Celebrating Summer Birthdays

 This weekend I came home from college for the 3 day weekend and also for the birthday celebration with relatives.  Each year, at this time of year, we have relatives down to our house to celebrate the summer birthdays.

 

I got this skirt the other day at Target in the exercise clothing.  I love it!

It was a gorgeous day!

 We had pulled pork and buns, for if you wanted to make it into a sandwich.  We had homemade BBQ sauce, coleslaw, pickles, and onions to top the pork with.  Along with the pulled pork, we had calico beans,  grilled corn-on-the-cob from our garden, broccoli cauliflower salad, chips, fruit, and veggies.

Tilli got a hermit crab!

I started making the desserts right away when I got home on Friday.  For the desserts, I made vanilla cupcakes and an ice cream cake.  I made this ice cream cake.  It was chocolate ice cream, fudge sauce, peanut butter cups (I used Trader Joe's), vanilla ice cream, and a peanut butter sauce.  It was delicious!!!

We celebrated Jakob's 13th, Sarah's 11th, and Tilli's 8th birthday.

 

My mom's cousin, Ann, also made two pies. 

 We sent our guests home with an oatmeal chocolate chip bar for a little treat.

It was a great time together. 

My First Week at College

My adventure at Iowa State University has now begun.
I have been living at college for a week.
I moved-in last Tuesday.  I am living in a cute, old, brick building.  I am in interim housing, living in one of the hall dens, so I have 3 three roommates.  There is no air conditioning... it is hot.

All day Wednesday and most of Thursday, there was nothing to do.  It was a bit boring.  On Thursday night, Destination Iowa State started for the freshmen.  Mainly, we went to sessions and toured the campus.  Destination Iowa ended on Saturday.

I was able to get a ride to church on Sunday.  That afternoon I had a learning community meeting and then that night I went to Freshmen Kickoff for SALT, a campus ministry.
I as able to meet some really nice girls.

Classes started on Monday.  I only had two classes, Calculus and Food and The Consumer.  Calculus.  I can tell it is going to a struggle right from the beginning.  We started right off with limits.  I remember learning about them in high school, but I didn't understand them then.  And, I really didn't understand what the professor was teaching us now.  (The professor has a big accent... I thought you should know that.)  I will definitely be going to as many extra study sessions that there are for Calculus.  Food and The Consumer is probably going to be my favorite class this semester, so I am looking forward to that!
Monday, is when I actually felt like I add connected with some people.  So, that is real good!

There are some things that are different about being down here.
Running.  There are stop lights that I have to stop at.  Back home when, in my small town, once I start running I didn't stop until I was done.  (All summer I have running some six milers, but now for the past week I hardly run 3 miles.  Frustrating!)
Iowa State has two really nice gyms that us students can workout in.  There is one like right across the street from my residence hall!

The fans have been very important lately!

I love my new bedding!

The food is ok.  The worst part is that there is no kitchen in my residence all.  I am glad that I got the lowest meal plan.  I hope to bring real home cooked food when I go home and to buy some groceries to have food in my dorm.  I don't think the dining places are great with hours and being open on the weekends.  I feel that I am probably going to get sick of the food, if I haven't already.

The bus system.  I have made my way to Target, but I don't understand the bus system yet... it is confusing.

All of us students have a BlackBoard account, where the professors can send us notifications, post our assignments, and things like that.  I only found out about it the other day, and looked at it for the first time a couple days ago.  I had like a 100 notifications with syllabuses, assignments due throughout the semester, extra credit, reminders, and all sorts of things from all my classes.  A bit overwhelming.
I need to figure a way to keep well organized and to manage my time well.  There is the BlackBoard, with all sorts of things I need to know, meeting for clubs that I might want to join, events for new students, free fun for students, that I just a bit overwhelming.

Well, I better get studying.

Scotcheroos

Here is one last recipe before I go off to college.  Or, it is the first recipe that I am posting while at college.  Well, I made these bars yesterday (the day before I left for college) and was going to post the recipe last night night, but I didn't have time.  So, I posting it now.

This summer, I wanted to try out scotcheroos a couple different ways.  Scotcheroos or special k bars are basically the same thing, besides the cereal used.  So, I wanted to try scotcheroos/special k bars with Rice Krispies (scotcheroos) and Special K Cereal (special k bars).  Pretty much all recipes call for corn syrup, but I always like to substitute honey for corn syrup.

The first pan of bars I made were with Rice Krispies and honey.  They were DELICIOUS!  The honey is a little more distinct, but not bad, on the day they are made, but by the second day, it becomes more neutral.  

The second pan of bars I made were with Special K Cereal and corn syrup.  Um, yeah.  They were awful compared to the first pan.  My mom and I could hardly eat them... we ended up throwing most of the pan out.  

Once, I decided that I like Rice Krispies and honey in these bars best, I tested the bars using different amounts of ingredients (Ok, maybe one other way, the first pan was just so good!)

Scotcheroos

1 cup white sugar
1 cup honey
1 cup peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies
1 (12 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips
1 (12 oz.) pkg. butterscotch chips

In a large saucepan, combine sugar and corn syrup.  Heat to dissolve sugar and bring to a boil; remove from heat.  Stir in peanut butter.  Add Rice Krispies and mix until well blended.  Press in 9x13 inch pan (lined with parchment paper).
Melt together the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips until smooth.  Spread mixture over the top of  the Rice Krispies mixture.  Cool and cut.

Note:  It helps to get your fingers wet to press the Rice Krispies mixture into the pan.

Off I Go

On Tuesday, I leave for college.  The first few days that I am at Iowa State, there is Destination Iowa for the freshman.  This is an event for the freshman to get familiar with campus and to meet new people.  Classes then start on August 25.

I am really excited to go to college.  The time has come so fast!  This summer has gone by so fast!  It has been fun, but I haven't been too busy.

Here are a few of highlights from my summer:

Summer started off with graduating from high school!

We tried, once, to sell things at the farmers market in our small town.  That was a once and only time.  It was the first day for the market this summer, so no one really knew to come (it also started earlier this year).  It was us and one other lady selling.   It was awkward.  It was set up in a parking lot at the end of main street.  Lots of people walked and drove by.  Then, there are lots of regulations for selling at the farmers market, but we didn't know that.  Pretty much nothing we were selling followed the rules.

I did lots and lots of baking and cooking this summer.  I made this banana cream pie from the Back in the Day Bakery cookbook.  It was DELICIOUS!  I think banana cream pie is one of my new favorite things (I never would have thought that).

Strawberry picking.

The biggest highlight from my summer was going to Paris.  It was wonderful.

I got to do a bread baking class while I was in Paris.

I actually was able to do several road races this summer.  I really like doing road races... they're so much fun!

I made a couple trips up to my grandparent's.

Sarah took care (almost to well) of her kittens.  (She wanted me to post this picture on my blog.)

Camp.  I got to do some new activities such as rock climbing and repelling.

This is our garden right now.  Our garden was not successful.

A family day of biking.

I have been getting ready for college.  It has been fun!  Right now I have been collecting my things in a little area in our living room.

I hope to keep blogging in college.