Step Up, Stand Out

For today's throwback and in honor of the national FFA convention going on right now, here is a picture from my freshman year of college when my team competed in the national floriculture competition. I love flowers, but this competition was way too many flowers.  Very happy that's over.
Shout out to all the FFAers!  This was, hands down, the best activity I was involved with in high school.

P.S. Happy Halloween!

Thanks for stopping by!

My last ever fall break

And so last week was the last fall break I will ever have (because I absolutely refuse to go back to school after this).  It was absolutely marvelous!!  (That is until I realized I should have done LOTS more studying for my musculoskeletal test Monday morning.  Oops.)  I was able to sleep in, bake, ride in the combine, see my horse, my dog, and most importantly my family :)  Patrick also flew back into Nebraska for the weekend. It couldn't have been any better.

And here are the pictures I know you're just dying to see.

Sunset on my drive back to Nebraska.
This was before I was pulled over.
 I guess it's illegal to drive for more than 5 seconds in the left lane in Missouri.

This is our bucket calf, Gigi! She follows you everywhere!

This is my beautiful horse, Gabby.
She definitely holds the honor of having the the most pictures in my phone. 

Doesn't the sky look amazing?!

This is our dog, Hallie.
Also known as: Boots, Puppy, Hallers, Shep Shep, and Puppy Paws.
She is usually very camera shy, so this picture is a gem.

One of my favorite things to do during my time home is play with Hallie.
 She loves to chase a basketball around.
She also recently got this whale toy that she LOVES to play with. 

I was able to go to Jill's volleyball game.  It's probably the last I will ever see her play.
She was a rockstar!
This picture cracks me up.

My specialty: lemon meringue pie.

This is Kara's horse, Stormie. (Also known as "Mister." (That needs to be said with a lisp.))
He's a little more rider friendly than Gabby.

This was Patrick's first time riding a horse.  He's a natural!

Looks like Matt Dillon, right?

Saturday was Kara's homecoming.  Didn't she just look gorgeous?

Saturday was also Jill's last band competition.  It was freezing, but amazing!
Their theme was Coldplay.  They played a great Viva La Vida.
This also marks the end of the Brichacek marching band era.
Stacey started marching band in 1998, and we've been going strong since then.

Can I just do last week over again?

Hasta La Vista, Barista

Yesterday was my last day working at the Target Starbucks.  I have been working there since April and will definitely miss being a barista.  I decided to stop working because it  was becoming pretty difficult to juggle with school.  I wasn't able to work at all during the school week, so that left only the weekend for work.  Between doing homework, school weekend activities, and getting to see my family and Patrick, it was hard to find time to work.  I'm moving in less than 2 months anyway (and this was the only way to NOT have to work Black Friday weekend).

What I will miss:
-all the nice people I met there
-making money
-Target team member discount
-making coffee for people!!

What I won't miss:
-Starbucks snobs ("I would like a triple grande vanilla latte, with half of the pumps of vanilla, 1/3 whole milk, 1/3 2% milk, and 1/3 skim milk, just a little whip cream, no foam, at 147 degrees, and a half a pump of chai....oh and I would like it right now.")
-trying to work around my schedule
-my horrible nails after using the sanitizer all day

The Pharmacist that works at Target (Michelle) found out that it was my last day yesterday so she bought me this cute coffee mug and gave me a card with it.  She is just the sweetest. I didn't know her very well, but she knew that I was in OT school and she would always ask me how school was going every time she saw me. I think we must have shared some kind of grad school bond.  Hopefully I get the chance to pass her kindness on someday.

P.S. I bet you can guess what I'm going to be for Halloween this year :)

Thanks for reading!

Polished

I am obsessed with all of the blues this fall!  Here are my favorite nail colors right now:

This is "butler please" by Essie.
 I used strips of washi tape to help me paint the gold stripes.
The gold is "big spender" by Ultra Pro.

This is "boxer shorts" by Essie.
The party nail is "afterhours" from Urban Outfitters.

 I have been wearing these colors non stop for weeks now because I just can't get enough of them!



On another note, I have to share this amazing salsa recipe my friend, Alexa, put on her blog and I tried.  Hands down, best salsa ever (and REALLY easy).  I added chicken to mine and mixed it with a salad so I could just use it for lunch all week at school.  Here is the link to her recipe: Alexa's Fiesta.

Thanks for reading!

Shawnee Mission Park

Here's another post about my favorite places in Kansas City.  I'm sure that someday I will be so happy that I decided to document these.

Shawnee Mission Park is this gorgeous park out in  the west side of Kansas City.  This is always my favorite place to bring friends that come to visit me.  There is a lake, tons of trails, and even a dog beach. You honestly don't even feel like you are in the city when you're here (which is my favorite part!).

On one of my mornings off last week, I spent the morning and some of the afternoon there.  I went on a nice run,  did my daily hiit workout on the dock, and just sat on the dock enjoying the peacefulness of the place. So gorgeous.  If I don't live on a farm someday, I suppose I would be fine with living on a lake.

These are the kind of trails that run through the whole park.

When you climb to the top of one of the really steep trails,
you get rewarded with a gorgeous view.
You can't see it in this picture, but there is a train that will go past too.

"Steep" is not an understatement.
This hill is like a wall.

These pictures weren't from last week, but from different weekends when Sarah and Patrick came to see me.

Sarah and I

I'm sure Patrick is getting tired of me dragging him out there by now ;)

If you're training for a half marathon, this would be a fabulous place to run!  Hope you can check it out sometime.

Thanks for reading!

Rhubarb Jelly

I had a fabulous childhood.  There is absolutely no doubt about that.  I had 1000 acres to play on with my brother and sisters, 100 different pets throughout the years, and playgrounds that don't exist in town (hay bales, grain augers, the bean buggy, the barn loft, livestock chute, and tractors to name a few).

Throughout my college years, I have realized that there was something else that made my childhood one of a kind: I ate like a king.  My mom made EVERYTHING from scratch when I was growing up, and I mean everything.  We grew most of the food we ate: cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, sweet corn, and more. We ate the beef from out cows, bacon from our hogs, and eggs from our chickens.  My mom NEVER bought break-and-bake cookies or biscuits in a can.  (I say this all in past tense, but it this is how it still is now...give or take a few cans of biscuits.)  And I thought pretty much everyone did this....until I went to college (okay, so that's somewhat of a lie, but you get the point).

The point is that I was one lucky kid, and I want to pass that onto my kids someday.  I'm in this phase now where I am trying to make more homemade food.  (I am currently practicing my kolache skills, but the volcano-like pastries that come out of the oven may not be blog worthy for quite a while.)

One of my favorite foods was the rhubarb jelly my mom and grandma used to make.  I had some leftover rhubarb that needed to be used, but thought that jelly was way out of my league.  Enter "Our Beary Best Cookbook."

Adorable, right? This is a cookbook was made for a fundraiser for the Catholic school in Howells long ago.  In other words, recipes by real Czechs=legit.
Anyhoo, there was a SUPA easy rhubarb jelly recipe that I tried.  Here is the recipe:

-5 cups of diced rhubarb
-2 cups of sugar
-1 package of strawberry jello

Mix rhubarb and sugar together and let sit overnight. (I have no patience for this.  I let it sit for an hour.)  Boil mixture in saucepan for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and add packet of jello and stir.  Let cool and put in the cutest mason jar that you have.  Refrigerate and enjoy the best jelly you've ever had!

Thanks for stopping by!

Goodbye Billy

For today's throwback Thursday...
Yesterday Creighton released the new logo:



Sure, it's nice, but I'm going to miss the old Billy.


The new logo doesn't look like "Billy the Bluejay," he looks like "Bully the Bluejay."
Somehow, I'm sure I'll get through this ;)
If you haven't already guessed, I love tradition and really dislike new things (except when those new things are clothes).

Here's the evolution of our mascot.  I thought this was pretty cool.


I think 1955 was my favorite :)
#rolljays

Thanks for reading!

Handmade by: Sarah

I mentioned in the last post about how talented my sister is at making cards.  I thought I would give you a closer look at some of her work.

She knows just how much I love chevron.

This one is one of my favorite.  I love the colors.
(She also sent it to me with a box of Hot Tamales. What's not to love?)

I just love EVERYTHING about this card!

Where she gets these amazing ideas, I will never know.

I asked her to make me a set of "Thank-you" cards.  Didn't they turn out adorable?!?
If you send me a present,  I'll send you one.  Haha

And she signs all of the bottom back of her cards like this.
Her handwriting seriously needs to be a font.

I told you she was amazing.
She used to have a blog, but stopped writing on it once nursing school picked up.  If she ever starts her blog back up again,  I will make sure I send the link out ASAP.
When I am done with school (70 more days to go!!!!), Sarah and I plan on moving into an apartment together in Omaha.  We decided a while ago that we are going to just forget about having a living room and turn it into a huge craft room. (We'll use it as one anyway.  May as well make it functional.)  Although Sarah probably one of the best crafters in the world, she is also the messiest.  We'll see if I regret the decision to make a huge craft room.  I think I'll learn to put up with it if we can have Camp Sister all the time!

Thanks for reading!