A rose among the thorns

The sunset during a Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago
while we were grilling dinner with some friends

Two blogs within a week of each other. Owned!!

Anyway, through all the business I wanted to talk about this last weekend. Three of our friends had the chance to visit from Milwaukee this weekend and we all had a wonderful time. At least I believe we did, I can really only speak for myself. Most of it was a much needed break for all of us so we just sat around most of the time. They got in late Friday night and sleeping arrangements were decided. I feel like a majority of the rest of the weekend was spent in the kitchen so I will mention this out by meals.

Saturday was a sleep-in day for most everyone. At least I think. I got up early to do homework and everyone else woke up around ten. Is that sleeping in for college students?

Breakfast: eggs and potatoes

We decided to all take a trip to the grocery store for some extra needed ingredients. This was our big trip out of the apartment.

Lunch: beer brats on the grill, coleslaw, apple/snickers salad, sun chips

The afternoon brought about watching some movies (Stardust, Ocean's 11 and 12) while playing some games. Nick ended up winning our game of Ticket-to-Ride. This was followed by Percy and I playing Blokus while Austin taught Nick and Tony how to play Bridge. Tony was very excited about learning Bridge.

Dinner: delicious Pot Roast (made by Austin), leftover coleslaw and apple/snickers salad

The night was concluded with doing so many dishes (reminiscent of growing up) telephone pictionary, always a fun time, and a nice round of League of Legends.

Sunday was the conclusion of a good time. Church was attended and I had my first round at making lettuce soup. I had boiled the broth on Saturday afternoon, so the final preparations were done while everyone else was a second service. The final product tasted a little bit different than the way mom makes it, but once again, the lettuce brought it all together. Not bad for my first time. I would call it a success!

Breakfast: badly slow-cooked oatmeal
Lunch: lettuce soup with some biscuits

Overall, the weekend was a great time spent relaxing with some great friends. It almost seems like it didn't happen it went by so fast, but I know it did because:
(1) the second bedroom is nicely cleaned/organized
(2) the pile of pillow cases that are in the wash (and some sheets) and
(3) the large number of dishes to do

The home stretch

So, I am supposed to be looking up some stuff to do a project, however, I'm quickly losing motivation so I will write a blog instead. Just a short one, I promise.

I know I say this all the time, but time really does fly. Last week was a very lazy week. Purposefully lazy which was good, but now I'm second guessing it. I had been so busy for so long, I decided that I need to not do much. This involved the regular Monday night dinner, Thursday night small group (I even got to clean the house for this...mostly), and mostly watching some How I Met Your Mother inbetween. Friday night came and Tony kicked me out, forcing me to go to the women's event put on at church. This meant driving all by myself to North Liberty to meet some of the church ladies. I figured this was kind of a good idea so I went. I might have also been bribed by the fact that it was a movie night with LOTs of popcorn (my main weakness).

Saturday morning we got up nice and early to take part in Make A Difference Day. Twice a year, the Methodist church in North Liberty partners with all the other North Liberty churches to take part in helping families around the community with projects that they (1) can't do themselves, (2) can't pay for or (3) just need help with them. It was very refreshing to be able to get outside and do some work. Tony ended up helping a guy who had problems with woodpeckers creating holes in the side of his trailer. There was one massive hole created where starlings had gone into the roof of the trailer and started nesting. He had fun meeting the guy and being able to use his new drill. I was sent to another individuals house to help with some yard work. I took up the job of cleaning the bottom of the pine trees in the back of the house. O what a joy! Needless to say, the morning/early afternoon ended with some resting on the couch.

Sunday completed the weekend with some more laziness. Tony decided to join the church softball team so he went off to practice in the afternoon, while I started another one of my sewing projects. It's mostly done.

This week marks three more weeks of classes for me until finals. This last year has truly flown by. However, with only three weeks left, final assignments are assigned and final projects are to be finished. The last two days has dumped quite the load on me so I will be spending many more nights in the lab and at home doing homework (hence the procrastination).

Here's to finishing out strong and sane!

Spring Showers

O boy. A month has happened since I last updated. Needless to say, so much has happened, but that's an obvious statement. O to recall it all....

This last month has been really long. Really long.

It started out with my spring break. It was possibly the least restful break I have ever had, mostly because it wasn't much of break. I decided to go into work because I had things that needed to get done and I was going to help out with some studies that were happening. This was fine, except I could not maintain focus or concentrate on anything. For some odd reason during a time when there should have been little distractions I was the most distracted. I also had a sizable midterm coming in the following two weeks so I spent my nights studying and the normal weeknight activities (Monday night dinners and Thursday night small group). I just felt stressed, disappointed in myself and busy. Hence, the non-restful break.

It also happened that Tony and I decided that we were not going to leave the state of Iowa for the whole month of March since we had been traveling to Michigan or Wisconsin at least once a month. We had been in Iowa for about 8 months at this time and it was time we stayed put for a while. In general, living 4 hours away from my family has not been terribly difficult, but sometimes it just sets in that they aren't an afternoon visit away anymore. March just happened to be one of those months, especially after my spring break and thinking about everything that I needed to do in the next few months.

Luckily, my brother decided to move out to Nebraska in the beginning of April, so as a family we got together (those who could on such short notice) one more time before he moved. I was not about to pass up this opportunity to see everyone, recharge and get some lettuce soup. So the last Friday of spring break, we trekked up to Wisconsin, broke our no traveling in March rule, where I did no homework and got to spend some quality time with some of the family. It just to happened that my sister Beth had her baby the Thursday before so we got to meet Payton Leona Grady as well. (Sorry, I didn't take any pictures.)

The following week was spent starting and finishing a project for school, a project where I thought I had more time that I actually did. Whoops! Overall, I managed to finish it with impressive programming skills and I got to play with marshmallows and toothpicks. Part of the project was visualizing 3D, so Tony had the idea to use mini-marshmallows and toothpicks. He even ran to the grocery store to get some for me. What a man. The week ended with Easter. Easter was spent eating lunch with some of our friends here. Kimberly made a delicious turkey (so good!!!) and we just sat around and chatted all afternoon. It was a very relaxing afternoon.

April brought about the next round of studies for me in the lab at work, meaning I spent two weeks wearing scrubs preping, honing my skills, helping out with the studies and walking through the tunnels of the hospital traveling from one building to another. The rest of April has been the same story: studying for my tests (finally done!!) and doing homework. Some of the highlights in the past 13 days have included:

- presenting a poster of my research at the engineering open house.
- buying a couch off of craigslist (a not to shabby sleeper sofa for those who come to visit). Yes this means we have had to rearrange the living room.

- purchasing a bike (also off of craigslist), however I have not really ridden it yet. I need to look up how to properly take care of a bike now that I have a decent one.

- finishing the studies and tests and having nothing to do this weekend except for one homework that is 2 questions long. O the joy!
- Tony arriving at home before I do quite a few times in the last week even though he has been being awesome and importantly busy at work (terrible wording I know).

O and I forgot. I got new glasses. It has been fun(?) figuring out insurance and everything, but we learn from our experiences. Moral of the story, I like my glasses and I can see properly out of my right eye!!