The next few days...

Yay! School is over for the week! Now I don't have to think about it until Monday...oops, I should probably study sometime over the weekend! :)
Anyway, I'm very excited because tomorrow I am going to Chicago! My friend Alecia, needs to go get her visa, so I'm going with her. We're driving to Michigan City, then taking the train to Chicago. We'll go to the Embassy or wherever to get the visa, then SHOPPING!!! When we're sick of Chicago, we'll go back to Michigan City and hit the outlet stores there! I don't really have anything in particular that I'm shopping for, but I got about $150 from selling books back (pretty good for only 3 books!)
Then I have the weekend to myself! The rest of my family is leaving tomorrow for Kentucky for the family Christmas party. I'm not going because I'm going to Chicago, working Saturday morning, singing for praise team, and teaching Sunday School. So other than working Saturday morning, I have the rest of the weekend to do....something... :)
I'll post pictures and stories about Chicago when I get back!!!

Exams are upon us...

...well, at least they're upon me. Hopefully you're not feeling the stress of exams. Actually, it's not quite as stressful as I've imagined, I think people play it out to be more so. Finals week doesn't technically begin until next Monday. However, in my Hospitality Management class, our final is simply our last chapter test. So my professor decided to have the exam on the last day of class so we don't have to come in during exam week. Yay! And even better, he drops our lowest test score, so because i've scored above 95% on all my other exams, I'm not too worried about this test, because it won't count anyway. Which gives me more time to study for more important exams...like Business Statistics. My exam in this class is also tomorrow. It will be a lot harder, and I've been doing a lot of review problems. The only problem is, there's only 2 questions on the test. One has multiple (7) parts, but still, it's worth 100 points, so if you mess up at the beginning it could hurt the entire problem! Nothing like adding a bit of stress! So I think I've done about as much as I can for the night, it's late, and I think my nice warm bed sounds pretty good right now! And as for tomorrow, there's a silver lining around the clouds...because when I finish my exams, I get to sell my books back and get some money back!!! :)
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Christmas surprises

Last night we had a congregational meeting at church. As I was walking out, Jennifer's husband, Mark, came and asked me where I was parked. I was parked near him so he said he'd walk with me because he had something for me. So I went to my car and he came up a minute later carrying a huge poinsettia, the most beautiful one I've ever seen. My parents were very impressed with it when I brought it home. "Someone must love you" my mom said. Thanks guys, I love you too! It makes a beautiful centerpiece on our table and accents what Zack calls our "very festively decorated home" :)

On Saturday night, I went out with a couple friends, Alyx and Jeremy, for our own little Christmas party. We were going to go to Biggby Coffee, but it was full of studying college students, so we decided to get drinks and go back to Jeremy's house. We had a little gift exchange and I got some really neat gifts! I gave them each a bag full of homemade Christmas foods. Jeremy said he couldn't come up with anything, so we told him to be creative. He got each of us everything a girl wants for Christmas: a stuffed animal (to cuddle with), candy necklaces and ring pops (who doesn't want jewelry), and a bag of Hershey's Hugs (chocolate and hugs!) And he said he couldn't be creative!!! Alyx made me a really cool vase which she decoupaged and covered with words that she thought described me. You can click on the pictures for a closer look.

I love all the excitment and joy of giving during this time of year!

Nice surprise...thanks mom

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on the floor looking through all the sales papers when my mom asked me what I was planning to buy for the gift exchange for our family Christmas party in Canada. "What gift exchange?" I was told that because I'm now 18, I can't participate in the kid's gift exchange and as far as I knew I wasn't invited to join the adults. She informed me that I was supposed to buy at $10 gift to exchange. We're doing a new way of exchanging, where the first person chooses the first gift from under the tree and then the next person can choose to steal that person's gift or open a new one. So basically before next Thursday (we leave for Canada on Friday) I have to come up with a useful, creative, unisex, $10 Christmas gift. Any ideas would be much appreciated!!! :)

Christmas Questions

I couldn't really think of anything to blog about today, and I saw this on Mari's blog last week, so I thought I'd steal it from her :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I love how wrapped gifts look, but sometimes some gifts are too tricky to wrap, so I'll use gift bags
2. Real tree or artificial? I love real trees! They look so pretty and they smell good. But the rest of my family disagrees, so we have an artificial tree...
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the day after Thanksgiving, but this year it didn't get set up until December 6!
4. When do you take the tree down? New Year's Day
5. Do you like eggnog? Umm... I've never had it!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My telescope
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. Two of them. One that I bought for my mom, it's really small, and usually sits on our end table. We have another larger one that sits on a glass table.
8. Hardest person to buy for? That's a tie between my parents. Neither one ever tells me what they want. Or they only give us one idea, and then they'll end up buying that one gift for eachother, leaving me with no ideas.
9. Easiest person to buy for? Usually my brother, because I can get him guitar picks and strings, but this year, he's more difficult because I told him no more guitar stuff!
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't really think of anything....
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. I love going out to the mailbox and coming back with a handful of cards to open
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Mary Christmas
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? If I see something starting around October, I'll buy it, but usually I start the day after Thanksgiving.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? White chocolate chex mix.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored, they're so much more fun!
17. Favorite Christmas song? It's sooo hard for me to choose a favorite. I like anything, except for "Santa Baby"
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We always travel to Canada to see my mom's family. I prefer it when we go up there the weekend before Christmas, so that we're home for Christmas, partially because I really enjoy our church's Christmas Eve service, but I'd rather be home.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? It depends on the year. Last year was an angel, this year is a star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We always open them Christmas Eve
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Definitely the irreverence for the true HOLY DAY. The complete absorption of self and getting more and more when so many have so little. (Thanks Mari) And when stores start Christmas stuff in October!
23. What I love most about Christmas? That it's so filled with love, joy, and giving! And most importantly that Jesus was sent to earth!

Sinterklaas Dag

Today is Sinterklaas Dag. Some of you dutch people might know what that it. My mom is 100% Dutch, so this is a tradition around our house, we do it in place of stockings. The story goes that in Holland (similar story in other countries) Sinterklaas (Santa Clause) and his helper Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) come around and give gifts to kids that have been good. The kids leave their wooden shoes out, and Sinterklaas fills them with goodies. So today, I went downstairs and found my wooden shoe! It had M&Ms, Pepernoten (or Kruidnoten), Taai-taai, and some fruit snacks in it.



My brother's, dad's and my wooden shoes.









My wooden shoe. The taai-taai is the bigger cookies.







When I got home from my babysitting job tonight, my mom and I decided to finally set up our tree. This is how far we got before we ran out of lights that work. Then my dad came home and told us he'd bought 600 lights, and put them in his closet!!!

An interesting encounter

Is it okay to tell a lie...sometimes? Let me know what you think after reading about my interesting encounter.
So...I got to school on Wednesday at 8:45 only to find out that my 9:00 class was cancelled. So I went up to the student lounge to wait it out until Heather would come to meet me for lunch at 11. I was doing some homework and blogging and on Facebook and stuff. Suddenly someone tapped me on my shoulder, I expected it to be Heather. I turned around to find...some guy I've never seen before. Our conversation went something like this (my thoughts/actions are in italics)...
Guy: Whatcha doing?
Me: Homework.
G: Hi...my name is....
M: I'm Melissa shakes his hand
G: So, are you a first year student?
M: Yes By now, I'm assuming that this is some kind of survey or something for a class
G: What classes are you taking?
M: Government, Spanish, Statistics purposefully leaving out a few...
G: What do you like to do in your free time? WHY are you asking me all these questions?!?!?
M: I don't really have much free time.
G: Oh, do you work then?
M: Yes
G: Where?
M: At a nursing home No way am I telling him which one!
G: (After inappropriately discussing nursing homes) So, if you had spare time, what do you like to do?
M: Hang out with friends, watch movies Okay, you're really starting to creep me out. Frantically looking around the room trying to make eye contact with someone to come bail me out.
G: What kind of movies?
M: Pretty much anything
G: So you like porn?
M: No. I don't. Thoroughly disgusted now creeped out.
G: Well, you said you liked all movies...that qualifies
M: I think you knew what I meant. I like action movies. Sick, you're freaking me out. Leave me alone!!!!
G: Wow...you're the first girl I know to say she likes action movies. Sure I am... So...are you seeing anybody?
M: Finally!!! A way out!!! Kind of.
G: Is it serious?
M: Well, we spend a lot of time together and stuff. FYI: this is where I'm lying, I don't have a boyfriend, or a "special someone"!
G: Well, if you go to any Christmas parties, you make sure to get him under the mistletoe, because that will make him want something more serious! Ok...whatever...please go away now.
M: Nervous laugh.
G: Okay...I guess I'll see you around then... He leaves...patting me on the back
M: Uh huh I hope not. And by this time I'm literally shaking and wondering if no-one noticed how strange this guy was acting and why I couldn't find someone to bail me out.

So...was I wrong to tell him I was seeing someone? Honestly, he was kind of creepy, and I had my laptop and books and stuff spread out, so I couldn't really just get up and walk away, and I needed a way out!!!!

Of mice and....toilets?

So you're probably wondering what these two things have in common.... or maybe you're not, but i'll tell you anyway...
I was heading to take a shower last night. Went into the bathroom, and there floating in the toilet was a mouse!!!! Obviously, this was one of my brother's "pet" mice. So I called him and asked why he had thrown a mouse in my toilet. According to him, he didn't put it there...it had ESCAPED from it's cage earlier and apparently fell into the toilet! So he reached into the toilet and took it out. I went back in my bathroom, and he'd thrown it in the garbage can! It can't just stay and rot there! So finally he ended up just throwing my garbage out for me. But I'm a little freaked out that there was a mouse running around my house and he never thought to warn us, in case something fuzzy decided to join us in bed or something!

Going to class literally "pays" off... :)

"Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.” –Solon

“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough.” –Frank Crane

Remember those two quotes...they were worth $20 to me!!!
Each week in my Hospitality Managment class, we have to write a paper for the "word of the week". This week's word was Trust. We have to define it, find 2-3 quotes about it, and write a personal anecdote related to our work about the word. Yesterday, our paper was due. I almost skipped the class, because we never do anything on Monday's but I've only skipped one class before (a whole 'nother story!), and didn't really want to make it 2. So off I went. Then Mr. Hogan told us he was going to bring the papers home and look over them and whoever had the best quote, he would bring in a prize for that person. So at the end of class today, he read the quotes from his favorite 2 papers (he couldn't choose a top one, so he chose between 2) and the quotes sounded familiar! Then he said it was mine! My prize was $20 worth of gift certificates to Carino's Italian Grill!! Now I just have to find the time to go...

What a weekend!

Wow! What a weekend!
My mom turned 50 on Saturday. Unknown to her, her friend and I had been planning a surprise party for her since we had my graduation open house last June!
On Friday night, the doorbell rang, and I told mom to get the door. She did, and there was her mom, dad, sister, nephew, and niece. She was so surprised! Then half an hour later, the bell rang again. I told her it was for her, and there was her brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews! She had no clue that they were coming down from Canada for the weekend! And she thought that was the whole surprise, little did she know....


Saturday morning, we had a big breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls and cheesy eggs. Then I went to church for the craft sale. I had to tell a few little white lies to cover up for the party. I told mom that I had to work at 1:30. So at 1:15, I left for "work".





Instead, I went to her friend's house. I had been there for a while on Friday to prepare food, so most of it was ready. We had to make a few things and decorate on Saturday afternoon. Everyone arrived at Tracy's around 6:15. We all hid in the dining room/kitchen area.




Mom and Dad showed up at 6:45, just to pickup a fondue pot on the way out to dinner, or so Mom thought! So Tracy invited her in for a minute and they came into the living room. Mom looked into the dining room and there were about 25 people in there who shouted "Surprise!" The look on her face was absolutely priceless!!!!





Some of the food! There was a ton, and it was all amazing!!!










Opening gifts....


















Mom and Tracy