Stressin'

Hello again readers!  Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far.  Crazy how fast time flies when you're having fun (hopefully) on the weekends but it seems that time just drags by during the week.

This past week actually flew by for me though because it was my spring break.  It was a pretty stressful week for me unfortunately.  Totally not what you would like spring break to be like.

If you don't want to read a really lengthy, no picture blog post I would skip this one.  It's a doozie!

It started on Friday the 16th.  I met with my program adviser to plan out what classes I would take this summer and fall, hopefully so I can graduate in December.  Pretty exciting stuff because it worked out that I will be able to graduate in December!

I found out that a class that is absolutely required in order to graduate would not be offered again until the spring semester of the 2012-2013 school year.  Um yea, not working with my plan of graduating in December. This class is however offered as a second 8-week course starting on the 26th.  I managed to get PR (permission required) to take the course from the professor on that same day I met with my adviser.  After a stressful afternoon and evening of emailing my adviser and not getting the answers I needed, and another kinda stressful Monday where I emailed someone else who could get me the answers I needed since my adviser hadn't responded to my follow up email, I was able to be enrolled in the class.

Got that all figured out, right?  Wrong.

I need a textbook for the class and my plan was to drive to campus on Thursday or Friday (when I didn't have to work) to rent the book since it was written by the professor and cannot be found online to rent or buy.  Thankfully I had the good sense to call on Wednesday to make sure a book would be available for me to rent.  I was informed that text rental was closed for the week since it was spring break.  I would not have handled driving to campus (probably a 30-45 minute drive) to find out that text rental was closed very well after my fiasco with my car on Tuesday (even though it worked just fine Wednesday).

So, while I'm dealing with the stress of adding a last minute class to the remaining half of the semester I'm also dealing with the fact that in order to graduate as planned I need to do an internship for credit this summer.  While the internship itself isn't a problem for me, setting up an internship and realizing I need to give a ten minute presentation at the end of the semester along with some other hard work stressed me out.

I would like to have an internship with my current employer as I would like to be able to continue working there in the fall when I have to go back to a part time work schedule to accommodate school.  I figured it would be easier to do an internship with them rather than some where else if I wanted to be able to work there in fall before potentially looking for employment else where (a "big girl, real world" job) after graduation.

The good news is my manager and her boss are on board with doing what they can to help me out with setting up an internship within the company.  The other side, not necessarily bad news, is that I was caught off guard when I met with them to discuss the possibility of an internship.  I was imagining them to tell me what I could and couldn't do and they were more or less asking what I would like to do.

After talking to my mom (per the direction of my manager's boss - she has knowledge of a lot of departments at my employer since she's worked there for 20+ years now) I have come up with a plan, or at least a proposal for what I would like them to try and work out for me.  But even though I have this idea of what I would like to do now there are still so many unknowns that have me stressed (concerned? worried? not sure what feeling I would place with this) and not confident in what my summer will look like.

Oh yea, and besides the internship I also will be taking a summer course online throughout the whole summer.  I'm basically going to have a FULL year of school in order to graduate in December.  While I'm able and willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill the plan of graduation in December I'm also feeling overwhelmed and scared maybe about everything that I need to do in order to make that happen.

That's what's been going on inside my head all week right along side the never ending thought train of what I need to do with the classes that will be resuming or beginning next week.

It feels good to get all of this "stuff" out of my head.  Guess that's what I needed.  If you read all of it, thanks!  Any advice you can offer me on how to handle all of these thoughts and feelings are appreciated.

Have you dealt with a situation like this, or similar in some way, during your college days?  How did you handle it and did it work out as planned?

Something Positive

In my last post I shared with you all my Weekly TV Schedule and already since Thursday so many shows have ended for the season.  The Vampire Diaries, Nikita, Hellcats (I think), and Survivor have all ended for the season.  And many others are going to be ending this week.  Makes me sad :(

So it got me to thinking what shows are on in summer??  Well the first one that came to mind thanks to a well-timed commercial during the season finale of Survivor tonight (Yay Boston Rob won!!) Big Brother came to mind.  Aside from that I couldn't really think of any.  What shows do you watch during the summer??  I would love to watch True Blood but  my family doesn't pay to have HBO as part of our satellite package.  And unfortunately that show is so tightly under lock and key you can't watch it online any where for free.  Something else that makes me sad :(

But anyways, onto the title of my post.  Despite feeling pretty crappy due to a cold Wednesday-Friday (and only semi-crappy Saturday and Sunday) I found the positive in my life.  At the end of a reflective post about my negative feelings I decided to make it my goal to be more positive, to find something positive each day. (Read it here)  I accomplished that goal.  Every day, except for yesterday, I drank at least some water.  While it wasn't the recommended 8 glasses every day it was some.  It might not seem like much but it really kind of is.

Normally when I make that decision to have a Mountain Dew drinking water goes down the tubes from that point on.  But not this past week.  I may have had Mountain Dew multiple times this week but I also had water, even after I had that Mountain Dew.  I feel extremely proud of myself for taking this step and working towards becoming healthier.

There have definitely been moments where I was focusing on the negative things I was doing this past week but when I remembered what I made my goal on Monday I felt better about myself, even if it was for 5 minutes at a time only, because I was able to say "That's something I didn't do well before but I am doing better at it now."

I am going to keep working on focusing on positive things in my life, make more good things happen, and be the person I want to be not the person I make myself be.  Until of course I'm making myself be the person I want to be ;)

Looking ahead to this week I am in the home stretch with this semester.  The home stretch but yet I still have so much to do.

• COM103 (Speech) ~ Record final speech (late), Critique 4 final speeches (late), Write self-assessment essay w/o feedback from classmates because my speech is not done yet (late), Present speech to live audience & have them complete feedback forms (late)


• MUS278 (History of Rock & Roll) ~ Take final by Wednesday


• BUS325 (Organizational Behavior) ~ Take final by Friday


• BUS327 ~ Write reflective essay by Thursday, Take final on Thursday

It's really Speech that is dragging me down.  I should be done with that class but unfortunately I let procrastination get the best of me and I have put it off and keep putting it off.  So tomorrow afternoon when I get home from work I am going to sit my butt down and just do my best to do it all before I go to bed for the night.  I decided to say do my best to do it all because I am afraid to say I will do it all because my history is not very good with making those types of statements about school work.

After completing this semester I will have three semesters left before graduating college and I am going to vow to put 100% effort into not having a repeat of this semester's performance.  I'm embarrassed and ashamed of how I let my work go when I do not have a challenging schedule at all.  I only work part-time while in school and I had PLENTY of time to spend on school.  I made poor choices and decided not to use that time wisely.

Lisa at I'm An Okie (seriously check out her blog, it is freaking awesome!!) shows me that I can do much better if I just put the time and effort into school.  She works full-time and goes to school part-time but gets As in her classes.  Why?  Because she puts the time and effort into school!  It's so simple but yet I make it much harder than it needs to be.  Lisa is going to be my role-model for the next three semesters.  Thank you Lisa!  Also, I need to send a thank you to you for linking my weekly TV schedule post to your blog the other day.  I had a big jump in viewers after that.  It makes me feel good to see people looked at my blog, even if they didn't comment.  (If you read but don't comment don't be shy!  Come out of the shadows and comment :) )

No questions for you peeps tonight.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Stressin'

I'm stressing out...I've been procrastinating a ton lately and this week I am feeling all of that building up on me and making me stress out.  I'm behind on assignments and am actually posting/turning them in late.  It's so easy to do when the discussion board doesn't become locked and the drop boxes don't become locked either.  It's horrible though, I feel crappy about doing it.  I have a test to take by midnight tomorrow and another one by Friday at midnight, which I need to get done way before then because I'm going out.  But anyways, I'm stressing big time and just wanted to get it out there.  Tomorrow after getting my phone I will have to peel it away from my hands so I can focus on doing a speech prep form that is really due tonight, take a test, and study my butt off for another test I have Thursday.

Blah...that is how I feel.  But I'm going to try to de-stress by reading before going to sleep.

Until next time...whenever that will be, maybe this weekend??

The Results Are In

Good morning!

Once again I am sorry for the week delay in my next post.  Here's a little catch up with what's been going on in my life.

Wednesday I worked, nothing spectacular.  Watched Survivor Redemption Island with the family and probably thought about working on homework but never got around to it.

Thursday I had my first Managing Global Organizations class from 11-1:30.  I think I will like the professor but it sounds like this class will be a lot of work :(  Prior to going to class I was trying to read all of chapter 1, that didn't go so well.  After I got home I can't remember what I did so obviously it was nothing productive, whoops!

Friday I worked from 8-2 and planned on coming home and getting my homework done that was due that night.  If you're thinking "Yeah right she didn't get it done" you are absolutely correct.  I've mentioned in a previous blog that I'm a NASCAR fan so when my dad had practice on I was getting hooked into watching that instead of working on my homework.  My mom had won a basket at church (it was a silent auction) that had a $25 gift certificate to Homestead Inn (a bar we go to occasionally for Friday night fish).  At work she had already mentioned wanting to go there which is part of the reason why I was planning to get the Friday night homework done right when I got home.  But anyways, we went out to dinner and ended up staying out until 11.

Saturday morning I wake up at 8 and am thinking to myself gotta bust out this homework you didn't do last night.  Of course plans changed.  I ended up going to town with my parents for the morning before meeting up with Jackie and her two children Lane (7) and Lauren (3) to go see the movie Hop.  We had seen them at Homestead the night before and when Jackie mentioned she had no plans for the weekend I asked if she would want to take the kids to the movie with me, she said yes obviously.  It was a cute movie and I thought it was good.  I was a bit frustrated though, Jackie mentioned that she'd pay for my ticket and we'll figure out something for food when we get in there.  I'm thinking OK that's fine.  But when we get in the theater she's just like "I'm going to get food" so I give her $15, which is all I had on me in cash.  I didn't expect her to use it all!  She comes back and had gotten the big bucket of popcorn and the two big sodas and didn't give me any change!  Lane ate 3/4 of the pop corn and the one soda was for the kids to share, the other was mine because of the caffeine.  I would have rather paid for my $7 movie ticket than $15 for the food.  I know she had to pay a lot more for tickets because she had herself and two kids (which are $6.50, 50 cents cheaper?!) but she didn't ask if it was OK if she just used my money to pay for the food.  I guess that's what irritates me the most is that she didn't communicate what her plan really was for the food situation.

Finally when I got home from the movie I got my homework done that was due Friday.  After that all of my productivity went down the tubes.  If I recall correctly I spent the rest of my weekend with my nose stuffed in a book.  I finished Riding Lessons towards the end of the week, started and finished Flying Changes probably Thursday/Friday-Saturday, and then started The Horse Whisperer Sunday.  I'll see what I can do about writing up some reviews.  I forgot to stop at the library yesterday to pick up Water for Elephants so I will definitely be doing that after work tomorrow!

And now onto yesterday!  I worked 7:30-2:30 so I could arrive at my doctor appointment on time.  At the end of the visit my doctor talks to me about my cholesterol, which I had blood drawn for last week (mentioned in So much to say, so little time).  It's a bit high, 236 when it should be 200 or less.  But on the bright side my good cholesterol is good at 66 (I can't remember what it's supposed to be over).  And then again on the downside there is something that is a bit higher than it should be, but because I have 0-1 risk factors it's OK where it is.  I'm sorry I don't have a better explanation for you all, this is just what I remember.  Anyways, she wants to check it again in a year.  Oh!  And she brought up my weight, said it had gone up since last time.  I was like "Yeah and your scale sucks because just last week I was 187 and now I'm 195!"  We decided it was the shoes and clothes because when I weigh myself at home I only wear shorts and a t-shirt, nothing heavy.  But still she wants to see my weight go down, and the dieting and exercising would help the cholesterol go down.  Guess I'm now under a bit of pressure to really see some results in a year with my weight loss.  Wish me luck!

Now it is time to buckle down on my homework.  I am not turning the TV on today so it cannot be a distraction.  I have so much to do so if I can make today really productive I will have a weight lifted off of my shoulders.

Questions...

When you're unmotivated to do something you have to do, like homework, do you set up a reward for yourself to help motivate you?

I'm kind of thinking being able to watch TV with my family in the evening might be a good reward for me since that's what I like to use to distract myself from homework.

How do you deal with what feels like an overwhelming work load?

If I made a list of everything I need to get done this week it would be super long, and just seems like I can't get it done unless I ONLY work on homework whenever I'm not in class or at work.

Looking forward to reading your answers about these questions!


Until next time...

Who doesn't like a 4-day weekend??

I know I sure as heck freaking love them!  Thank you marketing professor for having to go out-of-town :)

Last night I was thinking about how I could use today as a "sit around and do nothing but relax day", except for taking care of some speech evaluations that are due, but when I woke up this morning (9/9:30 FABULOUS!) I thought to myself "heck no Amy you're going to use this day to be productive".  So, I ended up doing laundry, cleaning up the mess I had in the living room of all my school stuff (online classes mean you never have to pack your books up to take them with you lol), vacuuming the living room, Swiffering (dry and wet) in the kitchen and dinning room, and unloading/reloading and running/unloading/reloading the dishwasher.  Major brownie points with my mom for all of that work I did today (+20 jk).

Those darn speech evals got pushed to the bottom of my priority list, even though they're due today.  It is now after 11pm and I am still working on them.  Because my internet connection=waiting for videos to load I am able to type this post as the last speech video I need to watch loads.  Definitely should have done this earlier in the day when less people had posted their evals.

I hope you don't mind but I need to vent about these evals.  Not about doing them but about people not following directions AT ALL!  Each person is supposed to have 4, ONLY 4, evals for their speech.  My professor cannot get much clearer..."Please make sure that you do not choose to critique any student who has already received four critiques--if you do, another student will receive fewer than four. It will always be safest for you to choose those students who have received the fewest critiques so far in the discussion."  We're in college people, many are "older" students, it is not that hard to read and FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS...or is it??  Now I know you might be wondering what the big deal is, or if it really is that big of a deal...and you're right, it's not.  But I am just the type of person who follows the directions, and obviously doesn't like it when others don't follow the directions.  But enough about this...

Tomorrow I am planning to work on homework but I may go snowmobiling for the last time this winter now.  My dad mentioned tonight he would have gone but my brother had already gone out with a friend and when I mentioned this to my mom she said well maybe you and your dad will have to go tomorrow then.  And when I mentioned that my dad asked what I was doing tomorrow and I told him homework my mom also said well maybe you could mention going out for a quick ride to get lunch some where.  So I guess we'll see where tomorrow leads me but I forizzle will be doing homework while I am home.  Then at 6:30pm my parents are meeting up with two other couples; one of the couples the woman works for my mom (and at the same place I work at) and the man was both mine and my brother's hunter safety instructor, and the other couple has gone to races with my parents (and the other couple).  I am just tagging along for the food because I love the fish fry at the bar they're going to.

Questions...

Is there anything different about Greek yogurt compared to "regular" yogurt??

Do you enjoy a long weekend??

I would honestly be surprised if there was someone who didn't like a long weekend!

Time to watch (& listen) to this fourth speech so I can get this evaluation done...and then it's Jersey Shore time! :)

Have a good night peeps!

Our Love Is Just This Way

*Title is from the song Just This Way by Bomshel* (I couldn't think of a title, it has nothing to do with this post hehe)

Happy Tuesday peeps! Hope you are all have a terrific day so far!

My day started off pretty early (6:30am) because getting my pro/con speech done yesterday after work did not go as planned. Let's just say that a little 5 minute speech took me forever to prepare. Just another reason to not procrastinate! It didn't help that after being hard at work for roughly four hours I was just not in the mood to continue working so I got distracted by the TV. I haven't watched the Bachelor all season but I decided I wanted to watch the Women Tell All episode just so I didn't have to keep working on that speech. At 7:30 I went to my aunt and uncle's for dinner. My aunt made shrimp scampi (never had it home-made before) and it was AMAZING! Definitely will be trying that out on my own soon. I ended up hanging out with them after dinner until after 9 because I was watching TV with them, yet again another reason to not have to be working on my speech. When I finally did go home I decided I just wasn't in the mood, I'll finish it in the morning...even though it was due yesterday. I didn't think it would take that long to finish but I was wrong.

Like I said, I got up at 6:30am and I got right to work. I didn't post my speech until 10am, the very last person and only the second person to post on the 8th (the other person posted at 12:19am so I guess that doesn't really count). We'll see how my grade turns out by posting it a "day" late.

My speech was on the pros and cons of comprehensive sex education programs. I decided on this topic because sex education was (still is?) an issue in Wisconsin. I knew I would be able to find enough information about it to support both sides. Now if only I had started the research earlier. And as I write this I remembered I didn't include a bibliography in my outline. I am going to add that to it right now!

Ok now that I've got that take care of (yes I really went and did that before starting this new paragraph ;) ) Good thing I posted a blog and was writing about my speech or I wouldn't have figured it out for quite a while.

When I was finally done with my speech this morning I had to rush to get ready for school. It was my last day of marketing because our professor is going to be out-of-town on Thursday and next week Tuesday is our final. It is only an 8 week class so that's why it's almost done already. Other than it's a very fast paced class I didn't mind it. I have another 8 week class starting after spring break, hopefully that one goes just as smoothly as this one did. I took a fourth exam today so I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't bomb it like I did on my last one. Well I just checked, a 61/100 but our professor is adding 10 points to our grade so that means I got a 71/100. Not as bad as my last exam score but not great either :( Oh well, it's in the past now and all I can do is move forward and study hard for the final so I do well on it.

And you're probably sick of reading about my school work by now so I'll wrap this up. I'm going to start the process of evaluating other students' speeches so I don't do that last-minute as well ;) Maybe freshen up my nails as well, they're chipped and look pretty bad right now, toes included.

Here are some pictures for your view pleasure :)

[caption id="attachment_71" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Absolutely LOVE this lotion!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_72" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Love my Chevy Racing travel mug :)"][/caption]





[caption id="attachment_73" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="But surprise there's no coffee in it, just OJ! (I don't like coffee :( )"][/caption]



Questions...

Do you enjoy coffee?

I don't unfortunately. I love the idea of coffee though!

Are you a procrastinator? Do you feel like you do your best work at the last-minute?

I am definitely a procrastinator (obvs) and I don't think I do my best work at the last-minute. I always pull through with a decent, if not good grade, but I'm sure I could do better if I wasn't rushed at the last-minute to get the assignment done.

Until next time.... =)</span

Sorry...

...That I've been MIA for over a week.  Life has been busy with school, work, and just life in general.

I've got to admit something...I need to come clean with you all...I have a problem, a big one.

I am unhappy with my weight and how my body looks but I'm not putting in the effort to change my lifestyle to change what I am unhappy with.

Homework is always my number one excuse.  I always have too much to do because I have a problem with procrastination, even after many vows to change.  And there my friends, the procrastination, is the reason why homework becomes an excuse rather than a real reason.  It is true that I have homework that needs to get done but when I don't use my time to do the homework; instead I'm watching TV or surfing the internet, I could really be working out.  It makes me feel bad that I have to stress over getting homework done at the last-minute, and it also makes me feel bad that I am putting off my goals to become a healthier and happier person because I always say homework needs to get done first.  So if it makes me feel bad why don't I change?  I baffle myself because it seems like a no brainer to me.

I sometimes think if I had a personal trainer, or even just a friend to work out with, that I wouldn't put off my work outs.  I need someone to push me to get up off my butt and do something.  Too bad I can't teleport around the US to work out with all of you bloggers.  Now that would be awesome ;)

Well in other news...

Nothing exciting happened Monday-Wednesday...well except for the season premiere of Survivor: Redemption Island.  Boy oh boy was it ever a good one!  I was almost jumping out of my seat while watching it and my brother and I were just talking away during it because we were so shocked.  I don't want to discuss what happened incase you readers DVR'd it and haven't watched it yet.  If you don't watch Survivor let me know...then I'll disclose the shocking news in my next blog.  I can't wait for this week's episode now :)

Thursday was very, very foggy! I snapped a picture while driving to class around 10:30am.  It was foggy like this all day!  Cars without lights on were very difficult to see until they were right in front of you.  Even cars with their lights on were hard to see until they were right in front of you.  Definitely scary weather to drive in.  It was just crazy if you ask me.

[caption id="attachment_46" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Would you guess there was a hill coming up??"][/caption]

 

I had made plans to watch the Gatorade Dual races with my mom and uncle at Phil's Round 2 (a bar) and have lunch so when class was dismissed at 1pm instead of 1:30pm I was super excited.  It was still just as foggy as when I had driven into town, and stayed that way until after it got dark.  My aunt ended up being at the bar as well to have lunch and watch the Dual races.  We only watched one of the two races at the bar.

Friday a lot of schools around Wisconsin were closed due to not enough teachers coming into work and not enough substitutes being able to fill in.  This was in response to Governor Scott Walker's Budget Repair bill.  I'm sorry I'm not more informed to explain what is going on with my state government but from what I know the big issue is that state employees that are members of unions will lose their collective bargaining rights.  I would say more but I do not want to misinform any one about what is going on in the state of Wisconsin.

Saturday I went to a Lia Sophia jewelery party with my mom and aunt.  My mom and I picked out 3 items each, and then one item that we both really liked...maybe I'll post some pictures when it is delivered.  After the party my mom, aunt, and I went to a bar to have lunch and watch the Nationwide race at Daytona.

Overall it was a pretty big weekend for NASCAR.  Not only was it the season opener for all three series; Camping World Trucks, Nationwide, and Sprint Cup but it was also 10 years since the death of Dale Earnhardt.  Michael Waltrip, who won the Daytona 500 on February 18, 2001, the day Dale died, won the Camping World Truck Series race on Friday night which was 10 years to the day that Dale died.

I am a Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Dale's son) fan so Saturday when he ran in the Nationwide series race I was cheering for him.

Again on Sunday for the Daytona 500 I cheered for my man Junior.  I ended up taking a nap during the race though because I was super tired but I woke up for the really exciting part when the race was almost over.  Trevor Bayne who had just turned 20 on Saturday won the Daytona 500 with one of the oldest race teams the Wood Brothers.  Trevor became the youngest driver ever to win the Daytona 500 at 20 years and 1 day old.  This was also  Trevor's 2nd ever Sprint Cup race.  The Daytona 500 is like the Super Bowl of NASCAR so it's a big deal to win it.  Like I said, it was definitely a big weekend for NASCAR.  Next weekend we're off to Phoenix.

 

[caption id="attachment_47" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Trevor in victory lane with the trophy"][/caption]

 

After the race I had to buckle down and read for my organizational behavior class (online) because I have an exam to take this week.  I'm one chapter away from being done with the reading.  I have until Friday to take the exam.

Tonight I needed to buckle down and read for my marketing class (meets Tues & Thurs 11-1:30) because I have an exam tomorrow.  So far I have gotten an 82/100 and an 80/100 on my exams so I'm not too concerned about the exam tomorrow as long as I get the readings done and take the time to review the notes.  I didn't get as much reading done tonight as I would have liked because I was distracted by all of the Monday night shows that were on.  I'll be setting my alarm for 7am tomorrow morning to work on reading some more and reviewing my notes.  Wish me luck!

I also have my first exam in my history of rock and roll class which I am concerned about.  I haven't been doing as well on the weekly quizzes lately because I haven't been getting the entire reading done or listening to the lecture that my professor records.  Procrastination is to blame here.  I am definitely going to listen to the lectures I haven't listened to yet and finish the readings to hopefully help my exam score.  I have to take the exam by 11:59pm on Wednesday.

Since I have an exam tomorrow I'll probably be done with class early so I have no reason to not hit the gym after class.  Hold me to it blogger friends!!  You have my permission to kick my butt should I fail ;)

Baking Lesson Learned, 126 miles in a day, & Love at the Olive Garden!!

What is going on my blogger friends??  I've been a busy beaver these last couple of days so I'll just recap the highlights for you.

Thursday the most exciting part of my day was making a Chocolate Peanut Butter Bunt Cake.  It tasted FANTASTIC but didn't look quite as good as it did when Holly made it (check out her cake here).  I had asked my mom the night before when I was planning to make the cake how I got the cake out of the bunt pan.  She said to take it out of the oven and turn it over on a plate or something right away so that's what I did.  My cake turned out rather flat, almost brownie like instead of high.  When my mom saw it she asked what I did.  I assumed it was because I was caught up in the TV show I was watching and forgot to take the bunt pan off of the cake.  But after talking with my grandma, who is an awesome baker, it turns out my cake my have fell flat because I turned it upside down too soon.  According to my grandma I should have let the cake sit upright for about 10 minutes for it to set up and then flip the pan over on a plate or something, leave it sit for about 5 minutes or however long for the cake to fall from the pan.  Like I said, the cake still tasted really really good so it wasn't a complete fail, just a presentation fail.  Oh well, lesson learned for the next time I attempt to make it :)

Thursday when I was walking out of school to my car my aunt texted me asking if I wanted to go snowmobiling the next day if she could still get off of work.  I told her I would and I would be inviting my dad who also didn't have to work.  So Friday my dad, aunt, and I went on a 126 mile round trip ride.  We left our house, which is only a 1 & 1/4 miles from my grandparents' where my aunt still lives, and rode to Tomahawk (about 45 minutes by car) for lunch at Freddy's Pub & Grill.  Freddy's is a mexican place with amazing food.  I had a shredded chicken chimi (yum yum yummy!).  After eating we hit the trails again heading home, stopping once to use the bathroom (after eating & drinking you always have to go more on the way home lol) and again to put gas in.  We had started our trip around 12:30pm and were home around 7pm.  Overall it was a great day for riding, trails were awesome and the weather was great.

Saturday I had planned on working on homework all day so I could enjoy going out for lunch and shopping on Sunday without that voice in the back of my head reminding me about a bunch of homework that needed to get done.  But plans changed, my mom was no longer needed at a church function that evening so my grandma, mom and I ended up going to town to do some grocery shopping at Sam's Club and eat lunch.  We had lunch at Olive Garden, which I had only eaten at one time before and didn't like.  I decided to stay away from spaghetti or lasagna as that was what I remembered having tried the first time many years ago and not liking.  My grandma makes both so I think I'm biased as to what would taste good to me.  I had the Grilled Shrimp Caprese and fell in love!  Here's what their menu says: "Grilled marinated shrimp served over angel hair pasta with melted mozzarella, fresh basil and tomatoes in a garlic-butter sauce."  I could have done without the tomatoes as I didn't eat them anyways but I know now for next time, and there will definitely be a next time :)

And now today has been homework day, nothing exciting.

How was your weekend?  Do anything for Valentine's Day or are you like me and think tomorrow is just another day?

I'm going to leave you with a video from the 2010 CMA Awards of Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson performing one of my favorite songs from Jason's most recent album My Kinda Party.  This was also the best performance of the night if you ask me.  The song is "Don't You Wanna Stay", enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqmjDrecgzA&feature=fvst