GOAL ACCOMPLISHED!!!

HAPPY B-DAY, K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, once upon a very very long time ago, when I was but a wee little 6th grader, I had a bad habit. I bit my fingernails. Now, not your normal fingernail biting...like, my nails NEVER grew out before I would attack them. My mom tried everything. EVERYTHING. Even the seriously nasty crap they make that you can paint on your kids fingertips to make them taste disgusting. Everything. (Didn't work. I just got really good at peeling that shiz off real fast so I could get back to my fingernail....so odd...)

Anywho, enter my lovely sister. I looked (right, as if that's actually past tense) up to her in SOOO many ways. Round about this time, all my sisters got married...at once. But that's a different story. The thing is, K had the most gorgeous fingernails on the planet! Seriously, they were ALWAYS stunning. I was SOOOO jealous of her. I would tell her that constantly. I have memories of sitting with her as she would paint her luxuriously long nails any color, and they always looked beautiful. So, that year, for my birthday, she gave me my very own nail kit. And she told me....(now that I'm an adult, I understand there's a very good chance my mother put her up to it)

"If you want nails like mine, you will have to stop chewing on them. Work on it now, you'll get there someday."

Fast forward 20 friggin years. :)  Check these puppies out!

I know it doesn't mean much to anybody else, but the other night when I got done filing them down I looked down at my hand and I nearly stinkin teared up! They look just like I remember hers looking...except she has better nails, but who's really counting, right? Apparently I CAN be a grown up! :)  I know, those of you that spend your time changing diapers and coaching soccer are probably thinking, WHAT?! But, hey, it's life around here.

(Hahahaha, I just realized that hand pic looks like what most girls post with a ring on a different finger. SORRY if I gave any of your a heart attack!  No, no I'm not engaged. When it ever happens, I promise y'all will hear me (or my mother) screaming it from the rooftops before you read it on here.)

That moment...

...when HF opens the windows of Heaven just a teensy crack and let's you get a glimpse. For that, I am so incredibly grateful. Thank you, HF. Thank you for patience. Thank you for guidance. Thank you for my Savior. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and for changing it from being still and small to a loud voice in my ear when I really need to listen. Most of all, thank you so much for explanations. Explanations that come at the oddest times, but in the perfect moment for me. That is all.

Sometimes the world is made of ice...

And sometimes when the world is made of ice, I shouldn't walk.

Sometimes, when the world is made of ice and I shouldn't walk, I have to walk.

Sometimes, when the world is made of ice and I shouldn't walk, but I have to walk, I fall under the parked car next to mine.

That doesn't even do my arm justice.

I won't post the other half of the damage, though I'm sure it'll be a doozy when it finally starts to heal.

OUCH.

And now I may finally...

post pictures of this sucker. It turned out PERFECT. I was so excited for her to open it (her being my roommate). She's always wanted an ol' school (like, Little House on the Prairie old) nightgown....so...ya. :)  Many thanks to J and K for their help along the way. I DID take a picture of the grin that spread across her face as she opened it, but I respect her too much to put that pic on here. Ha!  Enjoy. 

Oh ya, I had to sew it in secret, so I totally sewed it IN MY OFFICE after finals last week until all hours of the night. Let's just say, my EFY peeps think I'm nuts. Awesome. Right on track...

In honor of the (disappearing) white on the ground...

Let us journey back to this GEM...go on, click on it.

Because I'm me...

(IF you missed the fantastic photos in the last post, a quick scroll-down is a must...)

So, I lived through only my SECOND beastly 7 AM final in nigh unto 15 years of college today. Ugh. I don't DO 7AM finals. I don't do 7AM CLASSES, for cryin out loud. I just had to document that I survived it. My WORD that one hurt. My brain truly feels like a flimsy little Scotch-Brite sponge that's just survived it's first (and last) encounter with a vice!  Oh man. It actually took me all three hours. I mean all three. I turned it all in with 2 minutes to spare.

It was my final for a class they call Microcomputer Materials Production. Let's dispense with the bull...I have NO programming background at all, but never you worry: I WROTE AN APP THIS SEMESTER. So, I knew the final was going to be the death of me. With that much work required for the class AND a final to boot, I knew it'd be a doozy. And, it was. I kinda breezed through the first written half, which scared the bejeebers out of me. I didn't even know bejeebers were awake at 7AM. And I REALLY felt like I was relying on the ol' BSing purge technique I've been honing for all these years during test time....I was sure I'd forgotten something.

I slaved over the second half of it for quite some time, and I got it to do everything they asked for except the last (and most important) thing. I tried and tried, and finally gave up and went back to my teacher, "Ok, I have tried everything I know how to code. If you'd like to come up here and SEE if you can give me a hint, great. If you can't, that's totally fine. I give."  So, he obliged and came to my computer, looked it over and then tried to ask me 4 or 5 questions that were supposed to clue in my obliterated-goo-for-a-brain to the problem. I finally said, "I'm not sure I care that much."  He looked right at me and said, "It's so easy, you'll kick yourself when you figure it out." I stared at in one more time...

A comma. I was missing a freakin' comma. BOO! BUT, at least I found it. He was right, I wanted to kick it, but since I'm still wearing layers of prescribed foot-gear from the podiatrist, I decided against it. Instead, I frantically went through my code making sure it really did work, and not believing my eyes when it did.

I lived!!

(No, its not me. It's some lovely person on the web.)

Oh...and...I aced it. ;)  Heck ya.

Is anybody else...

Kinda shocked that it's freakin already December? I mean, I know it is, and Student Karen is SOOO grateful for it and really looking forward to next Tuesday when she's really done with this semester. (I have a Monday morning 7am final this time!!! What in the?! I haven't had a 7am final since 19-freakin-99!!! Not a happy camper...)

But seriously, wasn't it just the 4th of July, like a month ago?  Where does the time go?!  Wow. Just had to say that.

Alright. Bring it on, Santa.

......
Oh, AND, is this NOT the cutest little picture, ever?!?  (Sorry about the poaching, L, but I HAD to...)

And THIS?!  Oh man...be still my unused womb! Ha! ;)  J/K, but I must say I DO love these munchkins SOOO much...

(Sorry if the organ referral made you uncomfy...)

"So...good news...I saw a dog today."  Hahahahahah.