Edinburg, Dalkeith and Glasgow

Well hello again! I’ve been absent for a couple days, a combination of being busy and lazy I suppose.

I am In Scotland, Dalkeith more specifically, which is about 30 minute bus ride away from Edinburgh. It has been a good time so far, we’ve done quite a bit, so bare with me for another wordy blog. I’ll try and add some pwetty pictures along the way.
Let’s see, Edinburgh Gorgeous place. Like most cities I have visited abroad, lots and lots of old, but breathtaking buildings. I have thought in my head, man a lot of these places are the same, lots of old buildings everywhere, its hard to take so many pictures of what looks like the same thing, but nah, no one building is alike. The only thing they have in common is the old and beautiful part.
Royal Mile is a long strip (probably a mile?) in Edinburg that leads to the Edinburg Castle. Lots of food, shops, and just stuff. We walked that, took some pics, grabbed a bite, people watched and headed down to Arthurs Seat. We could see Arth’s Seat from the Castle, and before I knew we’d actually be climbing it I was like wow, that’s a big hill/mountain/bump/volcano (officially an old volcano that’s inactive) Leading to find out we’d be hiking up that son of a seat.
Getting up that seat was quite the experience that I am happy to have had, it took a lot out of me physically and mentally. Very long hike which obviously was physically tiring, but also being up there and seeing everything, being at the top and just soaking it in that I’m there was pretty great, almost got a little emotional almost which I feel like dumb about. It’s just kind of exhausting to think of all that I’ve been through the past couple months/year, how hard I’ve worked, the ups and the downs, and now I am sitting at the top of a late volcano hill in the middle of Scotland? If anything it just made me feel very grateful and proud of myself. The other thing that was very difficult, was the WIND. OHH my, ok no joke the wind was predicted to be at like 50mph, and we were at a very high level in the sky, which we had no wind blocker. At points when it got really bad sometimes we had to bend down, or plant our feet and just stop for a few until the huge burst passes because it literally would blow us around. Our hair was crazzayy! They had like severe wind warnings and such, so we did not pick a good day to go.
Here is a picture or two of Arthurs Seat.

The next day we had class, so we all just met in a group and talked and stuff for a bit. Pretty low key. I shall give you the scoop on our palace. It is HUGE, pretty much the size of a hotel, LOTS of doors and hallways and confusing places. The doors are like double doors, and then there are 2 doors to each entry way, so you have to go through a door to get to a door that goes into a room, I don’t know, it’s weird. Also the bathrooms, well ugh. There is 3 different bathrooms with a few toilets each, and barely half of them work, and none are on my floor, and they like always are out of order, and are so hard to flush. Its very frustrating. Also, my first shower was horrible, I could have been more productive in the faucet with how little the water pressure was, lame. But my second shower wasn’t as bad, but still weaker than I’d prefer. We also get groceries, individually and as a group, Pete our professor bought some for us with our budget and I’ve gotten like fruit and cereal and milk on my own, plus some chocolate of course  So that way we can at least eat at home a few times, I try to only eat out once a day minimum, but sometimes when we go to like Glasgow like we just got back from we can’t really get groceries at places like that so kind of got eat out a lot.
Dalkeith Palace (the name of the place we’re staying) it’s actually a strictly Wisconsin home, for students from Wisconsin; we have our own sign and everything. The people who run it our two wives, their puppy and bird, and of course the house pet, Charlie the Peacock. The ladies are very very nice.
Here is a picture of our Palace:

We’ve been out for a few drinks here and there, but nothing major, there’s a few places around here that are pretty cheap, like a place called blacksmith which has cheapish food and drinks, probably the cheapest in town so we’ve been going there a bit. I am rooming with 3 other girls, Rachel, Taylor and Brittany, all nice girls of course!  (Thankfully)


Next there’s Glasgow; it’s about an hour and a half train ride from Dalkeith. We left there on Tuesday morning pretty early, and had the whole day to explore. We had a few Museums lined up to go to, one was at the Glasgow University (which is the 2nd oldest in the UK) and it’s like a medical museum, but they wouldn’t let us in because the students at meetings or something, actually a couple museums fell through. That’s okay though because those aren’t my favorite anyway. I still went to a few though. Glasgow at first was a little iffy, but then the 2nd day we hopped on a city tour bus, $9pounds for a 2 day pass on a bus that takes you to all the major spots around the city and you can get on and off as much as you want and get back on any of the other buses, definitely convenient especially in the rain. We went to the Cathedral which was really pretty, a Botanical Garden, City Street where all the shops are, river side, and other just random places. Below I shall post some pictures.
At one point Taylor and I got separated from the group on accident, so we went off to find them, fail, so just went for a walk ourselves. We walked in this path that is surrounded by tons of trees and it’s kind of hidden in a way, and we had a little scare. There were two men down there that were standing around for 5-10 minutes where we were taking pictures of flowers. It was a path, then in the path there was a little half circle coming out of it where the flowers were, and me and Taylor were in the half circle, and the two men were on both sides of the path, so if we wanted out we’d have to pass them. They were just standing there basically watching us, so Taylor came up to me and kind of pointed it out, I noticed them before but didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and got carried away following a bee from flower to flower trying to get a goody. She showed me the guys were standing on each side of us, and so we looked around for a way out and we found a stair case going UP the hill behind all the flowers and ducked out right away, then ended up climbing an un-pathed hill to get out of the trees more and up closer to the University. It was pretty scary, to be honest I feel like we got out lucky cause I really didn’t doubt if we hadn’t left sooner we’d be out of the trees with empty wallets and no cameras, or worse. Our hearts were racing for a good hour needless to say, but we got out safe, smart and money/camera in hands, and that’s good 

Here are some pictures from Glasgow city  The hotel we stayed at was Scottish so here is a picture of our room as well:

The first two pictures are of the from a museum in Glasgow

This picture below is a picture of the Scottish Hotel we stayed at :)

Then the next two pictures below are from the Glasgow Cathedral

The next two are from the Botanical Garden in Glasgow

Then this one is the shopping street in Glasgow, its suppose to be the biggest (or 2nd) biggest outdoor shopping area in the UK, we only went in one store called the "top shop" im almost glad we dont have it in the states because its very dangerous $$

The last two pictures are from the Gasgow University

We got back on the train and are now back home (which is the palace in Dalkeith, I just call it home because we’ll be here for a few weeks)

The weather is kind of crappy, actually really crappy but we knew that coming into the trip so I definitely am not let down or anything. We knew it would be cold, and rainy, and that it is. I didn’t know it would be this WINDY though, it’s one thing to be rainy and a little chilly, and actually it wouldn’t even be that chilly if it weren’t for the wind. But the wind makes it a lot worse than it has to be. Today walking around Glasgow I wore leggings, then jeans over them, a tank, t-shirt, long sleeve, north face AND a rain jacket.. That’s a Lot of layers, and not once was I warm; I was pretty comfortable I guess, chilly at times though.

But anyway, I am going to get some sleep, we have class tomorrow for a bit, and it will be a pretty low key, I will probably do some laundry tomorrow night before we leave for the HIGHLANDS!!

Hope everyone is doing well, miss you family!! <3


PS the pictures are out of order; but ill fix that say thusrday.

Last Day in London!

Last day in London!

So last night we went to the Picadilly Circus/Bar crawl, and now Friday is our last day in London, sadly. I had a hard time trying to figure out what I wanted to do. The others we’re going to a couple museums, and I am not a very big museum person so I decided to stay back and go on a little side trip of my own.

So I know this boy. I happen to go to grade school with him. Elementary school to be exact. And he just so happens near London, about an hour train ride, in Cambridge England. Actually he doesn’t exactly live IN Cam I don’t think, but about a half hour drive from it, on the Air Force Base in England. SO, after talking about meeting up with him for a couple weeks, no official plans we talked Friday morning and decided I should probably check out his stomping grounds. I walked to the train station, hopped on a train, barely stayed awake the whole ride and made it to good ol’ Cambridge England. Cambridge is the host to, what I believe it the biggest university in the United Kingdom, may need to check my facts but I think that’s right? It was HUGE and BEAUTIFUL. The campus was so awesome, so much space and the buildings were really, really cool. The town kind of reminded me of Sweden, narrow streets with LOTS of shops and lots of food places. He picked me up in his right sided BMW car which he adores, and we found a parking spot surprisingly and walked around for a while in the town area. Love love it there! So much different from London. We got some Coffee at Starbucks and stopped in H&M so I can pick up my bronzer I can only buy in Europe because they don’t have cosmetics at H&M in the states, and the bronzer lasts me 2 years and it was only like $6, so I bought two. There were so many Punters out scavenging for business. What’s a Punter? It’s someone who gives tours on those skinny little boats that you ride down the skinny little river through town. After being given 3 discounted tickets and approached by like 4 other guys, we were like what the hell, let’s just go for it. Neither of us had been on a Punter boat before (I don’t even know if that’s what you call it, not sure if punter is the boat or the job of making it move haha) so we hop in and enjoyed the ride. There were a couple other tourists on there as well, though he isn’t a tourist, I was. The boat took us through the center of campus to see the buildings we couldn’t see from the outside, gave us some history etc. at some parts it was like freaking bumper boats because it was super busy with other people doing the same thing. So that was fun, its cool to say I did that because I have always kind of wanted to/thought it’d be fun. After that we walked around a little bit more and decided to he’d back to the car for our next destination, the Air Force Base. It was about a 30 min car ride or so, which was pretty enjoyable because of coure riding in European cars is a bit different in the car, and on the road. We took the highway, or motorway or something which was cool too because its not something many people get to do when their being tourists and such.

^Cambridge University Campus

^The boats we went on :)

^Busy River!

We got to his town and he wanted me to try kabobs for lunch, after over an hour of indecisive-ness on both our ends of where we wanted to eat. It was a Istanbul Turkey lil place, I just got chicken, cheese and lettuce kabob so it wasn’t to authentic or anything, I didn’t get lamb or anything, though I tried his and it was good.

Next, We got to the base, checked me in and he showed me around and got to see the airplanes he works on (his job). They were huge! Pretty coooal to see If I may say so, cant say I’ve seen military plans on an air force base before, and we got to see the hellocopters as well, I forget what the military copters are called, but we saw 2 of them, and I don’t think he has even seen them up flying above base either, so that was another plus. The air force base is its own community, I had no idea what to expect but they even have a car dealership, food, gas station, dorms, housing, restaurants, bowling, bars, etc. He basically said you could get away with never having to leave base. After the lil grand tour of base, we were ready for a drink, so we went to the bar/restaurant place on base. I started with a good ol’ bloody mary, which honestly wasn’t one of the best I’ve ever had, but that’s okay  we played darts for couple games, loser bought shots, I definitely lost both times, so patron shots were on me. Then I lost again, SoCo Lime shots. Then a beer baha, then another..anndd another. I Had a really good time, I hadn’t seen him in what, 10 years? Like, literally. But it wasn’t awkward and we actually were a lot alike after all these years, which was refreshing. It kind of was like a First, and last date we kind of joked. Obviously we won’t see each other for till who knows when, but it was fun to go out and venture outside of all the touristy stuff and have some a genuinely good time with someone you basically grew up with for a few years as kids. Deff reminisced about the old days which brought back soo many memories, good ones of course! We went back to his dorm/apartment quick to check times for Trains and when the last one was leaving, I told the roomies it’d be back at midnight, and the train stopped running then as well. Well we were running kind of really late and pretty sure that was the first time I went 125 MPH on the highway. BUT I got there in time and made the train. BUT when I walked into the train station after saying bye, I saw some man laying on the ground with police surrounding him, annddd pretty sure he had a tarp covering him, because I only saw his feet..so it was his body. I assume he was like, dead unfortunately because the tarp/blanket thing was covering his whole body but his feet were out, it was really sad, but I didn’t have to much time to be nosey cause I had a train to catch. The train took forever it felt like, I fell asleep like 1,00,000 times which is bad because I couldn’t miss my stop, luckily it was the last stop though but I managed to make it, got off the train and walked back to the hostel which was only a couple blocks away thank god. I fell asleep finally at like 2:15am, and of course I woke up at 4:45…… let’s just say right now I’m SOO tired, less than 3 hours of sleep 

I am kind of bummed because the people I came with went to do night photography in London and see the London tower bridge thing, (which I knew they were going to do) I was really looking forward to night photo in London, but I guess I just had to make a decision and I chose to go to Cambridge, I don’t regret it at all, but I deff wish I could have done both.


Right now I am on the train heading to Scotland, it’s a 4 hour train ride. I woke up not to bad, but im getting super tired now, like sickly tired, the train also seemed to bring out a minor hangover in me, all the movement/shakiness isn’t doing too well with my body, I didn’t get super drunk, but enough to feel it on the train the next day  I can’t really sleep because it’s so uncomfortable and when I lay my head on the window I end up hitting my head every couple minutes cause its kind of shaky,.

Anywho, I guess that sums out my time In London, sorry for the long, wordy, detailed blogs. But yah know 5 years down the road or something I can look on my blogs and read pretty much everything I did. If you look on this blog back in 2008 I blogged my whole trip to Europe then as well, and I enjoy going back and reading it every once in a while. So, that’s it!

Scotland stores coming soon 

London!!

Lovee Paccadilly Circus! Its not an actual Circus, but its just a part of London that’s a-mazing.

The first night we got here we just went around for a while, a couple of the others stayed in while me and 2 of the girls went out to try and get some night photography around town without hoping on the tube (subway) but we're in Russel Square where there isn’t tooo much to look at at night, the whole London eye is a small tube way away. we walked for miles probably, just around and explored the city, didn’t take too many pictures though. Then when we got back we didn’t really wanna go to bed yet so we stopped at the Hostile Bar for "a" drink which turned into a few. I didn’t even order a drink yet and got up to the bar and someone gave me 2 shots before i even ordered mine, im like heyy okay :) At first i said no because wasn't about to take drinks from people here i didn’t know, i said "can i trust you" while half laughing trying not to be awkward about it, he's like yahh oh yah I work here blah blah so I took them, then ordered a strong bow, then a vodka soda :) We talked to the two gentlemen who work here but were off duty, they were Aussies which = a good time, funny guys and good times. We went in fairly early, none of us wanted to get DRUNK plus spend a lotta money. so we went to bed.

We woke up and headed out for a free tour provided by our Hostile, they take you everywhere in London, it was pretty cool cause most tours cost a lot of moeny. so we saw...

-Big Ben (the big clock)
-London Eye (the big wheel thingy
-Westminster (where Kate and william got married)
-Buckingham Palace (where the queen lives but was in Ireland and where kate n william had their "peck")

^London Eye

^Buckingham palace (sorry pic is so small, still workin on that)
We kind of saw the changing of the guards but there were SOO many people so we didn't really get a good spot. but we SAW the guards at least. and of course i ventured to a spot to see better and got yelled at by a guard "GET BACK!" which I just chuckled.

I swear we walked like 1,000 miles, even with the best shoes your feet are still bound to hurt but at least i don’t have mummy feet this time abroad :)



So when we got back we have 30 minutes to get ready to go OUT. We decided to do the Pub crawl. It was $15 pounds for the pub-crawl t-shirt, free admission to all the pubs and then a free shot/drink at each as well. It was a blasty blast. We partied with people from Madison, WI- Canada, Argentina, Michigan and others too but don’t really remember all the places! We went to a couple of the pubs then the other places were clubs, pubs and clubs! Lots of dancing!! I didn’t drink to much at all (surprisingly right?) I got all my free drinks, someone else’s free shot or two, and then I didn’t really buy extra I don’t believe and I stopped drinking 3 hours before we left. (Be proud mom, be proud) I didn’t even care that I wasn’t drunk I had a good time either way, and I still danced and partied and I wasn’t even hung over in the morning. #winning! The tubes were closed by the time we left (didn’t leave till about 1:30am) so we were like hmm how should we do this? Bus? Taxi? We hadn’t done either ever so I threw my hand in the airrr and a taxi instantly stopped, kind of felt like a little New York style. Picaddilly Circus reminded me a lot of New York even though I’ve never been there, it had those huge digital advertisements that are on like big screens like you see in the movies and it was pretttty coal I tell yah.
OH I almost got in some major troubs because I had pepper spray, when they checked my bag before going into one of the clubs they pulled out my pepper spray and told me to “step aside” and that this was a “criminal offense and against the law to have such a “weapon”” I was kind of freaking out not gonna lie. I tried to just explain that in the states its obviously legal to carry it around, and a smart thing and that I just brought it with for safety and all that. He eventually let me in like 5-7 minutes later which was clearly a good thing, but it was kind of a buzz kill at that.
OO and before we left we got pizza to eat in the taxi. It was delicious

More to come :-)

Made it to London town!

So the day has finally arrived, I am in London

We're all pretty tired as it was an over night flight and I have a very difficult time sleeping on flights and we arrived early afternoon in Lonon.

After we got here we went to the grocery store to get some food for the next 2 days so we're not eating out the whole time, I got some apples n a water haha. I already had granola bars packed!

Then we went off to Hyde park, which is just a real big, open area with seats, flower gardens, a pond/lake deal, lots of ducks,swans,geese,birds anddd people. Here are some pictures I took of the flowers there so far, flowers but other than that I haven't captured much because it rained on us so it kinda blah, and it took us forever to get back to our hostile.

There was this weird tree lookin thing, well it IS a tree but it seems to be upside down or something, like a little hobbit hole, it was weird lookin, but this is it

London is crazy busy, Im thinking its always like this too .theres people EVERYwhere in a HURRY always. The tube is JAM packed, peoples backpacks are getting stuck into the subway doors cause their squeezing so tight, running up escalators, its hard to MOVE even in some places, its deffinitly an interesting lifestyle to say the least..

FASHION: so I always have been keeping my eye out for some fashions n what the style is like out here (mainly for women) and I have seen the most of 3 different clothing items being worn most:
1.) Trench Coats: they are wearing them with skirts and shorts, work clothes, tights, skinny jeans/leggins. anythign!
2.) Shorts with tights under them, (also can be skirts) but a lot of tights are being worn.
3.) also fashion scarves are eveywhere, just as they are in the states.

(For some reason its not letting me add more pictures, so I will lata)

But thats all for now, I'm raelly hungry so am going to try and find some food.

<33

>24hours.

Guess where this girl will be in >24hours? thats right, On a freaking plane to London town

Whats weird, is I feel like it has not even hit me yet that I will be traveling the world (or a handful of countries within the world) for a few weeks.
London, Scotland, Ireland, and Amsterdam.
Which will add to my previously visited Denmark, Germany and Sweden.
(I COULD count Mexico and Canada if I really wanted to get nitpicky)

I guess right now I feel like a pretty lucky girl, but whats not awesome is having to pay all of this very small fortune back. I mean, overr 3/4ths of it will be on my Student loans, and I'm going to be paying for them forever anyways so may as well throw on a couple thou and travel the world, right?

Lets just cross our fingers that I will have a great job after I graduate to support my spontanious spending during undergrad

But anyway, I leave in >24hours Like, really? am I ready for this? I'm prettty sure I am, needless to say, this past couple months/weeks has been overwhelming, exhausting, stressful and hard.. the FIRST thing I need (usually I say the LAST thing i need is___) but no, this time its the first thing I need is to ditch the US for a few weeks and spend some quality ME time. I mean, regardless of spending every minute for four weeks with the group im traveling with, it still is a great time to just reflect on life and put some things in perspective and just be. Thats my plan, Just be.

So, I will keep this short because I assure you, when I head over there My blogs will be a littttle bit wordy, and a bit longer, because I guarentee I will have lots to say.

With that said, Im gonna hit the pillows. Im driving my mom to work at 7am (ish)then drive back to Menomonie to pick up things I forgot, and its 2:00am. I kinda intentionally stayed up late so im super tired for the plane ride on top of popped dozing pills.

If they dont have a pillow for me on the plan.... i will NOT be a happy flyer.

What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.

~William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

Trying to forget someone you loved
is like trying to remember someone you never met.

Madisons Baptism

Madison's (my niece) baptism was on Sunday, which was also of course, mothers day. We went to a methadist church in Cottage Grove, and it was pretty cool because the same guy who baptized Elena (madison's mom) baptized Madison :) So that was special! Madison was really good the whole time, I dont think she cried once at the church, did a little looking around, hiccuping and cat-napping though.

All aside, she was the most precious, happy, beautiful little girl ever! So proud to call her my niece! I'm also so proud of my brother Brian and Elena for doing such a good job thus far. I saw the way my brother looked at her while she was getting baptized and it was so sweet. (sorry brian hehe) That baby sure does have a LOT of people who love her <3 Here are some pictures:

After church we went back to my mom's house for catered Dinos. It was yumm. Elena's parents were there, Mika and her mom, then my brothers and Amanada.

Thenn Me and my mom took off to Mall of America so I could pre-spend all my internship paychecks before I even work. BOO. But I needed things for Europe, still need a few more things unfortunatly.

Thenn Mom, Brian, Elena, Madison and I went to Greenmill for dinner. It was fun, food was alright. I wouldnt recommend the aflredo fett. to anyone though, pretty dissappointed since i dont get good food often, well i didnt that night either. But the bloody mary was good!

Then it was time to head back to Menomonie, to start the day with class and such. Its finals week. THANKFULLY I dont have it to bad this semester, two online finals, had a presentation, have a group activity for a final and thats pretty much it. More time to focus on the trip!

Transform Your Relationship to Your Problems

Okay, so one of my all time favorite books is "dont sweat the small stuff, and its all small stuff" by Richard Carlson. And I have read this before, but again it caught my eye tonight and its just too good to note post. In this book its basically 100 "simple ways to keep the little things from taking over your life" and let me tell you, reading this is like whoa, mind opening. So this is # 85 and its called

Transform your relationship to your problems

"Obstacles and promlems are a part of life. True Happiness comes not when we get rid of all our problems, but when we change our relationship to them, when we see our problems as a potential source of awakening, opportunities to practice patience, and to learn. Perhaps the most basic principal of spirtitual life is that our problems are the best places to practice keeping our hearts open.
Certainly some problems need to be solved. Many others, however, are problems we create for ourselves by struggling to make our life different than it actually is. Inner Peace is accomplished by understanding and accepting the inevitable contradictions of life- the pain and pleasure, success and failure, joy and sorrow, births and deaths. Problems can teach us to be gracious, humble and patient.

In the buddhist tradition, difficulties are considered to be so important to a life of growth and peace that a Tibetan prayer actually asks for them. It says, "grant that I may be given appropriate difficulties and sufferings on this journey so tha tmy heart may be truly awakened and my patience of liberation and universal compassion may be truly fulfilled." It is felt that when life is too easy, there are fewer opportunities for genuine growth.

I wouldnt go so far as to recommend that you seek out problems. I would, however, suggest that if you spend less time running away from problems and trying to rid yourself of them--and more time accepting problems as an inevitable, natural, even important part of your life--you will soon discover that life can be more of a dance and less of a battle. This philosphy of acceptance is the root of going with the flow.

I dont get to get all cheesey, but this reading is something I truly truly feel people should read every single day. I actually am printing this off and keeping a copy of just this reading on my nightstand to read when I wake up and go to bed. Its just something that I really do believe can change peoples lives and happiness/sorrow. From this day out, I am going to try to live every single day by this readin. and MANY more from this book.

GO GET THIS BOOK! Its great for the coffee table, nightstand, and..bathroom?

<3 Night

Almsot Lover: By a fine Frenzy

Did i make it that easy to walk
Right in and out of my life?

Goodbye my almost lover
Goodbye my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Why can't you just let me be?

So long my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
Should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do

End of the Semester!

I assumed it appropriate to have a blog background matching finals week.
Crunch time has begun! Last day of class is in a week from today, then finals start!

I have one big 6-8 page plus an onlien exam paper for business writing

large store display project/presentation for visual merchandising, plus an online exam, and a slat wall display I have to do this wednesday.

Luckily I dont believe I have an economics final, but just our regular weekly exams thats not cumulative, which is great! But I should probably find out to be sure.

for Quality analysis we have a couple "review question assignments" that arent bad at all, just a little time consuming, and a group activity for a final, WIN!

and for Advertising Photo, well, I am taking an Incomplete and have a year to finish the work. We have 2 ad's (3 diff pics each) thats all for the whole semester, but they require hours and hours and hours and reshooting in the photo studio, and frankly, I do NOTTT have the time to do that, + I dont have models that I need fo rmy 2nd Ad. But an incomplete is okay with me, doesnt affect GPA and in the long run wont affect transcript, and I have a year to complete the work on MY time. so im content with that.


So anyway, Finals this semester actually aren't THAT bad and could be a lot worse, a lot worse. I maen, 2 of my finals are ONLINE, and 2 classes there are no finals. So it doesn't really look like I'll be spending hours upon hours in the Lib till 2am like last semester!

Which gives me more time to mentally and literally prep & pack for EUROPE!!!

"People pay for what they do, and still more,
for what they have allowed themselves to become.
And they pay for it simply: by the lives they lead." ~Edith Wharton

Baby Madison

OKay okay sooo, I obviously am not the best at blogging, because I slack, often. I feel I have SO much I COULD write about. I'll say okay im gonna write tonight, but the snood while distract me, cleaning, TV, homework, the list could continue.

Anyway, I am going to go back aways to catch myself (and random readers) up.

JANUARY: the most beautiful baby was born, and I feel so lucky to call her my neice. I have been wanting a baby in the family for soo long, couple years. Not my own, because I have SO much to accomplish first (and obviously find someone to settle down with, which ofcourse I havent) But my brother and his girlfriend Elena had a baby. They both live at my mom's house for now, and are doing very well. They both love her so much, we all do.

She is just the cutest lil baby I cant get over it, her smile is extremely contagious, and she is so fun to just be around. shes almost 4 months, she obviously cant talk, walk, or do much of anything, but I still find her to be the most entertaining joy ever. I love to just sit in the living room with her, lay on the floor with her and watch. She makes the cutest faces, and she is so happy.

I am really, really bummed I cant be around her, AND the family more, I swear everytime I come home someone says "she's doing this now" and though it obviously makes me grin from ear to ear, I wish I could be watching her grow too!

Not only has Madison make me very homesick this semester, but I just miss being around my family. I love the nights where we just sit in the living room, watch movies, eat dinner, play with madi and hang out. Those are usually my favoritest nights. BUT im in Menomonie, so those nights are rare. I guess everything I have been going through with the xboy, and trying to make friends at Stout brought me closer to them, whether or not they feel the same, I do feel closer to them. Family is pretty much all I have at the moment, and though that can be pretty depressing, I am very thankful to have them. I know I rarely keep in touch with my brothers which makes me sad, but I know/hope at the end of the day they would be there to support me and be there for me. And I've never really second guessed that with my mom either. Also, with this whole xboy situation, my dad and I have become closer. I think this semester is the first time my dad has seen me cry since I was really young. Though the circumstances aren't the greatest, I'm glad it happend and brought me closer to them.

I will be spending ALL summer living at my mom's in Woodbury because of my internship (roseville minnesota) so I will get to spend more time with everyone then. I believe Elena, Brian & Madison wont be there, which really bumms me out cause i like having them around, but I'll just go have to visit the three of them more.

Also I am going to make it a plan to get dinner or something with Aaron & Amanda, I enjoy spending time with them as well, and I hope it will happen often when Im in the cities.

Anyway, this is enough for now, I know blogs that are very wordy get a little boring, so here are some pictures of this past couple weeks when I visit home.