Just like warm apple pie

Hi friends and family! It's 8:30 but I've been up since 6 (Chloe's fault!) so forgive me if this isn't coherent at all! Life's been pretty hectic around here, as I had a test last week (that I aced; super excited about that!), two papers due this week, and a presentation on Tuesday! And of course, now that it's the break, I have nothing to do--ironic, huh?!

The papers went well; one was for a class that I had the presentation in. "Calendar Counting in Savants: A Review"...sounds boring, but it was actually pretty interesting. Plus, our presentation (me, Sarah M., and Megan) rocked, and I'm feeling pretty confident that my paper was good as well. My second paper was part of a larger paper that my adviser is writing for a journal. He's one of the main researchers involved in a questionnaire that assesses impulsiveness in people, and 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the use of the scale. Thus, a journal editor asked him to write a review article, and he asked me to write part of it! It's pretty neat; I wrote a whole entire section out of four (yaaay!) and although I'm a fifth author, there's six so at least I'm not the last! Plus, it's also really cool because first years normally don't publish (and it's even more rare when something a grad student wrote their first semester of graduate school gets published)! I promise to send you all copies when it officially gets published, as it will be sometime in the summer next year. Woot woot!

So now that I have all the papers, presentations, and tests done, this break (five days; what in the heck am I going to do?) will be pretty low-key. I'm planning on working on some packages for a couple army guys, as a girl in the PsyD program has a friend in the army and we're "adopting" them for the season! I "adopted" three men (yes, that's the only way I can get 'em!) and so I think I'll spend some time making their packages pretty special.

Last Friday, I was invited to a pie cooking class with Robyn because her mom bought tickets but forgot she had another obligation. Then Friday morning, I got a call from Robyn saying that she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to get everybody else sick (which was sweet, even though I wish she could've came) so Nathaniel was nice enough to be my 'date.' Thus Nate and I had a great time at a pie cooking class that neither of us paid for...it was a pretty sweet deal, actually! Once I proved to myself that I could bake a pie as part of a group, I decided to try it by myself! Below are some pictures of my pie day:

The mess I made with the dough! The finished crust is on the left, with leaves around the edges...yeah, I'm pretty professional. Although I didn't have a little silicone basting brush so I used my finger with the egg wash. Give me a break.

I'm sooo proud of my crust!

This is with the apples already in the middle; I have a picture of them if you really want to see, but I looked kinda goofy so I didn't put it on the internet!

Finished product! I'm excited to try it, and also excited that it looks good!

Yuuuuum!

I gave two pieces to my neighbor Sharon, so I'm interested to see if she likes it or not! Also, to make it Chloe-proof, it's on my stovetop with a big bowl over it. :)

Speaking of Chloe, here are a couple pictures of me and Chloe that I took on Sunday. I had just gotten home from church, and Chloe was being uber sweet so I knew it was time to get her into pictures before she got squirmy! So enjoy! Love and miss you all!