Summer break? What is that?

The semester is over!!!! FINALLY! Earlier this month I took my last final and completed my first semester as a masters student. I have gotten my final grades and I have to gloat here a little bit. Yep! 4.0 baby! This is the first 4.0 I have ever gotten in my life! I have come close a few times (like 3.9 gosh dang it!) but finally, as a master's student I did it! Now, I just have to keep it up until graduation. That's the hard part. Senoir-itis always seems to get the best of me. Not this year Mr. itis.....not this year!

Before the semester ended I signed up for summer classes fully intending on getting some extra classes in before the fall so I could fill my last year of school with fun electives. Then about a week ago I saw the light. I have been going to school ever summer for a very long time. AAAAAND if I took summer classes that means I would have gone to school for ten semesters straight with no break by the time I graduate. And you know what?! I don't HAVE to go to summer classes anymore! So I promptly called the registrars office and dropped all my summer semester classes! 

I now have about three and a half months with no homework, tests, or classes. What now?! I don't know how I will handle this break but it is probably going to look a little like this: Trips to the beach, working out,visits from my sister and Nephew, lots of playing late into the warm summer nights and trips to Utah and Idaho to see people I love dearly, go to the Families supporting Adoption Conference, and see Tressa off at the MTC. (Tressa, are you sure you want to leave me?) Yeah, I am pretty sure life is going to be GREAT! Bring it on!

Lately

I feel like the last two or three weeks have been a blur that I have been constantly running through and getting to the next thing. Most of those things were very enjoyable but they were one right after another. There was the rose ball, finals, NYC trip, Southern VA trip, etc. Today I had nothing to do and it was WONDERFUL!!!! I didn't go to work, I didn't get out of my pajamas (well until FHE), and I didn't do very many productive things and I didn't care. Anyway, here are some pictures of the things I have been up to.

The Rose Ball

I was on the planning committee for the rose ball this year. It is a formal ball for all of the adults 16 and older in our stake. We get a live jazz band, great food, great decor and have good old fashioned fun. My father and I taught the dance lessons before the dance started and Tressa helped me SO much by jumping in the help me judge the dance competition during the band's intermission when the original judge got sick. The committee was busy but it was so much fun!

Bowling during the week Jana was visiting

Seriously, I love this girl!

My favorite part of this picture is that it is completely candid! Glen had just bowled a strike and we were...ehem, laughing at him. But it looks like we are his adoring fans!

 New York Trip/reunion with the girls from my Laurel class in Maryland

All of the girls from our group of friends in Young women are back on the east coast again (minus Jana). So to celebrate, we all got together and took a road trip to New York City. It was fabulous! We did a lot of eating, shopping, walking, talking, laughing, and not very much sleeping. Okay, I did a little more sleeping then the others, but it was all for their sakes. We know that I turn into a monster when I am sleep deprived.

Double dates with my favorite friends

HA I just realized this is the first date I can remember being on since I graduated from BYU-Idaho. Jana flew in for our trip to New York and came home to stay a week with me. We got together with good old glen and his friend Reggie and did a double date of making smores and chocolate covered strawberries.

Making homemade chocolate covered strawberries! Heaven on a cookie sheet!

I don't have pictures but I also took a friend down to southern VA to a modeling shoot last weekend. She had a really good time which made the quick trip so worth it. I told her on the way home that I was not doing any more road trips for a while after she suggested we do Boston next. But of course, I am already planning to go to northern VA this friday. It's only an hour away so I am not actually counting it as a road trip. I am so glad that I am done with the craziness I called life for the last two weeks. But it was all so worth it! And let's face it, when am I not running from party to party?

You're Beautiful, but You're No Beauty Queen

Last year at BYU-Idaho I took a class to make me a first class group therapist. The whole class was basically one big group therapy program. I am now a believer of group therapy. HA I think everyone needs it! Anyway, we took turns running group for that week and practiced different models and theories. We also ran our own therapy groups outside of class with BYU-Idaho students.

We were assigned homework each week to prepare us for the next therapy session. One of the assignments was to describe each chapter of our life as if it were a chapter in a book. Then we were to take one of those chapters and rewrite it in a way we wish it would have happened being prepared to share it with the class the next week. The other day I ran across my "table of contents" for this assignment and thought I'd share it with my blogging class.

The title of my Book is:

"You're Beautiful, but You're No Beauty Queen"

Chapter 1: The Second Child

Chapter 2: The top Kindergartener

Chapter 3: Training Bras and Tardy Slips

Chapter 4: Running the High School

Chapter 5: Where in the world is Virginia?

Chapter 6: Moving....again

Chapter 7: The Sales Man

Chapter 8: Big Choices for a Little Woman

Chapter 9: Moving on and growing up

Chapter 10: A Bright Future

Now, keep in mind most of the students were in the 19-21 age range and so they thought 10 chapters would be sufficient. However, to tell my story I need at least a few more. I maybe would change the name of a few of the chapters, but this is what they were at 7 am on a Wednesday morning last year. What would your chapters be? Think about it. Yay for therapy!

Have I ever mentioned I hate Laundry?

Out of all of the household chores Laundry is the one I despise the most. I don't know why it is so hard for me to like, but I hate it. At school I had the hardest time getting it done. (I still have a hard time getting it done) When I had a washer and dyer in my basement apartment it wasn't a problem. But when I was in a regular apartment complex....holy heavens! It would take me DAYS. It usually went like this.

Step 1: Sort clothes into colors (I wanted to take good care of them see, and not have the disaster of a red sock in my whites)

This step usually consisted of 4 or 5 huge mounts of dirty clothes covering my bedroom floor for at least an hour. Oh how patient my roommate was.

Step 2: Find empty washer and wash clothes.

Step 3: Since there are still dirty clothes on your floor switch laundry. Put clean clothes in dryer and dirty clothes in washer.

Step 4: Forget about them for at least a day. (usually 3)

Step 5: Find clothes half dry sitting on the counter of the laundry room smelling a little funky.

Step 6: Repeat

It was a great system I had down.

Even with my great system, I wish we didn't need clothes. Because that means we would not need laundry. Recently my disgust for laundry has become even more specific. HAND WASH!!! Curse you!

I had a run in with two hand wash fabrics that ended in my favorite cream Nordstrom cardigan transforming into a black and white tie died cardigan. Granted, there was some fault on my end but the mishap firmed up my commitment to hating hand wash clothes. Usually as soon as I see that label at the store it goes right back on the rack. Luckily I have been soaking my sweaters for over a WEEK now and the stains are almost out!

 

Before I die, I am going to have someone I pay just to do my laundry!

I can't even think of a title for this one

Because I started the year off so strong with blogging I am finding myself feeling guilty when I let a few days, or heaven forbid a WEEK go by without at least checking in and saying I am still alive. I must say, I really started to enjoy seeing many hits on my blog and coming to know who was really interested in my ramblings. Yes, I will fully admit they are ramblings.

With that said, I am feeling like I really don't have much to "check in with" lately. I am a pretty open person, but through my own past experience I have come to try hard not to share my personal pains, worries, concerns, or personal experiences and growth. There are times that I have written something about a struggle I had or read a fellow blogger whine about how they hate being single or broke, etc., and I thought, you're going to regret that later......

The 30 day challenge made it easy for me. I had a specific topic to write about that was light and easy and be done with it. And now with out that I find that my mind is mostly filled with thoughts of the personal nature. And what is the point of my blog anyway? I used to write on it while I was at school for my parents to stay filled in on the happenings of the Wonderful World of Deborah. Now that I am back in Maryland they have the privileged of experiencing the Wonderful World of Deborah daily. I guess with change there is always adjusting and redefining to be done. So with the newest change of graduating, starting a masters program, and moving back home I am going through the adjusting and redefining period with this blog. I don't have a husband and children to fill the posts with, I don't have deep and impressive thoughts of the world and life to share, and I keep forgetting my camera to document the random fun filled events worth blogging. huh.

So what's the point of this post and this blog for that matter? HA beats me! But when I published this post and saw that header that I took WAY to long to do it makes me think, I can't stop blogging or the pain and sweat it took to create this stupid bunch of pictures is for nothing! Heck with that! I HAVE to keep blogging now. I guess it will be an adventure to see what this thing turns into.

Nothing to write about....what to do?

Today has been a bit of a blah day for me which really puts a cramp in my blogging idea's style. So I decided that because everyone likes a good picture I would enter my library of over 5,000 pictures and pull one at random to blog about. Well, here it is:

This was January 3, 2009. Tressa Lee had just gotten her key to her very first college dorm and was trying to open the door. As you can see from her face in the picture, she was not very successful. LOL Actually, we had built it up so much with pictures and videos to document this momentous occasion, that it was a hilarious let down when it took her five minutes to figure out how to open her door.

Boy am I grateful for the opportunity to have had Tressa come to BYU-Idaho with me. She really made my time there 200% better!

Well was that fun? Let's do it again!

This is a picture of half of the shoes in my closet. I was going to blog about how a girl can't get to many shoes but never did. I was trying to organize my closet when this was taken and found I could fit all my shoes in there only if I just threw them all in with out any organization. It makes for an adventure when trying to find a matching pair to go with your outfit, but hey! I've always loved a good challenge and not many people see the inner workings of my closet anyway.

While we are on the subject of shoes, here is a picture of my latest love and bargain.

I don't have many places to wear them to, but they sure are fun!

There you go. It wasn't anything exciting, but it was a blog post.

Tressa is going on a mission!

Today Tressa's mission call came!!!! It was a blast! Watch and see! Pay very close attention.

And Take two:

So basically, I made a fake mission call for Tressa. I decided to do it about an hour and a half before she came home to open the real one. Elizabeth read her mission call to me over the phone and I typed it up. I had a little trouble with the envelope because it was to big for EVERY printer we had in the house! I think it turned out ok!

I have so many comments on the video. I was so nervous that everyone laughing in the video before she even started reading would give things away. And the second thing (probably my favorite) is that Mr. Right was in the video in footie pajamas! HA I love it!

Tressa is going to the California Carlsbad mission!