I wanted to write this after church on Wednesday night, but I'll spare you all my lame excuses. This year I really took the time to think of what I was thankful for. 

1. I'm thankful for second chances
I guess this applies to relationships both here on earth and with God in heaven. Jon and I have been doing so great lately. Sure, other boys are still tempting, but I'm learning to love again. Or I should say, love fully. I am also so greatful that no matter how much I have messed up in the pass, am messing up now, or will mess up in the future, God will always forgive and give me another chance at it. I realized there really are no ultimatiums with God once you except that He is your Savior. He just wants to love you for who you are, faults included. 

2. I'm thankful to start being me again
I'm glad I'm over trying to impress people. I guess I came to a full realization of this today when I was looking through old pictures on my laptop and remembered how I used to just have fun and used to just smile more. Listen to whatever music I cared to listen to or watched whatever show I wanted to or read whatever book I wanted to and just had an opinion and didn't care about being the "cool" girl. The friends I have love me for who I am and who I was when I met them. And honestly, if no one else from this point on wanted to be my friend because they were offended somehow by my personality, I'd be ok with that...

3. I'm thankful for my friends
...which leads into this. I am SO thankful for the friends I have. First off, my church friends. It is just so comforting to have a support group of people that geniunely love you for who you are, even when you call them stupid for eating meat. Or that laugh along with you when you talk about running into doors. I have never felt so comfortable around or trusting in a different group of people. I really believe I could go to anyone in the Crossroads class right now with a problem or one of my 'crises' and they would sit and take as much time as I needed to help me come to a place of comfort, which directing me in the way of God. 
I'm also glad for my friends at school. Some of them are Christains and some aren't, but I love them all the same. I just am thankful I can walk the halls of my campus and not feel alone. I'm glad theres always someone willing to brave the craziness of the parking lots to go get coffee with me (unless we're all studying or working on a project). I'm glad for the boys in engineering that understand the craziness of our schedule and the girls in engineering who are around when the boys get to frustrating to deal with or if you're having a 'fat day'. 
I just really love my friends :]

4. I'm thankful for boys.  
Lastly, I'm thankful for all the boys in my life. Obviously Jon who has loved me wholly for 4 years of his life, even when I was unsure of where my heart was taking me. We've shared the highest highs and lowest lows together. The highs have been great and I look forward to more, but at the same time I realize we probably have a lot more lows, lower than I can even imagine that we will have to face together as a couple. The great thing is though I'm not scared. I wouldn't want to face life with anyone else that I know. Jon always knows exactly what to say or do to calm me or cheer me up and I honestly can't say that about anyone else, because I've tried to find attention and comfort from other people and it just isn't there. Jon is my first love and my best friend, and I thank God for him in my life. 

I'm also thankful for Jake. I know it sounds weird and it confuses everyone because Jake is Jon's brother, but I've known them equally as long. Everyone says they've seen such a tremendous change in Jake but I feel like I've seen just a little bit more than most people which makes me trust him even more. I value his opinion so highly, I go to him for advice before going to most other people. I know he comes off as brash and cold to most people, but he always has the best intentions at heart. And he can talk about everything...from God to fashion...and I just am greatful to have someone like that to turn to. 

Lastly...the engineering boys...the ones who buy me coffee, make sure I study sometimes, are there when I'm breaking down...who make fun of my shortness...who put up with my randomness...who text through I love new york with me...who have really made my college experience more enjoyable...I'm thankful for them all. 


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Peace out everyone...eat lots of turkey for me!

I don't think I've ever changed the layout on here, but I quite like how I changed it.

I have to give credit to persnickety_lj for the bulk of the code, but I chose different pics than she used in her 'Kurt Halsey : Lost Kitty" layout because...well I don't have a lost cat. haha its a cute idea though

be_original
be_different
influence_others

Jon and I got to go to game 5 of the pisons/cavs game and even though my home team lost, we had a blast. Currently, game 6 is on in the background of my office, but I was in the mood to put up some pictures. Games like this are just too nervewracking for me to watch

You know what sickens me? Myspace. I temporarly broke my "myspace hiatus" today to check to see if there were any memorials or whatever like all the stuff that's going on over at Facebook. NOT.A.SINGLE.BULLETIN. from ANYONE about it. That's really sad.

I guess that's one more reason I like Facebook more. On myspace its just way to difficult to rally for...well anything really. I hate myspace groups. Despise them totally, because people only use them for "add me" campaigns. Thankfully, Facebook has pretty much steered clear of that, and spamming. So though Facebook is less customizable, it is more connectable, making it more personal. At least in my opinion. I have 3 billion websites that I can customize the heck out of.

Anyways, this was supposed to be about the VT killings. I don't really like talking about it for 2 main reasons. One, I absolutely suck at dealing with death (which I blame on my mom, but that is an entirely different topic). Honestly, I'm horrible with it. My best 'empathy' usually comes in the form of, 'wow, i'm really sorry to hear that'. Way to be original Laura. But in fact, I really do care. I just never learned how to deal with another person being that sad about something. I like making people smile and making people happy. So when I can, it devistates me and frustrates me.

Second, even though it was a tech school, the shootings took place in an engineering building. Someone today told me one of the girls who died was very involved in SWE. And I just think if that was our campus how many people I know that would probably be gone now. If that was our school, I'd probably be somehow connected to 75% of the people who died. That leaves me speechless, and hollow. Our engineering school, not to mention our campus is so small. I know so many people in engineering or through SWE. I just can't imagine the impact of having 32 of them just...gone.

Every time I hear some new development in this story, my throat gets a little lump in it and my stomach gets sick. I know you hear over and over how everyone keeps saying how close this hits to home, but for me it really has. I can't explain why. The fact that it happened in an engineering building caught my attention, but I've been totally consumed with this story for the past few days. I've read the stories of people who were in rooms where their friends were being shot dead around them, and I can't even wrap my head around that.

Though I've had the mindset for awhile, this further confirms my longings to be more service-oriented. I want to be out there making a difference in someones life. I feel so inhibitied just sitting at a desk all day and it drives me crazy inside. I wish I could go to Virigna and hug every single person on that campus. Sure I'm just some random person from Michigan, but I want to reassure them that people all over the world really do care about them and their pain. I felt this was when Katrina hit Lousiana, ready to pack up my bags and go build houses, but the feelings were definietly not as strong as they are now.

I continue to pray that our Habitat for Humanity trip goes well in May. I hope everything works out and I'm able to go. I continue to pray for all the people who were affected by the VT Shootings, which is probably a bigger number than I can imagine. Yea Facebook groups and events might seem silly, but I hope people at VT see them and understand the point - people care. We do, we really honestly do.

There's more I wanted to say but I can't think of it right now...

I took a weird Spring Break this year. Since I am co-oping this semester, I’m not taking classes, so I didn’t have an “official” break like most people did. So I made my own :]

 Jacob was home all of last week. I took of Thursday and Friday to hang out with him. He went back home Saturday. I wish I could have hung out with him more and stuff, but I’m sure he was off having fun somewhere with Robyn, showing her the “sights” of Michigan.

Thursday Jake, Robyn, Jon and I all went to Ann Arbor. It was a beautiful day out, though windy. But it was still good weather for walking around, shopping, sushi, drinking coffee and bubble tea…you know the usual.

What?! You don’t know what Bubble Tea is??? Allow me to introduce you…

Don’t ask what the “bubbles” are. You really don’t want to know, and probably would be biased against trying it if you were informed of what they consisted of. If you do wander out there though, I suggest Strawberry Black Tea w/Milk at TK WU and the Strawberry Slushy with Mango Stars at Bubble Island.

I bought one of the shirts at Urban Outfitters that I liked! It turned out to only be $24 dollars so I couldn’t pass it up! That’s a really good deal for that store lol. To make up for my saving at that store though I spent way too much money on sushi all of last week. But it was good, really very good.

Friday Jake Robyn and I checked out the lunch specials at crave while Jon was working. The sushi specials aren’t the best deal in my opinion, but if you get one of the entrees you get soup, 2 rolls, tea, and all this other stuff and its always under $15. Which is a good deal at Crave.

Evidently, we liked it.

Friday night was the Mute Math concert! Caleb told us about it and how he wanted to go so we went! The opening bands were…ok…but weird story! The singer from one of the bands worked at the Mud House back in Missouri! I just thought it was weird how Jake, Caleb, and Robyn were all here in Detroit the same time that guy was. They got to talk to him after, fun stuff!

 Mute Math is absolutely…gorgeous…live. The CD just can’t compare. They are a band I wish I could shove into my radio in my car and just have them play live and loud all the time. I got really close to the stage, but I was on a little ramp-y thing so my legs were killing me by the end of the night. It was worth it though. I got some sweet pictures:

Saturday I had to say goodbye to Jake. I was fine until he was getting in his car, hugging his parents and whatnot and then he was like “luv ya boo!” aw :[ I miss that kid.

After that I went up to school just randomly to hang out with people in the SWE office and take care of some business/organization type stuff. I pull up to school though and there are these blow up alien figures EVERYWHERE around the UC. Evidently, it was “Alien Abduction Invasion” Day or some weird name that I can’t understand why our university would be hosting an event named that.

Saturday night Erica had a Body Shop party at her house. It was a lot more fun/interesting than I thought it would be and thus I spend too much money and overdrew on my account. I can’t wait to get my Body Shop stuff though!

Monday I did the radio show with all my boys at school. Meaning, Jon Miko and GregM. Then I had to wait around for awhile to meet with my counselor and my advisor to make sure I’m all set to register for classes. I drug Greg and Miko around with me everywhere haha I love doing that to those boys.

Jon and I decided that we needed to have an I Love New York finale party at his house that night. We figured out a few weeks ago at work that we were both obsessed with the show, ridiculous as it is. So I drove my butt all the way to the island (a longer drive than I thought) to enjoy the low-level of life displayed on tv for all to see.

To bad it wasn’t the FINALE finale and now I have to wait 2 more weeks to see if New York accepts Tango’s proposal. I wanted her to be with Chance. They woulda caused a heck of a lot of trouble together = new spin off show. I don’t think I’d get into a Tango + NY spinoff.

Tuesday I got lunch with Erocka, our traditional Kasey’s soup and fries. It was good :] Except I think I got a sandwich too, I don’t remember. Then I went and saw “Blades of Glory” with Jon. It was funny. Don’t listen to what anyone else says about it. Just go see it; for once I was satisfied after spending a ridiculous amount on tickets and popcorn.

After the movie, Jon and I took off for Toledo to visit Keith and to go to This Beautiful Republic’s CD release party. Nevertheless was one of the (good) opening bands. And we got to meet them! They were really nice guys!

One of the guys, I think AJ (?) thought I looked familiar, but we determined since they’re from TN and I’m from MI I’m probably not who he thought I was haha. Oh well. The show was very good. TBR was a lot harder live than on their CD but oh well to that too. Nevertheless was amazing. I wish I could have danced on stage with them or something haha

Wednesday Kristyna and I ran the SWE meeting. We ran to Shatila to get some of their French pastries, and we also had nachos & cheese. At the meeting we did a mini-competition to see who could build a raft using only aluminum foil and popsicle sticks that could hold the most pennies in a tank of water. It was fun. More fun though was finding out that IM THE NEW SWE PRESIDENT!!!! Wooot I get to be all like IN YOUR FACE! on here since I didn’t want to gloat in front of everyone lol. But really, I am very excited for the new year and all the stuff we, collectively as the new e-board, have planned for the new year!

My church hosted a trunk or treat for the little kiddies so they didn't have to go out on Halloween and be bombared with scare and disturbing themes that are somewhat a part of our Halloween culture. So my friends and I took part and dressed up and decorated our trunks and had a blast!

( Featuing Chef Jon, Daniel 'Mario' Moccia, a Storm Trooper resembling Derek, Erica the Puppy, and Sheriff Laura..  )

I think pretty much all of my friends were born in August, September, or October...and a few in November. Anyways. TONS of friends. I don't have pictures from Greg's or Jon's bday, since we really just went out to lunch...but I did get some at Becky's and Jenn's birthday since we had surprise parties for them...

( Make a Wish... )

A group of us got together back in September and went to the apple orchard -- I'm just now getting around to posting pictures!
( Its the perfect day for apple cider! )

SWE (The Society of Women Engineers) hosted the first annual CECS Picnic September 20th. Many of the other engineering orginaztions helped us in this HUGE undertaking, but this event was definetly a HUGE success! Orgs were able to get the info out about themselves, and SWE is happy to report we had a great turnout at our first meeting, which we hope is true for the other orgs on campus.

Only one week later! I'm getting better at updating haha!