This weekend's recap

So Friday night was awesome! My good friends up in NC gathered together at a danny and amber's house and then went and ate Cajun food at this local place: Papa Mojo's Way yummy! they had live music that night too, but we didn't stay because it was a cover charge and we weren't really ready for that, plus it was really loud, not good conversation music. Then we went back to danny and amber's house and ate birthday cake because we were celebrating folks' birthdays!

Saturday Audie went and gave official notice to our apartment people as to when we'd be moving out! Monday we find out for sure when we'll be moving in to our new place, but we know we have to be out of our current place by the 31st of May!! I'm so ready to move to a new place, it's so much better/closer to Audie's work/cleaner/ the people are nicer!!

Last night we got a call from danny and Amber (we hang out with them a lot because they are a couple where Audie and I get along with both of them, and they live really close to us) we all went to eat Chinese together and then walked around Target for a while, you know i could do that all day! We also made plans with them today to go see a Duke baseball game, I'm really excited about eating a hotdog for lunch! the tickets are apparently 5 buck a piece for duke empolyees/students. And Danny and Amber said that they didn't check ids at the gate, so we're hoping to just spend the 10 bucks. then it's just sit wherever you want, and they place at the durham bulls stadium, which is a great location! We're pretty excited!

Gotta go for now, see ya later! Hope you had as great a weekend as I did!

Julia

Hypochondriac!

OK so i'm a huge hypochondriac, i'm all about WedMding something to figure out what i have, but usually when I complain to Audie he tells me to go to the Dr. Good advice i guess but it's hard to make time to get there. So when Audie called me to say hi on his lunch break today i was telling him how weird I felt. (i didn't take my BC yesterday on Accident, and all last week i felt strange because i was doing the inactive-sugar- pills and it always makes me feel really strange when i do either) So he was like, go to the dr. or stop complaining.

So i called student health and they had an open appointment (very rare, usually it's a two week wait if its not an emergency) so i went in at 3:50. So the dr. tested my blood for some stuff, (including being pregnant - thanks for the worry Amber! it came back negative by the way) They asked a ton of questions and were really helpful, but didn't really know much to tell me. So i have a referral to go see a Birth Control Specialist at the Real dr.( i mean not student health, i know they are real too, but you know what i mean) so i'm supposed to get a call to tell me when i can come in (i hope next week) and we'll see if she has a suggestion for what i should do.

i'll keep you updated on what's up, i guess it could be a TMI, but this blog is about my life and processing my thoughts, so that's what i'll talk about if i want to. Don't worry i won't give you the gory details.

Tonight very excited about going out with some awesome friends tonight to celebrate two of their birthdays at a Cajun restaurant around here.

Julia

What is wrong with me??

I am a night person, i always have been. When i was in elementary school i would hide books under my bed and then read them under the covers until midnight (very late for a 8-10 year old) And now, while i don't usually stay up really late anymore it doesn't bother me to stay up late if i know i can sleep in the morning. I don't do well when i don't sleep for at least 7-8 hours, but i can't make myself go to bed early, so i wind up making sure i don't have to be anywhere too early and i go to bed around midnight (many times i still don't go to sleep right away).

The last two nights, right after dinner i was exhausted!! I almost fell asleep right on the couch while watching TV, so audie made me go up and get in the bed each time, i went to bed. Wednesday night i went to sleep at 10 and last night i was asleep by 9!! what is wrong with me, i don't feel bad or weird just extra sleepy!!

Julia

i missed you guys!

So the last two nights i have not slept AT all, well i snoozed for a few hours early in the morning. Monday night i went to be at 2 because of my midterm, last night my mind was just going a mile a minute until 2. I realized, it might have been because i didn't blog yesterday at all.

Blogging is just a great way for me to get my thoughts out there for so many things. today i had a meeting with my preaching professor to discuss my last sermon. I had to be at school at 9:30 for the meeting and i was pretty worried about it. it wound up being pretty good, though she wants me to start preaching from an outline alone and not a manuscript. we'll see how that goes when i preach in a week or two, but it kind of freaks me out, but i know that her comments were right on. I hope that it will free me up to be myself in preaching and not be tied to a script.

I also today had to deal with a bunch of stupid drama with out apartment complex. I am pretty peeved at them, and i'm ready to move like whoa!! we did get approved by our new place and they have the apartment we liked that is going to be ready in our time frame. SO we're all set to move sometime in May!!

alrighty gotta go, i'm starved for dinner tonight for some reason!

Julia

I interrupt this broadcast...

well it's not a broadcast, but i interrupt this midterm writing session to tell you that we are putting in our application for the new apartment!! I talked to the lady today and they are having a special where you get 2 months free (spread out over the 12 month lease, so basically we're getting an apartment for $713 a month that would normally cost $885.) if you move in by May 31st so I told her we'd be sending in our application and if they approve us to live there (why wouldn't they, we're great neighbors!) and I told her that we could move in any time in May! We're going to probably break our lease at our current place a little early so that we don't have to wind up paying more in the long run. We'll have to pay a one month's rent penalty, but if we stay for the rest of our lease we have to pay for a month of rent for June and almost 100 dollars in rent for six days in July! so we decided we would rather move sooner than later to capitalize on the offer. Here is the floor plan:




It's got two bedrooms and two and 1/2 baths, which is an upgrade for us of a whole bathroom. The community also has a pool and fitness center which will be nice and they have community activities, like a block party, yard sale, easter egg hunt and stuff. i've got to get back to writing! Two questions down, and i have outlines for the other tow already. Now i just have to fill them in!

TTFN!

Julia

finally!!

I'm done with one midterm, and i've decided i'm staying home from school tomorrow to finish the second one, which i know is probably counter productive, but there is no way i can write 16-20 more pages without working all day. I just emailed in the midterm i've been working on all weekend and it was in total 28 pages! why do my professors think that this is how i want to spend my spring break!! I hope you have a great week and you get everything done that you need to get done!! i hope i do too!

Julia

still working!

i'm stopping working on my midterms briefly to say that i'm still alive, but i'm still working on this stupid work!!! i will be so glad when May comes along and i have a whole summer to do what i want to do! i'm thinking i'm going to be doing a good amount of work to try and get this stuff done so that it's done on time!!

ok guys,

Julia

we found an apartment!!

Today we went and looked at 5 more places to live. i won't go into the whole process now because i have midterms to get to! too many things left to write before i get to school on Monday!! I'm still only 1/2 way through with my first one! but i have until Tuesday afternoon to finish the second one and i can work over lunch that day. So i think i'll get it all done.

BUT we did find a good place today! good price, good location, good neighborhood, good amount of space and it will be about a 5-10 minute commute for both of us! we spend all day out looking for places, but one of the places when we got there we decided not to go for our appointment at 2. We didn't have an appointment with this other one, so we just stopped by and loved it!! then we had like 2 hours to kill before our next place. so we went to this shopping area and went to TJ Maxx! i love that store! I got a purse, big and green, lovely! and a pair of shoes, and two pairs of 'no-socks' for like 60 dollars! the purse was regularly 95 from Liz Claiborne so i think i got a great deal! It's very work appropriate, and cute! the shoes are comfy and will be great on those 24 hour on calls. The 'no-socks' are like those little tan socks that you can wear with dress shoes and you can't see them, but they keep you from getting blisters! i love them so far. i got a pair in black and tan!

Ok more on everything later! i have to get working!! ew gross i hate schoolwork!!

Julia

not so productive

Ok i have to admit that i didn't work as diligently as i should have today, i haven't yet finished even one question on these horrendous midterms!! but i did finish Harry Potter 7 so now there is nothing to distract me tomorrow, well not really because i may just start the series over!!

I hope you got all you wanted to get done today!!

Julia

Today is finally productive!

Since i have SO much homework to do this week before school starts back i decided that i needed to get going on some homework. I finished Harry Potter 6 last night and so today i started a good system of getting motivated. For every chapter or section that i read for school i get to read one chapter in Harry Potter 7! i hope to be all read up to schedule and ready to start to plan and write my midterms starting tomorrow. We'll see because right now i have 7 more things to read before i can start that project. i think i'll have a similar system of rewards for my writing. Like i think for every question/answer i write a full outline for i get to read another chapter, or when i have written 4 pages i get another chapater!

We'll see if that keeps things moving so that i can write the answers to 7 midterm questions that will total about 50 pages of written answers. Boo on midterms!!

Well i have to get on with making dinner and doing other stuff in the small break i'm giving myself to make and eat dinner. Nothing spectacular tonight, just a salad and beef stroganoff hamburger helper!

i hope you enjoy your wednesday!!

Julia

not much to report

Well today i got up to go to have coffee with a friend but she had something come up and so i wound up spending the whole day at home chilling out. I went and got a package from the post office, and one was delivered to the house. The one that was delivered was our plates from our paint your own pottery trip! they turned out really well!

This is Mine:



And here is Audie's: (showoff!)



Other than that i didn't have anything exciting happen today!! sorry not to have more to report, but that's all i did, except for reading more of Harry Potter 6 i have almost finished it in 2 days, which is awesome, but does nothing to finish those two big midterms that are staring at me!! tomorrow i'll start for sure!

ok have a great night guys!

Julia

spring break day one

so this spring break i have a TON of work to do, including two take home midterms that are 30 and 20 pages each, NOT fun!! so what did i do the first day of spring break?

-investigated 12 different apartments online and by calling for more information. most were shot down completely for being too expensive, or not big enough. Two were shot down because they were income restricted and we make too much money to live there. two are in the area that we really liked on saturday. and we have four appointments for this saturday. Some of them as so great and have really great deals right now!! I want to move in tomorrow for sure! i know that we can't really move until our lease it up here, if we do break our lease it's a penalty of like 600 bucks! so we'll be waiting, and hoping that they have great deals in May/June!

-i have done or will do 5 loads of laundry before the day is over. I love to do laundry, it's actually one of my favorite chores around the house. i like to wait and do it all in one day though, and that makes it a big chore, but it doesn't make sense to do it until i have a full load of colors, whites and darks, and audie and i just don't have enough clothes to do that. when i was little my mom did laundry once a week too unless she had to so i guess that's where i get it from. i usually do clothes about every 2-3 weeks, and it has been nearly a month since i last did laundry, we were scraping the bottom of the clothes pile!! i actually wore a cotton dress, tights and a cardigan apartment hunting and babysitting saturday because i was so out of clothes! you know that the only excuse i can give for dressing up, no clean clothes!

- i made dinner for my hubby and me! I am making steamed peas (one of those frozen steamer bags of veggies. they were on sale and i had a coupon, so i bought three different kinds) Mac and Cheese, my mom's yummy baked kind, and BBQ pork loin. all i do is marinate them in our favorite BBQ sauce and then pour some more on top and bake them for 30 minutes or so, easy peasy!! also i might have some cresent rolls or something!

- i also read for a good well, no not stupid school reading, but Harry Potter 6! ok yeah i should be getting on to doing those big homework assignments but i just couldn't today!

i hope you enjoyed your day as much as mine was!

Julia

more apartments!!

so we went over to raleigh yesterday and looked at two apartments. well actually not so much! one we found by the GPS and parked only to find that it was closed for a little bit. i think the folks in the office were off showing an apartment or something, but as we sat there looking around we thought that the neighborhood wasn't exactly where we wanted to live. plus it was kind of a long way from the hospital i'll be working at. So we decided to go on and try the next one.

The second one looked really nice online and it was in a good location/neighborhood, but they didn't have any apartments to show us because they were all full. So they said to call them closer to the time when we wanted to move in and they would see if they had something available. So we went on back to Durham and hung out and then i went and babysat for the evening. had a great time chilling out because the girl i was babysitting went to bed at like 7:15 and then i just watched TV until the parents came home. I didn't watch the duke/unc game, but i hear it was good, and as i was coming back home i saw tons of smoke coming from campus, and i figured that we won! If that doesn't make sense you should read Danielle's blog today about what this tradition is all about.

Today Audie and i went to Raleigh to see more apartments. We stopped by one that was closed today, but we gps'd it to see how far away it was from work and decided to keep it on our list, and go back next saturday to see it. We went to the next place only to discover it was WAY to far away for my commute and it was out of our price range anyway, so we didn't even get out to see it. Then we made our way to the third place, and we thought it was way too small, but as we went back to our house we figured out that we loved the area it was in, it was set out away from all the major roadways but close enough to a lot of good stores and yummy restaurants. So while we will probably not live at that place, but we're going to look at some others along that area, i'm pretty excited about the places we found online when we got back home today!

so our search is over for now, we have crossed three off our list and are still finding some great places that we want to look at next weekend or beyond! I'll keep you updated. OH and Amber asked what the program was that Audie downloaded so i'm going to give you the information. it's called Sweet Home 3D and it's really cool! you can even make things all different colors and try out different looks and stuff. I hope you guys can play with it and have fun working on your own interior design stuff!!

Overall we had a great weekend, i loved not doing any homework and finding some good stuff out about the apartment situation. hope your weekend was just as great!

Julia

New apartments!

Since it is spring break and audie had yesterday off of work (he's working today until 2) we decided to go to Raleigh and look at some new apartments. We didn't have a lot of time because i babysat until 3:30, but we have an appointment at one place at 4:30 yesterday. We loved to look at the model apartments and see how awesome it would be to move!! So our current lease is up July 6th so we're hoping to move into our new place at the latest on July 1st. But we have to find a new place first. So we're looking for a place in the middle of the area of Raleigh that we'll both be working in next year. our jobs are about 20 minutes apart, so we're hoping for each of us to have only a 10 minutes commute or so. We looked online and found 8 places that fit our budget and seem to be in the right place.

So we went and saw the first place, it was kind of pricey. right now it is on special and that's the only reason it's in our price range. but they don't have any two bedrooms available, which is what we really want. So we don't know if in June when we'll probably move in if it will still be in our price range or if they will have things available. But the lady encouraged us to keep in contact and in Mid May if we contacted them then we could know for sure. Also she told us that they require 30 days notice before moving in, so we have to sign a lease 30 days in advance before we can move in. The apartment we saw was awesome!! Right now we live in a townhouse, and so it was weird to think about living in a regular apartment with neighbors upstairs and down. But it was really, REALLY nice. the bathrooms were huge, and it had really big closets. it had more square footage than we have now and 2 full bedrooms and bathrooms. right now we only have 1.5 bathrooms. it would be very nice to have two so that guests could have their own bathroom.

We were a little worried about how our furniture would fit or not. thought it is a bit bigger than ours, but the dining room was a good bit smaller, and i couldn't tell if the bedrooms were larger or not. So audie went online and downloaded this program to his computer where you can make floor plans and put little furniture in it!! it is so cool!! we can totally make our own little apartment and move around the furniture so that we know where to put our stuff when we get there!! i'm so excited about all the possibilities! I hope we can print out the floorplans so we can compare them and stuff, which i think we can.

So after looking at that first place the other places were closed, but there was one place that isn't open at all on the weekend, which i thought was strange, but that means we don't have the ability to go see them at all for now. But we drove out to see it anyway, to see if we should even concerned about not being able to see it. SO we decided that it was too far away from my work to bother with for now. I was disappointed a bit because it was a duplex, and it was in a neighborhood, like a real house!!! i want a real house really badly, but it was higher on the price range scale and it was too far outside the commute that we want. so we crossed it off the list for sure!!

Ok guys got to go for now so that i can get ready to meet audie, i'm babysitting again tonight so we have to see two apartments before i have to be there.

Really?

Ok professor, class is supposed to be over at 5:15!! Can you please get it together to stop your pointless rambling in time for me to go home! Especially since as soon as you are finished i will be able to stay at my house for a full week of spring break! AND the people in my class are rambling on too, they continue to offer comments and questions even though we have already gone past time!

Also, another professor presented us with our take home midterm today. It's supposed to be done over break and turned in next week. Today was the first we have seen of it. And we are told that it should be 16-20 pages after we have answered the 4 questions!! REALLY?? because that is a bit long for a midterm first of all, and I already have a 30 page midterm to do as well. I'm going to be writing 50 pages in this week? It took me a whole semester to write my senior project in undergrad, a total of 34 pages! Really??

Thank God that i didn't have other plans for spring break, i mean i didn't want to relax and enjoy the only time off i get all semester! and i certainly didn't want to see my friends or husband who i don't get to see as much as i would like!

ok that was my rant for the day, and i really do not mind being a student, and God has called me to this but, really??

Julia

and i didn't skip class today!

I have a bad habit! the last two wednesdays i have skipped my class because it drives me crazy and gets on my nerves. I have just one class on wednesday and it's in the afternoon. I thought i would love this schedule, but it is not that fun. mostly because i dislike this class. My professor sends out notes for us a day in advance, and it's word for word what he says in class. really!! so sitting there and following the notes is kind of boring! so i wind up sitting there and reading blogs, playing games online and updating facebook. not a bad way to spend an hour and fifteen minutes. But see the issue is that it's the only reason i have all day for getting out of my pajamas and leaving the house. So i usually have to be dragged to school on Wednesdays. But today i went because i figured we have spring break beginning after i'm done with class tomorrow.

I also had a take home midterm to do today! it got sent out yesterday and we had to do it whenever we wanted to but we could only spend and hour and fifteen minutes working on it. it's not due until friday afternoon, but i went ahead and did it so i could take it to school with me tomorrow!! it feels good to get it out of the way! now the next assignments i have due are for after spring break! so i have a whole week off to get things done. i need to work really hard to get them out of the way so that i can go camping with some friends next weekend, but i think i can do it. we'll see anyway! i basically have 2 other take-home exams to finish, and one of them is 30 pages or so! NOT cool, but i'm going to work hard to get them out of the way!

ok hope you are having as productive a wednesday as i am, because not only did i finish a midterm, i also made spaghetti for dinner, did dishes and made sweet tea. i know i'm up for wife of the year next week!

so bye for now!

Julia

so tired, must last until Thursday evening...

today is Tuesday and i have two full days until spring break begins. i have been totally worn out this week. I think it was because of how awesome our weekend off was, because i am not motivated to get anything done. I had a paper due today and i totally reworked an old paper so that i didn't have to do it from scratch.

Tonight we made frozen pizza, and caught up on the DVR. There are very few shows that i watch and Audie enjoys (see yesterdays discussion if you need proof of my TV tastes and why Audie is not a fan) But one show that we do watch is Chuck, a funny show about a spy (or accidental spy). It's great TV, and we DVR it on Monday night and watch it on Tuesday because there is a lot that we watch on Mondays. We also are watching the gold medal game from Hockey. I know the whole olympics are over, but i still have some stuff on the DVR. But unfortunately i found out the results Sunday. Audie specifically wanted to watch this game and told me not to delete it. so i kept it and we decided to watch it tonight.

Well a combination of a game that i already know the final score, and my tiredness i just took an hour nap on the couch during the game, and now i just want to go to bed. But am i better off for napping instead of killing myself to finish my reading for this week? most definitely!! I figure if you are tired enough to sleep with a hockey game going on in your living room you need the rest!

ok i hope you all are doing better than me, but i'm happy to have two days until spring break, a forecast of snow for tonight that won't be a big deal hopefully and only 25 more days of class for me!!

Julia

Oh Lordy!!

well there you go. I want everyone to stop giving me all these clues to how these things turn out! seriously i do NOT want to know about any spoilers AT all from now on!! because i want to be surprised when all these reality shows end. this might seem kind of disjointed, but it's my impressions of things happening as i was watching.

so we all know that i'm not a Vienna fan, but Jake picked her anyway, which sucks!! but i love that Tenley had so much class when she left. I know that if Vienna was sent home she would be pitching a fit! i just wanted Tenley to win so badly, that i was sad that she went home. and honestly if he had chosen Vienna then i would still be happy for the other girl, but i can't be happy when it is Vienna. I really think they won't stay together. Also: on the wings of love has got to be the cheesiest title and song EVER!!

Next week is Molly and Jason's wedding and i will totally be watching! i did NOT like Jason for doing Melissa wrong like that, but i didn't hate Molly. I would have been totally fine if he had just picked her from the get go, but he was a jerk to Melissa, but now they're both happy and stuff, but he still shouldn't have been a jerk! But i'm happy to watch them get married on TV, i watched Trista and Ryan get married like 6 years ago, so i need to make sure i don't miss this one!

SO excited about Dancing with the Stars!!! loving that Kate Gosselin is going to be on, i don't necessarily think she's going to do well, but you know i love me some Kate + 8 (not jon!!)!! Also i'm excited about Erin Andrews, she seems really sweet! and i love Evan lysachek (however you spell it) He's an olympian and i loved him, and he's so sweet!! So excited, i hope they all get good dancers, because let's face it that's a big part of who wins and who doesn't! I do think that Jake is going to be the crappiest dancer EVER and he should get kicked off for pure cheese and karma, i will NOT be voting for him! Well i don't usually vote for people because i don't want to waste text messages on that kind of thing, but i might have to start so i can send him home!

I also watched the after the final rose show, and i'll just say that Jake and Vienna both are getting on my nerves!! She talks through her nose all the time, and i think that she is slightly cross eyed and it was bothering me all season, and I asked Audie and he saw/hear both of these things, so it's not just my opinion. And her hair is all fake extension looking (ironically like Kate G.'s new hair) she needs to give up the long locks and just go for a shorter do, it'd be so much cuter.

And i totally called that Ali would be the new bachelorette!! i told my friend Sarah when she went home i wanted her not to come back just so that she could be the next person on the show. It's going to make some awesome summer TV that's for sure!!

alright enough ranting and raving for now, but you know you love to hear my pointless updates on what is going on in reality tv land.

Julia

What a weekend!

Ya'll we had the BEST time this past weekend!! So glad we're back, because it's always nice to get back home. SO our weekend started out by eating dinner at Zaxby's on the way to Asheville. We love some zaxby's and the only one in this area is on the interstate towards atlanta/ asheville, so we get it any time we're on our way to places. we drove all night it seemed like be we got there at like 10:30. checked into the holiday inn, and it was SO nice!! we had a suite, with a separate sitting/kitchen area and bathroom, and in the bedroom it had a big whirlpool tub with jets! So we basically slept off the car ride that night.

Saturday we got up to go to breakfast before going to the Biltmore. We went to IHOP and there was the most annoying waiter ever there. He was just so chatty!! it was driving me insane because he was in the section right next to us, but thankfully he wasn't our waiter! We then drove over to the Biltmore estate and arrived around 9:30 only to be told that the gates don't open up until 10. So we pulled around into the gift shop parking lot with the other early birds. We had tickets reserved for an 11 time slot to go in the house, so we had plenty of time. So we looked around the gift shop and got a book about the biltmore (it turned out to be the official guide book that they sell you with your tickets if you want, but it was cheaper at the gift shop! -insider tip, arrive early, get the book from the gift shop!) Then we had our tickets reserved but did not print them out, so we had to stop by the ticket building (insider tip, print the tickets before you get there) and then had to be in the car line to get in the actual estate. but then we still had like 30 minutes until our tickets were set for so we just went on our way to the parking lot and took the shuttle up to the main house, so Gorgeous!! it was magnificent!! Then we walked around a bit, we had thought that we would look at the gardens and stuff until our ticket time, but it was really cold and nothing was really blooming, so we stayed up close to the house, and then took a pit stop in the gift shopping/ restaurant area before going in the house at 11. When you get in there you can get an audio tour for another 10 bucks, or do the regular tour, you can also get premium tours (like the behind the scenes tour or the roof tour) for like 17, but we decided to just stick with the regular tour at first, we figured if we needed more info we could always go back for more. the tour was wonderfully laid out, we basically followed a book that had the rooms numbered and then it would give you a little blurb of historical stuff. The audio tour people had these mp3 player things that they pressed numbers to hear extra factoids and stories i guess. they were slower than the rest of the people. we walked all through the house, through four floors and the basement, and it was all stairs, so not wheelchair or stroller friendly, though they told you that up front. comfy shoes are a MUST!! it was really neat for sure, so cool to see the 'new technology' like the fire alarms and indoor plumbing! the tour all total took about an hour and a half, so it was time for lunch. There is a restaurant right there in the old stables so we had lunch there. We thought that having lunch would be cheaper than coming back for dinner, and while it was expensive (30-40 bucks for the two of us) it was really yummy and was all local organic produce and fresh bread that is baked right there and stuff. So then we went back to our parking lot and drove up to the winery and farms. there was parking at both of those places and the winery tour was included in the tickets, including a tasting. Audie had grape juice with the rest of the kids and pregnant ladies (he's allergic to alcohol so he wasn't included in the tastings) but it was fun, though i'm not a wine drinker, it was cool. I wish there had been more information about how you make wine, etc. but there wasn't. Actually i think we could have skipped this part and been fine. Then we went right up the road to the farm. it had both a petting zoo and a look around the old farming equipment. i liked seeing the animals!! By then it was around 3 or so. We drove through the rest of the estate and just kind of looked around. We stopped by the stables, and watched the horses. ( you can ride a trail ride or carriage for extra, but i don't actually like horses, except for looking at them so we passed) So then we went on back to hotel and napped and i read through the guide book. it was right up my alley, a slow weekend tour, a full day, but not the whole day activity. That night we went to Olive Garden and just relaxed and enjoyed not having school/work stuff going on.

This morning we slept in and then had breakfast at cracker barrel. We then drove down to a really cool part of Asheville and did a paint your own pottery place. it was so fun. I have this plan for our kids to each have a 'birthday plate' that they paint themselves when they are approaching their 1st birthday. Then they can eat off it every birthday and special occasion. I have had this idea for a while, but didn't know when Audie and i would get to make our plates, so this was a good opportunity. Audie and i each did a dinner plate, i'll post photos when we get them in the mail! Audie showed off and made his really cute, while mine was kind of plain. i tried to do a cute design by doing the paint in different ammounts of layers. so i did an all over layer of the paint and then did multiple layers to do a swirl or stripes. Audie drew a lizard on his, and the lady at the paint the pottery thing actually gasped when she saw it! I mean really, what a show off. Just kidding, he's just putting his art degree to work, but i was a little jealous of his ability!

so then we made our way back to durham, and i'm supposed to be doing homework right now, but i'm blogging instead, probably not good, but i'm just not ready to get back in the groove of things! Ok i'm going to get going, but catch you guys later, and if you are heading to the Biltmore any time soon i can give you some other good tips of places to stay, etc. We had a great weekend and we have promised to do this for ourselves every year that we can!

Alright folks, gotta get going, it's almost bedtime!

julia

Thursday?

Wow it's already thursday!? i can't really believe it, but i'm glad it is, because thursday is the new friday around here. Hannah came up and we had so much fun just hanging out Wednesday night, and then today she visited the school. the admissions office had her running all over and in official business all day, but she did get to sit in my morning class and go to chapel together. big fun!

i did not do good today in self-care. I wore myself out by not sleeping last night and then got to school hungry because i didn't eat any breakfast, but i went and got a coffee, but with no real food to go with it. i ate a later lunch than usual, and only had two pieces of pizza (i realize that sounds bad, because obviously pizza is pretty bad for you, but i hadn't eaten since dinner the night before) then i didn't get home and eat dinner until 7 (i had audie pick up chicfila) again bad Julia for not eating good today, or taking care of myself all day. i was getting really ornery and shaky by the end of the day, eww.

but i have tomorrow off of school, and Audie and i are leaving for Biltmore after he gets home from work!! woo hoo, i'll give you the update on Sunday/Monday! for now i'm going to enjoy my night off!

Julia

slacker

Ok i know i've been MIA for a few days, but i have hit the ground running on working for stuff this week. Sunday morning i slept a good long time! I had to rehydrate all day, but didn't feel that bad after our big party saturday night. So all day sunday i was working on trying to get motivated to start my sermon for Tuesday (today) so i have spent the last few days working on that, getting my exegetical notes don (basically the biblical and theological reasons for what i said in the sermon, along with sources) That is the real booger! but then last night i was practicing the sermon and working on making sure it wasn't too long or too short.

Also i found out today that a good friend is coming to spend the night with us and visit the Div. school Thursday. I got a heads up from her on Sunday night to make sure it wasn't too inconvenient, so she could finalize plans with the admissions people, but it wasn't final that she was coming until this morning. SO last night audie cleared out the office/guest futon for her to sleep on, and cleaned the bathroom upstairs, i did the dishes and probably tonight we'll finish getting out house clean enough for other people to see! Luckily we just had folks over on Saturday so it's not too bad right now.

ok got to go for now, my classes today are going to be awesome. We're watching a movie in my first class and then i'm preaching in my second (which is nerve racking but it also means no lecture) and then my third class of the day is a 'crap class' i hate to say that about a graduate class, but it is.

TTFN!

-Julia

one productive day!

I have gotten so much done today ladies! (ok i'm going to put this out there, i don't think any guys read my blog. my own husband doesn't read so i'm thinking there aren't any boys who read out there. Actually i'm not sure that more than like three folks read my blog, so if you are reading, out yourself and comment)

So Audie needed to get the oil changed in the new car, and i gave him a list of stuff we needed at the store, so i got my errands done without even leaving the house, or my pajamas! We're having some friends over tonight to celebrate my new job news (also my friend Meridith applied for the same jobs i did, and got herself a job too! though she still hasn't decided between the two offers she got, she knows she'll take one of them!) so today i had to finish up some homework, clean up around here, and cook some yummy fingery foods for our party! So i'm already done with the majority of the homework, and cleaning, so now i just have to cook stuff. Nothing too hard, just chicken wing dip (recipe below) pigs in a blanket, sausage balls, and some pizza rolls ( i love them things!) It's kind of a BYO food and drink party, so i'm also serving pink lemonade spritzers ( equal parts pink lemonade and sprite, with a shot of citrus vodka in them if you want- such a yummy girly drink!)

So i'm just happy we got a ton of stuff done today, which is good because i have to get more homework done if we're going to have a homework free weekend at the biltmore.

Ok here's the recipe, i got it from lynsAU over at fluffy, fashionable and famous a while ago, and i love it! it's really easy, and i don't make it in the oven for parties, i like it in the crockpot!

Chicken Wing Dip


2 large cans of chicken
2 packages of cream cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup hot wing sauce
1 cup ranch dressing
2 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

•Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a 9x13 Pyrex with cooking spray
•Melt the butter in a small pan over the stove. Drain the chicken and stir with melted butter.
•In another pan melt the cream cheese until it is creamy. Stir in the ranch dressing, and wing sauce.
•Mix chicken in the cream cheese mixture and pour into the 9x13 Pyrex.
•Sprinkle shredded cheese on top, and bake for 30 minutes.
•Alternative directions: After the third step, mix the remaining ingredients, including cheese and pour into a crock pot and heat on low for 2-4 hours.

I also usually cut the recipe in half because there are a ton of leftovers if you don't, especially when there are pigs in a blanket and pizza rolls around too!

bye folks, hope you have a productive saturday!

Julia

last few days

We've been up to both lots and nothing at the same time. It feels like i've been working like crazy, but getting very little done, does that make sense?

I had a paper due yesterday morning, so Wednesday i wound up staying home from class (because i'm a slacker) to work on it and other work. I spent the day sort of working on the paper, and eating really weird. ( like i didn't eat lunch, just some cereal in the AM and then some microwave popcorn in the afternoon) and by the time Audie was on his way home i was beginning to get pretty stressed about not getting things done, and my head was hurting pretty bad. I had a Skullcrusher ( of Katie Fame) and nothing was helping. When Audie called to say he was on his way home, i lost it, i mean full toddler tantrum meltdown, tears and all. I didn't have the energy to cook dinner, and didn't want us to go out because we had the last two nights, and nothing was good enough, basically. SO Audie was like, calm down, i'm on my way and i'll cook dinner (i know, i have an awesome husband). He came home, made me lay down in a dark room while he cooked us chicken fettuccine alfredo, garlic bread and a salad. After i ate dinner, i felt 20 times better! I think i really had a sugar crash at exactly the wrong time.

That night i finished up my paper at midnight, an early night as far as paper writing goes, and then had class all day yesterday. Last night Audie picked up our new TV. It's awesome, a flat LCD screen, HD stuff and all. Loving it!! We set it all up and enjoyed some tv last night, grey's anatomy and Survivor! both were awesome!!

ok got to get back to a LONG to-do list for this week so that i can go on my weekend with Audie to the Biltmore without taking homework with me! i have to preach on Tuesday for my class, and have a big paper due the next tuesday, so i'll be doing a good amount of reading/writing/preaching this week to get it all ready!!

-hope you have a great weekend!

Julia

thoughts on Bachelor

i just realized that i never told you how i felt about the bachelor monday night. I know you were waiting to here what i think. ( you were wondering, you know you were)

I was really surprised that Jake told Ali to not come back! basically what happened was she went home last week because she was told that she would be fired if she didn't come home, and so she chose to go back home. This week she called Jake and said that she had made a mistake and she would like to come back. Jake told her that he didn't feel it was fair for her to come back since she decided to leave. I was really proud of him for not letting her come back, but was sad for Ali. She was totally my favorite girl but when she chose to go home i thought for sure that she would be back next week. I also thought that Jake would have a hard time picking her over a girl that didn't decide to go home. so way to go Jake for not bringing her back. BUT i think that Ali should be the next bachelorette!! i'm totally for her!

I think that all the three dates were good for them, it was totally awkward each time the fantasy sweet card came up, and i thought that Vienna with her 'outfit to make Jake know she's a woman' was especially awkward, because it looked like something you would wear on a wedding night. I'm pretty sure nobody did the deed, because i think Jake values waiting on sex until he's married. (he's never said that, but i get that vibe from him- i think that's great, but i was surprised that he didn't lay down the law a little better about what he expected to happen, or not happen in the fantasy suite, i think Vienna had another idea, for example) But i saw it coming that Gia was sent home, and she accepted it with so much class and was so nice. i have never seen a real connection between the two of them, like i see in the other girls.

Well between Tenley and Vienna i'm for sure going for Tenley, we'll see which one he chooses, but we'll have to wait until two weeks for now, because next week is one of my favorite things! the women tell all episode!! i love how they bring all the girls back to hear what they really think about all that has happened!!

ok there are my thoughts and reflections on it all!

Julia

I have a new skill!

Ok Guys I'm going to try this because my resident blog guru told me how to put links in my blog that are clickable. I realize this is probably like elementary education for most bloggers, but not me, i feel like i just got my master's of blogging!

SO last night audie and i went here to celebrate our new job wonderfulness. I did accept the job that was offered to me at the hospital in Raleigh. I don't want to name the hospital, just because there could be creepy people out there, and also i'm not sure they would like to be the subject of my blog. I do know people who have received offers from the other two hospitals i applied to and so that means that i probably won't get other offers from them. And that is totally ok by me, because i wanted to go to the hospital that already offered me a job.

I mean this is really a lesson for me in how God has such a perfect plan, that i have to just get out of the way and let God lead me and it's all going to work out. Like i only applied to my choice as a backup, and wound up loving it so much. and i kept kind of saying to myself, God make it really clear where i should go and work next year, help me out here. Even if you have to only give me one option, give me your plan. and you know what, God has got this! God totally knew what i needed more than i knew what i needed for myself. and THAT's why i serve a big good, wonderful God. really, because some people (myself included sometimes) get all caught up in how life isn't going the way they want it to, but God has a bigger plan, and that plan is for you to prosper (not in the earthly sense, but in God's prospering in you!) and for you not to be harmed! I think in the long run there is always the hope that God has a greater purpose behind all our pain and hurt, even if we never see the good results that come from it.

Ok sorry for the sermon, but it's a sign of my trade, i can't help it. i know you guys that know me don't mind! Ok i hope that you can see some hope in your life today! and i also hope that you get the privilege, honor and blessing to see the fruits of God's goodness that are the results in the hard times that you may be going through.

alright, got to get going on some homework!

Julia

love my new look!

So excited because my friend Amber gave me a link to get one of those new fangled cute blog background, and it was so easy! I went to this link and basically it was a step by step process!! SO easy, and free!

http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com


Ok i don't know how to make something a link yet, or to do that cool thing where there is a word in your sentence like "click here" and the here is the link to the place where they went, so you may have to just copy and paste, but i hope that if you are wondering how to make your blog cute that's how!

also: i got a phone call this morning and i have an official offer of a job at the hospital in Raleigh! and i pretty much accepted it so that they would know that i'm pretty set on working there.

SO that means in the next few months Audie and i will be working on moving toward raleigh and all that fun stuff!! woo hoo!! maybe we'll get a dishwasher in this apartment!

Also when Audie talked to his boss today and told him that we'd be around another year. He (the boss) said that there was a possibility that Audie could be made a supervisor! that's another thing to celebrate! we'll be going out to dinner (cheesecake factory) to enjoy a night out to celebrate our new job news!!

ok love to all!

Julia

New look and what i did Not do today!

So i decided to change up my look for the first time ever! i wish i was cool enough to have a beautiful background like some of my bloggy friends, but i'm not that talented, and i'm not sure where to put stuff to make that happen! so i just switched to another template from blogspot. but it's looking good, and i like it!

So today i definitely did NOT:

- get four boxes of girl scout cookies delivered (and i certainly did not eat like 7 right away)

- get audie to pick up fast food for dinner because i just didn't feel like cooking what i had planned on.

- watch 4.5 hours of olympic coverage that is DVR'd from this afternoon. (i also don't have 20 other DVR recordings scheduled for this week alone)

- decided that i was too nervous waiting for word tomorrow that i can't do homework.


Ok that's what i haven't been doing ;) now on to watch the Bachelor! You'll probably get my thoughts tomorrow as well as hear the final choices for my hospital jobs. i have already drafted an acceptance letter back to my first choice (that i got an offer from on Saturday) We'll see if i get any other offers tomorrow.

- Julia

weekend activities

So this weekend was pretty calm and quiet. We slept in and then went grocery shopping (our typical weekend activity) and then settled in to watch the olympics and for me to do some homework! I have a paper due on Thursday, so I'm trying to get my stuff down so i can settle in Tuesday night and get a good start on it. I also have to anticipate that i have two big papers due next week, so as soon as i'm done with this week's stuff i'll be getting right on next week! It never ends! Audie went out to do some shopping for some technology for our house, and when he got back he got the mail for us. In the mail there was a letter from one of the hospitals that i applied for a job at for next year. It was an acceptance letter offering me the job!! I was totally shocked, because we weren't supposed to hear back until Tuesday! So i'm really excited that i have a job for next year, but still waiting to get an official phone call on tuesday before we go out to dinner to celebrate! Also there is still the possibility that i get other offers. The hospital that sent me the letter is who i want to choose over any other offers, so that takes a lot of pressure of the waiting for Tuesday.

Today, we did more olympic watching (i'm official obsessed, and DVR helps me to catch all the coverage!) and more homework, including blogging for my class, which i'm taking a break from to write this.

I hope all you had a great weekend and enjoy your week!

Julia

yep his gift rocked!

The chicken turned out really great everyone! what i did was basically pound chicken breast until they were pretty thin. Ok and can i say that they make this task look really easy on the food network, but it was a little harder than it looked. it wasn't too bad though, but i was glad i only had to do two. I then layered the swiss cheese and ham in the center and rolled the chicken up. I dipped them in flour and then egg and then italian bread crumbs (i think regular would have been better, the italian herbs didn't really hit the flavors right) and then i kind of tucked in the ends and baked them for 30 minutes on 350 degrees. They turned out so yummy!! they will probably be a part of our regular menu from now on, or something we make for special occasions.

Audie totally outdid me on the gifts by the way!! i got this:



I KNOW! i have the best husband ever! I had hinted that i would like this ring as either a valentine's/birthday/graduation/ or save it and get it for me as a push present even, because i loved this ring!! AND i got it today!! I'm so excited! it looks beautiful in person too!

Audie also revealed to me where we're going on a romantic weekend! in two weeks we're going to Asheville to tour the Biltmore!! I'm so pumped about that too. I'm not sure if i mentioned this trip or not, but Audie has been planning this trip in secret. I knew that we were going somewhere and when, but i didn't know where we were going. I really have been wanting to go to the biltmore for a long time, even before i moved to NC, but have never been. I'm so excited! and i don't have to plan anything for this weekend. the only condition for Audie planning everything was that i'm not allowed to bring one book on the weekend and not allowed to bring any homework with us. I'm so excited to have a weekend to spend to my husband and get to see such an awesome landmark. If any of you have ever been to Asheville, any suggestions about what to do while we're there. We have tickets for the house tour for sure, but anything else that is there that we should make sure to do?


Ok now i'm going to quit blogging and go back to watching the opening ceremonies!! loving the olympics so far!!!

-julia

plans for tonight!

WOW, thanks so much for all the support in my stress over de-friending. I think i put way too much thought into the whole thing, because he probably doesn't even know that i defriended him. I feel a lot better about it for sure thought. And in the midst i don't think i realized how many people read my blog! I just kind of write this thing to get out my feelings about stuff, chronicle what is going on in our lives and stuff, but i don't really think about that people actually read it.

My sister asked me about what i actually decided to cook tonight to go with the opening ceremonies, so i'll give you an update. After googling what kind of things were canadian food i decided to go with more 'french canadian' stuff. the canadian recipes not only looked really hard to make and didn't look like things that Audie and i would eat. (we're a bit picky) so i decided to go with chicken cordon blue (not sure how to spell that but you know what i mean), garlic mashed potatoes, ceaser salad, and crescent rolls (i mean croissants are french right?). So i'm not sure if that really qualifies as Canandian food or not, but it works for me!

in other news, Audie and i had planned on celebrating Valentine's day tonight before we realized it was the opening ceremonies. So we're combining my yummy dinner for the olympics as a valentine's day dinner. OF course i had to go get Audie a gift, so i went to target today and got him a video game. I know that's not super romantic, but i'm cooking him dinner too! i'm sure he'll get me a killer gift, so i'll report back once i see what i'm getting!!

Ok i have to go pound chicken breasts, never done that before so we'll see how it goes.

hope you enjoy your valentine's day, and if you don't have a significant other to celebrate with you can always celebrate Ferris Wheel day instead, it's Feb. 14th as well. Have a great weekend!!

Julia

Unfriending people

Ok guys i had to unfriend someone on facebook! i don't think that person reads my blog, so i'm going to vent here if that's ok.

Let me just say that i'm a total weinny when it comes to insulting people on facebook. If i get offended by someone on FB i just get angry in real life and vent to audie. Well last night this guy pissed me off for the like third time, and i was complaining to audie about it. He told me to man up and just defriend him because everything that this guy says pisses me off and them i'm mad for days but never do anything about it.

So this morning i defriended him!! it was very nerve wracking, because this guy is a friend of my mom's back home and i was afraid that he'll be mad and tell her. I know, I know i need to not get too worked up about what other people think of me, but i do worry about that, so i was worried. But i decided that i need to be strong and to maintain my sanity rather than dealing with my anger over his posts all day.

So what did he do to piss me off, so that you don't do them, for fear of not being defriended??

Well first off he's always making snide comments about the Obama administration. NOW i'm all for you disagreeing with the government, and i don't agree with everything that the Pres. has done, AND i realize that he is a sore loser (the guy, not the pres.) and he's just still mad that his person didn't win. I just think that at this point you need to get over it! if you didn't want Obama to win, fine! but he did and you can't just get livid over EVERY thing that he does, because it can't ALL be bad!! That is just frustrating to me when people are babies about everything. AND if you have a real like political reason for opposing healthcare or whatever then we can talk about it, but Facebook is NOT the forum for that! because people don't care that much on Facebook, FYI! especially not me, it gets you defriended.


Second, a few weeks ago when we had all that snow, i complained on FB about how Duke did not give us a day off, or a delay of any kind while literally EVERY school in the tri-county area got at least a delay, and some got three (THREE!!) snow days in a row. and he commented "well that's what happens in the real world" Then this week i said something about hating school, and he said "I wish i were back in school." OK so i know that being in school is not the same as being a 'full fledged adult' but graduate school is not the same as say, elementary school where your mom gets you all ready and reminds you to do your one page of homework and lays out your clothes the night before. Grad school means that you read 500-1000 pages a week, write papers and midterms at least every other week (including, my former friend, a 30 page midterm coming up in a few weeks, that you may certainly do for me if you like) that keep you up to midnight or later every night. All while stressing about job choices, graduation, working around the house to make sure that we both have clean clothes to wear and food to eat. Now i know that you guys out there with kids and 'real world' folks have hard days too! i KNOW you do though and i don't go around telling you guys to man up! I'm sorry but this is my pet peeve! because seriously if you (i.e. the people who say that they want to be in school) want to trade places by all means come on, because you certainly can. I realize that you envision my school to be like college where you party all the time and still make A's, but that's not what it is like OK! I get stress headaches and actually had to go to the dr. last semester because i was so stressed that i had stomach aches, chills and elevated heart rates. that's why you aren't my friend anymore, because you caught me on a bad week, and just hit the wrong/right buttons!!!!

ok now that i have that off my chest, i hope you (and i) have a great day!! and i hope you have the guts to tell people how you really feel, i obviously don't because i just de-friended him without telling him all that! (though maybe he reads the blog, we'll see)


julia

Robe Day!

I am so excited about what i ordered today from the Robe sale!! So I got a black preaching robe like this:



mine is the black one, but I ordered it in a lighter fabric (for breathability and coolness) and i got black trim instead of red trim. I also got full pockets put in and a button hole on the right side above the pocket for a microphone cord!

I also got a white alb like this:



I also upgraded to the lighter fabric but got it lined so that it wouldn't be as thin (i.e. not see through - 'cause it annoys me to see a pastor's choice of loud patterned shirt under his/her alb) I also got the full pockets and microphone hole, and a white cincture ( rope like thing that wraps around the waist.

All that is going to be custom made for my measurements and will be sent to the store on campus in a few weeks! I'll take some photos when i get them in, if i remember to do so.

I also ordered my graduation hood and i got to take that home with me today which is so awesome! I got a free garment bag and stole because i ordered over a certain price. I got 25% off because i ordered today! So excited to see all my fun stuff for my future career, and preparing for graduation! I'm loving this because it got me through this week and it helps me keep going through the rest of the school year.

ok i hope you got to have an exciting thing happen to you today!!

Julia

bachelor thoughts!

wow two posts in a day! that's like almost a new record! it was a lot easier to do this time because i just wrote down my thoughts as i watched the episode.

Here are my thoughts on the hometown dates:

Gia's hometown: nice date, parents/family seemed really nice/open to Jake, no drama but no sparks either

Ali's hometown: sweet how she 'introduced' him to her grandmother. Asked for mom's blessing to marry her, that bodes well for Ali's chances.

Tenley's hometown: her dance was cheesy and awkward, but i think that he really dug it, he's a cheesy guy too. Asked for her parent's approval to marry her, bodes well.

Vienna's hometown: Went on a pontoon boat down the river. she seems really fake in many times on the date

then came the drama of Ali showing up on Jake's hotel room doorstep and telling him that she had to choose between staying on the bachelor or keeping her job back home. Sad day, because i love her and i think that jake and she are like perfect for one another! Basically I think she wanted to say "are you going to choose me because if not I can go ahead and go home." I mean i can totally understand her wanting to make sure that she had a reason to stay before she decided to go home or not. the previews of the episode on the commercials said 'there is no rose ceremony' that made me think that she was going home after i knew that was what the drama was this week.

She did decide to go home in the end, which i thought sucked. I mean i know in this economy she should really think about keeping her job above all else, but come on! if you really love him then you would have stayed Ali!

most of all i hated that it meant that Vienna was still there, i mean really Ali, take one for the team so that she'll go home. it will be interesting to see if Ali does the whole Ed/Reid thing from last season and comes back. AND the phone call scene from next week shows that she does something like that!!! drama, so much drama!!

ok i hope you enjoy my musings!

Julia

monday!

i hate mondays, going back to school each week just makes me cringe! so i have 38 more days of class left and i'm not loving it right now! i can't wait until spring break/ graduation!

i do have a few things to look forward to this week:
- the Bachelor tonight - um hometown dates! and hopefully Vienna going home!

- Robe day is tomorrow! that is when the bookstore has preaching robes on sale 25% off for the day. most people wear a preaching robe for baccalaureate and our hooding ceremony. So excited! I'm getting a white alb and a black preaching robe with a little red trim.

- this thursday Survivor premiers and i'm so excited, then you can look forward to my weekly thoughts/ musings about the episodes!

- this weekend in V-day!! yay! i look forward to valentine's day because Audie Rocks at giving gifts!! I however am not so good at getting gifts for folks, but you know we'll work it out, i'm expecting a run to target friday/saturday to get something. last year i did not do so well!

- also i'm so excited about the olympics! last olympics audie and i got chinese food (obviously) and watched the opening ceremonies, so fun! i haven't figured out what we'll eat because i'm not sure what is considered Canadian food so we'll see what we eat on Friday night, but i want to do a Canadian food theme!

ok i'm going to get dinner together so we can eat something.

Also: i was pumped that the Saints won the Super Bowl last night! i never want the same person/team to win multiple times so i like it that the team that had never been to the super bowl before won! and that quarter back guy and his little baby and wife were so stinking cute!!

ok done! love to all!

Julia

today's activities:

Included:

Finishing some homework.

Audie working and then getting home at 3pm. (which means that he's cheated out of like 30 bucks on his paycheck, but still has to work saturday!)

We decided to plan an impromptu super bowl party, invited five friends, two of which can come.

Went to the grocery store and Sam's to get groceries for the week and said party.

Decided that we are going to get each other Valentine's gifts this year (scrambling begins now! let it be said that my husband will come up with an awesome gift!) I know i may have thrown you off by saying 'decided' but Audie is planning a weekend off for us in a few weekends on the condition that i not bring one school related thing to do. I promised and then cried! SO i was hoping that would count as our valentine gift to one another because i suck at valentine's (and all) gifts for him! and he rocks at it which makes me really happy, yet depressed at the same time.

i started reading the archives of barefootfoodie.com, a new blog that amber told me about! hilarious, can't stop laughing or hitting the previous post button!

After a while i realized that i wanted to help out the fun at our super bowl party by making my pink lemonade spritzers ( citrus vodka, sprite and pink lemonade! yummy!!) but then realized that tomorrow is sunday and the liquor stores are closed, and they are already closed tonight, i guess we'll have to do with Mike's hard, parrot bay wine coolers, and the bud light my friend is bringing. well since it's only three of us drinking that should be fine!

realized that my house is probably too dirty to have folks over tomorrow, so we'll see if it gets cleaned before folks come over to watch the game/ really the commercials!!

i'm really excited about watching these commercials with DVR, so that i can rewind and watch the funniest ones again and again!!

Love to all!!

Julia

UGH!

Ok So i interrupt this day of homework to bring you a story from my day.

So i was up in the bed, reading for class next week, listening to the rain. (i know that's not a good study habit, but it helps the naps that happen when i read for class be better if i'm in the bed to begin with!) ANYway! So i'm having a really awesome dream, and then my phone rings, waking me up!

SO i reach for the phone ready to see what emergency meant that someone had to call me in the middle of the day! It was a number i didn't recognize but i answered it anyway ( probably because i'm on pins and needles waiting to hear about jobs from the hospitals, even though i won't find out until the 16th) When i quickly say hello, i hear the dreaded, "we have an important offer for you on the line, please stay on the line." OK so it's a telemarketer. in the second it takes me to think about hanging up i hear their 'important offer' speech begin. There is a sound like a bull horn, and then an offer of a cruise. OK so now i'm really mad! i have gotten calls from this particular group of folks about 4 or 5 times in the last few months. Usually i hang up right after the cruise horn, but this time they had woken me up from an awesome nap!


So i pressed 0 - hoping to get an operator i could tell to take me off the call list, if i got there quick they would be lucky enough not to hear me yell.

I got to a survey that they wanted me to take. after the question began i press 0 as my answer to it about 10-15 more times, finally it told me that i was now going to receive two tickets to Nassau and to stay on the line. I push 0 again, and then am told i will be talking to someone soon. after about a 30 second wait, a lady answers the phone by asking me if i would like to give her my full name.

I Promptly responded "NO, i want you guys to never call' click, automated voice: "You have been automatically put on our do not call list." Thank you very much!

End of story- unless they call again next month.

ok guys catch you later!

Cookies and Homework!

Hi ya'll I don't have much going on to update you on. Friday is homework day in my house so i'm trying to read up for this week. Audie and I are headed over to a friend's house for a game night party tonight, and i'm excited to get to have a ton of fun with them. Boo on the fact that Audie has to work tomorrow so we'll have to leave relatively early.

So in other news last night my friend, who is a youth minister, was telling me how stressed she is right now. Next weekend her kids are going skiing and they had a fundraiser dinner to make money for the trip planned for last weekend. Because of the snow they canceled and rescheduled for THIS weekend. She also was supposed to have a district lock-in tonight, the fundraiser tomorrow, preach sunday, and like a million other things. The lock-in was moved thankfully. So I asked her what i could to do to help and Last night i baked 50 cookies for her to use for desert for the dinner for tomorrow. The were really cute and "valentinesy" so i thought i would share them with you! ( you can also use hersey's kisses but the heart shaped chocolate is what makes them valentine)


Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Candies

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
¾ cup peanut butter
2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sugar
About 36 heart-shaped milk chocolate candies or heresy’s kisses

•Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir milk and peanut butter until smooth.
•Stir in Bisquick mix and vanilla.
•Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Roll tops in sugar.
•Place sugar side up 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
•Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just begin to brown.
•Immediately press chocolate candy into top of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

They came out really good! So i hope you enjoy, and have a great weekend folks!!

Julia

111

Today is my 111th post. I know it's probably more conventional to celebrate post 100, but i got behind and didn't notice i was in the hundreds until a few days ago. SO i have been blogging for almost a year and 1/2 but have only done 111 posts. Which means that the streak i have been on lately is even more impressive!! Be proud please!

So today i didn't have class until 2:30, usually i go in at 1:45-2 to get to my classroom and get settled before class actually starts. My three good friends, Meridith, Danny, and Sarah, all have class/ work on Wednesday morning. We usually try to find a day of the week that works for the four of us to go to lunch together. Wednesday is shaking out to be the best day for everyone but me. SO today i hauled my cookies to school 2 hours early for us all to have lunch only to have Meridith bail on us!! not fun! I mean she wasn't feeling well, but still she could have come out for us!!!

Anyway the real amazing part of the day was that i made it from my house to the meeting place on campus, the chapel in 15 minutes! I parked my car in a VERY slushy parking spot (i had to really work to get out because there were some bad people who basically parked right behind me!) Then i made my self walk/hike/briskly get up to the chapel in only the remaining 7 minutes. This is actually quite a feat, because i am the world's slowest walker! I usually take the walk in about 15 minutes (if i don't wait for the bus, which takes at least 10-12) SO it's good to know that i can book it to class next time i oversleep! (not for the 2:30 class, but the 10:00 one on tuesday/thursday) ANYway i was proud! But of course i was all kind of winded, glistening with sweat and had definitely had increased my heart rate! That probably means i should make the walk faster more often!!

Ok i hope you had as exciting a day as i did!

Julia

today!

Oh good! Durham Public schools and all the other counties in our area have their third day off of school for snow tomorrow! And did Duke give us ANY of that time off??? NOPE!! am i a little bit bitter??? YEP! i mean i know that each school has to do what is right for them, and i didn't have a hard time getting to school these last two days, but it still sucks.

In other news, not much is going on because of the snow. We're going to school and work like normal now. The snow that we had from Saturday is all icy and a bit mushy. This morning it began raining which did not help at all. So i had some real issues getting out of my parking space this morning and this afternoon, but the roads were fairly clear, so it wasn't bad driving.

In other news i got my first grade back on one of my papers due last week. I got a B but she did say that she was going to grade this first paper a bit harder than normal, so maybe that bodes well for my grade in the class. This was the class i was really on the fence about taking it pass/fail or not, so now i think i made the best decision.

Ok guys, going to watch Biggest Loser, Teen Mom, and Little Couple. Actually all that in being recorded so i have to do some homework too!

Julia

NO!!!

He kept Vienna! I wasn't really surprised based on how the show has been going. BUT i was pretty disappointed personally!

I'm hoping that the hometown dates will open his eyes to the fact that she's not ready to be his wife. I thought that her idea of marriage: Where you get up everyday and say "i love you!!!" was a bit immature. Not that audie and i don't love each other every day, but you can't expect yourself to be that kiddy kind of love everyday!

but i was so proud of Corrie for being really open and real about her choices about not having sex before marriage. I'm glad that she was honest about it to Jake. I'm sad that it didn't work out between the two of them, because i liked her from the get go!

Sorry there wasn't much drama this week, looks like there will be tons of drama next week. I'm not sure what's up with the no rose ceremony, and what's on the other side of the door that sets things off, but i'm excited about it!!

Ok girls (pretty sure you're all that is out there) I'll keep you updated on what's up!

Julia

Snow Day - Monday

Ok so Audie got today off, his boss called and told him that they would be closed today because of the weather. So Audie spent the day at home. We ventured out for chic-fil-a today. Mostly because we NEEDED to get out of the house and i wanted to check out the roads to see if i should go to class.

Audie decided that if i wanted to go to class he could drive me. So here i am. Waiting for my class to start. At least i have a chauffeur.

TTFN,

Julia

still inside!

so last night we got another inch of snow, and today the sun came out. The sun is like death to snow, and it started to melt off of everywhere but the ground. So we went out and helped out the sun, by getting the big patches of snow off our cars so that if we went to school/work tomorrow we wouldn't have to do that before going.

Public schools and many colleges have closed tomorrow already, or are on delays. But not Duke, we're still supposed to have classes. If audie stays home i may stay home too, just because it's not worth it to go for my one class tomorrow if it's still this snowy.

So we're kind of preparing for work/class and really hoping we get a day off. Apparently campus has been cleaned up enough to walk around on the the walkways and drive on the roads, so i should probably go to class tomorrow. Mostly we have been just hanging out, watching TV, cleaning the house up a little bit. Playing some Wii and Playstation 3. same old same old. The only difference between this weekend and last weekend is that we didn't go to target/sam's/grocery store this afternoon. And church was canceled, so we didn't get there either.

Ok that's the daily report from Snowed in 2010!

Julia

SNOW!!!

We woke up to 6-8 inches of snow! the reason we don't know exactly how much is because it is still sleeting/snowing outside and so it's still coming down! it is so awesome!! but we haven't gone outside, we're still just looking at it!! yay for a snow day, though i haven't gotten out of school for it. We're going to have muffins for dinner and have a good "roomate saturday" - that's where you don't shower, eat muffins for breakfast and then sit around watching tv all day!

see ya later!

Julia

let it snow!

We have a forecast for 1-6 inches of snow for this weekend, it's supposed to start tonight around 7, hopefully after Audie gets home from work. I am off on Fridays from classes so I was going to do a ton of homework today. I realized last night that in my sleepy haze i forgot to print the articles i need to read today. SO this morning i braved the 30 degree weather (not quite that bad, but it was cold, i wore my new red coat from target!) to go to the library to print out my stuff. Got that all done and figured that i should go on to the grocery store and get gas in my car.

Audie and i grocery shop nearly every weekend, but we only buy what we specifically need to cook that week. This works to keep our bill lower and we don't have a ton of random stuff in the cabinets (well not as much). but we normally shop on sunday afternoons, and apparently it's going to be bad this weekend, so I went ahead and bought our normal list. I will point out that i did not buy any extra 'snow food' like extra bread or milk. (though both of those things were on my list, and were getting low on the shelves.) except for hot chocolate! you can't have a snow day without hot chocolate!

So i'm really hoping that the snow lasts until monday to give us a snow day, but it's supposed to get above freezing and be sunny on monday so it will probably melt before tuesday. People about 2 hours north west of us are supposed to get 15 inches, lucky devils, but we won't get that much. the last time it snowed, a few weeks ago, we were forecast to have 1-3 inches and it all melted before we woke up! i'm just hoping i at least get to see some snow this time!

Ok i need to go get on that reading for next week's classes! i hope you all have good snow days too!!

Julia

Did i do what i said i would?

Well i did get both of my papers done and everything read for my classes this week, but i didn't keep my promise to myself to not stay up too late working on them. I worked on my first paper on Monday,and finished about half that night. then i finished the other half while in between classes. Tuesday night i started to go through the commentaries that i had photocopied from the library to use as sources. by the time i got done at 11 i had a good idea of how this sermon/paper was going to go but didn't know about how to format it.

So i emailed my professor my question and got the response i wanted, how i was planning on writing this thing was how she wanted us to do it. So that meant i could start working for real. So i got an outline together of exactly what I wanted to talk about in the sermon, and also what i wanted to mention in my exegetical notes (basically all the stuff that i learned through research, that may or may not impact the sermon directly, but is important background for me to know before preaching -this was where i had some trouble with formatting) But i got all my stuff outlined and wrote a 2 page description of my context for 'preaching' this sermon. (which actually will never be preached) and went off to class yesterday afternoon.

When i got home I sat down to really kick out the sermon and notes, but figured i should finish the sermon first because that is the point of the assignment and if the notes aren't good then it will be ok. I finished the sermon about 10 PM. yeah it took me 6 hours to write a 16 minute sermon. then i had to work on the notes, and that took about 4 hours. I basically did my writing part while i was in the groove and decided to do the footnotes of where i got my information in between classes the next day. It was 2 am when i got in bed and i was tired!

So today after lunch i finished off my notes by putting in the footnotes! that wasn't that bad and it's always the most tedious part of any paper so i usually make it wait until last. Well now i'm just trying to stay awake until my next round of classes. The two papers are all printed and stapled and ready to be taken off my hands.

tonight's plan: rest and relaxation! and dinner with some good friends of our at Elmo's (an awesome diner in Durham) (and i'm pumped because the friends are taking us to dinner!! it's a thanks for doing all you do kind of thing, so i'm not complaining.)

ok love to all!

Julia

the bachelor

Oh my gosh the drama was awesome. I love the dramatic music and the girls freaking out over everything!

So Jake our bachelor went on some good dates. Gia went on a one-on-one, and let me tell you the coverage of her date made me like her a lot more because she showed that she's not just a spoiled city girl but that she can camp and cook hotdogs on the campfire. I think that Jake really liked her, obviously he kept her around. I liked her a lot better, but i don't think that she will make it to the final two.

He also went on a two on one date, where two girls go on the date and one goes home and the other gets to stay. Jake surprised Ella and Kathryn by sending them both home because he didn't feel like there was a connection with either of them. I felt like they didn't have a connection with him, though they were both really sweet. I was surprised that they went home before some of the other girls but i got why he did it.

I was really surprised that Jake wanted to go ahead and send more girls home than he had to. he only had to send home one other girl since he sent two girls home already. BUT that being said, i think that Ashleigh and Jessie both didn't have as strong a connection with Jake as the others. So i think he was right to go ahead and send them home.

Now my thoughts on Vienna! so i don't really love her, but i think that the other girls need to just back off! let Vienna show Jake who she really is, and he's a smart guy and can figure it out, or he'll pay the price by being engaged to her. I think that Jake is starting to think that they don't have a connection but wants to spend more time thinking about it and spending more time with her. I wouldn't be surprised if she goes on a one on one this next week and goes home. the only thing that makes me not see that happening is that jake might not waste a one on one on a girl that he has already had one with.

Ok that's what that i think of all the drama!!

Julia

busy with homework!

So i'm breaking in my homework crazy weekend/week to say hi to everyone! i have two papers due this week on Thursday. One is actually a written sermon, but still is written so i figure it's the same as a paper. (and don't get me started on how it's only the first full week of school, since we had a holiday last week and a shortened week the week before) so i planned to read as much as i could for this week on friday and saturday so i could enjoy sunday and then work on these papers in the first few days of the week.

But i babysat on Friday afternoon and Saturday night, so i worked on homework all day sunday and more this morning. at this point i have one more article to read. I am planning on writing my first paper tonight while watching the bachelor (watching now and loving it so far, so much drama this season!)

Tomorrow i have a break in my classes when i'm going to read my commentaries for my sermon prep and the last article for my wednesday class. I hope to get a good start on my sermon on Tuesday evening and then continue to do good work on Wednesday morning and evening so that i'm done before bedtime! i am determined to not stress myself out like i did last semester. My plan for that is to give myself good boundaries with school work, and plenty of start time for my papers so that i can finish them without staying up until 2 the night before they are due.

ok, byee guys, i have gotten rid of my writer's block by going through this with you! hope you have a great week, and that this was a fantabulastic monday!!

-julia

this weekend

So thursday i was in class all day like normal, not too many exciting things going on there! friday i had off of classes and got to talk to one of my good friends on the phone, we hadn't done that in a while so it was good to hear from her. Then i went and babysat one of my fav. little girls. It was really fun because she is incredibly cute and sweet. I hardly ever have to get on to her. I picked her up from daycare and then we ate lunch, then went to the NC life and science museum. If you are ever in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill and have kids, or just want a fun place to go you should stop by. it's like Fernbank in Atlanta, with really fun exhibits, but it has a petting zoo, and a butterfly house, and life size dinosaur display. It's pretty cool. and it's not too expensive either. We are members of an association of science museums (when we went to huntsville last year we got the memberships because it was cheaper than paying full price to go tot the air and space museum) so we get in free anytime. The girl's parents are members too, so they go about once a week with her.

So after about an hour she was getting tired so we went back to her house for a nap (which she insisted she did not want to take or need, but she slept for 2.5 hours) I'm babysitting her again tonight. it was an easy afternoon and i made 60 bucks. Audie and i went out to eat last night and walked around target for a while, just to have something to do.

ok today- homework is on the course for today, until i babysit at five and i'll be doing more of the same tomorrow. the semester has hit for sure. I have 7 books that i have to read part of - which equals about 1000 pages of reading, and two papers due this week. NOT fun!!!

Julia

what a wednesday!

Ok it wasn't that exciting, but i got you interested right?? please say yes!

So today i slept in, glorious, and had to go to class at 2:30. it is one of those classes that you have to listen and take notes the whole time. I realize that you would think that all classes are like that but we all know that they are not. but this class is pretty good, i like it so far. One thing that stresses me about this class is that i have to blog for it.

I know that it shouldn't stress me out, because i blog as a hobby. But it's not the same. We as a class have a private blog out in the world and we have to each post 2 times a week and respond to another person's blog. It's basically like us doing a reflection paper each class time, but everyone gets to read our thoughts about what we're reading and talking about in class. That stresses me out. I hate reflection papers, i think that they are just busy work for grad. students!! and i don't like the thought of people talking about what i'm posting. Not to mention there are 45 people in my class. that means 90 posts a week and 45 comments spread around. that's a lot to read, on top of all the other stuff we're reading for class. not fun!!

But other than class not much happened today. i made some creamy italian chicken and Fettuccine for dinner. one of my favorites! yummy. now i'm catching up on my DVR, and i blogged for class for the first time - wish me luck!

Julia

Bachelor last night.

so i was too excited about the bachelor to wait through the day! i had a few moments in the midst of the day so i figured i would go ahead and post!

So michelle, wow i think she is really crazy!! she was like bipolar acting the whole time, or drunk the whole time one, both could be possible for sure! i was glad for her to go home, though i always think that the girls in the house spend way too much time thinking/worrying about the other girls than they do about their own selves. I didn't like her, and when she kissed Jake and then complained about the lack of passion in it she was like 'well why don't you just send me home' then Jake said "ok, well if you don't want to be here you should probably should go home then." I thought he handled it with grace and integrity, but it was shocking to send her home that way. but the other girls were certainly surprised of his actions.

Valisha- she was sent home and i could see that coming a mile away! the editing of the show didn't show much about her, which makes me think that she wasn't going to make it. that makes me worried for some of the other girls that haven't had a lot of air time too.

Elizabeth - the non-kisser. She had asked Jake NOT to kiss her until she is the last girl standing, and he knew that she was THE girl. But then she would say like 'i really want to kiss you' etc. and kind of be a tease about the whole thing. I think that she was doing this just to stand out in his mind and to have a gimmick that made her different. one of my friends on Facebook said she was disappointed because this was the only girl that showed any kind of morals and she got kicked off. BUT Jake asked her last night about this whole thing, and called her out for teasing him with the not kissing. he asked if this was out of religious beliefs and her face said that was no where in her reasoning, and she said of course not. AND her comedy club performance made her sound like a potty mouth, because they bleeped every other word. so overall i think she was just teasing him, or she knew that he'd be kissing all the other girls and really didn't want him to, but was regretting that choice. I think if she was really real about the whole thing, he would have respected it, but since she was wavering back and forth he got frustrated.

SO that's my thoughts about the events of last nights episode for what it is worth, probably not a lot. Other things going on today: not much, i have classes scheduled throughout the day so that means i have to be at school all day, which stinks!

Ok ta ta for now!

Julia

weekend update!

So i know i'm falling into my old patterns of not blogging frequently! i'm really sorry guys, but i was trying to get a jump on some homework for the coming week. I want to utilize my free fridays by reading for the coming week, before i get drawn into enjoying my weekend. But there was a wrench in that plan because Audie was off of work on Friday.

SO friday we did a TON of errands, we went to Target, the thrift store, WalMart, SAM's, the grocery store. It was so nice to fill our cabinets with food. We haven't gone grocery shopping in the last two weeks and we were scrapping the bottom of the barrel of our cabinets! That night we made reservations at a really nice hibachi place near our house. A friend of Audie's at work recommended it because it was good and fairly cheap. They had a early dinner special, so we ate at 6:00 and both got chicken, steak, shrimp, rice, veggies, soup and salad for $40 total, after drinks and tip. that's a good deal in my book!

Saturday i made up my friday off of homework by doing some reading. I got a good amount done because Audie was at work and out of my hair. At around 4 a friend of ours called. He and his wife wanted to go see a movie. We went to Carolina Ale House, a great sports bar. I had a great burger and fries, so yummy. We then went and split off to see different movies. The girls went and saw Leap Year, which was good, but i didn't love it. it was a pretty typical romantic comedy. I would say netflick, redbox, or rent it rather than going to see it in the theater. The boys went and saw Book Of Eli. Which they both loved! i think it was a good story line and had some unexpected things that kept you on your toes. It was not my kind of movie, so i won't be seeing it.

Sunday we had a lacy and quiet day, i read more on my homework and napped a bit. Audie was excited for the beginning of 24. again that show is not my cup of tea, so i spent my time continuing to read. I was reading a book for one of my classes that was so good i stayed up late to finish it. It was a novel called Jesus Land. It was pretty graphic and had some disturbing themes in it. i had a nightmare after staying up to read it, but it was still a good book, one of the best assignments yet.

Today i had my third job interview for chaplain jobs. This interview i think went well, and i wasn't surprised by too much. I did my internship last semester at this hospital, so i knew the people that were interviewing me and knew where i was going so i was a lot more calm and collected during the interview i think. But it was not really a surprising interview, because i knew what to expect. i didn't have to go on the tour and knew that the residency would just be very similar to my internship. I'm still just hoping for a good result in Feb. when they call and let me know what the results of these interviews are!

Ok this has been a really long post, but i needed to catch up! So tomorrow you can get my thoughts on the Bachelor, i'm just starting to watch it, so excited!!

Julia

new classes, new semester!

SO sorry i haven't posted in the last few days, but the new semester has hit! I am taking four classes this semester but not working so it is a different pace from last semester where i was only taking 2 classes, but had to work 20-30 hours a week at the hospital.

So the reading load was a surprise, many of my classes have a lot of reading to do! so i'll be jumping right in, but I'll have fridays off and i think i'll be able to read for the coming week on fridays. I will have to be very self-disciplined to get up and do that but i have done that other semesters so i think i'll be fine.

I was seriously considering taking three of the four classes pass/fail, but now that i have seen the syllabi for my classes i don't think i will. Two of the three i'm allowed to take pass/fail have pretty easy loads, so i think i can get an A or A- if i try really hard. the third i don't think i will fail it and i think i can pull at least a B, it will all depend on how difficult a grader the professor is. In the class there are 5 students, which i think will help because the professor will be able to get to know me personally. It's a preaching course as well which is not my comfort zone, but i got an A in my first preaching course. So overall i think i can handle all three without the pass/fail. and if i wind up getting a B or A/A- I can raise my GPA a bit.

the fourth class that i have is going to stretch me a good amount! i can't take that one pass fail, though i wish i could because i think it will be a difficult class!

anyway, it feels good to have my first few days under my belt! I have 50 class days until i'm done, so i'm excited!!

TTFN

Julia