it's going to need to be at least 3 times that size

little library along the bike trail

my run this morning, the one that quickly turned from a 3 mile run into a 1.5 mile run (i'm still not convinced that my body isn't trying to be sick), kind of felt like a fail in a lot of ways. however, one success was finally getting a shot of the "little library" that i run past all the time. it's really cute! i really love this whole movement and i wouldn't be surprised if kara tried to get it going in the east suburbs of des moines sometime soon. there are a bunch of them in the willy street neighborhood by my house, and i actually think it makes the whole neighborhood feel more like a small town - where everyone is willing to help each other out. some people are really crafty, too. there is a duplex near the lake that built a little duplex library. it's super cute. the website that i've linked to above also shows some clever creations. cute, right?!

brief tuesday morning update

see, we take pictures sometimes where we aren't making funny faces. isn't that better? second bridal shower is done. and it was lovely, sweet time with family.

on my ride back to iowa, i came across this podcast from this american life. it isn't exactly what i do since my work is often with younger kids, but these are a lot of the "jargony" terms and phrases that i use in my every world. my research fits in here under the question, "how to we intervene even earlier to help these kids be ready before they even enter school?" and it's an interesting podcast, anyway.

and speaking of work, i'm off to it. . .

where did all of these hours go?

the countdown on our knot site suggests that we have only 18 days until the wedding. i'm not entirely certain how that is possible. then again, i just sat in silence on the phone for an embarrassingly long time trying to decide what today's date was. it's baffling to me how quickly time is passing.

since the last post, many things have happened. and also, nothing has happened. in my mind very few days have gone by; yet, given that nearly a month has passed, i suspect that they have actually all just melded into one big blur for me. i'll try to disentangle some of that here.

i have "officially" started to mentor for the run group that i participated in during the spring. i only felt able to commit to the wednesday evening runs (which have turned out to be a stretch in and of themselves), but i am happy to be participating. almost everyone who shows up to that group has a hectic life schedule. it's nice to show up for an hour and be somewhere else, doing something fun and beneficial. plus, it reminds me to keep on track with my own running program. i do have another 5K on the horizon, after all (p.s. although i'm sad that i won't be participating in a september run given my "one run a month" trend since june, i think that was a very wise decision. . . ). AND, i get this super cool shirt that identifies me as a mentor. i don't know that i have a lot to offer in terms of running knowledge, but i keep thinking that if my offering of friendship, inclusiveness, and encouragement keeps even one person coming back in the week-to-week, then i will consider my mentorship a success.

matt and i went to another lovely wedding in southern ohio. you'll likely remember it as the weekend that this happened. we were busy enough that i didn't see any of the game; in fact, i knew nothing of the outcome until someone told me at the reception. i do feel a bit bad for the penn state players. and bill o'brien seems like a nice guy. but, as in their run in the dance a few years ago, OU plays the role of the underdog like a champ. and even i have to laugh at these t-shirts. so, true to my slightly unnerving trek from one big10 school to the next, i feel some mixed allegiances.

my first bridal shower went off seemingly without a hitch. i am not sure why my mom and i are both making weird faces in that picture, but i promise that it is not indicative of the event as a whole. it was nice to be home again and to see people i hadn't seen for quite some time. it was all very lovely and matt and i are very excited about and very grateful for all of the gifts that we received.

as an added gift, my wedding ring is back from being resized nearly a whole week early. given that the arrival date originally posed to us was October 3rd, we are considering ourselves lucky. we also feel lucky that we were able to work out a real fiasco with the hotel rooms last week. thankfully, we were alerted to the fact that things seemed to be going awry and matt was able to persist in finding someone knowledgable and figuring out what was actually going on. so, two potentially close calls have been avoided. *phew*

other than that, this week is full of trying to stay caught up (and maybe even get ahead on) work before wedding shenanigans really take full effect. matt is teaching on tuesdays and thursdays. i have one class as a part of my fellowship, one weekly meeting, and am trying fiercely to get things turned in/passed along to collaborators before october hits. so far my proudest moment of the week was turning some of the delicious veggies that my mom sent home with me into a small pizza. though that is mostly because i like few things more than i like pizza.

and just in case all of that is starting to sound a little bit too hectic for you, my dear family and friends, i'll close with a picture i took of the mississippi river during my drive home last weekend. as it turns out, there is an adorable little rest area tucked away on the MN-WI border that screams "photo-op." it was a gorgeous day, and the picture just verifies that everything is starting to look like fall.