Bake-Off: Help!

So I entered a bake-off for my summer job that is happening the last week of camp. My date is Thursday, August 12th. Each day, a couple of us are bringing in some sort of baked good and getting judged on it by a few people. Not sure what the winner gets, but it sounded fun, so I signed up! What I need now are recipes for baked goods with NO NUTS! If anyone has a good recipe, please leave me the link in the comments! Thank you! :)

Vacation!

Remember months ago when I made a post about Jeff and I wanting to go on one more vacation before we hopefully get pregnant? Well, we finally made a decision a few weeks ago! We are going on a cruise! We leave August 14th from NYC (thank goodness I don't have to fly, I hate it so much) and are stopping at Port Canaveral in Florida, and two different places in the Bahamas! We will be gone for a week and my MIL and SIL are coming with us! We booked balcony rooms that aren't too far away from each other on the Norwegian Jewel, and we plan on going to the Kennedy Space Center while in Florida, and of course the beaches in the Bahamas! I am so excited to be going on a vacation where we can just relax! I'm not pregnant yet, and the way timing works out, if I'm pregnant on vacation, it would be so early that I couldn't know it yet, so I won't have to worry about morning sickness or anything like that! I'm so excited! Only three weeks till we leave! :)

New Design

The site I used to get my old Blogger background got rid of the design, so I had to pick a new one. I think it's kind of plain, and I will probably at least try to make a new header at some point, but for now, this is it :)

Weekend Recap

On Friday I was exhausted, so I took a nap and then Jeff cooked chicken francese for dinner and it was delicious.

On Saturday we went to see "Inception." I had no desire to see it, but Jeff really wanted to, so we went and I actually really enjoyed it! It was a very complex movie, a little confusing, and it gives you a lot to think about. I highly recommend it! We also had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Yesterday was my friend Juliet's wedding as well as the 2 year anniversary of Jeff proposing to me! Juliet was one of my bridesmaids and it was so nice to watch her get married to her now husband Luke. They looked so happy and she was absolutely gorgeous! The church was in my hometown and the reception was one town over, so it was pretty close to where we live. It was great to see friends from high school, and now we're planning on having dinner at Tao in NYC on Friday! Juliet and Luke left for their honeymoon in Thailand today and I cannot wait for pictures when they come back!

Me, Jeff, Sufia, (My good friend Aram's wife) Aram

Beautiful white hydrangea centerpieces and cute raspberry iced tea mix favors. They named each table after a place they've been. We were at the NYC table, which is where they first met and where Juliet lived for awhile.

Wilton High School class of 2002 celebrating at Juliet's wedding. From left to right: Amanda (also a newlywed, got married July 4th), Lauren, Marjorie, Juliet the beautiful bride, Megan, Me, Lindsay.

Weekend Recap

We had a nice weekend, but as usual, it went by way too fast!

On Friday, I went out to dinner with my friend Lauren. We went to SBC for burgers and mojitos and it was great to catch up with her!

On Saturday, we went into NYC to see "American Idiot" on Broadway. Jeff is a big Green Day fan, so these tickets were part of my wedding anniversary gift to him. He loved the show, and surprisingly, I did too! I'm not a big Green Day fan, but the show was excellent and I highly recommend it! After that, we had dinner at Chipotle, and then went to Grand Central to catch a train home, and that's when everything got interesting... We noticed that all the trains on the New Haven line were delayed. Then, we heard the announcement that there was a service problem and no trains were running on the New Haven line until further notice, so we were stuck in NYC! I was super pissed off, and we found out through our phones that 2 separate trains pulled down wires in Greenwich and screwed everything up! There were even people stuck on a train for a couple hours and no trains had been running since around 3:15. We stayed at Grand Central for about an hour, then I texted my brother Kurt and asked him if he'd pick us up at the While Plains station (we could get on a train to WP because it is on the Harlem line and not the New Haven one). He said yes, so Kurt saved us from having to sit at Grand Central pissed off all night! Kurt's reward for doing this was a piece of year old wedding cake which he said tasted great and brought back great memories from the wedding. Once we got home and Kurt left, we went to Robeks for smoothies and Old Navy, where Jeff and I bought a bunch of stuff!

Today, Kurt came back over and watched the final World Cup game with Jeff and I. I don't care about soccer at all, so I was just there to eat the cheese, crackers, chips, salsa, and guacamole that the guys were eating. Both Jeff and Kurt wanted the Netherlands to win, which we all know didn't happen, so Paul the psychic octopus was right again lol. Did any of you hear about that octopus? He's predicted the winner in a lot of games during the World Cup!

I already have a busy week ahead of me both during and after work, and my friend Juliet is getting married next Sunday! I'm so happy for her and her soon to be husband Luke!

Our 1 Year Anniversary

We had a wonderful first wedding anniversary! I cannot believe it's been a year already, it really flew by!

The first year's gifts are supposed to be paper, which we both followed. I got Jeff the book on the left and I have been filling it out since January. It's a really cute book that gives you questions and prompts to fill in about your relationship and I thought it would be an awesome anniversary gift. Jeff had a very similar thought and made me a book about our lives as a couple too! I laughed when I opened mine and told him he was getting something very similar in a few minutes, then I cried when I read it! Great minds think alike I guess! I also got tickets for us to see "American Idiot" in NYC next weekend. Jeff is a big Green Day fan and has been wanting to see the show, so I figured now would be a great time. Jeff also got me this cool paper that I plan to frame that talks about a bunch of major events that happened the year we got married (the Yanks winning the World Series is on there, yay!) and we went for a couple's massage this morning! It was so relaxing and just what I needed!

Us being silly before going for our massages.

This was right before dinner. Downtown Stamford always has series of random statues all over the place. Right now there are a bunch of dogs and cats scattered throughout downtown and this one is my favorite. It happened to be right in front of the restaurant we went to, so I had to take a picture with it! It's all mirrors and even prettier in real life!

We ate at the Capital Grille. Jeff has been with work people before, but I have not. We both loved it! The food was excellent and the service was awesome. We liked it a lot better than Morton's and I think this will become our new dinner spot for Valentine's Day (we have always done Morton's.) I think we will try a different spot for our anniversary every year.

Anniversary card from the staff.

Us at the end of our meal. We both had fillet mignon, I had parmesan truffle fries (they are as good as they sound) and Jeff had mashed potatoes. We also had wonderful bread and soup/salad. The staff also gave us complimentary champagne and chocolate cake for dessert! They were so good to us!

After letting our food digest awhile, it was time for 1 year old wedding cake! We also planned to drink champagne from our wedding flutes (a tradition Jeff's grandparents started a loooong time ago and we decided to continue on our anniversary. That's a beautiful story for another day), but decided on diet coke since we had enough champagne earlier and it made us so tired that we took a nap! The verdict on year old wedding cake- not bad! Ours was surprisingly good and I have a feeling we will be eating more of it during the week!

Yum! Yellow cake with vanilla buttercream.

Cheers to 1 year of being happily married and many more to come!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 1- year Anniversary to my amazing husband Jeff! God truly gave me my perfect match and I am so lucky that Jeff and I found each other! He is my rock, my best friend and I couldn't imagine my life without him! Love you Jeff! <3