lets try this again!

I'm quite aware that it's been quite a long time since I've posted on here. It's often difficult for me to blog because I don't really think I have anything of importance to write about...until now!!

Since January I have finished college and GRADUATED!! That was something very exciting! and in addition to that I've been looking for jobs since March as of the beginning of June I was offered a job.

I will be starting this week as a Direct Care Provider for Hammer. Hammer is an organization that works with the developmentally disabled. I'm excited for this opportunity to work in my field. Not only will I be doing work in a group home but I've also interviewed with another the department that does in-home care. I get to be a 'buddy' for two clients. Throughout this process I also have an extensive amount of training to do between three days of orientation, three med classes (so I'm qualified to pass meds to residents), and then 2 days of shadowing before starting my actual shifts. I've also taken a CPR class and I have another class to take that trains me on how to restrict a resident going through a behavior. This also means I'm likely to be very very busy over the next few months seeing as Hammer allows endless amounts of overtime meaning I could be working upwards of 60-70 hours per week. I know this sounds excessive but I'm looking forward to gaining the experience and in turn...the paycheck!

Seeing as I've accepted the job at Hammer this has also brought about me having to leave Asphalt Driveway company. I don't like feeling like a new person so it quite difficult to decide to leave my comfort zone of the past 4 (almost 5) years to start somewhere new.

I have my first shadow shift tomorrow...wish me luck!

Winter break

Wow, this keeps happening! my posts are very infrequent!

my holidays were what everyone's holidays were; busy. I'm glad they're over, however, I'm not glad this winter break went by so fast!!

The past 6 days I've been at my cabin in Wisconsin. It was a marvelous, much needed, relaxing, get away before school starts up again! I cooked a lot over break so (to copy a friend of mine) here is my delicious list of eats I made:

-Couscous cakes with greens
-Maple oat scones
-tex-mex chicken with chiles and cheese
-egg bake
-sticky chicken drumsticks
-5-treasure fried rice
-free-style fruit tart
-Country fresh omelet
-Yogurt-Zucchini bread with walnuts

I had a great time cooking and entertaining and the week away seemed effortless. It definitely didn't seem like a week, more like a long weekend and with the realization of school starting tomorrow brings on stress again.

I'm taking 6 classes (which adds up to 19 credits) for this last semester of school for me. I'm definitely looking forward to graduating and being done this May, it won't be a moment too soon, that's for sure! I'm taking:
-Personal and Family Finances
-Family Systems and Diversity
-Alcohol and Drugs in Family Culture
-Family Resource Management
-Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual people in Families
-Field Study:Working with Families

It's going to be a difficult semester and I'm sure it will have a heavy workload! Also, on top of six classes, I'll continue on at my internship and I'll have a part-time job. Lets just say May 13th (commencement) can't come soon enough!!

November, December, Finals OH MY!

Well well well, it has been QUITE the past month or so.

Classes have been moving along (although to admit I've been struggling to keep up). I really overloaded myself this semester and came to realize that about half way through when I felt I was falling behind in classes and feeling tired all the time! The only thing really getting me through at this point is the fact that I. Graduate. In. MAY!! I'm so excited for this that I'm willing to overlook the point that even though I'm quitting my second paying job (parking maintenence on campus) that I'm still going to be quite busy. Job, Internship, 19 credits (6 classes)! Luckily my schedule isn't too awful but it's also not going to leave much time for anything else. Here's to hoping I can make it through the next five months.

I am however incredibly excited that I have a month off coming up. I'm not going to be able to go down to Florida with the fam this year as they are going after I go back to school, but to make up for this I'm going up to our cabin right at the end of my break for a little less than a week to relax and enjoy some quality time with Matt and some of our friends. I am most definitely looking forward to that!

As for Christmas coming up I must say I've done another year or waiting to last minute to shop. This is kind of an odd year for cmas, we're all a little short on cash, I already know what my parents are getting me (seeing as I ordered it for them yesterday). I can't help but notice the magic has gone out of cmas. Kind of makes me sad! It also doesn't help that I've been so stressed with school that I've hardly noticed that cmas is a week away!
I'm definitely looking forward to some time with the family but as cmas approaches I also have the anxiety of dealing with a significant other's family. Matt and I have been dating for awhile now but not long enough to necessarily expect gifts from the fam. Him and I talked about it and he told me he's not expecting gifts from my fam (and wasn't intending to buy them gifts) BUT His mother has already given me something and he's not sure if his sister and brother-in-law are getting me something or not. I can't say I'd be surprised but at the same time this puts me in the position of A: them getting me something and me not getting them anything (embarrassing for me) or B: them not getting me anything and me giving them something (makes them feel uncomfortable). Who knows, maybe I'm over thinking the situation but all the same, more anxiety on top of existing anxiety. YAY!

I still have all my baking to do (but that's fun for me!) this year I'm making Nutmeg Cutouts, Peanut Blossoms, and Chocolate Almond Bark. It's going to be a yummy year!

Well I have a research paper left to write and one final left and then I'm done for the semester! Lets hope they go well!

PS. (completely off topic) I am completely disgusted, irritated, annoyed, and think that women who add friends (that are girls) of their boyfriend/fiance/husband on facebook are pathetic! Note to all these women:

Dear, Women who add me on FB cuz I'm friends with your SO (Significant Other),
Honey, if you can't trust him on facebook you DEFINITELY can't trust him in everyday life!
Sincerely,
Just his Friend!

first cold of the season!

Well it's official! I've gotten sick for the first time this season! due to the huge H1N1 outbreaks everywhere and campuses being afraid of the spread I was "forced" to take a couple of days off.

I went into work Monday morning but by the end of my shift I was severely flagging. I went home and emailed my teachers and let them know I wouldn't be making it.

Tuesday morning followed suit after I woke up with a fever. I called into work and emailed my teachers. They're all very understanding, as I said before, because of the H1N1 thing. I knew that if I'd gone on to campus I would've been asked to leave by my teachers, plus I was getting tired just walking up the stairs so I can't imagine I would've done well walking around campus and up many more stairs.

This morning (wednesday) I emailed into my internship that I needed the day off because I was sick, but I did end up going into class tonight which was good because if I hadn't I would've missed out on quiz review for our quiz on monday!

Now, moving on from illness, I have OFFICIALLY registered for my FINAL semester of college! I am so excited about this! I can't wait to graduate and I have also decided that I'm going to walk and do the graduation ceremony. I feel that this is a big accomplishment and I'd like it celebrated! My last semester will be hectic and intense though. I'm taking 19 credits (6 classes).
more on those later I'm sure!

Another post will have to contain the other things I have to say, unfortunately, homework is calling my name :/

November?!

Well damn, its been about a month since I've posted but unfortunately not much has really changed or happened in my life.

I'm still doing the whole school thing, just getting more and more excited to graduate in May and move on from school (for awhile at least). People keep asking me what I want to do with my degree when I'm done with school and I really need to come up with a better answer than "I'm not really sure". I have several things I've thought of but it seems so far off that I haven't put much thought, plus with the economy the way it is I'll probably just take it easy and take what I can get for the time being and search for something in my field after things improve.

I had a couple of trips up to my cabin, once with my sister and Aidan which was great. That little boy is just too damn cute! We had lots of fun playing and watching TV and just hanging out. The other trip up there was with Matt, Kate, and Nick. We all literally sat around all weekend. There was lots of rain so not much time spent outside. It stopped for a little bit on Saturday so the guys got a pretty good fire going. No smores or hot dogs for us though, we had enough food up there. Both trips were amazing, relaxing, and totally needed! Can't wait to plan another one!

Three of my cousins are now engaged; Nick, Andrea, and Katie. I couldn't be more happy for them! It's going to be an exciting next year or so as the weddings start to happen.

Classes are still going...nothing really exciting about them other than me not being able to wait for this semester to end. My schedule is just running me ragged and its really hard to maintain it all. Next semester with dropping one of my jobs and my school schedule changing dramatically it'll be much easier to manage my time and allow for things like...SLEEP! I'm spread very thin this semester and can't wait for it to end. Only 7 more weeks.

My birthday happened. 22. Officially IN my 20's. Nothing special just dinner with the fam and Matt and I went and saw Paranormal Activity which was terrifying but amazing at the same time. Tried a little get together with my friends but it kind of fell apart. Whatev's.

My internship is going well. I still get a day here and there that is incredibly boring with lame projects, but they're working on branching me out to Nepal and India right now which is awesome. I'm working on creating referral packets for Nepal (which is a new program) and I will be doing all the audio for the Travel Presentation CD for India. I'm very excited about these new projects.

Work is work. You would think that between the 2 paying jobs and working about 30hrs a week I wouldn't be doing too bad, but my spending has been a little out of control :\. I'm cutting back hugely though didn't really do much for Halloween and I'm just keeping things low-key for awhile until I get the bank account back up and the credit card bill down. Work is also boring and with it not really paying me enough I have been looking for baby-sitting jobs. A little more fun and a little extra cash. Can't hurt, right?

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is volunteering. I'd really like to volunteer at so many places but I just don't really have the time. I find my thoughts going a mile a minute trying to determine which is most worthy but it's really hard to pick. I've already contacted Planned Parenthood about volunteering with them next semester and I've also looked at Minneapolis Crisis Nursery. Both of which I'd really like to volunteer at and gain some more experience. How I'm going to make that work however, I don't know. There are many other places but it just seems that these two are pulling at me the hardest. I don't know how I would balance it all but I'm hoping that I can find a way to make it work. Here's to hoping.

October

I can not believe that it is October already, however, I LOVE it because October is my favorite month! I have so much going on this month!
-I spent the first weekend (2nd-4th) at the cabin with my sister and nephew
-This upcoming weekend (9th and 10th) I have a couple of concerts I will be attending
-Next weekend (18th) I have planned a trip to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch with a few friends
-The weekend of the 23rd-25th I will once again be up at my cabin with some friends! I can't wait for that trip, I always tend to do lots of baking and cooking and we all just take the time to lounge and enjoy relaxing and good company!
-The following weekend of course is Halloween, my favorite holiday and also my brother's birthday! I assume we'll just do a dinner for him and I have work of course.

Other things going on:
internship: my internship has been going fairly well. Some days are better than others. The last couple have been rather dull seeing as they are having me go through the entire Thailand folder and remove our old logo and put the new one on. I've spent two days on that project and I'm still not finished. It's made me dread going back on Wednesday. However, I have hope. Before that they'd been giving me some great projects, so here's to hoping those come back soon!

preparations class: today I had a terrible experience in this class. My teacher is belittling, condescending, and I'm convinced a tad insane and bipolar. All that aside, today, my teacher did what he does in every single one of our classes. He embarrasses at least 2 students, only today I was one of them. I have grown to dread going to this class. I don't find him intelligent in the slightest. I disagree with just about everything that comes out of this mouth and I hate that he projects his terrible childhood and life on everyone! What I hate the most is the fact that he uses his authority to embarrass his students! This is something I have hated since high school, I don't like any teacher that uses their position to make fools out of their students and this man is quite possibly the worst I've ever witnessed! I have great disdain for this man and although I wanted to go up to him and tell him how upset I was that he'd done that AGAIN especially to me, I refrained...but ONLY because he's also my adviser and I can't get on his bad side because I plan on graduating in May and need him to approve some things. So for the mean time I will just grin and bear it and deal with him once every week until the end of the semester. Here's to hoping I survive!

where does the time go!

Somehow it's gotten to be September 21st and I'd hardly even noticed! The combination of an internship, 2 jobs, and 5 classes this semester has really consumed a lot of my time and at the same time sped it up. So here's a little summary of my life:

Internship: I'm loving this internship! It started off rather slow and I thought I was going to spend quite a bit of time there sitting around doing nothing. However, the longer I'm there the more they give me to do and more projects as well (which is exciting because most of the time they're rather large projects that take up most of my late morning/early afternoon. Also I'm learning a lot about international adoption processes. I don't think staying with them for 6 months will be a problem in the slightest. I'm looking forward to gaining more experience in something I would definitely like to do in the long run with my degree.

Parking job: Easy and surprisingly fun. The guys are all super nice and it's a relaxing way to spend the morning. Plus it allows for me to get some of my reading in for class (or in this case sit on the computer writing blogs, checking email, and facebooking)

Asphalt: Same old, same old. Been there for almost 4 years and whereas the people have come and gone the drama stays the same (just the names change) I often get told about it from every person in the office but they learn quickly of my disinterest and that they're not telling me anything new. I love the girls I work with (well most of them) and that's the only reason I don't mind staying around there.

CLASSES:

Preparation for working with families: My teacher is insane and its going to be a lot of work even though its only a two credit class. I have a feeling this class is going to be love/hate.

Family Psych: I love the teacher, I had her last year from Family Policy and she's super nice and amazing. The class should also be really interesting. Writing intensive though, it's going to kill me.

Family Research: Boring boring boring and I think my teacher is on drugs or something. She keeps her eyes open so wide I can see the whites all the way around. Constantly. Its kind of scary. Plus, did I mention its boring?

Sexuality and Gender in Families: I've basically taken this class already at Stout. It's just a sexuality class that goes into issues with body image, media, eating disorders, etc. It'll be interesting and fun. Group work though...we'll see how that goes.

Sign Language 4: I love sign language. I have since I started taking it. Yes, its a long class and sometimes I just want to leave. But teachers have definitely shaped how I feel about the class and it's length. This semester my teacher is the hearing teacher in the ASL department. She's sooooo funny and nice and doesn't do any talking. Being in the last level of sign language at the UofM is bittersweet to me. It's a great accomplishment, but I don't want it to be over yet. It's going to be a sad day when I'm not registering for a sing language class.

Something else I've been thinking about lately is that this is my last year of college. I keep telling myself that because it hasn't really sunk in yet. I'm very excited to graduate on May (as long as everything goes smoothly) but after graduation I have to become an adult! SCARY!

Well this was very long-winded. I'll try to make the posts more frequent and shorter rather than few and far between and long-winded.

Till next time.

Daily Grind

Well today is officially the first day back to school...lets recap my labor day weekend though.

Saturday I worked all day and spent the night hanging out with Kate.

Sunday I spent the day at the fair with Matt, Kate, and Nick. It was a good time but we were all most definitely too tired afterward to go out and get drunk before the end of summer as planned. Soon possibly.

Then Monday it was back to the fair with Matt. It was a very short trip that basically consisted of a few morsels of food we'd missed Saturday night and then back to his house to hang out, play with his nieces, eat some yummy food, and watch a movie.

So here we are, the start of school again, my last "first day" of school ever! 3 classes today I'll be on campus until 9pm (if ASL 4 goes as long as its supposed to)

I'll post about class likes/dislikes later...if I have the energy.

my life is far from dull

With August coming to a close I was becoming more and more worried that I'd be without a job as the school year started. This was looking more and more likely the further into August we got.

Well Monday I had an interview with parking services (as I stated in my last post). I don't even really want to call it an interview seeing as it literally went like this:

Ed: "here's the job description for you to read"
Me: *reads and shakes head in 'yes' motion
Ed: "the only thing my boss requires of me is that whoever takes the job can start at 6am
Me: "well I'd only be able to do that Tues and Thurs"
Ed: "well I figured I'd have to hire to people to fill the position. Do you want the job?"
Me: "ya, sure"
Ed: "great, give me your name and student ID number and you can start next week."
Me: "awesome, thanks"

and then I left. Literally 17min after arriving. It was interesting to say the least.

HOWEVER that is only 10 hrs a week and I need more to live off of then that, so I've been telling people that I got HALF a job...so after careful consideration I decided to ask my dad if I could stat on at my current job. He okay'ed that so I will be working there weekends...as I've already said...my life as of September first will be FAR FROM DULL!!

August?

Where did August go?!

Since I posted last:

I have had a job interview, had it offered to me and turned it down. (I'm sorry, but in my opinion getting up at 5am, working weekends, and being a pee-on isn't worth 7.50/hr)

I also interviewed for the internship of my dreams AND GOT IT! I accepted their offer and start as an International Adoption Intern August 31st! I'm so excited about this and can't wait!

I have another job interview Monday with parking services working in the office. This may not be compatible though seeing as I'll be working mornings at my internship.

Yesterday was the longest day of my life. I worked my first 16 hour day. Started with telemarketing 8am-2pm and then I helped cater a wedding until midnight. We got paid pretty well though, the wedding was fun, the people I worked with were fun, and the man we worked for was incredibly nice. All in all, longest day ever but fun!

Upcoming through the end of this month: find a job, go to the fair, prepare to start my last year of school!! Wish me luck!