Challenge: Week 1

Breakfast of champions?

This morning I was preparing breakfast for the hubs and I realized that EASTER was the last time that I made a hot, sit down breakfast for James.  Whoa, talk about undomesticated.  I've never proclaimed to be a great housewife (mostly because I. am. not.), but going six months without cooking breakfast = L-A-Z-Y, Lazy.

So, I resolve today to do better by taking baby steps.  Each week, I'm going to give myself a challenge and have y'all help hold me accountable.  Although I believe that week really should be labeled Monday-Sunday (saving the best days of the week for last), somebody way before I was around decided that the calendar should be Sunday-Saturday.  So, I will honor the calendar and run my weekly challenges Sunday-Saturday.  I know, I know, who thinks about this crap? I do.

Anyway, back to business.

Challenge: Week 1
I will make breakfast 3 times this week.  Not necessarily a big breakfast, but something. Today counts as one.  Since we are talking baby steps, I'm only trying this out for one week, but maybe this will kick start more continuity around here.

We bought the bacon from a school fundraiser (Blue and Gold = Yum-O)  and it is now going to be put to use!  My hash browns never look like the package - maybe I should try shredding my own hash browns from a real potato (still thinking baby steps - let's not get crazy!), and hopefully as I continue practicing, my egg yolks will not break.  The biscuits are beautiful, right?  Not homemade, came straight from the scary, loud, pops when you least expect it, can.

What do you do for breakfast?

Nothing is Free

I like to take advantage of anything that is free - especially if it was something that was on my list to purchase anyway.

Here's some background...

I am a little bit of a crazy person when it comes to Groupon.  I buy things on Groupon with the best of intentions, but I have to admit... I've had more than a couple of those expire before I redeemed the item that 6 months before I couldn't breathe another second without purchasing.  I'm horrible.  One of those Groupons that I did not get a chance to take advantage of was for creating a photo book. This was a fine example of when saving $15 actually cost me $20 with nothing in return.  For those of you that understand Groupon, you're probably thinking... "yeah, but if you don't use it before it expires, you can still get the value of the Groupon back as credit with the company."  To those people I say, "Maybe one day - but that too will probably expire before I get around to it."  

So, when I was checking out Facebook status updates and saw that 3 of my friends had accepted a coupon for a FREE photo book, I was stoked. This was the universes way of giving back to my non-Groupon redeeming butt!    

Here's the kicker - I had only 2 days to create my book and had never done it before. This is a procrastinator's nightmare.  But, to my surprise, I sat down and pulled some pics together.   I will probably do some things a little different next time, but this turned out okay.  Especially since it was "free"*.

*Free is never really free - I paid almost $9 in shipping.  But still a pretty awesome deal.

For your viewing pleasure:

Happy Fall Y'all

The First Day of Autumn (Autumnal Equinox) is on Saturday,September 22, 2012.  That's today!

For me, the first day of fall marks the beginning of all things wonderful!    The hot Oklahoma heat makes me super excited for cooler fall weather.  It also marks the State Fair, which I blogged about here. 


October is the month of my wedding anniversary (Oct 16, 2010) - it was no coincidence that my husband and I chose fall for our wedding.  

Fall foliage - the colors are SO beautiful.  I purposely chose my wedding flowers to resemble the colors of fall leaves.

Aren't these colors beautiful!  The picture attached to my bouquet is of my dad holding me as a baby.  Since he could only be there in spirit, I made sure he was able to walk me down the aisle.

These were on several of my tables at the reception - this was as close as I could get to bringing the outdoors inside!

And perhaps one of the most exciting parts of fall... College Football Season is here!  Boomer Sooner!  On October 6th, we will be talking about tailgate food - another fall favorite!!

What does fall mean for you?

Wicked Witch > Dorothy

If you knew me in real life...

You'd know that I am a huge fan of all things The Wizard of Oz.  One of my closest friends, Adriana, took me to see Wicked: The Musical for Christmas one year.  Best. Christmas. gift. ever.  Front row, center seats y'all. I love the 'wicked' witch - more than Dorothy.   I now own the Wicked soundtrack and know 80% of the words to the entire CD.  The other 20% I don't know because I always skip to the tracks I love the most - everyone does that, right?

If you knew me in real life....

You'd know that I am a ketchup fanatic.  I eat it with everything - there are very few exceptions to this.  My absolute favorite thing to have ketchup on is corn bread and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Yummo!  Oh, and Heinz is my favorite brand - yes, there is a difference.

If you knew me in real life....

You'd know that board/card games are a true passion of mine.  I think I love them so much because playing games is one of my happiest memories as a child.  My extended family would meet almost every weekend to play Dominos - I can still hear my dad yelling - "Domi-nik-a-chicken!"(made up word) as he slammed his winning domino on the table. They were super serious about these games. I wasn't usually invited to play, but I would pull up a chair beside my mom to watch and be the waitress by refilling their coffee.  This would go on for hours and I loved it!

My dad's competitiveness rubbed off on me.  As much as I try not to be - I am SO competitive.  It's bad y'all.  I was baby-sitting Ashley's kids a couple of weeks ago (8 and 4 year old) and I had to privately remind myself that they were just kids and this was just a game. After I lost twice - I was done - we moved on to the next game and I made sure it was something complicated enough that they had no chance of winning. I know - personal character flaw. I'm working on it.

Here's a glimpse of some games I own.  I know it is messy - don't judge. Any organization ideas? Seems like the only place I've ever seen games is on the top shelves of people's closets.

My favorite games are Monopoly, Phase 10, Skip-Bo, and Payday.

If you are paying close attention, you'll notice that my Monopoly game has duct tape on the corners.  That is because this game has been around since 1972 (before I was born)!  Some people have nice China as a family heirloom - I have Monopoly :)

What are your favorite games?

Laser Tag, Dora, and a Pinata

Today is Sunday.

It was a pretty laid back day. My nephew came to spend the night and James took him to play laser tag yesterday while I was living it up at the fair. They had a blast!  They came home and gave me play-by-plays of their adventure. They played 3 times - 20 minutes for each round.

 After I heard about their trip, it made me wonder if laser tag should be a part of my workout regiment.  I use regiment lightly.  Actually, I should probably not use that word at all.  Anyway, doesn't laser tag seem like a great idea for a workout?

Moving on.

So today, I went to Ashley's niece's 3rd birthday party.  Although we didn't do a cake for her this year - I thought I'd post the one we did for her last year.  Every 2 year old should have feathers in their cake, right?

This year's theme was Dora the Explorer.  The birthday girl's mom, Lacy, did the cupcakes - she did a great job! They were chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes - Yummo.

They even had a pinata.

 The kids had a blast taking turns swinging the bat - there was so much candy, this game lasted a while!  I even got to have some sour patch kids... along with some other sugary goodness.  I guess now is when I should start considering that regiment - ugh.

Happy Sunday y'all!

Chocolate Covered Bacon and People Watching

 Chocolate covered bacon and people watching... Yep, you guessed it - State Fair time!!

We've come up to a time of year in Oklahoma where it cools down a little and people from every part of the state flock to "The Great State Fair of Ok-la-homa".  For those of you from Oklahoma, you are humming the jingle now.

My SIL and I decided yesterday that we'd go together today and I have been like a kid waiting for Christmas morning ever since.   We've experienced high temps (several days of over 100), so any temperature with only two digits is welcomed.  Today started off beautifully with a light drizzle and a cool 70 degrees - as long as I can remember, the fair is always accompanied by rain.

Some people go to the fair for the rides - some go for games - some go for beer.  I go for 3 purposes only:

1. Shopping
2. Food
3. People watching

The shopping was good - I walked away with some amazing salsa and and a package guacamole mix.  I can't wait to enjoy it while snuggling up on the couch watching a good movie. 

The food.... was everything I hoped it would be!  I started with a FOOT long corn dog - that's 12 whopping inches folks. I was too excited to take the time to stop and take a picture before I finished eating it - sorry. 

I followed up the corn dog with dessert - chocolate covered bacon... this was a new addition to the fair last year, but I didn't muster up the courage to try it until this year.  I envisioned a hot greasy slab of bacon being waved underneath a chocolate fountain and then passed over to me with a set of tongs (no napkins, leaving me to struggle keeping myself clean by shoving it into my mouth all at once and wiping my face with the sleeve of my shirt).  Thankfully, my vision was way off - what I got was a chinese take out box pulled from a refrigerator with a cold, thin, crisp slice of bacon evenly covered with a shell of dark chocolate.   Verdict is: Amazing! Perfect mixture of salty and sweet.

This picture really doesn't do it justice.    

            

           

 Most people would have stopped there - - but not me. I kept going and devoured this buttery jewel.  

And who could pass up this cute little jug of Root Beer?

The people watching was pretty typical - mullets, barefoot kids - and adults, but not even 1 fanny pack. When we were leaving I found this car and have decided that my car needs these - EYELASHES!

I'm certain I walked more than 5 miles today, most of which were from the car to the gate - it was packed.  Hopefully the extra steps helped offset all of the calories I consumed :(   Oh well - overall, today was wonderful!

Too Faced

Today we are linking up with Kelly's Korner  for a Show Us Your Life (SUYL) Friday.  We're talking about your favorite beauty products.  My sister-in-law, Maggie, turned me on to an amazing eye shadow primer by Too Faced. It is called Shadow Insurance  - - I cannot live without it now!

Too Faced: Shadow Insurance

I buy expensive eyeshadow from MAC because I love their colors so much, but I noticed that the shadow would only stay on for about 4-6 hours.  It wouldn't even last that long if I'm sweaty - so much for looking good and going out dancing!   I'd tried a couple of other primers including MACs Paint Pot, and it just wasn't helping.

If you're interested in trying a new primer, you can pick Shadow Insurance up online or at Sephora for $18.  If you're like me, $18 seems pretty steep for something like this - but once I really thought about how much I already spend on one color of eyeshadow, $18 wasn't too bad to make sure that expensive shadow stays put!

Do you have any products that you cannot live without?

I'll have my cake, and eat it too!

In my spare time, one of my favorite things to do is make cakes with my friend and neighbor, Ashley!  

I was always in awe of my sister-in-laws cakes, so I was ecstatic when she agreed to teach us her tricks.  18 months later and here we are!

This was a cake for my niece's high school graduation

40th Birthday Cupcake Bouquet

Minnie Mouse!

This one was an experiment for twin boys and SO much fun to do!

What do y'all think?!

Perfect Age?

I follow several blogs.

I'm not sure at which point you move from following into stalking, but I like to check in oh... every. day.  I love to read about other people lives.  Lately, I've been following blogs that are written by mothers - maybe that is why I am for the first time in my entire life -- seriously considering having children.  I've always thought I'd have them - it just never occurred to me until now that I better get started soon!

I was the youngest child - my mom was 30 years old when she had me - I thought that was ancient.  She was a real home body and didn't enjoy shopping and social outings.  She was also prematurely gray headed, so many questioned whether she was my mother or my grandmother.  Depending on the day - I told people she was my grandmother (sorry mom!!).  I always told myself that I would have kids much sooner than 30, so that I would be a "cool mom".    Now I realize that you can be a shopaholic and social queen at 45 - so age really didn't matter for having fun.   I also realize that there is much more to parenting than going to the mall and having 500 friends acquaintances.  Now Facebook fulfills that dream - ha.

So, what is the perfect age to have children?

Of course I realize that this will vary from person to person based on circumstances and preferences, but I wish that my fairy godmother would wave her wand and tell me what will work out best for me.... oh, and my husband too!


Bippidi boppity boo!

Okay - in all seriousness, I don't think we're ready.  But listen y'all... just thinking it out loud on the world wide web is a big step! 

On the agenda tomorrow: CAKES 

Getting Started

Today is September 9, 2012.  I opened this blog in August of 2011 (that's two-thousand and ELEVEN, y'all). One year, one month later...  I think it is time to put some thoughts to paper, or in this case the world wide web.

I'm not sure exactly where this blog is going - not sure what my underlying theme might be, but I'm pretty sure whatever it becomes will be "perfectly good enough for me" hence, my URL.  http://perfectlygoodenoughforme.blogspot.com

I'll start with a little about me. Name = Jessica. I'm a twenty something not for long that lives in the great state of Oklahoma.  I'm married to my college (Boomer Sooner!!) sweetheart, James, and we are the happy, loving parents of an awesome miniature schnauzer named Oliver. Ollie for short.   Some of you are probably thinking - "oh no, she is one of those crazy dog lovers - there is no way I'm going to connect with this blog".  Although I am totally and completely in love with my dog - I know that I will be even more excited and over the moon about my own human children one day.  But for now, you get to read about my doggie :)  Isn't he cute?!

My occupation? I work for corporate America - not sure it is my best interest to talk about details.  But, I'm sure you'll get stories one day, after all - this is where I spend the majority of my life.  With made up names and ambiguous places, of course. My goal is to one day become independently wealthy so that I can be a stay-at-home mom or at least have the option.  Or maybe my plan is to have a BIG corner office and get to make big decisions that will forever positively effect the success of a major organization.  I change my mind regularly.

For fun - I make custom cakes.  More details and pictures to come on that. Well, I did what I set out to do - I got started!  I'll update y'all soon.