Summer Fun and Life's Many Blessings!

As I am planning to move onto the next step in life there are some things I will really miss!  After classes finished I got in some good exercise with Nike Training Club an exceptionally good free app! My roommate and I have a competition to complete 660 minutes on the app first. I am currently in the lead from my earlier start but she is quickly catching up. I need to get moving! Tonight, I had a delicious dinner of crab stuffed mushrooms, salad, and watermelon. I love summer because of all the fresh fruit! After dinner, I headed to the local ice cream shop for our last ever Cake Batter Ice Cream! The flavor changes each week and Cake Batter is by FAR my favorite. I am so sad that was my last time eating it.

On a more serious note today has been very thought provoking and eye opening. In class we watched a very challenging video on poverty experienced in the United States. The focus of a film we watched was in South Carolina where multiple school systems are suing the state for indecent funding for schools. The conditions are horrendous for what we consider a decent educational environment. Later this evening I had an opportunity to catch up with a friend, Audrey who recently returned from Liberia where she spent the last four months doing mission work. Hearing about her experiences and adjustments to life in a poor environment even more destitute than what we witnessed in South Carolina was very humbling. Deep down I know there are places in the world where people live without running water, electricity, and shelter and that is normal to them. Placing yourself or someone you know in that environment is shocking. It makes me so grateful for the many blessings that I have in life. Everyday I get caught up in some form of materialism. Things become needs when they are really wants. I am not recommending that you or I give up all luxuries and live in poverty but want to  remind readers as I was reminded today to appreciate the beautiful things we do have. This goes beyond just material belongings but I have dignity, freedom,education, opportunities, rights, and love. I am so inspired by people like Audrey who are willing to place their lives on hold to go into these communities in foreign lands to serve. Thank you for all of you out there who are so willing, loving, and faithful! You are truly special people!

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend Nick and I headed to the river for a fun Memorial Day weekend with our good friends Wanda and Mat! It was a great time! The place we went was where my family would go frequently when I was a child with my Aunt and Uncle. I really enjoyed the blast from the past! It was such a fond place in my heart and I have so many good memories of our times there. Despite being sick most of the weekend and the boat breaking down we still had a blast this weekend! Unfortunately I took very few pictures :(. Nick saw a sign driving through town one day for kettle corn, which is Nick's greatest love (behind me of course!)

We tracked the guy down in the trailer park and Nick got the biggest bag possible! Sadly he will probably finish this shortly! Nick and I kicked some tail at Gin Rummy. I had never played for score but we were quick to learn! We lost during our training game but when we played for real Nick and I shut Mat and a family friend of theirs out, winning three straight games! Wanda and Mat were so sweet to have us up and feed us wonderful food and drink. We enjoyed all the fun in the sun! And of course at night some good ole' bonfires!

The Biggest Loser Finale!! :)

Tonight is the Biggest Loser Finale! I don't know why but I love the Biggest Loser. The finale just takes the cake! Obviously the main focus of the show is for weight loss. I don't feel it promotes unhealthy self-images or everyone must be skinny, but promotes that everyone should strive to be healthy. The contestants are facing numerous health concerns caused by their weight. But what I as a psychologist love is the changes you see within the person. That's why they have such a high success rate of participants keeping the weight off. They face the issues underlying their weight problems! It's so encouraging and moving to hear people say things along the lines of "for the first time I feel like I am worth it." For the contestants facing trauma to finally face feelings they have been running from! Or my favorite when they come on the show for their family member who is a contestant and then realize they have to change themselves. I love watching each season and seeing the people change physically and emotionally. Tonight it all gets showed off when they can proudly show off their hard work and new physical appearance. I am so excited to see the differences!



Excitement of Pictures

This past December I picked up the hobby of scrapbooking! I love it! I've always liked pictures and kept lots of photo albums during undergrad. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked this past semester to get caught up on my album but I sure did this past week! I flew through some of the pages making around 20 pages this week! Crazy I know! The other night I was ordering more photos to make some more recent pages and I was reminded of the the excitement of getting pictures. Back before digital cameras, having to wait for pictures to be developed was torturous at times. After big events, I remember going as soon as possible to the drug store and ordering the one hour. When I was leaving the store the other night I was opening to look at the photos before even leaving the store and had that strong feeling of anticipation. Then I realized I knew exactly what every picture looked like. While I definitely like being able to know when a picture was bad and we need to retake it part of me misses the excitement and mystery of seeing what your pictures look like. Once I finish up this album, I will start working on an engagement album!

Congratulations on your, wait Nick has a BEARD?

You read that right folks. Our beloved Nicholas has a beard. Surprisingly, I think there were more request to see pictures of Nick's beard than our engagement ring. As you can see from the pictures below it is pretty beardly for Nick and it's still a work in progress.

I'll share a little about the history of his beard. Over his Spring Break back in April, Nick decided to stop shaving for the week and see what happened. You can look back to the Luray Cavern pictures and see his scratching stubble of a beard at the time. Towards the end of Spring Break the NFL playoffs began and being a Caps fan the attempted beard now became a true playoff tradition. By the time the Caps were out of the playoffs Nick had a pretty decent beard going on. Which I did not see until the night he proposed! He did offer to shave the beard for the pictures after our engagement. I told him he could keep because I knew he liked it. Plus it makes him look older and get mistaken for being a student less. Some have gone out of their way to convince me to get him to shave. "As long as it's gone by the wedding I don't mind" is my response. But I do know two things: Nick hates being overly hot and he hates itchy things. It's highly doubtful the beard will last long into summer.

Enough of ragging on Nick's handsome facial hair, I do want to brag about him and all of the hard work he has done this school year. Nick has worked incredibly hard this year to motivate and teach his students.  He was seeing little success and reward on the day to day assignments, but today received very satisfying SOL scores. He's been very nervous for the past few weeks and I'm so glad his hard work is paying off. I couldn't be prouder of my fiance!

Graduation, Couples Shower, and Good Times

This weekend Nick's sister graduated from Longwood with a degree in Special Education! We are very proud of all of her hard work and enjoyed celebrating with her! She is one of the kindest people I have ever met.

Nick and Katie

What goofballs!

Nick, Katie and I

Me, Nick, Katie, and their parents

The rain held off for the graduation and it was a nicely run ceremony. However, we had some major wardrobe malfunctions. In the morning, I ripped the eyelet part of my dress when it got caught on Nick's suitcase. Later about two minutes into the ceremony a bird pooped on Nick's pants.  We affectionately referred to Nick's pants as the doo-doo pants for the rest of the day!

The bird poop on Nick's pants

After graduation, I raced home to attend a couples shower for my friend's Liz and Matt who are getting married in a month. It was a fun night and an interesting concept. Friends of both sides and significant others were in attendance. It was lots of fun! I am excited to start gathering ideas for my own wedding. Liz is gracious enough to pass along her bridal magazines to me. 

Today I got to see some of my great friends from high school and enjoy a good Cracker Barrel meal. It was great to catch up and watch a funny video of a friend's grandmother's 100th birthday party and her stripper. The birthday girl reported it was "just lovely."

Mother's Day Brunch and Poker

To celebrate Mother's day, Nick and I got our families together. My mom drove up for the day and my uncle, who lives close by traveled over for a nice brunch to celebrate our engagement and the wonderful mother's who raised us. We took some great pictures in front of a fountain in the restaurant.

 Nick and I in front of the fountain

 Nick and I with my mom

 With Nick's parents before brunch

The whole group after brunch with my uncle who joined us at the restaurant

One of Nick's favorite past times these days is playing free poker. I went up to play with him a few nights. I was nervous at first because people are kinda serious even at FREE poker. But about 30 minutes in I cleaned up on a good hand and took the lead on our table. Everyone thought I didn't know what I was doing and kept raising. I was starting to panic a bit thinking maybe my pocket queens giving me a full house weren't good enough. But with lots of chips on the table I won the hand and took most of Nick's chips. He eventually got them back by going all in against me and having a higher kicker than me. He ended up making it to the final table for the first time and placing second. He won a $25 gift card that night!

My chips after my big hand. The yellows are 1,000, purple 500, black 100, green 25. We start with two yellows and maybe four purples. It was a big hand! Especially for my first time.

The second night I met him there later and after trying to leave by going blind all in. Nick won with pocket twos and nothing else, a 2-7 off suit ending up with three twos, and another nothing hand that ended up with a flush. For the second time he made final table. I think I am his good luck charm.

Wuv, True Wuv

Three years and some months ago I went over to meet a friend at her classmates apartment to play scene it and hang out. Little did I know at the time I was walking into my future husband's apartment. My friend Amy had been trying to set us months before but I was resistant to a set up. We had met a few times previously but never spent time together. A week after hanging out I got a message from Nick inviting me over for another night of scene-it which he had arranged as an excuse to see me again. From there it was love. We had a few bumps in the road along the way but now we are engaged to be married.

As you can read below Nick and I had recently gone to Luray Caverns. Well at that time he had purchased the ring already but did not pack the ring because our initial plan was to go to a water park (not exactly a romantic proposal place). When we changed our plans to the romantic and beautiful caverns he was kicking himself. So when I was up visiting him, Nick had recreated our time at Luray Caverns by decorating his apartment to mimic the caverns using sheets, little candle lights, and the actual video of us in the chapel with the organ playing. It was very personal and thoughtful. Nick greeted me at my car with a drink and had gotten me my two favorite flowers: sunflowers and tulips!I didn't get a picture of the flowers at the time and the tulips opened up huge overnight before I took a picture.

To celebrate we went to The Melting Pot for a delicious 4 course dinner. It was lots of fun. The only downside was the steam blew in my face the whole time and only on one side of my head. So one side of my hair poofed out and the other did not. Nick found it hilarious.

(All this marriage talk makes me think of the Princess Bride hence the title. If you don't know what I'm referring to you should!)

Good Eats

If anyone out there is like me it's hard to cook for one and eat healthy on a budget! Recently I have found some cheap healthy eating ideas that I have tried and love. First, bags of salad and lettuce are hard to eat before going bad when you are eating for one. Filling a large container at the salad bar at the local grocery store is a way to get the exact amount and kind of salad you need for cheap! No more throwing away bags of salad, half eaten cucumbers, onions, etc. I get what I want and what I can eat. The added plus it's already all together and quick to grab! I can't remember who recommended this to me! But thanks it's saving me money and encouraging to eat more salads!

The second healthy eating tip I picked up from good ole Jillian Michaels! I am not a big bread eater to begin with so this was a great trick for me. Swapping bread for lettuce is a great way to save calories and eat healthy! I have used lettuce as hamburger buns and sandwich wraps. The wraps are delicious and crunchy! I really enjoy the taste and don't miss the bread.

Lastly, for some treats!! Last weekend my aunt made some delicious peanut butter cup cookies! This week I stumbled across a recipe for similar cookies online and figured I'd share:

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well. Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
3. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.