I Found Hope in a Hopeless Place [The Kitchen]

As much as I hate to admit it since it's my birthday month, February is pretty drab. Sorry to add to the many, many overstated complaints about the weather, but these below freezing temps have got to go! So how does this native Texan cope with the cold? By staying inside and celebrating National Homemade Soup Day, of course!

Due to my lack of cooking skills, I was nervous about celebrating this holiday. Kendal will be the first to tell you that I was not born in the kitchen. Just in the past year and a half of living together, we've managed to set off the smoke alarm in our apartment a number of times. Not to mention the time I basically glued noodles to the bottom of a pan, my ongoing struggle with the can opener, the amount of substances that have boiled over pots and onto the stovetop, and the layer of black char that appears every time I try to cook chicken in the skillet. Basically, I have the equivalence of a planter's "brown thumb" in the kitchen. But I promise, despite these setbacks, I'll still make a GREAT wife someday. (Just in case the poor sucker happens to read this.)

Much to my surprise though, my venture for National Homemade Soup Day was a success! Kendal and I decided to try a broccoli cheese soup recipe my mom included in a cookbook she made for me when I first moved into my apartment. I'm not sure it counts as "homemade," but it was delicious (and super easy) nonetheless. I tried to take a pretty picture of the finished product, but my worn out, hand-me-down kitchen utensils unfortunately didn't make for an appetizing image. I promise I'm not lying when I say it turned out great, so there just might be some hope for me after all!

Here's the recipe in case you need a fun way to warm up this February too. I promise if I can do it, so can you!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
• 1 10 oz. package frozen chopped broccoli, cooked
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cups milk
• 1 jar of Cheeze-Whiz

 

Directions:

1. Sauté onion in butter.
2. Add onion with mushroom soup, milk, cooked broccoli and Cheeze-Whiz in large pot.
3. Stir ingredients and cook on low heat until heated through.

 

Inspire Your Heart with Art Day

I know I've been slacking big time with my blog posts, but I'm still trying to get the hang of this. Give me a huge capstone assignment to procrastinate on though, and look where it brings me. This totally counts as productivity, right? Plus, today is Inspire Your Heart with Art Day, so I think a celebration is most certainly in order!

I'm not saying this day requires a trip to an art gallery. Sorry to all of you aspiring artists out there, but let's be honest—not my idea of fun! Lucky for me, the term "art" covers so much more than the stroke of a paintbrush. With that being said, I'd like to share some of my favorite art forms in hopes that it will inspire you to explore your artistic side today.

First and foremost, dance. Since age 3, it has always been my medium for expression. There are countless home videos that capture my love for dance at a young age, including one of me watching and mimicking a dance recital video of my older sister. Though it began as just my favorite after-school activity, it wasn't long before I dropped my attempts at softball and volleyball to start dancing competitively. I managed to mix in some middle school cheerleading along the way, but my focus was always dance. I was able to continue dancing in high school through drill team, which gave me a whole new love for dance. I didn't realize performing on a stage and performing on a football field were so different, but I loved both for their own reasons. Since then, being in a sorority has given me occasional opportunities to perform that remind me how much I love dance. I miss it all the time, but now I use running to clear my mind and stay in shape. Although, I have to admit that I always catch myself picturing choreography to the music I listen to while running. I guess I just refuse to completely give it up!

 

Nowadays, there's crafting. My sorority littles will be the first to tell you that I'm not the best in this category because of my attempts to gift them in the past, but crafting is something I really enjoy. My focus in all my school projects growing up was how to turn them into a craft, not actually perfecting the content. I'm not saying very many of them were pleasing to the eye, but focusing on the design was always more fun to me than the work. However, I have found success in making wooden crosses. (Special shout out to Hobby Lobby for making this so easy on me!) The three pictured below were gifts to Kendal, my sister, and my mom. They all have them on display so I at least tell myself I'm somewhat successful! I don't have the time to craft very often, but when I do it always makes for a good time and a feeling of accomplishment, no matter what my finished product looks like!

Occasionally, writing & baking. These two forms of art may be a stretch, but I'm going to include them anyways. Writing is fairly new to me. I didn't enjoy it in high school, but as I dove deeper into my major of public relations my feelings significantly changed towards it. Writing has become even more fun for me through the creation of this blog! On the other hand, baking is something I've always enjoyed. When I was little I loved when my mom would bake so I could sit in the kitchen and wait for her to give me the bowls, spoons, and spatulas to lick until they looked as clean as they would if they had come out of the dishwasher. Even though I participate in the baking process now, the raw cookie dough, brownie batter, etc. is still my favorite part. But if I'm being completely honest, some of the "baking" I do doesn't even involve an oven. Making sweet treats like oreo balls, puppy chow, and ice cream layer cake are some of my favorites! The dessert I would pinpoint as the most artistic would be these chocolate covered strawberry footballs I made almost exactly a year ago for the Super Bowl!

As much as I enjoy the art of dancing, crafting, writing, and baking, my skills in the drawing department don't follow suit. Here's a classic piece of mine from age four that has always given my family a good laugh. For some reason, I decided I was the only one in the family entitled to arms! I hope this reminds you that you don't have to be good at an art form for it to inspire you or make your heart happy. In fact, you don't even have to be the artist. After all, God paints a new picture for us in the sky everyday, so why wouldn't you take the time to admire it?

A Big/Little Vegas Adventure

With it being the second day of class of my last semester of college, I'm extremely nostalgic about all the fun I had over Christmas break. Staying in my pj's much longer than I should admit, catching up with friends from high school, and bearing continuous hours with the family were all great fun, don't get me wrong. But the best part of Christmas break was without a doubt the trip to Las Vegas with my sorority littles (Lauren and Kate) to celebrate Lauren's 21st birthday.

Having never been to Vegas, "excited" doesn't even begin to pinpoint my emotions. I had no idea what to expect, but a friend who had recently been there described the city to me as "not part of the United States." Now that I've experienced Vegas, I would have to say that's an accurate description. But I didn't know that as I boarded the early morning flight from OKC with Kate. After a few bags of peanuts, hours of candy crush, and a minor freakout during our layover in Denver about the Denver Airport Conspiracy and the Illuminati, we arrived in Vegas. There was so much excitement between running to reunite with Lauren, who flew in from Kansas, and grasping the concept of endless slot machines in an airport. It wasn't long before we grabbed our bags and started our Vegas adventure by piling into a limo to head to our hotel.

 

We stayed at the Venetian, which was beautiful to say the least. I knew I was in for it when I realized there was gambling, shopping, dining, and gondola-riding to be done all under the roof of our hotel. Of course, those were all just added bonuses to the suite we got to stay in—I would've been more than happy to spend the whole trip in there! I realized at this point that I would probably not enjoy a trip to Vegas after this one because I'd never get such fancy treatment again. (HUGE thanks to Lauren's parents!)

 

It didn't take us long to ditch our bags and head straight onto the strip to get the birthday girl her anticipated yard-long margarita. We did some wandering to soak in the idea that we were finally in Vegas after talking about it for so long, and then headed back up to the hotel room to get ready for our evening plans. We had dinner reservations at an italian restaurant called LAVO and tickets to the Thunder from Down Under show to follow. Dinner was delicious, and the show did not disappoint. We were so entertained by those Australian performers that we couldn't resist a picture with them! After debating whether or not to hunt down Juicy J who was in town, we ended the night at the New York-New York casino. Between the time change, jet lag, and so much excitement, we were exhausted.

 

After catching up on some sleep the next morning, we headed out for pizza and made our way to downtown Las Vegas. There was so much to see including some of the oldest Vegas hotels, talented bar tenders, and of course, interesting characters dressed in costumes. After exploring for a bit, we stopped to get drinks from a bar tender juggling and balancing bottles on his head. Not long after that, we found an oxygen bar, which was also on the birthday girl's to-do list. I'll let you be the judge, but I think the nose pieces really added to our level of attractiveness. Regardless of what we looked like, we left feeling very refreshed and relaxed. We had some time to spare before heading back to the hotel so we went to win big with the slot machines. I think the most I ever earned was $1.30, but since I (like many others) don't do well with the "quit while you're ahead" concept, even that was gone before I knew it.

 

Despite our losses, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for the evening's plans. We had dinner reservations at TAO, which is both an Asian bistro and nightclub. The waiters were notified of Lauren's birthday, so we were given extra special treatment. If the delicious meal wasn't already enough, they brought us a huge fortune cookie and even drew attention to Lauren with champagne sparklers. After extra-full bellies, we were escorted to our table in the VIP section of the nightclub and introduced to our security friend, Chad, who we were to notify if we needed anything. As the night went on, we discovered that if we told him we needed to use the restroom, he would escort us directly to the front of the line. Needless to say, he became our best friend. Overall, it was a fun night filled with dancing, taking pictures, and definitely sore feet from those heels. We even acquired our own version of "baby Carlos" by the end of the night!

 

The next day we were able to rush over to the infamous M&M store to get a tasty souvenir, catch one last glimpse of the strip, and ride the gondolas through our hotel before ending our Vegas adventure. Though I was sad that it was already time to leave, I was so thankful for the amazing trip I had the opportunity to be apart of. I made so many memories with my littles and am blessed by them in so many ways. I hope Lauren had a 21st birthday to remember—I think it's safe to say we celebrated accordingly!

 

Better Late Than Never

Ideally, this post would’ve been written on New Year’s Day. Two days late isn’t so bad, right? For those of you who know me well, it wouldn’t be fitting if my blog wasn’t late anyways, so I’m just staying true to my untimely habits. The point is that my blog is finally being launched after much hesitation and deliberation. I’m still not quite sure what my purpose in this blog is yet, but bear with me as I do my best to figure it out. To help you understand better, here’s the sequence of events that led to the creation of my blog:

For starters, I’ve been told throughout my entire college career as a public relations major how important it is to blog. (Don’t mind that it took me until halfway through my senior year of college to listen. Again, just staying true to my hard-headed self.) But, I always made excuses of why I shouldn’t blog, such as I had nothing to write about, I wasn’t a good enough writer, or no one would want to read what I wrote anyways. Though they may be true, I didn’t realize until recently that those things aren’t important, thanks to a great writer and friend for explaining to me that it doesn’t matter what others think as long as I enjoy blogging. But when it comes down to it, I have to give credit to my summer internship for giving me some ideas and confidence in terms of starting a blog. When I explained my concern of not having anything to write about, I was given the advice to choose a theme as specific as polka-dots or red shoes and just start a blog about it. Even though I couldn’t think of anything right off the bat, I kept this advice in mind. Little did I know, one of my favorite tasks as an intern would serve as great inspiration for my future blog. This task was planning staff celebrations for off-beat national holidays, such as national ice cream day and national lollipop day. No matter who designates them, there’s at least one for almost every single day of the year. Who knew? Though summer and my internship unfortunately came to a close, I had the idea to create a “National Days” Twitter account to announce what to celebrate each day because I’m a PR major and those kinds of things are strangely fun to me. Much to my dismay, I found that many other people had thought of this long before me. Here’s the link to a successful one if you’d like to check it out: twitter.com/NationalDays. Upon sharing this news with Kendal (best friend and roommate who experiences my life unfiltered), she connected the dots between a themed blog and my failed twitter idea, suggesting I create a National Days blog. With her encouragement, I took that idea and ran with it, which led me to this.

Through the process of creating this blog, I've realized I'll most likely want to write about more than just celebrating unique holidays. Lucky for me, I'm up for the challenge of finding a reason to celebrate each day that I post, which I can promise will not be every day. So to sum up what I've attempted to explain, I don't have a clue what all I'm going to write about as I continue this blog. Even if it's not a holiday, an accomplishment, or really anything significant at all, I think the sole fact that God chooses to wake us up in the morning is enough reason to celebrate the day. But today, I'm celebrating the fact that I FINALLY completed my blog. So here's to the end of my first post, and to YOU for making it all the way through!