My sincere apologies, Paige; the ban does indeed include all varieties of walking tacos, not just ones with fritos. I gave them another shot (several, in fact), and they have continued to let me down. "Fool me once, strike one. Fool me twice, strike three." (Quiz: What The Office episode is that from? NO GOOGLING!!)

Day one of hellish exams is over with! Surprisingly, I think they went well. One exam tomorrow with plenty of time to prep, and 2 days to finish up Perspectives; we should be in good shape!

Highlights of the week thus far:

• Stepping down from the secretary position in SIFE. Yay extra 1.5 hours a week!!
• Nearly making Lauren punch herself in the face (would have been more funny if she had followed all the way through)
• Seeing Lauren get terribly embarrassed after having been given a dose of her own medicine (she people watches and was caught by someone who wagged his eyebrows at her with a ridiculous grin on his face)
• Making a vegetarian eat meat
• Getting to see Jess and Mike off to Japan on Wednesday - very sad to see them go, but they're going to have an amazing time! I'm excited for the ditzy Jess stories!!
  
• ....

Ok, I swear there's more. But I forget. This week has had a tremendous amount of highlights. It probably tops VH1's "Best Week Ever!" - not that I've ever seen it...

~Disclaimer~ It looks like I'm a terrible person (in my highlights) for picking on Lauren, but really, she brought it all on herself. I never actually did anything to her.

If anyone can direct me to some nice stationary (for writing Jess in Japan), you may get a letter in the mail yourself! (incentives....) Hobby Lobby is out - they've got nothing of value there. Please help!

Seriously, you'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now, but no. I still go back. Darn you, walking tacos with Fritos! They're great until they come back to visit a few hours later in the form of revolting burps that make you sick to your stomach. I'd say walking tacos are 'on notice', but I think a ban on all Frito-related foods would be more appropriate.

Also, Campbell's "Noodle-O's" are no substitute for chicken noodle soup when you have an upset stomach. No amount of oyster crackers will help either.

Spring break was great! I spent the first half with the family; we're still finishing up some rooms in the basement so like any other time I go home, I was put to work. It was still good to hang out with them and see them again. I end up missing them a lot after a while.

Wednesday, I left for Arkansas, and the first few hours were terrible. After locking my keys in my car for over an hour and realizing I forgot my pants in Newton, I was feeling pretty ridiculous and figured the probability of me actually making it there without any other major occurences. (Mom's "What if your car dies?!" didn't help either. The last thing I need is to be doubting my car before I drive 7 hours) I did make it there, though, with excellent gas milage (probably due to the oil change my dad made me get that was long overdue). The rest of the week went great, and I really enjoyed the time spent there. (by the by, since I found out you were reading, I have the hardest time writing now--thanks. :) but thank you, also, for the great time! you're a great host!)

This week will be very very busy. I'll really need to manage my time (and not take an hour to write a blog...) and be super-uber productive. We'll see how that goes though - apparently I have the attention span of ~trails off~....

Lies. So sad.

We left at 7 and got lost so we didn't make it to Tai Chi - no big loss though. The class consisted of a bunch of old men on those large stability balls. Instead, we used some of the weight equipment and "warmed up" on a treadmill (think very leisurely walk).

Turbo Kick wasn't too bad, but I'm not a fan of punching and kicking the air (I need a body) so I don't think I'll be doing it again. About half way through, the instructor said, "Ok, when you hear the bell, we'll start the cardio!" WTF? What did we just do for the past 40 minutes!? For pete's sake!

Next up is yoga. Only it's not yoga on the schedule, it's PiYo. Cool, I can do that. Only the instructor isn't there, we have a sub. And we're doing Pilates. Crap. 45 minutes of ab work. I did about 20 minutes because I was dying. And mom was dying too, but only because she was laughing hysptiercally. She told me later she laughed so hard she nearly threw up. We were the only ones in the class, so I half expected the instructor to notice us not doing anything. If she did, she kept it to herself because she just plowed through everything. I've never been more grateful for 45 minutes to end!

Drums Alive was next; that one was pretty fun. We beat on large stability balls with drumsticks to certain beats and danced around. But after excersizing for 2 1/2 hours prior, I was a bit lack-luster in my dance moves. I was singled out. :( I'm sorry, but I've exerted more energy in the past few hours than I have in a long, long time!! My energy level has nearly been depleted!! Back off, lady.

We crossed the street to eat Subway afterwards, and halfway across, we saw a van approaching. All of us stopped dead in our tracks (in mid step) and just stared at the van with a deer-in-the-headlights look. It was hilarious--you probaby had to be there. (Especially funny if you were in the van)

We absolutely crashed on the way home and even when we got home, I was out for several hours. Then Shane and I went exploring in our 2 acres of timber behind the house. Woot!

Overall, very good day. :)

Nearly a week since my last blog! (and I've actually written 3 drafts since then, just never posted. love that feature! :))

I'm on Spring Break now, and it's weird--like a really really REALLY long weekend. I keep getting confused as to what day it is. I won't complain though! It's refreshing to not have to sit in the same room for at least 2 hours a day, sometimes 4 hours. Yuck!

It's been great hanging out with the family this weekend! We tend to keep busy so over the weekend, we managed to finish Lauren's room, thoroughly clean my car (including washing it by hand!), change oil and turning signals, evaluate the rust developing (sad), clean the house twice, take a trip back to Ames to repack, teach Lauren how to play pool, and create a large playlist on my ipod (I've been meaning to do this for a while!).

And the newly developed tradition - accompanying mom to the rec (or YMCA) for classes. Tomorrow, I've got 5 in a row: TaiChi, Turbo Kick, Yoga, Drums Alive, and Core Training. Thankfully, at least 2 don't require heavy workouts, but we have to leave at 6:45 to get there on time. I guess I'm making up for lost time (since I haven't been getting up early lately so no excersize. I really should, I know. :( ). Should be fun. Mom always enjoys making fun of how out of shape I'm in. She'll have plenty of amo tomorrow.

Looking forward to the rest of the week! It will be very relaxing to be out of school and away from related activities!! Far, far away. =D (cookies will be involved!)

i do NOT have a problem.

Last night, my computer preformed an intervention on me. When I left my computer to get ready for bed, it somehow pulled up this site.

Needless to say, I didn't respond well and exited the room screaming those Christian profanities you only hear when blinding anger has taken over (because I knew I had been caught). A few minutes later, I entered again and showed my computer who's boss by closing the browser.

We'll see who gets the last word in.

(I need to get out more.)

no. way.

First off, God is so freaking awesome; He rocks my face off!!!

As I said before, I'm getting my CPA and working in missions. To actually receive the certification, you have to work with a public accounting firm (AEGON, Deloitte & Touche, Earnst & Young, ect) for 2 years. As disappointing as it was, I would have to delay entering the mission feild for 3 years. Sucks, much.

HOWEVER, it's been brought to my attention that as long as I work under a CPA (which may be a little difficult to find in a not-for-profit organization, but still very possible), this 2 year experience requirement is fulfilled.

Really? Seriously? It's going to be that easy?

God, you ROCK!!!

I need to make a couple phone calls to verify all this and ask a few other questions (whether the CPA is transferable across state lines), but if the CPA advisor at ISU is correct, I'm good to go!!

(This does mean, however, that I won't be able to pay off student loans in 1 year. Big bummer.)

Disclaimer:
My apologies for the uninteresting posts (I'm sure you're not all as excited about CPA certification rules and regulations as I am). It's kinda what I'm pumped up about the most, so it's hard to think about anything else at this point! I'll keep my eyes peeled for anything interesting or quirky to write about. I AM paying attention though; the lack of comments IS telling me something!

Feeling random tonight

I'm in the mood to tell an amusing story.

When we lived in Independence, we had a closed stairway that turned at the top and went up about 4 more steps. We (us kids and my dad) had a game: he would stand at the bottom of the steps and throw balls up the stairwell at us as we would jump down off the landing to where he could see us. Essentially, we were target practice and we would get nailed with these balls flying up the stairs. We were idiots. Maybe this explains a few things about why we're the way we are.

I had the chance to hang out with my siblings yesterday. Shane's coming up to ISU on Thursday so we can figure some stuff out for him (he's attending in the fall!) and we're going to play frisbee on central campus with Jess' husband too. It's going to be amazing. Anyway, Jess and Shane were talking about how I'm a completely different person when I play frisbee, and Shane, mimicking me, throws a Hercules pose (squats and points in the distance) and yells, "Throw the frisbee over there!!!" Nice. Thanks Shane. :)

My jam packed day just became less jam packed! My cousin, realizing just how tired she was, decided that maybe we shouldn't go out tonight (considering tomorrow is Daylight Savings Time and we lose an hour). Agreed! So I'm watching the newly spayed Panther (complete with neck-cone!) for her, and chilling out with Perspectives. Should be a good night. :)

I think I just might make this a 5-minute-blog blog. It seems to be that this is all I have time for lately!! (could be fun to see how much I can pack into such a small time...and how fast I can type!)

Awesome news! After much frustration at lack of communication and answers, the PRESIDENT of Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability contacted me and gave me a few answers and referred me to one of his CPAs that works in the ministry. After a few emails back and forth (they've been great at answering my questions!), I've decided to follow their advice and pursue my CPA!! It's so great having motivation for classes. After 5 years, I've been beginning (or already was) getting way tired of the monotomy, but now that I've found my purpose, things have a different light and I have new motivation to do well and keep working at it! It's no longer "the thing to do" anymore and that feeling is amazing!

Also, I've been reading more and more books lately (which is amazing in and of itself!). I used to never be able to get through one of those "spiritual books" because it put me to sleep. That, and I couldn't handle the conviction. But now, I can't get enough of it and I have a greater desire to learn and gain more knowledge. I'm loving Mere Christianity (CS Lewis) and am in the middle of and plowing through Living Life On Purpose by Claude Hickman. I can't wait to get through all my books on my shelf! (One would think I'm well read, seeing the titles on the shelf, but the truth is I've barely touched any of them and that's a generous description!)

All in all, I'm inspired, I'm loved, and I'm so happy right now! (And I'm LOVING Perspectives!!)