Decisions & Graduation

Okay, update. :)
After babysitting Ava on Friday, I spent the weekend back in good ol' Carrollton. Didn't do a whole lot, but we went to Newnan for dinner on Saturday night, so that was pretty nice. Anyways, I have been stressing majorly over what I want to do "when I grow up" as far as Grad School and all that good stuff. I think I have finally made a pretty solid decision. :) I hope so anyways. Now just to do the applications and other forms, writings, interviews, etc and HOPE AND PRAY that I get into the school I want! :D I'm pretty happy with this decision. I think things are looking up as far as my outlook for the future. :)

ALSO: I got a 95 on my Law & Society paper I wrote about Megan's Law. I'm really happy about this. Got a 96 on my Sexuality & Spirituality paper that I wrote regarding an interview and homosexuality. I'm pretty proud of myself - I suppose I AM a good writer! Some classes have made me think that I am not, but in my major areas I am doing very well this semester. OH and got a 90 on a quiz in S&S. Let's hope I can finish out the semester strong - please pray for my motivation! :)

I have a lot to do over the next month and a half - but it will all be worth it because NEXT SEMESTER IS MY LAST SEMESTER OF COLLEGE!!!!!!!! WELL, of Undergrad. But hey, I'll be finished with my Bachelor's degree by May 2011 at age 20 and perhaps have my Masters of Education by May 2014 at age 23! Exciting!

Babysitting Miss Ava

WELL, let's talk about today/yesterday. These pictures are in backwards order, because I forgot that the order you upload shit is backwards and I don't feel like moving them. yay. I am exhausted and just a bit irritated, so bear with me. Mom left at 7:30 this morning to go to TFS, so I babysat Ava today. It was quite an event-filled day, as always with her. Keep in mind, pics are backwards. What we did was: Watched Mary Poppins (which is way creepier in reality than it was when you were 6, just fyi). Then colored a lot. Then we played "bride." She got married and used some fake flowers from Mom's room and a ring from her "collection." Haha. I know the dress is silly, but she will be a beautiful bride one day, no doubt. So then we had a "tea party date." AKA sandwiches, sun chips, and apple juice out of a princess teapot at her teeny tiny table. :p Then we got ready and we went to Nanny's house where she got scared of Halloween decor. Nanny, Ava and I went to the park where she: played in the sand, played with the fishes (which were fed sand - I'm sure they loved it) and where then Ava decided she was going to play photographer. I might add one of hers in a minute they are mostly too blurry to tell what they were, but hey, it entertained her. We were there for literally like 2 hours. Then we went and washed off her grime and got "real" clothes on and went on our date. We went on a date because Will & I "went on a date" last night aka we were the only two that hadn't eaten dinner so mom gave us money, haha, but it was fun. So Ava and I went on ours today for dinner. Then we went back and REALLY showered/washed hair, etc. Then watched part of Hunchback of Notre Dame (her in her pjs) before I left. WOW. Could I be a stay-at-home mom? I dk. Not if my children are ANYTHING like her, they would wear you out way faster than working. *siiiiiiiigh* So now I'm back at the Apt.. Yay?

Very short, and very little sense made

Changed my background to look more "fall-like." But not TOO Fall-like. I kind of like it. New music too! :)

Also, how sad is it that I worry about if I'm picking the right names for my future babies? And then, in the back of my mind, I realize my PCOS might make it so that I can never even have them? I would be devastated. And there is really no other words. I have the perfect names picked out, I have a somewhat plan for finances and care and I know stupid things like that. I see people with their cute babies or bellies all over FB and.... I get sad. What if I never have that because my body is defective? My ovaries SUCK, and yet that could potentially make a huge impact on my life. C'est la vie, oui? La vie est tres etrange tout le monde.

Going to babysit Princess Ava tomorrow. I miss my family.

Week of Randomosity

So, a quick update on this week. Monday was basically the only day that anything truly productive happened. :) Monday I took the GRE (aka the ACT/SAT of college graduate programs.) Ummmmm, I am NOT a fan. The testing centers are all somewhere within the Atlanta area, which is great, I love driving 2 hours to take a 2.5 hour test and then...driving 2 more hours home. (Catch the sarcasm?) Anyways, I get to Marietta and I'm looking for the test site and I can't find it for the life of me! I am literally almost in tears because of the stress and how I will freak if I am late to this ridiculous thing. My GPS tells me "You have reached your destination" while I am sitting at a red light on Windy Hill Road. HA! Not funny GPS. So I go into the first shopping center. No bueno. Then I go into the second and drive past the center because.... it's not labeled! Yay. I finally figure out where to find the address numbers (they hide them, swear) and get there at 12:58 for my 1:00 test time. I'm the last one there. :/ Not my style, considering I like to be at least 10 mins early for everything. BUT, it all worked out in the end. I took the stupid thing and then got my scores. I got a 1020. Apparently that is pretty good. I asked my Grad TA and she said it will get me into any school in GA easily so: YAY!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! NOT that I'm going immediately to Grad School. Still standing firm on that one. ;)

I finally get back to the apartment around 5:30 or 6:00. And proceed to write my 5.5 page paper for Sexuality & Spirituality. I would just like to put out a PSA for teachers/professors: We do not appreciate anything about having to write more than 3 papers for a class. Thank you. :)

Tuesday, well, Tuesday was interesting. In S&S...we talked about Purity Ball's. It is not an actual ball like you throw. It is a ball like a dance or whatever. And in my honest opinion, it is SO CREEPY!!! I get the concept and the good morals behind it, but the fact that the girls taking part in this are so young is just...anti-choice, anti-woman, and pro-patriarchal society WHICH I am not. :D I believe very heavily in personal choice and equality, I think it is a parent's job to instill morals into their child, not a program at church or school. I feel like my mom did a good enough job doing this for me and plenty of other parents, young and old, seem to be very good at it. I just find it offensive that some of these programs are in a school. ESPECIALLY when it comes out that statistically people who take the pledge are MORE LIKELY, yes, MORE LIKELY, to have unprotected pre-marital sex. Wonder why, right? How about because choice matters to people. :) :) :) :) :) Off my soapbox about that though.

I don't remember much about anything after that except in L&S we watched 12 Angry Men. Um, yeah. Seen it. And it's much too long. And in VC I was uncontrollably bored, AS USUAL. And yesterday in Terrorism Hannah and I got so bored we played a game called "Pretend you are the Duggar family and you have 20 kids that you want to name using the same letter." Hannah won round 1 (letter M). I won round 2 (letter A, and then letter J for MN). We did the second round to use the first names of the same letter AND add middle names with a different "same" letter. It was HARD!!!!!!!

Oh, and then I woke up at 6 or so this am throwing up. I loooooove stomach viruses! :/ But I am going home today to babysit Ava tomorrow. I feel much better as of right now, but it could be bc I don't have anything in my stomach to throw up. Who knows.

BYE BLOG! I'm going to go walk the dogs and enjoy the beautiful weather yet again. Our walk last night was so peaceful & pretty. :D

SATURDAY in words :)

So yesterday was Tabitha & Brian's wedding day. They had a "Big Fat Greek Wedding." (Brian's family = Greek) The pictures are in the post "after" this one (i.e. down below). Here's the progression. :) We got ready and left here at 11:30 am. Got to Stockbridge so Seth could get his suit. The picture in front of my car = at his grandma's house before we left for the wedding.

The wedding was held at the Greek Orthodox Church in Atlanta. The picture of the ceiling is made up of tiny awesome tiles about the size of a postage stamp. (The ceiling picture is the one that is Jesus, you can kind of see the curve). It was huge! The other pictures of before were of the cathedral. The bridal party was made up of some people we knew and some we didn't. :) Colors were brown and green with touches of orange, it was really pretty especially for an October wedding.

The ceremony had two parts. The first was the rings part and then the "crowning" ceremony, which you can see with the two crowns in the pictures that are linked by ribbon. Tabitha looked GORGEOUS and Brian looked so handsome. :) Her veil was super cute as well!

The decor is towards the end, because we really only took pictures of it at the reception. The table and chairs were covered in brown satin and green silk ribbons. Centerpieces had two different heights and had birdseed and other "fall" things in them. Our table numbers were little pumpkins! (See the pics) The cake was "Hummingbird." <-- Tabitha's Mom's recipe at her Bakery. It was good. For dinner we had chicken stuffed with spinach, small potatoes, zucchini, carrots, caesar salad and bread. The first dance was super cute. :) I video'd part of it. The Greek dancing was interesting even though Seth and I are not coordinated enough to do it apparently! haha. But, oddly enough, even though we've been together for 2.5 years, we had our FIRST slow dance together at the wedding. hahah. Funny. I guess you could say our first and second and some slower ones. I REALLY need to brush up on my dance skills (i.e. electric slide and stuff like that.)

It was really a lot of fun and I hope the happy couple is happy forever. :) They looked gorgeous and had a beautiful wedding and we wish only good things for them! Love you guys.

Tabitha & Brian's Wedding

Just gonna stand there And watch me burn

2 Corinthians 4:17 -- For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

A lot of things difficult have been surfacing over the past 24 hours. By that, I mean personal things that I'm not posting online. But, for my own reference, I just want to remember how much it hurt to hear some of the things I heard and to deal with these things like an adult. Do I always do what is best? No, I don't. But I try. I fail sometimes and that's OK, because I tried my hardest to deal with these things the best way I know how. I feel too much emotion. I hope that I never change that, but I have a sneaky feeling that one day I'll just turn it off. I think it will get to be too much and I will be fake and not feel as much. I don't want that, though maybe it is easier. I enjoy feeling. But...So far, 20 is pretty hard... When is 21? I could at least take the edge off with a good Margarita. Dammit birthday! BTW those two graphics at the top are PostSecret's that I liked recently. I love PostSecret.

Just gonna stand there
And watch me burn
But that's alright
Because I like
The way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
But that's alright
Because I love
The way you lie
I love the way you lie
--Love the way you lie, Rihanna and Eminem

And a small rant: I do NOT want to get married "just because everyone else does." It's not a damn competition. That is ridiculous. When else have you seen me do things just because others do? Hello, how many people decide they want to graduate college with a four year degree at 20?? Really. Come on.
I don't "tan" just because everyone else does. My hair is not bright blonde or dark brown as trends go, because I am me. While there is nothing wrong with either of those things, they just aren't for me. I'd look stupid tan and my hair is beautiful the color that it is. I just wish people would realize that I am ME. I want things that are common and some that are not. To date for 2.5 years is not a short period of time, especially with a 1.5 or more year engagement. It's just not. I can want what I want. I suppose that doesn't mean I'll get it. Oh well.

Fun Blog?

I'm bored. Nothing is happening until later. SO, I'm using my journal prompts that Hannah showed me and I'm going to write a lot about nothing. YAY!

The one I chose was "The most fun I’ve ever had." I don't think I can honestly answer this question, literally. I can't even begin to recall all the fun times I've had. But I'm going to narrow it down and do the most fun I've ever had with a specific person. The first thing that came to mind was when Seth and I were painting something. Here's the background. My Mom and Mark were in China to get Ava. Will and Zach must have been at Dad's. So Seth and I were "house sitting." It was my freshman year of college (December 2008) and I didn't want to be home by myself. haha.

So what we decided to do was paint something to surprise Mom and Ava. There is a stool that has been in our family since I was a wee little lass. hahaha. Don't know where that came from. Anyway, the stool was mine when I was little. It was white, my name was painted on it in pink, courtesy of my crafty mom. Well when the boys needed it, it was painted green for Will and Zach. So, in keeping with tradition, what we did is Seth and I painted it pretty pink and then painted Ava's name on it and painted cute little flowers and vines all over it. I can't wait for us to do that for our children one day! It turned into us being goofy and like painting each others faces and taking great (albeit weird) pictures. It was so much FUN! It was like being a kid again. We just laughed and laughed and danced and took pictures and that was it. We didn't make a huge mess, the stool turned out fine, and the pictures remind us of how much fun we had that day. The top picture is from that same week too, I believe. If not, it was very close in time. Blue = cotton candy.

Friday

So what did I do on my "relaxing" Friday with no school or other things to do? WELL, when Seth got up at 8:45 for work, I couldn't go back to sleep. :/ Sad day! Must be getting old. haha. So, here is the boring details of my day. :) I facebooked (is this a word?) for a few, did a little homework, did laundry, did some dishes (ew, not my fav) and then I went OCD Cleaner Lady. I basically bleached the bathroom. LOL. Seth got home from work and I had music on, cleaning the baseboards and had just finishing washing (yes, washing) the walls. I'd already mopped and cleaned the obvious counters, mirrors, tub, toilet, etc. I do this sometimes, and to be honest, it relaxes me. haha.

After that, I showered (because, well I hate smelling like bleach and cleaning product) and then watched Ace of Cakes. My shows come on tonight! Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings! :) I know I'm a wedding nut, but hey, supposedly I get to plan my own in the somewhat-near-future. :) I could totally be a wedding planner. I'm OCD and organized enough and definitely budget-conscious enough. HELLO. Perfect profession? Yes, except for the instability of the job. haha. So I also did this thing called an "inspiration board." It's kind of cute.

Grades= good! Money = bad..

Okay so this week has been mainly a week of good grades and worries! NOT related. haha. So last week I had a ton of mid-terms! SO here is the outcome, haha. We'll start with the worst. Terrorism Mid-Term: 79. Close enough to a B for me. lol. Considering it was on 10 chapters. Sexuality and Spirituality Paper: A-. Law and Society Mid-Term: 95!!!!!!!!! I was so super happy about that one, you have no idea! Just a minute of bragging on myself (haha) the class average was an 85.4! :D Let's see. Also some assignments for Corrections I got an A on.

OKay besides that. The on-going story of my college life = there is not enough money! I am so sick of my bank account, so sick of bills coming in as soon as the others get paid, so sick of WORRYING where the money will come from for them. It is so annoying! And honestly, I don't want to hear "that's life." I don't want to hear that "all adults deal with this." Wanna know why? Because I am not annoyed that there ARE bills, I'm annoyed that we don't have enough money to be comfortable paying them. FYI: Adults who make more than $30,000 a year should be fine with their bills if they are young and don't have kids etc. Since we don't have kids and I am unemployed (aka full-time student killing herself to get done at the age of 20) I just feel like this BETTER be the poorest I am in my life, because there really is nothing less to be unless it counts as "in debt up to your eyeballs and making money." Which, thank God I'm not. *knock on wood* But this is just crazy! I also hate the concept of RENT. I'd rather have a mortgage. Funny part? Mortgages are cheaper!!! Yes you do your own maintenance but hello, our maintenance guy comes like 4 times a year to replace a filter and that is it. Because we do the little things ourself anyway.

OKAY off my soap box. I am done bitching, I know it's annoying, but other than the whole F*ck Money thing... Life is pretty good I guess. My family is good, for my family. My dogs are good. My boyfriend is good and happy in his new job. I am making good grades, so it kind of pays back the stress. We live comfortably, when bills and money are not involved. So, I am okay. I know I am. But the emotional feeling of stress is just irritatingly unnecessary, or so it feels.

The end?
SO GLAD IT'S THE WEEKEND FOR ME!!!!! No Friday classes! :p

Happy Fall Y'all

Okay, here we go. My ACTUAL blog for today! haha.
Yesterday was Hannah's 23rd birthday. :) We went to O'Charley's for dinner (we = Hannah, Me, Shelby, Megan, AJ, Julie & Justin). Seth had to work. :/ I got her this cute journal & photo album and my Dad got her some Krispy Kreme's! Yummm. So we did dinner, and then we went and goofed off at Books A Million. ha. That is where I found that awesome apron. It says "Queen of Everything." It was SO cute! I wish I could just buy everything I wanted. Life, man. Then we went to Target because Hannah's heels were killer and she needed some shorts to wear under her dress for bowling. haha. I didn't go bowling with them for these reasons: 1. I suck at it. 2. I'm poor. 3. I don't like driving/getting home after midnight. haha. BUT it looked like they had fun! I hope you had a great birthday Hannah! :)


Today, October 2, is my Nanny and Papa's 56th wedding anniversary. :) How adorable is that? 56 years ago today, they got married in a church in England. That picture when you scroll down. :) I long for a life like that.

Here is the main point of my blog: THE WEATHER IS CHANGING FINALLY!!!! :) This is probably my favorite season - who am I kidding, it IS my favorite. I love the cool weather and pretty changing leaves and Halloween. It's just so pretty. :) I also love sweaters. hahah. And after this ridiculously hot summer, I am so into this weather cooling off. SO... like the cute picture above says: Happy Fall Y'all! :D

Hannah's BDay Pics

Happy Birthday Hannah! :)

MUSEUMS

This picture is of the High Museum of Art. It'll be relevant later.


Okay, first I'm going to do an "update." I realize it's been over a week, and this past week has pretty much SUCKEDDDD. Here is a brief update. Monday I "worked" my research practicum. I don't really like it, but it's something to do and I get to put it on my resume.... I mean, the time it takes isn't the problem, it's just kind of frustrating! You can call 100's of people in a day and 85% won't answer, then 10% will be rude and/or hang up, and then that 5% will actually participate. JERKS. lol
Tuesday I had something, I can't remember. Wednesday I had my Terrorism Mid-Term. I feel pretty okay about that one. Then I had a CP short paper to do for Thursday. Also on Thursday I got back my Sexuality & Spirituality paper that I did on the movie Trembling Before G-d, and I got an A! :) Happy. I also had my Law & Society Mid-Term that day too. It was like "here are 6 essay questions, write 3." SO... I did. My first two were good, my last one kind of fell apart. lol.
Now FRIDAY was good/interesting. It's going to be the picture part of this blog.
Dad and I went to The High Museum in Atlanta. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. We went to see the Salvador Dali exhibit........ If you don't know who Salvador Dali is, you might remember his mustache. LOL