One great thing about having a break from school is having the time to relax and do some fun things that I haven’t had a chance to do for a while.  Today, for the first time in a while, I’m making a fun dinner (enchiladas with green sauce) complete with dessert! (pineapple upside down cake).  I figure I should make the best of the time off now because once the baby comes it won’t be the same.  I figure I’ll still have time to cook, just not so uninterrupted…hehe.

On Monday, we went to the Huntington Library and Gardens and had a great time!  I’ve been twice before but it was still wonderful and relaxing to get out and see the gardens.  It was like escaping for the day.  At one point, we looked around and couldn’t see a single building!  Cameron and I took lots of great pictures that day.

As for knitting, I’ve got lots of projects in my queue.  I’m almost done knitting the first thing for my baby girl: Monster Pants!  I know she won’t be able to wear them for a little while, but I couldn’t resist.  Basically everything I’m currently working on is stuff for baby girl (including some awesome baby uggs) or cousin Amelia.  There’s just something really fun about knitting stuff for babies!  I’m still determined to make myself a hat out of the Glimmer yarn that I bought over Thanksgiving break, however, after two foiled attempts at scalloped lace, I might just try another pattern.  I have two more weeks off of school and I’m definitely going to make the most of it!  I finished reading Babyface by Jeanne McDermott and I hope to get a few more fun books read before the wave of school reading for Clinical Methods and Neurology take over.

It’s finally raining!  My favorite time of the year!  For some reason I get so much done when it’s raining outside.  After hanging out at Bolsa Chica all morning with Cameron for Harbour day I decided to make a pumpkin pie   And hopefully I’ll get some studying done for my phonological disorders exam on  Tuesday!

Also, this morning I finished the hat that I’m surprising my uncle with for Thanksgiving!

So I decided a while back that if I was going to make cookies all the time for people and those same people were going to complain about how they eat all the cookies and then feel guilty about it, it wasn’t truly a gift.  I didn’t want to be making everyone feel guilty about eating delicious cookies.  So, with a stroke of sheer genius, I decided to modify a cookie recipe to make it SUPER HEALTHY, but still taste good.  These cookies have been a huge hit so I’m finally putting the recipe online so I don’t have to write it out for people anymore.  As with just about anything I cook / create, there is always a little wiggle room to make it your own.  You can substitute any type of dried fruit, nuts or chocolate and these will still taste amazing!  Here’s the recipe:

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup butter (softened)

1 egg

1/4 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1/2 banana)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup unbleached white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cream the butter, applesauce, eggs and sugar together then add the vanilla and banana.  In a separate bowl mix the powdered ingredients, then gradually add them to the creamed mixture.  Once all ingredients are thoroughly blended, add the oats, then the dried fruit, chocolate and nuts.  Once everything is evenly blended, drop about a tablespoon full of batter onto a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 15 minutes.  (The cookies are very dense so I like to make them very small.)  Make sure to remove them from the pan within minutes of taking them out of the oven because they have a tendency to stick.

It was my friend Cody’s birthday the other day and I’ve been meaning to knit him something for a while.  I always knew it would need to be something Star Wars related, so I went ahead and made an R2-D2.  (yes, Cody’s a nerd, but an awesome nerd who needed some Star Wars love on his bday) Here’s the pattern!  It’s pretty simple and the one I made is very small.  To make it bigger, you can just do a few more rounds with increases while making the base.

I used size US 4 dpns and Sugar and Cream cotton yarn.

Start by CO 6 sts and distribute them evenly on 3 of the dpns to join in the round.  Knit one time in the round, then inc every stitch.  I did a Kfb but any increase will work fine.  Knit one round, then Kfb K1, for a round.  Knit one round then Kfb K2 one round.  Continue doing this until you reach the size you want (I believe I did 5 of these increase rounds).  After finishing the increase rounds, I purled one round to change the direction.  After one round of purling, begin to knit in the round for at least 3 inches (knit more or less depending on the size you are making).  Once I reached this point, I began decreasing for the top.  Also, if you don’t want to go back and duplicate stitch the blue circle at the top, you can sub in your blue yarn at this point for one round prior to starting the decreases.  For the decreases, I did a K2tog and then I knit as many as I had done for the increase rounds.  For instance, since I only increased for 5 rounds, I did a K2tog k5 (this will once again be variable depending on the size you are making).  I knit one round, then I did a K2tog K4.  At some point during this process, I stuffed him.  I did the decreases until I had 12 sts remaining on the needles, then I ran the yarn through the remaining sts using a needle and tied it off.  Finish up R2 by duplicate stitching all of his buttons on top.

For R2′s legs (or wheels I guess….), I made an I-chord by casting on 4 sts.  after about 2 inches of this, I did a Kfb in every stitch (8 sts).  I continued knitting the i-chord for 4-5 more rounds then cut the yarn and wove in the ends.  I sewed the wheels on at an angle (see pic).

This little guy was SO fun to make and I was able to make him quick (about an hour).  Cody was stoked on him, and immediately posted a picture of him on his facebook! My favorite part of knitting is making ridiculous things like this and giving them to my friends…I think next I’ll have to make at AT-AT because even though they’re evil, they are my favorite thing from Star Wars.  Probably because of this guy’s flickr page.

As a Communication Sciences and Disorders student, I’ve seen several people speak about their recovery from a CVA or TBI and there’s always this element of feeling “locked in.”  It is a common theme for people who develop communication disorders to feel frustrated and misunderstood due to their inability to communicate even their basic needs.  This film is about Elle Editor Jean-Dominique Bauby and his 1995 stroke that rendered him comatose for 20 days and eventually led to a “locked in” state.  His mind and imagination were fully functional, yet he could only physically control his left  eyelid and a few facial muscles.  Though he eventually died of pneumonia, he managed to write a book dictated entirely from blinking his left eye.  His original book (translated to English, of course) is definitely added to my summer reading list!

This movie really stresses the importance of communication and having patience with people who have communication disorders.  The film is beautifully directed by Julian Schnabel, who won several awards at Cannes as well as the Academy Awards in 2008.  Schnabel’s depiction of Bauby’s inability to communicate is eye opening.  Throughout the film, Bauby’s voice over is present and it expresses all of the things that he wants to say but can’t.  It really makes the viewer think about how much we take communication for granted.  Seeing the emotional bond between Jean-Dominique and the people that help him communicate is touching and makes me hopeful that I can one day help people in that way.  I’ve got a lot of studying ahead of me but I’m definitely up for it.