Being Crafty

I may not be doing a good job of keeping my resolution to post more often, but I have been much better about keeping the one about being more crafty. A few weeks ago I bought my very first sewing machine.

This is what it looks like. Nothing fancy, but it does its job and is easy to learn on. Jen and I are taking a sewing class once a week and so far we are loving it. We spent the first few weeks learning the basics and making pillows. Here is my first ever project that I made on my new machine:


Again, nothing too fancy. At least I kind of know what I'm doing now. As soon as I get the time, I'm going to use what I learned from here and make a better one. :) Next week we will begin making our very own taxi tote. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Coffee and Old Friends

So, last night I was able to go out with two of my oldest and dearest friends. I have known Spence literally my entire life. He just got back from a semester in Europe and it is wonderful to finally have him home again. Mere has pretty much been my best friend since the third grade. Now that we're both married we don't get to hang out as much as we used to, but we are working on that. The three of us grew up together in the same church. Last night was the first time we had seen Spence since sometime last August, so we were VERY excited about that. We ended up going to a little coffee house downtown and just sat there talking for a few hours. I had a great time and I loved catching up with those two. It seems like just yesterday that we were still in high school and looking forward to graduation. Now, we're almost finished with college and looking foward to another graduation. So much has changed in our lives during the four years in between, but when we take the time to get together it's almost as if nothing has changed at all.

Last First Day of School

Today was my last first day of classes for my undergraduate career. It went pretty well, I think. It looks like I have one really, really hard class and the rest should be not so bad. I think the worst part of today was having to pay ridiculous amounts of money for the textbooks I will need this semester. Thankfully I was able to get a voucher from a scholarship to pay for the books, but still. Almost $250 for 3 books is insane!!

It looks like this semester is going to be just as busy as the last one if not more so. Here is what I have on my plate until May:

12 hours of classes per week, including a Master's class that I will begin in March
20 hours of work per week at my on-campus job
20 - 25 hours of work per week at my retail job
Volunteering at ENCM on Tuesday afternoons
Sewing Class on Wednesday nights
Church on Sunday
An internship at the Hope Clinic which will be 5 - 10 hours a week

Whew! It makes me tired just thinking about it! I guess I'm going to have to be extremely organized this semester and push myself to get everything done. Still, it's nice to know that once May hits most of these obligations will be done with and I will have a Bachelor's degree under my belt. Hurry up May!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Okay, so this post is a little late, but I've been out of town for the last week. So, here it is:

Our first Christmas as a married couple was wonderful! We did the annual Christmas eve party at Doc and Jo's house and then went to my parent's house where my immediate family all gathered to do our gift exchanging. It was great to have the whole family together at one time. That doesn't happen often. Christmas morning Jason and I exchanged gifts with each other before going to his parent's house for more gift opening and then to my parent's house again for Christmas breakfast. We had Christmas dinner with Jason's parents and then the four of us went to see Four Christmases. (Great movie, by the way!)

For New Year's Eve we went to a party that some friend's of ours had. It was pretty low key, but fun. Then the next day we left for the annual Ski Trip to Snowshoe, West Virginia. We had a lot of fun skiing and hanging out with everybody. It was definitely a much needed vacation.

Now that the holidays and vacations are over, it's time to get back into the swing of things. I'm back to my on-campus job today and then classes begin tomorrow. I'm so excited to get my last semester of college underway. It's hard to believe that it's already here.

Oh yes, before I forget ... here are my New Year's Resolutions for this 2009:

1. Blog more. I'm going to try to update this page more often and maybe even start another blog for crafting/creative stuff. Which brings me to...

2. Find more time for crafting/being creative. I am taking a sewing class starting next week and I have several projects that I've been meaning to find time for.

3. Pay off debt and get finances in order so that Jason and I can possibly buy a house at the end of the year of the beginning of next year.

Those are the three big ones. Of course, there are a bunch of other things that I want to improve this year, but I thinks it's best to focus on a few things at a time. :)

Thanksgiving!

Our first Thanksgiving as a married couple went very well. I attended the Thanksgiving Breakfast at church for the first time. We are usually out of town for the holiday so I've never had the chance to go before. Jason's family and mine were both at the breakfast so we all sat together at one BIG table. It was nice to have both of our families there together. After that we had Thanksgiving dinner (or lunch, really) with Jason's family at his parent's house. Then Jason went to camp outside of Best Buy while I went to the movies with his sister.

I FINALLY got to see Twilight. It was well worth the wait. I think they did a great job of portraying the characters and sticking to the book as much as possible. I will definitely be buying it when it comes out on DVD and can't wait for the second one.

After the movie I went to do Thanksgiving dinner with my family at my parent's house. As soon as the eating was done, I went over to spend some time with Jason outside of the Best Buy. It was COLD! We stayed outside together last year for the entire night, which was fun, but I'm not in a big hurry to do it again. My mom, two sisters, and brother-in-law then came to pick me up and we headed out to the mall which opened at midnight. Spent some time there and then took off to another mall where one of the stores was passing out a giftcard to the first 250 people in line. We were about four people back in the line, so that was cool. As soon as we got those gift cards at FIVE AM we then ran over to the mall customer service where the first 500 people got mall gift cards and other goodies. We were in the 490's in that line so we got our cards by the skin of our teeth. Talk about good luck!

After that we went over to another store where I was able to buy a fabulous, tiny new laptop for under $400. AWESOME!! I love my new computer. I can almost fit it in my purse! Then it was over to Chik-fil-A for some breakfast before finally getting home around 8:00 am. I crashed on the couch for a few hours and then I had to go into work.

Working retail at this time of the year is HORRIBLE. I had to work Friday and Saturday. The store was a mad house! We were pretty much slammed all day. We were short staffed and over worked, so that made for some VERY interesting moments. Thankfully though we made it through. We'll be busy for the rest of the Christmas season, but hopefully it won't get that bad again.

On Sunday was my little niece's dedication at church. We all had to sit in the front of the church (not fun), but little Ali looked too cute in her white christening gown. After church we had a lunch for the whole family. That was pretty fun too. Good food + family = good!!

Jason went with his parent's to Illinois on Friday evening and spent the weekend up there visiting family. I couldn't go because I had to work. Let me tell you, I sure did miss my husband. That was the first time we had been apart since we got married six months ago. I'm not in any hurry to do that again.

Okay, WHEW!! I think that's everything. Talk about a busy weekend. I'm still exhausted from all the hustle and bustle. Of course, I am going back to brave the mall again this evening with my Mom and sister. Hey, we have gift cards to spend!!!

Political Drama ... Or Not

Jason and I made it through our first Presidental election on opposite teams. One of us was for Obama and the other was for McCain. It made for a couple of pretty heated debates over the past couple of weeks that neither one of us ever won. We never actually talked about politics much before we got married and I guess I just assumed that he thought the same way I did. Ha ha... turns out, not so much.

Anyway, once Obama was declared the winner and McCain gave his concession speech it came very close to another heated argument. The great thing was, it didn't happen. There was some frustration and annoyance for a few minutes, but we let it go.

The thing that I realized as I went to sleep last night is that our marriage is more important than who becomes the next President of the United States. I mean, I know that's important too, but we're still going to be married no matter what happens and we have to deal with each other. In the end, I think we learned a great lesson. We don't always have to agree with each other. We can have different opinions and viewpoints, because ultimately we agree on the really important stuff and we've made a commitment to each other.

On a related note, I do wish that everybody would just shut-up about the election now that it's over. It seems like the fighting between the two sides just got worse once the results were in and now everybody is using their Facebook status to make passive-aggressive attacks at the other side. I defintely agree with some of them and disagree with others, but it's time to move on and face what's ahead of us instead of dwelling on what's already happened.

Update on Life

School started at the end of August and classes are in full swing. I can't believe this is my last year! Not too much longer and I will graduate, get my degree, and start a new career. It's a little intimidating, but I think I'm up for the challenge. I have worked hard for this and I am ready to move on to the next phase. For now, however, I do still have this last year to get through and it will not be easy.

I cut my hours at my on-campus job once school started, but between there and BBB I am still working at least 45 hours a week. It gets tough to juggle with all my school work, but it's necessary and I don't mind it most of the time. Of course, I'm looking forward to next summer when I will start a new job and no longer have to work retail. At least that's the plan. :)

Looks like I'm heading off to lunch with my Mom and sister, so I'll be back to update more later. Until then... :)