Busy Bee

Wow it's been a long time!! I can't believe I let 2 months get away from me! However, it's been a SUPER busy 2 months so I have really good excuses!

First off, and biggest announcement, I'm an AUNT!!!! My sister-in-law had my niece Noel Grace Archibald on October 3rd. It was an exciting 2 days in the hospital and she finally arrived and is the cutest baby ever! I've since had the chance to babysit and hang out with the cutie a lot and

I love it! Babies are a semi-new thing for me, seeing as I'm pretty much the youngest in my immediate and extended families so it's been a learning process. She's started smiling now and it's wonderful to catch her in a smile with her dimple showing! We try and try and then it happens and we're all so much more excited than she is! She hardly ever cries and just makes these squeaks and grunts. Great stuff!

Next up is I bought a house!! Kind of... we took advantage of the whole 1st time homeowner

credit and bought a foreclosed house in my parents neighborhood for a great price that we can work on for a while and fix up. It's definitely not livable right now but it will be! It's pretty exciting but there's so much work! It was a bit creepy when we got there... there was this big cage in the basement with some handmade edges coming out of the wall... we're guessing a ferret? Anyways, we've (and when I say we I mean mostly Kyle and my dad) have torn out a bunch of stuff already, trying to get to a point where we can still work in the winter. We're talking floor plans and such at this stage since we hope to change a lot. Similar to this is my sister just moved into her new house last week and she's going through totally different things! She doesn't have much to change at this point, but there's lots of painting and furniture choices in her near future.

I'm still taking my math class and it's going pretty well... I know I'll pass, but I'm really praying for a great grade to raise my minor GPA... Pray for me please! I also had a PE convention that I had to give a presentation for a few weeks ago. Scary. Mom and i drove up to Traverse City for the night and day so I could be there, but I think it went all right! Not much fumbling but we may have to do something for the national convention which would be 10 times worse. We'll see...

Finally, I got another job! I've been filling in at my dad's shop, which is fine and pays really well, but I didn't have a real position and I couldn't meet anyone new. I felt I was in a rut. Now, I've got another job on top of that at the nearby Family Christian Store! Perfect, right?! I get to walk

around and talk about books all the time! It's such a temptation, though! I want them all but then I wouldn't get to save any money. We had our employee appreciation day the other night and got a super discount so I already have most of my Christmas shopping done, but it was still a lot of money. Oh well, I think I'm getting a raise cuz it seems like I've been put on a track for management... not so sure I'm ready for that yet...

Well, that's the news! As you can see, it's been busy busy busy! Hopefully I'll be better now!

Back to School :(

Yep, it's true, I'm back in class. I'm taking my hopefully last math class this semester before again hopefully student teaching and graduating next semester. The class is Geometry for Teachers so it's a bit different from most other math classes and the teacher is WAY different from most math teachers. Most of the time, we're taught by extremely smart mathematicians that totally know what they're talking about but have no clue how to transfer all of that info to an unknowledgeable student. I've only had the class 2 days now but already I can already tell this new teacher is different. When I think of him, I think of a life-size leprechaun. He's just over 5 ft tall, has a beard, likes to walk with locked knees, wears a lot of green and brown, only wears slippers, and always wears a cap which is where he gets his nickname "cap" that we're supposed to call him (oh and by the way, this cap happens to be a tweed deerstalker cap that just adds to the leprechaun earthy image). When introducing himself to us, he got very serious and admitted that not only did he get his degree from OSU, he also married a Spartan. He felt he had to get that out of the way before he went any further. After that, he showed that he loves to laugh and I'm hopeful for the semester...

It's just the one class so I have time to work with one of my professors on some more research and maybe get another part time job and- BIG NEWS- be around when my niece is born ANY DAY NOW!!!! Very exciting!! We just had her church baby shower last night and it was so fun to see her open up all the cute stuff! She wasn't supposed to be due for another month, but it's been moved way up and we've been praying that she at least made it through the shower and she did! I can't wait for her to get here! Every time I hear one of them hurrying around or I get a call from one of them I think maybe it's happening... one of these times it'll be right.

Oo, I forgot to mention that I'm not the only one back in school, my dad is too! He's decided to take one of those random classes over at Schoolcraft and he starts tomorrow. It's pretty weird coaching him through getting to class early and what to bring or leave at home. Hopefully it'll open his eyes a bit to what school is like these days!!

Home!!!

This here is just a little shout out to say WELCOME HOME CARLY!!! My roommate for practically my first 4 years of college just got home today from being gone for 11 months! She's traveled all throughout the world, experiencing an amazing missions trip crossing several continents and I can't wait to hear more about it face-to-face!!! Love you Carly!!

Golfing?

Until a little over a week ago, I would have definitely said golf was one of my least favorite sports. Yes, I know I'm a PE major and should enjoy and encourage others to love all sports, but there are just a few that I couldn't seem to understand the point. Well, in the case of golf, my mind has changed.

_

My aggravation with golf has been around for a long time, growing worse with age, to the point that I hardly felt like trying again. You see, quite a few years ago, my mom took my sister and I to a driving range with a few holes on the side and it went terribly! I'm generally athleticly alright at most sports (not great at anything) but I sucked that day. It's hard to get me frustrated but man did I go off that day! Ever since, I've stuck to the random fun game of putt-putt (especially glo-golf!) and stayed away from even watching real golf.

However, all this was subject to change when we decided to take my mom golfing for her birthday at a 9 hole 3 par course, playing a scramble with two teams. It actually sounded pretty fun since I knew we could play with fun in mind and I knew neither my brother nor my sister-in-law (who is 7 months pregnant btw) had played much before. Well, the fun was definitely true! Even though it rained, we still had a blast watching each other, particularly Danielle when she would attempt to bend over and tee up. On top of that, I wasn't half-bad! I had a few good drives and then came my famous birdie shot. The course is full of water, which really sucks if you can never get your ball to go up, but I found a way around that... I hit the ball and it skipped over the water several times before jumping up on the shore, around a wall, and to within a foot of the hole!! It was crazy awesome! I did the skipping water trick a few more times but never with the same result. Overall, it was great! I'm not sure that I'm a total golf convert but we did go to the same place today to play regular golf and it wasn't too bad. We'll see what the future brings!!

randoms

Life has been hoppin lately!! Here's why:

Two of my best friends just got married this past weekend! It was a super beautiful wedding and another great reunion with friends. Unfortunately, it was in the dreaded Columbus, OH- enemy territory- but we made do, with a couple fun road trips included. I've known both bride and groom since freshman year at U of M when none of us knew each other and it's been wonderful to see them get together! It's always great to know both sides of the couple cuz it makes it doubly special! On top of that, I got another wedding invitation for two more of my friends that will take place in October! It's an exciting age to be in!

On the home front, my sister-in-law is getting huge with my niece and I love getting the chance to see her everyday and watch the whole pregnancy! I'm getting super excited for the baby! In preparation for Noel (my niece), we spend most days/nights fixing up their house so they can move back in before the delivery. I don't know if it's a family trait but I like all the DIY stuff we're doing! It's neat to see the before and after stages. I still don't have a job... very disappointing. And, school is starting in only 2 weeks!! I can't believe it's come up so quickly out of nowhere! August seemed to speed by. All of the sudden, school is upon us, my summer is over, my friends are married, the baby's comin soon, and... wait for it...

My best friend Carly is coming home!! She's been gone for nearly 11 months, traveling around the world with no visits home and she'll be back near the beginning of September! Less than 2 weeks!! WOOO HOOOOO!!! Yes, I'm a bit excited. But, I think that's it for now!!

Blue Like Jazz

I just heard some exciting news: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller is being made into a movie!! If you haven't read this book, you totally should! I've got the book if you want to read it! It's a Christian book, but very different from most books you'd read. It was a surprisingly great read and I'm so excited to see what they do to make it a movie. If you want to check out the movie, go here: http://www.bluelikejazzthemovie.com/

...

Time to catch up on the goings on in my life!! Hmm... let's see... where do I start?!

This past weekend entailed a trip to the Illinois/Iowa border or my wonderful cousin Jessica's wedding! We got to take a nice long drive out there and arrived at a really nice hotel overlooking the great Mississippi River. We had a nice relaxing night before waking up and taking my sister-in-law to a surprise baby shower! Even tho I didn't know it was a surprise originally and I thought I totally blew it several days before, she was totally surprised!! It was great! She got so many cute cute things!! (we went baby registering a little bit ago and it got me so psyched for the coming baby! Just a few months more to wait!) Later on was the wedding and, while nearly matching Danielle in gorgeous maxi dresses- both given to us by my sister, I got the pleasure of having my cousin's little girl sitting/squirming on my lap drawing me pictures and asking to have the songs from the hymnals sung to her. The bride and bridesmaids looked beautiful and they led us to the reception for extra catch up time with all the relatives! If you didn't already know, I've got a HUGE extended family so there were a lot of people to talk to!! the night ended with some dancing and sleep before driving home the next morning... great weekend!

I also got the pleasure of going to one of my best friend's wedding shower a few weeks ago in Columbus, OH. Yes, that may sound weird, my going to U of M's rival school ground (Ohio State is located there) but it's explainable! My church decided to do a church plant there, seeing as God should be shared EVERYWHERE, including OSU, and Sarah felt God called her there so she's been away for a little over a year now (terribly missed!). The shower was in this lovely building in the middle of this park and we had a great time with great food and cookies!! The groom, another MI friend, had just arrived that day from CA, his first day moving to OH, and showed up to open gifts with Sarah. Sooo cute together! Can't wait for the wedding in a few weeks!! We had lots of fun, even extending to the long car ride there and back in the same day with two of my other great friends! Road trips rock!

Finally, I got to see the 6th and latest installment of Harry Potter with my sister and a few friends. I'd been waiting for so long to see it and was so excited and pumped for it after the previews looked so great! I'm gonna try not to spoil it, but I have to say I was a bit let down. the movie was rolling along (tho this was the first one where I actually felt how long it was) with mostly great stuff... until the end. I was so disappointed on how anticlimactic it was! It left me feeling like the rest of the movie wasn't as good. I still think everyone should see it, and i you haven't read the books then you might not have noticed anything wrong... but if you did read the book then I'm sure you know what I'm talking about! Anyways, yes, go see it, but I was personally let down. I'm still super excited to see how they're going to split up the final book into 2 parts... I hope it's great!!

Weird/Funny Happenings...

Have you seen the 2nd Transformers' movie, Revenge of the Fallen? Well if not, DON'T, and if so, you know what I'll be talking about. It was TERRIBLE! I was totally amazed at how bad it was!! Even though I had read some bad reviews about it, I remembered reading the same about the first movie that I absolutely LOVED so I figured it was just a taste thing but boy was I wrong. It was full of immature, little boy humor and Megan Fox was there purely to add the sexual aspect. The movie was much more about the robots rather than the people, and while a few of them were funny, it was mostly just odd. Finally, the ending was terrible with this weird out of body experience. The only redeeming thing I remember about the movie was the hilarious mom reacting to her son going off to college. She was seriously hilarious! All in all, definitely not worth spending any money on. I'm so disappointed in the terribleness of it after such a great first movie!

On another weird/funny note, I was doing my power walk thing through the arb a few days ago, walking around the field with the long grass, when I noticed a deer standing out there. Now, it's not all that weird to see a deer in Ann Arbor, especially as we edge more and more onto their territory, but it is weird to see them mid-day instead of early morning or late at night. Usually they run away but I tried to ignore it so it wouldn't feel the need to run. It seemed to work since it didn't move as I passed by and I soon forgot about it. So there I am, listening to my iPod so Icouldn't hear everything but I soon hear rustling nearby that I guessed was an upcoming runner that never seemed to catch up to me. I looked back and was surprised to see the deer was keeping up with me about 15 feet out and a few feet behind me! I paused and it paused. I continued and it continued. I got to my turnaround point and the deer was still there! I have to say I was a bit scared at this point by its odd behavior. I figured it either wanted some food which I didn't have or it was going to attack me when I stopped paying it attention. Needless to say, I got out of there and took a turn off my path... crazy deer.

The last recent happening was when two of my aunts arrived with my Grandma on Friday. My mom thought it'd be fun to do a girls' date getting mani/pedi's. It ended up being my two aunts, grandma, mom, sister, sister-in-law and me, big party, taking up most of the place. After it was all started, we found out my grandma had never had this done before and it was amazing to watch her face as her chair started to vibrate and her feet were massaged and lotioned and painted. I couldn't always tell if she was totally freaked out or really enjoying herself but it was hilarious!!

Yes, it's summer and I just went to the first wedding of the summer! It was a fabulous wedding for two of my college friends and it brought together a lot of people that have moved away from MI since graduating! Great wedding and reunion all in one!! The groom started crying before the bride even came through the door and the bride's dress was absolutely beautiful! Their creativity and humor was shown in the slideshow of their lives separate and together, and then later at the reception when each person in the wedding party was given their own funny yet meaningful introduction! We had wonderful cake and conversation and then a dance party before the night was over... great time!!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLY!!!!!!!

Growing Older

I've just passed my 23rd birthday, and while I don't feel old yet, I realized life is really changing now. A few my friends still in Ann Arbor got together to celebrate and it made me think about where the rest of our friends are and what they're doing. I'm at the point in my life where everyone picks what they'll be doing for the rest of their lives and move to do that. They're across the states, coast to coast and north to south, but also out of the country in Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, South Africa, Kenya, and Mexico. I've got several friends getting married this summer, and there were even more over the last two years. Babies are on the way or already born... CRAZY stuff! It makes me wonder if I'll be the next to move...

Certified!!

The day has come, I'm officially certified to be a Water Safety Instructor! I can now teach anyone how to swim and can even do most of the skills I'd be teaching... J/k I finally got the breaststroke down and now I'm a champ at it, glide and all!! I'm considering becoming a lifeguard now too since it would help me get a job, but I haven't totally decided yet. The whole job search is becoming a big pain. I can't find anything right now.

On another note, within my internship, we just submitted our abstrasts so we're on our way! Now we're just gathering more information to back up our findings and then I'll be a published writer!! Not exactly the way I thought it would be, but it still works for me!

Exciting??

So maybe there are a few exciting things going on right now in my part of the world. I'm currently watching the Stanley Cup Finals game with my Red Wings vs. the Pittsburg Penguins and we're KILLING them!!! Right now, the series is tied at 2-2 but that's about to change! The second period just ended and we're up 5-0! We're totally holding our composure while the other team is losing it and keeps fighting and getting penalties! We're on our way to our second straight Stanley Cup! GO WINGS!!!!

Also, just before this game we were watching the Detroit Tigers baseball game and they won! They definitely go up and down, but this season is better than last season!! GO TIGERS!!

Finally, and on another note, the first preview for New Moon came out! Now, they're actually not done shooting the movie so the preview didn't cover much but I'm still excited! (If you want to watch it, you'll find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSFMmkMfQ5Q) I was somewhat disappointed by Twilight, the previous movie, but I think the experience and bigger budget will help the second movie be a winner!! It'd be great if Kristen stuart got some real emotions other than awkardness... Now I just gotta wait until November to see it!

Update...

Sorry for the long time between blogs, but life just hasn't been all that exciting lately and I didn't want to post something that would just totally bore you! While this one still won't be as exciting as some others, it's still got an update on my life:

I'm still in my swimming class and it's actually going pretty well. I'm sure I'm building all kinds of big muscles and I hope to keep up my swimming after the class ends. I figured I'd have trouble teaching swimming since I haven't been in lessons since way back when, but it's a lot easier than I had anticipated! Experience in teaching has definitely helped my confidence and I can't wait to bet back into the schools and try it out!!

My internship is going equally well. It's surprisingly not boring, it being research and all. My opinions actually count and are appreciated and I feel comfortable arguing a point with my teacher. We're done watching videos and moving on to the write ups of the reports which might turn toward the boring... we'll see. I get paid soon and that'll be awesome! I'm still looking for a job for the rest of the summer and the fall, and I'm trying to get my friend to sublet my apartment still... you know who you are!

This'll be yet another summer full of weddings that I'm totally excited about. A family wedding will be great for a reunion and several friend weddings will be great to attend and catch up with other friends from abroad!

It's interesting to watch my little niece growing inside my sister-in-law. I've never been around for the whole process! It's awesome and the best excuse for everything!! That's it for my life, now what about yours?

1000+ Hits!

That's right folks, my blog has reached 1000 hits! Very exciting news! Thanks for reading! I really appreciate your interest in my life and your comments are always fun to read!!

Check this Out

A friend of mine pointed out this website recently, and once you see it you can't help but laugh!

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

As you can probably guess from the site name, it's about awkward family pictures. Check it out, have a laugh, possibly relate to it... Here's just a sneak peek:

The Next Generation

A few blogs ago, I announced the wonderful news that my sister-in-law was pregnant. Finally, we've found out that the first of the next generation of the Archibald clan will be starting with a........ (drumroll please)

..... a GIRL!!!!

Yep, that's right, another girl in the family full of many, many girls! SO EXCITING!!!! I've never really been around babies, being the youngest, so I can't wait to be here for all this!!

My Little Helpers

I have to say, it's wonderful when people play to the expectations you give them.

I'm currently in a water safety instructor course where we learn all about swimming and how to teach swim classes later on. Yesterday, I got my first chance to teach in the class and my subject was the jellyfish float (if you want to learn, count on me!). As per requested, I stated my lesson was aimed to 8 or 9 year olds and then went on to teach my stuff. Usually I only have to deal with very mature college students, but not this time. Nope, this time, in the midst of my teaching, many of my classmates had no trouble acting the part of an 8 or 9 year old. Ooo good times...no, not really, but I suppose I should be thankful they're giving me practice with my disciplinary skills!! Thanks soooo much guys!

Movie! Movie! Movie!!!

Yes, I've recently seen 3 semi-new movies and thought I'd give my opinion to all you fine folks!

Trekkie! No, I'm not an actual "Trekkie" but I just might become one if they keep coming out with movies like this most recent version that came out a couple weeks ago! I was never one to watch the reruns playing as I grew up, and I actually made fun of a few people who did... sorry about that. Anyways, as a family, we had the chance to choose between seeing the newly released Angels & Demons or Star Trek and a surprising push from my mom made us see the Star Trek (later we found out she's a hidden Trekkie that grew up on the show, watching it as a family during dinner...). Not having grown up on the show, I didn't know much about it except Kirk was captain, Spock was odd, and "Beam me up, Scottie!" meant there must be a Scottie somewhere in there. However, my missing knowledge didn't matter. I still loved it! I know my mom loved it even more, knowing the background, but it's actually pretty cool that they can do a remake that makes both old fans and newbies happy! It was action packed right from the beginning and I was only confused a few times! Oh, and the new Kirk is totally cute! Anyways, I would say you should see it, and if you have prejudices against the show, get over them! See it!!

Next, I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After all the hype about this movie, I was kind of disappointed. Yes, the movie was definitely good, and I like the idea of seeing the back story behind some of the characters, but I was left unamazed like I thought I'd be. I absolutely love superhero stuff (not so much comics...) so it's always cool to see the creativity in coming up with new "powers". I'd say, if you were gonna see it, you would've seen it by now, otherwise you might as well wait but it's still a really good movie!

Finally, and I know I may get made fun of for this, but I saw the Hannah Montana movie. What made it even better was that I got to see it with an old friend, in the middle of the afternoon so it was cheaper, in a huge theater, and we were the only two people in the theater! We got to chat all throughout the movie and didn't have to hide our reactions! It reminded me that I'd like to live in the country and own horses and ride all over the place!! It was so awesome to see the scenes where they would just ride over field after field! So jealous! I'll have to say, though, it's definitely not a movie for everyone, and maybe not even very many people, but I still loved it! It brought back the girlie girl in me!

Building Up My Muscles...

While my summer plans aren't entirely set, I think I've got it figured out for the next few months at least. I'm still living in Ann Arbor and looking for a part-time job to carry through to fall semester, but I got an internship with one of my independent study teachers doing some research for about 20 hours a week. It pays pretty well, it'll look great on a resume, it'll get my name out in the research and PE world with the studies we turn in, and though it may sound boring it's actually kind of cool. It's something I actually know a lot about, and she seems to really value my opinion, and I can see where this research is going and could help.

Aside from the internship, I'm also taking a UMove class to get certified WSI and LG (water safety instructor and life guard) which anyone hoping to teach PE to jr high or high school would need to have. This is where my big muscles come into play. We had our first class yesterday, it meets twice a week for 3 hours each class. The first hour was basic 1st class stuff, but most of the next 2 hours was spent in the pool. We were given two lanes in the pool and split into good experienced swimmers and bad inexperienced swimmers. Seeing as I like to swim and have been doing it forever, and the bad swimmer group was bigger, I chose to jump in the good lane. Boy was I wrong. They were so fast and they all brought their own goggles! I ended up switching to the other group and found that they really didn't know what they were doing. Basically, I fell between the groups, but if you could choose to be the best of the bad group or the worst of the good group, which would you choose?? We were shown a style of stroke, then asked to swim 100 yards of that stroke, then we'd get out of the pool and see the next stroke and get back in and swim another 100 yards. It's been a loooong while since I've done that much swimming all at once and I was pooped until we got to the resting strokes. In the end, my muscles just felt nicely stretched, but of course they don't feel so nice anymore! I'm so sore now, but I'm excited to be really fit by the end of this class!! Plus, my sister was trying to talk me into a mini-triathlon, but the swimming part was always so intimidating. Maybe after this I'll be able to do it!! Oh, but there was something pretty funny about the class. As with most PE classes, most of the students are university athletes, and several of them were wrestlers in my slow swimmer group. Most of the time, no body fat would be a good thing, but not in swimming! They totally sank! The teacher kept trying to use me as an example of how to glide through the water so you don't have to stroke so much, but they couldn't do it! They just kept flapping their arms and splashing away. Now it seems nice that I've got my body fat! Maybe by the end, I'll be swimming in the fast group and fit as Michael Phelps!!

Drunk Driving on a Barstool

I read a funny story the other day. A man got arrested for drunk driving on a bar stool... Apparently this guy built a mobile bar stool that can go much faster than you'd think. He was out driving around with his pack of beer and at some point he crashed but continued drinking his beer. Surprise surprise, the man's from Ohio; of course he would be. While I'd have loved to see this thing in action, here's a picture of the fabulous bar stool/lawn mower:

Skyping

Skyping: basically its video chatting for free! Maybe you've heard of it or maybe not, but I got the chance to try it out for the first time the other day and it was amazing! I got to hear and see my college roommate for the first time in like 7 months using this program and we crossed continents to do it. She's currently on an 11 month/11 countries mission trip and this month she's in Romania. While our general contact is through email updates, it's totally different being able to chat real-time, and even more, be able to see and hear each other!! Also, I learned you can do "conference calls" with the program where you can talk to multiple people all at once! I didn't get the chance to try it, but I've heard it's great! If you'd like to join, all you need is a computer with a microphone and/or camera, then you go to the website and get the free download. Add your contacts and call them up! Easy-peasy! Join and call me up!

Update

Here's an update on my life at the moment:

Winter semester is basically up. I've got an exam next week and I'm finishing my work for my independent studies around the same time. I'm not sure where I'll be living for the summer- I'm looking for a sublet for my apartment but not having any luck. I'm also looking for a job, and so far I've got a very part time job continuing my research for one my professors. If I get something close to AA, I might as well live here! I'm considering taking a WSI course in the spring semester so that might keep me closer to AA too... seems like I'm being kept from home.
More people are graduating that are not me. I'll be taking my last required math class in the fall and hopefully working around that. It's only offered in the fall on the AA campus so it pushed my student teaching back to the winter semester again. Then I'll be done!! Can't wait!

My sister-in-law felt the baby kick the other day! Very exciting! She's starting to show, but I don't feel she's to the point where I can rub the belly... I can't think of any more happenings... semi-sad

Now for you: wanna sublet my apartment or got any job suggestions???

Britain's Newest Celebrity

On a recent episode of Britain's Got Talent (no, I do not watch this show, but my roommate pointed this story out to me the other day and it has since become big news so I thought I'd share it with you, too), the world got a big surprise. An older woman, Susan Boyle, came out on the stage looking slightly frumpy in a golden beige dress and admitted she was 47, single, unemployed but hoping to become a professional singer, and did an odd little dance for everyone... but it was nice how open and humorous she was about herself. When asked why she had never done anything about her supposed singing talent that she was on the show for, she said she'd never been given the chance to do anything. This answer caused many eye rolls and disbelieving looks throughout the judges and audience(nearly everyone will say that, even if they're "talent" has been seen and dismissed so would you believe her?), but they let her go on and sing her song. That's when she blew everyone away! You've got to watch this video! She comes out of nowhere with this amazing voice that you would NEVER expect! It's great! Watch it!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnmbJzH93NU

He is Risen!

Here are a few reminders about why we celebrate Easter! He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. ~Isaiah 53:3-7

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:8-11

And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name. ~Romans 1:4-5

Good Friday

I would just like to give a shout out to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, for giving Himself up as a sacrifice for my sins and the sins of the world. Without Him, I would be nowhere and nothing. I am so very thankful to have Him in my life!

Snow, Really?

Yes, it's April 6th, and yes, it was 60 degrees just a few days ago, but aparently none of that matters in good ol' Michigan because we today we still received several inches of snow! It was so bad this morning that my roommate got a snow day at one of the schools she student teaches at! Unbelievable, but true. Keeps you on your toes!

Irony

I thought I'd just point out the irony of the events taking place today in Ann Arbor. Walking across campus, I caught an interesting whiff sweeping towards me. I realized today was the day we were hosting the annual "Hash Bash" on the diag and down State St. Yes, ever since 1972, we've had people, mostly hippies these days, come from all over to smoke marijuana out in the open, whether in protest, like in the first year, or in celebration, which happened this year since Michigan legalized medicinal marijuana. Ever since I got a headache from the fumes the first year I walked through it, I've tried to stay away for the day, but that's a bit harder living few streets away. The irony comes in when I walked up the hill and saw "Relay for Life" taking place. This event exists to help the American Cancer Society by having people get donations for walking/running for a certain amount of time from 10 a.m. to 10 a.m. the next day. So there you have it, hippy hash bashers in the diag, and only a few hundred yards away were the American Cancer Society runners...

Happenings of the Day

Two interesting things happened today:

1. A maintenance man came to my apartment today to see the evidence of the hot water pipe burning through our kitchen floor. The long rust colored line has been growing over the last couple of months and a most of the time you spend standing on it you feel like your feet are burning. If fact, ever since we moved in at the beginning of the school year, our whole living area has felt like an oven unless our sliding door lets in air from outside. And this is all without any of us fiddling with the heater things that none of us really know how to use. Yes, I understand hot air rises and we're on the top floor, but it's gonna get majorly annoying when summer roles around. Back to the handyman- he was extremely confused about why there was even a pipe in that spot and decided the only thing to do was to rip up our kitchen floor! Can't wait for that!

2. I heard about a widespread virus going around that's gonna make its hit tomorrow, April 1st, April Fools Day. It's called the Confiker computer worm, and all PC owners have been warned to update their virus software and back up all their stuff. Apparently, it's already infected 3 million PCs and expects to hit many more tomorrow. I gotta wonder how they know so much about this crazy worm but they can't stop it before its big day! I don't know if my stuff is all up to date... I hope it is. This is just a warning to all you folks to not download stuff tomorrow!!

Yes, these were the interesting things of the day, sad huh? Yea, I know.

Pull Up Your Pants Day

Interesting news: Courtesy of MTV News, I heard about a school down in South Florida that held a "Pull Up Your Pants Day" in an effort to keep the students' from sagging their pants. They decided to take action after hearing President Obama say, "brothers should pull up their pants," in an interview with MTV. They set up the day to try out the new rule for no sagging and a local Wal-Mart jumped in and donated a bunch of belts to help out. Overall, it seemed to be a big success, some kids even asking to have a repeat of the day... apparently they need the special day to keep their pants up... Oh, and I heard some people tried to make it a law to not sag your pants but it was ruled unconstitutional. Whatever, the sagging pants trend ended a long time ago so I don't see why it's still a problem outside of prison, really now...

Booklovers' Blog

If you're not a booklover like me, then this particular blog post isn't for you, sorry. However, if you do happen to like books, or even better if you like to collect books, then I'd like to suggest something to you. Recently, I stumbled across the website http://www.paperbackswap.com/ and have since fallen in love with it. Basically, the idea is you post at least 10 books of your own that you're willing to trade, and then you get 2 free "credits" to use. Each credit is worth one book that you can order for no cost. The cost comes in when someone orders a book from you and all you have to do is pay the shipping fee. As soon as the other person gets your book you get your credit. While I haven't been a member all that long and I've only done a few swaps so far, all of which have gone wonderfully, I didn't want to keep this program a secret! Check it out! Trade books you don't want for ones you do want!

High School starts at 11?

I just heard some interesting news: there are some high schools in England that have decided to push their school days back to start at 11 a.m.! They couldn't seem to overcome their students' staying up late and sleeping through class, so they chose to change themselves rather than working on changing their teenagers. At first, I couldn't believe they waited so long to make this change (it's only just barely come to the states now) since that would've been awesome when I was going through it, but then the other ball dropped- while they do start at the wonderful hour of 11, they don't get out until 5! I don't know if I'd rather do that anymore. I love getting out of class early and having the whole afternoon to do stuff! I have very mixed feelings about this....

Update

Sorry for the long break between blogs, but my life hasn't been too interesting lately. I'm actually coming off an amazing weekend, but I'll wait to say more about that when I can post pictures to go along with the craziness. Otherwise, my schooling future seems to be coming together again after being torn to shreds by the School of Ed. Now, it looks like I'll be here for another year yet, they've just got to love taking all my money! I'll be taking at least one class next fall, my last remaining Math class that is only offered in the fall, but I might end up taking another random Math class to help boost my Math GPA. Either way, I'll have time to help bring my first niece into the world! Then, I'll hopefully be back to student teaching next winter semester and graduating from there. It's been hard for me to believe that I'm going to be here a whole year more. I just want to get out of here! I know I'll regret that once it's happened, but after getting a feel for the teaching world in just those 3 weeks of student teaching, I'm not so scared anymore. I can't wait to have a school with kids of my own!

Another Decade Comes Along

I recently found out some scary news. Over the break, while I was waiting to be called for my starring role in the movie, I got the chance to chat with a few new people. Eventually it came out that one of them was a freshman this year, really almost done with her freshman year, but she was born in 1990! It blew me away that a new decade of students has come to the university! Yes, I know it's logical and all that, but my mind doesn't always work that way. All the sudden, I felt terribly old! Ok, yeah I know I'm not all that old, especially since I'm the youngest in my family and that makes the other members very old... just kidding! It just hit me at the time, and I thought you all should know that college is turning into the home for kids of the 90s!

Oh! And I thought i'd give a shout out to this AMAZING bookstore in Detroit! If you love and/or collect books like I do, you have to check it out! I've only been there twice, but I've been amazed both times. It's the John K. King bookstore, but really I'd consider it more of a warehouse. It's this HUGE four story building that comes out of nowhere with little parking, but it's filled wall to wall and in between with books. Everywhere you look, there's books! Plus, they have a lot of 1st editions and signed copies if you're interested in that kind of thing. They have everything from classics to contemporary and they're mostly pretty cheap. If you want to hear more, let me know! I always love to talk books!

p.s. Yay for 500+ hits! Thanks for reading!

Ooo Baby!

Coming off a fairly uneventful spring break where I didn't feel I had anything worth reporting, I realize now there are a few new things!

First, dad's surgery went realllly well, so yay! He only had to spend a few days on the couch and he's been up and walking around a lot since then!

I already mentioned this, but I made a possible movie debut... woo hoo!

Rihanna's thinking of getting back together with Chris Brown- BOOO

And the biggest news of all that I'm finally allowed to shout to the world- I'm going to be an aunt!! Kyle and Danielle are going to have a baby! Oo I'm so excited!

That's it for now!

Fame Postponed :(

Sorry family and friends, but your connection to a movie star will have to be through someone else for now. Today, I woke up excited to go to the set of the new Hilary Swank/Minnie Driver movie, Betty Anne Waters, being filmed on campus here at U of M over spring break. We were told to dress like we were law students from the 90s, show up at our appointed time, and bring a book and extra set of clothes to choose from. I did all those things, even arriving a bit early, and was soon ushered into the "holding room."

Inside, we signed photo releases, were told that they'd decided to go for a more casual look than they originally thought so we should change if we could (which I couldn't), and waited about an hour waiting for the rest of the people to show up. Then, we were ushered into another room with fewer seats, many of which were already taken up by people who had got there earlier, and were told that we should relax because they weren't going to start shooting again for another hour. The 250ish of us ransacked the food they provided and waited it out on both seats and floor. Eventually, the big people came back to get the rest of earlier people, and we waited some more. From time to time, they would shout out "ROLLING" and we had to quickly silent ourselves. It was actually kind of funny and cool to see so many people stop talking so fast for several minutes and then pick it back up as soon as they called "CUT!" Those people came back, and again, we waited. 30 or so more people were chosen to be in the next scene, and the rest of us waited. You may or may not have noticed, but waiting was a definite theme of the day. We were told filming would stop at 7 so by the time 6:30 rolled around and I hadn't been called yet, I became a bit nervous and upset. I had been there for 4 1/2 hours by that time, and couldn't believe I'd waisted all that time and hadn't even done anything.

Finally, the big people came in and announced the last scene of the day would be filmed with all of the remaining people. We lined up, crossed the hall, and were placed into groups of 1s, 2, 3s,... of students in a classroom. Unfortunately, I ended up near the back on the aisle. The last people in the room were picked as "back action" people that started out standing and would walk to their seats after filming started. We practiced it a few times, and then Minnie Driver and Hilary Swank came in to practice their parts real quick. We ran through that a few more times, they decided to change it up, we did that a few more times, and we finally wrapped around 8:30. Both women seemed nice and willing to joke around with us little people, plus Driver's was just plain excellent! They raffled off signed movies and itunes stuff, but I didn't get anything :(

Overall, I think they could learn a little about efficiency with extras, but I can't say I'm upset I went. I would have regretted it way more had I not. There's more filming tomorrow morning, and I'm trying to decide right now if I should crash and try to get more time on screen or just let it go... Who knows, I just might end up in the movie, but I'd say there's only a slight chance. Hopefully, I'll get another chance some other time!

Slumdog Sweeps the Oscars!

You may or may not remember one of my previous blogs praising the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Well, since its mini-release in just a few theaters months ago, it has grown immensely to nearly all theaters and you hear about it everywhere! The Academy Awards just finished up, and Slumdog won an amazing 8 Oscars out of 9 nominations, including the major Best Picture award! Crazy good stuff! I'm gonna say it again, if you haven't seen it yet, you definitely should! It's an amazingly great surprise that I'll still rave about!

Also, I thought it was awesome how Heath Ledger won the award for Best Supporting Actor. He totally deserved it! Yay for Slumdog and Heath!

Movie Stardom on the Horizon!

I just heard some extremely fun news! I'm going to be in a movie! Thank goodness Michigan started this new "make movies cheaper here" thing! Now we have all sorts of movies being filmed around the area!

The newest one is called Betty Anne Waters starring Hillary Swank. It's supposed to be about a working mother who goes back to school to get a law degree and represent her brother who has been charged with murder. I don't know if the movie is going to say it's based in Michigan, but they're filming for several days here on campus at U of M over spring break. We recieved emails asking for extras, and I just heard back that they want me to come in on Monday and Tuesday! Yes, I'll totally be in the background and possibly even cut from the movie altogether, but it'll still be a lot of fun! They said there'll be raffles and games to keep us occupied during the off-times and I'm sure I'll bring a book or two along...

So, yay! New adventures! Watch for me on the big screen...!