A Bow Tie Birthday

On September 7th Jake turned 35!

For almost a year I have been planning and brainstorming plans for his birthday. It's not 30, and it's not 40, but 35 is a milestone in my eyes! I knew there had to be friends, family, meat and bow ties involved. Some of his favorite things.

Jake wears a tie every single day to work (except for the occasional No-Tie-Tuesday), a far cry form my jeans and t-shirt work attire, so he really embraces the whole business casual thing. I give him credit, he manages to look sharp everyday and never complains about 'being dressed up' while I roll out of the house in jean shorts and a tank top.  He has over 75 long ties and has recently been sporting lots of bow ties. I am all for the bow tie and not so much for the Christmas Rudolph or NYC Taxi ties. However, I cannot and don't complain, he receives ties as gifts from kids all the time and a lot of them are really special to him.

As far as the meat goes, Jake loves a BBQ joint or anything BBQ related. One of the first get togethers we had as a couple was New Years day 2012. Jake ordered some crazy amount of meat from Salt Lick, a BBQ restaurant in Austin Texas that he just dies over. We had some friends and family over and ate loads of pork, sausage, ribs and all the fixin's.

How do you combine barbecued beef, bow ties and a birthday?! Easy...

Friday, his actual birthday, The Cooper Boys drove in from Connecticut. I had already been planning on Union Pig and Chicken for dinner so when the boys decided to come to Pittsburgh I knew that was the right choice. They also love BBQ. Union Pig and Chicken is all around an amazing place. Great vibe, not too big, delicious selection for the meat lover (or the semi meat lover) and good drink selection. I decided on the brisket, cornbread and mac & cheese, of course! Jake and Steve went for the fried chicken... Jake a half and Steve an entire chicken! Mickey and Frank split the 2 meat dinner, ribs and brisket. We all dug in and there was not a complaint in the house. After dinner we went back to Jake's and made ourselves sick on cookies, cheesecake bites and cupcakes. BBQ birthday, check.

This brings us to the party! I like to have a theme and I like to keep parties small. I'll save his 60th to invite the entire town and rent out the local Elks club.  Like I said, I had been brainstorming for quite some time about the menu, decorations, etc. I decided on pulled pork, pulled beef (made by my mom!), baked beans, cheesy potatoes and a bunch of dips and sides. I went to Pinterest for dessert ideas and stumbled upon bow tie sugar cookies, thank you Pinterest! I ordered the cookie cutters months ago and even did a test batch to make sure they looked and tasted ok. As for decorations, I asked Jake's mom for baby and kid pictures and did some bow tie garland. Among other things my time at AE has taught me Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator and what better use of my knowledge than to make birthday banners and invitations!

I had prepped pretty well the month or so leading up to birthday week so that allowed time to go to Youngstown Tuesday night and enjoy dinner with some of our best friends and see Hall and Oates at Stage AE on Wednesday night. Jake loves them - Hall, Oates AND Sarah, Natalia, Amanda and Jim!

Some birthday week highlights...

Jake told me it was one of the best Birthdays he has ever had. I love a party and love to give gifts but in the end we love to spend time together. We could have sat at McDonalds, just the two of us, I know he would have been happy and grateful for our time together. That's why I love him, he asked for and expected nothing. That's the thing, when someone puts everyone else first and never thinks of themselves... you want to give them the world.

Happy Birthday Jake. I love you, more than you love 10lbs of pulled pork...

Some wedding updates...

We got some awesome t-shirts from Hot Metal Studio Photography this week and booked our engagement photo shoot for October! 

We got an awesome silhouette from a friend, it's framed and up in the house... my house... our journey to combine houses is for another blog day! 

I Refuse to Let it Go.

Summer that is - I refuse to let this Summer go. 

Although, Fall really is my favorite season - who can resist pumpkin cookies; cool, crisp, hoodie-wearing weather; hot apple cider; and football? I am getting excited already! Summer is a very close second, followed by Winter then Spring (that's right I like Winter more than Spring).

This Summer has been one of the best and I would love to live in this very moment for a few more weeks... enjoying the warm weather, lazy sun filled days, grilled dinners, outdoor parties, early-out Fridays at the office, fresh veggies, pool days, and cherishing our last unmarried August.

Jake and I have spent one other Summer together but this Summer was different, the days of "call me and we will get dinner this week" were gone and the days of "did you pack my swim suit and tums for vacation?" were in full force.

Over the course of the past year and 1/2 we have really crossed over into the serious couple phase. Every married couple or long-time dater knows the phase I am talking about. When you start washing your clothes together, texting one an others parents / siblings, planning week night meals, going on weekend trips, checking in before you make plans with friends... just living your lives 100% together. We have been doing just that, living our very different daytime but very similar evening and weekend lives together.

I am fortunate enough to work for a company that lets me leave the office every Friday at 1pm from Memorial Day to Labor Day and the past few Summers I have found myself thinking 'I did nothing productive in those extra hours away from work'.  I was not going to let that happen this Summer. I wanted to enjoy my weekend time with Jake free of house work and chores.

This Summer I had 2 goals:

1. Use my Summer early out Friday's to be productive  - get laundry done, organize, clean, cook, bake, garden, grocery shop, pay bills, visit Aunt Kass, etc. As much as I wanted to lay by the pool every Friday I really wanted to try out some new recipes more!

So, while Jake was at work Friday afternoons saving lives, I was productive too.

Check out some of my Early Out Friday projects...

rainbow cupcakes

oreo fudge

cookies ice cream sandwiches

smoothies... with spinach

4th of July and Olympic treats, I made them twice!

beer bread for my girls only fantasy football draft

zucchini bread (I grew the zucchini!)

USA cupcakes, for Adam's last day in Pittsburgh

lemon blueberry bread for the Crawford family reunion 

white chocolate chip zucchini bread and zucchini fritters

zucchini cookies with cream cheese filling

Zucchini played a huge role in our life this Summer as you can see from all the baking I did!
In the past, I have had small potted plants, small cherry tomato plants, and some hanging baskets, but this Summer, I took it to a new level. A full out veggie garden of my own. My parents and grandparents have had gardens for as long as I can remember so it's in my nature but I had no idea how much work it really involved. My parents came over in late May to dig the garden beds, a few weeks later we planted tomatoes (4 kinds), zucchinis, pumpkins, cucumbers, peppers, squash and lost of mums and sunflowers. Overall i'd say it was a success with only a few duds. I have more cherry tomatoes that we can eat, about 7 zucchinis, lots of peppers, 4 or 5 cucumbers, 0 squash, wild flowers are popping up everywhere and I actually grew 6 pumpkins! Well, my dad actually planted the pumpkins but I take the credit because I watered them every single day for the last 90 days. I also have to give a little shout out to my 87 year old neighbor Bill - he watered for me when I went out of town.

The Great Pumpkin

and goal number 2...

2. Enjoy Jake time. Free of work, laundry and the like.

We started off the Summer with a trip to Connecticut to visit The Coopers. I got to look at all Jake's baby pictures, meet some family, check out an awesome garden store (terrain), go to a small town parade, go to Zumba with Jake's mom and watch some Real Housewives of Atlanta with all Jake's siblings. 

grocery store with talking animals (Stew Leonard's)

red, white and blue outfits, I swear we did not plan this

baby pics from Jake's mom

Later in June we headed to Key Largo Florida. We spent 5 days eating, sleeping, swimming, reading and Jake actually took his work email off his phone... that made all the difference! 

Shell World

lots of fish, sunsets and relaxation

The rest of the summer was a blur filled with Pirate games, family dinners, Adam's visit, a trip to Iowa and Minneapolis, a family reunion, trip to the museum, time with friends and their kids, outdoor eating and a few summer parties.

Mara and Quinn

Flying Horse Farms Camp

AE box

Gateway Clipper

John Deere headquarters

Minneapolis with the Schlauchs

driving range

Adam in Pittsburgh

Dinner at Burgatory

museum

our parents

I am dreading the first Friday when I leave the office at 5:30pm and the sky is pitch black, but until then I will embrace these last few days of summer. As soon as I get rid of this horrible cold I have, who gets sick in the summer?!

I'll do my best not to wish away this next year counting down the days until or wedding next August.

By the way, it's 335 days away!

Spoiler alert, one of this Fall's goals is to step up the running and gym regimen... somebody had to eat all those cookies!