My Week Via Instagram

1. When working with microphones you need waterproof casings for them. You use non-lubricated condoms, professional theater companies use them. This is a sight I feel like you can only see in a theater.

2. My kids at work did Beauty and the Beast Jr. and they were all fantastic! 

3. We went to Epcot to celebrate graduating with my AA

4. Best friends!

5. My new Sparkly Minnie Ears and Regina's new hat!

6. Jolanka and Katniss, best friends forever!

When Planning A Wedding

(via)

When I started wedding planning I heard all of the stories of some of my sweetest friends turning into bridezilla's because of stress. They all had large weddings with cocktail hours, hired DJ's and catering. Where it rained on their wedding days and they had complete melt downs or one of their bridesmaid's wasn't 'pulling her weight'. I was terrified of wedding planning! Mr. ManThing and I opted for a small wedding with a dessert reception where we are doing our own music and his Irish Pub band will even play for a bit. There will be no cocktail hour or hired DJ and it won't even catered. 

Now that school is over with and that ball of stress has been placed on the back burner until September I turned my full attention to wedding planning. Only to discovered that I had the majority of things done! Of course my wedding dress is still being made but there is over 2 months until my wedding so I'm not even worried about that. As I emailed my Matron of Honor this morning freaking out that I've forgotten something major she email me back and said, 'I imagine it's overwhelming because most people have huge weddings. And as long as you don't forget to show up and say "I do," nothing else really matters does it?' She was right. I had no reason to be freaking out at all. 

So here is my question, why do we let ourselves stress out over wedding planning when the most important thing is just to say I do? I'm very grateful that I have a Matron of Honor who reminds me what is important things when it comes to wedding planning.

Did any of you turn in to bridezillas during the wedding planning process?

Week Via Instagram

1. My cats love my patterns, actually their favorite thing to do is lay on them in between me working on them. They are just fluffy jerks.

2. It's time for finals and my brain is just full to the brim of stats. I'm so excited to finally be done and transfer!

3. Mr. ManThing and I headed over to Disney for a little break. Ice cream and good times were had by all!

4. Mariko, Regina's cat, loves sandwiches and was eyeing ours while we had dinner. 

5. My brother, Joey, looks so grown up and classy in his attire for my wedding!

6. 'What's Better Than Great? Me.' is my first Nike shit and I love the sayings on them! 

7. Pine Twenty 2, is an organic burger place in Orlando and they had the BEST burger I've ever had. I will be returning.

8. He's Tramp and I'm Lady and thanks to a wonderful friend I have this for our wedding dessert table.

9. Katniss' kryptonite is sunlight and she is too cute.

You can follow me on Instagram at maddiegracexo! Leave me your instagram name and I'll follow you also!

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Oatmeal

There was a picture going around tumblr that looked amazing and after finally tracking down the source there was no recipe for it so I figured that I would take inspiration from that and make my own. So I did and it was amazing.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Oatmeal

Makes 1 Serving

1 cup water
1/2 cup oatmeal

1/3 cup raspberries

1 banana
4 Squares of Alter Ego 63% Dark Cacao (you can use regular chocolate if you want but Cacao is the best)

1 TSP of cinnamon

1 TBSP of maple syrup 

Pinch of salt

Directions:

• In a pot add 1 cup of water and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Once boiling add in your oatmeal until it is cooked (about 5 minutes). 
• Pour your cooked oatmeal into a bowel. 
• Roughly chop your chocolate and raspberries
• Add your maple syrup and cinnamon to your oatmeal and stir to combine. Then add in your raspberries and chocolate and stir into your oatmeal. Top with bananas! 

This is officially one of my favorite things to have for breakfast! It took about 10 minutes to make and filled me up! Oh and if you're curious where to get the Alter Ego Cacao it is available at Whole Foods. I think I like the cacao better than cocoa. 

Disney Days: Tangled Addition to Fantasyland

Disney's Imagineer's have been doing a lot of upgrading and updating to Fantasyland at Walt Disney World over the last year. With the addition of Belle's Castle, Ariel's Grotto, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Storybook  Circus and even more to open over the next two years the Imagineers have been busy! The Tangled Tower went up earlier this year to the delight of all Tangled fans and has been official opened!

It was raining the day Mr. ManThing and I went over to the parks and for that I'm sorry. I promise to take more sunlit picture over the next few weeks. With that aside the new Tangled additions are adorable! For those who are curious to what the Tangled addition is, it is just new set of bathrooms and stroller parking. I know that sounds so exciting...but it's adorable at least. With that being said the Imagineers have truly out done themselves with the details they've put around the area.

They had these posters all over the area and they had a Flynn wanted poster but it was in the men's restroom and I didn't realize that until I asked Mr. ManThing later if he had seen it. Next time!

Of course this area wouldn't have been complete if it didn't include some of Rapunzel's painting! This can be found outside on the walls and in the inside of both of the bathrooms. Inside the bathrooms in the high rafters her paint set is even set up! Disney really know what they are doing.

We also have Rapunzel's Tower 'off in the distance'. Disney's Imagineers are really out doing themselves with the expansions they've been making. It just gets better and better with each addition! 

What do you think of the new area?

23 Before 24

I will admit that I wish I would have seen this post at the beginning of the year from Kaelah but I didn't. Then seeing that my birthday is in less than 3 months and some of these won't get done before then I decided that I  would make them for my 24 birthday. Mr. ManThing will tell you, I love list. I blame it on my Mom who always wrote out everything in lists. Things from chores to in what order things should get done to write errands and it became such a part of my life that I still write out my list of chores to clean the house. But, I also like to write out my goals and this seemed like a fun thing to do.

1. Run a 5k with a friend. Running is a lonely sport sometimes and it is great to run with  friends if they are into it also! Hopefully I can find someone who wants to run a short race with me.
2. Finish a sewing project that isn't for a convention. I've gotten very good at sewing thanks to some wonderful friends but I've been swamped with costume projects instead of just things just for me. I want to get at least one done just for everyday wear.
3. Loose 20 more pounds! I'm already 22 down! Hopefully I can get down into the 130's!
4. Finally get a bicycle. Mr. ManThing and I have been trying to get a lot more active. He already has a bicycle so if we can get one for me then we can go trail riding together.
5. Get Married. Okay, I know this was already in the works before I made this list but it is a big life changing moment in the coming year and I feel like it deserves to be on the list.
6. Travel out of the USA. Also already planned out for our Honeymoon but once again it still counts!
7. Finish at least 50 books for pleasure between now July 2014. With college it is so hard to find time to myself to just read! It doesn't help that I spend extra time on tumblr but hopefully by making it a goal I'll find time! There are so many books on my shelves that need to be read!
8. Girls night out with the Dragon*Con Girls. Get all of my girls together for a night at Melting Pot! We all have such different schedules that we need to plan!
9. Move into a house! My sister Liz is coming to the city to go to college and we asked her to move in with us! We hope to find a house in our price range so we have space for everyone and isn't an apartment! 
10. Finally get my Etsy shop going! I want to get this up and going before Dragon*Con this year! Fingers crossed.
11. Update the blog once a week! With school this can be so hard but I like being able to keep up with everyone!
12. Transfer to the 4 Year College and get into their Psychology program. Another thing that I can cross off soon! I've worked so hard to get to this point and I'm graduating in a few short days!
13. Spend more time at the beach! Yay beach! I live in Florida, 20 minutes away, I need more beach time!
14. Get my office redecorated! It is a weird mashup of furniture that has been 'gifted' to me over the years! I would like to be able to use it to actually do homework and sew one of these days!
15. Explore a new town in Florida. Almost like a mini-daycation! Fill up a tank of gas and go see some of the historic towns in Florida.
16. Start painting again. Enough said.
17. Spend less time on Tumblr. I'm an addict. Enough said.
18. Run another half-marathon. I really enjoy running guys.
19. Finally start on my tattoos. My tattoo artist has been harassing me about getting it because I keep pushing it back. I will start on my feet tattoos after the wedding... I swear I won't chicken out.
20. Try to do one of the photo a day challenges. Oh please, oh please.
21. Get all of my costuming done for Dragon*Con. I am working on about 4 different costumes and planning a wedding. I HAVE to get them done because I don't want to let anyone down.
22. Get better at putting on makeup. Seriously I can't even put on eyeliner, it always looks awful. 
23. Spend more time with my family. I feel like I hardly see some of my sisters. Maybe I can get a day trip with the siblings. Provided they promise to not kill each other.

Did you make any birthday or yearly goals? Link me to yours or tell me about them! I love adding new things to lists! 

Breakfast for Dinner: Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Breakfast for dinner isn't really a staple in our house but when we do have it for dinner it will always be Chocolate Chip Pancakes. Since we are trying to get away from eating processed foods we are no longer making them with Bisquick. So we've begin searching the internet for a good recipe and tonight I stumbled on This Gal Cooks' Chocolate Chip Pancakes recipe which we modified it a bit to make it a bit sweeter and more to our recipe.

Ingredients

Recipe for the dough adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

Makes 6 pancakes 

1/4 of a Cup of half Milk Chocolate and half Semi Sweet Chocolate

1 cup all purpose flour 

1 TBSP sugar (we used 1 1/2 to make them a bit sweeter)

2 TSP baking powder 

1/4 TSP salt 

1 egg, beaten 

1 cup milk 

2 TBSP vegetable oil 

1/4 TSP vanilla extract

Directions
Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl.
In a separate mixing bowl, combine egg, milk, vanilla and vegetable oil.
Chop up your chocolate chips (see picture below) you can also use your food processor.
Add the milk mixture to your dry ingredients and whisk together.
Then pour in your wet ingredients and whisk them together
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Pour 1/4 cup of dough for each batch onto greased, non-stick skillet and cook each pancake for about 1-2 minutes per side. If you want larger pancakes that use a 1/2 cup or larger.
Serve with syrup and enjoy!