A few favorite memories during my break from blogging…

1 & 2 | Our great Target Adventure – one day – three Targets, lots of fun scoring great deals
3 | Super Bowl Sunday: I made homemade mozzarella balls – I also melted part of my plastic spoon in oil – oops
4 | Skype finally made a Windows Phone app – lots of phone calls with the hubby (and cats!) while I was away at school

5, 6, & 7 | In March I flew solo to Austin, Texas to present at the SITE Conference – my first international conference!
8 | I racked up many Hilton points this spring – maintaining my Gold status!

9 | I finally learned to attach my umbrella to my backpack on a near daily basis
10 | A peak into my work space
11 & 12 | Early morning trip to Best Buy, lots of waiting = we both have the new iPad!

13, 14, 15, & 16 | Peter surprised me with a trip to Washington DC to celebrate our 6 year engagement anniversary

17 | I consumer a lot of coffee this spring. A whole lot.
18 | The novelty of attending school at a University that produces its own milk (among other tasty treats) still hasn’t worn off
19 | Sunday mornings are usually my favorite day of the week. Jasmine loves to climb on the adds while we read
20 | This simple dessert (Jello + Sugar + Corn Starch + Fresh Fruit) has become one of Peter’s favorites

21 & 22 | Easter trip to Boston
23 | The Hampton surprised me with a new breakfast sausage. It was fabulous. Sadly, they haven’t had it since.
24 | I spent lots of time with sleeping cats while I read articles

25 | Pretty tulips from Peter, white flowers from my garden
26 | I gave many presentations in my grad job – which was an amazing experience. More about this soon on my edtech blog
27 | I decided it was time to grow out the bangs
28 | Jasper continues to sneak into the dishwasher

29 | Spring arrived at school (although today it was in the 30s!)
30 | My door into work most mornings
31 | Taco Thursdays!
32 | A welcome home greeting

Week 3 began with some sad news: Joe Paterno passed away on Sunday, January 22, 2012.

Prior to coming to Penn State, I hadn’t heard of Joe Paterno – or JoePa as he is more commonly referred to at school. I don’t follow sports but I quickly learned that football and JoePa are a big deal for Penn State. While I never met Mr. Paterno, I was sad to hear of his passing, and sadder still to see how sad many of my new friends and colleagues at school were.

Wednesday afternoon I had my first AECT Conference call. While listening to the call and virtually “meeting” the other officers, I watched the funeral processional on TV with the volume off. To my surprise, I learned that Mr. Paterno and I had something in common – we shared the same birthday.

It was a somber week.

This is the building where I work in my Grad Assistant position

I decided that signing up for 7 classes was not the best idea. Much…too…much…reading. Two of my classes were technically electives that I don’t really need, so I dropped one, but kept the other as it really interests me. I’m still working out a schedule that flows the best for me. Unlike any of my previous degrees, most of my “homework” consists of reading articles and book chapters and taking notes. There’s a lot reading right now – 100s of pages each week. I’m hoping that this is foundational work and that there will be less as the semester goes on. I’m learning that the online courses are more labor intensive than my in-person classes. They require an assortment of activities like blog posts, discussion board posts and comments on other’s blog posts. Despite this, I’m enjoying being in the online courses. It’s interesting for me to be in an online course as a “student” – I’ve been facilitating online courses for several years, but haven’t been in the position of taking one for quite a while. I’m picking up some tips based on my instructors’ methods that I’m sure will help me teach courses later on.

Our annual trip to visit my in-laws in Prague this year began with a quick stop in London. We spent most of one day and night in London before flying to Prague the next day.

We stayed at the Sofitel London Heathrow

and loved how convenient the hotel was to the airport. We walked from Terminal 5 through an inside walkway to enter the hotel. It was perhaps only 15 minutes from the terminal – if you were walking rather slowly like we were because of lack of sleep.

We took the “Underground” (London’s subway system) into London. It took nearly an hour, but we didn’t mind too much because we were both very jet lagged and took mini naps every 15 minutes or so.

Since we didn’t have a lot of time in London, we decided to take a hop-on-hop-off tour. We opted for The Original London Tour since I went on that with my Mom a few years ago and we had a lot of fun. It’s a great way to see a lot of London in a short amount of time. Here are a few of my favorite photos…

After the tour, we made our way to the famous Harrods Department store.

We decided to have a snack. We shared a delicious Tomato Bisque and scones with clotted cream and jam. I had my very first steamer! It was fantastic. I am now on a mission to recreate this drink at home.

We spent some time exploring the store – it was huge! – and picked up gifts for my parents.

We finished up the day in our hotel enjoying the free snacks/light dinner that came with our club level room. It was tasty and saved us a lot of money!

The next morning we ordered room service breakfast…for the awfully early hour of 4 AM….This is what they call a “Full English”.

Om my goodness but it was a lot of food!

Next up, Prague!

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My second semester at Penn State started this past week.

My commuting schedule is so much easier this semester. I drive up once, spend two nights in State College, and drive home once. Last semester I drove up and back twice. This means that I’m only going to the gas station two times each week instead of three. My wallet is thankful.

I’m back staying at my “home-away-from-home” also known the Hampton Inn. I’m now a Gold member! I went from their base membership level of Blue to Silver to Gold in approximately four months.  I’m determined to make it to the gym at least once each stay but I’d like to go twice.

This semester I’m taking more classes than is probably a good idea. I’m taking my first World Campus courses – also known as online courses and calling into two courses using Skype.

It’s hard to believe I’m halfway through my first year!

Our tummies are full after Christmas breakfast – a new recipe which I’m sure will become an annual tradition – Giada DeLaurentiis’ Panettone French Toast. Jasmine is sleeping curled in a ball on the couch after tracking all over the morning paper, and Jasper is playing “string” with the hubby. Hubby made coffee for us. Enjoying the peace and quiet. We will make a special visit to my grandparents’ graves today. I miss them so very much every day, but especially at Christmas. I’ll visit with them quietly and the hubby will hold my hand. We’ll leave some flowers and head to my parents’ house for lunch. Tonight we’ll crash on the couch and watch Christmas movies on TV. This is how we celebrate Christmas Day around here.

Window Decoration at the U Pinkasu Restaurant in Prague, Czech Republic on December 19, 2011

Today will be a busy day.

Another trip to the grocery store…one more batch of cookies (a gift for my Dad)…preparations for Christmas Eve dinner (our traditional Czech dinner of Shrimp Salad appetizer, Fried Shrimp, Potato Salad, and Christmas cookies for dessert)…present wrapping, mini tree decorating..and in between all that…perhaps a final trip out for lunch and last minute shopping.

I baked our Vanocka bread in the beginning of the month.

And was thrilled when it came out perfectly! I used this recipe this year.

Peter and I went to our favorite local British pub – Stoney’s – to a dinner celebrating the the Feast of St. Andrew. This picture is what I like to refer to as a “happy accident”. It’s totally out of focus but I love how the Christmas lights are glowing!

We tried the traditional dinner of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. Yes, it’s actually called that! It was…interesting…the Haggis tasted weird, and the mashed veggies were ok.

I tried Thai food for the first time! I went to a place in State College after one of my last classes. I had Pad Thai with fried firm tofu. It tasted better than this picture looks.

I started off the cookie baking with a new Czech recipe – Moravian Spice cookies. Despite Jasper’s best efforts, he did not get to try one.

My last drive to school for this semester had beautiful views with everything snow covered (but fortunately very safe as there was no snow on the roads). I treated myself to this goofy new hat to celebrate my last day of semester 1!

We continued our international food experiences with a trip to White Marsh, Maryland to attend the IKEA Swedish Christmas Julbord dinner. It was packed! So packed that I didn’t even attempt to take my camera out while we were eating. I’m sure I would have bumped our neighbors! The food was tasty and the kids that were dressed up to sing were really sweet.

Jasper continues to respond very well to his new insulin doses. In fact he’s almost as active as he was when he was a kitten! Although, giving him that wet food back on Thanksgiving was probably not a good idea, because now he’s convinced that anything I set on the counter is a can of wet food (that’s just my lipstick!) and attempts to get it.

Christmas cards from friends and family have started to arrive. This one from our vet (ok, it’s just a reminder card, but it looks Christmasy so I’m going to count it) was especially funny!

We’ve been enjoying our Vanocka bread on an almost daily basis. It’s especially good with butter and honey. It’s great with scrambled eggs too! Jasper is so spoiled. Peter always lets him jump up and share his chair. I think it just encourages him to make a jump for the food. He hasn’t stolen any though. Yet! 

Christmas came early for me! Peter picked out a fabulous new suitcase for me to use on our upcoming travels! I love the beautiful green color! Not too sure how I feel about the size…I mean I understand the importance of it being small…Peter researched the airlines we typically fly internationally with to make sure it would fit as a carrry on…BUT….that means I have to pack even less! Sigh. I’m glad he put so much effort into finding me a great suitcase though. I’m actually looking forward to dragging this through the airport!

He also gave me a new camera! It’s a Canon Powershot s100. I’ve only taken a few pictures with it so far but I’m very impressed! I’ll be breaking it in over the next week or so and can’t to share pics!

More Czech Christmas cookies! These are linzer cookies filled with red currant jam.

Jasper and Jasmine have done a lot of what they do best…sleeping! This is one of the rare times they’ve slept side by side and played nice with another – no meowing OR hissing.

We’ve been working on our Advent calendars together! We each had a Lego calendar to open this year. Peter’s having more fun than I am. These Lego figures are tough! This particular one was fairly easy, but the tiny ships are something else! I love that Peter always knows the name of everything I make when I just called it “flying thing” or person. He’s knows that it’s XYZ Space Craft. He claims that everyone who has watched Star Wars (I haven’t!) knows these basic facts. I think it must be because he watched it many times.

I’m loving my new Peppermint Mocha! I added a few (maybe a lot!) marshmallows yesterday and it was the perfect jolt I needed to get through my To Do list.

I’ve made sure to spend some extra quality time with Jasmine lately. Sometimes she gets overlooked a bit I think because Jasper tends to be the one that wants to be held and hugged. She likes those things too (in moderation!) but much prefers to play!

This past week off from school was a much needed break.

I spent a lot of quality time with my family

and I baked.

A lot!

I also ate much too much which resulted in me feeling guilty and throwing out a lot of the “bad” food from our cabinets. It also inspired me to go to the gym today.

Some of my other favorites:

• Seeing the new Twilight Movie, Breaking Dawn Part 1, with my Mom
• Playing video games with my hubby
• Driving to Rehoboth Beach and browsing the outlet shops with my Mom
• Catching up on recorded TV shows
• Playing with our cats – especially when we gave them their new seafood inspired cat toys from Target on Black Friday
• Sleeping in!
• 10 days in a row at home – it’s been wonderful!

Tomorrow, I’m headed back to school for approximately 2 weeks while I finish up my first semester in Ph.D. school. I have a lot to do, but I’m determined to finish strong!

I am thankful.