Pure Joy

Confession 1: I'm so excited, I'm in an amazing relationship!!!!
So C and I had a date last night that was great! It has been three weeks since we have seen each other, so I was super excited to see him. I had been worried all week that he wasn't going to be able to come, because his nephew had made him sick with a bad cold. But he still came!!! Just no real kissing because he didn't want to get me sick. He is such a sweet guy to think of that :) I appreciate how much he thinks about me, and I'm trying to think of fun things for us to do, and how to be romantic. I feel like I have no experience when it comes to relationships, so I'm doing the best that I can. It is hard, but I really care for him and have new feelings I have not had before.

So back to our date night. We started the night with a dinner dish I made. It was a sour cream chicken enchilada I found on Pinterest. It turned our to be delicious and it was a brand new dish that I had never made before. I'm glad it turned out. We then played on my Wii. I won four out of five of the Wii sports games, and only one of the games on Wii resort. He quickly got a hang of all of the games. Lol so my goal of beating him didn't work, but it was so much fun. We then watched "Man on a Ledge" We cuddled the whole time, it was so nice. He is nice and cuddly and I feel so comfortable being close to him. So much that I'm sure I could fall asleep next to him...but that is another topic not talked about yet. After the movie, we played a game of Jenga (I won) and then lots of games of UNO (we both won many of them). Lastly we watched "House Bunny." He picked it out if you are wondering the weird movie choice. After the movie ended, we cuddled and talked and then the big question came up...

He asked if I wanted to start dating (like bf/gf). I said yes, or mmmhmmm, without any hesitation. He asked as I was coming up with a way to ask him where things were going. I was so happy that we were on the same page. I was so excited when he asked and that I didn't have to ask. He makes me feel so happy.

After he asked me, we talked about how our families would feel or act. It was so nice to just talk. And I get to see him again next weekend, no long wait this time.

So one final note about how much of an amazing guy he is. He texted me saying that I looked very pretty on our date. That meant a lot to me as I was wearing jeans, a simple t-shirt, and my hair up in a ponytail with little to know make-up on. I didn't feel super pretty, but it made me so happy and special. I like feeling special to someone :) <3

MQT I miss you

So last night I was talking to a friend from undergrad who also moved away to continue their schooling. Today I was talking to a friend who is still at NMU but will be graduating in less than 2 months. What did these two conversations have in common? We talked about things we missed or are going to miss. I know that I am on a new adventure and it is exciting, but every once in a while I want to be back in MQT, so I thought I'd make a list of things I miss and then a list of things in my new place that I love.

What I miss:

1. I miss climbing Sugarloaf mountain at night and looking at the stars and the city lights. 
2. I miss being a 10 minute walk from the beach. 
3. I miss going to the beach to watch the giant waves roll in from the storms out on Lake Superior and playing in the waves as they crash over the walls and onto the road. 
4. I miss sitting on the beach at night watching the ore boats coming in and looking at the stars. 
5. I miss being so close to nature, that seeing a deer or fox on campus was not surprising. 
6. I miss being surrounded by my sorority sisters. 
7. I miss being able to call up a friend and them being at my door within minutes to be a shoulder to  cry on. 
8. I miss the family I created in Mqt. My sisters and friends. 
9. I miss going downtown to paint pottery and picking it up a week later to see an amazing creation. 
10. I miss country night with my crazy friends on Thursdays. 
11. I miss learning how to pole dance to help me loose weight. 
12. I miss having the opportunity to watch sled dog races happening downtown. 
13. I miss indoor football games. 
14. I miss dancing the night away at the Vera, Blue Lounge, or Greek formal. 
15. I miss getting hugs everyday from my friends and sisters. 
16. I miss being able to leave for class 10 minutes before it started, and still getting there 5 minutes early. 
17. I miss having a church that I loved. 
18. I miss being grandmother willow for my sisters. 
19. I miss teaching the new members of the sorority how amaxing it is. 
20. I miss a lot!

What I love now:

1. I love my walk-in closet. 
2. I love the chance to make new friends. 
3. I love having a mall behind my house. 
4. I love living in a house. 
5. I love my drive to school. 
6. I love that I'm falling in love. 
7. I love having Biggby coffee in the area. 
8. I love the atrium in my class building. 
9. I love my clients. 
10. I love clinic. 
11. I love learning. 
12. I love that I'm loosing weight (even if it is from stress). 
13. I love living with people who care about me. 
14. I love being closer to home. 
15. I love being able to buy my favorite wine whenever I want to. 
16. I love having my own area of a house. 
17. I love not sharing a tv. 
18. I love that I am being more artistic. 
19. I love having a porch for jack-o-lanterns. 
20. I love my life. 

So I guess with what I could come up with is pretty even. Either way I know that even though I really miss MQT, I wouldn't change my life. I'm living life, I'm loving life, I'm smiling, I'm laughing, I'm happy. 

Inspirational Moments

Over the past couple days I have been inspired to work on several different things. Usually when I'm this inspired I am super happy, tired, or very sad. Well I have no reason to be sad...life is great. I have not been tired when I've been inspired to work on each piece. So it has to be that I am super happy. I'm not just super happy, I'm rather giddy. I spend a lot of time smiling and just enjoying life. It might just be that I'm still on a mood high from Saturday, or I'm just super happy from being on a mood high lol.

So when talking to C the other day, he said I was super talented. To myself I don't think I'm that talented, I just like to try different things and I'm good at some of them. I wouldn't use the words SUPER TALENTED. So when we were talking I mentioned that I have tried writing books, usually for young adults. I said I couldn't write children's books or adult books. C went on to say anyone could write children's books and something else after that lol. Confession 1: I took this statement as a challenge, even though he didn't mean it to be. So taking this challenge, today I tried to write a short children's book. What I wrote wasn't too bad. The only reason I was inspired was because I was holding a purple pen and decided to write in cursive. It just flowed out of my pen as I wrote. I ended up with what I would describe as several pages to a book written before I ran out of paper. My story is about a little girl who wants to be a princess and one day she hits her head and then she is suddenly thrown into the world of the princess and the pea with a twist. I let B, one of the people I live with, read it and she said it was really good and would be good for a child of 8-10 years old. So I might keep working on it. Sadly, I cannot draw how I see my main character...so I might have to ask C.

Another project I have been working on for a while is figuring out what to carve on my pumpkin. I have to thank C for the inspiration. He had me draw my character Fuzzy the other night, and now I think Fuzzy shall be what is on my pumpkin. We shall see how it turns out, LOL.

The last big project I am working on, is one I started this summer. I couldn't sleep one night, so I grabbed a chunky black sharpie, and a piece of white poster board. From the depths of my mind flowed several trees and grass and darkness, with the left side of the paper completely blank. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to draw, so I just went to bed. I didn't try working on it again, until maybe 2 weeks ago at the earliest. I had considered a path or river for that empty side. With the help of my artistic little sis, I decided on a river. Slowly but surely my picture is coming together. The trees are getting details, leaves are showing up, a river and more trees now fill the left half. This will be the biggest project I've ever finished. My goal is to get it done in the next couple weeks, so I can find something new to work on. Maybe some knitting or writing a book, or who knows what. I guess I'll see.


So for all of those you may be reading this. A friend of mine brought up the question "How do you live globally?" I was unable to answer, but maybe some of those who are reading can answer how you yourself are living globally and maybe define living globally.

Falling in Like

I shall start this entry right off with a confession. Confession 1: I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!! SOOOOOOO HAPPPPY!!!

So you might be wondering why I am so happy...well last night I went on one of the most amazing dates I have ever been on. He is one of the most sweetest guys I have ever met, he makes me happy, and several friends have stated that we mesh well. So I shall tell you the story about this super cool guy. (Names have been changed)


Once upon a time C arrived at 6:30ish at my house. To his astonishment he hadn't got as lost as he thought he was going to.  When he got there, we looked online to pick out which haunted house we wanted to go to after dinner. We decided on going to the closest, which was also supposed to be the scariest in the area. It was supposed to be so scary because they have what they call a Chicken List. It tells how many people have chickened out, wet their pants, left a little extra in their pants, or have vomited.  

We went to dinner first at Olga's Kitchen in the mall in Portage. It was yummy. We then headed to the haunted house. It was called the Psych Ward and it was made up of two attractions (Psych Ward and Nightmares). We went into the Psych Ward first. While we waited in line we talked about scary things from the past, scary movies, and some other random things. We ended up going with a group of 4 young girls and while we were waiting to go in they asked if we were on a date and C said yes. He is the one that defined it as a date, which was cool because I wasn't sure if he considered it a date or us just hanging out. We then were the ones leading the group. Somehow we ended up at the end of the group by the middle of it. We weren't as scared in that one as they tended to scare the middle of the group more. He kept his arm around my waist, and I had my arm around his waist and often pulled him close when I'd scream. I think I stepped on his toe once in one time when I screamed and jumped up, but he said he didn't notice.

We then got in line for the second one (Nightmares). Again in line, we talked about random things and more scary movies. We ended up leading a group of 3 girls and 1 guy. Both C and I screamed several times in this one. The actors were much better at scaring the whole group. C got so scared once he pulled me very close and jumped high in the air. It made me laugh because I screamed at the same time. It was an unexpected scare. We would laugh every time we got scared and he always asked if i was ok if i let out an extremely loud scream. ( I didn't know I could scream so loudly)

We then headed back to my place afterwards. I ended up showing him my half of the house and we watched the Brothers Grimm movie in my living room. He sat right next to me so that our arms and hips and occasionally our legs were touching. After the movie we talked for hours about a bit of everything. He asked to see some of my sketches and for me to draw my little character I have. My characters name is Fuzzy and he is an alien who has a pet named Fuzbal. Just before 2:30 he said he should go (he had to drive 1.5 hours to get home) he gave me a hug and then as he pulled away from the hug he looked at me and then leaned in for a kiss. It was a nice, sweet, little, short kiss.It was so nice having a guy just lean in for kiss and not ask for one (because that tends to break the mood). Sadly then he had to leave. He gave me a hug good-bye and said he had fun and would love to hang out again. I told him he just needed to let me know.

This morning I texted him saying i had a great time and couldn't wait for the next time we hung out. He said he had fun the whole night.We talked a little bit and mentioned we both wanted to hang out again. I told him i always need a break from my schedule. THE END

It was one of the best nights and I can't wait to see him again. God put him in my life when I least expected it. I have to thank God for blessing me when I am so stressed with school.

Well I should be getting ready for bed as tomorrow is Monday...blech.

Haunted Houses and other scary things.

It's midterm time...scary. Luckily I only have one midterm this week. Speech sound disorders. My study guide is already over 6 pages and i'm not done with it yet. Like I said scary...and it's my first midterm in grad school. Confession 1: I really don't want to study and I feel i'm not learning anything in this class. 

Anyways, work is keeping me busy. I just graded outlines and I have midterms to grade this week/weekend....fun! not. Anywho, like I said work is keeping me busy. I'm slowly getting hours, and I am giving a tour this Friday. But before the tour, I will be at the Van Riper lectures all day Thursday and all morning Friday. I don't even have time for lunch between the lectures and the tour...ugh. Oh well, its work and money.

But I have an exciting weekend ahead of me. I asked my friend C, if he wanted to hang out this weekend. So we are having dinner and going to a haunted house. Confession 2: I am very scared for this haunted house, I haven't been to anything scary in a very very long time. And we might be  going to an extremely scary haunted house. I made a list of haunted houses in the general area. It took me forever to find ones that are scary but not super scary, but I did list the super scary ones. One of them has a "chicken list" of people who have chickened out in one form of another (not completing the attraction, peeing their pants, pooping their pants, vomiting). We might to go that one and I will be scared to death. Good thing I'm taking a guy with me. A haunted house is also a good reason to find a way to stay very close to said guy if I get really scared.

Well any ways its time to get back to studying or to bed.

Good night to whoever reads this other than myself.

Stress Breakdown

6th week of Grad School has started!!! AHHHHH!!!!

So I know I haven't posted in a while, but see the title and you will see that stress has occurred. Soooooo many things to do; work , school, clinic!!! School I have lots of projects and reading. Confession 1: I've given up on doing all the reading. Its just too hard to do all the reading when I can be working on my papers, quizzes, and lesson plans. Clinic I have 3 group sessions for ACE (aphasia clinic), I have my diagnostics team most Tuesdays, and one other client twice a week. Work I keep sending emails, forwarding emails, and grading things. So I guess the undergrads that I was grading for, some didn't exactly like my grading lol. Too bad for them.  For work I also get to give tours. The same day as the Van Riper lectures, I also get to give a tour....UGH!

So last Thursday night, I had my first breakdown of the semester. It started when I was talking about school and the stress with a classmate, and I just started crying. It was horrible. I sadly cried for over an hour, and the only thing that helped me get through it was my awesome friend L, who seems to always have breakdowns around the same time as me, no matter the distance.

So the good things in my life right now are: I get to get away and see my family for Halloween weekends at the campground, my diagnostics team was canceled for tomorrow, and I may have met someone. Well I did meet someone, but I don't know if it will turn into anything. We met on a online dating site (ChristianMingle) and we chatted for a while before we finally met 2 weeks ago. We met at ArtPrize in GR and I took my friend H, because you never know when you meet someone online. Since then we have texted everyday...except for today. Its weird not texting him, but I don't want to seem clingy, and I'm really hoping he isn't feeling the same way. But he seems to be everything I'm looking for. He says the right things, and he pays attention to what I say. It has been a while since I have had attention like this. I have missed it, but I think there could be something there, if we weren't so far apart. We live an hour apart, which means we haven't seen each other since our first meeting, and I really want to go on a "date" to see if we have a true connection. I just don't know if I should suggest it, or he should?

Well that is it for tonight. I have to continue ignoring some of my homework.

First Week Stress

Well I survived my first partial week of graduate school. Between the exhaustion and worries, I somehow survived. It was also very overwhelming, so much information, so many new thing, and so many new people.

Orientation
Tuesday was a long day of orientation. It was the first day that I saw everyone in my program (which includes a guy) and when I first learned the names of way too many faculty members. There are about 17 faculty members, this is over 5 times how many faculty we had at NMU. We were told how to live as a grad student and how to live globally and the such. We then went on a scavenger hunt around our main building and the building in which the clinic was located. I'm so glad my team had students who had attended western, or we would have been completely lost. We then had a very long session about what we needed to know and what was on our resource cd that we had received that summer. I personally think there was too much on the cd, and many of my classmates agree. Good thing it is my job to prepare the cd for the incoming students next year...I'll mention why at a later time. We then met with our advisors for lunch. It was fun, and I have a great advisor with a cool last name of Glista. We were then done and I was so glad to get out of there and I was so exhausted afterwards. TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!!!

First Day of Class
Well I arrived extra early to the building to find parking (I'll always have parking) and to finish reading for my first class. Well our first class had to move rooms, but luckily that new room is where we will be the rest of the semester. That class will be interesting. The next two classes go together and are rather interesting as well. We played BAFA BAFA in the one class today. Sadly my Wednesday classes go until 5:40....which is exhausting. The best part of the day was the free Papa Johns pizza at lunch time!!!

Clinic
Well Thursday and Friday I spent an hour each at the clinic building being educated. It was one looooong hour. I think it was slightly pointless, but I did get my clinic schedule. One client, working in the Aphasia clinic, and my diagnostic team. I will be in the clinic from 10 am until 7pm every Tuesday and Thursday. Those will be very long days. But it will be worth it. I also get to do some of my GA hours in the clinic as my professor I'm the assisstant for, is the head of the Aphasia Clinic.

Ice Cream Social
After clinic orientation on Friday, we had an ice cream social with the professors and second years. It was actually a lot of fun. The second years gave us tips, we met out 'buddies' and we talked with the professors. My buddy is D, who went to NMU and graduated the year before me. It is interesting to have a northern student as my buddy, and I feel lucky as we had similar experiences in our undergrad.

Graduate Assistantship
I am working as an assistant to Professor G. I get to do some copies, some grading, some help, some research, some data inputting, and some cd making. Its going to keep me busy. 10 hours a week.


Sorry this post is so long. I've just been so busy and so stressed that I haven't wrote. I have more to write about this weekend, but I will save that for a later post.