Christmas time is here!!

Hello all!! Long time no post!! Well, the Christmas season is here and I am LOVING it!! Jordan and I have been keeping very busy with holiday festivities, decorating, and shopping. We are almost done with the shopping part of things (thank goodness) and tonight I am going to start baking. So, if we will be seeing you in the next few weeks, get excited for some goodies!!

 In the next few weeks, we will both finish our semesters and send our students on their way to spend some quality time with their families. We are excited to spend some quality time with our families too. We as usual will be traveling between both families and I am getting my playlists and reading ready for the car rides.


We are also planning on having some holiday fun with friends. I started a bit early last week with the Jingle Jog. We (some other hall directors and I) dressed up in our holiday gear and ran around campus. I think we might have been more excited about our gear than our run. Here is a photo of our adventures!

Today, I had some fun with my camera and our Christmas tree and wanted to share some of my favorites!!

Our Christmas Tree

Cubs game!!

To celebrate some big moments in Jordan's family (i.e. parental anniversaries/birthdays), we took a trip to Chicago for a Cubs game!! The family is made up entirely of Cubs fans (minus Jordan) so it was a perfect plan!

Brynna, Craig, and Garrett

Miriam and I

Jordan and JacobGarrett and I chillin...

Miriam and Braedan

This is what we all felt like at the end of the day :)
Jordan and his padre... he was hungry
Hanging out on the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel
Successful day in Chicago!

Sunshine on a cloudy day...

This is how I left work yesterday. It had been a cloudy/rainy day all day but when I left work, I saw the sun and blue skies overpowering the angry clouds. This just looked so beautiful to me that I had to share it with you.

This kind of symbolized to me that positivity and kindness will over power negativity. It was a moment that made me smile :)

A Roman Holiday

So, I have always known that I love to travel and experience new things but it was the summer I spent in Spain that really gave me to urge to take advantage of every opportunity to get my passport stamped. When my sister decided to do a study abroad in Romania, Hungary, and Greece, she was more than happy to help me get another stamp and extended her trip a week to meet me and our family friend Lynn in Rome, Italy.

Lynn and I arrived in Italy before Em, so we were able to explore the city a little before she got there. We had originally planned to stay in an apartment but due to some "plumbing issues" we stayed most of the week in a monestary that was converted into a hotel. It was a really unique experience since most of the staff did not speak english and there were actual monks living in the other part of the facility.

A view from our hotel

The Colosseum was about a 15 minute walk from our hotel.

Once Em arrived, we could really begin our Roman holiday! We planned a night tour/dinner on her first night there so that we could get a view of the city lights. Funny story: at the end of the tour, we went to dinner at a small restaurant with live music. Seated at our table was a couple from Clinton. Extremely random.
Anyway... it was a great night and a great way to start the trip!

Me, Emily, and Lynn in front of the Trevi Fountain on our first night.

Throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain on our first night. Legend has it that if you throw a coin into the foutain you will return to Rome someday. Throwing 2 coins means that you will find love.

Ooh another important note, Rome is like the Disney World of ancient "stuff." I mean if you are looking to see something older than our country where do you go.. Rome. That being said, it was FULL of tourists, cameras, and maps. In true American touristy fashion, we spent a LOT of time being lost and looking at one of our 39487498357 maps of Rome. Since there is no real rhyme or reason to the streets in the area, we also spent a lot of time retracing our steps after we had gone the wrong way. While this did get a bit frustrating at times, it also brought us to a lot of other cool things.

Emily being the master map reader

We spent the rest of the trip touring the city:

The Pantheon

The Pantheon Dome
Pope Benedict XVI and the Pope Mobile A tribute to Pope John PaulThe Colosseum
Beautiful Flowers at the Piazza Campo de Fiori
The Italian flag hung on the Colosseum for the 150th Anniversary of the Republic.Emily and Lynn at the Colloseum
Sisterly bonding by the Roman Forum
A view from our apartment on the last night... This was taken at 11PM... Trevi Fountain still packed with people...
7AM... finally clear of people
Any other time of the day, this shot is practically impossible to get because it is soo busy!!

One last group shot in front of the Trevi Fountain
Emily is ready for the flight home... Diet coke and pringles

Overall, it was a fantastic trip!

1st Anniversary!!

So we have officially been married for a year!! Woohoo... 1 down... eternity to go :) and we could not be happier about it!! It is hard to believe that we have been married for a year and looking back I cannot believe what a year it has been!

To celebrate we took a trip down to Kansas City. I had not really been there before so it was a fun little get away. We spent Saturday at the farmer's market, hanging out at a park, and going shopping. (This is a photo of one of the fountains by the park. It was really pretty and we saw a wedding taking photos here. Since it was windy, we had to find a place where we weren't being splashed by the water, but it was a great park!!)

Then on Sunday we went to a KC Royals game. We really like going to see the Royals (since normally we are a baseball house divided with the Cubs and Brewers). . Neither of us are Royals "fans" but it is fun to tailgate and go to the game in the same colors.Overall, it was the perfect way to spend our 1st wedding anniversary.

Upcoming Posts!!

So, life has been crazy but fun and busy so look forward to upcoming posts about our 1st anniversary trip, our latest move, my trip to Italy, and a few more awesome adventures.... consider this your preview :)

Life Interrupted

So those of you who know Jordan or myself, know that we often make life plans that do not go as we would have intended. I personally am a slight control freak so I like to know the who, what, when, where and WHY of all situations. That being said, the moments that do not go as I planned often freak me out and cause minor mental breakdowns before I re-center myself and refocus in the new direction. Perfectly enough, 9 times out of 10, the new direction leads us to a something sweeter and more perfect than we could have planned for ourselves.

This week, I started attending a new women's bible study. I have been looking for a group like this for a long time and have really been searching for the awesome fellowship that happens when a group of Christian women get together. My busy schedule prevented me from joining until this week and the message could not have been more timely or needed. They were starting a series called "Navigating a life interrupted." Perfect right?? I just spent the last paragraph rambling about how my plans never work and now I am starting a bible study that will be focused on how my plan and God's plan do not have to match because his plans are better than ANYTHING that I could imagine for myself. I love it when things work out like that. God is good :)

New appreciation

So, everyday, Jordan wakes up at the crack of dawn and drives an hour to work. He will usually get to work right as I am starting to get ready for my day. I honestly feel bad that this is our situation but I appreciate the fact that he is willing to do this so that I can have a job that I love. That being said, it is a rare occurrence that I am the first one out of bed and (let alone) out the door but today was my day :) Today I tried my very first 5:30AM SPIN class and it was awesome!! I am not typically a morning person but it felt great to have my work out and be home by 6:45AM. We will see how often I actually do this, but it might help free up some precious evening time for us this spring!

Spring break!!

Spring Break is here and I could not be happier. Despite the fact that I still have to work, I would have to say that I LOVE this week. The students have gone home to annoy their friends and family and have left me all of the washers and dryers- I mean building- to myself haha. I absolutely love my job but I am fairly certain that breaks were created more for the administrators and faculty at a university than the students. Already this week, I have completed my normal weekly tasks and have started the "getting ahead" projects that will help keep me sane as the semester comes to a close.

Next week is Jordan's spring break so I will spend the rest of THIS week thinking of fun things for him to do during his days off :)

Funfetti Cookies

I have been wanting to try these cookies for awhile now. They are really easy so I figured that I would share the recipe :) This is my first "recipe blog" so get excited!!

Funfetti Cookies

Ingredients:
1 Box of Funfetti cake mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 container of Funfetti Frosting

Optional Ingredients

Food Coloring

Sprinkles

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Step 2: In a large bowl mix cake mix, eggs, and oil. The dough will get thick very quickly so I would suggest using a spoon and not an electric mixer.

Step 3: Shape dough into 1" balls and place on cookie sheet.

Step 4: Dip the bottom of a glass into flour and use to flatten balls of dough

Step 5: Use glass to flatten dough to 1/4 inch thickness.

Step 6: Bake 6-8 minutes until golden brown. Cool for a minute and remove from cookie sheets.

Step 7: Frost warm cookies and add sprinkles. If you want colored frosting, use food coloring to get the perfect color for your delicious cookies. Let stand while frosting sets.

********
I hope you enjoyed my first recipe post!!