Christmas and New Years in Asheville!

Brad and I left Texas yesterday at 1pm and made it to just outside of Atlanta. We checked into the hotel at 1am (eastern time, we unfortunately lost an hour on our way over) and got up at eight. We pulled into Brad's Grandma's house at about 1 this afternoon. It feels so good to be out of the car! It's going to make for a long drive on Sunday. I guess we'll have to get up early and be on our way. Today we exchanged gifts with Brad's family. They were very generous to us this year. Brad got two more Wii motes, Wii Sport's Resort, a Wii motion plus, grilling stuff, J.RR Tolkein books, some movies, a gift card to the Olive Garden, and probably some other little things. I got a 9 by 9 baking dish (yay!), a stir-fry pan, the final set of dishes so I have a nice round number, a serving bowl and platter, a movie, a DVD of a hearth and music (I think it's the same one you have mom, haha), a scrapbooking kit, and some odds and ends for the Kitchen. Brad's grandma and grandpa also gave me some money for Australia! I am very excited that the funds are coming together for Australia.


I started another scarf. Here's a picture (also on Ravelry):
It's kind of cute. I really like the color. You can't really see it in the picture but it's blue with lots of greys and greens in it.Some purple too. It's really soft yarn too. I kind of like it. :)

Tonight I think it's going to be pretty laid back. The women folk (minus me) are in the kitchen cooking some supper right now. Then I think the game plan is to play some board games. Brad and I got scattergories and Mad Gab for Christmas, so we'll have to try them out! Scattergories is one of my favorite games ever. I like Mad Gab too, but it's been awhile since I played it, so I'll need to refresh myself on the rules. Tomorrow we're going to eat a Thanksgiving feast together, since we unfortunately had to miss the family Thanksgiving. I am kind of excited, Turkey sounds really good!

Well i'm going to knit a little more on my scarf and wait patiently for dinner to be served!

-Beth

Tuesday Morning

I love Christmas break. I've been going to bed when I want and getting up without an alarm. I also get to do whatever I want, whenever I want to. Today I slept in until like 8:30, but didn't really do anything until nine or so. I did work out to Jillian Michael's 30 day shred. That thing kicks my butt every time. I just threw in some laundry and am thinking about taking a shower. But I thought I would do a little update first.

Our car has some problems (again). It started off with a missing oil cap, thanks to the oil place that changed our oil. Unfortunately it started being loud and making some funny noises and the check engine light came on. So we took it into the Toyota dealer, who found it's a bad intake gasket thingy (i have no idea what it is) and a bad sensor. So they need to replace both... for $500 dollars. The part is 7 dollars and the sensor is 140, the rest of the cost is labor. UGH. And of course, this is just one giant coincidence and totally unrelated to the oil change. The check engine light turned off and stayed off, so we're hoping the sensor doesn't actually have to be replaced right now. Here's to hoping! The problem is that the parts won't be in until Wednesday morning, and we needed to get on the road to go to Brad's family's house at noon on wednesday. So I'm also hoping and praying that the parts come in and they can fix it quickly so we can be on our way and get a good amount of driving in. If we can't get out on Wednesday, there's really no point in even going, so we'll have to see. I'm sure we could drive it as is, but i'm not sure I want to risk it. I mean, if it blows up in the middle of nowhere, that's just not a happy time.

In other happier news, I got a new hair straightener and a new purse with my christmas money. My old straightener was getting pretty crappy. I didn't even realize how crappy it was getting until I got the new one. Man, it's awesome! My hair actually gets straight. My purse is a red leather purse from Kohl's. I found it on the clearance rack for 20 bucks. I was excited because the original price on it was 70 dollars. I'm all about the clearance racks! In a separate trip while I was up north I scored a 40 dollar sweater for 20 bucks, and an 85 dollar skirt for 25. I am pleased. I'm hoping to be able to hit up JC Penney soon. I've been scoping out what I want to get. Haha.

Today I am going to do laundry, start packing for our trip, and make Brad's grandpa's gifts. I'm pretty sure he doesn't read this so I can tell you what it is! I'm making a tub of carmel corn, and a tin with some cookies and some peanut butter cups in it. We don't have any milk, so I might have to call our neighbors to borrow some. I was going to make some fudge, but Walmart didn't have the stuff for it. I was extremely sad. :( Maybe some toffee? I'm gonna have to scour the recipes I have to decide. I might also bust out some scrapbooking, but we'll see. I also kind of want to start on another scarf. Or maybe a hat, but I don't think I have the yarn or needles to do that. I joined Ravelry.com yesterday and have been looking at a lot of different patterns to try someday. Some are really cute and easy, so I might try something new! I also discovered there *is* a yarn shop in Longview. It's called Stitches and Stuff. http://www.stitchesandstuffonline.com

If all goes according to plan, Brad and I will be headed to Asheville tomorrow at noon. We'll be gone until Sunday. His family is going to cook a  Christmas dinner and have a fun little get together. It should be a fun time. OH, that's another thing I should do today! Finish wrapping gifts! Well, I think this has been a pretty good update, and I really need to shower and switch the laundry. Later!

-Liz

Possible Ice Storm?

I guess there's supposed to be an ice storm in Chicago tomorrow morning. Which is bad because Brad is supposed to fly from Dallas to Chicago to Flint. Please pray that the storm does not impede the travelling process. If we can't get him tomorrow i'm not sure what we're going to do. But I am going to try not to worry about it. Hopefully it won't be as bad as the weather man says it's going to be. Yesterday Mom and I went to the cooking shop. I really want to get a pie bird:

Evidently you put it in the middle of the pie filling. Then you put the crust over it, and poke the beak up through the crust. Then the bird lets out steam so it won't bubble over or make your pie runny. I thought it was kind of cool. We also went to Hogan's Jeweler's and and I got my rings checked and cleaned. It sparkles like new! So shiny! On our little adventure, I took some snow pictures with my new camera. Enjoy!

The Cathedral

The Ice Tree

The Nativity. Notice: Santa Clause is standing there as if he's a wise man. Way to go, Gaylord. Way to go.

The Courthouse. I think it's kind of pretty.

The big icicles. They were really pretty in the sun.

Today, we're going to see Lydia and the kids for some tea. I'm kind of excited. I really like Lydia. :) Her kids are super cute too. They're getting so big too! Last time I saw Philip he was so small, and now he's running around. But I guess that's what kids do. Anyway, it's time for me to go for tea!

-Liz

:) Life is Good

So I'm up in Michigan (and I think most of the people that read this are aware of that, haha). It's been a lot of fun. I got in on Thursday evening. Friday everyone had to work, but my Grandpa came over. He was only going to stay a little bit, but then we started playing with my camera. He taught me a lot of useful stuff. I definitely feel like I know my camera a little better now. I might take it out today and try to get some snow pictures of down town and such. We'll see how the day pans out.

Saturday my family went to Traverse City to do some Christmas shopping. I had most of my Christmas shopping done, but it was really a fun time. We went to Kohls, Michaels (where I bought a few scrapbooking things), and the Mall. Sean was really funny because he kept banishing people from the vicinity to get their Christmas present. He cracks me up. At the mall I went into Victoria's Secret to get some new underwear (awkward, I know, but I had to say it in order to give the story context. And I really only wanted to go in and buy some regular, comfortable, cotton panties. You know, the 5 for 25 panties. Nothing scandalous, I swear). So I go in and there are a lot of people, which didn't bother me because there were a lot of people Christmas shopping. I'm just there looking at the underwear trying to find my size, and I look up and there is this super creepy guy staring at me. He looked like he hadn't showered in days, he had this really big walking stick, and crazy facial hair. I swear, he looked like a mountain man. He just stood there, staring. It was so weird. I had to leave and go back because he was so weird. Why does Victoria's Secret always have creepy dudes? I don't really understand it. I don't think I've ever gone into one without there being the token creepy dude.

Sunday we went to Church. I was able to do an announcement about Australia. They didn't do a special offering, but they let me hand out addressed envelopes and a letter after the service for people who wanted to send in some money. I only handed out four or five envelopes, but hopefully some money will come in. I still need about $1,000 dollars to get all the funds raised. I'm not *too* worried about it, but I'm hoping I'll be able to raise a little more support. After Church, I went to coffee with Brianna, my high school best friend. I won't lie, it was a bit awkward. But overall, it was a good time. We chatted and did some catching up, and it was fun. Plus, Brother's Coffee and Tea is just a fun place to go to. :)

Today Dad and Sean are at work and school, respectively. Mom and I are going to go out to Kohl's and Old Navy. I guess Old Navy is going out of business here and is selling crap for super cheap. I want to check it out and see what there is to see. We're also going to make some haystacks and home made peanut-butter cups. I am so excited for it! Other than that, I think it's just a really laid back day. I like those.

Christmas Break So far...

Well, Christmas break so far has been really nice. I've done my fair share of sitting around and relaxing. This weekend I just kind of hung out. Watched T.V, cleaned, shopped. The ususal. Monday I got all the Christmas cards ready to go out and did some scrapbooking in the afternoon. Yesterday afternoon I turned on Christmas movies (they were on Hallmark all day... I didn't really watch them. Just had them on ) and made some pages for the scrapbook. Here are a few pics of what I've been working on. Some of these i'm still tweaking a bit:

the first one is the "title page". The Writing is a poem and a little introduction to the scrapbook.

 

I've been having a lot of fun with it. I'm discovering all these little embellishments I've been collecting and can finally use!

Last night we went to Marshall (we being Jeremy and Anna, and us). It was a lot of fun. I think we've been every year for like three years now. I don't even know. When we got back we ate some cookies and had hot chocolate. It was a nice time. I'm glad that we hang out so much.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for MI. Anna Biggs is taking me to the airport. Then I fly out at 12:35pm. Then I should be in Flint, MI by  6:00pm. I think I have a layover in Chicago. So we'll have to see how it all turns out. I think the weather is supposed to be decent, which is always a plus. After I'm done babysitting today I'm going to go back and start packing. Then youth group tonight!

I am very excited to see everyone up North. I think a couple of my friends and I are going to try to go get together for coffee or something. It will be fun to catch up with some old friends. :)

Eleven days and eleven hours!

Until Christmas, that is. :)


I finished my finals on Thursday morning. I think I managed to squeak out all As for the semester. I am kind of excited about that. If I am able to pull it off again next semester, I might get my GPA high enough to graduate Summa Cum Laude. Highest honors. That would be nice.

I'm sitting here typing this from my couch because they've finally wirelessed the apartments. I'm really excited about that. It means I can do homework from anywhere in my apartment, instead of stuck at my desk. It's nice to have some freedom and flexibility.Unfortunately, it's a little flakey. I might have to contact IT and let them know that most places in the apartment I get a very poor signal. Brad's little laptop doesn't even pick up the wireless signal. It's a bit depressing.

Today Brad is running sound for the Christmas production that our church and another church is putting together. They're doing a run-through at 3:00 and the actual performance is at 6:00. So Brad will be gone all day. I don't feel like going, so I'm not going to. I don't want to go sit by myself. And i've already kind of seen it. So I'm going to stay here today and do some stuff around the house. I need to fold the laundry, do the Christmas cards, and organize all my junk from this last semester. I think Anna and I are going to get together too. I think Jeremy is working or something, so she's going to be alone most of the afternoon as well. Who knows what shenanigans we'll get up to. Haha.

If we had two cars, I would go out shopping today. It's been kind of a sad weekend. I think it's the weather and such. It's been really rainy and foggy and gross outside. So that's not making me any happier. Maybe shopping would? Haha. Plus, it's just been a busy semester. I think it's kind of "post-semester depression". I finished all my finals and stuff, so I'm finding I have nothing much to do. The last couple of days I was working on a scarf. I finished it yesterday, but I forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it to Laura. It was a little thank-you gift for her doing our Christmas card pictures. We didn't pay her or anything, but I wanted to give her something. She deserved it, and the pictures turned out awesome. Now I'm just trying to finish up a previous project I had going. It's a scarf for Brad. I've been working on it for quite a while. It got stuffed in a box after last Christmas, and I've recently rediscovered it. It's over halfway done... but I still have a lot to do because it needs to be so long. That happens when you're 6'2. You need long scarves!

Brad is plugging in the HDMI cable to get the BluRay to do the highdef stuff. It didn't come with the HDMI cable. It doesn't really make much sense to me because that's the cable that makes the player capable of doing Hi-def in the first place. What's the point of getting a blu-ray player if you had no intention of making it do hi-def? That's just silly. I think they should package them in there.

Well, I think I am going to start gathering addresses for the Christmas cards. I am being lazy this year and sticking labels on them instead of handwriting them. But that means I have to make the labels. So that's what I am going to do! :)

-Liz

7:30 finals...

I'm not really sure who thought it would be a good idea to schedule finals at 7:30 in the morning. I had one today. It wasn't a test though, just a presentation. And the professor brough breakfast, so it wasn't too horrible. The building was locked though, when I got there. The cleaning lady saw a group of us locked out, and instead of opening the door for us, she turned around and walked the other way. SO RUDE! If they're going to schedule finals at 7:30, the leas they can do is make sure the building is unlocked for us. Today I also have a Greek final. I'm not really sure how to study for it. It's all translation, so I don't really think you *can* study for it. Two of the verses we've already had, so i'm really not too worried about it. Hopefully this philosophy won't come back to bite me in the butt. After my Greek final at 3:00, I only have two finals left. I'm kind of tempted to take my Thursday final early just so I can be done. We'll see how studying goes. I might need the extra time. As for the rest of my day today, I will be studying for my Doctrines final and studying for my psychology final.

It's cold and rainy out so, I'm thinking I might make some tea to sip on as I'm studying. It might wake me up a little bit too. I'm kind of sleepy today. For some reason I couldn't sleep last night. It took me forever to actually fall asleep. I was too busy thinking of all the things I want to do over Christmas break. So far here's my list:

• Play my saxophone
• knit
• scrapbook
• watch movies
• read 
• Do my Greek homework (yes, I have Greek translations due when I get back from Christmas break. Lame!)
• make candies
• lounge around
• go shopping

I want to go shopping over break. Brad and I have a little money stashed away to use for After Christmas Sales, and I'm sure i'll get some Christmas money. I've lost some weight so a lot of my pants are too big (I know, that's a horrible problem to have. I shouldn't be complaining. I am proud of myself for making my weight loss goal and then some!). Plus, a lot of my pants are just worn out. I haven't gotten a new pair of jeans in awile. So it's time for a great closet purge of all the too big clothes. I am kind of sad because some clothes I bought in August don't fit anymore. They're really nice pants, so i'm thinking I might go see how much it would be for a tailor to take them in a little. Surely it shouldn't cost too much? We'll see. I might just end up buying new pants. I'm hoping I won't have to spend all of my Christmas money on clothes though. I have a few things I need for the kitchen and I just want to buy some stuff. Like scrapbooking stuff, haha. You can never have too much scrapbooking stuff! I need my own room for scrapbooking. It would be awesome!

Anyway, I haven't really started on memorizing the verse I mentioned in my last post. BUT I have been memorizing scripture for my Doctrines exam. I know the motive isn't totally pure in memorizing scripture for an exam, but it can still be useful to life. So here's what I memorized last night (this is totally from memory too. I promise!)

Genesis 1:26-27

 Then God said, "Let us make Man in our image, after our Likeness. Let them have dominion over all the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created Man in His own image, in the Image of God He created him; Male and Female He created them."

:)

Last day of Classes!

Well, it's officially the last day of classes. Thank the Good Lord! :) I am babysitting this morning then I will have my Greek class, and then I'll be done. It's kind of a good feeling. This next week of finals isn't going to be *too* bad, but it's worse than I thought it was going to be. I have an Anthropology paper due, but he has yet to tell us the requirements for it. My schedule isn't too crazy for next week, which is good. I do need to start studying for some of my finals this weekend. For my Greek final we have four verses, two of which we've already translated for our 1 John translations. I'm really not too worried about it, I just need to review a few things. We're allowed to use our dictionaries for our 1 John translations, and for the other two verses we'll get to use our text books as references. Basically, I am not sure how much studying i'm going to be able to do. I just need to practice and review my 1 John translations and make sure I am well versed in flipping through my text book. :) I am a little worried about my Counseling final. Her tests are always so difficult. I think i'm going to start taking notes for that exam this weekend. The final itself is not until Thursday, so I have lots of time to begin reviewing for it. This weekend I also have lots of grading to do. I'm helping one of my professors out by grading some of his journals from one of his classes. He's been sick a lot this semester and has found himself totally behind. Now we're at the end of the semester and he really really needs to get it all done. Dr. Mays, who I usually grade for, also has some journals for me. I think he also wants me to grade the final. I'm not sure how that's going to work though. I have lots of other stuff to do for my own classes.But the extra money will help with our Christmas budget. We've overspent on a few things, but that's ok. We have the money, but the extra income will be nice.

Tomorrow evening Brad and I are doing our little Christmas celebration. We're going to bake Christmas cookies and exchange our gifts. We decided to do it early because we'll be gone for actual Christmas. We had originally decided on December 12th, but Brad's company Christmas party is on that day and we didn't want to try to cram too much into an evening. We're also pretty anxious to exchange our gifts. I really think he will like what I got him. :)

Anna and I have decided we need to start some Bible memorization. To be honest, I never really put much worth in memorizing the scriptures, but I am starting to see the worth of it. It's nice to not have to look everything up all the time. It's also useful because you can spontaneously share verses as encouragement. Right now she's trying to memorize 2 Corinthians 6:6, and I think I am going to join her. My next project is Colossians 3:13.

Brad found out that he will be going up to Canada for work in either February or May. I'm really hoping that if he goes in May that he will be able to go while I'm in Australia. I also hope he doesn't have to go during my Graduation. That would just be very sad and poopy. He also had his 6 month review yesterday. His boss basically said he passes with flying colors and have met or exceeded all of his expectations. He got a little raise too, so that's nice. We are so thankful for a job right now, especially when so many people do not have them.

Well, I think Sam has a present for me in his diaper, so I should probably go change it. I hate poopy diapers.

EDIT:
I just have to say that was the most disgusting diaper I have ever had the misfortune to change. I got it all over my hand! GROSS! GAG!

Last Week of Classes

It is at this point of the semester I always have to battle apathy. I'm not sure why, but this year it is infinitely worse. I don't have much to do this week as far as projects and such, but I should be working on the papers and such that I have due as finals for next week. I'm also mildly frustrated because it's looking like I'll have a lot more to do for next week than I had anticipated. My Greek final is going to be a real final, not the take home exam we were all expecting. I have a counseling final which is going to be hard. And I have a doctrines final I need to take. We have one question that goes over everything, and the rest is over the last unit we did. Fortunately he's posting the big question so we can begin outlining and taking notes for it. As for projects, I have a 10 page paper due for Anthropology that is a summary of a semester long project we've been working on. For my Psych of Gender class, I need to do a paper thing that answers some questions about stuff I did over the semester. So it's not *that* bad, but it's more than I was thinking I had to do. Oh well, I suppose that is life sometimes. After this next week i'll be on Christmas vacation! Maybe I'll steal my mom's idea and post pictures of the Scrap Book pages I plan on doing over break. :)

Well, I need to go babysit. Later!