Thursday, June 27, 2013

Finally living out my childhood dream!


This is happening tonight. Yes, that's right. I'm reverting back to my middle school years and going to get all giggly girl crazy tonight with NKOTB, 98 Degrees, and Boys II Men. I cannot express in words how excited I am about this. I have wanted to see the NKOTB since I was an awkward 5th grader. But my mom would never let me go or even consider buying me a ticket. So when I saw that they were coming to town, I was in. And I recruited 7 of my girlfriends to accompany me on this extravaganza. It is going to be THE concert of the year (at least in my mind). I will for sure have a blog post soon to recap the awesomeness that's happening tonight.

And is it bad that I'm literally counting down the hours until I get to skip out of work at 4:30 to head to the concert? I think not. Only 5 hours and 20 mins until that time arrives. But who's counting really....

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

My very first VoxBox

About a month ago, I received my first Influenster Spring Fever VoxBox in the mail. It was so exciting to be getting free products to try and give my opinion about (and please note that these are MY opinions about the products). I couldn't wait to try the different things in the box and who doesn't love free stuff!
This is the box that I got. Full of goodness!
First up: Secret Outlast
I was excited to try this because I'm always looking for a great deoderant/anti-persperant living in hot and humid Houston. This one didn't disappoint. It worked wonders and smelled lovely. The only thing I didn't like was that if I applied it right after shaving, it stung my skin. And the dial broke about halfway through the sample so I didn't get to use all of the product. Bummer! 
Next up: imPress Broadway Nails
I would have to say I'm not a fan of fake nails at all. But I was willing to give them a chance. I also wasn't fond of the color that was sent to me because I can't wear those to work. So I had to save them for a special night out. They were easy to apply and remove. And looked pretty cool on (I completely forgot to take a picture of them on though)
Third product: Schwarzkopf Professional Geltastic
This product was a pretty cool. It definitely did the trick and kept my hair under control (and I have some crazy, frizzy hair). A note to those that may use it- a little bit goes a long way. 
The food product in the box: Tasty Kake
I just recently tried this and it did not disappoint. It was so yummy! I even shared it with some of my coworkers and they all loved it. I have never seen these in stores but I definitely have my eye open for them now!
And my favorite product in the box: NYC New York Color
This lip gloss is fantastic! I love the color of it (not to bright but just a hint of color) and it smells/tastes lovely. The actual gloss part is like a lipstick and has an apple shape in the middle of it. So cute! I will definitely be buying more of this product once I run out. 

So there you have it. My first Influenster VoxBox and review. I loved getting these complimentary products and being able to try them out. I definitely hop I get chosen for another box soon!

NOTE: "I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes."

Monday, June 24, 2013

Adventures in cooking


This past Sunday my mom and I were debating on what to have for dinner. We went to the store and decided on fajitas. We got the met, sour cream, and tortillas and figured we had everything else at home (my mom loves to buy food so we very often have at least 2 of everything you would want to make). Well, when we got home, we realized that we didn't have any Mexican rice to go with the meal. I had my heart set on rice with this meal. I really wanted to make this rice from my friend Whitney's blog but we didn't have any cumin (which is a whole different story because my mom has every spice imaginable except for cumin apparently). So, I did what any resourceful, blogging, pinning person would do and hopped on pinterest. I found a recipe that only required the ingredients I had in the kitchen. You can find that recipe HERE. It was a super easy recipe and didn't really require a whole lot of effort. I would definitely make it again. The rice didn't have lot of spice in it though so next time I might cook it with a few slices of jalapeno to give it a little kick.

Here is how to make the rice-

First, you need these ingredients-
  • 1/2 cup rice 
  • 1 small tomato
  • 1/4 garlic clove
  • 1/4 onion (I used dried onions)
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 tbsp. chicken bullion
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • About 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
Step 1: Place tomato, garlic clove, onion, and water in blender and mix.
Warning: the water splashed everywhere since I used a food processor instead.
I had to put a towel around the lid to keep it from spilling out. 
Step 2: Saute rice with the vegetable oil in a sauce pan over medium heat until the rice is light brown
Step 3: Pour your blended mixture into the sauce pan. Add salt and chicken bullion. Lightly stir.
Step 4: Cover & simmer until the liquids are evaporated.
Then enjoy!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Father's Day 2013

Blog world... meet my dad. Once of the greatest men I know. He works so hard for his family and would do anything for me. I love him more than words can say and I consider myself one of the luckiest girls to have a dad this great. This year for Father's Day we went to the Black Walnut Cafe for brunch with my brother and his fiance. It was yummy food and good times. So yummy that we went home and took naps. Typical Sunday in my household. 

Monday, June 17, 2013

Margarita Fest 2013

The second weekend in June I ventured to San Antonio with 9 of my friends for our annual get together. We normally have Beer Fest each year to kick off summer and just have a weekend of fun. This year since were going to San Antonio, it was only appropriate that we call it Margarita Fest. And a lot of margaritas (and hurricanes) were consumed on this trip for sure! It was a fun weekend of being touristy and eating/drinking a lot. When I got back, I'm pretty sure I needed another weekend to recover. Pictures to document the trip.
No road trip is complete without a stop at Buc-cee's~
Look at that sunset!
First margarita of the trip (mango). Yum!
The sign at the Piano Bar we went to on night #1
Being a tourist on Saturday. 
This was actually a fun festival where I may have gotten a little too much sun. 
Everything is bigger in Texas
One day, I'm going to actually eat in the place. 
And then the fun began. Night #2 at Pat O'Brien's.
I may or may not have drank most of these on the table. 
I was paying for it the next day.  
Old roomie pic
I seriously love Brittany and her crazy advice. 
This actually turned out really well. 
See my horrible sunburn. OUCH!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Weekend recap

I do realize it's Wednesday and I'm just now getting around to recapping my weekend. But it's been a busy week so far. And I'm getting ready to go out of town this weekend so I'm trying to get a lot of stuff done so cut me some slack. Anyways... moving on.

This past weekend was a pretty relaxing one. But Friday night was full of FUN. I went to happy hour with Boy Wonder and some other friends. We met some new friends there and Boy Wonder and the other guy formed a bromance right of the bat. We were having so much fun, we decided to grab a quick bite and then go to an arcade for some game playing (and yes, I do have some inner nerd in me that comes out occasionally). BUT it wasn't just any arcade. It's a store called Joystick that sells old arcade games. Two Fridays a month they open it up and all the games are free to play for only $15. It was like reliving my childhood. I was in heaven! Definitely something I will do again!
Happy hour drink(s)

Boy Wonder and his new friend racing each other
My favorite game. It was awesome. 
Until Boy Wonder beat me :(
4 player Pac Man. YES!
I don't know what this game is called but it was awesome.
And really hard to beat the clock.
Who doesn't need a little Atari in their life?
Pin Ball machines galore 
This looks easy. It was not. 

Heading to San Antonio this weekend. Should be fun times! I'm sure blog about it!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

And we are on to June...

My challenge in May was to get out and move more. I was definitely pretty successful with that. I didn't do something every day like I had wanted to but Clark got walked more and I started going to the gym more. I'd say I was at 75% for the month. I consider myself a work in progress so I'm ok with what I did. I'm going to keep at it this month!

Now that it's June, I'm starting a new challenge. For those of you that are new to the blog or don't know me, I work for a non-profit organization. Which means I don't make a million dollars and I live on a budget. I love my job and it's fine for right now. But I don't have a whole lot of excess money. This past month, I had some extra expenses (Clark got sick and I had to pay my bar dues) so I'm kind of in recovery mode. And I had to start paying back one of my student loans this month so that stinks. I really want to move out of my current living situation in either July or August so I need to save this month.

SOOOO I'm going to try to put myself on a spending budget this month. I'm giving myself $300 for the month for fun stuff. Included in "fun stuff" is going out to eat, getting drinks, clothing, and any other fun stuff. I'm not including gas, groceries, or other bills in that amount though because I don't feel like that part of my spending is out of control. And the reason why it's $300 for the month is because I'm going to San Antonio this weekend for my friends annual Beer Fest (except we're calling it Margarita Fiesta since it's in San Antonio) and I know I'm going to need some extra spending money (good thing I already paid for my hotel before I decided to do this).

Some of my goals for the month to help with the spending-

  1. Obviously don't spend all $300
  2. Grab less fast food  for lunch and after work so I'll have to plan my meals better.
  3. Don't buy any new clothing/shoes unless absolutely necessary (this is going to be so hard because I love online shopping).
  4. Come up with fun, creative, and less expensive ways to entertain myself. 
I'm going to check in each Sunday with my spending. I'm writing everything down and then I'll report it here. We'll see how I do!

Saturday, June 1st- $0
Sunday, June 2nd- $0

So far, so good!