Birthday Celebrations

I guess it's been a while since I've posted on here. Things are in full swing around here with work and other obligations. I feel like I hardly had time to have a birthday, but I did. Oct. 20 was my 32 birthday. Hard to believe in one way, but the number didn't really phase me. 31 was the hard one for me, as I think 35 or 36 will be later. The people in my office at work think I'm just a baby, so that makes me feel younger too. I spent the day teaching, but only had two classes, so that was nice. I also received flowers, one plant from friends Jeff and Kelly, and my usual monthly rose bouquet from Ken. Lovely!

That evening, I went to dinner at one of the very nice Italian restaurants in town called My Verona. I haven't been there so it was a real treat to try it. Melissa, Audra, Nadia and I had a wonderful time, and Nadia treated me to a luscious and very decadent dessert! She insisted on getting a picture of me blowing out the candle.

I also received some birthday Beef & Noodle soup from grandma, which is the best! She made me three containers full: one to eat that week and two to freeze. In all, a wonderful birthday. I was sad Ken couldn't be here, but he will be here in the years to come. Now it's back to grading those piles of papers stacked on my kitchen table.

The end of a looooong week

Last week was one of the worst, as in busiest, weeks of the semester. I hesitate to event write that though considering that on Wednesday and Thursday of this coming week my students -- 138 of them -- are turning in their first papers. Last week, however, I got a sneak peak at them all when the students turned in their first and second drafts for review. My hope is that it will take less time to grade the final copies if I saw them a few times first. Fingers crossed.

It's definitely been a busy semester. I'm trying to remember though if it's as busy as last fall when I was teaching 4 courses at HCC and 2 at UNI. That was 3 preps and each of them a relatively new course. Plus the UNI classes were longer papers as that was a Comp class. This semester, it's another 6 classes but it's only 2 different ones and I've taught them both before. So why does it seem so much busier this year?

I think it's a combination of things. For starters, I have more students per class this semester and so many "student issues" have popped up already. HCC students have far more issues than the UNI ones did. Case in point, last week, I had one student come to class and call me out into the hall to talk about being assaulted by her sig. other which had just happened. She was still pretty shaken up, so immediately after class, I walked her over to the counselor. Then I had 2 students cheat on an assignment, so we had to have "the talk." Plus the multiple classes with the "chatty Cathy's" -- mostly males in this case who won't shut up in class. I can't tell you how many times I've had to talk to them about talking too much or when I've started to snap in class because they don't hear directions because they were talking and so want me to repeat them for the 4th or 5th time. The group this semester just seems so so so immature. Then of course, there are the classes where no one, and I do mean no one, will talk or discuss when they are supposed to. So I've had to do some work to restructure how we're going to do things this week in class. Some of the other ways that I've done things that have worked in the past just aren't cutting it now. Ah, the fun of teaching.

The other reason why I think it seems more busy around here is simply the fact that Ken's not here. I get the joy of doing everything around the house by myself, and while it didn't seem so bad in the summer when I was off work, I'm really starting to notice it now that I have to do it all in addition to work. The nicest thing happened the other day. I came home from getting groceries yesterday to find that my neighbor George had asked his lawn mowing guy to take care of my lawn too. He even went all around with the weed eater and trimmed the place up nice. What a treat! Not to have to mow the lawn was about the nicest thing that could have happened to me with everything else that was going on. Thanks George!

Never Turn Your Back on a Hungry Cat

Yes, I realize that I'm getting dangerously close to making this an all-cat blog, but with Ken gone, they are my only real entertainment these days.

So here I am on a Sunday trying to work on my lesson plans for the week and thinking to myself how much work I have to get done today alone. I get up for a moment to stretch my legs, and when I come back, I find that Tucker has helped himself to my little ice cream treat I stupidly left unattended on the table. Note how Artemus is looking so innocent and not the least bit interested in being involved with such a criminal act.

Here's a close up of the culprit.

Lazy Cat

Tucker's favorite resting place is to lie in the window of the kitchen. He loves it when I open it up and he can stretch across it. The weather's been unusually nice lately so I've had the windows open more. Here is a shot of my lazy boy lounging happily.

First Days of Classes Fall '09

Two days of first classes done. I am teaching 6 writing classes this semester: 4 Prep Writing I and 2 Prep Writing II classes. Luckily for me, all of the Writing I classes are on the same days (MWF) and all of the Writing II classes are on the same days (TR). The only bad things are the sheer number of students that I have right now: almost 23 in each class though of course not all students showed up for the first day of classes. Wednesday will give me a better idea of who is actually going to be in each of my classes and how many are going to stay there.

Once again, I forgot how exhausting these first few days really are. It felt good to be back in the swing of things, but by Monday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. when my last class of the day was over, I could barely keep my eyes open. I think it's the repositioning myself as the "extrovert" I have to pretend to be when in the classroom. All summer long, I've been able to be an introvert, keeping to myself most of the time, but for 4 hours solid, I had to be "on" in front of a group. When I came home that day, I actually fell asleep on the couch for about half an hour and didn't even realize I'd done it. One minute I'm watching the Nightly News with Brian Williams and the next thing I know, the local news is on. I'm not a big nap taker, but I just couldn't help it that day.

I don't yet have a good read on what my students are like. There are just too many of them and we haven't had our "getting to know you" session yet. That's coming on Wednesday. I also still have students asking me to let them into my classes. They are already so full! It's hard to say no, but the numbers are getting overwhelming. A result of the combination of a bad economy, high student enrollment, and not enough teachers.

Thinking about Kenny

It's a Thursday night, and I'm sitting around home missing my Kenny. Here are a few shots to bring him a little closer while he's half a world away.

Mt. Rushmore, March 2009.

With Brother Tom in our backyard. July 2009.

With Artemus. Sometime in 2008.

With Tucker in the Romeoville apt. 2007

Building sand castles with Audra at Backbone State Park, May 2008.

Meet Me in St. Louis...Louis..

Greetings from St. Louis. I was here with my friend Desi taking part in an Army Family Programs Academy conference. We drove here in a pretty fun rental car -- a Pontiac G6. On our way, we stopped in Hannibal for lunch at the Mark Twain Dinette. While there, we stopped at the Native American Trading Company so that Desi could peruse the goods as she is one half Cherokee. She purchased a really cool Beaver claw necklace.

We continued on our way until we got to St. Louis where we went to a reception for Army people that evening. We met some really nice and funny girls from a tiny town in West Virginia. This was their first trip out of their town of Clay, WV and their first trip on an airplane. They were pretty funny to listen to as they told their travel stories.

Saturday found us in conference sessions all day, but I entertained myself with some typing on the new laptop and some checking of email, etc. Once done, we escaped out into the scorching heat and humidity of St. Louis to explore the area around our hotel. We were in the Hilton by the Ballpark, so we had a view of the new Busch Stadium from our hotel window. We agreed it looks pretty darn good from the air conditioned room. But...we went out anyway. We were near a park that has a whole mess of mini Arches. From there, we had a picturesque view of the real Arch and some big white building (we think it's a museum of sorts but the name escapes me).

While taking some pictures, we were amused by two wedding parties that we saw taking a ton of pictures right where we wanted to take pictures. It was kind of annoying. I remarked how hot it was several times (much to Desi's dismay) and how I would hate to be getting married in this heat. She told me I would never make it as a soldier in the desert, and boy is she right! I can't stand the thought of Ken having to be anywhere where it's as hot or hotter than this. She then called us a couple of old married women and I said it's still weird for me to think of myself as being an old married woman -- probably because I've only been married about 5 months and Ken has been gone for 3 of them.

We wandered around the Arch and then thought we would try to go up it, but we found out that we would have had to wait about an hour and a half to get on the elevators. So instead we wandered around inside the base of it and went into some stores. I bought an Arch magnet and then we played a rousing of checkers in a little mercantile store.

We decided to go lounge in the air conditioned hotel for the rest of the evening. Great minds think alike! There we rested comfortably for our morning sessions the next day. On Sunday, it was back in the car and back to Iowa.

August Cometh

August. These days my time is spent trying to stay as busy as possible so the days do not feel as loney as they really are now that Ken's officially gone and in country. It also helps me to not think about what's happening over there. My recent projects have been taking on more roles in the Family Readiness Group (FRG) for the Ken's unit. This is essentially a group run by family members to help support those family and friends of soldiers left behing during a deployment. I started off as the newsletter person and the website person. Now I'm helping with more leadership duties and have taken on the role of Phone Tree coordinator which means making calls and keeping track of any problems that arise from calls made. It's proven to be much more time consuming than I expected and I find myself working on it about 3 hours a day. I don't know what I'm going to do once school starts. I will certainly not have as much time to devote to it then.

I can't write much else right now as I'm pooped from helping my buddy Lynn with some more flood cleanup at her house. We've really dug into her garage and today, our second day, found us making a dump run and cleaning out storage totes so that she can start organizing things into clean containers. It's really a rewarding project and we can see dramatic changes each time we work.

Tomorrow, I'm headed to my office to work on fall syllabi and to continue preparing my office for my new officemate. So much to do and so little time left to do it! In a couple of weeks, it's back to work and back to students. When August cometh, summer endeth.

Visit to Wisconsin

Last weekend, I took a trip up to Appleton, WI to visit friends Lynsey and Jeremy and their son Jack. It was a great visit and we did all sorts of fun Wisconsiny-type things, including a trip to a cheese store (yay!!!), a visit to a Farmer's Market downtown, and lunch at a restaurant called Pullmans. At the cheese store, Lynsey and Jeremy introduced me to the wonders of cheese fudge -- yes, cheese fudge! I never knew such a delight existed! We bought fresh cheese curds, these ropey-type cheese things, string cheese, and of course cheese fudge. In the evenings as we relaxed and chatted, we sampled from the fine cheese platter before us. I made sure to buy some to take home with me.

Our trip to the Farmer's Market amazed me with the almost 3 blocks of vendors. We each tried some Gelato, bought some kettle corn, and ate a BBQ pork skewer. Fabulous! Later in the afternoon, Lynsey and I took off for a lovely lunch at a local restaurant called Pullmans which overlooked the river. Naturally, we sampled some of the cheesecake! Then we headed off for a little shopping!

Before I knew it the weekend was over and I had to head back to Iowa. I was sad to leave them all, including Rigby the dog, who became my new BFF while I was there. Jack and I also became buddies and spent a lot of time playing with all of his fun toys in the basement. Believe it or not, during the whole weekend, I only managed to get one picture from the visit. Here I am with Lynsey and little Jack. Lynsey says she has some pictures of me, Jack, and Jeremy dancing downstairs to some Beatles music. Will post those sometime in the future.

There was one other surprise to the weekend! Lynsey and Jeremy surprised me with a sign whose story dates back to the nineties and some early college days fun. I'm thinking about putting it in my office.

Finally, the day after I arrived home, I received a call saying that I had flowers to pick up. My Kenny did it again! It looks like he's going to send me flowers pretty regularly while away. He's now overseas and will be making his way to his next more "permanant" destination soon. The last time he was deployed, he arranged to send me flowers once a month to help the time pass and let me know he was thinking about me. I got my "July" flowers on Monday with a very sweet card. What a guy!

Farewell to a Friend

This is a sad post. Yesterday, Mom and I had to put our cat, Reilly, to sleep. He'd developed a tumor on his side and had held on as long as he could. When his personality started to change and he no longer acted happy and comfortable, we knew it was time.

He was about 11 years old. I remember when I picked him out at the Humane Society in Waterloo. I was only about 20 years old, but you had to be 21 to adopt a pet. I remember calling my dad, who was still alive then, asking him if we could get him (I was living at home at the time while an undergraduate). As Dad often did for me, he said yes, and Reilly, the orange cat, came to live with us.

He was a loving, friendly, and playful cat. One of my happiest memories of him was when he was small. I would throw a Christmas bow down the hall at my parents' house and he would "fetch" and return it to me. We played like that often. It was fun to have a cat that played fetch. He loved to sit on laps and be cuddled and was overall just a wonderful cat. I felt guilty leaving him behind in Waterloo when I moved to IL.

I'll miss you, Reilly cat. I'll miss seeing you at Mom's house, miss how you liked to sit in the living room window and watch for people to come, and miss how you always waited until we let the dog out to be extra playful. You always knew to roll around on the floor as soon as the dog went outside because you'd get a good scratchin'. You were a wonderful pet and member of the family. I hope you are resting peacefully now. Know that you were very loved. Thank you for loving us back.

July 2009: At a Glance

Can it possibly be July already? I swear (and I am not one prone to too much swearing) that my summer is flying by way too fast. Well, the month started off with a family wedding on the 4th of July. Brother Tom's daughter Tracie married her intended, Cory, in a beautiful lakeside ceremony on the 4th. It was simple, elegant, and very touching. I was sad that Ken couldn't be there with me as he was still in Indy doing his pre-deployment training, but he was there in spirit, and the couple let me take some wedding cake home for him. Here is a picture of Tom and the beautiful bride on their way to meet the groom.

Then the month really kicked off when Ken was able to come home for his last leave before heading "over." We had 3.5 lovely days lounging around home, puttering around the house, and spending time with family. The visit went way too fast, but we were both grateful for the extra time we could spend together before the long haul really kicks in. I received a short email from him this afternoon saying they'd made it as far as Ireland and would continue on their journey as soon as some small details pertaining to the trip were cleared up (sandstorm, etc.).

I only have 2 weeks left of teaching my summer writing class. Then it's time to think about what I need to do to get ready for my 5 fall classes. I am planning a getaway soon though to visit friends Lynsey and Jeremy and their son Jack in Wisconsin. I am excited to see them again and excited to spend some time actually talking and hanging out with them. That's what summer's are for, right?! It's a bit of a drive up there though, so I think I may stop by the library beforehand and get some books on CD for the roadtrip. Before I know it, July will be wrapping up and August will be here again, and with it, the busy-ness of the fall semester. Hopefully, that will make the time go faster, and before I know it, Ken will be home again to share in the adventures.

Busy Busy Summer

Well, it's been a busy busy summer of '09 so far! Here's a quick update on what all's been going on here since school got out in early May. First I have to say that I attended my first graduation ceremony at work as a faculty member! How cool is that? I got to get all dolled up in my foo-foo gown that I wore once before at my own graduation a mere year ago. Then I got to march in with the other faculty attending. It was cool, and I think I'll do it again! (After all, I paid enough for that darn robe that I better get some more wear out of it!)

Ken left in early May for his month of training at Ft. McCoy, WI, so it was just me and the "boys"...otherwise known as the cats. We made it through May by taking a quick trip to Normal, IL to visit friends and be a guest speaker at the CTLT (see last blog). Then I attended a 2-day faculty teaching retreat at Hickory Hills Park near home. It was sort of like camping, so I was down with it. Tucker really wanted to come along.

At the very end of May, Ken came home for a few days of leave before heading to his next training station in IN. I caught a picture of him in "Army-mode" as I call it. Notice the serious expression on his face as he works on the couch. He didn't even change out of his uniform. The man is a work-a-holic!

After I chastised him for looking glum, he smiled and gave me a more "Kenny-like" picture. Sadly though, after a trip to Oelwein to stay with his folks for delicious food and house projects , a few days later he was off again to the next training station. I'm happy to report though that he will be home in mid-July for a few more days before really shipping out. Here's my Kenny.

A few days after Ken left, the Reserve Unit had the official going away ceremony for the troops, a send-off ceremony for the town. I was sad that Ken wasn't there this time, but it actually made it easier for me not to have him there. I probably would have been more of an emotional wreck if he had been there. Here is a picture of some of the Army bags ready to be loaded and the troops gathered ready to board the buses.

In early June, I started two projects: teaching an 8-week summer writing class at work and taking a 5-week faculty development course of my own. In the mean time, I also snuck away to Daytona Beach for the last time to attend the AP English Language reading. There I scored many many student essays and enjoyed some fun beach time with my roomie Jan. Trying to keep up with grading students' work and doing my own homework while also doing the AP thing was a little taxing, so I think next year I may say "no" to teaching a summer class if I go to AP again.

So that's all for now. I'll try to be better about getting on here and posting. The rest of the summer should be more relaxing...here's hoping anyway!

Deep Thoughts about a Burrito

For a few days, I am back in my old stomping grounds of Normal for a guest speaking event at the CTLT, my former place of graduate assistant employment. I am a visiting guest at the Future Professors workshop, an event I used to help facilitate. My job today is to share thoughts on what it means to have completed the transition from graduate student to first-year faculty. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I will say, but it's only for 45 minutes, so I don't think it will be too bad. I'm hoping that the participants will ask some good questions that will lead into a fruitful discussion.

Yesterday when I arrived in town, I treated myself to a burrito at El Porton, one of my favorite places when I used to live here. Sadly though, I discovered that it didn't taste as good as I remembered it, and I couldn't figure out why. It looked the same as it always did though the rice and beans did look a little different. I just couldn't figure out why it tasted somewhat different, less good, than I remembered. As I drove away feeling a little saddened by my lunch experience, I started thinking about life's changes and how much has happened in the past year. After all, it was just one year ago that I was living here (or had just left here) and was wrapping up the past 5 years of my life as a graduate student. In that year, I graduated, moved back to Iowa, started a job, experienced a tornado, got engaged, left a job, started a new better job, got married, and sent a husband off to war...again. Now here I am coming back after all these things happened and for some reason, here I am actually saddened by the fact that a burrito I used to love tasted different. Really significant, right?

In the end, I think it was really just my way of saying good-bye to who I was when I was a graduate student here. Perhaps I have different tastes now or maybe it's just a matter of remembering things in a different way from a different time. I don't know. I guess I'm not being super reflective here about life's changes, but in the end, I think it was just symbolic of moving on. My life as a burrito --now how's that for a metaphor?

South Dakota Pt. 3: Custer State Park and Deadwood

Back to our trip to South Dakota. As we got closer to our destination, we finally began to see buffalo and other wildlife. Surprisingly, there wasn't much of that to see along the way. In Iowa, we're used to seeing cows, pigs, sheep, and horses all around, but in SD, we saw very little evidence of a farming lifestyle.


When we got to Custer State Park, we were impressed by the roaming buffalo that would stand right next to the car and often in the road right in front of the car as well. Ken and I got a kick out of having to stop while a couple of buffalo slowly...and I do emphasize slowly...made their way across the road.While the buffalo didn't really care if we were there or not, we did have a slightly nasty encounter with a roaming donkey that charged up to the passenger side of the car when I leaned out to get a picture. As he started running toward us, I yelled, "Drive!" to Ken and we safely got away. Here is our getaway shot from the frightening encounter. Ken responded to the situation by saying, "What an ass!"

We also made a stop in Deadwood, SD, the place where Wild Bill Hicok was shot and is buried. While there, I picked up a black hills gold necklace as a momento from the trip, and we ventured to Mt. Moriah cemetery to see the graves of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. Of course, while walking down through the streets of Deadwood, we saw the Historic Saloon No. 10 where Wild Bill was shot -- as the sign so eloquently states.

We also drove through the surrounding old mining towns of Lead and Spearfish as we explored the area around Mt. Rushmore. Coming next, the visit to "the Heads," aka Mt. Rushmore.

Dark Days at HCC

I'm going to break from our honeymoon South Dakota updates for a moment to share what's been happening around here in terms of my job. In short, things at my work (Hawkeye) have been distressing lately. The problem is that the college is experiencing the recession pretty hard now and because of the reduced funding they will receive from the State this year, have decided to take some drastic measures and reduce the number of faculty and staff. My job seems to be ok for this next year (though I'm still waiting for my contract which should come within the month), but for many of my friends and colleages, the news is not good.

Last week, the college cut 43 teachers -- 1/3 of our teaching staff. This includes 33 Regular Part Time teachers (like an adjunct but they teach 4 guarenteed classes a semester and get partial benefits) and 10 full-time faculty. By contract, the college has to fire all of its RPTs before it can start letting faculty go, and when that happens it usually means the new hires are the first to go. This would have included me, but for some reason, it did not this time (or at least I believe this for now). I think it has to do with who teaches where and how many other teachers there are in that department. I am the only full-time dev. writing teacher, so I think I'm safe for next year...but who really knows? Sadly, several of my friends that I started with this academic year are now faced with no jobs.

There is such a dark feeling around the campus now, and everyone is going to be affected by this. If you didn't lose your job, you feel bad for those who did. If you lost your job, you're wondering what you're going to do now. The sad thing is that the college will still need these teachers, so the question becomes: who will they hire? UNI in Cedar Falls let go of all their adjuncts too, so they may be competing with some of our RPTs for classes. Additionally sad is the fact that the college may try to rehire the fired RPTs as adjuncts and pay them significanlty lower amounts and give them no benefits. Rotten huh? No word on whether they will really do this or not, but that's one of the rumors.

Ken and I have had many discussions lately about what we would do if I lost my job, if not now, in the future. It's very scary to think about this happening to so many people. When it happens to those you work with everyday, it certainly becomes more real and it hurts to see those you care about frightened about the future.

South Dakota Pt. 2: Corn Palace, Wall Drug, and the Badlands

The next day of our trip found us making our way through South Dakota and enjoying all the prairie scenery (what else was there to look at?). On the way, we stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, which, to be honest, was not that great. As we pulled away, we were left wondering why we stopped. The reason: what else was there to do? We checked it out, and I vaguely remembered being there as a 5-year-old with my family. Of course, we had to get a picture.

On we drove to a small town called Reliance where my great grandmother on my mother's side and her sister homesteaded in 1910 and where my great grandfather is buried. We passed through and saw Great Grandpa's gravesite and then a 1-room schoolhouse which we believe is where my grandfather attended school when he lived there. It was really thought-provoking for me to be there, to look around, and to imagine how Great-Grandma and her sister could have left home in Iowa to homestead by themselves on the prairie.

We continued on to a roadside restaurant near Chamberlain where we had our first taste of buffalo when Ken ordered a buffalo burger. Being less adventurous, I stuck with the salad bar, but took a bite of the sandwich. I must confess it was not bad at all and far less greasy than a regular "cow" burger. Then on we went until we stopped at the (in)famous Wall Drug. We barely made it there before they closed, so a quick potty break and a fast look around was all we got from Wall Drug. We decided to stop again on our way home.

Moving on, we finally made it to the Badlands and what a sight! After driving for miles and miles with nothing but open prairie around us, it was such a shock to our systems to see the wonder that is the badlands. They're sort of hard to describe, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

More to come of our visit in a future blog...

South Dakota Pt. I

After the wedding and a nice Sunday visit with some of Ken's family in from out of state, we packed up the car and got out of town! It's been an unbelievably long semester so far with the wedding planning and students from the underworld for me (Note here that I'm trying to put that nicely -- I have some real doozies this semester). We slowly made our way toward South Dakota and the Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore, but as usual found a couple of good stopping points along the way.

Stop 1: The Beanpod Candle Outlet Store -- Marcy's favorite place to buy her now-favorite soy candles at an exceptionally low price. After stocking up on some good deals, we were back on the road which took us to ....

Stop 2: Clear Lake, IA home of the Surf Ballroom, the last place Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JP "the Big Bopper" Richardson played in Feb. 1959 before their plane went down a few miles outside of town.

I've been to the Surf Ballroom before, but had always wanted to go to the spot in the corn field where the plane went down. I'd heard there was a memorial there, so off we went to find it. We trudged our way through an extremely muddy March corn field (Hey , where was the frozen ground?). After we were almost there, the ground just became too saturated and I could not go on. By this point my sneakers were coated in mud, but being the neat freak I am, I decided that I just could not walk through the standing water/mud to the memorial. Being the trooper he is, Ken did it for me and got some nice pictures of the memorial. It was strange to think that it was almost exactly 50 years that the plan had crashed in that field killing the three rock legends.

After mudding our way back to the car and trying desperately to clean our shoes off in the lone patch of snow we could find, we got back on the road and headed to....

Stop 3: Sioux Falls, SD. There we decided to go hang at the hotel (Country Inns and and Suites) early, relaxing to a lovely room, comfy bed, and free cookies in the lobby. My idea of a real vacation!

More on the Douth Dakota trip in the next blog. There are too many pictures to post and stories to tell to do it now. It's getting late and I have to start another week tomorrow. More to come soon!

After 8 years...a wedding!

The wedding was beautiful and just the way we wanted it: simple and elegant. The ceremony lasted all of 15 minutes (Lutheran, naturally) and the reception at the ballroom at UNI was lovely. It was so good to see so many of our friends and family there -- many of whom traveled a great deal to be there. Thanks to you all for coming and helping to make our day special!

Here are a couple of pictures from the day shared with me from various friends/relatives who had cameras. If anyone else took pictures, I'd love to have copies! It's so hard not being able to take my own pictures. We'll get the proofs from the photographer in a week or so, but I love the candids that people take.



After the big day, Ken and I headed off for a little mini-honeymoon. Our official honeymoon will be in Hawaii after he comes back from Iraq in 2010, but in the mean time, we both agreed it would be nice to get out of town for a bit. We drove out to South Dakota and visited the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore. I'll post pictures from that trip in a separate blog.

In short, it was a lovely wedding, reception, and trip afterwards. Now we have the grand task of writing all those Thank Yous. All I can say about that right now is that we're working on them and we will get them out soon!

IA Wedding Shower

Well, with one week to go before the wedding, I find that things are getting a little more rushed in terms of taking care of all that needs to be taken care of. Ken and I did finally get to the Courthouse to get our marriage certificate. His sister Maria came along as our witness. When we signed all the paperwork for that, I had to declare then and there what my name was (is?) going to be after marriage. Rather than keep you all in suspense, I'll just tell you that I'm keeping my name. I realize some people may not agree with that practice and some may think it's just fine. As for me, I decided that keeping my last name was important to me, and Ken didn't really mind, so I'm staying the same. We decided that we'll be just as married whether we share the same last name or not. Of course, when I went back to the Courthouse a few days later to pick up the license, etc., the Clerk had written Ken's last name as the "Bride's Name After Marriage." When I corrected her, she gave me a weird look. I suppose living around here I'll get a few weird looks when Ken and I introduce ourselves with different last names from here on.

A few weeks ago, my sister Melissa threw me a shower in Iowa for my friends and family here. It was a lovely event and it was good to see so many people all together again. We had it at the John Deere Supervisors Club in Waterloo, which had a room big enough to fit everyone in it. Here are some pictures from the day.

This is a picture of the ladies in my immediate family. Back L-R: Sister Melissa, Sister Connie, Brittaney, Mother, Niece Nicole, and Aunt Sheila. Front: Me, Grandma Frieda, Sister Corrina.

Here is a shot of my mom, Aunt Sheila, and some of Mom's co-workers. The woman in red on the right and in the center was actually there working at the hospital the day I was born. She was an OB nurse (and now teaches at the college) and even remembered what room my mom was in when I was born! That made my day!

Here I am posing for a picture with my new set of cookware! It will be so nice having some "good" things at home and to be able to pass along some of our "gently used" items collected during bachelorhood and graduate school days.

Here is simply another shot of the room showing some of the wonderful guests who were able to make it. I wish I could have talked to everyone more, but it's so hard to get a chance to just sit down and catch up with everyone. I know that will be something that's hard for me about the wedding day too, but I am excited for the chance to see everyone and hopefully catch up if only for a little while.

And so there it is. One week from today, Ken and I'll be married. It's hard to imagine that this day is almost here after 8 years and a lot of memories already together.

Illinois Wedding Shower

At last, a moment to post some wedding shower pictures! During the last weekend in January, my friends, Claire and Jan, in Illinois gave me a shower/tea. It was a wonderful day and it was just so much fun getting to see the Illinois friends that I miss so much. Going back made me feel like a grad student again, in this case, a nice feeling. My mom and I drove out on Friday after classes. I got to sleep in my "old room" again, which was cool, but also made me remember those dissertation-writing days which were only a year ago! Saturday was spent getting ready for the afternoon shower at Claire's house. Here are some pictures to put the day in perspective.

Because it was a shower thrown by and mostly for people who teach writing or who are involved in English in some way, the day had to begin with a little writing/creative activity. Claire had materials all set out for people to put together a page of wedding advice or some personal message to Ken and me. I got to wander around and supervise what people were doing as I was going to get to read the book later in the day/evening. People wrote some really touching messages, and I know this will be a book I'll treasure forever.

Then, of course there was the absolutely wonderful carrot cake that Jan brought to the shower, along with chocolates from the Chocolatier in Bloomington, nuts, and tea. While people were feasting on the delicacies, I began opening presents so as not to delay the afternoon too long. I was taken aback at how generous my friends were as Ken and I received many lovely gifts for our home. Among some of the presents received were cookware, a cake plate/dome, roasting pan, picture frame, fondu pot, birdhouse, and wine. Some friends were not going to make it to the wedding in Iowa, so they shared shower and wedding gifts including a clock, webcam so Ken and I can stay in touch while he's in Iraq, and a GPS navigator for the car. In all, Ken and I now have many wonderful items to help build our home up. I am excited because now we have newer items to start with and can pass along some of our grad student/bachelor apartment items!

It was great to see everyone again. Before we knew it, the weekend was over and Mom and I were driving back to Iowa. The following weekend we had another shower for my Iowa friends and family, which was also a lot of fun. I'll try to get pictures posted from that soon.

Just Checking In

I don't have much time to write, but I just wanted to check in. Work is crazy now for many reasons:

1) I've collected my first sets of papers for the semester. That means 6 sets of writing papers for my 6 classes. There are about 12-15 papers in each set, which might not seem like a lot until you realize how much commenting there is for me to do on them considering they are all very developmental and it's their first paper, so they're all making the "first time" errors.

2) Wedding items still loom large and in front. So much to do and only about 3 weeks left to go! Hard to believe, huh? Tomorrow, Ken and I are off to get the rings picked up and go get the marriage license. Hopefully, my dress will be ready late this week so that will be one less thing. I had two lovely showers recently, but that means Thank Yous to finish writing. I have just 1-2 left and then I'm done. Thank goodness! Who knew writing those would take so long!!! This weekend it's wrapping up table chocolates and preparing the rehearsal dinner invites and programs. Thanks to everyone who weighed in via email about my name change dilemma. I'm leaning toward keeping my own name now. I never realized how much work is involved with a name change. Wow!

3) Things at work are good for the most part with the exception of some terribly behaved students and an incident yesterday involving one terribly rude/aggressive student and a teacher in my dept. I swear, I've never had such bad cases of students with no discipline, a lack of maturity, and who are just plain rude. I have one class that I dread going to every Tuesday/Thursday because the students are so whiny, want everything spelled out for them, don't want to do the reading, talk over me and each other, have cell phone use issues, and then proceed to just simply be complete and utter jerks. I really seriously hate going to that class. About 2/3 of the students are great and it's only about 3-4 that are driving me nuts, but still, just those few make me dislike going and dealing with them.

Other things at work are kind of shaky too. The terrible economy has taken its toll on our college and we have to cut almost 25% of our budget due to the state budget crisis (the issue is that we have to cut an additional $1.2 million or something). The college president is now talking staff reductions and everyone is wondering who is going to be let go. I worry because I am a new hire and "low woman on the totem pole." My only hope is that I'm the only full-time writing instructor and I teach in Dev. Studies, a part of the campus that serves nearly 50% of the students. Still, it doesn't mean much when the circumstances are so bad. We're all worried about our jobs and what's yet to come. This topic took up the bulk of conversation during lunch today in the office. I feel bad complaining about students when there are so many other things to worry about with work, job security, etc.

I hope to have time this weekend to post some shower pictures.

The Making of a Card Cake

So, as I've mentioned a few times in this blog, I've been working on something called a card cake (or at least I think that's what it's called given that's what it looks like). I got the idea from my friend Melissa E-T's wedding last October. She had one and I just thought it was cool. I also thought I could figure out how to make one too. And so with the help of my friend Kelly, we managed to figure out the basic parts. Here, my friends and loyal readers, is the making of a card cake.

First of all, what is it? Well, essentially, it's a structure made out of hatboxes built to look like a wedding cake. Its purpose is to hold cards that people bring to the wedding and reception. One could have a basket for cards; some people even use a birdcage as a card collector. I thought M.E.T.'s cake was cool and unique though so I wanted one myself. I bought 2 hatboxes during the holiday clearance sales at Hobby Lobby and picked up the third smaller one later with Kelly.

The first thing we had to do was cut the holes in the hatboxes so that the cards could "fall" through the layers (note the knife stuck in the top of the blue box to the right). Then we had to cover the blue boxes with white before we could cover them with fabric as we didn't want the blue showing through the white. After that, we had to carefully measure the white silky fabric so as to glue it on. It took a little while to figure out what glue, etc. to use, but it turned out that the glue gun was the best way to go in the end.

Now, I don't think of myself as much of a creative person when it comes to things like this, so I relied on Kelly to help me get a mental picture of how this thing would actually come together. I can usually do pretty good when I have directions to follow, but I didn't this time and the Internet wasn't that big of a help. Thankully, Kelly is really good at creative person-type things though and before we knew it, we had a plan for putting it together. Unfortuantely, she had to leave early that day, so it was up to me to do some figuring out on my own as well.

I spent the next two weeks or so in between teaching and other things staring at the structure and waiting for inspiration to strike as to how to decorate it. I'm glad I waited and didn't just glue things according to my first instinct because I was able to get some good ideas from Gail who's doing my flowers. In the end, I think it turned out pretty good for my first try and for having no directions. I may tweak it a little with some of the side flowers, but if I don't have time, I'll be happy with it the way it is.

The next project is assembling programs and table decorations, but those'll have to wait until February as it's time to start going to some fun showers! Next weekend I'll be in IL for a shower with some of my old Illinois gang and then the next weekend a shower here in IA with Iowa friends and family. Should be fun. Only 6 weeks to go until wedding time. It's hard to believe it's coming that fast!

See here the finished product.