I’m Back! …What I’ve Been Up to Recently

Yikes! Long time, no post!

These last few weeks have been SO hectic with school, traveling and the holidays, that the blog, unfortunately, got put on the back burner. But have no fear! I’m back and ready to share what I’ve been up to.

So, on that note…

Lately, my life has been a stressful, surreal blur (yes, I did just quote Mean Girls for all of you plastics fans out there) of library tables and text books and staring at computer monitors thinking of things I’d rather be doing than studying/writing papers and presentations.

Anyway, on to more exciting things, I finally got to go home for the Thanksgiving holiday and it was marvelous!

…I went to see Catching Fire with my family. Loved it! Yes, I read the books and of course the movie is never as good but I admit the producers do a very fine job of capturing the essence of the book and… PLOT TWIST… they actually follow the story line. Crazy, I know.

…I made my first pumpkin pie. I know you’re thinking, “What?! This girl never made a pie before?!” well, pumpkin I haven’t. Better to learn late than never. I just followed the directions on the canned pumpkin pie filling… super easy. And my mom walked me through how to make my grandpa’s homemade pie crust. It turned out so delicious!

…My mom, sister, and I all woke up early on Thanksgiving to start the cooking! Turkey, stuffing, mashed and sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casserole… the list goes on. It was fun to spend the day cooking and eating with the people I love. Of course there was plenty of wine, music, football, and good company. My dad and I even made paper head dresses for fun… it’s the kindergartener in me…

…This brings us to BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING. Ugh, always such a craze! My friends and I have a little tradition to go every year at midnight to scope all the deals… and maybe people watch, just a little bit. This year it was just four of us but we had a good time and it was so good to catch up with old friends!

…My last home WVU football game as a student aired Saturday afternoon. I wasn’t in town for the game but I still couldn’t help but reminisce on the past four years and how blessed I’ve been to share it with so many great people.

  

That pretty much wraps it up. How were your holidays?!

Mountaineer Week

Last week marked the 66th annual Mountaineer Week (AKA my dad’s favorite week of the year). What on earth does that mean? Basically, it’s a unique week-long celebration of Appalachian culture. The intent is to educate the WVU students and surrounding communities about the traditions that make West Virginia what it is today.

Events lasted all week long including:

The Mountaineer Week Craft Fair (so many talented vendors, but my favorites were definitely the hand-crafted jewelers!)

Mountain Music Concert featuring “the instruments and sounds of Appalachia”

the infamous PRT Cram (yes, I did cram myself into that PRT)

The Festival of Ideas Speaker Event Series

Beard Shaving Contest (hosted by none other than the Mountaineer himself, Jon Kimble)

Mountaineer Idol

Mountaineer Week Football Game

This list goes on. So, I’ll stop and just give you the link to go see what else Mountaineer Week has in store! It’s truly a unique experience and an amazing feeling to be part of something like this.

Oh yeah, and how could I forget to mention a whole week of this parked in the center of campus…

Kettle corn, deep-fried Oreos, funnel cake, and fresh-squeezed lemonade. Try walking past that every day and not give in… it’s nearly impossible.

All the Little Things Recap: Friday Favorites

So many good vibes this week! Everyone always says it’s the little things that count. It’s true. A lot of little things made my week, here they are:

1. My friend, Adrianne, found out this week that two of her dogs back home gave birth to two huge litters this week. 30 pups! Let me repeat, 30 pups. My heart melted when I heard this. I can’t wait to go home with her in a few weeks to visit these ADORABLE little blue tick babes. Can you say puppy play date?!

2. CANDLES! You might remember my autumn scents post from a few weeks ago. If you do, you know a little bit about my obsession with candles. With that said, it should be a surprise to hear my excitement that I found these amazing fall candles on sale for $1.50 each… duh I had to get all three. The pumpkin spice and apple pie are definitely my favorite but the fall festival scent was surprisingly delightful as well. I’ve lit them every night this week and they’re the best $4.50 I’ve spent in a long time.

3. After four years of calling myself a mountaineer I finally participated in the Mountaineer Week PRT Cram. I’m sure most of you have no idea what this means, or what a PRT is. Long story short, it’s a little rail car that carries students and faculty between the WVU campuses. During the PRT cram students have 3 minutes to cram as many people into one car as they can. I finally broke down and participated… I think I can truly call myself a mountaineer now. (More to come on Mountaineer Week and the PRT cram soon!)

4. I finally got rid of my ratty old back pack and swapped in my new one I bought months ago and just haven’t used yet. Total impulse buy at the time. But hey, it was on sale… like $5 on sale… and I have a weakness when it comes to bags. It’s really not an excuse but I couldn’t help myself!

5. Morgantown weather is SO unpredictable. It might be thunder storming and 40 degrees in the morning and by lunch time it’s clear skies and 70 degrees. Literally, you never know what you’re going to get. Quite frankly, I’ve learned to glance at the weather app but not really trust it. So when I saw 70 and sunny in the forecast for Wednesday I didn’t believe it for a second… and then it actually happened and it was marvelous.

What made your week?

Here’s to hoping your weekend is filled with lots of little memories!

Weekend Recap. All for fun and fun for all.

Happy Monday!

To start off this week, I’ll recap my crazy busy weekend I’ve had here in sweet old Morgantown. This weekend was WVU’s homecoming weekend, so there were plenty of activities to keep everyone busy. We kicked off Friday with our annual Business and Economics Student Olympics. Basically, it’s an excuse for the business students and faculty to run around the lawn competing in silly games and eating delicious BBQ.

So here’s how it went down:

Dean Sartarelli lights the infamous B&E Olympic torch

And then there are all sorts of fun games like pony express, hula hooping, minute-to-win-it challenges and cow milking contests… just to name a few

A feast of totally delicious Martin’s Bar-B-Que comes next (seriously, go grab a bite if there are any locations near you!)

After a few more team games and relays, points are totaled and winners are announced… We racked up a whopping 35 points (not so whopping at all, but rather quite sad compared to totals in the 500s). Nonetheless, we had a great time. And what college student/ faculty member doesn’t love spending a beautiful Friday afternoon running around like kids again? Big thank you and shout out to our beautiful and crazy Marketing Club team!

The rest of my weekend consisted of college football, tailgating (with lots of good friends and food, of course), meeting past WVU alumni and quality roommate time, followed by a Sunday filled with meetings, interviews and group projects.

Here’s to another busy week, enjoy!