15 days?!

i can't believe that it's already been that long since i last posted. good thing i already hit my quota for the year some time ago.

christmas was excellent. lots of family. lots of cookies. and TONS of card games (old maid, hearts, euchre, trash, etc). i'll have to dig up some pictures eventually. i tend to stop blogging when i come home because let's face it.. a good chunk of my daily readers are right here with me! ;) as for now, i've got some homework and admissions stuff to get working on. school seems pretty far away, it's a wonder i even remembered what homework i have.

sarah's getting her wisdom chompers out tomorrow morning so it looks like we'll be watching movies and making smoothies (ha! that kind of rhymes) for the next few days. no big plans for new years.

heading back to school on sunday night (late flight around 9 but tons cheaper than the earlier one) still have some friends to catch up with. things to do, people to see, sims lives to mess up (the sims is a computer game in case you didn't catch that).

check out [this] to read a cool hockey story

and [this] to see pictures of our 23 inches of snow!!

home again, home again

i'm home home home...

and unpacking only to be packing up and leaving again in 13 days. i have to say that i'm a total nerd and i'm really looking forward to classes starting. like i said earlier, i've already started reading some of the books... i can't help it! 

the housing situation currently remains up in the air. we'll see how that goes, i believe dad sent out an email to housing today.

as for last week ... it was college and careers part two. we had the first two days in july and then this time around it was an entirely new set of people... plus about 300 more than last time. exhausting beyond belief but so much fun. the weekend basically involved the same as last time, directing people, leading packs of families around campus, sitting on the student panel and answering questions, fooling around, etc. mom and sarah came up on friday to go to syracuse for a college visit saturday morning. they actually were able to sit in on the last half of the student panel i was on. we left rochester around four.. after mom got stung by a bee =( sarah drove the entire way home... with one stop at jone's cones of course. made it home by 10:30 on saturday night and then i slept in until noon on sunday... guess i was just a tad exhausted. not only did we work from 8 am until 11:30 pm on friday but all of the ambassadors got together on friday night until around 2 am. then woke up at 6 on saturday to work until 4 pm. longgg day. i worked a total of 60.5 hours last week i think. crazy. 

haven't really done much today. slept in until 9:30 or so. unpacked a bit. packed up fall clothes and all of my art supplies. sarah gets home from drivers ed in about an hour so maybe she'll entertain me. 

running fools

i love summer. i'm not sure if i've informed you all of that fact yet but it's true. i think i'd be okay if it wanted to stay summer forever. 

usually i have that feeling that my internal organs are going to melt away when i step outside but the windows are wide open and it actually feels a little coolish. on top of that i get to wake up at 7 something every morning and go to the gym-- this is a habit i started on last summer, gave up for the school year and started again july 1st. fortunately for me, my mom has been going for two years or more so she can drag my tired butt out of bed every morning. once i get there though it's wonderful, in fact today i made it a record 5.86 (yeah, we're getting technical) miles on the elliptical up from my 4 miles all of the other days of the week. yay. now i'm turning down a particularly fun adventure to the maryland souvenir store to pick up things to take to china for sarah and mom (who are leaving on monday morning). 

so what am i going to do for a whole week with the house ALL to myself (until around 6 pm when dad gets home...). that is yet to be determined. however nana has given me some excellent ideas... so stay tuned...

new hair, new me.

life is splendid. i ate way more raisins than anyone should possibly consume in 24 hours. i played the sims 2 for the first time in forever. i made a sims family with 8 children and then proceeded to kick the eldest out to make room for more offspring. yesterday i got my hair cut. nothing too drastic, just 4 or 5 inches off and bangs again. yay! tomorrow is a 7:45 am doctors appointment to get the stitches out which is kind of funny because i didn't even remember that i had stitches in until i remembered the appointment. probably a trip to the library afterwards for some reading material. some packing and then we're headed off early saturday morning. 

lately i've been having this problem where i laugh so hard that i start crying and then i can't catch my breath. it's bad news bears if you ask me but apparently quite entertaining for sarah.

sisterly love

all good things come to an end

just got back to rochester from a weeklong spring break at home! ashley was able to come home with me too so I got to show her all of the exciting things to see in maryland and dc. ironically the day we flew home from rochester was the beginning of the biggest snowstorm maryland has had in three years (only 6 inches of snow) but still funny-- or annoying. eventually it warmed up and we were able to have 75 degree weather today!! too bad when we landed in rochester today it was 38 degrees, foggy and rainy. oh well. 

this week included: two separate trips to chipotle, a Caps game at the verizon center with Amanda!, a day full of wandering around DC, a second trip to DC with dad, seeing jimmy (Alison's new adorable dog), visiting with Barb, Joe and Eric this weekend, mini golf and batting cages yesterday, Sarah's volleyball tournament this morning and other various fun things. 

verizon center

the white house

jimmy, alison's dog :)

mini golfing

tomorrow is the first day of spring quarter which means... new classes! i actually only have one class tomorrow so it shouldn't be too bad. class 9-12, work 12-4. 

Pancakes, Friends and Homework

Okay, another week please? 

Just kidding. Sure, it'd be nice to have another entire week full of fun and frivolity but like all good things, there is an end. I think a two week break is a perfect amount of time, it's enough time to disengage from busy life and relax. Of course, RIT has the added bonus of being in the middle of a quarter so yep, you guessed it... homework! How enjoyable. I guess it could be worse. I could have exams the week after break (like Harvard) or have a 10 page paper due (if i wasn't an art major). But, I'm not at Harvard and I'm an art major so, I draw! And draw and draw and draw and glue. 

These past two days have been friend-packed... if there is such a term. Thursday night I went over to Corey's house with Jenni and we watched some movies and had "girl time"-- something not found often on RIT's 70-30 guy to girl ratio campus. Had pancakes for breakfast made by mom... yummm! And sausage made by dad.. but I'll let Sarah tell you how that was :) After breakfast went over to Liz's house to hang out. Came back to do some homework-- okay, so I did watch an episode of the OC before doing so. And in a little while Alison is coming over to hang out and do some puzzles. 

Tomorrow is the last full day of winter break which means Sunday I make the trek from 40 degree Clarksville to snowy Rochester. As noted by my mom has gotten a record snowfall this December.. 46 inches. Luckily most of that has fallen since I've been home so I'm not sick of snow yet. But ask me again in March and we'll see if that changes. 

I guess that perhaps I should stop avoiding the inevitable and get back to work. 

The Swing of Things

While breaks are fantastic, the reality is that eventually you have to jump right back into the swing of things. Which is exactly what tomorrow is...classes.  

After a 14+ hour trip we made it to Rochester yesterday from Green Bay. Alison slept over in my dorm last night-- which she discovered is ridiculously small! Took a walk around campus to show her around and then hung around with everyone who was already back from break. This morning we woke up at 6:45 to go to IHOP with my parents and Sarah before they all headed back down the road. Unpacked and such until Ashley woke up and then we went out to buy some of her books for next quarter and get some juice from Wegmans for her. Came back and then got invited by Drake to go to the mall so we walked to the Library and caught the shuttle over to the Marketplace Mall. Walked around the mall for a few hours just looking at stuff for fun and then came back here for dinner and a movie (The Holiday) in our dorm room. Now we're listening to christmas music and making snowflakes for our door and windows! 

I've been absolutely horrible about updating over break and I apologize again for that. However, my justification is that I was having so much fun relaxing and seeing people that I didn't even have time to slip away and write about it. And you know what, that's just fine with me. These are afterall my memories and this is simply a way to share some of those with you. I think we'll go with a nice photo wrap up of the break and leave it with that. Hope you all had a great thanksgiving! 

We had an excellent time in Green Bay, as always. It's always nice to catch up with family and hang around for a week. On the way up we stopped in Bloomington Indiana to see a volleyball game and also look at where my dad used to live. I'm pretty sure I ate more this week than I did all quarter (just kidding... sort of =) ) Uncle Dan has become master chef and lives in the kitchen starting each meal just minutes after we finished the last one. Uncle Mark and Aunt Barb made the trek to get 11 delicious pies (which we got to start eating earlier this year!). And, of course, Grandma's cookies and rolls! Yummy. There was lots of pool playing, air hockey-ing, swimming, walking, biking, movie watching, reading, and general hanging out going on throughout the week.

It's a Wrap!

I'm home! I guess i've been a bit sidetracked because I've actually been home since last Friday morning! 

While most other people were sleeping,  I got a taxi to the airport around 4:30 am. Small airports are amazing. I made it through security in 10 minutes or less. In fact, we had so much extra time that Drake and I were able to watch an entire episode of Stella and STILL had a good hour and a half to wait. Made it home by 8:30 ish-- before Drake's plane had even left Rochester =)

Alison came over after her class at 11, it was really good to finally see her after THREE months! Went to Chipotle for dinner... mmmm, boy did I miss that stuff. Since Friday it's just been a lot of relaxing and hanging out! It's so weird to go from working all of the time to doing absolutely nothing. My mom has been making me deliciously tasty food -- mashed potatoes, pasta, broccoli! Mmmm.  It's nice not having to eat in a dining all all of the time. Sunday morning we went to church at 9 and then went out to brunch at Eggspectation with Alison and her family.  After breakfast I went over to Alison's house to help her clean her room and see Gali!

Monday afternoon I went over to River Hill to see Mr. Molfino and some other old teachers. It's so weird going back, I kind of felt like I was still in high school. Yesterday afternoon Sarah had volleyball tryouts for MDJRS down in college park so I rode along to go see Corey and Jenni! Helped with volleyball check in and then met up with Corey so I could see their dorm room and catch up. Walked down to rt 1 after Jenni was out of class and met her at Chipotle! It was really good to see them although it was really weird to be on a college campus that I didn't recognize! It's too bad there aren't more chances to see each other.. three months is a long time. Alison slept over again last night-- I believe that she's slept over every night except one since I've been home! 

Brick City Homecoming

This weekend was Brick City Homecoming, RIT's fall event when a lot of parents, families and alumni come to visit for the first time. My parents came up on Thursday afternoon; it was really nice to see them after being away from home for so long. Fortunately, amidst all of our rainy-rochester weather, it was an unusually beautiful weekend. 

Thursday afternoon my class was cancelled so I met up with my mom, dad and Sarah for dinner before my 6pm class. Had an ice cream party at 9pm, Ash and I have been saving up ice cream from gracie's over the past week or so :) Andrew and Drake stopped by too as well as a couple people from down the hall.

Friday morning I had class from 12 until 4. After class my parents took me out shopping to get some art supplies and more winter clothes-- thanks guys! Also stopped at Wegmans, of course, for some food items. Drove into downtown Rochester afterwards to get some dinner from a cool pizza place. Sarah stayed in the dorms with me all weekend and thanks to some idiots on the 9th floor.. I was able to give her the full college experience. Around 2 am Friday night/Saturday morning the fire alarm went off... there ended up being an actual fire on the 9th floor (with smoke coming out the window and everything..) so we were outside until nearly 3 am... Sarah only had boxers and a sweatshirt on..  Welcome to RIT :)

Saturday morning we woke up and Sarah, Ash and I went and got smoothies and muffins from Beanz, a coffeeshop on campus. Met up with my parents before heading off to see Bill Nye the Science guy. After Bill, we went to see a concert on campus with a bunch of a cappella groups.. yay eight beat measure! 

This morning we woke up and went to breakfast with my parents at "Jay's Diner" before they headed back down the road to maryland. It was a pretty awesome weekend, however, now I have an overwhelming load of homework to do before Ashley and I go to a concert tonight. 

Shop 'til Ya Drop

Went to Tysons Corner yesterday in Virginia with my mom and Sarah. Sarah was looking for a "back-to-school/birthday dress and I needed a soap dish from the container store-- exciting, I know. Drove down around noon and walked around for hours and hours. I think we spent roughly 2 hours in one store, luckily there was a very comfy chair in the dressing room so I just sat and watched Sarah try on endless outfits. Ended up eating at Chipotle for lunch.. yummm. I have to get my fix of mexican in before I head off to Rochester because there are no Chipotle's within a 3 hour radius!! After lunch we continued wandering around and I eventually got bored of looking at clothes so I spent a rather large amount of time looking at books in Barnes and Noble. My dad only works about 20 minutes away so after he was done he came over and joined us for dinner.

The triumph of the day was that Sarah managed to find pants that are TOO LONG on her. Yeah, I find pants that are too long on me all of the time but you never, ever run into that problem if you have a 38 inch inseam like she does. While she was trying on pants I searched the store for the most hideous outfit. Okay, so it's a little "different" but it's actually not that weird compared to what else is out there. 

It's a Bird, It's a Plane... It's a Giant Pizza Bubble!

(Note: If you have not visited my blog in a while, there are two posts below this one in case you missed them... one from vacation one from earlier today. I spent today catching up on the past week hence the three posts in one day...)

Like I said previously, my mom has been painting, sanding, cleaning their bedroom/bathroom. Today's job was the ceiling. I appointed myself project coordinator and took it upon myself to stand and point out all the mistakes (all in good fun, of course) and take pictures of the painting. Sarah helped paint a bit on the ceiling.. she was so tall standing on the ladder that she had to take her hair down or it would hit the ceiling! When you take a look at the second picture, yes, that is, in fact, a large blue reclining chair sitting in the bathroom. It has been deemed the "flossing chair" for the time being. 

Since my mom spent long hours again today painting, Sarah and I took on the task of dinner once again. Tonight's dinner: pizza. Nope, not frozen pizza, pizza from dominos or pizza hut... homemade tasty pizza. Sarah made the dough.. I think the conversation went something like this:

Me: Taste this dough, it's pretty good!

Sarah: No way, that's gross.

Me: No really, taste it. (attempts to shove some in sarah's mouth)

Sarah: (running away) ewwwwww.

Me: What's in this anyway?

Sarah: You know... flour, salt, yeast...

Me: Woahh, so i'm going to rise?!

Yes.. one of my brighter moments. 

(sarah had already finished rolling this one out and i didn't have my camera out in time so i made her stand there and pretend to roll it out again.. she's a pretty good actor ;) 

(it's a giant pizza bubble!!! it took over half of the pizza)

That'll Do Pig...

Now that I've finally finished that vacation post I can get back to the everyday shenanigans that go on around here.

Let's see, Sunday night Alison slept over and we made a carrot cake! It was the tastiest thing ever. You see, we have this list that we formulated earlier this year of all the things we wanted to do together before I leave for college. We're about 3/4ths of the way through the list.. probably not going to finish it all before I leave in 17 days, but thats what thanksgiving/christmas breaks are for :) 

(we had to dye a large bowl of frosting orange for the carrot on top of the cake)

Yesterday my mom spent over 5 hours sanding a ceiling.. yes, a CEILING. You know the whole craining your neck for hours on end with your hand above your head.. doesn't sound very fun :( Anyway, she asked Sarah and I to make dinner so we set off to Giant and decided on greek salad, hummus, bread and cheese.. followed by carrot cake of course ;) Just for the heck of it we ate in the dinner room (a room we've had dinner in twice in the past 10 or so years..)

"Wait... Look at these!"

Yesterday I went out to dinner with two of my friends, Corey and Jenni, at the mall, we ended up not being that hungry so we decided to try on obnoxious clothing instead. (I don't have any of the pictures of us trying on clothing... they were on my friends camera) Sarah also happened to be at the mall with her friends so when they left she just tagged along with us. Of course, when at the mall there is a mandatory stop at the pet store to play with a puppy :)

trying on hats

jenni & corey

the cutest puppy ever :)

he was sooo adorable!!