A more detailed recap (using excerpts from Letters to Charlie):
April 26
This week is my last week of classes which is amazing to me. Well my last week of classes of my very first semester! I'm taking the next math class this summer, it meets 3 times a week and it's very intense as summer classes are done in half the time as Fall and Spring ones. I want to take this class this summer so I can take the following Math class in the Fall with the professor I have now. He's a part time lecturer and knows he's going to be teaching that class so I've set it up to do this next one in the summer and then the next one in Fall. Then I'll be done with Math other than a statistics class I'll have to take. I'll be so glad to get done with Math, it's not my strongest subject but I know a lot of people are in the same boat as I and I work very hard at it, studying a lot, asking as many questions as possible and so I've done really well in this math class! I'm really nervous about the final. This class is a pass/fail class, so you don't get a grade and there are 5 exams and you have to pass them all. In the regular exams you have to pass 3 out of 4 in each section and usually there are 3 or 4 sections. In the final it's 30 questions and you have to answer 21! I've always passed all the exams with flying colors, but that makes me so nervous and I get so anxious before tests anyway. I study a lot but I worry I'm going to blank out as I stare at the test. Luckily it hasn't happened yet but I still have that fear. Hopefully that'll get better as I continue furthering my education.
We just had a Spanish exam last Tuesday I think it was, and I was sooo nervous about that. I thought we would have our scores by that Thursday but he didn't have them ready so I asked our professor to email them as well as our Grade in Progress. I was scared to get the news, though I thought I did ok and he emailed me later that day on Thursday and told me I got a 95 on the exam! I was soooo excited! Then he said my grade in progress was 413/450 which equals out to be a 92% but then he emailed me again and said I had 37 bonus points which means I have 450/450 or 100% in the class! Man, that feels amazing! Spanish is my main area of study so I really want to excel in it.
Last week boy was I mad when I realized that my stupid English professor is requiring us to not do only 3rd drafts of every single paper we've written but also 4th drafts to 3 of them! I am like how do you know when you are done with a 3rd and move on to a 4th?! Well anyway I've been working on revising them more and my Comp Lit Prof who is also an English Prof is helping me. Tomorrow and Wednesday I have to get them done as my Final Portfolio is due on Thursday the 28th of this week. I'll mail you my finished and finest 4th draft papers next week.
Well kids are in bed and I'm laying on a heating pad. My low back has been pinched for a few days and in the evening after a whole day out and about it starts hurting. The heating pad helps a lot. I think it's from the shoes I wear which are flats that have absolutely no support in them. Of course I used to be able to wear that stuff with no problem but aging is a bitch lol.
So I'm excited to tell you that I'm keeping a secret from my children. And David. And my girls specifically. Haha! Okay I'll tell you, but you have to promise to keep it secret! I'll list them in order J. Secret #1: (From my girls specifically) Do you know who Justin Bieber is? He's like 12… well actually he is 16 but he looks like he is 12. He's a new boy singer, similar to perhaps Justin Timberlake when he was younger. He has this one famous song called Baby, Baby, Baby. Maybe that's not the title but that's the chorus and then they go like oooohh! Well anyway the girls are obsessed with him. They have a poster, pins, his cd and stickers. Grace will matter-of-factly state that he's her boyfriend, so cute! Anyway he's in concert in Indy in August and I bought tickets! Mandy (Neal) Barker is going with as well with her daughter, Kaylee. The girls have no clue and so they are going to Freak out when they find out! I don't want to tell them until we are on our way and I know they will be soooo excited!
Okay second secret involving David. David is my partner for life. We will not get married until I'm out of college, which will be around 5 years. I would also like you to be there so if it's 6 years it'll be 6 years. I think you are half way out! (think of it that way!) Anyway, just because we won't get married until I'm out of college doesn't mean I don't want a diamond before that, haha! We have talked about it and he has said that if I got him a ring he would get me one. So we've been looking quite a lot. We've found a couple rings that I really liked, the two that I've like curved upward and have one bigger center stone and two smaller ones. They are so brilliant it's almost blinding. David wanted a ring with diamond in it as well and we found this one ring that he really liked that was 70% off. It's an awesome ring. Well I went back after a couple days and purchased it and got it sized! I have it in my filing cabinet as I'm trying to think of a way to give it to him. I want the kids to be involved and maybe ultimately have the kids give him the ring. I'm so excited! Let me know if you have any ideas!
Okay third secret and by far the biggest (from all the kids)….. Ready? Of course you are! We are going to Disney World!!!!!!!!!! I'm so giddy I'm beside myself and I only allow myself to be giddy when I'm not around the kids, because of course I don't want them to know! Okay so let's rewind a bit. Disney is a big decision right, it's super far away and can be very expensive! David's cousin is getting married in West Virginia on May 22. So we are going to that and taking the kids and we were looking at where we could take them on vacation that was near WV. I really wanted to go to Washington D.C. but the more David and I talked about it the kids are just too young to appreciate it. I absolutely want to get to D.C.within the next year but that'll probably be a David and I trip until the kids are older. I've never been to D.C. and I really would love to see it, the history of it and all the monuments I would just love to see in person. So anyway after we decided to not go to D.C. I was kind of at a loss. So I started looking on the ocean but David said where I was looking it would be too cool in May. So then I said well what about Disney? I had priced Disney before and it was ridiculously expensive and so I said we would only go one time when the kids were older. When I mean ridiculous I mean like $2500 no shit. So I just started looking at Disney and went to Vacation packages and got an amazing deal on a hotel right on resort with tickets to the price and a dining plan. It is significantly cheaper. So David and I decided to go for it! We are going to get there on May 24 J and we'll be leaving on that Thursday evening or possibly Friday morning. I may add a night to the hotel as we are set to leave Thursday but I'm not sure how far out we'll want to go as we plan on going to Epcot that day. Today I made reservations for dinners there, thru the dining plan you get the opportunity to have character meals, which I know the kids would just flip over! So here's the plan: Sunday we are driving from Charleston WV to stay in Savannah Georgia, one of the Top 10 most beautiful places in the United States. It's right close to the ocean so the kids are going to see it for the very first time. Monday morning we are going to get up and on the road early in the am and head to Orlando to our resort on Disney, which is called the Port Orleans Resort. It mimics the Louisiana/New Orleans feel. It's really pretty from the pictures I've seen online (I'll take lots and lots of pictures). Monday we are going to go to Hollywood Studios, then Tuesday we are going to go to Magic Kingdom (where Cinderella Castle is and all that) and ride rides, go to shows and also on Tuesday we are having dinner at the Grand Floridian Resort (included in our dining plan) and we will be dining with Cinderella, Prince Charming, The Wicked Stepmother and the Stepsisters J. We won't actually be dining with them of course but they will come and visit the table and we'll get pictures etc. Then we'll go back to Magic Kingdom and watch the Spectra-Magic Parade (parade at night all lighted up, the floats etc.) and then watch Fireworks then back to our room. Wednesday we are going to Animal Kingdom and we are having dinner at Saasi I think it's called (I have it written down in my calendar) and it's right on the serengetti so there may be giraffes and zebras right outside while we are eating our dinner! Then on Thursday morning we are going to Epcot and we have a breakfast scheduled in the Norwegian Hall with all (or most of) the Disney Princesses: Mulan, Ariel, Belle, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Cinderella and Jasmine. Plus there are other times we'll be able to meet the Princesses and Mickey etc. I have the days I'm going to each one and now I have to write down a check list of stuff to pack and take with us and then also plan on what we absolutely want to do while we are at Disney. It's very overwhelming!
On the way home we plan on staying in Nashville, TN, which is about halfway and I've never been to Nashville and so it sounded like a good plan! I'm sure by the time we are on our way home we will definitely be ready to be home! Plus we'll miss our babies we left here (aka Jet, Aspen and our cats).
Okay well I think that's it for now! I'm tired, it's only 9 pm but I'm ready for bed!
May 3
Well it's Finals week! Eek! Actually I haven't been stressed at all about it, which is surprising as I get test anxiety. I'm sure it'll start kicking in. I have a Spanish final tomorrow at 8 and then my Computer Literacy Final at 10:15. Then I have my Algebra final at 3:15 on Wednesday. After that I'm done until June 7th when I'm taking one summer course, the next step up from the math course I'm in. I am doing that so I can take the one even further up with the professor I have now in the fall. In the fall I'm registered for 5 courses, 1.5 which are online.
This weekend was very busy. Friday we had karate and Saturday was Dad's birthday. David, the kids and I headed over there for a yummy lunch with Mom, Dad, Grandma, Mandi and her son, Michael. After lunch the girls and I went over to our friend Sarah's house as she just had a baby. Mom and Grandma drove separate. Sarah is Mom's best friend from high school, Tina's, daughter. The girls Loved the baby and I got some really cute pictures that I'll send along.
Yesterday (Sunday) we went to my Computer Literacy professor's, Roger, house for a cook out. We all had a good time. Roger is a really good guy, he's a priest with the Anglican church as well as a Professor and he was a Prison Guard at the State prison here in Michigan City for 25 years. He has a good sense of humor and has helped me tremendously with my writing for English 101. I'm planning on taking English 102 with him in the Fall as a Hybrid, which means we meet one day a week and do a lot of work online as well.
David and I decided to have a yard sale the weekend before we leave for Disney so this week and weekend we are going to organize for that. I love having yard sales, Blythe likes to do a lemonade stand which holds her interest for about an hour and then she's done with it J.
Tomorrow Blythe is in a concert at the school. It's called an All Star Musical but I'm pretty sure it's a concert. She has a solo, which is so exciting! She does really well at school, though she struggles with math and excels in reading which is like I was.
Oh yeah, yesterday we also got the kids and David's haircut and the girls got colored streaks in their hair. Grace got purple streaks that showed up really brilliant in her hair and Blythe got pink which did not show up like the purple so tonight while I'm studying David is going to take Blythe to get a couple of purple streaks in her hair. It looks cute.
I'll be getting my grades a week from today which is exciting but also nerve-wracking!
Saturday night David and I watched IronMan. Have you seen it? I had never seen it though I love like the Spiderman's and Batman's etc. I don't know why I had never seen it, but the 2nd one is coming out this weekend and David really wants to go to that but I told him I had to see the 1st one 1st. I really liked the movie, it was rather gross in a couple of spots but overall I really liked it and would highly recommend it to you if you have not seen it! Also watch UP if you have the chance. I know it's a Disney/Pixar movie but it's awesome!
Okay well I have to study for Spanish! I'll be sure to print off those papers and pictures and send them along with this letter!
May 6
Regarding the house, I love this house. I guess I didn't realize I came across like I didn't. I really do, I love the school district and I'll be sad to leave this house. I wanted to buy the house on Land Contract and then remodel it to a 3 bedroom house. We could get it at a steal and putting equity in it we could really make some good money on it when we do finally want to sell it. But unfortunately that is not going to happen with this house. Because I don't work and David pays child support and we both don't have the most stellar credit, buying a house is just not in the game plan right now. So we are stuck with what we have but it's not bad. I just wish we would've been able to remodel and have the perfect home for us. It needs work but we were definitely willing to put that work into it.
You asked what I do all day long and basically it differs every day. I am the first one up 98% of the time. I get the kids up and ready for school, feed them breakfast and then David or I take them to school. When I was in college I would go straight to school on Tuesday and Thursdays as I had class at 9:30. Monday and Wednesday I only had one class from 4 – 6:15. Now I won't have class til June 7 thru July 30 and then Fall semester starts Aug 23 thru December. Some days I'll go into David's office and help answer phones or clean the office since Debbie (his mom and boss) pays for my cell phone. Some days I'll stay home and clean or think about cleaning, haha! Some days I study for school, or work on a paper. Go grocery shopping or just sit around and catch up on TV I've previously recorded with the DVR. So nothing exciting.
That's a great memory about slug bug and doing all the games that we do. Blythe, David and I play the Animal game which is like ok, you name an animal that starts with an A, then I would, then Blythe and then David and then we would move onto B. It's a lot of fun. My kids tend to watch a movie on the portable dvd player or bicker and fight. It's lovely lol (laugh out loud, I'll use that a lot). Sometimes I wonder if we acted like that. I remember when we used to fight when we were in Caro, but that was when we were older, and of course that's totally natural for a brother and sister to do. Remember when Mom and Dad recorded us swearing haha. We always tried pinning it on the other. Figures they'd outsmart us. My kids are great and I love them, but they definitely can be challenging and there are some days where I'm just counting down til bedtime. I try not to spank the kids unless I've really just lost my temper (but I never hit to hurt) and I feel like I yell too much of the time. It seems that they don't listen until I'm yelling. I'll say the same thing over and over again and until I yell it doesn't get done. I'm dreading the drive to Florida, but we are stopping of course in Charleston for the wedding and then again in Savannah, GA. You can plan on receiving lots of pictures on our return!
I think our families will have family traditions once you are out and create a family of your own. Before you create your own family, we can have our own family traditions together. We do have some traditions but they do change as well. Like last Christmas was the first Christmas I didn't stay Christmas Eve night with Mom and Dad. They came over here and stayed at Debbie's condo since she was in Texas, with Grandma and we had Christmas morning here at the house. It was important to David and I to have our first Christmas at our home. So traditions change, but what stays the same is us being together. I feel so sad when I think of you missing out on celebrations and all the time that I could've written but didn't keep up on it like I do now. And even now I miss a week every now and then and I feel so guilty when I do. I definitely want to have a strong relationship with you like we did when we were younger. We always had each other's back. And just so you know I will always have your back. I love you!
I do want to get a memorial tattoo for Dad and Grandpa. I was actually thinking of getting a wolf for Dad, but I am so chicken when it comes to tattoos. I mean I have 4, so I'm not that much of a chicken but I am so incredibly anxious and such a baby when I'm getting them, lol. I would be honored for you to draw a tattoo, but keep it on the small side. J Who all do you want their birthday? JJust let me know, give me a list so I can start making it out. I absolutely love the idea of your Family First tattoo. You are so brilliant when it comes to art. You need to follow that when you get out. You could be an artist or a tattoo artist or a graphic designer. You would be so good with it. My breath caught when I saw the Family First idea, it is so beautiful. You are so talented!
Regarding PNC (Purdue North Central), I won't be back to campus until June 7 but I promise I will take pictures when I do return. In fact I just wrote it down in my daily planner, which is pretty much my bible of daily activities. It the entire week on 2 pages and I put what I need to do on it. So like on class days it'll say what classes I have and what else I need to do, like Spanish homework, dentist and doctor appointments, pay bills, call regarding one thing or another. So it really keeps me organized. I know you are really into basketball and unfortunately I know no basketball players or have even seen one on campus. PNC is not Purdue, Purdue. I mean it is, but it's a satellite campus. It's 3 buildings and then walkways between. It is a beautiful campus, but the Big 10 Purdue would be the campus in West Lafayette which is a few hours away. PNC does have basketball players, I'll check to see if I can find like a newsletter or something like that to send you when the fall semester starts again.
Yes we are all still doing karate, I stopped for a few weeks after my surgery but I came back a couple weeks ago. Man, I'm out of breath when we are done and all sweaty and stuff, but I'm hoping that I can get into some good shape! David and Blythe just found out they are going to be testing for their green belts when we get back from karate, I'm so excited for them! They've gone up from white to yellow to now being yellow with black stripe. So the week we get back they'll test for green belt!
May 11
Well it's Tuesday and I have absolutely no energy. It's kind of rainy drizzly outside and I think it's sapped my energy. Or it could be that I've been lying on the couch since I got up. I have things I could do; dishes, laundry, go upstairs to the toy room from hell and start organizing more toys for garage sale this weekend, but I keep finding excuses not to do any of those things.
Okay, it's afternoon now and I have everything done on my list other than finishing writing you! I'm sitting back and enjoying catching up on the Ellen DeGeneres show. I didn't do much this morning but did go upstairs and got 2 more bins of toys to sell of the kids. Plus I have the clothes around for the garage sale and all the stuff bundled together in the garage of what I'm selling, so I'm in good shape for a Friday garage sale. Tonight and tomorrow David and I are going to move stuff into the garage and then Thursday I'm going to organize a bit before the garage sale starts. Hopefully we make some money which we will take with us on vacation! Only 10 more days until we start on our vacation! Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures.
Mom really loved the card, flowers and the unicorn for Mother's Day. I hadn't received them as I ordered from internet but should soon, I had just printed out a picture of both and put them in her card. She said she had talked to you and you told her I had better have done it! Geesh! J Sunday, David made me an omelette for breakfast and then Mom and Dad came over and we had a lunch of quesadillas and steak verde, which is steak with a green chili sauce and we eat it over rice. Very yummy! Then after Mom and Dad left, we went to Valparaiso, a town about 30 minutes and I did a couple returns, got Blythe a pair of shoes for the wedding we are going to in Charleston and then went to Best Buy where I bought ink for my printer.
So I am not sure I've told you, but my girls are obsessed with Justin Bieber. Do you know who he is? He has a couple very popular song, one with Ludacris called Baby Baby. Anyway, all the kids sing and dance along to his cd and Grace calls him her boyfriend. She's really hilarious with the whole thing. Blythe likes him too, but Grace is quite convinced that she's her boyfriend. She tells everyone, totally straight faced. She has told me that she is going to change her name to Justin so that Justin Bieber knows her name. Blythe told her, "Justin Bieber is not really your boyfriend, he lives very far away in Hollywood, which is 10 hours away," Grace replied with, "I see him all the time at my Dad's house." Another instance was when she told John and I that she's going to walk to Hollywood and marry Justin Bieber, when she grows up of course. Haha. When they were at Jessica and Scott's, Jessica told me that John was saying to her that Justin Bieber is only her boyfriend because she likes him and Grace told him that No she doesn't like him, he's her boyfriend but that doesn't mean she has to like him! Haha! When they got home on Monday John kept saying that Justin Bieber had a girlfriend and it wasn't Grace and Grace was getting upset, and then I realized that John was talking about the video of Baby Baby where there's a girl in the video and so I told Grace that it was just an actress and not really Justin Bieber's girlfriend. It's quite funny and harmless, after all she is 4. I just think it's super cute! They will flip out when the girls find out I bought them tickets to see him in August! I am kind of worried John will be mad, because he sings along with Justin Bieber as well but David said he was going to take him camping that night so hopefully he won't be mad!
David gave me a ring that was his mother's. Debbie (his mom) suggested he give it to me because it's rubies which are my birthstone. It's a pretty ring, it's gold which turns my hand black in the area of the ring sometimes due to the chemistry of my body. I took a picture of the ring and am sending along in this letter.
May 17
Friday, I had a dentist appointment to get my front 2 teeth fixed. I am getting porcelain crowns. The appointment was 2 ½ hours. They took 3 different impressions of my top teeth in different stages and currently I have temporary crowns in now. They are glued in, but not with the permanent glue they use when the permanent crowns come in. They are made in a lab and in about 2-3 weeks they'll be back. I'm a bit nervous the crowns I have in are going to fall out! They are glued, but I'm trying to be super careful. I'll send you a picture when I get them finished. It'll be nice not to have the crooked front teeth anymore. I've always been very self conscious about it.
We had a yard sale this past weekend, Friday and Saturday. We made some money and we are going to use it on vacation, giving the kids their own money to buy souvenirs with. I'm very excited the vacation is almost here, but it's a bit overwhelming thinking of everything I need to do before I get there. Yesterday we ordered a roof top carrier for the top of the car to pack our clothes etc. The trunk is really big but once you add in a stroller and then a cooler, pop and water then there's not a ton of room and we'll be gone for 9 days! I didn't want to get a rack for the top of the car and was able to find a soft bag carrier that you use inside straps with and every review was really good, people exclaiming how wonderful it is, so it gets here on Wednesday and I'm planning on packing Wednesday and Thursday. Then Friday morning we are leaving around 7:45 for Charleston.
So we took a couple stray kitties in. Different kitties than the ones I sent you pictures of. I am including pictures of the kitties with this letter. We haven't named them yet, they are too cute. We think Cullen is the Daddy of these too. He's the only orange tabby around. I am taking them to the vet on Thursday. Our other cats aren't thrilled with them so far, but they will get used to them. The dogs love them of course and Aspen frequently licks the calico one from head to toe
Tomorrow morning I have to get up at 5:15 and leave by 5:45 to sit in what will probably be an incredibly boring seminar 3 hours away in Fishers, Indiana. It's to become licensed in the State of Indiana to be a closer. In Michigan we didn't have to be licensed to close real estate transactions but in Indiana you do.
Today Blythe had a dentist appointment to get two silver crowns on her back molars. They are still baby teeth but they had cavities and they crowned them versus filled them as the cavity was big. She gets so anxious about doctor's or dentist's appointments. She did really good and the dentist is awesome. Right now I am watching Ellen and she is giving Aspen hugs. Aspen is such a good baby. Oh I just remembered some pictures I took of David and Lilly and then the dogs. I'll print those off and send along as well. I always say Lilly hates me as she glares at me all the time. She sleeps right on David's neck though for the last two days she hasn't because of the kittens. Cullen spits and hisses at his own children, we are now calling him a deadbeat dad. J
Yesterday David, Blythe and I went over to Mom and Dad's for lunch. It was really good. I don't know if Mom told you that they had to put Tanner down on Saturday. He was just so old and in pain. It was really hard for Mom and Dad, and all of us, but we know it was the best thing for him. They buried him in the back yard and planted a tree. Lunch was really good, chicken, asparagus, beans and coleslaw and I'm glad we got to see them before we went on vacation.
Thursday David and I went and saw IronMan 2. I'm not sure I told you I watched Iron Man 1 and the Incredible Hulk within the last few weeks. I don't know why I didn't see Iron Man 1, I really like Robert Downey Jr., but I've seen it twice…. I really liked it. If you haven't seen it I think you definitely should. The 2nd one is really good, especially for being a sequel. Plus they throw in hints to an upcoming Avengers movie, which will be amazing I'm sure.
Okay, I'm going to start getting dinner ready and make some brownies for dessert.
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