I'm baaacckk!

Alright, I'm back. I wish I could say that I had been on a wonderful vacation, or just needed to take a break from blogging, or that this was something that I planned, but I can't. In all honesty, I just got so busy last semester, with SO many things, and blogging was probably, honestly, my last priority.

I don't know where to start. It was a difficult semester. There were lots of fun times, though. Shortly after my last post was the Inauguration of our new University President. It was a big weekend, full of festivities and concerts, and Mark and I had the opportunity to attend the Inaugural Ball , which was, if you must know, amazing and gorgeous, and held in the most beautiful ballroom I have ever seen. It was just a night of magic. I wore a beautiful royal blue gown, and Mark looked handsome in his tux. When we got there there was a cocktail hour, and of course me being 21, I actually got to drink! yay! Then we all sat down at our respective tables and there was this delicious meal of 5 courses. Then dancing all night long. It was so much fun.

Other highlights of the semester....the following week was Fall Break, and mark and I took our first road trip together. We drove out to Toledo to visit our friend Amanda, and stayed with her for a night and a day. Then drove down to Columbus to visit my grandparents, and stayed with them for a night and a day. it was great fun to travel together and enjoy each other's company, and just relax for a few days. Mark also came home with me for Thanksgiving, which was great, although we were bored a lot because obviously there's nothing to do in Austin. We drove up to Minneapolis for one day, and went to the mall of america, IKEA, and did some window shopping downtown. That was really neat. Thanksgiving was nice, and my brother even came home for a few days. We drove back a few days later, stopping in Chicago to spend the night at Mark's uncle's house. I met a bunch of his relatives and actually had a good time! The next morning we took the train into downtown Chicago. It was a balmy 50 degrees! We went to the outdoor KrisKringle Market, which is this huge German market, selling all these homemade crafts, Christmas ornaments, and original German food. We did some shopping along michigan avenue, took the train back to his uncle's house, and then drove back to Valpo. Lots of good times, lots of memories, lots of love.

The last 3 weeks of class were crazy hectic and busy. Mark and I got asked to play piano at the President's house for a Christmas party he and his wife were hosting, and that was awesome! We had a few other Christmas gigs as well, and it's always fun to do those together. We didn't get to spend a whole lot of time together in the last few weeks because we were so busy with papers, test and finals. We were starting to get on each other's nerves a bit too, you know how that goes when you're really stressed out. So on Saturday December 20th we left Valpo, and I dropped him off at the airport in Chicago so he could catch his flight home. unfortunately, I ran into nasty weather a few hours outside of chicago, it was actually a full-blown blizzard, and I was barely crawling at 30 mph on the interstate. I almost went into the ditch a few times, it was so slippery and I couldn't see. I've never been so terrified driving in my life. i called home, and my parents looked online and saw that a huge storm system was moving through Iowa for the next 2 DAYS, and a whole bunch of roads had already closed down, so there was no was I was getting home. Dad booked me a hotel room in Davenport, IA, which I amazingly got to safely. So, I spent the next 2 days and 2 nights in a hotel room by myself! It was actually a lot more fun than it sounds like. I had just finished a tough semester academically, I was running on little sleep, I was stressed out. So what did i do? Spent the next 2 days watching tv, or Christmas movies on TV, resting, reading, or surfing the internet. I wasn't really lonely at all! I ordered in food, because there was still no way i could drive anywhere. It was a nice way to relax . I finally was able to drive home on Monday, and it was nice to get home. Spent 2 weeks at home with my family relaxing and playing with my sister, and just got back to Valpo a few days ago. Yep. That's my semester in a not-so-small nutshell. mark's still in CA, he flies into Chicago tomorrow, and I'm going to pick him up at the train station. i can't wait to see him! It's weird that for the whole semester, we were never apart for more than a day, because we went on fall break together, and he came home with me for Thanksgiving. It's been over 2 weeks now, and I miss him, but I know we needed the time apart. Hopefully we can jump into this next semester well-rested and ready to face any new challenges. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that we celebrated our 1-year anniversary on November 12th :). We didn't really do a whole lot, because neither of us had much money, but we cooked dinner together, went bowling, and then went to campus to visit the statue that we had our first kiss by ( cue "awww!"). It was really nice, and it was a good feeling to know we accomplished that together. Neither of us has ever been in a relationship that's made it that far. God-willing there will be many more happy years together.

Well, that is about it. Just felt the need to update whoever reads this anyway, haha. It's a new year -- new possibilities, new challenges, a new start for everyone. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to keep up the blog, but i'll try. I hope all of you out there had a Merry Christmas and New Year, and feels encouraged by the upcoming year. I know I am. God's blessings to you all.