Redfire Grill Steakhouse

Once in a while...every so often...a husband and wife need a date.  The type of date where you dress up, order whatever you want, sit for hours and just talk...you know - THAT type of date.  You've been on them, and maybe not as often as you would like, but when they happen - you leave and say wow that was a great date.  And it really was just an overall, fantastic experience.

My husband and I have always been good about making time for each other, from the very beginning of our relationship.  We would go on dates all the time.  Whether it was out to dinner, or to get water ice, or to our living room for a night of board games, or even just a walk in the park.  Quality one-on-one time together.  It's necessary for every relationship.

This past weekend, Jason and I decided that Sunday would be our night.  We wanted to go somewhere new, in the area, with great reviews.  We didn't have to look too far.  We chose Redfire Grill Steakhouse in Hockessin, Delaware.

We decided to sit outside on the patio since the weather was just perfect.  I ordered the seared scallops to start, the filet mignon as my entree, and key lime pie for dessert.  Absolutely delicious and pictured above.  Jason had the chicken tortilla soup to start, the swordfish as his entree (on special), and some sort of apple yumminess with vanilla ice cream for dessert (also on special).  The waitress was just right - not pushy, visited often enough, and knew the menu well.

Redfire is a part of the Platinum Dining Group.  The company owns four different restaurants and a market place in northern Delaware.  All of the restaurants have diverse menu options and locations.  After our experience at Redfire, I can't wait to try the others.  I think Eclipse Bistro is next on our list...

Hello SUMMER!

Happy summer!  Despite the heat wave and daily rain...I have been thoroughly enjoying myself.  So what have I been doing in no particular order?  Let me explain in way too much detail.

Kiersten's baby shower - I'll post about this later once all the pictures are edited by my cousin.  Here's a sneak peek though!  We had such a blast and it was so good to see friends and family celebrate my sister and her twin girls.

Graduate school - I finished one of my summer classes!  I still have two weeks to go with my other class.  After that?  I am taking a short, but necessary hiatus from grad school until September 3rd.  Four down...eight to go...

Visiting friends - I went to Washington DC for the night to visit some of my sorority sisters and had an absolute blast.  We went to Lauriol Plaza and indulged in some very yummy tacos.  I haven't seen them since December.  Way.too.long.

Working out - Jason and I have been trying to make an effort to work out more together.  It's been a little difficult not having a gym.  I'm still looking into joining one, just haven't found the right fit yet.  In the meantime, we'll keep ourselves content with work outs we find online (thank you Pinterest!) and DVDs that I can do in the basement.  We did this one last night.  Try it!  I was sweating...a lot.

I have a 5K coming up next Thursday (July 4th).  A bunch of my friends are making it an event and we're all doing it together.  I'm not thrilled with my time right now since I had to take time off from running though due to my...

BURN! - I got a mix of a second/third degree burn my first weekend of summer.  I was participating in a charity scavenger hunt in Philadelphia and received a lovely pipe burn on the inside of my calf from a motorcycle.  I'm on day 12 and the pain has finally subsided.  The doctor says I'll have a lovely scar and the "pink" won't go away for another year.  Awesome.

Smiling...post burn!

Reading - I love reading.  I also never get the chance to read anything by choice during the school year.  Instead I'm reading essays, articles for class, e-mails, more essays...it's exhausting.  So when summer comes around?  You can find me behind a book.  I just recently finished World War Z.  I thought it was good...but not my favorite book in the entire world.  I am also a huge science fiction fan and an even bigger zombie fan, and still - not my favorite.  I also have a feeling that it has nothing to do with the movie.  I'll still see the movie and can guarantee I won't be disappointed...Brad Pitt and zombies?  Love it. 

Being a stay.at.home.wife.and.dog.mom - and loving every minute of it.  I'm caught up on laundry, the house is clean, dinner is cooked...sometimes, I get to spend hours browsing Home Goods and TJ Maxx, and I am very well rested.  Plus I get to hang out with my little Tyger every day.  Yes, I will brag and rub it in while I can.  Life is good.

Hope you are enjoying your summer so far!

Kickball and the Italian Festival

Delaware Sports League
Jason and I just finished our second season of kickball through Delaware Sports League (DSL).  What a great season we had!  I am actually really sad to see it end because we have met some really awesome people and have enjoyed hanging out with them every Tuesday!

So how did our kickball season work?  Each Tuesday (for the past two months), we would have a kickball game.  Afterwards, we would go out for drinks and dinner to celebrate our victorious win.  DSL would coordinate with local bars and restaurants and each week a different place would have specials.  This was perfect for us.  Food and drink specials and a new location every Tuesday?  Worked great for us!

If you live in the Wilmington area, I highly recommend starting or joining a team.  It's a great way to meet people, stay active, and have fun!  For those of you not in the Wilmington area, there are two more leagues in Pike Creek and Middletown.

Here's a picture of our team at Cool Spring Park in Wilmington.

St. Anthony's Italian Festival 
Since we moved to Delaware, Jason and I have been going to the Italian Festival.  It takes place usually around the second week of June for an entire week.  There's live music, great food, a small fair, games, vendors, and tons of people.  We always have a blast each time we go!

We went this past Tuesday and Wednesday after kickball.  We won a double header on Tuesday which placed us into the quarter finals on Wednesday.  Unfortunately, we lost, but still had the opportunity to hang out with our friends at the festival for two nights.

Both Tuesday and Wednesday, Jason and I ordered dinner from La Casa Pasta.  La Casa Pasta is actually an Italian restaurant in Newark, Delaware where we had our rehearsal dinner last July.  They set up a tent and food section at the Festival and served a variety of dishes from their menu.  I'm pretty simple and ordered spaghetti and meatballs the first and second night.  Jason had spaghetti, meatballs, and raviolis the first night and mussels the second night.  Everything was delicious, as usual.

Each night we ended up in the fair portion of the festival.  Jason and I (as well as of our friends) spent countless dollars on funnel cake, cotton candy, goldfish, and carnival games.  Money well spent!

Here's a picture of our kickball team at the Italian Festival.

What a great start to the summer...

The Plate of Life

Thanksgiving is one of my all time favorite holidays.  I'll pile up my plate and eat everything...but usually one food at a time.  I'll always dive right into the cranberry sauce because that's my favorite.  Next I'll indulge in some mashed potatoes, followed by stuffing stuffed with bacon, and then I'll make my way over to the turkey.  There are some other miscellaneous foods that I'll feast upon - but it also depends on who is serving too.  My parents, Jason's mom, Jason's grandmother...they all have their own unique dishes.  After typing all this, it's starting to make my mouth water.  Like most people? - food is truly the key to my heart.  I'd rather have a bowl of macaroni and cheese than a bouquet of flowers.

Side tracked...

So back to my plate.  I was eating this weekend at a Memorial Day Weekend BBQ.  I piled up my plate and began devouring my way through, one food at a time.  It's rare for me to ever move on to the next food until I'm finished with the first.  One of the guests at the party noted my bizarre eating habits.  I pointed out that I know...and that other people notice too.  I sat in silence for a few moments thinking about how good my food was, how my eating habits are a bit strange, but also about ALL THE WORK I had to do later that evening.

I feel like my sister-in-law, Erin - she always makes these wonderful metaphors to her life.  It finally happened to me!  I realized in that moment that my life is very similar to my plate.  Weird...I know.  Let me explain.  I pile it up high - full of food.  Sometimes I take some to just be polite...sometimes I overload on the stuff I love.  Either way, I make my way through the meal one section at a time.  So basically this is my life...on a plate.

So that's been my deal lately.  I've been super busy and I've been working my way through each "item" one at a time.  Grad school, more grad school, projects, grading, lesson planning, maintaining a clean household, and spending time with my husband.  So blogging was not on the radar.  So my biggest accomplishment over the past few weeks was my grad school project.  It's funny because while I was not here blogging, I was still blogging somewhere else!  I had to create a blog on an emerging trend in technology.  I chose Virtual Assistants - aka Siri.  It was super awesome - I loved the research and how it turned out.

After I finished my project, spent time with our families, and actually got a chance to relax - my weekend was almost over.  I decided that I did not get enough time with my man so I planned a surprise date for him.  I do this on occasion...a few times a year.  I'll plan out this really cool thing for us to do.  He loves it.  And I love doing it for him...especially because he does everything for me :)

Our day date consisted of touring the Brandywine Zoo and having a picnic while we were there.  It was fantastic.  It's definitely a smaller zoo, which was great.  Much more affordable than city zoos.  I wasn't in the mood for a 4-hour adventure either.  The crowd was small, the animals were awesome, and the location was ideal.  I can't wait to take our kids there in the future...

Here are a few pictures from our day.  The capybara (top left) was our favorite!

A small wonder of Delaware - the Brandywine Zoo

I hope you had a wonderful 3 day weekend!

A Big Step for Delaware

Yesterday was a big day for Delaware.

It became the 11th state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Here's an article worth reading.

Here's a video worth watching.

Here's a man worth following.

I love everything about this.

Busy Bee

Let's catch up.  We've been busy over here!

#1.  Home Sweet Home!  We moved into our new house over a week ago!  I can't believe it's already been that long.  Time is flying by... but everything is coming along so well.  Jason installed the stair runner this weekend.  It looks great and he did it all by himself.  Such a handyman.  So why did we install a stair runner?  Well, I like to wear socks and I found it rather slippery going up and down the stairs, especially when I carry the laundry.  But let's be real.  The real reason we installed it?  So our dog can safely move between floors without slipping.  Yes...our dog.

Some bigger projects that we are looking forward to this summer?  We plan on installing a fence this month.  Then hopefully by the end of the summer, we'll work on our wall in the kitchen.  We want to install a window/bar/countertop thing-y.  Not sure what to call it, but all I know is that it will be fabulous.
 
#2.  Date Night!  Jason and I had our first date night since the move on Friday.  We needed a night to just sit, enjoy a meal, and catch up.  We went to La Tolteca - a little Mexican restaurant (for sure, a Small Wonder).  I absolutely love Mexican cuisine and was in the mood since we are approaching Cinco de Mayo this weekend.  Our experience was great.  From the moment we walked in, we were immediately impressed with the decor.  All of the walls and the booths has hand painted murals.  The lighting was dim and set the tone for our evening.  We were also in love with the food.  Jason had burritos and I have a taco salad.  I'm a sucker for the tortilla bowl.  And the drinks were delicious - we went with frozen strawberry margaritas.  The location is also super convenient to home...we can walk there!  We're looking forward to going back this summer...or this week...either one.

#3.  Broad Street Run... This Sunday was the Broad Street Run.  I was so looking forward to running 10 miles down the center of Philadelphia at 8:30 am on a Sunday.  Honestly...I was.  I love training for races - it gets me motivated to actually go outside and do something instead of just watching Lifetime movies.  So when I realized about 3-4 weeks ago that I wouldn't be able to?  I was devastated.  I sprained my ankle back in the November which landed me on crutches for awhile.  A few months passed and I still didn't feel right.  I would find people asking me if I hurt myself because they would notice me limping after running, long walks, or even standing for awhile.  Regardless...I didn't let it heal long enough.  And in the end?  I couldn't run Broad Street.

So while I'm on a short but necessary hiatus from running, my husband is on the opposite end of the spectrum.  He did run Broad Street.  AND he finished 10 miles in 68 minutes.  Impressed?  You should be!  I'll brag for him.  His pace was 6:49 per mile, which is just amazing.  My man can run...and he can run fast.  I love him dearly and couldn't be more proud of him.  I'm sad we couldn't do it together this year, but I'm looking forward to our next race together. 

#4.  The Tomson Twins.  I saved the best for last.  My sister and brother-in-law are having twins!  AND last week, they found out that they are having twin girls.  My heart is literally bursting with excitement.  I was secretly hoping the whole time that she was having same sex twins, but specifically girls.  I see the relationship I have with my sister.  It's something I can't describe or put into words, but it truly is special.  I'm so happy that the Tomson girls will always have each other.  I can't wait for September to get here so I can meet these little babies!

Slowly but surely...

The house is officially ours!  And we've been non-stop ever since.  And when I say non-stop?  I mean it!  Every.single.night.  I love all the progress we have already made into making the house our home...but I'm going to complain a little bit.  This is exhausting!  My eyes burn when I close them for more than two seconds which makes me not want to open them back up.  I couldn't even put my contacts in this morning!  It was a "glasses, hair in a bun, no make-up" kind of day, which seems more and more frequent as the school year progresses.

But today...I lost it - all of my motivation went out the window.  I had full intentions to do a lot tonight.  That quickly changed because of my Keurig.  See, I have a minor obsession with coffee that has slowly developed over the past year...year and a half.  Every day after work, I have a cup of coffee, catch up on all my favorited tabs on the web, and then do some work.  But today...the move threw a kink in my plans.  My Keurig is at the new house.  All of my coffee mugs and Keurig cups are at the apartment.  I quickly ran to Dunks and got my fix, but it was too late.  My plan to finish packing up the kitchen, fold laundry, clean the bathroom, etc. - gone.  I'm tired - even with the coffee!  So instead?  I came home, sat in bed, and watched re-runs of Friends.

And I'm OK with that.  Everything that needs to get done will get done.  Sometimes I just need to take a breather and often times I forget to do so.

So tonight I'm slowing down.  Relaxing.  Doing nothing.

Tomorrow?  I'm moving over all of my mugs and K-cups to the new house.