My birthday is one month from today! 21...what a deal. People keep asking me if I'm gonna get totally trashed on my birthday, but honestly, I have no desire to drink. It's just not all that appealing to me. I really have no big plans to celebrate my 21 years of survival. Oh well.

I just watched the last 30 minutes or so of Stepmom. What a sad, sad movie! I've never seen it all the way through, yet I can't help but cry like a baby anyway. I would like to watch all of it someday, but whenever that day comes, I must be sure to have plenty of Kleenex on hand.

I am ready for Christmas. It's my favorite time of year. I am ashamed to say this, because Thanksgiving is still 4 days away, and I always hate it when Thanksgiving gets overlooked in the shadow of Christmas. I blame the candy cane I am currently devouring for my premature Christmas excitement. This boy brought me a box of candy canes the other day before he left town, fully aware of my feelings regarding the way Thanksgiving is cruelly snubbed in favor of the festivities surrounding Christmas, but also fully aware that I love all things Christmas, including candy canes, and that I'm all talk and would receive his gift with a smile of happiness. I think I'll keep him around for a while.

2 days until I get to go home! Yay!

I need to stop being such a slacker. Done and done.

I'm pretty glad that this semester is almost over. I don't know that I can handle much more school. I have this whole vision of how I'm going to be such a better student in future semesters. You know, actually reading the assignments and studying for tests before the night before, things like that. We'll see how that goes.

Thanksgiving is in 6 days. What a deal. I like Thanksgiving because I like to eat, and Thanksgiving is all about the goodness food. Although really, I pretty much only eat turkey and rolls. I'm kind of a picky eater. My absolute favorite is making little mini-sandwiches out of the leftover turkey and rolls. Is that sad? I'm ok with it.

I'm really looking forward to this whole week. Here's a brief run-down of events:

Saturday/Sunday: catch up on sleep/homework, do nothing, enjoy some me & God time
Monday: last clinical of the semester - physical therapy! what a deal
Tuesday: brother-sister bonding with the younger brother on the way to Arlington - yay for home!
Wednesday: dentist at 8am! what was my mom thinking scheduling that?
Thursday: Thanksgiving! family + food = happiness
Friday: sleep off the Thanksgiving festivities
Saturday: Katie's wedding in Austin, off to the Woodlands with Ryan
Sunday/Monday: experience life in the world of Ryan
Tuesday: back to Abilene & reality - sad day

And done. Time for sleep.

Today is such an ideal day. It is raining outside, I don't have to go to school today, and I slept until 12:30. Oh, and tonight is the night of Grace and Gilmore Girls. Perfect.

This morning I saw this commercial trying to get people to subscribe to a terrorism report. Every day you receive this email telling you about the latest intelligence information regarding terrorist activity so you can plan your day, travel, etc. safely. Is that really neccessary? I understand having a healthy concern for world events, but this seems to have crossed the line into paranoia. Sad day.

Yesterday marked another month with Ryan. What a deal. Looking forward to a couple more months, at least. I'm a lucky girl.

Quote of the day, courtesey of Oswald Chambers:

"We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God's appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere."

So I have become the person I hate. You know, the one who never updates their blog, so you never know what's going on in their life because you never see them? Yeah. My apologies.

Hmmm...so what has gone on in my life in the past week? Is it sad that I can't really remember? Let's see...nursing school is continuing to eat my life. I only have 3 days of class and 2 clinicals left though, and this knowledge brings joy to my soul. Thanksgiving is almost here, and that means lots of food and going home for more than a day. That hasn't happened since the week between moving out of the dorm and moving into my house. That was in May. Holy cow. I feel like I should be homesick or something, but I've been too busy to think about it.
I've been spending a lot of time with a certain boy who puts a smile on my face. Things are going really well there. We've been dating almost 2 months now. Hey hey hey. Still working on my little personal search for self. I've been doing daily Bible reading and reading My Utmost for His Highest. Good thoughts.

So my mind is pretty much everywhere right now. Perhaps that's obvious by the incohesiveness of my thoughts. And the fact that it has taken me approximately 30 minutes to write this post. (Although I guess that's probably not so obvious...) Anyway, done and done.

I needed it...

Today I took a small break from reality. It was great. Ryan and I went to Arlington for the day so I could vote, but really as an excuse to get out of Abilene for the day. It was a good day. Ryan got to see me in my element. He seemed to have a good time, and I got good reports, so I'm pretty happy with that. I'm kind of scaring myself with how comfortable I'm getting around him. I was kind of thinking that being with him and my parents all day would be slightly awkward, but there was no awkwardness (even when my dad introduced him to everyone he works with!!). The fact that he gets along so well with my family just makes me like him even more. Wow. God has definately been good to me by putting Ryan in my life right now. I'm not sure I deserve to be as happy with life as I am right now, but I think I'm just gonna take it and like it. :)