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!

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.

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).

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? :)

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

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!

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! ;)