty excited to go to this particular lesson because I had some news for Mandi that I just couldn’t wait to tell. Nick and I talked and decided that we would be able to find the means for me to start leasing Beau in September and showing in 2014! I am beyond excited to be able to ride more and start competing. I never thought that I would be able to get back in the show ring and this will be my only opportunity before we move to Michigan and start a family. I intend to take full advantage and cherish every moment I get to be out at the barn, riding and showing.

With my lease, I will ride Beau four extra days a month (besides my two lessons) which will have me going out to the barn six times a month! So, I hope you are all ready for a lot more horse related posts in the near future. I already had my seventh lesson last Sunday and finally got to do some more jumping! We actually ended up jumping 2’6”, which I haven’t done in years; Beau was a gem! He has been so good for me my past few lessons that I look even more forward to the next time I get to ride him.
Besides painting and riding; we have been preparing for fall and the upcoming football season. Fall is by far my favorite time of year and it was so fun to start it out with a great Michigan game on Saturday followed by three fantasy football drafts this weekend. I just love the feel of fall and can’t wait for the weather to cool down and start cooking some pumpkin recipes!
Thursday we leave for a short trip to Michigan to visit family so I probably won’t be back here until Monday to recap but I am going to try to at least write a Throwback Thursday post beforehand and have it auto-post Thursday morning. I hope you all enjoyed your three day weekend and are having a great start to this short work week.