Santa Brought the Goods

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!! I had a spectacular one myself, as always, and have lots of (hopefully) interesting stories to tell! As you can see above, my sibs and I must've been good boys and girls, because Santa brought some serious loot to our place this year. I received many awesome gifts, including eight My Little Ponies (**evidence**), 12 shirts/dress tops, two decorative Chinese dragon pillows, a music box, a scrap-booking box full of wedding materials, make-up, movies, and the list goes on and on!

Christmas Eve is when Mike comes to visit my family at home to exchange gifts, and I was so excited to give him his presents!! This year I bought him the best neck tie I have ever seen. With this tie, his wardrobe is truly complete! I also got him this neat-O frame to put his Bachelor's degree in, which has a big "W" cut into the matting with photos from Western's campus filling it. I'll have to post a picture of it later, because it's pretty badass. When you work that hard for your degree, it deserves a special place on the wall, and it's about time Mike's got its own. Lord knows that the day after I graduate, I'm making an F-ing shrine for mine, so it only seems fair. ;) In return, Mike gave me a new stick of RAM for my desktop, O. M. G. Seriously, I'm so happy, because I'm ready to throw that machine out the window. He also got me lots of nice make-up, and my own boomerang necklace (**piccy**)!! He's had a boomerang necklace since I met him, which he always wears and I've always loved. He had a replica of it made in white gold, which I adore! :)

Christmas day was pretty awesome, with the parents waking us up early to open gifts. We spent the morning giving and receiving presents from one another while listening to music and taking pictures. Afterwards, we all piled in the car to head south for more family time! We picked up my Aunt Diane and headed to Grandma J's for Christmas dinner and more gift-giving! I spent several hours enjoying my extended relatives before Christmas day finally drew to a close.

This year my older sister Kristen and I got to spend a long weekend together right after Christmas! This was great fun because with her living downstate and me in school, I only get to see her a few rare times a year, and usually during holidays while surrounded by other family members. She took me to her apartment where we proceeded to relax until Sunday! We went out to her favorite bar and grill, saw Marley and Me in the theaters, met with some of her friends for lunch, and got to go shopping. We also watched some movies, some Knight Rider, and played lots of Mariokart (by far our favorite family video game). We also busted out the Super Nintendo to play all our old school games! Of these, I personally revisited Mariokart, StarFox, MarioPaint (and the fly-swatting game), Mighty Max, and the Road Runner game. It was superb! I had a great time at her place and I was sad to leave today. It isn't very often I literally have a break from everything to simply relax and enjoy old hobbies.

I'm home now until New Year's Eve, which I'll be spending with Nick, Colleen and Mike in Grand Rapids!! My break is already half over, and I can't believe all I've done so far. I look forward to another two weeks of no homework and spending time with family. :)

Party Down, Santa-style

I finally made it home for the holidays! Christmas is always an insanely busy time of the year for me, as I wrap up last-minute gift shopping and struggle to be everywhere seeing everyone at the right time. Mike's family Christmas parties were right after my semester ended on Saturday (Dent), Sunday (Gibbard), and Monday (McDonald). Whew! By the time today rolled around, I was just about partied out, and I've still got the Jobin party on Christmas day! The parties were a lot of fun, and it's always good to see Mike's families. Sandy and Debbie gave me several wonderful gifts, including a new winter coat and boots! :D Last night after the last party finished I drove from Lansing back home to be here with my family for Christmas. :)

The semester end was stressful but successful this time around. I ended up with my best semester GPA since beginning pharmacy school! Sometimes the hard work does pay off, and it feels so awesome when it finally does. My last day of class my old roommate and great friend Beth went to class with me in Kalamazoo, so we got to make snide comments about our professors to one another just like old times! :D I took her out to my favorite pub afterwards, and later to the Portage mall. It was a lot of fun to see her again!

One of my bridesmaids, Colleen, and Mike's best man, Nick, just got engaged on Friday! Congrats to them! :D Mike and Nick have been best friends just about forever, and it seems so ironic that both of their wives will be pharmacists. :)

In case I'm not back to my blogging beforehand, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!! Eat lots of cookies and throw balled up wrapping paper at your unsuspecting family members--I know I will. ;)

Another One Bites the Dust

Oh my goodness, I took my last final exam today. !!!!!

As usual, I find myself basking in the indescribable happiness that is associated with coming home from school and NOT studying, but instead, going to the mall to buy myself things! Or even watching TV, or calling loved ones that have been trying to get a hold of me, or the thought of more than 2-3 hours of sleep tonight!! There's really little I can do to explain just what a relief it is to be at the finish line, as always.

Since Monday I've taken 6 final exams and slept about 8 hours. Tonight, as giddy as I am, I'm feeling myself start to crash and burn.

Tomorrow I have to go to class to watch some of my classmates give presentations, but then my semester officially ends at 11 am! :D YAY!! I leave for Lansing tomorrow night to see Mike and get all our presents wrapped for Christmas, and then Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are his family Christmas parties! I'll get to go home to see my family after that, and then it'll practically be Christmas! o_O

My grades came back very good--there's a good chance this could be my best semester yet. :D

*whimper*

I've taken five final exams in 24 hours. My last is tomorrow and it's going to be a doosey, but at least by this time tomorrow I'll be basking in the sweet nothingness of post-pharmacy school. :D

FINALS

.... are currently eating my soul. :( A thousand apologies to anyone (Kristen/Beth/Shruti) who has tried to get a hold of me and has been unsuccessful--I promise I will get back to all of you as soon as my exams are finished. Right now, I'm trying to balance my time between studying everything I've learned in the last four months and just enough to sleep to prevent me from going insane.

And just in case I don't tell my friends/family enough, you guys are AWESOME for always understanding. I love you all very, very much, and I look forward to giving you all a big hug in the sweet, sweet aftermath of another semester behind me. :)

Sneaky Spinach

Well, it's the week before finals, and all through the house, Amanda is stressed out. But a week from now and I'll be done. FREE.

Tonight I made this pasta dish which the package claimed had "carrots and broccoli," which sounded awesome to me. So I'm cooking it up and I start to notice that it has these green, leafy things inside, which don't look at all like broccoli to me. So I read the back of the package and there, in fine print, I read "in addition to broccoli and carrots, this dish also contains spinach!" WHAT?? Why didn't they warn me on the front? Spinach isn't even in the picture on the front!! I felt deceived, like I had been tricked into eating spinach!! Oh my goodness, nothing is sacred.

Tomorrow is the last day of my internship at Sindecuse, and I'm feeling pretty sad about that. :(

But... maybe someone will bring cake. :D

WHY DO I LIVE IN MICHIGAN WITH IT'S FUCKING COLD, BLOWING, 16 DEGREES-FEELS-LIKE 3??

WHY?

TG break!

Well, it's that time of year in Kalamazoo again. That time of year when I start to wonder: What the fuck is up with all the CROWS?

Also, it's not even Christmas, and I already can't even stand the SNOW, THE BLOWING, AND THE FREEZING COLD OMG.

Me: I wonder what we're doing in Clinical Communications tomorrow...
My conscience: You're giving a presentation.
Me: Oh yeah! ..... Fuck.

Haha, I love the dumb faces the best. ;)

Well it was Thanksgiving!! And now it's gone. :( I finished up with school last Tuesday and drove my butt to GR to get my brother Chris and take him home with me. I hadn't seen my family since I moved to school in August!! I was SO SO happy to see Mom and Dad. Oh man.

Chris (while pulling into the driveway): Mom-gasm in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

Colby peed ALL OVER ME. Dad made horrible sound effects and really bad jokes. Chris dropped more F-bombs than I have EVER heard in my life. Kristen sucked bad at Mariokart (haha, but I still love her). And Mom made delicious cookies, gave me mittens she knitted which were supposed to be for someone else, and cried when she hugged me. Good, wholesome family stuff. Unfortunately I had a mountain of homework to work on, so it wasn't as relaxing a holiday break as I would have liked, but only two and a half weeks to go until hell is over!! After that, only one and a half years to go!! I round down, so I'll just start saying one year. That sounds better.

We played lots of mariokart, ate a ton of food and Christmas cookies we weren't supposed to touch (no Kristen, I did NOT eat that buckeye >_<), and engaged in lots of mindless shopping! :D On Friday night Mike came over for opening night at Crossroads, and we got to see the giant tree lit and fireworks! We also rode the train with Mom and Kristen and got a picture taken with a real reindeer! We rode on my beloved carousel and I got to see all my old co-workers! :D It was so fun. The sibs and I also got to eat at our favorite Chinese place (where the owner knows exactly what I want without asking), and I took Mike to Bronner's in Frankenmuth for the first time ever! Oh man! So many Christmas trees. :) I also got to show off my engagement ring to my parents for the very first time!! It was so awesome, and I felt all warm and glowy inside. With all the stress of school and being away from Mike, sometimes I forget we're getting married. :D

So... yeah I've got a lot of schoolwork to do now, but that was my splendid Thanksgiving break. Hopefully I can hold my breath long enough to make it through finals. O_o