Happy Friday!!

Man, oh Man and am I SOO GLAD its Friday!!!

I even hit the snooze button this morning, and I NEVER hit the snooze button!

Plans/Goals for the weekend include:

• Saturday cleaning day
• Laundry (YUCK!)
• Finish sewing the squares to my Christmas table runner
• Get my Nintendo Wii and DS sold on Craigslist
• Sunday Shopping with the Mama
• Finish Christmas Shopping
• Take LONG walks around the neighborhood with Keeley
• The weather this weekend should be in the high 60's to low 70's!!
• That's crazy weather for the first weekend in December!!!!

I know, nothing too crazy of a weekend, but it's my favorite kind of a weekend!  :) 

• The most important thing this weekend:  Spend time with my Favorite Fur-Babies and Andy too!!

~Jessica

Christmas Stockings

I LOOOOOVE Christmas time!  

I guess it makes me feel like it's so magical!  

Andy likes to laugh at me because I can be such a goof around Christmas time.

It's ok, I can handle it!  :) 

A long, long time ago my mama decided that she wanted to try and make a stocking for me, her first child.  She bought a stocking kit from a company called Bucilla and made me an awesome stocking 28 years ago and I still to this day use that as my stocking at my house.  

My favorite part of the stocking, the gold stars sewn in and of course I love all the hard work she put in to make me such a great heirloom.  She has made one for every single member of our immediate family, in all a total of 11 stockings.  I cannot wait until my kids get a homemade stocking from their Grandma!  It just provides a special touch to Christmas.  :)  

She even made Andy one even before we were married.  I love that she puts in her own spin on certain things on the stocking.  Sometimes she will change a color on a certain item or put in a hidden message on a part of the stocking. 

She even sewed a Christmas Tree Skirt that I use to this day under my tree.  Of course my cat thinks the beads are fun to chew on, cue the squirt bottle, but he's learning that the Tree Skirt is for ornamental purposes only and could potentially be used for cute photo ops when he decides to sleep under the tree, its not a chew toy.....silly cat.

~Jessica

Walking on Lunch

I know many of you do not get the opportunity to walk around your workplaces on a break or after lunch, but I am lucky enough that my work has walking trails/paths for us.  Not many people at my workplace take the opportunity to get some fresh air and clear their heads, but that leaves more room for me to my own thoughts!  :)  

Maybe people aren't walking because it's getting colder out, I am the weird one still walking....haha.  I took some photos of the beautiful campus for you all to enjoy!  You are welcome!  :) 

~Jessica

WIAW #6

Today will be the last "Fall" Edition of "What I Ate Wednesday" You can link up here with other WIAW Fanatics like myself here.
Can you believe it will be December on Saturday!?!!! Where did 2012 go??
Breakfast

Breakfast was the ever boring hot tea and oatmeal.  I found this oatmeal at Walmart from Rachel Ray.  It was $2.00 a box, 8 packets in each box.  How can you not go wrong with .25 cent breakfast for a week and 1 day?!??  I bought both flavors, Apple Cinnamon and Apple Cranberry.  My favorite is Apple Cinnamon, the Apple Cranberry is a little tart for my taste, but the cheap-o in me, eats it for a different flavor and to not waste is.  Ill look for other flavors the next time.   The hot tea was Celestial Seasoning "English Breakfast" Tea.

Snack

Chobani Apple Cinnamon Greek Yogurt
Lunch

Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and a homemade Imo's side salad  (forgot to get a photo of the salad, I was soooo hungry!!).
Snack

27 Cheez-It Crackers (Yes, I counted them out, it helps keep track of calories)
Dinner

 Yes, we went out to eat to dinner on another WIAW, 

I SWEAR, we DO NOT eat our every night!  

Tonights dinner was brought to us by Penn Station.

8" Tuna Salad with Provel Cheese, Lettuce and Tomatoes.  (YUMMY!!!)

Ran into an ex-boyfriend at Penn Station tonight for dinner......it was a little scary when I looked up and saw him.  I just stared and Andy and he was so confused.  I told him, things might get awkward  my ex just walked in the door.  Sad to say, but thank god he didn't notice me......how awkward would that have been!?!!

Evening Snack

100 Calorie Pack of Mini Fudge Stripes

(I was craving major chocolate and these do the trick at only 100 calories a bag!)

Well that does it for this final edition of WIAW-Fall!

~Jessica

FitBit Update #2

It has officially been 2 weeks and one day since I started with the FitBit.  So, how have I been doing??  Good for 10 days of it, bad for 5 days of it.  Thanksgiving really threw me off and I put myself in this mindset, "I had bad food yesterday, one more day cant hurt".  Bad Jessica......  But I will say, I picked the diet back up promptly on Monday (11/26).  So I can say Go Jessica there.  :) 

My goals for the day are as follows:

• Walk 10,000 steps a day
• This goal is hard because I sit at a desk all day, so I have to put a lot of steps in after work.  It's good though, it forces me out of the house to either walk Keeley around the neighborhood or walk on the treadmill in my basement.
• Walk 10 flights of stairs a day
• This goal is easy, we have steps in our house, and there are many stairs at my work.
• Distance of 5.00 miles a day
• A tough one at first, but I will work my way up there
• Burn 2,387 calories a day
• Have an activity goal of 1000
• This is determined by the amount of activity you've obtained in the last 24 hours

Monday (11/26):

• Steps: 11,083  :)
• Stairs: 20 :)
• Distance: 4.63 miles
• Calories Burned: 2238
• Activity Goal: 776

Tuesday (11/27):

(this was my "off" day of working out, as you can tell by the crappy numbers)

• Steps: 3200
• Stairs: 9
• Distance: 1.34 miles
• Calories Burned: 1878
• Activity Goal: 419

I didn't walk at work after lunch because it was too cold outside (the temperature was in the high 30's).....poor excuse now that I think about it.  I need to get a winter hat, suck it up and walk everyday after lunch!

What excuses do you use to not work out?  I find that I hold myself so much more accountable with this blog than ever before!  I am also considering getting up a half hour earlier to walk on the treadmill to jump start my steps.  I find that getting home, I don't have the desire to walk.  

I want to make sure I do NOT fail, failing is NOT an option!!

I think Tuesday's will be my FitBit Update day, so look for it here on out!  :)  

~Jessica

Weekend Recap

Wowie!! Where did this awesome holiday weekend go!?!

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend with lots of loved ones!!

Wednesday night - I got off work at 1pm on Wednesday and waited till the last minute to buy the groceries I needed for my part in Thanksgiving....yup I was that person.  I first went to World Market to pick up some vanilla bean pods.  Thank goodness I did.  I bought 2 packages with 2 beans a piece for $2.59 for each package.  Looking online to buy vanilla beans, youre looking at $10.00 for 2 pods!  That's crazy!!  Second I went to Schnucks, it turned out that Schnucks (grocery store) wasn't that all busy, score!!  Back home I went to bake my booty off!  I spent about 4 hours baking that night.  

What was accomplished:

-Vanilla bean cheesecake

-Pre-made cheese danish

-Pre-made cinnamon rolls

-Brownies

Need I mention that all were HOMEMADE!!!  Lots of love and time went into those very delicious desserts!!  :)

Thursday -  Happy Thanksgiving!!  Breakfast was at my moms and dinner was at my in-laws.  If you would like more information on the meals, you can check out here.  

Friday -  I had every intention on putting up all my Christmas stuff, and boy did I!!  See, I am one of those people who like Christmas stuff up early, like before Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get it up early.  But man oh man was I ever ready to get going on Friday!  I had help from my two fur-babies of course!  Smokey thought the tree was his new "toy" so the squirt bottle has been in place for the last 2 days.  He is finally getting that the tree is not his toy....bummer city for the cat.  I think the house turned out great though!!

Saturday - Spend the day shopping with my mama!!  Lunch was at El Maguey and shopping for Christmas presents.  We got so much done!  I am in no way a black friday shopper.  Those crowds and dealing with people are not my thing, plus I think it's ridiculous for stores to open on Thanksgiving day......but that's another story.  I've been really bad about meals lately...bad Jessica.  Dinner was McDonalds.....the diet starts back up on Monday, you can hold me accountable.  Promise!  Andy and his dad were getting measurements and prices to get our basement finished.  I am looking forward to having it finished.  He has always wanted his own "Man Cave" and I am ready for him to get this done.  Hopefully we can get this started and going soon.  

Sunday -  Apparently Sunday turned into clean out your basement day and throw crap away you don't use.  And you know what, I didn't mind one bit.  It felt good to get rid of the crap we never use or have any use for.  If I haven't seen or used it in the past year, its gone.  Buy-bye now!  Dinner was with my family to Pizza Street.  Good times as usual and we got to see my brother and his kids, Jackson and Claire.  

I will leave you on this Sunday night with 2 more photos of those cute animals!  :) 

Keeley was watching over me while I typed out my blog for today!

Mokes is cuddling by the Christmas tree.  He's so cute!

The countdown for the next weekend begins now; 5 days! 

Can you believe it will be December in 5 days!?!!

~Jessica

Carrie Underwood "Blown Away"

Literally, "Blown Away" is the PERFECT title to this concert.  I've seen a few concerts in my day, mostly *Nsync (3 times), Britney Spears, Rascal Flatts, Breaking Benjamin, and Tim McGraw.  This was the second time I had seen Carrie live and she never fails her fans on her shows!  This girl was on stage for 1 hour and 45 minutes and blew me away with her voice!  The ENTIRE show she sang and sang it like she should.  Her second to last song she sang was, "I know you won't" and it is a powerful ballad!  She sang that song like she hadn't sung one song all evening.  She belted that song out and it was incredible!  Her opening act was Hunter Hayes.  I knew 2 of his songs, but he did a pretty good job for someone I didn't know much about.  All the girls in the crowd were going crazy for him.  Brought me back to the good 'ol *Nsync days.  :) 

Opening Act: Hunter Hays

If I had one negative thing about her show, it had to be the stage.  I get that instead of doing huge props/stage sets that you cant really move around, its easier and you can do more with screens but her stage was really set up for people who are looking straight at it.  We sat on the right corner of the stage and several times we couldn't see her because she was at the point of the screens and hidden from us.  

Her stage at one point came apart and she "flew" into the crowd and sang about 5 songs in the air.  It was a cute stage presentation and I thought it was a good idea.  

My favorite outfit of her's was her opening outfit.  It was a blue/green corset top, short in the front and long in the back with TONS of glittering stones.  It reminded me a lot of my wedding dress, which makes me happy.  It was amazing!  Oh and that girl wore heels the entire show, you go girl!  

I strongly suggest anyone who is a fan of Carrie's to attend her concerts.  It is well worth the money and she doesn't charge an arm or a leg or even both to attend her concerts.  I've seen where some artists was $200 for a seat at their concert, are you kidding me!?!!  That's nuts! She even donated $1.00 from every ticket sale to the Red Cross, she is even cooler in my book now!  :) 

My awesome mom got my sister and I a t-shirt from the show.  Woohoo!!  Thanks MA!!

These are the best photos the night if you ask me!

 My sister and I at The Spaghetti Factory

 Our waiter took this photo of my mom, sister and I!

 The three of us waiting for the concert to begin!

 My sister and I again

My mom and my sister

In all it was a great night and I kinda wished I had taken the next day off of work, but I will survive.  

~Jessica

WIAW - 2012 Thanksgiving Edition!!

Love this idea from Jenn over at Peas and Crayons! Happy Thanksgiving to all!!
My Thanksgiving started over at my mama's house.  We had a breakfast feast!  I made homemade cheese danishes and homemade cinnamon rolls. My mom also cooked up some scrambled egges along with sausage and bacon.  It was so yummy and I left the table full!  (The diet will start over again promptly after Thanksgiving dessert, so lets say Friday morning)

Thanksgiving Dinner took place over at Andrew's parents house, Tim and Lynn.  We had the very delish turkey, honeybaked ham (for Andy, he likes Ham more than Turkey) cheesy hashbrowns, corn, green beans, rolls, sausage stuffing, and yams with marshmallows. It was very good, and of course, I left the table very full!     

I had brought over the following:  a homemade vanilla bean cheesecake and homemade brownies (Lynn's favorite), both were made from scratch!   (As you can see, I spent a lot of the afternoon/evening Wednesday night baking, which I LOVE to do! 4 hours!!)  This was my first time making a homemade cheesecake and I am quite proud of myself.  It came out so good!  I of course forgot to take a photo of the finished cheesecake and brownies.  We came home from their house and I took a photo of the piece of the cheesecake, but no photos of the brownies, sorry.

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving with lots of friends and family.  I know I did. So glad I no longer work in retail, this will be the first time in over 10 years that I get the day after Thanksgiving off (Black Friday).
~Jessica

WIAW #5

Good Morning World!

. This week's WIAW is going to be a little different! According to Jenn over at Peas and Crayons, I am going to be an overachiever this week! You all are going to join in on TWO WIAW's this week!
Be excited everyone, please be excited!  :)
I was bad and didn't take photos of all the food I ate for the day, but I did want to document my dinner.
Dinner - The Spaghetti Factory
Last night was a special girls night out with my mama and my sister Jena.  We went out to dinner at The Spaghetti Factory and saw Carrie Underwood's Blown Away Concert at the Scottrade Center in Saint Louis.  My next post will review and post MANY photos from that night.

Salad with Thousand Island Dressing (So yum!)

Chicken Parmigiana 

Dessert was a scoop of Spumoni ice cream 
Dinner was great, but what made it so good was the company I was around!  :)

The waiter took this photo of us at dinner.  I think it turned out great! 

My sister and I.  Arn't we cute!

Tomorrow will be my second edition of WIAW with all the Thanksgiving yumminess that will come!  Until then everyone be safe and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
~Jessica