Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day can be a real bummer when you are a single gal. I made sure my day was filled with fun plans so that I didn't start to feel sorry for myself. I had the college students from church over for lunch today and then planned to go see "Valentine's Day" the movie with the women in my building. Unfortunately the movie was sold out by the time we got there, so I ended up back at home for the afternoon. I thought the idea of a nap sounded pretty good, so I was ok with that. Then my niece called and asked if I'd like to watch her kids for a couple of hours. I adore my little niece & nephew, so I was happy to oblige!

Here are Lily and Gavin posing with the box cake mix that we used to make cupcakes for my RA dinner tonight. They LOVE putting on the aprons and baking with Aunt Susie! :)

Here they are with the cupcakes ready to go into the oven.
Such proud happy smiles! :)

My RAs surprised me with a BIG Valentine's Day card when they came down for dinner. It was so sweet of them and was extra special because one of the boys thought the idea up and actually made the card...quite thoughtful for a 20 year old guy! :)

At 9:00 I opened my home to any students that were interested in decorating (and eating) Valentine's Day cookies. I baked about 120 heart shaped cookies, bought lots of fun heart shaped sprinkles, and put out two colors of frosting. Lots of girls came down and decorated cookies. We watched the Olympics on tv (figure skating) while we decorated and chatted. It was a fun evening!

Some of the gals with their cookies.

Ashley and Laura with the cookies they decorated for each other. Aren't they a couple of cuties?! And they are super sweet good girls on top of being adorable!

All in all it was a lovely Valentine's Day. I also got flowers from my niece. I will take photos of them soon and post those as well.

Happy Valentine's Day to you! :)

I'm a tad kooky!

Those of you who know me know that I'm a tad kooky..well, maybe more than a tad! I have waaaay too many photos of me doing silly things. Here's one that Kev took at home group last night. I was in the Beck's kitchen impersonating the Statue of Liberty with my leftover lettuce and cookbook.

Notice the yummy pizza in the front corner...I made it and it was delish! :)

Super Bowl Party '10

Each year I try to keep the programming that I do for students fresh - not just a repeat of the exact same activites we did the year before. (That would actually be easier, but not the most interesting or fun way to do things!) This year my Assistant Resident Director really wanted to throw a Super Bowl party...so we did!

We started the party with a wing cooking competition - judging occurred just before kick off.
Here are our celebrity judges - the men's soccer coach, our head chef at the cafeteria, and the president - posing with the students that were involved in the competition.

Here's a nice shot to show you how full the room was.
We placed the couches on top of tables of various height to make "stadium seating."

Here's a shot of our halftime spread...
Papa John's pizza and wings from the cafeteria!
Yummm!

I love being an aunt!

The older I get the more I realize how unlikely it is that I will have children of my own. This makes me a bit sad, but I choose (most days) to focus on the amazing children God has placed in my life. I have 12 nieces and nephews and probably another dozen or so of "honorary nieces & nephews." I treasure the opportunity I have to be a part of shaping the people that they are becoming, to shower them with love (and hugs & kisses), to share special moments with them, and to watch them grow up.

Two of my favorite little ones are my niece Megan's children. My little great niece and great nephew - Lily & Gavin. I had the opportunity to spend the evening with them on Friday. When I picked them up at daycare, when asked by her teacher who I was, Lily said, "That's my Susie!" I felt SO special...is there anything more wonderful than being loved by a child?!

I decided that this time we wouldn't just hang out at my place and bake cookies (like we usually do), but instead would go to Chuck E. Cheese and Build-a-Bear!

Chuck E. Cheese was a thrill for them! This was their first trip there and they were SOOOO excited when we pulled into the parking lot! They immediately began singing the "where a kid can be a kid" jingle from the ads. We ordered our pizza, got some tokens and spent about 45 minutes trying each of the rides in the toddler area. I then coaxed them back to the table to eat some pizza before we went and blew the rest of our tokens!

Here is Lily showing off the proof that we were actually at Chuck E. Cheese and Gavin is chewing on the plastic-ware (don't ask me why?!)

Here's Lily acting like a ham with her pizza and Gavin is probably pondering how he's going to eat Lily's olives off her pizza without her noticing. :)

And the kids with the star of the joint...Chuck E. Cheese!
Gavin was VERY excited to meet him!

After dinner at games were over we piled back in the car and went to the mall to Build-a-Bear. Each of the kids made a bear and chose an outfit for it - Lily chose a ballerina outfit for her bear named "Fluffy Kaluffy 8" and Gavin chose a police officer outfit for his bear named "Officer Edward." (They thought the names up, not me!)

I had never been a part of the Build-a-Bear process. It's really creative and fun! The woman who helped the kids was very kind, funny, and made them feel special. Lily even mentioned in the car on the way home that she thought the lady at the store was a very nice lady. :)

Watching the bear get his stuffing put in!

Needless to say, my niece said that the kids fell asleep very quickly that night and so did Aunt Susie! :)

My head hurts.

I did my taxes last week and it was a breeze - one W-2 form and the 1040 EZ form this year. I had my refund in just over a week!

Today I am doing my friend's taxes...multiple W-2s, rental property, educational expenses, side business, etc... Thankfully my dear friend, Diet Coke, is here to help me through the hours of crunching numbers. Part of me really enjoys grappling with tax laws - doing the research, figuring it out, etc. And a bigger part of me is reminded of how thankful I am to no longer be in the accounting field! :)

A side note...these are my newest discovery in the snack world...

Delish AND fairly healthy!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

February 1!

And I'm back!!!

I had to finish watching "The Bachelor" before I could get in here and start blogging. I was hoping something exciting would happen today so that I could come back with a splash...no such luck, so here's what my day was like...

8:15...crawled out of bed and sat on couch in my pjs checking my email and facebook on my iPod touch (this is how I begin every day!) I then threw on my workout clothes and headed over to the fitness center on campus to meet my friend Tracy for some excercise/catching up time. We walked two miles today. I guess I should say that I walked two miles and then went home. She did the two miles and then continued to work out. She's amazing! :)

Quick note about my walking...I set a goal on January 20th that I would walk 100 miles by my birthday (March 27th). That's 66 days or 1.5 miles a day. I know that I'll need a few days off here and there, so my aim is to walk 2 miles a day and that will allow me 16 days off between n ow and then. So far (13 days into it) have walked 23 miles! I'm pretty excited to meet this goal!

After walking I came back to my place, showered, did some work on the computer and then headed out to lunch. I met one of my former students for lunch at Subway. She transferred to IUSB last year and is getting married next month. It was fun to hear what she's been up to, catch up on wedding plans, and fill her in on life here at GC.

After lunch I met Amanda and we did some shopping. If you are my FB friend, you might of noticed my status today was lamenting how tired I am of my wardrobe. So, Amanda and I went to Kohl's where I bought 2 new shirts and a necklace. They were all on sale (which everything always is at Kohl's, right?!) and I am looking forward to having a little new variety in my wardrobe.

After I got home I did some more work until it was time to go and meet the other RDs and their families for dinner at the dining hall, as we do each Monday. As I was walking out the door a friend who works at Hesston College showed up! He's an admissions counselor for HC and was in town visiting students. He just had a few minutes to spare and dropped by to see me. So we walked across campus together and caught up. It was so good to see him! Dinner at the dining hall was fun as we shared stories about what's been going on in our lives the past week and played with Shawn & Rachel's kids!

After dinner I headed back here to watch "The Bachelor" with one of my former RAs. I will do a little more work on the computer and then will start working on my friend's taxes. He's got some new things on his return this year, so I look forward to learning some new tax stuff!

Anyway, that was my day. I'll talk to you again soon!

Goal...February 1, 2010!

So, part of me wants to just jump ship on this blog since I am soooo far behind (kind of like I did with scrapbooking), but I won't! My goal is going to be to start fresh again on February 1, 2010. You'll miss out on my exciting life happenings from the past 6 months, but if you're my friend on Facebook you've likely been up to date on the major happenings.

So, be prepared on 02-01-10 for more activity on simplysusie! :)

Weddings!

I was invited to many weddings this year. Here are photos from a few of them...

Me with David and Haly King.

Me with 4 years worth of Miller 3 RAs!

With Rachel & Chad at Tyler's wedding.

Me with the handsome groom - Tyler.

Ben and Anita cutting the cake I made for their reception!

Me with Amanda at Anita's wedding

The rest of the trip out east

I have again gotten so very very very behind on my blog!

I've decided just to post some of my favorite photos from the past 6 months and start fresh with recent happenings. I was trying to play catch up, but it's ending up to be too overwhelming.

So, here's the rest of my trip out East...

I was feeling a little crabby at the aquarium in NC.

Saw the birthplace of Pepsi in NC!

Kissed a frog...no prince appeared! :(

At Cracker Barrel in NC with Dawn's mom (Diane) and her little girl (Caroline).
Aren't we all cute in our shades?!

Making cookies in TN with my niece-Betsy and her friend.

Me and my niece Daisy on vacation in TN.

Visiting Aunt Ruby in the nursing home in KY.

In KY with my little cousin Leah! Isn't she adorable?!

Trip East - day 8

On Saturday Keri and I decided to drive a couple hours into Maryland to do some site-seeing in Baltimore. Neither of us had ever been to that area, so we were excited to see what all was there!

I'm a HUGE fan of the Food Network and one show that I really enjoy watching is "Ace of Cakes" which is about a bakery (Charm City Cakes) in Baltimore. We did some sleuthing online and found the address for that bakery. Even though I knew we couldn't go in, I wanted to drive past it and get a few photos in front of it...

Me in front of Charm City Cakes

A random series of events ended with me meeting the star of the show Duff Goldman on the sidewalk outside of the bakery. I was a little star struck, but he was really cool and seemed happy to meet a fan!

I LOVE this photo of me & Keri in her car on our trip to Baltimore!

I'm always a big clown, so here's me in a "crabby hat" at Inner Harbor.

Me being silly again - this time with a bike sculpture in Baltimore.