Life is going pretty well for me. I'm so glad the semester is almost over but it hasn't been too bad. The semester could be a lot worse but we're almost done and I had Josh to encourage me the entire time :)

5 days of class, 5 finals and then I'm going to go live at Josh's place until I have to leave for my break. :) I'm pretty excited.

This past weekend, Josh and I went dress shopping, Christmas present shopping and IKEA browsing. We also looked at a lot of different stores. It was an absolute blast. Most of the shops we went into were really nice shops and we were both wearing peacoats, looked rich, etc. The best part was definitely the number of people that thought we were married ;) It was so much fun and I had a great time hanging out with Josh and getting to know him better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgAlQuqzl8o

Pretty much anything by those guys is good - I'm listening to Moonlight right now. I love it :) It's almost time for me to go to class again so I'm going to have to finish this off soon such that I can make the wander from one end of Fairchild to the other end.

It snowed last night - about six inches. School wasn't even delayed :( Ah well...life goes on, I guess. It means school will finish at a normal time which means I'll have time to work on my paper and lab which are due tomorrow. AND I can do some practice problems for my Diff Eq GR tomorrow as well.

Ten minutes until class. Time to start packing up and getting ready to wander.

Back at USAFA. It's great to be back BUT it's even better to be with Josh again. I had an amazing day with him spending the entire morning hanging out and....napping ;) Lots of new things and such went on...

Josh brought me back a lovely new journal from Washington. Apparently some friends of the family do book binding, etc. And, therefore, he has one for me. It's a gorgeous dark blue fabric seam with a cream and blue flower cover. Thick cream vellum paper fills the insides - and it's fantastic! I really, really like it... :)

I can't wait to spend time doing more exciting things - school starts again tomorrow. :) Lesson T36 - 9 more lessons, 6 finals and I AM OUTTA HERE!!!

So, almost time to head back to USAFA, and I can't wait! It's about time for me to return to the land of my love so...yeahhhhh... I can't wait to be back with Josh again :)

Went for lunch with the girls today - it was marvelous. We spent half an hour eating and three hours talking. It was absolutely fantastic - I loved getting to see them again and just chatting :)

Ah well...time to get back to work on something else, I imagine... Stupid papers

I think my favorite part about this blog is no one reads it. Which means I'm quite literally free to write anything I want. I can write about what I like and what I don't like and I don't have to worry about some response or other... :)

My roomie is so annoying sometimes. She can be really nice and then really snobbish and sometimes I kinda sorta want to punch her. But I try to ignore her instead and it...sorta works. idk...w/e.

Josh leaves for Thanksgiving leave tomorrow. I'm going to miss him. I've kinda become used to heading over to his house every Friday night and staying until Sunday night. It's a nice routine and quite comfortable. But apparently....'tis not to be so. Instead, we have training this weekend and I won't be able to leave. Not that I'll want to as he'll be gone... sigh.

But I am going home - which is GREAT. I am planning on writing two papers I have and then sleeping and eating...and running. I'll probably go running a lot. And watch a lot of TV. And talk about Josh to everyone haha....

I dreamt about Josh last night, actually. Nothing special really - we were in Victoria for New Years and he kissed me. haha....SO cute, right?

UC2 is going well. I'm enjoying the class although it does make my arm sore after I finish it...

I'm trying to fix my arm. Apparently what they told me was a sprain back in August wasn't: it was a torn UCL. FANTASTIC. So I'm on ANOTHER form 18 and can't do any AFT/PFT nonsense. Highly depressing...

Life goes on...

At Josh's house right now. Had a pretty awesome weekend. It was a three day weekend so I quite literally have been here since Thursday night. Such a happy camper :)

Thanksgiving leave starts in 9 days - I'm pretty pumped but at the same time, I'm kinda nervous. I am going to have to drive myself up to the airport and I've never actually done that before. And then I'll have to park my car, remember where I parked my car and take a bus to the airport. And then I'll have to....well, really, do it all by myself. Normally I have at least one other cadet with me or my sponsor family or Josh going with me so I'm not quite as nervous but....whatever. It'll be a good fun drive haha.

I don't think I have any big tests or anything this week - thank goodness! I have a lab in Dynamics due on Wednesday but I'm pretty sure that's it. Makes me really happy, honestly. I can finally have a slow week. And, this weekend is a SAMI so I can inspect rooms and have a wonderful fun time :)

I'll miss Josh while I'm on Thanksgiving break but hopefully I can spend the time productively, writing a paper, spending time with Susan and overall enjoying life. We shall see...

So I finally got Josh's birthday and Christmas gifts. Makes me pretty happy not to have to worry about that any more.

Lots of homework to be done today and tomorrow before going over to Josh.

I think I may have figured out why I've been feeling so tired lately. This reasoning may sound strange but hear me out: I've been getting too much sleep :) I've been going to bed around 10/11pm and getting up at 7 so I've been getting between 8 and 9 hours of sleep every night. Lately, it's been harder and harder to fall asleep. So, I've been staying up until I'm tired - around midnight. And I feel more awake. Getting between 6 and 7 hours of sleep somehow makes me feel more lively, active and engaged than getting 8-9. Peculiar but...I guess my body is changing and that's the change it's decided to make: I need less sleep.

I have a dynamics GR tomorrow but I've been studying a lot - doing all the homework problems, doing at least one problem from each section, rereading the chapters the GR is based on, etc. I'm hoping that it'll pay off and I'll do well on the GR - or at least, not bomb it like I did last time. At the very least, I'm hoping that my brain doesn't freeze up like it did and I can actually do work on most of the problems.

My left eye keeps watering which makes me think there's something on my contact but I just took it out and rinsed it so...idk. They're kinda old so I guess I'll throw them out after today and just wear a new pair tomorrow... I'll take them out after class, when I get back to my room. I can wear my glasses for the rest of the day - it's not a big deal :)

We had our halloween formation today. Some people had some pretty sweet costumes but others were just silly. There were a TON of people dressed in morph suits, which was really silly. However, a couple people dressed up like LMFAO and played their music from a boombox they carried around - it was sweet! Best part, we didn't even march, we all took the hill....

Josh and I realized the other day that there are...nine pictures of the two of us. Apparently, we don't take pictures together at all... It's kinda strange considering most couple take tons of pictures. We've been dating 9.5 months (almost exactly) and we have 9 pictures together. I wish we had more pictures but that would involve either finding someone to take a picture of us, hiring someone or awkwardly taking pictures of ourselves... Whatever...maybe we can figure something out. I mean, it's honestly not a HUGE deal but still...I would prefer more pictures of us. I guess, maybe, we'll take some over Christmas...

Speaking of Christmas, I'm pretty excited and have already started Christmas shopping. It's so much work but also oh so worth it :) Figuring out what I'm going to get Josh, however, has been quite difficult. I don't really want to get him anything that has to do with the Air Force or aviation because I feel like he's probably been getting those sort of gifts for the past....four years at least. So, I'd rather get something more personal. If he moves into an apartment of his own, I'll get him some stuff for his apartment but idk. I also really like this picture of a spitfire which I would love to get for him but (a) it's rather large and I'm not sure how I would get it to him, etc. and (b) it's slightly expensive. (Because if I get it for him, I'm not getting him the little 12x14 one or whatever, I'd get the other one with the nice wood frame, etc.) So, then it's down to other things and I really can't think of what he'd like. I could get him stuff for his apartment (as I mentioned) or...I have no idea. He's pretty much impossible to buy for...and I have to think of not only a Christmas but a birthday gift as well.

He keeps talking about how excited he is for me to come out for New Years. And, I am excited too. But I'm kind of...nervous. He keeps talking about all these places he wants to go and visit and things he wants to do with me. "We'll go to downtown Seattle, and sailing, and around my island, and here and there and everywhere" It'll be fun but I'm so much more focused on getting him a present that I really can't think of anything else...

Ugh, my contact is being so annoying - I'm going to go take it out.

I love my car. :) It's so much fun :)

So, I took Josh out for dinner on Tuesday night. It was quite fun and I really enjoyed it. I got to dress up in nice jeans, heels and a nice sweater :) I definitely loved it...

On another note, it's Thursday (finally!) and I am ready for the weekend. 7 classes, 1 EI session, a run and physical therapy between me and my weekend :)

I must say, I had quite the marvelous weekend. I purchased three of my fourteen necessary Christmas presents and began thinking of the rest. I only stalled my car once (twice maybe?) and am getting much improved in my driving. I seem to be remembering that not only can you upshift but you can also downshift AND you can coast in neutral, as long as you put the clutch in before you try to slam it into gear. It doesn't like it much when you forget the clutch ;)

I also had my car detailed this past weekend so it's marvelously clean, sparkly and waxed. I may end up investing in wax myself such that I can continue to give it the clean look it deserves. Plus, it's such a lovely blue color, I want it to be noticeable!

Baked cookies and left them at Josh's house but he brought some for me this morning. Which means I had an excuse to go see him during first period when he was the only one in the room he works in. Which means I got to hug him even though we're both in a uniform.

Also this morning, I was squadron commander for morning marching. It wasn't terrible but I would've been lost had it not been for the 3* helping me out through out the marching experience. Apparently I didn't do TOO horribly although I was out of step for a good portion of it...which was slightly problematic. Especially when you're calling commands based on which foot you have on the ground, etc. Fun times...

Two more classes and then I'm done for the day. Goodie!

The weekend needs to get here stat. I need a nice long nap. 7 classes, a run and it's here.

I can' t wait :)

So, I bought my plane tickets to go visit Josh in Seattle over Christmas break. I will be flying out on 28 December at 8am and landing in Seattle at 1:30pm. I'm pretty excited but it's 68 days until I go home and then 12 days until I go see him. It's funny - I'm excited to go see him and it's not like I'm not even seeing him hahahaha...

I spent the weekend with Josh and went out to buy a car. My car, a Blue Topaz 2012 Chevrolet Cruze LT, has been called LT by me and Elsie by everyone else. :) We had a great weekend hanging out, driving, soaking in the hot tub, etc. I had fun. And then, when I drove back to USAFA, he followed me back so he could take me up to the cadet area.

When I went down this morning to move my car from one parking lot to another, I ran into Josh and he drove me back up again. He's absolutely amazing :)

36 days until I go home for Thanksgiving!

6 days until the weekend! :)

We have a football game today. It's going to take forever. I have school at random hours all throughout the day and then a football game. Just how I want to spend my day. And then we have stuff ALL day tomorrow. Ugh. I just want a break. It'll be such a late night tonight.

I guess the nice thing is that tomorrow I finish all my stuff at 1315 but can't leave until 1600 so I'll have 2.75 hours worth of studying I can complete. I plan on taking a textbook or two with me to the game so I can get some studying done then too. Pretty sweet, right? Not really, not my idea of fun but I've gotta do what I've gotta do. Studying is very necessary to me.

A paper to right, two outlines to form, 2 GRs to study for...life's good. :)

So, I took Josh home with me for the weekend. He had a chance to meet my three younger siblings, which I think was good.

The results are in:

Adrian told me "he holds his head high" which is code for "he's a good guy."

Allison "thought [I] should know, [she] approves :) "

Ian "approves of [my] boyfriend."

And Susan, of course, hasn't met him.

Josh says he'd really like to meet Susan because apparently that'll give him the key to understanding the very depths of my soul or something morbidly poetic like that. Whatever... I don't necessarily agree.

CE was pretty stupid today at school. But that's kinda because my squadron was ahead for CE. The captain in charge of CE entered our class after it was finished and told our instructor that we'd be going back to the old way of doing CE where our own AMT/AOC teaches the classes. That makes me really happy because that was absolutely the best way of doing things.

Annnnnd, I really really really can't wait for the weekend. I want to be done with all my homework so I can just go over to Josh's and relax. I think it'll work out in my favor with the no-class on Friday thing going on. Hopefully, I can just study all day on Friday and have Josh take me home with him whenever he leaves. :) And yeah. *but* Josh doesn't have work on Friday so he might have to come back and get me...

EI tomorrow for dynamics - it'll be good as I plan on doing a bunch of my homework problems in EI so it'll work out (haha...work out...homework...LOLZ).

Thermodynamics now. :)

Free at last, free at last! Thank God almighty, I'm free at last!

I've officially left the debate team. Although I imagine I'll be back in the spring, I have left the team for now. It's pretty nice to know I don't have to go to practice, etc. It's pretty sweet.

Time to study and get off academic probation too. Hopefully I'm not ordered to attend regular EI because then I can count EI as WACQs and hopefully sign out sooner on the weekends. The way it is right now, I would do homework from 3:30-10:30 on Fridays and then be able to sign out from Saturday to Sunday.

And the verdict on my sickness is....

...some sort of viral infection.

Or something. They're not entirely sure. They're running some tests, the results of which I should have on Monday. But, apparently, it's not strep so...yeah. That's good, at least.

I'm on bedrest and I have a headache and yeah.

I need to sleep but I also need to do homework. Sigh.......

So, unbeknownst to anyone on the team, I'm leaving at the end of this tournament. It's rough because Richie was talking to me about how he thinks I should start arguing what I believe and that I should stand up for my beliefs and stuff. If only he knew... I'm so sick of the team and all the bullsh*t therein. Interestingly, Richie told me that apparently at the beginning of the year there was a meeting with the entire team except for me. During the meeting, Richie straight up asked Coach why she didn't make me team captain. He gave multiple reasons as to why he thought I would be the best option following which he was laughed out of the room. I can just see Coach giving him her "are you serious?" look and laugh. <--- And it's things like *that* which make me more than happy to be done with it all.

I think I may be on Academic Probation at prog which is frustrating. I don't actually have any failing grades or anything but rather, I didn't pass a GR and therefore, am on probation? Or something. I won't actually know until prog grades come out but whatevs....

Josh and I are going home in 8 days and I am SO FREAKING EXCITED! I absolutely cannot wait to get home and, honestly, I'm kind of excited to travel with Josh. We've never travelled together before so it'll be interesting. I just hope I get over my sickness thing by now...

So, my sickness thing. I received FluMist a couple days ago and have become quite sick - which doesn't normally happen to me. I am, honestly, in pain. I have aches and pains everywhere, headache, sore throat, swollen throat (difficulty swallowing) and an on-again-off-again fever. It's making me very unhappy. After three days of this, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow at 0620 to get some sort of medication or antibiotics or something. It's rough...

Josh's mom is in town this weekend so he's happy. I'm happy for him, honestly. I hope he has a good weekend with her. I'm sure it'll be great.

So, I'm leading a Bible Study for the freshmen tonight at 2030 which will be interesting.

It's been really weird lately. Josh and I had our first fight on Tuesday/Wednesday of this past week which massively sucked. But, we made up and it's all good now.

It's just....really weird. I don't like being around his roomie's gf and all because I feel like...it's just awkward with them being engaged and stuff. Josh and I have never really talked about "the future" and what our plans are for after he leaves for pilot training. However, since Jim/Shauna getting engaged, it seems like we've actually talked about stuff like that. It's...just really strange. Part of me doesn't really care because we've both always been kind of far-sighted about us but part of me feels like there's almost some pressure on us. Which I don't like. And I'd really like to just have my time with Josh without having to think/worry about "oh are we getting married? what bases should I apply for? when will you know where your base is so I can put in for my bases?" I mean, if we plan on staying together long term at all, it's obviously stuff we need to discuss but still...I wish there weren't such a strange pressure thing on me.

Trying to fix my iTunes right now. By which I mean, I'm trying to move all my music from my external hdd to my comp so when I sync my ipod it actually syncs. Ughhhhhhhh! STUPID APPLE PRODUCTS!

I have this magnificent candle from yankee candle which I got this weekend. It's Christmas Wreath scented and when we lit it in Josh's room last night, it made his entire room smell like the most amazing evergreen pines and Christmas and snow and Santa and presents :)

We went and saw "Contagion" last night. It was pretty interesting but not quite what we thought it would be. Overall, I think it could've been a lot more interesting/better (maybe shorter) but it was pretty sweet :)

I really should finish my homework right now - start on that paper for BS...

Sooooo....Parents Weekend was this past weekend. It was pretty legit. Here's what I did:

Friday: Went to class all day by myself in ABUs because I had woodshop and my parents weren't here. After class, Josh picked me up and took me away from USAFA so I didn't have to sit around there. We went to Starbucks, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and then met my mom and dad at Everest Nepal Restaurant in downtown C-Springs. It was rather interesting and pretty fun...

Saturday: Went to the tailgate with my parents for the football game. They didn't want to watch the game so we left after the tailgate to go car shopping. And wow. Car shopping is WAY stressful. Not only did I want to call it quits after the first dealership but I was also sick of all the salesman talking to my parents and not to me. Josh came along with us, which made it slightly even more stressful because then I kinda wanted to impress him hahaha... And I was driving manuals...ugh.

Sunday: After church and lunch with Josh, my parents and I went to Costco where we bought me a new backpack. Following that, we went back to my sponsor's house (where we're staying for the weekend) and took naps until the dinner party at 6pm. It was pretty fun overall and I enjoyed it :)

Monday: Got up late, did laundry, went to lunch with Mommy, Daddy and Josh. After lunch, Mommy and Daddy headed back to the airport to go home and Josh took me with him. We first went to Petsmart and Wal-Mart to buy a fish tank and fish for his tank. Super exciting haha.... It looks really good. There's a castle, a stump and a plant in there with some blue gravel. He has an albino shark, three green danios, three catfish and two white tentacly fish things... The white ones are named Marco and Polo. It's pretty awesome :)

Debate tournament next weekend. It'll be pretty interesting overall...

I've decided that it's super nice having a boyfriend with an apartment in the area. I get to go over every weekend and relax, do laundry, bake, sleep, read, etc. And I really needed that relaxation this weekend after I sprained my elbow in UC on Thursday.

So note to self: do not lock elbow and then fall on it. You will sprain said elbow.

And in less than 24 hours I will be at Josh's house getting ready for a weekend of relaxation :) So happy... I really need a relaxing weekend - no homework or anything - just relaxation.

Debate is going well - it's become almost the only part of the day I look forward to, crazy, right? I'm honestly about to go to bed though - I need more sleep!

So I'm at Josh's apartment right now using his laptop as he plays Call of Duty with a friend in the living room. It's kinda a weird situation. Mainly because the friend is not sure if he wants to move in and be the 3rd roommate as he doesn't agree with the idea of Josh's other roommate (Roomie 1) letting his girlfriend sleep over - "play house" as he put it. So, I'm kind of confused because Josh had offered/suggested that I sleep over with him on the weekends, etc. but if Roomie 2 moves in with Josh, I don't think that could happen...so it's kind of a strange situation. Or at least it is for me... But I definitely like Roomie 2 more than Roomie 1 so I definitely wouldn't have a problem with the move. It'd just change things between Josh and I.

Also, I'm looking at flying home for Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving and the cost therein. If it isn't a buttload of money, I think I may do it. Will have to check... :)

Baking cookies - g2g

Back at USAFA - getting ready for the new school year. I really can't wait for my class schedule to be released so I can finish getting my textbooks and everything. I'm kinda looking forward to it... Although I'm also pretty nervous. It's a new school year, tough classes and yeah....this'll be interesting. Also, debate. I'm kinda the most experienced person on the team right now with Jeff at Coast Guard but still...kinda strange...

More later.

Still in this hell-hole known as Phoenix. I'm ready to get out of here, omigosh. I'll actually probably go to sleep "early" so there's less time sitting around trying to figure out what to do...y'know? I leave tomorrow morning - very excited. I'm so happy to be getting back to USAFA. Andddddd I leave on Saturday :)

I'm headed off to Greece on 9 July, leaving at 0530 from USAFA. I arrive in Athens on 10 July in the morning and stay there until I head to Varna, Bulgaria on 13 July. I stay in Bulgaria until I take the train from there to Istanbul, Turkey on 18 July. I am then in Turkey until I leave at 8am on 29 July and fly all day/night until I arrive back in Denver at 2134 on 29 July. Where my lovely boyfriend will pick me up and I will see him for the first time in 65 days :) I am sooooo excited for that - 23 days!!

On another note, I have become somewhat addicted to watching TLC in the past couple days being here as there's generally a good show on to watch and it's...relatively clean :) Lots of wedding and baby shows though, which, although fun, can be frustrating when I haven't seen Josh in so long... I feel like one of those lame girls who can't think of anything except their bf hahaha...

We did crossfit while here at Luke AFB every couple days and it generally kicked my butt very nicely. Most days I was still sore a couple days later...fantastic, right? Today, my thighs were still sore from some 80ish squats and 60ish box jumps (jump two footed onto a stool ~24in. off the ground) I did sooooo, I went running. I'm not entirely sure why as I can barely walk now but yeah... My poor legs haha. Probably good for me regardless.

Annnnnnnd that's all. :)

It's been forever since I blogged so I feel like writing today...

The graduation ball was a lot of fun but kind of bittersweet. It was nice getting to go to the dance with Josh but rough knowing that the next time I saw him, he'd be a graduated 2Lt about to head off on his 60 days. But it went well.

Graduation the next day was kinda sad and exciting all at the same time. After the graduation, I went to Josh's graduation dinner with his family. There were so many of them and I didn't really know what to say to anyone haha... It was a really good dinner (at Biaggi's) but it really sucked that when Josh took me back to the hill, it was the last time I was going to see him until 29 July.

Went home for Susan's graduation and commissioning which went really well. I had a great time at home and I'm glad it worked out as well as it did. Unfortunately, I found out while I was at home that I had been switched from CST Evasion Logistics to CST Survival Cadre. I was so upset! However, it ended up being a fantastic experience and I had a great time :)

I'm currently at Luke AFB in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm having a great time and I got to spend the day yesterday shadowing maintenance officers - 21A (aircraft maintenance) and 21M (munitions maintenance). It was fantastic and I loved every second of it. One of the best days ever. Today, we flew in F-16 simulators which was kinda fun but proved to me that I really shouldn't be a pilot - good to know, right?

Anyway...I really miss Josh. I didn't really think it would be possible to miss him this much, but I really do. He's in Germany right now getting ready to come back to the US after about 3 weeks in Europe - primarily Italy. I actually even went so far as to invite him to come to Phoenix to spend Independence Day weekend with me....but I doubt that will happen because it's kinda expensive. Ah well... I get to see him in no more than 35 days... :)

So, end of the year. I finished. I didn't get on ac pro. I actually had a somewhat decent gpa.

And yeah...that's that, I guess...

Josh is graduating soon. I bought my dress and shoes for grad ball and also scheduled my appt for hair/makeup. So excited! :)

Well...5 classes between me and the weekend. I CAN'T WAIT!

Finished Calc 3. Finished English 211. About to finish EM 330 and PS 211. Finish ECE 231 after lunch and I finish MSS 200 and Chem 200 tmrw.

WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!

America!

Obama just reported that we have killed Osama bin Laden! woot! Who's next? :)

Anyway, studying for a couple tests this week and a paper due on Tuesday. Other than that, I'm good. Just need to finish it all up... After Tuesday, I'm done with stuff that's due and I'm focused on studying for finals.

Life is goooooooooood!

So, Josh finished his ruck in 1.5 hours exactly and did quite well too. I'm pretty happy for him :)

We went dress shopping over the weekend and it was kinda fun but I get super annoyed with dress shopping and yeah... He was objective which was helpful but, of course, he couldn't help me put the dresses on so... kinda hard. I'm going to go looking again this weekend because there's another store I'd like to visit. Eventually I'll find something but I'd rather get it done before M&D get here so I don't have to spend time doing that while they're here. It'll be nice to have it out of the way, too. :)

Went to the Harrison's for lunch to celebrate Easter with them. All of my sponsor siblings were there: Colby, Hilary, Tasha and Sarah as well as the Harrison's neighbors. It was pretty fun and I enjoyed the trip overall. Josh was really tired though as he had been up late doing hw...late as in 2am.

He graduates in 30 days! It's going to be absolutely crazy. I found out what I'm doing for CST too - logistics for evasion. I know I'll be in the woods but hopefully not for the entire time. Hopefully I'll be moving back and forth between the woods and USAFA. I don't want to be stuck out there again...lol

Funny story: We're in the car driving to the Harrison's and I was rambling on about the cost of Christmas presents for my family and just going on and on "and then there's Susan's kids and Adrian's kids and Allison's kids and Ian's kids and that's not even including my parents and then my family!" and he's like "and my family!" "And your family and your sister's kids and..." "...or whoever your spouse is..." But it was funny because it was automatically like "and me!" and yeah...strange but interestning.

So, I'm spending this weekend doing homework and such for school and getting ready to start revising for finals because I have those in about two weeks. So much fun, of course.

Josh is spending today on an 18km ruck for the German military proficiency test. The test also included a bunch of stuff like a swim, weight lifting, etc. It's pretty intensive but he's doing really well so it's all awesome.

I want to go to Macy's sometime this weekend so I can try on dresses for graduation. And I'd also like to go to Qdoba cause I really want a burrito. And later, maybe even some sushi. Those are my weekend goals.

And, of course, I need to do homework. Awesomeness. :)

Back at USAFA.

Finished with debate for the semester. (meeting w/coach on monday re: next semester)

Spending the weekend with Josh. (we're doing hw in his room, nerds)

Went to a bridal shower today. (It was pretty fun :) And the bride d/n get too much lingerie)

Miss baking for some weird reason.

Am going to watch TV.

Blah

Water is off in our house. It has been for the past two days. Kinda sucks... It's a lot of fun not being able to drink the water even when it is on too... The chemical pump isn't hooked up so the water is quite acidic...ugh. Ah well...

I'm eating strawberries right now - entertaining, right? But yeah...they're just sitting there and I'm eating them all up.

I plan on going to Costco later today for some food. I also need to bake some more cookies and make some dough for the family and for me to take back to USAFA. I leave on Sunday - two days!

Seems like such a short visit, but it'll be good to get back and into the swing of things at school.

At home on spring break. It's been semi-legit so far but I'm not having as much fun as I had hoped. I'm pretty much doing...nothing. :)

Bought some new clothes and can't wait for a chance to wear them. But it's been pretty chilly here lately so...yeah... :/

Haven't heard from Josh a lot but I'm sure he's just enjoying his break too... Ah well... We do talk at least once a day, either over text or phone call, but I do miss hanging out often especially because he tends to just not respond to texts sometimes...and yeah.

Whatevs.

NCLS actually went rather well this year. I enjoyed all of the talks I went to which was somewhat of a first. I got a chance to hear SSGT Salvatore Giunta - first living Medal of Honor winner since Vietnam (i.e.: not posthumous). It was awesome! Everyone I heard had a similar message: leaders lead by example. You shouldn't be leading alone at the top, you should be down at the bottom pushing your men to advance.

Josh and I wrote pledges to each other most recently to help lead our relationship in purity and such. It's mainly stuff like "I won't do anything I wouldn't want to tell my family about" and "I will respect Josh's boundaries." Pretty chill stuff, honestly. And he wrote one back for me. It made me smile...but he has a way of doing that. I can be having a horrible day and just seeing him makes my day so much better.

NCLS starts tomorrow - yay? I'm kinda blah about it, to be honest. Plus, I know I won't have much of a chance to work out which saddens me. I'll just have to get up early and do some yoga or something for an hourish.

Probably going to be debating on Friday and Saturday instead of NCLS/training session which is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing b/c we need to practice; curse b/c I need to work out and the t-sesh would've been awesome for that.

Josh was pretty upset about stuff today which was interesting to see because I normally see him in a very happy, somewhat stressful mood but rarely upset. It was interesting but beneficial to see and I'm glad he's feeling better now. He seemed really tired though - I think he needs more sleep to be honest... Hopefully he gets better/destresses soon :)

Ironing my uniform, reading and bed for me :)

So at lunch, Josh and I generally talk before lunch, eat lunch separately and walk out together. It's amusing though because I don't really acknowledge that I see him coming to leave with me until he's almost at my table and then I just stand up and fall into step with him on the way out. I had thought that I was good at making it not obvious that I knew where he was but apparently not...lol.

According to Josh, he knows that I can see him slash am watching him. Supposedly, when he stands up to walk out, my head turns towards him and follows him even though my eyes remain focussed on whatever I'm doing at lunch. So, he knows I can see him because my head is turned in his direction. I didn't even know I did that, to be honest. I guess it's true though because yesterday, at lunch, Mike asked me why I was stalking someone four tables away. I claimed I wasn't but he said he could tell I was focusing on something in the distance - not at our table. Ah well...I'm weird, I guess.

Kicked butt on my MSS GR which I didn't study for (137/150 - 91.3% or something like that) and am working on an English paper I received an extension on. It's due tomorrow but I'll figure it out. I'm going to go down to the gym and work out tonight for a while which will be fun, I'm sure. Anyway, I have a Chemistry quiz during 5th period today which makes me super excited...not. I leave tomorrow for a debate trip too. It's going to be a super fun weekend - i.e. very busy and stressful. I'm supposed to present at a conference but I don't know what I'm presenting or the topic of what I'm presenting. So yeah...no information, loveliness.

The USAFA Classic went really well, too. Jeff and I were quarter-finalists and we had a good time debating. I came in 5th place in Extemporaneous speaking too. Fun times.

I think I'm at USAFA for the next two weekends as well - yay! :)

So excited! Jeff and I broke at the USAFA Classic :)

Also, we ran our K against Tony - who is the judge I fear ever running a K against. He told me that he really liked my speech but I'm normally a lot more organized than I was. However, later, he ran into Danny and was like, "Hey, that girl on your team -"

"Karen?"

"Yeah, she's a badass. Super critical and fast..." And then he walked away.

OH MY GOSH! I'm so happy. That pretty much made my day. :) Plus, Danny told me that he wants to make sure that pretty much no matter what, I stay on the team. I guess he knows I've been considering quitting. I definitely will need to cut back next semester to maybe every other day but I'm looking forward to being able to do more of my own stuff.

Such a great tournament so far.

Also, Josh came to watch and met everyone. He saw me give an extemporaneous speech and watched Jeff and I pick up our fourth win of the night. It was great to see him because I hadn't seen him in a while...meaning since last night. ;)

Last night, he took me ice skating :) It was really fun and I got a chance to hang out with him for the night. I enjoyed myself and I loved it. I mean, who goes ice skating these days? But it was totally legit... :) Happiness

I really enjoy teasing Josh. We're going out tonight and he won't tell me where. So last night, he's like "are you excited for tomorrow?" and I responded, totally deadpan, "What's tomorrow?" His face literally dropped. It was hilarious - I couldn't help laughing. At which point he realized I was joking and proceeded to tickle me until I kicked him off the bed.

As I was leaving his squadron, I ran into a friend of mine in his squad. I asked her what she thought of him and she said she thought he was really nice, blah, blah, what did I think of him?

"He's my boyfriend so..."

"Oh my gosh - it's you?!" was the answer.

"um..."

"Oh my gosh...he wouldn't tell me who it was and was like, 'so I have these flowers and don't know how to give them to her'...but he wouldn't say who it was! That is so cute! He gets so nervous; it's too adorable..."

"Yeah... you should tell him that. Tell him he gets cute points or something..."

It was awesome... I smiled and laughed a lot as I always do around Josh. It surprises me that it's been a month and I have yet to actually get mad or annoyed with him as generally happens. I guess that's a good sign? Indeed...

I only have a little bit of homework to do between now and tomorrow which makes me very happy because I can basically goof off. Plus, I don't have to be anywhere until 9:45 tomorrow morning so I'm going to sleep in until 8:40ish. :)

I had a GR in Calc 3 today. I think it actually went really well - I was quite pleased with myself. And, I kinda stayed awake in English. Unfortunately, I didn't do very well on my EM GR so I'm going to have to rework all of the problems and turn it in again on Wednesday.

This weekend I plan on doing something somewhat productive with my life. Meaning, I'll write my poli sci paper and read the rest of "King Lear". Also, I'll finally catch up in my poli sci and MSS readings, finish reworking my EM, do some Calc 3 homework and yeah...go from there.

Fun times.

Debate tournament this weekend at Colorado College. It's going pretty well so far and I'm enjoying myself...

I'm wearing my brown pants, heels and green turtleneck today. I mentioned to the team that I thought I looked like a tree which sparked this conversation from Jeff:

"But a very nice tree!"

"Oh? Thank you, Jeff..."

"Yeah, no, you look like a nice tree or whatever - an oak tree or something."

"An oak tree..."

"Yeah, an oak tree..."

"uh....okay...thanks..."

So much fun.

Yesterday, Jeff totally kicked my legs out from under me and caused me to fall down. It was absolutely hilarious and I laughed for a good 30 minutes or so... I seriously could not stop laughing... Kinda scared the team because of how much I laughed about it but yeah...it was so funny. I guess I seriously wasn't expecting it or whatever so I just started laughing... Good times :D

(and also, laughing seems to be my way of saving myself from embarrassment so I'm sure that was part of it too...)

So...a lot has happened. :)

1) I returned to USAFA on 5 January after a long flight back from Botswana. We stopped over in Senegal on the way for a layover which made me happy as I had visited 3 countries in Africa by that point. When we landed in NYC, the person who did my passport looked over everything and then said "Welcome home." and I just felt so...happy :) And then my luggage was lost...so yeah.

After I landed in Denver, Glenn (my sponsor dad) picked me up and took me to Walgreens to buy some basic necessities like shampoo, body wash, face wash, etc. He also brought me dinner and took me back to the hill. It was really nice to not have to worry about any of that...

I got back and started unpacking my room and trying to find everything for school tomorrow and such. As I unpacked, I started freaking out because I couldn't find anything and basically turned into a huge blubbering mess. It was kinda messed up. My roomie was on the phone and just kind of ignored me...for which I don't blame her. About 10 minutes into my distraught phase, Josh Johnson showed up. He took one look at me, said, "oh, sorry..." and walked out again. Of course, I went out in the hall and invited him back in to my room.

He looked at me and proceeded to ask what was wrong/if he could help. To which I responded that unless he had sophomore rank and a spare ABU belt, no. He then said, "be right back" and disappeared. He returned about 10 minutes later with an ABU belt and told me that he couldn't find sophomore rank but he had junior or senior rank if I wanted that. I laughed (sort of) and took the belt.

He asked how Africa was and I told him it had gone quite well, thank you, but that I was exhausted and had a ton of homework. He left and I did homework, went to bed and slept like a rock. I don't think I've ever slept that well before hahahaha...

2) School was really fun to catch up to - I had a ton of homework, etc to catch up on and was slightly (a lot more than I should've been) behind in Calc 3 right from the get-go. Not exactly the best subject to be stuck behind in, honestly... But I managed it, somewhat, and can't wait to just move on with it all.

3) Debate went well over break and I started doing Parli again now. It's a great time getting back into it but a lot of work... I need to get back into it. The books I'm reading for debate and all are quite interesting but very thought provoking. I actually have to seriously consider what it's saying and such... Lots to consider.

4) Josh Johnson and I started dating. I'm happy.

Life continues.

meh.

Happy New Year!

I know that's super late - like four days - but still... better late than never, right?

I've been in Botswana since 26 December and I leave today. It's been a great experience but it's definitely Africa. If you want to know how spoiled we are in the United States, come to Africa. It's insane... I have enjoyed myself and I've learned to be a bit more "go with the flow" due to the very fluid sense of time everyone here has.

And that fluid sense of time means that no one really knows/cares how long anything takes and things rarely happen on time. It really surprised me that anyone could care so little about being prompt but I guess that happens more often than not in Africa. I posted a super long note about it on Facebook so I don't really want to reiterate the entire thing here...

Anyway, we're off to head back to the US today and back to Colorado. I'm missing the first two days of school but no biggie, I guess...