2011: Review

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2011 was a great year for you, and that 2012 will be even better :) Here's a quick review of my 2011, with some of my favorite pictures of the year.

Merry Christmas :)

I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas, and enjoyed watching the Packers dominate tonight! Here are a few pictures from my break so far:

Rockefeller Center, surprise trip to NYC

Metropolitan Museum of Art (Main Entrance)

Duke, preventing me from folding my laundry

Sophie and Duke

Present from Mom and Dad- Pandora bracelet and crab charm from Maine

Duke's new bone (we had to take it away from him to get him to eat breakfast!)

Puppy

This past weekend, we brought our new puppy home! Say hello to Duke the Doberman! Or, as I've nicknamed him, Princess Kitty Cat McSleepypants.

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How 'bout those Packers?

Yesterday
Need I even mention that as a Wisconsin native, I was RIDICULOUSLY excited for the Super Bowl yesterday, and even MORE RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED that WE WON(!!!!!!!)? Yeah, I really do need to mention it. Because I am a Wisconsin native, and we DID win the Super Bowl.

Yeah. They went there. Anyway, no pictures from the game, because I wasn't there and I was too busy yelling at the TV to remember I had a camera.

Saturday
My sister Sophie turned 20! Which is not why we won the Super Bowl, despite her wishing for it (we won cause we're just that awesome!).

WURHA, one of the conferences that USRH goes to, is quickly approaching, and in order to lower the delegate cost, we're having a grilled cheese sale. Apparently they have a history of being quite successful. Of course, to have a grilled cheese sale, we needed to stock up on some key ingredients.


The people in line behind us weren't thrilled, to say the least. It probably didn't help that we were doing our shopping the day before the Super Bowl, when absolutely everyone was stocking up on snacks.

Friday
I should know by now that printing things in the USRH office is probably a bad idea. We have to buy our own paper, and of course we tend to use white for important/official things, or we run out. Which means that we usually have some kind of odd color in the printer.


And then you show up to class (with a SWEET Batman folder) and your notes look like that. Fun!

Thursday
Things have been pretty chilly in the Midwest (everywhere?) lately, as you may have heard. So after having classes cancelled on Wednesday, you would think we'd have a ton of snow, right?


Well, we did, but that was there before. Apparently most of the blizzard hit further South than Oshkosh. I've been staring out at this for what seems like forever now.

Wednesday
Regardless of the lack of promised snow, I don't think there was a single college student who wasn't excited to wake up to this email:


blah blah blah, State of Emergency, Chancellor Wells has decided to cancel all classes?!! Awesome!

Tuesday
Remember the Tome from last semester? I was so excited to get rid of it, right up until I saw the textbook for my Milton class.


According to my professor, the publishers refer to this as "the Brick." Oh, the joys of being an English major. Really though- my friend Kristin tells me that this would be considered small for an accounting textbook.

Monday
First day of Spring Semester 2011! And nothing will make you wish you had picked another major more than seeing this:


That's right. I have so many books this semester that they came in a cardboard tub. All 18 of them. The fact that they fit (quite nicely, even) on my bookshelf is a marvel.

Sunday
Time to get back to school, after finishing 6 weeks of winter break. I think I would have gone crazy if I hadn't taken that interim class. Going back to school isn't entirely bad, though- we stopped at my relative's house and got in some W time!


Dad was teaching him how to show off his muscles. Looks like the gun show is in town!

Last week of break

Sunday
Packer Party! The award for best play obviously goes to Raji.

And the best picture:


Photobombers. They're everywhere! Even in my house!

Monday
Jon got a new iPod touch for Christmas. It's pretty sweet. One of the ones with the cameras for FaceTime.


Once again, we fail at taking pictures together.

Tuesday
Tuesday was pretty much full of MTG and Backgammon.


Also stacking things. We're cool like that.

Wednesday
Also a boring day. Until I saw this!


Seriously. Go check out Historic LOL. It's great.

Thursday
I know I said no more tea pictures, but Jon insisted on this one. He tried this blooming peach tea and just had to get some for himself.


And it really was pretty good :)

Friday
We're about to watch the new episode of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena! And I haven't even taken a picture yet today!

Already breaking the rules

Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to update- I've been really busy lately with my creative writing class (I have to write a sonnet tonight! gulp!) and USRH. Here's what's happened in the last week:

Thursday
I tried out the last of the teas I bought at Teavana over break (3 total), a raspberry one.


And I know you're probably sick of tea by now, so this will be the last of the tea pictures. I just thought it was a really lovely color. Also delicious, by the way.

Friday
We had to put our puppy, Trooper, down Friday morning after he started having seizures Thursday evening. I didn't take this picture Friday (I didn't get home until Friday afternoon), but I thought it would be ok anyway.


As much as he drove me crazy, I really do miss him. Not having a dog in the house will take some getting used to.

Weekend
And here's where the rule-breaking comes in. I completely forgot to take weekend pictures. oops!

Monday
Part of my Christmas gift from Jon was one of his old Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. At first I didn't get why he was giving me some random card, and then I actually looked at it.


Apparently koalas are becoming a theme now. lol

Tuesday
I found out on Tuesday that my creative writing class would have a sonnet due on Friday (tomorrow! yikes!). Specifically, the Shakespearean kind. So of course I turned to my handy Arden Shakespeare collection for inspiration.


Sadly, iambic pentameter is a hard concept for me to grasp. No matter how long I "ba bum ba bum ba bum" I just can't hear that (or any other) rhythm in the words. This sonnet might be the death of me.

Wednesday
Jon and I went grocery shopping at Target! Riding the bus is still creepy! I wish I could have taken pictures of the other passengers for you, but I was afraid that they might shank me if I did. So here's my most exciting purchase, instead.


Freeze dried strawberries! Oh yeah! Sadly, they were out of apple and peach slices :( I would have really liked to try those, too.

New Year's Eve

The day started out terribly foggy, which made me worry about my friends who had plans to go out last night. I, however, was at my Grandpa's annual NYE party with my family.


Wouldn't you, if you knew this was going to be operating for a large chunk of the evening? It was quite a hit with everyone present.


Especially with the twins! I wish I had kept my camera on for another few minutes after this- Mikey had QUITE the impressive chocolate goatee.

Happy New Year everybody!

This is not rudolph.

Well, first of all, it's not even a reindeer. It's a mule deer. And even though we've had it in (at least) our last 3 homes, it still occasionally manages to scare the crap out of me when I wake up in the middle of the night and need a glass of water.


Probably not what my grandpa had in mind, but from what I've heard he was a bit of a trickster anyway, so maybe this would have made him laugh a little.

Holly Jolly Christmas

Thursday
Sophie didn't get home from college until Wednesday evening, so we had to wait to decorate the tree until Thursday when we were all home.


First we untangled the lights/ bothered dad while he tried to put the lights on the tree.


Then the fun part! Every Christmas, my Grandpa Bob has given me and my sisters a Christmas ornament, so we each have our own box full of decorations.


This was my very first Christmas ornament, and my all time favorite. I don't know why, I just really enjoy it :)

Christmas Eve
We spent Christmas Eve at my Grandpa Bob's house, with my Aunt Mary, Aunt Katie and Uncle Rob, and my cousins Liz and Pat. So it was a fairly small gathering this year, but it was kind of nice and relaxed. Dad made homemade chili for dinner, and Mom made homemade soup. And after dinner, we opened presents!


It was very fun. I got some sweet gift cards to Barnes and Noble and iTunes, and my Aunt Mary gave me the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, which is REALLY cool.


Of course, there was quite the mess when we were done!

Christmas Day
We spent Christmas day at my Aunt Anne and Uncle Chris' house. They had a really delicious Christmas brunch for us, and we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas with W. He was so funny- he barely blinked at all, but he could hardly stay awake.


He spent the movie cuddling with Sophie, but he let me cuddle with Bumble and Kanga so I wouldn't be left out.


While he napped, Brenna tested out his new safari play set.


And I found the pickle!

I hope you all had a happy and safe holiday!