First Post of 2008!

Happy New Year!

Matt and I just returned for a wonderful, story-filled weekend in Missouri. We departed early Saturday morning after a quick stop-off at Starbucks for an Eggnog Latte for me (I never know when they are going to stop carrying Eggnog!). We arrived in Shelbina during the middle of the afternoon, spent a little time with Matt's parents and Eric and then headed back into town to visit Jason, Sara, Samuel, and their parents for the evening. We enjoyed pizza, football and good conversation. Samuel entertained us all.

Sunday brought a little bit of sleeping in, visiting Matt's grandma, and celebrating Christmas with the Caldwell's. The entire family was able to make it and we had a great time. The kids ripped into their gifts and had a blast playing with them and we had a great time enjoying the time together - it doesn't happen often. We were able to meet Rebecca and Kade (the woman that Mike is dating and her son) and spend a little bit of time with them. It will be nice to get to know them better sometime when things are a little less hectic.

On Monday Matt and I took off for Bren's parent's house outside of Maryville. The wind was really beginning to blow by the time we arrived and some of the snow that had fallen was blowing back onto the roads. I was glad to be out of the car for the evening. It was great to see Pell, Bren, Andrew and Amy. The six of us used to spend so much time together and it is hard now that we are so spread out. It sound like Pell and Bren will be putting their house up for sale soon in anticipation of a possible move back to the midwest - or at least closer than they are now! It would be great to have them closer so we could get together for fun more often.

Pell made a huge batch of pizza dough and we all helped getting ingredients together for pizza. It was the best homeade pizza I have ever had and we enjoying being about to have six different combinations of toppings. Bren and her mom also made a gorgeous salad ( I don't know where they find such fresh ingredients in the middle of winter) and we sat around the table and enjoyed our time together. After dinner everyone else joined in a ping-pong tournament, but I was taking it easy because my back started hurting the moment I got out of the car. By the time the tournament was over I couldn't stand, sit, or do anything comfortably. Luckily, Pell has some experience with manipulation and massage and was able to eliminate a huge knot that had wedged itself between my spine and my hip bone and was also able to relieve some pain I was feeling in other parts of my right side because of the spot on my back that was sending me out-of-whack. Thankfully, after a couple of days of recovery by back is finally back to normal, and I am thankful for a friend who is so talented :)

On New Year's Eve we also played Apples to Apples before toasting in the New Year
(with champagne!) and then played Catchphrase before heading to bed. Pell proved himself as an excellent cook again the next morning by making fantastic pancakes that we enjoyed with cinnamon rolls and coffee. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon playing more ping-pong and working on a puzzle that Bren's family had started. It was great to be able to be together before we returned to Omaha and Andrew and Amy returned to KC.

I returned to work yesterday (a little late because I couldn't sleep on Tuesday night because my back was really stiff and painful) and am very grateful that this is a short week. We are swamped at work and I'm looking forward to being able to use the weekend to catch up a little and get some things done at home before a full work-week.

Post-Christmas

Whew! Christmas survived!

Christmas is without a doubt on of my favorite times of the year. I love gift-giving, cookie and candy baking, cookie, enjoying time with family and friends and everything else that goes along with the time from Thanksgiving through New Years. I am, however, thrilled to have a couple of days off after Christmas to recover.

Matt and I finished all of our holiday baking on Monday morning. We dipped regular Oreo balls, mint Oreo ball, dried apricots, and PB balls - 4 semi-sweet chocolate chips bags of dipping. I love doing it and watching others enjoy my treats, but I was really glad when we were finished. We made brunch enchiladas for Christmas morning brunch and then got ready and headed over to my parents house for Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, my mom returned from Arkansas with a terrible cold and felt pretty terrible for most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve is spent with my mom's family. My mom's cousins Carol, Bill and Dianne come over and bring their families. We had 21 people in our house for appetizers, dinner and gift giving. They are, however, a late-night group and it was after midnight before we were able to get to sleep. My mom suffered the brunt of a short night of sleep and never really recovered on Christmas day. She made it up to open gifts with us in the morning, but went to sleep soon after and was completely out until after my dad's family arrived and ate our Christmas meal. I remember being sick on Christmas Day (and ONLY Christmas day) the year I was 10 - it was pretty miserable - especially when I could hear my cousins having a great time downstairs and I was in bed feeling like crap. Sarah and I were able to take charge for dinner and it enabled my mom to just sleep as much as she wanted. By evening she said she was feeling much better. Alice and Sam drove over to our house which was great because Sam left town today and I would not have seen him if he had not come over. They were able to stay for awhile - and arrived with their wedding gift for Matt and I - a great collection of spices and a homeade recipe book.

Matt and I spent today recovering and did a little retail therapy. We purchased a new duvet cover at Pottery Barn that I have had my eye on for awhile - and it dropped to 50% off today in for the post-Christmas sales. I've been looking for something for our guest room and it will be perfect!

Christmas Preparations

I love the final days before Christmas when I have so many fun things to do. Matt and I slept in a little this morning and then headed over the my parents house to finish up wrapping presents. My mom has tons of wrapping supplies so it is just easier to do everything at their house. We stopped for Starbucks on the way. I love the Christmas Lattes they have available now - Peppermint Mocha, Eggnog, etc. We finished up the wrapping and then headed to our house to start baking. I am making regular and mint oreo balls, peanut butter balls, double chocolate chip cookies, eggnog cookies, and mini cheesecakes (regular and chocolate) this year. Matt does a great job of helping me by rotating cookies in the oven and keeping up with the dishes while I am cooking.

I'm likely have a little baking to finish up tomorrow, and then I have the breakfast casserole to make for Christmas Day morning, and will head to my mom's to see if she needs any help. We host both Christmas Eve (my mom's family - 20-some people) and Christmas Day (my dad's family - about 10 people) so there is alot of coordinating that needs to happen.

My wheels during my travels in Illinois!

Travel season has begun! I left Omaha yesterday morning on a Southwest flight to Chicago Midway. Our flight left a little late for some unknown reason. I watched my luggage get loaded on the plane from the windew in the terminal and then an announcement was made that we had to change gates. I guess they moved to plane too because my luggage arrive in Chicago safe and sound. I was a little concerned about my luggage because I had to pack about 20lbs of recruiting materials, plus my computer but it all turned out okay. Hopefully, I will give all of the materials away and won't have to lug it around on the way home.

I get to tool around Chicago in the most eclectic vehicle I have ever driven - a yellow PT Cruiser! I've always wanted to drive one and I actually like the fact that I am somewhat noticable on the streets of Chicago - hopefully other drivers will notice me and won't hit me!

After I picked up my vehicle and got directions from the nice van driver at National Rental I headed to Champaign-Urbana. I navigated through a hugh construction mess on my way out of Chicago and then got to see some beautiful Illinois farmland. I arrive in Urbana-Champaign, drove around campus to acquaint myself and the found my hotel. I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign and found it to be a great hotel. Awesome staff, great fitness room, good location, and free wireless. It was a great hotel for a business traveler. I got some work done last night and then relaxed for awhile.

This morning I checked out of my hotel, enjoyed a little bit of reading time at a Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe with a cup of Malted Caramel Chocolate (heaven in a cup) and the headed over to the UIUC Health and Graduate School Fair. I met some great students at the fair - it was nice to be back in that environment again. I realized how much I have missed recruiting.

After the fair I packed up the Cruiser and headed back to Chicago. I navigated downtown Chicago while driving for the first time in my life. I made it to my hotel (the Ambassador East Hotel) safe and sound, got checked in, and have spent this evening relaxing.

Updates....

Quite a bit has happened since my last update. First, I started a new job. I'm now working at Creighton University for the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions at an admission counselor and I LOVE IT! Next week, I begin my travel season which will last the entire month of October. I plan on updating this blog throughout my travel season (hopefully - I'm not so great with the updating) so that I can keep all of my readers updated on my whereabouts and adventures. I have included the list below of where I will be and when - let the adventures begin!

September 30th-October 4th - Urbana/Champaign, Chicago and Rock Island, IL
October 7th-October 11th - San Francisco
October 12th-October 19th - Lincoln, Kearney, Seward, and Omaha, NE
October 22nd-October 24th - San Diego
October 25th-October 26th - Honolulu
October 27th-November 1st - Los Angeles

It will be a crazy month, but I am very excited about traveling and talking to students about Creighton and Omaha.

Oh, and Matt and I are buying a house. We put an offer in on one this past weekend and it was accepted. We plan to close on November 9th, so Matt will have alot to do while I am gone to get us ready to move. Maybe it will keep him from missing me too much :)

Gorgeous flowers for sale at Pike's Market!
Pike's Market Sign

Fresh Fish! Yes, we bought some!

Matt and I at lunch in Pike's Market - we had fish and chips and shrimp and chips - YUM!

I got behind on my updating near the end of the trip - we couldn't access the internet from the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at on Wednesday night and I just never got around to it while we were with Pell and Bren so I'll spend some time updating over the next few days. I may have to take a hiatus Thursday -Sunday as I am headed to Milwaukee to meet up with my college roommates for a girls weekend! I leave tomorrow evening and I am not planning on touching a computer while I am gone.

Last Wednesday (I can't believe it was a week ago) Matt and I were able to enjoy half a day in Seattle before we needed to take off to drive down to Corvallis. We decided to get up early and head to Pike's Market to avoid some of the crowds we experienced on Tuesday. We found a cute little French bakery called Le Panier where we enjoyed some fantastic pastries and a sat and watched the market come to life. We definitely made a good choice by arriving early because there was hardly anyone there and we were able to wander around without fighting the crowds. We shopped a little bit, purchased some Halibut to take the Pell and Bren's for Fish Tacos, and ended up eating lunch at a park near the Market before we headed out of town. I've included some of my favorite pictures from Seattle above. Pike's Market is a complete unique experience and one everyone should have once in their life.

As Matt and I were driving out of Seattle we got a great view of Mount Rainier in the distance, however none of the pictures turned out very well because the mountain faded into the sky. It only took us about 4.5 hours to get to Corvallis. We stayed at an adorable Bed and Breakfast called Harrison House. We arrived in town and called Sam. He came and met us, showed us around campus (Oregon State University), and then we had dinner at a "townie" bar that had great cheeseburgers. We ended up returning to the B&B early as we had more driving ahead of us the next day.

Pictures 7.21.07

Alice and I with the gorgeous beach and surfers in the background!

Recognize this? It is Haystack Rock and is featured in the final scenes of The Goonies.

Oregon is so green and beautiful!!

Matt and I at about 4:30 am on 7.21.07 at the KC Airport..tired, but ready to leave for Oregon!

Just a small taste of the 250+ pictures I have taken on this trip so far! Enjoy!

Seattle

I got to cross another state off of my list today! Matt and I rented a car early this morning and drove up I-5 to Seattle. We are staying at the beautiful Westin in downtown Seattle - about 3 blocks from Pike's Place Market. We managed to find the hotel (side note: this was actually quite an adventure - apparently Seattle is putting in some sort of light rail or street car system in their downtown area and the streets around the Westin were complete torn up) and checked in. Our hotel room is beautiful and we have a great view of the down town area. We dropped off our stuff and headed down to Pike's Market for some lunch. We found a little oyster bar where we enjoyed fish and chips and shrimp and chips. I swear I will never be able to eat the seafood served in the midwest again now that I have eaten such fresh, wonderful seafood on the coast.

We walked around the market for awhile, got trapped by the pepper jelly lady (who was serving beer jelly, merlot jelly and all other crazy kinds of jelly) and saw some really interesting people. We decided to plan to return to the market early tomorrow morning to do the rest of our shopping and headed to the Space Needle. The Space Needle provided some really incredible views of Seattle and the surrounding area. None of the peaks were really visible today even though the weather was clear and wonderful - which makes me think they never really are visible because today was so gorgeous and we couldn't see them. The view looking out into Puget Sound was really incredible though!

We headed back to the hotel to relax for a little while and then left for our dinner. We spoke with the concierge earlier today who recommended we eat at Ponti's Seafood Grill. We decided that since this is technically our honeymoon that we would splurge on one meal while we were traveling. We were not disappointed - Ponti's provided fantastic atmosphere, excellent service, and the food was to die for. I had Arctic Snow Crab with Risotto and an Heirloom Tomato Salad and Matt had Salmon with Spanich and Whipped Potatoes and a bowl of Tomato Bisque. We then shared a decadent chocolate molten cake with strawberry and mango puree. Ponti's sits right next to the water and we were able to score a great seat outdoors so the view was perfect. The restaurant kindly provided outdoor heaters so I didn't freeze on this cool evening.

We plan to get up early tomorrow morning and head to Pike's Market for some breakfast and some shopping before heading to Corvallis.

I've decided that it takes about three days to become comfortable with a city. I think that Matt and I finally feel today like we have a little bit of a clue about where we are going in this city...and we leave early tomorrow morning. Ironic, huh?



We got going pretty early this morning and headed downtown. There isn't much available for breakfast around our hotel besides Starbucks and fast food so food was on our minds the minute we got off the MAX. Luckily we quickly found a Rock Bottom Brewery. I first ate at a Rock Bottom Brewery in Indianapolis last fall when I went to NACADA and really liked it so I was excited to see one here and I knew that Matt would like it. The atmosphere is really nice and we enjoyed just being able to sit for a little while - I think we both felt like we have been go-go-go since we got here. Rock Bottom Brewery has the most fantastic pint glass sundaes made with Starbucks Mud Pie ice cream, homeade Stout Hot Fudge, chocolate wafers and candied walnuts = heaven in a pint glass. We shared.

After lunch we walked around downtown for awhile and the headed up to the Nob Hill area of Portland which has everything from local boutiques to large nationwide stores like Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma to restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses. It was a really neat area and actually just up the street from where Alice lives. I shopped at a store called SameUnderneath and found a couple of fantastic shirts that I cannot wait to wear. Amazingly we got to meet the owner and the clothing designer while we were there! They are completely down-to-earth genuine people. Take some time to read about their products - it is made out of bamboo and is incredibly soft and comfortable.

It started sprinkling while we were shopping so we caught the streetcar back to downtown and stopped at a pub called Henry's Tavern - where they have over 100 beers on tap! It was incredible to see. Matt enjoyed a Honey Orange Beer while I opted for a Mojito that was made with pineapple juice - delicious!

We headed back to our hotel after finishing our drinks and relaxed for awhile. We both spent a little bit of time doing some research for out trip to Seattle tomorrow. I've heard so many good things about it - I cannot wait to see Pike's Market and the Space Needle. I've also heard the drive up there is beautiful and I am excited to experience it!

It is strange that everyone here complains about this weather - it is either too hot for this time of year, too cold, they are tired of rain or it is too humid. Matt and I offer them so sympathy as we have loved the weather here. Saturday was cool and rainy, but we thought it was such a nice break as we have not seen rain and cool weather in Nebraska for quite some time. And I can't hardly feel the humidity here as it is nothing like the 100% humidity we have in the midwest sometimes.

Portland

We spent a fantastic day in Portland today! We woke up this morning feeling well rested - appropriately so as we spent as much time sleeping last night as we spent with Alice, Nick and Larken yesterday. CRAZY!

After getting going this morning we jumped on the MAX to the Portland Saturday Market and spent a good chunk of the day wandering around. We had lunch at a great little restaurant called Capt. Ankeny's which served great pizza. The Market is mostly artisans of all types. You could purchase clothing, jewelry, crafts, pottery, and there was also a huge selection of food to choose from. There were also outdoor musicians and other entertainers (magicians, balloon sculpture makers, etc). We had a great time looking at everything, buying a couple of items, and then sitting and enjoying some iced tea (for Matt) and Strawberry Lemonade (me), listening to the music and people watching.

After we left the Market we took the MAX to Powell's Bookstore and spent awhile looking around. Powell's takes up an entire city block and you could literally find any book you could possibly want there. Believe it or not, I actually purchased a book about Omaha/Council Bluffs there.

Alice, Nick and Larken offered to cook dinner for us tonight so we walked from Powell's to Alice and Larken's apartment. They made a fantastic dinner of Sicilian Swordfish, Lemon Spaghetti, Grilled Brussel Sprouts and then Larken made a chocolate molten dessert that is a family recipe. The food was fantastic! We ate outside on the patio and enjoyed a beautiful Portland evening. It is amazing to be able to sit outside on a July evening and feel a cool breeze hit your arm. That doesn't happen often in Nebraska.

We don't have specific plans for tomorrow, but will probably just play the day by ear. We haven't been disappointed so far!

Pictures soon...I promise!!