New Mexico Mission - Days 1-4

And the adventure begins! New Mexico finally arrived after so much waiting. So I get to church to hop on the bus and I see Angie who says she is driving separate and I can go with her if I want, so I jumped on that train quick. So we beat everyone and drive to Nashville quick and check in and all. Then I meet the other 5 people going with us on the Friday flight. We had others coming in on other days. And just a sidebar, 80% of this trip was full of old people, just so you know. So I hung out with old people all week :) So we flew from Nashville to Dallas and stop to have dinner. Then we flew from Dallas to Albuquerque. And the plan was to get to Albuquerque, rent a car, drive 2 hours to Gallup and sleep on the reservation - fail. The last thing I wanted to do was drive 2 more hours and then sleep on a whatever was there. Very humble of me I know considering I was on a mission trip. But Angie thought it would be great if we rented our own car and spent the night in Albuquerque, then we could go do whatever we wanted the next day. So that's just what we did. It was so nice to go to bed early too and sleep. I don't think I got that much sleep for the rest of the trip.

But anyway we got up and ate breakfast at this awesome, hole in the wall diner we found. This place looked kinda sketchy and had bars on the windows. But nonetheless we went in haha. This place probably only held 20-30 people max. The food was AWESOME though and you got a crap-ton of it for cheap. I think everything on the menu was 7$ and under. I got a whole plate of french toast that came with eggs, 4 pieces of bacon and hashbrowns. It was great. So then me and Angie decided to head to Gallup. The scenery was breathtaking. I could not get enough of it. It amazed me how something so bare and desolate could be just as stunning as my green Tennessee. So we arrive in Gallup and meet the other ladies at Walmart. Big mistake. Can I just tell you that we later found out, it was the first Saturday of the month which means the Navajo had received their food stamps/welfare money and went to town for food basically. So here me and Angie are, 2 blondes, walking around Walmart with only 5 or 6 other white people in the entire store, probably 1 other blonde. So needless to say we got stared down big time. The entire store was Navajo. Everywhere. More. Navajo.

So after our fun Walmart adventure we went to the reservation. I learned some interesting facts along the way. Let me share with you.

1. There is a stretch of highway called a Safety Corridor. It is the only part of the road that is well lit with street lights and a big shoulder on the side. This is for the alcoholic indians that need to get home at night and can't drive. The lights are for them to see and the shoulder is to walk on. There are also sobriety check points almost every night.

2. I have never seen more hitch hikers in my life. To make it even better, they hold up money to catch rides.

Anyway, the reservation is apparently the most desolate, ugly part of the area. Obviously. What else would the government give the Indians? The place we did all of our work was a church/school. This itty bitty place has been there for 20+ years. Bayside goes every year. But anyway, we spent most of our time in the gym/kitchen area. The school's gym floor was cracked and uneven. So the men's construction job this time was to tear it up and put a new floor down. P.S. They tore that floor up and cleared it out in 1 day. Amazing. So for half of Saturday, most of Sunday and Monday, we sat there and did a lot of nothing. I'll remember next time not to volunteer to go early on the trip. If you're not fixing food, buying food or cleaning dishes, you're sitting, staring at the wall. So that's what we did a lot of. But the other 7 people showed up Saturday afternoon. And my person for the trip was Jennie. She's 30 and awesome! She brought her 9 year old son, Daniel, who was an amazing 9 year old. Plus, he went to Boyd :) So we became BFF on the trip. We were originally suppose to room together, but she brought Daniel, so I ended up rooming with Joyce for a night and my OWN room for the rest of the week. Now let me tell you how nice that was :) All the ladies were worried about me and were like you can stay with us, etc, etc, and I said ladies, I want my own room lol.

So Saturday I believe we just all had dinner and then went to the hotel early. I was so tired. It was hard work doing nothing all day haha. So I shared a room with Joyce that night who was so fun and sweet. We got along so well the entire trip.

We got up Sunday and headed back to the Res for church. Okay, now the entire trip, none of us knew what kind of denomination the church was. They sang out of ancient hymn books, with a few instruments, and some other odd stuff. The ladies all wore skirts every day too. Eric told us they were some sort of independent Baptist. But, church was quite an experience. There were only about 25 people there, 14 of those being our group and the others were Indian, but related to the preacher and his family. So not very many Indians had come on their own. It looked kind of pitiful actually. But they had some sort of super old school wooden board that had how many bibles were brought, offering, people, etc. The offering jumped from 65$ to 236$ from the previous week. Guess all of Bayside gave well. Anyway, we sang songs, split up for Sunday School and then sang some more songs. The whole service was kind of weird. But it was good nonetheless. This gave me an idea of how singing would be for Wednesday night church. I was toying with the idea of deciding to sing again after seeing how few people were there.

So I believe after church we all ate and then sat around. Me and Jennie were so bored so we went to Walmart. We stole a rental van lol. I'll definitely remember this important tidbit next time: If you wanna go anywhere you want and not be at everyone else's mercy, rent your own car. We couldn't do anything unless we had a car. So I think we did that and that was about it. We had church that night at 6pm. It had about as many as Sunday morning. Not much interesting.

So on Monday we went and had to plan for Bible school. There were 6 of us doing the little ones. We were gonna split it up Prek-K, 1-2, 3-4. The year before there were 50+ kids and 3 teachers total. Fail. Ugh. They said it was wild. So we expected a large crowd. The day is basically full of food, crafts and games with a little Jesus thrown in there lol. So we planned and made stuff, then we all went to eat at Earl's restaurant, which was suppose to be some great place. It definitely wasn't. I was so annoyed the whole time, Indians come in and show you jewelry, etc. to buy while you sit there. The food was okay, but not nearly as good as they all described it being. But I also bought some moccassins before dinner! They are gorgeous! I was so excited! My other cheap, mall ones were falling apart. So now I've got some new ones from Indian land :)

Waiting.

Here's hoping New Mexico actually looks like this.

So I finally finished posting all of my other entries from my livejournal. Glad to have it done, it took a lot of time! So I figured it was important to start this again and force myself to blog. Since I'm gonna be going on so many trips in the coming months I figured I needed to document them starting now. This is all in part to my BFF Teacher Christin. For the record I wanna be Teacher Cortney. Just saying.

Anyway, I thought I would begin my discussing my dread for part of my New Mexico mission trip. I for some reason thought that since I sing karaoke, I could sing a real song with a real track in front of a lot of real people. Wrong. As it turns out, the track I fiddled with does work, so I could sing it, but now after practicing on a real mic, I don't want to. And I'm pretty much making myself sick over it. I sounded awful on the mic, even though 2 people told me I didn't. They also informed me that I'm doing this for the Lord, not for anyone else. So, it really shouldn't matter if I sound like a dying cat, I need to sing to glorify God, not myself for my semi-musical abilities. Ugh. When someone puts it into that perspective, I feel even worse. I almost don't wanna go because of it. Like I'm worrying about it that much. I wish I had more time to practice there at the church, on that mic, on that sound system, on that stage. Ugh. Vomit. I guess I'll take the CD regardless and see what happens. Pray about it. I know I am.

Other than that, I'm gearing up to go! I am pretty excited, minus the changing of rooms and roommates situation. I was kinda looking forward to a room alone. I don't have to worry with anyone. Sharing bathrooms, TV, hearing snoring, loud sleepers, when I/her have to crap and smell the bathroom up, etc. You know. All the roommate things you worry with. Oh well. I'll have a nice bed and shower. That's all I need. But I was informed yesterday that after our 2 hour drive to Nashville, 2 hour flight to Dallas, 2 hour flight to Albuquerque, we have a 2 hour drive at night to Gallup. Through the mountains. Yes, through the mountains. Help us. I can just picture what's going to happen. All those movies in the West along a dirt, desert road, have people who get stranded on the side of the road when they have car trouble. They get abducted by those deformed, incestuous people who suffer from the effects of the nuclear bomb test. You know. Think the Hills Have Eyes. AH. That's what I imagine the desert West as being. Pray that doesn't happen.

So I'm interested to see how just me and another girl are gonna teach 40-60 PreK-K kids. Just two of us. Pray for that! Kinda scary. I guess I have to realize that if it's the Lord's will for all of those children to come, then He's providing a way to teach/take care of all of them as well. This certainly will test my love for Prek.

So I took Lauren to the shuttle at 5:30am this morning. Meaning, I had to get up at 4:45am, but my body decided to play pee pie and wake up at 4:30am instead. Bleh. Granted, I came home and slept for 2.5-3 hours, I still wanna take a nap.

Excited to go to Destin when I get back from New Mexico! Yay for vacationing with the Capetezzzz. Boo for getting home at like 6pm on Saturday evening from NM and going to Destin at 9am the next morning. Yay for washers and dryers in FL.

There better not be any oil.

So it says I haven't updated in 32 weeks. It seems like that long too. Well I know I said this last time but I do need to force myself to update much more. Christin has motivated me immensely lol.

So I'm trying to see what's gone on in the past 32 weeks. Hmm...

I started Nutrisystem and I love it! It's gone well. I've lost 10 lbs in 3 weeks. The food has been good, which I didn't expect and I eat ALL day long. That's the best part, plus dessert every night :) I'm still learning how to eat right though on the days I don't eat the actual food. I still try to follow the right amount of carbs, fats, dairys, fruits and veggies. It's a pretty simple process. It makes me eat all of my vegetables and fruits, plus drink my water. That's a great thing.

So I finally graduated with my undergrad degree! On December 13, 2009 I believe it was. Now I'm doing my Masters in Elementary Ed. So I'm still a full time student. No job for me yet lol. It was me, mom and dad, Michael and Lauren. Good times!

And I just realized I haven't blogged about student teaching yet. UGH and Yay! So after I left the amazing Apison, I went to the craptastic school in Cleveland that I won't name. Anyway, the school wasn't necessarily bad, it was my 2nd grade teacher. The thought of the entire experience still irritates me. So in a nutshell, I didn't like my teacher who also didn't like me. I didn't like my PIR who tortured my life and then my teacher took her side. So I went down to UTC and had a meeting with Raus, Rutledge and my mom. I decided to go to another school in the fall and redo my 2nd placement. The only bad part was that I had 8 days left at my school :( It was that bad.

Anyway, I held my breath for a great school and grade. I was beyond blessed and got McConnell Elementary in Hixson (almost Soddy Daisy) and was suppose to have 1st grade. Well luckily, UTC or McConnell messed up and I ended up with KINDERGARTEN! I thought that it was too good to be true and just knew that they would move me because I needed an upper grade to complete my student teaching. Well Rutledge said I could stay there as long as I did some observation hours in the upper grades. So needless to say I had the most amazing teacher that helped me tremendously every day and loved having me. The kids were just as precious as Pre-K too. And just a few weeks ago she basically told me I was her favorite student teacher ever. She's had like 20 in her career so I felt very honored and made my mental state so much calmer since leaving my old school on such bad terms. It felt like a weight was lifted that told me, "No Cortney, it's not you, it's them. You weren't wrong." Ah. So needless to say, things went well with my PIR too. I had an amazing time at McConnell, met lots of new friends and teachers there. Even more so than at Apison. God is good.

I believe I will be getting a kitten soon! YAY! It will be named Elvis :) I'll put a pic up when I get him or her.

OH and we definitely went on our first family cruise to Cozumel, Mexico and Grand Cayman Islands this past October. 4 nights, 5 days. We flew there bright and early from Chattanooga to Ft. Lauderdale. Got on the boat and it rocked from then on. Adam was sick the entire trip because we walked around like drunks the whole time since the boat wouldn't quit rocking. Overall we had a good trip, it just wasn't as thrilling as I thought it would be. I wish now I had blogged about it when I got back :( Mexico was my favorite. Beautiful beaches and water. And tequila :) I even found my name spelled correctly into a handmade bracelet! Beautiful!

Hmm..I'm trying to ponder if there has been any other BIG things happening in 2009...I'll re-blog later if I remember any!

Twilight Convention

So I know I went to the Twilight Convention about a month ago, but I just decided to make myself start blogging about it so I will remember. I probably should have been smart and done this while on the trip during spare time, but never did. Nevertheless, here's what I got:

So, I head over to pick Becca up Thursday morning about 8:30am. She is almost ready, not on time, as usual lol. She had made us fun weight watcher twilight muffins! They were SO cute. There's a picture on my Facebook of one of them. It was chocolate with little eyes, nose and teeth. It was suppose to be a vampire, but looked more like a werewolf actually. It was so funny. Super cute.

So we were off to DeLand to see Vicky! Yay! Love her so much. Her and Chip are so funny. So anyway, we drive for a while and stop for gas somewhere in Georgia. Then we stopped for lunch at a rest stop and ate our lunches we made. And then we drove some more and made a pitstop to pee and get some gas. I could definitely feel the heat as we stopped in Florida for gas. We found out later on that there was a record breaking heatwave that weekend we were there! It was like 95-99 degrees! Craziness for the beginning of May! But anyway, It suppose to be like a 10 hour trip or more, but me and Becca got there in about 8 haha. We drive faster than necessary so our trip was short lol. So we can't go to Vickys house until 7:30ish, so we drove to Daytona and ate at Bucca Di Beppo Italian restaurant. Becca said there was one of those in Nashville and the food was fab. And it was! Our waiter was hott too. Super yummy.

So we headed off to Vickys and got there and talked to Vicky and Chip for a while since I haven't seen them in years. They're so funny. Well then we headed to bed kinda early since we were beat from driving/riding all day. The convention wasn't until Friday afternoon, so we got up Friday morning and met Vicky to go to the flea market and eat lunch. The flea is always great. Lots of fun stuff there. It was so hot though. But I got 2 fun rings to match some dresses and a picture frame. After that we drove down by the beach and ate at a restaurant on the water and got fried fish! SO yummy! Then we drove to the beach and stayed there for about 15 minutes, literally. We didn't have alot of time because we had to drive to Orlando. But we put our feet in the water and took some pictures. It was fun to say i'd been to the beach haha.

So we headed back and drove to Orlando! It was about 40 mins but we hit Friday afternoon traffic. Ugh. It took us like 20 minutes to go 2 miles. But we made it to the hotel! The convention was at the Florida Hotel and Convention Center. So it was a great hotel attached to a huge mall. It was super cool. So anyway, we got there and went to check in. Then we took our luggage to our room on the top floor. Our room was super nice and it was just a regular room. It had a flat screen on the wall and a desk and couch and a pretty big bathroom. We were pleased.

So then we ate some dinner and got dressed to go to the Cocktail Party that was at 8. So there was never any dresscode for the weekend or for these events and all, so we dressed semi-formal/casual, if that makes sense. But some people were in jeans and others in dresses. So anyway, it was an open bar, which I didn't know, so drinks were free! We got lucky and sat down at a table since there were so few and there was a mom and daughter sitting there and another girl came up and sat down. Well the mother and daughter were odd, but the other girl was super nice. She came to the convention by herself! I said, you came alone to all of this? And she was like yeah I didn't have anyone to go with me. So I volunteered and said she could hang out with us all weekend if she wanted and she jumped on that offer quick. But she was super sweet and was thrilled to have some friends. She lived in Fort Meyers a few hours away. From the way it looked, me and Becca had come the farthest of anyone we talked to the whole weekend! Woo! 10 hours! People were amazed when we said Tennessee lol.

Anyway, we were sitting there waiting and all of a sudden, Peter Facinelli (Carlisle) walked in! Ah! I was like, wow, he's here. I knew he was coming obviously but it was very surreal. And all of a sudden people hounded him. Omgoodness it was crazy. Then Edi Gathegi (Laurent) came in and so did Kellan Lutz (Emmett). You should have heard the screams and squeals. People just pretty much attacked them. They were there like an hour, but once they were gone, everyone else left. Me and Becca sat at our table and didn't want to bother them, but then they left! But we had a good time anyway. So after that we called it a night and headed off to bed.

Well sleeping was quite an adventure. I was tired, but couldn't fall asleep. I laid there a good hour and a half and then started hearing loud people next door. I knew Becca was asleep but then she rolled over and checked her phone and I asked her if she'd heard all of that stuff? She said no, but I told her I heard someone screaming obsenities and something like, "F**k you! F**k your mom's a**hole! Stuff it! Stuff your a**hole with salad! And lettuce and tomatoes and dressing! Stuff it in there!" OMG I was about to bust out laughing, and I thought, who is wasted in there? My word. Well the noise didn't stop and got louder, so I told Becca if they werent any quieter, I was calling the front desk to complain. And I didn't want to be one of those guests that complain about everything, but it was ridiculous and like 2 in the morning. So I called and said what room we were in and that the people next to us were very loud. Well it turns out, other people had already called and complained and that they were sending security up. Haha!

So I heard security come and snuck to the door to listen. I don't really remember what they said they weren't happy. So then it got quiet. And then I finally went to sleep. So we got up and started getting ready on saturday morning. We pretty much primped all weekend long. Me and Becca just laughed and said how vain we were since we wanted to look perfect all weekend lol. Plus we had our photo op with the Cullen boys that day! So we tried to look our best. So then we head down to the main room and there are probably 500-1,000 seats. We were flabbergasted. But we had reserved seats and got to sit near the front! Woo! Our seats were awesome and we got to sit there all weekend! We had some weird girl next to me though and she was there solo, because the other 2 girls next to her had come together and she had no one to sit with. But she semi-big and I had to cram next to Becca. Anyway, we were awaiting the question and answer session with Peter! It was suppose to be an hour long. So they introduced him and he walked in all cool with his shades on. He's so hott. O.M.G. haha. He was gorgeous actually. I decided all weekend he was my favorite. We were pretty much team Jasper on the way to the convention, but changed our minds.

Peter wore this blue shirt and his eyes matched it perfectly. SO hott! Becca's pictures of him were gorgeous too. Ahh. Anyway, he picked fans and they got to ask questions. I could of asked one, but I got too nervous and never thought of a decent question to ask. So anyway, that ended and we walked over to the vendor's hall to look at the Twilight stuff and were somewhat disappointed. They didn't have that much. I was hoping to see a crapload of stuff but was disappointed. But I did buy a little button that says Cullen Baseball to put in my car.

So we went back to the room and ate lunch and primped before our big photo! Ahh! We were so nervous! We had paid to get a photo with Kellan, Jackson and Peter (Emmett, Jasper and Carlisle). So we stood in line and we noticed they ushered the fans in quickly. They herded us like sheep actually. So we didn't stand in line very long. Well, we got up there and started hyperventilating. They just tell you to come in and stand in with them. So I was first and stood by Jackson and Peter. Well they were crammed in pretty close and I stepped on Peter's foot! I said, Oh I'm sorry! And started giggling. He said it was alright and he and Jackson put their arms around me! Jackson was kinda short too. Woah. That was the first time we'd seen Jackson too. Ahhh, Becca said that Kellan was rock hard when she touched him haha! It was a fabulous moment we savored lol. So after that we rehashed every second of the 20 seconds we were there lol. After that we went to the mall for a while. We had some time to kill so we went shopping! I got a cute dress at Delias and that was about it. After that we went back for the Q&A session with Edi. He was SO funny. Edi cracked us up. It was great.

Well after that we had alot of time to kill because they were having autograph sessions for like 3 hours or so and Becca and I hadn't bought any autographs. So we went to the vendor hall and I saw some earrings I liked. Well I left my wallet in the room and we had to go back and get it. So we're unlocking the door and Becca looks down at the other end of the hall, the FAR end of the hall and says the guy down there looks like Kellan! I looked and sure enough it looked like his shirt he'd been wearing. So we got all excited and went in the room and spent about 4 minutes and then I opened the door and held it for Becca. Well I look over in the hall and there goes Peter walking by! I was stunned. I choked out a "hey" to him and he said hi. And then Jackson and Kellan come walking by too! Ahh!!! It was fabulous! We flipped out in the elevator! We decided that they were staying on our floor! Ohh how lucky were we? They all were staying at the other end of the hall. Wow. Fun stuff.

So we went to the autograph session to stare at them. Becca became a paparazzo and took I don't know how many photos since they were so close. Well we were asked to leave a while later and we killed some time before the Banquet dinner. We changed and then got in line to go into the banquet room. There were like 8-10 tables that held about 8-10 people each. Sandra had gotten in there early and saved us 2 seats at her table which was a "Peter" table. That meant he'd come around to our table and talk with us! Kellan sat at the table across from us for a while too. So we ate our food and then Peter came over and sat down. He looked at me quite a few times, but I never could find anything interesting to say. Becca talked to him for a few minutes about a movie! Lucky thing! But it was great. He was super nice and gorgeoussss! So then later on, we saw some of the celebs getting photos made with their tablemates and we wanted one! Well we found out it had to get cleared first but it would be fine probably. So we all stood behind the table and waited for Peter to jump in.

Well there was a girl there that was from another table and was getting her pic made with us since her table had left. Well I was on the end and wanted to be in the middle, knowing Peter would probably be right next to me. Well she switched with me and LO AND BEHOLD here comes Peter and he slides right on in next to me and put his arm around me AGAIN! Ah!! I was so excited. Well then, all weekend, the goal of everyone was to get personal photos made with personal cameras rather than paying for them with the professional photographer. Well Becca was sneaky and got someone to take our pic with him before the photographer did. Well lucky us, Peter, me and Becca looked at her camera! Therefore, we didn't have to pay for the pro photo! Woo! It was great! How lucky are we? We had a great time. The girls at our table were really cool too. No drama or weirdos lol.

So after that we chilled in the room again and changed for the concert that night with The Nova Echo and 100 Monkeys (this was Jackson Rathbone's band!). So there was drama before the concert and we had to wait a good hour before we could go in, which sucked. The only peeve I had all weekend was the time. They were late for everything. The company that is. Nothing started on time. But anyway, The Nova Echo played, and they were good, but the lead singer was odd. Very odd. But then the 100 Monkeys performed and they were good too. It was funny because each member would switch instruments and sing. They all did everything lol. And then everyone kept turning around and staring and I saw that Peter and Kellan had come in and were standing on their chairs. They took out their lighters during one song haha. It was funny. Well since the concert started late, it ended around midnight and we were beat. The 100 monkeys were also playing a second show later that night at Ruby Tuesdays but we decided not to go. Sandra later told us that she went and got to talk to Jackson and get a photo! So awesome.

Well after we went to our room, we decided to walk down the hall toward Peter's, Kellan's, Edi's and Jackson's rooms just in case we saw one of them. Well lucky us we saw Peter and Becca said hi. Then we saw Edi from a far. So funny. How lucky could we get being on their floor?

Oh and another note. I followed the company who held the event on Twitter and they posted a few tweets during the weekend. Well the night after the loud people were next to us, the tweet said that the 100 Monkeys were getting restless and they had to find them another room to jam in, and they were up till 4am. So we had some 100 Monkeys bandmembers next door to us. We had the celeb floor. So awesome.

So Sunday we packed up, and checked out. Then we had lunch in the mall with Sandra and then went to the Q&A sessions for Jackson and Kellan. They were back to back and there was loads of screaming for Kellan. Well, Jackson's was very quiet. For one, he held the mic too close to his mouth and we couldn't understand a word he said and then he was different. Definitely a band guy. He was super nice and all, but everyone else was so funny and had a very sociable personality and he just didnt seem to. But anyway, Kellan was last and his session was fun. He's so gorgeous. After that, they had more autographs and we stayed to watch. Well, so many fans had asked Kellan for hugs during the session and he said afterward. Well, there were a bunch of lingering girls after the autograph session and they announced that Kellan was willing to give hugs if we stood in line! No joke! There was like a 30 person line and he gave awesome 2 second bear hugs! Me and Becca about had a heartache. He was so strong. I told Becca I now knew what Bella felt when hugging Edward, because it was like hugging stone. Haha that left us on cloud nine. I was so glad we stayed to chance getting a hug. It was so worth it.

So after that we headed back to Vickys and went to eat at a Mexican restaurant and got ice cream! Yum! We swam in the pool that night too. And then we went to bed. We got up and left about 7 in the morning I believe. We thought we'd try and miss Atlanta afternoon traffic. So we drove and stopped a few times again, but poor Becca was driving through Atlanta and got a ticket. A big FAT ticket. She was going 28 over and we of all cars got stopped. Everyone else was flying but we got lucky. Ahh. Not fun. The policeman wasn't a douche which was good, but it blew. Ahh. No fun. Other than the ticket, the trip was excellent and I could not have asked for a better time.

Theres a new Twilight Convention in Nashville in January! Ah! We're SO going! We'll have wolfpack members this time too! Maybe Mr. Jacob will come :)

So I'm pretty sad to say that I only have 2 weeks left of student teaching at Apison! I started thinking about last weekend and I was like, hmm...you know, I only have 3 weeks left and one of those weeks is very short. And then I got sad! I really am going to miss those boogers! I love them like my own children! And it makes it worse because I don't want to change schools and especially don't want to have a higher grade, 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Bah.

I've never had any experience with those ages and I know I need that. I've had lots of time with my 3-5 year olds and now I know I need some time with 7-9. We'll see what happens. I hope I love these new kids just as much as I love mine now. I know that I'll probably have to get there early, stay later, do more work, and have bus duty or something like that. Ah, i'm not looking forward to it. And then to top it off, I'm at this school longer because of the way the calendar is! So if I hate it, too bad. That sucks for me. But we'll see. I want to be optimistic about it.

Woah. This is weird. It says my last entry was 108 weeks ago. Ha! Is that possible? Apparently so. I'd for some reason gotten so lazy that I decided I wasn't going to write anymore for a long time or ever for that matter. I think I just decided yesterday that I might need to start writing my life down again. Don't know why, but I do. So I'm back!

Let's recap my last what 2 years? My last entry was about me just starting to be with Dustin. That's a whole year and a half relationship I could write 4 books on alone. Drama, love, heartbreak. Such a soap opera! But anyway, in a nutshell, he was my first boyfriend, my first love, my first heartbreak. Basically, we were going to be married, and now we're not. Which is the best outcome the way I see it now. But no more Dustin! Woo! And here I am 6 months later, waiting on my husband.

Any major updates in my life since my last post? Yes.

1. Both of my grandfather's died. One of cancer, one of a heartattack.
2. I went on a trip to Italy and Greece on my 21st birthday.
3. I'm going to graduate school for the next 2 years.
4. I got my ESL (English as a Second Language) endorsement and I'm pretty positive I want to teach that when I get a job.
5. I'm almost 85% sure I'm going to the Czech Republic in Spring 2010 for a semester of study abroad.
6. Twilight has come into my life and changed it :)

That's really the big stuff. More later.

Me and Dustin Day!

So Dustin came to town yesterday! YAY! We had a great day. I felt bad though cause he got up at 5:30 and left at 6 and drove and got here around 10. Yeah there was a bunch of plans for him to stay the night here and blah blah but we decided he should just come for the day since it was the first time he was visiting. Well I met him in Ooltewah and got him to follow me home. So I cooked him breakfast which ended up being late brunch because we didn't eat till about 11:45 lol. But anyway we hung out in my room for a while and listened to some music.

Then I took him to the mall for a while. It was insane. Boo. So many people. But it was good cause he met all my close friends except Lauren who wasn't working on the one day I wanted her to! GRR! But Jillian, Ashley and Drew were wrapping gifts today so he met them and Jillian really liked him which made me happy. And then we went and saw Christin for a bit in American Eagle and she loved him. She loved him because he's a big UT fan lol. So we wandered the mall for a bit. I think we walked the whole mall which I haven't done in a very long time. But he was super tired which I hated, so we left and went back home for a while.

So he was like do u have any movies that aren't girly that we could watch lol? So we watched Fever Pitch which is semi girly, but it's no Notebook. Anyway, my mom made him lay on the couch and take a nap lol. He fell asleep for a little while though. So then my dad came home and he met him. Good times lol. I was worried about him meeting my dad just because he's my dad. But I asked them both later and my mom loves him. And my dad said he liked him too. He was like, he's a very nice boy Cortney lol. So I got approval from everybody! Yay!

Oh so then we got ready to go out to eat. And I was super pumped because I got a new long sleeve, red, collared shirt from New York and Co and it was SUPER cute. It was one of those really long shirts and I got a massive belt to go with it. And then I curled my hair, which didn't work very well and I wore my new heels that I got. I felt very Christmasy cause I don't think I own anything red. Anyway we got him a shirt at Expressmen today and he wore that to dinner. It was a robin's egg blue collared shirt. Woah, he looked so hott lol. But i'm pretty sure I cracked up because when I came downstairs in my outfit, he goes, "Bam!" lol i just about died. But we went to Shogun for dinner which was really good but the service was trash. They were SO slow and screwed things up. I was mad because they're usually really good. I took Dustin there because they don't have one of those in Nashville and I wanted him to do something new lol. And then i'm pretty sure we were in the parking lot of Shogun for an hour saying goodbye lol. It just kept getting longer and longer. And my mom was so worried about him driving back so late and all, so she was like, you're gonna stay the night next time even if I have to call your parents lol. But he called me on the way back and he got home in record time somehow. He doesn't drive very fast either though. I don't know, but I know he said he was super awake and wasn't sleepy which was the main thing. But i'm going to see him in 2 weeks! I'm gonna go stay with Kerra again the weekend before school starts back. Yay!

Oh and I forgot to mention that I got all excited and made him HOMEMADE chocolate chip cookies. Not the peel and bake, but homemade yo. I was so pumped because they turned out sooo well. I made some with christmas colored M&M's too. And I got a little basket and put Christmas tissue paper inside and filled up that basket to the brim with cookies. There were probably 20 cookies or more in there, decent sized too. I made them for him as a surprise on the way home! Yay! But then I found out when he got there that Macadamia nut was his fav, but oh well. Next time i'll make those. Ok talked too long, gotta go.