Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Anniversary Week

As you all know, Derek and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on Thursday of last week. Four wonderful years of marriage. :) To celebrate we took a trip to our favorite restaurant. Shogun!! We took the little man with us this year because we thought he would love it. He totally did!
 He ate SO much and loved when the cook make a little volcano. He didn't like the really big flame at the very beginning  but he warmed up to the idea once there wasn't a 5 foot high flame in his face haha.

Friday, Derek and I took a half day at work and headed to St Louis for more celebration. Derek had an infected tooth that was hurting him so he did this for the entire car ride up there.
Once we got to Harrah's we went and got a drink and some awesome shrimp at a restaurant called Sammy's (Sammy Hagar). It was happy hour so everything was half price! Score!
There were only like 5 pieces of shrimp but they were SO good!
Derek's Dad and Step-Mom Lisa let us stay in the suite. The jacuzzi was amazing. We got in it both nights we stayed there.
The bed was super comfortable too. It was HUGE compared to our bed at home. (Notice my cute new shoes?)
Derek being himself in front of the mini bar.
More of Derek being Derek in our "Living Room" as he called it. Haha.
Friday night we ate at a fancy Italian restaurant in the hotel called Charlie Gitto's. It was really good!
Derek had his first dirty martini ever. It smelled and tasted horrible but he drink the whole thing.
We got a crab cake too. It was delicious! The only down side is that it was $12 for only 1!!
Derek's meal looked SO pretty with the cheesy garnish on it.
Mine was not so pretty.
  After dinner we went and played the slot machines. Penny slots of course.
Derek started with $5 and got all the way up to $20 so we cashed out and got pretzels.
Here was the front of Charlie Gitto's.  It was so strange because when you were in the casino if felt like day time even though it was like 10 or 11 at night. The ceiling was painted to look like the sky and it's REALLY bright.
The front of Sammy's. That was probably our favorite place to go. They have awesome sweet potato fries.
Derek was in love with the pretzel place in the hotel. We went there twice.
It was only 10:07 and we were already ready to go to bed. We are such old people.
Saturday morning. We got to see Little Man. He stayed with Dale and Lisa at the hotel too and he came and ate breakfast with us that morning. It was such a treat to get to see him for a little bit.
Derek looking dapper as always.
Saturday we went to the mall and shopped around. We also met up with one of Derek's friends that we met at a concert and hung out with them at the mall for a few hours before we went and ate dinner.

Derek and I ate dinner at The Melting Pot. All I can say is OH MY GOSH! This place was heaven!
I ate SO much! I even had to unbutton my pants. That's pretty sad.
We started out with bread, veggies and apples to dip in cheddar cheese then we had salads. (Derek had a regular salad and I got a fruit salad.) Then it was on to the main dish. We got steak, chicken and shrimp.
We were stuck back in the corner in this tiny little booth. It was kind of sweet to get to sit so close to Derek.

The stew that we boiled the meat in was delish! It was a citrusy mix that made the steak and chicken taste SO good. The meat was super tender too which was perfect for Derek and his achy tooth. 
For dessert we got the mix called Banana's Foster. It was really good but really rich. It was white chocolate, caramel, and bananas. They set it on fire and sprinkled cinnamon on it to make it sparkle. It was really cool.
Here was the dessert tray with all of the yummy treats on it (minus the bananas that we had already inhaled).  It took everything in me to not eat the whole plate. I didn't want to make myself sick.  
 Sunday morning we woke up early and headed down to the cafe to get a bite to eat. I got a muffin and some apple juice and Derek stuck with water because his tooth was so bad by that point it was strictly liquids. There was a gentleman in front of me that had been in the casino all night and asked if I would like a truffle. I said yes of course because I thought he was talking about the chocolate ones that were in the window next to the mint chocolate, and the bacon lovers truffle. Which one did he buy me? The bacon lovers one. He got on for himself too. (side note: it was 8:30 in the morning and this man still had an alcoholic beverage in his hand. This is how drunk he was) I took a bite of the shell and it was heaven. The best milk chocolate you could ask for. The next bite was not so pleasant. I hit the bacony center and it was like someone had poured liquid smoke into this wonderful chocolate and served it to me. It was HORRIBLE! I spit it out and was so disappointed that someone would ruin chocolate like that. It should be a crime to put bacon in something so wonderful as chocolate.  I said thank you to the guy and threw the rest of it away once he was gone.

We had a wonderful weekend spending out Anniversary weekend together. It would have been better if Derek hadn't had been in so much pain but we made the best of it like we always do. As far as Derek's tooth? That's why I wasn't able to blog yesterday. We went to the Dr and he had one tooth on top pulled out and the one on bottom cut out. He was in a lot of pain but he is such a trooper. He is even at work today! I am so proud of him for being so strong.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Would you have eaten the Bacon Truffle?

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Happy Anniversay

Today I have been married for 4 wonderful years.

There have been ups and downs but most of all there has been lots and lots of love and good times.

I am so thankful to have such a great husband. He puts up with me everyday and loves me even though I am by far the biggest pain in the butt I know. He loves our son more and more everyday and he is such a good daddy to our little boy.

Dear Derek,

Thank you for being there when I have needed you the most and loving me when I was at my very worst. Thank you for loving me unconditionally and no matter how bad our arguments are telling me you love me even if we're still mad at each other. Sometimes it's really hard for me to say it back.
 Thank you for letting me get the ugliest cat I could find and loving him just as much as I do. Thank you for cleaning out his litter box for me too because I would vomit in it if I had to do it myself.
 Thank you for being the best daddy a little boy could ask for. Thank you for taking care of Stratton when I work late or when I go to school to work on homework.  I'm so lucky to have a husband that would stay at home with my kid while I try to finish school.
 Thank you for doing things with me that we both love. I'm so glad that going to concerts is something we can do together. Even if you do look like a cuter younger version of the singer of Down. ;)
 Thank you for doing even the things you think are ridiculous. Like painting the nails on my right hand because when I do it, it looks like there was an earthquake while I was painting.
 Thank you for taking care of cleaning the house when I can't. Even though sometimes you make a bigger mess that what was already there.
 Thank you for helping me make a beautiful family.
 Thank you for being a goof ball at all the right moments.
 Thank you for helping me make many many family memories...
 Thank you for always knowing how to make me laugh.
 and thank you for not cutting your thumb completely off.


I love you so much honey. You are the butter to my bread. The mac to my cheese. The ink to my pen. I am the luckiest girl in the world and I thank God everyday that I have you.

Happy Anniversary...hope there are many many more to come!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Does it Work Wednesday

Today's Does it Work is an iPhone app called Cheap Gas!

I hate filling the tank up in the truck at $3.29 a gallon and then drive down the street and realize I could have gotten it for $3.17. There is nothing worse for me than paying more for something I know I can probably get a little cheaper somewhere else.

The hard part about gas shopping is driving around and finding out who has the cheapest gas. That itself wastes gas so what better way to save money than to get an app that does all the gas hunting work for you!

 I drove by several of these gas stations to see if they were the right price and to be honest most of them were dead on! The ones that had the 23 hrs ago update were a little off but that was to be expected. I always wind up going to Casey's because I feel like they always haves the cheapest gas. Not to mention we love the people that work there.

So, as for a grade for this app I'm going to have to give it a B-. I know it's not the apps fault that it's not updated regularly but that would really help a lot with knowing the exact price of the gas.

I'm not sure if you can get this app for android or not but I'm almost positive that you can. Hope this helps you all out at least a little bit.

Happy Ash Wednesday by the way! 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Happy Birthday Hubby

Today my wonderful husband turns 25! That's right. I married a younger man! Haha.

Happy Birthday Derek! I love you! May you have many more to come!