Gobble Gobble

So this post is a bit belated, but it's important none the less!  When my parents came up for Thanksgiving we had the BEST time.  Here's a look at the week...

(One of the first stops when they got in...

Leon's for some delicious butter pecan custard.)

This was my first Thanksgiving dinner to host and I have to say, it turned out pretty good.

(Rosemary Roasted Chicken.

I don't care for turkey all that much, so I went and picked out this 14 lb chicken

he was HUGE!)

(Sides includes cranberry stuffing, twice baked scalloped potatoes, and green bean bundles.)

(It made for a pretty dang good dinner!)

  

(And what is Thanksgiving without Pecan Pie??  

My mom and I made this one in a cast iron skillet.)

(Thursday night Mom and I headed down to the Kenosha Prime Outlets for a little Black Friday Shopping.  My main goal was to get Jordan new pots and pans from the Calphalon outlet.  In addition to her pans, I bought myself a ton of stuff (duh).  One thing is pictured above.  I had been wanting a Le Crusette cast iron dutch oven; but they are so expensive.  This one I got at the Calphalon Outlet retails at $300, was on sale at the Outlet for $69.99, and I ended up getting it for $36 after all my discounts.  

I know, I'm good:))

 (Friday we headed to the Lakefront Brewery for a Brew Tour.  My parents loved it!

(That night we headed to Erv's Mug for a Fish Fry.  

Here's my Dad with his first beer flight!)

(The gang at Erv's Mug.)

(Lunch on Saturday at the Harley Davidson Museum.)

Saturday we spent a large amount of time decorating my condo for Christmas and now it's all set up and ready to go!  

I'm really glad my parents helped me because it would have never gotten done otherwise!

 

(Decorating and crafting is a family affair for the Downey's and 

not even my dad was exempt from helping out.)

 (The finished product!)

(My favorite thing of all!! 

MY TREE!

In all of it's glittered leopard glory.  

I can't wait for Wes to see it.)

I'm SO Ready!

I'm so ready for this upcoming week!  Only three days of work, my Mom and Dad arrive on Tuesday night, and then Wes get's here on Wednesday!  

It's an action packed week ahead and I'm SO ready for the holiday festivities! 

(Me and my all-star bowling team; The Slackers.)

(Thanksgiving decorations at work!)

(Printed this banner out online, cut it out, and strung it up on some super sparkley glitter ribbon.)

(Friendsgiving on Thursday night at Emily's place.  We had the YUMMIEST spread!)

Saturday I headed up to Madison with some friends for the Wisconsin vs. Ohio State football game.  It was my first trip to Madison and first Badger/Buckeye game.  

(Popping bottles like champs.)

(Our ridiculously good seats for $20.

We managed to scalp 5 tickets for the game, but they were all in different areas of the stadium.  

With a little bit of savvy and whole lot of confidence we marched ourselves onto the 10th row.)

(Since I hold no loyalty to any sports team except for The Aggies, I decided to side with my future brother-in-law Jim, and cheer for Ohio State.  I saw Brutus and just had to snag a photo.)

 (Panoramic shot of the stadium from our seats.

Thanks new iPhone software, but your Maps still sucks.)

(Although I thought the game was fun, I would not say that Wisconsin has the classiest fans in the country.  Along with these t-shirts that were for sale the student section also chants 

"Eat Shit, Fuck You" back and forth to each other.

Cooper (who went to Auburn) and I were aghast, that sort of action would NEVER happen where we went to school.  Still a good time none the less)

(The crew at the end of the game.  Notice that's the sideline gate we're all leaning on.)

(When I found out the Aggies had BTHO'ed Sam Houston.  

I would also like to go on record and say that 

I have never worn this much clothing to a football game before.)

(Meg and I.)

(The major advantage of football games in the north; 

the ice in your drink doesn't melt before you get to the end of it!)

(Badger Band.)

(The girls at the end of the game.  Isn't Sarah's hat great?!)

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving week!

Until next time...

Days Go By

It seems that time just flies by these days!  I can't believe its half way through November and my parents will be here in NINE DAYS!!! I'm so ecstatic it's unreal.  Naturally I've been redecorating the condo like crazy in attempt to take down Halloween and put up Thanksgiving decorations.  Here's a look at the past week and the start of my decorations!

(I got my graduation announcement from Reed this week!! It's SO crazy that he's graduating!)

(This week I had my first Melthouse Bistro Experience.  It's a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant and it's absolutely amazing.)

(I also had my first "Real" Philly Cheese Steak in Milwaukee.  I have to say, it was pretty good.)

(These were some massive sandwiches but don't worry, I some how managed to finish mine.)

(You know what the moon and Texas A&M have in common?  They both control The Tide.  

BTHO'ed BAMA!)

(I'm a pretty proactive person and so is my mother.  She's stopped buying me anything with a "D" for my initial and just switched over to "H's".  Somehow Wes still hasn't gotten the hint...)

(Thanksgiving table setting!  I made the little cornucopia out of some packing supplies that my recent online purchase came in and added upholstery tacks to some of the pumpkins for a little texture.)

(Enough said.)

(I spent most of Sunday making these fabric pennants.  It takes a long time to cut out all those triangles!! But I did make them double sided and actually sewed them together so hopefully they'll last a few seasons.) 

(I picked up this little guy at The Goodwill a couple of weeks ago.  Owls are super hot this season, but unfortunately this guy was a few too many decades old.  But don't worry, I fixed him up reaaal good.)

(Here he is all gilded and sparkly on my coffee table.  I found this super cute vintage print online of a little girl and a turkey and couldn't pass it up.  The apothecary jar is filled with popcorn kernels.  I don't think Wes will be snacking on these the same way he did the tootsie rolls for Halloween.)

I'll post pictures of my office decor later this week.

Until next time..

Thankful

I find it very ironic that our President gets elected in the same month as Thanksgiving.  

People spend billions of dollars and thousands of hours trying to make two people in the country look as great or as awful as they possibly can. 

 And then no matter what the outcome of the election, +40% of Americans are upset that "their" President isn't in office.  

I've got some news for you people, if you live in the good ole US of A, then the head man sitting in the White House IS your president; 

whether you voted for him or not.  

So take a step back, be thankful that you can vote.

Here are a few things that I'm thankful for that happened this past week...

(I am thankful for friends.)

(I am thankful for beer, and for the state of Wisconsin where everyone 

thinks it's perfectly acceptable to drink it all the time.)

(I'm thankful for the weekends, where you can do whatever the heck you want!  

Like play paintball, and then go get your nails done:))

Halloweekend

This weekend I took and awesome trip down to Chicago for Halloween.  Un awesome-ly I got my phone jacked while I was down there.  So I'm working on getting pictures from that still, but I should have a new phone on Tuesday.  

Until then you can check out these gems from the past four Halloweens!

(One of Wes and I's first pictures we ever took together Freshman year.  Love at first sight;))

(Mini Mouse and Iron Man for my Sophomore year!  A great year spent with great friends!)

(My Junior year Wes and I went as "Duck Hunter".  

In addition to this I also dressed up at the girl from Easy A, and a bank robber.)

(And of course the infamous KISS costume Junior year for Wes's Birthday!)

(Wes as an Amigo and me in a little pumpkin vest for one night of Senior year.)

(One of my favorite costumes of all time, Biker Babe with my epic hand drawn tattoo sleeves.)

Stay tuned to see what I came up with this year!

Until next time...