New Year, New Semester!

I have decided on my schedule for next semester. Now, I should have had this decided like a month ago, but with my major getting cancelled and my plans changing I needed to revamp things a little.

I was super lucky to be able to fit a huge chunk of my classes on only Tuesdays and Thursdays, I might have one class on Saturday or Monday and Wednesday. But here's the line up:

Intermediate College Algebra (TR 11:00-12:40)

Humanities through the Arts (TR 1:00-2:15)

Introduction to Geology (TR 2:30-3:45)

American National Government (TR 4:00-5:15)

Ethics and Values (T 5:30-8:30)

I'm on the wait list for a few other classes because I would rather take Astronomy or Oceanography over Geology. Also, I need to get into a health class so I'm waiting for one to open up to get into. Overall it will be a super busy semester because I'm hoping to have 18 credits! 

My summer financial aid is up in the air right now, so I'm hoping to get as much as I can out of the way now so I can have a lower bill come summer if I don't get a lot of financial aid. 

My grant got dispersed a few days ago, so now it's just time for book shopping!

Moving Time!

So we officially sold our contract today! It took about a month to find someone who would take it over, but at the same time it took until about two days ago to get an official move in day at our new apartment.

We are downsizing a little bit, but I love the idea of a separate living room and kitchen AND a washer and dryer in the house! The laundry is shared but I only need one day for laundry right now so it will work out just fine for us. Landon and I will have to wash dishes by hand again but for how close it is to school, we can deal with that.

Hopefully moving day goes well, we have been getting a lot of snow that has been melting but than freezing that night. So the roads and the stairs are super slick, I'm a little worried about moving safely. We will be going out and getting some salt and some friends are bringing shovels just in case. 

We have some family/friends helping us move this weekend and they are very good at helping people move. So we are very happy about this. The plan right now is to get as much packed tomorrow as we can and then have the boys pack the truck and us girls clean and finish the packing. 

The plan sounds like it will go great, lets hope it actually goes as smoothly!

 

Busy Bee

Cleaning.

Packing.

Condensing.

Deciding.

Working.

This is what my week has consisted of.

Posts will be back on track when school starts back up. For some reason that's when I feel like I will have more time... Ha! Lets see how that goes.

Christmas and Such

I realized that it has been quite a long time since my last post, so this one will be extra long!

Finals and come and gone, and grades have been released. My grades were not a huge surprise, (A, A-, B+, C) I knew coming out that it was going to be up in the air in whether or not it was a B or 2 C's. So happy surprise to see a high B. 

My long work week has been a little rough on my sleep. I'm getting a lot better at forcing myself to sleep in the daytime or at night even if I don't feel the immediate need to do so. I also had Christmas Eve night get switched to an on-call shift, which was great and I got to spend the night at home with Landon.

We also went to Rand and Debbie's house last night for dinner and loved spending time over there. All the kids were enjoying various things, Emmitt and Kimmy were into the Harry Potter movie that was on, Rebekah and I dropped a present off at a friend of hers, and Adam was sleeping and then liked being held. 

Landon LOVED my faces for each present.

Dinner was amazing and probably the most healthy Christmas eve dinner I have participated in. Chicken, Squash, Asparagus, Rolls, Salad. I'm probably missing something, but the Squash was the perfect substitute for potatoes which we can't eat a lot of on our diet so it was very nice. We left before dessert but got sent home with some Cheesecake that we will probably eat tonight for dessert. 

Nom-nom-nom Candy!

We started opening gifts last night from each other and Mom and Dad Ostraff. We received a well needed mattress pad and 72-hour kits, among other things. Our gifts to each other were mostly candy and little things because our big present to each other this year was the Kinect. 

I told him to make a rage-ful face to match the games name.

This morning we had some Sara Lee Coffeecake (No Coffee in it I promise!) which is a tradition of my family, and finished opening our gifts which included a few more from Mom and Dad Ostraff, and all the gifts from Mom and Dad Rickard and company. We started at 6:00am and finished just in time for Landon to head off to work. Landon received many books that he had been wanting and I got some clothes that I have been needing. I don't feel like doing an itemized report of gifts so I will just say there was more than that under the tree though.

Yoga Pants!!

Landon has gone to work today where he is enjoying the holiday pay and will return shortly to me so we can spend the rest of Christmas together till I have to work at 10:00pm. 

This is how the color Lilac makes me feel.

Hope everyone's holidays were great and that you enjoyed the blessings that this time of year brings!

He got some little animal Post-its. A total Landon gift.

Hat.

I made my first hat yesterday. It's not the best but my wonderful husband will wear it because he loves me. 

End of the Semester

Schools out for the Summer... er, I mean winter. 

Yes, today ended my 15 weeks of school. Which is super exciting, I am supposed to have learned the components of a cell, why the earth shifts, welfare policies, and which race is more likely to have a 4-year degree among many other things. What did I learn this semester?

• That you should never take two science classes in the same semester.
• The walk from GT to LA in 10 minutes is horrible. (but not as bad as the walk back) 
• My computer hates the library.
• When I need the shuttle it takes 20 minutes.
• When I'm okay to not take the shuttle, it takes 2 minutes.

I guess I might retain some random information from the classes I stated but overall I plan to make room for more relevant information for my career. Not saying I don't need those, but I think the welfare policies should take much higher precedence over cell composition. 

Also, I learned I can make an awesome lunch, heres the proof:

Awesome!

Almost there...

Okay three exams down and one to go! 

So far it's a B on physical science, C in biology, and not sure about social work but I think the presentation went alright. Tomorrow is sociology and then I'm all set for the semester! Grades should be available on the 23rd, so I will know right before Christmas, yay!

Let's hope it all works out great, I'm hoping for A's and B's and maybe one C in Biology, but I'm happy about that C. Biology was HARD!

Time for some apartment hunting!

Wish me luck!

Cookie Night

We made cookies last night for our Family Night, we has such a great time. We ended up making 4 different types of cookies. One of them Landon made all by himself! Pretty impressive if you know how much he actually cooks in the kitchen. We had quite a good time. 

This was about 1.5 hours into the baking, and working on cookies #3!

Here is Landon finishing off his own cookies, he did such a good job!

Elfin Shortbread Bite- Super yummy shortbread with Red and Green Sprinkles

Orange Snowballs- Not super sweet, with a little touch of orange. 

Chocolate Butterscotch Bars- Sweetest of them all, I accidentally bought honey roasted peanuts for the topping and it was supposed to be plain. But I still think they turned out great.

So here's the finished product, the ones we missed were the Almond Sweets in the back corner! The icing was not that bad seeing as I usually hate homemade icing. 

In the end we went around and passed out cookies to some people. We had such a great evening and loved spending some quality time together in the kitchen. 

Best Husband Ever!

So I have the most talented Husband. Here is just a small list of the things he is good at:

Patience

Kindness

Artwork

Communication

Taking me on late night walks through Walmart

Complimenting me

Helping me clean

Taking the garbage out

Laughing with me

Sleeping cutely

Working

The list could go on and on but I will stop it there for now. So the inspiration behind this post today was all the help that he put into getting my blog looking all pretty and spiffy. He made the background all by himself and modified some text for the beautiful header I now have. 

He was so patient with me in my color selections and helped me to make sure it would look nice. He even did all this while he had a day off when he could be spending it doing things that are relaxing for him. What a good husband who sacrifices his time for me. 

I love him with all my heart. Thanks Hunny!

P.s. - I told my mommy I would show my beautiful arrangement of Christmas presents, so here it is!

I had to reorganize some of the ornaments because the boxes reached right to the bottom of the tree! 

Bread Baking

So we found this amazing recipe last Sunday in the newspaper when I was coupon clipping and we decided to cut it out and bake it. Keeping in mind that it is almost impossible for Landon and I to eat anything that normal people on a normal diet cook. 

Luckily it was for whole wheat berry chocolate bread. (<-- Sound amazing right?) Which with a few moderations to the recipe, like two, was made diet acceptable. Well only in small portions, like 2 pieces a day. 

So we went out and bought all of our ingredients on Wednesday and made it Thursday afternoon. I thought it was going to be kind of expensive and hard to find whole wheat flour, but I got so lucky and found it at Sunflower market for $.50 a lb. I was super excited since I had already been there for their amazing Mango sale this week. (3 for $1!) 

Well we went home and made the bread, which was lots of fun, until the end when my arm got tired from stirring so much. Then Landon took over and it turned out really good. Right out of the oven the first slice was so yummy! Unfortunately, after that it got a little dry. I'm not sure if that was to be expected but it's perfect if you put a little butter and jelly on it.

I thought I took picture of them but I guess I didn't. Sorry! You will just have to believe me that they look great! The recipe made two loaves so we have an extra one for now. I just hope it lasts long enough for us to eat both. It would be so sad for one to go bad before we can get to it. 

IKEA Dates

So Landon and I decided to go to IKEA yesterday for our date this week. We love IKEA and love to make like a 4 hour trip out of it. We actually went in search of a bed frame that we would like to have. Something close to the ground maybe with some storage under it. We love one of them quite a bit but we decided to wait until we move in a little bit. 

But the highlight of our trip was getting a new member of our family. Meet Clifford!

Clifford the Big Red Cactus. (He's actually reddish-pinkish-yellowish. But red for short)

Unfortunately Clifford had been a little mistreated at the plant orphanage. It looked like it had been a long time since he had a bath and had been fed. So, Landon made sure he was nice and clean and not hungry anymore before bed time.  

This was Clifford's cotton swab bath.

I also found something interesting this evening in the refrigerator when I making some fried eggs. It was pretty interesting so I thought I would take a picture of it...

My egg was FROZEN SOLID! 

So this was very strange and very cool at the same time. It looks pretty yellow, but close up you could see the yolk and you were able to see through the rest of the egg. Pretty awesome. 

Finals!

So here's the break down of the last few weeks of school. 

This week I have a Biology test that I need to take on Wednesday, and I have my Physical Science final exam on Friday at 11. Luckily I have had been studying for Biology for a few days now and I work on Thursday night so I can study for my exam the next day.

The next week I have a presentation on Monday for my Social Work final exam which I have yet to start on. Well at least the presentation part, I have done the background work. Then on Wednesday I have my Biology final exam, which is cumulative. It's gonna be a hard one. The following day I have a paper due and my Sociology final exam. I have about a third of the paper done and the study guide for this class done. It's actually the least of my worries. I'm pretty sure I can pull an A off for this class. 

The rest of the classes are gonna be rough. Hopefully I can get everything done on time and good enough to pull off scholarship potential grades. I guess time will tell.

Sorry if updates are scarce the next week!

Apartment Pictures as promised...

So it's taken me quite a long time to get these up but here are some pictures of the apartment. I thought now was a good time because Landon and I just finished putting up our Christmas tree and a few decorations, and I wanted to my my family our little set-up.

Landon loves that the toilet seat is up in this picture. (It's my fault, but he loves me for it.)

Our lovely little Christmas tree. Rand and Debbie gave it to us last Christmas and we spruced it up a little this year by adding a few more ornaments and lights. 

So they are hanging at different heights but that's okay. We bought 3M hooks so as not to get in trouble with the Landlords about sticking things to the wall. 

Here's the kitchen, I love all the counter space and cabinets. 

So this one is blurry, but it's the best of three that I took. It's probably a good thing I have no interest in being a photographer. 

I omitted any bedrooms because I didn't feel like making sure they were all cleaned up and pretty for pictures. But I thought I would take advantage of the fact Landon and I cleaned for like an hour today and get some pictures. 

Only two weeks of school left, so it's cramming time and time to get all the last minute projects done. Wish me good luck!

One month later...

So we are officially One month into our diet, it doesn't seem like it has been that long, but I the calendar doesn't lie! So here is our update. I'm down a pant size and 15 lbs. and Landon is down 10 lbs. For a month I would say not to shabby.

My goal for the next month will be 8-10 lbs. and Landon's will probably be about the same as mine. I was nervous about Thanksgiving with all the temptations, especially the desserts. If you know me you probably know that's my downfall, but I did really well. Last week was a 3 lb. drop, so I must have done something right.

I did look up some suggestions on how to not spoil the diet. One was to just take a little bit of what I wanted to eat so I still felt like I could eat what I wanted and enjoy the holiday while not overindulging. The second was a great email that was sent to me with a Pumpkin pie that was suitable for the South Beach diet. It tastes a little sweet but not too much and the crust is out of Phyllo dough, everything added was sugar free. So it turned out nice and we still have one piece to finish eating. 

Overall, I'm feeling really good about how we have been doing. Hopefully we can keep the good work up and get down to some really healthy weights and adapt good eating habits in the process!