Straight A's?!

For several weeks, I've been waiting on one grade to post. All of my other grades for the Spring semester posted ages ago, but apparently one teacher got sick, so he was unable to submit the grades by the due date. But this weekend, they finally posted! I was expecting a B or B+ (it was mainly just a class to get another 3 credits, I wasn't actually invested in it, so I slacked off a little. Or a lot. Whatever.), and was very surprised to see it post as an A! That means that out of my 5 classes, I got 3 A's and 2 A+'s, my best semester at ASU ever (better even than my first semester, where I got 4 A's and 1 A+)! I was quite pleased, and am still a little surprised!

Justin's internship has been going very well. He loves Avnet, and is very excited to continue working there over the summer. Last week was mainly training, he didn't even meet his managers at all last week. He met a lot of high up executives though, including the guy who will become the CEO in a month! The group of interns also did some community service on Thursday, and I was allowed to tag along. We went to St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix and worked on an assembly line for a few hours. It was fun, and really awesome to see how much Avnet cares about the community. They have five core values that all of their employees try to remember: Integrity, team work, customer service, accountability, and innovation. I think it's great that integrity and accountability (incidentally also two of the young women's values) are among their top five! 

This past weekend, my family had a Bag-Of-Crap-Opening Party! My dad won a Bag of Crap on Woot.com (it's a big deal), so we had a party to open it. We started at my house for appetizers:

I made these cute little ladybug crackers. They were REALLY good when I first made them, but the crackers got soggy after sitting in the fridge for a little while, so I was a big disappointed with how they turned out in the end. I also wish I could have found rounder tomatoes. Oh well, they were still pretty cute. 

After appetizers, we went to my parents' house for swimming, bbq, and fireworks! We also opened the box while there, and it was full of some pretty random stuff, including pet combs, a snuggie, and a batman helicopter. 

Monday, in addition to being Memorial Day, was mine and Justin's two year anniversary. I can't believe it's been two years! Sometimes it feels like we've been married forever, other times like it's hardly been any time at all. It's been a fantastic two years though, and I'm so glad to be blessed with Justin as a husband. He really takes care of me and is there for me when I need it, and I love doing things for him! It's so fun to pack him a lunch and hide some little surprise in there for him (today it was a yummy chocolate!). He truly is a good man, and I'm really proud of all he is trying to achieve. 

Today, summer ends for me. I start two online classes today, and they'll definitely keep me busy! One of them is five weeks, and should be fairly easy. The other is a science class, it's eight weeks, and will be quite a bit of work. At least I won't get bored! 

That's all my updates for now. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! 

Blueberry Pancakes!

I couldn't think of a clever title for today's blog post.

Today is Justin's first day at his internship! He is now officially a Supply Chain Analyst with Avnet. He was very excited to start, we even bought him some new dress clothes so he can look nice and sharp :) Here's where the title comes in - I asked him what he wanted for breakfast on his first day, and that was his request. I was expecting something like monkey bread, or something that's less common than pancakes (we had pancakes about a week ago), but that's what the man asked for.

With today being his first day at work, it is also my first day at home. Alone. All day. Without a car. Good thing I'm not too dependent on interactions with other humans. Give me a good book and I'm happy :) Although I am glad that I only have one week before my summer school starts and the writing center opens again.

What am I going to do with my first full day to myself? Hold on to your hats here, this is big...


Clean! That's right, clean. I already tackled the bedroom, and I didn't just put away clothes and make the bed. I cleaned off the dresser, I organized my nightstand, I even put all of my necklaces back into my jewelry box. Okay, so it's still not really that big of a deal, but when you're used to spending all your free time doing homework, it's stuff that doesn't happen very often.

I was going to tell you about all the other things I'll be cleaning today, but I was getting bored writing it, so I can't imagine you'd enjoy reading it. Instead, I'll share some pictures of desserts I plan to make at some point over summer:

Chocolate Pâté with Crème Chaud-Froid

This recipe intrigues me. Usually pâté is gross meat product, but this is apparently like a chocolate mousse that you can slice. 

Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cheesecake

I've got quite a few cheesecakes I want to make (it IS my favorite dessert after all!), and this one definitely makes the list! Chocolate cake, layers of Cheesecake, peanut butter... how can you go wrong? 

Chocolate Mint Cheesecake

Another classic combination: chocolate and mint. In Cheesecake form! 

Chocolate Toffee Cheesecake

I warned you about the cheesecake. :) 

Eggplant Parmesan

They can't all be sweets. I've wanted to try my hand at eggplant parmesan for quite some time, and eggplant was on sale this week! I've got one sitting in my fridge waiting for me :)

Homemade Bread

Over spring break I really wanted to try making homemade bread, but just didn't get around to it. On my last post, Ruth suggested making bread, and it reminded me that I've wanted to for quite some time! 

Six-Layer Cake

Mine will be chocolate though. I've never made a successful layer cake (probably due to the fact that I've only tried once, and I was like, 14), so I want to try my hand at it again. And as long as I'm doing layers, why stop at two or three? 

Lasagna

Lasagna just tastes WAY better homemade, but I've never had the courage to try it. I'll probably make a few phone calls to my mother for help with this one. Her lasagna is SUPER yummy! 

Well, summer's just beginning, and as you can see I've got lots of new things I want to try. I'll keep you posted on how these turn out as I make them.

By the way, if you want to check out a dessert I've already made during my break, stop on by my crafting blog: www.creatingis.blogspot.com. Here's a little foreshadowing of what you'll find there: 

Thanks for stopping by! 

School's Out for the Summer!

Unfortunately, school's not out for ever. Not yet. Actually for me, it's not even out for the summer. It's out for three weeks of the summer, then back on.

But I'm not thinking about that. I'm thinking about the fact that I am done with all my finals! Justin finished his last final Tuesday. So... we're done! WAHOO!!!

And even though I'll have three classes over summer, I will only be working a few hours, and frankly, I'll have a lot of free time. I've got quite a few items on my "to do" list, but I'm still worried about being bored. Any suggestions?

Here are my plans so far:
-Finish my work-in-progress and make a few revisions
-Work on sewing (I have the fabric and pattern already for a shirt and a dress)
-Organize my home library (I'd say three book cases is enough to call it a library)
-Organize my office
-Read all of Terry Pratchett's works (by the way Ruth, the book I referenced in my last post is one of his)
-Do some crafting with my sister

So, clearly I need some more things to do to occupy my time. I've considered trying to volunteer somewhere, but the hospitals I've looked into want a year-long commitment from you, and I know I won't have time once the fall semester starts up. So, in lieu of that, I'm thinking of trying to find at least one opportunity a week to make someone's day, whether that's randomly stopping by with a plate of cookies, or mowing the lawn for someone who's sick. We'll see how that turns out.

But seriously, I want your ideas. How can I keep myself from getting stir crazy when I'm locked up in the house all day every day, with Justin working full time? Also, if you give me an idea that I end up liking enough to use, you might receive some form of baked good. Just sayin'. (Because frankly, I have time to make offers like that!)

Oh yeah, this week I'll also possibly be buying a laptop. Mine has been braking where the screen meets the base, and now it won't close at all (which kind of defeats the purpose of a laptop). On top of that, it has randomly decided to not turn on. Bad plan. So, I'm taking it to a computer shop thing today, and depending on what they tell me, I'll either have them fix it, or buy a new one. I just hope if it's out of commission that I'll be able to get my files off of it! (I'm thinking about that work-in-progress novel that I've got almost 100 pages of)

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I look forward to your suggestions!