I hate mondays

So, today was going great. Reine just got back into town after a long weekend and it was great to see him! I got a high score on my french test and am loving school! There was a light cover of snow on the ground and it had snowed all day. I was headed home to pick up madison and stopped to wait for her bus at the stop and I noticed her bus was more late than usual. I started to worry, after 30 minutes past her normal drop off time, that something might be wrong. A woman pulled up beside me and informed me that if I was waiting for a kid off the bus that I should know the bus was in a ditch up the road.

I panicked!! Raced over to the end of the neighborhood to find the bus and sure enough it was stuck rear end first in a ditch!

I rushed over to get madison off the bus but some idiots "helping" the situation wouldn't let her off.... yeah it was a mystery to me as well. So I waited. Finally I got her off the bus but at that point so many parents had piled in their cars to get their kids too nobody could move. AND on top of all that it was so icy on the roads no one could move without slipping.

We finally got out and found ourselves safely at home. We made some dinner and ran the usual routine. Finished homework and watched I Love You Phillip Morris which is hilarious!!!

So today was full of surprises and stresses, I hate mondays. Lets hope tuesday is less of a stress! : )

I love saturdays.

I love sleeping in. I love sleep. Sleep sleep sleep. : ) I wake up at 6 am every single day and stay up past 12 every single night, saturdays are the only day I get to sleep in. Once I woke up without an alarm clock around 10 I decided to make something special for breakfast.

Cinnamon roll pancakes!! I got the recipe off of recipegirl.com

 Yumm! These pancakes are not healthy! But they are delicious!

You have to add the cream cheese frosting because at this point who are you kidding. Go big or go...to the gym. 

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

After cleaning up after breakfast and cleaning the entire house I finally sat down to finish the painting I started a while ago! This is the finished piece! It already has a home. My friend Sydney in SLO was the first person to ever buy one of my paintings and I knew she would love this one. : )

This is one of the largest pieces I have completed I feel so accomplished! : )

This week I have been super productive. I got all of my assignments and studying done a whole week early, cleaned the whole house, and finished this piece. Yay go me.

Banana bread recipe!

I have made way too many banana loafs but in this case just enough to have the perfect recipe! At least I think so and Reine as well. He eats most of the things I bake. Love him for it! He's the best food critic : )
I've been making so much banana bread because I have so many over ripe bananas! I've been volunteering at the food bank in town and at the end of the day you take a portion of the food they receive. Anything from canned foods, lunch leftovers and produce thats about to go bad...I choose the bananas every time. They are perfect for this!

The ingredients you will need:

4 large very ripe bananas! the darker the better!
2 Large eggs
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup fat free vanilla or plain yogurt
5 Tbs of butter, melted
1 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat or white flour.
1 Tbs of baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp all-spice
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees! or more if needed, my over here really sucks. Thats why I hate new ovens. So I bought an oven thermometer and its helps!

Combine and blend together the butter, eggs, bananas and yogurt. Add sugars and stir until smooth.

Add all remaining dry ingredients. My recommendation is to add spices to the sugar mixture first then add the flour.

Pour batter into a 9 x 15-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake for 55 minutes or until a tooth pick can be inserted and taken out without any gooey.

To make muffins with this recipe combine ingredients as directed then coat a muffin pan with cooking spray. Bake for about 25-30 mins depending, instead of the 55 for the loaf.

To add some spice to your end result combine
1/3 cup powdered sugar with either
low fat milk or orange juice. Depending on your preference.

I like the orange juice topping myself. : )

Enjoy!

TGIF : )

Today I woke up as usual to get madison ready for school and to get myself ready for my 8 am abnormal psychology class. After class I went to the college coffee house to study but there internet was down, so I actually had to study instead of "studying" and really stumbling. Which is my new addiction. So I was actually productive today leaving the rest of my weekend to finish a painting I've been working on since....Its embarrassing so I won't mention the time. But its too long!

I had previously deleted my facebook and felt pretty good about it. I didn't have a facebook for about 3 days before MY OWN MOTHER guilted me back into reactivating my facebook so she can send me her weekly updates of her life at the beach. So she can taught me with the allure of a beautiful sunset picture with the title "Wish you were here"! Thanks mom.

It was 24 degrees today and it snowed the other day. And I'm not complaining I love snow, especially the cute fluffy snowflakes that were falling the other day : )

 I was up late last night baking 30 muffins! for madison's class party that she had today. That is something I miss from grade school, end of school (or in madison's case end of the quarter) party. She got to wear pajamas to class and eat junk food all day and not do any homework.....

Well... I do that...
But thats not the point! The teachers encourage it. And this has made me realize I don't wear sweat pants to school enough. Since when did this become so acceptable?! To change my ways I went to the UAF bookstore and bought some sweats! I am school spirited....and on my way to be a lazy student! My parents would be so proud.

The muffins for maddy's school party! So many banana nut muffins! I'll add the recipe soon! : )

Hello, everyone.

And by everyone I mean the five people who read this blog of mine that I haven't paid attention to in months. :P oops!

But I have some good excuses!

I'll briefly cover some of my latest adventures. First would be my Denali trip that my dad, wendy, madison,  Reine and I went on. Denali state park is basically all of southern alaska and is breath taking no matter where you stand. As you can see. : )

We stayed at McClaren lodge for 3 nights. This was our view : ) We had an awesome fishing trip, a wild canoe ride with a crazy unexpected hail storm and constant canoe-redirection! Reine was sweet and manly enough to push us when we got stuck. Got in that freezing glacier water in bare feet! Thats my man : )

Soon after Denali I was headed back home to california. There were many adventures along the way, too many to name but I'll do my best. Some of my favorites include my first summit attempt on shasta with my father, spending fourth of july with friends and family in my home town, Reine's surprise visit to california!!! and our wonderful california road trip that followed.

 Me in avalanche gulch. My dad and I were well on our way up the face when all of a sudden I dropped to the snow with a sharp pain in my left knee. I assumed it was a rock but we found out quick it was melting ice from the top of the gulch. The Gulch is often referred to as "The Bowling Alley" I now know why. A couple small pieces of ice also hit my dad in the shoulder and leg, so we decided it was far enough.

My dad and I in the gulch on our way down! We'll try again next year!!

Another great adventure I had this summer while in california was a state wide road trip with my best friends!

Reine had surprised me in sacramento only 2 days before our trip. It was the greatest surprise I have even gotten! : ) Gabe and emily showed up at the house, we loaded the car with snacks and supplies and headed off to SLO to visit my momma!

We had a great kayak trip while we were there. A must in SLO town.

 The crew geared up for the adventure to the dinosaur caves of pismo beach!

 Reine looking fine in his kayak gear! striking a pose! lol

 Made it through the cave! The tide was low enough that day so we could sit in the huge cavern and enjoy its beauty.

We landed safely and ready for some lunch! Had a great time working the waves, exploring sea caves and .....I can't think of anything else that rhymes with caves or waves but we saw some sea lions!!! lol

The rest of our trip was a success to say the least. We headed down to San diego after SLO to meet with friends. We stopped in SB to meet with Roxy and have some delicious mexican food!

 In san diego we traveled to la Jolla to enjoy the famous beaches and swim in the ocean. Reine had never swam in the ocean before and it was an experience for sure.
 So much fun on this trip and so much mexican food!! YUMM where else can you get awesome mexican food?...besides mexico....not alaska thats for sure!
We headed back up the coast to Santa cruz to visit with Arianna and ethan. We managed to stop off at a beach just before we got to their house just to run around the beach and play in the surf. We needed to get out all that energy from sitting in a car so long! and through LA traffic YUCK!

Me running around : )

We had such fun adventures in Santa cruz. We got to pick strawberries in the fields. so many cute little strawberries. We got so much!! and we put them on Reine's birthday strawberry short cake. Yummers!

After dinner that night we enjoyed the entertainment of the famous Santa Cruz board walk.

 Eating some more delicious snacks! Chocolate dipped cones! yum!
Along the way and during the whole trip we constantly switched seats and took pictures to document our journey. These were some of the pictures, all are my favorite! Thats our california road trip! I'll update you later on the rest of summer and my travels to Boston, New York and Nantucket! Abiento!

 Peace <3

I'll be posting my Whole wheat cinnamon rolls recipe next post!!