Am I ready to defend my thesis!?

I spent the weekend worrying about defending my thesis. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I have a set time and date now just waiting for the location to be determined. I have an idea of what I am going to present. I need to prepare a 30 minute presentation then be prepared to answer questions for 30 minutes. I wonder what they are going to ask me. I mean if you read my thesis, then you should understand what I am writing about. I feel a little bit of anxiety because I am the first one defending my thesis in our program and still not quite sure what is expected of me. Oh well, I can only be as prepared and ready as I can be and the rest is up to the board. I will let you know how it goes on Friday :)

STRESSED & ILLNESS

I find that I am constantly worried about everything, lately! Especially my thesis. Is is good enough? Then to top off my worries I got sick! I really dislike being sick and my least favorite thing to do is throw up! I will do everything in my power to stop this from happening but sometimes my body just doesn't agree with my mind. I think I have overloaded myself! I keep telling myself that I will get a break from this in just one month but something always comes up. I am just know finding out the process for defending my thesis and I do not even know what exactly is going to happen or what is expected of me. I try not to worry about things but sometimes my mind and heart get the best of me then my body takes the toll. I hope that all you out there are not worrying or stressing about life as much as I have in the past couple weeks!!

Audition

Wednesday afternoon I had an audition at TAMUCC. I had been emailing and calling around to see about singing the national anthem at the spring 2011 graduation. I finally heard back from the coordinator and was able to schedule an audition to sing in front of the head of the music department and a vocal professor. I was very nervous but excited at the opportunity. I usually sing with my twin sister Jessica so I have no reason to be nervous. I am not usually alone so this nervousness was something new for me. I arrived 15 minutes early because I hadn't been in the CA in a long time so I wanted to make sure that I could find the office. Then I waited for 25 minutes and finally 10 minutes after my appointment time, I auditioned.
I sang the Star Spangled Banner in my own unique way. I had spoken to several friends of mine and they had given me some ideas of singing it in my own way to stand out from the traditional ways of singing it. Still I followed the traditional format of the song but I added my own little spark to it. I thought this would help but instead after I sang it once in my own way, the "judges" if you will call them that, asked me to sing it more traditionally. The end result was a success because after I sang it three times, they were happy to let me sing it for the spring commencement. I am very happy because I am graduating with the inaugural class for the Master of Arts in Communication program and I think this will make our graduation special!!

Virginia with Jess

This past week I spent with my twin sister Jessica in Virginia. I had a wonderful time and as you can guess it went by too fast! We try to see each other every month but she is not going to be able to take leave until the summer so I will not see her until June. We are very close, we were able to just spend time together. We both love to sing and so we went to sing karaoke together, one of our favorite past times. We also we to see the move "Paul" which was quite funny. She took me to historical Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, Newport News, Hampton, and Yorktown Virginia. It was so nice to just cook together and play monopoly deal, apples to apples, and Zelda on the Wii. I admire her very much, even though we are only 10 minutes apart she is really my 'big sis.' On her own in this world, away from the only place I know as home. I got to meet her beautiful kitty cat - Kloe and see her baby boy kitty Kosmo again. They are too cute! I can't wait for summer.

SPRING BREAK

I feel very happy about spring break beginning next week even though I will be working on my thesis over the break! I am happy because I am going to Virginia Beach to see my twin sister Jessica. I fly out on Monday and stay until Saturday! We are both counting down the days until we see each other. I miss her, more than words can say. We already have things planned "a to-do list" for our visit. I am also very excited because two of my three older brothers live just a few hours away and I get to see them too! I get to see my oldest brother David, his wife Ida, youngest older brother Ruben, his wife Kathi, and my two handsome nephews, Ruben Jr. (he is 5) and Philip James (he is 3). I imagine they are much taller than when I last saw them, which was just in January but it feels like it's been longer. They are wonderful... I last saw them in Indiana and they came in shouting "Jo Jo, Jo Jo." Followed by, "I love you Jo Jo." So sweet! I also get to meet my sister new addition to her family, she now has a beautiful kitten named Kloe. Her other baby is her handsome little boy kitty, Kosmo. Since I lost my kittens I have not really held a kitty. I hope that they will like me :) I know that our time together (my sister and mine) will fly by but I just feel blessed to be able to go visit her! Until next time... Imagine Me Without You!

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Yesterday I escaped from our world to play one of my favorite video games, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I needed to let my brain rest from having been staring at the computer screen pretty much all weekend. It was a wonderful relief. The story focuses on Link trying to prevent Hyrule from being engulfed by a corrupted parallel dimension, the Twilight Realm.This is referred to in the game as the darkness or twilight. He begins his adventure in his own little town. Link takes the forms of both a human and a wolf.This is very cool! I am at the point in the game in which I can now go back and forth between the two shapes because of my assistant, a mysterious creature named Midna. She has helped guide me along my adventure to save Hyrule.
While I am playing this game I don't think my brain was resting at all because I was walking around and thinking about how beautiful the different scenes of the game are. I can't imagine how much thought and effort was put into the making of this extraordinary game. I got lost playing it for a few hours and had to find a stopping point so that I could go back to working on my thesis... I'm sure I'll visit the game again soon... Until next time... Imagine Me Without You!

My Backyard!

Last spring I worked outside for two months, every weekend, with my parents help to landscape our backyard. It was something I had been wanted to do for a very long time. It was four individual projects that took a lot of hard work but I am happy with the results. I started with the back left side of our house where the air conditioning units are and my goal was to create a beautiful shade to cover up what I considered to be an eye sore. I rented a tool from Home Depot, called a tiller. Power tools, have to love them! It was a task using this tool in the backyard to prepare the ground for a flower bed. I did some research on the ground/dirt type in our area and it is clay/dirt! It is because of this that I had to alter my vision for the landscaping to plants and trees that would survive in this type of dirt. I planted a gorgeous little palm in the middle of the flower bed, four red/yellow blooming flower plants (the name of which I can't recall) and five pink laureles plants, of the five only one blooms with flowers which I can't understand why! To complete this flower bed I also bought 22 white, curved, pave stones and a black guard to keep the weeds from growing. I placed the stones in a wavy line so that it would give the flower bed some character. The last addition to the flower bed was red mulch to cover the dirt up and make it nice and pretty. After I completed this work of art with my parents, my green thumb gave me the push I needed to start the next one!

In the far back corner of our yard we have a hideous green transformer thing! I dislike it very much. As you can probably guess this was my next task, covering up the green thing! I used seven light wood 6 foot tall lattice as a barrier. Picture this.... One is slanted in the center of the green thing, approximately 3 feet away from it, because it stills needs to be accessible for the cable company. :P In front of each of the lattice I put a bugambilia plant that has grown to cover the lattice as though it were the lattice itself! I purchased two large rose bushes and three yellow flowering plants (the ones of which I can not recall the name of) because I liked them very much in the other flower bed! I completed the flower bed with the same beautiful white pave stones and red mulch. This time I placed the stones in a big half circle to make it stand out. One thing I did add to this flower bed that I in turn also added to the first was solar lights to light up the flower beds at night! On to my next project, the far right corner of the yard.The shape is the first thing that took place with this flower bed. I made it in the shape of an S. I used three light wood 3 foot lattice to cover a gray pole that sticks out to match the green transformer in the opposite side of the yard. Then I planted three jasmine plants to grow over these lattice. I also bought four more of the red/yellow plants that I can not recall the name of and one large lilac colored plant along with a large gardenia. My Mom and I love the smell of gardenias! I used the solar lights, white pave stones, and red mulch to finish the flower bed in this corner. At this point my Dad was thinking that he is very happy with the way the yard looks and that we are done but we still had a couple things to work out and yes one of them is another flower bed.

That flower bed is going to be across the landscaping that shades the air conditioning units. This flower bed is in the shape of a W. I used two large double hibiscus plants, two large lilac plants, and one red/yellow plant which I can not remember the name of for the center piece of this flower bed. I used the same toppings to complete this flower bed. The last two beds were for a grape fruit tree and a magnolia tree, one on each side of the swing set. I have to say that after the hard freeze we had a few of them are brown but I hope that they will survive and bloom at the end of the month. It is time for me to go work out in my garden now.... Imagine Me Without You!