Moving Home

Well, I did it! I finished the semester and moved everything home! Well, not everything, but mostly! I left all of my kitchen stuff (microwave, tupperwear, pots and pans... etc.) the T.V. and desk up at my apartment because I know I won't need those things so I want to leave them for the girls to keep using next semester. I got really lucky with my finals all being on Monday! That gives me a little extra time off before I go student teach.

After I loaded my car up, I parked it at the Mattoon exit and rode with Emily and Allison to Champaign for a little Christmas shopping. We had a lot of fun and got a ton of shopping done in a short amount of time. We left Champaign about 2:15 thinking we'd get back around 3:30... well we were way off on that timing. We found out there was a semi-accident and there was a dangerous chemical spill. So, when we were about 3 miles from Arcola we got completely stopped on the interstate and we were stuck in traffic for 2 hours before we got moving again. We did have quite an intertaining ride though! We saw this semi up ahead waving for everyone he passed to roll their windows down. Of course, no one would do it. So, after awhile he made a sign and stuck that out the window. We were really anxious to get up and see what the sign said, it said "Road Closed Ahead." When he showed us the sign we all started busting up laughing.. because we knew the road was closed! Then, a lot of cars got tired of waiting and decided to drive on the shoulder, meanwhile passing everyone who is just sitting there! So, the SUV in front of us got ticked and pulled in the shoulder and half in our lane so that no one else could pass. It was pretty funny as well. Later, I dared Allison to do a chinese fire drill around our car. For 2 bucks she said she'd do it. So she did, and then I handed back the 2 dollars, ha ha. Well, the van behind us had 2 younger guys in it and one of the guys did a chinese fire drill around our car! It was sooo funny. We were laughin so hard, and when we looked back at them, he showed us that he got a dollar for it, haha. Well that was almost the end of our adventures. We finally got off the exit in Arcola and then we had to wait for about half an hour there before we could get back on the high way. While waiting, we heard a honk behind us and when we turned around it was our semi friend again. This time he was dressed up as Santa! Wow, the stories from this trip won't be forgotten!
Needless to say, we finally made it home at 5:45. That was a long trip!

My last semester of college classes!

I can't believe this semester is a week short of being over with! It seems like this semester just flew by! It was a very stressful one, but I actually feel like I managed my stress very well this semester. Instead of letting all my projects get to me, I spaced them out. I made a list of everything I knew of that was due and put them in order of what was due first. This really helped me focus on one thing at a time! I ended up doing really well in all my classes. I overloaded myself in order to be able to student teach in the spring. Normally, a full time student is considered one who is taking between 12 - 18 credit hours, and I took 20 this semester. It was challenging, but I'm so glad to have it over with! I am expecting to get A's in all of my classes, except one that I'm just not sure of. I got a B on the mid-term and that was the only grade except for a big project I just turned in and won't know my grade until after finals are posted. I'm pretty proud of myself though! I had some pretty rough classes and a pretty rough semester! From this semester alone I have a total of 10 binders! Those are from classes and projects that I've done... that's a lot!
I'm really excited that I'll be student teaching in the Spring. I just hope it's not more work than this semester. I really really really need to get going on wedding planning! My next thing on the list to get done is get address of all our guests... so I'm just hoping I have time to get this wedding planned in the midst of working and teaching too!
Oh well, I'm sure it'll be a challenge, but I'm ready to be done! 5 months from today and I'll be an Eastern graduate! It'll be well worth it in the end!

Christmas is near!!!

Christmas time is coming up! I'm so excited! We have most of our gifts bought, just a few more to buy! I'm loving the Christmas season so far! The main reason is for pretty decorations and lots of business at work :) I love when we are busy and I can make some extra money waitressing! We're going to be very busy this holiday season! Lots of family to go see and spend time with, it's my favorite! Here are a few pictures of our new house with the few Christmas decorations we have... love it!

In the kitchen, let it snow!

In the living room, a wreath of berries

I love our new plate! It's adorable in the kitchen :)

Kitchen table decor, so pretty

annnnnnnnd, our first tree!

Black Friday/Cyber Monday!

I was reading through my last post, and I realized that we went one more place on Thanksgiving! I forgot we went to my aunts house the evening of Thanksgiving. We just had some snack food and watched a christmas movie. It was fun :) We love them! Then after the movie, Allison, Jen, and I went to Walmart at midnight. I was hoping to find some good cheap movies but I didn't have much luck with them! There were sooooo many people over by the DVD's it was insane! I did end up getting a few for 2 bucks and then I got The Blind Side for 5 bucks and Grand Torino for Jared for 5 bucks too. I only got a couple other things and they were Christmas presents so I can't say what they were! But, I thought Walmart was crazier this year than any other time I've ever been! I think it was becuase it started at mid night and thats a more normal time for people to be up than the usual 3 or 4 am. So, it was a fun black friday, we ate at Denny's at 1 am :) yumm!

Monday was Cyber-Monday and I think I like this day better than Black Friday! Most places offer free shipping, which is awesome, and on top of that they usually have at least 20% off stuff! Even though I literally have no money, I couldn't pass up some of these deals! I got presents for my sister Jen, Emily, Allison, and something small for Jared's mom, granny, step-mom, and my mom! I also got Isaiah a DVD! I am so excited for all my packages to arrive and to start wrapping! Cyber-Monday is amazing :)

Thanksgiving Festivities

I told you I love the holidays, but this year was special to us. We have been very blessed to have met Jared's biological father and family this year. It has been such an answer to prayer! Jared met them earlier this year and I got to meet them shortly after. We've gotten to know them pretty well in a short amount of time! Everyone deserves a good dad, and I'm so glad he got to finally meet his!
We started off Thanksgviging with the whole Nuelle clan on Sunday (this is not normal for us... dad went to Georgia this year so we had it early). That was a fun time with about 30 people in our house! Then we had Thanksgiving at noon with Jared's mom and granny and papa. This is always a good time with Granny's cooking! After that we headed home for a little bit and then went over to Jared's dad's brother's house for about an hour. We didn't eat because we were stuffed from granny's but it was nice to meet Kenny's parents and some other family. Then Friday night we went to my mom's house to have Thanksgiving with her and Kevin. Jared and Matt didn't arrive till late since they both had to work that night but it was still a fun time. We had ham so that was a nice change from turkey! Then the last Thanksgiving we had was Saturday at noon with the whole Herboth family in Altamont. My what a large family! Kenny's mom comes from a large family of something like 18 kids! Then she had 7 kids of her own I believe... Needless to say, we didn't meet everyone!
We are so thankful for this year's Thanksgiving and for all the wonderful family we have! It seems like our family just keeps growing and growing! You can never have too many people that love you! :) We truly have so much to be thankful for: all our family, each other, our new house, our puppy Cash, and both being blessed with jobs! I can't wait for Christmas! We plan on being a little bit more busy around Christmas, as I'm planning a short trip to Georgia to see some more family! Love it!

House Updates

I know I've been slacking on the blog writing lately, but I've been soooo busy! I'm home this week for Thanksgiving break and it's been so nice! I have been very productive too! I got the kitchen painted (we re-did it), our bedroom painted, and the T.V. stand up! I am really really really tired of painting and we've only been here a month! There are just two rooms left in the house that need painted. Both are spare bedrooms so they aren't anything that has to be done right away. Oh and let me just say that I will never understand why people paint the ceilings anything but white! They are such a pain to paint over! It figures that we had to get a house where every single room has colored ceilings!

Here are a few pictures of the updated house :)

We repainted the kitchen.. it used to be blue up top and cream on the bottom. Now chocolate and white! LOVE IT!

I absolutely love our noew countertops! They match the brown and white so well, too.

No more pink bedroom for us! This bedroom was a 2 day

project- ceiling white one day and walls the next

Much better with the tan!

New rug and T.V. stand!

Next on the house to-do list is to get the dresser and mirror moved into our bedroom, and to paint the other two bedrooms. This probably won't happen until my Christmas break though! Jared wants to do the office room as a hunting theme since his gun cabinent will be in there. So hopefully he will get a nice big buck and maybe it can go up in the office. So, I will have to paint that room brown, green, or tan I think. I love our first home. It already feels like home to us! I can't wait to get Christmas decorations up!

Less than 6 months...

I can't believe it is already less than 6 months until the wedding! Time is flying by so quickly! It freaks me out to think I only have 6 months to buy and plan everything else we need for the wedding!  We still have to get addresses for all of our guests, make the invitations, make the programs, get the flower arrangments made and ordered, buy alllll the decorations for the church and reception hall... oh boy there is a lot!
I'm really excited about my bridal shower and bachelorette party though! I know my sisters will do a great job planning those! They will probablly wait till March or April to have the shower, and then the bachelorette party will be at the end of April I think we decided. Yay, it will all be here before I know it! :)