Bargain Shopping

I've learned over time to only buy things that I absolutely HAVE to have. I tend to pick items up at a store, walk around with the item, then return the item to where I found it due to my conscience telling me I don't need it. Which in most cases I really don't. However, I went to a place called Last Chance in Scottsdale this weekend and found the most amazing skirt that I just wouldn't put back. I feel like I should mention how much of a hell hole this place is though. Rude employees, security guards all over the place, and nothing but crazy people. While waiting for the staff to restock the purses that I was browsing before they cleared the section, the security guard took the time to inform us that there will be no running and absolutely no fighting. Seriously? Fighting over a purse? That is absolutely ridiculous. Last Chance is like the apocalypse and everyone is trying to loot the place but instead of people trying to survive it's people fighting over designer purses and shoes. The advice I would give is, take a friend, as if in a heist, they are your eyes and ears when you aren't aware. Anyway, I found boots that I wanted last year for Christmas but never got due to them selling out and a pair of tights (which I can never have enough of). My overall spending was under 40 dollars. The boots alone were priced at over 120 dollars last year. Total win I'd say!

Fast Food No-No

Back on the first of this month I gave up fast food and soda. I figured it was for the better since I was severely addicted to Coca cola and was eating my way through at least 2 meals a day of drive through food. Being as active as I am my intake of Coke over water was extremely unhealthy. I noticed at practices that I was slow, uncoordinated, and dehydrated. I'm too competitive to only play at 70% so I left most of my practices defeated and unsatisfied. Since I've quite drinking soda I've felt a million times better. I must say though, I've cheated twice but only with Sprite to ensure I'm not receiving any caffeine. My biggest problem was the headache I received after 2 days without soda. Caffeine headaches are killer, not to mention my intake of sugars dropped drastically so I drank lemonade, orange juice, and cranberry juice to counter act the pain. It dulled but barely.

My lack of fast food has been nice. I'm eating at home more so in turn I'm saving more money, I haven't felt sick or bloated, my grease intake is minimal, and I feel great. As of recent, Tom and I decided to go out of town for a day which enabled my eating healthier habits. When we decided that we had to eat something fast my only terms were that we ate in'n'out. Of course it's the only delicious burger I crave so it had to be that or nothing. After taking my time to devour my dream patty I felt fine, nostalgic, but fine. The next night after attending practice we didn't have much time to find a restaurant open after 10 and I wasn't feeling up to cooking anything (mainly because we haven't been shopping in a week or two so our choices are very slim) so we chose Taco Bell. Such blasphemy. Breaking my no fast food rule twice in one week. After eating 2 tacos I felt like complete shit. My stomach was in knots and yet today I still feel like crap. It's amazing the way eating can change your every day life. All I can say is that a home made pb&j beats fast food any day.

Baking!

I've never been the best at baking. I always leave the project in too long/little and I always put the frosting on too soon. In an attempt to be crafty I tried using one of these Cake Pop Makers by Babycakes. Unfortunately as I stated before I always find a way to mess things up. First and foremost I should let you know that the babycakes machine is basically a waffle maker for doughnut holes. The instructions weren't very helpful at all. They didn't emphasize how much batter to put in the individual slots nor does it really tell you how long to leave them in for.

So, what do I do? I wing it, because that's what I do best.

So after figuring out that I had way too much batter I decided to make cupcakes as well. My biggest problem was the fact that my cake balls turned out to be more of cake ufo's. On to the next problem, the sticks I bought weren't staying in the cake balls while I dunked them into my watery frosting. I had to cool and warm up my frosting a good 5 or 6 times trying to get the right consistency which I never really found.

My final consensus, give up baking, I'll never be good at it!