October Review

Well, that month flew by fast. October was pretty stressful, since somehow midterm week prolonged itself into two whole weeks. I had 3 papers due on the same day a couple weeks ago. So. Much. Homework.

But there were some fun things that happened though! Here's some pictures:

This is the view out of the window where Jay lives now in North Bend. Pretty sweet, huh? The morning after this we saw snow up on the tippy top of the trees!

 Made some delicious turkey and black bean chili! Best served with avocado, sour cream, cheese, and crushed tortilla chips! Oh, and a really dark oatmeal stout in the background too :)

 Another weekend I made crockpot potato soup! Same recipe I used back in January, except minus the bacon because I somehow ALWAYS forget to buy bacon. Guess that shows you where my priorities are, potatoes before bacon!

 Spiced apple cider makes the homework a little more bearable!

 This is from October 24th when it SNOWED! Woohoo! It all melted within an hour, but still!

 Found these guys at the dollar store and hung them up in our hallway to make it spooky for Halloween

 These last two are from a night spent in Seattle when one of Jay's old college buddies was in town. The first one is of drinks at the 5 Point Cafe, the second is of the Ferris Wheel down on the waterfront! They had it all lit up at night with blue and green lights, which was pretty cool to see.

Let's see, what else is there to report... Oh yeah, I voted! For Obama, mainly because Romney terrifies me. I feel like if Romney is elected, we will spend 4 years going backward, repealing things that Obama put in place. I know there's good and bad to both sides of politics, and I don't really want to get into a debate about specifics (maybe I'm just a lazy American who doesn't want to think too hard...).

In philosophy class we just read the Communist Manifesto and now we're reading a book (actually a series of lectures) by a guy who was raised as a Jewish communist. I've been having a hard time with the philosophy readings, mainly because philosophers make up words and think so darn abstractly, but for whatever reason I think I'm finally starting to get it with this book. Thinking about socialism and communism and capitalism is all so interesting to me now, and those things definitely never were before. I'm not really sure what to make of it all yet, but I suppose that was my ultimate goal of taking a philosophy class, just to get me thinking. 

OH, I forgot the news! For part of winter break this year I'm going to Ohio! For a whole week! We're supposed to go from December 13th-19th, so if you don't hear from me shortly after the 19th, SEND HELP because it means I'm stuck in Ohio!!!

September Review

Well, I seem to be getting worse and worse at updating this thing! Fall is taking its sweet time to get here, and I have been getting more and more impatient for cooler weather. My least favorite part about this awkward weather phase we're in is that in the morning when I leave for class it's so cold I have to bundle up, but by the time I'm walking home from campus it's 80 degrees! I'm anxiously awaiting the days when I can be bundled up all day without sweating. But anyway, here's some pictures in review of September. Hopefully the quality isn't too bad since they were almost all taken with my phone.

Ellensburg Rodeo happened Labor day weekend, but since tickets to get in are so expensive, Erin and I watched from the water tower. Not a bad spot for a free rodeo viewing!

On September 17th, Kara and I went to the Puyallup fair and met this camel. They have camel rides, but we opted to just look at them...

At the fair, we also met these guys! They're kinda famous :) Big Time Rush is sort of hard to explain, but basically they have a TV show and they're also a band.

Last weekend Jay's family flew out from Ohio. We rented a cabin just outside of Leavenworth for the weekend and had some good times hanging around in the town. It was great to finally meet his family! In this picture, left to right, front row: Me, Jay, Brad (Jay's stepdad). Second row: Ashley (Jay's sister), Chuck (Ashley's boyfriend), and Brenda (Jay's mom).

These clouds looked pretty amazing yesterday. The wind has picked up a bit here, which has caused the smoke to hover over the hills in the North. It's nice to be able to see clouds again! When we first came back over here, the haze was pretty bad. As I was walking to class a few days ago the haze was so thick I couldn't even see some of the closest buildings on campus. The health center has been giving away masks for students and staff to wear to reduce risk of inhaling too much smoke, but thanks to the wind it's not as much of a problem now. If anyone is interested in fire updates, the CWU website has a button on the homepage that will take you to a page with more detailed fire information/updates.

The first 2 weeks of classes have gone well so far and it looks like this quarter won't be too much harder than any of the past quarters. I'm taking two English literature classes and one Philosophy class. I thought philosophy would be no big deal. I mean, I read the untranslated Canterbury Tales last winter, how hard can it be to read stuff from the 1800's? But the stuff we're reading in philosophy are some of the most difficult things to understand. Although since the class is on the philosophy of race, class, and gender, it's interesting to tie the different ideas into some of my English classes. There's a lot of overlap between my English readings and the concepts in this philosophy class.

Anyway, I'm struggling through the hot weather and philosophy readings praying for the day when the weather will finally feel right to make pumpkin bread and cider beef stew!

Getting Excited for Fall

It has been quite awhile since I last updated this! Let's see, where to even begin?

I suppose I'll start with my summer job. This summer I worked at a camp for kids with disabilities (mostly autistic, some cerebral palsy, some down syndrome) which was pretty challenging, and completely not what I'm used to as far as working with kids goes! The kids were great, and it was a really wonderful experience overall. Of course, there were some days that were just terrible, but it's an experience I will never regret.

Also, as a side note, I turned 21 this summer which has been pretty fun. Before my birthday everyone was telling me that being 21 is really not all that great, but honestly I love it. Now I can take advantage of happy hour and buy wine to go with dinner :)

As you may have guessed by the title, I am getting waaay too excited for Fall. I always look forward to colder weather and all the delicious treats that come with it like apple cider, soups and stews, yummy breads and muffins, scarves and hats and jackets and boots and big socks and sweaters... I always get carried away in the Fall! And I just found a new gluten-free cooking blog, http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/. I'm going to have to try all the yummy recipes!

Of course, I'm also excited for school to start too. I love the routine of walking to class and walking around campus and spending time in the library. I hope to be a college professor some day just so I can spend a lot of my time on a college campus. Kara and I are living in the same duplex as last year, but our roommate Rose is moving out to live with some track friends and our friend Erin is going to move in! I'm pretty excited for the change, mostly because we've all been friends since middle school and it'll be fun to spend time together and have girls nights and all that.

I hope to update this blog more, perhaps with more recipes and pictures. I haven't been too good about updating, but usually I find I just have nothing exciting to say.

Spring update

We're getting down to crunch time here in Ellensburg! I have 2 weeks left and in those 2 weeks I will be writing 3 papers, and completing a final project for my teaching literature class. So much to do, so little time!

I attended SOURCE last Thursday and after seeing some English presentations, I'm wishing I had done the presentation. All the presenters had to do was read their paper in front of a group of people, and answer questions about it at the end. I thought there was a lot more preparation that had to go into it, but it looked fairly simple. I will definitely present my paper next year, if I still can.

I should be out of school and back on the West side by the 5th or 6th. I can't wait for school to be over so I can get some decent sleep!

Spring has Sprung

Pardon the cliche, but Spring has definitely hit Ellensburg hard within the last few days! The weekend was beautiful and today is up in the low 80's temperature-wise. Sunny, not windy, warm enough to go outside without a good wind jacket on!

This last weekend Jay came over and we did an overnight camping trip into Umtanum Canyon. We left Saturday morning around 10:30 and got to our camping spot (about 3.5 miles or so) around noon. The trail is pretty well maintained for the first mile and a half or so, but gets a little brushy after that - and that's where we ran into the ticks! Apparently it's tick season, because they were everywhere! Jay's poor little bulldog was covered (we picked off at least 20), and when we got to our camp spot we found a couple on us too. Considering that it was my first "back-packing" trip, I think it went rather well, although we still have a couple kinks to work out, particularly: my fear of blood-sucking bugs (and the resulting paranoia), my caffeine addiction (and the resulting headaches that come from not having any), and my need to constantly be eating something (and the resulting back pain that comes from carrying that much food). I guess I'm just more of a car-camping girl.

As far as school goes, it's getting to the busy point. The first few weeks are usually pretty relaxed, but coming into the halfway point is where assignments start piling up. Unfortunately this halfway point is coinciding with the nicest weather all year, but I suppose that means I just get to do as much work as I can outside during the day and spend those insufferably hot evenings in the library.

In some-what related news, I received a letter in the mail announcing that I made honor roll with my grades last quarter! Hopefully this quarter will be just as good! I've decided not to do the SOURCE presentation this year, but there's always the possibility of submitting it next year. This quarter is just too busy with two literature classes, and by this time next year I will most likely be in classes with less time-consuming homework so it will be easier to do the SOURCE presentation to the best of my abilities!

Whistler/Spring Quarter!

Spring quarter started this week, and it looks like it's going to be just as stressful as last quarter. I'm taking two literature classes and one teaching class. Judging from the course schedules received in each class, it looks like I'm going to have 100-150 pages of reading per night. Plus 6 papers and 3 presentations (that's for all my classes combined, not each class individually!). So this quarter will be just as busybusy as last! Oh and by the way, all my hard work paid off last quarter! My grades were 2 A-'s and a B+!

Yesterday I went to pick up my Medieval Literature final paper from last quarter. I was so nervous about the grade on this paper because the professor is my favorite professor ever and she is a really tough grader. But when I flipped to the last page of my paper to read her overall comments and see my grade, I found that she gave me an A on it and wrote that I should submit the paper to SOURCE! SOURCE stands for the Symposium on University Research and Creative Expression. It's basically a big science fair except with multiple subjects instead of just science. So if I submit my paper to SOURCE, I will be presenting my topic/research/original ideas to a bunch of students and faculty! Pretty exciting! I'm going to talk to my professor about it on Monday!

In other news, Whistler over Spring break was amazing! We left for Canada from Jay's house at about noon on Thursday the 15th. After we crossed the border, we arrived (around 5 pm) at the Howe Sound Inn and Brewery where we spent Thursday night. The little town by the sound reminded me of a Stephen King novel because all night the wind was blowing and it was raining and we could see the little marina from our window and the whole place was just creepy. I got my first taste of a legal beer with dinner, though, so that part was pretty enjoyable.

We saw this car not long after crossing the Canadian border. I guess this guy is Canadian and proud of it!

 The next morning, we got up really early to check out and get on the road to Whistler. About 20 minutes out of Howe Sound, it started snowing and didn't stop all the rest of the weekend! The road wasn't too bad, and we made it by 7 a.m. The lifts didn't open until 8:30 so we drove around a bit looking for a store that was open so we could get some stuff for snacks and lunches on the mountain. And then finally, at 8:30, we hopped on the first gondola up Whistler mountain!

This was the first picture we took after getting out of the gondola. It still baffles me as to why this website won't upload pictures the right way, but whatever. You get the idea.

The snow was deep and awesome, but the visibility wasn't so great most of the time. It literally snowed the whole time we were there! Once they finally opened the upper Peak chair, we were able to get out of the clouds a little.

This was on the Upper Peak to Creek Run. We got a nice view of some sun and mountains!

Another shot of the sun and snow! Some deep stuff!

That first day, we skied only on Whistler mountain, but the next day we went over to Blackcomb and skied some of the bowls and basins. When we stopped for a quick lunch, the sun came out a little on the lower part of the mountain.

And then once our knees had had enough skiing, we rode the Peak 2 Peak gondola back over to Whistler mountain so we could ski down almost directly to our hotel.

The view of Whistler mountain from inside the Peak 2 Peak

Us inside the Peak 2 Peak!

On Sunday we spent the morning recovering a little from St Patrick's Day by getting coffee and walking around the village. We headed out around 11 a.m. and got back to Redmond at about 5:30 pm. Overall, the trip was really fun and I'm glad I can say I've finally been to Whistler. Next time I go, though, I need to be filthy rich and be able to spend a whole week! The mountains are just so big that it's impossible to ski everything in two days. It was still a fun experience, though!

The Light at the End of the Tunnel!

I only have two obligations standing in the way of me and my Whistler Blackcomb power vacation (like a power nap, except, ya know, with a vacation!). I have a final in Child Development tomorrow at 8 a.m. and a paper for my Jane Austen class due tomorrow at noon. After that, this stressful quarter is over and I will be heading to Whistler for some awesome skiing. Apparently Whistler is getting tons of snow this week and some more this weekend, so the skiing should be fantastic.

In other news, I got a new laptop charger!! So now I can type this in the comfort of my room instead of in the library! Also in the other news department, ski teaching for the season is over. Last saturday was our last day of lessons and it's always bittersweet to see another group of kids move on to more advanced classes. I loved my saturday class this year.

I'll update with some pictures of Whistler and whatnot when I get back (around the 20th)!

Living in the Library

Due to a rather untimely computer malfunction, I have been practically living in the library as of late. I never really realized how much time I spent on the computer until I didn't have one, and I have to say the lack of computer in my life has been rather freeing. However, that's not to say I'm not going to get mine fixed, since spending so much time in the library is rather inconvenient. There's no food in here.

It's interesting though to see how much I get done when I don't have that extra distraction. I've been getting so much done the last few weeks, it's crazy! I still have a pile of things to do every week, but when I get home from classes I usually get right to it instead of watching a few episodes of my favorite TV show online. I feel so much more productive.

School is still super stressful and busy all the time, but it's nice to spend my downtime doing something other than staring at a computer screen. I've been doing a lot of reading, mostly for class but some just for fun. In my classes we're reading sections of the Canterbury Tales and some Jane Austen. For "fun", I'm trying to slog my way through Silas Marner, but that's not going so well. I'm thinking of giving it up for now to reread The Call of the Wild instead. Who doesn't want to read about dogs tearing the throat out of a moose? (I'm sure there's more to the book than that, but that's the only part I remember from when I read it back in 5th or 6th grade)

Anyway, skiing lately has been fantastic! The snow here has been so wonderful. This last weekend my class and I skied through about half a foot or so of fresh powder, and the forecast for this week looks like there's even more snow on the way! March 16th-18th, my boyfriend and I will be going on a power vacation (like a power nap, except not a nap) to Whistler to ski some of that extra good Canadian snow! Spring break starts whenever my last final is (which I believe is March 14th), and ends March 27th. I can't wait! I need a school break!

Ski/School Report

This quarter has been so stressful and busy, I've hardly had any time to even think about updating this blog! I'd say I can't wait for the quarter to be over, but it's only going to be more stressful from here. Classes are going well. I have group projects in all of them, and papers in all of them and an insane amount of reading to do! I feel like all I do in my spare time is read, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'm having a hard time balancing the school stuff with my friends and I think they're all feeling a bit neglected...

Next week I sign up for my classes for Spring, and I was just going through the classes available. It looks like I will be taking three English classes, 453, 373, and 222. 453 is Studies in Fiction, 373 is Literature and History III, and 222 is Multicultural Lit for Teachers. So those should all be fun!

I remember back in middle school, I always said I wanted to live out of my car in college, and I'm basically doing that right now. Since I'm always up at the Pass, I always keep extra food, water, and clothes in my car. I'm fairly certain that I could be lost in the mountains for a week and I'd still survive with all the stuff I keep in the Subaru! My ski classes this year are awesome! On Fridays I help out with a class of beginners, and on Saturdays I have a class of crazy (but awesome!) seven and eight year-olds. This last Saturday, I took them down the first black diamond of the season finally! The break weekend is February 17th, so it will be nice to have a weekend to relax and maybe catch up on my reading!

Well that's all I have time for for now. I'm off to finish up some projects and read! Hope everyone is having a good February so far!

Slightly Spicy Potato Soup!

There's a foot of snow on the ground here (or at least there was before it warmed up a bit today), and when you're walking home from class in weather that's so cold it hurts to breathe, something thick and warm and yummy sounds like the best thing ever! So this week I decided to make potato soup in the crock pot, and since it turned out so yummy, I thought I should share!

The recipe was taken and modified from THIS one here, but I'll type it out here with my modifications.

• 3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled [I forgot this and it was still really good without]
• 4 red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks [I used 4 biggish ones and 2 smaller ones]
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups milk
• 1 cup sour cream [I just used one big dollop, probably about half a cup]
• 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons seasoned salt [One teaspoon is PLENTY! This soup is very salty]
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes [DO NOT use a full tablespoon. I used one teaspoon and it was still VERY spicy]
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• chives for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat a large slow cooker by turning it to the High setting and covering with the lid.
2. Place the cut-up potatoes in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave on High for about 8 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked and steaming hot.
3. While the potatoes are cooking, place the butter in the preheated slow cooker, and cook and stir the onions and garlic for about 5 minutes, until the onions turn golden [I DID ALL THIS in a separate pan, then moved the onions over to the crock pot and continued]. Stir in 1/2 cup of milk, and whisk in the flour until smooth. Gradually whisk in the remaining 3 cups of milk, and let the mixture come to a simmer in the slow cooker [For me it took waaay too long to start simmering so I just added everything in once it got warm and it still turned out fine]. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the soup begins to thicken.
4. Stir in the hot cooked potatoes, crumbled bacon, sour cream, Cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, seasoned salt, parsley, red pepper flakes, celery salt, and dried basil. Stir to mix the soup well, reduce the slow cooker setting to Low, cover, and cook for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with chives and serve.[I cooked for only an hour and a half on high, and it was delicious! I don't think it really needs to cook 3 whole hours]

Toward the end, the soup still wasn't as thick as I wanted so I whisked in a teeny bit more flour and it thickened up perfectly! I also put in more parsley than the recipe called for, and it definitely didn't hurt :)

Nothing like some potato soup to finish off a cold day!

Happy 2012!!

I'm back in Ellensburg after being home for nearly a month! Winter break was pretty fantastic - mostly because the amount of skiing I did was an insane amount for pre-season. I usually never ski before Christmas, but I took my boyfriend up to Snoqualmie and got him hooked on the ski bug, so after that we went skiing quite a bit. I wish I had pictures of it, but I always seem to forget to bring my camera to the mountain!

Powderpigs starts up this weekend. Since I have no classes on Fridays, I'm going to teach Friday nights and Saturday lessons!

I usually don't have New Year's Resolutions, but this year I've decided that I'm going to constantly remind myself to do my best. I always find that with school papers and projects, I hand them in thinking "this would have been so much better if I had started it a week ago", or "I could've done better on this and I will next time". But I rarely hold myself to that. Somehow I manage to squeak by every time, but I know I can always do better. So to remind myself of this, I'm going to make some sort of collage on my wall. I have a nice big blank space that would be perfect!

Happy New Year everybody! Here's to a fantastic year :) (since it might be the last year on Earth)