Is It Goodbye?!?!

Alas, I must bid you adieu. Or maybe not! Join me at my new blog here: BLOG which is solely my blog, even though my husband's name is in the addy. Thanks much! God bless.

EDIT: And I only say edit so that you know that indeed I did not check to see if my link worked before I published, though I used the cheater method and used the coding provided for me. So I will put it above in a link, as it already was but I forgot to put a title, and again below where the old fashioned can simply copy and paste. Thank you j00t for pointing this out to me. :)

http://liznjohn.blogspot.com

Hello Again!

I know it's been a while since my last post, and believe me, a lot has been going on, but I've just been too busy to spend that extra 10 minutes online to post any of it! I have been working on a LOT of papers lately, and I believe I only have four left for the rest of this semester. Fabulous, I'll tell you!

I have a bit of a surprise for the people back home, but you'll see it next weekend. :) I'll be home on either the 5th or 6th, depending on when I get all my stuff moved into mine and John's storage unit. That's right! Mom will be happy--I think the only things I'm bringing home this summer are some clothes and maybe a few books. That's just about it. The rest is staying here. And I called a guy about renting a house yesterday. I really don't want to live in a run-down, crappy apartment, so John and I are looking to rent a house. If no one else wants to rent starting in August, we're gonna talk to some friends of ours here who are leaving and want to rent out their house, but they have some repairs they want to do on it first. John may volunteer to do some repairs so we could rent it and maybe get a bit of a break on it. We'll see.

I almost wasn't able to graduate next semester, too. There's ONE course that if I were in the Intercultural Studies program from freshman year, I would have take my sophomore year, but now I still haven't taken it. Well, come to find out it's required to do the internship that I already did, which is why those credits haven't been put on my account yet, and it's only offered in the spring. The prof that teaches it won't let people do it independent study with her, and she's probably the most note-happy prof here. So my academic advisor offered to take on the course in just this one circumstance, since both John and I need it to graduate in December with the new program, and we'll be doing it independent study distance education over May term. That DOES mean that I have to take out a little more money for a loan, but other than that, it makes it so I can graduate in December.

What else has been going on? Well, due to missing a week of school and work and having EVERY break go over the evening I work every week (Monday nights), I was very nearly in danger of losing my job for next semester. See, for a work-study job, you need to work at least 90% of your allotted hours, or you can't be hired for a semester. But I only need to work another I think 7 or 8 hours over finals week to pull it off, so it's all good.

I'm heading out to Virginia on the Tuesday after I get home, for probably about a week or a week and a half. John and I are going to meet some of his friends and just take a break before he leaves for the summer. He has a good friend graduating on the 17th, so we'll stay for that and then come home after. He'll be staying in the area until he has to go to his internship, which starts in Florida, so he'll be flying out, and then after the weekend my family goes caming this summer, I head to Sioux Falls to pick him up again. So if there's someone who wants to come with me, I already asked Rachel if she wants to go on a road trip on July 20 or the 21, but the more the merrier and I don't know for sure if Rachel's gonna come or not, John and I really don't want to spend much time so closely alone before the wedding after not seeing each other for two months.

Well, with that, I'm outta here. I'm working, so I may actually get some work done. ;)

UPDATE!!!

Okay, I officially have the awesomest, coolest, bestest future mother-in-law EVER! I now have a dress on order, thanks to Carol, and will get it shipped to my house when I pay the other half of the cost in July. It'll be fantastic! It's simply the most beautiful dress I've ever seen. I always had these dreams the last 6 or 7 years of finding a dress that looks like it would be at home in a royal court, and boy did we ever find one! I put it on and fell in love with it, then tried on the dresses I liked at 4 different stores, eventually going back to the first one and the fourth dress I tried on to order it. It's a bit on the expensive side (like at least 5 times as much as I was thinking about spending on a dress), but Carol (aka John's mom) put the first half down for me. I feel so loved and spoiled and special and all that stuff. :) My plan for bridesmaids' dresses may alter slightly. Erika and Rachel are now on the lookout for a slightly fancier cut of dress that would accent mine well that we can still get in Skittles colors. We'll see if they find anything. That's about it for today. We went to Mount Rushmore yesterday and saw a couple billy goats within petting distance. They liked me. :) It was nice.

Then we went to a lake not too far from there and walked along a penninsula, and I thought we were walking on wood originally. You know how an old rotting stump that's sunk into the ground gets kinda...I don't know...it falls apart and is like a bunch of cut-off sticks pointing out of the ground, often times bent towards the ground after being trampled on by so many? That's what we were walking on, with woodchips everywhere. But it wasn't wood. I looked at it more closely, realized there were WAY too many stump-like things to be old trees, and realized they were all rocks! ALL OF THEM!!! The woodchips were rocks, too. It was AMAZING! You could wiggle them and pull them out of the ground just like you would be able to with old wood. It was rather comfortable to sit on, too! And it went all the way to the shora, about 50 feet or so and all surrounding EVERYTHING. And it was a pretty big lake. Amazing. Never saw anything like it before. I collected a few samples that I thought were especially beautiful, of course. I told John that I could make a mosaic table out of those, so that's the plan. I have to find a table with a sunken top so I can go back there and make myself a mosaic out of all the pieces of wood-like rock. I really should get going now. I have pictures developing and want to finish my graphic novel before we leave the bookstore.

Oh! One more thing...the song that I want sung at my wedding DOES have a background track, and Carol ordered that for me too. So if you've never heard Rascal Flatt's "The Day Before You", you will at my wedding. :)

Break

Yup, it's break, I'm in Rapid City with John and his family, and I'm incredibly glad to be here. It's nice to just sit in a bookstore and not have to worry about homework or curfew or anything like that. I like reading graphic novels to unwind...they're great. I'll probably have a collection once I can afford to buy one on a semi-regular basis. That'll probably be when John gets done with his schooling the next time around. He's great--I can tell him anything and everything that's bothering him, and he listens. Sometimes he gets a little defensive, and sometimes he tries to fix things and gets a little frustrated when he can't soothe my fears right away, but he loves me. And there aren't any secrets I can't tell him. There are a few days, like today, when I really don't feel like talking about something because I really don't want to end up bringing a downpoint into a lovely day, but he can tell when something's bothering me and will keep aasking about it until I tell him. I have to admit, that makes me smile. But then I usually end up thinking about whatever it is far longer than I want to, and of course it dampens the mood. Ah well. As he said on his blog, it'll balance out somehow.

I think I'll probably end up getting two jobs this summer. I really don't want a crappy wedding, and with my bills every month, I buy one thing frivolously (usually around $20, like Memoirs of a Geisha) and end up with $3.65 in my checking account. I guess I'll just have to stop buying anything and just put whatever I'd be spending on stuff into savings. I'd like to be able to buy my wedding dress BEFORE the wedding. :) So if anyone has any suggestions as to what to do or not to do for two jobs this summer, I'm open for ideas!

Almost Easter!

That's right! It's almost Easter, which means I get a much-needed break! John and I are headed back to his parents' place in Rapid City for the weekend. Oh, and for anyone to whom I was complaining about having school right away on Monday, enough of us sent emails to the administration and it was corrected (I guess it was a type-oh in the schedule, but they didn't catch it until students started emailing). So life is good. I've been busy a LOT lately...I spend my evenings reading/in class/working. The reading is pretty laid-back since it's novels, but that's the only freetime I've really had lately. John and I are heading out to Virginia when school gets out so I can see the ocean and meet some of his friends out there before the wedding. :) I'll be home probably around May 18th, though I'm gonna be stopping in before we go to Virginia to drop off the stuff I don't need for the trip. It'll be great fun! I'm in class, so I should probably get going.

FAMILY FORUM!!!!?!!!?!!

Check it out and see what you think if you consider yourself close enough to be family (you'd better consider that if you're actually related to me!). :)
http://excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=15601

Break This Time Around...

So far, break has been going REALLY fast. It's looking like John and I might end up staying at home for a few days after break...we should know by Saturday. My grandma is basically living on Morphene right now, and the hospice nurse said it's probably only gonna be another 2 days before she's gone, so we'll just stay around here for the funeral, which if she was right will be Tuesday or Wednesday next week. We'll see...a lot of it just has to be cleared with school, and there's one class I may end up having to drop because of it, but I have room for another three credits for next semester before I'm even officially full-time, so I'm not too worried about it. I talked to my brother in law today, and he's gonna see if there's any space for a girl on his construction comany's crew this summer, and if there is, I may stay in Seymour for a little bit before I got back to school after John and I are married this summer. Honeymoon may have to be short, but oh well. What are you gonna do? It's all good, and I'd REALLY like a good paying job this summer if I can get one. I make about $160 a month with both jobs at school, have $100 in bills minimum, and I've got a wedding to pay for in August! :) So it'll be a good time. Love you all!

Such a Geek!

I missed the next level by 3.5%. Check this test out!

In Some Ways, South Dakota Rocks!

Okay, so I know I live in North Dakota for now, but I had to share this! The paper today showed that South Dakota just approved the ban on all abortions unless the mother's life is in danger! It only has to be signed by the governor, and it's official: abortion is a felony in SD!!! That's all I have time for right now, but I'll try to post later.

Okay, okay! About the Play...

The play was a smash hit! It was an ad-lib play that took place in a 50's Diner setting, I was the head waitress and one of the main characters, and I had several people ask me if my Jersey accent was my real voice. Even the cook who saw me before and after every performance noticed that I stayed in character at all times and asked me last night to talk to her in my normal voice. All of table 2 opening night was convinced I couldn't have faked it that well for that long that consistently. For Benita (our co-director who pretty much directed the whole thing) we got the Rogers and Hammerstein Collection, which I nearly covet, but it was my idea to get it for her, and I think I ended up paying for about $20 of the $80 gift. It's not so bad, since I really did think she did a great job and she and I got to know each other a lot better. :) I think it was definitely worth the effort we all had to put into it. It's crazy when people show up three shows in a row and have to pay $10 a ticket for it in the first place! The biggest compliment we got was a lot of people said they couldn't tell when we were on script or ad-libbing. That was awesome. :) And John's parents are here for the play, which was so cool...they got up at 3:30 this morning to drive here and see me. :) They love me! Anywho, I'm gonna get going so I can get to bed and get up for the AG church this morning. John and I usually go to the PUM church, but his parents wouldn't appreciate that one very much. I'll see most of you next week!