Here is to another great year!

Happy New Year everyone!
2012 has been quite a year! My family moved at least three times, I took drivers ed, I went on my very first missions trip to Guatemala  the summer Olympics took place in London, my Mom completed her first Iron Man, we made it through Hurricane Sandy, the world didn't end and I started a blog!
Over the past couple of months I have been putting together a 2012 video montage of some fun things that .happened this year, I had a lot of fun making it and looking back at this year from my camera. So here it is- 2012:

 

2012 was great, but I'm not the same person I was last January and I can't wait to see what kind of changes 2013 has for my life. What about you, what are you looking forward to in 2013? I'm not really a resolution person, but what about you, do you have any resolutions?

Who killed Santa?

Happy Monday! Christmas is near and I am more excited than ever! SP youth threw a Christmas murder mystery party and it was as epic as it sounds! Santa was killed and we had to figure out who the murderer was. Everyone sat down to a yummy, home-style Christmas dinner to read over clues and try and figure out 'who done it.' Everyone really got into their roles and made it a ton of fun. Thanks to SP youth for another memorable Christmas party!

Everyone got really creative with the gifts for our

game of greedy Santa. It was a really one of the most intense games of greedy 

Santa I have played this year. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

My Wonderful Life

Happy Monday!  Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Over the past few weeks, I have been busy getting ready for my Drama class's Christmas play.  This year we preformed It's A Wonderful Life: A  Live Radio Play (by Joe Landry).
I was Stage Manager, and had a lot of fun finding 1940's props for sound effects. Because the show was set in the 1940's we had to make all of our sound effects using props on stage. It was a totally different kind of play than anything I have ever been in and I loved being able to bring such a Christmas classic to the stage. This was my last high school play, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to say good-bye.

Backstage, teamwork and multitasking are our best friends...

As I prepare to say good bye to my high school drama career I took a look back at some of my favorite performances. Here are some of the  highlights:

                                      

                         Freshman year I was warrior 2 in our spring production of Beowulf: User Friendly  
                                       

The play was a modern spin on the old tale and it was 

a blast to perform!

Sophomore year I was cast as the lead role in the community theater's

production of The Boarding House 

                             The play follows a crazy cast of characters on their quest to
                      find the treasure that is supposedly buried under the house.

Junior year I preformed in the Fear Factory as Mrs. Rankle. 

Mrs.rankle was one of my favorite characters to preform

ever! I got to be a crazy old lady who wore slippers and stole people's pizza. 

One of the things that I love about theater is being able to turn a simple space into a whole new world. I love story telling and making people laugh and theater has been a great way to do just that.  

Marines, Monuments and M&M's

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone on the East Coast is staying safe and dry.
This past weekend nearly 30,000 runners participated in the 38th annual Marine Corps Marathon, including my Dad! My younger sister, Emily and I spent the day in D.C spectating the race and we had a good time. This was our first time at the MCM and it is already on my list of favorite races to spectate. The view was beautiful where we were and the crowd was awesome!
I love spectating and cheering everybody on and on Sunday we saw a lot of fun costumes and signs. I am always amazed at how runner's manage to run 26.2 miles in some crazy costumes. Some of my favorites were:
1. The M&M's (there were at least three of them)
2. The classic tutu (it seems to be a really popular marathon costume, I even saw a guy wearing one)
3. One of the most accurate Spider-man costumes I've seen all week
4. A banana
5. Batman and Wonder Women
6. Waldo

Some awesome signs we saw said things like:
1. Run faster Sandy is right behind you
2. Why do all of the good guys run away?
3. Worse parade ever!
4. Cuz 26.3 would just be crazy!

I would like to thank the mega phone guy for "motivating" all of the racers and strongly encouraging  them not to sit down because of the paper work involved for him. Thanks to the coffee shop at the finisher's festival for providing thousands of cranky spectators with breakfast and reminding us of why we were awake in the first place. Also thank you to the police who kept the crowds at bay and everybody moving in the right direction down in the metro stations.

Here are some pictures of Emily and I chillin in D.C. we had a ton of fun!

Congrats to all of the finishers of both the 10k and marathon, you guys are amazing! Semper Fi

One Scarf Seven Different Ways

Happy Monday everybody! Cold weather is starting to set in, and with cold weather comes one of my favorite fashion accessories-the scarf! The scarf does have it's downsides though; I can find myself finding a style I like and then wearing all of my scarves that way for the next six months. So here is a little video I put together with a different way to tie your scarf for every day of the week.

So, which version is your favorite? leave a comment below and let me know.

P.S. The song in this video is "Colors" by April Smith and the Great Picture Show

Pumpkin Ice Cream

A few weeks ago I attempted to make pumpkin ice cream and recently someone asked me to post the recipe I used. This is actually not the first one I used, it took several attempts to find the right one. This recipe  turned out really well and tasted soooo good! So here it is, try it out and let me know if you liked it. 

Ingredients- 1 1/2 cups whole milk 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream 1 tsp. vanilla 3/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp. ground cloves 3/4 cup brown sugar 6 egg yolks, lightly beaten 1 cup pumpkin puree  Directions- In a large saucepan over medium heat combine milk, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and brown sugar. Heat until scalded, but not boiling. Add a small amount of cream mixture to eggs while whisking. Return egg mixture to saucepan,mix well. Cook, while stirring, until mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon. Remove from heat. Stir in pumpkin puree. Remove from heat. Pour the cooked cream into a durable container, and place it in the freezer. After about 40 minutes check it to see if the edges have started to freeze. If so, stir the cream vigorously with a spatula or whisk OR mix it with a handheld mixer to break up any ice chunks. Return it to the Freezer. Keep checking it every 30 minutes or so, giving it a really good mixing each time until it is completely frozen (about 2-3 hours). Your ice cream should now be ready to serve or stored in a sealed container.  Enjoy!

Sarah Was Taken To The Movies

SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know ANYTHING about this movie then you probably shouldn't read this post.

Happy Monday everyone! This past weekend I saw Taken 2 in theaters. Here are my thoughts and a review.

I feel really bad for the Mills family, that can't go anywhere nice without getting kidnapped! After finishing an assignment Bryan Mills invites his family to join him in Istanbul and they enjoy a nice vacation for all of like 30 minutes before Bryan's ex-wife Lenore gets kidnapped. I was kind of disappointed, everything seemed really easy this time around, Liam Neeson's  character had a phone while he was being held hostage, so all he had to do was call his daughter and she managed to get him out by throwing a bunch of grenades around Istanbul. Also nobody in Istanbul seemed to have a problem with Bryan and his daughter driving around and blowing things up on their streets.
During the film Bryan helps his daughter Kim master a stick shift car while being chased by the authorities. Recently I have been trying to master the family stick shift- I am thinking that maybe my dad and I should take a trip to Istanbul because (*spoiler alert*) Kim aced her drivers test without a problem.

I'm going to be totally honest, when I first saw the trailer online I thought it was a joke, so naturally I didn't have very high hopes for the film. It ended up being mostly a remake of the first movie without the gripping suspense. Also, the lighting and effects were dizzying and kind of made me sick. The action was good though and it was kind of fun to see the roles reversed.

Anywho, the movie was unintentionally hilarious and all around kind of disappointing. Personally I think that you are better off just sticking to the first movie.