Mandii's Muse

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend. Mine was just ok, nothing too spectacular. On Monday of last week, I came home with a scratchy throat, and my voice was starting to go. When I woke up on Tuesday, I could hardly swallow, and had no voice. I went to Urgent Care, and while I tested negative for strep, I did have a bad case of laryngitis. They put me on steroids, and I just kept drinking tea. My voice still wasn't back on Wednesday, and I developed a cough and runny nose in the meantime. By Thursday my voice came back a little bit, so I pulled myself together to go to a concert that I had bought tickets for. My mom, aunt, and myself are really big Karen Carpenter fans. A small theater was putting on a tribute show, so we spent Valentine's Day listening to her. It was absolutely fantastic! Her show was approved by Richard Carpenter, and she took us along on a musical journey throughout their career. There was a lot of TV watching while I was sick, so watching my Blue De...

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! It was nice to be above freezing, and see the sunshine for a little bit! Did your team win the SuperBowl? Here's a little glimpse into my weekend!  My mom made this delicious chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. It was as good as it looks, and we can't wait to eat some after dinner tonight again!  Can you tell who we were rooting for based on our table decor? We had meatball sliders, kielbasa, mini tacos, spinach/artichoke dip, pimento cheese, and potato salad. Yummy!  Since it was going to be nice most of the weekend, my dad was nice enough to wash my car off at the car wash.   I have been doing a #girlreadyourbible challenge for February, in addition to my normal daily readings. I'm doing the book of Philippians. Starting off this week right with a Patriots win on Sunday, and hopefully a Duke win on Tuesday! How was your weekend? Leave me a comment and let me know!

I hope you weekend was relaxing and enjoyable! Mine was pretty relaxing, and chilly! I'm still getting used to the colder weather. Will we have an "Indian summer?" That's yet to be determined! My church had a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Think of it as a trial run to the big day. It was nice to fellowship with our church family outside of Sunday. Mom and I spend the morning in the kitchen. I made a chocolate fudge cake, and my mom made sweet potato casserole. Then, I made my Brunch Egg Casserole for Sunday's breakfast. I think both are going to be on the menu for Christmas! (I like to practice my recipes for Christmas early, get all the kinks worked out for a smooth baking come Christmas! Sunday I went to church and afterwards, I practiced with the ladies for our Christmas Cantata. This was our first Sunday without using the backing tracks, and I think we did pretty good. It can only go up from here right? Please keep our ladies in your prayers for us to ...

If you missed part 1 of my WineFest weekend, you can find it here ! Going into this weekend, we knew that we wanted to hit all of the North East wineries one day and the New York wineries the next. So Saturday morning, we woke up and got breakfast at our hotel and got ready for the day. Grape Discovery Center There was a new winery that opened in Fredonia New York, and while we weren't expecting to travel as far as we did for it I am so glad we did! First of all, the drive there was absolutely beautiful. There were vineyards as far as you could see, and we passed a wind mill farm! This was so cool to see from the road, and after a quick Google search, the Arkwright Summit Wind Farm creates enough power to power about 35,000 homes! The winery is called Woodbury winery, and they had the best wine that I tasted all weekend. I bought two bottles, but easily could have bought 4. They have a cute gift shop that has wine goodies, as well as all their wines. The young man that did...

I wanted to share my weekend at WineFest with you! North East, PA has a WineFest every year. (This is their 37th!) It is an absolutely beautiful, quaint town, and I could totally see myself living in a town like this among vineyards. (Just please don't let me experience their winters!) I went with my aunt and uncle, who have a much better lay of the land than I do, so we took off Friday for a weekend of fun! *I want to preface this by saying that I like sweet wine. So all of my recommendations of wine will be sweet. However, if you like dry wine everyone that gave us our tastings at all these wineries were so knowledgeable and would be more than happy to assist you in finding you your perfect wine.  We were in North East by 12:30, and hit our first winery. Courtyard Winery is so cute, and their wine is even better! Everyone in my group purchased the Mamma Mia Sangria. Chilled on a hot summer day, this wine will be fantastic with or without fruit! They even give you a san...

I hope your Labor Day weekend was relaxing! I'm saying that Summer is officially over, and now I am in full on Fall mode. I wanted to share with you a little bit of what I did over the long weekend, so let's get right on into it! Thursday: My parents and I went to the last Cleveland Indians afternoon game of the season. It was absolutely the most perfect day for baseball. The weather was just right, not too hot or cold. We were able to get into our favorite parking lot, our seats were fantastic, and the Tribe ended up winning! We ended the night at our favorite pizza place. (Because ballpark food is expensive, y'all!) Friday, I went and got a haircut. I love my hair long like it is, but it was time for a little trim. I swear, coming from the hairdresser is like the best feeling. You are relaxed, you look great, it is the best! I got a few highlights, and just enjoyed the "me" time. I finished up some Act 48 hours I was working on, cleaned the upstairs area, an...

So if you saw yesterday's post, I recapped a little bit of February and March. Now I can get you caught up from then until now! I was able to go to a Pittsburgh Penguins game! I always love going to the last game of the season. Even thought I didn't get a shirt off the players back! However, it was neat to see the Stanley Cup winning team before they hoisted the trophy. Plus, when you have seats 6 rows behind the glass, you don't say no! The school I work at (still subbing!) had a local meteorologist come and give a presentation. It was a great assembly, and the kids really enjoyed it! I know I did! In the mail one day, I got something from one of my I mean, could JJ and I be any cuter?! many celebrity boyfriends. (LOL!) I got this magazine full of pictures of JJ Watt. Listen, any time he comes in my mailbox, I'm not going to complain. ;) Unfortunately, June was a crazy, and sad month. To start it off, my dad had a kidney stone, and he also got bit by a sp...

Can I get a shout for four day weekends? Unfortunately, my week last week was crazy and I ended up having the flu. I suffered through it Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday I just couldn't do it and called off work. It wasn't the stomach virus that has been going around, but it was the achy fevering/chilling, headache flu. Both of my parent's had it, so I was bound to get it. Yuck! By Thursday I was feeling better and went to the nursing home with my Grandma to play for the residents. My other two grandparents are in there and they were so thrilled to enjoy the music! (I made sure to stay away from them just in case I was still contagious!) After, my parents and I went to Pizza Hut for dinner, and then spent an hour at the mall. Friday, my cousin came out to give me the lowdown on her wedding! I'm a bridesmaid, and wanted to get a feel for what she wanted for her shower, etc. Girlfriend got it covered! She seriously rocks and has almost everything planned! Saturd...

Four day weekends are just the best. THE BEST. There isn't as much pressure on you like a typical work week, and you can plan activities without any pressure. This weekend was filled with so many fun Fall activities that I wouldn't mind reliving again. Friday, I laid low and prepared for the nice long weekend ahead. I ran to Costco to grab some groceries with my parents and climbed into bed early that night. Saturday was such a busy day. In the morning, my mom and I met my aunt at a local Fall Festival. It was the most perfect Fall day. There was such a great crowd, and both my mom, aunt, and I all got some Christmas shopping done early. Later that afternoon, my parent's and I headed to Youngstown State University to catch a game and a tailgate! Listen, tailgate food is just so darn delicious. I consumed way too many calories, but for a once a year type thing I can swing it. Again, it was the perfect weather for some food and football! Sunday, I went to church. Afterw...

If you were wondering where I've been, you can find part 1 of my September post here! Like I said before, I find it hard to believe that today is October 1. I blinked and September was gone. One night after work, my Bubba (grandma) made stir-fry. She hasn't made it in years, and my parents always used to rave about how good hers was "back in the day." So I finally got to try it, and it was so good! We had salad and bread to go with our meal, but I only took a picture of the stir-fry. She can definitely make that again! This past month we also continued our bad luck at Cleveland Indians games. Do you remember this game where we had tickets to go and couldn't find a parking spot because of a fire? We got our "redemption" tickets for Sept. 12. Whoo! The day came and it was gray and cloudy. It rained the entire drive to Cleveland. It rained through the start time. Yes folks, we were in a rain delay. My mom said at 9:30 that if they didn't call the ga...

Like I said yesterday, hello! Welcome back! I promise that I haven't forgotten about this wonderful blog! Honestly, I have no clue where the month of September went. Where did it go?! I blinked, and started working again, and here it is almost the end of the month. I wanted to give you a little glimpse as to what my September has looked like so far. I'm splitting it into two parts because there has been a lot! The beginning of September started with my getting some work in on the second day of school. The school I work for has subs floating around sometimes to help teachers our with anything extra they may need. It helps the teachers out, and I actually really like floating. The second day of school happened to fall on a Tuesday. That meant $5 hamburgers at a local restaurant. So I met up with my grandparents and parents to enjoy the food.  (It also happened to be 95* outside, and classrooms were well into the 90 degree mark as well.) So cool air conditioning and ice cream...

Perhaps you weekend was crazy like mine, or maybe it was more relaxed and low key. Either way, I'm thankful for weekends. Let's start at Friday shall we? Friday my dog Cashew was supposed to get a bath. Right as my mom and I were getting ready to leave, my dad walks in with paper towels wrapped around his finger. He was trimming bushes and sliced his finger with the trimmer. Thankfully, it is just a really bad gash that probably should have had a stitch, but is healing slowly. So I bandage him up, and we are running late to the groomers. I called and told them that we were on the way, and find out that they couldn't take us. So we rescheduled. That should have been an indication of the weekend ahead. This was prior to the madness! Saturday I had bought tickets to go to the Cleveland Indians game. My parents always do nice things for me, so I wanted to repay them a little bit. The day was gorgeous! It was sunny, a nice breeze, and we hit absolutely no traffic until...

If you missed part 1 of my weekend, you can find it here ! This recap starts on Sunday morning. Mount Summit Inn Sunday morning after breakfast, we decided to head out early. We cleaned up the house, and said our goodbyes to my aunt and uncle, my cousin, and her husband. We left without a plan, but quickly had one. We watched an episode of Treehouse Masters that build a treehouse at the Mount Summit Inn. (Do you watch that show?! It blows my mind every single time I watch it!) I plugged it into my GPS and it was 45 minutes away. We were on our way! We drove through Ohiopyle, and past Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob. Truly beautiful country scenery along the way. Pool Area My parents actually spent the first part of their honeymoon at the Mount Summit Inn, and on the way they kept reminiscing about how they remembered climbing the mountains to get there, how the food was included in the package. (It was so cute to listen to them tell me about this place!) When we got there,...

I hope that your 4th of July was as fun as mine was! My aunt and uncle invited us to stay at their neighbor's second home in Seven Springs, PA. I had never been to that area before so I was definitely excited to see a new part of the state! Plus, I love to travel and see new places! We arrived Friday around 2:30, and pull up to the townhouse. It is absolutely gorgeous! There were 5 bedrooms, and each were decorated with a "cabin" feel. We were slopeside, and near the ski lift. After unpacking, we went exploring! We were up on the mountain, so one of the ways to get to the lodge was the ski lift. I had never ridden one before, so my aunt and uncle gave us the tips, and we were going to give it a go. They told us that they don't put the bar down that will help hold you in. (WHAT?!?! They are braver than I!) Since I am 27 years old, and would like to get married and have a family one day, we put the bar down. Haha! I'm not really sure if I've ever been so ha...