...

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?