happy summer to me

Good morning and happy summer!

Just finished my last test for Nutrition 102! If only all my classes could be completed while still in my jammies and seated comfortably at my desk at home… Sigh.

Hurray for finally getting to experience true summer freedom! For a month at least; I’m sure on e we close on the house I’ll be in hyper-drive to get it all set-up before REAL school starts up again in the fall. But that’s the GOOD kind of busy; the kind I’ve been longing for for more than a year now.
My reward today for finishing up school: cleaning out my closet and switching my winter clothes for summer clothes! (Only someone as into organization as me would understand…) I might even skip the gym I’m so excited about it! I’ve been waiting to cross that off my list now for weeks.
Side note: Victory! When I thought about a reward just now for finishing school, I didn’t think of food! Hurray! (And yay for beginning the purge-and-organize prep for moving!)

and the results are in

Apparently, I have a much greater grasp on the concepts in Chemistry than I thought….

Yours truly scored the HIGHEST grade in all three sections of Chem 2 with an 88%! (The fact that an 88% is the HIGH grade should tell you something…)

I went into the final with a 101%, but since it’s 40% of the actual grade and no one even gets close to a 100% on it, keeping that perfect score was going to be impossible.

And speaking of impossible chemistry finals… I tied for the HIGHEST score of 153/210 possible points, which equates to a 74%! Again, a measley 74% doesn’t seem high, until you realize the national average is only 55%. Seriously.

In the words of my Chem professor in an email after the exam, I’m “bad ass.” Guess my dads’ parents’ smarts (they were both PhDs in chemistry) found their way into my brain. Sweet! (Good thing, since I have Biochemistry and Organic next…)

A huge thank you is due to Doreen, the chem tutor at ECC, who works incredibly hard to help us all understand the intricacies of chemistry. Doreen, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU!

And don’t get me wrong–I worked my butt off. Like, it’s all but gone. (Not really, but wouldn’t that be great?)

There were plenty of super smart people in my class (like Eric, who totally gets the concepts but can’t do the math, and Sarah–who actually went to high school with Carolyn–who is a whiz on the calculator, and even Bob, who is more drunk than sober, but still manages to “get it” instantly) who did not, or could not, spend as much time as I did studying.

So, I’m a pretty happy camper. With two 4.0 semesters under my belt, the pressure is ON to continue this trend (for lots of reasons, the least of which being my OCD-tendencies) once I get to Buff State, but that may not be a realistic (or even worthwhile) goal. We shall see.

But for now, I’m pretty impressed with myself. After all, in these past two semesters I pretty much tackled some of my biggest fears in life: going back to school (I didn’t know if I could do it) and CHEMISTRY (I thanked my lucky stars I didn’t have to take it the first time around).

This writer-turned-science major surprised herself, if not anyone else.

impulse shopping

This is what happens when Holly goes to Wegmans for ‘a few things:’

Hey, at least it’s all healthy, right? Just LOOK at all those colors!

HAD to get:

-bananas and spinach (only one left in the house–yikes!)

-cottage cheese (I have a cut-up pineapple in the fridge just begging to be paired with it)

-avocado (remember all those Julio’s chips Andrew shipped home??)

-strawberries (because I’ve waited all winter long for them)

-red pepper and sugar snap peas (homemade hummus is in the fridge as we speak–or type, rather)

-wheat germ (for a bread recipe)

-frozen blueberries and a lemon (for a muffin recipe and because berries are expensive enough)

-deli ham and light swiss (Andrew’s gotta have lunch tomorrow…)

OK, I’ll admit, I totally got sucked into the Nature’s Market section (like I ever DON’T?) and some SALES caught my eye…

…like this one for Health Valley Organic cereal bars and ‘pop tarts.’ It was $1 off each, and the blueberry was just calling to me. (Blueberry totally has been these days! I already made a plan to make Ellie Krieger’s blueberry muffins this weekend…) I figured Andrew would like the strawberry bars and I could mix some warmed ‘toaster tarts’ into our morning breakfast routine.

And then there was the sale on granola:

It was $1 off, too! In my defense, we’ve been out of granola for awhile now and I said to myself (out loud, of course) that I should get some more soon. I initially saw the ‘vanilla blueberry with flax seeds’ (there is that blueberry again) variety and grabbed it, only to then see the ‘maple walnut with chia and quinoa’ and ‘oat and honey WITH COCONUT’ flavors… There was just no deciding between them. At least they’ll last awhile…

Side note: Some of you are probably wondering why I would BUY this stuff when I can make it all myself, which I actually enjoy doing. A couple reasons:

1. I’m EXHAUSTED, and surprisingly busy. I’ve been catching up on random stuff since finishing up with school, as well as tackling a bunch of things that popped up, like arranging summer travel plans and working out a new gym routine.

2. I don’t really enjoy cooking in this kitchen. It sounds bad, but it’s true. Until I have ‘my’ kitchen, it just isn’t the same.

3. I’m starting The Hunger Games soon (maybe this weekend!), which will consume me for however long it takes to read them all. Andrew, I apologize in advance–I’ll make sure we’re stocked up on the unhealthy food you insist on eating when I don’t cook. Or maybe not.

4. The bright colors and yellow SALE tags caught my eye. (Hey, I’m just being honest.)

5. And lastly, I am (unfortunately) about to become just as busy as before. My summer online class starts in a little more than a week and I already took a look at the online info… It looks INTENSE, to say the least. Fantastic.

So yeah, despite ending school, I won’t be found in the kitchen too much just yet…

OK, back to groceries….

The Justin’s was on sale ($6.99 instead of $8.99… still pricey, but oh, so good!) and I’ve been eyeing this Cinnamon Raisin Swirl variety EVERY TIME I GO TO WEGMANS. EVERY TIME. I pulled the trigger today–why not? Kath eats almond butter on her carrots sometimes, and ever since I saw one of those photos I’ve been intrigued to try it. I thought the Justin’s would be the perfect accompaniment for some carrot sticks. (Oh, have I told you all I’m eating raw carrots now? I went my whole life HATING them, and then all of a sudden, they’re fine. What’s with that?)

And this guy was hiding behind all the store-bought goodness the whole time…

Beautiful, wonderful-smelling homemade bread. What better with which to pair the new cinnamon raisin peanut butter??