Summer "Vaca" Indeed

This summer hasn't felt all that eventful. When I take a second to think about it, though, I realize I actually have had a pretty interesting summer.
After working at Rite Aid for a bit, I learned that retail is not, I repeat not, for me. So I did what I knew would make me feel more comfortable for the short amount of time that I will be in Battle Creek: Go back to the day care. Going back has definitely been challenging. I can't believe I only have about five more weeks with my class. I am throwing a goodbye party. I might be back for break though.

I have taken a few trips to EMU. One trip was for an interview with dining services, once to talk to an honors advisor and to sign up for honors classes, and the other was for a tour and to talk to a general ed advisor.

Instead of going to B.93 Birthday Bash, I went up north to see some of my favorite people. Basically Allie, Logan, and myself traveled up to Charlevoix and then Carissa joined us and we went up to some campground in the U.P. I don't remember the camp name, but we got to stay in a cabin and it was awesome. The first night I am pretty sure we just went straight to bed. We got there after 2 AM. So the next morning we got up and Carissa's family was so kind and provided us with breakfast! Then we went on the search for a bugless beach. Guess what. That's impossible. THERE WERE SO MANY BUGS. Oh my gosh. I thought I was drowning in bug. Anyways, we ended up finding a nice little spot to have our picnic. Then we went to a nifty spring where we were surprised by NICOLE! She is so amazing. The spring was beautiful. Then we went downtown and walked around. On the way back to the campground we stopped a few times to take fun pictures and walk to a lighthouse. When we finally got back to the cabin we played poker and watched "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." The most awesome part is that I got Allie, who is on the road to recovery from her third knee surgery, to actually WATCH the show! She is a Khloe lover. The next morning we went fishing! This was my first time and I caught so much! Only one fish I caught was edible. It was so much fun though! Then we headed back down. Shockingly enough, that trip up north was way cheaper than Birthday Bash. And it was more fun.

I see Logan a lot. I don't think we have gone three weekends without seeing each other this summer. This is amazing compared to our usual two months. Oh my gosh. Last time he was here he slept on the floor! I still can't believe it. Ugh. Boys. We have done a few things. We have gone to our first wedding together. We road tripped. He rafted with my family. We sat around all day watching TV/Movies. It has been such a nice alternative to what the usual school year consists of.

I took summer classes! This isn't that big of a deal. I am only taking 7 credits (four of them are physical education classes) but I am really love school and I am so appreciative that I had the chance to take these classes. Statistics is amazing. SERIOUSLY. If anyone has to take a math class at KCC, try to take it with Anderson. He is incredible. He nearly had me convinced I should actually take more math classes. I'm not going to, but he almost got me.

I went on a family "rafting" trip. We just went down the Kalamazoo River. We started in Ceresco (near the post office) and ended in Bridge Park. It was pretty fun. While everyone was relaxing in their tubes, I kayaked. Kayaking was awesome.

<3

What A Busy Week It Has Been

   Monday: I had to work from 7:30-2:30. The shift was very enjoyable. There were only 8 schoolagers and they were all pretty good. I got out so early that I didn't know what to do with myself! So I pretty much had a very lazy day. I sat on my ass and watched TV and was on my laptop. Woo.

   Tuesday: First I woke up at my lovely 9 am time. Had a quick bite, threw on my running clothes and stretched it out. I always forget to stretch before and after. I don't know why I don't do it. I know it's important and all but I just kind of forget I guess. After my run I stretched again and drank a beautiful protein shake. And a shower. Then I went to KCC and took the COMPASS test. I seriously thought it was going to take me an hour but it only took 17 minutes. I was in the math class I thought I would be in. I am pretty bad at math so I am taking Algebra. Boo. After that it is all elementary math. Woo. After the test I went to work from 3-6. A nice short day but I would rather have long days. There was also a surprise staff meeting after work. I ended up driving Darci's car home. She is a blast to drive with! No joke. It is so much fun!

Wednesday: The day of my big adviser appointment. My grandma picked me up at 9 and my appointment at KCC started at 9:30. We talked about the transfer program and that's about it. She didn't really help me map out a 2 year plan. She also gave me classes that I ended up changing because I need weekends off. It's a good thing I'm so into planning because I mapped my 2 year plan on my own. I'm pretty much doing the MACRO but I selected classes that count as classes from EMU's education major. I think I'm being really smart about all this. After the appointment I had 24 hours to sign up for a payment plan. That cost $30 and so I put my college money in the bank. It is really going to be difficult doing all out of pocket since I got no financial aid, but I think I can do it! I just really need to focus on it.  Originally I had this day off but I don't like days off unless I need them. Unfortunately I need a lot (3) of days off in July so I am trying to work as much as I can. That will explain why I picked up the hours I did on Thursday and Friday. So today one of my coworkers let me have her hours. I worked an enjoyable 1-6 in the baby room. Wednesday night I got an IM from a coworker asking if I can come in for her because something came up. This was also the first night of BIG BROTHER!!!! WOOHOO!!

Thursday: So this morning I went in at 8am into the baby room. It was kind of hectic at first because the other baby room teacher called in. So I was in there not really knowing their schedules all that well. Different teachers kept coming in to help. Finally at 9:30 a teacher who knew the babies pretty well came in. I was moved down to the 3 year old room so their main teacher could do lunches. After that I clocked out for an hour because I was only scheduled 8-12 and 1-6. My grandma brought me a vi-shake and it was delish! Then at 1 I clocked in and was in my usual schoolager room. I was also asked if I could do the same thing tomorrow. Because I was going in early there was no way I could run! So I did a night run and it went pretty well. Burned off the pizza I ate for sure.

Friday: So again I went in at 8 and pretty much the same thing happened except the other lead teacher was in the baby room and I only clocked out for 15 minutes. I started at noon in the schoolager room. I really like getting to know my coworkers. Especially ones that I thought didn't like me. Haha so the lead teacher in schoolager lives around me. And she asked if I wanted to go garage saling with her but those plans fell out. Friday was a pretty relaxing day.

Saturday: Mom and Leo had a surprise for me. They wanted to buy me running shoes. Leo said it was a reward for #1 not being a bitch about what happened at NMU when I should have been. And I promise I am on the inside, but I dont want to ruin my relationship with my mother, so I hold it in. #2 for working so hard and not just blowing my money. And #3 for being so mature. So mom and I drove to Gazelle's in Kalamazoo to get my feet looked at and get nice shoes. After trying on 15 pairs of shoes I was between a $120 pair that weren't that cute but felt so amazing when I ran and a $75 pair that were cute Nike's and felt okay. If I were buying I would have gotten the $120, but this was a gift so I went with the cute Nike pair. When I got home mom and I watched some TV and Leo made delicious chicken kabobs. About an hour later I had to try out these shoes!! So I got all ready and finished week 3 of C25K challenge. I'm going to post about that later. Then when I got back, while I was stretching and drinking my protein shake mom and I found that new show, WhoDunnIt and we are hooked! It's on again Sunday but we can't watch it till Monday. No biggie.

Well. That's my week for you. Today is full of nothing. Wooooooo. But next week is another exciting week! Thanks for reading!

Captian Sunday, Wedding Receptions, Drunkin' Rednecks! OH MY!

   Last weekend was such a blast! After work on Friday I went to Zeeland and got to see one of my great NMU friends, Fred, in Zeeland! We went to this place called Captain Sunday and I managed to get 1/3 of my ice cream on my shirt. It was great. Then LB picked me up from Fred's and we went to Taco Bell and got some OmNomNoms. Then it was to his dad's house. We looked at pictures of their wedding and listened to some tunes. The boys played darts and then it was bed time.

   The next day LB took me to his dad's wedding reception. This is where I realized A LOT of his grandparents really like me! They kept coming up to me and saying hi and asking how I was doing. It felt pretty awesome. After a few hours, we had to head down to Battle Creek.

   After about an hour drive we finally got to my house. We watched some America's Got Talent and then... CJ and her sister got there!!! My goodness. I have missed CJ since MAY! She is one of my bestestest friends in the whole wide world! We stayed up for a little while, but we needed to go to bed. We had to be up at 4AM!!! So LB, CJ, and her sister all cramped up in my tiny room where we all got about 4-5 hours of sleep.

   At 4, we awoke and started getting ready for birthday bash. We left a little after 5 and got there around 6. After about an hour of waiting in line, they opened the parking lot! By the way, parking costs $40. Boo! They were supposed to open at 8, but I guess they didn't want the line to get too long. So we went in, we parked, and it was off to the actual line to wait for the gates to open. This was fine because we could sit down in our folding lawn chairs. We got our meal tickets in line and since LB didn't have any cash on him, I was totally fine with getting them. So that was $40. We ended up meeting up with a big gang of Zeelanders who I knew about half of. It was nice seeing familiar faces.

   So at 10, the gates opened and A ran to get good seats. I thought LB was going to help him save seats, but he wanted to wait for everyone else to get through... so wait we did. 20 minutes later we were at our seats. We still had about an hour till the show started. First was Charlie Worsham who did a cool cover and some decent music, but the sound check must not have went well because ALL I could hear was bass. Then The Henningsens who were good. I only knew one of their songs though. THEN KACEY MUSGRAVES who I LOVE. LB liked her too. I don't know why, but I was really impressed that she was a brunette. I really liked that about her. When I think country, I think T-Swizzle, Band Perry, Miranda Lambert, Natalie Maines, Faith Hill, etc. All blondes. So I really like when a brunette makes it anywhere. Power to the brown!! FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE was after her!!! I was so worried they weren't going to do my favorite song because it isn't exactly their most popular, but they played it first!! Then they tricked me TWICE by convincing me Nelly was going to go on stage... And that kind of made me want to see Nelly in person. So if he releases another album... winky face... Then there was Lee Brice and Billy Currington. Two people I don't really care about.

   So after Bill C. we chilled in the parking lot waiting to head out. Well, we were trying to head out but thousands of people... Yeah. Major props to LB for keeping his cool. Seriously. I don't know how I would have handled that situation. Also for not running anyone over.

  We got to my house. LB and I said our goodbyes until next time. CJ, her sister, and I had some quesadillas, I took a shower, and we went straight to sleep. We were all so exausted. and 2/3 of us were sunburned. Luckily, I only got it on my chest and forearms. And only a little bit. Vary happy with how it turned out.

   This morning, the girls left at 8:30. I went to work at 1:00. Everything is back to normal. What an amazing weekend though. Thanks LB and CJ for being so awesome.