Halloween Take 2

I don't feel like trick-or-treating is socially acceptable as a college student. But I also live at home, so it's not like I'm really trying to fit in, right? And Olivia needed someone to go with, so I gladly accepted. I really did want to rock my Ke$ha outfit again, but I thought it might be a little chilly. (Although, it was almost 70 degrees today and I wore shorts/tshirt/flip flops- beautiful.) But we stole Abby and Abba's costumes from Saturday and layered sweatshirts underneath. Warm and fashionable.

Abby and Abba's house was our first stop and Abba answered the door in a black hat and sunglasses. He was excited to see us and Abby laughed at our costumes. We didn't pull them off quite as well as they did, but we tried. It is so fun to have them close!

 Hilarious.

p.s. You can now shuffle all your stations on Pandora? Or has that always been possible? Anyways, it's pretty great.

End of October

It has been quite the week. The snow storm on Tuesday night woke me up several times when tree branches crashed down on the roof above my room. The backyard (slash the whole city) was a mess on Wednesday. We had a giant branch leaning against our kitchen window and many others strewn throughout the yard. Now, a few days later, the neighborhood streets are filled with huge piles of tree limbs that people have gathered. I spent Wednesday morning wearing cozy clothes and drinking Nutella/cinnamon hot chocolate (so good) from a Christmas mug...I'm ready. I also went to the nursing home on Wednesday afternoon, and we spent a good chunk of that time talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas, because Lucy loves them too. After all that talk, I seriously can not wait!

After class on Wednesday, I went to join Zach, Mike, and Amanda for sledding. Except they had decided to build a snowman instead. I wasn't very equipped for the snow, because I hadn't gone home first. So Amanda and I mostly sat in the snow and watched while the boys built it. But we did help lift the middle ball up, gathered a handful of grass and made his awesome pea coat (not udders).

In cooking club this week, we made Caribbean Jerk Tempeh with some kind of black rice and peanut sauce on the side. Then we made Baklava for dessert, which was ridiculously sweet and delicious. We went back to Matthew and Alex's and watched the new series, Once Upon a Time. It mixes Disney stories with real...human world, I guess. It's super good and Alex is obsessed.

On Saturday, we headed down to Berthoud to celebrate Halloween at Brian and Alicia's annual party. Activities included donut-on-a-string eating contest (proud winner), mummy wrapping, balloon popping, and lots of eating. Everyone's costumes were awesome...we've started to take Halloween pretty seriously in this family. I've been planning to dress up as Ke$ha for about 9 months, so I was pretty excited. 

 Mom found these costumes for Abby and Abba

 John was the energizer bunny...doesn't get more perfect.

 Jackson is precious even when he's grumpy.

I've also spent the last week wanting to make Monkey Bread, so I finally did this morning. It was a success! You can't really go wrong with cinnamon, brown sugar, and carbs. My mom made omelets to complete the meal and it was a perfect Sunday brunch.

It's about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon and I still have not done any homework at all. I'm sad to go back to the reality of Monday. But only 3 weeks until Thanksgiving! I am counting down the days until I get to forget about school, see my best friend, eat too much, and hang out with my fam, including Cathy!

Winter?

What I love about Colorado is that it was almost 80 degrees yesterday and now it is snowing. Everyone kept telling me they were excited for colder weather and snow, and I was like oh no, give me this warm weather for as long as possible. Because I felt like Spokane was cold and cloudy October through April (maybe an exaggeration, but hardly), and I hated it. But walking out in the snow tonight actually made me a little excited. And snow means winter, and winter means CHRISTMAS. Which I already can not wait for.

 Looks like I was feeling very patriotic, but it really just happened because I didn't want to venture from the porch.

I'm pretty excited to stay in bed tomorrow morning and enjoy not having to go anywhere until noon. Hot chocolate, sweats, and fuzzy slippers, here I come.

Also, I love this song from the new Coldplay album...and the video is pretty cool too. Win/Win/Win. The end is my favorite so don't try to skip out early.

Fall is Fun

 Fall is pretty!

 Gorgeous red trees in the Hardings' backyard

 This week's meal at Vivacious Vicky's Vegan Cooking Class...sweet potato/black bean tamales and stuffed squash. Not our favorite, but still so fun!

 Dessert...chocolate dipped shortbread cookies. YUM.

After dinner, Alex, Allison, and I went to the Asylum. I think maybe the photographer messed up.

 My creation at home...Nutella Mug Cake

It overflowed a little in the microwave...totally screwed my presentation. But with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, it looked ok. And tasted SO good.

There are so many to choose from because we were laughing all night, but this was one of my favorite moments today...blasting this song in the car and singing along with my brother. My family is fun. 

Also, Matthew was playing with his new iPhone and thinking of weird things to ask it (her? Siri?)... so he said, "Let's get married," and she said, "Let's just be friends, ok?"

Happy.

Stole this from another blog because I just couldn't resist. This should make you smile.

Disney...and the Blue Bomber

In one of my classes today, we watched part of a video about the bad influence of Disney. And I just thought it was stupid. I mean, they had valid points. But I love Disney. I am all about strong, independent, powerful women, believe me. But I also don't have a problem with traditional male/female roles. And I think there can be both...strong women that are pursued by men. I'm also involved in a Bible study with a bunch of girls and we are going through a a study around the book, Captivating. A few weeks ago, we talked about how God created men and women with different roles in mind. A woman's desire to be romanced and her desire to be heroic and irreplaceable comes from God. Feminists make us believe that these roles are terrible and make women weak, but I really do think they're part of God's design. Which is sweet!

In other, completely unrelated news, the Blue Bomber (aka our 1995 baby blue Ford Taurus) is probably done for. I got rear-ended a couple weeks ago and apparently the damage will cost more to repair than the car is worth. Super sad. I really had grown attached to the car that didn't have hubcaps and couldn't automatically pop the door to the gas tank. We had gotten the hang of accelerating to make the air switch to defrost and playing music loud enough to be heard over the air that only worked on HIGH. I will miss explaining its stupid quirks to my passengers.

Hello, my name is LN

I kinda just want this to be my life. Except add marriage. Slash can I just marry Bert/Jim/John? Cool, can't wait. If you haven't seen this movie, you're missing out, because it's incredible! Plus it has awesome music.

Tuesday Night Movie

I've been wanting to see this movie for so long! So Amanda texted me today and, even though I could've spent the night getting homework done, working out, and going to bed early, I said ABSOLUTELY. I've mostly been looking forward to it because I'm a little bit in love with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And it was good. If it didn't have Seth Rogan and awkward moments for comic relief, I could have bawled through the entire thing. But I contained myself for the most part. During the scenes with the precious therapist, I couldn't help but think about all the rules she was breaking and boundaries she was crossing, but that's ok. I was bracing myself for a terrible and depressing ending, but it wasn't either. I would recommend it.

Sunday Funday

Today, I've done just about everything possible to avoid homework, including cleaning and baking. And now blogging. Studying is overrated. This afternoon, I decided to make Peanut Butter Granola. The "Buzzin'" Pandora station filled the kitchen as I baked and I was loving it. Too much fun!

 Added banana chips because they're the bomb.

 Only had one casualty...I melted the spatula a little. Oops.

 Final product

I haven't actually tried the end result in a bowl with milk, but I will tomorrow morning. It seemed like a fairly successful first attempt!

"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought." Matthew 5:5

Buzzin'

Another great weekend...and it's not over! Love having 3-day weekends every week. Which is why I'm planning next semester's schedule around Tuesday/Thursday classes.

First of all, one of my best friends has been in town this weekend. Ah, how I've missed Katie. So the weekend officially started on Thursday, when I got to hang out with her. We went to small group, which was just game night this week. And I loved that, of course. Then got some yummy Qdoba breakfast burritos with her on Friday, to reward me for my run (and to cancel out any calories I burned...wouldn't wanna lose those babies). Time spent with Katie is automatically refreshing.

Then I headed down to Denver and the drive took me AN HOUR AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. Love that traffic. Spent some time in Panera and got homework done until every middle school kid in Greenwood Village took it over. Then I creepily stole glances at all the kids, half hoping and half being super nervous that I would see one of my campers from this summer. No luck.

In cooking class, we made King's Casserole (I think that's what it's called) and carrot cake...all so delicious. And we ended the night with our new usual...a Friday night puzzle...which we didn't finish, and the very small OCD part of me is wishing I could be down there right now to complete it.

After some good football watching with Porky this afternoon, I went to Danielle's bridal shower at Ceramics in the City! I hadn't seen Danielle in so long and it was a beautiful reunion. Lots of us chickens were there and we painted tiles for the lovely couple.

 Mama Hen, Kim, and their Chickens :)

Blurry. But you're getting married and I love you, Mama Hen!

Katie...happiness

 Back in Fort Collins, on my favorite stretch of road..

Tonight, I went to Chili's with Katie, Amanda, Mike, Zach, and Jake. It was so good to be with part of our big group again and there was lots of laughter, as always. Then a few of us went to Amanda's and played ping pong, while listening to/watching Keith Urban and John Mayer on CMT Crossroads (perfection). I didn't get pictures of any of our faces at dinner, but our feet sure looked good. Plus it's Collins homecoming, which calls for a shoe pic!

Precious matching shoes

p.s. Just been wanting to listen to this all weekend...because when I listen to it, all I wanna do is dance. You can't tell me it's not good for that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHFb0ih3TK0

Dear Abby,

Miller, not the newspaper column lady. Blogging was one of your weird ideas that has turned out to be a success. Thanks for peer-pressuring me into it...you're the best. And I love you.

Making Happiness and Memories

I think I've written before about the woman I visit in the nursing home. I'm sure I'll be sharing her insight throughout the year, so I'll call her Lucy (not her real name...learning lots about confidentiality these days, woo).

Lucy talks a lot about growing up and about her family. She always tells me about how she's lived a good life and, even though they didn't have much money, they were happy. She also talks about her current situation and points out that she doesn't love being there, but she decides to be happy. I always need these reminders, even every 20 minutes, as is her custom.

The advice Lucy gives most often is to have fun and enjoy life while I'm young, because that's what I'll remember. This prompts me to take school into perspective. I realize I stress way too much over this paper or that test. Now, maybe I'm using this advice as an excuse for my lack of motivation these days. But I really do think it's important not to stress so much about the daily obligations, but to soak up every precious moment spent with the people we love.

Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me?

Too much fun. Welp, I'm in love with Keith Urban. Last night, I experienced the most entertaining concert of my life. For reals, it was incredible. And I took lots of pictures!

Before heading to Denver, we drove over to Amanda's house (after failing at timer pics) to have her parents take a picture of us in our cowgirl outfits. We were a little bit proud of our boots and such.

 Love me some Colorado

 Gettin pumped with JB

 These posters were everywhere...we posed with more than one, obviously.

 Jake Owen...even though we were dying for Keith to come on, Jake was good too!

 "Excited for Keith" faces

 Dreamy

 This girl had a sign that said, "It's my birthday, take a picture with me, PLEASE!" So he had her up on stage and took a self pic of the two of them...WHAT???

He walked around our section to a platform that was 5 yards away from where we were standing!

 

 Keith pulled these three from the audience to sing "Kiss a Girl"

Later, he went to the back of the Pepsi Center and climbed up a ways (all while playing "You Look Good in my Shirt"). After playing for awhile, he signed his guitar and handed it to a girl. I was dying. Then he walked back towards the front and by our section, and I climbed over some chairs and touched his arm! Yes, I was acting just like a crazy 12-year-old Justin Bieber fan, but why not? 

Two of my favorite songs were "Somebody Like You" (duh) and "Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me?" Mostly because Amanda and I were especially dancing like crazy during those two. Keith also played "How to Save a Life" with Isaac something...the lead singer from The Fray. And played "Jack & Diane" with Jake Owen, the opener. The concert ended with an encore and confetti/streamers covering the floor. It was magical. 

We were in awe walking out of the arena (ok, don't judge us...it really was totes awes). As we were driving out of the parking lot, Amanda said, "Literally all of my dreams came true." Hilarious. But pretty accurate.