Holiday Update!

I know I have been slack lately but with the changes in the insurance world and the holidays it has been hard to keep all my balls in the air.  But I am back now hopefully going to blog a little more especially since I am getting married in a little over 8 months from now!!!

This post is going to be very picture heavy.  I had a pretty decent Christmas holiday!  The Friday after Christmas day I got an iPhone 5s (in gold of course) and  I lost my pictures so I don't have any from Christmas but I do have some from New Years Eve!  I wanted to have a party for the holidays so I thought a New Years party would be awesome, it ended up going to be Danielle & Jason, Smash & Sam, (of course Allen & Myself) so I didn't feel right inviting my single friends because I did not want them to feel left out or uncomfortable.  I decided instead of a party with finger foods we could have an actual dinner party.  I was going to do the meats and Danielle and Smash would bring the sides.  Sadly, Danielle was sick on NYE so she couldn't come.  I ended up making the mac and cheese but I know hers would have been way better.  We will have to do another pot luck soon :)Here are the pictures from NYE :)

Friday Confessional

I am linking up with Aubrey for Friday confessional and man do I need it this week!

I Confess....

It has been a little hard to concentrate this week at work since we all heard the news about my daddy's business partner but we are all staying positive now and that is a good thing!

I Confess...

I do love my job but sometimes some of my clients are major pains especially when I have to give bad news.  I hate getting fussed at for something I can't control but it is part of the job I guess. 

I Confess...

I have not been working hard enough on getting my weight off the past month or so.  I am going to have to get back on the wagon because I am going to start looking at wedding dresses in March!!!!  So I need to start busting my butt again!

I Confess....

I LOVE MY HOUSE!  I feel so at home there and I just love everything about it.  I also kinda like that Allen is on 2nd shift because he can take pepper out before he leaves and then I can when I get home and if I have a girls night with my bestie I don't have to worry about her making messes!  And I get to clean and pick up without having to worry about disturbing anyone else.  

I Confess...

I am super pumped about my Scentsy party tomorrow with the girls!  Then we are having a Co-ed Party afterwards for whoever wants to stay!  I have to admit I am ready to have so many parties at our house!!!!! And I am going to try my hardest to remember to take pictures. 

I Confess...

I have been down this week so last night after a rough afternoon trying to help a client...I went for some retail therapy at Old Navy.  I really want to find some jeans to fit me well but I cannot seem to find any that work for me.  I bought a lot of stuff and today I am returning a lot of stuff back.  I thought a sparkle cardi that I got was cream and when I got it home it was light pink!!!  I do not think so no pink for this girl.  My favorite purchase was this lovely belt.

 

Blindsided!

This is going to be a different post but man this year has thrown some crazy turns.  Some good, some bad...  My dad's business partner (and my direct boss) was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year.  She is 48 years old and has always been a health & exercise nut.  So when she was having some issues none of us thought that it would ever be the "worse case" scenario that the doctors painted.  She went through the "wipple" surgery and chemo brilliantly she was even told last month after her CT scan she was cancer free.  She went last Tuesday for a follow up CT scan and found a spot on her liver.  Yesterday she had some other test done and got her results today.  The results were grim!  The cancer has spread in just 3 weeks and was getting bigger.  So she is starting chemo not to cure her but to prolong her life which the doctor gave her a year.  I am just so in shock.  I am a believer and I know that everything happens for a reason but sometimes you wonder why...This woman has a 24 year old son in dental school and a 16 year old daughter in high school.  I just cannot understand why things happen the way they do and I know God is always in control and HE is the only one that knows but still why.  I have become so close to this woman I use could not stand and now she is like a 2nd mother to me.  I know that He heals and He will protect her.  I just hope that anyone that is reading this to remember TELL the people you love the most you love them!  HUG the people you love!  Never take anyone for granted because in a flash any of us can be gone. 

I am going to do better!

 I have been an absolutely terrible, terrible blogger.  There are no excuses but life has been a little insane lately.  First off,  I was the wedding coordinator for my bestie and make sure her wedding went off without a hitch.

This is not from her wedding but from our double date to dueling pianos!!! I really like the picture though :) 

My house has gone from this

To this (and I love it)

We are all moved in and now I am ready for some parties and diy projects. I will be doing better blogging because with the holidays coming up and my wedding next year I will have LOTS to talk about.  I am very excited because I am having a scentsy housewarming party Nov. 16th with the girls then whoever wants to stay the guys will be coming back and we will grill out :) Also on the 23rd I am going to my very first Trans Siberian Orchestra concert with Deana (my dad's business partner) and her daughter Miranda (who is also in love with Katy Perry like me but she is 16)!  Allen and I are also talking about hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our new house this year!! I am looking forward to that as well. Happy Tuesday Everyone!!!!

Wino Wednesday - Bestie's Birthday Edition

 I am linking up with Aubrey and Danielle for another Wine Wednesday!!! 

This post is going to be short and sweet since I am still trying to catch up from being on "vacation" last week.  

Today is my bestie's birthday and I am so excited we are getting to celebrate together!!  I do not believe I would have had half the fun I have had in the past 5 years without you!!! Love you so much Danielle!!!! 

And we are getting a picture of us together tonight if it the last thing I do!!!!!

I am wearing Yellow Shoes today!!!!!

My title has absolutely nothing to do with what I am going to write about but this weekend I found my favorite yellow shoes I bought last year for $10.  I thought I lost them forever!!!!! 

We had Jackson this weekend.  Allen and I want to take Jackson camping in the future but we know we need to get him kinda use to the idea so they "camped out" in the living room.  Allen has a small army tent that fit in our living room and we had lanterns and I found this awesome alarm clock that projects images on the ceiling so they could sleep under the stars.  I grilled hot dogs and pre heated my oven to make some fries.  I go take pepper out and come back in my house is filled with smoke.  My oven was so dirty that it started a small fire in the bottom.  I made my mind up that Saturday I would clean that thing and it would not happen again.  Side note: we did get the smoke out and the camping was a success.  We even watched Yogi Bear the movie perfect night :) 

That night I started looking up ways to safely clean your oven on Pinterest.  I did not want to use chemicals or anything that would be harmful so I found this site.Hometalk.com

So many awesome cleaning tips and ideas.  I used baking soda and water made a paste, put it all over my oven and let it sit for about 2 1/2 hours.  Then I sprayed a vinegar and water mixture in the oven and let that sit for another 30 minutes.  My oven was gross to say the least.  When I started scrubbing most of the baked on food just came off with ease.  The hardest part was getting all the baking soda out of the oven but I was extremely impressed with my results.  I forgot to take a before and after but it was so much better. 

 

This is probably the closest to what my oven looked like before.   Nasty right! 

I did not know how powerful baking soda and vinegar are on spills and such so I had an idea, since I am on vacation this week (and Allen and I are getting ready to move) I figured this was a perfect time to deep clean my house. I am going to post each day a before and after of what I do and my reviews of some tips I have found on Pinterest.   So excited!!! Tomorrow is the refrigerator :)  

Happy Monday!!!!

 

Transformation Thursday!

Whew!! This has been some week my friends....Allen and I finalized our color selections on our house.  I am over the moon excited about starting our lives together in a home we (I) customized.  Those post will be coming soon :) Work is still as crazy as it can be but this past weekend I bought (felt like I stole b/c it was an awesome deal) a treadmill from the one and only Danielle.  So at least I can get up in the morning at get some cardio going before work.  Allen is loving it too!!!  

So on to what people care about :)

I have weighed this morning and I was down more 226.5!!!!  WooHoo!!!!  I was very happy especially since I kinda stress ate last night and got the best chicken fingers ever. And sometimes a girl just needs some fried food, a glass bottle of wine, and her best friend to make an awful day better! But I did run/walk this morning so that makes up for it my stress eating.   

I am getting so close to my first goal!!! I am going to write about a few recipes this afternoon when I am not as busy!!!