So much news, So much news! I lost my last update (I usually save them) so I don't know where exactly I left off.
Jason and I got engaged in June. If this is new news you may be living under some kind or rock. :) I've been so excited that I'm telling everybody! Since then we've picked out a hall in Utah for the ceremony/reception (www.northamptonhouse.com) a reception place in Wisconsin (www.barabooartsbanquet.com), I found a dress (ivory, corset back...purple accent...alfred angelo 1612) and we got a photographer ( www.dustontodd.com ) and had engagement pictures taken (sample attached). Everything is so very exciting!
This past weekend I entertained/was entertained by my mom and three aunts who visited Utah to help me do some dress shopping (Mom, Ellen, Sue, and Linda). We went to the Bingham Copper Mine (largest open pit mine in North America), peered into the Great Salt Lake, checked out the reception hall, had a picnic with some of Jason's family, ate fabulous food, and went dress shopping. Note to any future brides: DO NOT try on corseted bridal gowns after eating a large meal. That's all I'm going to say about that. Having company was an excellent time although by the end of the weekend I was needing some serious sleep and some quiet time. Also in the Utah visitors section was Kirsten Sauey, a dear friend from high school who I got to have lunch with today as she was en route from Denver, CO to California. It sure it good to catch up with old friends and welcome to the update Kirsten! ;)
The past two weeks at work have been stressful and interesting. I'm either picking my nose or so swamped I can't breathe. The past week was a swamped week, and this one is turning into more of the same. It is nice to be busy, but I'm hoping things let up a little bit before school starts on August 25th. I am trying to gear myself for a tough semester. Instead of my usual 3 days of class per week this semester I will have four. Statistics, Macro-nutrient Metabolism, and Exercise & Disease are on the list. Unfortunately, the Weds/Friday class is from Noon-2 right in the middle of my typical workday. Hopefully scheduling won't get too ugly!
Speaking of August 25th, that will be my last day in my old apartment. For anyone who still keeps an address list, my new address will be 1036S 1500W, Salt Lake City, Utah 84104. We decided it would be best to move my stuff before school starts and it will save me about $700 a month to put towards wedding plans.
In other exciting news, it was three years ago today that a young girl from Wisconsin loaded her worldly possessions into her car and drove them across the wilderness of Nebraska before finally winding along I-80 to the valley of Salt Lake City. That's my fancy way of saying I've now been in Utah for 3 years. Boy time does fly!
I hope you are all doing well wherever your respective lives may find you these days. Please be in touch as I'm always looking for updates from everyone!
Steph~
PS. Jason and his cousin Ben recently discovered the newest cave in Utah and will be revisiting it to do some mapping over Labor Day weekend! We are now taking suggestions for cave names. Please be considerate as caves cannot be named after a person unless that person is deceased. Therefore Stephanie Cave will not be accepted.
PSS. Rusty, I need your cell number so I stop calling Chica by accident.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
St. Pattys? Spring? Easter?
Hello to everyone near and far! It's Spring Break, I made it to this point in the semester and thought I'd send out an e-mail "hello" before I go back to work catching up on homework. :) The semester is flying by! Another 6 weeks and I will be enjoying summer break. Luckily this semester is much better than the last one or I may have reconsidered this grad school thing. This summer I'm planning on sitting in on two undergrad classes which friends are teaching as a good form of review without the cost of tuition (or the worry of missing class). The fall will bring the first half of statistics (oh boy) and a couple of other more reasonable sounding classes. Since I'm still working full-time I'm planning on three more semesters to get done. FYI: I'm now accepting brilliant thesis ideas that will require a reasonable amount of work and make me rich and or famous.
Work is going well. This semester is a much better work/school balance and most days I like my job. Today everything I touched was broken...but most days are better. :) I'm learning some interesting things about what you can do with super glue and a basic set of tools. I've also become proficient with some pretty technical motion analysis software. A few more programs to master and I should be pretty darn useful. ;)
Something struck me as odd today: ice cream trucks...in the desert...in March...with gas prices over $3/gal. That's right, I witnessed two different ice cream trucks out and about this week. Playing the annoying music to lure the little kids away from their televisions to get ice cream. It's rather sad really. The weather in Utah is starting to be warmer (consistently around 50 degrees) and although the snow is gone in the valley the mountains will most likely have snow in places until sometime in July or August. I just bought hiking boots and Jason has a few days off of work, so we are planning our first hiking trip of the season over Easter weekend. We're thinking somewhere in southern Utah, but weather will most likely be a determining factor. We're still deciding whether it's too early in the season to camp out. There are so many amazing places within driving distance it's hard to choose. Jason becomes the official decider since he knows all the options, but I'm excited to go along for the rides.
I'm excited to announce Jason and I will be again visiting WI May 14th-20th. We are tentatively planning to go to the Bodyworks exhibit in Milwaukee on the 15th, so if anyone in that area wants to meet up it would be really fun. We have some loosely constructed travel plans hopefully including a day at Devil's Lake if the weather is nice. It shouldn't be as humid as when we visted last August. With any luck, there will be baby goats on the farm and Mom won't be mowing the lawn around the snowpile anymore. I'll keep you posted as vacation time nears.
As always, if anyone would like to vacation in Salt Lake, do let me know. Until I see you each again take care and be in touch!
Steph~
Miss Lorbecki-I owe you a phone call. Please stalk me until I call you back. I suck. I'm also not certain I spelled your last name correctly..again, same reason.
Carol/Harvey-let me know if you need any Salt Lake info. I don't know if we'll catch up while you're out here because I will be out of town Memorial Day weekend. Let me know if you need anything though! You could stay at my place for cheap if you'd like but it's about a 40minute drive from Layton.
Sarah/Andy-it's time for more pictures of Olivia! Consider this your pre-threat reminder. :)
Larissa/Sarah-if either of you decide you would like more of those long t-shirts/tank-tops let me know and I'll bring some in May
Work is going well. This semester is a much better work/school balance and most days I like my job. Today everything I touched was broken...but most days are better. :) I'm learning some interesting things about what you can do with super glue and a basic set of tools. I've also become proficient with some pretty technical motion analysis software. A few more programs to master and I should be pretty darn useful. ;)
Something struck me as odd today: ice cream trucks...in the desert...in March...with gas prices over $3/gal. That's right, I witnessed two different ice cream trucks out and about this week. Playing the annoying music to lure the little kids away from their televisions to get ice cream. It's rather sad really. The weather in Utah is starting to be warmer (consistently around 50 degrees) and although the snow is gone in the valley the mountains will most likely have snow in places until sometime in July or August. I just bought hiking boots and Jason has a few days off of work, so we are planning our first hiking trip of the season over Easter weekend. We're thinking somewhere in southern Utah, but weather will most likely be a determining factor. We're still deciding whether it's too early in the season to camp out. There are so many amazing places within driving distance it's hard to choose. Jason becomes the official decider since he knows all the options, but I'm excited to go along for the rides.
I'm excited to announce Jason and I will be again visiting WI May 14th-20th. We are tentatively planning to go to the Bodyworks exhibit in Milwaukee on the 15th, so if anyone in that area wants to meet up it would be really fun. We have some loosely constructed travel plans hopefully including a day at Devil's Lake if the weather is nice. It shouldn't be as humid as when we visted last August. With any luck, there will be baby goats on the farm and Mom won't be mowing the lawn around the snowpile anymore. I'll keep you posted as vacation time nears.
As always, if anyone would like to vacation in Salt Lake, do let me know. Until I see you each again take care and be in touch!
Steph~
Miss Lorbecki-I owe you a phone call. Please stalk me until I call you back. I suck. I'm also not certain I spelled your last name correctly..again, same reason.
Carol/Harvey-let me know if you need any Salt Lake info. I don't know if we'll catch up while you're out here because I will be out of town Memorial Day weekend. Let me know if you need anything though! You could stay at my place for cheap if you'd like but it's about a 40minute drive from Layton.
Sarah/Andy-it's time for more pictures of Olivia! Consider this your pre-threat reminder. :)
Larissa/Sarah-if either of you decide you would like more of those long t-shirts/tank-tops let me know and I'll bring some in May
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Happy New Years!
Hello All!
So it's 2008. I thought I would start the year off with an update email before I start school next week and drop from the planet once again. Hopefully school won't cause quite as much stress this semester as it did last semester. Word from everyone in the department is that the first semester is one of the more labor-intensive and the second semester gets easier. My two night classes are earlier this semester which is nice for a couple of reasons; namely I will not have class until 10pm and I will be prevented from working dreadfully long days at work (since I will need to leave work earlier to get to class). I will also continue to have a Thursday lab class in the middle of the day. Jason is expected to have more overtime this time of the year (tax season) so he's only taking one class this semester (lucky bugger!).
The holidays were great! I flew to WI on Dec 18th to see friends and family. I managed travel to see my brother's apartment in Platteville, and Sarah and Olivia (a.k.a. "baby in charge") in Dubuque, before family Christmas at my parents on the 22nd. Traveling was limited by a snow/windstorm on the 23rd. It was the first serious snowday I've had since leaving WI. Unfortunately I didn't get to make it to have lunch with La, Mark, Sarah, Andy, and Olivia but it was also nice to be snowed in and forced to relax for the day. Thankfully I was not included in the snow removal activities that kept my dad and brother working double-time all day around the farm. I flew back home to Salt Lake Christmas Eve (the day after the storm). I picked perfect travel days. Several people on my flight out of Chicago were not so lucky and had been stuck in O'Hare for over 24 hours due to the storm, adding insult to injury, most of them were heading TO Christmas instead of back like I was. It was snowing pretty heavily in Salt Lake during the return flight and they only had one runway open (while clearing snow on the others), so we had to slow our airspeed to not get stuck circling Salt Lake. All told I returned to Salt Lake about 30 minutes behind schedule. Not Bad.
The week of Christmas was a whirlwind. I spent Christmas day with Jason and his family. It was wonderful. They even got me presents. I felt like sort of a shmuck since I wasn't expecting anything and hadn't gotten them anything. I will know better for future holidays. We opened presents at his parents house and then had dinner at his aunt and uncle's house around 6. The next night (Wednesday) there was a "Groom's Dinner" preceeding Jason's sister's wedding on Thursday. As best as I can describe, the groom's dinner/family dinner is a "rehearsal dinner" without the rehearsal.--since the wedding is in the temple, there is no audience participation. The following night it was another 45 minute drive back to Orem for the wedding reception. A mormon wedding reception typically consists of a line to meet/greet the couple and their parents, a place to drop off gifts, and hors d'oeuvres. Jason informed me this was a high-end cultural hall wedding--nice decorations, decent appetizers, a short program including some singing and speeches, and a bit of music at the end (although only about a dozen people danced). Just for comparison, it would have been a fairly small-scale midwestern wedding. The cultural hall is basically a big metting room attatched to most mormon churches. The two I've been in look like a gymnasium complete with basketball hoops, a stage, and hardwood flooring (picture Webb middle school's gym only slightly smaller). So after flying in on Monday the 24th there were three trips to Orem in three days for Christmas and wedding activities--no wonder it took me until today to get unpacked and caught back up. :)
I hope I get to see everyone on one of my next trips back to WI. Right now it's looking like that will be Spring/early summer. I may even twist Jason's arm and bring him with again. He seemed to have fun last time. Hope you all had wonderful holidays!
Steph~
ps. I attached two pictures of Jason and I from Misty's reception...if any friends/family are interested in having one :)
So it's 2008. I thought I would start the year off with an update email before I start school next week and drop from the planet once again. Hopefully school won't cause quite as much stress this semester as it did last semester. Word from everyone in the department is that the first semester is one of the more labor-intensive and the second semester gets easier. My two night classes are earlier this semester which is nice for a couple of reasons; namely I will not have class until 10pm and I will be prevented from working dreadfully long days at work (since I will need to leave work earlier to get to class). I will also continue to have a Thursday lab class in the middle of the day. Jason is expected to have more overtime this time of the year (tax season) so he's only taking one class this semester (lucky bugger!).
The holidays were great! I flew to WI on Dec 18th to see friends and family. I managed travel to see my brother's apartment in Platteville, and Sarah and Olivia (a.k.a. "baby in charge") in Dubuque, before family Christmas at my parents on the 22nd. Traveling was limited by a snow/windstorm on the 23rd. It was the first serious snowday I've had since leaving WI. Unfortunately I didn't get to make it to have lunch with La, Mark, Sarah, Andy, and Olivia but it was also nice to be snowed in and forced to relax for the day. Thankfully I was not included in the snow removal activities that kept my dad and brother working double-time all day around the farm. I flew back home to Salt Lake Christmas Eve (the day after the storm). I picked perfect travel days. Several people on my flight out of Chicago were not so lucky and had been stuck in O'Hare for over 24 hours due to the storm, adding insult to injury, most of them were heading TO Christmas instead of back like I was. It was snowing pretty heavily in Salt Lake during the return flight and they only had one runway open (while clearing snow on the others), so we had to slow our airspeed to not get stuck circling Salt Lake. All told I returned to Salt Lake about 30 minutes behind schedule. Not Bad.
The week of Christmas was a whirlwind. I spent Christmas day with Jason and his family. It was wonderful. They even got me presents. I felt like sort of a shmuck since I wasn't expecting anything and hadn't gotten them anything. I will know better for future holidays. We opened presents at his parents house and then had dinner at his aunt and uncle's house around 6. The next night (Wednesday) there was a "Groom's Dinner" preceeding Jason's sister's wedding on Thursday. As best as I can describe, the groom's dinner/family dinner is a "rehearsal dinner" without the rehearsal.--since the wedding is in the temple, there is no audience participation. The following night it was another 45 minute drive back to Orem for the wedding reception. A mormon wedding reception typically consists of a line to meet/greet the couple and their parents, a place to drop off gifts, and hors d'oeuvres. Jason informed me this was a high-end cultural hall wedding--nice decorations, decent appetizers, a short program including some singing and speeches, and a bit of music at the end (although only about a dozen people danced). Just for comparison, it would have been a fairly small-scale midwestern wedding. The cultural hall is basically a big metting room attatched to most mormon churches. The two I've been in look like a gymnasium complete with basketball hoops, a stage, and hardwood flooring (picture Webb middle school's gym only slightly smaller). So after flying in on Monday the 24th there were three trips to Orem in three days for Christmas and wedding activities--no wonder it took me until today to get unpacked and caught back up. :)
I hope I get to see everyone on one of my next trips back to WI. Right now it's looking like that will be Spring/early summer. I may even twist Jason's arm and bring him with again. He seemed to have fun last time. Hope you all had wonderful holidays!
Steph~
ps. I attached two pictures of Jason and I from Misty's reception...if any friends/family are interested in having one :)
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