Spring Has Sprung

For all of you East coasters or maybe really anywhere in the US; you know that Winter just wouldn't leave us this year. There was snow on the ground for my birthday and that was at the end of March!! Everyone was getting frustrated with the weather and if snow was forecasted instant dread dispersed amongst all of my friends and family. Poor J who plays baseball, couldn't get outside to practice with his team until last week-- totally ridiculous.

I'm not the biggest fan of Spring, only because I have terrible allergies… I'll be red eyed and sniffling for a whole month which, for those of you who have allergies know how miserable that is! But, for now I'm just enjoying the warmth, driving with my windows down, and watching flowers blossom.

Yesterday, was definitely the first day it felt like Spring. It was in the mid 60s which, basically felt like Summer after the longest Winter. The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze. It was the perfect day to go driving, to have an early dinner, and to play tennis with my best friend!

So, you'll probably agree with me when I say this but, driving with the windows down and jamming to some happy music is one of the best simple pleasures that life has to offer. Spotify has mood playlists which, is the best because all you have to do is click on your mood and Spotify will do the rest. I'll let you guess which one we clicked on… that's right, happy. We were singing along to songs about sunshine and friendship… and just loving life.

Yesterday was also the perfect day for an early dinner at Olive Garden! Olive Garden has this special, where for $12.99 you can order two pasta dishes; one to eat there and one to take home. You also get their unlimited salad and breadsticks so, as the little frugal college students that we are we filled up on the salad and breadsticks. Took three bites of our pasta got the dinners boxed up. Now we have two full meals that will last us all weekend. I also decided to order a drink and decided to get a watermelon margarita. And man, did drinking that make me wish I was outside by a pool somewhere tropical. I also felt like a grown up ordering a drink at a restaurant… maybe I still view myself as a little kid but, it was a weird feeling presenting my ID like it was no big deal. As I wrote on Monday, 21 isn't a big deal to me but, I still can't get over how old I feel when I look down in my wallet and see that horizontal license. 

One thing I love about driving on the highway during Spring time is seeing the beautiful daffodils blooming on the side of the road. I always think of roads, particularly highways as places that get abused when it comes to littering. I've seen people chuck things out their windows so often, and every time it kills me. But by God's grace, flowers bloom and provide a yellow sea of beauty for everyone who is stuck in traffic to marvel over. Against all odds and the pollution that covers the side of highways, these little guys still find a way to greet the world.

While I was on my way to play tennis with Alex I saw these little guys just starting to bloom! I'm not sure what type a tree/bush/flower they are but, man are they gorgeous. So, if you know what it is comment below because I want to plant these in my yard when I'm older.

And after a great day, I'm so glad I ended it with a little exercise on a cool Spring evening! We played until it was literally too dark to see the tennis ball… or I just became terrible at hitting the ball. I'll go with it being too dark to see, because if it's the latter I must be down right awful at playing tennis.

How are you welcoming and seeing Spring in your life?

Happy Friday :)

Necklace and Sprinkles

In between the chaos of classes and writing proposals for my upcoming senior research, I've been lucky enough to enjoy the company of great friends, meet great bloggers, and try out new things! Like Rita's custard-ice-cream and an adorable necklace from EternalGirl. 

So, I'll start with the necklace from a fabulous blogger named Julia! She blogs over at Puella Aeterna and she also owns the Etsy shop EternalGirl that I mentioned above. Julia reached out to me about sponsorship opportunities and we realized that we are both North Eastern gals. She sent me the cutest necklace from her shop that I wanted to share with you all.

She hand-drew the beautiful flower onto the necklace which, goes well with any outfit. It is light and looks good with any outfit! If you haven't already checked out her blog or Etsy shop please do, here. Her products are affordable and make for perfect gifts!

On a yummier note, I also tried Rita's custard! I went out with some of my co-workers to Rita's and just couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of the cutest dessert. I genuinely believe that adding sprinkles or jimmies to anything will just make it ten times more appealing. But, seriously people just look at the cuteness. 

Love them!

Happy Friday, friends! I can't wait for this weekend so, I can catch up on work and maybe squeeze in a few naps. Till Monday… 

M.I.A

hey friends… I know I've been quite mia when it comes to the blog recently! These past two weeks have been so incredibly busy. Between classes, meetings, work, and spending quality time with friends and J; I've felt like the blog needed to be placed on the back burner.

I've written a lot about burn out and to be honest I think I'm getting to that point. So, hopefully this weekend I'll be able to just curl up with a warm mug of tea and just catch up on all blog business and maybe some tv shows. I just really need some me-time so hopefully, I'll be able to find time to rest up.

The next few weeks are going to be even crazier than these past two. My senior sociology capstone project is finally being concluded and with the conclusion comes a ton of work. I'm literally a slave to the computer program called SPSS… for those of you who know what SPSS, I'm sure you could agree that it is not the easiest program to work with. But, with all of that said it is kind of cool that I collected my own data and that I'm analyzing that data. Maybe that is my inner nerd showing. Anyways, I'm currently hoping off my little soap box and will return to the world of homework! Happy Thursday, guys! I'll be back more regularly soon I promise!

Twenty One

So, a really weird thing happened when I started drafting this post... I realized it would also be my 200th blog post. I don't think there is any significance in it being my 200th blog post, but the fact that this baby blog has come so far in the past 2 years amazes me. Seriously though, Radiating Sunshine has gone through 2 make overs, 200 posts, and 100 followers and counting.

It's hard to believe that I started this blog when I was a Freshmen in college! It feels like ages ago (well if you consider 2 years ages ago). Anyways, my 200th post conveniently has fallen on my 21st birthday! Now, I'm not a big birthday girl. For me, birthdays are about getting together with the people you love and enjoying the time you get to spend with them. It is not about the big celebration or in my case getting drunk because you only turn 21 once!

So, in honor of my 21st birthday which, is on Sunday I wanted to write a post about twenty one things I love about my life currently (listed in no particular order):

Saturday mornings

sunshine and blissfully windy days

warm cup of coffee

laughing until my stomach hurts

totally losing track of time with a friend

the kids I work with on Thursdays

my relationship with God
family and friends
Parks and Recreation
learning new things
the fact that i'll be in Europe in less than 72 days
spontaneous dance parties
singing Frozen songs on repeat
happiness
french vanilla coffee
calling my mom after a long week
the feeling when I pull into my driveway at home
getting lost in a story *Divergent*
when professors give out extra credit
ice-breakers with residence life
the fact that on Sunday I'll be allowed to have wine… with my cheese!

TGIF

Dunkin Donut's coolata selfie 

yeah, so i'm a tiny bit excited for today… partly because it is Friday. partly because I get to hang out with the sweetest guy and my favorite set of twins tonight. party because life is awesome and even though i have no idea what i wanna do with my life, i know that it will be okay at the end of the day. 

today, i aced my sociology quiz that i was totally stressing over. i went to work, looked at grad school programs, and caught up on all things blog-related because i've been behind this week. i had a delicious lunch and even though i did absolutely nothing to get ahead on the crazy workload for this weekend, i can't help but feel that everything is okay!

so, today is an awesome day. it may be cold out, but the sun is shining and people are smiling. i hope you have an amazing weekend and i will see you all on Monday!

also, special shout out to raewyn over at Warrior Queen for winning the Spread the Word to End the Word giveaway t-shirt! thank you to everyone who participated and pledged their support for this amazing cause. 

The Best Ways to Spend a Snow Day

So, how can you improve a 4 day weekend? Well, by making it a 5 day weekend because of snow that's how. But, seriously people a 5 day weekend and a delay the next day is the way to go. I wish every week could be like this. The only downside is that I'm really suffering from a lack of motivation, but hey what can you do?  

Anyways, I wanted to share the best ways to spend a snow day: 

1) Get rations… when in college you will most likely at some point or another have to walk outside to get food from the dining hall. (unless you're one of those lucky people who have the dining hall in their building & if you are just stop reading this because your life is already awesome). Anyways, a key to a successful snow day is to relax and not have to walk 5+ minutes in the bitter cold for food. 

My rations included: 

- peanut butter & jelly sandwich

- cheese popcorn

- captain crunch

- ramen

- orange

- water & iced tea

2) Go to channel USA and watch 4+ hours of Law & Order: SVU. Seriously, this is the best way to spend a cozy day inside with Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler.

3) Do some homework. Yeah, I know that sounds boring and unenjoyable but look at the snow day as an extra day to play catch up. Even if you only read one chapter its still something and you'll feel less like a bum and more like a productive procrastinator. 

4) Do something you really enjoy… like baking… banana bread… for the full recipe, click here.

5) Watch movies… tons and tons of movies.

So, I'd say I had a pretty successful snow day. Not gonna lie I was a little bitter that I didn't have an additional day off today, but hey I'll take what I can get. Happy Wednesday, friends :) Only two days left until the weekend is here again.

26 Days of Rest

Winter Break. Two glorious words. Two words I clung to for the majority of last semester. And two words that end today. This break has been a challenge. My grandpa passed away, we had to put down our cat, and my car was in and out of the shop costing me my paychecks that I was hoping to save for my study abroad trip to Austria. So, those three things monopolized my winter break.

But, despite those three things I can't help but feel like I had a great break. I spent so much time with my family and friends. On the days when I didn't work I tried to stay in my pajamas as long as possible (1pm= record breaking). I read two novels, Summer People and The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand. I cooked and baked. I also discovered that I can make a delicious loaf of bread. And while we are on the topic of food I wanted to note that I enjoyed the blessing of not having to walk outside and down a hill to get dinner.

Now, don't get my wrong. I'm a little excited to go back to school. I miss my friends. I'm not excited to leave home and start classes again though. This semester promises a lot of new opportunities. For starters, I turn 21. For those of you who know me personally, you know that I'm not the biggest fan of birthdays and that I'm not a raging college student. But, I am excited to have a glass of wine at dinner with my parents! I'll probably be the lamest 21 year old ever!! I also will be taking the GRE and prepping for my future when it comes to grad schools. I'll be taking a crash course in german and prepping for my study abroad trip. So, Spring 2014 will be amazing and challenging, but I can't wait to make new memories.

Ravens game with dad!

Check out my beautiful sister! We took this on Christmas Eve.

My grandma loves holding babies and she was bummed when someone took

the youngest baby away from her. So, I sat on her laugh and she got a good 

chuckle from it. I told her "I love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as

I'm living my baby you'll be" 

And finally I ended break by saying goodbye to my dear cat, Oliver. We rescued 

him over 13 years ago and I've loved him everyday since. I loved his little white socks, 

I loved how cuddly he was. I'm definitely a dog person, but I'm loyal to my baby.

A Christmas Sleepover

So, curious how to have a fabulous Christmas sleepover with your best friends… stay tuned folks because I have a complete account of my Christmas themed sleepover with my two favorite girls!

Hopefully this will be one of the last poor quality WaveCam pics from the iPhone!

One-So, start your Christmas sleepover by grazing the kitchen for dinner. If you're lucky you'll find a box of Mac and Cheese, some spinach for a salad, and leftovers from various places! Not to mention, your fridge will be thanking you for making so much space so you can start prepping for Christmas dinner leftovers! 

Ignore the pile of bread and casserole dishes… my mom likes to "assemble" her dishes several days before the holiday!

Two- Next on the Christmas sleepover agenda is the gingerbread house! Now, this is a Honsberger family tradition that we have continued over the years. This year I had my two best girlies help create the beauty you'll see below!

Yeah, the icing wasn't really working as well as we hoped… so we kind of made a mess of our "gingerbread house"

not pictured: Hannah and I chasing each other around the kitchen with our hands covered in icing. Also, not pictured: me tripping over a chair as I barely escaped Hannah's hand full of icing and Hannah on the floor dying with laughter as Juneau (my dog) licked the icing off of her face. 

So, we stepped away from the traditional gingerbread house… but I think our Ginger-bunny with green hair eating a snowman is pretty original. I mean come on if this doesn't win for the cutest gingerbread house I don't know what will!

Three- Next on the Christmas sleepover agenda is SUGAR COOKIES! So, we made two different batches… we did the traditional cut out cookies with sprinkles and then we made these beauties… Christmas swirl cookies! I'll post the recipe for y'all later when I go over what fine foods will be making their appearance at our Christmas dinner. 

Four- Also, you can't forget a gift exchange between your friends! If you're lucky like I am you will have a friend who is super crafty and will make you cute room decorations that you won't be able to stop looking at and saying how much you love them! Thanks Alex for making Hannah and I these cute wall decorations! But, seriously I love it… to death… like I'm looking at it right now. 

 Five- I would also suggest ending your night with a Christmas movie… We watched Love Actually and by we I mean… I fell asleep 15 minutes in, Hannah made it through half, and at 2:30am I woke up to find Alex watching it by herself. Sorry Alex, I'm such a grandma! 

Anyways, there are the ingredients to having the best Christmas themed- sleepover with your friends… If your a boy well, you may want to alternate some (or all) of the ingredients! Happy Christmas Eve Eve! 

It Can't Be Friday?

Yesterday I was having lunch with a close friend and we were making plans for the weekend. We decided to plan to have dinner on Friday and we kept talking about it like it was still a few days away and then suddenly I looked up at her and was like "you mean tomorrow!" We both were dumbstruck with the thought that Friday was just around the corner. Now, I promise we were not suffering from amnesia or anything, but this week has just seemed to go on and on that Friday actually surprised me. 

Now, grant it today I'll be going to class, and then to work, and then I'll be starting to studying for finals. My current state of procrastination is at an all-time high so, this weekend is gonna be pretty rough. But, today is Friday so I am happy that I know almost all of you will be getting ready to enjoy a nice December weekend! So, while you're out to dinner or seeing a movie, think of my sorry butt sitting in a library cubicle trying to crank out my last term paper and study for all of my finals. 

Above selfie is of me at work… drinking the biggest cup of coffee I can get and chillin with 30+ programming proposals.

And even though this Friday is gonna be pretty crappy for me, I am kind of excited to be officially done with this semester in t-minus 5 days. That's right 5 DAYS!

Friday Thoughts

This is where I live… well it doesn't look like this anymore. But, you get the point.

Happy Friday, lovelies! 

thank. goodness. its. friday

So, last night I saw Hunger Games: Catching Fire and it was amazing. Definitely one of Jennifer Lawrence's best performances yet and the movie followed the book's plot line so well. Needless to say I'm already planning to see it again! Anyways, this weekend I'm scheduled to be on duty (tonight), crank out a few papers (hopefully), volunteer at a Best Buds event (Saturday), celebrate Thanksgiving with my friends (Sunday), and prep for my sister's three day stay at the Mount! 

Also, next week I will be announcing some exciting Summer plans to y'all :)

Hope you all have an exciting weekend planned, can't wait to read about your recaps on Monday!

Pie Your RA

Pie Your RA! So, how many people can say that they have received a nice pie full of whipped cream in the face while working? Anybody? Well, one of the best things about the RA job is that its not all business. Yes, there are times when you have to be serious and handle a situation but really you get paid to plan programs, decorate bulletin boards, bond with awesome people, and GET PIED IN THE FACE! 

the before shot

So, why was I willing to let my two goofiest friends pie me in the face? Not for kicks I assure you, because a little unknown fact about whipped cream pies is that after your pied you smell rotten whipped cream for the rest of the evening... GROSS! But, this was the second annual Rho Alpha Sigma's Pie Your RA. So, all the proceeds that were either donated or collected by selling the whipped cream pies went to the Rho Alpha Sigma (RA National Honors Society)'s budget! 

I'm on the Mount's RAS team and we hope to use these funds for little RA appreciation related gifts, activities, and to support one of the big events we volunteer for which is Relay for Life in March 2013! We raised was over $100 which is pretty nice for this being such a small event! And I am beyond excited to see everything we can do with the money!

and the after shot! Shout out to these two crazy girls for pie-ing me when I was in the middle
of saying something at the same time!

 Happy Friday everyone! Hope this weekend is amazing. On Monday, look for a terrific Weekend Recap post :) 

A Best Buds Kind of Weekend

Layers upon layers upon layers!

So, I have had the best couple of days working with Best Buds. For starters, this past Thursday was my first day of the mentorship I have just started working at Rock Creek School in Frederick, MD. The mentorship is every Thursday and I do activities with some buddies from the ARC of Frederick County. 

Working with people with intellectual disabilities is one of my callings. Ever since I got involved Freshmen year it has become one of my passions and I feel so blessed to get the opportunity to work with so many amazing people. On Friday, I got to dance the night away working with L'Arche and it was so awesome. We had a sing along and I learned a new dance move called "The Kate." I love working with that community and am so blessed to work with them once a month. 

And finally one of the events I've been looking forward to was Special Olympics on Saturday! The Mount has been hosting Special Olympics for 25 years so it was a great anniversary, with great athletes, and great competition. I was working on Long Distance running as a timer in the morning, and then I hung out with the power lifters and then helped out at flag football. It was a very chilly day but it was a wonderful experience. 

My favorite moment of the whole day was when the champion power lifter went up on stage, lifted his max weight successfully, and when he put the bar down his coach was right there and he gave her the biggest hug. They stood their embraced as I stood there tearing and it was just the best moment. Its hard for me to even put into words the raw emotion that I felt, but it was so pure and so true and I wish I could bottle it up and give it to you all. 

So, that was a bit of my weekend. 

How I Spent Fall Break

This past Fall Break was ah-maz-ing! I don't know whether it was just hanging out with the family, visiting my grandparents, baking, and spending time with friends I just had the greatest time. I didn't have any major plans and I let opportunities like winning Chick-Fil-A pop up in my agenda! It was really nice just going with the flow of things and I even completed a 101 in 1001 item which I'll be writing about later this week.

After the week I had before break I definitely needed some quiet time at home with the pups, sweets, and Netflix!

Below are just a few pictures of how I spent my Fall Break:

Baking the mini-apple pies and the bread pudding! So yummy... also

the apron is courtesy of my darling sister, Brooke! 

First scarf-wear of the season! The weather has been so inconsistent and finally mid-way through October I got to break out the scarfs. This orange and navy scarf is from The Limited! Absolutely love the colors and how soft it is. 

As I sit here back in my dorm room... I can't help but wish I was at home playing with Juneau and relaxing. So, here is to the next 5 weeks until I'm home... I hope it goes quickly and that I stay busy!

                                          

First 100 Challenge

One of my favorite quick eats is Chick-Fil-A! So, when my friend Alex found out about this awesome opportunity to win a free chick-fil-a meal once a week for a year... I couldn't say no! 

So, what did we have to do? To win the Chick-Fil-A First 100 challenge you have to camp outside the new opening restaurant for 24 hours. The Chick-Fil-A in Rockville opened yesterday and we set up our tent in the parking lot along with 100 other people!

We had to decorate pumpkins with what we had in our tent! 

We left my house at 4:30am to make it to Rockville by 5:30am to start getting ready for the raffle/selection process. Now, we got super lucky because only 100 people showed up so they didn't need to use the raffle system and we were guaranteed a spot in the campout. 

Registration started at 6am and then everyone rushed out of the Chick-Fil-A to grab spots to set up their tents! Alex and I secured a nice little location next to some really nice guys who eventually saved us from the rain that we were very unprepared for!

The Alex's 

Chick-Fil-A hosted a ton of little challenges, like pumpkin decorating, minute to win it games, and ping pong tournaments! We also participated in line checks to make sure everyone was still on the property. If you didn't show up for the line check you were disqualified. 

Another bonus is that Chick-Fil-A fed us all day on Wednesday which was really nice! So, besides playing games and hanging out it was a really relaxing day... until THE RAIN! 

So, it rained... ALL NIGHT! We did look at the forecast but, the tent we had claimed to be water proof and well it is a liar because it wasn't waterproof at all. Anyways, we met some nice guys who were camping next to us and they lent us some tarps that we tied down with twine and trash bags. We definitely wouldn't have lasted the night without the tarps and their compassion was just another reminder on how God works through others. 

Anyways, after about 2 hours of standing in the rain frantically trying to waterproof our tent through the tarps we were able to keep the rain out and have a somewhat peaceful night!

So, finally after getting maybe 3 hours of sleep 6am came around and we all lined up, got our hats and t-shirts and then participated in the grand opening of the Montrose Crossing Chick-Fil-A! As we walked into the restaurant and got greeted by all the employees and the cow it felt so great receiving our hard earned vouchers. 

We had an amazing time and I'm very excited to dine at Chick-Fil-A for free for a year.