106.1 Kiss FM Jingle Ball

As I was driving home after an exhausting/emotional day, I turned on my favorite radio station and starting singing at the top of my lungs. Isn't funny that we all sound amazing while singing in our car? Watch out American Idol. Anyway, the station had announced that they were giving away tickets to The Kiss FM Jingle Ball Bash. They had 10 sets of tickets available and were in Target's parking lot. The only problem was that I was 30+ minutes away from the store. I quickly grabbed my phone *I do not condone texting and driving, but this was an emergency situation. Better than Facetiming? That happened once.* and messaged a few of my friends who lived close to the store mentioned. You can imagine my surprise when one of them called me back within a few minutes and said she had picked up two of the tickets! She happened to be driving by the store when she received my text. It was fate.

Neither one of us knew who would be performing. I turned to the Internet to find out.

- Selena Gomez

- Fifth Harmony

- Austin Mahone

- Paramore

- Fall Out Boy

- Icona Pop

- Travie McCoy

- New Polotics

- FLO RIDA

When I read that Flo Rida would be there, I knew I had to go.

The arena was small and there were many empty seats. I was surprised that such big acts were performing in our small town and the show was not sold out. Definitely a lot different from seeing Bruno or The Eagles this past year. I did not know who a few of the acts were, but I thought it was fun seeing so many different bands perform one right after another. It was unlike any concert I had been to before.

Selena Gomez sang a whole lot better than I had expected her to! She really put on a good show and got the crowd excited. I actually enjoyed her!

Icona Pop was a crowd pleaser and the everyone went wild when Austin Mahone came out. I was not a fan of his, he barely sang and his dance moves were not impressive. New Polotics showed off their amazing break dancing moves and Paramore even brought a teenage girl on stage to sing with them. Travie McCoy was great even though I am sure he was highly intoxicated. It was fun to hear everyone sing about how bad they wanted to be a billionaire. 

Fall Out Boy put on a great show, but I felt like Pete Wentz was a little cocky. He did apologize for asking people to come back to his hotel afterwards...naked. 

Hands down, the highlight of my night was Flo Rida. During his performance he handed out roses to the ladies near the stage. He even brought people up on stage and danced with them *insert jealous rage here*. The best part was when he sat on the Santa's shoulders and went through the crowd. When his shirt came off, my heart skipped a beat. He was dreamy. His chest was beautiful with sweat glistening from the lights. Had I been closer, I would have for sure thrown my body onto him. I definitely had a good feeling ;)  

Overall, the concert was something that I will never forget. I am glad that we got our tickets for free as I think I would have been disappointed to pay full price for them. Hopefully my winning streak continues in 2014! I already have my Journey tickets purchased and have begun the countdown. 200 more days!!

Thanksgiving Staycation

The husband is offered one personal paid day off per calendar year. He likes to utilize that day around Thanksgiving so that we could have some extra time together around the holiday. His job recently instated a new rule that you could have the holiday off as long as you placed yourself on the "I will work if needed" list. Meaning that at a moments notice he would have to report to work and if he chose not to...it would be an unpaid day. This meant that he had Thanksgiving off (sorta) as well as Friday for his personal day and he also took off Monday so that we could have five whole days together. This hadn't happened since we got married, four years ago. We are not big travelers, heck he hasn't even been in a plane before! We decided to have a staycation. We would stay home, preparing for Christmas, shopping and spending as much time together as we could before getting sick of each other. Kidding. Mostly.

Instead of cooking a big meal on the actual day of Thanksigiving, we decided to leave that for Friday. We spent the holiday delivering cupcakes to my family and going to the best friend's house to enjoy their deep fried turkey. YUM! She makes the best food. Her homemade potatoes are creamy, the turkey was moist and the pumpkin pie was to die for. (So the husband said, I hate pumpkin pie!) We hurried to get the dishes in the sink so that we could make it to Walmart in time for their first sale event at 6 o'clock! Call us crazy, but we love that sales are now offered on Thanksgiving. We make it our goal to get all of our Christmas shopping done before December first. Shopping these amazing deals allows us to save a ton of money. People are passionate about stating that it isn't fair that others have to work on Thanksgiving to help run the sales and that they should be home with their family. Hogwash. My husband always has to work the holidays and what about the troops that cannot even see their families during this time?  Be grateful that you have a job during this rough economy. Rant over.

Caramel apple cupcakes with a caramel on top of caramel apple flavored icing and Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. 

Walmart ended up being more chaotic that I had anticipated. People were grabbing things off the shelves before they were supposed to and many items that were advertised, were not even in the store. We left frustrated with many things not crossed of our list. We then made our way to Target where we had to stand around the darkest spot of the the building for over an hour before doors opened. I sat on the concrete where I proceeded to lose all feeling in my lower extremities. There was a moment where I was sure that hypothermia was setting in. It didn't help that I had come down with a nasty cold just days prior. This made it hard to taste on the one day that food is most important to me. Perfect timing. The anticipation was getting high when we finally saw the line start moving. People were trying to cut in front of us and push their way to the front. Not going to happen. My husband is a big guy at 6'4" and 250+ pounds. He did a great job of holding them back while we made our way to the door. I liked having security present for the out of control shoppers!

Target was much less chaotic than Walmart. They were organized and had everything on our list that we intended to buy. We split up at first to insure that we got all of the doorbusters that we wanted. A Nook HD for $80! Yes please. It has better reviews and the same specs as the iPad Mini for a fraction of the price. Oh and a Blu-Ray DVD player with WIFI for under sixty. Merry Christmas to us. Hellllllo Netflix in our bedroom.

Checkout was a breeze (besides finding out much later that there was a security breech!) and we left feeling like we had gotten a lot accomplished and checked off of our list. We dropped stuff off at home and headed to the local mall to stock up on products from Bath and Body Works. Did you know that you can use unlimited amounts of coupons on Black Friday?? You're welcome. They even had a limited edition candle available that day; mint buttercream. After grabbing the VIP tote ($110 value), my limited edition candle, eight wallflowers, fourteen soaps, 6 hand sanitizers with two holders and some perfume, my total came to $276.50! With my coupons I only paid $80.46 including $6.78 in tax. CHA-CHING. That's what I call saving money. I love a good deal. We got home a little after 1 am and promptly fell asleep.

The reciept was almost as tall as I am! $202.82 in savings!!

Friday we made our Thanksgiving dinner and sorted through our shopping haul. We also started the process of bringing out all of our decorations. We decided to get the outside done first because it would end up being our only dry day.

The linen pumpkin napkins were found last year after the holidays. Got two, two packs for under a dollar! Oh and we make our turkey in the crockpot. It is easy and turns our perfectly moist each time.

Saturday was the day that we would decorate until our bodies hurt. Thank goodness we only had the inside to get done. This was our favorite part! We blared the music while I bossed the husband around as we decorated in our best holiday spirit.

My favorite addition this year were the paper snowflakes. Found them at target for a couple of dollars. I also liked our metal NOEL sign, also found at Target. Hello, my name is Melissa and I have a Target addiction.

We even got a light dusting of snow during our staycation, which made it even more perfect. And by "light" I mean barely enough to cover the grass. Better than nothing?

Sunday was our day to treat ourselves to our favorite buffet restaurant. I mean, why not? We already ate our weight in Thanksgiving food, why not stretch our pants to the seam and continue on our gorging path? To my delight, the buffet had two new fountains to go along with their chocolate one. White chocolate and caramel! HALLELUJAH! The angels have never sang louder. I also indulged in my favorite garlic and cheese biscuits and mini corn dogs dipped in mustard. Fat girl heaven.

Below is a video of one of our favorite light displays we enjoyed after dinner. We go each year and make sure to bring along a donation. This year the home owner had collected 1400 pounds of food and over $3000 dollars, he was even featured on the local news! He does a great job and adds something special year after year.

Monday was our day to recuperate. We watched our fair share of movies, caught up on reading and enjoyed some quality time together. It could't have been more perfect.

Real men use Snuggies. 

Halloween Treats

I didn't have plans for Halloween night besides passing out candy and watching scary movies on TV.  I had found some fun Halloween recipes on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to make the husband a themed dinner for when he got home from work.

I first started with making Witch brooms. It was as easy as placing a pretzel stick into a Reese's cup. I used the mini cups, but think the regular sized ones would have worked better.

I then tried my hand at making spider eggs. I made deviled eggs like I normally would and then cut up some olives for making the spider body and legs. My only mistake was that when purchasing the olives, I picked out a can of  "colossal" size. I had never seen then before and thought they would be fun! They turned out to be a tad too big. However, I liked the olive taste with the deviled egg.

COLOSSAL! 

While I threw a meatloaf into the oven, I started working on my pumpkin cheese ball! You can thank me later for including the recipe. 

                                            -16 oz cream cheese {2 packages}

                                            -2 cups grated cheddar cheese

                                            -3 tablespoons minced onion

                                            -3 tablespoons salsa

                                            -2 cups of Doritos chips

                                            -Step of one green pepper

*I chopped up the rest of the green pepper and added it to the mixture*

Use a mixer to combine the cream cheese, cheddar, onion and salsa. Mix until creamy. Scoop mixture onto plastic wrap and use the wrap to form a ball. Place the ball into fridge for two hours. When ready to serve, roll the ball into crunched chips and top with pepper stem. I served it with tortilla chips.

That Frankenstein sure is a creeper. 

We ate this masterpiece for the next two nights. It was to die for! I am going to make another one for Christmas (minus the Doritos and pepper stem) and serve with Wheat Thin crackers. I am thinking of adding red pepper to the mixture for some holiday color. 

We finished the night with making orange colored Halloween hot chocolate. It tasted like plastic and we ended up dumping it out. It was fun to make though!

Reese's Cupcakes

I love finding something fun and yummy to bake during the weekend, especially if it is holiday themed. 

Anything with chocolate and peanut butter is bound to turn out delicious.

These owl and pumpkin cupcake liners? Adorable!

The filling that came in the box was not only easy to make, it tasted heavenly. I am sure some crack was included as I had a hard time putting down the spatula.

 Not Kidding. 

The above picture was my first attempt at making a famous Jiffy boxed frosting that I have heard good reviews about. It was easy to make, but tasted like cardboard with a tad hint of plastic. Into the trash it went.

As a backup plan, I grabbed some S'more flavored frosting from the cupboard, which also tasted gross! Hoping that the third attempt would be a charm, I tried my hand at making homemade chocolate frosting. WINNER!.

                                              - 3 cups powdered sugar

                                              -3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

                                              -1 stick of softened butt      

                                              -1/4 cup milk

                                              -1/4 teaspoon vanilla

First mix together the sugar and cocoa and set aside. Mix butter and vanilla, then slowly incorporate the cocoa/sugar mix along with the milk. If the frosting is too thick, add in some additional milk. 

Finished product! And those little Reese's Pieces? I found those at Walmart and thought they would make the perfect garnish. They were also great for eating by the handful while waiting for the cupcakes to cool. 

Oregon or Bust! October 13th

The best friend's birthday was right around the corner and I was having a hard time coming up with some special to do for her. She has had a rough couple of years to say the least, so it was important for me to make her feel special for the day. I have made it my goal these last few months to take her on adventures in order to clear her mind and let loose, giving her a reason to smile. She had recently went on a trip to the ocean with her dad. She had mentioned a few times about how much she use to love going to Cannon Beach, Oregon when she was a kid and that they had not been there for years. When she mentioned that we should go there for her birthday, I froze. How would I ever afford such a thing? Who would hold down the fort while I was gone? Would the husband be mad that I was going on a mini vacation without him? After all, he works really hard for us and very rarely gets a day off. We had been wanting to go to the ocean, but decided not to as finances would not allow. But there was  a part of me that wanted to pack my bags and leave. Everyone around me had been going on vacation lately while I felt that I was continually left here to make sure everything is in order. It had been four years since we had gotten away and I needed to...bad. The ocean is the one place where I can truly relax and forget my troubles. Reminding myself that sometimes I have to be able to let go and let life happen, I hopped online and booked a hotel. There was no turning back. Don't get me wrong, I felt awful leaving the husband behind. But I think he knew how bad I needed this break. And who are we fooling? He was excited to be able to eat snacks in his underwear while playing video games.

We are the best road trippers ever. We made sure to keep the driver entertained while we serenaded her frequently with, "What does the fox say?". 

We also made sure to hold our breath while driving through any tunnels. Thankfully, no one passed out. 

*Side rant* I pride myself in placing myself in other people's shoes to see where they are coming from and to try and best understand their way of thinking. I wish others would do the same. We live on a strict budget in order to make sure our bills are paid on time and that we remain as debt free as possible. Once coming from a place where we struggled to keep our bank account afloat and had multiple thousands of dollars in debt, I don't ever want to go back to that place. The husband works hard to provide for us and I am forever grateful for him. He works Mon-Fri no-questions-asked. It doesn't matter if it is Fourth of July, Thanksgiving or even Christmas Day, he is working. He never gets to come home early on a whim and most definitely does not get to ask for a day off. People as why he doesn't look for better work. And my response is, why would he? Why would he get rid of a job that provides for us in a time where work is hard to come by? Be realistic people. Show a little sympathy when you are flaunting your vacations or when you casually mention that your significant other is yet again getting off early or gets to take a three day weekend for the hell of it. Not all of us get that luxury. We actually have to work hard for what we have. /rant

We got to work on mapping out our route and planning detours along the way. It would take a little under four hours for us to reach our destination. We left early in the morning to avoid traffic. We stocked up on McDonald's breakfast and hit the road. Our first pit stop was to swing by Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland. We had heard nothing but great reviews about this doughnut place. I had never been to Portland before, it reminded me a lot of Seattle. However, the amount of homeless people was astonishing and the "naughty" places along the streets?...intriguing!  Finding the store was the easy part, finding parking was another story. We may or may not have driven down a one way street while homeless people laughed at us. We had to stand in line for about thirty minutes before getting inside. This wasn't as long as we had expected, considering that they are quite popular. As we were a little overwhelmed with the selection of doughnuts to choose from, we had them pick a dozen for us. We stuffed our faces immediately after getting back into our vehicle. I am not kidding when I say that it was like heaven exploding in my mouth. The fillings were the perfect consistency, the flavors were spot on and the doughnut itself was nice and fluffy. It was hard to pick a favorite. Thank goodness that the nearest store is over three hours away, because I would be tempted to eat there daily.

Our next stop was to check out the famous Rolloff Farms. Yes, you read that right. We were going to see the farm from LITTLE PEOPLE, BIG WORLD. We made sure to go there with no expectations of actually seeing any of the Rolloff family, but were excited to see their farm. Our anticipation rose with each passing of a Rolloff Farm sign along the road. Upon arrival, we were surprised to see that there was plenty of parking with no wait time. We could even see their house from the parking lot! We swung our cameras around our neck and made our way to the line for the wagon tour. While standing in line, the best friend pointed out that Amy was standing right beside me! *Side note-  The best friend is deathly afraid of "little people" venturing to the farm was definitely stepping out of her comfort zone. I was proud of her! *  We picked out some memorabilia while waiting and line and soon got our tickets for the tour. We also saw Matt zoom by while standing in the wagon line, but he seemed preoccupied and I did not have a chance to snap his picture.

Amy!!

I'll be honest as I always am here on my blog. The wagon was scary! There was a few times that I had to put my camera down and compose myself. The poor gentleman sitting in front of my was nervous that I was going share my doughnuts with him, if you get my drift. We were taken all around the farm and got to see such things as their house, the wedding venue sight, the gazebo, Matt's office space and other famous sights seen on their show. When the tour arrived at the little town, we saw a glimpse of Zach! He was standing there ready to greet us! He didn't even hesitate when we asked to take a photo with him, we may have even threatened asked him to come home with us. My only regret was that I did not take the time to wander around the town and look at the different buildings. I was star struck!

Us riding on the scary tractor/wagon.

Their house

Matt's office

Zach! 

The views of the farm were at times, breathtaking. The little church was my favorite! When we had gotten off the wagon, we stood in line to get our picture taken with Amy! It couldn't get any better at this point. She was really friendly and made us feel genuinely welcome to their farm. I love that the Rolloff family seemed down to earth, I wish we could have stayed for dinner or watched a movie with them in their cozy living room. Going to the farm was one of the funnest things that I have ever done in my life. We could have returned home afterwards and been happy. We are planning on going again next year so that we can bring the guys along. I can't wait!

After the excitement at the farm, we were ready to check into our hotel. I had found a room that had two beds, a fireplace and view of the ocean from across the street. It was perfect for a one night stay. After unloading our stuff, we went to a local fish and chips place for dinner. The food was not great, but the view was breathtaking. You could see Haystack Rock from where we were sitting! I had never seen it before and could not wait to finish my meal so that we could go take pictures. We drove into town so that we could have a closer advantage to the rock. Before heading to the beach, we swung into the store for drinks. When checking out, the clerk had informed us that drinking alcohol on the beach is legal as long as we don't bring glass. Say what?! Angels sang from the sky as she repeated herself, "drinking alcoholic beverages on the beach and around town is legal in the city of Cannon Beach.". That was all I needed to hear. We loaded up on some tropical drinks (keeping it classy with Mike's Harder Strawberry and pineapple), threw on some flip flops (I didn't care if it was cold or not) and made our way to the beach. When we arrived, the view took my breath away. The sand was white and smooth. Haystack rock was HUGE and the sun was perfectly reflecting on the water. It was perfection. I never knew we had such nice beaches this close to home. All that was missing was a hammock and some palm trees. Oh, and it wouldn't have hurt to be a littler warmer than 50 degrees. We sat in the sand, cold drink in hand without a care in the world. One of my favorite moments thus far in life.

Our view from dinner

Our room. It looks like we packed for a weeks long vacation!

She looks happier than a kid in a candy shop.

Pretty much sums up our trip.

After returning to our hotel, we jumped in the hot tub to unwind. Before hitting the hay, we sat in bed watching the Kardashians while eating our weight in doughnuts and candy. Perfect girls night if you ask me.

I had every intention of decorating our room for the best friend's birthday. We were tired and it was hard to sneak in the decorations with her being in the same room the entire time. Needless to say, I threw the decorations onto our bed in the morning, blew up a few balloons and stuck a candle into a Hostess cupcake. What more could she want on her special day?

We drove through Seaside on the way home to check out the shops and beach. We also stopped for breakfast before making our way back home.

Eating breakfast at the famous Pig 'N Pancake. Yes I had Dr. Pepper with my breakfast, judge away.

The drive home consisted of McDonald's (orange sherbet!), listening to Foreigner's greatest hits CD and visiting the Goonies house. It was a trip that I will remember for a lifetime. I loved Oregon so much that I plan to move there one day. Hello no sales tax! I hope that she enjoyed herself as much as I did. We did over 9 hours of driving in two days, which is the longest amount of time I have ever been in a car in such a short period. My back was sore, but I had a great time on our little road trip. I would do it all over again. Actually, packing my bags right this moment and hitting the road sounds pretty tempting ;)

A neighbor yelled, "Heyyyyy you guyyys.". It was perfect. 

3 (13) Years and Going Strong!

October the tenth marked our third year of being married. It was so weird to celebrate three years, as we have been together for thirteen! We have been through a lot together as a couple. A ton of hard times, but just as equal good times. Sometimes it feels as though the bad outweighs the good, but we have been working hard this past year to make new memories and spend quality time together. Not only is he my husband, but he is my best friend. I have never felt a love for someone else, like I do for him. Don't get me wrong, we have our moments when we have had enough of each other. Who doesn't? However, I wouldn't want to take this journey we call life with anyone else but him.

He surprised me with some flowers, cake balls and chocolate milk when he came home from work. And the mushy card? Perfect! He is always kind with his words and knows just the right thing to say. He sure knows the way to my heart.

We went to dinner over the weekend. We don't normally go anywhere fancy, but try to make an exception on our anniversary. We chose P.F. Chang's! Even though we had went there last year, I had not been feeling well then and wanted to try it again. I love that there are multiple servings throughout the course of the meal. The lights are dim and the atmosphere is cozy. My favorite was the egg drop soup and cheesecake! If the prices were a little cheaper and they had a close location, this would be one of my regular staples.

Egg Drop Soup

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Cheesecake with fresh berries and raspberry sauce

Pumpkin Wonton 

I love ending the night with a fortune cookie

And now for your enjoyment, us throughout the years...

2000- Winter Ball my Junior Year

2001

2002- My Senior Prom

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009- Home sweet home

2010- I do!

2011- Eating our year old cake

2012

2013

Here's to many more...