love.

One of the best things about getting to spend a sixth of a year at our home places is the chance to spend a lot of time with our nephew and niece. They are sweet, sweet kids, and we love them so much. Unfortunately for you (because you have to miss out on their cuteness!), I'm not going to post their pictures here for the world to see.

We were glad we got to be there for our niece's first birthday party. Missing some of those important milestones is one of the toughest things about living as far away as we do. We usually have to miss our nephew's birthday, and it was rotten to have to wait weeks before I got to meet my niece last year, so we are happy for any opportunity to be there when we can! My sister-in-law definitely has talents in areas where I don't, and she created a super cute party (I suppose I am making assumptions here that it was her and not my brother-in-law, though he no doubt helped pull it all off!).

Several days during the summer, Brian's parents watched the kids during the day, and we got in a lot of play time on those days! We could always expect that we would (1) need to "work the fields" with play tractors and take them to the mechanic, and (2) put out a lot of fires. Both of these activities require a lot of crawling on your knees around and around the living room while pushing a toy vehicle. I seriously needed to invest in some knee pads. One evening when the kids were over, we had a hot dog roast, and then Brian's dad let R be a real fireman and put out the fire with the garden hose. Pretty cute.

At the end of the summer, I had to come back to Colorado by myself because my job started a couple of weeks earlier than Brian had to be back for classes. The night before I had to leave, the kids were super cute when they were leaving to go home and kept giving me big hugs and saying good-bye. Definitely made me tear up. Miss them!

birthday

This year I turned 31. More of my life goals were accomplished in time for my 31st birthday than they were for my 30th birthday last year.

I had a great start to my birthday because right around midnight, I picked up Brian from the airport; he returned from a five-day out-of-state trip. My mom baked my favorite kind of cake (chocolate zucchini) for my birthday and let me have a piece at lunch!

In the evening, we picked up Brian's parents and ate at Tres Amigos in McPherson. Mmm. Then we went to Brian's parents' house for cake and ice cream.

It made me very happy to get to spend my birthday with a lot of the people I love the most. And I told you I was excited about that yummy cake!

being useful

I won't pretend I'm not loving this life of leisure and zero responsibility this summer, but it is also nice to be useful when I can.

Unfortunately, one opportunity I had to be useful recently was due to others' loss. So while I wish this event had not taken place, I was glad I could help out. Last weekend, some relatives' barn burned down, and Wednesday morning, Brian and I (along with his parents and some other relatives) were able to help with clean-up. We filled one of those huge, long and deep dumpsters with metal and picked up glass. Some worked on dismantling part of a chicken house that had burned and taking down trees.

I've also been working more on sorting things at my mom & dad's. Here are a few gems I've found so far.

Aw, our holiday celebration group! I also found our Hanukkah candles (they went into the Et Cetera box).

A cutie picture from our freshman year. Em sent this to me as a postcard the summer after and concluded her message with "Are they models?" I feel like this is a line I should have a memory about but don't. Can anyone fill me in?

Stay tuned for more special finds I may come across!

father's day festivities

Ok, this will fulfill the "day-to-day," "exciting haps" (for me, this means anything out of the ordinary, ha), and "pictures." :)

Brian and I hosted a meal for Father's Day for our dads (and moms, of course) and Dave & Shelley's family too. Can you really say you hosted a meal when you don't live in the location it is taking place? This means my parents had a pretty big hand in hosting it. Saturday morning, we worked on getting their place ready. What you see above are the results of my and mom's labor in the flower bed. We did lots of weeding together, which was actually pretty fun.

Our menu was BBQ pork sandwiches (this is the best crockpot BBQ pork recipe I have ever used), potato salad, baked beans, chips, and no-bake cheesecake. Mmm, mmm. The only element that wasn't successful was the cheesecake because we used Neufchatel instead of regular cream cheese, which means it did not set up. Lesson learned: do not try to be healthy.

This was my first time making potato salad. I think my mom makes the best potato salad!!, so it was fun for me to get the chance to make it with her. Here it is (after it's been reduced in quantity by being served at two meals).

It was a lot of fun to have everyone together. Our nephew and niece are pretty much the most adorable kids ever, and we LOVE spending time with them. Our nephew says the most hilarious and also sweet things, aw.

requests?

After a long hiatus, I am wanting to get back into blogging. Of course, there is the age-old problem of what, exactly, to blog about. So I'm copping out and asking if anyone has any requests. Sorry, this is not one of those blog offers of "I will answer anything you ask me." :)

no time for landscaping? no problem.

During our (short! for me because I had to get back to start my internship) Christmas break, we headed up to KC. The impetus was a gathering of the bridesmaids for my brother and Emily's wedding so we could all try on dresses, which was a fun time! We also were able to be there for longer and spend some time with Mark and Emily. Exciting for me -- not only because BBQ is scarce where we live, but largely because this is the best BBQ I've ever had -- we were able to make it to Oklahoma Joe's for supper. Nom nom nom.


Then we decided to be Christmas-y and drive around looking at Christmas decorations. Emily guided us to an famous decoration stop in the KC area:



The yard on all four sides of the house was packed full of inflatables...plus some on the roof and some suspended overhead in the yard! In some places, only small walkways allowed you to get through. They were also projecting a Christmas movie onto a large screen above their garage and shooting out really cool fake snow from the top of the house. What are you going to do but take pictures among the crazy?!


Really, though, the project was charitable too -- I think you could adopt an inflatable (or something), and the money went to an organization (like a children's leukemia foundation??).

While we were there, a limo pulled up and let out a bunch of people who got out and looked at the inflatables. We figured this was a guided Christmas decorations tour, so we moved into stalker mode and waited for them to get back in the limo so we could follow them around town and see all of the good decorations without paying for it. Oops, it turned out we really were stalkers -- the inflatables must have been the finale of the decorations tour because we ended up just following them back to their house...

So we went back to Mark's place, and he and Emily found a "best of KC" tour that we could follow. And what's more Christmas-y than looking at lights while drinking hot chocolate? Brian and I were wowed by the machine at the gas station that was solely for shooting whipped cream into your drinks. We found some pretty cool houses, and I especially enjoyed the ones set to music.

261.5

This is the minimum number of direct contact hours I have had for clinic work during the last 1.5 years (I'm still waiting to confirm hours for my offsite placement; hence, "minimum"). I was actually kind of surprised to see that the number was that high. It does feel like an accomplishment!

Of course, that number doesn't include all the hours of prep work and paperwork that went along with it. Wowza.

Take all of that plus hours spent in class plus hours spent out of class for class reading and assignments and projects and studying, and I can definitely see why I have been busy.

Yay for winter break*!

*side note: I can't believe the university this year, of all years, isn't starting spring classes until Jan. 17. Now until then would be a completely AMAZING break!! I, on the other hand, start my internship Jan. 3. I am super excited for my internship but am also in need of a break. I am definitely thankful for the break I do get.