How Little I Actually Know...

So I have decided to go back and re-read (or read for the first time in some cases) the "classics."  I like to listen to audiobooks on CD while driving.  It allows me to get away for a short time and provides a nice escape when my mind is racing.  I started this little quest with Animal Farm.  I don't believe I had ever read that before, but it was super short and made for a nice, quick story.  I am not huge into government, politics, or social cultures so I likely did not catch all of the references Orwell was making to society.  Nevertheless, I have now read it.  I next read To Kill A Mockingbird, which was great.  I know I read it in high school, but did not remember much of it.  You have to realize, in high school, I was one of those who read what was assigned because it was assigned, not because I enjoyed it.  So, now that I am more mature and have found a means by which I enjoy reading, I decided to take another look at these assignments.  I recently finished Brave New World, which was also great, as I remember from 12th grade.  I love reading stories that have thick plots, unexpected surprises, a hint of fantasy, and adventure.  These last two books were fun to read, but did not flip my excitement switch the way the Dan Brown books did.  And nothing, so far has, been as mind-blowingly page-turning as the Twilight series...

So this brings me to the current book, which is 1984, also by George Orwell.  I have only read the first 3 chapters, but am not very impressed thus far.  It is a lot about government, politics, war, and policies.  I am just really not all that interested in those things and, therefore, am finding this book uninteresting.  I will go ahead and read the whole thing.  I'm hoping the plot gets more interesting and that I will "get into" the book soon once things start happening.

When I was trying to figure out what it was about this book that was turning me off, it made me realize just how little I know about government, politics, war, and policies.  I know I don't keep up with the news.  I have never been one terribly interested in watching or reading it.  I just am surprised I have made it this far in life with such a small understanding of how our country and the people in it work.  If you asked me to describe differences between Republican and Democratic parties, I could probably name one or two things.  If you asked me who is the donkey and who is the elephant, I would have to Google it.  If you asked me which is left wing and which is right or what all of those in between levels are, I'd be clueless.  I have next to no understanding of the financial issues in our country, besides the obvious: the economy sucks. 

I think I'm so uniformed is because 1) I didn't have much interest when I was learning about it in school, 2) I have never been interested in watching the news, and 3) now that I'm older, I feel dumb asking questions about things most everyone knows about.  I would like to have at least a basic understanding of all of these topics so I can follow the news, follow what presidential candidates are debating about, and just because I feel like it's my duty as a US citizen to understand how our country works.  I just wish I was more interested in all that!

Things Are Coming Together!!

Ok, so I'm getting REALLY excited.  Things are just falling into place left and right for our wedding!  My wedding shoes came in yesterday.  I picked them up and they are PERFECT!!!  I am so pleased!  I've been wearing them around the apartment a little bit and will probably wear them to church a few times in order to break them in.  I couldn't be happier with how they turned out!!! 



I saw these flowers in Wal-Mart the other day and LOVE them!  Spider mums :)



4 out of my 5 girls are going dress shopping next Saturday with my mom.  I can't wait to see what dress they pick out! They are all very similar in body type and look great in everything, so I hope they can find one dress they all like!!  :)  I'll be joining the fun via text message pictures :)  Isn't technology awesome?



The next Saturday, I'll be in Raleigh for 2 wedding showers.  I'm super excited to see everybody!  All 5 of my girls are going to be at the morning shower, including Kim all the way from Virginia.  YAY!!!  Justin & I also have a meeting between the showers with the music minister & pianist about ceremony music.  I am ordering part of the bridesmaid gifts and have already decided the other part.  :)  AHHHHH!  I can't believe how close it's getting!  So excited :D : D :D :D :D


My mom has a few sets of "old" pearl earrings that I might be "borrowing".  As you can see, I definitely have the "blue" and "new" covered! :)

Hey, check out the counter on the upper right of this screen!  133 days right now!  AHHHHH!  :D

Holidays and a New Year

Well the past month has just flown by!  I headed to Marion on Christmas Eve Eve to meet Justin and spend time with his family.  We had Christmas dinner Saturday and opened presents at Alice's.  Christmas morning was spent at Scott & Louise's house with presents and snackies.  Justin and I drove to Raleigh that afternoon and had dinner and presents with my mom and dad.  I got a few little things here and there and my big present was my very own TRX.  I'm pretty excited to have my own!  Justin and I spent a very lazy, relaxing week in Raleigh which was exactly what my stressed out brain needed.  I got to ride Ivan twice during the week, which was great.  I enjoyed spending time with Justin and the orange kitties, cooking meals, going out to eat with friends, and just doing nothing.  We went and ordered our wedding bands, which was very exciting!  Mine is the matching band to my engagement ring.  It was fun watching him pick out what he liked, as he has rarely ever worn jewelry.  He ended up with a very nice white gold band with a few stripes of brushed and non-brushed gold.  They should come in around the beginning of February.  Turns out, we bought wedding bands 2 years to the day from the day he bought my engagment ring.  That was not planned, but pretty cool!  We went and saw War Horse, which was pretty good.  It had a happy ending, was very predictable, and portrayed some of the sad realities of war.

Justin making peanut butter balls

Opening Presents

Scott & Louise's Christmas Tree

The boys being lazy :)

Ivan loves hay fluffies...

Punk and Baxter playing

 

We headed back to Knoxville on New Year's Eve day.  We stopped by Granite Falls to visit my grandmother on the way.  She was in the hospital, but was better than I've seen her in months!  She looked and sounded strong.  She is currently in a rehab center where she is gaining her strength back a little bit each day.  I talk to her on the phone occasionally and she sounds better each time!  We continued on our trek to TN, stopping at Dead End BBQ for dinner (aka best BBQ in the world).  We came home to my attention-starved kitty who had made a complete mess of the carpet.  Poor guy had some intestinal problems, so we rented a RugDoctor the next day and cleaned up the carpet.  New Year's Eve consisted of us sitting on the couch, drinking sparkling red grape juice, and watching the ball drop. 

Justin stayed with me in TN for a week, helping me with my sample collection on Tuesday and Thursday.  I hated that he had to come with me to the slaughterhouse in the FREEZING cold super early and staying all day...but it was extremely helpful having him with me!  While in town, we did a little shopping, went and saw We Bought A Zoo (awesome movie, everyone should go see it!), ate some local favorites, had a chili night with my friend Milly, and just enjoyed our time together.  We enjoyed our small glimpse of what awaits when I come home for good, which made it very difficult on Sunday when he had to go back home.  It's amazing how much more enjoyable "doing nothing" is when he is here versus when I'm alone and have nothing to do.  We both have really busy semesters coming up, so hopefully the next 4.5 months will FLY and we can get married ASAP! 

Asher wanted to sip some sparkling red grape juice on New Years Eve

He loves his daddy :)

We ate the last piece of my birthday cake together.  The next time we eat this cake, it will be on our wedding day!

Soft kitty, warm kitty...

My semester started this past Wednesday.  I am only taking a once-a-week seminar class, so I do not have any courses to worry about attending or studying for.  I am a TA for the Repro class I TA'd last year, except now I am the one in charge.  Megan Goodwin, who was an undergraduate worker in the lab until this week which officially made her Dr. Edwards' new graduate student, is the up-and-coming TA who will be in charge of the course next year.  I am teaching her everything that goes on behind the scenes so she will be able to meet the extremely high demands of Dr. Edwards next year.  We have another grad student TA, which is very helpful!  It is great having another set of hands!  I will be finishing my experiment, running statistics, writing a thesis, and defending it this semester (hopefully by May so I don't have to worry about defending after the wedding).  So it will be very busy, very stressful, and very crazy.  I am just ready to have all of these big hurdles behind me so I can head back to Raleigh and start "the real world" with Justin.  I'm ready to be out of research and to find a job that I enjoy where I can help people.  I'm very thankful for the TA opportunities I have, which give me the one-on-one interaction and teaching role that is so rewarding.  Who knows where we'll be or what I'll be doing in the future.  I'm prepared to take life as it comes to me, learning along the way, and enjoying the experiences I encounter as much as possible.

Wedding planning updates:
- Wedding bands have been purchased
- My shoes should come in any day now so I can get my dress hemmed
- Mom is working on the invitations
- Save The Dates are out
- My bridesmaids have an appointment to go pick out their dress in 2 weeks
- We booked our honeymoon - Grand Cayman
- We have 2 wedding showers the first Saturday in February
- We have a meeting to go over music for the ceremony the same day as the showers
- We are at t-minus ~4.5 months!!!!