poor neglected blog

Right now all updates are going to my study abroad blog because everything has to do with being in spain and my other various travels.  But this quote belongs here and is exactly the kind of thing I need to be reminded of every now and then.

“May today there be peace within. 

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. 

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. 

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. 

May you be content knowing you are a child of God. 

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. 

It is there for each and every one of us." 

― St. Thérèse de Lisieux




My other favorite reminder of late was a little souvenir I picked up in Madrid.  I don't really know who the saint is, and I don't know why here picture is attached to a tree stump...but the quote is still a powerful reminder and something I need to keep in mind as I continue on my life journey.


lo que dios quiera
cuando dios quiera
como dios quiera


what God wants
when God wants
how God wants

dpm#9 moments to remember

"If you find yourself attracted to a man, it might just be a woman in disguise."

"My cat food smells like goldfish.  I've never tried it though."
"Well I would hope you've never tried your cat poop."

"I'm reconsidering the whole nun thing."

"I think another moral of Mulan is that sometimes it's just necessary to cross-dress."

"I'm like one sixteenth Pocahontas."
"Me too!"

"With Spain coming up my sleeping schedule is going to be all catty whompus anyways."

"Sometimes I think it would be fun to be a bear.  They get to hibernate.  And they're so big.  And they get to fish with their paws.  They just bat fish out of the water!"

"I wish I had a raccoon to braid my hair."

"I hope someday some guy will realize that I'm a diamond in the rough."

Moral of Aladdin... Lie and steal to get what you want, just because you steal doesn't mean you're a bad person, you should always give your food to children - unless you're a monkey, then you can keep it, pretending to be mentally handicapped will get you out of going to jail

"Our biological princess clocks are ticking."

"I always thought the sultan was a girl...I never noticed he had a beard - and Jasmine calls him father..."

"If it was ok to have a pet tiger, my friend would totally have one."
"I would have a bear."
*see 10 reasons why there should be bear week instead of shark week*

"Did you know it's Thursday?"
"Yeah, it's after midnight."
"oh..."

"You know what's really cute?"
"Me."

"My puppy is like a human infant.  Except you can put him outside when he's bad.  You can't do that with a baby."

"I was beyond embarrassing.  I wouldn't have been friends with me."

"We should start an acapella group.  We could be a barbershop quartet."

"Chips Deluxe...more like Chips sucks."

"I don't know if I want to go to the convent to glorify God or if it's just because I'm scared of being alone."

"Your mom's face is your dog's face."

These are just some of the highlights.  But to really appreciate the rest...well you just would have to have been there.  I am so thankful for my dear friends Katy, Megan, and Julie and I love our Christmas dpm's!

home for the holidays

I am officially home sweet home.  Back to Normal.  And loving it.

I am so glad to be done with classes and reading and papers and exams and all of that stuff.  Now I can just relax at home.

Wait.  Did I say relax?  I meant I get to be at home where there is something planned just about every day of my break.  I am working a lot more than I thought, not that it's really that much altogether I suppose.  And I know I'll be glad when I have the money to use in Spain.  And on top of that I am helping my mom in the classroom one day.  Then there is going to dinner with my dad's family, my cousin's 10th birthday party, celebrating christmas with my dad's dad and brother and his kids.  After that is celebrating christmas with my aunt, uncle and cousins from kentucky and I'm sure everyone will host dinners while they are visiting.  Then there's girls lunch at this tea room with the ladies of my mom's side.  There's the annual lifeteen alumni christmas party.  And of course christmas eve and christmas day festivities.  Then a day trip to chicago to amuse my brother's girlfriend.  Not that I'm complaining.  I'm always up for a day in the city.  It just seems like a lot going on.  But luckily I will have a week where there is not much going on right before I go off to spain.  Because I am sure there will be last minute shopping, packing, repacking, and of course things like getting my haircut and going to the dentist which I should probably do before I am overseas for months.  Months.  That's so scary!  But really exciting.  I don't know how to feel exactly.  So it's probably good I'll be too busy for worrying.

officially done with finals

It's going to be a pretty chill weekend around here.  For me anyway.  Because I am officially done with all my finals.  I was supposed to have one more on Monday, but my professor asked me to come talk to him about it and basically he was just like, you've gotten A's on all the other tests...let's just assume you'll get an A on this one.  So I don't have to take the test, and it's one less for him to have to grad.  Win-win.  Now the only thing I have left to do is fix up my final paper for mystics and I will be all done for the semester.  But I have to get my paper back in order to do that.  Which means I still have the weekend totally free.  I get to do nothing and not feel guilty about it at all.  It's going to be wonderful.

Did I ever talk about the vigil mass we had for the Immaculate Conception?  Well, since the feast was on thursday which was the first day of finals, the school decided to have the all school mass be a candlelight vigil the night before at 10pm.  It was really nice.  I mean, my candle went out during the entrance him, as did all of the girls sitting in front of me, so it was kind of dark where I was.  Which made it difficult to see the words to the new translation that I still don't know very well.  But it would be a nice tradition to start I think.  And it will be easier and more enjoyable next year at this time when I should know all the responses without having to look at some cheat sheet.

Oh and did I mention I can't wait to be home?  It's so close and I'm so excited!  At the same time though, there will actually be things and people that I miss.  Which is different than I've felt at the end of previous semesters.  It's strange, but it's a good thing.  I don't think I'll ever have such an attachment that I won't want to go home.  I won't ever understand that feeling that some people have.  But especially since I won't be back next semester, it will be strange going without seeing a couple of my suitemates that I've gotten to know better this semester.  And I can only hope that the closeness I've developed with them will last and make future semesters here as enjoyable as this one has been.

Well, there's some random updates for you.  2 more days!

who finished all her term papers?

This girl.

Yep.  You read that correctly.  Done with term papers.  Except I think my spanish professor is going to make corrections and then give it back to us to fix it up before we actually have to turn it in.  But he has like a ton of stuff to grade so who knows when that will happen.  But it should be easy to go through and make the corrections.  And luckily my finals load is pretty light this semester.  So I'm not too worried about finding time to make the corrections.  I just need to make sure I know all the info on my sociology study guide and then really study a lot for chemistry.  That's the only one I'm really worried about.  But that's friday afternoon so I have plenty of time to study before then.

But  I'm sure you're already a step ahead of me in thinking, yeah right.  We'll see how long it takes you to actually start studying.

1 paper down

Well I finished the paper that was due yesterday...at about 4am yesterday.  But the point is it's done.  Now I just have a bigger more important one due...several days ago?  I don't really know when it's "due" but he hasn't seemed to really care when we get it in...so I'm going to go with monday is fine.

So I have all weekend to do this paper.  I should get a good start on it today.  Because I really don't know how long it's going to take.  I would like to think not that long once I get started and really get into it.  The problem is I have no idea how long it's going to take to get started.

It's a rainy day and I still have a cough and am all stuffed up.  All I am going to want to do is lay in bed and watch the notebook.  And think of Ireland...

It's a lot more fun to plan trips for when I am abroad next semester than write papers.  I've done a lot of hostel and flight looking up.  And then yesterday I found this lovely site with things to do in Ireland.  And I just want to go everywhere.  I thought I had some potential dates planned out, but now I want to add a couple of days so that we can do even more in Ireland.  There's just so many things I want to see and do and it just looks so beautiful.

I just can't wait to be over there.  And I love the planning process.  The fun imaginative part anyway where you decide all the places you want to go and the things you want to do.  Not quite so much the technical stuff.  Especially the getting from place to place part.  And the paying to get from place to place part.  Not really a fan.  But I know it's going to be completely fantastic and I just have to make it through this semester.  Then my break can be totally focused on trip planning (all aspects of it).

After all, it's only 42 days until I leave.  Crazy, right?  I can't believe it either.  And you can be sure to keep up to date on everything that I'm experiencing over there as I write about it in my study abroad blog.

more of the same

Term papers.  Still hate them.  Would still rather do just about anything than sit down and write 5 pages in spanish.  That's basically my life right now though.  Just like the last several weeks when I was supposed to be working on them.

It's also holiday time though which is fun.  It was great to have a break for thanksgiving and it's even better knowing that christmas break is only 2 weeks away.  I'm so excited to be done with papers and exams.  For now anyway.

Thanksgiving break was making cookies, wrapping ornaments, eating monicals, eating avantis, eating steaknshake, eating at noodles, mrs schmitt brownies, going black friday shopping, hanging at the ob house, watching remember the titans, seeing the muppets, seeing breaking dawn, going to last mass in old translation, going to first mass in new translation, seeing cute babies...yeah I think thats mostly it.  Not bad, huh?

I also saw the hunger games trailer (the highlight of breaking dawn) and now that is just another distraction I can add to my list.  As if I needed another one.  I knew the movie was coming out.  I was excited to see it.  But now I'm really excited and can't wait to get home and read that book again.  And maybe the second.  But probably not the third.  And I looked up the release date in spain.  April 20th.  Doesn't really work for me.  So I'll go see it when I'm in the UK I guess.  It comes out on time there.

My other main distraction right now is NKOTBSB.  They're going to be on tour.  In Europe.  While I'm in Europe.  Well, at least, I could extend my trip that long.  I think it would be worth it.  To go see NKOTBSB in Belfast.  So worth it.  It'd be fantastic.  I really want to go.  Like seriously, best concert ever.  It would be soooo much fun.

I also found something really exciting at walmart today.  A 4 movie dvd set with message in a bottle, nights in rodanthe, a walk to remember, and the notebook.  Now all I need is dear john and the last song.  And of course the lucky one when it comes out.  End of april I think?  And I still have to read that book. I think there's a nicholas sparks movie marathon in my future.

And I'm kinda sick.  Which sucks.  Cuz it means I don't want to do anything but sleep.  Which isn't exactly conducive to paper writing.  As if I needed another excuse to not write papers.

Now I think you're all caught up on my exciting last couple weeks.  Hopefully it won't be so long next time!

And hopefully the next post will include something about me having FINISHED a term paper.  Instead of just complaining about how I don't want to write them.