To Sad Endings and Brand New Beginnings

Jeb and I are officially home from college, and right now it’s for good.

 I didn't finish my degree; I have decided I want to work in a salon for the rest of my life. Jeb will leave for Alamosa to do his internship this next month (which I am dreading) I am staying in Westcliffe this next year, hopefully working, starting and finishing numerous projects that include re-finishing or painting furniture I have been given these last few years, and most importantly plan a wedding!

JEB AND I ARE GETTING MARRIED!



He hasn’t proposed or anything, we have just decided that next summer is the best time to start our married life, and start our grand adventure.



We were going to get married this August but we took the wise advice from our parents and decided to wait for a year.



So Jeb will be in Alamosa and I will be here until next summer.



I am hoping to do most of the wedding by myself with help (of course) from my mom, Jeb’s mom, my sisters, our dads, my cousins, my grandma, and the list goes on and on. The numerous DIY projects that will be related to our wedding I am hoping will keep me focused and time fly.



I am also really excited to start working out at home with my cousin and my mom. My goal is to lose 5 pounds a month up until the wedding. Leanne and I are going to start swimming (after she teaches me) and my mom and I are going to walk and lift weights. That should take up a few hours of my day!



At this point wedding planning isn’t too intense, I’ve just been looking and ripping apart magazines, thinking, dreaming, and talking with Jeb and our families.



The few things I do know at this point are

·        I want my grandma to make my dress

·        I want her to make my sisters dresses

·        I want my wedding outside and reception inside

·        July 7, 2012

·        I cannot picture marrying anyone else

Jeb and I were talking a month ago about when each of us knew we were going to get married and he said to me, “I think I always knew.”

There is no doubt in my mind that I am marrying my very best friend and the only boy who stole my heart

He is the only one who I trust with anything

The only one I am 100% open and honest with

The only boy I ever dated and wasn’t bored with in 2 weeks.

He treats me like gold and loves me unconditionally

There is no one else I can picture standing at the other end of the isle when I picture my wedding.

Broke By Sunset

NJC holds a contest every spring where 4 second year students compete against each other, and well time to "break" a horse.

Students all draw out of a hat for which horse they get at 9:00a.m.

and have to work with a halter broke horse for the remainder of the day.

This is Jeb and the horse he drew (my favorite out of the four {Lucky me}) Most of the morning was filled with "Ground work" lots of touching, rubbing, and in my words loving.
Jeb saddled and un- saddled his horse a few times, made him trot to the left then to the right... lots or repetition.

Then, Jeb made his horse lay down with the saddle on his back, and again started patting, rubbing, and "loving"

Jeb also worked a lot with his rope, making sure his horse wouldn't spook around it. He made lots of noise with it around the horse, he made the colt walk over it, and walk around it, just to get used to it.

Then Jeb SLOWLY got on his colt

Calmly

and quietly

He got on!

In the middle of the day, (lunch time) the students gave their horses a break, in the afternoon Jeb rode his horse a lot, back and forth back and forth back and forth, then at the end of the day, each student had to do a pattern around half of the arena, to show if their horse could not only walk, but trot, lope, stop, and back up too. This was the only part in the day that Jeb's horse decided to not get along with Jeb, but Jeb stayed patient and worked the little kink out of his colt. After the pattern each contestant had three minutes to show something that their horse could do.

Jeb stood up in his saddle and did a rope trick.

(too bad by this point my camera was long gone :( )

I am very proud to report that JEB WON!!!

He won a few prizes for all his hard work, which made him blush, but I was so proud of him. He was so patient with the horse he worked with all day.

I am excited for him to start training horses on a regular basis, and with more than just one day to work with them.

Dorm Wars 2011

There have been a few days that are hinting at spring time and summer up here in Sterling, which have lead to spring fever and some mischief here in Herbie Hall.

 

A few weekends ago, our friend Drea went home to visit her family for her mom's birthday and came back to her room being T-Ped.

   (I just might add that Drea actually stated this war back in February. She scared the crap our of Sydney and I one night by sliding a pipe flag under our door and swiping it back and forth really fast. I had just gotten out of the shower and was doing the "applying lotion while keep my towel on" dance when I heard this flapping noise coming from our door [I thought it was a bird or bat to be honest.] I tripped over the back leg of our futon and practically ended up in Sydney's lap, who was doing some homework on her laptop at her desk. Needless to say, revenge was in order!)

A week after Drea's little prank Sydney and I got her back! She was on the phone in our room, so while she was consumed in her conversation I snuck into her room and crammed myself into her closet cabinet. A little while later Sydney asked to borrow something from her room, and when they came into Drea's room, Sydney told her she needed to look in the mirror (located inside the cabinet) to fix her hair before they left. She opened the door and BOO! she screamed, jumped and told us how mean it was. [Revenge was sweet!]

The next week was spring break so we took a break from the pranks. But the first weekend we were back, Sydney and I didn't waist anytime to start up the prank war again. (See pictures above.)

I was in Greeley the day Drea found her new decorations and Sydney was visiting some family for the afternoon. But when we returned we found this.

She ripped apart all the paper we used in her room and spread it out all over our room! I was a pain to pick up all the little pieces, I'm sure that when we move out we will still be finding more.

Last week, some of the boys that live on first floor threatened us with some water balloons, so we went to Walmart and bought water guns. Needless to say it turned into an all out water fight. (It was way fun!)

I am sad to report, that the days of old are long gone. Sydney recently was talking to her cousin who went to NJC almost 10 years ago, about the water fights that they had, and that they would use their mattresses to slide down the stairs. Filling the washing machines with WAY to much dish soap so they would overflow with bubbles used to happen on a weekly basis.

Friends of Jeb's told him about how they use to sneak beer in in their laundry baskets and toss the bottles out the window so they wouldn't get caught.

***I'M SORRY IF THE FOLLOWING OFFENDS ANYONE***

Now, if you have a water fight, you get a sanction (a strike, you're put on academic probation for 30 days, and you have to do campus community service.)

If you remove the mattress from your room, you get to buy the dorm a new on (even if you put the old one back.)

If you mess with the laundry room at all, they lock the doors and shut it down for at least a week, and as a dorm you get fined.

If you have beer, any other alcohol, or the empty bottles (In the back of your truck, holding your change) you get a MIP (minor in possession) which involves the police.

If you have too much to drink one night and think you can get a ride back to your dorm to sleep it off, think again.

 If you come back to the dorms after drinking, stay quiet, don't caught any disturbances, and walk to your room or have a friend help you to your room RA's or Hall Directors can come and knock on your door and have you do a blow test and again get an MIP from the police, take part in alcohol counseling and write a 2 page paper why drinking is bad.

If you are over 21  and have been drinking, you still have to take the blow test, and if you blow anything you have to still write the paper.

If an RA knows that you have consumed alcohol and doesn't report you, they are fired on the spot.

If you remove a screen from any window it's a $50.00 fine.

If you get caught with a coffee pot, candle or any kind of skillet or open burner it is also a strike and could get you tossed out of the dorm.

I am not much of a drinker, plus I'm still under age, I just think that the dorm should welcome students back not call the police on them. I know of students who sleep in their vehicles in the middle of winter because they were drinking and don't want to get caught.

I realize that the rules are there to protect us and keep us out of trouble. I also realize that NJC is a dry campus that doesn't encourage drinking (Particularly underage drinking), but I think the campus should be a safe place for us to be, and if someone needs a place to sober up, I think Old dorm stories are for sure going to change. No more water fights, mattress surfing, or pranks played on one another.

I know NJC has plenty of reasons for why they enforce the rules they do, and I know I am no expert. I am a college student, not a teacher, director or part of any sort of staff. (I'm really just venting)

To be honest, I don't regret the water fight at all and this prank war isn't close to being over!