domestication

well after two very fun and exciting months at home, i am back at school. while i'm not looking forward to doing work again i am super excited about where i'm living!! i have my very first apartment! and i'm living with a girl that i met abroad. i'm super excited. the place looks great so far, a little messy with boxes and stuff but it's on it's way to looking amazing! i will definitely post pictures once the mess is all cleaned up. this is my first place where i am by myself (or at least without my parents) that has a kitchen and real feel of a house/apartment. today my roommates are moving in and tomorrow starts school. this year, or at least this half of the year will hopefully be awesome. it has some big shoes to fill because australia was amazing, but i think it'll one of my best at trinity!

let the sunshine in

last weekend was fun, exciting, and relaxing. on friday night i went into the city to visit my sister elizabeth. we went to ikea to buy some new things for my apartment. very exciting! and since she forced me to buy things that she thought i would need i think i'll have a good start to my kitchen. then we had a nice dinner out and mike joined us. and then we fell asleep watching the movie stardust (which i would actually like to finish, it seemed pretty good from the little i saw!). then saturday i met my mom and aunt and cousins for lunch in the city and then a broadway show. we saw hair. it was amazing! if you like out of the box, provocative, in your face type stuff along with lots of dancing and singing, this would have been right up your alley. the show was so good. it really made me want to fight for a cause and wear a lot of fringe! it definitely seems like it would have been a cool time to grow up in (60's/70's). after the show my mom and i took the train back home where we were greeted by elizabeth and grandpa. with my dad's help they were all putting together a vintage ceramic christmas tree that was smashed in delivery. it looks great now! then of course the night ended with lots of video game playing (although my dad played the longest because he didn't save our progress so he stayed up for another 3 hours redoing everything we did that night!). then sunday we had to say good bye to elizabeth and said hello to heidi and linda. i told them all about my australian adventures and we chatted by the fire, watching football, and eating cupcakes, yum! a very good weekend indeed. for the next few days i'm in dc visiting a friend i met in australia, good times again!

boys will be boys

the last few babysitting jobs i've had to do were with boys. this is always a different experience because i never played with boy toys when i was younger and the little girls always look up to me and want to copy me. i wasn't sure how the boys were going to react. one family has a one year old boy and a three year old boy. sooo adorable! we get along really well. then he pulled out his remote controlled train set. i was like uhhhhhhh. and he was like ok now we have to set it up. since he's only three he can't put the pieces together himself. i was so baffled the first time. i had no idea what to do, i'd never put together a train set. i was able to finally make a train loop and it seemed to work out pretty well. and the trains were all remote controlled, pretty cool. by the second and third time baby sitting for them i knew what tracks to put together and i was pretty intrigued by the trains. then for the past few days i've been babysitting an 8 year old boy (he's the oldest of 4 and has three sisters, but his sisters are busy doing other things). when i first got there he wanted to play guns. nerf guns. i'd never played before. i didn't know if it was ok to try and shoot him, yet he was shooting me and i didn't want him to shoot me in the eye or anything. so after a while, i guess i wasn't playing so well, he was just like ok can we watch a movie now! oh well i tried. it's been a good experience playing with boys and playing with toys that are gendered toward boys. it's a good experience to do new things, it actually ended up being a lot of fun! i felt a little out of my element but i think i'm getting the hang of it now.

ring in the new year

well a new year as started, a new decade has started. i can't believe it, 2010. i graduate in 2011, that's too soon. so far the year has ben pretty relaxing. celebrated the new year with friends and have been hanging out at home with the rents. but this week starts more babysitting, visiting friends i haven't seen yet, and cramming in as much stuff as i can before i go back to school. thankfully school doesn't start until the 25th so i have some time. i'm definitely looking forward to the new year and to see what it will bring. hopefully my schooling and health and family will continue to prosper. happy belated new years to everyone!!!! have a great year!

and to all: a good night!

the holidays were great fun this year as usual. this year i noticed things were quite relaxed and chilled. i think a big part of that is the fact that the youngest member of the family, on both sides, is 11. no little babies running around or toddlers (hopefully that'll be different next year cough michele cough!) but it was nice that the holidays can be relaxing, always a good thing. christmas was small with few presents, but, as my mom would say, in this economy it was great! i'm so glad and blessed that i can spend these holidays with all my family. now tomorrow is monday and the real world is knocking at my door. back to baby sitting, getting up early, and eating under 5000 calories a day! i want to thank everyone for spending this wonderful holiday with me even if it was only over a phone call or skype session! and i hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and is looking forward to the new year. i know i am!!

movies through the ages

while perusing through tv to try and find something good to watch, i came across 7 brides for 7 brothers. now that might not sound like anything to you, but it used to be one of my favorite movies! when i was really young and visited my grandpa and grandma in new hampshire, i would watch this movie over and over until i knew all the words and everything. it was made in 1954 and is still a classic. it's definitely still i movie i enjoyed watching. it's quite corny and its a musical but it's still pretty good. if you haven't seen it i would DEFINITELY recommend it. it was great to find it on tv and go down memory lane again. so thank you very much to grandpa and grandma who introduced me to this movie!

i'm the baby, gotta love me!

it's been about three weeks already since i've been back. it doesn't feel like that at all, seems much shorter. but i think i've been fitting in a little more. i've figured out that yes it is really cold here and it's not getting any warmer soon. but it is nice to be home. it's nice to see my parents on a regular basis and catch up with friends that i haven't seen in a long time. although my best part of being home was seeing people for the first time! i just came back from new mexico visiting my sister michele and her baby girl isabela. my niece is the most adorable person i've ever seen!!! i love her sooo much. i miss them both a lot already. and i must say, i think she liked me too! she's the most precious person, love you isabela!