Last Day!

Hey ya'll.  Today is the last day of February.  I haven't quite decided how I am going to handle/what I am going to do with this blog.  For those of you who are following/have contacted me, I will let you know as soon as I do.

These ladies will be trekking around the country with me

I WILL be taking a hiatus so I can finish up school, go to job placements, and interview.

LSA Visit Day

Until then, I hope everything is fantastic for you.  Feel free to call or text.

Double Birthdays

This weekend, we had a relaxing night on Friday.  Well, kind of.  Josh and I made philly cheesesteak sandwiches, then went out looking for a suit for me since interview season is coming up.  First we went to Old Navy and we got a few new things (I finally got the black jeans I have been wanting forever!).  Then we went to Macy's.  I tried on almost every suit they have in the store, with no luck.  There were three suits that I liked.  The first had pants that didn't fit me.  The second had very thin, unattractive pants (that also didn't fit me).  The third was missing the pants, and they refused to sell me the jacket alone. Ugh!

Yum, and super easy

So we went to The Limited.  I hadn't been there for years, but I was willing to give it a try.  I liked the jacket there, but the pants were yucky.  I just don't like when pants feel super thin, they just feel cheap to me.  As a last ditch effort, we tried New York and Company.  I have been trying suits on at New York and Company for years and never found one that I liked, so I did not have high hopes going in.  I ended up finding TWO suits that I liked. Woooo!

On Saturday morning, we drove over to Long Lake to try to look at an apartment.  The landlord ended up not showing up, there were many "junker" cars in the parking lot, and the building was not kept up very well.  We decided to abandon this place. On to the next...

Then we drove down to Marshall for Callahan's birthday party.  Can't believe the little guy is already two.

Birthday Boy

Josh and the Birthday Boy

Me with the Birthday Boy

After Cal's birthday party, we drove back to Savage for my dad's 50th birthday party.  It was a long drive, but I'm glad we made it.

Josh was famous!

Dad photobombing

I kind of feel like I am getting sick.  I have been exhausted all week and just can't seem to get enough sleep.  I am trying desperately to catch up because I leave for Vegas in a week.  Hopefully I can shake this!

I forgot to take a picture of it, but I tried something new tonight.  I cut a banana in half and sprinkled a few chocolate chips, mini-marshmallows, and some cinnamon on it then microwaved it for a minute.  Delish!

Classic Breakfast

Sometimes we get caught up trying to try new things and forget about a classic.  Well not today.  For breakfast today, I had some great whole grain toast with peanut butter and bananas. Yum!

Yummy toast

Another random thought: Josh and I have been going through a TON of milk lately.  For the last few weeks, we haven't really done any grocery shopping other than to buy milk.  We'll see how long this can keep up.

Milk with a cameo from our bananas

Weekend

This weekend was SUPER fun!  On Friday, we had Ben and Nicole over for dinner.  There is something about those two that makes time pass like the blink of an eye.  Our "dinners" ALWAYS last until midnight or later.  We made our Pioneer Woman macaroni and cheese.  Delish!

Tales of a great night: Empty plates, bottle of wine, Valentine's day treats (thanks Mom!)

On Saturday, I had to work all day so Josh went to see the new Die Hard movie with Andrew.  After a short nap, we made the journey to Burnsville to celebrate a new friend from school's birthday.
It was a really great time.  I sometimes forget how much I like meeting new people!

Waiting in the car

p.s. look how long my hair is getting!

Then on Sunday, we went over to see Lauren and Jon's new apartment and have dinner with them.  Again with meeting new people!  There apartment is super cute and it was fun to explore St. Louis Park a bit more.  I also managed to squeeze in some homework.

Also, as a side note, I decided to give up cake for Lent this year.  I'm usually not really into giving something up for Lent because it wasn't a part of the tradition I was raised in.  It also doesn't seem like giving up cake should be that hard.  However, we eat A LOT of cake at UST.  They have it for just about every occasion, including some of the most amazing cupcakes I have ever eaten.  Case in point, one of my coworkers teasing me yesterday with the birthday cake used to celebrate all birthdays in our division in January, February, and March.  Yes, I missed the cake for my own birthday.  I might be having a creative birthday this year... after all, I WILL be in Vegas!

Hiring Process

For the second time now, I am involved in the hiring process for my student workers.  I am sightly more involved this year because I understand the system better and have a little more experience under my belt.

Completing this process while in the midst of my own job search has been helpful and also unnerving.  It has really given me an idea about how long a hiring process actually takes.  Even for a student worker.  This helps me to not panic when I don't hear back from somewhere I have applied right away. I just expect that the process will be moving at a snail's pace.

It is also unnerving because I know what goes on behind the scenes.  This year, we will have between 70 and 80 applicants to fill 15-20 positions.  There are some stand-out candidates, but mostly is comes down to something ridiculous when choosing.  What if I am the person who gets cut for a silly reason?

Lamp post on the UST campus during the storm on Sunday

I guess I just can't worry about things like that.  I will end up where I am supposed to be.  I can only hope that I find my place before graduation!  Happy duty week (I'm finally done now until March!) and Valentine's Day!

*Going private March 1st.  If you have questions or still want to follow, send me an e-mail at bnroulli at gmail dot com*

Batman... and other alter egos

Sometimes it is amazing how our minds work.  After seeing Beyonce perform at the Superbowl, I somehow ended up thinking about introversion.  Weird, right?  Beyonce, Sasha Fierce, alter ego, my own extraverted alter ego. Are you following me?

So if you don't know, when Beyonce first started performing, she created an alter ego for when she was performing on stage.  She used this alter ego to help her feel more comfortable extending herself outside of her comfort zone.  I don't know about you, but I frequently find myself in a situation like this.

Part of this is because of my introverted nature.  It is really hard to be an introvert in a world that places such a huge emphasis on the value of extraverts.  In a way, I have created my own alter ego to help me through life.  It's kind of a fake it until you make it type of thing.

I think it is fine and should be expected that each and every one of us adapts to the environment to become more successful, but I also propose something else.  Let's take a few minutes to reflect on our own lives and easy changes we can make to make life a little bit easier for introverts.  I KNOW I'm not the only one out there!

This infographic has some good tips on how to care for others, but notice that even this falls into the trap of "look how fun and colorful the extraverts are and the introverts are dull and drab."  We all are a mix of extravert and introvert.  If we learn how to embrace introversion, we will all be better able to accept ourselves for who we really are!

Muffins, Superbowl, Yahtzee, Oh My!

Last Saturday night, I wanted to try something new that I had been thinking about making for awhile.  We have had some bananas in the freezer and canned pumpkin from this fall taking up a little too much room, so I was looking for a recipe to use them both at once and found this.

Yum!  I might try making the famous Nancy Jans oatmeal pumpkin cookies with banana next!

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything with pumpkin AND banana, so I used one banana as a substitute for one egg.  I also ended up using an 85% dark chocolate bar that I got for secret santa that was a little too dark to eat plain.  Don't get me wrong, I love dark chocolate.  This was just VERY high quality, therefore VERY dark. It was great in the muffins.

I was surprised at how little this hurt.  It seems to hurt more now, as it is healing and drying up than it did right away.

I also ended up burning my hand on the oven.  I tried using one of our cheap hot pads to take the muffin pan out.  I don't recommend it!  Just use the good ones, even if they aren't conveniently located!  This picture is after 4.5 days of babying this thing like nobody's business.  I also ended up cutting my finger that same night trying to cut fruit for sangria for the Superbowl because I was favoring my non-burn hand.

Sangria- it was worth it!

Because I was drugged up (on Aleve) from my injuries, we decided to have a low-key night and ended up playing Yahtzee all night.  This was the first time that Josh had really played and he ended up getting a Yahtzee on his first roll on the first 3 games!  He is either really good at Yahtzee (is that even possible?) or he is one lucky duck.

His first Yahtzee of the night

On Sunday morning, Josh must have been inspired by our cheeseburger wraps, because he got up before me and made us breakfast tacos.  He even grilled them.  Nothing like turkey bacon, egg, cheese, and salsa rolled up in a tortilla.

Mmmmm

After grilling

Josh and I have come to the realization that if we don't rent a house after leaving UST, we won't be happy staying in one place for longer than a year (which is a goal for both of us).  We went last night to go see a potential place to live in St. Paul.  It was pretty nice and a good price, but we aren't sold that it is exactly what we need.  We are going to keep our eye on it and also keep looking.

Also, school started up again this week and hiring season is in full swing.  Residence life hires before all other fields, so it is frustrating to see many of my co-workers searching and applying for residence life job openings all over the country and not being able to apply for anything.

*Going private March 1st.  If you have questions or still want to follow, send me an e-mail at bnroulli at gmail dot com*