Ice Cream Cake for a 21st Birthday

Happy Birthday to a wonderful roommate, Hannah! This weekend she turned 21. You know what that means? I needed to make her an awesome birthday cake of course! I haven't made one of my delicious ice cream cakes in FOR-EVER.                                       <-BIRTHDAY GIRL (with her crazy hair!)

Check out this easy, yummy, chocolatey, heaven-like cake...

Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix (plus ingredients to make it)

1 roll of cookie dough

1 tub of ice cream (whatever flavor floats your boat :) )

1 jar of fudge 

Directions:

Bake brownie according to the box, EXCEPT under cook it a little bit so it's still a little gooey. Make one giant cookie that will fit right on top of the brownie. Let both the brownie and cookie completely cool. Spread the jar of fudge on top of the brownie. Put the cookie on top of the fudge. The cookie may fall apart, but it will still taste good and be covered by the ice cream :). Freeze for at least an hour. Soften the ice cream and  spread on top. Put back in the freezer a little bit and then the deliciousness is ready to be served! 

Giant Cookie

Brownie

This is the fudge I used

We stuck it in our VERY crowded freezer!

We used Cookies n Cream ice cream. 

Look at those yummy layers!

Week Three 5K Thanksgiving Training

It was an awesome running week! On Friday I ran 6 miles, woo-hoo! That's the most I've run in several months. My legs were sure tired after that. Also, I reached running 100 miles since the beginning of August! I have been keeping track of my running on DailyMile since the beginning of August. It's a great website to figure out your pace and compare how much you've been running. If your into running or cycling you should check into it ;)

Here's my week:
10-21-12: REST
10-22-12: Ran 3 miles 29:30, bike 15 minutes, weights 20 minutes
10-23-12: Ran 2 miles 19:38, Elliptical 25 minutes
10-24-12: Ran 5 miles 50:00
10-25-12: Elliptical 45 minutes, weights 15 minutes
10-26-12: Ran 6 miles 60:00
10-27-12: REST

Check out my Lifetime Stats...104.35 miles (on October 26th)

Created Equal

On Friday October 19, 2012 Created Equal visited Western Kentucky University's campus. Hilltoppers for Life, the pro-life student organization that I belong to, hosted them. According to their website this is their mission...

We're a social action movement seeking to end the greatest human rights injustice of our time.   Killing preborn babies is nothing less than age-based discrimination.  Abortion robs us of our future.  Our goal is to restore the true meaning of equality to include equal protection between the born and the preborn.   

Protecting preborn children is our cause.  What makes Created Equal a movement is that we are an organized, mobilized generation choosing to live intentionally to protect the weak and defenseless by drawing strength and inspiration from one another.  

We live in a day when someone with a cell phone camera and a good idea can change the world.  Our various media make it possible for people to become part of a grassroots effort intelligently responding to injustice.  We are 21st century defenders.  There’s a place for everyone in this movement.  Join us.

What a great mission! :)

There were seven representatives that came down from Ohio that gave us training the night before and the next day is when it all began on campus. The display was placed on a high traffic area on campus from 9am to 2pm. This was the first time that the Hilltoppers for Life has done this kind of display before. This is completely different than the Cemetery of the Innocents that we put up last semester. These signs showed the harsh reality of abortion. 

Our purpose was to show WKU students what is happening in our country today- life is being ended tragically every day. People may have wondered why we decided to do it this way, why such graphic images of aborted babies? People need to see reality. These shocking images clearly show that a human life/baby is being killed. Sometimes it takes seeing to believing. Some can talk all they want about a fetus "not being a human being." Why don't you take a good look at these images, is that not a child?! Take this analogy: Harsh images such as those who died in the Holocaust, a drunk driver victim, or extreme acts of violence show the reality. Without these images, then how are you going to understand the truth. 

I believe that we instigated the students and faculty of WKU to think. Is this really what happens when a child is aborted? Yes. Some may think that this display may have offended, but come on now, offensiveness can be seen all the time (not just women and political things). 

We wanted to spark conversation with students and that's just what we did. There were several debating their beliefs. We had men and women come and talk to us. There were a few women that looked at our displays, crying or extremely angry (most likely they have had a close experience with abortion). It was quite interesting to listen to the opinions of others. 

I'm thankful that Created Equal was able to come to our campus to spread the pro-life movement on campus. I believe that abortion will be ended in my lifetime, YOU JUST WAIT!  

Here is an article published by the school newspaper: WKU Herald

Pictures from the day....

John Sohl (President of HFL) being interviewed for the school newspaper

Lots of discussions...

Debating and conversing

One of the signs

One of the Created Equal reps consoling a woman

A student crying- she was very angry. 

Support for Women

Running Into a Good Weekend

Check out Week "Numero Dos" for running this past week. It definitely was a good running week, especially with the beautiful weather!

Week Two: 
10-14-12: REST
10-15-12: Ran 5 miles 50:32
10-16-12: Ran 3 miles TEMPO 29:38, EFX 10 minutes
10-17-12: Ran 1 mile 9:44, EFX 35 minutes, 20 minutes weights
10-18-12: REST

10-19-12: Ran 4 miles 40:00
10-20-12: REST

All this running, built up to a good weekend! I went to Kevin's house this weekend. Friday night we went over to one of his friend's house and watched two scary movies: The Cabin the Woods and Paranormal Activity 3. Let me tell you, there wasn't anything special about either of these movies. I thought Cabin was dumb, gory, and not very scary. Paranormal was a little bit better, but I was expecting A LOT scarier. I had never seen any of the Paranormal movies, so I was expecting something really good. There were some freaky parts in it, but I definitely didn't have any nightmares. 

Saturday we headed to Lexington for the UK vs. Georgia game. Kevin went to UK, but is an even bigger Georgia football fan. By the picture you can see he convinced me to wear a UK shirt....

(Still a UofL fan *cough* *cough*) 

Kevin wore a Georgia shirt, but wore a UK jacket for the picture so we "matched." We tailgated for a little bit before the game and then watched the game. It was quite a close game. We ended up leaving before it was over and Georgia ended up winning. I was taken on a brief campus tour in the dark before we headed home. I had a really fun time! 

Today was the 50th Anniversary Mass for the Catholic Center at St. Thomas Aquinas Church. The archbishop said the mass. It was great to celebrate what the Catholic Center has been doing on WKU's campus. I'm so thankful that it is here for us Catholics on campus. Hope it continues for more and more years to come! 

It was a pretty good weekend :)

I Love What I Do! (Or will be doing...)

I'm changing it up and this post will be more about my thoughts about what's been going on in life. Life pretty much is A LOT of school, so that's what I'm going to talk about. This entire school year has  made me very happy about what direction I'm headed. I'm studying to be a Speech Pathologist and studying the Spanish language as well. 

This year in my Communication Disorders curriculum I have the experience of an internship, or working in the clinic. I give speech therapy to two clients this semester and I absolutely love it! Don't get me wrong, it is quite stressful (at least for the first month)! I was nervous every day that I gave therapy, on Mondays and Wednesdays. But it has been a GREAT learning experience. One of my clients was given to me three weeks late, so I had to learn how to be flexible and work efficiently. My two clients are completely different so I'm getting some good experience with two different types of speech problems that I could see in the future. It is very rewarding to see improvements in these people, which shows that I'm doing my job. And that makes me happy! I'm excited to see what next semester will bring. 

Regarding my Spanish major, I've been involved in two Spanish activities that reinforces my love for the Spanish language. Every Monday I help teach an English as a Second Language (ESL) class to Hispanic adults in the Bowling Green community. These people are the nicest and friendliest people you will ever meet. They are so thankful that I am there to help them. I met one man and he thinks I'm his best friend now! He gives me a hug every time and continues to practice his English in front of me, and he is doing well! It's a great opportunity to practice my Spanish as well, because many of them don't know much English at all. I invited two students from ESL to Spanish Club, which is another activity that I'm involved in. They enjoyed coming to the meeting because they were able to practice their English. Oh and by the way, I'm co-president of the Spanish Club this year! I didn't see that one coming, but I'm glad I agreed. I have realized that to become better in Spanish I need to push myself out of my comfort zone, if not, then I will keep to myself and not speak the Spanish that I know. I'm not fluent, but I know I enough to keep a good conversation. The last meeting the other president wasn't there so I was nervous about speaking in front of the group and leading them. In the end, it went great and everyone enjoyed the meeting. I'm getting to know another faculty member in the Spanish department which is great! I'm excited to see what other fun activities Spanish Club will be doing this semester. One other thing that relates to Spanish is last weekend I spoke at two masses to share what Hilltoppers for Life has been doing and to try to collect donations. I read out loud after the masses and I was REALLY nervous! But once again I was pushed out of my comfort zone, and I did great (or that's what everyone else said :) ). After the masses I recognized some of the students from ESL and they  thanked me for what I was doing and some gave me a hug. I felt good about what I was doing, and I used my Spanish! 

Thanks for reading! 

New Shoes + Training

I FINALLY GOT NEW RUNNING SHOES!!! It was long overdue. The running shoes I've been using were bought in March and were used for mini-marathon training, so those shoes are flat and have lots of miles on them now! The first time I tried them (which was yesterday) I ran 5 miles! I think these are going to be some lucky ones. 

On another note, my Mom, Nick (my brother), and I will be running a 5K over Thanksgiving Break. I've been trying to run more often and become quicker. I'm determined to beat my time from my last 5K. It's a little under 7 weeks until the Thanksgiving race. 

Here is what Week 1 looked like....
10-7-12: REST

10-8-12: EFX 55 minutes 

10-9-12: Ran 3 miles 30:00, Bike 10 minutes  

10-10-12: Ran 1 mile 10:00, EFX 30 minutes, weights 30 minutes 

10-11-12: REST

10-12-12: Ran 3.2 miles 30:00, weights 15 minutes 
10-13-12: REST 

Check out my new snazzy running shoes :) 

They are Asics Blurr-33

Easy Pumpkin Muffins!

I've been meaning to post this a long time ago, but it's finally up now!

There is a really easy way to make pumpkin muffins (more like cupcakes...) that only takes two ingredients, or three if you want to add some chocolate. They are quite delicious, if I say so myself!

Ingredients:

1 can of pumpkin 

1 box spice cake mix

1/2 bag of chocolate chips (optional)

powder sugar (optional) 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the pumpkin and cake mix together. It will be thick. Add the chocolate chips if you would like! Put in the oven from 15-20 minutes, and there you have it- the easiest pumpkin muffins you will ever make! 

Considering that they don't take oil and eggs, this recipe is very low fat and a little bit healthier :)

Ingredients

My new pig holder! :)

Ta-da! 

With chocolate chips!

Glee (Music Video) and Grey's Anatomy Excitement!

Fall TV shows are back in business! I always try to watch Grey's Anatomy on ABC if I get a chance and also I like to watch Glee on FOX for fun. 

Grey's Anatomy has been pretty intense since last season's finale ended with a tragic place crash, killing two of the main characters. This is definitely considered a drama and it keeps me coming back for more. I would recommend watching :).

Glee last Thursday was a little depressing (*spoiler alert) because 4 of the couples in the show broke up! Didn't see that coming. The songs were good for the most part. Enjoy my favorite one from last week's episode below. Barely Breathing originally sung by Duncan Sheik. 

Behind

Hello Blog World! I am so behind on posts! I have been very busy, so it's hard to find time to sit down and write about life. It's already Fall Break, I can't believe it. My semester is flying by. I'm only taking 15 hours, but I feel like I'm taking 20 sometimes. This is what I've been up to....

1. Classes (duh)
2. Clinic: I have two clients, which has been a great experience. Quite stressful at times, but I'm learning
3. Activities: Hilltoppers for Life, Spanish Club, NSSHLA, ESL, GRE prep class, Newman stuff
4. Hanging out with my boyfriend and friends

Well...that pretty much takes up all my time. Sleep also takes a lot of time because that's important :)

Imagine Dragons - It's Time