The Last One

Well, I am just about through my first week as a college student. I had hoped to have this post up sooner (I started it last weekend!), but I've just been so busy. Who knew there was so much reading in college?! One of these days I'll hopefully get around to blogging some more about college.

This past weekend was my last weekend of summer. Although the hot summer temperatures seem to be sticking around, it still feels as though summer is over since school has started. At this point, I'm ready for cooler weather so I can break out my boots and scarves :)

My last weekend before college was a really good one, and hopefully it is only a glimpse of things to come!

First off, speaking of fall, I have had two of these cookies from Cheryl's in the past week. Cinnamon pumpkin cookie - it tastes like fall to me.

Last Friday morning I had freshman convocation at UC. Parts of it were a little boring, but I was able to meet up with some people in my program/learning community that I had met earlier in the summer at orientation. Afterwards one of the girls and I went to lunch at this super delicious restaurant with some of the best mac & cheese ever. It was so fun getting to know a new friend!

Then I headed home and worked on some cake pops. My friend Abby was heading to a Candy Land themed party, and she asked me to make cake pops. I was so happy with the way they turned out!

I especially loved these little sundaes. I'll definitely be making more of these in the future.

I also went back up to UC that night to meet up with some friends for the "Fireworks and Foam Party." It was a fun night!

On Saturday my family and I headed up to the Greene to get Rita's :)

The sky was so pretty on the way home!

The weekend wrapped up with another cake pop project......Macy's cake pops! Since my dad works there, he asked me to make some for a bake sale they were having to support United Way. The red star logo ones turned out to be my favorites.

Hope you all have had a great week!

I Survived!

I survived my first day of college yesterday!

It went really well too. My professor for my first class even brought us in doughnuts - yum!

I have three classes on Mondays, and it was so weird not being in class for that long. I'm used to being in class seven hours, not three :)

It seems like my professors are pretty laid back, and I'm thinking it may even be a bit easier than high school. I think I'll definitely have more time at least.

I worked in between classes yesterday, and that worked out perfect too!

And to top it all off, I picked myself up a smoothie from Starbucks as well. I've resisted Starbucks all summer in an effort to save money. I haven't even had a Starbucks in probably a month or two. I decided I deserved a little reward though for being so good over the summer and for getting through my first day of classes.

I'm hoping the rest of this week goes as well as yesterday did!

The Next Five Years

Well, today's the day.

A day that many people consider a milestone in their lives.

The first day of college.

Although the day is finally here, I still have a difficult time grasping the fact that I am actually a college student now.

It just does not seem completely real to me yet.

Today is the start of a five year long journey (I'm going to co-op, so it will take me five years instead of four to get my degree).

I couldn't even guess what the next five years have in store for me if I tried.

I know I face my fair share of triumphs and failures.

There will be good days and bad days.

Sometimes I will feel like everything is in place, and sometimes I will feel like everything is falling apart.

I am nervous, for sure.

I do not like the uncertainty of tomorrow.

However, something deep inside of me is excited too.

In the next five years, I am going to meet some pretty amazing people and make some great friends, which (thankfully!) I have already begun to do through orientation and freshman convocation.

In the next five years, I will start co-oping and begin my search for a fulfilling job after graduation.

In the next five years, I will do some traveling, and most likely finally get to Paris (!!!!).

In the next five years, my character and personality will continue to grow and develop.

In the next five years, I will make some pretty awesome memories and share many laughs.

I can still remember the first day of high school. I was nervous too. I did not know if I would know people in all of my classes. I did not know what was in store for me. I am pretty sure I probably even wished I was still in grade school because it was comfortable and safe.

Now, four years later, I feel much of the same. Will I know people in all of my classes? Absolutely not. Do I know what is in store for me? No way. Do I wish I could go back to the comfort and safety of high school? Yes, a little.

I have learned though history often repeats itself.

From my own experience, I have come to see that life seems to get better with each passing year.

Looking back now, I wish I could have told high school freshman me not to worry because far better things lay ahead in high school than what I left behind in grade school. There were times in the midst of high school where I probably did not think that, but having finished those chapters of my life, I can say without a doubt that high school was better.

I have also heard from just about every college student or graduate that college is better than high school as well.

I have a hunch that 23-year old me will be saying the same thing and wishing that she could tell me today that far better things lie ahead.

So with a few butterflies in my stomach, a fresh coat of polish on my nails, my computer on my back, and my head held high, I head off this morning for the first day of the next five years......

Summer 2013

Well, today is officially my last day of summer. It seems weird that I start school on a Monday as I've started school on Wednesday for the past 12 years!

I wanted to do a little summer recap before it's all over though. This has been a crazy summer filled with so many great memories.

Summer kicked off with my high school graduation.

I went on a fabulous senior trip to Savannah and Tybee Island with my friend Danielle! (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

I celebrated my graduation with a party surrounded by friends and family (here and here).

I relaxed on the beach in the Dominican Republic with my family and our friends. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

I enjoyed a nice 4th of July with family.

I went to the Jonas Brothers concert!

I visited some local bakeries (here and here).

I went to Easton with Danielle.

I spent a lot of time downtown.

I shopped at The Greene with my mom and got Rita's!

I said goodbye to friends leaving for college.

I went to Easton with my mom.

My family and I went to Steak & Shake at 2 AM.

And I made a whole lot of cake pops (here, here, here, here, and here).












The summer of 2013 definitely brought a lot of changes to my life, and I'm sad to see it go!

College Stuff

With college just around the corner (or the weekend), I figured I would post some college stuff today - just some helpful sites I've found or things I've purchased for college especially since I know some college girls read my blog!

1. College Tips
I found this article that contains 42 tips for freshman, and I think a lot of them are really great!

This article is written by the same author, but it's 27 tips learned sophomore year. Again, this list has a lot of helpful tips.

2. Be Healthy
I found this website on Pinterest that has links to a ton of different articles on being healthy (both physically and mentally) in college.

3. Student Discounts
Who knew you could get so many discounts by flashing your student ID? This page lists 40 different places that offer student discounts.

4. Organization
This article lists 7 different apps to help you stay organized in college if you like to stay organized on your phone!

Personally, I'm still old fashioned with pen and paper. By now you're probably tired of hearing me rave about my Erin Condren Life Planner, so I won't go on and on about it again. If you want to read more of my thoughts on it though, you can read here and here.

5. Backpack
Up until now, I've always been an LL Bean backpack lover. LL Bean was THE backpack to have in grade school and high school. However, being up on campus, I've noticed that not many people do LL Bean backpacks anymore, and my high school one was getting kind of ratty anyway. What I really wanted was a North Face backpack, and then I got a bit of sticker shock when I first started looking. I just couldn't quite justify spending $80+ on a backpack, even if it was going to last me all through college. I ended up finding a discontinued color on eBags for $40 though! I got the Women's Jester, and I already really like it. I don't see it on the site anymore, but mine is blue and similar to this one:

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6. Pens
I have recently come across a new favorite pen that I really wanted to share. They are Lilly Pulitzer (so they're cute too!), and they are double ended with a pen and highlighter. I just love the ones I have and would definitely repurchase them! You can order them here.

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7. Textbooks
I was able to get 6 textbooks for this semester for about $200 out of my own pocket. I think that's pretty good! I would really look into renting textbooks if you still need some - I rented from Campus Book Rentals (you can read more about them here) and Barnes & Noble. I was super happy with all of my rented books. I also bought a book used on Amazon, which saved me $50. It was in perfect condition aside from the cover being a little bent, but who cares?

Those are just a few of the college resources and supplies I've found and liked.

To all my friends who are off to college (no idea if you're even reading anymore, but if you are....), good luck!

End of Summer Fun

I have yet to come to terms with this whole summer-is-almost-over thing. I only have a few more days until school starts, although I know a lot of people who have already started. Crazy.

At the beginning of the summer there were a bunch of things I wanted to do. Kind of like a mini summer bucket list. Well, I was starting to get sad a few weeks ago when I realized I had hardly done any of them. So I made myself a list of things I really wanted to do before summer was over, and I've just about done them all. Success!

On Tuesday my mom and I headed up to Easton. I was just there last month with my friend Danielle, but since my mom hadn't been this summer, she really wanted to go, and I wasn't complaining! We stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast on the way up there. We always go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast when we go on vacation every summer, but since we flew this year, I hadn't gone and was dying to.

The rest of the day was spent eating lots of yummy food. They just have the best places to eat up there, so I feel like that's all I ever do at Easton - eat sweets especially.

We went to Le Chocoholique and got some gourmet chocolates. So rich, delicious, and beautiful!

We also had some Jeni's ice cream, which is quickly becoming my favorite Columbus treat!

Every time I'm in there I want to try all of their flavors. This time I got both The Milkiest Chocolate In The World and Brown Butter Almond Brittle. Both were fantastic! I would normally never try a flavor like Brown Butter Almond Brittle. I usually hate anything with nuts. Honestly though, it was one of the most unique ice cream flavors I have ever tasted, and it was absolutely amazing.

We did do some shopping as well. I really love this Celebrate Local store. They only sell things made in Ohio, and I just think it is so cute and different.

We bought a jar of Cinnamon Sticky Bun Syrup in there that I can't wait to try.

I browsed through the Paris travel guide books in Barnes & Noble. Is it weird that I really want a travel guide to Paris despite the fact that I'm not actually going any time soon?

I never get tired of walking around Easton.

We had a late lunch/early dinner at Piada, and the cashier must have misunderstood me when I asked for a glass of water. I ended up getting water literally in a glass bottle that came all the way from Tuscany, Italy. I felt very fancy drinking my Italian water - ha!

We also got some brownies from Sugardaddy's to go. I always get the Rich Mint, which is so delicious.

We stopped at Sonic (I told you all we did was eat!) on the way home for drinks. I so wish we had a Sonic close to where I live because their Strawberry Slushes are super good.

Last night my family went to the Red's game downtown, which was another thing I had been dying to do this summer. We had Skyline first....

...before watching the Red's beat the Diamondbacks!

It was the perfect night for a ball game.

My family also did something very uncharacteristic of us this morning. At 2 AM we went to Steak & Shake for some shakes since it was happy hour :) At the beginning of summer, we had talked about how we thought it would be fun to go to happy hour from 2-4 AM sometime. I'm so glad we finally did it, because it was so fun! I mean, seriously? How many times do you go to Steak & Shake with your family at 2 in the morning?

This afternoon I went swimming with my cousins - wahooo! Normally we go swimming with them so many times over the summer I can hardly count, but this year the temperature has been cool, so I hadn't swam with them once. I'm so happy we were able to do it though before we all go back to school.

Someone ended up loving my flip flops.....

So much fun!

I'm so happy I was able to spend these last few days of summer making some more memories. I have to go to UC tomorrow for a freshman convocation event, and then classes officially start on Monday. I only have one more weekend left!

How is this happening?!