where is your coat?

The other day Cory's sister and I went out to eat for a late lunch with Corys mom. After lunch Kristi and I decided to go shopping and check out a new store down in Ferndale (a little town south from where we live) on our way down there we were driving through some neighborhoods, school was out by this point so kids were being dropped off at bus stops and running to their houses, I'm guessing it wasn't because they were excited to be home but because they were cold because none of the kids were wearing their coats! I never understood how one could leave their coats at school or on the bus in the middle of winter. Maybe its because I'm a girl (it seems like more often than not its the boys that leave their coats). But don't people think, oh hey, its snowing, it must mean its cold out so I need my jacket? or don't they go outside and wonder why its so cold out and then realize they don't have their coat?

I was thinking about this again earlier this morning and think that if a parent can get in trouble for sending a child to school without a coat, then the teacher/school should get in trouble for letting the child leave school without their coat if they went to school with one.

odd coincidence

Today I took the GMAT. I don't get my official score for 20 days because they have to have an actual person grade the written part. Needless to say I'm a bit nervous to get it. Anyways, this morning as I was getting ready I started to think about school and how academics are not the only important thing that you learn/need to learn in school and how the social skills that you also learn are very important. AND GUESS WHAT! That is what my second writing portion on my exam was on! I was pretty excited seeing how it was already in the front of my mind once today :)

A beggar? At church?

Cory and I have been trying out new churches the past few weeks. We've been talking about doing it since we've moved down here but have been putting it off and have ended up at Christ the Redeemer (where we got married) on Sundays. This past week went to a church close enough to to our apartment that we were able to ride our bikes there, which was really nice. the church was ok, we didn't realize that the priest was a guest that week until the end, which makes all the difference because the priest was the same person that married our friends last summer at another church and we didn't really care for him then either. We will most likely go back so that we can see how we like it with the regular priest.

When we were leaving church we saw something that we did not expect to see, especially at church. It was a beggar. She was holding a sign that read "I have 5 kids and have no job, need mone for food and clothes" (yes, money was spelled wrong) I was a little astonished because who holds a sign outside of church like that, AND on top of that, she had her kids stationed around the parking lot and at all the exists holding signs! I think there are much better ways to get money if you are in need of it then begging out side of church when everyone is leaving like going and talking to the pastor to see if he can help. I think what she was doing was almost taking advantage of all of the people leaving because she knew that they would be in a more generous mood and more likely to give money after church. oh and no, she wasn't there before mass started either.

a beggar? At church?

Cory and I have been trying out new churches the past few weeks. We've been talking about doing it since we've moved down here but have been putting it off and have ended up at Christ the Redeemer (where we got married) on Sundays. This past week went to a church close enough to to our apartment that we were able to ride our bikes there, which was really nice. the church was ok, we didn't realize that the priest was a guest that week until the end, which makes all the difference because the priest was the same person that married our friends last summer at another church and we didn't really care for him then either. We will most likely go back so that we can see how we like it with the regular priest.

When we were leaving church we saw something that we did not expect to see, especially at church. It was a beggar. She was holding a sign that read "I have 5 kids and have no job, need mone for food and clothes" (yes, money was spelled wrong) I was a little astonished because who holds a sign outside of church like that, AND on top of that, she had her kids stationed around the parking lot and at all the exists holding signs! I think there are much better ways to get money if you are in need of it then begging out side of church when everyone is leaving like going and talking to the pastor to see if he can help. I think what she was doing was almost taking advantage of all of the people leaving because she knew that they would be in a more generous mood and more likely to give money after church. oh and no, she wasn't there before mass started either.

Shopping at the in-laws

Yesterday I was talking to Golda and I realized something. About 2/3 of our furniture is from Cory's parents basement. lol. This past weekend Cory and I went "shopping" in their basement again. This time we came home with chairs for our dining room table (FINALLY!) and a computer desk chair. Other things that we have acquired from their basement include a coffee table, couches, and lamps. We've also acquired a book shelf and lamp from Cory's sister. And our table originally came from Cory's parents house too.

Our apartment is slowly coming more together, we have also gotten a real TV stand from IKEA along with a really nice office desk off of Craigslist. There's one slight problem with the TV stand though. The one we got is just one section of an entertainment center and we didn't think about measuring our tv before we bought it. Because of this, we can't ever buy the rest of it because its 2 bookshelves, on on each side, and a little section that screws into the top of the bookshelves to connect it all together. Well, our TV is about an inch too big on each side so it wont work :( I think thats the one bad thing about having a huge tv.

Cory and I are pretty much moved into our new apartment now! YAY! We still need to get some furniture but we are slowing acquiring it. We have Cory's parents old couches and his aunts old coffee table which he refinished. Kristi also gave us an old lamp and book shelf too. we still need to get a stand for our tv along with night stands and furniture for our guest room. We're really not worried about stuff for the guest room at this moment though.... we'll probably wait until we know that we are going to have a visitor before we do. Here are some pictures of our new place.. I'm sure by the pictures alone you can tell that its quiet a bit larger than the old place!

Timberlea Village

In case you haven't heard....Cory and I found an Apartment!! AND it's 3 times the size of our current place!!! We went down state last weekend to go apartment hunting, we looked online to narrow down our search of places we wanted to look at before we left so we weren't overwhelmed. One of the places on our list was a place where a couple of our friends, Mike and Karly, used to live. We knew we liked it but wanted to look at a few other places just in case something was nicer. We ended up going with where they used to live.

We're moving on the 14th as long as the weather is nice, other wise Cory will leave a day or two earlier and then I will drive down by myself on the 14th because I have to work on Thursday. We're both starting to get excited too and have started the packing process. It's kind of hard to pack with a week and a half left because we doing know what we are going to need between now and then and on top of that we don't really have anywhere to put the boxes once they are packed.

Meat Loaf.

I don't work until 1p.m. today so I get to watch the tail end of the Today show before I take a shower. They're doing the "In the Kitchen" segment and making meat loaf. I think I'm a little snooty when it comes to meat loaf, as odd as that may be. The only meat loaf I like is moms, every other kind just doesn't taste good too me. Cory made some recently and it wasn't horrible, but it just wasn't quite there. I made moms recipe a few months back and I think I convinced him that that recipe is the only one to use. He literally acted like it was from a 5 star restaurant.. it was pretty funny. He now gets extra excited whenever I make that or meat balls haha! So, props to you mom for the best meat loaf! :)

Cory decided to go ahead and take the job downstate! He still hasn't received the official offer in the mail yet, but we do know that Mitch, the employer, has raised the starting salary by 4.5%. Because he hasn't received the official offer or anything yet (we're expecting it to come in the mail sometime early this week) we don't know when his start date is going to be yet, but it will probably be sometime mid-May or end of May.

Also, because of Cory deciding to take the job I started looking into transferring with the bank. It looks like I'm going to be able to. I've talked to one person I know in the H.R. department and she gave me the name of someone to call on Monday to talk to it about and has already sent them a heads up e-mail... she cc'ed me on the e-mail and told him I'm a keeper! :) As of right now I know that there are positions opened in Clarkston which is about 25 minutes NW of Rochester (where we will most likely be living) and one in Novi/Farmington Hills which is about half an SW of Rochester.

I'm excited!

Dear Wisconsin,

I hate you. I hope I don't have to come back for a long, long time. You smell funny, your residents don't know how to drive, move out of the way when they are standing in the middle of a parking lot and are rude. Also, you need to sell pants other than just sweat pants and jeans. People do also wear dress pants.

Good bye.

Reasons I hate driving through the U.P.

1. 90% of all the highways are 2 lane
2. 98% of the high ways are 55MPH, there is only about 20 miles between St. Ignace and the Soo that is 70MPH
3. U.P. drivers INSIST on going 52MPH until there is a passing lane and then they speed up to 65 and then slow back down once the lane is gone.
4. On more than one occasion when I was trying to pass someone in a passing lane the driver in front of me decided that it wanted to drive in the passing lane as well and cut me off.
5. This time of year they are always wet and full of salt/sand still so the tires of the car in front of you kicks up the grossness and covers your windshield.

I sure there are many other reasons I just can't think of any right now.

Last week was winter carnival and this years theme was "Games we know caught in the snow" It was a lot of fun like always with events going on all week along with seeing old friends. Unfortunately I had a really bad head cold this year during it so I felt like crap the entire time. My sorority didn't do a statue this year.... well, they started and just decided to give up on it. It was a bit embarrassing... The winners this year did Mario (fraternities) and Pretty Pretty Princess (sororities). Mario was Incredible! They had the flower guys that bite made completely out of ice along with mushrooms made out of ice and blocks and Bowsers spikes were all ice as well. I didn't take any pictures but here is the MTU website with some. http://www.flickr.com/photos/michigantech/ the pictures aren't great.