Stephanie's Blog

2010-12-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

This week is the last week of classes before finals week! Most of my last minute stuff was crammed into this week and next week actually won't be too bad.

Next Monday my Advanced Poetry class is having a reading for the chapbooks we made. Chapbooks are just short collections of poetry.. mine has 18 poems. We had to design and produce the books ourselves.. and I am still in the process of printing mine! My chapbook has serious, funny and running themes throughout and is titled "Fate Can Wait" because it was my favorite line from any of my poems and the collection kind of has underlying tones of chance circumstances.

Other final projects and assignments in the works are the graphic design + media arts website created by those of us in the interactive design class. Right now we are in the process of coding the website and I am anxious to see how it all turns out! I also have a take-home test in my lit class, which I also had to do a literary analysis and oral report for, but thankfully that is all over with. For media studies, we had to keep a journal of all the media we came in contact with for five consecutive days and then write an essay about our average media consumption. I found that I use the internet the most, followed by radio/music, tv, movies and magazines and books. For my honors class, we had to give a presentation and my partner Brooke and I did ours on the topic of "H1N1: 1918 and 2009." We basically just showed the similarities and differences between the two influenzas viruses and why there was a cause for alarm in 2009 (because the virus was very similar in structure to the virus of 1918 which kills millions).

Track is in full swing these days and we actually have our first track meet on Saturday. I will be running the 60 meter hurdles and 4x400 relay. I have not done either of these events in a very LONG time, so I am both excited and nervous for them. Because it is just a pre-season meet, we are not expected to run exceptionally well.. the coaches just want to see where we are at fitness-wise. However, I do want to impress them, as well as excel during my senior year!

Since I have not blogged in such a long time I have not yet told of my last Vespers experience. Vespers was on November 29 and we had two performances that night. It went amazingly well! Singing with the orchestra is such a beautiful experience and I honestly cannot believe how beautiful we sounded at each performance! We all sang with such emotion and feeling.. you could really tell the audition was feeling everything right with us. I still sad that it was my Vespers performance, but I can always come back next year and watch!

Next weekend is graduation and I have a few friends graduating, which will be sad :( But I am hoping it prepares me for next semester when I and the rest of my friends graduate! I can't believe how fast this year is going.. I am not ready to say goodbye, but I am ready to start a new chapter of my life! Grad school here I come!

2010-11-22T19:16:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the first day of Thanksgiving break. I need this break soo bad. I don't have many plans, and I will end up doing some homework, but it will be great to be in a different place for a while.

Yesterday was our band concert. It went really well, and I am still getting compliments on it. I had a few flute solos and I guess I made some good impressions. Sometimes, I wish I could play professional flute in an orchestra. That would be cool.

Yesterday, we also sang at First Presbyterian Church in Sioux Falls for choir. Since some of their church members are singing with us at Vespers (which is next Sunday!), so we returned the favor and sang with them at their Sunday Service. We sang two mixed choir songs and one chamber choir song and I was really surprised and impressed with how well we sang. It made me even more excited for Vespers. For this performance, we went up to Sioux Falls on Saturday afternoon and actually stayed with church members (homestays). It was actually a really cool experience and I really liked my hostmom. We went out to eat at this really cool restaurant called Grille 26 and then we went to her house. I helped her make some puppy chow and then we watched Ratatouille. Even better, I got to sleep in a HUGE bed! She even made us breakfast-puff pancakes with apples, sausage, fresh fruit, and tea :)

It seems like everyone went home tonight for break, or perhaps its just all of my friends besides Gina. I might not even have any classes tomorrow, but I stuck around so I could pick up my brother in Sioux Falls tomorrow afternoon and make the rest of the trip home with him.

2010-11-11T11:40:00.000-08:00

Guess what? Only one and a half weeks until Thanksgiving Break and then only two weeks until finals! I am so ready for this semester to be over. There were times when I questioned my major, questioned my extracurriculars, and questioned myself, wondering if I could handle everything I put on my plate. But I can finally see the finish line! It's just a hop, skip and jump away!

Speaking of hopping, skipping and jumping, track officially starts next week. I started working out this week though.. I was getting restless and I also wanted to get a jump start on training. We have a new assistant coach this year who will be helping us with strength and conditioning. So far, I have done a few lifting workouts and I am super sore. But I know that weight training is something I need to do to be a stronger runner.. my little arms right now can't propel me!

My online portfolio project was due today. The theme was a flower garden outside, so I had a sky and clouds and grass as the background, and then I had flowers pop up when you rolled over the links. Its cute. And I like it more than the last portfolio I did because it actually has a theme. And I have more work to display on it now ;P

My toe injury is healing, slowly but surely. The nail hasn't shown any signs yet of falling off, but just give it time and I'm sure it will. It's still purple and gross, so I am glad that the weather has gotten cold so I can only wear shoes and no sandals.

This past weekend was Family Weekend and there were a bunch of activities going on. On Friday night there was bowling, but my friends and I got distracted and ended up going pretty late into it and didn't get a lane.. so we played DJ instead and it ended up still being a good time. Saturday was a super busy day for me. I helped at the GPAC cross country meet because it was held in Yankton this year and then I had to hurry back to the school to give tours for the campus visit day. I hadn't given a tour in over a month, but its just like riding a bike.. you never forget how to do it! Later that day, I had to play pep band for the two basketballs games and in the evening I went to the fall play. It was such a good play and I had a lot of friends in it, which I think made it even better! It was very cute and senitmental and everyone did a great job. On Sunday my mom came over because I was playing flute for the Family Mass. I played "The Prayer" which you may have heard before (by Celine Dion :)). We also went to the Family Weekend Brunch.

It will be nice to go home in about a week. It won't be much of a break, since I will have several papers due and much reading to accomplish for when I get back, but it will be nice to just get away from campus for a while. I am excited to see some friends too that I haven't seen all summer. Oh, and of course, do some Black Friday shopping!

2010-10-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

This week, I thought my soccer career was going to end early. At our game on Wednesday against Dakota Wesleyan, with 40 seconds left in the second half, I went to kick a ball and I got it, but a DWU defender went to kick too, and got my big toe. I went down hard, but got up like a champ since there was no point in leaving the field for the last 40 seconds. Over the next two days, I had a very purple and swollen toe. The athletic trainer had to drill a hole in my toenail TWICE to drain the blood underneath and relieve the pressure from it. I sat out from practice those two days because my toe hurt too much to wear shoes. Yesterday, we had another game, and I wasn't sure if I would be able to play. So I went to the trainer again and since my toe still hurt to touch, he sent to the clinic to get an xray to see if it was broken. It was my first ever xray and I had to go by myself so I was nervous. But, it turns out my toe was not broken after all, just severly bruised. The doctor showed me the xray image and I saw all my little foot bones perfectly in a row. Except there was some pretty visible swelling too. She said I should not practice until it no longer hurts to put a shoe on... so hopefully I don't have to miss next Wednesday's game too! My mom and brother, and my friend Kelly are coming to that game, so I want to give them something good to watch! Also, what was funny and ironic about missing yesterday's game, was that it was against Concordia, and I missed that game last year too because I was severly sick with a stomach flu! Crazy!

2010-10-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have spent the past month in two places: the classroom and a bus. We have travelled the Midwest up and down and over and under for soccer this year. We hit Iowa/Missouri/Illinois which equalled about 16-18 hours on a bus on our first big trip and Nebraska/North Dakota on the second one which equalled about 20 hours on a bus in one weekend. Unfortunately we have been having some bad luck and our record is only 1-10 for the season. We are at the midseason mark right now, so hopefully we can get over our slump and make some magic happen.

As for the classroom, I am still trying to find a routine to work out my 21 credits. The hardest part about it is that I have no morning classes.. they are all in the afternoon and evening. Most college kids would think that is the best situation ever because they can sleep in every day, but for me, I would just rather have my classes 8-12 every day and get them out of the way.

Outside of school and athletic news, I got a new phone! My Blackberry took a turn for the worst, so I finally got rid of it. I ended up getting the LG Ally.. its a droid and it runs soo much better than my Blackberry did. I can actually make and receive phone calls again! And its really cool because its a touch screen and it came with a 4gb memory card so I can take a ton of pictures and have a ton of music on it. I feel like such a kid just talking about it... :P

My favorite class right now is probably Calligraphy. Its so much fun and actually really relaxing to just write letters. We have learned all the lowercase letters in italics and started on the uppercase letters. We have written some quotes and have full pages of words.. I always feel so accomplished after I write a whole page of something!

2010-09-17T20:35:00.001-07:00

Third week of school done. Those three weeks went by so fast, and yet they didn't go by fast enough to be stress-free. Since I am taking 21 credits this semester, I am swamped with stuff to do. But what makes it more difficult is that all of my classes are from 1-4pm and then in the evening. So I don't have any classes in the mornings. So either, I have to get up early and do homework in the morning for hours on end (which is weird and contrary to the routine of every other college student) or stay up really late to do homework after my evening classes get over. Its hard to manage my time, but I have been doing my best :)

Soccer has been quite the adventure this year as well. Right now our record is 1-5. We played in a tournament in Canton, Missouri. It was actually alot of fun because we got to stay in a hotel for three days, play two games, go shopping in Quincy, Illinois (we hit so many states on the trip!), and get some quality team bonding time in. We lost out first game we played, but won the second.

Since then, we lost the next three games we played. We have definitely had our share of injuries, which makes it frustrating during games because we barely have any subs and we have players playing positions on the field that they aren't used to.

I am also getting used to my new job with the school newspaper, The Moderator. In previous years I have been a writer and the ad designer, but these year I am also the ad manager. That means I have to call area businesses and see if they want to advertise with us. I have five so far, but would like to get more. I hope my public relations skills work well for me! Tonight I worked on designing a few of the ads that I got.

This week I found out I was picked to be a "Hometown Hero of Character" for Mount Marty Athletics, as well as a male athlete from here. I had never heard of this award before, but apparently area high school and college athletes who show good character are given this award. On Monday, a spokesperson for the award is coming to Mount Marty to take professional pictures of us for a poster that we are going to be on. We had to write a statement about one of five character values, and that will also be on the poster. I chose to write about respect. Anyways, I think its a pretty cool honor and really appreciate being chosen for it.

This weekend is going to be an R and R weekend. We don't have any soccer games, which is totally unheard of! We usually have one (if not two) games every weekend, so I am definitely going to take advantage of all the extra time to get majorly caught up on homework!

2010-08-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

Schools starts tomorrow! It will be my last first day of school.. bittersweet, I guess. I AM excited to be done with school but have no idea where I will end up afterwards. The world is my canvas, I guess!

The past two weeks we have had two-a-days for soccer, and as a team we have had ups and downs. We have a lot of talented new players (3 freshmen and 2 transfers), but we have also had a lot of injuries to deal with. BUT, as of right now we only have two players out with injuries and one should be good to go by the weekend, which is a huge sigh of relief. However, the other player out right now is my roommate April.. she fractured her wrist at practice last week and is out until as least September 13th. And of course, it was on her right hand, so she is getting used to doing everything (or at least everything I don't do for her ;P) with her left hand. She is a very valuable player on our team and one of the best (if not THE best) defensive player on our team. So she will be missed dearly during our first part of the season.

I have actually been learning a new position this year, outside back. I have never played a defensive position before.. I have always been an outside mid or forward, so its a lot to learn. Some days I feel like I'm progressing really well, while other days I feel like I can't grasp anything. Its been frustrating but as soon as I can play in a game and get a real feel for the position I think I will improve.

Our first games are next weekend. We are playing in a tournament called the Culver-Stockton Classic in Canton, Missouri. I am excited to go and excited to play! It will be nice to take a trip and sight-see, as well as hopefully win some games! The winner of the tournament gets a trophy, so we definitely have our eyes on it!

My class schedule this semester is pretty odd. I only have one morning class, 11am MWF. All my other classes are in the afternoon 1-4pm. And I have two night classes as well. Its going to be a struggle with soccer to get to all these classes and make up work, but I've done it before and can do it again.

Besides tomorrow being the first day of school, its my 22nd birthday. I don't think I will do much for it since I will have class and practice. My mom and youngest brother came to visit yesterday and my other brother just got back from Montana yesterday and met us here in Yankton, so he had pretty perfect timing. I may go out to eat with Isaac or something, but who knows!

2010-08-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

Wow.. I think I spaced off the entire last month of the summer. I haven't blogged in exactly 3 weeks and 3 days.

This is my last week of summer. Soccer starts on Monday, and its gonna be a killer two weeks of practice. Coach emailed us all and said we will be having fitness practice in the mornings, a meeting or lifting in the afternoons, and soccer practice in the evenings at the fields. BY THE WAY, we have NEW fields this year! Ones to call our very own.. I am very excited about this!

At work the past few weeks I have been busy designing. I made posters for the new archery program that is starting here this fall, postcards for last minute financial aid reminders, finished up the orientation materials, made a few newspaper and magazine ads, and lots of other fun stuff. This is my last week of work, which is sad because I will miss the paycheck and actually getting to make finished projects. But alas, I still have one more year of school before I can be let loose into the real world.

Next week will be my last week as an RA. I just hope that when the fall sports kids move in they don't cause a ruckus! I have lots of posters to make for orientation and really need to get started on that. Kelly, the other summer RA, has been busying making posters, so I need to play catch-up.

School starts on August 30.. aka, MY BIRTHDAY. I am okay with it, I just hope with classes and soccer practice I can still find room for a little fun :) I feel so old.. a lot of my friends just turned 21 this summer and I will be 22! But my roommate April turned 22 yesterday, so at least I'm not as old as her!

Tonight I made tatertot hotdish for the few of us still living in the dorms. Kelly had made some for a potluck we had a while back and I wanted to one-up her and show her how it was REALLY done :) So, I worked my magic and it was a hit! No leftovers!

2010-07-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

I think I took too much time off from blogging! Its been about two and a half weeks since my last one.

Last weekend was the best weekend of my summer! My friend Theresa got married! And I was a bridesmaid! We have been friends since middle school and she graduated from MMC. I followed in her footsteps in coming here, actually.

Anyways, last Friday I went home for the rehearsal. Isaac and our friends Jordan and Becca came with. The rehearsal was at the church in Jackson and didn't take very long. The groom's dinner/rehearsal dinner was at the golf course in Lakefield. We had tacos lol. How sophisticated ;P After the dinner, we played yard games are Theresa's parents house. Becca and I teamed up against Isaac and Jordan for very intense game of ladder ball.. and we won! Although I would like to think it was a big feat beating these boys, they are notorious for being a bad ladder ball team :P

After the lawn games, we went back to Jackson, but this time to see my friend Lucia. She was a foreign exchange student at my high school two years ago when I was a freshman in college and I got to know her really well and hadn't seen her since then. But she came to the U.S. to visit this summer and I was so happy to see her again! It was really great to catch up and she finally got to meet Isaac. She had talked to him on the phone but was never able to meet the person with the voice.

Saturday morning, I had my hair done at the salon with the other bridesmaids. My style was half up with spiral curls and "little" poof. Lets just say, I would hate to see what the "big" poof looks like! Theresa's sister Laura and I both did similar hair styles, while two of the other bridesmaids did side ponytails and the other two did up-dos. So, we all had hairstyle partners!

We got to the church at 11:30am for pictures. Our bridesmaid dresses were "marine" blue.. somewhere in between royal blue and navy blue. The best part about them was that they had pockets! So we didn't have to haul around a clutch with everything we needed. Anyways, we tooks bridal party pictures for almost two and a half hours in the church as well as outside. It was such a gorgeous day out.. sunny but not extremely hot.

The wedding ceremony was amazingly precious. The groom (Mike)'s dad is a pastor and precided the ceremony. His sermon was awesome because he was able to give personal stories about Theresa and Mike.. like how they were caught smooching in the back of the bus in middle school and how when Mike wanted to transfer to USD, he told his dad that he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life, but he was sure he wanted to be with Theresa. Isn't that just adorable??

The reception was a blast. It was at the Windom Community Center, by the lake (which we, of course, took more pictures by!). The bridal party made their grand entrance (I was escorted by Derek, who I graduated high school with and it was great to see him and catch up with him), then the bride and groom cut the cake (they didn't make a mess of their faces, thankfully!), then we ate some amazing food (catered by the Hi-Lo, where I used to work), and danced the night away. I kept saying that the reception was like a school reunion because there were so many people there from high school.. alot of whom I hadn't seen SINCE high school!

The next day, Isaac, Jordan, Becca and I went to a place called Red Rock Dells. Its about 45 minutes from my house, near Sanborn, MN. Its a beautiful little sactuary in the middle of corn fields. There is a creek that runs through these hugh cliffs and there is even a waterfall! The rocks are about 30 feets high and there is a pool of water at the bottom (where the creek empties into) and you can jump off the rock into the water. So thats exactly what we did. I did this when I was in high school too, so I was the expert. It is so much fun. Isaac and Jordan did it probably a dozen times and they were so sore the next day! I guess the impact of the water was just too much for their sensitive bodies ;)

Here are some pictures from Mike and Theresa's wedding:

Theresa with her bridesmaids after the wedding (so she is a Mrs. in this picture!)

Becca, Jordan, Isaac and I (Becca's dress was unintentionally the same color as our bridesmaid dresses!) (also note the beautiful bouquets we had-purple daisies with green roses)

Guess who is walking down the aisle??

Theresa before the ceremony!

Here are some pictures from Red Rock:

Me with the smaller waterfall.. there was one ten times bigger too!

Becca jumping off the cliff into the water!

2010-06-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

I have been really busy with work, giving tours and going to Isaac's baseball games. He pitched his team's first win of the season! That was really exciting. His brother pitched their only other win too. Talent must run in the family.. that, or they are really lucky. ;)

This week I was asked to play in the orchestra for the community theatre's production of "My Fair Lady." I missed the first rehearsal yesterday because my flute was locked up in the instrument closet at school, but I retrieved so I can go to the next rehearsal on Thursday. Isaac is also in this play, but he is in the chorus.. so he gets to sing and dance on stage!

Tomorrow Isaac has a baseball game in Dakota Valley, so we are going to go shopping in Sioux city in the afternoon and have lunch with our friend Heidi. I asked her to find a cute little place for us to eat at, so hopefully she comes up with someplace cool!

It seems like all my paychecks are disappearing so fast because of gas, food, wedding gifts, summer fun and everything else I have to pay for! BUT there are still things I need to go shopping for at the mall :)

My friend Theresa's wedding is in less than two weeks! I know she is getting VERY excited, and that makes me so excited! I should really start practicing walking in my high heals.. I'm nervous about walking down the aisle in them! I would probably be the one to break an ankel during the ceremony.. ;) I am excited to get my hair done and just be a part of the festivities. Some of my friends and I are thinking about going to Red Rock on that Sunday. Its this really cool water hole with a waterfall and gorgeous scenery. The point of going would be to jump off the rock, which is probably 50 or 60 feet high. I have been to Red Rock and done this before, so I will have to be the expert instructor when we go :) It should be fun!

This weekend was my friend Jordan's birthday and he came to Yankton to celebrate. My friend Kelly also came this weekend to help celebrate, which was nice because she lives in Omaha now. We are planning a get-together with Gina for the end of July and will go to the Omaha Zoo!

The mosquitoes are horrible here right now. I think I counted almost two dozen bites
on just my left foot after this weekend! I hope I don't get west nile, because apparently its
going around the area.

I am running a 5K roadrace on the 3rd in Crofton. It will be my first one since August last summer! I am excited to see how I will do and hopefully I can win my age division! I don't know what else I will do over the holiday weekend.. but all I care about is that its a long weekend and I can do nothing and still be satsified :)

2010-06-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

Another week down. And only two months left of summer vacation! I can't believe soccer starts so soon. There are a few guys staying at the dorms this summer who are working for the National Park Service and they played soccer with me this week. I need to get more touches on the ball.. but I think I am on pretty good track as far as training goes.

Isaac and I aren't going to Colorado anymore for the 4th of July weekend because he has to work. Even though this will save us probably 3oo dollars (in gas money!), I still wanted to roadtrip, go to Colorado for the first time, see the mountains, and visit my aunt and uncle. Oh well, I guess it just wasn't meant to be.. we will have to find some other time for the adventure.

Last weekend was my friend Beth's wedding. The ceremony was.. different. They did a "foot washing ceremony" which pretty much speaks for itself. And there were THREE pastors presiding the ceremony. We didn't stay for the dance because it was almost ten when we left and it hadn't even started yet! We ended up going to the late showing of "Get Him to the Greek" which was hilarious! I definitely recommend seeing it! We stayed at my friend Laura's apartment. We got up early the next morning to go to Isaac's baseball game but it ended up getting rained out, so we got to hang out with Laura a little longer! She showed me the house she is buying, too.. she is growing up so fast! (She graduated from MMC in 2008 and is a math teacher in Iowa, in case you were wondering!)

Yesterday I went to the beach for only the SECOND TIME this summer. Usually I go to the beach MUCH more, but with the consistently rainy days, its hard to find time to go when it actually IS nice out. We were only there for less than an hour, but I still managed to get a little red.. its better than burning to a crisp or not getting ANY color, but I wish I could just tan like normal, non redheaded people do :P

Today Isaac had another baseball game in Vermillion. He pitched the whole 9 innnings and they won! It was the Zips first win of the season and I was so proud of Isaac for playing so well. I know he is excited that he pitched their first and only win ;)

I don't have much on my agenda for the next two weeks, but I will be going home on July 9th for (my best friend from high school) Theresa's wedding. I am a bridesmaid and honestly cannot wait! Its going to be such a fun time! The time between now and then will pretty much consist of working and going to more of Isaac's baseball games. He has one in Dakota Valley so I think I will take the afternoon off from work so we can go shopping in Sioux City.

ALSO, my German-exchange student friend Lucia is coming to the U.S. to visit next week!! Its so exciting because I haven't seen her in two years! I will have to make a very special trip home to hang out with her for a while because who knows when she will travel across the ocean again to visit!

2010-06-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

TGIF.

For some reason the weeks are flying by, just not as fast as I thought they would be. I mean, this was my fourth week of work already, but it seems like I have been working for WAY longer than four weeks. Some projects I have been working on include the covers to the new students planners, a poster for the new bede art gallery exhibit schedule, and I actually am finished with Paddlefish! We uploaded it to the printer yesterday.

I also re-vamped my resume.. now it looks like a real designer's resume! And I finally accomplished the feat of getting all my information on one page.. at one point in time it was two full pages, pushing three.

This weekend Isaac and I are going home for one of my best friends from high school's wedding. She is getting married outside at Lake Okoboji and I am really super excited for this. Its gonna be great to see her and all my other friends from high school and just to celebrate her special day with her. After the reception Isaac and I are going to stay at my friend Laura's house.. a sleepover! :)

The concert last weekend was amazing!! The venue was really nice and pretty small.. and Motion City played such a variety of songs.. it was the best concert yet. It was the fifth time I have seen them live, so that's saying a lot.

My aunt and uncle have invited Isaac and I to come visit them at their ranch in Colorado for the 4th of July weekend. It would be so awesome to roadtrip there to see them! Isaac just has to make sure he can get that weekend off.. and we're there! They live on a ranch with horses that's on an orchard with apples and pears and other fruit. I'm sure its gorgeous there and I can't wait to see it!

2010-06-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

I get my first paycheck of the summer this week.. I can't wait! Don't worry, I'm not going on a huge spending spree.. my savings account just looks so empty right now, so it will be nice to actually have something in there!

Last Friday I left work early to hang out with Gina who came up for a few days. We went to the beach (first time this year!), Dairy Dock (raspberry sherbet!), and then treked out to Dell Rapids to see our friend Briana. She was having a nice little get-together. She grilled burgers and veges and her mom made an awesome homemade ice cream cake. A bunch of people from school showed up, which made it even better.

My brother Tyler was here in town all last week. He needed a place to stay before he headed out to Montana for the summer, so Isaac's place was his pick. He left on Sunday afternoon and made it to Flathead Lutheran Camp yesterday afternoon. He made multiple pits stops along the way, to see and stay with friends, including his roommate who lives in Montana. He is going to be a camp leader/counselor/etc etc there. He said they have a different age group come and stay each week so it will be a new experience each time. He is excited for hiking in the mountains and camping.. he bought lots of gear for it all: hiking boots, a rain coat, a sleeping bag, a pocket knife.. I think he is set!

This Friday (two days from now) Isaac, Gina and I are going to a Motion City Soundtrack concert in Omaha. Its pretty cheap and I think its at a small venue, so it should be a really good show! I always prefer the small shows to the huge ones. We are going to stay at our friend Kelly's apartment in Omaha.. she just moved in and wants to play hostess! On Saturday we are all coming back to Yankton to celebrate Gina's birthday. Should be a fun weekend.

As for work, my three jobs have been keeping busy. Being an RA in the summer is pretty stress-free, which is nice. I have been giving a couple tours a week for ADMIT, and at college relations I have done everything from press releases to designing freshman orientation materials to reading the newspaper to find MMC articles. Ahh.. all in a day's work.

2010-05-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

This week was my first week of work. I'm working at the college relations office, which is where I do work study during the school year. I think its actually considered an internship, which is great. I had to learn how to log and close jobs and do bills, but besides that my job is pretty much the same as before. I have been working on putting together Paddlefish, I did a ton of press releases, and today I worked on designing the cover for the new student planners.

Isaac had a baseball game on Wednesday in Vermillion. He is playing for Alcester, which is pretty far from Yankton, considering he played for Wynot last year, but he wanted to play on his old team and with his brother, so I guess if it makes him happy... :) They were leading until the 7th inning when Alcester seemed to fall apart and ended up loosing 8 to 5. It was only an exhibition game, though, so it doesn't count towards their season. Isaac pitched a few innings and I always love watching him at the mound :)

Speaking of baseball, MMC's team did amazingly this year. They actually set a new school record for most wins in a season and made it to the national tournament! Their run at the tournament ended today though. BUT, they can't be disappointed because they won all the conference honors and were the first MMC baseball team in history to make it to the national tournament. They have a lot to be proud of!

Last weekend I went to all the garage sales in the City Wide Rummage sales. I got up really early Thursday and went to probably 20 garage sales. I ended up hitting the jackpot at one of the first ones where I found a TON of jewelry. I spent 7 bucks on 10 necklaces, 10 pairs of earrings and two bracelets.. the basis of a whole new beading summer! I also picked up a ton of yarn because my summer goal is to 1) learn to crochet, 2) crochet often enough to be decent at it, and 3) be good enough to crochet a flower scarf, pair of very delicate earrings, and a cardigan. (All of which I have found photos of and instructions for online.)

After tonight I only have one week left of my summer art class. So far, I have painted one painting with oil pastels (of the rocks and water at Cozumel), painted a series of three pictures with watercolors (of little flowered porcelain teacups in the art room), an oil painting of the bluffs and reflection of the sun on the water down by the dam (Dave took us on a little field trip down there to paint one day), and I also painted some plain wooden beads I got from a garage sale. I don't know what I am going to paint next, but hopefully I can think of something tonight so I can work on it all next week.

2010-05-10T12:59:00.001-07:00

All A's again.. I honestly don't know how I have managed to keep a 4.0 every semester in college. In high school I graduated with a 3.9 because of a B or two. I guess I've just been lucky.

Finals week flew by and I was done by Wednesday with all my classes. However, I had to ambassador five days in a row after that. So summer vacation didn't start for me until Saturday afternoon.

On Wednesday and Thursday nights we had to ambassador by serving dinner for the President's Society and the Staff/Faculty Recognition dinners. They went quite smoothly when compared to the Catholic Gala dinner we served, mainly because they had far less people and there weren't kids and people EVERYWHERE. On Friday we had our own appreciation lunch and then had to usher at Baccaularette. On Saturday we had to lead the procession and usher at graduation. Graduation was sad this year because I had friends graduating.. I'm not looking forward to next year when the rest of my friends (and I) graduate.

On Saturday afternoon, Isaac, Gina and I went to Council Bluffs to a Relient K and Paramore concert. It was outside at an amphitheater and the place was huge! Luckily it didn't fill up. It was a really good concert.. the last time I saw Paramore I wasn't too thrilled with their live performance but that was about four years ago and they had improved alot! They had so much energy and played all the good songs ;) Relient K was really good too.. I didn't know alot of their songs, but they are Isaac's favorite band so I know he was a super time. The band Fun played too.. the lead singer is actually the same singer from the band The Format and I LOVE THE FORMAT so it was cool to see them too.

This week is going to be pretty laid back for me. I don't start work until next Monday, so my days are completely free. I have my night class, but that is just from 6-8pm every night (and it goes from May 10-28, so its a pretty short class). Today I gave a tour, downloaded music for probably an hour, made lunch, made some sweet new earrings and baked some blueberry muffins. I hope I don't run out of ways to entertain myself before next week ;)

These are the earrings I made today :) I might turn the green one on the bottom left into a pendant for a necklace.

Also, if you would like to see my online graphic design portfolio go here: http://stephanie.mmcgdma.org/.

It's still a work in progress, so don't worry if a few things look a little off.

2010-05-02T21:20:00.001-07:00

Its May! And you know what that means.. its almost summer!

This week is finals week and it will be the easiest finals week for me ever. I have a take home test that's due on Wednesday (but I already have it done!), a regular final test on Wednesday, and my graphics project and spring project for my honors class are due on Tuesday. So that means only three days until my semester is over.. and my junior year!

I am staying on campus this summer and working at the college relations office where I do work study. I believe I will start that on May 17. I was also selected as a summer housing assistant so I am very excited to start all of this. I am also taking a summer art class, which starts on May 10 and is for two hours every night. I have a class with that professor now and I asked if we could paint outside everyday and he was thrilled to do that!

I am making an online portfolio website for my final project in my graphics class. I am really really close to being done, I just need a little help in some areas. My professor said I can get it up on the internet after finals week, so in a blog post to come, look for a link to it!

2010-04-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

Finally time to blog again. In the two weeks I have been away, much has occurred: choir tour, home from tour concert, Sioux City relays, Catholic Gala, Lia Sophia party, and oh-so much more!

Choir tour was successful. We sang at five high schools in two days. We pretty much had everything down by the time our home concert rolled around a day later. I had a flute solo in a Chinese song, which was probably the crowd favorite at each school. Not because of me, of course, just because it was upbeat and in CHINESE :)

Because of the choir concert, I had to miss the Friday events of the Sioux City relays (aka all open sprinting and mid-distance races and the hurdles). So, on Saturday I ran the 1500m. Its become somewhat of a tradition for me now - only because I also ran that event at SCR last year. This year however, it was NOT pouring rain.. it was gloriously sunny! And I ran the race in 5:44 which is about 20 seconds faster than last year. Needless to say, I am quite pleased with my performance in my once-yearly event. We are supposed to have out last meet before conference tomorrow at Dakota State but I'm not sure if it will happen... there is a 70 percent chance of rain! If I we go, I am scheduled to run the 100 hurdles and 800m.

Last weekend I also Ambassador'ed for the Catholic Gala. It was quite an experience. We served supper to about 200 people and an auction was going on the entire time. They had quite the spread of things to bid on - wooden patio chairs, purses, kids toys, fruit baskets.. you name it! And let me tell you.. these people LOVED to donate money! It was really cool to see how generous people are when it comes to giving back to their church.

I also hosted a Lia Sophia jewelry party this weekend. A bunch of us girls got together and basically just oogled at jewelry. Because I was a hostess, I got super sweet benefits and discounts on the jewelry.. and I ended up getting 9 new things! Ahh..

Since I am staying on campus this summer I applied to be a summer RA/summer housing assistant. I had an interview for that this week and I really hope to get it. I think it would be alot of fun, and since I haven't ever been an RA before (because I think I'm too busy for the commitment) I think this would be the perfect opportunity. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm getting so excited for school to end. I only have two books to read, an oral report, two tests, two papers (which are done, just needed to be handed in), a marketing/advertising plan, and portfolio website to finish. Its getting close!

On Thursday, I have to attend the noon forum for Paddlefish. My story "Existentialism and the Orange Chair" was selected for publication and also won the non-fiction award. My video "Ode to Serotonin" was also selected and awarded the motion graphics award. I have to read my story to everyone, so I hope they all enjoy it.

Oh, and Happy Earth Day! :)

2010-04-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

Today was my first outdoor track meet of the season. The real first meet was last week, but I didn't go because it was during Easter break. At today's meet I ran the 100 meter hurdles, the 200 meter dash and the 4x400 relay. It was my first time running the hurdles in over a year.. last year I struggled to get my stride and steps down so I just took time off from it. This year, I have a teammate who is a very good hurdler and she has been helping me with drills and stuff. Its also nice to finally have someone to just hurdle with. Anyways, my time was 18.44 in the race, which met my goal. My fastest is 16.8, so I figured getting that or 17-something would be too high of a goal, so I figured I could get 18-something and I did! Hopefully I can keep improving and get my time down more before conference. The 200 wasn't bad, but I didn't run very fast. And I wasn't supposed to run the relay but someone got injured and needed me to run. I ended up running my split much faster than I expected.. 65. Thats the fastest I have run a 400 in a long time. So needless to say, I was very pleased with my performances today.

For Easter, Isaac and I went to his family's house for the weekend. I think he was really happy to be home for a while and to get to hang out with his siblings. I got to experience a Baptist Easter service, which was interesting. They had two baptisms and a child dedication which were also neat to see.

I feel like I am not going to have a break from school until school is actually over. Each week until the end of the semester I have multiple projects, papers and assignments due. Summer just can't come fast enough!

2010-03-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

I have been so tired lately and am so looking forward to Easter break so I can catch up on sleep, among other things.

Over break I am going to get major research done for my oral report in World Lit and my research paper in my Honors class. I want to make sure I get that out of the way so I don't have much to worry about after break. I will also probably finish our current book in World Lit, so that will be one less thing to worry about too. For a while I have felt like I have had too much to do and too little time to do it. I guess I am just ready for summer break.

I have decided to live on campus this summer, since apparently there are no 3-month apartments available in town. But I still don't know where I will be working. I am still hoping vigorously that I will get a position in the college relations office where I currently do work study. But all of that is still in the works, and I am still on edge.

My current project for Web-Based Motion Graphics is to make a game in Flash. Mine is a puzzle of a palm tree (yep, one of my own photographs from Mexico :)). The plan was to finish it this weekend, but I got stuck when trying to make the restart button (which puts the puzzle pieces back to a jumbled pile), so I didn't accomplish much.

My first track meet is on Friday. I am hoping and praying that the weather cooperates, because last year was a crap-tastic year for track meets. I had one race last year that I ran in pouring rain. So I'm hoping this year will make up for it.

Isaac and I will be going to his house for Easter to celebrate with his family. It should be a different experience because they are Baptist and I am Catholic, so I will get to see how an Easter service works in a Baptist church.

2010-03-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Spring Break but wish I was still in Mexico. I had so many great experiences - I got to see Mayan ruins, go snorkeling with tropical fish, see Mexican mansions along the coast of Cozumel, see white sand beaches and swim in the clearest waters I have ever seen. Not to mention, I got there via a cruise ship! I have decided to share my vacation through photos, instead of just talking about it.. :)

View of the "Lido" Deck from a higher deck on the Carnival Ecstasy.

First sunset on the ocean.

Eating sushi (I didn't like it).

Standing on the "Temple of the Seven Dolls" at the Dzibilchaltun Mayan Ruins, in Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico.

The clear water in Cozumel, Mexico.

Towel animals! We got a new one every night.

Briana, Kelly, Me and Gina getting hit with a wave in Progreso.

The path our ship took during our cruise.. the circling was done during the fog when we were waiting for the port to open (we got an extra day on the cruise because it took a day for the fog to lift).

2010-03-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

I am leaving for the cruise to Mexico in two days! I'm so excited! The cruise is on Carnival Ecstasy and the route is in the Western Caribbean. We are leaving on Friday at 2 pm and driving to Galveston, Texas. We are stopping in Missouri for midnight bowling along the way, too which will be a good start to a good week :)

We are boarding the ship in the morning on Saturday and leaving land that afternoon. There is a special late supper for us on the cruise and they actually have "dress codes" for the dinners on the cruise. So, basically, this means I will be wearing cute dresses and skirts very often! BUT I am also bringing five pairs of shorts (I hope thats not too many :P).

On Monday we are porting in Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico and my friends and I are going to go shopping and check out everything that's there. On Tuesday we are porting at Cozumel and we booked a shore excursion for snorkling! We take a sail boat out on the water and then snorkle with the tropical fish and then come back and go to a beach party! I cannot wait to see all these crazy awesome fish! AND to top it off, I'm going to try to get a waterproof camera so I can take underwater pictures of these fish! Great idea right? Right.

We leave the ship on Thursday morning and then, since its a choir trip, we are singing at two schools in Houston and staying the night there afterwards at a sweet hotel. On Friday morning we are singing at two more schools in Texas and then driving to Kansas City and spending the night there.. I think we get to go shopping and stuff that evening too. Then on Saturday morning we will leave to come back to Yankton.

Did I mention how excited I am? :)

2010-02-25T20:08:00.000-08:00

This week has been a long week, but at the same time, its gone quite fast.

Isaac surprised me with roses this week.. I had kept "hinting" at him to get me flowers for Valentine's day, which in reality was me flat-out telling him I wanted flowers. They were orange roses, with a note that read "Orange flowers for my orange head." How romantic. And also, while we are talking about Isaac, he got a job today! After a month and a half of searching and applying he finally found work.. at Bomgaars. My johnmate Kelly works there so I think she worked her magic and helped him get the job.. either way, I'm happy. The poor little guy has been trying so hard.. he must have applied 20 places!

But enough about him. I finished "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and it was amazing. I have never been a big book reader, but this book was amazing and makes me wonder why I haven't.

In motion graphics we are making websites for our next project. We learned code in Flash all last week, which was frustrating and confusing. However, I managed to pull together a pretty cool website called "baubles and beads." If you couldn't guess, its a jewelry website. Later in the semester we have to make another website and I think I will make my online portfolio.

This weekend I am playing in an indoor soccer tournament in Sioux City. I haven'y played any indoor soccer yet this year so it should be interesting. And speaking of the weekend, I never mentioned last weekend. I went to Tonic Sol Fa in Sioux Falls on Saturday.. if you don't know, they are an amazing a cappella group. MMC's Smooth Benediction a cappella choir opened for them and they did great. Tonic Sol Fa was super entertaining and I was so glad I got to go. On Sunday I went to another concert.. but this time it was Remedy Drive! They are so good live and present such a good message. We even got to meet them after the show, but for me it was like the third time meeting them :P

2010-02-15T19:09:00.000-08:00

This week was homecoming.. and it was super busy.. but super fun!

The festivities started on Sunday with free bowling.. for Gina, April, Isaac and I it was quite an adventure because the lane we were using kept have trouble. First, it kept resetting itself and giving us spares and strikes (which none of us complained about), but then the thing that drops the pins down broke the light on the lane and it shattered everywhere so that had to be cleaned up and then we had to finish the game without a light. But, we finished it.

On Monday we went ice skating. It was only my second time ice skating ever, and at first I struggled.. but then I tightened my laces and it helped so much! Tuesday I had class so I didn't join the fun (laser tag, human bowling, caricatures). On Wednesday I had pep band and watched the basketball games. Thursday was the dodgeball tournament which was super intense because the hardcore teams threw the balls so hard they bounced of people in the audience. So even if you weren't playing, you still had to dodge the balls! After the tournament was a free movie, "The Book of Eli." It was definitely a different movie.. not what I thought it would be..

Friday was coronation. I had to ambassador for that, and afterwards there was a magician/comedian. He was super funny and really interacted with the audience. I loved it when he would show a trick, show how it was done, and then totally blow our minds by taking it to another level. For one trick, he shoved a hankerchief into his fist and it "turned into" an egg. When he showed us how he did it, he had a plastic egg in his hand the whole time and it had a hole in one side that he shoved the hankerchief into. But then right after showing that he cracked the very same egg into a glass and it was real! I don't know how he did it...

On Saturday there was a "tailgate party" and roommate survivor. April went home this weekend so Gina and I did the roommate survivor. The first challenge was a scavenger hunt.. we failed at that to say the least. The second challenge was an egg drop contest and, again, we failed. But the last challenge was trivia and we totally won! However, winning that one challenge didn't help much because we came in 4th place.

The dance was that night and I had alot of fun at that. I wore a pink dress and Isaac wore a red dress shirt in honor of Valentine's day ;) Speaking of, we didn't do a whole lot for the occassion.. we stayed in cuz it was nasty out and made supper together and watched a movie. Most of the day, however, I did homework. Since it was a three-day weekend my teachers thought it was a good idea to load me up with it. I begged to differ.

Today Gina and I went shopping for dresses to wear in Mexico. We were very successful. Only 20 days left until we leave for our cruise! I'm so excited!

2010-02-07T13:23:00.001-08:00

February already. And a week into it too. This weekend has gone by so fast. On Friday night, we had a choir party. It had a theme of "5" which was odd at first I'll admit, but the food choices were quite genious. Gina and I brough a trail mix that had five ingredients: M&Ms, gummy bears, pretzels, goldfish crackers, and popcorn. Other people brought multi-grain cheerios (that has five different grains), crackers and dip with five different kinds of crackers, a five-layer chip dip, etc. During the party we watched The Simpson's Movie because there are five family members in the Simpson's family.. clever, eh? After the choir get-together, Isaac, Gina and I watched the Hangover, and then Gina and I decided we wanted to learn Stu's Tiger Song on the piano. We YouTubed a tutorial for it and then went to the music hall to learn it. It was much easier than we thought, and it 0nly took us half an hour to learn! So, since we conquered one song, we moved onto another and learned "Us" by Regina Spektor. That song was even easier to learn and it sounded really cool when we both played it (one high octave and one low).

On Saturday I had my last track meet of the season before the conference meet. I ran the 1000 meter run and ran four seconds faster than the last time I ran it. I also did the 4x400 relay which is something I haven't done it nearly a year. I failed at that tho (ha!) and we got last in that event. Oh well.. I just hope enough people drop out of the 1000 so I can run it at conference! Otherwise, I will probably going as an alternate for the 4x8 and 4x4 relays, which will make for a super boring day.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday! April and I are hosting a party in the lounge and everyone is required to bring good food. April is making nachos, I am making lil smokies, Gina is making white grape/peach punch, and others are bringing muffins, fruit, and other good snacks. Since the Vikings aren't in the game, I really don't care who wins or loses.. April is all for the Colts, so I think I might root for the Saints! ;)

2010-01-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend I ran the 1000 meter run at the track meet. It was the first time I ever ran that event and it was quite interesting. I thought it would be similar to running the 800, just with an extra lap, but no. There were two heats and they intermixed the runners, so fast and slow people were together instead of one heat of slow and one heat of fast. Because of this, I struggled with pacing myself. I ran my first lap WAY too fast.. 35 secs. By the fourth lap, I was done.. I ran that one in 49 secs.. it sounds so pathetic, BUT I managed to beat one person. And if I want to look at the bright side, I PR'ed in that event! (Because I had no time to beat since I hadn't run it before!)

I have been doing some winter conditioning workouts for soccer as well as my usual track workout. I lift with the soccer team on Tuesdays and then run my track distance workout afterwards, and on Wednesdays I do my track speed workout and then finish the soccer conditioning workout.

For my first project in Web-Based Motion Graphics, we have to create a character in a world using Flash. My character is a ballerina. Our second project is to animate a character, so I will have my ballerina dance on a stage. I'm getting more excited to learn how to use Flash animation, since most of the animations you see on the internet are made with Flash.

Right now, as I am blogging, I'm watching the Vikings/Saints football game. I am, of course, rooting for the Vikings but this game is very frustrating and intense. I think I need to focus my attention on the TV for now in hopes that my extra concentration helps them out.

2010-01-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

First week of classes... and surprisingly enough, I don't have much homework. I already read my first book for World Lit, so I just have to skim the chapters before class. And I already don't have Motion Graphics tomorrow and Writing and Publishing on Friday.

In April I will be hosting a Lia Sophia party in Yankton. I'm super excited about it because I absolutely love their jewelry! A new collection for spring is coming out in February so that will be the catalog used at my party.. it has a bunch of new necklaces that I just love! There are a lot of perks to being a hostess of these parties too because based on how much you sell at your party, you can get a lot of free jewelry.

My first track meet of the season is this weekend. I honestly don't know how prepared I am for it or if I am even in good shape. Yesterday I ran four miles and it felt okay.. but I know I can do better. Today I will be doing a speed workout so we will see if I die during that or not ;) I think I will be running either the open 800 or the 4x800 at the meet. Either way, its half a mile so it doesn't matter to me what I run. I hope doing that can help me improve on my 400 time though because I would love to get back on the 4x400 relay team. Also, in addition to my track workouts, I will be doing some of the winter conditioning workouts with the soccer girls. I think it will help me a lot to get in better shape (and faster) and I will also get to hang out with those girls, since I don't get to see them much during the off season.

I have a three hour art class tonight, and I'm lucky I have no homework yet, because I would have to be using this time to get it done. I don't know how lucky I will be in the upcoming weeks though!

2010-01-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last blogged! I guess I have a lot of explaining to do..

The beginning of my Christmas vacation was pretty uneventful. I basically spent my days sleeping, eating, working out and watching movies. Vacation is basically the only time I get to do that! We had Christmas at my house the Sunday before since we would be in Pennsylvania the day of. I got some pretty sweet gifts: a new blue and gold soccer ball from Teague, a mug and hot chocolate from Tyler, a pearl earring/bracelet/necklace set and earring tree from my mom, and earrings and The Hangover from Isaac.

The next day, we drove up to the cities and stayed in a hotel because our flight was early the next morning. We got to the hotel just in time to catch the shuttle bus to the Mall of America, so we went. I'm not the biggest fan of the MOA, basically because its just too big and takes forever to get through the stores. I did however go to Urban Outfitters since I made a commercial for it in class and wanted to see how close I was to capturing the right feel. I was way off on the clothes but pretty dead on with the atmosphere.

We had to get up at 5 am to get catch the 6 am shuttle to the airport. We flew out at 8 am and landed in Detroit by noon. Then we flew out and were in Scranton by 4. It was the first time I had flown anywhere in probably ten years.. and it was Isaac's first time flying! It was great getting to see my aunts and uncles.. I hadn't seen them in so long!

We did a bunch of fun stuff while in Pennsylvania... a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton hockey game, skiing at Sno Mountain, gambling at the Mohegan Sun casino, shopping in the Pocono Mountains. Plus, I think we went to the mall four or five times, I got to hang out with my cousin Kristen, and the whole family helped make Christmas dinner. I had such a blast.

Since we got home, I haven't done much. Isaac and I went to my friend Brynn's house for new years and we had a good time. Then on New Year's Day, we took Teague sledding and I wiped out more times than not. A couple days ago, Isaac's brother (who plays for USF) had a basketball game in Worthington so we went to watch him play, and then that night we went bowling in Fairmont with a bunch of my friends. After, we went to my friend Allie's house and played with her new puppy Emma.. she is a golden lab and is beyond adorable!

For the rest of the week, I probably won't be doing much. I need to be working out and running, but its below zero outside and my treadmill is broken, so that leaves me with two options: running stairs in my house or riding the stationary bike. Both are pretty lame and not hard workouts. I can definitely say that I won't be in the best of shape when I get back to school.

2009-12-07T16:59:00.000-08:00

It's finals week! Hooray!

Yes, hooray.. I'm ready for this semester to be over. On Wednesday my sound final project is due, and on Thursday I have my short story final test (not comprehensive!), my intro to Christianity final test (also not comprehensive!), and my motion graphics final project. I am almost done with my sound project so that is a huge relief. And I am not too worried about the two tests. I am however worried about my motion graphics project. I just don't have the ambition to work on it for more than a couple hours a day because the work is so tedious. I am making a music video for the song "Fall to Pieces" by the band Ziv and I filmed my boyfriend Isaac singing. I am currently putting the lyrics to the song into the video, and to get them to move with Isaac I have to go frame-by-frame in the video and move them. And just so you know, there are 30 frames per second. That's a lot and that's why I don't want to work on it.

I have to stay on campus until Saturday because I am ambassadoring for graduation. I think I would have stayed no matter what though because my friend Theresa is graduating.

I can't wait to go home and be able to bake christmas cookies and wrap presents and decorate the house. I love all that stuff.

2009-11-30T17:25:00.000-08:00

Well, after a short and sweet Thanksgiving break, it's back to the old grind. But it's only two weeks until Christmas break! And I have a lot to accomplish in those two weeks.

This week is the last week of regular classes and next week is finals. On Wednesday I have to present my final project in Writing and the Visual Arts. I wrote poems and made posters using my graphic design skills on the topic of breast cancer. Right now I only have three poems/posters which, in actuality, is a lot, but I think I will make one more (hopefully!) so that when I say I was shooting for 3-5 I don't only do the minimum :P

On Thursday I will be playing flute for the Living Nativity. I might also be hosting a track recruit.. so I will have to find ways to entertain her! Friday will be my busiest day of this week because I have to Ambassador for the faculty/staff Christmas party by serving drinks and their meal. Then its the choir's ugly sweater party. I have to go to goodwill tomorrow to see if I can find a super-amazing-deluxe-crazy-awesome-uber-ugly christmas sweater. On Saturday I have to play pep band for the basketball games and then that night there is a Christmas bistro dance.

Next week I have one final on Wednesday and three on Thursday. I have two projects, two tests, and a paper that goes along with one of the tests. I don't think it should be too bad since the two tests are not comprehensive and I have done well on all the past tests in those classes.

I just realized I have not yet told of my Thanksgiving break. Leading up to it I had been sick for two weeks and it got really bad last Tuesday, so on my way home I stopped at the hospital and got a new antibiotic plus some cough medicine and I slept that night for the first time in two weeks! But, although I was recovering from such a bad cough/cold, I did have fun over break. On Wednesday I went to my friends Theresa and Laura's house (Theresa goes to MMC and Laura graduated from here) and we had a game night with friends that we work with. On Turkey day, my brothers, boyfriend, mom and I had supper together at my house. Needless to say, it was delicious and I ate too much (how cliche :P). On Friday we all did a little Black Friday shopping, but didn't go until 9am.. I prefer sleep over crazy deals. However, I ended up getting some crazy deals.. I got a new suitcase, purse and wallet, as well as a sweater and earrings. And I got good gift ideas for my brothers, boyfriend and mom. That night I went to my friend Allie's house and she had a huge get-together. We played what we called "The World's Largest Game of Spoons." Spoons can get pretty dangerous when playing with 15 people!

I came back to school on Saturday so I wouldn't have to get up early to come back on Sunday because it was our choir concert, Vespers. We practiced for almost two hours in the afternoon before the performances at night. The choirs sang with members of the Sioux Falls orchestra, which was amazing. The orchestra made every song sound so beautiful.. I loved it! I have previously sang with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and this time with the Sioux Falls Orchestra was just as amazing. We had two performances and they were both packed. Afterwards I received so many compliments, which goes to show that it was quite the memorable experience.

Tonight I am going to try to get all my homework done for the next three days so I can go ugly sweater shopping tomorrow. Good luck to me!

2009-11-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

I have been sick all week and nothing seems to be helping me get better. I have a terribly ugly cough that keeps my roommate and me up at night. Today during class I had a sneezing/coughing attack and had to leave! I have three different types of medicine that I am taking to get rid of this so they better start working and fast!

The visit last weekend to see my brother Tyler was a success! He gave my boyfriend Isaac and I a tour of Augustana and I realized it's not as big as I thought. It's a really pretty and nice-sized campus. We went thrifting with his roommate Dylan, who is a really nice guy, and I found some cowboy boots that my brother picked up a couple days later when they were on sale!

This weekend was probably the busy weekend I have had so far. On Friday night, my friend Theresa had her bachelorette party - or rather, we threw her the party! We rented a hotel room and played a bunch of games. It was such a blast.. I got to hang out with my soccer teammates whom I barely get to see now that the season is over.

On Saturday I had to be up bright and early to give tours to groups of prospective students because it was a campus visit day. One of the moms was a MMC alum and she seemed to enjoy the tour the most! Then I had to play pep band and I watched the girl's basketball game - they won! After that both choirs had a rehearsal that the public could watch. I thought we sounded pretty good and I'm getting really excited for our concert, Vespers, at the end of the month.

My mom came to Mass on Sunday because I was playing flute, singing with the chamber choir, and being initiated as an Ambassador. She got a late start and ended up just missing my flute duet before Mass, so it was a good thing we also played harmony parts to the Alleluias and Holy Holy Holy!

I have alot to get done before Thanksgiving break can start: my sound presentation on funk music/Prince, a title sequence for "The Wizard of Oz" for motion graphics, a literary analysis paper for my short story class, and I really need to work on my final project for Writing and the Visual Arts.

2009-11-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

Soccer season is over and it is kind of a relief. I was getting frustrated by the end and now I have alot less stress in my life. Maybe its just because I have more time on my hands. Actually, that's probably it.

Today we had gorgeous weather. It was in the 60s and six of us soccer girls went for a run. It felt so good! I hope there is more weather like this for when I'm training for track. Speaking of training for track, practices start on Monday! Coach says he wants to work me harder this year than last year so I can get down to at least a 2:30 in the 800. And there are a lot of good freshman this year so I will have plenty of girls to train with. I really hope I can do well at the 800 this year. Its a new event for me and since I struggled so bad with hurdles last year, I really need a confidence boost.

For our next sound project we have to either do a research paper/presentation on a specific genre of music or do one of the projects that we already did. We have to know by tomorrow what we want to do and I still can't decide. If I did the project, I would do another 30 second radio ad because the one I previously did was not the best. But if I did the presentation, I would do some sort of indie/folk genre of music or alternative/pop-punk/rock. I just don't know what I want to do.

Next weekend is Blue and Gold Days Family Weekend. On Saturday, prospective students will be on campus and I have to give tours for Admit. I also have to play pep band at the basketball games and sing a Vespers preview for choir. And then on Sunday, my friend Theresa and I are playing a flute duet at the family mass.

Thanksgiving Break is less than three weeks away and I can't wait for a break. This weekend I am going to visit my brother at Augustana in Sioux Falls, so that will be a nice little break from school until Turkey day comes.

2009-10-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

So I have some exciting news... we won our game yesterday! We played York College and won 2-0! We played really well as a team and made lots of offensive opportunities.. I just wish we could have done that more throughout the season. We have two games left.. one tomorrow and one on Saturday. Hopefully we can end the season on a high note and win them as well!

I am pretty excited about my next motion graphics project. We have to do a 30 second commercial for the clothing store Urban Outfitters. Today I filmed my friend Gina in front of the green screen, just walking and skipping like she was on a path in the park. I plan to draw in her world around her with grass and trees and sky and flowers. So in the end, she will be a real person in an animated world. It's due Tuesday, so I really hope I have enough time to perfect it!

Something else exciting is that Motion City Soundtrack has a new album coming out. They are one of my favorite bands.. I have seen them live four times :) Anyways, I downloaded their new single and its really good.. so I CANNOT wait til next week when the album comes out!

Today I registered for classes for next semester. I will be taking 20 credits.. ahhhhh! I am taking Drawing and Painting, Advertising, World Lit, Writing and Publishing, Web Based Motion Graphics, Psychological Speed of Society (which is the honors class), and band and choir. It seems like so much, but I just have class at 10am, 12pm, and 1pm on MWF and at 8am, 12pm, and 1pm on TTh, plus band, art, and honors at night. I'm sure I will be able to handle it.

2009-10-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

What's the most interesting thing that has happened to me in the past eleven days? Probably that I got stung by a bee at practice today. And found out I'm not allergic, woohoo!

Anyways, tomorrow I have a motion graphics project due. We had to make a 15 second "bump" for a tv channel... its one of those channel-ident space-fillers that says "You're watching MTV" or whatever. Mine is for the Food Network.. it's simple but VERY festive. Its parts of a cupcake that looks like a witch. It assembles and then the words "happy halloween" are written. Its definitely an A ;)

Speaking of Halloween, I will not get to partake in any of the trick or treats this year. We have a game in Lincoln that day at 6pm. Which of course means, we will be leaving later in the day (the only plus is that I get to sleep in), but we will not be getting back to Yankton until one or two in the morning. And the holiday will be over by then.

Alrighty, I'm done complaining about stuff. I went to a meeting for the English Club and it looks like we will be going to Canada in February. The trip is all paid for except for a couple meals and we get to go to a museum and a play over the course of a weekend. Best part? Just a week later I will be going on the choir cruise to Mexico! Two countries in two weeks! What could be better?

Tonight my johnmate Gina and I went to go practice our choir music for mixed chorus because we have a midterm tomorrow where we have to sing all of our songs for the director. Well, we asked him to practice with us and after the first song he said it was an A and that if we wanted we could sing the other songs and consider it our midterms. So we did.. and got an A! Woot!

2009-10-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

It's October! And as I said in my last post, the cold is here! We went from summer to winter so fast that I think I missed fall. The trees haven't even all changed colors yet and the weatherman is forecasting snow for this weekend. Yuck is about the only word I can say to that.

So, on to more positive matters. We only have seven soccer games left in this season! It's going by so fast this year! We haven't won any more games, unfortunately, BUT we do always put up a fight. It's too bad that we let some of those goals get in because we don't ever play like the scores say we do. On Tuesday we played a night game in the freezing cold against Morningside. The final score was 5-2, but if you take away the two goals that were scored during the first minutes of both halves, thats only 3-2! Such a close match and I really wish we could have won our first conference game.

School is going alright. I hate it when I have to miss class for soccer games. We learn so much in my 3-hour motion graphics class and I have had to miss it a few times, which puts me WAY behind everyone else. Our next project is a 15-second tv channel bump/identification. I can't decide what channel to do! There are so many options... Food Network, Comedy Central, TV Land, Disney Channel... hopefully I can think of something unique!

My next project in sound is a 30-second radio ad. I think I am going to do mine on the Dairy Dock. It's a cute little ice cream shop/restaurant in town and they are closing for the season THIS WEEKEND. I will have to go to get my last Dairy Dock fix until spring and also get some ideas for my ad ;)

In choir I have been working hard on learning and memorizing my music. We are being quizzed on it in two weeks and I am getting nervous. There are so many songs to know and so many high notes to hit! I am going to have to practice outside of class to make sure I am prepared.

This weekend is a three-day weekend because it is Native American Day on Monday. I am so ready for this long weekend. Although I will have homework to do, I think I will try hard to get it all done in one day so I can relax the rest of the weekend.

2009-09-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

It's so cold now! The weather changed from summer to fall way too fast. Yesterday while watching the men's soccer game I was not only wearing a sweatshirt, but TWO long sleeves under it. However, the cooler weather is much welcomed at practice, because now I'm not sweating buckets all over the place.

As for school, nothing exciting has really happened. Our next sound project is called "Sound Story" and we have to use many sounds to make a story of an everyday activity. I'm going to do a soccer game. Our next motion graphics project is a poem project. I'm going to use the song "Ode to Serotonin" by Nightmare of You. We have to animate the text to emphasize the poem.

I had my first exam of the semester on Monday and it was in Intro to Christianity. I was so worried about it because there was so much to know and I was afraid of forgetting something, but I got a 93%!

Other than that, all that's been going on is soccer. Our record is now 1-6, and I am getting sick of losing. I really wish we could play better offensively and score some goals. I know I am going to work harder to get it done, even WITH my toe injury. Which, by the way, doesn't seem to be getting better.

On the agenda for the rest of the week is pretty much nothing. There is Salsa dancing on Friday and I am definitely going with Isaac to that. And this weekend I am playing flute at mass again.

2009-09-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

I've been contemplating what to blog about for the past ten minutes. And its not because I don't have anything to talk about.. its because I have so much that I don't know where to start.

Now, I don't want to bore you by telling about all my homework that I have had to do this past week. But seriously, it was outrageous. And just this weekend alone I think I did as much homework as I did all week combined.

But, I guess it wasn't just homework. I had to write three articles for the school newspaper, The Moderator, and I worked on some advertisements for it as well. One of the articles was on the band Ziv that came and performed on campus last week. I interviewed them and they had quite the sense of humor. Not to mention a ton of musical talent. I bought one of their cds because they reminded me of the Fray and Five for Fighting. They were very good.

I'm sure this week will be just as busy as last.. we have a game on Wednesday, so once again I will be missing class. BUT its our first conference game, so that is pretty exciting. My mom has come to three of our five games already this season. Its always nice to see her and my brothers.

2009-09-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well, in the past week and a half (while I wasn't blogging) a lot happened.

School started. I had my first paper due.. my first quiz.. my first missed class. My first graphic's project is due tomorrow, in sound. Its a "Dance Party USA" themed song. Instead of using the cliched synth and moog and beat box sounds, I went with some worldly tribal beats.. it sounds amazing.

I injured myself in soccer and sat out for nearly a week while I healed. But then I was back just in time for our first game... we won! And I scored!! It was the most glorious goal the world has ever seen. Lauren passed it to me and I was open for the shot. I bet the goalie was stunned, because I sure was. I fell to the ground from the impact, only to jump up and down as my ENTIRE team came running towards me to hug and congratulate me.. it was my first career goal! We ended up winning 3-1, and my goal put us ahead 2-1, so I claim it as the game-winning goal ;)

We have our second game of the season tomorrow and another on Saturday. Its gonna be tiring, but I know we can pull it together. I am so extremely excited for this season, now that I know we can work so well together on the field during a game. We get Sunday off from practice and a bunch of people are going home, since Monday is Labor Day aka no school. I'm not going home, but I am excited for the day off because I finally get to spend some quality time with my boyfriend. We haven't seen much of each other lately, except for lunch and supper, because of crazy school and practice schedules. He made the school's a capella choir again, which this year is named "Smooth Benediction." Also, on another choir-related note, I tried out for chamber choir and made it!

Next week is opening mass and I will be playing flute during the Presentation of Gifts and I am very excited for that. I love playing at church.

Well, now is that dreaded time for homework. I don't have much tonight, which is a nice break from the crazy amount I had last week and earlier this week. Hopefully all the studying pays off :)

2009-08-23T11:43:00.001-07:00

Two-a-days are over! Time to relax? Of course not.. classes start tomorrow!

Practice this week wasn't that bad actually. We did fitness training in the mornings (aka lots and lots of running) and soccer training in the afternoon (aka lots of possession). I'm glad I ran so much this summer because it helped me to do the workouts without dying. One day we ran a timed mile and I got 7:44.. not my best, but at least it was under 8. Another day we had to run a timed 300 meter shuttle run. Also, yesterday we ran the Yankton Riverboat Days 5K road race and I came in first for the soccer girls and even beat some of the soccer guys! My time was 25:44 and I placed 116 out of 269.

During our practices at the fields, I discovered that already I am playing better than last year. One day we practiced moves and I was able to do all of them with ease. Also, when we played world cup I was pulling moves left and right and taking lots of shots. I think its because I feel much more comfortable doing all that, now that I have more experience under my belt. It all comes more naturally to me than before.

Besides soccer, I haven't done much else this week. My roommate April and I got our room all decorated and put together. The team went out to eat for lunch one day at the Fryn Pan.. it was good team bonding. We only have two freshman to get to know, but its been fun.

Class tomorrow.. I got all my books so I hope I'm ready!

2009-08-15T21:07:00.000-07:00

Last full day at home. Only 13 hours until I am back on campus. I got the cars packed up tonight, even vacuumed mine out in anticipation.

Last night my friend Allie suggested that we bike the trails in Jackson, but I had no way of transporting my bike there so I drove over and ran the trails while she biked. We ended up doing about three miles and it was really fun. All summer I ran by myself so it was nice to have a companion this time. After that we rounded up Audrey and Brynn and played soccer at the high school football field. I think it was the most intense soccer I played all summer! And a plus: it was great fun!

My cousin Kristen came to visit my family this week. She is from Pennsylvania and lives and works in Arizona now and has only been to Minnesota once and hadn't seen us in 8 years, so she figured now was a good time to visit! She had never been to South Dakota or Iowa before so she got to see Sioux Falls and Okoboji. We took her to Arnold's Park and she went on all the rides with my little brother. We also went to the beach, out to dinner, and shopping. I think she had a good time here, and I know my family had fun with her!

Next time I blog it will be coming from Yankton! I am extremely excited to be back on campus, playing soccer, and getting to see all my friends!

2009-08-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

Warped Tour was on Sunday, and I can describe it in one word... amazing! It was the third time I went and it was still just as exciting as the first..

It started at 11am but we didn't get there until after noon because we made a pit stop at a candy store... but it wasn't just a candy store... they had apples and pickled everything and beef jerky and 36 kinds of root beer! PLUS about ten aisles of candy. It was a good way to start our day :)

Once we got to Shakopee (Warped was at Canterbury Park) we had to buy our tickets since we didn't ahead of time, and there were no lines cuz we got there an hour after the gate opened.

I ended up seeing ten bands: Meg and Dia, Senses Fail, Streetlight Manifesto, Chiodos, Sing It Loud, The Maine, Saosin, Less Than Jake, 3OH!3, and Bayside. Saosin was my favorite of the day... and they were actually the number one band on my list to see... also, to top it off, all the members signed my shirt (I was wearing my Saosin shirt, exclusively for the occasion) AND I got my picture taken with the lead singer. (In years past, I have met members of The Matches, Ludo, Family Force 5, and From First to Last.)

During Senses Fail, my friend Audrey and I got caught on the edge of a mosh pit and rushed across it to get to safety.. I thought I was going to see my life flash before my eyes, but we made it out okay. Less than Jake was really good... the lead singer's banter in-between songs was priceless. And he suggested that the crowd make a human runway with their arms... and they did... and people walked across it... it was ridiculously awesome.

I also really enjoyed 3OH!3... they had such great stage presence and the crowd had great energy... it was one big dance party!

All in all, I had a great day.. I saw nine new bands live (I had already seen Sing It Loud at a concert last summer)... and I got to see a bunch of people I knew roaming around.

2009-07-30T14:54:00.001-07:00

Only two weeks left of summer break.. well, 16 days.. but who's counting? :P

Yes, yes, I am counting. But only because I honestly cannot wait to go back to school. I get there a week before everyone because of soccer. The past two years we have had two weeks of two-a-days, but this year we only get one.. it's kind of discouraging because I love all the extra practicing. It really makes me feel ready for the season. I guess we will have plenty of practice though before our first game, since it isn't until September 1.

Yesterday I went to the eye doctor and found out my eyes are getting even worse. The last time I went, in December, only my left eye changed.. this time, both did. Oh well, at this rate I'll be blind in no time!

When I got done with the eye doctor my friend Jolene called me and asked if I wanted to go to Sioux Falls for a Mayday Parade concert with her and our friend Casey.. it was so spur of the moment. We got to the venue, bought our tickets, and got in line. The first guy that played was Evan something-something.. at first I thought he was too fruity for my taste, but he was pretty charismatic and had a few good songs. To our surprise, the next band was Mitchell Musso.. yes, from Hannah Montana.. it was so ridiculous! And the strangest part was that he sang a song that we knew.. but we knew it by a different person. At least we were able to sing along! Then it was Mayday Parade. They were so good. Metro Station played last because apparently they were the headliners.. I thought Mayday was/should have been. Anyways, Metro wasn't as good as Mayday. But it was still a dance-worthy show and definitely worth the 20 bucks.

This weekend I have to work at the county fair... I just sit at the gate and sell parking passes.. easiest job ever! And on Sunday I'm going to Warped Tour! I'm so excited.. there are a bunch of bands there this year that I haven't seen live so its going to make it all the better!

2009-07-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

Isaac came to visit me this weekend. On Friday afternoon we went to Valleyfair. I LOVE VALLEYFAIR! Isaac is afraid of heights but he still went on all the rides with me. My favorite is the Power Tower - the one that shoots you down tho, not the one that shoots you up. My favorite roller coaster is the Renegade.. its the newest one too. Of course we went on the Wild Thing, Steel Venom, and Excalibur too.

On Saturday we took my little brother to Arnold's Park because he was dying to go on the little roller coaster there, since we talked so much about the ones at Valleyfair. He really liked it, but I could tell he was still scared. That night we went to the drive-in and saw Harry Potter and 17 Again. I have only read the first three Harry Potter books, and that was when they came out.. years ago. So I was really lost, but it was still good. 17 Again was good too.. a little too teenie-bopper maybe, but some parts were funny.

Last night we had a card game night at my friend Allie's house. We played poker, hearts, and slaps. My friend Jolene won every game except one! So we ganged up on her, four to one, on the last game. She still won.

2009-07-15T08:50:00.001-07:00

Last week seemed to go by surprisingly fast.. and the same goes for this week. Summer's end is coming on quite fast now. As much as I am ready to be done with the summer job and get back into the groove of college, I don't want to leave my friends here and I am definitely not ready for classes to start! I only have one month left of summer, as soccer practice starts August 16th and classes start the 24th.

Last week I had a girl's night out with some friends. We got dressed up and went out to eat, then watched a movie at Allie's house. It was good to see them all again, since we haven't had a good night out in a while. I think the last time we had all hung out was when we stayed at the cabin for the weekend.

On Thursday I went with my friend Sarah to see our friend Laura who lives and works in Estherville. She cooked us supper and then we played Wii. It stormed for a long time while we were there which delayed us coming home. There was hail, strong winds and even a tornado touched down! On our way home the roads were flooded but thankfully we were able to still drive on them. In the dark of the night, we could see thousands of fireflies in the ditches.. it was such an amazing sight! It was like the fields were sparking! I had never seen so many fireflies at one time.

On Saturday night there was a Beatles cover band playing in Arnold's Park, so my mom brought Teague and I there to listen and I met up with some friends too. It was funny to see my mom rock out at concert but was awesome that she knew all the songs!

Today I am supposed to be working from home, but I took Teague to the beach to look for rocks! My newest hobby is making necklaces from rocks.. I'm hooked on it!

2009-07-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

Last week flew by, which was surprising since I was looking forward to the holiday weekend and usually the week seems to go slower when you are waiting for something.

On Friday I didn't have work and in the morning I got my new phone.. a Blackberry Pearl. I love it! Its the first 'good' cell phone I've had, since all my other ones were crappy cuz I would always break them :P

After I got my phone I left for Yankton, to spend the weekend with Isaac. That night he had a baseball game in Crofton and he was the relieving pitcher, so he didn't get much play time, but it was still good to see him pitch since the last game I went to he played short stop.

On Saturday Isaac and I went to see The Proposal which was hilarious and ridiculous. I want to see it again. We watched the fireworks from the hospital parking lot because it had a good view and we didn't have to travel far. Then we went and bought our own fireworks.. we did sparklers and fountains.. it was a blast.. no pun intended. After that we watched the movie "The Last Kiss" with Zach Braff.. it wasn't as good as I hoped and (spoiler) the ending sucks.

On Sunday we got all dressed up to eat at the River Rose only to find out it was closed. So we went to Murdos instead, which wasn't bad at all. I enjoyed the view of the river while I ate my lunch. Then we went mini golfing and go carting.. I thought I could get a tan since we were out there for a couple hours, but no luck.. I guess its better than burning though! Isaac was supposed to have a baseball game in Scotland that night and we drove all the way there to find out it was cancelled.

This week is just work and working out for me. It stormed tonight so I wasn't able to run outside, but tomorrow will hopefully be nicer.

2009-06-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

Oh the rain. It seems like it rains everyday of the week. But then the sun comes out and make everything hot again.

On Thursday my friend Casey and I went to Sioux Falls to go shopping and we met up with Isaac. We did a ridiculous amount of shopping/browsing and went EVERYWHERE. Besides the mall, we went to Plato's Closet, Barnes and Nobles, Best Buy, Scheels, Target and Kohls. My best purchase of the day was new soccer shoes. Scheels had just got them in a week before and I love them.. can't wait to play in them! At Target and Kohls, Casey and I played dress up with Isaac and found outfits for him to wear.. he ended up getting one that he could possibly wear to a school formal.

The main point of our trip to Sufu was to see Isaac's baseball game in Tea. He plays for Wynot and he played the whole game at short stop. He did really well but I was disappointed he only got to bat twice.

Yesterday my friend Jessica wanted to go to Yankton to see her boyfriend and told me I should go with her so we took a spur-of-the-moment road trip. We left at 5 in the afternoon, got there at 7:30 and left at 11. It was the shortest trip to South Dakota I have every made but it was totally worth it! We went minigolfing and of course I got to see Isaac again.

This weekend is my town's SummerFest celebration. This morning I ran a 5k roadrace (on 5 hours of sleep since I got home pretty late last night) and my time was 26:12. Its not bad, especially under the humid weather conditions and little sleep, but my goal was to get UNDER 26.. I came close, but hopefully the next race I run I will accomplish that goal. There was also a craft show and some garage sales that I went to and this afternoon is the parade. My mom and youngest brother are on a float for the cubscouts so my other brother and I will watch it together at the park.

Tonight I am going to my friend Audrey's bonfire and there is a street dance with live music tonight also, so we will have some sweet free music for our get-together.

2009-06-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy working. Last week I worked 35 hours, which is a lot for me. But it was totally worth it to get to the weekend because my boyfriend Isaac came to visit me! He got here on Friday afternoon and we went to see Year One, which wasn't as good as I expected. But I guess that's what you get for a Jack Black movie. Then we went to eat at Bracco's in Okoboji and we got a table on the deck that overlooks the lake and the sun was setting and it was just plain gorgeous. After supper we went to the Arnold's Park emporium and visited my friend Ashley at work and of course, went to the Sugar Shack, aka, the greatest candy store known to man.

On Saturday Isaac and I went to a restaurant called Ben and Lee's. Its a very hip cafe-style place. Then we did a bit of shopping and got the movie Marley and Me, which I had not yet seen. We watched it on Sunday afternoon and it was so sad! But I really liked it.. much more than Year One ;). We also watched Pirates of the Caribbean with my little brother Teague because it is his favorite movie.

Today it is 90 degrees outside with not a cloud in the sky. It would be more enjoyable if it wasn't so humid. I would consider going to the beach if I wasn't working, but alas, I am. My mom took my brother Tyler to register for classes at Augustana today and so I got some stuff to do at home today instead of at the office so I could babysit Teague. I think he is old enough to stay home alone, but my mom thinks otherwise. Anyhoo, I best be ending my break and getting back to typing up lease agreements and such. Joy :)

2009-06-14T17:03:00.001-07:00

I spent this weekend at my friend Allie's cabin. It's on Big Spirit in the Iowa lakes area, just north of Okoboji. Its only like 20 miles from my house so I always feel like a local among the tourists during the summer. Its kind of ridiculous how many people vacation there, but its still fun to go to the beach and what not.

I swam in the lake for the first time this summer.. its been so cold and rainy lately that I just haven't had any desire to swim yet. But this weekend it was hot and sunny and gorgeous. I got sunburn on my legs which was a bummer, but no where else so that's a plus. I also went to the Taco House and Hey Good Cookies for the first time this summer.. I feel like I haven't been doing anything this summer! At least now it feels like the fun is beginning.

On Friday I had to work in the Jackson law office. My only job was to answer the phone, so I sat there for five hours reading my magazine and playing solitaire on the computer. They didn't mind, so it was all good. The phone rang only five times in the morning, then there was a two hour period around lunchtime when it did not ring at all. And it rang four times in the afternoon.. but three of the calls were from the wives of the lawyers. It was by far the easiest job I have even gotten paid to do.

2009-06-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

Today is a very rainy day.. I hate rainy days.. they make me feel sick.. I thrive in the sunshine :)

My first week of work was good.. boring, but good. I did data entry the whole week. I won't complain though because I'd rather have a boring job than no job. And its not hard work, so that is definitely a plus. I get my first paycheck on Tuesday so I am stoked for that! SHOPPING!!!!

On Thursday my friends Jolene and Casey came over and we played board games... Trouble, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Mouse Trap, and Pictionary.. it was great fun.

Tomorrow is my brother's graduation party, which I had to help get ready for today... cleaning, making foods, etc. I feel like I helped more than my brother did, and it's his party! Ridiculous...

Tomorrow night my friend Allie is having a "barbecue" at her cabin in Okoboji. I have been there many times already this summer but I haven't gone swimming yet!!! This is definitely a first for me. I usually go swimming in the middle of May when the water is freezing but extremely clear. By the end of July the water is disgusting with algae.

After tomorrow I don't have much on my agenda to look forward to.. some bonfires, hopefully going to the pool when it opens, and just working. I am planning on going to my boyfriends baseball game in Tea on the 25th, but that is a ways away still.

2009-05-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

Today was my brother's graduation. He had a much smaller class than me.. 76.. mine was 112. I still can't believe I graduated TWO years ago. I went to a bunch of parties, saw a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a long time. So it was a pretty good day.

This week I was sick with strep throat. It was nice to finally have an excuse to do nothing all day ;), but I wanted to start my soccer training this week. I ended up only running one time and I still haven't even touched a ball.

BUT GOOD NEWS! I got a job! A family friend who is an attorney in town hired me do computer-ish work at the law office. I will just be cleaning up the hard drives on all the computers and making sure they are all the same, as well as making sure everyone has the same passwords, email addresses on the same servers, etc. I will also have to learn about Windows Live Office and Amicus Attorney because they are both programs that I will have to deal with and I think eventually teach everyone in the office how to use! I am also going to ask if I can redo their website because I think that would be great for my portfolio and it is something they mentioned needed to be done.

So after work everyday I am going to train for soccer.. running, core/ab work, biking, touch drills, juggling, EVERYTHING SOCCER. I really want to improve this year, even though I improved alot last year. I WANT TO SCORE A GOAL THIS SEASON!

I might also have another job.. I interviewed at the grocery store in town for a weekend position and they will call me tomorrow to let me know if I was hired. I need to earn lots of money this summer because we are going on a caribbean cruise for choir over spring break next year and it is going to be expensive :S So my goal is to earn and save.

Besides work, nothing is going on this week.. but my brother's grad party is next Sunday so I guess I will have to help get ready for that.

2009-05-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to Yankton to spend the long weekend with my boyfriend Isaac. On Saturday we went to see Angels and Demons. Last summer I started reading the book but only got half way thru it and didn't have time during the school year to finish it. The movie was really interesting actually, and I felt like the half of the book that I read was only the first 20 minutes of the movie! So there was alot that I did not know what going to happen.

On Sunday, Isaac was supposed to have a baseball game in Newcastle and we drove all the way there to find out it was cancelled. But since we were only half an hour from Sioux City we just went there instead and went to the mall. I got a gorgeous purple dress to wear to my brother Tyler's graduation next Sunday.

Yesterday was the only nice day of the whole weekend so we went for a walk and got shakes from the Tastee Treat. Then, we went to walmart and Isaac got his ears pierced :S Crazy.

I still haven't found a job, but I have applied at a dozen places... its just a waiting game now. My mom did talk to the manager at the grocery store in town tho, and they need weekend help so they will be calling me this week. Working on just the weekend would be better than nothing like I have now!

Tyler ran at the sub-section track meet last Thursday and qualified for sections in the 4x2 and 4x4 relays so I will go to Luverne this Thursday to watch him. Then on Saturday my brother and I will go to Mankato to our cousin's graduation party.

2009-05-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

It has been quite some time since I last blogged and a lot has happened since then.

Finals week flew by.. I ended up getting a 4.0 once again this semester, which makes it 4 in a row. It was kind of unexpected though, because I thought for sure I was going to get a B in critical thinking.. but I guess I earned and deserved that A.

Once I got home, I applied for a few jobs and had an interview at the county newspaper, but unfortunately I still have not heard back from them. I am getting very impatient and am in dire need of a job since I am not working at the restaurant I did last summer.. so I wish they would hurry up and call me with their decision!

I also spent the week making two scrapbooks for my brother's graduation.. one for letter awards/academic awards/concert programs/etc and another for newspaper clippings. I also helped my youngest brother with his state report. He research Nevada and did a report on it along with a display board. All the 4th graders had them on display at the State Fair last week.. they were all so excited and proud.

Tonight was my other brother's choir concert. This was the only concert he was ever in because he just joined choir during the 4th quarter of his senior year. At the end of the concert, the director gave a 5 minute thank you to him explaining how he played the drums for swing choir, acted/sang in the musical, sang a solo at the choir contest and received a superior rating, and then joined choir. I also went to his band concert at the beginning of the week and he received the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award. He is an amazing sax player. I'm really proud of him.

Hopefully this week I can find a job and get hired. I am craving a shopping trip but need to earn the money first! Other than that, this week should be a lot less busy.

2009-05-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

This week is going to be crazy. I have five finals Tuesday through Thursday.

Today was my last track meet of the season and it was held here in Yankton. I wasn't a conference champ but I sure felt like it because I PR'd in the 4x800... I ran my leg in 2:36. It was 11 seconds faster than last week and 5 seconds faster than my previous fastest time. I was really really excited about it... and still am!

Tomorrow is the spring sports banquet, so I get to go for track. They hand out awards and whatnot.. but I'm not sure if I will get any. Last year I won "Female Newcomer of the Year," but since I'm no longer a "newcomer" I don't know what award I could possibly win. Especially since my indoor season was basically my sophomore slump season.

I don't have any finals on Monday, which is really lucky. But on Tuesday I have my Art Appreciation final exam and my Technical Design project is due. My critical thinking paper is due on Wednesday, but I have it done already so I will probably turn it in on Monday. And on Thursday, I have my Literature of the Holocaust exam and my Video project is due.

I am staying at school until Saturday because I am going to video tape baccalaureate and graduation with the other graphics majors. I get paid for both of them, which is a plus, and I get to hang out with my boyfriend before I have to leave him for the summer.

As for a summer job, I am being considered for a writing position at my hometown newspaper, which I am super excited about. It would only be part-time, but I will definitely be happy with that.

2009-04-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last night I had my spring band concert and my mom and brothers came down to watch it. I had a piccolo solo in an Irish jig song. We played nine songs and it was a lot of fun.

This week is going to be really busy for me. Tomorrow there is an event called Yankton Against Hunger and we have to help out with it by putting together food packages for the poor. On Wednesday I am going to an appreciation supper for the Moderator staff (school newspaper). Next year besides being a writer, I am also going to be the advertisement designer. On Friday all the graphic design majors are going to Sioux Falls to visit design businesses.

Saturday is my last track meet of the year.. its in Yankton, which will be nice and I will be running the 4x800 meter relay and also hopefully the 800 meter run.

Next week is finals week... I have a video project due Monday, an art appreciation test and a technical design project due Tuesday, a critical thinking paper due Wednesday and a test in my holocaust literature class. So since I only have two tests, it shouldn't be too bad. I am staying at school until graduation on Saturday the 9th because I have to help video it for graphic arts.

And then I get to go home!

2009-04-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

At the track meet last week I ran the 1500 in 6:03... which made me the fastest runner for Mount Marty. How exciting.

I'm running the 800 again tomorrow.. I really really hope to run it in 2:35 cuz then I would move up 10 spots in the conference and hopefully qualify in it for conference.. if I don't, I will still be running the 4x800 or hurdles... I need to practice the hurdles if I am though.. I haven't in weeks..

This week seems to be dragging on. And yesterday I had a terrible day, so that didn't help. I did my debate on Monday and I thought it went really well.. turns out I got a D on it.. I was completely crushed when I found that out. My teacher said I had a "weak argument" which can't be true because it was a valid argument and we supported it well, so I don't know how he can say it was weak. Also, we did bad on our "Q and A" section, which is completely unfair because no one in our class asked us any questions, so how can we answer questions when nobody asks them? This D means I will get a C in the class, a B if I am lucky, and I will no longer have my 4.0 GPA.

On the other side of things, I aced my quiz in the holocaust class. Too bad I can't ace everything..

2009-04-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

So I guess I have really been slacking on blogging... guess that means I've been busy and should have a lot to tell ;)

Last week on Thursday I had a track meet and I ran the 800.. something I have only done twice in my life.. once on a 4x8 relay in high school and once in indoor last year. But I didn't do too bad.. ran a 2:41.. but I had no idea how to pace myself and was able to sprint hard for the last 100 meters, so I guess I didn't go hard enough for the first 700 meters! I guess now if I do it again, I will know how to pace myself better and hopefully get down to 2:35 or better. Tomorrow I am running the 1500.. I've never ran that far in a track meet before.. I'm so used to doing 100 meter and 400 meter races!

This week I only had two days of classes because we had Monday off for Easter break and we were on choir tour on Wednesday and Thursday. Tour was a blast... we sang at five high schools in South Dakota and stayed over night in Madison. A friend of mine goes to Dakota State, so she stopped by the hotel to say hi on her study break.

Tonight was our "home from tour" concert. The jazz band also played on tour with us and played at the concert as well.. it was so much fun.

2009-04-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

This week is flying by.. probably because break starts on Thursday! We get Thursday thru Monday off for Easter break, but my break starts on Friday because I have another track meet on Thursday. This time I'm running the 800.. coach thinks he can still turn me into distance runner.. who knows.. maybe I'm doing so bad this year at mid-distance and hurdles because I should be doing distance running.

Last week submissions for Paddlefish were due. Paddlefish is a publication by the college of poetry, fiction and nonfiction writings, as well media arts. I submitted a poem that was recommended to be submitted and some projects from my graphic arts classes. Last year I submitted some photography and they made it on the Paddlefish website, so hopefully this year some of my stuff gets picked again.

On Saturday, since our track meet was moved to Friday because of the pending snowstorm, I was able to watch the Wakefield Mysteries. Its a play about the life and death of Jesus. My boyfriend played a centurion and I was excited to see him.

We were supposed to get a foot of snow on Saturday and Sunday, but we ended up getting a couple inches and a lot of wind. Most of it is melted now anyways because it was 45 degrees and sunny today!

This weekend, I am shooting my promotional video project for my video class at home. I am doing my brother and his friend's band, Bace Line 22. It is supposed to be 50 or 60 degrees and sunny so hopefully I can film them performing outside.. I think that will be a lot of fun and they are all really excited to be in my video.

2009-03-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

I didn't have a whole lot of homework this past week and I think this week might prove to be the same. It's nice to have a lull in that department, but it scares me because I'm sure it means I will be swamped in the weeks to come.

In critical thinking, I have two small papers due in the next week and a half and a revision for a big paper due on Wednesday, so that may be a bit stressful. However, my next technical design and video projects aren't due until after Easter break. I finished my projects for Art Appreciation and the Holocaust so I don't have to worry about them anymore.

Yesterday was our first outdoor track meet. It was kind of cold and windy, which didn't help my performance. I ran the 4x100, 4x400, and 10o hurdles. I did terrible in the hurdles, which I predicted. I wasn't even going to run that race because it was half an hour after the 4x1 and I didn't think I would be recovered enough, but at the last minute I decided to do it just for the heck of it. I got dead last with a time of 19.4. Last year I ran 16s and 17s so I am VERY far behind that this year. I don't know what happened between then and now, but I wish I could get my skills and speed back. I guess I'm just getting old and last year was my peak ;)

Last week I picked my classes for next semester.. Sound, Intro to Christianity, The Short Story, Writing and the Visual Arts, and Motion Graphics. Should be a busy one, yet again.

Tonight it is supposed to snow... up to a foot! I don't really believe it since it is almost April and I just want it to be beautiful warm weather. But, I wouldn't be opposed to a snow day!

2009-03-23T09:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a long week and weekend. I procastinated my homework all week because I was busy with track and other various activities. This weekend we had a soccer tournament here on campus and we ended up playing four games. We made it to the semifinals and lost there, so we got 3rd place in the tournament. I had to work on my commercials for video, my brochure for tech design, and my paper for critical thinking this weekend too. It was crazy busy.

And now its another Monday. Its supposed to storm today.. hopefully it doesn't interfere with my track practice. I am very sore from soccer yesterday.. my back, hips, ankles, and arms hurt so bad! But I need to keeping running because our first outdoor track meet is on Saturday!

On Thursday I went with my boyfriend to his house for supper and to see his youngest brother. He just got out of a half-body cast. They were so excited to see each other.. it was so cute.

I practiced hurdles last week too for the first time in probably a month. And it made me so sore! I'm still having trouble three-stepping and I don't know why.. its something I've been doing for years. But, I tried four-stepping and I actually ran faster than I did all of indoor season.

2009-03-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

Today's the last day of spring break. And I did absolutely nothing all week. I only worked out twice because I was so lazy, and I only left the house probably three times.. but its excuseable because there is nothing to do in my town or any of the other towns around here. My boyfriend came home with me so I at least had some company while everyone was at school. We baked alot since we were so bored... we made banana bread, cheesecake, tapioca, peanut butter bars, and cookies. I love baking when I'm home cuz then I get to bring back some good food to school.

I'm not looking forward to going to classes again.. but it's only 13 days until our first outdoor track meet! And its a home meet!

2009-03-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend was amazing. The Omaha symphony was amazing. For choir, we sang the music of Queen with the Omaha orchestra and it totally rocked. The lead singer was part of a Queen cover band who sang with the orchestra and the chorus (us). He sounded exactly like Freddie Mercury and hit every note perfectly.

In the second half of the show, we sang the background chorus parts to "We Will Rock You," "We Are The Champions," "Flash," "Take My Breath Away," "Who Wants To Live Forever," "Somebody To Love," and "Bohemian Rhapsody."

In the first half, they sang "Killer Queen," "Another One Bites The Dust," and "Under Pressure," among others. During the encore, they sang "Fat-Bottomed Girls" and "Too Much Love Will Kill You."

The energy in the symphony hall was crazy! There were about 2500 people in the audience and EVERYONE got into the music.. it was like a rock concert! They sang along and clapped and waved their cellphones in the air.

It was awesome to be at a concert like this and not be in the audience. I was more pumped being on the stage than I ever have being in the crowd. The conductor was really amazing too... he cued us in everytime we sang and one time the lead singer held the microphone in front of the conductor to sing the note and we had to hold our note for what seemed like forever.. but it was so awesome!

2009-03-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend I played indoor soccer in Sioux City. There was a 24-hour tournament but I only played one game. We got there and the other team didn't show up, so we automatically won. And since the ref felt bad for us, he let us scrimmage each other and reffed for us.

This week is midterms and I only had two tests. One on Monday that I aced, and another today that I think I bombed. It was in my Holocaust class and the test was ridiculous... essays galore and identifying the significance of minor characters and quotations in books.

For my video class, our next project is a set of two commercials for a product. I think I'm going to do shampoo and conditioner. Hopefully I can make it commical.

This weekend choir is going to Omaha to sing with the symphony orchestra. We are performing the music of Queen. I'm really excited.. we get to hang out in Omaha and I wish it was longer than just the weekend. After that, my boyfriend and I are going to my house for the rest of spring break.

2009-02-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

I cannot wait until spring break.

I need a break from school, sports, and just life in general. I am getting way too stressed out.

Our next project for video is a movie trailer. Mine is "Where's Waldo: The Movie." At first I had a terribly hard time coming with an idea for a movie and my brother actually helped me think of this one. But once I had and idea of what to do, it was even harder thinking up ways it could be a movie. Basically, two people are searching for Waldo. It's lame and I hope it turns out okay, but I'm thinking its not going to be my best work.

I'm getting really frusterated with Critical Thinking. We have an argument paper due every week and I am not entirely sure I am even doing them correctly. Today we handed in our third one and we haven't even seen how we did on the first two. How am I supposed to know if I am on the right track or what I need to fix to improve my next papers if I never get to see how I did?

For the The Moderator, I am writing a music review on the new Red Jumpsuit Apparatus cd. A friend burned a copy for me and I am really digging it. Its not as good as their first cd, but that's pretty normal with most bands. A few of their songs have a different feel to them, perhaps like they are using different instruments, which I think is pretty cool.

Next week is midterms. Hopefully I can make it thru them without injury to mind or body.

2009-02-20T13:29:00.000-08:00

TGIF! This week has flown by... but I guess that's what happens when you only have four school days.

On my day off, I went to my boyfriend's house to celebrate his sister's birthday. It was a lot of fun and he showed me around his town, which I had never been to before.

This week I was consumed with an overwhelming amount of homework. I had to read an entire book for a class on top of the usual stuff. I had a paper for one class, a project for another. I'm hoping next week won't be so bad.

This weekend is our conference meet in Lincoln. We are leaving in an hour and its about a four hour drive down there. I am running just the 4x400 and its at 7 tomorrow night. The meet starts at noon and we are getting to the track at 10 a.m... so I will have LOTS of down time.

My boyfriend is in the a cappella group Mt. Martians, and they are competiting in Missouri this weekend. They have three songs to sing and I really hope they do well! If they get first or second place they move onto the next round of competition, which is in Chicago.

Only two weeks until spring break!

2009-02-11T10:35:00.000-08:00

As soon as Monday comes around I can't wait for it to be Friday. So you can only imagine how anxious I am by Wednesday.

This weekend is a three day weekend because we get Monday off for President's Day. I'm really excited to finally get more than one day off at a time. On Saturday I have a track meet in Sioux Center at Dordt. We have to leave at 7:15 in the morning, which is better than last time, but I'm still not looking forward to getting up that early. And we probably won't get back til after 6. I'm running the hurdles and hoping to qualify for conference. I did last year, but this year I just haven't been doing so well, so we shall see how it goes. I'm also running the 4x400 again, as well as the 55 meter dash, which is something I've never done before. I hope it goes well.

Saturday is also Valentine's Day. I think my boyfriend and I are just going to stay in and watch a movie. I actually have more fun just lounging around with him than going out.

If the weather is nice on Sunday, I'm going to Sioux Falls to meet my mom. I think we will probably just go out to eat. And Monday is my official day off. Yay!

2009-02-05T20:51:00.000-08:00

I spent three and a half hours tonight working on my video. And its no where near being done. I have been really busy this week and its homecoming week. There has been alot going on for that, but I haven't done any of it.

On Sunday, some friends and I had a super bowl party.. we were rooting for the underdogs the Cardinals, so we were pretty disappointed when they lost. On Monday, there was ice skating as a homecoming activity but I didn't go because I had a lot of homework. Today there was dodgeball and a $3 movie, but I was, again, doing homework.

Tomorrow I run the 4x200 at the USD meet. We are only one second away from breaking the school record so hopefully we can do that. On Saturday, I have to run the 4x400 and I really really really hope I run faster than last week. That would be awesome because I have been working really hard the past two weeks to get better, faster, and stronger. I just want my hard work to finally pay off.

Saturday night is the homecoming dance. I'm really excited for that, but my boyfriend doesn't like dances, so I am still trying to convince him to go. That would also be awesome if he went.

2009-01-29T21:02:00.000-08:00

Well, right now I am supposed to be reading for Art Appreciation, but I need yet another study break.

I recorded some of my B-roll footage for my music video. It's our next project in my video class. I am doing the song "That's Not My Name" by The Ting Tings. Today in class we were given half an hour to go around and shoot at different locations so we could remake the All-American Reject's "Move Along" video. It was hectic, but fun. I had to change clothes and sing, which I'm sure wasn't pretty, but we are putting the actual song to our movements, so that's good.

I'm so excited for Friday tomorrow! But, I have to go to bed super early cuz we are leaving for our track meet at 6:30 am! Hopefully I can sleep on the bus..

2009-01-24T21:05:00.001-08:00

Another track meet today. It had its ups and downs.

I did the hurdles first, which was definitely the down part of the meet. I scraped the entire back of my right leg on the fourth hurdle which messed me up and slowed me down for the rest of the race. And my leg still hurts right now from that huge scratch.

BUT! the day got a little better. I ran the 200 meter dash, which is something I have not done since high school. I tried to remember some times I got back then, but today I ended up getting 30 secs. Its an okay time for me.. nothing special. I think the winner of the race got 26 or 27, so I was really far from that. But it was good to run something different.. and to have a race in between the hurdles and 4x4, because I usually just sit around and do nothing for four hours.

The 4x4 went a lot better this week. We were actually in the competition this time, instead of trailing 50 meters behind. I ran two seconds faster than last week and we didn't get last! I basically sprinted until my legs wanted to give out. The home stretch was terrible because my legs and arms felt like jello and I let the girl I was running with get away from me. But I honestly had nothing left in me.

I think I need to do some more endurance workouts along with my speed workouts.. then maybe I won't feel like collapsing until AFTER my race. :)

2009-01-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

First week of school = crazy.

My classes are gonna be pretty hard again, like last semester. I have class at 9 everyday til 3 or 3:30.

For my video class, our first project is a news story. Mine is on the "Teddy Bear Killer." It's about somebody who attacks innocent stuffed animals... its pretty funny. I am going to shoot some of my "Yankton footage" today to use in it. Then tomorrow and Tuesday I am going to video my reporter, expert on the crime, and victim of the crime. I am excited, but also nervous that I'm going to screw something up. Since I am busy with so much else, I am crunched for time. And basically, I have one MAYBE two opportunities to shoot my story.

The first project for my technical design class is a directional poster. Using type and only images we create, we have to express directions from or to MMC from or to someplace. I really need to get that project finished.

Yesterday, I had my first meet of the season for track. The hurdles went well.. I placed approximately 10th. However, the 4x4 did not go so well for me. I ran the slowest split of my life in that relay. I don't know what my problem is, but I need to figure it out fast if we ever want to get close to nationals.

I got a letter today from my friend Lucia. She was a foreign exchange student from Germany. This summer I did a photoshoot with her and she was so photogenic.. she could definitely be a model! In her letter she said that she is saving up her money to come back to the US this summer! I am so excited and I really hope it works out that she can come back.

This week on top of classes and practices, I have pep band too. Only three left though, so I guess I can handle that. Then another track meet at USD on the weekend. Hopefully I can get my act together and get my time down to where it should be.

2009-01-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been quite some time since I've blogged. Today was the first day of classes. It went well except for the fact that I am going to be just as busy this semester as last. I am taking Art Appreciation, Critical Thinking in Ethics, Technical Design, Literature of the Holocaust, Video, Band and Choir.

My last two weeks of break went really fast, even though I didn't do a whole lot. I got to see some friends that I hadn't seen in a long time, so that was nice.

I worked new years eve and on new years day some friends and I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was so good. When it was over I went to see what time it was and the movie had been three hours long. It didn't even seem like it. After that, we went out to eat and then went to one friend's house and played Partini. Its a party game that is made up of a bunch of different "games." You could draw a card that requires you to mime something, sing something, have others write something about you, etc. It was very fun.

Last week, I had to take down the xmas decorations at work and put up the Valentine's Day decorations. It was pretty cool because the two other people and I got to decorate however we wanted. We also started to clean out one of the storage corners in the basement and found lots of crazy things down there. We found a stash of plastic forks, still in their boxes, from 1996. We threw them out.

The first track meet of the season is on Friday/Saturday. I really need to work on hurdling. I'm going to do that today. Gotta get back into it.

2008-12-30T16:41:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have definitely had their ups and downs, their busy parts and their lazy parts.

I've worked a few times, but not many hours. I've been trying to work out but I just wish I had the time and motivation for it. If I did, I would be doing speed training three times a week and distance training two days a week. But for the most part, I have just been doing a little speed and a little distance here and there. But alot of abs, which is always good.

For Christmas, I got some movies, the new Fall Out Boy cd, a sweatshirt and some other clothes, a couple of pairs of earrings, a new hairstraightener, a massager, some candy, and some ornaments.

At Christmas at my grandmas, I got to see alot of my cousins and aunts and uncles. Dogs Ike and Juny were also there. I got a sweater from my grandma and a necklace.

I went to a Christmas party/welcome back for a friend that studied abroad in England this semester. We did a white elephant gift exchange and I got the movie Wedding Crashers. The gift I gave was a smelly candle and two diaries. We played card games and it was a really fun time.

Today a friend came over and we played four games: Sorry, Stratego, Yahtzee, and Life. I only won Yahtzee.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, but I am working, so no big plans. It's gonna be a really busy night too. On New Year's Day, the powwow girls are getting together to see a movie and go out to eat, so I am pretty excited for that. Also, it's a friend's birthday on Saturday, so we are going out for that too.

Even though I have plenty to do here at home, I am getting sick of being here. Too much time at home isn't good for me and I am ready to go back to school. Only 12 more days...

2008-12-21T11:24:00.000-08:00

Boredom is the word to describe the majority of my break so far. All of my friends didn't have finals until this week so they are home now, but all week I had no one to hang out with. And my brothers both had school still so I was home alone for the most part.

I went gift shopping with my dad one day tho, which was fun. We went to this new coffee shop/cafe and I think it would be awesome to work there. So definitely this summer I am going to apply there. And many other places because I am sick of the job I have now. So far I was supposed to work four days and I have only worked one because the restaurant closed due to the bad weather on the other days.

And speaking of bad weather, today is really really cold and windy. The past couple days it blizzarded (is that a word?) and now we have soo much snow. The drifts come up to our porch but I think we actually have about a foot and a half. The wind chill is ridiculously cold.. I think the news said -30.

I guess my boredom lead me to be kind of productive. I made at least ten different kinds of christmas cookies this week. And we are still baking more today. I found an awesome cookie cook book at my house and I am so excited to try some of them. I'm gonna get so fat from all the cookies. Good thing I'm working out. Yesterdat I did 2.5 miles of speed work on the treadmill and did 17 mins of abs and core. I wish I had the motivation to workout like that everyday, but I just get so lazy and would just rather lay on the couch and watch a movie. I wish it would warm up so I could run outside. But I don't think I will be that lucky.

This week I went to see my youngest brother's holiday program at school and then that night he was in the Christmas pageant at church. He was a wiseman. Tomorrow night is my other brother's band concert, so I will get to go see that as well.

I think we are finishing our Christmas shopping on Wednesday, so that's cutting it close. I think my dad should be home that day too (he is a trucker), which is exciting. On Saturday, we are going to my grandma's house for Christmas with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins so I am also excited for that.

I sure hope this New Year is good. I've been waiting for a while for it.

2008-12-11T09:42:00.001-08:00

FINALS ARE OVER.

It feels amazing to be done. I had my last final this morning at 8 and I honestly think I did well on it. I studied for three days for it and I am really hoping it paid off.

Last night I ran the 4x4 at the track meet. We didn't do so well. I ran a 67 split and the other girls ran 65, 67, and 70. We need to be around 61/62 if we want to make it to nationals, so we have ALOT of work to do. I am going to try to train really hard over break so I can get into really good shape to run that race. Coach said that since we have such a good shot at going to nationals in the relay, that race has to be my main focus. So I guess I won't be doing much hurdling this year.

Even though I am done with the semester, I am waiting to go home until tomorrow. I still need to pack and then tonight I will get to hang out with my friends and boyfriend before we all part for break.

2008-12-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

It's finals week and I am super busy. This weekend was my last weekend at school for the semester so my roommate and I had a fun girl's night with some friends on Friday and then my boyfriend and I hung out on Saturday. On Sunday, we had the Fall Sports Banquet for soccer, volleyball, and cross country. I got a letter award and a the Pflieger-Olson academic all-conference award for soccer.

Yesterday was the last regular day of classes and its a relief to be done with those, but I still have alot of finals to work on. I turned in my creative writing final today, which was supposed to consists of 2 prose pieces or 6-8 poems. I had 3 prose pieces and 2 poems. Hopefully they are A-worthy.

Tomorrow I have my illustration final at 10 and my psych final at 1. My last final is marketing at 8 a.m. on Thursday. I am not looking forward to that but studied all day yesterday and today for it. Tonight I have to do acommunity service project for soccer at an elementary school winter carnival so I won't have much time to study. And tomorrow night I have pep band AND a track meet. I'm only running the 4x4 but it's at 9 p.m. I'm not happy about running at this meet because I don't want to be there running and getting back so late when I should be using that time studying and going to bed early. But oh well, such is life.

I found out that even though I told the restaurant I work at back home that I want to work ALOT over break, they gave me 8 days out of the whole month that I'm home. I'm really angry about this because I need to make money to pay for tuition next semester and for books. I need to find another job ASAP, but I have no idea where to work that isn't 20 or 30 miles away. So basically, on top of stressing about finals, I have to stress about money and finding a job. Needless to say, I can't wait til this semester is over.

2008-12-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged in a while because of Thanksgiving Break. I went home on Tuesday and that night I got my hair cut. I initially wanted just wanted it trimmed but then decided to get alot cut. Right now its just above my shoulder when I straighten it, and its almost another inch shorter when its curly. I think I got about 6 inches cut.

My dad had turned my room into a recording studio. There is a drum set, mixing board, microphone, guitars, bass, EVERYTHING. He has completely taken over my room and I am not liking it. But I guess now I can learn to play the drums ;)

On Wednesay I went I shopping in Mankato but didn't buy anything. I am never in the mood to buy stuff around the holidays. I'd rather just buy stuff for other people. My mom did tell me though that I need to make a list for her, but I told her she is on her own, because I have no ideas.

On Thursday we went to my Grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I was delicious: turkey, cheesy potatoes, rolls, corn, wild rice, and stuffing. But I hate stuffing, so I definitely did not eat that.

On Friday I didn't do much of anything. But on Saturday I hung out with my high school buddies which was really nice. I hadn't seen any of them since I left in August, so it was great to catch up with them.

Sunday was Vespers, the choir concert. We had two performances and the choirs sang 8 songs and it featured a 12 year old violin player. I thought we did a pretty good job, and the second performance was definitely better.

2008-11-21T14:49:00.001-08:00

This week flew by. I got a 92% on my psych test, but I had a marketing test today and that's another story. For my Illustration class, we had to make a type self-portrait, aka, a picture of ourselves made only with the letters of our name or a sentence about ourselves. The class voted to see whose we liked best and mine tied to win!

On Wednesday, I went to see Pete Good, who performed here on campus. He plays acoustic-y songs and he was really good live. After that I got a free 10 minute massage - it was glorious. I wish it would have been an hour long.

Track practices started on Monday. It has been so cold outside that I pretty much dread going. But yesterday and today I ran inside on the treadmills in the fitness center. Our first meet is on December 11, but that's during finals week so I don't think I will be going; its only a preseason meet anyways, so no big loss. Our first real meet is the first weekend we get back from Christmas break.

Speaking of Christmas break, its only three weeks away. Next week is Thanksgiving break, then we have a week of regular classes, and then its finals week. This semester has gone by crazy fast, but I am definitely ready for a break. I haven't even been home at all yet. Tuesday's the day...

2008-11-18T07:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend was amazingly fun. On Friday, we stopped in Sioux Falls on our way up to Brookings to pick up a pow-wow friend and my other friend got a tattoo. Its a cross inside of a heart on her wrist. She already has one of a cross inside of a fish on her other wrist. While in Sufu, it started to sleet and we thought it was going to be bad weather, but once we left, it was fine. We got to Brookings and had homemade pizza and cheesebread that two of our friends made for us for supper. Then we went to Walmart (a must!) and movie gallery and bought a bunch of movies. We ended up not even watching one because we just hung out and talked all night.

On Satuday we had a very busy morning. We went to a craft show, book sale (I think I picked up 8 books!), stopped downtown for coffee, then ate lunch at George's Pizza, walked downtown and shopped the stores, went to the art museum at SDSU, and climbed the Campinle tower. After that we went back to my friend's apartment and made Christmas cookies, a Mexican-style hotdish for supper, and Europa bars for dessert. Then we watched Elf! Its one of my fave Christmas movies.

On Sunday we went to church, watched the first half of the Vikings game, and then said goodbye. When I got back I had a lot of studying to do for my psych test, which was yesterday. I think I did okay on it. Finally, I have a good feeling about a test.

2008-11-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to see the movie "Role Models." It wasn't as funny as I hoped it would be, but it was still good.

This weekend I am going up to Brookings to hang out with some friends from back home. They are the same friends that came here for the formal. One of them goes to SDSU and has an apartment up there and she basically has our weekend planned out - there is a book sale, craft show, opera, basketball game, and she even has church and homework times penciled in. We always have these get-togethers; we call them "powwows." This will be the 2nd annual powwow in Brookings, and we will have our 8th [or so] bi-annual powwow over Christmas break. I love our get-togethers.. we are all friends because we work at the same restaurant, which is the usual site of our powwows. It's nice that 5 out of the 7 of us go to school in South Dakota. One works in Iowa and the other is studying abroad in England.

I have a psych test on Monday. Hopefully I get time this weekend to study!

2008-11-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

This weekend was Blue and Gold Days family weekend. My parents didn't come because they had other stuff going on, but I still had a good time. It was the first weekend I had off since 2adays and it felt amazing.

On Friday I went to the Honors Convocation, which is a ceremony that recognizes all of the academic scholarship recipients. My favorite part about the whole thing was getting dressed up. I love dressing up. On Saturday afternoon I had to play pep band and at night we went cosmic bowling. My best score was a 129, which isn't too bad for me. Today a friend and I played a flute duet during mass and then I went to the basketball games. The women won but the men lost.

I can't wait until Thanksgiving break. Only 16 days. I think I'm homesick. I haven't been home yet since August, so maybe I am. But the best part about this is that after Thanksgiving break, we have one week of classes, finals week, and then we have semester break for a month. I am so ready for it.

2008-11-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

Still sick.

I've been sick for a week now. I want to be better! I'm sick of having a cough.. it's disgusting. I've spent a lot of money on medicines and none are working. Maybe I need to go to the doctor. I suppose its the only option I have left.

Speaking of spending money, I bought another memory card and a flash drive because my 120gb external hard drive is broken. I don't know how or why it broke. But it means that I lost all my pictures, music, and documents because they were all on it. I guess it wasn't the best way to back up files. I really don't know what is the best way. Maybe burning info to cds or dvds? This is a topic that definitely needs much research.

In psychology, we have to do a research project. My partners and I are going to experiment on our friends to see their reactions to people staring at them and see how long it takes for them to notice. I think it will be a fun project.

I've been listening to Sirius Radio a lot lately. My favorite station is Alt Nation, which plays a lot of new alternative rock music. They have been playing the new Death Cab for Cutie song "Cath" a lot, which is really good. Another good song I've heard lately is "Rock and Roll" by Eric Hutchinson. I used to be really up-to-date with new music, but I just don't have time for it anymore. I'm starting to miss it.

My friend and I as nerds for the Halloween dance on Saturday night.

2008-11-01T08:59:00.001-07:00

Yesterday some friends and I watched scary movies in honor of Halloween. We watched "The Strangers" and "Prom Night." Both were okay - I just can't seem to get scared by movies anymore.

Today is our last soccer game of the season. I think we are all pumped to play, so hopefully we come out with intensity, score some goals, and win.

Tonight there is a Halloween dance and I am SUPER excited for it. A friend and I are dressing up as a nerds, and we are going to look amazing. My roommate is going as an old lady with a walker and everything, and she looks even better than us nerds.

Unfortunately, I got sick this week, and have a sore throat, cough, and stuffy nose. Hopefully it doesn't stop me from having a good weekend.

2008-10-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Friday was my boyfriend's birthday. We went out to eat at Minervas with his parents and then watched a movie. There was a hypnotist on campus but he didn't want to go to that so, since it was his birthday, he got to pick what we were going to do. I had a crazy long and hard marketing test earlier that day so I was stoked to have the weekend at hand. We had a game at Doane on Saturday. It was a four hour drive and we had to leave at 7:30 in the a.m. We didn't get back until 10 oclock at night, so needless-to-say, I was exhausted. Riding in a car or on a bus always makes me tired. Sunday was homework day, as usual. I had to study for my psychology test that was today, which wasn't so bad.

This week is gonna be another busy one. Tomorrow night I have practice and then the Great Plains Writer's Tour. Wednesday I have a spaghetti dinner for the soccer girls and for the Moderator, I have to go to the Lifelight concert in town, which should be cool - I get in free with a "Press Pass." On Thursday, we have our second-to-last game in Sioux City against Briar Cliff.

AND FRIDAY IS HALLOWEEN!

2008-10-22T19:39:00.000-07:00

It has been raining like crazy here for the past two days. We had practice out in the rain yesterday and ended up just playing World Cup, which was actually a lot of fun. Today we were supposed to have a game in Sioux City but it got rescheduled to next week, thankfully, because I was dreading having to play in the cold and on the wet field.

For my creative writing class, we are doing an exercise called "Hearing Voices." We are supposed to go to a common place and record dialogue, which basically means eavesdrop on the people around us. Then we have to use that dialogue in a story we create. This is the second time we have had to do this. The first time, I went to the Fryn Pan at midnight and wrote down what a bunch of high schoolers were talking about. I think I am going to go back there, so I can just add to the story I already have. But I think I will go at a different time, perhaps lunchtime, so I can hopefully hear the conversations of people other than teenagers.

I have a marketing test on Friday and its over four chapters. Its an insane amount of information, just like the last test, so hopefully I can somehow cram it all into my brain. I also have a pyschology test on Monday, which shouldn't be too bad. But I will still study like a mad-man, as always.

In choir we have been practicing hard for our Vespers concert. We are singing some pretty cool songs. "Voice Dance" doesn't have any actually words in it, just things like "Ba Yah Dah." When we sing it as a whole, it sounds amazing.

2008-10-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

What a blast this weekend was!

It started out with our game against Dana. I think everyone went into the game feeling super excited for the Fall Formal that followed. And it totally paid off. We were winning 1-0 at half time, against a team that is ranked third in the conference! But unfortunately we ended up losing 2-1. It was by far our best game of the season, so we left the game feeling really good about it.

My dad, brother, and four friends from back home all came to the game, so afterwards we went out to eat.

And then it was time for our dance. Two of my friends came to the dance too. It was so much fun. I love getting all dressed up and looking pretty. I actually think the process of getting ready for the formal is more fun that actually going to it. BUT I did have a great time there too. They played mostly good songs, except towards the end, they started to play songs that were hard to dance to. We came up with the conclusion that it was a way to get everyone to leave early!

And now it is homework time. I put it off until now, and I better start it or it will never get done. I don't have too much - less than usual. After homework, I'll probably take a glorious nap, make a Walmart run, relax and get to bed early.

2008-10-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

This week has flown by! Tomorrow is Friday already and I am welcoming it with open arms. Even though this week is midterms, it sure doesn't feel like it. I didn't have any tests, and I think I have had the least amount of homework since school started. It's a nice break from the rush, but I know I will be swamped again soon.

Yesterday we had a game in Orange City, IA. My boyfriend surprised me by showing up to cheer me on. I have two friends who go to school there so they came to watch and I got to visit with them afterwards. I was nice to finally see them again. My parents and youngest brother also came which was great because I haven't seen my dad since before I left for school in August.

This weekend should be a blast. More to come later.

2008-10-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

This week has been pretty darn busy. I'm so glad we have a three day weekend. Yesterday we had a soccer game in Hastings, Neb. It was a long 4-hour drive, but we watched some movies including Baby Mama, which I hadn't seen yet, but is really funny. I definitely recommend it.

Tonight I am planning on going to a haunted house in Sioux City. I am so excited for Halloween. I am going to be a nerd, and my roommate is going to be an old lady with a walker. AND my johnmate is planning on being an old man. They will be such a cute couple.

Since we don't have school tomorrow I get to sleep in. I think it will only be the second day since I have been here that I will actually get to sleep in. I am totally looking forward to it. The rest of the day will probably be spent lounging around and doing not much of anything, because you can't do work on a day off! However, I will have practice in the evening. After practice we are going to watch a video of our most recent game. Hopefully watching ourselves play will help us to see what we are doing right and wrong, and can help us improve our game.

It's kinda sad that the season is almost over. We only have five games left. It went way too fast - two-a-days seem like just yesterday. But I guess that means its almost time for track season. I'm getting totally pumped for track this year! It's gonna be a good season.

2008-10-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

Today we played Morningside for soccer. It was a good game. Lately we haven't been working very hard on the field but today we really picked it up. Even though we didn't win, it almost felt like it, just because we never gave up, even when the other team scored. We all did what we were supposed to and worked together. I really want to win a conference game. It's something that the women's soccer team hasn't done in five years. The men's team won their first conference game in six year just a couple weeks ago. I would love it more than anything if we could do it too. Everyone on the team has improved so much since the season started and I really think that we deserve to win a conference game. We just need to put all of our effort into it and play with passion. Once that happens, winning is a possibility.