Oklahoma, We Meet Again...

Now that the time has almost come to go back to snowy, freezing Connecticut, I decided I would share some of this crazy week with you!

Mom and I ate at this really great Mexican restaurant in the Baltimore Airport called Zona Cocina. If you ever pass through there, I definitely recommend it if you have a little time to kill.

Mom slept through most of the flight! I don't know how she does it, I can't sleep on planes even if I try.

I snuggled this munchkin as much as humanly possible. I love this kid, he's awesome.

Also, bath mohawks are still super fun. He's kind of got the Flock of Seafulls thing going for him.

This restaurant was amazing. Their food is delicious, and incredibly cheap. The walls are also lined with more kinds of soda than I ever could have imagined. It's so neat, and there's a huge soda bottle with a straw statue in the front of it that lights up at night.

Small section of a soda wall.

Someone enjoyed sharing Grandma's milkshake!

Little Bubby turned one!!! I can't believe it's been a whole year already. It's been so crazy this last year with so many ups and downs and I'm so incredibly proud of this little guy and my sister and brother in law for making such a great little human. To many more birthdays, Little Man. I love you so much.

And even though I miss this guy like crazy and we've Skyped all week, it's a little bitter sweet to leave. I didn't get a chance to see anyone I know from when I lived here last year, and I'm going to miss these guys until they visit in May, but I'm pretty ready to go back to work and get some much needed snuggle time in.

So, thanks, Oklahoma. Although I can pretty honestly say I'll never live here on any sort of permanent basis, it's been real. I don't know if I'll ever be back, but I've enjoyed what I could while I could and that's good enough for me.

Instalife #6 & #7

Obviously, I've been neglecting to post here for about two weeks, and if you saw my previous post, you'll know I've been pretty busy in that time.  Here are my 365 day challenge photos (plus some extras) for the last two weeks!

Day 33: Shadow - I always get raccoon eyes when I wash my face...

Day 34: Mail - I regret contacting anyone from a college.

Day 35: Cozy - Slept in!

Day 36: Stairs 

Day 37: Memories - I've always done this with the last piece... I don't know why.

Day 38: Routine - My morning routine was all messed up because I packed everything to come with me on the plane to Connecticut.

Day 39: Travel

Day 40: Shopping - All the snacks!

Day 41: Birthday - Kaeley is the best. Black forest cake, from scratch.

Day 42: Makeup - Playing with some color.

Day 43: Lips - I need to make one of these and frame it.

Day 44: Baking - I skipped this! AH! =(

Day 45: Lights - O'Hare Airport

Day 46: Candy - Tracy and I are adults and got 4 spins worth of candy from the machine at work.  Worth it.

AAAAAND EXTRAS!

Casino with some of the best people I know.

Giant margarita thing.  Delicious, and dangerous.

Walking Dead penny slots!  I actually won on this one =)

Travel day, out of the snow and back to OKC.

My nephew, Tyler, was born this week!!!

Snuggle time with the munchkin <3

Look for another Instalife update in just two days!!  Almost caught up!

Welcome Back/Books I Love

Hello, again!  Sorry I haven't updated in over two weeks now, it's been absolutely crazy for me and I feel like this is the first time I've really been able to sit down and keep my eyes open long enough to write for a bit.  I will get more into detail in the next post about what I've been up to, because I obviously haven't been keeping up to date with my Instalife posts either.

However, as some of you may know, I had a little vacation time to go home and visit my boyfriend and some friends as well as the family I have still in CT and the day I came back to Oklahoma, my nephew was born!  Needless to say, vacation and baby, plus going back to work just in time for spring cleaning has been hectic and exhausting to say the least, but at least I've been staying busy and making plans to get back into the swing of things.

I had had this idea of wanting to post some of my favorite books with you guys for a while now.  As I mentioned in this post, I have a goal to read more in 2014 (you can find my reading list for the year here).  Since I don't think I read many, if any books at all last year, I'm already off to a good start.

All photos in this post courtesy of Goodreads.com

I've finished Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris, which was a really great book.  It's written in true David Sedaris form, which I've found to be a mixture of wit, hilarity and also, at times, truly heartbreaking.  I honestly have not found a book by him that I haven't enjoyed (I've also read When You are Engulfed in Flames and parts of both Me Talk Pretty One day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim) and I fully plan to read the whole collection.  He often tells stories of his family, which will either remind you of your own (especially if you come from a larger one) or make you roll on the floor laughing at the sheer insanity of their actions.  I really can't recommend his books enough, especially if you're looking for a good laugh.

Some of my other favorite books include:

• A Million Little Pieces by James Frey - Although the story wasn't as true-to-life as the author originally tried to claim, the story itself is just wonderfully written.  A very interesting and somewhat graphic book.

• Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - I've read this at least 7 or 8 times now.  I also have a tattoo of one of my favorite quotes and the movie is almost just as great as the book itself.

• Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - This still comes up in my mind every so often, simply because of how much it made me think and pay attention to detail.  It's a little more on the challenging side, especially if you have very little attention span, but the history and occasional graphic scenes keep your attention from wandering too far. 

• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - A true classic, and something I think everyone should read in their life.  This was one of the few books I actually read when I was in school, and I'm really glad I did, although it did make me pretty sad.

• The Newsflesh Trilogy (Feed, Deadline, & Blackout) - If you like zombie books and have a faint interest in politics and the media, this is definitely something I would recommend.  The first boo, Feed, was a little slow starting off, but once you get to about the halfway point, the story gets very interesting.  I won't lie, I had to kind of force myself through the first book, but the second two were nearly impossible to put down.  The action and suspense had me hooked and I finished the second two books within a week.

So what are your favorite books?  I'm currently reading This Book is Full of Spiders by David Wong, but honestly, I'm kind of struggling to focus.  The book is interesting, but I think it's just my attention span kicking my butt.

Instalife #4

Whoops!  I completely lost track of this week, and apparently, it's Monday again.  Here are the (belated) photos of this past week!

Day 19: Blue

Day 20: Skyline

Day 21: Macro - Painted my nails and sharpened all the pencils at work!

Day 22: Screen Capture - How I eat food.

Day 23: Dress

Day 24: Video Games - kind of?

Day 25: Handwriting - I love fonts (I have a whole Pinterest board)

EXTRAS!!!

Green tea donuts; my friend, Colin; bored at work; apparently 'Erica' sounds like 'Enid'; Mexican restaurant mustaches; and Asian market randomness.

T-Minus 10...9...

With only nine hours left of 2013, I feel like I should make one last entry here before the end of this year and the start of the new one.  This is likely to be a huge mishmash of anxiety-ridden ranting and nostalgia.

Does anyone else have bipolar and bittersweet feelings towards New Years Eve?  Every year, I feel like I need to spend the night thinking about the year I'm leaving behind and what I want for the coming year.  I feel like I need to plan and I need to figure out what I'm going to do for the next twelve months right now.  Then, as someone who has always hated change in a way, I feel like I need to mourn the year I'm leaving and the person I was through the last twelve months as it comes to an end.  I realize this sounds crazy, but that's just always how I've felt about it.

Through 2013, I've had some of the highest highs and lowest lows of my, and I can only say thank you.  Thank you for picking me up, thank you for kicking me while I was down, and thank you to everyone who has been there for me along the way.

As for 2014, I don't know what it holds for me.  I know I'll be turning 23, I know I will have a nephew arrive shortly after that, but other than that I'm incredibly uncertain of where I will be or where I'm going. I have hopes, but at this point, I can only have that.  Just hopes.  As far as my goals, I have a ton of plans for this blog for the next year.

• 1st of every month - Monthly goals list 
• 1st Tuesday of each month - Monthly playlist
• 15th of every month - Today I believe...
• 20th of every month - Featured blog(ger) *Email submissions here.
• Last Monday - Outfit of the day/month
• Last Friday - Makeup of the day/month
• Every Saturday - My week in instagrams

There are several posts in there randomly as well, but these are the core posts I want to make each month.  Let me know what you have planned for the night or any resolutions and goals you've made for yourself as the new year approaches!  

I hop you all have a happy New Year, stay safe!

Instalife

Have you finished your holiday shopping?  I thought I was done shopping about a week ago, but have managed to buy more and more through out this week.  I never feel like I'm actually done shopping before the holidays, but since it's now the 23rd, I think I need to be.

This past week was pretty busy between work, a holiday party, and holiday prep.  Here are some pictures of what I've been up to:

I was asked by my brother in law to be a photographer for his squadron's holiday party.  I used my sister a few times to test my camera settings, and got a few cute pictures of her.

My sister at the holiday party (she doesn't look very pregnant until she turns sideways!)

Hybrid ice.

We had an ice storm, everything is still encased in it.  All of the plants look really interesting, though, and luckily none of the roads have frozen over.

Capitol of Oklahoma

Bright makeup!

I also broke out my Sugarpill products this week.  I haven't really played with them in a long time, so it was fun to rock a bright look for the day.  A lot of people told me it was very 'Hunger Games'.

Then, I used some cranberry and gold shadows to get ready for the holiday season.  Unfortunately, this isn't the best picture.  It's the only decent one I took that day.

Sorry I've been slacking a little bit this week, but I do have a lot of posts coming up between now and the end of the year, and I've put together a posting schedule for the next year that I really hope to stick to (which I will show you soon!)  I hope you guys are having a safe holiday season and