Today was my first day of classes for this semester at UNI. For as much fun as National Syllabus Day is, it was a pretty great day. It was so wonderful knowing a few people in each class. Sherrie is in Earth History and Evolutionary Biology. Heather and Lora are also in Evolutionary Biology. (And Heather is expecting a baby girl any day now! Her due date is tomorrow, but it could be any minute! Congrats Heather!!) Bekha is in Developmental Biology of Animals (we are already planning to study together). Hopefully this semester will be a lot better than last semester, where I definitely learned my lesson about studying throughout the semester and going to talk to the professor after my first poor grade.
It started snowing right before my first class. And even though I was worried about slipping (I have horrible balance), the snow looked so beautiful as it slowly descended to the ground. I really do love snow, I just don't like ice.
This weekend, Alec and I went to Cedar Rapids to spend time with my family. It was a lot of fun hanging out with my family, but especially my sister, Jen. Shortly after arriving, we sat in front of the warmth of the fireplace. Jen shared an article that appeared in a recent issue of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. This article contained some random holidays that occur throughout the year. Our favorite holiday was American Teddy Bear Day, which is November 14 (our wedding anniversary). There were some others that were pretty funny...I guess every day is a holiday! After working on Saturday morning, Jen came with me to watch Alec referee a high school basketball game. Alec's parents also came with his nephew, Ezra (who is 3), so we had a lot of fun watching Alec referee, keeping Ezra entertained, and talking with Alec's parents. The games were pretty entertaining, but the real fun was in just spending time with family and watching Alec do an activity that he loves.
Alec drove Jen and me back to our dad's house before quickly running off to referee another basketball game. Jen and I spent about two hours editing an LA paper that she has due this week. We had fun laughing over her overuse of the word "really" and her use of contractions. Later that evening, Jen made the statement that "contractions are what happens when you give birth and should not be used in LA papers." Yes, I eventually broke her down to the point where she realized that it was better to just spell out the whole word than use the shorter contracted form in a formal paper.
While Jen and I were working on her LA paper, our step mom (Tanya) and step sister (Lindsey) came back home from some morning shopping. They sat down at the kitchen table with us to eat some sandwiches. About halfway through their lunch, Lindsey accidentally knocked over Tanya's water, which spilled all over Tanya's lap. "AHHH! COLD! AHHH!" screamed Tanya. She then proceeded to dump a plate (which was full of water) onto her lap (to keep the water from getting on Jen's rough drafts). "TURD!" Yes...Tanya then called Lindsey a turd! ;) As a mix of laughing at Tanya for pouring ice-cold water on her own lap and a mix of Tanya calling Lindsey a turd, Jen, Lindsey, and I all proceeded to roll over laughing. We all got a huge kick out of this rare enjoyable moment. I love my life! ♥
Our mom came and picked us up at about 5:00 and we went to her apartment to finally celebrate Christmas with her. She made a chicken enchilada lasagna, which was really good. She also surprised me by making a homemade cherry pie (WITHOUT PIE FILLING). Since we know Alec would not be finished with his games until late, we opened our presents, which included some memories from our early childhoods (prior to our parents' divorce). Alec finally arrived around 9:00 and we all spend about an hour together before our dad called and wanted Jen to go back home. Alec and I ended up sleeping at my mom's that night instead of trying to drive back to Cedar Falls...we were both really tired!
I always love spending time with my mom. Ever since our parents got divorced in 1997, it seems like Jen and I always have to find special time to spend with our mom. We were all really glad that we got to spend some time together. ♥
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