Christmas Eve

It's COLD! My poor car groaned at me this morning and just about didn't make it. I let it warm up for about 15 minutes before I came in to work and I was still cold when I got here. I've been here for an hour now and I'm still freezing. The cold just seeps into my bones and won't leave!

I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas! This month just flew by. I'm excited to open my presents! I'm such a kid, I know... actually I'm really excited for Darren to open his presents. It's a total surprise for him; he's not even expecting what he's getting. I love giving people presents they don't expect, but you know they want. I won't say what it is in case he reads this, but it's a good one. :) I, sadly, know a lot of my presents since I picked them out. Always sad when there's less surprises, but at least I know I'll love what I get.

Today will be a busy day. We're going to Darren's grandma's this afternoon, then with the Fisher side for dinner, and out to his mom's parents after that. Lots of Christmas! Then tomorrow we're doing Christmas with his family early in the morning, back over to my house mid-morning, then out to his mom's parents for lunch, then back to my house later that evening. Busy, busy. :)

We're doing a personal shower/bachelorette party on Friday and Lex has had a blast planning it. She's so funny. She picked out all these games and won't tell me what they are so that I'll be surprised. She planned most of the food (except for my request for little smokies) and got prizes for the games. The weather is supposed to be evil so hopefully everyone will still be able to make it. I'm excited. I think it'll be a lot of fun. Then the church is planning a shower for me on the 3rd (saw it in the bulletin and that's how I found out!). Not sure if I'm supposed to do anything for that, though. Show up, I guess. :)

We're going down to the cities for New Year's Eve to spend some time with friends and then help some of our friends pack up New Year's day. They're moving to Iowa, so it's kind of sad. It will be fun to see them one last time before they leave. They'll be up for the wedding so we will get to see them then.

almost done

I had a final today. One that I actually had to study for. It was okay. I think it was probably the worst exam I've taken in that class, but compared to the amount of time I spent preparing for it I probably will get what I deserve. Which is fine with me. I just wanted to be done with it.

Tonight I need to pack up my last couple things and clean my room and bathroom. My final tomorrow is at 10:30 and after that I'm out of here! I was going to run back to Glen and Danette's and grab my stuff (since I have my plant and my laptop and didn't want to leave them in my car in the frozen winter) but that will take like an extra forty minutes. So I'm actually going to bring my plant in to my final with me. And my laptop. But no one will laugh at me for that. I'm hoping with my plant in the plastic bags no one will be able to tell what it is. Or care. Oh well. I don't care, anyway. Last year I almost killed my plant taking it outside to my car without a bag around it, so I'm not going to do that again. It took forever for it to recover. All the leaves died and fell off, and some of the twiggy branches too. Sad as it is to say, at least my fish is dead so I don't have to worry about him...

home for the weekend

I came home yesterday after my last (FINALLY) class of the semester. I have two finals next week--one that I REALLY need to start studying for--and then I'm DONE until next fall. You wouldn't even believe how excited I am. I hauled all my stuff home yesterday and unpacked and organized my room. I have a pile of stuff to go over to the house Darren and I will be living in, so I'm going to have him help me take that over there later. He has drill right now but will be home later tonight.

Last night I watched The Nativity Story and that got me in the Christmas mood. I love that movie. This morning I wrapped some presents which took a while, and it's not even half of them. Mom went over to a friend's house to do their annual Christmas baking, so I'm anticipating a sugar overload later tonight. I did manage to work out this morning, so I guess it's justified. :)

I really want to watch White Christmas today--it's one of my favorite holiday movies--but should start studying for my final. Ugh...so unmotivated. I do have tomorrow and Monday to study. :)

Blair and Trent are out on a drive. They gathered up a bunch of guys (I almost got talked into it) and are trying to drive out this beast of a deer that's injured. I guess it's pretty big, so they all would like to get it. It's kind of funny watching them: they get so intense in their planning of how they want to flush it out and kill it. Oh, the northland. Sad story...I tried to find a Gander Mountain or Fleet Farm in the cities and they're almost as far away as they are from where I live in the middle of nowhere! Crazy. We sure are a different breed up here.

Alaina vs. washing machine

Today the washing machine got the best of me. It's been a little off for a while, and this morning when my load of sheets/towels/socks was done...well, it wasn't really. Everything was still soaking wet and soapy. So I tried to run it again without adding any detergent and ended up with the same thing. What followed was thirty minutes of washing a load of laundry in the bathtub. And let me say that towels and sheets are most definitely NOT the easiest things to wash and ring out in a bathtub. Or anywhere, really. It will probably taken them about an hour and a half in the dryer...maybe longer...but at least they'll be semi-clean. I have 10 days left, so I'm going to have to start being careful with my clothing choices. I did already pull my black pants and the black socks I wore today out of my dirty clothes because I need to wear them for a presentation on Tuesday. Probably going to be a little more selective about my clothing choices for the next week and a half.

Saturday

I stayed up pretty late last night reading a book so I was really unmotivated this morning to go to the gym, but I used the snow on my car as an excuse. Worked well until I realized it was like a tiny little bit and I felt guilty. But oh well. I finished my book this morning and then did two hours on corporate strats. I started doing my auditing case and then my sister came over and we hung out. We also made nut goodie bars, yum! Watched a little Titanic and ate our bars once they hardened, and that's pretty much been my day. She's still here but I might try to get a little homework done after she leaves. At least some more on my auditing case. Tomorrow will be dedicated to corporate strats and I'm meeting my teammates tomorrow night around 6:30 to work on that. Only FIVE DAYS LEFT! I can't wait for this coming week to be over! Then only two finals and I'm DONE!

Fast Week

This week flew by! I can't believe tomorrow is Friday. Only one more week left of school after this and then two days of finals and I'm done! Tomorrow I have a presentation, and another one on Tuesday, plus a paper due on Thursday and a big case for Auditing due as well. Then my two finals during finals week. Getting there...I was just thinking today how weird it is that I'm almost married. I've been single my whole life (obviously) and we've been engaged for so long it felt like it would never come. But in like seven weeks I'll be married!

We unregistered for our plates at Target because they were hideous. They have different ones there now that I like a lot better, but I can't register for them online because I need to make sure they are at the Target in Brainerd so people will actually buy them. :) The only problem is I won't be home until after finals, but I guess that will have to work.

I got all the invitations sent out on Saturday and my mom said there were some responses back already, so that's good. I just know there will be people who don't respond or say they're coming and they don't and it will drive me crazy. We went to a friend's wedding on Saturday at the same reception site as ours and it was fun to see it. I got some really great ideas for our reception, too. I've been buying up my Christmas presents and getting going on that. Lots to do still, though. December is SO busy!