Top 10 Pet Peeves

My lack of posts is really starting to bother me, but college and a desire to actually get some sleep has prevented me from blogging. Considering the fact that the last time I sat down to write a post about my weekend and what I've been up was three weeks ago, I need to make some time.

However, that time is not now :)

If college has taught me one thing, it's that not having it all together all the time is okay. I sometimes go to bed with my to-do list only halfway completed, and I'm learning to accept that.

So in the mean time......

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I always think it's funny to hear about people's pet peeves, so today I'm sharing 10 of mine!

Not Turning Off Your Turn Signal

Turn signals in general drive me nuts. I hate it when people don't use them at all, and I hate it when people forget to turn them off. How difficult is it to properly use a turn signal?

Chewing Ice

I am NOT an ice chewer. I have just never liked chewing ice. What's worse than chewing ice though is the sound of someone else chewing ice very loudly. That always gets on my nerves!

Lack of Spell Check

I tried out a new restaurant a little while ago, and it drove me nuts to see that they had several typos on their menu. Spell check is great, and actually proofreading your writing is even better.....

Bad Grammar - Mostly "I Seen"

I'm not really a grammar police person. I don't always remember when I should use "I" instead of "me," but the thing that drives me bonkers is when people say "I seen." It is I HAVE SEEN or I SAW. End of story.

Slow Pedestrians in Crosswalk

If I am being nice and stopping my car to let you walk across the crosswalk, you better be walking faster than a snail. That's all I have to say about that :)

Too Much Makeup

You know me - I love makeup. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. I think that people who wear too much makeup look even worse than if they wore no makeup at all.

Cheap Chocolate

I admit, I'm a chocolate snob. Cheap chocolate is just a waste of money and calories to me.

Pushy Salespeople

I hate it when the salespeople in a store won't leave you alone. Once I was in White House Black Market, and when the saleswoman found out I was graduating (we ran into friends and were talking about it), she proceeded to pick out a dress for me (including a pair of shoes) and practically shove me in the fitting room to try it all on. Not surprising that I left the store empty handed, that kind of stuff really annoys me!

Vague Facebook Posts

I HATE it when people put up super vague Facebook posts, like "please pray," "I just had such a bad day," etc. Then when people ask what's wrong, they don't actually answer because it's "private." Fishing for Facebook comments or likes is so pathetic to me.

Poorly Groomed Feet

My feet aren't perfect. I only get a pedicure once a year, so I take care of them myself most of the time. It's really not that hard to keep them looking somewhat decent. But the thing that bothers me is unpainted toenails. I have to have my toes painted all year round, even when I'm wearing boots everyday in the winter. In the summer though, I hate seeing other people's toes if they're long, chipped (or completely unpainted), and the worst......if they're jagged. SO gross.

Is it bad that I could probably keep going with my pet peeves? Ha! I'll stop with 10 though :)

What are some of your pet peeves?

Lemon Blossoms {Recipe}

I am totally a broken record, but this week has been too crazy to have time to blog, let alone do much of anything besides school stuff. So today is one of those days where I'm just publishing a post I wrote over the summer, but it's a good one!

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I am not usually a big lemon fan. I don't like lemonade, and I don't like lemons in my water. I pretty much try to bypass anything with lemon in it.

And then I tried these Lemon Blossoms.

They pretty much changed my outlook on lemon flavored sweets.

They are SO good and SO easy to make. Even if you're not usually a big lemon person, you have to try these.

The original recipe can be found here from Paula Deen, but I would change a few things if I made them again, so I'm posting my very slightly adapted recipe here!

Ingredients

For Muffins:

- 18.5 oz. box of yellow cake mix

- 3.5 oz. package instant lemon pudding mix

- 4 eggs

- 3/4 cup vegetable oil

For Glaze:

- 4 cups powdered sugar

- 1/3 cup lemon juice

- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

- 3 tablespoons water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray mini muffin pan with cooking spray.

The spray with the flour in it is the best for baking!

Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, and oil in the bowl of an electric mixer.

Sidenote: You can easily make this recipe gluten-free by using a gluten-free cake mix. My aunt made gluten-free ones the first time I tried them, but I'm not sure why I did too - ha! Just be careful that you have the right size cake mix and pudding mix though. I only had a 15 oz. cake mix and 1 oz. pudding mix, and the texture of the cake was a little off, so be careful about that!

Mix the batter about 2 minutes, until smooth.

Fill mini cupcake pan about half full with batter and bake for 12 minutes.

While they are cooking you can work on the glaze. Start off by sifting the powdered sugar into a large bowl.

Add the lemon juice (I would just use store bought - it's easier and not quite as strong as a lemon flavor), vegetable oil, and water. Mix until completely combined.

Sidenote: The original recipe called for the zest of a lemon as well. This is what I would cut out in the future - the glaze just seemed a little overpowering on the lemon. So unless you really like lemon, I would skip it.

Once the blossoms are done in the oven, let them sit a few minutes (you want them to be cool enough to touch, but still warm).

Then you can dip the top half of the blossoms (using your fingers) in the glaze. After dipping, set the blossoms on a cooling rack (with paper towels or wax paper underneath to catch drippings from the glaze). It takes about an hour for the glaze to completely harden and the blossoms to cool, but you know I didn't wait that long before trying one several.

Now you have about 4 dozen super delicious Lemon Blossoms!

So yummy - you really have to try these out!

365 Days Later

Exactly one year ago today (October 17th) I went on my "official" tour of UC's campus (you can read more about my first visit here).

It was pretty much on that day that I truly realized I wanted to be a UC bearcat. I had always assumed I would go to UC because growing up I wasn't really exposed to that many other colleges since both my parents went to UC. That's why I was relieved that when I visited, I actually liked it as much (if not more) than I had hoped I would.

I walked away that day knowing that if everything worked out the way I thought it would, I would be attending the University of Cincinnati.

Obviously, it did work out.

However, even just 365 days ago, I didn't know exactly what my UC education would look like.

If I'm being honest, it's so much better than I ever could have planned.

This time last year, I didn't have my job on campus that has given me the chance to learn new skills and meet some great co-workers.

This time last year, I didn't know I would get accepted into KBS (heck, this time last year I had barely even heard of KBS), a program that has shaped and will continue to shape my college career more than I ever would have hoped for. It has already deeply enriched my college experience.

This time last year, I hadn't met, let alone even heard of, the incredibly sweet people I have come to known and call friends over these past few months.

This time last year, I didn't know such things as business fraternities existed, and now I'm pledging one.

This time last year, I hadn't truly given thought to the sorority life, and once again, now I'm pledging one.

These past 365 days have truly impacted my life and my future. The doors that have been opened for me since starting college are incredible.

Sometimes it's crazy for me to take a step back and see the transformations that have taken place just in one year.

I'm so incredibly thankful for this past year even if it was filled with some really hard moments, like having to say goodbye to high school teachers and friends.

Life seems to have a way of presenting exactly what you need when you're feeling sad though, I've come to learn.

I can't wait to see what the next 365 days have in store for me.....

What Life Has Been Like

Life has been kind of insane as of late. I really do love college, but I was totally not expecting it to be so involved. Between classes, work, and extracurricular activities (I seriously have more "work" to do for my organizations than some of my classes), I don't have a whole lot any free time :)

I'm trying not complain about being super busy though and am instead trying to just soak it all in and really enjoy my college experience since I know it will go by fast.

Today I'm finally getting around to blogging about what's been going on these last few weeks!

Last weekend my family went to a local Octoberfest. We go every year, and the subdivision we park in is so pretty - I had to snap a picture.

The best part of going to Octoberfest is stocking up on my favorite cookies.

I also had a cake pop order last weekend for my friend's family. The theme was easy - green for a dance competition for the dance team at my old high school. This was my first batch of Seton cake pops since graduating, and it was a little sad for me....

My family had tickets to see Ghost (the musical!) and it was so fun. I hadn't seen a play in a long time, and Ghost was really good.

I had my fall break on Monday and Tuesday of this past week, so it was nice to have a long four day weekend. On Monday my mom and I headed out to the mall and I stocked up on some business casual attire since I feel like that's all I wear these days.

I am also pretty sure that there are no such things as comfortable business appropriate shoes. I have never owned a pair of comfortable flats. These cute ones seemed promising, but they ended up being yet another disappointment when I broke out in a horrible blister on my left heel.

On Thursday night my family participated in the Light the Night walk downtown, which is a fundraising walk for leukemia. We walked on a team for a woman that I do not personally know, but we have some connections to her extended family. The walk was really neat though - people had light up balloons that they carried since it was dark when we were walking. So fun!

Friday afternoon was a really fun time! One of my classes took a little mini field trip downtown to get a tour of the P&G headquarters since we are conducting a SWOT analysis on P&G. It was really interesting to hear more about the brands and history of such a big Cincinnati company.

Since we didn't have to get back to campus right away, I grabbed lunch downtown with my friend Courtney. She isn't from Cincinnati and had never really spent any time walking around the city, so it was fun. We also walked through Tiffany's and ate some cupcakes on Fountain Square. I mean, seriously, this is why college is awesome. It was the middle of a school day and we were able to go downtown for a fun little afternoon :)

My family snagged UC football tickets from my aunt, so we ate dinner up by campus and watched part of the game. We left a little early (I'm just really not that into football), and it was being broadcast on TV, so they stopped for commercials every other play practically.

My friend Danielle (who goes to Clemson), came home for the first time this weekend. It was so fun to finally get to talk to her in person instead of just through texting or skype. On Saturday we got manicures.....

.....had lunch at Piada (which just opened close to home and I am ecstatic about that!), and ate some Graeter's.

Saturday night I had a big sleepover/new member retreat with my sorority that was pretty fun as well.

It has been a busy few weeks, but I actually think this weekend is going to be pretty low-key, and I am excited about that.

I hope you all are having a fabulous week so far!

I Like to Travel.

No, scratch that.

I love to travel.

I live for exploring new places and visiting new parts of the world.

Of course there are plenty of places I've been that I would love to go back to, but I think that life is too short to go to the same place over and over.

I know tons of people who go to the same place year after year, and I just think that's boring.

In my opinion, the world is just too dang big.

Thankfully I was born into a travel-loving family!

When I was in the Dominican Republic, we were all sitting on the beach at one point and were talking about places we want to go to. Basically, our travel bucket list.

Talking about traveling excites me so much, and I love dreaming about future trips.

So on the flight home, I made my own little travel bucket list on my phone. Thankfully I'm young and have a lot of vacations ahead of me because there are TONS of places I want to go.

And I've already decided that I have to marry someone who has a passion for serious traveling because there's no way I can handle going to the same beach year after year :)

So today I'm sharing with you my travel bucket list! I definitely think I have the time to travel to all of these places, however, the whole money situation is a different story - ha!

Seattle, Washington

I have heard so many good things about Seattle. I think it would be such a fun city to explore. I mean, they started Starbucks - how could you go wrong there?

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Alaskan Cruise

Thankfully, I know for a fact that this item will be crossed off my bucket list. In fact, it will be crossed off in less than a year! My family already has it booked for next summer. I am SO excited!

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Hawaiian Cruise

I've mentioned before how practically everyone I know has gone to Hawaii recently. I've never been there though! My family has tossed around doing Hawaii in a few years (we like to plan early - ha!).

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Las Vegas, Nevada

Although I'm too young to gamble now, I don't think I'll be a big gambler. I just want to go to Vegas for the hotels and glamor. Of course, this is one that I'll have to go to once I turn 21!

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Grand Canyon - Arizona

I really want to do an out west trip (again, my family likes to plan early and we've tossed the idea out of doing it in 2015!), and the Grand Canyon would be on the top of my list. From the pictures I've seen, I expect to simply stand in awe of it when I finally see it with my own eyes.

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Denver, Colorado

I so want to stay in a ski lodge out in Denver one of these years. I've never been skiing, but I would love to try, and I think snowmobiling and relaxing in the lodge with some hot chocolate would be so fun and something really different.

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Dallas, Texas

Northpark - need I say more?

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Mall of America - Minnesota

Hello! This girl loves to shop, so why wouldn't I want to go to the biggest mall in the USA? I think this would be such a fun girls trip.

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St. Louis, Missouri

I just really want to go to the top of that arch.

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New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans seems like such a fun city. My parents have said before that they will take me there for my 21st birthday, so we'll see if that actually happens. You know I won't let them forget about that one!

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Mount Rushmore - South Dakota

Another must-see on an out west trip.

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Napa Valley, California

I've done a big California trip before where we hit San Francisco, drove down the coast, and ended in San Diego. I am in love with California. I think a bed and breakfast inn in Napa would be to die for.

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London, England

I want to go to Europe SO bad. I'm also so obsessed with the royals and England in general that it's a no brainer that London is on my travel bucket list.

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Paris, France

If you have read my blog for any length of time (or know me personally at all), you know that Paris is my #1 travel bucket list item. I did an entire art series my senior year on Paris. My room has tons of Paris items. I've read numerous books on Paris. I think I may actually get there in the next few years (my college program has a spring break trip there). I'm also pretty sure that the first time I see the Eiffel Tower in person I will cry just because it's been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. I am dying to eat a French macaron while overlooking the Eiffel Tower. The bakeries alone are a reason enough to go there.

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Barcelona, Spain
I just think Spain would be a gorgeous place to visit, especially after taking so many years of Spanish.

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Greece
I don't care where I go in Greece, as long as it has these cute little white houses on a cliff overlooking the water. I don't think there's anything else like it in the world!

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Rome/Florence, Italy
I really want to do a whole Italy trip. There are just so many places I want to see there - Rome, Florence, and Tuscany for sure. And the food! Gosh, I can't even imagine. Italian food is my absolute favorite, so I'm pretty sure I would die over all the pastas.

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Alps - Switzerland
I think some little town in Switzerland that is surrounded by the Alps would be so fun to visit - even if just for a few days.

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Sydney/Great Barrier Reef - Australia
I've known several people who have gone to Australia, and it just seems absolutely gorgeous. I am not a swimmer, but I would for sure want to try snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef.

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New Zealand
I have never actually known anyone who has gone to New Zealand. Looking back over the rest of my list, I can say that I know someone who has visited each place. But although I haven't heard it from someone I personally know, I hear that New Zealand is supposed to be just absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Now I want to go simply because I don't know anyone who has gone before!

I can't wait to see where my travels take me! I've always wanted to visit all 50 states (I'm doing pretty good at 21/50). I once read that traveling is the only thing you pay for that makes you richer, and I absolutely agree. I think experiencing different cultures is extremely valuable, not to mention the fact that I think it is SO easy to see God in all of the beauty of the world.

Here's to many more years of traveling! Hopefully I'll be 90 years old with my travel bucket list all complete :)