Events since September

WOW!

It has been a long time since I've posted anything! This semester has by far been the busiest one since I began college in the fall of 2008. As you probably already know I took 18 hours (6 classes) and began working with Dr. Cline on a research project. The 15 weeks of school were very stressful and yet very exciting all at once. I learned many valuable things for when I enter the classroom and to never, ever, ever take 6 classes again. However, it was very rewarding on December 20th when final grades were available. For the semester I had a 3.7 GPA ( 5 A's and 1 B) which brought my overall GPA up to a 2.922!

I did not have time for many other things. Although I was able to have a very enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend with my husband. This was extra special for the both of us because we were unable to spend time together due to all the studying and class projects I had to complete. It was a different Thanksgiving. Nathan and I did not go anywhere or see anyone with the exception of my family through a video conference. That was pretty interesting but it was fun to see/talk to them all.

When the semester was finally over Nathan and I prepared to go on a mini-vacation with my family to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. If you have never been you should go. It was a neat small little town with many interesting shops and a beautiful historic hotel, The Crescent Hotel, which we stayed at. We also visited the Christ of the Ozarks which was a lot of fun to see up close and read the history behind why it was built. The purpose of this mini-vacation was twofold. We primarily went to celebrate my parents 30th anniversary!! My sister and I made a beautiful afghan with their wedding colors for their gift. Also, my father had arranged for us to have family photos taken. I'm excited to see how they turned out. Secondly, we celebrated our families Christmas together on the last day of the trip. The last bonus to the trip was being able to see my grandfather's. It was nice spending some time with them since they live 8 hours away and is difficult to visit.

When we returned home we were able to spend a couple of days lounging around. Christmas Eve we spent the early afternoon with his mother's family at his sister Katrina's home. It was good seeing all of them again because I had not had a chance to spend any time with them since school began. However, Christmas Eve morning I was sick and not feeling good all throughout the day, therefore, we missed going to the Christmas Eve service at our church, which is sad because it is such a beautiful and uplifting service that puts you in the perfect mood for Christmas day. On Christmas day we traveled up to Mountain City to spend time with his dad's family. I was able to see their new home which is located perfectly in the mountains. It was very enjoyable spending time with them all.

Since Christmas we have spent time at home lounging around and doing small house work projects. I have also begun to cross stitch again. I'm very excited about this as I have not found a crochet project that excites me yet.

I have many photos to share and will post them all at a later time(very soon) as I still do not have some of them on the computer.

First Week of School

The first week of Fall 2011 has ended. I always like the beginning of the semester and yet I don't. It is always a bit daunting when you learn of all the projects and papers that you must complete in 15 weeks. Also, there are two new aspects to this semester.

First, I am taking 18 hours. The most I've ever taken is 15 and that always felt like a lot. I think I'll be fine because I'm not working and I have more time to study and work on my projects. Secondly, I am working with Dr. Cline on a research project. This seems like a lot of fun. It will be a learning experience and a positive thing when I further my education with a master's degree or possibly a doctorate.

I'm taking: early literacy, creative development, guiding young children, designing physical environments, developmental psychology and health and safety with young children. I have several projects for each class and observation hours for two of them. However, in my creative class, the entire class will do the observation hours together which will be interesting. In my guiding class I will be going to University school to do 10 hours of observation.

A couple of projects I'm looking forward to are: making a cd of me reading a book, creating a game and a snack for my health and safety class. I'm not to excited about the physical environment class because I  will have to critique two articles from a peer-reviewed journal and write a 7-10 page paper! YUCK!!!

In other news, the blazer is still out of commission :(  Only having one vehicle is sometimes problematic when we have things to do in the same time frame.

Some fun news is that we have purchased four more games: Life, Logo, Rook, and Dominoes. We played Life yesterday and Nathan won. Today we are going to play Logo and tomorrow Rook. Dominoes we are leaving for next weekend.

I think that about sums up the week. It will be an interesting and busy semester. Until next time my friends! :)

The End of Summer and a Chapter in my Life

In the month since my last posting many more things have happened.

We did go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2. It was AMAZING!!!! I loved the whole thing it was great. There was however a small moment of stress in which I wasn't sure that we were going to see the movie on the night we had purchased tickets. Here is what happened: the reel broke in the theater we were to see the movie in and when we tried to exchange our tickets we were first only told that we could exchange them for another night. As crazy as this might sound, I began to tear up a bit :). Therefore, my wonderful husband Nathan asked if there was any way we could still see it that night at a different time, this was fine with them so crisis averted, yay! The next week we went to see Captain America, which was nice.

At the end of July my parents came into town and we all assisted my sister and brother-in-law finish up some last minute packing and ate at some new to us local restaurants.  My sister and brother-in-law have moved far far away to the great land of Chicago, IL. It was sad to see them leave but hopefully they will return next summer after Preston's internship is completed.

We first went to Farmer's Daughter which is near Greeneville. It was a long ride out there but well worth it, the food was served family style and very delicious. The following day we went to Ridgewood barbque in Elizabethton. That food was beyond amazing good. We ordered a blue cheese bowl which was HUGE and goes perfect on fries and the sandwich. The barbque in the sandwich seemed like a pound! I was surprised I ate the whole sandwich plus many fries and some beans that Nathan and I shared. Needless to say I wasn't hungry the rest of the day, haha. One bit of interesting trivia is that in telling my mother-in-law about eating at Ridgewood she informed us that his father's grandfather, Nathan's great-grandfather, John Proffit, is the person whose receipes are followed to this day at Ridgewood.

The month of August was more working and doing little things around the house. I have completed crocheting two of my Christmas gifts and a baby blanket for my niece Emily which is going to have her baby girl any day now. The one big thing for this month is that a big chapter of my life has come to a close. Yesterday, August 26, 2011, was my last day of employment with Walgreens. I began working for them on October 3, 2006. The purpose of me leaving is two-fold. First, I'm nearing the completion of my bachelor's degree and will be required to do more observations in schools and I am working with one of my professors on a research project that will provide me with some experience with research to help me once I continue my education for a masters or a doctorate. Secondly, I'm tired of working and going to school at the same time. I have been doing this for three years now. My goal is to finish up in no more than 4 semesters which means I would graduate in May 2013.

Monday, August 29, 2011, will begin the fall 2011 semester. I'm so excited about this. It will be such a fun and busy time. The classes I'm taking consist of: health and safety with young children, guiding young children, creative development of young children, designing physical environments, developmental psychology, and early literacy. I'm really excited about the early literacy class due to my love for reading.

Well, I believe that is about it for now.

First Two Months of Summer

It has been about a month and a half since I've posted anything here. Mainly because I've wanted some time to be lazy.

So what has been happening in my life?

Not a whole lot of anything. I've been working 40 hours every week and will continue to do so until school begins. Some days I hate it because I just want to enjoy the nice summer we are having but other times I think it is nice because it keeps me busy with something productive to do. Not to say I'm not being productive away from work because I am. Nathan and I are thoroughly cleaning and reorganizing our entire house! Boy! Is that a job. Although, right now if you were to walk in the house it looks horrible and messy. It is a work in progress that at times becomes frustrating. We are getting there. Last weekend we cleaned out the master bath and bedroom and this weekend we are cleaning out the closet, this may take a few days.

Last week was my mother's birthday. We met my parents at the Cumberland County Playhouse and watched Oklahoma. It was very good. My only negative thought about the play is that it was so LONG! It lasted for three hours and definitely felt like it. We then had dinner at Chili's which wasn't as good as we remembered Chili's being. However, it was nice spending the day with my parents. The next day we went to Memphis to see my grandfathers and I'm very glad we did this because it has been a year since I've seen them. It would be nice to see them more often but being 8 hours away makes that difficult. All in all it was a wonderful weekend spent visiting my parents :)

In other random news....I have begun reading Herman Melville's first novel "Typee". I like it but it is hard for me to read and follow because we don't use many of the words he uses anymore. I try to read at least one chapter a day which is about as much as my brain can handle. I'm purchasing tickets today for Nathan and I to go see the last Harry Potter movie. It's very sad and yet very exciting all at the same time.

Well, I think that pretty much catches things up :)

Summer's Beginning

It's been a long time since I've posted anything. Much has happened:)

First, classes finished two weeks ago. I have a 3.9 GPA for the semester, 3 A's and 1 B, which makes my overall GPA a 2.6. I'm very happy with this because I need at least a 2.5 GPA to be accepted into the education program. Also related to school I found out that I can't have my interview for the education department until January:(

Second, my sister finished her master's in social work! YEA!!! Nathan and I attended her hooding ceremony and it was very nice and short. My parents were able to be in town and we all went to Carrabba's for dinner. Most delicious:) My parents gave us a small gift of old videos of us when we were younger. I haven't watched them yet but I'm very grateful that they did that for us.

Third our blazer messed up again! This time it is the transmission so we aren't sure what we are going to do about it yet.

Fourthly, I've been lazy and enjoying my time off from school. However, I haven't really accomplished anything. Therefore, I'm going to sit down tonight and make a list of things I want to accomplish in these four months and get to work on it.

Well, that's all for the moment:)

3 more days of class :)

It's been a while since I've written anything and I feel like a lot of things have happened.

First, Nathan has been volunteering with the Kids in Action program at our church, Munsey United Methodist, which is a program through Coalition for Kids. I'm so proud of him and grateful that he has found something positive to do with some of his time that is outside of the home. Well, the kids of the program served us dinner one Thursday night. They made place mats, and flowers to decorate the tables with and served the entire meal with a couple of adults assisting them. It was the sweetest thing I seen in a while from kids that are at the age of not wanting much to do with adults. It was a lot of fun for us. It also sparked a thought in my mind to volunteer with their summer program.

Secondly, I finally got over my "sickness". I think it was allergies. However, the sneezing, cough, drainage, weakness, and appetite have gone away thanks to Claritin D. It is so nice to feel hungry sometimes again.

Thirdly, I turned 28!! April 17th was the big day:) However, it wasn't much of a celebration this year because I was trying to finish up all my work for the last two weeks of school. The one really cool thing is that my wonderful husband made me a beautiful bunny cake. It was so cool and it's only Tuesday and it's all gone. It was strawberry, the best ever:)

Fourthly, Nathan was in the ER on and on for two days, sorta. Monday afternoon he was being a stubborn man and pulled a washer up our outside steps from the basement to haul off and cracked something in his back. That evening we spent almost four hours in the ER room and didn't see a doctor!! HOW PATHETIC IS THAT!! He went back on Tuesday morning at 9am and didn't leave the ER until 2pm! Then spent about another hour and a half at his doctor's office and the pharmacy.

I think that wraps up the big events in my life since the last posting.

One really cool thing I have learned about in school recently is a program called PREZI!! Everyone should check it out. It is a presentation program alternative to PowerPoint. I have made one so far for my activism project, the other people in my group will be editing it as well so it's not a finished product yet. I will post it once it is complete. It was a lot of fun to put together and I really like how it looks when I actually go through the presentation. It is so different and more intriguing to watch than a plain same ol' same ol' PowerPoint. With prezi you can have a a free account if you have an edu email account which simply gives you more options for making your presentations.




I'm looking forward to the summer and I'm glad I finally found my niche:)

The End of the Semester

Yesterday my sister and I walked our first 5k. It was a lot of fun! We finished about midway through the entire crowd and we were happy with that :) The proceeds from the race went for SANE nurses. A SANE nurse is one specially trained in forensics to assist people of a sexual assault feel more comfortable and less pressured to deal with the police when they are not ready to.

I have FIVE weeks of class remaining! I'm so excited for summer to be here and have less stress. I really only have TEN more days of class. The other big bonus is that I have NO FINALS this semester which makes the end much nicer.

One new thing I have started this month is taking barley max. WOW! What a difference it makes. It's very nasty stuff, smells horrible and tastes just as bad but provides me with a fuller feeling all day long and I feel more energized. Apple juice makes it taste a little better.

Slowly, I'm going to start thinking about my plans for the summer...what will I do for four months without school??

14 more days of class!

Spring Break is over :(  I went back to work on Saturday and that was a sad day. Maximus wasn't very happy either. I wonder how he will be tomorrow when I will be gone most of the day?

What was accomplished that I wanted to get done?

I wrote my paper and completed a few of the other things I wanted so on that front it was good. I worked on my oral presentation and have a few ideas to share with my group, so thankful that part of the project is done.
I completed my craft list for VBS and had a wonderful little meeting with the director and found out I will be having two other people help me with the class!! YEA! On the house front.....NOT GOOD! I only cleaned two rooms completely and made a bigger mess in the living room with bringing out the summer clothes :( However, I did relax a lot and spent some great time with Nathan.

We had a great first anniversary. Church was fun and Nathan loved the snow. The weather was the opposite and we were definitely more relaxed than a year ago:) It was a fun day though all throughout we would talk about a year ago this and a year ago that. I enjoyed remembering and laughing about it. It was the best day ever:)

Well, must go off to bed and knock out these 14 days (7 weeks) left of this semester with a bang!

Spring Break/Vacation

Today and for the next six days I do not have to go to work or to school!! How exciting, however I don't really feel like I'm getting a break.

How come?

Well, I have one five page paper to write and many other small assignments to either catch up on or actually do. The last day of one of my classes she told us about our next oral presentation and so I'm going to use this time to gather up some ideas and work on that as well. That's just school.

I also will be working some on my craft class for vacation bible school at church. I will be narrowing down the crafts we will do each week and come up with a materials list. Also, I have a meeting on Thursday with the main lady in charge.

Then there is the spring cleaning to be done, I try to do a very thorough cleaning of the whole house every three months because all of our wonderful animals plus the two of us, I just feel like it gets really dirty really fast!!

Lastly, I'm working on a little project for a my women studies blog. I'm going to be talking about body image next. Therefore, I'm keeping up with how long it takes to get ready each day, shave, fix hair, put makeup on, etc., as well as the other womanly duties "they" say we should be doing as in the cleaning, cooking, and washing clothes.

So, I ask...where is my vacation? I though I was supposed to have a "break" on spring break?

A year ago today I was getting ready to marry Nathan! Wow! It seems like much longer than that to me. I still remember how nervous, uptight, and worried how I must have forgotten to plan something or do something that everyone know you do at your wedding:) I still have not finished putting together our wedding/guestbook quilt. I'm hoping to do that this summer and finish our wedding album and get it all updated (I've been working on this). We've grown a lot this year and hoping to become three in the new year of our live together. I've added a few of our favorite pictures for you to enjoy:)

The Beginning

I've decided to being blogging. I was very much turned on by this idea because of my class project in a Women Studies class. Also, I have noticed a huge increase in the people around me that either blog themselves or follow someone that does.

When I was thinking of this I wondered what exactly "blogging" was and why would someone do it. I turned to the dictionary for my answers. I looked up three words: blog, ponder and, life.

Blog: a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.

Ponder: to weigh in the mind

Life: this word has many definitions and the one I chose is: the sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual

Putting this together this is my definition of blogging: a website created by a person that is their personal journal that they wish to share with the world that contains that persons experiences throughout their time on earth.

That is what I desire this blog to be. My thoughts and experiences and how I view the world around me and the bigger picture at times. Also, my goal is to highlight an informational piece to bring awareness to something that is affecting our world directly or indirectly.

With all that being said, enjoy!