Mmmmm Sugar

Happy Halloween :-)

cupcakes courtesy of Stacey

National Chocolates Day

This is one holiday I can really get behind!

I have grand plans today for hot chocolate and chocolate candies. I will see just how many things I can cover in gooey chocolate. Chocolate covered strawberries? Perhaps. Nutella spread on slices of french bread? Yes indeed. Chocolate powder in my coffee? A must.

Here is our excuse to eat as much chocolate as we want, ladies. Lets not waste this wonderful celebration! My sister, Princess Cinderella, and I went to our local Rite Aid to stock up on Halloween candies. You can just see the pure joy reflected on Ella's face!

~Princess Ariel

This morning I asked for chocolate in my coffee - a pump of Mocha & a pump of white. I don't usually get anything in my lattes. I think my soul knew today must be National Chocolates Day!

At school my brother gived me a Reese's. Best brudder ever. :-)

Later on I made my own chocolaty latte. Mmmmm. Halloween candy beware.

~Princess Aurora

Here are some of the other delicious chocolate munchies I had today. I think 80% of my intake had some kind of chocolate in it. ;)

~Princess Ariel

Make a Difference Day

The university I go to really got into Make a Difference Day as well, and they encouraged us students to volunteer and stuff today. I ended up spending most of the day doing productive things that didn't really benefit me in any way. This is not very in character for me, I have to confess.

First, I got up very early on a Saturday morning (which I am not in a habit of doing) and worked for someone else at the barn, feeding and cleaning up after the horses. Here is a picture of some of the huge draft horses I fed. Fyi, my head does not reach the top of those fences.

After that, I admit, I did watch a little of the Duck and Vandal football games on TV... :) but after that I went out to my local horse rescue to help out. A few miles out of town is a place called Orphan Acres, where 70+ neglected and abused horses have found a home. I spent several hours there feeding, doing odd jobs, and spending time with the attention-starved horses. There were so many ancient, deformed, and blind horses there, it was both shocking and also amazing that someone still cared enough to take care of those poor animals.

I met another college-aged girl there and her husband who were also volunteering, and she told me that she came there almost every Saturday. I was impressed, because I knew there was no way I was that good and charitable of a person. She had been there for 7 hours that day, doing hard labor that most people would refuse to do even for good pay. It was a very eye-opening experience. Here's a picture of just a few of the horses:

Also, I would like to prove how hard I worked today by the fact that I lost 1.6 lbs. over the course of the day. I most likely gained it all back after eating a very large, and very late dinner. But still. :)

~Princess Ariel

Holiday Update

Today - National iPod Day

Today was completely gorgeous. It rained all day long. Everyone complained. I loved it! I toted my iPod all over campus in honor of National iPod Day.

Yesterday - National Stuttering Awareness Day

So... um... sometimes people stutter.................

Wednesday...

In addition to it being National Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day (which we have technically not yet done - eek!) I saw these signs all over campus:



I fed my body lots of chocolate this week. A form of love, I think.

***

Tomorrow is National Make a Difference Day. Enjoy. :-)

~Princess Aurora

Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day!

The average person may not know what to do with this holiday... but not us Princesses! We both happen to be good friends with an insider at our local Chamber of Commerce!

Unfortunately, due to our insanely busy schedules, we couldn't do anything to celebrate it today. But we will make up for it by "supporting" our friend tomorrow... maybe by bringing her treats at work or something! :D

Here is a picture of our lovely friend, Princess Snow White, looking all important and official! ;)

~Princess Ariel

National Brandied Fruit Day

National What??

10/19/09 * 8:36 PM
Text to: Princess Ariel
"Tomorrow is national brandied fruit day... I don't know what to do with that."

I have never had brandied fruit. I have very little desire to eat fruit marinated in brandy and sugar. Don't get me wrong; I'm not opposed to trying. But I definitely don't have $ to fork over for a brandy experiment. So I thought to myself, what do I already have in terms of alcohol and fruit? Here's what I did:

I threw banana, kahlua, milk, vanilla, and ice into the blender. Sounds promising, yes? It wasn't very good. So I added...

Mocha powder!
It wasn't very good. so I added...

Some sweeter soy milk! And a little hazelnut syrup!
It wasn't very good.

Okay, I admit it. The hazelnut idea was a little weird. Now I'm drinking it... and it's just not very good! May tomorrow be a tastier (and more correct) holiday!

~Princess Aurora

***

On a brighter note, here's a picture of the card we mailed for National Boss Day!

Evaluate Your Life

Evaluate Your Life Day

I think today should come with options: evaluate your life or eat another chocolate cupcake.

Yes, that is a wee Princess Aurora you see. The tragic truth is that I still look like that more often than I care to admit. It's not as cute when you're 23.

I seem to have been gearing up for Evaluate Your Life Day all weekend, as is often the case with me. Here's my experience:

#1 - Assess Your Insanity

I've developed a rather ridiculous stress habit this semester: I pull my hair out. I'm not even kidding. I will sit and tug at the ends of my hair, and all the brittle strands will break off. So this weekend I went home to see my mama and her scissors. We cut off just a little bit. Now I have soft ends and a fresh start. It feels wonderful. I'm quitting cold turkey.

#2 - Examine Where You Came From

I brought an old photo album home with me. For some reason I don't remember looking through this particular album much. I don't remember a lot of the photos. But I've been looking through it and just feeling really moved by all the love in these pictures.

I often think about my Nana. If there's one area in my life where I've felt totally jipped, it's in the fact that I never had the chance to know her. It's funny how you can feel so drawn to someone you don't even remember.

#3 - Fail So You Can Succeed

I skipped all my classes today. I utterly failed. Then I made some decisions. I'm going to take the novel I'm 135 pages behind in and set it aside. It's the 1 book that will not be followed by a test. I'm not going to finish it. Prioritize.

I feel in my life lately that everything I do falls short somehow. I can't pinpoint the reason. I'm not awake enough. I'm not alive enough. My heart's not big enough. No matter how much effort I put forth, it's insufficient. No matter what words I say to a friend, they're inadequate.

I think sometimes you have to choose some things to fail at so you have a chance to do something beautiful with the rest.

I was walking home today and staring at the pavement. Suddenly it occurred to me that there were little fall leaves all over the ground and all the trees were yellow. I hadn't even noticed. I started thinking to myself how I'd love to stand there as the leaves fell and let them swirl around me. Just to be lost in them like an autumn snowstorm.

My little fantasy was interrupted when I was pelted in the face with a leaf. Who knew a tree could hit so hard? Pay attention, it said. The beauty of autumn is now.

~Princess Aurora