Starbuck's City Cups

On the trip I took to Vegas earlier this month, I bought a Las Vegas Starbucks City Cup at the airport. Thinking to myself - wow this would be fun to start a collection of all the places I have been!
So when I got home, I looked online to buy the other ones I would need to complete my collection, but you can't!! Come to find out -- they are highly collectible and the designs change every so often on them. From what I can see, they started doing these cups around 1994.

Here are the cups I would need so far to complete my collection:

Who Taught You to Cook???

So it is no secret that I NEVER cook... Slash don't even know where to start when it comes to making a meal. Granted, it isn't all my fault --- for starters, I still live in the dorms, not exactly a good environment to learn these types of things. I do know how to make a few delicious things -- I am really good at Ooeyy Gooey Brownie Cookie (a specialty of mine), chili, tacos, baked ziti, and spaghetti, but that is about the extent of my culinary knowledge.

I set a goal for myself to attempt to learn how to cook something new each week. So this was my first week. I decided to make Lemon Chicken Pasta. Which turned out to be an interesting task. Some of the ingredients on this Publix recipe hard to find, but might have resulted in a better dish that what I ended up doing. I couldn't locate the garlic butter, so I used regular butter and added garlic salt. I also had trouble finding the chicken base, but when I did find it - it was $6, sitting next to $1 chicken boullion cubes. In my mind I thought "oh this is easily substitutable" ... but I think that was a mistake. Next time around, I will definitely buy the chicken base.

Here is what mine turned out like...

Ingredients

1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
large zip-top bag
1 lb boneless chicken tenders
1/4 cup garlic butter
8 ounces penne pasta
2 tablespoons capers
2 teaspoons chicken base
1 lemon (for juice, rinsed)
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Steps

1. Fill large saucepan 1/2 full of water. Cover and bring to boil on high for pasta. Preheat large sauté pan on medium-high 2–3 minutes.
2. Place flour and seasoned salt in zip-top bag; shake to mix. Cut chicken into bite-size pieces and add to bag (wash hands). Seal bag tightly and shake to coat.
3. Place garlic butter in sauté pan; swirl to coat. Add chicken (wash hands); reduce heat to medium and cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until chicken is no longer pink.
4. Stir pasta into boiling water. Boil 6–8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until tender.
5. Stir capers and chicken base into chicken; cook 2 minutes, stirring often, to blend flavors. Squeeze juice of lemon into chicken; stir in wine and cream. Reduce heat to low; cook 3–4 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until thoroughly heated.
6. Drain pasta and stir into chicken mixture. Serve.

CALORIES (per 1/4 recipe) 540kcal; FAT 19g; CHOL 105mg;
SODIUM 1040mg; CARB 51g; FIBER 2g; PROTEIN 36g;
VIT A 10%; VIT C 10%; CALC 4%; IRON 15%

A Year Later... I'm a Survivor

So it has been an entire year since my last blog post... Which is a testament to how BUSY, BUSY, BUSY 2011 was for me!! If you want the Spark Note version of what all I have been up to for the past 12 months, today is your lucky day!!! Here it is:

January:
This is a month I can never forget... January 10, 2011, was the day I witnessed Auburn win their 2nd National Championship. We were out in Glendale, Arizona, to watch the game, then there was a huge celebration in Jordan Hare Stadium once everyone got back. It was a great time to be an Auburn Tiger!

February:
Several members of our chapter council got to go to Tuscaloosa for the Xi Province meeting. We learned all kinds of great skills for our officer positions and met Kappas from around our province! I also randomly met Daniel one night at Sky bar, and we have been together since!

March:
We had formal at the Ventana's in Atlanta. A beautiful location with a great view of downtown!! Anne, Madison, Jordan & I also took the most random spring break trip ever to Branson, Missouri, but had a great time! We even met Neal McCoy!

April:
Our chapter held our annual Parents Weekend, and I had a great time with my parents when they came to Auburn to visit me!!

This summer:
I went to Dauphin Island with my family - and accidentally buried my car in a sand dune.... I attended 9 hours of summer school.... Prepared for recruitment.... And that's basically all I did for 3 months!!

August:

Brought about the most STRESSFUL week of my entire life to date, which resulted in one of the most rewarding days I have ever experienced. Recruitment was absolute HELL - unless of course you enjoy being awake for 48 hours straight, shaking hands with over 5,000 sweaty hands, and hours upon hours of small talk... However, the excitement & joy experienced on Bid Day made it all worth it!

September:
I TURNED TWENTY-ONE!!
And celebrated for an entire week straight. I mean, it is a once in a lifetime event, right???

October:
Daniel & I went to Florida for the Florida/Alabama football game. We spent some time at the beach drinking Rum Runners --- which did me IN!! --- and we also got to go inside the Florida football stadium.

November:
Our family went to the Gaylord to see the ICE! Exhibit. It was COLDDD!

December:

Was a month full of events! We had our Tacky Christmas Social (one of my FAVORITE themes), Daniel came to Dallas, we went to the Mavs game, & Christmas time!

Day 6: Something That Makes You Happy

Say hello to a better morning! My Boys! XoXo

Slightly Obsessed

Don't Mess With Texas!! (PS - Did you know that Texas was better at everything?? It is true.)

Yes, QT is a gas station. Can you still love it? Sure!

I enjoy coloring pictures & hanging them on our refrigerator in our room! The roomies are so proud of my art skills.

Gone to Nordies, HOLLA!

There's Nothing Like a Pepper!

His jersey might say #2, but he is #1 in my heart.

And last but not least, laying on the air mattress in the living room with my roomies watching TV all day long!

Days 3-5: First Love, Parents, Siblings

Due to the fact that I have already blogged about Day 3: My First Love, Nordstrom's, I decided to go ahead and do Day 4: My Parents & Day 5: My Siblings.

This picture is my parents & me at the Iron Bowl game in Tuscaloser. We drove from Dallas to Alabama on Thanksgiving Day to make it to the game, which was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. My parents love sports, playing card games, working puzzles, watching NCIS & Criminal Minds, drinking half-caffeine coffee, and eating leftovers. My dad enjoys texting "Gossip Dad" updates of all the happenings in their life, he definitely has had some messages that qualify as favorite texts on whenparentstext.com. My mom has recently signed up for a Facebook account, and it is funny watching her "reconnect" with high school and college friends.

This picture is of my sister & me in New Orleans for her Bachelorette party. She is typically my voice of reason and keeps me from flipping out on people, haha. We used to spend countless hours watching shows like Full House & Friends together. She is the greatest cook I know, and that is saying a lot considering I like to eat. I wish I had even a fraction of her cooking capabilities; however, I'm afraid that three years of dorm living has made me utterly useless in the kitchen (potential husband - don't worry, I am a fast learner!).

Day 2: Meaning Behind Blog Name

There isn't too much to my blog name. These are Lott's Thoughts... Therefore, the blog is called Lott's Thoughts. I did recruit help from some people more creatively minded than myself to try to come up with something catchy and cute. I ended up deciding on the short, to the point one; ironically because nothing I ever say is just that. ;)
XOXO

Day 1: About Me

Today, I am so bored that I decided to take on the 30 Day Blog Challenge... It will probably take me more than 30 days to complete, that is just a long time to be committed, but as long as we can all accept that from the beginning...

Ten Things About Me:
1) I absolutely hate eating leftovers.
2) I am shamelessly addicted to caffeine. Don't even bother trying to talk to me if I haven't had my Starbucks for the day, unless of course you enjoy being yelled out. I can't help it that I find unexplainable happiness in a Grande cup of Peppermint Mocha or a Carmel Macchiatto.
3) I daily thank God for spell check.
4) Growing up in Texas, you are bred to love football because high school football is a way of life. And then I went to Auburn. Football at Auburn IS life. The days spent in the off season are filled with dreams of Jordan Hare, the eagle flying over the field, and talks of all the recruits that were just in town. I now eat, sleep, and breathe Auburn football.
5) I enjoy being slightly inappropriate. Especially in situations where it is unexpected. In case you haven't met Phillip, you definitely need to. Also, if you have ever heard anyone yelling "I love Kurt Sasser!" out of a car window... I don't think it was his girlfriend.
6) My sister got married in October, and it was definitely one of my favorite days ever. I can't wait to see where her new life takes her!7) I am indecisive; but when other people are indecisive it is irritating.
8) I love to take pictures and scrapbook. I have a scrapbook for every year of my life going wayyy back. I can catch you up to speed on basically every moment of my life pretty quickly!
9) I could talk for hours about absolutely nothing and love all of the friends who let me talk at them all those times.
10) I am a freak of nature and actually enjoy working out. But I also LOVE to eat. At least they balance each other out right??

11) I ate half a batch of Puppy Chow while typing this... so now my keyboard is covered in stickyness. Oooopps!!

Christmas Break

Christmas break: A much needed time off from school work ... but also an entire month of living back under the parents' roof with rules and chores and sooo many questions!! What's a kid to do after going months on end without the nagging or "Since you don't have any plans today, would you mind ___" comments?! Naturally, they are going to get angry, try to find a way out, or just start ignoring them.... So in order to look busy, here are the things I have planned to do over break so I don't have to run random errands all the time:

1) Find Chase Crawford. --- After countless nights over the summer of attempting to find him in his native stomping grounds, I was disappointed to leave here without any victory. I will make it my mission to make sure I can spot this fine piece somewhere in Plano and take a picture with him to show all my friends back at school my hometown boyfriend.
2) Shop till I drop. --- Why even bother coming to Dallas if you aren't planning to fork up some major dough at the malls? What else would you be planning to do here? So watch out Northpark, WillowBend, the Galleria, or any other mall within a 15 mile radius of my house, because I'm coming for ya!! (No, that does not include you Collin Creek ... the only thing coming for you is a funky smell and AIDS.)
3) Do hoodrat things with my friendzz. --- Back in the day, the BlowPop Bandits were all the rage in the Plano scene... then there was the GHM ... I think it's about time to rekindle the hoodrat in all of us. We were pros at making Christmas lawn decorations do perverted things to each other. Hahah. Humping Reindeer babies anyone!?
4) Ring in the New Year in style. --- Every New Years adventure comes with a high quality story to tell. Last year, I spent over an hour trying to find a friend who ran away when I tried to drop him off at his house. The year before that was when the Quick Trip man pleaded with us to not vomit in the bathroom. There always seems to be some interesting occurance on New Years, and I can't wait to see what will happen this year.
5) Develop some kind of future for myself. --- Well, I just figured I should start thinkingggg of something... But thinking about thinking about getting a job or what I will do after graduation sounds good enough to me. I wouldn't want to strain myself with too much difficult work over the break.
6) Buy people Christmas gifts (and birthday gifts). --- I might have gotten a little behind on my shopping adventures before finals happened... I definitely have some Christmas and birthday presents to catch up with!! But not to worry, if this one pertains to you - something is coming! Might be later rather than sooner, but you will get something! Promise!
7) Figure out what Tumblr is. --- Everyone keeps talking about Tumblr. I feel like it might be inappropriate to talk about this while I am on my other blog account, but when have I ever cared about being politically correct? I tried to go on there today, but I can't figure it out. Obviously I'm computer retarded.... I thought this whole internet thing was supposed to be easy!
8) gLeek Out! --- I am super behind on Glee... Even though Twitter and E! have ruined some things for me, I am still DYING to figure out what is going on with everyone! PLUS, I "accidentally" ordered Season One off Amazon a few months ago and haven't watched it all yet. What better excuse than to sit on the couch all day and veg!?!
9) Check up on Chuck Bass. --- Similar to the Glee situation, I miss some Chuck Bass in my life. While I could really care less about Serena and her "all about me" drama that totally kills the show, Chuck and Blair is something I really care about. I need to know if they are in love or out of love or just fighting or WHAT! I can't keep it straight!
10) BEAT OREGON! --- Alright all you Tiger Fans, get your hands up for Bodda Getta!!! Oregon vs. Auburn for the National Championship game will be a battle of undefeateds, and Auburn is the underdog --- again! But we weren't expecting anything more. We LOVE being the underdog. Just wait, Cam will do the Heisman on those hoes and it will be game over. Phoenix won't know what hit them when my plane touches down on that runway! CAN'T WAIT!!!!

XoXo,
Lott's Thoughts

I will get to it ... Eventually

My life motto lately has been "I will get to it... eventually..." It has seriously been the craziest couple of months ever.

Things I have learned so far this semester:
1) Changing your major gets easier every time you do it! Goodbye education, hello marketing!!
2) Sleep is so overrated ... all you need is a little coffee and you are good to go!
3) If you get behind, it is really whatever... eventually you will catch up... or maybe it wasn't even that important to begin with.
4) What's a personal life??
5) 8:00am classes = DEATH.
6) It is wayyy too easy to buy things off Amazon... and especially with free two day shipping! (but, hey, if you want to watch Glee Season 1, it just came in the mail!
7) "We don't need tickets... I'm Chuck Bass"

Looking Back With A Smile

I have a scrapbook for every year since I was a freshman in high school... and let's admit that every year they have gotten a little more visually appealing! Since there isn't summer camp this week, I have had mass amounts of free time on my hands and don't know what to do with myself. Summer school is a terrible option... why on Earth would I want to do my summer school stuff?? So basically all I have been doing is laying around and scrapbooking! And what a wonderful week it has been!
Tonight I FINALLY finished my scrapbook from Auburn Freshman Year. I had been really close to finishing it last summer, then decided to start a new Sophomore scrapbook instead of finishing the Freshman year one... So this week I went back, and SEVENTY pages later, I finally finished it!! It is amazing to look back at how much you forget in such a short amount of time! My hair had been super short at times, I went to Cancun, tons of summer concerts in Dallas, Lake Martin, Sticks Music Festival (where we stole the epic Bud Light sign), watched Anne roll down the hill that night, and lots and lots of crazy memories.

Now it's off to finish my Auburn Sophomore Year book! I am already to January, so it shouldn't take me a whole year to get it finished.... well, maybe.... No promises though!