Weekend Wrap Up

Like my new weekend post image ???

I realized on Sunday this week that I am horrible at remembering to take pictures of things over the weekend and I made a promise to myself to do better from here on out.

Anyways ... This weekend on Saturday was my Grandpa's 74th Birthday.  He is here in Sarasota with Gram for his birthday so we had a BBQ at our house and invited my family and Mike's to celebrate.

{I must say that we are really lucky that our families get along so well, we usually have BBQ's every once and a while with them both and it is always a good time}

Mike cooked us hot dogs {sahlens} and hamburgers and Gram made her famous Potato Salad {among other treats}.  Nichole brought Poppy a Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie from Der Dutchman.

If you look closely you can see we have a 5 & 2 which = 7 and a 4 because he turned 74!

Grandma and Poppy Sweeney - 54 Years of Marriage <3

Saturday night we rented Dallas Buyers Club {we hadn't seen it yet} 

If you haven't figured it out we love to watch movies.

Over all I really liked the movie the only thing I didn't like was that Mathew McCohnaughey was sickly skinny, I know he had to do it for the role but it kinda was a bit much for me.

{My Movie Rating: 7.8}

On Sunday Gram and I set out early to hit the Farmers Market and Hobby Lobby ... we soon found out that the Farmers Market was only open on Saturdays as is Hobby Lobby {i forgot about that} so our morning was a bust but we ended up going to breakfast with my mom and then to Home Goods. 

We laid out in the sunshine after and later we went and got pedicures.

Gram was in heaven

Sunday evening Gram, Mike and I went to Mi Pueblos {a great local Mexican restaurant}

I beginning to think Gram like Mike more than me!

 And we watched another movie ... The Drop.  Gram and Mike didn't really care for this movie .. but I kinda liked it.  It was kind of a Russian Mob Movie but mainly centered around a guy that worked for a bar owned by the Russian Mob.  The whole plot though was a little poorly mapped out {Movie Rating: 6.1}

Over all a pretty laid back weekend ... we have one more before things start to get a little crazy again! How was your weekend? 

31 {Fri} Day Blog Challenge - My Guilty Pleasure {LATE}

{This Post Is Coming A Day Late} 

Hmmmm ... My guilty pleasure, this is a hard one.  I had to think a while on this but I believe I came up with it ... Candy!

I know what your thinking ... Candy? Everyone likes Candy ... that can't be your guilty pleasure ... well its not necessarily the candy ... its the way in which I consume it ... All of it ... All at the same time.

If I buy a box or bag of candy, I will eat it ALL in one sitting.  My favorite candy right now is Hot Tamales and they come in the box that is almost always on sale 2 / $3 so I have to get two boxes right!?!  It still applies ... I'll eat both boxes before the day is over.

I try to constrain myself ... I really do ... I put the box or bag of candy away like 12 times but I still get it right back out and start munching away on them.  The worst is when I'm working and they are in my desk drawer or when I'm driving.  You can almost always find empty candy boxes / bags in my middle consul.

My Favorite Candies to Consume {all at once}

Candy Dots 

Conversation Hearts

Necco Wafers

Red Hots

Hot Tamales 

So basically anything that is cinnamon or pure sugar :) 

And now for another edition of 'Friday's Favorite' 

I even painted them myself! 

While scanning the Clearance end-caps at Target 

{something I do every time I go - and I highly suggest - they always have great deals}

I passed by the nail polish section and this color just stood out to me!

Essie - Lady Like 

Coming Together

A very good friend of mine is moving to New Hampshire soon ... I met Sarah when I worked for a Merchant Service Provider {fancy name for setting people up to accept credit cards} and we have stayed in touch since we both left {almost a year ago}.  We try to have our sushi lunch at least once a week and when we found out she was moving we made sure that we had our lunch each week until she left.

{From left to right: Me, Sarah, Juliana, and Susan}
This was us all celebrating our last weeks working together 

Sarah is good people, I've said this before but it is hard to find loyal, trust worthy, quality friends now a days {or maybe I'm just picky} Anyways I decided I needed to get her something for her new home before she left ... then it hit me! Sarah is engaged to her fiance Jesse {they are actually getting married three days before Mike and I!} and this will be a new place for the both of them.

I give you the Three Heart Map

I have this print set available in my Etsy Shop and I thought it would be perfect! She is from Detroit, her fiance is from Bradenton, and they are moving to New Hampshire!! Now they will have something to hang in their home to remind them of where they came from and where they came together.  I wish them both a lifetime of happiness in their new endeavor! I'll be for sure missing our sushi lunches and ecard texting. 

Bradenton

Detroit

New Hampshire

I have Mike and I's hanging above our bed.  Don't mind the fact that they are crooked, Wamp walks along the headboard and messes them up all the time! 

Detroit on his side of the bed, Buffalo on my side, and Sarasota in the middle 

These make a great engagement, house warming, or moving gift.  I was excited that I could make them for someone.  You can also do other variations like {where you were engaged, married, and live} {where you met, married, and live} or really any special three places.

What would your three places be?

Sarah also does photography for racing {a passion of hers}, check out her stuff at Apex Pix Agency 

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was a calm one ... I did three of my favorite things: ate, shopped and watched movies/tv.  My grandma {Gram} and grandpa {Poppy} are in town from Buffalo for the next two weeks. Poppy, my mom's dad and my parents drove to Daytona for the Daytona 500 so it was just me and Gram here.  

Saturday Gram, Marie and I set out to the new mall to find Grams dress for my wedding.  She wanted to look down here because she said everything up north is turtle necks and sweatpants {and she wanted to make sure I liked it}.  Now Marie and I have dress shopping down to a science so we told her to go wait in a dressing room and we were just going to bring her tons of dresses to try on .. Which she did :) 

We picked out a bunch of nice dresses, but of course we had to throw one in there for giggles.  Gram laughed at it and actually put it on to take a picture and send to my cousin Amanda! I asked if I could put the picture on here and she said no! So instead I'll just show you what the dress looked like.

Mind You .. Gram is 73 Years Old

She did end up finding her dress but she is waiting til she gets shoes and accessories before she debuts her whole ensemble.  The best part though ... the price! Macys was having a sale and the sales lady also used a coupon so Grams dress came to a grand total of $26!!

We did a little bit more shopping and headed to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  Look who we ran into working that day!

{Left to Right: Marie, Some Guy That Photo Bombed Us, Me, Courtney and Gram}

I really need to start remembering to take more pictures of the food ... or at least our Cheesecake!! At least I got one of Gram having a mid-day cocktail ... She is on vacation after all!

That night Mike cooked us some amazing steaks ... he had marinated them all day in a Chimichurri Sauce and then cooked them in a cast iron skillet ... best steak I've had in a long time!! 

Steak, Salad and Cream Cauliflower 

Steak Cooked To Perfection!

After dinner we rented St. Vincent and made Gram watch it with us.  She said she hadn't watched a movie since she used to go to the drive in way back in the day.  She actually sat through the whole thing and liked it!

Over all I really liked the movie. It was funny, heartwarming and taught you a little bit of a lesson.  On a scale of 1 to 10 { 1 being Team America, the only movie I ever walked out on and 10 being Pretty Woman because well, that's the best movie ever} I give it an 8.5.

On Sunday Gram and I laid out in the front driveway like a bunch of hillbillies ... but we did get some good sun and Gram got to wear her new bathing suit.  I also took advantage of having some time outside to clean out the garage a bit ... it needed it bad.  I finally threw out extra branches from our Christmas Tree that I was going to make something with.  

For dinner we ordered pizza from a new place ... I believe it was called Solarzano's but I'm not sure.  We like to try out different pizza places .. we have yet to find anything amazing and this time was probably the worst we had.  We ordered a Cheese and Pepperoni Pizza and Garlic Bread.  I didn't think the pizza was too bad but Mike hated it {said it was way to greesy} and the Garlic Bread was a joke.  They literally took a piece of bread, sprinkled mozzarella cheese on it and then chopped up chunks of raw garlic, put that on top and threw it in the oven to melt.  EW! 

Anyways ... we had made cookies for dessert so it wasn't a total loss.  

Then we watched the Oscars ... I love award shows {actually I love the red carpet and the opening of award shows .. the rest is eh} I fell asleep before it ended but I got to see what I wanted to see ... the dresses! Below are the Top Four and the Bottom Three {in my opinion} of the night.

TOP FOUR

My absolute favorite was Rosamund Pike {first one in the red} everything about it was just perfect to me!! Jennifer Aniston is just one of my favorite people and I usually love anything she wears.  Jenna Dewan-Tatum, I mean come-on she is literally perfect {and she gets to keep Channing Tatum}!! I didn't know Margot Robbie but I love that black dress ... I'm a big fan of sleeves!

BOTTOM THREE

Nicole Kidman ... what is that even? You looked like one of those shiny Lisa Frank stickers and Cheap!  I know that Lady Ga Ga has to be weird all the time but this is the Oscars, not the Grammys, just wear something that doesn't scream for attention.  Felicity Jones wasn't atrocious by any means but the whole thing was just kinda ... ugly.

There you have it .. my weekend wrap up, I hope you guys had a great weekend too!  

31 {Fri}day Challenge - Earliest Childhood Memory

Up on the challenge today is my earliest childhood memory ... interestingly enough I feel like I can remember things from when I was as little as two years old.  So that is what I am going with.  I was either two or three because I know that we still lived on Marigold Street in Buffalo and we moved from there when I was three.  That was the house where my parents and I lived on the top floor and my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Ron lived on the bottom floor.  I remember playing with my cousin Ryan in the side yard, and I think they had a dog too, a German Sheppard.  I also remember {although it wasn't my earliest memory} riding my Big Wheel in the driveway of that house.  At the end of the driveway it started to slope upwards and one day I went up that slope and completely fell over backwards ... I still have the scar on my elbow from it.

Anyways ... what I remember is loving to watch the Peanuts.  I cannot put my finger on which movie it was but I know that it was the one where they were racing in canoes at some point during the movie.  I would watch that over and over again {coincidentally, I think that was a running theme when I was young because my Grandpa's favorite story to tell about me was when I would watch Home Alone, over and over again} back to the Peanuts.

Now I don't know if this happened by "accident" or if this happened on "purpose" but one day that VHS tape fell behind the TV stand and no one could reach it to get it out.  I remember the TV stand not being that large and could have been easily moved by my dad .. so perhaps it was on purpose.  I think by the time we moved from that house I had forgotten all about that tape. 

That there is my earliest childhood memory ... Apparently I also enjoyed making huge messes in my room of that house {which is completely unlike me today}.  I only know this though via pictures 

This is where I gained my childhood nickname Messy Jessy

With that being a relatively short post I wanted to also introduce something new! 

I'm going to share with you guys my favorite thing of the week every Friday.  These will truly be my favorite things and my own true opinions.  This week are my new shoes!! I purchased them for the cruise because I thought they would be comfortable for walking around the ports and ship but still cute enough.  The best part ... They were only $17! {Now they are on sale for $14!! - I might have to go get another color}  

At your favorite place and mine, Target ... Find them HERE 

Have a great weekend!

Dr. Oz 3 Day Cleanse - {Final} Day 3

Whew ... I made it! It was harder than I thought it was going to be though.  I will say that after Day 2, which was the hardest, Day 3 wasn't that bad.  Maybe because I knew that in just a short while I was going to be able to eat again!!

I had my morning green tea and breakfast drink and I scarfed it down.  I didn't think that I was that hungry but once I started drinking breakfast I just couldn't stop. I actually might have one of these drinks for breakfast every once and a while.

After breakfast I was pretty good while I worked, didn't think about food to much.  I had to go pick my grandparents up from the airport {which is about an hour away} so I ground up lunch to take with me. I don't know if I just was hungry but this lunch drink was the best of the three that I had.  Still gross .. but the best of the three.

On the way back from the airport my grandparents were starving and asked me to stop at Burger King ... oh boy.  It took every ounce of will power I had not to order something and then that smell ... you know the smell of FRIED stuff in your car when you get fast food ... well that was torture.  But I figured if I made it this far I had to finish!

I made my dinner drink around 5pm and chugged it down ... I liked that the Cayenne Pepper in it, it gave the drink a nice after bite, seeing as the only flavor I feel like I've had for the last three days is ... Fruit.

Around 7pm I got a bad headache, I took Advil but it didn't help so I was in bed around 9:30pm.  I slept pretty good {I had joked that I was going to get up at midnight and eat one of these Polish Donuts that Mike's friend sent us ... but I didnt} However I woke up with the headache still and it didnt' go away until I ate ... yes ate {actually chewed} breakfast.

To celebrate, me Gram and Pop went to breakfast 

Day 3 Stats

Weight: 130

Energy Level: 9

Hunger Level: 6

So overall the experience was OK, I'm not sure that any detox experience is fun since your basically depriving yourself of food.  However, I do feel like I have more energy throughout the day, especially on Day 2 and 3 I noticed that 2:30 feeling {fatigue} wasn't there and I could get more done throughout the day.  I even felt a little more focused.  I noticed that when I ate breakfast and lunch so far today I didn't get a bloated feeling in my tummy like I usually do for a couple hours after I eat.  Also, as you can see from my stats .. I did loose 5 pounds.  I think that if you generally eat healthy and take vitamins though that you won't notice the effects of the detox as much as some people claim to.

If you plan to try it good luck! And if you have any questions I'm here to help :) 

See Day 2 Here
See Day 1 Here 

Dr. Oz 3 Day Cleanse - Day 2

Before I go through my day yesterday {I'm reporting one day behind so I make sure to get all the information from the day in} I wanted to list a few things that I learned so far that you should know before you start:

1.  The lunch drink - does not blend in a blender.  I used my food processor to get this one done.  The celery just doesn't mesh well with a blender.

2. The "grocery list" does NOT take into account the snack shake.  So if you plan on having the snack shake {I haven't done it the whole three days, mainly because I'm sick of drinking} you should figure out which shake you like best from day one then go gather the ingredients for that shake.  

3. Its almost impossible to save "quarters" of an avocado.  The dinner drink calls for 1/4 of an avocado, well by day two the rest of the avocado is quite brown and lets not think about day 3.  I put mine in a ziplock bag and kept it in the fridge, however I would suggest splurging on a couple avocados.  You can also try this idea {Keep Avocado Fresh} which I found AFTER mine went brown. 

That being said ... lets go to Day 2

I was very happy to have my green tea and morning drink {they have by FAR been my favorite part of this}.  I continued with my day but work kept me from having my lunch drink until around 1:45.  I tweaked the recipe a little bit, I only did 2 stalks of celery and 3/4 of the cucumber and it was MUCH better.  It is still the worst drink of this cleanse but it was bearable this way.

I had to go to my parents house around 5pm to help my brother's girlfriend with her history project {between myself, my two brothers, and their girlfriends I have completed about 500 school projects and graduated high school at least 3 times.} Apparently I am the go-to for school help.  Anyways while I was there {which was only an hour} my hands started getting shaky and I was beginning to sweat ... you know the signs that your about to pass out!  

So I hate to tell you friends but I had to cheat a little bit ... I had a 4 pack of BenVita Breakfast Biscuits.  I instantly felt better, stopped shaking and went on.

When I got home I had my dinner drink and went to bed.

Day 2 was by far my worst day, I was hungry, cranky, pass-outy, and complained to Mike more than he cared for  ... But I made it though!  And he still loves me :) 

Since it was my worst day ... I forgot to take pictures! UGH ... I promise I'll have more tomorrow!! 

Day 2 Stats

Weight: 133.2

Energy Level: 7.5

Hunger: 8.9

See Day 1 Here