This past weekend was Easter! It was an awesome four day break! I had Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off. I spent Thursday night out with some friends and saw "Clash of the Titans" at Newport- awesome! movie by the way! :) But that was a late night and I had a blast!

Friday I spent with my boyfriend. He read all the "Twilight" books and wanted to watch "Twilight" and "New Moon" so that he could figure out what was different from the books and the movies. We got through the first one before we were bugged by my friends Rachel and AJ to go to the casino. So we left and went to Hollywood Casino where we had fun for a few hours! Even had a great dinner there too! I love free places 'cuz you can go and just hang out and not do anything if you don't want to. I play the slots but I had more fun just people watching and watching my friends gamble instead. It's quite an interesting place. This is my third time going. The first time was for my 21st birthday, then my friend Nicole's birthday, and then that day too just 'cuz we could. It's a fun time! Gotta love Indiana... :)

Then I went home and on Saturday I spent the day fixing up the house. My parents have decided that it's time to move since my brother and I are getting older, and so are they, so now it's time to find a condo where they don't have too many steps into the house, a two car garage (we have only a one car now and they hate it), an end unit, a club house with a pool, and a first floor bedroom. They want a place that they can work in the yard if they want to but are not required to because the Home Owners Association (HOA) does it for you, that's why you pay them each month like rent almost. So now we're looking and my parents signed the papers with the realtor on Saturday so it's going on the market in a week or so. We have a lot to do before then. It's kinda scary but very exciting! I'm ready for a new place. We've been in this house since 7th grade and I really like it but I can do with a change I guess. I don't know... I guess I don't have a real choice in it do I? But it's good I'm in the dorms so I don't have too much to move from our house now to the new place. I'll let you know what happens with our place. Keep your fingers crossed it sells quickly! :)

Then Sunday was Easter! I spent the morning and brunch with my family but the afternoon and evening was with my boyfriend's family. It was a great time! It's only the second time I've met his extended family (I went to his cousin's wedding a couple of weeks ago and met everyone then). He has two adorable little cousins, Shelly who is 4 and Bonnie who is 2, and they were so much fun! They kept wanting me to push them on the swings, find the Easter eggs with them, eat dinner with them- and I proceeded to get stuck physically at the kiddie picnic bench. It was pretty fun. My boyfriend got stuck too. It was hilarious! Then we went back to his house and played games with his parents for a while.

Then Monday I spent the day with my mom buying things to make our house pretty. TV shows say that you need to make the home a place that could be open to any possiblities so it has to be impersonal, clean, and open. So like my room. It has my queen sized bed, two nightstands, two shelves of ceramics pieces, a round Chinese lamp hanging from the ceiling, a desk, my printer, a chair, three words on the wall (metal words Love-Live-Laugh), a guitar picture, and a carpet. It used to have pictures of my friends all over the place, stuffed animals on one nightstand, a "Twilight" poster on the wall, and other knick knacks. Now they're gone. :( It doesn't feel like my room any more. But it has to be photographed and available for any showings that might be requested. It'll be an interesting process. I was 13 the last time we moved and I don't remember it very well. It'll be interesting this time... :)

Today was also Opening Day for the Reds and the MLB so that was fun to watch a bit of at lunch with my mom and brother. But after buying fun things all day, we watched the thunderstorms roll through, then I came back to school. And I just watched Duke beat Butler in the NCAA Championship. I think I totally lost the whole bracket for my pool but I really don't care. It's $10 so I'm not worried about it. :) Now it's back to the grind of school. I have musical practice every night this week, Spring Formal is this coming weekend, and the show is next weekend along with my one roommate's 21st birthday. It should be an awesome next two weeks! And not to mention I have little Easter Eggs everywhere to find, not only the candy kind, but the little things that make me smile. Like seeing friends and having fun. This is a great time in life and I am enjoying every minute of it! <3

Hey everyone.  Today is, as I have heard it said by countless individuals already, a historic day for Reds baseball.  Today, March 30, 2010 the Reds announced that they will be serving sushi at all home games this year.  The sushi, provided by Sake Bomb Restaurant in East Hyde Park, will be making its first appearance on menus, and will be in meal-sized portions for $12-$14.  According to local food laws, no raw fish will be served, but you’re still going to be able to get your hands on California rolls, Smoked Salmon, Vegetable, as well as others.

Now, looking at this from someone who has seen hundreds of Reds games in his life, played baseball for 18 years, and is also in college for sports marketing, I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea.  Baseball isn’t the game of our ancestors anymore.  It’s more mainstream, and what is more mainstream than sushi.  Many teams have already implemented this kind of menu marketing.  Baltimore sells crab cakes, the Yankees serve full Chinese dishes, among countless others.   You can already get Penn Station, LaRosas, and Skyline at Great American, so why not go all out?

I had an interesting night last night. The Campus Ministry Leadership Team (CMLT) put on a good event last night: Sundae Sunday! It was a time for students to gather in the 6 East Lobby, make ice cream sundaes, color some Easter pictures, decorate and make the tallest cupcake, and socialize. It was quite a good event!

For the coloring table, there was a coloring contest and three winners judged by Sam Gaier and Laura Leisring. They chose the winners and each winner won a prize bag that had things in it like gift cards, crayons, markers, coloring books, trivia questions, and other fun little things that I'm sure really add up! :) It was exciting!

Then the cupcake building contest was judged by Stephanie Schoenfeld and Courtney Cole. I don't really remember who won but it was exciting 'cuz I'm pretty sure the tallest one was about 6 inches high or so with icing, twizzlers, and other candies. It was quite disgusting looking I can assure you. ^-^ But they were excited that it got that tall! :) Of course, then it got interesting when I smeared a bit of icing on my friend Megan's cheek 'cuz then she went ahead and smeared me too! So we stuck them together and took a pic! It was quite a fun time!

But it was fun to socialize with all the people who came. There had to be at least 50 people that filtered through. Most people got ice cream, and/or a cupcake, then left. But quite a few stayed to talk, gossip, color, and build! I was excited for CMLT 'cuz they never have this many people show up for one of their events and this turned out really well! I was excited for them! Most events like this are put on by CAB so it was nice to see a different group have success too. :) That is one of the nice things about the Mount: we have such diversity and such fun little things that are put on that you really can't be bored with any of it!

I know that there is Pancake and Ponder on Tuesday morning, "New Moon" is being shown on Tuesday night, a game night on Wednesday night, "Bucket List" on Thursday night, and a comedian on another night-- all this week! Who thought the Mount would have so many fun things in just one week!!! :D This will be an exciting time for the Mount students!! :)

Hey everybody. There are a few simple variables to the equation of being a college student. Two of the biggest ones are sleep and food, which is why Sunday morning at the Mount is hands-down my favorite time of the week.

On Sundays in the dining hall they host “community brunch”, which means friends and family members and whoever else you could pretend to be acquainted with is welcome to come and eat the buffet style brunch that they serve. That’s all lovely and dandy, but for the students who live on campus it means the most delicious meal of the week. The cooks go all out in preparation for the guests (whether it be your Aunt Betty or the hobo you found on the corner of Delhi and Pedretti), and it makes bearing the disguised leftovers all week well worth it. I usually have to prepare my stomach about twelve hours in advance for the feast that I indulge on, because it is that amazing.  After a Saturday night full of board games and studying (or whatever else innocent college students choose to embark on), the brunch could not come at a more perfect time. I have many friends who choose to go home on the weekends, and I always shame them for missing out on Sunday brunch. In fact, if my parents ask to see me, I usually let them know my ETA will be around 1pm or 2pm, long after I have committed caloric suicide and just in time to crash on their sofa for a nice post-feast nap. Ahh...

So, that is what I leave you with now. If you’re going to come visit the Mount, or stop in to say hi, bring a few dollars and stay for Sunday brunch, it’s worth it.

What’s up everybody? I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and shared a couple of laughs with your respective families because I know I sure did.  One laugh in particular that I shared with my older sister this Thanksgiving involved our strategic planning of how we could consume a copious amount of food, which is inevitable when the quality of food is what it is at my family’s Thanksgivings. After intense discussion, we decided we wouldn’t eat bread because that would fill us up faster. In addition we took our normal halftime break in between plates and we established a solid eating pace so that we wouldn’t eat too fast, which would also fill us up. LOL. But this blog isn’t about our strategizing (despite the humor I found in it), it’s about the infamous brownies that my Aunt makes yearly for Thanksgiving. Every family has a family member that cooks some food item that, as my roommate and I like to say, is the siggy or signature food item of family gatherings such as Thanksgiving. For some it’s the greens that their mother puts her foot and elbow in or it’s the grandmother’s macaroni that can’t be replaced. For my family we have all these signature food items but one food item in particular that makes every Thanksgiving for my family “interesting” , to say the least, is the infamous brownies my aunt makes. Now these aren’t any regular brownies people, I swear these brownies are so delicious that each nuclear family of our whole family wants beaucoup brownies to take home as leftovers. That’s where the controversy arises. My aunt knows this therefore I feel she intentionally makes fewer brownies. Believe me when I say these brownies are scrumptious; they are so scrumptious that some family members (including myself) get beyond themselves and try to take a few more brownies than are rightfully theirs. When this happens, excuse my language but all hell breaks loose. I’ve seen family members pick up knives before people. LOL. Now obviously we aren’t hurting each other over brownies it’s all fun and games but I will say this, if you ever come to a family gathering of ours I’m warning you don’t even think about low key taking more brownies than offered because know that at all times you are being watched. That’s all for now folks. Look out for future blogs where I’ll provide you all with some key advice that I have acquired and feel necessary to share with you all. Until next time peace.

What’s up my MSJ people? It’s Saturday morning and I wanted to write this blog to give the students of the Mount some key advice. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Greg Kaman (the head of the Dining hall) has really been killing my roommate and I with the ridiculous times that the dining hall is open.  Most college students don’t go to sleep until at least twelve o’clock or later because they are either studying or feigning on the various social networks such as facebook and twitter. For my roommate and I it’s been a little of both. Regardless of your reason for being up, there is no reason that students shouldn’t have access to food at night. At the beginning of the school year, the only solution my roommate and I had to this problem was to buy the infamous La Rosas pizza. This didn’t last long, for the copious amounts of money we spent on La Rosas pizza, wings, and calzones put a huge hole in our wallets. Before spending so much money on La Rosas, I could “stand on my money and head butt Yao Ming”- Lil Wayne, but now I’m just a regular poor college student. My roommate and I have been doing some serious thinking and spent long nights venting about how pissed we were with the predicament we were in, until recently we came up with an alternative solution that is starting to earn us beaucoup money. For those simple minds out there (no offense) beaucoup mean “an excess”. So what we started to do was bring plastic bags and old Gatorade bottles into the dining hall. We fill the bottles with Gatorade or the drink of choice and we put chicken sandwiches in the plastic bags. Now this plan isn’t earning us money directly, but indirectly for it is saving us a lot of money that we no longer have to spend on food. Some may see this as stealing, but my roommate and I don’t in any way shape or form see it this way because whether I eat the chicken sandwich in the dining hall or in my room doesn’t matter because I’m still going to eat it. Same goes for the Gatorade. Moreover our parents are paying a lot of money for meal plans; therefore we have the right to that food.  That is all.

Unity is something the Mount prides itself on. We come together in tough times and we stay together through the best of times. It is quite a feat for a school to do. Granted, we are a smaller school so sometimes it feels a bit like a huge high school with accelerated classes but I thoroughly enjoy it. But overall, we are a school that remains one.

Examples would include any deaths our community experiences, whether it is a sister at the mother house, a student, a faculty or staff member, or a family member of any of the aforementioned. Or even worse, when we have tragic events such as the funky event of the fires back in March. But that also doesn't stop us from coming together in the best events too.

And that's where I'm going with this tiny little rant. lol :) This past weekend was the second of the five home football games at the Mount. We played the Bluffton Beavers. But the month of October is also the month of Breast Cancer Awareness and it seems like the entire country has decided to take part this year. The NCAA and the NFL have decided to endorse the color pink and the Breast Cancer Awareness movement for the entire month. So in solidarity, the Mount decided to give out pink bracelets, pink ribbon pins, and stick on tattoos of pink ribbons at the game for free or they'd accept donations. The team also sported six pink jerseys for the pre-game warm up. These were raffled off and auctioned off for donations to the movement. I'm not sure all that was raised but I'm sure it was quite a bit. I know that one jersey that was being silently auctioned off was up to $100 and that was BEFORE the game had even started. That was nice though of that person. (Oddly enough, the person who sported that number in the game was later injured.)

Of course, then the NFL sported pink all day Sunday throughout their games and it was weird to see pink bills on baseball hats (oddly enough worn during football games) and pink arms bands and sweat bands on the players and referees. It all adds to the solidarity portrayed by the Mount community, and evidently, the country. It makes you all warm and fuzzy sometimes to see such displays. But it is all very cool... :)

Another act of solidarity for the Mount was the 30 Hour Famine this past weekend. It started at Noon on Friday and ended with a 'feast' on Saturday at 6 PM. It was in support of promoting awareness for all the starving children all over the world. It took place at a retreat center in Norwood and the time was occupied with games and activities to keep your mind off food. But you were allowed to drink water and juice to keep up your strength (I'm also sure it had something to do with liability with the Mount as well but don't quote me on that). It sounded like it was a fun event overall. It was brought to the Mount through Campus Ministry Leadership Team who also does Homeless Awareness Week in November with Shanty Town in the Quad. They really bring the Mount together. :)

We are definitely one of kind school that takes pride in solidarity and unity. It's a good feeling... :)

So I decided that this past weekend was the perfect time to take a break from school. My mom and I packed up out things and went to Nashville, Brown County, Indiana. We spent two and a half days shopping, talking, walking, and enjoying the little arts and crafts town. I had SO much fun! I went into all my favorite shops: Rings and Things, the Old Bartley House, the Eucalyptus Tree, the Toy Shop, among others. I also ate at some great restaurants: the Muddy Boots Cafe, That Sandwich Place (yes, that's it's real name- home of all the possible IU memorabilia), the Artists' Colony, and the Harvest Moon Pizzeria.

All the pressures of life and school just melted away and I just had fun. No thoughts of kidney stones, surgeries, homework, classes, or life interrupted. I just chilaxed all weekend and just had an amazing time with my mom. Sometimes it's just good to get away. To forget everything and just have fun. 

But of course, as soon as I get back, I remember all the things I do have to do and then I spaz as to when I'll do them and if I even have time to do them. Like... I have a quiz in my RDG 331 course on Tuesday but I wasn't there last Thursday to actually hear what was going to be on the quiz so I'm not sure what I'm even gonna study, then I have my outpatient procedure-slash-surgery on Wednesday for my kidney stones to be "blasted" to get rid of them, then Thursday is a mid-term in my EDU 255 class so that requires a ton of studying that I haven't even started, then Friday morning is another quiz, and there's another project due on Monday morning for that class. It's getting a little ridiculous how much I have to do. lol. But I'll get it done. I always do. :)

So now I'm headed back to my "studies" so that I can catch up after relaxing for my fun, fun fun! weekend. :) (P.S. fall has already hit Nashville and it was gorgeous with the oranges and yellows and red! Gorgeous!)