Oh The Weather Outside Is DELIGHTFUL!

I've got a whole lot to catch you up on, but lets just start with today and work backwards. I woke up this morning to a nice e-mail from the professor of my first class saying that she was canceling class due to weather conditions. Obviously this was awesome, but why weren't my other classes cancelled? Especially my last 3 classes which I had a test, a presentation and another test in. As I opened my door around 10:20 in kind of a downer mood, I was overwhelmed by a sea of white...IT WAS SNOWING...HARD!! Still, my question remained, why weren't classes cancelled? After grabbing some ginseng peppermint tea at good 'ole Common Grounds, I headed to Mass Comm class. It seemed like everyone was pretty irritated to be sitting in class on such a rare day in Waco, TX. Halfway through class I looked down at my phone and saw that I had a text from a number I had never seen...it read "Baylor will close today at 2." Best text I've EVER gotten!!!! One of my tests was at 12:30, but that was my easy one. Classes closing at 2 meant that I wouldn't have to make my big presentation or take my super hard test. YES YES YES!! I finished my test in 15 minutes and was able to run to the SLC before it closed at 2 and get in a good hour work out. I could have done a DVD or something, but I'm not a fan of working out at home. I just don't have motivation where that is concerned. Since I opted to postpone lunch to catch the gym before it closed, I was starved by the time I made it home. In the middle of my pita pizza, Megan called and was on her way to pick me up to play in the snow! The day just kept getting better! We went to the science building fields and took lots of pictures and threw a ton of snowballs. It was just like being in elementary school again on a snow day...LOVE IT!!

We had soo much fun playing in the snow...Jake (Lunden's dog) did too! This picture doesn't really show the amount of snow we got. 

This is a little better, but still doesn't show it all. I love these 2...they are just about the cutest couple and I wish Ben was still at Baylor so we could go on tons and tons of double dates! 

The rest of the day consisted of a nice hot bath to denumb my body while reading my book, The Last Song. I am having soo much trouble putting it down. It is getting better and better with every chapter! Then, I cleaned my room and bathroom. It was much needed. I'm like a tornado during test week. Everywhere I go I leave a HUGE mess! My mom would totally agree...except she would say this for more than test week, but I'm actually quite clean here. Then, I decided that since I had time, I definitely wanted to make myself a fabulous dinner. What better on a cold cold day then MAC AND CHEESE?!?It's a very rare occasion that I indulge in mac and cheese. It's just not the healthiest of foods, but after much searching, I found a healthy recipe. HALLELUJAH! I have been looking for a good one for ages. This one was great and very very tasty. I accompanied the mac and cheese with a delicious salad and popped some fudge brownies in the oven after the mac and cheese was done.

 

Delicious!! The recipe included cottage cheese, ricotta cheese and cheddar cheese...these all mixed wonderfully and the added nutmeg gave it a great kick. There are only about 200 calories per serving in this recipe...makes it even better!!

I definitely needed to add a salad with the mac and cheese. I just wouldn't have been satisfied, plus 200 cals is definitely not enough for dinner. The salad was the usual spinach with chickpeas, red onion, pecans, cauliflower and a little little bit of avocado on top. MMMM!!

WOWZAS!---These are delicious! I tried a little bite just so I could give y'all a proper review. You may think it's weird that I made brownies in a muffin pan, but I am a huge fan of the crispy edges. I definitely need that new brownie pan that came out. The one with the seperate slots for each brownie, so they all have the crispy edges...best invention ever! I got this recipe out of the Cook Yourself Thin cookbook. They are called Fudgy Brownies and only have 56 calories per brownie. Whoa!! You could eat like 4 in one sitting...precisely my thinking! :)

So the rest of the night I intend on getting some much needed school work done and catching up on The Bachelor. What an INCREDIBLE day!! 

Now for the weekend---

SING started on Thursday! For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, Baylor puts on this huge show called Sing where each fraternity and sorority creates a dancing/singing act. The top 8 groups get to perform in Pigskin, which is the production put on at Homecoming. It is soo FUN and soo INTENSE!! This year Tri Delta's act is called C'mon and Swim...we are fish!! I love love love our act and have soo much fun being in it! It's kind of sad because this is my first year not doing full-time, but there is no way with the hours I'm taking, so I am a senior extra...aka Baracuda. 

This is little miss Chelsi and me watching on club night (Thursday). The show is soo long, but soo worth getting to see all the competition. I'm super competitive!! 

We performed Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I felt like we got better with each night. That is always encouraging and I am pumped for this weeks performances. Ben got to come on Friday night and we had soo much fun. It makes the performance so much more fun when you know you have someone in the audience watching. He performed with Kappa Sigma while he was at Baylor, so he understands the intensity and how much I love it. I thought he was going to have to leave early on Saturday morning, but he got to stay until about noon which meant we got to go out with friends on Friday night. I love it when he visits!! I know I've seen him a lot lately, but it's just soo nice having him at Baylor. I really wish he was here for my last year, but oh well...we'll be MARRIED soon! 

On Sunday morning I hit the road to head back to Dallas so Ben and I could take our engagement pictures. OMG, it was soo fun and I love love love what I have seen so far! Taylor McCabe is our photographer and he is soo good at what he does. Look him up at taylormccabephoto.com. 

This is just 1 of the 3 samples Taylor sent us last night, but I love it! I am soo excited to get the rest of the pictures. We did the photo shoot in a field on a pretty overcast day, but it was perfect. I was bummed that the weather wasn't nice, but it actually made the lighting even better. It even started raining at one point and we got to bring out the umbrella. 

After we finished up the photo shoot, which ended in about a 10 degree temperature drop...perfect for when I put on a summer dress (whoops!), we headed back to Denton for Brenda's surprise birthday party. I was soo excited that I could be in town for the occasion. I generally miss just about everything since I'm still at Baylor, but I couldn't miss this. I cannot even express how excited I am to move to Denton after Ben and I get married and be able to hang out with Brenda whenever I want! She has become such a good friend and I gave her a little surprise for her birthday....I gave her a book that she had been wanting to read and told her to open her card after she opened the present. I always write like a book when I give someone a card, but when she got to the bottom she was very excited...I ASKED HER TO BE A BRIDESMAID!! Soo glad she will be standing up there with me on our big day! Her and Landon are such a big part of Ben and my life that it only seems right that she's there with me. Woo hoo!! 

After the party Ben was so kind and took Katie (his sister) and I to Jason's Deli. Have I expressed my love of Jason's yet?!?! I AM OBSESSED WITH THEIR SALAD BAR! I could seriously eat it everyday and it has been the inspiration for my at-home salads. I was soo excited when Katie told me how much she loved it too...my new sister and I can go together all the time! On the way there, we discovered that the song Ben wanted to play at our wedding was PERFECT for when the bridesmaids and I walk down the aisle. That's all I'll say because I want it to be a surprise to those attending, but I get so happy whenever I hear it now. It is perfect! Then, we went back to the house and watched Undercover Boss (soo good) and the Platinum Weddings that was filmed at our venue, The Piazza in Colleyville. It made me even more excited for the big day...137 days! Of course, we couldn't finish the night without some hot tub time. Landon, Ben, Brenda and I got in the hot tub and ended up having a very serious conversation. I learned a whole lot about the way men work. It was like pre-marital counseling...intense. 

My plan was to leave around 6:30 to get back to Waco in time for my first class at 9:05, but like most visits to Denton, I ended up staying a bit longer. We went to Old West (yummmm!) for Brenda's birthday breakfast. I recommend this place to anyone who lives in the area...it is scrumdidlyumtious!! It was a perfect way to end the weekend and I was pretty sad to leave and come back to real life, but little did I know that today would be soo fabulous! 

Just thought I would end with a very happy picture. This is Megan, one of my dearest friends and another bridesmaid. Don't know that I could have had more fun with anybody else today! 

Loving life....God is soo good!!!