I just finished looking at some scholarship sights but I had to stop because I was just getting too frustrated and I come to you trying my hardest not to rant. I mean, seriously I don't qualify for most scholarships because I'm not a minority, I speak English, my parents are US citizens, I wasn't born outside the US- the list goes on and on... And, I just came across one scholarship offered by some organization to do with the tall people of America and to qualify I would have to be over 5' 9" (have they seen how tall my family is- no offense guys). Oh, and then there is one offered by Bill and Melinda Gates but only for minorities (because they clearly have experience in this area as two wealthy white Americans). And, while we are on the subject of minorities/race (adding more fuel to my quest for financial aide fire) one of my Human Services professors was saying that race doesn't exist (she is a black woman mind you) and was going on and on about how genetically we aren't different and by stressing racial divisions we are only hurting ourselves (makes sense to me) so then without sounding too ignorant why the heck does my friggin "race" matter so much to the idiots who make up the rules for financial aide and the stupid FAFSA form? Ohhh darn, guess it just means that I have to marry some tall, foreigner who was born outside the US (providing our kids with duel citizenship- I hear that financial aide thinks thats pretty cool), and learned English as a second language. Then, just maybe my kids would have a better shot at receiving some sort of financial and be able to afford college. I think I need to send word Obama's way about the idea of socialized post high school education- not thats more like it.... I'm done now.... I think.... Anyway, moving on if I didn't offend anyone too harshly.....
The last few weeks have been a blur, mostly just school, work and studying. Saturday was fun, the INN had a local service event where we went out to the small town of Acme (by the Mt. Baker highway) and helped a recent widow who's house was at the bottom of a hill/mt. and as a result of all the snow then rain the nearby creek overflowed and brought over 2 feet of mud/rocks/sand/uprooted grass up against her house. We spent most of the day shoveling and wheelbarrowing away the mud to fill in the giant river bed that was created as a result of the storm through what was once her grassy backyard. The amount of mud was truly unbelievable, and although we were able to clear enough mud to see her pathway from her back porch and get into underneath her house it was crazy to see how much mud was still left there... Sunday was also a pretty good day. A group of 5 of us girls went to church and then wanted to go to lunch afterward. Sarah suggesstedcostco- because its cheap but we realized that none of us had costco cards. That was until Kelsy realized that she still had Mary's card from when we bought the seran wrap for Nick's car. So sure enough we went to costco, but how can you go to costco without making the sample rounds... Which of course lead to us getting a cart and buying "just a few things".... An hour later we made it to the check out line and purchased our things- with absolutely no question of who Mary was mind you- I like to think that its because Mary's picture on the card is really cute and sometimes I like to think that we do look alike :) Anyway, items purchased, we then grabbed some lunch, and then gas- again who can resist the cheap price of costco gas.... Then, later after everyone was back home and studied for a bit we went to the fort's intermural basketball game, and then their dodgeball game. We like to accredit the reason that the boys basketball team is undefeated is because of our excellent fan/cheering abilities... The dodgeball team on the other hand, lets just say we are there for a little moral support after the games....
Ok, I am tired, and should probably get some reading in that I have been trying to do for the last two hours before I go to bed.... That being said, I will leave you all with some pics from the local service event that happened on Saturday.....
The drive out to Acme- such a nice day...
Making wheelbarrows at the church before heading off to move some mud with Danielle, Laura, Grant and Caitlin...
Laura and I before we got muddy...
The woman, Mary's backyard- this used to be all grass....
Ok, So I had some issues with the text in the below post so here is what it said:
Nothing too exciting has been happening Since last week- just trying to stay somewhat caught up with my classes is prooving to be somewhat of a good challenge.
Last Friday, I invited my friends Kelsey and Laura over for a "low key" dinner before the broom hockey fundraiser for the INN mission trips (needless to say we had plenty of time for dinner because broomhockey didn't even start until midnight- seriously.....). Anyway, I talked to Trinh earlier in the day and told her that I was having people over for dinner and she said she didn't mind but that Brian and Kurt (two fort boys) were coming over to do laundry (the fort boys frequent our house for laundry because they don't wanna pay $3.50 a load back at their place). So, I told Trinh that she should just invite the guys just to stay to for dinner. Long story short dinner consisted of: Me, Laura, Kelsy, Trinh, Mary, Kelsy, Brian, Kurt and Parker. I made Aunt Lori's pasta sauce, salad and garlic bread and needless to say, dinner was a hit! After dinner, the boys finished up laundry, left and the rest of us hung around until broom hockey.
The rest of the weekend was relatively calm with an attempt to study Saturday and then going over to the Fort later that night with the girls to watch Cinderella man (good movie by the way). Sunday was a little busier than normal with church, a host team brunch, cheering on the Fort intermural basketball team, and then studying for 4 hours....
The rest of the week hasn't been too exciting- just balancing work, school and somewhat of a social life. Although my wednesday shift at work was originally from 9-2pm was cut to 10-1pm so that was a bit of a bummer. But other than that, work is going well...
I feel like part of the reason that this week was so exhausting is the shift I have taken from usually getting a decent nights sleep to getting 6/7 hours a couple nights this week. Personally, I blame it on the fort boys (because what else is a girl to do, right?) First, on Monday night Nick invited us over around 10pm to watch Across the Universe (another good movie), and of course we don't even start the movie until close to 11:30 and don't get back home until 2 am, granite I was able to sleep in a bit the next day until 9:30pm, it was still a late night for my old woman self. Last night, I didn't get to sleep until close to 12:20 Ben came over to do some laundry and after some pretty entertaining conversations, Ben and I waited for Kelsy and Trinh to get back from their "studying mission to our friend katie's" that really consisted of them sneaking off to the Fort to saran wrap Nick's car- they definitely used up 2 costco boxes, and lets just say his car is protected quite nicely from the rain :-) ....
Of course, it is easy to say that I should probably be going to bed a bit earlier (or just "be home before the street lights come on" as Grandpa says), but honestly I don't see either of those things happening in the near future- especially considering on the days that I do have classes, my earliest classes get out at 6pm when it is already dark out....
Oh, and random fact of the day, I made my first double layer funfetti cake to bring over to the Fort for Jarrett's 22nd birthday... I am not going to lie, I was quite pleased with how impressed the guys were that I made a double layer cake (although I somehow forgot to mention that making the cake only involved some mix, eggs, and oil)....
OK, for those of you that have stuck with me thus far, I am impressed and I will wrap things up with a few pics from xmas break that I finally uploaded....
Sorry that I haven't blogged for about 4 weeks.... Between going home, snow, coming back to school and getting back into the swing of things, it has been a little crazy. Needless to say, I survived my first week back and it has been good getting settled back into things.
It was great having all of us girls back in the house, and to have our first "house meeting" of the quarter Sunday night. Clearly we had A LOT to catch up on- Brittany's travels to Spain, Germany and Switzerland, snow stories, Trinh's travels to Spokane to visit Liz and other random snowy adventures. Also, we still had to exchange our secret santa gifts which was great to see how creative everyone got with their gift giving. After completing secret santa, and going over boring house stuff- do your dishes, remember to turn off the lights when you leave a room, take your shoes off when you come in the back door through the kitchen (I will honestly admit I still struggle with this one) blah blah blah.... Four hours later, we decided to be productive and end the meeting so those who wished could continue to study (Although most of us did not move out of the family room and continued to chat it up until at least 11pm)....
Last Friday, Trinh, myself and our friends Katie and Melissa headed up to Canada to go dancing and funny enough we met up with a few of the Fort boys who were hitting the bars earlier that night in Vancouver. However, after chattin' for a few minutes, they bailed and decided not to pay $10 to get into the club- can't say I blame them when it is free for us girls :-) ....
Yesterday was pretty low key between work and my classes that got out early because it was the first day of Monday classes. Although the evening was made interesting when I ran some stuff over to The Fort for Michael to take home for me, and he suggested I stay for dinner. So I walked into the house kitchen to find Ben and Jory hard at work creating a baked penne dish with bacon and sausage... Ben put me to work choppin' peppers for the salad and then before I knew it I was staying for dinner.... It being my first Fort dinner, I was impressed to see all 16 of them plus myself and five other girls from the house "The Lily Pad" all crammed into their family room having a meal like a cute little family- heck even Michael and I ended up sitting across from one another.... After dinner, a myself and a few of the Fort boys headed on over to SHOP student leader training for the INN and then it was back home for me to watch Gossip Girl and attempt to finish homework (that I of course put off and finished today- but hey it got done right?)...
Well, I better go get ready for class- these Human Services once a week night classes take a little getting used to- my earliest class all week is on Mondays and my one class today at 4pm is 4 hours long. Aside of the long, and late classes; my classes are going great and actually seem to fly by....
Also, did I mention I got a job at Miller Market- a market on campus in Red Square... I love it!!! All I do is ring people up and chat with all the customers I know. Can't complain considering I only work three days a week and my boss, student manager and co-workers are hillarious....
OK, that is really all for now.... I'll leave you with a few pics from the Falalalalalalala INN before break (jim the director of the INN is santa every year):
Sorry I haven't had too much to update you all on.... The last two weeks have been a blur as I prepared for three finals on Monday and one on Tuesday.... Which means today being Wednesday, I am officially done with Fall quarter 2008!!! I should be back in Maple Valley sometime in the next day or so...
Here are some house pics- our attempt at a Christmas card pic.... Lets just say after this photo shoot, you can expect more of a New Year's pic somewhere down the road when we have time to take more pics...
Photo Credits to our friend Tyler who came over after Grey's one night and put up with us for an hour, trying to get a decent pic- sorry they are kinda dark (it was 10:30 at night after all)...
If only we all were looking at the camera...
In a line...
On the couch...
Tyler: "I just need to get you guys to smile naturally- Tim why don't you do moon them"... Tim walks into the kitchen, comes back out 30 seconds later and moons us...
Pure shock....
Scarred for life- I already told Tim he would be paying for my Therapy....
Well, I think that is all for now... I will post the Santa pics from Falalalalalalala INN when they become available...
OK, sorry it has been a while since I last posted....
I feel like everything this week has fallen into at least one of three categories: busy, boring or necessary.......
Starting off with busyness of the week- I only worked 14 hours this week but had little time for slacking off after work, as I was still recovering from not doing an ounce of studying from Thursday night until Sunday night at 9pm because Janelle came up for the weekend to hang- no complaints there though.... Monday and Tuesday were just mostly filled with class, studying, work, INN shop meetings, Hosting at the INN and much more....
Wednesday however, things got a little interesting.... Tuesday I went and talked to my Chem professor about our upcoming chem test the Wednesday before thanksgiving. First of all, who in there right mind schedules a test the Wednesday before thanksgiving?? Everyone knows that classes end at noon and any classes before noon majority of students skip anyway. Don't get me wrong, she is a nice woman but when I looked at our schedule and saw this, I had a few choice words for her in my head.... On top of that, I was scheduled to register smack during the test which was a huge problem in and of its self. Registration times are critical and attempting to register even a minute late can cause you to loose a out on a class that you may need. As I start the Human Services Program next quarter, 3 of my classes I am guaranteed a spot in. However, one of the classes I am trying to get into that I will need to take eventually for the major is competitive to get into and as a Sophomore, I am basically at the bottom of the list. So, I go and express great concern about the time conflict- dramatizing about the low odds I have about the classes I have to get into for the HS program (she doesn't have to know that I have a reserved spot in the first three..) Anyways, I go on about maybe taking the test early on Tuesday instead of on Wednesdays, but she says that won't work and she offered that I could take it later Wednesday morning..... Fast-forward to Wednesday Morning. I get to Chemistry, and she starts out the class saying she has an important announcement. I could read her face as she glanced at me before she even started talking- she was going to say something about the test on Wednesday. Sure enough, she goes on to say that she thinks it would be better to postpone the test until the following week after dead week. Of course, it being dead week (the week before finals) professors are not supposed to administer tests this week, so she had to "ask for our permission" to change it to then. I think she figure out quickly that we were supportive when almost the whole class broke out into applause.... Needless to say, I like to think that I have enough persuasion over a professor that I could guilt her into postponing a test :) Wednesday was made even better when I went to show up to psych and class was cancelled.... This presented me with an opportunity to go home and study (and maybe watch the Notebook with Kelsy and Mary) for an hour and a half before work.... The rest of the week consisted of working, classes, and studying any chance I could manage- I even skipped Grey's to go up to the lab and study Thursday night from 9-11:30pm- can you say dedication?
Anyways, Friday night was pretty low- Friday afternoon the INN had a Turkey bowl- flag football with a frozen turkey- quite entertaining! Kelsey and I made a quick run to target, then I spent the rest of the night crocheting and watching Gossip Girl with Sarah and my small group leader Laura....
Saturday was quite eventful- starting with Ben calling me at exactly 7am to just chat about host team- he was actually surprised that I was still asleep- 7am really Ben??? Later, I had to study groups at the library, then Ben and Kurt wanted me to come with them to the mall, and help them pick out B-day presents for Trinh's party that later that night. I got home from the mall, to find the whole house decorated and ready for Trinh's party that night. We all proceeded to get ready for dinner which meant raiding Brittany's closet for something to wear, heading on out for dinner at a local Greek restaurant with the roomies and some of Trinh's closes friends... After dinner, we got back to the house to prep for the guests, who would be arriving around 9 and then danced the night away until 1am when I finally called it quits and the house cleared out....
Surprisingly, Trinh and I actually had the energy to get up and go to church this morning, and we were actually ready to go and not running late when Kurt and Jarrett came and picked us up....
OK, there you have it. A relative play by play of my week. Believe it or not, I actually have some pictures from Trinh's B-day dinner:
Trinh's turkey B-day cake
Kelsy and I hanging out in Brittany's room while everyone is getting ready...
Myself and the b-day girl at dinner.... Finally, a pic with the roomie- Liz and I at dinner (we figured we better take one then, considering we never look this cute during the actual school week...)
This posting comes, immediately after I was just outbid on eBay for a copy of Newsweek with Obama on the cover- talk about a bummer. If anyone has a newspaper, or magazine from the day after the election and does not want it- please send it my way!!
So, this past week has been absolutely nonstop starting with last Sunday afternoon. After church on Sunday, my friend Courtney gave me the contact info for a lady she works for who was in desperate need of a nanny. On a whim, I called expecting to leave a message saying that I was interested. Not only did I talk to her in person, but she had me come over to her house as soon as we hung up to meet her husband, and two kids. When I first got there the mom, Joni shared how they were looking for a nanny to start asap as her husband just got a job that starts the next day. She said how they had hoped to interview a few people over the next few days and then make a decision. Very much to my surprise, Joni and her husband Jim felt that I was right for the job. They hired me on the spot, and I started the following day (Monday). The family lives about 20 minutes away out at the lake, and I just spend the time greeting the kids as they get off the school bus, giving them their snack, starting homework and depending on the day driving the kids to martial arts or ballet. Can you say soccer mom anyone? My roommates won't stop teasing me after I had the ultimate "soccer mom" moment when I was driving them to martial arts and caught my self looking in the rear view mirror and witnessing Jonanthon pulling his little sister, Dana's hair, all the while she is holding his hat out of his reach. Without missing a beat I found myself saying: "Dana give Jonathon his hat back, and Jonathon stop pulling Dana's hair". I was quite pleased with myself when the kids instantly did as I said- can you say most well behaved kids ever? Overall, it isn't a rough gig considering I spend majority of the time sitting and waiting at their practices- at which I am encouraged to bring a book, and just study. Wow, getting paid $10 an hour to study- I guess I can't complain....
Beyond the jobfront, campus was alive with political outcries on Monday as the election neared. Between the "Western Votes" tables stationed dead center in read square, endless reminders from Professors to get out and vote (My Psych professor even jokingly offered use of her Lexus if you needed transportation to drop off a ballot). Although from what I heard, the day was complete with Christine Gregoire and Patty Murray speaking to a standing-room only crowd on campus. I was planning on skipping class to go to the speeches but was unable to because of a stupid Psych test- darn academics!
Tuesday was a pretty crazy and anticipated day, as both the general election was occurring, as well as The INN was announcing mission trips that night. In regards to the election, my house was quite excited. Mary went home to be with her Dad, and plan how they would move to Canada and/or Scotland if McCain won- needless to say I am glad the results were in her favor- I woulda missed her. When I left for class at 9 Liz was camped out on the couch watching CNN... 5 hours later I returned to get ready for work and found her in the same position. After work, I returned home to find that Liz eating dinner on the couch and still watching CNN only the room was spotless. Apparently, Brittany (the lone Republican in the house) had cleaned the whole downstairs as a result of nervousness and anxiety over the polls... Around 7:30 a few kids from my host team came over with the intentions of playing some pre-hosting card games. However, we sat down in the TV room and couldn't bring our attention away from the constant updates. The next thing I knew, they announced Obama had exceeded the 270 mark and we couldn't believe it. Sarah and I were cheering- Ben sat silently disappointed and Liz was just sitting back and soaking it all in. We proceeded to call our friends and share in the excitement (or in Sarah's case, call our friend Tim and remind him that he now owes her ice cream from a lost bet). Then, we watched McCain's speech- which I might add, was a pretty good speech- I even felt a little sorry for him and Palin...
After McCain's speech, Sarah, myself and the rest of our host team was supposed to go down to the INN and start hosting. We were definitely late as we tried to hold out for Obama's speech but decided that we would just have to watch it on youtube later...
The INN was abuzz with excitement both inside, and throughout the surrounding streets as we watched the crowd of people cheering down Holly street towards downtown. Beyond the election, the INN kids were excited for the long anticipated mission trips video. The announcement of spring mission trips is a big deal, and tends to set the tone for the rest of the year. This year, the INN will be sending groups to Mexico, Jamaica, Boston, New Orleans, and Billings, Montana. I turned in paperwork for Boston, which will be a great challenge in itself in raising the trip cost of $950. I should be finding out within the next few weeks about whether I made of the 18 available spots for the trip....
After the INN, Sarah and I came back to watch Obama's acceptance speech, then we got a call from one of Sarah's friends. He wanted to go down and join the crowd that had gathered. So Sarah drove, and we got downtown to discover around 300 people (which apparently shrunk from the originally estimated 3,000 people that walked down from campus) cheering, hugging, and giving speeches of what they thought the future holds. It was a night I don't think I will be forgetting any time soon.
The rest of the week, campus was relatively quite. That is, with the exception of my professor's noting the importance and significance of this election and what Barack Obama has to offer the country as well as making us watch his acceptance speech. Somehow both times this happened I managed to be sandwhiched inbetween, or sitting next to the only Republican friends I had in each class- ohhh man, good times.....
Anyways, that is all I can come up with for now- hopefully I didn't bore you all to tears. I know you would all like to see pictures of me, but of course you have probably figured by now- I am slacking in that department. So instead, I will leave you with Obama's acceptance speech. A must see if you haven't already- I have seen it three times and still think it is potentially one of the best speeches I have ever seen/heard.
Making wheelbarrows at the church before heading off to move some mud with Danielle, Laura, Grant and Caitlin...
Before....
After.....
The whole gang....
Sunset as we left Acme....
