Singing in the rain

February has definitely been a fun month... if a bit on the cold, rainy, and wet side of the spectrum.  I continued working out regularly, lost 6 lbs (yay me!), got to spend a Saturday in Portland, received some lovely Valentines, spent some time baking, attempted to learn to crochet amigurumi, took a whole lot of tests, skimped on sleep, and February isn't even over yet! Yoikes!  I have two papers due next week that I am diligently avoiding, but I suppose I ought to start them soon.  Sigh. Oh, and again, I don't have nearly enough pictures, but I have a couple :)

I had a lot of fun making and sending some valentines :)

Cheese cake brownies and white chocolate chip  brownies :)
Sadly the cheesecake ones had to be tossed :(

My first-ever cake pops!

Cake balls :)

All wrapped and ready :)

Hope They enjoy!

My only picture from the trip to Portland- Ice cream from Salt and Straw...
Delicious!

    I definitely am going back to Portland sometime, it is so much fun to explore, and I want to try so many more things! I think the highlights were Powell's where I bought too many books, and walking around town at night trying food from the food stands :)
    Also, I love Monmouth.  I was running home from school in the rain a couple of days ago, sans coat or umbrella, and one of my professors from last term pulled over to offer me a ride home :).  I didn't need one (I was actually enjoying it... go figure) but it really made me day!
Ok, now I'll actually go work, haha

One of the best things about college

So, Friday morning, 20 minutes before I needed to leave for class, my roommate invited me to go to her family's home with her for the weekend.  We would be leaving partway through my last class... meaning I would have 20 minutes to pack.  Well, that's a no brainer right? Of course I went! :)

I love the flexibility of my schedule, and the ability to be spontaneous.  It's still occasionally irksome to be without a car, but I'm learning to swallow my pride and just be thankful to the wonderful people who help me.

New favorite (active) discovery- racket ball! It's tons of fun, but my arm is super sore. My roommate Shani loves it too, so we decided to meet up and play once a week. :)

In other news, Dellas Lineman passed away on Sunday and will be missed.  I didn't know him for very long, but he left a deep and lasting impression.  His zeal always touched my heart, and I know he reached many other people as well.

Also, we're having studies every other week at our house again.  Such a privilege!

Pictures? You want pictures? Aw, why not just listen to me ramble some more? Well, how about this:

Beautiful nature shot, looks warm, sunny, and generally desirable- jealous yet? Muahaha

Food shot- see the snickerdoodles I made? Well, they aren't around anymore.  They vanished between rounds of Settlers of Catan one night.

Care-package shot- my mother is amazing and obviously loves me.

Ok, ok so I don't actually have any pictures because I somehow always forget I can. You'd think I have no ability to even take any at this rate.  I'll do better next time... maybe... hopefully... possibly? Haha, now off to do linguistics!

Hmm

   Well, it's been a while... a long, long while.  In fact, it's been a move, a term, and a whole lot of adventures since I last posted.  I won't bother trying to fill in all of the insignificant details, but I will summarize a little. Here it goes:
   I moved to a little duplex in a tiny little town that is approximately in the middle of nowhere, and about a half hour-drive from somewhere.  I think that's about as obscure as I could possible make it, so I'll move on.  I spent an entire term frantically writing papers and having no social life, but I made the dean's list so I guess things even out.  I went to Alaska over break, learned to ski, got snowed on, then froze solid and flew home to thaw out.  Lately its been raining torrentially- the flooding is exciting, but it sure makes walking less fun.  At least I can bum rides from my awesome roomies!
   Between my lighter class load and getting some priorities straight I've had a lot more time and a lot less stress lately, which has done wonders for my outlook.  I've even started voluntarily cleaning my room, going to the gym, and doing homework ahead of time... No, I'm actually not joking, nor being sarcastic :)  I've also been doing more sewing, cooking, and crafts.  It's lovely, truly.

And now to illustrate! (With few pictures I actually took)

Picking Plums

Abby! (who has since moved, sadly)

Miss Heidi with her fedora

Art, one of the reasons I had no life

Mini cupcakes!

Mmm, quiche

Hangin' with Grandma

Lara's chapstick collection

Lara turned 16!

In other news, Special meetings were awesome, I love settlers of Catan, and I'm going to finish my homework now.  Here's hoping it won't be quite so long till the next post ;)

Papers

I am not fond of writing essays.  I can, and I have plenty of opinions to spout, but it's been so long since my AP Lang class that I spend the whole time fretting about how badly I'm writing it... or just not writing it.  Hmm, that doesn't work out so well.  I've actually done ok with the procrastination vs homework war so far, although my memory is proving to be just as bad of an enemy.  Use my planner? Good idea, now where did I leave that...

Classes are pretty good so far.  I love economics of geography, even though it has the most homework so far.  I love econ in any form, so I can forgive the details :).  Biology... well, I think molecular biology is pretty neat, genetics are fun, and organisms are interesting so what is my class about? Evolution and sustainability.  I wish I was joking.  I tried to drop it, but turns out it's required for my major, so I guess I get to suffer through it.  Sigh.  Linguistics is pretty interesting so far.  I was warned about the teacher, but so far it hasn't been bad at all.  She has some different viewpoints, but I think it's kind of fun to challenge the conventional wisdom about language.  Drawing class is incredibly intimidating.  I am somewhat of a perfectionist, so drawing large objects for a grade is more than a little stressful.  Lets just say my first graded drawing took me two and a half hours to finish, and at that point I may not have been satisfied, but I was DONE.

In other news, living here has been tons of fun, and I love love love having my own kitchen :).  I've been cooking almost every day, and kinda wish the store was closer :).  My roommates are awesome, and I think this will be a fabulous year.  I do miss everyone in Sweet Home (and a few in Corvallis/Bend) but I really am enjoying myself here.

Ok, time to finish my paper ;)

Solitary Confinement

  As a result of the extremely contagious "Saginaw Sadness" as Larry calls it, I can't be around people until Thur night/Fri... Sigh.  It's been interesting to be upstairs for three days straight, but sadly, I haven't actually gotten as much done as I thought I would.  In fact, I haven't cleaned my room, finished my sewing projects, or even unpacked.  Hmm, I don't seem to have learned have I.  I did reread Pride and Prejudice for the 100th time though! And catch up on blogs (without bringing mine up-to-date, that will have to come later), talk on the phone for hours, waste time on Facebook, and crochet a hat :)
  Hopefully I will get to go to Boring  2 for the weekend... I won't be contagious anymore!!! Wahoo, I'm psyched.

July

I've still got two more days before I completely miss posting in July, so hopefully I finish this tonight.  I have had an incredible month, starting with a trip to Cali to see Grandma and some well-loved family members of mine.

 

Taking the train down.  I think it's the first time it's actually been on time, and we got there early!

 

My "burger" at an awesome place in Roseville where we got to customize everything.

 

It's the attack of the crochet club! This is in front of a yarn shop, and apparently appeared overnight.  Go yarn bombers! :)

 

Mom in front of her favorite roses :)

 

 Fireworks in Sacramento at the mall.  The traffic was so bad Mom and I got out and walked around for a while, but they were pretty :)

 

Ben's awesome "bear den." Berkley is pretty neat, and has awesome food on every corner, but I don't think I could live there.

 

What the start of every meal looked like- "Quick, take a picture!" Haha

 See!  See!

 

What we did on looooong car rides...

 When we weren't being a little crazy ;)

Cute :)

 Really yummy, especially the asparagus.

 A fun visit to Auntie June's :)

 Mmmm

 I want more!!!

 And my latest project (no, I didn't make it, I'm just fixing it)

  Oh, and I don't have any pictures, but my room has a lot more floorspace than it did.  When Mom and Dad (and Lara) were here they helped me move a lot of my stuff over to Monmouth, and then we took apart one of the beds.  It's yet to be seen if I can keep it uncluttered now, but it's been nice to be able to move.  I sure does seem empty around here though :-/

  The Oregon Jamboree is this weekend, so cops and crazy drivers everywhere in this normally sleepy corner of the universe.  I'm not going, but I did some volunteering at the craft fair, and so got to witness some of the madness first hand.  And now preps tomorrow, and Saginaw coming up fast!

 And a couple more:
-smacked myself with a hammer for the first time
-bought a doll house
-tried (and loved) gellatto
-ate a lot of frozen yogurt
-played volleyball in 90+ degree weather
- locked my keys in the truck (and had an awesome conversation with a random stranger while waiting for grandma to rescue me)
- learned to sing alto an octave up
- decided to learn to play the piano
- registered for too many classes (Ahhhh!) haha
- I can't think of anything else

I'll try to update a little more frequently this month, and hopefully even eloquently or something ;)

Happy Mom? Haha

My month in pictures

Right now I ought to be packing, cleaning, preparing, and sleeping- in that order in fact.  What am I actually doing? Procrastinating on my computer... sigh.  Well. I suppose something had to induce me to blog again.  Rather a lot has happened since my last post, but you'll just get a few highlights ;)

 

A couple drawings I've done for kids at the club (Ones I remembered to take pictures of that is)

Grandma and I at the strawberry festival

It's a Mila! :)

Yummy pigs in a blanket for a potluck

What I did with the extra dough... so unhealthy but oh so yummy :)

Driving to Mt Ranch- the Dutch Bros was a must ;)

 Tips for assembling one of the yummiest desserts ever:

Start with amazing strawberries, washed and blotted.

 

Slice them up your favorite way.

 Pile them around a thick slice of angel food cake.

 Drizzle with heavy cream... or whipped cream if that's what you like.

Sugar and drizzles of chocolate would be nice too, but this is fast and simple.

 Oh yeah, and delicious :)

The "display" wall of my room, can you tell I work with kids? (and am a kid at heart ;)

And my latest project... teaching myself to crochet.  It's fun! :)

Next up, last day of school tomorrow! The kids are crazy! I'd like to run and hide, but I don't want to miss saying goodbye :)
Oh, and Parma, thence "should be packing"
Sigh
Ps- The pictures aren't in chronological order, except the strawberry picts :)