I'm wearing a zoo!

This summer, my family spent a week at a lovely beach in Maine for our summer vacation (that's right- no camping this year). It was a week or so before my birthday, so while we were there I bought myself a birthday gift: a (knockoff) Pandora bracelet, and a lobster charm (I was in Maine). I named him Rex.

For our anniversary in October, Jonathan gave me an owl charm. He loves owls, especially the metal one in the original Clash of the Titans, Bubo. Apparently he liked having an easy gift choice, because for Christmas, he gave me a rotund giraffe (Pudge).

And now I'm wearing a zoo.

He also surprised me by asking if I'd go spend a few days with him and his family in New York once the semester ends. On Friday. Pictures will follow :)

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

First off, sorry I've been doing these longer, once a week posts. I hope it's ok, because I kind of enjoy them and will probably continue them next semester. Although, once this week is over, it will be winter break, so posting will probably be a little strange then. So what's been happening in the week leading up to finals?

Tuesday
Apparently, I need to be a meaner friend and not share my delicious cookies with everyone. Remember how many there were on Saturday?


This is how many I had left on Tuesday. In case it was ever questionable, let me declare: I bake cookies like a boss.

Wednesday
Lisa turned 21! Sadly, I wasn't able to spend much time celebrating with her, since I had my first exam at 8am Thursday morning. But I was able to go to the first bar with her, the much loved Barley and Hops.


Lisa's free birthday drink? A Barley and Hops special which they refer to as "The Three Wise Men." Fun.

Thursday
First exam! Geology lab at 8am! That was totally enjoyable. I especially enjoy getting up early to walk to class in the freezing cold. At least it wasn't an evening class- check this out:


I took this from my window around dinner time. By the next morning, the school was emailing everyone warning them that the snow and cold we'd been getting would likely be turning into blizzard conditions that weekend. (Spoiler: it totally did.)

Friday
I left my dorm... 3 times (?) on Friday to go to class and eat. I tried to combine as many of those events as possible, since the snow was not about to let up. To avoid cabin fever, I found a sweet Christmas station on Pandora (Swingin' Christmas, ftw!), got some studying in, and let Jonathan make me ridiculous pictures.


It did combine some of my favorite things- adorable koalas and geeky references to MTG.

Saturday
I try to avoid taking the bus places as often as possible. I can't read a bus schedule to save my life (hey, public transportation is definitely not something I'm used to). Plus, they're kind of gross. But Saturday, I rode the bus to Appleton with Jon, Ben, and Zach so we could hit the mall and finish up our Christmas shopping. None of which I can post pictures of, of course.


We ended up having a ton of extra time while we waited for the bus, though, so we stopped in at the nearest sports bar (it was basically the only place open in downtown Neenah), where the boys split this absolutely huge thing of nachos. I couldn't decide if it looked delicious or frightening.

Sunday
The school was right about the blizzard- it hit late Saturday afternoon and went all night.


Talk about a winter wonderland. We went from having a few little patches of snow to several inches in just a few hours. It's finally starting to feel like winter in Wisconsin!

Monday
My window is frozen shut!


Not that I'll likely be opening it again anytime soon, but still. My window is full of snow and ice. That's probably not a good thing, right?

Ice cream!

Four words: Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream.


Look it up. Right here. It's like the God of all other ice creams. It's what other ice cream aspires to be. It is delicious and amazing and you will NEVER find better ice cream anywhere.

Adventures in Target

Because various skincare items were needed, so Soph and I adventured over to Target this afternoon and had an adventure. We found some pretty sweet stuff, too. For example, a tamagotchi.


When was the last time anyone saw one of those?!! We also discovered a whack-a-mole game, which Soph really enjoyed.


You can tell she liked it by the way she's viciously assaulting the poor guys in this picture. lol. We also found a pretty awesome cowboy hat, which I kinda liked.


And, to round things off, we also got a picture of these lovely fluffy clouds on our way home:


They put me in the mood for cotton candy. Sadly, I have no idea where to get any other than at an amusement park.

Early Zoo Post

My sisters and I went to the zoo today, and ended up taking over 100 pictures while we were there. We got pretty excited. So here are some of the cool things we found:


An orangutan handprint. Apparently, they have really huge, stretched out hands.


One of my favorite pictures from today. I absolutely love the giraffes. They're my favorite animal to see at the zoo.


My favorite picture of me at the zoo, of course, also features one of the giraffes. And the back of my head. I wasn't overly photogenic today.

Bonus video, because some of the animals were being cute and I remembered I could record them.

Road trip!

It's close enough to tomorrow to post today's pictures. Also because it's 11:10pm and I don't feel like going to bed. Today, Jon, Soph, and I went on an epic road trip! We had to move Jon back to campus before he moves into his apartment tomorrow. Of course, there are some things a road trip cannot be without:

-Physical abuse (yellow one! ouch! black one! ow! green one! stop hitting me!)
-Music
-Stupid jokes (pee!)
-Funyuns
-Delicious beverages


-Spotting wildlife (we saw a live raccoon, a deer, lots of cows, some horses, and Max, our local crane/heron/wetland bird)


We were also lucky enough to have dinner with our good friend Ben, at a very classy establishment :)

Thursday

Thursday saw an epic adventure to the mall! I was joined by my faithful sisters/sidekicks and Jon! We had ridiculous amounts of fun at the mall arcade, where Jon kicked my butt at air hockey. It didn't help that I scored 3 goals on myself. Afterwards, my middle sister, S, and I got new super belly rings!


Sophie is channeling the awesome powers of Spiderman, but hasn't yet gotten the hang of swinging from a web. I, on the other hand, opted for Batman:


nanananananananananaBAT-RING!