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!)

Ok, here's the deal...

Posting pictures every day is hard sometimes. But when I don't do that, I don't do anything. And I have a smartphone now! I can (sort of) post right from my phone. So we're going to give this another run, because I kind of miss it. Look for regular updates starting soon. Until then, enjoy this more recent picture of Duke hanging out with his bff Jonathan.

Look at how big he's gotten!

Realization

Hey everyone! As much as it sucks, I've recently decided to make updates on here on an "as things happen" sort of basis. I've been busy so far this semester and it doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon, so I think that for right now, updating more than every once in awhile is an unrealistic goal. Here are some final pictures of the WURHA 2011 conference:


Our awesome UWO display. The theme for the conference was "Back to Basics" and our school's theme was recess, so what better than a lego schoolyard?


Our role call ended in the hokey pokey- again, basics.


Friday night's entertainment was casino night- apparently Jacey is awesome at blackjack.


Ride the Pony/ Little Sally Walker. It was like being a cheerleader all over again!

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.

Back in action!

Thanks to my wonderful mom, my purse arrived back on campus yesterday afternoon, and everything in it is still in good working shape. Class schedules for interim are a little diffferent- 3 hours of one class each day, every day of the week, for 3 weeks. So I have 3 hours of class in the morning, and then all afternoon and evening to take pictures and be productive!

Yesterday
Ok, I wasn't overly productive yesterday. I went to class and did my homework and watched Bones, and that was pretty much it. It was still a pretty nice day, though. I did my homework in my friend Jacey's room, so we discussed Beowulf (her assigned reading) and random-word poems (my assignment). I also got to cuddle with her squishy dinosaur friend.


I don't think there are many people who could pass up cuddling this guy. It's so fuzzy I could DIE!

Today
If yesterday wasn't productive, today more than made up for it. I spent almost 2 hours meeting with my USRH advisor, Becca. The scholarships we're supposed to revise and advertise and award each year are almost ready to go now- at this point, we jsut need to sit back and wait for a few other people to come through. Plus, I got all of my homework done and road tripped over to Target with Jacey to pick up some necessary school supplies (running out of staples sucks). And then I ran across this:


The Zoya facebook page can be found here, although I don't think you actually have to be a fan to use this code. If you're a nail polish person, though, I highly suggest taking advantage of this offer. This is the only brand of vegan nail polish I've found so far that has even close to decent reviews, and standard shipping is less than the price of one of their nail polishes. And if you do, be sure to leave a comment telling me what colors your ordered!

Let's pretend I titled this post the first time around

Sunday
Several years ago, after my great grandma died, my grandma Joyce gave me on of her watches. I've never really been a watch person, but I decided a few weeks ago that I'd like to start wearing one. At which point I remembered that I already had one. Whether or not it still worked was another story.


So, while I was visiting Grandma Joyce on Saturday, I stopped by the jeweler's and asked if he could take a look at it. Turns out, all it needed was a new battery. The inside is perfectly fine, he said. Quite exciting :)

Yesterday
I don't honestly pay much attention to the things that are in my room anymore. I'm not here all that often, anyway.


Still, this picture always makes me smile. It was taken at the very end of my last year in middle school- the school had a party for all of the students before going to high school. And now I'm in college! It seems absolutely crazy.

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?

What a great weekend!

This weekend was full of awesome things: handmade goodies, Christmas shopping, Harry Potter, adorable kittens, and awesome friends :)

Thursday
Ok, I know I posted about Philip's new leaf thing on Wednesday, BUT! after I had done so, it was suggested that I take a picture of it with a penny for scale, so here's that:


Pretty tiny, huh?

Friday
I was in bed by 10:30 on Friday. Possibly this is strange for a college student, but I wanted to get a good night's rest before Saturday. Not only did I have plans with my friends to see the new Harry Potter movie, but Jonathan and I were planning on going to Handmade for the Holidays.


Sound like fun?

Saturday
The best day of the weekend, by far. First Jonathan and I got up early for breakfast, then we hopped on the bus and rode downtown to get to Handmade for the Holidays.


It was quite lovely :) I managed to snag a cute headband, and I picked up a couple little things to stick in with my sister's Christmas presents.

Sunday
Kittens!


This one did NOT want people to hold her. She was quite squirmy, but she did enjoy playing with us.

Ok, I'm behind again

Here's the thing. We're getting dangerously close to Thanksgiving break. Which means that everybody and their mother is just piling the homework on. I didn't take pictures this weekend. Why? Because I was either sleeping or glued to The Tome. Remember that? It's still terrible. Here's the rest of last week:

Monday
Somehow, I naively, thought that I'd have time to do fun things this week, so I downloaded Plants vs. Zombies for my iPod.


Trust me when I say, it's pretty awesome. Who doesn't like plants that shoot peas at zombies and sunflowers that pop out little suns?

Tuesday
My roommate went home the same weekend I did. She came back with this:


If you think it's something you could get used to, or that after awhile it gets less creepy, you're wrong. Very, very wrong. Those eyes are so big that no matter where you are in the room, it's looking at you. And giving you one creeptastic smile.

Wednesday
I had a math test! (I got an 80!) It was also a really nice day out. However, this is Wisconsin, so I'm expecting snow any minute here.


I figured that this would be the last time I'm going to see green grass for a loooooooooooong time.

Thursday
It was a very sad day for Jon. He decided that, since he recently bought a computer (and they have cheaper and better games), and that he rarely uses his xbox anymore, that he would sell it.


Still, it was pretty sad to pack it up. He feels better that it's going to a good home- our friend's roommate NEEDED it so she could play Assassin's Creed. I don't get it, but whatever. Not a video game person.

Friday
This counted as the weekend, which I already explained was not photographed due to my being stuck with The Tome.