I'm trying this out now, so you can see whether I'm posting or not....
http://tholechronicles.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/catching-up-is-hard-to-do/
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Long Time, No see
So, if anyone still checks this blog, here I am again. You would have thought I would have posted frequently this summer, since I was just sitting around at home most of the time. But Gus took care of that by how he likes to come pound on the computer keyboard every time he sees me using it.....and every time he was asleep or at day care, I was too busy catching up on more important things.
Anyway, to catch up....Gus turned two almost a month ago! We had a big party with all of our family, and Kevin used his new smoker to make some excellent ribs. Here are some highlights:
John (and Jenny and Charlie) were here. Gus and John had a pretty time playing together most of the time.
Gus licking the beater with cake batter for his birthday cake!
Gus's big birthday present! It will be awhile yet til he can reach the pedal and actually drive it.
Birthday cake!
Gus got a new tricycle! (Actually two....one is smaller and will be easily transportable to grandmas' houses).
Other than Gus turning two, the summer has been pretty uneventful. I was staying home with him most days, which was pretty frustrating, especially on days where Gus deemed a nap unnecessary (which was too often). Just this week I started a new postdoc job at Wash U, and then in a few weeks I start teaching two classes (at St. Louis Community College and Maryville University), and then all hell will break loose perhaps. But I'm very grateful to be back at work, although I do miss spending as much time with my sweet little boy.
I'm sure there are lots of other interesting things that happened in the last few months, but I don't think I really took pictures of them, so who cares.
Anyway, to catch up....Gus turned two almost a month ago! We had a big party with all of our family, and Kevin used his new smoker to make some excellent ribs. Here are some highlights:
John (and Jenny and Charlie) were here. Gus and John had a pretty time playing together most of the time.
Gus licking the beater with cake batter for his birthday cake!
Gus's big birthday present! It will be awhile yet til he can reach the pedal and actually drive it.
Birthday cake!
Gus got a new tricycle! (Actually two....one is smaller and will be easily transportable to grandmas' houses).
Other than Gus turning two, the summer has been pretty uneventful. I was staying home with him most days, which was pretty frustrating, especially on days where Gus deemed a nap unnecessary (which was too often). Just this week I started a new postdoc job at Wash U, and then in a few weeks I start teaching two classes (at St. Louis Community College and Maryville University), and then all hell will break loose perhaps. But I'm very grateful to be back at work, although I do miss spending as much time with my sweet little boy.
I'm sure there are lots of other interesting things that happened in the last few months, but I don't think I really took pictures of them, so who cares.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Hawaii, the condensed version
Wow. That's all I can really say after my trip to Hawaii.
Here's how it all came about. My friend Lauren mentioned to me that she was going to Hawaii on May 6, and that I should come along since I didn't have a job to worry about anymore. This was such an amazing coincidence, because I was done teaching for the semester on May 5. Anyway, after much discussion and pleading, Kevin decided to let me go. Since Lauren has a cousin that lives in Kona, Hawaii (the big island), it was a cheaper way to go since we wouldn't have to pay for a place to stay.
The trip was absolutely amazing. There were so many breathtaking things to see, I took well over 600 pictures. Although I uploaded A LOT to my snapfish site (I'll post the link at the end), I decided to highlight 2-3 pictures per day and give you an idea of everything I got to do. So here we go.
Day 1 (5/9)
I arrived in Kona at 2pm via Phoenix. The airport was pretty exciting because it was all open and looked like tiki huts. I was only disappointed because they didn't give us leis when we got off the plane like they do in movies (although Lauren brought me one when she picked me up....she had arrived on 5/6)
Tiki hut Kona airport
After Lauren picked me up at the airport, and we dropped off my stuff at Scott and Keri's (our generous hosts), we headed various places for Lauren to show me a few things. We went to the old boardwalk-y part of Kona and walked through a few shops. The BEST shop was a place called Pueo Boutique.....and if you knew me you would know I would love it. Amazing handmade jewelry, clothing, purses, etc., all made on the Hawaiian islands. This is where I ended up buying my token piece of souvenir jewelry (a beautiful necklace!). Here I am sitting along the volcano rock wall along the ocean and a big banyan tree.
Day 2 (5/10)
Lauren decided to take me to some of the lava flats near Kona. Obviously the entire big island is more or less a volcano and lava, but the lava was just CRAZY. I couldn't find anything certain, but I think all the lava near Kona is from eruptions in the early 1800's. It's just weird because it's like a black wasteland all over the place. But the area of lava flats we went to goes right next to the ocean, so there are just big cliffs of lava right into the ocean.
Here I am, super excited about lava and the ocean!
Near the lava flats there were some beachy areas - this is ones of those areas.
After some much needed beach time, we went back to the boardwalk area of Kona to do some more browsing in shops. It had gotten pretty cloudy and dark, and I took this picture across part of the bay (?). The steeple is from a church built in 1820, built by the first Christian missionaries to Hawaii.
Day 3 (5/11)
We had a lot planned for Wednesday. We were going to go up the mountain to a little town called Holualoa where there are a lot of little art galleries, go to a coffee plantation tour, head to this sacred Honaunau, do some snorkeling, and end the night with a luau in Kona. We got all that done except the coffee plantation.
Honaunau was pretty cool. It was this 'city of refuge' where in the 1500's-1600's, if someone was sentenced to die for doing something wrong, they could run to this place and if they made it there, they were forgiven. The wall in this picture was built in 1550.
I don't remember what the Hawaiian name of these totem pole like things are. They were all over at Honaunau.
Then we attempted to go snorkeling at Honaunau, which according to Lauren's cousin it is one of the top 10 places to snorkel in the world. However, I have never snorkeled before, and this was bad. I think I collectively saw underwater for about 2 minutes before giving up because I was hyperventilating. I also bloodied my knee and scraped another knee and foot on some coral. Not such a good time. I was however able to snorkel at the beach the following day and figured it out.
We returned to Scott and Keri's in time to get gussied up for our luau at the Royal Kona Resort. It was generally a good time - good kalua pig, poke, and mai tais! The dancing and show was a little silly, but it was a good experience.
Me and Lauren at the luau.
Day 4 (5/12)
This was our crazy ambitious day. So hopefully I'll be brief, because we did a lot. Basically, we drove around the ENTIRE island in one day.
First we drove north, and went to see this place called Waipio Valley. I seriously think this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The beach there is a black sand beach, and in the valley traditional farmers grow this plant taro. I never suffered through it, but I guess this is where they first came upon land in the movie Waterworld.
Waipio Valley
We also stopped to see a few waterfalls. This is Akaka Falls.
Next, we headed to the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens. This is near Hilo, on the east side of the island - basically exactly the other side from where we were staying. This side of the island is effectively a rain forest, so I literally felt like I was in the Climatron at the botanical gardens at home, although I was walking through a 17 acre outdoor garden. AMAZING. I took an ungodly amount of pictures here, but this was one of my favorites....some weird lobster claw thing.
After that, we went to a cool park in Hilo called Lili'ukolani. But I spared you those pictures. We also ate in downtown Hilo, which is pretty cool because it is kind of older and more historical than Kona.
Finally we were headed southwest to Volcanoes National Park! When we got the visitors center, we were freezing! It was about 60 deg and drizzling on top of the volcano, and we were in tanktops and had just came from about 83 degrees. At the park, there are a number of 'craters' of exploded volcanoes to see. It was so rainy and voggy (what they call the fog on the volcano) that it was hard to see much other than some steam vents. I guess you can take helicopter rides to see active lava flow, but that wasn't in our budget. Part of the park includes an 18 mile drive down the side of the volcano to the coast. Ultimately, the road ends where lava flowed over the road sometime in the mid 80's. SO FREAKING COOL!
The end of the road.....
After hitting the volcanoes, we had to drive another 96 mile back to Kona. It was all curvy and 45 mph, and we following many-a-slowass, so it took FOREVER to get back. That was probably the day where I saw more amazing things in my life than ever before.
Day 5 (5/13)
We planned this day around going to the Kona Brewing Co for a tour. We had tried to go earlier in the week, but they were closed for an employee party. So we tried to go at 10:30 am, but ended up missing a spot because they only allow 15 people at a time. Grr. So, we went to the beach for a few hours (where I ended up getting blisters from the sun for the first time - I'm still itching like crazy and shedding skin a week later....) and aimed to get there early for the 3pm tour. We barely made it, but we did!
Here we are with the grain bins at the brewery.
The brewery is pretty small (definitely smaller than Schlafly) so it was a pretty small tour. Afterwards we got to sample some of their major types of beer (which tend to be my less favorites). So Lauren and I both stayed after the tour for samplers of our own and some pizza.
Here is my koko brown ale, Kona coffee stout, steam vent ale, and hula hefeweizen. YUM!
Day 6 (5/14)
Scott and Keri both do competitive paddle canoe racing. Saturday morning, they had a race in a town called Kawaihae, about 30 min north of Kona. Lauren and I went, along with their 7 year old daughter Sofia. They each paddled in 6-man canoes for NINE MILES. I cowered in the shade.
Here the men are lined up for their race start.
Lauren took me by a beach called Hapuna Beach which is apparently one of the most popular on the big island. Because of the lava rock everywhere, decent beaches are kind of few and far between.
Hapuna Beach
Day 7 (5/15)
This was the first day where we had 4-wheel drive access to get us to some of the other neat spots, since Scott has a truck and could finally take us. We went to this place called Kiholo, relatively close to Kona.
The beach was so cool because it ranged from white sand with black pebbles, to bigger lava rock, to even smaller black pebbles, and finally to a black sand beach that took us about 30 minutes to hike to. It was amazing. We all picked up a lot of rocks/shells that had been polished by the lava rocks with the idea we might make jewelry. We shall see.
Some of the white sand/black pebbles.
Black sand beach! So cool!!!
So that was my last day there. We did an awful lot in my 7 days and it was all amazing, and really helped me forget my unemployment for awhile. Lauren and I both left on the same flight, we flew out of Kona at 10:45 pm Sunday night and made it back to STL at 1:30 Monday afternoon.
There were a few things I didn't get to see in HI, but I feel like I had a pretty good go of it, and I certainly had an unbelievable time! I am so grateful that Lauren invited me to go along, and that Scott, Keri, and Sofia were such gracious hosts!
Here's how it all came about. My friend Lauren mentioned to me that she was going to Hawaii on May 6, and that I should come along since I didn't have a job to worry about anymore. This was such an amazing coincidence, because I was done teaching for the semester on May 5. Anyway, after much discussion and pleading, Kevin decided to let me go. Since Lauren has a cousin that lives in Kona, Hawaii (the big island), it was a cheaper way to go since we wouldn't have to pay for a place to stay.
The trip was absolutely amazing. There were so many breathtaking things to see, I took well over 600 pictures. Although I uploaded A LOT to my snapfish site (I'll post the link at the end), I decided to highlight 2-3 pictures per day and give you an idea of everything I got to do. So here we go.
Day 1 (5/9)
I arrived in Kona at 2pm via Phoenix. The airport was pretty exciting because it was all open and looked like tiki huts. I was only disappointed because they didn't give us leis when we got off the plane like they do in movies (although Lauren brought me one when she picked me up....she had arrived on 5/6)
Tiki hut Kona airport
After Lauren picked me up at the airport, and we dropped off my stuff at Scott and Keri's (our generous hosts), we headed various places for Lauren to show me a few things. We went to the old boardwalk-y part of Kona and walked through a few shops. The BEST shop was a place called Pueo Boutique.....and if you knew me you would know I would love it. Amazing handmade jewelry, clothing, purses, etc., all made on the Hawaiian islands. This is where I ended up buying my token piece of souvenir jewelry (a beautiful necklace!). Here I am sitting along the volcano rock wall along the ocean and a big banyan tree.
Day 2 (5/10)
Lauren decided to take me to some of the lava flats near Kona. Obviously the entire big island is more or less a volcano and lava, but the lava was just CRAZY. I couldn't find anything certain, but I think all the lava near Kona is from eruptions in the early 1800's. It's just weird because it's like a black wasteland all over the place. But the area of lava flats we went to goes right next to the ocean, so there are just big cliffs of lava right into the ocean.
Here I am, super excited about lava and the ocean!
Near the lava flats there were some beachy areas - this is ones of those areas.
After some much needed beach time, we went back to the boardwalk area of Kona to do some more browsing in shops. It had gotten pretty cloudy and dark, and I took this picture across part of the bay (?). The steeple is from a church built in 1820, built by the first Christian missionaries to Hawaii.
Day 3 (5/11)
We had a lot planned for Wednesday. We were going to go up the mountain to a little town called Holualoa where there are a lot of little art galleries, go to a coffee plantation tour, head to this sacred Honaunau, do some snorkeling, and end the night with a luau in Kona. We got all that done except the coffee plantation.
Honaunau was pretty cool. It was this 'city of refuge' where in the 1500's-1600's, if someone was sentenced to die for doing something wrong, they could run to this place and if they made it there, they were forgiven. The wall in this picture was built in 1550.
I don't remember what the Hawaiian name of these totem pole like things are. They were all over at Honaunau.
Then we attempted to go snorkeling at Honaunau, which according to Lauren's cousin it is one of the top 10 places to snorkel in the world. However, I have never snorkeled before, and this was bad. I think I collectively saw underwater for about 2 minutes before giving up because I was hyperventilating. I also bloodied my knee and scraped another knee and foot on some coral. Not such a good time. I was however able to snorkel at the beach the following day and figured it out. We returned to Scott and Keri's in time to get gussied up for our luau at the Royal Kona Resort. It was generally a good time - good kalua pig, poke, and mai tais! The dancing and show was a little silly, but it was a good experience.
Me and Lauren at the luau.
Day 4 (5/12)
This was our crazy ambitious day. So hopefully I'll be brief, because we did a lot. Basically, we drove around the ENTIRE island in one day.
First we drove north, and went to see this place called Waipio Valley. I seriously think this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The beach there is a black sand beach, and in the valley traditional farmers grow this plant taro. I never suffered through it, but I guess this is where they first came upon land in the movie Waterworld.
Waipio Valley
We also stopped to see a few waterfalls. This is Akaka Falls.
Next, we headed to the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens. This is near Hilo, on the east side of the island - basically exactly the other side from where we were staying. This side of the island is effectively a rain forest, so I literally felt like I was in the Climatron at the botanical gardens at home, although I was walking through a 17 acre outdoor garden. AMAZING. I took an ungodly amount of pictures here, but this was one of my favorites....some weird lobster claw thing.
After that, we went to a cool park in Hilo called Lili'ukolani. But I spared you those pictures. We also ate in downtown Hilo, which is pretty cool because it is kind of older and more historical than Kona.Finally we were headed southwest to Volcanoes National Park! When we got the visitors center, we were freezing! It was about 60 deg and drizzling on top of the volcano, and we were in tanktops and had just came from about 83 degrees. At the park, there are a number of 'craters' of exploded volcanoes to see. It was so rainy and voggy (what they call the fog on the volcano) that it was hard to see much other than some steam vents. I guess you can take helicopter rides to see active lava flow, but that wasn't in our budget. Part of the park includes an 18 mile drive down the side of the volcano to the coast. Ultimately, the road ends where lava flowed over the road sometime in the mid 80's. SO FREAKING COOL!
The end of the road.....
After hitting the volcanoes, we had to drive another 96 mile back to Kona. It was all curvy and 45 mph, and we following many-a-slowass, so it took FOREVER to get back. That was probably the day where I saw more amazing things in my life than ever before.Day 5 (5/13)
We planned this day around going to the Kona Brewing Co for a tour. We had tried to go earlier in the week, but they were closed for an employee party. So we tried to go at 10:30 am, but ended up missing a spot because they only allow 15 people at a time. Grr. So, we went to the beach for a few hours (where I ended up getting blisters from the sun for the first time - I'm still itching like crazy and shedding skin a week later....) and aimed to get there early for the 3pm tour. We barely made it, but we did!
Here we are with the grain bins at the brewery.
The brewery is pretty small (definitely smaller than Schlafly) so it was a pretty small tour. Afterwards we got to sample some of their major types of beer (which tend to be my less favorites). So Lauren and I both stayed after the tour for samplers of our own and some pizza.Here is my koko brown ale, Kona coffee stout, steam vent ale, and hula hefeweizen. YUM!
Day 6 (5/14)
Scott and Keri both do competitive paddle canoe racing. Saturday morning, they had a race in a town called Kawaihae, about 30 min north of Kona. Lauren and I went, along with their 7 year old daughter Sofia. They each paddled in 6-man canoes for NINE MILES. I cowered in the shade.
Here the men are lined up for their race start.
Lauren took me by a beach called Hapuna Beach which is apparently one of the most popular on the big island. Because of the lava rock everywhere, decent beaches are kind of few and far between.
Hapuna Beach
Day 7 (5/15)
This was the first day where we had 4-wheel drive access to get us to some of the other neat spots, since Scott has a truck and could finally take us. We went to this place called Kiholo, relatively close to Kona.
The beach was so cool because it ranged from white sand with black pebbles, to bigger lava rock, to even smaller black pebbles, and finally to a black sand beach that took us about 30 minutes to hike to. It was amazing. We all picked up a lot of rocks/shells that had been polished by the lava rocks with the idea we might make jewelry. We shall see.
Some of the white sand/black pebbles.
Black sand beach! So cool!!!
So that was my last day there. We did an awful lot in my 7 days and it was all amazing, and really helped me forget my unemployment for awhile. Lauren and I both left on the same flight, we flew out of Kona at 10:45 pm Sunday night and made it back to STL at 1:30 Monday afternoon.
There were a few things I didn't get to see in HI, but I feel like I had a pretty good go of it, and I certainly had an unbelievable time! I am so grateful that Lauren invited me to go along, and that Scott, Keri, and Sofia were such gracious hosts!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
A Tri-Beta Visit
Every once in awhile, usually once a year or so, my friend Erikka is forced to return to IL to visit her family. When this annual event occurs, we usually try to reunite our group of college roommates, the self-named Tri-Betas (minus our Portlandian friend Amanda). This year, Erikka decided to head home to celebrate her 30th birthday midwest-style. We all agreed to converge upon Katrina and Brad in Downers Grove.
And so we went.
Gus is ready for a road trip!
I cannot figure out why this is underlined now, and can't make it go away......
A highlight of the trip was meeting miss Eloise, Katrina's little girl who was born last August. Here Gus gives her the first of many cute hugs.
Aside from doing lots of eating and drinking (as usual....) we spent Saturday morning at the Morton Arboretum, which also happens to be where Katrina works. Gus enjoyed exploring the children's garden.
Miss Eloise!
Gus also enjoyed 'walking' with Erikka and daddy, who more or less just lifted him around.
Walking through a bridge in the trees with daddy
There is some weird art thing going on, where artists are working to completely cover this tree with crocheted things. Very bizarre.
After hitting the Arboretum on Saturday, we drove to Two Brothers Brewery in Warrenville. I had never heard of it before, but since Goose Island just sold out to Anheuser-Busch, it is now actually the largest craft brewery in IL. Who knew? Thankfully, Gus fell asleep on our way to the brewery, and continued his nap during part of our visit at the brewery. Any nap is better than no nap.
One of my Two Brothers brews - Ebel's weiss perhaps? Good stuff.
Naked babies!
All in all, it was a nice trip (other than discovering that Gus now refuses to sleep in a Pack-n-Play). In addition to spending time with Erikka and Katrina, we also visited our friends Ashley and Nate - Ashley is having her first baby any day now - so it was really nice to see them.
And now the question is - when will Erikka come home next year and force us to get together again?? No pressure ;)
And so we went.
Gus is ready for a road trip!
I cannot figure out why this is underlined now, and can't make it go away......A highlight of the trip was meeting miss Eloise, Katrina's little girl who was born last August. Here Gus gives her the first of many cute hugs.
Aside from doing lots of eating and drinking (as usual....) we spent Saturday morning at the Morton Arboretum, which also happens to be where Katrina works. Gus enjoyed exploring the children's garden.
Miss Eloise!
Gus also enjoyed 'walking' with Erikka and daddy, who more or less just lifted him around.
Walking through a bridge in the trees with daddy
There is some weird art thing going on, where artists are working to completely cover this tree with crocheted things. Very bizarre.
After hitting the Arboretum on Saturday, we drove to Two Brothers Brewery in Warrenville. I had never heard of it before, but since Goose Island just sold out to Anheuser-Busch, it is now actually the largest craft brewery in IL. Who knew? Thankfully, Gus fell asleep on our way to the brewery, and continued his nap during part of our visit at the brewery. Any nap is better than no nap.
One of my Two Brothers brews - Ebel's weiss perhaps? Good stuff.
Naked babies!
All in all, it was a nice trip (other than discovering that Gus now refuses to sleep in a Pack-n-Play). In addition to spending time with Erikka and Katrina, we also visited our friends Ashley and Nate - Ashley is having her first baby any day now - so it was really nice to see them.
And now the question is - when will Erikka come home next year and force us to get together again?? No pressure ;)
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Another Superstar Wedding!
Forgive me for not posting in awhile. There's been a lot going on, between teaching, and Gus being crazy, and more teaching, I haven't had much time to think straight lately. But this past weekend, I took a break from everything to make the wedding cake for my wonderful friend Jenny Conrad as she finally married Brice Donnelly. I also had the pleasure of being in the wedding party. I don't normally recommend trying to do the cake and be in the wedding, but this time it worked out well thanks to the simplicity of the cake Jenny chose.
So here are some choice pics of Jen's big day! It was simply perfect.
Here are here placecard holders - bottles of Limonada
I loved loved loved the flowers. Jen's bouquet was all yellow, and the bridesmaids were yellow and white. I LOVE freesia!
Jen found this hairpiece thing online somewhere - so pretty!
Brice's sweet tie and simple boutonniere
Jen is ready to head down the aisle!
She decided to wear some awesome, but painful, bright yellow shoes!
The cake
Cutting the cake
Me and my oh-so-photogenic hubby
All the superstar girls
Jenny, Angie, and baby Neske
The bride and groom catch a moment together at the reception
All in all, Mr. and Mrs. Donnelly had a perfect April day for their long-awaited wedding. They put a lot of thought and energy into every aspect of their big day, and it really showed! Congrats to the newlyweds!
So here are some choice pics of Jen's big day! It was simply perfect.
Here are here placecard holders - bottles of Limonada
I loved loved loved the flowers. Jen's bouquet was all yellow, and the bridesmaids were yellow and white. I LOVE freesia!
Jen found this hairpiece thing online somewhere - so pretty!
Brice's sweet tie and simple boutonniere
Jen is ready to head down the aisle!
She decided to wear some awesome, but painful, bright yellow shoes!
The cake
Cutting the cake
Me and my oh-so-photogenic hubby
All the superstar girls
Jenny, Angie, and baby Neske
The bride and groom catch a moment together at the reception
All in all, Mr. and Mrs. Donnelly had a perfect April day for their long-awaited wedding. They put a lot of thought and energy into every aspect of their big day, and it really showed! Congrats to the newlyweds!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Jen's shower, bachelorette party, and other random things
This past weekend was a busy one. All of the bridesmaids threw a shower in Highland for Jenny Conrad's upcoming wedding. I had the job of making the cake. Everything turned out for the best, despite the top layer of the cake crumbling into a million pieces when I took it out of the pan. Buttercream is amazing, in so many ways. That's all I can say about that.
All of the superstar girls and children were able to make it! Gus and Anna even shared a first kiss! (I have a picture of that on my phone, I'll have to have a blog post of phone pictures sometime but I haven't downloaded any recently). You can kind of see the two impending children in this picture too (baby girl Neske and baby boy Myers)!!
It's a little easier to see the baby bumps when there aren't kids in the way :)
Following the conclusion of the shower, many of the girls headed to St. Louis where Jen had booked us a few rooms at the Hilton at the Ballpark for the evening. We then boarded a party bus, where our driver Albert took care of us for the night.
The party bus indeed had a party going on, with Jen and Katie even dancing in the aisles!
Jen has a heart-to-heart with Albert.
Superstars that made it to the bachelorette party - hooray to preggers Ang for joining us!
Our first stop - Double D's karaoke bar. We never took a group picture, but I grabbed this one of almost everyone watching a karaoke-er.
Jen's favorite stop - Mike Talayna's Jukebox. Holy mirrors and disco balls.
Our last stop - the Library....Janeice thought buying one of these bucket drinks was a good idea. I think the fact that she held onto the bucket was the best idea.....
Me and the bride to be. I have a version of this picture that someone else took (you can see I took this one) but for some reason I always look better in the ones I take.
Our view from the hotel room in the light of morning....not too shabby!
Thankfully I didn't need too much help recovering from the bachelorette party, so I could enjoy the amazing weather on Sunday - it was 75 degrees in mid-February!!! Gus and I took a dump truck outside to enjoy the weather.
Basically, he just drives the truck back and forth down the sidewalk. This is a good thing considering the amount of dog pooh in the grass.
I even convinced my anti-walking husband to go for a walk! We got Gus's new wagon (from Christmas) out on the sidewalks for the second time ever. He loves it!
Gus in his wagon!
Those are more or less my recent pictures. Other things that have been going on.... Kevin finally shaved his beard and got a haircut! I finally have back the man I married! He took some really funny pictures of his facial hair as he cut it off, I will need to get them from him and post them here because I think you'd be entertained.
Teaching is going pretty well. The weeks where I teach three nights are pretty insane, but Kevin is helping me out at home and it could be a lot worse. This week I suddenly had no voice, so I didn't lecture at my Tuesday class - which means I have three hours worth of talking to do tonight to catch up, so maybe my voice will be gone again! Now I just need to hope I can get a job one of these days. I applied for two more teaching jobs, and pretty soon I'll start talking to people about doing another postdoc (which I'd really rather not do). But I need a job!
Other big news from my world - I'm going to be an aunt again! My sister Jess and her new hubby Todd are expecting in the fall! I assume this is fair game to put out into the blogosphere, although I'm waiting for her to mention it on facebook before I finally have the status 'I'm going to be an aunt again, Hooray!'. So that's crazy exciting. And then all the pressure falls to poor Jackie ;)
That's about it. I don't lecture at all this next week, thanks to my friend Kim who is guest lecturing for my plant class. I'm going to savor every minute of not working on lectures for a week! I'm also really looking forward to watching the Oscars on Sunday with my friend Lauren - absolutely one of my most favorite things to do. Should be a good weekend!
All of the superstar girls and children were able to make it! Gus and Anna even shared a first kiss! (I have a picture of that on my phone, I'll have to have a blog post of phone pictures sometime but I haven't downloaded any recently). You can kind of see the two impending children in this picture too (baby girl Neske and baby boy Myers)!!
It's a little easier to see the baby bumps when there aren't kids in the way :)
Following the conclusion of the shower, many of the girls headed to St. Louis where Jen had booked us a few rooms at the Hilton at the Ballpark for the evening. We then boarded a party bus, where our driver Albert took care of us for the night.
The party bus indeed had a party going on, with Jen and Katie even dancing in the aisles!
Jen has a heart-to-heart with Albert.
Superstars that made it to the bachelorette party - hooray to preggers Ang for joining us!
Our first stop - Double D's karaoke bar. We never took a group picture, but I grabbed this one of almost everyone watching a karaoke-er.
Jen's favorite stop - Mike Talayna's Jukebox. Holy mirrors and disco balls.
Our last stop - the Library....Janeice thought buying one of these bucket drinks was a good idea. I think the fact that she held onto the bucket was the best idea.....
Me and the bride to be. I have a version of this picture that someone else took (you can see I took this one) but for some reason I always look better in the ones I take.
Our view from the hotel room in the light of morning....not too shabby!
Thankfully I didn't need too much help recovering from the bachelorette party, so I could enjoy the amazing weather on Sunday - it was 75 degrees in mid-February!!! Gus and I took a dump truck outside to enjoy the weather.
Basically, he just drives the truck back and forth down the sidewalk. This is a good thing considering the amount of dog pooh in the grass.
I even convinced my anti-walking husband to go for a walk! We got Gus's new wagon (from Christmas) out on the sidewalks for the second time ever. He loves it!
Gus in his wagon!
Those are more or less my recent pictures. Other things that have been going on.... Kevin finally shaved his beard and got a haircut! I finally have back the man I married! He took some really funny pictures of his facial hair as he cut it off, I will need to get them from him and post them here because I think you'd be entertained.
Teaching is going pretty well. The weeks where I teach three nights are pretty insane, but Kevin is helping me out at home and it could be a lot worse. This week I suddenly had no voice, so I didn't lecture at my Tuesday class - which means I have three hours worth of talking to do tonight to catch up, so maybe my voice will be gone again! Now I just need to hope I can get a job one of these days. I applied for two more teaching jobs, and pretty soon I'll start talking to people about doing another postdoc (which I'd really rather not do). But I need a job!
Other big news from my world - I'm going to be an aunt again! My sister Jess and her new hubby Todd are expecting in the fall! I assume this is fair game to put out into the blogosphere, although I'm waiting for her to mention it on facebook before I finally have the status 'I'm going to be an aunt again, Hooray!'. So that's crazy exciting. And then all the pressure falls to poor Jackie ;)
That's about it. I don't lecture at all this next week, thanks to my friend Kim who is guest lecturing for my plant class. I'm going to savor every minute of not working on lectures for a week! I'm also really looking forward to watching the Oscars on Sunday with my friend Lauren - absolutely one of my most favorite things to do. Should be a good weekend!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)