Roommate

My roommate is moving out at semester! I know it sounds awful for me to say but I am soooo excited! It was always so awkward since we never talk. But that also scares me because what if I get a new roommate that isn't any better?! I really hope that I get paired with no one and I get the room all to myself. That is best case scenario! :)

DONE

I am finally done with all of my homework for my 1st semester of college. It feels great to have everything turned in and complete and a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders! I finished my paper tonight and it felt amazing to finally finish it and I had way more information than I though that I would find which is always a good thing. My swimming class for this weekend was canceled and that was a bummer because that delays when I can begin teaching swimming lessons. I can still get hired which is good!

HOME

I just wanna go home. I am so sick. I cannot stop coughing, it hurts to breathe, and my head feels like it is going to EXPLODE. I really hope that all I have is a bad cold and that it will pass over within a few days because I have had it for almost a week now and I just keep getting worse. I miss my couch at home, that is my favorite place to sleep when I am sick. I just want some homemade chicken noodle soup with no vegetables and some good Christmas movies! I called my mom and told her "I just wanna go home!" and she responded with, "Why where are you now? You're not in your room?" I was like "I meant YOUR home mom, my real home!!!"

First Semester

Oh boy! I am so close to being done with my first semester of college. How exciting! I have finished all of my assignments for every class except my IS project but I am in the process of working on it. I am taking the WSI class for lifeguarding this weekend and it will be taking up my whole weekend 5pm-10pm on Friday, 8am -8pm on Saturday and 8am-8pm on Sunday. I really hope I pass this class because then I will be switching jobs here on campus and will start lifeguarding and giving lessons! I do not like my current job because I am not getting enough hours to fulfill my work study and I currently work at the sporting events and those are not every day so it is really hard to get in more than 4 hours a week. That is stressful because I know that if I do not work enough hours I will have to pay back that money which will cause more stress on me. Working as a lifeguard I will be able to work in the mornings before class and after class at nights which will be really nice and I will not have to work on weekends unless I choose to.

Disclosure

For my final project in IS I chose to read the book Disclosure. Of course because this was an assigned reading I was not thrilled to read it. (even though I was given multiple options) I purchased this on my phone weeks ago and tried to start it multiple times. I just could not get into it. So of course I put it off until yesterday. Being it was on my phone it was very small print and 1023 pages, talk about discouraging! Anyways I got halfway through the book and realized that I could not put it down. I wanted to know what was going to happen next! It turned out to be a very good book. I also looked up the movie on it and found it online to watch for free. The movie and the book were quite a bit different. The ideas were the same but the words were changed and some stories throughout the movie were changed in some way. I was surprised by how much was different between the book and the movie.

Break!

Break went by way to fast!! It was very nice to be away from school but I did not have one free day where I got to just lay around and do nothing. I babysat Friday night, Saturday morning, Sunday afternoon, Tuesday 7:30a.m.-5:30p.m. then again 6p.m.-8:30p.m. , Wednesday 7:30a.m.-5:30p.m. , Thursday I had 3 Thanksgivings to go to and they were all delicious, Friday I went to IL to my boyfriend's grandparents house until Saturday and hung out there and came back Saturday around 7p.m. , and I had to be back on campus to work at 10a.m. this morning. I also came down with some sort of sickness that I am not sure what it is yet. I have a sore throat, runny nose, and bad body/head aches. Overall I enjoyed break but I wish I would have had a little more me time.

debate

I really enjoyed the debate during class. I thought that it was not going to be fun at all when I was doing my researched. But it turned out to be a really interesting topic because there are so many points for and against anonymous sperm donating. I thought that our side did very good. This was also my first debate I have ever done. This debate was very personal beliefs based because there is no right or wrong side. Overall I though it was a fun thing to do as a class.

rearranging

I am one of those people that constantly likes change! I have finally rearranged my dorm room and I love it now. There is more space and it feels a lot more homey. I hung up my paintings and brought some pictures from home and will be hanging those up soon too. I did laundry and my room is spotless. That is except my roommates half of the room. I try to just ignore it because I could have worse problems. Trying to stay positive since I still have a whole semester left to live with her!

overwhelming

I try very hard to stay on top of all my school work but sometimes things get put off. It is hard to believe that the end of my first semester at college is almost over. I have so many projects, presentations, exams, homework, and papers due within like 3 weeks! I am spending my sunday doing homework, no better way:) On the bright side, I finished the book Next by Michael Crichton. I am surprised to say that I actually enjoyed the book. It was a fairly quick read and it was interesting even though I am not into genetics.

Thanksgiving break

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving Break. I cannot wait to spend time with my mom and dad, my brother, his girlfriend, and Jax, my boyfriend Ryan, and both of our entire families. I cannot wait to eat a home cooked meal instead of this cafeteria food. I want to sit around and watch movies and just have fun with my friends from home. The home sick stage may finally be kicking in for me. I am sick of this dorm room. IT IS SO SMALL. My roommate and I have so many awkward moments because when we are in the same room we do not talk at all. We do not even say a word to eachother. I am excited to be away from this place for a while.

Education

I am in the process of writing my very first lesson plan. This is crazy and it makes me feel so grown up! This is one of the first steps to my career as a teacher. I plan to write a lesson on the Public Law 108-477 which will be planned around Constitution Day and or Citizenship Day. This is for my test in Foundations of American Education that is due on Monday. I plan to put a lot of effort in this lesson plan as I need to be very good at writing these!

My life

My life has not been picture perfect or anywhere near that. I am the first child to go to college and I am so blessed and thankful to be here. My father finished high school and that was it. My mom finished high school then went to kirkwood for two years and that was it. My brother Matt dropped out of high school but ended up getting his GED. My brother Dustin graduated high school 3 hours before comencement. My family is not big on education. So they were not helpful on the college hunt. But I want to be a teacher, I want to make learning enjoyable for students, so I had my teacher help me. My parents are being as helpful as they can on paying for my education as I could not get a loan but they can only do so much. I went through hell while growing up there was constant fighting and cops at my house. But I love my family and we are closer now than we ever have been.

Matt

I have two older brothers. Most people do not know that I have 2 because I don't ever talk about my oldest brother because it kills me to talk about him. Every time I think about him tears come to my eyes so it is hard to find someone to talk to because I hate crying in front of people. My brother Matt is 27 years old. He has been locked up in prison for the past 8 years and before that in and out of rehab and juvi since he was thirteen. This means that I honestly have no idea who my brother is. I only remember the fights he caused in my house when I was growing up. He gets out 74 days, which means January 12th. I am scared to death to see my brother. I know he will be living at home because my mom would do anything in the world for him but he just doesn't get it. He doesn't understand what it is like to live in this world. I have talked to him once in 3 years and before that it was 5 years. The only way I know how to explain the feeling I have is that I am afraid, so scared.

Study Abroad and Wartburg West

I went to the meetings study abroad and Wartburg West yesterday. I felt that they were not very informative and it was a very broad overview. I really want to study abroad in Barcelona, Spain either next year or my 3rd year. I am going to Costa Rica this May term and I am so excited. If I continue with teaching I think it would be awesome to do my student teaching at Wartburg West my final year. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for me.

Outfly

Hmmm so apparently Outfly is this huge ordeal. Well all I see is that it drives the students crazy! I am not too worried about when it will be but I just want it to be over with. Seriously, it is the ONLY I have heard people talk about on campus for the last month! It is crazy. I am sure it is and will be a lot of fun but I have no idea what the big hype is because I have not experienced it yet. Well with that being said hopefully Outfly is tomorrow so I can have a 4 day weekend! :)

EXCITED

Today I found out that baby Jax was finally released from the hospital. He is so strong and healthy now! :) I cannot wait to go home this weekend and spend time with the new babies Jax and Allison as well as my friends and family. I am carving pumpkins with my boyfriend's family, well I don't actually know if I will carve it because I find the seeds very disgusting, so maybe I will just paint mine. I am very excited to get to have home cooked meals, that is one thing I am definitely missing from home. I am also babysitting when I come home this weekend which is very exciting because I absolutely love everything about the kids I babysit! I cannot wait until Friday! :)

Roomate

My roommate and I have had our ups and downs. We get along really well but on some days I just get very frustrated. This whole sharing a tiny room with someone else is very difficult!! This last week we have gotten along a lot more than we did in the beginning which is awesome. She is now keeping her side of the room clean and it is nice to have someone just to chat with about how my day is going. We are both done with our fall season of sports so we will be spending more time together I am sure and that could be good or bad, I am not quite sure yet. I really hope we continue to get along and do not have any conflicts.

ED100

I am in foundations of american education and on Friday we took the hardest test! The test consisted of three parts; 5 court cases, two paragraphs, and multiple choice, short answer, true/false. The five court cases were not bad at all because I studied very hard for that part. The two paragraphs were not bad either because I had options to choose from. The part that was very hard was the multiple choice, short answer and the true/false, this part was even open book, which the others were not. I only left four questions blank but guessed on many. I am very glad that it was an open book test for that part because otherwise I would have only been able to answer maybe ten questions! I have learned for the future I will still have to actually study even for an open book test.

Another New Baby!

Molly is a lady that I babysit for frequently when I go back home. She has 2 kids, Jackson who is 4 and  Kaitlyn who is 2. They have recently had a new addition to their family, Allison Marie. Allison was born on Tuesday night at 9:19pm. I am so excited to have two new babies around when I go back home. I cannot wait to babysit baby Allison:)
Also my nephew Jax is doing much better and can now eat and breathe completely on his own. Today after class I get to go to the hospital and hold him for the first time. I am overly excited about this and my attention span is little to none today!!!

On Monday morning at 5:58am I became and aunt to 6lbs 5oz baby Jax Lee. Jax was born 4 weeks and 4 days early. He is a very healthy baby boy and can breathe on his own but he is not quite strong enough to take full deep breaths on his own. He is currently on oxygen and no one has been allowed to hold him, not even his mom or dad and I find that very sad. I cannot wait until he is strong enough so that we are allowed to hold him and hopefully he can be released within this week. This was a very exciting day for me because I love babies. I cannot wait to spoil him!

My brother's girlfriend is pregnant and is due in November! She is having a baby boy and they are naming him Jax. I am so excited to finally be an aunt. I love babies so much:) Also a lady I babysit for frequently has approximately 4 days until she has the baby. This will be their third child and they are not finding out the gender because they like the surprise. I can not wait to go home on Thanksgiving break and have two new babies!

This week has been very stressful due to tennis because I have been working very hard and putting in extra time to make myself better. I have also been playing with an injury that has been bothering me for 2 and a half weeks. I finally went to the trainer and of course I should have gone when it first started hurting but I didn't so here I am hurting badly but still giving it my all. All my hard work finally paid off because I get to play this weekend against Central and Simpson which is very exciting!

IS

I am a little unsure about my IS topic. It has been changed on me so many times and it is really frustrating. Science is not an interest that I have but the classes that I wanted were all full after I found out. My goal is to try my hardest to stay engaged even though it is not something I particularly enjoy. I intend to do my best in this class.

Tennis

Tennis has been going fantastic. I was a little worried about having a coach other than the one that recruited me but he is awesome! He spends so much of his own time working with me to improve my forehand. The season is just the right amount of time it is 7 weeks and we are almost already done (which I am getting a little excited about) :) The girls on the team are the best group of girls ever! they are so nice and I think a few of us are going to be really good friends. So far being a student athlete is not too difficult but it is a little overwhelming knowing that when I'm not on court I am doing homework but it won't be for too much longer! I am excited to see my progress as a tennis player!

Struggle

Having a roommate is a very difficult thing when I have always had my own room. Also having two older brothers I have never had to live with a girl my age. My roommate is so messy the futon is never cleared off so I can never sit on it and she comes into the room at 11 o'clock p.m. when I am trying to sleep. I hope things get better. On the plus side she is very friendly and we are both in a sport so we are rarely in our room at the same time other than when sleeping.

What is the value of an educated life?
An educated life is very valuable. I believe that many people cannot follow their dreams without proper education. College education is now very important because many people do not want to work at a minimum wage job the rest of their life.

How do the ideas that have been presented so far match up with your reason for being here?
I came to Wartburg to further my education so I can get a high paying job so in the future I can support my family and do a job I will enjoy doing the rest of my life (teaching).