Ah, memories...

Exactly one year ago yesterday, I was searching for old friends' names on the facebook to see who I could find, and Dan's name popped into my head. I searched...there he was! He had a page! I can't find the message I sent him, so I'm guessing that I 'poked' him to let him know I found him, or added him as a friend automatically, I don't remember. One year ago today, he sent me a message to ask how I was doing and what I had been up to...and that's how it all began (again). I gave him my new screenname and we chatted for hours, catching up on the last several years. He was living and working in Cincinnati, and I was going to school there. He claimed that he was just a pit stop on my drive home, what a silly boy. He now owned the car that I had been wanting, and I knew it was fate, lol. Over the course of the next week, I thought about him as I passed his exit on the highway...we talked almost every day...and I couldn't help talking to the other girls in the office about him and our weird reunion.

Let's go back about 5 years ago, in 2001, I was living with a friend named Tiffani. I had been dating a guy named Todd for a long time and we broke up at the end of 2000, but were still trying to be friends. Tiffani was dating Dan for a long time and about to break things off with their relationship. I'm sure you can see the plot thickening here. Now, two single girls. Let's make a really long story short...I ended up finding someone new, and Tiffani ended up thinking Todd was free for the taking. Conflict, cold shoulders, a friendship lost.

Let's move forward a few months. Since I had met Dan a few times while he was visiting Tiffani in the past, we already had each other's screennames and had been chatting here-and-there as friends. One day, one of his friends was coming to my college and he decided to come along so we could hang out. We ended up having dinner at Friday's and I was one nervous girl! Of course I thought he was cute ;), but now we were actually hanging out and having dinner together! After dinner we had some time to waste, so we went back to my apartment to watch TV or whatever. We were ready to leave when his time was up, and wouldn't you know that Tiffani had come home. OH, the look on her face when she saw Dan in our apartment with me was priceless! Anyway, he knows this now, but when I dropped him back off to leave with his friend, I really just wanted to reach over and plant one on him. I was too much of a wuss to do that, though!

Probably a couple months later was spring break and I had planned to go to Panama with some sorority sisters. And what do you know, Dan was going to Panama with some of his friends at the same time I was! But, being the bad traveler I was...the morning we were supposed to leave, the guys upstairs had a party so I didn't get any sleep, then I walk out in the morning and see puke all over the ground from that party, and to top that off one of the sorority gals was sick and puking her head off. I suddenly felt really nauseous and decided that I wasn't going to travel umpteen hours for that trip and backed out. I later found out that my group and Dan's group had stayed in a very near, if not the same, hotel. Shucks!

I think Dan and I kinda lost touch after that since we were at different colleges. I even deleted him from my buddy list after a year or so since we never talked anymore (eek!). And that brings us to one year ago when we got back in contact. He had always liked me, and I had always liked him, and neither of us knew....

...To be continued. :)

Slacking and motivation...

...do those two really go together?

Since I got up this morning at 10, which is slacking to begin with considering I normally wake up around 8 now, I've been perusing blogs and things online, really accomplishing nothing but inspiring myself to scrap when I really don't have the time. But, a little update here and I'm off to the shower and to be more productive today.

Yesterday after my office hours I decided I would pay a visit to the lovely bookstore to see if they had the DS5 magazine yet...of course not. I did buy two Memory Makers magazines though, their June issue and the Master's issue. I would've gotten more, but I sent in a few subscription cards at the beginning of the month and I'm not sure which issues (and when) are going to be sent. I don't need two copies, so I'll wait a little bit while I'm occupied with other things.

Also yesterday, Rhonna started her THIRD round of the {21} challenge. It's only my second round, but the last one went really well for me and I'm looking forward to conquering this one too! For these 21 days, I'm motivating myself to take at least an hour out of every day to work on my Master's paper. I only have a little over 21 days to get it done anyway (by the end of the quarter) so this is the push I need to really work on it everyday. And as an added motivator (which is questionable) I can't use the internet during that hour, at ALL. Normally, I'll sit and work on something, but get sidetracked by something I need to do online or elsewhere. Can't do that now. And I know I didn't do too well on the mini layouts last time, but I'm changing that up this time and hopefully it'll be easier and less time consuming. I'm a perfectionist, though, so don't hold me to the "less time consuming" thing! This time I'm actually going to do the art journal and just doodle and draw freely. I had one of those 6x8 spiral journals sitting around waiting to be used, and I already did my first entry last night in about an hour while watching TV. Rhonna is also switching it up a bit this round, by giving everyone a word each week to interpret and play with, rather than a quote a day. Inspiring!

It looks like I won't be able to scrap my heart out until next week! I have all of these ideas piling up, and some scraplift challenges I've wanted to do lately, but they'll have to wait. Here's my list o' crap to do for the next week, and you can all scrap for me in the meantime.

• finish methods section of paper
• start results section of paper
• grade tests to turn back Friday
• study for comp retake that's next week
• go to twin nephews' first Communion
• go to Stampin' Up party
• go to job interview!

Truth be known, I was distracted a million times just writing this post! I took up way more time than I wanted to, and now it's time to get myself in the shower! :)

Holy burrito, Chipotle!

Haha, I love seeing that billboard every time I drive north on the highway. And as an added plug, Dan and I had Chipotle for dinner tonight. We're both in the dumps with sinuses/allergies and I suggested a non-cooking night. I'm such a good girlfriend, lol. Though I did pay this time because I got my tax return plopped into my checking account today! Let's all sing Hallelujah! I won't be seeing that money for long before it goes toward my credit card, though, so I guess I better sing my praises while I can. Have I mentioned lately that I haven't put a PENNY on my credit card since the beginning of February? Goodness, it's been hard.

[RANT]
Speaking of hard, I've been going through tons of "red tape" with my school schedule and funding. Let's just say that I'd like to give my college offices a big thumbs up for all they put me through! After the quarter started a month ago, (here's the cliff's notes version, try to keep up) I needed one credit hour to be eligible for my student health insurance...my director takes his good and easy time getting back to me about what credit hour I can take while working on my paper...register and receive a late fee...they can't do anything about the late fee...I can't receive funding because I'm not a student anymore (WHAT?)...crying, crying...go to advisor and she makes the funding happen...un-register from one credit and add twelve credits...get my funding...get another late fee...call and beg for the late fees to be taken off...I think after hearing my long story they zonked out and just said okay...still have to pay a $100 technology fee after all is said and done...won't be surprised if I get a late fee after paying that. You know, I thought graduate students were special! We've paid our dues, we've done our time, cut us some slack! I'm climbing down from my soap box now, I hope all of these shenanigans are over with.

[LAST FRIDAY]
Last week we decided to have my parents over for dinner since they've never seen our place. Being the chef that Dan is, he pulled out the cookbook and chose something good to whip together. He was off work for Good Friday, so while I was teaching he cleaned almost the entire apartment, got the food prepped, and really worked his tail off. By the time I got home I was able to help him cook the dinner, and dye the eggs I had boiled the day before. I think my parents had a good time! We even had dessert and I made them coffee. Ahhhh, the day I get to make THEM coffee, it's a priceless moment! :) OH, and because I thought some hanging flowers would look really nice on the porch where there are old hooks, Dan went out that day to get a few more food items and also picked up some hanging PURPLE plants. We had a beautiful porch to eat dinner on with my parents and enjoy the weather.

[EASTER]
Our lovely Easter Sunday was spent with Dan's family and a BOATload of candy. I don't think I could eat all of this candy in the next year if my life depended on it. My mom and Dan both got me baskets, purple ones no doubt, then we got BAGS of candy from Dan's parents, grandparents, and aunt. I took pictures, and I'm sure you'll see them in a layout. Ah, and I almost forgot the biggest part...before Easter I wanted to stock up on cream eggs because they are the chocolate of all chocolates, so I bought like four of the 4-packs at the store. Weeeellllllllll...not only do I have those to last me until next Easter, I also got a ton of them in our family bags, and Dan bought me a flippin' box of 48 cream eggs PLUS he put five more 4-packs in my basket. Holy cow!! There aren't enough hours in the day to eat these things! This candy really isn't helping my working-out and trying to be healthier. I'll have to thank my mom for giving me her sweet tooth!

Here's the pretty basket that Dan put together for me ...













...and after we sorted all of the bags into containers, here's SOME of what we ended up with. Oh yes, there's more in buckets.

















[21-CHALLENGE]
Alrighty, so the 21 challenge ended with a bang! I felt so good on the last day of the challenge, like I could conquer anything and work out like 10 minutes longer than usual, hehe. We've had to skip the last couple days, though, after coming down with the allergy plague. I'm itching to get back to the gym and tanning bed! I just don't want to push my body while it feels so exhausted.

[WHAT ELSE?]
I've been applying for a few jobs lately, but I don't really want to jinx myself. I happen to have an interview with one of them in a couple weeks! I think it would be a really fun job, so cross your fingers or send some prayers my way! ;)

I have a few layouts and 21-challenge mini pages sitting on the back-burner waiting to be finished. There are two layouts I could show, but I'm not sure if I completely like them yet, so I'm waiting until I have time to make finishing touches. I also need to use Holly McCaig and Gina Miller's awesome collaborative kit that came out today called "Summer Home." M-AZing!

I think that's all I can remember for now. I'm off to work on some more of my paper! Have a fabulous weekend!

Wednesday ramblings...

Ah, it feels good to be back!

I know every week I say that it's been crazy or busy or something around here, but this weekend takes the cake! Maybe the icing too! I'm still going strong on Rhonna's {21} challenge! Today is day {15} for me, though I have to be honest and admit that Dan and I skipped two days last week. I felt really sick both nights, like I thought my head was going to be in the toilet, and the second night we just ran out of time. But we're still in the game, jumped right back on track! I think tonight we're going to rollerblade on a bike trail near my parents' house instead of going to the gym. I'm looking forward to it! My mom bought me new rollerblades a few years ago for Christmas and I haven't used them yet, I hope they still fit.

Last Friday my wireless connection was working just fine at school, and I was chatting away while my students took an exam. I don't remember if I tried it Friday night, but Saturday morning it wasn't working at all. What the...? I tried everything, unplugging everything I could find, plugging it back in, using a wire connection, nothing worked. I had to get my survey out! I ended up having to use Dan's laptop the ENTIRE weekend for internet because mine was just being stupid. I didn't understand it at all! You don't realize how much you depend on your own computer until you don't have it. I didn't have any of my links, I could only go to the blog addresses I remembered, I had to sign-in to all of my accounts each time...I know, my computer spoils me...and once I finally got my survey out I was just going back and forth to the different forums and re-signing in each time, and that was really all I could do. I didn't want to put a bunch of links and crap on his laptop. *SIGH*

Long story short, Dan had my anti-virus CD at work and once he came home with it Monday my laptop got a reformat! I'm back and better than ever! My laptop had been doing all sorts of crazy things before, and I'm hoping it's all fixed now.

AND, I stopped my survey on Monday with a total of over 500 RESPONSES! I couldn't believe it, in just one weekend, and neither can my advisor. The only problem is that I won't be able to use all of them because I'll have two categories of responses and those totals need to be equal...unless my advisor thinks otherwise. I'm still in shock over the total of responses!

I do have a couple of layouts to show you from my challenge. I had missed so many that instead of frantically trying to catch up and remember what happened each day, I've just done the most recent ones that I can remember. I've also changed the style up a bit...I was trying to fit Rhonna's little works of art into my mini layouts, but that was too hard to find the right colors and elements and all, so I'm doing the pages with whatever I want and typing out the quotes. You'll see what I mean...

[DAY 13]

Credits:
Paper - Dawn Stocstill's Hopeful gift
Stamp alpha - Rebecca DiGrazio
White stamps - Misprinted type
Circles - Katie Pertiet gift
Fonts - Top Secret, Angelina

[DAY 14]

Credits:
Kit - Carrie Stephen's You Make My World Go 'Round gift
Straight stitching - Kathy Moore
Fonts - MA Fishy, MA Sexy, Piracy, Angelina
Blue "paint" - Misprinted type

Here's one more I forgot about, but it was up this weekend in TDC's gallery for the Chick's Life challenge prompt "Signs of Spring." I absolutely LOVE this layout, it's my desktop wallpaper right now!

[SIGNS OF SPRING]

Tons of credits:
Background paper, brads, flowers, photo corners - Taran Conyer's Delight gift
Notebook papers - Gina Miller's BYOBB and Note This kits
Bookplate - Shabby P's Shabby Fall gift
Green sewn papers - Dani Mogstad's Spring Bouquet gift
Stitching - Valerie Fowler from Refresh collaborative
Stitched flower - Holly McCaig's Spring is Coming
Negative slide - unknown
Pink stitched alpha - Tandika Star
Fonts - Jane Austen and Jot

That's all I have today, just some useless stuff, hehe. ;)
Hope you all have/had a great hump day!

Quickly, quickly!

Just a quick post before I hop into the shower...

I'm still alive and still working on Rhonna's {21} challenge, I just have to catch up on my mini layouts sometime soon before I get REALLY behind. I thought that I'd be able to whip them out every morning when I wake up early, but instead I find myself taking that extra time to catch up on blogs and stuff. And if you know me, I'm not really a "whip 'em out" kinda person when it comes to layouts, even mini ones. I thought this challenge would help me out with that too, but I guess if I want to get quicker I actually have to do some more of them first, lol.

Anyway, all I've been doing at the gym so far is cardio. I think once I get that under my belt and my heart is used to working out some more, then I can move onto fat burning or whatever. I've been changing it up so my body doesn't get bored with one machine or another, using the bikes, treadmills, and elliptical things different nights. After my spurt of tanning last week I got a little lobsterish, so I let that turn into a little tan and tried to go again last night but they were booked.

Other than that, I should have my survey going out today for my research paper, which is a plus! I met with my advisor on Monday and we made revisions to my lit review, which really pulled things together and organized my topics better! That was exciting to feel like we really took a step forward in this process, and next I have to write up my methods section.

I think Spring tried to spring up around here because it was pretty warm for a few days this week, but today it's rather cool and rainy. Come back sunshine! It was nice to have the sunroof open and some windows down this week! Anyway, off to do things today and hope the sun comes back out!

Oh, and Mandisa!! WHAT?! Total shocker!
Happy Thursday!

Playing bloggy catch-up!

I'm on day four of Rhonna's {21} challenge now, still as motivated as ever, though starting to get a little stiff after four days of cardio workout in a row. For the first three days, I rode a bike for 20 minutes in the cardio theater...where they play a movie on a big screen...and today I decided to go for the treadmill. The time just flies by in the theater! I've also been tanning a few times, so it looks like I'm on the wagon for creating my habit.

Speaking of habits...those darned things, lol...I'm sitting on the edge of the wagon when it comes to waking up early everyday. I was on a good streak for a week waking up around 7:30, then the last few days I've woken up at 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30. Yipes! Obviously I'm waking up earlier than noon, but I still want to be waking up when Dan leaves for work.

Anyway, onto my mini layouts for the {21} challenge...I don't know if I can remember all of these credits, but I'll try!


Credits: quote piece, dotted swirls, background paper - Rhonna Farrer; torn cardboard - Gina Miller; stamp alpha - Kim Lund; number "1" - Jennifer Pebbles; font - Fontastic


Credits: background paper, messy stitches - Holly McCaig; quote piece - Rhonna Farrer; number tag - Ali Florendore; ribbon - Shabby Princess (recolored); fonts - Top Secret, Desyrel, Georgia


Credits: background paper, flower - Carrie Stephens; alpha - Holly McCaig; straight stitch - Kathy Moore; ribbon - Shabby P (recolored); quote piece - Rhonna Farrer; staples - Kim Christensen; number button - Ali Florendore; font - Desyrel

Gosh, that was a lot of different credits! I haven't done mini layout #4 yet for today, but I will soon enough along with a catch-up of other layouts and challenges. *Sigh*...sometime.

Have a Happy Sunday, along with a spring forward! :)