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!!

Necessary Cleaning

I find that the more I experience life, the more I learn about myself, as it should be, for if we do not learn more about ourselves, we are not truly experiencing life. Recently, I have been discovering a new-found interest in understanding more about the world and history. For example, last night Tony and I had the opportunity to watch Lincoln in theaters. It was incredible to watch the political side of the Civil War and to get a glimpse in the life of Lincoln. I wish I had a bigger comprehension of life, or desire to learn more about things before me and beyond me, earlier in life. I had this great beginning put together last night, but I forgot it so I hope that does it justice.

I just remembered it! Awesome! So, back to learning more about myself. Other than that stated above, I have also been learning about my home-managing skills. In fact, I have learned that when I haven't had time to clean the apartment, my stress level increases significantly. The idea that I don't even have time to take care of the little things drives me crazy. I have had the same to do list for the last two weeks and I think I've finally completed most of them this weekend finally. More about that later.

Now onto the purpose of this blog: informing friends and family about the joys in life here in Iowa.

To start off with, the weekend of 2/23 found us traveling to the land of Michigan to witness the start of a life between Tony's sister, Heidi, and her new husband Chad. It was nice to see family again. Overall, the weekend was filled with setting up the church for the wedding, cleaning up and relaxing. We truly wish Heidi and Chad a wonderful, God-centered marriage!

The bride walking down the aisle

The new couple!

The always needed picture of us

The month following was a long time ago. To dig up and remember what we all accomplished. Let's see. The following weekend I had the opportunity to help throw a baby shower for a friend of ours. No offense to anyone, but it was a great shower. One of the best if I do say so myself. That weekend also brought the end to a miserable cold, I think Tony gave it to me. One of the unfortunates of living in such close quarters. It also happened that I had a pretty extreme allergic reaction to something starting that Saturday through Tuesday morning. At least we think it was an allergic reaction, to what I have no idea since it has never happened before or since and nothing in our lives changed. Trust me, we thought long an hard about what it might have been. Take it from me, a very itchy rash all over your body for 2.5 days is not a pleasant experience. Thank goodness we had some benedryl on hand, expired or not, it works.

Two more weeks to cover. Actually, two more weekends. Our weeks are relatively straight forward.

• Monday night: dinner with friends (4 other couples and Brad) where we eat together and spend some time hanging out and praying for one another.
• Tuesday night: we usually travel to the other side of Coralville for some time with Sami and Ben watching Arrested Development together.
• Wednesday night: I catch up on homework and Tony usually spends some time on his computer fixing it, or not.
• Thursday night: attending a small group with the 20 somethings group at church.
• Friday night: this starts the weekend :)

On to the weekends. Last weekend was a difficult one. The apartment not being cleaned was wearing on me, homework was piling up in preparation for the end of the first half of the semester and spring break, and I just wanted to sit and cuddle with Tony. Friday night we were all set on hanging out with some friends, typical dinner and a movie. Couples date. However, this was pushed back to the following night and Tony and I got to cuddle up together to watch something I don't remember. Much needed comfort after an emotionally trying day and week. The rest of the weekend was spent doing homework and hanging out with friends.

I have also realized lately that I am a selfish person. I want Tony all to myself. I really don't want to sound like that cheesy couple, but honestly, the more we spend time together, the more I want to not do anything with anyone, but rather, keep him all to myself. 

Speaking of keeping him all to myself. On to this weekend! (Almost done. Don't worry.) 

Little quick detour. So as stated before, I was feeling the stress of not cleaning the apartment and my homework was taking a significantly longer time than expected. It also happened that we offered to host small group on Thursday. I was dying. I needed to get away from it all. So, what did I do? I did. I just left work early, I wasn't really focusing anyway, so that I could tend to my business. It's amazing what a little cleaning can do. It was amazing!! And the best part is, it's still clean. I felt so much better. Mission accomplished and small group was great. 

Back on the highway. Tony and I had been planning on having a date weekend since it was the beginning of spring break. So what did we do? Do I even want to admit it? Sure, why not. He got off work a little early on Friday, picked me up at work and we drove on over to the library to pick up some movies. We ended up having a true movie marathon and watched all five movies in the Twilight Saga in one day/night. Fun times. Saturday was lazier than it needed to be, but we had the chance to bless (if you could call it that) some of our friends by decorating their apartment before they came back from out of town. Ended it with dinner and Lincoln, as stated above. Great movie! Spoiler alert. He dies. Sorry.

Well, here we are. Back to the grind. Tomorrow brings another week, we'll both be at work (I've got a lot to accomplish this week) and the world keeps on turning. This weekend was great. Knocked most of the things off my to do list. Spent about 4 hours today baking and cleaning (mostly simultaneously. Apparently I'm a very clean baker) to send some treats on their merry way and finally got around to writing this very long blog post. (I just can't put multiple posts in, I don't know why.)

Baking frenzy! Horrible picture, but Tony was wearing an apron

Simple Pleasures

This week has pretty much looked like this. That's me doing homework and Tony playing some video game...probably Assassin's Creed. It was very nice to return to some normalcy.

Last week was filled with quite the unnecessary stress. I received a homework assignment from my 200 level grad class that contained a description with little to no expectations as to how to carry it out. Me, being me, totally took it to a level way beyond necessary. Needless to say, I spent about 10x more hours on it then needed leaving my sick husband untended and the apartment a complete disaster. It killed me.

Sunday was spent at the engineering building, with two of my friends also in the class, finishing the assignment. I returned at about 7pm to a clean apartment and some popcorn. Needless to say, Tony is wonderful. (That or stir crazy - he'd been spending a majority of his time doing nothing but sitting on the couch resting.) He even bought me some almond kisses (my favorite), peanut butter cups and some flowers on Tuesday (as seen in the picture!). Granted that was a late Valentine's Day present, but I take what I can get.

I'm convinced it's always the little things that make us the happiest.in life like being able to do my homework (in the manner seen above), having a clean counter with no dishes on it (even after eating supper) and the absolutely beautiful falling snow that was this morning

just me and my homework

As I'm writing this I should be doing some homework, however, my level of comprehension is not doing too well so a little distraction should do me well.

These past two weeks (can't believe it's been that long since I last posted. Time does fly) have been a blur. I find that if someone asks me "so what's new?" or "how was your week last week?" I have no idea how to respond because (a) I feel like nothing is new or (b) I don't remember what's happened in our lives. Time really does seem to fly when I think about all that we've done in this new year. (It's already half way through February! and yet it goes by so slow - I keep thinking today is Thursday.) So what have we done?

Well, to start, tonight is the first night that I have stayed home in two weeks - not counting weekends (those are for bumming around and watching How I Met Your Mother, which we have finished all the episodes currently on Netflix :( - so sad). Tony's at a birthday party for a coworker tonight (just called - had a great time!), while I'm (not) doing homework.

Last weekend (02/02) we had the chance to spend some time in Wisconsin for my sister's baby shower (the reason I made the baby quilt). It was wonderful seeing family again and I loved the conversations: a little bit awkward, a little bit of solid financial advice, but overall, a lot of fun. Needless to say, I did not want to leave. Saturday night, we traveled down to the city of Milwaukee to visit some of the MSOE peoples. Our plans were to stop by and be home in Iowa that night, however, we ended up crashing on a friends futon since motivation to leave was a little thin.

Monday brought back the busyness (is that spelled right?). Tony worked a little later of hours (still nothing compared to before) and I started a new round of research studies at work. This involves longer hours for me at work and with something going on every night that leaves little time (or less time) to think about homework. Bad idea. (O well. I'll figure it out.) (I am all about the side comments tonight. Oops!) Most of our outings are with friends, which is awesome and we are cultivating great friendships, however, it can be tiring sometimes.

This last weekend was mostly spent in a gym. I realized the other day on Facebook that I go to a Division 1 school, which means there are a lot more athletic teams and they are relatively good. This meant that, come this last Friday, a gymnastic meet was in sight. It was a bit nostalgic for me watching the competition, but it was a lot of fun teaching Tony about gymnastics in general. The following Saturday I had the chance to go watch my former track team compete in Platteville, WI. (I picked one of the closest meets that they would have to my current residence.) It was a lot of fun to be in that environment again and catch up with some of my track friends. While I was gone, Tony had the chance to catch up on some long awaited down time to just sit and do nothing, and that's just what he did.

Well, this next weekend brings a Valentine's Day dinner (nothing special planned, just eating out) and some enjoyable down time. (Probably more homework.) My studies are over now, last one today, which means my week will return to normal, and Tony should be pretty busy again at work this week. (Now how do I end this entry?) And the Hammond saga continues...

the weather's the same

Living in pretty much the same place my whole life I never got a picture of what the natural elements are in other places, if that makes any sense. Well, we have been in Iowa for the past 6.5 months and it's like meeting someone new discovering more and more about them. Here are some things I have learned about Iowa, compared to Wisconsin.

It is still part of the Midwest so, for the most part, the culture is pretty similar. The area that we live in is probably not an accurate picture of the rest of Iowa, but it works. It is very diverse culturally and fairly "progressive", as some have called it, due to the University.

Tony has learned that Iowa drivers are not the best (a confirmed fact by some friends of ours). They also haven't salted the roads, that I know of, yet, maybe once.

The weather. Let me tell you. You know those sayings about how strange the weather is in Wisconsin or Michigan, etc, and how it changes from one season to another in a week. Well, I'm figuring out that that is pretty much true for the whole Midwest and may even branch out to some other states. I have never seen such roller-coaster temperatures before (60 to 0 in two days...even that's a little extreme), but apparently that's normal for Iowa...and Wisconsin...and probably Michigan...and probably elsewhere too. So, off my little rant, the weather is pretty much that same. Although, I'm pretty sure Wisconsin gets more snow on average, for I am (or was) dearly missing the snowfalls that I saw on the radar. (Not like they would have hit MIlwaukee anyway, but it's the concept). We did get some freezing rain, and that was new to me.

However, I have discovered that  my skin is much drier here. This I have learned since I have had to lotion my hands most days to prevent them from cracking. Never once have I had to do this, but lo and behold, my hands are cracking. I hate putting on lotion for those of you who don't know. Although the dryness does a good job at sucking it up right away. I have placed the blame on (1) the drier and windy-er atmosphere or (2) the very hard water that we have.

Speaking of hard water. It has quite the effect on hygiene. My hair  has been much flatter since my shampoo does not do as good of a job requiring me to use more of it and my skin itches all the time. I never realized how wonderful my parents water softener really was. 

Don't take this as complaining. I really do love our lives here and the people and everything. I am very glad we chose to live here. In fact, we finally got a snowfall here last night into today and, O my goodness!, it was gorgeous. I have this new thing of getting up early to exercise so when I stepped off the bus this morning at 6:20, the snow was pretty  much untouched and there were big, heavy flakes falling and I just wanted to stop and watch it all for hours. And it made me want to build a snowman, still do. In fact, I love the snow so much I got home this afternoon, grabbed my camera and went out to take some pictures. As for the snowman, I don't think the snow is really packing snow anymore. Maybe when Tony gets home.

Here are some of the pictures I took. We have a very short bike path next to our apartments that goes through like a block of wooded area with a creek so that's were I went. So exciting!!!!!!!