I'M THE GIRL WHO...

• wears a coat when it's 75 degrees outside
• will eat another cookie when all of her guests leave
• likes alone time___ALOT of it
• enjoys throwing parties
• stresses out about the little things
• can't wear orange
• could never say no to a new pair of boots
• loves Thanksgiving because of the time spent with the family (not just the food)
• would (honestly) rather give a gift than receive one
• wants success
• wants to end up close to home
• has changed her major too many times
• is sometimes too obsessed with boys :/ (guilty)
• cares.

A Weekend Well Deserved

Have you ever felt like you DERSERVE some alone time? Not need, but deserve? We’ll I sure did and this weekend was just what I had in mind! Friday’s are always amazing for me because I get out of classes by 10am, but last Friday was even more amazing.  Instead of my usual get out of class, go run errands, do some homework before I forget about it routine, I decided to simply “screw it”! After such a long hard week at school. I deserved to just sit my booty down on the couch and forget about anything and everything…that is until 5:00 when I sprung off the couch and into my tailgating attire.  I spent the evening with some of my friends watching the SMU versus TCU game.  Having had enough of the sweating and standing around for 2 and a half hours, I left the game at the beginning of the 4^th quarter and was happily in bed by 10 :)

I spent my Saturday doing absolutely nothing….and it was WONDERFUL!  I was literally a couch potato for an entire day, and I didn’t care!  As I sat around watching rerun after rerun of The Real Housewives of DC, I remember thinking to myself “I so deserve this.”  Now I realize that I am just a college student and don’t have nearly the amount of stress or work load as some people do who are actually out in the “real world” but sometimes you just get to that point where you break down and have to take some time to relax.  That’s exactly the point I was at by the end of last week.

But after all that time I had to relax, I feel well rested and ready to face the week ahead of me.  I’ve got a couple of quizzes, labs, and my sisters wedding lined up so wish me luck as I dive head first into another CRAZY week!

What Cooking Does for Me

I feel like everyone has that one thing they do where they can escape from the chaos of everyday life and take time to enjoy just being by themselves.   Cooking allows me to do just that.  No matter how I tired I am after a long day at school I always try to find time to cook myself a good meal.  I get recipe ideas from food blogs, cookbooks, the food network, cooking light magazines, anything really.  Somehow cooking seems to be the one thing that can just take me to that place where I am completely relaxed and stress free.  If I don't get the chance to actually make something, I take a little time to sit down and  watch my favorite food network stars Giada De Laurentiis, Sandra Lee, and Ina Garten on their TV shows.  It would be a dream of mine to get to get to cook with them someday! Who knows, maybe they might stumble upon my blog and make this dream a reality :) 


I thought I'd share with everyone one of my favorite recipes from Giada De Laurentiis.
This is the best baked ziti I have ever had!

Baked Ziti 

(serves 4)

extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 egg yolk

1 cup grated pecorino romano cheese

generous pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

salt and pepper

1 lb ziti.

home-style tomato sauce

1/2 lb. mozzarella cheese, cubed

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 

2)Lightly coat a 10-by-12-inch baking dish with olive-oil.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

3) Combine ricotta, egg yolk, 1/2 cup of pecorino romano, nutmeg, and parsley in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper. Mix to blend.

4) Generously salt the boiling water, add the pasta, and cook until al-dente (12-16 minutes). Drain. Put pasta in the mixing bowl with ricotta mixture. Toss well.  Add the heated tomato sauce and the mozzarella and toss again.

5) Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish and smooth the top.  Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over the top and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake, uncovered, until bubbling hot and lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 3-4 minutes.

ENJOY!!! :) I know you will!

"If your going to San Fransisco"...don't use your fake ID

(Samantha and me)

See that little angel to the left of me in this photo? Well thats my twin sister, and like me, she is 20 years old.  We were in San Francisco this weekend at our older sisters bachelorette party and we just happen to be the only two people on this trip who aren't of legal drinking age (boo, i know)....anywho, the first night we got in we all (there were 12 of us) went to a little French Bistro in town.  The restaurant was small and quaint and our waiter was French himself.  So we sit down and BAM! lightbulb goes off in my head!...this would be the perfect opportunity for us to use our brand new fake ID's from Arizona....now some of you might be saying "omg this is against the law, it's so wrong" but no people!  We had no intention of getting plastered...after all, we were with our mom and aunt too...and I am from Texas were it is perfectly legal for you to drink if you are with your parents.  So, now that I have cleared my conscious, we can continue with the story.

As expected, my mom orders 2 bottles of wine for the table.  Our waiter looks around and says "okay, I'm going to need to see everyone's identification except for you two (pointing at my mom and aunt)."  Of course my mom and aunt take offense to that and say "Well why don't you need our ID's, hmmmm???"  Our waiter laughs nervously and exits to go get our wine.  When he comes back we all hand him our ID's, including Sam's and my fake.  He takes mine first, of course, and my heart starts pounding.  He takes my ID over to the side of the table and I am thinking to myself, OMG I'm caught, take me in! I'm guilty! but all he does it put it under the candle so he can read it and hands it back...."YES!", I'm thinking, "I'm in the clear".  I don't know why I even worried so much, our waiter probably didn't know where Arizona was let alone what the id's should look like.  Anywho, afterwards, everyone sat back and enjoyed their wine and a lovely dinner.

Me being the lame-o that I am decides to head back with my mom and aunt after dinner because I am exhausted from the flight out, but my rebel of a sister thinks the night is young and heads out with my older sister and all of her friends.  Since the fake ID's worked at the restaurant, Samantha figure they would also work with the big scary bouncer at the club they were walking up to....WRONG!  She goes up to hand him her ID with great confidence when reality sunk it that Mr. Bouncer man was not as naive as Mr. French waiter.  He studied this thing for what seemed like forever and finally looked up at her and asked "is this you in the picture?"  She responded with a firm "yes"...and he responded with a firm, "this isn't going to work" as he takes her ID and refuses to hand it back.  In the words of my sister, "He was an a**".  Now my sister and I are back in Dallas, one without a fake id, and one with one but too scared to ever use it again.  At least we all learned something from this experience.

Mi Familia!

(left to right: Dad, Samantha, Christy, Me, Mom)

This weekend my family came up to Dallas for the SMU football game.  We are so close I hadn't seen them since the beginning of school, so I was very excited when they came!!  My dad went to SMU a LONG time ago (sorry dad) and played baseball and football.  Since then SMU has gotten rid of the mens baseball team.  But this weekend the alumni organization was honoring all the men who had played baseball at SMU by throwing them a BBQ on Friday night and then announcing them on the field at halftime of the football game on Saturday.  My dad was so excited to see all of his friends who he hadn't seen in such a long time.  I enjoyed going with him and watching him and his former teammates reminisce about "the good ol' times".  I was so proud when my dad's baseball picture was displayed on the big screen :) I knew how happy he must have been!

It is so important for me to spend time and make memories with my entire family.  Although this weekend was about my dad, it is just another experience we can say we all shared together!

Case of the Coughs

Have you ever been somewhere really quite, say church or a classroom, and then suddenly get a case of the coughs?  Well I have! and let me tell you, its embarrassing!!  I was sitting in my Art of Acting lecture class this morning when all of the sudden, out of no where, i just let loose! What seemed like after 20 minutes of continuous coughing I finally had to get up and leave the classroom for a couple minutes.  I felt like everyone sitting next to me was completely grossed out and I can't blame them; i mean who wants a girl coughing in your face the whole class period??  When I walked back in I felt as if people were saying to themselves "Damn, she's back." I know its just coughing and it happens to everyone, but man, that was embarrassing!!! Note to self: carry emergency throat lozenges!

Lamest Schedule Award

When I signed up for class at the beginning of the semester I knew that this year wasn't going to be easy...but not because of the classes I am taking; it's my lame schedule!   I have 8:00 classes Monday-Friday and Tuesday's and Thursday's are the worst.  I have 2  hour and a half breaks in-between my 3 classes.  So basically I am on campus from 8 in the morning until 3:20 in the afternoon....I mean am I in high school again?  Never again did I think I would be in school for 8 hours a day.  Not knowing what to do, I find myself searching the web and twiddling my thumbs during those awkward breaks.  Now some might say, "Why don't you catch up on some school work or just go back home?"  Well people, 1) I usually finish all of my homework AT HOME and 2) I am way to lazy to go all the way home for an hour and have to come straight back twice.   So instead of doing anything about it, I think I'll just sit here and continue to complain.

The Wonders of Europe

This summer I spent 5 weeks studying abroad in Oxford, England, and for me to say that I had a good time would be an understatement!  I was with my two best friends and nothing was better than getting to share that experience with them!  We would spend our mornings in class and then have the rest of the day to explore the city and surrounding areas.  Often we took day field trips to places like London, Stratford Upon Avon, and Bath.  I have never seen so many historical places in such a short amount of time!  And, best of all, on the weekends we were fortunate enough to have gotten to travel to Paris and Amsterdam....IT WAS AMAZING!!!  Every day was a new adventure and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my summer.  I find myself missing it more and more each day since I have been back.  To anyone who has the opportunity to study abroad I would tell them to jump on it in a heartbeat!!!!  I never really understood the phrase "you will have the time of your life" until this summer :)

Online Shopping

Last Saturday I had some down time and figured that the best way to fill that would be to online shop.  Let me just tell you, it gets so addicting.  I suddenly had the urge to buy everything I saw! Every necklace, shirt, shoe, belt, dress, you name it, I wanted it!  After about an hour of searching and placing 10 items in multiple shopping carts a voice of reason came to me. Yes, it was my mom.  All I could think about as I was looking back over all the items I wanted was her saying "Gina, you do NOT need all of this!"  Well, mom, yes that is a valid point, BUT I want them!!  I decided to compromise...sort of!  Now it's the end of the week and I am sitting on my bed staring blankly at the Halloween costume, 3 dresses, and  pair of shoes sprawled across it.....and now I'm thinking, maybe mom was right...