March Madness

Hello!  

Yes I am back from my semi-unintentional hiatus from blogging. Totally unintentional the week before last but semi-intentional last week.

Here's why.

So starting Thursday (the 14th) celebrations began for my 25th birthday!  I celebrated with my friends/family here in Orlando by having a delightful afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian's Garden View Tea Room.  This is my all time favorite thing to do at Disney World.  If I could have afternoon tea every single afternoon, I totally would.  

After tea that day we went and spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around Epcot for the Flower and Garden Festival.  Where are decided to have a mini photo shoot in between Italy and America in the World Showcase.  

(Suzanne and I found out that the lighting on the promenade between those two countries between 4 and about 6:30 is ideal for some amazing photos!) 

Then the best thing that could have ever happened, HAPPENED!

5 of 6 best friends were reunited!  These four ladies are some of my all time favorite people in this entire world.  I cannot imagine my life without them in it.  And I am SO glad we all got to come together again!  And for my birthday too! :)

Following that amazing day, I finished up a few days of work and then began my very first PAID VACATION!

My first official day of vacation I was still here in Florida and it was my actual birthday, on Monday the 18th.  I'm now in my mid-20s and am a quarter of century old.  Weird. (I have a full post in the works on my true feelings on being 25).

My actual birthday was spent at the Animal Kingdom with Suzanne were we took more pictures (obviously), had a delightful lunch, and then I spent the night with Jordan because she agreed to take me to the airport at 4:30 in the morning.  Now that is a true friend!

Tuesday I found myself back in the great state of TEXAS!  

Where I enjoyed:

-family (my grandmother and aunt even drove into town to see me)

-going to dinner and a movie with my best friend from home.

-Chicos Tacos

-morning coffee with my parents

-family movie night

-shopping with my mama

-an chocolate with mint chocolate chip ice cream cake

Sadly I did not take enough (and by enough I mean hardly any) pictures of my time in Texas.  Which I'm regretting.  But I did snap a couple of Instagram pictures which you can see by following me here. 

I have to say, vacations are allows great but they are even better when you're getting paid to relax!

But can you see now why my blogging hasn't quite been up to snuff the last two weeks?!  Life is finally back to normal though and my thus my blogging will be back to normal!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go do what normal 25 year olds do and watch Sofia the First and color, while I drink my morning coffee.

Till tomorrow! :)

Watch Out Pinterest!

Happy Monday friends!

Today is very exciting because one week from today is my birthday!  Woo Hoo! And one week from tomorrow I will be on a whole weeks vacation!  And it's my very first paid vacation at that, so it's even more exciting!  It'll also make it that much more enjoyable!

As I've already mentioned I will turing a quarter of a century old.  Sheesh that sounds so weird to say out loud.  I have a feeling 25 is going to be just fantastic! 

Alas, that is not what I want to talk about today.  Today, I want to share a recipe with y'all.

It's a recipe that I created all by myself.  It turned out quite delightful if I do say so myself.

So here is how to make: Chicken, Spinach, and Mushroom Pasta w/ Grape Tomatoes A La Kathleen

Here what you'll need:

2 boneless chicken breasts

1 cup chopped onions

1 1/2 cups mushrooms

1 1/2 cups of spinach

2 cups whole wheat pasta

as many grape tomatoes as you want cut in halves

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup of feta cheese

Pine nuts (if you want)

Here's what you do:

1. Cook pasta by package directions.

2. Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Cut up your chicken in bite size pieces and once oil is warm begin cooking.  About half way through cooking the chicken throw in the onions and let them sauté while the rest of the chicken cooks.

3. After chicken is done cooking, throw in the mushrooms and spinach.  I left the juice from the chicken in the pan to add more flavor but you can drain the juice before adding the mushrooms and spinach if you want. 

4. Cover pan and let the mixture cook for about 15 minutes or until the spinach has melted down and the mushrooms are cooked.  

5.  Once pasta is done and the mixture is cooked to your liking, put the pasta in the mixture and stir.  

6.  Add as many grape tomatoes as you'd like, just make sure you cut them in half.  (I don't like them too mushy so I just let them cook until they were a little warm.)

7. Drizzle the feat cheese over the top.

* I also threw a handful of pine nuts on the top of each serving when I plated the pasta. If you like pine nuts feel free to do the same! 

And Wa-LA! You have a healthy and pretty tasty meal!  

I was so wrapped up in cooking I completely forgot to take pictures as I went, but I did snap a photo of the finished product in the pan.

It was super easy to throw together and didn't take long at all.  

I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for making this!  The last time I tried to just throw something together I faild horribly.  But I'm happy to say that didn't happen this time around. 

So watch out Pinterest! My recipe is fixin to blow up on all your pin boards! :)

Have a great Monday y'all!

A Festival of Strawberries

Sunday afternoon was spent wandering around the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL.

The festival itself has been around since the 1920s and boy is it fun.  Two of my best friends and I met  up with Jessica for an afternoon of carni rides and carni food.

I'll be honest, the majority of our time was spent stuffing out faces with food.

 I personally consumed chips, a corn dog, 2 glasses of sweet tea, a chocolate covered strawberry, split a strawberry tart, and even had chocolate dip't bacon.  (It was good until about an hour later when my stomach said WTF did you eat lady!)

Click over to Jessica's blog to see a hilarious video of her proving she ate the chocolate dip't bacon. I fed it to her y'all.  We've reached a whole new level of friendship because of it!

It was also freezing cold that day. The wind was blowing and in the shade it felt like we were visiting Antarctica and not Florida.  We all showed up in jeans, boots, scarfs, and jackets.

Jessica and I didn't care though.  We wanted to ride a ride.  Especially after I found out that in all the years she's been coming to the Strawberry Festival, Jessica has NEVER ridden one of the rides.  So we picked the one that we could see while we were pigging out on food.

We could see the entire fair grounds from the ride.  It was freezing but totally worth it! :)

We had intended to stay and watch Alan Jackson, but came to our senses when we realized just how cold it was going to be that night.   Oh and as an added bonus they were handing out cases of strawberry greek yogurt!  We each went home with 2 cases!  My fridge and freezer are currently overflowing with it!

Overall it was a delightful day.  One that I fully intend to repeat next year!

My Irritating Little Problem

As I mentioned in my last post I've been dealing with the most irritating little problem for the last three weeks.

Sadie has fleas.  And as I've learned from my intensive research on the subject, that means that only about 15% are actually on her and the other 85% are in the apartment.  Which is blows big time.

Y'all I have done so much research on getting rid of fleas on your pet/home that I could probably write a whole book on the subject.  But since I don't have the time nor the desire to write a whole book, I decided to share my frustrations and successes with you all.

So here we go.

When I first noticed that Sadie had fleas.  I thought to myself, no big deal.  I'll just bath her, put some flea stuff on her, and slap a flea collar on her and boom the problem will be solved.  Then I was wearing white socks in the house and happened to glance down and saw little black dots on them.  I got a closer look and saw that weren't lint like I had thought when I first glanced down.  They were fleas.  My roommate also said that she saw a few in the bathroom.

I decided to hit up Google and see what were some good ways to get rid of fleas.  That's when I learned the numbers I mentioned at the beginning of the post.  So I thought ok, I'll vacuum the crap out the apartment and buy some spray or powder.  Off I went to Walmart.  Where I bought the following:

-Hartz Flea and Tick Carpet Powder
-Hartz Ultra Guard Pro
-Hartz Flea and Tick Collar
Oh I also bought the Hartz brand Flea Shampoo for cats.  First I gave Sadie a bath, then when she was dry I put the drops on her, and finally when that had dried I put the flea collar on her.  Then I spent an entire afternoon with that carpet powder and my vacuum.  Unfortunately noon of the above worked.

During the 5k weekend, I was talking about my problem with my best friends uncle and aunt and they suggested using tea tree oil.  It's what your supposed to use to get rid of lice so I figured what the hell. 

I'll give it a try.  

I put it in an old spray bottle and diluted it with water.  I put about 10 drops in hot water, shake the bottle really well, and then spray the crap out of the apartment.  I spray it everywhere: the couch, my room, the kitchen, the bathroom, my closet, the roommates bedrooms, and even the porch.  The nice thing is it smells really good!  

So I did and it was working pretty well!  I saw about half as many fleas, but they were still there.  Plus I was still finding them on my poor kitty.  She was miserable.  She itched all day and night.  She was very subdued and her personality had completely changed from the playful kitten I had pre-fleas.

That's when I decided to bit the bullet and not be so cheap.  I kept researching online and everyone raves about Advantage II for cats.  That stuff isn't cheap y'all.  But I told myself that if it got rid of the few fleas that were left it would be worth it.  I also called three different veterinarians and all recommend Advantage.  I had wanted to take her in to get her dipped but apparently that's not really done anymore.  The vets all said that they would just give her Advantage so I didn't even need to bring her in.

So I headed to Petco for the Advantage.  I had also read that using a flea comb helps immensely so I bought one of those too.  And finally I decided that I should probably flea bomb the apartment.  Most of the people I had talked to said that they had to do this and it worked.

On Friday night I ran the flea comb through Sadie and it worked wonders!  I had completely underestimated just how many fleas she had.  I also realized that all I had done to her the previous week and half, hadn't worked AT ALL.  When I put the Advantage on her.  And for good measure, after it dried I threw a new flea collar on her.

Saturday rolled around and I put Sadie on the porch, vacuumed and set off the bombs.  I put one in the living room and one in my room.  Then  I disappeared for about 3 hours, came back and aired out the apartment, and thankfully have only seen one or two fleas since.

I'm probably going to bomb the apartment one more time for good measure, I'll be vacuuming like a crazy person still and Sadie will be brushed daily with the flea comb and on the Advantage from now on.

Thankfully, after just a few days Sadie is back to her old self.  She's playful again, sleeping again, and not scratching anymore.

Y'all this has been the most stressful thing EVER.  We don't have fleas very bad in the part of Texas I'm from.  So I had zero idea on what to do.  I've cried, got angry, and cried some more over it.  I think I finally have it under control.  But it's going to take a lot of up keep from now on.

Getting rid of fleas is no laughing matter, it take patience and consistency.  Not to mention it's expensive.  So if you have a flea problem and are at a loss of what to do, feel free to ask yours truly.

Cuz I'm an expert on all things fleas now.  Yay me!

I Thought Yesterday Was Friday

It's true.  I had my High Five for Friday post all typed and I was just about to hit publish when I realized something.

It was Thursday. Not Friday.

See this is what happens when you work for two days and then have two days and then work for two days and have two days off.  Your days get totally thrown off.

In fact the cycle continues this weekend and next week too! Woo hoo!

So, it's been pretty quite on the blog this week and as always there is a reason for that.

My apartment is infested with fleas. GROSS, I know.  I have been working my ass off trying to get ride of them.  And tomorrow I'm bombing the apartment and today I'm getting Advantage for my poor Sadie.  Tune in Monday because I will be venting ALL of my frustrations on this situation then. FML

So on to the meat of today.  It's Friday!!  So that means I'm linking up with Lauren for H54F!


1. We watched The Oscars on Sunday.  It was simply delightful if you ask me!  Favorite moments?
-Seth McFarlane singing "We Saw Your Boobs"
-Les Miserable cast singing Suddenly
-Jennifer Lawrence winning Best Actress and her hilarious after show interview
-Argo winning Best Picture

I printed out Oscar ballots so we could follow along as the show went! :)

2. While at Epcot on Saturday, we FaceTimed with Suzanne (who will be here for a whole month starting tomorrow!)  I felt very Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century while we were doing it.  Please tell me y'all remember that movie!  Zetus Lapetus!

3.  Spring is popping up all over the Disney Parks! And I don't hate it!

4.  Jordan made the yummiest dinner on Wednesday night!

5.  I went to Francesca's and spent too much money.  Shocking I know. But totally worth it! :)  If my entire wardrobe could be from this store.  It would be.

Hope y'all each had a fantastic week!

 My weekend will consist of:  more flea cleaning, having a blast with Suzanne, and a Strawberry Festival.  I know.....my life is so hard.  :)

Also welcome to my birthday month! :) In just 18 days I will officially be a quarter of century old.  Scary thought!

A Run Fit For A Princess

Saturday I did something I honestly never thought I would do.

I ran...ok walked...a 5K.

Disney pretty much has a hand in everything y'all.  They even have a whole line of business dedicated to people who love to run.  It's called runDisney and they host various runs throughout the year in both Florida and California.

We have a couple of 5Ks, 1/2 marathons, and a whole marathon every year with literally thousands of people coming to participate.  Epcot plays a major role in each of the events, so I've had the opportunity to work at two of the running events last year.  I helped during the Wine and Dine 1/2 marathon during the Food and Wine Festival and during Disney's Marathon Weekend in January.

So when my best friends family said they were coming to Disney to do participate in the Princess Marathon Weekend, I figured it would be a good chance to see these running events from the other side.  From the perspective of the runner rather than an employee.

We did the Mickey and Minnie Royal Family 5K.

I'm not gonna lie I was a tad nervous about doing it.  I didn't want to be one of those people who decide to do a run and then end up getting sick in the middle of it and have to be taken to the medical tent.

Then I saw the actual course through Epcot.

The run was through Epcot and through Epcot only.  Y'all I walk this pretty much daily.  Ok maybe not everyday but seriously I've walked around Epcot more times then I can count.   Heck when you walk around the World Showcase alone you're walking 1.3 miles.  Therefore, walking around the Showcase 3 times is basically a 5K.  After I saw this picture my worries completely vanished.

In fact the only thing I was not looking forward to after seeing this was waking up at 4:30 in the am, because we had to be at the starting line by 5:30.  Blegh.

The race was so fun.  We were in coral B, so we were the second group to start walking.  I decided to dress the part of a running Princess Aurora (or Sleeping Beauty), complete with a pink Princess crown and pink and white tutu.

We got to Mile 1 after about 15 minutes.  I'm honestly not sure if that's good or not but I figure it is!
The Disney Princesses were scattered throughout the course but their lines were super long and we weren't feeling the whole wait in line thing.  Plus, we wanted a semi accurate time of our walk.

Here are a few photos from our very early morning stroll.

This is me, Abby, and her sister Laura before the race!

Jordan ran the race with some of here sorority sisters and we caught each other just before!

And there's me at the finish line!  We finished the whole course in about 45 minutes.  Then went and stuffed our faces in a delightful breakfast.

Overall I'd say runs are fun, especially Disney runs.  At the end I did have to remind myself that it was worth paying money to walk around a place I can technically walk around for free because I was doing it with some great friends.  And I got a medal out of it too.

And got to wear a tutu! :)

Ps. If you're a runner and are interested in runDisney, click here for a complete list of races they host!

The One Where I Tried to Be a Legit Blogger

I've been MIA the last week.  But I have a good reason I promise!

So last Wednesday I was laying in bed early in the morning.  I had my cup of coffee and had snuggled back in bed to write up my Disney How To post for the week.  As I'm typing up my post I get the bright idea to change my URL.  

(Earlier in the week I had read a post about blog stalking and that it's probably not a good idea to use your whole name in your URL, Twitter, etc.  Well as you can plainly see I do just that.  Specifically in my URL.)

Anyway, while I'm laying there I remembered that post.  So I decided to go in and change my URL to placesiwillgoblog.blogspot.com.  I head over to the Settings page to do just that when I see....

"add your own custom domain"

Light bulb!  

I need my own domain.  It's only $10, it'll keep people from knowing my full name and trying to stalk me (cuz hopefully no one will remember my last name.  Yeah right!), it's only $10, it'll make me a more legit blogger, oh yeah and it's only $10!   Ok I'll be honest, mostly I wanted to buy it because I thought it would make me a legitimate blogger.  Epic Fail on that one.

So I go for it. I bought my own domain.  I was so excited! placesiwillgoblog.com was ALL MINE!

I thought it would be super simple (like Blogger makes it sound) and that my domain would be ready to go in about 3 days.  So I thought I would take a tiny break until it started redirecting properly.

Little did I know that not only changing my blogspot URL AND adding my own custom domain would make it seem like I had deleted my blog.  Again....epic fail.

I got emails, tweets, and text messages asking if I had deleted my blog.  Which obviously sent me into panic mode.  I was terrified that my blog was donezo and that I would never get it back.

So of course I asked Jessica (from Lovely Little Things) for advice.  Thank goodness for blogger friends! And she gave me some great advice.  Unfortunately,  I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to fix it.  What did work however was deleting my custom domain and going back to my original URL.

Its been 2 days since I changed it back and I still have no idea how to fix it.  SO...if any of you lovely fellow bloggers know how the heck I can get my domain linked to my blog, I would greatly appreciate any assistance and/or advice you may have on how I can do so.

Source: stardust-decorstyle.blogspot.com.au via Chris on Pinterest

I saw this on Pinterest and felt it was appropriate for the post, considering my attempt to be a legit blogger.

Hopefully it works out better on my next time! :)