End of Junior Year

Tomorrow starts the last full week of classes for my spring semester of my junior year. Finals officially start next Thursday, after having Monday and Tuesday of next week as the last official class days. And then Wednesday is what my college is calling "Reading Day"? Everyone I have talked to about it have said it is a day set aside for us to be able to study all day long. Well, sorry! I will not be taking that opportunity, instead I am working all day! I rarely get a chance to do that during school, so I am taking it. I feel prepared for my finals next week, or maybe it just hasn't hit me yet? Who knows! I am not worried, I totally got this! :)

So at the end of the day on May 2nd, I will officially be a senior in college. What? I still cannot wrap that around my mind. There are days I feel like I just graduated from high school yesterday, and at this time next year, I will be graduating from college. I am probably going to bawl like a baby again, especially at this graduation because this graduation is more final than high school. After high school, I knew I was heading off to college and hitting the books for another four more years. Next year, I will graduate and then not know what to do with myself. I have ideas and dreams I would like to accomplish, but I have no definite plan at the moment. I don't think I want to go to grad school, but I was thinking about culinary school. I actually had my plans set on finding a highly accredited culinary school and immediately heading there after college graduation. I had a list of schools I liked and even started a pro/con list as well. And now, that all may change too! My new job at the local bakery in town has changed my perspective.

It is still my dream of all dreams to open my own bakery and design the entire place, menu, and reputation all by myself. I would do all that tomorrow if I could, but of course, I have to be realistic. I don't have a pot of gold I can reach down and grab out of to achieve those dreams. I have a boyfriend who I have fallen madly in love with who has family here in this college town, and I really can't see us leaving here unless we have to or find an amazing opportunity to lure us out.

You see, I am one of those people who want to know what happens at the end of movies before the movie even starts. I want to know if a couple falls in love and ends up together, if that bad guy dies a painfully horrible death, if that family member survives, or if there is nothing but smiles at the end. I will admit (back when we had only VCRs) I have fast forwarded to the end just to see what happens, and then go back to watch the beginning. For some reason, it comforts me. I know I am completely ruining the entire point of movies, but I cannot help it! I am a huge crier, so I always want to know how every thing ends. I am able to do that with movies, but I wish I could do that with my life. If I would have known the things I know now when I was little, I would have changed my beginning in so many ways. Right now, I wish I could fast forward and see how things end up, so I can make the right decisions and either feel comforted with how it ends or motivated to want to change it.

I apologize for all the deep thoughts, but it has been on my mind a lot lately. I hope it will all work out, and everyone involved will be happy! That's all I want.

Hope everyone has a good week this week! Enjoy each day to the fullest.

Fast Forward

My goodness! It has been a long time since I have updated on here.
Hold on to your seats, it's gonna be super fast!

It was my 21st birthday at the beginning of FEBRUARY. My older brother and his friends took me, my boyfriend, and my friend Emily out for drinks. It was a blast! I loved the group personalities, which made it the perfect birthday outing. And plus the drinks were free for the birthday girl! :)
We took this photo right before we went downtown. And this cake was the cake my office had for all the February birthdays at work. It was delicious, and I love the color scheme.

 
My granny, the heart and soul of our HUGE family, passed away in February. The entire family was surrounded by her, which is the way she wanted to go. She always loved being the center of attention, and it was a perfect way to say goodbye. It was a very long, sad week after she passed with so many family gatherings. My sweet boyfriend stood by my side through the entire thing and let me squeeze him until I stopped crying. He was my rock through every thing!

The very next day after all the family festivities, I flew to upstate New York to visit one of my very best friends and her two adorable babies. This trip was already planned months and months before all the family craziness, so it was lucky that it still worked out after every thing. It was so nice to get away from the depressing atmosphere of being at home with the family.
It was snowing the whole time we were there, and it was pretty to look at when we were inside! I was a wimp and did not go outside much unless we had to in order to travel around. Haha! I was also not prepared at all for the blizzard, so I was borrowing my friends clothes right and left. She is too sweet!

Erin has been one of my best friends since middle school. It completely broke my heart when her mom decided to move up to New York in the middle of high school, but we have stayed super close. She is now married and has two beautiful children, so I try to visit her as much as I can. Luckily, her dad is still down south, so I can see her when she ventures down here as well!

For my birthday, my family got me cake decorating classes at Michaels! It is every Monday night for two hours for a whole month, and I was nervous about maybe looking like an amateur. The first class ended up being so fun! I did not feel behind at all, and actually felt confident with my skills next to the other ladies in the class. We had to bring sugar cookies the first class in order to learn the basics of how to prepare an icing bag, how to put on the icing tips, and how to hold them. I already knew all that, so it was fun just to practice more. We then piped icing on our cookies with designs the instructor went over with us. The mom next to me even wanted to take mine home instead of hers to show her kids! It was so fun. The next class we have to bring a cake to practice how to ice the entire cake and then learn how to pipe flowers with leaves and such. Can't wait!

Last Wednesday was my boyfriend and I's TWO YEAR anniversary. It's crazy to me! It does not seem like it has been that long at all, but isn't that a good thing? We spent all day together. We went to lunch together and then drove down to the GA Aquarium. He had never been, so it was exciting for him. I loved seeing his face when he was looking at every thing. It was precious! He was surprised that I took him there, but he was even more surprised when I took him to the Sun Dial restaurant at the Westin hotel. It is on top of the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere, and the entire restaurant turns so you can see the entire city in an hour. He had heard of the restaurant, but he was super surprised because he was not expecting that at all.
He was the one who took all the pictures at the restaurant because I am little afraid of heights, and it was hard for me to sit on the edge. I couldn't even look out the windowed elevator when going up and down 72 floors. I had to cover my eyes! He was teasing me the entire time.

 

And yesterday, the boyfriend and I ventured out around town to look at houses for rent. I am in an apartment right now, which I love because it's modern and clean. I was hoping we could find a house like that too, but they all seemed under par for me. I want to feel safe too in the neighborhood and a lot of the places were way back in the middle of nowhere. We would stumble upon them and wonder why we never even noticed these houses! Also, it would be much more maintenance for a rental house. I guess I just can't wait to have a house to call my own.

And... THE END! Thanks for bearing with me through that fast replay of my life lately. Our spring break has now ended as of today, so it's back to the books tomorrow unfortunately. After this semester, it is senior year. Senior year of college. I cannot believe it. Life is going too fast!

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!