Ahhhhh vacation. Such a beautiful word, no?

I’m currently reveling in all the free time I have and am completely thrilled to have a week left before it’s back to the grind. My top concerns right now include making sure that I get in my Netflix fix and that I spend plenty of time on the couch with my kitty. Priorities, people. Get them straight. 

Today was just one of those lovely days that make you truly appreciate life. I’m not even sure what seemed so different about it (other than not having my face buried inside a textbook), but I found myself sitting back throughout the day and just feeling a sense of immense gratitude. Gratitude towards my family. Gratitude to the friends I’ve made through blogging. Gratitude to the quiet stillness of the morning. The list goes on and on. It’s strange how some seemingly normal days can give you that profound sense of peace and recognition of how wonderful life is. 

Anyways, enough with all the deepness. Ain’t nobody got time for that much reflectiveness on a Monday. If I keep this up, I’ll probably turn into Ghandi or Aristotle by the end of the week. Sheesh. 

So here’s a quick recap of my Monday!

It’s pretty bizarre for me to wake up past 7 most days, so the fact that I’ve been sleeping in till around 8-8:30 is pretty cray cray for me. It may not seem like a huge jump, but I swear I have an internal clock that gets me up within 30 minutes every day without an alarm. I’m assuming my tiredness comes from a combination of post-exams exhaustion, being sick, and having sore muscles from weightlifting. I’ll take all the extra rest I can get, though! 

After waking up, I pitter-pattered around the house for a while before settling down on the couch to watch a documentary and eat a batch of my Brown Sugar Banana Oats. I’m sure I’m boring  you guys to death with this meal on repeat, but it’s just so darn good. Also, fun fact! While Kyle doesn’t really swear often, when we first started dating, his go-to curse was “gosh darnnit”. I still don’t know if I think it’s cute or if I want to throw up rainbows and unicorns. Guess I’m somewhere in between. (Just kiddin’, babesical. Love ya <3). 

The rest of the morning was spent relaxing and napping, before heading out to Home Goods to grab some pretty dishes to use for my recipe photography. I guess I know I’m getting older by how excited I get over shopping over kitchen supplies haha! I also picked up an adorable soft pink and tan makeup bag as an impulse buy. One of the highlights of my day was thinking I only had a few bucks left on my gift card, but having it completely cover my purchases. SCORE! 

By the time I got back, it was a bit dark to get good photos of my haul, but I’ll get some pics up soon!

After my shopping adventure, I headed over to Kyle’s house to spend some time with him and his family.

Throw back to Kyle’s little brother’s Eagle Scout ceremony! The family minus papa bear.

We caught up with everyone, then ate a delicious home-cooked dinner that a family friend brought over before starting last Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead (anyone else obsessed with that show?).

We paused our show time to quickly run over to the store to pick up the ingredients to make…. APPLE PIE!!!! If you guys don’t remember, I have an obsession  deep love for apple pie and, well, was a bit excited if you can’t tell.

Get in mah bellehh. SO GOOD. If anyone is interested in having a flavor explosion of deliciousness in your mouth that brings forth every happy memory you’ve ever had, I’d recommend Grandma Ople’s Apple Pie recipe. By far one of my all-time favorites and the only adjustment I ever make is to add a dash of salt to make a salted caramel version. 

After the pie had cooled, we cut up a piece for each of his family members before serving ourselves and finishing our show. Talk about a perfect evening, right?

And that’s about all I got for you guys for the moment! Tomorrow’s plans include possibly taking a class at the gym, cooking up some new recipes, some freelance work, and planning an upcoming BBQ. The good life :).

Hope you all got through the Monday blues! 

P.S: “Babesical” is a cross between popsicle and babe. Don’t worry, I don’t actually call him that. Usually. 

Hi there, friends! I’m alive and survived a hellish set of finals. All of them were tough, but I’ve been pacing myself throughout the quarter (hello 4-6 hours in the library at least four days a week), so most of them were manageable! I’m hoping for mostly As, especially in organic chemistry since it’s been sucking the life out of me… slowly and painfully. GIVE ME MY A!!!!!!

Post-finals EUPHORIA!!!

Okay, enough sleep-deprived ranting. Here’s what I’ve been up to!

After my last final (ochem) on Thursday, I came back to my apartment and tried to sleep a bit. A few days ago, I started to get sick and I wasn’t able to get too much shut-eye since I had trouble breathing with my stuffy noes. It was fabulous having no guilt over taking a break, though, and I cleaned a bit, then watched a past episode of The Walking Dead with Kyle after he finished his Physics exam. After, we went on a walk around our neighborhood. Isn’t the Santa Barbara area gorgeous?

  We also stumbled on to our campus labyrinth and spend a good chunk of time wandering towards the middle of it and just chatting. 

Not wanting to get stuck in that horrible LA traffic, we left around 7:30 at night after grabbing some Starbucks. I got a caramel frappuccino with extra caramel and it was the perfect post-finals treat! 

Andddd ever since I’ve been home, I’ve either been sleeping through my cold thanks to the magic of Nyquil or parked on the couch watching Netflix. Life is good!

My posts will be much more regular now, so thanks for stickin’ with me through my finals week :).

What have you all been up to this past week?

TGIF friends! Well, I’m not too thankful because that means that my dreaded finals are one day closer. 

The next few days are going to be a bit hectic for me. It’s currently dead week at my school (the week before finals in college), and I’m probably going to end up falling in to that exam-induced blogging coma where my posts are on the sparse side. I’ll do my best to stay chipper and positive, but organic chemistry has a way of sucking the life out of you and it’s hard to be in a good mood when you literally are not sleeping well because you’re solving chemistry problems in your head at night.

NIGHT IS FOR SLEEPING, BRAIN. Not ochem. Sheesh.

So here are a few things that have been happening lately!

Running is starting to make a comeback into my life. I mean, how can I not enjoy lacing up my shoes and enjoy a morning run along a place like this?

The week before finals, my university puts on a “Dog Therapy Day”, where all sorts of woofers come to help shake some stress out of us students. Funny how much a furry pup can cheer you up! I’m also thankful for all the sunshine. I hate the gloominess of winter and find that it usually makes me feel much more depressed and sad when I’m stuck inside pouring over textbooks. Nothing like some sun on your skin!

One thing that Kyle and I aren’t good at is making home-cooked meals when we start to get stressed out. Kyle is studying to become a mechanical engineer, so he has a ton of work to do as well. At least we can be miserable together hahah (he’s the best library buddy ever). Anyways, that means lots of meals out.

A Wednesday night isn’t complete without dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant and some pineapple fried rice and Thai tea are just what I need to get through my late night lab.

Also, Chipotle 4eva, please. 

I know this post wasn’t organized/coherent at all, so my apologies! I’m trying my best to respond to comments, but I’d rather spend the free time I have reading/commenting on what you guys have been up to. I read every one of them, though, and they always make my day! Will catch up with them soon :)!

Happy Friday, all!

Question of the Day: What are your weekend plans?