So about a month ago I was roaming the internet and found a couple awesome blogs that were doing a Journal Swap. Basically, you sign up, they pair you up and you get to know someone who you get a journal for and swap. Lisa and Nancy are the ones who hosted this swap. My partner for the swap was Kasey from Antlers and Anchors. She is a pretty awesome person. I enjoyed getting to talk to her and have a reason to make something on my silhouette ;) She is from the south as well and we both like a lot of the same stuff. You can go over to her website and see the journal I got/made her.
I got my journal last week and I love it. It is so different but so adorable. I think I am going to use it for school lists and blog ideas because hey, these ideas come to me at completely random times and it is always good to have a list.
The front of the notebook is awesome. I have an obsession with quotes and this is a good one, especially since my future is coming faster and faster.
It also has a really cool binding on it. I don't know if I have ever seen another book with a binding like this.
Well Saturday I was able to mark something off of my bucket list, I completed a 5K! Hallie and I did the Chi Omega Philanthropy 5k and while I am glad I did it. My time for the 3.1 miles was 47:00 (I don't know exactly the time...it was 47 something) Having not ever really trained for this or had any idea what I was getting myself into, here was some of the thoughts I had throughout the run.
Like I said, I did the 5k in 47 minutes. While it is not the best time in the world, it was definitely an accomplishment. I hope that in the future I will be able to do more and get better times on a 5k.
How have you trianed for a race of any kind before?
This past week the sisters of Sigma Alpha Iota did a joint recruitment event with the sisters of Tau Beta Sigma. It has been an annual event for the two organizations to join together and host a recruitment event but this was the first time we didn't do cupcakes. This year we made candy sushi. It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of girls come out. Here is a look at the night.
Hi, my name is Felecia Payne and I am allergic to any form of nuts.
I am one of the 4% of adults who have a food allergy and one of only the .6-1% of people who are allergic to peanuts. I had my first reaction when I was eleven months old when my mom tried to feed me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it ended with my face super swollen, the advice nurse telling my mom that she wasn't a good parent because "all good parents have Benadryl" and my dad getting pulled over because he was speeding to get the medicine back to me. The first reaction was just the start of one of the most influential parts of my life. Especially as a young child, a big part of my life was learning what I could and couldn't eat, touch and be around, and telling a small child that she can't have the same candy as the rest of her friends is hard. But when you puff up and look like a balloon and your throat swells so much you can't breath, it is important to know what you can and cannot eat.
The photo on the left is a picture from me in the hospital after a reaction and the one on the right is me normally. Both of these pictures are from high school, I don't remember when exactly but it was around 2009 I think.
Here are some facts about food allergies and peanut allergies:
* Children who are going to outgrow food allergies usually outgrow them by the age of four.
A lot of times very young children will be allergic to a variety of foods; i.e. eggs, milk, peanuts, etc. but outgrow it by the time they start school. But if a child hasn't outgrown it by that time, they probably won't. For people like me who didn't out grow their allergy, it has the potential to get worse with age. This is what happened to me. Every reaction I have, is worse than the one before.
* There is no cure for peanut allergies.
While there has been talks about a drug called TNX-901 for years that increases the amount of peanuts that would have to be eaten to trigger an attack, it does not cure it. TNX-901 has also been talked about for almost 10 years now and is still not on the market.
* If I have a reaction there are certain steps that must be taken.
Every reaction is different and every person reacts differently to their reactions, but this is what happens to me when I have a reaction. First, I start to just feel weird. I get chills throughout my body, my ears tingle and something instinctual just kicks in so that I know something is wrong. When this happens I first take benadryl. While this won't stop a sever reaction, it can sometimes slow it down. Liquid benadryl is the best because it gets into your blood stream faster and starts to work. If I can tell it is going to be a reaction that requires me to go to the hospital, depending on how far the reaction has progressed, I will either go straight to the hospital or use the Epi-Pen.
* Once the Epi-Pen has been injected, you must go to the hospital ASAP.
Epi-Pens are designed to speed up your heart rate by giving you a dose of Epinephrine that counteracts the reaction. Because one of the side effects of going into a life-threatening reaction, commonly known as anaphylaxis shock, is a massive drop in blood pressure. You can go here to look at more information about Epi-Pens and anaphylaxis.
* Everyone needs to know how to work an Epi-Pen.
It is not hard to learn how to work them, and who knows one day it might save someones life. Here are some videos that teach a little bit more about how to use an Epi-Pen.
I hope that you understand the severity of a peanut allergy and what to do if you see someone having a reaction. And please be considerate, people with allergies didn't choose to have them, they don't ask for "special treatment" just to be difficult, it is to save a life.
I would love to answer any questions you might have about peanut allergies or Epi-Pen.
Stay hungry my friends,
Felecia
So I know usually people do bucket lists at the beginning of something and I am probably a little late doing this but, I am doing a bucket list for my senior year by doing a list of 25 Things to do Before Graduation. To keep it organized, I am going to categorize all my things in my list. Hopefully before July 24, 2015 I will be able to mark all of these things off my list.
25 Things to do Before Graduation
Academic:
1. Get a 4.0 all year
2. Graduate Summa Cum Laude
3. Decorate my graduation cap with something cool
4. Take a picture with T-Roy
5. Buy myself a graduation present
6. Get an internship
7. Learn HTML
Personal:
8. Get organized
9. Go to a concert
10. Give blood
11. See the Air Force Band perform
12. Read 5 books for fun
Health:
13. Go to the gym for a week straight
14. Lose 15 lbs
15. Do a 5k (9/28/14)
Travel:
16: Go someplace I have never been
17. Take a road trip with some of my sisters
18. Watch the sunrise somewhere pretty (campus, beach, anywhere)
Financial:
19. Start saving money
20. Do a month no spend challenge
Shenanigans:
21. Cook 5 Family Recipes (while not at home)
22. Make a college scrapbook
23. Make a college t-shirt quilt
24. Stay up all night
25. Have a cool Halloween costume
This week has been a whirlwind. When I posted a blog post on Sunday
afternoon about the football
game that Troy played against ACU, I never expected the response I have
received. That one post brought in over 5800 page views and counting. Yeah, I
just am trying to let that sink in. Over 5800 times someone has clicked on the
link and potentially read what I wrote. I have had people read and share this
from all over the country. I know this because my cousin who goes to ACU told
me that she read it and other people at her school read it. That is a very
crazy thought, and also very humbling. The idea that the words I write can have an impact on people throughout the
country is very moving as a hopeful future journalist. I mean, this is my
fourth and final year in school so hopefully I will actually be able to survive
after I graduate. To make it even more unreal to me, Steve Barnes from
football.com contacted me and as a Troy grad wanted to write an article about
the events from Saturday, that he read on here. So here is the article written about what happened Troy's
Tyler Parker. I encourage you to read this article because it has something that my post
didn't have, comments from Tyler. As a band member, reading his comments made
me excited for the next home game, which happens to be homecoming. I hope that
we will win that game but even if we don’t I will cheer on my Trojans because
we are all Troy Trojans.And as the team
travels this week to Athens, Georgia to play the University of Georgia Dawgs, I
will cheer even harder. So Trojans, as you travel this week and next (to ULM) keep your heads up. I
know you know how to play football, I have seen you all play football so well,
so please don’t get discouraged. We are Trojans one and all. And Professor Tabb, I promise that I will be back to foodstuff next week for
my class post! :)
Dear Trojan Football,
Last night we lost a football game. I say we and not you because I am in the band and the Sound of the South is there fighting for you the whole time. We cheer and play from early in the morning to after the score board is turned off. The band is your biggest supporters and last night, after a devastating loss to a team in a lower conference, we felt the loss as well.
During Trojan Walk, when the football team is walking to
the stadium through a tunnel of band members, students, fans and
supporters, many of the football team walks through on their phones and listening to their music. But the biggest look we get is one of complete and utter boredom. Football players, please understand that we are there for you. We get out there, in our full uniform (which includes a thick jacket, pants, and helmet) to cheer you on and pep you up before a football game. So please, show a little excitement. Why not at least get a little excited if you're about to go play a football game, which is suppose to be your main goal on a Saturday? Sing the fight song with us, clap your hands, get pumped up. Who knows it might surprise you that it can be fun and you might even play better.
Now with all of that being said, it probably sounds like I hate my football team, but that is not true at all. I love my Trojans and am proud to go to Troy University, even if I get frustrated with the players. But I want to say thank you to #31, Tyler Parker.
He was the only player, and the only player in my four years of Troy football, to come over and stand and cheer with the band and students when we played the fight song after a game we lost. So thank you for restoring my faith in the Trojan football team by reminding me that at least one of you care and appreciate what we as fans and a band do. I got on Facebook last night expected to see a verity of posts about "how awful the Trojans played" or "how terrible of a team we are" and while there were those posts sprinkled throughout my news feed, the most common thing I saw was a thank you to #31. A number who I didn't recognize, but we all soon learned his name and now say thank you by name.
Photo Credit: Doug Dobos
This picture has been the biggest statement of last night with over 100 shares on Facebook from the original source alone. Here is a football player, who ran the other way from his team and came to acknowledge the band and the few students who were still there after the game. Yes it had been a long game with two lightning delays and yes we lost but this lone Trojan came to show his appreciation for those who were still there and this brought a band of over 300 people to a very emotional state. You sir, brought us all the reminder of what being a Trojan is all about.
The words to our fight song we sing before every game when the team walks through Trojan Walk, during pregame, when the team scores, and win or loose at the end of the game says "We are Trojans one and all." Thank you for demonstrating this last night. As it has been said over and over on Facebook and other social media outlets, you have over 300 new supporters, fans, and friends.
I want to challenge the rest of our football team to follow suite of Tyler Parker and remember the words to the fight song and strive to be a true Trojan. Strive to be a Trojan family, win or loose. And as Tyler Parker said himself to a member of the band who expressed her gratitude, what he did should "be the expectation not the exception."
This is by far my favorite recipe I have made for this blog. Not only is it super simple to cook, it is fast, and taste delicious! So I present to you, 30 Minute Deep Dish Pizza!
I made this on Thursdsy night between band practices (we have practice from 4:00-5:00 and then from 7:00-9:00 on Thursdays) and because of the crazy schedule on Thursdays dinner has to be fast. So here is how you make this:
Ingredients
Pizza crust
Pizza sauce
Toppings of your choice
Cheese
1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Take the pizza crust and lay it out in a greased casserole dish, like so.
2. Once it is in the casserole dish, follow the directions on the wrapper. Prebake the crust for 8 minutes. Take it out of the oven.
3. Now the fun part; toppings! Start with your pizza sauce and put however much you like. I don't like a lot of sauce so I didn't put much on it. I also added some spices I had in the cabinet because I could.
4. Then put your cheese and other toppings. Like any pizza, put whatever you want on it. We kept it simple and just did pepperoni.
5. Put in the oven. I cooked it for 6 minutes, pulled it out and out a little cheese on top of it. Then put it back in the oven for 2 minutes. Once it's done, the crust should be golden brown. Let it set for a couple minutes to let the cheese thicken before you try to cut it.
Deliciousness- 10/10: I love pizza and homemade pizza is even better. Easiness- 10/10: it's just a lot of layering. Affordability- 10/10: this is very inexpensive. I had to buy the pizza crust, sauce and pepperoni but nothing cost more than $2. College Friendliness- 10/10: Very easy to make and inexpensive. And to top it off, it was delicious. As a college student you don't always have a lot of time to make a meal, so having something quick and delicious is great.
It is finally Friday. This week has seemed to drug on like no other. I have decided to link up with September Farm and The Farmers Life.
And instead of posting about food, I am going to post a little bit about the rest of me. So here we go...
1. I LOVE to craft. One of my favorite things in the world is crafting. I recently got a Silhouette Cameo after selling my Circuit and it is amazing. This little machine can do anything. One of my favorite things that I recently made is this canvas that is now in my apartment.
2. It is really hot outside still. I just got back from band practice and it is gross. Though I love band, I don't really love it when it is this crazy hot. I am ready for it to cool off a little bit, because it is super hot when you are in a band uniform outside all day. Hopefully it will cool off before the game tomorrow and not rain. Rain is almost worse than heat.
3. The new iPhone actually makes me excited. Right now, I still have an iPhone 4s and am ready for an update. I am super excited for the iPhone 6 to come out so that I can find out how it really is. I don't normally get excited about the next big thing, but this time I am.
4. Thinking of a Halloween costume is difficult. My roommate and I are trying to think of costumes right now for the Halloween party that the band throws every year. Being in college there is a fine line between being immature and weird or being cool and awesome or being that slutty girl everyone talks about for the next year. We want to fall in the middle cool and awesome category.
5. You need to watch this video! It is one of the most amazing tributes for Robbin Williams that I have seen. I also am not ashamed to admit this, I did cry.
When a student goes to college, especially when said student moves into an
apartment, there are certain things that are essential for survival. While some
students love to cook, not everyone does, and there are some things that make
life easier for any college student, regardless of how they feel about cooking.
So today I am looking at the 5 Things Required in a College Students Kitchen. I
had a list in my mind but I decided to go to Facebook and ask my friends
because hey, we're all a bunch of hungry college kids. So here is the list (not
in any particular order)
1. A Coffee Pot/Maker: In my apartment we have a Keurig
and we LOVE it. It is perfect for a house of a bunch of different people.
It is a single serve coffee maker so I don't waste coffee by making a
whole pot because I only make what I am going to drink. Another high point
of it is that because of the ability to make only 1 cup at a time, you can
make different types of coffee or drinks. Keurigs can make tea, hot
chocolate, coffee or basically anything else. But in general, coffee is an
important staple in a college student’s life. It is what keeps you going
when you spend late nights studying or pinteresting.
2. George Foreman Grill: This is something that I haven't
used that much in college but I have friends who use them all the time.
They are beneficial if you want to make a quick grilled cheese sandwich or
a burger, and most schools allow small George Foreman Grills in dorms. The
best part; this little thing is quick to clean, because no one likes to
clean a lot of dishes.
3. Microwave: A microwave might seem like a standard thing
for an apartment but sometimes you don't realize a great thing until you
are without it. Especially for students stuck in a dorm. It is the fastest
way to cook something and it is in my opinion one of the most versatile
things that you can have. I mean this thing can cook popcorn, defrost
chicken, or make macaroni and cheese!
4. Crock-pot/Slow Cooker: Once the weather starts to cool
off, and the fall semester is in full swing, nothing is better than being
able to put something in a crock-pot in the morning and then go to class,
come home and everything be ready to eat. That is the major benefit of a
slow cooker. You can cook soup, a roast, or even a cake. And again, the
convenience of a crock-pot is amazing.
**Tip for using one: invest in the
crock-pot liners. They are about $2 at Wal-Mart and make clean up even
easier!**
5. Food: Now this might really seem like a crazy thing to
put on here because I mean you have to have food to eat, but that’s the
problem. A lot of times people forget that food actually has to be bought
to be eaten. Some of the foods that were mentioned by my friends were
ravioli, chocolate, cereal, and peanut butter. (Well the peanut butter
isn’t in my house, but everyone else has some).
And an extra one in honor of Justin and
Andrew: drugs, the legal kind. Things like Advil or Tylenol, fiber pills, or
Vitamin C powder. Things like this are important to keep you healthy during the
stressful times and the changes in the seasons when everyone seems to get sick.
So with that, what are some things that
you think are important for a college student to have in their kitchen? What
was your favorite thing in college to use to make/eat food?
I would love to hear from you!
Hey guys, sorry I didn't get this posted till now, but I have a great recipe for you. It originally came from All Recipes but I had to make a couple tweaks to it. For those who don't know, I am deathly allergic to any form of nuts, (I will cover that later) so obviously I can't eat anything with nuts in it. This recipe called for walnuts, but I just cut those out.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
3 medium apples- peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Basically, you just take your apples, peel them and slice them. I cut mine in bigger chunks because that is just how I like my apples in cakes. But fun tip, if you are cooking with apples like this and want to avoid them going brown as fast you can put them in Sprite. You can use pure lemon juice, but using Sprite prevents the apples from getting a lemon taste to them.
After you cut the apples, put them aside. You will mix up the egg, melted butter and sugar in one bowl and in another bowl mix the remaining dry ingredients. Once you have those things mixed, you can slowly fold the dry ingredients into the sugar mix. Then add in the apples.
Then all you do is put it in a greased 9x9 pan and put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean.
So the ratings: Deliciousness- 9.5/10: this recipe I absolutely loved. It definitely felt like fall to me. But The only thing that doesn't make it a solid 10 is that Alex wasn't crazy about it. But all of my roommates like it. It is great too for breakfast. Easiness- 9/10: Super easy recipe but having to peel, core and cut all the apples was not fun. Affordability- 10/10: this is very inexpensive. Most of the stuff I already had at home. All I had to buy was the apples. College Friendliness- 10/10: Very easy to make and inexpensive. And to top it off, it was delicious. It makes a great snack or breakfast on the way to class. I mean who says you can't have cake for breakfast!?!
