July mid-month wrap-up

July has been a great month so far, well....minus having summer school.  However, I did get some students to switch clinic shifts with me during the 4th of July week so that I could make it to Ohio to spend some much needed vacay time with my boy and his family.  We went to a amusement park, rode go carts, climbed rock walls, went in bumper cars, played laser tag, and much more!  It was a ton of fun, and I never thought I would like all of those things so much!

His family also has three birthdays that they celebrate around the 4th, and now our anniversary.  They got us a cute little cake with our wedding colors on it!  It was sooooo good.  I'm still craving it.

Mike also took me on a mini-second honeymoon to Bar Harbor...............
Road.  Haha!  He found a Bar Harbor Road near us, and took me there to celebrate our "second honeymoon".  That boy is so sweet I can hardly stand it. 

In prep for the Color Run, we needed to get Mike out and running during our little vacay.  The easiest 3 miles in my life turned into the most painful because I tripped over something and scraped up my knees pretty bad.  They were bandaged for a while due to bleeding, but now they have bruised over.  It's almost three weeks later and they are still sore.  Just my luck!

Ever since that little vacation we've been back here at home relaxing.  I've been studying late for exams (hence the gigantic coffee that I was drinking at 9pm), we went to a Coldplay concert (my dream come true, it was AMAZING!!!!!!), and I got a haircut!  First one in a very long time. 

 Hope all is well with you!

xoxo

Color Runniversary

July 8th, 2012.  One year wedding anniversary.  Color Run.

YAY!  We made it one year!  I'm so happy to be married to this guy, it's insane.  To celebrate our insanity, we decided to do a 5k, but not just any 5k.  The COLOR RUN.  Every kilometer you get slammed with color powder to create a very colorful body/runner.

We started off all white, and ended up rainbows!  It was so much fun.  AND, it was Mike's first 5k ever!  He finished like a pro too. 

The color was some cornstarchy substance that murdered your lungs as you were running through it, but it was worth it.  It was centered around the Art Museum *cue very confused tourists*, and afterwards there was a huge party with music and color.  Everyone threw color at the same time and it turned into a huge color cloud.  It was an awesome experience.  And it was especially awesome because Mike and I did it together!

I was really excited for Mike because it was the world's largest color run ever, and the third largest 5k ever.  I think that's a pretty cool way to start your running career. 

I hope there is always a color run around us on our anniversary because this would be an amazing and fun tradition to do every year!

Here's some pictures and a video of the "color cloud" experience!

xoxo

Yeah, imagine being right in the middle of that.  Crazy, and super fun!  I wanna do it again right now!

T-minus 8 days!

That's right folks! Eight days and we'll be hitched! I cannot wait!

This summer has gone pretty fast, but I've made a point of enjoying the time I've had off. I think I've been pretty successful with that. I run almost everyday, and I really enjoy the scenery here. I think it's beautiful, especially with the sun hitting the tops of the hills in the early morning. I've also taken time to catch up with some movies I've been meaning to watch. I've hung out with a couple friends that are still in town. I take naps with my lil' kitty girls. The boy and I hang out, stress-free from school. Oh, and you'll all never believe this...I've started cooking. I figured, "Hey, I have all of this extra time....might as well learn to cook!"

The start of Thai Chicken Stirfry

I started with a Thai chicken stir-fry. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the finished product, but golly! was it delish! The boy even liked it. I put pea pods in it as well, and they were super fresh and sweet! I made the sauce from scratch too. I know those are words you probably never thought I'd speak. Let's say it one more time for good measure, from scratch.

Coconut Crusted Chicken Strips

The next thing I made was Coconut crusted chicken strips with a homemade pineapple-mango salsa. I know! Sounds tasty, and it was tasty.

Peach Turnovers

And lastly (so far) I made Peach Turnovers. I never thought I was a baker...mostly because the last time I made cupcakes, I almost forgot the eggs. {READ: Almost, as in, I didn't, but I didn't notice I forgot them...so if there wasn't someone else watching me, they would have been a flop.} But these were surprisingly easy, and they were ohmygosh heavenly!!!!!!!!! I even made icing from scratch, and because I love sugar, I added more powdered sugar than required, and it made it even better! The boy even loved them :) I'll admit it, I was licking the icing from the bowl.

I'm cooking again today for Momma. I've gotta figure out what I want to make, but I'm hoping to use a lot of fresh veggies, because they are so good, and good for you! I'll keep you all updated.

In unrelated news, the boy and I celebrated our bachelor(ette) parties these past few weeks. The boy went up to MN to his Aunt and Uncle's lovely lakeside house. I was seriously jealous. It sounded like they had tons of fun, but I don't know how much fun because they all say, "what happened at the bachelor party, stays at the bachelor party" ;) Ohhh boys..

I can't wait for the wedding, and I can't wait to finally show my dress, shoes, accessories, hair, everything! It's been way too long to keep these secrets from everyone, including the boy. (His suit looks fabulous, by the way.) Every time someone mentions my dress, I cut them off mid-sentence because I don't want them letting something slip accidentally...{You all know who you are... ;) }

It's also been way too long since I've seen some of our family, and I'm ecstatic that most can make it! It will be such a great day/night. We are so very excited.

I will try to write one last time before I'm a Mrs.!

<3

Goodbye Kitty, bye bye

I'm writing with a very heavy heart tonight. Today, my childhood kitty cat, Mr. Tibbs passed into kitty heaven.

I remember when we first got him, and I was five years old. He was just a baby. He was the best surprise I have ever gotten. He would have been 20 years old in September. He had a wonderful life full of fun, adventure, and love. I could not have wished a better life for a cat.

I loved him so much, and still do. I spent all last night cuddling with him, and most of the day today doing the same and telling him how much I love him, and how I'll never forget him.

My Mom is going through all of this with me as well. She was very strong for Mr. Tibbs today, and I know she helped him through it all.

This is the last picture we have of Tibbs, taken last night.

If you have a moment, think of Mr. Tibbs. We will miss him very much.

9/15/1991 - 6/13/2011

Busy Bee

Hello again folks! It has been awhile. Sorry about that! I’ve been busy with finals, then moving, then my clerkship, then my wedding. Whew!

We’ll start where I left off! Finals. Dun dun DUNNNNNNNNN..... It wasn't that bad ;) They went well. Grades came back very good, so I’m pleased with that. I’m now officially a second year optometry student!

The day after finals (and a very fun night out in the city I might add ;) ) we moved back home for the summer. We stopped in Ohio for our half way rest stop with the boy’s family for a day, which is so totally needed. A seventeen hour drive is zero fun in one day. The gas prices were also ridiculous. It was $4.53 in one city!

Of course the kitties came with too! They were just peaches. They both slept almost the entire way in their cute little kennel situation.

So precious.

They have also been getting along at home as well. They both sleep on the bed with me at night, so they must love each other more now than ever. I think the drive helped them bond. Lily is still eating Tip’s food, so we’re trying to put her on a diet. If anyone knows anything about how to keep a cat from eating, puhleeasssee let me know! She’s turning into a large lump of fuzz. Yeesh.

Home has been nice and relaxing. It’s been somewhat warm weather, and not too humid yet. Let’s hope it stays that way for the wedding! No rain or may flies! ICK. The only real weather problem recently was a tornado. That old native American legend “where three rivers meet, no wind can defeat” decided to stop working a couple weeks ago. There was an EF-2 tornado here in the city no less, and it definitely defeated a few blocks. I’ve never seen tornadoes in the city, only in the country, so it was surreal. The worst part was that we have no basement here, so when the siren went off, we had to drive to the boy’s house for safety. I honestly had no idea what was going on, and my mom had to inform me that there was a tornado siren. (The same siren signals a fire truck leaving the station in PA, so I was confused for a moment.)

We get to his house, and he was gone. I immediately start getting scared. Mom was gone all morning, and I was left without a car, so he came to rescue me from my unsafe location when the siren went off (thinking Mom was still gone). Little did he know that she had come home, and we were already on our way over. I was freaking out a tad because the news had just spotted a tornado about a mile away from where I live coming towards my house. No phone calls were going through either. I stayed upstairs waiting for him to get home, but I knew he would go inside my Mom’s to find me which would take even longer. About five minutes later, I see him speeding down the street into his driveway. He noticed the cat carriers were gone, so he figured we went to his house. The kitties bonded during the storm too. J

We stayed upstairs, along with his dad watching the storm pass. It was crazy windy and really scary outside. Later we found out that a tornado ripped apart a couple blocks close to downtown. Thankfully no one was hurt.

Speaking of storms, right now in my hometown in IA and NE, there is some serious flooding of the Missouri river which is impinging on my Aunt and Uncle’s house, and might possibly affect my Grandma’s house. I’m very scared for them all. My Aunt and Uncle live right on the river, so they have already sand bagged the river side of their house. I guess it could last all summer which is tragic. I talked to my Grandma today, and she said it could affect her house as well which is far away from the river. I really hope it doesn’t get to either, especially my Grandma’s. I love her house. I’m hoping the boy and I can still make a trip to see her this summer. I’d swim there if I had to.

I’ve also been doing my summer clerkship for school. It’s three weeks long, and 105 hours of work. I have one week left. Woo! Then I can finally have a summer….sort of. I also have 18 optics lectures to finish before July 25^th for our summer optics course. Well, I’ve already done four. Of course I’m trying to get them done a.s.a.p. Blah. What happened to my “summer”?

What else is going on….oh yeah…the wedding! I can finally let my life be consumed by my creative ideas and wedding planning! I love it. We’ve gotten almost everything done. I can’t wait! We are both incredibly excited for everything! It’s coming quite fast, which can be good, and bad. Good because we can’t wait! And bad because that means I almost have to start my summer semester on the East again…

I’ve been doing a lot of wedding prep too. Floral appointments, dress fittings, finding shoes, make up practice, hair practice (soon), skin care, exercise, etc.

I run a lot so fitness isn’t really an issue, but I’ve started doing Pilates. Phew! It is so hard. I actually use videos from YouTube because it’s free, and I can get a full 40 minute workout from them. After the first day I could barely move. I had no idea I was so out of shape! There is this one move that works your shoulders. You barely move, but man, does it work! Hopefully I don’t have man shoulders by the wedding.

Also, as I’m sitting here I have white strips on and a green mud face mask. I look quite attractive I must say. I would take a picture but....no I wouldn't take a picture. It’s funny how ugly you have to look in order to look good later on. Ick. This mask smells weird too. And how about these little white strips. Does anyone else have the problem where it seems like once they are on your teeth you start salivating like mad?! I mean come on! They are only on my teeth, and I definitely don’t want to eat them, so I have no idea why that’s my body’s reaction to them. A couple more weeks of these, no longer. The boy is also doing his boy beauty routine, which so far consists of nothing different than normal. ;)

Oh! I almost forgot! The boy, one of my bridesmaid’s and I went to a festival this past weekend. Her boyfriend was playing in a band at this fest, so I finally got to meet him which was awesome. We also ate tons of fair food (yum!), and watched the locals. It was about an hour and a half away in the middle of nowhere USA. The main attraction of the night was a “burn out” where you have 15 seconds to burn out your car’s tires. Whoever makes the most smoke, wins. Just burning tires…for the fun of it…ruining tires…for the fun of it?....I don’t think I’d ever willingly sign up for that contest. Of course I can make a fool out of myself anywhere, and I thought the smoke was from a chicken-Q (chicken barbeque), and I really wanted to eat some chicken. A nice couple at our table set me straight, while laughing a little. The boy said they probably thought I was some silly “city girl”. Cue pouty girl "humpf" right now.

I’ll leave you with this. The other day at work flowers were delivered…for me! I’m only there three weeks, but in that time, I got flowers! Of course they were from the boy, reminding me that it was our last “dating” anniversary. Seven years of dating. I guess we didn’t get the traditional seven year itch. Instead we got the itch to get hitched! He’s so sweet.

Meet...

Tipsy.
Yes, I know we said we weren't going to get another cat, and yes, I know I'm going to get two phone calls whenever two certain people see this post {you know who you are}, but that doesn't change the fact that we still desperately wanted a playmate for Lily cat.

I had accepted the fact that Lily was to be an only child, until.....the boy said "I want a cat."

"Ohhhhh realllllyyy!?!!! OKAY!"

That's pretty much all it took. The fact that it was no longer my idea made it so much more of a good idea! So that is how it started. I am hard to convince, I know.

We went to a PetSmart adoption weekend, and fell in love with this little fur ball known as Tipsy, and here we are.

So far she likes to sit on the window sill, play with her collar (instead of actually leaving it on), and roam around the room. We are taking the steps to introduce the two girls the proper way, so they haven't formally met yet, except for a couple hisses. Right now they are stationed in separate rooms.

And for the record, her name is Tipsy because she has a white tip on her tail. Not because she is well...tipsy :)

The woman that helped us through the process was so thankful that Tipsy found a good home. It really makes it all worth it when you hear how sincerely grateful the volunteers and coordinators are that you are saving one of their cats lives. I know they say cats have nine lives, but cats here in Philadelphia have only three days.

Remember always, ADOPT!

Sweet Saint Valentine

Happy {a little bit late} Valentine's Day everyone!

This Valentine's Day was a huge cooking success.

I'm sure you're wondering how I got so good at cooking in such a short amount of time from my last cooking mishap. Well, I didn't get any better. The boy cooked. That was my lovely valentine's day gift :) Much needed I may add. Homestyle cookin' was exactly what the doctor ordered after all of this studying craziness. I have a neuro anatomy/neuro pharm test Monday. Super pumped for that. Not. Boy got a cute little hand-made (with the help of photoshop) Valentine's message.

Anywho, he made a super yummy chicken pot pie, and we had caramel carrot cake as dessert.
Here are some tasty photos of the meal.

Also, an unexpected Valentine's Day present for the both of us came yesterday. Engagement photos! I have such a life-consuming amount of studying left to do before Monday, so I'll leave you with a few to look at.

We've got a million out-takes of this one.

Enjoy the love!

{Engagement Photos by the amazingly amazing Sarah Schultz Photography}

Sentimental Sweets

Anyone that knows me knows that I am crazy for sugar.

Yesterday I came upon a most wonderful website called Candy Crate. Anything that mentions candy, sugar, chocolate, or sweets in general gets my attention, and this store, even more so, because they sell "nostalgic" candy. I'm probably not old enough to have a sense of nostalgia for anything, but when it comes to candy, anything goes.

I figured I'd check it out because I have a few favorites that you can't find anywhere around PA, and I was confident we weren't going to have school today (I was wrong..incidentally, and the two hours it took to clean off our cars this morning was a reminder that I should have done optics last night).

To my surprise they had everything I wanted, and more! It even awakened memories of some amazing confections that I didn't realize I missed until now.

Let's begin my journey down *sweet* memory lane.

Fruit stripe gum. The flavor was so-so-so good (for about 20 minutes), but I remember when I was younger, it was the only gum I'd actually request be purchased (I'm not a big gum chewer).Keeping with the theme, my Grandma would consistently have Adams clove chewing gum in her odds and ends drawer every single time I would visit. I would have never known how much I truly love this gum if she didn't introduce me to it. Now, just the smell of it reminds me of all of the summers at Grandmas. Lovely.
Licorice rope. I don't think I really need to explain, but there are certain brands out there that create strawberry instead of cherry, and it makes all the difference in the world. The Nut Goodie. Whatever sweet, gooey, creamy, caramel-y stuff they add to the interior of this treat is to die for. I wish they made it as a frosting; I'd frost every cake I make with it for the rest of my life. It's that good. Brach's strawberries. Once again, a treat that is really hard to find (except for in 60 pound bags that would take a year to devour). Candy Crate has them in five pound bags, that is more manageable. Might last a week around here.

And we've made it to the end. My all time favorite sweet treat ever. The Twin Bing. Oh heavenly! This baby is the best of the best, and to make it even better, they manufacture this brilliant piece of amazing in my hometown in Iowa. This has the best chewy, cherry interior, covered by the most delectable chocolate, peanut exterior. It might not look/sound amazing, but the combo of the two make it divine.

{photo source}
CandyCrate

♥

I'm in love. With a lot of things.

This city I live in. The wonderful school I'm attending. Winter. This certain boy in my life. My Lily cat. Family, Friends (from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania), and even our concierge desk workers.

There are, however, a few things I'm not too fond of. One big one being homework.

Last semester was great. I got amazing grades, studied hard, and even studied on weekends (I know..). This semester is starting off... a little bit slower, however. I'm assuming it's because I just had a 3.5 week break, and it definitely wasn't long enough. What am I going to do when there is no winter break...? I can't think about it.

Lately, I've been getting distracted by all things wedding and fashion. It might have something to do with the fact that the boy and I just got our engagement pictures done when we were home for break, but regardless, there are some amazing distractions out there.

Here are some of my favorites.

Even though I never thought I'd be a Martha Stewart fan, I absolutely love her wedding site. She has everything from rings to dresses to decorations, and since I'm a very DIY bride, she has a DIY section that makes me melt. It pays to be artistic and crafty.

Also, if you've never heard of or checked out Etsy, you have to. It's amazing. Everything there is my style. Simplistic, fresh, and very me. That's the best part about it. I find things on Etsy that I can't, and won't find anywhere else. In fact, a few items have already been purchased regarding the wedding from there. However, I can't post much because the boy can't find out. ;)

I have also been daydreaming of when school is done for the summer, and I get my last....yes, last summer break, ever. I know it's only been a week, but this stack of notes is already getting to me.


She makes it all better though.