Thursday, February 9, 2012

The book I am published in is on the shelves!

The cover of the book myself and three colleagues got a chapter published in!

Just received the email this afternoon inviting me to purchase the book we are published in. We only wrote one activity for one chapter of the book, but I think it is pretty cool to have something I have done be in a book that will actually be used! Look at me making an impact already! Well, assuming this volume will sell as good as the previous one AND that people like our activity. I ordered one that will be sent to my parent's house since I will be in England. There was an option to send it to England....for an extra $25. I figure I can just get it later. I am a bit sad that I will not have it until the summer, but at least I know a copy will be waiting for me....pretty psyched to have a copy. If you are so inclined, you can pick yourself up a copy here .

This is bound to be the first of many publications for me. Yay me!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Late Night List of "To-Do" Tasks

 Yeah this is in no way related to me, but I am watching WEtv's Little Miss Perfect and wanted to share the joy of child pageants with everyone. ha, gross.

I read somewhere once that people love to read lists of things in other people's blogs. I am not sure why this is. Perhaps because it is short and to the point. Perhaps because they are easy to read. Maybe people just like how bullets points make a page look organized. I am sure there is some logic behind it somewhere. It is too late at night for me to focus on analyzing it at this very moment. That being said, it is NOT too late in the night for me to come up with a list of things seeing as I cannot find sleep anyways. Wherever I read this notion from (somewhere online I do believe), many people concurred that they did enjoy reading lists of, well, pretty much anything at all. Going off of that (and since I was going to hand write out this list anyways) I have decided to document my list here so that:

(A) I am not wasting paper.
(B) I do not lose said piece of paper.
(C) Because my laptop was already on and I can.
(D) My last blog entry said I would have more posts as the time go closer to my leaving so if all else fails I have at the very least written two before I leave.

Anywho anyhow, here for your reading pleasure is a list of all the things I have yet to accomplish prior to my flight leaving on Monday evening (a mire 5 days and a few hours from now). I hope you find it a mildly interesting read. If not, well then, at least I still accomplish the above A - D and you have only wasted 10 minutes of your life (which you were probably going to be wasting on the computer anyhow if you decided to wander to my blog, therefore allowing you to REALLY only brake even instead of a straight up losing). 

I digress...

  • Pack my last minutes as follow:
    • Nook
    • Nook charger
    • Make-up
    • Zumba shoes
    • Medications
    • Contacts
    • Retainer
    • Transfer and pack purse
      • secure computer zippie
      • recheck wallet transfer for IDs and cards
    • Glasses
    • Camera
    • Camera charger
    • After shower leave-in color protection
    • Ipod/headphones
    • Bachelorette heels
    • Prepare "freshen-up" zip-lock
      • Concealer
      • Eye-drops
      • Chapstick
      • Travel brush
      • "Water free" disposable toothbrushes
      • Hand compact
      • Spare fringe-clip
  • Finish boxing up/organizing everything I am leaving here
  • Take Morris' vet records to his new vet
  • Complete car sale transaction with Troy
  • Exchange American dollars into British pounds
  • Activate my new debit card (with help of bank teller since the automated one failed to work this afternoon)
  • Ask bank teller about fees associated with utilizing my card to pay for items whilst overseas VS only using it at an ATM for withdrawls
  • Remind bank teller to flag my new debit card as being out of the country
  • Complete tax forms
  • Finish Sara's bridal shower gift
  • Finish Sara's bridal shower contribution
  • Give both of Sara's aforementioned bridal shower items to Brynn
  • Ensure Sam's Sara gets her cardigan back
  • Arrange all Valentine's gifts for proper delivery
  • Wrap and pack Alex's Valentine's gifts
  • Ensure all bills are paid
  • Ensure future school loan notifications will reach me in England
  • "Waiting to be received"s as follow:
    • Copy of diploma
    • 2 reference letters for BACP
  • Say all of my "goodbyes"
  • Perform last minute "checks"
    • Money (American, British, and Euros)
    • Printout of flight itinerary
    • Printout of travel insurance
    • Passport
    • Watch is on
    • Fringe-clip on pocket of zippie
    • Computer zippie secured
    • Notepad items:
      • Proper emergency number to dial once in England from payphone
      • Dates of stay
      • "Financial Sponsor" contact info (Alex's dad; incase customs requires it)
That is all i can think of at this very moment, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I will remember additional things to add later....good thing I cannot lose this list!

There you have it. Headed to post this on FB for my mom (related to what we were watching before she went to bed and the photo I opened this entry with) then trying to hit the hay. Seriously, check out the creep factor in that video, I rate it pretty high. Luncheon date in the AM and hang-out with Brynn in the evening. Thanks for playing folks.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Sam's Birthday Weekend

 I needed to get a photo with this mullet when we were out!

Soooo I am supposed to be writing on a Sunday to update this baby, but i got home from CF in the afternoon and was too busy (and exhausted) to get round to updating. 

Packing is going well. Pretty much everything is done. I have my 2 suitcases ready to go (minus last minutes) and my carry-ons. Today I packed and shipped my one box. I was shocked at how cheap it was! I got quotes on 50 lb boxes from several places (USPS, UPS, FedEx, and several local shipping companies). All of these options were between $500 and $600. Needless to say, I decided not to go that option unless I did not have to. I even looked into cargo shipping companies and those sites were people bid on the cost they are willing to pick-up and deliver your shipments for. Those were way more expensive or did not ship to the UK. lame. 

I had it in my mind that I would just do the 2 suitcases and carry-ons, but after all the strategic packing I could muster I still had things I wanted. Sooo I decided to just ship one box full of things I thought were lighter - my vintage hats, belts, tights, leggins, headbands, etc. That one box ended up being 24 x 18 x 18 and weighing 31 lbs. I was not looking forward to shipping that baby. Finally drug it over to the USPS today after shoving it in my little car (that's soon not to be mine anymore!) around 3:30 pm. It took ages to fill out the customs form but luckily I had already made up my detailed list of contents and values. My grand total to ship it priority (I had no choice, but priority was actually the cheapest option anyways) came to $131 and will arrive in 6-10 business days. I am thrilled at this price! I am sure that I will need to pay a customs fee when it arrives, but definitely could not replace all of those items for anywhere near that number. Well worth the money spent as long as it arrives in one piece. Added bonuses - I got free insurance on it AND I should arrive in the country before the box does. My goodness that's exciting!

Super pumped to have that ticked off my list of things left to go (it's kinda a long list for having only one week left, lol). I have a feeling this week is only going to get busier. At least that will make the time fly by!

So to get on with the title of this blog. I spent from Wed the 1st to yesterday in CF with Sam for her birthday.  I loaded up the puppies and headed out before 11 am (impressive time, I thought considering all the things I had to do before I left the house), arriving around noon. I put the puppies in their decorated collars and headed for Sam's door....to find her not home! After several phone calls I find out she is at a massage and her boyfriend arrives to let me in. Sam gets in about a half hour later, totally not surprised since she parked next to my car. She was, however, pleased that i brought the puppies with me.

We had a really fun super extended weekend - ate the cake made out of donuts, went to the craziest session of Zumba at the local gym where we learned a squawking hawk dance move, rented some movies, etc.

On Friday she had a birthday party for which we made up some good food and had her friends over. That was followed by time at a karaoke bar where the DJ would not let us sing. I was pissed because he didn't know me as the famous karaoke star from Menomonie that I am. lol. When Jared found this out he got all puffed up and paid the DJ to let us sing a tune with 2 of Sam's friends. All in all it was a good time. The apartment was left a disaster at the end of the night, largely due to a vomit issue by Jared. lol. 

Saturday we had lunch with our family and some of our parent's friends at Red Lobster. We then attended the UNI basketball game. We saw a fun halftime show of a unicycle family that did some really neat tricks on like 8 ft tall unicyles. I got to meet the UNI president and the Recreation/Alum guy due to a family friend that attended the game with us being alum and his son donating the money for the McLeod Center. We beat the rival team that stole the 5th best player in the state from UNI. Best of all, I got to do the interlude dance again! Love that dance! It's clearly the best thing to come out of UNI ever. If you don't know it then you should check it out here! It is a song from a band called Attack! attack! and the dance was made up by some UNI students a few years ago. I will be bringing this to England with me!

We did not do too too much the rest of the time together, but it was some great sister time for sure. I had a wonderful little break in CF and even picked up a few new t-shirts that I am super excited about. Now that I am back things are starting to feel a bit unreal - almost like I am living in some strange dream. I am in a complete fog as my time of leaving rapidly approaches. I think this is a good thing because I would be quite intolerable if I were to express my excitement all the time for the big move! lol.

Keep checking back here, I have a feeling as the date approaches (one week to go!!) I will be using this to help cope with my utter excitement.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

My 2012 Goals

All of the Girls from this past weekend's family graduation/going away party for me


I have decided since it is the last day of January that I can still get in my goals for this year in England. My thought is that if I put them in writing somewhere that I will stick to them! Here the are:

Health and Fitness: To become a Zumba instructor.

Personal Growth and Interests: To join a church and volunteer organization, attending both regularly.

Career: To find a job and get granted a Work Visa. 

Education and Training: To get accepted to the British Association for Counseling and Psychology (adding MBACP to the end of my name). 

Home Living and Improvement: To make a string tree mural on the wall of Alex and I’s future apartment. 

Time Management and Organization: To follow-up every job application submission in 2 weeks time. 

Family and Relationships: To hold true to Social Sundays (update my blog, skype people, mass email, etc).

Recreation and Leisure: Set aside bi-weekly “Me Time” to enjoy artzy things and one culturally English hobby.

I fixed my blog!!!!!

 This is my baby Morris and I all dressed up for Winter time!

Ok so, the few of you that actually read this probably have noticed that I have not updated since November. Well, for some reason I was frozen out of my account and the email I had linked to my blog is not inactive since I never use it. That being said, I could not contact blogspot to have them reset my frozen/hacked account. Welll I finally got it all straightened out so I am now able to blog away again! Yay! 

My new plan of action is to start blogging again, once a week, so that people can stay up to date with my adventure abroad. I am hoping I can stick to it! I will not have a laptop at first when I travel across the pond but will have Alex's laptop and desktop to use. I am hoping my blogging won't go to waste and that people will use it to keep up to date on things that are going on with me. 

The reason I started a blog the last time I went overseas was so that when I did get to speak to people I would not be spending the whole, expensive conversation explaining what was new with me. This way people can know about some of the bigger (and also very ordinary and seemly boring) things that i do, cutting through the need for that content in emails, facebook messages, and phonecalls.

The lowdown - I leave on 02/13 (TWO WEEKS!!!) and will land on Valentine's Day evening (during the middle of the day over here in the states). Once I am there and settled I plan on making Sunday's my blog, mass email, and skype day. Yes, I will be keeping my skype - and would love to be utilizing it to the fullest! My skype name is Cassandra.Lea if you have an account (or plan on making one). Add me up and you can be added to my Sunday Skype List! 

The Master plan for being overseas is to find a job that will get me a visa before I have to return in late June for my friend Sara's wedding that I am in. My fingers are crossed that I find something before then so my visa can process and I can return gainfully employed and get our own place (Alex and I). Until then, I will be residing with Alex's family....which I am so very very thankful for!

......So very much has happened since November that I cannot possibly take the time to play catch up, so I will end for now and just keep up on things from here :) Thanks to all of those who have decided to follow me. I hope you continue to enjoy reading about my life's adventures.