Adventures of a Shockingly Average 30-Something

I've been back up at Potsdam for a week now.  I was up early for the annual Student Leadership Conference, and classes start back up tomorrow. I was nervous about coming back for the conference, but then I found out that some people who I already knew (and was friends with) would be up here for that as well.  I moved into my dorm room, which is a triple, last Sunday (the 18th), and then the first conference event was on Monday the 19th.  The events on Monday were mostly getting-to-know-each-other sort of activities, but they were a lot of fun.  We were broken into five different groups.  Even though I knew one of the people in my group, I didn't stick with him the entire time.  I was talking to, and getting to know, people who I didn't know and who I had seen around campus, but had never talked to before.  It was really good, and really fun. Tuesday started off with all of us together, listening to a presentation on leadership styles - the Mandala ...

The curtain closes on yet another summer.  I'm headed back up to school tomorrow morning.  Hopefully, we'll be on the road by 6 in the morning -- it's a 4 and a half hour car ride!  (Five hours if there's traffic, four if you drive fast). I'm really looking forward to being back at school, not only to see my friends again and to be going to the clubs I'm in again and everything, but also because I'll be back in the classroom again.  Last semester, I spent 8 days (Tuesdays and Thursday for 4 weeks) in a first grade classroom and LOVED it so much.  This semester, I'll be in either a 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th grade classroom.  I'll be honest: I'm nervous about being in a classroom with older children, but I'm so excited at the same time.  I loved my time in the classroom last semester, and I just know I will love it this semester as well. Next semester (Spring 2014) I'll be student teaching!  I can't believe I'm this close to bein...

If you were curious as to how the cupcakes looked once they were finished (as in, with the chocolate on top), here's your answer: I'm really really pleased with the way they came out.  And if you were wondering how they tasted (no really, someone asked me if they would taste different because of the food coloring), they tasted like just normal cupcakes made with white cake mix (the food coloring doesn't affect the taste). I had thought about making the frosting purple so the rainbow would still have the purple on the top, but chose to stick with white because (a) the white frosting is like a cloud.  Rainbows and clouds.  It works.  and (b) I figured the chocolate designs would look better on a white background than a purple one. In other (non-cupcake related) news, 13 days until I go back to school and I cannot wait!

Nikki's 19th birthday is on August 6th, and my 22nd birthday is October 10th.  I'm not coming home for my birthday (because it's $90 for a round trip bus ticket, and I don't want to spend that), so I'm going to spend it with some of my friends.  Actually, I'll be spending the few days after  my birthday with them because my birthday is on a Thursday (ew. Seriously? Who has a birthday on a Thursday?) and I'll be in class all day (also ew. Who has class on their birthday?). But anyway.  Mom and Pete are throwing Nikki and I both a birthday party tomorrow night.  I wanted to make cupcakes, and I wanted to try making rainbow cupcakes.  So this is what I did all morning: Picture credit goes to my lovely sister, Nikki. It was surprisingly simple to do, but VERY time consuming.  If I had known it would take me two hours to make 16 cupcakes, I probably wouldn't have done it.  (I lied.  I probably actually would have done it still).  I st...