Say whaaaa????

IT SNOWED AGAIN THIS WEEKEND....


HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!



Ok, freakout is over.  But, seriously...it is the middle of April and it is still snowing up here...thankfully it wasn't much of a dumping, just enough to make us all break out at least a few layers if we just couldn't make ourselves bust out the coats again.


I know...I know...I know............I...know...   I'm way over due for a posting.  I do apologize.  TIGS, y'all, TIGS.


BUT!  I found out this week that I received a little fellowship/grant that I had applied for earlier in the semester, which means that my trip to the Southwestern Research Station this summer is definitely a go (which is a good thing, since they already accepted me for a two week course, yippee!!!)!

Things on the grad school front have been, more than cRaZy...wow, how does one even describe...?

I definitely don't have the mental power to try and put it eloquently, so, here's the reader's digest version:

• It's crazy
• I often wonder why I ever thought this was a good idea
• It is no longer unusual for me to be in the lab until 10pm or later...
• Dinner?  What's that?
• Sleep?  I don't think you know how to speak English...
• Showers?  Overrated...definitely
• What?  You find it odd that the majority of us have taken up long distance running and do this at least every other day?  I told you things are crazy here...that includes the people
• Wait...you mean to tell me that you do not often tell someone about something that happened to you this morning only to realize a few minutes later that you just told them about yesterday's morning...?  Hmmm...you must not be from around here.
• What's a weekend?  Again, I'm not so positive we're speaking the same language.

Yeah...TIGS, 'nuff said.

Anywho, things really are going well, just beyond busy.

My church is such an incredible blessing - solid teaching, solid people who truly try to live out their faith and hold one another accountable in love, beautiful small groups (mine's the best, of course...!) - the Father is definitely glorified here  :)

OK, kiddies...now that you all know that I am still alive and breathing, I'm off to bed.  Tomorrow is a running day!  =)

Shalom!
~MW

Death by Bug Conferences!

Greetings and salutations, my lovely, lovely readers.

So, as I mentioned in my last post, this week was yet another busy one.  My department had the task of hosting the Entomological Society of America's North Central Branch Meeting (ESA-NCB, or NCB) this year.  Wow.  Hosting a meeting is quite the task.  But, oh so fun!

I've attended meetings like this before and that in and of itself is exhausting, but hosting really takes it out of you!  Things got going each day circa 7:30am and quite often didn't shut down until well after midnight...welcome to partying with entomologists!  It was great fun, though.  I got to meet up with the moth gals who are on the grant with me, so that was fun to finally have faces to go with the voices from our Skype conference calls.  We got to sit and talk logistics and moths and just visit a number of times throughout the conference, which was great.  I also got to network with some parasitoid people which made my heart happy as I do miss working with my little wasps, quite a bit - here's to hoping I made Wharton proud!  I think the 2nd place ribbon that found its way onto my poster presentation just might have done the trick as far as making Wharton proud goes  :)  I actually got to have a lovely chat with him over the phone on the last day of the conference - oh how I do miss that man.

Ok, y'all, so here's a little bit of insight into ESA: student mixers are always...always...lame.  Like...oh man, I can't even describe it to y'all.  BUT!  UMN knows how to plan a party!  A group of my fellow grad students an alum and one of our rockin profs put a little band together and did they ever rock that party!!  We had a blast!  A few of us even woke up a bit sore the next morning from dancing so hard!  We loved our Ephemeropterals so much that when the night came to a close the ballroom was filled with shouts of, "ONE MORE SONG!  ONE MORE SONG!!"  Oh, it was awesome - and they were awesome to appease us.  There was even some crowd surfing!!  Yeah, we're pretty good at planning parties up here...it's whatevs  ;)

 All-in-all, the conference was a smash hit.  Lots of networking, visiting, talks, food, COFFEE, fun, dancing...super successful week  :)

But...that said...we are all DEAD right now.  I don't know that anyone has recovered fully yet.  Worth it?  I think yes.

However, our exhaustion was not a good enough excuse to simply allow St. Paddy's Day to pass us by without doing something!  So, after dealing with the set-back of a flat tire (yay, screws!) we all piled into my place with a big hunk of corned beef, a sac of potatoes, carrots, a massive head of cabbage, and a number of other ingredients to start about a 5hr-long ordeal in the kitchen.  Y'all, this was by far one of the best St. Patty's Days I've had to date.  I think I've discovered one of my favorite things to do: cook for hours on end with your favorite peoples, complete with lots of laughs and a jolly good time.  It was one of those days that cause you to sit down at it's close and simply smile with joy and appreciation as you say, "I absolutely love my life here."  What blessings those days are!

So, just what had us in the kitchen for so long?  Well, if  you've never made corned beef and cabbage, it's quite a lengthy dish to prepare - the meat was in the pot from about 5:30/6-10pm.  But, oh so worth the wait!  While that was simmering away on the stove Callie and I set to work on the Irish soda bread with some help from Meg.  Once that was in the oven it was time to get to work on the chocolate Guinness cupcakes (yeah...they taste as awesome as the sound!) complete with GREEN cream cheese icing.  We also tossed up a rather large salad for good measure ;) We had some green beers mixed in there as well, and, of course, the Guinness was around...if anyone can figure out how to turn that stuff green, let me know - we didn't even attempt it.  We didn't stop to think about taking pictures of everything until well after we had consumed most/all of it...but, here's what's left of the soda bread - so, so tasty!

Yesterday was a bit of a recovery day as we didn't call it a night on Friday until after midnight - and another late night piled on top of a week of no sleep made for quite a groggy crew.  Meg and Mark and I did take Jakers out for a nice walk yesterday, though - it was in the high 30s/low 40s!!  Lovely springtime weather  :)  And then we decided some Chinese takeout complete with a movie and ice cream drumsticks was all in order - made for a great afternoon of vegging :)

Today is a make up for lost time day...studying, still cleaning the kitchen (haha - sooo worth it), etc.

This has been a really good week...though we are all wishing we had a bit more of a break for spring break...ah well, such is life  :)

What's new with you?!

I'll do a joy post tomorrow, making up for not posting last week's and I'll do this week's as well.

Hope y'all are finding joy in your everyday!

Shalom,
~MW

Happy, Happy. Joy, Joy.

Ah, Sunday.  How I do love you.

I absolutely love taking the pup out to play on our Sunday morning stroll/run around the dog park (as does he...all behavior goes out the window once he realizes that we are going to the dog park to....PLAY!!!).  This preceding or following my morning cup of coffee that is paired with scrolling through the weekly Post Secret - wonderful.  Then some general maintenance/clean-up around the apartment that got neglected or I simply didn't get to on Saturday...pretty wonderful, indeed.  All of that followed by Skype dates, homework, work, and church...makes for a pretty decent day.

So, I've been neglecting to post my joys for each week...but I most certainly have not been neglecting finding my joys in each day.  But, in an attempt to re-establish some accountability in the blogger world, here is this week's bundle of joy  :)

Saturday, 19 Feb 2011 - dinner at Kieran's Irish Pub, followed by an evening at Shout House Piano Bar with the gang in celebration of Trisha's bday!

Sunday, 20 Feb 2011 - truly enjoyed a relaxing snowy day...even though I was sad to see the green grass disappear again.

Monday, 21 Feb 2011 - I picked up my birthday present from the 'rents (more on that later!), followed by coffee & lunch with Megan on our way into campus (after having the morning off for a half snow day - happy bday, Trisha!!); new shipment of moths arrived at the lab!

Tuesday, 22 Feb 2011 - wonderful breakfast at Baker's Square with Megan and saw Christine for the first time since she had "abandoned" us to go back home to Germany for a week!

Wednesday, 23 Feb 2011 - was surprised by a little snowman awaiting me out on the Taurus, after a long...looong day (thanks, Fraser!).

Thursday, 24 Feb 2011 - super productive day (complete with a lovely little surprise of deeelish potato salad!) followed by Smash Burgers and Quest for the Holy Grail at Corey & Callies...we were all in serious need of some mindless humor.

Friday, 25 Feb 2011 - TURNED IN MY MINI GRANT PROPOSAL!!!  Whew!  And...found some pretties on sale at Jo-Anns  :)

Saturday, 26 Feb 2011 - went to the first hockey game I've attended since about 7th grade (way to rock it, Katy!), followed by breakfast for dinner, potluck style, at Megan's...mmm, mmm, gooood!


This week was beyond insane.  We were all on edge as the majority of us had numerous deadlines to meet this week and none of us felt like we were going to make all of them and stay on top of course work...well, we were right...we really didn't get much done in the way of course work, but we did meet our deadlines!  It was one of those weeks where you have to force yourself to stop and go do something (breakfast...watch a movie...) other than the pile of things awaiting you...or else madness will undoubtedly ensue!  We were able to curb the madness for the most part, though there were a few days that simply were too much...even profs were going a little crazy this week.  As RH put it early in the week: We've entered the vortex...it's going to be a long week.  Sooooo true.  But, the week is well over and after recouping a bit yesterday, most of us are back to normalcy, or so it seems, today.  We still have too much to do and so NOT enough time to do it in, but it will get done, don't you worry your pretty little heads  :)

Something I wanted to tell y'all about is what Spring is like here.  As I mentioned in my last post, we got a little taste of spring a few weeks ago.  Y'all, I am so excited for spring to finally get here - for real this time.  Momma, do you remember the beginning of the Beatrix Potter videos - how they start off with spring-time water trickles as she hikes off with her paint set?  That is what it is like here.  Everything melting (feet upon feet, upon feet of snow) as the sun starts to peek out from behind the clouds, so it's still a touch overcast.  Trickles of water running continuously (so it's always perfect for taking a little cat nap).  Green peeking through the melting white snow (really ice, at this point).  Birds chirping.  Insects humming.  It's lovely.  I saw a darling little chickadee yesterday with its tell-tale call of, "chickadee-dee-dee-dee-dee," and I just had to smile thinking about how awesome spring is going to be here.  I absolutely cannot wait!  Though, waterproof shoes are definitely a necessity - it's quite...squishy with all of that snow melting!

Ok, I told y'all I'd tell you more about my bday present from my parents, so here you go!  As many of you know, I've been in the market for a sewing machine for the last few years.  I've been looking at used ones, new ones, way old ones, etc...and just haven't really found something affordable that actually works...so, I've been holding out for that steal to come along.  Well...much to my surprise (I seriously could not believe my eyes), that is the very thing that my Momma and Daddy sent my way for my bday!  I love them...have I mentioned that before??  :)  They showered me with a brother xr-7700.  It. Is. AWESOME!!!  Ok...so I haven't used it quite yet, but dang, it can do SO much and it came with so many little extras!  So legit.  Look!!

That's some of the fabric I found at Jo-Ann's - super on sale!!  Wouldn't you all like to know what my plans are for it...?  Well...you'll just have to wait, it's a surprise  ;)


Here are some more sights from this week: the little snowman and deeelish potato salad, courtesy of Fraser - props on the potato salad, yo - you'd do well in Texas!

It's still quite snowy and frosty here.

 

Jakers got a new toy!!!  And he loooooves it!!

And now...after running around outside this morning and then playing with his new toy...he is one tuckered, pup  :)  Did I mention that he's spoiled...?  ;)

Well, I do believe that's all for now, kids.  Praying blessings on your Sunday and the week to come.

Shalom!
~MW

P.S. - it just started snowing again...

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!

My First 10 on 10!

So, a few of y'all might have found your way over to my lovely blogger-friend and sister in Christ, Katy. I've mentioned her and linked up with her a few times before. And she is way more blog savvy than I am, just sayin' - so love you, Katy! Anywho, she's does all these fun bloggery things and then I jump on her bandwagons...mmhmm, I am that person. Maybe someday I'll have enough time to be as awesome of a blogger as Katy is :)

So, Katy is a big participant in this neat little thing called "10 on 10" where you take a picture every hour for 10hrs on the 10th of each month. FUN? I. THINK. YES!! So, here goes my first 10 on 10! (I'll be honest, I missed a few hours here and there, so there's a touch of a gap in some of my pictures...TIGS, need I say more?)

So, here's my first 10 on 10 - December!

9 AM

This is what I wake up to every morning - MOM! FEEEEED MEEEEE!

10 AM

Coffee + Gihrardelli Peppermint Bark in 

Christmas mug = most legit homemade peppermint mocha EVER!

11 AM

Decided to wear earrings for the first time in about 2 months.

12 AM

Walkin' into Hodson...sorry for the mitten in the picture...they're kind of fluffy.

1 PM

Worked on my cerambycid illustration for a bit

2 PM

Took a break from the bug and worked on some manuscript stuff for the Wharton.

3 PM

ENTO vs EEB dodge ball - pretty epic.

6 PM

Went home to take Jakers out before heading back out

7 PM

Decided to lite the tree for Jakers before I left.

1 AM

Called it a night after hangin' with the bugdorks in celebration of 

being done with Insect Ecology!!!!

***Sorry for the major lags: dodge ball lasted forever and then my phone memory filled up after I left the house for the evening...


I'm going to try and remember to do it again next month - anyone care to join in??

Shalom!
~MW

Avoiding finishing an assignment?

I invite you to enter the wonderful world of Blogger :)

Yes...I am indeed procrastinating. It's so hard to be motivated when something isn't due until 3:30pm and the actual class is no longer meeting...yuuuup, I am there. Is it possible to have "senioritis" in grad school? Maybe it's just a case of "holidayitis" or "homesickitis." Stay tuned for the diagnosis.

But, for now I am going to prove to all y'all that I am indeed still alive and that I am still a contributing part of the blogverse...even if 90% of my contribution of late has merely been in the way of comments...MY APOLOGIES. As my lovelies in Africa say TIA (This Is Africa), so I shall say TIGS - This. IS. Grad. School!! I have come to accept the sad but unavoidable truth that grad school will indeed keep me from gracing your monitors and screens from time to time.

So, how goes life in the FT of late?

snow...Snow...SNOOOW!!! (<-- White Christmas style, Daddy!) We've had quite a bit of snow here, along with single digit and negative degree days, daylight that disappears circa 4:30pm, and...wind. So, the snow I love, the single digit and negative degree days I really don't mind...like my property manager said the other day, "It's so cold it's like it actually makes you warm." I know y'all probably can't understand that, but it's true! It's so cold that it's like our endothermic capabilities actually finally kick into action and boom! - you're warm and toasty...well, if you have a decent coat...and some good socks...aaand a hat...and maybe some long underwear...yup, that aught to do it :)

The ever so essential base layer....does this not remind you of Peter Pan's shadow??
Right about the time he gets ready to stitch it back on..?


Definitely one of my best investments since the move up here.

Oh...do NOT forget your gloves or a scarf - those are key as well, especially the glovies. Man. My finger tips get SOOO cold!! I need to invest in a legit set of glovies, I think. My layered knit gloves just don't seem to be cutting it anymore *sad*

BUT! All that to say, it's really not so bad until the wind gets to blowing. Even a little breeze can feel like a million little ice daggers slicing right through you...yuh, it's pretty brutal. Sometimes I'm convinced that by the time I make my trek through the snow to/from my car that the wind will have successfully taken thousands of little nicks out of my face - the only part of my body that is not layerfully covered as I brave the winter weather. So far the wind has not won, although I can't seem to get enough fluids into my body to keep my lips from cracking/peeling (gross, I know...welcome to my life.). Ah well, hopefully I can recover for a spell in my beloved TX before making my return to brave another 3-4 months of winter...neat.

Now that you have some sort of an idea what winter is like here allow me to share some of my favorite things with you.
* The snow. I've already mentioned it, but my goodness is it gorgeous! There are a number of fields around the "Cow Campus" (Ags, it's somewhat equivalent to West Campus) and they are all currently blanketed in a beautiful white, glistening, sparkly layer of powdery snow. Every time I walk past one of the fields all I want to do is get a running start and leap into the middle of the field (what? It's totally humanly possible to do...) and just land in the foot or so of snow that is resting around town right now...I think I'll wait until there's another foot or two, though.
* The sound my boots make walking on packed snow. It's this fun little squeaking, compressing sound...I don't know, it's weird, but I just like it. Probably because it's still novel...but hey, I'll take it for now.
* Footprints in the snow. I love seeing all of the animal tracks that have started turning the fields into puzzle pieces. I have to admit that they are starting to tease my imagination...I want to know where they lead and who they belong to!!! I totally have Beatrix Potter scenes running through my head...hmmm...maybe I can work on finishing that little story of mine over the holidays! Hey J-Hump, shall we play around with some illustrations over the break? Yes? Mmmk, great :)
* Wintery Christmas spirit. It's been super fun to ring in the season with snow on the ground...seriously fun. Ups the awesome by a good 50%.
* Driving in the snow. I know it terrifies some of y'all, but I seriously love it! Especially when it's actually snowing while I drive. Mmmmmhmm. Perrrrrfection. Ice, however, is a different story - I don't really want to talk about it.

Ok...so pretty much everything I love revolves around snow right now...it's just that awesome.

Last week was pretty insane...I really don't remember all that much of it. A number of us attempted our first preliminary exam (one of the requirements of our program) - we'll find out how we did in about 2 weeks. We also had a number of final projects, papers, etc. due...TIGS. There were a few nights I definitely did not sleep. We hardly saw each other...I think that was the weirdest and most difficult part of last week...being pretty much cut off from everyone, even here. But we survived it!

Well, I've also been a little busy around my little apartment! With...what? If any of you know even a little about me I'm sure you could guess this one pretty easily...CHRISTMAS!

Me Mum sent quite the goody-filled box of love last week...complete with ornaments to fill my tree which, at the time, only had 4 sad, lonely ornaments...It is now pleasantly full :)

Only a small number of fatalities.

Jakers helped me decorate the tree...looks rather enthused, doesn't he? ;)


Haha, I could NOT resist giving this one to y'all...doesn't he look like he's
singing Christmas songs??


Nonna sent this to me via Aunt June earlier in the year...I love these things!

Snowman nutcracker, mini nativity, and seasonal candles...perfection :)

Hope chest Christmas style. A Christmasy runner, Christmas
traditions calendar, nativity, snowman plate...sparkly garland...I'll take it.

I tried to get a little creative with some Christmas "orbs" and spiralling the garland in the
tree dish I would have filled it with candies, but Jake would clean it out...meh, it'll do.

Stockings! Had to hang them somewhere! My very empty wall seemed like as good a
place as any...One for me and one for the kids...Jake and BigBoy can totally share.

NUTCRACKERS!!! I miss our big collection back home :(

I've had this little tree since my junior year of high school...I felt it fit in nicely
in my whimsy corner.

My very own Advent wreath!!! Thanks parentals :)

And finally......


THE TREE!!!

I'm pretty proud of it :) I won't lie. A HUGE thanks to Momma for sending me all the little balls and the extra ornaments...especially the Aggie and Texas ones :) I think my favorite part is my Aggie Santa hat...I've had that thing since freshman year at A&M and it has made it's appearance ever Christmas since. Gotta love it.

Well, kiddies, I'm signing off for the night. Hope all is well with each of you. Praying blessings on you, my sweet readers. Love to you all!

This is what happens when you don't sleep for a good 2-3days...at least BigBoy
and Philly were there to keep me company =]

Sleepily Yours,
~MW