Bridal Show

So today I officially felt like a bride.  I haven't done much lately wedding related except research online.  I follow several blogs and love seeing all the new and crafty ideas.  So I've been stocking up on lots of pics.  But today I attended my first bridal show as the bride.  I went to my first ever show in January.  I had just gotten back from Hawaii with Ricky and his family and my friend told me her and another friend who was getting married soon were heading to a bridal show in Tulsa.  I knew I wasn't a bride yet, but I knew someday (hoping someday soon) I would be a bride.  So I went to the show, mainly just to look around and pick up vendor information.

Anyways, sorry that was off topic.  So today me, my parents, and my MOH Meredith headed to OKC for a bridal show.  I was super excited since I can officially start planning more and "it's not too early." 10 months and 2 days!!  The show was to start at 1:00 and we show up about 12:45 to see a HUGE line of mostly women standing outside the hotel.  That should have been my first clue.  By the time we get inside (about 1:20) I already knew we were in for a very crazy afternoon.  First off, the hotel it was at didn't have their vendors in a huge ballroom in order to accommodate the hundreds and hundreds of people, they had some small meeting rooms and you jig-jagged all through the rooms and all the people.  And there were so many people that you couldn't even talk to the vendors, so basically I just walked around and signed up for free stuff and picked up their information.

But, on the plus side, I did get some good information on a couple vendors, but most of them were in OKC and I would just prefer to use Tulsa ones.  But here are some pics of the day of things I liked.

The color didn't come through at all, but these are two grey suites and the one on the right has a yellow vest and tie :)

I love love love these chair covers!!! I think I might croak if I find out how much they are but aren't they beautiful!

Thought these were interesting centerpieces

And of course we had to test out the Photobooth.  I love this one! Who doesn't want to use fun props!

So all in all, not a terrible day.  It did start out with a wonderful phone call from the fiance after a week of no communication :)  There is another bridal show here in Tulsa next Sunday that I am going to also.  Lets hope it will be better!  I also think I'm doing my first dress shopping this Saturday.  I was planning on waiting a little more, but a bridal shop is having a trunk show of one of the designers I really like so I'm going to hopefully check it out.  More to come on that later :)

Chicken Enchilada Pockets

I love searching for new food blogs, especially ones that already have healthier versions of the food I love.  I came across a new one called Dashing Dish.  You can check out her website Here.  So I came across her recipe of Chicken Enchilada Pockets and though, I love Chicken Enchilada's and I also love crescent rolls, so why not try them together.

I myself did not make this recipe, my wonderful friend Meredith did, I was just a taste tester, but it was delicious! So I had to share the recipe with you to see what you think.

(note: all pictures and directions came from the Dashing Dish website)

Serving size: 1 pocket
Servings: 8 pockets
Calories: 155
Weight Watchers: 5 Points Plus

Ingredients:

• 1 package reduced fat crescent rolls
• 1/2 (8oz) package fat free cream cheese
• 1/2 cup reduced fat mexican blend grated cheese (or mozzarella/2% cheddar)
• 1 cup chicken, cooked and diced (or pulled)
• 1/2 cup enchilada sauce (or taco sauce/salsa)
• 1 tbs enchilada seasoning, (or taco/any mexican seasoning)
• Optional: for a bit of spice try adding 1/4 cup canned green chiles to the mix!

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil, (for easy clean up) and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Cut cream cheese in half, (save the rest for later) and place in a medium sized bowl.

3. Pour grated cheese in the bowl with the cream cheese. Microwave for 45-60 seconds to soften cheeses, making them easier to combine.

4. Stir to combine cheese.

5. Pour sauce into bowl with cheese, and stir to combine.

6. Add spice mix and stir. (I also added a tsp of stevia here because I personally like a bit of sweet to balance out the saltiness in almost every dish!)

7. Add chopped chicken, and stir until everything is well mixed.

8. Unroll and separate crescent rolls on prepared baking sheet in preparation to make the pockets.

9. Scoop about 1/8th cup (or a heaping tbs) of chicken mixture into the center of the largest part of the crescent roll.

10. Pull outer corners of the crescent over the chicken mixture.

11. Pull the ‘long’ segment of the crescent roll dough over the ‘tucked’ corners to make a pocket that fully encloses the chicken filling. (Note: There is no real art to this, in fact I did each one a little differently, and they all turned out great! The only real key is to make sure the chicken filling is fully enclosed by the dough so it won’t spill out when baking!)

12. To make the top look like a little pocket, I twisted the dough to a point on top. I sprinkled some additional cheese on top of each one just before baking, but this is certainly optional!

13. Bake at 375 for 15 Minutes, or until top of crescent rolls are golden brown.

14. Serve warm, and Enjoy! Store leftovers in the refrigerator, or freeze within 5 days, (if they last that long!) 

Tulsa zoo

I love going to the zoo.  It's just fun to see all the animals.  I hadn't been in about two years so we decided to go.  Well Meredith had to go for her Biology class, so Megan and I tagged along.  We got up early since they were opening early due to the extreme heat.  

Meredith was super sad there were no giraffes

The bear was taking a dip in the pool

Megan with her favorite penguin

Nemo!!

Little monkey family :)

The penguin getting some face time

the otters loved all the attention

Meredith was eating the banana in this one

I finished off the day with some time by the pool getting some sun and a Drillers Game with some other Army wives.  It was a great day with wonderful people!

Reckless Redneck Run

I get these emails every once in awhile from running groups in Tulsa and their upcoming races.  Most of them from the Runners World Tatur group are pretty ridiculous but this one in particular caught my eye.  It was called the Reckless Redneck run.  The basis of the run is it's only 1 mile mostly downhill and the best part is you dress like a redneck.  Yes, a redneck.  So Meredith and I decided this would be so fun to dress up and get some exercise.  We used to do all these "dress-up" activities in college for our sorority date parties.  So we decided this was one step up because at least we were getting some exercise.  haha.

So on Friday afternoon, we headed to the local thrift store and I stumbled upon this glorious wedding veil and boom I had my outfit idea.  Meredith found this awesome jean vest and found an awesome trucker hat.  Just take a look at the evidence.

Even have my ring pop wedding ring

Such a pretty lady :)

Some of the other rednecks

Two rednecks ready for their run

We love our men :) They are tattooed on our arms :)

It was a lot of fun dressing up.  Although it was not so fun running in 106 degree heat.  Even if it was mostly downhill, it was still really hot.  At the end of it, we had to walk back uphill to the parking lot so we got a little extra exercise.  So we may be doing more of these fun races, maybe just wait until the heat wave leaves for the summer.

Harry Potter: The End is Near

 I suppose the end isn't near, but then end of Harry Potter has come.  I didn't get into to Harry Potter until about 4 years ago.  I watched a couple of the movies and they weren't so bad, so I decided I wanted to read the books.  So that's what I did, and I was hooked.  So since the final movie came out at midnight last night, I figured I might as well go out with a bang.  I have never gone to a midnight showing before, so this was all new to me, but it was a lot of fun.

Started the evening off with a game of spades!

Our awesome Harry Potter 3D glasses

Kara looks like one of the blind mice hahahaha

Megan and her awesome homemade shirt

Almost time for the movie!

The movie was really good :) Good for the end of the movies, of course it still doesn't do the books justice.  But what movie does.  Until the next adventure....!

Dripped Beef

Sorry this is a little late, but nevertheless, this recipe is to die for!  I got it from Jennifer (check out her AMAZING BLOG).  She made it for me a couple weeks ago when I went to hang out with her family.

What you need:

• 2-3 lb roast
• 1 1/2-2 cartons beef stock (enough to cover roast)
• Swiss cheese slices
• Kaiser Rolls
• 3 packages of beefy onion soup mix
• 1 tbs. paprika
• 1 tsp. celery salt
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Place roast, beef stock, beefy onion soup mix, paprika, celery salt, and salt and pepper in the crock pot. 

2.  Let cook for 5-6 hours on high. 

3.  About an hour before it's finished, remove cooked roast and shred using two forks, then place back into crock pot to cook for another hour or so.  

4.  Right before serving I would suggest toasting your rolls a little and melt the swiss cheese on the roll so it's all nice and warm.  

5.  Use a slotted spoon to take out some meat to place on your roll.  

6.  Place some of the juice in a separate small bowl for dipping if desired.  

Finished product

Got my friends approval :)

Just a warning, this make A LOT.  But it's so delicious and not very time consuming.  It's just as delicious as leftovers.  Try it and let me know what you think!

R&R

I have some excellent news everyone!  Ricky found out yesterday his R&R dates!  For those that don't know, R&R stands for rest and recovery.  And Ricky's group gets to have it during this deployment.  His R&R will be 15 full days, that does NOT include travel time.  It starts the day after he gets punched into the states.  For security reasons I can't just put the dates on here, but it is this fall sometime.  And I am super pumped!  Here is an updated DOM (if you don't remember what a DOM is read about it HERE.)

We already have several things we want to do in the 15 days, some wedding stuff including a couples shower, cake tasting, and new engagement pictures.  We will probably also go to Dallas to a Cowboys game because they happen to have a home game (that is if there is an NFL season ha).  I'm so excited!

The last few days have been really good, he has been able to call everyday for the last five days.  No Skype yet, but we are working on that.  But I'll take anything I can get.  I'm starting to have a lot more good days than bad and I am so thankful for that.  When I have a bad day, it's a really bad day.  On those days you just want to curl up and lay in bed with a box of kleenex.  But I don't do that of course, because that wouldn't be healthy for my emotions.  But thankfully I haven't felt that way in about a week.  My days seem managable.

So now that I officially have Ricky's dates, I'm in full weight loss mode.  Not that I haven't been trying, I've just been struggling.  I'll have a really good week then a not so good weekend and blow it all.  So I have got to be stricter on myself.

Fun times

 This last week has been really busy wish creative things and good times with friends.  On Tuesday, I made a trip to Hobby Lobby (always dangerous for me) and got stuff to make Ricky another care package!  Once he made it to Afghanistan he called and needed lots of toiletries since their base doesn't have a store.  So since he was going to get it after 4th of July I went with a beach/summer theme :)  Next month I'll do a birthday one.

Beach!

I also bought a cheap frame and some cute scrapbook paper to make a DIY board.  I hung it by my door, it's for really anything, to-do list, encouraging words, or just fun sayings.  

Yesterday, I made a trip to Stillwater with some friends just because.  I miss this town, especially when I haven't been to it since last November.  Our main objective was to simply go to Eskimo Joes.  Yum!  

Then we walked around campus to take some pics and take a look at the construction progress at the Student Union.  

Betty in the fountain

 Then we couldn't leave Stillwater without stopping by the barn :)

Barn drink

OSU girls!

 Lastly, Ricky had called and really wanted a pillowcase with a picture on it.  I figured he would think this would be super cheesy, but he says several of the other guys have one, so I ordered him one.  And let me say, these are two huge faces on a pillowcase.  Haha, he should feel like I'm right there with him now.

Tonight, some friends are coming to my place to watch the last two Harry Potter movies, yes we are going to see the final movie at Midnight on Thursday.  So we have to catch up.  I'm also making a new recipe :)  So stay tuned for that.