Turning 27

I was sort of indifferent about my birthday this year.  I don't mean to be a party pooper, but there isn't anything special about turning 27... it actually just makes me realize I'm that much closer to 30.  And while turning 30 isn't a bad thing, it just seems like there are so many things I should accomplish by then and time is  flying by.

In light of my recent birthday and this reality, I went ahead and updated my 30 Before 30 and was able to cross some things off the list.  Feel free to help me prioritize what's left.

1. Take a pottery class  this is still a hope

2. Spend a weekend in the Big Apple  maybe this winter?

3. Read the whole Bible

4. Become a dog owner 

5. Move with Jake to a new place for both of us  does our new house count?

6. Host and cook a holiday meal for family

7. Travel to another country  we went to Haiti last July

8. Try my hand at cycling or a spin class, maybe form a hobby

9. Go on a mission trip

10. Visit a castle

11. Visit a vineyard on the west coast 

12. Become very involved with or work for a charity/non-profit  I am trying to continue supporting St. Vincent's through the Red Thread Promise

13. Run more than one half marathon in a single year 

14. Take a spontaneous trip (less than a week's notice)

15. Keep reading... I'd like to average reading a book a month, which equals roughly 64 new books by my 30th birthday 

16. Discover my signature dish and perfect it  my veggie lasagna is pretty good

17. Confidently wear a bikini... in public, not just at the pool

18. Take a "girls only" trip

19. Buy a piece of art (not necessarily anything fancy, but a piece I love and appreciate) 

20. Pay off more than 50% of our school loans

21. Be more proficient on a Mac than a PC  a newer Mac would help

22. Become more versed in Adobe Creative Suite

23. Swim with dolphins

24. Take a professional quality photograph; I want people to assume I bought it

25. See/meet someone famous

26. Revamp an old piece of furniture  I've finished a few pieces 

27. Throw/Attend a baby shower for either Alison or Dani (I'm ready to be an aunt)

28. Talk about/start trying for kids

29. Learn to ski or snowboard

30. Buy a house  we are still getting used to this fact ourselves

I'm back

I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post.   Our move and traveling for work hasn't helped much, but it feels like things are starting to slow down you may actually hear from me more often.  Here is a bit of the things that have been in happening in my corner of the world.

-We bought our first home!  It took less time than we planned to get things moved over and we are unpacked in all of the common spaces.  I still don't feel comfortable navigating my way through the kitchen, but at least we have enough space for everything and my roaster doesn't need to be stored in the linen closet.
-I went to Cancun and Orlando for work.  I love to travel and Cancun was really nice, but being away while we were still in the process of getting settled was stressful.
-I turned 27!!!  More to come on what that means in regards to my 30 Before 30.
-Jake and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary!

our moving announcement

cookie dough cupcakes for my birthday from Jenn Cakes-A-Lot

4 Day Challenge

Jake’s Birthday is coming up so I decided to enter into a four day challenge of cooking homemade, new recipes for dinner each day this week up through his birthday.  This is my gift to him since last year I did the same thing but just for his actual bday.  Since this year he made the same request, I thought I needed to up the ante just a little bit to make it better than the last.  This may or may not be a very difficult thing to do since I rarely make elaborate (using the term lightly) dinners and traditionally save experimental recipes for baking.  Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Regardless, the cat is out of the bag since I told him already that this was his gift starting Monday.  Eek!  The week’s lineup is:

Shrimp, Tomato, & Avocado Pizza

Panko Crusted Chicken Stuffed with Ricotta, Spinach, Tomatoes, & Basil

Scallop Tacos

Avocado Chicken Parmigiana

Stay tuned to see how things turn out!

Today Jake turns 26 and I think I’m more excited than he is! 

photo by Howard Chen [HOWE CAPTIVATE]

A lot of people say that on their birthday they feel exactly the same as they did the day before, and I agree- but if you take that a step further and compare how you felt on your birthday the year before compared to now, hopefully its different... and hopefully it's because something has improved.   I was thinking about all the things that have happened with Jake since March 22nd, 2010 and I think it's a lot!

-He got his Cannondale cycle in April (aka Carmen, his baby)
-Graduated with his Doctorate of Physical Therapy in May
-Started his first job with Sentara in June
-We got our dog, Tank, in July
-He started a small business with another therapist in September
-We celebrated our 1 year anniversary in October
-Picked out our fresh Christmas tree together in December (this was a first for both of us; I'd always gotten a tree from NC and never with him and I don't think he'd ever picked out a real tree period)
-He “Retired” the terminator for a new Tacoma & spent two and half weeks in Haiti working on amputees through Physicians for Peace in February

Of course this isn’t nearly everything, but I’m sure when Jake really thinks about everything from the past year he will feel different (and hopefully in a good way).

Now as far as his birthday celebration goes, it’s sort of tricky because we are both part of a bible study on Tuesday nights and the guys' study is actually at our house!  With that in mind, we preemptively celebrated on Sunday with Alison and Will at Zushi in Town Center and splurged with dessert at Confetti!  Tonight my plan is to get off work early and cook dinner for him.  And trust me when I tell you that the act of cooking in and of itself is a great gift.  Not to mention the recipe has both multiple ingredients and steps, which will hopefully impress him as well!

Tonight’s menu is (don’t worry he won’t read this before then):

Cayenne-Rubbed Chicken with Avocado Salsa 

and Tomatoes Stuffed with Grilled-Corn Salad from Martha Stewart’s Food Everyday

I’ve actually told Jake that I made plans for us right after work and will text him the address right before he gets off to keep the surprise.  Of course, he assumed this meant eating out and started to complain that we’d already done the whole celebration charade on Sunday and he isn’t sure that we’ll have time to go out.  I reminded him that I’m a planner and I’d already taken all of those things into consideration before making the plans, so for him to trust me.  I promised he’d be home in plenty of time for the his bible study.. and I plan on keeping that promise.

He should be getting said text with our address any minute and I'm sure he'll call right away to see what I'm up to.  Hopefully, dinner will be timed perfectly for his arrival and the house may even be cleaned too (fingers crossed)!

Oh, and if dinner ends up looking like the above I may share some pictures with you, but based on my past experiences it probably won't so don't hold your breath!

Update:
Dinner was a hit and he of course appreciated the gesture!  Below is how it turned out... not to shabby if I say so myself.

Quarter of a Century

Yes folks, today marks my 25th Birthday. 

I think after a person turns 21 the "big" birthdays get fewer and farther between.  Honestly, 25 is really not an important age but its the equivalent to a quarter of a century, which apparently makes it special.  Regardless, I enjoyed my day and the people who made it a big deal!

I started the day with church and then headed to Cheesecake Factory for lunch with my family.  My Mom was awesome and took care of coordinating everything, including my birthday balloon at the table (which I happened to love).  After lunch we went to a nail salon and got spa mani/pedis while watching The Blind Side... it was so awesome!  Before I knew it, my Dad was there ready to go out to dinner (to yet another one of my favorite places).   So much for my "diet"...

Thanks to everyone for your phone calls, text messages, and cards!!!  I had such a great day and feel so blessed!  

sweet relief

Phew! My good friend Meredith's birthday was yesterday and I am relieved to say that she loved my gift. My relief may seem trivial to some, but I consider gift giving to be one of my love languages (except when it comes to Jake) and so the recipient's reaction is important to me... not to mention, I find Mere to be an extremely easy person to shop for! However, this year presented a unique obstacle, as she happens to be right in the middle of packing for a BIG move to St. Louis and it isn't the best time for acquiring trinkets, etc. This meant I had to make sure whatever I bought for her wouldn't be a nuisance to pack or move.

What did I get???

I ended up going with a variety pack of blank note cards (for keeping in touch) and the novel, Twilight. Before you judge me about the book, let me explain...

When I started reading the Twilight series Meredith mentioned that she was considering reading the books but was going back and forth about it. She told me that her hairdresser raved about them, but then later shared she was unhappy with how the series ended. This made Mere unsure whether or not she should read them at all. So truth be told, I wasn't forcing my love of the series on her out of nowhere- I just gave her the final push she needed to get started. Honestly, I thought a longer book was the perfect gift; she is about to move and have the summer off, affording her lots of free time. I figured if she ends up wanting to read the entire series she will have something to pass the time.

Also, please let the record show I checked with our friend Stacy before making this purchase. I knew everyone's first conclusion would be that I let the Twihard in me take things too far.

bad wife

This past Monday was Jake's birthday and I didn't blog about it. The thing is, I actually thought about it and decided not to (how awful am I???). I've been feeling really bad about this because it should be a blogworthy topic (or so you would think), but honestly this year I couldn't wait for his birthday weekend and day (now extended to week) to be over!

You may be thinking I am a terrible wife or worse, a birthday hater- but I'm not, I promise! That's the crazy thing, I actually LOVE celebrating birthdays. As a matter of fact, until this year I've gone above and beyond in effort to make Jake excited for his BIG day. But slowly Jake has begun ruining these annual moments for me. I mean Christmas was bad enough, but now he took my birthday joy...it's really a shame.

This year, I talked well in advance about having friends get together to go indoor karting or do the new Hanger 09 flight simulation he'd been talking about. Of course, he nixed that idea as soon as he saw the price. So then I moved on to to suggesting a group dinner, something low key... but that earned another thumbs down from the bday boy. So to be honest, I gave up. I decided that if he didn't want to outwardly celebrate, I'd make him at least acknowledge it at home, but that was it. I set out on Saturday to get his gifts- one thing expected (an electric razor) and one surprise (a cycling jersey).

To MY surprise, he came home on Saturday extremely pumped about the cycling jersey he found on sale at Contes...is this a joke??? The one thing I splurged on because I knew he wouldn't expect it was the one thing he'd come home having bought for himself! Unbelievable. I proceeded to tell him that I had purchased something along those lines for his birthday had he waited two more days. He then asked to see what I bought and after looking at it said, "I like the one I got, you should take that back." Kill me now. The upsetting part is that I consider gift giving to be one of my love languages. So that being said, how is that I screw up every gift I get him??? Its tragic.

So, as you can imagine at this point I was done- completely defeated and not excited for his birthday, which was still 2 days away! The morning of his birthday I mustered up all the energy and smiles I could as I gave him his electric razor (anticipated by him already, I'm sure) and card. Then, I patiently waited for him to go to work and finally felt a sense of relief...his bday was half way over.

Diet...who's dieting?

The McCrowell household is on a diet. It's awful. Let me tell you how we got here...

During the last week of February Jake told me that starting March 1st we were going on a diet. Naturally, I asked why and he plainly told me he wanted to lose 10lbs. Yes folks, thats what he said. Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? If you're reading my blog you most likely know me and as a result know Jake- he doesn't need to lose any weight at all, N O N E!!! So, being a girl with some insecurities I assumed he created this diet for my benefit. I mean thats the only possible explanation, right? I asked him if he thought I needed to lose weight, I mean there are better ways to tell me then blindsiding me with a diet plan and giving my less than 7 days to enjoy all my favorite foods! Without skipping a beat he answers no (smart move on his part) that he races better at 195lbs and he has a race coming up- it was as simple as that (guys aren't complicated like girls, but thats a whole other post). I have to admit, I felt a bit of relief upon hearing this earnest confession and then rage when I comprehended what it meant. Did this mean no treats...at all? This couldn't be happening, but it was and still is.

How am I holding up? Fine. Sneaking my treats has been a challenge but all in all I'm doing ok. We have been eating this salad, rice, and chicken meal (not every day) which is actually good and we just don't keep treats in the house. Jake has additionally tried to reduce his peanut butter intake and I think is slowly cutting out his evening snack, usually 1-2 apples with each slice covered in peanut butter (surprised?).

Honestly, this is actually a good month for this to take place because March is full of birthdays...and with birthdays comes cake, and with that comes no judgement because Jake usually isn't there! Besides, even if he was, who wants to be a party pooper? Not me and definitely not Jake, it goes against his nature!

Can you feel the love?

Today was my mom's birthday and to celebrate we did the traditional cake, ice cream, and presents at the house...you're never too old for birthday presents! As expected, my sister and brother-in-law were in attendance, but surprisingly Jake was there as well. As a side note, Jake is earning quite the reputation for being absent from family events since we got married. I'm not actually sure how he manages to get out of it each time, but regardless I find myself flying solo and explaining again and again that he isn't there because he's off doing whatever.

Now, when both Dani and Jake are in the same place at the same time, it's only a matter of minutes before the sarcasm and sly insults spill out. To Dani's defense, she is always sarcastic-it's just her sense of humor, but for Jake there really is no excuse. It's all in good fun, but tonight it got just a smidge physical! I don't know what happened but through the banter I asked politely to get a picture of the two of them together for purposes of my blog. When I finally got the camera up and running (apparently this is a struggle of mine) I looked through the lens to see them "playfully" fighting. Next thing I know, Dani is all red and pointing to her mangled wrist...still no explanation on this from Jake. Then after a few seconds of peace they decide to try posing for the camera again- after another failed attempt, Jake walked away a little sore and protective of his man parts. There is no blow to low for my sister!

What's the worst part about all of this? I didn't even get a picture!

As a side side note, when Jake asked me what I was blogging about and I told him, his response was, "Are you blogging about that your sister is an ass?" Can you feel the love?