Hey guys! Thanks for all of the comments on the last entry.

Have you seen those things online about the 101 things to do in 1001 days? I’ve been seeing them a lot lately and I’ve always wanted to do one. So, I decided to give it a go. My list is posted here. One of my items is to complete one of someone else’s items, so if you have a 101 in 1001 list, post the link in your comment and I will try to complete one of your items. You’ll notice that get a dog is on the list twice, that’s because Ryan and I want two little critters.

You remember how in the last blog I talked about all the snow? Well, the snow we got SATURDAY is causing many of the local school districts to be closed tomorrow. That’s right – snow from Saturday is still causing closings on Thursday. We’ve gotten just rain since then, so I have no idea what these crazy people are thinking! VCU only had school off Monday, as did most of the other colleges/universities in the area. We’re supposed to get another snow storm on Friday, too – so we will see how all this goes!

Alright, I have lots of homework and a long to-do list to complete, so I am going to go. Please don’t forget to vote for me!

[Edit:] New layout! I had to put one up for Valentine’s Day. The lyrics are from “Whatever it takes” by Zac Brown Band, but I changed “she” to “you” to make it fit what I was going for. <3 [/Edit]

Uggh. We got a ton of snow (ton being a relative term.. it’s a ton for Richmond, and nothing at all for anyone from NWPA/NY) and no-one here knows how to deal with it. I know that they don’t get snow that often, but it’s just frustrating! The roads aren’t even plowed and the snow stopped last night! At lease some people around us are nice though – we got stuck twice today because of the lack of snow-plowing and people helped us get out and borrow some rock salt. Thank goodness for nice people .

The car thing is also a bust. Since Ryan’s loan was for under $4,000 the bank didn’t require him to have collision insurance (they never told him that). So, he essentially paid for all of that insurance for nothing. So now we are just borrowing his Dad’s car for a while while we look for something down here. Do you have any recommendations for a car that has a lot of room and gets over 20mpg?

So, now that I’m back to school I’ve been going to the gym! I’ve already noticed a difference in my endurance. I’m proud of myself… I actually like going to the gym now! It doesn’t seem like a chore anymore. Honestly, the only inconvenient thing is having to actually go to the gym. It’s out of the way from my house, but it’s right by where I have classes… so when I have class, it’s super nice and convenient!

This term also isn’t as busy. That is fabulous for me because last term was…well… to put it nicely, hell on Earth! Ugh! I’m glad I have time to breathe this term. It’s really helping me do a better job on my homework and to plan things out more thoroughly. Yay!

OH! Before I forget… I’m in the SOTF contest over at Stubborn Ox, so if ya’ll could vote for me – I would really appreciate it!

Ok – so as a little something else to give everyone something to comment about, where do you get your Wordpress layouts? A few or my favorites come from just looking under the Dashboard or visiting here.

First of all, thank all of you for all the kind words about the accident. They were very thoughtful and I really appreciate them! Secondly, sorry it’s taken so long to blog again. I wasn’t able to access the website, but it’s all fixed now!

This year, my New Year’s Resolution is to be a happier person. Let me tell you, 2010 is making that one very difficult!

I’m sure ya’ll know about the car accident from the last blog. Well, we’re still fighting with the insurance company about that and it’s such a big pain in the butt! So, we’re waiting to see what’s going on with why we didn’t have collision insurance on a car that still had a bank lean on it (because of our car loan) and why they never informed the insurance company that they still held the title of the car.

Ok, so we were dealing with that. Ryan’s dad let us borrow his Blazer until we buy a new car. Well, since then the brakes have gone bad and the fuel pump has died. Therefore, we are stranded here until that stuff gets fixed. We have an appointment for the car tomorrow (1st thing in the am) so hopefully this crap can get fixed tomorrow morning so we can get back! Eeek. I just don’t want anything else to go wrong.
I feel like I’m living in one of those movies where one thing after another goes wrong and it’s just so annoying.

But wow… while I was typing this I heard from Ryan about something we’ve been waiting on (it doesn’t have to do with this stuff). Ryan got a stipend and a full tuition scholarship from his program! YES! At least it’s starting to look up, now. Maybe this is a sign that things are going to be looking up?

Maybe 2010 isn’t going to suck after all…

Since my last blog, I’ve had some… eventful news. I was driving Ryan’s car to Erie and I got into an accident. Neither of us were hurt. We started sliding on some ice or slush or something when I went around a corner then we slid into the other lane and crashed into a telephone pole and a tree (at the same time). We weren’t going very fast, no glass broke, and the air-bags didn’t even deploy. I did, however, manage to ruin Ryan’s car… for good. And all this was on the way to the DMV to take my Driver’s License Exam.  Ironic, isn’t it? 

So, he thought his insurance would cover it since he has a car loan out he knew he had good insurance. Turns out, it wasn’t so good and we’re now fighting with the Credit Union he got the loan from and his insurance company. GRRRRR. This WOULD happen exactly one week before we have to leave.  We’re going to borrow Ryan’s Dad’s extra car for now, then I guess we’re new car shopping. At least we can get an SUV like we’ve always wanted (it will make moving a lot easier).

Needless to say it’s been a rough couple of days. I have bruises from the accident (one where my knee hit something and one where the seat belt was) and Ryan’s totally fine. I also had a physical, got some shots and had blood work done. You could say that I’m a hot mess right now! Hopefully it all works out – the car, the disease screening through the blood work… wish me luck!

On a good note, we should still get to leave on time and not be late back to Richmond.  Thank goodness! On another positive note, I’m getting a super cute skin for my laptop because I have gotten enough Disney Rewards Codes from all of the DVDs that Ryan has been buying for me. It has to be a Disney one, so I’m thinking the Squirt one.  What do you think?

I was checking on Lissy and I loved one of her blogs.  So, I’m going to steal it!  I know that New Year’s Day was 5 days ago, but it’s never too late to do a little reflection. Let’s take a look at 2009 and see what’s happened in the past year. I’ll go with a couple highlights for each month.

January:  applied to graduate school – this was a very exciting time for me.
February: went to Savannah, GA on Spring Break with two awesome girls.
March: visited VCU and PSU.
April: decided on VCU, turned 22 (well, 21 again…haha)
May: GRADUATED COLLEGE with a B.S. in Forensic Science with a concentration in Forensic Biology/Criminalistcs as an Honors Scholar
June: Started the best summer of my life, celebrated my/Ryan’s graduation
July: Got a teaching job and said good-bye to my best friend/roommate… learning to live without her around all the time has been tough!
August: moved to Richmond to start the next chapter of my life
September: worked my butt-off at school and hosted a great Labor Day BBQ
October: Hosted a FANTASTIC Halloween Party
November: hosted my first Thanksgiving
December: got through my 1st semester of graduate school

All in all, 2009 was my best year yet.  I was starting to get sad and frustrated at the end of the year, but looking back, I should really stop that and be thankful for all that has happened.  2010 has a lot to live up too. Let’s see what happens!

So, I’ve finished my 1st term at school. I made it through!! I have some high hopes for next term. It’s going to be less busy (I think) so I should have a little more time to focus on the classes that will give me problems. Hopefully by not having to spread myself so thin I will be able to do better.

Anyways, onto the fun stuff! How did your holidays go? What was your favorite present? What did you get that you absolutely hate?! Haha, I’m nosy lately!

Well, I have to get going – just wanted to update you really quick! See you later!

As per usual, I need to start this blog with an apology to my faithful readers.  I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give the blog the time it deserves these last few months! Anyone who is in my shoes now (grad school) knows exactly why I have been doing a less than adequate job of maintaining my blog.  Everyone else, I’m sure you can imagine!

School has not been going well for me.  This is new for me, really new.  I’ve always been a superior student and I’ve never had to worry about grades in my whole life.  Well, my grades, to put it frankly, SUCK right now.  It’s not because of lack or trying, though.  I will be honest with that! I’ve tried more this semester than I did in my entire undergrad career, combined! I thought O-Chem was hard… geeze.  So, needless to say I have been very depressed lately.  I’ve been dealing with some really serious stuff because of it.  I constantly deal with feeling like a failure and I just don’t know how much more I can take.  I’ve been trying so hard and I have C’s in all of my classes (anyone who knows me knows that this is NOT acceptable for me!)  I just feel so defeated becuase all I do is school work…. I could get kicked out of this program in 2 weeks (once grades are in) because of these grades… this is serious. I’ve been doing so much work and getting no-where. Ugh.

However, Thanksgiving came at a great time to remedy that.  After spending a day with my family and putting up Ryan’s and my Christmas tree, I (hope) that I am coming out of this whole I’ve dug myself into and I can pick up steam to finish out this semester.  I need to do really well on my finals, so wish me luck because I really need it.  I would be so embarrassed if I wasn’t invited to continue with the program. I have an HONORS degree from a good college. I’m not a slacker – anything but! I’ve never done so much and still failed constantly. UUUggghhhh.

Oh well… I’m going to chipper up, look at that Christmas tree and get freakin’ happy again! I miss my old self. I miss being happy and satisfied with my life.  I want to get back there.  Hopefully I will after finals.  This coming week is the last week of classes and tomorrow I am finishing up all of my assignments so that I can dedicate this week to studying so that come finals, I’ll be ready.

I’ll let you guys know what happens!

Enjoy the new layout! Sorry that some of the other content disappeared. Most people just come here to read the blog anyway, so I figured I would just concentrate on that for now.  Oh, before I forget my link for today is Elf Yourself.  It made me laugh, so hopefully you do, too!

Hello! Life is getting a little better.  My grades on two of my midterms were fine, so I’m not quite as worried as I was before.  I still have to get three of them back, so we will see how I feel about this whole thing by then.  I’m glad that midterms are over though.  I’ve had 10 exams in the past 3 weeks and I have had enough! Thank goodness it’s over (well, for a week, then we have more exams)!

I found this hilarious article about someone going “Fresh Prince” on the balloon boy.  It’s certainly worth a read! I laughed for 5 minutes straight.

Hmmm, what else is going on in my life?  Oh! Ryan and I are stuck in this grocery rut.  We spend so much on food no matter what we plan our menu to be.  It can be health food, fast food (not McDonalds, like 30 minute meal style), cheap food, doesn’t matter. We still manage to spend the same amount on groceries every time that we go to the store.  Who knows.  It’s not a ton of money (about $90 for 2 weeks of meals), but we wanted to get it a little cheaper than that.  We’ll see what happens.  Maybe we’ll try going to a different grocery store.

Our Halloween costumes have still gone no-where.  We’ve gotten some ideas, so hopefully we will find one that we want to stick with.  We’ve thought about Juno/Bleaker, the Flintstones, Zoo Keeper and Animal. Not very original, lol.  Some of the people that are coming are dressing in nerdy science garb, so maybe we will go that route.  Who knows.  I’m starting to get very nervous about this party though! My apartment is small and 22 people have RSVPed.  Yikes!! We have a little courtyard outside down the fire escape, so we will encourage balcony and courtyard mingling.  We’re going to have chicken wing dip, coke cupcakes, rice crispy treats, sugar cookies, punch (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), and mixed Halloween drinks. We made a music play list and such.  It’s going to be fun, I just get nervous with all these people coming over. I assume that they all care way more than they do (I hope).  They’re not judgmental people, I just think too much into it.  Seriously though – look on facebook, my place is small! Hopefully people will come in shifts or we’re going to be in trouble!

Hello, loves! Sorry it has been so long since my last blog… I know you’ve all been on edge.   I’ve been SO busy with school, you wouldn’t believe it.  It’s midterm time here and I had an exam (in my worst class) last week, then on Monday of this week I had two midterms, then I had two on Tuesday. So, I’ve been studying for two solid weeks.  I’ve finally got a couple of days off before I hit it for the next exam (which is one week from today).  School is so crazy.  It’s also frustrating.  I’ve not been doing as well as I had hoped and it was just…ugghh. I’ve never tried so hard and gotten such poor grades.  Needless to say, I studied my butt off for these exams.  They went pretty well I think. I guess we’ll see over the next couple of weeks when we start to get them back.

Onto other news, Ryan and I aren’t going to be moving until our lease is up.  We came to this realization after looking at an apartment on Broad Street that we absolutely adored.  It was BEAUTIFUL. Everything was perfect, absolutely perfect.  So, we went home and got all excited to fill out the application and such and called our landlord about the break lease provision that was provided to us in our lease.  It says that we can just pay a $100 fee and be free of our lease.  Well, turns out that’s not the case.  We are still responsible for rent until they find someone else to rent the place out.  That is bull. At least in my opinion.  I thought that’s what the provision was for. Why would I pay $100 then move and not know if I was still going to have to pay rent here for months?! Ugh. So, needless to say we’ve decided that the risk factor just isn’t worth it. We’re stuck here.  Oh well. Everything happens for a reason – hopefully that means we will find another perfect place in July of 2010.

Other than that, nothing has been going on my life.  School has kept me really busy, so I don’t do much.  I have been planning the Halloween party and as it gets closer, I get more and more excited.  I am going to post pictures of the food, decs, and such after the fact… I swear!  Hopefully it turns out at great as I want it to be.  I hope that everyone has a good time.  Do you have any ideas for the party you’d like to share with me? I’ve been getting lots of ideas from Martha, all of which are neat. She’s so creative.  I wish I could be! Well, I’m pretty creative… it’s the actual execution that I fail at… haha.

Hello lovelies! I know I say this all the time, but I’m sorry that I suck so much at blogging. I just get so busy with school and life that I neglect this place. It’s a curse… but, it means that I’m keeping myself busy and that’s a good thing… right? I’ve also been trying to change the site around a little, using some add-ons from wordpress. I’ve added a couple of new things, but I haven’t implemented them into the site yet.  Hopefully, I can get a flikr gallery plug-in to work (I’m cursed!) so that I can add more freebies and do some of those neat picture projects you see online.  Right now I just don’t have enough space, and since I’m a poor student, I don’t want to pay for space, so we’ll just do the best we can with what we got! I’m also working on a 101 in 1001 list, so hopefully you will see that soon!

The cooking adventure was a great one. We made so many awesome meals and everything was lovely. I’ll tell you what, that Amanda over at KevinAndAmanda.com really knows what she’s talking about! Every meal that I made from her website was fabulous. Her directions we so easy to follow, too.  Anything that gets posted over there is something I will try! That girl is awesome. Out of the list, the tomato cream sauce pasta was our favorite. It was COMPLETELY out of this world!

In my obsession with food, Ryan and I decided to try the Village Cafe here in Richmond. It was featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  The food was awesome – I totally see why it was featured.  I would recommend splitting anything you get there – the food is huge (I have a facebook picture to prove it)!

As you all know, Halloween is coming up.  Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday of all-time, period. I love every aspect of it.  With that said, I am hoping to host the coolest Halloween party.  I will certainly be showing you guys pictures. Ryan and I have brainstormed some  ideas and we’re getting pretty far in the planning stage.  We’re going to make the big balcony a grave yard, the small one will be decorated with pumpkins and the inside of the apartment will be decked-out like a haunted house.  We are so excited! I’ve already started making the lists of decorations we have and need, as well as making the invitations.  Sadly, we’ve put more effort into the party than we have the costumes.  I’m not a skinny girl – so I can’t wear all those slutty costumes.  You wouldn’t believe how that narrows the choices for costumes! Haha. Do you guys have any suggestions to what Ryan and I should be for Halloween? We don’t want the costumes to be too hot, because our apartment will probably get pretty warm with all of the people here. If you have some good ideas, let me know!

Richmond living is going OK.  We live in the Fan, so our apartment building and such is old.  I want a nicer place next year, but it’s really hard to find a reasonably priced, modern, apartment in the Fan.  We are hoping to not have to drive to school so that we can save on gas.  It’s really nice being within walking distance because I can just walk home whenever I want.  It’s only a 15 minute walk, so it’s not bad at all.  There’s a band next door though, and they always seem to have to practice whenever I have an exam.  It’s annoying – the play so loud it shakes our windows.  So, since we have a provision in our lease that lets us get out of it and only pay a $100 fee, we’re looking for a new place.  Ours is fine for the two of us, but I’m such a Suzie Homemaker that I want a chic, modern apartment that feels like a nice new home.  I know it’s probably unrealistic considering I’m a grad student, but we can dream… right?

I have to go to lab in 1 hour, so I better go. Have a good week!