It's Christmastime in the City

We're home, for the time being. In a few hours we'll be packing up again and heading to PA to ring in the new year with friends.

December 24

What a fun Christmas we had this year! New York was absolutely incredible. Joshua and I found our way to the hotel without any trouble at all, arriving almost an hour before planned (and four hours before check in - thankfully our room was ready). After meeting up with my family, the five of us walked to the United Nations building and got food while waiting for our tour to begin. We had a great guide and a fun group. I'd love to get another tour the next time I'm in the city.

After exploring the UN, we discovered this great Italian restaurant called Fabio Piccolo Fiore. We all ordered pasta; Canaan, Dad, and Joshua all got rigatoni with either bolognese, or marinara; Mom ordered fettucini alfredo; I ordered pesto gnocchi. All of the pastas and sauces were freshly made, and now Joshua and I feel inspired to make our own pastas. After a failed attempt at getting on the ice at Rockefeller, we all retired to my parent's room, and spent the rest of the night playing games and talking.

December 25

Christmas morning we worshiped at St. Peters, opened gifts, walked all over Times Square and the Theatre District, and had an early dinner at Carmine's. After dinner we went to an exhibit featuring the inventions of DaVinci, and went back to the Belvedere to relax.

December 26

The 26th was probably my favorite day there. Everyone got up early and went ice skating at Rockefeller. For about 25 minutes or so there was only one other person on the ice. It was a blast. Joshua and I left a bit before my parents and brother did, because we had early tickets to the Bodies Exhibit. Needless to say, it was an incredible experience. I definitely plan on going again.

Following out time at Bodies, Joshua and I grabbed a quick lunch, stopped at a small local coffee shop for genmaicha, wandered over to Ground Zero, and then took the metro back uptown. We arrived at the theatre about twenty minutes before the show began, and it took about half that time just to get to our seats - the place was absolutely packed.

Seeing Jersey Boy's was the highlight of the trip for me by far. The choreography, set design, and singing blew us away. I found it hard not to sing out loud, and there were many members of the audience (including my mother) who did. I would recommend this musical to anyone, but especially to those already familiar with their songs.

School's Out

But grades are in... a perfect 4.0

I am definitely excited about that; juggling 18 credits was a bit more than I had bargained for, but I did it anyway! It will be interesting to see how my classes play out next semester. I am only taking 14 credits, so that I will be able to pick up a part time job somewhere (I hope). So I signed up for Chem 2, World Lit, American Gov, A&P 2 and the labs for both sciences.

I checked out all of the professors to make sure that I wouldn't regret any of my class selections, so I am pretty confident that I will enjoy them.

In other news, tomorrow begins the Christmas festivities. Joshua and I will celebrate by ourselves, and then head over to Susan's for the night. We'll leave for the city early on Christmas Eve morning.

Well, Joshua and I are boiling water for tea, and are about to head out on a long wintery walk.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

It's snowing outside... a lot. We have more than a foot of snow, and it's not supposed to stop anytime soon. We're planning to stay inside all day today, but I'm not sure if we could go anywhere even if we wanted.

Right now Karis is reading a book, and I'm blogging (how'd you guess), and listening to the PIAA Class AAAA Football Championship - I'm as surprised as you; my cousin is playing in it, but the first half is almost over and the other team is up by 17.

Earlier we wrapped presents, played games and listened to Christmas music, and later we might bake cookies and play more games.

Tomorrow we'll adventure outside, the snow should have stopped by then, but we probably won't make it to church. If there is school on Monday I think I'll be called, and then it's vacation (for both of us). We've no plans for Tuesday, but Wednesday is Christmas with the two of us in the morning, and with my family in the evening, and then we're flying out Thursday morning.

After we get back from NYC, it'll be up to PA for a family get together on my side, and then New Year's we'll be in Lancaster with the Amish (well, there won't be Amish, but we will be in PA).

Fah who for-aze!

Dah who dor-aze!

Welcome Christmas,

Come this way!

A few notes on November:

- One night we set up a tent in the living room, hung cut out stars from it's top, made s'mores and hot cocoa, read a bit of Lord of the Rings outloud, and spent the night "camping"

- We started taking long walks around after sunset with warm thermoses to keep us warm

- Thanksgiving was spent at the LaRusso's, where we enjoyed good food and fun games

We're not quite a week into December, and it's already proven to be a busy month:

- I surprised Joshua by baking a cake and decorating the house for his birthday while he was at orientation. (The cake, made entirely from scratch, was a dark chocolate one with mocha frosting, and I was really excited about how well it came out. )

- Yesterday we started celebrating the christmas seasoson. Went and saw a children's play, bought and decorated a tree, and started listening to christmas music.

- Today I'll be going (hopefully) to a christmas concert at my school, and finishing the weekend housework

- Next weekend we think Joshua's Houghton friends will be visiting

there are only two weeks left of classes... 9 days for thanksgiving... and then finals. And then the end to the most intense and ridiculous semester ever.

Anatomy and Physiology: my favorite class of the semester. the professor is absolutely amazing, the information is exciting and challenging, and it couldn't be more relevant to my major. It's a two semester course, and I am looking forward to another four months of it. The lab is basically an extension of the lecture, which has been the only slightly disappointing part; I was hoping to be able to do some dissecting.

Sociology: Not a horrible course, but not the best. The classes are discussion based, but as I am only one of three people who contribute, it gets slightly boring. My professor is the most jaded and sarcastic person I have ever met, and as my friend said "we leave the class wanting to hang ourselves". The material is easy, but his written exams are definitely not.

American Literature: I was frustrated to be put in other literature course.. I had completed these requirements for other schools, but Shepherd is pretty specific about what types of lit classes one needs. In the end I am so glad I took it - it's my second favorite class. My professor is absolutely hilarious. He's this old, laid back man from buffalo with the driest sense of humor. Reading continues to be a passion of mine, and I am pleasantly surprised about how much I've learned from his lectures.

Asian Studies: My second least-favorite class. I had been looking forward to this course all semester, and thought that it would be one of my easiest (it's a 100 level history course). He's a brilliant man, but is disorganized, inconsistent, and overly fond of teaching neo-conservative opinions over facts. Most of this is due to the fact that he spends every night in jail serving a 10 month sentence for divulging sensitive information to a foreign nation while he was working at the pentagon. We have weekly exams that require hours of preparation. I have learned close to nothing, besides random arabic words. Arabic, as it happens, is rather difficult to learn...

Speech: By far the easiest class I am taking this semester. I think I have a 100% average so far... I have learned quite a bit about public speaking, and have enjoyed it quite a bit.

Intro to Nursing: By far the absolute worst class I have ever taken in my entire college career. Which scares the crap out of me, considering it is taught by the head of the nursing department here. The woman is nice enough.. she just has no idea how to teach a class. Class is held for two hours every Wednesday night, and we've had more canceled classes than any other course I am currently enrolled in. I put more time into preparing the numerous research papers, projects, presentations, and exams than I do for any other class. Two weeks ago I spent nine hours preparing for a regular exam (not a midterm, mind you). I got a B. I had the highest grade out of 75 students. If I don't get an A in any of the classes I am taking this semester, it will be in this class. the professor rearranges the syllabus, forgets to makes announcements, and when the entire class is unprepared for presentations because of her lack of communication, she refuses to take responsibility. If this course is at all indicative about the nursing department itself... I don't know how I will survive the next two years. I just know that I will.

So far, I still have a perfect GPA. Intro to Nursing is threatening that.. but I have to let it go.

Yesterday I signed up for next semester's classes: world lit, A&PII, chemII, and polysci. They will only be on M/W/F which leaves tuesdays, thursdays, and weekends free to get a job.

In other news, I've gotten back into a semi-regular running/lifting schedule, which feels great. I think this is because Joshua works now, so I have a lot of alone time in between classes. It's really tough to take time out of studying to work out - the whole trip to the gym takes an hour and a half to two hours out of my day. It's hard for me, I'm somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to working out and school. It's hard for me to slack off on either side. But I try to remember that having a high GPA will earn scholarships, but being in peak physical contition won't. So when a teacher moves the due date of a presentation up a week without notifying the students until two days before, running is the first thing that goes out the window. I do hope though, that I'll have more time next semester.

At the Library...

...and am supposed to be writing, researching, editing, and studying... but shall instead post to say that the one below this is, in short, amazing.

good day.

Vestments are still green, so why the Christmas decorations?

While the Church argues November is in Ordinary Time (marked by green vestments and antependia), the Nolen household (or at least half of it) thinks November is part of the Christmas Season.

Actually, Karis really wanted to start decorating, and listening to Christmas music, BEFORE Halloween. I argue, however, that the Christmas season begins on my birthday (which, coincidentally, is usually when people begin to celebrate Advent; thought I guess technically Advent occasionally occurs as early as November 27 or as late as December 3).

I was even willing to concede the week after Thanksgiving, just so long as we could celebrate our holidays in order - Halloween, Thanksgiving and then Christmas.

But some how we now have miniature illuminating houses in our living room. While Karis assures me that they are actually "winter" decorations, and not Christmas ones, I have my suspicions.

I would also argue that it's not winter yet, but some would counter that the Winter Solstice marks Midwinter and not the beginning of winter - Karis probably isn't one of these people, but the Irish and Scandinavians are (claiming that Winter begins with Samhain or All Hallows and ending with Imbolc or Candlemas).

Hmm, I just checked the box and it says the houses are part of the "Santa's Workbench Collection," and while Santa Claus might not have anything to do with Christmas, I don't think he is strictly associated with winter...

Joshua and I have both been meaning to write an entry about cooking for the past few months... and since I have ten minutes to kill now seems like a good time to ramble on about it.

Finding foods that we can share has proven to easier than previously though. Joshua's been open to trying new foods, and I've become much less strict about only eating what I considered "healthy" food. We've found that planning out our meals for every week makes everything a lot easier, even though we never stick to plan.


For a while we would have Mexican every Sunday or Monday (but I am feeling incredibly high-fat-and-salt-content-mexican'd out), so that will probably move to a twice a month deal. Fridays are always pizza & movie night, and Saturdays are leftover. During the rest of the week we try to switch it up, trying new things every week. Pasta usually falls in there about once a week, as well as grilled chicken.

Oh, I guess I should mention that we do (most) everything from scratch. Stews, soups, leavened breads, amazing pizzas, roasts, stir-fries, chips, fries, orzo dishes...

Necessities:

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

It's official: Christmas day will be spent in NYC!!

This past June, Joshua and I took Susan and Caleb to a Mets game. We were sitting in the 'winning row' and were given round trip tickets from Baltimore to LaGuardia.

Joshua and I had originally planned to use them for a quick day trip to the city, but my mom had the brilliant idea of us all celebrating Christmas there.

So at ten o'clock on Christmas eve, Joshua and I will arrive in the center of Manhattan via plane, and my parents via train. As our Christmas gift, my parents have gotten everyone rooms at The Belvedere Hotel, which is located "in the heard of New York City's theater district."

Canaan and I agree that no matter what, ice skating will take place. "And it will be epic." Mom is excited about possibly seeing a show, Joshua is thrilled to be able to tour the UN, and although I haven't asked, I'm sure Dad is excited about touring art museums.

Growing up, my family has celebrated Christmas in lots of unusual ways. For the past few years, the four of us have spent the holiday with my mother's family, skiing and snowboarding at a resort. One year we hiked a few miles through the snow-filled woods of Merk Forest,Vermont (dragging Christmas gifts and suitcases on sleds) and stayed in a tiny one room cabin. Over the years I've really come to appreciate 'memories' as gifts; and I've been so blessed by having been given many, many great experiences.

And as our first Christmas married, I this little feeling that no matter what, this year is going to be a little extra-special.

I can't believe it's only been a months since I wrote that last entry. Jeeze it feels like a lifetime ago..

House starts soon so this will be an ultra-lame update about our lives.

Here are some quickies:

1. I am really ashamed & embarrassed to talk of my newfound House obsession. I pretend that it's for the medical content ("He just said 'pituitary' I KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!") but really that's a complete lie. I'm just not used to being one of those TV-watchers. (Well, I've never been ashamed of watching watching Rachel Maddow. But she doesn't count as tv.)

2. To toot my own horn: My coursework is overwhelming. Six classes didn't sound like too much to handle when I signed up for them three months ago... but I spend way more time on them than I anticipated. This is the first real attempt that I've made at school (I floated through high school and never put any real effort into college classes ) and it's proving to be highly successful. I guess having motivation is key after all..

3. Playing rummy has turned into a daily activity in our house. (Don't tell Joshua I told you, but I kick his butt at that game)

4. As has reading Star Wars... you'll have to wait for Joshua's post to hear more about that one though

5. We are SO happy. Even though Joshua has been having more of a difficult time finding a job that we thought, which is obviously frustrating and sometimes scary, we are taking the good with it. It's such a wonderful time of life. We've been spending our early fall afternoons by going on picnics, long walks in the woods, reading out loud to each other, having adventures in the kitchen, and just plain being in love.

6. Randomly: Although we honor our marriage through our daily actions and lifestyle, we've started a tradition. On the 30th day of every month, Joshua and I have ice cream to celebrate. (If having ice cream doesn't sound like a big deal to you, you obviously haven't met my husband. Or me for that matter. We take that delicious frozen dairy delicacy very seriously.)

On that note, I am going to go downstairs, watch a new episode of a very entertaining - albeit mindless - television show and enjoy sharing this wonderful life with such a wonderful man. Joshua I mean. Not House.

Joshua had some friends over, and now my house smells like a heart attack.

They call it the Bacon Explosion:

two pounds of bacon weaved

around more bacon,

two pounds of sausage, bacon bits,

and a tub of barbeque sauce.

My stove and I are still a little traumatized, but hopefully a few veggie burgers from now we'll have suppressed the entire event.

And that's all, folks!

The Lion of Food

Yesterday was our 3 month anniversary, which means we've been getting our groceries at Food Lion for about the same time (though we also get them at farmer's markets, target, wal-mart, etc...). We only live a mile from Food Lion and since we pass it at least twice a day we end up there often - on average at least twice a week (if not more).

We've both noticed that while most of the time the cashiers are very friendly, we occasionally get a cashier that extremely rude and actually seems mad at us (and the same cashier will have been nice the visit before and the next trip).

As we made our way to the check out aisle today we noticed (for the first time in maybe "40 times," according to Karis), that two of the 8 aisles had "express lane" signs above them.

The signs aren't near the lane number or the register or the counter, but instead are hanging from the ceiling in the worst possible spot.

We're now wondering if our rude service has stemmed from the fact that we've taken whole shopping carts through the express lane before.

We've also seen a lot of other people take cart loads through there before, so we wonder if other regulars are just as lost as we were.

(ps. Karis just got back from a second trip to Food Lion and said she was about to write a post saying this same exact thing, and just said she's going to write a letter to the company.)

This is Karis posting as Joshua

I am too lazy/exhausted to remember how to sign into my own name.

So, this summer has definitely been an incredible one, and this fall is looking like it will be more than slightly intense.

Around the end of June, I took a job working at a NYC themed bagel shop in a small city about 45 minutes from here, fairly close to where Joshua was working. It was a rediculously easy job, and became oppressively monotonous about two weeks in. Probably the worst part about it was the schedule it forced us to have: Wednesday - Sunday I had to leave the house at six am, and on the weekdays, didn't get home until around 6pm. Joshua had the weekends off, so for those 6 weeks we didn't have a single full day to spend together. It was pretty hard on us.

My last day there was on a Sunday in the begining of August, the same day that a handful of Joshua's friends from college came to visit. We had a great time with them - I haven't laughed that hard in ages. They are just this incredible group of people, and I was so touched by the way they care, their generosity, and their overall maturity. It was a really great time for me to get to know Joshua's friends better, and it was a great time for us all to relax and really enjoy summer. We had a cookout, played games, they cooked for us, we went on a field trip to the nature center, and watched a couple (okay, seven) episodes of Firefly. Awesome, awesome times were had.

This past Monday I started back at school. It feels like i've already been in the semester for a month, and it feels like I've already done more schoolwork than I did all of last semester combined. I'm taking Speech, The Study of Asian Culture & Tradition, A Survey of American Literature, Intro to Nursing, Anatomy and Phisiology, A&P Lab, and Sociology. It doesn't sound like a lot when I write it all down, but in reality, I have about4 hours reading to do per day. And on top of that I have a slew of papers, research projects, speeches, exams, etc etc. Also, I begin training again a few weeks ago, so I've been getting up early and hitting the pavement as soon as the sun starts to show itself.

I've only had 2 minor anxiety attacks, and the first (hardest) week is over.

I just hope I can make it through the next fifteen.

On that note, I am going to flagarently skip my workout for this morning, and push it back to this evening.

There's cold (homemade) pizza in the fridge and my Lit readings are calling for my attention.

Summer is Over

Wow, our last post was in June and now it's August; where did the summer go? The time seemed to go by so quickly, and while I feel like a lot has happened I can't think of what to write here; that's probably a good thing because if I did remember it all right now I'd be writing for days. Maybe during the next couple weeks I'll fill in anything really important that we missed reporting this summer.

Well, Karis went back to school this week. She was very excited, and although she's still excited she's also already really busy doing school work. She's taking 18 credits plus a lab for A&P, so she was studying most of last night (mainly terms and body parts/sections).

In other news I'm going back to school too. I'm taking an online class to be certified to be a substitute teacher (at the same time I'm looking for jobs that aren't as a substitute teacher, but it doesn't hurt to be certified). Besides a few online quizzes, the main requirement for my class is that I spend 14 hours on the class website reading different information my professor posted. I've never been required in a class to spend a predetermined amount of time doing anything, let alone surfing the net; but we can't just sign on and watch tv instead because the website keeps track of what pages we view and how long we're viewing them.

And that's all for now.

Mexican Night at the Nolen House

So Karis and I got married on May 30, the ceremony was amazing and so was the reception. Thank you to everyone who helped out, and for all of you who were able to make it (but we also understand if you couldn't come).

And then on Sunday,the 31st, we moved down to Shepherdstown, West Virginia (not too far from Harper's Ferry). It's a small, historic town - it claims to be the oldest town in West Virginia - and is made up of mostly hippie-granola-outdoorsy types and "artsy-new age" people (according to an aunt of mine (and she's pretty much right)); luckily right now it's also pretty quiet around town, since it's the summer and most of the students at the university have gone home.

The area around town isn't very developed and has an old, back country feel to it.

Karis and I both love it, the town and the surrounding area.

Oh, and then in June from the 2nd-8th, Karis and I went on a honeymoon to Lums Pond in DE. Neither Karis or I had spent much time in Deleware, and we had both wanted to go somewhere where we could spend a lot of time outdoors. We rented a yurt for the week, which included a strange looking two person kayak.

Since then we've been "nesting" and trying to settle in, and then this week I started working. It's still a little hectic around here, trying to get everything all figured out and organized.

Karis was at the DMV for most of yesterday (maybe she'll tell you about it) and she traded in her New York license for a West Virginia one.

Here's a link to some pictures the photographer took:

Ceremony Shots

Reception Pictures

Enjoy.

Whose house?

Welcome to West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District

Wedding

Tomorrow's the big day.

Today is the busy day.

Actually, every day in the last 5 months has been the busy day.

Running

It has become a very serious and wonderful addiction.

It's always hard to start a run. The minutes preparing are harder to get through than any part of any run. Yesterday especially.

I drove myself down to Lake George Village around eight o'clock, and parked next to the battlefield. It took me twenty minutes to work up the courage to get out of the car, and then thirty seconds of walking before I had the nerve to begin my warm-up jog.

No matter who you are, the first mile is always the worst, and I always start my runs near the bottom of a hill. So yesterday's first mile was pretty intimidating. Yet, it didn't turn out to be too bad. I kept up a slow pace, waiting for my energy to drop. But it didn't. I continued, slowly increasing speed, and the pavement passed easily underneath my sneakers.

After I had been running for about fifteen minutes, the undigested chips and cheese from the previous evening started shifting in my stomach. Thankfully, my stomach ache went away after a few moments and never came back. By the second mile, I was running at my top speed - about 7mph.

It was around my third mile that it hit me: the runner's high. The reason we get addicted. My body began to tingle from head to toe, and I felt the surge of adrenaline. My pace picked up, and my thoughts focused in on running. It was exhilarating. It lasted only for two miles, if that, but even as I felt my body begin to weaken, I kept the pace up. Chest cramps did hit a block or two before I reached my car, but some deep ab-breathing eased the pain.

I am so tempted to sign up for the peace half marathon in DC this labor day. But I am cheap, and its rather expensive.

But I am training for it. just in case...

Last week I only ran 24 miles (I was focusing on cross training)
This week I am aiming for 31 miles, but I've never run that much in one week, so we'll see how it goes.

What Color is this Egg?

This is a picture of an emu egg I found on line. We have an emu egg at Fountain Rock and my boss always describes the color as "dark jade." Today in class we were talking about bird eggs and the topic of color got brought up. I told my profesor that he should get an emu egg, because it looked really cool and that it was dark jade.

My profesor says, "Oh, it's green?"

To which I reply, "No, it's blue."

And then I realized how rediculous that must sound, calling the egg both jade and blue.  My question then is what color do you think it is? The website I found this picture called it green, as do many others; but many other websites say the eggs are blue, and some have even said black (granted, different eggs look slightly different so some may be bluer while some are greener).

On a seperate occasion Karis has said she thinks I'm color blind. I will state though, that I have passed every colorblindness test I've taken.

*****

I just mentioned my class in this post, and I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but I don't think I ever explained it.

I'm at Star Lake in the Adirondacks with 15 other students taking an Ornithology class, it's a 4 credit class and we're doing it in 3 weeks. We have 4-9 hours of birdwatching each morning and then lecture for about 3 hours in the afternoon.

As part of the class we have to be able to identify at least 123 birds by sight, 84 birds by sound, and know the Order each bird is in (if it's a song bird, we need to know what family it's in). I said at least 123 birds, because we have 4 quizes and my prof gives us a list of about 30 birds that we need to know, but at the end of the quiz (for both sight and sound) he gives us 5-10 birds that we didn't study but he thinks we should have picked up from being in the field.

These quizes are on top of 2 exams, each covering half of a text book about 3 inches thick (and we cover all but one chapter, a chapter which is an introduction to bird watching).

It's an intense class to say the least, and I've probably wasted enough time on here already (I have a quiz tomorrow... and I'm getting married in 5 days).

It's unbelievable to wrap my mind around the fact
That in just nine short days
I will be married
To a man who is loving, selfless,
Loyal, and forgiving; a man who means everything to me.

It seems to me that it is more than I deserve,
and it's magnitude overwhelms me.

what keeps me sane:

Graduation

I graduated on Saturday, I think I can still call it that, even though I will be taking an ornithology class until for the next 2 and a half weeks.

There was a baccalaureate service on Friday, and then commencement on saturday. For those of you who don't know the difference between baccalaureate and commencement, the first is a worship ceremony, while the second is a more of an academic, bureaucratic, ceremony.

My mom and brother came to Houghton Friday afternoon, and my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Woody got there just before the baccalaureate service. To be honest, it felt strange wearing my cap and gown, walking around the quad with bagpipes playing, through a corridor made of faculty members, and onto the stage, where I was sitting in the middle of the front row.

In addition to my mom, brother, aunt and uncle, Karis and her mom came to the commencement service the next morning (Karis' dad couldn't make it, because he had/has fallen ill). By this time, wearing my cap and gown and sitting on stage in front of thousands of people felt completely natural, but it did feel strange turn my tassle from the right to the left side.

As I stated, I'm currently taking an ornithology class, and I'll write more on the in the next post, so I guess technically I'm an "August graduate," but last weekend was definitely my graduation.

Cancer sucks.

Cinco de Mayo!

I had my last exam this morning at 8am.  This is my third year taking Chemistry (in 10th grade I had honors chem, in 11th I had AP Chem - got a 5, and this semester I am taking Gen Chem again (Houghton only counts AP Chem for 1 semester)).  After 3 years, you would think that Chemistry would have been easier, but I after not taking chemistry for almost 5 years, it's actually a lot harder - the final was cumulative back to chem 1!  But, it's over now.

I guess technically my last final was Bio Senior Sem that happened after Chem, but all we did was eat breakfast, so it doesn't really count.

Because it's the last day of exams, the Senior Class had an end of the year Cinco de Mayo Party! We had over $3,000 left in our budget and spent it on a moon bounce, jousting, bungee-run, cotton candy machine, pin-the-tail on the donkey, and of course pinatas.  And then we made food: (non-alcoholic) margaritas, fresh salsa and guacamole that we made this afternoon, and carne asada that grilled while the party was going on.

I love Cinco de Mayo.

Did I mention I was done with college?

College and Apartments

Karis just got accepted to Shepherd University in West Virginia today! So she'll be going there in the fall to get her BSN; it should take about 3 years, and then she'll have her RN and start making the big bucks.

Other than that, I have a summer job in Frederick (same place as always), and have a possible opportunity doing a similar thing full time after the summer. I'm always going to apply to be a Park Ranger. And am looking for some other things similar to that.

Although Karis has had an apartment before, it kind of fell into her lap and I've never rented one, so Where do we look? What do we look for? What's a reasonable price? What should be included?

Also, if you know of any apartments for rent, we're looking in between Frederick, Hagerstown, and Shepherdstown (it makes a nice little triangle shape).

the internet has lost its familiarity - this is Karis

I do believe that I've accidentally signed on under Joshua's name...
Well, anyway..

Joshua's trip here went by way too quickly. He left Houghton for his journey to the Capital Region on Thursday, getting in a little bit before ten. My cousin (who happens to also be a student at Houghton) was visiting, so Joshua and I visited with her and with my parents a bit before he headed over to my neighbors' house for the night.

My Friday work schedule is always pretty short, just a Cool Bean's shift from nine until two. Joshua drove me in to town, and hung out in the shop while I worked. Afterward, we grabbed a quick picnic lunch from a supermarket, and sat by a pond to relax. And to judge those feeding (poisoning!) the ducks.

That evening we hung out in Bolton, walked around the Sagamore, took a quick trip to Saratoga for ice cream (Joshua) and coffee (Me). When we got back to my parents' house, everyone was sitting down to watch a movie. I was - as I always am - utterly exhausted, so I went to bed. Joshua stayed up and watch Marley & Me with the family.

On Saturday we were both up by five, and in Queensbury by six in the morning. That eight hour shift dragged on for an eternity.. Saturdays tend to be extremely chaotic at Cool Beans, and I always tend to feel rather.. spent. After my first job, Joshua and I rested up, and then he joined my parents and cousin for dinner, and I went to the deli.

Easter Sunday was a beautiful but bitterly cold day. My church had a sunrise service on the top of a mountain over looking Lake George - but it was held indoors. Joshua and I left a little early so that we could be at Cool Beans for my 7-2:30 shift.

I had a great at work that day, the way I did when I was new, before everything there lost its novelty. Maybe working at a little mom 'n pop coffee shop would stay fun for me if I also had a fulfilling career that served a valuable purpose... and I only had to work at the shop part time. Just for the fun of it. I love how laid back and simple the store is. It's been a great way to meet different people in the community, plus the other employees there have started to become an extended family.

Well, after my Sunday shift was over, Joshua and I drove back to Lake George. I had the greatest run of my life while watching Grey's Anatomy, and Joshua sat down to Dejavu half way into it. Yet, was still able to explain the plot to my very confused mother and cousin.

Easter dinner was held at my Aunt Patty's (my mother's sister) house, which is in town further north. We enjoyed one of the best fried turkeys of all time, searched for Easter baskets, sat by a roaring fire and did a lot of wedding planning.

Today was my first day off since last Monday, but as per usual, it wasn't very relaxing. About thirty people-all who have been close at one time or another to my family-showed up at nine am. Ellen Knapp (one of the women planning one of my bridal showers) had organized a work group as a thank-you to my parents. Not a thank-you for any specific reason. Just as a gift of gratitude for all the sacrifices my parents have made over the years. Overall, it was incredible.

So Joshua and I worked with them on various house projects for about three hours, before heading out to grab a bit to eat in the village. We stopped for a bit to sit on a bench on a beach, and watch a gorgeous husky play in the water. After about twenty minutes, it became obvious that no owner was nearby. So Joshua and I started walking the length of the beach, questioning people. We ended up calling a sherif, who called Animal Control for us. (If we had made the call to AC ourselves, they wouldn't have come for the dog - they'll only do that if the it is actually biting people.) It's pretty sad, chances are she will be put down in five days...

We both wanted to keep her.. she was a beauty.

Well. Tomorrow is the start of another long week for me. And with less than seven weeks until the wedding, I have a feeling that my days will only get busier and busier..

IKEA

So yesterday, Karis, her mom, and her aunt drove to Ikea to pick up a few things for the reception. For most of us this might not seem like a big deal, but the closest Ikea to Lake George is in New Haven (ie. Connecticut) - 169 miles away "as the crow flies," or 207 miles away as the car drives.



Leaving about 3:15 in the afternoon from Lake George, they didn't get back until about 1:15 am. That's a long trip! And then after less than 4 hours of sleep, it was time for Karis to get up for work (14 hours of work today, split between her two jobs).

It probably goes without saying, but she's pretty tired right now.
BUT, they did get a lot of nice stuff at Ikea yesterday, so in the end it was worth it.

I was going to post the Ikea "Lamp" Commercial, because it's one of the best commercials I have ever seen, but blogger only accepts videos from your computer (not the internet), so I'd have to download it from youtube and then reupload it.

Anyway, here's the link to the Ikea Lamp Commercial.

You've Got Mail

While this may not seem like a big deal, I think it's pretty exciting: a few days ago I set up my outlook to collect email from all my accounts!

I've had multiple email addresses for a few years now,

and they're finally all in one place.

My only problem is that I've sent out a few emails from the wrong account, so if you email me, and get an email back from a different account... I'm sorry.

Wilderness First Aid

I just got certified in Wilderness First Aid through S.O.L.O.,
the class was from 6pm-9pm last night and from 8am-6pm today.


Even though I've taken a few First Aid classes, and did some first aid as a Boy Scout, the Wilderness First Aid course was still very beneficial; it focuses a lot more on long term care, and uses the "patient assessment system," which I think is very beneficial.

At this level I'm still not legally obligated to help someone, but I'd probably consider it... (that's a joke, of course I'd help.)

Busy...

There are a ton of things that I should be doing right now (retrieving SAT scores, transcripts, ordering favors for the reception, working on our movie/slideshow, lifting weights, emailing pictures of wedding cakes that I like to the woman making ours) but instead, I am going to waste time complaining about how little of it I have.

Ok, I'm done. Back to work...

The Knot

Karis and I made a "The Knot" website for our wedding awhile ago, it includes some wedding details, where we're registered, and the like.

If you haven't seen the site, or don't know the address, here it is.

Music

So, I downloaded Rhapsody today so Karis and I could pick out music for our reception, if you have any ideas or suggestions, let us know - right now we're going for quality, rather than quantity (I already downloaded 8 hours of music...).

This is Karis...

actually it's Joshua again; but I just created an account for Karis and I wanted to test it out.

3 posts in 20 minutes? It must be a Monday afternoon.

Save the Date

Here's the Save the Date that we sent out earlier this year, according to Karis (and her mom), everyone over the age of 18 is supposed to get their own save the date and invitation (except couples only get 1).


ps. Those are not our arms (but the picture in the background is where we're getting married - oh the wonders of photoshop).

First Blog Post

So, I've decided that Karis and I should start a blog (and Karis agreed), so... here we are...

Um, our wedding is May 30 and we'll try (tho' I bet I'll be on here more than karis), to get some pre-wedding posts up here, and then after the wedding we'll try to post weekly, or semi-weekly (meaning "semi" in the colloquial sense of "partial," not in the technical sense of "half"), to let everyone know what we're up to.