Food, Glorious Food

Oh, the delectable goodness that is food. I love it all. I love eating fruits and veggies, I love the fatty processed foods that should make me shudder. I love cooking food, I love buying food. Food, food, food. And a little more food.

Part of the reason why fall is my favorite season is because of the food. It's now socially acceptable to drink hot chocolate or apple cider, and have a bowl of soup for dinner. Soup is one of my most favorite things to make and eat, and believe me I do get made fun of by my roommates for making soup out of season... but I don't care and I still make it. Year-round.

Is it sad to admit that the first thing I think about when a new season comes around is the food? Fall, I think of pumpkin spice and warm hearty soups. Winter, I think of a Christmas ham, peppermint, and rich chocolatey desserts. Spring, I think of Cadbury eggs and cheesy potatoes. Summer, I think of kool-aid, hamburgers, and watermelon. And so on, and on. Oh, yum.

Maybe I'm just posting about food because I'm hungry and am a poor college student who can merely fantasize about food instead of making it. But right now, I just want to host a dinner party.

I'm a girl who loves my grub, what else can I say?

Now, to make everyone else as miserably hungry as I am, I'm going to post pictures of delicious food.

Lemonade Cake

Crispy Cheesy Chicken. I made these for dinner last night.
I declare them to be a SUCCESS!

Sweet Potato Fries

A twist on the classic grilled cheese:
Bacon Avocado Grilled Cheese

Cookie and Cream Hot Cocoa

If only our eyes could taste for us.

I have a confession to make: I hate shrimp. But, I'll eat everything else. Everything. Eating meals in China and Russia make your palette a little less picky, but I can never do shrimp. Never.

I love to walk in the rain...

I know, the stereotype behind rainy days is far from positive. But to be completely honest, I absolutely adore rainy days. I love the sun, of course, but melancholy rainy weather truly is my favorite. Especially during the fall. I'm currently sitting in the library, looking out the window and watching the rain pour.

This week is kind of crazy for me with all my huge assignments and whatnot, but I'd much rather be at home, drinking some hot apple cider and reading a Jane Austen novel. Sitting by a fire, of course, in not-cute jeans and my boyfriend's sweater. That's what rainy days do to me.. if only I had such a luxury as to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to. Ahh, responsibility.

Instead, I think I will work as hard as I can to finish writing 10 pages about the history of women and education (not the most exciting of topics, I'll admit) so I can READ to my heart's content on Sunday. How sad is it that I now have to reward myself? College life.

In other great news.... 66 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!

An Award?!

Dear Bloggers,

Wow! I wish I had a really cool excuse this time for not having blogged in nearly four months. I really enjoy blogging, but I feel like every time I blog, it needs to be about something totally awesome! And, as much as I enjoy my life and where I am at right now, I must say that it is not entirely awesome or exciting. Just the busiest I've ever been in my life, so that might be a legit excuse, right? I want to let you know, all you readers who have been waiting in desperation to read what I have to say, that my dear best friend Anastasia is the reason that I have created this post. I didn't notice until about 15 minutes ago that she posted me in this cool post, where she wanted to give me an award of some sort. And it sounded like fun! I realized that I would need to blog to "accept" this reward, so here goes nothing.

An introduction:
This is the Liebster Award! My dear friend, Anastasia (a previous post about her and my other BFF can be found here), tagged me in this on her lovely blog. So I feel the need to answer her in return. I'm too lazy to explain it to you all, so here is the link to her blog, and if you don't want to click there then I'll just copy and paste the crucial parts below.

The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. The Meaning; Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.

The rules for this award are:

 1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer.

3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them.

5. Remember, no tag backs!

Sounds simple enough, right? Here goes nothing!

11 things about me:

1. I have my first test in an hour, and instead of studying as I should be I am blogging instead.

2. I am currently wearing a white burn-out tee and I feel like I look mighty fine.

3. I just received a very lovely email from the man I love.

4. For dinner tonight, I plan on eating potatoes.

5. I have a crush on Harry Potter. And Frodo.

6. I LOVE watching Once Upon A Time. It's cheesy, it's fine. But I love that it brings out the inner child in me who still dreams of Prince Charming.

7. I am in desperate need of a shower. And not to mention my legs need to be shaved. (TMI? Oh well)

8. I would match rather be reading a book right now.

9. I am a literary nut and am currently reading A Tale of Two Cities. I don't know what book will be next, any suggestions?

10. I could possibly your child's teacher in a few years.

11. I already said I'd much rather be reading a book, but I'd much rather be reading a book in a foreign country. Reading is my favorite thing to do on vacations.

11 Questions from the lovely Anastasia:

1. If you were a snow cone flavor, what would you be and why? I would be a Pina Colada. Because everybody likes them. And getting caught in the rain.

2. If you were an X-Men, what would your power be? Okay, so I might kind of be cheating at this one, and I apologize to the man I eavesdropped upon and stole his ingenius idea. But I would have the power to defy gravity. Does that count as an X-Men power? I'm going to make it count anyway. Think about it: all the havoc you could create if you had power over gravity! That trumps all, no questions asked. You can fly? So what! I'll destroy gravity and you'll fall. I mean, I can overcome literally any obstacle. Lucky for you, I'd use my power for good rather than evil and would protect you all.

3. What is one of your strange quirky habits? Holy crap. Apparently I have a lot of them. But one thing I do that apparently is weird is I brush my teeth first thing in the morning. Before I go pee. I have a very specific order in my morning routine and my universe comes crashing down if I don't brush my teeth the moment after I wake up.

4. If your house was on fire and your loved ones and pets were already out safe and you could only grab one thing to save, what would it be and why? I'd try and find the fire extinguisher so I wouldn't have to make the choice. But seriously, probably my journals (I'm going to count all 6 of them as one) because I really want to remember my life and I cherish them.

5. What is one of the worst jobs you have ever had? My least favorite job was being a custodian. It was so lonesome, smelled weird, was gross, and oh I just really didn't like it.

6. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I really like my family's entire Christmas celebration. Can that count as one tradition? I like how we make gingerbread houses two nights before Christmas (usually around midnight), and on Christmas Eve we have brunch at a buffet, cook LOTS of food, watch A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life while working on puzzles, receiving Christmas jammies, reading the Nativity, and singing carols together. I really just love Christmas.

7. Name a famous person that had/have a crush on. My current celebrity crush is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And Gerard Butler.

8. What is a product that you love so much you would be a spokesperson for? I really like my Mary Kay makeup. Especially the eye-liner, that stuff is amazing. I would definitely advocate that.

9. What aspect of your daily routine do you enjoy the most? Maybe I'm a fatty, but I really just love eating. Like, a lot. And I love trying out new recipes. Food is my favorite.

10. What is your favorite movie of all time? Pride and Prejudice. I would love to marry Mr. Darcy.

11. How many shoes do you own? Okay, I don't mean to brag, but I own nearly 40 pairs of shoes. A woman loves her shoes, right? Heels are my favorite.

Well, dearly beloved, I hope my answers are satisfactory to you all! I really want to think about which questions I'm going to ask my Liebsters, so I will make a second post within the week. But I guess I should take school seriously and start studying about Kohlberg and Piaget so I can score 100 on my test in an hour. 

Oh, and I really want to keep this blog updated. So expect a blog post from me weekly! I will try my hardest to make it happen.

Toodles!

So You Think You Can Dance?

I don't think I can dance, I KNOW I can dance. The only reason why I haven't auditioned for the show is because I don't think it would be fair to the other contestants, and they deserve to have a chance for fame, right? :) You should see me get my groove on. But enough about me, this post is dedicated to my favorite tv-show, So You Think You Can Dance? This wonderful show is the absolute highlight of my summer, and I look forward to the next season as soon as the finale is over. There are so many inspiring people of wonderful stories about their lives that motivate me to do something with my own. The dances are moving and beautiful, and every season there's been many dancers who have stolen a place in my heart. I started watching the show with my dear best friend, Anastasia, the second season. And I have watched every episode since then. I can't count how many times the show has brought me to tears, or how angry I was when Twitch got runner up (and how angry I STILL am about that), and I can't help but smile as I reflect on some of my favorite dances and the moments that truly took my breath away. It's hard to limit myself to this, but I'm going to post my three favorite dances. I have many other favorites as well, and I love all of them the same, but these are some of the three that have really struck out to me as remarkable.

Dance #1: Alex and Twitch

I chose this dance because, as mentioned earlier, Twitch is one of my favorite dancers I've seen on the show. Period. The dance is just so much fun and it never gets old. I also chose this dance as one of my favorites because Alex, the one in the red shirt, is a trained ballet dancer and therefore should not know how to move like that. This was the last performance he made on SYTYCD, because he got a severe injury during the next week and was no longer able to perform. Which is really sad, because I'm pretty certain he would have become my all-time favorite, along with Twitch, if I had seen a full season of him. Still love him though!

Dance #2: Kayla and Kupono

This is one of the many dances I've seen on the show that have brought me to tears. For any who may not be familiar with the story behind the dance, the dance illustrates the relationship a person has to a destructive addiction. The female dancer, Kayla, is constantly struggling and fighting to pull away from the drug, but something is always bringing her back to it. I saw this dance soon after I had started reading the book Go Ask Alice, so it definitely had an affect on me and was a reconfirmation to me that I want absolutely nothing to do with drugs in any of its forms.

Dance #3: Melanie and Marco

I had a hard time deciding on which would be the last dance I'd post about. I have far too many favorites, and it took me a while to finally pick which would be the three posted on this blog. But I'm happy with my decision, and I absolutely LOVE this dance. It may be a little too weird, for some people, but I love how artistic the movement and music work with each other. The story behind this piece is two statues who are in love and come alive at night, but they are trying to come together so that they can be frozen into one statue before the sun rises completely. I think it's beautiful.

If you're ever bored, with nothing to do for an hour or so, I would definitely recommend perusing some of the dances from SYTYCD on Youtube. It is well worth your time! Some more of my favorites are anything by Twitch, Melanie Moore, or Lauren Froderman.

I'm so happy to have this show, it truly makes me smile :)

Family Time

Spending time with my family makes me smile. It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, instead I tried to keep the world updated on my Russian adventures here.

Being away from my home and family for nearly five months really helped me to realize what is truly important to me in my life. I knew I loved my family and that they were wonderful, but being away from something for so long helps you to truly understand how amazing things truly are. And my family is the bomb. I missed them very much while I was in Russia, and it was wonderful to get to spend so much time with them the past week since I came home. My lovely sister moved to Fiji today for humanitarian service, so we were able to spend lots of quality time together celebrating my arrival home and anticipating the departure of my sister.

I love my family and the relationship I have with every individual member. They're pretty much the best thing in my life, and I'm so grateful that I get to be with them forever.

My family makes me smile :)