Still Full from Thanksgiving

So it has been forever since I updated this. My New Year's Resolution (and hopefully starting before the new year) is to update this blog more often. It has just taken so long to get used to it, plus I want to write something that will actually be worth reading! I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was great. Mine was fantastic, and think I am still full from it :)

Thursday Alex and I ate with his family in Topeka and his Grandma's retirement home. It was nice to see his family and then see my family that night. We went to Wichita for dinner. The spread was quite amazing. My mom always seems to outdo herself and I live it. She made two desserts I was very impressed with. They are below, along with recipes if you are as intrigued as I was!

1. Sopapilla Cheesecake (from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 (8 ounce) cans crescent roll dough
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

• Directions

  1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Beat the cream cheese with 1 1/2 cups of sugar, and the vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth. Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape the each piece into 9x13 inch rectangles. Press one piece into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough.
  3. Drizzle the melted butter evenly over the top of the cheesecake. Stir the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar together with the cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle over the cheesecake along with the almonds.
  4. Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 45 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 squares
  
  
  
  

INGREDIENTS

2. Ritz Cracker (Surprise) Pie (from Cakespy.com)

Pastry for two-crust 9-inch pie
36 RITZ Crackers, coarsely broken (about 1 3/4 cups crumbs) --we used the mini cheese-filled sandwich crackers
1 3/4 cups water
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Grated peel of one lemon
2 tablespoons margarine or butter

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Roll out half the pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate. Place

cracker crumbs in prepared crust; set aside.

2. Heat water, sugar and cream of tartar to a boil in saucepan
over high heat; simmer for 15 minutes. Add lemon juice and peel;
cool.

3. Pour syrup over cracker crumbs. Dot with margarine or butter;
sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll out remaining pastry; place over pie.
Trim, seal and flute edges. Slit top crust to allow steam to escape.

4. Bake at 425 F for 30 to 35 minutes or until crust is crisp
and golden. Cool completely.

Saturday Alex and I went to a wedding for his good friend from undergrad and it was fun to hang out with a lot of his friends we never get to see anymore. Sunday morning my mom made homemade doughnuts which she has never made before. I guess my grandma used to make them Keota, IA, where my mom grew up and her recipe was pretty famous. Needless to say, I came back to Lawrence with all this food that is going to do damage to my waistline.

Alex's birthday is Friday and he is turning the big 25. This is also his last week of law school classes ever, so it is a big week, with tons to celebrate! Oh, and Ginsy got a friend :) My roommate got a half beagle/half daschund mix, 7months old and so cute. I think that is all for now.

Until next time,

Peace, love and curls.

Jacque

Too Much Fun for Rafa

Where does time go? I mean really, where does it go?? November is already half-way over, and I feel like it just started! That being said, I do not mind. I am VERY VERY excited for Thanksgiving.

The past week was fairly normal. However, I did travel home to see my sister in the musical Footloose. Alex came with me and he got to experience Wichita Collegiate Dinner Theatre at it's finest. Over Thanksgiving break he will get to experience the alumni basketball game, good times as WCS. The musical was cute, but going back makes me feel so old now. I am not sure if i like it. The feeling is odd, but not really bad...

Saturday I went to the KU football game. Obviously that was a disappointment, but basketball season is here in full swing, and our team is AWESOME. I get so excited watching them, so I am ready to get in the basketball spirit and out of the football spirit.

Maddie and Carly were in town (Alex's sisters and two of my very good friends), so it was great to see them. We took Maddie to Dempsey's Pub to get a fabulous burger and she really enjoyed it. The burgers are great.

Check out the menu and go there to experience them! http://www.theburgerstand.com/That night I went to the Barrel House Piano Bar. It was my first experience there and let me tell you, it was crazy. As soon as I walk in I see my roommate Lacey, on stage with her monkney (stuffed that is), Rafa. Rafa occasionally makes an appearance with us, and that night he did because his birthday was yesterday. The pianists loved us because we were having so much fun, so it was a blast! Sad for Rafa though, he lost an arm. Now we are on a mission to get him a new one. Lacey wanted to see if they found it at the Barrel House so when she got home she proceeded to call, inform them she brought a "prop" out, and asked if they had found the arm. It was great.

Today was the first snow and I got my hair cut, so very eventful for one day. I got my straight across bangs back, so I am very excited. Oh yeah, and I think I found the wedding dress I am going to get. I would post a link, but I don't want Alex to see it :)

Check out pictures from the week below!

Rafa in the tip jar!

Rafa on the piano with the player!

Me and my sister Heidi in her 80's prom dress for Footloose.

Gins, striking a pose!

That is all for now. Just counting down the days until Thanksgiving.

Until next time,

Peace, love and curls.

Jacque

Thanksgiving Countdown!

Based on the title of this post I am almost sure you can image what I am thinking: only a little over two weeks until Thanksgiving!!! I could not be more excited :) It has been far too long since I have had quality time with my family, or any decent food. I will me excited to take a break from my ramen and rice diet I have been on as of late as an attempt to save money and lose weight.

I think Alex and I have finalized our plans for the holiday, which is always nice for a planner like me. The plan is to visit his mom in Topeka early in the day of Thanksgiving, and head to Wichita for the rest of the break. There we will be able to hang out with my family, and attend the wedding of his good friend Jenna, who is getting married in Wichita Saturday the 28th. I am anxiously awaiting the relaxation, food and quality time with people I love.

On another note, I think I have finally gotten used to the time change. Last week I was in bed usually by or shortly after ten, and up early as well. I have never had such a hard time getting used to standard time as I did this year, having a full time job. Obviously the time change doesn't really affect Ginsburg because she sleeps like 20 hours a day :) In fact, look below; as I write this post she is sleeping on my lap.

Ginsburg, sleeping on my lap while I play on the Internet.

Per usual, the week went by very quickly. After a long day at work on Friday I was able to start the weekend right by catching up with my two very good friends and Alex's roommate, Matt and Nathan downtown at Bourgeois Pig. It was my first time there, but it was quite delightful, and it was a gorgeous day. Here is the link for the information on lawrence.com for those interested in more about the establishment.

http://www.lawrence.com/places/the_bourgeois_pig/

Alex took the MPRE Saturday and quickly went off to a bachelor party so I didn't get to see him that much. But I watched the game, was sad when KU lost, but was quickly able to make the day good by hanging out with some friends on my front porch, since it was so nice outside. Pictures posted below.

Annie, Steven and I showing off our fan cans.

Lacey playing in the leaves with Ginsburg

Ginsburg matches the leaves, here she is completely buried.

The start of the process to bury Ginsburg.

Sunday was lazy, with the highlights being chinese buffet and seeing Carly because she was in town. Oh yeah, and Dexter. I am looking forward to this week. I have already started doing a lot more wedding planning.

What A Week

Wow, I really need to get better at posting! Sorry, friends. I just lose track of time during the week and before I know it, it is already Monday again.

Needless to say, this past week was very very eventful. Friday and Saturday were filled with Halloween celebration, and some sub-par Jayhawk football. Friday night, we all went dancing at The Replay Lounge, currently my favorite establishment in Lawrence. We went as an Asian group, with myself being soy sauce, my friend Steven as take-out and Alex as General Tso's chicken. The costumes were a big hit :)

Because in my friends we have this rule were you cannot wear the same costume 2 nights in a row, we came up with something last minute for Saturday. As of late we have been obsessed with The Beatles Rockband, so we went as The Beatles from the cover of the Help! album. Our costumes were very good, and we ended up getting some compliments. In fact, we went to see Sellout, a very fun cover band at the Jasshaus, and after describing my costume I was pulled on stage to help sing "Hey Mickey!"

Actually, I have included a promotional video for Sellout in this post so you can get a feel for what they are like. They are from Lawrence and are a blast to see. Alex and I went on our first date to a Sellout concert and have continued to go to their shows ever since. In fact, we are seriously considering booking them for our wedding reception. We really like the idea of a live band, and they play music from the 70's, 80's and 90's, so everyone loves to dance. Let me know what you think.

Sunday we went to go see Where the Wild Things Are, and I absolutely loved it. It was so cute and the costumes were fantastic! I would highly recommend it. Unfortunately on Sunday I noticed Ginsy was acting strange, so I made her a vet appointment for today. Poor doggy, she has a urinary tract infection and an ear infection. I was able to get her some medication and hopefully she will feel better soon. Eventful week and weekend.

Sellout!

Matt as Dr. Tobias Funke from Arrested Development.

The Bealtes, Help! album cover

Asian Trio

Ginsy being so cute!! My baby.

I am really looking forward to all of the wedding planning I am about to embark on. Alex and I finalized our chapel reservation last week so now our date is TOTALLY official, July 17, 2010. My friend Jenny, who just got married in August gave me a long list of bride blogs, that I am totally excited to start reading.

Here is the promotional video for Sellout. It is basically still shots, but let me know what you think :)

Halloween Almost Here!!!

I am so excited for Halloween I can barely stand it. My favorite holiday (besides my birthday), is this week, and I feel prepared. I just have some last minute stuff to do. Lacey (my roommate) and I are going to run out and get stuff for our costumes this week. At that time I need to get candy and maybe a few more decorations in hopes of getting some trick-or-treaters.

Yesterday we all got together and carved pumpkins. Before carving, a few of us went to the pumpkin patch east of Lawrence and had a good time. Below are some pictures from the day.

This is the final product of the pumpkins Alex and I made. My pumpkin is the owl and his is the jack-o-lantern. I think they look so cute at night.

After we cleaned out our pumpkins we roasted the seeds and they were very very delicious!

This is at the pumpkin patch. We went to Shaake's pumpkin patch in East Lawrence. It is so cute :)

This is my friend Megan. We went through the corn maze and this his her sliding down at the very end.

This is all of us trying to act like little kids to get our picture taken. Luckily some nice person at the patch found this humorous and agreed to take our picture.

Needless to say, the day was very good and really got me in the mood for the week.

I think Ginsburg is ready for the week too. She was scared of pumpkins last year, but after the carving festivities this year she is used to them. Her costume is also so cute, I am sure she is just so excited to wear it.

Alex and I came up with our Halloween costume. I am going to be soy sauce, and he is going to be General Tso's Chicken. I think it will be a hit, I just need to work on it this week.

Everything else is pretty calm. I will try to update more often during the week, hopefully with lots more to talk about.

That is it for now.

Peace, love and curls.

Jacque

Favorite Time of Year

Wow! October is flying by!! I cannot believe the month is 2/3 over. It kind of came to me today that I didn't have a Halloween costume, so I came up with one today. I wanted to do something that would bring back good childhood memories for both myself and anyone who sees me on halloween. So, after much searching I decided on Patty Mayonnaise, from Doug. I love her outfit, so cute (plus, any chance to wear a wig). I think my friends are all gonna try to go as doug characters. Except for Amber that is...

Beej (Amber) is OBSESSED with diet coke. Literally when she tried to cut it out of her diet, she could only make it to cutting back to four a day :) So she is going to be Diet Coke for Halloween, at least I am trying to make her be diet coke. Inspiration below:

Yeah. That is beej wearing her d-coke medallion, using ginsy's leash as the chain!! So yeah, and I think instead of Ginsy being a shark, she has to be porkchop to complete the Doug cast!

In other news, Alex and I set a date. July 17th, 2010. I am so excited. All of the planning is really overwhelming right now, but I am already enjoying it. My friends are putting up with me talking about it all the time, and so is Al, haha. As more details come about I will keep you posted. That is all for Monday. Ready for a busy week.

Until next time,

Peace, love and curls.

Jacque

Much Needed Update

WOW!! It has been forever since I updated, I do apologize! From this day forward it I am going to try to update a couple of times each week :)

Anyway, a lot has happened since I last updated. Alex proposed to me, so now we are engaged!! Very excited to say the least. So far I have been trying to start the planning. We set a date for July 17, 2010 in Lawrence. We are actually going to have a small ceremony in Danforth chapel and a bigger reception. I am going to have so much fun planning this :)

KU football is decent still, 5-0 but not playing too well. Keep your fingers crossed! Also, Alex got a brand new car, a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe. John C. (his father) got it for him as a present for his graduation from law school this December. It is so nice, black with all leather black interior and a sunroof. I die.

I was sick today, so that has not been fun; hoping to feel better tomorrow. The nice thing about the day was that I did get the chance to stay at home with Ginsburg and relax all day. Ginsburg got her halloween costume, she looks so cute in it. She is a shark! I need ideas on my halloween costume, any suggestions?

Al driving his new car on the way back from Hays when we went to visit his sisters, Carly and Maddie.

Ginsburg in her shark costume, so cute!!

That's all for now friends.

Peace, love and curls.

Jacque

Weekend Wrap-Up

Sorry I haven't been updating as often as I would like to. I'm still new to this whole blog thing, but I really am enjoying it thus far! Let me know what you like or what I should change, any help is much appreciated!!

Overall, it was a very good weekend. KU won and it was a gorgeous day for a game! Here are some pictures from the day.

This is the view of the hill from where Alex and I sat. It really is very gorgeous, especially on gameday when everyone is wearing blue! After we score the bell rings and it is really cool.

These are the new blue endzones, I'm a really big fan!

This is the campanile from up close. It is a big part of KU tradition.

A shot of the pre-game activities on the field and the crowd.

Alex and I at the game :)

After a busy day Saturday, Sunday was pretty lazy day. I got Ginsburg a shark costume for Halloween, it is so cute! Alex and I watched the Chiefs, and went to a halloween store with some friends. I LOVE Halloween!!!

We cooked dinner and of course Ginsburg was her crazy self. Anytime we cook, she gets terrified (because she is scared of everything). She won't even come in the kitchen. She runs in the bedroom and hides under the bed, it is adorable but kind of sad. Any tips for getting her over the fear?

Anyway, I'll post pictures later of her in the shark costume.

Until next time,

Peace, love and curls.

Jacque

Exciting Week

2nd entry!

This has been an exciting week so far I am glad to report. I found out on Monday at work that starting the next pay period, September 28th I will be starting as a full time employee! This includes a raise and benefits. Needless to say after finding that out I was pretty much guaranteed a good week! I've been eating very healthy as I am participating in Biggest Loser 09 with Amber, as well as my friends Steven and Chelsi.

Amber and I started going on walks too, I feel very relaxed. Anyway on our walk today we decided that we are going to start a business. We have a very specific perfect work environment in mind and feel that only when we are surrounded with our friends will this be possible. Currently we are thinking a bakery/bar or a little bake shoppe. Give me feedback with your ideas.

Ginsy is her typical crazy self. Tonight Alex and I left to go get a drink at the gas station and left her out to mill around the house. When we get back she doesn't come running to the door, so naturally I assume she is doing something wrong, as she was Monday when Amber found her in her room. However, she had managed to lock herself in the bathroom! So, I live in an older house that tilts toward the center. Ginsy somehow always manages to get in the bathroom and when the door closes she cannot get out, it is soooo cute and funny! I wish I could take her to the KU football game on Saturday so everyone else could enjoy her cuteness as much as I do :)

Other than that, this has been a pretty typical week. All is well and calm. I am finally starting to understand just how much free time I am going to have now that I am not in school anymore. It is interesting and will take some getting used to, but I think I will enjoy it.

I want to leave you with a video my friend Megan showed me today. It is really interesting and really makes you think. Take the time to watch it, you will appreciate it very much.

Until next time,

Peace, love and curls.

Jacque

Hello Blogosphere

Hello everyone and thanks in advance for reading!

This is my first attempt at a blog and all I can say is that I am very excited about this. I recently graduated from KU in May 2009. In an attempt to put off graduate school and not really move on with my life, I decided to get a job in Lawrence. Currently I am working at the KU bookstore, living with two great roommates, and obviously my dog Ginsburg.

Ginsburg is almost 2 years old, and I have had her ever since she was a puppy. This blog will really consist of simple, everyday stories that add humor to my life, and I hope they will bring some sense of humor to your daily routine.

Today my roommate Amber picked me up at work and we headed home. She was probably gone from our house for a total of 15 minutes. So, we get home and she yells for Ginsy and she doesn't come running from my room. Amber books it upstairs because her closet is Ginsy's favorite poop spot. We run upstairs to find the only two dishes she had in her room overturned on the floor. But that is not the silly part. So for your reference these plates are more like bowls. In the process of trying to get the food Ginsburg had overturned the plate on top of the food and could not overturn it to get the food!! We clean up the mess and head downstairs, where Ginsy proceeds to drink an entire bowl of water. Take note owners of hyper-active dogs, they get tired trying to overturn a dish for day old food.

I'll keep this post short, but I hope you have enjoyed. Stories like this and other adventures are what you can find on here. I'll also post stuff I find interesting or enjoy from time to time. So relax and enjoy.

I'll leave you with pictures for a quick photo-biography of my life.

This is Alex and Ginsburg. Alex is my boyfriend, we have been dating for 2 1/2 years. He actually got me Ginsburg for Valentines Day 2008. Best present ever. Also, in this photo Ginsburg is wearing her favorite tank-top. It has a skull on the back of it and says Killer. Alex is graduating from KU Law this December 2009.

These are my two roommates this year. Amber, in the plaid shirt has been my friend since we were in high school together in Wichita. This is our third time living together! I'm in the middle. Lacey, to my left, has been my friend since we worked together at New Student Orientation for KU in the summer of 2007. She is an avid spanish speaker and very crazy.

Peace, Love and Curls.

Jacque