Life Goes On...

Picking up our new bed turned out to be quite an adventure. The guy that sold it to us had class until 8pm, so we couldn't get it until after that. Daniel had a rehearsal until 9pm. But we had to rent a truck from Home Depot that would fit the bed and Home Depot closes at 9. So that left it up to me. However, we needed someone over 21 years old to drive the truck. Daniel got another one of his fraternity brothers to go with me and rent the truck for us. We had about 45 minutes to get to his apartment, load the mattress and parts of the bed frame, drive to Nelson, unload everything, and get the truck back to Home Depot before it closed. It was very stressful. If we didn't return it, we would have to pay $70 for the whole night (instead of $19 for one hour). And on top of that, the truck was barely under the clearance to get into the garage so I was terrified we would set off one of the fire sprinklers. We got it back with 2 minutes to spare. I was a little bitter that Daniel wasn't there to help us carry stuff and unload everything, but he arranged for his brothers to help out so I wasn't doing it completely by myself. And later that night he put it all together so we got to sleep on our new bed! We also got one of those memory foam mattress toppers and new sheets. It was so nice to sleep on a bed where you can't feel the springs and Daniel and I have room to roll over without hitting each other.

Yesterday was a nice relaxing day. I had a lot of free time because choir was canceled. After dinner Daniel and I decided that we really wanted to make something yummy for dessert. We looked online and found a recipe for berry crumble. We tried to find one with as few ingredients as possible so we didn't have to buy a ton of stuff. Hope came to help us make it and it turned out delicious! In the middle of baking it, one of Daniel's fraternity brothers called him and asked him to pick up some groceries for him. He just got out of the hospital and couldn't really get to the store himself so Daniel drove back to Safeway while we finished baking the dessert. Hope and I got to spend some time talking about next year. She's really excited to go to London and study abroad for fall quarter. And then she will move in with us! If everything works out right, the three of us will be living together this summer too. After we ate dessert, Daniel realized he was supposed to get a card for his supervisor because it was RD Appreciation Day. So we went to Safeway for the third time to get that. I think that having berry crumble for dessert just put me in a good mood the rest of the night :-)

Today I got my psychology midterm back. I got an 89, which isn't as good as I thought. But it's still higher than the average which was an 84. And she made us a deal where we can write down the multiple choice question we got wrong and write why our answer was wrong and the correct answer is right and she'll give us half credit back. I think that's a really good deal! Unfortunately, I only missed 3 multiple choice questions, so that's 3 points back. But I think I'll do it anyways. I have also started to think about my final paper. We have the choice of writing a research paper or analyzing our own development in the context of the class. I am pretty sure I want to do the second one, but now I have to figure out a topic. I have thought about writing about my attachment to my mom, my sister, my grandparents, and Daniel, and how they're all related. I don't know if I would have enough there to write 5 pages though. I have also thought about analyzing how being a twin has affected my development. Like with people comparing us all the time, and the natural competition between us, and being assumed to be like "one person." Also, Nicole and I learned to read really early so I might be able to write a paper about how our day care helped us learn our letters early and that helped us learn to read early which gave us a head start in our early education. I asked my mom to send me some videos from when we were children so I can use that in my paper. I'll have to keep thinking about it and see if anything strikes me as a really good topic. It also has to be something I can research because we have to cite 3 journal articles.

I am really excited for Theta Chi formal this weekend. It's always fun to get dressed up and have a nice dinner and dance all night long. I have to figure out which dress to wear. I have like three that would work. I really like my turquoise one though, and there are very few events formal enough to wear it.

I don't think I ever wrote about it, but we got a card from our elementary/middle school band director congratulating us on our engagement. We sent her an announcement because we really met and fell in love in her class. Music and band has always been a common interest of ours and she was such a great teacher too. She sent us a card and on the inside it said something like "I was so happy to hear your great news and your picture is so gorgeous! I can't think of any two people that are so right for each other (except maybe your brother and sister)" Ha! That's so funny. I think we'll invite her to the wedding too. It must be nice as a teacher hearing about your former students and how they're doing now. Then again, we never got anything back from Mrs. Kouns. I thought for sure we would get a card or something from her. Oh well. She's busy with a soon-to-be one year old and I heard they're adopting another baby! Crazy. When I was a senior, she had just found out that she was unable to have kids and now she's getting ready to adopt her second.

I should do my homework.

My long weekend in Phoenix

This weekend was so great.  It was exactly what I needed right in the middle of the quarter and right after midterms.  I can't believe I got all my homework done before I even left so I didn't have to think about school at all.

My flight was cancelled at the last minute, but then I found out that they just moved everyone onto the flight 30 minutes earlier.  It was kind of nice because I got into Phoenix 30 minutes earlier.  When I got home, I had some stuff to show my parents and my mom had been saving stuff for me too.  She bought me some makeup and a cute skirt.  I love getting new makeup.  

The next morning I woke up and Grandpa came over.  I miss my grandparents so much when I'm away so I want to spend every second with them that I can.  I talked to him about next year and how we're going to work out paying rent and all.  I was surprised that everyone (except my dad) was so supportive of moving into a house with Daniel.  Grandpa agreed to put money into my bank account at the beginning of each quarter and then it's up to me to budget that out for rent and food for the next three months.  It was a relief to get that out of the way.  We also talked about Europe.  He gave his usual warning that he doesn't want to spoil me, and I gave him my usual answer: I'm trying as hard as I can to get good grades and prove to you that I am a good investment and I am using your money well.  He is always satisfied with that answer.  I can't help feeling guilty.  I realize that not everybody has grandparents that can afford to pay tuition and room and board and all.  But I also know that if I didn't accept his help, then I certainly couldn't afford it myself.  So I just have to take it and work as hard as I can so that someday I will get a good job.  That will be repayment enough for my grandpa.  Later I got a manicure and then at 4 grandma and grandpa came over.  Soon after Daniel's mom and my aunt and uncle came over too.  My mom made a beautiful dinner.  Everyone wanted to see my ring and they all agreed that it was beautiful and perfect for my small hands.  I agree :-)  Shirley gave me a beautiful gift.  It was a shadow box which she had framed our engagement announcement.  She kind of scrapbooked it with red paper behind and a note that said "We are so happy for you both!  From George and Shirley"  I'm so excited to hang it in our house!  I had to leave a little after 7 to go to church for bells rehearsal.  Then I got to show off my ring some more to everyone there.  They hadn't heard the story of how he proposed so I shared that as well.  It was a lot of work to sight read 5 pieces in one night.  It took a lot of concentration and energy, but it was fun too.  

On Friday my mom and I made lunch together.  It was so nice to be able to cook for myself and it turned out so delicious!  We made salmon with a soy sauce glaze over rice and broccoli.  We went shopping and I bought a really cute sundress with yellow flowers on it.  My dad took me out for dinner to P.F. Chang's.  Yummy!  Then the three of us went to the Desert Botanical Gardens.  The weather was so beautiful after the sun went down.  I have really learned to appreciate the beauty of the desert now that I don't live there anymore.  After that my mom and I went to Daniel's parents' house to visit with them.  Robert wasn't able to come to dinner, so this was his chance to see my ring.  I just love going over there and spending time with them.  They make me feel so smart and accomplished.  Robert talked a little more about the house, but nothing new.  It seems that between my parents and Daniel's parents, they have quite a bit of furniture to give us.  And my grandma told me that she wants me to take their piano.  It's actually the piano they gave my mom for her 8th grade graduation.  It's obviously very special and I'm so excited that I get to keep it.  My mom also told me today that a cousin that lives here in Denver was just put into assisted living so she is clearing out her old stuff.  She has a set of dishes that belonged to my great grandma's mother and they want to keep them in the family.  So, it seems that they will give them to me!  How exciting - real antique dishes! 

On Saturday I got to church early in the morning and we drove to Saguaro HS.  There were 14 groups there including a middle school and 3 churches from Sun City and PVUMC.  It was funny to see how much younger we were than most of the groups (except the middle school of course).  We were also right in the front and center and we discovered later that was because we were the only group playing a song by ourselves in the concert.  It was a little embarrassing, but every group had the opportunity and they declined.  My feet started to hurt about 2 hours in.  You can't really play bells sitting down, so it was a long day on my feet.  The rehearsals actually went pretty quick though.  The most surprising thing was how difficult it was to get everyone together.  I didn't realize that getting 14 bell choirs to play together is virtually impossible.  We had sort of the marching band effect where the groups in the back were behind the groups in the front.  And you know some of those old ladies were a little slow anyways.  Overall, it was a very cool experience.  We learned some new things (like when you mart the bell, you don't need to kill it - it's already dead- so do it a little softer and in context with the rest of the piece).  Grandma and Grandpa and mom and dad came to the concert which was pretty short.  We went straight to church to put the bells away and then I went over to fellowship hall with the whole family for the UMW dinner.  That was really fun.  Everybody wanted to see my ring there.  I couldn't walk through without somebody stopping me and congratulating me.  It was especially nice to show Carla Whitmire.  She's kind of a second mom, and I could tell she was really happy for me.  Mary Tassi too.  She seemed a little nostalgic about it.  I mean, she was my preschool teacher for goodness sake.  I was really tired that night and went to bed pretty early.  It was a loooong day.

Sunday morning I put on my new sundress and went to church.  I sat with my grandparents and it was nice to see them one last time.  It was a beautiful service.  I really miss CITD when I'm in Denver.  It feels like I'm really home when I'm at church on Sunday.  We left for the airport right after church and now here I am.  It was a relaxing, family-filled weekend.  It is great to see how happy everyone is for us.  I couldn't ask for better in-laws than Daniel's parents.  And his brothers too :-)

A small damper on the weekend was my dad as usual.  It's obvious he doesn't want me to move into a house with Daniel, but he doesn't have a good reason.  He comes up with reasons just to argue about it, but I know the real reason is because he doesn't want me to grow up.  It's really frustrating.  But I refuse to argue with him about it.  I just don't talk to him about it.  My grandparents and my mom are very supportive, and that's all that matters.  He'll have to get used to it eventually because it's happening.  

When I got back to school, Daniel showed me an ad that had been emailed to him by one of his fraternity brothers.  They just graduated last year and are moving away from Denver so they are selling all of their furniture.  We emailed them saying we would offer $1000 for a queen bed and mattress, two bedside tables, two dressers, and two desks.  Most of the furniture is from IKEA and it all matches.  It's all a dark wood finish.  He emailed us back saying that some of the other guys have also expressed interest, but he wants to give us first pick.  So he'll give us all of that for $675.  I have no idea why, but he lowered his price.  Then today he offered us all of that, plus two desk chairs, for $450!  It's kind of counterintuitive.  But Daniel went over there today to look at it and he said that it's all really nice stuff.  We wrote him a check and the deal is done.  Even better, he's not moving until June so he'll hold on to it for us until then.  We're picking up the bed later because our futon just isn't comfortable anymore.  I am so thrilled!  Our entire bedroom is furnished for under $500.  How lucky.

And choir tomorrow was cancelled.  So I'll have time to get all my lab reports done.  I am very happy right now.  I can't wait to move into our first home!

Wonderful day

I had a great day today and now I'm going to list the reasons starting from this morning.

1. I got my test back in chemistry and I got a full 9% higher than the average. A 79%. I am thrilled! Way better than I thought I did.

2. It was a beautiful sunshiney day. I wore a tank top and flip flops! And I didn't mind walking 4 blocks from campus to check on my tree for bio lab. It was such a nice day, I just thought of it as a nice little stroll around the block.

3. My entire chemistry lab group got to lab first, so we got to use the machine first. There were 10 groups that each will take about 15-20 minutes, so we saved a lot of time by going first. The last group has to sit around for over 90 minutes. I got out of lab in 30 minutes.

4. When I got home, I had time to write up that entire lab report.

5. During my desk shift this evening, I finished reading a paper and writing a reaction for psychology.

6. All of which means I can go to Scottsdale tonight without worrying about one tiny bit of homework. I can just forget school even exists.

7. Daniel resigned from his RA job for next year today, and his boss wasn't even upset. She was totally understanding and excited for us. So we are definitely living off campus next year and together! Yay!

8. I get to fly home tonight and see everybody and show them all my brand new diamond ring.

So you can see why I've had such a good day :-) And it's not over yet!

Scottsdale: Tomorrow!

Right now I am just super excited to go to Scottsdale. I really need a few days off, and I get to be there for 4 whole days. I will get to see my family, Daniel's family, and all the church people. The best part: I get to show off my brand new sparkly diamond ring! On Thursday our two families are getting together to celebrate. My parents are cooking a dinner for all of us. It's our first dinner as in-laws-to-be :-) The only thing that I'm not looking forward to is having no Spud there. My parents took him to the vet yesterday to put him to sleep. I have no idea what it's going to be like to be there without Spud. He's been in our family since I was 7 years old! It will be very strange, and sad.

I finished midterms and I am so glad. It's definitely a relief. Tomorrow I'll get my chemistry test back, and I'm really not looking forward to that. When I got my biology test back, I was in a bad mood for a long time about it. Hopefully I did better on this test. I know I did well on psychology because it was really easy. Yesterday turned out to be such a fun day. It was our first warm day in a few weeks, so everybody was outside enjoying the weather. It was kind of funny because there were girls laying out sunbathing next to big piles of snow. It hasn't all melted quite yet, but it was close to 70 degrees! My 2-hour class was cut to 45 minutes because it was just a test. Then my lab, which is usually 2-3 hours, was only 30 minutes. All we did was put seeds in a dish and take them home. Daniel heard that it was free cone day at Ben and Jerry's, so we walked over there. And on the way, we discovered that there was a Daniel's College of Business 100 year birthday party out on the lawn. DUGS (DU Grilling Society) was giving out free pitas with greek seasoned grilled chicken - yum! DUGS is the best. They cook for a lot of student activities and it is always delicious, and always free! Well, for students anyways. Then we walked over to Ben and Jerry's, and discovered that free cone day is actually today, not yesterday. Oh well, we'll go back today. To top off the day, Daniel and I went to Target to buy a big storage bin and I spent the night packing up all our winter clothes and ski clothes. Goodbye snow! It was exciting because I was thinking, no big deal, we'll have plenty of space in our new HOUSE to put this big bin!

Speaking of the House, there have been new developments on that front. Daniel has talked to his father and we got a general timeline and plan. He is driving out here around May 15. Julie is still trying to convince him to come sooner, but he probably won't. He is planning on staying for about a month, or however long it takes to find a house and close. Evan may be coming out too. When he gets here the first thing we'll do is look at the houses that Daniel and I have already looked at and liked. If any of them are still on the market. Then, if Robert likes any of those we'll put in an offer. If not, we'll keep looking as long as it takes to find one that we're all happy with. At this point it's about 99% sure we are definitely getting a house. Basically, the only way we wouldn't is if the market crashes again or one of them loses their job.

And what makes me really happy is that tomorrow Daniel is resigning from his RA position for next year. That makes it official- no matter what Daniel and I are living together. Even if that means an apartment or whatever, we are not living on campus. He's really worried about it, but I think it will be fine. His boss loves him and his reason is perfectly legitimate. I mean we're engaged for goodness sake. It's ridiculous for him to be living here while his fiancee lives somewhere else. I am much happier and feeling more calm about the whole thing, except now I'm so impatient! I want to put in an offer TODAY and move in TOMORROW!!! I'm so sick of being cramped into a tiny room and not having space for anything and not being able to cook or have friends over. We are going to have an address, a master bedroom and bathroom, a beautiful kitchen, a backyard, and a puppy! And I'm pretty sure we'll get to take either my parents' piano, or my grandparents'. And probably I'll take all the furniture from my old room and whatever else my parents will let me take that they don't want anymore. Patience is soooo not my strong point, but I am having to practice it a lot right now. It's still another 3 weeks before Robert even comes out and then it'll be probably another 4 at least until we can move in. But I will wait as long as it takes.

My crazy Friday

It's been quite an interesting past 24 hours. I woke up yesterday morning to an inch of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. The snowflakes were like huge cotton balls falling from the sky. They were so big that I could actually feel each flake that hit my face. I have to admit that I stuck my tongue out to eat some :-) It wasn't enough to cancel class of course, so I took off for my organic chemistry midterm. I actually felt kinda okay about it. I did practice problems here and there over the past week, and by the end I was getting most of them right on the first try. The test turned out to be really long. I am a fast test taker, and I'm usually one of the first done. Well it took me from 5 minutes before class usually starts to 5 minutes after class ends to do the whole test. And I was the second one done! The proctor announced five minutes left and I still had a whole problem left to do. Some of the problems were really involved too. So overall, I think I did okay. There was one concept that I just couldn't remember and I knew I got that wrong.

I had biology, and headed home. By that time the snow was coming down hard. It wasn't really cold, probably just at 32 so a lot of the snow was melting when it hit the ground and turned to slush. Everything was really wet. And this snow wasn't the kind that you can just brush off when you get inside. It sticks to you and everything gets really wet. Throughout the whole day it snowed, rained for 10 minutes, then snowed again. By 3:00 there was almost 6 inches on the ground and it was getting a little dangerous outside. Most everyone's evening activities were canceled, so a bunch of the RAs just ended up hanging out in the mail room. I went back there to grab my mail, and found like 6 of them just hanging out. It was strange. We never have enough time to just sit down and talk. It was really fun.

So for the past few weeks, I have been seriously craving chocolate. Good, dark (expensive) chocolate. When we went to Costco right after spring break, we bought a gift certificate for 2 pounds of See's chocolate. When you buy it there, you get it cheaper than at the actual store. So those 2 pounds ran out after about 3 weeks and I wanted some more. The roads were very slick and the snow was making visibility low, but I really wanted chocolate. I called See's to see if they were open, and they were. I convinced Daniel to drive me there (there's no way I was driving in the snow). There were a lot of people out on the roads, but it was really slow-going. Sitting at a red light, our entire windshield became covered with snow. Visibility was at about 1/2 mile I'd say. But we made it there and back safely, and with chocolate! That night Daniel and I both worked at the desk. I worked at Nelson, and he worked at Nagel. The snow just kept coming and coming. We got over a foot by nighttime. Then it started to get colder, and all the slush froze and turned to ice. That's when it's really dangerous to be out on the roads.

Recently all the staff in the residence halls had been informed of a criminal incident that occurred a few weeks ago. These two guys have been coming onto campus and going into the freshman dorm and trying doors to see if they are unlocked, presumably to steal peoples' stuff. Anyways, they were caught and campus safety took pictures of them to distribute to all the residence halls so we could keep an eye out for them. I guess one has come back repeatedly. They both have been known to fight with police and they have extensive criminal records. Well last night while I was working, I saw one of them. He had to buzz to get into the building, which means he doesn't have a DU ID that works for that building (he doesn't live there). He just kinda hung around until the elevator opened and went in. At first I wasn't sure it was him. I called Daniel and he told me to call campus safety anyways. I gave them a physical description: he was wearing a gray argyle sweater and no hat. They didn't know what argyle meant lol. The more I think about it, the more I am sure it was him. He has red hair which is pretty distinctive, and he had to buzz to get in, and he looked older and bigger than most college students, and he was by himself. Campus safety came in and walked through the building a few times, but they couldn't find him. I was a little creeped out the rest of the night. So I went to bed around 11pm, and Daniel took over until 1am. At 11:45, the power in the entire building went out. Actually, the entire campus plus 2 more blocks. Everyone poured out of their rooms into the hallways with flashlights. It was pretty insane. The RAs had to patrol the hallways and calm everyone down. They also had to enforce the rules because lots of dumb college students think that the power going out is a great excuse to go smoke pot or something. The fire department came to make sure nobody was stuck in the elevators. Nobody was in our building, but some people were in other buildings. Luckily, we have emergency lights. Nagel doesn't so it was completely black. The poor DA just sat there in complete darkness with no computer or anything. It must have been so scary. The power came back on at 1am, so it wasn't too long.

What a day.

Patience.

Easter Sunday was very pleasant.  Daniel and I planned on going to church at 9am that morning before I had to work at 11am.  We worked together that night until 1am, so we didn't get much sleep.  When my alarm went off, I just didn't have enough motivation to get up.  Luckily, that same church has a service at 6pm so we went then.  It was a very unique experience.  We had heard about this church from quite a few friends on campus, so it shouldn't have been a surprise that almost the entire congregation was between 18-30 years old including the preacher and the band.  I have never been to a church like that.  I really enjoyed the songs, although there's nothing quite like singing hymns on Easter morning.  The "message" was also really good.  It made me see the entire biblical narrative in a whole new way.

The speaker talked about how Jesus rising from the dead would have been perceived back then by his disciples and others.  He basically told the entire old testament in 10 minutes.  God blesses the descendents of Abraham and they become the Hebrew people.  They go through an entire series of being enslaved and liberated, enslaved and liberated.  David became king and was told that his family would rule the Hebrews forever.  Hebrew children grew up being told that someday, someone would come from the House of David to liberate them for good.  And lo and behold, Jesus came (from the House of David) to liberate the Hebrews for all eternity.  I never saw the big picture like that.  It was very enlightening.  Of course he told it much better than me.  I think we might go back.  It's kind of hard because normally Daniel has chapter at 7 on Sunday nights.  So we'll have to decide if it's worth him being a little late, or maybe we'll go to their 11am service instead.  Then I'll just have to give up that shift at work.

Besides that, it was a day of more online househunting and Europe planning.  We have found 2-3  places to stay in each city.  Now it's just a matter of finding out about the grant so we can finalize our plans and start making reservations.  We determined that about 10 days - 2 weeks in we are going to have 2 days to just relax and enjoy the French countryside in Aix-en-Provence.  By that time I think we will be really tired so we left those days completely open.  There are some beautiful bed and breakfasts that are literally out in a field of wildflowers.  It looks like a little town from a fairytale.  Like Beauty and the Beast!  So those days we'll sleep in, take walks into the woods, have some coffee and just relax.  I found a website online that has audio files of common french words so I'm learning how to pronounce them.  Like Aix-en-Provence is more like ex-on-provance.  And Champs de Elysees is like shompdayleezay one word like that.  Champs de Elysees is the main street though Paris if you didn't know :-)  I'm learning all sorts of things!

Today Daniel was busy most of the afternoon and evening.  It's Greek Week so he will be busy all week long.  I am so used to seeing him throughout the day, it's going to be so hard someday when we have to go to work and we won't see each other until dinnertime.  In biology lab today, we began a project.  Our entire lab section will observe two different species of trees: dogwood, and quaking aspen.  We are each assigned a brand and we put a little tag on it with our initials.  We have to go three times a week and observe the branch.  We have to record the day that the buds appear, and once the leaves start growing measure the size of the leaf.  One of my branches is right in my backyard basically.  The other one is about three blocks past the end of campus.  So I am not very happy that I'm going to have to walk there three times a week.  The point is that global warming is causing plants to bloom earlier than they normally would, so we are entering our informaion into an international database that keeps track of these things.  It's kind of cool I guess.  A little inconvenient.

This quarter is going to go by quickly I think.  It's already week 4, so almost halfway done.  I am really looking forward to this summer.  Last quarter was so stressful, and this whole year in general has been pretty stressful.  I really need those weeks to recover.  And this summer brings a new house to live in, and a trip to Europe!  What an exciting time in my life.  

I was talking to my parents last night about how much I have learned patience this year in particular.  Patience when dealing with the house, waiting to become independent, waiting to get married and have kids, waiting for the trip to Europe, etc.  There are so many times when I feel so frustrated and like none of this is ever going to happen, but it will.  I remind myself (and Daniel loves to remind me) that it is all an exercise in patience.  It's good for me.  That is definitely an area I will have to continue to work on, probably for the rest of my life.  It just doesn't come naturally to me.  Like many things.

Improvements

The house situation has improved. And the chemistry situation has improved a little. The job situation, that can wait a little while.

Daniel and I went out yesterday to look at 4 houses that were well within our original budget of $170,000. This neighborhood was surprisingly nice. The houses were cute, front yards were well kept, and it was pretty quiet. This neighborhood is about 10 minutes west of campus, where before we were looking to the east. It is mostly Hispanic, and as Carrie called it "in transition." I guess that means that it's a neighborhood that investors are interested in buying houses, fixing them up, and reselling them. Of the four houses we looked at, two of them were flips. They were completely remodeled and move-in ready. We loved both of them. The first one was a little big actually. It had two full kitchens, one upstairs and one in the basement. Six bedrooms and 3 baths. Hardwood floors, remodeled master bath.... etc. It had a nice enclosed patio in the back and a really big driveway plus a one car garage. This house was listed at $169,900 and Carrie said that's a little low, so it will probably go quickly. The second and fourth houses were occupied and they would need a lot of work so we weren't really interested. The third house was beautiful. It was on a corner lot at the top of this little hill that had a beautiful view of downtown Denver. It had a cute little cobblestone walkway to the front door. The front room was wood floors, then there was a hallway off to the right with two bedrooms and one bath. Through the front room is the most beautiful kitchen. It was big with lots of counter space and cabinet space. All marble countertops and brand new stainless steel appliances. Through the kitchen was the dining room and then to the left was two more bedrooms. They turned the garage into a fourth bedroom which was kind of weird. That bedroom has french doors that open up into the driveway in the front yard. We'd probably make that like a study room or another living room area. Another kind of weird thing is that the bathroom for those bedrooms is through the dining room. It didn't bother me enough to not like the house. What struck me most about the house was it had a lot of windows so there was a ton of natural light coming in that gave it such a wide open feeling. A good thing from an investing standpoint is that it has a crawl space under the house so all the plumbing is under it instead of through the ceiling. And since the neighborhood is "in transition" the value of the house is likely to go way up in a short amount of time.

So all of this was really encouraging. Daniel's mom also was really excited about it and she told us that she thinks Robert needs to come out as soon as possible so we can get the process started and maybe even put in an offer on one of those houses. However, Robert was not as optimistic. He thought that having the bathroom through the dining room would make it difficult to re-sell. I am beyond frustrated. I thought that he would be so happy that we found two beautiful homes that we would love to live in for UNDER budget. But no. He still wants to wait another month to come out and by then, none of these houses will be on the market anymore. We'll have to start all over again.

Besides that, I have a had a really good past couple of days. Wednesday put me in a really bad mood because of chemistry. I had my lab and halfway through the reaction I had no product. I only lose 7 points out of 100 so it's not that big of deal. The bad part was that our lab TA chose our group to stay until the very last person was completely finished with the experiment and clean up the sinks. So even though I was finished at like 3:30 I had to stay all the way until 5:30 just to spend 30 seconds wiping down the sinks. I absolutely hate wasting time. And the worst part is that then I had to run to work until 7:00. So I had a very looong day.

Thursday was fun because Hope and I got to paint :-) There's a bulletin board in the laundry room that Leadership Team is responsible for, and Hope and I volunteered to do it this quarter. So we pulled out a big white sheet of paper and splatter painted and glittered and expressed our creativity. Hope really brings out that side of me. That night we had karaoke night which was really fun too. Hope, Brittany, and I performed "My Heart Will Go On" beautifully. And Daniel and I did "Summer Lovin'" from Grease with Hope and Brittany as my backup singers and Kevin and Rick as Daniel's backup singers. Then the entire group of us sang "Bohemian Rhapsody." It was one of the most successful programs they've had. I'd say about 20 people came.

On Friday Daniel and I went to the Good Friday service here on campus. It was very soothing to me. I love going to church because it reminds me of home and is so peaceful and calming. Singing the hymns is my favorite part, but I also love reading scripture. No matter how many times I read or hear a particular passage, I get something new out of it each time. And it felt good to be part of our campus community observing Good Friday. That night I celebrated Theta Chi's Founders Day with a nice dinner with all the guys. Some of them brought girlfriends so I wasn't the only girl there for once. They played a slideshow of the past few years and I was in a surprising number of pictures. I got to meet some of their new prospective guys too. One of them is a sophomore biochem major that lives in Nelson, just like me! He's in my biology class. We talked about our classes and professors and what we want to do when we are done with school. It's amazing how Daniel's fraternity brothers become instant friends of his and mine when they join. They really do feel like a bunch of my brothers.

Today I have been working all day. I had two hours off from 3-5 so Daniel and I went to Best Buy to try out a few of their camcorders and see what we want to get for Europe. I went in thinking I definitely wanted one of the tiny pocket camcorders that are like $150. Daniel was really against that because he thinks they have terrible quality. Which, they do, I agree, but I don't want to spend $500 either. When we went we found a brand new Sony that was really small and light, but had some of the extra features that the tiny pocket cameras don't have. It has the image stabilization and 4 GB of internal memory which is a lot more than the pocket cameras have. It was on sale for $269. So we went for it. And we also bought the 4-year warranty. I definitely didn't think we'd come out of this spending $400, but we did. And we still need to get a high-speed 16 or 32GB card for it. Unfortunately Sonys use the slightly more expensive memory stick instead of SD card, but I guess Daniel's dad can get them for pretty cheap. I'm excited to start playing with it and maybe post some videos on my DU blog.

I also talked to my mom today. She took Spud to the vet finally. When I went home for the wedding and spring break, I told her that I really think he needed to go. He has giant lumps on his belly and he is just so slow. You have to yell his name really loud for him to come over. It's really sad. So anyways, she found out that the lumps are into his liver and spleen so there's nothing to be done about them. The vet said that they could rupture any time which could be a quick death, or a slow and painful one. My parents decided that he isn't in any pain now, so as long as he can still get around and he seems happy enough they're going to let it go. I'm going home in two weeks, so I'll get to see him one last time probably before they have to put him down. I can't believe he's so old. I love Spud, he is the best dog. It's nice to see how much Spud and Daniel like each other too. But, he is pretty old and such is life.

My mom also told me a little bit about Aaron. I guess he's doing really well. I wrote him one letter a few weeks ago, but I've been waiting to get some more letters before I write again. So yesterday my dad finally emailed one and the first line was "keep writing, even if you don't get a letter from me." Oops. So I wrote him a big long letter. I also got a letter from him today just for me! He congratulated me on our engagement and asked me to send more pictures. He told me that he's really enjoying getting to know the other guys, but I guess he's annoyed at some of the girls and younger guys who keep making mistakes and so they all get punished. Nicole and my parents are going to his graduation. I wish I could, but I'll still be in class. I'm going to try to write more, even though it means he has to do push ups. He can handle it.

I'm so excited to go home in a few weeks and show everyone my ring! I just wish Daniel could be there. It's going to be weird to have a family celebration without him. But he doesn't have time to fly back there.
Happy Easter!

Frustration

I have had a lot of frustrations lately.

1.  The house.  This is probably the biggest stressor in my life right now.  I just want to know definitively where I'm going to live 6 months from now.  Unfortunately, it's not that easy.  Daniel's parents have been concerned about how much this is going to cost, and if it will be a good investment.  I definitely understand why they have to make sure they can afford it and everything, but we have been getting very mixed messages.  Daniel's mom says one thing, and his dad says another, and then he tells me that he's sure everything is going to be fine and our budget is really higher than they say because we can negotiate down....   And going every weekend to look at houses is a lot of work!  I feel like we are so far away from actually moving in.  I'm afraid that every house we look at is either too expensive, or by the time Daniel's parents get around to putting in an offer, none of these houses are going to be on the market anymore.  There have already been like 3 houses we were interested in that have gone under contract.  At this point, Daniel's dad is saying we absolutely cannot get anything above $170K.  From the houses that we've seen, $170 will buy is a real fixer-upper in a not-so-nice neighborhood.  Daniel's parents obviously aren't here and don't know what the market is like, so they don't get that (understandably).  A few days ago, I was about to give up on the whole house thing and started thinking about alternatives.  For Daniel, it's basically a house, or being an RA.  Or else he has to pay rent himself.  For us to live together, we would have to find an apartment that we could split and his half would have to be around $300 for him to afford it.  That severely limits our options.  Not to mention furniture, food, etc.  So that option was looking a little bleak.  If it comes down to it, I think we can manage, but let's hope we can find a house that makes everyone happy.  I'm feeling slightly more optimistic now because Daniel has convinced me that it'll be fine.  His mom is also still very optimistic.  Daniel thinks that once his dad comes out and sees what $170K will buy us, he will decide that they can afford a little more.  With that in mind, we will keep looking and his Dad is planning to come out in a few weeks.

2.  Organic Chemistry.  A constant battle.  I feel like I am always just barely grasping the material.  Obviously I'm able to understand just enough because I did manage a B last quarter.  We have our first test in 10 days, and I am very concerned.  We have covered so so so much material it's overwhelming.  This weekend I'll have to really study a lot to see if I can get comfortable enough with the material before the mid-term.

3.  My summer job/future career.  I've been making pretty good money this year working at the desk, doing mail, writing blogs, and helping with the physics class.  I need to figure out what I'm going to do next year.  I could keep the DA job.  It has very flexible hours, it's really easy, and I can get homework done.  However, if I live off campus it won't be nearly as convenient, and it doesn't pay a whole lot, and it doesn't really do much for my future career.  My mom has suggested I look at other on-campus jobs that might pay a little more like tutoring or something like that.  I could also look into working at a day care or something because I do really like kids.  But, something that Daniel keeps bringing up, is that none of these jobs will give me experience in my field of study.  I really should think about getting a job that will help me and give me something to put on my resume.  The problem is that there aren't many healthcare jobs for people without certification.  And to get certification takes money and time.  At this point, I'm really leaning towards becoming a PA.  It will be another 2-3 years after my undergraduate degree.  But many programs require a few years of experience.  I have no clue what that experience can be.  How can I get a job working with patients?  Even harder is finding a job that I can do while I'm in school.  I need something that's flexible enough to work around my class schedule and doesn't require a degree or certification.  And it would be nice if it paid more than $7.70 an hour.  But honestly, the pay isn't that big of deal.  If I could get a job even as a receptionist at a doctor's office, that would be fine.  I just want some experience in the real world that's distantly related to my field of study.  Is that so hard?

All of these things have made me very grumpy in the past few days, and as usual I take it out on Daniel.  He is so supportive and optimistic.   He says that we will find a beautiful house that his parents can afford and we will get to live together for real.  He tells me that I'm smart and I will do fine in chemistry.  He insists that there are plenty of jobs to give me experience, and it's really important that I focus on that.  I try to believe him.  I want to.  Without him, my life would be so pessimistic.  I'm so glad I have him to balance me out.  

Even planning our Europe trip has been a little stressful, but also really fun.  Daniel finished writing his proposal and tomorrow he will submit it.  We'll find out in a week or two if they approved it.  We had to change our itinerary a lot to fit in all the music festivals he wanted to go to, which unfortunately meant cutting out a lot of Switzerland.  But it's okay, we'll make it work.  We bought our plane tickets yesterday.  I really like the itinerary we got.  We leave Phoenix at 11:00am on July 15.  It's not too early.  We fly to Newark, NJ where we change planes.  We have an hour and a half over dinner time so that worked out really nice.  We can have a nice dinner in the airport and then get back on a plane to fly all night long and arrive in Madrid 10am the next morning.  Our flight back isn't quite as nice.  We leave Rome at 6am, change planes in Amsterdam, and then again in Houston before landing in Phoenix around 3pm on August 10.  That's okay, we'll be so tired we'll sleep the whole time anyways.  That exact flight was $905 a few days ago, but we had to wait for Daniel's credit card cycle to cut so he had enough available credit to charge the flight.  We booked it through American Express so he can get double points.  By the time the cycle cut yesterday, the flight was up to $975.  I guess that's the airline industry.  Anyways, it's still a good deal.  Two roundtrip flights to Europe for under $2000 in peak season.  So now it's official.... we're going to Europe!  At this point our next task is to book our Eurail pass and book most of our hostels for the trip.  We'll wait until we hear about the grant before we do that.  If he doesn't get the grant, then our itinerary may change slightly so the hostels will probably change too.  If he does, then we get to see three operas.  The Magic Flute, Aida, and The Barber of Seville.  I love opera, and I can't even believe that we might get the chance to see three operas, in Europe, for free!  I also can't believe how much money we've managed to save up between the two of us.  I have never saved this much money in my life.  We decided that any money we don't spend, we will pay back Grandma and Grandpa and hopefully in the next year we'll be able to pay them back fully.  I really feel strongly about being independent and they're already paying for my tuition.  I can't wait until I have a real job and can afford to support myself.  Until then, I will work hard to get good grades and that's all Grandma and Grandpa ask in return for their "investment."

Wow this is a long post.  Well, I haven't written in a few days.  It feels good to get that all off my chest.  I hope everything settles down and we figure these things out soon.  It's strange that school is my least stressful thing going on right now.  It's nice taking only 3 classes.

Saturday Night

Yesterday was so much fun! I worked in the morning... that wasn't the fun part. Although I did finish all my homework which was nice. Daniel brought pei wei for lunch for us. That was the first time I ate there, and it was really good. After work we went over to the Dodgeball Tournament. Tri-delt put on a dodgeball tournament as a fundraiser for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Each time paid $50 to enter. All the Greek organizations try to support each other, so pretty much every sorority and fraternity had a team. Each team had to have at least 2 girls, so I played on Theta Chi's team to give them another girl. They had recruited a few other girlfriends and friends of brothers to play. One of them was so good, she threw like a guy! I think she's probably why we did so well. Actually, in one game, every single guy had gotten out and it was just two girls left. The other team still had like 4 people in (we all started with 6). We actually ended up wining because the one girl was so good! Out of like 20-30 teams, we got about 5th. It was really fun. I'm pretty good at dodging balls. As long as I didn't throw any, I did pretty well.

Later that night we had reservations at Izakaya Den. It's a really nice sushi restaurant. Daniel went there once before with his brothers for pref dinner. One of the brothers works there. He made sure we got VIP seating. We went into this special room and sat at the bar. Behind the bar, the two head chefs make all the sushi for the entire restaurant right there. So when we ordered, we just told him what we wanted and he made it right there and handed it to us. It was so cool! Daniel loves sushi, so it was a special treat for him. I don't mind it, and last night I actually liked it. Everything was so good, especially with a little soy sauce on it. I just can't think about what's in it while I'm eating it or my gag reflexes kick in.

After dinner we stopped by Nelson and picked up Hope and drove downtown to the Performing Arts Center. Normally we would take the light rail, but it was freezing and snowing off and on so we didn't want to walk the 2 blocks to the light rail station. The CSO was performing Verdi's Requiem which is one of my favorite pieces. Earlier this year we saw the London Symphony Chorus perform it with Lamont Symphony Orchestra. I think that performance was a little better, but it could have been where we sat too. We were a little late, so they put us behind the choir and the orchestra. We were a little above them, looking down at their music. It was kind of cool though because we got to see the conductor the entire time. Unfortunately we couldn't see the solos at all, and sometimes it was hard to hear them too. We still really enjoyed it though. We stopped at Starbucks on the way home. When it's so cold out, Starbucks makes it all better. It was a really nice date night for Daniel and I. Even though it was kind of expensive, it was worth it. I got to do something nice and special for Daniel.

House-Hunting Round 2

We got to see 4 houses today.

House #1. My dream house. It was gorgeous! Hardwood floors, new kitchen appliances, 2 large living rooms (one with a fireplace!) and dining room and the best part is it was priced at $185,000. Unfortunately, there have already been multiple offers, and one they are going to accept. Too late.

House #2. Nice. Beautiful fireplace with marble around the sides. It was hard to see the house, because there's an old lady still living in it and apparently she really likes cats because the whole thing kinda smelled like them. The kitchen cabinets could have used some updating and one bedroom was a little small. The nice thing is that the basement was huge and there was a big closet and bathroom in the basement. And there was a separate entrance and everything. So Daniel and I could have our own little suite downstairs to ourselves. It would take some work to get the cat smell out and probably the floors would need replaced. And also, it was a short sale which means that it takes a looooong time for all the banks to decide they want to take the offer. Obviously the lady would need to move all her stuff out too. But it had promise. It was priced a little over our budget at $219,000 but with a short sale, you can put in any offer you want.

House #3. Yuck! It was really old and basically falling apart. One of the bedrooms even came pre-decorated with bright blue paint and Spiderman stickers! So that one was a definite, resounding NO.

House #4. Interesting..... and huge. Turquoise carpet in the entire main level of the house. Kind of small bedrooms, but usable. Super old kitchen appliances. It had a really big living room in the front, big kitchen, and then they had enclosed the patio and put in a fireplace so that added a whole living area to the back of the house. Then, down some stairs was a huge basement with a very large bedroom and a very large game room plus a laundry room, storage room, and another bathroom. It was just BIG. Also priced at $219,000, so a little higher than we would like, especially because we would have to replace the appliances, and rip up the carpet to refinish the hardwood underneath. So if we could get a good deal, it would be promising.

Still on the table is one of the houses we saw last weekend. The really nice one listed at $189,000. The last three houses we looked at today were all much closer to DU, just on the other side of I-25. So that was a bonus. The neighborhood was still nice, but not as nice as 80222 where we looked before.

I'm avoiding my chemistry homework. Unfortunately, it seems I have run out of excuses. So... O Chem it is.

More snow in the forecast.

Well, it did snow yesterday. And guess what... it's supposed to snow again tomorrow night. 6-12 inches! Another big storm. Yuck. This time, I know to plan for it and just stay in that night. At least we've been lucky enough that it's always snowed on the weekend or in the evening so I'm not walking to class in it. I seriously feel like God held all the snow that was supposed to fall in the entire winter and decided that he's going to give it all to us in the span of like 2 weeks.

In my child development class, we did prenatal development yesterday. We did fertilization of the egg, all the way up through birth. And we watched a video of the whole thing. Including birth. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I really thought that watching a live birth would cure me of wanting desperately to have children ASAP, but it didn't. We watched real footage of the baby inside the womb. It was amazing! I am really loving this class. And I'm loving this quarter in general. 14 credits is a breeze! I'm actually a full week ahead in my homework. I finished a homework assignment yesterday that isn't even due until Monday. Crazy. I'm sure it will pick up a little as we get more into the quarter, but for now I'm enjoying myself.

Tomorrow night I decided to take Daniel out on a date. We always go out for Italian, because that's my favorite. Well for once, I am going to take Daniel out for sushi. He loves sushi, but he doesn't get it very often. And then we're going to the symphony to see Verdi's Requiem. I think it'll be a really nice date. Hopefully it's not too cold.

I found out in choir today that Eric Whitacre himself is coming to DU in the fall. He is actually going to work with the choir and conduct one of his own pieces himself. How exciting! I know for sure he's going to conduct Chorale, I'm not sure about Lamont Women's choir. Maybe next year I'll be in chorale, though I doubt it. For those of you who don't know him, he is one of the most famous chorale composers still alive. He also writes music for wind ensemble, but most of my favorites are chorale pieces. All of his stuff is very lyrical and meaningful. Check him out on iTunes. Anyways, I (and all of my choir friends) love pretty much all of his music, so it'll be really exciting to actually get to work with him. It's a real incentive for me to be in choir again next year, though I was planning on it anyways. I love it this quarter. So far, anyways. I love all the music we are doing. Every piece is beautiful, and fun to sing, and just the right level of challenge to make it interesting. First quarter, the rehearsals seemed to drag on forever, but the last 3 have gone by so quickly! And they've been fun! I really love to sing. It's the one part of my life that I actually get emotional and not so logical and scientific about.

I don't want to work anymore. I'm bored.