Monday, January 26, 2009

Don't Worry. . .

. . .I will update again soon. I am actually working on a really fun entry that I am excited about, but haven't had time to finish it. And my laptop is out of commission so I don't have all my pictures, etc. on the computer I'm using at the moment. So, once I get a new laptop and get my pictures/files/life back together, I will be back with a more exciting entry than this one! :-)

I hope all of my wonderful readers are doing well!!!!! :-)

~Laura~

Monday, January 5, 2009

As promised, I am back to continue my update. I believe I left off with Christmas in the last post.

Christmas break has been amazing this year -- I have spent lots of time with friends and I haven't had to worry about homework. A couple days after Christmas some friends and I went to see The Tale of Despereaux, based off a children's book of the same name by Kate DiCamillo. I have not read the book, but heard that it is not quite the same as the movie. The movie was cute, but had some strange parts. . .but Despereaux was the CUTEST little mouse, with the biggest ears! :-)

A couple days after seeing The Tale of Despereaux, I went to see Marley & Me with another friend. Wow. What a good movie. I read the book (by John Grogan) a couple of years ago, and LOVED it. Marley reminded me at times of Cody, and I love a good dog story. And the ending of the book made me cry (I wasn't expecting it to end the way it did). So, when I heard they were making a movie, I knew I had to see it. And wow, was it good. Now, some forewarning: there are parts of the movie that they probably could have left out, and there are some parts that if they had shown any more they would've had to raise the rating. . .but overall it was a good movie that even children could enjoy. And yes, when we first "met" Marley in the movie, I couldn't help but exclaim that I want another puppy. :-) However. . .just to prepare anyone who might decide to watch the movie: I was crying for what seemed like the last half-hour of the movie, but especially in the last 15 minutes or so (seeing affects more than reading, apparently). And I wasn't alone. I don't think there were very many dry eyes in the theater at the end (I could hear lots of sniffling!). And I had to give Cody and Reba extra-big hugs when I came home. But, with that in mind, go see the movie. . .it's #1 at the box office right now for a reason. . .and trust me, everyone, dog-lover or not, will find it to be a cute dog movie. :-) You'll laugh and cry all in one 2-hour movie -- and to me, that is a sign of a good movie!

New Year's Eve was spent at my friend Sarah's house. We had a blast playing Scattergories, Dance Dance Revolution, Uno, and Backseat Drawer. And, of course, at midnight we watched the ball drop on TV and then ran around the neighborhood banging on pots and pans with wooden spoons. We have to start the year off with exercise, right?! :-)

January has been off to a good start. My friend Joy is back in town for Christmas break, and we just had to do something together! Joy and Mary used to work with me and Devin, and the four of us have done quite a bit together (we all saw Mannheim Steamroller together in 2007, the three of them helped me celebrate my birthday, we have played intense games of Dutch Blitz together, etc.) so it made sense that we'd do something when Joy was in town for Christmas break. We got together and played Scattergories and looked at pictures -- and of course we just had to take a picture. That's me, Mary, Devin & Joy in the picture above.

Last night was lots of fun. I went to my friend Val's house, and, with a group of friends, watched Stardust, which was a strange movie, and I'm not sure I'd recommend watching it. It was a bit weird and, well, interesting. But, after the movie we played Apples to Apples, Bible Trivia, Backseat Drawer and the Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader board game (fun, but WAY easier than the TV game show of the same name!). We also talked, of course, and just enjoyed hanging out together.

There is one week left in Christmas break and I am hopeful that it will be just as fun as the last few weeks have been. After this week the countdown is on for graduation!

I hope you enjoyed the updates. . .I'll try to update more frequently now, assuming I have something interesting to blog about!

Have a great week! :-)

Sunday, January 4, 2009

An Update

Yes, I know, I haven't updated my blog in awhile. I've been on Christmas break and haven't really felt like coming up with a creative entry. Plus I've been working a lot, and spending every possible moment with friends -- along with trying to keep from getting snowed in with our record amounts of snow outside. But, now I am back with some pictures to show you some of the things I've been up to recently. . .


We had a Christmas party at my work on the Saturday before Christmas. We had a gift exchange, pizza and lots of fun! I ended up with a very sweet gift -- a bag of candy and cookies. I'm trying to space it out and not eat it all at once. :-)

The Christmas party happened to fall on the same night as my co-worker/friend Devin's 21st birthday, so a few of us got our creative brains together to come up with The Ultimate 21st Birthday Present. It consisted of 21 little gifts (we decided we love the Dollar Tree!) -- most of them being inside jokes between all of us at Great Harvest (a red high heel ornament, a Hannah Montana singing pen (gag!), etc.) and some being just plain funny -- like the little container we found with 21 gumballs -- for a 21 gumball salute! :-) It was a fun way to end the Christmas party. :-)

As I think I've mentioned before, I am the Activities Chairperson for the student council at my college. Our winter activity (which I organized) was a cruise to the North Pole on Lake Cd'A. Each year they take boats across the lake to the "North Pole" which is all decked out in lights, while Santa reads the names of all the kids on board. It's fun and pretty, although it was *freezing* (literally) that night. Our winter activity happened to occur on the same night as the Christmas party at work, so I went from the Christmas party to the North Pole, and I was able to convince Devin to come freeze with me (on his birthday, no less!). We were VERY cold (I have a new appreciation for those on the Titanic), but we were all bundled up and had a blast!

I had to work for a few hours in the morning on Christmas Eve, and after I clocked off I couldn't help but take some pictures of some of the icicles outside. The icicles on this gas can were my favorite -- I thought they looked like a walrus. :-) After I took some pictures of the icicles and snow (none of which turned out as good as I wanted them to), work had pretty much slowed down, so Devin was also able to clock off, and we went sledding (I didn't want to go by myself -- it's no fun that way!) and then we drove out by the lake to look at the Bald Eagles that are here this time of year. The Bald Eagles are SO impressive, let me tell you! I only saw about 3 or 4, but wow! They look so majestic when they fly!!!!!

Christmas came and went rather quickly. My mom and brother got home from California just a couple days before Christmas, so we didn't have much excitement leading up to the big day, but it was nice just the same. We spent the day at home, doing nothing too exciting. However, it was the whitest Christmas I can imagine (as in, feet of snow on the ground and more falling!) which was really nice.


. . .There has been more going on, but this entry is getting rather long, and I need to get ready to go -- I'm heading to a friend's house to watch a movie -- so I will continue this update later.