Jim's Kick-Off!!

My family attended Jim's Kick-Off Party tonight. I'll have to get pictures from Sarah to post as my camera battery was dead so I couldn't take any. The Kick-Off went really well (in my opinion). Jim gave a very good explanation as to why he has decided to accept special interest/PAC $$ this time around - which he did not do last time. He basically said that he wanted to be able to accept money from groups who do want to support him (he gave the example of NEA groups and unions) who don't necessarily have a huge amount of money to give away and want it to mean something. He also said that he wants to have a fighting chance and given that Lee Terry has already been campaigning and has a good nest egg for the campaign he owes it to his supporters to take the extra money and make the campaign successful this time. Matt and I talked about it afterwards and I think it is the right decision. There are small, specialized interest groups who would like the opportunity to support a candidate and should not be penalized because of the big PACs out there.

Work was crazy today. I'm out of town several days next week and I have so much to do before then. I'm excited to be going to Kirksville, but wow- do I have a lot to get done. Then off to San Diego - AGAIN! - but this time Lisa is coming with me! I'm excited for a short girls weekend in SD!!

Randomness...

I've decided that my issue with being a consistant blogger is I don't know if anyone is reading what I am writing so I'm not motivated to write, but obviously no one is motivated to read if I don't write. So, maybe, if I write, someone will read and then I will write, right?

Just a warning - this post is kinda random.

I included pictures of the Easter eggs that were dyed with Lauren, Madalyn and Kaitlin last weekend when we were in Shelbina. I did not include the cute pictures of them working on their eggs because I don't have permission from their parents to post the pictures on the internet, but there are some really cute ones. Bryce was not interested in egg dying, but Lauren made sure he was included by making an egg with his name on it. The buckets of egg dye were the most fun because they girls got a lesson in colors and how they were able to dip the eggs in different colors and how they eggs would turn out as a result. They also did some of the "shrink-wrap" eggs and some ty-dyed eggs - which resulted in me having multicolored fingers for several days after - fun stuff. Kaitlin, Madalyn and Bryce also decorated their own cookies on Easter so I included a picture of what I believe is Madalyn's plate of cookies. Needless to say - the kids and only the kids ate the cookies they decorated. I did not get any pictures of the girls decorating flip-flops with their Aunt Chris, but they took cute flip-flops and fabric strips and tied the fabric strips around the plastic part of the flip-flops. I wish I had pictures - it was cute. I also missed out on pictures of them hunting for their Easter baskets. Next time...

Our weekend in Shelbina was a short one as we did not leave until Saturday morning and returned on Sunday. Matt and I both had Friday off from work, but Matt had a baseball game on Friday evening so we couldn't leave until Saturday morning. Matt's parents hosted a full house on Saturday as they had eight people sleeping in their house. Matt says that he does not know if he has slept with that many members of his family in one house ever before.

We got the air mattress in dining room.

This past week was crazy. It was Round 4 of Pharmacy Interviews, but it has been over a month since we held any on campus so everyone (myself included) was a little rusty! We had some strange issues/problems occur -things that have not happened on any other day - including an interviewee that showed up a week early! Craziness! Luckily, I have wonderful co-workers who pitch in and make things happen quickly so the issues that could have been major were minor only. I also found out that I will be going back to San Diego in April - in less than two weeks to be exact. An event we had scheduled for last fall that got cancelled because of the wildfires in the SD area has been rescheduled for April 12th. Unfortunately, we were only notified this past Thursday of the new date. So here is my schedule for the next few weeks:

April 8th-10th - Kirksville, MO (Truman here I come!!)

April 11th-13th - San Diego, CA

April 18th-26th - Oregon!!

May 17th - 23rd - North Carolina for Zach and Kim's Wedding with the family

It looks like my suitcase will get a workout in the next two months. I'm super excited about all of these trips though - even San Diego, because I feel like I am finally learning my way around that city. Matt will not be joining me in North Carolina, unfortunately, as it is the last week of school and he will still be doing baseball, but I'm looking forward to a vacation with my cousins. We haven't done that in YEARS.

Matt and I are sitting here tonight and the Atlanta Braves are in DC playing the Washington Nationals. I cannot even tell you how much I have been looking forward to baseball season. I think it is odd that we only spend 5 months out of the year without baseball (not counting the preseason) and 7 months with baseball, but those 5 months last FOREVER! I was so disappointed with the Cards last years and was then really disappointed with all of the players we lost in the off season - EDMONDS! ROLEN! ECKSTEIN! - but I am excited to see what this season holds in spite of that. Maybe they will surprise me and sometimes the teams that have all the potential do not produce in the end. Matt and I ordered MLB Extra Innings so we will be able to catch most of the Cards games this season.

Okay - here is where the randomness of this post really shows through.

I've really tried to not be extremely public regarding my political views this year simply because I am leary of making a decision when a vote will not take place until November (I was out of town for our caucus) and because I feel like I am learning more about each candidate everyday. However, the Clinton camp has really been making me frustrated lately. I watched a report on CNN.com today regarding a question that Chelsea Clinton was asked by a student at Butler University that went something like this, "Did Chelsea Clinton think her mother Hillary Clinton's credibility was hurt by her father Bill's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky when he was president?" Chelsea responded, ""Wow. You're the first person actually that's ever asked me that question in the, I don't know maybe, 70 college campuses I've now been to. And, I do not think that is any of your business." I've grown really tired of the Clintons using Chelsea to their advantage, yet enabling her to avoid having to answer any of the tough questions because of an agreement that the media made years ago to leave her alone. If she is going out on behalf of the campaign, then she should be prepared to answer the tough questions. Obviously the student at Butler who asked the question felt that it was an important question to ask and while I do think it was asked partially to get a rise out of her - he succeeded in his attempt. And, the actions of former president Clinton and Sentor Clinton are the business of the American public. My point is that the Clintons can't have it both ways - either Chelsea is out as a representative of her mother, or she isn't.

See, random...

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.