Surprise!! An Update!

It is late and I had a nap this afternoon so I am still awake. I love how that works.

Anywho I decided to update the background and header to Christmas so I thought I would add an update too. You may notice that I have red hair in the above picture. I like it. My friend Lois dyed it for me a couple days after Halloween. I am trying to decide if I should do it again or go back to the normal dark blond when it washes out. We'll see.

Well a lot has happened since Dollywood. Almost a whole semester. Jesse and I are still together. We went home for Fall Break and he got to meet Dad...and Bear. It seems that Dad approves...Bear, not so much! Pretty funny if you ask me. We had a good time at home. We went to Phillips Toy Mart, the Carter House in Franklin, Opry Mills, and enjoyed some of Mom's good cooking.

Speaking of cooking, skipping about a month ahead I went home last week for Thanksgiving. It was WONDERFUL to be home and enjoy food. Everyone pitched in and helped with the cooking and it was amazing. Aunt Jill and Uncle Duane stayed at our house for the weekend and it was great to get to spend some extra time with them too. Then I came back to JC and up to Jesse's house on Sunday to meet his Dad, sister, and niece. I met his mom last week. It was a nice afternoon of watching football! Both the Colts and Titans WON!!

There are just a couple weeks before finals and I get to go home for Christmas. Ashley and I have decorated the apartment for Christmas and we are having a Cookie Exchange party this weekend. I hear it may snow Friday/ Saturday! It would be perfect to have a nice coat of snow for a Christmas Party!! Oh yea, and of course we are going to FL again after Christmas for about a week. I'm sure it will be all sorts of excitement as always!

Sorry for the scatterbrainedness. It is late and all.

Until next time,

E

Dollywood

Well a lot has gone on in the past few months. I guess the main thing is I now have a boyfriend, Jesse. We started dating the end of June and so far so good.

We went to Dollywood at the end of August for Pa’s company picnic. We had a great time. He got to meet Nanny and Pa, Aunt Jill, all the Breedings and the Turners. It was great to see everyone and spend some time with Aunt Jill running around the park. Of course the little girls were precious as always. Kaylee actually took the picture of me in my header. Not bad for a 5 year old. After Dollywood we went back to “Nana’s motel” as the little girls call it and watched them swim for a while. When we left Nanny, Pa, Aunt Jill, Jesse and I went to Texas Roadhouse for some dinner…it was about time since Aunt Jill, Jesse, and I just ate a funnel cake for lunch.

Jesse and I then split from the others and came back to Johnson City. Sunday Jesse planned to go shooting with Ryan so I went back to Pigeon Forge to spend the day with the Breedings and Turners. It was great to spend time swimming with the girls and chatting with the rest of the family. And of course Mama Sue making dinner was a very big plus too! After leaving there it was time for classes to start again on Monday. What a way to end my busy summer!

And some pictures for your viewing pleasure...

Aunt Jill and I on the Train
Kaylee before she took my camera

Aunt Jill
Jesse and I on the train

One of the pictures Kaylee took
Stephanie chasing the ducks

Maybe I will update again soon...

E

Post # 100!

Well I finally have some time off from jobs and have a little time to update everyone. 

Looks like it has been quite a while since any real update. Sorry about that. So I will start at the move. In the middle of May I moved into a different apartment. For now it is just my stuff but come August I will have a new roommate. Here are a few quick pictures of the apartment. The first is the Kitchen/dining area. The room is very long which you cant really see in this picture but believe me it is long. I am excited to say that I got a new refrigerator today so no more leaking! YAY!! 

Next we have  the living room. Again it is long. 

Next is my Bedroom. It is much larger than the other one and I have room to actually put my desk. You may notice the white board calendar on the wall. It is color coded by job/misc. and that is the way I keep up with where I have to be at what time. 

Lastly here is the bathroom. Again very long. 

I do like the new place and am getting as settled as I can with 3 jobs and "social life" calling. I have been able to enjoy the pool a couple times and hope to go tomorrow on my second day off in a row. 

As far as jobs I am liking them all so far. I have not been getting many hours at UPS but that is ok at this point. I had not been getting many before which is why  I got the new ones. 

I am babysitting an 11 year old boy who has autistic characteristics. He is really sweet most of the time but has his days that he is EXTREMELY loud. I really enjoy watching him 3 days a week.

And lastly I am working in Ladies Fashion at Kmart. I work about 20 hours a week out there. It makes for long days when I babysit from 7:30-4 and then go to Kmart at 5 or 5:30 - 9 or 10. BUt I like it. The people I work with are really fun. They are definitely characters. 

Well, that is about all I have to update at this point. Next week I will be a Bridesmaid in one of the fraternity Brother's wedding. And then I will be heading to Sevierville for the day on the way to Fall Creek Falls for most of the next week. I am glad to be able to coordinate all the jobs to have some time off! 

I may get some more time off and blog again soon.

E

Not Me Monday

Well here I go again. First time just MckMama Style. If you dont read her blog run on over there to see more.

So here goes, some things that I definately did NOT do this week...or maybe I did. 

I did NOT stay up until late into the night and end up second to comment two nights in a row on MckMama's posts. 

I did NOT bake 2 different cakes today and have NOT eaten way too much of both of them. 

I did NOT begin the the process of working at three different places this summer and am NOT going to enjoy it. 

I did NOT spend Sunday afternoon napping at the pool then on the couch. That would be a waste of time.

Ok. So maybe I am not creative but there are sure to be many more posts linked to MckMama's post so go check it out! 

Rusty

It is sad for me to type that we had to put Rusty to sleep this week. I got him as a present for my 14th birthday. 

When he was about a year old he began having seizures and we had to give him 2 different types of medicine twice a day. The medicine made him hungry all the time :) 

This was a pain at times but he was a good old boy. The amounts of medication caused his liver to fail and there was nothing we could do to help him. He was not in pain in the end and for that I am thankful. I am also thankful I had the chance to spend some extra time with him last weekend on an unexpected trip home. I will miss his little pitter patter on the hardwood floors at home but he is better off now. 

Love you sweet boy. 

Elizabeth

STELLAN AGAIN

Hey everyone! 

Just wanted to direct you all again to love on baby Stellan and his family. He is having heart surgery no later than Tuesday at 8:30 AM if not tonight. 

If you want to participate in another Love on Stellan way wear Orange Tuesday for Stellan and a little pink for Mckmama. 

Nothing much new here. Just trying to get through the next two and a half weeks until summer.

E

Relay Wrap-Up

Well Relay for Life happened this weekend and it was AMAZING!!! Absolutely! Not only did my team do awesome, the ceremonies go great, and everyone have a wonderful time, but I also ended up cutting 9 inches off my hair. The Internet is currently not working at the apartment so I am not able to post pictures yet...soon though. I really like my hair how it is. Think Kate from Jon and Kate Plus 8 when it was still cute. Not the long big chunk that sort of just sits in front of her face all the time. 

Any who for a quick rap of everything:

Nanny and Pa came and stayed until about 10 PM. Our team sponsored them as our caregivers which was really neat. It was great to have them experience Relay. 

The only two ceremonies I planned were really GREAT! During the Luminaria ceremony we had a Survivor, a Caregiver, our Fight Back speak who also happened to be a survivor, and then Elizabeth (one of the ones I went to Atlanta with this summer) and myself. It was really cool to have a succession of speakers. We also read a poem called "The Darkened Room" which you can find on the American Cancer Society website if you want to read it. As the poem was read I had 4 other committee members lighting the word "HOPE" in the stands. I hear it was really neat and timed/planned perfectly. I think the best part of the ceremony was that after it was over I saw our ACS Staff Partner, Amy, and she said, "I was really worried you weren't going to pull it off, but that was an amazing ceremony." That was great. I had a vision the whole process it was just difficult to find people to speak but it came together and was one of the best luminaria ceremonies I have ever been involved in. 

Fight Back was the other ceremony I had and it was really powerful to hear a fellow student tell her story of overcoming cancer. 

I have already mentioned one of our team activities, cutting hair for Pantene Beautiful Lengths. We ended up having 8 or 9 people donate on site. That is an incredible number and will make more than one wig. I was the first to have mine cut and my goodness my hair is THICK! It felt like it took forever! But it really does look great! I like it a lot. Jillian was next and hers is also really cute. She is still not a big fan but she has never had short hair. I think it is at least "growing" on the rest of us. 

We had several on site fundraisers also. We raised over $200 on site! That is amazing! I think our best on site was the Cake Walk. We had a $1 entry for 5 chances to win and with over 30 cakes we raised over $50 from that alone! 

So I'm sure you are wondering if I am ever going to finish this post with you know numbers and awards...here you go.

Our team won Most Activity Participation! Our campsite was right across from the stage so it was pretty easy for us to participate but they had some great activities planed! 

We also were announced as 3rd in Fundraising but Jillian and I are thinking that number is not quite correct. With the on site and online funds raised we should be in second place which would make us the highest fundraising "Greek" organization in ETSU history!! But even if we don't get the official distinction of second the announced second place team was two teams put together. 

Thank you to everyone who donated or thought about us the past few days and weeks. We had a great weekend and I can't wait until next year!