On having cable and internet access...

First of all, THIS is my bridesmaid dress for Clark and Amy's wedding!
It has a little key hole type opening in the front which is less than flattering, but that will be sewn shut shortly.
Second of all, I have cable AND internet at the Rexroat's house, and all I could find to watch was The Magic School Bus and Everybody Loves Raymond. When I got online, all I did was look at Facebook for something amusing (not much on a Saturday) and check craigslist to see if anybody had posted any more empty apartments (they haven't.) So now I'm updating my blog. I would be doing something much more amusing, like watching Claws play, but he's worn himself out and is currently...umm...hold on.
He's taking a nap in his basket. Cutie pie.
The day might include switching out a swimsuit I bought at JC Penny a few weeks ago that was a tad too small, but since my spring break plans have been axed, it's no emergency. I'll just be giving tours, and that requires no swimsuit.

What this comes down to is that I have cable and internet and am super bored despite that. I do believe I am better off not paying for those services and cuddling with my cat. Studies show it's therapeutic or whatever, right?

Cat

Two updates in less than a week. What?!

I'm sorry you can't actually read anything on my blog. I'm trying to figure out how to re-do everything, but it won't work. Blogspot/blogger is upsetting me mucho at the moment, though I did manage to make Claws my background!
It's officially been a week since I "moved out" of my apartment for lack of water. The Rexroats are now in California and I'm sure my cat is lonely. At first he ran away from the kids and hid all day, but as of Monday night he was crawling in Mike's lap and lying in the middle of the floor while the kiddos ran around and played. I'm sure he misses them now, though, in that big ole house with nobody to play with. I did open the curtain for him and leave his toys in the kitchen so he could attack them. I'll try to get a video of him running around the kitchen—cat+hardwood floors=hilarious.
On Tuesday I got a parking ticket for being parked at a meter. I will admit that I have parked many times at meters without paying, but for whatever reason, I did on Tuesday. I got a ticket at 9:20, returned to my car at 9:28, and I still had six minutes left! WHAT GIVES? Needless to say, I appealed it. I'm hoping I was nice enough in the email I sent that included a picture of the meter.
I had my first Marketing test on Tuesday and got an 80 on it. Guess I should actually read through ALL of the chapters next time rather than hitting the highlights.
Speaking of highlights, here they are:
I MET DAVE BARNES!
I SAW DAVE BARNES IN CONCERT!
I MET DAVE BARNES!
I still have no water. Before it would at least come through enough to fill up the toilet so I could pee at my apartment if I needed to, but that is no more.
I have ants because I can't wash my dishes—I had made breakfast the morning my water went out. It involved pancakes which involved syrup. I gotta buy some poison stuff.

I'm currently drinking coffee and sweet tea and it's 60 degrees outside. Life is a little hectic living in two places at once, but overall, life is good =)

Cat

I love my cat. Clearly.

Six inches of snow and I can't even make a snowman =(

So, my life as of the past week has been quite crazy.
1.) Brian changed his major
2.) Picture Stories is already stressing me out
3.) I keep having to drive in the snow
4.)I have no running water
5.) Claws decided to puke everywhere
6.) Zumba is kicking my butt. And my thighs.

1—The day after we had our first pj class, Brian decided he wasn't going to do it anymore. It stresses him out to find a story and he gets grumpy and decided that he wanted to do something he has a true passion for—helping people. He is now majoring in social studies with an education minor and wants to be a high school teacher. It may add up to an extra year of school for him, but he's on a four year scholarship right now, so adding another shouldn't be too pricey, especially since he's genius and got a good ACT score. There are always more scholarships!

2—I thought I had a story nailed down for Picture Stories (my photo class this semester. it requires a full story once a week, with the exception of two portrait series and the on-going final project. It'll make me be a multi-tasker for sure!) So I held off on shooting waiting for the class I needed to shoot, which was at the hospital and was then informed that I can do no such thing until I consult the marketing department. Boo. So that was a bust. I called roughly 4,000 other local businesses and finally landed on shooting a teacher at a cosmetology school. She was totally open to the idea and was super awesome, but the school was closed for the next three days due to snow. FAIL. So, I talked to me teacher and I'll be using a reshoot on that assignment.
Next week's assignment is "Love," so I'm shooting Wes and Heather Claiborne, and I know where they live so they can't bail on me =)

3— I don't have much tread on my tires. I slip a lot. I'm scared to park on the hill. But I have to go to class and can't ever find level parking spaces. Also, I STILL suck at parallel parking. (I'm practicing a lot though, I promise!)

4—Tuesday morning I woke up early to shoot, so I grabbed a quick five minute shower. I noticed it was colder than normal, but I equated that to my grumpiness and lack of coffee. As I got ready and fed the cat (and tripped over the cat) and went on my merrily little was, I wanted to brush my teeth. This presented a problem-I had no water. Nothing coming out of the faucet in the bathroom. I tried the kitchen; it was a bust. I was even silly enough to try the shower-nothing. So I grumbled and got out my Brita pitcher and brushed my teeth the old school way (think Pilgrim kind of old school.) I called my landlord on the way to my shoot and she said she'd send someone out later that day. She did, and the poor soul called me to ask a few questions, therefore giving me his phone number.
I returned home around seven that night and still had no way, but I did have something new! Muddy footprints EVERYWHERE. Needless to say, I was thrilled. I gathered my shower stuff and called my adoptive family, the Rexroats, who had generously offered me their working shower. I then called my landlord/realtor (I'm still not sure) and got no answer. So I called the repairman and he informed that FIRST thing tomorrow they'd be out to replace the broken valve! Thank goodness!
The next morning there were four guys and three trucks standing around the driveway, all doing the same thing—idling. I made them all move so I could go to work and thanked them for their time.
I returned home after class/the gym (church was cancelled due to snow) and had MORE muddy footprints and STILL no water. I called my landlord/realtor (I really should figure out who I'm dealing with) and again, got no answer. So I called the repairman, who "hated to be the one to tell me this" but that there was a clog in the line and it needed to be replaced. They can't dig until the city comes to mark all underground lines, which would be Monday, and they should hopefully have it fixed by Wednesday at the latest. Glorious.
I called the Rexroats after that; Claws and I are currently residing in Smiths Grove with three sweet children who wake up at the butt crack of dawn. And yell at my precious cat. But that's ok, he just hides under their bed, much to their dismay. Looking back, I take pity on Raja and laugh at how everyone must have looked at me. Because I'm looking at these kids the same way. When the kids go to bed, Claws comes out from hiding in my/Gavin's room and plays and runs around. He's not used to having so much room to play! And I'm not used to being able to lie down in the floor with him =)

5—I don't know why Claws decides to eat the yarn ball. I really don't. But it makes him sick, and every time he barfs, I have to clean the carpet. When I clean the carpet, it gets REALLY clean, and my apartment looks like a giraffe print has been laid on the floor. Also, he eats the rubber bands that hold the yarn ball together. Know how I know?
I found them in the litter box.

6—Zumba is so much fun! There are two different teachers at Preston, and they are very different, but the change of pace is good. I was a little sad I didn't go this morning, but I felt the need to save gas (it's a 40 mile round trip to BG from Smiths Grove.) However, almost-2-year-old Katie has decided I am a human jungle gym, and this is adequate exercise. It usually doesn't get as sweaty, either.

So that's my life as of now. I'm currently sitting in Panera Bread (free wi-fi!) with Brian and his parents. He's filling them in on the next two years and what kind of classes he has to take and yada yada yada. I've had four cups of coffee and have typed this whole thing in about three seconds. I mean minutes. Roughly. And it's not even noon.
I ordered bridemaid's dress #2, a lovely deep red linen dress, and cannot wait for the next 7-10 business days for it to arrive! Amy has decided upon deep gem-like colors for the bridesmaid. The other two have a golden dress and the other girl has a choice between purple and blue. I'm really excited for the next step in A's wedding plans! (I get consulted quite a bit, and I love hearing how excited she gets about every little detail!) I am so ready for June! Carmen's twins will be here and I can officially call Amy my sister! Woot!
I have to go see Romeo and Juliet at the theater tonight for my theater appreciation class. Monday night is Valentine's!! Oh, wait. I don't care. Tuesday night, Dave Barnes is coming to BG, fo FREE! I'm more excited about that than anything.
All in all, life is good =)
Be praying for John and new job possibilities! Things are looking good in NC!

-Cat

Things I currently cannot find: my camera and my iPod.
It's time to clean out my car. After the 3 inches of fresh snow melts, of course. I will be making snow cream soon, though, and I AM rather excited about that.
I gave Claws a shower today, since I don't have a bath tub, I figured he couldn't actually have a bath...
Anyway.
I basically threw him in the shower with the water on and stood on a chair so I could reach the shower head and move the water to the cat. He was so upset that he jumped up and scratched my arm—while it was at the TOP of the shower. At least now I know he can jump. We then released the cat from the shower, soap in hand, and petted him to death with cat shampoo. He didn't complain too much until we got back in the shower, but he was more calm with my company. I scrubbed and rubbed and squeezed him out, poured pitchers of water on the poor little guy and then remembered I didn't have a hair dryer. No way to dry my sopping wet now 15-pound cat. We rigged a fan+heater and that seemed to do the trick.
All this because I was petting him and saw a bug. At the time, I would have just rather left the bug crawling through his fur. It was heartbreaking to hear him cry in the shower. Then I saw this article about how sleeping with your pets can kill you if they have bugs.
So now I feel better.
Today was my last day of BIO 114, and tomorrow is my final for ECON 150. These three weeks have flown, and I can't believe the amount of reading I have done.
And cleaning.
And cooking. I have cooked a lot. Then the kitchen gets dirty.
So I have to clean some more.
But it's ok, because I wear my fancy apron =)

Happy New Year!

So Christmas has come and gone, along with New Year's and here I am, back at school! I'm taking 2 classes over three weeks, so I'm actually doing quite a bit of studying. I'm getting a few hours of work in there, as well, but there are two things completely over shadowing school right now—getting Claws back to Bowling Green and going wedding dress shopping with Amy on Saturday!!! It's weird to not have Claws waiting for me when I get home from class or work, but it's stopped taking me by surprise, and putting all my new kitchen gadgets away was a breeze without him crawling in the cabinets.
Not too much is happening outside of work and school, but it'd been a month since my last update, so I felt like it was over due.

I'm actually sitting in class right now...

So I'm in lighting class right now. We're critiquing pictures from the past two weeks' assignment, in which we really only had one week to shoot due to Thanksgiving. We won't have any more real "assignments" this next week, but our portfolio is due next Thursday. It has to be 8 pictures, 2 can be from old assignments, though, so I'm not stressing too bad. I shot my friend Hannah last night, but we'll have to revisit that because I didn't get the look I wanted. I'm possibly shooting again tonight, definitely tomorrow, and hopefully Saturday. I have a French oral final on Monday where I just have to speak 5 minutes, which shouldn't be so hard...I hope. The only final I'm really worried about is accounting 200. Blah.
Thanksgiving was a blast, even though the scratches from Claws are still healing. He doesn't get along very well with cousin Quinn, but that didn't stop his curiosity. Lots of food and sleeping and playing with puppies =) I also bought my dining room table that's actually gonna be in my kitchen! I haven't actually assembled it. Matter of fact, it's still in the back seat of my car...in the box. I might assemble it tonight if I don't line up a shoot.
Basically the next week will be all about lining up portraits for my portfolio, which I may enjoy more than I'm anticipating.
Two more weeks of school, and then that's it!
B and I adopted two kids from the Salvation Army Angel Tree, a 6-9 month old boy and an 18-ish month old girl. We're going shopping for them this weekend =D I'll let you know what we get.
I made fudge and cookies and sausage balls last night...I felt domestic.
I will not leave you with a picture of baby Claws hiding under Daddy's night stand because he could hear Quinn in the other room.

Scaredy Cat

Oh, hello 4 month break...

SO after July 27, I was kidnapped and taken to an evil boarding school located off the coast of New Dheli and that's what I haven't updated.
...
I mean, not really, but it was SOMETHING like that.
We left camp August 6 at 5 am after staying up literally all night and headed for Fort Meyers, Florida, where Brian's parents met us for some well deserved beach time. There was much "shelling" and sunning and swimming and going out to eat and NO SUNBURNS! Wahoo!
After that week ended, I spent some time relaxing at home (somewhat) and preparing to move into my big girl apartment around the 17th or so. I actually forgot the real date, but I made one trip up just to move some preliminary boxes and furniture and do some hardcore cleaning. (Scrubbed, bleached, and powerwashed the deck and siding. Cleaned under the stove that probably hadn't ever been cleaned. Tried to destroy mold in the shower. Actually knocked the bird nests off my ac units. Vacuumed the carpet 74529461438 times. Washed the walls. Cleaned out the sick nasty fridge. Washed the kitchen cabinets and put in shelf paper. Ya know, basic stuff like that.)
I spent about a week back in the BG before classes started and that's what I've been doing ever since. Work, class, class, sleep, work, class, class, class, work, work, shoot, class, work, class, sleep, etc.
I LOVE being a tour guide for WKU! It's really neat to get to impact potential students and really create an experience they'll remember when they think of us.
Anyway, there are just a few weeks left in the semester and I have no idea where time has gone! I just rearranged the Trust Tree, as my apartment has been named, so for Claire's sake, I will post those pictures now =)
Also, in case you were unaware, I am not paying for cable or internet, thus the main source for lack of updates. However, there is now free public wi-fi in certain areas of Bowling Green, and I am in one of them. Sweet niblets.

Pictures of my apartment as of 30 minutes ago:

my reading/studios corner. it's a work in process. note the clock.

My very messy coffee table and couch. This is what you see when you first walk in my front (and only door).

Corner of my bathroom that's actually interesting.

My messy bed/messy desk/messy junk corner. Haven't cleaned it after the rearranging process, but I put this picture here anyway.

I'm going to move my nightstand by my bed. I just haven't done it yet.

Just remembered I only have one class tomorrow! And Bible study Turkey Day feast tomorrow night! Gonna be a greeeeat day.

SAMBICA

We've had about zero internet at camp, and I"m currently....borrowing from the neighbors, so I thought I"d throw in a quick update. This summer has been great! I can't believe next week is my last out here, then a week in Florida, then home. It had absolutely flown by, but I'm ready to not be wearing a one piece bathing suit under my clothes all day. I've got first grade girls this week and they're so much fun. One of them is from France and is teaching me two words every day. Her dad is the "chef of Starbucks." But really he's like the regional manager of Starbucks in France.
Did I mention most of these kids come from money? Yeah, they do. But most of the time you can't tell until they get to 4th of 5th grade.
It's almost time for dinner so I'm gonna get going.
See what they've done to me? Dinner. DINNER?!

...supper.

Guess what I found?

I leave for SAMBICA in one day, and I'm getting very very very very very excited and anxious and antsy. Ansty? Eh, whatever. I weighed my suitcase last night and it came in at a whopping 48.6 pounds, which doesn't hold a candle to when Momma and I packed for Hawai'i and nailed 49.5, leaving .5 leeway for scale differences =D THAT was a proud moment. I've got a few more things to pack and then we shall see what happens.
Also, I found Buddy underneath the green recliner last night! I couldn't find him since we got back from the lake on Memorial Day, and we'd all been on the hunt with no avail. However, Daddy had been right on top of him and never knew it! I had told them that Buddy was still in the plastic bag from the lake, and Dad ripped said bag in half and didn't connect the dots. He had pulled half the blue sealer thing off the top and didn't say anything because he thought it was unrelated, I guess. Regardless, here he is!


Alas, I'm going to eat some lunch, maybe give the kittens their first bath, and then I'm going to Paducah with my momma! Woo!
I hung out with Lexi Hall yesterday (And her baby, Xavier) and we bought Rock Band silly bandz. They're awesome. Just letting you know. I was at the student center until stinkin' 3!!!!! last night. I didn't wake up until a text from B around 11. Much needed sleep.

I'm gonna go eat some food.
I have to do laundry tomorrow. I had to raid my suitcase for legit clothes.

I LEAVE SATURDAY!

SAMBICA is only five days away; I'll be there Saturday!
I'm watching a nice combination of "Home is Where the Heart is" and Jon & Kate plus 8 because the premiere of Kate plus 8 comes on in an hour (Jon is a 'tard. Who ditches their wife and EIGHT CHILDREN?! Ugh.)
I lost my little point and shoot, Buddy. We took pictures on the lake on Monday with it, and it made it into the food crate and at least to the porch, then I got distracted by kitties and that's all I remember. Where ever he is, I miss him and I want him back. He needs to find me, because I can't find him.
I need to go find some food, because Momma and Daddy ate at life groups, so I'm out on my own. Sad day.
Momma and I have had a very movie-full weekend! We watched Up! and Tooth Fairy and they were great.
I'm gonna watch my movie/tv show now.
Kbye.