day 117

Thursday was a busy day of running errands & last minute gift shopping. but i started the day out at the DMV, because guess who lost her license at the airport? this girl, that's who.

yeah... getting back through security was really fun with no license. thankfully i had my social security card (who knows why!) and an expired license...so they didn't give me a hard time. i guess it's a good thing that i keep everything (and that I don't look too suspicious!)

Anyway, I was hoping not to find myself at the DMV again for a while, but there I was in line on Thursday morning waiting for a new license. 1 hour, 2 forms, and $13.50 later, I had one!

day 116

i came home to this beautiful sight tonight!

i didn't make it home 'til close to 11 p.m., but it was great to be back. it didn't feel like christmastime in florida - any christmas decorations seemed out of place when it was above 60 degrees outside!

day 115

while I was visiting, my dad asked me to hang all of the pictures he has of his children and grandchildren up on the wall in his office in a big collage. it's still a work in progress, but so far, so good!

oh...and were you wondering who that cute little girl is on the beach up there in the green frame? it's me!

here's a close up :)

day 114

it wouldn't have been a trip to see my dad if we hadn't had gone out for chinese food! But, I guess I've never eaten Chinese in South Florida - or if I have, I've never noticed the fortune cookies in Spanish! What a fun surprise :)

day 113

look at that sweet little puppy!

my dad and susan got a new cocker spaniel, and this was my first time meeting him! his name is Ike (Issac, but Ike for short) and he is the sweetest puppy I've ever met. He loves to just sit and give kisses and lay in your lap. I was in puppy heaven!

this is his favorite way to hang out on the couch....just chillin' looking at everything going on

day 112

these are two of Janet's 4 kids - Alysha and Jack

i love being aunt lauren :)

day 111

hellooo from florida! i'm here for six days visiting my family :)

for the first three days i'm staying with my sister and her family - spending lots of time shopping, eating, talking, reading books, and cuddling with that cute 4 year old up there. here are some out-takes from our photo booth session!

day 110

If I thought what we got on Monday was snow, then today was a blizzard! I left my last final (yay!) to discover a winter wonderland outside!

day 109

tonight i spent the happiest hour with kristen after our "worst-class-to-ever-exist" (aka EDMS410) final. see ya never Dr. Alvestad!

day 108

it snowed last night!

reasons this is good:

-it's snow!! i love the snow!

reasons this is bad:

-it's fah-ree-zing out. ("as cold as the north pole on Christmas!" as one of my kindergartners so aptly put it)

-the potential for me to slip and fall is about 50% higher than it is on a normal day

-my car only likes to be driven in temperatures above freezing and on dry roads.

She whines and throws a fit when I try to take her out in the freezing cold.

I'm choosing to ignore any negative effects of the snow and just wear my pajamas inside out and backwards with a spoon under my pillow in hopes that it keeps snowing this winter. Who knows, maybe we'll get another "snow week" off from class like we did last winter!

day 107

since I can't get any work done without making some sort of list or schedule or some other visual representation, i now present you with:

my finals week schedule:

day 106

I spent the day studying today in my new favorite study locale - Jason's Deli!

There's a great little study lounge, plus you can pay $7.99 for the salad bar and keep refilling your plate all day! (and the free ice cream is a perk too, obviously)

day 105

bad news: our toilet was leaking.

good news: it got fixed

bad news: the floor was disgusting and smelled like a sewer.

good news: i cleaned it and now it's beautiful!

day 104

tonight I spent a glorious few hours christmas shopping/browsing through the most beautiful Barnes and Noble ever - it was 3 stories! I could have stayed forever. I just love that place.

When I was little my dad used to take me every Friday night - I think that's a tradition I might need to reinstate in my life!

day 103

tonight was our cookie/gift exchange. loving all of the presents under the tree!

(i got $10 to noodles and $5 to starbucks...wahooo!)

day 102

things I needed to be doing today:

- writing a 12 page paper on arts integration

- writing a 5 page paper on children's problem solving skills

- making a poster on reading comprehension

- doing an investigative report on recycling (what?!)

things I didn't need to be doing today:

- cooking a real dinner

- baking cookies

- cleaning my room

- scrubbing the stove

obviously I did all 4 of the things on the second list before starting the things on the first list.

but doesn't the stove look so nice and shiny?!

day 101

Tuesday night found me and my poor, sick, strep-throated Maggie at the Patient First Clinic in Laurel, MD. The health center on campus was closed and she needed some meds ASAP. Plus, I figured I owed her a "sick trip" after she trekked around Barcelona with me trying to find a 24-hour pharmacy one night.

Luckily she got to see a doctor and they sent her home with a "get out of class free" note and some drugs. And, on the bright side, now I know where the patient first clinic is!

day 100?!

p.s.....that was just my 100TH POST! who woulda thought I'd have made it this long? not me, that's who!

day 100

Today was the start of the last week of classes - aka the last time I will EVER have to sit through my 3 hour Monday class again. Words can't describe how much I hated this class - I dreaded it every week. An outrageous amount of work, coupled with a less-than-average teacher (and that's being generous) makes for a terrible class, hence the burning of the papers after I was finished.

I swore I'd never do something like this again after I got in big trouble in 7th grade. It was the last day of music class and as we were walking out the door I made a spectacle of throwing my binder into the trash can and letting everyone know how happy I was the class was over. Little did I know the teacher could see me - she proceeded to tell me I was disrespectful and to "have a little more tact." Oops! This time I waited until I was home to burn the papers and celebrate, but man oh man I don't think I've ever been happier to be done a class than I was with this one!

(oh and for the record, I'm not a pyromaniac...I really just burned this one paper for effect - I didn't set a bonfire up in the living room or anything)

day 99

okay, okay...I have a confession to make. I don't have a picture for Sunday.

Normally I would just ignore that and take a posthumous picture of something I did on Sunday, and none of you would know the difference! (mwahahaha)

but to be honest, I just don't feel like it! it was the last week of class and really all I did was study and do homework all day. who needs to see a picture of that?

if you're dying to know, it looked exactly like this, only with some more books and my computer in front of me.

forgive me? thanks :)

day 98

I realize this doesn't really look that appetizing, but you'll have to take my word for it that it was DELICIOUS! It's vietnamese noodle soup, aka pho. Try it sometime - it's SO good.

day 97

Christine and I got to go to Emily's house for Hanukkah dinner!

I forgot what a fan I am of matzoh ball soup and potato latkes

love my roomies :)

day 96

This picture may not seem like a big deal to some, but anyone who frequents my room often will know that it took a great deal of cleaning to get it to look like that. I mean really, let's take a closer look and examine...the bed is made, you can see the floor, you can actually sit on the desk chair....it just looks like a real room! Life is 10x better when my room is clean.

day 95

Happy 1st night of Hanukkah! Emily lit candles and said the prayers and I sort of hummed along every other word. Look at our multi-denominational holiday decorations! So many pretty lights

day 94

Today I went to the health center to get all of the vaccines I need for my trip to Honduras in January.

Check out that full arm of shots!

I got a shot for Hepatitis A, Tetanus, and the flu, plus pills for typhoid fever and malaria. That's a whole lot of stuff.

But all of this Honduras talk got me so excited to go! In a little over one month I'll be there :)

day 93

on Monday night we went to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings - delicious food and even more delicious left overs!

day 92

knox 210 is officially ready for the holiday season! check out our b-e-a-utiful christmas tree!