Almost There

Today has been the first day I've made it through without crying. Pretty good considering that at one point I was so distressed that I kept throwing up everything I ate for two days straight. Sorry, that was disgusting, but it's true. I still have moments of nausea but not as much and I am eating now, whereas before it had been absolutely nothing – not on purpose, but because I couldn't hold anything down. I finally ate half of an egg for lunch and half of a waffle with peanut butter for dinner. I'm slowly working my way back to being able to eat and live my life again. Yes, I know I shouldn't be losing all those nutrients, but I'm not doing it on purpose and I am trying to get things down! This is not a healthy way to lose weight (although it is helping with the whole Freshman 15 thing).

My roommates are finally here. It's so different living with 3 other girls than it is living with my dad and brother. They are nice, but um two of them have different tastes than me as in two of them are lesbians and big partiers. Definitely not like me at all! They keep asking me if I'd like to get wasted and I feel dorkish, but I keep declining their invitation. I'm lucky to keep down water. One of the girls is very nice and is somewhat more like me (we both like men and she doesn't really party) but it's still a bit difficult learning to accept that people are not as clean as I am in the kitchen and that their friends will come over at all hours of the morning, even on school nights.

I am incredibly lucky to have my RA living next door to me though as I love her and she's been my first new friend. Her roommates are pretty awesome too. I've spent some nights over there watching TV and hanging out. My friend from home Lauren is also here, so she's been a huge help in helping me get adjusted and having a friend.

My classes are all pretty great – I love going and doing something to be around people. There is a huge amount of work that sort of seems to have been dumped on me, but that's why college classes have a huge amount of extra time for you to do things in between. I'm reading an average of 30 pages per book per class a night, plus I have math homework and other stuff that is all done on line. I think the library may be my new best friend. I also got to meet some new people in a few classes, so hopefully I'll become friends with them as well.

My dad and brother were here over the weekend and I spent the night with them at the hotel. I had a really good cry and told my dad what was going on and he was pretty understanding. If I really still hate it here by Christmas break, then I'll see what I can do about transferring to another college that is about an hour away from home. I would still live on campus and all that, but I would be closer and able to visit more often. I am starting to get used to it here though, so hopefully by December I won't want to be going anywhere.

Tomorrow is club recruitment week and I'll be signing up for a lot of things then. I'm excited as I can't wait to join clubs and everything! Thursday night I'm going to go have dinner with the people who are looking to hire me to watch their girls on the weekends. She knew that I was feeling homesick so she invited me to dinner for something to do. I feel very lucky to have such a kind offer, so of course I accepted! I will be watching the girls on Saturday during the day. I'm hoping that she'll be understanding that I am homesick right now and that I may have to do every other weekend instead of every weekend if I just need to go home and clear my head or whatever. I hate to do that to her, but it's just something that I need to know that I can do before I get into a work relationship.

So that's pretty much it. I'm still looking for things to stick on my wall as it looks pretty bare in here, so I'm hoping to find some cute stuff over the weekend. Oh and I did my laundry for the first time today. That's an experience for sure! There is no A/C in the room where the laundry is, so I sat there for an hour and a half sweating like a pig waiting for my clothes. I did sit outside because it was a little bit cooler and I tried to get my reading done for Fundamentals of Communications. I'm thinking that I'm going to try and hold off until Labor Day to do anymore laundry so that I can do it at home and not have to feel gross doing it!

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers, I really appreciate you all! And yes, I will get pictures of my dorm up eventually, but right now it still looks pretty bare and sad looking.

Missing you.

So, here I am.

I've officially moved into my dorm and I'm alone for what feels like the first time in forever. At home when I was alone I loved it, I craved it, I needed it. Now I don't want to be alone. I'm the only one in my apartment so far and although under any other circumstances I would love it, I sort of wish someone else was here with me to take my mind off of things.

Saying goodbye to my dad was tough; much tougher than I expected actually. It's sort of like all the emotions that I hadn't been able to think about or come to terms with finally hit me today and just keep popping back up. I hate feeling like I'm going to cry every five seconds and although I am distracting myself for the most part with trips to Target, Best Buy and around the general area, I still have this feeling in the pit of my stomach like I just lost someone or something important to me.

When I was little when my brother and I fought, my dad would threaten to send us to boarding school – we both knew he would never do it, but it was his threat. Now I feel like I've gone off to my own boarding school voluntarily and it hurts. I miss my dad, I miss my brother, my friends, my routine, my normal and it sucks. I am not loving college like everyone says and never before have I been this homesick in my life. I suppose it will go away eventually, but a part of me really wants to jump in my car and speed the three hours back to my house and never leave it again.

I didn't think that I would get this homesick – I thought for sure with all the times that I've been away and whatnot that I would be okay, but I'm really not sure if I will be at this point. I mean yes, I'm sure I'll get there, but I really just wish that I would get there now. I really have never felt this way before and I don't like it.

And then there's the part of me that has to think that I'm doing this for me and for my future. I keep telling myself that it's only for a few months, weeks even until Thanksgiving and Christmas and then I'll be halfway there. Then I can go home and hopefully by then I won't want too. Maybe it would be easier if I knew someone over here that I could hug and feel not so alone.

I have met one new person – my RA who is lovely and kind and just happens to knock on my door every time I start to cry (which has only been twice today). She said she went through it too once and that it gets better. I know it will, just when.

I want to write more, I want to share pictures, I want to be thrilled that I've come all this way and have made it into college, but I just can't right now. I pray that tomorrow will be better once the other girls are here and that I'll start to feel like myself again.

My 12x11 Room Awaits Me.

In a little less than 8 hours, I will officially be driving on my way to college. My emotions are all over the place and I'm not sure whether I want to be jumping up and down screaming, "I'M FREE" or sobbing hysterically that "I don't want to goooo". They keep switching back and forth and it's a little strange, I mean this is not what I expected. Honestly I expected to be a sobbing, shaking mess these past few days, but I haven't cried once. Then again, maybe it's because I've been up to my head in boxes (literally the stack of boxes was taller than me) and I already know the next date that I'll be back here.

We packed up the two cars tonight and even though EVERYONE that I showed my collection of boxes to said that, "they [wouldn't] fit", they did. As I was pointing this out a little too gleefully to my father he told me that they won't fit into my room. And that my friends is why Target is where I bought everything from and is right next to the school; although I am beyond positive it will all fit into my 12x12 cell room.

I also have to credit Madonna's new song "Celebration" with helping me to not break down into a crying mess every five minutes in the car. It's something about the lyrics and how stupid/silly sounding they are to me that helps me smile and laugh a bit. Guess what's going to be on repeat in my car tomorrow?

This is such a sporadic post with stuff everywhere, but I can't really form complete paragraphs right now. So excuse the awful writing. I'm tempted to make the rest into bullet points or something; the journalist side of me is cringing with the incomplete sentences and bad grammar usage.

I saw Alison last night for the last time til Thanksgiving/Christmas. We went to Barnes and Noble for a bit, ran into our friend Lauren (who will be going to school with me – she's a sophomore this year) and then came back to my house where Alison played around on my computer. I'm going to miss my friend – I hate that she's in a whole other state!

Today I saw one of my fave families that I've worked for all this summer for the last time. I got a few sweet smiles out of baby S, which is a HUGE change from the screams of wanting mommy she would give me when I first started! Little B turned 2 on Monday, so I got to give him his birthday gift today. He's too cute with his excitement over the littlest things. They promised me that they would send me care packages once they move into their new house. I'm so blessed and lucky that they clicked on my Criagslist post and hired me on the spot before they even had all of their stuff from Washington, DC here.

I thought a bit more about rushing last night. I was sure that I wanted to do it, but now I'm a little hesitant too. No one will give me a straight answer about meeting times, fees, what goes on, ect. I need to know that it won't take up all of my spare time and that I'll still be able to work and be on the newspaper staff, along with other things that I need to do. Rush week is the week before Labor day and clashes with my plans of coming home for a 5 day weekend (because I have Fridays off), so I really do have no idea what to do. Yes, I think that I would love to be part of a sorority, but I do not want to deal with the stupid cattiness or whatever else goes on when you get a ton of girls together. I'm hoping that I'll get to school and there will be SOMEONE there who will take a second to talk to me before I pay for rush week. All I've gotten as of now is people telling me to go check out the website- which I have, multiple times.

As far as this woman who had contacted me to watch her kids via Craigslist, I still have not heard a thing from her. Maybe she's waiting til I get to school to call me? She knows when I go.. It just sort of ticks me off that I've made this effort to contact me and I don't get a response back. The work side of me is dying to book a steady job and it's driving me insane that I haven't been able to do that yet. I know, it's pathetic, but I am extremely work driven – it's my type A personality or whatnot. Note to moms – keep in touch with your potential babysitters, we're humans with a life too!

That's pretty much it. I should go to sleep, but I'm too jumpy to sleep. Maybe I'll finish reading my summer reading? Oh yes, I'm still not done with at book yet – there's a reason that Oprah doesn't have it on her official book club selection. I do have to admit that I'm a tad interested in it as it's a biography and I can take ideas from it to apply to my own.

I've been doing a ton of praying over the last few days. It calms me and brings me back to my elementary school days where I was taught that God will provide once I put my trust in Him. That's exactly what I've done too – everything that scares me or worries me has been given to Him. It is with His protection and guiding hand that I go off to this new chapter in my life and as hard as it, I trust Him to make everything alright.

Weekend Update - Kelsey Style

As I've been packing (and begging my local grocers for boxes) these past few days, I've come to the realization of a few things. I thought that I'd share them with you. For people who have moved before, I'm sure you've experienced this and it comes as no surprise to you, but for someone like myself who has never moved once this is all brand new.

1. Wow, I have a lot of stuff. Okay, seriously everyone thinks they have a lot of stuff and this may be a lesson in why cleaning out a closet should really be a every 6 month thing and not something you wait to do every 4 years. I found shirts in there that I had no idea I even had. Is it sad that I found my school uniform from 8^th grade?! I think so..which is why I'm cleaning this place out over Christmas break.
   

   
   

2. Begging for boxes is not becoming. Last week, was the week I had planned to go to the store and beg for boxes, so that I wouldn't be so desperate. Then I got sick and that whole wonderful idea just went out the window, so on my one free afternoon/night I went to my grocery store at 9 pm pretty much begging for boxes. Let's just say that I'm not above crying little alligator tears to get 3 men to empty out 6 Frosted Flakes boxes so that I could take them home with me. Also special Thanks to Kellogs, your boxes are helping me move all my stuff.
   
   

   
   

3. You don't get much done at Packing Parties. I had a lot of people who wanted to see me before I left and I had a lot of boxes that needed to be packed, so I combined the two with a packing party of course. The party was a success; the packing, not so much. It is not my fault that my friends may have been more interested in jumping into the ocean out back than helping me pack. I also did not encourage their craziness by taking pictures and suggesting different jumps they could try, because really I was all over the packing part of the night. I also didn't voluntarily give away 2 of my beloved boxes to someone because I thought that I didn't need them….um Kellogs, care to send more?
   
   

   
   

4. The Post Office has a website! Actually I'm pretty sure most businesses have a website or whatnot, but come on, how often do you visit the US Post Office's site? Obviously it's right up there with your daily Yahoo! Search. Anyway I just found out that in order to forward my mail, I must wait til I get to school since I don't have my address. Once I get my address I have to wait another two weeks til I'll be able to get my mail and I must change my address on all my magazines since they stop being forwarded after 60 days. For a girl who has quite a bit of subscriptions this may be a bit of a problem – mostly because I'm not sure who I'm still subscribing too and who I stopped paying the bill for. Guess we'll find out! That's why the post office gives 60 days, I suppose…
   
   

   
   

5. My clothes have gone missing. Well not really, but that's what it feels like! I packed most of them up yesterday along with all my shoes and important things, and it's sort of a pain not having a selection of things to wear. I feel like I'm on vacation in my house. For instance, I had to go to a funeral this morning (which I didn't know about when I packed my dresses) and I really did for once in my life not have anything to wear! I did find something that I didn't think would fit, in the back of my closet and wore that, but came really close to wearing jeans…at least it wasn't sweat pants! One girl told me to just unpack things from the boxes..I think I laughed at that one and then realized that maybe I should have labeled the boxes with something other than my last name. Just goes to show you that moving guru I am not!
   

   
   

That's pretty much it for the moving part. I have my guys coming over on Wednesday night to load up my car and my dad's so that we can drive over on Thursday. I'm hoping and praying that all this fits! I'm sort of excited to get to college, if nothing more than to unpack my boxes so that I can see my things again!

Last Thursday my wonderful friend Alison finally came home from college for the summer, so I got to spend the evening with her on Thursday. We went to Yard House and then hit up the mall where she insisted on buying me a graduation present from Tiffanys. I am now the owner of a pair of lovely silver ball earrings – something that will go with everything. We then went to a new store in the mall called Teavanna, and sampled the teas and they were absolutely delicious. I am a coffee girl, but I caved and bought some tea for college because the stuff was really that good! We then got locked out of the department store that we had parked out (we're looking at you Saks) and had the security guard drive us to the car so that we could go to Cheesecake Factory for dessert. I love my Alison time – I wish she would stay longer! Or actually in this case it's ME that's leaving! I'm hoping to get to see her a few more times before I leave this week.

Friday night was my packing party where I got almost nothing done, but we had fun and there was cake so it was all good. I'll miss those people.

Saturday morning I went to the funeral of one of my middle school teacher's husbands. The elementary/middle school that I went to is very close knit and the woman was my teacher for several years. Once I graduated I still kept in touch as she was my brother's teacher and then got promoted to principal. Anyway her husband, who I had gotten to know over the years, had battled cancer for a long time and finally passed away on August 12. The family did know that he had only had a few weeks left so they weren't in shock, but still it's very sad. I sat with my dad and held his hand and just prayed – in a way it was very calming.

Saturday night I was supposed to go out with Alison to Barnes and Noble for coffee, but my ear has been bothering me ever since I had that cold, so I stayed in for the night. It felt really great to not have to work! It's one of the only times that I've been able to do that in 4 years!

Tomorrow I'm supposed to be going to brunch with a friend before she leaves for college and then hopefully I'll go and see the twins one last time before I go. I was supposed to watch them last week and couldn't because of the flu, so I'm really hoping that they'll be awake so that I can see them! I imagine they've gotten so big since I saw them last.

Speaking of work, I had a woman e-mail me asking to set up an interview for the weekend that I move to school because she wants to use me the following Thursday night. We have spoken on the phone once before then and she sounded very nice. She emailed me about an interview and I emailed her back on Monday. Friday came around and she still hadn't emailed me back so I called her – it's now Saturday and I still have not heard anything from her. I'm wondering whether to keep trying to get in contact or whether to drop it? I would really love to work for them as they sound great, but this seems sort of strange that no one is calling back.. I'm praying that the perfect family just drops into my lap.

Also a few weeks ago I spoke with a woman on the phone who wanted to meet me once I got to school so that I could watch her kids. We spoke for a good 30 minutes as I was packing to go to my week long thing of watching the kids from Texas (which I told her about). We hung up the phone on the terms that I would call her once I got to school and that she would call me, ect. A few days ago I'm looking on Craigslist when I see her ad is up again. I go to check the date and time that I spoke with her thinking that she had posted this before I spoke with her, ect. She put this ad up again 15 minutes after I hung up with her! My mind is going "what the….?" And I'm sort of in shock. Not to be cocky or whatnot but I have had numerous moms tell me that they wish I was staying here because they wanted to meet me just based off of my resume! I find it sort of funny that the one woman who I was considering working for doesn't want me…. I have two other families that want to meet me (as I do them) and I am so grateful for that as this woman clearly has no interest in hiring me.

Anyway……

I won another giveaway this week! Thanks so much to Beth over at The Bear Bunch for the Kendall collection from Carolina Pad. I just won school supplies – how awesome is that?! Beth makes awesome crayons for kids that she sells on Etsy, so if you're looking for a unique gift, be sure to check her out. Her munchkins also bare a huge resemblance to my little Tuesday/Thursday munchkins so I had to do a double take to make sure I hadn't found my bosses blog!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with your families and friends!

Kelsey

Stressed Out College Student Losing Sleep Due to Technological Advances

I just read something that made me literally laugh out loud and then say "duh". I was reading my Yahoo! Updates and the headline was "Stressed out College Students Losing Sleep".

Why thank you good people at Health Day News for discovering this. Not only are we losing sleep, but we're also overeating, under eating, drinking, partying, smoking, and tattooing ourselves. Of course all of that didn't come from Health Day News, but I've seen those in other sources.

Perhaps they should have renamed the article "College Students Losing Sleep due to Facebook/Twitter/Yahoo Mail".

It's college, honestly who isn't stressed? And why must it be college students? I'm pretty sure that if I stopped someone on the street and asked them if they are stressed they would say "yes" and if I asked if they were getting the doctor recommend 8 hours of sleep they would say "no".

Honestly I didn't know I was supposed to get 8 hours of sleep - I thought it was 6. That may explain a lot.

Perhaps it's not because of stress that college students don't get 8 hours of sleep, but because of the internet and numerous other things that hold us back from enjoying the sweet lulls of sleep. It's 12:33 AM as a write this and I'm not up and worrying about my problems like the article suggests, instead I am on Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, Blogger, and iTunes to name a few.

Of course it would make perfect sense to go to sleep since I am tired and I do have to wake up at 7:30 to go to work, but being part of the "now generation" means that I want to stay up and do things now. I can't go to sleep until I have read my e-mail and checked my Facebook. It's an addiction. I went to dinner tonight with a friend and I left my phone on my bed by accident and when I got home I had 10 new messages – all from within the past hour I had been gone.

The technological advances are hindering our sleep – not stress. When I'm extremely stressed I don't sleep because I'm up trying to console myself with other things that help me not to focus on my stress. There have been times when it's been two in the morning and I'm up watching movies on Hulu.com because it helps take my mind off other things and it allows me to relax. I owe some of my sanity to 30 Rock and Tina Fey. Sad, but true.

This week because of the stress of packing and moving, I've been doing nothing but making lists. List after list I find myself become less stressed and getting more done. My bathroom and bedding was packed up today and the only things left I have to pack are some miscellaneous items and my clothing – not too bad, but just enough to make me crazed until I have it done. In all reality I could totally get it all done tonight in the early hours of the morning, however my motivation isn't there and I'm distracted by my lovely laptop which in itself is a blessing and a curse.

Before I had a laptop (this time last year), I used to read every night before going to bed. I honestly have not been able to pick up a magazine or book and read it before bed in a little less than a year. Last night I did read my school require book before bed and it was torture because I had to wonder what e-mails I was missing and what Facebook updates were being unread. I find it sad that my ability to live without technology if only for a few hours has hindered what used to be something I love.

The point of my post is that we need to be honest with ourselves, and place blame on not sleeping not on stress, but on technology; technology which has created unnecessary stress and has kept us awake when we should be sleeping and trying to better ourselves. I don't fall exception to this rule and I probably never will as I am a tech geek. Perhaps someday I'll be able to stop the obsession of e-mailing, Facebooking and Twittering into the early hours of the morning – but for now it's my way of life and stressed or not, I doubt it will be a long time until I ever manage to get my 8 hours of sleep.

Doctor recommended indeed.

Last Full Week at home

It's my last full week living in my house full time.

The reality of that has yet to hit, and perhaps that's a good thing. You see I love this house despite everything that I've been through in it. My first and only home in 18 years has seen a ton.

It was here that I first crawled, had my first birthday, had my first playdate, cooked for the first time, held my baby brother, stayed at home alone, lost my first tooth, got my SAT results, studied for my driver's license, and many other firsts. It was also the place where I learned my mother was leaving us; that my family fell apart, that I was raised by my dad and multiple nannies, that I endured pain and heartbreak that no one should ever have to, the place where I was forced to grow up faster than a 6 year old should.

Regardless, I'll miss it here. Maybe not so much my house, as it is only a house, but my family and my friends and my sense of security. The good news is memories come with you wherever you go.

This week is somewhat insane. Last week I became extremely sick with the flu and a throat and ear infection. I spent 4 days battling an unbreakable high fever and was ready to lose my mind by the time it was over. I guess it was a blessing as well as a curse because I needed the rest and the chance to just lie down and do nothing but watch TV. Anyway I couldn't do any of the things that I needed to do last week, so I have to cram it all in this week.

Today I was able to venture out of the house for the first time and made my way to the Post Office for my change of address form, Tiffanys for a Sweet 16 gift for my "little" (and I totally missed her party due to my superflu), Toys R US for a gift for the 2 yr old I watch for his bday, TJ Maxx for some last minute things, the grocery store to try and find boxes that they haven't compacted yet (apparently I have to be there first thing tomorrow morning), Steinmart to return a gift that someone gave me and Target to return a gift that someone gave me. I made it home in less than 4 hours and have managed to wash my new sheets for my new bed.

I've decided that I'm going to attempt to host a packing party on Friday night. I have a TON of stuff that needs to be packed and so many people that want to see me before I leave, that I'm just going to combine them into one. Hopefully this turns out okay and people will actually help me pack instead of just eat my food. I have a feeling I may turn into uber bitch under all the stress and may just chew someone out un-intentionally if I feel that they aren't doing anything!

This week will be crazed to the extreme. I also have to say goodbye to one of my favorite families that I've worked for this summer. They really were great to me and I loved the kids. I hope I'll be able to have contact with them throughout college! If I get married in the next few years the baby can be my flower girl – hah!

In other news I ordered my books for school last night. I had to buy them thru the school's bookstore because the date was so close and I didn't have enough time to research other sites. OMG those books were expensive – even though most of them were used!! Anyone know of any sites for books that has a huge discount?

Past two weeks.

It's been such a whirlwind of the past two weeks! I feel like today has been the first day I've gotten a chance to breathe since I've gotten home. So here's what's been going on with me!

Three Mondays ago (June 20^th) I set off for my first road trip by myself. I went to go visit one of my great friends in St. Augustine for a week and I had a blast.

She has two daughters (4 and 3) so we were busy all the time. She sent the girls to school for two of the days so we did some outlet shopping and hit up Jacksonville. When the girls were with us we toured St. Augustine, went to a cupcake shop (OMG Best cupcake ever!), went to a park, went to the beach (awesome sand – so different from ours), and of course hung out and played. The girls were obsessed with dress up and "fashion show" so we got a lot of that done too! It was a little bit like working (I even watched them one morning), but I loved it and had a great time. She surprised me with news that she's pregnant with number 3, so I'll be going back again sometime during college for sure! Thanks again Michelle, Eric and girls! I had a wonderful time and look forward to coming back up to see you all and of course to watch awesome TV shows at night like Kendra, The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Fashion Show. Oh yes, you know you miss me!

The drive back was sort of awful. It took much longer than the 3.5 hours I had planned on due to really bad weather. I got stuck in a huge lightning and hail storm on the side of the interstate for a good half hour – I was terrified! I honestly thought my windshield was going to break and I had no idea where in Florida I was since my GPS had lost its signal.

Eric insisted on packing me pancakes from breakfast before I left so I was extremely grateful for those as I was sitting in the car and sort of starving waiting for the hail to pass.

I made a few stops on the way home to keep myself entertained and stopped at a Target next to Kennedy Space Center. I hadn't been there in years, so it was sort of cool to be able to drive thru there! Yes, I do realize that perhaps it's a little obsessive that I stopped at a Target out of all the places I could have stopped. What can I say? I love Target. Their Target was so much better than mine, so good job Titusville Target, you made me jealous!

I finally made it home after a long time of driving and singing by myself and went to work of course, because hello, I am devoted.

The next day (Sunday), I threw some new clothes into my suitcase and packed up again that afternoon to go work for the week at a newspaper/yearbook seminar. My job was to watch the three kids of the guest speakers Monday-Thursday all day long. Okay so moms I have to hand it to you – you have one of the hardest, exhausting jobs in the world. I had to watch the kids in the dorm (the convention was at a college so we had to stay in dorms) and it was pure exhaustion. The kids were 10, 6 and 2 so it was sort of hard to watch them in the dorms. Firstly they came here from Texas so they had no toys with them and the only entertainment they had were portable DVD players.

The first day we hit up the beach and they loved it. Well except for the little guy who HATED the water. It probably didn't help that his two older sisters tried to make him go swimming and kept splashing him with water. I felt so bad for him – mom forgot to get swim diapers so he had to wear his soggy diaper for the whole time. It was all good though and we finished up the day with a visit to the park and Sonic. Mom had also forgot to pack the stroller (I'm sorry, but I find strollers to be essential) so I had to scramble and find one as little guy was heavy! I called one of the people I work for and was able to borrow a double stroller for the week.

The second day we hit the zoo and fountains. All the kids loved the zoo and of course the highlight was the gift shop. What is it with kids and gift shops? They were even more thrilled with the fountains that our zoo had so they played in that for a while. I also learned how to change a diaper in a public restroom – oh yes, I am now ready for motherhood. Ha! Later I took them to eat at one of my favorite pizza places downtown and we went to more fountains. We went back to the dorm (which the kids kept calling "cabin") and chilled for a bit, but then the girls started getting crazy and my middle child (also known as my wild child) decided to jump off the bunk bed while I was in the bathroom and she landed on her neck. Scariest moment of my life. She was more than fine and didn't hit anything or bruise anything and was jumping around within 3 minutes. We packed up ourselves and I took them to one of my favorite wooden parks. That lasted for about 20 minutes because my oldest was complaining of the heat – welcome to Florida! Back to the dorm we went and as we were walking down the street we walked by the students – some of my former newspaper staff! I later had one girl tell me that she had no idea it was me and her first thoughts were, "aww, what a cute young mom". Um wow, my own staff can't even recognize me!?

The third day we hit the Science Museum and Turtle park. By this time my car is completely trashed in the back seat by my three kids and I have never seen it so dirty! Now I know why people put seat covers under the car seats – those things are messy! The kids weren't even eating in my car and somehow there were still crumbs. Anyways Science Museum was fun (yet exhausting and they all kept running around like mad people and I had to keep my eye on 3 kids) and they loved it. The Turtle Museum is a rescue center for Turtles so they loved seeing the Loggerheads and baby turtles up close. The third day was the longest day by far as I worked 13 hours straight. I had to put them to bed in the dorm and then sit by myself in the pitch black dark room while they slept. I was so relieved when mom and dad finally came back!

The fourth day I woke up feeling like absolute crap and discovered that I had caught a cold or something, so we packed up the room since they were leaving at 12. I got out of there by 12:30 and seriously bolted into my bed. I have never been so excited to see my bed!! The dorm mattress made me feel like I had a train run over me every night. I also had a roommate who loved waking up at 5:45 AM and being somewhat loud. I am so relieved that I am getting my own room in college, even if it is small!! I LOVE my privacy! I had an appointment at the Honda dealer to get my oil changed (since the light popped on during my first outing on Monday – great timing right?) but cancelled that til Friday.

Since then I worked Friday and Saturday night (two shifts – got home at 2 AM) and have just been relaxing on my couch trying to get better! I hate being sick and I have a ton left to do and pack before I go off to school! AGH! It's getting so close! My goal is to get out of the house tomorrow and get boxes from the grocery store to put my clothes in.

Also in my whirwind of two weeks I managed to win a few awesome contests! Thanks to Kristi at Orange Juice for my 30.00 gift certificate to Skin Free. I ordered the Lite Moisture for blemish prone skin and the Green Clay Mask for Blemish prone skin.

Also thanks to Tricia from 5 Little Monkeys for the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Gift Pack! I'm so excited to bake some GF treats!

So that's what I've been doing!