7.25.2013// Girls Day Out
We do this every so often. Mom and I get bored of our town, we’re transient people we are, so we spend a day elsewhere. Our favorite commute is up to Cincinnati - today, that was exactly where we spent the day. Mm got home around noon, we had lunch, and then we set off on our adventure. Our first stop is always the Gap Clearance Store where if you search well enough, you can buy a t-shirt for 2 bucks and a pair of jeans for 5, both new and nothing wrong with them! Man, it’s a task getting into a fitting room. We should honestly do a comedy act just on how mom and I enter fitting rooms - there’s twisting and turning, clothes spilling out, balancing a pair of shoes on our heads, you name it, we’re probably doing it, and looking ridiculous while doing it too! But the trip was worth it: mom scored a perfume she ran out of, cardigans for work, and everyday flats while I scored big with an entire outfit. I managed to pair together a skirt, a white top, and tan sandals. In my opinion, that’s the only way to shop, by outfit, otherwise you end up with mismatched pieces that may look good, but you have nothing in your closet to pair them with.

Before we knew it, we had spent several hours in the store (big shocker…we do this every time) and it was 6pm and time for dinner. We hit up the best German pub and even got to meet up with dad who was on his way back from Columbus where he had lunch with a Reiki instructor/master of his. After having one of the most delicious meals, we were ready for IKEA. The original goal of the trip was to get a desk and a mirror but sadly, they oversold on the mirror I wanted. We did get the desk though - putting it together tomorrow:) I could spend ages in an IKEA, and that’s probably an underestimation. There are just too many awesome things to look at! Going there each time makes me plan my future dorm/apartment/home which makes mom put on her straight face and tell me to stop talking about moving out haha. We got a few other nick-knacks as well because, well they’re so very tempting, like a blanket, a jar for trail mix and a coffee maker. Tired and worn out from the days’ trip, we were making our way back home when suddenly we saw fireworks! The perfect end to an awesome day. I guess these fireworks make up for my lack of fireworks on the 4th of July :)

                  
                   
                   

 
~Ignore the fact I can’t pose to save my life. And the fact that that makes me look like a wannabe model~


Here is the first skirt I made: a simple, gray maxi. Multi-functional, you can dress it up or down, I can even wear it to school. Add some bold shoes and a big statement necklace and it’s perfect. Love the fact that it is so light and breezy - great for summer, especially since maxi’s are in right now!

And this would be the second skirt. I’m not as particularly happy with this one - I had to double the fabric because one layer was far too see-through so now I feel as if the skirt is too thick and bulky. Either way, I love the subtle pattern and green hue of the fabric and, for a second skirt ever made, it’s not awful;) With mom being a professional seamstress, I’ve always enjoyed sewing but the things I’ve made before, she has always helped and done the majority of the work. Now, I can proudly say that these skirts, I made completely by myself:)

Today was an absolutely wonderful day. Beginning with getting to sleep in and a wonderful breakfast, I spent the morning at home relaxing, watched an episode of my current guilty pleasure TV show, 90210, and I worked on a couple of projects I had left lying around in my GSP absence. I got crafty today and finally got around to sewing up my 2 skirts I had been working on! One is a simple gray maxi and the other is an above-the-knee green pattern. Both are super light and perfect for summer! Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon. Mom came home right as I was finishing up the second skirt and we got a call from a friend of hers asking if we wanted to join her out for lunch and coffee. Unfortunately, we couldn’t because I had just prepared this beauty for lunch:
Hummus, Tomato, Egg, Avocado, and Lentil Sprouts in Seeduction Bread
Totally better than going out for lunch. But as consolation, we invited mom’s friend out to go shopping with us at TJMaxx where I struck it big some shorts, a fedora, a shirt mom and I are going to share, and some eyeliner and lip gloss! Plus, I finally got my friend her belated birthday present (her real birthday was June 17th while I was away…oops!) We spent longer than we expected out shopping so getting home we were in a rush; I was meeting a friend to go out and mom needed to get to the airport to drive some family friends home. We made it home just in time! My friend and I have this silent agreement: whenever we are at a loss as to what to do, we always go feed the ducks. There’s a large pond behind one of our town’s books stores with machines that give out duck/fish food for a quarter. 


We probably spent around 2 dollars feeding those ducks and fish but it was most definitely worth it:)
Those ducks are so dang adorable! We spent a good 10 minutes trying to lure one over to us  by putting the food in the palm of our hands but that failed miserably. Ducks are more perceptive than they let on…


Feeding the ducks always puts me in a good mood! With that done, we headed out to Panera so Davis could get some food before his work and I sipped on a latte while we talked. Back home, I concluded the evening with a walk around the neighborhood with mom before dad got home and we had dinner. Now I’m hoping to get some late night reading in to put me to sleep!




Nothing like sleeping in, then treating yourself to breakfast cooked by somebody else and some relaxing reading material. With freshly pressed carrot juice on the side.
aka the best snack/breakfast/anytime bar that I’ve ever had. Larabar’s, you’ve got competition!
I adapted this recipe from a treat I’ve bought many a time from the Good Foods Co-op in town. Their name, Bumble Babies, probably comes from the abundance of seeds in them and the fact that when you eat them, you can guarantee you’ll light up like the sun just because they are. that. good. From the first bite, they taste heavenly and before you know it, the entire bar is gone! These are super easy to make, full of wholesome and whole foods, healthy, and perfect for any time of the day! Not to mention, they are also vegan and gluten-free.
Bumble Babies Makes ~18 bars

1 1/4 cups Sesame Seeds
1 1/4 cups Sunflower Seeds
1/2 cup Cashews
3 tbsps Peanut Butter
3 tbsps Honey

1. Prepare all your ingredients and line a pan with wax paper. You will pour the mixture in the pan later.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl large enough to hold them all without spilling over.
3. Next come the wet ingredients. First pour the peanut butter because it as a thicker consistency. You may need to heat it quickly in the microwave to be able to actually stir it in.
4. Next comes the honey. Once you’ve stirred the seeds and nuts into the peanut butter, drizzle the honey onto any dry spots of the mixture making sure that everything is coated and will be able to stick together. This is important because otherwise, the mixture will not hold and instead of forming bars, you will have mushy sunflower goo on your hands, and no one wants that!
5. Lastly, take that pan you lined with wax paper in the beginning and dump your mixture into it. Spread it out evenly making sure that no spot is covered more heavily than another. You want the bars to be even so pat everything down tight, which also ensures that the bars will hod better. Refrigerate overnight or for several hours and you now have the perfect anytime treat!
Another great part about these bars is their versatility! I, for example, completely forgot to add coconut flakes into my batch this afternoon, but they still turned out amazing. You could try changing the seeds or buts up, try a different nut butter to hold them together, add dried fruit or dark chocolate chips…the list goes on. Be creative with these bars to your hearts’ content! Enjoy!:)
No Monday starts off well if one has to be awoken by an alarm clock, as was the case for me today. Even though our day was busy today, not many  of the activities we did today were joyful. To set the setting: it was pouring rain the entire day. Firstly, we had an appointment to go to the local photography studio where I was to review some pictures taken of me to choose for an event at school but, alas, they lost them. How they managed to that still baffles me. The only upside to this tragedy was we had some time to kill before our second appointment at the doctor’s so dad and I stopped at Target where I picked up my brand new candle warmer! Now, as I type, my room is filled with the intoxicating aroma of Lavender:)

At the doctor’s, they took blood and once again concluded that I do indeed have some strange mixture of bronchitis and pneumonia and thus, they put me on yet another antibiotic. Woop-dee-do…image
  Lunch pt. 1 - salad with tomato, blackberries, pine nuts, lentil sprouts
After lunch, things seemed to pick up. I was able to catch up with a friend I hadn’t seen in 5 weeks. He came over and we chatted, watched New Girl, and made plans to go hiking and hang out on Wednesday! I was supposed to go babysitting for a teacher of mine but when his plans fell through, I was left with the rest of the afternoon to relax and knit which I didn’t mind in the slightest. Once mom got home, we ran out to do some errands and afterwards, I managed to convince her to swing by my favorite place aka Cloud 9 aka Heaven, Whole Foods, to pick up some things I was missing for a recipe I’m working on. I hope to get it up tomorrow! I was able to text another friend and talk about some plans we had about clubs/events for senior year and I’m super excited to actually get to work on them! And to end the night, our family has a tradition of unwinding after a long day with an episode or two of The Big Bang Theory - so that’s exactly what we did! Poor dad needed it too, he got a wisdom tooth out today!
Nothing like sleeping in on a Sunday until 10am, in your bed, and slowly waking up with a cup of good coffee. Today, we had a true lazy Sunday in which we did nothing but hang around, catch up with each other, and relax. Although, we did work a bit on the remodeling going on upstairs - just some painting. I’ll keep saying this until it gets old buy man, does it feel good to be home! We decided to liven things up in the afternoon by going out to dinner but were sorely disappointed when we had to move inside when it started raining and then when our food arrived - it may have sounded appetizing on the menu but it surely wasn’t once it was set in front of us. However, besides the lack-luster dinner, it was a Sunday well spent.


Good parts of returning back home: These two glorious baskets of fresh blackberries waiting for me! Our lovely neighbors’ father has a farm and produces far too money so they gave them to us, free of charge!
Bad parts of returning back home: Immediately getting attacked by mosquitoes and getting bitten 12 times in the span of less than 5 minutes -.- I hadn’t been bitten once this summer so I suppose this was their revenge. Mosquitoes, I hope you are happy because now my legs look like they have chicken pox.
Finally, after 5 long weeks, I can at last say that I have made it back from GSP and I am officially a Governor’s Scholar! To that I say, bring on the scholarships!;) But, in all seriousness, I honestly had the best time I could have and spent five weeks with some of the most like-minded, intelligent, ambitious, and wonderful people I could have ever met. Now, worn out from the day’s early rise, long closing ceremony in a hot gymnasium, the flux of emotions from seeing my family and saying good-bye to all, I am ready to once again sleep in my own bed - Hallelujah! I will keep this short and sweet considering I plan on doing a post on this program and on my San Francisco one (which i leave for on the 1st of August) later on, but i would just like to once more say how thankful I am for being given this amazing opportunity - GSP will without a doubt stick with me for the rest of my life!


We’re nearing the end and I’m getting more and more excited as the hours go by! I’ve actually packed most of my things already:)
Today was practically the last day of class because, even though we meet tomorrow, I highly doubt any work will be done on the last day of the program. In Are You What You Eat, we finished a couple of presentations (mine included), celebrated a birthday with cake, and then just talked until it was time to leave. Patrick, the teachers son sent me off with a hand-knit get well soon hat and Salome sent us off with the books we read in class.
In the afternoon, we wrote thank you letters to either representatives, donors, or speakers that have come to campus. I was assigned the President and General Manager of the TV Station in my hometown which I thought was very fortunate! Plus, I could talk to him about our trip as a class to Louisville’s TV Station. After letter writing, I attended my first knitting and crochet club and realized that I should have been going from the very being! And because every person needs to visit The Fuzzy Duck for a third day in a row, that’s where the club met to knit:)
Lastly, we had our final seminar in class which was perhaps the only part of the today that made me sad. We played another version of Warm and Fuzzies in which everybody wrote a paragraph about each person in class in their Talk-Back Books. It took the entire hour but it was worth it, seeing everybody’s comments really do make a person feel appreciated and cared off. Right after class, we headed to the Film Studies movie premieres and that is how we ended the night! All the movies were incredibly original and very interesting to watch - good job, scholars!
And now I can finally say, only 1 more day left!

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Of course the weather gets messy when it just got better, and we decide to walk downtown!
Today, all we had for class was focus area which meant Journalism all day. I wrote 2 articles and then spent the rest if class talking with one of the girls in class about an interview she recently did. She interviewed a scholar here on campus and about his plans after GSP - the story he told was incredible. He has his entire life mapped out and he plans on starting out next summer by thru-hiking from Canada to Mexico. I had never heard of thru-hiking until today but it basically means hiking on/off trails through states/cities/countries and roughing it. I got the opportunity to talk to him about Into The Wild because I thought he would find the book interesting and turns out not only has he read it, but it’s one if his favorites:)
In the afternoon, we took a surprise trip to The Fuzzy Duck where we ended up spending 2 hours! We talked about books and school and other things over fruit smoothies and iced coffee. The coffee shop is definitely one of the few things I will miss when I leave! And speaking if leaving, only 2 days left!
Tonight was also The Amazing Race, GSP version. Unfortunately, Hannah and I had to miss it, but as it turns out, when Bria came back from it, turns out the whole thing was a bust and we didn’t miss much. Guess we got lucky:)
I started working on my project to remember my time here at GSP and it’s turning out great!
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Today marks the day in which, one month ago, we began our Governor’s Scholars Program experience and now, with less than 100 hours remaining, things are starting to wind down.
Besides the fact that my roommates decided to wake me up at 5:30am to go swimming/do laundry, today was a normal day.
Why today was awesome:
1. Our general studies teacher, Salome, cooked us traditional West African cuisine today in class. We had rice with a tomato/onion/habanero pepper/spinach stew on top and then for dessert we had papaya with cottage cheese. Delicious!
2. It was Salome’s birthday today! We celebrated by going into town to The Fuzzy Duck, where we treated her to a cappuccino and dark chocolate covered espresso beans. And then we went to the bakery where I proceeded to get a pretzel the size of my head :D
3. I have an awesome project idea that uses up all my quotes from GSP that I can’t wait to start.
4. Our hall went out to dinner tonight at a local Mexican restaurant called La Finca’s!
5. In Journalism, all we did was prep our table for our final banquet on Friday. Each class will sit together for dinner and they are expected to come up with a centerpiece and name tags and other things that represent their focus area. For an hours work, we did awesome! Everything we’ve done incorporates newspaper in some way and it looks awesome:)
6. This isn’t totally awesome, but it was supposed to be! Film Studies was supposed to screen their movies tonight but unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, the movies were rescheduled to Thursday. At least they weren’t cancelled completely! 7. Lastly, I finally got my letter from my best friend back home. It was just what I needed - can’t wait to see everybody!
3 days left!! (I think this last one is the most awesome of them all!)
The day started off slow with Journalism during which we watched a movie allows Control Room on how the news portrayed the Iraq war and Bush’s administration. However, it soon picked up.
In seminar, we did a couple of interesting things. First we played Pats of Appreciation in which everyone besides a group of 3 sits on the floor with their eyes closed. Then the RA announces things like “pat someone who has had an impact on you” or something like that and then the people standing proceed to tap everyone who that applied to. Then the groups switched and etc. I was a little hesitant to play at first thinking I handy connected enough with everybody in class but I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. No wonder this game is also called Warm and Fuzzies because it makes you feel special:) Afterwards, we all made and presented awards to each other and I received Lover of Life - I’m gonna roll with it!
We had 2 mandatory events today. One was a college fair which I spent a total of 12 minutes in because they were all in-state schools and I am set on going out and as far away from state as possible! The second was a convocation/documentary screening. First, a guy talked to us about GSP reunions and the. The movie, A Race To Nowhere started. The film was incredibly eye-opening and I’m glad they showed it to us. I think all schools and school boards need to see it because it discusses the negative impact school related stress can have on kids. All these AP courses, heavy homework loads, extracurriculars, and so on not only deprive students of sleep but they physically harm them and lead them to self-destructive behavior. The entire film was dedicated to 13-year-old Devon who committed suicide after failing a math test in a class she usually received 100% in. Just thinking about how something so small in the long run caused so young a girl to take her life really puts things into perspective and makes me wonder if everything I’m doing in school is really doing more good than bad. Ill say again, everybody needs to see this documentary.
Tomorrow, we get to cook in general studies! Only 4 days left:)
I’ve been up since 7 this morning and have gotten so much done! Ok, granted, I didn’t do much this morning besides laundry and lounge around with Jessica but this afternoon sure was packed! While lounging, I did manage to knit a scarf and start one sock though!
We hiked before dinner up and around the lake and it was my first time out in the trails - I loved it! I find hiking incredibly relaxing so I was happy to get out of the dorm. After dinner, we had speakers come to talk (freak us out, same thing) about financial aid and applying to college. They made me realize that I need to start filling out forms. ASAP! And lastly, I was going to join running club but they never showed so I took off and covered 2.5 miles on my own. The first lap around campus was a breeze and I didn’t stop once but boy, that second lap was killer and I had to walk parts of it. But I made it back to the dorm finally! Where I promptly collapsed on the floor;)
Only 5 days left!! I can’t wait to be home:)

AND I just got my AP scores back and I couldn’t be more thrilled! :D
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Great News: the room next to us is infested with bed bugs and the room above us likes to do “interpretive dancing” at 1:30am -.-
Today was absolutely horrid. I left class early and was escorted to the clinic. The doctor told me either have bronchitis or walking pneumonia. Yippee! -.- Now they’ve got me on meds and I am so exhausted. I missed class, a speech, and swimming with my hall.
They did want me to go to afternoon class so that wasn’t as bad as I thought. We talked about college and then took a trip to Dairy Queen. I also missed running club and the classic film which was It Happened One Night.
I plan on sleeping in tomorrow so hopefully with the extra hour, I’ll feel better. Only thing getting me through this is that we only have 8 more days!


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