Happy Chanukah

To all my friend and family,


Happy Chanukah!!!! To celebrate I made dinner for my roomates and we had Chili ( not normal Chanukah food) and latkes with applesauce and sour cream of course! Then my roomates help me kindle the Chanukah lights with my new menorah and it was really fun!


To increase our Chanukah joy, Mel sent me this hysterical video you Must Watch! 


XOXO,


Ashley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvY337zKttA&feature=pyv&ad=7216194952&kw=chanukah

Illini V. Northwestern @ Wrigley

Illini v. Northwestern  GAME


Yesterday, My Friends and I headed to Wrigleyville bar, Rebel, to watch the ILLINI BEAT the Wildcats. It was pretty fun taking the L in and seeing everyone decked out in their school spirit gear. We all had a great time rooting on the Illini as they fought their way to victory in Wrigley Field!


Here is a Pic of us waiting in line for rebel :) Courtesy of Megan

Megan, me, Seiwart and Mel!

The Illini were super excited and now we are eligible for a bowl game!!! Courtesy of Daily Illini

Sweet November

Hi Everyone!


So I have been relishing in the fact that I only had one exam this week and that basically my mid terms are over... ahh sweet november!


That means THANKSGIVING is only about a week away and I cannot wait to get home to see my family and friends!!


In the mean time I thought I'd share this really sweet video I found which I thought was really nice!
Eyelids


XoXo


Ashley

Cupcakes and Popcorn

Hi Everyone!

So life is still kind of hectic, but I wanted to take some time to update this. Just finished an anatomy exam yesterday and I am so happy it is over so I thought I'd share some highlights from the happier and lighter moments of the week!

Simple Pleasure #1
For a nice study brake Mal, Heather, Brock and I went on a search for Chipotle. Mal graciously drove us into the city since the closest Chipotle to school happens to be in the loop of course! As we made our way into Chipotle, Heather pointed out her favorite popcorn shop and raved on about it as we ate our burritos. Well, once I had learned that Garrett's Popcorn is all the rage in Chicago I had to try it. If you ever go make sure to get the Chicago mix - it is half cheddar and half carmel crisp. I know it sounds like a crazy combo but apparently it is Oprah's favorite so it must be awesome right? YES , It was and here is a picture to capture the moment, before I gobbled down this study break treat!

After I finished my exam yesterday, I had to do something entirely unrelated to school because I was pretty much going crazy. So I escaped to none other than Northbrook to visit Kathy and her family. What's great about going to their house is basically they take care of me as if I were an unfed child - which granted sometimes my meals are continual snacking rather than a meal - but it feels nice to be taken care of sometimes.

So Kathy helped me do all of the things  studying had forced me to avoid:

1. Eating a lovely dinner --> We had thai food mmmmmmm

2. Having clean clothes --> We did my laundry since I had no clean socks !!!

3. Having food in my pantry ---> We went to Fresh Farms and Dominick's to replenish.

I know I raved about stanley's in my first post - but fresh farms is also up there on the top of my list for great produce that's super cheap! Also fresh farms HAS THE BEST CHEESE EVER!!!! 

I bought mini balls of fresh mozzarella and sweet munchee cheese which was AMAZING!!

But the best part of the night was Simple Pleasure #2:

Kathy and I baked Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting that were amazing for the D1 Bake Sale! Check out Kathy and her beautiful baking skills - I am not gunna lie I did very little of the baking she is the master!

Kathy and Cupcakes

The beautiful result :)

Well that's all for now - I miss everyone tons but thanksgiving will be here before we know it!

XOXO,

Ashley

Study, Sleep, Eat, Repeat and U of I HC

Hi Everyone!

So I am back from a great weekend in Champaign for University of Illinois Homecoming!!!
Although I spent most of Saturday at Hillel studying for my Microbiology exam, I did have a great night on friday!

Megan graciously drove Kathy and I all the way to Champaign it what turned out to be a 4 hour car ride because of awesome Chicago traffic! However, when we arrived we were welcomed by Jesi and Lyndsay to a beautiful spread of Mexcian Food and Margaritas! It was quite the fiesta!

Here is a picture from Friday:

This was one of the most exciting days I've had in a while, otherwise it's been pretty much exams and more exams. But on the bright side I only have 4 more exams in the next 16 days :)

Countdown til I come home for thanksgiving: 31 days!

That's it <3
Ashley

For My Family and Friends

Hi Everyone!

I have decided to start a blog as method, to help keep everyone up to date with school and my life since time is of the essence these days! I miss everyone a lot and I figured this would be a good way to keep in touch with everyone!

So as you all know, I am in my first year of dental school ( they call us D1's - I will try to explain the lingo as I go). Right now we are hitting a crazy wave of midterms for the next few weeks so if for some reason I don't update as often as you'd like this is why.

This is a pic from my first day of dental school - scrubs and all! My roommie Becky caught all the action on camera the first week!

So far school is great and I am learning really cool and awesome things -- I am taking Human Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Histology, Pathology, Biology Human Dentition, Essentials of General Dentistry and much  more... ya i know that's a lot of ologies...

Well enough with school - the purpose of this blog is also to show you about my exploration of CHICAGO!!! Even though I LOVE ST. LOUIS, I am not gonna lie Chicago is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!
Today I had the chance to visit this really cute fresh produce market in Lincoln Park called Stanley's it was super fresh food and super cheap!

This is what it looks like from the outside - it is pretty great, except now there is pumpkins and squash outside instead of watermelon's - winter is approaching quickly but today was beautiful and sunny!

Something else I did  recently was a trip to the Chicago History Museum with Megan! We learned a lot of cool stuff about the  Great Chicago Fire and the ever changing bridal fashions in Chicago.. pretty neat!

This is my first time using a GROUPON and we used it for admissions to the museum- oh ya I am sitting in a giant hot dog - in case you didn't notice.

I also got to protest for Women's suffrage- check it out!

Later this same day - I also got to reunite with my Alpha Phi's at John Barleycorn in Lincoln Park!

Not sure when I will get to go out again- so looking at this picture makes me very happy!

Finally - in a case you didn't know my cousin Kate and my friend Kelly both got married earlier this semester and I was honored to be bridesmaids in both weddings!!

My Grandpa Jack had a blast at Kate's wedding: he definitely is the world's coolest grandpa... rockin' these shades!

Here is picture from Kel's wedding too! Phoebe, Aubrey, Sarah and I all had a blast being reunited!

During wedding frenzy, I also turned to a ripe age of 23! Don't know where all the time went, but I had an amazing night with all my friends from U of I and Dental school (It was also my friend Paul's B-day so he and his roomie though a stellar party before we all went out to McFadden's to dance the night away!) Lyndsay also made the trip up for my B-day which was awesome - Jesi was supposed to come too but poor thing was sick :(.... Then we had a great breakfast at my favorite new restaurant on Taylor St called Stax... mmmm sooo good! 

OK I just want to add one more pic to sum up my experiences of dental school and Chicago thus far. This is from the boat cruise we went on during orientation week on Lake Michigan - every time I see this I think wow - I live here!!!