I'm baaack :)

Hi everyone... sorry about the delay in writing... last week was mid-terms so I spent the week before writing exams and last week giving and grading exams. I'm handing the last of the exams back today, so hopefully that will give me a bit of peace and quiet... at least for a couple days. Last week I was here at 8am basically every day because there were always students making appointments to see me... frantic about their grades. It was nuts. Between my phone ringing, e-mails, and students just coming in, I barely had a moment to myself!! So yeah... it's nice to have an empty office again. :)

So let's see... what has happened since I last wrote? Ummm... I don't know. I'm sure there has been tons of stuff, I'm just brain dead and can't seem to think of it!!! :) The wedding is basically all planned. We got our invitations this weekend... although there was a bit of a goof-up. On our response cards, they typed in to respond by July 1, 2006. Oops!! Considering that July of 2006 already passed, that's really not helpful. So we had to get those sent back and re-done. That was when I was glad that we went through Hallmark to order the invites so that I didn't have to deal with customer service myself. :) What else? We also booked our honeymoon this weekend... we're going on a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean... leaving the day after the wedding. YAY!! I'm excited, to say the least. We got a great deal on our airfare ($198 round trip to Miami!!) so that was a nice surprise. :) What else?? My dress is already in and I got my shoes yesterday so I'm going to get it altered next weekend. The lady was really hesitant to alter it since the wedding date was so far away... I was like... sweetie, I'm not talking about the waist right now... I need the height altered. LOL I'm just like... yeah, I KNOW I'm not growing any taller (unfortunately) so this is where it is. When she realized I just wanted height she was like... oh, okay. I'm just sitting there going... I don't want to wait until May and then have to fight with everyone and their mother to get an appointment to get a fitting!! So that is done... for now. :)

What else? This weekend Mark and I are going to Iowa to see the Iowa-NIU game. While I'm excited to go to Iowa and especially to see Katie, I'm NOT excited to wake up and be out of the house by 6:30 on Saturday morning. LOL Also, after a humiliating loss to Indiana, I'm a bit worried about Iowa playing NIU. Mark better not get bragging rights on this game!! But yeah... I'm sure that once I get there I will be happy and excited... but right now I'm thinking about my lack of sleep. :) It's apparently a "black out" day so everyone is supposed to wear black. I was just like... yeah, I'm going to be wearing my gray sweatshirt because it's the warmest Iowa clothing I own... and if I'm wearing black it's because my coat is black and I'm trying to stop from freezing to death!!! LOL Not that I'm not a die hard Iowa fan... but yeah... my warmth comes before wearing the appropriate color for the game. :) I'm not a crazy undergrad willing to go to the game in just a t-shirt and jeans! LOL The forecast for Saturday - partly cloudy and a high of 47. AWESOME!!! But I'm not going to complain... it could be snowing. I just wish it was closer to 60 rather than 40. :P Oh well...

By the way.. for all of you California people reading this... it has already snowed once this month here in good ol' Illinois. And it was snowing last night when I left school also... although that was really a bit more like frozen rain and not quite snow. Still a pain though, let me tell you. And no, I don't want to hear that it's 70 degrees there (or anywhere south of here). :)

Speaking of Cali, I may be going to a conference in the LA area next spring. I'm trying to figure out the logistics of it right now... the conference starts over the weekend so the current "plan" is to have Mark fly out with me on Friday afternoon/evening and then stay until Sunday. He'd fly back Sunday afternoon and I would stay through Tuesday for the conference. They have a few sessions going on on Saturday, but the conference starts in earnest on Sunday morning. So I figured that I could show him around LA (from what I know!) on Saturday and he could see where I grew up, etc. and hopefully meet a couple friends. Of course, this is all still up in the air. But since my travel expenses will be covered through the college travel funds we'd just have to pay for his airfare. So yeah... I just have to talk to Kent to figure out what I need to do to officially "apply" for the money (although it's a given that everyone who applies gets money) and then I can register and start planning the trip. So yeah... that is that.

Otherwise, not too much to report... I should get going for now. Need to look over my notes before I go warp some young minds... I hope you are all doing well. Stay warm!! :)