Yummy Pie

Saturday night we had some friends over. We played Settlers of Catan. I love that game. I think it's a lot of fun. We also made a yummy frozen pie called Strawberry Margaritta Pie. It is so delicious. I found this picture online, but I put mine in a glass pie dish so it didn't look this pretty.

The recipe that I found online is slightly different from the one I actually used, but here it is PIE

I like frozen desserts because you can do them ahead of time and they taste really, really good!

I started and finished a book this weekend called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It's a fast read and a very good story. Nels was studying all week so I cuddled up on the couch and read. The book is about a boy who follows his "personal legend" and learns about himself and the world as he travels to various places. I don't want to give too much away....

That's all for now!

Tagged: Interesting Things

I got "tagged" by Rachel Greenhalgh to tell 6 things that you might not know about me. Some of these things many of you probably already know, but oh well.

1. I love Ice Cream. There's nothing like a bowl of ice cream to make me happy when I am sad and happier when I'm happy! When I was in the seventh grade I wrote a long poem about ice cream and how much I love it. (I am a little obsessed, but that's okay.) Right now I think there are 4 cartons of 1/2 gallon ice cream containers in our freezer. I love Cold Stone ice cream. My mom bought me my own "cold stone" and scoopers. So for dessert and when we have people over we will have homemade cold stone. Yummy!

2. I was on the radio. At the job I used to work at last year we listened to the radio and every morning they would ask a trivia question. I usually didn't know the answer, but one morning they asked the question. "what can you do that will burn 5 calories in a minute?" I knew the answer. So I hurried and called in. I was so nervous because I haven't ever done anything like that before. The phone rang and the DJ's answered (I can't remember their names now) and asked, "what's the answer." I said "Kissing." "That's right!!! How did you know?" I said, "I learned it in a health class a long time ago." It was by valentine's day so they asked if I had a valentine and someone to kiss. We talked for a few minutes and then they asked, "And you just won on what station?" I shouted "96.5!" That was the end. A few minutes later I heard it played on the radio. I won a T-shirt and $20 gift certificates at Taco Bell which Nels enjoyed.

3. I love fast thinking games. My favorite games are when they go fast. Sometimes Nels will take a while for his turn and I will get frustrated. I like playing Nerts and double solitare because they are fast. Lately, Nels and I have been playing Chinese checkers. Because of my need for speed, we put a timer on so it goes faster.

4. My de-stressing treatment is yoga and a bubble bath. I have a ten minute yoga routine that works wonders. I always feel more relaxed afterwards. I love bubble baths and this is usually when I get most of my "AHA" moments. Clear my mind and relax my body leaves me feeling calm and much better.

5. I am very goal/list oriented. I probably got this from my mom. She would always write us lists of things to do, especially when we said that we were bored. I find that I'm a lot more productive when I take a few minutes to write down what I need to do and prioritize my day. It drives me nuts to have something written down and not complete it. My favorite thing is to cross it off which is probably why I write it down in the first place. I feel accomplished when I take the pen and cross out the goal or task I was working on.

6. I love reading. I almost always have a book that I'm reading and sometimes two. I also love when Nels reads to me. When we travel I will drive for a while and Nels will read to me. He just has a great voice! I love reading because I love stories and learning. So if you come across a good book, let me know!

Well, that's all. I hope you enjoyed it and I tag whoever reads this. If you don't have a blog feel free to email me or leave a comment. :)

Our Apartment

Nels and I have been living in a cute little apartment while he's going to school. We were so happy when we found this place. We had spent a couple of days looking for a nice and somewhat new apartment. The apartments here are generally pretty old, unless you go far away from campus. We live about 3 miles from campus and that is considered "far" for many people. Anyway, I know many of you haven't seen where we've been living for the past year and half so I thought I'd post some pictures.

This is the outside of our building. The far window on the first floor is our apartment.

Here's the entry to our apartment.



Here's the living room. I love the fireplace. We don't have very much. Our little entertainment center and my keyboard (a gift from Nels's parents that I have thoroughly enjoyed!) look kind of small in this room. But we like it.



Opposite the TV is my FAVORITE couch ever! I love this couch because it reclines. I love to put my feet up, so we splurged and bought a reclining couch. I love the pillows too. Notice the floor lamp....it's connected to a clapper. The clapper has been a great form of entertainment for us and our guests. It's not just claps that will make it turn off and on. Sometimes you'll be saying something or laughing just right and it will turn off/on. It's fun, so if you're bored and you don't want a pet, we suggest buying a clapper.


Here's the dining room. The sliding door leads out to the patio. The door behind the table is for the pantry.

The kitchen, bathroom and bedroom are all pretty normal. The closets are huge and so there's lots of places to store things. Overall, we really like our apartment and we have great, quiet neighbors. We also like the trees that are out are back window. We see squirrels, bunnies and birds. I saw my first cardinal up close last spring. Anyway, we've had good times here and hope to continue for the next 6 months.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Nels is so sweet. He went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and came home with a pumpkin to carve. He said that it was one of the last ones. We had fun carving it. We had a flimsy knife though and so the carving was slow going. But we finally got it done. We stuck a birthday candle on the inside. Here are some pictures of our fun Halloween night.


Spooky!

A tradition that my family had growing up was that when we went trick or treating to my Grandma's house we would eat donuts and drink apple cider. Nels likes this tradition so we have continued it. He stopped at Krispy Kreme and got a dozen donuts. Yummy! So that was our Halloween.

Fun Weekend with Nels's Family

Nels's parents and younger sister Anna-Lisa came down this past weekend. We had a blast! Here are some pictures of what we did.

Nels's birthday was October 22 so when they came down on the 26th Anna-Lisa surprised him with a birthday cake. I don't know how Nels does it, but we ended up celebrating his birthday 4 days. On the 20, his parents took us out to dinner, on 21 I made his birthday dinner because he had a school dinner on his birthday. I made him a birthday dessert on his actual birthday. Then on the 26th we had cake in his honor. He's pretty lucky if you ask me!

The cake was pretty cool though. It's a ghost. The eggshells are the eyes. You light a sugar cube with lemon extract on fire so it has a bright flame. The picture didn't show that part very well.

Boiler Up! The mascot for Purdue is a train. So the above Pre-game picture is us tooting the train horn.

We figured out how to use the timer on our camera. We had fun taking pictures. The below pictures show how funny Nels's dad is. We wanted to take a nice picture, but he kept being goofy. I thought they were funny though. So here they are:

We finally got one by shortening the timer from 10 seconds to 2!

Here we are at the game. On each of the seats was a black pom pom. That's what we're holding. Our seats were in the End Zone. Luckily, almost all of the points were scored on our side. So we had a great view. Oh, we played Northwestern by the way.

The picture below shows the suites above the stadium. Neil Armstrong was attending this particular game. He was in town for the dedication of the Neil Armstrong building.

Here's the final score 35 to 17! You never would have guessed that it was tied 14 to 14 at half time! Purdue really jumped ahead in the last quarter. It was awesome.

Victory! Nels was way pumped after the game.

Quick picture in front of the stadium.

This is a video of the last winning point for Purdue. It also shows the "P" flag running across. I actually figured out how to use the video on the camera!

Well, that was our weekend in a nutshell!

Disclaimer

Okay, so here's my disclaimer.

This is a new thing for me. So I'm sure there is a learning curve that I will go through. I love to read other people's blogs. I find other people's lives far more interesting than my own. I'll try to make this blog as entertaining as possible, but my life is generally pretty boring. So maybe I'll start doing things just so I'll have something interesting to write about!

So with that said. I hope you enjoy this blog, and if you don't just remember my disclaimer.

$100 Dinner

Last night I attended the Krannert Leadership Speakers Series which consisted of a dinner and keynote speaker. The event was $100 a ticket ($75 of which is a donation to the school). Since I work here though, I didn't have to pay. Many of the people in attendance are very wealthy. Several of them flew in on their private jets. One of the people donated $10 million dollars to the school. Of course because he did that the building was named after him....Jerry Rawls was the person and the building is the one that Nels goes to school. Anyway...

To be honest, the food was not that great. The rolls were my favorite. They served a spinach salad with bacon and an odd dressing. The main dish was chicken that had a curie taste to it, string beans and cooked carrots. You would think the dessert would have been good...but no. It was a pumpkin mousse that had been sitting out all night and did not look appetizing. I took one bite and didn't eat anymore!

The keynote speaker was a lot better than the food. Former Senator George Mitchell spoke to us. He was very entertaining at the beginning and the end. The middle part though he started to talk about the war in Iraq indirectly. He spoke about how the US is viewed as a super power but our reputation is not good with other countries. The middle of his speech was depressing to say the least. But the beginning part was funny because he told how he became a senator and his first day on the job. He also spoke about his work in Ireland and helping with peace negotiations. Very interesting.

The night was fun and exciting. It was great to "rub shoulders" with some influential people and hear their stories.

This weekend has been the celebration of Krannert's 50th Anniversary. (Krannert is the name of the business school here at Purdue) So I have been able to attend panels and discussions presented by the alums. Some of the panels have been on Entrepreneurship, "what it takes to lead,” and how to manage and facilitate change. They have all been really good and makes me want to start up a business and run with it.