The Five Fixations getting me to Friday

Be warned- I'm just gonna go ahead and rant for a quick minute.  (At least we know it'll be G-rated, due to my Lent commitments. Sigh.)
Why on earth do Spring Breaks just evaporate into thin air as soon as you enter into adulthood?  That makes zero sense to me.  I mean, people with full time jobs deserve a legitimate spring break way more than students do.  What do they need a break from anyways?  Going out on Thursday nights?  Formals?

Pic from College Spring Break- Senior Year.  

Reference the above picture & my point is proven with flying colors.  My undergrad stress level clearly warranted a well-deserved trip to the beach.  Not. I want to punch myself in the teeth in that pic.  Anddddd take my drink & give it to adult, present day Caroline.
Not that I'm bitter or anything, right?

Anyway, since Kevin is having to hide our credit cards & block travel websites so I don't book ourselves a nice little vacay to Fiji, I'm having to dream up things to distract me from hitching a ride to Florida get me excited for our weekends.  At home.  Let me emphasize the AT HOME portion of that sentence.  Boo. Hiss. Soooo.... heres what I'm pretty pumped about this week.

1. GCB

Best new show on television.  If you are from the South, were a diva in high school, love designer anything, or are just a Kristin Chenoweth fan- this show is for you.  Is it a little bit over the top? Yes. Is it ridiculously entertaining?  Absolutely.  Its. A. Must. Watch.  

Lemme know what yall think.

2. My new Snake Skin Heels From Target

Ladies: Run, do not walk, to Target & pick up a pair of these bad boys.  These Mossimo Pearce heels are absolutely adorable.  The heels are at that perfect height of being taller than a church lady's clogs but shorter than a prostitutes platforms.  They are insanely comfortable- and ADDED BONUS- only $30. AMAZING.

3. My simple new pasta recipe

Since I've mentioned a time or 2 that my husband has the taste palate of a 10 year old, I am constantly searching cookbooks & websites for new recipes.  Sometimes I strike out, but good lord- I hit a home run with this recipe.  The ingredients you see in the above picture (onion, spaghetti sauce, penne pasta, ground beef, mozzarella, and Philadelphia cooking cream cheese) are the only items you need for this dish.  Suuuupppperrrr easy! And supppppperrrr quick to fix. I know yall like all those words :)

Quick Recipe rundown:

Ingredients: 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1 lb ground beef, 1 package of Philadelphia Italian Herb cooking cream cheese, spaghetti sauce, 1 cup mozzarella cheese- divided, penne pasta

Instructions: Brown meat & onion together.  Drain.  Add in jar of spaghetti sauce.  Add in cream cheese.  Stir in 3/4 cup of mozzarella.  Add in cooked noodles.  Put mixture in 13x9 pan, add remaining cheese on top.  Bake at 350 for 25 mins.  And you have yourself a WINNER!   Beyond delish.

4. My New Office Chair

There are definitely perks of your husband's family owning an office furniture company.  However, I would have to say that finding a lime green chair to put in my office probably trumps them all.  The chair is beyond loud to look at, but it gets me pretty pumped up to do work.  And lets face it- working in a lime green, ergonomic office chair is pretty awesome.  

5. St. Patricks Day

Bet yall didn't know who loves St. Patrick's day more than anyone?!?!? (And no, it's actually not me. Although I'm never going to complain about a holiday that celebrates drinking & wearing my favorite color.)

Thats right- Big P (aka my Daddy) himself LIVES for St. Patrick's day.  Probably because his real, god-given name actually is Patrick.  Similar to his birthday & father's day, he genuinely expects to be treated like a king..ahem- SAINT on this day.  Its pretty hysterical, so we typically just go along with it.  I mean- lets get real with ourselves- If you had your very own holiday, I'd insist that everyone celebrated my greatness too.  I've already sent him a card (and no, dad- it doesn't have any money or gift cards in it. Sorry for the disappointment.), and we will definitely drink one in his honor this Saturday night.

6. TBA......... :)

All I'll say is that I'm not going to blog or tweet about this 6th item until I know it is a sure thing.  Just know that I'm beyond excited & I can't wait to tell yall all about it.  

Mmmmmkay- thats about it for now!  Have a fabulous Wednesday!!

You gave up what for lent?!?

I'm just gonna go ahead & assume most of you know that Lent started a few Wednesdays ago. You know Ash Wednesday is the day that Lent begins, yes? So when you saw people with something on their forehead, they didn't all coincidentally forget to shower.. No, they had ashes on their foreheads from mass to signal & remind us that we all sin-& dont rven try to get all high & mighty on me saying you dont sin bc i know you do. So these ashes are also supposed to remind people that we need consistent conversion/reminders of our baptisms, & (THIS IS THE KICKER) we need to work on ourselves on the days leading to Easter. (How's that for Religion 101, Dad?)
In turn, that's why you always hear people asking,"So, whatd you give up for Lent?"

Talk about the million dollar question. What on earth do I need to work on? God knows I'm pretty stellar, as is. Just kidding. Seriously, I'm completely joking. It's more like- I have an extremely difficult time pinning down just 1 thing to give up bc there are so many things I need to work on.
So on the days leading up to Ash Wednesday, I was stressing in a big way bc I still wasn't about what I was giving up.
Finally, I had some inspiration.. Or err, maybe a revelation.

True Life Thursday: My mouth could give any sailor a good run for their money. 

Kev, along with my patents, are always yelling at me to watch my language. I swear I suffer from a mild case of Tourette's.


 **(Side note: I've to tried to convince my mom that I should probably have a Tourettes diagnosis, but since she's a medical professional, she promises it's just a bad habit. She's prob right. But she also once drugged me with a Tylenol PM an hour before a science fair presentation bc she she forgot she had combined 2 bottles for a trip.-so shes lost any major credibility with me. Looking back, I prob got the sympathy vote from the judges for being the only kid who has to present their project while being roofied by their mom. Not to brag, but I actually did win an all-state award for my project that year. Hmmm.... Maybe Jan was onto something. Tricky.)**

So, I am obviously giving up my profound overuse of profanity this year for Lent.
And y'all, it is one of the most difficult things I've ever done. Basically, I feel like I'm talking in code to a class of 4 year olds in every conversation bc I can't express myself as ummm aggressively  passionately as I would like. 

Yall would be absolutely stunned at how much profanity you probably use in every day conversation.  It is UNREAL.  As a direct result of cleaning up my language, I now notice & hang onto every single curse word a person uses when they are talking to me.  You know when people are on a diet & they compulsively stare at the french fries on someone else's plate?  Its kind of like that.  Basically, by not doing something, it makes you hyper aware of the people who are doing it.  

I use the french fry reference because that is exactly what Kev decided to give up for Lent.  Bless his heart.  Have I mentioned how much I looooveeee French Fries?  They are definitely one of my top 3 food weaknesses, and I refuse to give them up.  Not because I can't do it, but more for the reason that not eating french fries won't help me better myself.  

Sooo.. Kevin.  Whenever I order french fries, he honestly looks/acts like a person who has been away at fat camp for the past 4 months & i'm dangling a twinkie in front of his face. 

Please tell me yall remember this movie? Such a classic. The Blob? Amazing.

It's pretty sad. Butttt, both of our sacrifices will both help us in the long run become better people.  For me, my filtered language will ensure the fact that I will now never be considered for a role on the Maury Povich Show or Cops, which is a win for everyone.  Before hand, it was looking like I could be a shoe-in because I sounded oddly similar to those featured on such programs. 

 **Side note: Obviously its not a favorable comparison, but such a comparison does kind of make me feel like a total BA.  See what I did there?  I've even cleaned up my blogging.**

As for Kev, his no french-fry diet will decrease the chances of him ever being considered for my 600 pound life or Biggest Loser.  Not that he was headed there for anything, but less fried foods will obviously make the kid healthier.  Now.... if we could just get his addiction to Pizza under control.  Wish in one hand, right?  

So just remember to be throwing me some positive reenforcement during this no-cursing endeavor because I have a feeling this sacrifice is going to get about 2000% harder as we roll into the NCAA Tournament this week.  Ohhhh, you can't read that?

 It just says.... The Cats got the NUMBER ONE OVERALL SEED FOR THE WHOLE TOURNAMENT. No biggie.  However, I've said it before & I'll say it again, when a UK game is on at our house, our neighbors probably confuse our profane ref bashing