First Post

Well hello :)
 
Since this is my first post I'll give everyone a little background information.

I graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2008 with a B.S. in Biology as well as a Chemistry and Art minor.  The question upon graduating was "What to do now?"  I played club lacrosse during school, which took up a large portion of my time.  I hadn't done any work within my field and found it extremely difficult to find anything other than a lab position as far as a job went.  I was blessed with an extremely short attention span and working in a lab for 9 hours a day was not appealing to me.  Baking, lacrosse and friends were what appealed to me most and so I decided to just do that for the past 2 years.  To fund these endevors I continued to work at Doolittle's Woodfire Grill, which was perfect since I had great friends who worked here also.  Going to work never really felt like work, except when you get those few "special" customers ;)   I worked, and currently still work, as an assistant coach and Director of Fundraising for Winning For Life.  This is an organization created by my high school and college lacrosse coach which strives to create personal leaders out of female athletes.  This past spring I was also hired by the Academy of Holy Angels to coach their high school girls lacrosse team. 

Throughout all of this I also bake on a weekly basis, cookies and cakes are my specialty.  The biggest baking endeavor that I have undertaken thus far was making the wedding cakes for my roommate, Karen's sister's wedding.  With the help of Karen, her sister and uncle we pumped out 30 almond raspberry cakes to sit as the center peice for each table.  It was a LOT of time but so much FUN!  Baking is one of the most enjoyable activities I can do.  It brings people together both during the baking process and when you're sitting around a table enjoying the wonderful fruits of your labor.

My other love in life is running.  As I already said I played lacrosse during college, so upon graduation I needed to find a new form of exercise to keep myself in shape.  That fall I ran, mostly between 3-5 miles a few days a week.  However anyone who lives in Minnesota knows that it is difficult to continue a running schedule once it hits 20 degrees and I was at a loss of what to do.  Pilates videos bored me and I was too cheap to join a gym.  Plus those things SUCK you in and try to take all of your MONEY!  To get my butt in gear for the spring I signed up for a half-marathon.  As soon as I crossed that finish line I knew I was hooked on distance running.  There is almost no high better than the one you get from finishing a big race.  Since that half I have completed 2 others, for a total of 3 and I am currently signed up to run another one in October.  I decided that I would participate in 2 a year so as not to over work my body, especially my joints.

Food is constantly on my mind. I am always reading recipes and thinking of new things to come up with.  I hope that you find my life interesting ;)