Catch Up and Ringin' In the New Year

Why hello there!!! Hope everyone had an absolutely splendid New Year's Eve, full of funsies and memories! It has been such a long time since I have posted anything so hopefully this post will bring everything up to date. Sorry if it's a tad long, but I have had quite the exciting week!

Let's see...last Monday I went to Illinois to visit my grandparents and some family up there. Sadly, I don't have many pictures from the trip because I'm lazy and I forgot I didn't really feel the need to take pictures, but it was very relaxing and a nice break from my regular routine of being home. I even got to see my sissy, too! She lives in Chicago, but she came to my grandparents house for the week to see us. Oh, and she brought a friend!

Her new kitty!!!

Isn't she adorable???? Lindsey just got her a few weeks ago and named her Windy after Chicago's motto--"the windy city". I seriously could not get enough of this little darling. My week in Illinois pretty much revolved around finishing the Hunger Games series (AMAZING, by the way), knitting my scarf (almost done!), running, eating cookies, and playing with this kitty!! I seriously want a kitten of my own now! I just have to wait until I get my own apartment...grrrr.

We also hit up the mall in Illinois, and I got some great finds at the best store in the world aka Forever 21. I would post pictures but I am once again too lazy to go find my camera. I also did something spontaneous while in Illinois...I dyed my hair!!! Both my older and younger sister have dyed their hair before and I was bored with my dull brown locks, so I decided it was time for a change! After much contemplation in Wally World, I chose a color called Dark Mahogany Golden Brown. Sounds fun, right? My older sister did the dying for me, and I like she did a pretty good job!

                                                                                   














Old hair vs. new hair. Yay for new hurrr!! I don't know if you can really tell from the picture but it's darker and has more reddish tints to it. ILOVEIT! New year, new hair, right?? :)

 Post-Illinois life was filled with friends and the boyfran. I saw Mission Impossible with some friends as soon as I got home on Friday. It was a good movie and I had a great time laughing with my girlies and figuring out our New Year's plans. Yesterday was filled with shenanigans with the boyfran. Since we wanted to spend the max amount of time together before he had to work at 5, we started our day by grabbing breakfast and seeing We Bought a Zoo at 9:45 in the morning. That is definitely the earliest I've ever seen a movie! It was such a good movie, though...I find Matt Damon oddly attractive.

After the movie we headed to the best free date place EVER Puppy Zone!!! Puppy Zone is a store the sells puppies and you can just go and play with all the dogs!! If you are ever in need of a pick-me-up go here! You will not regret it.

After fulfilling our puppy lovin', we skedaddled to the store to get ingredients to try out my new pizza stone by making pizza. Toddles and I are usually a hot mess when we cook together, but the pizza making was actually quite successful! We had a his and hers pie...

Our beautiful work of art

Nom!

My half had three pounds a lot of sauce, tomatoes, onions, a tiny bit of cheese, and roasted garlic. Toddly's half contained a button of cheese and pepperoni. I had two of my four slices. It was muy delicioso. We ate and chatted til he had to leave me to go to his occupation. Boo work!

Before my girlies came over to get ready for the night's festivities, I went for a quick 45 minute run while the sun was setting. I came back to my house and did two workout videos from Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. That video is no joke!! I was so sore today! Anyway, back to last night. Casey, Calie, Jean, and Kellie all came to mi casa to primp for the night.

Once we were all dolled up, we headed out to the Cotton Eyed Joe's again. We wanted to dance! We braved the cold and waited in line...only to find out the cover was $20. Ummm, sorry, but we're college students!! We can't afford that! Angry that we froze our butts off for nothing, we decided to go to another bar downtown to dance. *Warning: Prepare for picture overload*

Lookin' fineee

Jammin' in da car

"Happy New Year's" face

We shook our booties until midnight, cheered for the New Year, and then headed to Jean's lake house. We stayed up til 4 am laughing, talking, and just loving being reunited. 2011 was a great year full of laughter, excitement, the ending of one chapter (high school) and the beginning of another (college). I'm sad to see such a memorable year come to an end, but I thoroughly embrace 2012 with all of its glitz and glamor. I look forward to see what this promising year brings me! Adios amigos!