Today, as Krista and I were painting our toenails and watching a movie, she said "Lauren this is a good blog moment" A sting of grief quickly went through me. All the events that have passed by that I have not documented on my blog. Not to say I haven't had this window with this text box open multiple times before, I have just failed to finish it.

So I'll work backwards. This weekend, Krista and I had Julia over. She came on friday, and I saw her when I got home from my hair appointment. Getting my hair done by someone other than Maria made me very nervous. I explained to this new woman that I dislike change, but that since I don't live at home anymore, I had to. Fortunately she listened, and besides from being a little blonder than I am used to, she did not do a horrible job. Though I try my best to resist change, and I had to actually pay for a hair cut, I was left feeling fine. That night, a group of us went to the Grand Valley/Hope hockey game to watch Jake play. The game was a lot of fun, and Jake played great. On the way there and back we listened to Taylor Swift, which created a moment felt only by those in the car. Once home, Krista and I feel slightly hungry, and so around 1:30am we order two large papa john's pizzas. Pepperoni & Green Pepper and BBQ Chicken. A group of us watched the break up, and finally made it to bed at some hour early in the morning.

This past thursday, we had 8 girls + Jesse in the dorm watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Accompanied with French Toast Sticks from late night, it was an enjoyable evening. Krista and I have found that if we always have our futon in the "bed" position, we can fit more people, a lot more comfortably. We simply prop pillows against the wall, and lie back. It has been like this since then, and I am currently sitting on the futon with the new default position. Perfect.

What keeps you warm when your feeling chilled and you don't want to raise your heating bill? Blankets are okay, but they can slip and slide, and when you need to reach for something your hands are trapped inside! Now there's the SNUGGIE, the blanket that has sleeves! I know, who would not want one? Well, me and my mom certainly did, so about 6-8 weeks ago, I took the liberty of ordering us some. It was buy one get one free, fantastic! I buy two, assuming I would get one free. I get a package, and much to my shock I had four snuggies! I guess each order came with a free one... oops :)

Last sunday defined lazy. After attending church, we fit 7 people in Jesse's 5 passenger car so Natalie, Shaina, Tina, Stephanie and I could go tanning. We all had one week free tanning, and since the sun had been withheld from us for too long, artificial sun was going to have to do. Expressing the happiness each one of us felt after basking in the warm UV rays is difficult. It was nothing short of pure euphoria. After that, we went next door to the video store where Jesse and Chris were looking at movies. In the spirit of Halloween, Chris wanted to get a horror film to watch. After an enduring debate of clowns or no clowns, ghosts or demons, psychological or jumpy, we finally decided on what could have been the worst movie ever. Ring around the Rosie. The "scary" scenes resembled someone's portrayal of a bad LSD trip, the story line had so many holes in it, all in all, it made no sense. Wendy's been dead for 17 years. What!? After a huge disappointment, the majority of us were craving hot chocolate. Since we did not have easy, powdered packs, we resorted to some chocolate syrup bought at the c-store. Step one: we heated some milk on the stove

Step two: while heating, we stirred in the chocolate.

The second step where we made our first mistake. Chocolate can burn. Go figure. Our marginal hot cocoa had thin slivers of burned chocolate in it. After this unfortunate mess, we watched another movie. After the movie, Shaina, Natalie and I continued to sit on my futon and be unproductive. This was the end of our halloweekend.

The beginning of our halloweekend started friday. After classes ended around noon, Tina and I decided to lay around and watch little miss sunshine. This turned into a moderately sized gathering with about 8 people fitting into the room. After that, we wanted to start getting ready for our premiere as the seven dwarfs.

Because we did not want to spend a lot of money on a costume we would wear once, we put together our own costumes as the seven dwarfs. With the small price of 10$, we each were an adorable version of the disney classic dwarfs. To make everything twice as better, Tina had a snow white costume that Chris wore.

The night was a blast. After getting to bed around 5am, I hear footsteps creep into my room. I reluctantly open my eyes, and look down off of my loft to see Tina, Stephanie, Natalie and Shaina coming in to wake me up and go eat with them. "Go eat, I will be up when you get back" I promised. About an hour later, 2pm, they come back. I am not awake. The only thing that got me out of bed was the prospect of tanning, and without changing out of my sweats and flannel, I went into public. Around 4pm, we realized we had another halloween party to go to. Could we pull off the seven dwarfs again? Well sure, if our costumes hadn't been filthy. Twas thinking time. What could we pull off that was readily accessible in our closets? An idea struck one of us, and with jean shorts, flannel shirts, and pigtails, we pulled off cowgirls.

During the week, a tragedy struck room 223. Krista found our beloved fish Edward dead. We held a memorial service with some of Edward's closest friends. We made a short video that documented the emotion of the day. As you can see, Krista can hardly contain herself.

Besides having to miss 2 episodes of Glee due to the world series, the past couple weeks have been nice. Now comes the two week stretch to thanksgiving. If you weren't aware, the span from when students begin school to thanksgiving, is the longest time that students go without a break. Is the worst almost over? No. Looming like a dark shadow, creeping upon us all, ready to make or break us are finals. Until then, I will enjoy this warm weekend in november and hope for the best.

The cruciality of caffeine in college

Ever had 8 cups of coffee + a diet doctor pepper? Well let me tell you from first hand experience, that the sensation is overwhelming. Mid-terms are this week, and therefore my nights and days consist of hardcore studying. This can lead to lack of sleep and extremely high stress. In order prevent complete mental and physical collapse, caffeine is crucial.

This morning started like every morning: Lethargic and torturous. The alarm begins to beep. Remember how my bed is lofted? My alarm is down on my desk. The good news is I have a remote that can put said alarm on snooze. Without opening my eyes, I fumble around searching for this remote. However, this only happens if the alarm actually wakes me. Often, the alarm will go on for more then fifteen minutes. If I do not hear it by then, I get a bitter, incoherent demand from Krista to shut my alarm off. Eventually, I am forced to walk my ladder, and face my doom.

Coffee Cups 1-2, 10:00am: Keep me warm as I walk through the biting wind to class.

Effect: slight change from zombie state to barely functioning human

Coffee Cups 3-4, 10:45am: Allow me to stay hydrated during class.

Effect: Prevents slippage into slumber during economics. Beginning to be jolted out of morning grog.

Coffee Cups 5-6, 12:30: Prepare for me round two of study session before exam

Effect: Mild leg shaking, acute mental alertness

Coffee Cups 7-8, 1:05: Trying to maintain the feeling of mental alertness, delaying the crash that should have occured fifteen minutes go.

Effect: Severe restless leg syndrome. Increased speed of verbal communication. Slight sense of euphoria

By the time I get to my midterm, I have got that pep in my step, and I am ready to go! The exam goes great, the studying really paid off, and the confidence I had in the end was all worth the 9 straight hours of studying. Much to my surprise, the caffeine crash had not hit me yet. It did not hit me until a couple hours ago when I was studying for my communications exam. I could see it coming, the brick wall that I was about to crash into at 90 miles per hour. The remedy? Diet Doctor Pepper. After imbibing this miracle drink, I open up my health book to see exactly how many milligrams of caffeine I actually had in my body. The final number came out to 801 mg. This number is not healthy. However, I was re-energized.

Though pumping your body full of caffeine is not good for you, it is crucial to get through these difficult times. Only one more day of this...

However, when you and your classmates functioning on artificial highs, silly things tend to happen:

1) As I walked in my socks downstairs to get my laundry, with the added hop to my step, I found myself falling down 4 stairs, then slipping on the ground below.

2) Krista "I have tuscan, jew camps, and fraternal twins written down"

Will "like the tuscany in italy?"

Me "OH, Tuscan Arizona!"

3) While making coffee cups 5-8, I had forgotten to actually turn off the coffee maker, in result, when I poured the water into the maker, it went right to the hot part, creating massive amounts of steam. Drastic measures were taken by Krista and I in order to prevent the fire alarm from sounding.

I know. You've missed me. I'm sitting here, chewing on fruit gummies that grandma Metzger sent me in a lovely care package, and drinking a diet Dr. Pepper that I stole from my garage on my way out of town. However, contrary to your current thought, my life does not consist of me sitting here drinking soda and eating candy. I have been quite busy with my rigorous tv show schedule, and my regular facebook check-ups... But really, school work has been intense, exams are coming more frequently, and class is getting harder to wake up for.

This past weekend I went home for homecoming weekend. It was a lovely time. I got to sleep in my own bed. Always the best part. I arrived home around 5:30pm, expecting a welcome home from the other 5 members of my family. perhaps, a poster board and confetti, at least a little bit of excitement mustered up from someone. My mom had told me there was my favorite chicken pot pie in the oven, but when I got home there certainly was a pot pie in the oven, but only my mother there to welcome me. It was a nice welcoming, but I feel warranted to complain a bit :) But really, being home was great, and it was a much needed get away. Friday night I went to the football game, it was dreary. Sure it was great to see everyone again, but the stinging cold rain made it somewhat bittersweet. After that I went to see Zombieland, but I slept through the whole movie. Not one bit do I recall. Saturday night was spent with Kevin reminiscing in our glory days. We watched the talent show, the MC parts only of course, and talked about how great we were.

The drive home from Grand Valley consisted of GLEE and party in the USA. Krista, Stephanie and I had a mini car concert. Then I dropped off Stephanie at state, and picked up Colin. Though he was afraid to admit it, he enjoyed himself some Miley Cyrus.

Last weekend, Dad, Blake and Rene came to visit me for family weekend. We all drove up on saturday morning, in very rainy weather. We went to applebees and watched the Michigan/Michigan State game. After Applebees, we went back to my living center and played a heated game of Euchre, where me and blake were proven superior. We then went to the taste of Michigan event, where different restaurants and stores came together in one place and let us try samplings of their food. Can't argue with free food! We made our way to the football game, where the rain held off until half-time, which is when we left because it was freezing, and GV was winning by a lot. Dad and Rene tried their luck at Euchre again against Blake and I, but coming from behind, with 2 points to 9, and a perfect loner hand on my end, we dominated, again. On sunday, we went down town Grand Rapids, and looked at all the art prize exhibits. We also had a delicious brunch. I had the breakfast quesadilla, like I always do at breakfast club, so I thought there was a fairly good chance it would be delicious. I was right. Served along side this breakfast quesadilla, was a tall glass of fresh squeezed orange juice.

Today, I got two packages! I was thrilled! But while opening these packages, I had put a bottle of water between my legs, unbeknownst to me, I forgot the cap, When I put a little bit of pressure on the bottle, it over flowed and spilled all over me, making it look like I peed my pants. I then went on to spill the whole bottle of water all over the floor.

Last week, we started Marshmallow wars. Everybody that plays puts their name in a bowl, and then you draw a name. That name you get is your target. The goal is to hit your target with your mallow, and then get their target, go after them, and so on. So far, neither Krista or I are out, and I have hit 5 people so far. People are not really into it anymore, but with my competitive spirit, I refuse to lose due to apathy.

Tonight, a bunch of us girls are making a cake for our buddy Lantson's birthday.

Face mask

Nick and Will Rub out our knots

A truck was carrying big boy!

Can you tell which side of the room is mine?

Our room was tp'ed

1:10 pm. Still in bed. This is just what I needed. I'm not sure how I woke up every morning for Highschool at 6:30 , I now have massive amounts of trouble waking up for 9am classes. Curious though, I have this feeling that I'm having more trouble waking up at 8:30 then I did last year. Maybe it's the freezing cold air blowing in at me that makes me want cuddle up into my plethora of green blankets, or the fact that in order to actually get out of bed, I have to find my way down a ladder. Perhaps it is that I do not have a cat jumping on me and licking me until I am forced to get up. In any case, waking up can be somewhat troublesome. Direct quote from Krista "I wish I could just spend my day right here"

This past week... Well, on friday, Krista and I did some deep cleaning of our dorm. Vacuuming is a task that can be challenging here, because the vacuum they provide for us, is a piece of crap. In order for it to pick anything up you have to step on the top of it while pushing it across the floor.

Did I mention how loud the vacuum is? It is thunderous. Krista and I managed to clean the counter, the bathroom, the shower, we even lysol-ed the ladders.

After we cleaned, we realized we would have a lot more room if our ladders did not protrude into our living area! This called for some rearranging! Now, my loft is pushed up against the Kitchen wall, and my armoire is behind me, now parallel to the wall, beside the loft. My side is basically symmetrical to Krista's now, except my bed faces the door and not the window. This way, we can put the ladders behind our lofts and not have them always get in the way, and cause me to break my toes.

After we did this, we inspired two other rooms to rearrange! After rearranging, Krista, Stephanie and I all went to Meijer to pick up some groceries, and much needed toilet paper. You know you're lazy when: 1) When putting a new role of TP on, you simply put the new role by the toilet with out actually attaching it to the wall thing. This happens 4 times in a row. 2) When you don't throw away the little cardboard role things after the TP runs out. They accumulate near and around the toilet. 3) you run out of toilet paper and it is not replenished for a week. After Meijer, we went out to dinner: Taco Bell. Yummm. When we got home, we started decorating our room with a collage of magazine clippings. It really made our walls less bare, and added a little bit of spice to the room. Mid-way through this, my Cousin Brad, and his friend Ben showed up. With them, we hung out with some people from our flooring playing exciting games of BS, and Spoons. We actually used pencils for spoons. Krista sustained an injury. We then watched a Movie and got to bed super late.

In the morning (yesterday) Krista and I had a volley ball tournament. Brad and Ben were actually able to play on a team that needed two people. We lasted three rounds, until we were eliminated, but it was a lot of fun. Krista sustained an injury.

Last night we played a super fun game called quelf. Natalie brought it over, and it consisted of doing silly things to advance you in the game. We had to do things like say "izzle" at the end of every sentance, say "trippy" every time we made eye contact with someone, and stand up at scream "PIZZA PARTY" whenever a phone went off. It was a good time.

Earlier this week... I went to get Ice cream for myself at the soft serve machine for the first time. At first, it was going well, the vanilla goodness was coming out evenly as i held down the lever. I let go of the lever, assuming it would stop the ice cream, this was not the case. The ice cream kept on coming. In a state of panic, I continued to let it pile on my fragile cone. Finally, with the aid of a friend, I was able to stop it. Now having a foot tall pile of ice cream on my cone, I attempted to make it back to my table, the sprinkles would have to wait. Two steps in and the ice cream begins to tilt. I feel like I'm in a disney sing along when the little child loses her ice cream, while Mickey Mouse gives her a brand new one. Reality check. The ice cream falls to the ground in what seemed to be slow motion. I hear laughter, and I walk back to my table with a mere cone. Then Nick was nice enough to go make me an Ice Cream. He even put sprinkles on it. After I had licked all of the sprinkles off, I wanted to go put some more on. Surely, I thought, I am capable of doing this. I go to sprinkle on the sprinkles. They come out way faster then anticipated. I form a mountain of sprinkles on and around my ice cream. Only one side got sprinkled. Apparently, I do not have a future in the ice cream world.

Krista sustains another injury: For some reason, our fridge was really cold, and our waters were freezing. Shocked at this, Krista screams "my water is FROZEN!" She then goes and throws the water bottle at the futon to try and crack the ice. She does this once, see's that it is working, and does it again. The second time, the water bottle bounces back, and hits her in the head.

Friday afteronoon, Stephanie, Tina, Krista and I decided to make tye-dye shirts out on the lawn. They turned out pretty cool!

My friend Joel, wants me to advertise for him :) He is off to Nashville right now, and he just got home from LA. You can go listen to him at www.myspace.com/Joelcrouse

We just made brownies! Giancarlo, Chris, Jessie, Krista, and I! Unfortunately, we did not have a brownie pan, so we are making super thin brownies on a cookie sheet... we will see how they turn out.

So this week. A whole war was started with the boys beneath us. Krista and I managed to get into their room, and smother their mirror in shaving cream.

Leaving a surprised Jesse to clean it up. In rebuttal, when I came in my room last night, Krista was across the hall watching Finding Nemo, there were garbage bags strewn across my bed, my green lightbulb was gone, and my green string lights had been replaced orange ones. Unfortunate for Jesse, he is an awful criminal. First, he left witnesses, and second, he left his shoes here!

Krista and I are not about to go make the easiest five dollars ever. We are cleaning Giancarlo and Chris's dorm :)

Today, I got back from a lovely adventure at the apple orchard. First, a whole load of us piled into Adam's large brown van. We Then continued to the large apple orchard/farmers market/epicenter of produce just minutes from us. Our hopes were quickly dashed when we saw the "closed on sundays" sign:

We then continued east down Lake Michigan Drive, because I was sure there was another apple orchard. After a couple miles of driving, people we beginning to lose hope in me. But just in time, we came up to this slightly smaller, but still legitimate apple orchard. However, this one was also closed. It had large bins of apples, but unfortunately, they were not honey crisp.

Third time's the charm. We finally decided to settle on a farmer's market stand. They did have honey crisp apples, and apple cider, so it was everything we wanted, just without the apple picking experience. Since this place was not a real orchard, they did not provide us with doughnuts, so we had to take a drop by Meijer on the way back to fulfill that need.

Here are some more photos from this event :)

Then, Jesse (the boy that lives beneath me) and I made cocoa krispies. Those would be rice krispies but made with cocoa pebbles. We managed to accidently get some mini-marshmallows lodged down beneath the stove burners.

Earlier this week, we had some fantastic activities here. Our floor had a Soiree (swaray), which consisted of clearing out our great room, having Joe set up his DJ equipment, and getting a strobe light and other fun dance lights. We got a noise complaint a half an hour in, but it was a great time. The morning after our Soiree, our wonderful RA Jenna made us pancakes!

So, I had a strand of lights that were strung around the inside of my loft. I kept burning them out because I would hit my head on the loft, and they would stop working because my head hit them so hard. So, because I had only had about 4 bulbs that worked, I got some green lights at Meijer for a great price. They are christmas lights, but instead of the wire being a dark green to match a pine tree, they are black, since they were in the halloween section.

I have instituted a new rule in my room. It's a ban on swearing. Anyone that says a swear word in my room, owes me a quarter. I have been good at keeping track, and if someone does not comply, Big Will makes sure they pay up.

This is Big Will:

So far, this new law has been very profitable.

Bad news, my feet are in so much pain. It's not the walking that I do everyday, or the breaking in of the new shoes (though that did cause some damage) But I seem to always stub my toes on either the ladder, our door, or anything that my toe could possibly get stuck on. I have a large gash on my big toe, and my pinky toe is incapacitated as well. My feet are a collage of band-aids.

Last night we all watched Monster's Inc. Classic movie. It was a good time. Jake, Krista and I then devoured a bag a pizza rolls within minutes. Jake slept on our futon, and funny story: I was sleeping with my stuffed Eeyore, and "my man" (backstory neeed). During the time we were all asleep, my stuffed animals apparently dropped off of my loft, and like bombs, hit him in the face. This morning, we all went to church. It was a good time, Krista and I really liked it, we are more then likely going to attend there regularly.

Today, I took a much needed nap. While Krista went to play volleyball, I curled up on our futon with a blanket, and slept for three hours straight while light rain came down out the window, providing me with a cool breeze. I slept soundly for three full hours, and then my dad called.

To end my night, Giancarlo made some hot cider for Krista and I. We are sitting here sipping it, and enjoying our time, all procrastinating sleep. Monday will come too soon.

Giancarlo making us cider

Other photos from this week :)