summer '08 as of late

its been SO long since I have been on here to post anything so I decided to make a list of all the things I have been doing since summer began..

• going out to eat with friends (ie Chipotle, Lou Malnatis Mongolian bbq, Panda Express, Jimmy Johns, Noodles..) also going for icecream or coffee (Baskin Robins, Starbucks...)

• watching movies!!! movies in the theater i have seen thus far would be: Nim's Island, Made of Honor, 21, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, & What Happens in Vegas. movies that I have rented: Shrek, Indiana Jones 3, I am Legend, 27 dresses, Breakfast on Pluto (would NOT recommend), PS I Love You, Ratatouille..

• camping!! Me & my friend Hannah put up a tent in my backyard & camped all night out there- well we set up the tent around 3AM so I guess it was all night but yeah.. we had fun.

• late night hang outs with friends- a couple times now I have received phone calls at like 10:00 or 11:00 PM from friends asking if I wanna hang out. I can never say "no" so there have been several nights where I dont go to bed until 2, 3, or even 4AM & then I get up to go to work the next morning at 6:00... not always such a good idea.

• sleepovers!! only have had a few so far but each time I do it has been great fun!!

• playing cards- my family is addicted to this card game called Knartz or Blitz (whichever you prefer) but seriously my parents play it EVERYDAY & I really am not exaggerating. I have always been a big card lover & my family has been playing Knartz my entire life so I simply have just grown to love the game myself! I enjoy playing with my friends & family & its totally a game you could play for hours and never get sick of it!

• Cleaning- since I currently have the days off ( the kids I nanny for are still in school) I have been using that time to get clean & organized. Since I am the only kid still living at home I have taken over two rooms instead of just my own.. therefore I have two rooms to keep clean & that hardly ever happens... but now they both are CLEAN!! well kind of.. lol

• Shopping!! this past semester I lost 10 lbs & since last year I have lost a grand total of 18-20 lbs!!! woohoo! so.. none of my pants fit me anymore & therefore I HAD to go shopping to get some new ones :) so far so good!! its been fun spending my birthday money on new cute clothes for the summer! BUT before I went shopping, I first went "shopping" in my closet & tried all my clothes on & if I wouldnt buy what I was wearing in a store then I got rid of it. I filled an entire big black trash bag full of clothes! it was a good feeling...

• facebook vs. e-mail- I use to e-mail people ALL the time & I would get so excited to check it everyday but now... its lost its excitement & I blame facebook. Facebook is great & I love it cause its an excellent way to keep in touch & re-connect with friends new & old! but I decided that this summer I am gonna try to get back into e-mails again... we will see how it goes.

• Peoria- we went there for Mother's Day & had a great time! & we are going there again this weekend! :)
  

thats abt all I can really think of right now.. I'll try to be better abt keepin this thing updated in the future.

NO MORE SCHOOL!!!

WOOHOO!! I am officially done with COD & community college forever!!! Finals went pretty well & grades were posted online & I got all A's & 1 B!! I was SO relieved!! Two of my classes (History & Chemistry) I was a border line A- or B+ & I thought for sure I got a C or D in my Poetry class but somehow I ended up with a B!! so all my hard work & sleepless nights paid off!! Only 3 months till I will be attending Trinity! I am excited!! :)

*sorry 4 the delay in posts.. I was done with school abt 2 weeks ago... so how bout we just pretend i wrote this then. lol

ELEVATE 2008

For 4 yrs now my church has does an event called Elevate, which allows the high school students to raise money for the youth group & give back to the community by doing community service.

Today we worked from 8AM-4PM doing all sorts of different projects... picking up trash, planting trees (170 of them to be exact!), washing cars, putting down mulch, picking up more trash...

My group's "assignment" was to go along the Fox River & pick up any & every piece of trash that we might see. My team was dropped off at our site & once we all got off the bus & were about to start working I looked over at my co-leader, Brandon, and asked, "Do we even have any trash bags??" haha turns out we were supposed to grab some before we left the church & neither of us did.... oops. So we ended up having to wait for someone to come & bring us trash bags- oh well.


*girls wondering where the trash bags are

Once we received our trash bags we went straight to work! & wow sadly there was a TON of trash! we quickly filled up all of our trash bags & yet again had to wait for someone to bring us more.

We found a lot of interesting things today! Things such as: candy wrappers, beer bottles, pop cans, several dead fish, dirty diapers, underwear, t-shirts, flip-flops, shoes, plastic grocery bags, a lei, an apple, couple banana peels, two tires, a basketball, a light, a computer mother board, a pillow, a dead heron, two live snakes, dead baby bird & squirrel, a duck's nest with 5 eggs inside, straws, pieces of styrofoam, a lawn chair, a bucket, McDonalds wrappers, plastic cups, fishing wire & hook, tupperware, plates, gloves & other articles of clothing... basically you name it, we found it.

I'm not gonna lie, it was a REALLY long day & it smelled & was pretty gross at times, but I had a blast hanging out & getting to know the people on my team. It also was neat to look back on what we had cleaned up & to see the improvement that was made & how much nicer the river looked without so much trash. It was definitely a dirty job & we were all covered in mud some way or the other but we had a fun time!! Giving back & serving others is ALWAYS a good time.


*as you can see we got a little messy

almost there!

so I am now officially done with classes at COD!!!! I made it through my 8-9 papers I had to write & now I just have one left!! woohoo!! Next week I have my finals (Monday: Chemistry, Tuesday: Karate, & Wednesday:History) & then I am done with COD FOREVER!! wow thats a great feeling!! but man, has the time gone by so quick!! & yet my first day of college seems like forever ago! time surely goes by way too fast! I really cannot believe that I am finishing my second year of college... & next year I will be at Trinity!!! ahh I can't wait!

this is me with my millions of papers around 4AM



+ my good friend Han came over to help me with my papers & to keep me company throughout the night... I only got 20 minutes of sleep but I got 'em done!!