I’m here again!

So over Christmas Jared and I were having lunch at the local diner with my grandma.  She asked what was wrong with my blog…and if by chance it was broken…or maybe her computer wasn’t linked up to the page correctly.  Sadly, none of those were the case…I’ve just been plain too lazy and too busy to write.  So that stops here…I will now start blogging again!  

So Christmas was great…we had 2 whole weeks off from work this year.  (Always a nice bonus when working for a college!).  We started the holidays out with my 27th birthday on the 23rd.  We got all fancied up and Jared took me out to the Melting Pot in St. Louis.  It was icy and yucky on the roads…but we went anyway.  For those of you who haven’t been to the Melting Pot…it’s a super fancy fondue restaurant.  It takes about 3 hours or so to get through all of the courses…and it’s just amazing!  We had cheese fondue…awesome salads…lots of meats to cook…and a cookies and cream fondue to wrap everything up with.  It was delicious…and a great night out with my hubby.  

We headed up to my parent’s house on Christmas Eve…the cats and all.  We got there just in time to put some nicer clothes on and head out for Christmas Eve service, seeing Santa on Oakland, and Olive Garden.  (There’s a guy who dresses up like Santa every year that waves from his front window to the cars that pass by.  We make it ritual to drive by and wave and honk every year.)  We got to bed decent time and were up early Christmas morning to head out to our various family Christmas’s.  We were stuffed by the end of the day…but it was great to see all of our family.  

 
The rest of the week was spent shopping, eating, being lazy, catching up with family and friends…and eating some more.  We headed back down south for New Year’s at Steve and Nicole’s.  We had a great night filled with games and more food.  Mom came down to visit with us again on New Year’s Day…and to whip us into getting our basement finished up.  We got so much work done!  We’re over half-way done now.  Soon enough we’ll have our family room back…a place for all of those drums…and more storage and shelves.  Can’t wait!  

And now we’re back at work…which isn’t so bad.  Another group of new students is here for interterm and I’ve been busy with phone calls and e-mail since I got back.  I’m definitely looking forward to this new year and all that it has in store for us.  

More blogs to come…as promised!

I’m still here…

So I haven’t blogged in what seems like forever.  Life has just been too busy lately I guess!  I’ll try to highlight some fun things that have been happening in the last few weeks.  

1.  Family Cookout…lots of fun and great weather!  The majority of our immediate family made the annual trek down to Greenville to eat hot dogs and burgers with us.  It was so nice to have everyone down for a big visit…and a big reminder as to how much we miss being away from them all.  We’re only 2 hours away…but that’s a big drive when you think about it.  

2.  Went to Chicago for a conference on advising and my mom got to come along.  4 fun days in the windy city was just what I needed!  We ate lots of yummy food…walked all over downtown Chicago…saw Dirty Dancing, the Musical (which was so cute!)…shoppped at IKEA…took the El to Wrigleyville (even though the Cub’s were loosing)…and just had a great time catching up and spending time together.  Oh yeah…and the conference was great too!  I learned a lot of great new tactics to bring back to the office with me…it was a great motivator!

3.  Went back to Chicago this past weekend (like 2 days ago) and cheered on Jared as he ran his 2nd Chicago Marathon!  Yay Jared!!!  We stayed down on the loop and his sister was able to join us.  (Which I greatly appreciated!)  The weather was warm…and despite a lot of pain in his kneee…Jared pushed through and finished the race.  I’m so proud of him!  The following days have been spent giving him ice baths and helping him around the house.  He’s such a trooper!

Aside from that…I’ve been busy with work.  We’re pushing to start recruiting students for next Fall…and that means college fairs and lots of days calling prospective students.  It’s been busy…but I’m still so very thankful that I love my job as much as I do.  Speaking of work…I better get back to my e-mails and phone messages!  Adios!

Wow…Seriously?

So part of my job is to assist with campus visits for the transfer students I work with.  Usually the student, or parent, will call me up and I’ll help them pick out a day and what types of things they’d like to do while they’re on campus.  I get a lot of odd requests, but this week was the best (or worst) I’ve ever gotten.  So this lady calls and tells me how she’s connected to Greenville and starts name dropping immediately.  Which is fine…because I like knowing when a new student already has a connection with the college.  We talk about her daughter and why she wants to transfer to Greenville and how she’s doing in school.  So far…good/normal conversation.  She then asks about setting up a visit day for her daughter…which is great…because getting a student to campus is one step closer to recruiting them.  I tell her to give some dates to compare with my calendar.  She tells me….”Thanksgiving please.”  I sit there on the phone for a second…totally baffled.  I respond with “Thanksgiving?”  And she says “yes, Thanksgiving…we’ll be there visiting my parents and that day would be great for us.”  I kindly let her know that we aren’t open on Thanksgiving, or the following day and weekend.  She not-so-kindly tells me that if I want a recruit “I’ll be there on Thanksgiving.”  I let her know that campus is closed and that I will personally be out of town.  She then tells me to ask everyone else in the office and to please make sure that one of those persons will cover the visit.  I let her know that’s just not possible….we don’t schedule visits on holidays when campus is closed.  I suggest that she come the day before Thanksgiving…as we’ll have office hours that day.  She finally agrees.  I let her know that the visit schedule will be minimal as faculty will be gone and classes or chapel won’t be meeting that day.  She lets me know that I need to “make something happen.”  Without screaming (which I wanted to do) I let her know that I could provide them with a  campus tour and meeting with myself…and that’s all.  I’m crossing my fingers that they don’t show up.

Great Weekend!

So I should be working on my homework…but yeah…I’m sitting here watching tv and writing a blog.  (Watching Australian Pink Floyd on PBS to be exact.)  So anyway…on Friday I got home from work a little early and got the whole house (minus the in-progress basement) cleaned.  I got all of my fall decor put up as well.  (Which always make me happy!)  I always forget about the cool things that I have stashed away for this time of year.  I got the leaf garland put up on the porch too…I just need to buy a few mums to round it out.  Late Friday night my big brother and one of our nephews and one of our nieces came for the night.  I thought it was just going to be my brother…so it was a great surprise to see all 3 of them!  It was bed time when they got here…so we didn’t really get to hang out until morning.  We woke up early and had cinnamon toast and chocolate milk.  We were up early because my brother was down to help with some landscaping at our house.  We took out some old lava rock between our house and garage…and extended the area with river rock and a bit of a retaining wall.  It’s a great new place for our adirondack chairs and fire pit…we’re really excited to get some use of it!  So Greg and Jared worked on that all day….while Zach, Dani and I went to the donut shop (midmorning snack), the park, colored, watched Sponge Bob, and picked up sticks around the yard.  We had a fun time!  (And now we have a fun space!)  Today was church…and the service was really good.  We’re so fortunate to have found the perfect church for ourselves.  We really do love it there…and all of the people we’ve met there are amazing!  Anywho…we got home after a quick trip to Wal-Mart and I ended up napping for like 3 hours….which I totally needed.  So that brings me to now…and how I should be working on my homework.  I better get started on that!  Adios! 

It’s over…

Well another recruiting year has come and gone…once again.  A year of hard work has once again paid off.  We ended up on target with our year end goals…which always makes me smile.  What makes me smile even more…is watching all of those new faces walking around campus…experiencing Greenville College for the first time.  It always makes me think back to my college years…and how great and formative they were.  Just a great reminder of why I love my job.   Speaking of jobs…Jared got a new one.  He was offered  another job on campus with IT…and we’re super pumped!  (It’s a job he’s always wanted…and he’ll be working with lots of friends.)  It took awhile to make the decision for him to switch departments, but this new job was obviously the way to go.  So in 2 weeks…Jared will get to settle into his new digs.   In other news…we’re slowly but surely getting closer to finishing up our basement redo.  The patching is nearly done, and we also started painting down there this week.  Fingers crossed that in the next couple weeks we can put it back together and enjoy the extra space once again!  (In the meantime…if you like to paint…let us know!)   With that…I better get back to my homework.  I have plenty to finish up tonight before we have company over tomorrow.  More updates later…I’m sure! 

I don’t have blonde hair…

So yesterday I went outside to work in the garden.  I dug the rest of our potatoes and onions yesterday….and picked more tomatoes and peppers.  I weeded a bit…and still have quite a bit more to weed.  At some point I decided I would get out the trimmer (as Jared was mowing) and start working on the weeds.  So I got most of the yard done…and stupid me decided to trim right next to the garden.  Right next to the cute white wire fencing I have around the garden.  Needless to say, I have about 2 feet less fencing now…whoops!  It was so silly…I’m really good at mowing and trimming…so who knows what happened there.  Oh well…at least the yard looks good now!

1 week to go…

So in one week NSO (New student orientation) will be here…the day my office works towards year after year.  It’s been a long summer (which oddly enough has gone CRAZY fast)…and I’m so excited to see this day finally come.  I can’t wait to see/meet all of my new students.  Along with that comes the beginning of another work year…and I’m always excited to think about the other students I’ll soon start to work with.  Amongst all of that, I’m not also half-way done with grad. school.  With any luck, I’ll finish up this spring (Holla!). 

This weekend I’m working to get the house tidied up again…but seem to keep getting stuck on the couch wathing the Olympics.  I try to wash a few dishes or tidy up a room during commercial breaks!  (The business of work lately has wreaked havoc on the tidiness of my house…and it drives me crazy!)  That’s about it!

I’m here…really!

Ok…so I realized today (or maybe a few weeks ago) that I haven’t blogged in quite some time.  This is pretty much all due to the fact that school starts soon and I’m crazy busy at work.  My workload got doubled back in May, so I don’t have as much time to kill and by the time I get home I just want to sit and stare into space.  However…I’m back…and promise to be better about posting the going-ons of my life.  Here’s a few quick recaps on other cool things we’ve done over the past month or so. -Saw the Foo-Fighters (awwwwesome!!!)-Saw the Toadies (a great blast from the past…made me want to relive the 90’s)-Went to Iowa for a family reunion (amazing to hang out with family…didn’t want to leave)-Helped a friend move (my arms are now buff)-Got some insane allergies (that FINALLY cleared up)-Saved a cat from a life on the streets (no…we didn’t keep it)-Saw Mama Mia (and am now, once again, addicted to ABBA) That’s about it…more to come later! 

Mini-Vaca

Well despite it being 3 days instead of 2…this past weekend came and went pretty quickly.  To celebrate the 4th of July…we headed out of Greenville and over to St. Louis.  We spent the bulk of Friday utilizing our Six Flags season passes.  The weather was beautiful….and the park wasn’t packed at all.  Despite some icky feeling tummies at the beginning of the day…we were still able to ride all of our favorite coasters and thrill rides.  They’ve got a new coaster as well…the “Evil Kenievil”.  It’s a tight twisting wooden coaster…and was simply thrilling and fantastic.  It was warm enough to take in a few water rides as well…and not have to worry about being soaked for the rest of the day.  We stayed until the park closed…and watched fireworks there as well.  Definitely not a praise-worthy display…but still nice to be able to see a few. 

 From there we headed back to our hotel…but not until we stopped off for some late night Krispy Kreme to quench my sweet tooth.  So at the hotel we had a jacuzzi in our room…which I immediately went to fill when we got back.  After a day of walking all over the park…my feet and back were thrilled at the thought of sitting in a jacuzzi.  Well thanks to that decision…I’ve learned a major life lesson.  Don’t put any sort of a soap or bubbles in a jacuzzi…EVER!  I’m pretty sure I knew that…but still…I put a dime size worth of bubbles in the tub.  It was fine to start with…but then I turned on the jets…and the bubbles proceded to pretty much fill and take over the tub area (which was quite big).  They never actually flowed out of the tub…just kept rising up like there was some sort of clear glass surrounding the tub.  It was quite a site.  So the next hour was spent trying to “drain” the bubbles.  We transported some to the sink…which didn’t work.  Then we drained the water a bit…didnt’ work.  Then we pretty just turned on the shower head above and let cold water run until they were gone.  So after that whole process was done…we had to fill the stupid tub all over again.  Lesson learned.

After a good night’s sleep…we got up (after sleeping in) and headed over for lunch.   We got some bbq…of course…which gave us the energy necessary to continue on with another day.  From there we headed over to Grant’s Farm…which is one of our favorite St. Louis atractions.  We saw all of the animals…watched the animal show…fed the llama’s…and went on our way.  We shopped for a bit at a local mall.  I got a cute new dress and Jared got some running socks.  We ate a yummy pasta dinner and headed over to Ted Drew’s for some custard.  After seeing the mile long lines there….we just kept going.  I opted for a buster bar at DQ instead.  Not even close to being as good as Ted Drew’s…but it was still pretty tasty. 

 Sunday was church…and then napping.  After napping…an hours worth of weeding in the garden.  The tomoatoes and peppers are all growing quite well.  I’ve even been able to pull a few onions to use.  My favorite part is that the sunflowers we planted are starting to grow as well.  I’ve had this thing with sunflowers since I was younger…and I was so excited to have my own this year!  the rest of the yard is looking good, too.  The hollyhocks are finally starting to bud, the day lillies are in full bloom, the hydrangeas came back (they had a rough year last summer), and Jared’s finally got the grass to start growin the bald spots. 

 With that…I’m gonna get back to work!

It’s a Monday

After a great weekend…there’s always a Monday.  As a laid there in bed this morning…I quickly realized that I didn’t get nearly enough sleep this weekend.  Lack of sleep is totally worth it when it means you get to hang out with good friends…and watch silly movies with your hubby.  Today work just seemed to drag on and on…like 4:30 was never going to get here.  After some fun and exciting news though….it got here a little more quickly.  Jared surprised me today by letting me know that we were getting season tickets to this year’s Broadway series at the Fox Theatre.  We had some friends that asked if we were interested…and we decided not to…even though I really really wanted to.  Needless to say…Jared completely changed his mind and told them yes…and then let me know.  I’m so pumped!  We get to look foward to 6 great shows over the next year!  It makes me feel so fancy!  The Fox is probably my most favorite theatre that I’ve ever been to.  It’s so huge and beautiful…and just an amazing experience every time you go. This evening we made hobo dinners on the grill…and they were super yummy. We followed dinner up with some lawn games and cleaned the house up a bit. So even though it definitely started out as a Monday…it turned into a great day!