Keeping Up With Kayleigh

As a college student, sometimes there is nothing I want more than a warm, home-cooked meal. I especially want a meal prepared by my mom! No comfort compares to sitting in your home eating a delicious meal surrounded by family. What I would give to be able to just go home and have a meal prepared by my mom!  I was very fortunate to be blessed with a mom who is an excellent cook. Growing up, I remember my mom would get home from work and immediately begin preparing dinner for our family. My mom comes from a long line of incredible cooks, so she has many wonderful recipes that she gets to bless our family with. One of my personal favorites is her slow cooker mac 'n cheese. That was always what I requested for my birthday meals, and I always told my friends that they had never had good mac 'n cheese until they tried my mama's mac 'n cheese. This quickly became the meal that all my friends requested when they came over to my house, and it was my mom's famous recipe. It i...

It is hard to believe that I just experienced my last fall break in college. I know I have mentioned it before, but it is very hard for me to be so far away from home, so I was really looking forward to this break! Flights were very expensive, so I ended up missing classes on Friday to get a relatively cheap flight. I left for Columbus around 6 a.m. on that Friday, and although I am not normally a morning person, I did not mind getting up that early if it meant getting to go home!  I did not hit any traffic, so I arrived at the airport around 7:30 a.m., and that left me plenty of time to grab some breakfast and get some work done before boarding my flight. This flight was so cheap because it had a 20-hour layover in Orlando. You may be wondering, who would ever take that flight? The only reason that flight caught my eye is that my oldest brother and his wife live in the Orlando area! I landed in Orlando around noon and was able to spend the rest of the day with my brother, Joey, an...

My 10th Birthday! Growing up, birthdays were always a very big deal in the Jarkowsky household. My mom always made sure to make our day incredibly special in any way possible. No matter how old we got, we would always walk down the stairs to the house decorated with balloons and streamers, the table decorated with a card and presents and our favorite breakfast treat. Later in the day, she would make our requested dinner, and the entire family would gather around our dining room table. Spending time with my family was always my favorite part of birthdays. Once I moved to college, I dreaded my birthday. I dreaded the feeling of waking up and not getting to walk downstairs and see how my mom decorated. I dreaded not getting hugged by my parents. I dreaded not feeling special. Most importantly, I dreaded not being able to spend my birthday with my family. I also felt stupid that I was a college student who still felt like birthdays were a big deal. But in my family, no matter how old you g...

  This past weekend was our annual Homecoming weekend at Ohio Northern! This has been my favorite weekend of the year since I was a freshman, and I cannot believe that this year was my last! I love the traditions of our little village, and it is so fun to see all the excitement throughout campus.  I started the excitement a little early on Thursday night. Many of you might not know, but I am a very big Marvel fan. The “Avengers: Endgame” encore showing was set to roll into theaters that weekend, and I was sad knowing that I would not have time to go see it with all of the Homecoming events; however, I happened to see that there was an early release showing on Thursday night. I quickly hopped in my car and made the drive to Findlay for a solo movie date to see one of my favorite movies of the Marvel franchise. Call me crazy, but I thoroughly enjoy going to the movies by myself. My little brother made fun of me for going alone, but the introvert in me had the best time. Classes ...

My Family! This week has been a hard week for me. It is that time of the semester when I have not seen my family since I moved back, and it is starting to hit me how much I miss them. I am very close with my family, so being seven hours away from most of them can be really difficult. My parents were extremely supportive of me going to school wherever I felt led to, even if it meant moving far away from home. My parents are truly my biggest supporters, especially my dad, who I am extremely close with. Ever since I was young, I've been a daddy's girl. Everyone told me I was the girl version of my dad and oldest brother. That was never an insult to me because I admire my dad and would be honored to be like him.  My Older Brothers! On top of being close with my parents, I am also very close with my siblings and sisters-in-law. I have two older brothers, Joey and Justin, who are married to Nicole and Kelsey. Joey and Nicole moved to Florida around the same time that I moved to Ohio ...

This past weekend was sorority recruitment for the four Panhellenic sororities on campus! It was very bittersweet to think this was the last time I would be recruiting for Kappa Alpha Theta as an active member. Recruitment season is extremely busy and tiring, but it is always so worth it when we get to see our new members run home to us! Thursday was by far the longest day of recruitment weekend. My day starts with class at 9:30 a.m. and then I am not done with classes until 5:45 p.m., besides my hour lunch break. We were told to be in the Theta house by 4:30 p.m.; however, I had class during that time and was unable to get there until 6 p.m. when the first round was beginning. I only had to talk to a few girls throughout the rounds, so it was nice to get a little break and to be able to work on homework in the back until we were done at 9 p.m. Although it was an extremely long day, it was very rewarding because we finally received the Holiday Spectacular cast list! I received the exac...