January Resolution Recap

One month down, eleven months to go! It's time to evaluate my progress on those three "adventures" that I set out to tackle this year. These recaps will just be a ripping off of the bandaid, so let's dive into it.

Resolution Recap

Hello Summer! 

It's officially the end of the craziness that is work, at least for 2 months. While part of what I love about my job is the fact that once the seasons start there isn't much downtime, it's still nice to get a few months to recharge before the crazy hits the fan again in August. So what exactly does the summer have planned for us? I'm going to enjoy being able to hang with the kiddo more often, but we've decided to keep with her regularly scheduled weekend trips to Bebe and Daddad's house. This way she still gets to see her peeps in Louisiana and gives her some sort of routine. This is how the weekends in the month of June are going to play out for Mommy since the kiddo will be spending hers in Louisiana:

Weekend 1 will be spent reading, straightening the apartment up, watching some NCAA baseball regional action as well as my Texas Rangers, catching up on the blog, and spending some time in the sun at the pool. It's too gorgeous to NOT go outside, so I'm actually typing this blog post from my makeshift "porch" in front of the apartment.

Weekend 2 will be spent helping a good friend get rid of all of the crap that her ex felt the need to leave in her apartment, a possible date for me, the Belmont Stakes, some grocery shopping (since there will be money in the bank account again) and more reading.

Weekend 3 will be spent at Bebe and Daddad's celebrating Father's Day.

Weekend 4 will be spent at my best friend's wedding shower! I'm so excited. I have the PERFECT gift for her and really just hope it comes in before the shower. If not, I guess I'll have to do a massive box with the picture of the gift. :)

Weekend 5 will be spent either roadtripping to a Rangers game, or spending the weekend with the kiddo. The roadtrip is dependent upon whether there are free tickets involved and if we have money for gas by that point in the month.

Adventures in Cooking

I have been on a massive baking kick lately. I've become addicted to this: 

I seem to baking it on a weekly basis. I add in chocolate chips and it is to DIE for! Try this; you won't regret it. 

I also found this recipe for Skinny Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies. I HAD to try these when I saw that I had all but one ingredient to make them. I almost regret doing so because I'm obsessed. I couldn't found my brownie pan, so I made muffins out of them and they are AMAZING! I had to stop myself from eating the entire batch in one sitting. 

#MOTY Playlist

This is the playlist that helped bring you this blog post, and a few others you will be seeing over the weekend. 

Bad Romance - Artists v. Poets (Punk Goes Pop)

Over Again - One Direction

Let Me Go - 3 Doors Down

Jukebox Hero - Foreigner

No Surprise - Daughtry

Southern Comfort Zone - Brad Paisley

Ms. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel

Angel - Aerosmith

Honeybee - Blake Shelton

Begin Again - Dropkick Murphys

Cruise - Florida Georgia Line

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Miranda Lambert

Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx

I Don't Need a Man - Pussycat Dolls

Crawling - Linkin Park

December 1963 - Frankie Valli

Takin' Off This Pain - Ashton Shepard

Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney

Give Me Everything - Pitbull

RESOLUTION RECAP 

(1) Cook one meal a month. Big fat fail! I've been too busy to even THINK of things to pull out of the fridge to heat up, much less a meal to cook. 

(2) Read one book a month. Surprisingly, I do really well with this one. Taking Chances; The Dark Heroine; Reflected in You; and Barred to You. 

(3) Donate to charity each month. The TRF (Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation) is my standard charity of choice for the month of May since it's the start of the Triple Crown races. 

(4) Place $500 in savings. Thanks to my tax refund this one is accomplished, now the goal is to keep the majority of it in there. 

(5) Visit William. I seriously need to call him back. I'm a bad friend sometimes. :( 

(6) Exercise/Drop Weight. Consistent. I need to shake things up a bit, and I think June is a GREAT month to do that. 

Where Have I Been?

Wow! Has it really been over 2 weeks since I checked in here? Times flies when you don’t have a day away from your job for 4 weeks. I have some much needed time away from work coming up this weekend, and I’m choosing to spend it as a fan at our conference basketball tournament to support the women’s basketball team. (That is if they win their game on Thursday, since I can’t go until after work on Thursday. If not, then I get to spend the night and the day in beautiful Katy, TX, and then come home and not get out of my yoga pants for the weekend. FUN STUFF!)

Speaking of “fun stuff”, my friends and I have taken a liking to this local family fun center and have kind of made it our hangout. We go right after work so we can have the place to ourselves for a few hours before families start showing up. Is it sad that we’re almost 30 and don’t want to share the mini-golf course or arcade with children? Personally, I just don’t want to see an 8 year-old beat my high scores on skee ball. (Yea, you read that correctly, I have gotten the high score AND THEN BEAT my own high score. Major accomplishment.)

#MOTY LATEST OBSESSIONS

I feel the need to share a few of my latest obsessions on here.Here are the things that I have become obsessed with in the month of February: 

• One Direction’s latest album. Listen here. Seriously, this album can make a bad day better because it’s just fun to rock out to. (Bring on the jokes; I can take them!)
• This girl. Her workouts are awesomely fun! I have been following her workout calendar since the end of January. I don't always have time to hit all of the workouts, but I try to get in as many as I can. I also tend to throw in a mix of some videos from FitSugar or other workout videos that I have as well. 
• Target's dollar bins. This Easter Bunny is about to tear that up. TONS of cute stuff in there. They have Sesame Street bath books that will be making an appearance in the kiddo's Easter basket. I'm thinking about getting her some of the maracas as well. 

RESOLUTION RECAP 

I guess I should do one of these since we’re in March now, right?

(1) Cook one meal a month. My planned meals for the month of February became non-existent towards the end of the month due to my never being home long enough to actually cook anything. Considering the lack of time at home, I think the fact that I cooked 3 meals this month PLUS did some baking counts for brownie points. (And am I just making up that I said one meal a month? Didn't I say one meal a week? I’m so confused right now and the coffee isn't helping to make things clearer.) 

(2) Read one book a month.  Books for February: The Shameful Diary of a Hopeless Romantic, Wild Pitches, Lucky Charm and Always the Last to Know.

(3) Donate to charity each month. This month I donated to Big Brothers/Big Sisters. My friend Donna was raising money in Bowl for Kids’ Sake, so it seemed perfect to make that my charity of choice for the month of February.  

(4) Place $500 in savings. I was able to put $125 into savings this month. I may have to turn around and pay this in taxes, but at least I was able to budget enough to be able to put some money in there to help with that.

(5) Visit William. TBA – with some unexpected expenses this year, I’m hoping I can still pull this one off.

(6) Exercise/Drop Weight. I dropped 2 pounds this month. Considering my crazy schedule and how I've been eating like crap, I consider that an accomplishment. 

Since I've been a slacker on this blog lately, this graphic describes exactly how I feel right now....plus it made me laugh. 

Adios Free Time!

Today is my last free day for a long time. I will admit, I am taking a day off during all of this craziness to spend with my daughter and my family to help me stay grounded. Work is about to get crazy busy, but I'm still holding strong to my commitment to stick with my resolutions! So, let's get to this week's Adventure in Cooking and get a recap on some of those resolutions, shall we?

Adventures in Cooking
This week my worthy kitchen opponent was the Doritos Chicken Bake.

These ingredients don't look too intimidating. 

Don't let those cute ingredients fool you!

So, it looks good, right? It tasted ok. The only problem was some of the chips on the edges were burnt. I also realized after the fact that I forgot to put the Rotel in. That may have made a difference, it may not have made a difference, either way, the kitchen won this one. 

*Craft Star *

Just have to brag about my craft star moment! I saw on Pinterest (which I'm still convinced is of the devil somehow) that you can write on plain coffee mugs with Sharpies and put it in the oven and then you have personalized coffee mugs. Since I would only be out the $1 for the mug if this didn't turn out, I figured I may as well try it. Here's my creation:

I have a feeling that these may be a popular Christmas gift as this one turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. 

Also, I've got a little holiday spirit going on with my Mardi Gras bow! There's some exciting stuff planned for Mardi Gras, so be watching the blog for that excitement. 

I also got a little creative and made a battery box to store all the batteries for the kiddo's toy collection. 

Date Day
I'm having a date today and I'm cheating a little on the lunch plans. We had LOTS of gumbo left over from the meal for our donors at the game yesterday so I brought some home and have "made" this fabulous meal:

Shhh! Don't tell him that this is how it started!

When you put it in a pot, he'll never know!

That will be placed in bowls before he arrives. 

Tear and bake cookies count as homemade, right? 

A partially made table should score some bonus points. 

I just thought this would be a fun game. 

RESOLUTION RECAP 

(1) Cook one meal a month. This blog is proof that I have done a decent job of keeping up with this one. I also have meals planned out for the entire month of February. 

(2) Read one book a month. I managed to actually read more than one book this month. Books for January: The No Sex Clause, Worth the Weight, The Aspen Account

(3) Donate to charity each month. This month I donated to Heifer International which is an organization that provides resources to poor families in third world countries to help them get on their feet financially. 

(4) Place $500 in savings. This one had a small set back this month as I had to take money out of savings. Things seem to have calmed down financially, so I should be able to get back on track next month. 

(5) Visit William. TBA

(6) Exercise/Drop Weight. I dropped 3.5 pounds this month, so I'm one month into making this one stick.