new years, shmoo years

So, for I don't know how long, New Years has been one of my least favorite holidays.  EVER.


I have had some good ones mixed in with the bad ones, but for the most part, the night over all has just been one where I would've preferred to stay in my sweats instead of getting all gussied up to go to some bar that I normally wouldn't go to.



So much hype is built up around the holiday and my plans usually end up bombing.



Does this happen to anyone else?


Maybe I'm the only one?


Anywho, this year I decided to pack my bags and leave on a jet plane to visit some friends in the great state of Texas.  You know them.  I've written about them before.  Here and here. 


I am determined to make this the best NYE ever. (If only this stupid cold would disappear...) 


OK, maybe not the best ever, but we are going to have a good time, that's for sure.  With plans already made to visit one of my favorite Mexican places ever (which I will for sure write about later) and a concert later in the night, how could things go wrong? (Seriously I hope I didn't jinx our plans...)


With a new year quickly approaching, it seems only fitting to come up with some goals...except I have no motivation to do that...


I mean sure, I want to lose a little more weight, volunteer more, be a better person, and all that jazz, but I don't feel like there are any ground breaking things that I should put on a list to do this year.   


My gym however, is doing a great promotion where if you sign up for this "Biggest Loser" like challenge you have the chance to win a free year of membership.  How great would that be?!  So if you see me stuffing my face even more than normal in the next few days, just know that I'm trying to pack on a few pounds for the weigh in.  OK?


Since I wasn't able to come up with a riveting list of goals for 2011, I thought you'd all like to see some lists that my old roommate and I made up a couple of years ago. 


We had to revise them a few times so that we'd actually meet the goals, but as you'll see, we took these very seriously.  Only two of the goals weren't reached (after revisions)...we gave it a good try!

Goals for 2009


1. Get Married
Lofty goal? I think not...

2. Win the lottery
One would probably have to buy lottery tickets to win the lottery, right?

3. Invent something
Solid goal, now to just come up with the brilliant idea.

4. Start/Star own TV show
I know we'd have a huge audience watching this.

5. Learn to fly
Umm...I mean why wouldn't we have this as a goal...

6. Compete in Ironman
I think this was the year that a few of our friends were competing in an Ironman and we thought to fit in and talk with them that we should probably try one out ourselves.  Without training.

7. Write a book or movie
This kind of goes with being in our own TV show. It just makes sense.

8. Record an album/win American Idol
We both have beautiful singing voices so why not?  Plus I don't know how many people called to see if I was going to the KC tryouts of AI.  Jus sayin (and in my head I think they were being totally serious).

9. Enter/win a food eating contest
We love food.  And we can put it away.  Plus all of those people that do food eating contests and are good at them are generally pretty small. 

Revisions:

1.  Get Married

I mean, it could still happen...people barely know each other a month and they get married.  We were giving ourselves like 8 months.

2.  Win the lottery Win things

Our chances of winning something is sure to go up with this vague goal.

3.  Invent something Invent something/keep the cilantro plant alive

I mean, inventing something and keeping a plant alive are similar, right? 

4.  Start/star in own TV show
Persistence is key here.  Too bad we didn't know anyone in showbiz; they would've loved us.

5.  Learn to fly Meet a pilot
This should have been easy enough...

6.  Compete in Ironman Compete in a 5K
I think a 5K is a good place to start training for an Ironman, right?

7.  Write a book or movie Read 1 book
Easy peasy. As long as no one is counting pages...

8.  Record an album/win American Idol Record commercial jingle
So maybe the album idea was a little too much...

9.  Enter/win a food eating contest Win food eating contest
So...maybe we should have looked up where food competitions actually take place to achieve this goal.

Re-Revisions

1.  Get Married

Our goal probably should have been: keep a boyfriend for longer than three months.   Oy. 

2.  Win the lottery Win Things

I won a new pair of shoes at my gym!

3.  Invent something Invent something/keep the cilantro plant alive Keep Moxie alive

Moxie is Monica's dog...if we couldn't keep her alive, we were in serious trouble.  I'm notorious for killing plants, so the cilantro plant didn't make it...the cilantro plant was meant to save us big $$ at the grocery store since we bought it every week, but it was waaaaaay harder to grow than we originally thought.

4.  Start/Star in own TV show

Well...this didn't happen either although it probably really should have.  We are really entertaining most of the time.  Or at least we thought so?

5.  Learn to fly Meet a pilot Go on a plane

So the learning to fly thing didn't work out.  And neither did meeting a pilot.  But I did go on a plane a few times back in '09.

6.  Compete in Ironman Compete in a 5K Take Moxie for a walk around the block

To be fair, I'm 99% sure I competed in at least 1 5K that year...but who's counting?  And I definitely took Mox around the block.  She put on some winter weight. 

7.  Write a book or movie Read 1 book

This could have been the year that I joined a book club, so obviously I read more than one book...or maybe I did just read one book and pretended like I read the other books my book club read?  I do this even with my new book club...I mean, who really joins a book club to read?

8.  Record an album/win American Idol Record commercial jingle Play the harmonica at a wedding

Duh. This happened.  And I rocked it.

 

9.  Enter/win a food eating contest Win food eating contest

Bake 40 wedding cakes for a wedding

Monica did this.  For one wedding (they had individual cakes at each of the tables).  She's kind of a badass.  Good thing her culinary schooling is going to good use!

Happy New Year, everyone!  Here's hoping yours goes better than my last few years! See ya in 2011!

it's the mooooost wonderful timmmme of the yearrrrrr

I was trying to make the title sound like I was singing it.  Get it?  


Anyway, Christmas is my most favorite holiday ever.  Mostly though, Christmas Eve is my very favorite. 


Every year for as long as I can remember, my entire dad's side of the family heads to Christmas Eve service at our little tiny church back home (the average congregation age is probably about 75 and on a good Sunday, 20 people show up) and the kids that sometimes show up for church put on a Christmas pagent (or more recently it's turned into "special music"-which means play your favorite instrument or recorder or sing along with a boombox) and sometimes Santa shows up to pass out a bag of candy and oranges! 


Then we head to my Grandpa's house to catch up, open presents, and eat! 

The past few years have been really fun because a few of my cousins have little kiddos that have made opening presents 10 times more exciting.


It used to be just us adults opening up our gift cards, socks, and chapstick, which is all fine and great, but now that the kids are back in the picture, there are tons of toys to put together and play with all night!


We also have a ton of good food: wings, shrimp, crab, cookies, dips as far as the eye can see, and oyster soup. 


I'm not a big fan of the oyster soup, but most of my family is...I just can't chew up the little thingys in the soup.  It grosses me out (sorry Aunt JoAnn!).

I'm really crossing my fingers that the snow holds off this year so that we can all be together without worrying about the weather...you see, last year, we had so much snow that everything was cancelled; my brother in law couldn't come because he had to help clear off the roads, my mom had to go into work the night before because the snow was so bad, and everyone had to leave early because roads were drifting shut. 

Don't get me wrong, I love a white Christmas, but this was a little rediculous...4 feet of snow in the back yard, drifts so high that my dad's truck couldn't get through, and it was non-stop.  Needless to say, we didn't leave the house much that weekend. 

I think by the time we were actually able to leave my parents house to head back to Kansas City that we all had a bit of cabin fever, even the dogs!

I really don't even remember when the snow finally stopped for good.  It seemed to go on for a verrrry long time last year.

So far, the past year has been a good one; I kind of can't believe that it's already Christmas-time! 

With this year quickly coming to a close, I want to thank each and every one of you who reads my blog.  I love all of the comments and emails about my random stories and I hope that I can continue to be as entertaining next year!

With the way my life goes, it shouldn't be a problem!

Merry Christmas (or substitute your favorite holiday here) and Happy New Year!

xo

...these are a few of my favorite things!

Oh, how I wish you could hear me singing right now.  It is glorious.

Since the holidays are upon us, I thought you'd like to know about some of my favorite things.  Kind of like Oprah.  But not really because I'm cheap.

Here It Goes:


Bag balm is seriously some of my favorite stuff EVER.  I know, if you go to their website it sounds and looks like it's only for animals and their utters or something, but it's not!  Trust me. 


I use it as lip gloss; I put it on my chapped knuckles (because that's what boxing does to your hands....).  It is the BEST.  In addition to this giant tub (which I've had for like 3 years and still have over half of it left despite using it multiple times a day) they also have little baby containers that are SO cute.  I just bought one off of amazon because I'm that obsessed.   

Last year I bought this fancy Bulova watch as a Christmas present to myself (don't you worry, I didn't pay full price, I got a sweet deal on it) and I wear it ALL the time.  It can be dressed up or dressed down and it looks good always.  Obviously.

For the longest time, I refused to buy Uggs; everyone had them, they weren't all that cute, and they are expensive.  I had a few other cheaper pairs and the were ok...they didn't keep my feet all that warm and after the winter that we had last year and all of the shovelling and walking the dog outside, the kind of warm boots just didn't cut it for this year.  So, I broke down and bought a pair.  And I love them.  Plus they're kind of cute.  Right?!

 

Because my workout is typically never the same and since I go to the gym at least 4-5 times a week, I have to switch my shoes often because I wear them out.  My latest pair, by Asics have been great.  I even bought inserts like my mom does!  I'm such a grown up!  And they're purple, which just so happens to be one of my favorite colors.

 

Did you know that I am also a Mary Kay Sales Rep?  No?  Oh, that's probably because I don't do much with it besides give myself, my mom, and my sister the hookup.  I mean, I'll give you the hook up too, just check out the website and tell me what ya need.  Chances are, I probably have it to send to you.  I'm just not one of those over acheiver types in the MK business.  I wish I had more time for it, but I just don't right now. 

Anyway, I love their make up and their skin care products.  Growing up, I didn't have the best skin (somehow my sister did, but then again, she has no boobs and mine...well, they aren't so small) and for some reason MK products always seemed to do the trick. 

Now, I have an endless supply of Timewise face wash and lotion.  The Miracle Set is a girls best friend.  Trust me.

Also, the mineral powder, cheeck and eye color are fab.  For real.  You know where to find me if you want to give any of this good stuff a try. :)

I take my digital camera everywhere.  I mean, if I didn't you wouldn't have all of these awesome pictures to gawk at on my blog.  I have some pretty awesome friends and a year or so ago, I helped them plan their wedding.  To thank me, (which was totally unecessary, I might add) they gave me this amazing, Sony Camera. 

It was probably the best gift ever, being that my other camera broke just days before their wedding.

I love coffee.  I used to only be a fan of Starbucks coffee (specifically the Christmas Blend in case anyone is reading and would like to purchase some for me?); possibly because my old roommate used to manage a store and would get free coffee often.

This year just happened to be the first year in about 5 that I've had to make my own coffee purchases.  So I thought I should try to be a little more economical with my coffee choices since Starbucks isn't exactly the cheapest place on the planet to buy coffee.

I was wandering around Costco one afternoon taking in all of the samples and just happened to stumble upon the Ruta Maya coffee guy.  I was hesitant to try a sample because it was straight black coffee and I usually have to put a little something in it...but I gave in and gave it a try because it smelled so good.

It was awesome.  Black.  And I never drink black coffee.  So I ended up walking away with a giant bag of coffee beans.  (PS--if you don't ground your own beans, you're missing out on some serious flavor)

 

 

so, my dog peed on my lap last night.

Awesome.  That's all I have to say about it.


You see, I think what happened was she was just really excited from playing with other doggies last night that when we got in the car (yes, she rides on my lap; and, no, I don't want to hear about how this is a bad idea...she just sleeps the whole time...er most of the time and then the other time she's looking out the window) a little excited pee just slipped out.  Twice.


That, and she drank over half of her weight in water last night from running around like crazy.


She even went to the bathroom 2 times before getting in the car.


Laila has a tiny baby problem of excited peeing.  She just gets so wound up whenever she meets someone new, or old, and greets them with a little squirt of pee.  I'd take it as a compliment if I were you...


I mean you can't get mad at this cute little face for too long:

27 dresses. or something like that.

Remember that movie with Katherine Heigl?  The one where she's a bridesmaid 27 times? 

{via}

I am almost that girl.

I've been in A LOT of weddings. You'd be thinking that my time should almost be up; that my wedding would be right around the corner, right??  But boy are you wrong....yikes.

I love weddings.  And I'm hoping that eventually I'll have one of my own, but for now I'm still enjoying going to and being a part of my friends weddings.

I can count the number of weddings that I've been in on three hands.  Pretty crazy, huh?  And I still have a lot of single friends...

With the number of weddings that I've been in has come a nice collection of dresses, shoes, and jewelry.  What is one to do with all of the dresses that you acquire from weddings?!

For now, they're just occupying space in my office closet...and actually, I'm reusing one in a wedding coming up this summer, so I guess I'm glad that I've kept them around!

I feel like the best side of myself really comes out at wedding receptions. 

For some reason, I feel like I should drink obscene amounts of alcohol and then proceed to sing, dance, and do stupid stuff in my wedding garb.

Let me explain in a few pictures:

At my friend's Jess & Matt's wedding, I performed some lovely and touching, I might add, singing for the party-goers. 

I also performed this cool trick with 2 bottles of beer.  So classy.

After the reception we went to a few bars in Ft. Worth and I decided to take my bouquet along with me.  I then proceeded to feed berries off of my bouquet to random strangers in the bar that night...

At Nicki & Matt's wedding, I found a giant bottle of champagne that I thought everyone needed to drink out of.  So I made them.  Later in the night, I proceeded to fall in the parking lot.  In my dress.  In February. 

Here we are at the bar looking really special.  I love the nice spill down the front of my dress.  Good work!

At Shannon & Ryan's wedding I did some really fancy dancing, something that I probably learned off of TV or back from my jazzercise days.  That's my friend Medina and I (Medina is her last name contrary to popular belief...); we were the ones doing the fancy dancing at the wedding that everyone was jealous of.

I also had a nice arrangement going on with the photographer where I would come up with some awesome shots for pictures and then make him take it of me and a few of the other bridesmaids.  Mind you I was sober at this point.  I just have mad persuasion skillz.  Isn't this one nice with the stained glass in the background?  I thought so.

And once again, had a mild obsession with my bouquet.  I brought it with me everywhere and then tried feeding it to people at the bars later that night.

Mel & Stephen gifted me a brand new harmonica for being in and planning their wedding (and also a B.A. camera for being their wedding slave.  JUST KIDDING GUYS! I loved planning your wedding :))

You might be saying to yourself, "I had no idea Kristin could play the harmonica..."  and you'd be right, I have no idea how to play.  They just thought that giving me one would make me do crazy things at their reception and they were right. 

Everyone at the reception might have played the harmonica that night. 

I think the DJ enjoyed it most.  Did you know you could play the harmonica to Sir Mixalot's I like Big Butts? Yeah, me neither.  But I did.  And it was awesome.  

Here's the groom enjoying some time with the harmonica.

 

The harmonica may have been one of the best purcahses/gifts ever.  I carried taht puppy around in my purse for months afterwards and would bust at out at any given opportunity just to spice things up a bit.   

show and tell

I'm going to share a verrrrrry top secret recipe with you. 

It's one that my old roomie and I made up with things that were in our refrigerator one night. 

If you like good food, you'll love this.  Also, if you want your house to smell like heaven, you should probably make this right now. 

Also, since we made up this recipe up on our own, the measurements are really just me guessing...so use your own discretion...

Is your mouth watering yet?  I thought so...

BBQ Shrimp Pizza

1 can of refrigerated pizza dough

20 frozen shrimp (thawed and cut into smaller pieces)

1/2 of a red onion

2 cloves of garlic

3 Tablespoons of chopped jalapeno (fresh or jarred)

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

1/4 C bbq sauce

1/3 of a block of cream cheese

1 Roma Tomato

Shredded Colby Cheese

Cilantro (chopped)

Spread the pizza dough out onto jelly roll pan and cook as directed (or until it looks kind of brown...)

Saute olive oil, onion, garlic, and jalapeno until soft.  Add cut up shrimp.

Spread BBQ sauce over baked pizza crust.  Add sauted mixture over the BBQ sauce.

Cut up cream cheese into little bites (I LOVE cream cheese so you may need more or less depending on your love) and add to pizza.  Add some shredded cheese on top for good measure (just enough to cover the top).  Bake for another 3 minutes or until cheese melts.

Add chopped tomato and cilantro (I also LOVE cilantro and could probably put close to the entire bunch onto the pizza...) to the pizza and bake for another 2-3 minutes.

Then enjoy and thank me for sharing this top secret recipe. 

We wanted to open a restaurant that served this and cookies.  And maybe a few other things.  We're still working on it. :)

i would make an ideal housewife in case you were wondering

I recently took a few days off from work.  Partially because I wanted some time to relax after a busy weekend, but mostly because I just wanted to be lazy.


I had originally planned to paint my office on my couple of days off and even taped it off last week in order to speed up the painting process on my time off. 


But after venturing to Lowe's and figuring out that the paint color that I chose was going to require me to prime the walls a nice gray color, I gradually kept putting off the task. 

I pulled out my old brushes, laid out some plastic, found my paint tray, and took all of this stuff upstairs, only to have it all still sitting there.  The room, unpainted.

Oh, well, what's the rush...right?  The stuff that was in my office is just hanging out in my spare bedroom...hopefully I won't have any visitors any time soon...


Anyway, since I didn't get around to painting, I did do some pretty awesome domestic tasks around my house and came to the conclusion that I would rock at being a "Real Housewife".  Which just so happens to be one of my favorite TV shows.  Have a look see:


Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Greek food including tzatziki, spanikopita, hummus and lots of fresh veggies

Changed some lightbulbs (all of them seem to be burning out at the same time! ugh)

This is a big deal for two reasons.

1.   My ceilings are like 20 feet high or something and my ladder is too wide for my closet door; I had to do some major shimmying and a lot of cussing to get this lightbulb changed.

2.  I used to call maintenance in my apartment complex to change lightbulbs...basically because I could.  And they would do it.

Also I spent a lot of time hanging out with my dog.  Even though I was at home all day, she still thought she had to go to her kennel...I guess she likes it in there? 

You should also note that I've reintroduced fancy bedding to her luxurious kennel.  So far so (kind of) good.  Only one small mishap with gnawing a hole in the bottom...I think she likes the stuffing or something...the tiny hole has now turned into the whole bottom of the bedding being torn out.  So much for that...

To drive her batshit crazy, I made her chase a laser pointer around the house.  She loves it, but for the life of her she can't get where the light is coming from!  I enjoy it because she runs around the house like crazy and then she starts panting because she's running so fast trying to catch the light.  Don't worry, we made up by sharing a banana. (she loves them for some reason!)

weekend recap

My cousin Kole graduated from Kansas State this weekend. He was so excited!

He and one of his cousins had a joint party at a bar in Manhattan together.  Most of my family was there, so it was fun to catch up with everyone and to drink and dance the night away!

This is my second plate of food....for some reason, my first plate decided to do a backflip on the floor, my dress, and on my new Uggs.  Oy.



 

This is part of my first plate of food.  Nothing like ranch and greasy meat on my boots....



I was so worried about wearing my new boots in a bar for fear that some drunk person would spill a drink on me....then I go and spill a plate on my boots myself.  Sober. 

The bar that the party was held at specializes in fish bowls, which is basically a BUNCH of different kinds of alcohol, and like sprite and grenadine...or something.  I didn't participate as these things made me sick a few times in college so I stuck to my old standby: beer.

My mom and sister apparently really enjoyed them though!



The bar also had a shot wheel.  I tried really really hard to get my uncle to participate.  But he wouldn't.  I even said I'd pay for it!  But no luck...



My brother in law then started doing some really awesome dancing on the pool table.  It was really good and really showcased his dancing skills.

The dancing continued with my sister. I think they practice at home... 

The three of us really were showing everyone up on the "dance floor".  My sister, cousin Danyelle and I did some fancy feet, running man, and a lot of really awesome hand movements.  People were jealous. 

Because of all of our dancing we were starving after leaving the bars.  All that Danyelle wanted was a dang quesidilla from Taco Bell.  Since cabs to Taco Bell were few and far between, we walked to Buffalo Wild Wings instead.  As luck would have it, they had quesadillas! 

Between the five of us I think we ordered around 30 wings, 2 orders of fries, a buffalo chicken wrap, and obviously the quesadilla.  We were hungry! Geesh!

To top it off, Josh thought that he wanted 24 wings on his own.  Luckily I convinced our waitress that he only needed 12.

Since Josh was so hungry, he ate a whole 1 wing.  Good call on the 24, buddy :)  So needless to say we had quite a few leftovers...

Did I tell you that it decided to get super cold in KS this weekend?  Oh, no?  IT DID.  It was below freezing and snowing.  Since the cabs in Manhattan are difficult to come by, we decided to walk back to our hotel.  In the freezing, blowing cold.  With our leftovers.  It was so cold!

My sister forgot that she put the wings in her purse until the next morning when she was getting her phone out.  Much to her surprise, she pulled out 11 wings!  And some ranch!

Mmm...I love ranch.  But ranch and buffalo sauce in the morning are not a good combination.  I was gagging.

After she cleaned that out, we made our way to Lawrence to meet up with my mom's side of the family to do an early Christmas.  It was fun getting to see that side of the family that we don't get to see that often!

Upon arriving back to my house I walked inside to my own personal sauna.  It was a good 110* inside of my house and everything, I mean EVERYTHING was hot to the touch.  The staircase railing, kitchen cabinet handles, the toilet seat, everything was so hot.

I started freaking out a little because I had no idea what was going on and my thermostat wouldn't turn off even though I switched it to off, the hot air just kept coming out of the vents!  Luckily Kim and Josh were still around so they were able to help me problem solve...

Apparently my thermostat has batteries...who knew?! 

After changing those puppies I cracked a window to get some of the heat out (I know that it was like 6* out yesterday but you have no idea how hot my house was!  We couldn't breathe it was so hot) and picked up my dog from my friend Becky's house.  Luckily I was only gone for one night...who knows how hot my house could've been...I'm really looking forward to that heating bill...

Apparently Laila was quite the watch dog at Becky's house!