successful trip

i am back in DC after a week of traveling and i have to say, it was a very busy, really fun trip! last friday i drove to cleveland and spent the night hanging out with my cousin and her then-fiance/now-husband. we went to a county fair where they had a whole cornhole booth! you could buy "designer" bags and other accessories...hilarious. the weekend was spent visiting with both sets of my grandparents, and hanging out with family. monday, alex, my dad, and i went car shopping but were unsuccessful...i couldn't get as much for my car as i'd hoped, so i've decided to keep it for a while longer (plus who could resist the appeal of crank windows??).

tuesday, alex and i had dinner with my friend perry and his fiance mallory. it was great to catch up with them and hear about their wedding plans (next june!). wednesday, i went out chicago and spent the day with alex, getting his apartment set up and touring the campus, his office, etc. it was a really great day of relaxing and enjoying being together; we even made an authentic gino's east frozen pizza for dinner, the hallmark of any chicago experience :)

thursday night, we drove down to indianapolis late in the evening, and the next day the boys went to play golf while the girls had nail appointments. that night was the rehearsal (chaos) and the dinner (super fun), and then i spent the night with the bridal party in preparation for the wedding the next day. the wedding day was even more chaos, but after some hair drama, several hours of pictures, and a beautiful ceremony complete with the cutest flower girl and ring bearers, my cousin was officially married and the real fun began.

the reception was a lot of fun, and it was great to catch up with so much family! we danced and drank and laughed the night away until the bride and groom left and my family (true to form) was one of the last to leave. sunday i tackled the 9 hour drive back to DC, made it with one stop and no traffic, and now i am back at work (yay monday!).

so to recap, i completed all of my "definitely" tasks, but only one of my "hopefully" tasks (no tripping down the aisle, but hudson had a minor injury so we didn't even make it to the dog park). however, the trip was still a definitely a success!

travel time!

i am so excited because this weekend i am driving out to chicago to spend a whole weekend with alex and my family! friday i'll be driving to cleveland and staying with my cousin (whose wedding is the purpose of the trip), and then saturday i'll make the second half of the journey to the greater chicagoland area.

while i'm there, i will be doing lots of fun things. as a preview, i've included some of the things i'm most excited for and divided the list into what i will hopefully do and what i will definitely do:

hopefully

• trade in my car for a new, snow-appropriate one
• teach leonidas to swim by watching hudson, who is an expert, while keeping him from doing his business on my parents' carpet (wouldn't want to repeat that part of christmas)
• talk my parents into buying me a digital camera as a early birthday/we're glad you're moving to chicago present (in which case i'll be sure to post new pictures)
• avoid any tripping or crying walking down the aisle at the wedding

definitely

• help alex finish setting up his apartment
• eat chicago-style pizza
• celebrate my brother's birthday and my parents' 30th anniversary
• hang out with all of my extended family including their awesome kids

of course, the whole trip is going to be a blast and i'll be sure to update you all throughout. i hope you enjoy whatever you have planned for labor day!!!

Coach Heacock :)

last week alex was featured in his first north park press release! take a look at the link below and you can read all about it :)

http://www.northpark.edu/Athletics/Mens-Sports/Track-and-Field/Coaching-Staff.aspx

new pet name

now don't get too excited, i'm not getting a new pet. however, i did decide today after reading several MLIA posts, that whenever i do get another pet (meaning dog or cat), i am going to name it waldo, so that whenever i look for it, i can say "hey, where's waldo??". haha...now none of you can steal it, i call dibbs :)

also, we discovered today that we can get pandora at work! still no gchat, but its something. whoo hoo!!

pee schedule

today i ran into a coworker in the bathroom 3 times in a row...thankfully, when i made the joke about being on the same pee schedule like turk and dr. cox on scrubs, she knew exactly what i was talking about, which is good because otherwise talking about "pee schedules" could be really awkward.

wandering mind...

today on my way home from the metro, my mind was wandering as i walked. somehow, i stumbled upon some realization that i wanted to blog about, and yet now, as i sit down to blog, i have no idea what i was thinking about and so the realization is lost...hopefully my mind will wander back there at some point. until then, sorry for the pointless post, but it really bothers me that i can't think of it and i thought if i started writing it would job my memory...it didn't.

alex's new apartment!

so it's been a really long time since i blogged (sorry!) but i thought i'd get back into it with some pictures! as most of you know, alex drove to chicago on monday and thanks to a little help from mama and papa kramer, he is all moved in to his new place! he started his seminary orientation today, and is doing really well do far :)

here are some pictures of his apartment...it's in the basement of a house about a tenth of a mile from campus, so the location is great, and i think the space is pretty nice too! he's going to pick up some furniture to fill it out, but these will give you the basic feel for it. enjoy!