Day 351

My New York Trip
(Part 1 because it's 2am)

It started out with A LOT of stress. I mean, c'mon, airports right before Christmas in a group of five? No please. And of course I had to have the middle seat between Amanda and Kyle. Again, no please. It was worth it though because the first thing I got after arriving at the house we were staying at was a huge hug from Sam :) Just that hug made the hours of traveling worth it.

The next day we surprised the whole family. My grandparents were first. We stood on their front lawn and my brother played "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" on his trumpet until my grandpa came outside. It was kind of awkward because the song ended the first time and no one came out, so my brother had to play it through again. My grandma was in the kitchen washing dishes in the back of the house and she was so focused that she didn't even notice the six extra people in her house until we called her name. We were supposed to go to my aunt's house next to surprised her and my cousins, but she randomly stopped by my grandma's house with Jake, my younger cousin. She cried. The best though was Aunt Tina because it was the most elaborate. We had Sam just chill in my grandparent's living room right before we knew she was coming over. She was surprised, but even more shocked when I came up from the basement. We played it off like it was just us two visiting for the holidays, then the rest of my family came up. All around, it was awesome, and no one had a heart attack, so I'd call that a total win. We spent Christmas Eve with my Aunt Tina, Uncle John and their adorable puppy Sassy.

The next day was Christmas. Because "Santa" didn't have a stocking for Sam, I filled his up for Christmas and my mom put it by the fireplace in the middle of the night like the rest of ours. No one in my house has believed in Santa for a few years, but we still totally pretend like he's real. We always wake up really early on Christmas morning, so I woke Sam up at 6:30 when we were getting ready to do presents. His first reaction was to ask me what was wrong because I am NEVER up that early. He didn't realize that 6:30 is late for us on Christmas morning.

I loved my presents from him. I got a sweater, a necklace and a scarf (the later I picked out myself because I NEEDED to have it and I asked for a scarf anyways). I also got a kitten figure for my room since I can't have a real one. He even bought it fair trade. He's so good :) My favorite though was the world map he got me. It's scratch off, so you're supposed to scratch off countries after you visit them, but that's not the best part. He went on the travel board I have on Pinterest and found every location I pinned and wrote it on the map. Yeah, he's a keeper and no, I'm not sharing.

We spent Christmas Day with my other aunt's family and my grandparents and it was really cool to reconnected with everyone. It's strange, but no one has really changed much. It felt like we never left. Everyone loved Sam which was a huge relief. It's not that I thought the wouldn't, just the whole meeting the family thing.... yeah. All thumbs up though!

Part Two is coming tomorrow (and there will be pictures)!

Day 344 to 350

The reason I haven't been posting is because I've been in New York! (Surprise, Aunt Tina) I didn't want to post while I was there because I just wanted to enjoy being with my family and Sam instead of stressing over a blog post. I'll be posting a lot more about my holiday season tomorrow so stay tuned :)

Day 343

I didn't get to post last night because I spent from 10pm to 3am trying to get my cousins to sleep

Day 342

I'm becoming re-obsessed with the game Words with Friends.

It's so addicting! If anyone wants to start a game with me, I'm logged in with my Facebook.

Also, I thought it'd be fun to try to fit every tile into the square (you can set up the game where you're playing against "another person that's in the room with you") and look here...

Nailed it.

Day 341

LESS THAN FOUR DAYS AWAY FROM SEEING SAM

Day 340

I'm so bad you guys, I'm sorry :( To make up for it, I'm going to put a lot of time and effort into this post.

My Top Ten Favorite Pins (since last time I did this)

1.
Dat couch doe! This couch is 55 inches deep, which is more than the width of a twin bed. I want this couch. It'd be perfect in a den right in front of a big screen TV or maybe in my master bedroom right in front of the fire place. I mean look at it - it's practically made for snuggles.






1.5.
This is where that couch belongs, right in front of that fire place. Behind it I think would make a good place for an office space (taking up one of the corners and having the other one lead into another room) or a library. Maybe put the dining room table back there. It's hard to tell because the room is so big and you can't really tell where it ends.







2. This one is pretty self explanatory. Just look at them!

3. This one is a link:
http://www.leakysquid.com/2013/06/court-recorders-have-best-job-comedyhour.html

Some people just amaze me with their stupidity. It's kind of long but worth the read.

4.

I absolutely love this quote. Someday when I have my own office, I'm going to have this one the wall because I think it's true. When you love doing something, it doesn't feel like work, except when you get the paycheck at the end of the month. I haven't experienced it yet in a work sense, besides working with my FIGlets, but as far as school goes, this was Gateway for me. Now, I'm not saying I loved everything (*cough* transcribing *cough*) but the real journalism stuff was fun. Experiencing last term that makes me even more confident in my career path.







5. 

Though I'm not quite sure what a "lanai" is (I'm assuming a back porch-type thing), I'm really digging this floor plan. There's a big family room, the flow of the house makes sense, there's a very nice master suite area, and even though it's a one story house, the other bedrooms are far away from the master suite. I just wouldn't have a door between the front porch and the master suite... that's a little strange. The floor plan shows a basement and an upstairs, but I'd probably just go with the basement as a party room and I'd make the "study" would be a library/office combo.

....... Can you tell I've been watching a lot of house shows?


6. It's almost Christmas! Plus, c'mon, it's Mean Girls.

5. For some reason this winter I've had an obsession with sweaters. So instead of trying to pick my favorite, here's a collection of sweaters I love:

7.

When/if I'm a mom, I'm definitely going to have one of these. It's going to be totally rigged though because most of them are going to have chores written on them. Muahaha!

8. 

I know, I know, I should probably stop with the house stuff but I realized as I was looking through my pins that this staircase idea would work perfectly in the floor plan I posted above. I'd just need to trade the part basement for a party loft (which would totally be okay by me). I'd just need a railing on those stairs because right now that is NOT OKAY.

9. Mmmmmmm fondue. Nom nom nom.

10. And last but not least... more sweater love!

Day 338

Should have posted it when I first saw it but after seeing her in the finale... I just had to share. This girl can sing!

http://youtu.be/Uay9ZmxTZwU

Day 337

I determined today that I have a problem.  I can't go to the mall without buying something. And usually, it's something I do end up wearing or using. It's not like it sits in the back of my closet, never to see the light if day again. But I don't really NEED it and honestly, I don't have the money to spend. I was really good during the term about saving but then I get home and BAM debit card's out.

It just makes me feel good, to have new, cute things. I've been putting a lot of effort into dressing up every day instead of going to class in yoga pants and a ratty sweatshirt. I've had a lot more confidence this term and I think the way I've been dressing has a lot to do with that. I think the shopping is me trying to keep that going.

Buying those new, more fashion-y clothes is definitely important because my wardrobe has been seriously lacking but I'm worried about over-spending. I buy on sale ALWAYS (40% off American Eagle right now!) but still, I'm not rich and I have things like, you know, rent to pay for. I think I'll be turning over my debit card toy mom until after Christmas. That way I can't possibly spend until after Christmas, and then I'll have all those gift cards to use :)

Day 325

Recently, I've felt either too bored or too tired to write anything good. I think now that I've really gotten into my journalism work, I don't NEED this blog as a creative outlet. But I'm gonna try and finish it out anyways. 

Today I got a pedicure with my mom and grandma. The older I get, the more I'm realizing how cool my grandma is. For example, she takes shots of Patron. Like, what?!?! I told her today the she was throwing my bachelorette party. I love my sister dearly but she won't even be older enough to buy drinks for the party. I don't want a stereotypical "girl's night out" bachelorette party anyways. Women who do those usually do it to celebrate their "last night of being single" but 1. It's not like you were single before and 2. It's not like that will be my last night ever going out. I'm getting married, not dying. I just want a girl's night in with movies and drinks and maybe a few games (like Apples to Apples. Has to be there). No male strippers for this girl.

Day 323

One of my FIGlets shared this video with me during our movie night tonight and I just had to post it on here - mash up between two of my favorite movies :)

Day 322

I'm officially done with the term :D Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Day 321

I've spent about the last hour looking at these: http://microaggressions.tumblr.com/

I don't want to make any personal opinion comments because I just want you to think about them with your own thoughts, not what I say.

Day 320

Guess what time I woke up this morning...


....



....



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If you guessed 3pm, you're correct! I think it was the combination of it being the end of the term and staying up late and not having anything to do (I can't really work on my video project until tomorrow and it's too early to study for Japanese). I'm kind of in this purgatory where the term isn't quite over and there's nothing I can do about it.

Also, 16 more days until Christmas :D

Day 319

Didn't post. Was watching Lord of the Rings: Return of the King extended version with cast commentary. Twas a good night.

Day 318

SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!

Also, check out these kick ass photos from the wonderful people at the Emerald: http://dailyemerald.com/2013/12/06/photos-snowfall-at-university-of-oregon-campus/. 

I didn't participate in the snowball fight today because I was taking a rest day and went out to do some Gateway stuff, but I still really enjoyed the snow. The walks were nice. I didn't even really mind the cold. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays around for a while because it's definitely making Dead Week (or Weekend now I guess) a little less dead.

Day 317

Future Me:

Day 316

I am seriously hating life right now. I shot my interview, did my audio, hooray, come home and the video quality sucks. It looked fine on the screen the entire time I was shooting but then I uploaded it and crap.

Here is a collection of GIFs and images that sums up my feelings right now:

Day 314

So I contacted the guy at Unikoideas about a Lord of the Rings poster and he's totally down and asked for my help :) I'm having issues narrowing down my quotes though - there are so many good ones!

I had the FIG Banquet tonight to celebrate the end of the term and I have to say, it was a lot of fun. It's such a great group of people and I'm really going to miss hanging out with them after the term is over. On one hand, I'm sad that my job as an FA is almost over for the year, but on the other, I'm going to have SO MUCH MORE TIME. I'm definitely going to need it. Plus I don't have as much energy now as I did at the beginning of the term. Not even close.

Me when I get home from class.

Just four more days of classes and one final left to go :D

Day 313

Feature an Awesome Person Day!

This weekend I went to the Christmas Bazaar in Portland and spent way too much money and had a great time. I can't find/remember the names of the two vendors I buy from every year, but one sells these beautiful class ornaments for $1 and the other one sell journals made from old books. This year, I bought Where the Wild Things Are.

I found a new vendor to add to my list of favorites this year. The company name is Unikoideas and the guy who designs the posters is awesome! This is the one I bought:

He's got a ton more on his Etsy site (link below). The only thing that disappointed me was that there's not a Lord of the Rings or Hobbit one yet! When I talked to him, he said it was in the works so I'm super excited for both of those. If he made one for each movie from LOTR and one for the Hobbit so I could put them up on my wall together I'd be so happy. His work is amazing, check it out!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/UnikoIdeas

Day 312

No internets. Couldn't post.