Recent Happenings

So very much has been going on lately:

-     I joined Pinterest, finally!  If you'd like to look me up, I'm under Dani Sadlo and am likely the only or one of the only ones on Pinterest by that name.  ;)
-     Last week I took my second CLEP for College Plus and passed - woohoo!  That CLEP was on Introductory Psychology and now I'm taking CP's course on Social Justice.
-     I found my Ring Dance dress and ordered it earlier this week - it will be in sometime in late April.
-     Tomorrow night I'm planning on going to The Mill (New Life Church's college group) with Jon, which will be nice since we haven't been in a while.
-     My precious baby cousin, Gavin, gets to go home with his mom, my Aunt Jessilyn, Saturday afternoon.
-     Saturday night we're hosting our dojong's Gospel Team, which Chaela is on, at our house.
-     Sunday Dad goes TDY again and some of our dear friends will be spending the night at our house; Maria and Mom are going to a Michael Card (or was it Michael W. Smith?) concert that night.
-     Monday I'm planning on asking about updo ideas (for my friend, Jackie's wedding and for the Ring Dance) from the lady who cuts my hair before she gives me a trim, since I may end up having her chop off a bit extra from the longest layer so styles are more easily doable.  (More on that in another post...)
-     Hopefully before March disappears I will go to Focus on the Family to see about getting a summer job with the food service there that I worked for for one week last summer.
-     I'm also planning on working out a time to do a sort of job shadow at my old homeschool group this Tuesday/Wednesday,
-     and need to take a midterm by Friday...
-     ...Because the next week I get to go with Jon to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a few days of his Spring Break!  (Obviously I won't be getting any studying done, despite any of my good intentions.)

*whew*

Now that I've blurted out that chunk of everything, I'll explain at least a few points in better detail.

First, I'm pleased to announce that as of today's College Plus coaching call, I'm projected to graduate in late March of 2015.  This is at least a semester later than I had hoped, but what with unexpected trips to the doctor for Mom and Chaela this winter, my family taking care of Gavin since November, no empty weekends, and (yes, I'll admit it) poor time/schedule management on my part, I'm a bit behind.  Oh well!  God is teaching me much about not being in control, or at least to be flexible as things change that are out of my power to control.  Thankfully God knows exactly what He's doing!  (Proverbs 16:9)

Alright, for those of you who don't know what the Air Force Ring Dance is, I'll fill you in with the little bit I know.  :)  Basically, the Ring Dance is for Air Force Academy juniors.  This is when they get their class ring, celebrate surviving the Academy (so far).  It is not a prom; it is a formal event, more like a military ball than a high school dance.  It's kind of taboo for a cadet to attend without a date, so when I knew that *something* was up the night before I found out that Jon liked me, I thought he had told Mom he was planning on asking me to this dance!  Turns out I was kinda right...  ;)

                                               

As Jon's girlfriend, I figured I would be his date to the dance, but still I felt a little weird looking around for a dress before he'd even said anything about it.  Silly me...  He did officially ask me to be his date while out on a very nice dinner date at a great place near Manitou Springs the day after Valentine's.  I told him I'd think about it.  ;)  He laughed when I told him I wanted to begin dress shopping right away - he reminded me that I still had three months and that some girls don't get asked to the Ring Dance until the week before!  (SO glad he didn't do that....)  Nevertheless, I did start looking around online to get ideas, and even checked David's Bridal's clearance rack a couple times.  Mom helped me keep an eye out for anything good during trips to Goodwill and the Arc thrift store.  Earlier this week I decided to look at Danelle's Bridal since they had announcements that they had new formals and prom dresses in - nothing.  David's Bridal is just across the street, so I checked there one more time.  They also had more prom and formal dresses than I had seen there before, and I had fun trying a few things on.  Nothing quite worked (too tight, too low, wrong color...) until I tried on a lovely empire-waisted, peachy-pink colored, halter-top formal.  I love it!  Mom absolutely loved the pictures I texted her and she urged me to look no further.  I've got my dress!  Well... I ordered it.  I'll actually have it later in April.  ;)  (If you look at my Ring Dance ideas board on Pinterest, I've pinned a couple pictures of the dress.)

Next, Gavin.  I mentioned in my first post, I think, a little about my baby cousin.  Gavin is now about four months old and is quite the happy little one!  He's developing so quickly and growing faster than I thought possible.  His mommy will be so happy to see him after so long, I'm sure!  Of course, my family and I aren't too happy about not getting to see this little one 24/7, and while we are looking forward to more regular sleep habits, bottles and formula taking up space on the counter and in the fridge and dishwasher, and so on, we already are beginning to miss him.  Just about as soon as Dad got home from work tonight, he made a beeline for Gavin and held him for as long as he could (before taking Mom out for dinner).  God has blessed us so richly through this baby and we all pray that He will continue to work in him, even as an infant, and that He would put godly people in his life to lead him to the Lord.

(Mom stuck his pants on his head - he told her she was silly to do that!)


(We've enjoyed some nice, warm, 50-60* weather here in between these silly blizzard warnings; I have taken Gavin on a couple of walks on these sunny days.  He was half-awake here, and he always makes silly chubby faces when he's sleepy - hehe!)

Well, speaking of leaving, Dad just has this TDY and one or two more (I think) before he heads off to Baghdad.  I have been working on a project just for him - a sort of interactive count-down to next Spring/Summer when he gets home again.  :)  I just need about 100-150 more fun facts, quotes, and things to fill in to make it to a total 365 things on this list of daily notes for him...

Last thing!  I CANNOT wait to go with Jon to visit his family!  We fly out to Cedar Rapids on Monday and will stay through Thursday.  Jon has already informed me I will be forced to rest and relax as much as possible, which made me chuckle, since he and I sometimes have slightly differing ideas of resting and relaxing...  Anyway, I hope to get to know Pam and Dan (his parents) and Katie (his sister) a little better, as well as see the town he grew up in.  Aaaaahh!!  I'm so excited!  I'll hopefully remember to post something about the trip after we get back.

Well, that's today's novel - I hope you enjoyed it if you survived reading straight through.  :)

God bless and good night!