'Tis the Season!

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I put up our Christmas Tree this past weekend, and that puts me in a good mood. I got frustrated with my tree last year taking it down, and accidently broke the foot of the tree! So the tree tilts a little bit!

I also wanted to put up the picture of my first finished quilt! It's an advent calendar that I wanted to finish before the First so I can really count down the days!

Snow, Snow, go away....

That's right, it's here. I was hoping to prolong it as far as we could. We did, for a little while. But now the snow is here, and it's here with a vengence! We haven't even had time to adjust to the weather before it has dipped way below zero! In fact, in Grand Forks today, the wind chill is -22!!! Sunday, when Josh and I were leaving Sebeka, it was in the 40's! During the day on Monday, it was actually pretty nice! Until late afternoon, when the snow started falling! When I got off of work on Monday, we were in a Winter Weather Advisory!! The snow was falling as hard as the wind was blowing, and it looked like there was a blizzard outside! The temperature dropped a lot, and hasn't gotten up much higher than it was that night.

I am such a freeze baby, and don't especially like the winter time! I should just move to California, but family keeps me around! I think I may enjoy it more when I'm not a student that has to park far away at school, and must walk a few blocks in this mess to class!!

What happened to my dreams of a brown Christmas???

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day-eve! I probably won't blog tomorrow, so I wanted to send the message out a little bit earlier. Besides the cold weather, this is the most wonderful time of the year (from now until after Christmas). To me these holidays always mean family and family time, which are very precious to me. I wish that I could see more of my family on these holidays! They also help me to take a step back and think about all of the things I am grateful for, and may, at some times, take for granted. My family and loved ones top the list of things I am thankful for. I love everyone, have a great holiday, and don't forget to take some time to remember things that you are thankful for!

My Project Update

At Quilt retreat, I took a shot in the dark and began my first quilting venture! Apparently, my mom forgot to mention to me that I was starting a pretty tough project. My calendar had 25 pockets (one for each day), and 25 appliques. I have the front put together, and this weekend my mom will help me attach the back and actually do the "quilting part." I will put pictures up once it is completely finished. I honestly couldn't have done any of it without my mom's help...I wouldn't have even known where to begin. She is pretty much the reason why it looks nice, because I would've gotten impatient and given up!

I also made about 30 Christmas cards to send out. I am excited about those too...and they are all different. But they did take a lot longer to make than I had anticipated!! I would put pictures of those online, but it may ruin the surprise when everyone gets them in the mail! I will mail them out after Thanksgiving.

Update on Grad School: I had hoped to know whether or not I was accepted by Thanksgiving, but it doesn't look like that will happen. My test scores aren't even in yet! They were suppose to arrive 10-15 days after I took the test...we are on day 17...so hopefully soon!! But the Grad School also lost one of my recommendation letters (DON'T ASK--I'M CRABBY ABOUT IT!!), so that prolongs the whole process too. Once the grad school has everything together...then they have to send it to the Department to make a decision. I am hoping that they can send it over this week (may be optimistic), and have an answer by next week. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Okay, so I did it...

Friday after my test I finally broke down and bought the new Britney Spears CD. I thought that I needed a "treat," and it gave me something different to listen to on my drive home. I actually really liked it. All of the songs had a fast beat to them, and were mostly catchy. I just really like music with a beat that I can dance to or workout too, and this will definately be my new work out cd. Ideally...I'd have a cd ripper so I could transfer these songs to my ZUNE mp3 player. I was very pleased with the 9.98 (thanks to Target's sale) item that I bought. My only problem was the service I received when I went to check out my item. I went into a guys line with the cd (my only item), and he held it up to his coworker and said, "Hey ___ (whatever their name was), it's your favorite person." She laughed and said, "Yeah that's like only the second Britney cd I've seen come through the line. Sorry but her career is over." I just really didn't appreciate someone making fun of my purchase. Not great service in my mind. I have worked in customer service, and would never pick fun at someone's purchase... bad manners! But oh well...I think she's wrong about this cd...I keep hearing how many are selling and how this may be her top-selling album.

I'd recommend checking it out!!

My new project...

So after years of coaxing, my mother finally talked me into learning how to "quilt." I put quilt in quotations because it's not really a quilted blanket. It's just a small project. We went to a quilt shop in Perham, MN this last weekend, and I found an advent Christmas calendar that I really liked. So we bought the pattern, and yesterday Mom sat and taught me how to do it. Right now I am cutting out appliques and ironing them onto little pockets for the calendar, so not really any sewing yet. Up until now, sewing machines have intimidated me...but I want to learn how to master it for when I have children some day! I have done a lot of hand sewing, but apparently machine sewing is a lot easier...so we will see.

I'm hoping to have enough time to finish the calendar by December 1 for obvious reason...but we will see...I have a lot of Christmas projects that I am working on! I will post pictures of the Quilt as I am progressing in my project.

My test

I took the Graduate Records Exam this past Friday, and it was no fun! I know that I don't do well on standardized tests, so I made sure to prepare (as much as humanly possible with everything else going on). There are three sections--Verbal, Quantitative (math), and analytical writing. Because the test was on a computer, I know how I did on the verbal and quantitative sections. But, since the analytical section was an essay, I will have to wait for someone to hand grade that. I got an average score. So not terrible, not great. I am not too bummed out, because I know I get tripped up on these tests. Sometimes they write the questions to try to trick people, by trying to make you eliminate answers and guess which questions the lower test takers would select. It should be more straightforward. BUT it's over so I'm done complaining.

They have to send the scores to UND, and this will take about 10-15 days. Once they get it, they gather all of my information and decide whether or not I am accepted. I am hoping to know by Thanksgiving. If I get in, I have to take my acceptance letter to the financial aid office to try to get more loans figured out (STRESSFUL!!). Then I can register for classes. I can only take three classes a semester, and so it will take two years to complete. I have already selected my classes for the spring (as long as I'm accepted). The schedule is really ideal for me. On monday, I'd have class from 3-5, Tuesday from 7-10, and Wednesday from 7-10. I will be working about 30 hours a week at my internship still, but it looks like they are trying to change my status from an intern to a part-time employee which will mean I will be eligible for benefits!

The best part is, I can breath this week!!!