brown eyed girl

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

NYE 2012

Happy New Year, I hope 2012 is treating you well so far!

My only "New Year's Resolution" is to blog more, hehehe, we'll see how long that lasts, I PROMISE to do better! Of course I'm also training for the half marathon in May so that's kind of a given, along with eating healthier, just because! What are your resolutions?

Year in Review

Think of this as my 2011 "Christmas letter" to all you followers out there : )
From what I remember, there wasn't anything too notable about January or February, but I did travel to Sacramento, San Fransisco, and wine country in March!

In April I turned 23...woopie!

The month of May brought some mourning with the loss of our close family friend Linda, but it also brought bonding time on our annual family fishing trip to Minnesota. I also finished my first year of graduate school at UNK!

In June I was a personal attendant for my friend Cathleen's wedding in Grand Island.

My high school friend Kilie got married in July. I also became an aunt to Brylen James and floated down the Niobrara river!

Throughout the summer I worked at Target and took my 3rd full time semester of grad classes and clinic in Kearney. I fell in love and started my 4th semester of school in August.

September was a month of fun dates followed by October which meant my family selling our home on the golf course in Tekamah and moving to a small temporary house in Fremont. My parents, Tyler, and I also ventured to Wisconsin to witness the Huskers loss to the stinky Badgers.

In November I traveled to San Diego with three classmates for the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) 2011 Convention.

In December I got word that I officially have a job as a speech-language pathologist for the 2012-2013 school year through ESU #2 in Fremont. I also moved home with my parents, sister, and Brylen after finals week and we've already started making memories in our little humble abode!

2011 was a bit of a roller coaster, we lost a loved one but gained Brylen and Tyler. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel and make some amazing memories. I learned how to golf and cooked more than I ever have before. I am currently interning as a speech-language pathologist in a school until March and then a medical setting. After that, I will graduate in May and begin my career in August! I am living with my mom, dad, sister, and Brylen and hoping that I will get to rent this house once my parents find their "dream home". I love finally living in the same town as Tyler and he comes over quite often to see me, Brylen, and to eat of course ; )

Christmas

I had quite a blessed Christmas season (besides when I was studying), in fact, Tyler and I had SIX Christmases between the two of us! Talk about plenty of family bonding and food! I hope you were all able to enjoy time with your loved ones over the holidays, from our family to yours...seasons greetings!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Breaking Headlines

I apologize for not blogging in almost 2 months, but I have extremely busy! Between studying for finals, moving, preparing for Christmas, and now studying for comps, it seems as though when I do catch a break I spend my "free time" on Pinterest and never manage to get to my own blog. However, a lot has happened in the past 2 months so let me fill ya'll in!

+My best friend from high school, Karisa, asked me to be a bridesmaid in her July 7, 2012 wedding, sooo excited!

Karisa & I, College of Dentistry Formal, Spring 2010

+I signed a contract to be a Speech-Language Pathologist with ESU#2 in Fremont for the 2012-2013 school year, it feels good to know I'm employed!

+I signed up to take the National (Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology) Exam on January 14, 2012. I will also be taking our Comprehensive Exams at UNK on January 12 & 13, so I will be studying my brains out until then. (Sorry in advance for the lack of blogging-- nothing new though, right?!)

+I also signed up for the Lincoln Half Marathon on Sunday, May 6, 2012 so it is time to get my rear end in shape!

+I finished my last semester of classes ever (unless I go back for that Ph.D.) with a 4.0, hooray!

+I moved in with my parents after finals week; I now have 4 new roommates: my dad, mom, sister and nephew, and I am finally in the same town as Tyler : )

Back to the books...stay tuned for my "Year in Review" post!

Sliced Baked Potatoes

Tyler and I attempted to make these potatoes a while back, once again, I got the idea from Pinterest, but they definitely did not turn out as well as I had hoped.

The original recipe we went off of said to bake them at 200 degrees, I should've known that wasn't high enough, but they definitely were not cooked all the way through at the bottom. If we try these again I will definitely set the oven at 475 like this recipe calls for:

Sliced baked potatoes: thinly slice almost all the way through. drizzle with butter, olive oil, salt and pepper. bake at 425 for about 40 min.

Healthy Oatmeal Smoothie

I also found this recipe on Pinterest, and apparently I did not pin it but I saved the recipe, so my apologies to whoever I am stealing this fabulous recipe from, but it is pretty tasty!

1 cup ice
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt
1 banana
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup coconut water (or other liquid, such as juice) I used orange juice
I added 1 tablespoon of ground flax seed

Throw in a blender and enjoy!

No Bake Granola Bars

I found this recipe on Pinterest via Food Doodles and decided to give it a whirl.

Makes 12

2 large overripe bananas
1 cup oats
1/2 cup crunchy cereal
2 tbsp pure maple syrup(or any other sweetener you use)
2 tbsp peanut butter or other nut or seed butter
2 tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp dried cranberries or other fruit
2 – 4 tsp cocoa powder

Line a muffin pan with paper liners, or use a silicone muffin pan for easy removal. Mash the bananas. Add wet ingredients and cocoa powder and mix well. Add all other ingredients, mix well then press into prepared muffin tin. Freeze at least 60 minutes before serving.

I added Special K Protein Plus as my crunchy cereal, and for whatever reason we were out of chocolate chips so I added the Heath chips we had. I also added 1 tbsp of ground flax seed and enjoy the granola bars best when they're frozen!

Nutella Cheesecake Pumpkin Muffins

I found this recipe while browsing blogs and thought they sounded absolutely delicious; they turned out delicious and even my little sister, who doesn't like admitting I'm a decent cook, enjoyed them!

4 whole Large Eggs
1-½ cup Sugar
1 can (15 Oz. Size) Pumpkin Puree
1-½ cup Vegetable Oil
3 cups All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
FOR THE NUTELLA CHEECAKE FILLING:
8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, softened
½ cups Nutella
1 whole Large Egg

Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, beat eggs slightly. Add in sugar, pumpkin and oil and beat thoroughly. Add in remaining dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
In a small bowl, beat together cream cheese, Nutella and egg until smooth.
Place paper liners in a muffin tin. Place about 2 tablespoons of pumpkin batter into each liner, then 1 tablespoon of Nutella batter, then top with 2 more tablespoons of pumpkin batter. Bake for 18-22 minutes.
These are best served completely cooled. Makes 20 muffins.

ASHA 2011 San Diego

I went to the ASHA (American Speech & Hearing Association) 2011 Convention in San Diego with three of my classmates, Mikki, Shana, and Sara, back in November. We had a blast!

We had a fun night of dinner and drinks at Dick's Last Resort ; )

We represented UNK as NSSLHA day volunteers!

The convention center, just walking distance from our hotel in the Gaslamp District.

We enjoyed dinner with our professors at the Rockin Baja Coastal Cantina!

We took a trolley tour around San Diego and went to Coronado Island to see the Hotel Del Coronado.

We even put our feet in the ocean despite the COLD water!

We loved the oodles of Birds of Paradise : ) I'd love to go back to SD again, there was so much to see and we definitely did not have enough time!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

latest addictions

I have recently become addicted to some new trends over the past few weeks, nothing bad of course, but some of which are consuming more of my time than they should and are part of the reason I have not been such a faithful blogger.

Addiction #1: Twitter...follow me @whitabaum ! I still don't completely understand the need for tweeting when you can basically do the same thing on Facebook, but I enjoy it from time to time.

Addiction #2: Words With Friends and soon to be Hanging With Friends...I initially spent more time playing these games than I did homework, but then I became overwhelmed with the 13 games I had going on at once and now I have backed off a bit. My roommates and I tend to play each other through our iphones while we're sitting in the same room...how cool are we?!

Addiction #3: Pinterest...now this is something I have been avoiding like the plague. My friend Samantha first introduced me to Pinterest months ago, I glanced at it and knew I would immediately become obsessed. At the time I was swamped with school and knew it would be in my best interest to wait on Pinterest (I'm a poet and I didn't even know it ; ). Well friends, school slowed down just enough for me to start pinning, and just as I thought, I am absolutely addicted! Follow me and I'll follow you!

Addiction #4: My Camelbak water bottle! I read somewhere that you are suppose to take your body weight, divide the number in half and drink that amount of water in ounces each day. I purchased my Camelbak a while ago and for some reason I have no problem drinking that much water each day when I use my Camelbak-- sometimes I even throw an orange slice in for a little extra vitamin C!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

H-A-double L-O-double you-double E-N...

...spells Halloween! I learned that song back in elementary school, and to this day, I still I sing it in my head every time I spell the word HALLOWEEN!

"My name's Forrest, Forrest Gump"...or should I say that was Tyler's name for Halloween...I was Jenny. We did our best to recreate the couple, Tyler even had a Bubba Gump Shrimp hat and I had my mom's 8th grade confirmation dress...we must have been quite convincing because we won the costume contest for best duo at a party here in town, we definitely had fun with our new look that evening!