May 3: The Lone Roommate

Anne Caroline officially moved out today.  There were some tears, and it was a weird 'Goodbye for now, but we'll see you soon(ish)' Missing her already, and she's only been gone 3 hours! So tonight, Erin and I are hanging out studying alone, reminiscing a little too much, and enjoying the Gigi's Cupcakes that Muff left for us with a note in the bottom drawer of her desk.  She really is the sweetest! Now her side of the room is totally empty, and my shelves are gone too. It barely looks like our room anymore.  Muffy is done with freshman year, and we're not far behind.

May 2: Rite of Passage

Anne Caroline and I have been waiting all year to do this.  When we first moved in, we noticed that all the girls who have lived in our room since Leischuck was renovated a couple years ago measured themselves on the back of our door.  So today, as part of our lil move out process, we finally added our names.  Finally putting our names on there had a weird finality to it, like we don't live here anymore and we're passing the room we've loved so much onto the next girls. 

I still have mixed feeling about moving on, but there's nothing left to do but embrace it. Exciting but scary! Sophomore year here we come!

May 1: Sundays are the best!

Chill Sundays at Auburn are always the best.  I don't have my first final until Tuesday, so there was no pressure to be productive quite yet, and so when my sweet friend Katherine asked me to come with her and to see her get rebaptized, I was so excited that I was free to go with her! Katherine was my first real Auburn friend, and we've gotten to do a lot of cool and significant things together this year like freshman firsts, picking campus ministries, and small groups.  I felt so blessed to get to be a part of this rededication today because it's these parts of relationships - taking about and experiencing the really important things - that make them real.  Thanks for inviting me, sweet frannn (:

April 30: Shark on Stairs

This sign is by the elevator in Leischuck, and unfortunately the fact that I look at this sign every single day shows that I should by taking the stairs more often.  But, I do get a little entertainment every time I'm standing here waiting on the elevator:  last time Ned was here, he pointed out the sign and said "Every time I look at these signs, I think the picture looks like 'Beware of Sharks on Stairs'" And he's completely right - it totally looks like that..at least to me. I don't know why I thought that was so funny, but now every time I stand here looking at this sign, I laugh to myself.  Not motivation to take the stairs more often.  Thanks, Ned :)

April 29: Early Morning Auburn

Last night was my first and only all nighter of freshman year.  Ironically, there was zero cramming involved, but instead we had an ADPi sleepover to watch the royal wedding at 5am.  So this morning around 7, I headed back to the dorm to finally sleep for a while, and I remembered how much I love the quiteness and freshness of early morning in Auburn.  Especially since it is a 4-day weekend because of dead days, there is absolutely no one out.  So peaceful that it almost makes me want to stay up and take a walk.  Almost, but not quite. 

April 28: The beginning of the move

Can you tell which roommate is flying solo this weekend?  That'd be me.  Anne Caroline took her first very large car load full of stuff home yesterday and will be home in Montgomery for a dance festival this weekend, so I will be hanging out in room 419, still completely unpacked.  It feels so weird to know that this room will be completely empty in just a couple of days.  Reality check - freshman year really is coming at an end!  Hopefully, a full week of studying next week will make me %100 ready for summer.

April 27: Exams are coming!

This time went up in the Student Center today.  Freaked me out.  Exams start 4 days, and everyone is going into hyper study mode.  Next week, the Student Center will be open for literally 6 days straight.  Usually it closes at midnight, but just the thought that there will be people there at 3 or 4am some nights studying already makes me anxious! I'm definitely not ready for non-stop study stress quite yet.  If you need me, I'll be in denial until Sunday night. 

April 26: Dorm Fail

Procrastination was not a friend to me last night.  I took a study break sometime around 11, and decided to change the quote written on my little white board that is Command strip hung on my wall. Before tonight, I though that the perk of Command strips were that they didn't peel off paint. False.  Although part of the contribution to my failure was that I was not gentle and just ripped the thing off the wall. And as you can see, I took quite a bit of paint with it.  So now, there are two missing chunks of paint staring at me while I'm trying to study.  And as a given, there is no new quote.  I almost made it as a successful dorm resident...

April 25: Not me, not Hermione, but YOU HARRY!

Let's add another reason to the list of  why Auburn is awesome.  

Every spring UPC puts on a movie night in the stadium on the jumbotron.  Amazing.  Let's add to that awesomeness  - this year they showed Deathly Hallows Part I. So we're combining two of my favorites: Auburn stadium and Harry Potter! How wonderful (:

Tonight we took picnic blankets out on the field and enjoyed Harry Potter as the sun was setting 

#happyplace

April 24: Celebration!

It’s Easter Sunday!  And after church at Southwood and a great Easter lunch, we decided that the best way to wrap up our Huntsville weekend would be to bake carrot cake cupcakes (festive right?) which were delicious if I do say so myself!

Now this was only the finale to the baking of this weekend.  We’ve been planning for a while to put the Caramanian’s beautiful brand new kitchen to good use since we have not been able to legit cook in a non-sketch kitchen in a good while.  So, Friday night we made a delicious strawberry layer cake with cream cheese icing and fresh strawberries (yumm) and last night we made oreos wrapped in chocolate chip cookies (a recipe we’ve been saving for a while now) and today we wrapped it up carrot cake! All from scratch and totally self-sufficient! So domestic (: GREAT baking/Easter weekend!

April 23: Total Granola

Today Erin gave me the grand tour of Huntsville.  We drove through all the neighborhoods, went to her favorite places, and of course stopped for Sonic.  

The grand finale of our tour was a hike in the beyond perfect weather up one of the mountains around Huntsville.  When we got to the top, we set up hammocks overlooking Huntsville for a little break and I got to use my new hammock for the first time!! Hiking in Chacos with a Eno break at the top.  So granola.  The only ones on the mountain more earthy than us were the kids we passed looking sketch and smelling fishy..uh-oh haha

April 22: Little Rosie's!

This weekend has been long awaited - I finally got to come to Huntsville!  I’m home with Erin for Easter weekend and have had such a great afternoon driving around and seeing Huntsville. I’m obsessed - so beautiful (granted they have spring weather on their side) and some place I could even see living one day!

For dinner tonight, the Caramanians took me to the infamous Little Rosie’s - a cute little Mexican place that is classic Huntsville.  Great food and cool atmosphere and even lil McCamy who’s not even from here saw people I knew!  Little Rosie’s lived up to the hype (: a definite Huntsville staple for all my future visits!

April 21: Crosby!

What has my dorm room been missing all year? A fish of course!

Last weekend, Erin and I went to Petco to adopt this little cutie - our new Beta fish named Crosby!  I put off blogging about him because I was not quite sure if he would last this long - Sadly, I was not completely confident in my skills to keep a fish alive.  But now we have had him almost two weeks, and he is happy and healthy at least to my knowledge! He's loving his new little home in our bathroom window, enjoying our amazing view (:

 What will happen to him this summer is still undecided, but we’re going to wait a while before we make that plan - no point in counting your alive fishes before they hatch ;)

April 20: Mail Surprises!

So several weeks ago, I was studying and (no surprise) I was very distracted but tired of procrastinating on facebook. But then I came across this website www.heyitsfree.com which let's you order free samples of all sorts of things. Now, getting packages is always lots of fun and a very big deal, especially when they're surprises, so I figured, I should be a good friend and send Erin lots of fun things from this website.  So this week, she had been getting in the mail things like free subscriptions to Cats and Kittens magazine, a snazzy new inhaler case, and today free samples of Miracle Whip!

When I was ordering all these things, it just seemed like the most hilarious thing in the world to me..Now I'm thinking it's probably more annoying in the long run, but I'm just trying to spread the love and send people lots of fun free presents (: So if you get something completely random in the mail, you know the first one to suspect!

April 19: So many things you didn't know a microwave could do!

It's April.  It's late.  The meal plan money is running low, along with the healthy options available on campus at this hour.  

Our alternative: make a whole meal in the microwave.  Steamed green beans (don't let us fool you, they used to be frozen) and pasta with marinara sauce. Delish, cheap, healthy(ish) and we get to stay in sweats. Dinner win...But really, this happens more often than you would think.

April 18: Nostalgia

Tonight while we were walking back to the Hill after the last RUF, Erin and I were drawing all the possible drama out of the moment.  It felt great outside and we both were whining about all the things we were going to miss when freshman year ends all too soon.  So, instead of going back up to the room to hang out, we decided to go for a drive.  

We put in the freshman year mix of Ben Rector, Dave Barnes, Steve Moakler, Tyrone Wells and all of our other loves from this year and got a little tearing (observe Erin's fake crying face above) and then called Anne Caroline to come downstairs right away.  Our words when she walked out the door: "Get in the car loser. We're going shopping!" (#meangirls) and then we proceeded to drive around town for an hour or so.  We talked back over the highs and lows of the year and dreamed about the future.  

Very well may have been one of my favorite memories from the year! 

It's not over quite yet!

April 17: Last Laundry

Laundry days/night are always so refreshing in the dorm.  Although paying $5 to do it is not a plus, it is of course always so nice to have %100 clean clothes and an empty hamper, especially since I usually only wash clothes once every two weeks or so...

But this Sunday night as I was pulling clothes out of the dryer, I realized that this is my last load of laundry in Leischuck!  Next weekend, I'll be in Huntsville with Erin for Easter, and we'll wash there, and then there's only two more weeks until summer..My first realization that freshman year really is coming to an end! #realitycheck  #wenttoofast

April 16th: Football is BACK!

It has been wayyy too long since I've been in Jordan Hare Stadium watching Auburn football!  Today was both the A-Day game to preview next year's team and the Saturday of ADPi's parent's weekend.  So today, we sat in the beautiful Auburn weather, and not surprisingly I got a nice tank top sunburn for ADPi dinner tonight.

One of the highlights of the day:  While in line for barbecue, a new Auburn grad students asks me "Is it always this crazy on game days?"  Oh hun, you have no idea.  The streets aren't even blocked off - this is calm for us (: War Eagle!