I want to travel

Would you not LOVE to do something like this?? I wish I had unlimited time and money and could just travel. Anywhere and everywhere. Of course having a great travel buddy would be a must too!

Pinterest Inspired Wednesday- Cake in a mug FAIL!

Time for another Pinterest Inspired Wednesday.  I pinned this a long time ago.  I am always looking for easy, simple recipes for the single girl and this seemed like a dream come true.  A single serving of cake!?  And no eggs, butter, oil or other fat making ingredients!?  Sounds good to me!

Here is the pin that inspired me:

Source: thehiddenpantry.blogspot.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

For some reason I picked Butter Pecan cake mix.  I thought it would taste good without frosting. 

Basically you mix together the cake mix and angel food cake mix.  You then put 3 tablespoons of the mix in a mug with 2 tablespoons of water. And here is how mine turned out:

Yeah it looked really gross.  So I decided to top it with some fat free cool whip.

It was edible but not very good.  The sides were burnt and it was really dry and chewy.  I think I am going to stick to my original single gal dessert:

With this you just mix 2 tablespoons of the mix with 1 tablespoon of fat-free vanilla yogurt.  And it is moist and yummy!  And it is even better with a spoonful of frozen fat free cool whip!


Anyway...the reason why I really started this Pinterest Inspired Wednesday series was because I want to see what you guys have made, bought, baked, or have been inspired to DO based on a pin you pinned on pinterest!  Sometimes they turn out good and sometimes not so good.  Was it all you ever hoped for or did it let you down?  Was it as easy as they say or incredibly hard?  I want to give you guys a place to link up to and see what other people have tried from Pinterest.  I am going to keep doing these every Wednesday through the end of May and have the link up available here, so share your experiences too! 

And as always so I can get more ideas of things to DO!

Weekend of shopping

I have been so busy!  At work, at home.  I'm so busy I can't focus.  I need to focus.

Luckily I only have one more work day this week.  Thursday I am leaving for a mini-beach vacation for a wedding of two of my good friends at the beach.  They have been dating for like over 10 years so this is a long time in the making.  I am excited to finally get to see them tie the knot!

This weekend I had to find shoes, a dress, and accessories.  It was a full shopping weekend and I was exhausted.  I discovered I love a lot of Jessica Simpson dresses.  Who knew!? I couldn't find a picture of the one I ended up getting, but here are two of the runner-ups:

And guess what?  I found the Khol's shoes I love!  I will be wearing one of these.  I haven't decided which yet:

Source: kohls.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

I still don't know what I am going to do for a purse yet.  I have some options but haven't decided yet.

I also bought some new nail polish and a new comforter for my bed (random I know! but it was an awesome deal- only $60 for the whole set!)

I need your help though web sleuths!  So many of you were able to find some of the items I couldn't find on Pinterest, so I figured I'd ask for your help with this one.

A few years ago I got this Furla wallet in Dubai.  I LOVE it because it has these cool accordion style credit card slots that make finding and getting my cards in and out so easy.

But I can not find one like this anywhere!  I really want a new one because I got nail polish on this one this weekend, freaked out, and wiped it with a nail polish remover pad.  Yeah, not good on leather.  Plus as you can see the one I have is white and is getting very dirty anyway.  I was wondering if any of you super sleuths would have better luck than me.  If you find it, please send me the link!  I'll owe you BIG time!

Pinterest Inspired Wednesday- Crock Pot BBQ

Guess what??  Time for another crock pot recipe!  I love making these because I will make something in the crock pot on Sunday and then have left overs for dinner for the entire week!  Yes, it sucks eating the same thing over and over sometimes, but it is so easy and takes the guess work out of dinner!

Last weekend I made pulled pork BBQ in the crock pot.  I LOVE BBQ!  North Carolina is known for our BBQ.  We basically have two styles- Eastern and Western (eastern is served more in the eastern part of the state and western more towards the mountains).  The Eastern style BBQ is more of a vinegar based BBQ and it is more "chopped" rather that "pulled".  The Western style BBQ is more saucy and sweet and it is not so chopped and more of a pulled or shredded style.  I like both!  This was more of a western style I would say.

I actually had two inspiration pins for this one and kind of combined ideas from the two:

Source: puttinonthegrits.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

Source: sweetandsavoryfood.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

Crock Pot BBQ


3-4 lb "Boston Butt" pork piece of meat (I am not good with meat shopping so I don't know the exact terminology.  But I do know it was pork and "boston butt" was in the description)
1 1/2 cans of diet root beer
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1/2 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's sweet n tangy BBQ sauce
salt and pepper


1. Cover the meat with seasoning salt, salt and pepper.
2. Put it in the crock pot and fill crock pot about 1/2 full of diet root beer
3. Squeeze about 1/2 a bottle of BBQ sauce over meat.
4. Cover, turn cock pot on high, and cook for about 8 hours turning the meat over once after about 4 hours.
5. At the end of 8 hours take the meat out of the pot and shred (there was left over crap in my pot and I also threw away a lot of the really fatty parts.)

I also made slaw...

Simple Slaw


1 big bag of shredded cabbage and carrots
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup cider vinegar
salt and pepper


Combine all ingredients in a big container.  Let sit for a little while in the fridge before serving.

The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of each but I must have had much more cabbage because that barely did anything, so I doubled it.  There was some left over "juice" in the bottom, but I really liked it!

I bought small dinner potato rolls and made sliders:

I LOVED them!  The slaw and the BBQ was really good!  I will definitely be making these again!

So...the reason why I really started this Pinterest Inspired Wednesday series was because I want to see what you guys have made, bought, baked, or have been inspired to DO based on a pin you pinned on pinterest!  Sometimes they turn out good and sometimes not so good.  Was it all you ever hoped for or did it let you down?  Was it as easy as they say or incredibly hard?  I want to give you guys a place to link up to and see what other people have tried from Pinterest.  I am going to keep doing these every Wednesday through the end of May and have the link up available here, so share your experiences too! 



And as always so I can get more ideas of things to DO!

My first half marathon

Oh my goodness I was dreading this race!  I had been sick for the past 2 weeks.  I had missed 2 of my long training runs.  I was barely able to run at all last week.  I felt so unprepared.  I had hated every run I had ever done over 8 miles.  And the furthest I had run/walked was 10 miles.  I was scared and hating myself for signing up for this race.

Saturday I ran a lot of errands (one of which was picking up the t-shirt and bib for the race).  After church I was planning on going to sleep immediately.  But time got away from me and I ended up going to the grocery store to get some pasta around 8:30 pm because I felt like I needed some carbs in my system for the next day.  I had pasta with some spray butter, shredded cheese, sliced red pepper and some baby spinach around 9:30 and got in bed around 11.

I set my alarm for 4:45, but ended up waking up around 4:30 am and ate two eggo waffles with peanut butter and had some G2 to wash it down with. My nerves ALWAYS get to me and I have to use the bathroom before the race, plus I run best on an empty stomach, so I wanted to have plenty of time for my food to digest.  I took a shower and was ready to go at 6 am so we could be in line for the 7 am start. 

My friend Steph was running the race too and our friend Kristin came with us to cheer us on.  We stopped at a grocery store near the race to use the bathroom one last time.  There was a line.  We were told we could not park there for the race and had to move our car across the street to a bank parking lot.  We made it down to the race start line and I was hating life.  I did not want to do this at all.  We didn't have to wait too long and then we were off.

(I took no pictures, but saw this picture on a blog post I read.  I'm in the blue closest to the camera.  This was right at the beginning and I can not believe it looks like I am actually smiling.)

I will spare you all the details because most of the time I was just trying not to think too much.  Running is just as much (if not more) of a mental challenge for me as it is physical.  I kept a steady pace that felt comfortable for me.  My friend Steph was going to run the first half with me until I turned into the devil around mile 7 or 8 (as evidenced from our previous runs), but she was going a little too fast for me and I did not want to push myself when I had 11-12 more miles to go, so I just let her go around mile 2. 

The course was flat for the most part until we got to the first hill around mile 4.  I hate stopping to walk because it messes with my head, but I walked up that hill.  And then I told myself it was ok to walk up hills.  Well there were about 2-3 hills after that so I did way more walking than I probably should have.  Around mile 7 I finally decided to walk through a water station.  I was carrying a small water bottle but I had been coughing and hacking up stuff (which I'm sure was disgusting for the people around me) so I felt like I needed a little break.

Then I did a walking/jogging combination for the next 3 miles.  At about mile 10 I was walking a lot.  I would tell myself just jog to that no parking sign 100 ft. away or to the next intersection.  And sometimes I would make it and sometimes not.

I was really struggling the last 2 miles and could barely bring myself to jog at all.  But when I started seeing people with medals walking back to their cars as I got closer to the finish line I started jogging because I knew I was close.  As soon as I saw the time on the finish line clock was 2:44, I kicked it in to high gear just to try to get in under 2 hours and 45 min.  And I did!  My official time was 2:44:59. That put my pace at about 12:35 minute miles, which wasn't horrible for me.

At the end of the race I could barely walk and I can still barely walk today.  Yesterday I said that this race was the stupidest decision I have ever made and I would never do another one again.  Today I am thinking "what could I do if I wouldn't have gotten sick and gotten all my training in?"  I kind of want to do another one at some point, but not anytime soon.

Despite the torture it was really cool to get a medal and I  do feel somewhat accomplished having made it to the finish line!  When I first made my 30 Before 30 list I just wanted to run one 5K so it is pretty amazing that I have actually completed a half marathon!!

Bronchitis- Ain't nobody got time for that!

I just got back from a run...er...slow jog/walk.  It was terrible.  It's cold out and I'm still coughing and hacking up stuff.  Well about a 1.5 miles away from my house this huge golden retriever comes out of no where.  Cam and I stop and I see a lady in her pajamas on her phone coming out of the garage across the street to get the dog.  We wait because both dogs are kind of amped up like "what's going on...should I attack you??"  I think the lady has the dog so Cam and I start running again.  Well the dog gets lose and chases us.  I keep jogging as calmly as I can to keep Cam calm but do a u-turn to go back up the street to the lady so she can get her dog who is anxiously all over my dog.  We stop and wait until she has him secure on the leash.  I jogged out of that loop, made it about a block further and then gave up.  I just walked most of the way back to my house while hacking up my lungs and spitting up all kinds of nastiness.

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook tonight and I've watched it about 10 times.  Cracks. me. up.  Preach girlfriend!  I got bronchitis too and ain't nobody got time for that!  Especially when you are supposed to be running a half marathon in 3 days!

Pinterest Inspired Wednesday- crock pot mac n cheese

I love crock pot recipes on Pinterest.  I think this is the 4th or 5th one I've tried.  I was so excited about it, but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be.

Here is the pin that inspired me:

Source: whiskandaprayer.blogspot.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

Crock-pot Mac n Cheese

1 1/2 cups milk

One 12 oz can evaporated milk (I used skim, evaporated milk keeps the egg and milk from curdling)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled to room temp

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups (12 oz) shredded cheese (I used an Italian blend, recipe calls for Italian fontina cheese)

1/2 pound elbow macaroni or mini penne tubes, par cooked and drained (this means cook them for about five minutes until tender but not completely cooked)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Spray the inside of your slow-cooker with cooking spray or grease it with olive oil. Combine milk, evaporated milk, eggs, butter, and salt in slow-cooker and whisk until until smooth.

Add the shredded cheese (not the Parmesan) and macaroni, sprinkle with black pepper). Stir gently with a spatula to coat evenly. 

Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top. Cover and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to LOW and cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until custard is set in the center and the pasta is tender. The macaroni and cheese may sit in the cooker on the KEEP WARM setting for 30 minutes before serving

Here is how mine turned out:

Even though I sprayed my crock-pot with cooking spray, I burned the crap out of mine.  But no worries, I just threw out the burnt parts:

And then it was perfect:

When I was little one of my friend's mom's would make us the mac and cheese from the blue box and put baked beans on top.  Sounds weird but I love it!  So I added some baked beans too:

Overall I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.  It was easy and pretty good, but I had way too high expectations for this and they were not met.  I might make it again, but not something I see myself craving.

So...the reason why I really started this Pinterest Inspired Wednesday series was because I want to see what you guys have made, bought, baked, or have been inspired to DO based on a pin you pinned on pinterest!  Sometimes they turn out good and sometimes not so good.  Was it all you ever hoped for or did it let you down?  Was it as easy as they say or incredibly hard?  I want to give you guys a place to link up to and see what other people have tried from Pinterest.  I am going to keep doing these every Wednesday through the end of May and have the link up available here, so share your experiences too! 

And as always so I can get more ideas of things to DO!

Sick

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I've been sick.  I started feeling off last Sunday.  Then woke up with a sore throat on Monday.  Progressively got worse during the week.  I worked from home Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I thought it was just a cold and so I didn't go to the doctor. 

Over the weekend I got worse.  So I went to the doctor this morning.  The doctor didn't say exactly what I had.  She said my tonsils were swollen but I didn't have strep.  She said my body was definitely fighting something though so she gave me some drugs to hopefully knock this bad boy out!  Almost $50 at Walgreens, I came home with all this...

The worst part about this sickness is my throat.  I sound like crap.  I can barely talk and have these horrible coughing fits.  The doctor gave me these prescription cough suppressant pills.  I've never seen anything like them...

They look like little marbles.  And so far they work pretty well.

I HAVE to get better!  My first half marathon is on Sunday!!  I haven't ran since last Monday.  I was planning on doing 11 miles on Sunday but I just couldn't because I could barely breathe from this cold!  I am going to try to do 4 miles tonight and then 8 on Wednesday and maybe 3-4 on Thursday.  This freaking sucks!  I feel so unprepared and this dang cold better get better ASAP or else I definitely won't make it to the finish line!

Ok rant over :(

I hope you guys had a great Easter weekend!  I was at church Friday for a choir concert, Saturday to help out in Kid's Life (probably should NOT have done that) and attend service, and then back on Sunday to help with First Impressions and baptisms.  It was such a good weekend reflecting on the blood that was shed for me and the victory and power of the resurrection!  And the weather over the last few days has been just beautiful and I got to enjoy some time outside just relaxing. Despite the sickness it really was a great weekend. Hallelujah He has risen indeed!

Pinterest Inspired Wednesday- Pinterest Frustrations

You guys know I love Pinterest.  I use it daily.  I pin items I am inspired by, quotes I like, ideas for if I ever get married (ladies there is NOTHING wrong with having a wedding board on pinterest- you are just saving ideas, not planning your wedding and I think you will be MUCH more prepared and less stressed when you actually do have to plan your wedding)...ok rant over...I use it for recipes I want to try, ideas for if I'm ever a parent (again, I see nothing wrong with this), ideas for the holidays, ideas for planning parties, and many other things.

If you haven't already...  

I have 23 boards right now.  Is that excessive?  One of my boards is called "i want" I pin things here that I am considering buying in the near future (not "oh someday ideas").  Over the last two weeks I have had two items I've pinned sell out before I could go back and buy them!

Source: oldnavy.gap.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

Would have been sooo cute!

Source: kohls.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

Why did everyone else have to love these as much as me?

I was so sad.  I guess I will have to remember if I see a lot of people re-pinning something that is a sign to not delay and buy it now or else it will be gone!

I also have a problem pinning things and then never being able to find them for sale.  Like these:

Source: pictureperfectbodywerkit.tumblr.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

Source: loftinsoho.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

Or things that end up being WAYYYY out of my price range.  I have learned to pin all clothing and home ideas onto separate "inspiration" boards because most of the stuff I like is sooo expensive and I need to just find similar items to pull off the "look".  Like these:

Source: polyvore.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

Yeah...That yellow "top" is actually a dress and the bag is over $700.  Also I pinned this twice!  I hate when I do that!

And finally I hate people that just pin images...not a link to a page with more info.  Like this:

Source: i1121.photobucket.com via ncsuz on Pinterest

And if it is something I want to buy, I also hate "uploaded by user" pins.  


Do you guys have any similar experiences?   What are your Pinterest frustrations?