Last Post from the CA

It's all gone...the movers came this morning, packed everything up, and hauled it away. I now have a pretty empty apartment and the bare essentials in my office. It will be an odd night without everything. However, with that being said, I will be heading back to MN tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I will get some sleep before than!

Graduation was amazing...well, the whole weekend was amazing! I recieved an award for outstanding leadership for a graduate student on Friday and then had an amazing dinner with the Student Life people and my cohort. Saturday was a great day for graduation - very hot (100+!) but it was great. That night Jeff and I hung out with our Lodi friends one last time. I had so much fun and will greatly miss them all!! Thanks for a great night!

I have been asked a few times if our blog name will change now that we are no longer 2000 miles from home. The answer - not sure. Currently, Cali is my home so moving to MN would make me 2000 miles from home. I guess time will tell...

To wrap up - Thanks California for an amazing two years! I will greatly miss my friends, Yosemite, San Francisco, the wine! (I will be bring a few bottles - cases - back), Tahoe, and so much more!

Accepting my diploma from Dean Beck - she is an amazing woman!
Dean of Students Joanna is hooding me! She is superb and I will truly miss her and her leadership!
YAY!! I graduated!
Congrats to the Masters - Aaron, Jason, Kari, Heidi, Sylvia, Sayil, and Alyssa - and all those not present - Alicia, Deb, and Geoffrey! We did it!

long awaited update, but a short one...

Hello! Sorry that it has been almost a month since I last posted. The end of the semester has flown by. This will not be a long post, but I wanted everyone to know that all is still well. I graduate on Saturday and will officially be a Master :-) How exciting! I will be posting a few pictures of the past 4 weeks and of graduation weekend early next week. I hope everyone is enjoying spring...we are already at 100 degrees here!

A busy weekend...

The time is just flying by! I only have two weeks of classes left - YAY! However, that means that I have to get everything done in two weeks - YIKES! Oh well, I will survive. I had a good weekend...here are a few pictures of Friday and Saturday:

On Friday, I was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi - known as the most pretigious honor society! At least my hard work in classes have paid off and I have something to show for my 4.0!
Above: Aaron, Kari, Luke, Heidi, Santi, Steve, and Nolan. Nolan is an RA and also got inducted. The rest came out to see the ceremony and cheer us on.
Below: Liz!! She was able to come to town on Thursday evening and stay until late Friday! It was great seeing her and I am so happy she was there!

The picture below is me with President DeRosa! I was thinking about using this as my facebook picture, but I don't know if he would like that too much :-)
That evening, Liz and I headed up to Lodi for School Street Stroll. It was a ton of fun. Below is a picture of Ellie in a sexy polyester jacket...it actually fit her!! It also came with matching pants! It wasn't for sale yet though...someday Ellie you will own this outfit!
On Saturday, I headed to Yosemite for a day trip with Jason, Luke and Kari. Kari had never been and none of them had been to Hetch Hetchy so we stopped there first. Kara and Patrick joined us for this part of trip. Below is a picture of Hetch Hetchy.
Wapama Falls were absolutely amazing! It had a nice mist coming off of it. We stayed and hiked around the falls for a little while.

Below is part of the trail at Hetch Hetchy. I just think it is a pretty picture.
We then headed into the Valley. Below is Yosemite Falls. The falls were all amazing - a great time of the year to go and see them all!
After Yosemite Falls, we went and took some pictures of Half Dome and then hiked around Bridalveil Falls. There was an amazing double rainbow at the falls!

That's me on the rock!

I have been doing a lot of homework today and still have so much to do. I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks - we continue to interview for AC jobs here, have NRHH inductions, and the start of the end of the year banquets begins. I am flying to MN and will be there May 2 - I can't wait to see Jeff...it has been way too long!

It's already April!

I can't believe how fast time is flying by! I had a great time while Jeff was out here. We went to Murphy, CA to go down into a cave one day. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Above: Cool formations on the walls in the cave.

Below: Wall formation known as the chocolate waterfall. It really does look like one!

Above: Jeff going down the first set of stairs. There really wasn't a whole lot of room between the walls!
Below: The spiral staircase we walked down. It was made out of the steel of a WWI battle ship!

The picture below is of Jeff and Heidi in the cave.

After our cruise through Moaning Cavern, we decided to go zip-lining. It was awesome! We didn't get any pictures, but I absolutely had a blast doing it!

Other than that, we hung out a lot with friends at Pacific and GM. We also played a lot of whiffle ball - which is an amazing sport! We got an awesome bat at a thrift store and definitely think we have gotten our $1.50 out of it!

I have been quite busy with work and classes lately...it never seems to end. However, I am determined (and sort of need to be) done with all of my assigments by April 30th! Crazy to think that I will soon be graduating with a masters. Some good things I found out: I am being inducted into Phi Kappa Phi which is a very prestigious academic honor society! I was selected to receive an award (only one given a year) for making outstanding contributions to the campus and for the leadership I have taken in my academic program! The dean of students (also my advisor) sent me flowers today! They are absolutely beautiful! She is such an amazing woman! Still waiting on the job front. I am being a little picky in what I apply for, but I am hoping to hear something soon. In other news, I got my haircut! There is a program on campus to get people to donate their hair and I decided to particpate! I chopped off 9 inches (Pantene will accept 8 for donations)! I like it and am still getting used to having short hair, but it is fun!

Me with short hair. It is nto the best picture, but you get the gest.

OK, I am off! I hope everyone is doing well!

Easter + Big Wheels + Vermont St = FUN!!

After our usualy Sunday routine (church and lunch at Cam's) we headed into San Francisco for teh 8th Annual BYOBW (bring your own big wheels) event. The event was held at Vermont St, which is in contention with Lombard St. for the crookedest road. Pretty much anyone who wants to show up and ride a big wheel down the hill is free to do so. It was a ton of fun! Here are a few pictures:

Above: Jeff and Patrick sitting pretty in their big wheels gearing up for the big ride!
Above: Matt, Kara, Heidi, Josh, Courtney, and Luke anxiously awaiting the start of the race. We were the picture takers of the day.
Below: Patrick's big wheel broke on the first turn :-( Fortunately, I think we collected enough pieces from other big wheels that he will be able to build his own for next year.

Above Jeff is coming around the corner and Jeremy is right behind him.

In the video below, Jeremy is the first person and Jeff shows up around 4 second mark or so. Just look for the red helmet and Twins shirt. Behind him our friend Josh appears in his leather suit. The rest of the video is all of the other crazy racers! The video is from the 3rd race down the hill that day.

I am sure you can youtube more videos if you want to see more. It was great!!

A month and no post...

WOW! I can't believe it has already been a month since I last posted. Sorry about the delay! Things have been quite busy here. I have recovered from shingles and can handle what is left. I also passed my masters comps!! YAY!! Now I just need to get through my last two classes.

I had an amazing trip to Boston. I was there March 5-12. I was able to catch up with some friends (Hal, Collin, and some NDSU peeps) and also toured the city some. Here are a few pictures:

Kari and I walked to Fenway Park. It was pretty cool and the tour was fun. There is a ton of construction going on right now, but it was still neat to see. Above is the field with the green monster in left field. Below is me sitting in the oldest seats in baseball! (They are not very comfy and are quite compact!)

Kari, Jason and I decided to walk to the Real World Boston House (above) and then to Cheers (below) as they were both pretty close to our hotel.

Kari and I also decided to walk the Freedom Trail one morning. It was amazing and was one of my favorite things to do. We didn't finish the whole trail because we had to get back for the conference, but we saw a lot.
Above is the Canary Burial Ground. This cemetary is right inthe middle of downtown Boston and the a few of the people buried here include: the parents of Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samual Adams. Below is the tombstone of Paul Revere.

Another stop on the Freedom Trail was the original state house (above). The balcony is where the Declaration of Independence was originally read. Below the balcony is where the Boston Massacre happened.
Another amazing site in Boston is Trinity Church. It is absolutely gorgeous. This picture does not do it justice - it is just amazing. The city is full of beautiful churches.

We also got to see where the Boston Tea Party occurred. I had a great trip and would love to go back and see more. Although, I was very ready to go back to Cali at the end of the trip.

When I got back, Jeff was in San Fran for training so we got to spend a few days together. He is also here now and we had a pretty cool Easter...that blog to follow!!

A brief update...

Sorry that it has been a while since there was a post. A lot has happened in the short two weeks since our last update. Here is a quick overview: Jeff got back safely to MN and is rooming with Dave (this could be trouble!). He is doing well and I miss him tons! It is a little odd living by myself. However, this past week it was kind of nice to have the quiet atmosphere. The weekend that Jeff left I attending a conference of the first-year experience in San Francisco. It was great fun and I got to hang out with Jen (a co-worker from NDSU)! I also presented a poster session on the progression of residential learning communities. On top of this, I also got the questions and had a week to complete my master comps. I guess all of the stress added up and I got shingles! It is not very fun. It started out as bumps on my forehead, which turned into blisters. I also developed blisters on my eyelid, the bridge of my nose, and my scalp. It is a pretty painful and uncomfortable experience. I have been getting headaches everyday and pretty much have them under control. I am on medication for the rest of it and the blisters are starting to scab over and the itchiness is horrible. I found that sleeping with mittens on is the best way for me to not scratch my forehead during the night! I am continuing to get better and am looking forward to putting this all behind me. I am hoping that it is within the next week or so because I leave for Boston for another conference at the beginning of March!

Sorry for not posting pictures. I know that I have a random selection to post and I will get to it someday. Right now I am just trying to do what is necessary and nothing else - destressing my life so to say! I hope that all is going well with everyone.

Parents and more...

Jeff's parents came to visit from Feb. 1-Feb. 8. They were pretty busy while they were here. We toured San Francisco, Monterey Bay, and they were able to go to Sacramento and Tahoe. We had a great time visiting with them and took a ton of pictures. Here are just a couple of the visit:

Above: Jeff, Heidi, Andy, and Miki in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

Below: All of us in front of the entrance to Muir Woods

Above: The sea lions hanging out at Pier 39
Below: One of my favorite things we did with Andy and Miki was go whale watching in Monterey. We were lucky enough to see a pod of about 40 orchas! It was absolutely amazing. Jeff and I took a ton of pictures, but they are hard to catch. Below is a picture of one of the whales popping out of the water.

We had a great week with them and we hope they had as much fun as we did!

Last Monday, Bill Clinton visited Pacific and I was able to go and watch his speech and do a meet and greet with him afterwards. It was pretty cool to see a former president!

This past weekend was a wine and chocolate event in Lodi. On Saturday, we rented a 12 passenger van and visited a few of the wineries.
Above: the group at the van with grape vines in the back

Below: the group in front of some wine barrels

We had a great time, tasted wine, and ate delicious chocolates! After, we went to Jeremy's for dinner and had a little going away party for Jeff. Oh, in case you didn't know, Jeff will be moving back to MN this weekend!

I will keep the posts coming when I am able to. I have a few conferences coming up in San Francisco and Boston. I am also hoping to do a few more excursions before I move back to MN in late May.