Holiday Wish List

It's that time again! I love creating these wish lists...now if only they (and my fashion board on pinterest) would magically just show up because I created it. 

1. Rose Bowl 

I love the look of flowers in a rose bowl. There's something that's so simple and yet elegant about it to me. Since I'm not currently in a position to buy things that I want "just because" this is one of those things that I would love to have for when Dave brings home flowers, but unless someone gets it for me it won't be a purchase I'll make anytime soon. 

2. Salt/Pepper Jars

I've mentioned how much I love my current salt jar here (and how it makes me feel like an adult). I've been on the hunt for a pepper jar that would match the salt one, but I've been coveting this pair for a few years now. 

3. Skirt

I don't own a ton of cute skirts, but I wish I did. This green skirt is peppered with flecks of yellow and would look amazing with a navy sweater I have. 

4. Horseshoe Necklace

Sign of luck, silver, quaint, goes with just about any outfit, do I need to say more?

5. Boyfriend Pants

Dave bought me a pair of these pants last year for Christmas. They have been in my wash every single week since then. They are by far my most favorite item of clothing, warm, comfortable, I would own 100 of these pants if I could. 

6. Columbia Zenith Jacket

I currently own Columbia's omiheat fleece jacket and I love it. I wear it during the winter months and it's perfect because the omniheat keeps me warm by trapping in my body heat while the fleece allows me to be more mobile (I hate winter jackets that you can't move in!). The only problem with my fleece is that it's definitely a very casual jacket and I'd like to have something that looks nice for when I need to go to special events.

So what are some items on your wish list?

A Public Service Plea

A few friends and I are trying to plan a day in December to hang out and create ornaments together. In preparation for the day, we decided to check out Pinterest for DIY ornaments. The amount of projects that involved destroying perfectly good books almost set me off the deep end. 

The idea of someone destroying a perfectly good book, rendering the book completely useless for not only it's intended creation but also for any future use as well is one of my worst nightmares. I mean come on, think about all the DIY projects you created. How many of those projects do you still use or have on display? 

This is my public service plea: Please stop destroying books and calling it DIY. If you have books lying around that you don't want to use, donate them to your local library. If there is a craft that you absolutely have to do that involves paper, use newspaper. For every book you destroy, that's one less story someone else can escape to. 

P.S. This wreath is hideous. It's also a fire hazard. 

End of the Week Roundup

Howdy! Happy Friday! 

1. Wednesday I woke up and literally thought it was Saturday. It was also the same day I wrote this post about irksome things. I had half a mind to add it to the list before I published it!

2. Saturday night I had dinner with my aunt and uncle and met their new puppy Colby. He is such a sweet, cuddly little guy. The end of the night he had fallen asleep in my arms. Is there anything better than puppies and kittens? 

3. I finished up two bears this week for a friend for Christmas. You can check out other things I've done on my Facebook page.

4. Sundays have become "Sons of Anarchy Sundays". Thanks to Netflix Dave and I get nothing done. 

5. There are very few things I like about winter/the cold. One of those things is how Nibs and Squish amp up the cuddles.

How was your week?

Things I Find Irksome

Things Nibbler finds irksome? Having his picture taken.

Inspired by Steph over at Life According to Steph, things that I currently find irksome:

 Slow drivers in the left hand lane. That lane, friend, is for passing. If you aren't passing get over so I can pass you! I firmly believe slow left hand laners (and ignorant people around merging lanes) are the biggest reason for traffic. Get out of the way!

Having a nose that is so stuffed you feel like you're suffocating when you eat/brush teeth/close your mouth. Damn you stubborn snot!

 Kim Kardashian. Hasn't her 15 minutes finished up yet?

 Kim Kardashian's ass. It's big, I get it. Her waist/ass are also photo-shopped to oblivion, why are we oohing and aahing over it? 

Mean girls. Isn't it more work to be mean than it is to be nice or at least keep it to yourself? I know girls who literally have a roundtable of who they currently don't like. When they get bored not liking one girl they move on to the next, and the vicious cycle continues. Why?  

People who drive on the highway/bypass with their high beams on. Hey jerks, you're still blinding the people on the other side of the road. Why do you have them on, you're on a highway not a back road!

McDonald's breakfast burritos. Those things are so darn good when they're cooked right, but so bad when they aren't. The chances of getting a good burrito? 25%, and yet I still get them in hopes of getting the good ones. Why can't they be delicious every time? 

The battery life on my iPhone. Dead in a few hours, when I plug it in (and wait for it to turn on again) suddenly I have 60% battery life. What gives?!?

What are some things you find irksome?

What Would You Do?

Source

I was driving home from school the other night around 7 pm. I was all alone on my local bypass, nothing but me and my headlights. It reminded me of another time when I was all alone on the bypass a few years earlier. I was coming home from school that night too when all of a sudden out of nowhere a big tow truck comes up behind me, high beams blinding me in my rear-view mirrors, and he was following veryclose.

I normally don't engage these kinds of people, because you never know who is psycho or who has a gun. If I'm in the left hand lane, I get over to the right. If I'm on a road, I'll normally turn off and let them get ahead of me. But in this situation, I wasn't going to pull off the side of the road, who knows what this person would have done if we stopped? So I slowed down (very slowly too! no jamming on the brakes) less than the 55 mph that the road allowed, down to about 35-40. I figured going slow would make them get bored enough to go around me, which is exactly what this person did. 

When they pulled around me though, they positioned the truck in between the two lanes so that I couldn't pass and slowed down even more, almost like they were trying to force me to stop. I have no idea why this person did this or what was going on, literally one minute I'm alone on the highway, the next I've got this psycho coming after me. I didn't know what to do, so I pulled my phone out, turned the screen on and held it up near my head like I was going to make a call. As soon as the person saw me do that they sped up and disappeared. 

I was really shaken and when I got home a few minutes later and told Dave about it, my biggest regret was that I didn't call the cops or 911. I really wished I had given them this truck's info, but how often do cops just go out looking for crazy drivers? My guess is that unless it's happening, not very often. This whole ordeal lasted no more than two minutes so by the time I had my wits about me again, it was all over. 

What would you have done if you were in my situation? Have you ever had a scary run in on the road like I did?

Five Favorites Friday

With my first semester of grad school winding down, this week has been pretty uneventful. Unless you consider writing unit plans and lesson plans as eventful. So in lieu of a end of the week roundup I decided to share five things this week that I'm loving. 

My boss introduced me to this song/band this week. I've never heard of them before but I 've really been enjoying the song. 

I finished this book this week. It's a really short, simple read but has so many powerful, inspirational messages. I'm already planning on including this as part of the teen book club reads. 

 I picked up a pair of these microliner socks (on sale!) from Old Navy the other week, and then promptly went back and bought three more pairs. I'm a flats wearing kind of girl regardless of the weather. During last year's deep freeze I didn't wear any kind of socks, and my feet weren't too happy with me. These socks should be a game changer this year. 

 I love it when OK Go releases music videos. They are always so much fun to watch because they are choreographed so creatively. Here's their newest video: 

 Squish knows the struggle. This is how he was sleeping on the back of the couch, face plant style. 

How was your week?

Be in the Moment

Before I got sick last week, I was having a rough day. I had about an hour and a half to spare before I had to go to work. I was far enough away from home that driving home and hanging out wasn't going to happen so I decided to drive around and "get lost". 

 
As I was driving I found myself focusing more about things that happened in the past that bothered me, or things that I needed to get done. Past and future, that's what kept flip flopping around in my mind. I noticed that by doing this, not only was I stressing myself out more, but I really wasn't enjoying my drive. 

I took major issue with this. It was a beautiful day and I never get to just drive around with no intended end point, and I was wasting it by being upset about things that I couldn't change or worrying about things that I couldn't control. I started thinking about all the times I was in a great moment and I didn't get to appreciate that moment because I was thinking about past and future. 

So I decided to start thinking "be in the moment" and when I found my thoughts wandering to other things other than what was going right then and there, I would think "be in the moment" again. Eventually I ended up here:

It was like I was being rewarded for enjoying that free time a little bit more, and it felt so good. And a bad day ended up being a great day. 

Had any recent epiphanies lately?

Twice Baked Taco Potatoes

This recipe is a bit near and dear to me...its the first recipe I've ever created from scratch. Now I know it isn't a huge, grand masterpiece but for someone like me who follows recipes to a "T", making one from scratch with no recipe to follow is a big deal. 

One of the restaurants we visited when we vacationed in OBX last month had these on their menu. Dave and I decided to try them and they were delicious. I figured they were simple enough to make and here we are! 

Here's what you need:

• 6-8 potatoes
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1 cup sour cream, plus more for topping
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 cup shredded cheese, plus more for topping--I used Sargento Mexican cheese
• diced tomato

Here's what you need to do:

 Before we even get into the details of cooking this, let me just say this: I'm not really patient when it comes to cooking. If I can cook something faster, I will. Waiting an hour to bake potatoes is not something I choose to do. I used to buy the microwave ready potatoes at the store, but recently I picked up the Potato Express, which works great except that it takes about 6 minutes not 4 to bake the potato. That's still better than an hour. 

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Scrub your potatoes clean. If you are still going to bake your potato, rub it with oil, pierce it several times with a fork, place it on a baking sheet, and bake for one hour, or until piercing it with a fork meets no resistance. If you choose to microwave your potato, start that now.

2. While the potato is cooking, brown the ground beef until it is cooked through and add the taco seasoning in, following directions on the packet. 

3. When the potatoes are done cooking, cut each potato in half,  lengthwise. Scrape out the insides of the potato into a large bowl. Be careful not to get too close to the skin, you'll need that intact to make the potato skins. Place the hollowed out portion of the potato onto a baking rack. 

4. Mash up the potatoes with the butter, sour cream and milk. Add the cheese and meat. Fill up the potato shells with the filling, the more the better!

5. Top the potatoes with a little bit more cheese and bake for 20 minutes. 

6. Once baked through, top the potato with some tomato and sour cream and enjoy!

Five Randoms

So I've been sick this whole week with a terrible sinus head cold...hence no posts this week. What that also means is that I don't have much of a roundup for you...because sitting on the couch five days in a row isn't conducive for post-worthy stuff. I'm still a little under the weather but I wanted to post something so you guys knew I was alive. So without further ado, here are five things that got me through this week. 

 

 Netflix

I DVR everything so I don't have to watch commercials, so being able to watch full seasons (series) without having to fast forward at all is heaven to me. Not having to worry about having nothing to watch while I'm sitting home all day in a coma on my couch is even better. 

Chapstick

Oh sweet sweet chapstick. I used to be a girl who would only wear strawberry flavored chapstick, but I moved on to "better" things. But when I'm sick and become a literal "mouth breather", chapstick saves my poor, dry, chapped lips.

Clinique Dramatically Different Lotion

I got a sample of this lotion one time and while it was a little too much for regular wear, it's perfect for when my nose is all dry and cracked from blowing my nose too much. Just a little on my nose saves me from painful, sore nose rub. 

VS Boyfriend Pants

I'm miserable when I'm sick (who isn't?), so much so I hate doing anything beyond getting out from under the covers in my bed to going under blankets on my couch. But, there is something about getting dressed, even if it's my lounge around clothes. I live in my VS boyfriend pants over the weekend, so when I'm sick, I can justify wearing them as a way of "getting dressed" while still being super comfy. 

Dave, Nibs, and Squish

Do you really think I'd have a list of life savers and not include my boys? I already talked about how Squish becomes my little "nurse" when I get sick here, and Nibbler is always cuddly. Dave is even more awesome than usual (if that's even possible). He makes dinner, brings me drinks and meds, goes to bed ridiculously early with me so that I can fall asleep on his shoulder (the best way to knock me out), the list goes on and on. 

So that's it for this quick list, I'll be back Monday with my reguarly scheduled posts!