Date Night Vegas Style

Ken and I decided to try a new restaurant and go exploring in our new city. Now, I know it's not new to me...but it's new to us as a married couple. Plus, so many things have changed since the last time I lived here.

We decided to start off our Friday night at the Sugar Factory for drinks, dinner and dessert!  What a fun place.  We first ordered the White Gummy Goblet. This drink was better looking than tasting and costs $33 (yikes!).  However, we had fun fishing for gummy worms amid the dry ice!

For dinner we ordered a BBQ Chicken Pizza and a Burger. Food was delish and I even had left overs for two days...score!

Then came time for dessert. There were so many options it was hard to choose.  We could see from looking around that the desserts were monstrous and we would need to share to even make a dent in them. Ken's mouth watering just looking at the shakes on other people's tables but he decided to be a team player and we split an old fashioned sundae - the Cookie Jar Sundae to be exact.  Let me tell you what was in it! It had three massive scoops of cookie dough and cookies and cream ice cream, warm fudge, caramel sauce, crushed chocolate chip cookies, Oreo cookies and whipped cream.  It was tasty and worth every penny (or dollars...$13 actually).  We made sure to save some room for this but we didn't even come close to finishing it.  It was just the right amount of sweet for the night.

After dinner we walked the Miracle Mile shops since Ken had never been there.  Not much to see but at least he can say hes been.  Then we headed over to the Bellagio to watch the fountains.  We both have seen them before but it is always an entertaining time.  We stood next to a bum man with a mullet, camo tank top and leather weight lifting belt who told us he had a busy day today saving the world. Then he threw his yard margarita cup into the water.  Needless to say when some other couple tried to squeeze in to watch the show, we had no problem letting them in between us!

When the fountain show was over, we headed to the Cosmo.  Ken had been there once for drinks with a friend but it was my first time. I LOVED it.  What a cool and sparkly hotel.  We watched a 50s lounge singer swoon the audience with her red lips, suicide roll and amazing voice. It really did feel as if we were in another time period with all the glamour and glitz.

We had such a fun night and can't wait for our next adventure in Las Vegas!

Summer

Summer is here...this means pool season, bbq's and massive shedding by our dog Holly. 

While I love Holly more than anything...I HATE how much she sheds.  When the weather starts getting warm her hair starts coming off in clumps.  I usually have to sweep our floors daily. Don't believe me...see for yourself!

 This is how much hair we get after brushing her for about 5 minutes! We try to do this weekly but still manage to get clumps of hair piled up around the baseboards.

 This weekend I swept the tile and Ken vacuumed the carpets...then Holly.  It started off he was being silly but she loved it.  She even turned around so he could get the other side.  He had fun and she ended up with perfect vacuum lines!

Delicious...

Growing up my family ate out ALL the time.  My mom enjoyed not having to cook and clean and we all loved having the variety that a restaurant offers. Even on Christmas morning we would go to Denny's in our pajamas.  I know...my family is high class going to Denny's...it's actually my favorite restaurant next to Sizzlers!

With that being said, Ken and I try to be good about eating at home. Eating at home is good for our wallets and waist line! It's become a little easier now that I have found that I have a love for cooking (...didn't get that from momma).  Being married has given me someone fun to test out my new recipes on.  Some are great....and some are not so edible. But the fun is in trying something new and experimenting in the kitchen. 

Last night one of my best friends, Jonny, came over for dinner. Jonny is the pickiest eater I have ever know so planning a menu was tough.  I like to make food that looks pretty, is so very tasty and is easy to prepare.  So that's what I did. I found some awesome recipes on pinterest and I will share them with you!

I made...

Bacon-wrapped Jalapeno Chicken Bites from an awesome blog Salad in a Jar. I did make a few adjustment because Ken and I like it spicy! I know what you're thinking but I was talking about food! I left the jalapeno seeds in and used a good amount of cream cheese (the first time I skimped but this time it was perfect).  For the record Jonny wouldn't eat my chicken so we grilled chicken in bbq sauce jsut for him!



Crash Hot Potatoes that I found on another cool blog For the Love of Cooking.  These were really easy to make and tasted great.  I actually used a little garlic salt rather than sea salt and cracked pepper!


So there you have it...two new recipes to try.  Bon appetite!

Attack of the baby spiders

After a long Monday full of yard work and a family BBQ, Ken and I were looking forward to getting some much needed shut eye. As we were getting ready for bed, we walked into the bathroom to and to our surprise we found this...

Now I know what you are thinking...does she ever sweep her floors...look at that dog hair!  Right?!?  On a serious note, I wish this picture actually showed how BIG this spider was.  Her belly was the size of a half dollar, no joke.  Ken and I have separate sinks and this beauty, who we will call Charlotte, was on his side.  I am amazed that Ken actually saw it because he normally never looks down which usually ends up with him stubbing his toe, kicking or stepping on anything in his path.  But for whatever reason Ken spotted Charlotte.  He grabbed a paper towel (a single sheet might I add) and was going to squish her dead. I panicked and made him get a shoe because you never know if these things are poisonous or if they will all of a sudden grow 10 times their size and chase after you (does any other women fear this too?).  I sat and watched as Ken began his husband duty of killing all spiders and you will never believe what happened next.  As soon as he smashed the Charlotte, out of nowhere, hundreds (ok maybe 30ish) baby spiders came running out. It was like a movie...just when you think you have seen it all, the heavens open up and monsters come out of the sky and attack. Haven't you see The Avengers?  Well, the baby spiders didn't attack but they did run all over the bathroom floor.  Now I know you are never going to believe this story and I wish I had captured the attack of the baby spiders but I was too busy screaming and prancing on tippy toes to get a picture. This is no tall tale and you'll just have to take my word for it and pray that it never happens to you!

We keep going and going and going...

Hello again! So much has happened since my last post so I am going to do a little recap of what Ken and I have been up to.  Since you last heard from me... I started my new job, we had a small housewarming party with family and friends, Ken's best friend Matt came into town, we saw The Avengers with my family in 3D, Ken got a new truck, had a fun little date with my bf Casey and her son Landon, and we had a small Memorial Day BBQ with my family. Well, needless to say we have been busy.

Don't judge us in our fancy 3D glasses!

Ken finally has a truck!  He was and still is so excited to have a car that he got to pick out. I haven't heard about anything else this past week except for how cool his truck is, did you know my truck has this, lets take my new truck........
I'm so happy that we could finally get Ken a ride he is thrilled to drive!

Casey, Landon and I had so much fun catching up and playing at Town Square.

We played bags/corn hole at our BBQ.  Let's just say that Ken and I rocked and the rest of the family needs to practice before they come over again.  W is for Wendtland or Winners because on Monday we were both!

A Weekend to Celebrate!

Last weekend Ken and I had our first house guests! Ken's younger brother, Karl and his girlfriend Christal, came to stay with us to celebrate Karl's 23rd Birthday.  We had such a great weekend and it was so fun to have friends in town to hang out with.  On Friday night we went to Nora's.  Ken and I had our rehearsal dinner there and Ken's family is officially hooked.  We ate until we were stuffed and Karl got a little dessert for being the birthday boy.

Karl & Christal at Nora's

After dinner we headed over to Stoney's but they wanted to charge us cover since we all had out-of-state driver's license.  After trying to explain that we just moved in town and it was Karl's birthday, with no success, we decided to leave and hang out at home instead.  Since it was Cinco de Mayo weekend I decided to bust out the sombrero and tequila shots.  I'm still not sure if that was a good idea or not!?! Anyways we had a great time talking, drinking and hanging out in our courtyard listening to country music!

This is the only group shot I got of the whole weekend (right after our tequila shot).

Holly wanted to get in on the action too! Poor mutant pup!

 

On Saturday, Cinco de Mayo, we took Karl & Christal to Town Square to eat lunch at CPK and walk around.  Ken got some new shirts from Tommy Bahama (he is such an old man) and I got a new phone case.  We then went to Boot Barn where Karl got new cowboy boots, a birthday present from Christal, and finally ended up at Bass Pro Shop. Ken and Karl love Bass Pro Shop and can just walk around for hours---I don't think I'll ever understand it.

Later that night we went to Lindo Michoacan to celebrate with margaritas!  We were able to sit on the patio and enjoy the beautiful weather and the awesome view!

 Our first family picture in our new house!

Thanks for the great weekend Karl & Christal.  We had such a great weekend with you two!

Workin' for a Livin'

I can officially say I have a NEW JOB and I start in a week!  That makes 3 job in the last 3 months...crazy I know.  I will be working for the March of Dimes as their Community Director in Las Vegas.  I had the pleasure of volunteering at their walk last weekend and I am excited to be working with such a great group of people. www.marchofdimes.com

To backtrack a little bit- Ken and I have been on a crazy journey when it comes to our careers since graduating college.  I was the first to get a job with a local Arizona nonprofit, notMYkid, managing young adults in recovery and helping them share their story with middle and high school students.  A few weeks later, Ken went to work, for TekSystems, doing IT recruiting.  After 6 months, I was given the opportunity to go to work for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where I did a college internship.  This was such a wonderful opportunity and I was passionate about what I was doing.  Ken was shortly promoted to Account Manager, at TekSystems, but was not happy with being in a sales role. After a year and a half he took a position with US Airways as a Financial Analyst.  He really found his sweet spot as an analyst and was proving to be very successful.  Well....for 7 months that is.  We were looking to buy a house in Arizona, because that was where we were living/working at the time, before we came to the decision that we wanted to be closer to family. Ken started applying for jobs in Nevada and soon he was interviewed for a position as a Revenue Manager with Caesars Entertainment.  I started looking for jobs in Vegas online and applied to a few nonprofits that were hiring. He was offered the job with Caesars and moved to Vegas in February while I was still working and living in Phoenix.  While I was playing the waiting game, I became tired of living in a different state as my hubby, so I took a position in March, in Vegas, as a Marketing Manager for a mortgage capital firm.  Ahhh...are you still with me?  Well a few weeks ago I heard back from one of the positions I applied for at the March of Dimes (it took them 2 months to contact me after I had sent them my resume).  Needless to say after two interviews I was hired.

Ken and I are so blessed to have had great job opportunities, especially in this economy.  Each job for us has been a step up and a step toward each of us reaching our career goals. What a roller coaster we have been on! The best part of this journey is that we have both learned what we are good at (and not so god at) all while having the support of each other.  Wouldn't want it any other way!

Enjoy a little Huey Lewis (circa 1982) for your Thursday!