Happy Maine Day!

We have a tradition around here that is actually quite nice.  It's called Maine Day.  Maine Day is held every year on the Wednesday during the last week of classes.  It's a day that's supposed to be about service.  Notice how I used the word service.  I'm not sure the actual number of people who do service, but it's likely a small percentage of people.  Because the real appeal of Maine Day is that we don't have any classes (unless your class only meets once a week on Wednesdays and your professor is a big meanie and makes you go to class).  My professor was nice so I don't have my four hour lab class today.  Score!

There are also traditions such as the Maine Day Parade (the marching band all gets up early and plays really loudly around campus to wake everyone up) and Oozeball (volleyball in the mud).  And I'm sure the is copious amounts of alcohol consumption occurring as well.

I have never participated in the service projects on campus because my department always holds their awards ceremony on Maine Day.  I do, however, help our administrative assistant to setup for the awards ceremony.  This year I received an award for outstanding graduating senior in our department from the Maine section of the American Chemical Society.  It even came with a little money.

And later, my friend and I celebrated our last few days of college with a trip to Marshall's to find dresses for graduation.  Then we celebrated our success a Marshall's with a trip to Gifford's Ice Cream (Maine made baby!).  It's really all starting to sink in that it's coming to an end.  I'm trying to just soak up every second of it!  Happy Maine Day everyone!

Three Things Thursday

1.  I guess I shouldn't avoid the obvious - Happy St. Patrick's Day!  My husband, Patrick, keeps saying that it's his holiday.  I usually don't get too festive, but I did put green food coloring in his milk and I donned a cute green dress in honor of the warmer weather.

2.  Speaking of the warmer weather, I got out for a three mile jaunt this morning.  I am so much more motivated when the sun is shining.  Mostly because I know that it may not last long living in Maine so I try to take advantage of it while it's here.  All the snow has melted on the bike path so all my usual running route are now open.  And I saw 5 deer run across the path this morning.  It's nice to not only see other people out exercising, but also to see the wildlife return to their routines.

3.  We have booked our summer vacation!  It reminds me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel!  Any guesses where we're going?  (Hint: It's in the U.S.)  I will be soliciting recommendations for things to do in a future post.  In the meantime, there may be a prize in store if someone guesses correctly. 

Three Things Thursday - Holiday Edition

1.  Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  My blog has been hibernating for the holidays to spend time with my husband and our families.  We  had an awesome Christmas.  Santa brought me everything I wanted and my husband did the sweetest job filling my stocking and picking out a gift.  It really showed how thoughtful he is and how much he listens when I say that I like things.  I really am blessed!  The greatest gift was having Patrick in NH with me for five days and being able to relax and spend time together.  He is now safely back in ME while I continue working in NH.  I head back in another week or so.  What was the best gift you got?

2.  A Little Confession:  I am back with Weight Watchers.  My mother graciously gave me WW for Christmas.  For a year.  I'm really happy to be back because the past few months I have been eating crap and not working out.  While my schedule really was busy, I've made a lot of excuses and it's time to buckle down.  Personally, I need the accountability of something like WW to keep me on track.  I'm still adjusting to their new plan and with the holidays, I have not lost anything yet, but I'm looking forward to figuring out their new plan and sticking to it.

3.  This weekend I'm headed to Meredith, NH to spend New Year's with one of my friends.  We used to take turns visiting each other and spending the weekend, but this sort of began to fall by the wayside with our work schedules and my wedding.  I'm very excited to get away for a girls weekend.  My friend is really into making jewelry and so inevitably we spend the weekend crafting.  I love coming home with something new to wear!  I'll be sure to post pictures if we make anything.  However, I want to try to convince her to go to the outlets as well!  What are your plans for New Years Eve?

Stay tuned for my Year in Review Post!

Positives & Negatives of the Holidays

So I started this post once already and then deleted it all.  It was way too Debbie Downer for this time of year, and really, who cares how stressed out I am?  So I thought another positives and negatives post was in order.  I've done this once before and I think it's a great way to vent a little, but still find the silver lining to the situation.

Negative:  The holidays are becoming stressful and less enjoyable because we spend what little time we're home running around visiting family.  We often don't have time to ourselves and that makes me a little sad because Patrick and I have so little time together because our schedules are opposite.
Positive:  We are blessed with an amazing family whom we love dearly.  And I really do enjoy spending time with them.  It's just the running around that gets me.

Negative:  This time of year also brings the end of semester stress.  Paper, and finals, and projects, oh my!  There is just way too much to be done in far to little time.  You would not want to see my to do list right now.  It's insane.
Positive:  Two weeks from today I will be completely done with this semester.  I will be home and back at work for a few weeks stashing some dough.  I'm lucky to have a job over the holidays and I'm looking forward to taking some time to relax and get back to exercising!

Negative:  I'm bumming about the tight budget we're on this year.  I almost love giving gifts more than getting them.  And I also love shopping.  So the holidays are usually the best of both worlds.  However, money is tight and that means getting crafty.  Literally.
Positive:  I've been blessed with some level of craftiness and I'm able to provide, what I think, are lovely homemade gifts for friends and family (I promise to post pictures after the holidays, but some of my readers are going to be recipients of those gifts!).  Although crafting takes more time, it really is worth it when someone likes what you've made and you were able to stick to your budget.

Phew!  I feel better now.  Thanks for listening and happy almost weekend!

Christmas Already?

This is the time of year where Christmas decorations start going up in stores and the toy commercials start.  When I used to work at a Hallmark store when I was in high school the ornaments went up in September.  Totally disgusting.  But this year I feel like I'm having a little change of heart.  I'm ready for the break that comes with the holiday season and I'm looking forward to sending out these super cute holiday cards:

These holiday photo cards come from Shutterfly and are surprisingly affordable.  Patrick thinks it's a little cheesy, but I'm kind of digging in, so wife override!  We have a photo book from Shutterfly that we are very pleased with and I ordered tons of prints from the wedding that I was very happy with as well.  The wall calendars are also a nice option for gifts.

What are you looking forward to this holiday season?
Note: bloggers can receive 50 free holiday photo cards by signing up HERE.

Happy Halloween!

Just posting to say Happy Halloween!  My trip last week was great, although catching up on everything I missed has not been so great, hence the lack of blogging.  I hope to be back soon with a recap of the trip after all these exams are over!  In the meantime, I'm looking forward to all the little ghosts and goblins that will be trick-or-treating tonight.  This is our first Halloween in our own place that will get trick-or-treaters.  Hope everyone has a fun and safe night!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone!  I celebrated this morning by getting a 3.78 mile run in.  It's quite warm in this area, so I took it easy and just got it done.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to exercise since Thursday.  On Thursday I was having horrible muscle spasms in my neck.  Every time I tried to turn my head to the left, the muscle would seize.  It sort of felt like a charlie-horse in my neck.  And let me tell you, it was really painful.  So much so that I had to go to the doctor.  This, unfortunately, is not the first time this has happened.  I had to get a prescription for stronger muscle relaxants, use moist heat, take ibuprofen, and stretch a lot.  Taking muscle relaxants is a little scary because they make me a little drowsy and I need to do things a bit slower.  I decided that exercising while on muscle relaxants would not be a good choice.  I'm feeling much better, however, and I'm off the meds.  Can I just say I really hate having to take a pill to fix things?

While I was laid up, I did get the chance to purchase a foam roller.  I got the smaller one.  Like this:

Previously, I was just using the one at the gym at school.  The gym here at home doesn't them.  I was definitely noticing an increase in knee pain from my ITB band since I've stopped rolling.  Foam rolling is painful, but it works.

Well, we're hitting up a cookout later with Patrick's family to celebrate the 4th properly.  What's everyone else up to?  Hopefully you're out enjoying the gorgeous weather instead of reading this crap!

An Unconventional Easter

Happy Easter to all those who are celebrating.  I guess technically speaking, Patrick and I are not celebrating.  We don't go to church and we aren't spending time with family.  Both our roommates are gone for the day so we're just hanging out, enjoying each others' company and gorging out on the shoebox full of candy his mother sent us. 

One of my favorite things to do on holidays is go for a run.  And thank goodness I like to do that because we all know that holidays equal eating.  I got a 3 miler in this morning.  The weather continues to be beautiful which means more walkers and bikers and runners are coming out of their winter hibernation.  I love this time of year because I hate being the only runner out there.  When I see other people out getting some exercise it motivates me to keep going.  And on this run, I only took one walking break that lasted a minute.  Next run, no walking at all.

Some of our friends are supposed to come eat dinner with us.  I was planning on making chicken Parmesan and a spinach salad.  I think that right there is one of the most unconventional Easter meals ever.  The sad part is that I needed a few things for the salad so I decided to go to the grocery store.  Besides, we needed food for the week.  Well, Hannaford was closed.  Fine.  So I drove 20 minutes to the super Target, which was also closed.  Even Walmart was closed and I'm convinced those people don't have a soul.  So no groceries for us.  I know Maine is a predominately Christian state, but I didn't realize it was this intense.  I mean, I think there's more stuff open on Christmas.  I guess I'm just a spoiled brat who's used to a hometown that doesn't close down for religious holidays. 

Well, we're not letting that get us down.  The chicken Parmesan will still be yummy albeit a little less healthy without the salad.  Hope you're all enjoying the rest of your weekend!

Whirlwind Weekend Recap

So I've been a little MIA because I've been busy drinking celebrating my birthday.  So let's start from the beginning:

Thursday:  Thursday was my actual birthday.  Unfortunately, Patrick only had about an hour and a half free from 4-5:30 so we were at the bar of Margarita's at 4 o'clock.  We had time for one drink and shared a couple of appetizers.  Patrick got me these beautiful earrings for my birthday:

When I got back to the apartment I did a bunch of baking for the Friday night activities.

Friday:  On Friday night we had a bunch of friends over to celebrate Valentine's Day.  I made homemade pretzels, peanut butter chocolate bars, and frosted heart shaped sugar cookies.  Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of all the yummy food.  I seriously need to attach my camera to myself so I remember to snap some photos!  But fun was had by all and we watched some of the opening ceremony for the Olympics.

Saturday:  My parents came up for the weekend to celebrate with me and to celebrate their Valentine's Day anniversary (cheesy, I know!).  We went bowling and shopping and grabbed a bite to eat.  It was really nice to see them and spend some time hanging out.  I really love my family and I miss them tons while I'm here in Maine.  Patrick's mother, my future mother-in-law sent along a birthday present.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the box and found this:

 

She bought me this to wear at my wedding.  Patrick tipped her off that I really wanted a blue necklace to wear with my wedding dress.  I was so touched.  I'm looking forward to wearing it and it is something I will definitely wear after the wedding.  My parents also brought up a gift from my 17-year-old brother: a bottle of champagne.  He paid my mother to buy it for me.  How cute is that?

Sunday:  Patrick and I went out to lunch at the Olive Garden, which was crazy nuts, even at lunch time.  Then we went grocery shopping (how romantic, I know).  And finally, instead of getting Valentine's flowers, I got Valentine's Day plants!  They'll last far longer and we got two plants for the price of a dozen roses.  Here are the neat plants we picked:

 

This one is called a draceana.  And the one below is a Chinese money tree (hopefully it will bring us some money).

 

And finally, we wrapped our night up with a tropical sangria cocktail:

 

Did everyone else have a nice weekend?  Did you do anything fun or interesting?

Doing Things A Little Different

I can't believe Christmas is two days away!  I do love this time of the year, but I'm feeling like it creeped up on me.  Don't worry, I'm ready and all my shopping is done.  I think it has something to do with the fact that Novemeber seemed much warmer than normal and it didn't snow around here until well into December.  Either way, I'm excited to see all my family and eat a lot celebrate.

This year my family is hosting a Chinese student who goes to WPI in our home for the Christmas weekend.  At first I was a little apprehensive about it, but I'm starting to get excited about it.  I think it's a really nice thing for my parents to be doing.  This student was a translator for my parents at a meeting they went to in November.  My mom asked him what he missed most about China and he said his mother.  How sweet is that?  And since he can't afford to go home for Christmas, my parents invited him to our home.  We've even gotten him a few presents and I made him a hat so he'll have a few gifts to open Christmas morning.

I especially think that this is a great opportunity to learn about a new culture.  Our guest has offered to make us homemade Chinese food.  Doesn't that sound delicious?  I'll really try to  get some pictures up about our visitor and from the holidays.  I've kind of been a slacker in that department...

Anyway, is there anything you are doing different this holiday season?