Hair Happens

I hate my hair.

If anyone would ask me the thing I am most self-conscious about, it's my hair.

I've never had great hair. My hair is naturally curly, which is cute on other people. But not on me, because my hair is also thin AND fine. My curls aren't a pretty curl, and always have you seeing more of my scalp than you should see.

A Book That Became a Movie

When I saw this category on the reading challenge list, I knew exactly which book I wanted to read. I knew the movie was based on a book and I wanted to read the book before the movie comes out next month (I'm a nerd.)

If Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence weren't enough to draw me into seeing this movie, the book sealed the deal.

Behind the Locked Door, Part 2

Each month I'm going to try to give you a couple of glimpses into the life of a Ticket Chick. Now, depending on where the Ticket Peeps in your life work, things could be totally different. It's not a normal job that can be easily defined. To try and answer the "But what do you actually do besides just sell tickets?" I've taken to this mini-series that will span the course of the year for you.

A Book With Antonyms in the Title (-ish)

This is one of the categories I knew I would struggle with. So I made it antonym-ish. I know antonyms are words that have opposite meanings, and I felt this was close enough to count.

Realty TV Thoughts - Marriage Bootcamp

I love Marriage Bootcamp. I especially love Marriage Bootcamp: Reality Stars.

While I feel that some of the methods are a bit extreme, I do get that there is a method to the madness in what Jim and Elizabeth put the couples through.

Having paintballs shot at you to see who others blame for the problems in your relationship? It allows you to get a perspective from someone who is outside of the situation. And those people are sometimes better able to see things that those of us in the middle of the situation aren't.

Faking the death of your spouse to get you to really see that the problems you have don't matter more to you than your spouses life? Sometimes it's the snap back to reality that we all need.

This season, the couples went to divorce court to see what it would be like if their marriages reached that point.

During Tyson and Rachel, the only unmarried couple in the groups, time with the Judge, Tyson was asked why he was with Rachel. His response was that she would usually compromise or just go with the flow.

The Judge was quick to point out that not once did Tyson ever say that he loves Rachel. She then looked at Rachel, who was defending Tyson, and said these words:

"Don't make a man tell you he doesn't want you more than once."   

This hit home for me because it is a lesson that I'm still learning. 

The first relationship was 7 years. 7 years of not being able to tell anyone that we were a couple. 7 years of being a mistress in a sense that he had other girlfriends that he would take out on dates, introduce to people, etc. 7 years of being told that I wasn't good enough before I finally left. 

When I finally decided to dive back into dating and got serious, I spent that next relationship hearing how jealous he was of his best friend and his best friend's girlfriend. In my ex's mind, he deserved her because he had met her first. Talk about what you want to hear when you're spending all of your spare money and time flying across the country to be with this person. 

The latest relationship was spent with my ex spending most of our time together on his cell phone with his "friends". He spent the time online flirting with other women, while never once telling me how much he claims I meant to him. While I made myself stay in the relationship for a year for myself, I stayed longer than I should have. 

"Don't make a man tell you he doesn't want you more than once."   

It seems like such simple advice, but can be hard to put into practice when all you want is for the person that you care about to accept you. 

I've made the men in my life tell me less that they don't want me, but my goal is to one day reach the point where I have enough love and respect for myself, that I won't make him say it more than once. 

A Book A Friend Recommended to You

A former coworker had been talking about this book on her Facebook page before it was published, and I kept mental tabs to keep checking because I wanted to read it when it was published. It was published last summer, and I just happened to see an article on it a few weeks ago. 

Since I still have some credit on the Amazon gift card that my brother gave me for Christmas, I looked into purchasing the e-book. However, the price was a little steeper than what I am willing to pay for an e-book. 

I then decided to check and see if my library had it. They had an e-book version, and I was able to finally read this book and achieve a library right of passage all at once. 

This book takes you on the journey of Gary Stewart as he uncovers clues of his biological father. Based on things that he has found out, he believes that his father is the Zodiac Killer. 

Music Monday - Bands I Miss

The other day in the office, my co-worker and I were letting YouTube take us on a musical journey. This led us to discussing bands/artists that we haven't heard from in a long time that we wish would come back on the popular scene, Here are a few of them:

Simple Plan
I love Simple Plan, and not just because I think Pierre is wicked hot. His voice sounds different and I could listen to him sing all day. Their songs connected with me at a time when I needed to feel like someone got what I was going through. Can't wait to hear the album that's set to come out this year!

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Secondhand Serrenade

My co-worker then countered with Secondhand Serrenade. We enjoy their music because it can be played in the office when we have to really focus on work. It's relaxing, and even though some people say most of their songs sound the same, we still wish they had gotten more play than they did. 

Bowling for Soup

Ok, anyone who knows me knows I have a love/hate relationship with Bowling for Soup. I used to love them. Like, seriously LOVE them. I was so excited to hear they were doing a show in Baton Rouge, that I tried to get everyone to go with me. I finally managed to convince one friend to go, and it was horrible. The show wasn't promoted (I heard about it on a whim), nobody was there, and the few drunk frat guys who were spent the whole night razzing the band. The band spent more time interacting with the drunk people at the bar than they did playing. I was so upset that I left after hearing my top three songs. From that day on, the relationship went more to a love/hate than the sole love. Either way, I enjoy their music, and felt they deserve a spot on the Bands I Miss list. 

Any bands that you ever think about and wish they were still on your radio? Let me know so I can give them a listen! I'm always on the lookout for awesome music! 

Weekly B

Girls weekend was amazing! I'm looking forward to a slower week this week and getting back to a "normal" schedule as far as these workouts are going.

PAST WEEKLY GOALS  

- Complete Blogilates Beginners Week 3

- Begin reading MWF Seeking BFF

This one was tabled because I began reading An Unexpected Gift instead. I'll be starting this book later this week. 

- Post three blog posts

To some people this may not seem like much, but to me managing to get three blog posts up in a week is major progress! Next month the challenge will be to get more on a schedule, but for now I'm happy with just keeping up with a set number of posts. 

- Enjoy a girls weekend with my college bestie!

I ended up having to work, but my co-worker and I did manage to enjoy our trip to Houston and then a girls night watching the NHL All-Star game and reality tv when we got back into town. 

The Power of Words

"Mommy, I don't love you."

When kiddo turned and looked at me straight in the face and said those words, it took all I had not to cry.

I know she didn't mean it, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

I'm usually on my way to work when she wakes up in the mornings, but today I was running a little late. I knew seeing me there after she woke up was a surprise and a change to her morning routine.

And kiddo is NOT a fan of her routine being messed with.

She is also NOT a fan of anyone being too affectionate with her, especially right after she wakes up.

When I went in my room to get my stuff before heading out the door, I broke down. But I also heard her about to cry in the living room to Momma B as she asked where Mommy was going.

As Momma B explained to her how what she said made Mommy sad and hurt Mommy's feelings, we all know her little brain didn't fully understand.

It was a powerful reminder that what you say matters. What you say can change someone's entire outlook on themselves.

But most importantly, it reminded me that once you say the words, you can never take them back.

A Book Set During Christmas

I've had this book downloaded on my phone since the Christmas holidays and just never got around to reading it. Since this challenge was accepted with the plan to read through the massive amount of books on my Kindle, I decided to knock this one out.

Throwback Thursday - College Bestie

I'm so excited that my college bestie and I are taking a girls roadtrip this weekend!

Since she's gotten married and we've both had children, the time we get to spend as just two women is very rare. We decided last year that instead of buying each other gifts for our birthdays and Christmas, we would make more of an effort to hang out with each other during the year.

Gifts are great, but the time spent with good friends is truly priceless.

I'd like to take you back to one of the last trips that we had before children.

Things Were Uncomfortable, Until They Weren't

This past Sunday, I sat through one of the most difficult Sunday School lessons of my adult life. Our class is going through the seven deadly sins, or as our teacher likes to call them, the seven daily sins. (He has a point.)

It wasn't the lesson so much that was difficult, but the lesson topic coupled with the fact that I'm in a Sunday School class with my parents.

Can you guess the topic yet?

LUST.

I won't lie, I kept hoping this lesson would get pushed back until baseball season so I could use work as an excuse to not sit through this one.

God has a sense of humor.

We went through all the standard messages: lust isn't specific to sex (it's not), how the world views sex v the church views sex, how the church doesn't really like to talk about sex, how your parents don't really like to talk about sex, where we all learned about sex as kids (I'm the baby in the class, so I'm the only person who's answer was the internet). It wasn't bad.

Until one of our class members spoke up and said that he feels all of us in the room have conquered the "big sins" and it's more the little sins that we have to deal with.

I sat there thinking, if lust is one of your "big sins", then speak for yourself! This is one that I struggle with, a lot.

Then I began to think about how none of us in that room, or in the entire church for that matter, really have it all together. Sure, some people may only be dealing with the "little sins", but we don't really know that, do we? Just because someone attends church regularly, is active in multiple ministries, has a solid career and loving family, doesn't mean that they don't struggle with some of the things that we as Christians like to define as "big sins".

That's why we should never judge our Christian walk against what we perceive to be the Christian walk of others. I'm a perfect example that sometimes the people who look like they have it all together, are the ones who struggle the most not to come apart at the seams.

100 Things To Do in SETX in 2015

I love reading through the Event Book every month. Without it, I would have on clue about anything that is happening here in Southeast Texas. Even though I've lived here for almost 3 years now, there is still so much to do in this area that I don't know about!

Sure, having a schedule where I'm working many weekends probably has me tuning things out just because I know I can't attend them, but there are so many things that I CAN do!

The Event Book decided to give me an awesome checklist of things to do! Some of them I may not be able to do (due to time restraints, financial restraints, etc.), but I'm going to make it my goal to do as many of these as I can this year. 

In case you were wondering what the list entails, see below!

A Book With a Color In The Title

Confession: I checked this book out from the library because it met the color in the title criteria. I also checked it out because it wasn't very long. I never imagined that I would fall in love with this book.

Cheesecake Nutella Twists...With a Twist!

I've been seeing this recipe pop up everywhere: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, you name a social media outlet, I've seen this recipe on it.

Click above to get the full/real recipe

I love Nutella, and I had some to finish off. Who doesn't love cream cheese and crescent rolls? All signs screamed GO! so I set out to make these for breakfast before church on Sunday. 

Until I realized I was missing one key ingredient. 

Hungry Girl's Nacho-rific Stuffed Chicken

I love Hungry Girl! 

When I moved out on my own and decided that I wanted to make healthier meals for myself, she was my introduction to cooking. Her meals aren't THAT difficult, and if they seem to difficult for my beginner skill level, I shy away from them. 

I haven't made a HG meal in a while, and was flipping through one of her cookbooks and landed on her Nacho-rific Stuffed Chicken. 

It sounded great, and since I had pretty much all of the ingredients, it got the green light. 

Click on the book to check out the Hungry Girl website. 

Read more about my cooking adventure below!

Weekly B

Last week was busy with multiple games, but I was able to keep on top of my personal to-do list! I think it helped that the event that was scheduled for the weekend was cancelled, so it freed me up for some quality time with kiddo.

PAST WEEKLY GOALS  

- Complete Blogilates Beginners Week 2

I not only finished Week 2, but started Week 3! I need to move my rest day of this week to be back to back with my rest day next week so I can squeeze everything in before heading off to New Orleans for the weekend. 

- Begin reading Girl in Hyacinth Blue

I finished reading this book, and another one this week. It seems like January has been a solid month of reading for me, but I've just gotten really good books!

- Cook one new meal 

This time I took to my cookbooks to find a recipe that had everyone asking for seconds! (Blog post on that one coming up soon!) I haven't used my cookbooks in a long time, so I'm going to try (HA!) to stay off of Pinterest and use these for a while. 

- Post three blog posts

- No cell time when hanging with kiddo after work this week

I know that I wasn't perfect with this one, but I felt that I did better than normal. I'm making more of an effort to leave my personal phone in my room, and only having my work phone in the same room so it's not as much of a temptation. 

- Purchase Operation Christmas Child items for the month

I purchased some toothbrushes and toothpaste from the Dollar Tree to start collecting for our boxes this year. I'd like for our family to sponsor one boy and one girl. I have some extras that I've picked up with coupons, and if we can't make full boxes, then I'll use any additional to donate for placement in other boxes. 

Blogilates Mug Muffin

Today's adventure in cooking really does involve a microwave. 

I've made breakfast in a mug plenty of times. I love mug egg scrambles (shoutout to Hungry Girl!) and made mug desserts, so I figured the Blogilates mug muffin would be super easy. 

After reading some of the comments on the blog about other people's attempts at the muffin, I felt like I was ready for the challenge. 

A Nonfiction Book

If someone would have told me that I would end up so in love with a book from the library that I would want to run out and buy a copy for myself, I would have laughed at you. Maybe not laughed at you when you said I would love a book so much I would want it for myself, but maybe when you told me what the first library find I wish I owned was. 

I passed by this book a few times, and something kept drawing me back to it. I read the inside flaps and after much debate finally decided to just bring it home. If I read it, great. If I didn't read it, no harm done. 

Many people may not consider this book a quality professional development read, but I think that it is. 

Kiwi Crate Adventures!

Kiddo is either hit or miss about her Kiwi Crates. I think it's because she's still a little too young for some of the activities. However, I'll continue to get them for a while to see how she lines them before making a decision. 

This past month's Kiwi Crate involved dinosaurs, something that she loves! I figured this one might be a little more in her areas of interest so we might be able to actually do the activities together. 

She LOVED making her dinosaur feet and visor! Even though we got a little sidetracked before I could string the feet to put on her, she likes carrying them around with her and pretending to be a dinosaur. 

It took a while for her to warm up to making the dinosaur fossils, but once she started, she didn't want to stop! 

We can't wait to see what our next Kiwi Crate brings us!

A Book Your Mom Loves

My mom is horrible with remembering the names of books that she loves. She can recognize the cover, sometimes. This made the "book your mom loves" box a little more difficult to check off. She told me that I knew that she would love any Amish romance novel, so I set out to find one.

Apparently, Amish romance is HUGE in my area. I had plenty of selections to chose from, but eventually picked this book because every time I walked by, someone had turned it around. After a few times of fixing it, I just went ahead and checked it out.

We follow Caleb as he battles his demons from the English life in his return to the Amish. Caleb falls in love with Jodie and can't understand how she seems so unphased and unconcerned about his past. He butts heads with his father, who is not only his bishop, but also his boss on a construction crew. Caleb finds his true purpose as he begins helping a family who refuse to accept charity. We watch Caleb face his demons, we watch his father come to respect him as a man, and we watch Jodie continue to show him what it means to love someone unconditionally. 

This is my mom's idea of a great read. For me, it wasn't bad. It's not something I would have picked up without some prodding. It wasn't a bad read, just not my cup of tea. (And that is the only reason it gets such a low star rating from me.) 

B Star Rating: 

Guilty Pleasure of the Moment

With some of the guilty pleasures that are taking up space on my musical playlist rotations, what I'm about to reveal to you comes as a shock to most people. 

I'm not a Taylor Swift fan. 

I've never really gotten into her stuff. Sure, I spent lots of time focusing on that one video because it had the dude from Laguna Beach it in, but for the most part, I'm not a fan of her music. 

However, all of my friends who have amazing taste in music have been telling me that her latest album is pretty awesome. They recommend I should give it a listen ... after taking some digs on my love of One Direction. (I never said they had PERFECT taste in music.) 

While I haven't listened to too much of the album, ok, so I've only listened to two songs. It's hard NOT to have heard "Shake It Off" at this point. It's cute, it's catchy, annoyingly catchy, but has a good message that all of us can get behind. I saw her video for Blank Space, and I have to say, I'm digging it. I'm not sure if I'm digging the song so much, or the song and the video together, but I at least dig this video. 

 

BUT

Then YouTube did the most awesome thing it could have ever done!

It recommended my latest guilty pleasure of the moment.

While T-Swift may have done an amazing job on her video, the parody of the song by What's Up Moms truly reflects how us moms feel. (Mad props to any SAHMs out there!)

As a single mom who works a crazy schedule, I have to give mad props to Momma B, who I know sometimes gets this feeling. (Only she's more Dr Pepper than any sort of coffee.)

So...

Here is my official guilty pleasure of the moment. Seriously, I can't stop watching and laughing. Then I remember my boss wants me to take time off and "enjoy life at home" with my kiddo for a few days.

Maybe he'll give me a Starbucks gift card to help me out?

More Than The Numbers

I was watching the clips from the fitness segments on Kelly & Michael from this past week. I started watching mainly to see Chalene Johnson's segment (love her!), but ended up watching the rest of them while I was on the site.

There is something that Jesse Pavelka said that really stuck to me. His advice for anyone who sets a resolution to lose weight, is to not focus on the numbers. "Don't focus on the numbers, focus on how you feel." He goes on to say that you can't always lose weight, but you can always feel good after a workout. He and Kelly then suggest tossing out your scales because they'll only hold you back by putting too much pressure on yourself.

These pictures have been popping up all over my Pinterest lately, and it's so true.

I've struggled with my weight for most of my life. I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) which makes it difficult for me to lose weight.

Back when I was a college athlete, I was working out at least once a day ON TOP OF practice. Once I stopped playing, I still worked out twice a day. When I moved out on my own, I was obsessed with portions and working out. Then somewhere along the way, I stopped.

I ended up gaining 100 pounds before I knew what had really happened. I got back on regular exercise and portion control and managed to lose 70 pounds before I got pregnant. I gained that weight back, and have now lost 50 of the pounds I gained when I had a baby.

This is the reason that I said while I want to get under 200 pounds this year, I'd be happy to just have the mindset of someone under 200 pounds.

Example, I was proud of myself for my workout accomplishments last week. I felt as if my core muscles were tighter, and I was proud of myself for making the time to complete all of the workouts. I found that I was sleeping better, and I was even waking up well before my alarm (like an hour!) and was motivated to use that time to get in at least one of the workouts for the day.

However, when I stepped on the scale this morning to see the fruits of my labor, I was extremely disappointed to see that I had gained half a pound.

Yes, 1/2 of a pound.

And while it wasn't much, I could feel myself tearing up. I felt like I had put the work into the first week and had already failed.

But then I took my measurements. I've taken an inch off my chest and waist, and have taken an inch and a half off my hips. Those small tears turned into tears of happiness.

It truly hit home that as proud as I was of myself, I was willing to let the number on the scale make me feel horrible. And why should it? I worked my ass off. I felt stronger. I felt good. I felt proud of completing a week of something that isn't my strong suit. I know it won't always be perfect, but my new goal is to not let the number on the scale reflect how I feel about the week I had and the effort I put into it ever again.

The Weekly B

We'll start this edition of the Weekly B with an update on my goals for last week. I know some people think that I keep my weekly goal list small to help achieve my success, but I can assure you that is not the case! In this season of my life, I know how much free time I have (which is not much), and I know that I want to devote as much of that to kiddo as I can.

Without further ado, here is how I did last week:

PAST WEEKLY GOALS  

- Complete Blogilates Beginners Week 1 

I might be a little bit crazy, but I feel like my stomach muscles have started to suck themselves in and my back has started to instinctively straighten itself out. While it was frustrating to see that I gained a half a pound on the scale, it was exciting to see that I lost at least 1 inch off of all my measurements! 

- Select and begin reading a new book 

Not only did I select and begin reading my next book, A Plain Man, I was able to finish that one. My next selection was #GIRLBOSS, which I also finished reading. (Don't ask how, but I was on fire with reading this week.) 

- Cook one new meal 

I tried. According to my mom, what I was thinking was uncooked brownie batter, was all the fudgy parts of the batter in one portion of the dessert. So I didn't fail! Plus my banana pancakes tasted fabulous, despite looking like I dug them out of a dumpster. 

- Post three blog posts 

I was able to complete three blog posts this past week! I've started to get a better idea of the feel I want this blog to have, and I think that's helped me out when working on ideas for posts. I have many drafts (MANY! If I don't jot down the ideas I have when I have them, I'll forget them.) 

Since last week went so well, let's try making some goals for next week: 

WEEKLY GOALS  

- Complete Blogilates Beginners Week 2
(This could be a challenge with games/events 4 of 7 nights next week)

- Begin reading Girl in Hyacinth Blue

- Cook one new meal 

- Post three blog posts

- No cell time when hanging with kiddo after work this week

- Purchase Operation Christmas Child items for the month
(I still receive emails from a church that I visited before joining my own, and I noticed last year that every month they would ask people to purchase 1-2 items for Operation Christmas Child. I thought this was brilliant since it's easier on the budget to grab a few items each month. This year, I vowed to follow their purchasing guide so we might be able to help more children this year.)

Have a great week, y'all! 

Blogilates Banana Pancakes

Today on the Blogilates Beginners Calendar, even though it's an active rest day, there was still something to take on. "Try the 2 ingredient banana pancakes on blogilates.com." 

2 ingredients. Simple enough, right? After the slutty brownie failure of last night, I'm not believing anything is simple until I try it. 

The video makes it look so easy though!

Really, if I can't make this then I have no business in the kitchen. (And my dishes that I'm known for are crawfish ravioli and jambalaya, so I should be able to do this, right?) 

First things first, let's get out the ingredients. 

Step one is complete. I had originally arranged the eggs and banana in a smiley face, but I felt that would be getting ahead of ourselves. 

I blended them to a batter like texture just fine, but I had some issues when it came to actually making the pancakes. 

No matter how much I sprayed that pan down, they would stick. But I'm not deterred so easily. Just because my presentation may be poor, doesn't mean it's still not going to taste amazing. (Besides, I'm only serving these to myself, so it doesn't REALLY matter what they look like.) 

Viola! My finished product. They look more like mushy hashbrowns than pancakes, but they were REALLY good. I would definitely make these again. I paired them with some turkey bacon (I like my bacon super crunchy, so practically burnt), a couple of cuties, and a nice cup of coffee. 

This is a recipe that I will be recommending to people when they want something a little different, but don't want to spend a whole lot of time preparing an elaborate breakfast. 

Food Porn Fail

I'll never make it in the food porn business.

Today, I tried to create the food porn that seems to have taken over all of my social media feeds. It even brags about how easy it is. It seemed like it was the ultimate slut in the food porn world, so much so that it touted itself as such.

Slutty Brownies. 

We're hitting Epic Meal Time proportions of food porn on this one. Brownies, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies.

All you have to do, is put down the cookie dough. Top the cookie dough with Oreos. Spread the brownie mix on top. Bake as instructed and VOILA! You have food porn.

Unless you're me.


It all started out innocently enough. I bought my supplies and came home to get my hands dirty.

I followed those rules perfectly. Layered my cookie dough (the best I could), topped it with Oreos, and then covered with my brownie mix.

I tried to cover it with my brownie mix anyway. I placed it in the oven for the longest amount of time the box told me to. The brownies still weren't cooked, so back in it went. Then it came out a few more times before my knife came out clean. 

I'm not winning any awards for presentation, but they appear to be edible.

However, once I dived into the slutty goodness...I was met with surprise. Some parts of the brownie mix didn't cook all the way through. Some parts of the brownie mix were burnt.

Being a baked good pimp was supposed to be easy. These were supposed to be the classiest escorts on any dessert table.

And yet...I failed.

I think my career as a slutty baked good pimp ended when I couldn't find the tubs of cookie dough in my grocery store. I thought they were frozen, clearly they are not. (My mother corrected me on them being in the refrigerated area.) I purchased the frozen cookie dough.

While the cookie dough isn't what caused me problems, I'm still going to blame it. Why blame it? BECAUSE I WILL NOT FAIL AT MAKING SUPER EASY RECIPES!

There will be another attempt at these in the future, and next time, those slutty brownies will fall right in line.