Busy Busy!

It has been ages since I posted. :-( Sorry!

I have been so distracted with things lately. School, work, and now practicing for the Christmas concert have taken over. Oh, but I am glad to have found some time for scrapping. My Christmas cards are done way ahead of schedule! Now to get together addresses...

I have only one more "learning" class left for the semester, and one additional class for presenting final papers. Still not sure what I am going to do for my final paper, but I will probably choose a topic tomorrow. I also have to participate in a discussion board this week for class. School is so close to wrapping up - wow did the semester fly by! I do like being in school, but I will be glad to have one less thing on my plate between December 16th and the end of January.

The music for orchestra is manageable, but I am having to practice a lot, and I'm still struggling on the fast parts. Though this is to be expected, I'm a little more nervous since I've lost Jennifer D., Jenny W., and all the other wonderful flautists who could sight read stuff that I couldn't even dream of playing up to speed... I do think with a bit more practice, it will come together nicely, though. And I have three other flute players joining me, so hopefully they practice hard this next week, also. Gosh darn flute parts - they are always so fast!

And one more thing about orchestra - yay for the strong Xpedition turnout! We are definitely representing. Hopefully I'm not forgetting anyone, but our class has contributed two trumpets, a french horn, a trombone, a saxaphone, a clarinet, a viola, a flute/pennywhistle, and a somewhat reluctant auxilliary percussionist.
:-) Woohoo! Anyone else want to join? There's still time!

I so want to just practice and not think about projects for school... can you tell?

Corn Maze!

Now that Matt has been layed-off, we are trying to be even more frugal than before. Still, we do have to have some fun... so... we had been planning to meet with the refugee family to teach them more English this morning, as Matt, Jason, and Spring have been doing for a while now. Just before we were going to leave the house, Jason called to let us know the plans had been cancelled, b/c the family was having some sort of family event, so they wouldn't be available. New plans? Jason and Spring wanted to go to an apple orchard and a corn maze.

I've been wanting to go to a corn maze for a long time. I found out this morning that my mom does not really care for them - probably one of the reasons I never went as a child. (At least I never remember going as a child...)

Anyway, we decided to go ahead and spend some money on a fun day at the orchard today. Good times, good raspberries and apples, and lots of good walking/exercise. Fall is definitely my favorite season. I think it is about time that I actually pull out the fall decorations. Guess I know what I'm doing tonight!

Busy, busy, busy!

Tonight was busy, but fun. I got to meet with some of my classmates for dinner at O'Gara's, and then I got to hang out at Lacy's for my third (?) pampered chef party this year. Good stuff!

This summer has been really busy on the whole. I seem to find that the times I plan to keep open and take a break from activity, I plan more activity than when I'm busy with things like school. Let's just say that I'm glad to be staying busy because otherwise I would be spending more time cleaning my house. :-)

Speaking of which, now that Matt's family has left, our house has magically become less cluttered. Time to pull out the vacuum! Maybe I should wait until we get back from the camping weekend... yes, good plan...

Saturday Night Campfire

So, our first day in Marion was good. Matt and his brother Nathan were able to check out the car and determine that a good majority of the work that our mechanics had suggested probably doesn't need to be done for a while. They were also able to figure out why the check engine light had come on. It's nice to be related to people who know what they are doing with cars and like helping out. :-)

After the boys were done, we all headed out to the house of Nathan and Kimberly's Sunday School teachers, who let lots of people use their yard regularly. They have a pond, and a huge fire pit. They have paddle boats/canoes, and all sorts of facilities in place just to make their yard a good place for large group hangouts. Nate and Kim regularly hang out there with friends from school/church. They still have friends from school in the area, so some of their friends also came along to hang out. We cooked burgers and made s'mores. Some people fished and caught a couple fish. We made a huge fire in the firepit and burned lots of random wood. And Nathan even killed a snake - probably the gross highlight of the evening.

I will have to tell more about the snake in person. The only camera I had at the time was on my phone, so I'll have to see if I can get the pics off of it somehow. I think everyone else knows a way... we'll see about getting that done after I'm home again.

Anyway - gotta get to bed b/c church starts at 9 AM EST, which means 8 AM Central, and I'm still tired from only getting 4 hours of sleep last night. Goodnight!

On the Road Again

We are about 3.5 hours away from our destination. It's sunny, and I'm excited that I discovered how to make my laptop screen brighter. Also, very cool thing about the Vibe is that it has an outlet that I can plug my laptop into. Basically, I have my entire office in the car now. Fun times. :-)

So - exciting news of the moment - Just before we left yesterday, Matt and I were able to stop over at Ali and Abe's new house for a tour. Very fun! We are excited that they will be living so close to us so we will be able to hang out more easily - that is as long as our busy schedules have some open spots...

So anyway, I'm not sure what the plans are for the weekend, so it'll be an adventure! I know that we are hoping to get some work done on the car, and Matt brought his Xbox and a TV, so they'll probably play some games. I remembered to bring my current crochet project and some books and magazines... We'll have to see what we end up doing. I'm definitely excited about having a 4-day weekend! If only gas weren't $4 a gallon...

A long day...

I am tired and sore... today we had a lot of work to do, and thank goodness for our friends who came over to help us get the carpet removed. (Dustin, Dan, Spring, Jason - you all are great!)

Matt and I also got some staining done, which is good, although I just got back and realized that we weren't always consistent in how much stain we used... certain pieces will need a second coat tomorrow.

And at 9, I headed out to meet my co-workers/friends for a night out. It was a little wild, but I survived. :-)

And now I need to get some sleep so I don't fall asleep in Xpedition tomorrow. Is it really 1 AM already?

What a good Saturday...

I had such a good day today. It all started with some chocolate chunk pancakes....

Matt and I went into St. Paul today so I could show him where I'm working now. We got some exercise walking through the St. Paul skyway system, but we ruined it all with a stop at Caribou Coffee. :-)

Then we headed home for the afternoon, making a couple of stops on the way. I got to snuggle with my cats and watch some TV/help Matt play some video games.

At 3, I headed out to meet my friend Kathryn and some of her gymnastics friends at a bar near the U. We hung out for a while before heading to a MN vs. OK gymnastics meet at 6. I always have fun at those gymnastics meets - it also inspires me to keep trying to include exercise in my week. :-)

After gymnastics, I headed over to our church to catch the last bit of a game night. The remaining group, including Matt, was playing Loaded Questions, so I listened in for a while. Then a few of us played some DDR - always a good time, and it counts as exercise!

Finally, on the way home, I got a call from my cousin Catherine, who happened to be hanging out with my dad. (Catherine goes to school in Indiana, so for holidays she will sometimes head over to stay with my Grandma and hang out with my dad.) We talked for 40 minutes on the phone - good times. :-)

And now I am sitting at my desk while Matt is playing clips on youtube from "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". Again, good times. And what a great end to a great day....

Memes?

I was tagged by my friend Jennifer to participate in a Q&A blog game, which is apparently known as a "meme". Okay, so it is a generally accepted fact that I tend to lean towards the geeky side. Knowing this, one might imagine that I would know the majority of blogging terms, but alas, I do not. So upon reading the word "meme", I turned to ask a (mostly) trusted resource, Wikipedia. Now I feel like I have a clue and can proceed with my life. :-) On to the questions...

10 Years Ago:
I was a freshman in high school. I was dating my first long-term boyfriend, Kevin, who my parents were not very happy about due to the fact he was a senior. (That relationship lasted over 4 years, and we are still friends, but only talk once in a blue moon.) I was a band geek, and an academic nerd, and most of my friends were in band, too. I played flute, Kevin played trombone. Another good friend, Joe, also played trombone. My dad repeatedly told me that trombone players were trouble, but I ignored his warnings. (My dad also plays the trombone.) My stand partner and future college roomate for a semester, Becky, partnered with me to complain about the evil junior flute players who hated us. (There were no senior flutes that year, and the juniors were mean. I'm happy to report that during my sophomore year, when we got a chance to try out for chairs, I beat out the meanest of the bunch for first chair. Needless to say, she was not happy and became even more mean.)

My biggest bummer of that time was that I missed out on a trip to Ireland that the band took for St. Patrick's Day. To this day, I am still sad about that. My best friend, Dawn, and I were probably not on speaking terms at this point - or had we made up by then? Side note: Dawn was my maid-of-honor and to this day is still my friend. And she played the saxophone.

There really isn't that much else interesting about this time of my life... It was a typically freshman year... Oh - I did get my permit ~10 years ago. That was fun... spinning out in parking lots in a rusty, brown Chevy S-10. Anyway, college was much more fun...

Things on my To-Do List Today:

• Help at MOPS (check)
• Wrap presents for Allison (check)
• Clean my house (I got the office and spare room done, does that count?)
• Clean the litter box (Ummm...still need to do that)
• Blog (in progress)
• Exercise (Hey, I worked up a sweat cleaning that office! - check)
• Make job search phone calls/send emails (check)
• Eat (check - I have forgotten this one before)
• Go to girls' night (check)

Three of my Bad Habits:

1. Slouching. My mom used to poke me while I practiced piano. It didn't help.
2. Staying up late. I can't help it, I just function better after 10 PM.
3. Not drinking enough water. I think that's why I get so many headaches. Thank goodness for Excedrin! It gets me through until I can drink more water.

If I Suddenly Became a Billionaire:
Travel, travel, travel. First stop, Ireland. Second stop - Australia? I've been thinking about that one lately. I like English speaking countries.

I would also love to pay off the house and remodel our kitchen. I really don't want more house to maintain, but I would maybe add on a dedicated office instead of using one of the bedrooms. I could also buy a comparable house with a better layout... Either way, I would want the house function a little more smoothly. No more sticking doors or hard to clean, easy to stain carpeting! Although, we would have to invest most of the money, knowing Matt.

5 Jobs I've Had:

1. McDonalds Crew Member
2. Sales clerk at my uncle's teachers' supplies store
3. Lawnmower/Babysitter
4. Paper Girl
5. Electrical Engineer

5 Things People Don't Know About Me:

1. I have never balanced my checkbook. Ever.
2. I frequently have (and remember) very vivid dreams, and they are usually very odd.
3. I took my best loved stuffed animal from my childhood with me to college. I teared up when, after marriage, I realized I had lost said stuffed animal.
4. I have never lived alone, and also have never had to regularly cook for myself. Thank goodness for that, because according to one of my previous roommates, Soma, I may have starved to death had I lived alone. Let's hope I go before Matt does...
5. I have a fear of ponds/lakes/oceans where you can't see the bottom. There's too much unknown about what lies below the area that can be seen. Who wants to go where they can't see what's near their feet? Very scary.

Okay, so #5 in that last question took me a long time... I tend to be an open book, so hopefully those met the criteria for being things that are unknown to most.

Anyway, I would love to tag everyone on my friends list, but that may leave others with no choice for who they can tag. So, since Allison and Dustin are most likely to read this sooner than everyone else, I will tag the two of you. Happy typing!

Jennifer is blogging

A new friend has been added to the left side of my blog! Let's all give a big welcome to Jennifer Dzioba, whose blog address is: http://dzioba.blogspot.com/.

Welcome to the blogging world, Jennifer! And thanks for inspiring me to update my blog template yet again!

Unemployment, Day 2

I got to sleep in today! How nice... it's good to wake up when the sun is shining once in a while. I hung out with my kitties while eating breakfast, and then I got ready for the day and started some more work on taxes. For lunch, I met with some of my girlfriends from BSC, and then I headed back home to work a bit more.

And then my afternoon and evening were lost. I am finally printing all of my tax forms, but I spent all afternoon making sure I had found all possible deductions and credits, and double checking to make sure I handled all investment info appropriately. I am happy to say that I not only know what I'm doing and exactly what I'm paying for, but I am also done - really done. Yay!

So my hope for this week was to have time to clean and do homework. Looks like tomorrow I will be doing homework in the afternoon, as my morning is filled with meetings. Additionally, since I will be helping at MOPS on Thursday, I hope to get cleaning done Thursday and Friday. Oh, and that paper that's due on the 12th? I'll need to get that done, too - maybe sometime this weekend. I can't work any longer in this disaster we call an office...

The Day Before Leap Day

Another February, more changes.

I am going through more emotional highs ad lows right now than I would expect. On Saturday, I woke up feeling on top of the world. It was sunny outside, and I had the whole day to do whatever I wanted. I ended up getting to spend some time with my wonderful friend Jen, and then I got to spend a good amount of time by myself shopping and watching TV. As the day got darker, I got really tired and down. Not sure what all is going into emotional fluctuations on days such as this, but this does seem to be typical for me in these later weeks of winter.

So tomorrow is my last day of work. I have had fun, I have stressed, I have worked hard, and I'm better off because of it all. I am also glad to be moving forward. I have always been excited by change. I seem to enjoy the thrill of the unknown... will I get an offer for the job I think is best? Will I be successful in my future role? Will I ever learn to slow down and stop making so many plans and time commitments? I probably won't ever slow down...

Anyway, I am all prepared to be done at work. I have gone through all knowledge handoffs I could think of, I have checked in all equipment that could possibly be checked in early, I have closed any possible projects, and I have taken home most of my personal items. Today, my manager brought by a very nice letter of recommendation/reference which was totally unsolicited. I feel pretty good about where I am right now, and I'm looking forward to what's next.

It also seems fitting that I take this next big "leap" in my life on "leap day". There is a "leap day" celebration at work tomorrow, and then after work, I'm going out for a Happy Hour with coworkers in honor of three of us who are all leaving work. I always love a good celebration...

Catching up... or not....

Man, has it been a while. I have now been 25 for 2 weeks! (Sorry to the people who check this blog regularly.) But the good news is - I have started planning scrapbook pages again! I now have about 10 pages/spreads in the works. I'm already running out of pictures for 2007, so maybe I'll take some more for some random fun pages before the retreat in February. I suppose that will partially depend on how much I let my soon-to-start class take over my life... we'll have to see about this...



So the only catching up I want to do is to say that I am now in the middle of a busy project at work that makes my days fly by, and having some free time at night has made my evenings fly by, also. Other than New Years at the Gallop's and lots of fun times with friends, things have been just moving along... Nothing is standing out as noteworthy right now... I suppose that's why I haven't posted? (lame excuse, I know, but I had to try, right?)



In closing, I would like to post a picture of my kitties, in honor of Mattie's braveness in temporarily losing her brother, Max.

The last week before vacation

I was so busy the last week before vacation that I had absolutely no time to blog. Sorry to everyone who has been anticipating a new post. :-(

So, last week, on Saturday, I wrote a ten page paper and got Christmas cards ready, Sunday we went to Church and lunch with friends, then we went shopping, and I made fudge and reformatted my computer yet again. We hung out at home on Monday night (Jen and I watched the finale of ANTM cycle 9), I had my final class of the semester on Tuesday, we had a cell group Christmas party on Wednesday, I hung out with the ladies on Thursday, and we left for Mom Sharp's on Friday.

In between all of those activities, I was able to get my christmas present wrapping done, packing for the trip, and deliver the house keys to our wonderful cat-sitter, Jen. I don't think I went to be before midnight on any of those days. Acutally, I don't think I've gone to bed before midnight since that Saturday paper-writing frenzy. I am tired., but I finally got to sleep in today to make up for all of the late nights.

And I just found out got an A on the paper. :-)

Singing with Allison and Ellie

Today I was in a mood to sing. When I got to Allison's, we ate dinner, and afterwards were still the only people there. So we decided to sing Christmas songs while Allison played the piano. Since Allison's voice is still not totally back, she is having trouble singing in the higher ranges, and I always have trouble singing in the higher ranges, but we had fun anyway. And Ellie enjoyed singing along, too.

And now, I would like to take a moment to say how much I like it when Allison plays the piano. I don't have many friends up here in MN who play, and it's nice to have a friend around who is willing to play while I since and dance around her house like a fool. Yay for Allison!

Buick Update

I know you were all very concerned about the car, so here's an update:

It's fixed! For now... :-) And the repairs were the most cost effective solution, so yay! If you are as happy as I am, post a comment and let me know.

And thanks to Dustin for doing all the transporting and car loaning and carpooling with Matt. I didn't even get to go to the shop this time...

The Buick is not feeling well

Matt took the Buick to Walmart today and almost got stuck on the way home. While stopped, the Buick just shut itself off. When Matt tried to start it again, the engined turned over, but it wouldn't start. :-(

Thankfully, while he was on the phone asking me what we should do, his second attempt to start the car worked. After Bible study, he took the car around the block a couple times and had no problems. Still, we don't want to risk him getting stuck in Minnetonka tomorrow, so Dustin (the good friend that he is) is lending Matt his truck for the day tomorrow. (Dustin has the day off work and doesn't seem to mind the excuse to stay in and play Halo 3.) Matt and Dustin took the car up to the shop, and then Matt dropped Dustin off at home.

So, Matt and I might be in the market for a new car, depending on the shop's diagnosis... Needless to say, Matt is back to searching through ebay motors for ideas and possible good finds. :-) He just put in a couple of really low offers that probably won't even be considered, but hey - there's no harm in trying. It would be a pain to have to wait till the weekend to shop the Owner-to-Owner Car Mart if we could get a good deal sooner...

I had a really good time at scrapping tonight. I made some really awesome cards, and we got to hang out with some ladies who don't normally come. Yay for new people! I also really enjoyed the caramel-filled Hershey Kisses. :-)

And can I just say that Allison makes a great stew? I didn't even mind the couple of mushrooms that I ended up eating because the stew was so dang good. And thanks to Randi for bringing her embosser so I didn't have to run home! I have great friends. Thanks for taking care of me tonight. Love you all...

Disc Golf!

Matt and I didn't get too many pics from last weekend's Disc Golf outing, but here are some of the better ones we did get...

Ali was so right...

I just remembered that I'm going to be playing in orchestra in a week, so I thought I'd check out the music and make sure to practice anything that looked tricky. Yeah, so I thought I was missing something when I remembered that Ali F. said there were hardly any parts for woodwinds. Looks like I won't need to practice at all, since this will so not be a challenge. And I guess that I will be bringing my laptop to our 2 hour practice on Saturday so I don't waste all that time sitting around when I have so much to do. I am kind of bummed, though that there is only one song...

Going to bed...

So my husband had a really good idea around 10:30 PM. "Why don't we just go to bed?" he said. I thought that sounded like a good plan, so I called my friend from class to see where they were and what was going on. Turns out she left her phone at home, which had my number in it, so she couldn't call. In an effort to contact me, she changed her voicemail to give her hubby's cell number so I could call her. And I called her and left a message saying we were going to call it a night. And she called back and told me the story I just told you. And it is all good, but we did not go to Shout. We will go sometime, mark my words, but for now I'm looking forward to sleeping a bit.