Chance

SO much catching up to do! I've been feeling very uninspired the past couple days, so these photos are less than great. Just a disclaimer. Ha...

I haven't been feeling the greatest, either. I'm hoping this cold, or whatever I have, goes away soon...at least before I fly to Cali on Monday. Being sick while I'm there would be no fun at all.

So now I'm sitting here waiting for Brian to call me while listening to Chance snore incredibly loudly on the floor and watching My Fair Wedding. (Can't get enough of this show! Gosh, I'm a nerd.)

Anywho....Here's a few to catch up:

91/365: Some marble stones, turned negative. Tonight's photo....Didn't care much.

90/365: Candy in a jar. Once again, didn't care much.

89/365: Chance sleeping, similar to what he's doing now. He's a cutie.

88/365: 3-Pointer

87/365: Monday night I hung out with my bestest friends. Went to get my camera out of my bag, realized I forgot my SD card in my computer and had taken my extras out of my bag the night before. Woops! Crappy camera phone to the rescue! And Scrabble with a made-up word to end the game. Ha!

 I need to take some medicine and sleeeeeeep.

Photo Update

Couple photos from Christmas weekend:

85/365: The perfect Christmas evening photo. =)

86/365: "Land-fill" reading the book I got him for Christmas - "Where The Wild Things Are"...Fits him perfectly.

Joni and Tuck playing with Prudie the cat. I put the bear in his hood and he didn't even know it!

Love this.

Love this even more. =)

Joni made me some hot cocoa with these deeeeelicious additions of chocolate covered marshmallows with peppermint pieces. Sooooo good! Best hot cocoa EVER!

Sunday morning.

View from church.

My tiramisu cheesecake dessert all finished. It was (and still is!) pretty tasty!

Last night I got to hang out with my two bestest friends. Unfortunately, I forgot to put my memory card in my camera, and also had taken my extras out of my bag. Woops! So I grabbed a shot on my phone of the Scrabble game we played. Yes, our idea of a fun night is frozen pizza and drumstick ice cream and a movie and board games.THIS is why I love my friends. =]

Headed to another basketball game tonight.

Three Quick

Just wanted to throw a quick message up here to let you know that I'm still alive and well. It's been a really busy past couple days with Christmas. I have TONS of photos, most of which I already posted on facebook - so check them out there.

I need to filter through them and decide which ones to post here, so until then I'll catch up with my POTD's.

I don't have one yet for today, because I have an idea I want to try out before I choose one. So we'll start with yesterday:

84/365: She was super excited about this, can you tell??

83/365: Dad and I spent Thursday evening baking goodies for our Christmas feasts...This is my parents' SUPER old mixer. I believe they got it as a wedding gift way back when. It struggled to mix through my 4 packages of cream cheese + sugar + butter. But it did get the job done.

82/365: I made a custom aperture shape and tested it out. Still have some practicing to do with these. Still fun, though.

Tomorrow we're having our immediate family Christmas party. I'm pretty excited! It'll be the last of our celebrations. Bittersweet, I'd say. This Christmas season has worn me out!

Spacing Out

Three days til Christmas!! Just in case you forgot. I hate hate hate how papers and things say things like "3 shopping days til Christmas!" ...."Shopping" Days?? Are you kidding? Ugh. We need a reminder that Christmas is NOT about the gifts and the "shopping."

Something else I don't understand (and I may offend some people here, but oh well)...Why do non-Christians celebrate Christmas ON Christmas day? Why do they participate in all the Christmas traditions EXCEPT the acknowledgment of Jesus's birth? Doesn't make sense to me. But anywho....

Went with my sister yesterday to get Tuck's hair cut.

He refused to let Colleen put a towel around his neck, so instead he ended up "itchy." Hehe

Yesterday's photo:

81/365: Love sunlight.

Last night Dustin had a basketball game. They kicked butt. The Eagles scored 86 points, which Dustin says is the most I-W has scored in YEARS...Pretty cool. Here are some shots from the game (mostly of Dust)

First, one of Halle watching the B game and being incredibly content. She just sat there, so still. Seemed like she was spacing out or something, but it was adorable. 

Now, on to Dustin's game. The photos are a little grainy - Their gym was super dark, so I had to crank my ISO up, but they still turned out alright.

Sam can jump SUPER high! Ha...

It was a fun game to watch. Not very exciting (we won by like 30 points) but definitely fun.

And Monday's photo:

80/365 - A very Christmasy one!

My day is consisting of a whole not of nothing, and trying to figure out how Madison is billing us over $100 for November electric. WHAT THE CRAP....Impossible, we live in a small 2-bedroom apartment with our heat set on low. Hmmmmm. Whatever. It's just frustrating because I'm poor.

Later today all The Kids are coming over. Woooo!

Winter

Went to two Christmas programs this morning. One was at my church where my sister's kids were singing/acting. The other was at my brother's church where his daughter was singing/acting. So so cute. After the second one, though, I had to admit I was all worn out with Christmas programs. Until next year!

Here's today's photo, taken at 65 mph while on our way to the second program. I love love love the way the tree branches are all frosted. One of my favorite sights in the world.

79/365: Now that's my kind of winter!! (looks better as the original size, but oh well. you get the idea)

We enjoyed some deeeelicious soup at D & E's house after the program. I will definitely be trying out that recipe when I get back to school. Had some nice sized snowflakes falling today, too. If I had my extra lens with me, there would be more snowflake photos today! I don't think the snow is going anywhere anytime soon, so there's still plenty of time for those.

Dustin opened up a Crunch bar (which he received in his brown bag of treats given to all the kids after the first program. I got one, too!! Feels good to still be considered a kid sometimes. Ha!)...He somehow only managed to tear the corner off his bar, though, and thought it looked cool and told me to take a picture. So I did:

Mmm!

I didn't get many good photos of the kids singing today. I'm still too shy to jump in front of everyone and take pictures while people are trying to enjoy the music, so I didn't have a good angle. Hopefully someday I'll overcome that. But I did snag this shot of this cute little 'angel' before she sang a solo:

What a cutie pie, huh? I used to babysit her when she was just a baby. Awww!

And for yesterday's photo...After doing a whole lot of nothing (while still managing to wrap all the kids' gifts!) I was feeling lazy and sort of copped out by getting this, rather cliche and boring, shot:

78/365: Pretty colorful lights on our tree.

Yep...I think tomorrow I'm going shopping with my dad for some last-minute gifts and such. Should be a good day. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, everyone! =)

Ball

I made it home safely yesterday. My anti-lock braking system is broken, basically. So when I'm driving on even somewhat slick surfaces, my wheels lock up and slide and it's pretty much really dangerous. But I made it home with no problems (roads were clear for the most part)...Got to catch Dustin's basketball game last night, along with the varsity girls' game. I-W has some pretty good teams!

It was only Dustin's second game as a Varsity starter. This resulted in yesterday's photo:

77/365: "At guard, a 6'0" sophomore. Number 22, Dustin Livingston!"

Yeah he's pretty awesome. I know I'm a little biased because, well, I'm his sister...But this kid works harder than anyone I know at sports, and has loved basketball since he was born. (I believe his first word was actually "ball"...I'll have to double check on that.) Anywho, it was pretty exciting seeing my baby brother shine.

Here he is (on the left) doing an excellent job of guarding one of SD's "best players" (according to KSFY's Basketball Preview)...He took a few beatings and was thrown to the floor a few times by this kid, but he stuck with him.

Unfortunately, our wonderful Eagles were beat pretty bad this game. We just could NOT make a shot, and don't even get me started on our rebounding. But I think there's a very talented and great team in there. Dustin told me before the game that this was going to be the hardest game of the season, so now that it's out of the way I think they'll be unstoppable.

I'm glad I'm going to be home for 3 weeks so I can catch many more of his games. I just WISH I had the equipment that we used during DSU's games. That would be the greatest. But oh well.

Anywho...Before we left for the game I was playing with some aperture shapes, something I've always wanted to do but simply hadn't yet. Here's my first try:

Yay! Still have some work and practice to do with this. But it's super fun. Planning on making some more shapes before Christmas is over and getting all sorts of cool shots.

My parents' house is FILLED with Christmas stuff. I think I can make a 365 project using ONLY their decorations. Haha...I love it, though. I think I'll showcase my all-time favorite of their things for today's photo. Check back soon!

Snowflake

I feel I need to express my happiness for a second. I just checked my grades online, and I got a 94% in accounting! I know lots of people will probably think this is no big deal, because, well...accounting really isn't that hard, especially if you took it in high school (in which case it's more like a review before the advanced classes)...But it was my very first accounting class EVER. And it was an elective so I really just needed to PASS to get the credits. Our first class session, we were given a note card with some information on it. We were asked to predict our final grade. I put a C. I figured it was a good prediction, since I will NOT allow myself to fail a class (honestly, I'm one of those people who believes that if you show up for class and do your homework, it is impossible to fail), however our professor told us that the majority of the class will either fail or drop out...I was feeling incredibly intimidated. But I never expected to actually WANT to learn this stuff and WANT to do good in it. When I got my first test back (a 92%,) I knew I had it in me and put extra hard work into paying attention and figuring everything out.

ANYWAY...Sorry, I kind of got excited there. I'm done. No more accounting posts from me! I kicked the crap out of that class!

Brian is going back to his home in California tomorrow. He'll be there until January 21st. Sounds kind of sad, but we've spent much longer apart, so I'm not too worked up about it. Plus, I will be flying out there on the 3rd to spend a week there. (A break from the unforgiving January cold! Yes!!) So it's something fun to look forward to.

Right now he's shadowing someone at the Community Center for his internship. Before he left we made some yummy spaghetti for supper. (My go-to meal...Always a favorite!) And now I'm sitting here with nothing to do. When he gets back we're going to go print out some stuff at the school and call it a night.

How about some photos?

76/365: A snowflake, look closely. So pretty. =)

75/365: Kiwi! Num Yummy!

Since I'm going home tomorrow there will be tons of Christmas related photos coming. I did zero decorating at my apartment, and all my gifts are at home so I don't even have presents here. But I know there will be TONS of fun Christmas stuff at my parents' house. I'm pretty excited!

Finals

Finals week. Most college students cringe at the words. I happen to love them.

Finals for me are usually presenting projects, so it's sort of like every other day of class. I've had a few semesters where finals week was ridiculously stressful, but for the most part it's my most relaxing week of the school year. This semester, I only had one real test. It was my accounting final, and I believe I did very well on it. Exciting!! Other than that, I've had to finish up some projects and present them in class. This semester has probably been my easiest one since I started school back in 2006. Accounting was tough, but it's taught me that I am capable of learning anything through hard work and concentration. (Pretty sure I got an A in it; I was expecting a C ....I win.) =)

Anyway...Today I've been working on my skeleton/muscle drawing for my figure drawing class. Check it out:

It's turning out pretty great, I think. It's due tomorrow and I still have quite a bit of work left on it, though. Oh well...Eventually I want to go back over the skeleton side and make my pencil marks a bit darker. Here's a more close-up shot:

74/365

Almost didn't get a shot yesterday. But grabbed this one quickly before hopping in bed.

73/365: Knobs on my dresser. Ha!

And Sunday's photo:

72/365: I am magic!! Not really...But this is MOSTLY straight out of the camera. Did a little crop and background touch-ups. I like it. Yay for shiny surfaces!

Before I forget (which I already did, actually. This is my second time posting this entry)
TOO CLOSE TUESDAY!!

This one is special for my buddy Dylan (hint, hint) or anyone else in my drawing class (hint, hint) because it's sort of everyone's favorite thing (hint, hint)....Ha!

One last thing: Watching Ghost Adventures alone in your dark apartment is not as much fun as you might think. I had to change the channel. Gosh, I'm a baby.

Cookies!

I probably don't need to announce this, because everyone everywhere is well aware that we've had quite the blizzard here today. But I will anyway. Here's a photo I took early this afternoon:

Brrrrrrr!

 

 

SO...After having a super healthy breakfast/lunch of bacon and eggs and toast (minus the eggs for me), we decided it would be nice to bake some cookies and take a lazy day. So, we started up the trusty old Explorer and braved the wind and snow drifts to get to the store and buy all sorts of good stuff for the cookies.

The first batch was these Hersheys Kisses ones...Pretty typical, I think everyone makes these. But they're sooo yummy and soooo easy.

71/365

Brian really enjoyed coating the cookie dough balls with sugar:

"We elves try to stick to the four major food groups: Candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup!"

 And here he is crushing up the candy canes for the next batch of cookies. All I know is that I need a bigger kitchen! Can't wait til the day comes when apartment living is over for good! Haha...

Big mess!

We also had some fun with the flour that went into the peppermint cookies. I was talking about how cool flour is, and Brian suggested I "sculpt something"...I was going to be boring and make a mountain, but he had another idea:

Ha! Flour angel! I actually used my fingers the same as your legs would when making a snow angel. Hehe...We're such nerds.

And these cookies turned out to be pretty amazing!

Now we have SO MANY COOKIES here and I don't know what we'll do with them. Traci, you better come here to get some to share with Craig, because I don't think Brian and I can finish them ourselves! Haha...And you know, you just CAN'T NOT make a ton of cookies when you spend a day doing it, right?

Yep, and in other news, here's a few shots from the dance last night:

69/365: Dance Light Silhouettes

With all the lights of Christmas around, it's hard not to play with bokeh as much as possible. I just love it, love it, love it.

And another...I promise, this "out of focus lights" phase will fade eventually. Til then, at least TRY to enjoy the colorfulness.

Anywho...It's been a great day. I love how blizzards make you slow down and just enjoy the day. Not sure what we're doing tomorrow (I think studying, mostly. Blah.) but I'll try to make it at least sound/look interesting with a blog post. =P

Black & White

If you didn't already know this about me, here's something I dislike: School Dances.

Especially in college. Tonight I'm sitting at DSU's Black & White formal. DSU Live is running sound for the DJ. I'm not doing anything (obviously) because we have some very excellent DSU Live members doing all the work already. Anyway...This thing started at 9:00 (actually a little later because the DJ was late due to terrible road conditions tonight...but that's not even the point)...People didn't start showing up until 10:00. And when they finally do show up, most of them are wasted.

I could go on and on, and I know I'm allowed to because, hey, it's my blog. But I won't. I just wish more people were capable of having fun without being drunk.

I do have to say, however, that the girls at my school are actually pretty good about being able to wear non-hooker clothes to dances. It's refreshing, after seeing some schools' dances and formals where it sort of looks like another Halloween party. Hmmm...

Anyway...Basically my night is sort of lame. And the alternative tonight was doing laundry with Brian. Honestly, I'd rather be washing clothes. And he's actually doing MY laundry for me, since I'm stuck here. What a sweetie. Haha...

How about some photos!!

69/365

I have to choose one of those to print off as my final photo project. Awwwww...Not sure which one I like the best, though. Help me out??

Christmas is in two weeks! Ahhh crazy! I am excited to go home and hang out and just be lazy and not worry about school for a while. Then I'll be in California for a week. Then I'll come back to school for my FINAL SEMESTER!! Seems impossible. Exciting, too. In other news, I'm thinking of changing my blog header image. Yep...Possibly tonight, since I'm here for another 3 hours......