30 Days Part V

November 17th

I'm thankful we have a moving truck (and an awesome brother in law to drive it back) to get my stuff from the state I'm currently living in to the one I'm moving to in a few weeks! It's becoming more and more real!

November 18th

As silly as it may seem, I'm thankful for still being able to sleep in until a slightly ridiculous time, and just relax before the crazy of the final week of school sets in!

November 19th

Today I'm thankful for having my monsters *cough* nieces and nephews, to love and try to be a role model for. I know at times it may not seem like it, and I'm usually far away, but I adore them more than they may realize, though I constantly tell them I love them, and am so incredibly proud of these kids.

 I'm grateful for the random phone calls in the middle of a project from my four year old nephew to tell me he wanted to give me a hug and that he misses me and loves me and he drew mommy a map of where I go to school, who gets so excited when I come to visit he squeals and nearly knocks everything over trying to get to the door, and keeps all the postcards I send him to tell mommy where I went and talks about what I did.





For my four year old niece who makes penguin noises when she sees me to say hello, asks me to tell her stories about a brave little girl and her adventures with her family and puppies in a big castle while we snuggle together in her little bed, and knows no matter how busy I am, we will always, at some point have a "Grub & Wally's Day Out".  For believing in both princess and superheroes, dancing and playing sports, and for self proclaiming she's a"Parrot Princess" just like Wally.





For my nine year old nephew who's always ready for a pickup soccer game in my mom's backyard, asks his mom if he can hang out with me when I come home from college but will of course never admit to me it was his idea in the first place, and who tries to play it cool while we were out whale watching off the coast of California thinking he could run across the deck of the ship right as we hit a big wave and was clinging to me like he really thought he was going to fall overboard (of course he didn't, but slid between my arms as I held onto the railing every time it looked like we might encounter a wave because he knew he was safe.)


I'm grateful for my middle niece who's six and gets excited to have a girl's day with me whenever I come home from college. Who plays dress up with my mom's clothes and my princess tiaras and parades around playing queen, loving on my mom's cats and dogs, and makes me pictures all the time that I get to hang on my walls at home and at school and it makes her so happy when she comes over and she sees I keep them.





My oldest niece and I are more like siblings than aunt and niece, we're seven years apart. I'm thankful for having a relationship with her that's stayed fairly strong as she's grown up, even though I was gone for the beginning of her teenage years, and I'll be gone for the rest of it. For having her watch me in California try to take a photo of the ocean and having a dumb seagull steal my ice cream right out of my hand and her telling me that made her trip because of the look I had on my face when I turned around and she realized it was me. I'm happy we can have bonding time over things we both enjoy, go to the movies, and share a love for Swedish fish.



November 20th

I'm thankful that in exactly a week I'll get to see my Grub and Paul again. It's been such a  long time since September.

November 21st

College is officially over! I'm done! I finished my last final today (although it didn't go that great-don't care too much because it's over now!), said good bye to friends and professors I liked, and hung out with Bryan, Avi, and Kaitlin and just enjoyed our last night together watching Jurassic Park and eating Twizzlers Bryan threw at me. I don't like saying good bye, so it was a little hard, especially with the people I worked with and who are like my second family. I'll see them again though. Soon.

30 Days of Thanks Part IV

November 13th

I'm grateful for having good friends who want to include me in their children's lives, even though we are far apart, but that doesn't matter to either of us. They're always sending me updates and new photos as the little ones grow up, and I'm thankful we haven't lost our close bonds through the distance.

November 14th

Today my partner and I finished our final project for our senior seminar class! All my projects are finally finished for all of my classes and we don't have to worry about it anymore after our presentation!

November 15th

I'm thankful for having a good relationship with my friend's mom. She was able to help me out with a project for school, which I was in dire need of, and hopefully help me establish a connection with the executive pastry at a really nice hotel where I'm moving soon.

November 16th

We found out that the paperwork went through for our condo and my grandparents closed on it today and were given the keys! Paul and I are so incredibly excited!!! I'm very grateful for having a place to call our home, and for the help that my grandparents gave us in getting somewhere of our own while I'm away at school. It's all happened so quickly in the last month, but seemed to take so much longer only because of the anticipation. It'll be all the more exciting and I think reality will begin to set in once Paul and I have the keys in hand and open the door together for the first time.

30 Days Part III

November 9th

Skype is the next best thing to being able to see someone you really miss in person. While it will never come close to the feeling of being able to hold someone in your arms, to hug them, or just to lay against them and talk in person, it helps bridge the gap when you're hundreds of miles apart. I can see their face and hear them talk, and know that soon we'll be in the same place again. It eases the separation just enough so it's slightly more bearable. 2 weeks mon chérie! <3 Thank you whoever came up with the idea of video chat, you're amazing!

November 10th

For spontaneous penguin shaped ice cube fights in the dorm hallway, double chocolate chip cookies, and fits of giggles when procrastination is a welcome distraction to you attempting to do homework.

November 11th

A HUGE you to our veterans for your dedication in protecting our country and for all you've sacrificed. I have a lot of friends and family who are veterans or are still serving, and I think about them all the time. I cannot thank you enough for your service, and am incredibly grateful for all you do.

November 12th

I'm thankful for having my sister offer to come to Denver to pick me up from school once it's over so I won't have to worry about finding a way home after I move out of my dorm.

30 Days Part II

November  5th

For being able to call my mom when it gets overwhelming trying to stay on top of the million things life decides to throw me all at once, and even when I don't believe her when she says everything will work out. And you know what? It always seems to. For providing suggestions and helpful bits of advice when I forgo reason and logic all together, but for not being overpowering. For stepping back enough to let me do things on my own, for letting me try and fail, for telling me to get back up if I fall and to try again. And for always telling me to have a plan b, but if that doesn't work out, don't worry, there's 24 more letters in the alphabet. Thank you for all the life lessons.

November 6th

For having coworkers who can make you laugh and accept you and all your randomness because they're just like that too, and can totally relate. Llamas and lambs anyone?

(I didn't take this photo, I couldn't find the ones I had. This is from Sister Sheep, a Colorado based sheep family. But seriously, how cute are they?)

November 7th

While paying tuition for school, I was thinking about all the people here who when I came to them to say good bye because I my financial aid fell through and I had to go home, dropped everything and spent an entire day talking back and forth with the main campus in Providence, working out something to keep me here so I could finish my last term. They didn't have to help me, let alone make sure I could graduate, but they did because they said they believed I could do it, and I had come too far to have to be sent home, that I was a wonderful young woman, and that sometimes, we all need a little extra help.

November 8th

For having friends who know you need a night out after a ridiculous last few weeks, so they take you out downtown to goof off and be crazy college kids. And for surprising a friend at work who didn't think you'd actually come to see them, and then drives you all home after they get off.

30 Days of Thanks

Although my favorite month just ended, November is going to be an exciting month. School is winding down, finals are approaching, the countdown until I see my family just passed the four week mark, and I realized I have quite a bit to be thankful for, and since Thanksgiving is coming, I felt it was appropriate to reflect on the things I sometimes neglect to appreciate as much as I should.

November 1st

This past Wednesday was my team's event for our On-Site Food Service lab class, and despite all the set backs, we id did! We planned, planned, and planned some more then executed our Celtic restaurant from concept to the final dessert that went out of the kitchen under our management, and the food was incredible! At least that's what all of our reviews had said, and that's the thing that mattered to us. So today I'm thankful for my two partners who believed in the concept I thought of, and ran with the idea, and collectively, the three of us  ran Failte, our way of welcoming guests to our home for the day. I'm so proud of my team, and without them we could not have pulled it off.

November 2nd

Today I finally got a chance to just relax after weeks of crazy projects, nonstop homework, and most days running on sheer adrenaline and copious amounts of tea and coffee. I'm thankful for having one day to get undisturbed sleep, hopefully kicking this cold I can feel myself catching.

November 3rd

I finally bought my plane ticket to spend Christmas with my boyfriend and his family tonight! I'm so incredibly excited! For as much as I'm really going to miss spending it with almost all of my family in Colorado, I'm looking forward to spending my first Christmas with him as we begin a new chapter together. I will still get to see my family here on Christmas, and also see my family in New Mexico too. Although I've never spent the holidays anywhere else but home, and I will definitely miss all the traditions I've grown up with, I'm excited to start new traditions and still keep the familiar ones. I'm thankful for the ability to travel out of state, for having an incredibly loving family at home who knows how important he is to me and for understanding why I want to spend Christmas away, though it is really hard for me, and for having another family who loves me and welcomed me into their home to share their holiday.

November 4th

I'm thankful for the person who came to fix the card reader for laundry machines so I can wash my clothes. I'm pretty sure I was more excited than I should have been to spend money on laundry, but I know I shouldn't take being able to do so for granted because so many others must find different means of cleaning their clothes. So thank you maintenance; I feel as if you don't get thanked enough for all the little things.

From Princess to Pastry Chef

Usually going to senior seminar isn't exactly the part of my day I look most forward to, but I left class today pondering quite a bit, which is unusual, given majority of the class is typically devoted to catching up on discussion boards for my HR class and figuring out what it is my partner and I are going to do for our cafe simulation. I had forgotten we were having a guest speaker, which was probably a good thing I had left Jeffery (my laptop) in my room, meaning I would pay more attention.

Our guest speaker posed an ice breaker question to my class: "What did you want to be when you grew up when were younger and what are you doing now or planning to do after college?"

Immediately I thought of several things: princess, pediatrician, secret agent, architect, professional soccer player. I giggled to myself, thinking how silly some of those were, and glanced to my friends sitting next to me, who looked deep in thought. One of my best friends said he wanted to be a lawyer, and I'm pretty sure I looked dumbfounded. I've been friends with him for going on four years and had no idea. But then again, when I met him he introduced himself as a culinary arts major, and I guess it was stuck in my head that he was going to be a chef, and never thought he might have considered a different career before that one.

Most of my classmates had quite different dream careers from when they were younger compared to the now more realistic careers they had chosen, probably 3/4 saying they were aiming for these top executive positions that'll make them huge salaries in these super well known hospitality or entertainment/event companies. And then she calls on me. I said I had wanted to be a pediatrician or professional soccer player, and that now I want to be a professional cake decorator. Our speaker actually asked me again if I had said I wanted to be a cake decorator. I'm quite proud of how much I've improved since I first started here and how confident that cake decorating is exactly what I want to do. But at that moment, I just wanted to disappear, the judgmental looks I was getting from some of the people in my class, and the speaker no less, was a bit overwhelming.

After I left class I thought about how I ended up choosing cake decorating, and how far my intended career path is from what I thought I wanted to be when I was younger.

I've heard a lot of skepticism from people telling me I can't make a career of out what I want to do, and that owning my own business is the way to go. Well, I disagree, and to everyone who didn't think I would make it through even my first year of college, let alone actually finish and be good at what I do, I have a degree in Baking & Pastry and a certificate of Professional French Pastry, and am five weeks from a Food Service Management degree with a job already lined up. So I think I'm doing pretty well. And I like decorating cakes. It's what I do.

Final Countdown

I woke up to that familiar autumn chill we'd been missing all month. The rather drizzly, overcast skies set the mood for a hot tea, snuggling, and good book filled day; I sighed and made plans for that later, getting ready for work, and headed out. I don't mind this weather, really I don't. Autumn is by far my favorite season; sweaters, cider, tea, crunching leaves in huge piles, the gorgeous array of fall colors sprayed among the fading green of the trees, my birthday of course is during this season, though I don't prefer autumn only for that reason, the gleeful shrieks of small children playing outdoors, and the last few months before I have to break out the heavy winter clothes. This version of autumn is definitely more Coloradoesque. Fortunately I live in Denver, where we average 300 days of sunshine a year, which makes the cold season more bearable.

I had the best intentions of starting a blog at the start of my college career of all my adventures. Alas, that didn't happen as I got caught up in the whirlwind of new beginnings, closing pages of finished chapters, and trying to "find myself" up here. I guess it's never too late to start, eh?

Senioritis is a real thing, don't let anyone tell you it's not. Mostly it's just a state of mind, procrastination at it's finest, a sense of urgency to finish school, to get out into the "REAL" world, the anticipation just building and building. I for one, am ready to begin the new chapter entitled "Post College: The Adult Life". I think. Maybe. In reality I just want to crawl back into my blanket fort, coloring pictures of princesses and the Madagascar penguins, pretending the world is my playground, and the blankets are my protected fortress, inside which I can be ignorant of the world and ignore all the not so happy parts. Honestly, I don't think it's all that bad, but it's just the comfort of childhood and all the innocence intact.

If I can survive the next eight weeks of projects, deadlines, and the seemingly endless piles of laundry, I can start what everyone tells me is the beginning of "the rest of my life." But then again, that's what they said about college, and so far, I think I've managed "the real world" fairly well.