Well, I'm on the last leg of my crazy Christmas trip and now in Ohio continuing to enjoy my wireless network card and laptop. :-D
There hasn't been a whole lot of exciting stuff happening really. But it's been nice to be a bum. I'm sure Josh will keep me a bit busier here though. It was good to see my family and spend some time with them. and Josh and I officially have our first piece of furniture. It's a recliner/love seat lazy-boy. I think it's rather comfy myself although my aunt and family from whom we received it didn't think so. *shrugs* It's a start. My parents said we could have a queen bed and the kitchen table and chairs from the house they're moving into soon. So we'll probably work "colors" around all of that. Course, it'd be nice to figure out where we'll be after May....
I guess I could update on wedding progress and such. Not that it really is all that interesting :-) At any rate, when we get back, the first order of business is to make sure we have the church and an officiant.
Or, should I say, remember the yeti that batted "pingus" with a mouse click?
Yeah. if you're bored this Christmas break,
check out
7 Games based on the "pingu" batting. So addicting!
Well. life here today was
full of the random reaction to some unknown bug or allergen where part of my *left hand tingled and itched;
*homemade quiche....,
*crazy present time which went from open one present before the rest of the distant family arrive, to open all the ones there were for us to open. Including the one that
*amanda had to unwrap to get her book because mom accidentally told me to wrap two different cookbooks for one person, and they were for two separate people.
*peeling potatoes
*flakey internet connection but at least I have my laptop set up on wireless
*chatting
*addicting games including duck hunt, lemonade stand, battleship, and curve ball
*UNO
*the amusement of family as my cousin and uncle sat near me with their own laptops
*turkey
*ham
*homemade pies including
-peppermint cheesecake
-mincemeat
-pecan pie
-custard
*watching movies
*dinner consisting of wisconsin cheese spread, crackers, and more pie
*the food network and interesting shows such as "Unwrapped"
-Did you know there is an M&Ms World in Las Vegas?
-Ever heard of Frito Bandito? the Freakies?
that and more....
Shiver me timbers!
It's really cold here. It's been really cold. It was 0 degrees and less than 0 wind chill yesterday and all night last night as we drove across the country.
But the roads and weather were good.
and now we are enjoying time with family. and I also enjoy VERY high speed internet although a flaky connection.....
but i'll be on and off aim a little bit more I think.
For now, MERRY CHRISTMAS! May God keep you all safe and bless your families...
God bless us everyone!
I'm sure all of you LU people have the email.
For those of you who don't:
Arthur was a senior at LU who died recently of head injuries sustained in a car accident the afternoon after his brother was married to Grace. Hector and Grace graduated this December. Grace was also a math education major so I took classes with her. I can't even begin to imagine the blessing and tragedy their anniversary will hold. Arthur lived in Mexico, and his fiancee, Tanya, is an MK from Honduras. They were planning to be married this summer on the beach in Mexico. Tanya is a kinesiology-ed major who will also graduate in May.
Please pray for all of them. I know Grace and Tanya fairly well. Grace has had a rough couple of years herself since her dad died last year.
And to all my dear friends out there: be safe. please.
So a lot of people seem to have this free time and are enjoying laziness...enjoying their laziness so much that they don't have time to blog regularly?
Okay. I guess I could grant that some people are of my plight.
1. Nothing interesting to blog about because I haven't been doing anything.
2. Dial-up painfully slow.
3. Computer painfully slow.
Oh, I'm finding it really odd how when I'm at college, it definitely feels like three and a half years have gone by but when I come back here my little ole town, it feels like almost nothing! except there are lots of new people and the kids i helped out with and babysat have grown so much....
so tomorrow we leave for the very long trip to Illinois.
*I have a doctors appt in Montrose in the afternoon and from there we go to my cousin's in Denver.
*EARLY the next morning we pick up my older bro and wife at the airport and have fun in Colorado's capital.
*Thursday we are in Laramie for my younger brother's graduation from Auto-Mechanic school. *sigh*...
*We drive straight through, possibly through the night, to West Chicago.
*Merry Christmas with family.
*Josh comes up to visit. We leave to go to Ohio when my parents and siblings travel back to Colorado.
Whew.
While sadly we have not been able to get in contact with everyone ourselves, many of you have heard rumors of an official engagement.
If you count the existence of a ring on my left hand as a making it official, than yes, it is official. However, if you require a question to be verbally asked, well, we still have troubles. I guess you want to hear the story...
I was perturbed Monday thru Wednesday of finals week (well, when I had a spare moment to think about something other than school) because Josh had not yet asked "the question." I had figured that he'd surely propose before Christmas break. Selfishly, I worried about going home and facing my parents without a ring, because he really wouldn't propose in an airport, would he?
He was even mean and taunted me Wednesday night about the dangers of hiding ring in champagne. (but we are good LUers so that was obviously out of the question.) and thus, I hurried my way through Thursday morning between taking a final, packing, and cleaning and didn't even see Josh until we were getting into Gallagher's car for the trip to Tyler.
The short drive passed uneventfully and we checked in for our flights and sat to wait to go through security. I was sitting there and:
Josh: "So, do you want your gift now or at Houston?" (we had the same flight tyler to houston by no coincedence but parted ways at Houston)
Anna: "I thought we were trading Christmas gifts in Illinois? Really, I've already shipped yours out."
Josh: "This isn't your Christmas gift."
Anna: "oh" (I thought, maybe a birthday gift in addition to the Trans-Siberian concert?)
Josh: "You need something to remember me by for the next week and a half we are apart."
Anna: "Well, you might as well give it to me now because there won't be time in Houston." (I had about an hour layover in Houston. and indeed, we only were able to sit down before my boarding for about 10-15 minutes.)
Josh pulls out this little box and I am still disbeliving that he'd actually propose in an airport. I unwrap the ribbon and open the box to find another box. I was thinking, "Hmm. maybe a watch?"
But no, I hope up this second box and am facing a diamond solitaire ring. (This isn't a picture of the exact ring. That'll have to wait a bit.) I look at Josh with a disbelieving question on my faces, trying to make sure I wasn't imagining things.
Josh: "yes...."
Anna: "Oh. Well, I guess I should say yes then. So yes."
I try on the ring. It doesn't make it too far past my knuckle, but it fits well enough on my pinky.
and thus, I realized I had better call a few people while I had cheap cell service and time. and so we spent the next hour before boarding calling immediate family and Lily.
and we were all schmoopy on the plane, sharing some white grape juice on the way.
and discussed a few details. Such as the tentative date of May 8--day after graduation at hopefully, St. Mike's, if we can reserve the church. and blah blah blah. How many of you really want to hear the details? Besides, that'd take half the fun out of you coming to our wedding and seeing the details yourself.
Being a little more awake and reflecting in Houston before I left, I told Josh:
"You know, you never really asked the question."
Josh: "It was an unasked question that was there with the ring."
Anna "So I had to say yes verbally but you can get away without verbally asking the question."
Josh sputtered a bit and I sadly had to go board my plane.
and thus, the story of Anna and Josh's engagement.
Well, two days have already flown on by on my so far enjoyable break from school madness. i've started on my second book (third if you count the first one as the two-in-one). and worked on Christmas gift projects. and formed a rant while listening to the news:
My father being the fan of the news, I've heard on the television lots about the recent tragedy of the 8-month pregnant mother who was strangled.
what really gets me and irks me is that it took more than a simple phone call to have the amber alert issued to find the missing newborn--because the newborn was a fetus removed (although the girl-child became alive at the time of forcible birth). and they (news people) keep referring to the baby as the "stolen fetus" more often than the "kidnapped baby." Grrr. Peterson is tried and convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and unborn child, not the unborn fetus. but it takes a couple of tries to issue the amber alert (i'm guessing this is a missing child national alert) for this pre-mature baby removed from her mother's womb after her mother was killed.
Gahh!!!!!
Rachel--on her luggage with clothes being lost somewhere...
"God wants me to go naked."
...
"it may be true ;)"
It has been a really crazy day. and soon, I shall tell you all the gory details. For now though, I'm going to try and be warm in this very cold state in borrowed clothing because alas, my luggage was left in denver....it didn't make it on the plane which had the captain and first officer loading luggage before we left and moving equipment because DIA was short on crew....
but. I'll have it tomorrow by noon if all goes well.
Zippidee Day...
My oh my what a wonderful day....
unit plan done. educ final done. abstract over. geometry over...
all i have left is trig. and cleaning and packing and shipping christmas presents. and flying to Colorado.
but the hard part is over!
so. I had my geometry test yesterday morning at 730 and my major semester paper for Honors Capstone was also do. Thus, upon coming back from the concert Saturday night, I headed to bed and set my alarm to get up and work all day on the paper. and work I did from 11 to 11 with a few breaks for food. We made our Waffle Shoppe fun. I came back and worked some more until about 2 or 230. I set my alarm again and woke up a little after 10 this time only to work all morning and afternoon. I finished my paper around 430 p.m., conveniently in time enough to print it out for editing and go to dinner.
We ate dinner. I got back and set to work on studying for my geometry test--which was going to have a whole lot of constructions and questions over our papers that I had not read yet. and so I worked. I finally had finished practicing most of the constructions by 11 p.m. and we headed to MSC where I spent the next two hours reading the papers. and cringing at a few which could have used some polish...
all this while waiting for wheeler to finish editing my paper. Which he did. all 30 pages of it. around 130. I headed to my room and went to bed. got up and took my final. went to the labs and added polish plus printed out what i could for my documentation notebook (all my notes, any copies of stuff i used (unless a book), and revisions).
I managed to finish that around 11:15 and headed down to Glaske to turn it in. I had to wait a bit which was fine because i needed the break. after turning it in and filling out the class eval, I headed to lunch only to realize I didn't have my i.d. card. Thus, I headed to my apt and than back to MSC for an hour lunch break before working from 1 to 5. after work was dinner and after dinner I spent the next 5.5 hour in the library working on the take-home half of my abstract final. ouch. ouch. *restrains from inserting obscenities* ouch. ouch. ouch. and on the ouches go.
I finally called it quits around 1130 and decided that sleep and a B was better than an A. if i could even manage the A from staying up and figuring out whatever was eluding me on two of the questions. Besides, we still have the computation have of our final which I should be okay with...
so, after letting my mind cool down and taking one last look at it, i went to bed at 130. and slowly climbed out of bed six hours later to be at work at 8. where I am now.
*i get off work at 12.
*abstract final at 1245
*when i'm done with that i'll head to the ed lab to work on my unit plan due tomorrow.
*eat pizza dinner with other math/cs geeks.
*continue working on my unit plan most likely and preparing my mind to reflect in words tomorrow morning from 730 to 930 on a differentiated classroom.
*sleep.
*take ed final.
if i'm not done with the unit plan, i'll have to finish that between 930 and 1200. at 12, I have lunch with my bus. office bosses at Butcher Shop and then I'll work to 5 when we get back.
Tomorrow evening from 5 to whenever, I will:
*eat dinner
*go to the library
*wrap and pack up Christmas presents for shipping
*pack for break
*watch extended edition of LOTR: Return of the King (if that's the third one?)
*sleep
thursday:
*trig final at 945.
*finish cleaning up apt areas
*check-out at 1245
*leave for tyler around 115
and thus begin the long and laborious process of traveling--tyler to houston, one hour layover, houston to denver, one hour layover, denver to gunnison, gunnison to lake city one hour drive (i'll get in around 11 mst i think)
friday: (barring anything going wrong with flights--like a delay which causes to me to miss one...)
*SLEEP*
*visit school*
so when i stumbled upon a new treasure for researching papers,
i entered a search for "soul"
and came upon this.
Well, the first part of my day was spent on a "field trip" to Jefferson with my fellow secondary student teachers. We visited with the asst. superintendent, went through the museum and browsed what shops we could before lunch at the bakery.
There is this fabulous used bookstore which is semi-organized but more haphazard which adds to the character. Plus, the guy who runs it has lots of stories he's willing to share.
I also saw the lifesize gingerbread house and truly, even tall ole me could fit through the door and stand in the house without ducking. It was really neat. That MUST have been a whole lot of work for a whole lot of people...
I also enjoyed shopping at the General Store, complete with the ice cream/soda fountain bar. and enjoyed looking through one antique shop. oh yeah, the museum had lots of fun stuff on four floors! (basement, ground, two top)...even a creepy doll or two...
Lunch was good and the trip back was relatively uneventful as a few of us chattered about boys and the rest slept.
An hour after I got back to campus, it was time to begin our journey to Dallas for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. We left town a little bit not much later than expected and we opted for Gallagher's route (which did prove to be the fastest...) by taking Hwy 80. Things generally went well until we stopped for dinner at which point the traffic in Terrell split us up after we left. But, no big deal, I had made sure everyone had directions and tickets with them and we had cell phones. So we journeyed to Dallas, probably not more than within a few miles of each other at any given time...until we started the exit and follow the directions to the parking garage....
Barbour's car and my car missed the same exit due to some confusing instructions (and a bit of argument between myself who was driving and my navigator because I thought we were supposed to follow the other part of the exit (the right way) but he insisted on the other way...) So, I discovered that turning around and looping back wasn't quite as easy I thought it would be. What was sad is that we were in the right general area...but we didn't have a decent detailed map to work off of and the roads weren't in happy straight and two way lines... (that could be a really bad analogy...) anyways. So we kept circling and circling...I saw the Dallas Art Museum three times. Finally, I remembered that there was this road that was named one thing but was listed differently on the map. After an hour, we made our way to the parking lot fifteen minutes before the concert was supposed to start. Barbour had already managed to correct himself and get there and Gallagher managed to follow the instructions correctly. (*applause*) We even managed to get to the right floor and be a few feet away from our section for seats when the concert started just after 8. THus, we didn't really miss anything.
and certainly not the best parts.
The concert will not only be remembered for the awesome music and the very sweet light show, but also a false fire alarm caused by someone who was smoking in the bathroom (while the concert was complete with the fake fog and the torches later on)
It was a good concert and was well worth the evening and hassle spent.
and getting back was happily uneventful as two of my passengers slept after we stopped for gas and meet up with the others at Rip Griffin and I listened to Weber and Lavigne while drinking fake gas station cappucino while talking to Josh to stay awake.
and alas. I should really try and get up before noon tomorrow because I must get a rather lengthy paper written before Monday. (so lengthy that I probably won't post it to the blog)
that, and I do have a geometry final early (730) monday morning. Happy something or another day for that!
Ciao!
I can do it...
I can do it....
(or at least, God can drag me through it...)
I will not get stressed....
I will not get stressed...
sitting in my chair with a foot crossed underneath me. I keep cutting off the circulation to my foot and than it goes dead and gets all tingly and annoying when i set it down on the ground.
what you should quit?
Everything went rather well this morning I think. Both Lily and I felt confident of passing and really didn't care how well beyond that. Although I think passed with a wide margin of error....as much as I hate saying that....because then I get disappointed...
Anyways, I'll let you know my score in a couple of weeks.
The ride went well and I even managed to get Christmas shopping done. I was having trouble coming up with suitable gifts for my younger brother and almost other half. While I saw many things that would have been fun to get, I figured I'd better wait until I have more money. I like successful shopping and visiting new stores.
I got back a couple of hours ago and have been working to finish the research on a book that was due yesterday. an ILL book.... *sigh*
so life goes...i think i need a nap...
I have my first test for certification tomorrow morning. I would appreciate prayers for peace of the left hemisphere through the 80 mathematical questions covering everything I've ever learned (practically). Hopefully, I won't feel quite as horrible as I did today being sick yet again. I know my other fellow teachers-to-be would also appreciate prayer. and we have to get up rather early and drive to Tyler to report by 7:30 a.m.
Thanks.
unless I'm procrastinating and not doing the work I should be doing at any given moment. I still have a paper and a presentation, not to mention a final teaching lesson and a unit plan plus all the other normal homework and a certfication exam this coming saturday (at which I have to get up at 530 to leave around 6 a.m.) and finals and trying to stay healthy the next few weeks to do as well as i can.
but it seems that I'm not mentally healthy unless I take a break from work but i really don't have a whole lot of time to take a break from work...oh well. something has to give, might as well be some of the work.
okay...maybe it isn't THAT bad....
