Back from Michigan

Long time, no blog. Well, I'm back from Michigan and into the swing of life here. It was a really intense two graduate courses crammed into two weeks. We had lots of papers, readings, projects, and presentations. However, it was great info and I made some great friends. It's a wonderful idea on the administration's part to have all of us come to Michigan for a couple of weeks to meet each other since we'll be going through this degree together for the next nearly 2 years. Here are some pics of some friends that I was in the dorms with. We helped each other during the middle of the night and ate meals in each other's rooms. By the end of the two weeks, we all felt that we should have earned our diplomas!!

We had fun with some of our group projects and presentations. In these pictures, we're acting out different linguistic scenarios.

On Wed, I got food poisoning. It took a few days and really not fun symptoms for all of that to get out of my system. I wanted to be in class to get all the info that was being taught, but I had to leave class a couple times and go rest. Thankfully now, I'm on the mend.

I was supposed to fly out on Friday, but good ole Northwest canceled my flight and rescheduled me for the crack of dawn Sat. morn. One of my fellow classmates and friend said I could stay the night with her and she was a delightful hostess. These are some sites around Grand Rapids. I didn't get a chance to take more as I didn't get off campus much because of the workload. Next July when I go back, I hope to get to see Lake Michigan.

These are pics of western WA (& Mt. Rainier) from the air.

Now I'm home and have family visiting from Alaska and Colorado that I'm trying to visit with along with lesson planning and getting back to work. On top of that, I have a research paper due in a week that I'm just starting because there was no time to do it while in Michigan. So, I'll end this blog and get back to that research!

Students and Squirrels

I have been having another great class for the summer quarter. It's a smaller class, which is normal for summer. One student is missing in this picture. My students are from Iran, Bolivia, Mexico, China, Columbia, and Ukraine. This picture was from a birthday party we were having at the end of class for Hoda (in pink).

Here's the party in our classroom. We had cake, cupcakes, and o.j.

The birthday girl. She's moving to Texas which is sad for me. I enjoyed her as both a student and a friend.

Ryan put out bird feeders on our front deck and squirrel food outside our bedroom window. We've been enjoying watching about 5 squirrels chowing down today. This food won't last too much longer. The pics are a little dark because I took them through the window....a flash would cause a reflection.

I would get awful heartburn eating like this!


On Sunday I'm off to Michigan for 2 weeks to go to the university that I'll be doing my masters program out of. The rest of the year will be online. I don't want to be away from Ryan, but this is a nice way for the students to meet each other since we'll be a cohort going through all of the same classes online together for the next roughly 2 years. I'm excited that it is a Christian school and look forward to meeting new people.

Ryan's "End of Active Duty Navy" BBQ

We had a BBQ potluck to celebrate Ryan's 8 years of active duty Navy service. It was really a celebration of no more deployments!! : D We went to Washington Park and had many friends come to celebrate with us.

Ryan, Don, Uncle David, Wayne & Kathy, & Tommy

Rachael, Katie, Don, Joel, and me

Rachael (with Maverick) and Rebekah (with Ethan) had baby boys on the same day, Jan. 31st. Here they were bouncing their babes to sleep as seen in the next picture.

Left: Maverick Right: Ethan

Liz (wife of Joel who is a Navy friend of Ryan) and her son Ezekiel doing his "cheese" smile.

Ryan and I with his (and Joel's) boat. They split the cost of the both and thus share it. Ryan is excited to finally have a boat for fishing!

Fun day with sunshine thankfully.....though a bit cool with the breeze. Congrats Ryan! I'm so glad that you'll be around more now!!! : D

Lake Padden Triatholon

This past Saturday was the Lake Padden triatholon. Tommy came in first place!! He's doing another triatholon in Lake Stevens this next weekend that he said is a little more than 4 times as long as the Lake Padden one!! Lake Padden took him a little under an hour to complete. He expects the Lake Stevens triatholon to take him about 5 hours!! Yikes! I just hope he doesn't have a heart attack in the process!

Here are a couple "pre-game" shots at Lake Padden. Tommy was doing the triatholon along with his friend Peter (who technically came in first but chose not to take a place). Mom, Don, Mandy, Ryan, and I came to watch and have a picnic there. We were sitting at the finish line.

I don't know how to make my pictures smaller yet so that they will fit in the collage. Any Picasa users out there wanna give me some advice? : )

Tommy was the 4th out of the water, but quickly passed the girl infront of him as he ran up the grass. He picked up most of his time on the next event which was his strongest, cycling. That's Tommy in the longer wetsuit. The girl is infront with a short wetsuit.

Tommy came back from biking 2nd, just seconds after Peter. He quickly switched into his running shoes for a lap around the lake.

Almost at the finish line and talking with Peter afterwards.

We'd just eaten by the lake and were waiting for the awards to be given out.

It was a fun event. I wish that I could see his next one in Lake Stevens, but it starts at 6:30 in the morning and we have to teach Sunday school. Good luck Tommy!