The Last Semester

Have I mentioned that I started my last semester of college last week? Well, I guess that's a true statement if I never go back to school once I'm done, which isn't likely. But for now, I can say I'm in my last semester. I'm taking 3 classes. Women & Dependencies, Health & Wellness, and French 3. Women & Dependencies seems like a pretty cool class; reading and guest speakers mostly. I like that it won't just cover alcoholism & drug abuse -- it will include dependencies like retail therapy & co-dependencies. Healthy & Wellness should be interesting as we will spend quite a bit of time studying stress. I can't help but think that I'll learn a few things about myself and my environment. Annnnddd French. I go to French class EVERY DAY. This class is going to kick my behind. I did my first oral interview today and impressed myself. Apparently I remembered a lot more than I thought I would in 15 years. Soooo....fingers crossed, hope I make it through!

Gooey Butter Cake

After returning from Savannah last week, Josh made me promise to make Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cake. I had no idea how simple it would be to make. Please don't curse me for sharing this recipe -- it's a quick way to gain 10 lb!

Paula Deen's Gooey Butter Cake

Cake:
1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Prepare Filling


Filling:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 16-ounce box powdered sugar


In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well. Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.



Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Ease of preparation: easy

Jacksonville/Savannah Vacation

Josh and I returned from our vacation last week. Although it didn't feel entirely long enough, we seemed to have accomplished quite a bit.

Wednesday - we headed to Kansas City, a day early, because we decided to get last minute tickets to see Green Day in concert and we are certainly glad we did. We got a free seat upgrade and were quite suprised when Franz Ferdinand opened up for Green Day! Green Day was awesome -- just like a crazy concert that I would have attended when I was in highschool. While in KC we also managed to hit Uno Pizza for some deep dish pizza --something Josh and I seriously love.

Thursday - we got up early and went to Half Price Books where Josh and I stocked up on more books! This has quickly become my favorite bookstore and the prices are so reasonable. We also went to Einstein Bros. Bagels and I had a green chili bagel with cream cheese, yum... Afterwards we headed to the airport for a day of flying. We finally landed in Jacksonville around 6 PM. We drove through Jax and I took Josh through some of my old places, like the first apt I lived in Jax. Back in 1996 it was in Sin City -- it doesn't look the neighborhood has improved any. We checked into our hotel and then went to dinner at Bono's BBQ. I don't like BBQ but I love Bono's. It was my most requested restaurant on our trip. We ended the evening by walking around on the beach and eating gelatis which are custard and italian ice desserts.

Friday - we woke up and we're ready to do some shopping. Jax has a new shopping district called St. John's Towne Square with lots of neat stores. I managed to spend some money at Ulta and Urban Outfitters. That evening we met my good friends Corey and Karen at Bucca de Beppo for dinner. The food was ok, I actually think it was overrated and pricey but we had a good time anyway. It was so nice to catch up with my old friends and for them to meet Josh. They also seemed to enjoy him much more than my ex, lol. Later that evening Josh and I headed to Dave & Buster's. Josh loves D&B and since we don't have one in Wichita, we had to go. Our favorites are skee ball, Deal or No Deal, and now the spining relex game. I hit the jackpot on the spinning reflex game so Josh kept encouraging me to play again and again.

Saturday - we woke up early again and headed to St. Augustine to meet my friend Corey and her family for the day. We drove down A1A the entire way and checked out Vilano beach. It had obviously had a lot of recent beach erosion because it had a lot of new sand. We found an awesome hotel, very retro, that I would love to go back and stay at called the Magic Beach Hotel.

Once in St. Augustine we walked around St. George street with my friends and had lunch. I was able to hang out with her boys who are darn cute. It was terribly hot and muggy though so I ended up getting a bit of a headache. We headed back to Jax to relax a bit before heading to Singleton's Seafood Shack. Singleton's is famous to the area and the freshest seafood in town. Check out our dinner!

Sunday - we woke up early to drive to Savannah in order to get our name on the list for dinner at Paula Deen's Lady & Son's restaurant. We made it and were able to get on the list! Afterwards we headed to the Flannery O'Connor childhood home. This was my reason for wanting to travel up to Savannah. I love Flannery O'Connor and after reading about her home on Literary Traveler, I had to go. The tour was interesting and I found the stories about Flannery's reading habits to be very entertaining. She often wrote in her books and "graded" them. And unsuprisingly the original Grimm's Fairytales were a favorite. Also, while visiting the home I found out about Southern Literary Trail. Some of my favorite authors are included and I'm thinking future vacations could include some places on the trail.



We did some shopping in downtown Savannah and I found two really neat stores, The Paris Market and Cherry & East. Once we were done shopping we were ready for dinner at Paula's restaraunt. The food was so good, Josh kept telling me he was tempted to leave me for Paula Deen. Our favorites were the lemonade, hoecakes, cabbage, sweet potatoes, and gooey butter cake. The gooey butter cake is something I will be blogging about in the future. I bought one of Paula's recipe books and have already made it at home. Later that evening we took a ghost tour by trolley. I was able to capture a spirit orb at Colonial Park on film.

Monday - we headed to Bon Aventure cemetery. I was afraid we weren't going to make it but we did. The cemetery was beautiful, the mosquitos were awful! I was bit at least 20 times and had to slater my ankles in Caladryl once we returned home, and even then, they were still pretty itchy. Once we finished the cemetery we headed back to Jax to fly home. We missed the girls and were ready to get back home (um, not work though). Here is my favorite statue at the cemetery:

The Glass Castle: A Memoir

I bought The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls on clearance at Half Price Books a couple of months ago. I was excited to find it for $2 but I was also concerned that the cheap price might mean it wasn't that good of a book. Going with my instinct, which relies on the fact that I don't always like what the masses like, I bought it. It's fairly difficult for me to read while sitting in airports or traveling; I'm usually caught up in people watching or just preoccupied with listening to the travel announcements. I not only was able to read this book while traveling, I nearly finished it. It's the true account of writer, Jeannette Walls' life and childhood upbringing. Walls' parents were "free spirits" who didn't think that they had to conform to society's basic expectations -- to provide food, adequate shelter, and safety to their children. Walls' story moves quickly and unspeakable acts are far too common -- child abuse, neglect, and exploitation. The Walls children are resilient, though, and quite driven, especially Jeannette. It's often easy to make assumptions as to how people arrived at their current state, but Walls throws the common misconceptions out the window. Walls' not only builds something out of literally nothing, she helps her brother and sisters too. I found the story quite inspiring and immediately wanted to write following the conclusion. I give the memoir an A- and definitely recommend it.

Sausage Cheese Puffs

Tori loves sausage and I thought I would introduce her to one of my childhood favorites, Sausage Cheese Puffs. They may not be THAT healthy, but they sure were good.

Sausage Cheese Puffs Recipe

3C Baking Mix

1/2 C Milk

1 LB Sausage

1 8oz jar Cheese Whiz

Combine Baking mix and milk in a bowl. Mix well. Add Sausage and Cheese Whiz; mix well. Drop by spoonfull onto baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until brown.

Half-Assed

Last night I finished Half-Assed: A Weight-loss memoir by Jennette Fulda. I recently discovered Fulda on twitter and found her comments to be quite snarky so I figured her take on weight-loss would be too. The book was actually pretty entertaining and quite a fast read. She's very no-nonsense as she explains to people how she lost 200 lb, "eating right and exercising." What I liked about Fulda's take on weightloss was that she admits it was hard, dreadfully hard. And she knows it will be hard not to gain the weight back over time-- the cards are stacked against her. She also explains that losing weight does not fix ALL of a person's problems. She is now a healthy weight, but she's not dating or leaving the house to socialize all that much more. What she did gain was more confidence when people treat her poorly or take advantage of her. Fulda doesn't forget about her inner-fat-girl and refuses to become someone else just because she can now fit the part. I admire her ability to lose the weight, but even more, not selling out. She doesn't claim that she can help someone lose weight, she doesn't think she's an expert, she just lucked out in that she figured out what worked for her. The best advice I got out of the book was this: Figure out what works for you, what you can handle, what you are able to keep up with. Excellent advice indeed.

Strawberry Shortcake Party

Penny is currently obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake (thanks to the old school Strawberry Shortcake in the Big Apple City DVD I bought the girls) so this year she had a Strawberry Shortcake party for her 2nd birthday. She actually understood that it was her birthday too. For the last week we've had to listen to her talk about "MY PARTY" and telling us everyone that could come, "daddy come?" "Joy come?" etc. We were prepared for her to have a Sweet 16 meltdown but we lucked out. We went out Saturday afternoon and bought her party dress which she picked out herself, I was pretty impressed with her choice! This was my first time putting together a toddler's party and I think it went pretty great. The kids played in the pool and the adults had a water balloon fight. I got nailed several times! It was actually a total blast and I think everyone had a lot of fun. The sugar was a help as we had pink strawberry shortcake cupcakes and a Strawberry Shortcake ice cream cake. I love old school birthday parties in the backyard, it reminded me of my own parties years ago!

Too Tired

I've been dreadfully tired the last 2 months. Each day seems to drain another ounce of energy from my body. I've been trying to focus on green living and finding natural ways to give myself more umpf; I've yet to succeed. Tomorrow is my last day at work and then I'll be off work for 10 days straight. I'm terribly excited but know that it won't be until day 4 or 5 that my body and mind actually figure out that I am on vacation. Some people start vacation with a deep breath and let everything go.... I, on the other hand, seem to have to have blow it out like a nasty cold for several days. I could just hit the bar early on Friday, drink myself into vacation, and then all should be good as well. The first part of my vacation is actually a staycation. I'll be taking it easy, being domestic ('cuz that's how I can relax in my own home) and keeping my work black berry locked away from my access. Since joining my current employer, I've never taken more than 3 days off. So this feels very strange. I've been reading like crazy lately, especially since finishing my summer classes *which I got an A and B*. I'll review the 2 books I've been focused on this last week in a later post. Josh and I have been watching Carnivale Season 1. I kind of like it, I kind of don't. What I like is the fimography, acting, and placement in time. What's driving me nuts it's inability to move forward. Every episode I think something will be resolved or at the very least come to a head -- and so far, nothing. I'm almost done with season 1 and I can understand why it didn't last more than 2 season. I think it's a shame because the talent is cetainly there and the concept is quite unique. Oh well... As far as up and coming events, I've been pretty focused on getting some things in order. We are getting Tori ready for her next year of preschool and found that the zoo is doing preschool and just needs to get the proper certifications. If this happens soon enough, we might move her to the zoo program. That kid loves animals like you wouldn't believe. I've also been looking into dance and theater classes for her. Now that she's 4, there are so many things she could get involved in. The Children's Theater is kind of pricey but the Y has fairly economical dance classes. I've learned that more concerts are headed this way. Joshua Radin in Lawrence is high on the list! I've confirmed my Dec graduation and am hoping that I can pass all my classes this fall. It's going to be a lot but if I can just stick it out a few more months, life might be a lot more tolerable going forward. I say this and I know that in life, it's always something. This weekend we are celebrating Penny's 2nd Birthday. She's having a Strawberry Shortcake party at my parents. She's been talking about her party all week. Finally, work is still sucking the life out of me and I wish each day for the economy to rebound so I can find a better gig.