Spring 2010

A few things from this spring -- Adam graduating from ITT Tech, another up-north cabin weekend, a rainy backpacking weekend in the Kettles, and the canoe trip!

Adam with Dr. Reynolds after the graduation ceremony

Adam graduated from ITT Tech on March 26 with his Associates degree in Software Programming. It was a nice ceremony at the Tundra Lodge in Green Bay. We had a party planned back in Oshkosh after the ceremony was done, and since there was a group of friends waiting for us there, and karaoke booked and ready to play, Adam was in a hurry to jet out of there as soon as he had that diploma in his hand! It was funny. But it really was a nice ceremony... Adam graduated with a 4.0 GPA and Dr. Reynolds even told me that Adam was one of his best students... and that "he was so serious." Haha! That didn't surprise me! When he puts his mind to something, he totally takes it serious and does a great job. I'm so proud of him. ITT is already asking him to come back for his Bachelor's degree, but he needs some time off for a little bit. And ITT is quite expensive, too! So we're going to just ride the wave for a while and see where life takes us.

Adam's graduation party invitation picture

As of now, in May, we're just getting ourselves back into a routine. I just finished up a semester of taking a couple of classes at our local tech. It was a busy semester for me with a lot of reading. I was really feeling burned out, so I'm really happy that classes are done for a while. Adam's been working a lot for Ryder, and pretty soon he'll start looking for something a little more "regular." That job works him some super-long hours -- and he's only a "casual, part-time driver." Some weeks he works 50 hours, so I don't know that I would consider that "part-time" or "casual," but it's a job. I just have this dream for him to be in a position where he can work somewhat "normal" hours and maybe have some vacation time to play around with. I pray that an opportunity that's a good fit pops up for us. But we've got vacation planned here soon, so we've been focusing on that for now. We'll worry about those bigger life responsibilities a little bit later on. :)

Adam's graduation was the highlight of our spring. That was a lot of fun and a long time coming. It was great to see him so proud of something that he worked so hard for!

In April we had a busy Easter with church. It went quick, but it was fun. April was also memorable for me because I had two outdoor trips that month. The first one was at a cabin near Escanaba, Michigan that Randall (from our backpacking meetup group) set up. It was this amazing little cabin up north. We basically had this entire small lake to ourselves. There was still a little snow on the ground, but that didn't matter one bit to us. We went for a dayhike on Saturday, ate some food, had some drinks, made some cake on the campfire from hollowed-out oranges, and grilled a bunch of meat... it was a great weekend.

Tom's Lake

Chocolate cake baked inside oranges over the campfire

Two weekends after that one I head down to the Northern Unit of Kettle Moraine for another backpacking weekend that Randall set up. It was a rainy one, but still a good trip. I took lots of pictures with my new Olympus Tough camera - it's waterproof! It was fun to take it out for pictures without worrying about getting it wet. It worked great!

Rainy Kettle Moraine!

It was close to Randall's birthday, so we bought him a cake and decorated it on the way down, and Rachel and Graham bought him a chef's hat and some awesomely bedazzled giant sunglasses. It was a fun surprise.

Randall sportin' the bedazzled sunglasses, chef hat and birthday cake.

In May I was stressing out about finishing up my semester at FVTC. I had a busy schedule, my calendar got full until October and I was really having a hard time dealing with it all. I'm kind of torn because I have such a full calendar, but it's mostly all fun stuff that's going on. So I can't complain about it, really... I'm just kind of upset with myself for piling so much on. It's makes it difficult to be spontaneous. But... as I said, it's fun stuff, so I'm just gonna roll with it! Wait until my next entry when I write about June. Adam and I are vacationing, so we're really pumped about that!! And it's coming up FAST! Yippee!!

I just got back from our annual canoe trip in Phillips. It was less crazy this year, but sure relaxing. I got up there Friday night, set up and hung out by the fire. On Saturday we got up and paddled for about 5 hours, slowly down the South Fork of the Flambeau. We ate a lot and had a nice time Saturday night, then Sunday woke up with intentions of going out and playing in the water... but never made it out. We just sat around the fire for a few hours and relaxed. It was actually kind of nice to not HAVE to be anywhere. Then I stuck around Sunday night and my dad made some awesome steaks, Justin made some great garlic-mashed potatoes, and my mom had some garden salad she made up and grilled asparagus. Yummy!! Then I head back to Oshkosh late and slept in on Monday morning... rolled into work at about noon. It was the relaxed weekend I think I needed.

Now I'm ready for Memorial Day weekend - Adam and I are just using this 3 days to prepare for our 2 weeks driving out west. We are both just going through the daily motions until it comes time for us to just... run away for a little while!

GUS!! Here we come!!