Early Morning Weirdness...And Blog Hop

Hmmm... are you all aware at how much I'm NOT a morning person? Well let me tell you... I'm not. This probably has something to do with the fact that I stay up until I can't keep my eyes open any longer and then crash. But even when I do go to bed "early"... say 10:30, I still can't seem to be motivated to get up. Hmmm... I need to start working on that possibly...............nah. I won't be a college student forever! *grin*

SO... that being said...

I woke up at 5:33 this morning. Yes... 5:33AM! WHOOPEE FOR ME. I'll probably be exhausted later. For some reason, I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. Unusual, eh? However, I think it might have been God... because I was able to chat with a few dear friends from back home... since it was 11:30pm their time. :)

AND NOW... for an update on the book progress. I'm currently at 42,642 words... hoping to reach at least 44,000 by the end of the day. Perhaps it's a good thing that I'm getting an early start!

Oh oh OH...and another one of my textbooks arrived yesterday! It's called "Crossroads - Creative Writing Exercises in Four Genres"..... exciting, huh? I thought so too! :)

Oh yes, and this weeks theme for the blog hop is "Favorite Kid Photos".... but how in the world am I supposed to pick just a few out of ALL the photos of children that I have? Impossible! So, I'm officially changing the title to read "Favorite Photos of My Cousin Maya":

Doesn't she have the cutest little cheesy grin in the world? I think so... but I'm biased. :)

36,464 words, Oxford, etc...

Yes, I now have 36,464 words done on my book. Only....uh... around 24,000 more to go! YAY! I told myself that I would treat myself to some Facebook time after hitting the 30,000 word mark... and then I forgot. How lovely, eh? Well, it must really not be that important to me anymore otherwise I'm sure that I would have remembered. I'm breaking my FB addiction... and it's been good for me. :)

I realized today that I had promised to post some pictures from my trip to Oxford... I forgot that too. Yikes... I thought that people weren't supposed to start forgetting things until they were like 95? Hmmm...

ANYWAY... pictures. Yes, here are some of my favorites:

A random alley in Oxford...

Christ Church College...

A museum that we didn't go into... but I thought the sign looked cool. :)

This is my dear friend Allison and I! We spent the day trekking around Oxford with her and it was SUCH fun. Right here we are in the bell tower of a church:

If you are a CS Lewis or a JRR Tolkien fan, then you probably know this pub. We ate fish and chips there for lunch...

The two following pictures were taken at Christ Church College in the heart of Oxford... it's a beautiful place. There was even a wedding going on while we were there! What a place to get married, eh?

This lovely bridge is called the "Bridge of Sighs".... *sigh*... isn't it beautiful? Yep... I love it. It's a replica of the one in Venice I believe.

Isn't this just the cutest thing ever? I mean really... this couple has to win the cuteness award of all time. They were sitting right in front of us at the evening concert and kept snuggling especially when the raindrops started lightly coming down. Man... to still be in love at 80... *sigh*...

Well there you go my friends. Until next time... cheers!

Blog Hop - Breakfast Casserole

Well hello blog hoppers! Today is Tuesday and I was totally thrilled to discover that the theme for today is favorite recipes! Unfortunately, all of my mom's precious recipe books are back at home in the states, but I have made this casserole several times since moving here... and it is DELICIOUS. Breakfast's can get boring after awhile if you eat the same cereal day in and day out (I'm not a cereal fan anyways), so I like to switch it up sometimes. I'm not a huge egg person either, so it was great to find this recipe which focuses on the cheese, ham, and potatoes instead. YUMMY! This is also a wonderful recipe to make the night before you need it. Then, simply take the bowl of mixed ingredients out of the fridge in the morning and place it in the pan to bake. Mornings are hectic enough as it is for us, which is why I always make it the night before. So without further ado... here it is:

Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients:

• 
  
  32 ounce package of frozen hash brown potatoes


• 
  
  8 ounces of diced ham


• 
  
  2 cans of condensed cream of potato soup (if you like mushrooms I enjoy doing one can cream of mushroom and one can cream of potato)


• 
  
  16 ounces of sour cream


• 
  
  2 1/2 cups of sharp Cheddar cheese


• 
  
  1 1/2 cups of grated Parmesan cheese


• 
  
  a pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

1. 
   
   Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.


2. 
   
   In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together except the Parmesan cheese. Once it's adequately mixed, spread all of it in the prepared dish and then sprinkle the leftover Parmesan cheese on top.


3. 
   
   Bake for 1 hour in preheated oven, or until bubbly and lightly brown.

Enjoy! And thanks for visiting today!