Happy 236th Birthday Jane!

So in case you didn't know, my absolute favorite author is Jane Austen. This last semester I was lucky enough to take a Jane Austen World in Film and Literature class and it was AMAZING. I suppose some people don't care to learn about the authors behind their favorite books. However, I am of the opinion that you can only understand the book itself to a certain point. You have to know the orgin, the history, the backround, to really understand where the story came from. It always gives something more to the story.

Today is Jane's birthday. She would be 236. (and I'm celebrating by getting my wisdom teeth out. bleh.)

Anyway, back to how much I love Jane. It fascinates me that I refer to her as Jane, and not as Austen. Usually when you talk about authors you refer to them by their last name, but when it comes to Jane, it just doesn't feel right to call her Austen, like you would Steinbeck or Dickens. She feels like a close friend, not a distant author on some distance philosophical plane. I feel like I could tell her anything.

This is the table where she did all her writing, at the cottage at Chawton. One day I hope I'll be able to see it myself.

The most amazing thing I think, is that she herself was never married. She told this guy yes once. His name was Harris Bigg-Wither. Or something completely ridiculous like that. If his personality was anything like his name, I think she made the right choice. No matter how much money he had. Some people question how much she could have actually known about love, never having had a "successful" relationship. I think that those who have been disappointed more times than not know more about love than someone who has been in a few "successful" relationships.

Anyway, If you are looking for a book to read over the winter, when the snow is up past the windows and you can't get your car out the driveway, Jane Austen is the way to go. I fell in love with Pride and Prejudice, and personally, I believe it is the easiest to get through. However, my favorite is Persuasion. If you only have time for one book, go with that one. If you have time for more than one, save it for last. Like a treat. :)

Happy Birthday Jane <3

Christmas Movies

Okay everybody. I have a confession to make.

I'm not really into Christmas.

I know! It is terrible. I just haven't really enjoyed it since I was a little kid. Don't ask me why, because I'm not really sure.

One thing I do like however, is Christmas movies. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. When I was a little kid Santa Claus is Comin' to Town was the first movie I really watched all the way through. It was practically on a loop in the tape player.

♫ You put one foot in front of the other... ♪

 Now that I'm older I'm starting to develop more sophisticated taste. I think it was my freshman year of highschool that I first watched Irving Berlin's White Christmas. I fell in love with it right away.

I found out the other day that my boyfriend had never seen it. (He really is lacking in the culture department, but then again, no one is perfect, lol) Anyway, I brought my DVD over to his house and made him watch it.

He did his usual amount of whining and complaining in front of his parents, and honestly, his Dad did some complaining too. "Is this like a musical? Really?"

His dad really couldn't believe this bit....

But as soon as his parents went to bed and no one but me was around he started actually paying attention to the plot. "Do they ever eventually get together? I'm tired of all this suspense!" (Well, that is what he meant. What he actually said was something more like, "Do they breed? I'm tired of all the suspense!" Doesn't he just have a way with words?)

Pretty sure this is about when he was asking....

When the end credits started rolling he actually admitted to liking it. "It wasn't terrible... it was actually pretty good." (WIN) His parents didn't get to finish it until today, and they said they liked it too. (again, WIN).

So friends, what is your favorite Christmas movie? I wonder if I've seen it.... Let me know!

Oh yeah! I'm over a THOUSAND BLOG VIEWS! Thanks so much! It makes me feel so special. :)

What if you woke up tomorrow, with only the things you were Thankful for today?

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I've really been considering something that my adopted dad, "Bobert", posted on Facebook once a while back.

"What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things that you were thankful for today?"

(Sidenote: Is it just me? Or does 90% of my inspriation for my blogs come from Facebook? I'm gonna have to take a closer look at this...)

Anyway, I've really been thinking a lot about this and what it means... I've realized that I don't spend nearly as much time thanking God for the things he has given me as I should. I need to spend less time asking for stuff and complaining about what I have and spend more time being thankful when things go my way.

I'm thankful for so many things. I'm thankful for my family, my friends and Austin. :) I'm thankful for my computer and my iPod and my books that show me a differnt world. (okay, admittedly some things are more important than others) I'm thankful for the paper (even though it drives me CRAZY sometimes I love every minute of it) and I'm thankful for school for opening my mind to new experiences and helping me find out exactly who I am. I've learned SO MUCH about who I am. And I'm thankful for the people who actually take the time to read my blog. It makes me feel AWESOME.

So tell me. (Show me that you are reading this.) What are you thankful for? What would most devastate you to lose? Here is your chance to really be thankful for what you have out loud before the world.

... and happy thanksgiving (early)

So I've been doing some thinking....

I've been doing a lot of thinking about love lately. Does anyone else ever do that? As I lay in bed at night when I'm about to fall asleep I rehash my day in my head and think about how I can make tomorrow better, or what I have left over from the day that I'll have to do tomorrow. (Then after thinking about all of that I usually panic and have to do some reading or something to get my mind off of all of it.... STRESS!)

Anyway, for the last nine... almost ten... months, I've been thinking about the same guy. :)

Yeah. My boyfriend, Austin.(I don't care if it is cheesy, it is TRUE.)

Austin and I have been dating since the end of February. My aunt introduced us. She picked him out from all the boys she saw come in and out of the hair salon where she works. She wanted one of her 4 nieces to date him; she didn't care which one. Lucky for me, he saw me first. :)

The funny bit is, he never really asked me out. (No! I'm totally not kidding!) He changed his facebook status one day to in a realtionship and sent me a request. (Honestly, I think he was too nervous to say it out loud.) I liked him so much I didn't even care. We started dating and I've never looked back.

Just recently though have I realized how much I need him in my life. When I met him I was at a point in my life where I didn't really have a whole lot going on. I didn't have a job or any real friends and, if I'm being completly honest, I didn't really felt like I even fit in with my family.

Then I met htis guy that made me feel special. We have the same dorky humor and think the same about so many things it isn't even funny. We hadn't been together for a week and we were finishing eachothers sentences.

I'm the luckiest girl on the planet. Why? Because I didn't just get a boyfriend that day in the salon. I got a BEST FRIEND.

<3

You might not be a Ho, but you sure are wearing the uniform.

Published in the Kishwaukee Kaleidoscope. :)

I guess I’m just old fashioned.  Or maybe I’m just out of style and behind the times. But I’m so confused. When did it become so cool to dress immodestly? Somebody please catch me up on whatever it is that I missed. Why do people feel the need to dress like that? (Let’s see if I can do this and remain school appropriate.)

I know that Kish doesn’t have an official dress code; it is one of the things that I love about college. You can wear tank tops and hats and no one says anything to you. However, I have seen some people wearing ensembles that would embarrass me to wear walking through the hallways at Kish. Honestly, I'm shocked.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for freedom of expression. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be writing for the paper. And I understand that how you dress can be a sort of statement expressing who you are on the inside on the outside. But a girl with her shirt pulled down so low that it becomes uncomfortably revealing, or guys with the waist of their pants down around their ankles instead of around their waists, doesn’t make a positive statement. It makes a negative one. When I see a girl with an extremely short skirt on, I don’t think, “Wow, what an independent and confident woman with loads of self respect”, I think, “Wow,  who does she think she is kidding?!” When I see a guy walking down the hallway who has to hold on to his pants, or has to pull them back up every other step so he doesn’t lose them, I don’t think, “Wow, he looks like someone who is going to go places, maybe I should get to know him better”, I think, “You look like a fool with your pants on the ground.”

Where do people get the idea that dressing like this is okay? Did you see Snookie wearing the same dress on Jersey Shore? Let me tell you now, just because Snookie was wearing it on the boardwalk does not mean it is good to wear in the halls of Kishwaukee College. 

So, no. There isn't an official dress code at Kishwaukee College, and in theory, you can dress however you want.  But the next time you are getting dressed for school think about this. What you wear on the outside is a reflection of what you are on the inside. If you want to gain and keep the respect of the people around you, you need to dress in a way that shows you first respect yourself.


my aunt gave me this photo. thought it was pretty good :)

A visit to Stronghold

Every year during Autumn On Parade in Oregon Stronghold has a Renaissance Fair. They open up the castle for tours, and it is really very interesting. This year I went with my aunt, who had never been in the castle before. I forgot my nice camera at home, so I took some pictures with my iPod. However I think they turned out pretty good. Enjoy.

This stair case is "cantilevered". Lol.

Growth and Change (An Editorial)

This was published today in our school newspaper, the Kishwaukee Kaleidoscope. Enjoy :)

       The other day I ran into my seventh grade home economics teacher. We stopped and chatted for a while about what was new and how college was going. We talked for about 15 minutes and then went our separate ways.

Later that night as I was falling asleep I did what I always do when I think about that class and that teacher. During the year she would ask us questions that were meant to make us think about something bigger than ourselves and one of them has always stuck with me. "Are you really the person that you think you are?"

When she first asked, I must admit that I was mystified by this obscure question.  What could that possibly mean? "Of course I know who I am", I thought.  "I am Grace Martin. I live in a tiny town in the middle of a cornfield. How could I not know who I was?" The answer seemed so simple. As I looked around the rest of the class I could see the other confused and awkward looks on the faces of my classmates. No one had any idea what she was talking about.  

Luckily for us dumbfounded seventh graders it was a rhetorical question and she continued on with her lesson but, for whatever reason, I never forgot her asking it. Every once in a while I come across a situation that makes me think about it and what it means. Could you ever really possibly know who you are? 

As I was looking back to seventh grade I began to think about how much I've changed as a person and about everything I went through in Jr. High and High School. I'm definitely not the same person that I was in  seventh grade or as a freshman or even as a senior in high school. Those experiences shaped the person I was then into the person that I am now. 

In Jr. High the answer to that puzzling question seemed so simple. I was Grace Martin who grew up in the middle of a cornfield.  Though now I realize that the answer was much more complicated than that. There is so much more that defines who you are. The experiences you go through in life change how you view the world. Sometimes in big dramatic ways and other times in small, almost insignificant ones. But they still change you and that change is constant.

So this makes me wonder. What will I be like in a year? What about in five years? How much will I have changed from the person I am now? What will I think of myself when I look back? This probably sounds strange but when I look back, I hope I see all kinds of things that I could have done differently. Not that I will regret them, but I hope that will mean that I have grown for the better.

First Weekend of Fall

I had the most wonderful weekend :) I love the beginning of fall don't you? I love being able to dig out sweaters, jeans and boots and snuggle up in big soft clothes. I love when the trees just start to change color. I also love the light. It is great for taking pictures. :)

So Saturday I spent the day with Bobert in Madison shopping around for antiques. We had a good time getting lost.  When I got home I checked my email, and low and behold my POTTERMORE EMAIL HAD FINALLY ARRIVED! I was SO excited! For those of you out there that think Pottermore is just  a way to tease die hard fans, or get more money out of them, you are sorely mistaken. Even with all the hype, Pottermore did not disappoint this fan. I have been waiting SO LONG for something like this. I got to go shopping in Diagon Alley, my wand chose me (Alder with Unicorn Core, 12 and a quarter inches, surprisingly swishy ) and got sorted into a house. I've always known that I was a Gryffindor, and it has finally been confirmed. :) That was SO COOL.

That is my excited face on the left. I bought just a plain red tie and painted yellow stripes on it, and my robe is just an old nun costume cut down the back so that it would open up. I made the badge by copying one out of a Harry Potter poster book and printing it out on Iron On Transfer paper. The rest of the costume I bought in different places.

I haven't really gotten much farther in the game yet though, since I had SO MUCH OTHER STUFF TO DO! (AH!)

 Sunday I went with Austin to a family get together of his. The town where he grew up had their fall festival this weekend, so we watched a parade and walked around up town. Then we went home so his cousin and him could get some shooting in while the weather was still nice.

They kinda destroyed the target.....

Then my sister Audra, Austin, and I went to go see the Lion King in 3D. It was cute. :)
Audra was pretty pumped because she got the special edition 3D glasses.

So that was my weekend in a nut shell. What about you?

Austin&apos;s little helper

So I spent the day on the farm as my boyfriend's (Austin) little helper. I rode around with him on the tractor all day, and then helped do all the regular chores. It is exhausting!


The calves eating away. They are so cute :)

A weekend of craziness, otherwise known as "The Pec Thing"

So this is a moment where you get to  learn another fascinating aspect of my complicated life.

I am the child of divorced parents. My dad isn't really in the picture anymore. He just decided one day that he didn't want to come get us. However, that is another story.

I was in Jr. High, and for whatever reason I had two male sunday school teachers. (For those of you who don't know, that practically never happens) When they realized what was going on in my home life they stepped in to be my dads. They are possibly the greatest people on earth. I call them my "adopted dads".

John Kessinger is one of my adopted dads. I call him bobert. which at first he thought was embarassing, but now I think he secretly likes it. Bobert and I like to do antiquing together. Actually, we are a whole lot more obsessed than just that. We are what is commonly known as "Pickers". We buy and sell antiques. It is TONS of fun. Not just the antiques, but the adventures we have going picking. They are crazy and insane and we spend hours laughing, and when we get home and try to explain it, the stories are never quite as funny as we thought they were. But again, a story for a different time.

So this last weekend was one of our picking adventures. The Pec Thing at the Winnebago County Fair grounds is one of our biggest weekends. Twice a year we pack up the truck (and yes, we always look like hilbillys) and head over to the fair grounds to set up our booth and sell our stuff. (Booth A16. Check us out in May)  This weekend was nuts, and we sold a ridiculous amount of stuff and made pretty good money. It sounds pretty easy when I say it like that, but it was really a lot of work. We did really well, but there were a lot of people who didn't. I talked to one vendor who said they didn't even make the $100 mark.

Saturday we had beautiful weather. It was cool, but it wasn't cold. I was fine in my sweat shirt. But Sunday was the complete opposite. It was cold and rainy and everything was damp.  It ended up being a pretty good day for me though when my boyfriend showed up with a present for me. A brand new Ipod Touch. :) I love that guy.

Well that was my weekend in a nut shell. How about yours?