Background

Friday, August 24, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 30

Celtic Knot

I thought I would save something fun for last, and I really like this one, even if it's super tough to do on your own.

This one is probably pretty simple to do on someone else's hair, but not on your own. I tried and tried and tried to do it behind my head but I just couldn't. Eventually I pulled the hair in front of my head and tied the knot there, and then flipped it over to the back of my head. It works, but you have to make some adjustments so it doesn't look crazy in the front after you've flipped it back.


To re-create:
Here's the tutorial.


This has been fun, but I am glad the month is over so I don't have to worry about finding new hairstyles and can just throw my hair up and go to class :-)


Comment and let me know your favorite!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 29

A French-ified 4 strand braid.


I had to figure out a way to make it "French" since, as always, my hair was too soft for it to stay high enough. The actual braid is really simple.

To re-create:
Separate your hair in 4 sections.
Take the 1st stead and cross it over the 2nd, under the 3rd, and over the 4th.
The 1st strand is now in the position of the 4th strand, and the 2nd strand is in the place of the 1st.
Take your new first strand and cross it over, under, and over like you did with the original 1st strand.
Repeat.

Here's a video tutorial if you need to see it.

To "French-ify" the braid, add a piece of hair to the first strand every time you cross it over the 2nd, and a piece of hair to the 4th strand every time it is crossed under the 1st. I hope that makes sense...



Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 28

One sided braid

To re-create:
This is a modified french braid. Instead of picking up strands of hair on both sides, only pick up strands on the side away from your face. Here's a picture tutorial.

In other news, I was late to my first Basic Skills class, which wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that it's taught by THE Dean.

Way to go me.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 27

3 strand side braid


I know it's simple, but I had a rough night last night. I tried two other hairstyles that just weren't working out, so I went with something easy.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 26

Double twisty thing. I'm on the home stretch, four days left!

My hair doesn't look the same as the photo tutorial, but I think it's mainly because my hair is officially long. I had to do some weird tucking to get the twists to fit on my head.

Today is my first day back at school. I've been to one class already, Environmental Law. Even though this is with the professor I got my lowest grade from, I think this class will be better. He seems to really like the subject and to know what he's talking about, which makes a big difference.

I'm listing my schedule mainly for family members, since I know no one else really cares about my daily schedule, and this is easier than emailing everyone.

Monday:
Environmental Law 9-10:15
Human Subject Research 10:30-11:45 (this class is online for the first 7 weeks I think, so don't worry, I'm not already skipping classes.)
Con Law 1:30-2:45
Work 3-5
Basic Skills Small Group 6-8:30

Tuesday:
Wills, Trusts, and Estates 12-1:15

Wednesday:
Environmental Law 9-10:15
Human Subject Research 10:30-11:45
Con Law 1:30-2:45
Work 3-5
HUMC Work 6:30-8:30

Thursday:
Wills, Trusts, and Estates 12-1:15
Basic Skills in Advocacy 1:30-2:45

Friday:
Work 1-5

Mondays and Wednesdays are not going to be any fun :-(

Friday, August 17, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 25

Twisty bun thing


My hair isn't long enough for it to look as cute as it does in the tutorial, so I have to wait for a while before I do it again.

Also, an update on my life. School starts back on Monday and I really don't want it to. I've been having a HORRIBLE headache for 10 days now. I went to a neurologist today and he said that I'm stuck in a migraine cycle. He gave me some Immitrex and an anti-inflammatory. I'm not doing better yet, but hopefully I'll be better by Monday. I'm just relived it's not something more serious.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 24

I don't know what to call this pony.

I thought I was doing what The Beauty Department calls the piece-y pony, but I wasn't so I guess I made this one up.

To re-create:
Take half of your hair and twist it to the middle-ish part of your head and pin.
Take the other half and twist and pin so it meets the first twist.
Put in a low pony.


I have to say, I don't like much about my body, but I really do love my hair. Especially the natural blonde and the natural highlights I have :-)

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 23

Three Messy Buns


To re-create:
Just separate your hair into three sections. Twist each section into a bun and pin!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 22

Pony Tail


I didn't intend for this to be a hairstyle, but I didn't have any bobby pins with me and didn't feel like doing a complicated braid this morning.

To re-create:
If you don't know how to do a pony-tail, you're probably a dad with a daughter that doesn't play sports. And, since figuring out how to do a pony tail is a right of passage for all dads, I'm not going to explain it to you :-)

Monday, August 13, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 21

A twisty-thingy

I don't know what I think of this hairstyle, it's a little weird but really simple.

To re-create:
Here's the link to the picture tutorial.



Saturday, August 11, 2012

Week 3 and 4 Favorites

Week 3 Friend Favorite: Waterfall Braid


I didn't really have a favorite in week 3, but I do like simple styles, so I'm going to go with the bun. I know it doesn't look great and isn't very original, but I still like it.

Week 4 Friend Favorite: My normal hair

I can't tell y'all how happy this made me. I love waking up and doing nothing to my hair, and the fact that everyone like it made it even better! But, since this might be cheating, here is the week 4 friend favorite that actually required some work: French braid pigtails

My week 3 favorite: Twisty pony

Why was this my favorite? It was SUPER simple and cute!


It's getting to that time when I'm going to need some suggestions. I still have a few ideas up my sleeve, but help would be much appreciated!

Friday, August 10, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 20

French Braid Pigtails

I have to add a disclaimer. I did braid these on my own at first, but I didn't like the way they looked so I got my roommate to re-do them for me.

It's Champagne Friday!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 19

Tucked Bun


It's been a long time since I've done this, and my hair has grown A LOT since then, so it took me a while to get my hair to behave, and still some of it wanted to escape.

That being said, this is super simple.

To re-create:
Make a tucked pony, or apparently what I called a "looped pony" on Day 9. Forgive me, I'm making up names for a lot of these as I go.

Bring the pony tail part up, roll up to a bun and pin.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 18

Soft Curls

Is this cheating? Maybe- this is what my hair does when I get out of the shower and let it air dry.

I don't know how to tell you to re-create it because I don't have to do anything to make it happen. Maybe hot rollers?

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Monday, August 6, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 16

Twisty Pony- Definitely a new favorite




This is super cute, super easy, and (most importantly) SUPER QUICK! This took me maybe a minute to do.

To re-create:

Start on one side of your head and start twisting. As you work around the side of your head keep picking up pieces of hair so that it is all part of the twist.

Pin or clip the first side of you hair while you work on the second side doing the same thing.

Once the two sides meet, put it in a pony tail- the end!

Here is the video tutorial I saw this on first. She has other things in the video, and I think this is the second hair style she shows, but I'm not positive.


After I finished, I decided to dress it up a little more by pulling my ponytail through like so:


I DEFINITELY recommend this for moms/grandmas of little girls, and I will be wearing this a lot in the future!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 14

Two-sided Waterfall Braid with straight hair


Usually I LOVE my soft hair, but when I'm trying to do hairstyles having soft hair makes it very frustrating.

I only have a picture of one side of my head because I was running late for work and only had time to take one picture.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 13

Fishtail Pigtails



I think Megan is probably right and these are too casual for work, but we don't really ever see clients here, so I thought I could get away with it for the day.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 12

I'm going to go ahead an apologize for any and all sentences in this post that don't make sense.


A bun

I know it's boring, but last night and today have been ridiculous. The storms here were constant from around 1:00 am to 7:00 am and then on and off until 11:00 am. The thunder was beyond impressive, so of course Lu was terrified. On top of that, the roof in my bedroom started leaking REALLY badly so the half of the night I wasn't comforting Lulu I spent trying to keep my things from getting water damage.

My landlords' office wasn't open until 8:30 am so I had to wait until then to do anything about the leak, and they told me the contractors would be here around lunch. I called my boss and told her what was going on and she told me to wait for the contractors and get everything sorted out today, which is good because it's given me time to catch up on my sleep. I feel bad for having to miss at least half a day of work, and probably more.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 11

French Fish Tail


No matter how many times I would try to keep this braid higher on my head and tighter, my hair would refuse and it would fall down like this- I guess this is just what a French Fishtail looks like on me!

To re-create:

~Start with two pieces of hair near the top of your head and begin a regular fishtail braid (see day 5 for more information).
~Instead of continuing to pick up hair from the two strands you have, pick up a strand of loose hair and use that to cross over.
~Continue until you have no more hair to pick up, then finish with a normal fishtail braid the rest of the way down your hair.


I know I said I was going to do this over the weekend, but I didn't so here are the favorites for the past two weeks:

My Week 1 Favorite: Side Dutch Braid

Friends Week 1 Favorite:Bun of braided braids

My Week 2 Favorite: Dutch/Katniss Braid

This also happened to be my friends' favorite too, by an OVERWHELMING majority :-)


Friday, July 27, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 10

Simple French Braid


A regular French Braid is so much harder for me since I naturally want to do the Dutch Braid.

Also, I need to make a correction to a past hairstyle! Day 1's hairstyle:

Is actually a side Dutch/Katniss Braid, not a side French Braid.

Also, I think on Saturday I'm going to put up favorite hairstyles for the week, and for tomorrow I'll have to do two weeks worth. I want to a "My favorite" and "Friend favorite" so either write a comment on the hairstyles that are your favorite, or go to my facebook and like the photo of your favorite please!


Today is Champagne Friday!! Yay!!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 9

Looped Pony


This one is super simple too. My mom did this for me when I was little and I HATED it because it made my neck itch. Luckily, it doesn't do that anymore :-)

To re-create:
Put your hair in a low or low-ish ponytail. Pull it apart a little bit at the base of the pony tail, and pull the "tail" part of the pony tail through the hole. Voila!


And for those of you wondering- yes I did run yesterday! Want proof? Here ya go!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 8

Dutch Braid aka Katniss Braid


To be honest I didn't know this was a special braid until my roommate told me. This was the only way I could French Braid my own hair, and it turned out to be something completely different than I thought!

To re-create:
The concept is the same as a French Braid, but instead of crossing pieces of your hair over the middle strand, cross them under the middle strand. Add pieces of hair to the section that you cross under, and voila!



In other news- I'm really upset with myself. I have gained back all the weight I lost and it's really upsetting. I don't know what I was expecting to happen since I stopped exercising. I kept telling myself I was going to start back again soon, but I've been working here since May 21 and haven't been to the gym regularly since then... All that to say that I am actually going back to training for my 5K in September and starting Pilates again.

SO, to help me keep on track, I'm going to keep a log of whether or not I exercised on here as well. Today I'm going to the gym after work, so tomorrow we'll see whether or not I actually went.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 7

Tucked French Braid



I still haven't really gotten the hang of taking pictures of my hair on my own yet, but there really isn't much to this one.


To re-create:

Just a simple french braid, and instead of tying it off with a hair tie, tuck it under and pin it with bobby pins.

Here's the link.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 6

Messy Waterfall Braid with Curly Hair

This is actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, but it doesn't look very good with my curly hair. I think I'm going to have to take another day and try again with straight hair.


To re-create:
Here's a link to a mom braiding her daughter's hair. It's a little more difficult when you're doing it on your own head, but the steps are all the same.

If you don't like that, you can always look for a video on YouTube.

Hair Challenge Day 5

Fishtail Braid:


I'm a little ashamed at how many tries it took before I got this right, because this braid is NOT difficult at all. I did learn that if you pick up pieces that are too big the braid ends up looking like a regular braid- SO make sure you pick up small pieces.

To re-create:
Here's a picture tutorial on how to do the braid.

I also went to the zoo with my little cousins which was a lot of fun. This is a picture of them watching a monkey look for bugs :-)

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Hair Challenge: Day 4

Day 4: My fail-safe




Today I woke up and didn't feel very pretty or very cute, so I used my go-to hairstyle. I'm probably going to regret using this so early in the hair challenge, but today was just not a cute hair day.

That being said- I honestly wear my hair like this probably 99% of the time, and I actually get a lot of compliments on it. I can't take credit for it being cute however, because one of the perks of having curly hair, is that it looks cute/sweet when a few curls are straggling around whatever hairstyle you have going on. I know these pictures aren't great, but I still haven't really gotten the hang of taking pictures of my hair, and I REFUSE to take a picture of my reflection in the mirror.

To re-create:
I really don't know if I can describe how to do this because it's really just muscle memory at this point and not difficult at all.

I guess you pull you hair into a pony tail and wrap a pony tail holder around it once, and then pull your ponytail halfway through and wrap the pony tail holder around it and the bun thingy it makes.

I know, those instructions are horrible, but I really don't know what I do... I'm sorry!!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

A Month of Hair: Day 3

A bun of braided braids :-)


Sorry it looks messy, usually its really cute and non-messy. I'm afraid my hair is gonna be kinda messy for the next few days. I managed to break my thumb nail down to the middle of my thumb, and as anyone who has done that will know it HURTS!!! Not having use of your thumb makes braiding pretty difficult.

But honestly, as long as you have use of your thumb, this one is really easy to do. I don't remember where I saw how to do this, so I don't have a link for you, but I think I can explain it well enough.

To Re-create:
1. Divide your hair into 3 sections.
2. Braid each of the sections so you end up with 3 individual braids. It looks really weird, but don't worry!
3. Braid the 3 braids into one big braid and use a pony-tail holder to keep it in place. It's still gonna look kind of weird.
4.Take the end of the braid and roll it up and over (as if you were going to pin the braid to the top of your head) and tuck it back at the base of the braid.
5. Pin it in place :-)

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

A Month of Hair: Day 2


A knotted side-pony tail. Sorry it's kind of frizzy/curly, but my hair will do nothing else with the humidity here. This one is also super simple, but I don't know about compliments because it's only 8 in the morning!

To re-create:

Just tie your hair in a knot! Here's a link with picture instructions.


Hers looks a lot prettier than mine because she has SUPER long and STRAIGHT hair that doesn't curl at the slightest provocation BUT she had to use bobby-pins and I didn't :-)

A Hair Challenge- Day 1

I've decided I'm going to try to wear a different hair style every day for a month. So here's the first day- a side french braid.


I got LOTS of compliments on this, and it was super easy! You just start a french braid on the side of your head instead of the top. If you need better instructions, here's a link I looked at when I thought this was super complicated.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Work

I started my job last week and so far I like it. I don't particularly like sitting in front of a computer all day, but I got to go to a deposition last Thursday, and at least the subject matter of the things I'm doing in front of the computer is semi-interesting.

I do need to find something for me to do right around 3. I've gotten into a bad habit of getting up trying to find something to do to take me away from the computer for a while, and all I can come up with is going to pop popcorn, which is not a good idea. If you have any ideas at all, PLEASE let me know!

I also realized that in order to work out I'm going to have to wake up early in the morning and go running. Last week I didn't run AT ALL because when I got back from work I was so mentally exhausted I didn't want to do anything except lay on the couch. So today I woke up at 6 and went running in order to get to work at 8. Luckily work is LITERALLY down the street, so I don't have to wake up ridiculously early. Now I just need to tweak my timing to make sure I'm on time every day. I also need to take colder showers because after I got to work I was still sweating like crazy, which is not a professional, or attractive, look.

And for those of you wondering, yes I am at work, but no I'm not doing anything wrong. None of the partners are here yet, and I finished up the big project Mrs. Stockham had assigned me, so I have nothing to do until they get here!

I love you all!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Long Overdue

Wow, I knew I hadn't posted in a long time, I didn't realize it had been almost 4 months! I'm not even sure what to talk about since it's been so long. I guess the easiest way to go about this is to just hit the highlights.

Teeth
This is probably the biggest thing that's going on in my life right now. I didn't think law school was stressing me out that much, but I was oh so wrong. I have had quite an adventure these past few months with my teeth. Since January I have had 3 crowns and 2 root canals, managing to use up all of my dental insurance for the whole calendar year! Apparently I clench my teeth at night so tight that I crack my teeth. My dentist has never seen anything like it and said he wouldn't believe it was possible unless he had seen me do it.

Right now I think I'm almost all the way better, but I am going to give the dentist a call fairly soon for two last teeth that are giving me some trouble. I'm not too concerned about the one on the left side, I think that can be fixed with a crown, but I am concerned about the one on the right. It's a tooth that has had a root canal already and the fact that it still hurts means that the crack might have gone all the way to the root of the tooth and they would have to pull the tooth and give me an implant. That is definitely not something I want.

Unfortunately because of all the work on my teeth I have missed quite a few of my classes, but fortunately I didn't miss more than my allotted amount of misses so I won't have a grade deduction. I have been on pain killers for a while, and am finally back to a functioning state. I have a new bite guard that I wear at night that goes on a few of my front teeth and keeps my back teeth completely apart like some other bite guards. It's not terribly comfortable, but if it will keep me from cracking more teeth I'm all for it.

Caruther's Fellow
I got selected to be a Caruther's Fellow for next year. They're pretty much TA's for the writing class that 1Ls are required to take. I get two credit hours for it and I just help 1Ls write papers and do some stuff at orientation I think. It's a fairly big deal, but to be honest I'm not really sure what all it entails.

End of the Semester
Tomorrow I have my last two classes as a first year law student! I can't believe it's gone by so fast. I'm not officially a 2L until I pass all my finals, but I'll be done with all my 1L classes tomorrow!

Classes Next Year
I signed up for classes for next year and I'm kind of excited about a few of them. I have NO classes on Friday which is super exciting. Here's my class list, the ones with a * next to them are ones that are required to graduate

Constitutional Law*
Wills, Trusts, and Estates*
Caruther's Fellow
Basic Skills in Trial Advocacy
Environmental Law
Human Subject Research

I'm excited about Basic and Human Subject Research, and I don't know how I feel about the others. My Con law class is really small, which is really odd because there are only 3 professors that teach that class and all the 2Ls are required to take it. I know I signed up for the most difficult professor, but I did that for a few reasons. 1, I've heard that even though he's difficult he really knows his stuff and you will actually learn a lot of the material; 2, he doesn't have a class on Friday or a paper; and 3, even though he is the hardest professor, almost everyone else that is high ranking in the class signed up for the other professors so I'm more likely to do well in this class because there's less competition.

Exercising
I've started exercising a lot recently and I really like it. I feel SO much better and I've lost 9 lbs since Easter. The thing I'm most excited about is the color run. I was telling Bekah that if I were ever to do a 5K it would be the color run, and a few days later I got an email saying the color run was coming to Birmingham. So I'm training to run a 5K and it is TOUGH! I had been doing "couch to 5K" on the elliptical and thought I was in good shape until I started doing C25K on the trail. I thought I was going to die! Running is so much more intense than the elliptical!

But I'm really enjoying exercising and actually dislike days when I don't exercise. I NEVER thought I would be that kind of person!

Kiyoshi
Kiyoshi is doing pretty well. We're still waiting to hear back from UAB about med school. He just got a job at Starbucks and seems to like it well enough- even though he doesn't like coffee. He likes all of his co-workers and likes that he is good at his job, but he's definitely ready for something more intellectually challenging and in a field he's actually interested in. His Aunt Debbie died last Monday after a difficult struggle and her memorial service was yesterday. It was a really nice memorial, and I think everyone has come to terms with Debbie's passing now.

Whenever Kiyoshi isn't working and I don't have to study we've started either taking Lulu on a walk on the trail I run on or going to the Botanical Gardens and walking around. The gardens is probably our favorite place in Birmingham, and it's wonderful to be able to spend time with each other outside in nature just talking and not worrying about anything else. He's such a great guy- I'm really lucky to have him.

Work
I start my job at Stockham, Carroll, and Smith on May 21. I don't know what I'm going to be doing, but as long as it's a break from classes I am happy to do it! I also got my job at Highlands back, so I'm singing in the choir there again and that's a nice little buffer in my bank account.

I hope everyone is doing well, and I love you all!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Success!

I have a job! I interviewed with Mrs. Connie Stockham from Stockham, Carroll, and Smith on Friday. About half an hour after I left the interview I got a call saying I could work for them for the full summer. I'm SO excited and SO lucky to have a job this summer!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Job Hunting

Well, second semester is off and running. We got our ranks back, and I am VERY proud of myself- I'm 16/148 which is in the 11%. Yay me!

Grace and I signed up for the Williams Trial Competition, and we get to pick up our problems tomorrow at 3.

Job searches have begun. The way on campus interviews (OCIs) work at Cumberland is a little confusing. You upload everything (resume, cover letters, unofficial transcript, writing sample) to a website called Simplicity. Then you "bid" on certain employers. This is pretty much just requesting an interview with them. Once you've bid on an employer then you wait to hear back as to whether or not they want to interview you. There are I think 6 different interview weeks, and the first one starts relatively soon. I've bid on 10 employers for this round, and I think I get to find out who wants an interview with me on the 31st. Some of these jobs pay $1,100 a week- which is AWESOME for a summer associate since most places would take you on as an intern and have you work for free.

I have an interview tomorrow with Connie Stockham that I'm very excited about. I met her through Dr. Pence and the Ethics Bowl and one of her practice areas is actually Bioethics, so it would be wonderful if I could get a job with her and her firm.

While having all these potential interviews is wonderful, it's also a hassle for one main reason- suits. I have up to 10 interviews coming up and I have 2 suits. Just 2. That means I have to go shopping for suits, and guess who doesn't want to do that!? Me!

Kiyoshi had his interview with a volunteer company today that he said went pretty well and he'll hear back from them by Wednesday I believe. He's also turned in applications for a few other jobs that hopefully he'll get interviews for.

Tonight I'm going to a dinner hosted by one of the firms coming for OCIs that was only sent out to a select number of students. Initially I thought it went out to all the 1Ls and was thinking about not going, but once I realized it was only for some of us, I was REALLY glad I decided to RSVP (I had decided I needed to start networking in Birmingham).

In other news, it's raining inside the apartment. There's a leak at my bedroom window and at our big bay window in the common area. It's not very fun. The contractors finally came by today to look at it, but unfortunately it also decided to rain torrentially today. Hopefully it will get fixed soon.

Now I need to go get ready for this dinner! I love you all!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Favorite Winter Recipes

None of these recipes really have to just be for the winter, but since that's when I made them, that's what I'm calling them! I'm sorry I don't have any pictures, but when you make these yourself you'll be able to see them in person!

Three Bean Chili

Ingredients
Ground beef/chuck/turkey (whatever you want really)
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Onion
2 Cloves Minced Garlic
2 Tomatos
15 oz can Black beans (drained)
15 oz can Kidney beans (drained)
15 oz can Navy beans (drained)
15 oz can Tomato Sauce
Chili Powder Mix
2 TBSP Chili Powder
1 TBSP Ground Cumin
2 tsp Cornstarch
2 tsp Kosher Salt
1.5 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Ground Coriander
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
Dash of Cinnamon

Directions
In a small pan cook the onions and ground beef over medium high heat until the meat is no longer pink. Transfer the meat and onions either into a dutch oven or a crock pot. Add all the other ingredients, and stir together. If it's in the crock pot, cook it on high for as long as you want. In the dutch oven cook it over Medium- Medium High heat for at least 35 minutes.

Make sure you taste the chili before you serve it! You might want to add more salt, chili powder, or cayenne pepper. If the chili is too spicy you can add a little sugar or sour cream to cut the spice.


Butterbeer

Ingredients
Butterscotch Rum
Cream Soda
1 small tub Marshmallow Fluff
1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Directions
For the drink combine 1 part butterscotch rum with 3 parts cream soda (or you can add more or less of the rum to your taste)

For the topping, mix the tub of Marshmallow fluff with the whipping cream and 1 TBSP of butterscotch rum until it can hold a peak. Take a spoon and drop it on top of the drink. So yummy!

Christmas Tree Bugels
I can't claim these as my own, my Aunt Debbie taught me how to make these, but they are one of my absolute FAVORITE Christmas Snacks!

Ingredients
Bugels
Chocolate Chips
White Chocolate Chips
Creamy Peanut Butter
Green/Red/Gold/White Sprinkles
Milk (optional)

Directions
Go through your Bugels and pick out the ones with the most open centers (the ones you would put on your fingers as a kid and pretend you had witch fingers). Fill a piping bag or a Ziplock FREEZER bag (regular ones will burst) with your peanut butter. Pipe the peanut butter into the Bugels.

Put the Chocolate chips in a microwave safe container and microwave at 30 second intervals stirring between each until you get the chocolate all the way melted.

Melting white chocolate is more difficult and you're supposed to use a double boiler if you have one. If not, there's a way to cheat, but it's still not easy. Put the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe container and add a TINY bit of milk. Heat it at 30 second intervals until it melts adding a TINY bit of milk as needed. If you're using a double boiler or a ghetto home-made one (a pot filled with water under another pot), you don't have to add the milk unless you're just getting really impatient.

Dip your peanut butter filled Bugels into the chocolate covering all sides (you can leave the bottom uncovered if you want) and set on a wax paper covered cookie sheet. While the chocolate is still melted, dust the Bugels with the sprinkles of your choice, and let dry*.

*If you cheated and used milk to melt your white chocolate, you should put those in the freezer ASAP so that the Bugels stay crunchy.

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Swirl Cupcakes
Ok, neither the cupcake or the frosting recipe is mine, I found them both on Pinterest, but it was my idea to combine them, and they were SO good!!

Cupcake
Click here for the website I got the recipe from.
Filling:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ tablespoons lightly beaten egg (break egg, mix with fork, measure)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Batter:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon red food coloring
3/4 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons sour cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 8 (I needed 9) muffin cups with paper liners.

Prepare filling first. With a mixing spoon, beat together softened cream cheese and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and stir until smooth. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In a second mixing bowl, stir together oil, sugar, vinegar, egg, red food coloring, vanilla and sour cream. Mix very well, then add the flour mixture and stir just until blended.

Measure out approximately 1/3 cup red mixture and set aside. Divide remaining red mixture among the 8 muffin cups – each cup should be a little over 1/3 of the way full. Spoon cream cheese mixture over red mixture, dividing evenly between all cups. Drop small spoonfuls of reserved red batter on top of cream cheese mixture, making a bulls-eye pattern.

Bake for 20-23 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Carefully remove lift muffins from cups.

Best served slightly chilled. – Makes 8-9

Icing Ingredients
Original Icing recipe here.
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 tbsp. heavy cream

Icing Directions
Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Blend in the vanilla extract. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 TBSP nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
LOTS of Cinnamon Sugar Mix

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough into bowl with cinnamon-sugar mix and coat the cookie dough ball.

Set cinnamon-sugar coated dough onto a lined/greased cookie sheet

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges. (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

Buffalo Chicken Crescent Roll Ring
I can't take credit for this either, I found this on Pinterest, but it's super yummy! Click here for the recipe website. The only thing I did differently was leave out the celery.

Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 packet ranch powder mix
Diced celery to taste
Buffalo wing sauce to taste
Diced/shredded chicken, cooked (2-3 chicken breasts worth, or 1-2 cans of canned chicken)
2 packages crescent rolls
Ranch dressing for dipping (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a cooking sheet, spread the unrolled crescent rolls out leaving a small circle in the middle. Mix chicken and buffalo sauce to taste and add in celery. In separate bowl, mix cream cheese and 1/2 ranch packet together. Microwaving cream cheese for about 30 seconds makes mixing easier. Mix all ingredients together.

Place spoonfuls of mixture on crescent rolls and fold rolls over to form a ring shape and cook for about 15 minutes or until crescent rolls are nicely browned. Serve with ranch dressing and extra hot sauce for dipping.

I hope you enjoy these!!

First Week Back

I'm finished with our first week back to school. It was tough, not subject matter-wise, but motivationally. Just to give you an idea, I pushed the snooze button on the SECOND DAY of classes. Usually it takes me at least until the second MONTH before I hit snooze.

This semester I still have Walthall for Contracts, Royal for Civ Pro, and Baggett for LLR so those classes were the same. The only two new classes I have are Evidence with Goodwin (who is the new associate dean), and Property with Greene.

Walthall's first day of class was like any other day of class. There was no "cushion" day to get used to anything because we've already had him for a full semester, so we dove right in to express and implied warranties. Bleh. I love Walthall, but I can't say Contracts is my favorite class. We also got our exams back with comments on them which was helpful. I made SURE on this exam to go through EVERY possible issue that could come up in a Contract because I didn't in the last test and didn't do so well because of that. Well, just my luck, he decides that for the final he doesn't want us to do that and leaves me a comment (at least twice) on my exam saying

"This obviously isn't the issue. Don't waste your time or mine." (The second time the "or mine" was underlined)

Ouch. I knew the offer hadn't terminated, I knew that really wasn't the issue, and I wrote MAYBE two sentences about it in my answer JUST to make sure he couldn't say anything about me not addressing whether or not the offer had terminated. Well, that obviously backfired, but hopefully he didn't take OFF points for including too much information and I just got a rather unfriendly comment. And I get it, he has about 50 exams to grade JUST from our class, not to mention all the other exams he has from his other classes, and the tests are anonymous, but that's still not a fun comment to get on an exam.

We got an email sometime last week telling us that Royal is moving to Atlanta at the end of the semester because her husband got a teaching job at the medical school there. They're both SUPER intelligent people, and she's a very sweet woman, it will be sad to see her leave. Her class was pretty much the same as last semester. The only thing is that for the first few readings there was nothing in my supplement to supplement our book so I had to rely on just me. I think I did ok, and I'm determined to try to participate in class more this semester so I can get more credit for participation.

I think I like Goodwin (I'm not really sure, we've only had two classes with him), but I'm not sure how I feel about evidence. I've also heard that he wrote the big treatise on Evidence and that last year during his final two people had breakdowns in the middle of it. Talk about intimidation. It's the only class we have that we DON'T brief cases in, instead we do problems. That just means that our book doesn't have cases in it that we have to get up an recite, instead it has a lot of different problems concerning the rules of evidence that we have to answer in class. It doesn't seem so bad, but when you're the first person called on to answer one of these ridiculous hypotheticals that would never happen in real life, it's pretty miserable. So, not only was this class new and weird to us because it's formatted COMPLETELY differently from the rest of our classes, but I get called on to answer the first question. To be honest, I didn't read the rule as well as I probably should have, but he was also REALLY critical of EVERYTHING I said.

I know, I know, he's supposed to be, that's his job- but it would've been helpful if he had explained the rules to us before he asked me to. Anyway, I felt like a complete idiot when he told me that I was going to argue AGAINST HIM as to why my testimonial evidence should be allowed. Like I said, I could've read the rules better, but I'm still convinced that if I had known them inside and out he still would've made me feel like an idiot. At one point I made an argument (that actually turned out be correct) and his response was, "So?" It wasn't fun, and after class there were a lot of people talking about how much they were dreading getting called on in that class. But at least I got it out of the way early.

I can tell I'm really not going to care one way or the other about the subject of Property, but I like Professor Greene. He likes to tell stories and doesn't really ask for anyone to brief cases, he really just talks a whole lot, which is fine with me. I did make the mistake of raising my hand to a rhetorical question and now he's singled me out a few times. He was talking about having a "constructive Monday" which in the world of Cumberland means you have Monday classes on whatever day they decide to call a "constructive Monday" instead of whatever classes you were supposed to have. Why they don't just say "Monday classes this day", I don't know. Constructive Monday sounds really stupid and confusing to me. Anyway, so this is what happened:

Greene: "Do we have any Philosophy majors here..."

I raise my hand

Greene: "... that can explain what that means."

Well shoot, he wasn't actually asking for Philosophy majors, he was making a joke. But since I jumped the gun and raised my hand in the middle of the statement he looks at me and asks me if I know. I say I have no idea and he says, something to the extent that he's a PHL major too and has no idea. Then he makes a joke that only I get ("I can tell you how many angles can dance on the head of a pin, but not what a constructive Monday is") and refers to me as his PHL major for the rest of the week. Go me.

I promised I would post my favorite winter break recipes, so I'm going to do that next! I love you!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Grades!

Whew! Grades are FINALLY posted and I am VERY relieved and actually pretty proud of myself :-) So I'll let you know my grades and explain how I feel about them.

Torts: A-
I don't know how I pulled this off, but I'm EXTREMELY happy about it, especially since we pretty much had to teach ourselves everything. Not to mention when that 46 page long test landed in front of me I felt like this:

and this


Contracts: B
Not too happy, but definitely not upset about it either. I think the biggest thing that kept me from getting at least an A- was I missed an issue on our second mid-term and ended up not doing so well on that test. All in all though, I'm happy with this grade.

Civil Procedure: B
Very happy with this grade. Civ Pro was like a different language for me at the beginning of the year, and when we had about a month left of class I finally found a supplement that worked for me. Re-learning or learning everything for the first time in that short amount of time was tough, so I'm very happy with my B.

Criminal Law: A-
How can you be upset with an A? Plus I've heard Cochran is a super tough grader, so getting an A- is pretty awesome.

LLR: A-
I'm especially proud of this grade because our LLR professor is known as "B+ Baggett" and I managed to get an A-! Whoo go me!


Now I'm just waiting to get the email that says our class ranks are ready. Classes start back on Monday the 9th and I'm actually a little excited to get back now. Now I know I need to kick it up a notch in Civ Pro and Contracts which shouldn't really be a problem.

Today we got an email about the Williams Trial Competition which is only for 1Ls. Grace and I are hoping to be able to participate, but there's only 32 slots, so if we don't get our name down we'll be out of luck. It sounds like fun and a good way to reinforce everything we've learned so far.

I am also planning on doing a post for my favorite holiday recipes, which are actually just my favorite recipes that I've made over the holiday, but that will take more time and I want to post pictures so I'm going to do that one later!

I love you!