Food: Oreo Balls

Another food post based on a recipe on Pinterest! Huzzah! Look at me, bloggin' and stuff.
I'm not gonna link to the recipe because it's far down on my board and the idea is pretty simple--you could probably figure it out if I only did pictures. Luckily for you, I'm gonna type it all up!

NOTE: The recipe on Pinterest involves a food processor. I did not use a food processor because a) lazy, b) I find getting my (super clean, washed) hands dirty soothing when cooking, and c) I didn't wanna ask my mom where the food processor lives.

Ingredients!

Houston Trip Part 1

So you know how last time I posted I told you I was visiting my aunt and uncle in Houston? 

Well, I've been here for a few days and had some Adventures, so it's time for an update! 

Monday I mostly hung out watching Netflix while my aunt and uncle were at work. I tried Trader Joe's Cookie Butter for the first time and fell in loooove with it--it's gingerbread-y but also cinnamon-sugary and oh man. I might have to go get a second jar to take home with me. 

My aunt and I also went to Costco and HEB's Central Market. Costco is basically like Sam's Club, and I'd been before--but Central Market was amazing. It was like a fancy-pants grocery store with samples of everything--the bread section was my favorite for samples. I tried some sourdough, challah, Irish soda bread, some Russian dark bread, and probably a few others I'm forgetting. The other great thing about Central Market is the candy section. They've got dispensers for all kinds of candy--chocolate, sours, almost anything you could think of--and you just get a bag and fill it as much as you want before weighing it and printing a label saying what kind of candy it is and how much you'll be paying. I could've spent a lot of money there, but in the end I got some Haribo peaches, some dark chocolate coconut cream the store guy who helped us called "Mounds on steroids," and some Irish creme cordials, which are basically sinful. Oh, and I got a couple of tiny macarons at the bakery section--blueberry lavender and chocolate chai. They were pretty good, although next time I would try different flavors. 

Enough about food, time to move on to Tuesday's museum adventure! My uncle came home for lunch and dropped me off at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences for the afternoon. I'd been there before with my aunt and brother when we were younger, but I'd never been to a museum by myself before! It was a little overwhelming, if only because of all the people and noise, plus there was so much to see and I couldn't possibly see all of it! I went to the Hall of Paleontology, the Butterfly Center, and the Hall of Ancient Egypt. 

Top left: I finally got to see this pendulum knock over a peg after all these years! The idea is to demonstrate how the Earth moves--the pendulum swings back and forth, but knocks down a whole circle of pegs. Top right: The entrance to the Morian Hall of Palentology. I wanted to be a paleontologist as a kid, so dinosaurs still make me really happy. Bottom left: TRICERATOPS! My favorite dinosaur. Bottom right: A butterfly.

I've also been working on my driving skills with my uncle. I'm still having trouble backing up, so that's a lot of what we've been practicing in parking lots. For some reason, it's really hard for me to visualize how the wheels turn when you're in reverse, but I'll get the hang of it and I've already gotten better just by practicing. My uncle's a pretty good teacher.

I didn't do much Wednesday just because the museum exhausted me and I wanted to take a day to recover, but I did get to go see The Fault in Our Stars with my aunt. I cried a lot. Your mileage may vary when it comes to John Green, but if you're into his work, it's a great movie. 

Today, when my aunt gets home, we're going to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. I'm pretty excited--I don't go to a lot of art museums. Plus, it should be a lot quieter than the Natural Science museum, with all its campers and kiddos. I'll try to take pictures so I can update you guys in a few days! 

In closing, here is a picture of me with a dinosaur.

This past weekend...

Sorry for my absence here! There really hasn't been a whole lot going on with me—until this weekend!

Top left: Some monkeys playing Monopoly at the Brookshire's Wildlife Museum. Top right: Cookie cake at my brother's graduation dinner. Bottom: I went to Trader Joe's for the first time today, and it was magical.

I'm counting Thursday as the first day of this crazy weekend I've had. My mom and brother were out of town for Matthew's freshman orientation at college, so it was just dad and I. I started the day doing some freelance copyediting at a magazine in town for an hour or so. Good to stay sharp!

Then Dad picked me up and we went to what we call the Dead Animal Museum (see above) and goofed around for a bit. It's a lot different now that I'm older and the stuffed animals haven't changed--except for those poor monkeys. We went to Fresh and ate lunch+gelato before going to a used bookstore and heading home. All in all, a great day with my dad. 

Mom and Matthew got home Friday, and we got to hear all about their on-campus adventures. We mostly rested until Saturday evening, when we met up with two of my aunts at a family-favorite restaurant to celebrate Matthew's high school graduation! 

And then today, Sunday, I hitched a ride to Houston with my aunt Nancy, and now I'm staying with her and my uncle for a week, since I haven't in ages. 

So that's the gist of it, pretty much! Hopefully I'll be doing some cool stuff this week, hitting up museums and such, so I'll be sharing those adventures with you soon! 

Food: Easy "Calzones"

A food post? What is this, some kind of Pinterest-y blog?

Well, actually. When I'm bored and at home with actual food resources, I get domestic. So far this summer I've made Oreo balls twice, and I plan on making some eggless cookie dough balls soon. 

For dinner today, I made these calzone/stromboli/pizza bread things I found on Pinterest. The pin just had a series of pictures, not a real recipe, but it's simple enough that I figured it out. I took some pictures of my own, but I'm not a pro by any means, so they're not as pretty as they could be!  

Ingredients! It's super simple, dudes.

On the Road Again

I didn't learn to swim until I was at least 12.

It wasn't for lack of interest or trying or skill--I'd taken lessons as young as 5 years old, paddling around in the pool at the junior college a few minutes away with country music playing in my head.

I was relatively good at swimming, but ear surgeries got in the way. In the past I've had this recurring condition, what my mom calls a sort of benign tumor, cholesteatoma. I've had multiple surgeries on my right ear to eliminate and correct this problem, starting with tubes when I was really little (they fell out) and culminating in a reconstructive surgery when I was in high school.

Katie & Luke's Wedding Fiesta!

So yesterday evening was a lot of fun! My family and I went to my cousin's wedding reception party at this really nice place on the lake and hung out with a lot of people (most of whom I didn't know, but still!)

The sign welcoming us to Katie and Luke's reception

It was sort of funny to be having the reception now instead of after the actual wedding, but that's because Katie and Luke got married two months ago in a small ceremony on the beach in Hawaii. They had photos on display in the main room of the party, and my cousin looked beautiful--her husband looked handsome, too, of course.

Mostly what we did at the fiesta-themed party was hang out, talk, and eat. Now that I'm 21, I was able to have a couple margaritas, which I personally found exciting. Plus there were tacos, quesadillas, cake, and all the tortilla chips you could ever dream of. The party favors were little bottles of hot sauce with a Katie & Luke label on them!

The weather was beautiful, too! 

I got to hang out with my family and meet some people who hadn't seen me in years and years (most of whom I didn't remember because I was so young, haha). There was dancing, too, later on--I got out on the floor for a little bit, but the best part was when my aunt and uncle got out there with their daughter and did the wobble. It was hilarious! My dad was conveniently deep in conversation while my cousin and uncle had their father-daughter dance, thank goodness. My mom and I, of course, were busy crying. 

Dad and I being adorable

Before the sun went down, I dragged my dad into some selfies, because I don't have many recent pictures of the two of us. There were a few of these with my brother in them, too, but he wouldn't make a nice face so they're all goofy.

Anyway, there's not a lot else to tell, I guess. But it was really fun, and I loved getting to hang out with my family and party to celebrate Katie & Luke's new marriage! 

It's summer!

FINALLY.

Which is great. Except that I have no idea what to do with all my time.

I applied for several (meaning here "at least eleven") internships for the summer, but never heard back from any of them. It's disappointing, sure, but I'm trying to take it in stride. It's probably a sign that I need to slow down and stop doing one million things at once.

So I've moved out of my dorm room for the last time (been a good three years, Honors Hall), and now I'm back in my hometown until July 31, when I'll be moving into my first apartment with one of my best friends (whose blog will no doubt be linked here at some point, because Emily is a blogging superstar). Wow, that was a long sentence. Anyway, my second-ever all-As semester of college has been over for a week, and now I'm sitting at home with no car of my own just hangin' out with the family.

I'm bad at idle time--it makes me even crazier than I normally am. So here's the idea: I'm going to make a list off the top of my head of things I want to accomplish this summer, and we'll maybe check in every once in a while to see how I'm doing! Sound good? I'm going to pretend you said yes.

• Read a lot (including books from this list of YA books that deal with mental illness, and also a Harry Potter reread for the first time in ages)
• Write a lot (bloggin' here and maybe another project or two, hopefully doing Camp NaNoWriMo with Emily and another friend, Nathan, in July, and some other stuff, too!)
• Sleep a lot (rest is important!)
• Get a part-time job (I'd like to make some money this summer if at all possible)
• Try my best to get to Denton this summer for the Mountain Goats show (my favorite band of all the bands on the whole planet)
• Clean out my room (organize what I already own, get rid of what I don't need, figure out what's going to the apartment with me)

And...nothing else exactly comes to mind right now, but that's plenty to begin with, right? Also, it's midnight and I just started a 2.5 hour musical on Netflix, so uh. I should probably go and plan to sleep at some point soon. 

So there's that. I should probably come up with a better way to sign off these blogs if I'm gonna make this a Thing That I Do, but there's time for that still. For now, though:

Later, skaters!