Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas all!
Happy to spend it with my family. 
We actually opened presents on Christmas Eve night. Before that we had a delicious dinner at Outback Steakhouse (thanks Grandma & Grandpa for the giftcards :) ). 

On Christmas we went to mass and then had a chill afternoon. Can you say Parks and Rec Marathon?!? Nick came home for only 24 hours since he had work, but it was good that we were all home together!

Here are some things I got for Christmas, and loved them all!

Yoga mat
Dress (see below)
Whitening strips and electric toothbrush
Running pants and jacket 
Phone case
Pig Bag Clips (Chris knows me so well ;)) 
and a few other things! Thanks Santa!


Pen likes her new bed for Christmas


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

On the Way home for Xmas Break

I made it home!! It was a long trip..let me tell you. My flight arrived in Hartford around 4 and I didn't end up getting in the car until almost 7. It took Mom, Chris, and Penny almost 6 hours round trip to pick my up (usually a 2 hour deal). All because of SNOW!! Darn you snow. I knew it was supposed to snow and I couldn't believe that my plane actually landed. And it really did land in the snow and I survived. I'm home and happy now!

Snowy at the terminal
Outside the plane window
Penny lounging in the car on the way back 

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Texts that make me smile

I love getting picture texts, those are the best kind! Lately I've been getting picture texts that make me happy! I receive lots of Penny which I love. Today I got some pictures of my cousins with the Christmas presents we got them. They are too cute! I just thought I would share some picture texts that I've gotten recently that make my day

Sean got Game of Life
Allison got a baking kit

Penny with the Charlie Brown Christmas tree at home 

Exhausted
Penny sleeping with Chris's Camel 

Speech Christmas Party

The party last night was a success and a lot of fun! 

Katie and I spent all afternoon getting ready for the party. We made the house look great in our opinions :) We hung a lot of lights (a lot!) and got all the food/drinks ready. We were thinking about become party planners and dropping out of grad school. Our decision was to drop out....just kidding! 


I invited all the people in my class and their husband/boyfriend/girlfriend if they wished to. I think there were around 25 people that came last night, which was a great crowd. We ate lots of food, talked, played catch phrase, and had a white elephant gift exchange. I ended up winning scratch offs. I didn't win anything though boo! I thought the best gift was a Beta fish. It was too funny and Sarah opened it thought it was dead. It wasn't though, but they did name the fish "Dead Fish." Katie ended up with a new pet at the end of the night after stealing. 


It was a lot of fun to mingle with everyone in my class and not be stressed about classes or studying. 


Here are a couple of pictures from the night.



Katie, Me, Jenna, and Sarah 

Andrea, Lydia, Katie, Me, Sarah, Jenna, and Sarah 


The Decorations....








The entire group!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Heath Carmel Cheesecake





Another post for the week. Woohoo! Tomorrow is my last final of the semester and then I'm hosting a Christmas party at my house for my class. I'm very excited. I needed to make something, and of course I chose to make something sweet.

I decided to make a cheesecake but with a twist. I add heath and carmel on top to make it a Heath Carmel Cheesecake

It was great to be back in the kitchen baking again. I don't even remember the last time I did that! Afterwards it was major clean-up time since I have lots of company tomorrow. 

Adapted from here

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
4 pkg (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla 
4 eggs
carmel for drizzling
heath piece


Directions: 
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix graham crumbs, 3 Tbsp sugar and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch or 8-inch springform pan. Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust. Bake 55 min or until the center is almost set. Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Add the heath to the middle of the cheesecake and then drizzle carmel. ENJOY :)))




Monday, December 9, 2013

Friday, December 6, 2013

Friday, November 29, 2013

Haiti Trip Video

A few of the members of the Mission Trip to Haiti created a video about the trip....

Enjoy!



I really like this video because several of the group shared their experiences. It was truly a great experience that I will never forget.

My intent was to write a reflection about each day while I was there but I haven't gotten very far....So far I have this:

Haiti Day One and Two 
Haiti Photobook

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great day with their family/friends.

This was my first year not being home with my family. It definitely wasn't the same without them, but I still had a great day. 

I got to spend some time with these two....






Allison and Sean! Aren't they cuties? They are my cousins. I also spent time with my aunt and uncle too.

On Wednesday we ate dinner together and hung out. 
On Thursday, I went to a spin class with my aunt, which was start to a day full of food. After the gym, Allison and I got started on some baking. She loves to bake (just like me) and loves chocolate as well. When she heard that we were going to make chocolate pilgrim hats, her eyes got big! We ended up making plain cheesecake and pilgrim hats. They both turned out great!


Pilgrim hats made from chocolate swirl cookie, mini reese cup, and orange icing. 

Allison busy at work
I was able to Skype my family at home and see all them. It won't be too long until I see them for Christmas (I can't wait!).
After baking and getting cleaned up we headed over to my aunt's parents' house and celebrated Thanksgiving. There were 5 kiddos there all under the age of 6, including a 3 day old newborn. I enjoyed hanging out with everyone and ate a delicious meal. 


Allison holding Baby Drew

After we left, my uncle and I headed out for "pre-Black Friday" at Walmart because he was thinking about getting a TV. After we saw this and walked around a little, we gave up and left! Too crazy for us.


On Friday, the Christmas decorations began at their house. 

Allison's tree
Sean's tree
Later that morning, we made a trip to Petsmart and Home Depot. At Home Depot they picked out their Christmas tree. And they also got a mini Christmas tree for me! I have absolutely zero Christmas decorations at my house so it was great to get my first one. Sean had a buddy on the car ride home....


We went out to lunch and then I headed back. It was fun hanging out with these guys and I'm thankful that I have some family that lives so close and welcomed me for Thanksgiving. 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

John Mayer Concert (Plus Phillip Phillips!)

I went to the John Mayer concert last night at the Yum Center. It was awesome! I love John Mayer...and also Phillip Phillips who opened. 

I went with two girls in my class, Katie and Sarah, and two of their friends. Last week I was looking on Groupon (instead of studying, ha!) and found a really good deal for the concert. Only $30 for a $60 regular priced ticket. We weren't really close to the stage, but I think they were still pretty good seats. They had two jumbo trons for when John Mayer sang so we were able to see him close up. He makes the weirdest facial expressions! But I guess that makes him a great performer! 

I love John Mayer's older songs so I was hoping he would sing a lot of those. He ended up singing about half older and half of his newer stuff. I was familiar with the newer albums, but wasn't able to sing along. They were still good though. I really like "Dear Marie" and also "Age of Worry" (check out the lyrics of this one...I really like them!). 

I promise to get some better pictures. I only brought my phone (stupid that I forgot my camera) so these pictures aren't the best quality. 




Songs John Mayer sung (I will update when I find the official playlist):
Queen of California
Belief
Who Says
Waiting on the World to Change
Wildfire
Stop This Train
Dear Marie
Something Like Olivia
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
Age of Worry
Half of My Heart
Gravity
Whiskey Whiskey Whiskey 
Paperdoll 
Why Georgia 
Come Back to Bed 
Journey's Don't Stop Believin'

Phillip Phillips was great too! I really like him and he is a great performer as well. I didn't know any of his songs so I listened to his CD a little before the concert. When I find his playlist I will add it here. He did sing his most popular songs "Home" and "Gone, Gone, Gone"



You to hear something exicting?!? Phillip Phillips tweeted me back! Check it out!


Call me a weirdo, but I was pretty excited about it. 


The speech gang! Me, Katie, and Sarah.

Speaking of speech...we were talking about how these singers could acquire vocal nodules because of singing so much and straining their vocal folds. #SLPProbs. We just couldn't get away from school ;)

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Seeing Doubles: Penny #2

Want to know something funny? There is a Vizsla puppy out there that is only one month younger than my Vizsla puppy named Penny too.

Long story to short, I know this Penny! The kids that I used to babysit in Louisville just got this new puppy. She is a cutie too. I got to meet her the other day. She is very sweet!

These (4) kids that I used to babysit once had a Vizsla named Churchhill who was sweet and Bailey's "boyfriend." He was so friendly. He passed away even before Bailey did. But welcome two new Pennys!







Sunday, November 10, 2013

Penny on Social Media

Since I'm not home social media has been my friend to talk to my family and also, see the cutest pup ever! 
Skype has been great to see Penny live. Here are some snap shots of Skyping her. 

This is when Nick went to go pick her out. She was so tiny! As you can see, Mom, Chris, and I are all huddled around the computer screen. 

Above and below, this was the first weekend that they picked her up. She was sleeping and kind of out of it. She was so squishy looking! And Dad popped in to say hi too!


Below is a video of Penny. I took this on my phone when I was home for Fall Break. I need to work on figuring out hot to upload a video. Not sure why it turned out like this. 

Almost everyday, Chris is sending me Snap-chats. He sent me one yesterday with a UofL blanket on her and said "Go Cards!" Too funny. Mom is sending me picture texts of her as well. Thank goodness for social media and technology :)

Mom sent me one and said "Two cuties" I totally agree ;)