Movin' on

Come over here!

I am moving everything over to a new url and I hope you will follow me there. Thank you to the lovely Carolynn at Two Brunettes for helping me with my new look. I absolutely love it.

And you will see a few more photos from the big reunion weekend. See you over here!

Weekend Update

These girls are amazing!

Not much going on this morning but by noon today my dance card is full.

Lunch with friends this afternoon then the big reunion begins after that. The question my friends, why is my back a mess today? I could barely move this morning. Why? I don't know. I'm old. I bent down this morning to pull on my dress and OUCH!!

So my plan is to self-medicate and pretend it doesn't hurt through this evenings festivities.

Have a great weekend! I may post tomorrow or I may not.

Things on my mind...

The Kiddos at the Blank Park Zoo, 2008

One of our favorite places to visit.

Congrats to my friend, Mikey and his new job.

Congrats to my friend, Jeremy for buying his first house.

Big time reunion this weekend. Not sure what craziness that will bring.

Need to make time for a spend over with my niece or at least movetime.

Need to clean my disaster of a house. Not looking forward to it after cleaning sorority house on Wednesday night. (Becoming mean old grouchy alumn that I remember so well from my college days.)

Loving the weather right now in Iowa. It's absolutely perfect. Haven't run my air conditioner in a while. My checkbook thanks you Mother Nature.

Sad that summer is coming to a close. Students will be back on campus in about two weeks. Everything changes when students are back.

Missing the kiddos. Really need to plan something fun to do with them before summer is over. Maybe a day at the zoo followed by McDonald's.

View From my Window...

Ok I don't know whose car this is but I gotta say - I LOVE IT!

Who wouldn't love a Barbie car as an adult?

Quote for the Day

I found this a while ago on Absolutely Beautiful Things. It's one of my favorite blogs.

Color Me Happy...

My good friend, Beth has a lovely house. She has done a ton of work on the inside so now to turn the focus to the outside. I already told you that the backyard needs a little help. And of course we aren't millionaires so everything must come in phases. Well one phase is to update the trim on her house.

Red brick is a hard one. So I email my blogger friend, Maria over at Colour Me Happy and here's what she thinks...

"I find one of the best colours that works with red brick is a greeny gray--blue works with red but seems to look less organic and natural than a greeny gray. HC-98 or if you wanted it to read less green, you could go for HC-108. Maybe just a yellowy beige would work as well, HC-45 Shaker Beige? Hope this helps, Maria"

Maria has a great post about picking out exterior colors so check it out if you need some good ideas. And if you read that post, then you should probably read this one too.

Conversations...

Isabelle: Can I have a spend over tonight?

K: Umm tonight? I have work tomorrow...Did your mom say it was ok? Is your mom going to pick you up at 7am tomorrow?

Isabelle: Ummm...I don't know....Ummm...

K: Let me talk to your mom.

Life is what happens....

Ali, Tucker and Lincoln

One of my favorite quotes is, "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. - John Lennon." Well, there are some pretty amazing people in my life. If you have been reading my blog for a while you have a little glimpse of that already. Well...my good friend, Ali doesn't even realize how amazing she is and I thought I would let you all know what I mean.

Ali was thrown for a loop when her youngest boy was born. Everything with Ali's pregnancy was normal and quite uneventful. But the day he was born wasn't what anyone expected. It wasn't the easy peasy birth like his older brother, Lincoln. Things were wouldn't be same from this moment on...The first thing doctor's had to deal with - Tucker was born with a cleft pallet. Later, doctor's noticed that it looked like Tucker might even have Down's Syndrome. Which later was confirmed to be true.

I can only imagine the roller coaster of emotions you would go through at this point in your life...But let me tell you - Alison is one of the strongest woman I know. She became extremely knowledgeable on all that is Tucker's life. In fact, everyone around her did.

She never complains, she never feels sorry for herself or Tucker for that matter. Even through life's ups and downs she keeps trucking along.

Tucker is quite the little boy. He's happy and growing like a weed just like his older brother. And my friend Ali is amazing woman.

Blast from the Past (Part 3)

My graduation party day.

May 1990.

Don't you love the red lipstick. And god, I needed a perm BAD!

Me chatting away before a football game.

Must have been in August or September since I am wearing shorts. (1990)

The one thing that people remember me best for in college is athletic training.
I was damn good at it and I think I was the one who helped paved the way for the awesome program we have now at my al mater. It's one thing I am very proud about.

So there you have it. Just a little look of me and my college life. I thoroughly enjoyed my college years and it's probably why I really strive to be sure my students have a good experience while they are here. My four years of college really defined me as a person. I learned so much about life... so much more than what I was taught in the classroom. I was so lucky to have so many people who supported me along the way. And now it's me giving back to my students...

BFFs

I have talked about my friend, Trace a couple of times. She's the best. We have been friends since she be-bopped into my room freshman year of college. Trace lived across the hall from me and although I wasn't sure about her when I first met her, we became fast friends and almost inseparable all four years. I have many, many photos of us throughout the years in almost the same pose. We grew up together and went through so many things together. It's hard to believe how long ago those photos are...And now and I am watching her kids grow up. And I get to be a special part of their lives.

My friends Con and Trace are much more like family than friends to me. And I wouldn't be the person I am today without them. (sheesh get out the Kleenex!)

Blast from the Past (Part 2)

Junior year (also known as the best year ever!)

Sometimes at work, my students will want to see pictures of me in college. I have my old yearbooks on my shelf behind my desk, so I'll pull them down, wipe the dust off and start flipping through looking for my massive blond locks. And what cracks me up is the fact the EVERYONE had the same hair. Some of us did it better than others, but essentially it's the same. Big bangs, big perm and just all around BIG.

Mush, Me and Trace

Senior Year Formal

How do you like my sparkly green dress? What you don't see is the sparkly silver hose and the sparkly green shoes that matched my dress. Good times.

Blast from the past...

Freshman year roommate, Shelley and me

Me and one of my very best friends, Jenks

(sophomore year)

In two weeks, I will be getting together with college friends. Some of these people, I have not seen in 20 years. I'm not sure why I haven't seen them in so long - I like these people, I consider them friends. And yet, I guarantee when I see them it will be like no time has passed. We will pick back up right where we left off.

Sooo I decided you should have a little peek of me and my friends. In college. Big hair and everything. So feel free to laugh as much as you want - I know I did when I pulled them out of the photo box. (I don't believe in scrap books. It's just not my thing. All my photos are in boxes and I like it that way. I don't mind if you do it but just know I will not come to your parties.)

So here you go...I think I will start with freshman year. So young and so excited about everything....

The day after...

What can I say...too much beer was had...I am tired....I haven't even showered yet....and I need a long nap. Thank god RAGBRAI only happens once a year and it won't be back in my town for a very long time.

Tent city in the park right next to campus. This was pretty early in the day.

Beer tents ready for the crowds....

Crowds are starting to come to town...

Ran into to some old friends... His name is Bibs.

The band is going strong...

Me hanging out on the square....

Crowds of last night.

Alison and her cousin, Mike

My good friend, Beth and her husband.

Jeremy and his high school friends.

You were guaranteed that you would see everyone you knew last night at some point.

Buses and bikers getting ready to leave this morning...

Me coming to work in the same clothes I wore last night,

wrist band and stamps still on my arm. It's going to be a long day.

RAGBRAI

OK people, I have been talking about RAGBRAI for a little while now. This is not just a bike ride. It's an event, a HUGE event. Well the time has come...my little college town is an overnight host. So we are expecting 20,000-50,000 people to come through town. 10,000+ bikers will arrive today and leave sometime tomorrow the rest will come just for the good time.

Everyone who works on campus was asked to volunteer. Some how I was assigned to work the showers...that could be good - could be bad. I guess it depends on how you look at it.

I'll try to tweet all day to keep you informed.

Here's the Indianola twitter site too.