Sweet Summer Time

I can't wait to have kids so that I can make one of these with them:

Courtesy of whatever...

I came across this beauty a few weeks ago in my perusings and fell in love with it.  While I haven't drawn up my own summer list, I have had quite the summer thus far:

- Trip to Tejas for a wedding, complete with lots of visits with my Texas loves, and LOTS of Tex-Mex!
- Cirque du Soliel - Ovo
- Went to a high school graduation and helped with the graduation party (all for SW's oldest kiddo who now works in the insect museum with me!)
- Helped run a successful, though chilly, BioBlitz
- Hosted an eggroll making party (AWESOME fun!)
- Played a departmental game of kickball, complete with bbq!!
- Big bday bbq bash for all of our June bday peoples, complete with fire!!!
- Went to a comedy club - haven't laughed that hard in a long time
- Canoed around the lake with my McQueen's and Meg...Jakers had a blast doggy-paddling around...it took him some getting used to, though  ;)
- 4th of July parade and picnic!!!  It was very Pollyana  :)
- Rockin' 4th of July bbq over in Uptown and got to watch all of the fireworks shows all around town, sooo amazing
- Went on a canoe trip over in Wisconsin.  Saw so many bald eagles!!  It was incredible.
- Lab bbq at RH's awesome home...I could sit in that backyard forever, I'm pretty sure
- Strolled around one evening with one of my sweet friends and her sweet baby
- Made my way a little ways west to hang over at Kreutter's grandma's place on the lake.  Had an absolute blast hanging out with her fam and Jakers looooved swimming and playing outside all day
- Have so loved hitting up the farmers market each week with Callie and anyone else who can make it

And, the summer isn't quite over yet!!  Woohoo!

~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Sunday was way fun, because Kreutter spent the day with me and I got to introduce her to a few of my FT bugdorks.  Everyone met up over at my place bright and early and we made our way downtown for some breakfast at a sweet little place just down from the market.  Check out what was hanging from the ceiling!!!

 

That's right...that's totally a griffon skeleton!!!  Baller.

 The gang - they so make me happy :)

I love the market...it makes me incredibly happy and the produce is outstanding.  Here's a little (un-edited) taste of what one visit will give you in the way of fresh, local, organic produce+ for just $10:

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Lettuce ($2)! Half of a $5 bouquet! Decorative cabbage 

(from the $5 bouquet) in a globe bowl! The other half of the $5 bouquet! 

$1 worth of basil plants! A dozen golden potatoes ($2) that I baked up 

with olive oil, pepper, cumin, and Parmesan cheese - yum!

Ahhh, the farmers market...I just love it  :)

Ahem...for an example of just how much joy it gives me....I am going to allow you feast your eyes on this....as I cover my eyes in shame...I just get so excited!!

OK, so, in my defense...there was another picture being taken from above at this 

point in time...  See?  Look at Mark, sitting next to me, he's making a goofy 

face, too!  ;)  We were all sitting on the horse-drawn wagon riding back to 

the parking lot.  How much more fun could a trip to the market get?!

I have another treat for y'all!

A video of Jakers out at the lake!!

All-in-all, we had an absolute blast this weekend  :)

And, this upcoming weekend should be just as stellar - Saints game tailgate party!

And then, the weekend after that Elaine comes to visit!!!!  

This summer, while it's had its low points, for sure, just keeps getting better and better and I can't wait to see how the rest of it turns out.

Alrighty kids, I'm outty for now.

Lots of love!

Shalom,

~MW

Ho-Hum...it's Monday...

Greetings, all.

So...as I am certain most of you have figured out...today is Monday.  Monday, Monday, Monday...you always come too quickly and last far too long.  Just sayin'.

Anywho, I have a ton of things I've been needing to blog about: the close of my second semester of grad school, summer, some things I've learned in the last year or so...the list goes on.  But, tonight, as it will most definitely be after 9 by the time I finish this post and I would like to get to bed a reasonable hour tonight, I think I'm just going to make this a short and sweet update.

Last week was hectic, but good.

Wrapping up the loose ends from BioBlitz, curating all of the specimens we collected in those 24hrs (with some help from the Chanimal - thanks, yo!), and undertaking the task of rearing moths after finding myself with a large amount of moth eggs on my hands kept me buuuusy! 

Aside from all of that I wrestled with Biota2 as I attempted the supposedly simple task of transferring my PC files to our lab MAC.  This used to be a simple, painless task...back in 2002...but, of course, the converter hasn't been updated since then and is no longer supported on Leopard or Snow Leopard.  Neat.  Thanks 4D for not staying on top of that...sigh.  So, after an ordeal of uninstalling and re-installing the software on my laptop (just in case something got messed up during the initial installation...it didn't), RW came to the realization that he had lost his license number for the program...awesome.  So, I called up the distributor to see if maybe, just maybe they could look it up for us - they could!  And they did!!  Whoop! 

They sent us the codes late Friday so I was able to get everything rolling again this morning.  But, I still have the issue of needing to take my database files between a PC and MAC.  So, first thing (OK, maybe 2nd or 3rd thing) tomorrow I'm calling them up again to see if there is a new way around this issue, if not...SW said she'd buy "me" a new MAC for the lab!!!  Holla!  Can I just stumble upon a ridiculously large amount of discarded cash so I can buy my own MAC???  Maybe?  Not likely?  Dang...worth a shot.  So, I'll let you know what happens there, because if the company says there's no solution SW said she'll purchase the new comp before the week is up.  {I kind of really want this latter option to happen...I know...I'm a terrible person.}

The caterpillars are...well...not fairing so well  :(  I walked in this morning to find large amounts of them...shriveled up and dead, dead, dead...depressing first thing on a Monday morning.  I talked to SW about it and she exclaimed in apology for not mentioning that they should have been transferred to a tupperware container to ensure that they didn't suffer from dessication.  Even though there were moist maple leaves and a damp paper towel in the net-cage...the air inside the building was still to dry.  Blast!  Ah well, learning experience.  There are a few survivors who are now nestled safely in a tupperware container...so we'll see how they look in the morning.  Fingers crossed!


Backing up a few days now.

Friday was the day I the majority of the fighting with Biota, but I was (pleasantly and humorously) interrupted from that battle by a text from SW that read something along the lines of:

I may need some salad

and photo board help. Do

you have time today? 

Headed home with the fixings 

and will call when I get there.

Thanks life preserver!

Haha...OK, so here's some background on that text.  Her oldest graduated from high school a week or two ago (it was actually a pretty fun graduation ceremony!!).  The graduation party was scheduled for Saturday the 18th.  SW was out of town through Wednesday of that week...talk about a brave mom!  Anywho, the 3 "men" of the house neglected to get any of the to-do list she had left from them to do for the week that she was gone so that she could focus on the actual party details once she came back in town.  Panic ensued on Thursday (I got a text that day saying she would see me Friday if she weren't jailed for killing offspring first!  Ha!  Gotta love it.).  I offered to help her with anything between Thursday and Saturday...and so came the text on Friday.  

After I got home from the lab I ran Jakers around for a bit and then packed up my crafting supplies and headed out to her place.  I had hardly made it through the door when her husband exclaimed, "Oh thank goodness you're here!  You're co-advisor is about to go insane!!!!!"  Hahahahaha...yes, I laughed outloud and saw the agreement mixed with furry in SW's eyes...poor woman - she was spent and still had dinner to make...for her family and 3 guests (they had two ornithologists (her hubs is an ornithologist) staying with them that night and then there was me).  I ushered her out of the kitchen and into the dinning room where there were mounds of photographs and poster board strewn about.  I told her as long as she gave me an idea of what she was going for I would do my best to finish the photo boards and then move on to whatever other task she needed done.  I thought she was going to cry out of sheer gratitude!  She set to making dinner and I put the photo boards together.  And then...we all sat down to a lovely dinner of grilled venison steaks with grilled veggies and potatoes...complete with a glass of wine - perfection.  Once dinner was over the boys all headed to the den and SW and I hung out in the kitchen and had girl time.  It was positively delightful.

Saturday was another full day!  It started with an egg roll making party at my place (Ummm...so awesome...and no...I didn't take any pictures.  I know!  I'm sorry!!!) which took a good part of the day and then we stuffed our faces with a ton of egg rolls.  We made somewhere in the range of 70-80...there were 12 left...There were about 8 of us altogether...ha.  After that ordeal came to a close a number of us made the trek over to SW's for the graduation party, complete with much more food....and....CAKE POPS!!!!  We all slept well that night.

Sunday was another day, but a blessed one at that.  I got to visit with Skate and talk to my pops and see all of my loves at church.  Win, win, win!

There's the latest and greatest...how's that for short?  Ha...I just kept remembering more and more things that I felt were blog worthy!!  

OK, for reals, I'm closing this post with a farewell and good night.

Praying blessings upon you.

Shalm,

~MW

All that I know is I'm breathing....

  **Deeeeep breath**

What a crazy couple of months or so it has been up here in the FT.

Sometimes I feel like my life is moving so fast that I wake up some mornings and I can't remember the day before or what day it is or what I have on the docket for that day.

Sometimes I feel like I'm simply going through the motions and that I have forgotten why I am where I am, and why I'm doing what I am doing.

Sometimes I have so much to do, that I just can't sleep.  I can't turn off my brain.

Sometimes I just want to disappear into the North Woods and simply be and be with my God...I haven't been the best daughter of late.

Sometimes I think I forget to breathe...

But I do know that I am still breathing...and right now that's about all I feel that I can do.

This semester is proving to be busier than I could have ever imagined.  Courses are proving to be heavier than expected (by myself and SW...she's just as surprised as I am, thankfully); the to-do list regarding my research seems to be growing daily; I have loan specimens coming in from all over North America on just about a weekly basis - and, processing them is extremely time consuming; forming a committee is turning out to be quite trying; getting prepped for my first committee meeting means I have to have a bunch of stuff written up about myself, my research, etc.; the whole department is getting ready for the ESA-NCB meeting in March - which means we have to get our abstracts written and submitted by then end of this week, and then actually preparing our posters/talks, a number of us students are busy studying and practicing for the Linnaean Games (kind of like an ento quiz bowl), and then there's always the general prep that comes with hosting a meeting (yay...); we are about to be busy getting ready for the prospective student "Welcome Weekend" the end of March; there are number of outreach opportunities coming up that we students will be busy with; oh, and fellowship/grant applications are all due here in a couple of weeks; oh, and that thing called a social life...trying to keep that one going too; and church is getting busy in the best possible way (we start small groups this week!!).  Whew!  As a result of all of that, I feel like I have been a neglectful daughter, sister, student, friend, girlfriend, etc.  The days leave me so incredibly exhausted that all I want to do is fall into bed and sleep, but I simply do not have the time to do that, and even when I do finally let myself fall into that dreamy bed of mine I find no rest.  I'm tired.  I'm spent.  As Bilbo Baggins would put it, " I feel... thin. Sort of stretched, like... butter scraped over too much bread."  I'm ready for this semester to be over.  Even though I am so incredibly happy and blessed here - so incredibly blessed, I cannot even begin to explain.  I am simply ready for the "lazy" summer (haha...funny joke) to arrive so that I can go home for Mak and Wes's hitching day, play with my moths and actually get research done, make another trip home for when Jake and the Stones come home from Africa, head back up to the FT to do MORE research (!!!), go to Arizona to learn about collecting and prepping leps for a couple of weeks (!!!), help Panda get settled in (he's been accepted here at the U!!!) and hopefully do the same with Jake, maybe take a few museum trips with SW to look at type specimens, aaaand go camping and collecting (!!!) with RH and Frenatae amongst and between the other events of the summer.  I'm just ready to be done with classes, really.

But!  My God is not tired, He is not spent, and I can find rest, comfort, and peace in that promise.  He is never failing.  Even when I feel like I simply cannot keep moving, He carries me along.  How beautiful it is to know that being a daughter of the King means that even when I fall down (which is quite often) He is always there and ready to pick me back up again and help me dust off my hands and knees, pour peroxide and rub ointment on the scrapes, and bandage them up for me.

I love my God and I love that He loves me unconditionally...scrapes, bruises, scars, and all  :)

Speaking of scars, I've been dealing with some of those lately...old experiences/memories/heartaches have been floating above my head and lingering there.  It's frustrating at times, but forces me to stop and remember how much I have learned and grown through those experiences and how blessed I am to now have that wisdom and knowledge that I probably would not posses otherwise.

What funny things scars are.  I don't think you can really ever forget where one came from.  It's interesting to me how different scars are from bruises.  You can find a bruise and have no clue how it got there, but the deep wounds that result in scars are incredibly difficult to miss.  I find it funny, too, that scars don't have to be, necessarily, tied to a bad experience.  Some of my scars remind me of awesome runs on the mountain bike trails, or running around llama farms as a kid, or some of the best performances from my ballet days; while others remind me of running into things or wrestling with kittens at the vet clinic (kittens are eeeeevil!!!  Cute...but eeeeeevil!!!).  Now, those are all physical scars of the flesh, but I think the same can be true for emotional/spiritual scars.  I have scars from mission trips where I saw such unbelievable poverty that pieces of my heart were tugged away, but the experience was so beautiful in seeing people abandon themselves recklessly at the feet of Christ, and seeing myself and the other people on the trips with me grow in their faith and relationship with the Lord, that those scars remind of beautiful things along with the heartbreak.  And, of course, other scars are simply reminders of heartbreak.  Can't be helped.  But, I digress.

Things really have been exhaustingly (it's a word...promise...thank you, English language for being absurdly ridiculous so as to allow us to pretty much make any word we want into a "real word"!) wonderful here.  I had one of the best birthday weeks I have ever had - it's definitely going down in the record books as one of the best.  I was surprised by many of you with little cards and messages and gifts throughout all of that week (THANK YOU!!), and a few are still trickling in!  Y'all are awesome.  I received some of the most breathtakingly beautiful orchids from Jake...RH made me go pick them up from the office and bring them to class with me, haha...everyone was quite impressed.  And, I am very pleased to say, that they are still alive and well in their little vase in the Insect Museum - everyone gets to enjoy them on a daily basis.  I really want to try and sprout one or two of the spikes...I need to look into that or run by Linder's and talk to the plant people to get their thoughts and suggestions on that undertaking.  Anyways, I was also surprised by the Bug Dork crew up here with a fantastic dinner part at Chino-Latino!  I don't think that I have ever been so surprised before.  Megan did an awesome job of pulling it all together, and everyone here was amazing at keeping me totally and completely clueless, well done, kids, well done  :)  Once those pictures get forwarded to me I'll throw some up.  We had a blast...though we all paid for it a bit the next morning...it was definitely worth the mid-week late night.  That Saturday RH and a number of us Bug Dorks took on the frozen waters of Lake Owasso and went ICE FISHING!  We had a great time, despite not catching a thing.  So fun.  Really...haha.  And then, Sunday, of course, we had a rockin' Super Bowl party.  SO MUCH GOOD FOOD!  It was glorious.


This weekend everyone seems to be catching up from last weekend, haha.  We were all rather unproductive on the school/research front.

So things have been busy, stressful, crazy, but wonderful all at the same time.  I'll try to post some pictures later on, but for now I need to get back to work.  I have grant drafts and abstracts to finish by tomorrow.

Praying all is wonderfully with you, my lovelies.

Shalom!
~MW

P.S. - I promise I haven't forgotten about finishing the new blog layout...it was either work on the layout or write a post this weekend - I figured you would all rather have an update  :)  I'll get to it...eventually, promise!

P.P.S. - I almost forgot to share this little gem with y'all!  This little article about 20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback is pretty amazing -  and, I vote we start using these words again  :)   Also, MY BIG BROTHER IS FAMOUS!  Check out this little article talking about his new band Shivaree (it talks about some other bands, as well, but Shivaree is the best...of course!).  Check out some of their songs - they are way fun...raw recordings, but still awesome  :)

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!

O, Give Thanks to the Lord, for He is Good...

...and His Steadfast Love Endures Forever. ~Ps. 118:1

Thanksgiving. What is it?
* A time to remember
* A time to share
* A time for family and friends - old and new
* A time to feel closer to the people you love, even if they are far away
* A time to give thanks and praise to our Heavenly Daddy for all that He has so graciously blessed our lives with.

That list can go on and on, but I think it sums up Thanksgiving pretty well, at least for the nutshell version.

I was a little nervous about how I would handle this Thanksgiving, being in a new place and incredibly far away from my family and closest friends. I initially thought I would have to spend it alone, and that made me sad, as I am used to spending the day with my Daddy and little brothers.

The boys and I always start the day off with our "Turkey Day Tiff" over watching football or the Macy's Parade as I'm getting things started in the kitchen. I looove, love, LOVE the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and since I have been in charge of running the kitchen on Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember I always win ("Do you want your Thanksgiving Feast or do you want to watch football in the den?? Your choice!") and the punks begrudgingly trot off to the formal living room to watch their football games between 9 and noon (and then I try to convince them to let me watch the dog show...that one doesn't always work...we often come to an agreement to flip back and forth and they usually let me watch the groups that I am particularly interested in...like the sporting groups and herding groups - all the fun ones! Those are usually the ones they secretly want to watch too, so I think that's why they "let" me watch those ones all the way through...shhhh, don't tell!)...Pops usually makes rounds - 'cause he's awesome and likes football AND the parade and loves all of his kiddos, 'cause he's the best dad ever - yep, sorry, my dad is the best and there's no changing my mind on this one :)

I did miss spending my day in the kitchen this year, even though by the time everything is ready I am usually beyond exhausted, have a killer headache, feel like my back is going to explode, and want my feet to be cut off (yay, tile floors...)...yes, inspite of all of that I still missed it. Quite a bit. I did get to make a dessert for Thanksgiving this year and help out with my Minnesota family's kitchen adventures, though - so my kitchen time wasn't totally in the red. Whew!

So...what did I do for Thanksgiving this year?? I was beyond blessed to spend the day with SW and her beautiful, beautiful family. Oh man, they are so great. I am actually taking her husband's (BZ) class this semester, so it was fun to get to interact with him outside of class. He and their two boys are pretty big hunters so we had lots of fun meats to nibble on AND BZ sent me and some of his grad students (who also joined us for the day) home with some gorgeous venison steaks - WIN! AND, SW sent me home with a pumpkin bread loaf!!! DE-LISH!

We really had a lovely day. I got to their lovely home around 1pm with Jakers in-tow. We did some doggy introductions upon our arrival. Jake and Chip got along pretty well, but Zeke wasn't too thrilled with Jake. I think they would have done well running around the back yard together to get the pecking orders established, but we opted to just do crate rotations with the pups. Chip lucked out and got to hangout with whomever of the other two dogs got to run free - so he had a grrrrreat day. Jake really enjoyed all the love he got from the 16 or so people who were there for the day. I did learn, however, that I really need to work on his jumping...oh man, he was trying to steal everyone's food out of their hands! Fortunately they were pretty much all dog people so it didn't really phase them any. But, I now have another project to work on with him. It was great fun to watch him and Chip run around together in the back yard, too - I love watching him play with other dogs. So fun!

It was a lot of fun hanging out with BZ's grad students. My TA for BZ's class was with us too, which was a lot of fun - I've enjoyed chatting with him after classes and such, so it was nice to visit with him outside of class as well. SW and BZ's family was pretty fun as well, and my sopapilla cheesecake was a huge hit! I definitely had to share the recipe before they all left. Yay, Texas desserts making it to the Frozen Tundra!! :)

After everyone left I hung out with SW and BZ's two boys for a little bit. Hanging out with them really made me miss my little bros, but it was huge blessing to get to visit with them. They are super kids. One is a senior in high school, the other is in junior high, so they are just a touch younger than my baby brothers, respectively. I really hope I get to know them better as the school year progresses - I'm hoping to be able to go to some of their extra curricular events and such too...I way miss getting to do go to my brothers' events.

I finally decided to pack up my pup and head home around 9:30 last night. They helped me cart Jake's humongo crate (it's the one we used for Joshua's sweet golden retriever before she passed...so it's a bit large for my stumpy cow dog, but it works) out to my car and SW sent me off with a great hug and kiss on the cheek. I seriously almost started crying on my way home last night, my heart was so full.

I have been so incredibly blessed this Thanksgiving, by the people here in the FT and by all of you back home who have made sure to remind me that you care and that I am still a part of your lives. Thank you all so much for that.

It was hard being away from family, but it was great being a part of a different kind of family up here. And having snow on the ground for Thanksgiving is something I can't even begin to remember the last time I experienced - it was pretty awesome.

Basically, God is good and hasn't let me forget how much He loves me and has shown me how He knows exactly how to take care of me when I need a little extra help here and there.

I pray you all had a truly blessed Thanksgiving, and I can't wait to see all of my Texans in less than a month!

Shalom!
~MW

P.S. - Way to BTHO t.u. yesterday, Ags! So, so proud to be an Aggie - I. love. my. school!

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:

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

Phone Sorrows

Hello, lovelies!

Well, first I must inform all of you that my cell phone has gone on the fritz. Therefore, if you have texted me at all today...I cannot open your messages. Lame, I know. I will be visiting AT&T tomorrow to see what they say. {**new phone?!** I can dream...}

Today was...an interesting day.

SW and I had scheduled a meeting for this morning at 9. I'm thinking, sweet, I can test the bus out and not have to worry about if I'll make it to class or something. Well, it's a good thing I did! The stop for the bus I catch to campus is about a 10min walk {and that's at a brisk pace} from my apartment. Not awful, just wish it was a touch closer {I'm thinking about the windy winters...}. So, I get to the corner where the transit site said my bus would pick up {and I'm even a minute or two early} to see my bus zooming past. I'm not entirely sure it even stopped at all. "Crap. Now what do I do??" There was another bus pulling up across the street, so I ran over and asked the driver if his bus could get me to campus, even with a connection or something. What did I get in response? A blank stare followed by, "Yeah, I don't know..." Neat. Next mode of action: call dad! "Dad, when is the next time that bus 61 comes through this area?" "Not for another 45min..." So, then, all I had left to do was to run back to the apartment {OK, so I walked even more briskly...it was already warming up for the day} grab the car, and pray that I can find some public/pay parking somewhere within a 10min walk or so.

Finally found a pay lot, conveniently right behind my building (!), and made it up the insect museum where I was to meet SW, and I was only 2-3min late. I was impressed, I'm not gonna lie. I was not, however, impressed $7 I had to pay to get out of the lot...weak sauce. SW ended up being about 30min late, so, as it turns out, I could have waited for the second bus and made it in time...cest la vie. She and I ended up having a nice visit, none-the-less. Got some specifics loosely laid out for what my course work will look like this fall and in the spring.

SW and I also got to chat about my actual research and some of the things it will entail. I'll be honest, I'm in a bit over my head right now...I know nothing about leps {Lepidopteran = moths & butterflies}...nothing. Give me my parasitoid wasps any day of the week and I can hold my own, but leps?! Now they are something I'm only familiar in hating {when they are dead, at least}. Every hymenopterist {Hymenoptera = wasps, ants, bees} hates dead leps...they get in our traps and their wing scales muck everything up so we can't see our wasps. Very frustrating. But now I get to look at them not in my etoh traps :) I am rather excited about learning all about a new organism, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified out of my mind to start something so new and foreign to me.

But! SW is awesome and lent me some of her "moth bibles" so I can start familiarizing myself with them - particularly the arctiids and even more particularly, Eucaetes. I'm way excited to start paging through these books

SW helped write both of these!!

So that was productive. I then made my way over to Rainbow Foods...which, may I just go on a little bunny trail with you for a moment? K, good. Rainbow Foods just might help to make the next three years survivable. I walked through those sparkling automatic doors Sunday afternoon into what I thought was Heaven. Beautiful produce, beautifully displayed. CLEAN floors...they were practically gleaming! CLEAN smell. Marvelously organized. I was home. There will, most likely, be no more Cub Foods runs...unless it's an emergency or something. But, I digress. Today, I made my way over to Rainbow {p.s. - I can't help but hear the, "double rainbow allll the way" guy in my head every time I go/think of Rainbow...makes me chuckle every time...I don't think it will ever get old} and picked up a little pre-paid bus pass to get my by over the next few days 'til my student ID gets issued. {However, I spoke to non-profit guy about the buses today and he had some less than comforting things to say and suggested that I stay away from the buses...sigh.}

I rearranged some of my living room furniture into a position I think I am pleased with for the moment...still have lots to do...sorry this whole setting my home thing is taking me so long...I've had to stop and do other things here and there, which makes for slow progress.

Oh! Big news, though: I got my interwebs today!!! Guy was super nice and we had a nice chat. He lives in Chicago, but is here for a few weeks helping out the Twin Cities crew with their increased work load. Cool.

Mmm, I made some of those frozen-allow to rise-then bake rolls with my dinner tonight...SO worth waiting for them to rise. They are delish. It's like I made them myself...only with 1/4 of the effort! WIN!

Well, I think that's all for now. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my "things I love about my apartment" post. It's in the works :)

Shalom!
~MW

Yes, yes, I know...

****SEE EDIT AT END!!****

...It has been way too long since I last updated and I promised you all an update on the Minnesota trip, and, and, and...I know... So, here goes! Hold on to your horsies, kiddies - a fast and furious ride, this entry will be. {Haha, do you like how I just intertwined prairie with The Fast & The Furious with Starwars...blissfully awesome}

Minnesota! {Now to lovingly be referred to as The Frozen Tundra}
So, most of you are up to date on the fact that I went to Minnesota for The U's prospective grad student "Welcome Weekend" a few weeks ago. Now for how awesomely God moved over the course of 2.16 days {Exact enough for you??}:

* I arrive at the airport circa 8:30/8:45pm to be greeted by one of the faculty members {who also happens to be the woman I have been corresponding with and dying to work with...let's call her Lep} with a hug. Yes, a hug!! How awesome is that?! For those of you who know me in "real life" you know how much of a hug person I am. For those of you who only know me via the interwebs...I LOVE HUGS...like, seriously. I could hug people all day and it would never get old. So, if you ever need a hug, I'm your gal! ;) Anyways, back to the story...

* From the airport I am shuttled around the sleepy "town" to my host's apartment. I was kind of nervous about staying with an ento student who I didn't know...cause, if any of you know any ento students, well, then you know that we can be a little, er...odd. Haha. But, fortunately, Robin was absolutely delightful. A lifelong Minnesotan {I guess I should find out if that's what they are really called...haha}, a non-ento undergrad degree, and a current ento PhD student - we got along quite nicely. So that was another blessing to ease my nerves a bit.

* Day one of the "Welcome Weekend" began with a meet & greet amongst the other students who were there interviewing {I was like 2min late, because the bus was running late, and I missed all of the introductions...I felt so small!!}. Then we were presented with a talk on the Ento Department and the program itself - you know one of those selling presentations: here's our awesome history, what we are doing now, and why you should come here...cause we're that awesome. In all honesty, it was pretty interesting and nicely executed. Oh man, then they showed us their insect collection/museum!!! We all nerded-out hardcore...this thing is immaculate and HUGE!! They said it's the 2nd largest collection in the US, either on a university campus or overall...I can't remember which one it was exactly...either way, that's amazing - and it was SO COOL!

* Now begins day one of interviews. To my pleasant surprise it was all a double-sided interview. Not only was the department and it's faculty interviewing us as candidates for their program, but we were also interviewing them to see if they really were as awesome as we thought, basically. I met with 7...yes, 7 professors in one day. 7! Each meeting was about 30min long...and they became increasingly more exhausting. Saying the same thing about yourself over and over again and trying to be just as excited about it each time and then asking the same questions and hearing what that many people study and what they are involved in and what they do outside of research/teaching....geeeeeez! It was an incredible experience, but just as incredibly exhausting.

* Highlights of day one: That afternoon I met with...hmm, let's call him Tricho. Anywho, we were having an awesome visit and then he asks me if Lep has talked to me about him being a co-advisor for me. No...she hasn't mentioned that. He goes on to explain that he would like to advise me alongside Lep so that when she is detained by her 20billion other commitments I will still have someone on hand to provide guidance in my research should I need it. And that he was very excited to work with me throughout the next few years if I didn't object. I - was - dumbfounded. Totally in awe that professors have been discussing me and that not one, but TWO professors want to advise me. Wait, what?? Is this real life?! Um, yeah...it totally happened. In all honesty, I'm still in shock. I of course did not and do not object to this! What a blessing! Having more than one major professor can be a bad thing, but in this situation it will be awesome. Oh yeah...and dinner was spectacular...I already have a new
{though pricey!!} addiction, haha.

* Day two was a bit more chill - thank the Lord! I was totally wiped after day one. But, day two was by far the most exciting: Lep and I finally got to sit down one-on-one (well, with the inclusion of her recently graduated PhD student) and discuss my/our future as far as the next few years are concerned.

{Side-note: the few weeks leading up to my trip to MN were insane. I had really started to doubt what my motives for going to grad school were: Is this something I am just wanting to do so that I can say, "I have my master's in Entomology..."; or is this something that am following after the Lord in, in an effort to glorify Him with my life? I was wondering if maybe I shouldn't just go get my teaching certification and just head straight into teaching after my awesome experience subbing at PCA... Overall, I was very confused and was pleading with the Lord to grant me some inkling of direction, clarity, anything. I mean, I would have been happy with as little as a weird feeling, or something as minuscule as that. I was trusting in the knowledge of God's never failing faithfulness (yes, I know that is a rather redundant and repetitive statement, but it was intentional) that He would grant me some sort of something during my time in MN. Not only did He grant me an inkling, but He handed me a silver platter...all I had to do was accept it. How's that for a teaser?!}

So, we get to visiting, she shows me her lab, and all that jazz, and things are going smoothly. Then we get to talking about the grant, which includes talking about the project. Let me just say this: I'm jealous of myself, haha! No, but really, this project is beyond cool and I have huge opportunities to experience some once-in-a-lifetime things while I work on it. I'm stoked. {I'll fill you all in on some more specifics of the project later on...} So, I'm getting very excited as she is describing the history behind the project and everything it entails, and then she says this to me, "Now, I'd like to propose something else to you... {At this point God whispered, pretty loudly, to be honest, "Listen closely, Heather...this is important. Listen."} What would you say to getting a minor in Museum Studies while you are here?" Intrigued, I respond, "Sounds interesting...what all would that entail?" "For you, you would get a minor with an emphasis on education. So, you would take classes geared towards creating and implementing educational outreach programs through the museum setting. And, you would also take some curatorial classes just to learn the basics behind maintaining and building collections. There is also a built-in semester-long {I think that's how long she said it is} internship at one of the museums here in town {there are a ton of museums there}...most likely working on a current or developing a new outreach program with the staff...." OH MY BUSINESS!!! Are you kidding me?! Did she really just ask me if I wanted to learn how to be an outreach educator AND get experience doing that as class credit!??! HECK YES I WANT TO MINOR IN MUSEUM STUDIES WITH AN EMPHASIS ON EDUCATION!!!!!!! If you can't tell I'm beyond being ridiculously excited about this unreal opportunity God just dropped in my lap. That silver platter I mentioned above...I definitely accepted it. I wish I could have recorded my souls reaction for all of you as Lep was telling me about an opportunity to obtain an insane foundation for entering the education world. I was dancing with the Holy Spirit - haha, it was amazing. Needless to say, God granted me, ever so graciously, the direction and clarity I needed to know that He has indeed prepared this path for me. I cannot wait to see how He grows me throughout my time at The U. I'll be there for about 3yrs...yikes, that's a lot of intense winters in The Frozen Tundra, haha. Not too shabby - I'm excited to go on this adventure with my Heavenly Daddy. It's gonna be off the heezy fo sheezy! I mean, don't get me wrong, it's going to be beyond challenging, but it will all be so worth it. I'm stiz-oked!

So, that was Minnesota!

Of late! So...lately I have been working on some senior pictures with the J-Man. It has been SO fun! Mostly because it has given me a good excuse to spend time with my lil bro, and secondly because B loaned me his Rebel to play around with...soooo nice - I'm gettin' one! Haha. I'm in editing mode right now...it's pretty fun! I'll throw some up when I have more processed.

A rant! Haha, this is about to be another hold on to your horses moment, get excited. I'm not sure how many of you saw my post on Easter & Chocolate, but this is along those lines... My dear friend J-Hump, husband to my lovely Ricci of The Humphrey Happenings and Sweet like Spice, posted a ROCKIN' update to his blog Josh's Projects and Plans. {Do you think I included enough links in those two sentences?? Haha.} Each and every one of you needs to go read it - Christian or not. We all really need to stop and think about what we are purchasing, where it is coming from, how it is being made/processed, and whose hands are making/processing these things we are purchasing. I'll keep my ranting to a min so you can spend more time reading through J-Hump's...he executed his rant beautifully.

{Side note: For any of you guys out there who are desiring to be real men as opposed to the commonality found in our culture today of men being chick-dudes (© Butch Smith), I would encourage you to bookmark/follow Josh's Projects and Plans, as he is planning on addressing this issue on a weekly basis - it's going to be intense, y'all. But I can honestly tell you that Josh is a good man to seek counsel from in this area - living up to being a true man of God is something he definitely strives for.}

Oh, and back to the rant real quick, if any of you are looking for places to get good foods in an honest and raw way, check out this site for farms/ranches in your area: Slow Food.



Ok, I have officially spent too much time at the computer today...so now I will close. I feel like I'm forgetting to tell you about something or to talk about something, though...hmmm... Well, my beloved readers, if I remember I'll throw in an edit on this post or, most likely, devote a whole post to whatever it was I'm forgetting. That's all for now!

Shalom!
~MW



EDIT: I remembered what I was going to tell you all about earlier!! I kind of started to in my rant, but never really explained it...wooops! Anywho, I was going to tell you all about the lovely Ricci's new project/shop Sweet Like Spice. She has started making her darling camera strap covers to SELL! Guys, I know you might not be as pumped about this as us ladies might be, but hey...if you have a photographer mom, sister, friend, gf, fiance, wife...makes a great a gift! Hop on over tell her hello! Like I said, she's just getting started so show her some love and bear with her as she gets everything up and running. Also, if you act quickly there is a giveaway happening for one of Ricci's creations through Palermo Photography. Check it out!!

ESA Day 2

Even better than Day 1!!!

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

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

Love you all!
~MW

ESA Day 1

Well, today has been a real success!

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

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

Lots of love!
~MW

Angela is demanding.

Hello my loves!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings!
~MW

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