Eleven Things

I have no choice but to follow through with this since Katie tagged me.

1. The first rule is to post these rules.
2. Post a photo of yourself then write 11 things about you/your life.
3. Answer the questions for you set in the original post.
4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5. Go to their blog/twitter to tell them you have tagged them.

 

11 Things About Me

1. I love to avoid homework and grading by wasting time on pinterest.  Its a horrible addiction.

2.  On a long drive recently, I tried my hardest to think of random facts about my childhood that I had not told Steven about yet.  Some of these things included that I used to wear the most hideous unicorn sweater all the time and loved it. I won a young authors contest once for poetry that I had written.  Some of the poems were about popcorn, milkshakes, angels, etc.  Typical 4th grade stuff. 

3. The best chocolate in the world is Milka. Fact. Its science.

4. I have white eye lashes.  Its terrifying. 

5. I'm obsessed with puppies. I get sad when I see one, especially chocolate labs.  Steve says I'm the only person he's met that gets sad when they see puppies.  I'm not really sad, I'm just pouting because its not mine. 

6. I'm not a natural red head. KIDDING, but I have never ever died my hair. 

7. The Avett Brothers are one of my all time favorite bands.  They are lyrical geniuses. My favorite songs by them would be The Ballad of Love and Hate  and The Greatest Sum  and many others...

8. I love road trips. Anywhere, Anytime. 

9. I love my camera, I call it my baby.  I've made many a threat to those who may cause it harm.

10. I'm an indecisive person. I like to think of all the options, which could take awhile sometimes.

11. I'm excited to marry Steve :)

The combination of questions:

1. Mini-van or other? NEVER will I EVER drive a mini van, its an unhealthy hatred that I have. I want a Jeep Wrangler, but will probably get a Cherokee... or drive my Focus forever. 
2. Favorite clothing item? My tan puffy vest. Nothing can compare to the comfort that it gives me in the winter haha Its getting so gross, but I never find anything that properly compares.
3. Favorite movie?Probably Pride and Prejudice or Anchorman.... drastically different films right?
4. Best concert you've ever been to? I'm going to follow Katie and say Dierks Bentley at the Sagamon County Fair. We waited in line for hours. We ended up at the edge of the stage, font and center all night, then met him and he autographed our shirts. We also got pulled over by a bored cop on the way home.
5. What did you want to be when you were little? A veterinarian. Then I decided that I didn't want to be in school for 8 years.  Its funny now in that I'm in my 6th year of school, so close to earning my Master's I can taste it.  I'm also thinking about getting my PhD.  10 years is longer than 8, isn't it? 
6. Favorite quote?   One would be "Shit happens..." As stated by my dad many times.     The other would perhaps be "People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
   If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
   If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
   If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
   What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.  If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
   The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
   Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
   In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."
   ~Mother Teresa
   
7.  Most Memorable Moment- That's a really tough question.  The easy one would be when Steven proposed.
8. Dream Vacation- Italy, Ireland, or Scotland. I want to go to all three someday.
9. Coffee, Tea or Pop- Coffee is my life source. I also like iced tea and sweet tea, but a good strong Americano with cream trumps all.
10. Favorite CD that you can listen to the whole thing- Pretty much any Avett Brother's CD. 
11. If you could have an actress to play you in a movie, who would it be? Why?- I would vote Emma Stone.  this was actually decided in a group conversation a few months back.  You see, the majority of my friends came from working at Farm King.  This is the main reason I am thankful for the job by the way.  So, A few of them started making up a comedy series they want to produce about working at the store.  This led to a great debate of who would play what characters.  Mine ended up being Emma Stone. I was pleased.  I made it clear I wanted John Krasinki  to play Steve. I have a little crush on both of them. :)

I have no one to tag, so this is where it ends.  

Centerpieces - Being crafty again

Planning a wedding on a budget brings out the crafty side of you. So I posted recently about paper flowers, now I've put them to work.   Last night I experimented some with branches and paper flowers.  I originally had two jars to play with (one large and one medium sized blue Ball Jars).  The wind, as good as it felt, was determined to break something and decided that thing would be one of my ball jars. It had branches in it, the wind came, and the jar went.  So, I had to develop the ideas with a shorter jar, no big, I'm just mourning the loss of 1 of the 3 big jars I had started to collect. 

Here are some of my ideas so far.

Sorry for the bad lighting in the photos, I'm too lazy to edit anything :)

What do you think?

What's the biggest thing you've been hit by?

First, I must give Katie credit for the title of this blog. I find its origin hilarious and it will be explained soon.

So spring break was last week, but it didn't feel like much of a break. But when does a break feel like a break? It should really be called "that week that class is cancelled so you can run errands, go to Peoria 3 times in 3 days to pick out bridesmaid dresses, catch up on grading, clean your apartment that's been oh so neglected all semester, run more errands, do laundry, and catch up on sleep." I think that's way more accurate, but also a little long for my taste.  It would take quite the movement to change the name too.  Its not worth the effort, so I'll keep calling it break, but regrettably so.

Spring break started with an ending. While all the students went home, I had class. I took a weekend academy class this semester, so on Friday from 5:00-10:00 and Saturday from 9:00-6:00 I had class. Luckily we got out early both days!! It was because it was the last weekend though.  So, that class ended, then I slept and lounged around Sunday, caught up on grades Monday, and left for home Tuesday. 

Steven and I hauled a planter home to my dad on Tuesday. We were supposed to leave at 7:00am, but didn't really leave until 8:30. One could assume that I slept in, but no, I was ready around 7:00. There was heavy fog. Really wide planter + heavy fog = no road time til it cleared off.  So we left around 8:30 at a top speed of 25/30 mph with 120 miles of road ahead of us. We knew we were in for the long haul so I began the trip announcing that I prepared a series of short stories to tell Steven as he drove.  He was actually quite disappointed when he found out that I was full of shit and no stories.   So I texted this to Katie this story because I thought it was hilarious. Katie, being the youth leader that she is, instantly replied with several prompt questions for conversation.  An example would be the title of this post.  This question originated from the following story.

As Steven and I were driving, passerby's came and went, we went over bridges, under viaducts, passed semis etc. One particular tandem truck, though, caused us a bit of drama.  You see, when tandem truck drivers aren't paying attention to the fact that a large planter is coming towards them and they don't move over a little bit, the tandem truck will hit said planter. I will give the truck driver credit for being in his lane, but he did not get over at all for us. We were already driving on the shoulder and didn't have room to get over any more.  When a tandem truck hits a planter, who would you place your bet on? I would normally have bet the tandem, but not in this case.  Although the planter was damaged, I think that the tandem truck got the worst of it.  There were planter parts everywhere and bent metal and tire rims. For the tandem truck, he had a nice slice down the fender, a broken windshield, a GIANT hole in the truck box, a missing mirror or two, and probably more.

It was a bit of an adventure, but thankfully, no one was hurt. It was just a mess. 

Learning from a Gypsy.

So, as some may know, my mom makes delicious cakes.  She stayed at home raising us and baking cakes, cookies, pies, etc until I was in 4th grade, I believe. She still bakes some, but not as much.  I was always fascinated by her cakes, especially when she made flowers.  I got to play with the frosting sometimes, but usually not until the cakes for her customers were complete so we didn't use/eat all of the frosting that she had prepared.  I mainly just wanted to eat it.

So fast forward some years, stopping at least week.  I had a class project due Friday that I didn't start until Wednesday night. You see, I'm busy, but I also procrastinate.  It makes it even worse when you can't decide on a project topic either.  I was required to develop instruction and graphics for my project for a course that I am taking.  Many of the projects completed by other students in the past involved web design/use. I'm not quite that advanced yet. So, I decided to take the 'how to make something' route. That something ended up being instruction on how to make frosting flowers.  I've never really dabbled in the art, but with some memory of mom's techniques and some tutorials online, I made it out alive with some pretty posies :)

This was one of the best ones I made.

The yellow and white one was my favorite :)  I just was cleaning out the tip from the yellow and tried it. There are a few of my attempts. I also made pansies... I thought they all were kinda ugly personally :)  I also made carnations and daisies, but I thought they were too ugly for online appearances. 

 Here are some more. 

Now I just have to make a cake or cupcakes so they get eaten. :)

Kitten would be proud.... I got crafty!

My sister, Kitten, (a.k.a. Katie) is a crafty one.  She creates great things, she's a little machine of wonder if you ask me.   I, on the other hand, am not so crafty.... I don't usually have the attention span to complete a project in one sitting. There are always exceptions to the rule however. 

So, if you read the previous post, you know that I'm busy planning my wedding, and its being planned on a budget. I don't want to say small budget, because to me, its not small at all.  Its amazing to be how much cash people can drop on a wedding.  So, to help save on some of the costs, I'm not going to have all, if any, 'live' centerpieces.  I LOATHE, DESPISE, and  DETEST silk flowers. Bleh. No. hn and NO! Funny side story, my dad doesn't like silk flowers either, he once told me that if I put them on his grave he would come back and haunt me.  Maybe that's where I get it from :)  Anywho. So, I'm getting crafty.  I've decided that I want branch centerpieces with homemade paper flowers. Here are my test babies.

This is just a circle cut into a spiral, then wrapped around itself and glued at the end.

This baby is a bit more time consuming.  You see all those petals? Yep, they're all individual petals that are individually glued and cared for.  I'm sure there is a quicker way to do it, but I did it in about a half hour or so.

Sorry for the poor lighting in the pictures...  

So, what do you think? Would you like to volunteer to help make some :)

These are the colors I plan on using to create more of these little guys.  It's good to do when watching a movie I've learned.  I now realize that I may be watching a lot of movies in my future.  Any recommendations?  I may need to go raid some movie collections so I don't watch the same thing over and over.  

I keep getting yelled at...

I have failed my blog. 

I have failed my 2 followers.
Most importantly, I have failed my mom. 

Mom didn't like when I didn't keep up with my blog. She kept asking, hinting, wishing perhaps for a new post. She eventually quit asking.  Grad School, Job searching, wedding planning, and well life impeded my progress.  I was just reading my sister Katie's Blog and felt that I should tend to the sad little blog that was mine.


I'm not sure where to begin, it ended with a final post last year in April about mom's 50th birthday party. Much has happened since then. I'm finishing my second year of grad school. I'm 'walking' in May, but I won't have completed my degree.  You see a thesis is a funny thing, it stops you from graduating until you complete it.  I, however, will pretend that I have earned my Master's of Communication in May. I'll be living a lie I suppose, but it makes me feel better.  That's probably not the best idea... but I will finish my thesis by the end of the year.   After May, I'm praying I'll have a job, maybe even a dream job.  I won't hold my breath for the dream job though.  I just want a job that I can like myself for.  (What movie is that last sentence from? Winner gets an air-five I suppose, is that fair?)  Anyway, the search continues! 


Did I mention I finally got engaged? :) After being with Steve for over 2.5 years or 928 days (I just added that up for self amusement)  on December 15, 2011, he finally popped the question... no one was surprised but I think everyone is happy and excited. Both of my sisters screamed a lot, so I think that's a good sign. We have a Wedding Website. Go click and see.  It has the story of how we met, the proposal, the wedding plans, etc.  The big day is November 3, 2012.  I'm working on finding bridesmaid dresses, a DJ, a caterer, and flowers currently.  I have my dress and love it.  We got the photographers that I have always wanted Mary and Seth Morris (Seth Morris Photography) They are amazing and awesome and I love their photos.   They were the first people that I called and the first thing that I booked.  I was a little excited if you can't tell.  We're getting married at Argyle Bible Church and the reception  is going to be at Lake Hill Winery.  Our best friend Judd of Sugar Creek Photography is going to take our engagement pictures (hopefully someday soon).  He's Steve's best man (and my honorary bridesmaid....kidding!) so he can't shoot our wedding, but he's doing our engagement pics as his gift to us. There's a good bit done with the planning, but so much more to do.

Hmmm... What else to add.  Oh, I'm a teaching assistant now! I'm teaching 2 speech courses a semester and its been a blast.  Its been A LOT of work, but I've really enjoyed it.  This is coming from the girl who said that she would never under any circumstance become a teacher, and now I'm 2 years in at teaching at Western Illinois University.  I taught a few job prep courses last year, now speech communication.  Life if interesting and funny.   


That's all for now I suppose. I need to get back to grading speeches :)

Here's a song for your Monday