Happy Thanksgiving

I have a little breathing room, so I thought I would update. Three papers down, one more to go! Two group projects down, one more to go! Only those two things left and come this time next week, I will be celebrating the end of the semester (my last day is Monday!) I cannot wait. And my last two assignments are probably the least work of them all, which is nice (however still work, I'll get to that tomorrow). I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. I was able to go home to Columbus (go Bucks!) Tuesday night through Sunday afternoon which was nice. Every part of my break was enjoyable, minus writing a ten page paper on welfare reform, but that is over now! I did manage to enjoy some time with family and friends as well. This Thanksgiving was different from all previous ones. I almost felt like I had a big family! In addition to my immediate family and all my remaining grandparents, my cousin Jenny and her family joined us (at my parent's house, so I didn't have to travel anymore which was nice). Anyways, Jenny's husband recently got a new job in Pennsylvania, and since Idaho was too far to travel, they came to us. They have three small children so that was definitely a change. The little blond girl pictured is three years old and deemed me as her entertainer for the day. She wore me out! I am not ready to be a mother :) We played with Barbies and she tried on my shoes, it was a grand old time. I also added a picture of my crazy, almost teen sister. She is growing up too fast! The cowgirl picture was taken at the fall party at Americana last week. I was the MC for the talent show and decided to dress up a little. Boy was that a crazy night. We had like 80 kids there. Pictured is Fatuma, who was one of them. Yeah, that night really was insane, but I won't go into that here. I am so excited for winter break. More updates once I am there and enjoying a break from school.

Busy Busy Busy

Not much new to report. I like my new chiropractor okay, but not as well as the last one. But it is free, so I can't complain. I am down to going twice a week and am feeling better, so I have a feeling I will be kicked off worker's comp soon, even though I think I have awhile to go until I am healed. But that's how those things work. I think I will report a higher "pain scale" on Tuesday.

Paper writing and group project season is upon me. So I have been rather busy and have not had much time to do things outside of the normal routine. I had one big group presentation last week, so that is out of the way and it went well. I still have two big group projects left that include a presentation and a 10 page paper (can I tell you how much I hate group papers!!) And of course 4 individual 10-12 page papers still due for each one of my classes. Half of these will be done before Thanksgiving break, the other half after Thanksgiving. I think it is evil to assign a big paper due the Monday after Thanksgiving, but of course that is the case. However it will all be over December 4! Luckily, I do not have finals, so the last day of the semester for me is the last day of classes. And then I get a whole five weeks off. I requested two weeks off of work at Americana (the week before and after Christmas), but I am not sure if I am allowed to take it yet. I really hope so. I think I deserve a break. And while I cannot wait until December 4 when things slow down, I am also trying to enjoy life now, because that is still three weeks away. Everything will get done, no need to worry....

Yesterday afternoon I spent 4 hours working on a group project. We have to do an assessment of a neighborhood, so we spent half the time walking around the Highlands and taking pictures (luckily we got a pretty easy neighorhood). So it was kind of fun. The picture is of a great local business in the neighborhood taken by my classmate. I just thought I would add a picture to spice up this post...

All is well at Americana. I've been working there a year and two and a half months or so...hard to believe. When I stop to think about it, it is really amazing that I found a place that I love so much and took my life in the direction it is going now. Our big fall party and talent show is this week so that will be fun. I've enjoyed coordinating "practices" for the groups who want to perform. Those kids can dance, let me tell you. I also finally started my group for practicum. I am co-facilitating it with another student. Our group is for middle and high school girls. We have only had two meetings and they have gone pretty well. We started watching "Mean Girls" this past week along with a discussion of cliques, gossiping and all that fun stuff. Don't you miss high school?? hah.

Okay time to stop pretending that I have the luxury of relaxing on a Sunday afternoon. Time to get to work. I am not sure what project or paper I should start on first....

Oh yeah, one more thing I wanted to add to the former LUCers possibly reading this...I got to see Ben this past week! He was staying at a hotel about an hour and a half from Louisville, so he decided to stop by. Alisa didn't get to see him because she was working. It was nice to see him and brought me back to last year. I really do miss all the good times in the Convent. Pete was in church this morning too, which again made me think of last year. And Katie was mentioned in the sermon. I miss everyone! Okay time to stop reminiscing of the days I had no school work to worry about and there was always someone around to entertain me....