A Walk in the Park

Central Park to be exact.

I told you I was going to give you little peeks into my trip to NYC this week since my schedule is crazy the next week with moving.  No... unfortunately there will be no pictures of the infamous "Hurricane Irene."  That woman has got some nerve getting me all hyped up, canceling my flight out on Sunday and not having anything to show for it (well in NYC that is).

Today I want to give you a fun little series of photos of our walk/hop in Central Park. I've never been to Central Park before and was excited to see it in person after seeing it in SO many movies.  It's huge and just as great as I had expected.  It looked so relaxing watching all the New Yorkers just hanging out in the park laying in the grass, playing with their dogs, and reading books on the park benches.  After walking around for a while we were needing to change things up a bit.  We opted to take some candid shots right there in Central Park.  Why not jump of benches and look completely ridiculous while onlookers gave us weird faces?

Fun stuff right? Yes.. if you are wondering... there were some dress malfunctions while jumping in the air and flying like birds!

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I See, You See.

I'm baaaacckkkk. Notice I was gone for a while?  Well that is because I headed on up to NYC to visit my friend Katie (KJ) with my other bestie Kara. I've decided with the whole moving thing going on this week, instead of showing you all my pictures at once.... I am going to give you my favorites each day.  On top of that... I have a my SEVENTH wedding this weekend.  Gotta get geared up and ready to party and pack.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it... but excited at the same time.  You may or may not know the feeling.

On to the reason why you are here tonight, it's "I See, You See" time.

This week's theme: CONTRAST
*Provided by Jenn via Twitter last week


Before we jump into this tonight, I just wanted to thank everyone for stopping by and Meggy and I would LOVE, LOVE it if you came to us with suggestions of theme's.  We are open to anything and everything and love the challenge.  With me moving to Denver next week, these posts are going to get a lot more interesting with both of us in different cities and having two completely different views on things. Should be an exciting new twist.

Onward we go..... my picture this week is of my friends Katie and Kara.  One's blonde and the other is brunette.  When I say blonde I mean VERY blonde, when I say brunette, I mean VERY brunette.  See for yourself.  I took this picture as we were standing "On Top of the Rock" in NYC and the two of them were looking through the binoculars out into the beautiful city.

Katie (Left) & Kara (Right)

What was Meggy's view on the theme this week?

Ya, this is an obvious choice for contrast and all too easy since this past weekend I attended a friend's wedding. The perfect contrast of the white wedding dress and black tux that makes up the new married couple. This photo was taken during their first dance as Mr. & Mrs.  The rest of the wedding was filled of dancing, photo booth pics and catching up with friends.  A great night.

What do you all think?

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Awkward & Awesome First Timer

Lindsay and Me

Lindsay and Lisa

Me, Lindsay, Lisa (Crappy Picture Sorry)

*Please excuse the iPone pictures, I didn't want to haul around my camera at the Lil' Wayne


This is my very first week linking up for Awkward and Awesome Thursdays with The Daybook and I'm excited to try out something new on my little bloggy.

So here we go...

Awkward.

• Every time I travel some random person always wants to strike up conversation with me.  Not sure what it is and if there is a stamp that only random strangers in an airport see, but it happens EVERY TIME. A man in the airport to NYC started to talk to me about the giant/scary security guy and then proceeded to find me and post up next to me while we waited for the plane to get there. I soon got up to get a water to avoid awkward conversation.
• Along with the last point, I was also traveling last Friday very early and the woman behind me whacked me in the head and I was so frustrated with the delay we already had and then on top of it she hit me I just covered my face to prevent myself from exploding.  Guy next to me proceeded to tap me (with my earphones in) to make sure I was okay because he could sense my melt down.
• Having to tell BF over half way to the airport that I forgot my cell phone at home and we had to turn around and get it.... 
• Going take a drug test for my new job this morning, not realizing it would involve peeing in a cup so I peed right when I got up.  Get to the place, learn that I had to pee in a cup and not being able to go pee for 45 minutes (1 million cups of water later)... Let's just say I'm very hydrated now and I peed at least 100 times following my test! 
• In my interview last week the interviewer was flailing his arms all over the place as he asked me questions and I thought he was crazy until I noticed there was a small fly that kept flying in front of his face

Awesome.

• Getting a new job AND moving to Denver, CO in a little over a week
• The fact that as I type this right now I am headed to NYC to hang out with two of my best friends (holler KJ and Kara)
• Finally getting the guts to tell off a rep who we do business with that has continuously been a jerk and talks to people like they are incompetent.  Little did he know he was going to wake the beast :) Let's just say he will be a lot nicer to my co-workers from here on out
• Making friends with the leasing agent at my apartment so much that she helped me get out of paying $400 to have Mia (my cat) in the apartment and not having to pay pet rent... YES!!! The mola is going towards NYC trip now! 
• Finding out that Glee Season 2 is available on Netflix (not streaming in case your wondering)(recently got addicted when the BF was out of town for a couple of weeks)
• My good friend Lindsay (shown above) got a new job in L.A and is moving tomorrow.. I'm sad to see her go and will miss her but she has a totally AWESOME job
• Lisa getting Lil' Wayne tickets from 93.3's Steve Serrano last minute and celebrating Lindsay's new job by going to the concert
• More awesome... I know about two songs he sings and the concert was still awesome... could have been the second hand high speaking though... JK ;)

It's a Kid Party!

Revisiting my weekend finally... actually I complete forgot that I took these photos until I was uploading my other photos and got excited to show off the fun we had.

This weekend I helped co-host an engagement party for our friends Bobby and Anne (you may remember me talking about them here).

This was their only party which was all "kids" you could say.  All their other engagement parties involved adults really not allowing us to kick back and enjoy the party as we would if it was just all of our friends.

We decided to take a party bus to a friend's lake house to change it up a bit for everyone, which turned out to be a spectacular idea! We went up earlier in the day to set up and make some appetizers.  Walt and I made our infamous buffalo chicken dip.  I really want to share this recipe because it is amazing and we have gotten multiple compliments after making it every time (thanks for sharing Mandi).

Buffalo Chicken Dip 

2 10 oz cans chunk chicken, drained and shredded apart so you don't have too many chunks (or leave them if you want it more chunky)

2 pkgs cream cheese, softened

1 cup ranch

3/4 cup Franks Red Hot sauce

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Mix ranch and cream cheese.  In a separate bowl, combine chicken with Franks.  Combine all.  Put into casserole or baking dish, top with cheese after 15 minutes of being in the oven.  Bake at 350 for 30 min.

Obviously this meal was yummy look at our plate! 

Just to give you a little peak into the fun we had at the lake I wanted to share some candid photos.. and I do mean candid!

The End... onto the next wedding event :)

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I See. You See.

Jumping right in today.  This week's theme is...

NEW BEGINNINGS

After debating back and forth, Megan and I were questioning our initial "I See, You See." Now... I'm not going to give it to you because if worse comes to worse we may need to use it! BUT, if you all provide us with some suggestions... you'd make our loves a lot easier AND you'd see something you want to see!

With that said, onto my view of this week's theme.

Cheers..... My friend Katie and I just made some major changes in our lives and decided a happy hour was in order to celebrate!

From reading yesterday's blog, you now know that I am moving to Denver in the next couple of week's and I'm excited, sad, pumped, and SAD.  Leaving behind some of my favorite people is rough.  Let me just tell you. When people say they are moving to a different state and act like it's no big D. They are lying. It's hard.  It's fun, but not fun.  Why would someone want to leave great people? BUT, it's life. It's a new beginning and I'm grateful for the opportunity that I've been given so step aside fear and scaredy cat Laura... welcome brave new Laura!!

Now from Meggy's POV:

It's no secret that my big new beginning is this growing baby boy in my womb (do people still say womb?).  And boy is he making it known...he's kicking and stretching and starting to take up more and more space - hello baby bump.  Every morning when I hoist myself out of bed and run to the bathroom to pee, I'm reminded of my new beginnings (coming this holiday season) and overjoyed.  Baby boy will start our little family and swiftly move us out of the 'DINK' category.  Friends have been sharing in our joy and giving us a few little gifts along the way - like these amazing little baby boy socks.  There is nothing cuter than tiny baby things.  Hello new beginnings.

Anyone else out there have any new things they'd like to share???

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I'm Moving!

But don't worry, you will still be able to find me here!

I just found out that I have been offered a job in Denver, Colorado!!! As some of you may know, I make frequent trips to Denver with the BF and have completely fallen in love with the city.  Walt and I both knew it was a matter of time until we moved there, but just as luck would have it I found a new job in the city I've had my eye on for quite some time.  New industry. New City. New Apartment.

I'm so excited for this new adventure in my life and I am so happy to be doing it knowing that I will not only have friends in the city where I am moving, but I will forever have amazing people in Kansas City to come back and visit.  It's bitter sweet really.  I honestly felt like I was breaking up with a boyfriend this morning when I went in to tell my co-workers. Of course, I cried like a goober, but come on.  I've spent over three years with these people! They are like family.

Then I have my great friends who I've known for almost eight years now for most of them that I am leaving behind, but have every intention of keeping in touch.  AHH... This is so hard to even write about this without getting teary eyed.  I love my life here so much but I'm thrilled about moving onto this next chapter.

Just wanted to share my big news of the day.  That's all :)

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Puppies, Puppies, and MORE Puppies

You probably think that I follow people around that have puppies at this point don't you?

I totally am one of those people when I see a puppy within an eye shot I MUST go pet it, BUT, that is not the case this week.

I'm luck enough to have not one, but TWO friends with brand new baby puppies. You met Houston on Monday, and I of course took some pictures of my little nieces and nephew pups back in Tulsa this weekend, and now you shall meet baby Bella.

She is my friend Katie [you met her here] and BJ's weiner dog puppy they just got this weekend.

Walt and I went over to meet little Bella last night, and I must say, I anticipated a small puppy, but WOAH,  Bella was itty bitty.  Definitely the smallest puppy I have ever seen. So small in fact, she looked like my first beanie baby - I mean identical.

With so much dog talk all this week, I'll stop here and just let you enjoy the little 2.5 lbs of Bella.

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I Did It. I Did It!

I finally was able to do a fish tail braid.  I've tried SO many times and going straight back was making my arms SO, SO tired, not to mention my arms are a wingspan of 5'9" and I still can't reach the bottom of the braid.

Then I saw a tutorial by love Maegan's blog that I stumbled across via Pinterest the other day (you can follow me here) and got motivated to give it another shot. She suggested doing a side fish tail braid which actually worked out better than I thought it would. I thought because I have layers and my hair is right above my ninnies [you know what those are don't you... ;)] too much hair would fall out.  But to my surprise if I started with it tight enough like Maegan suggested, and just pin up any fallen pieces after I was done, it would work out perfectly!

Given it took me about 10 minutes this morning, I feel like I could speed up the process now that I have the method figured out.  This is one of my favorite hairstyles this Summer, great for when you haven't' washed your hair in two days like me! It actually makes the braiding easier than doing it with clean hair, trust me!

I know these aren't the greatest pictures but I wanted to show off my skillz!

Tried using the "Diffuse Glow" in PS CS5

Have any of you been having a hard time getting the fish tail braid to work with your hair?

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Meet Katie.

My little sister.  She she graduated from Nursing School at OU (Boomer Sooner) and just got her first job as a nurse.  She's all grown up now and I cannot believe how fast time flies.

I remember wanting to stay out past my curfew in high school (my sister was two years younger at the time) and calling my sister to ask her if she'd turn off the lamp outside my parents bedroom. My parents used to turn on this tiny lamp outside their room and would wake up in the middle of the night to see if it was still on to judge if I was home or not. After a while I figured out if I got my sister to help me then, I'm sure me being 21 before her would come into handy.  Not that I promote under age drinking ;)

Then she was in high school getting serious boyfriends and calling me with all the juicy details and girl drama.

Getting her heart crushed by her serious boyfriend going into college (A**). But rebounding strong and living up her college years like I wish I would have (running college track really just took up a lot of my social life and mistakes I would have otherwise made....).

Going through our parents awful divorce [insert unfaithful father here].  And her being my go to when I would get upset about it and knew she could relate to exactly what I was feeling at those exact moments.

Fast forward to today, with her graduating from nursing school, going on bad dates that she calls to tell me about (fist pounder included), and starting her very first job.

She is ultimately the most amazing sister a girl could ever ask for.  Gorgeous. Smart. Funny Hilarious. Down-to-Earth.  Shy until you get to know her. Lovable.

So without further ado here is my little sister Katie.

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I See, You See.

I always get so excited for Tuesday's purely for the challenge of taking on a challenge of a different theme each week, and seeing what Meggy comes up with compared to what I come up with.

Shall we see what is on the chopping block for this week?

Theme: GLAMOUR
 *Provided by or co-worker Jenn via Twitter after our ISUS the other week 

Now I by no means feel like I have anything "glamorous" to take pictures of in my every day life...I was kinda worried after realizing my cat wearing heels would not cut it for the post this week. But, after taking an impromptu trip home this week, I realized very quickly what I could do for my "glamour" shot.

My sister Katie! She is drop dead gorgeous in my opinion.  She mentioned she was going out to a party this Saturday night so I chased her around the house with my camera hoping to get a glamorous shot of her.   Yep... I got exactly what I wanted. I actually ended up with two, but felt this photo had more of a glamour feel to it.. I'll show off my other picture on Wednesday so you will have to come back and check it out!

And here is what Meggy saw this week:

Glamour to me is such a broad term. I think you can find glamour in anything, even in something so simple - for example - I recently "pinned" a simple, yet elegant outfit to Pinterest and then my photo for today is more of the glitz and sparkle side of glamour.  I love a little sparkle in life, why not?  Even if it's adding a pretty necklace to a simple outfit can go a long way.

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Houston. No, not Texas.

Well I have some very exciting pictures to share with you all (ya'll according to my friend Bosa) today.

My friend Angela (Bosa) got her brand new baby boxer puppy this weekend! His name is Houston (hence the title of the post).  This is where Angela is from which I think goes perfectly with Bosa's personality.

She told me the other week that she wanted to get a boxer puppy.  I asked what she was looking for in a little pup and she said she wanted a white boxer, but she also loves spots. I was on a mission.  Find her a dog ASAP. Yep took me all about 15 minutes of searching and started emailing her puppies (including this one!) After showing off her puppy options we all encouraged her to get him! I mean how can you look at this puppy (especially when it was five weeks old - so even more tiny) and not want to get him right away?

She came by the office today on a surprise visit to show off her new love. He was just the cutest thing I have EVER seen.  I don't think anything can be cuter than a puppy to me right now, I'm dying to get one, but just isn't the right time in my life for that and the BF would KILL me knowing he'd have to help me out more than I think :) God love him, he's probably right!

Now onto the most important part of my post.  The puppy pics! Ah.... I couldn't pick just one of course, so I opted for several for you to swoon over. So, so cute!

I mean how cute is he!?!

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Just a Walk in the (Dog) Park

Sorry I've been a little incognito the past couple of days.  Between going to the "Mad Men" event at Banana Republic on Thursday with Katie where their strategy to give customers free drinks and shop worked...

...and making the last minute decision to drive to Tulsa through torrential down pours on Friday afternoon to visit my mom and sister (and their 4 little monsters), I haven't left much time for posting!

To make up for it, I thought I'd share my Saturday afternoon with you while it's still here.  Trying to avoid shopping to save some monies, we opted to take my sisters two boston terrorists and my mom's fluff balls to the dog park.

Result: Enzo got harassed by some schnauzers which inevitably made him overly cautious when any other dogs approached him and turning him into a barking maniac. Max was totally lame and sat right by my mom's feet the entire time (smart considering there was a huge lab and great dane running around).  Harley was sprinting all over the place making friends left and right. Beau apparently was supposed to be born a large dog instead of a small one, because he couldn't stay away from all the big dogs pouncing on every one that walked into the park!

Of the two that did stay still for more than two seconds, these are the quick pictures I got.

Enzo dug himself a hole to cool off in the shade 

Max being a lazy bones just chillin'

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Bracelet Swap

The more I get into the blogger world, the more inclined I am to meet/make new friends.  The idea of blogging at first scared me because of what people may think about what I have to say.

After doing this for the past 7+ months, I feel like I have made so many new friends and appreciate all of the support I received over the months.  You all are GREAT!

When Meggy over at ChasingDavies announced she was having a friendship bracelet swap I was pumped! I am always up for adding new jewelry to my collection and making a new friend so sign me up!

I was paired up with the sweet as can be Shelly of GS Lillian. Megan told me how she loves Shelly's blog and was so excited that I got paired with her which made me even more excited. BUT, also nervous since she is quite the jewelry maker herself! Talk about pressure... she is awesome at making jewelry and the last time I attempted to make something was so far back I can't even remember. Pressure aside, I was thrilled to go searching for a bracelet Shelly would like and would be something I could actually make!

Meggy recently received a bracelet similar to this from another bracelet swap and I loved the look.  I tracked it down on her Pintrest from Honestly WTF.  They made it so easy!

As you know I was out of town all weekend, and on my way to Denver I get an email from Shelly saying she sent her bracelet. I was like a little kid on my flight back to KC so excited to see what Shelly made me.  Not surprisingly her bracelet was AMAZING! Not even kidding.  This gal's got talent! It even came with a cute little GS Lillian tag which made it her own and special that she took the time to do all the finishing touches.

Check it out!!! I wore it to work on Monday and got tons of compliments on it. Sending them your way Shelly!

Thanks so much Shelly for the great looking bracelet.  If you love it too you should check out her shop, there is plenty more for you to choose from!

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I See, You See.

You know what day it is!!! I See, You See with Meggy over at ChasingDavies.

If you're new to my blog, this is a post I do every Tuesday with Meggy. We choose a theme for each week and both take a picture of what we see that theme meaning.  I am open to any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment and we will take a stab at it! In fact, we are DYING for suggestions.  Trust me, coming up with these themes every week gets difficult!

Last week we made it a little easier on ourselves and picked the theme OLD.

The week prior we did something new, so wanted to stay in theme.

I got lucky this weekend going to the BF's family wedding.  His sweetest little grandma, Mi Mi was there and cutting up a rug.  I looked over from the dance floor and saw her watching all of us dancing around like complete crazy people having so much fun, and thought she should get to have fun too! I ran over to her and we had our own little dance party.  She actually was better at moving her hips than I was.   I am by no means a good dancer, especially when it comes to being on beat, but dang Mi Mi can shake those hips! After we were done dancing the bride's grandma came and joined us.  They were the cutest old people I've ever met. To be honest, I hate using the word old when showing you this picture, because if you met them in person, the first thing you would think of wouldn't be old, it would be AWESOME.

Mi Mi on the right

Here is what Megan saw this week:

There is the beautiful church in my neighborhood that's been around as long as I know.  It's made of stone and I wanted to capture it.  It ended up being harder to get in the picture than I thought - but the thought is there.  My something old is St. Agnes.

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I'm Almost a Pro....

After attending my SIXTH wedding this weekend in Denver.  I think I've almost become a pro wedding dancer.

This wedding was for Walt's fun cousin Brady and his super sweet (now wife) Jamie.

To sum it up I will take the bulleted approach tonight:

• Wedding was outdoors at a country club, basically the moment they said I do it started to pour and we JUST missed the rain.  Talk about good timing. 
• Inside it was beautiful with the lights over the dance floor
• The bridesmaid and groomsmen walked in together each doing their own dance. Walt fell over trying to do mission impossible and almost took out an old woman.  AWESOMENESS and so Walt
• Brady and Jamie's first dance was choreographed to "Everybody Dance Now." FANTASTIC and you can see it >here.
• Speeches were great, Jamie's sister should be a comedian

Then the traditions on her side come into play:

• Her mom did a tribute dance to the happy couple to "Grease Lightening." See pictures below
• Their family built a pyramid with Jamie on top.  I can't believe no one was injured, I was highly impressed
• They did their family dance, I think it's called the "Elephant Dance," where Brady (groom) is the trunk and then everyone grabs each others hands and walks around the room to a fun song (eeek too much to drink by this point so memory escaped me to what it was)

Lastly, the second the music came on, the ENTIRE wedding was on the dance floor.  Not only that, they were there until the very last song was played.  Of all the weddings I've been too I don't see this often, so that was pretty great and assured me Walt has one heck of a family! 

Now they are sitting on the beach on Cabo San Lucas! So jeal! 

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Mamma Mia!

Yep. You heard me right. Tonight I went to see "Mamma Mia" at Starlight theater with some friends!

Now I will be the first to tell you that growing up I was not a fan of musicals and singing and all that jazz.  My sister was the drama/choir/musicals gal, I was the sporty one. She would go around singing musicals EVERY DAY! I remember the days of screaming... KATIIIIEEEEE shut up! If you ask me now, I will say that every time she sang in shows I cried.  Don't tell her that ;) But around the house.... that was my time to relax, not listen to Grease musicals!

I saw "Mamma Mia" a few years ago and thought it was okay, but when someone at work offered up free tickets front and center, I couldn't resist.  I've grown tired of the crap TV on lately, so resorted to watching "Glee" on Netflix before I go to bed.  Again, not a musicals person and not sure what's going on with me.

The show was great, weather wasn't nearly as hot as I had imagined it would be.  So all and all a good night!

You are probably thinking what I was thinking..."Definitely don't remember men in scuba gear in the movie!"