I've seen all my family now, including my "little" cousins from Alabama. The oldest, Caleb, is 13 and almost an inch taller than me! I saw him and my jaw dropped. He's gonna be a big one! They're all so cute and seeing them again made me miss them even more. The younger ones, Stephen and Daniel are such cuties. They've all changed so much in the last two years. I'm thinking about taking a trip to Alabama next summer to see them for a while. I only got to spend four hours with them on Friday and that just wasn't enough.
I also saw my grandfather who's in the nursing home. That was very, very hard. He fell and broke his hip about a week before Christmas but he was out of the hospital and back in the nursing home when we saw him on Saturday. They had his leg in traction and he was in a lot of pain. He recognized us and was very happy to see us. They had just given him two pain pills and after about thirty minutes he was pretty out of it. We left for a while and when we came back he was flying high but still kind of out of it. I must say though, I'd rather see him out of it than in pain. That was unbearable.
All in all I have to say it's been a really good Christmas. I have no plans for New Years, I'll probably just hang out here with the folks... safer than driving around the metroplex at least.
Hmmm I'm stalling... need to start cleaning out some of my old junk to make room for my new acquisitions I've acquired in MN.... It'll be interesting to see in May if all my stuff fits into two rooms and a closet ;)

Oh! On the way down to see my grandfather we stopped by the breeder we got Bear dog from and she said she's about to breed a couple of her dogs and the pups would be born in March. We put in a request for a male and put a down payment... does that seem odd to you? Putting a down payment on a house, car, bike, etc... that I can see.... but a dog? Just seems odd to me, but then I tend to see dogs as partially human *shrug* Anywho, we're getting a puppy!!!!!

I'm home!
Seen one set of grandparents and an aunt, some friends, put up and decorated the christmas tree and wrapped some presents. Not bad for less than 48 hours :)

Wahooooooooo!

(saw ROTK)

Just two tests left & LOTR ROTK comes out tomorrow. Definitely gonna go stand in line for that one, only problem is it's gonna be cold and snowy.... but it's worth it ;)

Lotsa stuff going on, good and bad. At the moment the bads outweighing the good, but I'm sure that'll change... hopefully at least. Somebody tipped my scales and I'm just still trying to recover.

Aya told me to write a letter to Santa, that it would make me feel better... So here goes:


Dear Santa,

I hope all is well up in the North Pole. I've tried really hard to be good this year even though it was really hard sometimes. Hopefully you're grading on a curve this year.

All I want for Christmas is for my family, friends, and critters to be healthy.

Thanks!

Aspen

When you wear your heart on your sleeve it's bound to have a few bumps and bruises.

This post is all about the Word of the Day: Septuagenarians

Courtesy of New Age Girl, by DeadEye Dick.
As heard in Dumb & Dumber.


*just had to look it up!

Warning - in a very reflective/pondering - sort of mood today.


I love life. Really I do. It has this way of throwing you a curve ball when you least expect it. Whoever said life is like a rollercoaster was dead on. It can be exciting and terrifying, it has twists and turns, ups and downs, you can't see coming. That's how my life is at least...

I enjoy many of the surprises and others leave me speechless, sad, shocked... But I never know what's coming next.

I'm wondering about taking control of your destiny... I guess I believe you can control your destiny to a certain extent. The decisions you make and the actions you take affect how your life turns out, but what other's do also affects you. I never know what other people are thinking. Sometimes I think I understand dogs better than people, at least better than men. Very confusing creatures.


Anywho.... enough of that... :)
I finished all the papers I needed to and have turned all but one in - it's due on Tuesday. There's only one week left of class and all I have to worry about now is finals - eek! I have five this semester and I'm really not looking forward to finals week. I need to start studying now, but it's Friday - my break day... I want to just relax and hang out. Of course I'm ta'ing from 8am-6pm tomorrow so I won't have much time to study then, but Sunday... yes Sunday. That is the day I will start studying ;)



Word of the Day: Peccadillo


Picture of the Day: Snow

I had a good Thanksgiving. I went to Aya's house and enjoyed delicious food and good company. Lots of both actually :) Also I had a friend over who couldn't go home for the holiday and Aya had three friends over as well.
I played a game of life, in which I came in second... hmm.. we chatted, watched Dogma and ate. It was a good day.

Went shopping with a friend today. He got a new leather jacket and some pants. He's very excited about his new jacket :)

Now it's time to get to work. I still have 8 pages of write-ups left for Monday's science class. UGH. I can do it in two hours if I just buckle down. *gets a determined look on her face*

Here goes....

Hope everyone's doing well.

Happy Birthday to ME! I'm 25 years old today.

I'm having an awesome birthday.
It started out Sunday afternoon when I had a party at Aya's mom's house. I'd invited her family and the other RA's in my dorm. There was a total of 18 people there and it was a blast! We had lots of food and yummy cupcakes with Scooby rings on them. YUM!
Last night I had some friends up to finish off the cake that came with the cupcakes and we chatted for a bit. Then I went out to see the movie Elf which was pretty good.
Today I had balloons, a card, cookies, and juice waiting for me in class. They also sang Happy Birthday to me.
I got two emails from my mom wishing me Happy Birthday and I talked to my dad for a bit on the phone.
And tonight I'm meeting some friends at Applebee's to eat and chat.
So far this has been one of the best birthday's I've ever had :)

/feels loved

I'm a very lucky person.

I had two Mondays in one week, that hardly seems fair...
We had classes as usual on Monday and then Tuesday the school closed for Veteran's Day, which was a much appreciated break. When Wednesday rolled back around though... ugh, a second Monday reared it's ugly head. Luckily Wednesdays are my short days :)

Today I SOOOO didn't want to come to class, I'm not feeling well. But I hauled myself out of bed and treked on over only to find my class canceled. My next class isn't until 2pm today so I was thinking YEY naptime! Yeah right! My classroom is right accross from the comp lab where I work and I saw a girl in there I knew from class so I walked in to say "Hi." BIG MISTAKE! I was jumped " Ohhhh Aspen Sweetie, Darling I need your help" Says my boss.... Yup.... There was this emergency and no one to work the rest of the day so I told her I would work until 1pm. /sigh... All I wanna do is crawl into bed and sleep the rest of the day, but no..... No.... Nooooo!... NO!.... hehe It's so easy to say when I don't NEED to say it or reallllllly want to say it.

Anywho, here I sit at work. /twiddles thumbs....

I'm loving Get Fuzzy. I've been reading it everyday now and more times than not it gets me to chuckle :)

My birthday is next Tuesday and I'm having a party on Sunday. Aya's family will be there, at her mom's house, and so will some of my RA friends. I want to invite Janelle too, but everytime I've called she hasn't been there :( I should call her cell! I'm hoping it'll be a fun party.

Word of the Day: Forejudgment

Picture of the Day: Sniff, Sniff

Jinkies!
Somebody out there knows me pretty well!

You would drive...
The Scooby gang's Mystery Machine. You want a car with personality, but you also need space for all your friends. That's why you drive this big van, painted with a colorful (some might call it 'tacky') design. It has plenty of room for the whole gang, and even a big dog, right in the front seat. What are you waiting for? Throw your tools and equipment in the back, and hit the road.

/bounce

My new favorite comic!

My favorite strip o' day: HAHAHA!

Word of the day: Pugilist

Practicum Week One is done. I finalized my grading for last week. Now I need to prepare for next week. My group is teaching Proabability.... eeep!

My morning class was canceled today so I'm hanging out in the computer lab until I have to go to my next class, mass communication & society. Actually it's pretty interesting.

I get to register for spring classes next monday - my last time to register for classes.... as an undergraduate. I'm beginning to consider what I want to do after New Zealand and it's looking like graduate school might be a contender. I am looking at staying in NZ for grad school or possibly a job down there... or maybe colorado grad school... so many possibilities!

Lots and lots to do. In addition to my once-a-week practicum I've been doing a week-long science practicum this week. Have a break next week, just the one-day one, then a full week of math practicum.

Have a midterm tomorrow and one Friday, then another next Tuesday.

Feeling the stress. Big time.

I can do it though. Like I told my mom today, I won't let anyone or anything get in my way. I want to graduate with honors and I will. I want to go to New Zealand and I will.

Period.

/is determined.

Hmmm... according to some site if I were a smurf I'd be Papa Smurf...

Two days, two fire drills.
Very odd.
Yesterday it was a blessing because I was running late to class and the fire alarm went off just as I was almost to class. Since everyone had to file out nobody noticed I was a few minutes late :)
Today we were in the middle of class and it went off again.
The security people are baffled. They don't know why it went off either time. The system shows a fire on third floor but there is none. Both alarms were at different times.
Odd.

Word of the Day: Phalanx
(found on the NZHerald page)

I'm feeling overwhelmed. And highly annoyed. Some people shouldn't be allowed to teach.
Enough said.

Had a fun weekend. Homecoming Game - we won. Aya's cousin Holly hung out with us for a while. And got to spend time with Aya - always enjoyable.
My floor had a pizza/game night after the football game and finished by watching Equilibrium. Pretty good movie although there was a part I couldn't watch.... <-- animal lover.

A couple of my friends went to Colorado this past weekend to a wedding. My parents were in Taos, New Mexico and now they're up in Colorado. I'm feeling left out :(
/misses Colorado
Of course I get to go to New Zealand *BIG GRIN* *bounce* Weeeeeee!

Still feeling a bit overwhelmed with all my work for classes and I'm being naughty and procrastinating on a few things. I wish I didn't work better under pressure - maybe I wouldn't procrastinate so much. *sigh*

Bought my plane tickets (can't remember if I said that already) to go home for three weeks during Christmas. Been feeling slightly homesick lately. I really miss my parents, home, friend, critters. On the other hand I'm very happy up here and it makes me REALLY sad to think about leaving. Maybe I'll teach down South for a few years... then come back here for my Masters. I still have no clue about where I'm going after New Zealand. Really I'm hoping for an opportunity to knock me over and say "Yoohoo! What about me?" It's happened before...
Until then I'm content to search around for something that interests me and enjoy my life as it is today.

Word of the Day: Pontificate

Picture of the Day: Haha!

Busy, busy, busy.

Feeling slightly overwhelmed with class assignments and I sort of procrastinated this weekend. I did get the stuff done that is due right away though. Yeah me.

Emailed old friends today.

Listening to music while typing... slow song... need something more up-ity.
Charmed 2-hour season premiere was last night. Angel is this Wednesday at 8pm! *bounce* SOOOO excited about that... they have Spike guest staring. I can't wait to see who else guest stars!!!! weeeeeee! Long live the BtVS/Angel legacy.

Okies that's all. Lots to do. Blog ya later.

Every year you return to the dorms they "give" you a gift. Last year it was a rainproof jacket and this year we got to choose between a breifcase or a blanket. When I went in to look at the options last spring the breifcase looked like crap and the blanket looked so-so. Yesterday they came in and when I saw the breifcases I was shocked, they were leather, not cloth, and they had a calculator, notpad & holder, and pen - not at all like the sample one they showed last spring. The blankets are still so-so... kind of ugly *shrug* oh well... they're "free" *chuckle*

I'm growing grass. For my science methods class I dug around collecting dirt for about 30 mins this morning and then in class we planted some grass seeds. I hope they grow! We get graded on whether they grow or die and we have to record everything we do to them. We all split our dirt in half and exchanged with someone else, so I have to grass pots to grow.

I have been checking the NZ Herald website everyday lately and weeee.... some depressing stuff, small countries still have murdering stepfathers and such... very sad. But there is beauty to behold as well. I'm trying to stay focussed on the positive. They have some advertisements of things to do and there's a mini-article on World of Sheep which sounds like fun... I wonder if they'd let me keep the fiber I shore from the sheep.

I'm supposed to be working at the moment, but really I've just got my headphones on - listening to my music - enjoying the calm before the storm. 25 people just went out to film some stuff for making an imovie and when they come back I'll be running around like a maniac again.

I had a nice relaxing weekend - about time for one of those.

I did get some school work done and cleaned out bits of stuff to get rid of.

Watched Underworld on Friday afternoon = good movie. Also saw Cold Creek Manor on Sunday afternoon... uhm... WAY too drawn out.

That's about it. School is flying by.... Went to my 9am class this morning and there was a note saying no class today so I came back and took a little nap... now I have to go to my 11am. Not a bad way to start out my Monday :) It's a long one though, not done until about 8pm tonight.

Have a good day!