How long has it been??

Ohhh how I miss this...
I guess I should let y'all know I am still alive and breathing... mostly.
I have a day off today!
My favorite Texan got her wisdom teeth out today and I took the day off to see what she was like on drugs.
And to help take care of her... she's still a little loopy.
But now she's just napping.

...I love that girl...

So yeah! I have the WHOLE day off and no school tonight!
I do have 4 tests and a huge reading assignment I could be working on, but hey, I just found something better to do!

Ok. Last time I posted I think I was working for a rich-ish lady cleaning her house and I told you about making a spinach smoothie I made with the blender she gave me and then being commanded to eat a whole bunch more spinach at her house.

Since then, I have gotten a real job.
Don't hold your breath or anything, it's just at McDonalds.
BUT, my general manager is my Uncle, and he watches out for me and gives me whatever hours I ask for and days off with shorter notice than anyone else, and started me off at more than minimum wage.
So I'm thankful.
I dont particularly like the actual work, but it could certainly be worse.
 The Lord is helping me learn to be very humble and take instruction and not-so-constructive-critisizm.
BLECK.
But I have regulars who come in everyday and order the same thing and if I see them coming and I'm not in the middle of something I can ring it up and have it ready for them by the time they get to the front counter, and they like that. Makes them feel special or something.
So that's nice. My customers like me :)
Dont get me wrong, I have grumpy customers too. I take those as challenge and try to be so cheesy and cheerful they can't help but cheer up or at least chuckle at me.
Fortunately, none of them are regulars.
There was this one guy who FLIPPED OUT because I told him I couldnt put mustard on his sausage biscuit, I would have to give him a mustard packet on the side (none of the lunchtime sauces are out back on grill during breakfast).
He stormed out of there so fast I didn't even get a chance to say, Would you like me to open the mustard packet and put it on for you?
If you dont take volcano explosions personal, they're mostly just entertaining!
I'm not going to talk about some of my underling managers, because they genuinely tick me off, and I'm still learning to suck it up and deal with them
*rolling eyes*

So yeah.
My life is a little hectic right now.
My room is always TRASHED during the week.
And it bothers me.
Which is odd, because it never did before. Ask my poor mother, I was not at all disturbed by the disaster area look in my cave.

Basically, I work from 7 to 3, and I have from 3:15 to 5:45 to shower, eat, get ready for class (which, since we wear skirts, needs hair and makeup most of the time), and last minute cramming for whatever test(s) I mostly likely have that night. Then class from 6 to 10, and home to eat because "much study is a weariness to the flesh" and you really work up an appetite sitting at those desks.
between that and doing the next night's tests, I rarely get to bed before 11.
Then back up at 6 in order to be at work at 7 again. All week except sundays and friday's when I go to house clean.
You'll notice there is no room for casual conversation, let alone room-cleaning in that schedule.

I usually straighten up and catch up a little on the weekends (i.e. Saturday afternoon), but mostly I nap.
So this extra day off is AWESOME!
It also happens to be St Patrick's day, I believe, because my Uncle and his wife invited me over for corned beef and cabbage tonight! And I can't think of any other reason to eat cabbage...
It IS March right now, right?

Be Thankful, Sarah

DIY the second

On this edition of Sarah's DIYs, we'll see how to get 5 servings of raw spinach down in one day and actually enjoy about 40% of it!

First, find a well-to-do lady who wants help with the lightest house work you've ever seen, mowing her cute little lawn with a zero-turn radius lawn mower, printing little labels for organizing her jewelry-making studio and other general projects around the house.
I suggest looking in gated communities or next door to people who can afford nannies for one three year-old while the mom stays at home.

While helping organize your new boss's garage, be ready to receive the barely used magic bullet (apparently it's a nice blender brand) you've only heard about from fellow classmates at your community college. This is a crucial step.

Next, use your new tool to sufficiently blend an apple, small carrot, three rings of frozen pineapple and a handful of torn-up raw spinach to make a gross-looking-but-delicious-tasting breakfast smoothie that will fill you up and help keep you regular!
Then, head to work and try to look like you're making a difference mopping immaculate tile floors till lunch, which your boss always provides. Don't act shocked or show any faces when she serves it with a HUGE bowl of salad which is 96% raw spinach leaves, 3% dressing and 1% cranberries, and don't laugh when she tells you to eat all of it. Be glad she's on the phone in another room so you can eat it without pretending to enjoy it, and be thankful that you have a better way to eat it at home, thanks to the magic blender SHE gave you because she got a bigger one, and her step-son in college doesn't want the little one.
Now, the only thing I would add to that is to choose such a lady with a height and build to similar yours so you can have the brand new pair of Cold Water Creek slacks that don't fit her anymore. The same goes for shoes and blouses.

Just kidding, there's one more thing I would add. If she doesn't pay enough for you to live on, and/or you need work experience in the real world to put on your resume, get a job at the closest McDonalds or other fast-food place where you know a manager nice enough to give you whatever hours you ask for, and work there 4 days a week so you can still work with your boss in the gated community one day a week, maintaining the connection. It may lead to other temporary jobs with people she knows, such as driving two kids who live in a small mansion to school for two weeks.

And that, my friends, is the best way I have found to enjoy two out of five servings of raw spinach.
Just call me Pop-Eye.

Have a good weekend!

Be Thankful, Sarah

Title, title, title...

1. The Bad Attitude Baptist Blowout is coming up, and I am EXCITED. The speakers are John Haveman ( I KNOW HIM!) and David Peacock ( I recently met him :D and He is the newest addition to my "favorite-preachers-list")!
2. Stephanie (my roommate)'s parents are here! And her little brother, and soon her sister and her sister's   husband, and Taylor's friend! Other people might be annoyed at such a full house, but I am really enjoying it! I'm used to having that way, and I miss it! Plus, today after church we ran an errand before coming home, and we were super tired and sweaty and starving (you know how Sundays are) and Steph's mom had a BEAUTIFUL salad ready, with all the fixings.
(Insert big, contented sigh)
SO nice...
Mom, I still love cooking, but I miss you.

3. Do you ever have a day you wish you could go back and re-do?
Me too.
And yesterday was really a pretty good day, over all, but it kiiiiinda went down-hill after 6. And about 65% of it was my fault.
*Sigh*
But I don't want talk about it.

It's in the past.
I'm moving on.



Be thankful (for new days),
Sarah

My very own DIY

Any penny-pinching college students out there will appreciate this post!
Today's DIY is how to make nasty, cheap tuna-you-accidentally-bought-in-oil-when-you-meant-to-get-in-light-water-but-you-cant-afford-to-throw-away a little easier to get past the ol' taste buds.
It helps if you made spaghetti the night before and you have left-over cooked pasta.
First, melt

a table spoon or so of butter in a saucepan. Keep the heat low, and add about a 

1/4 cup of sour cream in with it and stir till it's blended together in a nice creamy mixture. Then add
Whatever Italian seasonings you have. I had basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme (if either of these are in leaves form and not ground, grind them up in a mug with a wooden spoon handle so you don't feel like you're crunching on twigs when you eat this) and then some onion powder, (because I love that stuff and I put it on pretty much everything. Onions are wonderful things for adding flavor.) I also added some
Crazy Jane's Mixed up seasoning, but you could go with any seasoned salt, or just garlic salt.
Let that cook on the lowest heat setting for a bit while you fight with an ancient can-opener to get this thing of oily garbage open. Press as much of the oil out as possible, as, this is the prime source of foul-ness.
Now heat up your left-over noodles in the microwave so your sauce doesnt have to take the time to do it. Because you're a college student. You are hungry, and in a hurry. Always. Now would be the time to tear up some
baby spinach, if you happen to have it laying around, and the mood suits you, and add that. It doesn't add hardly any flavor, and then you can say you ate your veggies for the day. Add hot noodles gradually, and stop when the sauce-to-noodle-ratio is such that all the noodles are well coated in the sauce, but there's just a little bit excess left to coat the offending tuna. Add as much as you can to the sauce, tasty occasionally, without letting that flavor take over the whole dish. You are trying to HIDE the tuna flavor, and DISGUISE it as some kind of alfredo-y fishy olive-garden cuisine.
I was able to get about two thirds of a can in there before the sauce had had enough. The only other thing I added at the end was
pepper, but I guess you could put it in at any time; you don't have to wait till the end like I did. But I also think it looks pretty with all the pepper on top.

The fact that I ate it all before I thought to take a picture for a blog post should be proof enough that it was good, without photographic evidence. But if you must know, it looked something like this:

Except with more white sauce ( I had foul tuna to cover up, 'member?) and spaghetti noodles instead of fettuccine ( I'm a college student. Just be glad I didn't use Ramen) (Although, if you use Ramen, let me know how it turns out! Anyway to make cheaper meals is good with me!)

Be Thankful, Sarah

Tomorrow Night...

Tonight I went to an orientation for school.
Tomorrow night, classes begin.
Tomorrow night I start doing what I came down here to do.
Tomorrow night begins the test that will determine whether I can survive being a "First-Year-Student" and move on with the big boys/girls.
Tomorrow night I start what I expect will be an amazing new chapter in my life.
Tomorrow night I embark on the adventure of a lifetime.
Tomorrow night I start life as a student at PBI.











LET IT BEGIN!

{game face}

Be Thankful, Sarah

The ol' Switcheroo

I got a tension headache today.

Actually I got it yesterday, but I took some drugs and they wore off today.

And I think I gave it to myself by being stressed out.

Because tonight it felt better as soon as I got home.

And it started yesterday afternoon when I was worrying about this birthday party I was going to. Basically, I was going because Taylor was going and Taylor was going because Stephanie and Mary were going and they were going because their boyfriends were going. I think their boyfriends are actually friends with the guy who was having a birthday.

Anyway.

They were going to a bowling alley, and I’m a horrible bowler and I hate feeling stupid in front of people I don’t know.

People I DO know, and am already comfortable with, that’s another story. Not sure why…

So anyway, I was nervous about that when the headache came on. And I knew it would be a late night and I knew it would be miserable to be feeling stupid because I’m a bad bowler, awkward because I don’t know anyone, and tired because of a headache.

So I took some Advil and was tired without a headache.

Then by the middle of Sunday School the next day it was back.

By the end of Main Service I was kind of nauseous from the pain.

Lunch helped.

Indian buffet always does.

Came home and caught a little nap, which calmed things down a little as well.

By the end of Evening Service, I was thinking about asking Taylor to drive on the way home, because it had crept up behind my eyes and was trying to squeeze the pupils out.

I sound like a whiny baby, don’t I?

I am. Your assumption was correct.

But as soon as we got home and Taylor and I started joking about something and I had a cup of her tea, I relaxed and felt way better.

Which makes me wonder.

Did I get that headache because I was stressed out about being around all those people??

Why?

I guess because I’m still trying to establish a good impression of me on people.

 (That may or may not have been grammatically correct. Nazi’s, feel free to critique.)

But, hold on.

I thought I didn’t care what people thought (besides a select group of people who’s opinions I value.

I thought I was going to just be myself and if they liked it, great, if not, oh well.

What happened to that plan?

Not sure, but I can’t function with headaches like this all the time once school starts and I have a job, so I need to come up with a new plan.

Which reminds me, I registered today! And got my schedule for the semester.

I’m taking Greek 1,  OT/NT Survey, Church History 1, Life of Christ, Theology 1, Visitation 1, John, Thessalonians- Titus, Daniel, and Revelation.

Whoo!

Yeah, so I don’t have time for tension headaches. I guess I need to just quit trying to perform and and relax.

That didn’t use to be something I had to work at.

Funny how those thing switch around.

 Well, at least, I have a buddy to be un-social with...

Be Thankful, Sarah

If anyone asks...

Sometimes people ask me how my day was, and I don't have anything particularly uplifting to tell them. Well, if they ask today, I'll be ready for them...

Today:

My roommate Mary spent almost her entire day off with me, doing stuff for me!

After we ate breakfast this morning, she followed me to an auto body place where I dropped my car off (don't ask questions, I don't want to talk about it).
Then she took me to a place where I needed to drop off an application. Oh, and it allofasudden started POURING. Like, we ran about 20 feet really fast and got soaked!!
I hear Washington and Florida get the same amount of rainfall, Florida just gets in short spurts and Washington gets it all year round in a slow drizzle.
I believe it.
The only other difference is that Florida's rain is warm!
I love warm rain! Sooo fun...
 So then she took me to Walmart so I could stock my part of the pantry. It was still pouring buckets, and we had to run a LITTLE farther than 20 feet.
Like, 200 yards.
Want to know what my first grocery list was???
I thought so...too bad! I wanna share it, and it's MY blog!!
(Now you're thinking, "When did they start letting spoiled, bratty two-year-old have blogs?" My answer to your question is "A long time ago. Get with the times.")

Eggs
Bread
Beach Towel
Cream of wheat
Dryer sheets that smell like the ones my mom uses
Peanut butter
Beans
Rice
Potatoes
Onions
Garlic
Tomatoes
Butter
Bananas
Chicken
Lettuce
Apples
Mustard
Tuna fish

You know you could have just scrolled past all that, right? You didn't have to actually READ it all. What did you say? I can't hear you. This is blog, not a telephone, silly.

Anyway, after Walmart, we dropped the groceries off, got in some jogging clothes and went and ran on the beach for a while! (came up with a mini sermon while I was at it... Oh yeah! Multi-tasking)
THAT was lovely.

The running part too, not just my roommate.
Sorry, she has a boyfriend.

Then we came home, and I made dinner with her chicken and my potatoes. And it wasnt quite as good as when momma makes it, but she hadn't tasted mom's, so, she didn't know what she was missing, and really liked it. So that was fun!
Then I melted some chocolate and peanut-butter together and stuck it in the freezer to eat while we watched a Disney movie to take her mind off the fact that her boyfriend is leaving for a while and she's really gonna miss him. But we couldnt find Aladdin or Anastatia or Enchanted (oh dear, now you know about my sketchy movie standards) on youtube or her boyfriends netflix account, so we decided to wait for another roommate to get back so we can look on HER netflix account, and she went to the gym while she was waiting, and they all three (yep, there's another one) just got back, so, I'm done now!


So, if anyone asks you how my day went, you can now give them an informed answer.
You're welcome.


Be Thankful, Sarah