My Kind of Pioneer Woman

I don't know if you've heard of The Pioneer Woman or not (surely you have!) but she's a woman that lives on a ranch in Oklahoma and has become famous for her cooking blog. She has a book and my mom bought it for me. I have yet to make a thing out of it, despite that I have heard that the recipes are fantastic, because frankly, they're ridiculously high in fat. She cooks like a southern cooker, and I can appreciate that. Well I was looking for a recipe to make for the holidays and I found one on her blog. So what you're about to read is my version of what she put on her blog for this recipe http://http//thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/11/pumpkin-cream-pie/. Ready? Okay, here goes:

Pumpkin Cream Pie

(See her recipe for full list of ingredients)

First, here's me with all of my ingredients set out. Oh, and it turns out that I have to wear glasses which is big news to me. I thought I had perfect vision!!!!!!!!! Anyway, that doesn't really relate to this blog post. (They're cute though, huh?).

1st you preheat the oven to 300*. Then you begin to make the crust. Crushed Graham crackers, 1 stick of butter (yikes!), and 1/2 c powdered sugar. Mix it up evenly and then press into the sides and bottom of a pie pan to make the crust. Pop it in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

Mmmm Crust goodness.

Now you take pudding, ground cloves, nutmeg, whipping cream, half and half, and cinnamon in a pot and put over medium heat.

Oh, and don't forget the tunes. Bake happiness into your culinary creations. It tastes better.

Whisk your ingredients until it's fluffy and then remove from heat.

Add 2 tablespoons of whiskey. This pie says "I like to party"

** actually you can't taste it at all....

And here comes the star of the party. A cup of pureed pumpkin. Just stir it in. Then let the entire mixture cool.

If you're bored waiting for the mixture to cool, don't taste the pumpkin by itself. Not delicious.

Then I realized that I didn't have the 2 tablespoons of brown sugar that I needed. Ahh! Crisis! I looked online for a substitute. Turns out if you add regular sugar with molasses, Wa-la, you have brown sugar

(However I think it's a strong assumption that a person who doesn't have any brown sugar would have molasses lying around. I guess they were right because my mom had it!)

Looks normal! Tastes the same!

Now put 1/2 cup whipping cream in a bowl with the brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

Then fold in the pumpkin mixture until combined.

Then pour it all into the pie crust that you made. Refrigerate over night. I added whip cream and some graham cracker crumbs for garnish.

Then serve it to your family and be delighted that they ate it so fast that you didn't get a picture of the entire final product. They LOVED it.

Make it! For Christmas! For Friends! Doesn't matter, just eat it. You'll be happy!

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The Port-a-Potty

Technically Matt's the homeowner. I'll be a homeowner of said home in 6 months. Well 6 months 3 days. Don't judge me. Every wedding website imaginable sends me an email every day giving me a specific day to day count down. Matt's a really good homeowner. He idols Bob Vila. When we were all watching Sesame Street, Matt was watching "This Old House." (Although sometimes Matt is more like Tim Taylor from Home Improvement).

You know when you're a kid and working on the yard and improving the house was a chore? Now that Matt has his own house, it's a hobby. He loves it. Come to think of it, I don't think even when he's working on his parents house it's ever been a chore to him. Little Mr. Fix it. He has the tiniest little tool belt that his grandpa gave him as a kid. And a tool box with MATT on it.

Matt has single handedly put in an entire lawn at the new house. Like, he started with dirt. He built an entire flowerbed in the front and the back. He's done several walk throughs the house, making note of anything the contractor needs to fix within the first 6 months. He uses a tape measure for everything. So by now I should have convinced you that Matt takes pride in his home.

We are in a new neighborhood, so currently the two lots on each side of our house are being built on. Matt is talking to me on his way home and tells me that there's a Port-a-Potty on our side walk. I'm like, what? What do you mean? On our side walk? Do you mean more like on their property? He said no, like right in front of our house. I still don't believe him. That would be absurd right? I guess not.

Seriously? There it is, right in front of the house. So the next morning I call our builder and talk to a woman who must be 87 years old. I tell her that we have a small problem. I say that they've put a Port-a-Potty right in front of our house and that it's not very aesthetically pleasing. I even express that Matt has spent a lot of time working on Christmas decorations for the yard. She replies "Well that's not much of a decoration is it?" I said "Its like an enormous ornament."

The whole thing was easily dealt with, no blood was shed, and as of yesterday, no more Port-a-Potty.

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The Weekend When I didn't Do Anything

I don't know if you've gathered from my blog or not, but I lead a pretty busy lifestyle. Always on the go, because I like it that way. If I can afford it, more often than not, I'm out of here. Well this weekend I was prepared (and excited) to do nothing. No OSU home game (although thank goodness we beat Texas! Who would have thought??). No visiting Matt. No major plans. I was pretty excited. I took my GRE study book home, made my thesis data available through my email, and even bought a new book. Here's how my weekend turned out:

Friday night- Went to Wal-mart and bought some toys for a stocking stuffing program for Adeepi alums to work on at the Ronald McDonald House on Saturday, and bought some ingredients for dinner- oh and that new book. I'm currently reading the Hunger Games series. I wouldn't call them a literary masterpiece, but they're entertaining and easy to read. However, if you want to borrow them I'm going to have to affirm that our friendship is secure because the last series of books I loaned out never came back to me because of a friendship fall out- and I guess she's too afraid to confront me and return my books. Soap box! Moving on.

After Wal-mart I cooked a nice healthy dinner and baked a cake made from Splenda (but let's not kid ourselves, it was just as bad, but just as yummy!). Danielle came over and visited for a few hours and it was great to spend time with her. We ended up talking for so long that we looked up at the TV and noticed the 700 club was on and I'm not sure what that guy was praying about, but he was very passionate about it.

Saturday morning I got up and went to the Ronald McDonald House to participate in the Tulsa Alumni Group project of stuffing stockings for families who suffer from an illness keeping them from home during the holidays. The Ronald McDonald House is Adeepi's national philanthropy, and a major reason why I joined Alpha Delta Pi. My heart goes out for those families, and it felt extremely rewarding to participate in a project that will make their Christmas a little happier. Props to the alums of Adeepi because they brought TONS of stuff and those kids are going to have a great time opening them. They're way cooler than the stockings we get at home! Also- Props to Miss Hasley because even though she knew she would be out of town visiting her dad, she arranged a time to meet up with me and still donated to the project. What a kind soul!

So there is me with my stocking and the table full of stockings for the kids.

After we finished filling the stockings I visited for a while and one of them alums gave me an awesome lamp and I'm really sad I don't have a picture. It's a paddle with Alpha Delta Pi burned into it and then it has a lamp fixture attached. You hang it on the wall. It also has "Spring Formal 1967" burned into it. VINTAGE! I'm pretty excited. I hope Matt likes it as much as I do.

So after all of the stocking stuffing I went to Steinmart and Hobby Lobby. I got some cool stuff for the wedding at Hobby Lobby and all of their wedding stuff was 50% off. Yay!

Well my friend Meredith asked what I was planning to do to watch the game @ 7:00. I didn't want to drive all the way back home and all the way back to Tulsa so I stayed in town and hung out with Meredith. I had a great time! We ate at Hideaway, went and saw Morning Glory (too cute!) and then came home, shared a bottle of wine and watched OSU beat Texas. We mostly talked through the whole thing and took the time to notice when we scored. I had a great afternoon getting to catch up with Meredith.

Sunday morning. I was prepared to do nothing. Maybe clean out my car. Study, yes I need to study! Hang out in sweats all day. Well my dad comes in and asks me if I'll take Joe to Tulsa to get some stuff for basketball. Credit Card included. OKAY! (Turns out that the credit card was in no way applied to any purchases for myself. bummer!). I'll tell you of a new deal I learned. Somehow in a game Joe ripped his basketball shoes. It was along a seam at the ankle part. I have no idea how he did this, but they were new shoes so I took them back to the store. They actually let me do an exchange, which shocked me. The guy told me something cool though. There's a "born on" date on the tongue of Nikes. If your shoe falls apart within 2 years of that born on date, you can send your shoes back to Nike and they'll give you a voucher for a new pair. Sounds like a good deal to me! Although, lets face it, it will probably take me more than 2 years to wear out a pair of tennis shoes. But good to know if you have an over active little brother!

So we shopped, went to Jamba Juice (Joe's version of Heaven), and then we went to the Bodies exhibit. I had heard that it was pretty cool, so we checked it out. It was neat. It was an exhibit from real bodies. Interesting fact: The bodies are all Chinese (due to their laws) and they are bodies from people who were never claimed and don't have any relatives (makes you want to make a friend, huh?). There were a lot of interesting things to look at. Some things disturbing. Another fact that they posted: Each pack of cigarettes smoked takes an average of 3 hours and 14 minutes of a person's life. Yikes! Over all it was entertaining and satisfied my curiosity about the exhibit, but it was $18 with the student discount and we were only there for like an hour. Soooo, it was interesting to see, but that will probably be a one time thing because of the cost.

We came back to town and I gave Serenity an early Christmas present that I got for her (oh I went to some garage sales on Saturday too). She's obsessed with Elmo and I found this tent that has a huge Elmo on it. There's no way I am keeping this in my house until Christmas, so she got it early! She loooooooooooooooooooved it! Elmo is bigger than her on it and his arms are open, so she went to give him a hug. Too cute. Now she has all of her Elmo toys in it. Money well spent!

Joe and I ended the night watching Charlie St. Cloud. I couldn't enjoy the movie because I had recently read the book and they are nothing alike. I'm surprised the names are the same. So meh, I give the movie a C.

I had a great weekend, now I'm back to work. So much for not doing anything though!

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I am a Terrible Blogger!

Time for an update! I have been awful at blogging. Awful! I've been a little busy, and having a great time! Here's some highlights and I'll try to do better!

About 2 weeks ago was The Worlds Greatest Homecoming Celebration! I went up to Stillwater for "walkarounds" with a couple of girls from work and we checked out all of the house decs (I don't have the patience to posts pictures of all of the houses) but here's a couple of Adeepi/Farmhouse. They won 5th place! They did an excellent job and I couldn't be more proud! They work so hard! For those of you who don't know, what you see above is the result of "pomping". The image you see is made ENTIRELY of tissue paper, chicken wire, and pure creativity, engineering, and genius. Girls and boys work hours upon hours for WEEKS, MONTHS leading up to this special day. Placing in homecoming is incredible. So yeah, although I had nothing to do with their success (other than perhaps recruiting some of the leading ladies of the project), I am still as proud as an alum can get! (** Side note, I really don't know how to differentiate alum/alumnus/alumni/alumna, so you get what you see!)

We didn't win the game at Homecoming, but it was still a great time and a great weekend.

Oh- and the Sunday after Homecoming, my family went and saw Secretariat. Go see it. It's sooo good. Especially if you've ever loved a horse. It's such a great story and it was so fun to see that with my family. After we saw the movie, my family made their regular trip to Barnes & Noble (we're nerds) and after I picked out my book, I ran over to Alfred Angelo and tried on my dress again. We're good to go. I'm still in love with it. Just had to confirm! Picking it up this week!

The next weekend (so the 29-31st) I went on a very last minute trip to Midland to see Matt. It was so wonderful. We watched OSU beat K-State with our friends Ben & Sarah. We had dinner with several couples that Matt is friends with in Midland. It was nice to have fellowship with them. One girl, Sara, bought me a really cute Lolita martini glass with wedding rings all over it. I have really discovered with all of this getting married business that people can be so thoughtful!

So Matt and I reached a goal that we've been talking about for about a year now. We had an adult Snow cone. Kind of sounds like a strip club, right? Well it kind of looks like a strip club on the outside.

Well on the inside it look kind of like a gas station. Here you can go in and pick from a plethora (we're talking like 30 different options) of flavors of a snow cone. Then they just throw a few shots of rum or tequila in there. Add shots for $1 more! (Matt and I declined the extra shots). Texas seems to have a different take on "open containers" because see my "to go" cup.

It turns out that I have been all wrong about the definition of the "open container". In Texas you can have a Styrofoam cup filled with "adult Snow cone" and you just put it in a plastic bag, seal it with some heat and bada bing, bada boom, sealed container.

The sizes are regular- 20oz., Large, 32 oz., Gallon, and Bucket. I kid you not.

Crazy, but delicious.

Matt made every part of this super cool chalk board/dart board combo for the back porch. He painted the wood with chalk board paint so we can keep score. Well he challenged me to a game of darts. Knowing for sure that he would beat me. Well to his dismay, I am a little known dart playing shark and I kicked his booty. You have to get exactly the right score to win. I needed a 12 in the last round. I hit the 4, 3 times. Proud moment for me.

Matt was a little surprised and unhappy about my super victory and I am now reigning champion of the darts at the Padgham house. Never underestimate your opponent!

See, look at the dart board, before we ever played he put Matt- Infinity, Shanna-Zero. Showed him!

November 2nd was a big day. I got up very early to ensure that I had time to vote. I voted before the sun came up. I wore my Red, White, and Blue. Although the results didn't all turn out like I wanted, I am still thrilled that I took the time to vote. It makes me crazy that people fought and fought for the right to vote, and now that everyone can (except felons), so many people take it for granted. If you didn't vote, don't tell me about it 'cause you're gonna get an ear full. I KNEW the odds were against my ideals, but it doesn't matter. Every vote counts.

The only part that I am really disappointed in was the gubernatorial election. I'm also realistic and was pretty sure what the results were going to be well in advance. Jari Askins is a really nice lady and I think she had the right ideas on her side. She would have made a great governor. She also maintained her integrity and acted like a lady throughout the entire campaign, which is more than I can say for her opponent. However, it is what it is, and I really do want the best for Oklahoma. This isn't a football game, it's our lives. So, I wish Mary Fallin all the best and I hope she's a super governor, focusing on the needs of all Oklahomans, not just big business. I sincerely hope she proves me wrong.

While we're on the topic. I'd like to take the opportunity to say that I'm not at all unhappy that Republicans took the house. I'm pretty disgusted with the entire "party" system anyway. My hope is that now that Republicans have the house, they'll be forced to make more decisions that are not so popular, but necessary. I hope both parties learn to work together. Or at least I hope that they're forced to. That would be great! Like I said, this isn't football. This isn't we win, you lose, this is for the American people!

Moving on. Later on November 2nd I got to watch Sean from Biggest Loser season 8 do a presentation at OSU. It was really interesting! He has lost the majority of his weight since he left the ranch. Good for him!

I could have talked to him for hours about questions that I have about the Biggest Loser show. He did mention that since his weight loss he has an excess of 30lbs of SKIN. Holy Cow. He said he's not done losing weight, so he hasn't gotten the surgery yet. Yikes.

I have been really sick this week. I had a terrible cold. Probably the worst cold I have ever had. Wash your hands constantly! It's going around!

Matt and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary this weekend. It's our last "dating" anniversary. Kind of sad, but really just an opportunity for new beginnings. We met up in Bricktown Friday night. I got him a Blu-ray player, a DVD from our first date, and a devotional book that I had been working on. He got me a piece of awesome luggage. I have flown 10 times this year alone with some olllllllld luggage. It was literally falling apart. Like leaving pieces behind as I rolled it around. My new luggage is nice, durable, has great storage, and it LIGHT WEIGHT so I can bring more stuff. He did such a good job! He took me to a really nice restaurant called "The Mantle" in Bricktown. It was delicious and we even had dessert. The best dessert I think I have ever eaten in my entire life. Seriously.

Then we walked around and we went to see "Due Date". It's a lot like The Hangover but with less characters. It was funny. A boy movie for sure. Completely inappropriate, but funny at parts. Somehow I never get him to take me to a romantic comedy on our anniversaries. What's wrong with me???

On Saturday we went to Stillwater to watch the OSU game vs. Baylor. Baylor has actually been really good this year. Usually they're the team everyone is going to beat. Not this year. At the beginning of the game I was a little nervous for the Cowboys. Well we beat them! Not even a close game!! It was one of the most fun OSU football games I have ever been to.

We had dinner with Matt's parents that evening and just had a "chill" night and watched "Switch". I had an absolutely wonderful weekend. AND I got to sleep an extra hour this morning! Now you're caught up! On to another great week. Have TONS to do on my thesis. I need to catch up on several school projects. AND there's the GRE in December. So, hope you enjoyed my super long blog! I'll try to do better in the future!

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This Week's Top 10 (6th Edition)

It's that time again! I'm a slacker blogger lately, but at least you get the quick version of what's going on.

Top 10:

10: I got to see Matt this weekend!!!!!!! It had been a month since I last saw him. I flew down on Friday after work. Of course I had adventures in the airport. After running all over creation (the DFW airport) I ordered a "regular" smoothie during my lay over. Everything really is bigger in Texas. A "regular" indicates 32 oz. I suppose a large comes in a bucket.

9: Lisa really liked her birthday present. I got her an OSU wine glass and a package of "wine-a-rita". It's not a Margarita, it's a "Wine-a-Rita"! Hope I am around when she partakes!

8: We went to the OSU vs Texas Tech game in Lubbock. We won! It was the first time that OSU had beat Tech in Lubbock in 66 years. Glad I was there when it happened! They have really nice fans, so that was a good experience. Jones ATT Stadium aint got NOTHIN on T. Boone Pickens Stadium. On a side note- what's with the T. Boone? Would you guys accept it if all the sudden I were just S. Diane? Has his first initial been there his whole life? That's strange. That's like having an apostrophe in the middle of your name. HA HA Just kidding (well sorta). I have friends that have that. It's cute. But so help me the next person that has the name La-a (pronounced Ledasha) is going to get an ear full. Give me a break!

[Matt & I at the game. We sat behind the tubas in the band. Every time the team did well, we couldn't see!]

7: We have made progress on the wedding! We ordered Tuxes, Flowers, and sent out half the save the dates (still working on some addresses).

6. I fired my dietitian. Then I hired a new one. The first one I think was for people who needed to be told that fast food was bad for them. Wellllll I have graduated that stage and she wasn't able to give me much advice. So I hired a new lady. LOVE LOVE LOVE her. She's all about natural ways to be healthy and paying attention to the vitamins that your body needs and being more organic. Love her. Maybe I'll start posting some tips that she gives me. She probably wouldn't appreciate me giving out free services, but oh well.

5. On the flight home from Midland I rode on a plane that had a propeller. That was a little concerning. It was already the size of a cracker jack box. You entered from the back. AND THERE WAS A PROPELLER!!!

4. Matt & I ordered a new bedroom set and I am soooo excited. Obviously I'm not going to get to enjoy it until I move there, but I am excited that it will be waiting on me when I do move! The house is coming along really well. Thanks to Matt the yard looks great. The whole house looks great thanks to Matt, I just help out here and there.

3. We ate at the coolest stir fry place called Genghis Grille. It's like subway for stir fry with TONS more options. You just go through with your bowl and throw in meat and veggies, whatever you want and they grill it up and bring it to your table. I like to think that it was relatively healthy. Probably not true, but I am going to think that anyway. Delish!

2. This was my view taking off from Dallas towards home. I hated to leave Matt, but this was such a confirmation that God is good and the Creator of all things. I have seen so many beautiful things in the past few weeks that have reaffirmed my faith in the Lord Jesus. Amongst all of life's stresses and worries, I feel reassured in my faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

1. I woke up every morning this week. I am free. I am breathing. I am loved. I am more blessed than I ever deserve to be.

** Sorry my Top 10s aren't chronological. I just put them together as they come to me.

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This weeks Top 10 (5th Edition)

As I write this, I am still soooo sleepy! I am worn out from this week! However, I am staying positive and here to report on this week's Top 10.

10. We picked out the bridesmaid dresses. By we I mean Danielle and I. She tried on lots of dresses and we had a final decision made in an hour. It's beautiful, looks great, and it was coincidentally the cheapest. I really do try to consider the expenses of other people in this wedding, so I was happy to report that I had found a dress for my girls that they could not only look wonderful in, but it shouldn't break the bank.

9. After we picked out the dresses we had enough time left over that Danielle and I got to go to dinner together at Cheddars and just hang out and talk and have girl time for over an hour. I really enjoyed getting to visit with her, just the girls!

8. I went to Denver this past weekend for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) conference. 2000 sustainably focused people were there. I was in heaven. I could openly talk about sustainability issues and people not only didn't look at me like I was crazy, but they agreed with me! I met some really cool people and heard a lot of innovative ideas. There are so many avenues where "Going Green" could save a lot of people a lot of money, you just have to be interested and pursue those ideas.

(Look at this crazy convention center. It's just a big bear looking inside trying to check things out).

7. I rented my first car ever. It's a Nissan Cube. It was fun to drive! I don't think I want one, but if they were giving them away I would totally take it. It's not that different from the PT so I felt comfortable driving it.

PS- Are you aware of how expensive it is to rent a car? It's ludicrous!!!! I did learn that if you book with Hertz they will give you a coupon for the "age differential" if you're under 25. If not it'll cost ya another $100 for 3 days rental if you're under 25.

6. I got to meet Ed Begely (from Living with Ed on Planet Green) at the conference. He was the Keynote speaker. I made an impulse buy and bought his book. He signed it: To Shanna, my favorite little Environmentalist.

I really enjoyed what he had to say. He's a smart man. He also presents on many topics which are just common sense, but I guess common sense isn't always so common.

5. I gave a presentation over my thesis topic. I had about 60 people show up (there were on-going workshops trough out the entire conference and people could choose which work shops to go to, so I was honored that 60 came to mine!). I went to the conference with the focus to collect 100 surveys for research for my thesis. I came back with 130. I am thrilled. I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but I was able to collect some very valuable data and for that I am extremely thankful. The feedback from my presentation (I felt like I was silly and I didn't even read any of my slides, I just talked and talked) was that I was hilarious and had a very innovative idea for my thesis. What a compliment! Fortunately I was at the end of the day and people were getting worn out on being so serious.

4. I felt an earth quake yesterday!!!!!! Oh my goodness! I was in Stillwater for some training and I thought the lady behind me was kicking my chair and I was about to tell her to stop when the screen started shaking! How incredible!

3. Back to the conference. They had the coolest treadmill that a company was trying to promote on campuses. I wont tell you about it, I'll show you!

The energy produced from this treadmill could basically supply the amount of energy for a computer to run. 50 treadmills for a year= 50 computers for a year. That doesn't sound like that much, but you also have to realize that the treadmills themselves aren't consuming any energy. So there's energy avoidance AND production. They said that they cost basically the same amount as commercial treadmills.

2. I stayed with my good friends Jake and Amanda. Amanda and I are friends from high school and I have been fortunate to see her in Denver 2 times in the last 6 months. They took me to a nice Italian restaurant as an engagement gift. They are too good to me. I really enjoyed getting to visit with them and hold their sweet baby (can't believe she's getting so big!). I even got to visit with Amanda's mom and I hadn't seen her in years. I spent most of my time at the conference, but it was great to have fellowship with friends when I could!

1. I woke up every morning this week. I am free. I am breathing. I am loved. I am more blessed than I ever deserve to be.

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These week's Top 10 (4th Edition)

It's that time again! Usually I do these things on Wednesdays, but yesterday- oh no was not really part of the top 10. It's been a long time that I have been slammed with bad news after bad news. But alas, after a glass of wine, time with my friend, and a good night's sleep, I have survived and am ready to conquer the world. All in a days work. Or a weeks work. Whichever I get to.

So this week will be a legitimate Top 10 because we have no new followers. Here it goes!

10. Experiencing my first Wine-a-rita at the Tulsa State Fair. DELISH! Getting to go to that fair with a couple of my favorite girls made it all the better.

9. I didn't eat like a crazy person at the fair. 1/2 of a funnel cake and a couple shots of wine-a-rita (and well maybe a few wine tasting pit stops). Oh and I ate a free ice cream cone. Well, it could have been worse!

8. Our save the dates came in! OH HOW PRECIOUS. I love them. I was really nervous when I got the package because it didn't have our company label and they weren't supposed to come in for another week. They were really heavy in a rectangle box. I thought someone sent me a brick. But no brick. Sweet magnets of Save the Date. So yeah, I really like them.

7. I discovered that your clothes fit a lot better if you iron them. I know I'm in the 19th grade and probably should have known that, but it really makes a difference! I don't know how I feel about taking the time to iron out all of my clothes. I might have to discover the beauty of the dry cleaner.

6. I bought some really cool "water beads?" from the fair for my poor dying bamboo plant. It was giving me a lot of trouble and I think these little marble looking things will do the trick. They're supposed to water my plant for a year. We'll see!

5. I got an ammmmmmmmmmmmmmmazing deal on some clothes at Express. First I got a gift card from filling out surveys on erewards.com. Then I went in and found some jeans (a size smaller than I normally wear. Praise the Lord!) and a pair of really cute yoga pants. They were both on sale. My total came to about $30 (for $104 worth of clothes). Then I asked the guy if they had any coupons because Express sends me coupons all the time for $15 off a $30 purchase (although I am fully aware that the coupon is only supposed to be good for full priced items, but sometimes they let me get by). I told him I couldn't find mine at my house. Well he rang me up, AND gave me the discount. I walked out spending $18 for jeans and yoga pants, ON a free gift card. YAY!

4. I reunited with my long lost trainer. Our schedules don't mesh like they used to. Now we're going to work out together on Mondays. I really missed him! He's the nicest trainer in the world (Nothing like Bob & Jillian on The Biggest Loser, but I don't think I would respond well to yelling). He really helps me out AND doesn't cost me a dime. Pretty much the perfect trainer.

3. 1 of 2 tests for the semester is over. I'm not sure that it went well, but it's over. We'll see if my grade makes next week's Top 10.

2. I had an entire conversation about my wedding in Spanish with our custodian. Good to know I still got it.

1. I woke up every morning this week. I am free. I am breathing. I am loved. I am more blessed than I ever deserve to be.

PS- Hope you're enjoying the new layout! I still don't know what to think about it, but I am glad that I figured out how to change it. Until next week!

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