Ah, Christmas and such...

Well, I know I have totally been slacking on the updating of the blog, of late, but....I've been busy...sorry!

So, should I pick up where I left off or start from today and work backwards?? Decisions, decisions. Hmm...

Let's go ahead and get ESA out of the way:
Ok, so last update was at the close of Day 2 - the U of M Mixer night. Day 3 got of to a start circa 5:50am (I should have already been awake and getting ready by then...woops!) as we were all rushed out of bed to sound of the lovely...lulling...serenade of the Marriot fire alarm system. "Woooooooop! Wooooooooop! Woooooooooop!" {15-30sec pause} **Is it over?? Can we go back to bed?? Er...finish getting ready for that Women in Entomology Breakfast that starts in 10min??** "Woooooooooop! Woooooooop! This is not a test. This is not a test....Yada, yada, you know the rest." So, naturally, being a room/hotel full of scientists we all grab our precious laptops and cell phones, because everyone knows that our research is more important than our lives themselves, and start making our way out of our rooms (wearing as many layers as we can possibly grab in a timely manner) down the hallways to the emergency stairwells. {May I just make a note here? If you are on any level above, oh, say 4 or 5, you will probably not make it out of the building without at least suffering from some severe smoke inhalation - awesome.} We actually start smelling that awful smell of smoke **You've got to be kidding me! There's really a fire?!** It gets progressively worse as we get closer to the lower levels - I was on the 11th floor. We get down to the lobby and some people are going outside, others are just kickin' it in the sitting areas... **WHAT?! What is going on?!** No hotel staff to be seen...anywhere. So, we just kinda hang and figure there's no sense in freezing our toes off unless we really need to... Turns out there was a fire in the laundry room, which was in the basement. But it was put out within 3min. **Are. You. Serious??** The stairwells were all full of smoke and the elevators were still off, though so we couldn't go up to our rooms for a good 20-30min. By this time, I'm contemplating just skipping the breakfast, even though it runs 'til 8am...But, after making the trek up the still rather smokey stairs my better judgment told me to go ahead and get ready and venture out onto the icy streets of Indy {they really were icy that day - I'm not gonna lie, I really enjoyed walking around the icy city streets in the 6am hour...I think my future is looking most enjoyable.} and find the breakfast - networking, Heather, networking!

***Pause. Nightly ritual of LOST watching with the sibs commencing now. Post to be continued tomorrow.***

***My apologies for not finishing this when I said I would...I voted that spending time with my fam was more important for now.***

Oki doki, so I left off gallivanting around Indy circa 7am to find the Women in Entomology Breakfast. I made it to the breakfast and, sadly, the people I was going to meet with were not there...they had already left. Awesome. Also, there were no empty seats at any tables, so I was told to start a new table by myself. Sweet. So, I did...and no one else came after I got there. I felt super lame. (I was also the youngest person there...no other undergrads/grad students wanted to get up that early.) After people started to filter out I was able to skooch over to another table and visit with some ladies. So, after eating my {*cough, cough* $15} oatmeal, I bundled up again and made my way across town with one of the ladies to the convention center to listen to some more talks on parasitoids and all that jazz that kind of makes my world go round. I then ventured down to the exhibit hall and presented my poster to peoples passing through who were interested - it's kind of like a grown-up version of a science fair. Then it was off to the plenary session with BM to listen to Mark Moffett - AMAZING! If you want to see some absolutely breath-taking photos I highly recommend you pick up a copy of his new book Adventures Among Ants. SO cool!! I actually got to meet him for a brief moment, shook his hand and everything. You can be jealous, I'll allow it. Then it was off to lunch with BM, KZ, R, & L. Then more talks. S and I made a run over to Johnny Rocket's for a quick snack before the Linnaean Games Finals (kind of like Jeopardy for Bug Dorks). Illinois ended up winning - they were RI-diculous!

That night was the Student Mixer. Lay-to-the-iz-ame... After being suckered into "ice breaker games" BM came and rescued me. Let me lay this scene out for you:
I'm walking across the dance floor (yes, dance floor) to ask BM if he has some matches (we needed them for the, ahem...scavenger hunt...).
To this he responds by taking hold of my arm and steering me to the other side of the room where the coat check is. "Get your coat. Put it on. We are leaving - I'm taking you out of here and we are all going to the pub."
At this point I'm in near shock out of shear gratitude, haha. I follow "big brother" BM's instructions and we all (including KZ, SR, JK, and some others) make our way out onto those still somewhat icy streets and head on over to Cladgagh Irish Pub. Is it wrong to call a pub heaven?? Well, it nearly was. The guys running the place were actually Irish {cooooool} and were so friendly and helpful. Giving suggestions on which brews were best and would fit our likes and which ones we probably wouldn't enjoy, etc. It was truly great. So, if you're ever in Indy and you have a free night make your way down to Claddagh at 234 S Meridian St. You will not be disappointed.

That pretty much closed the conference for us. BM & KZ and I went to a few talks Wed morning, grabbed some lunch with R and then parted ways. I had to hold my own and tell off this cab driver - when I say tell off, I mean I told him "no" like 30 times, no joke - on my way to the airport. I don't really like taking cabs with strangers...even if they are entomologists. I feel much better on a bus. It's probably somewhat irrational of me, since a bus is nothing but strangers, but whatever, I'm stickin' to my guns on this one. But! On the bus I did have a lovely conversation with an entomologist from NY and he was telling me about some teaching program options and stuff - it was really cool!

I hoped on the plane back to Houston and after having quite the time of trying to tell KB where I was so she could pick me up, we finally found each other and made our way to the Bunte home for some pizza and the SYTYCD finale.

Next morning I made the trek to CS to get ready for....wait for it....GRADUATION!!! After hangin' with Lu and D I tackled the disaster zone that was my room....oh, it was bad, friends. Bad. But, I got it done! Had a lovely 3 HOUR coffee date with KR - love her!
The fam, after quite the eventful morning, made it down to CS around 1. CH and I went to the Ento Graduate luncheon before heading out to my BBQ lunch with so many other wonderful friends and family. We had an absolutely lovely time at the BBQ. To those of you who were able to make it, thank you so much for sharing that day with me.

And THEN, my dear friends, and THEN it was time to....~~GRADUATE~~ Oh how marvelous that night was. According to my family, who were on one of the upper levels of Reed during the ceremony, I never stopped smiling and they could see it all the way from where they were. It was an especially exciting night because so many of my wonderful Aggies friends were graduating with me. It was really cool to get to see RA and BM get hooded for their PhDs, too - really special. After taking oodles and oodles of pictures with family and friends, Seaner & Shyla and CH and I made our way into Downtown Bryan to meet up with BM and KZ at Murphy's Law for some good pubbing time in celebration. Haha, after BM and KZ left S&S and CH and I stuck around to finish our brews and ended up doing the cupid shuffle all by ourselves on the German side of Muprhy's...it - was - awesome. A couple walking the streets stopped to watch us through the window. Can you say priceless??? Haha - it totally was.

Saturday held a full day of packing and loading...my apartment was essentially empty by 6pm. Impressive, eh?? We thought so! Mom, CH and the boys hit the road around 4pm. Once Dad, Sean & Shyla, and I decided we were done for the day we went out to grab some grub, some brew, and, of course, some Harry Potter!! We enjoyed a nice evening and hit the hay. Went to church next morning, grabbed some grub, and caravaned to Arlington with my CS home in a U-haul truck. It was really weird.

Everything happened so fast that weekend. I graduated, I left my home of 4.5 years, I left my friends, and moved back to Arlington. I moved back to Arlington. Never thought that would happen, temporary as this may be. It's still strange, this time of intermission, you could say. I know that living in my parents' study is not forever, but after being on my own for so long, it's just strange to be back. I know I'm here just for a "semester" and that this has nothing to do with failings or anything of that nature, but those thoughts do creep in, on occasion. It's dumb, I know, but it's simply my honesty here.

Anyways...CHRISTMAS!! Christmas was absolutely lovely. Having my big brother and his wifey here with us was absolutely wonderful - best Christmas present ever. We had the good fortune of getting to sit around all day and play games and watch movies and just hangout. It was awesome. I was sad to see them go yesterday, but I get to see them later in the spring for a whole month, and Sean at least will be back out the beginning on June for J-man's graduation...wow, that's weird to think about it: J-man is graduating from high school. Crazy.

Now my dear ones, I must close, especially since I have now written a novel of a post...sorry! It's time to finally get my day rolling and get ready to head on down to CS for TM's New Year's Eve Extravaganza!!! Can't wait to see everyone :)

Happy New Year! 2010 should be a fabulous one.

Blessings!
~MW

P.S. - I'm pretty sure I have found the building I want to live in when I get to MN. It - is - awesome. More on that later!
P.P.S. - Sorry for any typos...I don't feel like proofing this one today...

ES...A...??

Ok, ok, so I know I didn't update on day 3 or 4...but I am insanely exhausted at this moment. I am, however, back in Tejas! I know you all missed me terribly ;) But, I haven't really been able to speak tonight, on account of the exhaustion, so I'm not even going to try and post...especially considering I have made about 20 typos in typing this (I think I caught them all as I was making them...I hope!). But, ehemmm...I graduate in less than 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and Sean and Shyla successfully {and safely} arrived in Texas yesterday - canNOT wait to see them and the rest of the fam. Now for some sleepy time in the comfy, cozy guest room of the Bunte Family :)

Nighty-night.

~MW

ESA Day 2

Even better than Day 1!!!

Met up with SW again at the U of M mixer....she says this to me, "You should wait to buy winter clothes until you move to Minnesota...we don't have sales tax on clothes, so it will be cheaper for you there than in TX." Umm, wow....I'm pretty sure that has to mean something good! She's absolutely lovely. And all of the faculty I met tonight were really fun. Met a few past students and they are all pretty cool too. Not near as rowdy as our Southwester Branchers, but you know...not everyone can be as awesome as southwesterners :)

Well kids, since the Women in Entomology Breakfast is tomorrow at 6 I need to get off to bed...it's already almost 11 here...ugh, I'm sleeeepy.

Love you all!
~MW

ESA Day 1

Well, today has been a real success!

Went to a bunch of talks, met a bunch of new peoples...including...Da-da-da-daaaaah!!! SW!!! My potential new graduate advisor! And, she invited me to the U of M mixer Monday night - I'm stoked. I was also invited to the Women in Science breakfast...at 6am (**barf**) Tuesday morning...and naturally, I'll be attending since she will be there... But, oh, I am SO excited! She is absolutely adorable!! I really hope it all works out :)

Well kids, I hate to make this so short again, but I am exhausted...so off to bed, I go.

Lots of love!
~MW

Indy 500!

Well kids, I have made it to Indy!!! And it is awesome!

**Note: internet is hard to get ahold of here so, updates will be a bit more sparse than I had intended, but I'll do my best to keep you in the loop!

The weather is awesome! It hasn't snowed yet, but I have hope!! It's perfect wintery weather. Makes me excited to **potentially** move to Minneapolis next fall! Ah, life changes.

Well, sadly this has to be short, but I'll try to get on later this evening and upload some pictures and such.

Best of luck to my college kids heading into the rest of finals this week. You can do it!!

Shalom,
MW

Whew!

My goodness what a day.

Today I woke up and studied my brains out, well almost, for my LAST FINAL EXAM OF MY UNDERGRADUATE CAREER! I also contacted my bank about a weird transaction that showed up on my statement - it should all clear up in a few weeks - I love Wellsfargo. I then proceeded to Blinn College where I took that LAST FINAL EXAM OF MY UNDERGRADUATE CAREER after standing in line at the Learning Center for almost an hour...yeah, I stood in line longer than it took me to complete the exam. I took the supposedly cumulative exam (except that it wasn't...weird.) and scurried home to pack for Indy! Lu and I then had our little roommie Christmas time and it was awesome - I love giving gifts!!

After saying our goodbyes for a week of being apart, I hit the road to good ol' Cypress to see my dear, dear Kacydilla and JJ. They are amazing and will be rising with the sun (and myself) to take me to the airport. We will be leaving their lovely home circa 6am, which means I'll be waking up around 5am...lovely :) We will be stopping to get some Shipley's or sooomething, I do believe. I always love coming to visit them - they make me feel so much like family, which is awesome, because they are family to me. Yeah, pretty much they are just awesome. We had a lovely dinner (Kacydilla made baked ziti!) and closed the evening with a movie rental - thank you AT&T Uverse - in front of a lovely crackling fire - thank you JJ :) We rented Sunshine Cleaners. It was very different, but good, overall - definitely not kid friendly, though. Kacy and I decided that it leaves you with the same sort of feeling as Little Miss Sunshine does - you're not overjoyed, but you are sort of content, while slightly saddened...you know, just one of those odd ones. We liked it, though.

Well, the two love birds hit the hay about an hour and a half ago...since I've been staying up 'til the wee hours lately, I am still awake...yay! I'm charging/syncing my ipod to help pass the time...and caught up on some email. I think I'm about ready to hit the hay myself. Eyes are finally getting a little heavy and have the beginnings of that sleep-deprived burn, yuuum.

I'm sort of lost in this weird limbo between the termination of my finals and the moment I walk that stage... Being completely done with my classes/exams and graduation being a week away makes graduation seem like just a dream that I'm not so close to attaining. It's so weird. It's like I'm about to drop out of reality for a moment by attending the ESA meeting while everyone else is still trucking along. Don't get me wrong, I put in my fair share of work by crunching to get all of my exams taken by today, but it still feels strange. I dunno...in a way, I'm kind of sad to not be around for that last week of hell. Finals are always such awful yet fun times in the insanity that ensues due to intense sleep deprivation and overdosing on caffeine. Oh, memories. I will never forget finals my first semester, freshman year: Rach and I were pulling an all-nighter while Harpi slept soundly on the bottom bunk of their bed. Rach and I were SO ridiculously hyped up on Surge (please tell me that some of you share the sick love of this bottled potion of awesome that she and I do...) that we couldn't even sit still in our chairs! We were continuously shifting and jumping up, only to force ourselves to sit back down; there was, of course, the constant occasional glance-and-giggle profusely. **sigh** Those were the days. I miss being that young and carefree, sometimes. But, only sometimes. I am truly happy with where I am today. While I am not entirely thrilled to move into my parents' study - Mom & Dad, if you read this, I love you, it's just the moving into the study part - I am quite excited to have some free time again to read and visit with people and just enjoy existing. I am rather tired of the continuous go-go-go that has been my life the last 4yrs. The change of pace is much needed and will most certainly be enjoyed. I can't wait to start my reading list...I still need to actually compile the list that has been building in my head and put it on paper, but still...I'll have time to read again!!! This will be bliss.

Ok, I now have to face the day in about 4.5hrs, so I HAVE to close for now. I'll be updating throughout the conference, so get excited.

Indy, here I come!!

Blessings and Peace to you all!
~MW

P.S. - If it's not too much to ask, my family and I would greatly appreciate it if you could keep my Grandma and Grandpa in your prayers. Grandma just got home from being hospitalized and still has a lot of swelling and seeping in her legs; Grandpa just had surgery to have a catheter placed permanently. Also, my Aunt Deb went to the hospital today because she had a seizure (that might not be entirely correct, but it was something to that effect) and after a bunch of scans, cat-scans, etc. they found a mass behind her sinuses and sent her immediately to surgery. I haven't heard anything yet on how it all went, but I'm hoping that no news is good news... Thanks all!

....Weird....

Today I took my last final exam as an undergraduate at Texas A&M University....W.O.W

Weird feeling - really, really weird feeling.

I'M DONE!!!!! :)

Off to Indy I go - I'll try to blog while I'm there to keep you cool cats updated on the happenings in the land of ice (..and snow??? I can only hope!).

Ciao, bellas!
~MW

Computadoras!

MckMama is giving away an HP TOUCHSMART!!!

Go here to find out how you can enter: MckMama!

Also, I'm in bed by midnight!! Whoop!

~MW

Because I can and I need some comedic reprieve...

Some R&R for the start of the weekend that won't be too full of R&R. Enjoy!!

mylifeisaverage.com

Today, I was stocking pop at the grocery store I work at. I was driving the cart with pop on it and then I almost ran over this little boy with a play gun, he gave me the 'I'm watching you' signal, I was kinda scared but kept working anyway. About 5 minutes later I was in the aisle and he came down. He pointed the gun and said 'bam bam!' I clutched my stomach and fell to the ground. I kept one eye open and saw the kid look at the gun, drop it and run away towards his mom. I win little boy, I win. MLIA

My job at college is to call prospective students and see if they're interested in attending our college. Today, I asked my boss if I could call them and use an accent. She said yes. Everyone else followed suit. Work just became a lot more entertaining. MLIA

Today, my dad and I were at Walmart. I randomly started yelling at the top of my lungs "I don't know you! Help, I need an adult!" and started running away. My dad ran after me with the cart, "Wait! I just want a hug!" I love you daddy. MLIA

Today, my mom told me that PMS is like a dementor. It sucks the happiness of everyone around, but chocolate makes it all better. MLIA

Today my phone told me that I got a text at 10:43. It was 10:39 when I got the text. I am officially getting texts from the future. MLIA

Today, I got a letter in the mail. Folded up inside a piece of paper was a 20 dollar bill. The paper said "You're probably low on money in this awful economy. Here's 20 bucks, please don't become a prostitute." Thanks, Grandma. MLIA.

Today, I learned that Texas has a Safe Cupcake Amendment that prohibits the banning of cupcakes. I'm glad my state understands the power of the cupcake! MLIA

Today, I was walking around Target and received a text message. My phone lost service when I tried to send my reply. So, I threw my phone up in the air, to get service, my message sent. MLIA

Today, my six-year-old neice and I went to the park. While we were there, a boy about her age comes over and tells her that she looks like Hannah Montana. She kicked him. I'm glad she knows when she's been insulted.

***This one is a gem!!!***
A week ago, I got a new cell phone number. The person who had my cell number before me apparently worked at some big power company and I was getting lots of calls from them asking me what they should do. I usually hung up on them, until yesterday when they called and said "Sector two is having difficulties." I told them to shut it down. They asked me if I was sure and I assured them I was. 2 minutes later the power in the town over went out. I feel powerful now.MLIA

Today, in biology class, we were have a pop quiz on genetics and dominant and recessive traits. We have to define a few terms, one being pureblood. For it's definition, I wrote 'opposite of mudblood. (Sorry Hermione)'. When I got the quiz back, my teacher had given me half points for the question. To the side, he wrote 'Don't EVER use that word again' and underlined mudblood. MLIA.

Today, I wasn't prepared for a test so I had my identical twin sister go to my class and take it for me. My teacher didn't even notice the switch. My mom is the teacher. MLIA.

Today at church, three babies were dedicated. After the pastor dedicated the babies, he said, "The choir is behind us and I don't think they really got a chance to see the babies. If you would hold them up, like the Lion King, that would be great." All three sets of parents immediately held their child up above their heads. MLIA



Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did - I'm still laughing.

Peace!
~MW

Let us Give Thanks...

...to the Lord for He is Good... (1Chron. 16:34)

Wow. Thanksgiving 2009 has arrived (well, in less than 2hrs it will). I cannot believe another year has come and gone. So much has happened in a years time and I have SO much to be thankful for. I don't even know where to begin. I think I will tackle this list-wise {yes, Humphrey Happenings, I'm copying your format...love you!}:

1. The selfless compassion, mercy, and love of my beautiful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. {I wish everyone could know and understand how awesome He is and the indescribable peace and life-change that comes with truly knowing Him...ask me about it sometime!}

2. Music {I would probably go a little cray-cray without it.}

3. BigBoy {I don't know what I would do without those cuddle moments with him...and his occasional frisky moods where he actually PLAYS **WHAT?!?!**}

4. My amazing friends {You all know who you are; you were there when I felt most alone and when I felt most surrounded; when I was most saddened, and most overjoyed; you have simply been there when I needed encouragement or a wake-up smack upside the head - I love you all dearly.}

5. My family {You have given me the tools to become the woman I am today; your unending support will always mean the world to me.}

6. Chocolate {nuff said}

7. Honey Nut Cheerios/Toasty-Os {Heaven in a bowl of soy milk? I think yes.}

8. Cornelius!! {Even when you get sick, I am still ever so thankful every time you feel up to carting me around town, across the state, or across states}

9. Little Bubba and Tevye {Y'all kids are cool in my book}

10. Black licorice {Call me crazy, I think it's divine}

11. Sopapilla cheesecake

12. Layne's {Oh I will miss those delicious strips and sauce...}

13. Texas A&M University {Yeah, I said it, but seriously without this place my life would be nowhere near as amazing as it is}

14. Festive decorating {I so cannot wait to have own "nest" to festive-ify}

15. Missions

16. Child sponsorship

17. Grimm {The beloved four-legged friend of the Humphrey Happenings gang...I so love being "Fun Aunt Heather"!}

18. Spending hours in the kitchen {Seriously, some nights I just decide to not go to bed and bake or cook something instead...seriously.}

19. Blogging

20. Pictures {I will be a better photographer before I'm 25...running out of time, yikes!}

21. Arts & Crafts {Especially if it's gifts for other peoples...just makes my heart glad.}

22. Gardening/Potting plants {Something about it is just amazingly soothing to me}

23. Hiking around the great outdoors {This includes camping - I love getting dirty and feeling alive, there is absolutely nothing like it.}

24. Sitting with my family around me {The oldest of my two younger brothers is currently crashed on the loveseat next to me, with BigBoy wedged between us - this is absolute perfection.}

25. Discussing the love of Jesus with my siblings and friends {Especially when they get it!}

26. Candles...candles...and more candles.

27. Glade plug-ins Lavender-Vanilla {Smells like my home}

28. Tobias {My parents' newest four-legged family member...probably the most precious dachshund ever - I'm just saying...I'm totally stealing him when I move to the Land of 10,000 Lakes...shhh!! Don't tell my parents!!!}

29. The jokes on the wrappers of Laffy Taffy which provided for a much needed study break for me and Alyssa.

30. Firelight digital short {This can brighten ANYone's day.}

31. My damask laptop sleeve {It makes me ridiculously happy...maybe too happy...}

32. Dates with Mrs. Humphrey {Someone call the vet!!}

33. Living Hope {My walk would not be growing, strengthening, and moving the way it is now without the incredible preaching of truth, example, accountability, and genuine love exhibited there - such a glorious blessing to my life.}

34. Fireside Chai Tea {Gypsy Teas...woah dang, it's like Christmas in your mouth!!}

35. Elf {Need I say more??}

36. The EVER APPROACHING day of GRADUATION!!!

37. PJ pants {There's just something about them}

38. Prayer {Speechless}

39. Breakaway Ministries {Life changing}

40. Mountain Biking {More specifically having the privilege to learn in Rachel's class and getting to know her and her heart for the Lord over the course of this semester - I can't believe it's over!}

41. Winter weather/snow {I'll be with you soon!!}

42. Long phone calls with far-away friends {So amazingly wonderful}

43. Pea Coats {Especially if they are of the plum plaid genre - yum}

44. "Affordable" airfare

45. Long drives by myself *without a working radio* that force me to think and talk to God.

46. Decorator tables {The possibilities are endless!}

47. Being 4.5 essay questions away from being done with my course-by-correspondence!

48. Healing.

49. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade {I cannot wait.}

50. Having time to sit and reflect on the blessings of life and sharing them with whomever desires to read them {I love reading other lists like this because they remind me of the little things I sometimes forget to be thankful for}

Well all, tomorrow calls for some early rising as I will be spending the entire day in the kitchen **WHOOP!** preparing a killer Thanksgiving Day Feast - don't you worry, I will document it and share it with you at some point. I'm trying some new recipes this year, too, so I'll let you know how those go.

Blessings and love to you all!
~MW

Hmmm...

Hello, all.

So, this weekend has been a strange one...really good great, but strange...

Friday I dropped off Cornelius at Aggieland Automotive to see if maybe they can figure out what's wrong with my little dude and get him back in tip-top shape for a fairly reasonable price... *gulp* After that I got to talk with my dear friend Sam for quite a while, it was a good catch-up chat, and found out that he might be able to swing down to Indianapolis for a quick visit while I'm there in December - it would be really fun to get to visit with him in person for the first time in almost 2yrs...wow, we've kept up with each other for nearly 2 years after spending a mere 5 days together...blows my mind when I think about that. But that was great and then I went to the movies with B, Tara, and their friends Nate and Becca (we saw Men Who Stare at Goats...it was dumb...nuff said), and grabbed some Spoons following a quick jaunt around the Sam's Club parking lot in a cart...yes, that's right it happened, and it was glorious :)

Saturday I did some stuffs around the apartment and went to MugWalls with Alyssa to work on grad school apps (WAY more difficult than one might expect...oh essays...) for a few hours. After that I ran to campus in Dave (Ricci's sweet Explorer; we've developed quite the little bond over the last week and a half or so), grabbed my bike and went to Jimmy's for our bi-weekly bike cleaning session - always good times. Once we were satisfied with out work we ran my bike back to campus and went over to a fellow mountain biking buddy's house. Tyler (our buddy) had been smoking a brisket all day and wanted to share the wealth - it was DELICIOUS!!! And it was his first one!! I was impressed, like for serious. We had a good time hanging out with him, met some of his friends and the girlfriend. After we were all done chowin' down we were chillin' in the living room and in bursts Jeff Marshall...what?! Yes, Jeff just so happens to be one of Tyler's roommates!! What are the odds?? So I went and had a little chat with him - he was all bummed 'cause he had a poor day at the deer lease...seeing as how it was opening day of deer season he was pretty upset he didn't get anything, especially that 8-pointer who's antlers were inside his ears...poor Jeff. Dropped Jimmy off and headed back to the apartment where I watched Management with Lindsey, David, and Lindsey's sister Kelly and their cousin Tiffany. It was a good little flick.

Today (Sunday) has been a good day, as well. Church was really great - worship was off the chain today...total and complete sincerity and humility in that building, for sure. Butch's message was a good one, too. We've been working our way through Matthew 5, and when I say working our way through, I mean really digging into it...like, taking 3-5 verses a week. Yeah, it's amazing. Today we talked about integrity (Matt 5:31-37) - ranging from marital integrity to oaths. Basically it was addressing how in today's world a person's word really doesn't mean anything anymore because we have all found ways to wiggle our way out of doing something we say we are going to do, or on the flip side do something we say we won't... It was good to be reminded, like it says in those verses, that we are to let our yes simply be yes, and our no be a simple no...none of this finger's crossed, or "cross my heart, hope to die" business... I then made my way over to the Humphrey home and took a gander at their newly put-together guest room - it is truly lovely. They did a fantastic job at making it welcoming and giving it a warm, safe feeling. (I'll be visiting after graduation, for sure!) We had lunch, and had a really wonderful visit talking about, as Josh puts it, "real things" :) I just love them, they are truly a blessing in my life...not only are they wonderful company, but they are an amazing example of what it means to walk in the Lord in everything, and they are so willing to give, whether it's simply inviting me for lunch or dinner or, on a larger scale, lending me Dave until Cornelius is up and running again... I definitely thank God for them all the time.

Post-Humphrey time is where things got really weird for me today. I've been very tense all afternoon about something and I'm not quite sure what it is...I have an inkling, but that can't be the only thing that is putting me in this funk. Lately I've really been struggling with the pain of the events surrounding me and Marcos, as it is November again and the 2nd (two years ago...wow) is when we re-committed to try and make things work, and then everything after that just got worse and worse....leading into my spell with depression...yeah, that was a fun Christmas...not! It's not that I want him back - yes, I miss what we had, I won't lie - but more that it still just plain hurts. I gave him my whole heart and he broke it, so badly that I wasn't sure those little shards would ever fit back together again. I've been doing a lot of evaluating of everything that has happened throughout my time in college over the course of this semester, and how different things have turned out from what I had planned/imagined. Once sophomore year rolled around I always imagined having Marcos and rest of the Ybarra family at my graduation and just still having them all playing the roles they were playing in my life over two years ago...I imagined graduating with everyone from my class, instead of walking after the majority of them all...I imagined that I would be getting ready to go, or starting vet school right now...I certainly never imagined not really having a post-graduation plan - I mean I have ideas about grad school working out, but otherwise, I got nothin'...I imagined I would be engaged and planning a wedding or at least nearing that point (this really isn't something I'm struggling with, just something I thought would have happened the way things were sophomore year)...I imagined I would have more of an idea of who I am... It's all just very humbling to think about, ya know? Recognizing that no matter how much we all plan for things to happen a certain way in our lives, we never have any true control - it's always, always God who has the final say. That's something Ben talked about at Breakaway on Tuesday: how James reminds us that it is literally walking in sin to have the audacity to say that "I will be doing this or that tomorrow...in a month...in two years..." Yeah, that is definitely something I do all the time. I'm a planner - I'm a sinner. I don't leave everything in the hands of God, I don't consult Him in everything I do. Everything. Hmm, that was a slight digression, but a good one...back to this afternoon. I've been on the verge of tears since about 4, and I can't figure out if it's the Marcos thing or something else or a combination of things. It's very weird. I have the worst tension headache, I can't hold my attention on anything to save my life, I'm just a mess - and I have no idea why or about what. Talk about frustrating. I've been feeling very alone this afternoon, too...it's all so WEIRD!! I've had a pretty flawless weekend, and so I just don't understand what the deal is... I think I'm going to finish reviewing my trees for tomorrow and go spend some one-on-one time with my Heavenly Daddy. I need His clarity and comfort today. I need to be reminded that I am dearly loved by Him who watches every moment of my life and knows every hair on my head, every hurt and joy in my heart, every fear, everything. Yeah, I'm off to do that.

Love you all dearly.
Shalom,
~MW

**Deep Sigh**

******~~~Warning: This WILL be a LONG post~~~******


Hello, my loves.

I know I've left you all hanging quite a bit over the last month - but the trying month of October has now come to a close (well, in about 8 hours...).

I don't know that I have ever had a semester that has been as full and time consuming as this one is, when it comes to class work. Ok, so yes, the OChems and BICH and the calculuses (calculi??) were awful, but this semester every class has TONS of outside projects and assignments - I mean, come on! But this month was definitely the worst...so far. Most projects and things are finished up, just some polishing is left to be done on a few and greatest of all: I don't have to stress about the GRE anymore - Whoop. I do want to thank all of you for your prayers - I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate them. How did I do? Well, I passed the thing. That's good, right? Well, it's a good start, at least. I pretty much rocked the verbal section, but the quantitative portion ate my lunch and stole my money for tomorrow's lunch, too. It was so mean! I don't understand why it hates me so much...what did I ever do to it - or any other standardized test, for that matter?? Well, after talking with Dr. Wharton and some other graduate students I'm not as concerned about my score as I was initially - 1000 is the minimum score grad schools accept (I'm not sure if that is true for all grad programs, but I know it is for Ento stuff) and I surpassed that, so I'm good there. He also said that even if schools have a range they prefer that doesn't mean that they won't look at you if you don't fall into that range. Thankfully, U of M doesn't require you to score in the 70th percentile, they just prefer it :) Also, because I have been corresponding with my desired advisor and the director of grad studies for the Ento department at Minnesota I have another leg-up. He didn't give me a "get out of jail free" card, but he did provide me with at least the chance to post bail :) So that's something, for sure. Now I just need to talk with Susan about my scores and see if she still wants me for her lab...Prayers, please!! So, now that that horrendous ordeal is finished I can sit back and "relax" - except not really...haha, but it will be a different kind of stress from here on out, and not all entirely bad stress. Holla!

This weekend is turning out to be just the hiatus I needed - I am currently chilling on the couch of my lovely Justin and Kacy Bunte's home in Cypress. I just love them. Kacy's friendship over the last 4+ years has been such a blessing and to be such great friends with her hubby is just as much a blessing - they always take care of me and let me rest and recoup with I come to visit. Tonight we are all heading to CFF for their fall festival dealio, where Kacy and I get to man the "Leap-frog Booth"....what that means, exactly, we have no clue, as of yet - we'll know circa 6pm! Oh, which reminds me!!! We FALL BACK tonight!!! Whoop for an extra hour of sleeeeeeep :)

In other news I am writing to you all on my new, shiny laptop! It's a Toshiba!! The Dell finally bit the dust last weekend. The computer itself still runs (well, and I use that word figuratively, as most of you know the ridiculous state my computer has been in for the last year or so), but the lamp in the screen finally went out...sad. But Toshiba/BestBuy is awesome and was having a stellar deal on their Satellite laptops last weekend so I picked up one of those and I LOVE it! It runs Windows7, too! It's a little bit of an adjustment, but nothing like Vista, i.e. it rocks! So, while it was an undesired and unexpected expense it was a fun one, at least. Now if my poor Cornelius would just get better without breaking the other half of my bank that would be miraculous! He's been doing the whole come to a stop sign and die/"I don't want to start right now" thing again this month which has not been fun...but the Humphreys are amazing and are letting me borrow the Ford so I don't have to worry about my poor Cornelius not starting or dying in the middle of the road until he gets better. I will no longer be taking him to Firestone, either...they have been good to me other the last few years, but they have never been able to figure out why he does this and so I think the winds of change are a blowin'. I'm trying a mobile mechanic from church this time around so we'll see if he can discern the problem - either way at least I know he won't rip me off. I'm hoping he can come take a gander on Wednesday of this week.

Tomorrow is NOVEMBER!!!!!!!!!!! This IS exciting, to say the least. Maybe it will bring true Fall weather with it...I'm tired of it being 84 degrees in late October! And people say global warming is a hoax... ;) But back to November! I cannot wait to start preparing for all of the holidays up and coming. My Thanksgiving Feast is going to rock this year - I'm going to bring in some new deserts and try some new recipes for some side dishes, it will be awesome. I'm still going to do my classic turkey, because I think I have discovered perfection in that (I'm just sayin'...), but I'm going to try and spice up the other angles of the meal this year. Yay! Not to mention that come Thanksgiving Day I can finally watch Elf again!!! Mika and I have this rule that we have to at least wait 'til Thanksgiving to watch our movie so we can preserve some of it's preciousness :) And it will be really nice to spend time with the family - I miss them. It has truly been too long since I have really seen them all. I'm looking forward to Joshua's play in a few weeks, too - he's such a talented little thespian. :) I'm also excited about Operation Christmas Child - I haven't done a box since I was in high school, but I can't wait to bless a little child's life with a box o'fun and toothbrushes and things. And THEN!, after Thanksgiving it's ALMOST CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, I cannot wait for Christmas this year! Many reasons: 1) it's Jesus bday! 2) I will be graduated! 3) Sean & Shyla will be with us!!!!!!!!!!!! 4) I WILL BE GRADUATED!!!!!!!! Plan-less, maybe, but graduated none-the-less. I'm excited to get to cook with Mom and Shyla - I'm sure Sean will jump in the kitchen some, too. I'm excited to get to visit with my big sister - I truly, truly love and adore that girl, and I cannot wait to spend one-on-one time with her, because we haven't really had any of that yet...me, jealous??? Never... ;) I'm also very excited to get my Seaner all to my self on occasion as well - I love him so, so, SO, so much. I always love the holidays too, because I get to take my little brothers out for teas and hot cocoas and the like - so fun. I'm just looking forward general family time and relaxation with the peoples I love. I'll also get to seem some of my A-towners who I don't get to see very often, that will be delightful, as well.

In other news I have acquired a little Schwinn road bike recently. I'm planning on converting the thing into a little fixed gear, but that will have to wait until I save up some more mula and get Cornelius up and running again...*sigh* This whole being a grown-up thing is tricky at times... :) But, I'm super excited about undertaking the task of fixing up my new bike - I'm kind of getting obsessed with this whole bike-riding world. I totally want to invest in a legit mountain bike someday when I'm all rich and living in my dream place :) I looooove that sport. It's so fun and invigorating.

Wow..MI3 is on at Kacy and Justin's and I am uber distracted right now...so I think I'm going to close for now, plus I need to get ready to head to the Fall Festival. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Shalom,
~MW

Hiiiii!!

Hey kids,

I know, I know...I've been uber inactive and have totally abandoned you all. Really, this month is RIDICULOUS! I haven't really stopped since it began. Man, I can't even really remember everything from this month it has been so busy. Mainly it's been one exam after another, followed by group projects and random assignments galore, then there's always my course-by-correspondence, and trying to find time to get some stuffs ready for grad school apps/the GRE....which I take on the 28th!!! Yeeeowzas, I'm nervous. BUT! After that I get to stop for a moment or two.

On the up, mountain biking was superb this week! We actually got to ride and we rode hard! My group took a trail that was full of jumps and drops and little climbs and craziness - it was off the chain...ha, my bike's chain actually did come off at one point - yeah, I'm legit, it's fine ;) Nah, I was going down this 5ft drop or so and kinda screwed up on the way down, hit quite the bump, but recovered, just lost my chain action after the bump; got it all put back together in no time, though :) So, I survived the whole day without any real issues until the last climb back to the levee...got stuck in a rut (literally) tried to move out of the way fast enough to get out of everyone's way, got clocked by my TA trying to swerve around me...i fell down the climb...off of my bike. But, I got a nice skinned knee and a killer bruise! Ha, just wish it was a little more of a legit incident...ah well, I could always make up some ridiculous story ;)

Anyways, I'm going to bed - and it's only 10pm!!! Holla!!!

Hope all is well, lovelies. I'll be back more consistently when the 28th has come and gone!

Shalom!
~MW

Wooosh!

The last week or so has been quite the whirlwind! So, I apologize for not updating as much as I should have....and this is going to be a wimpy attempt. Really, just letting you know I'm still alive, I still love you all, and yes, I am still updating this thing called a blog :)

Big events: Josh and Elaine are now the happy newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Lee Ponder!!!! So exciting. The wedding was gorgeous. I had my hands full most of the time so I don't have too many pictures, but I'll throw some up when I get the chance.

Now it's off to class, then a lovely blessing in the absence of my tree lab this afternoon - I can actually get stuff done! Like study for my exams this week, register for the GRE (i.e. break my bank account...), make my waffle batter for Hope Group Brinner!!! And so much more....fingers crossed!

Love to all!
Blessings,
MW

One week closes and yet another opens...

So here we are ending the 3rd week of the semester and beginning the 4th. W.o.W. Can you believe how quickly this semester is going already?? I mean granted, we aren't even half-way through the semester yet, but still: Week 4!!!

I'm getting more and more excited and yet more and more terrified of graduation. Everyone told me I would feel this way; but, me having MY plan in hand was certian as to how my life was going to play out this semester, so I had nothing to fear! WRONG! MY plans did NOT pan out and now I have EVERYTHING to fear!! Oh the irony... It would be real nice if God could just drop me a post and reveal to me the plan He has for me...even just for the next 2-3yrs. Somethin'. How awesome would it be if God really did work that way...life would be a cake walk! You would get little posts dropped on your doorstep or flying out at you from your fireplace (that's for you my Harry Potter nerds) that would say little things like: Today you are going to be tempted to go party it up with your friends and not study - don't do it. Or: Go fill out this application, have these 3 people write you letters of recommendation, and turn itall in by such and such date and you are set for your immediate future following graduation. On second though: How boreing would that be?!?!

Well, all-in-all this week was pretty grand. Busy, but good. Had my first Hope Group on Monday with the amazing Freemans and it was truly a blessing - I'm excited to see the Lord work in all of us and bring revival to our hearts this semester...makes me wish I could stick around for a bit longer :( First round of exmas seems to have been fairly successful...at least don't think I failed anything; always a plus. Breakaway, as usual, was fantastic. Second UESO meeting of the semester was, ehh, alright - the speaker kinda killed it, but we had a ton of new peeps, so that was awesome!! Mountain biking was fun, even though we didn't get to hit up the trails: we worked on bunny hops and roll-overs. The roll-overs I have pretty well, but the bunny hops, not so much - it's pretty sad, really. I just don't have the upper body strength for it. I'm working on it, OK?!?! :) Friday I got to visit with the cousing and his lovely family in Austin/Round Rock area, which was amazing; it had been too long since I had gone to visit them. Saturday I had lunch with my bestie, Miss Elaine soon-to-be Ponder, on my way back to CS which was fabulous! I do miss her terribly. Today had an awesome church time, had lunch with my fellow [graduated] bug-dork, Stephanie, and CLEANED MY BIKE!!! Lunch with Stephanie was great since I never get to see her - being that she is in San Antonio. And cleaning my bike was surprisingly fun! I did it with my new friend Jimmy (from mountain biking) - it took us forever since we hadn't really cleaned our bikes before, though his is newer than mine so it didn't take him as long; either way it was good times.

Now, my loves I am off to study for this new week. Blek. I'm so over studying: worst case of senioritis EvEr.

Blessings!
MW

P.S. - BigBoy just decided it would be a good idea to lick up some of my chicken spaghetti (which I made with HOT Rotel this time...) and now he can't stop licking his lips. Poor kitty; I told him not to do it...I turn my back for ONE minute and disaster strikes!

Angela is demanding.

Hello my loves!

First things first: I do realized that I have been neglectful in my blogging activities since the first day of class. I am sorry. I am busy. I am tired. I am sorry, again. And Angela, I apologize most profusely to you because I "forced" you to make a blog and then I've left you hanging for almost two weeks...

Well, now that that's done: Let's have an update, shall we?? {I just have to tell you that I typed that last sentence while bending over backwards....no lie. I'm awesome.}

So, what is it that I have been up to of late that has been keeping my nimble fingers from gracing your eyes with a feast of letters and symbols?? Two words: School, Work...oh, and some driving, so I guess more like 3 words...

Well, I was going to update, but I didn't realize how late it was...I must now make the trek across Raymond Stotzer and help out with the UESO icebreaker of awesome. I will finish this later...after I go to the Humphrey's to the the ld on taking care of Mr. Grimm.

And.........I'm finishing my post starting now :)

So, let's see, what do you need to know...?

Last weekend was Elaine's bachelorette party - it went well, I wish more girls had shown up, but the little group worked out nicely, too. After the bachelorette party in RR, I drove up to Arl for Christopher's birthday celebration - he turned 16!!!!! Insane. We took him to Medieval Times where I was blatantly hit on by one of the executioners...he wove his way through the crowds from all the way across the waiting hall to come screw with me...it was funny, though, i enjoyed the ridiculousness of the situation.

Week two of classes has gone pretty well...nothing too exciting. We got our "awesome" plant presses for taxonomy of flowering plants on Tuesday...that was fun to lug around - I'll post a pic later.

Hmm, I do believe that's about it. Oh!! Angela came to visit on Tues., that was fabulous. I love it when my roommies of old come to visit, but it always makes me miss them even more...it makes me appreciate the love and relationships that have grown between us over the past few years even more...even if I'm nearly falling asleep the whole time they are here ;) But it was wonderful to see her. I was sad it had to be so short, but short is better than nothing.

I think I'm applying to grad school at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul....WHAT?! And I think my graduate advisor will be Susan Weller...director of the Bell Museum of Natural History and outreach programs at U of M....WHAT?!?! And I'll have all of my tuition and fees covered, full benefits, and a living stipend....WHAT?!?!?! Is this real life?!?!? Granted, I still need to actually apply and pass the GRE, but still - this could really happen. I could really be working towards a master of science degree in entomology at the University of Minnesota, Golden Gophers (yikes...), come fall of 2010. This is almost too much awesome potential to handle.

Well, my dear ones, it has been a looong week...so I'm calling it a night. I'll try to get back on top of my blogging duties from here on out - sorry for the neglect, nothing personal :)

Blessings!
~MW

P.S. - I think I have a new-found addiction: Mountain Biking...even though I'm crazy sore, all I have wanted to do all week was hit the trails again!!! I might have to find some way to get myself and my bike out to the lake this weekend...I want to ride, yo!!

Couldn't resist!

Ok....so....I decided I needed a little pre-bedtime laughter and so checkedout today's postings for MyLifeIsAverage...I then decided you all needed to see some of these and partake in the enjoyment. Enjoy the feast!!


Today I found out that having sexual relations with a porcupine is illegal in Florida. I'm both really disturbed by this and curious as to why this had to be made a law. MLIA

Today, I drove around with my windows down blasting the Harry Potter theme song. Throughout the time it took to drive from work to my house I got 6 thumbs up, caused 3 people to wave around fake conductor's batons, and received innumerable nods and smiles. This is going to become a daily thing. MLIA.

Today my teacher told us she would make adjustments to the schedule because we couldn't be enrolled in two classes at once. Someone in my row suggested a Time-Turner. I have found my lab partner for the semester. MLIA

Today, I was going through customs, and a very scary official decided to search my bag. When he found my teddy bear, he proceeded to amuse himself by making it growl and attack me. I am now much less intimidated by customs officials. MLIA.

Today my brother baked cookies. He put them on the counter to cool and then accidentally fell asleep while waiting. My whole family ate them all while he was asleep and then we convinced him he dreamt baking the cookies. He believed us. MLIA

Today, while vacationing in Florida (I'm Canadian), a girl asked me if Canadians really live in igloos. I managed to convince her that all Canadians live in igloos, wear buffalo fur, and eat nothing but polar bear and seal meat, maple syrup, and bacon. You're welcome, Canada. MLIA

Today I found a crayon called "Your Grandma's Fake Plastic Plant". I know what my new favorite color is. MLIA

Today me and my mom were arguing. She said that I always think im right about everything. Later that day we went out to chinese. When I opened up my fotune cookie it read: "You always know the answers, they just dont ask the right questions sometimes." I made my mom read it. I win. MLIA

Today, I dropped a piece of un-eaten toast out my 2-story window by accident. I quickly looked out. I saw someone catch it, look around, and take a bite out of it. I laughed. MLIA

Today, I was at a pub playing trivia. They announced a special prize for anyone who could sing the entire Hogwarts school song from memory. I was the only one who could. The bartender made me butterbeer. It was awesome. MLIA

Today, I bought a Disney Princess CD. My two roommates laughed at me until a "Whole New World" came on and our extremely attractive RA came running into the room to sing the Aladdin parts while I sung the Jasmine parts. I win. MLIA



Nighty-night!
~MW

The Last 1st Day...

I SURVIVED!!! I survived the last first day of my undergraduate career...this is a good thing, and I didn't even really hate my classes all that much. And, to top it all off, the Lord decided to smile down upon me (well, and the other 60,000 students roaming the campus today) and grant me a beautiful day of "cool" weather, complete with lovely breeze.

Oh the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord, for giving me the things I need, like the sun and the rain and apple seed. The Lord is good to me!

So, I haven't sang that little ditty in ages...but it really is a good one!

Well, kids, that's all for tonight. I'm too tired and it's too late to do any more.
Blessings!
~MW

...Summer: The End...

And, summer is officially over (well, in about 2.5hrs, give or take). This is deeeeeepressing, to say the least. I am seriously dreading this semester, and it isn't even laid out to be all that of a difficult one - I'm just totally and completely over my life as a student is all. Well, enough of that on to updates!

The creme brulee...oh the creme brulee... Well, it didn't really work. *sad and depressed face* I don't really know what went wrong, the recipe is really only two things: heavy cream and egg yolks. You boil the cream for 30sec (without scalding it, of course), mix it into the beaten yolks, pour that mixture back into the pot on the stove and heat the mixture until it becomes thick and coats the spoon. I did ALL of that! Then you pour it into shallow baking dishes/pans and chill it in the fridge over-night. The next day you sprinkle a light coating of sugar over the top of the cream mixture and throw it in the broiler to caramelize the sugar. Sounds simple enough, right?!?! Well, apparently not. My cream did not set-up over-night, no idea why, and then my sugar would not caramelize! Ugh, I was not happy. Taste was fine, it just wasn't right. But, don't you worry, I'll be tackling that creme brulee yet again and I will keep tackling it until I boil/chill/broil it into submission! I'm determined. {the Pavlova will have to wait until I invest in an electric mixer of sorts...} But, anyways, that's the summation of my most recent adventure in the kitchen.

Now on to life news. My goal and dream for the last 2yrs or so has been to be a Teach For America corps member and teach the kiddos about science and get them excited about learning and chasing after knowledge. So, I filled out my application and submitted it with confidence on Friday the 21st. Well, this Thursday rolls around and I get an email telling me that I haven't been selected to advance to the next level of the application process. I was dumbfounded. I thought that surely, with two science degrees and the research I have been doing that I would be qualified enough to enter the program as an elementary science teacher. But, alas, I was apparently mistaken. I was definitely (and kind of still am) heartbroken. I'm really just kind of at a loss, I suppose, as to what I am supposed to pursue now. TFA would have given me direction for 2yrs allowing me to get grad school in order for after my time teaching for TFA. I still want to teach, I just don't know what I'm supposed to do right now. Do I enroll in an alternative certification program to become a science teacher now? Do I go to grad school next fall first, finish that and then try teaching? If I decide to go the grad school route, do I pursue U of M, Minneapolis or U of I Champaign-Urbana, or look for some place totally different? If I do teaching where do I pursue that route: Illinois, Minnesota, California, Colorado, north east?? Then there's the whole option of going to Dominica with Brendan next summer-fall and doing science outreach with the kids there teaching them about bugs. Or I could get a job working with the US Forest Service... I dunno...growing up is hard :( But, as disappointed as I am about TFA, I'm trying to keep my chin up and my heart and mind open to the next bit of direction the Lord will throw at me (if He could do it sooner rather than later that would be awesome....).

Well, as mentioned earlier, school starts tomorrow...yay school.

Mmmk...I'm outty.
~MW

Summer, fleeting summer

As I sit here in my nook at the lab after a day of busy runnings around in the Wharton Lab I realized something: My summer has been full and eventful, and yes, even exciting, but I got nothing done that I wanted to get done!! Yes I got some of the things I needed to get done finished up, but none of the things that summers are reserved for, like catching up on that ever growing book list, putting your artistic expression (as debatable as it might be) on paper/canvas/pottery/etc., knitting that thing you've been meaning to knit for months now and are quickly running out of time to finish in time, taking those strolls in the park/great outdoors (ok, I don't feel so bad about this one because it's been like a million degrees outside and I, outdoorsy as I might be, do NOT handle heat well - it's sad, but true), the list goes on. How depressing!!! (and, just in case you were wondering the word "how" is now typed "hope"...???)

How is it that in nearly three months of no real commitments to anything but work and moving, really, I have failed to accomplish anything I wanted to accomplish for myself?! I feel like a failure. This was possibly my last summer of "nothing" and I just wasted it. Dang. I don't even know what I did. I have experimented a lot in the kitchen, and that has been rewarding and educating, like my adventure Sunday night:

I decided circa 10pm, Sunday, that I was going to attempt to make some Pavlova, a dessert from Australia/New Zealand. Recipe is simple enough - basically eggs, some sugar, corn starch, and cream of tartar - no biggie. So I'm whipping up my egg whites into beautiful "soft peaks" (picture to be uploaded later) and I'm thinking: "Holla! I can totally do this thing!" Ah, key point: I was attempting this recipe without any sort of mixer aid - just me and my whisk. So, I carry on with the recipe with a little spring in my step from my success with the "soft peaks." Things were going great until I added the sugar and.....corn starch....dun, dun, dun, dun. Insta-impossible, right there! I'm beating and beating and beating this mixture trying to get some semblance of a meringue out of it, to no real avail. After beating my heart out for a little over 15min I give up and decided it's good enough for me - so I don't quite have the "stiff peaks" the recipe calls for, but I do have droopy peaks!!! That's gotta count for something, right?? Apparently not. I divvied everything up and threw it in the oven. So, the taste wasn't bad, though a little over-done, the consistency was just all wrong. Blast you stiff peaks any my weak arms!! While it wasn't a complete failure, it was definitely nowhere near a success. I'm going to need to invest in some sort of hand mixer, at least, if I am going to attempt anymore "whipping" desserts. Now I know why the moms of old were so buff!!! To try to redeem myself I made a little raspberry reduction sauce to go with my sad Pavlova and I think it worked. It was de-lish!

Since the Pavlova only called for egg whites, I was left with 6...SIX!!...egg yolks. I couldn't bear to let them go to wast so I decided that I would save them 'til Monday and make some creme brulee with them. **and here enter the yummms, and mmmms, from the readers** Well, I did not realize that creme brulee was so high maintenance and has decided that it needs to sit over-night before it can be fired...LAME! Well, so we shall see how the broiling goes for it later tonight. I'm excited!! I really hope it works! I've never used a broiler before, but I'm hoping that having a gas stove will make it near the awesomeness of having a torch - if only I were that amazing of a cook to warrant having my own torch. *sigh* ....Maybe someday.

Either way this is turning out to be a good week. Angela came in town yesterday and will be here 'til Thursday. And, Miss Mika arrived today and will leave tomorrow afternoon/evening: I love having house guests! Angela and I are going to see a movie tonight; 500 Days of Summer, I believe! So that will be fun times, for sure. I just love that girl.

Oh, my hummer greeted me this morning before I left for work, it made my heart happy - I'll snap a picture of that little bugger if it's the last thing I do!!!

Signing off. 'Til next time!

~MW

Troubled on some issues of the spirit...

Initially today was like any other Sunday, got up (later than planned), got ready for church, headed of to my dear Living Hope, worshiped and gleaned pearls of wisdom from the wise Butch, chatted with a few peeps, then headed back home for a lazy afternoon (I decided that if I start calling the apartment home more it will begin to feel more like a home and less like a temporary place of living...I think it will work). Took a nap that, of course, lasted way too long then headed up to Living Hope for this month's membership informational class.

I've been going to Living Hope for about a semester and all summer long and I really feel like the Lord wants me there for the remainder of my time in CS. So, naturally I felt it would be wise and fair to Living Hope members that I look into membership for this next semester. I'd heard that college students are generally allowed to hold a dual membership with Living Hope and their original Home church at "home" and this is what I had planned to do. As I was sitting in the class my heart was over-joyed as I listened to Butch talk to a room full of prospective members about how real and active the family at Living Hope is. Then he got to the becoming a member part, and here is where I am struggling.

So, here's a little background info I feel is essential to the understanding of this story. I was raised in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and that is where my firm belief remains. Why am I currently attending a Baptist church, you might ask? When I initially moved to CS I, of course, started attending the University Lutheran Chapel, but after a semester of faithful attendance there I felt like the Lord didn't want me there. Me, being vehicle-less tagged along with friends to their churches that next (spring) semester and ended up attending Grace Bible Church from then up until two semesters ago when I felt like the Lord was calling me to find a church where I could better reach my full potential as a servant for Him, working with a group of people with the desires I have to reach people here and now. With that Angela and I tried out Living Hope. In all honesty, I really, really didn't like it the first time I attended and didn't go back for the rest of that fall semester. Spring rolled around and I was still at Grace, because I needed to be somewhere even if it didn't "fit" ***side-note: please try to understand what I am meaning to say and not what I am actually saying when I say things like "fit" and the like, I'm not all that articulate today***. I felt the Lord tugging me back to Living Hope, and I was like, "Lord! I didn't like it there...they talked during the sermon! I'm a Lutheran, we don't do things like that..." I, somewhat be-grudgingly, gave in to His call and went to Living Hope again. Surprisingly, this time I liked it and the interaction during the sermon didn't distract me like it did the first time I went, "...hmm," I though. Long story short, I have been faithfully attending ever since. But I am still a Lutheran when it comes to theology - therein seems to lie the "problem."

So, Lutherans and Baptists don't agree when it comes to a few theological issues like infant baptism. I was baptized on April 4th, 1987 and I consider that to be the day that the Lord's Spirit entered my soul and began working within me and growing me into the believer I am today. I do not believe that simply because someone was baptized as an infant and didn't "make that decision" themselves that they are being disobedient to the Lord's will. Why? Because I don't think we, as humans, can put limits on God, also, I do not believe that "conversion" (not that being baptized is point of conversion) is a decision, but rather the Holy Spirit working a life and spirit change within you. If it were a decision, wouldn't that be a work? Anyways, back to baptism. My baptism, though it was over 22 years ago, is one of the most defining moments of my life and I cling to that day when my faith begins to falter. Also, why can't children and infants have the gifts of baptism (forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, eternal salvation to those who believe - Mark 16:16)?? Acts 2:37-39 tells us that baptism is for all ages: "And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself."" Who are we to say who the Lord does and does not call to Himself simply because those of us baptized as infants didn't decide to get baptized of our own accord? This last passage says that anyone who is baptized receives the gift of the Holy Spirit...And I firmly believe that the Lord breathed His Spirit and created me a new creation the day I was baptized. Also, infants have cognition, the Bible even tells us so, Luke 1:41-44. I don't say any of this in a self-righteous tone or to be disrespectful to Butch or to try to prove his teaching/belief wrong, theology is one of those things within the Body of Christ that the Devil definitely uses to create rifts and chaos in the fellowship of the Body. I am simply laying my beliefs and my struggle (below) out there.

But the whole point of this is that now I don't know what to do about Living Hope. I love it there and that is where I feel the Lord wants me for this next semester, but I thought He would want me to be a full member...unless I am baptized by submersion I can't be a member at Living Hope, and my being re-baptized would mean that I believe my baptism as an infant was null and void and I certainly do NOT believe that, at all. Really, I suppose I need to sit down with Butch and talk with him about it. I know I can be involved in a HOPE group without being a member, but I would like to be on a ministry team as well, and I don't know if I can do that without being a member. Unfortunately Butch will be out of town for the next 2wks, just my luck :) So, I suppose it will have to wait 'til he gets back from Africa. Oy, theology... Ah, well, it will all get figured out, I'm sure, I just wanted to be a member and start getting involved with things now. Bummer.

I've been kind of in a funk all afternoon since then. A lot of it has to do with Lindsey not being here all day after staying at David's last night...they came back for about an hour and then left again and I don't know when I'll see her again, she's not coming home again tonight...I miss my roomz :(

BUT! Angela and Mika come tomorrow!!!! SO exciting. I cannot wait to see them - it will be a good week :)

That's all for now, lovelies, I think I am going to go try to make some sort of sauce with some blueberries and strawberries I have before they go bad...

Blessings and Peace to you!

~MW

Saturdays :)

Oh Saturday, how I love you, but how fleeting you can be...

Well, initially today wasn't going to be all that exciting, other than swim time with the lovely Alyssa...but then...haha, you have to wait 'til I get to it!

So, I went to work for a bit and got some specimens a bit farther along in the curating process for miss Mika. Ugh, I had to do it without using a chemical hood, though (shhhh, don't tell the health & safety inspectors!!) and it was AWFUL!!! I'm pretty sure I burned the top layer skin off of my throat and nose...and my eyes burned sooo bad! Builds character, right?? Right!

Well, after that Alyssa came over and we swam around and attempted to catch some rays, of course as soon as we started to lay out the biggest clouds in the history of the earth (ok, so maybe not quite in the entire history of the earth, but they were huge!) decided it would be a fun time to come out and completely cover up the sun. The temperature was nice outside, though (what, nice temps in August, in C.S.?!?! It's true...) so we stayed out anyways. Well, and here comes the exciting part, we finally decided to head inside but much to our dismay found my front door locked!!! What?! Oi vey. Lindsey had come home and left again, locking the door behind her. We got ahold of her and she said she and David would be back from Wal-Mart in about 30min...more like and hour, but it's whatev. So, we decided to go back to Alyssa's apartment (she had taken her purse out to the pool with her - smart gal) for the time being. There we ventured through mylifeisaverage.com and got in some good laughs while waiting for me to be let back into my little apartment.

Lindsey left again and I took it easy. LeeAnn and Mel came over for a bit later on and we just chillaxed - they brought me food!!

All-in-all it was a pretty good day, I suppose. Really enjoyed my time with Alyssa.

Oh! So, for your viewing pleasure, here is a snapshot of my lovely new couch cover!!!


It's so pretty :)

Well, kids, I'm off to read for a bit and then I'm going to try to get to bed early - I think my insomnia is on its way to being cured again!!

Blessings!
~MW

Naturally...

As I informed you yesterday I decided to go ahead and try for Teach For America - grad school will always be there, maybe just with different people and doing different things...only the Lord knows and only time will tell. But for now, I feel the Lord is leading me to keep pushing for Teach For America.

If I don't get it, well then that's ok because, quite naturally, as I had predicted, George Heimpel emailed me back about grad school in Minneapolis. But...as I was saying, if TFA doesn't work out it's ok because, George has a spot "for me" fall of 2010. Fancy that.

Oh life, you are so fickle.

On a more temporal note, my couch cover came in today!!!!! It looks amazing!! I absolutely love it. It's a little wrinkly right now, but it definitely helps to pull our little living room together. I had planned to snap a picture of it for your viewing pleasure, but Lindsey and I got distracted watching movies on her little TV - yay girl time :) I also unpacked TWO more boxes (little ones) of stuff for my room - all the good stuff, picture frames, crosses and the like.

Work was uber productive. I do have to go in for a little bit tomorrow, but not for too long. And THEN! And then, Alyssa and I are going to catch some rays! Holla!! I'm soooo excited to get to see her, it has definitely been too long.

Well my loves, I took my sleep stuffs about 40min ago, so it is time to close my sleepy eyes and try for a "good night's sleep." 4th night's the charm!!

Happy weekend!

~MW

PUSH....and I'm applying for TFA!!

Tomorrow is Friday! Tomorrow is Friday!!! This is exciting, because then I can play and maybe get a few more things done around the apartment/my room. I have a few canvases I've been meaning to paint and we need a clean/dirty dishwasher sign...so I have lots to work on. Plus I REALLY want to get some reading annnnd....I need to work on poli sci, awesome. But it will be the weekend none-the-less!

Work went pretty well today, had a little hear-to-heart with the boss about Teach For America, grad school opps, and possibly going to Dominica with Brendan to teach the kiddos about bugs for 6mo *yikes!!*, and he helped me kind of reason out why it would still be best to do TFA now - or at least try for it. I'm young, TFA will help take care of loans and I will be getting paid (minor, but important details), if I get stationed in CHI then I will be able to go to Champaigne-Urbana all the time (it's only about 2.5-3hrs away from Chi) and get to know the people at the labs there, plus Therese and Brendan will be getting established and maybe get me a better in with those peeps. The U of I people I'm interested in working with always have $$ floating around because they write killer grants, so there should, theoretically, always be a spot open for me somewhere there. I haven't heard back from Heimpel about Minneapolis. There are plenty of other places just as amazing as Dominica that I could do science/ento outreach with kids, plus I could maybe just go for a few months, instead of the whole 6... And I need to be able to go do and see things right now, in his opinion, and TFA would give more of an opportunity to do that than would grad school. Granted, putting everything towards TFA means I probably won't be able to swing going to the Entomophagous conference in France in 2011, but I guess I'll survive...

That said, TFA apps are due TOMORROW!!! I pretty much have it all done, I just need to clean up my resume a little and polish off my letter of intent, then I'm set! Crazy.

Well, other than that I had a little girls night with Lindsey and LeeAnne. LeeAnne made us some delish pasta and we watched PUSH - it was actually really good, except the ending sucked!!! They totally leave you with a million questions, but rumor has it that they are making a second one, so we shall see.

Well kids, I'm off to work on the resume for a little bit before calling it a night.

Cheers!
~MW

Ah, Wednesdays...

Today was another day. I'm still an insomniac so it's been a little difficult to be pumped about much at all...I'm exhausted, but can't sleep - I love life! I really do love life, it's just tricky right now. But, I started my sleeping meds up again last night, so hopefully come next week I will be sleeping like a baby again. That's the bad thing about non-habit-forming, it takes a while to kick in. But that's OK. I have a very gracious boss who allows me to come in late when these goings ons occur in my life - thank God for him!

On a brighter note, today was the Baptism and Watermelon Fellowship Night at Living Hope! I wish I had been peppier to enjoy the mingling and meeting of a bazillion new people, mostly courtesy of the lovely Humphreys, but alas I was rather dull for conversation. However it was wonderful to see the Lord working tonight. My friend Travis got baptized tonight, so that was awesome to witness.

Came home to an empty apartment, which was kind of surprising as my roommate officially moved in today, but she came back a bit later with a bunch of our buddies, so it was nice to see all of them, especially the newly pronounce Mr. and Mrs. Cargill! Love them.

Well, my dear ones, that's all for now.

Lots of love and blessings to you all. I'm off to medicate and hopefully get some sleep tonight.

~MW

Unpleasantly awakened.

So....I failed to mention something in my last entry, which is a sort of preface for this one, so I'll fill you in: I found a baby roach in my kitchen last night!!! Ok, let me be clear: I found a baby American Roach, NOT a baby Madagascan Hissing Roach - that would have made for a completely different story. American roaches are naaaaastay! They pretty much turn me into this little whimpy school girl who wants to die if one touches her. Yes, me, the entomologist is totally and completely GROSSED OUT by American roaches. Seriously, peeps, these things are crawling with germs and sick things so I highly recommend killing them dead on sight! *shudders* Well, let me continue with my story.

Circa 6:30 this lovely morning I am awakened by BigBoy (my big fluffy kitty) pouncing around my room. Initially I think nothing of it and figure he just has some wild, early morning hair. But as I groggily and blindly (glasses were in the bathroom...perfect.) watch him run and jump around I think to myself, "my, it sure does seem like he is chasing something real...." My stomach immediately sank as I recalled my horrifying experience in the kitchen last night: what if it's a roach..!?!?!? "Oh, this can NOT be happening!!! I cannot be having roaches running around my home!!!" So, I try to shine my cell phone light to see what he is chasing - because, I sure wasn't going to get out of bed and walk over to the light switch to flip on the light. When that fails I flip on my bedside lamp....BigBoy was, at this point, patting all around my jeans from yesterday. I'm thinking, "Great one of the few times I throw my clothes on the floor and there's going to be a roach running around in them" **seriously shudders**
Well, my fears were realized when I saw those two nasty little antennae followed by that horribly oblong, brown, crinkly (you know what I'm talking about if you've ever had a roaches legs stuck to you - alive, or dead), slimy body. I seriously wanted to cry - no joke. I know, I know, I'm a terrible excuse for an entomologist, but they just seriously freak me out!!!! thankfully in my laziness last night I also dropped my flip-flops on the floor right by my bed. I stealthily snatch up one of my flip-flops and wait in horrible anticipation for my villain to scurry *gulp* into reach of my "long arm." At this point if that nasty thing had somehow managed to touch me I have no doubt that I would have screamed like a little girl and most likely would have started bawling. *sigh* Finally the little devil comes close enough for me to whack it! So I do with all the force I can muster whilst awkwardly leaning out of my bed. Success!!! And I made contact! I am now rolled back over onto my bed, breathing deeply trying to chilax myself out so I can tromp across the apartment to get some paper towels to dispose of the nastiness that is legs-up on my bedroom floor, right in front of my bed. I suck it up and leap over the roach and promptly flip on ALL lights in the apartment to send any other lurkers into hiding (at this point I just would rather not know...) and make my way, cautiously, to the kitchen.
I come back to my room armed with TWO paper towels and a plastic grocery bag - this thing is NOT coming back to life, like roaches are notorious for doing, and wrecking havoc on my apartment/sleep again!!! After dancing around pathetically for a few moments I go in for the final kill and wrap up the nasty in my paper towels, flip the plastic bag over the bundle (I was definitely wearing the plastic bag as a glove...wow, I'm such a sad excuse for a 22-yr-old.), throw that bundle inside yet another plastic bag and tie that bag off about 20 times. *sigh* The deed is done, now I can go back to sleep. Except that now I am awake and can't figure out how exactly I want to go about sanitizing my carpets....Ugh, lame.

Well, needless to say that first order of business today is to go to the store and pick up roach traps/killing agents/something! Anything! This cannot and will NOT keep happening - this you can be assured of. Oh my, what a start to the day. Hopefully this doesn't set the tone for the entirety of the day...that would not be a good thing.

I am going to try to snooze for a little bit longer before I head into work since I didn't get to bed until about 2. Hooray for the return of my insomnia! If this keeps up for a few more days it's meds time, baby!

Happy Tuesday to all - I hope your day is roach-free!!

~MW

Dying!!! {in a good way}

The ceviche was TO DIE FOR!!!!!!!!!! Ok, just got called away, so I'll finish this later, but I just had to say :)


Ok, so sorry about having to run out earlier. My dear friend Therese needed some assistance putting Det. labels on her leafhopper specimens, after about 3.5hrs, though, I had to call it quits.

So now for the fun stuff. The ceviche. The CEVICHE!!! Oh my goodness, it was just as I remembered it - AWESOME! Even with the fudging in the pepper department. I'm not gonna lie, I am pretty impressed with myself. Next I'll have to see if I can swing the same level of delish-ness with a fish that won't break my bank, because now that I know that I can make it, I'm going to want to make it ALL THE TIME!!!

The roasted red pepper Italian dressing marinated chicken was amazing as well - definitely going to have to keep that one in mind for when I make chicken packets in the future. Hooray for experiments going well!!!

Well, that is pretty much it, my dear ones. Now I think I am going to attempt to get some sleep...my sleep schedule is so whacked out right now. :( Hope everyone's Monday was a great one and I wish you all a terrific Tuesday!!

Cheers!
~MW

~*~ Adventures in the Kitchen ~*~

Well, after church today I came home and explored my fun new How to Know the Beetles book, courtesy of Josh and Ricci Humphrey. Super fun old-school beetle key, published in 1980!! Some of the family names and things have changed since this book was printed, but it's still amazing - another fun book to add to my ever-growing ento collection.

I then decided to take a little 30min snooze. Well, that 30min turned into 4hrs! I apparently needed sleep, but now it's 1am and I'm super awake...ah well, such is life.

When I finally woke up I decided to go run a few quick errands: Barnes & Noble then HEB.
I finished my sermon journal in church this morning and I had a B&N gift card so I decided to go pick up a new journal - got a cute "green" one that just so happens to be green...I like it.

Then I went to HEB, because, dear ones, I have been craving ceviche for about a year and I decided I was going to splurge a little and just go ahead and attempt making it myself. So, I picked up some red snapper (this was the splurge part...), a few limes & lemons, a red onion, Tabasco, and a pepper (it was supposed to be a serrano...but HEB was out and so I just grabbed a pretty green one that I thought might at least add some sort of flavor). I came home with my treasures in hand and a spirit of determination.


I don't have much experience working with fish...chicken, beef, pork I have pretty much down, fish is still a rather new realm to me - therein lie my adventure! I promptly got to work on the fish...this was interesting. I had 3 fillets to work with. The first one went horribly and the majority of the fish ended up shredded - not exactly the 1/2inch cubes that ceviche calls for. I was not giving up and I certainly was NOT throwing away that fish just because it didn't turn out all that pretty. Fillet #2 went a little better...the first half of it was about the same as #1, but then I got the brilliant idea to dice the fish into the cubes before I attempted to remove the fish from the skin!! That's the ticket, folks! I have no idea if that is the right way to work with snapper, but it worked for me and I got a ton more usable fish than I did from the 1st one. Fillet #3 was then a piece of cake. Ok, so my fish was taken care of, messy as it may have been. I then started slicing and dicing the veggies and such. All went smoothly from there on out. I added a bit of extra Tabasco since I was going to be missing the heat from the serrano - we'll see how that turns out. I threw everything together in the casserole pan and set it in the fridge to start marinating (it had to sit for an hour, then stir it up again, and throw it back in the fridge for several hours/overnight). I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow!! Can't wait.


Next I worked on some chicken I had - I just needed to decide what to do with it. So, since there was already an air of experimentation I decided to do just that! I first attempted some marinated chicken strips, using butter and an onion soup mix, then cooked it all up in a frying pan. Ummm...friggin delicious!!!


After that little experiment I used the remaining 3 chicken breasts and made my fail-free chicken packets: 2 standard lemon pepper packets with fresh lemon and tomato slices and one experimental roasted red pepper Italian dressing packet with fresh tomato slices....I haven't tasted that one yet - it will be dinner tomorrow, so I'll let you know how it turns out then.

After I finished all the "real food" adventures, I attempted to make some banana and date macaroons...that was interesting. Super easy and quick recipe, but I think I'm going to have to keep working on the perfect banana ripeness factor. I think my banana this go 'round was a little too ripe...made the mashing easy, but it tastes a little too much like banana bread for a macaroon. Flavor is still good, but I think a little less ripe will be better, and a greener banana might help hold everything together a little more nicely, as well. We shall see.



All in all, today was fairly productive...I didn't get to any plant potting, but that leaves me something fun to do when I get off work tomorrow. Now that it is nearly 1:30am, I am going to attempt to get some sleeeeep. I am tired, but my brain is awake.

Hope everyone's Monday goes smoothly and speedily!

~MW

P.S. - my hands STILL smell like fish...I've washed them a good 30-40times over the course of tonight *not joke* and they still smell!!! Gross, but funny, and evidence of my adventure in the kitchen :)

Sorry for the lateness... (Plus Moving Happenings...II)

Hey kids,

So sorry for the gap between posts this week - it was crazy!!

So, I last left off telling you about how my mom had come into town and she was helping me spruce up my little apartment. Well, might I just say: mission accomplished!!!!

In my humble opinion it looks lovely! Things really started to come together as we put our noggins together and experimented with furniture arrangement, decor options, etc. I would post pictures, but my camera is currently out of commission...I need to pickup some batteries. So, maybe next time...

However, I must tell you about the best part of this apartment: I have a hummingbird friend!!! Oh, it is SO exciting! I put up this cheap little $6 hummingbird feeder from Wal-Mart and filled it with 97cent nectar juice and the next morning I had a hummer!!! Didn't see the little one for a day or two after that, but then I saw him (though I think it might be a her...coloration is kind of dull, but I'm really not sure - I'll let you know if I figure it out!) throughout the day on Saturday - ah, this is bliss :) I've decided that I'm going to invest in some bottle-brush plants to see if I can get any more.

My mom and I had a great visit and I was sad to see her go, but we both had to get back to reality...lame!

So, Thursday B and I went and took some engagement pictures of my friends Brad and Kira. These two are amazing. They made an almost exact replica of the American Gothic (the painting with they farmer couple and the dude holding a pitchfork) - it was perfection!!! So that was real fun.

Friday I watched some peeps graduate...summer graduation ceremonies are so short!!! After that I went to work for a bit and then had a lovely evening the Humphreys: We made THE most DELISH blueberry ice cream. Seriously, to die for....we were are pretty much in heaven. And we enjoyed some Planet Earth with our dinner and finished off the night with Mama Mia! Cute movie - I loved Ricci's sing-a-long moments :) After that my lovely Katie came to visit!! We ran around town a little bit on Saturday...we went and saw our old house: We have officially been shown up! So sad. After she left I sliced and diced and mixed and arranged some good eats for Kristie and Lionel's wedding with Patricia and Dr. Wharton - good times. This wedding was absolutely lovely! It was in their backyard, SUPER small, I mean there was probably about 20-30 people there. I mean, we are talking dinky! But it was beautiful and way fun. I just love those two people. Kristie my entomologist extraordinaire and Lionel her burly Aussie. Super fun stuff. Whew! What a whirlwind of a week!!!

Well, I must finish getting ready for church - I think I'm going to pot some plants when I get home this afternoon!! Hmm...and maybe go pick-up a bottle-brush.... I love plants :)

Happy Sunday, all!

~MW