Hello Chicago!

Well it turns out my spring break wasn't as boring as I had anticipated it would be thanks to an awesome weekend in Chicago! My little sister is a junior in high school and has started looking at schools. Well she is pretty on top of her game and has found her dream school already, so last weekend we went and did a campus visit at University of Illinois at Chicago. GREAT school! The campus was amazing and they have recently renovated the surrounding area, you didn't even feel like you were in a big city!

Along with the campus visit we did a TON of shopping. It was the perfect weather to go shopping on Michigan Ave. There were tons of people out but we still had quite a bit of luck and got some fun new stuff for spring/summer! It was also great weather to walk around the beach for a while. But of course I couldn't settle for any old beach so I made mom drive us 40 minutes out of the city to "Mamie's" beach in Wilmette. It was totally worth it, brought back lots of great memories. I grew up at this beach for many, many summers!

After the beach we did a little more shopping and then headed down to the Wills (Sears) Tower. It was the tallest building in the world until a couple of years ago and somehow, even after living in the Chicago area for 12 years, had never been to the top. We didn't anticipate it to have a long wait, but it took us two hours to wait in line and get to the top! We took a minute elevator ride up to the 103 floor. The views of the city lights at night was amazing!!

Finally on our journey home we met up with our old neighbors. It has been around 4 years since I had last seen them, but it was like no time had passed at all! It was probably the best part of our trip. We had about a three hour lunch with the Mooney's and I don't remember the last time I laughed so much! Everyone was able to make it but Colleen, which was sad but we still had a blast.

Spring Break

I am a little sad to admit that I am currently in the middle of my most lame spring break yet. Though I can't complain because I am saving money which I will be thankful for in Vegas and then New Zealand ;) So if you are looking for an exciting post, you can stop reading now..

Today I met up with my friend for lunch at the Olive Garden which meant a cheat day for my diet, but it was sooo worth it! I also went to Jordan Creek and saved a little bit of money. Last week I bought a couple of dresses and spent $100 (opps!!) then found a coupon that would have saved me $30 and to top it off, my dresses went 30% off two days later. So today I went and re-bought my dresses for only $50!!

Tonight I am continuing my lazy spring break with movie night number 3! I have been on a redbox kick using free codes. What could be better then renting movies for free?! So far I have watched Morning Glory and It's a Funny Story. Both were very good. Tonight I am watching The Switch. 

Now you know what I have been doing. All this extra time has made my apartment very clean and my dirty clothes pile about half as big. Tomorrow I am heading home and very excited to see Huey and the fam, then it's off to Chicago. (I guess my spring break isn't all that bad!)

Here is a picture of the little guy to make this post more exciting :)

Weighting In

I woke up this morning to a rather exciting surprise that I just had to share! As many people know I have been loosing weight for about six months (with a six week break around the holidays) and I am now at my lowest weight!! My goal was to loose about ten pounds by the time I head to Vegas over Memorial day weekend in May. To stay on track I marked my calendar with weight goals each month and this month I made my goal a week and a half early!! Needless to say I am super proud of myself and not being shy about it! Hey, I worked hard to get here, why not brag?? :) Now my goal is to not totally mess up my weight loss in Chicago next weekend, but that could be a tough challenge! ;)

I have been using weight watchers to loose weight and have found so many websites and books with great, healthy recipes. Yesterday I decided to try my own recipe using a few of the tricks I have learned. I have found tons of recipes for things that are normally fried like onion rings and chicken strips. I happen to be in LOVE with fried pickles and figured I could make some variation that was a bit more healthy and I did! I preheated the oven to 425. Then I took two pickles and brushed light butter on them (about a tablespoon). Next I rolled them in about an 1/8 cup of bread crumbs. I baked them for about 10 minutes and used some light ranch for dipping. They weren't the same as Hooters, but they were a good like snack and only two points plus!

Getting Crafty With It!

I just had the best night with my friend Chelsea being crafty! Tonight we made some Mod Podge picture frames. I made one for my cousin's new baby, Will. They are planning on painting his room blue and brown so here is what I came up with! The hardest part was trying to paint his name on the brown tags, but I am glad I did. I was thinking about using stickers wouldn't have looked as good.

I also made a frame for my friend Lindsey's birthday. I decided to use scrapbook stickers on this one because I had no idea what else to do! Although I was unsure, I really like how it turned out! 

I have one more frame I am going to make. I have paper with a black and white, leafy type pattern. I am trying to figure out what I want to put on that one.... any suggestions??

In Case You Didn't Know....

Since I will be calling New Zealand my home for 8 weeks I have been doing some research and have learned some interesting 'facts' about New Zealand. Here are some things to know.

To start things off it is probably important to mention that tonight I drove over an hour in the worst mix of snow and ice that I have ever driven in. (Not that that is saying much since I've only been driving for five years and I am sure I have many years of nasty, winter driving ahead of me.) I thought it was crazy to have such horrible only 10 days before spring. This leads me to my first point....

-Seasons are opposite in New Zealand and America. This means while you are at the beginning of a cold Winter, I will be at the start of a new, warm spring! (I'll admit I am sad to know that I will probably miss the first snow!)

-New Zealand has the highest literacy rate of any country, 99% to be exact. This is something I learned before I knew I would be student teaching in Alexandra. Not too shabby since my endorsement is in English and language arts.

-One American dollar is equal to $1.38 in New Zealand.

-I am currently taking a class about human sexuality and today I learned that in NZ prostitution is legal. Maybe not an important fact, but you probably didn't know!

-If you know me well at all, you know that I LOVE wine! Well, it just so turns out that there are FOUR wineries in Alexandra. I am the luckiest girl!

-New Zealand is the youngest country in the world.

-My favorite fruit happens to be kiwi. Ironically enough, the dollar in New Zealand is often called 'The Kiwi.' However their money is named after a bird, not the fruit.

-The time difference is so large that I am starting to think it might actually be easy to get used to. Right now it is 2:35 a.m. in America and 9:36 p.m. in New Zealand. For all of you aren't so hot with fast math, that is 19 hours. YIKES! That time difference means a 27 hour flight for me!

-While I am down under I am sure I will meet plenty of nice young men who have great accents. Speaking of cute New Zealanders, Russell Crowe is from New Zealand.

-Finally for all you worry-warts, the water in NZ is fine. While this might seem random, I found this in the FAQ section of a New Zealand website.

I hope you enjoy my random 'facts.' I am sure I will have plenty more as I continue researching for my journey! Until then, good night.

My First Post!

Well, go figure it is 1:03 and I have found something to distract me from my homework! After a more than stressful week I am excited to find out that I will be student teaching in Alexandra, New Zealand!

I am so excited to have some solid plans in my future! At the beginning of my hectic, senior year I decided I really wanted to study abroad in London. Well after going back and forth multiple times, I decided what I really wanted to do was student teach abroad. Of course I went up and down about this. It was very competitive and I was sure I would not get chosen, which I later found out I was partially right about. Then came the decision to student teach in Chicago, at least I would be getting out of Iowa. So to make this long story short, I found out I was only chosen as an alternate to head over seas, ouch! So I started filling out an application to go to London, I was determined to get out of this country before I graduate! I would spend a summer in London then head off to the 'Windy City.' But of course plans changed again... This morning I met with the London advisor then eight hours later I got a call and was told I could go to New Zealand. So now Chicago is out of the picture (at least until I am back from NZ :)) and I am going to stay in Iowa a little bit longer. Let's be honest, I am having a hard time thinking about leaving my friends here in Ames.

What better time then now to start blogging. I am so excited to see what the rest of the semester has in store for me. It has been more than interesting so far, but I have a feeling it is going to be wonderful. :)