Tis the season

So here is a picture of our first Christmas tree. Its not fully decorated in this picture, but hey its better than nothing. It now has lights, and ornaments and presents underneath it. I wanted tinsel to throw on it, but I think that may end up too messy.

People

I mostly just love people and humanity sometimes. I enjoy my multiple jobs because I just get to talk to people about whatever, and they are always just themselves. There is no need to impress me, I'm just the waitress. Its nice to see people being real, and its a rare situation when it can happen like that. Today I met a real interesting lady at the photo counter in Walmart. The crazy sort that works at Walmart and actually enjoys their job. I'll admit. I'm impressed, but life does that sometimes. Sometimes I only see beauty and humor in everything. Those are always the best times. I try to keep it around.

exercise

I want you to think about it anyway you want. Go in any direction you want with it. Just think about it.

LIFE

Let's talk again soon.

Weeeeeeeekend.

So Eric and I traveled down Sunday morning before Thanksgiving to what some call Bubblecity or Shampoo Banana. We went immediately to the Urbana Free Library where we searched diligently for books to sell on Amazon. We met some wonderful people full of advise on being booksellers and we also found some decent books to sell! They gave us great information on book scanners and different aspects of the industry in which we can improve. What a great connection!!

We then went and had a wonderful meal with Grandparents. This is where I told them that we have decided to travel abroad and become great adventurers together. It went over much more pleasantly than I had expected. We had great conversation. I will really miss them when we go. I have found them an excellent present for the upcoming gift giving season.

From there we went to visit with great friends, and there was good conversation and jimmy johns. A wonderful lady friend of ours let us use her queen sized bed for the night as she was away, and it was luxurious compared to the twin we normally share. Many thanks to her!!

The next morning we awoke early and headed back to the library for free day. It was kind of crazy and we attained 7 large plastic bins full of good condition books, in hopes that they will be worth something on Amazon.

We were incredibly efficient and had time to visit a library and update our stocks before lunch. BUY SELL BUY SELL... etc etc After the library we had enough time to head over to Curtis Apple Orchard and buy some presents and things for ourselves! Apple donuts, cider and corn salsa top the list. YUMMMM Next up we met Pedro at a truly authentic Mexican Grill restaurant that replaced one of my favorite (but floundering) donut shops. It is called Maize and is on the corner of first and green in Champaign. The place was packed, with people eating in their car and squeezing together inside to get out of the cold while we waited for our food. We took it to go and spent a good many hours back at the house watching a rerun "Live" Thanksgiving special from the Food Network. An incredibly excellent way to spend an afternoon!

We then went to have dinner with my mother. Dinner was superb and it was nice to see her and catch up on things. We visited for a while and watched the end of Predator vs. Alien. Shortly after we collected the remaining Christmas decorations from my dad's apartment and returned home. Many of the books we've put on Amazon have sold in this past week which is nice to see.

Okay so here were my goals for November:

Finish LOTR I

Start LOTR II

Start reading CASCA

Finish 15/20 of my course modules

Practice a bit of rosetta stone

Go to yoga 3 times a week.

What I accomplished:

Finished LOTR I

Started LOTR II

Finished 7/20 course modules

Went to yoga 3 times all month (boo)

Ate amazing thanksgiving

Told my grandparents I'm moving to Korea

And I still have a few more days!

Going places

Okay well then. How are you? Let's start today with a quote:

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true." -Leon J. Suenes

I enjoy quotes. I find them really useful as inspiration for my life and they help me stir up my creativity. This one I have used in the past several times. I think its one of those realistically inspirational quotes that make one realize there is a price to pay and consequences for one's actions. I don't mind that though. Sacrifices need to be made to achieve anything worth while. One of my managers also enjoys quotes. I think it is good to have a base of inspiration laid around a shared success.

Speaking of my job... We have a rating program that goes around and makes sure the employees are doing their jobs right, and ensure best quality experience, and blah blah blah etc. I was recently rated and received a perfect 10. I hear this is a big deal, but I only received the news via txt message so I don't know the details yet. I also hear I won something (beside prestige of course). This was announced on a Friday night. I normally always work that night, but I took it off to have dinner with Eric, and his family.

The whole day was really wonderful. I finished part of my new class I'm taking. Did I tell you about that yet? I'm taking a class to be a better English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher. Why? Oh well because Eric and I are going to teach English in South Korea this coming spring. Then I read a bunch of the book I'm reading (Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring). I made goals for the month of November (I'll list those later). Then we went to a really awesome hot yoga class at Tribalance studio.

Yoga is so awesome. I am getting stronger, and more confident in my strength. Its so nice to be

fit again. Each teacher at the studio has a different style, but its all basically the same format. Poses for strength, poses for balance, ab workouts, tension-release relaxation. The different teachers have different followers and its sort of obvious which teach the more advanced classes, and who is more dedicated to beginners. I like to mix it up and work on different things in each class. The hardest pose for me to do is always half moon. I've included a picture.

Anyway back to my quote. Eric and I got accepted to teach next spring with the S. Korean government. So we have not so much time left here in the states. I am really excited about this change. I get excited at the tiniest steps toward being more independant and "adulthood". Sure being responsible is a bit arduous and I often wish I could just not work, but it is also incredibly fulfilling. We'll be leaving sometime between Feb 14th and the end of April. We'll know the details for certain in December.

Okay so here is my list of November goals:

Finish LOTR I

Start LOTR II

Start reading CASCA

Finish 15/20 of my course modules

Practice a bit of rosetta stone

Go to yoga 3 times a week.

Life is good.

So Eric and I finally sent in our applications to teach English in South Korea. Shortly afterwards, EPIK sent us an email saying they had been received and that we are in the processing stage of the application. Next we will have scheduled interviews, and things will progress from there. I am super pumped about the whole thing. We are applicants 216 and 217.

In other really shocking news we have a mouse in our apartment. We named him Mortimer and he is dark brown. We chased him all around the apartment the other day trying to catch him, but failed. Then we went to eat dinner at Wildfire with Eric's giftcard from winning an oyster slurping contest. Oh? I didn't tell you about that?

Well Shaw's crab house has a big oyster festival every year, and for one week from 3-6pm they have 50 cent oysters for people to buy and eat. Monday thru Thursday of this oyster festival week they also have a slurping contest where a bunch of people try to slurp 12 oysters with no hands the fastest to win giftcards and wine and some other stuff. So we went in on Tuesday, and Eric tried. He choked on some oyster juice. Very sad, and he did not place. So we went back wednesday, he got third! He was happy to win some things, but he still wanted that coveted first place! So we went back Thursday. He finally got first place and part of that was a $100 Lettuce entertain you gift card.

We moved!

Our kitchen is beautiful! We both have calendars in the kitchen with our work schedules on them. Mine is cats in hats and Eric's is a more zenful landscape calendar.

Our living room is spacious and comfy. It has a large sliding doors on it which let in massive quantities of wonderful sunlight during the day, and cool breezes at night.

We have an outrageously large balcony!

Our bedroom is spacious, and mostly empty so far.

but we have a really large closet!

Our bathroom is super cute :D

New and exciting things

So I quit one of my jobs before we went to Colorado. I spent a bit of time relaxing after we came back and then went seeking. I quickly found the place I wanted to work. It must have been the right decision because I applied and was promptly hired and trained. Its good money and a fairly decent work environment. I think all considered a very good outcome to my search. I worked 55+ hours in 5 days between my new and old job, and I'm casually ecstatic and exhausted. Eric and I have been working, doing hot yoga regularly. The yoga makes me feel great and I am getting my muscle tone back, I look so good.

If you look at any of the following posts and want to see larger versions of the pictures just click on them. You'll get larger versions of them. I mostly posted the really good ones, so I think they're worth looking on.

Eric and I are applying to teach English in South Korea and the application opens up Oct 1st, so that is going to be an exciting day (recently Eric and I found a shiny new apartment to move into Oct 1st). All these things are so exciting that even when I'm working so many hours I maintain a decent amount of bubbly excitement.

Right now I am watching The Dark Knight for the hundreth time. It makes me feel like I am not so much an agent of chaos (watching movies not so chaotic) but it inspires me and hopefully I can carry that feeling with me.

Colorado

Our last night in Colorado we had a crazy campsite. There wasn't really a place to put the tent, and the promise of rain led us to decide to sleep in the car. The firepit already had some wood in it so we built up a fire and cooked up some beans. We ate well and told stories.

We watched the sunset from the top of some rocks. It was very pretty

The clouds looked great that night.

The next day on the way home we found the pony express statue.

Late colorado posting

Eric almost didn't make it.

Beautiful wildflowers and the adventures of baby dinosaur

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake and the paths around it.

Mountain roads.

Going through the a tunnel in the mountain!

Ski slopes during the summer. So strange to think about!

music

So I've been looking back through my wonderful blog written while I was in Sweden. There are lots of posts with music videos in them, showing what I was super loving at the time, and I do say! What good it is to be able to look back and enjoy them. So here I'll post some of the songs, I'm loving right now. Then I can look back in the future, but you might also enjoy them.

Adele- Hometown

Hot Chelle Rae- Tonight Tonight

Patrick Stump -This City (featuring Lupe Fiasco!)

Iyaz- pretty girls chi city version (featuring Travie McCoy!)

Foster the People- Pumped up Kicks

Cottonwood Pass

These clouds look fake but were real.

So we drove up a scary country road with endless winding and twisting and drop offs into nothingness mere feet away

To get to Cottonwood Pass!

where we decided to go climb around way up high. Here is Eric looking quite intrepid.

Eric got the chance to fulfill one of his life long dreams and threw a snowball in August.

Gunnison