pizza – Page 24 – Life as Lauren

SUMMER!!!!!

Oh, sorry. Just a little bit excited I suppose. Being a summertime baby, I feel it’s just in my blood to consider summer the best season of all. Plus sundresses, iced coffee cravings, Red Rocks concerts, BBQs, patios, evening walks? Love it. Love it all. I don’t think I need to mention the added excitement of both my best friend’s and my own wedding, but I will anyways 🙂 The thought of all the wedding festivities and having family in town basically has my heart bursting at the seams. Now let’s just add the Rockies making it to the playoffs okay??

I’m half tempted to just re-write all of last year’s Bucket List items and/or list things like “Attend a Rehearsal Dinner” but I guess that’s not very creative, so here we go!

#1 Go to a Denver Farmers’ Market

I suppose that the 40 minute drive to Boulder makes going to the FM every Saturday pretty out of the question.

#2 Clean up our yard

I think we already missed prime yard clean up season so I’m not expecting much gardening to go on, but I’m hoping we can do some landscaping and weed pulling still. Which leads me to my next item…

#3 Grow something!

And in case you share a sense of humor with Joey, no, I’m not talking about weed. I was thinking more along the lines of a planter of herbs or a salad bowl or heck, a damn succulent. Succulents are easy, right?

#4 Weekly burger, taco or pizza night!

Preferably al fresco! Though I’m not opposed to eating any of these things during the dead of winter, they just scream summertime to me.

~~#5 Try a juice cleanse~~ — Check!

More on that at a later date 🙂

#6 Picnic at a Denver park

I think it’s a requirement of being a Denverite to spend your weekends hanging out at a park. In other words, I feel like a fraud. Must remedy this ASAP!

~~#7 Host a summer BBQ~~ — Checked a few times!

Okay, this one is kind of cheating because A) we already threw one and B) we already volunteered to throw the July birthday celebration for Joey’s side of the family at our house, but I’m including it anyways.

#8 Read 3 books from my most recent reading list

I think my reading mojo’s been stolen… but I’ve got some serious plane time coming up this summer so this one should be doable 🙂

~~#9 Go to Trader Joe’s~~ — Check!

Part of me thinks that place is really annoying and probably no different than Whole Foods or Sprouts and part of me really wants to go. I guess I’ll just give in already 😛

#10 Go social media-less for an entire weekend.

Last year’s goal was one day, but I’m ready to step it up. I’m also ready to drag Joey into this one with me but I don’t think he’ll go for it. P.S. How will I live without Facebook quizzes like the one above??

#11 Brew Root Beer

Our kegerator fits three kegs. One for Joey’s brew, one for mine and root beer seems like the perfect non-alcoholic drink choice to fill the third keg with.

#12 Hang wall decorations

This is the only house remodel-y type thing I’m putting on the list so I better be able to accomplish it!

~~#13 Build a fire in our fire pit!~~ — Check!

I think Joey mentioned something about being a boy scout.

~~#14 Bike to a Rockies game~~ — Check!

Preferably more than once, but baby steps.

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What’s on your summer bucket list?

Whew! Do you ever have a weekend where you end up feeling more tired than rested? Because I just had one. And I’m kind of excited that it’s Monday and I have to be sitting at my work desk. Emphasis on sitting. We did so much house work this weekend. But first! A fun Friday.

P.S. This is a food-heavy post. You’ve been forewarned.

Guys, I got contacts on Friday morning! I’ve had glasses with a minor prescription since college but I rarely wear them because I hate seeing the frames in my periph so I’ve just been squinting at the TV guide and missing turns because I can’t read the street sign until I’m passing it. I finally got contacts and life is easier now. I took my fully functioning eyes to a concert on Friday night to celebrate. Or because I was already planning to go to that concert.

To say I’ve been excited to see The Head and the Heart in concert would be a huge understatement. I adore this band and I’ve been anxiously awaiting the day I got to see them live. I’d like to pretend we got there early because we were that excited, but it was like 10% excitement and 90% wanting to get one of the few seats so I wouldn’t have to stand for 3 hours. And that’s what we call adulthood.

Anyways, they were every bit as good as I thought they would be. No, wait, even better! Call me a uninformed fan, but I had no idea they had two male singers. Totally thought it was just one voice on their albums. Oops! I’m so glad we got to see them. My heart was soaring when I got to hear “Shake” and “Rivers and Roads” in person. Chills just thinking about it 🙂 Also, some guy got on stage and proposed to his girlfriend, didn’t invite her on stage, then proceeded to celebrate and hug all the band members while she just stood there in the crowd. Dude, come on.

Saturday involved lots of house work — we picked paint, got to work on the kitchen and the living room and hooked up our new range! — and take out. We tried this pizza place down the street for the first time and despite not having stellar reviews, we actually thought it was really good. I’m a fan of anywhere that offers a bunch of veggie-licious whole wheat dough options so this was a win for me. Then the annual viewing of my favoritest Christmas movie. You think I would be sick of it but no. Not even in the slightest.

Sunday started with this bad decision.

Dear body, please have a more consistent reaction to caffeine. Love, Lauren.

This was my attempt at having a super productive day and don’t get me wrong it was super productive. It was also super jittery and anxious. I will never learn. After I had more than adequately caffeinated myself, we tackled more painting, a trip to Ikea, a trip to the grocery store, cooking in our so-close-to-being-back-in-one-piece kitchen, un-packing boxes of kitchen stuff and a shower where I’m fairly sure I forgot to rinse the conditioner out of my hair… Oh, and our Christmas lights are finally up. Yay!

Then my parents came over to see all the progress at the house and to take us to dinner for their anniversary. If that sounds backwards to you, then that makes two of us. I tried to encourage them to enjoy a night out on their own but my mom insisted and I’m not one to turn down dinner. Plus I suggested they make reservations at a restaurant we had tried to go to on Wednesday night, only to find there was an hour and a half wait. If that kind of traffic on a week night isn’t a sign of a good restaurant, I don’t know what is.

I think the popularity might have something to do with these little margaritas.

Turns out it makes more sense to order the large margarita and share it, rather than all order a small or medium for ourselves. Joey tried to convince both my sister and I to order a large and both share with him. Yeah, nice try. Mass consumption of chips, guac, enchiladas, rellenos, burritos and sopapillas ensued. And by the end of dinner, a majority of the table felt sickeningly full. Who ordered those sopapillas?! Oh, right…