Happy December 1st!

I can't believe that it is already December, well almost, in 28 minutes to be exact. So much has happened the past few months I just don't know where to begin. I am still plugging away at grad school. I only 2 weeks left this semester and then next semester then I am done. So everyone mark May 7th on your calendar, for this is graduation day!

You know how there is usually 3 bad things that happen to you in a row and then there is silver lining. Well I am ready for that silver lining.

1. The first bad thing happened in September. I am not going to talk about it because it gets me really angry and raises my blood pressure and my family is still dealing with it. So until it is fully resolved, it is not to be mentioned, for the sake of blood pressure!
   
2. On October 23rd, my aunt Gwen passed away from complications that arose after a neck surgery. This one was and is still really hard on me. The saying, you never know what you miss until it is gone, is truly how I feel. I miss her so much and think about her often. I know that she is in a much better place, but it is still painful to know that she is not her and I can't just call her up or give her a hug or anything like that. I have found recently, it's little things that remind me of her: a smell, a song, a phrase that someone says, the color turquoise. Oh how much I miss her.
3. The final (and yes, karma I mean final) thing was on November 20th at 2:30 am, after enjoying a night of good friends and the movie New Moon, two friends and I were hit by a drunk driver. We were completely stopped at a stop light and the next thing I know my head is throbbing and I am reaching for my phone as the two friends were trying to get the license plate of the car that hit us as they drive off. Needless to say, I was transported by ambulance to the hospital with a concussion and a cervical neck strain. I am still having headaches from it. No fun. One friend thinks she also got a concussion and the other one is having lower back pains (probably from my knees slamming into the back of her chair, I don't just a guess though).

So needless to say, I am ready to have something good come out of all of this. I did have a pretty good Thanksgiving with my family. My parents and I went to Wendover on the Fun Bus. NO leftovers for us, but we were pretty stuffed after a spectacular buffet. My mom and I woke up early Friday morning and braved Black (or what my Pops refers to as "Bleak") Friday. We only went to 3 stores (enough for both of us). Roberts was the only one on the list; I wanted a Cricut and they were marked down to less than half of what they sell for normally. So Happy Graduation to me (I have banned myself from using it until after March 1st - when my HUGE paper for grad school is due).

THe only other thing that I am looking forward to beside for Christmas is New Year's. Ginny-Beth and I are adventuring out to New York City for New Year's Eve. It will be pretty incredible, I hope. Ice skating at Rockefeller Center, going to Rock of Ages on Broadway and shopping on Canal Street are some of the MANY things on the list of things that we are doing. I will definitely try to keep you posted on that and again, I am going to try to update more often. I think I will make it a New Year's Resolution, we will see!

Bye Bye for now...

Long time. . .

Ok, it's been a long time since I blogged. I guess I should do some updating. School is almost done. I have one class next week and a four hour final. Let me tell you, I am so looking forward to that, NOT! I then have two weeks off until I start summer school. I really just need a break, longer than 2 weeks.

Not that I am counting but I have just under 3 months until I go to Scotland. I am trying to not think too much about it, until I finish the summer semester. We will see if that happens.

My parents just left Thursday from a fun visit. My grandma and aunt (who I haven't seen in 13 years) came to town on a train. We were able to see them and another aunt and uncle we haven't seen in about that long either. It is really interesting how time flies and some people completely change while others stay exactly the same.

I am also trying to read more fun books. I am reading Eclipse right now and almost done. I can't wait to read Breaking Dawn. I will then be caught up with the world on the Twilight series. I borrrowed about a dozen or so books from my friend, Ginny-Beth and still haven't read any of them. So my goal is to try to get through 1 a week until summer is over. GB leaves for Greece in a few weeks and when she gets back I want to have a pile of books to give back to her.

So speaking of her leaving, I am inheriting her Beagle, Murphy for 3 weeks while she is goine. It sure will be interesting having Murphy live at my house with Paris. I am hoping that it will work out and they will be able to tolerate each other, or mainly Paris tolerate Murph. I will definitely keep you posted. One thing I am looking forward to with having Murphy is going on walks. My goal is to go on a walk after work every night. It will do him some good and make him tired and it will do me some good with fresh air and it will do Paris some good with having some alone time without him.

Ok, that is about it for now. Hopefully I will write again sooner rather than later. It is another goal of mine. To keep this more updated. We will see, I am not making any promises!

St. Petersburg, Florida

I just got back from a week in Florida. It was much warmer there than here in Utah, that's for sure. I, along with a co-worker took 8 students down to build houses for Habitat for Humanity. This is something that is done every year, and I have been fortunate enough to go almost every year.

We were put up in a church. It was kind of like roughing it. We were in the fellowship hall. We were given mats to sleep on. There was a bathroom for men, a bathroom for women, a kitchen, and a shower (inside the kitchen, yes, inside the kitchen). It sure made for interesting schedules of eating and showering and sharing the space. It was actually pretty fun and I think it helped bond our group of 10 even more!

The house that we worked on was a "rehab" house, meaning they were remodeling it instead of building a brand new house. While we were there this week, we painted the entire inside of the house (2 coats), roofed (I didn't, I hate being on the roof), installed all the switchplates back on the walls, did touch up work, installed closet shelves, pulled up carpet, and prepped the floors for tiling. We definitely had a great week working hard and playing harder.

We got there on Saturday the 21st. On Sunday we went to Busch Gardens. Wow, what a fun time! Most of spent the majority of the time riding the roller coasters. One coaster, the Sheikra, we rode 3 times. We rode 2 water rides as well and got completely soaked. I don't think we thought that through entirely. It got super cold after that! After working Monday - Thursday we had some down time and went to Indian shores (a beach that was really winding and made it kind of chilly), St. Pete Beach (pretty and we ate amazing seafood at Philthy Phil's), The Pier in downtown St. Petersburg (I wanted to retire here until I saw the cost of a condo on the waterfront) and Clearwater Beach (the perfect day, temperature, and Crabby Bill's restaurant was great too!). I think I want to retire there!!! What a way to end a perfect day and trip, with a perfect sunset!

Apparently I am a slacker. . .

Ok, I admit, it has been a long time since I posted but when I started this blog, I wasn't promising anyone anything spectacular (that also includes not updating my blog often). I did chang my wallpaper, so it is no longer my birthday. Amanda came out to celebrate, which was a lot of fun. She baked a wonderful orange cake decorated like a hockey rink! My brother also brought me a cake, a cake that had the Eiffel Tower on it that served 96 people. Yes that's right. It was good and I shared with 95 people.

Let's see, what else. . . Oh yes, a student or a friend of a student backed into the front of my car and then two weeks later a student (this time from the U) rear ended me. Needless to say I am still trying to get the dents fixed.

I had a girls' weekend the past few days. My mom came to town and we went to Park City to get our hair done from Larry. We both got the same color put in our hair, but they totally look different, go figure! We then went shopping and headed out to dinner for a surprise birthday for her BFF, Claire. After dinner, the 11 of us went to a piano bar to continue the celebration. The picture of my mom and I is from the bar. She left today, but because I am brilliant, I bought a bus ticket for Thursday night and am going to ride the bus to Green River for the weekend and my mom and I will drive home together on Sunday.

As far as school goes, I am behind in the reading. I have one professor that likes to assign 300+ pages of reading a week plus a paper a week. I am hoping to catch up on some of the reading on my 4 hour bus ride Thursday night. After this semester is over at teh end of April, I will be officially half way through with getting my Master's!

The only other thing that I have started doing to up date you all on is personal training. My trainer Bre kicks my butt. Or as GB says, it is "Death by Bre". It is a good kicking, evben though I am sore for the following two days! I have gone down another pants size. None of my clothes are fitting anymore. This is a good thing, except with my checkbook. It has been 6 weeks with Bre so far and even though I continue to complain before, during, and after the workout, it is so WORTH it!

Ok, you all are officially updated to my boring uneventful life.

Black & White New Year's

Well, it is the beginning of the new year. Welcome 2009! Danni, me and Ginny-Beth went to a black and white themed house party last night. It was a lot of fun. We then rang in the New Year at the Bayou with champagne.

I woke up this morning and took down all the christmas decorations and the tree. I am now doing laundry and relaxing yet again. It has been wonderful having this week off work. I am starting to enjoy it a little too much and wonder if I am going to be able to get up early for work next week. This sleeping in has been an absolute delight.

So I decided that because it is my mom and I's birthday this month, I would change the look to celebrate. Amanda comes in 21 days to celebrate my birthday. We plan on going to Sundance (I pick tickets on this Sunday), maybe Wendover, and just catching up. I imagine that we will also spend some time figuring out our Paris and Barcelona side trip in July. Speaking of Sundance, keep your fingers crossed that I get tickets for the movie Taking Chance. This is one of the films my dad is in and it would be great to see him on the big screen!

Well this is it for now. I start school in 2 weeks, which I am looking forward to, sort of. I am hoping my classes are good. I am excited about my program development class (I love programming)! I will keep you posted. I am planning on maybe writing once a week to keep everyone up to date.