Thanks!

Here are a few things that are on my mind today that make me happy and oh so thankful...

Electricity! It's not much fun getting ready in the dark. (photo taken from JED Electric, Inc.)

My brother

The Oregon Coast - if you look close enough you can see the Rogue Brewery

Campfires on the beach

Post-its!

A relaxing girls weekend at the lake

Chocolate coffee with ghost marshmallows and Melissa's homemade pumpkin donuts

Halloween

Thanksgiving treats (I wonder what will be on my menu this year)

What's on your mind today?

Thanks!

I follow a lot of blogs and a good handful of them do a weekly "thankful" post. I really like this idea so I've decided to do a "thanks" post of my own. Sometimes life just gets going too fast and we forget to take a moment and notice the little things along the way.

Here are a few things that make me happy and I'm thankful for...

I'm so thankful for my amazing husband. Along with so many other things, he always gets wood ready for us girls just in case we want to have a bonfire

Little notes and art that Tim or others leave on our dry erase board

Fall baskets Buckeyes!!!

My little mummy friend

My home

Fall leaves

Looking outside on a rainy day with a cup of coffee

My crazy Catty girlfriends

And so much more....
What are thankful for or happy about right now?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA!

Today is my friend Melissa's 30th birthday. Happy Birthday Mel. Hope it's a great one! :) xoxo

A visit to the IL side

This weekend we ventured over to the IL side for dinner and pinball. We decided to try something new and stumbled upon Peel Wood Fired Pizza.

Not knowing what to expect we weren't too sure about the 30 min wait, that is until we saw the Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale on tap (along with some other great brews - I tried the New Holland Ichabod. It had just a touch of pumpkin and spice and was O-So-Tasty!)!

If you are not aware, Tim and I are huge Rogue fans!

Tim has family in Oregon so every trip up there we always make time for a few (as in 3 or 4) visits to the brewery. Around here if you see Rogue on tap it's usually the Dead Guy Ale, which is still a pretty good beer. The Morimoto on the other hand is a real treat and I'm pretty sure is Tim's favorite. As far as I know the only place it's found on tap is either at the Rogue Brewery or Morimoto's restaurants in CA. So imagine our surprise when we found it in little ol' Edwardsville, of all places. Yes, you can find it in bottles here and there but it is no comparison to the tap version.

So, back to Peel, not only did they have Morimoto, but you could order it in a boot. That's right, a boot! You don't see beer boots on the menu very often so when you do, you gotta just go for it. They are hilarious and awesome all at the same time.The food...Peel has many different pizza's to choose from and all sounded amazing. We went with the Thai Red Curry pizza. It was delish. Not too spicy and the cilantro really gave it that extra punch. Loved it.

Along with our pizza we also tried the wood fired wings. There were six flavors to choose from and we landed on the "Fire". It was prepared with red pepper flakes, Parmesan cheese, basil, gray salt and roasted garlic olive oil. Amazing!

So good we nearly licked the plate clean!

If you are looking for a new pizza joint, give Peel a whirl. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Oh and as I mentioned above, we ended the evening with a $10 all you could play pinball extravaganza. It was so much fun. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures but don't worry, we'll definitely be going back and I'll do a write up on it at that time. :)

Rachel's 32 years beautiful!

Today, Wednesday, October 6, 2010 is my BFF, Rachel Ann Hughs Carpenter's birthday! I am proud to say that we have been best friends for 20 years. That's right, 20 years!! Yes we have had our ups and downs, as does any female relationship, but my world would not be the same with out her. We've been through a LOT through the years and I miss her daily.

Happy Birthday BFF! I love you and hope you have most wonderful birthday!

PS - One gift I try to make sure to send Rachel are plenty of boxes of FrankenBerry (her fav). However, I think there must be a shortage this year. I'm not having much luck locating it. But have no fear Rachel, I won't give up! :)