Hockey and lefse and meatballs, oh my!

Well, we've been a bit behind on the blog since the beginning of the holidays... So let me see what I can do to catch up :)

Alright, first off, Kristin and I used my mother-in-law's gift of hockey tickets to see the Stars pay the Redwings at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas. One of the nice things about living in Waco is that we are a pretty easy drive to either Austin or Dallas. That said, it was nice that the game was in the afternoon so that we didn't have to drive back in the dark.

The AA Arena was a pretty awesome experience. There was a full-ish crowd there to see the Wings, and it was fun wearing jersey's for neither team. We wore our Bulldogs jerseys to the game, and I was at least trying to stay neutral. Kristin kept up her support for the Wings. Detroit looked like the better team for a time, but the home team was able to edge them in the end, winning 4-3.

We took a few pics before the game started: As you can see, we were pretty high up, but I thought the seats were excellent. We had a whole command of the ice, and the jumbo-tron filled any gaps that we might have missed. Honestly, the decisive action of a hockey game happens so fast anyway, you almost need to watch the slo-mo to figure out what actually happened.

Last point of interest: The blimps. The American Airlines Center has these advert blimps that float about dropping coupons before the game and over period breaks. They were flying at pretty-much eye level for us, so I got a good shot of the Chipotle one.

State of Texas Lefse!

Ok, well maybe that wasn't the goal at the outset of our cooking adventure, but on the day that Kristin was a cookin' up the Swedish Fare, we ended up with a Texas inspired result :)

As you can see, the rest of the Lefse ended up turning out alright. We ended up with a very delicious Christmas eve meal. With Lefse, Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy, we had a bountiful spread for three. We were lucky to have a guest for our holiday meal from Kristin's Lab. Pretty much everybody at Baylor was leaving for the holidays, but the person in charge of animal husbandry for Dr. Brooks' lab was going to be around over Christmas.

Lastly, we have a really sweet picture of the kitty: Belated Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

Season's Greetings from balmy Central Texas! Our 60-70 degree weather hardly makes it feel like Christmas-time, but Dan and I have been doing our best to keep in the holiday spirit. This week marked the end of my first semester as a Ph.D. student. After all the final exams were taken and I finished all of my grading, Dan and I celebrated by decorating our little apartment.

With all the lights, garlands and ornaments -- we were really

worried that our Christmas tree was going to be one, big Loki toy. As we started setting up the tree, Loki was definitely intrigued. Little white paws kept creeping over the stairs and stealing ornaments and pulling on strands of lights. But once the tree was finally finished, Loki started to lose interest in attempting tree-destruction (THANK GOODNESS!!). It's hard to believe we have had our little kitty monster for almost two months. He has doubled in size and gained 4 pounds since we brought him home!

After the tree was set up, we turned to my favorite holiday tradition -- cookie baking! I may have gone a little overboard in our cookie plans for the year. In all, we made 6 different types of holiday treats (fresh caramels, cake truffles, cranberry/pistachio biscotti, Swedish gingersnaps, snickerdoodles and orange spritz cookies). Roughly 18 dozen cookies in all. Okay, so I may have over did it a bit.. but we had fun! (Anyone want some cookies?? We have plenty to spare!).

The thought of not being able to come home for the holidays has left us both a little homesick. Unfortunately, the nature of Dan's job means that he has to work most major holidays. Please try to Skype us over the week so we can say 'Hi'!

Love and miss you all,

Dan and Kristin

Pickin' up the Slack

Sadly our 'weekly' blog has been lost to solitude, but not for a lack of happenings! It's been a full month now since we've updated, and we've had family visit twice in that time. So, I'm gonna do a quick recap, and I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum.

Halloween: Kristin's Mom and Getey visited over Halloween while they were on their way to Austin, TX. They came bearing gifts from Minnesota, and we had quite a bit to talk about. It's always nice to have a visit from family, even if it's short. We had a good time playing cards on Halloween, but sadly we only had one trick-or-treater. But we are proud of the pumpkins that we carved: Kristin made a Boo pumpkin from Super Mario Brothers, and I made a basic triangles and squares, traditional pumpkin.

New Kitty: Our new kitty, Loki, is doing well. He was very comfortable with us soon after we got him, and he pretty much has the run of the house now. Loki is a big fan of string, and we've gotten him enough toys to fill our apartment.

New Job: Hey yeah! I'm finally getting used to working at Hillcrest. I've been there almost two months now, and I feel like I'm a strong contributor to the team already! It was super nice starting a new job where in I had real, direct experience that I could take into it. But most importantly, I'm excited to have a consistent source of income. Speaking of income, I've finally gotten my routine down for interviewing patients, and I've gotten my copay collections up to a level that I can feel proud of.

SETAC: Kristin recently got back from her four-day conference in New Orleans! Every year the Society of Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists (SETAC) puts on a big convention for their members, and Kristin got to present her research material there for the first time. She traveled down (or over, rather) with a big group from Baylor. She was able to make some very good contacts with fellow scientists and had a very positive experience. Most importantly, Kristin got a lot of good ideas about what to do with her own research here at Baylor. (And she won a Kindle!!)

Thanksgiving: I am very happy to report that Kristin and I just hosted my (immediate) family for the Thanksgiving Holiday. It was their first visit to Waco, and it was great to see them again. K did an Amazing job cooking on the big day, and I know that everybody loved the food. Especially my sister, Laura, who was very appreciative of the Gluten-Free stuffing and gravy. My folks took the car down here, and they did the 17 hour trek that is I35 over two day's drive. I can't say enough how much I enjoyed seeing them again. We spent our nights playing cards, we watched the movie "Up", and we did a gift exchange. Since K and I won't be making back to the homeland over Xmas, we wanted to try to catch a little bit of the Christmas spirit early. We received some really nice Minnesota stuff from my folks and my sister: It's always nice to remember home!

As in most cases it never felt like we had enough time with family while they were here. We wont' be going home for Christmas (I'll be working, and K will be establishing with the lab where she will do her PhD research) so these visits will have to last us for the rest of the holiday season.

But just you blogger-watchers wait! Now that this Crazy November is over, we're gonna get back on track with the updates, and don't be surprised if you see awesome pictures of our cat, Waco in December, and a frickin' awesome Xmas Tree.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, Everybody!

DJC

Finally Autumn!

Hello everyone!

Texas is finally starting to feel like home -- no really, the heat is finally gone and we have been absolutely loving the 70-degree days. With temperatures dipping into the 50's overnight, it is finally starting to feel like fall. It's been really funny watching students walk to campus each morning wearing scarfs and fluffy coats while we saunter in short-sleeves and flip-flops.

This will probably come as no big suprise: our kitty hiatus didn't last long. One week after bringing Pete back to the Humane Society, we decided to spend the weekend at the shelter. Just looking. That was the plan anyways. Then, we met Loki. And the rest was history!

When we brought Loki home, we knew we were getting a very affectionate cat. True to his kennel sheet -- Loki loves to snuggle. And if you have a spare hand it must MUST be petting the cat.

He also has quite the independent streak and thoroughly enjoys including his own chattering sass commentary to any situation.

But above all, this cat is OBSESSED with string. So far we have been able to convince him that the only string we play with is the two shoelaces we tied together that we made for him. But lately, he has been eyeing up anything remotely string like: curtain blinds, backpack straps, cellphone charger cords, sleeves..

We are in love =)

Aside from our new kitty love, Dan and I have kept busy with playing frisbee golf, partaking in Baylor's 100th homecoming festivities, and celebrating an early Halloween with a pumpkin carving contest with people in our apartment complex. We are getting really excited for our family visitors this weekend -- and even more excited for the whole Connors Clan to visit for Thanksgiving! (I'm so excited to cook a gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner!).

Happy Halloween everyone!

Employment!

Hello All!

It's been a while since we've had an update, and a few things have happened. I have just gotten a job working at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center here in Waco. I am now a Registration Assistant in the Emergency Room in the hospital. It's nice to be able to say that I'm helping support my wife through her PhD and have that financial element too :)

I started work on Monday, October 5th, and I've just finished my first week of training. I've mostly just been observing so far, but it looks like it will be very similar to my position at St. Mary's. I've been remembering more that I've been learning. However, I've got to be careful because there are often small but significant differences, and I'd hate to miss learning something important. Overall, I'm very excited for the job: I like the people, the environment, and I've already got a lot of experience, so I think it's going to go really well.

UPDATE:

In very sad updated news: we adopted a beautiful, amazing, loving, friendly cat named Pete this weekend. Unfortuantely, our little Petey came down with a terrible upper respiratory and urinary tract infection. Long story short, despite being incredibly attached to our new baby boy -- we had to return him to the Humane Society.

We are very broken-hearted over our kitty-love rollercoaster. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before we get a new cat. But in the mean time, our tiny apartment now feels extremely empty with him gone.

DJC

Family Visit and New Beginings

In case you haven't heard, our lives have been very busy these past two weeks.


We visited Austin (and could live in the Whole Food Market for weeks on end -- <--- whatever that strange fruit was, it was tasty!!); and learned the importance of NOT visiting Austin during a football game day. Especially if that game is Texas Longhorns vs. Texas Tech and ESPN is broadcasting their college football coverage live from Austin. The whole city was absolutely packed. But we did manage to meet up with some old friends, and enjoy some delicious Texas BBQ. Even though our Austin plans weren't incredibly well thought out, we did manage to find our way to an REI store to look at hiking/backpacking trail books for Texas. Sadly, it doesn't look like there are many hiking and camping oppurtunities within a 2 hours drive of where we live. It was really strange being inside an REI again. Stranger yet, every sales associate we talked to had heard of, or been to, Duluth Minnesota. For the first time, we didn't have to describe where we were from -- or what we liked to do. Definitely made me a bit homesick when 3 seperate clerks all asked us why in the world would we leave paradise to come live in Texas. However, the staff did give raving reviews of Big Bend -- a park in southwestern Texas, a 9 hour drive from here. Hopefully we can visit sometime while we live here!


On a happy note: Our good friends, Mike and Becca, became proud parents last week!! (More pictures please!!)


On a even happier note: last week, Dan had two really promising interviews last Tuesday. And this Friday he was offered (and accepted!!!!) a position working as a patient registrar at a fantastic newly opened local hospital. WOO!! Thanks to everyone who has been sending good vibes his way. Good jobs are few and far between in this town -- we are so happy he was able to find something!


To top it all off, this weekend we got to play host to our first Waco visitor -- my mom! We used her visit as an excuse to finally start touring our new little town, explore campus, visit the absolutely *stunning* Browning library, go garage saling, visit a Agricultural community and even conquer the Texas State Fair.



The fair was definitely not what we were expecting. There was a severe lack of mullets, flashy belt buckles and absolutely *no* mini-doughnuts. Worse, only *one* long horn cow in the whole fair --- though, given his temper I can understand why there may have only been one...

The fair was definitely not as well-attended as our Minnesota counterpart, and had absolutely no variety in food or fair-goodies (we literally saw the same cookware stand 9 times). But! We did see, quite possibly, the cutest thing in the entire world. After walking through the cow barn, we decided to catch our breath and watch Llama livestock judging -- junior division. And by junior division, I mean ages 2(!!) -7.

Now, you don't give your 2-year old just any llama to show. It's best if the llama is rather old, fat and easy-going. It was so ridiculously cute watching this little guy lead a half-interested llama around the judging ring.

The fair also had the Texan response to the Minnesota Butterhead -- try a Texas sized Butter ROOM sculpture! A tavern scene complete with poker table, blazing fire and a bartender wooing a pretty lass. We visited the fair on day 3 of 18(??). I can only imagine how ornate this sculpture will be by the end of the fair. Very cool!

Of course, we also partook in our fair share of fairfood.

We had an absolutely amazing weekend -- but it ended way way too soon. Can't wait to have more visitors!

Love and Miss you all!!

-K&D

To the Zoo and Back

Hello All!

Happy Labor Day! I hope everybody is doing well.

Kristin and I had a (relatively) uneventful week this past week, so we decided to spice it up a bit over the weekend. Now we only took one bike down to Waco with us, so on Friday night we went out to the local Sports Authority. We figured they'd have a better quality bike than, say, Walmart. Of course, most of the bikes were in the $ 300 to $500 area, but we found a bargain bike for Kristin for under $200.

Anywho, with the addition of a 2nd bicycle to our family, we were able to get out and see some more of our new city. There is a lovely paved path that runs along the Brazos River that stretches from Baylor campus to the downtown area. From there we were only a few blocks from Cameron Park. The park is quite extensive and has Mountain Biking paths, walking trails, and Frisbee Golf, but the biggest attraction at the park is the Zoo.

Cameron Park Zoo has to be the best small town Zoo I have ever seen. I don't think its as large as the Minnesota Zoo, but I think it definitely tops the Como Zoo. K and I paid $7 each to get in, and I think we must have spent three or four hours looking at all of the exhibits. The zoo was basically a large circle, so you couldn't really choose your own path, but we hardly noticed because the exhibits were laid out in a very logical progression. There was quite a bit of shade throughout the park, and there were a number of in-doors exhibits along the way that helped keep us cool.

So what did we see? Well, the basics: Big Cats, Giraffes, Rhinos, Turtles (actually a Snapping Turtle that looked like he could snap my Femur in half...), Fish, Snakes, Birds and an Orangutan. They didn't really have any aquatic mammals, but it wasn't a let down, by any means. We did get to get a good look at a number of Snakes that we hope to never encounter while here in Texas...

We kept seeing words like "Venomous" and "American Southwest" on quite a few more windows that I'd have hoped for.

In any case, we had a good time out at the zoo and in Cameron Park, but we were a bit sore getting back on our bicycles for the ride home. However, the startings of a rain storm were in the air, and that helped us to tap our zeal and find some endurance to bike the three miles home :)

I hope you all have a lovely Labor Day Weekend!

DJC

Thoughts on Texas

Texas is starting to feel more and more like home.

This week has been the start of many changes for us. For me, it marked the first week of classes. I'm very excited about this semester -- but man will I be busy! Dan, on the other hand, spent the week diligently apply to jobs. He has well over a dozen applications out for some really promising jobs -- so keep your fingers crossed and send him some good vibes!

We are also starting to make friends with the people within are living complex, and from the university. Even a few who wanted to accompany us on a mini-roadtrip to Dallas to catch a few hockey games this fall =)

Many of you have been asking us to write down some thoughts about the differences we are noticing between Minnesota and Waco, Texas. So this list is for you!


-We have been really suprised by the complete lack of green or undeveloped space within this town. Dan likes to jokingly refer to Waco as a large, slightly more classy Superior, Wisconsin. We are really going to have to hunt to find areas within Waco to get our weekly outdoor fix.

-I know this may sound a little bit obvious.. but MAN is it HOT outside! We have been doing our best to be naive to the real temperature -- like Minnesota winters, if you don't know its -10 out, you don't feel *that* bad being outside. (And like Minnesota winters, that positive attitude can only do so much..) On the bright side, I think we are finally starting to acclimatize. Yesterday, Waco was only in the min-90s. And it felt SO GOOD outside!

-Dan and I are still trying to figure out the local accents. Everyone seems have at least a very mild drawl -- but if you have paid for a local radio or TV commercial, you apparently need to have an accent so thick, that neither Dan nor I can rightfully say what company you are representing or what it is you are trying to sell. One TV commerical especially has a rolling with laughter everytime we hear it. Even more strange -- employees from nerdy stores (like Barnes and Noble or Gamestop), have no accents. Not even drawls. They are like little slices of home!

-We are still amazed with how incredibly friendly everyone is. Every person, women especially, are extremely bubbly and engaging. Whether you are talking to the shelf-stocker at the grocery store, the waitstaff at a resturant, or the stranger you are in line with -- everyone is sugar sweet. And not in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, either. It's very strange. Stranger yet -- it's really the only emotion we have seen. No one is anything except friendly. Never excited or frustrated, or upset or disinterested.. nothing. Just friendly and engaging. And on that note, everyone loves a good handshake too. I've never (awkwardly) shook so many hands in my life!

-Even drivers have their own brand of friendliness. If you are driving less than 40 mph, nearly every road manuever you make involves some sort of hand waving gesture. 4-way stops, even if everyone knows the order they arrived in, involves everyone waving on each car as it goes. Same goes for pedestrians. They simply won't walk without a good hearty wave. As for the roads themselves --- the frontage roads are absolutely ridiculous! Once you are stuck on one, you can't get off of it and back on to the freeway for several miles. And when a frontage road meets a round-a-bout, don't even get me started. If you visit, let Dan drive. =)

-We have found a few funny Texas idiosyncracies. For starters, there seems to be a love affair with plastic bags. They are much smaller down here, and can fit all of one box of Kleenex and maybe a bottle of dish soap. Worse, there is absolutely no attempt to maximize packing space within each bag. If you are buying 7 small items, you will walk away with at LEAST 4 plastic bags -- 5 bags if you don't argue for your toothpaste to please be included with the paper towels, because really, they both don't need their own bag....

I got into an interesting discussion with a the grocery store attendant the other day over plastic bags. I had brought my own canvas bag from home as well as a plastic bag from WalMart to wrap my raw meat in -- this way I could carry everything home together without contaminating my veggies. She just couldn't understand why I didn't want her to throw away my WalMart plastic bag, and get a *new* grocery store plastic bag instead. I tried to explain to her that giving me another bag would defeat the purpose of me reusing one from home. But I think she thought I was from another planet. They will love me when I start bringing my produce bags back into the store so I can reuse those too.

-Speaking of grocery stores -- over 1/3rd of the store is.. plasma screen tv's, clothing, dvds and assorted dollar store items... I know, I don't get it either. But, they have CRAZY cheap food prices! While the choices for non-packaged or non-processed foods are extremely limited, what they do have available is exceptionally cheap. Meat and produce are also much fresher and cheaper than we are used to. Unfortuantely, it looks like we will have to be making trips to Austin to get gluten-free noodles, crackers and flours. Oh darn ;)

-We are also very aware that we are within the Bible belt. You don't say 'Have a good day!' -- it's 'Have a Bless'd day!'. Don't 'Have a safe trip'; instead 'Have to Lord see you home safely'. It's not 'Just my luck'; it's 'As the Lord sees it'. Small religious references and phrases are everywhere. The circumstances and contexts in which everyone mentions God, religion and the Lord are still quite suprising to us. While Christanity is definitely the norm, we haven't felt out of place or looked down on for not participating in casual religious references. I'm not quite sure how everyone would react to differing religious or political views -- it will be interesting to find out.

-There is also a huge socioeconomic divide within Waco. Everything around and near Baylor University looks extremely well manicured and high-class. However, just a few blocks away is total poverty. It's very strange living amongst such a large divide.

-On a final note, everyone is a bit more restrained when it comes to nature. We have both received strange looks for taking off our sandals and enjoying the fresh grass between our toes. (Oh, and don't take off your shoes when you visit other people's homes.. they will think you are strange!). We have also been inundated with dozens of large black, flying crickets. They warned us everything was bigger in Texas -- it just didn't think it would apply to the bugs too!

Hope all is well on the homefront. Don't be a stranger!

-K

Making Home!

Home! That has been the primary topic on Kristin's and my mind this past week. Pretty soon our focus will have to turn to different things: Kristin will be Learning (and Teaching), and I will be Job Hunting and Networking. But for now, we are happy to be spending our energies on our living space.

Unpacking was the first and most difficult portion of our work. We did our best to not only maximize our space, but to also pack things in a logical way. I think we might have been a little naive from the outset; unpacking took a lot longer than we initially expected. Had we less time to work with, I think we would have been more comfortable cramming things into crannies. But, because we had the time and because we wanted to get it right the first time, we've spent about a week and a half arranging and rearranging our furniture. We've done our best to keep the living room and bedroom simple. We've maximized the closet space in our 2nd bedroom/office, and we have compromised on the closet space in the master bedroom. (Honestly, I'm just happy to have my wardrobe in the same room that I wake up!). In all, we have one of the best problems a couple can have: we have more furniture than we need. So, we have no worries about being under furnished, but, just yesterday we had to make a mercy run to Goodwill to give ourselves some elbow-room.

Now, you might be surprised that after detailing our problems with 'extra' furniture, we've actually made to (rather major) purchases since we moved our stuff in on the 13th. Our first purchase was a headboard for our bed. It's something that we've wanted for a long time. Luckily there was a small, mom 'n pop, furniture store just a couple miles away from our apartment that had the perfect headboard for us. It has a nice dark wood 'board' with black slats that attached pretty well to our frame. As an additional bonus, it also fits a Queen, so if we ever decide to upgrade, we aren't out another $120. The only bad part was that our bed frame was a bit low, and after attaching the board, the back wheels would not rest on the ground. We didn't want all of our weight to rest on the headboard, so we went out and purchased some booster cones for the bed. We are very happy with the result. The headboard and taller bed makes our bedroom look much more adult and less 'college'.

Our second purchase was quite a bit bigger: We bought a Sofa, along with a Coffee Table and two End Tables. A couch is something that Kristin and I have looking into for some time now, and with our new apartment, it was a very real necessity. Before deciding on our couch, I think we visited about five or six different furniture stores. There is an interesting dichotomy between the outlet places and the show-room places, but, honestly, the prices weren't that different, and we had our best luck at an Ashley Home Furniture store. We found a couch that was small enough that it wouldn't dwarf our living room but long enough to lie down on. One that was firm enough to sit up and read a book but also comfortable enough to really relax on. We deemed ourselves very lucky in these regards. Lastly, it's color is a pleasant beige with green undertones. It is a lovely muted tone that works very nicely with yellows and browns (heck even a Maroon might work with it...). Oh yes, and the coffee table has a wonderful two layer appearance that tapers at the bottom: kind of like a larger rectangle suspended over a smaller rectangle. The end tables are pretty much the same thing, but we are going to be using them as night stands in the bedroom to maximize our living room space.

Ok wow, so a lot of info there, but I think that you can see that we are very excited by our recent furnishing work.

Alright, once we got the bones of our structure up, we finally got to enjoy filling in the gaps. Art, photographs and pottery are great for fleshing out both tight and wide spaces. The kitchen has been receiving a lot of attention: We've found excellent ways to display some of our collected paintings and pottery on the walls and in the open cabinets. Luckily, the Kitchen has a lot of space for both cooking and eating (very different from our last place). We recently converted our old DVD holder into an open tea cabinet, and we have our tea pots and other pottery displayed in the open cabinets right above it. Sadly, I don't think we'll have as large of a pantry to use, but the appliances are nicely sized, and found room for all of our pots and pans!

Overall, we have been trying to make this place feel like home. And it a lot of ways, we've made a great deal of progress on this one. However, it never feels like you are done till all of the options are exhausted (or at least discounted). I think we've still got a ways to go until we are satisfied, but we are, at least, on the 'home' stretch. :)

Alright, I think I've just about covered our indoor adventures. As for outside the home, I think we'll have to save that for another post. Thanks for reading! We are truly blessed to have the encouragement and support. Thank you so much for your time, energy and love. If there is anything that you want to hear about, please leave a comment!

DJC

Long Overdue Update!

I can't believe how long it has been since we last updated our blog. In our defense, life has been very crazy the past few weeks!

The last week of July began our long, bittersweet goodbye to Duluth. Stewart (our beloved Honda Accord) went in for road trip tune up, and was proudly pronounced road worthy for our long drive south. While I was tied up with finishing my Master's thesis manuscript and seminar presentation in addition to studying for my oral defense, Dan dilligently packed all of our belongings into dozens and dozens of boxes. (Did I mention how amazing Dan is?)

By Thursday morning, the set arrival date for our ABF U-Pack half semi-trailer, we were *nearly* ready to go. Unforunately, nothing ever goes quite as planned. Duluth is notoriously terrible for finding parking.. and finding enough space for a 28' long, 14' tall trailer is no easy task. We had two choices, hope and pray for 3 empty parking spots in a row the day of our move -- and risk having to walk our belongings a block or two away to our trailer, or get permission from our rather overbearing landlord to park the trailer in the driveway. Despite getting permission from our landlord, and the promises from all of our housemates to have the driveway empy by Thursday morning -- we woke up to find one car blocking our path.

With the trailer on the way, Dan and I began the horrible task of walking up and down the blocks hoping and praying for a spot big enough to hold our trailer. The closest one we found was a good block up the hill, or two blocks away with no hill. As our trailer rounded the corner to pull up to our house for parking directions, two other people on our block came out of their houses to start their morning commute. And just our luck, they had cars immediately before and behind our little Stewart! I cannot express how happy we were to see those people leave! The parking space was still incredibly tight, and took our highly skilled truck driver a good 25 minutes to manuver into. We had only 8 feet behind the trailer for loading, but we didn't care. We only had to cross the street, and move boxes 5 car lengths away from our front door. That's worth celebrating! It took Dan and I nearly 14 hours to load our trailer and completely empty out our apartment by ourselves.

The next few days just flew by. Tom and Diane gave us the Minnesota gift of a hotdish, so we wouldnt have to worry about cooking or going out to eat (just thinking about it makes me homesick for good, creamy Minnesota meals). We said our finals goodbyes to a few friends, had a goodbye/congratulations BBQ party with my lab collegues at the EPA, and enjoyed a last leisurely evening walk on the Lake Superior boardwalk. But mainly, I studied studied studied and Dan single handedly cleaned our apartment to our landlords anal-rententive standards (Seriously, Dan is absolutely amazing. But I'm sure you all know this by now!).

Monday morning, the day of my thesis defense, came way too soon and yet, not soon enough. I felt so incredibly honored and proud to have all of my family there to support me and hear my thesis presentation talk. And after a grueling 2.5 hour oral exam/defense, I offically earned my Master's degree!!!! What a huge weight off of my shoulders! We capped off the evening by celebrating with family at Mom and Getey's farm. It was so hard saying goodbye to everyone, especially my amazing Grandma Ellie. Anytime you want to visit, please let us know!

The next morning, bright and early, we hopped on the road and started our drive south. Honestly, the drive was not as long and boring as people complain. On our drive, we planned two main stops to visit old friends. First, in Ames, IA to visit my high school friend Shannon and her beautiful little family. And again, in Kansas City, KA to visit Dan's high school friend Nick. It was great getting to catch up with old friends and enjoy some great food (what they say about Kansas City BBQ is definitely true -- yum!). After a little empty gas tank scare, we made it all the way to Emporia, KA before finding a hotel for the night. Despite being absolutely exhausted from a long day's drive and the emotional rollercoaster leading up to it, we were both awake and chipper by 5:30 the next morning. Thinking that Witicha may have a rush hour, we decided to hit the road. (Hah! No one is ever on 35!). By 5pm, we found ourselves in Waco, Texas with a signed lease.. meager amounts of groceries and an inflatable mattress that was just begging to be slept on.

Our moving truck was dropped off the next morning, a good half block away from our new apartment. Which really doesn't sound like much, until it tops 100 degrees and you realize this is Texas we are talking about! We busted our chops and managed to unload our trailer in 4.5 hours, with only suffering a little heat exhaustion. Our past couple of days have been spent unpacking, and making small exploratory trips around town. We made our first adult furniture purchases -- a new headboard for our bead, and a brand new couch. After we clear out the last few boxes, we will take a few pictures for our blog so you can see our new home!

We have also been trying to collect our first impressions of the town -- but that is for another update.

Skype will be up and running soon, and of course you are always welcome to give us a call or drop us a letter in the mail.

Love and Miss you all!!

-Kristin and Dan

15 days 'til Texas

It has only been a few days since our last blog update, but it feels as if it has been WEEKS! We are now only 15 days until my thesis defense and the start of our move to Texas. Tomorrow marks the last full work week for Dan. Both of which seem to be coming way too soon.

Friday, Tom and Diane visited us in Duluth for dinner and to pick up our couch we have been borrowing from them for the past 2 years. With the abudant space now available in the living room, we are finally feeling the urge to start packing. But don't worry, we will still put it off for a few more days ;) Dan was elated to immediately visit Target to purchase his Wii Sports Resort game; a birthday present from his parents. He read the entire game manual at the laundromat today. I've never seen a person so entralled over minute details on how to disassemble and reassemble a Wii motion plus remote. I can only imagine what he must have been like at Christmas time when he was 8 years old. It was wonderful to see you again, Connors family!

Alicia, Mom and Getey also visited us this weekend -- for a feast of pulled pork sammies and.. overcooked beans. The maiden voyage of our new, beautiful stoneware bean pot veered a little from planned. Of course, 10 hours in the stove at 250 degrees would probably kill just about anything.. We had a fantastic evening of cards, pie, more cards, dice.. and more pie for breakfast in the morning. Getey never should have told me her theory on pie for breakfast -- it's really just fruit and a pastry, and therefore a perfectly good breakfast option! Goodbye waiste line, hello more pie!

It was such a treat to be able to see both sets of family in one busy busy weekend.

We are trying to plan out our last few days in Minnesota - making sure we get to spend time and say goodbye to as many people as possible. If you would like to hear my formal presentation on the scientific work I have been doing during the past two years while I turn bright red and sweat profusely -- please come to my Master's thesis seminar on August 10th (just ask me for the details). I'd love to see you there! Until then, its back to the books for me!

-Kristin

Pattison

Well, it's Thursday, but it feels like we just got back from our trip to Pattison State Park, just South of Superior Wisconsin. We had a lovely time at the campground. With borrowed hiking packs (Thanks to Kristin's Mom!) we were able to load up all that cool camping stuff that we got from the wedding last year. It really put things in perspective. Kristin and I have been married for a full year now, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Before we packed out to our site, we spent some time at the lake at Pattison. Just beyond the lake are the Big Manitou Falls, which were gorgeous. We had lunch along the Black River, and enjoyed some fresh food. Lastly, we decided that the best way to celebrate our anniversary was to write each other a letter. Since we're supposed to give each other a "paper" gift anyway, we decided it would be a good idea to get down all they way's we'd loved each other throughout the year. The future plan is to make this a tradition and keep it all together in a scrapbook.

Anywho, back to the story: We packed up lunch, got ourselves back to the car, grabbed our hiking packs and hit the trail. Our camping site was 1.5 miles down the trail, which ended up being a very quick hike. Now, I'm not saying that I didn't appreciate setting down my pack when we got there, but we could have done a bit more.

Overall, the site was OK, we found some garbage from the last tenants and there wasn't much a place to hang a bear pack, but we were happy to be off and on our own. I had great enjoyment setting up our tent, using our pot and pan, making a fire and doing all that fun camping stuff. We planed some great meals for ourselves, and we even had strawberries and angel food cake for our official "1 year".

Lastly, we celebrated my Birthday, We packed my sister, Laura's gift with us so that I could open in on by BD. She got me a really cool MN Wild T-Shirt, which will probably be my last for quite a while... I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the presents this year. I'm blessed to have good family and friends.

The night was very cold.

I was exceptionally happy that we had good sleeping bags and pads because the cold came early and left late. Kristin's idea was to ford the river so that we could take a different trail on the way back the next morning (the water was only knee deep). I was pretty tentative on the idea, but she was able to convince me. I'm glad she did, because there were some really beautiful views on the opposite side of the river.

Anywho, we had a really great time, and we were glad to have at least one night camping before we head to the Great South Land. Speaking of, we're going to have to start packing one of these days soon here. August approaches quickly!

---Daniel

Still Recuperating

Dan and I have had one very busy week!

One of our biggest life stressors of late has been trying to juggle planning our life in Texas and preparing for our big move, while I make sure I can graduate on time. Easier said then done! This week has been a very busy one for me, academically. I have been working like a fiend on my Master's thesis. It was such a relief to turn in my final draft to my thesis committee for review this Thursday! My committee now has 3 weeks to read and critique my manuscript before they decide if it is good enough to allow me to defend. If it passes, or passes with revisions, only a thesis presentation and oral exam stand between me and my degree. I have a lot of work still ahead of me, but I am feeling more and more confident that I will be done in time.

After completing my manuscript, we decided that we deserved a weekend away from Duluth to recharge and visit family. Mom and Getey thought it was a good idea, too! We caught a Twins game with some friends on Saturday night, and spent the day floating down the St. Croix with Mom and Getey on Sunday. Sadly, Dan tarnished his near perfect driving record going 64 in a 55 on our scenic drive home. We eeked away with a warning, but I think we will be speed limit sticklers from now on. No fun!

Time for some kielbasa and kraut! (Why is it that men adore very smelly food?)

-Kristin

Yes! Blog Created.

Hello All!

Kristin and I have created a blog with the intent of chronicling our doings as we move to and live in Waco, Texas. I'm sure that we will, in time, come to up date the blog every week or two, but for now I think we're going to work on getting out of Duluth.

We have already booked a truck for our move. We actually just are renting a trailer from ABF U-Pack: they drop off the trailer, and we have three days to load it up. We're hoping to have the trailer ship out by Friday, August 7th. We have up to 6 business days to pick it up at our new location, and we'll probably try to spend a few days in Minnesota before we make our descent into the Lone-Star state.

And yes, I'm still unemployed, so finding a Job is going to be my task in the coming weeks. If anyone knows any good leads in Texas...

Yeah, I've got some work to do, but Kristin will be drawing a paycheck right away, and we have some savings built up, so we won't be starving any time soon.

Our current "Couple Project" is finding a nice campground to stay at during our 1 year anniversary. I'm excited to use our cool gear! We're looking to backpack into a camping spot instead of driving in. The 'hope' is that it is much more rewarding to set up camp when you had to walk 1-5 miles to get there.

Dinner tonight was Kabobs. I don't know who got us the nice, metal, kabobs, but they worked amazing (we tried the wood ones too...). Anywho, K is still a workin' on the Master's Thesis, and I'm going to see if she needs any more help with her comma usage...

DJC