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Daddy found it very amusing that I said that I planned on sleeping my face off when I was on break. I was not exaggerating. The first day home I slept until 2:30pm. I was not kidding around. This semester, thank God, has finally come to a close. I have never worked so hard in my life. Things have slowly started to pay off though.
Everyone is home for the holidays. I think this made Mommy and Daddy very happy. We had a family portrait taken for the church this weekend. Michael and Jon made some really werid faces. I don't think that the Lifetouch lady (or Dad) found it very amusing. We were the only family laughing hysterically, though. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Megan and I with Fievel and Secret. Secret likes to be the center of attention, and when she realized that Fievel was there....she freaked ou a little bit.

The Orozcos together in front of our real Christmas tree. We all love each other so much. I cannot express how much I love being home. I laugh harder with my family than I do anywhere else. <3

I organized a bar crawl for all our friends in the Math Block at IU. It was great. I made the t-shirts, and everyone seemed to like them. It was an amazing night. I had so much fun with everyone. Bloomington will never have another block like us! We decided that we are the most fun! =) Because we are. The back of the shirts have a Pi symbol on them with all of our names inside of it. We never get tired of math jokes. I am going to miss these people so much! I've spent the last three years getting to know everyone. I've spent more time with these amazing people this year than I did at my own apartment.

Danielle came and visited during the week of the Purdue v. IU game. Heath also came down. Unfortunately, IU lost to Purdue. Bad. Oye. Maybe next year.

Me, Katrina, and Jenna at the Call to Teach Award ceremony. We recieved these very nice framed certificates in commoration for apply to graduate as part of the Wilkie Education School Program. We were accepted! The ceremony itself was not very fun. I think we all fell asleep.

The family came down to come the ceremony! I always love seeing them.

Swanson, Sheldon, Laura, Me, and Heath at the Upstairs Pub in Bloomington. Always a blast to go out in Bloomington.

We had to go to a Math/Teacher Conference in Indianapolis. Sound boring? Because it was. Didn't learn too much. We went to the minimum of two sessions, then we walked around Indy for the day, ate at Hooters, watched football, went to another bar to finish the Bears game. THAT part was fun!

Katrina, Me, Jenna, and Amy at the ICTM conference downtown Indy with our Pearson bags. They were free with our $36 fee....nice.

Basically, that is what is new with me. I hope to hear updates from everyone soon. I think that I will be able to post more next semester when I'm student teaching, but no promises. I start on Jan. 4th. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Miss Orozco. Weird. I can't wait to finally get to it. I am just glad to never have to take another college math class again. That got old really quick. 42 credits is just way too much Math. I am bunt out, but now I feel like I know all there is to know about Math.

Today Meg and I are spending the day together, baking and such. Swanson graduated on Saturday so I am going to go celebrate with him on Wednesday in Broadripple. How exciting. He starts his Business Masters Program in January at IU.

Zach is now certified in scuba and is excited to narrow his field in grad school. He loves his bio anthro degree! What he did in Wyoming is too boring for him though. He wants something more adventurous, like underwater anthopology. He is looking into apply for a grad program.

Hmm..I am not sure there is much more news. I miss Jenna and Katrina. I am too used to seeing them everyday. Jenna is home in New Jersey and Katrina in Illinois. I hope that we can see them every now and then next semester. I think that we are all just ready to be done

Love you!! I'll post again by New Years at the latest

Halloween Costumes Thursday-Saturday!

5 minute Update

Signed up for my licensing exam! November! Getting ready to become a real life teacher! Awesome!
School is not slowing down. Lots of exams and lesson plans and math math math! Oye. I cannot wait to do actual math again one day. I am so over Theorems and Proofs. Kill me.
I still don't know what I am doing for Halloween. It falls on a Saturday so I am going to have to work.
I am going to a recognition ceremony for getting into the School of Education at IU. I get a plaque and certificate. Yay
In April I am presenting a paper I wrote last semester to a board of award-winning teachers and professors. I am nervous about that, but it will be great on a resume
I started observing at a high school about an hour away from Bloomington. It's awesome to see the differences between high school and middle school. It is making me think about where I want to teach.
January 3rd I start student teaching. Nervous, but very excited to not have anymore classes for college. My friend reminded me today that it was our last midterms of college next week. Sad and exciting!
Nelly is in town this weekend! Very cool! It is also our homecoming!!! My last homecoming as an undergrad! Crazy! I wish everyting would slow down so that I could enjoy everything some more!
I went and saw Daniel Tosh in Indy Saturday! AMAZING! Funniest comedian I have ever seen! It was a great time!
Now I have to work on some work before I go to work! I also have to catch up on some shows this week! Is anyone going to see Michael Jackson's movie tribute "This is it"? I really want to! It looks crazy good!

A few pictures

Whitney and I met the lead singer, Adam, from DOT DOT DOT
Zach, Laura, Swanson, Me, and Whitney at ZLS's home before going to see DOT DOT DOT

Val and Pat at Val's housewarming party. Pat left for LA to pursue his acting career.

Whitney and I at Val's cookout.

Me, James, Val, Matt, and Whitney after dinner.

Me being a creeper!

Me and Whit at dinner at the crazy horse

Swanson, Me, and Zach in line at the Blink 182 concert

Whitney and I redecorated a bit

DOT DOT DOT

Things that are new:

school started

car is mostly fixed

Whitney is awesome

Glad that I'm 21 with everyone back

I am very homesick.

I am trying to get my "things to do in college" list done this year

My Monday and Wednesdays do not start until 4pm

No Friday classes...but i have to work gag

The leaves already started changing

I am very happy where I am in life, even with all the stress and hectic-ness

Weekend

Zach came back. He is Mountain-man for sure! He said he is not going to shave until after he gets back in August. He had a lot of fun and is pretty set on doing it forever =)

It was really nice to see him after so long.

Some of the boys lighting fireworks in the pouring rain.

Whitney and I with sparklers. They made more smoke than spark.

4th of July.

Whitney and I. The weather was terrible. =(

Matt, Clark, and Matt's friend Andrew.

I ♥ NY

All the pictures uploaded backwards....So I am going to write about everything starting at the Bottom of the post.... And these are the Jonas Brothers!!!!!!! I look just as excited as Megan! This picture makes me laugh really hard! After our adventure there Ben and I thought it was best to catch the second to last train that left Grand Central instead of aiming for the last one...just in case. It left at 1:12...Swanson did not make it to that one. Luckily his friends set an alarm and made sure he caught the last one so he wasnt far behind us! And that concluded our NYC trip. We saw so many more things and I completely regret not taking enough pictures! It was completely amazing. I did, however, make a bad shoe choice and I paid for it the next three days when I could barely walk. I had so much fun! I will have to share more to-and-from stories when I see you next! Don't forget to ask me about it!

At Planet Hollywood we were sitting have a having a drink and just looking around at how awesome NYC is and how happy we were to be there when Ben said something about a "prop" hanging from the ceiling. He said it was one of the Dorthys from Twister. I was like "oh ok cool" and then we were walking around the resturant and noticed one of the hundreds of glass case displays had the outfits from Titantic. I was like, "wouldnt that be crazy if Leo and Rachel totally wore those in the movie?" I got a blank stare and then a "uh..they did" Ben calmly explained that everything there was from the movies. All the guns were from the movies, all the costumes, all the props. I know you probably saw it coming, but I FREAKED out! I started flying through Planet Hollywood until I saw what I remembered seeing when we walked in. The Twilight prom dress and tux! Robert Pattison wore that! I made Ben come with me on all the floors so we could see everything. They were real things from the actual movie. I wanted to know how everyone eating wasnt freaking out too! Maybe they didnt know either. Then we found hand prints of famous people and had to take turns putting out hands in them. This is Clint Eastwood!

I think Ben really liked Times Square too!

I did a really bad taking pictures the rest of the day, but after Central Park we took a subway and met up with Julie, one of Kareem and Swanson's friends from Spain who was there on an internship. We went to a little hole in the wall to eat dinner (Cosmic Cantina) and they caught up for a bit. Then we went back to her place, which was the NYU dorms, which was pretty cool. We were there for a while talking with them. They were planning on going to a birthday party at a bar, but I kind of wanted to go see Times Square at Night (I might only get to see it once and bars are everywhere) so Ben and I took a cab to Times Square and it was totally worth it!!! One of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life! It was mind blowing and surreal and breath-taking! We walked around for a while and then went to the Hard Rock Cafe and then Planet Hollywood!

This is just funny to Ben and I, but I think my brothers will get it. Ben said the sign said, "Please, don't make it rain" I laughed about it the whole rest of the day!

There are a lot of free concerts and events in Central Park. We stumbled onto a poetry slam and art contest! This was really cool to see. The artists started with a blank canvas and while poets did crazy interpretive dances and choreography they painted whatever they wanted. We didnt stay until the end, but it was amazing to hear all the stories and see paintings start from the begining. It was also the first time I had seen peeople snap rather than applause.

We made our way to Central Park, which is every bit of amazing as they make it out to be. Even in the rain it was beautiful. Also....they have a zoo in there. Which is awesome! It was a little weird to see more than one couple trying to pet a squirrel. Maybe they dont have a lot of them in NY? I am not sure what the deal was with that. Kareem said that we should leave before dark because thats when he bums come out. So we did

We couldnt pass up FAO Shwarts! That toy story is insane! I have a story about Swanson and a hacky sack that can only be told through demonstration, but it is so funny! The store was enormous! We went through all of it...it took an hour or so! But this was the coolest part! BIG piano! I thought we would get in trouble if we played on it, but those kids had it under control!

I was so excited to see all the cabs in the city! We really really really wanted to find the Cash Cab (like the game show) so every time we saw a van cab we tried to flag it down. I know that we never found it. Mostly because I am out of money opposed to leaving with some.

Rockefeller Center in NYC! This was so cool to go see. I really want to go back in the winter when they have the Christmas tree up! Every landmark that we saw we could remember seeing it in a movie, which is awesome! I watch 30 Rock, so this and the NBC building, Radio City, were kind of a big deal!

St. Patrick's Cathedral! this was awesome, it was a kind of weird because we were allowed to go inside and it was very touristy. I felt a little uncomfortable doing that. The inside was beautiful, but I didnt take pictures.

Everything inNYC was bigger and better! I loved looking at all the the signs and billboards! 5th Ave was amazing too! There were so many places to shop! Kareem said there were celebrities all the time there, but we didn't see any (sad face)

Ben and I in Times Square!

Swanson in Times Square. We went to a place called Ray's Pizza. They had the biggest pizza slices I have ever seen in my life. They were great, but I couldnt even eat a whole one! And I love pizza!

Times Square, which Swanson pointed out is not really a square, but a rectangle. Good point! There were thousands of things to do! Unfortunately, we went to find something to take home with us, but assumed we would go back later to get them...and never did =(

The MTV building in Times Square. I really wished I would have been able to see it when TRL was still on! That would have been awesome!

It was a very gloomy and rainy day in NYC, but for some reason it was still awesome. It just seemed to fit! This is a terrible picture of Times Square

Grand Central Station. I didnt take enough pictures to show how flipping awesome it was! We needed to go get return tickets before we went anywhere, so we did that right away!

Swanson was Chipotle deprived all summer, so we wanted to find a Chipotle. Kareem had never had it before (what!?) but we throught since we were in NY we needed to do NY things...like giant pizza slices!

The train ride took about an hour and a half. We made the bad decision to sit in backwards seats, and I easily get motion sickness. We made an executive decision to not do this on the way home

The boys at the train station! Kareem was our tour guide for NYC. He lives in CT so he makes it to the city about once a month. Swanson got a new haircut, which is very nice! New haircut-new attitude (haha) and Ben, who was very excited to see NYC for the first time, too!

After Ben and I drove through Manhattan..during rush hour at 6:30am, we made it to CT to stay with Swanson. After Swanson took us to dinner and introduced us to some of his friends from work we went back to his place and passed out. We woke up around 7am to drive about an hour to New Haven, CT, to check into a hotel and meet Swanson's friend from Spain, Kareem. Kareem drove us to a train station to catch a train to go to Grand Central in NYC. (!!)