I liked the number style of my last post, so I think I'm going to do that again:

1. Jordan's 21st birthday has come and gone. We went out to a restaurant in Old City for restaurant week which was pretty good, and I got him tickets to go see Jeff Dunham (the comedian with the puppets) live at the Sovereign Bank Arena. We had a great time at dinner, and I highly suspect we'll have an even better time seeing Jeff Dunham.

2. I got a new car! Yup, that's right. I have successfully negotiated the purchase of my first brand new vehicle. Ok, so maybe my dad did most of the negotiating - but I am now the proud owner of a brand new, 2010 silver hyndai with black interior. It. Is. AWESOME.

3. I was named employee of the month at my workplace for the month of august - pretty cool! Always nice to be recognized...

I guess it works better when I have more than 2 or 3 points to quickly cover. I want to try and quickly give you some promised details on my NY trip, so here goes:

Overall, we had a great time. Life is very laid back up there, and it was a really nice change to go from living in a place where you have everything at your fingertips to living in a place where you have to drive a half an hour to get to the nearest town. During the weekdays (thursday and friday) we mostly hung out and explored the farm and nearby towns until it was time to pick up Alec, Jordan's 5 year old half-brother, from school. Playtime commenced after that, followed by dinnertime and some nice time of conversation with Jordan's parents. On Friday morning we got up early and I made my first ever homemade pie which was a huge success! (apple of course). Saturday was spent helping jordan's parents around the house and farm and slowly getting ready for our trip back to Philly. We were sad to go Sunday and hopefully will be back soon!

In more recent news, I have been thinking for a while that I would really like some new things for my bedroom - new bedset, and carpet and curtains that actually match. Basically, I would kind of like my things to match instead of having a random mish-mash of stuff. The problem is, even if you shop around for bargains, that stuff can add up pretty fast. So, I have decided that my project for the winter is going to be to make myself some new curtains. My Grandma Walter taught me how to use a sewing machine when I was little, and whenever I was at her house she would let me sew for a little bit. When she passed away, she left me her sewing machine as well as all of her materials, and until now has been sitting at my parents house. I was reluctant to keep the machine in my old apartment, as I never would have had time to use it and I didnt want it to get broken, but I am now excited to bring it back with me to Philly and get started!! Should be a fun project for the winter months, and I"ll be sure to keep you updated their progress :-). Maybe by the time I finish, either jordan or I will have joined the 21st century and purchased a digital camera, and I'll be able to put pictures on here...

An Abbreviated Update

Unfortunately, I only have time for an abbreviated update...but a much longer one will come soon, I promise!

1.) Jordan's family reunion was great - a little intense and intimidating (36 family members in one house at one time) but fun nonetheless.

2.) Work has been crazy hectic, which is definitely better than it being crazy boring or slow. I am starting to look around out there for a management position, possible at another hotel/company - but I'm only researching at this point.

3.) Life with roommates is getting a bit old. No one cleans and no one pitches in for stuff...and no one pays their bills on time - and then when I say something, I look like the bad guy. Oh yeah, it's getting old REEEAAAAALLLY fast.

4.) Jordan and I left wednesday for a trip to western New York for a visit to his mom/stepdad's house. We took a 9-hour busride up there (most of which, in case you were wondering, I spent in the bathroom in the back of the bus throwing up everything I'd ate for the past week....) and spent 5 days with them. They live on a sheep farm and have a huge, absolutely beautiful property. We had an amazing time - i did NOT want to leave. We drove Jordan's car back this evening and I've just now finished unpacking. We did a lot of fun stuff up there - of which I will have to blog about later.

5.) Jordan's 21st birthday is this week - yay! As much as I would have loved to paint him pink and take him to a football game, I managed to come up with a much better idea. Which I will tell you about. After Wednesday.

and now my friends and family....it is time for bed!

In need of ideas...

So Jordan's 21st birthday is in about a month, and I am trying to come up with something special to do for him, but I am just plain out of ideas. My original thought was to go up to NYC to see a show or an exhibit or something, but the more I think about it, the less I like the idea. So, I want to know if any of YOU have any ideas on birthday activities. We'll probably go out for dinner/drinks on his actual birthday, but I want to plan a fun day trip or some kind of weekend activity that will be fun and memorable.

Send me your ideas!! :-)

Surf's up, dudes

So...uhh....I haven't written here in a while. Oops. :-)

I am down at the beach with my parents and brother this week. (Today is rainy, thus the reason I am on my laptop and not sunbathing on a beach right now). It's been pretty fun so far...we drove down here on Saturday (my parents drove from newtown; jordan & I drove down from philly). Jordan was here until Monday, and Nathan flew in from Atlanta Monday night. It's been a great week of sleeping, relaxing, and beach-dwelling. I really do love the beach and look forward to this vacation every year. It's nice to wake up in the morning, run on the boardwalk, drink coffee on the front porch, and then head to the beach in the afternoon. As I said before, Jordan was here over the weekend and that was great...I was sad to see him go on Monday :-(.

Last night we played some Pirates mini golf on the boardwalk, which was a lot of fun. Mini golf is probably one of my favorite boardwalk activities. I'm pretty terrible at it, but it's still a whole lot of fun. Jordan and I played on Sunday night...he managed to beat me by only 3 points, but I got the hole in one at the free game hole...so I won a free game! Ha! We played again last night, this time just my family and I, and we had a great time. Go figure.

This morning my mom and I walked down to some of the shops on Asbury street. We had heard about this cute shop called Ta Dah's and wanted to check it out for ourselves. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with the store - they had a lot of really cute things and we found some great jewelry. I would post pictures of the beach/store/what we bought, but I don't have a camera. Well, actually...I have a camera, but it's on my blackberry, and I don't know how to upload photos from there yet... so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Tomorrow is my last day down here; I will be driving back to philly at night. Jordan and I are leaving bright and early Saturday morning for a getaway at his family's cabin out in Western PA. His mom's whole extended family will be there, and I'll be meeting them all (with the exception of his mom and step-dad) for the first time. I'm nervous, but I'm pretty excited. Jordan has been talking about this nonstop since May, and his excitement can be pretty contagious. He doesn't get to see his extended family too often, so I'm really glad we have the opportunity to be able to see them.

I'm sure I'm in for an interesting weekend...hm hm hm.... :-)

The British are coming!!

Ok, so I know I'm long overdue for a new post...my adventures always seem way more exciting in real life than they are on my blog, so part of me is always hesitant about whether something is truly worth blogging about or not...but maybe I'll just work on my writing/story telling abilities instead in hopes it will make everything a bit more interesting :-)

So, where do I begin?

Life post-graduation has not really calmed down as much as I thought it was. I've had a lot more free time since I don't have classes/homework anymore, but I seem to be pretty good at filling my time with other things. I've reached a pretty good balance between work and finding other things to fill my time with, so I'm thankful for that, because if I was just sitting at home all night/every weekend I would be bored out of my mind! It's nice to have time to do the things I want to do...such as going for a nice long run w/o having to worry about getting back and getting to class on time; reading, sewing, and COOKING...that's a big one. Now that I actually have TIME to make myself dinner, I've been trying out a least one new recipe a week. Jordan's busiest day of the week seems to be thursday, so I come home from work and cook for him, and when he gets out of class we have dinner together and hang out. It's worked out really well and I've really enjoyed trying out new recipes. I've discovered I'm a much better cook than I thought I was, which means those Drexel culinary classes actually WERE good for something...go figure!!

I've also joined a young adult bible study at my church, which is pretty exiting, at least for me anyways. Since I no longer have cru in the middle of the week anymore, it was really important to me that I find a bible study to plug myself into. The bible study I'm in meets every Tuesday and we're going through the book of Phillipians which is one of my favorite books. I'm not gonna lie, it's been a little strange for me going out to this bible study. It takes me a while to get to know people; and I'm absolutely terrible with names. But God has given me grace and I've enjoyed myself more and more each week I've gone out. I feel like I'm finally starting to get to know people and I really hope I can continue on with this group.

So as fas as adventures go...I've been blessed to be able to do a lot of really cool things. Jordan surprised me with a day trip to the Baltimore aquarium a couple of weeks ago and we had a great time. I absolutely love aquariums and had never been to Baltimore so needless to say I was pretty excited. We saw the dolphin show which was awesome (i was definitely as excited as the row of 5 year olds in front of me, if not more....) and spent the day wandering around InnerHarbour; going to Barnes and Noble and other random shops.

The following weekend (at least I think it was...) Jordan and I had the chance to visit with some family at my cousin's Joanna's daughter's birthday party. We were really hoping to be able to make my other cousin Linda's son's birthday party, but unfortunately we were unable to go (Sorry Linda!! Wild horses won't keep us away next year, promise!!). Leah (Joanna's daughter) turned 3 this year and they celebrated with a party. It was great to see some of my cousins/aunts/uncles that I don't get to see very often, and of course for Jordan to meet them.

The weekend after Leah's party was none other than 4th of July weekend. I was really looking forward to this 3 day weekend as a chance to rest and relax, but I have to say...it wasn't as relaxful as I was anticipating. Don't get me wrong...it was a great weekend. Just not very restful. We kicked things off with a birthday party for Jordan's roommate on Friday night. While I'm not a huge party person, I have to say it was pretty tame/chill and I actually managed to have a good time. The next day, Saturday the 4th, my friends from Drexel cru hosted an afternoon of bbqing, volleyball, hanging out and fireworks. If you've never been to see the fireworks that philly does, I highly recommend it. They are absolutely fantastic; and its a great time to live in the city because you can just walk from your apartment to the art museum where they set them off :-). Church was the next morning, and then jordan and I spent the afternoon in the park.

Which brings me to the present, this past weekend. Friday night a few of my Drexel friends and I attended the wedding of a friend of ours. I have to say, it was one of the best weddings I've ever been to. I'll spare you all the details; but it was really great. We had an awesome time dancing and just hanging out....so fun! Yesterday (saturday) Jordan and I decided to go to Valley Forge State Park (thus the title of this post, "The British are coming!"). The last time i'd been to VF was in the third grade, so it was a lot of fun to go back and the weather was absolutely beautiful for it. We packed a picnic lunch and just spent the afternoon walking around before coming back to philly, ordering a pizza and watching slumdog millionaire (awesome movie if you've never seen it).

So...that's been my life lately. If you actually read that entire post...I'm pretty impressed :-) I guess I had more to blog about than I thought... :-)

The excitement of graduation has worn off.

"Why so soon?" you may ask. "Graduation was only a week and a half ago!"

I'll tell you why. Because all those loans that I had to take out each year to pay for my fine education will take effect as of January 2010. You may think to yourself, "Oh, that's not too bad!". No....you don't even understand. It is.

I don't think I will ever be able to pay off the debt that I am in. It is an unfathomable amount. For those of you who have parents who took on your loans or helped you pay them off, count your blessings. My parents are hardly in the financial position to do so, what with another kid still in college, and I'm pretty sure that by the time I'm 60 I will still be paying them off.

My kids are SO going to community college...

I'm trying to find a bright side to this situation. I'm trying to trust God; to find areas of my life that God is calling me to hand over. This is obviously an area of my life that God is calling me to turn over and trust in Him for. I was thinking as I was driving home from work today that my sin is a lot like the financial debt I'm in now....an unfathomable amount. The only difference is that someday, somehow...I WILL finish paying off my loans. It's just going to take A WHILE. I could never repay the debt of my sin that Christ took on for me at the cross. The only way was for Christ to send His Son; the perfect sacrifice.

I'm going to try to meditate on that for the next couple of days while we try to figure everything out. We're really just in the beginning stages of this whole loan process; we're going to try to consolidate everything and come up with payments that will work. We'll see what happens....

Graduation Day!

Today I walked across a stage, collected my diploma, switched my tassel, and smiled for the cameras.

I am now...officially...a Drexel Alumni.

Pictures to come :-)