We had Easter this weekend! How awesome is that!? We also had a four day weekend! We got Good Friday off and then we got Easter Monday off too. My weekend was nice and relaxing so that was good...

Friday I vegged in front of the TV most of the day and then had dinner with my fam at Applebee's so that was a good day. Saturday I didn't do much. Mom and I went out and bought shoes and a cardigan for my dress for Spring Formal next weekend! So that was kewl... Then my friend was over and we hung out a bit. He's more my brother's friend but he's my friend too so the three of us were kinda doing our own thing...

Sunday was Easter! Went to Mass. The priest had a 17 minute homily. My dad timed it- I don't know why. But I thought that was interesting so I was letting you know. :) Then we had a late brunch at about 2:30 PM. My mom and I laid out in the sun for about an hour- and yes, I did get sun burnt and I have no idea why. I guess 'cuz I haven't tanned at all this season so it was about time I turned red. lol Then we kinda hung out and didn't do anything the rest of the day. Had steak and potatoes for dinner and then watched TV together.

Mom had school on Monday and I didn't so I was doing the TV thing again as a relaxation bit. See, I worked all of Spring Break so this was my chance to really do nothing and have fun! lol But I ended up going into my mom's classroom for a bit to get some supplies for a project for one of my classes. Then we went to WalMart for no good reason and both walked away with a few things that we weren't expecting to buy (clothes... need I say more? lol). Of course then I worked on my project a bit.

I came back to school on Tuesday and it's been kinda hard to get back into the swing of things 'cuz we have classes and what not to get back into so I'm kinda tired with that. But it'll all be normal eventually... so ya... Spring Formal's on Saturday at the Aquarium so that's awesome! I'm so psyched about that! My friend, Sam, turns 20 on Friday also so I'm sure we'll go out for that too! Yay!!! :) So off to do projects and catch up on homework that I didn't do over the weekend lol... Hope your break was good and that your week turns out great too!!! :D

within the first 12 hours of being back on facebook i received over 100 notifications in reference to my return and my missing pictures. one comment was from a friend mentioning that facebook has nearly 3000 pictures of me. that was shortly after i posted 6 albums alone from just one week.

so with that, i'm officially back on the book. this morning is when the first challenge arised with my post-lenten goal. i woke up and first checked my e-mail. and then went to facebook. i will be honest. i spent an hour and half on facebook this morning when i first woke up. however. for the next three hours once i logged off i was able to stay off of facebook while i worked on e-mails, papers, and more. so while this addiction still exists, i can finally say no to facebook without any struggle!

these next three weeks (YES THREE WEEKS) left of school are crucial on time! i have due dates and events as well as several meetings to attain to and i will not let facebook tear me away. my strain from facebook for the last couple months has truly helped this semester in means of my procrastination. these next few weeks will NOT go well if i let facebook get in the way so i am setting a rule for myself. i will not allow more than one hour of facebook per day. while i'd prefer to stay to no more than 30 minutes a day after going for 2 months without.... i still am catching up with a lot of things on facebook and i tend to lose track of time while on it (like this morning).

there could still possibly be days where i don't go on facebook at all. it's a challenge that i will have to take on day by day. wish me luck!

thanks again for reading!!!

This Easter was one to be remembered for all time!! I got to spend so much time with my family and friends. I got home on Thursday and stayed in town until Monday afternoon and loved every moment of it. My siblings came into town on Friday afternoon because they were off of work for the day. I was so excited to have some time to spend with my parents one on one for some of the day on Thursday and Friday. Every little minute that I can spend with my parents is very treasured.

On Friday, my family and I took a ride downtown to the town of Chagrin Falls and walked around to look in all the little shops. We got coffee and sat down and talked to for awhile! This time was very nice because I had not seen my siblings for so long!! I had missed them very much! When you live so far away from home, these moments become very special and are never forgotten. The rest of the weekend was just low key and spent at home. We watched movies and had long talks that were either serious or funny!! I love our talks. Then Sunday was a big day to go to church as a family and celebrate life.

I hope that you all enjoy reading my blogs and comment as much as you want!!! No hesitations! Hope you all had a Happy Easter with the people that you love and hold dear in your hearts!

its 2:30 on Sunday April 12, 2009 so that means HAPPY EASTER to all you readers and your families.

 that also means i'm back on facebook. it's already been interesting just from signing on because i couldn't even remember my password! but i got it reset and i'm back on.

 i signed on to see several new requests messages notifications etc.

27 messages
34 notifications
13 friend requests
7 event invitations
33 other requests
and 1 new update

so i made it! i have successfully reached my goal of no access to facebook from february 25th to april 12th. i am very proud! however. this will be difficult to adjust to. i am not liking the new face of this addictive book. we'll see what happens.

i'll update with more details on what will happen next after i actually go through each message notification etc.....

So the musical is over and done with now! I can't believe it! We had our largest audience on Sunday of all days! It was amazing! (No pun intended!) We sold 525 tickets for that show. Our total was between 1700 and 1800 tickets! Last year we only sold about 1200 so it was quite an improvement. Then again, it was helpful having all the parents come see their kids in the show every time so ya... but it was so much fun! And now... now what do I do?

Tom, Shiv, and Jeff were all in the show too! Tom was the lead of Joseph, Shiv (Siohban) was a chorus girl/wife/Pharaoh admirer, and Jeff was in the pit. I was the props master so I got to be in the crew without actually being on stage. Unless you saw me on stage on Thursday-Saturday nights' shows. I didn't do Sunday because I let another crew member do it since her family was there. :) So we had a ton of fun...

But now... now what do I do? All my nights are free now so I can catch up in my classes that I missed but other than that, what do I do? I've gotten pretty much all my things ready for London so there's not much left to do for that. This morning, though, I felt empowered (spelling?) because I found my own information and called around and set up a free checking account for myself! I have a debit/ATM card now! Wow...! I did something so important on my own! I was so proud of myself! lol But now that's done so I have little left to do for my financial part of my London trip other than pay the final amount ($10,485.00 if you can believe it for 6 weeks. Amazing...). Oh! That reminds me! Dateline is now out and my article on London is in there if you wanna read more about it :)

This coming weekend is Easter weekend so we don't have school on Friday or Monday so that's a nice little break right at the end of the semester. We have only 4 1/2 weeks left: this weekend is Easter, next weekend is Spring Formal at Newport Aquarium, the next weekend is Spring Fest, and the weekend after is the Glow Party leading up into exam week. So we're pretty much set with our events for CAB which is basically now how I'm figuring out how much school we have left... Just by how much fun I'm gonna try to have on the weekends with all our school events! lol :)

But during the week I don't have much to do other than school work so I'm trying to keep myself busy. Tomorrow is registration for classes so I'll see what I'll be taking next semester. One of my classes is close to closing so I am NOT happy about that. I don't know what I'll take in place of it if I can't get into so keep your fingers crossed that I can still make one of the final spots. It'll be the first one I sign up for. So good luck to me on that lol :)

So off to the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz! I just felt like saying that... But no, I'm off to do more school work and try to keep myself busy so y'all have a great week and I'll let you know how everything turns out! :)

today, the Joseph performance made MSJ musical history! 525 tickets sold for today's matinee and around 1900 members of the audience over all for 6 consistent nights of perfomances. i am proud to say that this was definitely a rewarding time in my life!

however, the best part of the entire day (weekend, really!) was my mother coming in to see me. last week when she told me that she would be driving out to cincinnati on april 5th to see a show i started crying! i hadn't seen my mother or anyone from chicago since january 12th when i left after xmas break so you could say they were definitely HAPPY tears! 

but within the musical intself, it was an incredible show. I've loved this play since 2001 and have known that order of colors on joseph's coat since day one of chicago children's choir so it was definitely fun to be able to perform such an amazing play with so many close friends. I was even able to make some new friends within the play so i'm ecstatic that it all happened.

((( it's a process to look as great as we did))) ((these joseph girls are hot to go)))

i'm anxious to see what happens for next year's show. i'd love to perform again so i hope the opportunity arises again next year for another amazing performance by the music department.

more pictures will have to wait till after easter once i'm back on facebook :)

it's weird to say that I haven't been on facebook for over a month. as stated previously, I'm the kind of facebooker that logs on every hour of every day. the first week wasn't so horrible because i've been on a no facebook streak twice in the past. once because several people doubted my ability and challenged me to not go on for a week. and the other was because no computer was available at all. this current act is purely for my own personal challenge, as is the lenton promise. and while it is weird to say it - i'm also very proud to say that i have not been on facebook. so then since i'm giving it up for Lent - what about Easter morning?

I decided to research a bit about the Lenton promise. I came across www.catholic.org and found a section about the reaon for giving up something and what happens once Lent is over. I thought I would share what I was able to take from it.

Many promises start with the youth of Lent giving up some kind of candy or junk food or even pop. I recall one of my first Lent promises. I gave up gum for lent and kept telling my parents how excited I was for Easter morning for a lot of gum to be in my Easter basket. Looking back on that occaision, as a junior in college, I am realizing how effective it is to give up something more challenging or meaningful, and what a difference it makes to do something else. by exchanging a lack of one object or addiction with a good deed or something of a more positive nature. by giving up facebook, I am able to pay more attention to my e-mail and paperwork and also spend the time doing more productive things around the college campus and in my life. a portion of the reading on www.catholic.org shared a story about a man who asked his kids how their Lenten promises were going. one of the boys spoke up and expressed his excitement about not fighting with his siblings but then became anxious for Easter morning so he would not have to give it up anymore. well what about me for facebook? i still feel to this day, since i originally challenged myself on Ash Wednesday, to see how long I can really go without facebook. While that's not exactly a part of the Lenten promise, I feel that if I continue with the challenge I will be able to show my ability in surpassing the original goal. i'll be able to prove myself that i can control my procrastination and therefore can better fight my attention deficit. yay me!

I have just over a week left of No FaCeBoOk and i'm anxious to see how I can continue with the progress even after Easter is over!

gasp! i've made it so far! its 12:52pm on march 2nd and i have yet to go on facebook. now some rules have been established since my last post on what no facebook for me means. my account will not be signed in to at all up till Easter Day if not later. I have had a few friends wanting to show me some pictures on facebook - so can i? i have decided that i can simply view the picture as long as it is the only thing visible on the page, therefore - i don't have access to any minifeed/newsfeed/comments/wall posts/etc. I'm sure more rules will come up in the next 33 days. yes, that is how much longer till Easter.

that means 31 days until i see my family again. I haven't been homesince january 12th and won't be until friday of easter weekend. within those 31 days is the Chicago South Side Irish Parade on March 15th. This is my second year in my life to not be in town for the day. If you haven't caught on from my name or any of my previous posts, I have a great pride of being Irish in Chicago. Every year, the sunday before St. Patrick's Day, the South Side of Chicago hosts a parade. Any day of the year, Irish pride is known in chicago, Well on the south side on parade day, everyone is 110% IRISH! this year, I am missing it for the second time because I will be in a car somewhere in Georgia or Alabama driving back to cincinnati from the habitat for humanity (h4h) spring break trip in miami florida. while i will miss seeing my family and friends on this day, I will still be as happy as can be because i will be on my way home from one of the greatest experiences.

I did the h4h trip last year during the spring break trip when 8 select students from the Mount drove out to charleston south carolina. it was definitely something i will never forget. that just makes me this more excited for next weeks trip to florida; a place i have never been! the drive will be long but the trip will definitely be worth while - 19 msj students plus our advisor, all dedicating our spring break to such an amazing service trip! i'm too excited!!! you can expect a LOT of pictures, unfortunately i won't be able to post them on facebook till after easter but it's worth the wait.

plus, with the lack of facebook, i have been able to focus more on paper work, including working on my resume and cover letter. i'm glad i was able to get that done, because i was able to use them for the career fair today. I attend the Kaleidoscope of Careers today in the admin lobby and it was a big success. I got information for two different companies, Cincinnati Recreation Commision and Residential Home Corporation, that both sound like great opportunities. I really am looking forward to the possibilities that are coming with it!

well expect another update soon! and thanks again for reading!