Let's play catch-up

Okay it got bad again, even after I told myself I would blog more. So let's play a quick (kind of) catch-up. In two pictures I can sum up my entire current life..

 For now (as long as I can keep my sanity) I have been working <technically> three jobs while finishing up my last year of my Master's degree. I have basically given up my social life and weekends, but through that complaint I am very lucky to be able to work that many jobs and provide for myself. Everyone keeps telling me it's part of the growing up process :) This picture is from one weekend of work and by one weekend I mean a Saturday double and a Sunday double. When I got home Sunday night after working almost 27 hours on 3 hours of sleep I sat down  on our couch with silent tears falling from my eyes and had Brent take off my shoes. It was pathetic I know, but my entire body ached from exhaustion. 

I also have been spending a great deal of time held up in my built in office. This part of the house was definitely my selling point. I love that it had a built in office that was surrounded on three sides by windows. It's a great place to work on homework and also a great spot for all of my plants to grow. This area of the house after we moved in quickly became the junk room holding all of the boxes we didn't know where to put the stuff or hadn't had time to unload it. It worked out well until school starting back up came closer. So one day while I was at work Brent went to target and bought lots of things to decorate my office and unpacked all of those boxes and made the space perfect for me. How considerate is he? :)

A very quick wrap up to our summer includes...

 Cory and Ashley's engagement party! One of my favorite parts of this next chapter in my life is the amount of friends I have getting married and having babies. It's a great excuse for us to get to dress up, buy presents, and spend time with people we love. Cory and Ashley put a lot of planning into the engagement/housewarming party and it definitely showed. I wish I had taken more pictures of the night, but it was filled with a significant amount of the game Boom! (if you've never played I highly recommend you do--so fun and filled with lots of energy)

 I made chocolate chip sea salt cookies for the party. Basically regular chocolate chip cookies with sea salt on top. I love the combination of salty to sweet!

Brent and I miraculously had one morning off together so of course we spent it at the zoo! Cleveland zoo is filled with little baby critters which makes for a fun visit. However, we went on a Monday--which in case you didn't know is free day at the Cleveland Zoo for all people who live in Cuyahoga county. Brent and I had a hard time deciding if the people there or the animals were more entertaining to watch!

We of course paid the extra money to go through the Dinosaur exhibit! Those little guys moved and made noise, blinked, and some of them even spit water!

My summer wrapped up with watching these adorable little girls. Poor Lucy was full of anxiety having the girls here with Claire constantly chasing her around the house and Leah screaming, but we all survived and had a great weekend!

And your daily Lucy dosage--seriously is there a cuter kitten?




Last but not least--some delicious recipes to try!

 This is a spicy quinoa salad which was delicious but extremely spicy! This was my first time cooking with quinoa but it turned out great and I can't wait to try some more recipes!

and some more delicious sweets--these are homemade chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting that got topped with reese's  peanut butter cups! they were stinking delicious
---a little advice: freeze the peanut butter cups ahead of time that way when you go to break them to crumble they aren't all melted and sticky



RECIPES:
Spicy Quiona Salad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF0_rhDrxwk&list=UUwzKX4hM0-zKwVqGQNz79pw
If you go to the youtube page just scroll to the bottom and the recipe is printed there so you don't have to watch the video

Reese Cup Cupcakes: 
http://makebakecelebrate.com/reese-cup-cupcakes/

--for now XO