It Has Arrived!

School is starting up again this week and it makes me a little sad that I won't be heading to the store and stocking up on school supplies for the start of a new semester. Minus the expenses I love going to school. I especially love the first week of school when I get to see who is in all of my classes (in major classes its always nice to see familiar faces) and hear about all of the things I'll be working on and learning throughout the semester. Yes, the true geek in me LOVES school.

My saddness for not attending school this semester is small in comparison to the excitement I felt when this package arrived in the mail yesterday:

I quickly opened up the package to reveal.....MY DIPLOMA! It felt so good to see my name and the official seals. Graduation was something special and it felt great to accomplish this. This piece of paper represents years of hard work, an unbelievable amount of papers, projects, and assignments, many long nights of studying, and a few hundred laps around the parking lot looking for a spot.

One of the gifts that my parents gave me for graduation was a frame for my diploma. As soon as I opened the package I went straight upstairs to grab the frame and put my diploma in its new home.

It only took a few minutes to get the diploma fitted in the frame....

...and up on the wall in the office.

I think it looks amazing!

Whoa What a Week!!!

Okay, so more like "what a crazy, awesome, fantastic, amazing, INCREDIBLE WEEK?!?!?!?!" I definitely give this last week two thumbs WAY UP! So many incredible things have happened and I feel so excited, blessed, lucky, etc., etc., etc.! Seriously my cup runneth over!

My serious lag in writing posts has been due to the fact that I have been living a very full life for the last week. Every day has been filled with some activity or another (often one AND another) and I've been moving non stop since finals ended on Wednesday. The celebrations began that evening and they are finally all winding down tonight. Needless to say I am completely exhausted but unbelievably happy.

Here's the rundown of this week:

Monday:

- Family Science Exit Exam

-Infancy Final Exam

- Internship Final Packet/Project Due

- Sarah, Amanda, and Grayson arrived

Tuesday:

- Last day of work for a week (feeling a little blah about going back but I'll be happy to be making money again!)

- Fresno READS end of the year celebration dinner at Spaghetti Factory

- Zac's parents arrived

Wednesday:

- Anthropology Final Exam

- Art Final Exam

- Margarita / Taco dinner celebration at the house

Thursday:

- Phone interview with corporate for a new position at work

- Pedicures and shopping with the girls

Friday:

- Wedding dress shopping

- Bridesmaid dress selection

- Engagement dinner

-....Engagement dinner "after party"

Saturday:

- GRADUATION!!!!

- Post Graduation BBQ at the house with the fam bam

Sunday (Today):

- Brunch at Mimi's with the girls

- Ashley's baby shower

- SLEEP!!!! (At least I'm hoping that's what's next!)

It's definitely been a packed week, but I really can't complain! It has been so wonderful being surrounded by all of my amazing friends and family for the whole week. This has definitely been a rarity for the last two semesters. Most of the time I felt so stressed; locked away in my dungeon of a study space, finishing work...alone. But the work has paid off, graduation day finally came, and I am now free to spend time with the ones that I love on a regular basis. It will be so fantastic (yet weird) to catch up with family and friends and have almost nothing new to tell them, instead of weeks worth of things to unload. I am looking forward to this new found freedom of time and energy.

I will certainly post details of each of the daily "adventures" I had this week. For now though, it is time for some serious relaxation! All of the celebrations have caught up to me and a bubble bath is calling my name. Let's just hope that I'm still awake enough to enjoy it.

***I have to renew my energy....tomorrow is day 1 of the 20/20 challenge.

The 20/20 Challenge

The final day of instruction is over and graduation is just 10 short days away! The weekend of graduation will be quite eventful. As I mentioned here my girls Sarah and Amanda will be here on the 17th and they're bringing along little Grayson! Zac's parents will also be coming into town and we have a fun weekend planned:

- My finals end on Wednesday May 18th. (WHOO HOO!)

- Thursday May 19th there is an appreciation dinner for Fresno READS tutors and interns. I had such a great time at my internship and this will be such a nice way to end the experience.

- On Friday May 20th I am going dress shopping with my mom, Zac's mom, and my three bridesmaids, Sarah, Amanda, and Amy. That evening Sarah has planned an engagement dinner for Zac and I. It should be a super fun night with the fam bam and our bridal party.

- The next morning, Saturday May 21 is graduation day! Following the morning ceremony, Zac and I will be inviting our families and a few friends over to our place to enjoy a post graduation bbq.

- On Sunday May 22, some of my girls and I will enjoy an end of the weekend brunch get together before my friend Claire and I head off to a co-worker's baby shower.

So, after the weekend is over, the family visitors have gone, and the thrill of graduation has subsided my datebook will have gone from this :

To this:

It may look a little sad to some people, but an empty week in this datebook is a sigh of relief to me! After having every day filled with work, school, homework assignments, studying, and a little bit of wedding planning, I will gladly take a week off to do.....nothing. Don't get me wrong, the wedding planning part of it has been fun, and I seriously look forward to filling more days in my datebook up with appointments and projects up until the big day, but it will certainly be nice to have a little time off.

So what will I be doing with my time? This is a question I have been getting a lot lately. More specifically it is asked in regards to my future career choices. While I haven't quite figured out my post grad job opportunities, I have at least given thought to what I will be doing to occupy my summer time. For the last little while I have been looking over photos from last year and I will be the first to point out that I look different this summer than I did last summer. The last two semesters have taken a lot of my time and energy to get through them and unfortunately I became neglectful of myself. As a result my clothes have gotten a little tighter and I've felt less energetic. Just take a look at this photo comparison for yourself:

                                                  July 2010                           January 2011

Needless to say, I have set a goal for myself to return to my summer of 2010 weight. This is not only for appearances (although yes I think I looked a lot better back then) but it has more to do with feeling good. At this time last year I felt energized and ready to take on the day. My mornings were spent either running in the park or getting in a good workout at the gym. I ate delicious, fresh foods (prepared mostly by my sweet Zac), and I made time to relax and wind down. With school being over (for the time being) I will now have time to get back to that. I definitely look forward to feeling that good again (and being able to fit into my cute clothes from last year will definitely be a nice bonus!).

In addition to having more time to get back to feeling good, I will also have plenty of time to do my favorite thing....READ! The last two semesters have really taken a lot of work and most of my "free" time has gone to studying, homework, or other school related activities. After graduation I will finally have some time to make a dent in the newest additions to my library. For my birthday, Zac's parents got me a gift certificate for Amazon.com and I happily went on a shopping spree for new books. I was super excited everytime a large envelope appeared in my mailbox.

These eight books are now sitting on the shelf in the library, and I am anxious to start reading!

So now for the reason behind the post....the 20/20 challenge. This summer, starting from Monday May 23rd and ending Monday August 29th, my goal is to lose 20lbs and read 20 books. That's 14 weeks (98 days) to accomplish both goals. In the past I have lost 25lbs in 7 weeks, so I am confident that I will be able to reach my goal before the end of the summer challenge. Last summer I read 15 books before having to go back to school. It was so nice to be able to read for pleasure rather than for homework. I really look forward to spending my mornings working out and my afternoons engrossed in a book!

Zac will be a big help for me in accomplishing the first goal. He has been so supportive in the past, preparing delicious and healthy meals, keeping junk food out of the house, joining me for morning laps around our neighborhood and the park, and reminding me that it's okay to indulge every once in a while. I'm sure he'll be just as happy to get back on track. We've both been feeling a little sluggish lately as we've been indulging a little too much these days.

As for the reading challenge here is a look at the books I have selected:

My Amazon order included:

- Official Book Club Selection - by Kathy Griffin

- Good in Bed - by Jennifer Weiner

- Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea - by Chelsea Handler

- Tip It! - by Maggie Griffin

- Sing You Home - by Jodi Picoult

- Something Borrowed - by Emily Giffin

- Something Blue - by Emily Giffin

- Baby Proff - by Emily Giffin

In addition to these books I am also hoping to read:

- The Murderer's Daughters - by Randy Susan Meyers (Amy let me borrow this book and said that it was really good. I've already started to read it and it's really good so far.)

- Certain Girls - by Jennifer Weiner (the book that follows Good in Bed)

- All 7 Harry Potter books (Sarah let me borrow these books a long time ago and I never got around to reading them. It's time to finally sit down and enjoy them. Maybe a Harry Potter movie marathon will be in order afterwards. Also, it looks like she's missing book #5 so if anyone has it and is willing to let me borrow it for a little while I would appreciate it.)

- Eclipse and Breaking Dawn from the Twilight series (Also on loan from Miss Sarah :D)

- Enchantment: The Life Of Audrey Hepburn - by Donald Spoto

- Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass- both by Lewis Carroll

In order to reach my goal by the end of the challenge, I will need to read one book about every 5 days. I definitely think this is doable. Plus it should be fun to finally read all these books that have just been sitting around waiting to be read. :)

In the meantime, if anyone has any helpful, healthy tips to keep me on focus, or any great book suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.

Does anyone else have plans for the summer? Fun trips? Events or parties to look forward to? Goals to accomplish? Please feel free to share. :)

My Days Are Numbered

Yesterday I finished the last paper of my college career!!! (Well....at least until I decide to go for my master's degree). It was a 10 page paper on the social construction of gender in the Disney Princess films. It was definitely an interesting topic and I really enjoyed researching it. Who doesn't like watching a bunch of movies for school?! There are so many instances in the films that reveal underlying messages about gender roles and stereotypes. A few examples I used in my paper:

Sending the message that love comes at the cost of personal sacrifice, Ariel is willing to trade not only her voice for a pair of legs but also her family and friends in the ocean to be in an unfamiliar land with a man that she is in love with but does not know. Ursula insists that Ariel has no need for her voice on land. She tell Ariel that making Eric fall in love with her will be easy because "You'll have your looks. Your pretty face. And don't underestimate the importance of body language." She goes on to sing: "The men up there don't like a lot of blabber. They think a girl who gossips is a bore. Yes, on land it's much preferred for ladies not say a word. After all dear what is idle prattle for?" She also says,"It's she who holds her tongue who gets the man!" Well enough talk from me, take a look :

In Snow White the evil queen becomes enraged when she discovers that another is more fair than she. To regain her status as the most fair in the land she sets out to kill Snow White. Meanwhile, Snow White does not fight back from the abuse she endures in her own home at the hands of the queen. Instead she accepts her position has housemaid and sings of waiting for her prince to home.



Competition between women is emphasized in Cinderella. The stepmother is threatened by Cinderella's beauty and is afraid that if the prince sees her, he will not choose one of her daughters to marry. (The goal of course being to gain royalty and riches) To prevent Cinderella from working on her own dress for the ball the stepmother gives Cinderella a long list of chores to complete. Shocked that Cinderella accomplishes not only the tasks but the dress in time for the big event, the stepmother allows her daughters to destroy Cinderella's outfit before leaving her alone in the house.

I find it really interesting that in all of these stories, the evil force set out to destroy the lives of the young maidens are not only women, but are older, less attractive women.

The best part about finishing the paper (besides the fact that it is 10 pages I don't have to worry about anymore) is that it means I'm done! Tomorrow is the last day of instruction. After I turn in my Anthropology paper, a packet of completion for my internship, and the 10 pages on social construction for my Art class, all that stands between me, graduation, and a fun filled summer of catch up dates with friends, morning walks in the park with my love, and some serious wedding planning, are four finals. Just 4 exams between me and my diploma!

Graduation is in 11 days! Whoo hoo!

Finally!

Three weeks from today I will be walking into a room, wearing a gown, utterly excited!

Nope, it won't be our wedding day...its GRADUATION DAY!

Finally the day has come to put on that cap and gown, move my tassel, and accept my diploma! As I graduated from high school in 2003, this day has been a long time coming. I started going to Fresno City College right out of high school. After a few years at City, majoring in journalism, I decided that I needed a break from school. My plan was to take a semester off and instead three years went by before I started the process to go back to school. In that time I was working two serving jobs, met and started dating Zac, and moved out of my parents house. Realizing that I didn't want to serve tables as a life long job, I quit one of my jobs and started to get everything in order to go back to school.

When I stopped going to school, I didn't drop my classes, I just stopped attending class. It had a seriously negative impact on my grade point average and I lost my opportunity to receive financial aid. It took a lot to sort out everything but I was finally back in school and it felt great. I had a few semesters at Fresno City and then I was able to transfer to Fresno State. I changed my major from journalism to child development, and then when I started attending State it changed to Child and Family Consumer Sciences. The change in major made going back to school feel like starting all over again, but I couldn't be happier about the change. Clearly, I still love to write (and that's a passion that will never fade), but I feel so enriched by all that I have learned in my major courses and I am so happy with my decision to change my educational goals.

The next two weeks leading up to finals are going to be a little stressful. I have two term papers, a project report and an exam to get completed. May 11 is the final day of instruction and then its 4 finals to go before grauation! It's a lot to get done in a short amount of time but I am confident that I can get it all done and successfully pass my courses. Until then, my cap and gown are hanging in my closet. It's a nice little reminder on the days that I get ready for school, of what I'm working towards.

It's been a long journey and I am so excited to finally reach this accomplishment.

To make it even more special, this year is the school's centennial celebration. How awesome is that?!