Monday, March 30, 2009

Houses, Doctor, Military.... Snow.

It snowed again.  Blech.  I'm tired of it.  I bought a ton of cute summer clothes when I was home for spring break, and now I can't wear any of them.  Soon enough I guess.

We went house-hunting on Saturday.  It was quite an experience.  The realtor was super nice and really helpful.  The first house we went to was listed at $194,900.  They are never going to sell it for that much. The lady had died so it went to someone in her family and now they're trying to sell it.  It was a dump.  Big HUGE cracks in the walls, smelly carpet, really outdated kitchen, tiny bedrooms, and appliances from the 50s.  It was a big fixer upper.  Daniel and I immediately said no way.  For as much money as we would have to put into it, it would have to be listed at $150,000.  And I don't think we're prepared for that much work anyways.  The second house was listed at $195.  It was a short sale and they have been sitting on an offer that was put in in October.  Still no deal.  They weren't accepting any new offers.  We mostly went for comparison purposes.  It still needed a lot of work, but not nearly as much as the first house.  It was definitely a possibility for us if it was still available.  There was this horrible green shag carpeting and the kitchen cabinets looked like they belonged in the garage, but at least it had two good-sized bedrooms.  The third house was luxurious compared to the first two, and it was cheaper!  $189.  The guy had listed it in November, so it's been on the market for a while.  He's dropped the price three times.  There was new carpeting in the entire house, nice tile in the kitchen and bathrooms, and fairly new appliances.  The bedrooms were really tiny, and one of the bathrooms was, but it was beautiful compared to the other two.  The one big downside was that there was no garage or driveway.  The people that owned the house knocked out the wall to make the living room bigger and landscaped over the driveway.  I thought that a garage wasn't that important and I would rather have a bigger living room, but Daniel wasn't thrilled.  We will definitely keep our eyes on that house though.  It's a real possibility.  

All three houses were in a neighborhood that's really nice less than 10 minutes driving from campus.  That's the neighborhood that Dainel and I really want to live in.  After talking to the realtor, we learned a lot about the whole process.  She said that short sales are really difficult.  They take up to 6 months or more to go through, and at the last minute they could completely decline your offer and your back at square one.  It's also hard to negotiate the price because all the banks are arguing over their share of the money.  A regular house that's being sold by the owner usually closes in about 30 days.  She told us that we'll get a better deal the sooner we buy because there will be less competition from other buyers.  I'm really trying to convince Daniel and his parents to buy it sooner rather than later.  I would really love to buy it a few weeks before school gets out so we can get it ready and then move in right after finals.  Originally, Daniel's parents wanted to put in offer in in June or July and not have it ready until school starts again.  But I think that once they realized that Hope and I would pay rent all summer, and they might get a better deal by buying earlier, they will consider moving the process up a little.  We found two more houses we want to take a look at this weekend and we'll go from there.  This is such a frustrating process.  I'm terrified that we're going to end up living in a dump with no money to fix it up or even buy decent furniture.  I don't even care if it's new furniture, I just want it to be clean and in good condition and maybe even match a little.  So at this point we are going to try to spend as little money as possible in Europe and spend what's less on the house.  We're starting from absolutely nothing, so we'll need a bed and kitchen table at the bare minimum.

Today I had quite an experience with my health insurance/doctor's office.  I had a regular old checkup in October and since then I have been fighting with my insurance company and the doctor's office about the bill.  It was considered "preventive medicine" so it should have been completely covered, but somehow I ended up with a bill for $250!  I called the insurance company and they said it looks like two different doctors billed me for the same thing.  The first one was covered, but the second one I was being billed for because I'm not allowed two annual checkups in one calendar year.  I definitely had only one checkup.  They told me to call the doctor's office to take off the second charge.  Then I called the doctor's office and they said that their records only showed one bill.  They had no record of the second doctor billing for the checkup.  So finally I got both on the line at the same time, and they worked it out.  I couldn't follow anything they were saying.  At the end, they decided that the claim was filed wrong so they are going to re-process it.  I swear, if I get a bill for the same amount I am going to scream.  This is ridiculous.  If I, an educated, intelligent person cannot figure out all this medical billing crap, how is anyone else supposed to.  I mean someone who didn't speak english or doesn't know enough to call and question the charge would just end up paying $250 they didn't have to because of someone else's mistake.  It's so stupid.  Well I am NOT paying it.  And that horrible thing is that at the end of the month, it would have been sent to collections.  It's not my fault they can't get it right!  But my credit would have been ruined because of it.

I finally got some letters from Aaron.  Actually, they were sent to my parents and they scanned them into the computer and emailed them to me.  I don't really know what to think.  It sounds absolutely torturous to me.  Being far away from home, being told every second of the day what to do, being yelled at and forced to do pushups and stuff.... it sounds awful.  But Aaron said that he likes it and he's really proud to be serving the country.  I'm proud of him too.  I have never known anyone in the military and now I can say that my brother is serving our country.  And I can't wait until he comes back from the defense language institute.  When he's finished, he will be pretty high up and very important to the country.  I wrote him a long letter and sent him an engagement announcement.  I don't think he knew about it before he left.  I also sent him some "Dunder-Mifflin" newsletters that I got off NBC's website.  I know he doesn't get to watch the office, so I thought he would like reading that anyways.

I hope it doesn't snow again tomorrow.  The forecast says snow tomorrow, and Thursday.  It will never end.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

SNOW DAY!!!

Today the whole campus is closed down, along with most of the city of Denver. I-25 is closed, every school, most government buildings, museums, etc. It's kinda crazy. We received a phone call, text message, and email at 6am this morning saying that the campus is closed due to snow. So of course I looked outside and - nothing. Not one flake. Naturally, I thought it was a mistake. But when I woke up again around 9am, there was already about 3-4 inches. Then I went to work at 11am. I had to go outside to get to work, and it was snowing pretty hard, but not what I would call a blizzard. Well around 1:00 I checked again and it is like white-out! I can't see more than a few feet outside and then it's just white. The snow is blowing sideways! There is over a foot now, and it's supposed to snow for 36 hours straight. All the way until tomorrow morning. I was really afraid all our dining halls would close, but luckily they're open. There's no way we could even drive a quarter mile to Safeway in this weather. The person that was supposed to work after me couldn't make it to campus, so I ended up working her shift. Then the girl after her called, but I said she's going to have to call someone else because I want to enjoy a few hours of my snow day. It wasn't really a big deal because I don't have that much class on Thursdays anyway. Just an hour in the morning, then TA and choir for 4 hours in the evening. Unfortunately, work is not cancelled even if classes are. Actually, work has been really busy because everyone wants to check out DVDs, games, pool equipment, Nintendo Wii, etc. And everyone is calling to ask if the dining halls are still open. So I've been really busy, but I was still able to get my chem lab done :-)

On Saturday Daniel and I have an appointment with a realtor to go look at 3 houses. I'm really excited about them. They are all beautiful and in really nice neighborhoods. They are just above our budget at 195K, but Daniel thinks that we can negotiate down and that his parents will be willing to go a little above their initial budget. We drove past them just to see the neighborhood and stuff, and I could definitely see us living there, and even raising our kids. There's a park nearby all of them and they had lots of kids running around outside. Every house we looked at is empty. Two of them are bank-owned. This economy is insane, but I guess it is working to our advantage. Except that there are a lot of offers on these houses because they're so cheap. Hopefully the bank is so desperate to sell them that we can get a really great price on them. The thing I don't like is that I'm afraid we'll love a house, but Daniel's parents aren't ready to make an offer until late May early June. So I kind of don't want to look because I'm so ready to get out of the residence hall and live on my own that I'm going to want to buy the first house I see! It'll be fun anyways. House-hunting is always fun. I can imagine what it will be like living there with Hope and Jeff. And my fiancee :-)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Nicole's gone :-(

This morning at 6am, I took Nicole to the airport. It was so fun having her here. I can't believe that she went through all of that flying back and forth and missing classes and all to be a part of our engagement. Yesterday we got our engagement announcements in the mail. They are so cute! I can't wait to send them out. We started making a list and it's so hard to figure out who to send them to. I don't want to leave anyone out, but also I don't know who will actually care if they receive one or not. And this will be the start of our wedding invitation list too. Of course, that list will have to be much smaller.

Now I have a chance to write about my spring break! It was so relaxing after the incredible stress of finals. On Saturday morning I woke up and I really thought I was going to throw up. At the time, I thought it was something I ate, but now I realize it was nerves. I have never been so nervous that I threw up, but I came really close that morning. I actually ran out of the room in the middle of the exam because I felt so nauseated. But I got through it, and my grades are in. I got basically all Bs. I got an A- in spanish, and a C+ in biology lab, but all the rest are Bs. I worked incredibly hard for those Bs, so I am happy. And the C is just one credit, so it shouldn't hurt my GPA too much.

When I got home, Dad took me out for dinner. The next morning I went to church with my grandparents and my grandma's brother and his wife who were in town visiting. Aunt Gail and Uncle Jim actually live in Terre Haute and they took care of Nicole after her accident and drive her to the airport and back a lot, so they are really important to our family. That afternoon some family friends the Cylwiks came over. We met Eric's new fiancee, April. They have been dating less than a year and they're already engaged. My mom told me that she's glad Daniel and I aren't getting married quickly just so we can have sex. Apparently that's what Eric's mom thinks he is doing. They are finishing up their last year of college at ASU. They struck me as really immature and young. I know they are older than Daniel and I, but in my opinion much less mature and they've known each other such a short amount of time. But I shouldn't judge. I don't really know April that well, maybe they will be happily married for 50 years, who knows. Another thing that was funny is that April said they are inviting 300 people to their wedding, and her budget is $10,000. I think she is crazy to think that she can have a huge wedding for that little amount of money. I mean, it's possible, but I don't know if she realizes how little money that is.

That night my mom got back from her ski trip. I feel bad for her because she feels so guilty spending any amount of money since she doesn't have a job. My dad insisted that she go on the trip and the people she went with are good friends of the family, so they are helping pay. My dad exchanged work for them with their taxes for mom's share of the trip. I'm glad she went because she had a great time and she deserves to have fun. On Monday I got my hair all cut off. I went back and forth from thinking it's way too short to thinking it's cute for the first few days, but now that I'm used to it, I like it a lot. And most everyone has said they like it too. Then we met Chris and Aimee for lunch. They brought all four girls, but it was like they weren't even there! The babies slept the entire time, and the older girls sat in silence and ate their lunch. It was really nice to see them and spend some time talking. That night I went to my grandparents' house to spend some time with Aunt Gail and Uncle Jim. That's when we had the whole ring conversation. Little did I know, they all knew that I would be getting my ring very soon!

Tuesday we met Teresa Francis and her two boys Rylan and Kian for lunch. Then we went to the park. Rylan is 16 months and Kian is 3. They are so cute and really well behaved, but not nearly as well as Chris and Aimee's. It was difficult to keep them entertained long enough for lunch to come. That night, Chris and Aimee brought Olivia and Sarah over for us to babysit. They are so tiny and in my opinion, at a very easy age. They lay there most of the time. The only hard part was keeping Sarah's pacifier in her mouth so she didn't start crying. And as soon as I took her diaper off to change her, she peed right there on the carpet. It was actually really funny. In those few hours, I realized how much harder twins are. There was about an hour where my mom was busy that I took care of both of them. I realized that if I was holding one or feeding one, I didn't really have many hands left to take care of the other if she starts crying. It makes me appreciate my parents.

On Wednesday mom and I went shopping. I wanted to get some more summer clothes (since it was like 90 degrees in Phoenix that week!) and shoes. I love shopping with my mom. We went to church that evening and had a delicious dinner that my mom cooked that night. I think my favorite thing about being home is home-cooked meals.

Thursday my grandma, mom, and I went to see The Reader. I have wanted to see it for so long, and when I saw that it was playing, I had to see it right away. It was a little awkward to watch with my mom and grandma because there is a lot of nudity and a lot of sex scenes, but I think I'm getting to the point where I'm old enough that it's not as awkward. It was really good, but not quite what I thought it was going to be. It wasn't as romantic as I would have liked. Ever since the rehearsal dinner, I've wanted to go back to Roy's so we went there for dinner and then my mom and I went to the Coyotes hockey game that night. One of my dad's clients has season tickets 3 rows from the ice, so he gave us them for that night. It was actually really fun. I was probably the only college-aged female there, and my mom was the only woman without her husband. It was kind of funny to see how surrounded we were by men.

On Friday we went to the zoo with Teresa, Kian, and Rylan. It was really fun to spend time with them and be outside all day. I love the sun, and even though I got burned pretty bad, I'm still glad. It was really hot that day. Kian and Rylan are so well-behaved, they didn't get tired or crabby at all. And as soon as we got to the car that afternoon, they went right to sleep. I found out later, that my mom and Teresa talked about my engagement that day when I wasn't nearby. Yet another person that knew! That night my whole family went out for dinner to my favorite restaurant, Maggianos. It was delicious and nice to spend some more time with my grandparents because I won't see them for a long time.

On Saturday morning, I got my nails done (my mom made sure they looked pretty because she knew I'd be putting a ring on very soon) and we went over to my mom's friend's house. They just moved in a few months ago and I had never been to their new house. They had a ton of lemon, grapefruit, and orange trees so we picked some. Mom insisted I take some back to Denver even though I didn't really know what I would do with them. Later I found out that they were really for Nicole! Mom took me to the airport and it was off to Denver.

It was a fun week, but I missed Daniel and all my friends here in Denver. I love the sunshine and warm weather I get while I'm there. And I actually kind of like that my mom's not working because we got to spend so much time together. I really needed the break from school. I am determined that this quarter I am not going to let myself get so far behind in the beginning. I am taking less credits, and now I know how to study for chemistry and biology so I can do much better. I will get better grades this quarter. And our big project for this quarter is to find a house to move into! I guess I'm growing up....

Monday, March 23, 2009

Whirlwind Sunday!

Yesterday was quite an exciting day.  It was such a long day too.  Maggiano's was so much fun.  We had about 20 of our friends celebrate with us.  It was so cool to see all of these great friends that we've made and they are all so happy for us.  And it was awesome that Daniel's mom was so generous to buy all 20 of us a beautiful 3-course meal at Maggianos.  The waiter brought out an extra tray with 3 desserts for us.  And it was perfect because Nicole got to meet most of my close friends right there at dinner.  When we got home, I called my parents and grandparents.  I had no idea so many people knew.  Now that I look back, there were a few little hints, but nothing big enough to completely tip me off.  I can't believe that my parents and grandparents were talking about this right behind my back all week.  They did a good job hiding it.  And now there are little comments that I made and that other people made that seem totally different when I realize that they knew I would be getting a proposal in a few days.  

I went to my grandparent's house on Monday night and we ended up talking about rings.  Grandma pulled out her mother's ring and told me about it.  We had this whole 30 minute conversation about it.  And somewhere in there I told my grandpa that I told Daniel that he had to talk to him first about it before he proposed.  So he would know before I did when it was going to happen.  I even told him that he may even know right now, and just be playing dumb.  Of course I didn't think that was actually the truth!  But poor Grandpa was terrified that I knew.  He played it cool and didn't say anything though.  Daniel's parents also called yesterday.  His mom said she wanted to welcome me to the family and Daniel couldn't pick a better girl and she was crying the whole time.  It was so sweet.  And his dad said that now I get to be a double R just like him lol.  My parents said similar things to Daniel.  We are so lucky that our families get along so well and they are all so supportive.  I realize that we are very young, but everyone can see that this is not a rash decision and we truly love each other.  I just cannot believe how beautiful the ring is and that I get to wear it for the rest of my life!  I can't stop looking at it.  It makes it quite difficult to concentrate in chemistry :-)

Nicole went to biology with me.  It was much more fun with her there.  Well, as fun as biology can be.  I'm thrilled that she came.  It was the second biggest surprise after the proposal of course.  I'm done with class at 2 so we'll have to think of something fun to do this afternoon/evening.  Tomorrow morning she leaves :-(  And then it'll be back to normal boring life.  But with a fiancee!  

Sunday, March 22, 2009

We're engaged!

It's official!  And somehow, I had no clue.  Daniel and my entire family and all of my friends did a really good job hiding it.

He picked me up from the airport yesterday and instead of taking me back to campus, we drove up to Estes Park.  He told me that he was whisking me away on an adventure.  We stopped for dinner and then went up to this beautiful hotel in Estes Park.  It was a huge suite with a private deck that looked out on fall river.  It was so beautiful.  We woke up this morning and packed up our stuff.  Then we went for a walk.  We got back and sat out on our little porch by the river.  Daniel pulled out a piece of paper with the top ten reasons why we're a good couple.  It was so cute and romantic, but I totally didn't think he was going to propose because I didn't think he had the ring yet!  But he pulled out the ring and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.  At first I didn't even answer!  He put the ring on my finger and I was like "How did you get it?"  But he asked again and I was like Yes!  Of course!  And we hugged and kissed.  And then he told me the whole story.  Everybody knew.  Everybody here in Denver, my entire family.  Everybody except me.  I couldn't stop looking at the ring and saying how beautiful it is.  Then Daniel was like, "What about me?"  and I laughed.  Of course I'm thrilled that we're finally engaged!  He cried just a little tiny bit when I said yes.  I was too shocked to cry.

When I went home to go to Beth's wedding shower, his mom gave me  a valentine's day gift for both of us.  It's Rosen tradition to give underwear for holidays, so that was one of the gifts.  Without me knowing, Daniel's mom slipped the diamond inside his underwear!  So I took it back to Denver.  Then, while I was home for Beth's wedding, Daniel took it to the jewelry store and him and his fraternity brother Eric picked out the setting.  While I was in Phoenix over spring break, he picked up the ring and got all my work shifts covered and even invited all of our friends to come to a party tonight to celebrate our engagement!  All without me knowing!  

We drove back to Denver and I was so overwhelmed and surprised.  Then we got back to his room and he knocked on the door instead of sliding his key.  I thought that was really strange and then Nicole opened the door!  She was in Daniel's room!  I cannot tell you how surprised I was and how happy that she is here.  She has never been to campus and now she gets to see where we live and meet all my friends and everything.  It was such a great surprise.  Daniel is so good at all that romantic stuff.  It was perfect :-)  They told me that Daniel picked her up at the airport, brought her back here and then turned around to go pick me up.  She was here the whole time without me knowing!  Now I have about a million things to do before our special dinner tonight at Maggianos- my favorite!  I haven't even called my family yet, but I will.  Daniel's mom helped a lot with the preparations.  She even bought us a ton of engagement announcements and sent out 125 already!  Good thing I said yes lol.  The ring is gorgeous and I love it :-)  I'm so happy.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Why don't I feel happier?

I'm done with winter quarter 2009.  The hardest quarter yet.  So why aren't I jumping for joy?  

This morning I woke up at about 7am feeling extremely nauseus.  For two hours I laid in bed wondering when I was going to throw up and be done with it.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it never happened.  So when my alarm finally went off at 9:15, I knew I had to get up regardless of how I felt.  I figured I'll just push through the nausea and when I'm done with my final, I can come back and go to bed.  I felt a little better after a shower.  It was almost like every few minutes, my body remembered that it was nauseus and I felt it really bad for like a second and then I was okay again.  Really strange.  When I got to the classroom, I let the proctor know that I wasn't feeling well so if I ran out of the room she would know why.  And about 2/3 of the way through, I did get up and run.  I seriously thought I was going to throw up right in the middle of the test.  I couldn't find the bathroom, and I ran right into my professor.  I asked him where the bathroom was and he pointed.  I didn't throw up, and after a few moments I felt better enough to go back in and finish it.  Needless to say, I rushed through the test and wasn't really concentrating as much as I could have been.  I made an educated guess on half the problems.  So I do not feel happy about it at all.  All the studying I did was wasted because my body decided to get sick that morning.  And the worst part is that about 30 minutes after I got home, I felt a whole lot better.  

So I had lunch with Daniel, Hope, and Jeff, hoping that food would make me feel better.  And it did.  Hope and I went to the mall.  We both had coupons for Victoria's Secret.  That was really fun.  And on our way out, we stopped at the jewelry store to look at engagement rings.  Hope is the perfect friend to look at diamond rings with.  She's such a romantic.  In less than an hour, we'll head to the airport.  

The only thing that makes me feel better is that even though I think I did terrible on the exam, I still think I probably did better than most.  I'm really happy as long as I beat the average.  But we'll see.  I really have almost no idea what my grades will be this quarter, and that kind of scares me.  Now I need to stop thinking about that, and look forward to a relaxing week in sunny Phoenix.  I'll probably go shopping, spend time with my mom, get a haircut (which I desperately need- my hair is driving me insane!)  and see some old friends.  It will be a well-deserved break I think.  And then I get to start all over.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Finals and dogs

I have really lost all motivation to study. I studied for about 4 hours today. Not nearly as much as I did for Biology. But at this point, I'm more focused on packing and flying home tomorrow. This happened to me last year too. I did awful on my physics final because it was the last day and I was flying home that afternoon. At least I have a little room to do not as well in chemistry because I did so well on my last test. Pretty much everyone else except us poor science and music majors are done with finals. The residence halls are really quiet because most everyone has left. Hope was very cheerful today because she finished all her finals. She was doing a happy dance while I was sitting there with my chemistry book open trying to study. Ugh. It's not fair. But I have to remember that a few days ago I was happy it was on Saturday, because that gave me extra time to study. But now Hope and Nikki and everyone else is going out for dinner, watching movies, and celebrating. Tomorrow the second I'm done with my test, I'm calling Hope and we are going to have lunch together and then go to the mall. We both have coupons for victoria's secret so we're going there first.

I also finished my physics take-home final today. It was ridiculous. I feel like 80% sure about the first problem, and 95% sure about the second. And the last one, I'll be lucky if I get any points on. I had no clue what the problem was even asking and I couldn't find anything about it in any one of our three textbooks. I finally found a homework problem (which I didn't do) that was very similar. My professor had posted the solutions to the homework online, so I just copied it exactly. Even though the numbers were different and the problem itself was slightly different. I figure, if it looks sort of right he might give me partial credit. Then this afternoon I talked to one of my friends that's in that class with me and we compared answers. We got the same answers in the second one. I explained to her how to do the first one. She stayed after class last week to ask him about that homework problem, so she knew how to do it. When she started explaining, it was so involved and complicated, I gave up. She said it took him about an hour to explain how to do it. How can he expect us to spend an hour on one problem? It's ridiculous! Even if I knew how to do it, I don't think I would. Not worth it. I'm just glad that class is over.

My newest obsession is figuring out which dog breed to get. As soon as we get a house, I want to get a brand new puppy. For a long time, Daniel and I both really wanted an english bulldog. And I still think that would be wonderful, but I also think we can get a fluffier and more active breed. So now our short list includes border collie, goldendoodle, australian shepherd, and my personal favorite, samoyed. If we had a bigger backyard, I would totally want a bernese mountain dog, but that's not realistic at this point. After I saw pictures and watched youtube videos of samoyeds, I really really REALLY want one. They are so adorable and they were actually bred to be companions, so they are super affectionate and love people. The only downside is that they are very fluffy with white hair so they shed a lot. But honestly, I don't think it will bother me that much. The puppies look like tiny white teddy bears, they are so cute!! I want one so bad. Another downside is that it's hard to find pure-bred samoyed puppies at a shelter. We would probably have to go to a breeder. But at this point, I want one so bad that I am totally willing to do that. I think they are absolutely adorable.


Now Daniel and I have to figure out the whole timeline for the house/puppy. I am a little concerned, because if we don't get a house, then I need to apply for housing on campus-- soon. So basically I need to know for sure whether or not we're getting a house. Daniel talked to his mom yesterday and she said that they are definitely getting us a house. So that's settled. And they're going to try to go for sooner rather than later. If we find a house we love, and the stock market is doing well and all goes right, we should be able to close right when school ends in early June. Then we'll have all summer to get the house ready and actually live there (instead of with my parents- ugh). So then we have to figure out when to get a puppy. I want to get one right away of course. But Daniel thinks we should wait until we get back from Europe. But my thinking is that when we get back from Europe we'll only have 3 weeks before classes start to bond with the puppy and train it. If we get it before, we'll have about 6 weeks before we leave to go to puppy school and bond with it. Then either Hope, or my parents, or Daniel's parents can take care of it for a few weeks while we're gone. It might just come down to when we can find a puppy though. I mean there isn't always a litter of samoyeds waiting to be adopted. So we'll see. But how exciting that in about 3 months, we'll have our first home! And Hope is going to live there over the summer too! I love it :-)

I should be studying. But I don't want to. I know enough chemistry, right?

Thursday, March 12, 2009

2 1/2 down, 1 1/2 to go

It's hard for me to believe that I'm going home in a few days.  I feel like I just had my spring break.  But after this week, I'm going to need a nice long break.  I spent the last 24 hours completely cramming for biology, and I think it paid off.  I had a nice system going of reading the chapter while looking through the lecture powerpoints, and doing online quizzes to test myself.  After about 4 of the 6 chapters, that got old and I got kind of lazy.  I didn't read the entire chapter or really look through the lecture notes.  I figured the lecture was just a few days ago, so I would remember it.  When I took the test, it was very obvious which chapters I skipped.  I flew through the first 35 questions.  Then I pretty much guessed on about 10.  For some reason, I'm not upset with myself.  I think I feel like I really learned a lot and that makes me feel good about my grade.  I guess I'll find out.  I would be completely surprised if I got an A, and really upset if I got a C.  

Now I move on to Chemistry.  I have spent the last 2 1/2 hours reading the textbook and doing example problems in the text.  I've done surprisingly well and it's amazing how much better I understand the material after reading it.  It makes me wonder why I go to class at all because I just end up reading the book and understanding so much more.  But maybe I understand it so well because the information is already in the back of my head somewhere from the lecture.  Anyways, I was doing really well until about 4/5 of the way through the chapter.  This entire chapter is about predicting what kind of reaction will happen and how fast the reaction will happen based on a set of conditions.  Each section of the chapter adds another variable that will affect the reaction.  I was doing really well until about the 5th variable and now it's too much for my brain to hold and it's all spilling out.  So I think it's time for a break.  I have been summarizing each section and then at the end I'll write it all down and do a ton of example problems with my summary there.  Then my goal is to take the summary away and see if I can remember most of it.  The good news is, I have until Saturday morning to get all of that done.  So no rush.  Tomorrow morning my professor is holding a review session so I'm hoping to have most of my studying done by then and during the review I can see what I need to go back and work some more on.  I think it's a good plan.  I always do better with a plan anyways.

I have started my physics "take-home" final.  The first problem took me about an hour, and I'm not even sure I did it even partially correct.  I couldn't find anything in our textbook about it.  It seems I should have gone to class that day.  But it's alright, I think he is going to curve so much that I'll end up with at least a B almost regardless of how I do on this test.  You can see how motivated I am to do well.  ha.  I think it's time for some chocolate ice cream.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

I gave in.

I got a Twitter account. What finally did it for me was watching a TED talk from the creator. He made it look really cool. But so far, I'm unimpressed. I haven't really found anyone worth following or that updates regularly. I guess it isn't quite there yet. And honestly, isn't it just facebook? I mean "tweets" are just another word for "status updates" right? So why would I update my status twice? That's just kind of annoying. So we'll see where this goes.

Right now I have much more important things to worry about. Namely, finals. Yesterday I had a break-down moment. Daniel got upset with me and asked why I've been so mean to him lately. I realized that I've been so stressed out and I take it out on him sometimes. I feel terrible about it, so I'm trying hard to be nice. Daniel knows exactly what to do when I am overwhelmed and about to have a nervous breakdown. He hugs me until I calm down. It works every time. I don't know what I would do without him. Yesterday was actually a pretty busy day and I really didn't want to waste an hour and a half going to physics that evening. But, he was handing out the take-home final exam so I couldn't exactly skip it. When we got there, I realized that the entire class was just handing out the exam. He didn't lecture at all. That put me in a really good mood so the rest of the night I felt much better. And then I went out with all the girls to the Melting Pot. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to going. It sounded like a lot of work to get all dressed up and drive there and all when I really should be studying. But after I did get all dressed up, I got excited and I'm glad I went. It was a good de-stressor. I always have a good time with the girls. And chocolate always helps.

It has been extremely cold since I got back to Denver. It snowed Monday night and I actually had to pull out my boots and coat. I really thought that spring was here for good, but I guess not. It's going to be in the 40s until I leave for Phoenix. Then it'll be in the 80s lol. It'll be nice though. On Monday when I get back, I'm going to chop all my hair off. I haven't decided exactly how short to go. Definitely above my shoulders, maybe even up to my chin. We'll see how adventurous I'm feeling that day. I was going through old pictures to see what I looked like with short hair, and I came across some old ones of Tyler. I found some videos that Daniel and I had taken so I posted them on facebook. They made me so happy. I watched them like 3 times. Babysitting Tyler made some of my happiest memories in high school.

So back to finals. I just took my spanish one which means I never ever have to take another spanish class or another spanish test again in my entire life! I am so happy about that. I find foreign languages incredibly boring. Last night I got my take-home final for physics which is due on Friday. Tomorrow morning is biology. I am going to spend most of my afternoon and evening preparing for that. Tomorrow and Friday I will study for my chemistry final which is on Saturday and then I fly home! This morning was my last biology lecture. I got back the quiz I took last week, and I got 100%! That was a huge motivator to keep studying hard so I can do well. I think at this point the highest I can hope for is a B+, but that's okay. I have worked really hard so no matter what I think I'll be okay with it.

Monday, March 9, 2009

The wedding!!

I finally have time to post about my amazing and busy weekend. I left on Wednesday night and flew home. The whole family picked me up from the airport, but honestly I was really tired and kind of went straight to bed. The next day, we all went to a spring training game. It was nice to spend some time with the entire family. It'll be the last time for a while since Aaron leaves tomorrow for boot camp. Mike was also there so I got to talk to him a little bit. Mike caught a baseball that one of the players threw into the crowd. We had awesome seats, really close to the dugout. Nicole and Mike ran over to try to get Orlando Hudson to sign it, but instead, Antwan Bolden signed it. I don't really know who that is, but Nicole informed me that he is a very famous Cardinal's football player. I guess he's friends with Hudson and he came with Orlando's wife and son to watch the game. So Orlando Hudson wouldn't autograph anything, but Antwan Bolden did. Weird.

Anyways, that night was the bachelorette party. Nicole planned most of it, and she did a really good job. She had decorations, party favors, catered dinner, and reservations for the Melting Pot! Yum! It was just the bridesmaids. We got all dressed up, talked about the wedding, and ate lots of chocolate. We played a little game to see how well each of us knew Beth and Jacob, and then to see how well Beth knew Jacob. It wasn't really a contest because Allison, Nicole, and I all knew Beth about equally well and Beth knew all of Jacob's answers except his first word ("moon"). That's pretty good considering, I don't even know what my first word was. We spent the night at the hotel and then the next morning all went to get our nails done. They had two people there to do all of us and the mothers, so seven people all together. It took a couple hours. Then Nicole and I went home to rest for a few hours before the rehearsal.

We drove over to the wedding location and that's the first time I had been there. The hotel was beautiful and the wedding coordinator was super nice. It was also my first time meeting the groomsmen. My "escort" was Jeremy, one of Jacob's friends from elementary school. Lucky Nicole got James, the only one that I knew. But actually all the groomsmen were really nice and generally gentlemen. A little clueless when it comes to weddings, but most guys are. Tyler was a perfect angel at the rehearsal doing everything he was asked. Then we drove to Scottsdale for the dinner. It was delicious! I'm definitely going back to that place sometime. The whole wedding party sat together and the families sat together. Jacob gave a beautiful toast. That's when I really got to know the groomsmen, actually James. Jeremy and Cory were kind of quiet on the end. But James was really fun. I am surprised. Ever since Tyler was born, we've had a difficult time accepting him, but to be honest he is a great dad and it's obvious he really cares about both of his boys. And he is just fun to be around. We got home a little after ten, and went to bed because Saturday was the wedding!

We had to stop at Wal-mart to pick up supplies to decorate the car. We figured the boys probably hadn't thought about it and we wanted to make it as easy as possible so they would actually do it. We got silly string and some cheap cans and window paint. Then we headed to the hotel. The hairdresser was already there finishing up Allison's hair, and I was next. She set my hair in big huge curlers so I got to sit around for a while looking quite strange. Karen made bows and barettes for all of us to use in our hair to keep with the pink/orange theme. They were so cute! While the hairdresser did our hair, we got the candy bar ready and all decorated, and had lunch. It was really fun hanging out with just the girls. We went downstairs to decorate the wedding location and reception. We tied ribbons on all the chairs and it looked beautiful. The colors were so cute all together. There were conferences going on inside, so we had to wait for them to finish before we could put out the table settings and set up the candy bar. The hotel kinda dropped the ball on that. They said we could have access to the rooms at 2:00pm, but of course it was 3:00 before we could get inside. And even then, there was one guy moving the chairs out, setting up tables, and putting on tablecloths. Karen let the wedding coordinator know that we were running out of time so they would get some more people in. In the meantime, we laid out the tablecloths outside and taped different colored ribbons to the underside. When we flipped them over, the ribbons hung down. It was such a neat idea!

We realized at about 4:00 that we had better head upstairs and do our makeup and start getting dressed for pictures at 4:30pm. Allison and I went first, and then Nicole and Dana came up a little later. The florist came and brought our gorgeous bouquets. Beth and I couldn't stop talking about how beautiful they were. And of course Beth took a ton of pictures. She says taking pictures makes her calm, so all day she had her camera with her. Then we got all dressed. Beth helped us put orange ribbons on our dresses and make some final adjustments with our shoes and stuff. When I first saw Nicole and I together, I thought we look so much like twins! It was cute. We helped Beth get dressed and then Tyler came in with his cute little tux on. He was so adorable. Beth was really happy to see him. She got her makeup done, and it was time to take pictures! Walking through the hotel was fun because people kept staring at us. We got the pictures done in a half hour and then we had to back up to the room so the boys could take pictures. So it was just waiting until we got the call to go downstairs and start the ceremony.

I was so excited to see all the guests and walk down the aisle. I was also really nervous because the shoes Beth got us were really tall heels and I was terrified that the heel would get stuck in a little crack and I would fall. I told Jeremy to walk really slow so I wouldn't fall. The ceremony was so beautiful, especially the sand pouring ceremony. And their vows were so cute! I may copy that for my wedding. After the ceremony, we walked back down the aisle and as soon as we were at the end, the shoes came off! Wendy told us we could leave them off for the pictures if we wanted, and we were all happy to hear that! Another whole round of pictures, and it was time for the reception. Beth was very strict that we were not going to leave everyone inside waiting for too long, so there weren't too many pictures. The DJ explained to us the announcing and all that. I loved walking in with everyone cheering! It was so fun. And then dinnertime! It's great being a part of the wedding party. We were served first for everything. And we got to talk to Beth and Jacob. The dancing was really fun. Especially dancing with Tyler. I miss him so much when I'm in Denver, but I got to spend a lot of time with him this weekend. I wanted to catch the bouquet, but Dana was very aggressive in that regard. Beth told me that she tried to aim it at me, but oh well. I thought the honeymoon dance was adorable. I'm definitely doing that at my wedding. Nicole and I were there until the end, which ended up being quite early. About 10:30 everyone was clearing out. I got to talk to Lucia for a little bit which was nice. And then Nicole and I helped clean everything up and we went home. That was it, no more bridesmaid for me :-(

I felt so honored to be chosen as one of the few non-family members that Beth wanted to be in the wedding. It was such a blast. I love Beth and Jacob and I am so so happy for them. They deserve a happy-ever-after. And now it's time to look towards my wedding. I think we'll have to rethink the Estes Park thing. Beth had 204 guests, and ours will be similar, but Estes Park only holds 80. I have also thought about having an entire reception like wearing my wedding dress and all, in Phoenix right after the wedding and before the honeymoon so all those people can still celebrate with us. But it's not the same. I don't know, it's so hard to figure these things out. Daniel doesn't understand how important it is to me to celebrate with all the church people. He keeps saying that Denver is where our future is blah blah blah. But that's not how I feel and he just doesn't get it. My church family is extremely important and I want them to be a part of the wedding. I don't know why he refuses to see that Phoenix is my entire childhood. I've only lived in Denver for a little over a year. I can't just cut that part of my life out. It's really frustrating that he doesn't acknowledge that. But when it comes to our wedding, I will put my foot down. It's important enough that he will just have to deal. And if that means having it in Phoenix, then that's what we'll do. I refuse to just leave them all out because they are a part of the past.

Well this post is long enough. I can't wait to see pictures! So far, nobody has any good pictures of me so I haven't been able to show Daniel. But I'm sure Wendy and Beth have some really good ones.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

My brain just may explode in the next week.

I just realized today that finals are in one week.  Eeek!!  I woke up very overwhelmed this morning and it did not help my concentration in class.  We haven't even completed one chapter in chemistry and we're taking a test next week.  It doesn't seem right.  In biology we took a quiz this morning.  I was really nervous for it because I haven't studied at all, and once again we have a brand new professor so I don't know what his test writing style is.  But it was super easy.  I looked over his powerpoints right before it and I probably got 5 out of 6 questions right, maybe even all of them right.  I'm missing two biology classes while I'm in Phoenix for the wedding, so I printed out like 50 pages from my textbook to read on the plane.  I really don't want to, but I have to because I'm missing the lectures.  The lectures are so much easier to stay awake for.  It's worth it to go home for the wedding :-)  

I also was really nervous for a spanish quiz I took today.  Everyone else is taking it tomorrow morning, but I can't so she let me take it today.  It's over stuff we just learned yesterday so I hardly had time to absorb it let alone memorize it.  Daniel tested me on it for 30 minutes right before I took the quiz, and I know I did really well on that.  So overall, I woke up feeling overwhelmed and unprepared, but I did surprisingly well on both quizzes today.  Now I have vowed to spend this weekend catching up on biology and preparing for the final on Thursday.  Then I can spend Thursday and Friday preparing for the chemistry final.  Spanish and Physics, I'm not really worried about.  Those take minimal studying.  More like cramming right before.

I am so ready for this quarter to be done.  This has been the hardest/most stressful quarter of my college career.  Even Boston University wasn't this stressful because for some reason I didn't even care about getting good grades.  Maybe I thought there was no possible way to get better grades, so I gave up.  But now I know that I can get As.  So I'm really upset with myself if I don't.

Every time I imagine seeing Beth in her beautiful dress, and getting my hair done, and walking down the aisle in my pretty pink dress, I get so excited!  I know it is going to be beautiful and then the reception is going to be a party!  I'm also really excited to see my sister and spend time with her.  I had a great time with her over winter break, and it's been months since I've seen her.  I think we're going to look really cute in our matching pink dresses.

Yesterday we got our RA letters.  I wasn't offered a job.  I have a couple theories as to why.  One, my choices of buildings were severely limited.  Pretty much only Nagel which has a staff of 12 minus whoever was there this year and wanted to come back next year.  Two, all the gossip surrounding Daniel and I (even though it was not true).  Three, they just didn't like me and I wasn't qualified.  Ironically, the room number on my letter said "291."  That's Daniel's room.  Interesting, because I definitely did NOT put that on my application.  I have no idea where they got that as my room number.  Maybe it's there way of saying, "this is why we didn't hire you."  I think that's really strange though.  And funny.  Anyways, I'm not upset at all, because now I won't feel guilty making my grandparents pay for my housing off campus next year.  They would have to pay either way.  And I wasn't going to accept the job anyways.  Now only Daniel will have to quit and they'll only have to find one replacement instead of two.  So that's all behind me.  Now I look toward the future and a my very first house.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Shopping and Vaginas

Yesterday was a great day. We had planned with a few friends to go up to Silverthorne/Keystone. We got up early (for a Saturday anyways) and met up with Hope before driving to pick up Daniel's alumni fraternity brother Paul. He lives in a house near campus. And we drove up to Silverthorne. Hope has never been there, but we told her about the outlet mall and the beautiful mountains at Keystone Ski Resort. So while the boys went skiing, Hope and I went shopping in town. Then we met back up with the boys and had coffee and enjoyed being up in the snow. It was a beautiful day. It was around 30 degrees, but nice and sunny so it didn't feel that cold.

Driving up there was nice as always because the scenery is so beautiful. I fall in love with Colorado every time we drive up to the mountains (which seems to be a lot lately). Hope and I squished in the backseat and Daniel drove with Paul next to him. It was a quick ride up and then we stopped to have lunch. We dropped Daniel and Paul off at Keystone, and we drove back to Silverthorne to go shopping. We started at banana republic, of course. I like the outlet even better than the real store! I grabbed like 15 things to try on. Everything was around $30-40 and everything was 30-50% off that price! It was great. I also looked for Daniel and bought him a really nice shirt. Then we went to this makeup store where they had clinique for like $5 off the normal price. I have looked everywhere for clinique, and this was the first time I saw prices that low, so I had to buy some. I bought Daniel this face scrub that he likes too. We stopped in Coach and wished we could buy everything there. And before we knew it, we had to go back and pick up Daniel and Paul. We decided to meet back at Keystone at 2 so Hope and I could stop at Starbucks and look around at the little shops they have there.

When we got back to Keystone, we had to find a spot to park. We found a spot and realized after we pulled in, why nobody parked there. There was a big rut in the snow down the middle and my tire got stuck in it. I was spinning my wheels trying to get out. I stopped, and Hope and I were like "Oh no what are we going to do?" But, we thought about it and decided to pull in further at an angle and then back out at an angle so we wouldn't get stuck in the rut again. It worked thank goodness. We went to starbucks first. The hot chocolate was delicious, but I burned my tongue. It still hurts. There was a little kind of carnival going on which was pretty fun to watch. There was a ventriloquist, a juggler, the Keystone mascots (Teddy Bear and Marty moose) and some high school girls dancing. Daniel and Paul found us and we were ready to go. But first we had to stop at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and get some dark chocolate-covered almonds. My favorite!

On the way back, we hit some really bad traffic. I had to work at 5 and Hope had to shower and everything before her show that night. We were completely stopped for almost an hour. We actually turned the car off and got out. We enjoyed watching the cars next to us. There were three in a row. The first car we named "open container" because they kept getting out and grabbing beers from their trunk. Then they went back two cars and offered some to the girl we named "tramp stamp" because of the tattoo on her back that we could see. In between then was "boring guys" because they were boring obviously. As we sat there, we saw so many people jump over the side of the highway and walk down a really steep hill. We assumed that they had to go to the bathroom. It was ridiculous how many people decided at that exact moment that they had to go. Then I realized I had to go to the bathroom. But I didn't want to go down there because I was afraid a guy would go at the same time and see me. Tramp Stamp actually went down there and then we saw a guy get out and walk down there. When she got back up we saw her say "a guy saw me pee!" so of course that made me not want to. It took me about 30 minutes to work up the nerve, but I finally did. Paul was very proud of me. We watched "open container" and "tramp stamp" flirt back and forth for a while. It was also weird how many people in the traffic jam were around our age. But it made for an interesting time.

It was about 4:40 when I realized I better get someone to cover my shift. I called a bunch of people, and finally Nate agreed. We started moving again and got back to campus about 6pm. We met Eric (Daniel's fraternity brother) for dinner at 6:30 and then went to see Hope in the Vagina Monologues. Daniel actually bought a chocolate vagina too. It was really.... awkward looking. Vaginas just don't make as good candy as penises I guess. Anyways, the show was awesome! Hope played an old lady who never had an orgasm after a "flood" down there when she was in high school. The whole show was great. I knew a few girls in it and they were all incredible. Daniel and I worked from 10pm-1am and then bedtime! It was such a fun day. Hope and I had a great time, and Paul always makes me laugh. What a great Saturday :-)