Thank goodness we won't be street bums...

Well, it's official - David and I found an apartment in Nebraska. It's actually really cute for an apartment. It's got a really small kitchen, so the cook in me was screaming 'NO!' but everything else worked well and will fit our needs. It's got a small den off of the kitchen that we can use as an office/dining room (I know, strange combination). The bedroom is big enough to fit my giant dresser and bed in, so that's nice, and it's got a large living room with a nice deck! The best part is we were able to sign a six month lease to give us some time to look for a house outside of Lincoln (more about that later).

As for the townhouse...

We looked at it and, of course, it was SUPER cute! The size would have been just perfect for David and I. The bedrooms were huge, the kitchen was adorable and everything was well kept and clean. I think the payments would have even been in our 'range.' But, with the two of us not having any full-time employment in our history (seriously, we're college students!), we decided it would probably be hard to get approved for a loan.

And (here's the "more later" part), David's job interview in Aurora went really, really well. He said he really thinks that he'll end up getting the job, so we decided it would probably be smarter to stick with the six month lease on an apartment so we could move out of Lincoln later on. Aurora is about 70 miles outside of Lincoln - a really long commute - so, we thought six months would give us some time to look for a house or apartment in between Lincoln and Aurora.

I was kind of bummed about not getting the townhouse, but in the end, I think I'm more excited now to think about getting a house in a small town outside of Lincoln. I can't wait to start looking!

Other than the house/apartment drama, David and I had a good time out in Nebraska. I got to drive a cute little Mazda 3. Of course, I'm still partial to my GM cars, but I figured I'd never drive a foreign car again, so I might as well pick that for our rental car. Anyway, by our last day out there, we had made up our minds about the apartment, so we had some time to just drive around and take it easy. We went out to a mall and did some shopping and, (I hope you're sitting down) I bought a Nebraska shirt. Well, David bought the shirt for me. But, don't worry - it's not a full-fledged Nebraska shirt. It's a red t-shirt with a small 'N' on it and then, in white lettering, it says, "This is my University of Nebraska T-Shirt." Which, to me - if you read between the lines - says, "This my Cornhusker t-shirt I bought in a half-ass attempt to fit in because in all honesty I'm a die-hard Illini fan." Yep, it says all that.

Coming home, our flight was delayed at Lincoln and again at O'Hare, but we eventually made it home - very, vey late - but, we made it home.

Sorry for the long-winded Nebraska news - I just had to get it all out! Back here in Illinois, this is my very last Wednesday of class. Tomorrow starts finals week and that means I'm two tests, one project and one paper closer to being done forever. So, naturally you would think that I spent last night trying to get ready for some of those things.

Um, no. Last night was Tuesday night and that means Deadliest Catch night. I missed last Tuesday's episode so I had to catch up last night and watch two of them - which didn't bother me at all. I was able to spend some quality time with Mike Rowe. Kirky and I ordered some pizza and settled in for a nice long viewing of the Discovery Channel and then Law and Order: SVU (I got him hooked on that show and he just doesn't want to admit it).

Anyway, I'll study tonight for my test tomorrow and then hopefully find some time to work on the paper that's due on Monday. After that, I'm headed home for the weekend to take some more pictures of the farm and then drive up to Sterling for another paint show.

Ok...after quite possibly my longest post ever, I think I'll sign off and start looking for houses! YAY!

I think I'm gonna dig it here...

Whew! So much has happened in the past few days here in Nebraska. After apartment hunting for the past few days, I was kind of down in the dumps because I just hadn't really seen anything that I totally loved. Sure, we found a couple that we could make work, but it wasn't anything that I was like, "Wow. This is it."

Then, this afternoon, we went back for a second time to look at an apartment - just to make sure it was the one we wanted to take. As we were leaving, I happened to look over to the left and I saw some townhouses that were cute. So, David and I drove over to them just to look at them. When we got back to the hotel, I got on the internet and looked them up and found that one of them was for sale. We looked at the pictures and calculated payments and other expenses and realized it was something we could definitely afford! So, after calling David's mom and having her make some calls, we're just waiting to hear back from the realtor here in Lincoln to see if it's still available and to see if we can make an appointment before we leave to see it in person.

I'm so anxious about the whole thing. For the first time I feel like this is exactly what we're looking for and I just hope that we can get in touch with this realtor before we leave town - I don't want to miss the boat on this (if we haven't already).

Right now, I have to stop talking about the apartments and take you all on a trip down memory lane: David and I are watching the Lunch Lady song by Adam Sandler and the interpretive dance done by the wonderful Chris Farley. It's okay if you feel the need to laugh uncontrolably. Sloppy Joe, Slop-Sloppy Joe...

Good times.

Anyway. Tomorrow David and I have to head out to Aurora for his interview with the paper out there. And, of course, we'll no more than get out there and that realtor will call and want to show us the house. We're here until Monday afternoon, so hopefully we can get something worked out.

I suppose that's it for now...cross your fingers about the house!

In the land of Cornhuskers...

It's official - David and I made it to Nebraska. We didn't have any problems (thank goodness), but it sure has been a long day. When the alarm went off at 3 a.m. this morning, I was seriously reconsidering my "let's get there early" idea. But, we got to Bloomington with plenty of time to spare and all of our flights were on time - wonderful! We finally landed in Lincoln, called the rental car company, and picked up our car.

At this point, I must insert an apology to my GM product, car-dealer uncle: I'm renting a Mazda 3. I just kind of figured it would be the one and only time that I would drive a non-GM vehicle. It's not nearly as nice as my dented, rusted and old Monte Carlo.

After David and I ate lunch we headed out to look at apartments. We had a 1 o'clock appointment to look at some apartments situated on a golf course - obviously, David was sold. And, they were beautiful. But, the lady that showed us the apartments didn't have much left, and the two bedroom apartments were a little bit more than what we wanted to pay. After that, we just drove around looking at different places. We did tour one other one, but it just wasn't exactly what we were looking for. After that, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed - getting up at 3 wiped us out early.

That means, tomorrow, we're on the hunt again. We have an appointment at 2:30 to look at another apartment complex and we'll probably just drive around again and see what we can find. David is also supposed to meet with someone at the Lincoln newspaper to talk about possibly freelancing or working full-time.

In a nutshell, so far the trip has been great. Being back out here is re-affirming: I still love the city and still think I'll really enjoy my job. And, despite his constant complaining, I don't think David minds it either - he said it kind of reminds him of Peoria.

I guess that's the end of the story for day 1. Tomorrow, is a whole new apartment-hunting day, and tomorrow, we're taking pictures!

The time has come...

...the walrus said, "To speak of many things..." Okay, so I don't know any walruses, and obviously they don't talk. What I was referring to is the time has come to go look for houses! David and I fly out of Bloomington tomorrow at the buttcrack of dawn (6 A.M.). It's going to be an early morning, but I just can't wait to get out there and get something picked out. David also has an interview while we're out there, so I'm hoping that goes well for him. I think he's really anxious because he doesn't have something lined out yet. And, not that I can blame him; I would be worried too if the situation were reversed. I just have to remember - I know how incredibly smart and talented he is, and I know he'll find something. It may not be exactly what he wants at first, but I know he'll end up with something fantastic.

Of course (if you haven't picked this up, you're an idiot) I'm absolutely busting at the seams with excitement waiting to go out to Nebraska (both this weekend and for good), but the past couple of days, walking around campus, I've realized how much I'm going to miss it here. Just in the past couple of days, all of the trees have buds and flowers on them, and the tulips are blooming like crazy! It's just been absolutely beautiful here - I love this campus and, of course, all of my friends here, and I know I'm going to miss it. Oh well. I've been told that my lovely pledge class will be taking their senior walk-out to Iowa. And Ames, Iowa, is only three hours away from Lincoln, Nebraska!

On another note, I'm struggling with the decision of a lifetime: can I afford a new car? Okay, so maybe it's not the decision of a lifetime, but it's still pretty flippin' important. My beloved car has been in the shop three times in the last month, and I'm just afraid it won't be able to make it out to Nebraska. Or, if it can, it will die out there and I'll be stuck without a car. So, the question is, should I try to scrape up the money to get a new one before I leave, or try to save some money and just hope my car makes it. I'll probably just end up having my mom help me make the decision! It's just that, this whole "You're on your own, now" thing is really scary, and even though I have some money saved, I want to make sure that I won't be totally broke if I need to take care of something.

I suppose that's it. Wedding planning is still moving along at a snail's pace; I have some phone calls I desperately need to make and just don't want to spend the time doing it. Maybe I'll work on some of that stuff this weekend while I have some time off. Who am I kidding? I'll be sleeping.

I'm speechless.

For those of you that know me, you know that I'm not actually speechless - I don't think that's ever happened before. In fact, I suppose the correct word would be 'mute' because after being on a microphone from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, I litterally cannot speak. Oh well - David will have some quiet time in his life!

Not too much "new" to speak of on this end - David and I are getting ready to head out to Nebraska at the end of the week. And yes, this is where I insert the part where I'm SUPER excited to go! I just can't wait to get out there and get an apartment picked out. And, David has an interview while we're out there, and we're going to go out to dinner with my new boss, so it should be fun. Plus, with no class that means there can be some considerable sleeping in! We have appointments to look at four different places, but the plan is to drive around and try to drop in on some additional places. I had initially really wanted to look at some houses (I feel like I'm just throwing money away when I pay rent at an apartment), but I just don't think we're going to have the time to close on a house before we need to be out there.

Class has started...I suppose I'd better get off of here and listen...for the second to last time!

Earthquakes....in ILLINOIS?

Yep. That's right. This morning I woke up at 4:45 really, really confused. I was still in that half-alseep mode and I just couldn't understand why my whole bed was moving....well, for that matter, why my whole apartment was moving. In fact, I was still out of it enough, I thought maybe it was just the wind outside.

That's when I heard my neighbors above me wake up too, and one of them said, "Holy cow! I think that was an earthquake." But, when I woke up at 8:45, I had to turn on the news because I honestly thought I had dreamt the whole thing.

I didn't dream it. West Salem, Illinois registered at 5.2 magnitude earthquake on the Richter Scale - and that was the talk of the town today. It was felt throughout the entire state, but being from the same side of the state, and not too far north, we really felt it on the U of I campus. I almost wish I would have been awake to fully comprehend what was happening - I've never experienced an earthquake before. Southern Illinois is home to one of the most powerful faults in the country, but we certainly don't have earthquakes with any kind of regularity like California does. Everyone at work was talking about today's shaky start.

On another note...I LOVE MY '09s! I am a member of a small sorority on the U of I campus, so my pledge class is very small and very close. And, tonight, they suprised me and another girl that is graduating this semester with dinner at Steak 'N' Shake and cute t-shirts! It was so nice to see all of them and the suprise was absolutely wonderful...I'm going to miss those girls when David and I leave for Nebraska. I wish I could be around to hang out with them for their senior year in college (since I took a year off before college and didn't join the sorority until my soph. year in college, I'm graduating before they all will).

I suppose that's it for the evening. I have to sign off because I have to be up very early for tomorrow's horse show...and, David made fun of me tonight for 'needing' to blog before I went to bed.

Down with the sickness.

Nope. Not the song...the actual sickness. All thanks go to my wonderful fiance and my roommate. That being said, I'm going to wrap this up quick tonight so I can hit the hay early...

Of course, I'd rather not be sick so the extra sleep is necessary, but, it's also because I have a big weekend this weekend. Saturday is the first horse show of the season, which is pretty exciting. I announce for the Illinois Paint Horse Association and I just love it. It's wonderful to be able to go to the shows and catch up with everyone - and make a little extra money at the same time! Then, Sunday is the College of ACES student awards banquet. And, I don't want to toot my own horn or anything...But, I was named one of the outstanding seniors. So, that means Sunday will be spent in a hotel banquet hall with lots of people I probably don't know.

Other than that, it's the same old story just a different day. Nebraska is inching ever so close - David and I fly out there at the end of next week to look at apartments - and I'm so excited. And, to add to my good mood (aside from the swollen glands and sore throat) it was absolutely gorgeous today! Windy again, but it had to be in the upper 60s to low 70s. It's so nice to be getting out of winter.

I can't think of anything else for tonight (other than the fact that I need some more Tylenol and another cup of hot tea - or even a hot tottie).

I'm such a geek...

Oh man - tonight was absolutely wonderful. Why? Because I'm a geek. I love the Discovery Channel. Now, when I say love, I don't mean a "let's hang out on the weekends or go occasionally see a movie" kind of love. I mean a "let's get married and spend every waking moment together" kind of love. Seriously. I told you I was a geek.

Anyway, tonight was the season premiere of Deadliest Catch - my absolute most favorite Discovery Channel show. In fact, I taped it (yep, still a geek). I'm totally addicted. Part of it is the fact that Mike Rowe (who I would totally marry) is the narrator. Just like I'm madly in love with the Discovery Channel - I'm also madly in love with Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs is my second favorite show). He has the most amazing comedic timing and the perfect voice. And, his bloopers are just as funny as the show...

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/dirtyjobs.html

(Check out the video link...it's priceless!)

Aside from Mike Rowe, I just love everything about Deadliest Catch. I love watching the skippers yell and the crew members fight. And, it just blows my mind the kind of weather and high seas that they work through and are still able to come out smiling at the end of the season. Crazy.

Oh, and the new commercials with the singing...hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK00DMcDygs&feature=related

Ok...now that you have experienced the depths of my geeky-ness...

We had some excitement here at the ol' apartment tonight. On my way home from work, 12 - yes 12 - cop cars passed me with lights and sirens. They just happened to turn onto my road and I ended up following them right over to my building. When I parked my car, all of the police were out of their cars with guns drawn and two men were on the ground and hand-cuffed. An hour and a half later, the police were still searching one car in the parking lot. Needless to say, just like myself and my roommate, there were several "Peeping Toms" peering through closed blinds to see what was going on.

Aside from all that excitement, it was a fairly normal Tuesday. The weather was nice - a little windy - but, nice. And, of course, the countdown continues. Only two more Tuesdays of college left...

Two and half weeks...and counting.

Today marks the start of another week, but it also marks the beginning of the end. That's right, folks - two and half more weeks and I'm out of college for good! At this point, you'd have to be a complete idiot to not understand or realize how incredibly excited I am. Of course, I'll miss school - I absolutely LOVED my past four years here at the University of Illinois - but, it's time to move on to bigger and better things.

I'm super excited about the next couple of weeks. I have a lot of projects and papers to finish up, but there are going to be some fun things mixed in, too. This Thursday, I'm headed out on the town to catch up with my 4-H girls at Crush party, followed by an equally exciting visit by my "best good friend" Rachel on Friday night. Saturday is the first horse show of the season, which is always exciting for me as the announcer; and, I have to attend a College of ACES awards banquet on Sunday. Then, next Thursday, David and I are headed out to Nebraska to look for apartments. I absolutely cannot wait to go out there and spend some time looking at houses and checking out the town. David's got a couple of interviews as well, so we'll actually get to see quite a bit of the state! I'm hoping we find just the right place and can at least put a security deposit down to hold the apartment.

I'm so anxious to get that nailed down so that I can start figuring out furnishings for the house. I already have most of what we will need, but it will be much easier to pack knowing what will and won't fit in our new place. Plus, David and I just got done filling out bridal registries this weekend, so I'm well aware of what we will need that we don't already have.

And, with that said, now is the time for me to shamelessly plug our registries (sorry, I just can't help it). We spent our Sunday afternoon criss-crossing Decatur trying to get as much done as we could. We registered at Target, then headed to the mall to check out some wedding rings and then register at JC Penney's and Kohl's (all of which may be seen in the store or online-again, sorry).

Registering was an adventure in itself. As I said before, my husband-to-be was exceedingly excited to go out and spend his day looking at random household items (hopefully, you can see the sarcasm dripping from that sentence). By the end of the afternoon, he was complaining about everything, making me just as anxious to get the heck out of there as he was. David's high light of the day was when I let him register for a $700.00 plasma TV and a home theatre/surround sound system. I know, I know...the TV is a little tacky for a bridal registry, but hey, everyone needs to put a couple of "I-know-we're-never-gonna-get-it" items on their list just for the fun of it. We probably didn't need to get registered this early - we don't have any showers coming up - but, we figured since we're both graduating this May, if anyone felt compelled to get graduation gifts and they didn't know what to get, they could just check out our wedding registry.

I suppose that's it for today. Hopefully tomorrow will be more like today - it has been absolutely beautiful outside today. A little nippy, but much better than Sunday - it snowed on Sunday.

Mission accomplished.

I didn't know if it would actually happen, but I made it to the end of the week! It's finally Friday and I'm ready for a little bit of relaxation this weekend. And, of course, that means I'm one week closer to graduation. Now, that's exciting!

I spent most of my afternoon in the Journ 480 lab yesterday and got my project done. And, I have to say, it's pretty BA (in the words of my sister). I put together a video of my grandpa talking about his dairy farm, how he got his start in the dairy business and how they stay competitive as a small farm in a corporate farming world. Maybe not interesting to the average Joe, but I think it turned out pretty neat. I shot the interview and the extra footage and pictures, and it really turned out well. I can't wait to put another one together with my grandma and the rest of the family in it. I think they'll end up being really great things to keep and look back on later. Once I finally get that done, I'm going to put all of the photos, audio and video together and make a webpage. That whole undertaking will be pretty time-consuming, but I think it really will be worth it in the end.

We had more rain last night - in fact, a whole lot of rain. They issued flash flood warnings for our area. The weather made for kind of gloomy night, and it turned into a rough night for me. I love photography, so I spent my night looking at some of the Pulitzer Prize winning journalism photographs and one particular series of photos was really hard to look at. It was a collection of photos taken by Preston Gannaway that revolved around the treatment, care and death of a woman with cancer and how her family coped with it all. The pictures were very moving, but particularly for me. It reminded me of my April nearly 5 years ago when I lost my dad. Nothing can ever prepare you for that...Of course, it will always be hard, but it seems worse right now because I'm getting ready to move and I'm getting ready for my wedding all I want is to have him here. I miss him a lot, but I'm also very blessed to have had him for 18 years. I also have a wonderful family and an amazing fiance who can always cheer me up.

Well, now that I've runined your good mood (sorry!), I suppose I'd better wrap this one up and get back to work. Unfortunately, they don't pay me to blog...

The little engine that could...

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...make it to the end of the week. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and I can see it...


It's been one of those Energizer Bunny weeks...it just keeps going and going and going. But, it's Thursday and his batteries are just about ready to run out! I decided not to spend my evening in the Journ 480 lab to redo my video, so that means I'm going to spend my afternoon there today. Hopefully, I can get the whole project done this afternoon so I don't have to spend my Friday in there, too.


I'm so ready for the weekend, even though I'll be working for most of it. I work part-time at a western store here in town and that means I usually get to work weekends. Lucky for me, I'm only working on Saturday this weekend. I'm headed home on Saturday night so David and I can do some shopping on Sunday. With the wedding - and, more importantly, the move - getting closer and closer, I want to try to get as much wedding stuff done as possible before the drop-dead move date: May 25. So, we're headed out Sunday to check out the wedding cake situation, maybe look at some wedding rings, and register for wedding gifts. Let me tell you, my get-in-get-out husband-to-be is super excited to be spending his Sunday shopping for random household items. Oh well...he'll live.


In other news: more rain today! I still love the rain, but I have to say, I love it more when I'm in the house watching it, or I have an umbrella in my hand. It wasn't so exciting when it rained on me as I walked to work this morning. But, as my Grandpa Don says, "Don't worry, you're not that sweet; you won't melt!" I don't know about that - the jury is still out! :)

I don't care if we don't need anymore, I love the rain.

Sometimes it seems like when I finally get one thing crossed off my list, two more things get tacked on to the end...

It's officially 12:34 a.m and I'm finally done with homework, but I still need to get some odds and ends ready for class tomorrow. I have a major project due at the end of the week and all of the video I uploaded for it went haywire. Wonderful...I get to redo that tomorrow night after I get off work. It's nights like tonight when I just can't wait to be done with school and move on to a job where I'm not going to have 5 hours of homework every night. I know, I know...you're saying, "You'll miss it when it's gone." Well, I'm sure you're right...but right now, I just can't be done with school fast enough. I'm tired of the silly projects and 'busy-work' homework. Oh well. Three more weeks and that's just where I'll be - Done.

The plus side? It's raining. I know that seems crazy - if you're from central Illinois, you'll think I'm nuts. That's all we've had for the past couple of months and it's the last thing my farming family needs, but I just can't help it. I love the smell of rain and the way the sky looks when it opens up and just starts pouring. I like the thunder and the lightning and the way it's unpredictable and predictable at the very same time. And, after it's all said and done and it has finally stopped raining, I love how everything looks new and fresh. There's something so comforting - so methodical - about the rain.



I also got to run home this week and shoot some pictures on the farm and chat with Grandma and Grandpa DeMent. I just love to go home and talk to them. They - well, I guess the whole family really - just love life and it's so much fun to listen to their stories and have a good laugh. I've made several short trips home in the past couple weeks. Partly, because I'm using the farm as the subject of a multimedia project, but also because I know in a few short weeks, I'm not going to be able to just run home for a quick trip.

I guess that's it for tonight. My bed is calling...and so is class tomorrow. Yuck.

Oh well. Who knows...maybe it will rain tomorrow!

Here We Go.....

Those of you that know me well know that blogging is not something that I would normally do. I love to Facebook (honestly, what college student doesn't?) and I try to keep in touch that way, but blogging is not something that has ever really crossed my mind as something that I really wanted to do.

That is until I decided to move halfway across the flippin' country. That's right, as many of you may already know, David and I will be moving to Nebraska at the end of May to start our new lives in Lincoln. It's definitely going to be interesting. I have a job with Bader, Rutter & Associates - an ag marketing firm based out of Milwaukee, Wis. David is still looking for jobs out there, but has some interviews set up, so everything is in full swing....We're even headed out there at the end of April to look for houses.

We're also in the process of planning our wedding....which has been ridiculous! (And yes, you can all laugh at me for making my sign-in name and email address Rachel Torbert BEFORE I'm officially married- I didn't want to have to change it in six months! Geesh!) Wedding planning was crazy to begin with, but now, I'm trying to cram it all in to the last month and a half we're going to be here in Illinois and that is making me totally crazy! We do have the big stuff done - church, preacher, dress, tux, bridesmaids dresses, food, flowers and photog - but there is still just a whole bunch of stuff to do.

I suppose that's it for now....I just wanted to get a little "Welcome to my Blog - here's my life" intro set up. Feel free to comment and to harrass me when I fall behind and don't blog as often as I should....because, you know I will.