He's HOME!

I hate to let everyone down, but I really don't have a lot to say. The past couple of days have been very... unexpected. I would have never imagined the chain of events that have happened. I don't even know where to start. Everyone keeps asking me for an update of some kind or another, and I don't know what to tell them. There isn't much news other than the fact that Scott is home, and he is doing well. I apologize about all of the phone calls, texts, Facebook posts, emails and such that I have ignored, but I have kinda just been in my own little world for the last couple days.

I am pretty sure I was still in shock that Scott was home until yesterday. Everything still feels like a dream sometimes. I never thought the day Scott would come home would ever get here, and now that it has I have a hard time believing he's really home. When I am with him, I still constantly look up from what ever we are doing to make sure he's really there, and he REALLY is there. It sounds kinda funny writing it, but I just don't want him to ever leave again. I am really happy, he makes me really happy. I love him.

Other than that there really isn't much of a story here. Grandma, I know I promised a picture, but I haven't gotten around to it. Maybe I will today, or tomorrow.

February as a whole

I feel like a total slacker, I mean honestly how hard is one blog a month? It isn't even like I am doing much these days. Just the same ol' thing I do everyday.

I really like my job still, I used to dread going to work, but with the job that I have now I don't dread. Sure, sometimes I don't really feel like getting out of bed at 1 in the morning, but I don't know anyone who doesn't have those days. I get great benefits, I am insured, I will get some of my tuition reimbursed, I already have 3 days worth of Paid Time Off, I just got a referral bonus from someone getting hired. It's nice that work doesn't stress me out, that is the last thing I need.

I am not a huge fan of my general Chemistry class anymore. I used to like it when we first started classes. I love the teacher, her makes class entertaining, and understandable. I just can't quite get it when I am sitting with a list of known measurements trying to get a final result. I need more practice, but have no time to practice.

Organic Chemistry on the other hand is my kind of Chemistry. I love that class. I just took a mid term in that class. I was well above average, in fact I got an 'A'! All those people saying 'you think this is hard, wait until you have to take Organic Chem' they are full of it. OChem is fun, and logical, and it just makes sense.

Dance, oh how I love to Dance. Me and Nathaniel are getting pretty good at it. In fact we just competed on Friday. We took 1st place in the Quick Step, and 3rd in the Waltz.... now before you get all excited and start praising me let me give you a little more information. We were the only ones to compete in the Quick Step. Not too hard to get 1st when you are the only ones dancing. Pretty much it was us doing a solo for a room full of experience dancers. The worst part, we just barely learned the routine, so... I am pretty sure we made more mistakes than we made correct steps. The waltz is what I love. It is what we are good at, but we competed against two "experienced" couples. By experienced I mean, they dance on the UVU ballroom team. Not fair for us newbies to go up against them. It was fun, and that is what matters.

Scott is still retarded... he doesn't have a release date, but if my math is correct (and math is one of my stronger talents) than he will come home around April 14th or May 26th depending on what transfer her decides to come home. He is applying to the BYU school of business, and the application is due at the end of June, meaning he needs to come home to take his last prerequisite for the major. He wrote BYU asking if they would let him waive that class, and as far as I have heard he hasn't heard back yet. I am secretly hoping that they say no, and they make him come home earlier. I say that I am not upset about it, but lets be honest 6 weeks is a long freakin' time. Sure it isn't long compared to the 2 years he has already been out, but when you look forward to something for so long, and then have it possibly be postponed there will always be some degree of disappointment. I haven't ever been pregnant before, but I imagine that is how you would feel at the end of 9 months, and then the doctor saying you still have a few weeks to go. My situation isn't as physically uncomfortable, but emotionally I think it could be kinda, somewhat comparable.

Honestly, not much is going on in my life. I will try to be better on keeping this blog updated, maybe even post a few pictures. I love my life, but I could use a few more hours in my day :)

It has been a while

I'm sure you are all wondering if I am surviving my hectic schedule... my response to that is you have no need to be concerned about me, I dropped 3.5 credits which leaves me at a very doable load of 13.5 credits. I actually enjoy my schedule a lot. Last semester my schedule was the opposite as I have now. I am not the type of person who will call out of work because I am tired. So starting my day off with work, even if it does mean waking up at midnight, means that I will have a much more productive day.

Last semester, I fell into a terrible habit of sleeping in, and missing my first one or two classes. Now that isn't really an option, I go to work, then I go straight to school. Which give me a lot of time to study and get caught up on things (hence, this blogpost) Every semester I have never been able to attend any TA hours or go to any study groups because I always went to work and wasn't available until after it was pretty late. But now... I have so many options and I love it! Plus I love ALL of my classes (minus one) which is a pretty good ratio. I hated my first Chemistry class. All the material was new and foreign to me. This year I am taking two Chem classes and so far I am really enjoying it. There is a certain satisfaction in taking a concept that is new, and getting it (it also increases the satisfaction when you are one of the people in the class to have it 'click') I am a science person, and my first Chem class at BYU made me forget that. It is good to know that I am still smart, that feeling rarely comes at BYU.

My social life, has come and gone. To be honest, I kind of like it this way. Some of my past friends always expected certain things from me, and sometimes it is hard to live up to everyone's expectations (or even harder, living up to my own). If I have a job, and I am in school then chances are I do't really have a whole lot of time. I like people, don't get me wrong but I get enough interaction at school, work, and church.

First Day of Class Analysis

I am super excited for this semester. Have I ever mentioned how much I used to love to dance? Dancing makes me happy. Dancing is my feel good drug. Sure, that is the only class so far that I have had this semester, but I think that it will make me happy. I am in such a good mood, plus I have a guy friend in that class which kind of makes everything better. I can practice, get really good. I think at the end of the semester I might even compete with him. That would be awesome. I competed a couple years ago, and I loved it. I will practice really hard and we will get really good. I think that dancing will help me relieve some stress because I have a couple really heavy classes in my schedule this semester. I am actually taking 2 dance classes this semester, both latin and standard ballroom bronze level. I am absolutely stoked that my schedule finally allows me to take classes that I want.

My next class is ASL... okay, this is how I am going to cheat the system. I am actually really good at ASL. The class is 4 credits, and really how hard can a level one ASL class be when you are fluent? Can you say GPA boost? Because I can, and I look forward to it. It really is quite amazing what a 4 credit A can do to your GPA. :) I just hope that I will feel the same way when I finish the class today. I really am not worried about understanding the material, I am just hoping that I don't have to do a bunch of busy work like writing papers and stuff... So I just finished with ASL. This will be the easiest class I have ever taken in my life. Today we learned like 5 words. Who, What, Where, Name, My... Oh and we learned how to count to ten. I know I am going to get super bored but heck... an A is an A.

My last class of the day is my cell biology class. I am actually really scared about taking this class because I didn't do so well in the prereq for the class. I hated molecular biology. I think this class is mostly about reading scientific journals and explaining how they came to the conclusions that they came to. At least that is the impression that I got from the syllabus. I am crossing my fingers that I just so happen to know someone in my class so I can have someone to study with (more so have someone to teach me the difficult principles on a one on one basis). This is one of the classes that I am more worried about. I suppose if I don't know anyone then I could get out of my box and introduce myself to someone. I wonder if having a study buddy actually helps. Maybe I should just become good friends with the TAs and attend all of the extra study sessions. Wow, I am already freaking out and I haven't even started the class yet. Turns out that this class is going to be HARD!!! I need to get nice and friendly with one of the TAs... that's the only way I am going to pass.

Worst part of today... I am now $486.05 poorer. Because of my stupid books!

Guess who I talked to...

My life is a wonderful life. I am head over heels for that kid. It was so awesome just to be able to talk to him again. It was almost like it was in person with the whole skype thing. I don't know if it made it easier or harder though. I didn't cry, which make this the first time out of all of the calls that I didn't cry. One thing that is kind of sad is that he still isn't sure on his release date. He has always told me that he thinks that it will be on April 15th. He still isn't positive on the date so I am crossing my fingers that another transfer doesn't get added. I think that I will cry if he stays longer(I don't think I will, I know that I will). He looked so good, and I just miss him so much. It was fun to see his family again. Cross you fingers that he comes home in April for my sanity. He is just so cute!

I'm a Slacker...but I will tell you about my life anyway

I swear once finals started the time that I once had became consumed. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that I started my new job just days before finals week. This is what I decided, I am starting to get tired of school. Sure I have taken of a semester here and there (I probably didn't blog about it because to be quite honest I am a little ashamed of myself, I couldn't handle the stress of school and work. I mean, doesn't that make me weak?) but I have been in school pretty much my entire life. My plan has always been to go to medical school, although I really think I would like being a doctor or surgeon I don't know if that is something that I really want to commit to anymore. Almost 8 more years of school? Right now, that really doesn't appeal to me. So, all of a sudden I am standing in the middle of nowhere, without a map or an escape plan. What do I do now? My last plan included lots of hard work and pretty much longest route from the point I was standing to where I wanted to get. Now I have the freedom to take pretty much any of roads that I come across. My first instinct is be scared and more than just slightly overwhelmed by this new freedom. I supposed this could be a new adventure for me, finding out what I really would like to do (without a million and a half more years of school). So now, I am wandering around, nowhere in particular, and I am going to stop and smell the roses on my way. No need to hurry, heck, I don't even have a destination. Maybe it's because I am a slacker, or maybe it is because I feel like something has changed.

I don't quite feel like as much of a slacker anymore, since I have a job again. Really, it is quite depressing when you don't have a job. When you get fired, or laid off they hand you a name tag that says "Not good enough" or "You just weren't worth it"... and then you carry that name tag around with you until you can find a new job. Then in this economy they must being using some sort of superglue because it takes months, and sometimes even years for people to get rid of their name tag and get a shiny new one that says "employed" or sometimes "I did it by myself (I am a big girl now)". Luckily for me it only took a couple months for me to have the opportunity to take off the ugly and unwanted name tag that Zrii (from this point on, instead of calling it by name it will be refered to as hell) handed me back in September. Now I have a shiny new name tag that says Amber Harward, and it's green which happens to be my favorite color. They even liked me enough to put my picture on it. That is only the beginning of the perks that came with my job.

Most people get all happy when I tell them I got a job, and then as I start to explain some aspects of my job (such at my schedule) they give me that fake smile, the one that means, I'm glad you think this is good because I sure would hate to be in your shoes right now. But lets be honest, I freakin LOVE where I work right now. No, I don't see it as a place to spend the rest of my life, but right now it is perfect. I am done with work, at ten o'clock in the morning... which means over this break I have ALL day to play. Then once school starts I can pretty much have any schedule I would like. Instead of work taking up most of my day it only interferes with 2 hours of possible class scheduling. That means I can take the classes I need when I need to take them, unlike before where I would have to push them back another semester until they fit in with my work schedule. I actually have enjoyed my shift, my body hasn't quite adjusted to my new sleep schedule but I am sure that eventually it will feel normal. Another perk, I get 17 days of PTO my first year and then for the next couple years that increases, that is nicer than the 13 days of vacation I had from hell. There are 10 paid holidays, which they may have me work some of them (the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Presidents Day, Pioneer Day, Labor Day) considering they aren't really international holidays and I am on the international team. So instead of getting the day off I get double pay, I'll be done by ten in the morning, so even if festivities where going on it isn't likely I would miss anything. As I mentioned, I am on the international team, because who in their right mind is awake and calling customer service between 2 am and 10 am in the US? That means I get to perfect my British accent, did you know that the weird english accent we all pretend to do actually sounds nothing like a real Brit? Plus I find them much nicer than Americans. They do not call in and tell you what you are going to do for them like Americans, instead they call in, tell me they are having an issue and ASK what we can do to help them solve the issue. Much better than hell if you ask me. Can someone say tuition reimbursement? I can, and I like it. Sure it only covers half of one semester per year, but it goes up every year, and who wouldn't like to have free money to help pay for school? Life is pretty good, and I really do enjoy my job. ps. If you know me and you use ancestry.com (ancestry.co.uk or any other variation) I can give up to 3 friends or family a discount on an annual subscription, and as far as I know, nobody uses it.

Other good news...

1. I get to talk to Scott tomorrow!! I am so excited, I love that boy, and I miss that boy, and I just am excited to talk to him. His mission president is even letting him to do skype which means video chat!! YES!!!
2. My friend is coming home. Sure I saw him not too long ago, but I really do enjoy his company. I would put his name on, but by some odd chance his family looks at my blog I don't want to mess up the surprise that he is coming home.
3. I get a real paycheck next week. Hallelujah, I hate the little checks that unemployment gave me (although I was very grateful for them).
4. Scott has less than 4 months left! Yes, I am excited if you couldn't tell. Did I mention that I get to talk to him tomorrow? Because I do!

Sorry about the long, and pretty much worthless blog post, but it has been a while. So now you know what is going on with me.

Finals... already?

I cannot believe how fast this semester is coming to an end. I am trying to finish up all of the stupid last minute papers and assignments that my teachers have thrown at me. I am really starting to get stressed out. To add to that stress I got a job. A full time job, which the training is this week and next week, and interferes with many of my finals. What was I thinking? Getting a job at the same time as finals? I guess I will do what I have to do.

My new job is still in a call center, but I have a feeling it is going to be so much better than my last job. I will be working at ancestry.com and they don't ship out any product which means we won't be getting calls about people not getting their product, or calls about damaged products. We will see what it is like this week. Plus I hear they have great benefits. My school schedule next semester is a little crazy. The last couple years I have been taking mostly general classes, which means there were plenty of different sections to choose from. Now that I am taking higher level classes there are very few options to choose from. One of my classes is only available at 9 or 10 am and another is only available at 4 pm. That's a nice large gap between classes. So this is kind of what my schedule next semester will look like I will work from 2am-10am and then go study in the library until noon, that is when I will start classes. With a few breaks in between I will get out of class between 530 and 6. Then I will sleep from 6 pm-1 am. My schedule is going to be pretty intense next semester, but I think that it will be good. My social life will no longer exist, but I am okay with that. I am excited to have a job again. I was going crazy only doing school. I'm so glad that I have all Christmas break to start getting used to my new work schedule.