I Don't Know About You ... But I'm Definitely Older Than 22

As I sit (okay, lay in bed) and watch the Billboard Music Awards, I realize that Taylor Swift sings about feeling 22 and I am feeling older than 26. Maybe I should write my own lyrics?

I don't know about you, 

but I'm feeling 26, 

this weekend was so busy, 

even standing up makes me feel dizzy

I don't know about you, 

but I'm really tired, too, 

Even laying in bed, 

I'm too tired to be fed

Actually, I'll just stick to tweeting for a living.

This weekend was so crazy and busy, that I don't even know where to begin. Let's start with Friday night... When I got my smarty pants on.

Going to school and working on two degrees is completely time consuming, and a lot of work. Having to skip going out with friends or weekend trips because of school can suck, but being inducted into the honor program for my master's degree was kind of fun. Even though I think the honors thing is a little silly, it is fun to say I am an honor student.

Proof! I never know what you're suppose to do with these sort of things. I've never even framed a degree so I hope I don't end up losing this along the way. I also have a pin and a medal. Wonder if I wore it around if people would think I was being weird or funny? I'm going with weird. 

Of course my mom had to have a picture for her scrap book. So this was the picture. If you look, you'll see that my fingers look like alien fingers. I celebrated accordingly with champagne.

Friday night some friends and I hit up one of the Little Rock Film Festival parties on top of a bridge. How can you say no to a party on the bridge? I ran into some old friends and made some new ones.

The view from the bridge... Little Rock might be a bit blurry, but I had had a lot of champagne at that point.

Have no fear though, I also celebrated the night with a hot dog at the end. How can you say no to a hot dog? I'm a ketchup and mustard type of girl.

Saturday I was house/sitting and between working in the morning and night, I took an hour to play outside with Gumbo (dog above). Gumbo likes to play tackle, fetch and play tug-a-war. He loves to hug, knows how to dance and loves to have his head scratched. He's also a great cuddle buddy.

Now Saturday night I worked at an event we had at work. Though my job is social media, which includes a lot of tweeting, it also includes taking photos with animals. You know, in case I decide to be an animal herder one day.

This is Farley. He doesn't seem like he's be a good cuddle buddy like Gumbo. I'll stick to dog sitting and not llama sitting.

The event was absolutely beautiful. If you believe in a mission of an organization you should support it in anyway you can.

I also got to hang out with an old friend and a new one. We all wore white... we are snappy.

Sunday the fun didn't stop... I woke up early after a late night working to head to my hometown for my best friend's bridal shower. The wedding is less than a week away... no more carbs until June 16!

Or, maybe only a couple.

This is what I have done tonight once I got home. Sit. That's it. 

After a long weekend of work, fun and more fun, it's time to relax a bit before Monday begins. 

Friday's Favorite Things

Happy Friday to all! Going through my makeup back and purse I realized there are some things that I really couldn't live without so when you love something you should share. Oprah may have started this trend... but I'm going to continue it.

Here some of my favorite things today.


L'oreal Magic Skin B.B. Cream

I've blogged about this stuff before... but I wear this EVERYDAY. 

Love isn't enough a strong enough word.  

Oakley Women's Necessity Polarized Rectangular Sunglasses

I just recently purchased these after having a bad day. Bad days are bad, but great for the economy.

These have become my favorite. Not only are they great for running, but I just like to wear them all the time now. I bought mine on Amazon. 

Philosophy Purity Made Simple Face Wash

Purity Made Simple by Philosphy has to be the best face wash out there. It's light, cleans and no strong odors  It's one of my favs. You can get it on the Philosophy website. 

Happy Friday! 

(p.s. all opinions and decisions are my own - this is stuff I use daily)

A Little Update About Life

When I lost my friend Matt a couple of weeks ago, I lost a piece of myself, too. So the past few weeks have just been filled with friends, having fun again, and learning to let go of the sadness. (I wrote about Matt here.)

Luckily, I have some pretty amazing people in my life who not matter rain or shine, will always be there. In a month one of my best friends is getting married... I'm so excited for her and her wedding day! (AND, my bridesmaid dress!) We all got to pick out our own dresses and I am absolutely in love with mine. Who gets to say that? We had a shower for her a couple of weekends ago and we had a blast. We all hung out all day and continued the party that night. I love any good celebration.

Bride and bridesmaids 

The Bride and I. Friends for like 11 years now. Whoa. 

In the month of May I have determined to make it all about movies. Since school keeps me pretty busy during the semester, and this summer is jam-packed with activities, I figured I might as well enjoy my downtime. What better way than with movies? So far I think I've watched ... Mud ... Iron Man 3 ... Avengers (had to catch up) ... and I still have plans for ... The Purge ... Great Gatsby ... and 42. 

I hope to see 42 this week, but I'm running low on friends who will go see movies. Apparently they are movied out. Lame. 

This past weekend was time for a good ole Southern get-together. When you grow up in a small-Southern town, all your friends feel like family. It's good to be with friends/family.

Also, all the stress of the past month has helped me lose like 12 pounds. Hello skinny jeans.
(Maybe not the best way to lose weight, but life happens, and you have to deal, and if you have to deal a little skinnier, then okay... I won't complain about that.)

We all had a really good time. Music, food and happiness. What more can you really ask for? Sometimes when bad things happen in life, it gives you a new perspective on everything else.

We even had fireworks Saturday night. 

I LOVE FIREWORKS. I think they're beautiful, romantic and inspiring.

They are also make the sky sparkle. Who doesn't love a little sparkle?

Tonight I'm taking it easy. There is so much coming up in the next few weeks (hopefully a lot of good to share) that tonight seemed like a good night to just relax, catch up on blogging, and not worry about everything.

Hopefully with this break from school I can also get back to the kitchen... if I know where that still is or how to use it? Time to find new recipes!

Dear Matt: I Miss You

Sunday. A day that use to feel so simple but now has so much mixed emotion for me. Maybe it's Sunday Funday where you hangout with friends, or maybe it's the day that you get ready for the rest of the week. For me, they have always meant that I would have a Sunday date phone call with my best guy friend, Matt. I even had a special ring tone for him just because I was always so happy when I got to talk to him.

Our first weekend to see each other after starting college. 

Matt and I have been friends since we were kids, but best friends since we graduated high school. Throughout college we would talk often, he would tell me about the girls he was dating, and I would tell him whatever trouble I had gotten into that week. I'd text him funny things, and he would call me darlin' when he knew I needed to be calmed down. He knew everything. He never judged. He never did anything but be a great friend.

But now this day isn't the same anymore. I lost my best guy friend two weeks ago. Receiving the phone call and the week after all feel like a blur of memories. But the memory of my friend feels more vivid than ever. Grief is a funny thing. It brings out a lot of emotions that you don't expect. Sadness, denial, anger ... the things that you cannot plan for in anyway. When they say do what you know, the only thing I know to do right now is write. Write about my friend who I love and miss.

Matt. One of the best guys I've ever known.

I'm lucky that I got to see Matt a month ago when we both went home for Easter. We talked about how life gets complicated with work, school, relationships and how we didn't expect that growing up would be this hard sometimes. He took me to get ice cream and I told him all my silly stories that he would laugh at, look at me with his bright green eyes, and tell me that it would all be okay. Being with him always felt like home.

Looking back, Matt never said anything bad about anyone, was always there to help someone when they needed it, and treated everyone with respect. Thinking about him today is hard, it makes me tear up with sadness, but also tear up with gratefulness that I was able to be apart of his life for such a long time. My friend may be gone, but his life will carry on through his family and friends. This won't be my only post about him, just the first one. There are so many stories I have of us stealing orange safety cones, to us dancing all night at our friends wedding and taking ridiculous pictures.

Matt. My friend whom I will always love and forever miss, but never forget.

Sundays will just never be the same.

Running the Little Rock 10K as a NonRunner

Last year Melissa, Allison and I all ran the Little Rock 10k... this year, we had the bright idea to do it again. Here's what I have realized, you forget about the pain that last year caused, instead, you remember the fun and excitement you felt doing something fun with friends and crossing the finish line.  Sadly this year Melissa couldn't make the race ... boo ... but Allison and I put on our running shoes and kept on anyway.

Friday night we got our race packets and decided that Saturday we needed to make sure we 'carb loaded' for those silly six miles. Do you really need to carb load for 6 miles? No. But is it a good reason to eat pasta? Yes.

Whatever excuse I need to actually eat real pasta I'll take.

Sunday morning it was 26 degrees when we got into the racing line. 26. The only place I want to see 26 right now is my drivers license, not the weather app. I've never run in that type of weather, but I did realize one thing. It's good to have pants on over your pants.

The pants over my pants saved me. Along with gloves, a head thing, and multiple layers.

This was where we were in the crowd. The race technically began at 8 a.m., but I don't think we crossed the starting line until around 8:20 a.m. It was a slow start but we ran the first three miles. By mile four I had lost my breath a bit because it was so cold and I wasn't focusing on my breathing as I should have been so my side was cramping a bit. I'm not usually a runner. 2-3 miles is usually my max, but apparently once a year I like to do run six like I know what I'm doing. I don't.

The best (WORST) part about the LR 10K is the bridge. Running up a bridge? Ridiculous. I made Allison slow down and we quickly (or not quickly) walked it. I'm in no competition, I just want to finish the race. Slow and steady still wins.

And we did finish! We got our (small) medals!

We also ran into Kelly who had it on her bucket list to run a 10K. She actually ran the entire thing, I'm proud of her!

Once we were done with the race we went to a small race party (just a party to celebrate other people running) and cheered on those marathon runners who decided to run 26.2 miles. 

I thought 6 miles was silly, they decided to add an additional 20 to theirs. As we cheered on the marathon runners we drank champagne and discussed that next year we just 'have' to do the half-marathon.

(No, I do not 'have' to do the half... or any other race for a while.) 

**This will be a fun game... It's 'Where is Maegan and Allison" in the picture ... Kind of like Where's Waldo but funner!

Let me know if you can find us!

Clean & Easy: Roasted Vegetables

Of all the diets and all the fads in the world, I haven't really gotten on board with the clean eating. Probably because on Sundays I really like to eat spaghettios for dinner. I will say though that I've been reading a lot about cleaning eating so I'm trying to incorporate it into my weekly meal plan. So... I think these roasted vegetables can count as 'cleaner' eating. Plus, they are SUPER easy! Bonus!

The vegetables that I used... 

Red potatoes, onion, white mushrooms and red bell pepper 

Good mix of hearty and healthy

The dressing couldn't be any easier and more than likely things you already have in your pantry. 

Hopefully you aren't almost out of balsamic vinegar like I am. 

Step 1. Cut up your red potatoes. 

For roasted veggies you better be prepared to chop. 

Next, rinse off your mushrooms and throw them into your 13x9 pan with the cut up potatoes.

Chop up your onion, and toss that in as well. 

I use a whole onion, but if you wanted less you could use half. 

That's the best part about this recipe, you just throw in whatever you like. 

Now, you also cut up the red bell pepper and throw that in as well, but I was having cutting/photography issues and didn't capture that moment. (Apologies) 

Now for the 'dressing' 

Couldn't be simpler.

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar 

1 teaspoon of thyme 

1 teaspoon of rosemary 

Mix it all up and ... 

Toss it around in your veggies

Put your oven on 400 degrees and roast those veggies away.

Now, you'll notice that I haven't added the tomatoes yet, that's because I like to add

those at the end about 5-7 minutes before they vegetables are done. I still like them whole, and if you leave them in too long they seem to get mushy to me. 

Oh my goodness... 

After about 35 minutes with the vegetables and another 7 minutes after you add the 

cherry tomatoes, you will be good to go. 

I should just apologize now for how hard it is to not pick at the food, especially the mushrooms. 

Enjoy! 

Roasted Vegetables Recipe 

Ingredients: 

• 6-9 medium sized red potatoes 
• 1 carton of whole white mushrooms
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup - 1 cup of cherry tomatoes 
• 1/2 - 1 chopped onion  (preference) 

"Dressing":

• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of thyme 
• 1 teaspoon of rosemary 

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees
2. Cut up the red potatoes, red bell pepper and onion and add to a 13x9 inch baking pan 
3. Add mushrooms to the pan
4. Mix ingredients for the 'dressing' and poor over vegetables and toss vegetables to evenly coat
5. Place 13x9 pan into oven for about 35-40 minutes, then add cherry tomatoes 
6. After the tomates are heated through remove roasted vegetables
7. Let cool and enjoy! 

The Best (Magical) Makeup Primer

When it comes to makeup, we all need a little ... magic some days. I've had the same routine for the past, I don't know, 10 years it seems. Moisturizer, foundation, powder, blush, eye shadow and mascara. Pretty simple. 

The only thing is that living in Arkansas there is humidity. I also tend to rub my face a lot during the day. Keeping the makeup I started with during the beginning of the day would rarely make it to the end of the day without adding more powder or blush. Also, on the weekends, I don't like wearing foundation when running errands but powder doesn't seem to cover. 

But guess what? I've found the best product to keep my morning makeup on ALL day. 

ALL DAY. 

It's L’Oreal Paris Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream. Long name, but amazing results. 

In the mornings I like to put it on just to watch my face transform. 

Here's what L'Oreal says about their cream: 

About L'Oréal Paris Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream: This product gives the sheer coverage needed to create a natural bare skin finish, while delivering built-in skincare benefits. With four beautifying actions, this all-in-one innovation primes and smoothes, perfects to hide flaws, hydrates all-day, and corrects and evens skin. The product is infused with skincare ingredients like Panthenol, Vitamin E and Glycerin for 24-hour moisturization.

It retails for about $7-11 at drug stores. 

If you're looking for a great makeup primer, try it. 

I received a complimentary product from SheSpeaks/L’Oréal to facilitate this review. 

My opinions are honest and true, over and out.