Date Night

For those of you who haven't figured it out, Matt and I are dating, a few months now, but since we spend most of our time in different states, it does make that whole dating thing a bit difficult at times :P But tonight we went on a fun date to a local bowling alley. We went there with the intention of playing 2 games and ended up playing almost 7! It turns out that tonight was a Thunder Bowling. This means that for $11 per person, groups can bowl as many times as they want for 2 hours starting at 9 pm. Since we got there at 8:45 pm we just started a little early (we got lost cause I forgot where the bowling alley was :P) and ended a little early as well. We had a blast! For the first few games we bowled normally, meaning neither of us ever scored over 124, but for our last one and a half games we tried bowling with our non-dominant hands, which was quite entertaining, or going granny style. Although we didn't score even 50 points on that game, it was still worth it in my opinion because we had a lot of fun doing it and were laughing nearly the entire time!

What are some of your favorite things to do/places to go for dates or when you go out with friends?

Happy Friday :D

Love,

Sara :)

Hamburger Cookies

Alright, I'm not sure how many of you have heard about these wonderful inventions called hamburger cookies. I was introduced to these little cookies by Matt on Christmas Eve day! They are pretty simple to make and also very cute, perfect for the holidays or pretty much any other occasion you could think of! The overall rating is that they are better than regular burgers :P

The ingredients are simple: vanilla wafers, chocolate covered mint cookies (girl scout thin mints are best), vanilla frosting (to be dyed red), coconut shavings (the kind that we sometimes put on top of cupcakes and the like, to be dyed green), and green and red food dyes.

To create the "lettuce" and "ketchup": Take about half a container of vanilla frosting and add a few drops of red food coloring (it is more pink, but that's alright, you can't have everything) which will make your "ketchup"/glue. For the "lettuce", take about half or more of a bag of coconut shavings and add just 2 or 3 drops of green food coloring (it is strong stuff) and combine them in a ziplock bag, close the bag, and shake it up until all the coconut shavings are a light green color. You can leave some parts white if you want it to seem more like iceberg lettuce, or dye it a darker green for a shredded spinach look, it's completely up to you!

To combine and create a hamburger:
1- Take one vanilla wafer and spread it with a thin layer of your "ketchup" on the flat side.
2- Set one mint cookie on top for your "burger patty"
3- Spread another layer of "ketchup"
4- Add in a pinch of your "lettuce", or until you are satisfied with the amount
5- Take another vanilla wafer cookie and spread the flat side with "ketchup" (the ketchup on this layer is optional, if your burger will stay together without it, then it isn't needed, but we might have added a bit too much lettuce and needed some extra glue to hold it all together)
6- Place this second wafer cookie on top of the lettuce and Ta Da! You have a hamburger cookie!

For a visual reference, check the picture below. I did not get any pictures of actually making the cookies, but I can assure you that if you have more than one person it goes by very quickly, we were able to make two platefuls (about 18 cookies each plate) in under an hour. Best part: NO BAKING INVOLVED! This is a perfect last minute cookie idea!

What we are trying to come up with now are variations on this burger. I mean burgers are awesome, but what about adding cheese? Or two thin mints as a double burger? We haven't come up with anything to use for the cheese, any suggestions from readers? I'd really appreciate it, and promise to try it out and report my findings :P

Well I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas, or a wonderful past few days. We've been running around visiting family and friends for the past few days so it's been a little nuts, and I'm taking whatever time I can to blog and/or craft. I'm currently working on a few ideas for New Years that I will share when I finish at least one of them! I am also now back at my grandma's house so there may or may not be a post about the neat things around her house tomorrow or something.

As always, your replies are always appreciated and more than welcome! Happy Hump Day! :D

Love,

Sara :)

Musica Monday

Hey all!
Happy Christmas Eve Day!! That is for those of you who do celebrate Christmas, for those of you who don't, we'll I hope that you are having a wonderful night and I will say that I a going to post one of my favorite holiday songs for this time of year. I will also have an update about what my family is doing for Christmas!
First, the music. I present to you actually a piece that I heard for the first time a few years ago. It's by a group called Relient K, and yes it is a Christian rock band, but they do have a unique sound that I have found that I enjoy!

I am a fan of the way that they sort of play with this song and I enjoy the way they make fun of it because I remember thinking the same thoughts about what the gifts were. I hope that you enjoy your holiday season and I wish you all a happy season.

I would also like to put I that my sister and I have two things noteworthy for this holiday season. First, in place of excess gifts, our parents have given both of use some money to spend on a charity (charities) of our choice. I am currently coming up with places where I would spend said money. Granted these funds are not endless, but they are enough for 3 or 4 donations. The places I am coming up with now include: ASPCA, Pencils of Promise, Church World Service, and a website called Kiva.com (which you should check out!). I am open to  recommendations. I feel that the holidays should be more of a time to help those who need and to reach out than to be more centered around ourselves, but that's just my opinion :) whatever that is worth! :P If you we're given money to donate what would your  top 3 charities be?

Second, my sister and I decided to make the majority of our cards this year! It was a lot of fun and I forgot how much I actually missed doing this sort of thing.

These were the end results of what we made  (not all of them, but the first few). It would be really neat to be able to create cards as a part-time career and to give everyone I know a handmade and original card but I would have no idea of where to start because it is n area in which I have little to no experience. But it for sure would be an adventure!

Well that's all I got for now! Again happy holidays to everyone and enjoy the musica Monday :D

Love,

Sara :)

Night at Grandma's House

As is customary during the holiday season, we visit my grandmother up near Lacrosse, Wisconsin. She has a oldish house, my grandfather built, that's on land that has been used as a tree farm by my grandpa for their whole time living here. It is a very pretty place, set in the middle of the woods as a setting of mystery and a feeling of slight magic and still, for a suburb kid such as myself, a bit of fear of the unknown of what I will find out here. But for now I shall concentrate on the pretty parts which include some really neat vintage style items she has up in the attic part, or where I sleep :)
Since I was little I have been intrigued by many of the seemingly old and strange and different things my grandma has collected over time. From old clocks to books to furniture style to plates and a dollhouse that we used to pretend to play in as children. I've always enjoyed her collections, which are scattered throughout her house, giving it a sort of mystical feel to it. This feeling tells me that no matter where we are or how small we feel we are in the world, it's the little things that make a place magical :)

Someday I will ask grandma to tell me more about these items that I have seen since I was a little girl, but until then, it shall remain to my imagination to come up with the answer! What kinds of places do you guys know of that have a history of their own? Do you know the history? You should ask and learn, as I will when people are awake :P

Happy Saturday!

Love,

Sara :)

P.S. The hunt is on for a new car that I should be able to pay off in the next 4 years or so, so one that will last! Any suggestions? So far my favorite is a Mini Cooper :D

Update

Hey guys, so I'm home finally! I mean the reason I haven't been posting is because I was in a car accident on my way home on Tuesday! My car, Jordan, is (most likely) gonna be totaled and sent off for scraps :(, on the other hand, no one was hurt in the accident :D.
What happened was we hit a patch of black ice (meaning ice we didn't see until it was too late), and spun at least once or twice before hitting another car that had already hit the guardrail, we proceeded to bounce off that car before running into the guardrail, both cars facing traffic. There's not much I can say other than I'm really glad that no one in either car was hurt! It really gives this holiday season a lot more of a special feeling knowing that it was because of my car being so well put together, and being designed so that the passengers would be able to get up and walk away, that we were all able to get out unscathed. I mean a few bumps, bruises, and stiff neck/shoulders, and plenty of adrenaline (right at first that is), but no broken bones or big scrapes. We were all very VERY lucky!
I hope that you all are staying safe in this snow! Remember to be happy and celebrate what you have and what you are grateful for having! :D
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

Alrighty folks, I am currently on a feel good high due to having just finished a final that I feel quite confident about, and the fact that all I have left is a final history final which is going to be an essay. So, in essence I'm feeling pretty good right now. In that light, I will now present you with a music monday that goes along with a pleasure of mine, anime. Don't judge or anything, actually, if you want to you can judge, that's fine. I have enjoyed the fantasy of several different anime shows, one of the latest being called "Angel Beats!". I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might watch it, but in general it concerns a sort of afterlife area where kids who have had bed childhoods end up and what goes on there concerning a specific group. I would recommend it, it's not too long, 13 episodes total I believe. But this song is one of my favorite anime openings, it's called 'My Soul, Your Beats' by Lia, and yes it is in Japanese. Enjoy!

What are some of your favorite show opening songs? Care to share? Do any of you watch anime or cartoons that you really enjoy?
Happy Monday!
Love,
Sara :)

If Only....Casually Feeling Cute

Alright, so I happened to stumble upon an online boutique called Mura, and instantly have fallen in love with several of their pieces!! They are at an affordable price...if you live in Australia, which I, sadly, do not :( So, these dresses serve as great examples on my "If Only" theme for these posts!
Mura is a trendy place to buy clothing that is beautiful and not too expensive. Granted, it is again only for women and the dresses tend to be shorter than my father would let me out of the house in, I do find that I like some of these pieces. As they say "make your fairytale come true", and I believe that is part of the fashion of dresses! Here are a few of my very favorite dresses that I would definitely buy if I 1- had the money and 2- was in the same country...damn international shipping!

This first dress is called the Bower Bird dress, and I love both the front and the back. The bright blue color of the dress paired with something simple like a pair of sunglasses, headband or a silver bracelet and light shoes makes for a simple outfit that can still make a statement at the same time. On the other hand, you could also add a brown belt, a hat and head out barefoot (or maybe it's only me who enjoys being barefoot more than wearing shoes :P). It also comes in black if you want a less bright, but still classy and fashionable look!

The second dress is called the Elly Ponti Dress. I prefer the red dress (I must have something with bright colors today!), but it also comes in a very pretty black. If I were to buy this dress I would get the black just because it would be used for more formal events. This dress is again one that would be easy to dress up, and it wouldn't take much if you didn't want it to; a simple necklace and/or bracelet and earrings would work just find, along with heels or flats.

This third dress is one that normally I wouldn't pick out, yet I'm not sure if it's because of the model or the name or what but I really like it here! It's called the Strawberry Milkshake Dress (gotta love that name, I got a dress from modcloth a while back that was called something about Chocolate Milk!), and I think it is adorable! The reason why I wouldn't normally go for it is because it has quite a bit of lace and I'm not normally a lacy-type girl. I still can't explain but this dress would be one that I would seriously consider purchasing! Adding a belt (like the photo...), and some brown shoes and this is a great summertime dress!

Alright, that's what I have time for today! What are some other places you guys have heard of that are over seas? Would you travel to another country for a dress you fell in love with? Solutions? Help? :P
I hope you have a wonderful week! I'm almost done with finals, so I know that after Tuesday my life will become a thousand times less stressful, at least for a few weeks!
Happy Sunday (at 2 am!)!
Love,
Sara :)

Sending Out My Thoughts!

Alright, so I admit that I'm not exactly one who keeps regularly updated with current events, but there are some that I think really deserve attention! This is one of those posts where I will express my opinion and if you don't want to hear it, then don't read it. But I hope that you do read it because I think that everyone is entitled to their opinion and it should be heard.
I'm sure most of you in the United States have heard about the tragedy of the Connecticut shooting. For those of you who haven't, there was a shooting this past Friday at an elementary school in Connecticut, killing 28 people total, 20 were children under the age of 10. I see no reason why this would be acceptable and am shocked that something like this would actually happen! Anyways, I wanted to send out my thoughts and any prayers they would accept from me!
Love,
Sara :)

Ergogenic Aids, What Are They?

An ergogenic aid is any substance, food, chemical, equipment, or training methodology that helps the body work harder, including restorative methods, or perform better.

There are 5 ways to go about improving performance:
1. Pharmacological
        such as anabolic steroids, HGH, amphetamines
2. Mechanical
        such as improving materials for safety improvement like lighter equipment, competition suits, and gloves for ball games; also physical techniques that improve performance such as dunking in basketball and shot put techniques
3. Psychological
       such as visualization and motivational speeches that can help performance
4. Physiological
      such as attitude running, achieving a low percentage of body fat
      increased muscle mass which leads to increased force, which can allow a person to work harder
5. Nutritional
      such as dietary aids, not including eating disorders

These are ways that people can improve their own performance, in either direct or indirect ways. Yet these ways are also very controversial and there are many arguments against using such aids in sports. Some of these arguments include:
~these changes being unnatural, since it changes the athlete itself
~these changes being an unfair advantage meaning it threatens equality or concept of fair play, this objection is more towards the way in which the athlete gained the advantage, making it a form of cheating
~these changes can also threaten the safety and threaten to harm the athlete, especially if something goes wrong
~there are also ideas concerning paternalism, which is viewed by many as a restriction on human liberty, it's more of a worry that people had been coerced into something they didn't want to do
~there are also the thought of violation of ideals and norms and the ethics of competition as well as a possible violation of human rights, meaning again that possible people didn't have the right to change how they were born
~advantage over sports, meaning the notion of sport as a measure of human performance is violated, sort of like creating your own luck

The difficulty is drawing the line of where things become controversial verses being alright and acceptable.

I should say that this post is actually part of my notes for a class I'm taking, called Sport Ethics in Society. I have my final in that class tomorrow afternoon, and for me it's easier to understand things if I go over it out loud or explain it to someone, so that's kinda what I'm doing right now. Thanks for reading! Don't take offense if there is any way for you too with this post, I do apologize if so!

Love,
Sara :)

Beginning of Finals Week/Last Day of First Semester

Well, today is the last day of first semester classes! There is snow on the ground, the Minnesota air is cold (turns my nose pink!), everyone on campus is stressed and starting to get sick. This usually happens only once a semester: finals. I make it sound so dramatic, but as many of you know it is a stressful and dramatic time in college. I have one paper and four finals between this Thursday and next Tuesday. So, I may be a bit distracted from posting and from many things in general with my life. Luckily it's just this semester and next semester for me at least. I'm not doing graduate school, at least not now. I'm not exactly sure what I wanna do yet, so I don't wanna go and get a degree in something that I'm not even positive I'm going to want to do in 5, 10, or 20 years. I'll figure it out eventually!
Anyways, that's my little update about what's going on this week. Good luck to any of you who have finals or any other test coming up! The holidays are right around the corner (well, some are here already but you get my drift I hope), so just finish everything strong and work hard, then you can enjoy life even more after :P
Love,
Sara :)

Monday Musica from the Library

Alright, so due to the fact that I have a research paper, a project, and two final exams this week I am pretty much living in the library for a while. Tonight is an example of one of those nights. As one person commented about an hour ago, "weren't you here four hours ago?" Then winced when I said I hadn't moved and proceeded to give me a cookie :D. Sorry funny little story I wanted to share! anyways, instead of putting up just a single song for you by a single group, for this musica Monday, I will send you to my Pandora profile and invite you at see what I listen to :) I highly recommend the Piano Men station for studying, it works super well for me!
My name is: samodahl. Go check it out!
Wish me luck on finals :D any of you taking them, I wish you luck as well!
Happy Monday!
Love,
Sara :)

Snow!!!

It's snowing very nicely and we put penguins and snowflakes on our window!! :) I enjoy the snow lots! It is probably one of my favorite times of the year!
What is your favorite season? What about your favorite thing during the holiday season?
Love,
Sara :)

Family Visits

I have had a busy last few days and have so fallen slightly behind on school work (not to mention blogging!). However, I wanted to give a quick update oh how the week has gone :) Every year, St Olaf College puts on a Christmas Festival that lasts 4 days. This is a world-renouned Christmas celebration that features 5 St Olaf choirs, including the Chapel Choir, Cantori, Viking Choir (all male freshmen), Manitou Singers (all female freshmen), and of corse the St Olaf Choir. It has sort of become a family tradition to go to this concert all four years that I've been in school year. I do enjoy cause this is one time that I do get to spend lots of time with my family! I am also in the St Olaf Handbell Choir, and we have a concert every year during Christmas Fest. This year it went quite well! Unfortunately, I don't think that we have a recording of the playing. There are 3 different bell choirs at St Olaf: Manitou Handbell Choir, Chapel Handbell Choir, and St Olaf Handbell Choir, and each one plays several times each semester in the chapel and at outside concerts. I'm excited for next semester when the St Olaf Handbell Choir goes on tour. I'm not positive where yet, but I do look forward to it.
Anyways, this weekend was really a lot of fun and it was great to see my family and gives me the little push that I needed to go through and finish up the semester as strong as I can.
I'm sorry for being so slow at blogging and putting up posts, but hopefully it will get better. I know there wasn't any musica yesterday but it was a busy day and I was having trouble keeping up. I'm working on getting back and into the flow of things. I will try and keep blogging during the rest of the week, but we will see!
Happy Tuesday!
Love,
Sara :)

Night Out with the Roommate

So tonight was a night out with the roommate after an already busy week! We went out and ate dinner at Applebee's then headed to Target to get some supplies for Christmas time! This included wrapping paper and a bag for another gift I already bought.

For an appetizer, we had Pretzel Sticks with Beer cheese sauce. If you go to Applebee's you must get these!! They were by far one of my favorite things I have ever had there! I highly recommend them!

For dinner Morgan (my roommate, pictured above) had steak with shrimp. It looked really good! And she said it was quite good :)

I had a shrimp pasta plate that was delicious and spicy! Which is what I look for in a good dinner :) tasty, many flavors, pasta, and shrimp. Yes, I am a vegetarian, but more it is that i don't eat most meat, but I still eat seafood, eggs, and milk. More for the health aspect than anything else.

Then Morgan got some wine :) And I got myself a frozen mango margarita :)

We had good fun! I think that more will come in the future which is nice cause it was good to get away from the campus for a while and just talk to a friend! Where do you guys like to go to get away from your life? What would you suggest?

Happy Hump Day!

Love,

Sara :)

Climbing Update

Alright so today's climbing update is a bit more than just a quick update on my climbing stats, I'm also going to share and "if only..." that has to do with climbing gear. Here goes!
This past week-ish (yea a while ago, oops!), I was back home for Thanksgiving Break. So, while I was there, on Friday, Matt and I decided to go rock climbing, because we obviously haven't gone together in a long while. We went down there and found that they had put up some new routes (apparently they try to put up and new route or two every month) down at Turner Hall, meaning of course we had to try at least a few of them. We did, and it was pretty fun! I got a little lazy at one point but we continued to climb about 4 or 5 times up the wall (which is like half the size of the wall here at Olaf, but still functional and pretty fun) and did several boldering challenges. We ended up climbing alone, a little sad, but friends were able to stop by which was nice. I feel like I'm finally getting better at climbing!
After climbing, we talked for a while about the different equipment and looked at what Turner Hall had for sale. We learned that harnesses cost between $65-$95 and that doesn't include shoes, chalk bags, chalk, or a belay device. We did a little research when we got home and found that there is a place at Bayshore Mall (the closest mall to us) that had a store called Erehwon, which carried climbing gear! This was news to us and so we decided to investigate later on.
On Saturday, we headed down to Erehwon (nowhere spelled backwards) and talked to someone about the harnesses they had there. We learned that one big difference between harnesses was the leg straps; meaning some harnesses had adjustable ones while others didn't. We definitely decided that we would want the adjustable ones (you never know! we might grow!). The other difference was the double backing loops, these were I believe all automatically double backed now, which is pretty nice! It save a lot of hassle and extra work when putting on the harness.
Unfortunately I can't show any pictures because the website is a little lacking in the accuracy area (at least when we first checked it). But if me or Matt gets one for Christmas or at any point, I will be sure to post some pictures for you to see.
Have an great Tuesday :D
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

It is officially Christmas music time! That makes me happy because Christmas music never fails to cheer me up, and I like that about this 'genre' of music. I do believe that it can be called its own 'genre' because of the sheer number of songs written for just this one time of year, and if that's not a good reason for being its own genre, then it's because of all the bells in the songs. There is a certain sound to a Christmas song that is something that cannot be really put into any other song for the rest of the year because it is so particular. And so, today I will be putting up my first Christmas song Musica Monday.
The band that I'm posting is called the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (or TSO). I have listened to them since I was little, and have been to several concerts with my family. It's become a sort of holiday tradition to go and see this rock orchestra play. The main guitarists, keyboardists, and drums stay pretty much the same each year, along with the solo violin (who I always wanted to be!), however in each new city, they borrow some people from the local orchestra and they are invited to play with the band for the concert. They do play more than just Christmas music, but their Christmas music is my favorite that they play. The concerts themselves are really wonderful light shows proving that any seat in the house can be a good seat! Enjoy!

If you just visit YouTube and look them up, you can find many different songs, I would highly encourage this!
What is your favorite Christmas band? I'll try and feature if you comment!
Love,
Sara :)

Break Update

Hey guys!
So as you may have learned/guessed, it's Thanksgiving Break currently (yay!!), which means I'm home for the first time this school year :). I do enjoy being home, but unfortunately, being in the middle of a busy and slightly stressful semester of college, I have homework to do over break as well. I will give you a quick little run down of what has been happening so far during my break.
To start off with, I got home late Tuesday night (meaning a bit after 10 pm). I got to say hi to my family and meet our new cat, Dorito (I will have some pictures up of Dorito in a later post, probably tomorrow), and try out a new coffee machine that we have (pretty snazy!). On Wednesday, we cleaned the entire house, which really took most of a day, we also got food ready for the family that was coming up for Thanksgiving on Thursday (yesterday). I got to cut up the cheese and sausage and arrange them on the plate. That night I visited Matt for a while and we talked about Thanksgiving, school, made some plans for Friday, and just enjoyed each other's company.
Thanksgiving day (happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!) was a very busy day that included lots of food preparation and I was placed in charge of the stuffing, gravy, creamed corn, and sweet potatoes. Also, I was by the microwave, so when relatives brought in mashed potatoes and rolls, I heated them up. We had many people at our house yesterday for thanksgiving, I believe it was around 16-20 people, it was nice to be able to catch up with the family and to see them again. We haven't all been able to get together in several months, I believe the last time was June and before that was last December! While not everyone was able to make it, the majority was and that was very nice to have :)
Today is a homework day. I'm hoping to get most, if not all of my outline done for my history research paper done. The outline itself is due on Monday, and is a big part of our grade for the paper. I'm going to be working on that until around 4, when I'm heading out to dinner with Matt, and then we are going rock climbing with his sister and her boyfriend. I hope to get a majority of this (if not all!) outline done before 4 pm, and then to have a good time tonight! :)
How was everyone's Thanksgiving? What are some of your plans for the rest of the week? Did anyne go to Black Friday?
Have a great day!
Love,
Sara :)

Drawing Finished

I finished my Star Wars drawing!! It does look like snow a bit so that's what in gonna have it be :). The Starcraft is flying through the snow! Take it or leave it! And sorry I'm still figuring out how to do pictures from my phone...help would not be an opposition! Thanks!
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

Ok I failed...I got distracted by Netflix last night and never posted my Musica Monday...fail on my part. :( I can say however that not only do I have a Musica Monday for you, but I have a drawing that I've finished and another I started and finished sketching out last night! :) I could also blame the fact that Thanksgiving Break starts TODAY!! I'm heading home in less than an hour (I think :P), which is nice, it's the first time I've been home since September!
So, the musica I have for you today (ik not Monday...sorry!) is from a British singer/songwriter named Frank Turner. I was lucky enough to see him and his band in concert this past February, when I went to a Dropkick Murphy's concert! It was really quite awesome and the entire concert was pretty sweet! There are so many good songs that I could post your you guys and I wasn't sure which one to do, so I'm going to (again) put up more than one and I encourage you to watch as many as you'd like or none if you'd rather.

What new bands have you discovered/come across lately? I'd love to hear!
Love,
Sara :)

Climbing Update

All I really should say about my climbing from Saturday is that I made it up the wall twice. And I did! I failed however to follow any sort of route and I have discovered that I really need to workout more if I want to improve! I'm hoping to go climbing again this Friday when I head back home for thanksgiving this Tuesday through Sunday :) what are your thanksgiving plans?
Love,
Sara :)

Girl's Night In/Out

So, last night my roommate, my best college friend, and I decided to have a girls' night after a long stressful week. We went out a bought some wine and ordered in some pizza! The pizza was very late because apparently they were super backed up as far as delivery, but it was still quite good :) For wine, we got a bottle of white wine, a bottle of rose wine, and 2 bottles of red wine. Between the three of us, we drank a cup of the rose wine (which was extremely sweet and fruity flavored), a little more than 1/3 of a bottle of white wine (sweet but very yummy, probably my favorite), and most of a bottle of red wine. I have never really been a big fan of wine, but after drinking some last night, I have been converted! Over Fall Break, Matt and I went out to dinner at Olive Garden and had some very good white wine, which we both liked a lot, but we were unable to remember then name of it, so I am now more willing to try wines to figure out what it was we had and to try and remember what that wine was. Our night in last night was completed by watching the movie The Campaign. I give this movie a rating of 4, it was hilarious and a true political comedy (and as a person who doesn't like politics too much, it was very good!), and I recommend it for anyone who has made fun of American politics before.
For the night out part of last night, we went out with a few more friends for 2 games of bowling. We learned that none of us are good at bowling, but we had a great time. I actually placed 2nd in both games, bowling 'granny style' (occasionally with enough force to knock me on my bottom :P) and never scoring higher than 91. It was a great night to hang out with friends and to relax after a tough week at school!
What would you guys recommend for our next girl's night out or night in? Let me know!
I'm going to go climbing again today, so I will have a new climbing update (finally!) tomorrow! Have a great weekend, my friends!
Love,
Sara :)

When is it too Early for Christmas Music?

Alright, so I have a confession to make. I have started to listen to Christmas music. I'm not exactly sure why I started now (well 2 days ago to be precise), but I guess I was just feeling Christmas-y (yes, that is a word :P). I have to say that no matter how old I get the classic Christmas songs from my childhood are still my favorite Christmas songs of all time. I mean I won't lie, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is still probably my favorite Christmas band to listen to, but more because they are something different than the usual Christmas music we play. What I wanted to ask/see if anyone had an opinion on was when is it too early for Christmas music? Anyone else listening to Christmas music already?
Happy Thursday!
Love,
Sara :)

Where Have I Been? 2

I haven't updated you guys on my whereabouts on the interwebs for a while and I wanted to share a blog that I found. I do search the webs every so often, looking at different blogs that I've either found before or looking for new ones, usually as a study break (this time a break from studying Psychology or writing papers). This time I'd like to share with you a blog called A Cup of Jo. Written by a magazine writer out of NYC who blogs about everything from sex tips to dinner etiquette, traveling to fashion, this is my favorite type of blog, one that touches on just about everything because that's kinda of how I enjoy looking at things. I'm not so good at that whole looking at one thing at a time and keeping in a consistent routine, I tend to be a bit more sporadic in my thinking (in case you haven't figured that out from my blog yet :P ).
Here are some of my favorite posts from A Cup of Jo

• Diner Etiquette is more important to learn that people think!
• Who doesn't like French Toast?
• Simple Wedding Rings (what I'd go for more :P)
• The idea of a Cookie Swap is pretty awesome I think
• I am intrigued by these cookies

So yea, you guys should all check it out! It's a pretty neat blog and well written.

Enjoy!

Love,

Sara :)

Fall Concert: Trampled by Turtles

Each school year, Olaf has two major concerts: a fall concert and a spring concert. For each concert they bring in professional bands/groups to perform at a ticket cost of $5 per person. This year's fall concert was this past Friday night (yea I'm a little slow on the posting sorry...), the artist? Trampled by Turtles. For those of you who don't know, Trampled by Turtles is a bluegrass group consisting of a banjo, 2 guitars (one a bass), a fiddle, and a mandolin. As a fiddle/violin player myself some of the songs they played I recognized the style and the tune of, and was able to pick out many notes and the techniques they were using. It was pretty neat. I took a few pictures and have posted them here, They aren't the best quality but they were taken with my iphone, so cut me a little slack :P. Bluegrass isn't normally one of my choice styles of music to listen to, but the concert was still quite good! I was a fan of the openers! You can see that post here, or by looking at yesterday's Musica Monday post...

This last one is probably one of my favorites, along with the picture with the blue lights, because they capture what I saw to be the essence of the band! I really enjoyed the concert and look forward to finding out who is coming for the spring concert (we won't know until February or March)!

What concerts have you guys been to recently? What did you think of them?

Love,

Sara :)

First Snow of the Year

Technically it's more the first snow of this semester, like first real snow, but it is still none the less exciting!! Woke up this morning only to see a blanket of snow outside my window in the woods! I like snow, and even though I will have to drive home in said snow next week for thanksgiving (assuming it is still here) I still enjoy that it is here :)
Enjoy my snow pictures!
Live,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

Hey, so I wasn't good this weekend, I'm sorry :( I was terrible at posting, but in my defense it has been a pretty long weekend! On Friday night I attended that campus fall concert: Trampled by Turtles, a bluegrass group. However, I was more captured by their opener: Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles. I really enjoyed their style and she had a pretty awesome voice! While I had never heard of them before Friday, I quickly became a fan of their music, this is one way that I have found that I become a fan of different bands/groups, in the past The Films was a big one that I found thanks to them being an opener (I find them better in concert than on CD). Anyways, Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles have a good group of people including an accordion, a guitar, drums, a ukulele, a cello, and a double bass. Overall, they are all fun to watch but I would have to say that in concert the drummer and the cellist were the most fun to watch because they both got really into the music! Here's a video of one of my favorite songs, and I found it in a live version which I think makes it all the more real.

Enjoy! What concerts have you guys been to this year?
Love,
Sara :)

Drawing of the Naboo Starfighter

I am a Star Wars geek. There, I said it. I have loved the first three original movies since the first time I watched them. One of my favorite planets and ships actually only appears in Episode 1. The planet Naboo is one of the most sleek and beautiful planets I have ever seen in an Science Fiction show. The Naboo starfighter is one of my favorite ships of all time. I decided to take a a chance and draw on for myself :) Now, I'm no artist, but this is my attempt, I haven't finished yet because I seem to not have a black colored pencil...so for now the partially colored in picture. :) Enjoy!

Try drawing almost every day and soon you will get lots better! I will try and remember to post the finished picture once I've gotten more colored pencils :)

Love,

Sara :)

Silver Lining Scarf from Modcloth

I do love scarfs, have for long time! I just got a new scarf this past week, which is exciting! I routinely go onto a site called ModCloth, which if you have never been to, you should! It's a really awesome site that sells vintage as well as vintage inspired, cute clothing! I've got several things from them hanging in my closet.

This buy was for a $14 dollar scarf, called the Silver Lining Scarf. I'm glad that I could order one before they were out of stock! Sadly they aren't being sold anymore :(, but that just shows how sweet they looked I suppose. True to the name there are some silver sequins knitted into some of the areas, giving it a sparkle! Well, here's my not so good picture for me wearing the scarf.

Thanks for reading guys! Happy Tuesday, well late tuesday :P

Love,

Sara :)

Musica Monday

And I'm back with my Musica Mondays :P I hope you enjoy! This song was actually found by my roommate this year, who is pretty awesome. She was looking around for music and found this group called The Pierces, and we have been listening to them since then. I would classify them as a bit of a darker sounding but still different band, who have pretty stellar fashion! I do love their dresses and outfits in general. Now, I couldn't decide about which song to post, so I'm going to post the first two songs that I heard from them.
The first is called 'Secret', it's kinda dark, but I still am a fan of it! Especially the music video!

The second is called 'Turn on Billie', this one isn't nearly as dark, but has the same sort of sound. Another one of my favorites, so enjoy!

Keep looking for new music! And let me know if you want me to post any new ones, I'm always open to suggestions! Have a great Monday, friends!
Love,
Sara :)

Quotes from Albus Dumbledore

I am a big fan of the Harry Potter series. My mother and I used to read them as soon as we could get our hands on a new book in the series, my favorite characters were Ron and Hermione and my mother's was Albus Dumbledore. I daresay that as I have gotten older I have come to appreciate why she found Dumbledore to be one of the most fascinating and awesome characters in the series. There are many people out there in the Potter fan-world who know a lot more than I do about Dumbledore, but one of my favorite things that came from him are his quotes. I'm a big fan of quotes, so for today I thought that maybe you would like to hear some of my favorite quotes that came from this amazing wizard :) If not, well, I have new music all lined up for tomorrow :P Enjoy!

~"By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many."
~"Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."
~"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
~"I don't need a cloak to become invisible."
~"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
~"Ah music, a magic far beyond all we do here!"
~"You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow up to be."
~"Time is making fools of us again."
~"Don't count your owls before they are delivered."
~"Of corse it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
~"Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy."
~"Even the best of us must sometimes eat our words."
~"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of places, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

This is my nerdiness for one day, I hope you guys enjoyed! Leave some more HP quotes if you want! These are just some of my favorite Dumbledore ones :P
I hope you all had a great weekend, and good luck on the upcoming week!
Love,
Sara :)

First Frost (At Least for Me)

It has finally happened! Today was the first day that I saw frost! The first day that when I walked outside and saw a thin layer of frost on the poor dead and frozen grass! Minnesota, winter is almost upon us!! So get ready for winter, I really hope that there is enough snow for caf tray sledding this year!
Start looking around the house for your scarfs, mittens, and hats! It's getting to be that time of the year!
Now, enjoy the picture of tonight's sunset :P
Love,
Sara :)

Food for Thought 2 - Red Lemonade Remixed

     Hello everyone!  This is Matt back with another food for thought, and this time my post is going to feature a man named Ronald Jenkees.  He is a truly amazing musician who has been making killer beats with his keyboard and computer for some time now, and has finally put up a new song.  This may not seem like a big deal, but the last time he posted on YouTube was around four years ago, and it has really felt like a long time!  What I find so interesting about this man is not only his finesse with music, but also his positive and inspiring mood that always shows in his videos.  It really gets me in a good state of mind, and can hopefully get you readers in one too!

   Here is the link to his new YouTube video, which looks like will be a song on his upcoming CD. Its called Red lemonade Remixed, and I am sure digging it, as I do with most of his music.  If you are interested, I would suggest checking out some of the other great music on his channel, I promise you won't regret it.

As always, have a great day! And listen to some new music!

  

Climbing Update

Alright, a little late, but sadly I haven't been climbing a lot lately. I did however, climb this past Sunday with my friend from here. We both have officially mastered all the routes rated a 7, even though this is one of the lowest levels for climbing, the wall here is 3 stories tall or so. This does make it a pretty difficult climb the whole way up! But we both made it up two of them and then got part way up a level 8, which was pretty difficult. This weekend we hope to go back and try to get farther up the level 8, and since we are both certified it makes it easier to climb continuously.
That's all for now! Hope you have a great day!
Love,
Sara :)
P.S. I think Matt is posting this week? I'm not positive though :P

Halloweekend...After

Alright, so I promised to post my costume after the weekend, and here it goes! So I ended up dressing up like a fairy. It wasn't my original plan, but it's what I ended up using. As one of my best friends from school says "You're wearing PINK!", and yea I did. But it worked out that way and I actually felt very cute in the outfit. We actually tried to temporarily dye my hair and did! Only thing was that we didn't count on was that when sprayed with yellow temporary dye, my hair would actually turn green :P So, that was interesting and unexpected, but still worked out in the end! So this is my fairy costume!

Well, I hope you all had a great weekend and I hope the week goes well!

In case you're wondering, I believe that the music post will come later, because my friend Matt will be (hopefully) posting that for an unknown video that he promises will be good :) and I believe that it will be! So be excited for when that comes up!

Love,

Sara :)

Halloweekend...Before

Alright, so I am not a doctor. Not even in the long shot! However, I am a college student and I am 21. I can say that I have had my fair chance in dealing with drunk people, and I am not here to tell you not to drink, I enjoy a good margarita and small drink anytime :P I may even put up a few drink recipes I've tried later, because at times they are pretty damn good! But due to the fact that this upcoming weekend is the weekend before Halloween, it is, as my college calls "Halloweekend" and there is a stereotypical way for college students and younger adults to act during this time. Yes, being intoxicated. Now, I personally have no serious problem as long as no one gets too obnoxious, but what I really wanted to do was to share a small insight as to signs of something called alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning is a consequence of drinking large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time that is pretty serious as well as potentially deadly. I wanted to share with you a few signs to look for alcohol poisoning.

• The person is unconscious or semiconscious and cannot be awakened when touched, spoken to, or shaken.
• The person is cold, clammy, or has pale or bluish skin.
• The person has slowed breathing (less than 8 breaths per minute or longer than 10 seconds between breaths).
• The person is vomiting while sleeping or passed out.is not fully conscious during or after vomiting.
• The person drank a large quantity of alcohol and collapsed.

If any of theses signs appear for a friend of yours or you see anyone with any of these signs, or anyone who might be close to getting to this point, if they have a drink in their hand please take it away for their sake? I mean I've known several people who have been hospitalized because of alcohol poisoning. Just look out for your friends and yourself!

Alright, have a wonderful time this weekend guys! I will try and get some pictures of my halloween costume, last minute but I'm quite happy with it :)

Happy Halloweekend!

Love,

Sara :)

iPhone Fitness Apps

So I got an iPhone not tooling ago and I have been playing with different apps to find ones that I would use and that are pretty interesting and fun for me. I have the usuals like twitter and Facebook and instagram. But I've also found some others that aren't quite as big as these. This post will concentrate on the fitness ones that I have found as of now.

First, Charity Miles. This app seems to be growing in popularity and for a good reason! It takes the miles that you run, walk, or bike and turns it into a donation to one of several listed charities, such as Every Mother Count, Autism Speaks, Feeding America, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, World Food Programme, ASPCA, The Nature Conservancy, Pencils of Promise, Habitat for Humanity, Achilles International, and The Global Fund. For each mile walked or run Charity Miles will donate approximately 50 cents to one of these charities, and will donate 25 cents for each mile ridden on bikes. This app is pretty good, and the intent is there. My only criticism is that it isn't exact, it tends to underestimate how far you run or walk, so you will most likely have to walk or run farther than  one mile in order for it to say that you made a mile. Otherwise, this is a good app for keeping track of how far you might want to run!

Second, Strava Run and Strava Cycling. These are two separate apps that I really enjoy and really like using. It uses the GPS in your iPhone to follow around where you run both outside and inside (sadly it's not so good with stairs), the measurements of these two apps are ones that I completely trust and I do use them as my way of accurately measuring how far I have run or biked in the given time. This app also gives averages, and for running it gives each times for each mile ran. I do enjoy this app and the accuracy that it provides. These are ones that I highly recommend!

Third, Sworkit. Are you looking for a quick 5 minute strength workout for your arms? Or a 45 minute full yoga sequence? This is a good app for you! Sworkit takes several different moves that work for the area you want to work and then putting it into a random sequence. There are many good moves for each area of your body and you can choose to work your full body if that's what you want for up to 60 minutes. The thing that I'm not a big fan of for this app is that it doesn't show you how switch to each move, and doesn't allot you time to switch. But it still works well and I would suggest it.



As far as other apps go, I will keep exploring and try to update you when I find others that I enjoy! But these are the ones that I use most often, and the ones that I would suggest.
Happy Hump Day!
Love,
Sara :)

Musica Monday

Hey guys!
So I didn't do an Musica Monday last week, and I apologize for that, but to be fair I was in the cities and was being busy having break for that time that it completely slipped my mind :( Although, I do have to say that Matt's post was pretty helpful in that area! Yes, I am working on getting him on here more often but we shall see what ends up happening.
Alright, for this week's Musica Monday I'm busting out the 'M's! That was my attempt at being sneaky and clever. I've got a song by Muse called "Madness" for you. I've been a long time listener to Muse, and I have to say that I am enjoying their new CD! This song for instance really does remind me of some of their other stuff but it is different enough that it's not the same, and they have come out with several new things on their new CD that makes me pretty happy!

I am putting up the lyric video instead of the music video because I personally prefer this video to the other. As for my decision of choosing Muse? Well, sometimes it pays to just use the songs and artists you know! What do you guys think? I'd like to hear your response!
Here's to a good start to a good week that is hopefully less stressful than previous (unlikely wince two midterms lie in my future for this week and another waits for next Monday...), one can always hope and put forth their best effort right?
Have a great week guys!
Love,
Sara :)

Climbing Update

Hey guys!
So I haven't had one of these climbing update in a while, so I figured I should even though I haven't been climbing nearly as much as I would have liked lately. I did finally get belay certified here at Olaf, which is pretty awesome!! Now, when my friend (who is also certified) and I want to climb we don't have to wait for a worker to belay us because we can now do it ourselves! :D This is super exciting because it means more climbing time for us as well as meaning that we don't have to worry about how busy the wall is at the time, as long as there is a rope open and we can try and climb.
Sadly, because I have not been climbing regularly for the past month because of school and break, I do feel I bit like a newbie because I find some of the routes that were much easier last semester and even last month to be really difficult right now. This makes me sad and as such I hope to start climbing more often, making it regular like once or twice a week!
I also have added something to my Bucket List that has to do with climbing. I was watching an old episode of the Amazing Race when one of the tasks that groups could do was either white-water rapids or rick climb 60 feet in Chile. I have now decided that I want to go rock climbing in Chile at some point after college. I looked on YouTube and I mean seriously, does this not look like fun?! Haha

Alright all, I hope that you are having a wonderful start to your weekend! You should really look at some of the things out there and try something new! I know that I repeat this over and over again, but trying something new can lead to wonderful consequences and you can learn a lot about yourself and the people around you! So, I leave you with the infamous words of a crazy but creative teacher I used to know from television:

"Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" -Ms Frizzle

Thanks for reading all!

Love,

Sara :)

Fall Break Fun

Hey folks!

I'm back! I hope you enjoyed Matt's post, it is my hope that he will be posting every once in a while here, because he has some good ideas!

This past weekend I did spend with Matt which was a lot of fun! It was one of his first times in Minneapolis in quite a while being here and I was determined to show him a fun time. Now I'm not exactly the party girl that many college students are, my idea of a good time is hanging out and going to different sites in the city (which I really haven't seen so that was really awesome!). I picked up my boy (Matt) from the Megabus stop Friday afternoon, and we had dinner with one of my friends from college at the Mall of America (MOA). We ended up hanging out around MOA for a while just looking around at all the stores, it was a nice way to relax after a long week for me at school.

Since Matt had never actually seen my school, I took him down to St Olaf on Saturday and we spent the day there looking at the buildings and had a good time. I was able to show him where my classes were and where I lived. We had lunch on campus at the Cage and then dinner at Perkins (a great place for a fun and casual dinner date!). It was wonderful to be able to show him my world!

On Sunday we visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. This was my first time ever being there so it was very cool for me! These pictures are from our trip there, and the ones near the end are of the park that are across the bridge from the Sculpture Garden.

This is my favorite picture of us right now!

We were being silly here and it was quite a lot of fun once we figured out how to do it!

Yes, this guy is actually feeding the squirrels! It was pretty sweet! Even though it was cold outside and many of the plants in the garden were dead, we found some flowers that were still fighting the cold and leaving us with some pretty fall colors and warm feelings :).

Monday was a day of realizing that not everything goes your way, but changes ensued and it happens and we have fun. I learned today that Matt and I can find something fun to do no matter what the circumstances are and it's a big part of our relationship, we are able to communicate and have fun! Anyways, on Monday, we attempted to go to the Minneapolis Institute of Art because we thought it was be interesting. However, it was closed (not a normal thing for it to be closed on a Monday, but it was closed). This created a bit of a predicament for us and we ended up wandering around the Minneapolis area and getting lost several times, ending up in Franklin where we found a neat park and hung out there for a while, enjoying the fall colors (sorry about no pictures but we left phones in the care and I forgot my camera :( mea culpa!). We finally decided we should actually go to dinner, we splurged and went to Olive Garden. We had a glass of wine, which was surprisingly very very good, and had a lovely dinner! We then decided to finish off the night by heading back to MOA and going on the rides. We were so stuffed that we weren't sure if we could actually go on the rides without getting sick, but we did! It was a blast to be able to go on so many rides indoors at a mall with someone as enthusiastic as I was! I also had a nutella crepe, which if you haven't had it is a MUST TRY!!!

This concluded our wonderful weekend. I hope that there will be more weekends to share later on, but for now it's back to the reality of classes for me and job searches for Matt.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend! Any upcoming plans to share? What was one of your favorite fun trips with a good friend or special someone? Care to share? I love stories and I'd love to hear yours!

Thanks all for continuing to read here, my few readers :P, tell your friends!

Love,

Sara :)