Lep Course, Final Update

A very late final Arizona update…  My apologies!  The Tundra is just so busy!! 

OK, so I left off on Thursday of last week.  I’m so sorry I didn’t update y’all right after we got back from collecting in the desert!!  Why??  Because, it. was. awesome!!!  We all got some really great moths for our collections among other things (I found a bristle tail!  Baller!!  I’ve never seen one in real life and those things are triiiicky to catch – so jumpy!).  I must say, that the highlight of my night, and nearly of the week, happened back at the station, though.

Once we got back to the station we all started processing some of the goodies we picked up in the desert and I decided to “just go check” and see what the station sheets brought in, since we had decided to let those run while we were in the desert.  As I was walking up the hill to check one of my favorite sites I started to realize something: “I’m an idiot!  There are mountain lions out here and I’m going by myself to look at a stupid sheet hung between two trees with a light to try to find some moths…I’ve lost my marbles, officially…”  So, upon that realization you would have thought I would have turned around, right?  One would think, but no I had already committed and was a little over halfway to the sheet so I just flashed my head lamp around a whole lot as I walked and quickened my pace a little bit…as did my heart rate  ;)  I felt much better once I got to the sheet, for some reason the light of the mercury vapor lamp was comforting and made me feel safe (don’t ask why…I was crazy that night…blame it on the lack of sleep??).  I started on the front side of the sheet and got a few cuties then moseyed around to the back side of the sheet and grabbed a few more goodies.  While I was checking out the back of the sheet I saw something rather large land on the front side – all I could see was its silhouette, and I had no idea what it could have been.  The only things we had been seeing of that size were sphinx moths and knew without a doubt that it was not a sphinx.  So…naturally, I walked around to the other side of the sheet to see the beast.  Y’all…again, I nearly peed my pants.  It was a Dysschema howardi!!!  This beauty is the largest tiger moth member in North America!  And it is goooorgeous.  Typically moths of this size (same goes for most sphinx moths and a few others) aren’t killed using a kill jar…it takes them too long to settle down and they end up shredding their wings and just beating themselves to death instead of passing out first like the little guys.  So, for the sake of the moth and the preservation of the specimen we inject them to speed up the process.  I, however, of course, did not have a syringe on me…neeeeat.  So, what did I do??  Well, I couldn’t just leave it there!  It was the only one we had seen the entire week and the only one anyone had seen the entire summer – it, at the very least, needed to be documented.  So I plucked that pretty off the sheet with my fingers, gathered up my kill jars, and ran (yes, ran) down the hill back to the labs to find someone with more knowledge who could help me decide what to do with my gem.

When I got to the bottom of the hill I ran passed a number of my favorite mothers chillaxing at one of the picnic tables – I so wanted to stop but I was on a mission and I had to take care of the moth first  :)  When I got inside the lab room I saw that Hugh was in there – excellent!  Hugh was our course curator and he, like all of the instructors, has a wealth of knowledge about preserving specimens.  I ran over to him, held out my hand and said, “Hugh!  Help!”  He looked up from his scope and just about fell out of his chair, looked at me with the biggest grin and said, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”  All I could do was shake my head in response.  He stands up and says, “To the lab!”  We ran down to his curation lab where he had all of his supplies stored and he did the deed for me, preserving my beauty in perfect condition.  Hugh injects with ammonia, instead of ethanol, because it works immediately (seriously, the thing was out in about half a second) and keeps the specimen pliable for longer – allowing for a smoother mounting and spreading process (mounting: placing the specimen on a pin; spreading: spreading the wings into a position that reveals the color patterns and morphological characters…also makes them pretty to look at).  **sigh**  My moth was taken care of and after asking Hugh if he needed her for the station’s synoptic collection and him assuring me that the male-female pair in the collection would suffice and that the moth was all mine and if anyone tried to take her away from that he would set them straight we marked back to the course labs and we showed her off to everyone.  It was pretty humorous…people started coming out from the woodwork it seemed!  From that moment on one of three things happened pre-collecting each night: (1) people threatened to hog-tie me so that I couldn’t get the good ones before them (there were a few other beauties I had in my possession that people were jealous of…), (2) people wanted to rub some of my luck onto them, (3) people wanted to make sure that I was at their sheet while we were collecting.  It was pretty funny.

OK, enough ogling over my moth collection…  ;)

The rest of the trip was just as incredible as the first half was.  It was such a blessing to be able to be in the presence of and build relationships with the lep gurus of today.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t star-struck the entire week.  I now have some remarkable friends and connections to help me along as I continue in the field…at least for the next two years.  Again, I’d be lying if I said that this last week didn’t make me want to reconsider the idea of finishing my master’s and moving forward to get a PhD in the field…I really do enjoy research.  And the collaboration that goes along with the community is so fun and allows for a broadening of knowledge that is priceless.  I think I’d be much happier in a museum position than I would be in a professorship, though.  But, I still have at least 2 years to figure out all of that, for now I am enjoying my time in the community and enjoying my project.  I got a lot of pointers and clues about my group while I was I AZ, as well.  Like I said, priceless.

Our last official night of the course (there was a scheduling faux pas and all of the instructors headed out a day before the students were told to leave…woops!) was an absolute blast (surprised, much?).  After dinner we all piled into vans and trucks and made our way over to New Mexico for some non-collecting fun at the Rodeo Tavern.  The instructors had been talking this place up all week, so by the time Saturday night arrived we were all beyond excited to finally make our way to the little hole-in-the-wall.

This place was a hoot!  We upped the customer count by about 5 times…and so probably doubled their weekly earnings!  It was fun watching the locals watch us – a few of those cowboys tried to play it smooth on the dance floor, too, it was too funny.  But those locals sure knew how to play pool!  I don’t think our people (and we actually had some really good players) won but one match against those cowboys.  We all took a couple turns around the dance floor – I even got out there a couple times.  I tried to tell Jim that just because I’m from Texas does not mean that I know how to two-step…he laughed and pulled me out onto the floor anyways.  We decided to blame my lack of dancing skills on the fact that I was wearing chacos – that’s right, two-stepping in chacos.  How’s that for a mental image??  Gotta love entomologists, am I right?  We closed the tavern down (at about midnight…who closes that early??) and headed back to the station to continue our final hoorah before a good chunk of people left the next day.  I think we finally called it a night around 2 or 3am…so just about right on time for most of us!

Sunday consisted of clean-up, packing, and farewells…talk about depressing.  It was like being at summer camp and leaving all those awesome new friends and counselors who had been your life for that last week.  Isn’t it amazing how quickly people can get to know each other and build relationships when you’re surrounded by each other 24-7?  I just love that about people.  Oh!  I almost forgot!  I got up extra early Sunday morning to hit the road with Hugh.  He had set up a few extra light traps out and about the desert and other areas Saturday night and I told him I would help him take them down.  So we headed out around 6am and started collecting traps.  We had a great time driving around on empty, gathering the traps, and chatting the early morning away.  We got back just in time to catch the tail-end of breakfast and then set to sorting the traps with everyone for one final moth search before we got the clean-up and farewells.  In those traps is where I found my second Euchaetes zella!!  It was my last once-over on a whim at one of the traps I hadn’t picked through yet and caught the corner of a wing out of the corner of my eye and thought, “No way that’s a zella…”  I picked it out from under a couple other moths, flipped it over and, sure enough, it was indeed a zella!  It was rather thrilling, to say the least.

Sigh…I still can’t believe that week is over and I’m back in the Tundra getting back to the old grind…  I so wanted to stay in that hidden-away oasis.  It was so refreshing to be unplugged for that week with some internet access here and there…when it decided to behave.  I never carried my phone on me…that never happens.  It’s practically glued to my pocket here.  I’m going to work on making it less of an appendage of my body.  I’ll still have it on and around, but I’m going to work on not having it a finger’s length away so much.  Aside from being unplugged that week in AZ was just what the doctor ordered for my mental and physical health.  It’s been a rather stressful summer on my front and I’m convinced that is why I’ve been feeling so poorly the last few months (headaches, body aches, migraines, etc…).  By the second day-in in those gorgeous mountains I was feeling so good, even though I wasn’t sleeping, that it was a no-brainer…stress = bad news bears!  Everyone needs to really stop and leave the stressors for some amount of time – even if it’s only a day or two.  I also need to be better about eating full meals…it didn’t matter how tired and run-down I was going into a meal at the station, by the time I left the mess hall I was feeling completely re-energized and ready to tackle some more moths!  Lesson learned…I need to rest and I need to eat (better). 

Well, now that I’m back home I’ve been processing my specimens from AZ (once they are all spread I'll show y'all the goods!) and trying to get back into the swing of life in the city.  The moving process has also begun.  We got most of Megan and Justin’s things moved yesterday and today we are taking the bulk of my stuff.  We can’t move into the house until Thursday, but we have access to the garage for now, so we’ve been piling as much into that as we can while we have access to Justin’s parents’ truck and trailer.

And, with that, dear ones, I’m off to get back to the packing!  Can’t wait to give y’all a “tour” of the new place once we are all settled in,

Praying your Sunday is a blessed one.

Lots of love,

~MW

Lep Course, Day 5

18 Aug 2011

Why helloooo, there!

Ummm…wow…I canNOT believe that it is already Thursday!!!  How did this happen?!?!  Time is so fleeting, per usual.

Mercy it’s been a long week, though.

So, remember that time we were supposed to have lectures and such until 2am?  Well, that plan changed a little bit, but not in my favor.  The lectures got moved around and so we were left to collecting circa midnight.  At this point, I decided that I was going to grab a couple hours of sleep and get up at 2am to go hunt down some moths for a couple hours and then head back to bed.  And, that my dear ones is exactly what I did…well, sort of…

I got up at 2am, sans alam clock even!  How that happened, I have no idea.  Anyways, I went off hunting and actually happened across a fair bit of stuff that I hadn’t seen/collected yet, so that was super exciting.  But…haha….here’s where my plan changed…I ended up staying out until 6am.  Yep…6am, folks.  Dedication?  Maybe…probably more insanity  ;)  I was looking super intensely for some of my moths, but, alas, I did not find a single one.  I found a member of one of my outgroups…but no Euchaetes.  Booo….   I was not happy.  Especially when I realized it was 6am and was just going to bed – yeah, breakfast is at 7:30, ha! 

Needless to say, that made yesterday an incredibly long day.  I had to duck out during one of our wetlabs (it was dissecting…I’m solid there, but seeing other techniques would have been nice, nonetheless) to catch a couple hours of sleep.  Even after that I was a total zombie. 

Overall yesterday was a good day – lots of talk about morphology (my favorite!) and all that jazz, so it was fun for me.  It was also nice to have a little bit of a leg up to help out some of the other people here who haven’t done dissections or gone through the morphology all that much yet.  Yay, teaching!

Collecting last night was slow, but OUTSTANDING!!

Y’all, I caught a Euchaetes!!!!!!!!!!!!  Just one, and it’s the only one I’ve seen the entire time I’ve been here (5 days already!), but it’s a Euchaetes!!  Euchaetes zella, to be exact.  It’s one of my favorite species in the genus.  It’s a little more petite than most and has the super distinctive whit darts on the forewings which are a dusty deep chocolatey-almost-black-brown (I know, I need to come up with a more solid color description…it’ll get there), and pale white-cream hindwings.  The abdomen on these critters is gorgeous – it’s a strikingly vivid orange-ish red with the tell-tale-Euchaetes black spots running down the midline and the sides of the abdomen.  Ahhh…I saw that beauty fly up to the sheet and I just about peed my pants!  It is now safely pinned and stored away in my insect box.  The only sad thing about this story is that zella is a species that I have a fair number of representatives of already, but, fresh material is always exciting and it proves, in real time, that my guys are here…it’s just a matter of finding them  :)  I stumbled across a number of other pretty little things last night as well.  So overall, the diversity was up, though the numbers were low.

We all called it a fairly early night and was thrilled to jump in bed at midnight clean and satisfied with a good night of collecting.

Today has been a pretty easy day.  We had a few lectures this morning and then went on a butterfly walk and I was lucky enough to come home with a couple beauties to add to my collection and family representation count (we’re supposed to have a minimum of 25 families in our collections by the end of the course, I’m up to about 18-20, almost there!).  More lectures took up the rest of the day and now it’s just about dinner time (yay, food!!!)  After dinner we are heading out to the desert for collecting and then might close the night at the Rodeo Bar that is near the site we are collecting at.

Here’s to another night of good collecting and finding more Euchaetes!!

Hope all is well in your realms!

‘Til next time,

~MW

Lep Course, Day 3

16 Aug 2011

Whew!  What a couple of days this has been!  The half day we had at the station on Sunday was pretty chill (and by pretty I mean extremely…) in comparison to Monday and today.  Heavens, all I want is sleep, but there simply isn’t time for that here.

We start our days bright and early.  Breakfast is at 7:30, so I’ve been getting up around 6 to look over some notes and things and mentally prepare for the bombardment of information that will accost my brain come 8am.  ***I’m going to have to start getting up earlier, though…I’ll need to start going around to the sheets and traps in the eeeearly, daaark mornings to hunt down the moths that don’t come out until later in the night.***  We have been doing a lecture or two in the mornings and then heading out for some good hours of field collecting (3-4hrs has been the norm thus far) outside of the research station grounds.  It’s been a lot of fun to drive even 20min and see an incredible difference in fauna and flora, not to mention terrain.  We eat lunch somewhere in there and then hit the lectures or field again.  Then there’s dinner and then maybe another lecture and, of course, the highlight of our day: major collecting!! 

Since the majority of Lepidoptera are nocturnal moths (though there are a number of diurnal or day-flying moths) the best collecting (unless you are hunting butterflies specifically) is at night at a light.  We use various different bulbs with white sheets set up behind them to help attract our moths…and of course anything else that sees our wondrous orbs and simply can’t stay away  ;)   There actually has been a fair bit of insect diversity which has been a lot of fun for those of us who don’t consider every order outside of Lepidoptera as “trash.”  I’ve seen a fair number of scarab beetles and tons of other beetle, ichneumonid wasps, caddisflies, mantid flies (!!), true flies, stink bugs and other hemiptera, leafhoppers and other homoptera/heteroptera, antlion adults (!!), and much, much more.  And, yes, I have most definitely snagged a few of those lovely specimens  :)  I even got a solifuge (I’ve never seen one alive – I totally let the cutie feed on a couple moths before I tossed it in some EtOH) and held a wicked awesome whip scorpion (this thing was as big as my hand – so sweet!)!!!  It’s been quite the exciting trip even outside of all of the lep awesomeness.  I’ve been able to collect a few members of my subfamily of moth, but none of my actual critters yet…it’s OK, I still have 4 more days after today to snatch some up!

We have been focusing more on caterpillars today which has been great fun – they’re such cuties.  It’s always remarkable to me how these creatures can often times go from a super showy caterpillar to a severely drab moth and vice-versa.  Not to mention the changes various caterpillars go through!  It’s like looking at a completely different animal at each instar (molt) for so many of these guys!  If any of y’all are interested in looking at some way pretty pictures of caterpillars check out Dave Wagner’s Caterpillars of Eastern North America.  It’s an incredible field guide…worth every penny.  And!  I now get to say that I have collected caterpillars with Dave Wagner (living the dream!!!)!!!  I feel super privileged to be able to say that.  He knows so much!  I’ve been blown away.

It’s been an intense day of lectures and collecting…and when I think about what else we have lined up for today I’m realizing that today (even though it’s 5:30pm here) is really just beginning.  After dinner, at 7:30, we go back to the drawing boards and embark on an all-nighter of lectures and collecting.  Meaning, we don’t even have the option of going to bed until 2am.  Yeeeeowzas!  Tomorrow is definitely going to be a loooong day, haha.  It’ll be worth it, but I’m definitely going to need to take a day or two to recover once I get back to the Tundra.  I’ve been crawling into bed between midnight and 1am the last two nights, but that extra hour of brain use pre-shower, pre-bed is going to be rough, y’all.  For knowledge!!  Haha.

Alrighty, kids, I’m off to snag a quick nap so I can study and begin processing the onslaught of info that has been the last 2.5 days before it’s rock’n’roll time again  :)

I’ll keep the updates coming as long as time and the internet allows.

Praying all is well!

Shalom,
~MW

Helloooooooo, AZ!!!

Hello, my happy readers  :)

Praying this Sunday finds you well and enjoying your weekend.

As you might remember from a previous post (I’m typing in the airport and internet access is lame…so links and such probably won’t be happening for this post.) I had a trip planned for this month - a trip to Arizona for field work and a course on Lepidoptera.  Well, I’m off!  Got the critters carted off to their respective caretakers (Thanks so much Amy & Tony; Matt and Judy & Dex!) for the week and I was carted off to the airport bright and early (Thanks Christine!). 

The first leg of the trip went without a hitch.  Flight was smooth and on time and now I’m sitting in DFW waiting for my 12:45p flight to Tucson.  Once I arrive in Tucson there’s supposed to be an airport pick-up waiting to take me, and anyone else arriving today, to the Southwestern Research Station in Portal.  Who I am supposed to be looking for, however, I have no clue.  It’ll be an adventure!

It’s pretty depressing being in DFW and not being able to walk out that exit door or catch a flight to somewhere else in TX…cruel…just plain cruel.  I’m hoping that the return trip on the 22^nd will afford me the opportunity to see some Texas loves who might make the trek to the airport to see me since I have a 3hr layover   =)   **hint, hint**

I’m not too certain as to what this trip will entail as we haven’t really received any info regarding what we will be doing…just a, “Don’t forget sunscreen” message.  So…we shall see!

I am excited to meet other people working on leps and make connections with them that might help me with my project or undertakings in the future – plus, it’s just fun to meet people you share some sort of interest with.

Things have been busy, busy, busy on the Tundra front, but all is definitely well.  It’s very bitter-sweet to start thinking about moving in a few weeks.  While I’m super excited about the new place and adventuring the year with my new roommates, I’m quite sad to leave my current abode.  I just love that it’s my space.  It’s all decorated the way I like things and it just feels like home.  I’ll miss routine there as well.  But!  All good things do come to an end, and generally something else steps up and fills their place just fine.  I am quite excited to build a new routine at the new house and to collaborate with Meg about decorating, etc…we highly doubt Justin will have anything to say about anything we do.  As long as he has his projector room he’ll be happy as a lark  :)   It will also be especially nice for Jake to have more space and not have to worry about running into other doggies in the play pen.  Plus, the place is simply beautiful…I mean really, really beautiful.  Yay newness!

OK, all, laptop is about to die and I don’t feel like packing everything up to go find an outlet…

Until Arizona!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have arrived!  Found the airport pick-up meeting place after using my resourcefulness and looking up the number for the research station to find out (Apparently an email went out with loooads of info…I never got it.  But!  At least my name was on the airport pickup list!) who/where we were supposed to meet.  Got the info and made it to the meeting place just fine.  From there we all piled into a 15-passeneger van and made the 2-2.5ish hour (Maybe more?  I was too busy oogling over the mountains and beautiful nature through my window) trek to the research station from Tucson.  We actually ended up passing through New Mexico for about 30min (ish?) since the shortcut road was all washed out from the rains.  4 states in one day (MN, TX, AZ, NM)!! 

The research station is beautiful.  I mean, beeeeautiful.  It doesn’t look or feel like anything I would ever imagine for Arizona, other than all of the rocky mountains.  Gah!  I so wish I had a camera!!!  Im hoping I can get some of the people here to share some of their snapshots with me so I can show all y’all eventually.

Once at the station I had a little time to unpack my gear and toss it all neatly into some under-the-bed drawers (it’s like being at summer camp!) and chatted with my bunkmates for a little bit.  I actually know two of the girls and they happen to be collaborators on the overarching project that my project is a part of.  They’re grad students of one of my committee members, JZ, over in Wisconsin.  It was nice to see some familiar faces.  I also got to visit with JZ for a good spell and then we went to set up a trap before dinner.  Dinner was pretty tasty – complete with brownie sundaes!  Deeelish.

We have a little bit of downtime now and then we’ll head off for a big info meeting type deal and from the sounds of it, collecting!!

Internet is pretty spotty here, so blog posts, answers to emails, etc. will be posted when possible.  There is absolutely NO cell reception however…so, if any of you beautiful people need me at all this week, your best bet will be to email/facebook/etc. me.

Happy Sunday, loves!

Shalom!
~MW

Joy, Joy, Joy!

Hello, all.

I know it's been forever, or so it seems, since I last updated, but...well, you know the next line: TIGS!  Even when classes aren't in session, there is SOOOO much to do!

Last week was wonderful in that respect, though - I didn't have any classes to worry about and I got to just work in the lab and meet with SW and figure out where we are going just what I am doing over the next 2.5yrs (yes, that sounds like a long time...but when you have the to-do list that I have, it seems like that is absolutely NO way I will get all of it done - I will, don't you fret..).  I've decided!  I'm doing a monograph for my thesis work!!  I'll do a post a little later on about what a monograph treatment is.  It's the part of taxonomy/systematics that I love, I'll just say that for now.  All in all, it was a great week.  And I closed it feeling satisfied and accomplished...it's been a while since I've felt like that at the end of a work week.

The 3-day weekend that followed that productive week was pretty grand, as well.  The first half of Saturday was full of Skyping and relaxing, the second half consisted of a ton of fun with Meg and Markster.  Markster picked me up and we grabbed Meg.  We grabbed some lunch at the Mall of America (seriously, there's like a bazillion restaurants in there...and we had some stuff to return and some gift cards to try to spend).  While at the MoA we saw this epicness:

The WHOLE ENTIRE thing was made of LEGOs...I. Want. One!

After running around MoA we continued on our path to REI so The Markster and I could procure our new parkas followed by the 3 of us trying on the most ridiculous winter hats in the clearance bin...oh man...we should have taken pictures.  It. Was. Epic.  And!  We all came away with a new hat that made each of us rather cheery.  After running home to let Jakers out the three of us went back to Meg's to work on....drum rooooooolllllll.....A GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!  SO FUN!  The house had been constructed a few days earlier and the decorating had begun, but the bug dorks tricked that house oooooout!

Markster working hard on the roof.

 Meg and Markster working hard on adding our Harmonia infestation...that's right we are true dorks and added the tell-tale sign of fall/winter to the lovely little gingerbread house by adding and infestation of ladybird beetles - epic.

Ta-da!!  I was in charge of the icicles and filling in the gaps on the roof - I'm not gonna lie, I'm way impressed with my icicles...like, considered for a split second that I should change careers and be a gingerbread house decorator or something  :)

 See all those little pink clusters?  Those are our little Harmonia!!!  It looks just like a real infestation!  Little aggregations and all!

We didn't finish the backside of the house, the front and sides look pretty darn awesome, we think!

Sunday was a nice chill day...Skypage, church...it was a pretty good day.  I was especially blessed at church Sunday night, and it was wonderful.

Monday was awesome!!  We bug dorks plus a few other friends made brunch and had an absolutely lovely time together.  Everyone brought something to share with the group and we all just sat around with some nice folksy music in the background while we chatted, ate some delish food, sipped on coffee/tea/mimosas...mmmmmhmm!  We closed out our brunch time with some Strong Bad and Teen Girl Squad.  It was glorious.

Post brunch, was positively delightful, as well.  The Markster, Meg, Christine and myself went back to REI so I could exchange my parka for a different size - the sleeves were like half-way up my arms when I put the hood up on the first one...that's something I definitely should have checked at the store.  Oh well, REI makes it super easy for co-op members to make returns/exchanges.  We next ventured to a Starbucks for some coffee (we were all spent) and freaking awesome conversation.  Man, I love these kids so much!  After a couple hours there we went to TJMaxx so Meg could make a return and decided to kickoff our semester with a steakhouse dinner at Timber Lodge.  Oh my goodness, y'all, it was amazingly delicious.  And!  They messed up my order so they brought us a ginormous piece of whipped cheesecake.  Ummm...amazingly tasty.  Soooo grood  :)  We really had an awesome Martin Luther King, Jr. Day...it was incredible.  I can't wait to continue building and strengthening my relationships with my bug dorks here...seriously, such blessings to my life.

Week one (or rather, the first 4 days) of semester two was pretty decent, all-in-all.  Nothing went wrong or poorly...always a nice way to start a semester.  I made some more headway on my semester docket as far as what I need to do for my research/thesis stuffs - I still have a lot to do for this semester yet, but I'll get there.  Classes will be quite enjoyable, I think...just a lot of work...and I mean a LOT of work.  My museum studies - practices course will be especially heavy on the work load.  Yikes...papers and projects due every week!  Most of which require going to museums and writing papers and things about exhibits, pieces, etc...time consuming, to say the least.  Not hard or tedious, just time consuming...busy work.  I am excited to have an excuse to get out and see the museums around the area, though, that will be nice.  Time is just so lacking...oi vey...I so need more hours in the day or another day in the week...something, anything!

I'm trying to remember if there was anything super important that happened this week, or if it everything was just same ol' same ol' in the land of grad school...hmmm.  Well, I'll let you know later if I forgot anything.  Oh, we had our first Pig's Eye of the semester tonight.  I left pretty early, I'm just beat - I've fallen into another bought with insomnia...yay, no sleep!  No worries, though.  This happens from time to time, and it always passes with time..sometimes it takes a few months, but it hasn't killed me yet!

Ok, enough about school and work.  I'm sure you're all familiar with my friend Katy, over in Africa, who I've mentioned a number of times.  Well, if you aren't pay her a visit - her blogging is honest, fun, colorful, exciting, broken for the Lord, encouraging, pretty much just all around awesome.  One of her resolutions was to find joy in every day, whether it be in the little things or in big things.  I really like this idea - I think it will serve to help keep each day in perspective; so, even though I'm a few weeks behind, it's never too late to start, right?  I'll start with last Saturday.

Saturday, 15 Jan 2011:  (<-- it's still really weird for me to write 2011) Fun adventures around town with a couple of my favorite bug dorks.

Sunday, 16 Jan 2011:  Made some new friends at church - a lovely young family with two little boys.  Such a blessing!!

Monday, 17 Jan 2011:  Beautiful, real conversation with 3 of my absolute favorite bug dorks.  SUCH A BLESSING!!

Tuesday, 18 Jan 2011:  Meg and I trying to keep our snickers below audibility during insect behavior...it's going to be a gooooood semester  ;)

Wednesday, 19 Jan 2011:  DAY ONE OF INSECT TAXONOMY!!!!!!!!!!  This class = me.  Oh!  And lunch with some of the bug dorks I hadn't seen since being back.  Oh!!  And surviving the campus connector bus!  (I totally felt like a freshman all over again...)

Thursday, 20 Jan 2011:  First Frenatae meeting of the semester = seeing just about eeeeveryone I hadn't connected with since the break.  I love them  :)  Plus, departmental potluck lunch day...so grood.

Friday, 21 Jan 2011:  Catch up chat on the phone with SW...I am so blessed with two incredibly amazing advisors.  Like, really.  SW + RH = advisors extraordinaire  :)

So, yeah...it was a super blessed week, full of joy, joy, joy  :)

And now, my loves, I am off to bed.  Lots to do tomorrow before Meg's big start of the semester potluck bash tomorrow night.  And so, I will leave you with this:

My sleepy, super, super spoiled Jakers dog  :)

Praying all is well in your worlds.

Much love!

Shalom!

~MW

P.S. - it is officially cold, y'all.  This morning it was -18 degrees F...without wind chill...neeeeeeat!

Texas, Our Texas! So Wonderful, So Great!

 courtesy of flickr

Ah, hello my reader loves!

It's been a while, and for that I apologize, but the last three weeks have been jam-packed with the pure awesomeness that is Christmas, Family, Friends, and, of course, TEXAS.

Wow, I so did not want that time to end.  It was wonderful being home in that great state, and being surrounded by my wonderful family and my dear, dear friends was the best Christmas present ever.  I certainly missed my FT friends, though - y'all are definitely dear to my heart...sorry, can't be helped  :)

The break got off to a wonderful start in Arlington with the fam, Jake, friends, and some good ol' music - Hamilton style.  I love music nights with the Hamiltons - so great.

It was a huge blessing to get to spend some time with a few of my girls from BSLC - I miss those precious daughters, and it was wonderful to get to sit and spend some one-on-one time with them, simply listening to what life has looked like for them over the last semester.  Having that time and listening to everything that's been going on with them did make me a touch bitter that I can't be around to walk this part of life with them.  I want so badly to be there to pour into their precious hearts in person...it's just not the same from this far away.  But they are growing up into beautiful daughters of the King - I only hope I get to continue to be a small part of their lives.

Spending time with a few of my ladies from high school was incredible as well - I so miss those girls, and I'm sad I didn't get to spend more time with them and that I didn't get to make it around to everyone there in Arlington - time is SO fleeting!

Christmas was small and quiet, but it was such a huge blessing to get to have Momma home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!!  It's been a while since we've been afforded that privilege.  Christmas dinner was chill, but it was nice to be able to spend it with Mr. Teasley - he's been such a blessing to our family and we were blessed to be able to share the day with him.

From there it was on to the Great Texas Tour - December 2010!!  Jake and I hit the road from Arlington to Lufkin to spend some awesome time with Kristen and B - those three taught me how to shoot, y'all!  I shot Kristen's shotgun and pistol and B's pistol as well.  Jake had a revolver (I think..?) that kinda terrified me...I'll work my way up to that one  ;)  I didn't hit any of the clay disks with the shotgun, but I did hit the target with the pistol!  I'll get those clays next time!

After Lufkin we hit up Huntsville to spend some time with Jake's sweet parents - Mom and Pop Pry, thank you SO much for welcoming me so warmly into your home.  I had so much fun just sitting and visiting with y'all and I can't wait to see your sweet faces again!!  Pop - that fire was epic and I can't wait to sit around more of those chatting with you and listening to your stories and the latest celebrity news ;)  Mom - can't wait to play in that kitchen with you!!

From Huntsville we stopped in CS to hit up Fuego, and coffee shops - super lame that all the good ones were closed for the break, though.  It was nice to get to visit with the Humphrey and Freeman families, too - I so miss y'all!  Girl time with Ricci and Alyssa was such a blessing...I miss that.  Jake and I had a blast hanging out with Kristen and Aaron before making our way down to Houston.  Fuego round 2 and then hitting up Christmas in the Park was sooo so fun.  I was amazed that after 5 winters in CS I had never managed to make it to Christmas in the Park...I feel gypped, just sayin'.  But, it was way fun to experience it with a few of my absolute favorite peoples  :)

Christmas in the Park was a lovely send-off as Jake and I undertook the next leg of our tour: Houston!  We were incredibly blessed to be able to spend time with Chris and Jennah at their rockin' new house - well done, you two!  Can't wait to see how y'all continue to make it into your own.  We had so much fun there, and watching Jake and Chris together, oh man...so fun.  They are definitely brothers who love each other a whole, whole lot.  Love it!

We rang in the New Year with Kacy and Justin, complete with some Just Dance 2, of course!  I should have known that Kacy, the dancing queen, was going to force us to dance with her - I'll admit that it was pretty fun...quite a workout, too!  I was suuuuper sore the next day...a touch pathetic.  It was nice to close the night with some fireworks watching around the neighborhood - well done, Cypress  :)  We started 2011 off marvelously with lunch with Chris & Jennah and Kacy & Justin, followed by some girl time with Kacy (Barnes & Noble + Target...of course!) and the guys crashed at the house.  It was so, so great to spend that time with you, Kacy, love.  I miss your face!!

From Houston we made our way to the Austin-Round Rock Area to see Patrick & Sarah and little Zach, who isn't quite so little anymore!  I canNOT believe how much that munchkin has grown since August!!  I'm gonna need him to slow them horses down!  We also got to visit with Miss Awyssa for a bit which was way fun...her parents loved talking to Jake about Africa...we admittedly abandoned him to go chat outside while they asked him question after question...in our defense we did tell him we were going outside...  To close Austin we made our way over to the Ponder home for a lovely dinner and some Mexican Train and all-around wonderful hangout time.  They certainly have done a wonderful job of pulling that home together so quickly - I. Am. Impressed!  We definitely loved our time in the Austin are - miss y'all so, so much!

After that we stopped back in CS for some final rounds at SRPH, the Heep, and BioControl...Jake had to see his A&M peeps and I had to see mine - it was super awesome meeting his old crew and introducing him to some of my favorite people from the ENTO world.  We closed out the day with some Fuego (are you noticing a trend here?) with the Stanfields and a quick visit with Kristen and Aaron before making our way back to Huntsville for some more time with Jake's fam.

I was so glad that I was able to go back to Huntsville to visit with the Pry family some more before Jake and I had to begrudgingly go our separate ways at the close of our break.  I love being around his family.  It's fun and feels like home.  I miss y'all!!

Then it was time to head to the IAH and send Jake back to Africa...one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do.  Standing there completely helpless as we watched him disappear as he turned the corner to head to his gate was awful.  That's a kind of helplessness that I can't really explain, other than: it was horrible and I never want to experience that again.  Sadly, life is full of goodbyes, and I reckon I should be grateful for the ones that, God willing, aren't forever.  While knowing that we won't see each other for a good 7 months feels like an eternity we are resting in faith that God will bring us safely together again come summer time.  I will say this, though: it was an incredible blessing to be able to stand next to Jake's family at the airport (we missed you, Jennah!) and having B, Kristen, and T there to help distract me was wonderful.

After sending Jake off and drying the tears B, Kristen, and T and I met up with Brandon for some way fun times...Chuy's + hangin' around a park with pretty skies, swings, and cameras = a pretty awesome day.  We got to snag a quick visit with Kelly at the Outlet Mall on our way back to CS, as well.  It ended up being a bearable day  :)

I spent my last day in CS wonderfully (though I missed far too many of you): lunch with the Wharton's and my Ginger girl, hanging at the Health Sci Center with T, B, and Kristen, complete with a brief, yet wonderful visit with my bestie Ricci (miss you so much, lovely!!), dinner at Layne's with Mak, and finally a mini road trip to Waco with B, T, Kirsten, and Bean.  Before the J-Man and his buddies picked me up to make the rest of the trek up to Arlington we roadtrippers from CS dined at the Claypot there in Waco and were blessed to be joined by the wonderful Mal (great catching up with you, lady!!).  Good food, great state, even better company!  Finally said farewell to my loves and hopped in the car with Panda, Harrison, and Jimmy.  We had a rather...eventful trip home...I'm just sayin', if you have to pee around Grandview...wait until you get to the Grandy's in Alvarado...it will save you from banging on gas station doors, Subway doors, and finally running off to a field only to be followed by a state trooper car that will appear from out of no where and will definitely proceed to run it's lights and shine the spotlight on you as you do your business...BUT!  If you just so happen to be an Eagle Scout and have your card on (along with your license) you just might get off with a stern talking to and the advice that the Grandy's up the way is open 'til 4am or so.  Yeps, that happened...thank you Jimmy for providing us with our entertainment for the night  :)

I got to spend the last two days at home with Momma and the boys (Faja is still in Cali with the fam out there).  Sadly, we had to send Fariz off to Chicago for his Cavaliers audition thingy - he should be back home now - and Mom had to work on Saturday and Josh had a zombie party dealio, bummer  :(  But I loved getting to spend Friday with Momma talking about fun things and telling her about my post-Christmas adventures.

I so love my family!!  I miss y'all terribly, terribly!

For those of you who I wasn't able to catch during my time over the holidays: (1) Please forgive me, (2) COME VISIT ME!!!!  :)

Well, I head back to the lab starting tomorrow.  I took today to recoup and settle back into living in the Frozen Tundra and putting my apartment back in order.  BigBoy decided to lay claim to a number of things while I was gone...including the couch...both cushions, neeeeeat.  Oh how lucky that cat is that I fell in love with him in 7th grade ;)  I will say that I hadn't realized how much I miss having him curl up next to me at night until not having him there for 3 weeks...it was nice to have a snuggle buddy again.

Praying you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas and New Year celebration.

I'll keep y'all posted on how grad school semester 2 goes!

Shalom, love, blessings!
~MW

P.S. - it came to my attention during our travels that there are quite a few of you who read the blog but have never made your presence known!  I'd love to hear from y'all on here!  Let me know when you're around the site  :)

snow... Snow.... SNOW... SNOW... SNOOOOOOW!!!

So...things have been pretty crazy here...like...a whole TON of snow got dropped on us within the last 24hrs or so.

Let me just give you a little introduction, before getting to the Blizzard of 2010, though.  Here's a snippet of our first snow...video is a little rough...I got tired of messing with it, but I think you'll get the general idea  :)

And now...here is our RECORD BREAKING SNOW STORM.  The most snow "we've" seen in 19 years.  We got about 16.5 inches here in the Twin Cities, and the snow drifts have been ranging from 3 to about 7 feet deep.  Yuh...it's intense.  Like way.  So....without further ado...enjoy!

[EDIT: I just realized that I misspelled bury...but I could always try to play that extra "f" off as being due to the cold....brrrrr...maybe...?]

So, yeah.....we have a lot of snow hangin' out here.  Yup...just a little.  And with that, I am off.  Those videos took forever and uploading them was a nightmare...why did Microsoft have to go and change Video Maker..whyyyy???  Ah, well, I'll survive, I suppose...or just suck it up and buy Adobe...maybe...some day...

Shalom!

~MW

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

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:

A fresh week!

Salutations! (Charlotte's Web, anyone??)

This week is seeming to be off to a better start (yes, I am well aware that it is only Monday...)! Yesterday, other than the botched attempt at trying a new church (all I'm saying is that the street I was supposed to turn onto does not exist...it's just not there...I drove around for 20min trying to find it and it simply was not there...stupid FT streets...hmph!), was a rather productive day!

I ran a ton of errands (including grocery shopping - best experience yet!) and did a ton of cleaning around the apartment - my desk is no longer a heaping pile of...well...crap. Everything has now been filed away and has it's very own appropriate place in my new home (all of the, "hmmm...not sure what to do with you - I'll deal with you later" things ended up on top of my desk - it was more than awful.). So, that was quite the accomplishment! I cooked some stuffs for my dinners and such after all of the errands (we'll get to all of that in a moment) and cleaned my crazy trashed kitchen that followed that project. I love my kitchen right now - it's gorgeous, I'm just sayin'.

But, errands! Oh the adventures running errands brings. Though not completely successful, they went pretty well. I am still in serious search of Moleskines...my life kind of depends on them. Yes, I am well aware that I can simply purchase these little life essentials online from Moleskine directly...but the I have to wait. Y'all, I'm down to like 4pages in my last cahier!!! I just might die. I'll try not to, but I make no promises. Anywho, aside from my Moleskine search being a bust I got a lot of other stuff done that I needed to!

I went to Target and got the drain baskets I've been needing to get so that I no longer am looking down gaping holes when I take a shower or brush my teeth...I no longer have to fear dropping my Aggie ring or my earrings or something, either. Whew! I also picked up a few things I'd been needing to get for my cubbie in the lab so I can actually settle-into it. Like school supplies!!!!!!!!!!

I got a trashcan and a board and some peg-board peg/hook thingys so I can store some stuffs in my cubbie - like my ladybug from Mika, my butterflies from Momma, pictures of my peeps, verses to keep me sane in the world of evolutionists/athiests/agnostics/etc...you know, the stuff of life :)

I got a lovely new pot (and some potting soil, or course) for my ground orchid, so I could re-pot her and hopefully be rid of those blast scale insects!! Ugh, they gross me out...yes, I just said that a bug grosses me out. These little buggers are just plain mean, though! They infest my beautiful, beautiful orchid, that I've had for over a year now and has given me two absolutely lovely blooming events, and they suck the life out of her!! How incredibly rude!! She does, however, have a lovely new shoot growing - gives me hope that she'll pull through alright.

Picked up a little something "for" Jakers...CHILDPROOFING LOCKS FOR MY CABINET DOORS! In case you haven't heard, he's taken to opening the cabinet under my sink and pulling out my trash can and throwing my trash around everywhere...lovely. So, to remedy the situation I decided I'd childproof my cabinets. With some help from the neighbor I got them all installed last night.

I was so proud of my defeating the war. I left for campus this morning with an extra spring in my step, as I was 100% certain that I was going to come home to a kitchen that did not have trash thrown around it. I walked through my door all excited to see my "well behaved" puppy dog and not have to scold him, and what do I find, but a cowering puppy dog. I'm thinking, "what on earth could you have done that you know you are in trouble??" I make the turn out from my entry way into the kitchen and see the cabinet door open, the trashcan on the floor, my trash bag across the kitchen...and the childproof lock? Totally and completely snapped off. He was so determined to make a mess that he actually broke the lock. As frustrated as I was/am, I gotta hand it to him, that's some serious determination, and I mean, ok, in all honesty, it's pretty funny...CRAZY DOG! So...all you parents out there: what childproofing ticks do you have for those, errr..., way strong chil'ins you have/had running around..??? I'm thinking the magnetized ones, where you have to use the magnet to unlock the door?? Thoughts?

Ok, I had probably the best grocery shopping experience, yet. I went...to...TRADER JOE'S!!! And, my dear readers, it was positively glorious. Ten times more exciting than the day I first set foot in Rainbow. Oh, my heavens, it was just beautiful. I can't do all of my shopping there (it's just too expensive for some things, and they don't have absolutely everything...), but it's nice to have, none-the-less. I may or may not have splurged a bit...I got way good meats (including, but not limited to lovelies like prosciutto!!) , and eggs, and cheese, and yogurt, and umm...jasmine rice, and, and, and!!! And, then I went to Rainbow to get things like PopTarts...convenience still wins on some days...I did get my real coffee from Rainbow, though...Organic Coffee Co., how I have missed you :)

I think I found my new favorite thing to substitute for ice cream...soooo good, and it doesn't make me want to die!!

Ok, so what all did I make as far as dinners and things go?? I made some more jambalaya for last night's dinner and I'll probably make the rest of the week on it, if I can control myself and not keep eating the chicken spaghetti I made....it's just so good! And, I haven't made it in forever, and I like it. And it's cheesy, and it has Rotel in it so it reminds me of home, and it has Rotel in it...did I mention the Rotel??? K, as long as we are clear on that ;)

JAMBALAYA!!!

CHICKEN SPAG!! Pre set stage.

Well, my loves, here I sit with my vanilla honey chamomile tea, and I am thinking it is about time I get to getting ready to settle-down for the evening. I love you all, and I hope you've enjoyed this more up-beat post :)

Shalom & Blessings!
~MW

Jake's First Adventure in the WIL-DY-NESS

So, today was pretty great...not at all entirely productive, but meh, that's whatevs.

This morning we all (myself, BigBoy, the hissers, Jakers) woke up to a crisp, cool morning - seriously, I was sporting a hoodie, jeans, and socks. With the wind essentially gone from yesterday (which prevented us from playing after I left the lab), the conditions were absolutely perfect for taking a stroll in the park. So, off to one of the local dog parks we went. This place is just up the way from my apartment, maybe 2mi or so, so it's pretty close - bonus. The really cool thing about this particular park is that it has a few fenced-in off-leash areas as well as general walking paths (happen to be paved...nice for running. I'm thinking...I've found a good route - inclines and everything!!), so it works for everyone: if your out for a stroll with the fam/friends, going for a run, or if you want to take your pup(s) out to run around and play. Awesome.

We got there early enough today that we had to big off-leash area all to ourselves - fantastical. We had a blast. Played ball for a bit and then hiked around on the trails that have been carved out in that area...on such adventures is where the following video takes place, enjoy:

Well...after that I took my rather dirty pup out to the walking trail for some general strolling and perusing of the gorgeous nature that was surrounding us. I kinda geeked out for a bit looking at all the trees and decided that in my "fee time" one of my activities will be to flip through my National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees, Eastern Region. I just enjoy trees. Today I for sure saw red pines (gorgeous...also, turns out they are the state tree for MN...neat!), eastern cottonwoods, some variations of oaks I'm not familiar with, and some other things I need to look up. I was awestruck by the red pines though. Such magnificent organisms. I could have stood under them for hours just listening to their creaking in the breeze. SO cool. Here, look!

A little piece of heaven, for sure.

I also came across a lot of awesomeness like this:

Can't see it too well, but that's a swampy wetland!

Shelf fungus!!

We had a blast, to say the least. And Jake really enjoyed imagining himself running after all of the grey squirrels and bunnies and birds we saw...he's quickly learning the command, "leave it." It works for pretty much everything! And he's a fast learning - you can totally teach this "old dog" new tricks :)

After our adventure in the wilderness we headed home for a serious bath. And, I mean serious. I think I had him in the tub for a good hour...that's just how dirty he had managed to get himself, silly doggy. But now he's all glossy again and smells lightly of lavender, cinnamon, and patchouli - divine.

We were both rather tuckered out after all of that and pretty much took the rest of the day off. He slept, I played with the video editor I downloaded to put that little "film" together for y'all.

Tomorrow is a new church and I need to run up to the lab for a spell so I can back-up all of my files from my laptop onto my desktop there so I can send Yoshi off to Toshiba to get his CD-drive looked at and repaired. Which means, my dear readers, that once I send him off I'll be out of the blog world, at least as far as pictures and things go for at the very least a week...7-10 days is the estimated repair time. Here's hoping for less than that! But it won't cost me a dime - they're even sending me the box and postage to send it in, gotta love killer customer service :) While he's gone, I'll try to do updates from my comp at the lab, but those will probably be somewhat minimal...we shall see.

Now that I've told you all about today (er...now yesterday, I suppose...I really should be getting to bed, but I just don't think I'll be able to fall asleep...hmph!), I reckon I should fill you in on yesterday (Friday)!

Friday rocked. Like, really, really rocked. I spent a good portion of the day visiting and working with SW up at the lab, which was simply awesome. I love this woman. Aside from the fact that she's an incredible scientist, beyond accomplished researcher/author, and is a good teacher, she is positively endearing. Such a delight to work with - and, she gives hugs. This, I absolutely love. Especially right now...when hugs are rather non-existent (I NEED A CHURCH FAMILY STAT!).

We went over a lot of general stuff regarding Euchaetes morphology and I have a few specimens to dissect next week (super stoked...like you have no idea - morphology and dissections are what got me hooked on entomology; thank you, Dr. Wharton...I blame you for everything, in the best possible way!), which will be just great. Dissections will really help me get familiar with these critters and should give me a much better handle on it all when it comes to reading the literature regarding arctiids, in general.

After we finished running around collecting stuff for me to do next week, discussing papers, setting up rough meeting/researching schedules for the semester, and just plain enjoying one another's company, she went off to her other world a few buildings over and I got to working on some me stuff in the lab: setting up some things on my desktop (p.s. - I feel way legit having my own lab computer...I mean, I won't get to keep it when I finish in 3yrs, but now I don't have to store everything on my laptop! Aaaand, this thing has a huge monitor...it's gonna be awesome when I start making phylogenies! Holla!), scanning some lit (the department has a scanner that emails the scans to you in pdf form - so awesome...and, I have Adobe publisher on the desktop...WIN!), setting up my scope/dissection station, stuff like that. Yay! Love it. Love, love, love it.

Well, classes finally start on Tuesday...I'm less nervous about this starting classes this semester than I ever have been before...weird. In my head I should be way more nervous than any other time I've started a new semester - this is, ahem, grad school... But, I don't know, it's just kind of a, "Meh...here we go again...let's make those grades..." type thing. Weird. Really, really weird. Basically, God rocks. I really haven't had any nerve issues since I got here. Now, those last two months leading up the move, oh my business, was I a wreck?! Seriously, ask anyone - I was an absolute mess. But since I've arrived, especially since I started setting up my home and all that jazz, I've been surprisingly at peace with basically everything. I feel extremely comfortable and at home in Hodson (the ento building) and my lab. I'm extremely comfortable with SW - I'm still figuring out the thresholds and boundaries with our relationship, but that's to be expected, and everything is different in grad school, as compared to undergrad...that is taking some getting used to. I experienced some of that with Wharton once I hit my senior year and we were going to conferences and doing presentations together and then after graduation, but that was different than this too, because I'd known him for over half of my collegiate career...he had taken care of me in more ways than one. He's family, at this point. But, I digress. I love this environment - makes me a little nervous, to be honest - I don't want to do academia...I just don't want to, but I'm afraid I'm going to get sucked in... I've never entirely nixed the idea of a phD, I've just said that I don't want to do it - I don't like all the politics involved with professorship, especially in the science world. But hey, no need to worry about that right now. I have plenty of time to figure all of that out :)

Well, kiddies, I think I might be able to actually get some shut-eye now.

Love to you all!
Shalom,
~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