Christmas Recap

The past two weeks have been wonderful. I slept in, watched tons of TV and movies, and gallavanted all over Spartanburg visiting with people. Here's a very brief recap of my latest adventures.

The weekend I arrived in town, I was able to see the kids that I taught piano and used to babysit. I miss them so much!!! They have grown up so much - I'm pretty sure that Kristen will be taller than me the next time I return home.

The week before Christmas was pretty relaxed - I finished up my Christmas shopping, worked on homework, and caught up on rest.

On Christmas Eve, the family went to see the lights at Roper Mountain before going to the Christmas Eve service at church.

For Christmas, I got a professional-grade blender. You know you're old when you're ecstatic about getting housewares. :) I haven't taken it out of the box yet, but I can't wait to get home and make use of it!! It will come in very handy next week when I get my wisdom teeth out. I'm almost completely packed - and it looks like I will be able to fit everything in my luggage, along with the blender. It'll be tight, but I'm optimistic!

This past week, Ashleigh and I headed down to Rachel's house for a 3 Musketeers sleepover. We have a wonderful time. Getting together with these girls is always a blast! We had a Katherine Heigl marathon and watched "27 Dresses" and "Life as We Know It." I had forgotten how cute the first movie is - I bought it for Ashleigh for Christmas, and I'm thinking I need to go get my own copy!!

Yesterday my parents, Jocelyn, and I saw the movie "Courageous." It was done by Sherwood Pictures, a church located in Albany, Georgia. Their movies just get better and better. I was really impressed by the acting, and the storyline was very good as well. I don't usually cry in movies, but this one definitely caused tears on several occasions.

Tonight my family is headed to a New Year's Eve party, and then I fly out in the morning. I'm not really looking forward to starting school again, but the break has made a huge difference in my mental sanity. As of Monday, I'm on the downhill - only a year and a half left!!

Sic 'Em Bears!!

Since I went to a very small undergraduate university, I'm trying to soak up all the experiences of a big university while I'm in law school. At least, the ones that seem mildly interesting and which aren't obsolete now that I'm a graduate student.

This past weekend, I went to a football game. In the rain. Actually, it didn't rain the entire game - but the ponchos I purchased from Academy Sports were definitely used - and worth every penny of the $4 I paid.

Here is a picture of us before we got wet - and before the rest of our party arrived. :)

The game was awesome. We were playing University of Texas, and since I have a couple friends who went there, I enjoyed some trash talking via text message during the game. It was very helpful that we were winning the entire game. :)

Other than that, my weekend was pretty laid back. On Saturday morning, I judged an undergraduate moot court competition here at the law school. It was kind of weird to be on the other side of the podium!! The teams were very good...and I ended up just telling them things that my professor had told me for my competition.

Sunday was church, and then in the evening I went to a new community group. Some of the graduate students are wanting to start one that meets every other Sunday night. I'm really looking forward to it - I think it will be a great opportunity to get connected at my new church, and hopefully it will increase the circle of people I know here in town.

The week has gotten off to a rough start, unfortunately. It seems that life has decided to throw me a multitude of curveballs to make things that much more difficult before I head home for Christmas break. I arrived home yesterday afternoon to find out that my flash drive was unresponsive. This little drive had ALL of my notes for this quarter, several projects that were not backed up, and my outlines, etc. from the past year and a half. Needless to say, I spent the next hour and a half calling my Dad, bawling my eyes out, and trying desperately to get the thing to work. Thankfully, I was eventually able to jam it in and hold it at an angle and retrieve everything on it. And I promise I will NOT let this happen again...I just always forget to make duplicates of my files!

This morning, I woke up and my voice was going out. It's currently 5:11pm, and my voice is completely gone, despite the fact that I have hardly talked all day. My throat has been sore since yesterday, so I think it's laryngitis (at least, according to WebMD). The internet said it can last anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks. Here's praying that it's closer to the 2 day mark...or less. I've got a big trip to San Antonio/Austin planned this weekend that involves Asian karaoke, and I'd rather not be left sitting on the sidelines. :)

I'm a little scared about what's going to happen tomorrow...

I DID IT!!!

Last Saturday, despite getting over a cold and generally feeling like a brick when I run these days, I finally accomplished my goal of running a sub-30-minute 5K!!!!!! It was a very pleasant surprise, and a nice confirmation that I am still reasonably fit - despite the fact that I feel like I've regressed in my running this year. In fact, I even went back to my very beginning training plan ("Couch to 5K") in hopes that I would feel like I was making progress. Up until Saturday, I wasn't convinced that it helped. But at least I'm making some improvement! And I was 3rd in my age category!!

AnnaGrace was 1st in her age category - yay us!!! The only unfortunate part is they didn't announce 2nd and 3rd for my age category (or if they did, I couldn't hear), so I didn't get my medal. :( Oh well - I guess I'll just have to "constructively" put up a medal on my wall. :)

Thanksgiving was WONDERFUL. I managed to check almost everything off my list!!

• Believe! 5K
• Done and beasted!!
• Stuffed crust pizza
• Almost - Dad made pizza, but cheese didn't make it into the crust. It was fabulous nonetheless!
• Cinnamon rolls
• I didn't even have to beg :)
• Christmas light hunting
• We forgot :(
• Christmas shopping
• Check!! I picked up a few more things and got some more ideas
• Make frosted wine goblets
• Check!
• Watch lots of Christmas movies
• Elf and Polar Express - does two count as "lots"??? I say yes
• Eat until I'm stuffed
• ABSOLUTELY

And added to the list:

• Watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
• CHECK! And p.s., NBC has by far the BEST coverage

• Hanging out with family and the most adorable little guy EVER

• And of course, acting like an idiot - because I can :)