Almost Gypsy Soul

It all started with 3 girls in grad school + one high school friend, we decided that 3 Master's degrees + one in progress deserved a big vacation and Alaska '08 was born. From there we decided that we should get together every year to celebrate 'birthday weekend'. Birthday weekend doesn't have to be on the same weekend every year, but we do our best to make sure we do something fun! And we usually name our vacations and have funny quotes of each other, cuz we are cool like that. Alaska '08 "Good show, young man, good show" Birthday Weekend '09 "That's Jeri's tree"  Arivada '10 "Do you girls just get together and party?" AZ State Patrol Peaceful Mountain '11 The Wedding of 2012 Yeah, we are the fun ones! And speaking of fun....don't forget to come back tomorrow and link-up with me for Soul Food Friday!

If you remember back when I was in Kansas and we lost the goats and we made lost goat pizza ....well here is the delicious recipe, only slightly modified and by modified I mean that I added some more yummy ingredients. Ingredients 1 pizza crust 1/2 c Skinny spinach artichoke dip 1 1/2 chicken breast 3 slices bacon veggies - I used mushrooms, red pepper and red onion 1 c. low-fat mozzarella cheese Directions 1. Prepare pizza crust according to directions on packages 2. Spread skinny spinach artichoke dip over pizza crust 3. Pan fry bacon, drain grease on paper towels 4. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and cook in 1/2 tablespoon of bacon grease 5. Spread veggies, bacon pieces and chicken onto the pizza 6. Spread cheese over the top of all toppings 7. Bake according to pizza crust directions. 8. Give thanks that the goats made it home safely and enjoy Lost Goat Pizza!

Moving right along, my next stop(s) are in Kansas, my motherland! OKTrailerPark Friend and Mr. OKTrailerPark Friend have recently moved to Kansas and bought a new place and new goats to go with their new jobs! The Mr. was at work, but us grad school girls had a good time on our own! And those goats....lets just say its a good thing our schedule was WIDE open! We let the goats out to graze the weeds while we held down the patio table with some ice cold Bud Lights when all of a sudden they were gone! And I mean gone, they didn't even come when OKTrailerPark Friend called them. We continued to stomp around the pasture in our flip flops...keeping a good eye out for snakes for about 4 hours, then we wished them luck in the dark of night and went to bed. Morning resumed with breakfast and lost goat search, which we completed just in time for lunch! Next stop, Grandpa's house! I found out that Grandpa and Grandma are moving to town in the fall and of course trying to ge...

I don't really know how to write about this far-away friend and really do her justice. She is amazing, she is inspirational, she is brave, she is caring, she is my best friend. It doesn't matter if we talked yesterday, 2 weeks ago or a few months ago, we pick up where we left off and its like we never missed a day. We grew up a few miles from each other and in 6th grade we were exactly the same height and size. I grew and she didn't. We were a match on the volleyball court because we already knew what each other was thinking. She was a setter and I was a middle hitter....I say hitter because lets be honest in JH there just wasn't alot of blocking happening. She ran the point and I played inside the paint. We ran track together, we were in 4-H together, we ate fried spiders at Financial Friend's house together.....we could usually be found.....together. Military friend was always extremely self motivated (and still is) and can accomplish anything! Her fa...

Just in case you missed them,  you can read about my fears of turning 30 here and you can read about Day 1 of 30 here . PAUSE: And a forgotten photo from Day 1, one that really shows my age and maturity.     PLAY: Day 2 brought us small town girls hitting the town with our wallets and doing some shopping. I did really good and didn't spend too much money.....thank you gift cards! Then we were off to Texas Roadhouse to eat my daily caloric intake in one sitting......and it was awesome. Think fried pickles, bloomin' onion, house salad with ranch, warm buttery rolls with cinnamon butter, medium-rare ribeye with loaded baked potato topped off with a blue dolphin (H2O). A day of snowboarding and a night of cards might have caught up with the old lady! Then the nice folks at TR sang to me and gave me an ice cream sundae! YEE-HAW! Its my birthday! Photo complements of Little Sister Then we headed into the City for main attraction......Micky & the Moto...

  [Linking up with Sami @ Sami's Shenanigans for Weekend Shenanigans] If you didn't read about me thinking that 30 might suck , boy oh boy was I wrong! The weekend might have started off a little rough, but even I-80 in the winter couldn't ruin our fun! A week late, but hey I warned you I might need some extra recovery time since I'm 30, not to mention I had lots of people waiting on little ole' me to return and get to work for them! OKTrailerPark Friend and Mr. OKTrailerPark Friend (he might be getting his own name since I know him better now, we will see) were on their way to Wyoming when BAM, I-80 is closed from Cheyenne to Laramie. For anyone who lives in Wyoming or has been to Wyoming in the winter is not at all shocked by this. So they got one of the few hotel rooms left in Cheyenne, dropped a few bills at the western store and had a "down home" breakfast before heading on west the next day. Meanwhile, the rest of us, Little Sister, Little S...

Well crap! Its here, I'm officially 30. However, I'm going to try to stay positive so here is what I'm loving about turning 30. 1. My friends are here to celebrate with me. OKTrailerPark Friend and Mr. OKTrailerPark Friend drove up from Colorado for the weekend festivities! Plus Little Sister, Little Sister's Boyfriend and Music Man will be joining! all.weekend.long.   2. We are headed to the mountain today instead of the office. Bring on the brews, burgers and boards! YA-HOO! 3. Micky & the Motorcars AND Reckless Kelly are headed west to celebrate with me(presumably just because its my 30th birthday!, I'm important like that). 2 of the best bands.EVER. 4. I'll be swallowing turning 30 and washing it down with a feast from the Roadhouse! Medium rare ribeye, loaded baked potato, salad with ranch, buttery rolls with cinnamon butter PLUS a coupon for a free appetizer! Should I pick the onion blossom or fried pickles? I believe this meal alone wi...

[Linking up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday] A few years back, OKTrailerPark Friend and Snowboard Friend and I went to Canyons in Utah for a girls weekend. We had a slope side condo, reduced price lift tickets, wine and the resort swimming pool. Now when we vacation we do it up right. We snowboarded and rode the alpine slide by day and by night we soaked in the pool, wore sweatpants, cooked dinner in our condo, played cards, drank wine and watched this YouTube video....over and over and over and over. the.best.ab.workout.ever. Whenever I'm having a sub-par day, I pull this video out. I mean I do have it favorited on my work computer even! If this video doesn't make you laugh, go to the emergency room NOW! Here is a little note from Ed and Ross's mom, who posted the video. As you can read Ed and Ross were best friends! PLEASE NOTE..... THESE CLIPS WERE TAKEN OVER A PERIOD OF 18 MONTHS.... ED WAS A VERY GOOD BOY MOST OF THE TIME.... I HAVE HOURS ...

con·nois·seur a discerning judge of the best in any field:   as in a connoisseur of screw top wine (thats me!) I was never much of a wine dr ink er, but when I lived in Tennessee I had to learn because my job worked with many of the smaller family owned win eries throughout the state. Now by connoisseur, I mean that I pick my wine by how fun the names and/or labels are. Now my qualifications as a connoisseur: I visited seve ral win er ies while I lived in Tennessee. In the picture a bove you can see the first one that I went to . When I wa lked into the building they had a beautiful bar a rea for win e tastings. As I se ttled i n on a stool, the wine lady (technical term ) asked me what kind of wine I liked. I respon ded that I didn't really know so just start at the top of th e list and keep them coming until we get to the bottom. I could tell she wasn't real impressed, but she kept 'em coming! ps. can 't go wrong with Muscadine wine in TN! ...