Livin' the Dream in Lima

With Halloween just a few days away, I thought I would talk a bit about my favorite candies. I am really not much of a candy person - give me a choice between a baked good and a piece of candy, I'll choose the baked good almost every time. However, there are a few candy bars that I absolutely enjoy. Pretty much anything to do with chocolate and peanut butter, together. Reese's cups. Reese's Sticks. And the best ever... Take 5 bars . Oh yes. Five of the best ingredients - peanut butter, peanuts, caramel, pretzel, and chocolate - all in one crispy, crunchy, chewy chocolatey bite. Delicious. Today's a pretty lazy Saturday, so I decided that I'd try my hand at making homemade Take 5 bars. It didn't seem that difficult. And it wasn't. I started off with some little waffle pretzels .  I spread a little crunchy peanut butter on each one. (Taking care of the peanut butter and peanuts portion.) I then melted some unwrapped Kraft caramels with a ...

Today is a very special day. Exactly one year ago, I married my best friend. (Known around here as my Business Man.) This past year has brought a lot of fun, growth, and adventures as we've started our lives together. Moving 6 hours away from our families, starting new jobs , buying a house ... just to name a few of the exciting events we've experienced in this past year. I can't wait for the many, many years to come! I haven't really blogged about our wedding before... considering I started this blog to explore my journeys as a housewife in the Bean Town . It's hard to be a housewife before you're married. Anyways, I loved wedding planning. I almost wish I had a blog back then to document all the details. I didn't work from the time I graduated in May until our wedding on July 2, so all my free time was spent wedding planning! So much fun. Our wedding was held at Kickapoo Creek Winery outside of Peoria, IL. It was beautiful. We had our ceremony...

Yesterday was one of my absolute favorite road races of the year... the Steamboat Classic ! Even better, this year some of my BFF's from college (Talen & Jen) came, and we had loads of fun. (By the way, my Business Man & I traveled home this weekend for fun and to visit with family.) We hadn't seen each other in nearly 6 months, so it was great to spend time together doing one of our favorite things: running . The Steamboat Classic (located in Peoria, IL) has two race options--the 4-mile and 15km. It's touted as the "World's Fastest 4-Mile" (aka elites come from many different nations to race it) and "Illinois' Toughest 15km". We decided to do the 15km (9.3 miles) to maximize our running time together. Hehe. I somehow managed to "forget" to tell the girls that there is a huge hill that we would have to climb twice in the 15km. But they didn't seem to mind too much. We had a blast... just running for fun and talk...