Entry number 1 by Stephanie Koenig...soon to be Baxter. Hello all! Seeing as that I have a lot of downtime this week I've been pondering what I should write as my first blog entry. I have a little bit of an advantage as I've been reading the cousin blog for a couple of years now without the need to participate, however I wasn't anticipating my first blog due date to be the same day as our wedding! Jason and I have already discussed that it will take several blog entries for me to correct any of the inaccuracies of his story telling, but I will need to wait for a future blog to think about such things. At the very least you will all be able to hear my side of the story in addition to Jason's.
This month has been crazy! After 11 months of planning our wedding (which will probably have taken place before most of you read this) it will be this Friday in American Fork. Tonight I went to the salon and got fake nails for the very first time in my life. They are pretty, but render my hands basically useless since I am not used to them. I don't foresee acrylic nails as a permanent part of my future. My family flies in tomorrow (Wednesday) which is part of why I'm writing this entry tonight. We will then have a whirlwind of picking up tuxes, touring, and appointments before the wedding on Friday. Saturday I plan to show my grandparents around Salt Lake and Sunday we are planning to show them a relaxing day at the ranch. After dropping Kiki off with cousins Mike and Ashley, Jason and I will head out for our honeymoon on Monday. We're planning to arrive someplace near Reno by Monday evening. During the course of the week we have stops planned at Yosemite, Mono Lake, Sequoia, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Las Vegas will be our last stop before heading back, and we are seeing "Ka"--one of the Cirque du Soleil shows. I just realized I have no idea when I will pack. :) We are planning to be at the ranch for the Baxter reunion on Memorial Day and then taking one day to recover before flying to WI to have a reception for my family. We will be in WI from Wednesday the 27th through Monday the 1st...and then it's June! I should have fun things to write about next entry. So I will leave this for blog 1 before I wear out my welcome. I look forward to writing more when free time is a little less scarce.
Steph~
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
A LONG overdue update
Well hello everyone! I predict this to be the last official update until June :) As many of you know the wedding planning and preparation is in full swing. If anyone didn't receive and invite and is going to be around Reedsburg May 30th by all means you ARE invited and should contact me for more info! :) Our actual ceremony in Utah is coming up in a mere 5 weeks. Considering I still have a couple of final exams and many hours at work between now and then, it still seems pretty far off...until I consider all of the details that still need to be coordinated. Eeee!
Work at TOSH has had its ups and downs, however since January 1st it's been generally "crazy busy" which may in part explain my lack of updates. We recently helped a doctoral student from U of M complete data collection for her dissertation characterizinig bone geometry, strength, and gait characteristics of female runners with a history of stress fractures; we also had a group of 10 elite amputee sprinters in from all over the country sprint on the force treadmill to better understand their gait mechanics and whether the prosthetic has any sort of advantage over an intact limb. Very interesting stuff to say the least. No results yet, but I'm cranking through a ton of motion analysis data. We also had a special data collection with Levi Leipheimer...for anyone who doesn't know the name, he was 3rd in the Tour de France in 2007 and has won the Tour de California several times...anyways I'm always amazed at the attention elite athletes have to endure. By the time the amputee sprinters (some of whom ran in Beijing) and Levi came through the lab within weeks of one another, and we had our annual open house for the hospital, I realized I have no love of newspersons or photographers of any sort.
The weather has warmed a bit (between snowstorms) long enough for some spring yard-work to begin. A few weekends ago while Jason was on a caving trip, I dug up the front yard (literally dug it up with a shovel) and reseeded the lawn. Not to worry, our front lawn doesn't have much grass. Last weekend we also replaced all the bark in the front lawn flowerbeds and used the ancient bark to mulch a few places including the back flowerbeds and around the raspberry bushes. The fish made their yearly move from the storage tote in the basement back to their outside pond and it proceeded to snow for a week. I'm not sure what they thought of snow after being in the warm basement all winter, but they still look relatively happy. (I only had to break a hole in the ice with my shoe for them one morning).
Jason and I have also made it out for a couple of hiking trips generally involving steep climbs and beautiful views. Of note, I successfully repelled into and ascended out of a cave which was a first for me. I thought the repelling and ascending were more fun than the actual cave exploring, but it was a wonderful trip out to the west desert for the weekend.
KTP became the first official "guest" to sleep in the "guestroom". It's all finished now and looks quite nice. Jason's sister Autumn has stayed there a few times, but usually on short notice, and she usually sleeps on top of the unmade bed. :) If anyone needs an actual user review before visiting they will need to speak with KTP. It was her second trip to Utah since I've lived here, which also makes her the first repeat visitor outside of my immediate family (unless I've tragically forgotten someone else). It was fun to catch up. Anyone who is feeling guilty for not visiting (you know who you are)...should plan a trip out this way sometime after the wedding. :)
Now the biggest news of all...Jason and I adopted a cat! She's a one year old orange tabby polydactyl and her name is Kiki. We were planning on waiting until after the wedding since we will be gone for a couple of weeks--however--I happened upon her by chance and when we saw what a sweet cat she was and what terrible conditions she was living in we knew we could give her a much better home. Jason's cousins have even offered to cat-sit while we are out of town, which will be wonderful! Anyone who isn't familiar with polydactyls can read up on them here: http://www.messybeast.com/poly-cats.html Jason is still deciding if getting a cat was a good idea...so far he knows I'm ridiculously excited about it--rumor has it my first real word was kitty...at least someone told me that once...so what else would you expect?
I think I've gone on long enough and I know I'm surely missing things but this is at least a partial update. For anyone on facebook, check out my profile for more pictures of fun happenings and the full story of how we ended up with Kiki.
I look forward to seeing many of you soon and hope everyone is well!
Steph~
ps. Welcome Evelyn and Dane! New babies all around!
Work at TOSH has had its ups and downs, however since January 1st it's been generally "crazy busy" which may in part explain my lack of updates. We recently helped a doctoral student from U of M complete data collection for her dissertation characterizinig bone geometry, strength, and gait characteristics of female runners with a history of stress fractures; we also had a group of 10 elite amputee sprinters in from all over the country sprint on the force treadmill to better understand their gait mechanics and whether the prosthetic has any sort of advantage over an intact limb. Very interesting stuff to say the least. No results yet, but I'm cranking through a ton of motion analysis data. We also had a special data collection with Levi Leipheimer...for anyone who doesn't know the name, he was 3rd in the Tour de France in 2007 and has won the Tour de California several times...anyways I'm always amazed at the attention elite athletes have to endure. By the time the amputee sprinters (some of whom ran in Beijing) and Levi came through the lab within weeks of one another, and we had our annual open house for the hospital, I realized I have no love of newspersons or photographers of any sort.
The weather has warmed a bit (between snowstorms) long enough for some spring yard-work to begin. A few weekends ago while Jason was on a caving trip, I dug up the front yard (literally dug it up with a shovel) and reseeded the lawn. Not to worry, our front lawn doesn't have much grass. Last weekend we also replaced all the bark in the front lawn flowerbeds and used the ancient bark to mulch a few places including the back flowerbeds and around the raspberry bushes. The fish made their yearly move from the storage tote in the basement back to their outside pond and it proceeded to snow for a week. I'm not sure what they thought of snow after being in the warm basement all winter, but they still look relatively happy. (I only had to break a hole in the ice with my shoe for them one morning).
Jason and I have also made it out for a couple of hiking trips generally involving steep climbs and beautiful views. Of note, I successfully repelled into and ascended out of a cave which was a first for me. I thought the repelling and ascending were more fun than the actual cave exploring, but it was a wonderful trip out to the west desert for the weekend.
KTP became the first official "guest" to sleep in the "guestroom". It's all finished now and looks quite nice. Jason's sister Autumn has stayed there a few times, but usually on short notice, and she usually sleeps on top of the unmade bed. :) If anyone needs an actual user review before visiting they will need to speak with KTP. It was her second trip to Utah since I've lived here, which also makes her the first repeat visitor outside of my immediate family (unless I've tragically forgotten someone else). It was fun to catch up. Anyone who is feeling guilty for not visiting (you know who you are)...should plan a trip out this way sometime after the wedding. :)
Now the biggest news of all...Jason and I adopted a cat! She's a one year old orange tabby polydactyl and her name is Kiki. We were planning on waiting until after the wedding since we will be gone for a couple of weeks--however--I happened upon her by chance and when we saw what a sweet cat she was and what terrible conditions she was living in we knew we could give her a much better home. Jason's cousins have even offered to cat-sit while we are out of town, which will be wonderful! Anyone who isn't familiar with polydactyls can read up on them here: http://www.messybeast.com/poly-cats.html Jason is still deciding if getting a cat was a good idea...so far he knows I'm ridiculously excited about it--rumor has it my first real word was kitty...at least someone told me that once...so what else would you expect?
I think I've gone on long enough and I know I'm surely missing things but this is at least a partial update. For anyone on facebook, check out my profile for more pictures of fun happenings and the full story of how we ended up with Kiki.
I look forward to seeing many of you soon and hope everyone is well!
Steph~
ps. Welcome Evelyn and Dane! New babies all around!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Rings 'n' Things
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.
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, 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 :)
Monday, December 3, 2007
Happy Holidays Everyone!
I wanted to send out a quick note before I am overtaken by finals this week and Christmas break is right on top of me. I'm going to be visiting WI Dec 18th-24th. I will be tryinig to see as many of you as possible (so this is your warning to hide). I especially appreciate those of you who track me down while I am home to visit, I look forward to seeing each and every one of you. So far I have plans for a family christmas, a haircut, and meeting Olivia (Sarah and Andy...if you could forward this to Olivia that would be spectacular). I hope everyone is doing well with school, work, and the holidays. Please be in touch whenever you get the chance...I promise I've been thinking about calling many of you, it's just with homework and working full-time I'm afraid I'm usually crankier than any person would reasonably accept a phonecall from :) Hopefully I will be able to touch base with everyone once again over break! Take Care!
Steph~
Steph~
Saturday, September 29, 2007
The Quarterly Update
Hey all,
So as the title of this e-mail may imply, I've given up on monthly updates for now. At least for the duration of graduate school it appears I'll be lucky to send quarterly, or perhaps seasonal updates.
Speaking of seasons....(did you catch that lame transition?)...today in Salt Lake it was about 40 degrees and raining all day...at least all day when it wasn't sleeting, there was a bit of that as well. The low tonight is supposed to be 32 in the valley and I'm sure the mountains got a healthy dose of snow today. It should be beautiful in the morning once it's sunny again and the clouds clear out in front of the mountains. It snowed up there for the first time about a week ago, but it didn't stay. This batch probably won't stay around either, since tomorrow and the rest of the week the temps are supposed to be back in the mid-60's to low-70's in the valley again.
The rain made today a nice day to stay inside, sit under a blanket, and read for school. I also did a ton of cooking today...let's just say I'm trying to make sure Jason and I aren't stuck eating hotdogs and soup every night after class. His freezer looks like someone just threw a tupperware party. The cooking also helped break up the homework a bit.
School is going as well as can be expected while working 40 hours a week. I get my first actual exam back on Tuesday. My lab class is really relaxed, and I haven't gotten any graded assignments back yet. The class that is most frustrating right now is Advanced Exercise Physiology lecture. Our professor decided to revamp her teaching style this semester to a very non-traditional format where we teach each other the information, and we are the test-subjects. Today I spent hours upon hours reading 60 pages worth of journal articles all in order to take a 6 point quiz. I have two textbooks for the class that I haven't even opened, due to the fact that my group (the class is divided into 4 groups) hasn't had any assigned readings from the text. I hope we are all graded generously, as the class has the definite feel that no one really knows what's going on, and I'm not certain I'm learning anything. I like the general idea, but the cellular chemistry is a bit over my head, and it's frustrating to try to teach it to each other. Jason tends to laugh at my reading assignments, with all the words he hasn't seen before and can't pronounce. I think I'm going to kick some serious butt at scrabble the next time I play...that is if I can come up with any exercise physiology terms that only use 7 letters.
What has happened since the last update...well Jason and I visted WI in August so he could meet more of the friends and family. He's even mentioned a willingness to visit again, so things must have gone alright. A special thanks to everyone who was so welcoming, I think we both had a lot of fun. Within 10 days of returning from vacation we both started grad school. I'm now working on my Master's in Exercise Physiology and Jason is working on his MBA. Everything is BUSY. Quite frankly I'm tired of doing homework all weekend and looking forward to fall break in a week (the equivalent to spring break for anyone who hasn't heard of fall break before).
Jason bought a house here in Salt Lake which is very nice. Ironically enough he put in the initial offer while on vacation with me in WI so it was lucky everything worked out so well! It has a great kitchen (especially compared with my apartment), it's in a quiet neighborhood (very nice for studying), and is free of the distractions of my house (namely a television or stereo). :)
Recently, I bought a laptop with my extra student loan money. I love it! I'm using the wireless internet to write this update from bed right now...which is one of the reasons it's getting done :). Thank goodness for student loans...otherwise money would be tight until work reimburses my tuition at the end of the semester (provided I pass). :)
Upcoming plans involve homework and more homework. In a few weeks Jason and I are going to try to take a trip to Jackson if the weather holds out long enough. It could be pretty snowy there in a few weeks, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm still trying to figure out when my next trip back to the midwest will be--if I'm not home at Christmas, I'll be making the trip back during Spring Break. Planning around school has added a new level of difficulty to my visits!
I hope everyone reading this is doing very well. I'm sorry I haven't done a better job of keeping in touch lately. I hope to hear a little from each of you so I know what everyone else is keeping busy with as well. Take Care!
Steph~
ps.
Sarah/Andy...I want updated pregnancy pictures. (I'm laying the floor throwing a fit right now, thrashing arms and legs and everything)
Mark-Congrats again on the Ironman finish!
Steven and Mary...Congrats on the new addition to the family (I haven't seen any pictures yet...he's not an ugly little bugger who takes after his daddy is he?)
Does anyone have an actual working e-mail address for Russell?
If anyone didn't catch it, my not-so-new cellphone number is
So as the title of this e-mail may imply, I've given up on monthly updates for now. At least for the duration of graduate school it appears I'll be lucky to send quarterly, or perhaps seasonal updates.
Speaking of seasons....(did you catch that lame transition?)...today in Salt Lake it was about 40 degrees and raining all day...at least all day when it wasn't sleeting, there was a bit of that as well. The low tonight is supposed to be 32 in the valley and I'm sure the mountains got a healthy dose of snow today. It should be beautiful in the morning once it's sunny again and the clouds clear out in front of the mountains. It snowed up there for the first time about a week ago, but it didn't stay. This batch probably won't stay around either, since tomorrow and the rest of the week the temps are supposed to be back in the mid-60's to low-70's in the valley again.
The rain made today a nice day to stay inside, sit under a blanket, and read for school. I also did a ton of cooking today...let's just say I'm trying to make sure Jason and I aren't stuck eating hotdogs and soup every night after class. His freezer looks like someone just threw a tupperware party. The cooking also helped break up the homework a bit.
School is going as well as can be expected while working 40 hours a week. I get my first actual exam back on Tuesday. My lab class is really relaxed, and I haven't gotten any graded assignments back yet. The class that is most frustrating right now is Advanced Exercise Physiology lecture. Our professor decided to revamp her teaching style this semester to a very non-traditional format where we teach each other the information, and we are the test-subjects. Today I spent hours upon hours reading 60 pages worth of journal articles all in order to take a 6 point quiz. I have two textbooks for the class that I haven't even opened, due to the fact that my group (the class is divided into 4 groups) hasn't had any assigned readings from the text. I hope we are all graded generously, as the class has the definite feel that no one really knows what's going on, and I'm not certain I'm learning anything. I like the general idea, but the cellular chemistry is a bit over my head, and it's frustrating to try to teach it to each other. Jason tends to laugh at my reading assignments, with all the words he hasn't seen before and can't pronounce. I think I'm going to kick some serious butt at scrabble the next time I play...that is if I can come up with any exercise physiology terms that only use 7 letters.
What has happened since the last update...well Jason and I visted WI in August so he could meet more of the friends and family. He's even mentioned a willingness to visit again, so things must have gone alright. A special thanks to everyone who was so welcoming, I think we both had a lot of fun. Within 10 days of returning from vacation we both started grad school. I'm now working on my Master's in Exercise Physiology and Jason is working on his MBA. Everything is BUSY. Quite frankly I'm tired of doing homework all weekend and looking forward to fall break in a week (the equivalent to spring break for anyone who hasn't heard of fall break before).
Jason bought a house here in Salt Lake which is very nice. Ironically enough he put in the initial offer while on vacation with me in WI so it was lucky everything worked out so well! It has a great kitchen (especially compared with my apartment), it's in a quiet neighborhood (very nice for studying), and is free of the distractions of my house (namely a television or stereo). :)
Recently, I bought a laptop with my extra student loan money. I love it! I'm using the wireless internet to write this update from bed right now...which is one of the reasons it's getting done :). Thank goodness for student loans...otherwise money would be tight until work reimburses my tuition at the end of the semester (provided I pass). :)
Upcoming plans involve homework and more homework. In a few weeks Jason and I are going to try to take a trip to Jackson if the weather holds out long enough. It could be pretty snowy there in a few weeks, so we'll have to wait and see. I'm still trying to figure out when my next trip back to the midwest will be--if I'm not home at Christmas, I'll be making the trip back during Spring Break. Planning around school has added a new level of difficulty to my visits!
I hope everyone reading this is doing very well. I'm sorry I haven't done a better job of keeping in touch lately. I hope to hear a little from each of you so I know what everyone else is keeping busy with as well. Take Care!
Steph~
ps.
Sarah/Andy...I want updated pregnancy pictures. (I'm laying the floor throwing a fit right now, thrashing arms and legs and everything)
Mark-Congrats again on the Ironman finish!
Steven and Mary...Congrats on the new addition to the family (I haven't seen any pictures yet...he's not an ugly little bugger who takes after his daddy is he?)
Does anyone have an actual working e-mail address for Russell?
If anyone didn't catch it, my not-so-new cellphone number is
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