Good times and pet peeves

The past few days have been fun ones. Yesterday (Saturday) my mom, dad, and Jonathan went to Canton, OH for a 25th wedding anniversary party for some old friends of ours and got to see some people we rarely get to see anymore. We stopped by another couple's house that we used to always go camping with and the 30 minutes or so that we were there was such a blessing. They're so much fun and I miss camping with them. Being up there also kinda made me wanna live there someday...maybe. Then today I drove down to Dayton again, only this time to watch some IWU boys play in a club soccer league. Elisa, Rachel, Brandon, Chris, Matt, Robert, Tyler, Michael, and me all hung out for the afternoon doing the typical IWU thing: sitting/standing around talking. We can go anywhere in the U.S. and do the same thing...stand and talk. :) They played only half of their game due to thunderstorms and then we went to get food for the hungry boys. (We'd already eaten at some shady little Mexican place that Matt had his heart set on eating at.) So, ya, good times, although I kinda missed going up to see some friend from high school at a graduation open house. I was kinda torn, but decided on Dayton.

So here's the pet peeves part....I don't usually like to sound whiney and complaining but I gotta get this out:

*Jonathan and I being mistaken for bf/gf....come on people!! We look identical!!!
*Being in the middle of a story and having someone listening just turn their head and ignore me....love it...makes me feel freakin' great
*Being forgotten about
*Getting made fun of for EVERYTHING I say or do
*Getting fewer hours to work than people who do HALF the work I do in 6 hours.......grrrrrrrrrr
*Valley Girls....'nuff said
*High school girls who think they're gonna marry the guy they're dating now....reality check please
*paying for a big dinner for tons of people and never getting paid back
*Incessant tapping...on everything

I'm just gonna stop there before I get heated up just thinking of things.......I think, though that numbers 2&3 are more hurtful than annoying....and they happen more than you may think but usually by certain people....

Gorgeous Skyline

Tonight I went and hung out with my friend Rose and her roomates in Columbus. We went bowling ( I sucked...even fell...lol....stupid shoes) and then got some ice cream and back to Rosie's for some good chillin' out and talking time. It was a lot of fun and her roomates were veyr welcoming and friendly. It was nice to go hang out with college aged people again and not spend the night at home.

I go through these phases where one minute I like Columbus and the next I don't. Like today when I got home from work, I was by myself for a few hours and hated it. I didn't have my cell to call friends, didn't know anyone locally I could hang out with so I ate dinner by myself, then took a nap. Didn't like being here much then, but then I went to Rose's and had a great time. The drive back was great cause I had an incredible view of the city. I'm definitely a country kinda girl but I love the city at night. It was gorgeous! Columbus really can be a great city. It's just gonna take some getting used to; I still need to learn the ropes and learn my way around this big city...then things will be a bit better.

Small blessing from a Big God

I got home from work today and saw what appeared to be a paycheck from IWU on the table for me. I grabbed it thinking, "this is odd....not sure what this would be from....probably only like $3 since I barely worked over May term." I opened it to find that it was a check for $60!! No clue where this came from cause I thought I'd gotten paid for all the coffee shop work I did over May term already but I guess not. Praise God! You see, I don't just see it as a paycheck but a blessing from God. He knows how much I've been stressing over money and job stuff and the past week He's provided through unexpected things. First I find money stashed in a pocket of my wallet, now I get an unexpected paycheck....I need to quit underestimating my awesome God!

Still Praying

So I again went and applied at a few other places this morning...HOPING and PRAYING that one will call me to work part time in the morning. I applied at another Starbucks, this time putting that I could work when they open...that's 5am...come'on people...no one else wants to work that, I'm sure! Call me! I'm just so stressed about this...I've been doing a lot of praying the past 48 hours or so, not that praying is a rare thing but you get the idea. I just gotta keep trusting God.

I'm a what?!

So I took this little online quiz that my friend Megan had on her journal and this is what it said:

You Are a Natural Beauty!
You're the kind of beauty that every guy dreams about...
One that looks good in the morning - without a stich of makeup
That's doesn't mean you're a total hippie chic though
You have style, but for you, style is effortless

Are you kidding me?! Ya right.....lol....effortless.....whatever

First day on the job

Started work today. Went ok, nothing real exciting, just piece work at a factory. You get paid by how much you do and since it was my first day, it took a bit for me to get the hang of it, so I didn't make a bunch. I'm hoping to get more hours, but the owner isn't sure of the jobs he'll be getting in (it's a distribution center) so I guess I get to play it by ear how many hours I'll work. Kinda stinks cause I need the money desperately to pay off may term and summer online course, but I don't wanna go apply at another place if he's gonna give me more hours and if I have this online course coming up soon. This is where my faith is put into action. I just need to trust that God will work things out. Like just the other day I was fretting cause my checking account is really really low (forgot to write a check in..oops) and I was out with friends and just hated that I had such little money and would be spending more since I was out with them. I was looking in my wallet just fiddling through other pockets cause I was bored and low and behold there was $25!!! No clue what it was from but I'm gonna take it as a nice little gift from God. Thanks God! I hate living from summer to summer and having such little money in my account by the end of the school year, but then I think about how little debt I'm gonna have when I graduate cause I reduce my loans just about every year which is why I end up with such little money in the end. I'd rather have just enough money and little debt than a lot of money and a lot of debt. So, I guess for now I get to wait and just see what God has in store for me this summer and see how He works things out cause He always does.

Yea for Dayton!

I spent the weekend down in Dayton with my close girl friends from high school. So much fun!! Well, before that I had to get there which normally would not be anything big, just an hour drive, but not this time. Oh, no my friends. We had horrible thunderstorms. I pulled over twice it was so bad. We had hail and we had heard that it was so big in columbus that it busted some guy's window so I was getting a little concerned. Storms and rain don't usually bother me but this started to when I hear weather alerts on the radio for the county I'm about to enter and the sky is a deathly gray/black color. I was so tense driving half the way there through it all. I finally got there about an hour and a half after I left. We went to Starbucks for some quality time together and then headed back to their apartement for a movie. Liz and I did some shopping the next day and then we went to Courtney's work picnic and went on a little boat ride around the 'lake'. Pathetic lake but whatever. I got to ride in the boat so that was fun. Can't wait til Jon and I take the boat out this summer. :) We ate at Max and Erma's and Amy and Donny secretly told the waitress that it was Courtney's birthday and so we they came out and sang to her and gave her cake. Funny thing is, it wasn't her birthday....not til July. haha....slightly dishonest. Tim Pitts came up from the Natti (Cincinatti for all you who aren't from Ohio) and we all went and saw Shrek 2...funny! Our night ended with us girls watching Romeo and Juliet with our own 1/2 pint of Ben and Jerry's in our lap. Good days! Love my Dayton girls!

OOPS!

DO NOT click on the little underlined word in the next blog...the blog thing automatically did it and I don't know how to undo it so please don't click it....it goes to a porn site....lol...just my luck. I repeat DON'T CLICK IT!!

There's no place like home

Home at last!! It's so nice to be home. I don't have a lot of room for my stuff and so most of it is piled up in the living room for now which drives me nuts. I didn't live at home last summer when we moved so there really hasn't been space set aside for me so I'll just have to make space. Packing yesterday was intense. I know it was cause I can feel every muscle in my body today from lifting things all day, and obviously the wrong way cause my back hurts. So Jen and I had couches and other big things to move to storage so good 'ole Chris Boyer came to our aid with Levi's truck. Chris stood holding two pieces of furniture on end in the back while us girls sat up front (me driving :) ) and blarred music. You can find out a lot about a person by their music. Our favorite CD was one some girl burned for him and was a mix of 80's music. Our favorite was "Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun" good times I tell ya! So after all that and Kara and I packing my Explorer to the brim with my stuff, I left Marion for the next 3 months...yea! Came home to a roast dinner....God bless my mom :) I passed out in bed at 11pm Indiana time absolutely exhausted from the day's events. Now it's time to see about that job thing....ugh.

Tear

Well folks, the time has almost come for May term to end and I'm kinda sad, not to leave 'school' but to leave friends. We had 15-20 people here tonight for dinner (tacos..yum!) and then went to the movies and hung out and I loved it! It really made me miss hanging out and seeing everyone every day. That's the thing I hate about summer but I guess it makes everyone want to get back to school in the fall so in the long run it's good. It's sad to think that in a year, I'm not gonna see some of these people ever again. Wow. That's kinda tough to swallow....turning a new page in my life soon. yikes...ok, enough career/future talk.......all I gotta say is I'm stinking blessed so have such great friends!

um.....no clue

right, so i just decided to get on and write an entry. i have no clue what to write, just felt like writing and we'll see what pops up in my head. so i love how no one really gets dressed for class during may term....what i mean by that is that most come in jeans and a t-shirt or sweats (my preference). i love it! who wants to get ready for 3 hours of sitting in class, just to go back and study or workout....puh-leeze....waste of my time. my sweats and t-shirt are quite comfy. i've gone a lot more without makeup...liking that too. it's really nice to just not care at all.


i really want ice cream right now, but i don't feel like driving to get it...dang it.....if only they had delivery ice cream; you just call 'em up and say, "i'd like 2 scoops of moose tracks in a waffle bowl with some whipped cream on top delivered to ....." that would rock! course, i'd be about 40 lbs heavier than i am now so on second thought, maybe that's a bad idea. we'd go from being an obese nation to a 'they look like they swallowed a cow' nation...that would be bad. and so i now end my blog of random thoughts. g'night y'all

A lesson from my shins

So I've got these awful shin splints that have developed over the past 2-3 weeks from running. They're quite painful; they've went to hurting just when I run, to hurting whenever I walk. Not good. For awhile I just tried to tough it out and learned to ignore the pain....again not good. I finally went to Coach Foss who's heading up my walk, jog, run class, and told him things just weren't getting better so he sent me to go see a trainer. I went today and received some good news: I don't have a stress fracture!! Praise God! I was really scared that I did and that really wouldn't be good. BUT, I do have a really week muscle that runs along my inner shin and the ligament runs to my big toe, making my ankles weak so he told me how to strengthen that muscle and told me no running. That's gonna be difficult...I love to go run when it's this nice out and now I can't, not because of time but cause of my stupid legs. I can, though, go bike or use the EFX so I can still stay active so I guess I should count my blessings. So where's the lesson come in?? Well, in Old Testament today, we were discussing Job and how suffering has a purpose and that's why God often allows it and it dawned on me that maybe God wants to teach me something through all this and I should quite whining and thank Him for legs and the ability to run. So, thanks God for shin splints!

Family time

What a great day! Here's why:

Morning run with the brohams: This morning Jon, Josh, and I got up and ran together,...ok, maybe more like they ran ahead of me (again, blaming stupid shins...probably shouldn't run). But still, it was fun to go run with them.

Education talk: My aunt Terri used to be an LD teacher and is currently a librarian and will have her doctorate by the end of the summer. She and I talked for awhile this morning about literacy in the classroom. Her advisor at Kent State happens to be the author of my textbook for Literacy in Diverse Classrooms....ironic eh??

FAMILY!!! Most of my mom's side of the family was over at my aunt and uncle's to celebrate my Uncle Ray's 50th birthday, although, I think it really revolved around two little people: my cousins Summer and Emily who are 3 and 1 year old. Talk about fun! Summer has quite the personality....bossy, talkative, and bold. We found a frog outside and she absolutely loved it....didn't quit squeezing it for some time. Emily is just now walking. I got some good well-needed baby time in. :) I absolutely love going to my aunt and uncle's house. My aunt is so much fun; great sense of humor, excellent cook, and very smart. We have so much fun there! Plus, they have quite a bit of money so we live a little better when we're there :) I realized today after coming back from running, that one of the things that makes it feel like home is the smell. You know how every house has a smell to it....my aunt and uncle's house is a combination of some good food, maybe coffee too, perfume and....sheesh, i don't even know, but it's good and so inviting! It brings back so many memories of when I was a kid and we'd go visit all the time.

Josh's band: Joshua is in a new band in which he plays the drums. They had their first gig tonight and they did really well. This band is definitely better than the band he was in where we used to live. They have a lot of tricky rhythms that make drumming difficult, but Josh is really good and he did awesome tonight! (ok, so maybe I'm a little partial, but really, he is good)

So, ya, that was my day.....and it was good :)

Shin Splints...ahhh!

Blast you stupid shin splints!! If only my calf muscle wouldn't pull away from my bone, running would be so much more enjoyable, but no.....they have to give me grief, especially at 8am when I have to run for walk, jog, run class....and there's another good question.....why do we insist on running in the MORNING?? ahhh! maybe I shouldn't have taken this class......I can run double at night what I run in the morning...crazy eh??

Nursing Home Lessons

Tonight my family visited my Grandma in the nursing home on our way to my aunt and uncle's in northeast Ohio. I'll be honest, nursing homes kinda make me uncomfortable. It's difficult to know what to do or say to those who have begun to loose and say random things. I also can't handle the smell. I do, though, love going through at Christmas and singing carols up and down the halls. Really puts things in perspective for ya. I watched one of the nurses care for a woman and I wanted to just applaud him right there. Those people are amazing and get no credit for doing such an unwanted job. It's not real glamourous to wash people and clean their beds after they've soiled them. I don't think we give them enough credit. I know I couldn't do it. Geriatrics is not my cup of tea, no sir. I find that everytime I visit a nursing home, I leave feeling blessed and having been reminded of how lucky I am to not be living in a place like that. Those people are often very lonely. I hope I don't have to be put in a nursing home some day. So, ya, take the time to go visit loved ones in nursing homes and you'll find that you're not only brightening their day, but yours as well.

What's in a Name?

I'm currently taking Old Testament and have, obviously, been reading a lot. One thing that has caught my attention and really interested me is the meaning behind the names in the Bible and how it portrayed some aspect of their life or how they were conceived. Like Jonathan means "the Lord has given or giver" and to see how much Jonathan gave in his friendship with David. Sarah means "princess", Joshua means "the Lord saves", Samson means "sun" or "brightness". Kinda makes me wish I had a biblical name. I think I'll look more into the meanings of names when I have kids someday and am figuring out names. Kinda cool eh?

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!!

Ya, that's the name of a movie, not a fundraiser. I watched this movie last night and loved it! Not only was it a good chick flick (hey, I'm a girl, what can I say?) but it was hysterical! Lots of sarcastic humor, which I love, throughout the entire thing, mainly by one character who kinda reminds me of Nate Woods (if you know who this is, you completely understand). The really funny part in the night was when someone pointed out that the actor playing Tad Hamilton looked like Levi Huffman....I BURST out laughing! For some reason it really struck me as funny, but the more I watched, the more I agreed. Hahaha! So maybe a new money making ploy would be "Win a Date with Levi Huffman!" Hahahahaha!! How funny would that be?!? Ok, so it's completely against university rules to not date students but it would be really funny. So, um, ya, go rent and watch this movie cause it's funny....sorry this is quite the random blog...lol......may term will do that to ya.

Hello Highlights

So, kinda on a whim, I decided to put some highlights in my hair, nothing too drastic, just trying to blend in the color difference from the top of my head to the ends of my hair. Stacey did it for me and it's not too bad....not really very noticable to tell you the truth, except for a few strands right around my face....they're quite blond...haha. I just find I get bored with my hair and I'm refraining from chopping it off since the summer's coming up and it needs to be long enough to pull back, but don't be afraid if a few weeks into school next fall, you see me one day with long hair and then next day it's back to above my shoulders.....can you really blame a girl?? And to all those boys who like girls with long hair....puh-leeze!

On my Own....kinda

Considering the fact that I live in a house, I decided it would be stupid to get a meal plan, so I've been cooking for myself these past few days. Tuesday I made enough enchiladas to feed an army (ok, not quite). It's kinda fun cooking for myself, although, even though I enjoy it, I don't know how to cook a lot. Baking's another story...I could bake all day but I don't know as much about cooking. It's also difficult to figure out how to cook for one as opposed to 6 at home. Makes me wanna go to culinary school even more :) I wish I had more money to really experiment with stuff....guess I can do that this summer :)