Guess who!!

YEAH! I'm BACK! After a MONTH of being home... I finally find the time to actually get the motivation to post! After not writing for so long you're left with that "Uh.... what do I post!?!?" feeling. It's been especially hard because we haven't had a computer (yes... AGAIN) for a while now. Caldwell hired some new employees so we had to send back the laptop they've been letting us use. *sadness* So now we only have the net when my dad is home with his laptop... and even then it's almost impossible to get on. He's on it most of the time, and then when he's not it's just fair game for anyone... including hours of movies for a sick little boy. =| Yeah, so anyway. I finally got a block of time to get on while everyone else is busy! So let's see... where in the world should i start???

Well, I've talked to a lot of you about how my time in IA was, and there's no way that I'm going to try to bring you up to date from two months ago! I was hoping to write more while I was there so I didn't have this much to update on... but it really was almost impossible to fit in posts with everything else I was doing. If I was on the computer... it was either working on more designs for the latest graphic project (which was most of it) or some writing assignment (like writing a teacher's guide to Before you Meet Prince Charming). I was verrry happy to work with cs4 for the first time! It's wonderful! I'm definitely pushing for an update on mine now. =) And now I know why Mrs. Schuurmans loves her dual screens so much.... WOW. I actually felt organized! I could drag all my menus and non essiential windows to one screen and work with just the picture on the other screen. It was great! lol, probably the first time I ever used windows and didn't want to throw it across the room. And it was a really good experience to do "work" for someone else and have to fit their idea for what they wanted and thought looked good. I've only had myself to work with for so long that it was really good to have someone say, "Hmmm. I don't think I like that!" It definitely stretches you to have to keep trying to make it just what the 'client' wants. Thanks guys! =)

So anyway, now I'm back and I've been trying to get into a good schedule so I can stay organized and productive. It's kinda nice not having to do school for a change, but then again... you have to work that much harder to make sure you don't slip into a lazy mode of not getting anything accomplished. (which I must admit happens some days if I'm not careful) So today Rachel and I are going to get the Christmas lights up outside and do some decorating inside. I also am on sewing duty for Joshua and Bradley's costumes for the Christmas play. =) So that should be fun. I just cut out the patterns and will (hopefully!) start sewing some of it tonight. Let's see what else... Oh. I'm trying to get my mom to go get some fabric for a backdrop so I can start playing around with lighting. I want to get a good Christmas picture this year since some of the last year's uh... stunk? =P Most of them were last minute deals so you can't blame them too much... and I didn't have my camera. So two bad things. lol, anyway. Oh yes... and I cut my hair!!! AHHH! I think I'm starting to like it now. But I definitely wondered what had gotten into me after Kara told me she cut 13 inches off!! *faint* She's like, "Oh. Was that too much??" hehe... No. it's fine... I'll just close my eyes now. =S lol. So far no one has told me they hate it... so that's a plus. I'll have to post a picture soon for you people who live so far away.

Well, I'd write more, but I need to go help Rachel carry in the tree. But hopefully I'll be posting again sooner than last time! Oh and a little news flash for you people that read this blog... I probably will be shutting down this blog sometime soon... BUT, I'll starting up one or POSSIBLY two new ones. Anyway, I'll let you know in advance what's going on. But for now Happy (late!) Thanksgiving!! I hope all of you had a wonderful time with family and relatives. I love you all and can't wait to see some of you that have been gone and on the road.

Hey guys!!

Ok! Well, OBVIOUSLY I have very good reasons for not being able to post regularly. But I FINALLY have a free-ISH night to myself. So I thought I'd post something. I haven't really gotten a bunch of pictures since last time... once again.. crazy busy. So I'll put up some of the pics I have.

Well, last thursday through today have been extremely hectic and busy, involving many all nighters and quite a few hillarious moments. We (Abby, Caitlyn, Royal, and I) started the desktop publishing class/course last thursday with Stephen as our ever brilliant teacher. The first two days were defninitely the most overwheleming. I've never used InDesign, so that was really new to me. It helped that I had used adobe stuff before, and it was basically the same layout as like, PS, so that made it a little easier, but still VERY challenging. And then we went through some photoshop stuff, which was a lot of fun. Royal and I have very different oppinions on which is better. PS or ID? Haha. PS!!!!! But he caught on fast to ID whereas I wasn't interested hardly at all, so I didn't just gobble it up like he did. So we're both the go-tos if anyone needs help with either. Oh, and I guess I should tell you who Royal and Caitlyn are. (I think I'll have pics of them below) Royal goes to the same church as Mally's. So we see him there every Sunday. He was interested in the class too, so he came. And Caitlyn is a friend of Mally's and has helped with Bright Lights. She's SOO sweet! I love her. :D Oh, and if you've visited her blog... She doesn't look ANYTHING like that now. I was like... whoa! She has short cute dark reddish brown hair. Not long blonde. :P You'll see it in the pics. Anyway... So we've been having a lot of fun with them. So let's see.... where was I? Oh, so yeah. We had a lot of assignments to get done over the week! We were sooo busy it was crazy. We had class basically all day. (9-3:30ish) And then we would have assignments due by a certain time. We designed buisness cards, wrote out and designed essays in ID, made dvd covers for the Bright Lights conference videos, and I even made a mock up website layout for their main website. It needs a little update... so I'm trying to help them come up with new ideas. I think they liked it... but of course I'm really critical of my first drafts. So we'll see what else I can do with it. :) SOO... today was the final exam test!! AHH! I was so nervous I would do a terrible job. There was a lot of stuff to remember. A lot of design principals and stuff. But I didn't do too bad I guess. I only got a four wrong on the entire test! So I was happy.
So then... after our last day, Abby, Caitlyn and I decided to go "celebrate" by going shopping!! :D YES! So we went to Walmart, the mall, and Sonic! :D We had fun. And besides running over the sidewalk... LOL... we had a GREAT time!! (I won't expound at the moment) :P

SO! Anyway, that's pretty much my busy week. (for the most part) OH! I got together with my girl today that I'm doing a study with. She's 14, and she comes to the Bright Lights meetings. All the leaders got one girl... and Maisie is mine! So we went out to Coffee Smiths (how appropiate) tonight and talked over our session. So we had fun, AND had coffee! I tell ya... this place has got more coffee shops then anywhere else I've EVER been. There's just gazillions of 'em! It's nuts!

Well, I better stop now. I have a terrible headache from all this overloading. I stayed up really late this last week from trying to get assingments done by the next morning. So I think I need to go to bed early. I'll throw some pictures up though before I leave. I love and miss you all!!! I can't wait to come home!




Me and Nickie!



Grace, Nickie, and Abby



We saw Wisemens (Spelling?) at this conference. So we got to talk to them for a while... as well as listen to their music!



Me and Abby!



Grace and Stephen. I thought it was too cute to miss. :)



Desktop Publishing Class



Royal, Stephen, and Caitlyn



More peoples....


Well, there's more... but they're on my camera... and my head won't let me get up. So maybe later! Love ya'll!

Ok! I have pictures! =D

Sooooo! =D Today I finally got some pictures uploaded. I have to be really careful with my battery tho, cuz i just went thru the first one and I don't have my charger. :| I have no idea where it is! I couldn't find it before i left... so my dad bought me another one off of ebay.... but it won't be here for a week! :| *sigh* So i can't just go a have a hay day.... YET. I WILL tho. =D just wait. But anyway... here are a few that I took today. Some of them aren't the best because i had it in manual most of the time... and SOME people wouldn't stay still! :| =P so anyway. Enjoy!





Abby and Nickie hanging out on our lunch break.



Abby at her desk... mines right next to her! =D




Here's the 'kitchen' area behind the store and cubicles.



Meet my newest best friends! =P



These are SOOO good! Mrs. Mally got dropped off one for all of us while we were at the office. She's so sweet!



Here's a cute restraunt I got some lunch at on Tuesay. They serve the BEST pizza EVERY! Yummy!



This is the coffee shop i was talking about in the last post. It's SOOOO cute! I LOVE it! I want to live there! I want my rrom to look just like this... or at least my kitchen!




And here's the entrance. Abby's taking pictures too. =D



Here's some pictures inside the coffee shop.
















SOO! There's a starter! I'll get more up soon. But this is just a few i had on hand. Miss ya lots!

Update 1 of who knows how many...

Well, let me first start off to say...


I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Wow. Only two days into the intern and it's been very busy! I've had a great time meeting the girls here and getting to know them better. Abby is my room mate... though we're more like 'house mates'! We both share the house the Mally's are providing for us. So that's a lot of fun! I went from just wanting my own room to getting a whole house!!! Pretty cool. So we're both being neatnicks. Angel Torberson, you would be proud. =D

Yesterday was pretty busy. Abby and I had our orientation here at the BL Office and got sworn in as official members! Yay! And... along with working here at the office... you have to be able to make coffee. But this isn't your ordinary coffee... this is the REAL STUFF. Any of you think you drink strong coffee?? HA! Think again! Each CUP has two heaping tablespoons packed with starbucks dark roast coffee beans! Uh huh! Ladies... this is coffee. It's as close to mud as it gets. So i'm coming back a changed person... jittery anyways. :P LoL... I used to think I liked fairly strong coffee... but they're teaching me to drink the real stuff. And I'm really starting to like it! All of us are really big coffee drinkers... so our goal is to hit every coffee shop in town. I think from what I've heard... there's probably around 10-15 coffee shops around here. At least 3 starbucks and some other really cute nice ones.

lol, let's see. What else? Oh, I learned how to pack orders yesterday. Nikki, a BL leader I'm sure all of you who went to the conference will remember (she was the pretty blonde who played 'flirtilia' in the skits), helped us learn how to read the order forms and then fill them. Some people buy a ton of stuff! So that was fun.
The office is pretty tricked out thanks to Stephen. He's the techy around here, and does his job really well. He's wired everything here. It's amazing! And I didn't even know he was a professional photographer! He has two cameras, and at least one of them is a Canon 1ds mark III!!! He works for a newspaper in town, and recently got one of his pictures published in the New York Times. I was pretty impressed. So yay! Another photographer to ask a bazillion questions too. And he has a ton of toys. Lots of really nice equipment. And then they've all done an amazing remodeling job in the office. Everything looks so professional and high quality. I meant to take some pictures today... but we were busy as usual. So maybe I'll remember tomorrow.

Abby and I had a pretty funy evening. After we got off work, we headed out to shop for groceries for out kitchen! We've already planned out our meals for the next two weeks... so that shud keep us good until then. We usually only have to really worry about dinner at our house... cuz we just grab some breakfast early before we head to the office and then we pack lunches or go out to get something. Grace and I are running monday, wednesday, and friday. So I have to get up extra early to get everything done before we leave. Anyway, so Abby and I went shopping around 5:40ish and then stopped at some consignment shops looking for cool coffee mugs for Grace and other stuff we thought of. We finally finished at Walmart around 9:30 and decided there was no point going back home and making something for dinner.... so we went out to McDonald's for dinner at 10! A little late... but better late than never I guess. =P We got home and spent time cleaning up the kitchen and organizing drawers and shelves. So now we've finally settled down... and we're both finishing up a few personal things, and then I'm going to bed! I'm exhausted!

Oh! And last night, we had our BL meeting with all the girls who live in Cedar Rapids. There were about 60 I think. So we had a good sized group. I took some pictures, but since I just took my exilim with me too the meeting, and I didn't want to distract the girls with flash... they didn't turn out so well. But at least you can see the basic idea. I'll bring my 40D with me next time so I can get a few better shots. :) Sorry I haven't gotten many pictures up yet... I just haven't gotten the time to take very many good ones. I'll try more this week... but here's some (gross, bad, yucky, stupid point and shoot's!) in the meantime. =P

Well, I'm pretty wasted, so I better get to bed. I love you all and miss you BUNCHES! The time still seems to be moving slowly... so maybe things will pick up. Thank you soo much for all your prayers and support!! It means a lot to me. TTYL!
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I just realized... (hits head)... I don't have the usb cord for my exilim. (groan!) SO just hang tight on the pictures. I'll take my slr with me tomorrow and upload those tomorrow.

Bye!! =(

Well... I'm leaving anytime now! We're trying to get last minute things packed and ready. So luckily that's keeping me busy and away from being too emotional. I'm gonna miss ya'll SO MUCH! Don't forget to e-mail me! I'll be able to check it pretty often. And I'll update my blog as often as I can. Hopefully the next few weeks won't seem like too much of an eternity. :S I wish I could have come to Emily's party today and said goodbye to all of you... but you'll just have to listen to my voice over the phone if she still gets me to say my chapter that way. :P Well, i gotta keep getting ready. I love you all and miss you already!! Keep me in your prayers!

Off to Cedar Rapids!

Well, it's official now! I'm going to be leaving for the Bright Lights Internship in Cedar Rapids this Sunday. I'll be gone for ten weeks! :( *sadness* But I really think it's going to be a great learning and growing experience. They have a ton of stuff to get done and keep us girls busy with. The schedule invloves devotions in the morning, followed by Bible classes with varying instructors. Then after lunch we'll be working in the office doing a meriad of things. Ranging from controlling incoming and outgoing expensises, to help putting material together for Bright Lights conferences and Leader training. Steven Mally will also be teaching a desktop publishing course to us. And there's a ton of other stuff to get done and attend. I'm sure I'll be busy... but please don't forget to keep up with me! I'll miss all you guys! Ten weeks seems like a really long time... :( so I guess I'm not looking forward to being away THAT long... but the desire to go and help out with other girls pushes me through some of that. :)So anyway, please keep me in your prayers in the following weeks that I'd be open to anything God wants to show me. And also that I'd be able to do a good job.... and not get too homesick! So hopefully I'll see most of you on Wednesday and then whoever is going to Emily's tea party on Saturday. I'll try to keep my blog updated as often as I can. I'm bringing my camera... so I should be able to post some pictures too. We'll see. I wasn't able to get my laptop in time to bring with me... so hopefully I'll be able to use their computers there.

So, there's some more news... and can you believe it!?! ANOTHER post!! WOW. Am i good or what?? :P Love ya'll!

New post! (Happy Austy?)

Ok... well, i know i haven't posted in what seems like an enternity... but the Turner County Fair has kept me incredibly busy this week. Emily Schuurmans and I have been working on staff there helping keep everything clean and spotless. We just finished our last day yesterday around noon. The first two days (monday and tuesday) were definitely the hardest and loooongest. We were scheduled for 13 hours both days and ended up going overtime. The last three days weren't as bad since we got off around 4 instead of 9. (YAY!) And what would being on staff mean if you couldn't run people over with a Polaris Ranger?? Or as Emily liked to call it... our Polaroid. lol. We DID have some annoying troubles with one of the rangers on tuesday... the handeling was AWFUL. You would barely step on the gas and it'd literally jump ten feet forward. And it sounded like it was going to take off into space at any second. (sigh) So that one was sent to detention the next day and we got another one. =D Let's see.... what else? Oh yes. I lost my voice almost completely on tuesday and it still hasn't come back. Now everyone is telling me to quit smoking. :| (haha.) Everytime i try to raise my voice... it just comes out really high and breathy. lol. And of course, everyone wants to hear me sing. Funny, but not happening. So it will be very nice when i can talk again... i've already forgotten what i sound like!

Oh, and while we're on the topic of the fair... Congrats to Daniel, Hannah, and Abby Hanson for making another run on best of show! The pictures look fantastic! And also congratulation to Mrs. Schuurmans for best of show on her painting! It was gorgeous! All that suspense and finger nail biting was so worth it after they put the ribbon on her painting. All us kids (schuurmans and me) we just pacing for the last ten minutes trying to read the judges faces and figure out what in the world they were talking about. And then what really caught us all off guard was when they put the purple on some other painting... and then 30 seconds later brought out another one and put it on Carol's! We went from dissapointment to bouncing off the walls and yelling. lol. You gotta love the fair.

Well, unfortunately there's no new pics... but I'll see about getting some up at a later date. I might be leaving soon tho! Bright Lights is having a internship down in Cedar Rapids... and I really want to go. It's for ten weeks! So i'm not too happy about that. :( But i think it would be a great learning experience and i'd love to help them out however i can. If I did go, it would be next monday. Really soon! So pray for me that i make the right decision and get ready in time! Love ya'll!