End of the year Wrap up

So finals have been over for a few weeks. I survived. I didn't do nearly as well this semester as I had hoped but at least I'll have a goal for next semester.

Christmas came and was filled with lots of Cookie decorating, baking and gift giving. I got Tim quite possibily the best gift I've ever given anyone (well that's a possibility. I still have to give something to Allison soon...). I got him a Blues Jersey with the number 67 on the back and "Wings Suck" on the back. He's a happy fan and boyfriend. :)

I've yet to receive my gift from him. He's a last minute shopper unfortunately and thus had to order it online after the store sold out. I'm pretty sure I know what he's getting me though.

A few days from christmas I had a potluck dinner with my best friends along with our secret santa exchange. This year, I got Erica and made her a scrapbook/storybook combo. I worked incredibly hard on it and she seemed pretty content, so I'm pretty happy with the result. Hailey had me this year and got me a KIPKIPKIPKIPKIP as well as a book that's very similar to the Post Secret books that I'm in love with. Only the idea of this is that they sent out a ton of Journals and when they got them back they took excerpts and put them into a compliation. It's pretty neat. I haven't looked through it all cause it takes a bit more effort than looking through post secrets but I'm pretty psyched for it. Oh! And she also got me a cute little basket which she made a fabric insert for. :) I'm kind of on a creativity kick right now.

With all my christmas money & gift cards I went out and bought seasons of tv shows. I went season happy.
I bought season 2-6 of Grey's Anatomy, 3-5 of How I Met Your Mother, Season 1 of Angel and season 1 of Parenthood. I love love loooove black friday and day after christmas shopping. Deals are fabulous when you're a poor college student.

For Tim's mother this year, I bought her an incredibly soft blanket from target (which I'm hoping goes on sale again soon so I can purchase one for myself...even though I have too many blankets already). I also made her a scrapbook for Tim and his sister's gift. It was very rushed but it turned out very well and I was extremely proud of it.

Currently, I'm working on the other 3rd of Tim's christmas gift. He's seen it several times as I was too excited to wait till it was fully done to give it to him (and I did keep his biggest gift a secret after all). It's a scrapbook of 2010. It starts in January where we attended a New years party in Columbia and it'll end in December where we're all dressed up for another New years party. I'm pretty proud of this one too and when I get the chance I'll take some pictures and put them up for you guys.

Right now, I'm watching Grey's Anatomy. Since Sunday (3 days ago) I've gone through all of season two and half of season three. It's incredibly addicting and I'm glad I'm getting this out of the way while I have all of the seasons out on dvd and I'm on break with nothing else to do. I'm also burning Boy Meets World seasons to DVD for myself and Allison. When I'm done with those I'll move on to Rugrats and Ah! Real Monsters. :)

This week a few friends and I went and visited a place down in The Loop caled "Cheeseology" it was pretty good. It's a restraunt (maybe?) similar to subway where you go up and order, but they'll bring it to you. They have different versions of Mac'n'Cheese and they're all resonably good. Of course the Original tastes weird now that we're all used to Kraft's noodles and powder cheese in a box (which of course is the best "original" ever). We went to Froyo afterwards, which was an additional bonus.

My apartment right now is a freakin' mess. Scrapbooking stuff all over the dining table, clothes all over my room...but I'm on break, and I don't care.

I'll update next week sometime with pictures about all of this and New Years.  Hope all is going well with everyone!

El fin de semestre

The semester is ending. Thank god.
This week I spent the night at the Axi house for the first time without there being an offical or  "unoffical"  Axi event. It was...nice. I didn't realize how many of the girls stop by the house to study and goof off. Incase I haven't clarified before...our house is an old house off natural bridge road. My dad used to live in the neighborhood behind it when he and his siblings were kids. I imagine that the Axi house is just as old (especially by the way it looks). There's a sweet spiral staircase going up stairs and down. The house in general is just old though. It creaks and looks old. It's nice. At the beginning of this semester our National Council came in and decided that they were going to redo our mainfloor (livingroom/dining room). They're almost done now. They only have to hang the composites and other pictures back up. We have a new couch, dining table and other various things. They also painted our walls, too. It looks amaXing!

So I spent the night at the Axi house in attempt to be able to study later, maybe catch some sleep and then not have to drive thirty  minutes to class in the morning. Trish stayed up with/past me. She made me hot tea with sugar and it was delicious!! Probably one of my new favorite things while studying. It kept me awake, surprisingly.

I had to take a Spanish oral final the next morning and got extremely nervous! So I'm not totally sure how I did on that. It drives me nuts that there's so much to the finals in language courses. I mean, I understand but it feels like 8billion times more than what you would have to study for for any other course! Oh well. One more and then I'll be done with spanish for this semester!

I'm done with classes and everything untill next wednesday (math final) and thursday (spanish written final & english paper due). Then the semester will be done and I'll be on break! Thank the lord!!


On tuesday I took Leilah to see MegaMind. It was my first time hanging out with her (and my first 3D movie). Megamind all in all was a pretty decent movie! It was pretty funny, though the whole 3D aspect of it wasn't anything to pay the extra $3-4 for. It cost me $22 to bring myself and a CHILD to a movie on a weekday. Ridiculous!

Leilah was adorable! She's also incredibly smart! She's a 4th grader reading at a middle school level, she gets good grades and she's got high goals already. When I was in elementary school I thought I would go to college and learn to be...something (A vet, a teacher, an egyptologist...it varied) but I never thought in detail about it. I didn't even know what Harvard was! Leilah has already decided that she wants to go to Harvard and become a lawyer. Her mother told her that if she's going to be a lawyer she'll have to defend animal rights and Leilah's fine with that but she wants to do all sorts of things with her career and defend lots of people! She's adorable. She has a cell phone too, she shares it with her brother though (poor high schooler has a purple phone). At the end of the night she wanted a picture of us on her new phone. :)

I'm taking her to see the Celebration of Lights in Ft. Zumwalt Park next tuesday. I'm looking forward to spending more time with her, though the cold will be unwelcomed. I'm really enjoying the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, it's more rewarding than I expected. I'd recommend it to others too. In addition, they have a program for couples. They can "adopt" a little brother or sister and then together spend time with that child.

Neil comes home next saturday, which I'm pretty psyched for it's been far too long! I can't wait for this break. Everyone will be home and able to spend time together! So excited!!

Wish me luck on finals!

Christmas At The Zoo

Tomorrow I'll be working at a wine shop for one of my sister's aunts (who owns it). It's down on mainstreet and sells only missouri-brewed wines and beers. It's a nice little place, very home-y. I'll be working an 11 hour shift tomorrow--which is fine with me! I need the money.

Right before thanksgiving I met my "little sister" from the Big Brothers Big Sisters progam. I signed up for this last may and asked for a little sister close to home (St. Peters/O'fallon). I interviewed in June and they've just now found a little for me. Her name is Leilah and she's 9. We've only met once but she seemed really cool. (I mean...she likes to draw Gir...as in Invader Zim Gir! That show isn't even on anymore!!) Anyways. I called her mom earlier this week and couldn't get ahold of her. Then today wasn't having a very good-mood day at all and she called me back! We're going to get dinner and see MegaMind next Tuesday. I'm pretty excited about my first big/little date.

I was told by the program that for the first couple visits with Leilah I should have it just be her and myself so as to create a bond. They would also prefer it if she doesn't hang out with my friends all that often since it is suppose to be about just me and her bonding, not her + all of my friends.

Luckly, Leilah is a very friendly and outgoing girl. She's willing to basically try anything! And when summer comes around I'll be allowed to take her to places past St. Louis. So, parents permitting, I'll be able to take her to all the summer sweet spots (Johnson Shutins, Elephant Rocks, City Museum, etc).

...and yes. This will get confusing with my BBBS little sister and Axi little sisters.

Anyways. So I don't know how many of my friends have ever gone to the zoo at night during the winter. First of all, it's incredibly creepy to walk by the cages while there are no animals in them and it's extremely dark...I can't help but be paranoid that the bears are just going to lunge out of their cage and get me!

Second off, It's gorgeous! The christmas lights everywhere are fabulous! I love it. I plan to go again and again (hopefully I can bring Leilah with me once and another time I can go with all of my friends. I'll have to look up how much it costs to go).

Anyways, I went with Allison tonight. Her work had a Christmas party there. The food was pretty good (a step above chartwells food). AND WE GOT A PICTURE WITH SANTA!!

I'll have to provide the sweet picture with santa later. For right now, Enjoy the small amount of photos I got before my camera sadly died.

The No H8 Campaign

What is the No H8 Campaign?
It started with the passing of Propositing 8 in California, banning same-sex marriage. The No H8 Campaign became a the silent protest of celebrity photographer Adam Bouska and partner Jeff Parshley.

The subjects in these photos wear duct tape over the mouths, symbolizing their voices being silenced and "No H8" written on their cheek.

This campaign in it's two years has grown from simply protesting prop 8 to becoming a silent protest on discrimination of all kind.

http://www.noh8campaign.com/
Check out the website if you want some more information.

End of November Update

It's been a while since I've written. It's been a while well spent though.

November 11th, I took Becky to her first St. Louis Blues Hockey game. I scored some free tickets curtosey of my sister, Rebecca, who scored better seats for her and her boyfriend through her dad. It was a lot of fun. Becky and I are constantly busy these days and can't really find much time to spend together. It's unfortunate. Even more unfortunate, the Blues lost but! They did so in overtime, so at least we got a good game, a long shoot-out and a point in the end.

The weekend of November 12-14 I spent in Cape visiting my boyfriend who attends SEMO. I went down with Paul and Cody (mutual friends) but returned with Hailey. It was a nice trip over all. Tim's bed is not only completely uncomfortable but not fit for two people to sleep in and to top that off it was hiked up taller than I am! Obviously, I slept on the inside, closest to the wall for fear of falling out of the bed (a good five foot drop). Tim and celebrated our 1 year, 6 months early at Applebees were we got a yummy dish (which was unfortunately overcooked), watching Movies and snacking on junkfood. All in all, it was a good night. We also went to the Trail of Tears with tim's Roommate Ryan and his Girlfriend Caiti (which was wet and groggy), chucked a few rocks, found a picnic bench and ate lunch.

Caiti Rocks at Pudding Cups without Spoons

And Bollinger Park (which the weather cleared up for and was really nice), we played Frisbee (which I sucked at). Caiti and Ryan beat each other up with sticks, I annoyed Tim and as always Tim had to climb on everything.

Probably one of my favorite picturesof us :)

Ryan and Caiti fighting over a Frisbee

Last Week, Keri did my hair at her fancy-shmancy salon. It's all curly now. I've always always always wanted curly hair but never had the length or patience for it. Now that my hair is shoulder length I decided to try it again--so far, I'm fond of it. :)

Last weekend one of my sisters, Allison, and I went to her family's lake house out by Osage Beach. We spent the weekend watching Boy Meets World (we went through season 3) and scrapbooking (as well as shopping). It was a time very well spent and very relaxing. While the weather wasn't nice enough to go out on the lake it was nice enough to not require a jacket any time we went out of the house. It was also a nice treat to spend the entire weekend (friday-monday morning) just relaxin and having nothing else to worry about. We also shared the joy of homemade Fruity Pebbles Krispie Treats (highly reccomended)

Waiting at Walmart for Photos to Scrapbook

And with that Thanksgiving break began.

I only had a day and a half of my break by myself before Timmy came home. Most of which I spent feeling sick(ish). My apartment was a giant mess when he came home from the lack of motivation to unpack as well as the lack of caring.

Thanksgiving came and went. We did as we did last year, spending lunch with my family and then dinner with his. We played Monoply (deluxe edition) with his cousins who are very competitive. I'll have it known that of the five of us who played I did very well and was the third to go out, beat only by the two "tycoons" (as the O'keefe family has dubbed them).

 Tim agreed to go Black friday shopping with me. We didn't get up at the crazy hour and fight off all the professional shoppers but instead left the apartment at 8am. Still, we scored some sweet deals. One of which was a small Cricut for $60 (orginally about $180). This was something I'd been wanting since first discovering it during my weekend with Allison. This thing is basically amazing and an essential for any Scrapbooker.

Tim's feelings while at Michaels it reads: "help I'm a man in a craft store"

I also bought some DVD series that I'd been wanting since Target and Best Buy sell them for $10-14 a piece on this day. Tim bought a GPS for about $130 (extended warranty included) and with that our day was done. With that we spent the rest of that day watching Big Bang Theory.

I'm done with my Secret Santa gift for my best friend, my dad and my mother. I've also got Tim's gift mostly dealt with too. I've got a few ideas for the rest of it but most of them range out of what I can spend. All I have to get done is my Grandmother, really. I've got an idea for that though. (thanks to Allison introducing me to Archivers at the Mills Mall, I've gotten back into scrapbooking and crafts of all kinds).

As for putting a christmas tree up in my apartment, I'm not sure I'll be doing that. While I'm deciding, I drew a christmas tree on my sliding glass doors (to my balcony) with window crayons and markers and I'm going to encourage everyone to draw their own ornament on it whenever they come over.

All that being said, I've updated everyone quite a bit, I think.

So now I'm going to go drown myself in academics and hope for the best with my finals.

Poor College Student needs: More hours in the day, Motivation & Money.

It's the beginning of November and I'm realizing for the first time just how short a semester is. I can not believe that there is nearly a month and a half left of the semester and so much left to do. My head is about to explode thinking about it! I suppose part of the reason I didn't notice was that I had had something planned basically every weekend from the first weekend of the semester to, well, last weekend. And still I have things planned--non-sorority related--for the next few weekends (including visiting Tim in Cape and going out of town to relax and scrapbook with Allison).

I'm worried about my grades, not because I geuinely think I'm going to fail any of my classes but because I feel that this semester has gone by so fast that I had to have missed out on turning something in! Apparently, I haven't done too bad since I'm failing, which is a relief.

With this constant go, go, go, I'm losing my drive to do anything. My apartment is constantly a mess (an organized mess, mind you) which drives me nuts but I don't want to do anything but sit and do nothing by the end of the day (facebook does NOT help with that). And school, ugh, I need to stop putting off assignments till 2am. Any suggestions on how to get my motivation back? And on that subject, how to get my motivation back for working out, too?

Okay, last complaint, I promise! Money. This time last year I wasn't struggling at all for cash. I had a good paying, full time job and it fit perfectly with my classes. Due to some dramatics and disrespect, I no longer have that job and have been bouncing around trying to find a job that will pay me well and NOT cut my hours to an hour and a half, every day (5 days a week). How the hell am I suppose to keep up in the world if I'm living off less than $70 a week!? Anyone know anywhere that's hiring?


Okay!
Now that complaining is over!
I redid the wall in my living room. I felt that a change would help to moviate me and get my creative-juices flowing. Allison came over last night to "study" (aka, watch Dancing with the Stars and creepily sing into my ear from behind me) and really liked it! I just need to print off some new pictures of my sisters/chapter to put into all those frames. :)

I've got an appointment with St. Charles Community College tomorrow at 2pm to register for classes. I'm hopefully going to be taking College Algebra and Chemistry while I'm there. They'll transfer to UMSL and if I work it right I'll be saving money not just from tuition but also from the amount of gas I'll be spending by only having to travel to UMSL twice a week, not 4-5 times.

Thursday I've got an appointment with my counslor at UMSL and I'll be signing up for courses at UMSL, mainly Spanish and Photography (tuesdays and thursdays) and geography online. I'm beyond looking forward to taking a photography class (assuming I get in since apparently there are only 15 slots). I'd get to use Dad's old Nikon that he bought, used, while he was in the army (if it still works) and that as a child I was basically told I'd die if I ever touched it. Ahhh, to finally be able to touch that beautiful camera.

Tonight one of my sisters is celebrating her 21st birthday ar Marley's in Ferguson. It'll be interesting to go as I have not been on Tuesday before ("Greek nights"). But I do not look forward to all the drunk people on a week night. Luckily Allison will be there for me!

Initiations & Boyfriend birthdays

This saturday, November 6th, was Epsilon Xi's Initiation day.
It was exciting and all together a wonderful experience to be on the "other side" of initiation. I got to be apart of the ceremony and watch the New Members in their excitement and anxiousness. It's weird to think that last semester that was me.

I've enjoyed being an Active member more than a new member. While you get the excitement of everything being new and that awesome week of gifts,  you feel so unsure of what's going on and the constant need to try to fit in with what will be your sisters. As an active member I've found myself much more close to several of my sisters, discovering my limits in the chapter and just how much drama is involved--I mean, when you get a group of three or more girls together there's bound to be drama in some way, no? Going through UMSL's partially structured recruitment style as a newly initiated member was a trip in itself. I think that was when I gained the most insight into my sisters. Although, it constantly surprises me just how well I get along with these girls and how much they're really there for each other.

This semester, I took on twin "little sisters". I spoiled them with a week of gifts and then had a few more little things for them after they initiated. I wish I could've done much more for them, I know the dissapointment of realizing you're not getting what all the new members are being showered in, but taking twins to begin with is a huge chunk of money out of one's bank account--one I honestly can't afford in the future! My littles returned the kindess of gifts after they initiated with little things they though I'd like in addition to plaques that memorialize our "offical bond". Our family line has been dubbed: "The Godfather line" which I'm still not completely sure of the story that goes with it, but I think it's a nice and fitting name for our family.

The GodFather Line

(that is still active)

(in addition to this line is Lindsey, Itta and Chelsea,

 but I'm not sure where they all go exactly)

Delisa, Mandie and Michelle were the most recently initated. They planned their outting for us and invited the rest of our family to come along, Allison was the only one without a little to attend. The New Members/littles made us a very yummy lunch complete with handmade sandwiches (better than subway), fruit, chips and drinks. We spent this time at Turtle Park. It was chilly outside but if you kept your jacket on it wasn't all that bad. It was sunny though, and not at all windy, all in all it was a nice day. After lunch we headed to the Science Center where we wandered, shared stories of our childhood and built mini-arches. It was a nice big/little outing. Jackie had to leave during it, unfortunately, due to falling ill.

(Mandie, Myself & Michelle)

Initiation, as I said before, was amazing. It's even better the second time around, when you're on the other side and can pay attention to the fine details of it all, rather than being nervous and overwhelmed.

After Initiation, Krista, Allison and I went to Trailhead in St. Charles (If you've never been, I highly recommend it!) for my boyfriend, Tim's, birthday. He's 22 now (old man). We joined several friends and his parents and had genuinely enjoyable dinner with everyone. No awkwardness and new friendships--always a good turn out.

(Krista, Allison & I)

(Timmy & I)

Slate was Sunday. We've got our new Executive Board and they'll be taking over soon! I look forward to finding out who has the apointed positions next sunday (I'm fairly certain and hoping to get Philanthropy chair). I missed meeting to drive my dad to the airport. I think it's a little insane that dad just returned to this job last week and before even getting into the office he's sent off to another state to do work for them. He returned friday night only to be shipped off again. He should return on friday and not have to leave again for another month or so.

Tuesday I'm allowed to register for class. I'm anxious and hoping to get the ones I want in the time slots I want them! I hope to work my schedule so that I only have to go down to UMSL campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays (unless a sorority event comes up, of course). I've discovered this semester, while living on an extremely tight budget, that it's expensive to drive down there practically every day! If I work it right, I can take two classes at St. Charles Community (that'll transfer over to UMSL and go towards my degree) and the rest at UMSL. I'm hoping to take about 15 credits next semester. Some of them will (hopefully) include photography! So tomorrow's goal will be to stop by Marillac Hall to see if they can squeeze me in to see an advisor and to also go by SCCC to see if they'll sign me up for the classes I want.

That being said, I'm signing off for the night (or morning?) this whole "fall backwards" time adjustment is screwing me up! I need to try to at least get SOME sleep in.