Dance Filled weekend!!!

Oh my goodness!  I had quite the weekend!  It was so fun!  And it was filled with lots and lots of dancing!  Saturday morning I went to Zumba.  I've gone to Zumba 4 or 5 times now and it's always fun!  But this time it actually seemed like a workout.  It got my heart pumping!  I think maybe now that I've gone a few times I finally knew the dances well enough to get into them a little bit more.  I really liked that it actually felt like a workout this time.

Then later that night I went to a Bachelorette Party . . . so there was lots of dancing going on!  It was so fun!  We went to Boogie Nights which is a club at a Hollywood Casino that plays 70's, 80's and 90's music.  It was awesome!  Here are a few photos from the night . . . 

Me and the gorgeous bride!

Riding down the escalator to the dance floor!  How fun is that?!  You get to make a grand entrance!

The view from the top of the escalator looking down onto the dance floor!

There were lots of fun characters that worked at the club.  Like this disco man on stilts!

And this guy dressed as Billy Idol!

It was such a fun night!  I know a lot of people who have gone in the past and talked about how fun it is but I just never had the desire to go.  I'm so glad I did!  So fun and different!  However, this night just confirmed what I've always felt . . . . I can NOT dance!  Haha!  I've always been involved in cheerleading and dance but that's different.  I am completely capable of learning choreography and getting down that way but when it comes to freestyle I suck!  Haha!  At Zumba on Saturday I just kept thinking "I know I look like a cheerleader right now!"  All my movements were all stiff and cheerleader-ish!  And then that night at the Bachelorette Party I was surronded by all these great dancers.  Made me feel so inadequate!  Haha!  I worry that when I dance freestyle I look like this . . .

Elaine Benes awesome dance skills!

or maybe this . . .

The Jersey Shore guys dancing!

Seriously!  I feel like a dance like a dude!  I just throw my hands around in the air like the Jersey Shore boys!  Why can't I dance like Anne Hathway in this scene from Bride Wars?!?!

Bride Wars Dance Off Scene
(starting at about minute 6.40)

Haha!  Ok, maybe I don't want to dance exactly like that!  But at least it's a little more feminine than the fist pumps!

Maybe I should take lessons somewhere?!?  Regardless, it was such a fantastic night and I am so excited for my friends wedding!  It will be here SO soon!  Hopefully I can freshen up my dance moves by then!

Spaghizza! (A Spaghetti/Pizza hybrid)

Hi there!  I've got a new recipe for you!  And it's super easy!  But before I get into that I wanted to show you a couple new foodie finds!

First is this gum from Extra.  I am not a gum chewer.  The only time I chew gum is when I'm at work after lunch.  I really don't want to be blowing some stinky breath into my patient's faces!  I actually bought this gum for my husband.  It just seemed like something he would like.  While he was chewing it I could smell a delicious root beer smell wafting (that's probably not a good work to use - it makes me think of a fart! haha!) from him and it smelled amazing!  So I tried it - yep, it's amazing!  It's root beer-ish and vanilla-y!  Yum!

Next are these new granola bars from Larabar.  I was not impressed :(  I saw that some girls got one of these in their birchboxes so I went on the hunt for them.  There are 4 flavors: Bananas Foster, Roasted Nut Roll, Apple Turnover, and Cherry Cobbler.  So far I've tried the Roasted Nut Roll and the Bananas Foster.  Neither of them impressed me.  I'm not really even in a hurry to try the others.  They weren't bad but they just didn't wow me!

So, onto the recipe!  It's part spaghetti, part pizza.  So I call it spaghizza (spa-geetza)!  I like to say that word.  Especially in an italian accent!  Anyway, I've made this a few times now and each time I use different vegetables.  In the past I've used only zucchini and one time I used zucchini and yellow squash.  This time I used zucchini and a green pepper.

Saute the veggies in a bit of olive oil just to soften them slightly.

Then pour in some marinara sauce of your choice.  I also add a little big of pepperoni.  You can use as much or as little as you like.

Add in just a tiny bit of cooked pasta.  I think there are about a total of 20 noodles in there.  So it's not much pasta.  I try to make the majority of the dish vegetables but with a tiny bit of other little extras.

Then add in a handful of parm cheese and stir it all together!  This made 4 servings.  It's quick and simple and somewhat healthy!

I don't think I've ever really gone into detail on this blog about how I typically eat.  It's pretty simple really.  When it comes to food that isn't whole/raw (like fruits and veggies), I just look at the ingredient list (I honestly don't pay much attention to the nutrition facts such as fat or calories) and make sure that I know what they are and I can pronounce them.  The picture above is of the marinara sauce I used for the spaghizza.  I know what all of those ingredients are besides citric acid (although I've heard of it) and calcium chloride.  So Knowing 12/14 of the ingredients is pretty darn good!  The reason I pay more attention to the ingredients rather than the nutrition information is because it is important to make sure you're not taking in any chemicals.  Chemicals and additives are added to SO much of our food!  And that's what makes us sick.  Plus, more than likely if the ingredients are all legit, the nutrition info is going to be good as well.

Just FYI:  I looked up citric acid and calcium chloride.  Citric Acid is a natural preservative/conservative and it's used to give foods an acidic or sour taste.  Calcium Chloride is a type of salt.

Hopefully that little tidbit was helpful and hopefully you'll try this recipe! :)

Pinspiration: Photography For The New House!

I'm here with some more Pinspiration!  These first 3 pictures I found on Pinterest and it gave me an idea.  I thought it would be cute to have a picture of Dave and I during all 4 seasons!  I would line all 4 pictures up side by side on our wall.  Now that we're moving I figured it was a good time to actually start on this project so we can hang them up in our new living room soon!

Cute Winter picture idea . . .

Spring or Summer . . .

Great Fall idea . . .

So, since it's currently Summer I figured we would start there.  Usually when people think of Summer they think of water or beaches or something.  Neither Dave or I have a pool or will be going to the beach again this summer so I thought I should come up with another option.  (plus, who wants a picture of themselves in their swimming suit right in their living room?!?)  My next idea was maybe a picnic or something.  So I googled "couple picnic photos" and you won't believe the images I found!  They were all either super corny poses (see below) or the food was the focal point of the picture (again, see below)!  And some were a mix of both!  (once more, see below) Haha!

Wow. . . .

She looks like she has an abundance of confidence!  Haha!

Classic!  Gotta have a picture of them feeding eachother!

Finally, I found a few cute ones.  Which gave me hope!

I thought these were cute!

How fun would it be to do a fair picture!?

This one is super pretty!  I love the lighting!

This one is my favorite . . . and it's the one we chose to try to replicate!  (sidenote: can anyone guess who the female is in this picture?)

Yes, it is in water and yes they are in their suits but you can barely tell so I thought it would be all right.  We're having a heck of a time trying to find old inner tubes like this. I really hope we can find some in time!  We're taking the pictures in 5 days and we haven't found any yet!  Our friend/photographer picked out a great spot for the pictures so now we're just hoping for good weather and some inner tubes!

Wish us luck!

Weekly Round-Up! Birthday, Magic Mike, etc. . .

I have been so, so, so busy!  I really hope to put up some recipe posts soon!  Between house stuff and just having lots of get togethers during the summer I really haven't had much time to blog.  I'm looking at my calendar right now and these next two weeks are going to be busy as well!  Hopefully things will settle down after that!

So here's what's been happening during the last week . . . 

I turned 28!  Yay!  I had to work on my actual birthday which wasn't very much fun but at least I came home to some treats!

Dave made me a funfetti cake with rainbow chip icing!  (This is all I wanted for my birthday!  Haha!)  And check out my blingin' candles!

Bout to demolish this cake!

The day after my birthday I was off work and so was Dave so we spent the entire day together!  We went to the pool for a few hours and later that night we went out to a fancy shmancy restaurant called The Precinct!  My Mother-in-law got us a gift card for Christmas so we finally put it to use!  I took a few pictures in the restaurant but the lighting was so dim and I didn't want to use my flash (I felt like the restaurant was too fancy to be obnoxious and draw attention to myself with blinding flash) so they didn't turn out well at all.

I'll post one pic though. . . this is a comment card our waiter gave us after our meal.  Do you like my response to "what would you like to see on our next menu?"  More dessert options!  Haha!  I wasn't implying that their dessert options weren't good - because they were amazing!!!  (esp. the chocolate mousse) but there were only 3 choices.  I would have loved to have seen more!  :)

Me and my friend Morgan had been looking forward to seeing Magic Mike all week (well, let's be honest, we've been looking forward to seeing it since we saw the first preview about 2 months ago when we saw The Lucky One in theaters!) but we were so sad when we got to the theater Friday night and found that it was sold out!!!  We were crushed!  But we were proactive and immediately bought tickets for the next night so we wouldn't have any more disappointment!

Look what we have here!  Is that fabric I see??  Yep!  I (well, I should actually say "Jeana" since she's the one making it) already started on the quilt!  We spent two hours at JoAnn Fabrics but we finally got the fabric picked out!  I am so excited an anxious to see the final project!

*My friend Jeana has a blog too!  She is a huge movie buff and she reviews movies after she seems them.  You can check out her blog here:Jeana's Movies)

And then we finally got to see Magic Mike!  We're much happier in this picture!

How was everyone else's week/weekend?  Hope it was fantastic!

House Decorating!

This post is a little different from my usual posts.  It's basically just my thoughts!  With some fun "Pinspiration"!  I just made that up.  Basically, I find pictures on Pinterest that get my creative juices flowing.  This probably makes no sense so I'm just going to get right into it!

My husband and I are moving soon so I'm starting to think about decorating and such!  I'm especially excited to decorate the room that will become our guest room!  I think I'm super excited about that room because I feel like I can get away with decorating it a little more feminine that I could our bedroom!  Here are some things that inspire me . . . 

This room is crazy busy!  I would never want a room that busy but I love the rod-iron bed and the patchwork quilt!

Sorry about the blurry picture!  I love the colors going on here!  Green is my favorite color and I especially love pale green colors!  Dave would never approve of a seafoam green bedroom . . . so maybe in the guest room?

Do you see where I'm going here?  Pale colors with a bit of girly-ness to it!  I noticed that all the rooms I'm seeing have one thing in common. . . a quilt!  And I just happen to have a friend that makes quilts!!!!  I'm so excited!  I talked to my friend Jeana today and she agreed to make a quilt for my guest room!  I think I'm going to go with a blue and coral theme.  I thought that would be a little less girly!

Again, here is some more Pinspiration!

Kind of along these lines!

I absolutely LOVE the colors of the little hearts at the bottom!

I'm so anxious to go buy fabric!  This will be so fun!  And special!

What do you all think?  And what do you think of these types of blog posts?  These are easy and fun for me to post but if no one wants to read about the ideas that run through my head I won't post more like this.  Just let me know!

Monthly Subscription Series: Brief Summary of all the different ones I've tried!

Hey there!  I started a Monthly Subscription Series a couple months ago and since then the services that I'm subscribed to have changed a bit.  So I thought I would just do one blog breifly describing/reviewing them all!  So here goes . . . 

The very first service I signed up for was Birch Box.  And I'm still signed up for it after more than a year!  It's actually probably been close to 2 years!

Price: $10/month

Samples: At least 4 (sometimes 5 or 6) and one of them should be full sized

Extras: Birchbox has a rewards system.  Anytime a friend signs up through your link (every member has one) you get 50 points.  Also, anytime you review a product from your box you get 10 points.  Every 100 points you earn is equal to $10 off any product from their site!  I really like their rewards program!  Their boxes are hit or miss.  Sometimes they are kind of blah.  But sometimes I discover a product from them that ends up being amazing and it ends up being a staple in my every day routine.

If you want to join Birchbox, here is the link to sign up through me so that I receive points for referring you! 

Friend Referral Program

I'm also a member with Eco Emi.  They are a monthly service whose products are natural and/or organic.  They send you a wide variety of samples.  It's always a mix of beauty products, products for the home (think cleaning), and there is usually one or two food products.  It's a really nice mix!

Price: $15/month
Samples: At least 9, but sometimes up to 11 or 12 :)
Extras: None

This is Good & Lovely.  This monthly service is pretty unique.  It is meant to make that dreadful time of month a little more tolerable!  First of all, you get to pick when you want this sent to you each month so you can ensure you receive it when you actually need it!  Secondly, EVERY single month you will get some sort of chocolate in your box!  Um, yes please!  I love this idea!

Price: $13.99/month
Samples: Usually about 5
Extras: You can "add on" other things you might want for that time of month.  Honestly, I've never looked into that part.  Another extra is that one dollar of every months subscription goes to feminine care for women in need.

Ok, now this box . . . well, there's a lot going on with this box.  This is Petite Box.  Unfortunately, they have put a hold on their boxes for the time being but according to their facebook page they will probably return in the future.  So I still wanted to include this in my series.  Plus, it is SUCH a cool box!  I love it!  I actually didn't subscribe to this service but someone that works for Petite Box saw my blog or something and contacted me and asked if I wanted one free box to review or giveaway so I said sure!  And I'm glad I did!  It is so fun!  It is meant for expectant moms and new moms.  When you sign up you start off wherever you are in your pregnancy.  For example, if I didn't find out about Petite Box until I was 6 months pregnant then when I signed up I would tell them I want to start with the "6th Month" box.  Each box is tailored to your pregnancy.  I think it goes up to two years of age.  The box pictured above was for a baby that is 4 months old so the products correlate with that age/stage (hence the teething ring, bib, etc.)

Price: $25/month
Samples: Usually a few for baby and a few for mommy
Extras: This is actually my favorite part!  Each box comes with a few cards with information about whatever stage you (and/or the baby) are in.  For example, in this box the cards had info on them about weight-loss and how at about 4 months after labor you should be able to get back to being active and working out, etc. but to not be too hard on yourself because it took 9 months to put the weight on!  The cards were full of so much information and were very motivational!  I loved them!

This is Karisma . . . and I'm not a fan.  I actually need to cancel.  A lot of my friends know that I try a lot of monthly services so someone asked me about Karisma.  I knew nothing about it so I signed up for it so I could learn about it.  And I have one word: disappointed!  This service is SO boring.  It's nothing special at all!  Each month you will receive a lip scrub and a lip balm.  When you sign up you get to pick which color lip balm you want.  But you don't get to pick for any of the following months.  That's no fun!  Plus, the lip scrub and lip balm are HUGE!  They would last me at least a year!  So why would I need a new one every month?!?

Price: $10/month
Samples: Just one lip scrub and one lip balm
Extras: None

And here is the latest and greatest!!!!!  Glossy Box!  Glossy Box has been around in other countries (it started in the UK) for a year or so and it just launched in the US in May!  I LOVE this service!  I'm pretty sure this is my favorite service!  I've only received one box from them so far (my second box should be here any day now!) but their products seem really, really nice!

Price: $21/month
Samples: At least 5 per box
Extras:  They have a rewards program too.  I'm not too familiar with it since I've only been subscribed to them for a month now but I think you get 200 glossydots (points) when you refer a friend, and you also get points when you review the products you received.  I think once you get 1,000 glossydots, one of your monthly boxes will be sent you free of charge.  So that's fun!

*I also want to mention two other services that I WAS subscribed to at some point but have already canceled.  They don't even deserve a picture!  Haha!

I was signed up to My Glam for I think 4 months and it was disappointing.  The first month was amazing but the following months were terrible.  It seemed like they sent out an amazing box right off the bat to get everyone interested and then once tons of people signed up they started sending out really crappy boxes.  I won't go into detail about price and such just because I honestly don't even think it's worth it.  But if you want to check it out just do an online search for My Glam Bag.

The other box that I unsubscribed to immediately was Blissmo.  Oh my gosh, it was terrible!  I honestly don't remember the cost.  I think it was somewhere between $21 and $25 and absolutely not worth it!  All they sent was things I could easily find at the drugstore/grocery store. . . and for a cheaper price!  It was ridiculous!  I unsubscribed right away!

There are lots of other monthly services out there!  All of the services I mentioned about are automatically charged to your account each month and mailed to your door unless you cancel.  There is another type of monthly service out there where you sign up and they come out with new products each month but you have the option of "skipping" the month.  You won't be charged (and won't receive anything) if you skip the month.  Some of those services are: Jewelmint, Beautymint, Shoemint, She Dazzle, Little Black Box, etc.  If you want a blog about any of these just let me know!  :)

Weekend Round Up and Father's Day!

Yikes!  I am slacking on my blog posts!  I've just been super busy!  I meant to post this on Monday and here it is on Thursday and I'm just now getting around to putting it up!  Geesh!  Hopefully once we're finished house hunting I will have a little more time!

Here's a little glimpse of my past weekend . . . .

My tastebuds have been wacko lately!  I used to really crave vegetables but now I rarely want them.  I also used to rarely eat meat or other sources of protein but I've actually been craving it lately.  Anyway, my sister makes this nut mixture and I decided to try it.  It's raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds), raw sunflower seeds, and raw walnuts.  Sometimes I add in some semi-sweet chocolate chips too!

Has anyone seen this on Pinterest??  This is SO me!  I am really bad at painting my nails but I try anyway!  Over the weekend I tried to get even more tricky!  I tried gradient nails with the sponge technique.  It turned out ok but I think after more practice it might actually be kind of fun!

I was going to a french manicure gradient looks so I used a pale pink color by OPI and a white sparkly color by Nicole for OPI.

You don't have to do this part but it does help a bit.  Put scotch tape all around your nails.  This just helps with the clean up afterwards.  you won't get so much polish on your skin by doing this.  Then using your makeup sponge apply your nail polish to the sponge and then roll the sponge over your nail.  It's actually really easy.  I think the hardest part is getting the right polish colors.  The pink I choose was way too pale and barely showed up.  And actually, the white was too.  It looked more like silver glitter. But I still thought the end result was cool!

I think it's kind of cool.  Minus the middle finger.  For some reason my middle finger on both hands ended up looking really blotchy and bad!  Oh well, it was only my first try!

Mmmmmmmmm!  My husband is so awesome and brought me home this new candy bar from his work!  It's from Nestle and there are 3 different Girl Scout Cookie flavors.  

I tried the Samoa flavor and it was soooo good!  Thank you Dave!  :)

Trying to force myself to eat some veggies I came up with this little recipe.  Cut up a zucchini and a red pepper and heat up on the skillet.

I already had pulled chicken from a rotisserie from a previous recipe so I used that but you can use any type of chopped or pulled chicken.  

Spread your pita with hummus and stuff it with chicken and vegetables, sprinkle it with some mozzarella cheese and viola!  Easy!

And this was a dessert I made for Father's Day.  A yummy Lemon Strawberry Yogurt Bundt Cake!  Yum!  If you want the recipe I can post it . . . however, the pictures that go along with it are really bad. Somehow the settings on my camera were changed and all the pictures turned out really yellowish!  :(  The picture above is actually from my camera phone.  I kind of think my camera phone might be better than my real camera!  Pathetic!

Hopefully I'll keep up better on the posts in the coming week!