about me

In My (Unpopular) Opinion

Do you ever see a product, show, idea, something get so hyped up…and you just don’t get it? It happens to me a lot. It leaves me over here scratching my head and thinking, am I just alone in this?

Image result for shrug shoulders gif

–The Bachelor/Bachelorette – I do not get the hype of these shows. Why do so many of you love them??? I cannot force myself to watch or care about any of the people on there. The whole premise of the show is gross to me. I don’t want to date some guy that is out dating and kissing a bunch of other girls too. That isn’t romantic or appealing to me at all.

–I don’t watch the Oscars, Grammy’s or any other awards show. Honestly, I find them rather dull and boring. And in the last several years, I honestly don’t know who the heck most of the people are who are on there or win??

–People magazine and other celebrity gossip. I just don’t give a shit. I have better things to do with my time than hear about their ridiculous lives.

–Super open floor plans. When I walk in to a house, I don’t want to see the entire house from the front door. I like open spaces, but not that open!!! If one area is a little messy, the entire house looks like shit. And also, have you thought about what happens when your kids get louder and older?? You are going to want to have some separation from certain rooms for your own sanity!

–Speaking of houses, why are all the new neighborhoods building them so close together????? Why in the world do people think, oh $400,000 for this house that I can reach out and touch my neighbor’s front door…sold!!! NO! I don’t want to live on top of my neighbor. And I want to have a decent yard for my kid to run around and be a kid. To maybe have a fire pit and some chairs to enjoy the mild southern nights in. What if you want to have a few people over? Where are they going to park?? Think it through!

–Crop tops – You were cute in the 90’s, but you should have stayed there. Not that anyone wants to see this post baby body in one anyways.

–Scrunchies – Why are you coming back??? Again, cute in the 90’s but not for adult Nadine.

–Mules – I want to get behind these, I really do. I own a pair actually, but I feel ridiculous in them!!! Maybe my feet are too big to pull them off? I dont know? You wear them, they look cute on you…but I need to remind myself how ridiculous I look in them every time I click on the links you guys share!

What are some unpopular opinions you have?

March 7, 2018 by
about me, beauty, weekend shenanigans

TBB Asks Beauty Edition and Weekend Things

What a weekend you guys! I feel like it was just Friday, but apparently not. I am not even sure where all my time went this weekend to be honest. Work has been insane lately, and I even worked a few hours on Saturday night after Zoe went to bed to get myself in a better position for today. Not sure that it did much good, but at least I tried. This weekend we ate a lot of delicious food, got caught up on a little TV, and chased Zoe around. Girlfriend has some energy!!! I also made some headway in our guest room getting things cleared out. I want to paint in there ASAP.
Friday started off with lunch at Real and Rosemary with Laura. I love the delicious, healthy options that they offer!!!
Saturday, we were up and out early to look at a few houses and stopped by Parish for lunch. I have been wanting to go to Parish since they opened a few years ago. Why have I never been??? Zoe and I split a platter with chicken tenders and crab cakes and we all shared some Back Forty Truck Stop Honey Onion Rings too. Everything was delicious and our service was amazing. I hope that we can go back again soon! That evening we ordered Landmark to go and Chris went and got it. I had their burger, fries and corn nuggets. They have the best burgers and BBQ for being a little hole in the wall place near us!
My sister and oldest nephew came over Sunday and we headed to Target to get some grocery shopping done. We also stopped by Best Buy and Michael’s while we were out…and I maybe stopped and got a diet Cherry Limeade on the way home. Again. Yum. Zoe worked on her fashion blogger pose. She nailed it. She also walked around Target pushing around one of those popper toys that is totally annoying. My sister let her do it. LOL. And of course, like any good sister does, she bought the noisy thing for my kid. And Zoe is so excited about it, she pushed it around the house all afternoon. Who are we to deny her happiness.
I am also linking up with the Blended Blog to share some of my beauty favorites!!!
1. Eyelash Curler Yes or No?  Yes, every day.
2. Favorite Nail Shade? 95% of the time I chose some version of pink.
3. Favorite Lipstick Shade? Pink again.
4. Blow Dry or Air Dry your hair? I let my hair air dry as long as I can, and then blast it with the blow dryer to finish it off close to the time I need to leave.
5. Artificial Nails: Yes or No? Never. I have never worn artificial nails.
6. Foundation: Yes or No? Yes, my go to is usually Estee Double Wear. I want to try the new Bobbi Brown though, anyone tried it yet?
7. Hair Up or Hair Down? Most of the time it is straight and down. I wear my hair up a lot at home and pretty much on Sundays, as that is my no wash day if we don’t have anything major going on.
8. Bar Soap or Body Wash? Body wash.
9. Bath or Shower? shower
10. Favorite Body lotion? That is a loaded question, because I use different ones on different body parts and different times of the year. I recently fell in love with the Brazilian Bum Bum Cream. Have you tried it? It smells SOOOO amazing!!!! And my legs are so soft after using it. My favorite hand cream is Working Hands. Does wonders for my dry, cracked skin in the winter. Plus it is inexpensive and found at Target! And lastly, my old stand by is Vitamin E from The Body Shop for all over greatness. I have been using that for years.
11. Do you wear perfume? Is so, favorite scent? Yes. Right now I have been wearing a lot of Elizabeth and James Nirvana Bourbon. I have the roller ball and will purchase the full size when I am out. Love it! I also like Chanel Coco Madmoiselle, and I want to try one of the Jo Malone ones. I am on a quest for my new signature scent since they no longer make mine. I tend to like warm, sexy, spicy scents over floral or fruity.
12. Do you shave your legs everyday? No, every other day in the summer. A couple times a week in the winter. And by a couple I mean once or twice lol. My skin is far too sensitive for every single day.
13. Favorite Lip Balm?  I swear by Vaseline Rosy Lips. It is $1.89 at Target, gives my lips the slightest shade of pink and feels amazing on!! I can put it on before bed and wake up with it still on my lips in the morning. I cant say that for anything else. Not even higher end stuff I have tried. Plus, it smells good.  Just do it. Trust me.
14. How old were you when you first started wearing make-up? Maybe my freshmen year of high school. I am sure I wore some lip gloss in middle school, but I don’t remember buying make up until high school. I didn’t start wearing foundation on a regular basis until my 20’s. I had really great skin in high school and didn’t appreciate it near as much as I should have!!!!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!! What beauty products are you loving right now?
Linking up with Biana too!
March 5, 2018 by
currently

Currently

For some reason, I feel like this week is really dragging. Maybe because the weekend went by so quickly I was in denial about Monday. I walked in to the office like…didn’t we just do this??? It is always weird to me when months line up the same. Like all the dates in February fall on the same day of the week as in March. It really had me mixed up in my iPhone calendar when I was adding appointments for March in February. Anyways, I am babbling. Linking up with Kristen and Gretch!

Reading: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld – I saw that my library had this available and picked it up on a whim. I added it to Goodreads and saw Kristen rated it very high. Her and I are basically  book twins so I knew I would love it too! So far, so good!

Eligible (The Austen Project, #4)

Watching: The usual: The Good Doctor, 9-1-1, The Resident, Riverdale, Blue Bloods, Big Bang Theory, the Chicago shows, SVU, Modern Family, This is Us, Greys, Scandal. Lots and lots of Vampirina and Puppy Dog Pals too! Zoe is obsessed. I actually think Vampirina is super cute and the theme song gets stuck in my head forever and ever.

Image result for vampirina meme

Cooking: This week we are having turkey burgers, taco soup, pork chops and burrito bowls. Yum yum yummy! I have made my favorite Mediterranean CousCous for lunches and pairing it with an apple and some turkey sausage. Laura and I have a healthy lunch trip planned somewhere for today. Trying to avoid the chocolate chip cookies we baked on Sunday.

Working: OUT! Finally!!! I mentioned Monday that I ran for the first time in nearly two years. I quit running when I found out I was pregnant, and stuck to walking and low impact workouts and haven’t really hopped back on the hard core wagon since. I ran Monday and Tuesday, and did weights Wednesday. My toe already hurts from my darn running shoes after two days, and my hips are kindly reminded me that I am old. I am going to keep going though! I love the endorphins from a good sweat!

Loving: While I hate my damn allergies, I sort of love seeing all the tree  lined streets this week! I will just appreciate them with my windows rolled up while downing a box of Claritin! I am afraid that poor Zoe has picked up mine and Chris’s terrible allergies.

Pinning: All the St Patrick’s Day and Easter toddler crafts. Laura and I are planning another craft day in a few weeks to do something fun with the kiddos. I can’t wait! Maybe her and I can find another fun craft for ourselves too. I am still loving the marble trays we made last month.

Not much else going on really. I am slammed at work and coming home completely exhausted every day this week. It is better that we are busy than not, but still! I have a hair appointment booked for the 17th. I can’t wait to get my hair done! I am looking rough these days. I am not sure what I am doing yet. I want a change.

What are you up to?

March 1, 2018 by
recipe

The Best Burrito Recipe

On Sunday, Chris and I were piddling around in our favorite grocery aisle. The international foods/pasta aisle. You know the one. The one filled with ALL the goodness and carbs. Lots of carbs. I asked Chris what kind of pasta he wanted and he was all maybe some kind of burrito or something instead. You don’t have to ask me twice about any type of Mexican dish. I AM ON IT! I looked up a few difference recipe suggestions online, combined and tweaked from several and came up with this deliciousness. I might be biased, but this is better than any restaurant burrito I have ever had.

There is enough meat to do around 5-6 burritos.

What You Need

Soft flour burrito tortillas/wraps (we used the Mission large ones)

1 lb extra lean ground beef

2 cups cooked rice (I used Minute Rice because it was what we  had on hand)

1 can reduced sodium black beans

1/2 an onion, chopped

2 teaspoons minced garlic

3 tablespoons tomato paste

6 tablespoons water

taco seasoning

Other Things I Used

enchilada sauce (we prefer Trader Joes)

cheese dip

shredded three cheddar cheese (or Mexican cheese, cheddar cheese, colby jack, your preference)

fresh diced tomato

Cooking spray

What You Do

–Spray a medium sized pan with cooking spray, cook onions and garlic for 2-4 minutes, add ground beef and brown

–Add taco seasoning (4 tablespoons/one packet) and mix around until completely blended. Stir in 3 tablespoons of tomato paste and 6 tablespoons water. Mix in black beans.

–Heat burrito wraps according to package (I did this in microwave with damp paper towels)

–Lay tortilla wrap on flat surface. Layer the rice, then the beef/bean mixture, top with some shredded cheese. Add in any toppings you may like, I did fresh diced tomato for Chris.

–Wrap the burrito by pulling each of the sides over first, then folding the two ends. Top with a little enchilada sauce and white cheese dip if you are wanting the true restaurant feel to it!!! You may want to heat them in the oven for a few minutes after assembling (350 degrees wrapped in tin foil), or serve immediately!

I imagine you could make a few extras and wrap them up and freeze them, breaking them out for lunches or a quick week night meal. These were honestly put together in under 30 minutes and so good!!!! We only had one each and are saving the leftover meat to make taco bowls or salad later this week.

The cheese sauce and red sauce just swirled together on its own in pure perfection!

February 27, 2018 by
weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans

I might be in a little  bit of a food coma from the weekend. It started out Friday with a stop to Dunkin to get an iced coffee. I couldn’t resist the blueberry cake donut. It is my absolute favorite. And then for lunch I went to Whole Foods and got brown rice spicy tuna sushi. DELICIOUS!!!

And then on Saturday, we took Zoe to Crazy Horse for dinner. This is one of our absolute favorite places to go for a nicer meal or steak. You would never expect this gem of a place in our tiny little town. We met a friend there and we ordered pretty much all the appetizers. We had a crab cake, boom boom shrimp and bacon cheesecake. You read that right. BACON CHEESECAKE. It was served with tomato jam and fresh baked croutons. You guys. YOU GUYS!!!! So good! Zoe surprised me and was obsessed with the crab cake. Girlfriend ate half that thing by herself. She also indulged in the bacon cheesecake as well. Her and I split the filet and baked potato as our main course. Forgot to snap a picture of that.

Look at her in her car seat when we got home, in her own food coma. We were at the restaurant for a really long time. Nearly three hours. She was an angel the entire time.

Sunday we headed out to do our grocery shopping and stopped at Sonic on the way home for a cherry limeade. Chris needed a car-dog. (hot dog in the car on the way home, duh)

While Zoe napped, I baked some homemade chocolate chip cookies. This was her first time having one and it is safe to say that she is a HUGE fan. Look at her OMG face.

For dinner last night, Chris suggested that we try to make homemade burritos. They turned out SO amazing!!!! I will be sharing my recipe later this week. Trust me when I say you don’t want to miss them. They were better than any restaurant.

It has been rainy and gross on and off here for weeks now. We have had mild temperatures though, so we can’t complain. We have even got to have some outside fun too. Even on dreary days, it can still be beautiful. Look at my ride in this morning.

Maybe I am just in a good mood from all those endorphins I encountered on the treadmill this morning. That’s right folks. I ran for the first time this morning since I got pregnant. Spoiler alert, I still hate it. But damn it feels good after!

Me and that treadmill got reacquainted this morning and it reminded me who is boss. There is something cathartic about running in your garage on a piece of machinery at 4am, right? I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Linking up with Biana and Lindsay.

February 26, 2018 by