Rolling with the Tide

Today,

I submitted two scholarship applications.

The AXA Achievement Community Scholarship is one I feel pretty confident about since it is based off of community service. But because it is a larger scholarship, the odds are pretty low. Of course, a girl can hope!

 The Ronald McDonald House Charity is based off of community service and financial need. According to the papers, I lack in one of those areas. hahah.

I have officially applied for over 10 scholarships and they keep rolling in to fill out. I am not complaining. This semester is a lot less stressful (knock on wood). If you just looked at my nails, you could tell (seeing as though I am not biting at them).

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day, Concert! Who you say? Well, I guess you are just going to wait and have to see Wednesday! I most likely won't blog tomorrow. Anyways, Sweet Dreams.

All Smiles,
Brittany

Beachy Sunday

*start of Hawaiian music*.... Aloha!

 So on the agenda today:

Birthdays!

The surprise/recipe!!!

Puppies/UNC-CH

Yesterday

Answering some questions.

Happy Birthday Momma!

For her birthday, I made this beautiful Carrot Cake:

And Flowers:

And we gave her Kelly Clarkson Tickets (well, it was more of a present to all of us!):

Now for what everyone has been asking for: the recipe. This Carrot Cake is by far the best we have ever had. Made all from scratch, it was light, moist, and flavorful.

Ingredients:

Cake:

6 cups grated carrots 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup raisins 4 eggs 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup crushed pineapple, drained 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 cup chopped walnuts

Icing:

8 oz. of cold cream cheese

5 Tbsp. cold butter

2 tsp. vanilla

2 c. powder sugar

Decorations:

Graham cracker crumbs

blue food coloring

fondant

cocktail umbrellas

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar. In hot water, add raisins to soak. Squeeze juice out of pineapple. Set everything aside for 60 minutes. After, drain raisins and then stir raisins in carrot mixture.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans and 12 cupcake liners (one pan)

3. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light. Gradually beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the pineapple. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir into the wet mixture until absorbed. Finally stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.

4. Bake 8 in rounds for 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven and cupcakes for 20 min, until cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. When completely cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting.

Icing instructions: 

Beat 8 oz. cold cream cheese (not rock solid, but it means you can use it straight out of the refrigerator) with butter and 2 tsp. vanilla until combined. Gradually add powder sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your taste.

(I did not sift my sugar and I doubled the recipe because I did pipping. It came out perfect).

Now, at dinner, BJ, my grandma's dog, decided he wanted to sit at the table too. So, he jumped up on the chair and joined us.

Sophie got her cone off!!! And Chris, my dad's friend, gave me the cutest UNC-CH gift, a money chocolate bar. Needless to say, Sophie knows what's good, and is a Duke Fan. She attempted to eat/tear-up my bar.

Yesterday, Marissa had to leave, but not before we got ice cream and exchanged Christmas gifts.

We have the cutest gifts.

Addressing some questions regarding how to comment on the blog:

On the home page, you can see all of my posts. But if you wish to "comment", you have to click on the title of my post (in this case it is "Beachy Sunday") which is a hyperlink and will allow you to comment on the bottom. For mobile views, comments sometimes go through and sometimes don't. I hope this answer questions.

Have a great start to your week and bye for now,

Brittany

Trials, Plans, Reunions, && MAIL!

Hola!

My Best Friend is in town!! Woo Hoo!!! She drove four hours to see me... and everyone else (But who doesn't like to think they are "special"?)

Of course when Marissa walked in the door, we had to take a picture. Kinda sucks that my best friends live between 30 to 4 hours away. But, I still love them so. Miss you Kendyl and Jo.

Oh, we also booked our senior beach trip today!! Yippe!!! Bring on June 10th!!!

 So, we got all dressed up (Don't ask why... We are girls) and went out to get Mexican food, one of my favorites.

Then, we came home and are baking. Too bad I can't say anymore, but just wait until Sunday!! Oh boy are you in for a treat. If you liked the Oreo Truffles then you will LOVE this creation. And might I say it is decorated beautifully!!!

 My Favorite Test Taster!!!

AND I got mail today! Lately getting mail makes me super happy. This piece of mail was from UNC-CH regarding private housing. Now whether they send this to everyone is a mystery (But once again, who doesn't like feeling special?)

Well, that is all for tonight. Busy day tomorrow. Can't wait to share my surprise with you Sunday!!!

Warm Hugs,

Brittany

Oreo Truffles

So, this is gonna be kinda short. I took some medicine, and it is making me sleepy.

Right before Christmas, I made Brooke some Oreo Balls to take to her friends as goodie bags. They were a hit! And super easy to make! The recipe is below. Enjoy!

1 Pack of Oreos
1 Package of Cream Cheese
Vanilla Extract (optional)
Chocolate
Serving Size: >24

1. Grind down the oreos until they are fine.
2. Mix together the vanilla and cream cheese. Slowly add the fine grinded oreos. Roll mixture into balls and place on parchment paper.
3. Freeze for 15 to 20 minutes
4. Melt Chocolate: For mine, I melted white Chocolate as the base and Semi-sweet as the drizzle
5. Dip each ball into the base chocolate. I recommend letting them set on a rack. They will drip so set the rack on a cookie sheet to catch the excess chocolate.
6. Put drizzle in a ziplock baggie and snip a tiny (tiny) hole at the tip. Free-hand your drizzle.
7. Refrigerate over night and serve.

Happy rolling,
Brittany

Craftily Dodging Cones

So, I guess you could say this was a "normal" day. At the same time, things happened; life went on.

Cones- My poor baby! She is so exhausted and you can see the stress in her puppy face. They say she has to wear this thing for four days... uhm, probably won't happen. She whines like a little baby. She also cannot play for four days... We will see how long that lasts.

Soccer also kicked up. Of course, packing this morning, I forgot why I had flip-flops in my gym bag. Well, once I changed, I realized they were for me to wear driving. Instead, I rocked some riding boots. Pretty Cute Right? Ha. It was refreshing to take a 30 minute run and get some touches on the ball. My touch is a little rusty to say the least.

When I came home, I couldn't be still. So, I went upstairs and look at these adorable little things!

One is stretchy fabric (purple) which was easier to make and a cleaner cut. The other (cheetah print) was not stretchy, had a rustic, stringy look, and took a little longer.

In 15 days, (I know, starting the count down early), I may possibly hear back about the Coca Cola Scholarship, which is for up to $20,000. If I make it to the next round, I would be invited to Atlanta in April for an all expense paid four day trip. Say a little prayer for that. $20,000 could make a huge difference!

Well, That's enough for tonight.

Sweet Dreams,
Brittany

Thankful

Today, I was speechless for words.

I spent the majority of my day writing thank you cards. I remember checking the mail and getting a thank you card from a friend or a family member. It made me feel special, loved, cared about. I like to make the one's I care for feel the same way. Although I don't say thank you as much as I should, I am very grateful and blessed to have all these wonderful people in my life. In addition, I appreciate all the texts I received today saying "Goodluck" or "just thinking of you". They make me smile and not a single text goes unnoticed. And the final thing that I am especially thankful today for is you guys. It made me feel quite awesome approximately five seconds ago that I opened my blogging page and saw I received over 50 views. I don't find myself to be anyone important, but to see someone cared enough to click that tiny link is humbling.

 Post interview photo

And the moment most of you have been waiting for, My Duke Interview! Can I just say my interviewer, who will remain anonymous, was awesome and super nice. I felt relaxed and comfortable. It's easy to just talk about yourself, and my interview gave me the opportunity to reveal a personal story, my concussion. She asked the basic questions: who are you? why Duke? what is your weakness? what is your strength? what is your fondest memory? what is you worst experience? what was your summer like? I asked some questions, and she told me about her experience. I expressed my concern with my lower SAT scores, and she reassured me Duke only wanted a well rounded individual. At the end, she said, "Once you get accepted into Duke, I will contact you again." I quote it because I hung on every word of this line as she said it. She didn't say "if". I know I am probably getting my hopes up, but, at this point, I am at peace with the fact that whatever will be, will be. We shook hands goodbye and I handed her a thank you card. I was thankful for the opportunity to have a voice in my application. Overall, it went great!

Tomorrow, Sophie, my puppy, gets spayed. Say a prayer for her if that's your type of thing. I also start back up with soccer. Excited but, at the same time, don't feel ready or prepared. That 2.5 mile run I did tonight should make me a little more prepared. Tomorrow is also my last semester of high school and my last first-day of a semester in high school. Bittersweet.
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.” ~Seneca

Till Tomorrow,
Brittany

The Beginning

207.
That's how many days left until I go to college. So before I jump into all of this exciting events and happenings let me explain a little about my "blog". Right before Christmas, I was given a journal. It was purchased with the intent of me writing down everything about college (which I still plan on doing). But, this brilliant idea sparked another idea. A blog. When something exciting happens, I have habit of calling everyone that means something to me. That's a lot of phone calls because I have an awesome support group of family and friends. So the perks of having a blog is all my so called "news" is in one place. Being the crafty, baking, sussie homemaker person I am, I will probably share some of my creations.

Now that I have established purpose, let's share some exciting news!

1. I got into University of Chapel Hill. Wow... what a relief. UNC is an amazing school, and somewhere I can definitely see myself, even though it is my 3rd choice. The anxiety of the wait and checking the mail was fun, but, ultimately, it sucked.

2. I scored a Duke Interview. It is tomorrow! This is huge seeing as though there were over 31,000 applicants, the 2nd largest in the US. Having an interview means I made it past the first round. Wish me luck! And say a little prayer for me.

3. I aced my AP English Course. I was super worried about this because I always am border line of an 'A'. English is not my forte. This time I was not border line, I actually enjoyed the class, I learned something valuable, and I had an awesome teacher!!!

I think that is enough sharing for one night. Sweet Dreams Blogging World.

High Hopes,
Brittany