Jingle All the Way

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

My sister is coming into town today (with my brother in law, of course), the first of many people in my family to start coming into town for the holidays. I'm so excited! It's not really like Christmas until you have a house full of family members around, making noise, baking, catching up, attending holiday parties, stressing out over presents at the last minute, and enjoying every minute. I know some people don't feel like that, but growing up in a big family, I really thrive on having people around me-especially at a time of year when you think about them the most.

I've been pretty busy. I babysat this morning-starting before 8 AM. Then I came back, had lunch, finished a book, am about to clean my room, then they are arriving. I need to go to the store for some last minute shopping as well. Tomorrow I will probably do that, then I have Tom and his dad coming over to load up some stuff for our apt in a huge truck to move it to our Alpharetta apartment. Saturday morning, I have to be at the church at 8:30 AM to get warmed up for practice then choir practice starts at 9. I have to leave early at 10 to leave for Northpoint Mall for Madeline's 3rd birthday party at the American Girl Boutique and Bistro, which I have a feeling I am going to LOVE because I love love loved those dolls growing up. After all of that, they are going to come over to see my and Tom's apartment. Then Tom and his dad will be moving stuff into our apt, so I might be helping with that. That night we have the annual Patton, Park, Little party. Then Sunday is church with the big Christmas program I am singing in this year (no solos, thank goodness or I would pass out and/or cry) which everyone in my family (minus Sarah and Jordan) are planning to attend along with Lisa's parents, Tom, his parents, and Ben. Then everyone is coming over for lunch. Then it's Christmas Eve, then Christmas. Good Gracious, this is a busy, wonderful time of year!

Missing it.

I was just thinking about the zoo...and wishing that I could work there and have weekends off. I miss the animals and some of the people. Every time I see orangutans and elephants on tv, in the paper, online, and especially when I read about them on zoo atl's updates, it just makes my heart break a little that I'm not there to be a part of it. And it made me think over my feelings on animals a little. I've decided that dogs are my favorite pets, orangutans are my favorite (nonhuman) primates, and elephants are my favorite large mammals with which to work. And all of this is based in experience. It's not that uncommon to have worked at a zoo, but then, it's not that common either. And I wish I could have it all-the job I wanted and weekends off. I mean, it's not that much to ask. It's not like it's glamorous or pays much. But it's such a rewarding investment of your time. It gives you job satisfaction. I just wish they let their keepers have the stupid weekends off.

We're Getting There

Tom and I spent a lot of time last week working on our apartment. We painted 3 rooms in two days and then spent the third day fixing stuff up and straightening a little. We have moved some stuff from his apt to ours and have a LOT of stuff to move yet.

That in and of itself would have been an exhausting week, but what Tom didn't know is that I had been planning a surprise party for his birthday since August. On Friday night, he thought I was babysitting and couldn't come up to eat with his family and would only be able to hang out later. In reality, I missed out on a dinner at the Sundial to set up for his party at his apartment. I made him a Star Wars Cake that was a scene from Episode III, and it even fogged up because there was a little space for dry ice in it. I liked that particular feature, and so did the guests-especially his fraternity brothers who attended and made me feel like I was pastry chef with all of their flattering compliments. I know they were exaggerating, but it made me laugh when they said they would propose if a girl made them a cake like that. Tom already did that, so I guess it was due him, huh?

We also had drinks, chips, and other snack foods out for people to munch and sip. Davey and Kristen made the apartment 1 roommates and girlfriends t-shirts about Tom to wear during the party, and the guests seemed to get a kick out of it. Everyone arrived around 8 and helped me blow up the balloons, then we blasted some party music and hung out until around 9 when Tom arrived, when we yelled "surprise!!!", took some pictures, and turned the music up again to resume the party. I was so impressed by all the guests-they meshed really well and were great about intermingling and so patient while we waited on Tom to arrive with Ben from dinner.

When Tom walked through the door, he was so shocked-or else he is a great actor. It was really fun, and he got a chance to hang out with everyone, eat, drink, and be merry. The downside was that a lot of us only got 3 hours of sleep because after the party ended late at night (or, rather, early in the morning), Tom's graduation required we get right back up and get ready in the morning. He graduated at 9AM with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science focusing on software engineering. I was so SO proud of him. He is such a hard worker, and he had been looking forward to graduation for a while. Now it's all behind him, and we're both officially college graduates. It's kind of surreal that we've grown up so much together and reached another major milestone, but I'm so happy that we did.

Later that night, his family (minus Mandy, Jim, and E) all gathered at his parent's house with my parents, me, and Jordan and Sarah to celebrate his graduation. It was his actual birthday as well, but we were celebrating that the next day, after church. All in all, it was an exhausting week and weekend, but a lot got done. It's a relief to have that behind us so we can now have a week before Christmas to shop like mad for presents, wrap until our fingers hurt, and visit with friends and family as much as possible. I love this time of year-it's a little crazy because it's so busy, but I love being busy with fun things to do. Tom and I are going shopping for presents tomorrow, and I'm so excited. It's such an awesome tradition-he's my best friend, and he makes everything more fun.

Be safe out there in the holiday traffic!

Love,
Meghan

ps-here's a link to pictures from the party that I put up on facebook.

My room is clean....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cleaned my room for the first time in a while on Monday, and then I went to Atlanta. Tom and I spent 2 days painting 3 rooms in our new apartment (yay!) which he will move into in January and I will move into in April when we get married. We did green walls in the guest bedroom, red in the kitchen, light blue in the master bedroom. And the rest of the apt is beige for now. All of it has white crown molding/trim/baseboard molding/doorways. We're happy with it, but we've also moved some of Tom's stuff there from his apartment, so every time he goes back to his room in Apt 1, he gets kind of sad about moving away from his roommates. I keep telling him that the silver lining of him not having roommates for a while is that he'll be so eager to have company again that he'll think living with me is awesome. hahaha Hopefully he won't have to be roommate deprived for 3 months to think that married life is awesome, but I still say it. Anyway, so we pulled the last bit of tape today, put up our paint supplies, he set up our modem, and I came back to Covington. And walked into my gloriously clean room. I love walking into my room and it being all neat and clean. Once I've checked to make sure I'm in the right room, it's a really nice feeling. =)

Nevermind

A couple posts back I mentioned that I had a possible part time job lined up to be a nanny for a family. They ended up not want to pay what I charge for babysitting, so it didn't work out. They pretty much wanted to pay me minimum wage, and I think that child care and my time should be worth more than that.

I also mentioned that I might register to take the teacher certification tests for GA. I talked to Melissa, one of my roommates (for 2 years) and best friends from UGA. She is a teacher, and it was really good to talk to her about it. I really don't have a passion for it, and was only going to do it because it was a job. She encouraged me to pursue things I want to do more, but she also said that she would help me prepare for the tests if I decided to do that. After we talked I thought about it for a few weeks, and as far as teaching goes, I decided to pass on that one. I love kids, but I really have never thought I was cut out for teaching. I think I could probably do it, but I really think you need to desire to do that job, and I just don't. Melissa is an amazing teacher, and it's something she has wanted to do ever since I've known her. That's the kind of teachers that we need in our schools, not the ones who are only there because it's a job.

Anyway, nevermind what I wrote in that post a while back. None of it ended up happening. If something else does happen, I'll be sure to post it.

Love,
Meghan