Looks like we're gonna have to make a cameo at the Val party!

{Modcloth Dress - here}

I love how this dress is called the "Valley Party Dress", totally reminds me of one the classic teen movie, Clueless! It looks just like the dress Cher rocked at the Valley Party!

But this is an Alaia! A whata? It's like a totally important designer!

Lunch-Hour Shopping Trip Scores!

Monday morning came and I knew I had a mission for the week. Luckily, it coincided with Emily's mission for the week. We had 4 days to complete our mission, and we accomplished it in 2.  I'm pretty proud of us.

Our mission: find something cute to wear this weekend for OU vs. Texas (who has dropped to being ranked 21 btw).

Monday we set out to see if the Lauren Conrad line at Kohl's had anything. Big time Fail. Kohl's kinda sucked. Now I know why I've never gone there. No offense to anyone who loves Kohl's, I'm sure you can find great things there, I was just completely overwhelmed by how many racks there were to go through.

We also hit up one of the local boutiques on Campus Corner and came back empty handed. Well, I got 3 tacos from Chipotle because they apparently won't let you buy just one. But clothing wise - we felt defeated.



No worries folks, day 1 was a bust but day 2, well day 2 was a total success!

I went to Payless in search of some cute cheap shoes and found nothing cute. Fail.
I went to Forever21 in search of a cute tank top to wear with my J.Crew Pixie Pants. Found no tanks. Fail.
But did find this cute cardigan - I got it in olive green which isn't pictured online, so use your imagination.

{Forever21 - Open draped cardigan - here}

Emily did manage to find the one red and white shirt they had in the entire store - so she left happy.
I bet you didn't know we sit next to each other everyday at work?

I'd like to put out a PSA to Forever21 and Dillard's buyers in Norman, Oklahoma: when the fall catalog arrives and you see anything red at all - buy it for your store. People will buy it, trust me. The fact that there are no red shirts anywhere to be found in either of your stores is ridiculous.
end rant.

I left Payless feeling like I'd failed. Now I have to throw something together for this weekend and it'll be in hundreds of pictures on Facebook... :(

We left through Dillards and checked out the tables of Clearance Shoes, I found a pair that were cute but could only find size 10. Surely, the most common shoe size 7 1/2 has already been picked over and these cuties are gone. I ran through all the racks looking for them, and then something happened, a white light came out from the sky and they magically appeared in my size! Perfect!!!!

 

{No longer available at Dillards online - but found them on Piperlime - here.}

Now I just have to plan an outfit around these cuties! Love the studs and the heel! After I had been eyeing these Adorable Steve Madden's that were just a little too tall for me, so I was Super Pumped to find a similar style with a 2 inch shorter heel! (I can't get a picture to copy over so you'll just have to click the link, sorry!)

I also picked up a super cute winter sweater! Remember last year when I was loving the mountain lodge look? Well I still am, and I couldn't pass up this beauty.

{Aeropostale (don't judge, I saw it walking by the store) Printed Drape Front Cardigan - here.}

I also wanted to share this sweater I got a few weeks ago at Target. It's super comfy and super cute!

I wore it to my first Junior League meeting of the year and got lots of compliments!

{Target - Mossimo Sweater - here}

At $14 who can resist?

 Have you ever had such a successful lunch hour shopping trip?

Future Dad on 16 and Pregnant as seen at the Oklahoma State Fair!

Daydream Believer

Do you ever find yourself daydreaming or wondering about the most mundane things?

I do this a lot, Dave reassures me that everyone wonders about stupid things.

On our recent trip to Florida we stopped and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Mississippi (still fun to spell). This particular hotel was a little dated but still in good shape, and somehow I found myself wondering about the hotel owner. When he bought the hotel did he furnish it with things he knew would last a while or did he buy stuff on the cheap knowing that he'd be replacing them every 10 years or so to keep the place up to date? I really wanted to know, so I had to come clean to Dave about all of my daydreaming/general wonders about the world around me.

Me: "Do you think whoever owns this hotel bought that chair knowing he'd be replacing it every 10 years or so b/c it's ugly and out of date? And what about the curtains? Do they plan on changing these things?"
Dave: "Um, I bet they plan on changing them sometime but I doubt this actual Holiday Inn is in any hurry."Me: "Is it weird that I think about these things?"
Dave: gives me a weird look, "No, everybody daydreams babe. Just don't be afraid to dream bigger than the room your in"
Me: "Ok, I'll try and keep that in mind"

As we continued our 15 hour road trip, I found myself wondering about other little things and I now knew it was ok and I wasn't alone. So I wasn't afraid to share my wonders.

Me: "Why did it take Wendy's 25 years to come up with the spicy chicken nugget? They've had the nugget forever and the spicy chicken sandwich for as long as I can remember. I really hope somebody lost their job for not coming up with it sooner."
Dave: "Yeah can you imagine being in the meeting where the guy comes up with it? Uh I was thinking we've got the spicy stuff already so why don't we just merge it with the nuggets?"
Me: "Yeah what an asshole."

Later on, after stopping for snacks...

Me: "And why did it take so long to come up with all the new m&m flavors? Why did we grow up with just regular and peanut? It really took someone this long to figure out how to put peanut butter or pretzels in there?"
Dave: "Yeah that's pretty amateur, maybe you should get a job coming up with these ideas for food companies"
Me: "I know, I totally would have come up with peanut butter m&m's way before reeses pieces were around"
Dave: "You should put that on your resume"
Me: "I will."

Hours later, after getting stuck in traffic because of a wreck.....

Me: "Do you think that when someone calls 911 to report a wreck on the highway the person that answers asks which side of the highway it's on? Like is it closer to the fast lane or the slow lane?"
Dave: "No, why would you think that? I'm sure they're just like shit there's a wreck I'll ring the bell"
Me: "Well, how did that ambulance know to take the shoulder on the fast lane? He obviously knew it would be on that side and didn't waste his time going down the other shoulder."
Dave: "Maybe you're right."

I sensed he was getting annoyed with my ramblings so I kept them to myself for the next couple of days.

Then I was hit with one I had to know the answer to...

(While laying on the beach - clearly not the best time to bug someone.)

Me: "What do you think the chair guy does in the winter? Does he make enough money in the summer to survive through the winter?"

Dave: "I don't know babe, I bet he has a winter job. Maybe he's Santa at the mall."

Me: "Is that what you really think or are you being an ass?"

Dave: "Why don't you ponder that for a while."

To respond I gave him this look:



What do you all wonder about?

Do you share your wonders with your significant other or just keep them to yourself?

Two Words For Tonight: Modern Family!

PS - Like my new header???

Wordless Wednesday

Yum Yum Recipes!

Dave has 10 tests in the next 8 days or something crazy like that, so I've been on dinner duty. I really enjoy cooking so I don't mind. Yesterday he was pretty stressed, had a case of the mondays, so I asked him what he wanted for dinner. His respnse, "something with chicken and bacon". Hmmm ok?

I like to have a little direction, but this was a tricky one. I started searching and found Pioneer Woman's Ranch Style Chicken had those 2 ingredients. For some reason I wasn't feeling this one, must be the unhealthy look of it.

It looks SO yumm but SOO bad for you...

Then I found Paula Deen's Chicken wrapped in bacon bites. These have amazing reviews and I'll probably try them for a party sometime down the road. They also didn't seem healthy seeing how you roll the chicken in sugar...

Then I remembered having Chicken Brochette at The Mantle one time. Bingo! That's what I want to make! It's listed on their menu as: Chicken Breast, Artichoke Hearts, Bacon, Chipotle Remoulade.

Hmm I can handle that. So I went to the store and got the ingredients.

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 package of bacon (I used low sodium - he can't ever tell the difference)
• 1 can of artichoke hearts
• salt
• pepper
• Mayo made with Olive Oil
• Cayenne Pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Farenheit. Cut the chicken into chunks, the bacon into halves or thirds (depending on how big your chicken chunks are), and cut the artichoke hearts into halves or thirds. Oh and you need toothpicks!

 

I added salt and pepper to my chicken and then just started assembling. 1 piece of chicken with one piece of artichoke, wrapped up in some bacon. Easy breezy.

 

Then, call your husband away from studying to come take a picture for you, because your hands are covered in chicken and bacon. :)

Bake for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, take one out and cut through the thickest part, just to be sure.

While the Chicken Brochette is cooking, make the Chipotle Aoili. There are tons of different recipes for this and I wasn't in the mood for another trip to the store so I worked with what I had.

Just add some Mayo with Olive Oil to a small bowl and dump in some Cayenne Pepper. Mix and enjoy!

I also made Barefoot Contessa's Zucchini with Parmesan while the Chicken Brochette cooked. I halved the recipe and halved the zucchini and substituted summer squash for the other half. Thanks to Lindy for pointing out the recipe!

It was the perfect side dish to the Chicken Brochette.

Yum Yum! this recieved rave reviews by the Dental Student. And lucky for him we didn't even eat half of it!

Hooray for leftovers and trying something new!

 

Monday Mash Up!

My allergies are killing me, causing me to be on Sudafed, which is in turn causing me to be incredibly brain flustered. (Is brain flustered even a term? It's the only thing I can think of to describe the feeling, so deal with it)

I wish I felt good enough for happy hour.. {image via}

We were invited to go to our favorite restaurant for dinner last night with Dave's parents and had to turn them down due to this annoying allergy situation. :( Luckily we had gone there on Thursday night because my bff Patti was in town and we wanted to show her a good time!
This was our view at dinner that night! Tell me a better view you've had from the middle of Oklahoma City?

 Friday night we introduced our Norman friends (not for long) Lindy and Ryan to Republic! Everyone was thoroughly pleased and full! And I got to wear my new black maxi dress that Emily and Marissa convinced me to buy - Thanks guys I love it!

Saturday we spent the day tailgating in Norman, it was a hot beast but we powered through!

I skipped the game this week and opted for watching it at Lindy's air conditioned house instead. Great decision seeing how the Sooners kept everyone on their feet until the end again...
Lindy and I had a photo shoot with her dog Mona, this was the best we could do!

After the game, we packed up all the tailgating gear and then headed to NY Pizza for a slice and a visit with friends we couldn't see before the game.

Dave's happy I'm taking pictures instead of helping..

Special thanks to Kyle for helping on Sat! We couldn't have done it without you!

Me and Taryn, I almost wore the same top as her! Gameday options are slim pickins..

(Notice the repeat top on me - It wasn't planned, I had to change due to extreme heat and sweat while setting up the tailgate. It's better this way, trust me.)

Dave had pocket shots at the game... which led to this conversation:

Me: Will you get me some ranch while you're up there?

Dave: No.

Me: Please?

Dave: I love you.

Me: smirks

Dave: (gets up and comes back with ranch)

Can't wait for OU vs Texas in 2 weeks with these 2! Taryn - we need to talk outfits!

On Sunday, I tried to get my sinuses in order but wasn't able to accomplish much. We did manage to pick up our new dresser! We've got it moved in but not all the way arranged yet so here's a pic to hold you over.

Cooper wanted to help.

Fall Faves!

I don't think I've ever been this excited for fall. I don't know what it is? Maybe the extreme heat made me yearn for cooler temps. Or all the gorgeous chunky sweaters and leather boots out there this season... That's more like it.

Here are my faves for fall so far, I have a feeling this is going to be an on-going post...

Frye Taylor Over the Knee Boot

Loooove these! In every color! (don't love the price...)

Melie Bianco Alyssa

Gorgeous! I'm loving this smoke color in everything this season!

Forever 21 - Cozy Sweater Cardigan

Forever 21 - Autumn Sweater Top

Anthropologie - Every Saturday Tee

I'd wear this everyday of the week.

JCrew - Stadium Cloth Peacoat

Want this one baaaad!

What are you all lusting over this fall?