long overdue, but comin' at ya, all the same

there's been a lot going on here (and in the ohio branch) lately. matt and i both have a list of personal and professional "to-dos" that need to be taken care of before we move. and we've both been traveling, of course (we fear a little bit for the economic security of the airlines, once we're in the same state).

in april, i went to seattle for the first time. i had a conference downtown. true to its stereotypes, it rained every single day that i was there. a cold rain, always hard enough to be annoying, usually for most of the day. so, when i finished my talk and had a message from briana that it was nice out and she was heading to the space needle, i was on board! in probably the most awkward part of my trip, the search through my bag before entering the space needle turned up a metal fork. one i had stuffed into my bag after lunch at work one day and failed to retrieve with the rest of my post-lunch items. even more awesome: it looked pretty gross. i knew that the icky, dried brown coating was sauce from the peanut noodles, but i'm not sure if the security guard believed me. in any case, he was a good sport about it, took my fork away, had me fill out a tag for it, and told me that i could come back and get it once our tour of the space needle was over. of course, a rush to get on the light rail meant forgetting it at the guard's stand. so, if anyone is ever in seattle and wants to retrieve my dirty fork from the space needle, feel free.

after seattle, i drove to iowa to see my cousin, jessie jo, before she shipped off to start basic

training. (that pic is her and i at the wedding. i don't know why it looks like i've never seen a camera before.)

then, i continued down the road toward home because it was gabe's junior prom. i don't know if everyone's high school does/did this, but mine has an event called the grand march, where each of the couples (or even just a group of friends who wants to walk together) is presented to anyone from the public who wants to attend. it sounds kind of funny, but it creates a nice opportunity for friends

after Gabe's Grand March

and family to snap some photos (without actually showing up at their kids' prom. . . which some parents actually might) and the people in the community love to see the dresses. obviously. i lived in pennsylvania during both of kassi's proms and we are obviously moving to montana this summer, so it was a lot of driving, but it was nice to get to see one of the kids during such a fun time.

and i'm going to put up this pic of gabe and me rather than gabe and his date. even though her dress was way cuter.

the following weekend, matt and i met up in chicago for yet another psychology conference. we obviously also took the opportunity to sample some chicago cuisine and spend some quality time with dj and laura. now, if you would've told me five years ago that we would be choosing sushi over deep dish pizza, i would have told you that you were crazy. but that is, in fact, what happened. and it was spicy and delicious. just the way that we like it.

that brings us to last weekend. my friend kristi came to madison for the glow run 5k. since

the race was an evening event, we took the day to hang out, get pedicures, explore h&m, and catch up as we haven't for quite a long time. the run was pretty fun. it's a cool theme. and we went for good, wisconsin cheese balls (or "cheese curds" as they're called here, which i hate saying because "curd" is a gross word), as kristi demanded it as a stipulation of her visit. these are stipulations that i can live with, to be sure.

that pretty much brings us to now. matt and i just got back home from a house-hunting trip to montana. we found a cute rental. i'll post pictures once we know for sure that it will be ours. we also did our share to sample the local cuisine. we're really willing to take one for the team in that regard. we loved the places that we found, which included this cafe, this pizza place, and an old train depot that has been converted to a bar and grill. not to mention, i was elated to see that many of the businesses have adopted my long-standing pragmatic approach to "one-seater" bathrooms being unisex, cleverly labeling them "either" and "or" rather than "men" and "women." gone (hopefully) are my days of having to wait for 15 women to go to the bathroom one-by-one while the men's room sits empty. that's all i've been asking for. and, luckily, it never got to this point for me.

next weekend, kara and my sister, dy, are coming for the twilight 10K, then i'm heading to ohio, to iowa to see jill and meet little elsie, then toronto, then we're on our cruise, then moving. pretty much like everyone else's summer, i think.  you think you'll have so much time and you really don't. and then before you know it, you're moving to montana. well, maybe that part is specific to us :)

unofficial documentation of the big day

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. . .

weeks went by: part 3

Kassi & Grandma

the grand finale, so to speak, on matt's time in madison was a weekend with my parents and my niece. a mere 72 hours before kassi moved to college, she was here talking with matt and i about financial aid and helping mom and i craft ideas for a wedding guest book and escort cards (more on those projects later).

it is never an enviable task to try to find the few common hours in the schedules of five people and i'm incredibly thankful that we pulled it off. i think by the time that my mom and i were really ready to choose a weekend, we might have only had this one left. and it still involved some fancy scheduling.

we all went miniature golfing and out for dinner once everyone arrived (and post however much time it takes five people who haven't seen each other in a while to get caught up on general life stuff). there is a place here that we discovered when i first moved in that has multiple courses and is pretty fun. for some reason, i got many fewer holes in one this time around. BUT i won a free game at the end and kassi got some fun pictures with some of the characters on the course, so it was all worth it. i mean, have you ever actually seen anything this wonderful? yeah. i thought not.

before: lauren, paula, becky, kara, milo, kristen

matt left only a few days after my parents, and that basically brings us all the way up to last weekend. my friend kara and her husband brian came to madison because kara had agreed to participate in the dirty girl mud run with my me, my friends paula and lauren, and our friend kristen, who we went to central college with, but who i haven't seen in what feels like ages.

kristen and paula on one of the obstacles

this run was an interesting test of my will. what kind of will, i'm uncertain, but it has to do with my longstanding, overwhelming desire to not get dirty. seriously, this dates back to not even liking dirt as a child. or lake water. or grass stains. or walking through puddles. i'm not saying that these things never happened, but they would not have been included on my list of things that were fun. the only exception to this seemed to be our sandbox. i'm not sure why, but that never seemed dirty to me (although if you made the mistake of wearing your shoes in, you were totally screwed). maybe because my dad built it? i'm not sure. but basically everything else that was dirty was something that i didn't like. especially mud.

after: lauren, becky, kara, kristen, paula

fast forward to last weekend. i felt like i had to force myself to get into it on one of the first few obstacles, or i was going to end up being the girl who came to the mud run but tried to stay clean. i need not have worried. i had 3.1 miles of running and obstacles and lots, and lots of mud in front of me. i actually found myself getting into it (apparently i'm quite good at sliding through spreads of mud on my stomach - and thankfully so, because it was about 1,000 times easier than trying to run through it without falling down).

the cleaning up part was pretty much as awful as you would imagine. i *might* still have mud in the corners of my toenails, actually. i probably won't be signing up for another mud run anytime soon, but i had a great group, i actually got a good workout (thanks, all of the weird walls that we had to climb), and it benefitted a great cause. i'm glad that i checked it off of my "to do" list!

the two who didn't lose their glasses: paula & kara

that makes three 5Ks in three months. september is a little full, but i'm already signed up for another color run in october. actually, i may be running a second 5K in october as well. i've been asked to serve as a mentor for the running group that i've been participating in since the spring. part of the structure of the program is that former participants serve as mentors to help and inspire first-time participants. i can't be at every run, obviously, but i'm kind of excited about staying active in the group. and flattered, of course, that they'd ask me to serve such a role. anyway, the point of the group is for the first-time participants to run in a "goal race" at the end of the program. along the way there is a mentor's race as well. i think it sounds like fun.

this almost got my photo-taking privileges revoked

while the details of all of that are getting worked out, i'm prepping for a weekend away with my girls. as a bachelorette/pre-wedding hangout, they've booked some time for us at a cabin on a lake just an hour or so north of madison. i don't remember the last time a bunch of us got to hang out - and it even looks as though we're going to get a beautiful weekend to grill, get some sun, and play outdoor games.

it's been quite a month. i could have sworn that it just started. but at least you haven't had to read about work stories for the last three weeks, right? :)

here is where it all ends/begins

did i really get a diploma last year? somehow that seems like forever ago. though somehow this weekend i realized that receiving my high school degree still feels like it might just have been yesterday.

the gym has been repainted with a beautiful mural. the benches are different. the setup has been turned a full 90 degrees to the north. but somehow, there were a lot of things that still felt the same. and it didn't seem like it was all that long ago that i was trying, for the first time, to figure out how one keeps a mortar board cap pinned solidly into your hair in a way that looks at least semi-fashionable (though, of course, effortless).

it is a different feeling of pride when you get to watch someone you love succeed. i felt it this weekend to be sure. i got to watch someone who i know has had some easy and some hard paths; some pretty strong academic loves and hates; some better and some worse years. watch what, you ask? watch her finish a long journey of hard work and perseverance with all of the grace and pride such an accomplishment should entail. i couldn't be more proud. and i couldn't be more excited to see just what comes next.