The First Weekend of 2014

So the week back to work following two weeks off has been nonstop!

I've been wanting to write a post about the weekend, so better late than never? I'm also posting from my iPad so I'm not sure how the format is about to look. Apologies for anything that runs together or looks off...still learning!

Scott is a member of Bachelors of Austin. Each year they have a huge deb presentation and make the celebration a weekend long event.

Friday night's cocktail party kicks off the weekend. We met some friends at a nearby hotel for drinks prior to the event then made our way over for the casino night events.

We posted up at the blackjack table all night. Only proved I'm a terrible gambler-but at least it wasn't with real money! Since it wasn't real money, the dealer had fun with us and helped us out a bit. At the end of the night you can turn in your chips for raffle tickets to try to win a prize. My luck continued and I won nothing...

The only picture of us from this night...

Our blackjack table!

Saturday night was the more formal (I got to wear a long dress!!) deb presentation fiesta night. We dressed up, met some friends for drinks then ventured over to the hotel to start the night. The deb presentations are still foreign to me (we never had anything like that in Lufkin) so we went upstairs to finish watching the Saints then went back downstairs to eat. Amazing buffet-with a mac and cheese bar-pretty sure my dress wasn't made for that kind of eating. But all was well once we hit the dance floor for the next 5 hours. They have two bands that take turn playing until 3am. They play all kinds of music-all the fun oldie dance songs to the current hits like "Blurred Lines." At midnight we went to hit up the breakfast buffet and then went back to the dance floor until 3am. Luckily we rented a room for the night so I went upstairs and was finally in bed around 4am. I slept all day Sunday and nearly a week later, I'm still feeling it!  I'm getting so old. I always look forward to that weekend every year, but I'm glad it's only once a year!

With Scott's brother & girlfriend

   

Photobooth fun!

Taking a dance break for a photoshoot.

This year, I got the chance to use Rent the Runway for the first time. Let me tell you, best experience ever! I highly recommend it for a formal event (although there are dresses for all occasions!) and they make it so easy. They send you two sizes of the same dress to make sure it fits. They send you a prepaid envelope to return both dresses in-just drop off at the nearest UPS! No dry cleaning or anything! I can't wait to have another event to rent a new dress!

This week I've been attending a public policy conference which has been fun and informative, but I'm so tired and looking forward to doing nothing this weekend! A friend let me borrow the first Divergent book so I plan on reading nearly all of it this weekend!

Hope you all had a great week and enjoy the weekend!

New Year, New Resolutions

Here I am, once again. It's a new year..so here goes the blog again.

Christmas and New Years were great - lots of family time and lots of food and drinks. Pretty much perfection. My boss was kind enough to give me 2 weeks off work - I'm finally feeling refreshed and I now have time to clean the apt and run the errands I usually don't have time to do. 

Between work, Junior League, and just life in general, I need a place to come to reflect on other things on my mind and to share things that inspire and make me happy. So here comes the blog again.

Resolutions are typically difficult for me to keep. I last a month - maybe two - and then it all goes down the drain. There are things I'd like to accomplish this year, but I'm going to take it month by month to keep me from becoming overwhelmed.

So for January:

Exercising 3-4 times a week (which also means learning to become a morning person because after work, all bets are off. The gym will not happen in the evenings) and keeping the blog alive by posting at least once a week.

I guess now that it's live on the internet, I must be held accountable. 

Happy New Year! I'm off to enjoy another day off work by taking down all my Christmas sparkles around the apartment. Even though the sun is out, I've got the lights on so I can enjoy it to the very last second. So it's not ok to leave this up all year...?

Random Wednesday Thoughts

Happy Wednesday! The weekend is so, so close! 

First, I want to say happy third anniversary to Brittany and Brandon! Woo! 

Her last few moments as an Ogletree -- we look so young (my hair?!?) and you were beautiful!!

Isn't this weather AMAZE?  I'm a little bummed it's going to get warmer (and probably rain...) in Austin this weekend and I still haven't been able to bust out my boots yet -- but there will be plenty of time for that soon enough. I'm loving the walks to my office building in the mornings, outdoor lunches and it made last night's happy hour fundraiser on the lake just perfect!  The Spazmatics even showed up!

Who doesn't love a great 80s band??  They always put on a great show.

Sooo, my fantasy football team is struggling a bit. As in, I'm in last place in my division... 1-4. My week 6 competition is against Scott, so Sunday should be fun! At the moment, I'm predicted to win! Keep your fingers crossed for me because he's undefeated -- even though it's all in good fun, it would be lovely to win. :) 

Proof that I'm predicted to win before he realizes he has a bye player he needs to swap out.  And, of course, I'm the Dillon Panthers.  One of the best. shows. ever.  Pretty much sums up Texas High School football.

Thinking of going to Dallas this weekend for the TX/OU game and the STATE FAIR OF TEXAS! I've only been once, and I cannot wait to go again! Fried food, football, fall weather and the ferris wheel? Yes, please!  Scott is even nice enough to ride the ferris wheel with me again.  He's terrified of heights (I am, too, but for some reason this the only ride I enjoy!) and was a trooper in 2011 - even if the others in our cart may have purposely freaked him out even more...

TX/OU weekend 2011 -- it was definitely a great first experience!  It's so strange to attend Texas games.  It's completely different from what I experienced at Baylor -- which is probably why I enjoy it so much -- but my heart will always belong to the Bears!

Perhaps the most exciting news of all - I snagged two tickets to the last football game in Floyd Casey Stadium on Dec. 7! Baylor vs. Texas here I come! Even though the tickets are on the visitor side, I think that will make Scott feel a bit better, and I'll still get to watch Baylor dominate -- and hopefully be Big 12 champs! (How exciting would that be?!) Anyone else attending?  It's going to be a little bittersweet going to that stadium for the last time, but next year the new stadium is going to be AMAZE!  Sail-gating anyone?

Bloglovin

I'm trying to catch up with the times -- now that Google Reader is RIP, I've been using Bloglovin to read all my favorite blogs. Follow me here!

Weekend Update

Wow!  This weekend really flew by.

Although it was a pretty low key weekend, it was still a great one.

Friday:

Had dinner at a small Italian restaurant, Milano Cafe, (it's BYOB and we definitely took advantage of that) -- it was great food with a lovely cozy, off-the-beaten path atmosphere.  Needless to say, with the wine, it was an early night for us. :)

Saturday:

I didn't even leave the house all day.  With ACL going on near my apartment (I could hear some of the music at times!), I didn't want to deal with all the crowds and extra traffic on a Saturday.  It gave me a chance to catch up on my DVR, clean out my closet (you're welcome, sister!) and take care of some things around the apartment I seem to neglect during the week.  I also started Scandal -- I know I'm a little late to the party here but it really is SO GOOD.  The first two seasons are on Netflix -- I'm a couple episodes into the second season and I cannot wait to see what happens!  I also watched my Baylor Bears DOMINATE West Virginia!  It was the first time I had actually watched them play and I'm so, so impressed and proud of them!

Sunday:

I was up early (thanks to the storm that blew in during the early morning -- thunder that rattles everything on my walls?  That so rarely happens these days!) and took my time getting ready for church.  Church was fabulous as usual but I was LOVING the cool, crisp morning!  I can't wait for that kind of weather to stick around permanently!  The rest of the day was spent running errands and taking in the nice weather.  I did venture out to the grocery store that evening and saw this lovely wine display.  As the only picture on this post, I feel it's very appropriate as it's so creepy/hilarious, it deserves to be front and center:

Whatever helps you sell wine.  I didn't buy that wine though-- I jumped, took a quick photo and promptly walked to check out...

Sunday night routine was as usual -- made dinner with Scott and we watched Sideways (has anyone else seen it?? It was strange yet had some hilarious parts.  Overall, I enjoyed it!) while drinking a special bottle of 2001 Matanzas Creek Proprietors Blend.

Hard to believe it's already Monday!  Have a great week!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I've never done one of these before but I've recently stumbled across a few things that I'm just dying to share!

Sitch Fix

So I found out about this via Peanut Butter Fingers.  Sitch Fix is a personal styling service - I was so intrigued and immediately created an account and filled out the style profile.  Then of course I couldn't wait to sign up for a box.  A week later...it was at my front door.

Here's what I decided to keep and I'm so excited they're both great summer to fall transition pieces for Texas!

While I only kept 2 of the 5 articles of clothing sent to me (I already had something very similar to the v-neck cardigan and leopard print scarf - only the jacket wasn't really my style) they pretty much nailed my style and size just based on the profile I filled out.  And I love you can send your style Pinterest board their way to help guide them as well as select price points so you're receiving clothes in your budget.  While I wish I could just auto schedule the delivery, it's just not in the every month budget, but I definitely plan on getting another box when the weather finally changes!

The Skimm

I feel like all I do during the day is make sure I'm caught up on all the headlines and happenings around the world.  A friend recommended this to me and I seriously cannot wait to get to work to read it every morning. The Skimm takes 4-5 top stories of the day and breaks it down for you - so you can be part of the conversation.  It's so informative yet hilarious when they throw in any social/entertainment type commentary. I mean, their quote of the day is this:

Quote of the Day: “I’m just going over there to have a good time and try to bridge the gap with Americans and North Koreans.”–Secretary of State stand-in Dennis Rodman is vacationing in North Korea again. Just visiting his good friend Kim.

Sign up here!

FOOTBALL!!!

Y'all, I was up at 8am ready. to. go.  I was so excited.  I even intensely watched College Game Day - I was seriously like a little kid at Christmas.  Living in Austin, it's a little more difficult to get to Waco for the Baylor games - especially with the boyfriend who is a UT alum.  So while I did do a little tailgaiting and wear some orange...I was GLUED to my phone the entire game looking at updates - as well as rub in the fact we were killing Wofford while it took nearly the entire first half for UT to score one touchdown against New Mexico. :)

I also had my fantasy football draft last night.  I have zero clue how to play - in fact, about half my team was auto picked for me...I also didn't realize I picked a free agent.  Since I knew him in high school, I had to have him on my team.  (Will someone pick him up, please?!!?)  I threatened everyone in my group if they picked RG3 before me (Sic 'Em!) and chose Jay Cutler as my back-up QB (because he's married to Kristin Cavalleri - duh.)  And of course, my team name is Dillon Panthers.  I think this will be a winning team (I'm actually not sure who more than have of these people are???):

Texas Craft Spirits Month

Governor Perry has declared September Texas Craft Distilleries Month!  A pretty awesome lobbyist - and now executive director for the Texas Distilled Spirits Association (Scott - I'm so, so, so proud of all the work you've done so far for Texas distilleries and their association!  Just had to brag for a sec :) - helped the Texas distilleries pass some bills to allow them to give samples to those on the tour of the distillery as well as sell up to 2 bottles of their product per customer at the distillery.  There were a couple more bills - but those are my favorite and ones that affect you if you ever go to tour a distillery!  As they say, "Come and drink it!"  Make sure to buy your favorite Texas liquors this month - everything from Titos, Rebecca Creek, Deep Eddy (which if you haven't had their ruby red grapefruit vodka with a splash of club soda and a lime this summer - you're seriously missing out) and more.  One of my personal favorites:  Treaty Oak Distilling which makes Starlight Vodka, Waterloo Gin, Treaty Oak Rum, and Graham's Sweet Tea Vodka.  All of those taste fabulous and the Starlight Vodka label is absolute perfection. 

(photo credit to the Treaty Oak Distilling Company Facebook page)

Thank you, Scott, for the newest apartment addition to go along with my bar cart! (Don't worry, Brittany- the "S" has just moved locations in the living room - it's still a favorite of mine!)

Here I Am, Again...

Clearly, I'm not very good at keeping up with this...

I figured it was time to post something after viewing Brittany's blog and my blog was way down at the bottom on her blog's she reads list -  not cool, Laura, not cool.

It's been a busy summer - family vacation to New Orleans, started a new job, my 10-year Waldemar Hilltopper reunion, lots of weekend afternoons at the pool and wondering where the summer actually went since it flew by way. too. fast.

As it comes to a close with Labor Day right around the corner and the most exciting time of the year - FOOTBALL - beginning tomorrow, I'll do a more detailed recap of the summer later this week.  Pictures are always a plus and I don't have any with me at the moment.

I know I said I'd be better at the whole blog thing, but I am promising to update when I actually have newsworthy things going on.  

xoxox