news, and exciting news

I took my math test and Language Arts writing test last Tuesday. I can't say I was impressed at all with the people I was taking the test with (kind of humiliating, really, to be grouped with them). But it went went well, and I'm confident I did a decent job. Tomorrow I will be taking the science, social studies, and reading comprehension tests, DV.

On Thursday I spent some time at Hayley's, where she worked on her baby quilt and I did some mending. I won't deny that we did a lot more talking than we did sewing. ;) We had the patio doors open so you could hear the rain falling while the stereo played some wonderful music... it was quite nice.

Friday, I discovered I won $15 in an art contest. That's not much at all, I know, but seeing it was a 30 minute sketch, I'm not complaining! The same person wants me to do another front-page image for their kennel webpage. I made her one last December and she liked it enough to ask me to make another one, apparently. :) On the same day I also did a little bit of shopping for the occasion on the following day...

(People who read Sam's blog will already know the latest news about the new couple!)
Mark asked me out on Wednesday, and on Saturday he took me to dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse. Before we went inside he gave me a heart shaped diamond necklace. I wasn't prepared for a gift at all, so it was a lovely surprise. :) We didn't have to wait at all to be seated in the restaurant -- the only reason we didn't eat sooner was because it was so hard to decide what to order! The food was so good that by the time we finished eating we couldn't possibly have dessert too. ;D

Ben took this right before we left my house

mercedes-benz wants to publish one of my photos?!

So I sat down with my coffee this morning, and checked my email. I had received an email through Flickr (a photo sharing website, for those of you who may not know), from a spokesman in Germany for Mercedes-Benz. They want to publish a photo I took of one of their cars: " We’d like it to feature in an exclusive, emotionally charged coffee-table book compiled for our customers." I read over it a couple times, thinking at first that it was spam. But it's written with proper grammar and everything, and it seems real. Supposedly they will buy the photo from me (for a decent price!) and then the photo might be published in this book, which of course I would receive a copy of.

The picture they want...
It's a very rare supercar that we saw a couple years ago in Galveston.
I'm trying to research it a little bit and make sure this is real before I give up all the photography rights I have of the above photo. They did say I would be credited in the book, but to be frank, I'm more concerned about when I'd receive the money -- regardless of whether it's chosen to be put in the book, or only if it's chosen, and after the book is published?

And here's a couple other pictures that I personally like more than the one above:

Neluska the other day... giving me a silly look while she stopped a moment from digging a giant hole in the woods next to us.


Leah and me at the tennis court yesterday. It was the perfect tennis playing weather!

...

I dragged Ben with me to Alvin today, and went to the college with Leah and signed up to take my GED. As I somewhat expected, the info I received the other day over phone was incorrect. The person on the phone the other day hardly sounded intelligent enough to have passed the GED herself, and she told me I could sign up any Friday, and then take the GED any Tuesday. I asked her three times to make sure that was correct. But as it turns out, it won't be till the 19th that I can take the first half of my test. (The other half will be the following week.) I was pleased, however, to find I will be doing the math part and the essay part the first week, because those are the parts I want to get out of the way as soon as possible.

After that Ben and I stopped at Wal-Mart to buy more tennis balls, because we wanted to play tennis... but when we went to the tennis court there were a bunch of people there, so we ended up not playing. :(

I then went to Kroger to do grocery shopping. (Note to self: do not grocery shop at Kroger again.) It took much too long because everything is in a different order than I'm used to, and I couldn't find things. I also managed to get a bagger who nearly put all my canned goods on top of my fruit (!!!) which I barely stopped in time. It was difficult walking out past the Starbucks without stopping, but I have had a few caramel macchiatos since I last posted, so I was able to resist the urge. ;)