Bleh.

I'm having a low self-esteem day. I understand that these days come and go, so I'm sure it won't last too long. However, it's not exactly that fun. It's really frustrating that just about any form of exercise makes my shins hurt. I just have to keep reminding myself that the contestants on The Biggest Loser all go through serious aches and injuries and I'm no different!

Anyway, it's settling in that we are really leaving for vacation in one week. I'm really excited, but I'm also surprising myself with how much I need to do before then. It's kind of nice for someone who doesn't do well staying at home alone (I need to be around people!) to have things to do and a nice vacation in the middle of everything. That'll be really nice. What would be even nicer would be if I would have a job waiting for me when we return. I'll just keep applying and praying!

Leaves

-Jake starts cleaning up right after he finishes eating-

Me: "What are you doing?"

Jake: "What do you mean?"

Me: "You're putting things away. You're never the first one to get up and start putting things away."

Jake: "I know. I'm turning over a new leaf."

Me: "I like the old leaf."

Jake: -Laughs- "Why?"

Me: "Because it included you sitting with me until I was done eating."

I basically just asked my husband to not pick up after dinner. Pretty sure I regretted it right after it happened.

Elizabeth Rohde, M.A.

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to write my excited that I'm done with school blog post, but it has. I'm still excited though. In fact, check out all of the things I was able to cross out on my list for the last couple of weeks of school.

Look at how much of this junk was theology (the above side). Seriously. It'd be cool if we had more of our homework spread out throughout the semester!

I'm not going to lie- crossing things off of this list was one of the coolest things ever. Doesn't it just seem fun just looking at it? Ah, I think I'm reliving it.

So anyway, I'm done with school! And I have a M.A. behind my name now. Fun stuff. I've been passing everything lately which has been fun. I passed my comprehensive exams, I finished my internship, I just found out that I passed my NCE (National Counselor Exam) and did fairly well (I was SO excited that I answered every question right in the development section- pretty sure that topic has influenced my counseling of children more than any other) and I graduated from school. I'm also tutoring a couple of people, which is fun.

Now I just need to get a real job. So far I've applied to 13 jobs and I've only really wanted 3 of them- one of which is the only job I have officially received a denial letter from. I just applied to one today that I think would be fantastic, but it's only a 4 month position.

Anyway, I'm done. Whoot!

I should be a detective

Because Jake and I were confused about who someone was, and I found a heck of a lot of information about who they were. I found out their full name, a photo, where they live and what church they go to. That's impressive.

Still don't know who they are though.

(I'm going to blog pretty soon about being done with school. It's getting a bit ridiculous- it's been almost a full week since I finished and I still haven't written it yet. Yeah, whoops.)

**Fun fact: A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

Boom baby

I was right; this week's update makes me feel way better because I finished a bunch of stuff! The following is the remainder of the things I need to do in the next 9 days.

1 medium paper (6 pages)

2 finals

689 pages to read

Best part about today: I turned in ALL of my internship documents. My internship has been quite the ride with all of the changes and paperwork that has been involved. I still have this week left of internship, but not much! Hopefully my intake tomorrow won't prove to be as complicated as I think it's going to be.

I'm also going to be proposing this week that both of my internships think about hiring me part-time, one of them especially. If you think about it, please be praying for me and these conversations because they are likely my best chances at getting a job quickly. Thanks! I'm SO close!

Control

So I'm having serious control issues today. I was getting really frustrated with discrepancies with money, and I caught myself muttering "Why can't I control anything?!" That was when it was pretty obvious that it is going to be one of those days.

What do I do when I have one of those days? Find something I can control.

So I did.

Turns out I could control some issues with our rent (this was actually different than the other money discrepancy mentioned above). I realized that our statement this month was way higher than it should have been, and wanted to know why. I called our apartment office, and the woman gave me the numbers since our rent was prorated this month (we renewed our lease and the amount went up partway through the month). Basically she told me after we were both doing calculation that I should just call back on Monday and talk with someone else about specific numbers. I agreed, but then messed around more to figure out what happened.

I did it. I figured out that the dude prorated the later amount in the month to be what our month-to-month amount would be if we didn't renew our lease. Except we did renew our lease, so we shouldn't get that ridiculous amount. Ta da. Now I can call on Monday and say "I figured out how you screwed up, so give me $57.96 back." That will of course be translated to be a bit more appropriate.

So, all-in-all, I'm glad I found something to control. Hopefully I will be much nicer to my husband the rest of the day now. I haven't exactly been the nicest person this morning (ok, that's making me sound better than I have been!) and he deserves better. Sorry bout that! I'll do better now.

I'll also run the dishwasher later if I need something else to control. I've found that works beautifully.

*I've decided to post completely useless facts on the end of my posts for a while. Here's the first:

**A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

$1

K so I have more comments that are a bit more upbeat than the one I just wrote below, so I wanted to keep it separate.

I love saving money. Seriously. I'm super frugal. So when I find ways that we been able to do fun things for free or when we save on groceries, I'm super pumped. Which is why I was pumped a little bit ago when Jake and I were making the meal list for the rest of this week.

Just planned out what we are going to have for Tuesday through Friday, and we already have all of the ingredients for the full meals (so no grocery shopping- yay!). Also, the only thing we will have paid for ourselves for all of those meals will be the meatballs for our spaghetti and meatballs. Is that not stinking amazing?! 4 meals will cost us about $1.

Can't beat that with a spoon.

Overwhelmed

Can you tell I'm overwhelmed with all the stuff I have to do? On top of my schoolwork, there are loads of dishes that need cleaned and a bunch of laundry that needs done. I wanted to wait a couple of days to post my update to my checklist because then I would have a couple big things to cross off my list, but decided I should be faithful to my Monday post, so here it is. (You will notice that there were again a couple of things I had forgotten to put on here last week.)

2 site visits

4 little papers (1 page each)

1 medium paper (6 pages)

1 major paper (10 pages)

2 presentations

2 finals

816 pages to read

I just realized one good thing though. Next Monday I should have a drastic change to my list. That is going to feel amazing.

Checklist

Skipped class tonight. I was WAY too fidgety after being in the library for around 6 hours today. I need an exercise ball for easy access. I've been doing laps around the apartment when I get fidgety, which helps, but I'm sure the neighbors don't appreciate me smacking each wall when I pass them.

Ok, sorry, but this is going to be another checklist of things I have left to do. It turns out I had more pages to read than I thought. I have read about 150 pages since my last post, and I currently have more than what I initially said I had left. Here's my list.

4 little papers (1 page each)

2 major papers (10+ pages each)

2 presentations

2 finals

918 pages to read

The reading doesn't include any reading that I will be doing this week for my doctrinal synopsis paper (which will likely be around 225 pages) and my research paper for grief and loss (likely 250 pages).

My predicted favorite of all my reading: reading for my grief and loss research paper. I'm writing my paper on children who have lost a primary caregiver. Fascinating stuff- and will be extremely practical for my future career (which I hope I find at some point).

To-do and to-done. Sort of.

I got to cross a couple of things off my homework list today and yesterday, which was exciting. I've also done the dishes this morning, and plan to vacuum and clean the bathroom soon. This place is gonna be lookin' spotless by the time Jase and Rachel get here! Hopefully it will still be spotless when we have people over for our football party on Sunday (which I'm actually super pumped about). Hopefully it will then stay spotless for the friend we have coming over on Wednesday of next week. And then also spotless for when Jase and Rachel pass through on their way back. What do you think my odds are of that happening?

I also got offered a part-time, temporary job out of the blue.

Seriously. A friend of mine who is an international student at DS offered to pay me to help her study for comps. She must think I'm smart or something. Boy do I have her fooled! :) Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to help her. I obviously can't tell her anything that was on the test when I took it, but if I just help her learn the things she wants, I should be in the clear. That means I need to stay up on things like research design, Freud's psychosexual stages, Helms' white racial identity development model, and many, many more. Let's hope I can do it and that I can be helpful to her! We'll probably study January and February, and then hopefully she'll pass!

So close.

I'm getting nervous and excited to be done with seminary. I only have 3 more weeks of classes and 1 week of finals left. Here's what I have left:

5 little papers (around 1 page each)

3 major papers (of 10+ pages in length)

2 presentations

2 finals

850 pages to read

I'm not kidding on the reading. Gross, isn't it? I'm so close, yet SO far away. I think I'm going to start doing a countdown each week of what I have left. It's not for you- it's mostly for me. I REALLY like checklists. You can ask Jake if you don't believe me. I have a weekly checklist of the homework that I need to do- mostly because I like to cross things out.

I should probably get back to my homework now. Boo. I've been reading all morning long and I'm sick of sitting on my butt. I'm gonna go work out soon- hopefully that will help me focus!

Coupla things

I ate vegetables for breakfast this morning. Last night for dinner we made cauliflower mashed potatoes (very good by the way!). It's like I'm trying to be healthy or something.

A few hours ago I remembered a story from when I was younger that made me laugh. One time after one of my softball tournaments, my brother and I were sitting in the car waiting for one of my parents to drive us home. I was sitting in the passenger seat, and my brother was in the back.

So we were sitting in the parking lot, when all of a sudden I felt like the car was moving forward. I freaked out because I didn't know how to drive and thus didn't know how to stop the car. I was screaming and banging on the dashboard trying to ask my brother for help, but he wasn't being helpful.

Then I realized that our car wasn't moving forward- the car next to us was backing out.

Whoops.

Rambling

Jake and I are watching the Cowboys game right now. Well, I'm kind of in-and-out of the game. I'm currently doing laundry, during halftime I got bored and did the dishes (weird, huh?), and recently I've been cleaning part of the bathroom and dusting. Jake came in and found me when I was cleaning the bathroom and was confused as to why I wasn't watching the game with him.

It's cuz he gets intense (example: as I type, Jake just hit our mostly dead couch in frustration). I already have a rather large competitive side in me in regards to sports, and hearing Jake yell and get frustrated just makes it worse. So I decided to continue cleaning after halftime. Jake told me he'd be better, but I know better than that. I get the same way watching extremely important Cardinals games too. (new example: very good play, Jake jumps up and screams) Let's just hope that they win in the end. Otherwise it will be a very sad night.

In other news, we went to the Denver zoo again today since it was another free day. I love the zoo. I especially love the penguins. Can you imagine what life would be like if our arms were useless when we walked? I'm pretty sure we'd waddle too. It's very amusing.

Lastly, I should totally be studying for my theology midterm. I'm just struggling with "senioritis." I have one month and 8 days before I'm (hopefully) done. I just need to pass my classes this semester (and get all of the hours for my internship which is getting increasingly nerve-racking) and then I'm good to go. I care about what I'm learning, I just know that some little details I'm not ever going to remember and therefore I don't care to study them. Let's just hope I pass the midterm, cuz I should have started studying yesterday but I didn't. And I didn't today. The zoo and football were just way more fun.

The end. Hope you enjoyed the ramblings of my mind.

"I am them."

Absolutely hilarious. And fantastic.

She had a beard and it felt weird. My friends all laughed... Usta!

So I ran out of things to do. It's 8:45pm except it's actually 7:45pm because of the time change. We already had dinner and cleaned up, I made Lisa's peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (yummy!), and I did some homework earlier in the day so I don't at all feel like doing more now. Jake is working on his IBS (translation= huge paper) so it needs to stay quiet in here. I'm literally sitting at my computer and looking back and forth in the apartment trying to figure out what I should do.

Ok, not should. What I feel like doing. Honestly, I feel like watching TV. Rats.

How in the world is it not late yet?

I want it to be tomorrow when I get to be in the nursery at church. AHA! Nursery. I need to fill out my volunteer application (for the background check and screening). Ta da. I found something to do.

So I'm going to go do it. But after that... ???

SO excited.

Southwest provided the most fantastic graduation present ever. CHEAP flights! I was afraid we weren't going to get to take a trip after graduation because of all the traveling we will need to do this summer, but looks like we are going to Cali after all. :) I just booked round-trip tickets for us for less than it normally costs for one ticket.

$50 one-way tickets. Friggin amazing.

Plus now we don't have to worry about traveling through the mountains in January.

I'm stoked. Mark, Lisa, and kiddos- we're SO excited to see you in a couple of months!

And the winner is...

...Jake! Every other person who guessed went over on their guesses, so the contest got extended until we had a winner. Remember the rules said that it would be based on the nutrition facts. Well, the nutrition facts on the container said that it was 1184, so Jake is absolutely correct. He also has the advantage of living in the house where the container is, so I will average his winnings and provide him with 30 points instead of 50.

He also was planning to guess 1 cracker, which would have made him both a winner and funny. Too bad he forgot his plan.

Quiz

So, I currently have NO winners on the guess-how-many-animals-crackers-are-in-that-big-ginormous-container quiz. Please review the rules and try again.

I am giving you until this Tuesday at 6pm Mountain Time to provide your guesses. May the best guesser win.

Hurray!

I want to share that I passed Comps!! I was thinking that I might have to re-write one question because it caught me off guard, but apparently I was able to pull out enough knowledge from way back in there to pass. I'm stoked. I'm seriously graduating in less than 2 months! It's going to be weird. And yes, I have been looking for jobs for a while now. I'm looking for a job where I can work with kids doing play therapy. I'm a big fan. :) Hopefully I'll be able to get certified in play therapy at some point while I'm out here.

Jake has been amazing through all of my studying. He's been cooking dinner all by himself, he's done some grocery shopping, he's done a little extra cleaning, and he's simply supported me even when it meant not spending very much time together. I've been excited for my exams to be done so that I can bless him back.

I think I heard Jake say at least once yesterday, "But don't you want to bless me?"

He just might be taking advantage of the humble state that I am in...

50 points...

...for the person who correctly guesses how many animal crackers are in this container*. If no one hits it spot on, 10 points for the closest guess without going over.

The cracker in Jake's mouth counts too.

I'm not kidding. I want to hear guesses. I will find a way to send you your points.

*The number will be based on the estimate provided on the nutrition facts.

Cowboys!

Yesterday was Jake and my first NFL game as we watched the Cowboys play the Broncos. Although we didn't enjoy the final result of the game, we certainly enjoyed being there. One of my favorite parts happened before the game. When the group singing the National Anthem was finishing their last line, about 4 jets flew past just barely over the stadium and the sound was HUGE. It was pretty incredible. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Jake at home before leaving for the game. He was pretty excited.

These next two are inside the stadium looking at Denver

Bet you can't even tell that's Denver behind us.

This picture was before the game and makes us look like we were way closer than we were.

You get a better idea of how high we were in this one. :)

We were told that just over 800 people didn't show up. The crowd booed when they heard that.

Stuff.

So comps are over. Thank goodness. I find out my results in about 2 weeks, so we'll see what happens. There's a good chance I might have to re-write one question (you can still pass the exam and not one question- you just have to re-write it later). Anyway, I'm excited it's over. And I'm excited my parents told me they were sending some money so that we could go out to dinner to celebrate. We went to Cheesecake Factory with a friend and it was fabulous!

On a completely random note, I saw this video of a guy singing all 7 parts of a tribute video to Michael Jackson. I think it's pretty fun and the guy is a great singer. Watch it for some great music!

Comps, oh comps, please let me pass thee

3 days until Comps. I'm very nervous. I about had a breakdown last night (mostly because I was tired and trying to study was difficult), but I think I feel a bit better about it now. I have this morning to study because I decided not to go to internship.

So I probably better get cracking!

Just wanted to say though, that I'm excited about the after-comps celebration that I am going to have. I have a friend I met through one of my internships who opens Regal movie theatres, and she told me that if Jake and I ever want to go, she'll get us tickets for free. I took her up on that offer for this weekend- Jake and I are going to see Toy Story in 3-D. I'm pumped. We're also going to go out to dinner, hopefully with someone. So far we haven't found anyone that is available this weekend. It'll be ok though if it's just Jake and me. Just 3 days, and it will all be over.

Except not. 2 weeks from that I have the NCE exam which is a fairly big deal too. I mean, do I want my counseling license? Then I better pass. Bah.

Seriously. Awesome.

We went to Sam's Club today. We also went yesterday. I received an email prior to the weekend saying that they were giving away samples for "football food," so I decided we should go. We didn't hit all the samples yesterday because we went too early, so we came back today.

Good thing we did.

Today we went before lunch, and I didn't need lunch after that. We got tons of samples! PLUS they had the coolest blender I've ever seen. There was a rep from this company that came to Sam's around Christmastime to sell them this past year, and I was super impressed.

Go to this link to learn about it. I don't think the videos are nearly as impressive as when seeing happen in front of you, but it's still pretty cool.

Definitely be sure to check out the Will It Blend? link about this blender. Seriously impressive. Turns out the money clip can be blended!

I want one. For serious. Jake started a fund requesting help to go to the Cowboys game. We didn't have any takers, but we did find a way to get to go to the game (only 7 days away!). I am now going to start an "Elizabeth really needs this blender because we will both be able to eat WAY more vegetables and it's super easy" fund. Even if no one donates, I am banking on the fact that it will happen at some point. I hope it happens soon.

Sundays

I'm loving Sundays. We have been going to the early service at church which is great because we actually get to bust out the hymnals and the service feels a little more structured to me. Then we come home and watch football, which is fun because it's on all day and I get to pick-and-choose which game I want to watch. On the games I don't care about- I do homework, clean, and get ready for the week. At some point I am able to pull Jake away from the TV and we walk out to the park that's behind our apartments and we play football. Mostly we play catch, but sometimes I ask Jake to teach me plays and we attempt to execute them. I have pretty bad hands, so we practice passing plays a lot so I can get better. I also think I'm better when I have some competition because I stop caring about whether or not it's going to hurt if I catch the ball wrong.

Back to church-related things... I really love the character of God. I mean, I know to most of you that seems pretty obvious. However, what you don't know is that seminary has been a really weird season of my life spiritually so it's a pretty big deal when I talk about how great God is. I especially love Sundays because I am constantly reminded about God's character. I'm starting to get tugs about reading my Bible, and I am convinced that I will be able to do that regularly again soon (without the deep sense of bitterness). God is good. All the time.

So can you see why Sundays are so great?

The dream.

Last night I had a bad dream. Most of it was ok (like me playing softball for my dad and he put me in left field and I gave him a weird look, finding out that my brother was now my softball team's recruiter for that particular college, having my car stolen but I found it).

However, the very end of my dream was not ok. I had been on the phone with a 911 emergency woman talking about the car theft when she asked me a question to which I didn't know the answer. I called for Jake to ask him, but he was driving a car with 3 passengers and only slowed the car a bit before giving up because he couldn't hear me. All of a sudden I saw him speed up a ridiculous amount and I realized he was trying to beat a train that he hadn't noticed before when he was trying to hear my question. As he passed by I immediately started bawling thinking that I had just seen my husband mauled to death.

When I woke up I was crying and I woke Jake up to have him prove that he wasn't dead. I also called my dad to make sure he hadn't really been hijacked since he had been in my dream.

I don't really know what triggered this dream, but it's in dreams like this one that I remember absolutely how much I love my family. The counselor in me also knows that I should pay attention to the emotions I have and the things I think about when I wake up from a dream, because usually that it related or triggered my dream. When I woke up, I had a flashback to Joel and Pam's accident. I want all of Jake's family to know how much I love you guys. You mean more to me than you know!

And Mark and Lisa, happy anniversary! I'm really glad that you fell in love. :)

Hiking

So you may not know, but I sprained my ankle two weeks ago right as Jake and I were about to start a long hike. I felt a heck of a lot better after the initial wave of pain, and was really hoping to keep hiking. Of course I didn't get to though because, well, I sprained my ankle. I also didn't want to push it because I knew we had a softball tournament the next week that I needed to be ok for.

Today we went back to the place where we were going to hike two weeks ago. I can now officially say that there is no way that I would have been able to do that hike with a sprained ankle. I mean, my ankle is still swollen some today but it's way better, and that hike was exhausting- I think we were gone for almost 2.5 hrs and there was lots of steep up and downhill portions. It was fantastic. We saw deer up close, a snake, chipmunks, hummingbirds, and some pretty wicked sweet scenery. Plus, we just got to be outside. Fun stuff!

Germans rule.

On Monday Jake and I volunteered to run the food closet on campus. While we were there, the person who is generally in charge of the food closet told us that someone had donated a couple of huge boxes of Boulder sausage and that anyone could take it that wanted it. The problem was, if you wanted it then you had to take the whole box.

We now have 10-lbs of Boulder sausage. 10 lbs! My gosh. We need friends to give some of it to, because I remember the last time we thought buying 5 lbs of pepperoni would be a good idea. I'm pretty sure we still have 3.5 lbs of pepperoni in our freezer. I don't want to have 10 lbs of sausage for the next 10 months. Although I really do like sausage. Yep, I'm German.

Birthdays and Personality Disorders

Today was my dad's birthday. I still haven't talked with him yet, which is sad. I tried calling him this evening, but didn't reach him so I left a message. Then I tried calling him again twice more later in the evening, but to no avail. So now I have no idea how his day has been.

It's not like it's completely his fault. I mean yes, he hasn't answered even though I've called 3 times...

But I didn't call until this evening. I'd like to say that I had a really busy day and so I didn't really get a chance to call until then. Except that that would sort of be lying. I had internship all morning, but then all afternoon... I watched episodes of The Office. Jake got a free trial period of Netflix, so I've been watching The Office constantly. Jake and I never saw the show from the beginning, so I started at the first episode and am now in the second or third episode of the 3rd season. I think there were 6 episodes in the first season, and about 22 in the second season. Go ahead. Calculate. Make fun of me in your head. I'm obsessed. But it's mostly because I've been so interested in how things came about. I know things later on in the seasons but don't know the progression.

I also liked diagnosing Michael Scott.

It's official.

He has narcissistic personality disorder.

Check the DSM-IV-TR.

I know I did.

So Popasan, sorry I didn't call you until late this evening. I kinda got wrapped up in a little world called The Office. But you're still way cool, and I hope you had a great birthday.

Syllabi= freak out.

Ok, so I'll be honest. This post is probably going to be a bit boring and annoying because I'm whining. It's just that I need to write something to try to help myself calm down. I've seen my syllabi for two of my classes, and I have already cried quite a bit. I sat down and tried to figure out logistically what my weeks will look like and when I'm going to have time to study & do homework. There's seriously not much at all. Here's what it will look like.

Mondays I will have most of the day to study. That will be nice, but I'm going to have to find ways to split up my time because I tend to not do well with large chunks of time. Monday nights I have a 3 hour class.

Tuesdays I will have internship from 9-7

Wednesdays I will have internship from 9-11:30, and class from 12-5. Apparently I'll do homework that night.

Thursdays I have internship from 10-1, free time for homework, and then internship again from 4:30-7

Fridays I have internship from 9-5

Saturdays I will study for Comps with my friend Lisa (although it's supposed to be a culmination of a week of studying, not my only study time for the week)

Sundays I will have church and watch football. And probably do homework.

I'm not looking forward to it. I'm most worried about Comps and the NCE exam. Pam, how in the world did you have a kid, move into a house, open your business, and graduate all around the same time? I'm just freaking out about school! Anyone have any good advice as to how to stop freaking out and take one day at a time?

Lotsa pics

I haven't blogged in a long time. Want to know what's been going on? I've been having a blast with family and friends that I love. It's been awesome. In fact, I am completely dreading August 31st... the day school starts up again. Here's what it will be like:

Internship 4 days a week

3 classes (one of which is going to be completely ridiculous in the reading department)

2 hugely important exams

Football (gotta have something fun!)

Ok, so it doesn't sound as bad on paper than it does in my head right now, but it's going to probably be the hardest semester I've had. Jake and I are already trying to plan a two week vacation after the semester is over, because I'm going to need it. Plus, it will be the last time I have complete freedom. After that, hopefully I will find a job.

So, here are some pictures of the past couple of weeks that have been absolutely wonderful.

Gabriel at my parents' house after swimming

My brother and me after lunch at Perkins. I won a free cookie- go me!

Waiting for Justin's rehearsal to get going

My good lookin' man on Justin's wedding day

The Central crew

Matt came to visit. We went to a Rockies-Cubs game. Can you tell who won by Matt's expression? :)

Can you tell they love each other?

When Lisa, Jase, and #8 came to visit, we went to Wash Park

Good stuff.

The other day I saw a coupon in a local grocery store's ads for an awesome deal. They were selling Snickers candy bars for 27 cents! They had a limit of 6, so Jake and I bought them and I put them in the freezer when we got home (since we don't need to be eating 6 candy bars anytime soon). Jake wasn't around at the time that I put them away, so later when he came home he was begging me to tell him where I "hid" them.

Instead of telling him, we made it a game. Ok, I made it a game. :) He looked in very obscure places (the oven, microwave...) and I just laughed at him. After one minute, I told him to look somewhere in the fridge/freezer. After another minute of being unsuccessful, I narrowed it down again and told him to look in the freezer. He finally found them- but it was really funny to watch. I had found a nice place in the section for ice trays beside a box so that it wasn't obvious that we had 6 Snickers in the freezer. I mean, I don't want to look like all we do is eat sugar! Anyway, I was very amused.

Last night we had a really wonderful friend come over for dinner. We're still having problems with bugs, as you can see that she killed a mosquito last night.

We grilled hamburgers, and they were awesome! Here we were trying to display how big Kim's burger was (we made them into 1/3 lb patties!!), but I don't think the picture is as successful as I wanted it to be. I was going to try again, but I think Kim was very ready to eat her burger, so I gave up. :)

And here's a picture of Kim and me. Aren't we cute? I had a horrible headache most of the evening, but she's just so great I didn't want her to leave.

The end.

Insects

So we had a wonderful time in California!  Both of us really wish it could have been longer, but apparently we do have things we must attend to (sad!).  I want to put pictures up here, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to yet - we'll have to ask when everyone is back from camping. :)

We just had the Terminex guy come to spray our apartment for the second time.  The first time we were only complaining of spiders, but he said that we would stop seeing them within a couple of days.  

That didn't happen.  

In fact, we saw more.  When we returned from Cali, we saw live spiders every day, and we also started seeing earwigs quite often.  I think we have been killing some kind of insect at least 2-3 times per day.  So, the Terminex man just came back.  I asked him to spray outside on our patio this time, so hopefully that will help.  I would have preferred him to spray outside of our windows, but I think he was a bit too lazy for that. :)  I was also hoping that he could spray my dreams, because I am frequently having dreams about insects and other icky animals on the floor of my apartment.  Last night there were scorpions in there.  I think my mind is combining my fear of things crawling on our floor with all of the Planet Earth episodes we have been watching.  So, if he could just spray away those nasty dreams, that would be great.  If only it worked that easily!  

Hopefully the majority of insects will be gone from our apartment now!

Pictures

I feel like posting pictures.  I don't really have many, but I want to anyways.  First off, if you haven't seen it yet, you should check out Jake's blog to see the huge 5-egg omelet he made himself.  Mine was way better though because I had salsa, cheese, and turkey in it.  Yum!

Here are some pictures from a day trip we made to the mountains to see some Iowa friends who were on va-cay.

We were excited to finally meet Anna and Mark's baby!

We also stopped on the way back at a pretty spot. :)

That's all.  Happy pictures!

Lazy Pants

 I'm so lazy today! I suppose that's ok being that I have had a fairly stressful week and have been busy every day.  I haven't even showered yet and it's almost 2pm.  Wowza.  I was going to work out this morning, but time got away from me and lunchtime arrived.  I just ate lunch, and so now I can't work out for a while because otherwise I might throw up my Rueben sandwich, which would be fairly disgusting.  I also thought about going out to the pool, but I keep seeing families go by with their kids and lots of pool toys.  That pool is seriously NOT big enough for me to go when there are multiple families.  It's barely big enough when I'm there.  In fact, neither Jake nor I have even gone yet because it's only like 5 feet deep, oddly shaped, and simply looks pansy.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to be swimming some when we are at my parents' house.  It sounds fantastic right now.  Boy do I miss Iowa!

Rocky Mountains are wonderful

Jake and I went to Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday.  Apparently the National Park system is trying to help out during the recession, so there are 3 weekends during the summer where they are offering free admittance.  This weekend was the first weekend, so we took a day trip to the park.  By the way, it took us around 1.5 hrs to get there this time (compared to over 5 hours the last time when we went in the blizzard).  Much nicer!  Here are some pictures of our fun-filled hike in the park.  It was amazingly beautiful.  And we had loads of fun together.

After our hike, we went on the drive through the entire park.  We didn't drive the whole way, but we went most of it, and we went past the highest peak (over 12,000 feet!).  It was incredible.

p.s. We took Jase's car. ;)

Redbox and lawbreakers.

So something's been bothering me lately.  Jake and I have used Redbox frequently to get free movies (I think that we paid for only our second movie this week- impressive if you ask me).  I don't know if you've noticed, but most Redboxes are in the parking lot of McDonald's and are usually right next to a spot for those who are handicapped.  I have become increasingly frustrated with the fact that people park in the handicapped spot just because it's closest to the Redbox.  I understand that you just have one movie to return, but honestly, I don't care.  Often times those people get behind someone else who is picking out 6 movies and take much longer than they expect.  I think it's horrible.  It's like convenience is much more important than respecting others who might need that parking spot.  

Even worse than that is some people who we have seen driving right up to the Redbox and parking with the nose of their car right in front of it, which in effect blocks both of the handicapped spots too.  I don't understand.  There are plenty of parking spots (not to mention they have failed to find a place with two lines around them).  Why the need to be obnoxious, block spots others need to use, and BREAK THE LAW continually.

Anyway, that's my rampage for the day.  So if you're one of those people parking in the handicapped spot for convenience, I beg you to stop.

Banana update and tales from the freezer

So, update on the bananas.  We weren't able to eat all 15 of them, but I did put a few in the freezer and later made some amazing banana muffins, if I do say so myself.  I'm pretty sure they're the best batch of banana bread-ish things I've ever made.  Yummo.  This time I got 12 bananas; we'll see if we are able to eat all of them.

Our freezer is JAM packed.  Sometimes I make dinner in two containers and freeze one for later, which is super nice.  Also, we have been watching the things on sale and stocking up.  However, we don't have a deep freeze so we have to find ways to fit all of the stocked up items into our regular freezer.  It's getting pretty difficult.  We bought a 5 lb bag of pepperoni at Sam's the other day.  I haven't decided if that was a good idea or not yet, but I split them into 10 individual baggies so I know that there is about 8 oz in each one and so that they fit into the freezer better.  Here's a picture of the finished bagging process.

And just for fun, here's a picture of our jam-packed freezer.

Just so you know, my favorite item in there right now is the thing that is in the ice cube tray slot (we took them out so that we'd have room).  It's an amazing dessert with mint oreos crushed on the bottom, then mint ice cream, then cool whip, and then chocolate shavings on top.  It's definitely my favorite dessert right now.  So, do you believe me now when I say that our freezer is jam packed?

The other thing I wanted to comment upon was a job posting.  I saw a job posting for a bank teller job.  In its description of requirements, it lists (no joke) "1+ year experience interacting with people or customers."  At what age do you think a person can qualify as having 1 year of interacting with people?  Anyway, I laughed really hard.

Notebooks

Have you ever looked on the back cover of a notebook?  I just did, and realized that there is a whole slew of information there, at least on my "exceed" brand notebook.  There is a map with each state capital listed, there is a metric conversion chart, there is some reminders about fractions, decimals, and percentages, and there is a chart about punctuation.  Seriously, how come nobody every mentioned this to me?

Well, maybe they did and I just wasn't paying attention.  Or maybe my memory has gone and the last time that I noticed it I was just as excited, which is very possible.  But anyway, I think it's pretty cool.

My favorite part, though, is a sentence written at the bottom.  It reads "Always double-check your work.  Norcom is not responsible for any errors or inaccuracies."  Nice.

Monkeys

I feel like I've had a couple of blog posts up my sleeve for the past couple of days but I can't really remember them.  Here's one I can remember though...

Jake and I really like bananas.  I'm not kidding, we like them a lot.  The problem is that I like bananas earlier than when Jake likes to eat bananas, so we started increasing the amount of bananas that we would buy at the store so that I wouldn't be able to eat them all before they got to the place where Jake would like to eat them.  I was shocked on the day when we made it up to 7 bananas purchased at one time.  Now, 7 seems even normal.  But last night, I think we hit the mark.

We bought 15 bananas.  I got 8 for me, and Jake got 7 (he made sure I remembered that his were the cute little ones and that I absolutely must not touch *his* bananas).  I can't believe that we have so many!  I've already eaten one- we'll see if I am able to eat all of mine before they turn past my eating stage.  

For real.  I think we're turning into monkeys!

I also want to say that I had a dude teach me about how to look for a watermelon last night.  He said that the whole sound of the melon telling its ripeness thing is bogus, and that they usually make fun of people who try to test it out while buying them.  He said his best advice is to get one that's not "pretty" because it has been on the vine for less time and usually tastes the best.  I haven't cut into the watermelon we purchased yet, but I'll let you know if that's a good method.  So there's my tidbit for the day!  

A tribute to my family

These past couple of days have been absolutely horrible.  Remember the oils that I mentioned before that smelled like root beer and fruit loops?  Well, apparently my body did not like them.  They clogged my follicles and made my legs really red, itchy, oozy with puss, and feel like they were burning.  A couple of days ago I was somewhat comfortable for a grand total of about 45 minutes throughout the whole day.  I couldn't even watch tv because I was so distracted.  I went to urgent care last night and got a shot of steroids (not like I drank a shot, but like they gave me a shot... in the butt... attractive) and they gave me more steroids and antibiotic to take at home since it was swollen and infected.  As long as I can keep the swelling down and keep it from spreading much more, I shouldn't have to go to the ER (thank goodness!).

For the past couple of days, my husband and my mom have done nothing but try to help.  Jake has done things for me he should have never had to do.  He probably didn't do that well on his final yesterday because he was too busy taking care of me to be able to adequately study.  He constantly brought me things, since I was basically bedridden.  He cooked for me, he sat with me, he made strange baking soda concoctions in the bathtub, he was simply there for me.  I couldn't have asked for a more supportive and loving husband.

My mom did absolutely everything she could think of to try to give me ideas that might make me more comfortable.  I'm not sure how many phone calls have occurred between the two of us in the past couple of days, but I'm sure it exceeds 30.  I've called her and woken her up in the middle of the night, she's called me with more ideas after doing some research, she made phone calls to people, she was incredibly sweet.  And she tolerated me when I was in so much pain that I was very short with her on the phone.  I don't think I could have made it through the past couple of days without her help.  Even just hearing her voice made me feel a little better.  My mom has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know.

There have been other family and friends who have spent a lot of time in prayer and support of me too.  I'm so thankful for them.  I've had more people pray with me over the phone and in person than I have had in a long time.  So thank you.  All of you.  I couldn't have made it through the past couple of days without you.

Good friends and fresh starts

I'm having one of those days.  Things just haven't really gone right for most of the day, but I'm getting kind of annoyed with my self-pity.  I remember in college, Karine asked me one time if I wanted her to throw me a pity-party.  I jokingly said yes, but later that night she came down (she lived above me) with some party hats she had made with construction paper and baseball hats.  The one for me said "Guest of honor" on it.  She also brought me a rolled up piece of paper with a flower drawn on it.  

That was the coolest pity-party ever.  I'm gonna go think about how great of a friend she is and do some painting and then... I'm going to get over it and move on.  And tonight, I am going to watch The Biggest Loser live finale (even though it's 3 hours long).  It will be grand.  And tomorrow will be a new day with a fresh start.  

Oh. My. Gosh.

I've been fruit deprived for the past week.  Jake and I have some guidelines to follow with our eating habits (1 piece of fruit per day, vegetables with our dinner at least 5 times per week, 84 oz of water per day, etc), and in the past week I have had to scrounge for good fruit.  Jake and I REALLY like bananas, and I really like certain types of apples.  I also really like to buy one "special" kind of fruit every couple of weeks (cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes, etc.).  

We just went to Sunflower Farmers Market (the only place I will buy produce), and we bought some incredible stuff.  We got home and I just went crazy over the fruit (I already had eating an incredible orange earlier today that surprised me how good it was).  I ate almost a whole carton of strawberries.  Seriously.  They were HUGE and amazing.  I'm not kidding; they were about 4 inches long and super sweet.  Thank you, Lord, for Oxnard, CA and their amazing strawberries.

I also ate some blackberries and a banana.  I want to eat more, but we get to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner tonight because we sold a book on Amazon.  I will very much enjoy that too, but wow.  It's probably the most amazing food group out there.  I never want to go fruit deprived again.

Fruit loops and Root beer

So I have 3 1/2 pages so far on my paper.  Not too shabby, if you ask me.  Only 8 1/2 more pages to go!

I want to say that I am REALLY excited about these oils that my mom got for me.  I've been having major problems with shin splints, which really sucks for someone who really likes to run and wants to run, but can't.  Well I've gone to the chiropractor twice in the past week and a half, and I've been putting on these oils too.  One is for healing ligaments and the other is for pain relief. 

I ran this morning PAIN-FREE.  Incredible.  This picture is how I feel right now.

(Ok, so that picture was actually after the Cardinals won the World Series, but that's how I feel now!)

I could have run for miles and miles and miles, if I didn't think that would be horrible on my body.  It felt fabulous.  People really take for granted running when they don't have any pain.  I, on the other hand, generally feel pain when I run so it's absolutely wonderful to have no pain.  

The only down-side to the oils is that they smell pretty strong.  The healing one that I put on at night smells like Fruit Loops, and the pain one I put on in the morning smells like root beer.  It's an interesting mixture.  Luckily only Jake really has to smell it, cuz it's mostly gone during the day.  So here's to fruit loops and root beer for making my legs feel SO great!

Papers and phones

So I mentioned that I had an open theism paper due for theology about 1 week ago. Well, it technically was supposed to be due about 2 1/2 weeks ago, except it got postponed twice due to his realization of the timing of Easter (he didn't realize he had the paper due the day after it) and because of a major snowstorm. It all seemed a bit silly to me at the time. Well now I have a doctrinal summary paper (12-14 pages) that was supposed to be due on Monday, except I just got an email that he's going to postpone it due to the prior paper being postponed and we won't have our grades from that paper back before we turn this one in. I think that's nice, but not necessary either.  

The problem is, I was going to work really hard tonight and tomorrow on that paper, and now I feel much less motivated. I'm going to try to get it done by Monday anyway, but that lack of motivation really is a killer (said in the voice of Bartok from the movie Anastasia). We'll see what happens. I don't really want to have a paper and a final on the same day, and then have the same thing happen only 4 days later. 

And on another note, it's been quite amusing to watch my phone slowly fade away. First it sounded weird, then the outside picture faded to black, then I couldn't get any buttons to work (and thus make no calls), then the picture on the inside froze, then the picture on the inside turned completely white. So until my new phone arrives and I get everything transferred over, I can receive calls- but it's stuck on vibrate and I don't know who is calling- and that's about it. So if you're calling me, hope that I can actually hear it vibrate, and hope that I feel adventurous enough to actually answer it. :)

Charming older couple

This video is super cute.  Watch the old man tap the woman's butt each time they cross!

UGH!

I just heard on the news that there was an application for iPod that was pulled from the market and was called "Baby Shaker."  The app has a picture of a baby on it who is crying and the point is to shake the iPod which in turn shakes the baby to death.  There is even a timer on there to see how long it takes.

That is disgusting, revolting, horrifying, and just plain AWFUL.  I'm glad it got pulled so quickly, but I can't believe it even made it on there.  Shaken Baby Syndrome is NOT something to joke about.

Chirping Birds

First of all, I finished my paper at 10:15pm last night, which is exactly the time I was targeting for.  I'm very excited that that paper is done, but sadly I have an even bigger theology paper due in about a week and a half.  I'm so taking at least one day off before I work on that.  

Second of all, I'm amazed at how quizzes sometimes can be fairly accurate with so many random questions.  I read on Emily's blog that she took a quiz to see "what part of spring" she was, and I became curious to see what I might be.  I have listed my results below.

You Are Chirping Birds

You are a very caring person. You especially feel for innocent beings, like animals and children.

You are keyed in to the world and very peaceful. You believe that everyone is connected.

You remain focused and in the moment. You are not easily distracted.

You have a good memory, especially for things that you hear. You listen carefully.

So first of all, hearing birds chirping is one of my favorite things about spring/summer.  Second of all, how did they know that I feel for animals and children?!  I want to know what about my favorite color of flower being pink made them know that.  And having a good memory for things I hear... that's true.  My musical memory is probably the only good memory that I have.  

So, I'm impressed.  If you're impressed and want to know what part of spring you are, click here. 

Open Theism & Procrastination...

...did God know that I was going to procrastinate or not?  That is the question at hand.

So I have to write a paper about open theism by tomorrow night at midnight.  I am just now getting started (by that I mean I haven't written a word yet) and I am not at all excited about it.  I know that it's very important to me theologically to know where I stand, but I do.  I read the book supporting it and the one against it and I know that the former book was fairly silly and it was entirely too long.  I suppose this whole little talk is my way of procrastinating writing it even more, but I think I should start soon.  I went for a walk with Jake this morning, I went to class, I worked, I took a nap in Shepherds Gate (the counseling center on campus), and now it is time.  

I wish it was 7pm instead so I could watch The Biggest Loser, but that break will come.  I want to have 5 pages written by then (and write the other 4 tomorrow), so wish me luck.  Ok, good luck to me.

Bah.

Driving Confusion

My husband is odd.  This evening he did something that I have seen him do once before.  I have no idea why he has done it more than once now.  In fact, I thought he was on drugs the first time he did it.  Now I'm really not sure I know who I married.  He's odd.  So here's what he did.

We were walking to the car, and he was going to drive.  Instead of getting into the driver's seat, he started to get into the back seat- driver's side.  He literally was halfway into the backseat when he realized what he was doing and that he looked silly.  I am literally crying right now I am laughing so hard.

Wow.  Apparently from now on I am going to have to keep reminding Jake where the driver's seat is.

Snow Day!

Jake and I had a snow day today.  I was supposed to have class (and a test in that class) this afternoon, but the school closed at 1pm today instead due to lotsa snow (total for this storm will probably be between 9 and 16 inches).  So, Jake and I had a really fun snow day at home all afternoon!

The snow was really heavy at times (which made it really pretty), so we went outside onto our patio and watched it fall while drinking hot chocolate.  There were some pretty big flakes!

 

We also tried to catch some flakes in our mouths.  Some of them were the size of two quarters- at least!  We only got "caught" once when we were diving over the railing to try to catch them.  A guy who was walking inside said, "Yeah, supposed to just be rain, huh?"  At least he didn't say, "Wow you guys look way too old to be trying to eat snowflakes."  That would have been embarrassing. 

Then we made a fort and ate s'mores!  It took me a while to convince Jake that we should make a fort, but I'm pretty sure he's glad that we did.  It was way fun.  We also watched a movie tonight.  Overall, it was a GREAT snow day!