**Deep Sigh**

******~~~Warning: This WILL be a LONG post~~~******


Hello, my loves.

I know I've left you all hanging quite a bit over the last month - but the trying month of October has now come to a close (well, in about 8 hours...).

I don't know that I have ever had a semester that has been as full and time consuming as this one is, when it comes to class work. Ok, so yes, the OChems and BICH and the calculuses (calculi??) were awful, but this semester every class has TONS of outside projects and assignments - I mean, come on! But this month was definitely the worst...so far. Most projects and things are finished up, just some polishing is left to be done on a few and greatest of all: I don't have to stress about the GRE anymore - Whoop. I do want to thank all of you for your prayers - I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate them. How did I do? Well, I passed the thing. That's good, right? Well, it's a good start, at least. I pretty much rocked the verbal section, but the quantitative portion ate my lunch and stole my money for tomorrow's lunch, too. It was so mean! I don't understand why it hates me so much...what did I ever do to it - or any other standardized test, for that matter?? Well, after talking with Dr. Wharton and some other graduate students I'm not as concerned about my score as I was initially - 1000 is the minimum score grad schools accept (I'm not sure if that is true for all grad programs, but I know it is for Ento stuff) and I surpassed that, so I'm good there. He also said that even if schools have a range they prefer that doesn't mean that they won't look at you if you don't fall into that range. Thankfully, U of M doesn't require you to score in the 70th percentile, they just prefer it :) Also, because I have been corresponding with my desired advisor and the director of grad studies for the Ento department at Minnesota I have another leg-up. He didn't give me a "get out of jail free" card, but he did provide me with at least the chance to post bail :) So that's something, for sure. Now I just need to talk with Susan about my scores and see if she still wants me for her lab...Prayers, please!! So, now that that horrendous ordeal is finished I can sit back and "relax" - except not really...haha, but it will be a different kind of stress from here on out, and not all entirely bad stress. Holla!

This weekend is turning out to be just the hiatus I needed - I am currently chilling on the couch of my lovely Justin and Kacy Bunte's home in Cypress. I just love them. Kacy's friendship over the last 4+ years has been such a blessing and to be such great friends with her hubby is just as much a blessing - they always take care of me and let me rest and recoup with I come to visit. Tonight we are all heading to CFF for their fall festival dealio, where Kacy and I get to man the "Leap-frog Booth"....what that means, exactly, we have no clue, as of yet - we'll know circa 6pm! Oh, which reminds me!!! We FALL BACK tonight!!! Whoop for an extra hour of sleeeeeeep :)

In other news I am writing to you all on my new, shiny laptop! It's a Toshiba!! The Dell finally bit the dust last weekend. The computer itself still runs (well, and I use that word figuratively, as most of you know the ridiculous state my computer has been in for the last year or so), but the lamp in the screen finally went out...sad. But Toshiba/BestBuy is awesome and was having a stellar deal on their Satellite laptops last weekend so I picked up one of those and I LOVE it! It runs Windows7, too! It's a little bit of an adjustment, but nothing like Vista, i.e. it rocks! So, while it was an undesired and unexpected expense it was a fun one, at least. Now if my poor Cornelius would just get better without breaking the other half of my bank that would be miraculous! He's been doing the whole come to a stop sign and die/"I don't want to start right now" thing again this month which has not been fun...but the Humphreys are amazing and are letting me borrow the Ford so I don't have to worry about my poor Cornelius not starting or dying in the middle of the road until he gets better. I will no longer be taking him to Firestone, either...they have been good to me other the last few years, but they have never been able to figure out why he does this and so I think the winds of change are a blowin'. I'm trying a mobile mechanic from church this time around so we'll see if he can discern the problem - either way at least I know he won't rip me off. I'm hoping he can come take a gander on Wednesday of this week.

Tomorrow is NOVEMBER!!!!!!!!!!! This IS exciting, to say the least. Maybe it will bring true Fall weather with it...I'm tired of it being 84 degrees in late October! And people say global warming is a hoax... ;) But back to November! I cannot wait to start preparing for all of the holidays up and coming. My Thanksgiving Feast is going to rock this year - I'm going to bring in some new deserts and try some new recipes for some side dishes, it will be awesome. I'm still going to do my classic turkey, because I think I have discovered perfection in that (I'm just sayin'...), but I'm going to try and spice up the other angles of the meal this year. Yay! Not to mention that come Thanksgiving Day I can finally watch Elf again!!! Mika and I have this rule that we have to at least wait 'til Thanksgiving to watch our movie so we can preserve some of it's preciousness :) And it will be really nice to spend time with the family - I miss them. It has truly been too long since I have really seen them all. I'm looking forward to Joshua's play in a few weeks, too - he's such a talented little thespian. :) I'm also excited about Operation Christmas Child - I haven't done a box since I was in high school, but I can't wait to bless a little child's life with a box o'fun and toothbrushes and things. And THEN!, after Thanksgiving it's ALMOST CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, I cannot wait for Christmas this year! Many reasons: 1) it's Jesus bday! 2) I will be graduated! 3) Sean & Shyla will be with us!!!!!!!!!!!! 4) I WILL BE GRADUATED!!!!!!!! Plan-less, maybe, but graduated none-the-less. I'm excited to get to cook with Mom and Shyla - I'm sure Sean will jump in the kitchen some, too. I'm excited to get to visit with my big sister - I truly, truly love and adore that girl, and I cannot wait to spend one-on-one time with her, because we haven't really had any of that yet...me, jealous??? Never... ;) I'm also very excited to get my Seaner all to my self on occasion as well - I love him so, so, SO, so much. I always love the holidays too, because I get to take my little brothers out for teas and hot cocoas and the like - so fun. I'm just looking forward general family time and relaxation with the peoples I love. I'll also get to seem some of my A-towners who I don't get to see very often, that will be delightful, as well.

In other news I have acquired a little Schwinn road bike recently. I'm planning on converting the thing into a little fixed gear, but that will have to wait until I save up some more mula and get Cornelius up and running again...*sigh* This whole being a grown-up thing is tricky at times... :) But, I'm super excited about undertaking the task of fixing up my new bike - I'm kind of getting obsessed with this whole bike-riding world. I totally want to invest in a legit mountain bike someday when I'm all rich and living in my dream place :) I looooove that sport. It's so fun and invigorating.

Wow..MI3 is on at Kacy and Justin's and I am uber distracted right now...so I think I'm going to close for now, plus I need to get ready to head to the Fall Festival. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Shalom,
~MW

Hiiiii!!

Hey kids,

I know, I know...I've been uber inactive and have totally abandoned you all. Really, this month is RIDICULOUS! I haven't really stopped since it began. Man, I can't even really remember everything from this month it has been so busy. Mainly it's been one exam after another, followed by group projects and random assignments galore, then there's always my course-by-correspondence, and trying to find time to get some stuffs ready for grad school apps/the GRE....which I take on the 28th!!! Yeeeowzas, I'm nervous. BUT! After that I get to stop for a moment or two.

On the up, mountain biking was superb this week! We actually got to ride and we rode hard! My group took a trail that was full of jumps and drops and little climbs and craziness - it was off the chain...ha, my bike's chain actually did come off at one point - yeah, I'm legit, it's fine ;) Nah, I was going down this 5ft drop or so and kinda screwed up on the way down, hit quite the bump, but recovered, just lost my chain action after the bump; got it all put back together in no time, though :) So, I survived the whole day without any real issues until the last climb back to the levee...got stuck in a rut (literally) tried to move out of the way fast enough to get out of everyone's way, got clocked by my TA trying to swerve around me...i fell down the climb...off of my bike. But, I got a nice skinned knee and a killer bruise! Ha, just wish it was a little more of a legit incident...ah well, I could always make up some ridiculous story ;)

Anyways, I'm going to bed - and it's only 10pm!!! Holla!!!

Hope all is well, lovelies. I'll be back more consistently when the 28th has come and gone!

Shalom!
~MW

Wooosh!

The last week or so has been quite the whirlwind! So, I apologize for not updating as much as I should have....and this is going to be a wimpy attempt. Really, just letting you know I'm still alive, I still love you all, and yes, I am still updating this thing called a blog :)

Big events: Josh and Elaine are now the happy newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Lee Ponder!!!! So exciting. The wedding was gorgeous. I had my hands full most of the time so I don't have too many pictures, but I'll throw some up when I get the chance.

Now it's off to class, then a lovely blessing in the absence of my tree lab this afternoon - I can actually get stuff done! Like study for my exams this week, register for the GRE (i.e. break my bank account...), make my waffle batter for Hope Group Brinner!!! And so much more....fingers crossed!

Love to all!
Blessings,
MW