Christmasy Ramblings

It's only five days until Christmas, and I am STOKED. Why am I so much more motivated to work on Christmas presents for nine people than I am to grade my 202 and 250 students' music papers and final exams? It's a Christmas mystery...

Anyway, in between making 100 presents this week, here are the things I'm hoping to get done:

a. Finish all my grading - gotta give those poor students something for Christmas.
b. Organize all my school stuff - can you believe the new semester starts January 4th?!?!? Yikes!
c. Play with my adorable nephew, Eddie. He is so adorable now that he can run around and make babbling noises. He has hardly cried at all since he's been here, and spends a lot of time playing with my hair (he likes to touch his forehead to mine and then touch my braid) and chasing Teddy, trying to give him a hug.
d. Christmas shopping. Shhhh.
e. Take Sarah and Hannah to see "New Moon." Sisterly obligation, of course. They still can't drive. And I was too busy to get them a birthday present this year, so...you know.The things I'm willing to do for them... !!!
f. Go to the airport with Mom to pick up Uncle Val (aka Unc) on Tuesday. CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!
g. Go to our ward family home evening. I have no excuse to miss it now that school's out :(

Today was a good day. I went to church by myself since Daniel wanted to attend the family ward and see their Christmas program. I had to play the organ. Sacrament meeting went well, and then Daniel came back for Sunday School, and then we had a nice Relief Society which was our last lesson on the life of Joseph Smith. I have really enjoyed studying his teachings for the past two years, and am grateful for all the good things that have come from his work.

Joseph came by for dinner without Kirsti and Edward (K. has been feeling sick), and he stayed for family home evening and Teddy's walk. It was fun just having the siblings together (except Mary Alma :(...), and it reminded me of the times we had when Joseph would tell us funny stories and organize us to do crazy things when we were little. Ah, good old memories...

Speaking of sick people, Teddy has apparently come down with something. He woke the twins up three times last night to go potty and then threw up two or three times today. Ugh! It's funny how we react to our pets - my rabbit Jacques never threw up, and our dog Yeller threw up so much it was just accepted as normal behavior. We think Teddy could be reacting to the stress of having Eddie chase him around whenever he's here, so it's probably for the best that he had a day off.

Well, time to see if I can make one more Christmas card before going to bed tonight.

Free at last, free at last!

Is it surprising that the first music that rushed into my head after I finished my Civil War Exam was "Amazing Grace"? The answer is yes it was, especially since for no reason whatsoever last night I was overcome with a feverish urge to download four Elvis songs on YouTube and play them over and over again while I read my notes. I studied until about 2 am last night, slept until 6, got up and drove off to get a side-aisle seat before 6:45, and finished that sucker in 2 hours and 50 minutes - a new record for the shortest amount of time it has taken me to take a history test! After I finished, I shook my professor's hand and he said I could pick up the final at his office next semester - yeah! It felt SOOOO wonderful to be done. Not even the 95 on my film journal which I went to pick up today could dampen my mood. I couldn't be happier if the South had won the war! Hmmm...Nah, I like that sentence.

So, to catch y'all up with my life (y'all don't mind if I start calling y'all y'all, do y'all?) since my last post back in the antebellum period - that would be October - and just to engage in some bragging and back-slapping, here's what I managed to accomplish:

a. Got an A- on a Civil War Paper which I researched and wrote in less than a week. This may not sound like much to you, but I was THRILLED. For some reasons, history teachers always give me higher grades on papers than on essay tests. Oh, ugh - now you all know that I've gotten a B+ or less on my tests...

b. Wrote an Emerson paper in, ah, 2-3 days. I don't know how that one's turned out yet, though...so...who wants chocolate?

c. Got 100 points on my American Studies journals, proposal, and paper (minus 10 on the last). There will be an A on that transcript, folks.

d. Got complimented by my film teacher after class - he said I was welcome to come to his class next semester even if I couldn't enroll, and also encouraged me to go to grad school. Hmmm...letter of recommendation possibility?

e. Did 100% of all the reading for my AmSt class. Yeah, I know, I already talked about it in point c), but this is a mile marker worthy of its own letter. This might be the first time since I was a freshman that I've done 100% reading for anything.

f. Stayed well the WHOLE semester! I had a rash and a stiff ankle for a week or two, but other than that, nothing. Wow.

g. Watched some gooooooooood movies. Oh, you'd better believe it. Recommendations TBA.

Well, time to do some of my postponed TA business and start getting excited about Joseph and Kirsti's visit later today (and of course, their presents for us - I mean, Edward!).