Where did I go!?

You may be asking, "Where did she go?" Or you may not care... either way, I have an answer. I am currently deployed, and working for United States Force-Iraq! I will be blogging on a personal blog until I return. If you would like access to my private blog, email me or find me on Facebook. I'd love to have you join me there! Take care until I see you again in DC!

2010 Top Ten

It seems fitting that 2010 should have a top ten. So here are my top ten trends that I embraced for 2010...

10.Skinny Girl Margarita
While this delightful, guilt free summer drink was around before 2010, and I've been making them since Season One of the Real Housewives of NYC, I am very happy that I am now able to find them easily alongside my other favorite mixed cocktails. It just so much easier to pour out of the bottle than guess my way through a homemade version.

9. The Hunger Games Series
I guess I should throw in the towel, and admit that I have been reading a series meant for high school girls. I would like to take this moment to declare this series the next Harry Potter/Twilight. Not that they are about wizards or vampires, but they are YA novels that get the older generation hooked. And I'm SURE that when they make them into movies, the cast will be just as hot as Twilight. So when this is the next big thing, I have the blog to prove that "I told you so." Read them...now!

8. Skinny jeans
I know. I know. Lindsay Lohan was totally wearing these three years ago. I held out as long as I could, but now I am obsessed. They go with anything, and I don't know how I ever wore boots before!

7. Taco Tuesday
This is a tradition my roomie and I have. There's nothing like having one night a week where you know what you're going to have for dinner. And there's nothing more fun or interactive than tacos. Everyone helps and everyone enjoys!

6. Spin Class and other group fitness
I have found the secret to staying in shape, and it is people yelling at me! Spin, circuit training, and most recently Bikram yoga. I love the variety, and I love having that extra motivation provided by the company of complete strangers!

5. Show stopping shoes
I consider myself the girl next door, which pretty much means I am hopeless at putting together a whole outfit. This year I found that as long as you have an adorable pair of shoes, you can get away with jeans and t-shirts pretty much every night of the week!

4. Mad Men
O Don Draper... just your ambitious, womanizing ways! I just caught up with this series, and can't wait for the new season.

3. Group On/Living Social
You've gotta love a deal! I know I do. For months I have been getting up first thing, and checking for the deal of the day on Group On and Living Social. Just type in your location, and they'll send a deal to your phone everyday! Most deals are around 50 percent off, and can include anything from Thai food to indoor rock climbing. I've had a blast trying out DC food and activities on a budget.

2. Real Simple
This magazine is AMAZING! I can not live without it. I feel like I am a housewife in training. Easy recipes, do it yourself tricks, party planning and more. I can have the worst day ever, and come home to find this gem in my mailbox, and forget about it all. I've even started a collection of my favorite easy recipes. Now I recommend a subscription for all my friends!

1. Big Hair
I have embraced DC hair, and it is BIG. This easy hairstyle has changed my outlook, and makes it so easy to give my mood a little "boost". Big hair is number one in my 2010 book.

So what made your favorites list for 2010?

Ohio State players dissapoint

Yesterday afternoon five Ohio State players were suspended for five games in the upcoming2011 season. These young men were caught selling Ohio State memorabilia including their gold pants given to OSU players after beating Michigan, and Championship rings. They were allegedly given free tattoos for selling the hearts and spirit of those they are supposed to be playing for. Although these players have proved themselves physically on the field, they seem to have come up short of integrity off the field.

As someone who has seen the dedication and motivation that the coaching staff puts forth to these players in an effort to shape them into a championship worthy team, I am appalled that these players have taken this for granted. It is such a shame that 95 percent of the team has the sensibility to do the right thing, and a few bad eggs can bring such shame to a football program based on pride, integrity and the Buckeye spirit.

I hope these players learned a lesson. Be thankful for the opportunities you are given, and never take for granted the coaches and fans that support you.

Go Bucks.

The Newseum

Unfortunately I have not been to many museums here in DC, but recently I got to visit THE museum I was really looking forward to seeing. The Newseum is the Museum of media, and is located conveniently on the Yellow Line right next door to the Canadian Embassy. Sing with me! "O Canada..." My favorite part of this museum was the section dedicated to those affected by Sept. 11, 2001. There were newspaper front pages from papers all over the world on that day, a dedication to a freelance photographer who died that day, and a video featuring media who were there as the World Trade Center was collapsing around them. I was truly touched by the honesty and sincerity of this exhibit. The Newseum also includes Pulitzer prize winning photographs, newspaper front pages from hundreds of years ago and artifacts from some of the most notorious American crimes in history including the Unibomber's cabin and mobster memorabilia.
This museum is a must see for any media buff... and for those who get their news only from Perez and E! News.

We enjoyed goofing around out front where they feature a different front page everyday from a select city in EVERY state. See New Hampshire here!

And you must check out the view from the patio on top of the museum. Beautiful!

Five things I love about birthdays

People seem to cringe at the word "birthday" as they get older. As a woman in my mid-twenties creeping up on thirty I cannot disagree more. I still love birthdays. Am I one of those girls who has a birthday week? Umm no. But I do enjoy the fact that I feel special for a day and people give me gifts adorned with sprinkles and bows. Here are 5 things I love about birthdays, not necessarily my own:

1. EATING
Why would this not make the list!? I love going out to eat, and specifically getting to chose where I go out to eat. What's that? You don't like sushi? Too bad! It's my birthday. Sashimi for everyone!

2. USING THE BIRTHDAY EXCUSE TO GET OUT OF TROUBLE
I've gotten out of a lot of trouble over the years by simply stating these words: "But it's my birthday." This includes two parking tickets, a speeding ticket and a long line for the bathroom at a sporting event. With a sad face added in this is a surefire way to get your way.

3. MORE THAN ONE COCKTAIL ON A SCHOOL NIGHT
What are the odds of your birthday being on a weekend? I'm horrible at math, but I'm pretty sure you only get a birthday on a weekend once every seven or eight years. This means that the chances your birthday dinner will be on a school night are pretty good. This also means that you will most likely have a designated driver and a reason for an extra glass of wine. You deserve it. Those last 365 days of breathing were such an accomplishment!

4. BIRTHDAY CARDS
I love birthday cards. They can be funny or serious, but the important thing is you can tell a lot about someone from what card they pick out. I save them every year, and love looking back at them every year. I just love to line them up for a couple weeks on my counter and let them be a decoration until the Christmas cards take over.

5. AND MOST OF ALL... FRIENDS AND FAMILY
I didn't get to be home this year for my birthday, but it was so nice to be around good friends. I think I saw this in a Lifetime Movie: "Friends are the family you choose yourself." It is so true. I can't wait to reciprocate on their birthdays :)

Cake or small fire?? You decide.

Let them eat cake

So I tried my hand at baking, and made this luscious four-layer pumpkin cake (no really that's what it was called). It is SO easy, but looks like it took forever. I actually think it looks like pancakes, but the cream cheese icing makes it AMAZING.

I was the popular kid at work for a day... well worth it. :)

what you need:
1 pkg. (2 layer size) yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin, divided
1/2 cup of milk
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
1- 1/2 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz) PHILADELPHIA cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz) COOL WHIP Whipped topping, thawed
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/4 cup PLANTERS pecans

HEAT 350 degrees F

MIX cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. spice in large bowl. Divide into two greased and floured 9 inch pans.

BAKE 28 to 30 min. Cool 10 min in pans then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

BEAT cream cheese in medium bowl until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Stir in Cool Whip. Cut each cake horizontally in half making four layers; stack on serving plate with the icing in between each layer. Do not frost top layer. Drizzle with caramel before serving and top with nuts...

Sweater vests for everyone!

A few weeks ago Airmen and Soldiers from the Ohio National Guard were invited to attend a practice at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. As a proud Buckeye and graduate of OSU, I was so excited to attend.

Coach Jim Tressel, head coach for the Buckeyes has been extremely supportive of troops all around the world. In 2009 Coach Tressel visited troops overseas with a handful of other college football coaches. As we toured the Woody Hayes facility, the troops attending were greeted by many military themed corridors and rooms in the facility. The workout room actually has "Combat Ready" scrolled across the entry and Army Core Values lining the room.

My personal favorite was seeing Woody Hayes last words scrolled on a chalk board he kept in his office. He was truly a supporter of our troops, and Coach Tressel has carried on this legacy.

The OSU players and coaches stayed after practice, and signed autographs and took photos with troops. What a nice bunch of young men (now I sound like my grandma...lol).

So as you can see from the photo above, Coach Tressel and I are BFFs... Sweater vests for EVERYONE!

Girls' night in

Tonight I made homemade pizza! Ok maybe not homemade. More like semi-homemade. I just can't say no to DiGiorno frozen four cheese pizza. Yum. To spice it up I added onion, fresh basil and tomato. I told my roommate it was homemade though so... don't tell!

The roomie made sangria to go along with it! You should try it.

Kayla's sangria

1 bottle red wine (Kayla uses Jam Jar)
2 cups brandy
1 tbsp grenadine
a dash of cinnamon in each glass
1 granny smith chopped
1 orange cut in wheels
1 lemon cut in wheels

Combine all. Best when it sits overnight, but who can wait that long?! Enjoy!

Pay Homage

I'm not really big on giving praise to companies here on my blog, but this week I found a really great one, and I just have to share! Homage is a vintage t-shirt shop selling t's made in the U.S.A. Apparently they just opened shop in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and a few of my friends are big fans. So I went online to check them out, and I was very impressed. They have a wide variety of t-shirts promoting music, sports teams and different cities in the US of A. You can also find some pretty quirky old school stuff for sale including Big League Chew and Rubik's Cubes. I placed my order, and a few days later I received an extremely small box. Did I order a book?
Talk about efficient packing! I don't know about you, but when I receive an online order, and there is all of this unnecessary extra packing I get so annoyed. Uhh, do you hate our environment? So on top of being an American shop they are also environmentally friendly. LOVE! So the t-shirts are totally dreamy. The kind of cotton t's that you love to wear. Believe me. Also included in my order were a discount card for next time, a "Homage" sticker and a pack of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collectors cards. I am not kidding. These people really are vintage! For a moment I had a flashback to 1990 when I was 8-years-old, and loved the TMNT!! So you should check out Homage. But only if you support vintage, capitalism, America and the environment. Oh, and I found this cool hat on their website. I'm ordering it immediately!

Noisy high heels.. Are you guilty?

Click-clack. Click-clack. We've all heard the sound. Strolling through the hallways at work it's the sound that I hear often, and also the sound that I make. No, I don't wear taps, and I'm not donning horse shoes.

One particularly noisy heeled morning I walked into the office, and my co-worker was laughing at me. "I knew that was you walking in," she said. "I could tell because of the clicking." So this brought me to wonder, is there a way to make heels less noisy? Is this a problem that other women have? So after some google research, I came upon a post by a man calling himself "Jack 'I'm a model' H." Here is an excerpt from his rant.

"I'm talking about women who seem to buy the LOUDEST SHOES possible, so you can hear them coming from 300 yards away! It's like a cow bell or something.

And here they come "CLIP CLIP Clickety - Clack Clickety - Clack CLIP CLIP CLIP."
Then you or some guys are scared and want to make sure a stampede or something isn't coming, so you look up at them for a second, and they give a look like "Oh wow are you checking me out? Why doth thou starest so? Am I hot? Oh I know it!"

Ok JACK. I get it. They are loud, and you hate them, but last time I checked a "Sound check" usually isn't part of the shoe trying-on process. So get over yourself...

After checking another site and finding that women really are having this problem, we began to brain storm in the office. My one co-worker suggested felt bottoms on heels. WHAT? Grace is not in my nature. I would most definitely take a nose dive in the Pentagon in front of some four-star and disgrace the D-ring forever. Bad option!

I did however find a great article on how to walk silently. Basically, you can go to a shoe repair place, and they can add a layer of rubber to the bottoms of your heels... or you can wear flats. The choice is yours...