Still Alive

Yes we are still here and still alive. We have been extremely busy this past month or so. Mike took his physics GRE a few weeks ago, I've been trying to get through open enrollment, and hire a new communications person at the same time...

My cousin Amber got married in Dahlonega, GA on 11/13/2010. Mom and I flew out to GA on 11/10 (super early in the morning!) and got to spend a great weekend with family. The wedding was held at a resort where a lodge had been rented out for the wedding attendees. Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and in true family tradition, my 3 Aunts and I got everything set up for dinner! Then the ceremony and reception were Saturday. Amber's husband is in the music business and makes electronic music and he also DJs. He travels around the world doing this and has been pretty successfull. After the reception there was a drum circle at the lodge. It was really fun listening to all the very musical people playing and grooving. I decided not to join in since I have a rough time carrying any sort of tune or beat. :-)

Mom and I at the wedding.

My mom (Bobbie), my Aunt Kathy, the groom Richard Devine, the Bride Amber Vaughn Devine, my Aunt Emmy, and my Aunt Murnie (Amber's mom)

Amber, my cousin Rachel (bride's sister) and the little flower girl who just stole the show! Aren't the field and the trees just amazing?




On Sunday we went and explored Amicalola Falls. There was a short hike up to the beautiful falls. And the fall colors where AMAZING!

Reflecting Pool at Amicalola Falls State Park

Loved the Fall Colors!

So, now I've driven through rural Georgia. There were all these little churches. And each church had its own cemetary surronding it. I haven't seen that much where I grew up.

We are just a day before Thanksgiving today and Mike and I will be celebrating with my Mom, Ryan and our neighbor Nita and her daughter Lila. Nita's in law school here and her home is in New Mexico, only she couldn't go back for Thanksgiving. It should be a day filled with relaxation, football, and yummy food! Happy Thanksgiving Ya'all!

Garlic & Coconut

I really love the fall here on the Palouse, the leaves are changing, its getting cold and the apples are delicious! Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to buy all the delicious locally grown apples at the farmers market. This is where Backyard Harvest comes into play. Backyard Harvest started when its founder accidentally grew 200+ heads of lettuce one year thanks to her young sons scattering the seeds all over their backyard. Rather than throw them away she donated them to the local foodbank.

I has since grown into much larger project, they have farm plots around the town, they will harvest fruit trees in peoples yards, they set up a program so that people can use their food stamps at the farmers market, its really a fantastic program.


What does this have to do with Garlic & Coconut? Well, it has nothing to do with coconut, but I spent a little time volunteering on Saturday planting garlic for Backyard Harvest. We planted a lot of garlic! I had no idea that if you just plant a clove of garlic in the fall, come next harvest you'll have a whole bulb. I found out that we were planting the garlic because BYH also does a CSA, where people pay a fee and have fresh fruits and vegtables delivered weekly during the growing season. It is subsized for those with low incomes, just $5 a week. I learned a lot this weekend. And, we harvested a couple of apple trees right next to the plot. Yummy apples! It was kinda cool standing in the branches of the tree munching on an apple and picking them for seniors and the food bank.

Green Apples we harvested.

The garlic field all planted. We covered it with Hay to protect it this winter.

And Coconut...?? I've been saying to Mike for a few weeks that I wanted to try and make a coconut cake. So yesterday, I made a coconut cake. It was blustery raining day so it seemed like the perfect day to bake. I don't have a picture of it because . . . well my phone was dead and it didn't occur to me to use the actual camera. Ooops! But it turned out really well, really messy, but really yummy! The frosting was almost like a homemade marshmellow cream. And I think I'll be finding shredded coconut around my kitchen for days, but it was fun.

Where do we live?

For some reason, Mike and I have lived pretty nomadic lives as a married couple. We've lived in 7 different homes in 6 towns since we got married. Sometimes we've moved because we had too, other times we moved for new opportunities, and once we moved just down the street because we liked the house we moved into better! Even where we are now is relatively temporary so we'll be continuing our nomadic lifestyle for at least a little while longer. Here is where we've lived:

1. Chico/Durham: When we first were married we lived in a modular home we rented. It was in an almond orchard between Chico & Durham Ca. When we moved in, it was in the middle of an old orchard, unfortunately they began tearing out the old orchard to replant right after we moved it. So, instead there was a BIG dirt field behind us. We lived there for just about a year and just had to move. We shared the house with Mike's sister Stefanie, which was fine, but we rented it from her boyfriend, who she promptly broke up with shortly after Mike and I moved out. So you can imagine the stress. We did have our dog Max when we lived there. He was so fun and we miss him a lot, but when we moved we didn't think it was fair to move him into a small apartment. So we found a really good home for him out in Willows.

2. Temecula: We lived in Temecula, CA for 4 months 2001. It was such a crazy time period. We were staying with Mike's dad and step-mom in a beautiful home. I really got to know Don and Kathy and Mike's sister Erin and her little girl Nicolette too. We were there when the twin towers were bombed and it was such a crazy day. Mike and I commuted a really long way living here, but looking back we are very happy we got to live there. Mike's dad passed away just a couple of weeks after we moved into our own apartment. We all knew he was ill, just no one had any idea he was that ill. Living there was a blessing to us all.

3. Encinitas: I almost lived by the beach! We were pretty close when we lived in this little beach town. We loved heading over to the Cardiff Seaside Market and getting some expensive little snack and watching the waves. They decided to turn our apartments into condos and both Mike and I were working in San Diego so we moved after just one year.

4. Banker's Hill/San Diego: We loved this apartment! It was in the Banker's Hill area of San Diego. Right on a canyon so there was open land in front of us, we were just blocks from Balboa Park, not far from Downtown, Ocean Beach, and I really got to spend some time with my sister, Christine and her husband Brooks. Unfortunately, I really missed my mom and Northern California. If our landlord hadn't decided to sell our condo we would have stayed there longer.

5. Roseville - Folsom Rd.: Pt. 1 - We hosted our first Thanksgiving together in our first house in Roseville. This house had the biggest living room I've ever had! It made all our stuff look tiny. It was an ok place, but there was a back house that someone rented and a basement apartment and we were just ready for a place of our own. So we moved down the street:

Folsom Rd. Pt. 2 - Such a cute little grannie house! This was such a special place for Mike and I. Even
though we didn't move there until about 4 1/2 years into our marriage I think this was really our first true home together, everywhere else seemed kind of temporary. We loved loved loved the house, but we hated our commutes and weren't fond of our jobs. So...

6. Moscow, ID: And now here we are in Moscow, ID. We moved here 01/01/2008 and will be in our current apartment until at least May of next year. We live in University housing at the the University of Idaho. Who knew that at age 35 we'd be in family housing at a University. Sometimes this really bothers me, but then other times I couldn't be happier. Mike is getting to go back to school, I've been able to get out of the insurance brokerage arena, and am now working at the University. And we really love Moscow.

We'll see where the next 10 years takes us. We really don't know. If anything the last 10 yrs has shown... it really doesn't matter. We can make anywhere home for a little while.

Anniversary

Ten years ago, I was scrambling - running around town, getting my nails done, buying last minute things, confirming pick up times, waiting for my family to get to town, all so that I could marry my best friend. Looking back at the planning of the weekend, wow, I was so naive about planning a big party. I'd never done that before and I was really doing a lot of it on my own.

One thing I wouldn't have changed is the way we started the day. Mike and I decided that we weren't going to follow the tradition of not seeing each other the day the wedding before I walked down the aisle. The day of the wedding Mike and I woke up together early and we went and had breakfast just the two of us. We talked about what an amazing day it was going to be and just spent a little time together. We then drove up to find the bed and breakfast where we were staying the night, since we knew it would be dark when we drove out there after the wedding. Of course, we still drove right by it that night! But at least we knew we drove by it.

Then we headed back to our house and the chaos began!

We will celebrate our 10 year anniversary on Thursday. And what a wonderful 10 years it has been!

Split Pea Soup!

Yummy I'm so excited I made split pea soup for dinner tonight - it sure smelled like fall cooking in my house this morning!! It is the easiest recipe and it tastes really good! Also, it makes a very large batch so we'll have leftovers for lunches for a few days.

So I guess I've come around to it being fall now. The leaves are turning here, and really quickly. I need to get out and get some pictures soon.

Here's the recipe:

1 lb green split peas

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped celery

2 ham hocks or 1 ham bone - or if you are watching calories you could either leave this out or add chopped up turkey ham

1 small/medium onion ( I use white) chopped

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon sea salt (optional)

1 teaspoon pepper - or more to taste, I use a little more

2 quarts water

Put everything in a large slow cooker and let it go for 8 hours on low. After 8 hours, remove the ham hocks/bone, pick off any meat and return the meat to the soup. Once in a while the soup is a little to chunky for taste at this point so I use my immersion blender and give it a quick whirl before I add the meat back in. If you like it chunky then stir and serve!

Leadership Academy

Recently I was accepted into the Leadership Academy here at work. It is sponsored by the Provost's office here at University of Idaho. Apparently they only take one employee from our division, so I am so honored to be included. I'm really excited because I'll get to meet a lot more of my fellow employees, currently my office is located in a building that is way off on the edge of campus so I don't have much contact with the rest of campus other than by email. Also, since I work in HR I don't really have much to do with students other than the two work study students I supervise. I tend to forget that the reason we are all here is for the students. Our leadership academy retreat quickly reminded that the student are why we are here.

I've also learned a few things about myself. We had to take this assessment that let us know what our strengths were, in the context of this particular evaluation anyway. Here were mine:

Context: People who are especially talented in the Context theme enjoy thinking about the past. They understand the present by researching its history.

Ideation: People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Activator: People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient. (I don't think I realized that I may often be impatient?)

Adaptability: People who are especially talented in the Adaptability theme prefer to “go with the flow.” They tend to be “now” people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time.

Learner: People who are especially talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

I'm still learning how to apply this knowledge and I'm trying to decide if they are really accurate, but it gives me somewhere to start.

Football

Are you ready for some football?? We are. I'm not ready for fall, just football... yes I realize they go together. Last night was the first University of Idaho football game, it went well... Idaho had not won a season opener since 1998, but last night not only won the opener but achieved the largest margin of victory in 18 years by defeating North Dakota 45-0. It was just really fun to go and watch the team do really well! Mike gets into the games for free, but I had to buy tickets so this year I bought season tickets. It should be a lot of fun. Next week's game will be a lot tougher, we play Nebraska - in Nebraska, but its good, we've got the Boise State game in November so we really need the practice playing tough teams. This will be the last year of the Idaho/BSU rivalry. Maybe its a good, things can be really toxic in this rivalry (Mike would argue this point with me though!)

I'm also participating in a Fantasy Football league - I have NO IDEA what I'm doing??? I missed the draft so I fairly certain my team is terrible. I guess I'll find out when the season starts. I'm ready for my lazy Sundays watching football!!

Wait... summer just started!

Summer over... not happy!

I was walking to work the other morning and saw a few leaves fall. They weren't leaves that had turned colors or anything like that, it was just a little windy. It just got me thinking... wow fall is right around the corner, especially here in Northern Idaho, we have a VERY short summer. Normally, by the time fall rolls around I'm ready for the change, but not this summer. I've done no camping, no swimming in lakes, rivers, ponds, etc., my summer vacation was spent in a campus apartment at Univ. of Oklahoma with my husband and a whole bunch of 20 years olds... its just really been a funny summer.

School just started around here, so the campus population has exploded!! It really is just such a different town when the 'kids' are here. But hey, that's why we are here too.

Mike's been home for a few weeks now. Its so wonderful having him home, but its also a little strange having to account to someone else for my time. He keeps asking me when I'll be home from work... I guess "when I get home" isn't a very nice answer :-)

I've been working - A LOT, so that would be the reason for the lack of postings on this blog.

Ah Idaho

Last night we had a going away party at one of my co-worker's houses. It's outside of town in the farmland of the Palouse. What is the Palouse? Well, it's these amazing rolling hills that are planted with wheat, peas, canola, garbanzo beans, and I'm sure many other crops. Right now they are beautifully green!

In a month or two they will be rolling fields of brown. Which, until they harvest is really pretty too.



It was so nice sitting out in her back yard looking out over the rolling hills with Moscow Mountain in the back ground. Moscow Mountain has always been kind of a funny thing to me. It's more like a ridge, I guess there is a specific peak that is Moscow Mountain, but I couldn't tell you which one. And doesn't sound like something out of a scary Teen movie "up on (insert town name) mountain" ...

But anyway, after leaving the get together, I decided to go for a drive and drove up the mountain. Looking back, maybe not the best idea since no one knew where I was going or even that I wasn't home, but luckily it turned out fine. Thank goodness because I love to explore. Below are a couple of pictures I took with my phone from the top, I would have liked to get out and explore... but I was in a dress and heels, so I thought the better option would be to stay in my truck.

It really is very pretty here.

Here are a few pictures of my Garden, well, from a few weeks ago. I have to go up there this week and get to weeding. Unfortunately, summer is just beginning to hit Moscow, so my plants are not very happy plants.



We've got our flimsy little fence, but hey the neighbor's plot doesn't have one, so hopefully the bunnies will hit first.



-- Those little tiny plants are lettuce! I was pretty excited they sprouted so I had to take a picture.

Whirlwind California Trip

Wow - I'm exhausted! Last week, I flew to California to give out the Davey Davis Outstanding Athlete Award at the Foresthill Divide Middle School Graduation. The award is named after my pop who taught in Foresthill (where I grew up) from 1979 - 1989 when he passed away.

I got into Sacramento Thursday evening, and stayed with close friends Nancy & Ryan Rivers, and was really excited to see their son Kyle who is almost 10!!! Crazy how time flies. Friday morning I drove to Nevada City, CA and had lunch with a distant cousin that I had never met. My Great Grandmother is her Great Aunt. She had a bunch of genealogy books and papers to look through. It was really funny because I had a bunch of the original photos that are photocopied in the genealogy book and she had some original photos that I had photocopies of! It was just fun to put it all together.

After a fantastic lunch, I made my way up to Foresthill and spent a couple of hours with my cousin Brent. He's 10 years younger than I am, so we haven't really spent much time around each other, so it was really fun getting to know the adult that once was the 3 year old I used to cart around.

Following along the nostalgic road I'd been following all day, I went over meet the people who live in the house that I grew up in. They had been renovating the house, and had saved a piece of concrete that had my name in written into it! The house mostly looks the same, but its just different you know?

Then off to Foresthill High School to give out the award. I saw some people I hadn't seen in years and then others who I see once a year at the graduation. It was so much fun catching up with people!!

Friday was the longest day, but it really was a great day.

Saturday, I drove up to Paradise to visit with Mike's sister and parents and to see my nephews who are now 2 1/2 and almost 5!! They are just adorable, and the 2 1/2 year looks so much like Mike its just funny! After heading back to Roseville, I had a FANTASTIC evening hanging out with Nancy, Ryan, and Kyle. Nancy and I enjoyed two very yummy bottles of wine while we chatted like we did when we were kids... just different topics ;-)

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because Mike has our camera, and I just forgot to take some using my phone. But it was a crazy whirlwind weekend... but it was GREAT!

Gardening

When we found out Mike was going to be heading to Oklahoma for the summer, I realized I would need something in addition to work to keep me busy since I tend to become a couch potato if given to much free time. My neighbor has had a plot in a community garden here in town for a few summers now and I've helped her out here and there, so I thought maybe I'd get my own. Last week the group that runs the garden let me know they had one available for me if I wanted it!

So, it's been a busy week. The plot is about 12 x 12 feet, but it wasn't planted last year, so the soil was a little hard and there were WEEDS, WEEDS, and more WEEDS. I took out two wheelbarrows full of dandelions alone! It also had volunteer onions growing all over too. I felt bad taking out the onions, but I had to roto-till the plot or I never would have been able to do anything!

Sunday my brother Ryan brought over a roto-tiller and tilled the plot for me! It was awesome. Then last night Mike and I went up and built a little fence around it. There are bunnies that love living up there because they get to eat all sorts of yummy veggies all summer! I'm not sure our fence would keep out a bunny if it really wanted in, but we are hoping that they will just move along to the next plot that isn't fenced.

I also planted some lettuce & spinach! And I have tomato, squash, and pepper plant starts at home. I'll probably plant them in the garden next week, we've still had some mild frosts the past few weeks up here.

I'll go up to the garden and snap some pictures to post on here so you can what it used to look like and what it looks like now, just a week later!

Exploring Idaho!

We've been in Idaho now for about 2 1/2 years, we've done some exploring, but there is a lot more to do. My mom, brother, Mike and I went for a long hike to see Elk Creek Falls. It's about an hour drive from home, but just a beautiful drive getting there even.

We started at Mom's house with a super yummy breakfast of biscuits & gravy. My mom makes the most fantastic breakfasts, but generally you are ready to go back to bed after eating them. But we said "Nope, we are going hiking!"

There are three falls, Upper, Mid & Lower. We hiked out to the Upper Falls first. Mike and Ryan did a little fishing. Ryan caught a rainbow trout that was a keeper, and Mike caught a little brook trout he released back into the water. Then, he caught a nice sized rainbow, but when he went to grab it off the line the fish got away. If I hadn't seen it myself I would have considered just a fish tale, but it was the big fish that got away!

We then hiked down to the middle falls, which were amazing. You can see all the columnar basalt that is part of the Columbia River Basin. The falls are about 90 feet and were just so amazing to see. We then followed a little 'goat trail' up to the viewing area as we had kind of hiked a little off trail to get closer.


-above is a far away shot from the viewing area

- a closer picture

The little 'goat trail' we hiked.

Then we hiked down to the last falls, Lower Falls. The rainbow on the Lower Falls was so pretty! Below is a picture of the Lower Falls, it was a great day, and boy was I sore from the mile+ hike of the canyon, but I would love to do it again!

Oklahoma!!!

Summertime in Oklahoma! Mike will be participating in a REU (Research Undergraduate Experience) and the University of Oklahoma this summer. The REU program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) . He'll be working in a lab at the University on a research project all summer.

Now I'm not sure that Oklahoma was his first choice, but he applied to quite a few of them all over the country. And they can be really hard to get, so we are really excited for him! One of his professors taught there for a while and says that he will be in for a warm summer.

The downside of course is that he'll be gone for 9 weeks. He leaves the end of May and won't return until the end of July. I'm going to try and fly out to Norman, OK to visit him for a week or so around the 4th of July. Probably wasn't my first choice for a summer vacation - but I'm sure glad that I it is where I'll be going because it means Mike has this GREAT opportunity!

Kittens!

Yep - we got kittens. I am please to introduce you to Dexter (grey kitten) and CJ ( white & grey tabby).


They like to sleep all intertwined on our chair, its pretty darn cute!! Dexter is 6 weeks older than CJ, but they are about the same size. They both have such funny & different personalities.

Dexter is kind of 'the boss' of the two. He's not much for being held, but he will curl up on your lap and sleep for hours on end. He loves playing with toys, chasing toy mice, chasing ropes, and of course wrestling with CJ. I've never been around a cat that was as vocal either. He just talks to us all the time. It just cracks Mike and I up!

CJ has quite a personility, he just discovered the joys of toy mice, but give him a basket, box, bag, he's in heaven. He likes being held and curling up in your lap to sleep. But if he wants to play... he's been know to give a little nip at you as well. On the upside, he nips VERY slowly so he never actually makes contact with you, it's kinda funny. Here is CJ hanging out in a shopping bag.

He would not get out of the bag, even when we picked it up and moved it! To funny. We are enjoying our new kittens!!

Movin & Groovin

Triathlon - I finished the swimming pretty easily, no surprise there. And I have finished the running as well, but the bike... ah the bike.... I dread the bike... I've biked a total of about 60 miles... so I really do have 52 left to go. I haven't biked in a few weeks, so maybe I should start again. I think I might enjoy the bike better if I had a real bike and didn't have to use a stationary one at the gym (however that might just be an excuse). Mike on the other hand is awesome!! He finished the whole triathlon in 28 days!!! Unfortunately this whole thing was sponsored by the triathlon club here at Univ. of Idaho and they seem to have disbanded midway through the program - so no T-Shirt or awards celebration... but hey it got us moving!!

Speaking of getting moving - Mike and I ran in a 5k with some friends on Saturday! Neither Mike or I had done anything like this before so it was really a great experience!! Mike hung out and ran with me, we finished in 38 min 17 seconds -- Yeah! We probably ran 2/3 of it, so next time we'll try to run the whole thing!

We had a blast too, I won a nice cap in a raffle, Mike won a long sleeve T-shirt and of course we got the race t-shirts. It was actually sunny and I got a little pink on my nose, but boy does the wind blow out here!!

There is another run in a couple of weeks we are thinking about doing. I can't imagine with Mike's back/hip problems and my horrible knee we'll ever become 'runners' but I do really enjoy getting out for these shorter runs!

Oh - and if you look closely at our friends John & Kelly's (#196) feet -- they have these really cool, barefoot running shoes. The are supposed to allow them to run barefoot like, but still protect their feet. They were quite the topic of conversation.

Mike just had his 35th birthday -- but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet, so I'll do that soon! And tell you all about it. -- Have a great week everyone!

Triathlon Update

Wow - we are almost half way through our time to finish the triathlon, and we are no where near halfway through the distances!!! Yikes! This weekend helped put a dent in it though. 'Ran' 2 Miles on Saturday and biked 2.5. Then yesterday I swam 1750 yards (out of 4425 total needed) and biked for 12.5.

This brings my overall totals to:

Run: 8 miles
Bike: 36.5 miles
Swim: 1750 yards

Here is what I need to do to finish:

Run: 26.2 miles
Bike: 112 miles
Swim: 2.4 miles or 4425 yard

As you can see I have a very long way to go!!! The next couple of weeks are going to be rough, but I can do it!

Mike's run a lot further than I have, he uses the elliptical machine and I'm convinced that makes it a little bit easier than just running. But, with this back and hips, the elliptical is what he needs to do. He came swimming with me yesterday and did awesome!! He swam 1000 yards!!! That's 40 lengths of a pool!! For someone who has never really swam laps before he did GREAT!!!

I'm having fun with all of this, but boy I'm tired!

Iron Man Triathlon - Sort of??

Yep! That's right I'm doing an Iron Man Triathlon!!! Well... over the course of 28 days anyway. :-)

The local Triathlon club is sponsoring it, you have to run 26.2 miles, bike 112 miles, and swim 2.4 miles between 02/17 and 3/17.

I've already started the Couch to 5K running program, so I've been jog/walking for a few weeks now. And I will be counting my jog/walking as running, otherwise, I'm not sure I could actually run that far in that time period.

I'm guessing that the hardest part for me will be the bicycling. I don't actually own a bicycle, so I have to go to gym. And its still pretty hard for me to bicycle for really long periods of time with my problematic knees. But I think its a good goal for me!

I'll let you know how it goes. I think eventually I would like to do a triathlon, but I've always been afraid of the running part. I've been doing ok, with the Couch to 5k plan, so now I'm a little more comfortable doing it. Holy Moly I'm going to be busy!!

Benefits Administrative Manager!

I start a new position on Monday, I will be the Benefits Administrative Manager here at the University of Idaho! I'm very excited! It is going to be a challenging position, especially during this difficult time with budget cuts and the like, but I am really looking forward to it! It is a new position here, so I'll be really making my mark on what it is this position does.

This is actually my first legitimate salaried position. Hopefully that isn't going to mean that I work a ridiculous amount of hours ... but I pretty sure it does!

Someone come and find me when my desk starts to resemble this one!

So much changing so much staying the same.

It's the new year, 2010, can you believe it??? I sure can't. Seems like just yesterday, Mike, Heidi and I were ringing in 2000 at La Salles in Chico. We got married in October 2000, moved to S. Cal in 2001. Lived there until the end of 2003, then back up to Roseville, CA. I started my career in employee benefits, thanks to a great referral from my sister Christine. Mike continued to work in Optical in San Diego, Roseville, and Sacramento.

In 2007 I read an article about great small towns. Mike and I were both a little frustrated living in suburbia and commuting. The article, in a round about way, lead us to move to Moscow, ID so Mike could go back to school full time. So, in 2000 & 2010, one of us was a full time student, one worked full time, we lived in a small 2 bedroom apartment... funny how in such a round about way we seem to be back to where we started the decade. :-)

School has started back up for Mike and he's taking a pretty hectic schedule, including Quantum Physics, Nanotechnology, Astrophysics, Electromagnetic Fields II, and some really hard crazy math class. I have a feeling that I won't be seeing him much this semester!!

He also got a job!! Well, sort of anyway. He'll be grading papers for one of his professors a couple of hours a week. More than anything else it'll look good when he goes to apply for grad school.

Things are going well at my job. Actually I have a second interview for a manager position next week. Fingers crossed that all goes well! It would be nice to be able to be able to pay off some bills and bank a little extra cash. AND a benefits manager position would be great to have on my resume. It will be a tough job, but I'm confident I can do it!