Little update...

So far I have done good on my new year's resolution. :) I have not been procrastinating very much at all. And haven't had to stay up super late just to do homework, so that's fantastic. :)

The internship is going well. The kids I've met and situations I've seen are heart breaking. Whoever reads this should say a prayer for homeless kids right now. I am a little worried about getting enough hours done for school. Right now I only have 3 set hours per week, and the rest of the hours I'm having to come up with doing other random things.

My choir went on tour last Wednesday through this past Sunday, which was tons of fun! We went to New Mexico...sang at some schools and churches. It was great to just get away and hang out with girls for 5 days. I had a little solo too :) My mom came into Denver for a performance we had on the Sunday we got back from tour. She was here till just this past Wednesday. It was great to see her and just hang out.

Well, that's all for now. :)

I found out Dana had her baby...So I'm a cousin again. :)

Her name is Addison and she was born on her aunt Marcia's birthday, Feb 3. I haven't heard anything about Ethan's reaction yet. Ethan is Addison's big brother...he's 4, I think. I wish I lived closer to see the wittle baby! ;)

My background check has officially been cleared, so I'm starting street outreach for Stand Up For Kids next Monday! This is where I'm doing my internship for school. I'm really excited. I'll be going out every Monday night to find homeless kids...hang out with them, give them food, resources for free medical care, counseling of sorts, etc. I'm excited to get out there, but still a little nervous! I think I won't be nervous after my first time.

I'm having some problems with motivation concerning school. Since I'll be done in May, my mind is definitely focused on things other than stupid homework assignments. I would much rather be spending time on my photography, SU4K (Stand up for kids), looking into grad schools and jobs, and all that fun stuff! By the way, I'm trying to officially start up my photography as a payed business. I'm excited, but it means I'll be buying new camera equipment...which is super expensive. I've been staring at what I want to buy for the last couple weeks, unable to actually purchase it yet. Not b/c I don't have the money, but b/c of the queasy feelings I get thinking about no longer having the money..ha.

Well, I'm off to get ready for the day.

I'm at home sick...and have been since yesterday morning. And I start classes tomorrow...not how I wanted to be spending my last weekend before school started. It hasn't even been fun sick where I can just relax and enjoy my days doing nothing. It's been body aching, nose blowing, sore throat, stomach cramping. I've actually gone through about 2/3 of a box of Kleenex since yesterday...where does it all come from? Gross, I know...

I shot my first wedding! And I must say it actually went pretty well. At the time it didn't really seem like it. The batteries died in the flash I was using, the flash was rented and I had never shot with a flash, so I didn't really know what I was doing - ended up with some underexposed shots and overexposed. RAW saved my life! It was also hard b/c the whole wedding was indoors, plus they dimmed the lights, so I was shooting in really low lighting. Check out my pictures here: http://jackiesphoto.blogspot.com/

On another note, I found an internship for my psych major. I will be working with Stand up for Kids. (www.standupforkids.org/) They work with homeless kids/youth. I don't know what I will be doing exactly, yet, because they're actually developing an internship for me. I have my 'basic orientation' this coming Wednesday; 'basic training' on Saturday; and 'street outreach training' at the end of the month. It will be interesting, if nothing else. I think I will actually enjoy it though.

That's about it for now! I'm appling to DU to get an MSW, but I probably won't be able to go in the fall b/c it's super expensive! So I might end up going to Front Range Comm College to et certified in sign language to be an interpreter. Since I'm officially a Colorado resident now, and that's a community college, it would be very cheap for me to go there! And I would be done with that program (2 year program) by the time Andrew finally finishes his music degree...he still has...who knows how long left!...it's not really that bad, but he does have 2 1/2 years left! Yuck!

I can tell I'm feeling a little better by being up to even writing anything on here. I think I will go work on editing my wedding pictures. Have a good begining to your year/semester!

...By the way, the only goal I made this New Years was to not procrastinate as much in school...we'll see ho it goes. :)

Ugghh

Here I sit in the library "studying" for finals. I'm tired of studying! If I only had tests left to take, I'd be OK, but I still have assignments to do! Partly due to procrastination, but also because one of my teachers decided to make 8 new online quizzes in the last week and a half for us to take! What a jerk, right?! ;) Seriously though...not cool!

Looks like Jamaica won the vote for where Andrew and I should go...we agree, but we decided on Cancun b/c of price of plane tickets. We already decided we're going to go snorkeling. Andrew really wanted to on our honeymoon, but it was about $60 to rent the gear! So we said no to that.

I got another photo job! I am now taking Travis & Yelena's wedding picture May 16th. I took their engagement pictures and am excited to do their wedding pics! My first wedding will be in less than a month now...January 3rd! I'm getting kind of nervous b/c I'll have to use a flash and I haven't had practice with a flash. I feel confident though...I don't know why...I'll probably be a mess on the day of the wedding though! Haha...

Well, my last final is on Wednesday, and have to have all of my assignments done by Friday. So, it will be over soon enough, ready or not. Andrew and I are probably heading home on Saturday the 20th unless we decide to wait till the 21st. I'm excited to go to IL and visit with everyone. I love Christmas!

I'm off to an Old Testament study session...TTFN

Spike the Turtle!

I actually got a picture of Spike on her rock! She usually gets camera shy and runs off of it before I can get a picture...

I'm home!

Dad

I'm here in Forsyth at my dad's house. He's doing as good as he should be doing, but it doesn't seem that good to me. I think I'm just used to my dad being that guy who can do anything. And he'll get back to that point! But right now, his right leg is all swollen and bruised and sore; he has a giant 6 inch slice in his chest (obviously sewed up now!); he's bruised on his arms from IVs and such; they even were putting medicines in through his jugular...how intense is that?! Maybe that's normal in the medical world, but not in my world!

They actually let him come home yesterday afternoon (Thursday) which was very unexpected. They originally said he'd get to come home either Friday (today) or Saturday. The hospital gave him a little workout plan and he's up to taking about three 6 minute walks per day. Since it's cold outside now, he just shuffles through the house. :) Within the first six weeks he's supposed to be walking between 1 and 2 miles per day. Not all at once, but breaking it up into three walks a day, or however. So it's a pretty intense plan!

He had said it was hard to sleep at the hospital b/c of being poked and prodded, and especially because of all the noise in the halls and such. But first night back home was good...he said he only woke up 3 times last night and all 3 times were just to go to the bathroom.

Let's see...he actually has the most pain getting in and out of bed, because of changing his body position from upright to flat, or the other way around. Since all his chest muscles & sternum are healing it's like they get jostled around by laying down or standing up.

I'm going to post a picture of his battle wound when I get one. It was a lot bigger than I expected! I mean, I guess it makes sense...having to open you enough to work with your whole heart, but still...craziness!

And by the way, he was in bed by 7:45 tonight. Hehe

On Another Note...

The women's choir performance with Larnelle was pretty fun. It was awful because we had to be at school at 7:45 am, and we didn't even perform until 1pm! Larnelle was a pretty interesting character...kinda had some strange quirks. I don't really know how to describe it, but just kind of odd. I'm posting two new video clips from this concert.

Some Picture and stuff from before I started "blogging"and other recent stuff...

For my 23rd birthday, Andrew decided to have a surprise party for me, which was awesome b/c I have never had a surprise birthday party! My mom was totally in on the whole thing, too. Her job was to keep me busy and away from the house. We went to Park Meadows mall, which had just opened a huge Christmas store for the season, so of course we looked in there. (For anyone who doesn't know, I love Christmas!) As we were leaving the store, I said something along the lines of...Christmas on my birthday...best birthday ever! When we left the mall, we met up with Andrew for supper, and I got a free dessert. :)

When we got home from supper, I walked in the door and all my friends around here were sitting in the living, which was decorated like Christmas, and they all sang a Christmas carol!
The first picture is waht I saw when I walked in, and the second picture is all of us. So I really did have Christmas on my birthday!

I don't know why my text is underlined now, and I don't know how to stop it...
For Halloween this year, Andrew and I decided to cheese it up and be Minnie and Mickey...The second picture is me with Hillary and Virginia



I guess the underlining stopped...Anyway, I just took this picture out our backdoor, it's just really pretty.