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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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! :)

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!