Happy Birthday

Today, August 31st, in my little brother's birthday. Can you believe it?!?

My baby bro is 21 YEARS OLD!!

We are definitely growing up toooooo fast!!! I am excited it's his birthday and I hope he has a great day. :) I'm excited to see him this weekend for Labor Day.

We were once this small! Splashing around in the pool!

And look at us now! This picture was taken over a month ago.

Love you little bro! Have a great day!!

You should all go wish him a happy birthday too, he's a pretty cool kid! :P

Colorful Office and Martinis

So, it is currently Saturday. Let me tell you what I have done today:

• Woke up around 9am
• Took over the washer and dryer to do 2 loads of laundry
• Helped a co-worker write an incident report
• Ate lunch with said co-worker
• Took a nap
• Folded laundry
• Cleaned apartment
• Watched Shrek 2
• Worked on a small project

As you can see, there has been little to no time spent out of my apartment. I find leaving my abode sucks me into my employee's endless questions. It's Saturday, I'm not supposed to work!

I have been verryyyyyy worn down, but we'll save that for a later post.

So what is in this post? Random stuff, really. Because I feel random today!

Remember how my office looked before? Yeah, I needed some wall art! I like it much better now!

After cleaning my apartment, I found an old tree calendar. PERFECT!

Two friends bought me an orchid and it currently has made its home in my office to bring me much happiness :)

**Just a note: these picture no where resemble what my current office looks like. This week I will post an update, it's much busier! This was right before Move-In

Speaking of Move-In.... that baby wiped me out! It took a lot to deal with crabby parents, early mornings, late nights, and hot days. I can't believe some of things parents said to me!

Parent: I need to talk to someone in charge
Me: That would be me, what can I do for you?
Parent: I am so upset about how today has gone!
Me: May I ask what you are concerned about?
Parent: Well, first of all, you don't have change behind your front desk, how is my son supposed to get change for when he washes his clothes?
Me: We do have a change machine in the back lobby that takes $1 and $5 bills to assist with that
Parent: Well, all I have are $20s! And it's your fault I can't get change.
Me: If you go across the street to any of the restaurants, I'm sure they would be willing to give you change for your $20
Parent: Yeah, whatever. And you know what, your building is built so confusingly. My son is on the second floor and I got so lost trying to find the exit. If only someone would have helped me understand how this place is laid out.
Me: Umm, I'm sorry you were confused.
Parent: I need get out of here.

Yeah... well, multiply that conversation over three days. It was very exhausting. So, a co-worker suggested getting off campus for a bit before the last day of move-in.

This is me and my good friend down here, Maria!

A beverage I thoroughly enjoyed while off campus... a diva martini!

My goofy friend really wanted a picture with the plastic horse!

So a friend and I followed suit! A little smooch for the horse!

I'm glad to have found friends down here that I can rely on and lean on when times get tough! In a bit, I will post how things are going with my job and some more pictures of my crazy busy office!!!

Move What?

Remember when I used to post stuff?

OY-VAY.

I just finished my first move-in as a professional staff member at ISU, and geez was it something else. I had it EASY as the student director!

Needless to say, I am currently working veryyyyyyyyy long hours. (ie. work by 7:30, home by 9pm) with a break for lunch. It's getting exhausting, but I am trying to keep my head in the game for the next few weeks to get a schedule down with all my employees.

Did you ever thing I'd be the one supervising 55 employees?

Me either.

On that note, it's 11:30pm and I know that tomorrow will be a long one, I need to get some sleep! Hopefully this weekend I will be able to update a little on move-in, how my office has changed, and my work friends!

Being Grow-ed Up: My New Office

So, I am all moved into my new apartment... and there is this thing that comes along with it... a job! For the first two weeks, the new staff members (myself included) were in an intense training process. There was maybe a half an hour here, a half an hour there that we were actually in our offices. During those times, I started to gather supplies and set up my electronics. Here is the before state:

During the two total hours I had during those two weeks, I managed to gather a lot of junk! Before this picture was taken, tech came and took away the THREE extra phones that were in my office for some reason!

A few from my desk to the door... looking just a bit drab, I need some decor ideas!

A few from my desk to the other part of my office. Another random desk? I tried moving it and it almost crumbled into a bunch of pieces. Oops! Looks like it'll stay there for awhile longer...

This week we are given a lot more office hours so I started to organize the stuff that I had been collecting. Plus my mom was great and gave me some stuff to help - including a plant! That definitely helps me feel comfortable. :)

My desk all cleared up and starting to look more organized. Since this picture was taken, I've even added more stuff!

At my desk on my first full day in the office! My good friend, Auto, took this picture. Auto Timer.

My door!

I created this little number today to put on my door so people know where I am! It's got a bunch of trees on it. :)

That's my life right now! Desk, apartment... cant wait til people start moving in!! I'll update you on how life changes when that happens! :)

Being Grow-ed Up: My new digs

Growing up.

It's kind of stressing me out, honestly. But before we get all feel-y and emotional-y, let's go through the basics:

On the 17th, my wonderful parents packed up the van with my belongings to travel back to ISU. (Ok, and my car was pretty full, too. I have a lot of stuff!!) 2 hours later, I was checking in to begin my first full time job as an Assistant Residence Hall Coordinator in South Campus at ISU. Whew! (If you are a relative reading this, yeah I haven't posted about it before now because it was hush hush for awhile!)

So... YAY Amy has a full time job! In the Housing Department that I loved so much during my undergrad! Only small downside... living in the residence halls for a fifth year. Don't get me wrong... I love the halls.... but 5 years in a row? Haha, guess I can't get enough. It'll be hard to pick up guys!

Well, I wanted to document before and afters of moving into my very own apartment. Even though its in a residence hall, its mine, its more than 1 room, and I love it!

If you know me, the thought of having my own kitchen is scary - I am a horrible cook!

This is a good portion of the stuff my parents lugged down with them to help me move in! This will be my living area. (What you cant see, is how much moving of furniture happened before this picture was taken!)

My kitchen table with even MORE junk on it to move in!

My apartment has two bedrooms, this is the second one! (Didn't get a good pic of the main bedroom)

Well, we arrived at ISU around noon, I got my keys, moved everything into the apartment, went to lunch, bought things I forgot/would need, and we came back to assemble a few things. My parents were great, it was a VERY long day of driving, moving, shopping, and being patient with my furniture placement. THEN I insisted I wanted a desk and my dad thought I needed a good chair, so we went and purchased them (and a few more items....). That meant... I needed help putting it all together. By the time they were done helping me, they didn't get back up north until after 11pm!

After a day or so of unpacking and personalizing, here is my kitchen! Complete with flowers, I need to have plants near me. :)

Looking back on this, I should have done something creative with those magnets! And that stove in the corner - electric. That = scary. :(

My living area with more of it unpacked. That blanket is sadly protecting my couch from a leak in my ceiling.

My bedroom.... let's call it the master bedroom. That's got a fun ring to it! Haha. I LOVE my comforter!

Opposite of my bed is my desk and work corner. YES, I know how hectic it looks, but this is how I like my work area. :)

Every day I come up with new ways to make it my own, little pictures, etc. It's been fun having my own three rooms plus a bathroom, but a little strange because I don't have Shannon living with me anymore! At least there's only a few human sized roaches that keep me company.... :P

The Most Beautiful Wedding Ever

I mentioned quite a few posts ago, that I was asked to be apart of Stephanie's wedding and I was super excited about it! Well, on July 10th, she married the love of her life and I was present for it!!

I want to post a million pictures and tell a bunch of stories, but the bride herself hasn't posted yet, so I don't want to get too carried away. Please forgive me for being self-centered and posting a lot of pictures of me, but follow Steph and you'll see even more soon!!

In the morning, we met up to get our hair and make-up done. I clean up pretty well, huh?

My hair! I loved it, it stayed up, out of my way, and was super fun!

After getting ready, we took lots of photos of the bride! This is us!!

Me walking down the aisle with my partner, Tony.

The wedding party with the new married couple. What a fun group of people to hang out with all night!

My beautiful family with the new couple. Wish the angle was better to see everyone, but still a great picture!!!!

We took some very fun pictures at the Arts Center. I wont lie, I did NOT want to pose with this goofy sculpture thingy.... but the end result was pretty sweet!

Fast forward to the reception, Tony and I choreographed some crazy-style entrance. We learned our entrance song was a "fast, country song that Amy knows." Ding ding ding! Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy! We brought cowboy hats and did some silly moves. All of the pictures are pretty nuts, but it was fun!

Posing with my dear childhood friends. It was so fun being together again after many years!

To sum up the day: I'm not a morning person, so it was rough to get make up done at 8am; I was so nervous, I could barely eat lunch; magic erasers take street grime off wedding dresses pretty well; I learned that will not allow my photographer to do suggest pictures where my dress is dragged on dirty streets; I cried like a baby during the ceremony, like 4 times; my hotel room was on the top level, all the way in the corner, all alone; the reception was a blast; I danced like a crazy person; and I wish I could relive the day again!

Keep an eye on Stephanie's blog for more pictures... Speaking of which, I need to go order some proofs, they were BEAUTIFUL!!!! :)

Ladies Night!

Before a wedding, there is this tradition of the ladies getting together and the boys getting together for separate parties. In my case, I attended the ladies version, also known as the Bachelorette Party!

I know you're dying to know exactly what went on during this excursion, but I am only going to show you a few pictures. :) I couldn't NOT post anything, it was TOO much of a blast! Of course, this was my first bachelorette party so I was not sure what I was up for, but we were with such an awesome group!!!!

We started at Katie's house, played some games, ate some yummy snacks, and had a blast! Then we made our way to downtown Naperville to a local bar!

Steph and the bridesmaids at Katie's house before leaving!

We met up with a few more girls at the bar, opened some gifts, and hung out!

Erin and I had fun having a few drinks together for the first time! Note: Hello Kitty bandaid on her thumb!

It didn't take long for Steph to bust out her signature dance move from college!

Before long, we all made it out to the dance floor. I had a blast dancing with my old babysitter! haha

The whole group together outside!!

It was a very cute, pink, fun night!!! That made us all REALLY excited for the wedding the next week!!!

Father's Day Gift

Yes, if you do the math, Father's Day was quite awhile ago! But that doesn't mean I can't update you all on it! And a cool thing about this - is it was on my summer to do list, too!!!

One of the gifts that my aunts gave my grandpa was a Chicago Cubs game with his grandkids. As soon as I heard that, I was PRAYING that I would be in town and free to join everyone on the trip. Thank goodness for my aunt making sure that I would be! :) June 30th, the crazy family went to a Cubs game!

Jack, Ben, Aunt Jean, Grandma and Grandpa drove down to Wrigley while Dad, Doug, and I took the el into the city. Of course we hit some traffic, but we got there in enough time to find our seats and enjoy the setting!

Welcome to Wrigley Field!!! Yayyyy!

The great Ernie Banks!

It was quite an ordeal to find our seats, but we got there in enough time for the first pitch and National Anthem. Since we were so far back, Doug hoisted Ben up to see everything!

What a beaaaauuutifullll view! You cant tell, but it was chilly and windy out there!!! I ended up wearing my dad's coat to stay warm!

We played the Brewers... and while I thought we had a chance of winning, I was quite wrong. :(

We all had fun despite the cooler weather and loss! (I swear, Ben's face says he had a blast! Hehe)

It was fun to hang out with everyone... that was just about my last time hanging out with family before I moved back down to Bloomington Normal. More on that soon!!!!

Things I Do For Fun - Part 2

So today, I was called out of my office because a guy from the Heating and Cooling Plant wanted to get into my apartment to look at the leak in my ceiling. (No big, it's only been 2 weeks.) Well, that was at about 4pm, and I'm supposed to work until 4:30pm. Seeing how it was my supervisor who came to get me, I figured it was ok to leave.

Now, I'm sure I haven't mentioned it on here, but my office is about.... 20 steps from my apartment door. So it's not like I was far away while I went to meet him.

I met him in the lobby and brought him back to my apartment (no one else has keys except for me). Ok, how awkward is that? Leading some older guy to my apartment? Whatever, it had to be done!

He climbs up on a ladder and starts screwing around in my ceiling in my living room... for like 15 minutes. First I started off by watching him at my front door. Well after the first 6 minutes, I was like, "My god, Amy can you be any more creepy?"

No, the thing I do for fun is NOT watch men in my ceiling.

So anyway, I retreated to my room and cleaned up my desk and remembered my printer was claiming paper jam - with no paper in it. I didn't have the patience to tinker with it after I moved in, so I decided now was as good of a time as any. I started looking around for the problem, and found that one of the trays was jammed in the back. Hmm, ok.

Well, in about 2 minutes, I had let myself unscrew every screw in the bottom of the printer and removed every piece that was removable. Then I found the problem!!! BOOYA!

At this point, fixer man had to leave to get more parts, and I ran back to my office to grab my stuff since it was passed 4:30pm. (Yeah, ran. Sure... I walked my 20 steps, grabbed my bag, and walked 20 seconds back. Let's not get over dramatic here.) I came back, changed, and went back to work on my darn printer. The guy came back and went back into my ceiling and I resolved the problem!! I am so cool. Seriously. Time to put it back together. Woot!!!

Errr wait. Where did these pieces go again? Oh crap.

Things like this shouldn't happen.

Well, I was so darn excited about taking it apart, I forgot where all the pieces were supposed to go. I finally got it together after a lot of cursing and losing screws. Yay! Right? Oh wait, what's this?........

I found a random white piece of plastic on the floor. Crap, I have NO clue where this goes!!!!

If you want to know the current status of my printer: It is still claiming paper jam, the small tray I thought was the problem.... I didn't even put it back in the printer, and that little white piece is still sitting on my desk, begging to be put in its rightful home.

Sigh.

Geek squad, be there soon. Things Amy does for fun = hurt electronics for no reason.

Beach Day with Best Friendie

In an earlier post, I mentioned the stuff I wanted to do this summer. Do you remember? Here, I'll show you again!

- Go to a Cubs game!
- Go to any zoo!
- Go to the Chicago Botanic Gardens
- Spend a day in Chi-town
- Bonfire!!
- See fireworks
- See a movie!
- Learn to play poker
- Get past "easy" on guitar hero
- Find the man of my dreams
- Make a small college scrapbook
- Go to the BEACH!
- Go shopping and buy a ridiculous outfit
- Go to a concert!
- Go to Six Flags for a day
- Ride on the back of a motorcycle

So yeah, it's a random list, but I have been able to complete a few up until this date! So this post will be focusing on, "Go to the BEACH" point on my list.

During the Family Fest weekend, I was talking to Shannon and we realized that she had Monday off of work. We brainstormed things we could do together, and the beach immediately came up. I was so excited, I actually texted my mom and asked her to check the weather forecast at that exact moment.

Thank goodness she doesn't ask me too many questions anymore, and just realizes that I am just pretty strange.

Anyway, she texted back, "85 and sunny. Any particular reason why you are asking?" Excitedly I answered that Shannon and I wanted to get our "beach on" or something bizarre of that nature. I don't actually think I got a response... haha.

After an eventful drive down to Chicago, finding an expensive place to park, we made it to Oak Street beach. It was beautiful! And sunny! Shannon and I immediately laid out to get some sun! "The sun never sets on a couple of bad..." well, you get it.

Sadly, I dozed off while laying on my belly and was a little crispy. But we were hungry and hit up the little bistro. It was cute! This was our beach lunch.

Shannon was excited for her chicken fingers!

While I was pumped for my turkey sandwhich, I was a little pissed that our water was so expensive, and to get a cup (to share) cost another 2 dollars! WHAT?

After we ate our rather pricey lunch and headed back out to the beach. It was a nice day. Awkward for the person in the foreground, but still fun!

The sand was SMOKING hot so we jumped into the lake. Man it was freeeeeeezing!

It didn't take long for clouds to roll in tho, which was sad

When the sun did peak out, we ran out to the lake to enjoy it as much as we could. I could only go in as far as my knees cuz it was soooo cold!

There are a few funny stories about this picture. First, while we were in the lake, a man walked up to us and asked if we were in a lake or an ocean. That's totally normal. Then, he walked away and sat right down next to our stuff. We were freezing, but didn't want to go back to our stuff until he left. Shannon's sister and friend joined us and we goofed around until he left. The wind picked up and we walked back to pack up and go home. For a second, we wondered if the creepy man was our stuff!!

Oh man, it was a fun afternoon for both of us. We got away, relaxed, hung out, and had some random fun. We both were like, "We are actually relaxing on a beach!" I had a ton of fun.... and hopefully I can go one more time to the beach before the summer is up! :)