the amazing view of the mountain

This was my view of the sunrise on my way to school today!! So pretty. 

(of course this means that I did, in fact, make it to my 8 o'clock this morning :-) hehe)

a new addition...

So it was a chilly day today! Overcast and foggy and it has started to snow tonight. We're expected to get about 2 inches of snow...we'll see how accurate that is. But we DID get a kitten last night! The family gave us their cat food, litter box, etc. so that helped us out a lot. We've been coupon searching for supplies too, so when we have to re-buy we get some good deals. :-) She's precioussss. And it's so so nice to have some company here. I've been doing homework all night tonight and she's just been laying on my bed next to me. We really wanted to get a dog because both me and my roommate are dog people (obviously) but it just wasn't realistic to have a dog. We wouldn't be able to walk it enough, we have no yard, they're expensive, and live longer than cats. haha We named our kitten Nalla (pronounced like the girl lion cub in The Lion King). She's so sweet. Very loving and cuddly, which is the reason we got her so if she wasn't like this, we'd be giving her back to the family we got her from!!

Here's a picture of the new addition to the apartment:

the stress of syllabus week

you can't see the flower on the rug that
I'm actually copying but you get the idea

there it is! hanging above the fireplace in the family room 

the final product!

So as you can see above, I relaxed myself with a little art therapy after a long day! I had 2 great classes today and a meeting...you may be saying to yourself, "wait Jill, I thought you had 3 classes on your schedule today"....funny you mention that....I was up late chatting with my roommate about life and SOMEHOW slept through my alarm this morning. My first class started at 8am and when did I wake up? 8:15am...wonderful way to start off the semester. My next class was at 9:30 so I quickly got up and got ready and went to class. I met with my professor after my 9:30a class (the one whose class I missed) and thankfully I had him last semester so he knew that I wasn't intentionally trying to miss class. He went over the syllabus with me and informed me on what I missed and that was that. Other than not making a great impression on the first day...it really was the best day for that to happen. Of course I will never let it happen again this semester and out of all the days to miss, the first day would be it. 

After a long day at school full of classes, meetings, syllabi, assignments, textbooks, and lots of rain, I finally made it home at 7pm. I made myself some frozen chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese and a big glass of crystal light lemonade. While I was eating my roommate asked me if I wanted to paint. I said no the first time but I knew that was a lie. It's been a really long time since I've actually painted something and I knew I could use a little time of de-stressing. Syllabus week is often very overwhelming and stressful and this semester was no exception. So I gave into the temptation and picked up a paint brush and started going. Once I began I couldn't stop until I was finished (the curse of my selective perfectionism...I say selective because for some reason my OCD doesn't carry over to my school-work, keeping my room clean, nor keeping my car clean).  The pictures above show you the task I decided to take on beginning around 8pm. Now that I am finished with the painting, I'm getting some housekeeping things out of the way (like updating you guys on my day! and getting some forms organized for school) and then it's on to homework. It's a good thing I don't have to be at school tomorrow until 12pm! I'm actually drinking a cup of coffee right now...I know that's a shocker for you old folk considering it's roughly midnight here. But I've got stuff to do! Who needs sleep? :-)

So that's my plan for the rest of the night. I'm really encouraged to see/hear that a lot of you guys are checking this close to daily. That's awesome and keeps me accountable in terms of making sure I'm updating this every chance I get. So I'm glad that it's working!!!

first day

Had 2 classes today...
1) Teaching Reading in early grades
2) Global Trends

Both were really interesting. They seem like they are going to be  A LOT of work and on top of that I'm going to do work study in admissions in order to hopefully contribute towards my tuition bill and knock down the amount of student loans I'm going to have after I graduate. So this semester is going to be a very busy one!! I'm working on homework now and going to make myself a bowl of ice cream and then head to bed. I have an 8 o'clock tomorrow morning and a FULL day ahead of me!

8-9:15am- Education Psychology
9:30-10:45am- History & Philosophy of Education
1-2:15pm- Essentials of Instruction in Early Grades
4-7pm- work study (training)

still wanting a cuddly kitten to live with us :-) Craigslist has a bunch that are free around this area...I think we're probably going to get one this weekend! There's one that we have emailed back and forth on, the kitten is white and has one blue eye and one brown eye. She's PRECIOUS! And would be nice to keep us company and give us something to do around here.

and it begins

Just woke up not too long ago and took a quick shower, cleaned up our kitchen, and made a cup of coffee to start off my morning. I have some homework to do today before class begins so that's what I'm working on. I don't have class until 1pm on MWF so it's really nice! I get to take my time waking up and getting ready and getting some things done before class begins. I have my first work study meeting today at 4pm. I will be working in the admissions office helping them when students come to visit by taking them around campus and showing them what Covenant looks like! Also I'll be answering phones too. But the whole reason I stopped doing my homework to post this was because for one of my classes called Global Trends I have to read this book titled The World is Flat. It's written by Thomas L. Friedman and I'm posting this because I really suggest that you read it!!!! It's extremely interesting and I especially thought people like my dad or Mark Dalbey would like to read it (Nelle...pass it along :-)). It's about globalization and just how the companies around the world are thriving. I'm on in chapter 1 (which is 50 pages long....blahhh) but it's a very interesting topic to read about and I feel like some of you might enjoy it! So if you're looking for a book to read any time soon, you should look into it. I feel so much smarter just reading the first chapter. haha I'll post later tonight to let you guys know how my first few classes go!! Have a great day!


just found this-   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8quDb3FIUuo
it's a video that summarizes part of the first chapter of the book. it's 50 minutes long, but if you want to get an idea of what the book is about, watch part of the video. So interesting!!

i love sundays

I got up and went to church this morning. On my way down our driveway to my car I started sliding because I was wearing flats. I literally slid a good 12 feet....I just bent my knees and rode with it. You know how when you go roller blading and you can't stop, you have to roll over off the sidewalk into the grass so that you can stop? Well I had to do that after sliding a pretty good bit, I felt a little out of control so in order to stop myself from getting hurt I pulled the age old trick of pulling off into the grass to stop myself. Except instead of grass, it was snow...but snow was better than the ice I was just sliding on and it was a successful stop.

After saving my life once this morning, I drove down to church. I help in the nursery at Calvary chapel in Chattanooga. This morning I was assigned to the little babies (under 1 year). It was a little stressful and hurt my back quite a bit. Lifting them and sitting on the ground for 2 hours was enough to make me feel like an old woman. On my way back from church I called my friend Courtney (who was actually supposed to pick me up for church but she slept through her alarm) and asked her if she wanted to come over for lunch. So she said she did and I picked her up before going to my house. We heated up leftovers from last night (homemade chili). It was just as good the second time around :-). We then took a little snooze while watching paid programming in my room. She slept on the floor on her air mattress that she bought at Walmart for $12. She figured it was worth it for when she slept over. (I'd have to agree)

After taking her home, I heated up other leftovers for dinner (italian beef from a few nights ago) and made a sandwich for me and my roommate, Emily. Now we are at Starbucks down the mountain in Chattanooga with some friends enjoying some coffee purchased with a gift card from Christmas :-) and I'm getting ready to finish my homework that is due tomorrow. I can't believe I'm actually going to have to go to classes!!! It's been great not doing anything the past week, but now it's time to get down to business. I hope everyone had a relaxing Sunday!! I'll let you all know how my first classes of the semester go tomorrow!


agenda for tomorrow night: finish homework, eat dinner, then watch 90210 at 8pm and gossip girl at 9pm. Can't wait to get into these shows! I've had night classes for the past 4 semesters too, so it will be amazing to be able to relax tomorrow night instead of having to sit through a 3 hour long class. :-) I'm looking forward to getting started!