I did it!

Wow. It's been a while since I posted last. April was just so wild and crazy and then...nothing this week. Yes!!!! It's been soooo nice to get caught up on sleep. I'm so far behind. :)

Sunday was graduation day. No more school, no more homework, no more practicing (at least for a grade!), no school-related stress! The last month or so I literally had a knot in my stomach continually. Just trying to keep up and do all that was expected of me. I had to accompany the choirs for World's of Fun, Spring Concert, and both commencement services. I had to play my Chopin piece for Honor's Recital and the Phi Delta Lambda Honor Society induction ceremony. Finals were a little more stressful than I first thought, although really not bad. Piano juries (final exam for piano lessons) were nerve-wracking. We had our Haydn's Creation performance. I had to make sure that I had enough recital attendace (we had to have 10 creadits a semester - I had 11 this semester and 16 last semester). And I worked part-time through it all. The knot is coming back just thinking about it all.

But it's all done. IT'S ALL DONE!!!!

I kept a 3.96 GPA (both science classes kept me from a 4.0) and was inducted into the Phi Delta Lambda Honor Society as part of the top 15% of my class. I made the Who's Who list.

I'm not trying to blow my own horn, but it was a TON of work and it is nice to know that I could do it. I honestly went into college not having a clue about whether I could make it and do well. I was homeschooled and I wasn't sure whether the good grades I got were really mine or whether my mom just gave them to me. I should have known that my SAT and ACT scores showed that I could do it, but goodness, that was a few years ago.

But I did it. AND IT'S ALL DONE!

Can you tell that it is beginning to sink in for me? :)

This summer, I'll be working part-time and trying to check things off a very long list of things that I want to get accomplished this year (or so). It is so strange that I actually will have time to do these things!

I could eat nothing but spaghetti for a year

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Italian! I love pasta!

Spring Break!

This week is Spring Break! It is so nice to sleep in and just do whatever I feel like doing. Although I have made a few plans and some plans were kind of made for me. Like our home phone going on the fritz. We have our phone through the cable company - the phone went down on Monday and they couldn't come out until today, so I'm stuck here today. But that's OK - I have stuff to do. I've been cleaning my house. I have let so much go while I'm in classes because I just don't have time. But now I do, so I'm trying to get caught up.

Our washing machine has gradually been dying (we bought it used about 8 years ago), so we went to NFM and got a new one. My first new washing machine! I love it so far. I've also been wanting a new fridge, so we bought a new one of those too! I'm excited. We haven't gotten that yet - they are to deliver it sometime next week of the week after. They had a great sale plus I had a coupon and we got free delivery! I love it when we can save like that! Now my kitchen appliances will all match.

After spring break is over, there are only 6 more weeks until graduation! 5 weeks of classes and 1 week of finals. It's going to go so fast because it's going to be wild and crazy busy. Like every evening taken up with something - literally. Recitals, working the box office for events, spring musical, major papers due, concerts, Easter, etc, etc. Throw our birthdays in there too. I'm taking the week after graduation off of work just to get over the month of April! :)

Life is going to change a lot after graduation. I have lots of plans of stuff to do and yet there are still some unknowns too (like my job!). We'll just have to see how it goes after graduation. One thing I'm going to do is overhaul this blog. My original intention for this blog has died and I feel like I've just been going through the motions with it ever since. I have some ideas about what I want to do with it but I won't have time to do anything until after graduation.

We shall see...

This week has been nice. I found out on Monday that both my 12p Math class and 1p choir class were cancelled on both Wednesday and Friday. So, I looked at my schedule, realized that this would be my last chance to take some time off of work, I got someone to cover my shift on both Wednesday and Friday, so I can go home after my stuff during the 10am hour is over. Yay!

I finished my Religions of the World paper (which has been hanging over my head for a while) - it was so nice of the prof to change the due date to a week later. :) Now I just have to critique another student's paper (while they are critiquing mine) and turn it in, then a big part of the semester will be past. Only two more months until graduation!

I'm accompanying some middle school band students for their instrumental solo competition today, so I have been meeting at the school for three early mornings to practice with them (early as in having to there at 7am early). This will be some nice extra money - the school pays $18.97/hr for accompanists. Not bad! I love accompanying and am considering doing it more after I graduate. Just a thought, not a decision yet.

I'm also working hard toward Honor's Recital auditions, which are March 27th. I'm working on Chopin's Nocturne in C minor op 48, no 1. Here is a link to hear it played on YouTube if you're interested. It's been a bear to memorize, but I've pretty much got it down. Now I've just got 3 weeks to really work hard on polishing it. The Honor's recital in April 7th and anyone who makes it to the recital gets a small scholarship and possibly wins an even nicer award, depending on their performance. Last year I won the overall Superior Performance award, which can only be won once by the same participant, so I know I won't get that one.

Oh yeah, I had my 6 month check-up with my endocrinologist last week and it went very well. I've lost anoth 10 lbs in the past 6 months! So, I have lost a total of 25 lbs since my surgery almost 2 years ago! I am pleased and so is my doctor. He says that is the way he wants me to lost weight - slowly.

Odds and Ends

This post is very random - I have lots of different but unrelated stuff to post. I feel like that's the story of my life lately. Just really random.

Randomness #1

Here's a picture of my school calendar for this past week:



It's pretty normal - lots of stuff going on. And this is the last week in February. April is going to be BUSY!!! Yikes...

The big clip helps me be able to open the calendar to the right week. I love it.

Randomness #2

You probably noticed in the calendar (if you could read the pencil scratching) that I had to practice with the middleschoolers this past Thursday at 7:15 - in the MORNING. Yes, in the AM. Meaning that's when I had to be there, meaning I had a 15-20 min drive, meaning I had to get up at 5:30a. Ugh. Next week, I have to there even earlier. Sigh, I am NOT a morning person. :) I am accompanying these middleschoolers for a festival next week. I am playing for about 9 students, each playing their individual instrument for a judge. I did this two years ago (they asked to to do it last year but I was concentrating on my recital) and I enjoyed it.

Randomness #3

Paul and I finally got new cell phones this week, and we upgraded to data plans. We've been talking about doing this for several years now, but couldn't justify the extra expense. But,because we've been Sprint customers for so long (over 10 years!) and his company has a deal with Sprint so that we get the employee discount, we got a really good deal. Paul finally got his Palm Treo phone (he's been wanting this forever) so he can stop carrying three things - his personal cell, work cell, and him Palm - and just carry two things - his personal cell and work cell.

I got the new Rant:

It's going to help me with my text messaging skills, which are seriously lacking. So, text away, my friends!

Randomness #4

We had our Grad Finale this week. Wow, I feel like graduation if actually going to happen! We got our cap and gown, ordered announcements, etc. Then we got our name put in a drawing and I won a gift certificate to Texas Roadhouse. Nice.

Randomness #5

My Spiritual Formation class is one of my favorites this semester. We took the Meyers-Briggs personality test this past week. I had taken it a few years ago with Paul and I was interested to see whether I had changed much, if at all. Well, I am the same, pretty much. I think the changes that I've seen are that I have become even more "extreme" in the traits that I am.

I am an ISTJ - Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging

I find their descriptions interesting and very apropos for me:

"Quiet, serious, earn success by thoroughness and dependability. Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible. Decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of distractions. Take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized - their work, their home, their life. Value traditions and loyalty."

Another description:

"People with ISTJ preferences are extremely dependable and have a complete, realistic, and practical respect for the facts. They absorb, remember, and use any number of facts and are careful about their accuracy. When they see that something needs to be done, they accept the responsibility, often beyond the call of duty. They like everything clearly stated.

Their private reactions, which seldom show in their faces, are often vivid and intense. Even when dealing with a crisis they look calm and composed. Not until you know them very well do you discover that behind their outer calm they are viewing the situation from an intensely individual angle. When ISTJs are "on duty" and dealing with the world, however, their behavior is sound and sensible.

ISTJs are thorough, painstaking, systematic, hard-working, and careful with particulars and procedures. Their perseverance tends to stablize everything with which they are connected. They do not enter into things impulsively, but once committed, they are very hard to distract or discourage.

ISTJs often choose careers where their talents for organization and accuracy are rewarded. Examples are accounting, civil engineering, law, production, construction, health careers, and office work. They often move into supervisory and management roles.

If they are in charge of something, their practical judgment and valuing of procedure makes them consistent and conservative, assembling the necessary facts to support their evaluations and decisions. They look for solutions to present problems in the successes of the past. With time they become masters of even the smallest elements of their work, but don't give themselves any special credit for this knowledge.

A probelm may arise if the ISTJs thinking remains undeveloped. They may retreat, becoming absorbed with their inner reactions to sense-impressions, with nothing of value being produced. They may also tend to be somewhat suspicious of imagination and intuition, and not take it seriously enough."

A long description, I know, and that's not even the whole thing - I edited it down. But...WOW. This fits me, like, a lot. I have never had my personality described in such a way before. This really helps me to understand...well...me.

We took the test in our Spiritual Formation class so that we could see how our personality fit with our spiritual walk.

As an "I", I like solitude, reflection, mediation, contemplation and I make my decisions about Christ privately

As an "S", I use my senses to gather information, experience God in and through things of life

As a "T", I and more analytical and structural and enjoy facts

As a "J", I lean toward structure and "like servies to begin and end on time" (thought that was funny, because it is mostly true, although I have been in ministry long enough to understand the reasons why servies do not always begin or end on time)

There's tons more I've learned. but this post would get REALLY long, so I'll stop. :)

Just the stuff of life

Life can just be plain weird.

A couple days ago, it was CHILL-Y, like below freezing. Today, it is almost 70 degrees. Bea-u-ti-ful. Do I get to enjoy it? Not really. Homework and taxes and...all that jazz.

Taxes. Ugh. Not a lot of fun. But I spent 3 hours doing them today and now they are done for the year - e-filed and everything. Just waiting for the money to start flowing in. Well, not "flowing", but every little bit helps. :) I love TurboTax - we've used it for years and it sure does help make things so much easier!

The semester has swung into full gear now. The first couple weeks were pretty light - not much homework, no major events to work or attend, etc. Now, it's getting busier and busier all the time. I was looking forward to and dreading the onset of all this. I knew February would be the start and that March and April (particularly April) will be brutal. But it's like... boom, bang, whoosh...here it is. Yikes. I'm trying to hold on for dear life.

3 more months... 3 more months... 3 more months... :)

Soul Feast

For our Spiritual Formation class, we are reading Soul Feast by Marjorie Thompson. We are reading a chapter a week and then writing a reaction page. This is an amazing book! The title of my post is a link to the Google page about it. I am already in love with this book.

So far, we have read about spiritual reading and prayer, both subjects I am familiar with, but the author has such a unique perspective on each. I have to honestly say that most of my spiritual influences (people, churches, groups, etc) have taught that scripture reading and prayer should be done is certain specific ways, or at least that it what I have gotten from them, intentioned or not. It is so freeing to know that I can read scripture and pray in a way that is meaningful to me. I can experiment with different ways or do them different ways in different times in my life.

I think this is why I balk when a church or group starts in on a certain reading plan and they want me to follow it; or when prayer groups form and I'm asked to be a part of them. Maybe it's the introvert and/or individualist coming out in me. Not that those other things aren't right or important. But I'm realizing that I need to get my own reading and prayer life right and on-track for me, and then I can participate in those other things if I can.

I think this is a big reason why I am in the place that I am right now. My life is such a mess, at least I feel like it is. I know that some would say "you don't know what a mess is!" and I get that. But for me, it is a mess and I'm just now being able to pull it together, little by little.

This book has some amazing practical examples of how to read and pray. Will they all work for me? Probably not. But they do give me good ideas of where to go. Will they all work for anybody else? Maybe, maybe not. But they are good starting points.

I am excited about reading the rest of this book.