Recipes!

I've decided to make a recipe box. I had a binder where I put recipes, but I decided that wasn't cute. When I was little, I LOVED reading my mom's recipes on cute index cards so I decided that, although I don't have any adorable recipe cards (does anyone know where they sell them?!), I do have index cards, and I'd love to have the same sort of system. I think there's something just... so traditional and cute about having your recipes on little cards. You can give them to others to borrow, you can keep them in a nice tidy box... overall just really adorable.

So I've added all the recipes I have to this box (90% of which I haven't actually attempted haha). I color-coded them, too... pink is desserts (duh they need their own category), yellow is entrees, green is appetizers, and orange is random stuff... haha as of now, orange solely consists of really yummy-sounding cocktail recipes I've stolen from Cosmo and other similar places. Mehhh.

Do you guys have any recipes to share?? I'd love to add to my collection! ... Keep in mind that I don't like any chunky foods. Haha.

Here's a SUPER simple one... I probably shouldn't even call it a recipe, it's that easy. It's basically a take on an ice cream sandwich... just like, a thousand times better for you and I personally think it tastes better:

Graham Cracker Ice Cream Sandwich
Ingredients:
Low-fat graham crackers
Low-fat or sugar free Cool Whip

Um... that's basically it. Put one or two spoonfuls of cool whip in between two graham cracker halves. Freeze them in a big Tupperware containers, and enjoy!

Best part: They're 100 calories. Compare this with your average ice cream sandwich which is 240 calories. They're also very low in fat, since you're using low-fat stuff... only about 4-5% of your total saturated fat. The average ice cream sandwich (At least the ones I found online) are 25% of your total saturated fat. Soooo yummy, too, and very light. Perfect for summer :) The only problem is actually only eating one at a time.

A few random things

1. No, I have not yet received my CPA scores from the first section. I could get them anywhere from today until June 30. You know, any time in between. Ridiculous. At this point, I'd rather NOT know my scores until after I take the next section (one week from today! YIKES)... because if it turns out I failed it, my confidence is going to be completely shot.
2. People have just been bugging me today. Especially drivers. Seriously, water being on the road does not mean we all must drive 20 mph under the speed limit. You will be just fine if you go the prescribed speed limit. Promise.
3. I'm getting a temporary roommate tomorrow! Merrie will be living with me for a few weeks while she looks for another place to live. I'm slightly nervous, considering I haven't had to think about anyone else for the whole school year haha. I think I got used to living alone pretty quickly. But it'll be nice to have someone around... it'll make me less lonely and less likely to pig out on food. And more likely to actually try to productive so she doesn't think I'm a loser. Ha.
4. In case anyone is keeping up with Donny's travels, he is in India at the moment... he's been doing some traveling, but he's headed for Delhi either today or tomorrow where he'll spend the last week of his trip. The highs for this week are around 113 or 114 degrees. I'm not joking. Ewwww. He also thinks it's the beginning of monsoon season. That pretty much sounds like my two of my least favorite things in the world: sweating and lots of rain.
5. I'm watching an E! True Hollywood Story about women who date rapists and murderers even while they're in prison and it's creeping me out.
6. I CANNOT WAIT for this year to be over! So close! Less than 25 days, to be exact. Holding me back are four case studies/papers (one of which also includes a 30 minute presentation) and two finals. Bah. Just hurry up already.
7. I haven't really studied much for the CPA exam in the last couple of days. I am struggling. This time, the material is much different. In the last section, it was like... PURE rules and math and 'calculate this' and whatnot. This section is NO math... just a lot of rules. It's so difficult. Everything sounds similar. And, as mentioned in another post, there are like infinite amounts of mnemonic devices and it just makes me want to puke. I feel like all of my energy went to the first section and now I'm just like meh. I hope I can get my shit together and actually start studying hard.
8. SVU finale tonight!!!!!!!!!

Ohhh, Nicaraguan grandma.

My Nicaraguan grandma (my dad's mom) is just.. so weird. I have never really liked her. She's just not a nice person. She is SO rude to my mom and is just generally pretty obnoxious.

That being said, since I've been trying to find out more about my ancestry, I decided to email her.

Some background info: My grandma immigrated to the US in the 1950s (I think) from Nicaragua with her brother and sister. I think they ended up in California. As I said in an earlier blog post, my opa immigrated from Germany in the 50s as well. He went to Missouri, but then ended up in California, which is where my dad says the two of them met. They had five boys (and a girl who apparently died when she was 1, which I didn't know about until like a year ago), my dad being one of them. They divorced in the mid 1990s and don't really get along. They're just really awkward people. For example: at my Miami graduation, my family was arriving to my apartment. My Opa comes in and says, "Where is my ex-wife? I would like to say hello to my ex-wife." This is like... in front of all of my friends and other side of the family. Who says that? Who asks for their ex-wife? Just say her name or something. Ugh.

So... 1) clearly I don't know a lot about my dad's side of the family, and want to know more and 2) even though my grandparents dont really like each other, I knew my grandma would still want to see the manifest of the ship my opa came to the US on. So I attached it to the email I sent her, just showing her what sort of things I could find on ancestry.com and I told her I'd love to find out more about her family.

This is the email I receive in reply (copied and pasted)

Please let me have day of rest and I will answer your most welcome letter. You should have a lot of information on your Opa's side as Hittler checked them out to make sure they were pure arian. I just got back today from Uncle Kurt and Aunt Doris. Came to find some of the switches don't work for the outside lights. The Security system I have, called me twice that the alarm had gone off. They called the police, for a false alarm and they are not happy. They left a note to the effect. Love Grandma

...........

Like... seriously? 1) Thank you for the history lesson, but I am actually already aware of who Hitler was and what he did. 2) I don't really understand how Hitler's Aryan race means I have a lot of information about my Opa's side. I am not really seeing the connection? I have info on Opa because he told me, not because of Hitler...? Whatever. 3) It sounds like you are very angry about Opa coming from Nazi Germany. Um... you didn't have to marry him? That was your choice. 4) You need a day of rest to talk about your family, but you can write me an email about your security system? Seriously? 5) I have no idea what you're talking about with your security system.

She is just... so weird.

Genealogy

Greatest recent decision of my life: doing a 14 day free trial of ancestry.com.

I will seriously purchase a membership afterwards, too.

I have found SO MUCH COOL STUFF. Granted, I am a self-proclaimed genealogical NERD. I LOVE researching my genealogy... whatevs. My uncle and I both have really had an interest in it, but I hadn't done any REAL research, as in like... looking through census records and stuff until I just signed up for the website.

I'd say the coolest things I've found, other than census records of my ancestors from as far back as 1860, are the following:

My Opa's documentation of immigrating to the US from Germany. He's the 'Kurt R Peters, age 20'... awesomeee.


My grandparents' wedding announcement!!! It's probably too small to read, and unfortunately I can't really even tell that's my grandma, the quality of the picture is so bad but... it's freaking adorable. They go into SO MUCH DETAIL!! Like, here's a quote: "She carried a white Bible, a gift of her parents, topped with a white hybrid orchid and a shower of white charm roses and feathered alabaster roses." Like... what on earth. Anyway it's the most adorable thing I've found and I love it.


And my grandparents' engagement announcement!!!! Gahhhh my grandma's picture haha she totally has the 50's glasses. I love love love it. I also think it's hilarious that the caption is 'Norma Jean Lane- Bride-elect.' Like... what? Haha.

Yayayay genealogy!

Stupid.

Tell me how "a CPA CO CAREs about CURVed assertions" is a mnemonic device. Seriously. 1) That's just a dumb sentence. 2) It doesn't make sense. 3) THERE ARE 13 PARTS TO IT. THIRTEEN LETTERS! Four of which are 'C'!! How on earth am I EVER going to remember that? And it's not like this is the only mnemonic device. For this ONE section of the CPA exam (which I am only 2/5 of the way through studying) I have already encountered the following mnemonic devices:

1. CPA CO CARE CURV
2. IMACPA
3. FIND
4. TIP PIE ACDO
5. RAPMEAM
6. ADMITS
7. FINE (Obviously completely different from FIND)
8. RECC
9. DORCS
10. PRIME
11. HELPME
12. ALARD
13. ULIARCPA
14. AMIASAD

I truly wish I was making this up. I could not tell you what a single one of those is, other than FIND and CPACOCARECURV are even about, and that's only because I just reviewed those. I don't even know what the letters in CPACOCARECURV stand for, I just know what it's a mnemonic FOR.

Keep in mind that I am still less than halfway done with this exam studying. Meaning... at this rate, I will have about 30 of these to memorize.

Here's another one for you: FML.