Apologies

First off I have to apologize because it has been so long since I posted anything. I have thought about it a couple times but I just haven't done it. 

Lots of things have happened in my life since my last post... My little brother left on his mission in September and leaves the MTC on November 16, for now he is going to be sent somewhere in the states until he gets his visa and then they will be sending him all the way down to Brazil for the remainder of his mission (so I have been told thats how it works) But all in all he is doing great!

I am now a brace face again. I got my braces on the end of July and will have them on for a good ol' year and a half. 

Its not the funnest thing ever BUT I am excited for the end result. 

The last most exciting thing is that I now have a new man in my life. I am not the biggest fan of dating but the past month with him has been a blast. We have had the opportunity to do so many fun things together and so much time to get to know each other (now if we could get people to stop trying to marry us, everything would be perfect. Just kidding). 

Sorry I don't have a picture of the two of us together. I will post one as soon as I get one. 

Happenings Since March

Wow! I didn't realize that it has been 2 whole months since I posted anything. I can't even think of a good excuse for why. I guess I have just been lazy. I guess this post will just be a recap of what has happened in the past 2 months. Lets see.... First... Matt left for his mission on March 13th... It was a happy /sad day. I am super proud of him, but I miss him A LOT. He has been out for 2 months now and he left the MTC yesterday morning and arrived in Argentina this morning. Only 22 more months! 

After Matt left, my mom and I ventured to Dallas for spring break. We decided to drive the 13 hour drive. The night before we were supposed to leave it decided to snow. We figured it would be safer to wait a few hours before we left so that the sun would have time to melt the snow before we headed out. It was a great idea, except that we were stopped on the freeway for about 30 min total and had to travel with tons of traffic. It took us about 8 hours just to make it to Amarillo which is supposed to be half way. Long story short our 13 hour drive turned into a 15 hour drive with the last 2 hours driving in a blizzard. I will admit, I did a happy dance when we finally made it to my sister's house. 

While we were in Dallas we shopped till we dropped, went to the zoo, watched movies, played dress up, blew bubbles, shopped some more, and had TONS of fun!

It was hard to leave Dallas. But only a few more weeks until Taytum is here and the real fun begins!

After spring break school began to finally wind down. Sadly I missed the deadline for the student show because I randomly got the flu and the doctor told me that I could not go anywhere. It was OK though because Christi at work loved my picture so I gave it to her. After the student show we started work on our final portfolio. This was mine. 

My theme was texture. 

Then I did an anticipation photo

and a juxtaposition photo. (just a warning this photo is pretty graphic).

(Yes those are pickles.... in the toilet)

Of course all the pictures were edited beautifully but I didn't put the edited ones on my jump drive. So you are stuck with the not so pretty un-edited ones. I was very proud of my final portfolio, and I think my teacher liked it too. 

Another exciting thing that has happened since my last post is.... my little brother got his mission call! He is going to Curitiba Brazil! He reports to the Brazil MTC on September 15. He will be speaking Portuguese and could not be more excited about it. 

I think that pretty much sums up the past two months. Not much has happened but hopefully more exciting stuff is to come this summer. I promise to keep you more updated.

And the winner is....

After this past week I am starting to feel a little like the song "Where are you Christmas" that Cindy Lou Who sings in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Except it wouldn't be "Where are you Christmas", you would have to change the words to "Where are you Spring Time". So it would go something like this..... 

Where are you spring time 

Why can't I find you 

Why have you gone away 

Where is the laughter 

You used to bring me 

Why can't I hear music play 

Ok. So maybe I just feel like the first verse of the song. But yesterday morning I woke up to this...

Its pretty much the MIDDLE of MARCH! And I woke up to 5 inches of snow. What the Heck!

Anyways... On to what the title of this post is about. Remember the "contest" that I entered some pictures in at the college that I wrote about in my last post. Well.... They chose 2 of my pictures! These are the ones they chose... 

(This is the actual one that I entered. Not the one in the previous post)

I was pretty excited when my teacher called me to tell me that they picked my pictures. AND someone BOUGHT the first one for $50.00. I was pretty stoked. So if you get a magazine from the college for 2010 be sure and look for my pictures. I can't remember what the magazine is called so you will just have to watch for them!

Just some pictures....

Tonight when I went to class my teacher told us about a little "contest" the college is having where students enter pictures that they have taken and if they are chosen, they get put into a little magazine that the college puts out every year. At first I thought, "Thats stupid, I don't have any pictures contest worthy." THEN my teacher convinced me to enter 3 of the pictures that I had taken for this weeks assignment. Sadly I don't have my favorite one, its on the computer at the college but I have one close to it. So here they are....

The last one is my favorite, except the one I submitted showed a different part of the rake and the colors were amazing. I won't know for a couple of weeks if they chose one of my pictures or not but I will let you know. 

The Roller Coaster That Is My Life....

I know I am a slacker and haven't posted anything for a month. But just so everyone knows, I am still alive. My life since January has been pretty crazy/weird/fun. Since January so much has happened I don't even know where to start.... 

Well first off my BESTEST friend since like 2nd grade came home off his mission... 

I couldn't be more proud of him. I am still getting used to the fact that he is home. It doesn't seem quite real yet. 

Along with that, my significant other, I guess thats what you could call him, Matt is leaving on his mission to Argentina in 18 days. I currently am having mixed feelings about this. I am SO proud of him for going on a mission and I couldn't be more excited for him but at the same time I am not ready at all for him to leave. I am going to miss him so much. I am sure I will never be so grateful for the invention of e-mail. 

On another note, I am LOVING my job. It is very crazy some days but I love it. It is much better being absolutely crazy than just sitting staring at the computer like I did with my last job. I love the people I work with, everyday is so much fun.  I am learning so much and I am excited to continue learning new things. 

One thing that I have recently remembered is how hard it is to work full time and try to go to school. I ended up dropping a class, so now I am only taking 1 class and even with that 1 class I put my homework off until the day of class most days. It has become very difficult to be motivated to do anything that has to do with school. 

So... that is sort of an short overview of my life the past few weeks. These next few weeks will probably be a roller coaster in more ways than 1. But I will try to keep you updated on what is happening in my crazy life. 

A week later...

It has only been maybe a week since I posted  my "update" and it feels like so much has changed in the past week I needed another update. This past week has been very crazy with work and school and just life in general. So first off I told you that I would let you know how this book was when I finished it... 

It was a very good book. It makes you consider your life, how you are living it, and the people in your life and how you treat them. I would definitely recommend this book to read.  

On another note... School started this past week (which honestly, isn't very exciting at all) but I am trying to get myself excited. I am only taking 2 classes this semester. I thought it would be a nice break since last semester was so hard BUT I was completely wrong. Between my 2 classes I will have enough homework to consume my life for the next 4 months.  

One of my classes this semester is photography. I am actually excited for this class. One assignment that we have is a visual journal. My teacher said it can be just a plain notebook that we put pictures that we like in and then write about the pictures. Well I went to get a notebook for my "journal" but being the picky person I am I didn't really find one that I like. So i got the cheapest one that I could find and I upgraded it I guess you could say. And I am pretty impressed with the end result...

(This is my first "journal entry")

It is pretty girly, but I like it and I hope my teacher likes it too. 

And lastly as if I wasn't crazy enough already I am starting a new book. 

This is the 1st book in the Gregor the Overlander series. I am hoping that reading all of them will help pass the time until the next book in The Hunger Games comes out. I also have NO idea when I am going to find time to read but I will finish it eventually and let you know how it goes. 

On a side note... I realized that I have developed this odd love for reading all of the sudden (if you haven't noticed). I have read 3 books in a month. And I am starting to become a regular at the library. The employees probably think I have nothing else to do but read. Who knows... 

Update!

It has been a really long time since I updated anything. I can't even use the excuse that I have been busy, its more like I have been lazy. Anyways, the past month has been a little bit on the crazy side. Lots of things have changed in my life since December. So I thought that I would update everyone on my crazy life. First off in December was finals, I think we all know how that goes. I did pretty good in my classes last semester. I only had one class that I will sadly have to take again, but I was expecting that (most of the people in my class had already taken the class 2 or 3 times). Other than that the semester ended great. My next item of business (I guess thats what it was) in December was to find a full time job. I got really lucky and got a job super quick and didn't even have to look very hard. The only downside was working 2 jobs during Christmas break, but I can't complain about the money. Along with all of the I had ALL of my brothers and sister here for Christmas. My sister and her little family were here for 3 weeks. My oldest brother and his family were here for 2 weeks. And my second oldest brother was here for a week after Christmas. So my house was full of people for 3 weeks but it was a lot of fun. I also have done tons of reading during Christmas break. Where did I find the time to read? I don't know, I think part of it was I couldn't stop reading. What have I been reading you ask? I have been reading these AMAZING books that I recommend EVERYONE read... 

I read these two first and they were amazing. They were so good it only took me a few days to read the first one. And about a week to read the second (I started the second one when I started my new job so I didn't have as much time) Sadly the third book doesn't come out until the summer, so I decided to read some other books to pass the time. I am currently reading this book. 

I actually wasn't planning on reading this one. I wanted to read another Mitch Albom book but they didn't have the one I wanted at the library so I got this one instead. So far I would say that it was a good choice. It is a very touching book that makes you think about your own life and what you take for granted. I will let you know what I think when I finish it (which shouldn't be long) but so far I would definitely recommend it. 

I am so glad it is January. That seems weird, but January means we are closer to spring and spring means we are closer to summer and I LOVE summer. It also means we are closer to having NO MORE SNOW! Hopefully January also means that my life will calm down but we will see.