My Weekend

This is a perfect summary of my weekend!!! Next weekend (October 2-4) I get to go home, wahoo! I have to drive all by myself though, and I can't leave until Friday at 3:15, so that's really going to suck. But it will be worth it! Anyway, that's all for now..gotta get back to that candy corn..or, book. =)

Time Flies...

Ah! I am the worst blogger of all time!! I have really been doing nothing, which is why I haven't written much. Okay, that's not entirely true, but whatever. So let's see...I guess the last time I wrote was right before I went home to Oregon for the weekend! Raechel conveniently had to drive home for her dad to work on her car, so I rode along! The best part was that I didn't tell Bryan I was coming, and he was SO surprised! It was really fun to do, and we had a really good weekend. A quick run-through of the events: On our drive home (Thursday) we stopped for Dutch Bros. the closest we could to Missoula, which was in Coeur d'Alene. Only 2.5 hours from Missoula, not too shabby! Got my Milky Way Freeze fix...yummmmm!!


Enjoying our Dutch Bros...
The rest of the drive was pretty downhill after that...we got to Albany and I went straight to the Halls' house to surprise Bryan. Oh what fun! He teared up when he saw me, which was so sweet! That will probably embarrass him, but that's okay. =) I stayed at their house for about an hour, and then went home because my siblings were waiting up to see me! On Friday, I relaxed all morning by my lonesome; everyone was at school or work! It was nice to get some rest after the long drive the day before! Once Bryan got off work, I went over to his house and hung out there. Which of course included a Dutch Bros. run at one point, I've gotta get it down when I can! Saturday, Bryan and I went boating with my family. It was great to get to go out on the boat for one last time before the summer is over! It was such a perfect day for it too!


Bryan and I on the boat

On Saturday night I hung out at the Halls' again...I was trying to divide my time relatively evenly! Then Sunday morning Bryan came to church with my family, and then I left soon after that. Of course I shed tears, but I'm getting better and better every time!

SO, I really don't think anything exciting happened last week. I mean, NOTHING! I went to class, came home, and studied/watched TV. Boring! Rae and I started a Netflix trial, so we started going through the second season of Grey's Anatomy. We have the first season here, and that's all I've seen besides a few episodes from this last season. So it's been fun to start going through those! Otherwise, we had a pretty mellow week/weekend. Saturday, Rae and I were going to go to the football game, but decided against it and cleaned our rooms and bathroom and did homework instead! We're so good. On Sunday, we decided we needed to try out a church. We went to one we found called Meadowview Community Church. It was good; I really liked the pastor, but it was a bit small. We will try out a few different ones before settling on a home church.

On Sunday, I decided to do something that actually turned out to be so smart! Since I still had had no luck with finding a job, I posted an ad on the Craig's List "childcare" section, saying a little bit about myself and that I'm an experienced babysitter with loads of free time. On Monday, I got a call from a woman whose nanny had just bailed on her and her husband. She needed someone to watch her three year old and two year old while she and her husband are in class (they are both pre-nursing), and they fit my schedule perfectly! Voila, a job! So for 15-20 hours a week, I take care of Gavin and Raegan. I started yesterday, and it has been great so far! They are really laid-back kids, and I just get to play with them all day. I obviously still need to find something else, since they won't be giving me quite enough hours, but I'm really, REALLY excited to be making money again!! What's especially perfect about the situation is that, since I'm taking care of the kids while their parents are in class, they don't NEED me for any days that we don't have school. So I have a lot of flexibility for holidays (including the month and a half that we have off of school for Christmas), which is exactly what I wanted. I probably won't come home for the whole time, but I need at least a week for wedding planning! Speaking of that, Bryan made an appointment with his adviser next week that will hopefully determine exactly when he will be done with school, which means that we can actually officially set a wedding date! I'm SO excited!!!

Anyway, that's about it for now. I have a midterm coming up this Friday, so I actually really need to be studying now. Ugh! Biology happens to be my worst subject, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

The longest blog in the history of blogs in order to compensate for my lack of blogging... =)

Oh goodness, I know it has been forever since I said I would write something, but I have been surprisingly busy for someone without a job or any other obligations!! Let's see, I suppose I never really covered my move in my last blog. I officially moved on Wednesday, August 19th, and that's about as exciting as that gets. That first night, we just moved my bed into my room so that I would have a place to sleep. My family stayed in our travel trailer outside of my house that night, because they didn't want to go check into the RV park so late.

My room the way I slept in it the first night!

My dad and I woke up pretty early Thursday morning and got everything else moved into my room before anyone else was even awake! My room still wasn't complete, but it was definitely more put-together than before! We also spent a lot of time running errands to make sure I had everything I needed for my room (and food)! My room is finished now, but I don’t have a picture of it yet. I will take some pictures of my room and the whole house and post them in a separate blog…I promise I will! ;)

My room the second night...still no sheets, but much more put together! =)

Anyway, on Friday the 21st we set out for Conrad, which is about 3.5 hours northeast of Missoula. Our family farm is there (my mom's mom's parents', now owned by my grandma's brother), and my mom's cousin got married there the 22nd. She's only a few months older than I am (my grandma is the oldest of six kids, so my mom has a lot of young cousins!), and we are pretty close for growing up in different states. Our whole extended family (or the vast majority of it) was at the rehearsal dinner Friday night, which was SO fun! We hadn't all been together since the summer of 2007 when we had a 50th anniversary party for my grandparents. It was a really fun time! I love the farm, and I hadn't been there in quite a few years. I got to see a lot of family that I hadn't seen in awhile as well, so that was good. All in all, it was a great weekend!

I woke up Saturday morning and opened the door of our trailer to this; good morning farm!

I just had to show off my baby cousin, Jonah, here...he is the cutest (and fattest) baby EVER (he's only 9 weeks old here)! He fell asleep in my arms like this. I love him!!

Anna, the bride, and I. She's great!

Andy (the groom), Uncle Joe (the pastor), and Anna (the bride)

Sunday we packed up our trailer and made the drive back to Missoula. Raechel got to Missoula Sunday, which was relieving for me! My parents left Monday which was sad, but we were keeping busy here! Over the next few days, we basically ran errands to finish putting our rooms together. Also, on Tuesday I went to the DMV and got my Montana driver’s license and license plates! I spent $300 doing it, which is slightly outrageous, but I am now an official Montana resident!

My license! It's blurry because they have a really weird coating over the surface, but you get the idea.

License plates on the Matrix! I just took this picture, so it was dark outside. Sorry ;)

On Wednesday, Raechel and I had to go to our University of Montana new student orientation. It was basically a bunch of freshmen all excited to be in the dorms and away from their parents…we were so miserable!! We only went to the transfer student meeting and then to our advising appointments, which were on Thursday. My appointment was pretty smooth sailing; I only need two classes in order to apply for pharmacy school in February, and one of them is only offered in the fall. Easy decision! So I enrolled that Thursday in Cellular and Molecular Biology.

Then Friday Bryan arrived! That was the greatest day. =) He got here at about 9:00 pm, so we didn’t do much Friday night since he was so exhausted from the drive! We just unloaded what he had brought with him, then set off to the dreaded Walmart Super Center to get breakfast items for Saturday morning. (We now dread Walmart because in our first weeks of being here we literally went there every day for something. It's cheap, but it's also exhausting!!) Bryan wanted to make me breakfast since it was my birthday! Since all I like for breakfast are hashbrowns, he made (per my request) hashbrowns with bacon and cheese all mixed together. Fantastic! On my birthday, we decided to not do too much, but to have a relaxing day. We slept late, then Bryan made the aforementioned breakfast. I think it was at about noon that we decided to do something with our lives, so we got ready and drove around town to show Bryan around. We went to the mall, which was of course great! Raechel bought me a Victoria’s Secret Pink sweatshirt for my birthday, how nice. =) I also opened the gifts that Bryan had brought from our families, (which were ALL unnecessary since they had already given me some, but I of course appreciated them). Nevertheless, I got some wonderful gifts, one of which is a Verizon phone from Bryan! We can now talk as much as we want for free; great for me, but I don’t know what he was thinking! LOL. Poor guy. Anyway, we then got ready for dinner! Bryan took me to The Keep, which is a really neat restaurant up in a neighborhood called Mansion Heights (which IS as ritzy as it sounds!). The view from there is fantastic, and we dined all through the sunset.

"The Keep"

It was really perfect! Even though I was away from home, it was a great 20^th birthday. I’m no longer a teenager! Which is relieving to Bryan because he no longer has to say that he is engaged to a 19 year old, HAHA! But I digress…on Sunday, we all decided to hike to the “M,” which is a 40’ tall whitewashed concrete letter on the side of Mount Sentinel. Montana has this weird thing about putting one of those letters on a ton of mountains! I think they’re for every city or something. There is a mountain right next to our house (literally!) that is called Mount Jumbo, and it has an “L” on it. As far as I can tell, the “M” stands for Missoula, and the “L” for Lolo, a suburb of Missoula. ANYWAY, there is a trail that goes to the “M,” which has a great view of the city. So, we hiked it. I can’t say much for myself though…Bryan helped me up a little bit. =) It was really fun though, and it was a beautiful day! A little too hot for the hike, but we made it. Then I’m pretty sure I spent the rest of Sunday being depressed about the fact that Bryan was leaving Monday…and that I was starting school Monday!

Bryan and I at the "M," with Missoula in the background!

So, you guessed it; Monday morning (August 31^st), I set out for my class at about 8:40, knowing that I would have to say goodbye to Bryan when I got back. I was a bit distracted though, and here’s why. The University of Montana has a horrible parking situation…they sell 4,000 parking permits for 2,000 parking spaces. Knowing this, I opted out of purchasing a parking permit at all. They have a pretty extensive Park-N-Ride system, so I decided to try my hand at it. I suppose the first day of school they were still ironing out some kinks, but I didn’t figure that out soon enough! I left late enough to catch the late shuttle, which on a regular morning would put me at my class right on time. Unfortunately, the shuttles were running a bit late. I was waiting until 9:00 AM, but then I couldn’t wait any longer! My class started at 9:10 AM, so I was forced to set out toward the University on foot! Besides being horribly tired, sweaty (from power walking for 20 minutes), and ten minutes late, my first class went fine! Whitney, one of my roommates, and two of her friends from volleyball are in my class, so it is nice to know some people! Well, I inevitably had to come back home to say goodbye to Bryan. He came to pick me up for the University because he wanted to get on the road ASAP, and didn’t want to wait for the Park-N-Ride to bring me back. Of course I cried and cried when we got back to the house, but I’m a girl, what can you expect?? Bryan had to leave right away, so we couldn’t drag out a teary goodbye. I composed myself pretty well right after he left, I’m not usually one to cry unless I’m saying goodbye or something is reminding me of him. I dedicated the next few days to getting ahead on my homework (because I had nothing else to be doing!) and applying for jobs. Which I still haven’t had any luck with!! So frustrating.

Awesome storm clouds from one of our recently frequent thunder/lightning storms

Bryan and I enjoying the storm

Anyway, not much else happened that week except adjusting to being in school again! Then, on Friday the 4^th, Raechel’s parents arrived for a visit. They weren’t able to come up with her when she moved due to an important appointment, so they came this last weekend! Even though they aren’t MY parents, it was still fun to have them in town! It made me a little less homesick. So on Friday night, we just went over to their hotel to say hello since they got into town pretty late. We hung out there for about an hour, and managed to get an official hotel noise complaint! Pretty hilarious since we were just chatting in the room and it was only 11:00! I guess they had some neighbors that liked their sleep. Saturday morning, Rae’s parents came over and saw our house for the first time! Then they took her shopping, while I spent the day watching TV. (Which, by the way, is how I spend 90% of my time anymore!!) On Saturday night, her parents took us out to dinner. Guess where? The Keep! It was fun to go again, and the sunset was completely amazing…again! After sunset, a thunder/lightning storm started (which happened every other night for probably a week), and it was really cool to see from up the mountain! After dinner, we went back to Rae’s parents’ hotel to go hot tubbing. It was really nice! Her parents left Sunday, which was sad, but we were excited to still have one more day of the weekend! Sunday I felt horribly sick, so I spent the bulk of the day on the couch. Raechel and I watched the entire first season of Grey’s Anatomy, which I haven’t watched any of yet besides the most recent season. It was great! We’re now desperate for the following seasons…does anyone want to lend them to us?? I’m sort of joking, sort of not. ;) On Monday, we pretty much just laid around again, and I made 9384092384 Biology notecards. Which, by the way, I hate! I had completely forgotten how much I hated Biology when I took it at OSU, and now I’m re-living the torture all over again! And of course it’s CELL Biology, which is really the worst kind. Sigh…at least it’s the only class I’m taking so I can fully concentrate on it!

I also decided recently to take the PCAT on October 17^th. The PCAT is the Pharmacy College Admissions Test, and it is HORRIBLE! It is an eight hour long multiple choice test based on General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Biology. And anyone who knows me well knows that these are just my favorite subjects!! Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because today I received my study book from the UPS man, which is exciting because now I can start studying, but also unfortunate for that same reason!

I guess the only thing left to talk about are my employment issues. I haven’t been TOO worried while I’ve been here, because I knew I could get a job from the guy my dad knows on campus. Well today I went to meet with the department he got a job for me in (coincidentally that department was Payroll), only to find out that to be a student employee at the University you have to be a full time student. Well, since I am getting my residency, I can only be a part time student, so I got the shocking news today that I can’t have the job I thought I was guaranteed! I’m extremely stressed about work now; I am so broke and so up to my neck in expenses! So now I’m applying like mad to all sorts of jobs! Hopefully I will have something for sure within a week; I will be sure to keep everyone updated as I get more information on that! Well, I actually think I am 100% updated now. WOW!!! I miss everyone SO much, and I hope that I will get to see you guys soon!

P.S. The weather is finally cooling down here. The first few weeks of being here it was SO hot, and my house doesn't have air conditioning so we were miserable a lot of the time! It's been pretty cool (37 degrees in the morning on my way to class...) the last few days and I have actually been LOVING it! Anyway, I knew you would care SO much about that, so I figured I should throw it out there. ;)

Where has the time gone!?

It's almost been a whole month since I've written a blog? What?? Oh gosh..I don't even know what to say! Let's just start from the beginning of the loooong time it's been since I wrote anything. The weekend after Bryan and I got engaged, my friend Erica (whose wedding I was a bridesmaid in on the 15th) had her bachelorette party. We went to Salem for the night and had a good time! Not too much to tell there...

Then the weekend after that was the weekend the Halls were camping at Foster Lake. Unfortunately, Bryan was the best man in his friend Richard's wedding (also on the 15th), and his bachelor party was in Seattle that weekend. So I just went to Foster for part of the day Saturday, but it was fun!! The rest of the weekend I spent attempting to pack. HA!

I pretty much spent the next week packing...or at least making it look like I was packing.

Bryan helping me fold clothes to pack


These are all the clothes Bryan folded! See Sue, he was being helpful! ;)

Then, the weddings! I was a little irritated that Richard's and Erica's weddings were on the same day, because Bryan and I couldn't be together! Plus, I just really wanted to go to both. I obviously preferred to be at my friend's wedding, I just wish that we wouldn't have had the issue in the first place! Oh well, life goes on! Anyway, Erica's wedding ended up going very well! The rehearsal took like two hours (and we didn't even really get through it twice!), so we were nervous for how long the ceremony was going to be. On the day of, though, it actually went smoothly! The whole day was chaotic, but it all's well that ends well!

Erica's dress. Her mom kept saying, "Her dress is red, but her heart is pure." She just wanted a red dress. Lol! I think it is beautiful!

On the 16th, Rae and I had a going away party for ourselves (lol) at her brother Johnny's pool. I couldn't be there for the whole day, but it was really fun and I enjoyed seeing some friends that I won't see for awhile! Later in the day, my parents had a going away/birthday party for me that was great! Besides getting lots of loot (I'm not afraid to say it--I need it!), it was also really fun to see some family for the last time for awhile.

So that's all I can really write for now and unfortunately I'm not all caught up! I HAVE to go to bed though, so I will probably write another blog early on next week that will get us up-to-date. I am headed to Conrad for the weekend to go to my cousins' farm because one of my cousins is getting married! Yay! I'm really excited because I haven't been to the farm in quite a few years... =)

I love you and miss you all!

PS: Happy birthday Jenna!! =)

PPS: Sorry this post is so crappy, it was this or nothing! ;)

PPPS: Tanner baked me a cake! =)

Engagement!

Well, Bryan and I are engaged! Yay! We spent the weekend in Seattle and it was fantastic! We left Albany Friday at 11:30 AM thinking we would make it to our hotel right around our 4:00 PM check-in time. Boy, were we wrong! We didn't get there until 6:30, what a pain! There was a wreck, some construction, and general traffic that we are not used to! Anyway, we finally got there and were very excited to start our weekend! Bryan had heard about a cool park, Kerry Park, that overlooks the whole city and the lake and everything. So we decided to get Subway sandwiches and take them up to that park to eat. We got there at about 8:30 or so, which was perfect because the sun was just setting. We looked at the view for awhile, and then sat down on a bench to eat. We finished our sandwiches and sat for awhile, then he said we should probably get going and I agreed. Then he pulled out his camera case and said something about getting his camera out, and instead a ring box came out! I didn't really know what was going on still, since it was pretty dark at this point. He then got down on one knee and said something like, "Lindsey Michelle Green, I love you with all of my heart. You mean everything to me and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" And I said, "Of course!!" I'm pretty sure this is what he said to me, although I can't be too sure because I was in complete jaw-dropped shock the entire time! I really thought he was just kidding at first, and when I realized it was actually happening I didn't know what to do with myself! I didn't even cry, which is pretty crazy considering I'm one of the most emotional people ever! I was just in such complete shock I could only shake as I was just trying to get it to sink in! Anyway, after that, we looked at the view a little more, had someone take our picture, and then left. I had SO many phone calls ahead of me!

Right after he proposed!


View from the park at night (better than any picture I took =))


My beautiful ring! Which looks much better in person, a picture just can't do it justice!

That was obviously the highlight of the weekend, but we still had more to look forward to! The Indians/Mariners game Saturday was really fun! We walked two miles from our hotel to the game, and two miles back. Quite a hike! It was pretty warm that day too, and our seats were right in the sun! It was worth it to sit so close, though! And the Indians won 10-3, hooray! I was quite distracted by my fantastic ring though..whoops! Bryan just laughed at me for staring at it so much. I can't help it, it's so beautiful! When we got back to our hotel, we changed out of our sweaty game clothes and cooled off and rested a bit. Then we went to P.F. Chang's for dinner, which was just about five blocks from our hotel. So delicious! We then went back to our hotel and rented a movie at the front desk. We both decided on 27 Dresses because we liked it and hadn't seen it in a long time, and it was an even better choice because we realized it was the first movie we went to see together! We were so tired, though, that we only made it halfway through the movie before crashing! We finished in the morning though, so it worked out!

Right when we got to the game


After the game

Sunday morning we just finished the movie, went hot tubbing/swimming for a bit, then packed up and were checked out by a little after 10:00. I was anxious to get to Shane Co. in Portland to see what they could do about sizing my ring, but it didn't end up too good for me! As it turns out, I have to leave my ring for 3-5 days in order for them to size it. AAAH! I'm just not ready for that yet, so we'll see when I get comfortable enough to leave it for that long. That's when I might cry!

Basically, this was a super fantastic weekend and I am so sad that it's over! We have some great memories though, and are so excited to start planning the rest of our lives together! =)

Blood, Sweat, & Tears

Hmm, where to start? Bryan and I spent last weekend with my family camping at Cultus Lake. My parents and younger siblings are there for two weeks, and we went up for a little taste of camping. I miss going for two weeks! Darn adulthood! Anyway, we decided to hike to our campsite, which is on the far side of the lake that you can't drive to. We generally take everything and everyone over in the boat. Quite a process! So anyway, this hike should take about an hour with packs on. Well, Bryan and I are both very directionally challenged, although I'm not blaming anything on him because he had never been there before! My best friend Raechel and I hiked last year (from the other direction, where we were camped with her aunt and uncle), and for some reason I remembered walking right through our campsite on the main trail. This turned out to NOT be the case! Long story short, we spent four hours hiking about seven miles in 90 degree heat (being eaten alive by mosquitos and ditching our packs about 3/4 of the way through!) until we finally found it; but not before I cried--twice! I was so frustrated but, bless Bryan's little heart, he never got angry at me for being so stupid! Needless to say, we were very relieved when we finally got to my family!

Bryan & I pretending to look happy mid-hike

Aside from being extremely sore from our super-hike, the rest of the weekend was fantastic! We did a lot of wakeboarding, swimming, sunbathing, reading, sandcastle building, eating, and relaxing! The recipe for a good weekend. =) I'm really sad thtat I could only go for one weekend, it's the least amount of time I've ever gone during a summer! I guess it just makes me that much more excited for next year!

Bryan wakeboarding!


Hangin' out


Bryan's sand castle


Bryan, Emma, & Jonny playing on the beach


Beautiful lake!


Love!

This weekend, Bryan and I are headed to Seattle to hang out in the city and see the Indians, Bryan's favorite baseball team, play the Mariners! I bought these tickets for him for his birthday in May (and I actually bought them months before that), so I'm excited that the game is finally here! We're going to have a lot of fun!!

Really Quick Update..

Finally finished my classes, whew! I am a little sad because those were my last OSU classes ever, but I am also excited for a new adventure! Now I'm just keeping busy with work and friends (a.k.a. Bryan). We are headed over to meet up with my family Cultus Lake this weekend. They're there for two weeks! Then next weekend we get to go to Seattle for the Indians/Mariners game. I'm excited! I bought the tickets for Bryan soooo long ago, so it's exciting that the game is actually almost here! We have a busy next couple of weeks!! =)


Boating over Fourth of July weekend (Jonny, Emma, Raechel, & I)


Bryan & I at the reenactment on the Fourth of July