Life in the Fast Layne

For most students finals week is full of caffeine, all nighters, and endless days at the library. But nursing students are a bit different. We run around like chickens with our heads cut off the rest of the semester and finals week is a break for us. This finals week I'm going to try and do some of those things that I haven't had time for all semester. I went ice skating at Yost, the U of M Ice Arena. Skating was definitely a struggle for me...  And tomorrow I'm going to Blimpy Burger. It made it on to Diners Drive Ins and Dives but the University is buying the property so I have to go before it moves to a new location! I can't wait! I'm going to do my Christmas shopping. I surely will not be buying this many things.  And make some treats for our Navy Christmas party. I can't put a picture of those cause it's a surprise! And yes...there will be some studying. So for all of you having a terrible finals week, try and do something just

Happy December! December is probably my favorite month of the year. I just love Christmas! Luckily, Ann Arbor is definitely in the holiday spirit too! Starbucks has Egg Nog! (I might or might not use Jill as my fake name at Starbucks...) The lights on Main St. are up! They also had a Christmas event called Midnight Madness on Friday night that Jenn and I went to. I've already eaten 2 chocolates from my advent calendar! I just love Christmas! What have you done to get in the Christmas spirit?

1 year ago today, Life in the Fast Layne was born. Well actually it was called, "A Day in the Life," until a friend suggested a very punny title.  So a year ago it was a weekend, there was no freezing rain and there was not a hurricane hitting my home town. But rest assured things are a okay here.  Who can resist some Grease humor?  Actually, Maryland didn't get too much damage, but New Jersey definitely did. For me, the interesting part is how this is going to affect the election. Not only will people be hindered from voting, the experience may even change their opinions of the candidates. They switched the candidates' hair! I know it's a serious matter but this is hilarious! So we just have to wait until November 6th and hope that it gets a little warmer! Do you think this storm will have a profound effect on the election results?

Good morning! For all of us Michigan students this lovely Wednesday feels like a Monday since we had Monday and Tuesday off for Fall Break. Last week was very stressful for me so a break was welcomed. Luckily the stressful week meant that I could relax during break. Saturday I was on the color guard for the football game. As much as I'd like to say that it was a blast, it was raining and freezing cold. But we did win 45-0 so there was a good outcome. Getting ready to put up the flag.  Sunday I watched lots of movies and TV shows, in fact I think I stayed in pajamas all day. Monday it was time for a fondue party! It was the first time that I've made fondue and I must say, both the chocolate and cheese turned out to be delicious. Tuesday was time for shopping with my friend Milena. She picked up a great pair of heeled grey suede booties. I didn't buy any clothes but I did get a bar of chocolate with thyme in it. It was interesting, and good to add to my coll

Saturday morning I was window shopping when I cam across a little store that sold books and cards. I went in and spent a solid half hour looking through all the cards. I've been getting interested in cards lately, especially since a lot of my friends live far away.  It's always fun to get some mail from a friend. Here's some of my favorite cards that I saw this weekend: So true. Read about my love of chocolate here . Everyone wants to be fancy on their birthday! Slightly sciency but fun. Always look on the bright side. And you can't forget the funny ones! I hope that you had a lovely weekend!

Breakfast of course! I don't know about you but I LOVE breakfast. In fact, tonight I had breakfast for dinner! Since I love breakfast so much I make sure to eat it every single day. Here are a few of the breakfasts that I eat on a regular basis. Omelet 2 egg whites 1 egg Large handful of spinach Splash of milk Sprinkle of cheese It took me several tries to master the omelet but I finally got it. Here's a recipe that I found on pinterest. They actually taste like pancakes, I have no idea how it works! Banana "Pancakes" 2 eggs beaten 1 mashed banana Splash of vanilla Sprinkle of cinnamon *Tonight I added a couple of spoonfuls of canned pumpkin and it was really good! Mix all the ingredients together and cook like pancakes. Top with maple syrup and some walnuts if you'd like. I'm telling you, they're delicious! More importantly, they're less than 300 calories for the whole batch and they have 14 grams of protein! Mine are

Hello Hello! So this week is the first real week of the semester for me. I have all my classes (including my first clinical this Friday!) and 2 morning workouts for rotc. Since this semester is so busy, I really have to be on top of my game. Mondays and Wednesdays I leave my house at 5:15 and I don't get back till 6:30 at night! That means I have to pack breakfast, lunch, a snack, a change of clothes and stuff for a shower at the gym! To make it a little easier, this Sunday I made a big batch of bbq pulled chicken and these egg cups courtesy of pinterest! Monday's yummy lunch! To prepare for my 13 hour days I also have to get a good night's sleep. No joke, on Tuesday night I went to bed before 8:30. Yeah, I'm a grandma... This may be true... Even with the right preparations, I still feel like a wet sock at the end of the day so tonight I'm just going to chill and watch some tv (the thought of doing homework makes me want to cry!). So for the

Some guy said that and it came up when I searched "food quotes." But let's be real here, who doesn't love food? Since I just moved into a house with 5 friends (stay tuned for a post on how we decorated our place!), I've been doing all of my own grocery shopping and cooking. Ann Arbor is a great place for eating, there's a gourmet grocery store right down the street, a farmer's market twice a week and the produce in the grocery stores is much cheaper than at home. Here's a quick look at some delicious things I've been cooking. Black bean burger, zucchini and watermelon from the farmer's market (It's yellow, weird, I know) Grilled chicken, sweet potato, spinach, strawberries and avocado. Red grapes and chocolate covered figs. As you can see, I definitely haven't been surviving off of Ramen and frozen pizzas. I think when I work to prepare my own healthy meals then they are just much more enjoyable.  What do you like to

So now that I'm back in Ann Arbor I feel like I have to write an end of summer post. But instead of giving you a play by play of what I did, I thought some babysitting tales would be more interesting. As many of you know, I didn't get a job this summer. Instead I babysat whenever I was home. The thing with babysitting is that you never know what's going to happen. For instance: You could show up to find this in the driveway This is a Ford F650 that used to belong to a Raven's player! Or this in the sink Frozen mice thawing to be fed to the snake, not what you want to see at 7 am. Or this on the counter Awkward... Or frankly, you could show up to an empty house (you wouldn't believe how many times this has happened to me) And then there's the critters: Sometimes they're normal Dex is a cutie And sometimes they're not Spike the bearded dragon. I'll stick with mammals. And sometimes you step on a giant gross b

If you haven't noticed, I haven't done many fashion posts lately. It's mostly because I've been traveling and spending my money on food and bus tickets. So, I asked my friend Jackie to write a guest fashion post, so here you go! Hi!   I am Jackie!   You may have seen me pop up here and there .   I don’t’ know about you, but I have certainly caught the Olympic fever and I was devastated to see the Games come to an end on Sunday.   Luckily my good friend Layne came to my rescue and offered to let me guest post!   Naturally I chose to combine my longtime love, fashion, and my obsession of the moment, the Olympics.   While it is more than acceptable for Ryan Lochte and Gabby Douglas to go shirtless and pant less, us regular folks should still opt to stay (relatively) covered.   In addition to the lessons of courage and hard work, these world-class athletes have also taught us a few fashion tricks! Inspired by: equestrians! They inspired my uniform

Hello everyone! Today is an exciting blog post because I'm writing it from a coffee shop in Mexico! I am on vacation in Cozumel and we took a ferry to Playa Del Carmen for the day. The rest of my group is at a touristy animal thing but I opted to spend the day exploring instead. We got here around 11 this morning and I walked around the shops. Most of the shops are very expensive (Rolex, Cartier, etc.) so I just walked around and enjoyed the air conditioning. After shopping for a while I decided to lay on the beach for a while. It was beautiful but so hot that I only lasted about a half an hour before I went to lunch at Señor Frogs. Chicken fajitas, guacamole and beer (I'm legal here!). Doesn't get much better than that! After lunch I got a pedicure and decided to find a chocolate cafe called Ah Cacao. On my map it looked pretty close but it was not. I finally got there and enjoyed an iced coffee and some dark chocolate. Actually it does get better: chocol

I feel like I've been doing a lot of life summaries these days so I decided to mix it up. Here's some things that I'm really into right now: 1. Good news! I just changed the address of Life in the Fast Layne to mylifeinthefastlayne.blogspot.com. It's the same blog just with a new address that makes a bit more sense. 2. Chicklit, in particular Nicolas Sparks. I know I'm supposed to be in college reading profound novels yada yada but I just like cheesy romance novels. Sorry Jane Eyre, I just like Nicholas Sparks 3. Powdered peanut butter. So as you may already know, I put peanut butter in my green monster smoothie every morning. It's delicious but peanut butter has almost 100 calories per tablespoon! So, when my friend KC told me about powdered peanut butter I decided to give it a try. I put it in my smoothie this morning and it tasted exactly the same! That means I can cut around 80 calories every day. If you do that math that's 8 pounds in a year