Family Visit

Last week my sister, BIL, and niece drove up from MO to visit family for a week - I was so excited to see them! They had a long drive {9-10 hours} with a very full car - they also brought their dog Proton with them {Proton = D is a science teacher!}. We had very packed days and although I love seeing them and spending time with them, it is nice to have the house back in order!

Family photo! D {BIL}, P {sister}, Myself, AJ {niece}, dad, J {brother}, A {SIL}

Dad made 'Camp Abby' while we were boating with Grams!

Showing us all how she can tame the wildest of creatures!

The first full day they were here, we went to MOA for Underwater Adventures, Rainforest Cafe, and I took her to Build-A-Bear to make a stuffed animal, aptly named 'Kitty'

PB and AJ at Underwater Adventures {World}


Myself, AJ, and Steven {Teeve}


So cute, she gives out kisses when asked!

Our photo by the 'Camp Abby' sign

I do have to admit that I dropped AJ on her head :-/
We were at Ikea and she was sitting in one of these and I was playing with her, tipping her back and what not and my hands just missed grabbing the handle bars....I felt sooooo bad. Granted, there was a pocket holder full of stuff that broke her fall, along with my feet, and she only fell back maybe three inches. But still. Eeeeek :-/

I still feel bad about it {Sorry PB} :(

It's crazy how advanced AJ is though, already stringing together two-to-three words {She'll be two in November}, pointing at things and connecting them with other things, she can point to us and says our names, knows what things are....it's crazy! She also sometimes signs with a word, which I personally love :)

She's just sooo cute, I can't get enough of her! Pretty soon I'll be down there though and I'm sure I'll see them plenty....haha. They're getting ready to put their house on the market so I'm sure once it's sold and they buy a new one, I'll get the pleasure of packing things into my wagon Bessie, and making multiple trips. Joy. It'll be great once it's all done though...I just hope their house sells pretty fast and we can get them in a new place before Christmas, but I'm kinda doubting that. We'll just have to wait and see!

So it was a busy busy week, but so fun and I'm starting to get more and more nervous/excited for moving time to MO! It's coming up crazy-fast!

P.S. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret....ever get sunburned? I rarely ever get burned, but when I do, I throw the Aloe Vera out the window and use my secret weapon - St. Ive's Vitamin E lotion! It never fails to turn my burn to tan and I never peel when I use it. It's awesome. It even works with wind-burn. Seriously. Best thing ever :)

Dun Dun Duuunnnn!!!

So the past few weeks I have been agonizing over what school to attend, and I've made my decision.....and hopefully it's the right one!


Soooo........I've chosen...............................


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William Woods University!!!!

So excited!! I've sent in my tuition deposit, financial aid stuff, signed up for classes, and sent in my housing form! I just need to figure out my private loan information and hopefully will be getting my "temporary housing" stuff in the mail soon!

It was really hard to decide....and it's going to be so hard to leave my family {most of my family!} and my boyfriend, and animals behind :( :'(

That was the biggest deterrent for me for not choosing WWU sooner, but after i was reassured over and over that everyone would survive without me, I decided to take the plunge. Dun dun duuunnn!!!!

I'm nervous/excited/hopeful/hesitant/freaked out as well as much much more, but as my sister said about how she decided to go to school out-of-state "I was just ready for a change." And I am. I want this new chapter in my life. I feel like I'm ready for this. Emotionally leaving people I love I will never be ready for, but "getting out of Dodge" is definitely something that can happen :)

It will be three more years of school. Three. Aiiii carumba! I'll be 24! But I will also hopefully be able to have a great job that I love after graduating so it will be worth it.

I also got into all of the classes I wanted to take this semester so ASL 3, Career Seminar in ASL, Ethics and Decision Making, English Composition II, and Intro to Mass Media, here I come! Getting into all of these classes means that I do have a chance of triple majoring, if I so choose. I was most nervous to sign up for these classes because I was coming so late to the game, for the rest of the semesters, I'll be one of the first people to sign up so I'm pretty positive I'll be able to get everything I want and to get it done!

With triple majoring I will have five classes every semester with two semesters of six classes {those two semesters would be Spring 2011 and Fall 2011} and I would be majoring in ASL Interpreting, ASL Studies, and Communications with a concentration in Broadcast Journalism. If I decide to double major with a minor, the minor would be Comm, I just need to see how classes are and if I can handle everything. Eeeeek.

They also have sororities and fraternities on campus so I get to decide if I'm interested in that or not. I am interested, but I definitely need to see what they're like before I decide. All incoming new students are advised to go through rush week, just to meet a bunch of people, so I'll probably go through with it, but I don't know if I will accept a bid or not.

Rush week happens Aug. 18th through the 22nd. Even if I wasn't going to do rush week, I still have to be there Aug. 18th for orientation. Classes start the 23rd.

All new, incoming students are placed in temporary housing until the 22nd, when people decide if they will go Greek or not. Then on the 22nd, after bids are accepted or not, everyone moves into the room they will likely have for the rest of the year, with their permanent room-mate. Auuhhhhhhh!! Super nervous!! Hopefully, no matter if I go Greek or not, I'll end up with an awesome room-mate. That's really one of the toughest things about college, the room-mate. Oh well, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out!

I just hope that this is the place for me. Where I'll be the next three years for school and that everything works out.

And like my dad and Steven told me, if I don't like WWU, I can always transfer after this year again :)

'Cause it's so much fun transferring!!! Haaaaa.

Week(s) In Review

My summer is not exactly filled with crazy/awesome things, but I like just relaxing and being a bum anyways so it doesn't matter! But that means I typically do not have a lot to talk about {hence lack of posts}...which can be pretty rare for me :)
Haaaaa!

Anyways, since I was able to take a tour of WWU, I was able to con my friend KM into giving me one of St. Kates {she's a nursing major there}! So one nice day KM, her twin sister AM, our other friend K-B, and I trooped over there to take in their gorgeous campus.

It really is beautiful. But they also charge $40,000 a year for a full-time student who lives on campus so I would have been baffled if it wasn't beautiful. Lots of flowers, the buildings were all new or updated and in great condition, and KM even showed us her two hiding spots, haha. I always just assumed that St. Kate's campus was very large and while it is bigger than WWU, it's not that big, which is nice. I'm just not partial to large campuses...for a couple different reasons.

But we toured around, took pictures, goofed off, and had fun :) We also hit up Snuffy's Malt Shop on the way home {yummmm}. It was a nice day and tons of fun {I'll post pictures in a different post....things aren't cooperating}.

Ohhh school...... :)

In other news, 4th of July was nice! My mom went camping that weekend so I got to bring Piper to my dad's Thursday night through Tuesday, boy does he love that dog :D
They are soooo cute together! We just kind of bummed around all weekend, Sunday {the 4th} I can't even really remember if we did anything that exciting...we watched the fireworks on TV 'cause we're cool like that, ha. I didn't really want to go anywhere and neither did dad, plus I wasn't sure how Piper would do around fireworks as it were. I think Friday Steven came over for a portion of the day, we made tacos in a bag {yummmmmmm} and took Piper on a walk, watched a movie. Normal stuff! Saturday I worked all day of course, so that was blaaah :)
Other-wise it was just a relaxed weekend!

And this week I've just been working and figuring out school stuff. My mom went out of town again so after my hair-cut yesterday I picked Piper up again and I'll have to bring her back Monday or Tuesday.

This summer life could go on forever :)

Happy, yet sad.

An old elementary/middle school friend had her baby!

Lisa Devi is so beautiful with a head of shocking dark hair! Congratulations Jenna and AJ, she's beautiful and life will only get infinitely sweeter from here on out with her!

This past year I have known so many people who have given birth or are due shortly, it's getting crazy!

With the baby boom though comes some sadness and my heart goes out for the families who have lost their baby(ies). I'm so sorry and I think about your families every day, how special and important your little one is. I also hope one day soon you guys will all get the Rainbow babies you deserve.

William Woods Visit

Two Sundays ago, dad, Steven, and myself headed down to Missouri to tour William Woods University. We drove all day Sunday, spent the night at my sister and her husband's place in St. Louis, then Monday drove to Fulton to check out the school! Monday night found us back at my sister's and then Tuesday we drove back to MN! I was nervous for the visit, but everyone was so nice and I love the campus!

How nice is that?!

McNutt Campus Center {mail, admissions, cafe, ect}

One of two lakes on campus, this is Junior Lake {people can boat on it and whatnot}

Had to add a picture in of part of the fitness center! {down 20lbs!}

Campus Chapel {non-denominational}

This is Senior Lake

Oldest building on campus {half used to be classrooms, now that half are dorms}

Tucker Dining Hall {they have patio seating!}

Oldest building once again {Dulany Auditorium, this side houses a theatre with classes. The auditorium used to be the chapel so it has beautiful stained glass windows}

The ASL Lab, recently outfitted with new equipment, including Mac computers.

The Library, I think it used to be a stable. It's attached to the academic building {houses offices, including the deans, financial aid, etc}

It's very pretty there and the campus is nice and small. It's situated on about 180 acres and I think there are almost more housing buildings than classroom/office buildings. Most of the acreage is occupied by their stables and arenas {the school owns 157 horses}! Equine science/administration is their largest major. ASL Interpreting is their second largest with 47 students. Altogether, they have just under 1,000 undergraduate students. About 3,000 including graduates and adult learners. So a small campus with a small student population, I like that.

The cost of going to school there including living on campus, tuition, a meal plan, plus all of the other fees tacked on, is just over $25,000. Ouch. But for a private school, that is not that bad at all. St. Kate's, just tuition alone, is over $21,000.

But after looking over classes yesterday, I'm pretty sure I will be in school for three more years :(

I was hoping just for two, but I don't think it will be possible. And that would be for either WWU or St. Kate's. And if I went to Saint Paul College, it is two more years for the interpreting program, but then I would have to add on another year after that to finish my bachelor's degree {at least one more year}. So......six year undergraduate bachelor's degree, here I come I guess!

I might be able to triple major at WWU if it works out right. I've almost completed all of my generals and I need to be a full time student, so might as well get all the degrees I can in that time period!

Hahaaaaa...we'll see. :)

Duluth For Grandma's 5k!

My dad likes to run. A lot. He didn't start until later in life, maybe late 30's? He did Grandma's marathon 8 years in a row, has done Big Sur twice and Boston once. He doesn't really do marathons anymore, but lots of half's, 10ks, 5 ks, whatever he feels like for that day. Two weekends ago now, we were up in Duluth for a day because he ran the 5k Friday night! It was a lot of fun and he did awesome!

My dad's plan, this cracked me up!! We had a busy weekend ahead of us :)

We were able to watch the 'American Integrity' come in

Steven and dad posing in front of the bridge...it's going up!

Skipping rocks into Lake Superior :)

He's all ready to race! Go dad!

Waiting for dad to change and enjoying the gorgeous weather!

After running, dad jumped in Lake Superior, 'cause he's crazy! The water was super cold, but he said it made him feel a lot better! Afterwords, we went to dinner at Grandma's Restaurant and then headed home! It was a great day :)

More Happiness!

I was informed today that I was accepted to St. Kate's now as well! They awarded me with a $7,000 yearly scholarship! I am so blessed!

I'm trying to figure out the cost of attending St. Kate's vs. WWU now....I would be living with my dad if I went to St. Kate's and living on-campus at WWU, so there is a little discrepancy there, but when I tour WWU, they'll probably present my financial aid package to me and same when I go to St. Kate's, so hopefully by the end of the upcoming week I'll have a good idea of what it will cost me to attend either school!

Plus I will also know how many years/credits/classes I will have left at each school....I'm thinking 2-3 years at the most. I have a lot of general classes completed, although each school is slightly different on those. Guess we'll find out!

I am so excited!!!