Pin-spiring!

I found this awesome post on Pinterest yesterday! (But really, when do I NOT find something awesome on there?!)

It's a list of recipes for break, lunch, dinner, and snacks that can all be made in a mug! All of the ingredients can be found in the cafeterias or at the local grocery stores (like Quality Dairy or Meijer). And they aren't just your boring 'chocolate cake' or 'oatmeal' recipes in there, either. There's some really intricate ones like quiche, french toast, and even coffee cake! Here's where to find them: 18 Microwave Snacks You Can Cook In A Mug!

I tried to make the banana bread one! It was okay - definitely not one of my favorites though. I am much more eager to try the french toast for breakfast. It seems so simple, and all I need is the egg and the cinnamon.

This is the other one I want to try soon. Chocolate and Salted Caramel Cake. It would be a cute Valentine's Day date, wouldn't it? ;)

 

Speaking of which, Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you get the chance to spend the day honoring the relationships you have with the people you care about, whether it's family, friends, a significant other, or just a stranger on the street.  Remember though, it's just another Thursday. It's not the only day of the year you're encouraged to tell someone what they mean to you!

Time goes by (so slowly).

But really, it doesn't. It's been two weeks since my last post? My goodness, does time just fly by. I guess I just never realized how busy I've been because I've constantly been doing things! Let's just start at the beginning of the semester:

The first week wasn't bad. Being in senior level classes now, "syllabus week" doesn't really exist, so I've had homework assigned since day one. This semester I'm taking two design intensive classes, Mechanical Design II and Design of Alternative Energy, as well as Heat Transfer and Vibrations. Heat Transfer is my favorite so far, mostly because it's taught by the favorite professor in the engineering department, but I also enjoy the subject matter. I think this semester is going to be a tough one, though, due to the design courses and arranging time to meet with my groups. But that's what engineering all comes down to in the real world, arranging schedules to work with people and get things done!

We are also in the middle of Spring Rush for Phi Rho currently. Unfortunately, a few of the events are at the same time I'm scheduled to work, so I won't get to interact with the rushees very much. But I will get to see them for the rest of the semester! I am the senior Member Educator this semester, so I get to teach them about the sorority, our chapter, and everything else that comes along with Greek Life. Our rush theme is Disney this semester, so I'm planning on incorporating that into some fun educational activities as well :)

Despite my interesting schedule with work, school, and Phi Rho, it should definitely be an interesting semester!

Welcome back, Spartans!

Hello fellow Spartans and welcome back to the beauty of East Lansing! I honestly can't complain since the weather has been quite favorable for the beginning of January. I have even been able to run almost every day this week! A pretty good start to my New Year's goals if I do say so myself. Speaking of which, here's something awesome that MSU Live On is offering that will help me with those goals this upcoming semester! There's a new Neighborhood Health and Wellness Group Exercise Program called "Live On & Be Fit" run by students like you and me. The benefit is, you don't even have to leave campus to do this! There's everything from yoga to Zumba to aquatic activities held in each neighborhood or at an IM building. Personally, I'm most interested in the beginning ballet class in South Neighborhood. I haven't taken a dance class since I was about three, but something about plies and a bunch of French words just really sparks my interest.

Having trouble motivating yourself to just get up and do it? Make a pact with your roommate that you'll do it together. Working out is always more fun in a group, and sooner or later, it won't even feel like working out. It's a great way to learn something new and be healthy at the same time!

For a full list of events, go to this website: Live On & Be Fit!. Don't see something there that should be! Suggest a class or event to Live On and see if they'll start one up! Maybe you will even be able to run it. Now how great would that look on a resume? :)

Maybe it's not my weekend, but it's gonna be my year.

It's 2013! I guess the Mayans were wrong about the end of the world thing..

Well that means we can all start our New Year's resolutions now! But let me rephrase - New Year's GOALS. According to Google, the word 'resolution' means 'a firm decision to do or not to do something.' On the other hand, the definition of a 'goal' is 'the result or achievement toward which effort is directed.' To me, that word sounds so much more encouraging and actually makes me WANT to accomplish what I intend to do. This year, my goals are pretty simple:

1. Be stronger and healthier. I feel like I've already started this by beginning running, choosing to eat well, and encouraging my friends and family to do the same, but I know that you can always improve when it comes to this lifestyle. I just organized my schedule for the upcoming semester, and I already feel a little overwhelmed by the shear amount of color splashed across my Google Calendar. I will DEFINITELY need to find some time to work out/run in there in order to ease my mind while building some muscle.
2. Be less judgmental. This is one thing that I've found people are very afraid to admit about themselves because it is normally not a desired quality. I KNOW that I can easily jump to conclusions, and I've come to realize I can easily form an opinion about someone or something based on something that someone else has said or heard. I want to keep more of an open mind, especially since I will be graduating and entering the real world soon, and I'll need that to further succeed. 
3. Run a half marathon. I know this is on the same terms as my first goal, but I wanted to be a little more specific. I'm not sure if it will be this year or next year, but I would LOVE to run in the Disney Half Marathon down in Orlando. :)
4. Set aside some 'me' time every week. It isn't very often that I am able to take the time to relax during the week, as my boyfriend frequently reminds me, so all of that stress builds up in unhealthy ways. I plan to bring my flute and piccolo up to campus with me this semester, because playing music has always been able to force me to relax even when I don't think I'm capable of it at the time.

Of course I have plenty of other things I want to accomplish over the year as well. I want to bake and cook more from my endless list of Pinterest recipes and cookbooks,  I want to scrapbook more especially when it comes to documenting events from my sorority, and I definitely need to start thinking more seriously about a full time job for next Spring.. It's a long and stressful list but I'm confident that I will be able to get he majority of items accomplished this year. :)

2013: You WILL be a fantastic year, whether you like it or not!

Happy Christmakwanzakah!

And that is honestly because I've missed the beginning of every winter holiday so far! Sorry everyone!

Merry belated Christmas, happy belated Hanukkah , and joyous belated Kwanza!

Sorry again that it's so late. I've just been so productive over the first half of my winter break that I haven't been able to blog!

Let's see what I've done so far:

• gone running
• finished my book
• made and wrapped everyone's Christmas gifts
• scrapbooked for Phi Rho
• baked Christmas cookies
• bought next semester's school books
• and color with my new crayons!

Haha, this is what I call productive, or at  least "winter break productive". I still have quite a long list of less enjoyable things to accomplish, but I'll worry more about those later.

I cannot believe how much snow the southeast part of Michigan got yesterday and this morning! I went outside to measure it because I didn't actually believe the weather reports, and low and behold, we got 8 inches! I think that's more than the last two years combined. My plan was to go outside and build a snowman, but I couldn't convince my sixteen year old brother to come with me so... yeah that didn't happen. Maybe on tomorrow's agenda?

Oh, I do want to mention something that I got for Christmas this year. My brother.. my goodness, he just knows me so well. His gift was probably one of my favorites that I received. Little known fact, one of my favorite YouTube videos is this one:

Because, otters. They are just too cute and the fact that they hold hands so as not to drift away from each other when they're sleeping may be the most adorable thing ever. So my brother, knowing all of this, got me this poster:

Seriously, how awesome is that?! That video never fails to make me smile, even when I'm really stressed out with school and work, and now I have a picture to hang up in my room that has the same effect. Perfect :)

Other than adorable otters, my Christmas Day went very well! We made a yummy breakfast and opened presents in the morning, lounged around in the afternoon, I went running with my new thermal gear and running watch (thank goodness it was before the blizzard hit), then made surf and turf dinner followed by board game night with my family. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful people in my life :)

I hope everyone else is enjoying the holidays just as much as me!

All that counts is here and now.

Alright, so about these finals... I've got a bone to pick with you all about it. The only thing I've heard people talk about or seen on social media (aka. Facebook and Twitter) is people complaining about how unprepared they are, how little hours of sleep they are going to get because they're studying all night, or how poor their grades are going to be after these finals are over.

Well you know what, I have no sympathy for you people. You are the ones who are wasting time on these websites trying to get attention and solace from anyone you're connected with, when you could be STUDYING AND PREPARING FOR YOUR EXAMS. Guess what. Everyone is in the same boat as you! All of us our studying or writing papers or making presentations for our classes, so we aren't going to feel bad for you if we're in the exact same position. It doesn't matter if you have five finals and I only have two. That's the way it happened to work this semester. I might be swamped with projects and exams next semester, and you might just have a couple of exams that aren't even cummulative. Everything will balance out in the end.

Also, if there's anything that I've learned from my last three years of secondary education, it's how to effectively prepare, or at least do so to the best of my ability. I'm not going to lie: I worked my butt of all (or most) of the semester, so I don't have to cram all the information I was taught over the past four months into a week's worth of studying. To be honest, I haven't studied more than three hours or so for each of my exams this week, and I've mostly been catching up on television shows, reading my books, or running errands...

Granted, there are the people that can cram, cram, cram all of their classes into one or two all-nighters and ace their finals. Kudos to you, but that's not how it works for me, let alone in the real world.

Basically, the point of this rant is that you all just need to relax. Think about it this way: this one class that you're having difficulty with, whether it may be one, three, or more credits, it is a small fraction of the 128 (or more) you will be graduating with when you get your diploma leave MSU. All you need to do is put everything into perspective.

With that, good luck to everyone this week! It's not the end of the world, you're going to be fine, and it's almost over. Plus, there's the Holidays, snow, and a New Year to look forward to :)

Campus Holiday Dinner!

Tonight is the Holiday Dinner in all of the major cafeteria's around campus!!! This is one of my favorite dinners the caf provides, mostly because there is just SO much food to choose from! Here's the menu for South Pointe (Case Hall), but almost all of the cafeterias will be serving the same thing:

• Grilled New York Strip Steaks
• Golden Butterfly Shrimp
• Corn
• Baked Potato
• Franks in a Blanket
• Crab Rangoons with Orange Marmalade Dip
• Mozzarella Cheese Sticks with Marinera Sauce
• Fresh Fruit Display
• Cheese and Crackers
• Baked Red Snapper
• Sauteed Chicken with Spinach
• Quattro Formagia
• Golden Fried Shrimp
• Long Grain and Wild Rice
• Acorn Squash
• Parmesan Knot Rolls
• Assorted Knot Rolls
• Cinnamon Raisin Dinner
• Rolls (with three assorted flavored butters)
• Holiday Punch
• Egg Nog
• Gourmet Hot Chocolate

Not to mention all of these AMAZING desserts!:

• Peanut Butter Fudge
• Chocolate Fudge
• Rocky Road Fudge
• Sugar Cookies
• Assorted Mini Holiday Cupcakes
• Pumpkin Cheesecake
• White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake 

  The reason that I bolded AND italicized the sugar cookies is because I helped decorate them at the MSU Bakery!! I'm not sure if I had actually ever mentioned it before, but that's one of my favorite reasons for working there. It is always so much fun around the holidays even though there are dozens upon dozens of sugar cookies to decorate. It's never a bad thing though because I get to pick up extra shifts!

Anyway, you should all go to the holiday dinner at whatever cafeteria is closest to where you live! I even know people who live off campus and are still going because they know they're going to get a great meal out of it! :) And don't forget to try the sugar cookies! :D

'Tis the season.

How in the world is it already the LAST WEEK of Fall semester classes?!?!?! I know that they say time flies, but boy, did it have to fly that quickly?! I remember when I was writing a blog about midterms and now it's FINALS?! I guess my schedule is so consistently busy that I never stop to think about how fast the time is going by...

I think this has been one of my most inactive weeks for finals preparation as well. I lucked out, in terms of engineering, because I didn't have a design project to do for the end of any of my classes. The only MAJOR projects I had to work on were two papers, a short presentation, and a test I have tomorrow acting as our final. No wonder I only just realized how close it was to going home..

And Christmas! I don't even want to think about that just yet. I have NO IDEA what I'm getting my close friends, let alone my boyfriend or family members. Good thing there's about a week and a half between the beginning of break and the actual holiday! I'll have some seriously planning, shopping, and creating to do during that time. That's another thing about me. I like giving gifts that I make! Pinterest is a WONDERFUL source for all sorts of DIY crafts, so I'm bound to find something cute to make! Most likely it will revolve around food. I feel like those are the best types of gifts sometimes.. :p

Speaking of presents, I actually have a Christmas list this year! If I even ask for anything, it's normally tuition or sorority money, but this year, I'm asking Santa for a running watch, a nice scarf (preferably Spartan themed), and a new travel coffee mug! I probably could have gotten all of these things for myself on Black Friday (or whatever they call it now since it starts ON Thanksgiving...), but I wanted to change it up this year and make it different for my parents :p What are you asking for this year?

This Christmas break should be really relaxing , yet incredibly productive. I already of a list going (and I've probably checked it more than just twice ;]). It mostly consists of catching up on all of the books I have yet to read and television shows I have yet to finish. But I do have quite a bit to do for Phi Sigma Rho as well, considering I will be Senior Member Educator next semester! I'm very excited to recruit for our Gamma class and teach them all about Greek life and Phi Rho! :D My junior Member Educator is SUPER ENTHUSIASTIC about it, so it's going to be fantastic working with her!

Ahh! I'm so exicted! I just need to get through five more classes and three finals!

So thanks for making me a fighter.

I owe this blog quite a long post.. Sorry that I haven't written anything recently! Despite the fact that we just got over with Thanksgiving break, I didn't really have a "break" per say. But you know what? That's alright. I got a lot of things done that I needed to, so I feel a lot better going into the LAST THREE WEEKS of the semester! Wow, has the semester gone by that fast already? It feels like it was just syllabus day..

Anyway, I've been pretty busy with school, internship hunting, and preparing for Christmas! Also, this week is I-Week (stands for Inspiration Week), so it's packed full of events that I'm supposed to do with my sorority. Talk about great timing, eh? Oh well, spending time with my sisters is always a great way to wind down from stressing so much about school and adulthood. So! Here's what I've been doing with my life over the past few weeks:

Last week was Thanksgiving, and since my labs and Wednesday classes were cancelled due to travel, I was able to go home MONDAY night and surprise my family! My mother actually didn't believe that I walked through the door at first, it was pretty funny :P. I was so happy to spend more than just the holiday and travel days with my family, too. I so desperately needed a break from school and work and engineering, so it was so great to hang out with my brother and parents and be prodctive at home! But here's the bad part - I never got to sleep in and make up for the lack of sleep I get at school! Every morning I had something going on whether it was Thanksgiving related, runnings errands, and attending my brother's percussion events. My favorite part of break was not actually eating tons and food and spending the holiday with family (though that was DEFINITELY still a fantastic part), but running the Turkey Trot with my brother! It was an absolutely beautiful day for a run despite the fact that the race began at 7 in the morning, and a 10k is not officially the farthest I've ran since I started in May! My goal is to be able to run the Hawk Island loop from campus (about 10 miles!) by the end of next Spring semester. I think if I can do that, I will sign up for a half marathon next fall. :) It will be my New Year's Resolution! 

Other than the Turkey Trot, I was able to get everything I needed for upcoming events like Initiation, Big/Little Reveal, christmas gifts, and I was even able to get some new thermal gear from Black Friday sales! I love Black Friday shopping, but I'm not one of those crazy people that get up SUPER early the day after Thanksgiving or even go ON the holiday. I just think that's silly and unnecessary.

Now, here's my future plan for the rest of the semester!: Not much is going around on around campus since football season is over and it's now so close to finals. I feel like I should be studying every day for the next two weeks since all of my finals are cummulative, but I just can't bring myself to start! Some of the best motivation to get me to study is to listen to movies scores, espeically action movies that have epic themes. I can't even begin to list all of my favorites but some are Star Wars, Superman, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, How to Train Your Dragon, Harry Potter, X-Men, and Batman. The best way to do it is to use Pandora, or another type of internet radio. My current stations is John Williams Radio, and it's awesome. I'm listening to it as I write this blog! :)

It's getting late though, and I should probably get sleep before my Fluid Dynamics quiz tomorrow, yikes! I'll update later with pictures from I-Week and the Turkey Trot! :)

Spartan teams are NEVER beaten, all through the game they fight!

So.. this weekend is the last home football game of the season, and that makes me really sad. :( With the NHL lockout and all, I will have no sporting events to look forward to watching on TV or possibly making a trip down to Detroit for... I mean, I know I have MSU college hockey to look forward to for the next 6 months, but it's just not the same as professional hockey. But anyway, back to the current sport conundrum.

Ever since I've attended a Big Ten university, I've grown to fall in love with college football. I've probably talked about it multiple times throughout this blog, but I just can't help but keep saying how much I truly enjoy it! The atmosphere in the stadium is INCREDIBLE: 75,000+ people that are all there to support a group of over a hundred Spartans as they play their hearts out every game of the season. I love the "Go Green! Go White!" chant that envelops the entire stadium, singing our Fight Song EVERY time the marching band plays it, and all of the little traditions we have as a student section like our first down chant and shaking our keys on the opponents 3rd down. I definitely can do without the vulgarities and negative chants that our section starts, but I think the enthusiasm and positive cheers can make up for it.

I think it's kind of funny that I love football so much now that I'm in college. I was in marching band all four years of high school, but I never payed attention to our Friday night games, let alone knew the rules of how it worked. Now I feel like I can hold a conversation about it, including stats about other schools in other leagues. One of my friends even told me that I'm the most sports-inclined girl he knows. :P My boyfriend loves football too, and I've found that it makes the game that much better when you're standing in the stadium with people that enjoy it just as much.

So now that you know what my plans are for the weekend, I encourage you (if you have student section tickets) to attend the last game of the season! Yes, it might be chilly, and yes, we may lose again, but that shouldn't stop you from cheering for the overall BEST team in the Big Ten in our beautiful Spartan Stadium!

Here's a little pump up video! :)

Go Green!

Go White!

BEAT THE WILDCATS!