Easter Weekend

For most of the weekend I've been in Waco. Baylor's classes let out Thursday afternoon and campus quickly emptied out, everyone headed home to their families for Easter. I love how Baylor gives us both the Friday and the Monday off of classes for Easter Weekend. I, however, chose to stay in Waco for most of the weekend to participate in my church's Holy Week Services and celebrate Easter at St. Alban's. I am so extremely blessed to have such an incredible church family away from home. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Easter morning. Most of the beginning of the weekend was filled with some much needed "catch-ups", i.e. laundry, cleaning, organizing, practicing...and sleeping ;) A couple of my friends stayed in town as well, so we kept each other company, went out for lunch, got pedi's, and dyed Easter eggs! Easter Morning (this morning) was glorious! I woke up super early, to my surprise, to throw together a new recipe! Okay, let's be honest...I was so excited to try it out that I could barely sleep...had multiple nightmares about it not working out...but long story short it was super easy to throw together and pop into the oven while I got ready for church. I sang at both my church services this morning, and they were equally enjoyable. So much JOY!  After church I picked up the bestie and we road tripped up to Dallas to spend the rest of Easter with my mom and brobie. Mom made a delicious Easter dinner: ham, mac n cheese, asparagus, deviled eggs, bread....and my first dessert since the beginning of Lent! and gosh was it good!! I know, I know, you want pics. OK!

LUNCH OUT WITH FRIENDS

DYEING EGGS

SUPER PROUD OF MY TIE DYEING TECHNIQUE!

EASTER DRESS

PEDI DESTRESSING :)

Every year the children at St. Alban's bury the "Alleluia" banner...
on Easter morning they dig it up and process it into the church
at the beginning of the service, ringing bells. 

Strawberry Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bake
it was a hit at our choir breakfast!

Easter Dinner Table

John slicing his homemade bread!

Easter Flowers :)

Tomorrow, Solange and I have a full day planned. Starting off the day with a run, food, shopping, food, and more shopping :)

I hope your Easter has been as full of love and joy and blessings as mine has!

-Amy

confessions.

Confession 1: Okay, so I've been totally MIA the past 5 months...yeah I said 5 months...that's almost half of a whole year...WOW so sorry for that!


Confession 2: I've had many many good reasons why. Don't worry, I'm about to share them all!


Since the last time we talked...


I've attended crazy voice studio Christmas parties (yes, that's my voice teacher, Dr. Gordon! Isn't he the cutest?)

 I've been supporting our AWESOME basketball teams! Did I mention our lady bears are NATIONAL CHAMPIONS 40-0?!! nbd. I know. sic. em.

 Exploring Texas and all the yarn stores it has to offer! This one is in Boerne, Tx. That's me with my grandpa and my aunt. (she's a fellow knitter!)

 Having adventurous nights in San Antonio with the boyfriend, during TMEA. (@ Dicks Restaurant)

Going out on "friend" dates for Valentines Day, since my man was far away and Vday was on a school night :( But let me just say, I have the best friends in the whole world...and this might have been the best Valentine's Dinner I've ever had....but don't tell Kev!!

Performing in this HUGE university wide performance called SING!

Skiing down a mountain with an elevation of 12,000 feet! This was in Winter Park, CO over Spring Break with the roomies, Jamie and Janna. That's our other Baylor friend, Daniel. He's pretty awesome too ;)

Oh yeah, and then the bestie and I ran this thing called the Bearathon! :)

And I've done a lot of knitting:

Okay so no more excuses :) Regular blogging will happen more often. Pinkie promise.


-Ames

island time.

With the end of the semester quickly approaching, it is getting pretty crazy stressful around here!! Last weekend, fortunately, I got to escape it all :) My stepmom, Amy and my cousin's girlfriend, Kara, and I all drove down to Port Aransas for a GIRL'S WEEKEND!! It was so wonderful to leave everything behind, even if it was just for 2 days.

Add caption

sunset the first night

Woke up both mornings to go for a run...I've
never enjoyed working out so much
in my life! If only I lived by a beach!!

sand writing.

our cute entrance through the dunes

AWESOME log I discovered on one of my runs. It
must have gotten washed in with the tide....
about 20 feet long, and completely covered with these
little guys!

It was a MUCH needed escape and a chance to clear my head and *breathe* before the last mad dash through classes and then finals :)
Hope your life isn't as insane as mine is right now!
-Amy

a yummy end to my Tuesday

So I really dislike Tuesdays...mainly because they are long and I usually have a million things to do. I decided to start giving myself something to look forward to at the end of my Tuesdays to help me get through the day, and today my motivation was dinner haha....lame I know. ACTUALLY, NO NOT LAME! I came across a recipe for Zucchini Fries on this loverly blog the other day and have been dying to try them out! So that's just what I did. They were super easy to make and turned out DELICIOUS! Enjoy some pics from my adventure:

"battered" up, before baked

my yummy spicy black bean cheddar burger

all finished

End product! :) They were sooooo delicious,
 and ignore the bites out of the burger, hehe

You should definitely try these! I made the "fries" with 2 zucchini but only ate 1...so if you make them for just one person, only use one zucchini at a time, and half the recipe for the "batter" :)

Happy Tuesday!
-Amy

No-Excuse November

Who knew one little 'pin' on pinterest could spark a whole blog post and motivation for something: Here's the pin that sparked it all:

Ever heard of No-Shave November?? This is most typically a guy thing, where males decide to go without shaving for the whole month...so by the time December comes around, they are sporting some mean facial hair. It would just be way too weird if girls decided to join in on this....(sorry if for some strange reason you're a girl who has insisted on not shaving your legs for a WHOLE month, ew!)...so I saw this picture on Pinterest today....it's definitely something a girl can do for a whole month and maybe even start a habit of (guys can join in too of course):

No-Excuse November

I'm deciding to set goals for being healthy and sticking to them for a whole month to prove to myself that taking care of myself is worth it. So here they are:

1. Get up 4 out of 5 school days to go the gym and get my cardio on!

2. Go to the gym Saturday morning, if I have nothing planned

3. Allow myself to take occassional naps, but only if I've worked out that day

4. Eat healthy!

So, I think these are definitely do-able!

Number 1: I've been doing this one pretty consistently since school started and have already started seeing the major benefits to it---> more energy during my day, minus 10 lbs. since school has started, and a ton more self confidence! I just want to stay consistent! So let the determination begin!

Number 2 is my fav. I usually head to the gym on Satuday mornings with my bestie and then start my day of productive homework-doing and errand-running. So, keep this up :)

Number 3 is mainly just a deal I'm making with myself. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to take naps...and who doesn't??? However, I usually feel guilty laying down before bedtime if I know I have a ton of other things I could be doing....like excercising, practicing, studying, singing, etc...but if I have gotten up early to work out, then I've earned a small nap (not longer than an hour!)

Number 4: Oatmeal for breakfast and packin' the lunch everyday :)

So, let No-Excuse November begin....accomplish my goals, and prove to myself that it's worth it!! NO EXCUSES!!

-Amy



Foodies-1; Hunger-0

So let's just state the obvious: I love food. Not just any food, but good food! Lucky for me, I have a best friend who is the exact same way. Solange and I decided to go try a new cafe for lunch today, Cafe Homestead. Everything they serve is homemade, homegrown, and raised. It was absolutely delicious...so wanna see what we got? Of course you do!

My Quesadilla Burger-
made with grain-fed beef
and homemade guac and chips!

Solange's South of the Border Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

Needless to say, we SCARFED every bite down!! Everything was so fresh and so delicous!

After our lunch outing we went to Farm Day, an event that aided in world hunger relief. There were lots of vendors and free trade craft booths set up and live music and some veggies and plants to purchase. Solange bought some mums and I purchased a 'lil rosemary plant. They were half price! hehe I only payed $1 for this guy!

The mums are almost as pretty as she is, right?

and then of course we ran our typical Saturday errands...groceries, random things from Wally World, and you know, a cupcake corer...We had a wonderful day, so much fun actually that when I got home I took a 2 hour nap!

Hope your Saturday was fun, fresh, and yummy too!
-Amy

class canceled!

2 ensemble classes canceled today? WHAT?! this NEVER happens...but it does mean one thing: MORE TIME!!! Would you believe it, I had 3 1/2 extra hours to kill this afternoon! Concert Choir had our fall concert last night (we rocked in Hebrew by the way), so we had a day off from rehearsal today and then Bella Voce was canceled due to DR. G being sickk :( that part I don't like, but hey more time to do what needs to be done. I actually got to eat on campus today. Normally I'm scarfing down my homepacked lunch before Bella Voce starts, because I usually don't have time to pick something up and sit down for lunch in one of the dining halls on campus. So I ate lunch and then headed over to my fav coffee shop on campus, CG, for a lil treat and to get ahead on some studying and online assignments for mi clase de Espanol!  It feels so good to get ahead!

It's been WAY too long since my last post, so sorry for that! Until next time, enjoy this lovely pic of me and my gals in Concert Choir after the concert last night: don't we look great? :-P

a-la "Mary-Kate"

normal smiles...boring compared to the first right? ha!

 Later y'all!
-Amy