Show & Tell: When I was 17

1. When you were 17, tell us what kind of car you drove, where you worked, and what you were usually up to on the weekends?

I drove this beauty- a Nissan Altima to all of my extracurricular functions and class on a daily basis.  I was and still am an overachiever but I did everything I could in high school to boost my resume for college and it worked in my favor.  I worked multiple jobs including working at a bakery, indoor amusement park/arcade, and lifeguarding.

Clogging the slide- so much fun and yet probably very dangerous
ah hell, I was 17 :P

2. Show us a picture of you when you were 17 {roughly}.

You know we all had mirror/duck face pictures while growing up.
This became one of my favorite "going out" shirts freshman year of college.

Homecoming Court

Percussion section (yup, I loved being in band) and being in the percussion section was a blast. 
Here I am with one of my favorites :)

3. When you were 17, tell us what you wanted to be when you "grew up."

I definitely wanted to be something in marketing.  I was a part of the advanced marketing program at our high school and competed in DECA.  We ran the top school store in the state and I also had the privilege of competing internationally.  I didn't fall too far from that plan as I graduated from UW with a degree in strategic communication and gender & women's studies.

Wisconsin Dells trip with some of the Advanced Marketing ladies

4. When you were 17, tell us the kind of boys that you dated. Did you have a type? Do you have a relationship you remember well? Tell us about it.

My husband as a freshman or so in high school.
I actually met my husband while I was in high school on a school marketing trip.
I didn't really date in high school.  My parents were incredibly strict and I wasn't too keen on the guys that went to my high school so I kind of just hung out with my friends.  College provided a better variety of guys but the irony is that I married a guy that I went to high school with.

 He kind of looks like a homeless man here but he was incredibly cute and charming.
All of the girls liked him and so I knew right away I should stay away from him lol.
Before you knew it that lumber jack-looking man became a Marine.

5. When you were 17, tell us where you pictured your life 10 years from then. Did it turn out the way you expected it to?
I definitely did not expect to be married nor did I expect myself to be an Air Force officer.  I started ROTC while I was in college, so I didn't even graduate high school with that plan in mind.  I definitely would give myself some choice advice on what boys to date in college, how to approach difficult classes and not to worry about the small things.

Remember to use the promotion code HOCUSPOCUS to get a free ad space and guest blog post from now until mid-November.

    

5 in Five

Fantastically Average has this simple, yet practical link-up that I am just lovin' for a Monday.

Five goals that you would like to complete in five days.

Mine are rather mundane but it gets a little spicier towards the end of the week.

1. Do the laundry.  

Source

Yes, the large pile that I periodically stare at while typing this.

Did anyone else notice the baby in this picture? Um, that's not mine.

 2. Plan a morale party for the last day with our instructor.

Missiles training is going by so quickly and our current instructor has been awesome so we're celebrating on Thursday with an in-class shin dig.  Remember those back in grade school?  Your classmates all brought in snacks and the best ones were the goodie bags that parents made.  Plus you got stoked outta-yo-mind when you saw the TV on the tv cart in the classroom.

We're totally doing this except I'm without a Barbie backpack 

and we're all past the legal drinking age.

#oldschool

3. Add more Halloween decorations

Let's be honest, one cannot have too many Halloween decorations.

4. Take a lot of pictures at Brittany's Halloween-themed Birthday Party.

 Expect a blog post because Kim Erskine is the shiz-nit at planning parties.

Expect a Katy Perry-last-friday-night-extravaganza

Source

Don't you just love the 80s? The music, the hair, the neon colors...so fantastic.

 

5. Remember to vacuum more than once.

Hi, my name is Kim and I own a German Shepherd.  Literally so much dog hair everywhere.

I did, however, purchase a Furminator via Amazon and I am so excited to get it.

Amazon is my homegirl.

Thank you for making an app to make purchasing thing(s) more convenient.

Don't forget that I'm doing a swap-ortunity this month!

Get a FREE ad spot when you enter the code (all-caps) HOCUSPOCUS once you checkout.

Not only do you get a free ad spot, but you will also be featured as a guest blogger.

Sha-zam...life is good.

Swap-ortunity

I love meeting people and getting to know their stories.

I think that's why I like blogging so much.

That being said, I want to get to know more of you.

So from October through mid-November, I want to swap buttons!

I want to get to know you and have you all as guest bloggers.

But of course, I can't have you all on here...or maybe I can, but for now let's start off with ten.

Enter the code HOCUSPOCUS 
(make sure it's in "all caps")
at the time of purchase and a normally $5 spot will be completely FREE!
The small print is that I'm clearing out all of that sidebar so it will be a brand new slate to feature awesome bloggers and I would love it if you would feature my button on your blog page as well.
With your free promotional spot,
you also get a guest blog post.
My page gets almost 100+ hits everyday and I think folks would love to get to know you better.
Let's get to swappin'

A Drop in the Ocean

Do you ever have one of those moments where you hear a song and automatically try to remember a few of the lyrics so you can find via Google later?

That happened to me while watching the first episode of season 3 for "Vampire Diaries." 

Ron Pope's song, "A Drop in the Ocean" is beautiful.

 

It's been a busy week to say the least.

Having a three day weekend prior is blessing and yet a curse.

I love having that extra day and the following weekend feels closer than ever but I also felt really worn out this week.

So boo to that.

Speaking of boo's (haha booze)

it's time for my roommate's birthday party!

I am so excited for it and I would post more details on the extravaganza but I know she occasionally reads my blog so I'll post that sometime after.

I have two costume options and I'm working on them both.

What? Kim have two costume options? That doesn't sound like her at all. 

I hope you sensed the dripping sarcasm.

The first...

Source

  Yes, that's right! Ms. Frizzle as a throwback to our kickass childhood.

Who doesn't love "The Magic Schoolbus"?

That's a rhetorical question because if you don't, you deserve to be "this-is-sparta-kicked."

The second...

Source

 

 

 

 

A Snowman! I don't know how I really came up with the idea but I like being cute things for Halloween and snowmen are just super loveable, so why not?

So I spent the weekend running a million and two errands 

(the last two involved me at Chipotle with a delicious burrito in hand).

I first went to Walmart and normally my trips to Walmart are fairly uneventful.

and no, I did not see Captain America at Walmart, although that would have made the trip so awesome.  The Walmart that we live by is actually really crappy.  The aisles are incredibly small and the store is way overcrowded with merchandise.  It's an "old-school" Walmart. Remember when Walmarts turned into Super Walmarts and then that just became the norm?  Well, the Walmarts around here didn't get the memo.

So I went to the Walmart the next town over and it was awful.

Literally the worst layout I've ever experienced.

I have weird personality quirks and one of those is that I get annoyed by weird store layouts.

I blame my PR and advertisement background.

It makes no sense to have shoes next to electronics instead of books or the cooking aisle no where near home goods. However this Walmart did everything wrong with layout. 

It took me twice as long to find everything because when I went to go look for laundry baskets, I found tires instead.  I'm usually pretty shopping savvy but that store was a struggle-fest.  Also everyone who was shopping had at least three kids.  All sorts of different folks but they all had three kids. So many children...

I then went to Jo-Anne's and purchased several yards of tulle to finish my tu-tu's for my costumes.

I absolutely love making tutu's. I think it's because of my sorority sister and old roommate, Hill. Her costumes are always incredibly fabulous. I owe my tutu-making skills to her genius.

I'm also the Matron of Honor in my best-friend, Emily's wedding. I stopped at David's Bridal (my first time there) and tried on four dresses.  Now slightly unrelated, but I get really peeved when clothing sizes are completely unrealistic to their listed size.  I'm not a big person. I'm actually quite small and I work out everyday so when a dress is a 2 and fits like 0, I have a problem with that. It's not flattering to anyone and anything with a fairly high price tag should stay true-to-size.  That's a small vent to my experience with jean's shopping.  However, I found this beautiful dress and I'm so excited to be a part of Milli's day.

Picture this in a shade of red. It's so pretty!

To finish off this post, here are two recipes I used from my shopping trip to the commissary:

Blended Drink O' Delicious

Ingredients:

I love blended coffee drinks but let's be real, we just love that it's a liquid dessert.

To save on costs, I purchased chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, an International Delight blend and had at it! Throwing those in with ice cubs into my Ninja and I had a super yummy beverage. I can't wait to try this with a holiday blend like Peppermint Mocha and top it off with whipped cream.

 Big Boy Mac-N-Cheese

Ingredients:

Package of bratwursts (you could use any type of sausage) sliced

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup Monterey Jack/Colby Cheese

Scallions/Green Onions (just use whatever you've got in the fridge)

2.5 cups of penne (I just threw some in)

1.2 cup of half-n-half

Can of diced tomatoes with green chilies

2 bell peppers diced up

Season it up with S&P, Cajun spices, whateva

When I cook, I use whatever I want and I have an affinity for bell peppers so you really could put whatever you want in this bad boy and it's going to taste good.

You could also make this in one pan if you'd like.

Season up those bratwurst slices and have them cook with the onions and peppers until brown.

Pour in chicken broth, half-n-half, penne, and those diced tomatoes.

Bring it to a boil and keep stirring. At this point I would continually season it.

Put a lid on it and let it cook for 15 minutes.

The original recipe said prep your broiler.

Did I have a clue what that was? Absolutely not so I pre-heated the oven for 350 degrees and waited.

I took the skillet off the burner, blended in the cheese (I love cheese so I probably used an entire bag) and added the chopped up scallions on top.  I threw that bad boy in the oven for four minutes.

Then we ate and it was good.

A Homecoming Captured in Still Images