1 More Day Until Urbana 09/End of 2009

So, this is my last blog post of 2009! This is because I will not have access to a computer while I am in St. Louis. I can't believe a year went by so fast. And I can't believe that I'm going to a missions conference tomorrow. I'm actually going. Normally, with these kinds of things, I'm more of a dreamer than a doer. But with this conference I'm actually going. So crazy cool. It still hasn't fully sunk in yet, even though I'm pretty much packed.

This is so cool, that I almost forget how we got a snowstorm that lasted at least 10 hours nonstop and received 10 inches of snow (we were supposed to only get 2 to 3 inches). Or I almost forget how work wasn't great or how my New Moon outing was cancelled because of snow. Almost.

I just cannot believe I am truly going. It's so surreal and exciting. When I get back, I will do my best to write stuff down (if I'm not too tired). But in the meantime, Happy New Year everyone!

From the Realm of Randomness,

Ashley

Merry Christmas 2009!

Hello all! Merry Christmas! ¡Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noel! Natale allegro! Frohe Weihnachten!

To those fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who might be reading this, I hope you got to have a moment to rejoice the birth of Christ in addition to the rest of the festivities. To those who are not Christians, I hope you had a great day with family.

I had a rather good day, if I say so myself. Got a few good gifts, such as "Hairspray" DVD, "Fiddler on the Roof" DVD, a bunch of gift cards, Rick Steve's "Europe Through the Back Door 2010" (probably my favorite travel writer), and a year's subscription to the magazine "Budget Travel" (now if only I can afford airfare and rack up flyer miles, I'll be set!). Saw mom's side of the family, that was nice, and then we watched "Julie and Julia", which my mom got for Christmas. It was great second time around, SUCH a cute movie (you can't help but smile when Meryl Streep comes onscreen) and even my dad liked it! That was cool.

Well I have a BUSY day tomorrow. Tomorrow, I work from 8:45-5pm (ew), then I am watching New Moon with a friend around 5:45pm, get back around 8:30ish, spend the rest of the day packing and cleaning my closet, and going to bed EARLY because I am getting up EARLY.

From the Realm of Randomness,

Ashley

Christmas Eve 2009

Well, it was a nice day. Weather was nasty, though. Here's a summary, since I don't have a ton of energy:

-Went to Christmas Eve service at family's church, it was good.

-Went to my grandmother's house (on my dad's side) for dinner and opened presents, it was nice (my youngest bro was THRILLED about the presents).

-Moped slightly because I couldn't go to the Candlelight service at my church because of weather.

That's about it. I'll try to clean my closet a little.

From the Realm of Randomness,

Ashley

Birthdays and Other Stuff

So, today one of my brother's turned 6. Hard to believe. I think he had a good day. We went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch *shudder*. Just a weird place. At least a couple of the arcade games were decent. And the pizza. Cake was fine, watched "G-Force" which was... interesting, and had Panera soup for dinner. Oh how I love that Baked Potato soup.... Anyway, printed off some important info for Urbana (Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!!), cleaned off a little part of my closet (hoping to do more before bed!), finished "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" (on to "The Lovely Bones") and I'm hoping to actually complete my wrapping (not that there's much to wrap).

I know there was more, but I'm not sure.

From the Realm of Randomness,

Ashley

Productive Day=Somewhat Boring Day

Well, I slept in until 10:15 am today. It felt pretty amazing.... But I was kind of thrown off "schedule". Anyway, cards were finished last night, mailed this morning, and I spent the whole afternoon cleaning my closet (and it's only half done). It looks nice, it felt nice to be productive, but didn't have enough time to catch up with friends on Facebook before I went to work. So today was somewhat boring. Oh well. Work was fine, by the way, seemed to go by quicker than usual. Got some reading of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" in, that was good (I'm only halfway through the book and I have to return it on Saturday! Eeek!). I got a couple emails from Urbana 09, which made me SO EXCITED. I can't believe I'm leaving on Sunday. So weird and surreal, but exciting.

Oh, and an update. I found out that I got a B in Astronomy (YAY! Amazing for such an evil class), an A in Photography, an A in Basic Algebra, and an A in Spanish!!! Woohoo!!! Unfortunately, the B in Astronomy drops my cumulative GPA down from a 3.9 to a 3.8, but hopefully if I stay on top of my grades next semester, I'll be in good shape. In case you're wondering, the scholarship I got from Trinity requires a 3.7 GPA. Even though I'm not 100% sure I'm going there, I still want to hold on to any scholarship that I can!

Anyway, better go to bed. Sometimes, I think I should update this BEFORE bedtime, but oh well.

From the Realm of Randomness,

Ashley

New Low: Procrastination DURING BREAK

So, you may be wondering, "How on earth can a college student procrastinate when they're ON BREAK and DON'T HAVE HOMEWORK?" Well, I will inform you with a few choice words: Cards and cleaning.

See, my closet is a bit of a mess. Okay, that'll make even Eeyore laugh. My closet looks like the aftermath of a hurricane that swept through a disaster area that's been thrown up and then exploded. So it needs to be cleaned during break, before Urbana so that I don't have to worry about it for the rest of break. However, I really despise cleaning... so I'm putting it off. I cleaned one section a few days ago, but at this rate I'll need to clean for hours tomorrow before work. Ew.... I told myself today that I'll be productive in other ways, like writing Christmas cards to friends. But I'm procrastinating that too. Argh. So I need to get on that.

On a different note, had breakfast with my mom today, we went to Walker Bros. It was very nice. : )

5 MORE DAYS UNTIL URBANA 09!!!

From the Realm of Randomness,

Ashley

Progressive Dinners, Scavenger Hunts and White Elephants, Oh My!

Church was good, youth pastor gave it and it was cool. Saw some friends that were home, that was nice. Got to chat with a friend who's going to Urbana as well, that was pretty cool (he's not coming up with me, obviously, he's going with his group down at U of I). I seriously cannot believe that exactly one week from today, I will be in St. Louis. Crazy.

Now, with my Bible study, we did a Scavenger Hunt/Progressive Dinner (a progressive dinner is where you have different courses at different houses; for example, appetizers at Person A's house, entree at Person B's house and dessert at Person C's house). Now the way we did it was we had clues of what we need to find, we take a picture of what we need and send it to one of the leaders (the majority of people have camera phones). Then once we got our two clues out of the way, we get the address of where we will have appetizers, dinner, etc. It was fun, and what was funny with pictures is that we ALL had to be in the picture in some form or another. So usually that meant the picture taker stuck their index finger in the picture. It was funny, cuz the finger always looks bigger than the people.... Anyway, at the dessert place, we had a White Elephant gift exchange. I got a Soccer Nightlight.... Yeah.... It was funny. So good night, good night.

Um, still wanting to go to St. Louis, which is good. And I will probably totally regret staying up late, especially since I'm getting up semi-early. But it's all good.

From the Realm of Randomness,

Ashley