Dots Dot Dots

My first outfit post! This was so very exciting because I have established a huge dress collection and want to show it off to the world. I am quite proud of it! It has also made me want to reorganize my closet constantly because I like to have all the cardigans and dresses hung side by side in order to see all the options. I love it!
These pictures were taken at my college's beautiful campus in front of this adorable, old cabin in the middle of this field. There was absolutely nothing in it, but it definitely provided a rustic background! Ricky had such a blast finally having a reason to use my fancy fancy camera, so he was (nicely) telling me what to do. I told him the only rule was that he didn't growl or make cat scratches towards me. Thankfully, the rule was not broken!

I am in love with this dress. It is the most comfortable dress I own, and it makes me feel a wee bit confident. I bought it with one of my good friends for my family Christmas party, and when he said he thought it was cute, then it was an instant winner! I love the sleeves on the dress, but it was too cold on Christmas day, so I paired it with this light green polka dot cardigan. Too much polka dots for ya??
The necklace has my real name "Jillian" and was a sweet gift from Ricky darling for Christmas. He bought it from a girl on Etsy who hand makes them. I would link to her shop, but he conveniently won't tell me where her shop is; maybe because he bought me more things from there!

Black Polka Dot Dress -- H&M
Green Polka Dot Cardigan -- Target
Black Tights -- We Love Colors
Shoes -- Blowfish
Necklace -- Boyfriend :)

I am so ready for February! Are y'all?
Birthday and Valentine's day! Best month of the year!

Hope you have a good rest of the week,

Wednesday Date Night

Today was a long day for both me and the boyfriend, so we decided to go out for a date night and enjoy each other! We headed downtown and just went on stroll down all the streets before because the weather was so refreshing. It was like a perfect 65 degrees with a slight breeze but not chilly at all. I almost took off my sweater because it was so great! He then convinced me to walk to the town cemetery, which is this huge hill that has more stairs than the Lincoln Memorial. Gosh, it took forever to get to the top, but it was definitely worth it! You could see the entire town from the top of this adorable hill. It was a tiny bit creepy being in a cemetery that dates back to the Civil War, but it wasn't too late in the evening.

Then we finally went out to dinner. We decided on Panera because it's relatively cheap, and he used to absolutely hate Panera, but for some reason, I got him to kind of enjoy it now. So, I try to take him up on Panera every time he suggests it now! :) I guess I forgot to snap a photo of my soup/sandwich, but I most likely gobbled it up as soon as he set it on the table!

Next week is his 21st birthday, so we are celebrating all week with presents and dinners and such. I cannot wait to give him his birthday presents. I even offered to let him open one tonight, but he wants to have more stuff to open on his birthday day!

Hope everyone has a good last couple of days in January,

Spring Semester

Gosh! This semester has barely started, and I am already falling behind on my posts. This semester isn't even as chaotic as past semesters have been, but of course, I still find some way to put more stress and deadlines on myself.
I know you all are dying to hear what thrilling classes I am taking this semester, so I am going to tell you. Be prepared because I already have strong opinions about some!

1. Music Appreciation: First class of every week starts with Music Appreciation. I had to take another fine arts kind of class, and I have already taken Theatre Appreciation. I heard Art Appreciation was way too much staring into paintings and trying to find meanings in them, so I figured music might be a bit easier. So far, it's not too bad. Just powerpoints filled with terminology and song examples from my favorite Beethoven and Mozart. Ha! I do have to attend four music concerts (FREE too!) throughout the semester in order to write reviews on each of them, but that's not too bad since for Theatre Appreciation I had to attend all the plays which cost $10 each. It was pure publicity for their department and should be academically illegal, I'll say.
2. Health Topics: Sex/Drug Education: Unfortunately, I have not actually started this class yet. It is only a half semester class since it is just a health class, so I won't start it until the end of February, which is perfectly fine with me! I had to take one more health class for general education classes, and lucky for me, this is the only one that worked with my class/work schedule. I am interested to see what exactly is going to go down. I feel like it's just gonna be like that class we had to take in 5th or 6th grade about what will happen with our bodies when we start puberty. Gosh, I hope not. I mean, hopefully everyone in the class is already way past the "good touch, bad touch" stage of growing up.
3. Human Resource Management: I enjoy management classes because they tend to be fairly easy and straightforward (hopefully since it is my major!), and also this one is taught by my advisor, so it's not too bad. Of course, another huge group project in this class where we all actually have to write a scholarly paper. How does she expect an entire paper from a group of four people to flow perfectly? Well, I actually got lucky with the group I was assigned, and I feel confident I won't be finishing the paper alone on the night before it's due!
4. Cross Cultural Management: Another management class, of course. This one is way different from my HR class. It only has about 8 students, so we all sit in a circle and just have discussions every class. It was intimidating at first because I felt like I needed to have something prepared to contribute for the discussions, but now that it has gotten more comfortable, I just say whatever comes to mind. That is appropiate, of course! :)
5. Business Ethics: This class is a complete joke. I love the professor as a person, but he does absolutely nothing. He comes to class with nothing prepared and just wings it, which does not fly in my book. He never lectures because he assigned each group a chapter, and that group presents the chapter to the rest of the class. Is this high school? Ridiculous. Did I mention there is another giant group project research paper we have to do too? I just adore those, if you can't tell.

Okay, there is my rant for the day. Now I actually need to be working on some of the work I need to do for those darn classes.

Thanks for taking the time to read my crazy rant,

Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

Last night, we decided to make these sugar free peanut butter cookie recipe that I have always had laying around but never tried it. We had all the ingredients from other things we have bought recently, so perfect time to try it out! It was actually a recipe from a local diet that I got from their website when I was reading about what the diet was all about. It looked delicious, even with the Splenda! And it is so simple; it took us about 5 minutes!

Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cookies 
Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup Peanut Butter
• 3/4 cup Splenda
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredients together. Drop batter by rounded tablespoonfuls two inches apart onto parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned.
(Ours turned out perfect after barely 12 minutes)

 
BEFORE 

AFTER

Happy baking!

So Much Weekend for Activities

Once it hits 5:00PM today, I am free for the weekend! I have been working my butt off this week at my job, working from 8-5 every single day. It was hard waking up at 6:30AM every morning and finding the motivation to make myself look presentable and want to accomplish things for the day. It was ten times harder since the boyfriend was doing the exact opposite, but thank the lord we were able to take lunch breaks together throughout the week, or I may have gone insane. I absolutely love my job, but each day at my job brings new situations and obstacles that make it frustrating at times. I am very thankful to have it as a job to keep some extra spending money in my pocket while I finish up school (did I mention 3 more semesters? YAY!) And thankfully, it is on campus, so I can easily walk to it once my class gets out and can build up more hours.
Tomorrow is going to be a nice, relaxing break from this crazy week. The boy is FINALLY using his massage gift card I gave him on Valentine's Day of 2011! I have been reminding him and remindig him, and he has always wanted to get one (that's why I got it for him), but he is just always working or doing school stuff. But I finally got him to schedule an appointment, and just to be safe, I am driving him to his appointment! Thankfully, there is a lovely mall with my name all over it for me to go to while he is getting pampered. I hope he enjoys it, or I could have definitely enjoyed it! :)

I have a gift card to the movies at a Regal theater, and there is one near the massage place in the town we are driving to, so I am hoping to catch a movie right after his schedule massage. I love free weekends! I don't even mind paying for gas to get there if there is free stuff going on! I wasn't sure what movie to use the gift card on because none of them really thrilled me, but tonight him and I are going to nail one down after dinner and a nice workout. Yes, I said workout. It's our new thing! We have started to workout after dinner every night (we try to at least) since my apartment complex has a little workout area. Cross your fingers that these good habits stay for the long haul!

Oh gosh, and is it bad that I still have Christmas up? This weekend I definitely need to do what my dad calls "destroying Christmas". Especially in such a teeny apartment, it is very noticeable!

Hope everyone will have a fun filled weekend!