Day 363

Today I was able to sleep in a little bit, which was nice. I plugged in my phone because it needed an update & I had bought a lot of new songs on iTunes that needed to put loaded. It was going to take a while so I just let it work. Dad wanted to do the same so I helped him get his phone started. Mom wanted to look through my pictures so she could print some, so we started the long process of looking through all of my pictures on the Mac (& believe me there are a whole lot). We took a break & watched some TV. Then Dad wanted to do a little bit more re-arranging in their bedroom so I went and plopped on their bed and helped when I needed. They ended up going through their things, cleaning & throwing old things, so I enjoyed looking at old pictures & such. Dad has two old pocket watches so I grabbed the coolest looking one & wandered around the house with it. I got a good number that I liked so that was a good photo day. Now we're watching Oprah & putting a pizza in the oven for supper.

Day 362

Tuesday December 28, 2010. I woke up wanting a relax-at-home day but that wasn't going to be the case. In order to prepare for our trip to Liberia this summer, we've got to get shots & passports. So we headed to the health department. :( I had to get 2 shots, the flu shot & a polio booster. They weren't fun at all but I'm glad they're done. Then we went to the court house so we could turn in our passport stuff. For lunch we ate taco bell. Going finally to walmart, I had made a list of things that I wanted to buy, I was happy to find everything on my list. We went back home & I sat around for a while. Caleb headed off to a youth conference and Mom, Dad, & I set out to re-arrange their bedroom. It took a couple of hours but it looks good. :)

Day 361

December 27. Caleb wasn't feeling good so he went to the doctor's this morning. Getting home with some medicine, Grandmom called saying she wanted to take Caleb shopping. Mom wanted to look for some more things so we headed into Macon and picked up Grandmom so she could come with us. One thing Caleb wanted was a jacket from Dick's so we headed there & he found the jacket! At the shoe carnival they had a special deal (buy 1 get 1 free) so I got 2 pairs of flats! We went back to the mall and walked around a little bit more. I made a side trip to Victoria Secret before meeting my family at Belk again. We left the mall & went to IHOP before dropping grandmom off back at home. After 2 shopping days, I am proud of myself for finding great deals :).

Day 360

December 26. It's sad that Christmas is already over. We all had a list of things that we wanted to buy with our Christmas money so we headed into Macon. First we went to the AT&T store to activate my new iPhone 4. We had to wait a while & the process took longer than I would have liked but we finally walked out of the store with my phone working, newly decorated in a beautiful pink & blue case. :) We next went to the mall. Dad & Caleb separated from Mom & I. We went to New York & Company and they had amazing deals so I bought some great new clothes. I was very excited. We then went to Belk to get Caleb some pants & I found some boots! Next was DSW & I bought some Sperry's. My last pair lasted about 5 years approximately haha so it was time for a new pair. We ate at Sticky Fingers & called it a day. We enjoyed watching Eclipse (one of my Christmas presents) back at home. :)

Day 359

Christmas Day started way too early. Caleb woke me up at 6:30am and then we went down & woke up Mom & Dad. We all enjoyed opening gifts and fun family time. I helped Mom fix breakfast: monkey bread and quiche. After eating and getting ready, we headed to Grandmom's for a Christmas dinner. We sat around and talked for a while before watching Julie and Julia. Hard to believe that Christmas has already come & gone! It was a very blessed day, though. :)

Day 358

Christmas Eve! I woke up & relaxed a little while before eventually getting up and getting ready for the Christmas Eve service at church. Grandmom met us at church for the service so we all enjoyed sitting together. As usual, my family had to read scripture for one of the candles. We read the first one and I split the scripture reading with Mom while Caleb lit the candle. After all of the readings, we had communion & then lined up around the church and lit candles and sang Christmas carols. Getting home, we took pictures of the family with the tripod. We enjoyed a yummy supper of chili and after telling Grandmom goodnight, we relaxed a little before bed.

Day 357

Today! Today has been my laziest day BY FAR. I have officially stayed in my pajamas all day & I've loved it! I woke up & wandered down stairs for breakfast...turning on the movie Flicka. Caleb declared this a bad choice of something to watch on TV so he left & Mom did, too. It was time for lunch then so we all sat down and watched Knight & Day. I really enjoyed that movie too! Afterwards, I sat down & read for a good while. It's a book my grandmom lent my mom: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. Caleb Dad & Mom worked on cleaning Caleb's car. After it was time for supper so after the food was fixed we watched Despicable Me. I've seen it before but loved it just as much this time! We tried to watch The Princess Bride on TV but we all got tired & went off on our separate ways to bed. I think I'll text Alex & read my book a little while longer before bed :).

Day 356

Wednesday was a much more productive day than Tuesday. I woke up & headed to my hair salon - West Mane - because I was in desperate need of a hair cut. I won't say what I got done because my dear boyfriend doesn't want to know until he sees me during break (not that he'll read this or anything...I'm just being safe). I do like my new hair cut for sure. I quickly went to the library & grabbed a few books before heading home. Not long after, I left again & headed to El Tejado to meet some friends from high school for lunch. There we met Lauren's brand new fiance...Will. From there, Lauren, Will, & I headed out to High Falls so we could take some engagement pictures! I had volunteered to take pictures of them but this was prior to their engagement...so it all worked out great! We had a lot of fun taking pictures & I'm glad I'm getting more experience. At home, I made a run to Ingles with Mom so we could pick up some milk & movies to watch. We got Knight & Day, Despicable Me, & Eat, Pray, Love. We ordered Grits Burgers to-go and sat down to enjoy. We also made some buttermilk mints (amazing but oh so addicting little holiday treats) that we rolled up into little mints during our movie of the night: Eat, Pray, Love. I really enjoyed it & wouldn't mind watching it again!

Day 355

I lounged around most of Tuesday morning until I took the time to get out of my PJ's. Tuesday afternoon, the family headed into Macon to watch Tron. We all enjoyed it! We sat around the house for a little while and then Mom & Dad left for a Christmas party. Caleb & I spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Yeah I'm doing a whole lot of nothing over break, & it's so nice!

Day 354

Monday was a full day. I woke up early to take my car to the shop. Then Dad & I drove to drop Mom's car off at the VW dealership in Macon...also to get fixed. Getting back home, we went straight to church so we could start backing up the bookbags & other supplies we were shipping to Liberia. I left early & went home for lunch before heading back to Macon to do a photo shoot! I met up with Koty & Michelle (friends from high school) and took some shots of them. I hadn't done that in a while & it was lots of fun. Getting back home I sat around for a bit & then rode with Mom & Dad back to Macon to pick up Mom's car. 3 trips to & from Macon is more than enough for one day!

Day 353

Sunday! I woke up & showered and we all headed off to church (well, Dad was already there but that's besides the point). Sunday school & the service went well. After relaxing a few hours at home, we headed back that evening for a special Christmas service where the choir sang lots of songs & we had a mini orchestra for accompaniment. Afterwards, there was a little snack social. It's hard to believe Christmas is so close! :)

Day 352

Saturday started earlier than a normal Saturday but that's fine with me. I had to help Mom prepare goodies for our family Christmas get together later that afternoon. I had cut a recipe off of the back of a bag of candy cane Hershey kisses just to see if Mom would ever make it & it turns out we were making it together! The recipe was for a cheesecake using the Hershey kisses so I was excited. We made the cake & it turned out alright but we didn't taste it yet. After finishing the rest of the cooking, we got everything together & headed off to Macon. We stopped at Yankee Candle to get some Christmas presents first and then went to pick up my Grandmom. We met my uncle & company at Cheddar's & after a too long wait we were finally seated. The food was very yummy & we headed back to Grandmom's house. We exchanged presents & ate the dessert. We were all tired once we got back to the house & I went to bed very early that night.

Day 351

Friday December 17, 2010. I woke up a little early so I could study for my scientific inquiry final & pack. I watched A Walk To Remember in the midst of this...hence my photo of the day. I ate lunch in my room with Alex and was off to work. After work, Alex helped me pack my car & we went to supper with at first just Emily then some more of our friends. I headed to my final, which went well. I finished in an hour & walked around my room one more time before heading to my car. Alex told me goodbye & I was off to Forsyth - home for the holidays! :)

Day 350

Thursday December 16. I woke up & headed to my pinhole photography final. Well it wasn't really a final - we had already turned in our printed work & this was the final critique. After everyone discussed why they chose the picture they did for the critique we gathered our work & our grades. I got a 98! :) After I didn't do too much that day other than relax some, hang with friends, & study for my Friday final.

That night Alex & I had our last date of the semester. We ate at Chili's & wandered Barnes & Nobles for a bit. It was a fun evening & I'll miss him over break.

Day 349

Today! Dead day on campus = no exams scheduled. Dad needed me to help him run an errand this morning so I woke up earlier that I would've otherwise. Mom's car is acting up so Dad needed me to pick him up at the VW dealership to take him back home. I got to the dealership just fine but leaving didn't work, my car didn't start again...the problem that begun last week had come back. The mechanic jump started my car so dad & I made our way back to Forsyth and our normal mechanics. They ordered the part & tried to fix my battery as best as possible until the part can be replaced. I drove back to school & showered before my scientific inquiry study session. After, I went to work like I normally would. I visited Emily once I got back on campus before going to dinner. Now I'm watching some Bones re-runs & will soon go to watch Modern Family with Alex. :)

Day 348

Tuesday I took my history exam & then had absolutely nothing to do. I put on my pj's, stuck Julie & Julia in the DVD player, & sacked out in bed. Marvelous. :) That night, we played a very fun game of Apples to Apples with a group of friends. Why don't we have more time for this during the year?

Day 347

Monday I had my psychology final. After, I showered & went to work. When I got back to campus I took family Christmas pictures for one of my education friends. Afterwards, time to study history.

Day 346

Sunday was a study day for psychology & history. No fun. =/

Day 345

Saturday was a fun day. Alex had planned a surprise date for me! He took me to the movies & we watched The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It had premiered Friday & he knew that I was really excited about it. :) Very good date.

Day 344

Friday! Last day of class, yay! Also, 6 months until my birthday! Haha :)

After work & classes...I have no idea what I did. Probably hung out with Alex.

Day 343

Thursday was a pretty empty day because I only has psychology, education & choir were finished up on Tuesday. I can't really remember what else happened that afternoon...probably just enjoyed relaxing. :) That night we had our Cooperative Student Fellowship Christmas party...we enjoyed yummy snacks & a fun game of apples to apples!

Day 342

Wednesday was nothing special except I had my group presentation over Bulimia & Psychotherapy. Afterwards, I went to work for a few hours like normal.

Day 341

Tuesday was a pretty fun day. Psychology went well & education finished up for the semester. We met for choir but we had a fun little finishing-up-the year party. Afterwards, I met up with Alex & Daryl and we went to the Museum of Arts & Sciences. It was extra credit for my history class and it's a pretty neat museum. We had fun wandering around, they especially enjoyed the "fossil dig". We watched the planetarium show before leaving. We went to Moe's afterwards for a particularly yummy supper. :)

PS - this is the mock up of a Ukraine Christmas in the museum.

Day 340

Monday came way too quickly. It was a pretty normal day. After classes, I met with my scientific inquiry group to try to finish a project before we had our nightly QuadWorks board.

Day 339

Sunday I was able to sleep in a little but not as much as needed. We had spring proposal voting for QuadWorks, which lasted about 2.5 hours. Then I went with Emily & Rebekah to the Tift Christmas Tea...for about 30 minutes. What a busy weekend I had!

Day 338

Saturday morning started way, way, way too early. I had to work the presidential scholarship weekend & I had to be at my post at 7:00am. Remember that I went to bed at 2? Imagine waking up at 6 to shower. That is a maximum of 4 hours sleep. NOT ENOUGH. Anyways, the scholarship weekend went well & I was so glad to be able to go back to my room & rest.

Day 337

Friday December 3, 2010. Busy day. After work & classes, I had to work the midnight movie for QuadWorks. From 10-12 I was standing outside in the freezing cold. Brr. I watched Love & Other Drugs with some friends before crashing at like 2 in the morning.

Day 336

Today has been a good day. I woke up early & showered so I could go with a classmate to a local middle school to judge science fair projects for extra credit. It was FREEZING this morning...my car was covered in ice! We judged a few projects apiece & my 2 projects were over pinhole cameras. One was horrible...the kid I think put a digital camera inside of the pinhole camera & her pictures were streaks of light. The other little boy did a really good job & his pictures actually came out! Getting back to the school I made sure I was prepared to present my case study in education and headed to psychology. I really enjoy psychology...we talked about bipolar and schizophrenia today. Education went fine & I was able to present my project. Now I am officially done with my education class for the semester! Then I turned in my music & am also finished with choir! I went back to my room for a bit before Alex called me & invited me to the UC. I followed Alex & Daryl back to their room where we played some super smash brothers. I'm actually pretty decent at that game! Alex had soccer practice so he left & I went and ate supper with Emily & Patrick and company. Now I have a dorm move out meeting soon then CSF! Then paper writing time haha.

Day 335

Wednesday December 1st! I cannot believe that December has finally come. The weather sure was following the calendar because December 1st was Freezing. I had classes like usual & then I went to work after classes were finished. After work I went & saw Rebekah for a little bit before eating supper. I went to Alex's room to try & watch Modern Family but I was disappointed by the fact that it wasn't a new episode :(. Oh well, it was a funny episode. I completed my powerpoint presentation for education & I was in bed by 11:45. Success!

Day 334

Tuesday was another full day (of course, why wouldn't it be?) I woke up at 8:00 & finished my paper. I headed to my psychology class but I was stopped half way to class by a classmate telling me class was cancelled! I went back to my room & watched Monday night's House episode before going to my education class. After edu I went to choir like normal but I saw my choir director & he told me class had been cancelled. I didn't know that because I left rehearsal early, but oh well. I called Alex & he was out of class so we hung out for a while which was very nice. I ate a sort of early supper with Alex & Daryl before heading off to The Grand for the Christmas performance. It was pouring rain outside which caused a very interesting journey to the opera house. The performance went very well: full of choir performances, brass & string ensembles, & an opera singer. The house was pretty full which is great. There is also the possibility of us being featured on PBS next Christmas!! The filming would take place next October & we would be featured for PBS's Christmas 2011 feature. Pretty cool, huh? After the concert, I went and got out of that dress thankfully. (PS - it's still being held together by the fabric tape) I went & played some super smash brothers with Daryl & Alex before heading to bed. :)

PS - funny story about the picture. I went to Bear Necessities to treat myself to a hot chocolate & there was an advertisement for a Christmas peppermint cocoa. I was excited because I love peppermint hot chocolate so I asked the lady for a peppermint cocoa. She was like, don't you mean hot chocolate? I was like yes ma'am but wow...who doesn't know hot chocolate = cocoa??

Day 333

Monday November 29, 2010. After getting back to classes (with my history class happily cancelled - well the professor never showed so we all left early), I headed back to work. After work I ate a quick supper before heading off to another choir practice in preparation for Mercer's big Christmas at the Grand production...where women's choir would be a part of a total of 4 songs. I couldn't stay the whole practice because I had to go to QuadWorks board. After board, I saw Alex for a little bit before hitting my education paper hard. I got to the point where I couldn't write any more at about 2:00 & called it a night.

PS - the bucket is a very cute present from Miss Emily Traylor :)

Day 332

Sunday I slept in a little bit. I wandered around the house a little gathering things before I had to head back to school. We didn't do much at home just sat around enjoying a relaxing day. We watched Caleb's choice of movies: Predators. I didn't like it so much but it wasn't terribly horrible. We filled out our passport forms, too, in preparation for our Liberia trip this summer. I was sad to leave but it's 3 weeks until I'm home again. :) I unpacked all of my stuff & saw Alex briefly before I had to head to choir practice. After choir practice, I enjoyed relaxing with Alex.

Day 331

Saturday we went to go cut down our tree & take a family picture. We went to a Christmas Tree farm near Jackson, GA (for those of you who know haha) and got a blue spruce (?). It's really pretty & I can't wait to see it decorated. We took a few pictures out at the tree farm but then we went to High Falls because it was really close by. We ended up choosing the high falls picture for our Christmas card, too. That night Caleb's latest love interest came over (Rachel) & we fixed a low country boil Amaazing. :) We rented a few movies, too: The Karate Kid & something else lol...can't remember. Dessert was a trip to Dairy Queen.

Day 330

Friday November 26, 2010 was a good day. We went and saw Harry Potter as a family & they enjoyed it for the first time & I enjoyed it for the second time. For supper that night we made some cheese & ham biscuits from the leftover ham after Thanksgiving. They tasted pretty good actually. Dad decided it was game night so we played Racko!. We played for probably about 2 hours until Dad was the official winner. It was a fun day with the family. :)

Day 329

Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2010 started off WAY too early for my taste. Which was, if I'm remembering correctly, 6:30am. Mom, Dad, Caleb, & Devin had to wake up to prepare for the run & since I was going with them to watch I also had to be up before the sun was. Anyways so I grabbed my camera & layered up and followed my family out to the starting line of the race, which thankfully was right outside of the hotel. It was so foggy that everything looked really cool...especially Atlanta's olympic rings by the Brave's stadium. Caleb & Devin's race started first, they ran in the 1st of 5 heats. Dad started next. Around 12,000 people ran that day in the half marathon, that's a lot of people in case you were wondering. Mom ran the first 5k ever offered & her race started last. She of course finished sooner than the guys in our group and she & I sat and watched the half marathoners finish. Caleb, Dad, & Devin eventually all came in and they all finished under 2 hours! We went back to the hotel afterwards before heading off to my uncle's house for Thanksgiving. The food was yummy & the fellowship was nice. We left and got back home as it was getting dark. We decided to watch the latest Harry Potter DVD because we wanted to go see it the next day!

Day 328

Ah I love being home. I did not sleep in very much though because we had a lot to do on Wednesday November 24th. I had to make sure my clothes were washed so I could pack my bags for a night in Atlanta. We left the house about 3:00, with my brother's friend Devin in tow, and got to be stuck in the lovely traffic of Atlanta. We did eventually make it to where we needed to be, going to the packet pick up place for the thanksgiving half marathon my family was going to be running in. After we ate at the California Pizza Kitchen and called it a night.

Day 327

Tuesday was a full day despite it's emptiness. I only had psychology. Education & choir had been cancelled so after class & turning in my take-home test, I went straight to work. Well I did have to pack up all of my stuff & put it in my car but that was a given. :) I worked from about 2-5 and then went home to start a wonderful Thanksgiving break!

Day 326

November 22, 2010. Monday before Thanksgiving break! I had the normal classes with a dentist appointment stuck in the middle. We had an extra choir practice that afternoon so I was unable to go to work like I had originally planned. I also had to work on my education take home test that was due the next day. I did get to enjoy watching my friends play wonderfully, despite their loss, in an intramural volleyball game. :)

Day 325

Sunday November 21st did not slow down one bit. I was able to sleep in a little bit but not as much as I would've liked because we had a choir concert that day. Plus I had to "alter" my dress because it was way to long. (In this context "alter" means going to walmart, buying fabric tape, & taping the dress to be the correct length.) The concert went very well & I was glad to see my family and friends in attendance. :)

Day 324

Saturday was the BIG GAME day for homecoming week 2010. We were to play Harvard Crimson. Mercer started off with a celebration tailgate outside of the University Center. The caf provided great tailgating food (better than regular days, too) & the atmosphere was a lot of fun. I had to help sell t-shirts & we thankfully sold out. The game went well, too. We lost but it was a close and good game.

Day 323

Friday November 19, 2010. I was awake at midnight on this day because I was seeing the premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. I really enjoyed it. I slept in (skipping my 8:00) until 11 because I needed sleep. Homecoming Week Day #5 event was skit night & bonfire. The skits were very good & very funny and the hot chocolate was yummy. :)