Party Into the New Year

So Christmas has come and gone, and I can't believe tomorrow is New Year's Eve. What a week it has been, what a year!

Christmas Eve was spent watching the girls open presents at our house, followed by dinner and Christmas Eve Service at church. Christmas Day my parents and I headed over to Sara's house for breakfast and playing with more toys that they got.

Saturday, Sara and I braved the crowds to do some after Christmas shopping with our gift cards. We got a lot of good stuff! I have to show these pants (that I most definitely did not buy! and this is completely embarassing, but must be done). Seriously, red pants with slits all down the front AND black fishnet sewn on the inside to show through the holes. I had to try them on just because they were so ridiculous and I needed to document it.

Monday and Tuesday we headed up to Columbus to see my Uncle Joe. The girls went swimming in the hotel pool, we went to dinner at this nice Chinese restaurant that my Uncle goes to a lot. We goofed off in the hotel room and went to Magic Mountain, where we went last year, the girls played in the gym and we played games.

And I got my hair cut on Tuesday night, but you'll have to wait to see that! Stay tuned for the highlights of 2009 and what's in store for 2010, including my Top Ten Reasons for Moving Back to Champaign!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

So I've been home in Ohio for about a week. My weekend in Champaign was great. I saw Tessa and Justin, spent time with Ryan and Katy. Pizza, Beer, Trival Pursuit (which I suck at) and Up. What could be better?

Sunday was great. We went to the Danville Vineyard. It's pretty cool, and it's exciting to see a young church plant doing so well. We went to the Busey Children's Christmas party, where I got to see more familiar faces. And I went to Godsearch Sunday night.

Which brings me to Ohio. I haven't done much, but it's been good to spend time with my family. Sara and I went to Ikea on Friday. I got some really great ideas for organization and planning. You know, once I get my own place and I have money to spend. This Ikea was smaller than the Chicago store, so it wasn't quite as overwhelming. And we both managed to leave without buying anything!

Saturday the girls came over to make chocolate covered pretzels. What a mess! Saturday night we went down to Christmas in Loveland. It's was rainy and cold, but we got to see the live nativity, ride a horse drawn carriage and a train. The girls made ornaments too.

I've been watching a lot of movies (thank you Redbox) Star Trek, Carriers (both featuring Chris Pine) I'm about to watch Public Enemies, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. So in honor of all the movie watching, I have assembled by holiday movie list for theaters (thank you Katy)

• It's Complicated (just because John Krasinski is in it)
• Sherlock Holmes
• Leap Year
• Nine
• Young Victoria

I'm going to have a lot to do when I get back to Champaign!!

God's got His hand on you so, Don't Live Life in Fear

Wow, this week has flown by, which is exactly what I wanted it to do.

Last weekend was amazing. It was so good to see Rachel and do our Christmas in the Chapel/First Wok tradition. Christmas in the Chapel was great as usual, but it was so weird not to see the regular main cast from previous years. I guess you'll have that when you're 3 years removed from the school. For example, Steph was a freshman when I was a senior, and she's a senior now, getting ready to go on her internship and then graduate!!

Sunday was great too, I went to Sonny and Rachel's church, and then we went out to lunch. They are such an incredible blessing to me, and I'm so glad that we will be closer to each other soon.

Monday was the last day of official classes, and I only had two to go to anyway. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent studying, doing my final project for Design, cleaning, and packing. It also snowed almost all day Tuesday and most of the day on Wednesday. We got a few inches, but the killer is the wind chill, as usual. I was walking across campus on Thursday and my hands started burning it was so cold, and I had gloves on!

Thursday was great. My final critique went really well. They had another professor critique as well as my two professors for the class, and they all gave good insight on my project and the process that I had. I prepared a little something to say, and they said that they were most impressed that I understood the process and stuck with something because I felt like it was a good place to start. That was very encouraging.

Thursday night I picked up Ryan and Katy at the train station after their concert, and we hung around my tiny apartment and then went to bed, I had to be up early for exams for Friday anyway! I have found that it is super quiet in here at night, and having a sliding "closet" door for a bedroom door doesn't exactly lend itself to privacy. It was funny though.

Friday I took my last two finals at Judson!!! Yippee. Then we started our way into the city. We stopped at Ikea on the way to look for a coffee table. That place is huge and overwhelming. Just to give you an idea of the vastness, here's an aerial view. It was so confusing, but a really strategic layout as a business model. You couldn't get from one floor to the next by escalator without walking each level. If that makes sense. The up and down escalators didn't match up on each floor. And they had sweet individual escalators for your cart. That was interesting.

So after successfully finding a good coffee table, we got back on the road to head for Goose Island. And it was a really great time. I'm so glad we were able to plan this little trip and use our gift certificates. In total, for the three of us, we managed to spend $150 on food, drink, and merch, but we only paid $75. Sweet Deal!! And instead of drinking full glasses of everything, we tried samples of a variety, which was probably better for me in the long run. I had...Blonde Ale, Mild Winter, Nut Brown Ale, Blonde Rascal, and a taste of the Bourbon County Brand Stout (definitely not for my taste). We got three Goose Island Glasses, they're pretty sweet, and Katy and I got tshirts too.

We're pretty much amazing and know how to get a good deal on stuff!!

Michigan Ave. was so pretty last night all lit up with Christmas lights. I would have enjoyed it more if I had time to stop and look, but I was more concerned with driving in downtown Chicago. All in all, a great trip. Good semester of change and growth in my artwork, but I'm ready for a month break to be at home...and I'm ready to be back in Champaign.

I should probably mention the Title and the Song. It's from a band called Sidewalk Prophets and it's called "The Words I Would Say" and I just love everything about the lyrics right now.

Be strong in the Lord

Never give up hope

You're gonna do great things

I already know

God's got His hand on you so

Don't live life in fear

Forgive and forget

But don't forget why you're here

Take your time and pray

These are the words I would say

I don't know what I need to do and when I need to do it, but I know that I don't want to be here. And it feels like this chorus is just talking to me. Don't give up hope, you're going to do great things, and God has his hand on me, and I shouldn't fear, which is always a fallback emotion for me.

I'm headed for Champaign today! Reindeer park, icing cookies, dinner for today. Sunday is Church, Kid's Christmas party, maybe Godsearch. Then Ohio on Monday afternoon. Welcome Home Sam, in both places: family, friends, familiarity, support (sorry that doesn't start with an 'f').

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

It's that time of year again! Time for Christmas music. As soon as Thanksgiving hit, I started playing Christmas music, and as soon as I got back to my computer from the Waters' in Champaign, I put my Christmas music on my ipod. I love Christmas music. My favorite song is "Oh Holy Night" I think every band that I like has done a version of this song, but if I had to pick a favorite, I really think it would be 'N Sync's. They sing in acapella, and their harmonies are just wonderful.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I haven't written about it yet. It was amazing. I went down to Champaign to stay with the Waters. I helped bake a lot. Pie, cake, fudge. And even helped with some of the prep work for all the yummy sides we had. The turkey was AMAZING from the smoker. Well, everything was amazing, I can't lie. Even leftovers the next day (and the next) were still great!









Friday, we attempted to go shopping at midnight, which was a total bust, so we didn't even buy anything and went back to bed. Corrie and I did go to a few places in the morning with the kids, which wasn't bad. I got some Christmas shopping done.

I also learned how to play Double Deck Euchre. I think I like it better than regular Euchre. Who wants to play??

So now it's December, I can't believe it's December already. Here are a few things that I'm looking forward to this next week:

• TODAY!! is Christmas in the Chapel at Lincoln Christian University (ahh, that's weird to say) This is Steph's last CIC. Rachel and I are going down to Lincoln together. So bonus, I get to see Rachel, I get to see Steph, we get to continue our CIC tradition.
• Monday is my last day of classes. I have one test and one regular class period, then work.
• Tuesday is a free "reading" day. Which will be spent cleaning and packing, and working on my final project for design.
• Wednesday all I have is work and then a final at 6 for Tools and Media. Hopefully I get my box back. It turned out really well. I'll put pictures up later.
• Thursday I have my Design final exam and final critique from 8-12. After work, it's back here to clean and pack some more because I need to get the place ready for two of my favorite people coming into town.
• Friday is going to be amazing!!!!! (yeah, I'm that excited) I have two finals which will be fine, but after that, we're going into the city. I have been waiting for this trip since we started planning it months ago. We're going to spend some time downtown, probably do a little shopping and sight seeing. And then we're going to Goose Island. I've had these gift certificates that I got for half off that we're just dying to spend.
• Saturday I'm hoping to leave for Champaign with my friends and then head home to Ohio on Monday morning. I'll be at home for almost an entire month! I'm so excited. I know I'll have a lot planned to do with everyone.

Ok, time to get ready to head to Rachel's!!

Sunday Structures 5th Edition

So what is it about good architecture by a guy named Frank?

A few weeks ago in Design class, we watched a documentary on Frank Gehry, and I was really impressed with his deisgn of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Not to be confused with the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, designed by the other Frank (Lloyd Wright).

The structure sits on 32,500 square meters of property and takes up 24,000 square meters. It sits on the River Nervion, and is at the same level of the river, which is 16 meters below city level.

The facade is built with 33,000 sheets of titanium, which are less than 1/2 millimeter thick, and are guaranteed to last for 100 years. Each sheet is a different shape and is formed to adapt to the placement of the building.

The curves are supposed to feel random to the viewer, with Gehry stating "the randomness of the curves are designed to catch the light." Gehry's style is one of radically sculpted, organic contours, which is also present in his other works. The curves catch the reflection of the river, and the sky

I like his method of designing too. He starts with the model building, and then goes to the plans for it.

This is definitely going to be on my list of things to see in Europe. The building itself is a piece of modern art and architecture, which then houses other contemporary art exhibits. Right now, Frank Lloyd Wright is actually on display, but I won't make it there before the exhibit ends, unfortunately. Good thing I'm living in Illinois and can see his buildings first hand.

Here is the link to a virtual tour of the Museum. It's pretty sweet!

http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/visita_virtual/visita_virtual.php?idioma=en

Wednesday Workings 4th Edition

So yeah, I only have 3 weeks of the semester left. I've been busy with projects, so the blog has slowly slipped away. But here's what I've been doing this week for Design and Tools and Media.

I'm really excited about the design for my box. I've gotten a lot done, but it's due two weeks from tonight, and I have a lot more to do. I spent a few hours today working on giving the illusion of depth to the knotwork with the chisel. Here's the end result:

Then in Design class, we started our unit on Color. This is the only time Judson Architecture students spend on color, so we have been advised to get a good grasp on color. I'm sure I won't have to spend any time on color at U of I either. So we had to make a 12 step color wheel with corresponding tints (white) and tones (black) with acyrlic paint. I think I ended up with more paint on my hands than on the paper.

That's really it. Until next time!!

On a Night Like This, I Could Fall in Love

Yikes, it's been a while. I've been busy with a lot of things, and I'm pretty sure most of my readers know all about it.

Anyway, this blog is all about the weekend in Champaign. It was fantastic!!

The rehearsal dinner was great. It was good to see everyone again, and then Saturday was the big day! Everyone started getting ready super early, and then I met them at the church around 12. We got some great pictures of Tessa and the bridesmaids getting ready. Isn't she so pretty!!One of my favorites was after everyone was ready and we were just waiting for 3 o'clock to come around. Tessa and her nephew played ping-pong in the basement of the church. Great action shot!

One of my weirdest moments, which is worth mentioning. Right before the pictures started in the sanctuary, I walked into one of the pews and ripped a hole in my pantyhose, so I ran over to meijer, which was conveniently right next door to the church, and bought a new pair. And for the 5 minutes that I was in there, MMMBop started playing! Of all the songs in the world to play. I really wanted to laugh out loud, but no one was there to laugh with me.

So I started to get nervous about the reading, but I think I did alright. I even got a few compliments on the passage that I picked, so that was cool. I got a few pictures from the ceremony. Their vows and the ever popular, 'You may kiss your bride' picture.

After the ceremony, we had some time to kill, so we went to the Blind Pig. Always a good time. Thanks for the beer!

The reception was a lot of fun. Food was good, speeches were funny, dancing was great! Footloose and the Cha-Cha slide were my favorite...maybe because I requested them. I tried to catch the bouquet when Tessa threw it. And we had a deal, but somehow I didn't get it. Oh well. I slow danced with Katy a few times, and did the dollar dance with Justin. I'm so happy that I was able to come and be a part of their wedding. I miss them so much, but we will see each other more often very soon.

Don't you love our Maurice's dresses? We're so fashionable. We kept pointing out maurice's clothing at the wedding, it was pretty funny. Also, Ryan doesn't understand 'smile' so he just likes be weird and make a good photo op funny looking. But it was a nice tie, I especially loved the Kenneth Cole dress shoes, nice touch!

And on another note not related to the wedding, I let Zeke take pictures with my camera on Sunday, and this is what he came up with: