Pizza and Honey and Screams...Oh My!

Happy Halloween/Happy Reformation!

Weekends like this one make me beyond happy. Why? They involve people. Not just people, but people who I thoroughly enjoy! Weekends like this one also involve food! And adventures! And memories! And, and, and...just plain awesome!

Friday we had our departmental Halloween Party down at the honey house (a house where we used to process our "honey harvest"), and I must say it was quite fun. But, anytime there's free pizza + free sodas + free beers + free candy + entomologists it's bound to be a night full o' fun. There was even a pumpkin carving contest! I didn't carve one, but it was way fun to see the creativity of the department shine :) I think my favorite part, aside from all the free stuff and mingling, just might have been this neato little ghost guy who kept going back and forth along a wire in a very zombie-esque fashion...complete with some cow-esque moaning...glorious! I wish I had a picture of this thing. It was awesome. There was also a roaming foot. Yuuup, a foot...that was roaming... We deemed it Thing's (from the Addams Family) cousin ;) But, the best thing EVER, in my humble opinion was the acquisition of this beautiful bucket of golden, yummy goodness:

This my fabulous readers is about 2lbs of beautiful, fresh Minnesota honey!!!
I love honey :)

After the departmental party a number of us decided to mosey on over to Matt and Judy's for a low-key continuation of the hanging out. Meg and I ran back to my apartment to grab Jakers so he and Dex could play while us peoples palyed. The pups were a touch overstimulated with all the peoples, but they did fine overall. We had a great night sprinkled with periodic shouts of, "What song is this?" or, "Who sings this?" from behind Matt's laptop...not to mention the occasional blasting of Beyonce - priceless. The random bursting into song from anyone of us at any given time was pretty great, too.

Saturday consisted of sleeping in, some cleaning, a touch of studying, Skyping (of course!), hangin', and then...screaming...and lots of it. A bunch of us from the department decided to go to Scream Town (gulp!). While there was a great amount of screaming and pushing and pulling through haunted woods and haunted corn mazes and the like...eeps! Let's just say we all bonded quite a bit that night...quite a bit. Oh man, I don't know if the near incessant screaming or the incessant laughing resulted in more soreness for us all. I will say that my throat is rather scratchy today :) We had a blast though (the blast more followed the events of the night...unless your name is Matt or Corey...then you just had fun scaring everyone else all night...punks).

And here we all are!! Fun times in the FT :)

Everyone headed back to my place after we had sufficiently screamed our lungs out and gathered up some foods to partake in. We had a nice close to the night...just hangin' out and settling our somewhat frazzled nerves :) It was really fun having everyone over - I love having people in my home. Definitely one of my favorite things ever :)

Today was another good day. Skyping + homework + laundry + church + recuperating = GROOD (Great & Good!)!


So what did YOU do for YOUR Halloween/Reformation weekend??

Hope you all had a blessed Sunday.

Lots of love from the FT.
Shalom!
~MW

Can't focus? And, so I blog :]

It's going to be a long night...I absolutely cannot focus tonight.

Lots o' stuff running through my head:
--I miss my family
--I miss my friends
--I miss Texas
--How long 'til Christmas break? {~9wks!!!}
--Why can't I focus? {no clue}
--I need to drink more water {y'all, it is SO dry here - I feel like I'm turning into a human raisin}
--How on earth am I going to get everything done this week?
--Music is the best
--Jesus is better - SO MUCH BETTER
--When can I go to Africa? {waiting is the pits}
--Can I survive another 34mo in the FT?
--Care packages are the best {Jesus is still better!}

I got a care package from my parents today!! Well, technically it came on Friday, but I wasn't able to pick it up until this morning...oh the joys of leaving before your apartment complex office opens and coming home after it closes...

BUT! My parents rock - thank yas, Momma and Daddy! They sent me some stuffs I inadvertently left in the TX, along with some extra goodies :)

Jake's water bowl!!! I somehow left it in TX, so poor Jakers has been eating and drinking out of the same bowl... Now he has two bowls!!


Some of my movies!! Still missing a number of them, but these will get me
through 'til I can collect the rest at Christmas!!


A TON O' MOLESKINES!!! Best parents ever? I think yes.
Just behold the beauty before your eyes!


MA BOOTS!!!! Ok, I have missed these SO much...
Ah, my sweet hiking boots...I cannot wait to introduce you to the Frozen Tundra :)


Bonuses! My mommy knows me all too well - I now have something like
4 honey bears...you can never have too much honey :]


Oh, hai!



This is some of what I did last night and today
(along with some sketches...always sketches):


Hi there, pretty! May I dissect you?


Why thanks :)

How about you? Sweet, looking forward to it.

Ok, loves, that's all for now - I'm going to try and finish up my assignments for tomorrow morning's class...morning will be here all too soon...

Shalom!
~MW

[Insert Catchy Title Here]

Ah, we meet again!

Alright y'all, I know I've been incredibly inconsistent with the blogging, but heavens to Betsy it is insane up here! It just never ends. Sometimes I hardly feel like I'm living things move so quickly here. It's like living in a constant state of warp speed, for seri. But...even though things are beyond ridiculous and I have real rough days...er, weeks from time to time (hello, current week: I am so glad you are over), I am happy that I am here - I do enjoy what I am doing, where I am in the now, and the people I get to hang around with. I still wish (multiple times a day) that I could transplant the U to TX and just integrate my groups of peeps all into one big happy group of awesome, but, alas, no can do. So, I guess I'll stick around here for the next few years...

Man, this week was a doosie, to say the least. It started off real weepy as I sent Miss Ricci home to C-Stat (sooo wish I could have gone with her). I knew I really missed her and all my Texans, but I didn't quite realize just how much I miss everyone until I had her here beside me. Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder, in this case. So that lead to a rather weepy week for me, but I wouldn't trade her visit for the world. Such sweet time and memories that we get to cherish forever. Speaking of which! I didn't upload any pictures last time, and I really don't have too many to share, but below are a couple shots from Mickey's Dining Car (You can read about that, the rest of my weekend with Ricci, and the beginning of my week here). You can see some of Ricci's pictures riiiiight.....here! And she played around with a few of them and made some awesome masterpieces here. (Plug: if any of y'all need picturas taken and you are in the C-Stat area check out my sweet friend and see if she has an open slot to fit you in for a shoot!!)

Come Tuesday I spent about 2.5-3hrs at the bank...with a personal banker...initiating the fraud response process. Yuuuup, I had my identity stolen. Great fun, eh? Not so much. So, now that we have canceled the card that got compromised and got me set-up with all new accounts (with some extra benefits compared to the accounts I had previously) I'm waiting for the affidavit to arrive so I can sign it and get the money back that the jerks stole. From there, the fraud research team keeps doing what they do in an attempt to catch the punks. And here I sit...frustrated, annoyed, but ok.

If you haven't guessed yet, Friday couldn't come quick enough this week...oh, it was a long one. But, Friday did indeed come! Glory! Friday closed with a departmental cruise on Lake Minnetonka. Translation: BOOZE CRUISE. Mmmhmm, it happened, and it was...interesting. Saw some interesting sides of people, to say the least. But it was fun to get to hang out on a boat and visit with peoples. It was a gorgeously clear night and the moon was breath-takingly bright. The music was a bit loud and obnoxious, but it's whatevs.

So now that my week is over, I figured I would share some fun stuff with y'all - in the form of picturas!

Geeses! I way love seeing the geese migrating through. Seriously, one of my absolute favorite parts of living here. I really enjoy hearing them as they fly overhead (just don't look up with your mouth open...eeps, that would not be good.), I love watching their formations, watching these magnificent creatures take off is such a sight - if I ever get the chance I'll snap a video of them for yas. I just think they are fun. Huge poo...but what do you expect from HUGE birds??



Honey from our very own honey house! We got these little honey bears at the departmental welcome party earlier in the semester. I feel very privileged to have one of these, as it's been a tough year for honey - no one has any. The bees are taking quite the hit right now. It's pretty depressing and, to be honest, if we don't figure out how to help our little buzzy friends, it's pretty terrifying to think about honey bees hoping on the endangered list (I can't think about the other "e" word yet...)...we'd be pretty sorely out of luck in the food department.




Care packages from some of the sweet members of my congregation back in A-town. Thank you Miss Susie and sweet Hannah! This made my week when I got it. The cookies were delicious and the teas, oh so lovely. Thank you!!!



Awesome signs on random vehicles driving through town. "Stay back....Stay alive"
Love it.




Jakers on the porch. He way likes it when there are days that I can open my sliding door and he gets to hang out outside and watch the birds and our neighbors as they come and go. These days are fast fleeting, though.



Moths!!! Ok, these are not very nice specimens (we "stole" them from the teaching collection...so they take a beating) and these are not my Euchaetes friends. These guys are relatives that I got to start out with on dissections about a month ago. I have some new ones to run through (starting tomorrow!!), and I am way excited about them. They are newer material and in much better shape than these poor little loves. YAY, DISSECTIONS!!!

Oh!! A lot of you have been asking to see my cubbie in the lab. So, just for you, here are some photos of my little nook. It's nothing fancy, but it works :] Enjoy!

You can find me at:

Where you will probably find me bent over some moth literature here:

Or digging through stacks of lit/books...or digging in desperation for snacks or tea here:

Or else checking or writing another something to do on my calendar here:

There you go, sweet readers. There's my little cubbie, where I spend a good 70-80% of my time each week, certainly each day.

Tomorrow should be a good day of dissections and studying, followed by a good night of sweet worship and fellowship at Christ Redeemer. Hooray for worshiping at the same place 3 weeks in a row! Glory!!

Praying you all have a wonderfully blessed Sunday.

Love in Christ to you all.
Shalom!
~MW

P.S. - If any of you have been thinking about adoption or even if you haven't or aren't super sold on it, may I encourage you to take a gander at this post? If you know me at all you know that things like hitting the mission field and adopting the precious ones who have no one are very near and dear to my heart. J-Hump and Ricci do an excellent job of putting our hearts on the issues into writing. I implore you all to prayerfully consider their entry on adoption. And, I'm done ;]

And so another week begins...

Well my happy readers, how are ya? I know it's been a bit of a spell since I last updated and left y'all hangin' quite a bit by not updating while my darling Ricci was here, but, I'm sorry, we were just having too much fun for me to stop and update :)

We had SO, so much fun, though. I cannot even begin to express to you how wonderful it was to have her bright smiling face here, next to me, in the the FT. It was absolutely wonderful. But seeing her definitely made me miss her, my other Texas loves, and Texas in general, even more. Just a little sting of a reminder that I am missing out on so much being here. But it was totally worth it, even though I lost it Saturday night. I couldn't help it, y'all, I just miss her like none other.

We had a blast though. Here's what we did!

Thursday:
- Collected her from the airport, complete with screams...yup, just like in the movies, it does happen in real life ;)
- Spent some time resting at home...did some laundry
- Went to lunch at Princess Garden Chinese Restaurant (pretty good!!)
- Went to campus...I had class, she played in my cubbie!
- Ran some errands
- Cooked a Mexican Feast!!! Even if it was just Spanish rice and enchiladas...it was still epic
- Shared a lovely evening together on the couch

Friday:
- Went to campus for a lab conference call that didn't happen...sad day.
- Went to Target to make sure there wasn't anything we needed for our event of the afternoon
- Met SW for lunch and went to Mim's. YUM!!
- Ran home to gather our stuffs and hit the road for our mini roadtrip!
- Made it to our destination and met....drum roll, please....MCKMAMA!!!!!! So surreal.
- Hung out with her and her camera for about an hour (I feel like enough of you have stumbled upon these now that I can share them with you here - we had a BLAST!)
- Made the hour or so trek back to the Twin Cities, had some leftover enchiladas and rice, and settled into the couch for another evening of awesome...just chillin' and munchin' on yummies :)

Saturday:
- Went to see Desi at her garage sale...test drove her Subaru...no big deal (<---y'all can start praying about that if you please...)
- Met Miss Megan for lunch at Mickey's Dining Car. Umm, probably one of the most fun experiences ever. I loved watching my best friend here in the FT meet my bestie from TX...so great!
- Miss Ricci and I stopped off at home for a few and made our way to Pine Tree Apple Orchard. I think our discovery of Caribou Coffee and the scenic drive itself were our favorite parts...oh, and the people watching, of course!
- After that we hit up the Mall of America...yuuuup, two weekends in a row for me, kids. Trust me, I am not making this a habit. We had a fun time strolling around. I way enjoyed watching Ricci geek about about the William Sonoma store...priceless.
- We then went home...where she packed, I cried, we ate good food, we enjoyed each others company, and just soaked in the last few hours we had together before I had to send her on home to J-Hump and TX.

Sunday:
- Got up early...got dressed...piled into the car
- Drove to the airport
- Said a quick goodbye so as to not start crying right there on the curb
- She walked to security...I drove home, where I cried some more

Sunday was a rough day for me...I cried a lot that day. I wasn't expecting that at all. I've been extra weepy, in general, since then. I just miss home.

Today marks 2 months of my being here...and not in TX. Really? It's only been two months?? I have 34 more to go?? Oh geesh. Mmmk, time to buckle up and take a deep breath and dive-in to this, I reckon.

On a brighter note, though, I think I have found a church home!!! I think I mentioned it last weekend...I hope I did, but I can't remember right now. Anywho, I went to the same church two weeks in a row! And. It. Was. Awesome! Last night I met a sweet, sweet family who invited me over for dinner - I went tonight!! It was so wonderful! Such a sweet time of fellowship. They sent me home with leftovers!!! I just love their sweet daughter...I'm thinking I may have just adopted a little sister - YAY! She's in 8th grade, and just the sweetest girl. I really enjoyed them and they made me feel right at home. Thank you Jesus for granting me sweet fellowship and renewal through this body of believers.

And with that, my loves, I'm going to close. I need to go finish a reading for class tomorrow and hit the hay.

Love and miss you all. Praying you are growing in the Lord and His love.
Shalom!
~MW

P.S. - B introduced me to this band yesterday: Gungor...they are way good. I highly recommend you check them out.
P.P.S. - I feel like y'all need to see this...it's a little taste of my life here. This is a real commercial that they play on TV here:

Ricci is coming!

Ricci is coming!!!

Oooooh, I am SOOO excited! I can't sleep...I feel like tomorrow (err...today...) is Christmas!

Insect Ecology is going to seem like an eternity to me, as Ricci arrives at the airport about halfway through class...eeps!

Hooray for besties coming to visit me allllll the way in the Frozen Tundra!!!

Don't you worry, dear readers, there will be at least one epic update to come from this soon to be weekend of awesome!

Shalom!
~MW

I'm Alive!!

Promise :)

But heavens has it been busy up here in the FT!! This week, I don't even know...it just happened so quickly. One day it was Monday, then I was out sick for a day (still getting over the blasted cold), then it was all of a sudden Friday! How. Did. This. Happen?! I had projects and papers and readings and dissections and inking (more on that in a moment) to do...and it just sucked up every last ounce of my week, apparently.

So, how was your week??

I can't believe it's already Sunday...this weekend happened in a flash, too. I can't handle this warp speed passage of time. If it could just slow down even a teeny tiny bit, that would be just stellar.

Other than catching a lame cold and flying by, this week has been a pretty good one. My illustration class was way fun this week - we started inking!! Crow quill pen + nibs + black India ink = SO FUN. I also have some technical pens that are pretty fun to use, too. Inking your line drawing makes it look so much more awesome! And, it's just plain fun. I like it a lot. We have to turn in our inked drawing on Thursday - I've redone mine twice already...I think I'm almost ready to create my final product and turn it in.

I fiiiinally got to meet up with SW and sit at the scope with her. I love dissections...like, really love them. They are so fun. This is what made me fall in love with studying Entomology, other than the fact that bugs are just plain awesome. I love looking at structures and learning their names and what they do (or don't do - yay ornaments!). And then if there is any way to find homologies/analogies between organisms, it's even more fun. Yes...I'm a huge nerd/dork/geek, and I accept those labels proudly :) But it was very helpful for me to sit with SW and ask her if I had labeled things correctly on my sketches and to just work through the moths together. Loved it!!

Friday night Frenatae got together for a Pig's Eye. What on earth is a Pig's Eye?! Pig's Eye is when we grad students (no profs allowed for this one) get together on a Friday night in the Refuge (aka: the basement of Hodson) and have a few beers/some wine and munch on goodies and just hang out. It's the perfect opportunity to talk about everything that's gone down in our respective labs lately and just tell stories and enjoy each others company without having to be in class or working on homework or researching, etc. So fun. There are few characters who had me rolling. Oh wow, so great.

I pet sat for Judy and Matt (the bee kids) this weekend, while they were away at the North Dakota Bee Keepers Meeting. Their pup Dexter (German short-haired pointer) is one of Jake's favorite doggie friends, so that was fun for Jake. My goodness, Dex is a handful, though. But, he's so fun. I took the pups to the really big dog park, along with Megan, Fraser, and Steven (aka:Non-Profit Guy) and his pups Gunner and Siah. We ended up losing Siah, Jake, and Dexter at one point. Like, seriously could not find them. I ended up getting a phone call from a super sweet couple who had found Jake up by the entrance gate just sitting there waiting and trying to leave, probably thinking I had gone to the car - poor baby. I am so glad that I got his new doggy tag last weekend, and that I decided to put my phone number on the tag. Whew! We ran and got Jakers, and then headed out to one of the clearings...and there we found Siah and Dex. Ahem...Siah...had gone into heat. Oooooh joy...! And, Dex...well, he was just having a blast with that. Yup. You get the idea. I was kind of mortified, haha. I got SOOO awkwarded out by all of the doggy, umm...stuff, going down. Come on kids, keep it PG!! Hahaha, ooooh, what an experience. Needless to say, I was pretty beat after that...I think we all were. Megan and I came back to my apartment and visited for the rest of the afternoon while the pups crashed on the floor - too cute. After Meg left I got to Skype with some cool cats before hittin' the hay - I was in need of that. I'm loving getting to know my new friends here, but I SO miss all of y'all "old" friends.

Today we Ento gals are going to go shopping for fall/winter clothes!! So excited. It will be nice to get to hang out with just the ladies. Here's hoping for some killer deals on some way cute clothes...maybe some boots?!

I have church over at Christ Redeemer, tonight. I'm way excited. I think it's going to be awesome. I'll let y'all know how it goes, fo sho.

And with that, my dear ones, I need to get a move on. The Ento Gals will be here in about an hour and I need to get a few thins done before they get here...like fold my laundry...and put it away ;)

Love and miss you all!
Shalom!
~MW

Welcome home, Yoshi!

Well, my loves, this will be short (I still have a good 2-3hrs of homework to finish and it's 10pm...gross.), but I just wanted to you let you all know that Yoshi made it home safe and sound this afternoon. He arrived on my doorstep at 1:33pm, according to the UPS tracking updater. So awesome. This is where I really enjoy having a secured entry apartment building...and being all the way down in the corner of my floor where it looks like there couldn't possibly be an entire apartment :) I spent a good portion of my evening getting him all re-configured to my liking. I still have some work to do in that area, but that will have to wait until another day...the essentials are in place: Mozilla, iTunes, Microsoft Office, Skype...the big ones. I have so missed being able to run my Pandora stations whilst studying, working around my little home, etc...so that's a HUGE bonus. I've been rockin' the iPod the last couple of weeks without my little laptop buddy.

I currently cannot breathe, yay cold and flu season. It hits early up here...awesome. It was recommended to me today by SW that I get my flu shot...I hate getting flu shots. I just don't like it. I don't think I'm going to get one. I generally don't come down with the flu...I get colds here and there, but the flu I usually bypass. So, I think I'm going to stick to my no-vax rituals. Momma, what do you think??

Finally got to meet up with SW and talk moths today! SOOOOO good. I'll have to share more about that tomorrow or Wednesday or something (Tuesdays are way long days...).

This weekend was amazing: dog parks, errands with the pup, Skype (at the lab!!), church, homework, friends (old and new) - it was just plain good. Exhausting, but in the best possible way imaginable :)

Nighty-night, loves. I'm off to finish the homework and hopefully hit the hay in the not too distant future.

Shalom!
~MW

P.S. - the weather has been phenomenal the last week or so...gorgeous, and, Momma, the colors are starting to turn!!!!!