Shaz by the Sea

Happy Valentine's Day and President's Day weekend everyone! And cheers to a long weekend...much needed here in the Phelan household. We have been so busy running around that it will be nice to sleep in on Monday and not have to commute to the office. Here's a shot of me at about 8AM this morning in the garage of my condo -- I am almost 27 weeks! A pretty decent milestone in any pregnancy. I am, however, measuring about 35 weeks, so people at work are surprised I am still there each day. One of the main reasons for starting my blog was to refocus and concentrate on what is most important in life. I wanted to focus on the positive things and help others do the same. I feel like I have been somewhat successful at that these past few months, yet I haven't made a specific effort to blog about it. So this post is designated to just that -- here's to the little things (and arguably, the best things). I will start out with Valentine's Day. I am not typically o...

  Jim and I finally have the condo on the market. It was a long time coming with securing a storage unit, moving stuff over there, flying my dad out to LA and painting/updating the place. I am glad to say that we are pretty much done, it is now listed and we just need to get our movers out here to do the rest.   I have been playing around with the new professional camera that Jim got me recently, so I decided to take a few photos of the place. Let me know what you think! :)   Foyer:     Kitchen/Dining Area:   Kitchen:   Layout from the front:   Layout from the back:   Master Bedroom:   Master Bathroom:    Second Bathroom:  

I figured while my Dad was here visiting and painting, I would at least make him his favorite meal. So on Friday, we had chicken marsala with penne and we watched the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics.   Chicken Marsala   Ingredients: Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breasts Marsala Wine Olive Oil Shallots (optional) Mushrooms (optional) Flour Milk Sea Salt Pepper Garlic Chicken Stock Pasta (or veggie) of your choice Sandwich bags for the chicken Meat Tenderizer I started out with all my ingredients, and made sure to put down some towels/cutting boards to save my counter tops for the first step of any good chicken dish -- tenderizing the chicken. I placed the chunky chicken breasts in some freezer bags and used the meat tenderizer above to flatten them out one by one. I placed the bags of chicken in between two towels otherwise the tenderizer forms holes in the bags and you end up using about 10 unnece...

Since Jim is taking the CA bar exam in a few weeks and I am 26 weeks pregnant, we asked my Dad if he would be willing to come out to LA and help us get the condo ready to put on the market. He was understandably a little reluctant at first, as he would have to use some vacation days to come out here and paint. But of course, being the Dad that he is, he told us to book his flight. We went ahead and booked him on JetBlue, and of course Boston was set to get 10 inches of snow on the day of his departure. Therefore, my mom and dad changed his flight (all on their own!!) and he came out to LA a day early. Good thing he did that, because we had quite the list for him when he got here! :) Before/During: Here are a few shots of the condo while he was painting.   We had a little fun!   We had everything out that was going to the storage unit (more than half our place really) and Dad already converted my maroon wall to white -- prepp...

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been wicked tired -- today especially. I don't know what hit me....maybe it's because I am not sleeping too well, or maybe it's because yesterday was SO super fun that it took a lot out of me; but whatever it is, I hope I kick it soon. I have three more months to go.   I pretty much ate like a house today. I woke up and made a protein shake with TWO chobani Greek yogurts, then I had a bowl of cereal, some egg salad and sunchips for lunch, some pistachio ice cream...and that was all by 3 oclock. By 5pm I was starving again. Jimmy and I walked to the grocery and picked up some salmon, asparagus and strawberries. I decided to make a salmon/asparagus/pasta/lemon/hummus dish, which turned out amazing.   Let me back up. Yesterday at the shower, Nicole's boyfriend Patrick made the most outstanding homemade hummus I have ever had. I think I ate the whole thing -- and Sarah even wrapped me up some to go!...

I had plans to go out to a late lunch with my #legend gals Sarah and Nicole yesterday. The plan was for Sarah to pick me up on her way from Santa Monica down to The Source, a restaurant in Hermosa Beach. I have been mega tired lately, so I threw on some jeans and whatever shirt fit (there are very few these days). I hopped in her car and we made our way towards Nicole's place. When we arrived, Nicole asked that we run in real quick so she could grab her stuff -- and unbeknownst to me, there was a crowd full of friends in her living room!!!! SURPRISE!    Here is my diva entrance...yikes.   Jimmy didn't quite make the surprise, as he couldn't leave our place until after I had left. But it's ok, I was glad he was able to come and take a break from studying.   Here's a little collage of the day -- another entrance shot, me getting a kick out of Jimbo opening some little baby boy clothes and the most creative/adorable "PHELAN TWINS" blocks I...

After five years of living in California, Jimmy and I are SO excited to be moving back to DC! He is transferring back to the Fairfax, Virginia, office in March. I will be going on maternity leave and then I will figure everything out with my job and potential transfer after that. To be honest, it's the last thing on my mind. I have plenty to keep me busy with the arrival of A and B. So in short, we are outta here. I can't help but be wicked excited about the move and to be back in the same time zone as family, a drivable distance to Massachusetts and also having my Aunt, Uncle and cousins just down the road; but at the same time I am super sad to leave my good friends out here in LA. Speaking of, a HUMONGOUS thank you to Rock, Nicole and Patrick for all your help with the storage unit this weekend! We started taking down photos and decorations, as well as compiling a bunch of baby boxes for our friends help to move things to the storage unit yesterday. Here is a pictu...