Home Sweet Home

As I was driving back to Austin exactly three months ago to begin my senior year of college, I knew in my heart that this semester was going to be a busy one. I had heard from previous 640 students that you can pretty much say goodbye to any sense of a social life, and that there will be mental breakdowns in your future. Though I can attest to the fact that mental breakdowns during this internship are a very real thing, I finally finished my 45 hours of observation and the teaching of nine lessons on Monday afternoon, and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Though I (mostly) enjoyed it, it required a huge chunk of time each week, and it will be nice to have that little bit of extra free time this last week of class. I still have quite the to-do list, but I have made some serious progress on some of the items on this list, so hopefully I won't have to work too hard this break.

Anyway, I am currently writing this blog post from the comfort of my very own bed at my house in Houston. I got home right around 10:00pm last night, thanks to Dylan and his brother letting me crash their ride home. I proceeded to make myself right at home on the couch, watching some TV and hanging out with my mom until my brother got home from a friend's house. I hadn't seen him in almost three and a half months, so it was nice to see him for .5 seconds before he was off to see the next friend on his list.

I went to sleep a little after midnight, and had a very hard time making myself get out of bed this morning because I was so warm and snuggly, but I knew I needed to get up and get my day started. I went downstairs and made my usual egg white and spinach breakfast, eating it alongside a couple of cuties and a handful of grapes.

I think one of the best feelings in the world has to be coming home to a fridge stocked full of all your favorites, just as mine was. A huge shout out to my parents for taking my grocery list seriously!

After breakfast, I did a little bit of baking, ran a couple of errands with my mom, and then braved the chilly weather for a familiar 5.5 mile run through my neighborhood. The weather in Houston is absolutely beautiful today, which is a nice reprieve from the nasty weather I've been dealing with in Austin for the past week. 

I started out feeling pretty chilly, but I quickly warmed up, and my run turned out to be a great one. It was a good warm-up for the TXU Turkey Trot happening tomorrow morning. It's my third year to participate, and though I know the comfort of my bed will seem much more appealing than running 6.2 miles through the Galleria area in 37 degree weather, I am still very excited to get my run on before eating all of the delicious Thanksgiving food my family will cook up.

After my run I made a quick grocery store run (of course), and picked up my favorite grilled chicken salad from La Madeleine to eat for a late lunch.

You might be shocked that I didn't choose to eat at Hungry's for my first meal back, but fear not, it's only a matter of time before I enjoy a meal from my all-time favorite restaurant. I wasn't super hungry, and I was in the area, so this salad did the trick!

Now I'm wasting time on Pinterest studying a little bit for my PPR certification exam that's happening in less than two weeks (eek!), before getting ready to meet Dylan, his brother, and his dad for dinner before the Rocket's game tonight. 

I hope your Wednesday before Thanksgiving is a great one, and that you are thinking of all that you are thankful for this year!

45-Minute Treadmill Workout

We are almost at the end of another school week, and though I hope to do a more thorough recap tomorrow, I can't go to bed until I share this 5-mile treadmill workout that I did today in between teaching a lesson at Westwood, and a renewing of mine and Dylan's Thursday tradition.

I knew I wanted to run, but I didn't want to do the same old treadmill workout that is quickly becoming my go-to. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it's good to switch things up every now and then. This treadmill workout has some faster speeds coupled with some slower speeds, and all I have to say is that my sprinting could use some work. I was more than ready for that minute of sprinting to be up, but I did leave feeling like I got in a great workout. And I have a new one to share with you guys. It's a win-win!

I hope you all have had a wonderful week, and if you're in Texas, stay warm as the cold front comes in tomorrow!

A Refreshing Weekend

I am just not sure how it is already the middle of November. In fact, it is nearer to the end of November than it is to the beginning. There is only one week until I get to go home for Thanksgiving break, and after that, there is only one more week of class. Time really does fly!

Anyway, this past weekend my parents came up to Austin so that we could all go to the football game together. They went to Norman so that they could watch a game with Daniel, so I guess they felt like coming to Austin would be the fair thing to do. I thought it was going to be a really exciting game, but it turned out to be Mack Brown's worst career loss at home. We just couldn't get into a rhythm, and we couldn't seem to stop their quarterback from running the ball, so we were handed our first Big 12 loss of the season. So though the game wasn't very exciting, it was still a very fun day.

My parents got to my house around 11:30am, and we spent some time hanging around my house before heading out north to the Arboretum area to get lunch at a new-to-me restaurant, Z'Tejas. The very first Z'Tejas location was born right here in Austin, Texas, on our historic 6th Street, and there are now 11 locations open for business in the Western United States. It is a classified as a "southwestern grill," and it has a little bit of Tex-Mex, soup and salads, sandwiches, burgers, steak and seafood - so it really has a wide range of food from which to choose. We ordered some of the tableside guacamole, freshly made at your table, as the name implies, and I give it two thumbs up. I wasn't sure about some of the ingredients, but I couldn't stop eating it!

(Source)

For my main dish, I went for the Grilled Salmon and vegetables, and I ate nearly every last bite, despite being extremely full. The salmon was grilled to perfection, and the vegetables were sauteed in a way that I just can't seem to do myself!

My mom, after much back and forth, opted for the Avocado Turkey Burger, and a side of sweet potato fries (I helped her out with those), and my dad went for the Green Chili Barbacoa Enchiladas. Dylan joined us for lunch and the game, and he went for the Sante Fe Smoked Chicken Enchilada.

All of our plates were pretty near clean by the end of the meal, and we all agreed that it was a great meal filled with great company. After lunch, we headed back in the direction of campus, and made it to the game right on time. I should probably be ashamed to admit that this was my first football game to attend this season, and it was also my last home game as a student, as I probably won't be making the trip back to Austin for our Thanksgiving Day game. I'm bummed that it wasn't a better game, but the weather was great, and I am thankful for that time spent with my parents.

We left the game before it was over, and after getting stuck in quite a traffic jam leaving the stadium, I was back at my house, ready for a little bit of relaxation time. I was sad to send my parents back to Houston, but it was a little easier knowing that I would see them again in just a week.

Sunday was another busy one full of homework and YoungLife, but Dylan and I did take time to go to dinner together before our all-area meeting. We went to Mandola's Italian Market in the triangle, and though my grilled chicken salad was tasty, my strawberry gelato stole the show.

I think I even shocked Dylan a little bit when I ate a large chocolate chunk out of his mint chocolate chip gelato. I figured a little bit of dairy wouldn't hurt me, and those large chocolate chunks are my favorite!

And now it's back to the craziness of another week, but hopefully I will be better about updating y'all this round! Have a great Tuesday!

Normal Wednesday

Three days in a row with a new post means I'm getting back on my blogging game! Today was nothing out of the ordinary, as I woke up and went to class, squeezed in a quick workout, and headed up north to Westwood, but I'll try and keep things interesting for you guys.

Breakfast

This morning's breakfast looked identical to yesterday's, as I still had (and still have) some leftover banana-oatmeal-almond butter "dough" leftover to do with as I please. I'm choosing to simply eat it without cooking it first, because it tricks my mind into thinking that I actually like oatmeal. That might be all the add-ins (read: chocolate) talking, but it sure hits the spot every time!

After breakfast I braved the 34-degree weather and biked to my 9am class. We're currently reading and discussing Shakespeare's Othello, which I happen to really like, so I couldn't even be mad about having to brave the elements. It is always a little more difficult on the ride back, though, thanks to the headwind and slight uphill incline. When I got back to my house, I quickly shed my gloves and ear warmer for Nike shorts and a t-shirt, and headed out the door for my first treadmill workout in a while. It's certainly not a new one, but it gets the job done quickly - 4+ miles in 34 minutes - and I always leave feeling like I got in a good workout. Can't beat that!

After my time at the gym, I quickly showered and got ready to go to Westwood, where I went and observed some very exhausted-looking students take a benchmark test. I think they are also at that point in the semester when a little break would be much appreciated. Thank goodness Thanksgiving break is less than two weeks away! It will be so nice to have an opportunity to recharge for the last little bit of school that we have left. 

And because I was feeling pretty unsure about becoming a teacher at the end of last week after a pretty disastrous (okay, not disastrous, just very short on time and a lot of bored faces), I have to share with you guys two small but encouraging moments from today. One of my favorite things about coming to Westwood is that one of the students is always so excited to come up to me and talk about the latest Young Adult novel she is reading. We bonded over The Hunger Games and Divergent series, and she has been showing me up since then with the number of books she has read. It seems like she has a new book to recommend to me every other day! I love talking about books, and for a student to be reading and discussing books so enthusiastically just brings a smile to my face.

Her latest book (Source)

Another unrelated-to-academia moment happened today when two students were discussing Twinkies. One student mentioned that he had forgotten his breakfast this morning, so another student offered him a Twinkie (I know, super balanced breakfast). He had never had a Twinkie before, and he claims that his life had forever been changed. Overhearing this conversation, I asked him if he had ever had a Ding Dong, which elicited quite a few laughs from the students, who had obviously never been lucky enough to try one of my favorite childhood snacks. I also disappointed him when I told him that I don't like Twinkies, to which I received a "You must be a hater, miss!" As goofy as they are, you can't help but love them!

And now I'm off to run a few errands, and finalize lesson plans numbers eight and nine! The finish line is in sight!

Thought Catalog Tuesday

I normally have absolutely zero time available to make a blog post on Tuesday, and though I still don't have time to post this, I am going to anyway, because I don't want to let a month go by without writing at least 10 blog posts. Remember that 2012 New Year's Resolution?

Breakfast

I'll start off with a breakfast blurb, because it's been a while since I have done that. Today's breakfast wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but it was definitely one of my better batches of scrambled egg whites and spinach.

Last night I made two more batches of my banana-oatmeal-almond butter muffins, in an effort to use up some old bananas, and I had some "dough" leftover. I put it in a Tupperware container and enjoyed more than a few spoonfuls this morning alongside my egg white concoction. A little chocolate for breakfast is the best way to start out a day!

After breakfast I headed off to class, and then my group met up to finalize everything for our group presentation on Thursday. We were asked to create a Unit Map for a sophomore English class, and we have created a 6-week unit over Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I first read the play when I was a sophomore, and though we didn't use much of them, I had fun looking over my old notes and handouts, mainly to laugh at how much my handwriting has changed over the years. 

Anyway, our Unit Map is not due in final form until the week after Thanksgiving, but each group has to present either this Thursday, next Tuesday, or the following Thursday, and our group elected to go first and just get it over with, which is fine with me, because this week is much calmer than what I'm anticipating next week to be. Our brains were fried by the time we ended at 3:15pm, and we only ended then because two of my group members had to go to class, and I went home and continued working on the unit map until I took a break to go to a spin class that had me sweating up a storm. We did a lot of sprint work, which normally I don't like, but I had been sitting and working and staring at a computer screen for so long today that I welcomed any and all physical activity.

I hurried home after my spin class was over to shower and get ready for small group, and now I am here, taking a break from my lesson planning, unit map creating, and essay writing, which is now calling my name. But not until I share these two great Thought Catalog articles with you guys:

18 Things Everyone Should Start Making Time For Again - 

• Number one on that list clearly speaks to my heart. I love letters, and I am hoping to get lots of letters off to friends in the next couple of weeks. Number 17 also really resonated me, because Sarah and I are constantly looking for another trip to take together. We haven't traveled together since Europe last summer, so be on the lookout for a suite one getaway sure to come soon! Really, though, every item on this list made me nod my head in agreement, as our culture is constantly telling us that if we aren't doing something constructive and productive, we are simply wasting our time. I know I get caught up in that mindset a lot, but taking time for things that mean a lot to me is truly so important. 

100 People You've Been at Some Point In Your Life

• I really liked this article, and I found it to be extremely well-written. It's cheesy, yet insightful. It is thought-provoking and so very true. What 20-something-year-old woman can't identify with at least 3/4 of the items on that list?

And now it's back to the books. Only two short weeks until I am blogging from my couch in Houston. Let the countdown begin!

And, because I promised you a few more formal pictures, here are some pictures of the beautiful (and a little bit dysfunctional) Anderson YoungLife team!

YoungLife Formal

I am not even going to make any excuses for why I haven't posted in over a week, because one, you are probably really tired of hearing how overwhelmingly busy I have been, but two, if I did have a spare moment to post, I didn't have too much to write about. There's only so much school talk you guys can handle. I have no new recipes for you guys, and my workouts have been nothing out of the ordinary, though I have been upping my BodyPump and cycling class game lately. Though I have been seriously slacking on the blogging front, I am hoping my post about YoungLife formal will be enough to redeem myself. If nothing else, I have some fun pictures to share with you guys.

Formal

Every year around this time, College YoungLife asks us to shed the funny costumes that we put on for crazy club themes, and dress up a little bit for a special evening. This year's theme was "YoungLife's Black and White Ball," which made going shopping for a new dress pretty easy, as there were only two color options from which to choose. I didn't really need to buy a new dress, because I have quite a few black dresses in my collection already, but since it is my last formal, I decided to make a new investment. Plus, I was really feeling like wearing winter white, because it's been a bummer not being able to sport my white pants or shorts.

Anyway, yesterday was a very full day, in that I left my house a little before 9am, and didn't get home again until about 5pm. Thankfully, I still had plenty of time to get ready and snap a few pictures with my roommates before we all went to our separate team dinners.

Suite 1 forever 

PLL

I opted to go to dinner with my old Murchison crew, and we decided on Salt Lick, round two for dinner. We also went there for dinner before formal last year, but I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like Salt Lick, so it was a well-received choice. I didn't snap a picture of my food prior to eating it (I'm a little rusty on the food pictures, and I was so hungry by the time we got our food that I dug right in). You guys can just use your imagination to picture the delicious turkey plate that I enjoyed.

After dinner we headed down some windy backroads until we arrived at the beautiful Pecan Springs Ranch near Dripping Springs. It was beautifully decorated, and it was the perfect venue for the occasion. It is technically a wedding venue, but because it is so spacious, it was a good place to have something like this, as there were quite a few of us there. You had the option of tearing up the dance floor all night, or getting a breath of fresh air and hanging out outside on the back lawn. I did a little bit of both, and it was an all-around great evening, minus some of the song choices that were a little difficult to dance to, but we'll let that slide.

3/5 of our 2011 placement night crew

Thankfully he appreciates the importance of cheesy candid pictures

It's fun to have an excuse to get all dressed up, and it was especially fun to spend time with my roommates, my old team, and my new team all in one place. There are more pictures out there that I will be sure to share with you guys when I get them, but for now, enjoy this rare dressy occasion!

And I hope to be back with some regularly scheduled workout and food posts, but we'll see how well I keep that promise! Have a GREAT Monday, and a huge thank you on this Veteran's Day to all who have served, continue to serve, and will serve our wonderful country. There aren't enough thank you's in this world for all that you do!

Start of November

HAPPY NOVEMBER! November is easily one of my favorite months (again, I feel like I say that almost every month, but November really is one of my favorites). One, I love that I can finally start to wear sweaters and boots on a regular basis, and I love the fact that November holds the month of Thanksgiving, which is easily one of my favorite holidays.

(Source)

It has been another crazy week for this blogger, which has resulted in a major hiatus from writing any new posts. I will try not to get into the habit of writing "catch up" posts, but that's what this one is sure to be, so prepare yourselves for a long one!

My week started off on a crazy note, as I had class, immediately came home to get ready for Westwood, and set off to teach lessons #5 and #6, with #6 being observed by my university observer, a former teacher of 35 years. I met with her afterward to debrief, and I left feeling really encouraged, and I can honestly say that these felt like my best lessons yet. I taught over propaganda and propaganda techniques, so the students were pretty well engaged through the entire lesson, because I shared some fun commercials with them to demonstrate many of the techniques. Though it was a fun lesson, it was a huge relief to have that observation done. One done, one to go!

Tuesday and Wednesday sort of passed by in a blur - lots of class to attend and school work to catch up on (it feels like every time I finish one thing, I add three new items to my to-do list). It's full speed ahead for the next five weeks, and I will be more than ready for a break once it's all over. Though you would probably leave this page if I started describing what I was doing in my classes, I do have to share one thing that we did in my UTeach class. You likely feel this way about poetry, but it is quite an intimidating thin, and it often has a negative stigma attached to it. I'm certainly not pointing any fingers, because unless it's written by Shel Silverstein, I probably won't like it (or I just think I don't like it). So, the idea of having to teach poetry one day (aka next year), is pretty daunting. We worked with a few different poem forms, and though I still wasn't a huge fan of many of them, there is one that I really liked, and that is probably because it allows you to write about yourself - which is obviously something I enjoy doing! It is called "I Am What I Am," and naturally, we tried our hands at this poem, so I might share that poem with you guys in a later post. You probably won't be surprised to read a lot of the things in this poem, but it was fun to try and make these different attributes sound somewhat poetic.

Halloween

And as many of you probably celebrated last night, or plan to celebrate this weekend, the last day of October is best known as Halloween. 

I normally don't do a whole lot for Halloween, as it has fallen on a weird night of the week these past few years, and I have also been unlucky in the fact that I've had an exam the following day. Not that I'm likely to do anything too crazy, anyway. Even in high school, Halloween was also pretty low-key for me. I got in a car accident on Halloween my junior year (which resulted in me standing on the side of the road wearing my mom's Halloween vest), and I played in a volleyball game against our rival, Memorial, on Halloween my senior year (capturing the district championship). So, long story short, when we got an email saying YoungLife was pairing up with a "fraternity" (aka a group of boys who created their own fake fraternity) to throw a Halloween party, I decided it would be fun for me to go. Of course, my costume didn't come together until the last minute, and I saw a whole lot of Austin while trying to find it, but now I have a banana costume to add to my costume collection, and I feel like it was a very worthwhile investment.

When Dylan said he wanted to be a gorilla for halloween, it only made sense for me to go as a banana, and thus, our costumes were born. The party was a good time, except my roommates and I were easily some of the only seniors there, but it was still run dancing to Taylor Swift's 22. I even crawled into bed just after midnight, not making it too difficult to get up and go to class this morning.

Workout

I didn't have to go to Westwood today, so I got to get in a good workout for what feels like the first time in a week. That's not really true, but it is the first time that I didn't feel pressed for time. So, today I did a combination run and arm workout, and though my arms are sure to be sore tomorrow, it felt like a really great workout. So, without further ado, this is what my workout looked like:

And now I plan on making this Friday a really productive one. I have a lot of work to do this weekend, so I'm going to get as much done today as I can before Sarah and I go out for a suite 1 dinner date. Have a great Friday!