School's Out for the Summer!

Unfortunately, school's not out for ever. Not yet. Actually for me, it's not even out for the summer. It's out for three weeks of the summer, then back on.

But I'm not thinking about that. I'm thinking about the fact that I am done with all my finals! Justin finished his last final Tuesday. So... we're done! WAHOO!!!

And even though I'll have three classes over summer, I will only be working a few hours, and frankly, I'll have a lot of free time. I've got quite a few items on my "to do" list, but I'm still worried about being bored. Any suggestions?

Here are my plans so far:
-Finish my work-in-progress and make a few revisions
-Work on sewing (I have the fabric and pattern already for a shirt and a dress)
-Organize my home library (I'd say three book cases is enough to call it a library)
-Organize my office
-Read all of Terry Pratchett's works (by the way Ruth, the book I referenced in my last post is one of his)
-Do some crafting with my sister

So, clearly I need some more things to do to occupy my time. I've considered trying to volunteer somewhere, but the hospitals I've looked into want a year-long commitment from you, and I know I won't have time once the fall semester starts up. So, in lieu of that, I'm thinking of trying to find at least one opportunity a week to make someone's day, whether that's randomly stopping by with a plate of cookies, or mowing the lawn for someone who's sick. We'll see how that turns out.

But seriously, I want your ideas. How can I keep myself from getting stir crazy when I'm locked up in the house all day every day, with Justin working full time? Also, if you give me an idea that I end up liking enough to use, you might receive some form of baked good. Just sayin'. (Because frankly, I have time to make offers like that!)

Oh yeah, this week I'll also possibly be buying a laptop. Mine has been braking where the screen meets the base, and now it won't close at all (which kind of defeats the purpose of a laptop). On top of that, it has randomly decided to not turn on. Bad plan. So, I'm taking it to a computer shop thing today, and depending on what they tell me, I'll either have them fix it, or buy a new one. I just hope if it's out of commission that I'll be able to get my files off of it! (I'm thinking about that work-in-progress novel that I've got almost 100 pages of)

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I look forward to your suggestions!

Breaking the Trend

For most of this year (maybe all, I don't know for sure and don't feel like double checking), I've had a pattern of blogging once a month. Well, I'm sitting at work, bored, so I'm going to break that trend and blog for the second time in April. Egats!
Why, you may ask, is a college student bored at work with only a week until finals? Because I may as well be done. I practically am. The last week has been killer, with tons of big projects all due in the same three days. But, that's over now, I'm finished with my last big paper, and it's on to easy street! All I have left is a small paper (2-3 pages; piece of cake!), a super small homework assignment, a presentation that I've already prepared for, and two finals, one of which is online, and the other is in a class that I've gotten over 100% on the first two tests. So basically, I'm no longer stressed. It's a wonderful feeling.
To celebrate my stress-free life, tonight I'm going to the library! There's a book I've been wanting to read ever since I read the first 46 pages on google books (blasted limited preview!), and tonight, I'll get it! I recently found out that Mesa, unlike Tempe, is not stupid, and will let anyone in Maricopa County get a library card (I still have bitter feelings toward the Tempe Public Library), so tonight I'll get a card and enjoy. It's great because the Mesa Public Library is all of 5 minutes from my house, but the Gilbert library is like 15-20, so even though I technically live in Gilbert, it's much more convenient to go to Mesa. Plus it's on the way from school to home.
Anyway, not really much to blog about seeing as how my life has been consumed with school for the past... semester. :) I'll probably blog quite a bit more over summer when I'm bored out of my mind!
Thanks for reading!

A is for Avnet!

Just wanted to let you guys know, we've chosen Avnet for Justin's summer internship. There are so many pluses that come with this decision:
-We won't have to move!
-We will have family close by, five to seven minutes away at any moment
-I can work at the Writing Center over summer. Not for a lot of hours, but it's definite work!
-Gas is way more affordable here than in CA
-Avnet is a company that Justin can see himself working at for many, many years, and it's a great opportunity to get his foot in the door for a long-term position
-Avnet often employs some of their interns that they want to offer a job after graduation during the school year. Justin would be able to keep working with them, so he wouldn't have to go back to his work with Guthrie, which quite often leaves his back in less-than-ideal shape. It also means we'd get their benefits a lot sooner, since you only have to work 20 hours there to qualify.
-Avnet might offer Justin employment after Graduation if they like him!
-We will be able to go on the Gibson family reunion in Tucson during the summer. Not so exciting about visiting Tucson, but very excited about spending time with family
-We will be able to attend various wedding receptions of some of my friends
-We will be able to attend the Drum and Bugle Corp performance at Dobson High that will be featuring The Academy (which Justin marched with for 4 years), Santa Clara Vanguard (my personal favorite, they've got some mad dance skills in their guard), among others

As you can see, there are lots of reasons we chose Avnet over Kohl's. Kohl's also had a list of positives and negatives (Avnet had negatives too, but not many), and it was a hard decision, but overall we just felt that Avnet is the more responsible decision, and will be very beneficial in preparing us for the future.

Interviews, interviews, and MORE interviews!

So, after LOTS and LOTS of interviews (seriously, last week between the two of us we had FOUR interviews! In ONE week!), we have some answers!
Justin has been looking for an internship for the summer. He's also in his very infrequent spare time been looking for a job better than his current one, that might give him more than six hours a week. No luck on that front.
However! On the internship front... He interviewed with Kohl's in Chicago (they flew him out there, paid for the hotel and everything) last Thursday and Friday. He interviewed with Avnet on Wednesday. Avnet is a local company, located right by the airport, and they make semiconductors and a whole bunch of other stuff. Kohl's is a clothing store, for those who don't know.
He got an offer from BOTH! He got two offers, and now we just have to decide! If we take Kohl's, we'd be living in San Bernardino (about an hour from Disneyland) for the summer. Avnet, obviously, would be here. Kohl's could also be a few other places, but it would be up to us, and that's the closest one. We're not sure which one we'll pick yet, we'll get more specific details early next week. Then we can make our decision!
I also interviewed last week for a campus position. I will be a student facilitator for incoming freshmen in the fall. What does that mean? Basically, I get to teach a class of freshmen who are all English majors about all sorts of English-major stuff. Like the different resources available, different options upon graduation, etc. I'm really excited for it, mostly just because I think it will be fun :) It will also look really great on a resume if I decide to apply for grad school down the road.
So, things have been very exciting in the Clement house.
School has been busy as ever, Justin and I both have something major every week from here on out, and several weeks with multiple major projects/tests/papers/etc. I'm looking forward to the summer, even though it means more school for me. I'm taking three classes over the summer through MCC so that I can graduate in  December with Justin. Biology 100, Psychology of Culture, and Food Nutrition. I needed a science, a culture, and then just three other random credits. It should be easy, but it just means more work. That's life, I suppose.
Other than that, we're mainly just trying to keep our heads above water. I've been crafting with Ashley more, which is a great stress reliever, and a great chance to spend more time with my sister. No time for any hobbies besides that.
Well, that about sums it up. Thanks for reading!

It's My Party...

... but I don't want to cry!

Today is my birthday, and it has been GREAT! I started out the day hearing one of the cutest little girls in the world sing me happy birthday. Breakfast was Cinnabon, bacon and strawberries, followed by presents! I got some super cute clothes, a neck massager, and a new kitchen thermometer. I also got lots of little things, like a new ladle, a box of nice chocolates, and bag of Lindor truffles, and the movie Where the Red Fern Grows (accompanied with tissues... my husband knows me so well!). I had a nice lazy morning watching M*A*S*H and spending time with the hubby.

Then, for lunch we had BLT's (so I love bacon, okay?). After that, I spent some girl time with my sister. We went to JoAnn's to get fabric for a project of mine (I'll be sure to post it when I'm done; it's going to be awesome!), then my mom came home and I got to spend some time with her, too!

This evening, Justin is taking me out to dinner at Claim Jumper, which should be really nice. I've never been there, but have wanted to try it for years!

I also got a sort-of birthday present in the mail today - I ordered a book for one of my linguistics classes, and it arrived! I need it in order to do my homework, and it should actually be really neat. It's a Chinese Grammar, basically giving all the info you would need to know to do a linguistic study of Chinese: sentence structure, phonological aspects, morphological process, all those super fun things! I'm so nerdy, I'm actually really excited to work on my homework tonight!

So, that's my day. It's been awesome, and mostly I'm just blogging about it so that those who have not yet wished me a happy birthday can do so in the comments ;-)

Thanks for reading!

Internship

So, I know that most of you probably think Justin is the only one searching for internships. Well, he's not. I was too. Well, a little tiny bit, which basically means I saw one and thought it would be totally awesome, so I applied for it. I love it when great opportunities just plop right in front of me in my email inbox. Awesome.
Well, I got it! It's for this semester, I'll be getting college credit for it. And what will I be doing, you ask? Editing the Department of English website. Yep. I'll be their proofreader, make sure there are no embarrassing mistakes, make sure the links all work, that kind of stuff. I'm so excited! You guys, I want to BE an editor some day. Like, sit-down-at-my-desk-with-a-red-pen-and-mark-up-your-book kind of editor. This is awesome, because it gives me experience actually editing something, and I can put it on my resume!

See all those red marks? Those will be from ME! 

Basically, I'm super excited that I got it. It's all done online, there's a spreadsheet thingy that I report stuff in, so I can do it whenever it fits in my schedule, at home, school, work (because my job is awesomely flexible like that!), anywhere! I just wanted to share my great news with y'all!

Still Alive

So, I've kind of been neglecting this blog for a while. Instead, I've been focusing on revamping my craft blog!
Life has been life. That's all it ever is though, so I don't really ever have too much to blog about. School is keeping me busy, and it's also keeping Justin VERY busy. That's why I've had more time to craft! :-)
Basically, if you want to keep tabs on me, you should follow my craft blog. You should follow my craft blog anyway, because it's awesome. If anything super exciting comes up (like, maybe when we find out where Justin will be interning this summer), I'll make a little post here. Otherwise, all of my attention will be directed toward my craft blog.
Thanks for reading!