Daniel's Camp

We've been in the house for one week today. It seems like a lot longer. I already feel settled and at home. I really love this house. It feels like mine. It gives me motivation to keep it clean too. I'm really careful about putting everything away when I'm done. I don't think that will last very long.

I have been going over to campus at least once a day to spend time with Daniel at his camp. The other counselors are getting to know me, and some of the campers too. A couple days ago the Tuff Shed people came by to deliver our shed that we bought. His truck was too wide to fit through our narrow driveway into the backyard. He told me he would make a phone call. When he came back, he said that his boss told him to just drop it in the driveway. We would have to move it ourselves. He said that it said that in our contract. I was like, "no it does NOT say that" but I didn't know what else to do. He told me that we could move it by rolling it on PVC pipe. I called Daniel's parents and they talked to him on the phone. He told me that they would be back later in the week to finish moving it, but for now it was staying in our driveway. Right then, our realtor's dad pulled up to the house with a pick-up truck full of dirt. We talked to her about getting some fill dirt to fill in the foundation in the back of the house. Just our luck, there was a giant shed in our driveway so he couldn't get to the backyard. Which means he dropped the dirt in the front of our driveway. Ugh. It was not a good day. I called Daniel and he told me to go ahead and pull out the weeds and try to move the dirt into the gap. We don't have a wheelbarrow, so I emptied out a garbage can and put it on top of a flat dolly. Then I filled the garbage can with dirt and wheeled it to the backyard. I filled it a little too full, and I could barely move it. I finally dragged it to the backyard and tipped it over. That's as far as I got. I couldn't lift the garbage can to tip the dirt out. Daniel told me he would take an hour off the next morning to help me finish moving the dirt.

So I picked him up around 10am and we shoveled dirt into the garbage can, pushed it up the driveway into the backyard, and then shoveled it into the gap. It was hard work. I got a blister and really dirty. But I'm really glad it's not in our driveway anymore. I was so happy that Daniel came to help me. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed having to figure all of this out for myself the day before. I took a nap that afternoon and then went back to campus for their evening fun activity. We went swimming in the giant olympic-sized swimming pool in our fitness center. There was a huge blow-up obstacle course that you had to jump onto and crawl through stuff and then slide down at the end. It got really slippery and it was hard to stay on. It was really fun. The campers stayed on that for about 90 minutes, while me and Daniel and another counselor Marijo talked and hung out. We told her the story of Daniel's proposal. She was really nice to talk to. Marijo and Daniel both have all day Friday off, so we invited her to come over to our house. I think we'll make dinner together.

Daniel's boss at the camp is also warming up to me. I brought a cake the other day and she really liked that. She actually asked Daniel if I was going to come to Elitch's with them on Sunday. Elitch's is a Six Flags park in Denver. I don't even work for the camp or anything, but she assumed I was coming with them. I think that's a good sign. Then that night I was hanging out in Daniel's room until lights out and she came by to talk to him. She saw me in there and told us that I wasn't supposed to be there. I offered to leave, but she told me to stay, but don't let the campers see that I'm in there. I felt really bad, but she didn't really care that much. I'm glad because she won't mind that I'm around so much. I have nothing to do around here, so I would like to spend time with Daniel at the camp.

Daniel gets a couple hours off this afternoon so he is going to come home with me. I think we'll go grocery shopping and then bake brownies to take back to camp for the counselors. I spent an hour this morning cleaning the house so it looks nice for Daniel. I'm so excited that we get to spend time together. We haven't had time together by ourselves in almost a week.

We leave for Europe 3 weeks from today! Yikes!

Done!

I just got back from taking Daniel's parents to the airport. It was a crazy 4 days, but we finished pretty much everything. There are no more boxes to be unpacked, no more furniture to put together, nothing to fix. The only thing left is the shed which will be delivered on Monday. I can't believe we got everything done in 3 1/2 days. The 4th day we spent the morning finishing up, went shopping for groceries at Costco, and then celebrated our roommate Paul's birthday and our new house with a party in the evening. A bunch of the Theta Chi brothers came over and Hope too :-) Paul made a delicious dinner for all of us (on his own birthday) and we played guitar hero and drank PBR all night long.

I had to take Daniel to work this morning. He's living on campus for the next two weeks. He does get one whole day off this Friday. Besides that he can't really leave campus. I wish that we had at least one day in the house to ourselves, but it didn't work out. That's okay, we can wait. Daniel's parents were so generous. We went to the store a billion times and they bought anything they thought we needed. Anything. And they took us to Costco and let us get whatever we wanted this one time. I asked his dad if something was too expensive and he told me, "We're taking you to Costco once, you can take advantage of it or not" So I did lol. This morning before they left for the last time, Robert put a little piece of bread and a pinch of salt and wrapped it in aluminum foil. He told us this is so that nobody in the house will ever go hungry, and we'll always have a little spice. He hid it up high in the back of a cupboard. I guess it's a Jewish tradition. It was so sweet.

Today me, Paul, and Hope are going to the neighborhood picnic! I have never been to a neighborhood picnic before. And one week after we move in, they have one. It's so funny. It's a big neighborhood, probably 1.5-2 square miles so there will be a lot of people there. They even have sponsors and I'm pretty sure there will be food. Then we're meeting two other brothers, Eric Froese and Erik Engelstad to see The Proposal. I think it'll be a fun day. I'm really excited to cook dinner for myself tonight for the first time in our new home. I really hope that Daniel will be able to come home once in a while, but I doubt he will. At least I can go to campus and hang out with him all day if I really want to. I'm kind of looking forward to the next 2 weeks. I can do whatever I want. I'm planning on going to the library to get a big stack of books to read.

We're Moving!

We leave tomorrow for Denver! The last week has been full of shopping and packing. Yesterday it took only 2 hours to load up the truck and now we are ready to go. I am so so so excited to get there and start unpacking. But also really overwhelmed. Looking at that truck filled with stuff made me feel like it's going to take a looong time to get it all unloaded and put away. We threw away a ton of stuff and sent even more to Goodwill, but we still have so much. I'm picturing opening up a box and having no place to put all the stuff inside. I'm particularly concerned about our kitchen. It's pretty small and we have a lot of dishes. I'm afraid there will be no room left for actual food. But we'll see. We don't really have a lot of room to store cleaning supplies and random stuff. There are 3 linen closets upstairs, but they have a bunch of small shelves. Not really good for storing boxes. And there's one big closet downstairs, but it's just exposed beams. No shelves or anything. I hope we didn't overestimate how much room we have and take too much stuff. I keep trying to picture what the rest of the week will be like with unpacking and everything. I don't know where to start there's just so much to do. We have a ton of Ikea furniture to assemble and then a million boxes to unpack and put away. I just have to take a big breath and take it one box at a time. I hope that by the time Daniel's parents leave there are just a few boxes that I have to unpack. We did all of our shopping here, so we won't need to run to Target or anything. We will go to Costco and get some groceries, but that's it. We tried to think of everything we need (which is a lot) and get it all ahead of time. We spent exactly $1500 on everything for the house. I think that's pretty good. So Daniel and I have to pay for the moving truck and the hotel tomorrow night. So many people were generous and gave us stuff. Daniel's mom went through their entire house and gave us almost anything we wanted. My parents gave us two bookshelves and anything else that belonged to me. I took a bunch of my favorite books and piano music. My grandparents gave us their beautiful piano (which actually belongs to my mom). My Aunt and Uncle gave us some furniture and kitchen supplies as well as 100 Euros for our trip to Europe! And My mom's best friend's husband's mother just died so we went through her house and got a bunch more dishes and cleaning supplies and towels and stuff like that. She also gave us a lawn mower, rakes, shovels, and other yard stuff. We feel so lucky to have such generous and giving people around us. So we are really set.

At Ikea we got really nice stuff too. I wanted to get a cabinet to put our dishes in so we would have more room in the kitchen for food. We got a beautiful cabinet with frosted glass doors on it. I'm so excited to put it together and put our dishes in it. We also got this really cool window treatment for our front window. There are big long panels of cloth that slide past each other on a track in front of the window. We got 4 red panels and 4 sheer white panels with swirls cut out. So when the white panels are in front of the red, you can see it through the swirls. It was really expensive, but it will look so cool when it's all done.

We also got to experience the joy of shopping at Costco :-) They have such amazing prices there! We paid less for a 20 pc set of ceramic dishes at Costco than a 16 pc set of plastic Corelle dishes at Target. They are really beautiful. And we got a blender, bath towels... a ton of stuff. For the past few weeks I was sort of afrair our house would look like Goodwill with all our random hand-md-downs that don't match or anything. But actually the stuff we got from family and friends is really nice and we bought just enough new stuff that I think everything else will look new too. I'm so excited to see it all put together!

I'm really not looking forward to the drive though. Daniel made me drive the truck around yesterday with all the stuff in it so I could get used to it before I have to go 70 on the highway. It's not that bad. It's just a really long drive. Really really really long. The worst part is there is no way to hook up our iPod to the truck. We are going to Best Buy to buy something for the trip there. We have to. Or I think I might die. That may be exaggerating a bit.

Anyways, I'm so ready to get out of Phoenix and move into our own home. Me and Daniel get to make all the rules :-) And I don't have to deal with my parents anymore. After about one week, I was going crazy in this house. I'm getting along fine with my parents, but I don't know how long that will last. It's much better for our relationship if I live somewhere else. So tomorrow morning, we're leaving and I never have to live in my parents house again. I'm happy :-)

Back in Phoenix

The last few days have been really busy, but really fun.  VBS was pretty insane.  It seemed crazier than it has been in past years.  I felt like we spent half the time trying to get them to be quiet and sit still and the other half actually having fun.  But that's the way it goes sometimes with little kids.  It was so weird that some of the kids I babysat as infants were in preschool now!  Those kids were in the nursery when I did it for VBS 4 years ago.  And the kids I had in preschool are now in 1st and 2nd grade.  Time goes by so fast.  The Friday night show was so disorganized and really scary for me.  I was told that my job was to help the kids learn their lines.  What I didn't realize is that nobody had figured out how the show was going to work.  I didn't know how to get the kids in the order for their lines and out onto stage in front of the microphone without having complete chaos.  So at the last minute, I let the 5th and 6th graders do all the lines.  The show went surprisingly well despite all the chaos and disorganization.  The kids had a great time.  And the best part is that Rylan was so attached to me all night :-)  When he saw me across the church, he took off and ran straight to me and gave me a hug.  During the entire show he sat right next to me almost perfectly still.  That's pretty good for a 2 year old.  Kian and Rylan are coming over on Sunday to go swimming.  I think that will be really fun.

Today, besides recovering from VBS, I have been cleaning out my childhood bedroom.  I have a ton of stuff to throw out, a ton of stuff to donate, and some stuff to take with me to our new house.  It's mostly old childhood memory stuff.  It'll probably go up in the attic or something.  But I don't want to get rid of it regardless.  Coming back to my parents house drives me nuts.  They have so much STUFF.  My dad keeps buying more and more. Every inch of the walls is covered in paintings, pictures, etc.  Every tabletop is covered in knick knacks or old mail or papers.  Every corner is filled with furniture..... I can't stand it.  If this were my house I would probably get rid of half the stuff in it.  But my dad wants to buy more!  I don't know what it is, but clutter makes me a little crazy.  So it feels good to at least get rid of the clutter in my bedroom.   Part of me doesn't want to take any of it to Denver because I'm afraid our house will get cluttered. But I also have to remind myself that I'm not taking all that much stuff and I will have plenty of space in closets and the attic to store stuff if we don't want to put it out somewhere.  I think Daniel is going to be upset at how many books I'm taking.  I love to read and there are so many good books I have accumulated over the years.  I'm hoping that I will be able to display them somewhere in the living room.  I think it will make us look smart and be sort of a conversation piece to have all these great books out where people can see them.  But Daniel thinks books are a waste of space.  As he put it "what are we going to do with books?"  But he will have to deal with it because he's marrying me and I love books!

Tonight I'm going over to Daniel's parent's house for dinner.  I think it will be nice to spend some time with them.  His mom was so sweet to invite me even though Daniel's not here.  And my parents finally decided to book the cruise over New Year's so the whole family will be together for a few days.  I think it will be so much fun.

I'm done!

Wow.  I'm finally done.  I did really really terrible on my organic chemistry exam.  It was really hard!  The only way I'll do well is if my professor decides to give me points for being very "creative" in my answers.  Or if everyone else does worse than me which is a very good possibility.  I have spent hours today packing up a ton of stuff so Daniel has as little to do as possible once I leave.  We haven't gotten permission to store our stuff in the house yet, so Daniel will have to deal with that by himself.

On Monday night we went over to Daniel's tuba professor's house for a end of the year BBQ.  All the tuba students and their "significant other" came as well as the other tuba professor and his wife.  There were about 12 people altogether.  She lives in a house built in 1890!  It's a beautiful home.  It's filled with antique Victorian furniture that match the house very well.  Kathy and her husband researched what the house used to look like and used wallpaper and paint to reproduce what it probably looked like when it was built.  Kathy cooked a really delicious meal.  She has two beautiful German Shepherd dogs.  They are very big and not very well behaved.  They were so cute though.  They bark at anything that goes by and since her house is on the corner, that's pretty often.  It still made me want to get a dog.  A small dog.  And train it well.  Interestingly, there were two other scientists there.  Kathy's husband is a vascular surgeon and Erin (a graduate student) is dating a doctoral student in biochemistry.  I got to talk to them a lot and they had some advice for me.  Mostly, to make sure I have something that makes me stand out when I apply to graduate/medical school.  Erin's boyfriend recommended the Ph.D./M.D. program.  I'll think about it, but that's a lot of school and a lot of money and it sounds really hard.  But wouldn't that be amazing to be Dr. Rachel Rosen, M.D./Ph.D.?  And I could do research and work with patients at the same time.  That's definitely something I'm interested in.  I know ASU West has the program, I'm not sure about any places in Colorado.  This was the first time that I really had a chance to talk with Daniel's tuba professors and get to know them.  They spend lots of time with Daniel and I see them around the music school a lot, but I have never really talked to them.  

I checked out of my room last night.  I leave for the airport in about 4 hours.  Next time I come to Denver, I'll sleep in our new house!  I couldn't sleep at all last night.  I'm not sure if it was because I was nervous about this test, excited to go to Phoenix, or excited to move into our house.  Probably a combination of the three.  Either way I didn't sleep.  I was literally awake all night long.  I think it's even worse when Daniel is sleeping soundly next to me.  But I'm not tired right now. I'll probably sleep on the plane and hopefully go to bed early tonight.  I'll be going to VBS tomorrow morning so that will be fun.  I can't wait to spend time with my mom.  I miss her a lot.  

I'm done.  I'm so glad I have three months with no homework and no tests and no labs.  Yay!

Not a good day

I have been so depressed today for no reason!  Well, actually three reasons.

First, I am depressed about my grades.  I did not do as well in biology as I expect from myself.  Now I am so so nervous for my chemistry exam.  I feel like this one exam determines my grade for the whole quarter.  I really want to do well.  After not doing so well in biology, I feel like I'm lazy and dumb and I can't get good grades no matter what.  It's a terrible feeling.

Second, I am depressed about my body.  Daniel and I went bathing suit shopping today.  I have had  a "tankini" for a few years now, and Daniel said he would really like me to get a bikini.  And I thought it's time to get a new one after about 3 years, so we went to the mall.  The first one I tried on I felt like a big fat cow.  Mostly it's my stomach and hips that just look huge to me.  I know in my head that I'm really not that fat, but in a swimsuit I think everyone looks fat.  I bought it anyways.  Daniel told me I looked beautiful.  I trust his opinion more than mine anyways.  I know that I'm more critical of myself than anyone else is and I need to just avoid looking in the mirror when I'm wearing a bikini.  It's not good for my self-esteem.

Third, I am depressed about money.  It's absolutely ridiculous because I have lots of money.  We're going on a trip to Europe this summer and we've saved up almost $6000 for that!  Despite all that, I still feel poor.  We went to bed bath & beyond and Macy's and some other home stores and everything was too expensive.  We have to just take what we can get from family and make it work.  I know this sounds so ungrateful, but I can't help wishing that we could buy everything that matches and make it look beautiful like a magazine.  I really hope that once we get everything in the house we can figure out how to tie things together and still have it look nice.  I think we can.  Once again, my brain and emotions don't agree.

I sound like a spoiled brat.  And I know it.  I could get much worse grades, be much fatter, and be much poorer.  Why can't I just be happy with what I have?  But then again, if I'm happy with what I have, I won't have any motivation to get better.  To work harder and get better grades, to eat right and exercise to stay in shape, and to do well in school so I can get a good job and make more money.  I just wish I could be patient enough to let it all happen in time and be grateful for what I have right now.  It's yet another thing for me to work on.  Patience and Thankfulness.  I'm trying.