Last Day

The breakfast of champions: Fruit punch Capri Sun and a white chocolate Lindor truffle. 

Followed by my cleaned out room and my keys prior to turning them in.

Finals are over! I crushed it (that's kid speak for did well on) my biology final and earned a 166/170. I got a 95% on my final that consisted of 12 mini essays and yes, my hand hurt really badly. No word yet on how that last exam went, but I got my research paper back for that class (Abnormal Psychology) and got a 93% Booyah. It feels good to be done.

Today was my last day as a student at IWU.

What's that you say? You're not going to IWU any more? What's going on?
Oops. That's what happens when you have made a huge life decision and forget to tell some people.
Just today as I was walking out of my last (8 AM!) final, I was talking to Stacey and I said my car was all packed, going home, transferring, blah blah blah and Stacey said "Wait, what? Transferring?"
See, I've been thinking about transferring since the second week of the semester. It's been a long time coming and a lot of that time was filled with paper work, emails, phone calls, stress, and sometimes tears. In January, I'm headed to Trinity International University.

So next time someone around you is going through a major life shift (ie moving, quitting their job, starting a new job, transferring, withdrawing, or any other kind of major thing) remember that there's probably a lot of reasons. If you don't know the person that well and you ask why, be prepared to get a fake answer. It's too tough to explain all the reasons why to every single person when they ask.

Also, you might think it's a "good" reason to transfer and not everyone else will. Sometimes people think it's a "bad" idea, but that's whatever. Get counsel from people who love you and care about you and from there, you can qualify it as good or bad. Trust your gut and listen to what the Lord is telling you. I'm sure lots of people transfer for the benefit of being near a significant other. I'm sure people told them that's lame, or a bad idea, or not a good enough reason to transfer. Whatever, lame-0s. You don't know the whole situation so think about maybe keeping the judgement to yourself.

For me, I was really missing Andrew. A lot. When I talked to my Mom about how my heart was so heavy and she said "Ok, let's talk about transferring." This conversation happened on a Sunday, September 15th and the last day to drop a class was September 13th. I took that as a sign I was meant to be at IWU for that fall semester. I'm glad I stayed because I got to experience a great semester. I learned a lot. I know that's vague, but it's one of those things that's difficult to sum up and give it enough weight to say what you mean.

There's so many things that I am looking forward to about being a Trinity student that it's hard to be super sad about leaving IWU. This is a good transition. It hasn't sunk in yet that I'm not just back in Libertyville for Christmas, but for 3 semesters. That's pretty crazy. It will get more real the more I sit and think about it. But who has time for that? Too much traveling to do over break! Maybe when I have another moment here or there I'll tell you all about the adventures.

Ah the Week Before Finals

Sometimes I do myself favors and sometimes I do not.
Things that are self favors: Putting a reminder in my phone to print out something. Studying for an exam that's not until next Monday. Having made great progress on my CPM so I don't have to write the whole thing this week.
Things that are not self favors: Not eating enough fruit and not drinking enough water. Skipping devotionals. Not studying for my exam until just a little bit before it when I have had all semester. Whoops.

All of these things are true stories. Sorry, Mom, for making you cringe.
Why do I do this; sometimes making life really easy and sometimes making life super difficult? Self defeating stuff is puzzling because suddenly everything becomes way more interesting/important than whatever you should be doing until the moment before that thing is really due or must happen and then you're like "OH no, why did I not prepare?" I don't know, but I'm the one who didn't. I put myself in that position.

Two presentations left this week. That CPM to turn in. One final is done, and I have one this week, my lab final. Remember that self defeating stuff? I am studying for a test that's Monday and not for one that's Thursday. It's madness, I tell you.
The way my classes are this semester, I have very few finals which is a blessing. I had 3 seminars, and none of those have finals and those papers are all completed, so those are crossed off of my list. Then I just had my night class final, so New Testament is done. Then Thursday is my lab exam, and that will be done. So my finals week, I have one in abnormal psych, one in biology, and one in addictions counseling.
And at that point, I will be done with that prof that I don't like AT ALL forever (hopefully). I don't want to rant about him here because I have been angry about that class all day (well, since that class at 9:25 this morning) and the Internet is a pretty dicey spot to be throwing down about people. Bottom line, I am very happy to not have classes with him in the future.

We just had Thanksgiving break, so here's some photos from that:

What a couple of goof balls

Both trying really hard to keep our eyes open for the photo

Both Andrew and I tend to squint in photos

Their third wedding shower in 2 weeks!

I'm so excited about these cats getting married

Andrew's aunt had a beautiful tree decorated with angels and red ornaments

Hey, wanna hear about how much driving happened? I've done this before about my trips home but it's been a while. 

Me driving from IWU to home: 214 miles

My driving to and from Dad's work to pick him up: 62 miles

Driving from home to La Crosse: 263 miles

Driving from La Crosse to Belvidere to go to Andrew's family Thanksgiving: 211 miles

Belvidere back to home: 50 miles

Home back to IWU: 214 miles

That's not accounting for all the driving around in each of those locations, so say lets add conservatively 30 miles for all of that. It's about 1,000 miles. I didn't drive all of that, but I did travel that far. So yeah.

In the stress of finals coming up and all that, I feel the need to indulge in a little beauty. Here are some things I have found to be beautiful:

Grab it at Starbucks

My mom said these dishes reminded her of her grandmother, which means she obviously had great taste. I think they are gorgeous!

So glad these bad boys are in my life. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! 

Barnes and Noble's classics are delightful to look at

A nativity scene from Israel, carved from olive wood, displayed at our university

These were also at Barnes and Nobles, and the packaging is cool, but the smelled delightful. 

And now for some photos I stumbled on but did not take so credit to whoever did. 

I didn't take this, but I'm pretty sure this is Muir Woods and I have been there!

Ok, enough blogging. Back to amino acids and the physiology of the ear, aka studying for biology.