Brain Dump!

Let me dig out from the mountains of homework I've been suffering under for the past week.... OK I'm out. Whew that was tough... and I see a 6 page paper looming in the not-so-distant future (AKA today and next week!). But I missed my lil blog- so here's a rundown of what I've been doing over the last week or so; a Brain Dump, if you will, of all of the little things I've wanted to blog about but haven't had a chance to:

Josh and I had a lot going on during the weekend of Feb 5-7:
I got stuck on a back country road by Josh's house when I was on my way to my grandma's house to visit. It was a horrible drifting mess and I shouldn't have even gone down that road. Does that make me scared to drive in winter? NOPE! Just makes me grateful for a boyfriend that will leave work to shovel my ass out (and only mention twice that I had on flats, not boots)

We went to the Auto Show in Grand Rapids. Yeah, it's a knock off of the big one in Detroit, but we didn't have a chance to make it down there. Josh is a car guy, I'm not so much a car girl. I did like looking at some of the Mercedes cars that I will never own, and spent some time drooling over the Dodge Journey. Josh actually may have convinced me that we need a 4-door Jeep Wrangler in the future. (I think I'm becoming more and more country as the days go by... I guess all I can do now is own up to it!)

We met up with some of my former and current coworkers at Hooters, because we're all very classy people. Sadly, I was the only girl drinking :( When I ordered my tall Blue Moon I was hoping that some others would follow suit, but I was left chugging that glorious mug of beer all alone. The wings were good and Josh and I discovered that we like deep fried pickle slices better than deep fried pickle spears. (OMG I was half-joking about becoming more country, but I think that last paragraph has enough 'country' in it to convert a sorority girl!)

Before we went to Hooters, we killed some time by doing some engagement ring looking. Since the only places open were chain stores, we looked at Jared and I found some designs I like. I'm pretty sure we're not going to go with them for the final bling, but it was nice to spend a little time looking at what was out there. So... I guess we're in the pre-engagement stage? This probably deserves a post dedicated completely to the visit, but I'm just not in the mood today. Here's a sneak peek at a top contender, although I think I'll have trouble finding it at an independent retailer

We had a lot of fun at Josh's friend's house for the Superbowl. Josh and I LOVED (read: completely devoured) the Buffalo Chicken Dip I made. Nobody else seemed to be as smitten with it, but that was fine with me because it just meant that Josh and I got to enjoy leftovers!

Diesel deserves, and will be getting, his own post soon - Once I get some new pictures taken and put on my computer. He's growing like a weed!! At his last vet visit 2 weeks ago he was over 23 pounds. One thing we've learned, and please don't call PETA on me, but my dog cannot hold his alcohol. How did we find out about this little gem of information? My sister gave him a drink of her Smirnoff a few weeks ago. He proceeded, a few minutes later, to leave a trail of pee alllll throughout Josh's friend's house. He was peeing like every five minutes. It was embarassing and I felt bad for my puppy. My sister is not a good Auntie. Then, this past Sunday, one of Josh's friends gave Diesel a drink of beer at the farm, even though I warned him of the consequence. Sure enough, history repeated itself. I wasn't the happiest, especially because I had to clean it up!

I passed my teacher certification tests!!! It was actually a relief. I was pretty confident about the English content area test, but the economics test made me want to strangle myself with a supply and demand graph. (is that even possible... ?) On the 5th I found out that I passed both! Luckily, they don't report scores, just a pass/fail grade. Regardless, I was beyond excited.

Mansfield Park - AKA The Book that is the Bane of My Existence. I don't know if it's the slow pace that we're taking while reading or if it's the subject matter or what, but GAH! I just want to skip to the end, fast forward through the life of Fanny Brice, and just find out whether or not she marries her damn cousin. (Spoiler alert: She does) I'm not impressed with Fanny as a character; I find her boring and judgmental. I like Mary Crawford because she's conniving and a little stuck up. She makes for a fun read. I'd much rather read 300 pages about her. Thank God we're done with this book now - next week we start Dubliners.

Along the lines of not likeing Mansfield Park, I'm still not getting to read any books I want!! GRRRR! I have yet to crack the spines on any of the books from the post I wrote a few weeks ago. It's frustrating to see interesting, new books sitting neglected on a shelf. I feel bad for them. I just want to scoop them up, hold them in my hands, and completely devour them (in a non-violent way, of course).

I discovered a rather pleasing little tidbit of info yesterday: One of my faves from my first year through college now has a blog! She's an English teacher in Virginia (a fabulous one, at that) and she writes daily about the 'roses' of her day. It's pretty encouraging for someone like me, who is getting ready to go into the teaching field, to hear about the good things in store for me. So many times I hear all about the unfun things - Tori's blog is a little bright spot for me! Go check it out: http://www.forgetapples.blogspot.com/

OK- So I guess you're all caught up with what's been going on with me!