New Baby!

First I would like to welcome to the world little Luca James Whittlinger :) This cute little thing was made by my friend Terry and his lovely fiance Amelia. It's about time he got here. He just wasn't meant to be a Halloween baby I guess :)

Nextly, it is freaking cold. Too fast for me. That's all I have to say about that.

Lastly for this extremely "long" post, I finished The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness and it was awesome! I still liked the first book The Knife of Never Letting Go a little better, but for anyone looking for a good dystopian read, this one is a go. Now I'm onto the third book Monsters of Men, which is actually going to be the first book I read on my Nook (that I bought in April :/). My first ebook woo!

WARNING: Extremely Long Post

I realize that I haven't posted anything for my oh so "wide" array of readers since June, and since then a TON of stuff has happened. I guess I'll just have to go in order :)

JUNE

In June, two friends (David and Brianna) and I made our long journey (where David almost KILLED us by falling asleep at the wheel) to Edmonton, Canada where we spent 5 days at the largest mall North America. They had pretty much EVERYTHING in that freakin' place! An underground aquarium, sea lion shows, a huge pet store, an indoor ice skating rink, an amusement park, and a water park with several slides and a full sized wave pool! We spent a lot of time in that wave pool. Waaaaaaavvvesss. The best. I really wanted to go ice skating in that enormous rink but I thought that I would look pretty ridiculous compared to the figure skaters that were practicing in there. Probably for the Olympics or something. That was pretty cool to watch though. I also had the lovely experience of someone have a seizure practically right next to me while I was watching the skaters. That was pretty exciting I guess.. no. Overall though, that trip was pretty awesome. It was also the first time I had used my passport :) but they didn't give me a Canada stamp.. what the hell?

JULY

Not a whole lot here. A lot of packing and working. That's it.

AUGUST

John and I moved into our new place and it was super stressful, but I really enjoy having control of my own stuff :) Sofi likes it, and Peeko is indifferent because he lives in a cage. It has been a huge adjustment, but we settled in quite nicely.

Also, my mom and I took an AMAZING trip to Mexico! The first and last days were all travel, but the rest was awesome! I found that the people there live completely differently from us. I'm not sure I could do it, but I really enjoyed visiting. It was also super hot there, another reason I would probably die. We did so many cool things while we were there. We boated out an hour both ways to see whale sharks which was one of the most amazing things I've ever done, but we were both so seasick that we couldn't get in the water and snorkel with them :( I wish I would have so badly, but I hope to do it again someday when the water isn't so choppy. We spent one day swimming and playing with dolphins, sea lions, and manatees. That was really cool! I've always wanted to swim with dolphins. They are so smart and cool :) Another day was spent zip-lining through the jungle and down into senotes which are freshwater lakes down in caves. I had the pleasure of meeting lots of bats in the caves and the senotes were really cold. It was relieving because it was really hot that day (like all the days). We also went on a turtle walk one night where we saw one sea turtle come up to lay here eggs and then we had the amazing opportunity to help release a ton of babies into the ocean! That was an unforgettable experience. On our last day, I had my most eventful snorkeling experience. I saw a ton of cool fish and a stingray that scared the heck out of me because he came right up out of the sand. Then I was looking for sea turtles that were feeding on the turtle grass. I did find one but I think I scared it so it started to swim away really fast. I tried following it but decided it was time to be done when I came face to face with a barracuda! That was kind of scary even though I know he wasn't going to try to eat me. This trip was one of the coolest things I've ever done. I really hope to go back again sometime.

SEPTEMBER

In September I started my first year of college at NSU. I am taking General Biology 1, Physics, Intro to Soc, and Speech online. I also decided that I want to stay here and be a biology major and eventually a zoologist. I'm also going to minor in Spanish. It's been a pretty big adjustment from having almost no homework last year to having a ton of stuff to do all the time. It's been intense but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

At the end of this month, my parents and I took John to his first Renaissance festival. He really enjoyed himself and was talking the whole time about what he wants to do for next year. It was funny. That weekend was also my parents' 10 year anniversary so congrats to them :)

OCTOBER

This month I turned 19 and John got me a kitty! Her name is Stella and we adopted her from the Humane Society. She's such a sweetheart. Also this month, I have been figuring out what I want to take for next semester. As of now, I have decided on taking Gen Bio 2, and then Computers, Composition 1, Music Appreciation, and Wellness all online. It's going to be awesome only having to go to one class a day at 11, especially since I have to go at 9 every morning :(

Lastly for this post, I have found a really cool internship that allows you to go to South Africa to capture and tag Great White Sharks. Sounds amazing, especially since sharks are my love :)

That is all for now. Hopefully this 4 month absence won't happen again any time soon..

We Signed the Lease!

Yesterday John and I signed the lease to our first apartment! Exciting stuff. We get a washer and dryer, dishwasher, patio.. I'm very happy with the choice we made. It's also in the same building that my grandma lives in so hopefully I will be able to spend some much-needed time with her. I'm really looking forward to be able to do my own thing with my place. John has pretty much agreed that I get to decorate :)

It's a little stressful at the beginning because I am now starting to realize how much money you actually need to spend to live comfortably. I definitely won't be doing much unnecessary spending at all. Not for a while anyway. I'm really happy that we chose to do this, because some of the places we looked at were kind of scary and I couldn't imagine myself living there, but this one I think we're really going to be comfortable living in this nice apartment.

I Chipped My Tooth...

That's right.. I chipped my friggin' tooth. And I am NOT happy about it. I managed to accomplish this by biting down pretty hard on my metal lip ring while I was chewing, which I've done several times before with no consequence other than a scare and a sore lip. But this time a whole chunk of my tooth broke off! I'm making it sound a lot worse than it is, as in you only notice it if it's pointed out, but still. Now I will have to file it down, which I'm not looking forward to. I'll just do it myself, because I don't really feel like paying the dentist 200 bucks to do something that I can do just as easily myself. I just have a feeling it's going to be painful so I'm definitely waiting to do that until it stops being so sensitive..

So this is just a warning to everyone who has their lip pierced, especially those who wear a stud in their bottom lip. If you end up biting it a lot like I do, I was seriously consider switching to a plastic ring instead of the metal ones. I did, and I think it's actually way more comfortable and I'm not so worried about biting it all the time and ruining my teeth.

New Pupper!

This is Bo, short for Bolyne. She's our new baby :)

But she has been called a bunch of other names. Bubba, Pup, Pupper, Bubs, Baby, Puppy.

Yeah, that usually happens.

She is a britney spaniel and is an aspiring hunting dog. I can already tell that she's a very smart girl.

It's funny when she conks out because once she decides she's going to sleep it doesn't really matter where she is, she's out. And she gets very floppy. I like me some floppy puppies.

She has also decided that she likes to eat pillows.

:)

Nook Color!

I have finally decided on an eReader. I bought myself a Nook Color! And it's super-cool :) Plus it's pretty much a tablet so it mostly quenches my severe lust over an iPad2 :/

It's like a completely new reading experience. I didn't think I would ever want one for the longest time because I love the feeling of books and I have so many, but my Nook is so convenient plus I can do a lot more on it than just read. AND it will read to me! It has apps and I can connect to wifi so that's pretty much all I need for total happiness with this thing. I'm glad I bought it. It doesn't mean I will stop reading regular books, but now if I read a book in a series and I don't have the next, I can get it and start reading easy-peasy.

I can also blog on it! Yeah!

Graduation!

Well, it finally happened. Myself and all of my amazing classmates are finally done with high school! Yesterday was so fun. I never knew how good it would feel to graduate knowing that I have worked hard for this and I don't have to go back. It was amazing except for the fact that everyone let me walk around with a crooked hat!

Here's to the class of 2012! We did it!

Final Dance Recital

This year's recital went amazingly. I loved everything about it. It was heartbreaking and exciting and I'm going to miss it so much. I just wanted to post and say that I have danced with so many amazing girls (and guys :P) and that I love each and every one of them. I will miss you all. I never plan to stop dancing, it just may not be in classes. We'll see :)

and Melissa Sletto is and amazing photographer!

Regression on Gay Rights..

I think America is going backward when dealing with gay marriage. I know, everyone hears about this all the time, but I would just like to say that I think people who think they have a right to control what love is and which people are allowed to be together are completely and utterly mindless. Seriously, what does it matter?

I found this online. I thought it stated my point quite nicely:

10 Reasons to Ban Gay Marriage

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we only have one religion in America.

9. Children can never succeed without a male and female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

And I thought this was perfect to show how utterly stupid the reasons for not allowing gay marriage are. Our society needs to get with the program here. I think we should be worrying about more important things like poverty or drug use or war prevention or the economy rather than who is getting married. Let them. They have as much right to be with who they love as straight people. Why is that so hard to figure out? And why should we be encouraging people to have more children? The whole world is extremely overpopulated the way it is and unwanted children are being abused and neglected and put into orphanages or foster homes every day. And in my opinion, a child adopted by a gay couple will be a lot more accepting of people and an all around better person because of the way they are raised. It does not mean that they will be gay, they will simply know what love is.

Evan Odde

Sunday night, our friend Evan took his own life. He was John's best friend..

This is all so weird and really confusing. He was the happiest kid and didn't seem to have a care in the world. I think everyone is still in so much shock yet that the reality hasn't really set in. I feel really horrible about my feelings. I'm supposed to be sad, and I really am.. but there's also a lot going on with me right now like my dance recital and graduation that it's hard to have time to be sad. I feel selfish, but I honestly don't think sitting around thinking about it will make me feel any better. Everyone needs to continue with their lives because that's the best way to get through it I think..

The worst part about all of this is that nobody will ever know why it happened. No one ever suspected him to do anything like this.. but then again he was a very impulsive person... Sometimes I don't think people think about what will happen to the people they leave behind, or maybe they don't really care. I think sometimes people do this just to know what it's like. In a split second of wanting to know and knowing that you can find out if you really wanted to..

I'm happy to see a lot of people coming together from this.. We all need each other in this difficult time. I said before that I think this is a sign that everyone needs to be a bit nicer to each other, because you never know what could happen. My thoughts are with all who knew and loved Evan Odde. There are so many people that will miss him..

On a lighter note in my opinion, I'm pretty sure my last words to him were "You look like a girl."

Creepers

I'm getting really tired of all these men being creepy towards me. It's something that bothers me constantly. I shouldn't have to put up with guys, and it's older guys, not people my age, staring at me and following me and saying creepy things and asking me to do things with them. I want to be attractive and keep my body fit and looking good, but I shouldn't have to live in constant fear of every man around me. I feel like I have no freedom to wear what I want or be nice to people without them thinking they have some right to know about me or what I'm doing. I don't think I will ever get away from it and I feel like it's totally choking me...

Psych Final... Success!

I'm glad to say that I passed my Psychology final with an 88.4% which gives me an 86.1% in the class :) I'm so glad to be done with this. Psych really took a lot out of me for some reason. I'm glad I didn't decide to become a psych major... I might have died. But now that that's over I'm in the final stretch of high school. I just need to finish reading 1984 and Watership Down and finish glazing my final 4 projects for pottery and I'm done. I'm so ready for summer and being able to read all the books I want since I've been kind of put out on that this last term. I also hope you can all make it to my graduation party on the 19th :)

Also, raffle tickets for Ink Spot are still being sold until June 1st. We have 2 $90 tattoo certificates (that's one hour), 2 $35 piercing certificates (that's one piercing w/ jewelry), and a couple tshirts I believe. They are $2 each or 3 for $5 so let me know if you would like to buy any because I'll be carrying them around until the drawing at the Relay for Life. All of the money is going to the American Cancer Society. :)

Eventful Weekend :D

This weekend John and I went to Sioux Falls since Friday was our 2 year anniversary! :D It was so fun. Definitely a win sort of weekend.

We left town on Friday early enough to get there just in time to eat dinner at Olive Garden. That was lovely :)

Then Saturday was excellent. We woke up and went to the Sertoma Butterfly House first. They had so many of the huge blue ones this year. They had also added a mini aquarium since I was last there and I thought it was very nice because the fish were so lively and colorful. John was kind of afraid of the butterflies flying around is face though.. hehe :3

After we were done there we went to the Century Theater to see The Raven, which was a really awesome movie in my opinion. The theater was so cool thought because you could get so much more in the concessions than you can at Carmike where I work. We got a hotdog and pretzel bites. I just thought the whole thing was cool. It was also the first time I have been carded for a movie :/

Then we decided we wanted to go to the zoo. It was pleasant. Pretty much all of the animals were out and about. I think my favorite was the anteater that we saw tromping around and sniffing. That was really cool because I don't think I've ever seen one of thoes. And then a peacock put on a very nice display for us. This tiger came really close to the cage and I managed to get several decent pictures of him. He decided that he was going to start sizing up John after a while so it was a good thing he was in a cage.

John totally fell in love with one of the little monkeys so I took a video of one. It was so cute. And the lemurs up top there were pretty awesome. I got a video of those too.

In between all of those things we managed to go to the mall and the pet store and Barnes and Noble of course. We also went to Poppy's Popcorn which has amazing flavored popcorn, some drizzled in chocolate :) I got cinnamon roll, chocolate cherry, mint chocolate, and puppy chow flavors, plus one of those little marshmellow sticky popcorn balls with m&ms in it.

Saturday night we went to eat at Hu Hot which is always good. If you haven't eaten there and like Mongolian food you should definitely check it out. It's a fun atmostphere.

My weekend was amazing. This boy has surely treated me to a ton of fun. I love him :)

So now we are home and I just got done typing a 500 word essay for this scholarship I'm applying for so hopefully I did it justice. Fingers crossed.

Bryce Nation

I don't know this young man personally, but from what I've been hearing he was a great guy and has a ton of people who love him. All I know is that he was young, and he passed away from cancer today. I've been seeing "Bryce Nation" around a lot, so is the reason for the title. I just wanted to take a minute to think about Bryce Anglin and ask everyone to be keeping his family and friends in mind while they push through this tragedy.. May his soul rest peacefully forever.



Prom Night :)

Prom was pretty amazing in my opinion. I had a lot of fun. The worst part I think was that I kept tripping over my dress, but I did well while marching so I think that was a win. We didn't stay at the actual dance too long because we couldn't really get into the music they decided on, so we danced for a little bit to what we could, then we went and changed and ate at Marlin's. The lady who served us was kind of a hag.. yeah.. anyway then we went to John's and watched the office until post-prom started. It was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be because it was Vegas themed and I really didn't know anything about the games, but I learned Black Jack and Craps pretty quickly :) They also had cash cubes that you could apparently win real money in, but none of us knew that because there was a bunch of fake money flying around in there that we thought was just for tickets.. and then they ran out of money. Blah. But I did end up winning a bag of men's sampler calognes :P so my lovely date got those. Alex (a member of our group) ended up winning $100 which was cool, and my step-brother's date won a laptop! Super cool!

And the pictures :)

My John and myself.



Our prom group (left to right)

David, Kelsey, Alex, Karla, John, me, Tyler, Brianna

The guys :D

Us girls :3

And the garders :O

College Registration

Yesterday morning my mom and I went to NSU to register for my freshman fall semester. This has been a highly anticipated day for me. On to the schedule!

I was put in as a biology major concidering what I am going into.

MWF =

• General Biology: 11:00am - 11:50am
• Intro to Soc: 12:00pm - 12:50pm
• IDL: 1:00pm - 1:50pm (not Friday)

T =

• Survey of Physics: 9:00am - 11:50am
• General Biology Lab: 1:00pm - 3:50pm

TH =

• Survey of Physics Lab: 9:00am - 11:50am

And then I have an online Fundamentals of Speech class.

I like this schedule because I get done pretty early most days, but that's good because I think the homework may be piled high. I've been working on a bunch of scholarships finally since I've been seriously slacking pretty much all year.. and I really don't want to have an enormous debt.

On a second note, I just planted the rest of my seeds that I have for spring. So now I'm growing sunflowers, strawberries, daisies, forget-me-nots, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelons, cantalopes, carrots, and snapdragons. I hope they all turn out nicely. Also, I am going to Cabin in the Woods in an hour for the second time, and then The Lucky One tonight at 9:45. I think I will post about them either tonight or tomorrow morning, especially since I thought Cabin in the Woods was awesome. And prom is tomorrow and I'm super excited.

Catching Up

I've got a lot of stuff going on this month.

First, John and I went to his grandma's house for Easter which was really fun. She gave me a cactus :)

Second, I planted some seeds which have been sprouting quite nicely. I think one of the most exciting things is when you can get something to grow from a tiny little seed. It's, what you might say, magical. Orange = Stawberries, Green = Sunflower, Blue = Forget-me-nots, and Pink = Daisies. Poor stawberries aren't growing for me very well..

Third, dance has been intense. You should have seen my bruises. We have less than a month before recital time. Which also means I have less than a month left of high school.

Fourth, Sunday my mom, my step dad, my sister, my sister's friend Annie, John, and I all went to Sioux Falls for a Tran-Siberian Orchestra concert. It was really awesome. I've seen them before for their Christmas concert a few years ago in Minneapolis and I guess I liked that one a bit better, but that's probably because I knew all of those songs since we play them constantly every year during Christmas. I was pretty proud of myself for not spending a bazillion dollars on stuff at the mall, but I did end up spending a lot on books, which I never really feel bad about anyway.

Fifth, I register for classes at Northern on Thursday. I'm really hoping to get into the ceramics class, which reminds me that I need to post my finished pottery projects..

Sixth, prom is on Saturday. I'm really excited but I keep having dreams that I am late or that I can't find my spot or that my date goes missing...

Seventh and finally, April 27th will be mine and John's two year anniversary. This is pretty exciting for me. Two whole years. We're going to Sioux Falls for the whole weekend.

Busy Busy

I know I haven't posted in like a month.. and I think that sucks. I've been so busy though it's hard to sit down and write about it. I've had a lot of planning to do with my graduation party and invites, plus work has been crazy because of The Hunger Games coming out (I loved this movie by the way, even with reading the books). I've also been heavily anticipating my dance recital, and I want every move to be perfect since it's my last year doing it.

What brought me to post today though is that I just finished the book Looking For Alaska by John Green. It's an excellent and emotional YA book. I absolutely loved it and would recommend it any day.

My favorite quote from this book: "The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, we'd learned, and that the cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering. When you stopped wishing things wouldn't fall apart, you'd stop suffering when they did."

I got this book from Chapter 1 Book Store in our mall (the only actual book store in Aberdeen where you can buy new books) which I'm very sad to say is closing soon because of the business loss to ebooks.. I guess the only good thing about book stores closing is that you can get cheap new books, which I can say that I will be fully indulging in despite my already towering pile of books.

My Rollercoaster

I'm going through this thing right now... but this song is kind of how I feel right now.

My Rollercoaster - Kimya Dawsen

You were on my mind at least nine tenths of yesterday
It seemed as if perhaps I'd gone insane
What is it about you that has commandeered my brain?
Maybe it's your awesome songs or maybe it's the way
When I look at your face I can tell that you're not going to be stopping soon or even slowing down
And if we keep up this pace pretty soon we'll know the name of every kid and every grown up booking house shows in their town

And if home is really where the heart is
Then wer're the smartest kids I know
Because wherever we are in this great big world
We'll never be more than a few hours from home
And that's important because I need to travel
I've had this itchin in my shoes since I was just a little kid
And before I had a mini van I road the Greyhound bus
My mom would say "I hope some day you get paid for being Kimya Dawson"

And now I do and it's not much
But it's enough
I've got my Scrabble game, food on my plate, good friends and family
And now there's you understanding why I do the things I do
Knowing that you do them too makes me really happy

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again

From a distance, the world looks blue and green
And the snow capped mountains white
From a distance, the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/k/kimya_dawson/my_rollercoaster.html ]
(whispering)
Darkness imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute horror
I cannot live
I cannot die
Trapped in myself
Body my holding cell

Do do do do do do do
Do do do do do do do
Do do do do do do do
Do do do do do do do
I'll be your cryin' shoulder
I'll be love's suicide
I'll be do do do do do do
I'll be the greatest man of your life

'cause I like going for hikes and riding bikes
And playing video games in the middle of the night
And I'll stay up late and I wont even care
That we're getting up early to go to the state fair
I'm gonna ride the biggest ride it'll be out of sight
Then I'll share an elephant ear with you if you'd like
Because we are alive so we've gotta live life
To the fullest you spin the bottle and I'll dim the lights
Four five six seven minutes in the closet

You were on my mind at least nine tenths of yesterday
It seemed as if perhaps I'd gone insane
What is it about you that has commandeered my brain?
Maybe it's your awesome songs or maybe it's the way
You go straight to the top you're not scared of getting squashed
You know just when to jump off
You're so brave
And then you run to the right it seems there's no hope in sight
And you drop down to the tube that takes you right to level eight

Life is a highway and I'm gonna ride it
Every day's a winding road yeah
My rollercoaster's got the biggest ups and downs
As long as it keeps goin' round it's unbelievable.

Life is a highway and I'm gonna ride it
Every day's a winding road yeah
My rollercoaster's got the biggest ups and downs
As long as it keeps goin' round it's unbelievable.

Yeah, I'm a Nerd..

Recently, John convinced me to join him in playing Runescape online.. I didn't think I would be so addicted lol.

I forgot how awesome playing games could be. It used to be huge in my life in elementary and middle school. Kind of a stress reliever.

Happy Birthday John :)

Happy 19th Birthday

to my amazing boyfriend and best friend

who loves and cares about me, and is patient with whatever it is that I through at him. He's always been there for me and I couldn't ask for someone who is as playful and sweet as he is.

I'm so glad that I was able to make today really special for him. I think we had a lot of fun :)

Winter Is Weird

A pretty big blizzard blew in last night. This is the most winter we've had all season. Dance got cancelled last night, and we had a snow day from school today and no dance again tonight.. It's kind of weird. I haven't really had a whole day of nothing for a long time. Very weird.

But my awesome John brought me a full breakfast from IHOP this morning. Chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast ham, and hash browns :) I'm pretty sure he's a good one.

I also started back up on my knitting the other day while trying to watch episodes of Glee that I am way behind on. I was knitting while waiting for them to load online, but let's say that more knitting got done than watching. I think I need to find another way to watch missed episodes. Maybe I'll be able to watch them on my Kindle Fire when I finally purchase it, even though I'll probably have to buy them.. Oh well.

AND raspberry cheesecake cookies are FINALLY back at Subway! They're soooo good.

My Body Hurts and I Made a Teapot

I've been making a teapot in my pottery class and it's kind of been kicking my ass. I had to throw the pot on the wheel, the spout, and the lid. It's been interesting... But I'm finally done. Almost. I have the spout and the handle attached, and now I just need to carve out the top of my lid since it was thrown upside down and then shave some off of the lip so it actually fits on my piece. I'm so relieved this thing is finally over with. It was stressing me out so badly. I also accomplished putting a handle on the pitcher I made yesterday so that was pretty cool too.

My other rant is that I am completely stiff and sore from this past week. I was standing at work for all that time this weekend and then I danced my butt off Tuesday and Wednesday.. Literally. We did these butt exercises that totally made my muscles scream.. My legs are absolutely killing me, and my arms don't feel so hot either.. I just keep telling myself "beach body!" because I will have one by the time I go to Cancun. I have some killer bruises on my knees and feet.. but I guess I can say that I earned those.

That's the end of my frustrations. For now anyway.

New Little Baby

This is Sofi :)

She is John's birthday present from me :) (even though his birthday isn't until March 8). He got to bring her home on Friday since she didn't need to be dewormed and we have been spending much time playing. Tyler didn't get to take the puppy he wanted because another family adopted her. That's okay though. All four of the puppies got adopted up right away which is good. Now more people just need to adopt adult animals. I think I can say right now that I will probably always adopt from a shelter. Those animals need homes.

I was going to post this blog on Saturday night but I was pooped. I worked 5 hours on Friday, 10 hours on Saturday, 9 hours yesterday, and then 5 hours today. I'm hoping for a good paycheck so I think it will be worth it.

Valentine's Day!

I was going to post this last night but my computer decided that I wasn't going to be allowed to open an internet tab... cool. Which reminds me, I think I'm going to get this baby cleaned up and use it for leisure, and get a Macbook Air for school. Going to have to work on saving for that one.

Anyway, John gave me the most wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday :) It was the best day I've had in a long time. I went to surprise him at lunch and he surprised me with flowers. I totally wasn't expecting it. They were gorgeous. I also got a jar of pickles which I was expecting, because I love pickles.

Then after school we went out to the humane society to look at the kitties because I'm getting John a pet for his birthday, and he ended up signing the papers for this adorable little girl.

While I fell in love with this pretty lady :)

She's so friendly and soft. I wish I could have a kitty so bad. The little pup that John picked out is a sister in a litter of 3 girls and a boy. The little boy is called for already along with 2 of the girls (one for sure by John and the other hopefully by his roommate Tyler) so we will be having lots of puppy fun soon :) The last one will have no problem finding a home with that cute little face. The girls at the humane society estimated the puppies being around 6 weeks old. A farmer brought them in after finding them in his barn. He said that he thinks he found the momma on the side of the road :( and that she looked like she had some American Eskimo in her. I don't think these puppies will get very big, probably medium sized dogs. The cutest thing is that John's puppy is the only one without a tail. It looks like she was just born that way. She's also pretty quiet and mild from the looks of it, which is good. If they don't need deworming they should be coming home tomorrow!

On to the rest of our day, after the humane society and lots of treats John took me to The Vow which was an adorable movie. I really loved it. Then we went to the Valentine's Bistro at school. I had never been to it before so I decided that this year I wasn't missing it, and I'm glad I didn't. I never realized how talented some of those people are. It was really good. Then we enjoyed some cheesecake and came back to my house to watch the first episode of the new season of Walking Dead. It was a good one. My whole family follows that show religiously, and John loves anything to do with zombies. My whole day was really amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better one.

And who got a 105% on her first Psych test? Yeah :)

Challenge Completed

I threw a vase today. No, not just a stumpy pot, but a tall, majestic VASE. Yeah, I'm proud. It was an exciting acomplishment. I trim tomorrow.

Also, my first Psych test was today. Not nearly as hard as I was anticipating. Not at all. Same with the Brit Lit test that I was so nervously not studying for at all. Easy peasy.

That is all.

Baptism

So today I became the godmamma of Harmony Skye Washenberger-Ellenson when she was baptised this morning. It was interesting because I haven't been to church in like, three years, and my own baptism was quite a while ago (I was baptised when I was like 11 or 12 so I do remember it). John came along with me which I thought was really sweet. He spent a lot of the service playing with her little feet and petting her hair. It was so cute. This was also his first time meeting her. She did cry a bit while we were up at the alter but other that some squawks she was pretty quiet. I love my little godbaby so much :) She's so freakin' adorable.

Back To This Finally

Blogging is hard.. I went like 3 weeks without posting and it's really bothering me. I didn't really have much to say for a while but then I kind of realized that I've just been kind of avoiding it. I don't really know why because I love it.

One thing that I need to talk about is Pinterest. I FREAKING LOVE PINTEREST. You can literally pin anything your little heart desires onto one or several of your own online bulletin board kind of things. I love it to death. A vast majority of my days are spent pinning. I think my favorite thing to pin are recipes. There are so many delicious looking things on there that I have never even dreamed of. I plan to make them for my belly. It's hard to explain and doesn't sound all that great until you try it. Just do it. You'll fall in love. (PS It's kind of a girl thing.)

Another thing I need to rant about is pottery. I FREAKING LOVE POTTERY. We have 10 projects to do in 9 weeks. There're 15 days left and I only have 3 projects left to do, one of which I have already started. I would only have 2 left except that the vase that I tried to throw on the wheel totally took a hit when I pulled out two huge pieces of sponges out of the thing. Totally ruined it. So now it has been stunted to a kind of pot-bowl thing... I'll probably just find a cork for it and call it good. I'll be using that one as extra credit. I'm going to throw another vase on Monday so hopefully it will actually turn out. And by the way.. vases are freaking hard to make.. I don't like it. My final throwing will be a teapot.. we'll see how that one goes.

I also have to finish over half of The Fellowship of the Ring in the next few days here or I'll be screwed on my book report.. That is all.

Power Lust, An Epic :)

This is mine and Brianna's epic poem written for Brit Lit. Yeah.

Spencer, with his steely stare, brought his mighty
hammer down on every heathen surrounding
the tusked beast that was his mount. It was crashing
and stomping every ugly, spiny creature
that surrounded it with their tearing claws. Their
whip tails cut into the mammoth’s course skin,
splattering the faces of the devilish
gremlins with hot blood from its ankles. The
hammer’s spiked garnish ripped through their boney
bodies, killing upon contact. They started
to climb Spencer’s sizable steed, scratching and
clawing at him. He looked back to his brothers
of war with a look of despair on his
battle-worn face. Every one of them was swamped
with claws and teeth, all fighting for their lives with
every ounce of strength they had. As Spencer was
beginning to feel as though there was nothing
to be done about the gremlins that persisted
to pour from the surrounding caves, a great
shadow overcame the expanse of the
mountainous forest. All that were living drew
from the fray, turning their faces to the sky.
Great birds, enormous eagles and owls, more
massive than any ever seen in this land,
swooped down among the warriors. They plucked
gremlins from the scene, taking as many as
ten at a time, in their colossal talons.
The sky warriors took what they could and snapped
the necks of the demonic creatures, eating
their fill of them. Spencer and his men were in
awe of the assistance they had received. They
took the opportunity to slash the throats
of the remaining cretins while they were still
dumbstruck at what was happening to their
brethren. At long last the battle began to
subside as the last of the grotesque beings
fell to the ground amongst crunching bones and gore.

But this poisonous plague persisted on to
Spencer not of its own accord. It seems the
evil came from within the walls of the king's
castle. “Brother. Why do you behave as though
your heart has iced. I see no reason to act
as a frosted glutton. You are more than
substantially taken care of. Leave the
power in my hands. It is my duty as
first kin to protect the people of the
palace. I take no interest in slaves, David.
I will not have you treating my people as
such.” David had had teeming thoughts toward his
brother’s tactics. He had always felt he would
make a superior ruler. He could have
spewed all that he had to say just then had
Spencer’s young daughter, Nina, a girl of
only fifteen, not floated into the room
with her long, golden curls bouncing behind
beautifully. David’s thoughts rounded on a
treacherous mind bloom. Days started to lapse and
Spencer had not seen any gesture of his
brother. He began to worry that David
was treading in sin. His fears were confirmed when
his sons came bursting through the door to the great
hall shouting that Nina had been taken from
her slumber nest only but an hour
ago. It was then that Spencer gathered his
war party, determined to detect his
daughter for he knew who had stolen her from
him. All had mounted their beasts of extravagant
equine and pachyderm and traversed to the
secluded realm they were certain they would find
a lair baited with the damsel. The danger
was well known, but it was a sacrifice to
be made for their king.




Now, at long last, the battle with the vicious
gremlins had subsided. Spencer dismounted
the wooly steed as he heard a dark voice from
deep within the largest of the caves. "With
unfathomable luck on your end, my
monsters have been vanquished. But you will not have
the girl so easily." David lifted his
powerful voice at his brother. "I will have
what I desire!! Your power will be mine!!" He
sprang at the king with a mighty death blade in
his grasp. It surely would have pierced Spencer's
battle-weakened heart, had one of his own
wounded warriors who lay between the two
not used the very last of his life to drive
his own sword directly through David's gut. Now
broken and bloodied, both bodies dropped at last
among the rest of the fallen, the last looks
of astonishment not entirely leaving
their expired expressions. Spencer and what was
left of his army stood in pure amazment
at what had just occured. His sudden sadness
for the death of his brother, however lost
he was to his power-hungry soul, took his
mind. Then the pride at the young man who had
given his own life to save his king, whose name
Spencer had not even known, flooded his heart.
Moments passed in silence for the fallen, but
Spencer regained the purpose of all of
the loss, and marched into the cavern where he
was certain his daughter was kept. And there,
along the wall, was the young girl, cold and weak
from the dampness. He scooped up his child and took
her away from the awful place, back home to
the kingdom where he and later his children
would forever rule.

New Class

So I had signed up to take Composition I right? Right. And I though it was going to be easy since I'm not too bad at writing. Well, turns out the professor I got was one that John's mom (being a professor herself) completely advises against. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure she knows what she's talking about. So I started to look for something else that would fit into my schedule. I did find another Composition I class with a teacher that I have heard good things about, but of course it was full so I put myself on her waitlist. I was really nervous about not getting in and I really wanted something so sure enough, off of a desperate whim, I found one. I had just looked up classes randomly Tuesday morning in hopes to find anything, and I just happened to find a Psychology 101 class that meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:00am to 8:50am (with small group Thursdays from 2:00pm to 2:50pm). Perfect for my schedule. I still get my fourth block open for 4 of the 5 days a week and I get to sleep in 3 of the 5 :) Which made me super happy. So I went over to the registrar and got everything fixed up in about 5 minutes. I felt pretty awesome. So now I started the class this morning and already love it. My professor reminds me a lot of my Aunt Kathy :) And the class is huge which makes me feel way more comfortable. I can kind of disappear and do my own thing. The only problem is that I once again started the class WITHOUT A TEXTBOOK. Hopefully the one I ordered will come soon. So that was the last week for me in a nutshell.

Stressful but worth it.

I now have to write an epic poem for my British Lit class.. Maybe I'll post it. It's pretty.... epic..

Decisions, Decisions

This week has been hectic, but I'm very happy to have my John home again. He had such a great time in Hawaii with his family and brought back some pretty awesome stuff for me :) A little clasping clam (since my other one broke a long time ago); a shell with "Hawaii" with trees carved into it; a fan with a seaturtle; and a beautiful skirt that is not only a skirt, but also several different kinds of dresses! You can wear it 15 different ways on the instructions, and any other ways you could probably think of. It's really pretty and it's a soft silky texture. I love it.

On the other hand it has been a stressful week since I found out that Presentation College doesn't offer Ultrasound training. I'm thinking I might end up going to Northern next year for generals after all. Regardless, I'm not leaving this town next year. John and I talked it over and aren't deciding anything involving moving yet. Just taking it in baby steps. My mom and I are still exploring options. It's looking like Southeast Tech in Sioux falls might be a good one, since I can get my stuff done in two years (plus two summers), which is awesome and rather cheap. All I know is that this is the profession I want to go in to.

I'm going to try to figure out that skirt today. Maybe I'll post pictures.

Grrrr...

Well, it looks like my schooling situation may have changed. I'm really stressed out about it. I'll be talking it over with John and then I'll update on here. I know that sounds weird that I need to talk it over with my boyfriend, but we've been together close to two years and he's very important, so I want to have his support on what I'm doing.

Other than that, John comes home tonight from Hawaii (mmm tan), and my first class of Composition starts tomorrow. I found the room (I think) so I'm not to worried. The only problem is that I DON'T HAVE ANY BOOKS. Thanks Amazon for stealing 15 bucks from me.. I paid for 2 day shipping on Monday. It is now Wednesday and I won't get them until tomorrow. Good thing this class is only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus tomorrow we will probably just go over the syllabus. Oh well.

This Is Weird

Today, January 4, it was 53 degrees. 53 beautiful, amazing, comfortably warm degrees. In January. In South Dakota. This is weird. VERY weird. Last year at this time it was blizzarding and deadly cold. What the heck winter? I guess I'm not complaining but it bothers me. We haven't had any real snow since my first blog post, and that melted after a day. I guess the world might be ending after all. Then again, this did happen 10 years ago. They made a big deal about Y2K (2000) and what happened? Nothing. Crazy people with their crazy predictions. I don't think it will happen for millions of years when the sun dies and engulfs the earth. That's just my thought for the day I guess.

Aloha!

Well, John just left to go to Sioux Falls after stopping by here for a few minutes to say goodbye and grab a bunch of books to read on the way. Lucky him I am an awesome girlfriend and have everything he needs :P He, his mom, his sister, and his grammy will be flying out first thing tomorrow (with some plane changes) to Hawaii. I'm jeleous. They will be back next Wednesday. I think this might be the longest John and I will be apart in over a year. I can't wait to hear all about Hawaii :) I've never been there; I hope I can go someday. I will be going to Mexico with my mama this summer sometime probably in August. We will go to Isla Mujeres and Akumal. Fun fun! John has promised me a trinket from his travels :) I'm excited for him, but I'm going to miss him terribly.. Skype is a wonderful thing ;)

Fun Stuff! :D

Okay, so first I had said that I would put up pictures of my quilt projects in an earlier post. Here they be:

This is the first one that I made. I think it turned out quite nicely.

This is the one that I made for little Harmony.

It's not the easiest to see but I stitched her name all along the outer border.
~

 On another note, I did manage to do my first piercing at Ink Spot Tattoo. The tattoo shop that my parents own. I've been watching my mom pierce people since I turned 18 so that I would have a good idea for what to do. My friend Justin volunteered to be my first victim :)

I think it turned out pretty good, and he liked it so I'll take that :)