Confessions of a Stand-In Mom, aka My Summer as a Nanny.

Summer isn't truly summer when you're in college unless you have a job to pad your bank account for when the school year rolls back around. (Seriously though, what I wouldn't give to have an 8-year-old's summer, the kind where all you do is play outside and run around and not have to worry about anything except what's for lunch and when mom will take you to the pool.)

So what did I decide to do to fulfill this? I became a:

chauffeur
nurse
maid
chef
entertainer
lifeguard
librarian
teacher
mediator
dog walker
mother.

Okay wait, that last one didn't sound right. No, people, I did NOT birth children this summer, relax.  Rather, I became a nanny.  But really, what is a nanny but all of the former jobs compiled into one: a fill-in mom (Mom B) while real mom (Mom A) is at work.

And let me tell you, it was a struggle. Though I have nannied 2 summers before this one (really, third time is a charm, right?), this summer proved to be the most challenging. My children for the summer? A giggly 3rd grader, a sporty 4th grader (and the only boy), a sweet 5th grader, and a sassy 6th grader.  I have been babysitting for the brother/sister duo of Sporty and Sassy for the past 3 and a half years and have been sitting for sisters Giggly and Sweet since last summer, though I have known them since my first summer with Sporty and Sassy. (Goodness, with these names, it sounds like I'm nannying for a little over half of the Seven Dwarves).  You would think, after several years of working with these kids, and at an age where they start gaining some independence, this summer would be a breeze!

...Think again.

Because besides the average nanny duties of preparing breakfasts and lunches (no easy feat with 4 younguns), cleaning/doing dishes/doing laundry/vacuuming, and planning fun activities for the kids, I was running my own private shuttle business, carting the kids to taekwondo practice, dance class, gymnastics practice, basketball camp, soccer camp, art class, softball practice, piano lessons, cheer clinic, band practice.  No kidding, there were days that I drove 70 miles IN TOWN.  The struggle.

And somehow, between all those activities, we managed to squeeze in some pool days, finish the library program, go to some parks and spray parks, hit up the zoo (RIP Miller Park tiger), show off at the bowling alley, and eat more ice cream than is probably healthy for children of that age.  But then again, consult the list of activities these children were enrolled in, and you'll see how easily they burned off those calories.

Needless to say, I am EXHAUSTED.  And though we were constantly busy and the summer could seem long at times, I can't believe it is almost the end.  In fact, I had to say goodbye to Sassy and Sporty yesterday as it was my last day with them and I will not be nannying for them next year since I'll likely stay at Purdue.  Now THAT was difficult.  I have played an minor role in raising these children for around a third of their lives, and suddenly it was time to say goodbye.  Sassy and I began tearing up in the parking lot as I dropped her off for softball one last time.  And Sporty?  Well, he said he wouldn't really miss me too much because, "After three years, it's time to move on." Oh. Well okay then. Lol.

And then next week will be my last week with Sweet and Giggly, so I'm basically dreading 5 pm Friday.

And if anyone has spent any time at all with me this summer, you'll know that I complain A LOT about this job.  I won't deny it.  Between cleaning up the sticky messes and putting up with the bickering and coming home night after night ready to pass out, who can blame me?  But then again, there are so many fond memories I have of this summer, specific and general.  Like that time I was playing my oldies CD in the car and the kids fell in love with "Build Me Up Buttercup" and requested that I play it so they could dance and sing along each time we were in the car.  Or when I was finally able to get the kids excited about reading and Giggly and Sweet came to enjoy the times I read aloud to them from our chapter books, which became good bonding time, as well as a chance for me to practice for my future profession.  Or when we tirelessly studied the lyrics to Iggy Azalea's rap in "One Less Problem" until we could recite it effortlessly.  Or spending countless mornings in the kitchen whipping up a wide variety of pancakes (banana, cinnamon sugar, s'mores, chocolate chip/sprinkle/whipped cream/chocolate syrup).  Or even the little things, like when they would remember something specific that you'd said, or when they'd grab your hand, almost subconsciously, as we were walking to and from somewhere, or when they said they love me and will miss me and that I'm the best sitter ever.  It's the things like that that really get me, that made it totally worthwhile.  I really do love these kids, each in their own way, and I'm going to miss them lots next year.

But that doesn't mean I am anywhere NEAR ready to be a mother.  In fact, the nanny rally cry happens to be, "I'm never having kids!"  At least not now :)`  


But besides nannying, I did get to do some other cool stuff this summer.  These included:

-Family reunion in Nebraska at Platte River State Park
-Backstreet Boys and Avril Lavigne concert with some friends
-Visiting Jess in Chicago with Annie and going to IKEA to shop for our apartment
-Going to Purdue and seeing all my school friends
-Going on vacation with Sydney and her family...RV trip to Glacier National Park in Montana!
-Other various shenanigans with my frands and family.

But, in just a couple weeks, I will begin round 3 of being a College Kid. Stay tuned :)

Kaisershot Family Reunion 2014

Concert!

USA

Fountain run!

Boating with the girls

...and shooting with the girls.

Basically, I just love these girls.

#RVtrip2k14

10 mile hike, whaddup?

Iceberg lake

Snow angels in July!

Segway tour

Mount Rushmore!

My kiddos :)

I'll miss these guys!

Ten Things My Second Year of College Taught Me

Please excuse me for just a moment while I make amends for neglecting my blog for the last few months.

It's okay, little bloggie blog. I promise I still love you. It's just been a really, REALLY long and rough semester. Please forgive me.

And to you, my loyal readers (and by that I mean my grandma, shoutout to you grandma, I love you!): my apologies for falling off the face of this cyber world this semester.  To say my life has been in shambles would be an understatement.  This semester has kicked my butt.  And my legs.  And arms. And stomach.  And face.  And everywhere else.  But thank goodness it is now over (and has been for about a week now, but I still don't think I've fully recovered).  So with that, I will give you:

Ten Things My Second Year of College Taught Me

1. The Quarter-Life Crisis is real

Everyone always made fun of me when I told them I was going to undergo a Quarter-Life Crisis when March 12, 2014 came around, aka the day I turned 20.  Well guess what everyone?  IT'S A REAL THING.  Quite the conundrum.  

When I turned 20, I kinda freaked.  I was no longer a teenager, and things happen in your 20s.  You graduate.  You get your first real job.  You might get married.  You might have children.

Dear goodness, that's a lot of pressure if you ask me.  In just 10 short years, I could have hit most of my major milestones, and that freaks me out.  But then again...

I'm in my 20s.  I'm in one of the most exciting times of my life.  So far, my 20s have not failed me, and I'm so excited to see where these 10 years take me.  

2. Work sucks, but it doesn't have to suck

I worked for our school newspaper, The Exponent, this year as a copy editor.  Goodness, was that a roller coaster of a job.  Some nights, the only thing that got me through was a 44 oz. Den Pop, bless its heart.  But then, something happened.  Maybe it was the warm weather.  Maybe it was my resignation of the fact that work was work and it had to be done whether I liked it or not.  Or maybe it was magic.  But the fact of the matter was, in the last few weeks of my time there, I actually enjoyed spending my Monday and Wednesday nights in the News Room on the second floor with my fellow co-workers, slaving over the news, ensuring that our peers were well-informed each day.  Suddenly, I had friends at work and it actually became fun.  Like the time we ordered Moe's late at night and the delivery guy had to come 3 different times due to dropped burritos and forgotten queso.  Or that time my editor, Jake, and I faked everyone out that we were dating when we weren't.  Or when we all went to Pizza Hut and got psyched for stuffed crust.  Or when we had our end of the year celebration at one of the girl's apartments and got to see the senior staff win their superlatives.  So sure, it took some time, but I guess I have to confess that I'm gonna miss that place a little bit.

3. There's always room for making new friends

Besides my Exponent friends, I made a couple friends this year who I now include in my circle of best friends.  First, let me tell you about Sarah and Elaine, who are quite the pair.  They were roommates this year and Jess and I didn't really become friends with them until this past semester, but goodness are they great people.  Sarah is quite the interesting young lady.  She always has something interesting (and usually bizarre) to say and is constantly making me laugh.  She was my dance partner in crime this year and always up for some spontaneity.  But along with this, she's hard-working and open to listening to my rants or breakdowns.  For that, I am truly grateful.  Oh, and her Snap Chat game is unmatched.

Elaine is also an interesting character.  She's pretty quiet around those she doesn't know, but she really opened up to us.  She's super intelligent and has her life put together, let me tell you.  She always laughs at her jokes before anyone else has the chance to think about them, and she has the uncanny ability to find coins on the ground.  She also has crazy road rage and is able to eat more desserts at one sitting than I though humanly possible.  She despises drama, and once she made me a PowerPoint of all my favorite things when I was having a bad day.  I love these girls and miss them already.  I can't wait to see them again!

And then there's Sydney.  She and I knew each other last year, but we didn't become close until we had classes together this year.  She's an El Ed major like me and probably one of the most sarcastic people I've met.  We are always talking about something ridiculous and we can tell each other anything, knowing there's not judgement.  I'm lucky enough to go on her family's RV vacation this year, so watch out world.

4. I've officially reached the tipping point of growing up

This year, I've signed a lease for an apartment, worked at a job, bought couches, got a Crock Pot, and applied for another job for next year and got that.  If that doesn't signify growing up, I don't know what does.

5. Spontaneity can lead to the best memories

Goodness, the number of random, spur-of-the-moment decisions we made this year.  Most of the time it had to do with food.  Usually ice cream or slushies.  Or buying lottery tickets.  (Once I won $10!).  Once Sarah and I went with our friends Corey, Matt, and Elliott to Ball State to see a volleyball game.  But the best one was when Sarah and I went to Sigma Tau Gamma's formal in Indianapolis with two guys we didn't know (don't worry, we knew other guys in the fraternity) because they needed dates.  We ran around the mall at closing time a day before we left searching for dresses, survived the hour-long drive listening to screamo music, and actually had a good time when all was said and done.

6. There's strength in numbers, especially when it comes to complaining

As I said before, this semester was a struggle and half.  I took my Block III classes this semester, and everyone in education said it was one of the hardest.  They weren't wrong.  The projects seemed never-ending, the discussion posts were overwhelming, and throw on some snow days on top of that, and you have a disaster on your hands.  My goodness.  But, with that being said, I grew closer to several of the girls in my major through that experience, even if that sense of camaraderie only came from complaining with one another about how stressed we were.  I managed to make it through, and it helped knowing we were all in the same boat.  We education majors stick together. 

7. Lol @ dates

You know the romantic ideal where guy sees girl, girl sees guy, it's love at first sight, and everyone lives happily ever after?

Turns out that's not how it works out in real life.

And thank goodness for that.  Because if that's how it did work out,  I could be on the fast track to marriage right now (remnants of my Quarter-Life Crisis are sneaking up on me as we speak; expect hyperventilation soon).  Sorry, but I'm not about that life.  Instead, I have some pretty awesome stories about the handful of dates I went on this year (most of which belong in the "What Not To Do When Taking A Girl Out" chapter of the fictitious novel "How to Be a Decent Guy.")  Because if there's one thing I love collecting, it's stories.  I will spare the names of these "men" to prevent their public humiliation (I'm not Taylor Swift, after all), but fair warning to all the dudes out there: step up your game lest your failure to treat a lady right leads you to a life as a perpetual cat lad-- er, I mean man.

8.  Things really do happen for a reason. 

People come into your life and they go.  Opportunities are presented and you can take them or leave them.  But all of this is what is supposed to happen and I am the person I am now because I was supposed to be this way.

9.  Purdue is still where I was meant to be.

Goodness, I love being a Boilermaker.

10. It still holds true that the most important things I learn in college aren't academic.


Now, who wants to see a random collage of pictures from this semester?

Just me and my roomie

Reunited with my girls over Spring Break

Sledding on Slayter Hill on our snow day!

Our Black Magic wallyball team

Jared and I on our friend date night

Sarah and I

Bible Study girls

The Swagging Stooges

And again

Got to go to Boiler Awakening this semester, and it was INCREDIBLE

Outreach to Teach with PSEA

My date to formal, Phil

Bend...

...and snap!

Because we got to go on a field trip in college. Thank you, HONR classes

My girl Alyssa

My editor, Jake

We just like to eat

The 3rd Floor clan

Got to help publish a book this semester!

Syd and I

Sloop Challenge with Sarah and Elaine

Finally home from school

And now I get to spend the summer with these lovelies

When It Happens To You.

Unfortunate events transpire every single day.  In fact, it's near impossible to turn on the news these days and see anything other than disagreement and crime and general unhappiness.  But as you see these news stories unfolding, that's all they are: stories.  You are not a character in them, but an observer.  And no matter how upsetting they may be, no matter how much you empathize with those involved, it's customary to move on with your life before too long.

But it's different when it happens to you.

On Tuesday, January 21, 2014, tragedy struck Purdue University's campus.  My campus.

In my year and a half here, I have never felt unsafe, have never felt as if my life was in danger.  I'm sure the majority of my fellow Boilermakers could say the same.  That changed yesterday.

Tuesday started out as an ordinary day.  People felt a little more refreshed than usual because we didn't have school the day before since we were honoring Martin Luther King Jr's birthday.  I got to sleep in since my first class wasn't until noon, but before that I got lunch with my friend Colleen and we got to catch up.  I wasn't really looking forward to the day; the week before was our first week back after winter break, and it took a toll on me with how busy it was and how much work I had to do.  But lunch with Colleen started off my day right, and I headed to my Science and Pseudoscience class in good spirits, especially since Jess and my friend Alyssa were both in it.

Class started off well.  My professor, Dr. York, was our faculty fellow for our floor last year, and he's super old but super fun.  We started class with smelling and tasting various lunch meats while blindfolded (testing for bologna and working on our skeptic abilities), so it was pretty lighthearted and fun.  After about 20 or so minutes of this, we hear ambulance sirens going off outside, but didn't think anything of it.  Then, a few minutes later, a kid in our class raises his hand.

"There's been a shooting on campus. Can I call my brother?"

At this point, phones began finding their way out of backpacks and purses despite still being in the middle of class.  Sure enough, everyone had gotten Purdue's alert text, confirming the worst: 

"Shooting reported on campus.  Bldg Electrical Engineering; Avoid area; Shelter in place.  Check www.purdue.edu for updates"

Nobody knew what to think just then.  We didn't have any information to really have any thoughts at the time.  Dr. York didn't seem concerned, so he continued his lecture, but nobody was really paying attention because we were trying to figure out what was happening via social media.  Within 20 minutes of that Purdue text, my phone started blowing up with texts asking if I was okay.  Many of them were friends from Purdue, but I even had people from Illinois and Colorado and California asking me what was going on and if I was safe.  Within 20 minutes, the entire country knew what was happening at Purdue when we, who were actually on campus, barely knew a thing.  Then my mom called and I assured her I was okay.  Students in class started getting worried and Dr. York jokingly locked the door, but he finally found it pointless to continue lecture when everyone's attention was focused elsewhere.  

We all got a text explaining that we were on lockdown and that we shouldn't leave our buildings while the police were figuring things out.  During this time, rumors were flying, and nobody was able to confirm or deny them.

There were multiple shooters.
Besides EE, they were in Physics, Heavilon, and the Co-Rec.
Pictures were circulating Twitter of what may have been students holding assault rifles that students in class had snapped from their classroom windows. (This was later denied when we found out that cops were surrounding buildings in street clothes, but that didn't make it any less scary at the time)

I don't think anyone's eyes left their phones during this time.  Some were texting friends, some calling parents and assuring them they were okay, and others were checking news sites and Twitter trying to find out what exactly was going on.  Some people were getting upset when they weren't able to contact a friend or family member, and they had every right.  It was scary.

At almost 1:30, about an hours since lockdown had been put into place, we all got a text giving the all-clear: we were allowed to "resume normal operations." 

Wait, what?  It's only been an hour!  Did the police have enough time to search and detain all suspects?  Were all the buildings safe and secure?  Did they really expect us to "resume normal operations" after a shooting had just taken place on campus?!

In a daze, we all left.  I still had 2 more classes, so I made my way to my next building, but it felt weird to be walking around out in the open, despite the fact that everyone was doing the same.

I got to my next class, but since there was still so much uncertainty about what to do and half our class was missing, my professor cancelled it.  I spent the next hour and a half before my next class in the Technology Resource Center looking up everything I could about the situation.  I checked all the major news sites, Purdue sites, Twitter, Facebook...everything I could to get as much information as possible.  I then watched the live press conference with Purdue's police chief and our provost.  From all my research, I had found out that there had been 1 victim in the shooting; a male TA.  It had been a deliberate act of malice, not a random shooter.  On Twitter, everyone was so upset that we had been expected to continue with our lives as if nothing happened.  They thought class should have been cancelled so we could all gather our thoughts and figure out what was happening.  It wasn't until later, after my final class, that they made the announcement that classes were cancelled for Wednesday out of respect for the situation.

Reading the comments people left in response to the articles didn't make me feel any better.  Some were debating gun laws, some were blaming the family of the shooter for not raising him right, and others were saying that there is a difference between a shooting at a school and a school shooting and that it was nowhere near as bad as Columbine had been.  It made my blood boil to read what these people were saying.  Didn't these people realize that a tragedy had just occurred and that people were suffering on campus??  It didn't matter if only one person had died; that was still someone's child, someone's friend.  As if we could start comparing the awfulness of tragedies.  Didn't they know that a period of healing was in order before this speculation could occur??  I couldn't read any more.

I also watched the 6:00 news where they held a second press conference, releasing the names of those involved.  Andrew Boldt was the TA that had been killed.  And it became all too real to me when I started seeing images of my campus plastered all over the news.  My school was on TV.  I also found out that our president, Mitch Daniels, was in Colombia and was supposed to be there for a few more days, but that he would return the next day in light of what happened.

At 8:00 last night, Purdue Student Government put on a candlelight vigil.  At 7:40, Jess and some girls on my floor, Elaine and Sarah, and I donned multiple pairs of pants, coats, hats, scarves, and blankets to brave the 0 degree weather.  We headed to the Engineering Fountain where the vigil was being held, and boy was it a beautiful site to see.  Hundreds and hundreds of students were huddled together in the freezing cold, candles in hand, ready to commemorate the life lost and to get some closure of sorts.  There were so many people there, breaths visible because of the cold, but it was silent.  Nobody dared make a sound.

As the last bell struck 8 in our iconic bell tower, the ceremony began with the drumline marching in.  Our student body president, Kyle Pendergast, spoke, as well as provost Tim Sands.  He read a statement sent from Mitch Daniels, and it was very eloquent and well-spoken.  The Purduettes and I think the Glee Club also performed.  It was only about 30 minutes, but it was perfect, and I think it helped many students.  We all felt a little better after that, and it was beautiful to see all these Boilermakers rallying together.

It's different when it happens to you.  When you're there, when you directly see how a tragic event affects people, it seems worse.  The fact that someone could so deliberately want to harm a fellow Boilermaker is alarming, but prayers are needed for all parties involved.  I want to thank everyone, all my friends and family, who texted or called me to make sure I was safe during this time, and I thank God that my friends were safe too.  Thank you for all the prayers directed our way; it's a trying time for us all, but I know my Boilermaker family will stand together through it all.

Ever Grateful, Ever True.
Hail Purdue. 

The candlelight vigil (photo credit: Marshall Farthing)

It's Finals Week, & You Know What That Means...

If you answered that question with, "studying," I'm secretly laughing at you right now.

Or not so secretly since I just told you.

No. Finals week obviously means procrastination, aka let's do all these other "necessary" things, such as vacuuming and making paper snowflakes and blogging, before studying for exams.

In my defense, I designated today as blogging day because I've already had 4 of my 5 finals and my next one isn't until Saturday, so basically I have nothing to do for the next 3 days and I might as well blog.  Also, I'm about a month late since my last entry and I have quite a bit to catch up on.  Now you can procrastinate on studying for your finals or putting up Christmas decorations or Christmas shopping by reading this!! ;)  So here goes:

A few Saturdays ago, some friends and I went to see We're The Millers which Purdue put on for free through the program Flicks at Fowler.  It was funnier the second time if that's even possible.  I was laughing so hard I was crying!

Remember a few weeks ago when the tornadoes hit?  Well they came to the Greater Lafayette area too, and as my friend Sydney and I were sitting in my room watching a movie for one of our classes (Stand and Deliver...it was so bad), I was texting my mom about how there was softball-sized hail back home and how they all went down to the basement.  The sky was perfectly clear and blue here, but I was debating on whether or not to move my car to the parking garage in case it came our way.  Next thing we knew, the tornado sirens went off and my RA was yelling down the hallway that everyone needed to go downstairs.  We were herded like sheep into the winding hallways of the Shreve basement and told to sit and chill until they heard more information.  So, the 800 residents of Shreve were all crammed into the hot basement during the height of a common cold wave.  Sydney and I decided to walk around the basement and explore a little bit and finally after about half an hour, we were able to go back upstairs.  Then we found out the extent of the damage in our area: some Lafayette elementary schools had been hit and the power on campus went out.  Luckily our buildings on campus had back-up generators, but the Greek houses all lost power and weren't going to get it back until Thursday (this was on Sunday if you recall).  Later in the week we found out some of the houses had to be evacuated because their sewer systems were malfunctioning and their houses were flooding.  The Red Cross even had to set up emergency shower and sleeping areas in our Co-Rec for people who were temporarily homeless!  All of our stoplights went out too, and in the pitch black, you can't see them until you've passed them basically.  It was all a huge mess, but we were very, very lucky compared to some other places, like Washington, IL.

The weekend right before Thanksgiving break, one of my best friends, Katie, came to Purdue to visit for the weekend!  She got the whole week off for Thanksgiving and didn't have school on Monday and Tuesday like we did.  I was so glad she could finally come up because we always joked how I've been to U of I to visit her several times and she had yet to come to Purdue!  She came up Friday night and we went to dinner at Hillenbrand to get "quasted" (see previous post for definition of this) and then we were stopped by my friend Evan on the way out who told us to stay and watch the free improv show they were putting on.  So we were like, okay, why not??  The Crazy Monkeys was the group that performed, and it was pretty entertaining.  We also went to see Catching Fire with Annie that night.  I bought tickets online and when we went to the theater, it said I hadn't bought any.  I was so convinced I had (considering I got a confirmation email), until we realized that I had bought them at the wrong theater.  We ran back to the car and drove to the other theater which is all the way across town in Lafayette and made it with time to spare!  Oops... Haha, but the movie was amazing!  On Saturday we went to a quarter of the Illinois vs. Purdue game, but it was SO cold that we had to leave.  Purdue lost anyway, so it's not like we were missing anything.  But we went to Triple XXX for lunch then to introduce Katie to our campus love.  We hung out for awhile and went to the Silver Dipper for ice cream later that night with Brooke and Jennifer.  When we got back, a bunch of girls on the floor got together and played extreme spoons and charades, so it was a good time.  Unfortunately I never got to show Katie around campus because it was SO cold the whole weekend!  In the morning, Katie was going to leave when I went to teach Sunday school, but I got a call from her that her car wouldn't start!  I had to go back and try to help her.  At first her car wouldn't even unlock, but when it finally did, we couldn't even put it into neutral to move it so we could jump it with mine!  Katie's dad had to call a service to come fix it, so she ended up making it home safely, thank goodness!

My dear friend Katie :)

I can't remember if I've talked about it before, but I've kind of gotten obsessed with spoken word poetry lately.  I will literally just sit here at my computer and watch YouTube video after YouTube video of people performing their spoken word poems at various poetry clubs (new bucket list item: perform spoken word at a poetry club in New York!).  Well, as my "final" for my McDonalidization of Society class, we had to do a huge 15 minute project about how our lives have been McDonalidized.  The catch: we weren't allowed to use any technology, like PowerPoint.  We had to do something unique and individual.  Well, I can't sing or play an instrument or draw or anything remotely cool like that.  Several people who performed at first just made posters and talked about their McDonaldized lives, and I didn't want to do that and be like everyone else.  So I took a (huge) step out of my comfort zone and decided to do a spoken word poem for my project.

What.

I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.  Not only did I have to analyze my life and figure out how it was McDonaldized and how I should deMcDonaldize it, but I had to piece it together in a nice package of flowing words and then memorize it all and then get up in front of my class and perform it.  What I asked myself all week leading up to my presentation?  WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY.

But I really wanted to do it, and I wanted to do it well.  Poor Jess (and some other victims) had to listen to it a zillion times before the actual presentation, but boy were they troopers.

And then came that fateful day: the day of my performance.  I wanted to go first and get it over with, but another kid did, and I couldn't bear to go second.  So I went last.  And when I got up in front of the classroom, I was like crap.  But then I started speaking.  And I got into a rhythm.  And I did it, with only 1 minor mess-up!  And you know what?  It was an absolute BLAST!!  I loved speaking like that and seeing the audience's reaction to the things I said.  I just felt good and confident!  The best part was that several of my classmates told me it was their favorite project and that I did really well on it.  It just felt great and I would LOVE to perform at an Open Mic night sometime somewhere.  It was just so much fun!

Then, finally, it was Thanksgiving break.  I got to see Katie and Caileigh and Natalie for dinner on Tuesday night when I got home and Wednesday Kourtney and I started season 1 of American Horror Story on Netflix because my family finally got caught up with the 21st century and got it! (But we also got rid of our home phone and my mom and I lamented over that for awhile...it was so sad...that was the first number I ever memorized!  My mom even asked the people if they could retire the number so nobody else could have it...they said no.  Boo.)  We also met up with all the Mrs. Fields girls at the Pub II that night to hang out and prepare ourselves for the Black Friday craziness.  It was a good time.

Bonding at the bar...where else?

Thursday my aunt had Thanksgiving early so that my family could actually go.  It was SO delicious, but we had to leave way too soon because we had to be at work at 6:30 that night to start baking cookies for the crazy Black Friday shoppers that would be making their appearance at 8.  Hellooooo 12 hour shift. (If you want to know my true thoughts about this, feel free to check it out here.)  It was actually kind of fun for awhile, but we only had one register up, so it made for some long lines.  Sorry boutcha, Black Friday shoppers.  That's what you get when you decide to go shopping on Thanksgiving day.  What.  But anyways, we were pretty exhausted when 6:00 am rolled around, but my mom insisted on going to Bob Evans for breakfast.  Afterwards, we crashed and did absolutely nothing all Friday except watch TV.  It was awesome.

Fam on Thanksgiving!

Cousins :)

Da fam ready to kick some butt.

On Saturday, we had some family pictures taken for Christmas cards.  The guy that did Kourtney's senior shoot did it for us, and it was really fun to do some ridiculous poses and such.  PS, Kourtney's senior book turned out great.  My sister is so gorgeous it's ridiculous.  Like, I might not let her go to college 'cause I don't want creepy guys tryna hit on her due to her impeccable beauty.

Awkward family photo...'cause we're awkward.

I also got to see my uncle Gary and my cousins Dani (who I haven't seen in a year) and Dylan because we all went to dinner together.  Huzzah!

Some other stuff that has happened since I last wrote:

Last week my Bible study group went to WalMart to buy toys for kids in need for this Christmas.  It was really fun, and one of the girls, Andrea, is an intern for Cru from Germany, and we lost her in WalMart several times.  She was marveling over everything and kept wandering off.  It was really funny!

We had our Life Guide banquet last Tuesday and ate some yummy food and also got awards that everyone had voted on, both silly and serious.  My awards? Most Likely to be a Professional Grease Drainer, Most Likely to Deflect Prayers About an Eraser, Best Flocknote, Most Ambitious, & Pro of the Semester!  I felt so blessed to receive that last one.  It was such a shock, but a good one :)

On Sunday we had our Christmas party for our Sunday school kids, and it was great because we made them get into groups and wrap each other as presents.  SO FUNNY.

So apparently I'm going to be on a postcard that gets sent out to all the admitted students to the College of Education at Purdue to encourage them to study abroad!  I'm not sure how I feel about my face getting sent out to hundreds of random people, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.  

So with my two finals finished yesterday and knowing I wouldn't have another for 3 more days, I wanted to do something instead of sitting in my room on my computer.  So I texted my friend Sydney and she came over.  As the El Ed majors that we are, we got out all of our crayons and markers and scissors and paper and tape and chalk and made some motivational finals cards to give out to people at the Union and at the libraries studying.  We made some pretty cool ones, like Harry Potter themed ones, and we went around handing them out to people studying.  Naturally we looked for some attractive guys, but we also passed them out to girls, because we aren't about discrimination.  Everyone was so confused but we think they enjoyed them.  We also put a ton of inspirational post-it notes in several bathrooms and all along the hallways in Stewart Center so people could be encouraged for finals.  Then we explored campus and took pictures with the random Purdue landmarks to add to our SnapChat stories.  We ended up at this new cookie place on campus called Baked where you pick the kind of dough you want and what types of things you want inside the cookies, and they bake them for you.  Honestly, they weren't the greatest because they were kind of burnt, but maybe if they weren't so overcooked, they would have been better!  It was quite the adventure though considering we were out and about for around 3 hours.

Alright, well, I guess I better go do something productive (considering I'm still in my pjs).  Gotta go tutor and Christmas shop and other various activities that better society :)

Be home on Saturday!!

XOXO

PS: a video Kourt and I made when we put up our Christmas tree over Thanksgiving break: