Bride to Wife

Book Rec

2011-09-10T23:28:00.000-07:00

Source: goodreads.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

Our Book Club just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffinegger. I highly recommend it, even if you have already seen the movie.

It's a very touching story about the strength of love over and in spite of time. I remember Brody crying in the theater during this movie. He said "That's how much I love you." It was sweet.

But he also cried in Toy Story 3 and said "That's how much I loved my toys." So, I don't know what to take away from that.

Read it!

Recipes Lately

2011-08-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

Homemade Tortillas: These turned out pretty good. I think next time I'll use butter instead of shortening. Takes more time than you'd think!

Source: foodwishes.blogspot.com via Katy on Pinterest

Baked Chicken Taquitos: These turned out great!

Source: savourthesensesblog.com via Katy on Pinterest

Garlicky Spaghetti: Don't forget the salt!

Source: flickr.com via Katy on Pinterest

Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice: This is good even without the lime juice.

Source: skinnytaste.com via Katy on Pinterest

This is a great bread, but the recipe calls for dumping a bowl of ice into the hot oven. It was pretty scary!

Source: blogs.babble.com via Katy on Pinterest

Iced Coffee: I didn't get quite as Fancy as P-Dub. But I did add chocolate milk to it which was a hit.

Source: thepioneerwoman.com via Katy on Pinterest

Pet Peeves Part Three

2011-08-02T20:00:00.001-07:00

I cannot quit developing Pet Peeves. I think I developed three just on HP 7.2 Premiere Night. Here are a few more to add to my ever-growing list:

1. "Judge me"

I hate it when people tell you to judge them. Someone will admit to doing something unsavory or childish and then offer themselves up to be judged. For example:

"I'm eating an ice cream cone for dinner. JUDGE ME!"

"I'm 27 and I still love Disney shows. Feel free to judge"

or, worst of all

"I just went to the store in sweats and no make up, judge accordingly"

Chances are I'm already judging you. You don't have to prompt me.

2. People Tweeting about the heat

I don't mind the occasional comment about the weather if it is extreme, surprising or downright ridiculous, but chances are I know what the temperature is. You don't have to remind me with a Twitpic of your dashboard thermometer or the iWeather 7-day forecast screenshot.

3. People saying they are "addicted" when they really aren't. (i.e. I'm addicted to Pinterest!)

I wouldn't call this a pet peeve necessarily, because I'm guilty of this too, but I am trying to be more careful about definitive statements and using that word lightly. I think addiction is real, and we should be careful about making light of it.

4. Hipster/Snobs

It annoys me when people hate on anything and everything mainstream. Don't things become mainstream for a reason? Because the majority of the people like it? I am definitely a proponent of everyone having their own opinions, but don't hate on something JUST because it's popular. The Office IS funny, Katy Perry songs ARE catchy and Walmart DOES have really good prices. I don't care who you are, you cannot deny it. And just because something is off-the-grid doesn't automatically make it cool.

5. The word "Amazing"

It's beginning to become overused, don't you think?

"My shower was amazing!" "Those breath mints are amazing!"

There are a lot of other words in the English language that can give a more accurate and descriptive statement.

DISCLAIMER: I don't care if you do these things, and I won't stop loving or following you if you continue to do them. I am also very annoying to some people, very shallow and could work on my own vocabulary. Please take everything I say with a grain of salt :)

Brilliant Beautiful Calzone

2011-07-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

Source: squidoo.com via Katy on Pinterest

I made this tonight. It was a great success! Very yummy.

You're Invited!

2011-07-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

I'm hosting an Arbonne party this Saturday for Arbonne Consultant Becca Smith. All you bloggy readers are invited to come!

When: Saturday July 9 at 6:30 p.m.

Where: My apartment! Text me, Facebook msg me, or comment below for the address

Here's my Arbonne testimony:

I used CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP products before and my skin was always blemished, uneven and oily. My make-up would run off by the end of the day. Gross. I just got some products from Becca and I already feel a million times better. My make-up stays on all day, and I haven't have ONE PIMPLE since using it. I love the skincare and cosmetic products, but they also have nutrition products that are really neat. I'm drinking a "fizzy tab" right now (it's a replacement for my Diet Coke addiction). Anyway, it really is worth it, and you an trust me, because I'm not trying to sell you stuff! Just an advocate.

Anyway, this is just a fun, informational, play-with-the-products, no-pressure-to-purchase get together type thing. If you want to place an order and can't make it to the party, I'll hook you up with Becca. Her e-mail is bexjanesmith@gmail.com. She's the best. Here is an online catalog for you to look through.

Easy pulled pork

2011-07-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

Is there anything more American than BBQ?

Some may argue flags, hamburgers, baseball, Toby Keith and Old Navy are, but I beg to differ.

Easy Squeezy Pulled Pork

3 lbs of boneless pork ribs
1 can of beef broth
1 bottle of BBQ sauce

In a slow cooker, cook the ribs and beef broth on high for 4 hours
Remove the pork when cooked
Preheat the oven to 350
With two forks, pull apart the meat
In a dutch oven place the chicken and the BBQ sauce and mix together
Bake for 30 minutes

Eat in a wheat bun with mayo, season salt and a pickle!

NYC

2011-05-31T10:02:00.000-07:00

The Gustafsons are going to NYC this week!

Any suggestions? Must-sees? Must-Dos? Must-packs? Must-wears? Must eats?

We are going to see Memphis, which is apparently incredible! I don't doubt it. I'll probably cry.

I'm also pushing to do the NBC Studio Tour because I'm about 3/4 through with Tina Fey's Bossypants(very good!).

Dodocase

2011-05-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite new product! It's called a Dodocase.

Their story is awesome. They were a book binding company that was going out of business due to the e-reader boom, so they decided to use their skills and inventory to make iPad and Kindle cases! Very resourceful.

Mine is navy blue. It looks exactly like a moleskin journal when it is closed! Very tricky. Love it!

Secrets

2011-05-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's official! The secret is finally out...

We're getting an Anthropologie!!!!!!!

When I was asked to write the media announcement that OKC was getting an Anthropologie, I was thrilled! But also so so scared that I was going to spill the beans. Luckily I managed to keep it under wraps for a couple of weeks until it became official.

I think I did a little too much "research" for this particular assignment...

Needless to say I know all of you share my excitement about such a coveted retailer coming to our city.

Pinterested

2011-05-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

I've recently discovered Pinterest: a tool to categorize your fab finds online without the worry of copyright or dominating your hard drive.

Here is a link to my Pinterest page. Take a look! It's such a fun way to get inspired.

P.s. I'm still going strong on couch to 5k. I'm about to start week three! I haven't really shed pounds like I was expecting. I blame frapaccino happy hour week and the new Mocha Coconut Frap at Starbucks, which I lovingly refer to as the "mochanut". But really it isn't about losing weight for me right now, it's just for my overall every and well being.

And swim suit season. Darn you swim suit season.

Week one

2011-05-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

I just completed Week One of "Couch to 5K". I've got to admit, it's so great! I love this workout so much so far. Of course I know it's going to get harder as the weeks go on, but for now I'm very satisfied. I even paid extra $0.99 for the GPS feature that includes pace and distance trackers.

So, for those of you who care, I'm still in this thing.

Love to all.

Couch 2 5k

2011-05-02T16:56:00.001-07:00

Today I started a program called "Couch 2 5k". It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's a program that eases the process of going from no activity to running a 5k. Now, I don't have any immediate plans to run a 5k, but I did get inspired by this weekend's OKC Memorial Marathon runners. Running is something I just don't do. I've never found it entertaining or rewarding, just hard.

Some things come easy to me, but physical activity isn't one of them. Accomplishing something in the physical realm is something I would count as a truly incredible accomplishment for me.

Needless to say I've got to ease myself into it. If I try to go all out, I'll give up. This program seems doable. I'm not going to make any big promises, but I would like to run the half marathon next year.

Seemed unlikely today when I ate 20 McNuggets by myself. But you never know!

Have any of you tried this program? Any tips?

By the grace of God...

2011-04-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEE!

I can't believe it! After seven months of scrimping and saving and envelopes, we did it. We paid off all of our debt!

Using the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover system, we followed his plan and are moving on to Baby Step 3 in his 7 Steps. Usually when people reach this step, they call Dave on his radio show and tell their story. Brody and I are thinking about doing it, so I'm going to practice answering all the questions Dave usually asks the callers:

How much have you paid off? $24,000

How long did it take you? Seven months

Making what kind of money? One starting-level full-time salary and a pizza delivery boy salary, but doubling our income after three months when Brody graduated....A.K.A not that much.

What was the debt? Student loans

What was the hardest part? The hardest part was giving every dollar a name; meaning, setting a zero-based budget and sticking to it. So many times I would see money in our checking account but knowing that money had been designated for a specific purpose. It was hard to spend our money at the beginning of the month and committing to those choices for 30 whole days! Tough stuff.

What would you say is the key to getting out of debt? The key is to get inspired. I listened to the Dave Ramsey Show on the radio every single weekday and even downloaded the podcast for Brody and I to listen to on road trips. We kept our eyes on the prize and never strayed. We talked about our goals everyday which kept us motivated.

What was the craziest thing you did to get out of debt? Lived without cable. My blog-readers know how I feel about TV. I LOVE IT. Brody is the movie-man and I am the TV girl. I can't believe I went this long without cable. I miss all my shows, but saving $75 a month was way worth it....but I'll tell you one thing, if it weren't for Netflix, we wouldn't be debt free.

So there's our debt free story. This is our biggest accomplishment as a married couple thus far. I'm so proud of us, and I know we will be able to reach all of our financial goals!

Girl Power

2011-04-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

I have a very exciting blog entry coming on Thursday. It's going to be a momentous occasion that I definitely want to mark in my memoirs (AKA this blog).

So until then, I'll leave you with this: My "Girl Power Pump-Up" song.

Wall of compliments

2011-04-21T14:06:00.001-07:00

I saw this at an OKC elementary school. A bulletin board meant to compliment the nurse.

Someone is desperate for a diagnosis.

Netflix Finds

2011-04-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

Usually I go through phases where I focus all my attention on one thing, and that one thing is the greatest thing in the world. Here are some of my past flings:

Harry Potter
Hunger Games
Twilight (are you seeing a pattern here?)
Girl With series
Dexter
Parks and Recreation
Arrested Development (are you seeing a pattern here?)
Cooking
Shopping
Dave Ramsey
Blogging
Working out

I usually slip into these phases, become consumed with the object of my obsession, and then move on. I think this means I have an addictive personality.

I am in the big, fat, giant middle of another obsession: Bones.

I LOVE BONES!

What a fantastic Netflix find! At first I thought the series was strictly plot driven because I thought the characters weren't distinct enough, but boy was I wrong! IT'S BOTH! Which is like a dream comes true for me.

I know, I love TV too much. Brody loves movies, but I get too attached to my characters to say goodbye to them after 2 hours. I like to keep them around a few years.

Here are some recent Netflix finds. I love sharing these with you all, because I love getting good suggestions from others, so please leave me your great Instant Netflix finds!

Bones (duh)
Toy Story 3
Arthur (the original)
Glee season 1
SNL
About a Boy
Dogs Decoded: A Documentary
Up
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Father of the Bride
Jersey Shore (great anthropological study....I've been watching too much Bones)
Party Down

These all come highly recommended. What do you recommend?

Pet Peeves Part II

2011-04-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

These are slightly less annoying to me; mostly because they are a lot more common than my previous list.

I know some of you will read this and say "I've done that," or even "I've done that today!"

I don't mean to judge or offend you. And by all means, don't listen to me. I'm only one person!

Here it goes:

1. Letters to inanimate objects- i.e. "Dear phone, Please stop dropping calls." or "Dear Monday, I'd appreciate it if you ceased to exist." Are you expecting a response?

2. Poor grammar- I AM GUILTY OF THIS TOO ON OCCASION, so please don't point out my grammatical blog errors from here on out. But I can't get through some people's blogs without my inner word-smith cringing. What are you a Thunder player? (Read their Tweets, and you'll see what I mean).

3. Deciding what kind of day it is- i.e. "It's a two-cups-of-coffee kind of day" or "It's a windows down, Mumford and Sons, flips flops and a Sonic Happy Hour kind of day!" I say, maybe for you, but for me it's just Tuesday.

Keep sharing your pet peeves! I love reading them.

Two Meals

2011-03-24T16:42:00.001-07:00

The Gusties have made two really great meals this week.

This one- our personal favorite- is what we like to call "Brats and Onions".

I'm not going to put a recipe on here, because Brody is the one that makes them. I know he cooks them in beer and grills them....don't ask me how!

Also on the menu: Stuffed baked potatoes, Sauteed onions, grilled onions and broccoli! We also like to grill sauerkraut with the brats, but we ran out.

The second meal is one I made: Pioneer Woman's Chicken Fried Steak and mashed potatoes

Here is the recipe. It's not as hard as it looks! What I love most about this recipe is that the typical kitchen already has most of the ingredients like eggs, milk and flour. You don't have to buy a lot of stuff to prepare for this meal, just the steak!

I even made the gravy FROM SCRATCH using the grease from frying the steak. I made it a little too thick, so make sure to add more milk to yours!

Also, if you look at this photo, you can actually see the butter in the mashed potatoes...that's probably because I added a stick of it.

It didn't look that buttery in real life!

The more butter the better is my motto.

I challenge all my readers to make chicken fried steak. You'll be SO proud of yourself!

Pet Peeves

2011-03-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not writing this post because I'm in a bad mood, or annoyed or even experienced a pet peeve today. I just think pet peeves are really interesting. What gets under your skin? What makes you cringe? Here's my list, and I hope others will share...because I'm interested to know.

1. Birthday countdowns:

i.e. "5 months from today I'll be 25!" or "Hey that's 6 days before my birthday!" or "10 days til my birthday!" I'm not really sure why it bothers me. I don't dislike birthdays, but I think each person should only get one day a piece.

2. Keynote speakers' pump-up-the-audience routine:

i.e. "How you all doing today?" Applause "Aw come on, I know you can do better than that, HOW YOU ALL DOING TODAY?!!??" More applause "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!!!!" Seriously? Why should I applaud you? You haven't even started your speech.

3. "...is that bad?" or "...am I a terrible person?"

I think if you have to ask, you already know the answer. Also, stop tempting me to judge you.

4. Texting while driving

Just say no. This is serious. It's more dangerous than driving drunk. If it's that important, pull over. Your text isn't worth risking lives.

5. Hair blowing into my lip gloss

Since I live in Oklahoma, I simply can't wear lip gloss all all. Too windy!

What drives you nuts?

Mismatched China Lamp

2011-03-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

This is the second thing I've ever made.

I saw this Whimsical Lamp tutorial on THIS blog. I loved it so much that I had to have my own. Not that I necessarily wanted to make the lamp, but I just really wanted to have it. I started by purchasing some mismatched china from T.J. Maxx (I am a Maxxinista after all). I've always loved the color blue and registered for mostly blue and white pieces for my kitchen, so I went along with that theme.

I had to get the electrical part figured out, so I did what Kitty did and bought an old crappy lamp from Goodwill ($2.99), put it in a bag and broke it apart with a hammer to get the chord out.

I also wanted to take the cheap route and use caulk instead of air dry clay to keep the electrical stuff in place. I stuffed the bottom of the top cup with tissue paper so I didn't waste the caulk.

Next use super glue to glue to pieces together.

I found a lamp shade at Wal-Mart.

A perfect lamp for a kitchen!

Thieves

2011-03-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

"Uhhh....Katy? You know that new iPhone we bought?"

"Yes, the new one in the shiny box that is barely used?"

"That's the one. Well....it was stolen."

Against my better judgement, I got very very angry.

WHO STEALS!!!?????

Brody's new phone was stolen at work by a customer. We did everything we could. We tried tracing him by his credit card info (turns out restaurants can't do that...which I guess is a good thing. Not in this case), we reviewed the security tapes and still couldn't identify this guy who walked out with the phone.

After some remotely locking and wiping the phone, sending threatening texts, sending pleading texts, and even executing a Craigslist Sting Operation (which turned out to be legit), we gave up. We thought we had found the thief when a matching description popped up on Craigslist the next morning. Brody offered to buy it, met with the seller just so he could check the serial number; the guy was clean.

Brody and I definitely learned a lot from the situation.

You can't run from the evil in the world, and always buy the insurance.

Apartment Therapy

2011-03-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

Have you ever looked through Apartment Therapy?

It's got so many great ways to spice up your space. I always thought I couldn't make such a small apartment look "put together," but now that I've been following Apartment Therapy, I have no excuse. Makes me want to re-do things!

Apartment Therapy= Retail Therapy= Financial Therapy= Actual Therapy.

DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: If you follow that link, you may never come back.

The first thing I ever made

2011-03-03T19:44:00.001-08:00

I decided I wasn't cut out for sewing.

I decided to just use hemming tape as suggested (thanks Heather!)

I got the iron-on kind, but my iron wasn't staying hot, so I busted out the hair straightener.

Finished product!!

Before:

After!

DIY

2011-03-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

I just bought this fabric:

...and told myself I'm going to make it into curtains.

What?

I've never made anything in my life.

We'll see.....

iPhone Review

2011-02-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

Welp, we joined the rest of the world and got iPhones.

Not that I didn't like my Crackberry, but my company switched us over to Apple products and Brody simply couldn't be left behind.

Here's some questions I have so far:

1. Angry Birds? What's all the buzz about? I can't get past the first level.
2. Words with Friends? I have about 10 games going at once and I'm losing almost all of them. Also, how is this different than Scrabble and how come Scrabble isn't suing for copyright infringement?
3. Does anyone actually use face time?
4. Will the "crickets" setting on the alarm clock really wake you up?
5. Is there a way to set my phone to ring for a call, but not for a text? I'm not the biggest fan of vibrate.
6. Does getting a case really help you to not drop calls on the iPhone 4?
7. Do people actually use it as an MP3 player? Or should I hang on to my iTouch?
8. Will I ever get used to the touch screen?