Curly Q

Today I woke up and remembered that I had a dream but had NO clue what it was about. Don't you hate that? Well, first off - I woke up about 7 thousand and 1 times, so that was awesome. Then I woke up really weirded out but didn't know why. I guess I had one of those really bizarre dreams but had no clue what the hell actually happened in it. There also is NO coffee in the house. How does that happen!? (Thanks, mom)

Anyway, enough ranting. Here we go.

This is going to be the first ever Meghan Tutorial. Okay well, not really. I'll explain.

My hair sucks at curling. Absolute worst. I have very thin, straight, weird-textured hair that always seems to fall flat. Any kind of product I put in it (even if it's supposed to make your hair dry) makes my hair greasy and more flat than usual. Shine serums? Forget about it. Insta-flat. I've been trying every kind of technique to either make my hair less flat or curl. (yes, I'll take one or the other. At this point I don't care which one!). I'm also VERY hair challenged; I suck at doing fancy pretty things to my hair. My sister is the creative, more artsy, hair-and-makeup daughter of the family. I'm just the one that gets either injured or sick (with flat, straight hair mind you).

Recently I found a great tutorial on those "natural every-day waves". It worked GREAT and I was able to do it. Only problem? The curls were already unwinding and coming loose (and no, not the good, tousled loose...just back to straight) after about an hour of walking around. Here's the tutorial; maybe you'll have more luck than I did.

Onto the next one. I found this one last night while I was bored and not tired. Could I have been doing more productive things with my life? Obviously. But it's summer, so screw it. This video is how to get waves, not so much curls, but I'll take it.

I tried it last night and it actually worked pretty well! This is after I slept on it:

Not too bad for sleeping on it, huh? We'll see how well it stays. Maybe I'll try it tonight for Date Night with the boy. Who knows. It's absolutely beautiful out and I'm in a great mood so here's a perfect summer song:

The Glamorous Life of a BRU Associate

Everyone has sucky jobs at this point in our lives. We're college students and we're poor, so any job will do. We work awful hours and complain about how much our job sucks and we're okay with that...for now.

As of now, I'm going to say I take the cake in sucky jobs. I am a Babies R' Us associate. Not too bad, right? Wrong. I'm not just any associate - I'm a back of house/stock room associate. So, I don't just stand at a register for hours on end and ring up nagging customers and tell them they CAN'T use last months coupon. I'm in the back at 6am unloading the truck with 3 other MEN. AKA I do it by myself because naturally the people who work in the back of BRU don't give a shit about anything (on top of the fact that for the most part they're actual criminals).

There I am hauling boxes with the best of them. One after the other, box after box. Car seats, strollers, baby food, baby lotion, you name it. Usually I try to leave the bigger boxes for the boys, but then they end up leaving them for me! So then there I go lifting up 50-60 lbs of baby gear of some sort while they stand around. Then when the truck's done it's time to unpack the boxes. And when the store opens I have women coming up to me left and right asking me which pacifier is best for their 3 month old. I. DON'T. KNOW. I also don't know which Breast Pump works better, so if you ask me what my preference is I may breast pump your face. Then tell you to buy the more expensive one.

My last shift took my job to a new low. I was minding my own business opening boxes and restocking shelves. One of my co-workers (one of the winners, obviously) decided to come over to me. He then proceeds to tell me that he hates this job and is going to quit because he does tons of other "side jobs", followed by the statement, "Ya know, you'd make a great drug dealer. NO ONE would expect a little educated white girl. You'd make a ton more money than this job." Mhm. That happened. I mean, I know we're all desperate to find jobs when the economy is so bad, but REALLY!? Come on. Let's be real.

I'm working on getting them to train me on the register because 1. I have GOT to get out of there and 2. my bum shoulder cannot take much more box throwing.

Here's a great song that I'm loving right now:

Finally, the recipe I promised!

What is one of your favorite summer thirst quenchers?

. . . if you answered Sangria that would be correct. But it is NOT the answer I was looking for. I was looking for a little more PG rated drink. You know, one that you've had since you were a kid. That drink that was just right after swimming in the pool and playing kickball outside all day. Mhm.  Strawberry Lemonade.

The best friend and I made the most perfect summer cupcake. You guessed it: STRAWBERRY LEMONADE CUPCAKES.

I'm going to skimp a bit and be lazy and give you the recipes and directions via links. What we did was we combined two recipes and added one thing to each recipe. The cake part was a delicious lemon cake, not too tart, not too sweet (you can get the recipe here). What did we add to make it our own? About two LARGE strawberries finely chopped. 

As for the frosting? The frosting was taken from a different place and it was amazing. Strawberry cream cheese frosting. I am a HUGE fan of cream cheese frostings, so this was right up my ally. The strawberries gave it such an excellent flavor. So fresh and mildly tart with a touch of sweetness. What did we add? about a quarter of a squeezed fresh lemon.

WARNING: make sure you use a FOOD PROCESSOR as it said in the directions. We made the mistake of thinking a blender would do the trick. We were very mistaken. The result was that it was a little watery. Flavor was still excellent, but the texture just wasn't up to par. If you don't have a food processor, you're better off just chopping up the strawberries very fine and throwing them in. That's better than pureeing them into a juice-like substance!

I was definitely a fan of these! I think you all should make them and let me know what you think!

This is what we listened to while baking these delectable cupcakes (along with a collection of other Glee songs):

SUCCESS!

Today? Very successful. My guess is that the weather was a huge factor in my motivation. I don't know about you, but the weather affects my mood more than anything else. If it's dark and dull, chances are I'm going want to sit in my bed, eat 12 Oreo cookies followed by sugary drinks and then a brownie or two while watching Netflix. (And yes, I mean double stuff Oreos and the fudgiest, chocolatiest brownies you can find). The only reason to get out of my bed? To get some ice cream. Obviously.

Thankfully today was sunny. I worked from 6am-10am then came home and skyped my excellently bitchy friend, Mo. After that I called the grandmother for her birthday, ate the oatmeal bake that my made mom last night and laid out for a bit.

My friend Kevin stopped by, I went out driving, and here I am now writing a blog post. Life couldn't get better.

. . . Actually, it could!

My agenda for the rest of the night? Hitting the gym for a little cardio then out for WEDNESDAY NIGHT WINGS with the boy. We did this when we first got together and wanted to make it a routine . . . then we realized that we'd be going back to school. SO, tonight will be the second ever Wednesday Night Wings and I couldn't be more excited.

Here's how I feel today:

Just Five More Minutes

I wanted to go to the gym early this morning, but I didn't really have the motivation. I woke up already dreading the day ahead of me. Ever have one of those days? Where you just don't want to get out of bed because you know that what lies ahead of you could not be any worse? Then you realize that you actually still have to go through it all so you think that by staying in your bed for just five minutes longer time might stop. Time will just stand still and you could stay in that moment for as long as you want.

...then those five more minutes are up and it's time to drag yourself out of the safe little cocoon you've mentally created and start the day.

That was the kind of day I had today. I had two appointments one after the other: a doctor's appointment (which, although would make an absolutely hysterical blog post, I will not be discussing) at 12:50 then a dentist appointment at 3. Like I said in previous posts, I always have something wrong. So clearly, this was no different.  

After an hour and a half at the doctor, more blood work papers, a prescription, and another hour and a half of poking and prodding at the dentist, I was ready to call it a day. I got home, crawled back into my cocoon and just laid there for a few. It's amazing how in an instant your mood can be changed around.

The boy came and surprised me with these! The second he surprisingly walked through my door, all of the awful memories of my day disappeared. He didn't even have to bring flowers; just him alone would have been more than enough to brighten my day. Aren't they beautiful?

Alright, alright I'll stop boring you with the sappy end to my day. But I just figured he deserved a little bit of a mention for that. Especially after his long day at work.

I'm going to end the post on an excellent, but still somewhat sappy song. It's been one of my favorite songs for years. I just can't get enough of this guy. His new CD hits stores at the beginning of July.

As Promised

As promised, I'm back to quickly discuss what was on yesterday's workout menu and a quick list of some of my top workout tunes as of now.

Getting back from the mono thing sucks. I'm pretty sure I've said it before and I'll continue to say it until I'm back in tip-top shape. Forgive me if my workout menu is not quite as "hardcore" or strenuous as you may expect.

Here we go:
- 10 minute bike warm up
- 2 minute walking warm up (treadmill)
- Run for 1 mile at 7.5mph
- 3-5 minute walk
- Run for another 1/2 mile at 8mph
- 5 minute cool down
- abdominal toning

As for the playlist:
Warm up:
     "Little Miss" - Sugarland
     "Push" - Avril Lavigne
     "Turning Tables" - Adele
Workout:
     "Ties That Bind" - Alter Bridge
     "Gunpowder & lead" - Miranda Lambert
     "Edge of Glory" - Lady GaGa
     "All of the Lights" - Kanye West ft. Rihanna
     "Trainwreck" - Mat Kearney
Cool down:
     "Carolina" - Eric Church
     "Fast Car" - Boyce Avenue (Tracy Chapman cover)
     "Oh Boy" - Duffy

I'm really not a fan of GaGa, but for some reason I'm all about this song:

I think I'll be back sometime tonight to post a little about my less than awesome day and perhaps another recipe?

Perfect Rainy Day Post

Today's post is going to be all about health. Bored already? Please keep reading. I promise it won't be painful.

I woke up today feeling dreary. Probably because it was raining and has been for the past week and a half. To top it off, the house was a mess and everything just looked dark and dull. What better to make the day brighter than a little oatmeal (Yes, this one's for you Laura!). Delicious AND healthy!

Ingredients

1/2 C rolled oats

1 C water

Splash of skim milk

A couple shakes of ground cinnamon

1/2 a splash of vanilla

Directions: Boil water on the stove, stir in oats and cook for 5-10 minutes or until desired thickness is obtained. After that add in the cinnamon and vanilla (or any other ingredients you prefer). I topped it off with some cinnamon sugar and fresh blueberries for sweetness and generous scoop of peanut butter for some added flavor. Another thing about me? I absolutely love peanut butter; it's the perfect topping for pretty much ANYTHING.

I paired my homemade oatmeal with a nice, hot cup of coffee. Perfection.

 After I sit around and watch the marathon of Fair Wedding on WE (yes, I love me some wedding shows) and procrastinate cleaning up the house a bit, I plan on getting to the gym. After I go I'll update on what was on my workout menu and the music selection for the day.

I know it's old, but I'm loving this song right now! It always puts me in a better mood on crappy days.

What's your favorite oatmeal recipe?