lauren said what?

work work

2008-07-14T18:57:00.003-04:00

Spent my Sunday afternoon after church on a crazy job-application spree and 24 hours later I have received one response :-) So we'll see how the rest turn out. Most seemed very promising. My search was through Washington Post online, and I am glad I switched to that from Monster because I was getting rather frustrated with selecting "Counselor: Education programs" and "Teacher" from the search menu and coming up with all Human Resources, recruiting, training, and marketing jobs in the technology, big business, and government fields. All great jobs, but not my cup of tea (I am not a cubicle person). Another thought is, how can I (or anyone else) be hired to train new employees in a company when I myself am new to the company??? Makes no sense. Most listings like this don't even clearly mention what they'll be "training" employees to do! Why not hire exclusively from within??

Anyway, that's all for now, folks.

2008-07-12T21:48:00.003-04:00

I'm going to have the sister I've always wanted!!!!

***happy dance****

Ryan and Amber are getting married, I am so happy for them!!!

Summer!

2008-07-09T20:12:00.003-04:00

The beach trip was AMAZING. I'd like to load the video I made, but I can't for some reason.

I started my new job as a camp counselor. I've been placed at two different schools so far; the one I've been at this week is really great. I think I can live with this for five more weeks :-)

A lovely couple I know (Carolyn and Wayne) just got engaged :-) (Congrats, you two, if you're reading this!!)

My 4th of July was great. We had dinner with my family.

It's really weird to think that in a year and two days Chris and I will be MARRIED. I know our engagement will continue to go by quickly. I can't wait.

2008-05-16T08:58:00.003-04:00

I know it's been FOREVER but there have been lots of exciting things happening lately.

1.) I GRADUATED!!!!

2.) Straight A's!!!!!!

3.) Got a Macbook!!!!

4.) Lots of family coming into town to celebrate graduation and engagement!!

5.) Obtained a summer job!!! It's not spectacular or glamourous camp counseling, but it'll be fun.

2008-04-21T14:02:00.004-04:00

The wedding is now going to be July 11 of next year. We're excited!
Aisha was kind enough to take some engagement photos of us in Washington DC. From the rough copies I saw on her camera, they look great. Can't wait to see how the edited copies turn out!
Oh yeah, still in school. May or may not go to graduate school. Going in circles trying to register for the Praxis so I keep putting it off. Grrr! Trying to look for a summer job also. Senioritis big-time!!!

The Big Day

2008-04-05T13:41:00.004-04:00

****Seems I jumped the gun on this last post. Fortunately, the church can be flexible, but we found a reception site that we all really like and must work with their schedule, and it does not have the room we need available on the 20th. So we'll probably have to change the date. I'll see what I can do.****

Go take a look at our wedding website, I'm constantly updating it:

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/LaurenStewart&ChrisColeman

It's official!

2008-03-23T22:08:00.003-04:00

Chris and I are engaged!! We're very excited and happy. His proposal was very sweet and cute and US. (It involved a cute cuddly teddy bear, how much more us could it be?) And the ring is gorgeous! We picked it out together.

So now the fun planning starts! :-D

This made me upset.

2008-03-19T19:54:00.002-04:00

So, I went to the Job Fair today, and a kiosk for "Emily's List" caught my eye. There was no visible indication as to what this group is about, so at the risk of sounding rude, I asked the young girls "woman-ing" the kiosk to tell me about their organization, and they replied that they support electing women to office. Oh, ok! I'm not a government major, but I support that too. Why shouldn't women be leaders if they are good at it? Just because Hillary Clinton is a witch doesn't mean the rest of the women in government are.
Now, I am visiting the Emily's List website. To summarize, they go on and on about equality for women, and I'm sitting here nodding my head: yes, women should have the right to stay at home and that ought to be enough. Yes, women should earn just as much as men for the same work and have the same status in the workforce and be just as eligible for promotions. Until I got to this sentence: "She is every woman who's ever had to defend her right to be pro-choice. She's every woman who's ever had to explain her choice not to have a child."
What exactly is their definition of pro-choice? Because all along my definition of pro-choice has been the opinion that a woman, any woman (or even a girl) should be able to choose what to do with her body, even if her choice is to have her fetus aborted because of an accidental pregancy. But here it seems that they are defining "pro-choice" as the choice NOT to have a child, and women who choose this childless lifestyle should therefore have the freedom to use contraception. This I agree with, even though this is not the lifestyle I would choose. After all, if a woman is absolutely convinced that she would be a unfit mother and is happy in her decision to not rear children, who can force her? So where does a woman's right to choose not to have a child end? I believe it ends at conception, because this is where another person's life is at stake. This is when her body no longer becomes solely "her business," but someone else's also, someone who is weak and cannot speak for him or herself, and has a big and potentially bright future ahead no matter if he or she is raised by their birth mother or placed in the arms of loving adoptive parents. This mother may not have "chosen" to have her child, but she certainly ought to take responsibility and not just pretend she didn't get pregnant. However, this definition of choice does not seem to be the widespread agreement of most people who call themselves "pro-choice." (which is why I am therefore NOT pro-choice by that definition. A bumper sticker I saw once said it well: Pro-choice before conception, pro-life after.)
So all I am saying is that the ladies over at Emily's list need to define (and I believe they have, based on the candidates they have supported and the politics of the Democratic party) what exactly it means to be pro-choice, where this "choice" ends, and they need not assume that all women agree on the same things just because we are women.

Tag, you're it!

2008-03-18T08:46:00.004-04:00

wow, Spring break went entirely too quickly. It is over. Thankfully, my EDU paper is done. The only other projects I have this week are to apply to jobs.

On another note, I've been tagged by Aisha!!
Here's how you play. Once you've been tagged you have to write a blog of ten weird, random things, facts or habits about yourself. At the end, you choose people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them to be tagged. Don't forget to leave them a comment saying "you're it" and to read your blog. You can't tag the person who tagged you. Since you can't tag that person back, let him or her know when you've posted your blog so he or she can read your answers.

1.) I am the youngest in my generation in my entire family. ALL of my cousins on both sides are older than me.
2.) I love amusement parks and roller coasters, but rarely go because I cannot justify paying such a ridiculous amount of money to spend the majority of my day standing in line. I would pay twice, three times the price of a ticket if and only if for some odd reason my friends and I were the only ones at the park that day (wishful thinking, I know.)
3.) I have been to Colonial Williamsburg probably about 5 times. Love it! I always wish I could be a re-enactor there, the clothes look so cool!
4.) Every time I go to the mall, I must buy a large cup of Campfire Mocha from Caribou, or else it will be a wasted trip to the mall.
5.) While most normal civilian people have one hometown, and many military brats have lived in too many places to have a hometown, I actually have exactly two hometowns. Most of my childhood (6-13) was spent in Walkersville, MD, and most of my teen years (13 on) were spent in Leesburg. So, I have two hometowns because we moved right in the middle of my good old days.
6.) I always knew I was going to end up doing something with my life that involves kids. Either working with them, or having them or both (but so far, only the former has come to pass.)
7.) I consider my mom to be the best cook ever of home-comfort-type foods. I am gradually learning her ways. So far I can make her meatloaf and her chicken salad. Still learning though.
8.) I just got the Extended Info application on Facebook. I'll have fun updating it all the time. One more thing to feed my addiction! Go check it out.
9.) My favorite (inexpensive) candies are actually quite simple: Dove milk chocolate promises. They have little messages in the wrapper!
10.) The best country I have ever visited is Ireland. I would love, LOVE to go back. Scotland is a close second though.

And Next I shall tag: Carolyn and Becca

Food, glorious food!!!

2008-03-12T18:52:00.003-04:00

Oh, Chipotle steak burrito, why oh why did I write you off?
Oh wait. Now I remember. They're ginormous and eight bucks. (That is, eight bucks the way I like it.) But deeeelicious.

It is officially Spring Break. Halfway through, as a matter of fact. And I am NOT in Cancun or Florida or any of those wonderful beachy places. Rather, I am working. Nearly every day. I'm really getting a feel for what it is to work full-time....

2008-03-03T09:09:00.002-05:00

The semester is finally starting to pick up its pace and I've got to get caught up! Most of my classes are reading-intense and have no homework assignments, so it's been tempting to skip the readings and catch up in class, but I've got to stop that because now it is midterm time and I'm supposed to know my stuff.
I'm also trying to find jobs. It's scary!
ok, got to get back to work. Will post more updates later.

2008-02-16T11:54:00.000-05:00

Chris showed me this cool video.

2008-02-14T14:44:00.003-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!
Chris and I are actually not celebrating it today, but tomorrow, since he has class tonight.
Classes are going ok. I am taking the minimum amount of credits but it's still a lot since I am trying to work not one, but two or three days a week.
I'm surprised I didn't make an earlier post about this, but Kerri and Aaron's wedding on Jan. 5 was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. And the reception was great. Delicious cake, lovely tearjerker toast, and lots of dancing!. Chris and I had a lot of fun. The next day, Sunday, was our anniversary. 3 years!! I can't believe it. He is such an amazing part of my life. And I know this is only the beginning; we still have so many wonderful things to experience together.

2008-01-12T10:17:00.000-05:00

Chris found this article . Here's what we said about it:

L: You know, that's why in many states couples have to have a blood test before getting married.
C: Yeah... (a brief pause, and then, in a thick Redneck-sounding accent)....to make sure ya'll ain't no kin.

2007-12-16T12:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, so since my last post, I've been extremely busy. And sick with laryngitis and a sinus infection (yuck). So I haven't been working. The upside is that I've been studying studying for exams and ended up with the following final grades: (drumroll please.....)
A- in Therapeutic Communication Techniques
A- in Research Methods in Pscyhology
A in Comparative Religion
B in Adolescent Psychology
B+ or A- in Cognitive Psych (Still waiting on that grade, it all hangs on how I scored on the cumulative final.)

My goal next semester is to finish up my final semester with straight A's. We shall see.

Almost finished Christmas shopping. my roommate Cristina and I pretty much spent all day Wednesday at various malls. I now know the true meaning of "Shop till you Drop", because by the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted.
Oh and I had a birthday. Went out to dinner with everyone and came back for delicious peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. MMMM...

Well, I'm done. Tis the weekend for Christmas parties. Last night was a pretty fun one with Chris's coworkers, liquor, and karaoke. Good combination. This afternoon is the party with our church friends, it should be very cool.

2007-12-04T22:09:00.000-05:00

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow....
...so that hopefully I don't have to go to work or class for the rest of the week.

Later:

Ok so it's 6:11 and I'm about to leave for work. It's not snowing. I am bummed.

Just another Monday post

2007-11-12T11:00:00.001-05:00

Seems I always post on Mondays, or around Mondays.
Rocked the GRE last weekend despite my lack of time and motivation to study. I guess I just got lucky. However, that doesn't change my mind about grad school. I signed up for the GRE when I was fairly certain that grad school was the thing to do because everyone says so. But after closer self-examination, it's not really what I want. I'd be doing a bad thing for myself if I went to grad school without wanting to be there because then I probably wouldn't want to work hard at it and it would just be a deadly cycle.
Got my bridesmaid dress fitted for Kerri's wedding, then went to her shower on Saturday. Very nice.
That was pretty much my weekend. Today I'm just playing catch-up and actually getting stuff done. Yay for me.

Sounds like a case of the Mondays

2007-10-29T13:51:00.000-04:00

I am so glad I don't normally work on Mondays. You know why? Because I do NOT enjoy Mondays. For me, Monday is an extension of the weekend I've just had, which is normally a blast, in which I spend the day catching up on ALL the stuff I should have done over the weekend but was too distracted and/or did not have time because I spent all my time goofing around and taking extended naps in the middle of the afternoon and otherwise making excuses for why stuff can get done later. And in my home environment, most of my work saved for Monday does not get done. Today I have an exam to study for. The time I have probably spent studying for this exam has added up to about an hour and a half, from 9 am to now, 2 pm. Of course, other stuff has gotten done: I have done some laundry, dishes, I've had lunch, taken my shower, cleaned up my room a bit, and of course spent some quality nonsense time on the internet. Don't ask me how all of those activities together have added up to 3 and a half hours. I don't get it either.

2007-10-28T20:38:00.000-04:00

This picture has been deleted. Never again will Chris and I actually dress as real live people for Halloween, because odds are that the actual person is going to do something really, really BAD just a few days after said Halloween party. Celebrities are just not to be trusted.

Go with Christ.

Brewfest

2007-10-22T09:44:00.001-04:00

Great weekend!! Saturday I got to go home and spend some time with my dad and my dog, then later my parents came over to my place to take me and Chris out to eat at Olive Garden. It was really nice.
Sunday, Chris and I went with our friends to celebrate Matt's birthday at the Northern Virginia Brewfest. Having not eaten anything substantial since Olive Garden the night before, the first beer got to me FAST. Which should tell you alot about what a lightweight I am, considering the glass I was given was not much larger than a dixie cup. So not wanting to get completely obliterated and still using the 14 pogs I had purchased, I spent the next three hours drinking the more expensive (2 pog) beers, specifically the BEST Framboise in the whole world. It was just so sweet and wonderful. MMMMM. I bet there is framboise in heaven.
The whole day was great. The guys got to do their own thing (they spent some time in the ESPN tent) and us girls got to spend some quality girl time together. Afterward, we went back to Matt and Aisha's and enjoyed a delicious dinner followed by birthday Boston cream cake.
Awesome weekend.

Ah, the ups and downs of subbing.

2007-10-19T17:56:00.001-04:00

This week I had a two sub jobs at the most extreme of extremes when it comes to the quality of my job.
Wednesday: Terrible. Absolutely terrible. I subbed an elementary music class, but there was no sub plan. Apparently the teacher had been gone for a while. From my understanding, there had been someone different every day for a few weeks. The sub website said "no music experience necessary" when it really should have said "There will be no plan provided when you get here, so you'll just have to think on the spot and hopefully you know everything you need to know about music." Another teacher, who was quite helpful, had to help me come up with something different to do for each grade (so basically, about 4 lesson plans) in the ten minutes before students started coming to class.
The students: Whoa. I mean, WHOA. Troubled. I've met a LOT of kids, but I've never seen so many ill-mannered children in one school. The kindergarteners were good though, ironically.
But anyway, the day was just full of grief, but fortunately I survived as you can see! Although I wound up with an awful headache that felt like my brain was being torn apart.
Today, though, was AWESOME. Clearly the best day I have ever had. The teacher left a plan that allowed her 6th grade students to work independently or with partners, which they did really well, I was surprised. These kids were angels. It helped that I knew quite a few of them from subbing in that school before. I made sure to leave a really great note for their teacher. I told her that I wish every day subbing was like today. That's the truth.
Anway, I'm glad it is the weekend! I have to go home tomorrow and dig up something to wear for my Halloween costume. Sunday Chris and I are going with our friends to a Beer Festival, I'm really looking forward to that.

midterms

2007-10-16T16:26:00.000-04:00

My Psyc 301 exam and my Rel 490 exam are finished. I feel like a giant load has been lifted from my shoulders. Now I can actually feel good about the day :-D

yay procrastination

2007-10-15T11:33:00.001-04:00

trying to put off studying for my Psych 301 midterm AND my Religion midterm, both tomorrow. I could use a distraction.
Weekend was good, spent an awesome Saturday shopping with one of my best friends and her adorable baby. And somehow I managed not to buy anything except lunch and coffee!
Went to Home Depot yesterday with the guys (that is, Chris and his roommates). It's really weird, I used to hate going there with my dad when I was a kid (it was our tradition to go there Sundays after church when we lived in MD), but now that I actually have to start thinking about "house" things, like window blinds, decorating, painting, lamps, and garden stuff, it's not so bad. I'd love to have a job that pays enough for me to decorate how I want to, but thinking about that just opens up a new can of emotions. It's going to be quite an adjustment to finish school, get a job, pay my own rent and actually have to figure these things out on my own. I can't wait though.
On that note, I do need to get back to studying so that I actually can graduate.

welcome to my blog

2007-10-13T22:12:00.001-04:00

Ok soo....not really into this whole blogging thing, I have a LJ that I never, ever update... but I guess I'll give this a shot and when something really important happens I'll make another post.