AMES!

I am sitting here writing this post from my kitchen...say what?! I am absolutely loving my new "dorm room," or I should say on campus apartment  So far it has been hard work getting used to everything and a schedule and a routine again..but I love it.  I mean it's not really hard work, but getting into the swing of things is exciting.  Anyway, we've got mostly everything put away and set up.  We've already made dinners and had a   few breakfasts together.  It helps when your roommates are in most of the same classes with you and you have the same schedules to plan dinners and different things together.

This semester is going to be a challenging one, I am a full time student working two jobs, and still having somewhat of a social life..maybe.  We'll see as the semester goes on.  It will all work itself out!

Classes started on Monday..my first class of fall semester is Math.  I hate math...but honestly I got more out of my first hour and fifteen minutes of this math class than I did all of last year during fall semester.  This time I WILL PASS..even if it kills me.

Being back in Ames has been fun!  I am so glad that I have made such good friends that we can go out and do random things and go to the store when we want to and just being here to talk to each other.  Love it!

For now, I think that is all I have to talk about!  I will have to post some photos of our apartment and my room and what not.  Talk to ya'll soon!

Guilty.

Well, well, well. It has definitely been a while since I've made an appearance on my blog. It has been an interesting summer...a very short summer as well! School ended in early May, and ever since it has been go go go! I ended up taking a job this summer in Chicago nannying 3 kids, ages 4,6, and 8. They have been so much fun and I have gotten to do so many things that I didn't think that I would be able to do with a different full time job. It's a hard life sitting on the beach reading a book, or walking around the Shedd Aquarium and the zoo! KIDDING! It has been a blast and I am going to miss those kiddos! We definitely had our off days though, but we got through them and had fun anyway! While nannying, I got to stay in the city and live with my Babcia! It has been amazing and I am so grateful for the time I have been able to spend with her this summer.  I will miss her so much and i know that she will also miss me. She has definitely spoiled me beyond belief. She has made countless breakfasts and dinners.  I have no idea how I am going to be able to go back to school and survive! Haha just kidding! I love to cook and be domestic. My roommates are going to be some lucky ducks!

I have been able to go to a few concerts, a couple of weddings, and I got to take a mini daycation to visit my BFF Emilee! She had foot surgery in July and I got to go and spend the day with her and drive miss Daisy around! Haha, but we had fun catching up and relaxing and just watching The Golden Girls all day!  That was really the only vacation that I was able to take. But that's okay!  

It is crazy to think that a whole summer has gone by and in less that 48 hours I will be back in Iowa, moving in, and going to the Iowa State Fair. It will be my first state fair experience and I am very excited, and we can do this regularly and make a tradition out of it! It is going to be a busy week ahead for me at least! Tomorrow is my last day of nannying (I'm going to miss those kiddos!), and I need to go home and pack everything up and get myself ready to leave early wednesday morning. I'll move in, and get everything situated. Friday I will be coming back to Illinois to return the car my mother has so graciously allowed me to use all summer, and go to my last concert of e summer Saturday night (WHo could skip on LUKE BRYAN AND JASON ALDEAN?! A crazy person, that's for sure!) would miss it for the world! I will also be my last outing with Kelly. BUMMER! And Sunday morning Kelly and I will be getting up at the crack of dawn and she is dropping my off downtown and I will be taking a bus back to school to start my "second" senior year. Slowly but surely I am getting there and will have a degree! It might take me 20 years, but I'll get there. And classes start on Monday. Luckily work doesn't start until the second week of classes, so I will be able to get into a routine, ad get myself situated in my apartment and get used to everything again.

Hopefully some fun things will happen this year and I will be able to keep everyone informed! To leave you, I will share some photo highlights of my summer with ya'all!

VEISHEA

VEISHEA definitely got the best of me this weekend..late nights full of craziness and fun.  The dorms were loud and packed as were the streets of Ames this week and weekend. Friday night the girls and I hung out.  It was so much fun to get to see them and spend time with them.  We went to a softball game, then to dinner and did a little shopping.  Then Saturday night Kaci and I went to the Hunter Hayes concert! He was so good! Pictures are below! Then we went out for a little while and walked down Welch which was just packed with people.  So we came back to the dorms and hung out and stayed up late!

There are 5 school days left...and then next week there's 5 days of finals. I don't know whether to be excited to go home for the summer or sad to leave Ames for the summer.  We'll see what happens!  I already know that I am going to have to stay in Iowa next summer.  That will be fun though!  I can work throughout the summer at my job and I am also looking into working at a place called Childserve.  It is a place that disabled children can live and be watched during the day while parents are at work.  I can also do in home respite care.  So that will be fun too! And of course Friends would either be here in Ames or just a short drive away.

Well, I should be off to clean up my room and get ready for the day..until next time.

Goodbye..

Tonight I said goodbye to Facebook.  It was seriously not helping me get homework and other things done.  Also, everyone's negativity was really getting to me.  There is SO MUCH more to life then complaining and living like that.  It is just not meant to be anymore.  Maybe it will come back for the summer or something, but it's gone for now!

I should really be writing my final paper for my child development class..but as you can see that is not happening. I've got until Thursday at 11:59pm to turn it in..so maybe it will get done Thursday morning..if not sooner.

This whole looking for a job for the summer is so not working out well.  I've applied for so many..and I've gotten 3 calls.  One telling me that all of their positions were full, one wanting to set up an interview..but because I am still in Iowa they wouldn't do a phone interview, and one that told me that they would set an interview up for me if I called back the first week of May.  It is at the Palatine YMCA, so it's not totally close, but it would be a job working with kids, and that is exactly what I want.  So if offered..I will take it!

This weekend was good, I went home with Kaci..again.  I'm glad he family keeps letting me come back. Plus I love spending time with her and of course her family.

Other than that, this week is VEISHEA!  It's supposed to get super crazy and what not...so far it's been good.

Hunter Hayes is Saturday night! Getting super excited for that too!

I think that's it..maybe time to start writing my paper...more like finding other things to procrastinate with...

I was just reading this...in class (sorry mom!) and I thought that it was just worth reading! You are beautiful.  You are enough.  The world we live in is twisted and broken and for your entire life you will be subjected to all kinds of lies that tell you that you are not enough.  You are not thin enough.  You are not tan enough.  You are not smooth, soft, shiny, firm, tight, fit, silky, blonde, hairless enough.  Your teeth are not white enough.  Your legs are not long enough.  Your clothes are not stylish enough.  You are not educated enough.  You don’t have enough experience.  You are not creative enough. There is a beauty industry, a fashion industry, a television industry, (and most unfortunately) a pornography industry: and all of these have unique ways of communicating to bright young women: you are not beautiful, sexy, smart or valuable enough. You must have the clarity and common sense to know that none of that is true. None of it. You were created for a purpose, exactly so.  You have innate value.  You are loved more than you could ever comprehend; it is mind-boggling how much you are adored.  There has never been, and there will never be another you.  Therefore, you have unique thoughts to offer the world.  They are only yours, and we all lose out if you are too fearful to share them. You are beautiful.  You are valuable.  You are enough.  

I have not given up..

As my mom promptly reminded me this morning I have realized that I have no posted in a VERY long time.  School is busy, there are many things to do, homework is crazy..and somehow I still manage to sleep at night. Of course, if it wasn't for at least my one cup of black coffee, I don't think that I could manage getting through the day.  The black coffee definitely come from my mother..and everyone wonders how in the world I can drink coffee black..I couldn't even begin to tell you!


Nothing absolutely major has happened since the last time that I have updated.  Just a few things..I've changed my major..yet again.  I am still in Elementary Education, but I have dropped the English as Second Language specialization and picked up Learning Technologies instead.  I was in an ESL class this semester and I just didn't understand it.  I went in for help multiple times and that didn't help.  So I talked to my adviser and she suggested that if I didn't like it now and didn't understand it now that I would not enjoy teaching it to kids.  So here I am.  My major will now be, Elementary Education, with specializations in Social Studies and Reading, with a minor in Learning Technologies.  Learning Technologies is using technology in the classroom.  Using smart boards, iPads, iPods, Laptops, etc.  It will make me just as marketable for teaching as ESL would.  A lot of schools in Iowa are already on a 1:1 ratio.  Which means that students, even elementary, have one laptop or iPad per student.  Best thing about this is that it wont keep me in school longer..even though I feel like I am going to just make a career out of going to school..


Becky and I, and all of family and friends went wedding dress shopping for her...and..SHE FOUND HER DRESS! So exciting!  Of course I am not going to give away any kinds of details though! 


A couple times this last week Kaci, Katie, and I have gone to see Kaci's friend Tyler, who has no become a friend of all of ours.  Tyler is the friend that I have posted about on Facebook and asked everyone to pray for.  A few weeks ago now, Tyler was having chest pain and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  He found out that he had a hole in his lung, about an inch big. Doctors hoped that it would heal in its own without any large procedures. About a week ago doctors told him that he hole has tripled in size and is now 4 inches big. After many X-rays and tests doctors still don't know what is wrong nor what caused the hole. They blame it on the fact that Tyler is tall and skinny.  Last Tuesday they inserted a chest tube and valve. When he got home he had taken a pain pill and shortly afterward he had passed out.  This was because he took the pill on an empty stomach.  Since then he has been at home resting and on bed rest. Saturday night Kaci and I went to go and see him again and brought him some movies.  Once we left his mom took him to the ER again.  He said that he was in the worst pain he had ever been in from this issue.  Doctors decided that it was best to take out the chest tube and is now back at home on bed rest again and on antibiotics to prevent pneumonia.  We are hoping that this is the last of this problem now and his lung will re inflate on it's own.  If not Tyler will have to have surgery later this week.  So for those of you that are praying, keep praying please!


Other than that, my spring break was good!  It was so nice to not work and just be able to spend some quality time with my friends and family.  

As of right now I am trying to find a summer job at a park district or the YMCA for a summer camp working with kids.  I have applied for 8 positions so far and I have only heard back from one saying that they had hired everyone they needed already.  If I can't find a job like that this summer I always have Hallmark to fall back on, but I would love to be working with kids!

So now I need to get ready for work and for class later on.  That's all that I can think of for now!

A lot has happened..

Well, well, well. I feel like a lot has happened since the last time that I posted..but I know that is also not true. Just a lot in my mind and in my daily life.  Going to class, doing the homework and papers and tests.  Speaking of tests..I have 4 exams next week.. Talk about freak out mode and what it's like. Just ask me..I'm pretty much in it.

Since I posted last I have moved into my new room. LOVING IT! I am able to go to bed when I want to, watch TV and movies when I want to, and study and do my homework alone in my room.   I have slept through the nights and I am a happier person.  I'm sure most of my friends would attest to that.  I also have a feeling that my grades are going to be the most amazing things that anyone has ever seen, since I have no distractions except for myself. Keep your fingers crossed on that on!

I am almost done tutoring and mentoring for the night.  I cannot wait to go back to my room and have some dinner and relaxing time.  Then I will start with the homework!

I don't think that there is much else to say..the main thing is that I am a happy girl and there's a smile on my face! :)