Adios. . .

Hola! (See what I did there?)

So, let’s face it: The past several months, this blog has seen little to no activity. You can mainly chalk it up to the crazy life I live, between school and wedding plans and everything in between.

Well, the good news is I finally graduated!

YAY! Click to see the whole gallery!

That’s right, I finally got my Bachelor of Arts degree in History. After ten years, it’s done. Praise the Lord.

So what’s next for me? Well, the wedding is 24 days away, for one thing (followed by a week in Hawaii!). We’ve been crazy busy getting everything ready, and it’s been a blast at that. After that, who knows? I’m hoping I can land a job teaching secondary Social Studies somewhere, but it’s slim pickins out there. So I’m just giving it to God and praying that my resume lands on the right desk before too long.

Regardless, I have a lot to get ready for when it comes to married life. Jenn and I have lots of plans in regards to fixing up our house after we get back from the honeymoon. I’ll have a new job soon enough, whatever/wherever it may be. And generally speaking, I’m gonna be at a point in my life where my own personal blog just isn’t necessary.

So, as I’ve alluded to back in December of last year, it’s time to say farewell to this site.

But fear not! I’ll still keep up the non-updated site for as long as I can. Plus, at some point this summer, Jenn and I are going to start up our blog chronicling our life as a married couple. So I’ll still have a place to write, and we’ll certainly have plenty to write about as we start our life together. I’m very excited about the possibilities in regards to this new endeavor, and it should be a lot of fun. And I definitely hope you’ll join us as we kick The Harvey Family Blog into gear later this summer.

In the mean time, I’ll still be on Facebook, Twitter, etc.. You know where to find me, and I’m always happy to talk.

To all of you who have been my faithful readers, thanks a million for keeping up with me. And thank you to those who have asked me a hundred times “What’s up with your blog? Why don’t you update it anymore?”

God bless you guys, and I sincerely hope you’ll follow me over to the new blog later this summer. Take care. 🙂

Back to the Fyootcha!

So I figured to commemorate the last months of this blog’s existence, I’d go back to the theme I started out with. Sweet memories. Or something like that.

This Christmas break was just awesome. Got spoiled with all the lovely gifts from my family, the future in-laws, and Jenn. Got the LEGO Grand Carousel, a safety razor shaving kit from Jenn (I am all that is man), some killer binoculars with a built-in digital camera, assorted gift cards, and some very comfy slippers, among other things. I got Jenn the Eternal Love Cross pendant from James Avery, and she wears it every day now. It looks amazing on her. Oh, and we got a Wii! And Jenn got Wii Fit+ and that Jenny McCarthy workout game that comes with a camera that watches to make sure you’re doing the exercises right. Kinda creepy, but it should be fun. Haha!

One of the best things about Christmas this year, hands down, was that we finally got a White Christmas!

It snowed like the dickens on Christmas Eve. Like, blowing sideways and prohibiting your vision… dickens. Yeah, anyway, it calmed down overnight, but it was still BEAUTIFUL for Christmas Day. That was such an awesome treat. Wish it would snow again, as cold as it is outside. We’re supposed to see the coldest temperatures in a loooooong time around here starting tomorrow night. Like, wind chills around 0 degrees in the evenings. Yay!

We went to City Streets in Sundance Square for New Year’s Eve. It was fun to do some dancing with Jenn (and Misty made a friend that she danced with all night, hehe). And at midnight, Jenn and I looked at each other and said, “Now we can finally say ‘We’re getting married this year!'” LOL

Speaking of that, we got the tuxes picked out for me, the groomsmen, the dads, and the ringbearers. They look pretty dang slick, I can’t wait to see how we all look together. Along with that, over the holiday, Jenn’s also been working on some paper mache letters for a couple of the tables at the reception. She has some that spell out “WE DO” for the cake table, and “love is sweet” for our candy buffet table. They look really pretty, she’s done an excellent job with them.

Got some pretty big stuff ahead of me in the next couple months. Not only am I applying to graduate, but I’m going to be taking the TExES on February 6th. For those of you who don’t know, that’s the state certification exam that all Texas teachers have to take. And I’m taking it a month from tomorrow. Whoa! Talk about surreal, huh? I can’t believe I’m finally at this point. I get butterflies thinking about it. After ten years of jackin’ around and not knowing what to do with my life, I’m finally about to step into not only married life, but a full-on professional life. I think I may go get some of those paper mache letters, spell out “paraprofessional” with them, and burn them in a celebratory bonfire. 🙂

Anyway, say a prayer for us. These five months leading up to graduation and the wedding are going to be completely crazy, and Jenn and I are gonna need all the support we can get.

Oh, and we saw Sherlock Holmes. Frickin’ SWEET movie. I so want the soundtrack.

Ho ho ho.

Been real busy this month! Biggest thing was probably wrapping up my next-to-last semester of college. One more semester, and then I’ll be done forever. 🙂 I’ve been enjoying this past week of not having to go to school in the evenings. It’s nice to be able to relax with Jenn, eat dinner at a normal time, and just generally not having a whole lot to do. Makes me look forward to being done with school even more.

Can’t believe Christmas is just over a week away. We had our Christmas program at church last Saturday. Jenn had an awesome solo right at the beginning, when the choir sang “Joy To The World.” Erin and Kevin had an amazing duet during “Ring The Bells,” which made Jenn and me even more impossibly excited about having them sing at our wedding. Click on the picture below if you’d like to see all the pictures I took:

We had the choir Christmas party at church last night. We watched the DVD of the Christmas program, ate several different varieties of cheese log (Jenn’s is SO my favorite), and then went caroling through the neighborhood behind the church, which was cold but quite fun! The only part I was sad about was the party was basically over soon as we got back. I wish we could have all sat around just a little bit longer and had some laughs. Though we did get to have plenty of that at our Refuge Christmas party, which was a total blastie blast.

Once I’m done here at work today, I’m heading up to the FLC at church to help Matt setup his blog that he wants to start. I tried to convince him that if he wanted to connect with his Youth, he needed to call it “Kilo 4 Christ” (his last name is Killough). But he said that was a loser name. Hey, if the shoe fits. O SNAP. Anyhoo, after that, Jenn and I are going to ol’ Arlington High School to see their Christmas orchestra concert. I am SO excited we’re going, I haven’t been to my old high school in several years. And the Symphony orchestra does Sleigh Ride every Christmas, so I can’t wait to see that again. The memories, they will be a-floodin’ back into my noggin, I tell you what.

Can’t wait for Christmas Eve/Day. Jenn and I are going with my family down to West to see my grandparents on Christmas Eve. Then we gotta fly back here pretty quick after lunch so we can get ready for the Christmas Eve service at church, because Jenn and I (with the assistance of the epically talented Dr. Gordon Page) will be doing “O Holy Night.” I am very excited about that, I haven’t played a candlelight service in several years, at least not since I was going to St. Andrew’s UMC. Anyway, once all that’s done, we’ll spend Christmas day with Jenn’s family, which is always a treat. 🙂

So what are your plans for Christmas? Got anything big planned, or are you just staying home for the holidays?

Agradecido.

Can you believe it’s that time of year already? I’m off for the rest of the week after today, so this’ll be it until Monday. Jenn and I are spending Turkey Day at Aunt Martha’s house, then we’re going with my mom down to the Hill Country, and Jenn’s going to meet Mom’s side of the family for the first time ever. Very exciting!

As we take the time to celebrate this wonderful holiday full of family, friends, and the best food in the universe, don’t forget to count your blessings and be thankful for what you have in your life. In these turbulent times, it’s more important than ever to remember that while there’s a lot we don’t have, there’s plenty more that we DO have.

I am thankful for the Heavenly Father above, and his son who was sent to die for our sins, both of whom I would be completely lost without.

I am thankful for my beautiful and amazing fiance, who I’ll be marrying in just a little over six months and spending the rest of my life with.

I am thankful for my awesome parents, who have been there for me more times than I can count.

I am thankful for my excellent friends, who bring so much laughter into my life.

I am thankful for my job, which allows me to earn the money I need to pay my bills.

I am thankful for my college education, which I will be completing in the Spring so I can earn MORE than the money I need to pay my bills. 🙂

I am thankful for you, friend. Thank you for reading my quaint little ol’ blog whenever you get a chance. I’m not exactly bringing in massive amounts of traffic here, but I know I have a dedicated few who enjoy reading my blog as much as y’all can. And that’s all I need.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, my dear friends. I hope you are able to enjoy it as much as I will. And when it’s over with, let’s all celebrate that magical time of year where we dust off the Christmas albums and listen to them until our ears bleed. Ha!

So what are you up to this week? Travel plans? Eating plans? Sleeping plans?

Dadgummit.

Sorry the blogging’s been all but nonexistent the past couple days. Between school and work, I’ve been having a hard time shifting gears enough to do this. Had a major paper due in Archaeology yesterday, plus an exam in Criminal Justice. So that was a little nuts! But, it’s all over now, so I’ve got at least a couple days of respite before it gets wacky again.

So Friday night, I surprised Jenn for an early birthday treat. I had Misty tell us that she wanted to go to Chuy’s for dinner with us after we finished registering at Home Depot. When we got there, Misty walked us back to where she had already got us a table. What Jenn didn’t realize was that there were a whole bunch of people waiting for us there. 🙂 My dad, Brad, her parents, her aunt and uncle, and several of our friends were all sitting there… and she walked right by them! Only when Kevin jumped out from behind a wall and surprised her did she realize what was going on. We got her good! LOL So that was a lot of fun. She totally had no idea, which was awesome. Tomorrow night is her real birthday, so we’re going to spend some time with her family to celebrate it.

Let’s see, what else has happened?… Oh yeah, Halloween was Saturday! That was a hoot. I volunteered my car to participate in our church’s Trunk or Treat party for the kiddos. I couldn’t believe I was the only one who decorated my car like this:

And the icing on the cake, of course, was Scottie volunteering to be eaten:

After we finished up there, we went to my family’s house for a little Halloween party. Nothing fancy, just hanging out and heating hot dawgs ‘n s’mores from the fire pit. The motley crew for the night:

So, fun little turnout there. 🙂

Sunday was our new music minister’s first day on the job. That was an absolute blast. Plus, even though we couldn’t have service out on the new property (dang mud), our pastor brought in a tub of dirt from the property and blessed it. It was very cool, and the service as a whole was SO much fun. We also raised nearly $200,000 in one-day offerings as part of the “first fruits” offering to go towards the development of the new church. I’m pretty sure that was the largest one-day offering in the history of the church. Very awesome.

That’s about all I got for now. Peace out, homeys.

Save me, Friday.

Had a meeting yesterday all morning at the PDC. Between that and having trouble registering for my Spring classes, I obviously ran out of time and wasn’t able to blog. Sorry about that. 🙂

I have an exam today in Archaeology, a class that I’m actually not doing well in at all. I’ve been studying a lot, and I have a nice list of definitions to study all day today, or at least as much as I possibly can. There’s most likely going to be some interruptions… there pretty much always is when I’m really needing to do some studying during the day. I guess that’s what’s gonna happen when you try to do this sort of thing during your down time at work. Duh.

This weekend’s the Halloween party. I’m considerably more excited than I was a couple days ago, because Jenn decided to buy us masks. We were struggling with figuring out what to do, because we didn’t really want to spend a lot of money on Halloween this year. But Jenn was able to buy our masks for a grand total of less than 10 bucks, which is awesome. Still not entirely sure what I’ll be wearing with it. I might go for a slight twist on an old-timey gangster, complete with a “tommy gun,” but we’ll see what I decide to do. It’s supposed to be nice and cool that evening, so I’ll be comfortable wearing long sleeves for once. 🙂

One of those nights…

Have you ever had something happen to you that was a complete and total accident, but you had someone just rip you to shreds for it? Happened to me last night. I spent the entire evening feeling horrible after the person confronted me about what happened, and it totally screwed up my brain just in time for my Renaissance midterm. Needless to say, the midterm didn’t go nearly as well as it should have. I think I did all right, though. There were a couple of questions that I just totally brain-farted on when I shouldn’t have, but there was nothing I could do about that.

What happened to mess me up so bad? Well, it’s not really something I want to talk about in a public forum. If I ever talk to you face to face, and you REALLY want to know, then I certainly don’t mind telling you. But it’s one of those things where, quite frankly, I’m completely and utterly humiliated for screwing up so bad.

Now don’t worry, I didn’t cheat or anything horrid like that. 🙂 I didn’t do anything that has ruined my life or anything else’s, and in the grand scheme of things, everything’s going to be all right. But it still happened, and my pride has been seriously bruised.

That being said, I’ll get over it. It sucks, but I’ll be all right. My conscience is clean, and I know that the Big Guy who really matters knows what’s up. So it’s all good.

So I’m trying to take it easy today. Not a whole lot going on, and I don’t have anything due for the rest of the week. We’re watching a video in Pirates of the Caribbean tonight, so that’ll be fun. And then I’ll get to enjoy a nice quiet dinner with Jenn, which always makes me feel better. She got really upset when I called her yesterday after the “incident” happened, and I don’t blame her for it at all. She was scared that the repercussions would result in something even worse happening, but she calmed down pretty quick after I explained everything. She’s been nothing but supportive ever since. We met Misty at Chick-Fil-A for dinner last night after school, and Jenn bought me dinner. So sweet. She really went the extra mile to help me feel better. She always does, and that’s one of the many reasons I love that gal so much.

Jon Acuff on Stuff Christians Like posted a rather timely entry today that rang very true for me. Is it true that I’m stupid for letting this happen?

“No, it’s not true. You are not that word, that thing, that label someone or even yourself is asking you to wear. Showing you compassion is the reason God gets up in the morning. That is what’s true.”

“Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion.” — Isaiah 30:18

On a side note, next time you go to CFA, get provolone and bacon on your chikin sammich. OMG so good.

iPSotD

Blech.

Destroyer of Midterms.

Hey, Midterms. See this?

Think you can handle this? I DIDN’T THINK SO.

Yes, it’s that time again. Miiiidterrrrms. I’m actually almost done with them for the week. My midterm project in Business Communications was last night, which was an 8-minute long informative speech on career paths for a History Major. I think I got through that pretty dang good. Then I had my Pirates of the Caribbean midterm, which wasn’t too bad. 40 multiple choice and 10 matching questions, followed by an essay that we could choose from a list of 4 or 5 different prompts. I wrote on possible significant turning points in the history of piracy. Seemed pretty easy, I just had to do a LOT of writing to make my points sound good. Hopefully he’ll like it enough to give me a good grade.

Tonight is the midterm I’m not really looking forward to. History of the Renaissance is a pretty nice class, but the teacher is really big on NAMES. LOTS AND LOTS OF NAMES. And they’re aaaaaall Italian names. And nothing against the Italians, but so many of their names sound WAY too similar to each other. It all runs together way too easily. I had this teacher for History of the Reformation last Spring, so I know what to expect. But it’s still a pretty difficult format. There will be multiple choice questions. But not your average multiple choice. No, we’re talking questions where three out of the four choices COULD be the answer, but only one is THE answer. And most of them WILL be that way. She’s good about throwing in a few gimme’s, but the vast majority makes you sit there and bang your head on the desk.

Then there’s the ID questions. She gives us a review sheet ahead of time that has a list of, like, twelve names on it. We’re supposed to know who these people are, and be able to write two or three sentences about each one. She picks six of those names to put on the test, so you literally have to know all twelve if you want to do well. And then there are the essays. Yes, plural. One essay of our choice from the prompts listed, and then one essay that we all have to do on one specific prompt.

So yeah, overkill much? I’m gonna be so fried when I get home tonight. But, on the bright side, I’ll just have regular classes for the rest of the week. My Archaeology midterm is next week… I think? And my Criminal Justice midterm isn’t until the first week of November. So that’ll give me some breathing room and a good chance to study for those separately.

Speaking of studying, I should probably pull out my Renaissance text and do some studying while I have some free time. So I’ll wrap it up for now. Oh, and iPSotD isn’t going to be quite as frequent for now, because quite frankly, I’m running out of ideas. LOL But I’ll make sure to post ’em when I get inspired, even if they have to be their own separate entry.

</3 Monday

Monday. I keel you.

I’m not feeling well at all right now. My stomach is killing me, and I feel really nauseous. So no iPSotD today, but click the picture below to see all our photos from our trip to the State Fair on Saturday. We had a great time trying out all the food, revisiting the spot where I proposed to Jenn, and getting to sit in the Bumblebee Camaro. 🙂 I’ll post a more detailed recap later one.

Click to see the whole photo set!

What really sucks is that I have a speech to give tonight, and a midterm right after it. So if you don’t mind, please pray that I get to feeling better, so I can do a good job.