Wednesday, January 30, 2013

My College Roommate


You grow up hearing all about how amazing college is and that you form friends for a lifetime. I am one of those lucky people to say I truly did. Who would of thought that a girl a few doors down would still be in my life 7 years later. We were just little 18 year olds embarking on a brand new life all by ourselves. Our adventure at Baylor began in North Russell and continued to our lovely little home on Wagon Wheel Circle. The first thing I remember her mom saying was, “Now don’t forget to smile.” As I was looking at old pictures I thought one of the captions summed it up perfectly “my second family.” We were each other’s second families all through those years at Baylor. I highly doubt that first week in our Welcome Week groups she thought a couple years later she’d be dressing me every day and doing my hair after my shoulder surgery. We’ve gotten stuck on cruise ships together and spent countless hours of watching Friends episodes. I introduced her to all my favorite musicals; she introduced me to monkeys. Because of her, at one point we had a baby wolf in our college house, no seriously, his name was Wolfie. Ya know all the stupid things you do throughout your college years? Mine were done with her, and somehow we never got arrested  in serious trouble. (Sorry mom, you’re not getting these stories) We’ve been to Baylor football games, baseball games, tennis matches, volleyball games; we’ve dominated intramurals, dominated Baylor holidays, and been proud students at homecoming activities. We’ve been through a couple, a handful, a multitude of boys. We’ve celebrated birthdays and Christmas’ and Halloweens and Dia del Osos. We’ve been there for each other through cancer and death and menstrual cycles and gallbladders (even if I told her she just ate too much). She is the only person who will not judge me when I want to play catch phrase in a fort we build to save us from a hurricane. She is the only person who is a fellow member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. She is the only person I have a designated karaoke song with. She is the only one who truly understands my love of 4th of July and New Years. She is the only person who ever takes pictures, so I had to steal most of these from her facebook. She is the whitest Mexican I know who doesn’t know how to say hello in Spanish. She is the only one who is always willing to eat my cooking. She is one of the few who would fly to Dallas to watch me play football in the Cotton Bowl. We’ve learned to adjust to post college life and pick right back up where we left off. We’ve learned to trust each other’s opinion and value their advice. We’ve learned to support each other from afar instead of knocking on the wall in between our rooms; but we’re definitely not opposed to visiting each other and taking mini-vacays! I look forward to many more birthdays and memory making with my most consistent college roommate.

Happy quarter of a century! Love you of the fountain! 

 
















Monday, January 28, 2013

Spinach Stuffed Fish!

I took this recipe and adjusted it from broccoli stuffed fish. I had leftover spinach and I eat way more spinach than broccoli (although I do love broccoli). I guess you could really stuff your fish with whatever you want. All I used was spinach, cream cheese, onions, and herb stuffing mix. I mixed it together and I used swai fillets that I bought on sale. I made two wondering how much I would eat and had more than plenty left over for my lunch at school the next day. 









I used a little cream cheese, milk, and parmesean cheese in order to create a sauce to go over the top of the fish. This recipe looks a lot more fancy than it is and is definitely worth the taste! So good!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Praise the Lord!!!

We have received what will probably be the best news of all of 2013 and we are only 22 days in.

My dad’s treatment is working. Praise the Lord. This is how you know the grace of God is working; the doctor called it, “the most dramatic results he’s ever seen.” Isn’t that amazing? I am so grateful for all of my prayer warriors out there. I hear stories of people spreading the word to different cities, different states and even different countries. I don’t even think I could make a map of all the locations of people who have been praying for him. My dad says he is feeling good and is ecstatic with the results.

Granted, we are not out of the woods yet, but this is an excellent start. He will not complete any more treatments, but the medicine should still continue to build up in his system and work. He will have another PET scan 8 weeks from this most recent one and the idea is that the tumors continue to shrink/hopefully disappear. So keep up the awesome prayers.

I am so relieved to have good news for once. I could not stop the flood of happy tears and I did not really try. A brand new, fda approved drug that has only worked in 30% of cases there’s only one way I know to explain that.

I serve an all-knowing, all healing, mighty God. 

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Green Tea Smoothie

Some of you may know I recently got a trainer! Not because I need to lose weight, just because I need to maintain my weight! My new addiction is the my fitness pal app on my phone/iPad! I enter everything into that thing and it helps me keep track of everything I'm eating. I've always heard you should keep a food diary, and this is a simple and convenient way to do it!

Two of my main breakfast items are green tea and Greek yogurt, however that can become repetitive. So this morning I tried a green tea smoothie! I had green tea peach flavored and peach Greek yogurt so I figured I'd just combine them together and it's pretty good!

I brewed my tea (I made it pretty strong)


Threw in some yogurt with peach chunks

Added some ice cubes...


And voila!
It actually made about 15 oz worth, so I drank half before my workout and half after my workout! 

Clancypants, I still haven't forgotten what you told me... a spinach smoothie is next up on the list to try! :)

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Crescent Crab Wontons

My college roommate knows me pretty well after four years of living with me. Thank goodness I found someone who is obsessed with football tolerates all of my football watching. She also knows one of my favorite treasures during football season is my chip holder/football that plays the NFL theme song. So for Christmas she gave a beautiful football platter, like seriously it's so pretty and is quite possibly the nicest piece of glassware I own (bachelorette life). 

So, obviously, for the NCAA championship game, I had to have a party and use my football platter!!! :) The only question was what to make. I, also quite obviously, went to pinterest and searched for a new recipe to try. 

I found the coolest recipe! It is perfect for football and my favorite part was the cayenne pepper that is added to give it a little kick! They looked beautiful on my football platter. I can't wait for the next football season!


Yay for using crab! I love that packaged stuff! :)

 I had never used fresh green onion before.. and I got way to much, but it was super easy to work with.









Throw in some cream cheese, ranch, and cayenne pepper and they are complete! The crescent rolls are semi-divided into 4 quadrants already... I pinched the seams together and then cut each quadrant into 6 squares. I dabbed a little mixture of the crab into the center.



Fold over the crescent rolls and bake at normal times!



And you have beautiful, spicy little things... I had to take a picture so you could see my football. I promise I filled the rest of the platter up, although these things went quickly!

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Verse of 2013


I meant to do this as soon as I got home from Huntsville, but January 10th will have to suffice.

Last year I explained how I do not do New Year’s Resolutions, instead I pick a Bible verse that is kind of like my “theme” verse for the entire year. My verse for 2013 should come as a surprise to no one, especially if you’ve been following my blog lately.

Hebrews 6:19. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

Yes, I am still obsessed with anchors. I think it’s a great verse and I have already seen it working in my life in just these short ten days of January (more to come on that later).

It’s hard to believe this is my 5th year of doing this! My hope is that I keep this up even when I’m married and even when I begin to have kids.. Instead of a family motto, we will have a family verse of the year! That may be dorky, but I am one hundred percent ok with it! I love when I am able to whip these verses out and share with someone else who needs to hear them. Faith, Hope, Refuge… the Lord is the source for them all!

2013 – Hebrews 6:19
2012 – John 16:33
2011 – Hebrews 11:1
2010 – Joshua 1:9
2009 – Psalm 46:1  

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Man Cave


If you haven’t heard about the house that Caroline lives in at Baylor, you should. It’s amazing and I would love to live there with her.

She shares her little downstairs nook with another girl (they have the yellow and pink rooms), but they have a little section that can be closed off. They have affectionately labeled this as the Man Cave. Why? I think the better question is why not? In this, Man Cave there are several large built-in bookcases that are scarcely filled with random things. So I thought for Christmas I would give her something to add to those shelves… besides I had been wanting to try this project anyway.

I made her a dry erase board out of an old, ugly picture frame and extra burlap.

I like it. 

Hello ugly, 75% clearance frame


Thank you yellow spray paint


Leftover Burlap


A much cuter looking dry erase board!