holiday blogging...

i am sad to report that over the past few months i have officially become a holiday blogger :( so on the eve of the new year, i figured it was appropriate to renew my dedication to this awesome form of communication...also, i figured out how to access my blog at work, so now i can use my downtimes to write to you all!

so let's see...Christmas was wonderful, i was home in chicago, it was FREEZING when i got there (with Leonidas in tow!), like highs around -3. needless to say, neither the dog or i were very pleased, although i think he had it worse...everything i took him outside to go to the bathroom, he would start shaking and stepping gingerly on his freezing little paws. we tried everything to fix this issue, from his parka vest to a new sweater; we even bought little doggie booties for his feet (they didn't stay on very well and he looked like he didn't know how to walk in them)! we tried to get him to run around with hudson at a school behind my house (they played a ton inside) but he started shaking so much that my dad wrapped him up inside his down coat and carried him home. eventually, we settled for very frequent, very quick trips into the artic tundra and waited for the weather to warm up.

by Christmas eve, all was warmer, we had 8-10 inches of snow on the ground, and it was truly beautiful. below is a picture of the biggest icicle outside my house (we eventually knocked it down to keep it from breaking the gutter). my whole family went to church, my brother and grandfather sang in the choir, and it was all very fun and memorable. Christmas morning, we had the grandparents over for breakfast and presents, followed by dinner with my aunt, cousins, all four grandparents, and my family. the food was delicious but we were tired at the end.

the next few days i spend relaxing at home, until sunday, when the puppy and i reboarded a plane and came back to the east coast. he was a wonderful little traveler, didn't cause any problems on the plane or in the airport, but he and i are both glad to be back.

thanksgiving in chi-town

just like you all, i was so so so ready to come home for thanksgiving break!  it has been a wonderful time to catch up with my family, including some cousins and my grandparents.  leonidas is staying with alex and his family in PA, so i'm getting regular updates on his break too...after a rough first day (and two accidents on the heacock's carpet), he's well adjusted, getting regular walks, and taking advantage of plenty of snuggle time.  i have a feeling monday is going to be rough on the little guy, but i'm glad he's having a good vacation too!

my trip home has been pretty low-key.  i've gotten to help with christmas decorations and cooking and shopping, which has all been fun.  i met a girl on the WM track team who's from this area, knows my brother's friends, and knows alex as well, so that was fun.  it's always a weird experience to find someone at home who can talk about life at WM...it feels like my worlds collide a little bit, and i love it.

other than that, i'm so thankful to hear that jennie is home safely, and that you all are enjoying some time with family!  kayla and i were talking about potentially having a christmas party sometime soon, so if people have thoughts, ideas, or opinions on dates, activities, etc, let me know!  

thankful thursday (really friday, but who's counting?)

today i am thankful for Nature's Miracle...Leonidas has had an intestinally rough week after ripping through a bag of treats and eating the whole thing. as a result, i've come home to two fairly unpleasant presents that required cleaning. thankfully, i've had Nature's Miracle, a product specially designed to deal with animal...accidents, and it's worked wonders!

results are in...

thanks for indulging in my quiz! after some more research about the dogs' various temperaments, size and proportion, and face shape, i think we're officially changing his breeding to tibetan spaniel! interestingly enough, tibetan spaniels are not at all related to other spaniels, but actually descend from the pekingese (a close second choice).

in any case, thanks for playing, and the little tibetan spaniel says hello!

pop quiz

people always ask me what kind of dog leonidas is, and i never know what to tell them, so i figured my guess is as good as yours...tell me what you think!

here's leonidas...
and here are your choices (feel free to google other images if you want...i tried to find ones with similar coloring to his just to make it fair)

A: Tibetan Spaniel

B: Pekingese
C: Papillon
D: Phalene (cousin to the papillon)

thanks everyone :)

so today is my 23rd birthday, and i am feeling sentimental, so i wanted to take a second to thank all of you for the various contributions you've made to my life thus far. you've been roommates and classmates, neighbors and friends, life lines and punch lines, confidants and co-conspirators. so much of who i have become comes from knowing you and i am so thankful for what great friendships the Lord has put in my life. i know we all have taken different paths, some more closely intertwined than others, but for what it's worth, each of you hold a special place in my heart and and in my prayers, and you always always will.

leonidas has arrived :)

well, pending some mailed in paperwork, leonidas has officially joined our lives!!! we took him home from his temporary foster sunday night and we haven't looked back. he's a papillon, about 7 lbs, 1 1/2 years old, and just about the cutest thing on the face of the earth. he's generally pretty calm (even a little shy with strangers), but he warms up quickly, at which point he'll never leave your side. in fact, he's snuggled up against my leg as i'm writing this :)

he's got a great personality, snuggly and sweet, but also very playful (when he's in the mood, he'll even fetch!). he seems completely housebroken, which is awesome. he's a great walker (really it's more like prancing...) and we walked for well over an hour today on our own and then with katie and chris. he's already learning to sit for treats, he gets so excited when you come home (he's like a little jumping bean...which may also be because he has to pee after a long day inside), and he loves to flop for belly rubs. oh, and he hardly sheds at all (like maybe 5 hairs since we got him).

more importantly, here are some pictures. in the first one, he's napping with alex, in the second he's sitting at alex's feet in the car, and the third i took on our first long walk today. enjoy!!!

check it out!

for those of you that may check my blog more regularly than alex's (cause he's a bad blogger), you should check it out...he actually posted! and i think you'll all appreciate it :)

leonidas???

here are some pics of the latest puppy find. he's a papillon, about 8lbs, between 1 and 2 years old, and sounds super friendly. we're scheduled to meet him this sunday...i think he could be the one!

dog stuff...

well, we don't have one yet, but we're working on it :) after a screening interview and a home visit, kayla and i have officially been approved for dog adoption through homeward trails. the adoption counselor we're working with is extremely helpful and really interested in finding us a great dog. we saw two in foster care last night, but unfortunately i don't think either one is right for us.

right now, i just continually watch petfinder.com and six local shelters' websites for potential dogs, but i have to say, they go fast! this morning i called on a dog whose profile had been posted at 7:00 last night and by 11:00 this morning, he had four applications on him already! anyways, we're definitely still looking, and it's going to take some patience and persistence, but i know eventually we'll find the right one!

IM softball

alex and i spent sunday afternoon outside at his IM softball double header (they won both games!). it was ridiculously hot outside, so i sat in the shade and took pictures from afar...here are a couple of the mvp himself!

theta family brunch :)

this past weekend i went to williamsburg to be with alex, which was really wonderful, but i also had the pleasure of meeting up with my theta family (plus sarah yay!). while alex went to do some yard work for a family from chapel, we met at aroma's for brunch. it was so great to see all of the girls, and catch up on their lives and travels (sam was in spain, heather was in hawaii, paige spent the year doing americore, etc), and fill them in on post-graduate life. i promised them i'd be back for homecoming, and offered to have them visit whenever they needed a weekend getaway from the burg!

the cloffice!

for those of you that don't know, the cloffice is where i work at the coast guard, with another girl named kristy. it used to be a closet and now it's an office with our two desks in it. anyways, i really like it, because i've discovered i hate being alone in a cube and i really like having her there to joke around with and learn from.

today i was the last to leave (i'm also the last to arrive haha), so i very sneakily took some pictures for you all to see! the first picture is my half of the room (my second computer sits where those random wires are, but i'd already locked it up for the night before i took this...whoops!) we just got new desk chairs this week, so i was pretty pumped about that...

this is the other side, where kristy sits...having that center table between us is great, because whenever we have meetings in there, other people have a place to put their stuff.

and last but not least, this is the lovely coast guard headquarters from the parking lot. definitely not the prettiest building in washington, but we've debated if the blue striping was like an intentional reflection of the sea...my guess is no.

the adoption process

the dog adoption process has officially begun! earlier this week, an adoption counselor (official title) from of the shelters i sent an application to emailed me to begin searching for a dog. today, i had my screening interview over the phone. she asked me why i wanted a dog, where it would sleep, go to the bathroom, what type of personality were we looking for, etc. i answered her questions and she answered mine, and now she's going to set up a home visit, where a volunteer will come and make sure we haven't secretly stashed away five other dogs (her example) and that we actually have room for it and that kayla and i aren't crazies. then, she'll start putting us in touch with the dogs' foster families, and we'll set up appointments to go meet them and the dog, and ask some more detailed questions.

currently, the little guy topping our list from this shelter is gus (a name he's only had for two weeks so it can definitely be changed). he's a shih tzu mix, which means he's hypoallergenic and has minimal shedding. he's between 6 and 8 years old, so he's a little older, but that also means he's already house broken and a little more mellow. he's 17 lbs and he's being brought up to dc from a high kill shelter in nc. if he doesn't work out, there are also two lhasa apsos (1 1/2 yrs and 3 yrs) coming up from the same shelter. anyways, hopefully we'll get to meet gus this week...here are the picture from his petfinder portfolio! (he had to be shaved because the hair was so matted, but it'll grow back to look more like his head and tail, haha)

BRAD PAISLEY!

i promise, this is my last post about last weekend...sunday morning, we ran into some people at chapel who had extra tickets to the brad paisley show that night, so of course, alex and i took them, and headed out to VA beach with tim, mcadams, greg, lawlor, julia, brent, brock, travis, sarah, and a few others. the concert was so much fun; we sat on the lawn, so we could all dance and sing along as loud as we wanted. while we were there, we ran into addison and some football guys, who then ran into kate, so she texted me and i went over and said hi. it was really fun to see everyone and brad certainly puts on an entertaining show! here are some pics...




the boys singing "i'm still a guy"...

official VA resident!

last weekend in the burg, after 5 trips to the DMV and getting my car towed once, i finally replaced my illinois license plates with VA ones (meaning alex and tim replaced them). i have to say, i was really sad to give them up, especially because the standard blue VA plates are so boring, but it feels good to be done with all of that official moving business!

PUPPY PICS!!!

alright everyone, the moment you've all been waiting for...some pictures of puppies kayla and i might check out!

this is the little guy in williamsburg...

and these are a few in the dc area (the funny looking one had to have his coat shaved cause it was too matted, but he's too tragic not to be cute haha)

puppy shopping (sort of)

while alex and i were in target, we went to check out the one spot (obviously) and discovered that it was full of dog stuff! we couldn't resist, so we picked up several things, including food and water bowls, a collapsible water bowl (for taking leonidas to the park), a rope toy, a tank top that says "go team" and a squeaky hamburger toy.


it turns out, there's a little dog in williamsburg that kayla and i may go look at in two weeks...he's a 2 year old lhasa apso, and he's really cute. alex and i tried to play with him but he was in quarantine for scratching a volunteer (although apparently it was totally the volunteer's fault)...i'll try to post a pic later but for now my blog is acting funny...

Update from Williamsburg!

this weekend i went down to williamsburg to spend labor day with alex! because i've been so inspired by katie's (and now chris') blog, i took several pictures with the intent to post, so here they are! there are several, so get excited :)

They've done some relandscaping outside the caf to include leafy palms worthy of the jurassic park set...and yes, alex and i ate sunday brunch at the caf, haha.
as most of you know, alex is enrolled in introduction to non-weapon stage combat, more affectionately know as "fake fighting". His professor is the founding father of the international order of the pen and sword, and here's a shot of their newest member in his required knee and elbow pads.
we went to target to do a little shopping (more on this later...) and one of the gems we found was a hannah montana bike helmet, complete with a bejeweled denim cover...alex modeled...
i've got lots more, but it's time for dinner, so i'll post them later...get excited!!!

Overdue Update

i cannot believe i've been working for almost 2 1/2 weeks now! life in arlington is still going really well...two weekends ago, i went to PA for alex's mom's birthday. he drove up from the burg friday afternoon, we baked her a chocolate cake (best way to avoid traffic ever!), and then we drove up to his house. the weekend was great; we went to a huge craft fair with his dad (his mom was working unfortunately) and ate french fries and funnel cakes and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. sunday, we just hung out at his house and relaxed, which was a welcome change of pace from work.

as far as work goes, i've officially been placed on a project at the coast guard! it's a fun place to work, and everyone seems relaxed (most of the time). referring to my supervisors as commanders or lieutenants definitely takes a little getting used to, and my team (there's just three of us) is still working out the dynamics, but so far it's keeping me busy.

this weekend, jennie and kate were here staying at our apartment, and we had so much fun. friday we got to see christina and celebrate her birthday. saturday we went to allison's wedding and sunday we went to the zoo! it was a very full, but very fulfilling weekend :)

First day of WORK!

so today was my first official day as a Kadix Systems employee :) overall, the day was a big success i would say, filled with a lot of information (i have to pick a 401k plan...like i know how to go about doing that) and forms (taxes are such an unfortunate part of our government) and meeting people (my favorite part).

i have a meeting with a project manager tomorrow to discuss an open position on a coast guard project very soon, rather than the IRS project i was originally slated on, so we'll see how that turns out. also, all of the new hires got laptops, so i'm now sporting a new hp laptop at work, complete with carrying case haha.

although it was very weird to wake up and realize my career started today, it was also a really encouraging day in terms of the type of atmosphere kadix promotes, the type of people that work there, and their apparently solid grip on the 40-hour workweek, meaning every day i should be starting at 8:30 or 9:00 and done around 5:00 and 5:30 depending on the client. i'm excited to find out more about my specific responsibilities on the project i eventually get assigned to, but for now i'm just enjoying some new-hire seminars and my temporary cube :)

updates from arlington!

so kayla and i are officially moved in to our new place! after a week at the beach with my family in nc and a week of unpacking and such, it feels great to start settling in. we've already started exploring the area, and we're super close to a lot of restaurants, a grocery store, the metro and...chris and katie! totally unplanned by everyone, we ended up living really near each other which has been a blessing already. i'll post some pictures of the apartment, but if you haven't seen it in person yet, get excited! The first one is my room (very reminiscent of 4054 !)This is the living room and sunporch/ guest room...
and this is the dining area/ kitchen!
also, quick funny story from the beach, hudson discovered the ocean for the first time and, without any prompting, decided it would be a great place to...poop! that's right, all week, every day when we went down the beach, hudson popped a squat right there in surf. it was hysterical, particularly because he never did it in front of our area, but always in front of someone else, haha. anyways, here's a few pictures from the beach!

lostpedia

in my internet ramblings today i stumbled across something you should all check out...lostpedia.com. it's like wikipedia, but with lost information. it includes episodes and character information, helps tie seemingly random information and events together, and most interestingly to me, it includes a theory section where various questions and cliffhangers on the show are discussed. check it out.

snapping turtles

so i forgot to share the magic of snapping turtle hunting with you all! now don't be fooled, snapping turtles are not cute little guys you want to take home and play with. they are huge, mean, prehistoric like creatures whose bite could take off a finger. anyways, a snapping turtle trap consists of a string with a hook and a piece of chicken or other raw meat on the end. when the turtle goes to eat the bait, he swallows the hook with it and you've caught yourself some snapper.

alex's cousins had set several traps all along the creek on their property. friday morning, we took the 4 wheeler out to check the traps and when all was said and done we caught three! we stored them in this huge plastic barrel thing, and then saturday morning, alex played the executioner and shot all three turtles in the head with a .22 pistol (i did not go watch). then, his brother and cousins filleted the turtle meat and used it to make snapper soup (i did not partake).

anyways, here's a picture of alex's cousin jesse wrestling a snapper into a bucket for transport back to camp.

back on the east coast

well i have officially returned from the midwest for good, which is incredibly hard to believe but also really exciting. i flew to dc thursday and alex picked me up and we drove to his family reunion of sorts in the middle of nowhere, pa. we rolled up to his aunt and uncle house around 11:30 at night in the pouring rain, donned rain jackets, and were greeted by a 4 wheeler carrying 6 people wearing ponchos and head lamps and about 10 beers deep into their evening. they were on their way to set snapping turtle traps (more on this later), and wanted to say hi.

we drove across the street, through a field, and into their own little tent city, complete with a tarp-covered eating area, a pop-up, and several tents. from that point on, all we did was eat, laugh, hang out with his cousins and their kids and enjoy the outdoors. it was totally fun and filled with lots of inside family jokes and camp fire-esque stories. all told, i met 5 cousins' families including spouses and kids, two aunts, two uncles, and a grandma.

saturday, alex and i drove back to lititz and spent time touring his home town with his parents, including his high school, the old javelin runway, his church, the local chocolate factory, and of course his house. it was so great to experience those parts of his life, and really feel like a part of his family.

i'm sure stories from the weekend will come up in conversation as there are too many to list here, so for now, i am back in dc staying at ann lefeve's apartmenet for the week, preparing for the wedding and my family's obx vacation to follow :)

puppy update

so during my time at home, i have spent several wonderful afternoons at the dog park with hudson. of course, it's a big park so there are several other dogs there, including a pugle (sp?) named mojo. a pugle is a cross between a pug and a beagle, and it's is sooooooo cute and fun and has a ton of personality. future leonidas perhaps?

in my puppy craze, i decided to stop in a pet store while i was running errands with my mom the other day. there were lots of puppies, and i played with a lasa apsa (looked like a mini-ewok, like from star wars, so funny) and a cockapoo (cocker spaniel/ poodle mix). they were very different, super fun, and incredibly expensive ($1300!)...needless to say, i think leonidas is going to be a rescue dog :)

Update from Home

so being home has actually been really nice :) my brother got home from a week-long retreat yesterday, and i went to church with my grandparents today and took hudson to the dog park for some swimming.

several of you asked about my plans for the next few weeks, so here they are. i'm not coming back to dc any earlier. instead, i'm staying at home, and then going to indiana for my cousin's baby shower july 1 and 2. then, july 3 i'm flying (hopefully haha) to meet alex and his family for the fourth and for that weekend. i'll be back in dc monday july 7 probably, in time to get my dress fitted and get some sleep before the big weekend! anyways, just wanted to get everyone filled in haha.

Prayer for Katy and Lindsay

read below before you read this, but then pray for katy and lindsay as they arrived in madrid to find that only katy's bag had made it to spain. my guess is lindsay may never see her bag again, as they should only be in each city for a few nights and the bag won't catch up with them, and they're flying out of rome, not back through madrid. i'm sure they would all appreciate your prayers for their safety and health as they continue on the trip!

Back to Chicago

well, as some of you may have heard, the road to Europe was longer than expected, and unfortunately for me, it's over a little sooner than expected. let me explain.

monday night, katy, lindsay and i all got to dulles airport to find out our flight to toronto was delayed because of weather in dc and we were going to miss our connection in toronto to madrid. we rebooked for the following night, requested katy and lindsay's checked bags be taken off, and went down to baggage claim. we spent about 8 hours trying to track down their bags, only to hear that the bags were for sure in dc and would go with us the next day. thankfully, we had katie, chris, and kayla at the airport to take care of us that night :)

tuesday, we went back to dulles, flew to toronto without any problems, got on a plane for madrid, flew for about 2 hours, when the pilot came on to tell us there was a problem with the air conditioning unit. they were unable to pressurize the cabin correctly, thus unable to fly at the correct altitude, and had to return to toronto.

we landed again in toronto around 1:30 in the morning, were told our flight had been rescheduled for 8:00 the next morning (wednesday). we decided to spend the night in the airport rather than trekking to a hotel, because we only had a few hours anyway.

around 3:30 that morning, i began getting sick with the stomach flu. when it became clear i couldn't get on the plane at 8:00, we rebooked for that night, found our way to hotel (an ordeal in and of itself), where we spend the afternoon. unfortunately, i didn't get any better, but fortunately, a friend of our family had family in toronto, who agreed to pick me up and let me spend the night. katy and lindsay decided they were going to continue on the spain that night and i would join them if i was feeling better the next day.

long story short, my fever came back today and i decided not to go to europe and to come home instead. because there weren't any flights out of toronto, mrs. askrin (the family i had stayed the night with) drove me an hour to buffalo, new york. because of delays at the canadian border i missed that flight by about 3 minutes (i actually heard my name on the PA system as they called final boarding and i ran through security). my parents rebooked me on a later (albelit more expesive) united flight, which arrived at ohare safely and without any problems a little over an hour ago.

anyways, i figured i post this rather than call you all and explain the saga :) i'm still recovering from being sick, but doing better than i was at 3:30 in the morning in an airport bathroom in toronto so that's a good thing. alex still has all of my stuff, including my cell phone, so if you want to call me before i call you, try me at home, 630-933-9484. love you all a lot, and i hope you're having great weeks!

Church...CANCELLED!

last night the chicagoland area experienced some serious thunderstorms with hail and high winds and everything. then this morning, my mom gets a text message from her friend saying church is canceled because they had lost power! so yeah, no church in wheaton today because of power outages...i think there might be a riot haha.

spider attack

today my mom tried to kill a spider on the high ceiling in our family room with an extendable duster thing wrapped in packing tape...unfortunately, the top part with the tape came off and has been stuck to our ceiling all afternoon. on a positive note, the spider was destroyed :)

RINGTONES!

so while alex was here, he alerted me to the coolest website ever...www.mobile17.com. you create an account, select your brand and type of phone, and then you can make free, high-quality ringtones out of any mp3 file on your computer! you upload the file, select which part of the song you want, and it gets sent to your phone as a picture message in the next day or so...thus far, i have compiled 5 new ringtones, and they're all awesome (the bunk rings with "overboard", by ingrid michaelson). check it out.

one week and counting...

so zells and i are officially t-minus one week from eurotrip 08! we have hostels booked, eurail passes purchased, and packing lists begun. i've decided i think i'm really going to enjoy backpacking, particularly because once you have all of the stuff to do it, it seems like an easy way to travel. i broke down and actually bought a serious hiking pack (65 liters), although i'm still doing a little more shopping around tonight. i'm going to practice packing it this week and i'll post a picture of how ridiculous i look with a pack the size of my upper half on my back...it's pretty amusing.

if anyone has any last minute tips/ words of wisdom/ things to see, let me know cause we're going to need all of the advice we can get!

catching up/ CHA CHA

first of all, i am so impressed at everyone's dedication to blogging! secondly, alex left tuesday so i thought i'd catch you all up on his visit. we had a really great week, and it was so good to see him and have him around get the chance to hang out and relax together. we spent a lot of time with hudson, taking him swimming and walking a lot. we also saw a lot of my grandparents, which was great. one day we even rode bikes to their apartment, which turned out to be entertaining as alex tried to tackle my dad's old school road bike, having not ridden a non-stationary bike in...a long time. suffice it to say, we made it safely and we only almost died once :)

we also went to see my dad's parents, which went better than i had expected. my grandmother was surprisingly pleasant, and my grandfather smiled a lot, and seemed to understand that alex was my boyfriend. i was really glad he got a chance to meet them, and he was, of course, great with them.

lastly, one night we double-dated with stephanie and her new boyfriend trent (who's awesome btw), and she introduced us to CHA-CHA and my life has not been the same. CHA-CHA is a phone number you can call as ask any question (seriously, anything). CHA-CHA will send you two text messages, one confirming your question and one with the answer! yesterday, i called and asked for a store's return policy. alex and i asked about harrison ford's birthday, the elements in baking soda, and several equally random questions. it's like google-on-the-go and its free! the number is: 1-800-224-2242. you must try it. you will love it. that is all.

lost baby

so the other day, alex and i were taking hudson for a walk and we saw this mother walking with her baby in a stroller. from a distance, i would have told you this child was two years old. in fact, i was so convinced, that when we finally reached the kid, i tried to ask him how old he was, to which his mom replied...10 months!!! anyways, it took about 5 or 6 minutes of our walk to recover from the shock of this gigantic baby, and it reminded me of huge Aaron on lost, and i figured i should share :)

ANT day

so today was officially national teenager day at the kramer household. my mom really went all out too, busting out programs and photos and video galore. you'll have to double check with alex, but i'm pretty sure it was more beauty queen nonsense than he'd ever seen before haha!

cubs game

last night alex and i had the pleasure of watching the cubs defeat the dodgers at wrigley field! after a day of hanging out downtown with my parents (we saw the bean, shopped at niketown, rode the ferris wheel at navy pier, and had lunch at ed debevic's), we trekked out to wrigley and froze in our seats as the cubs claimed victory :) it was a great day, and we had a blast :)

today we are going to get mine and kayla's lease signed, taking hudson swimming (hopefully), and visiting scott up at northwestern. we love you all a lot and seeing the sights in the city has brought back lots of fun memories!

ALEX IS HERE!!!

well alex made it safely to chicago today :) hudson growled at him when he first got here, but after a trip to the dog park, a shared bag of popcorn (hudson's fav treat, besides peanut butter, which alex also gave him), and a little lovin', they started getting along just fine.

tonight, my grandparents came over to join us for dinner, which was a treat as always. dinner was delicious, and full of fabulous grandpa jokes. i'll leave you with his latest:

"why doesn't the duck fly upside down? so he doesn't quack up!"

memorial day

this weekend was filled with yard work (mulching specifically) and remember the titans (i watched it twice, once by myself and once with my parents and i loved it both times). for memorial day today, i am going to visit my dad's parents and heading to stephanie's for a bbq.

on another note, katy and i have started booking hostels for eurotrip 08! so far we have places to stay in madrid, barcelona, florence, and rome, so that's pretty exciting...still can't believe this trip is actually going to happen haha. any travel tips would certainly be welcome!

lovely saturday

i love being home for saturdays. my dad is outside doing yard work, my mom and i are going to the pet store with hudson, and then planting flowers. it's sunny so we get to be outside, and it's not too hot yet which is great.

no big updates from the home front. as you know, kayla and i found a great apartment in rosslyn for next year, and it's a dog friendly complex so leonidas is really going to happen! the place comes complete with a sunroom that we're offering as a guest room (you get to stay on the futon!) and a bike path to downtown.

alex is coming to visit on tuesday for a whole week, so i'm super excited for that :) hopefully we're going to go to a cubs game, spend some time downtown, see friends from here, and squeeze in some time to just relax.

anyways, that's all i've got for now! until next time.... :)

First Post!

Welcome to my blog! This is my first official post, and unfortunately I don't have time to write much because I'm leaving for Northwestern to see Scott in a show. Anyways, I'm really excited to have this as a way to keep people updated, particularly when I'm traveling and don't have time to send lots of emails. I'll update this more later!