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.

Who doesn't love a new purse?

It recently came to my attention that I was missing should be a staple in my wardrobe. A cross body purse. I prefer black or brown to go with anything, and just big enough to hold my iPod, camera, wallet, and some gum.


This lovely vintage Coach purse of my mom's is almost perfect- just a tiny bit too small. And borrowed. So I was quite happy when I found this on sale at Target this afternoon:


It's from the Mulberry for Target line, which I didn't even know had been going on. I was mostly excited that it was 50% of and just big enough for my things, with a tiny bit of room to spare for tissues and car keys and such.

In other news, I was quite shocked to realize that interim classes begin next Monday, meaning I move back into the dorms on Sunday. ugh. Break is almost over already? Whiskey tango foxtrot!

Last-minute holiday madness

Today was the first day of break that Sophie and I both had off. Since we're both slackers, we devoted it to finishing off our holiday shopping. It. was. crazy. I didn't even think we were going to be able to get parking spaces at the mall or Barnes and Noble, but we ended up getting lucky and scoring spots close to the door as someone else was leaving. Then we got into the store.


And THIS was the line I got to wait in. Apparently Barnes and Noble was the place to be this afternoon. Everybody and their grandma was there. Absolute madness. At least there the checkers are pretty fast, so I didn't end up waiting as long as I thought I would. But man. I've got to remember this next year and try to get my shopping done before Christmas week.

Bonus quote of the day
Sophie, as we pass a decorative, light-up reindeer in someone's yard: Oh my gosh I thought that was a live giraffe!

Thanksgiving Break

First off, I am an incredibly lucky person. Oshkosh only had school Monday and Tuesday last week, and I don't have Tuesday classes this semester, so I got to go home Monday night. I had almost an entire week off, which is why this is only now being updated.

Monday
My Aunt Debbie and her two boys stayed at our house a couple of nights during break. Of course, the boys are too old now to be excited when Sophie or I come home. I was greeted by this:


Hey, at least they could look away from the computer screens for a minute, right?

Tuesday
I was going to get a picture at lunch, since Aunt Debbie, my cousins and I met Grandma Joyce, but I was smart and forgot my camera at home.


This is not my grandma. Or any of my relatives. Or even lunch. This is Trooper, making weird dog eyes at me.

Wednesday
Pie! Glorious apple pie! Aunt Debbie made both an apple and a blueberry pie for Thanksgiving. I helped make the apple pie.


And by helped, I mean I ate pie crust dough, pie crust cookies, and cinnamon apples before they got stuck in the pie. Here's the apple pie, right before it got popped in the oven.

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving lunch was at my Aunt Anne and Uncle Chris' house, and was absolutely delicious. Of course, I took a TON of pictures, but since I don't want this to be a longer post than it already will be...


The grown-up (and W) table, where I was not seated. Oh well. I got to sit by W later, when we had pie :)


And then my camera battery died. Lovely. Skipping ahead to Saturday...

Saturday
I am not a Black Friday shopper. I think people are crazy. (You don't? Check out this crazy Menards lady and tell me otherwise. Just a heads up, there are quite a few profanities.) I do, however, enjoy a good sale. Like when the shiny 8GB SD card I want for my camera is on sale for $15, AND I happen to have a $15 Best Buy Rewards card.


$1.77 for a card that usually costs $39.99? Heck yeah! 4x the storage space as the card I have now? Even better!

Sunday
Sunday? Not as exciting as Saturday. I opened the fridge to put my just opened and snacked on salsa in, and guess what I found?


Food! My roommate's leftovers from before break! Do you have any idea how nasty those buffalo wings probably are by now? Ew!

Monday
Ok, I promise this is the last picture of Philip's new leaf thing. But look at how much bigger it got while I was gone!


Personally, I'm still in shock that it's still alive, let alone growing.

Happy Shopping!

Just a cute Black Friday thing I found this morning and thought some of you may be interested in:

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.

UWO won the GLACURH region SOY!

I went home this weekend, and it was WONDERFUL. I absolutely love getting to sleep in my own bed- dorm beds are just so tiny! It was a nice, relaxing weekend, and I managed to get some work done, too :)

Also, if you're wondering about the title, it means awesome things. Like that Oshkosh will get to present its bid for School of the Year at the national level! (we just got through the regional level this weekend) It's wicked exciting because it was a really big project for USRH- we were working right up to the last minute- so now we're all extremely excited.

Friday
I got home around dinner, although I had already eaten since I was starving when we left Oshkosh. Anyway, I got to hear Brenna practice her cello, which she's definitely been improving on.


I remember when she first started playing, hearing her practice wasn't so fun. But now she's getting pretty good :)

Saturday
I slept until 9:30 and it. was. GLORIOUS. I didn't even want to get out of bed until Mom mentioned that they were going grocery shopping. I figured it would be a good time to mention how much I would love some more chips and salsa. Plus, we were stopping at a bakery and who doesn't love doughnuts? We also met my Aunt Anne at the mall that afternoon for a little bit of shopping (I got a fun skirt and belt AND Sophie and Brenna's Christmas presents!). After that, though, I spent a good chunk of time on homework.


Except that my desk looked like that, so I ended up working in the family room. Thank god for wireless internet and laptops, or I would have had to tame that AND write a 9 page paper on scholarly journals! I really do need to work on that, though. Perhaps over winter break, since I won't have terrible school work then.

Sunday
Remember my post awhile back about my wall art? Well, Brenna decided to draw a few pictures for me, so I could get some color up there.


I think my favorite is the jellyfish- every time I look at it I can't help but think of this scene from Spongebob.

More W, More Zoo

Aunt Anne and W came to visit again today. We couldn't decide whether we wanted to go to the Children's Museum, the zoo, or the botanical gardens, so we asked W and the zoo was a clear winner. First, though, we stopped by DSW to look for some shoes.


The little man had fun trying on shoes that were much too big for him, climbing on the shelves, and running down the aisles.


At the zoo, we took a ride on the train. It was kind of a short ride, but I think that once they finish some of the construction they've got going on right now, it will be extended through more of the zoo.


This guy was the most exciting animal today. Most of the time, he's hiding somewhere back in the trees and you can barely see him, but today he was out prowling around the entire exhibit. We actually saw him a couple times as we checked out the animals around him. It was very cool.

Bumming

Since I had to pick Mom up from work today, Soph, B, and I decided to kill some time by bumming around the mall. First, we found some sweet winter hats at JC Penney's:


Then we found matching gloves!


We did not, however, spend the entire trip messing around. Sophie found a REALLY cute dress at Francesca's, and then we helped her find a good belt to go with it at H&M. (Possibly our first purchase there since it opened- it seems really disorganized and hard to shop in.)


Modeling at home for Mom/ trying the look with her silver heels.

Shopping with B

After our zoo trip yesterday, we all stopped by one of the malls so that W could run around for a bit and Aunt Anne could make a few returns. Needless to say, this put me in the mood for some shopping. Then, when she told me that Forever 21 had skinny jeans for $9.00, I HAD to go shopping. So, this afternoon, Brenna and I did just that. Our first stop, of course, was Forever 21.


$9.00 skinny jeans. BAM! They came in this dark denim and black. I wanted to get both, but I couldn't find the black in my size. Maybe some other time. Our second, and last stop was Hollister. B likes to browse around there.


I found this supersoft hoodie on the sale rack, marked down to $25 from $40. Then, to make things extra sweet, I ran into a former teammate working at the register, so she gave me a bit of a discount and I ended up paying $20 :)

Day 4

On Tuesday, there was a flea market in one of the small towns near the campground. A number of us got new sunglasses while we were there.


Colleen's were particularly awesome. Isn't she cute?!!

Like most of the things we did during camping, going to the flea market left us in need of a sweet pick me up.


So of course we biked down to the Corner Store for ice cream!

Silly sisters shopping

Yesterday, the weather finally seemed to get a little nicer, so my sisters and I went to the mall. We were going completely stir crazy after having been stuck at home during the storms. Of course, we don't really go to the mall to shop. We kind of just try on whatever weird things we find and then take pictures of them

Example: my sisters found some floppy hats at Gap


Sometime we try on cute accessories, too. Like this headband that B found at Francesca's:


Stay tuned- once prom season hits we'll be find some interesting dresses, too! lol

Golden-wrapped candy of happiness

Yesterday, I made a short trip to the grocery store with Mom and the sisters. While we were there, I decided that I needed some rollos. There were no rollos in the entire grocery store. Ok, we have have to stop at Kwik Trip, too. I'll get rollos there. Kwik Trip was also devoid of rollos. Whiskey tango foxtrot?!! How can both the grocery store AND the gas station be out of rollos? Fortunately, B had a stash in her room. Which I promptly stole when I got home.


My very delicious, gold-wrapped candies of happiness. How exciting it was to finally have some.

Pink Poodle

Yesterday was rainy and gross, yet again. My youngest sister, B, got to go to an indoor waterpark while Sophie and I entertained ourselves. We ended up at the Pink Poodle, a local consignment store. Some of the things we kind of cool, but mostly we just found weird stuff. Like these strange fish shoes:


Yeah. Cool stuff, right? When the shoe moves, it looks like the fish move. Another great find? The Ruby red hooker heels. Which, for right now, aren't uploading correctly. So perhaps you can see them later.

Edit:
It finally looks like I can post the ruby red hooker heels, so here they are in all their sparkly red glory:


Alternatively, they'd probably also work well in some type of Rocky Horror Picture Show-inspired costume.

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!