Christmas preparations

One more post and I am all caught up. Finals being the week before Christmas has really hindered my ability to prepare for everything. However, in procrastinating studying, Tony and I took a trip over to Lowe's to pick out a tree. I really would have preferred to cut one done ourselves, but drastic times call for drastic measures. Just kidding. Maybe next year we'll find a tree farm near by. I like the tree, but Tony has some structural integrity issues with it. I love having Christmas lights! Here is the final product.

And we got a new coffee table!

The next step in Christmas preparation is making Christmas cookies. All I wanted to do during finals studying was bake some cookies, so now that they are over Tony and I attacked the kitchen. We made four different things. My favorite peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss, some famous family gingersnaps, 150 year old molasses cookies and some chocolate covered peanuts.

All ready!

Rolling out the molasses cookies

I has also been making some quilted stockings for the two of us, but my sewing machine does not like me at the moment and I am ill supplied in the way of needles for it so those pictures will have to wait. So today is Christmas Eve, the tree is up, the cookies are made (and are delicious), other decorations are up, the presents are already under the tree and we are late to hang out with some friends. So I bid you adieu and enjoy catching up on our lives.

All done!!

It is no surprise that graduate school was going to be difficult at times, however, this last semester has been particularly trying. I took four classes, which in undergrad, would have been very little. But life is different. I don't want to spend all my time doing schoolwork. I want to come home and spend time with my husband. I want to partake in leading our small group. I want to be able to have time to think about making dinner and cleaning the apartment. Maybe not so much the last one, but I want to have time to think about things beyond my current project and it is hard to do that when there is so much homework. What I really want is to be able to leave most of what I have to do at work to come home and be with Tony and partake in the social events that we are a part of. Don't get me wrong, I love what I have been working on. In fact, this was probably the semester where I have enjoyed the material the most. However, I am so glad that it is over. I finished all my final projects, I studied for all my exams and finished them, I am done! And I will never take four classes again. I only have four required courses left, but I am not taking them all at once. And now I can more seriously focus on my research and a timeline for graduation. Don't worry, it'll still be a few years.

November

Weekend # 1:

November was a month of weddings beginning with the first weekend. We traveled up to Wisconsin to for some time with friends. It was great catching up with the Harris's and everyone over the weekend. Here are some photos of the wedding. The reception was a dinner reception only so a group of us went to a pub downtown Port Washington to hang out, play darts and taste fine alcohols. It was a beautiful wedding, great weekend seeing friends and, as usual, way too short.

The wonderful couple

Centerpiece with Tony's fine artistic ability

Me and the bride!!

Friends!

________________________________________________________________________________

Weekend # 2:

Once upon a time, back in like 2010?, Tony took me to Wicked in Milwaukee for my birthday. For years, I has been singing the songs and it was a wonderful present. Well this last November, Wicked was in Des Moines. Naturally, we bought tickets and went with two of Tony's coworkers. This was the first time we went to the capitol and ended up having a wonderful time. We went to a matinee showing, absolutely spectacular again!!, and ate at this wonderful little pub afterwards. It was a great time. The following Sunday, our church had a Thank You dinner for all of their volunteers. With Tony on the sound team and myself in Nursery we were invited. The invitation said a black tie affair and I wanted to wear my prom dress, but Tony said that was a little too much so I settled with something less formal. Sad day. Regardless of outfit, it was a wonderful dinner and we had the chance to spend some time with more friends.

The girls :)

The guys

Back from Wicked

________________________________________________________________________________

Weekend #3:

The third weekend in November was a long one. We headed off to Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon. I dropped Tony off at work and hung around Cedar Rapids doing some schoolwork and some much needed shopping for the weekend of wedding festivities and baby showers. This weekend was going to be packed. (For everyone who doesn't know, all names mentioned in this section are my sisters/brothers, unless specified)

Thursday night: Naomi's bachelorette party

We picked up Laura on our way home and made it back in time to run off to Beth's house for Naomi's bachelorette party. Much to our surprise, Sara had come up for the weekend from Costa Rica, sans family. It was a very pleasant surprise to see her since we were under the assumption that she was not going to be able to make it. The night was full of food, slightly embarrassing Naomi at Kohls and ending with wonderful conversation. The maid of honor did a wonderful job!

One of the beautiful outfits Naomi had to wear

Friday: Nails and rehearsal

This was a very busy day. We had the chance to spend some time with Sara and family before I headed down to visit with my friend Percy. She was graduating from college the following weekend and I wanted to congratulate her and give her a nice present. We met up for some breakfast and it was wonderful to catch up, talk about life and how scary it is, and see the look on her face when she got her very own stethoscope!

I then met up with Naomi, Zach, the Harris's and Tony at Noodle for some lunch. We really are an odd crew, but a good one. The girls then went to get our nails done before the rehearsal while the guys went and played some games.

The rehearsal went well with some hilarious moments from Zach's groomsmen. They were a very comical bunch. Somehow I ended up being the tallest girl stuck with the shortest man. O well. The night ended at a nice restaurant, as rehearsals usually do, and everyone went to bed ready for the big day.

Saturday: The wedding

Us girls got up early to get to church to line up to get our hair and makeup done to be ready by noon. Normal wedding things commenced, pictures, ceremony stuff, more pictures (it was raining so picture locations were revamped, but it all worked out well) and onto the reception. Great reception! Best part: dancing. Hands down. Once again, we had the chance to catch up with friends and it was a blast. Tony was sore for the next four days from dancing so much. Great celebration!

I just had to show off my hair. I loved it!! Thanks Krystin for the suggestion

And their off!

Sunday: Baby shower

The weekend ended with a baby shower for my soon to be sister-in-law. The weather was a bit shotty so it took a while to get there, but we arrived in time to celebrate the eventual birth of their little baby boy. It was great to see some of her family and bless both her and Nathan. Can't wait to meet the little guy!

________________________________________________________________________________

Weekend #4:

By this time, school had finally come to a halt and Thanksgiving break was upon me. We began the week with our first college football game. Being from Michigan, Tony is a Wolverine fan. It just so happened that Michigan was playing Iowa at Iowa this year and we couldn't miss it. It also happened that it was going to be approximately zero degrees outside for the game as well. Bad weekend to become a college football fan. Since we live about 2 miles from the stadium we took a nice stroll up to Kinnick right before the game started to get to our seats (I could've swore I bought them closer than we were, but o well). Other than the fact that it was absolutely freezing and that Michigan played poorly (Iowa did well), it was a great experience that I would probably do again, with more layers on of course. Also, why does everyone have to stand for everything? They have seats for a reason.

Freezing!

The field is much smaller in real life

________________________________________________________________________________

Weekend #5: Thanksgiving

Tony had the opportunity to go hunting with his Dad and uncles in Michigan so, come Tuesday, he left me home alone for the week. I may sound like I'm complaining, but it was great. I had a million and a half final projects to finish/start (mostly start) for school and I probably didn't need the distraction. My week was spent sitting on the couch with Netflix and my computer. A friend from small group came over for Thanksgiving afternoon and we had a great chat, but other than that, most of the week was spent alone. I accomplished leaps and bounds. I scrubbed the apartment and got some cleaning done that I had been meaning to do, I made great progress on my projects and watched way too much on Netflix. However, I was very ready for Tony to come home on Sunday afternoon.

As for Tony, he had a great time hunting and catching up with family. He even got to go to our friends wedding that took place near the family cabin. (I told you this was a month of weddings.)

This ended the very busy month of November.

October

Quite a bit happened contrary to the picture documentation that occurred. This was a month of visits from other people. First, some friends visited from Milwaukee. The guys went mini golfing while the girls went shopping. We watched lots of movies and had delicious food. Second, Tony's parents visited from Michigan. They came during the week, so while Tony and I were working, they took a trip to the Amana Colonies, traditional German style towns with little shops, and went to the Hoover Museum near here. After work we spent time catching up and watched Lincoln. Beyond this, school really began picking up due to midterms and my social life slowly disappeared. Hence, the reason why this is the first blog post since early October. So here is to catching up!