Plenty of Cocktail to Go Around

Since the day Kyle told me we were going to a fancy wedding in Pittsburgh on NYE, I have been thinking about what I would wear. I started looking at dresses hoping to find something sassy and on sale. I know there will be more options the closer it gets to the wedding, especially since it is NYE, but I just couldn't pass up these deals from Dillard's. Here are the 3 dresses I picked out:

Strapless Animal Print

 Original Price: $138

Sale Price: $49.68

Strapless Taffeta 

 Original Price: $80

Sale Price: $35.99

Special note: This bad boy has pockets!

Belted Lace Dress

Original Price: $148

Sale Price: $53.28

So you can see by the sale prices, that I could hardly turn down such a deal! I got all 3 for the price I would have paid for the first or third alone. Ordering online can be tricky. I go between a small and a medium or a 4 and a 6. I gambled on a small for the middle one, and 4's for the others and hit the jackpot! 

Side note: How do ladies living alone zip up their dresses?! I had to take all 3 of these to Kyle's last night and have him help me with the zippers. I can get them about 3/4 of the way up and then only God knows if it will go the rest of the way!

The only thing I may alter is the animal print one. The skirt is fitted, like Kim Kardashian style, and I was going to take it to my tailor and see if she could put a slit in the back for some extra room. 

Next weekend we have a rehearsal dinner and wedding in Vail, and I think I will wear the charcoal one to the wedding, and I am not sure what to the rehearsal dinner yet. I am pretty sure I am saving the black lace one for the NYE wedding, because it is gorgeous on. I love it. And I have my eye on these bomb earrings from Rent the Runway to pair with it: 

Emerald Drop Earrings

You can rent these $150 earrings for $25. Might seem kinda silly to rent something, but this website has some serious fashion that I could never afford, so you can rent it. Genius idea, I say!

What I Have Been Doing

Nothing really. Well, that is not completely true. I have been doing some stuff. Like showering twice a day in this heat and watching my flowers die even though I watered them 400 times.

Since I don't have any really interesting updates since my last post, I will just give you some minor (boring) details of my life.

My shellac did not last 3 weeks. It began peeling away near the cuticle at about a week and  I got my first chip last night. Still worth the money in my book though.
I wrote my first rent check on August 1st for the full amount of rent, not splitting with a roomie. I'm not gonna lie, it was painful.
I haven't stopped sweating since July 1st.
I ordered 3 dresses from Dillard's for one wedding. I know, ridiculous but they were a steal and I will return the ones I don't plan on wearing.
If you like great deals, visit Blog Sales United. I plan on submitting a blog sale once I can go through my closet and see what I need to get rid of.
The Real Housewives of New York restores my faith in female friendships....not. But I can't stop watching them.
I am turning down a trip to the new outlet mall in OKC this weekend to save money. I feel like an alien has invaded me.
My fridge went out and all of my groceries had to be thrown out. That was fun. But my landlord is awesome and has a new fridge in place in less than 24 hours.
They also found  a small gas leak and turned off the gas so I had no hot water this morning. Luckily, Sophie and I could invade Kyle's house last night.
I cooked dinner for Kyle for the 2nd time in 1 yr. You did read this right. You see, Kyle has the pallet of a 12 year old boy. He hates fruits and veggies, and loves starch and meat. So when choosing something to cook for him, I end up getting annoyed and giving up. Last night was a success though with Toasted Parmesan Chicken Subs found on Tasty Kitchen.
This heat is taking its toll on me. I drank water all day Sat and still was getting cramps in my feet. And I have been having headaches almost everyday.
I used a Groupon to buy a pair of Old Navy jeans for 8 dollars.
I love Pinterest. Check it out.

Dallas Trip and No More TBS

This past weekend, I went down to Dallas for a wedding. I flew Southwest since they are dirt cheap and can get me there in 45 min. Friday night, my 7:45 PM flight was delayed til 9:15 and coming home on Sunday, my flight was delayed from 11:20 AM til 2:20 PM. Annoying! But they gave me a $100 voucher, which will come in very handy.

The wedding was at The Ritz, and they def know how to put on a wedding. Side note: I think I need to cut champagne out of my life. Or limit myself to 2 glasses, which does not seem possible. The wedding was a blast, even though I was forced to go alone because Kyle was out of town. I went with my brother and Erin and sat at a table with all couples. Hence, the over indulging of champagne. But really, the night was so much fun. I always love getting to spend time with Bryan & Erin. Here is the one picture I got all night:

Best sister in law ever :)

Kyle was supposed to fly home Sunday night but American overbooked and he ended up getting a $500 voucher to stay one more night in Pittsburgh. It was an interesting weekend for the two of us!

I got my first shellac manicure, and I am officially hooked. I love to paint my nails, but they seem to chip every 3 days or so and I have to redo them. I usually end up painting them at Kyle's kitchen counter, and he hates the smell. This is supposed to last 3 weeks.

In other news, my roomie Elaina got offered a great job in OKC, and started on Monday. I am so proud of her for taking this opportunity, even though it means I don't get to live with her anymore. I decided rather than looking for a one bedroom apartment, I would stay in the house and cut costs wherever I could. Luckily, our rent is pretty cheap and all of the one bedroom apts I looked at were about the same as what I will be paying now. I did have to get rid of expanded cable and my DVR. For the first time in my life, I will not have TBS in my home. I love TBS, mainly because it plays Seinfeld all the time. But I am on the go a lot, so basic cable will be just fine, and I will record some stuff at Kyle's house. I already recorded the Real Housewives of New York reunion on his bedroom TV. He was thrilled about that.

Here are some pics from her going away party:

Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights is easily one of my favorite TV shows. And it all ends tonight. The season finale airs tonight, and I will miss Eric and Tami Taylor. And it is no secret that I love me some Tim Riggins.
Elaina and I have a favorite OSU sports blog writer, Kyle Porter, that posted this link  on his blog about an oral history on FNL. It's long, but if you love FNL you need to read it.


Coach Taylor- If you have ever lived in a small town like FTG, where football pulls the town together, you will know why I love him. When I was in high school, our football coach was Coach Reed and he had a handlebar mustache and was rough and looked like he smoked one too many cigarettes. And I loved him and thought he was the coolest guy ever. He was my Coach Taylor. What I love about Coach Taylor is his no nonsense attitude. He is stressed all the time and you can tell and he pushes his players to the best they can be. But he loves his wife and his girls and you can see that in his eyes.

Tami Taylor: The gorgeous wife of Coach Taylor, that has a love for counseling students into becoming all they can be. Tami has the perfect southern drawl when she says "hey ya'll" and has the best hair on TV, no lie. She loves Coach Taylor and is the typical football wife, but her character has depth and you learn so much more about her and her passion for students.  I won't lie, at one point in my young life, when I was dating the football star, I envisioned us getting married and him becoming a coach and me being his supportive, loving wife in the stands. Wow.

Tim Riggins: Where do I start? Do I start with his unbelievable rugged good looks? Or how he is the quintessential bad boy that every girl wants? Or how I just want to hug him for all the crap he has been put through? Remember when I said that I dated the star football player in high school? I forgot to mention that he was also the bad boy that never had girlfriends and drank too much and had an ice cold exterior. But we had been friends since 3rd grade and one August night I realized how sweet he could be and it was my mission to make a boyfriend out of him. Which I did, and then he cheated on me with a freshman cheerleader (how cliche). Anyway, now you know why I love Tim Riggins so much. He better get cast in something else soon so I don't have to creepily google pics of him.

Lyla Garrity: Oh Lyla. The gorgeous girl who dates the football player that has a neck injury and becomes crippled. And she has a rendezvous with Tim Riggins that turns into a love relationship and she gets to see Tim's vulnerable side (please see paragraph above).  Lyla is so sweet and innocent, yet not so innocent and pretty much could run the town on her good looks. I'm not sure there was much depth to her character, but she looked good in boots and jeans and enhanced Tim Riggins character. And now she is dating Derek Jeter, not too shabby.

There are tons more characters that I could write about, but these 4 are my favorites. What I love about the show was that is was more than football, it was about a little community pulling together, and at times tearing each other apart. And it was about the love between Coach Taylor and Tami, with all the stresses of life mixed in. My favorite line from the link posted above is this: Peter Berg (creator, executive producer): The show will be remembered more as one about a marriage than one about football.

Morning Routine

I think I may have said on a blog post before, that I cannot locate, that I have the exact same routine every morning. Who doesn't? Once again, my pals (I don't even know them) at The Frisky posted something that I felt like I should blog about. Each staffer details her morning routine. Here's mine:

1. Wake up at 6:35 and groggily walk Sophie to the back door and take her out. I leave the back door cracked while she eats and I shower. This is her "poop time" and as most, I prefer that to happen outside and I am too impatient in the morning to wait on her to do it before I shower. I wash my hair about every 2-3 days (if I was Monday, I will wash again Thur). Baby powder does the trick on the non-wash days. I used Equate brand face cleanser and scrub.
2. I am a lotion lover. I use it everyday and I was not happy to only be able to take 3 oz of it to Pittsburgh . I use Equate shea butter lotion. I put cream on my feet and wear socks while I get ready for optimum moisturizing time. I use Dove face moisturizer, Maybelline mineral powder, coral blush in the summer/pink in the other seasons, $1 Elf bronzer in the summer from Target, concealer galore under my eyes (still looking for the perfect one), and 2 kinds of mascara: Covergirl Lashblast length and then a coat of Maybelline Full and Soft. I heard waterproof holds curled lashes better, so I use that.
3. I let my hair air dry while I do my mascara, and then I use Garnier mousse for volume (what little I can get), and always use Tresemme heat protecting spray. Depening on the cycle of hair washing, I will do one of the following:

Hair completey down, straight
Bangs pinned back, hair curled
Bangs with a side swoop, hair in ponytail

I finish with some Garnier Shine Spray on my hair & then some lovely new body spray from Dove, Cucumber & Green Tea.

So there ya have it, my morning ritual. Everything is done in the same order every day.
If you read the Frisky article linked above, I think it is funny the difference between my brands and theirs.

Heather: Equate, Garnier, Dove, Covergirl, Maybelline
Frisky Girls: MAC, Stila, Kiehls, Dior, Lancome, etc

Cocktail Dress

Forgive me for posting this so early. It is July and I am about to post dress ideas for a wedding on new years eve. Don't judge me.

You'll remember this post where I listed all our our planned trips. The list seems to add another one to it as soon as one is complete. But I am not complaining! I love traveling, and I love traveling with Kyle. He navigates an airport like Indiana Jones navigates a hidden tomb.

So back to the topic at hand. Kyle is a groomsmen in a wedding on NYE in Pittsburgh. Thank goodness we went to there over the 4th so I could talk to some girls and get an idea of how fancy this wedding was going to be. I was told the invitation was going to originally say "black tie" but has been changed to "black tie optional". Kyle will be a tux, so I obvs need to look fancy nancy. I have been looking at some cocktail dresses and hoping to snag one on sale that I can pair with tights. On that note, fashion friends, should I plan on wearing tights? It is a winter wedding in the north. Do tights make it look too casual?

Here are the front runners: for some reason I can't post the pics of the dresses

Dillards: Gray Strapless
Dillards: Steel Strapless Tafetta
Dillards: Purple Strapless  - I think this one is my fave so far
Macy's: Black One Shoulder- I just noticed this one is only in size 8 and up now..tear
Macy's: Black One Shoulder

I'll take any votes for any of the dresses, and/or suggestions!

Pittsburgh

Kyle and I went to Pittsburgh over the 4th of July holiday. Most of you know he is from there, and this was my first time to go there. We got in late Friday night, and thanks to Dante and Erin, we had a ride from the airport. We went back to their house, a cool condo in Shady Side (kinda like Brookside) and had a few drinks and then walked to a pizza/bar place. The boys played darts while Erin and I played the "get to know you" game.

Sat morning, we took Dante's car and Kyle drove us to his parents house in Fox Chapel. The drive was gorgeous, and the trees and hills are nothing like flat OK. His parents are out of town, so we had the whole house (3 floors!) to ourself. After a quick shower, we headed up to the Pittsburgh Field Club to lay by the pool with Dante and Erin. Kyle's parents have been members there forever, and we saw tons of people that knew Kyle and have known him since he was little. The high was about 88 that day, and it was nothing like the heat we had left. We had lunch, watched the boys jump off the diving board, read, slept, talked and tanned. It was so relaxing and exactly what I needed to prepare for the oncoming of activities. That evening we had dinner at Jimmy Wan's and then met up with a bunch of his friends at this bar called the Crow's Nest. After that, we went to meet Dante and Erin at his cousin's house and partied the rest of the night away.

Sunday, we woke up at noon. No lie. I had been up Friday night for about 21 hours, and Sat we went to bed at 4:30. Sleeping in a house with no one else, and no dogs really allows for deep sleep. After laying around all day, we got ready for Lance's surprise birthday party, the real reason we went to Pittsburgh. The party was at 5:30, and it was hot. This OK girl started sweating immediately, and then was placed on the outside deck. After a few trips to the bathroom to cool off and using a paper plate as a fan, I stopped sweating. Lance loved his surprise party and we stayed for about 5 hours. We rounded everyone up, and headed to The Millhouse. After a few rounds of sparklers outside, and one crazy attempt at a sparkler inside the bar, we were exhausted and headed home. But not before Kyle's sweet friends Erin and Jenn could give me a welcome present. They got me a wine glass with the Pittsburgh skyline painted on it. It was probably one of the sweetest gestures I have ever experienced.

Monday, we slept in again and watched the Pirates game. Around 5, we headed to PFC again for a drink before our 4th of July party. Kyle is quite popular around there and I really enjoyed sitting on the patio listening to him catch up with people, and answer questions when they asked about us and how we met.
We went over to the 4th of July party, which was literally a scene out of a Martha Stewart Living magazine. I wish I had taken a picture. More people, more food, more booze. We ended the night on the fairway watching the fireworks. After a few people came over to his parents house for one last night of fun, I finally had to take myself to bed. 4 nights of drinks, talking and late nights had worn me down. Worn me so down that I fell down the stairs at his parents house and skinned my knee. It was hilarious, and thankfully no one saw me.

Highlights of the trip:

* Meeting Erin and Jenn
* Seeing Kyle's parents house
* Laying by the pool at PFC
* Hearing people say I have a cute accent
* Meeting so many people that watched Kyle grow up
* My new wine glass
* Another trip in the books with Kyle

Erin and Jenn- my new Pittsburgh loves!

Kyle and I with the high school sweethearts, Dante and Erin

The boys celebrating with Lance

Watching the fireworks