Top moments of 2008

1. Having my favorite person ask me to marry him. And lumped in with this one: wearing my ring around and staring at it during class, shopping for dreses with my Mom and sisters, and various other engaged/weddingish things. Also, going caneoing with Jared and going to see Wall E with him! Such a great day. Jared is wonderful. I love him very much!

2. Graduating!! It was about time. Also falling into this category: getting my two diplomas in the mail (which might have been more exciting then actually graduating - seriously), seeing my family and Jared at graduation, graduating with greek and engineering honors, and finishing all the classes that I never thought would be over.

3. The Delirious concert, in Richmond, the day after Jared and I got engaged. Standing in the front row, almost getting my hand shook by Martin, singing all my favorite songs, having Jared and my family there, and eating at my favorite mexican restaurant in Richmond. It was the best. Great great great night!

4. Living with the Howards. I was going to say Les Miserables and Fiddler on the Roof, but I decided to lump them in with all the things that are great about the Howards: Having meals made for me, having great desserts and ice creams around the house, being made to laugh all the time, and meeting interesting people when they come to visit. :) Yay!

5. Camping with my family! I love it. I am so glad we went last year. So much fun. That being said, I can't wait until Jared gets to come with us next year!

6. Making my quilted table runner with Jared. I need to get pictures of it, but I think it is so awesome and great. My crafts always come out a little lopsided and sloppy even when I try really hard, but this one is almost flawless and it just makes me so happy. I know it is because Jared squared all my corners for me and helped me pins stuff and iron it. He is great and I can't wait until it is on display in our own little house.

7. Our fourth of July party. Enough said. It is awesome.

8. Christmas. Getting my shopping done early this year. Making Christmas cookies and decorating them. Going to DC with Jared to see the Botanical Gardens and various other things. All the cookbooks that my parents gave me (such a surprise to get my favorite cookbook). The frames Sarah bought, the cute little Bath and Body set from Hope, the sewing stuff from the Sheltons, and my favorite present that I cried about, my scrapbook from Anna. So awesome I have wanted one for so long. :)

I guess also in here is buying all our Christmassy stuff for next year with Jared. 75% of our tree!! Lights for a dollar and bulbs for 25 cents! And making little stuffed felt ornaments with Jared - it is so fun when he wants to do craft things with me! Although, it is kind of annoying that is look better then mine (heh). Christmas is going to be so much fun next year!! Yay for us and yay for Christmas decorations.

9. Going to Colorado and spending so much time with Stephanie! I miss her greatly. Love love love! Spending time with Anna, getting to go to Whit's End (highlight of my trip), seeing Focus on the Family's headquarters (so cool), seeing Cater Rock, Pike's Peak, and the Air Force Academy (so neat). Did I say just spending time with Stephanie?!? Going to the little old amusement park with Sarah, Peter, and Anna and riding the little train. That was really neat.

10. Learning to forget about grades and spend time with my family and friends! I have to thank Jared for this one. Spending more time with my family and friends is totally worth it, much more then getting A's all the time. I learned that a B at the end of a semester that you know that you spent time with other people and made them happy, makes me much for happier then just an A during a semester where all I did was sit in my room and study. I guess I shouldn't have waited so long to learn that, but then my grad school wouldn't have been payed for, so I guess it had its benefits too.

11. TAing and getting into graduate school, at a top 2o engineering school, for free, and getting paid. Yeah, it was pretty sweet. I have to fight with them a lot to keep my non-thesis status, but only one more semester of filling out paperwork and I will be done forever!!

I am sure there are other great moments, but I can't think of them right now. So I am going to go back to reading my books and maybe I will add to this later, but probably not. I like spending time away from the computer during break. heh. But the main thing to take away is that I have so much to be thankful for! I love my family and I love my fiance and I love where God has placed me right now in life and I pray that he continues to show me how best to use my life to honor and glorify Him.

Happy New Year! May 2009 and be a grand year of growing closer to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Love,
Faith

NEW BLOG!!!

Sarah has a new blog where she is posting her scribbles. Someday she'll be famous and will be able to say you saw her scribbles when she was young. Head over to her blog and comment your email or send her an email and get signed up to see her drawings. It is great; you won't be disappointed.

GO SIGN UP!!!

Proverbs and Psalms countdown...

Sunday made for 203 days until my wedding. I worked it out that I would start counting down to my wedding then by reading from Proverbs 31 to Psalms 1. So starting Sunday I read Proverbs 31 and Monday I read Proverbs 30 and yesterday I read 29. If you want to join in and read with me you can. heh. I divided Psalm 119 into 26 sections because it was really too long to read in one day. I started 181 days ago and read from Psalm 1 to Proverbs 31. And that chapter (119) was a little rough because you couldn't really think about it at all. So I divided it to give more time to think through all it has to say. So anyhow, today is Proverbs 28. Maybe once I get back in school I will post my favorite verse of the day or something. Feel free to do the same if you ever read along, even if it is for a day.

Today is 200 days until my wedding!

One more...

One semester to go until school is finished forever!!

And my professor asked me to TA for her again next semester. YES!! That is so great because the department had me signed up for some other class and that would have been so annoying because I would have had to learn a whole new subject over again. This is good because I know all the experiments and how to grade for the labs and all that fun stuff. It should be a great semester next semester. I like all three of the classes that I chose. Great stuff. I am taking 1) Flexible Macroelectronics 2) Engineering Decision Making 3) Steel Structures. The only one that I think will be a lot of work will be that steel structure class, but that is cool. I am up for a challenge.

And I am HOME!!! What a wonderful feeling.

Broadway rhythm... everybody dance!

The Howards are taking me to see Les Miserables on Thursday!!! How great is that? I love Broadway. Love love love. If tomorrow were Thursday I would say (or sing) "one day more"... heh. Anyhow, they asked me tonight if I wanted to go with them and of course I said "yes!!!" Now I have something to look forward to in the midst of finals. Woohoo. I am so excited. Broadway thrills me. It is so much fun.

My countdown to freedom:
* Final tomorrow at 2.
* Final group paper due at 6.
* Final math homework due Thursday.
* Final Lab taught on Thursday.
* Final labs graded from Thursday - Monday.
* Final Monday at 8am. Bleh.
* Proctoring a final on Monday at 10am.
* Grading a final Monday afternoon.
* Final 15 page paper due.
* HOME!!!
* One last final due by Wednesday evening.