Waffles and Syrup

Sorry I've been neglecting Carenpants recently. I'm. So. Burnt. Out. This has been a rough semester and I will be thrilled when it's over. (18 days in case you were wondering.) My countdown is looking better each day though and I know I really need to focus and just get stuff done, but it's so hard not to think about summer and all the things I want to do. Also, it's been rainy and gross and it makes me want to nap all day. I went home this weekend for Easter and spent a lot of quality time with the fam watching Harry Potter and Modern Family and it was extremely relaxing and made me even less motivated. I also hung out with Ryan, which brings me to the point of this post: waffles and syrup. Luke was eating waffles on Modern Family and we really wanted some. As I was expertly preparing the waffles, Ryan asked me why I was microwaving the syrup and I was like, "Excuse me? What else are you supposed to do with it?" He doesn't heat up his syrup. So naturally I had to take a poll on Twitter to prove Ryan wrong, but I was disappointed to find most of my friends do not heat their syrup. I still can't believe it. I was telling my family about it and we started talking about our family food traditions and I thought I'd share some with you:

1. Junior Mints in popcorn. It's best to add them as soon as you make the popcorn so they melt. You're welcome. 

2. Sugar and butter on French Toast. No syrup here. Just perfection.
3. Cinnamon rolls on every holiday morning. Thank you mom :)
4. Salsa and Sour Cream mixed together. It's perfect because it tones down the salsa.
5. A Wish Sandwich. You get two pieces of bread and you wish you had some meat, although I don't know why you would wish for meat when Nutella exists. Obviously this is not a real thing, but something my Dad suggests to further irritate hungry members of my family.


I'm curious to hear other family food traditions!
Love,
Carenimsohungrynowpants

Lost and Found

Lost.....
I'm usually pretty good about not losing things, but in the past few months I've lost two of my favorite sweatshirts. Sorry, I need to interrupt this fairly boring blog post to inform everyone that "Just the Girl" by The Click Five just came on my Pandora. What a fantastic song. Anyway, I was telling you how I've become scatterbrained and a loser (of things). I've lost most of my motivation for school. I had three exams and a presentation last week and now I have nothing to do this week, so naturally anything I have to do is just torture, like deciding what to eat for dinner. I woke from a restless nap and I was starving and yet nothing seemed appetizing to me, in fact all the food at Mizzou seemed gross and I just wanted someone to deliver Wisconsin Mac n Cheese from Noodles and Company to my door for free. Anyway, I wish this post could offer some advice about how to focus on school with summer only a few weeks away, but I'm sorry to say, I don't have any. AND Summer Hair=Forever Young by The Academy Is... just came on Pandora which made me think about how great my hair looks in the summer. Sigh....

...and Found
Claire sent me this awesome blog and I found lots of summer projects. I want to make these really cute pillows for my room at home and I found some cute odds and ends that would make cute gifts. No. Focus. Also, my cousin Meg had such a cute baby girl and I can't stop looking at her pictures. It's time for me to go to bed.

Love,
Caren

Girl's Gotta Eat

After 19 years, I think I have finally figured out an eating plan for myself. I get cranky, shaky and a headache if I haven't eaten and I'm sick of it. I have determined that I need to eat every few hours, not whole meals, but something with some substance. In fact, I usually don't even eat full meals and then wonder why I'm hungry. I let myself get starving and then it's bad news. So, my goal is to pick snacks and meals that will actually fill me up and that have some nutritional value. I have to have some protein at every meal, or else I will turn into Crankypants, and no one wants that. So, for breakfast I have Nutella on a piece of bread and sometimes a piece of fruit and coffee or tea. I would have to say my main staples for other meals would be cheese and cheese. I will occasionally eat turkey or chicken and I pretty much only eat beef in a taco. I've been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, so here is a picture of my fruit bowl. I have a mango, some apples, an avocado, and clementines, which are way better than oranges.

.....and while I'm writing this post my roommate just ordered Pizza-To-Go (which, if you've never had it,  I'm sorry for you) and that could not be more perfect because I'm starving. If I could make my own Food Guide Pyramid, it would be most definitely include Pizza-To-Go. 

Isn't this fruit bowl so cute you just want to eat it up? 

Love, 

Carenpants

I'm so sorry to so many trees. I really am very conscious of not printing unnecessary things, but unfortunately, I had to print all these things. I'm sorry that you can't read what all the papers say (except I'm really not because you would be bored to tears) but I had to find a way to organize everything, so I used my handy dandy pop-up Post-It Note dispenser that my roomie gave me for my birthday. I have two papers, notes for my presentation on Wednesday, 3 Powerpoints and about 15 articles for Econ. I will be so happy when this semester is over so I can stop talking/thinking/worrying/obsessing/crying about Econ. Only 5 weeks of school! I can't believe it. Oy, I have a paper cut.

Peace out, 

Carenpants

Grilled Cheese

April is Grilled Cheese Month! Grilled cheese totally deserves a whole month of celebration because it's so good. I eat a grilled cheese sandwich at least 3 times a week. (I live on cheese.) They are so good and easy to make. Sometimes I make them for Ryan and usually burn them, and he eats them anyway. Anyway, I had to share this great discovery with you. My mom likes to dunk grilled cheese in tomato soup, which I think is gross, but to each her own. I like to eat my grilled cheese with salad and chocolate milk. Perfect meal.

It's love. 

Carenpants

The Countdown

The picture will pretty much speak for itself, but there are 6 weeks left of school and I made a massive countdown with all the things that I have left to do. Insanity. This year has gone by so quickly.

Don't you love it?
Love,
Carenpants

Lake Michigan

Every summer, my family goes to Michigan. I have been swimming in the lake since I was three weeks old. Yes, my parents brought a three-week old on a trip and stuck my feet in Lake Michigan and I was an angel. My grandma went to Michigan for over 70 summers and my mom has never missed a summer. We go to a small town called Saugatuck. The town was originally called Singapore and it was buried under sand dunes. Anyway, today my uncle posted an article on Facebook from the Kansas City Star about a shipwreck from the 1830s that they just found in the Lake. And guess what? They found it right around Saugatuck! They found it in 250 feet of water and it was around 60 feet. I totally want to call my grandma and tell her about it.
                                                          Here's the link and a pic:
                http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/31/2766113/group-reports-finding-shipwreck.html

Love, 

Carenpants