Tagged post!

1.) I'm realizing with many tears how much of a perfectionist(based on my pride of course) I am. It's probably one of the harder things I've had to learn this far...I guess I've been learning it through each diff. stage of my life. Let's just say Purdue is givin' me a run for my money and I'm sure it's good for me!

2.) I very much like to dance and I very much like African-American culture! Both of those are very known facts so I paired them.

3.) As a little girl, I carried the responsibility of every animal/pet upon my back. And now I pretty much don't want anything to do with them as a result. I don't like animals very much...I used up all of my positive regard for them long ago. Maybe it was due to the fact that I had a grey cat that was possessed...yes. he was! Ask my family for the gory details.

4.) I love chewable vitamin C...you could probably classify it as an addiction. I like to think of it as the one candy I don't feel a single bit of guilt eating.

5.) I love old architecture and anything dealing with old time-periods. Reading novels set back in the 1800's or anything like that is the best thing in the world. I secretly wish I could completely deck myself out in the latest 1800's fashion and attend a ball...similar to the Pride and Prejudice type. And then return home to my large manor. Sigh....how perfect...and how dorky that I'm confessing this to you!:)

6.) I really want to travel to Brazil before I die. It would be awesome to visit Ygui(our foreighn exchange student when I was a Junior in HighSchool). And, I'm sure my spanish will be astounding by then so I'll be able to understand some Portuguese...not likely.

7.) I don't prefer saxophones or electrc guitars....I'm not sure why. I do like most other instraments a lot though.

Ready for Fall break!

I'm so glad for this week to be over(it's seemed really long). I have five book reviews that I need to finish today and I also need to turn in my book plan for a children's book in Entemology class. For a 100 level class it's turning out to be a lot of work. I have to do my own illustrations for this book too(which I think will be pretty fun)...it's about a bug of my choice. I also have to make a bug costume that's due in a couple weeks. I'm hoping mom will help me with some of this...she's quite the wizard with her sewing-needle wand! Today, I had the nices librarian help me. He was so helful and considerate of my plight to find books about bugs. It made me realize how important it is to treat other people like they really do matter...it makes a difference!

Sunday night Leah and Emily decided to watch Emma! It happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time. I had a little bit of studying to do and I was feeling stressed with the thought of the two hard exams I was going to take Monday and Tuesday. After taking a refreshing shower I could hear familliar sounds coming from the living room...I got the best warm and fuzzy feeling when I saw that they were watching Emma. It was the perfect thing to relieve stress, and the after-shower clean feeling only magnified the wonderfulness of it all! It's one of those movies that I associate really good memories with and it made me feel completely relaxed and happy(which is quite contrary to how I would normally feel the night before exams). I love the music, characters, and storyline of it...not to mention the coolness of Mr. Knightly.

I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with my fall break. Mom extended the invitation of going with her, Aunt Joyce, and Aunt Connie to the Covered Bridge festival. That could be quite the adventure and my aunts are pretty cool. I'm planning to go to the Taylor Invite this weekend too. For some reason, I'm just not as excited about it as I should be. I'm sure it will turn out to be a great time. The five hour drive just doesn't sound the best.

Ok...I need to get those book reviews done!

Prayin' For You

Sadie introduced this to me a couple weeks ago and I thought it'd be cool to post.

A word about IDIS 376

I just gave a small presentation thing with a partner in my African American class. Basically, we had to summarize a chapter from a book we're reading in class. It wasn't a big deal at all...type up a paper with bullet points about the chapter and talk for like five minutes about it to the class. I usually don't mind this sort of thing at all...but in this class it's just a little bit different. The book is titled: "The Assasinataion of the Black Male Image." Not an easy to talk about topic. Since most of the class is made up of African Americans, including Mr. Tillis(my teacher), It feels different to talk about these issues. The chapter we had to present was one of the longer ones and had so much information...some of which I thought would be uncomfortable to talk about(how the African American male is viewed as sex-crazed and lots of other explicit things along those lines). The teacher chose our partners and, strangely enough, I was paired with another white kid named Ben(he plays baseball for Purdue and is a nice kid). I don't even think that was intentional on the teacher's part...I'm pretty sure he picked at random.

So, the presentation went good and I actually enjoyed standing up there to talk. I really like Mr. Tillis...he's a cool guy! Ben typed up the bullet points and when I was reading over it in class I noticed typo errors...annoying! So I mentioned it to my teacher after class. I warned him that there were typos and that it bothered me and he said I could re-type it if I wanted becuase he's that kind of person too. I guess most perfectionists do kinda understand each other...band together perfectionists!

Then while I was looking for Ashton outside of Beering after my class, I saw Mr Tillis walking by and he told me I did a nice job...which was good to hear because I was pretty sure it probably sounded scattered. We talked for a little bit. I'd say I'm getting to know my teacher well. I love teachers...and he's one of the cooler ones I have. I'm pretty sure this class is going to stretch me in some good ways.

Purdue

I'm very tired at the moment...beware!...this may be a borring post as a result!

I'm excited for my African American Male class tomorrow. And, I have tons of reading to do. Probably should be doing it now. I've been doing homework all day, though, and now I just want to write. My first week of classes went pretty well. After freaking out about my Spanish class to various people that would listen, I've decided that I can probably handle it. Most of my frustration was due to the fact that it was very late last night when I sat down to look at my assignments...porbably English wouldn't have even made sense to me. I think I'm getting plugged in to the idea of School. I guess I don't really have a choice, huh? Plug in or fail!
What crazy things should I share with you?-

My weekend was awesome. I spent it in IL(Denny and Mary Ann's of course) with Sadie, Christen, Ash, Bryan, and Kurt. Monday, the Steffen boys(Quinn and Justin) came out to hang with us. We had some great conversations out on the pontoon boat. It was cool to re-connect with them after kinda growing up together and stuff. Sadie and Christen were awesome as always, and I was so glad Ash and Bryan were there. It was a great weekend with lots of food and fun. I needed it too after my first week at Purdue.

OK. For now that's all I can think to post about. I'm planning to go on a bugwalk tonight for my Entemology class...if I can figure out where to meet. It's for extra credit, which I'm sure I'll need! Have a great day everyone! It poured rain today! It's funny to see people arrive to class in a puddle of water. I was able to stay dry thankfully.

Edge of The Dock!

I haven't posted in forever, but I guess time hasn't been slow moving either. I've finished my Summer job in IL at Uncle Denny and Aunt Mary Ann's house...this makes me sad. I've really grown to appreciate them even more (I didn't think that was possible!). Mom and I made a trip there Monday afternoon to spend some time. It was kind of my last visit before life moves on and summer vanishes completely. It just didn't seem right leaving the next morning after spending full weeks there all summer! It was a little sad and I'm feeling like Purdue doesn't quite sound as good as I thought it did a few months ago. It's weird that I only have the end of this week at home too...since I've pretty much not been home most of my summer.

I must at least talk a little bit about the awesomeness of my Senior trip(hopefully I'll get pictures to post of that too). It was definitely the right trip for my taste...lots of cool cities, quaint restaurants, cute shops, and fun people. My favorite restaurant was located in Santa Barbara, State Street. It was an Italian restaurant that had these big red velvet chairs that were painted gold and a pretty little fountain that was very soothing. The structure of the building had stone columns and stuff. the ceiling had a skylight so it felt like we were outside in a courtyard. The food was obviously amazing too. I loved how dressy the atmosphere was, but at the same time very relaxed. It felt authentic and the lighting was perfect pouring through the open spot in the ceiling. I felt a little bit like I was dining in an aristocratic Roman home of forever ago! If I explained and described every experience I'd be typing all day. I will mention how cool it was to watch a polo game and tour a couple old mansions. Wow...I'm remembering all over again how much I liked this trip. Thank you so much Dad and Mom and thanks Ash for coming with me! I'm so thankful I was able to experience that.

OK...let me explain the picture above. This picture struck me as a good representation of how I've been feeling about life lately. The arrows represent how I've been preparing for my life(spiritually maturing, working hard in school, changing as a person...) and moving towards a certain something. At this time in my life I kinda feel like I've made it to a standing point where I can observe what I've done and think about what I need to do. Now I'm standing at the edge of a dock and I'm expected to plunge into the water. I don't even have my swimming suite with me...but I still of course must jump! And then I'm thinking-- what if I really can't even swim that well? The water is probably cold too! It seems a little scary and I can't even see the bottom or what'll be swimming with me.

I do need to say that I'm not all doom and gloom about it either...there are things about college that I'm totally excited about! I can't wait to spend time with the awesome Purdue group and get to know new people. I'm liking my apartment and roommates a lot too! There are going to be some great opportunities to grow and learn...I'm excited. It's just strange that it's all here so fast and all at once. With these thoughts, I'm going to go get things done...or maybe I'll just enjoy this day at home with no worries, because I have a feeling I'll really miss it when it's all gone.:)

~~~Things~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm home this week...no speeding off to IL. It's really nice becuase I have time to get some much needed things done. Here are a few of them:

1.) Finish grad thank yous...I know, I'm terrible. I do have some done already.
2.) Must paint my desk. This will be really fun. I'm going to paint it a bluish greenish, minty color with burnt orange accents on it. It sounds crazy and that's becuase it's going to be! I'm excited.
3.) Family camp this weekend! I'm hoping it'll be fun. A lot of my friends are going to be out of town though...sounds kinda like girl's camp was this year. I can handle it. Ash said she'd hang out with me. :)
4.) Order my laptop!!! This has already been done as of last night. I can't wait.
5.) Switch my Astronomy class becuase it interferes with the PYG Bible study and becuase I've heard it's way hard. I can't do this until July 21st though.
6.) Return some things, which means I can buy a new pair of shoes with money from the others(and not feel quite so guilty). I have to admit that I've been buying too much lately.
7.) Cover ugly box in cool paper to use as storage. I received a circle, hat box as a gift and the pattern isn't really me...a little too flowery girly.

Check out those beautiful pictures I bought on-line a couple days ago. The website is etsy.com...I would recommend it. It's similar to ebay only I think it's cooler. These pictures have sparkle details on them and they are authentically vintage(1940s art).

Yesterday I visited Grandpa and Grandma Bahler at Green Tree. I hadn't done that in a while and it was great. Grandpa was napping when I got there so Grandma and I talked for a while. Then when Grandpa woke up he wanted to see my car. haha...he never changes. :) Upon seeing it he said something like, "Wow, now that is sharp!" and then, "You're going to jump in there and speed away, huh?" He's too funny.

Oh and, I have some cool pictures to post about my 4th of July weekend! It was SO MUCH FUN. I hung out with Katelyn and Matt Vosburgh, Troy and Mitch Casey, and Jacob Ziolkowski. It was great to be with my old Tri-County friends again. They all met me out at Aunt Mary Ann's where we had a jolly old time. Anyways this is getting to be a long post, and I need to get cracking so I can cross some more things off my list.