Yes, we've all done it, left a paper till the last minute to write and spend most of the night revising it. Aah the memories- well that was me last night. Several cups of caffeine from 1pm till 1am, striving to finish my paper that was due first thing in the morning. Don't get me wrong I was well prepared! My first draft was just full of ideas. However, when it came to writing my second draft and coming to a strong thesis point my mind just went blank. A total brain freeze! The paper was on Internet Romance; which I should have been a pro on - seeming I lived through one.

I finally closed my eyes at around 1:20am last night; I awoke like a zombie with just under 5 hours of sleep. Even in my zombie state; I still had the energy to proof read my paper for the 8th time.

The one thing I can say that got me through this hard and trying time was....

"Starbucks-Starbucks is my friend!"

Wow I only have another 3 weeks left in college for this quarter. I finish my English class a week early, which is nice. I'm already picking my classes for the fall; I'll be taking English 101, Introduction to Graphic Design (which I'm really looking forward too) and Introduction to Art. I was thinking of taking some classes this summer, but my family will be here the first two weeks of class so that won't work. Clayton will be graduating with his AA after he takes his last 3 classes in the fall, then he'll be off to the nearby University for his BA.

This last quarter I've found a couple of classmates that I've befriended, which has been really lovely. Funnily enough the one person I've really befriended with isn't really in my age group, but that doesn't matter. I've always made friends with women who were older than me. It's been nice to socialize a little bit.

I've finally uploaded some pictures from my art class you can see some of them here... but here is just a tiny preview..


Tree
Originally uploaded by Natalie & Clayton.

I finally got the hang of drawing trees! This drawing went to hang on the wall in the hallway.


Color - Tree
Originally uploaded by Natalie & Clayton.

Art 112, my landscape color tree. Experimenting with color pastels.


Shadow Portrait
Originally uploaded by Natalie & Clayton.

Personally I feel this drawing is rather scary looking. The object of shadow drawing is to draw the light and dark shadows. I feel I worked well with these portraits.

Even with my busy life I've forgotten to blog about something that means so much to me. May 4th was my second year anniversary of being in the United States. I can't believe it; time has gone by so quick. In August of this year we have to file to remove the conditions of my permanent residency. That will mean I will hopefully be granted my ten year Green Card. After that I should be eligible to apply for citizenship, which I've been seriously thinking of doing the last couple of months. It defiantly will cost a lot for citizenship but it'll all be worth while, and at least I won't have to worry about immigration no more. Just thought I'd let everyone know about the upcoming months of immigration.

It is such a lovely day here today the sun is shinning and it's 80F. I did my homework out side in the sun and got a lovely suntan on my arms. I hope the weather stays warm tomorrow, as Clayton and I are off to Deception Pass for the day. It is Clayton's Birthday on Thursday so we thought seeming we are in school on his birthday we'd celebrate it tomorrow instead. So we're going to take a picnic down and paddle in the ocean - weather permitting of course.

In other news school is going well. I'm having a hard time with my Art recently. We've been working with Ink and I find that very difficult. We are also doing prospective drawing, which I find pretty hard to grasp. In all honesty I'm finding the teacher very dissatisfying; overall in her methods of teaching. At least I only have 4wks until the end of the quarter. I'm also feeling a lot better now. The flu only lasted 2 days which I'm thankful for.

5 more weeks and my whole family will be in the states!

Another week gone since I last posted, no excuses this time. Reason being I just couldn't be bothered to post anything about my boring life. Been studying the drivers Ed book religiously over the last week, hopefully I'll be able to take the test soon. I've been on a mission the last couple of days to find a good deal to rent a mini van for my family to use when they are here. It finally paid off when I got a great deal with Enterprise I also went to a consignment store yesterday and picked up two booster seats for my niece and nephew, I had quite a good deal I'm starting to like consignment stores now.

Speaking of bargains, I went to Goodwill the other day and bought a few nice little finds. The main thing I'm more pleased with was a large scratching post for our cat Liza. It was $3 and about 4ft tall. Liza has been destroying our sofa for the last few months now and we were starting to get desperate. We have bought her many scratching posts before but they were pretty small, so in a last attempt we thought why not see if this one works. We brought it back home and I showed her what it was, to our astonishment she completely took to it. Since then she's been using it everyday to scratch. Speaking of Liza I took a great pic of her the other day sitting on Clayton's chair here's the pic....


Liza the fat cat
Originally uploaded by Natalie & Clayton.

Liza The Big Fluffy Cat
She has such a cute expression on her face.

I'm also sick with the flu, I took the day off school to try and get better. Yesterday I was doing my schoolwork and within an hour I was all achy and sneezing. It started off with a scratchy throat.