Christmas!

Christmas sort of went by fast- and I'm a little sad about it. It was, however, full of amazing food, great company, and lots of naps :) 

I went up to Lindsay's house a few days before Christmas to stay with the boys (who were both sick) while Chris worked and Lindsay finished some Christmas shopping. They were super cuddly, and I was okay with it! 

Sunday before Christmas we celebrated the Pedersen family Christmas. Here's the annual 'sibling' photo:

I worked during the day of Christmas Eve. Thankfully, Mike and Julie came in (and stayed to drink) and let me leave so I could make it to church. The choir sang a few songs before Mass started. I sang O Holy Night (at the front of church-scary!) with the choir joining on the refrain. 

After Mass, Ma and Pa had the bowling gang over for prime rib. I stopped over to Kristen's grandparents for a little while (because they're my second family-I have to see them on Christmas!). I came home and enjoyed the prime rib and great company :) 

Pa dressed up as Santa for Mass (per Father Brian's request) to give the message that even Santa has time to attend Mass. 

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause....

Christmas day we were all up and at 'em early to start cooking. Pa and I worked hard making cheeseballs and pickle wraps. The troops arrived around noon and the chaos continued throughout the day. We had 21 people total in our house for lunch. We had so much good food and we all ate ourselves into a food coma. After lunch we opened presents and then had pie. The extended family left and the immediate fam opened presents. Needless to say, our living room was pretty much a war zone. All were pleased with the gifts they received, aside from the cookie jar being located in a set of luggage given to Lindsay. She and I managed to sneak it into Shelby's luggage, but JD found it before they left. I am currently not aware of the location, and I'm worried. 

Shelby bought Kaden a marshmallow shooter and, in the words of Lindsay, "This is what Christmas is about:wearing your fuzzy fat pants and shooting marshmallows at people." 

Connor got a new Hawkeye chair

A few of my favorite people! 

So that's the wrap-up of my Christmas. Now I'm just enjoying break, visiting friends, napping quite a bit, and doing basically whatever I want. and I love it. :) 

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Even the ugly ones. (Shoutout to Father K.) Mother's Day is hard for my mama-my grandma has been gone for almost 4 years now. I miss her everyday, and I know my mom does too. We all went to church (including Zac), and then came home for breakfast. I made pancakes and we ate out on the patio table. What a beautiful day! Unfortunately I had to work 2-9 so I couldn't really enjoy the day outside. Especially since it was 94 DEGREES IN THE BUILDING. Linda hadn't turned the air on yet, and all the machines put out heat which makes it miserable in there. Not to mention the fact that I was working with a bunch of new people who had no idea what they were doing. Frustrating. Zac made it better by waiting for me to get off work and then taking me on a motorcycle ride around the lake. :)

Check out the special pancake I made for my ma :)

April 22

The visit home was short-lived, as I had to be back in Cedar Falls Sunday afternoon for work. After church we had omelets at the museum courtesy of the Lions club. Sandra and Kate sat with us... look how cute she is!! :)

After work I met Rob at the church to practice for cantering Wednesday night. Then I had to accompany at the 9pm mass. 

April 6

Woohoo. Another Friday.

ONE WEEK AWAY FROM RELAY. :)

I had a pretty blocked out schedule today. Workout, lunch, French test, work, church. After church I had soup and helped them do the spring cleaning for a little while. Then I made a Walmart run. Funny how you can spend money without even realizing it..ugh.

Right now I'm watching Enchanted. on my futon. by myself. Because all of my friends went home for the weekend. Boo. :( I was so jealous of everyone going home.

On my Walmart trip, I made a little purchase to indulge in on Sunday. :)

Also. My French professor told me today that my outfit looked very European and that I could go to Paris dressed like that. Oh my GOSH I would LOVE to go back to Paris. Maybe someday....

March 25

I had to play at Hudson today. When I got back from that I did some homework and got ready for the day. I had brunch with Katlyne and then worked from 2-6:45. I grabbed some supper and then headed to the church because I had to be the accompanist. When I got back from church I was so tired that I just crashed. My photo is from a spot on campus. The ground is LOVING this weather because....everything is so green!

March 18

Saturday night was looooooong. I got up and went to church with mom & dad. Lindsay and the boys left before we went to church because they had to get back to make soup for their Fire Dept. soup supper. After church, mom made breakfast. We all kinda hung out. I read-a lot. and then took a long (much-needed) nap. I was supposed to go to work buuuuuut I forgot to call and check my schedule so I didn't know I was supposed to work. Oops. Around 6 I left with Lance and Zac to go out to their friend's house by the lake. We sat around and talked and then later went to Woody's for supper. When we got back to town I had to see the new pets that Lance bought... Oh these boys......

They're holding chickens. And the chickens are currently living in the basement of the Sedlacek/Higgins/Passow residence. 

February 22

February 22, 2012, is officially deemed as one of my least favorite days, EVER. We'll get there later. I went to the Union to work out.. I read while I'm riding the exercise bike. I'm SO CLOSE to being done with the Hunger Games. However, I have a page-long to do list for this week so I should work on that before I finish it. It's killing me though. During my writing class I finished our assignment that is not actually due until 11:59pm of the 23rd. Hooray for not procrastinating! After class I had lunch with Courtney and then came to my room and buckled down. I got so much done! I went to donate plasma around 4:00. This is where it gets ugly. I drank A LOT of caffeine on Tuesday, which is not good for donating plasma. They encourage you to be very well hydrated. I didn't even think about that when I was drinking my 2 glasses of iced tea. So I was having trouble the whole time because the needle kept moving. I finished my last return and the saline solution started going in. I knew something wasn't right. I had an awful pain in my arm. I called the lady over and told her that the cuff felt really tight. She said it shouldn't be inflated at all because the saline was going in. Little did I know that it felt tight because my arm was swelling up like a balloon. Apparently the needle got moved again and the saline solution was going into the tissue of my arm instead of my vein. They didn't tell me that right away, though. So I'm crying because 1) it hurt so bad and 2) I thought I was going to die. They took me into an exam room and a nurse had to help my take my shirt off so she could look at my arm. It was huge. Probably the size of my calf, no joke. They told me what happened and they said my body would eventually absorb it, but since it had stretched my skin out it would probably leave a pretty good bruise. I guess we'll find out. So after that incident I came back to campus and grabbed supper. I then headed to Hudson to play at the Ash Wednesday service-Jen went with me. It was slightly difficult to play with my arm but I managed it. I dropped Jen off at the dorm and then drove to St. Stephen's because the choir was ministering at mass. After mass, Rob followed me out to the parking lot where I parked my car and then drove me back to my dorm because he's such a nice guy. Katlyne helped me get undressed and into my pajamas. I took some painkillers and headed to bed.


The weather today was ridiculously bipolar. It was fine when walking to workout and on the way back. While walking to my 11:00 class, it snowed. HUGE snowflakes. It was soooo pretty!

The picture doesn't really capture the beauty, though. When I left to donate plasma at 4, it was sunny and 40 degrees. Crazy! 

February 19

So I got up early enough this morning to throw some clothes on, brush my teeth, throw my hair in a ponytail, and leave. And I was still 5minutes late. No worries though, I think Emily has caught on to the idea of telling me I need to be there about 10 minutes earlier than I actually do... Anyway, I stayed at Hudson church long enough for the choir to sing and then I left. I drove out to Comfort Suites to pick up Cassie and Kenzie Brennan to drive them to their car (they took a taxi to their hotel after the concert last night). When I got back to my room I showered and did some homework and then ate brunch with Katlyne. I took a short catnap before I went to work at 2. I was supposed to get off at 7 but I have this weakness where, if someone asks me to do something, I can't say no. So when my manager asked me to stay an extra hour, I couldn't say no. I got off at 8 and headed back to campus. I went to church and am now heading to bed.

On a side note, three weeks from today I will be in Phoenix. Yay :)

It's a picture of my calendar because we're so close to spring break that it's on my calendar. Yahoo! 

February 12

Lazy Sunday. :) They're the best! We got up and went to church at St. Stephen's because I had to be the accompanist. After church we went to Village Inn (this has become a tradition for us :) ) After breakfast/lunch we wandered around the mall until 1:15 when we headed to the movie theatre to see THE VOW!!! :) It was so cute :)  After the movie we went to back to the room and were lazy. It was awesome. I had a CAC meeting at 7 so we went to that and then back to the room. We watched a bit of the Grammys and then the Lion King. We headed to bed around 11.

Evidence of how lazy we were.......