Wow!! I have not been so good about writing on here this week! So, let's catch up:

Friday: I worked at the gym and got to spend a good chunk of the shift reading my book. I am reading "Twilight" since I have heard so much talk about it. It's good! That night I was pooped when I got back, curled up in bed and called a friend.

Saturday: I headed home for the weekend. I was scheduled to visit schools to recruit for work on Monday, so I made a weekend out of it and got to see my family. It is great when I get to travel for work in the U.P. They provide me with a car, pay my gas, and my food. So, it's a free trip home for me! Saturday morning I slept in, got up and lazed around watching a few episodes of The Office, which is hilarious and then packed up to go home. The drive was nice and sunny and went by quickly. When I got home I caught up with my parents and then Nikki and Steve came over and we had dinner together. After dinner, we went to see the Newfoundland puppies, I got to see a few weeks ago. They are almost a month now and are soooooo cute! They just started walking and are in the clumsy stage. It was so fun!!!

Sunday: I worked on my taxes online and am so excited to be getting a good chunk of change back. I could definitely use it right now! Then I got out my sewing machine that I had been given at Christmas. My mom showed me a few things on it and I got started right away on making the cute pillows for my living room. They turned out great and they look great in my apartment. I will definitely take pictures this week. However, I am an idiot and forgot my camera cable at home, so I will post those up on here as soon as it comes in the mail!

Monday: I visited some of the area schools. I went to my alma mater first. There were no students signed up, so I went to see our family friend in the middle school instead. While we were catching up, 4 of the other middle school teachers came in and were surprised to see me there. It was fun to catch up with all of them too! Ahhh.... brings back memories of when they were my teachers and I was just a wee middle schooler. :) I got to meet with a friend briefly for lunch in between visits which is always nice. After my visits were done, I met up with my mom at our favorite coffee shop. It was nice to have some "mom-time" all to myself. We then ran some errands, came home and finished my pillows and paid some bills online. As I was looking at my bank account, I noticed a few purchases that I couldn't identify as ones I had made. So, I called Wells Fargo right away and canceled my check card and now I have to do paperwork to try and figure this deal all out. Sigh.

Tuesday: I said good-bye to my parents as I headed out to Baraga. On my way, I was stressing about money and the bank situation, when all of a sudden this huge bald eagle swooped over the road carrying a big branch in it's talons. It was really cool to see and for some reason, put me in a better mood. I then visited Ishpeming High School, ate a great lunch at the Portside in Marquette, and then headed off the Marquette High. Then I ran some errands in town and went to check in to my hotel. My brother met me there and we went out to eat and then met up with his roomate for Trivia Night. Every Tuesday they go to this restaurant from 8-10, where people get in teams and a lady reads random trivia questions. The winners in each round win drinks and appetizers. We didn't win, but we did pretty well. It was really fun! After all of our knowledge was expended we went to the hotel to take advantage of the hot tub. It was heavenly. Then I said good-bye to the boys and hit the hay for the night.

Wednesday: Yesterday I had one high school visit and then headed back to Ashland. I had a little extra time when I got back to unload and relax before I had to head to the gym. It was a good evening, but I am looking forward to having a night to relax in my apartment tonight!

It snowy here again. Seems like it's been awhile since it snowed and I am having to remind myself that it isn't spring yet, even though the past week has felt like it! Snow is normal this time of year. In just a little bit here, I am heading to a job fair to sit at our college booth. It is at the Bad River tribe, just 10 miles out of Ashland. I don't mind getting out of the office, but it is a long fair. Set up starts at noon and we don't finish until 7 tonight! I think I am going to leave around 11:45 so I can grab some food and a few things from my apartment before I head out. I had to switch gym shifts so someone could work for me tonight. So, last night I worked at the gym and didn't get out of there until 9:30. Monday night I had to work here on campus until 8:00. Tonight after the fair I have to go to the gym and close up. I am already exhausted thinking about it! Aggghhhhhh..... But I have already decided that I won't go swimming after work tomorrow, so I can have a leisurely evening before belly dancing. I need to just relax for awhile.

In other news, I finished a book last night. It is called "They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky". Did I mention that I was reading this already in another blog? Sorry if I already did. But anyways, it is the true story of three Lost Boys of Sudan and how they escaped from the civil war in their country on foot and made it to Kenya. It was absolutely nuts what they had to endure, and weird to think that these boys are my age! It really makes me feel lucky to be in this country and to have the things I do. I know lately, I have felt financially strapped and under some stress, but it is nothing at all compared to what they have been through. It was super interesting. When I got home from work, I picked up a new book. I decided to read "Twilight" after all the good things I have heard about it. I will let you know what I think.

Ice, Ice Baby!

Yesterday I went to check out the ice caves with some friends. They were awesome!!! The caves can only be seen by boat in the summer, so when the ice is thick enough, the park rangers open them up to the public to walk on the ice to. They are gorgeous!
It took us just under an hour to get there. From where we parked to the first cave, took probably 45 minutes of walking on the ice to reach. But they were amazing. It was so fun to explore them. There were lots of people there this weekend. But it was a beautiful, sunny day out and the ice was putting on a great display. After 2 hours of exploring and photographing, we turned around to head back. We even got to watch the sunset across the bay as we shuffled back towards home.

Book Across the Bay

This weekend was a blast!! I had so much outdoor-sy fun!!
Friday I worked my shift at the gym and since it was slow, I got to do some good reading. I picked up a book that I had started last year and never finished. It's called "They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky". It is a true story about The Lost Boys of Sudan. It is super interesting, but really hard to get through just because it is so sad!! It is also very descriptive and gruesome in places. But I am really looking forward to finishing it. That night I got home and just relaxed!
Saturday, we had a Visit Day on campus, which is where interested students come and visit the college for the day and we all sorts of things planned for them. Oh, yeah... and happy belated Valentine's Day! That night a friend and I went to check out "Book Across the Bay". This is a race across the frozen bay. It can be done on snowshoes, skiis, or on foot and is usually 10K. Due to the unusual weather here this year, the race was shortened to 7K but still had a HUGE turnout. The race started at 6:00, so we went up there at 8ish to watch people cross the finish line. It was really cool! There was a HUGE bonfire and these cool ice candles all over. They even lines the race track with them. I guess there were fireworks too, but we missed those. There was a huge tent set up where they served chili, beer, and cocoa and had a band playing. There had to have been over 1,000 people in the tent just when we were there. They had hay strewn about the floor of the tent to keep it warm and hay bales set up for people to sit on. It was really cool!

I really had the best intentions yesterday to do swimming after work. Well, didn't happen. "Grams", our secretary at the office, and I made a plan to swim in the college pool after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays together. Well, I forgot my swimsuit, so at lunch I ran home to pick it up. After work we went to the pool around 4:40 only to learn it would be closing at 5 due to a women's b-ball game. Oh well. There is always next week. I think it will be good to get in the habit of swimming, even if it is only 2 days a week. I am thinking I will only go for probably 45 minutes each time, but it's a start anyway! Last night Claire and I hung out. I can't even tell you how grateful I am to have made such a good friend here in Ashland! After I left college and my amazing roomates behind, I thought I was destined to be far away from any friends for the rest of my life. Well, lo and behold, along comes Claire. She reminds me so much of my college girlfriends that I miss so much. It is great to have such a good friend! I made homemade chicken/basil pizza and brought it over. We just had girl-talk and then made cupcakes to bring into the office for V-Day. It was really fun. The best part of it all was when Claire was talking to me about something serious and we both kind of got teary-eyed over it. I went forward to give her a hug, but the back pocket of my jeans somehow got hooked on her cupboard knob and I was stuck. So there I was trying to comfort Claire, reaching out to give her a hug and I couldn't move. She came over and hugged me and then realized why I hadn't moved. She had to un-hook me from the cupboard. We were then laughing to hard we were on the floor! I am always good at turning a touching moment into a comedy. Geez! But we had a blast!

I am feeling kind of weird today and I don't know why. I am tired and just kind of blah. I have work to do here but just can't get into it. The weather outside is really strange for this time of year too. It feels like the end of March/beginning of April and like a thunderstorm is in order. The wind is whipping around, but it is 40 out and rainy, and snow is in the forecast. Maybe that is why I feel like I'm in a funk. It is like I have a million things I should do, but all I really want to do is crawl in bed and take a nap! Maybe it is just that time of year. Up until now it was like I had something exciting and new to look forward to, but now that I am in my new apartment, things are kind of dead. However, I am still looking forward to getting the cool retro material I ordered from Australia in the mail soon so I can re-do my pillows. Then my apartment will be almost complete. I also have two painting ideas I am working on and might get around to those tonight. Maybe I feel glum too, knowing that I have to work until 9 tomorrow and Friday and I have a Visit Day that I have to work at this weekend. Maybe part of it is that in the back of my mind, Valentine's Day is coming and this year will be...well... kinda lonely. I am usually a generally happy person and am almost always cheery, and it's not that I am really down or anything, just kind of one of those middle days, ya know? I'll keep my chin up and maybe if I accomplish something at work and can go home and paint today, I will feel a bit more myself.

Snowshoeing in Ashland

Claire and I Being Goofy at the Mall in Duluth

Weekend

This weekend was great! It was nice to relax, but have some fun too!
Friday I worked until 9. It was really dead at the gym, but I was able to finish reading "The Shack", it was very interesting and thought-provoking. When I got home I talked to my mom on the phone for almost 2 hours about faith and all these questions we had after reading the book. We both whipped out our Bibles and looked up some verses on the questions we had. It was really cool to do that with her over the phone. I talk to my mom about everything the way it is already, but it was great to talk with each other about BIG questions. Finally at about 11, we hung up and I zonked out for the night.
Saturday was warm and sunny! Gorgeous day! I made some muffins in the morning and worked on a few things around the apartment and then Claire and I headed to Duluth for some shopping and dinner. It was tons of fun and we didn't get back until after 10 that night.
Yesterday I ran some errands around town, and caught up with my mom and my sister for awhile on the phone. Then a friend and I went to the ice race track to watch one of the races (more about that below) and then we went snowshoeing around the Visitor's Center. It was a gorgeous day!
What a good weekend!

Ice Race

Yesterday I went to the races! Ashland is none for their ice races in the winter. When the Chequamegon Bay (Lake Superior) freezes over enough, the city makes a race track right out on the ice. They even have a parking lot out there. I remember driving from Duluth to home in college and passing through Ashland thinking it was nuts that there were all these cars out on the lake! Well, now that I live here, I had to go and check it out. I went with a friend and we parked the car in the beach parking lot, opting not to test out the lake parking lot, and walked out to the track. We got there well they were pulling one car out of the snow bank, but the race started shortly afterwards. It was fun to watch these old beaters sliding all along the ice track. It was pretty hilarious, but tons of fun!

The pictures are below. The first few are of the cars on the "road" that goes from the beach out onto the lake. One pic is of this old beater car that lost it's wheel but kept on going spraying up ice everywhere. The others are of the track and the race itself.

Racetrack Out on the Ice

Last night was so fun! I went home and actually had time to do something! I made penne pasta and grabbed some of my mom's homemade sauce from the freezer. I even made garlic bread. Although, I need to get used to this oven because the bread burned in the time it said to have it in there. Anyways, I cleaned up the apartment and vaccuumed all before I went to belly dancing. I brought my friends Ashley and Sarah with me to class. It was their first time and they had a blast. We did a lot of isolations last night, so my stomach is achey today. Isolations are when you practice moving only certain areas of your body, which is what belly dancing is really all about. It is really hard to do since most of the time, we never use those muscles in that way, or at all. We also started to teach them our Shakira dance. We apparently will be performing that at the end of March at a dance show! AHHHHH!!!!
After class, we picked up Claire and went out to a restaurant in town to have girl time. It was a blast! We decided to make it a Thursday tradition after class. It was really fun! Then I brought them over to see my new apartment. They loved it!

Today is Friday and I am so excited!! I have to work tonight, but I get to leave this job at 4 today because I had to be here at 7:30. It will be nice to have a full hour off before I go to the gym. I think I will get to finish my book today too!
Claire and I are thinking about heading to Duluth either Saturday or Sunday afternoon to do some shopping for apartment decorations. I am also hoping to get some snowshoeing in too. It's supposed to be almost 40 today! HEAT WAVE!!!
Happy Friday!

Not much new here! Now that I am done moving, there isn't any thing that interesting going on in my life now!
I worked at the gym Tuesday and yesterday. I closed yesterday by myself and it actually went very smoothly. My boss told me that I can do all my cleaning while people are still at the gym working out. So, I was done by 9 last night. I think I will like it there. It is also nice to be able to read too! I am almost done reading "The Shack". It is a book that takes a lot of thinking. It's about a man who meets with God in a Shack to talk about life and why bad things happen to good people. I have been reading it really slowly because I want to be able to think everything through. I am almost done and I think I will finish it tomorrow during my gym shift.
When I got home I went back into my big storage closet and organized the whole thing. I have some shelves back there and I went through most of my boxes of random stuff and put it all into the respective places. I have one more box to go through and then I am done! Woo-hoo! I think I will have it all cleaned up and stuff put away this weekend.

I am exhausted today. I think the move, the break-up and the new job are all hitting me now! Sigh. I worked last night until 8 and tonight and tomorrow I work until after 9. I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend to straighten up the apartment and finally put things away and just relax. This morning when I got to work my boss called Grant and I and asked us to report to the campus center. She said, "dress warm". Turns out that there was a photographer on campus and he wanted students for some outdoor pics. Apparently they had a hard time getting students that early so they wanted staff who looked like students and called us! I was happy to get out of the office for awhile though. We did this same things a few months back and that pic is on the Northland website, so I am not sure what these will be for. The photographer wanted us to have a snowball fight. I was in my dress clothes, so it was a little weird, but fun. I was soaking wet and went home to change afterwards. Then for lunch, the college president took the admissions staff out for lunch as a congrats on our Winter Term enrollment number. That was nice! Now I have just over an hour and a half left to work and then I go to the gym. I am really tired and just want to spend time decorating my apartment, but I know the new job will help pay for the decorations in order to do that. I am also saving up to buy a really nice zoom camera. I am thinking in a few months, I will start looking online for good cameras! I want to have one before I go to Maryland, if possible, to get some nice shots. So, when I get tired of 2 jobs, I just need to remember the camera in my future.

Busy Bee

I am moved!!!!!!!!!!!! *SIGH* I love my new place!
So, let's see where I left off... Hmmm....
Thursday I worked at the Fitness Center again until 9:30. I think I will like it. I am not real excited about being there to close by myself, but I think it will just take some getting used to. The Fitness Center was an old train station back in the hay day, so the building is old and creepy when you are there alone. The workout rooms themselves are fine, I just hate cleaning out the locker rooms in the basement when I am alone! It will be good motivation to get the cleaning done as quick as possible though!
Friday I slept in a little since I stayed up late the night before cleaning and packing. I got everything that was left in the old place in 2 loads. It was a lot of moving, but I finished by 4:15, just in time to clean the shower at the new place so I could wash up and get ready for work. I worked Friday until 9:30 and was pooped out by the end of the night. It was my first night at my new apt. I thought I might have trouble sleeping the first night just getting used to it, but I was so exhausted I fell right to sleep. I woke up the next morning to the sun shining through my room. I love how sunny it is! I put away a few more things from their boxes and then got ready to go and help Grant and Claire move. Until the boys came with the loaded U-Haul, I basically just kept Claire and the cats company at their new place. It was sunny and 45 out that day! I wanted to put on shorts and a t-shirt and lay out on the sidewalk. But we had moving to do. After we unloaded their stuff from the U-Haul, we were going to head to my place to bring over the loveseat Grant and Claire were givnig to me. They also gave me a really cool desk that they didn't have a spot for. It is awesome and will be perfect for sewing! So, we went to move the U-Haul and realized that because the snow had melted, the truck had sunk down and was totally stuck. We tried everything! No luck. Finally we decided to lock it and leave it where it was so we could grab lunch and then make a plan for how to get it out. I ran back to my old place to clean for the last time and turn in my keys after lunch and left the boys to figure out the U-Haul. I guess, a neighbor saw them struggling and pulled them out with his truck. Meanwhile, while I was cleaning my old place, I was almost done vaccuuming when I blew a fuse and the apartment went black. So, I ran back to my new place, found a flashlight and cleaned the rest by flashlight. But, I got it done and was officially moved by 7 p.m. Again, it was another long exhausting day, but it felt so great to be moved!
Yesterday, I bummed around in the morning and then headed to New Richmond, WI to see my friends Katie and Ryan and their new house. They were hosting a little Super Bowl party there. I hadn't seen them since before Christmas and was dieing to catch up with Katie again. I knew it would be a quick visit, but it was worth it. After the 3 hour drive, I arrived. The house they moved into is amazing! Someone they know is in the military and had to move away for a year and wanted someone to live in their house, so Katie and Ryan moved in! It is HUGE! I mean GY-NORMOUS!!! It was so cool! Some of our other friends from college were there too. We watched the game, were a little disappointed in the commercials, and hot tubed. I spent the night there last night since I worked today from 11:30-8:00 tonight. Katie and I pulled my mattress into their room, just like when we were roomates, and talked until we feel asleep. It was so great to see them! I miss them tons, but am so glad to be somewhere close where I can make weekend trips like that. I headed back this morning, and here I am.
Still exhausted, but so happy to be done moving. I can't wait to get home tonight and decorate. There will be pics posted soon!