Arrival

I have a new niece! Alissa Hove gave birth to a little girl this morning, who weighed in at 7 lb, 1 oz and was 19 inches long. There's no word on the name yet, but the last I talked to Alissa, she said she was leaning towards Alexis. I can't believe I have to wait four more weeks to meet her!

Things are looking way up in Kevin's search for a job. He's been talking with both St. Raphael's and Yale University Hospital and they're both offering him pretty nice packages. The deal is much sweeter than it looked originally and he's been very excited about it the last week. It makes me feel really content to see him so happy. Now he just has to decide what floor and what hours (nights or rotating). He's also been looking up events and stores in the New Haven area. In July, there's going to be a jazz festival and a Shakespeare festival. There's all kinds of little specialty shops, food stores, and restuarants near us. There's even a little farm where you can go pick your own strawberries! Kevin thinks we might fall in love with Connecticut, and has even stopped using the phrase "when we go to Arizona." Now it's just "We'll see what happens." Doesn't that sound like fun? I can't wait to start our lives together - I can't think of a better way to do it than going off on an adventure in Connecticut.

It's raining today. Kevin's leaving tomorrow. I had a presentation this afternoon that crashed and burned. Group projects hardly ever turn out well - I hope my professor remembers this and is kind.

I had my first wedding related nightmare. The one where everything that could go wrong does (including finding a body at the chapel complete with police tape and search dogs - how very romantic!). At least it was one outrageous enough I could laugh about it.

SOLD

I put a "for sale" sign in my car window a couple of days ago, and accepted an offer from some guy named Ron. I'm letting the Centra go for $600. While I'd hoped to get more, I'd rather have that than nothing but a car I can't use and don't want to take to Connecticut. My dad's supposed to mail me the title today, and then I'm meeting Ron at the bank on Wednesday to make the exchange. I'm excited to have a little extra money to make the whole marraige/moving across Connecticut transition a little easier.

Apartment!!!

So, we got the apartment at Yale!!!! This may not immediately sound as exciting as it really is, so let me explain: Housing on the east coast is really competitive. Like really competitive. This apartment will allow us to eat something besides roman noodles for dinner every night. This apartment is located on campus so we only have to take one car to Connecticut, since both of us will be able to walk to work and school. The whole complex is graduate students, and most of them are married, so we'll have an instant social network. And, best of all, we get to move in on July 1st, which means Kevin can start working right after Michelle's wedding and we won't be poorer than dirt all summer. I think this will be so good for us. We were offered a two bedroom apartment, which means we'll have room for a work place so that Kevin won't drive me crazy if I'm trying to study and he wants to watch TV. This also means we'll have room for company, so pack your suitcases!!!

Miguel Andres Blair

In case any of you missed it, Miguel Andres was born on April 15, weighing 8 lbs, 5 oz. I was surprised at how quickly I totally and utterly loved him. He's a little bundle of perfection and anyone who wants to argue otherwise will be hurt, perhaps severely. Now, enjoy the masses of baby perfection:

Unexpected Trip

Last night around 10:30, Kevin and my mom talked me into coming home today. It was a long drive, but I'm really glad I made it. Tonight was a big family dinner at my Grandma's house, and it was really good to see everyone all together, eating and talking and everything. Tomorrow, Flower's going to the hospital very early in the morning to have labor induced! That was really the reason for the trip home. Miguel will be my first "blood" nephew, and I figured I really ought to meet him as soon as possible. I probably won't be in Missouri for his first birthday or first steps or any other major milestones, and so if I can make it home for this one (his birth), I probably should. I think it was the right thing to do, despite the long hours in the car (and the even longer ones for Kevin!)

It seems that things are finally looking up for my brother, who made a deposit on an apartment that he plans to move into next month. He's very excited about the apartment and very nervous about becoming a father. I'm nervous and excited for him. I can't wait to see his baby - he's going to be so beautiful. I just hope he comes before I have to go back to Kirksville on Sunday!

Joel and Kristin playing Hoopla at Amber and Elizabeth's apartment last Saturday.







Amber and Steve's wedding. Everyone's on their feet because it took the wedding party two and a half hours to get to the reception and everyone was really excited to finally see them (and no food + open bar + long wait = lots of drunk people cheering).





Laura (Kevin's brother's wife), me, Alissa (Kevin's sister), Jen and Matt Hunsaker (one of Kevin's good friends and his wife). We were all seated at the same table at the wedding and got to know each other much better since there was nothing to do but talk, drink wine, and slowly starve for many hours.




Alissa at her baby shower, with the quilt that I made her. She seemed to really like it, which made her maybe my favorite person in the world.











And finally, here is little Brayden, my soon to be newphew, trying to stuff an entire banana into his mouth. He was not happy when Uncle Kevin saved him from choking by taking the banana peel away.

Arizona

We made it safe and sound to Arizona. It's so nice to be someplace different. I've grown very tired of grumpy skies and shifting weather. Here it's always nice and sunny and that is somethign I can get used to.

We applied to a couple of townhouses in New Haven to give us a couple of options in case we don't get into the University apartments. I really like them. They're a little more expensive than the apartments, but they have more space and privacy and they still fit into our budget. Kevin also applied to the other hospital in New Haven (finally!). So now we just have to wait and see what happens.

This weekend will be one full of parties. Last night we went to Mark and Karen's wedding reception (they eloped in Hawaii two weeks ago), and it was fun to see all of Kevin's old friends. He seemed to have a really nice time and I got to know some of his friends better. Today we have Steve and Amber's wedding, which should be fun even though Kevin's in the wedding party and can't sit with me at the reception. He has, however, promised to dance with me, so according to him, I'm a very lucky girl! Tomorrow we're going to see Mark and Karen's new house and then in the afternoon Alissa's having her baby shower. I haven't ever been to a baby shower before that I can remember, so I'm kind of excited about it.

I guess that's really all that's going on. I think it's been really good for me to get away from the mundane routine in Kirksville. I already feel a little less moody and a little more refreshed.

Well, I have one test down, three more to go. Two today, one tomorrow. I feel suprisingly ok about everything considering how little studying has been going on. I also finished my senior portfolio, which is something I'm very proud of. To graduate from Truman, every senior is required to put together specific papers (six of them) and write not only about those papers and how they reflect how we've grown at Truman, but also write about our Truman experience in general. And then we have to burn it all onto a CD since we're not allowed to hand in paper copies. It took me a few tries, but I figured out how to burn a CD on the school computers. Success!!

Should I give you the not so great news first? The hospitals that Kevin's been talking to only offer night shifts to new graduates. He's still looking into it, but it's not looking good as far as day shifts go. That means he very well could be working from seven at night to seven in the morning while I am at school from 8 am to 5 pm. This is not ok with me, and I'm really struggling with it. I've already gone almost two school years with only getting to see him on the weekends. Now I may finally be able to be married to him, only to see him for an hour at dinner time. We won't even sleep at the same time! It's very frustrating. Kevin keeps telling me that everything will work out, that he still has a hospital he hasn't even talked to yet that may offer him something better, and that no matter what happens, we'll find a way to work it out so we're both happy. He is so much more optimistic than I am. I have a bad habit of immediately jumping to the worst case senario, and I am really struggling to see things in a more positive light - like night shift employees make 10-20% more and it will only be three days a week. Unfortunately, I'm much better at thinking things like: he'll be gone all the time and when he's around, he'll be tired and grumpy. Like I said, I'm working on it. He hasn't even accepted an offer, so we really don't know what's going to happen yet. So no reason to worry yet, right? I wish it were that easy.

The good news is that I finally get to go to Iowa tomorrow! Then we get to fly to Arizona! I'm really glad we scheduled this trip. I wasn't sure when we did it, but I think I need a vacation. Plus, since we know we're going to Connecticut now, it will be really nice to spend a full five days with his family and do some real visiting that we may not have time to do during the wedding.

How gross would it be if I told you I bit off the very tip of my tongue in my sleep last night? Too gross? I think the stress of this semester is really starting to get to me.

Would you like to get your mind off that tongue thing I just told you? You would? Me too. A couple of my friends and I started the Lazyman's Triathalon at the rec center. We're in our second week and I'm really proud of the milage we've covered. We have to run 26 miles, bike 112, and row I don't remember how many miles. We have five weeks to do it, and we record our milage every day we come in. It's really been nice, having regular workouts with people I like. One more thing to miss when I move so far away.

I have all those tests I wrote about earlier this week. I have made an honest effort at the whole studying thing, but senrioritis makes studying very, very hard. I'm not used to school being this difficult for me. The ability to focus, something that I had in spades my freshman year, has eluded me these last few weeks. I have less hours than I have ever had, easier classes than I have ever had and I am making the worst grades of my college career. May 12 can't come soon enough.

I wish I could say this week has been every bit as productive as I needed it to be. Unfortunately, senioritis has a way of interrupting minutes that should be spent studying. I stayed in Kirksville this weekend with high hopes of getting a lot accomplished. My high hopes have been fading kind of rapidly.

My research partner and I did get all of our experimental trials run. We ran almost fifty undergraduates, although we'll have to throw one set of data out. Not only was one of the participants raging drunk (instead of writing down word lists, he wrote the word "beer" about twenty-five times - very helpful), but there was a huge thunderstorm during the testing time and hail actually starting to come in through the ceiling. I swear I couldn' t make this stuff up. Apparently, our participants found the hail distracting, because they remembered about half as many words as the people in other trials. Of course, instead of the hail, it could have been the drunk guy shouting or me running around the room in a panic because I was pretty sure the ceiling was going to cave in and we were all going to die.

Finito!! I finally finished my Disney Princess quilt! Now it's all ready to go for Alissa's baby shower April 9th. I think I will miss it, but to console myself, I've begun working on a superhero quilt for little Miguel. I already miss the big squares of the princesses - the superhero squares are much, much smaller and it makes for so much more work!






We went and saw Michelle's ranch over Spring Break. I'm just now printing and scanning pictures. Isn't it great how many things can be accomplished in order to put off homework? I took about six thousand pictures of her ranch, because it's beautiful there, and it took a while to sort through the awful and the ok.








Michelle with one of her four horses.










Two other horses Michelle owns. I can't remember the name of the one in the foreground, but the one in the back ground is Amigo, the horse she's owned since she was 16.

Let's say, just hypothetically of course, that you put off all your school work because you're a senior and therefore above doing such trivial things. Let's also say that next week contains four tests and two projects, none of which you have either studied for, read for, or started at all. On top of that, add a big move, a wedding, and a million tiny details that go along with graduating and starting life at a new school.
The cool thing about having a boyfriend is that if this situation happens upon you and you start to cry, he will totally put in a U2 dvd and rock out playing air guitar with the band until you stop worrying about next week and start realizing you may be one lucky girl.

In case you hadn't heard, it snowed several inches this week. The day after we got back from Spring Break to be exact. Yesterday the snow was utterly depressing because it was cold and gray outside. It felt like the middle of January instead of the end of March, and I really wanted to hop on the first plane out of here and go somewhere warm. Today, however, there's a lovely mix of winter and spring in Kirksville. The snow is still here, even though a couple of inches has melted off, but the sun is out and I keep seeing little robins jumping around on the snow. It's nice and cool out instead of bitterly cold. I have four papers I have to write and a project to complete before the day has ended, but I have a nice view out my window and I finally feel ready to work.

Accident

Monday morning before I left for Kirksville, I was slicing cheese for a sandwhich for Kevin to take to the hospital. I had sliced one piece when I missed the cheese, and landed hard on my finger. I looked down at it for a second and then it started to bleed. And bleed. And bleed. He had to go to the hospital, so I taped it up tight with several layers of paper towels and drove the three and a half hours to Kirksville. When I got home, I carefully unwrapped my finger and the silly thing started gushing again! Irritated, I called Crown Family Medicine and they got me in right away, despite the fact that it was a Monday morning. Of course, after bleeding for four and a half hours, it stopped bleeding as soon as the doctor entered. The nurse and I were trying to tell him about the gushing blood and the bloody paper towels, but I felt like an idiot. He said I probably lobbed an artery and that he was afraid that if he stuck a needle in there to stitch it up, it would start bleeding again. So he used those butterfly bandages to hold my skin together and then the nurse proceeded to wrap my entire hand in guaze. I looked like I'd had a serious accident, instead of a very small, well-aimed cut. I have never seen such a ridiculous amount of gauze in my life. When I went to class a couple hours later, I tried to hide that silly hand, covered in white sterile fluff, because I didn't even have a cool story to go with it. My research partner noticed, however, and asked me what happened to my hand. When I told her I'd cut myself with a knife in a little kitchen accident, she looked horrified. She asked me, in all seriousness, "Do you still have all your fingers?!?!"

Back at Home

I had a nice week with Kevin. As I predicted, there was a lot of dancing, cooking, X-box, and cards. I really got used to seeing him every day. I saw him this morning, but I can already tell it's going to be a bit of an adjustment going back to seeing him once a week.

Home's been nice so far. The drive was good - I stopped on Osage Beach and bought my new favorite shoes with a bit of birthday money. I still have enough left over to buy the NorthFace coat I've been looking at. Well, ok, two coats, really. One's really a lavender fleece liner, and the other is a jacket that goes over the fleece to block wind and water. It's so pretty - just the right color.

I got to see my new cousin today. They haven't named him yet, but I think he looks like a Conner, which was one of the three name choices (others included John and Joshua). It was so amazing to hold that tiny bundle of warmth - to feel him snuggle up next to me and hear his little sigh. I really didn't feel like sharing him, but eventually I handed him over to Will, who was much more willing to hold him than Michelle was, who is scared of babies. The reasons why I can't have a baby get so foggy when I have a tiny wonder cuddling up against my chest. Yet they become so clear with the stench of a dirty diaper kicks in and that tiny precious face screws up and begins to shriek. For now I'm content with the kind of baby I can hand over to a responsible party when things get grumpy. Lucky for me, I have already have a baby newphew, with two more one their way in the next month. There should be lots of baby to go around until Kevin and I are ready to have our own.

The coming week will be full of wedding business. I have to speak with the hotel, the restuarant for the rehearsal dinner, the caterers, the cake baker, and the Stonegate Chapel people. I also have a dress fitting, a hair appointment, and a invitation/favor making party. It will be busy, but I'm so excited!! It finally seems like it's getting close! I hope it turns out as beautiful as it plays out in my head.

I can already tell it's going to be a good week.

Kevin's spring break is this week, which means I get him for nine whole days. This is extremely exciting because it means someone else will be doing my dishes and helping me cook and throwing dance parties in my kitchen. There will also be a lot of cards being played, screaming at the X-box as one or the other of us completely fails as a ninja, and staying up late (for Kevin) watching movies and talking.

Friday night, I made Kevin watch Grizzly Man with me. If you don't know, it's a documentary about a man that went and lived with grizzly bears for 13 summers. He and his girlfriend were eventually eaten by a grizzly bear at their camp. Kevin, as it so happens, is terrified of bears. Any bears, and especially grizzly bears. Viewing this film with someone who hates bears and who just finished up his three weeks of rotations on the psych ward of the hospital is the best person to watch this movie with. We spent most of the movie diagnosing Timothy Treadwell (we decided bipolar, with strong manic tendencies), and then in the end decided never to go camping in Alaska. I would be lying if I said I didn't have a dream that night that Kevin, Michelle, and I were eaten by a ten-foot-tall bear in Grandma Mary's living room. We were bear hunters, you see, and we thought we'd killed it with our frying pan (our only weapon) but it woke up hungry from it's place as our rug.

Saturday night, we went out with Amber and Elizabeth. Kevin lasted an hour before the music got to him (he has a bad cold) and he drove home. The rest of us stayed behind to experience my English professors punk rock chick band. My old next door neighbor, who is now a rapper, opened. I got to listen to his beginning rapping in the dorms through the walls, so it was interesting for me to see how he had evolved. Right before the chick rock band, some guy started puking all over the floor, more puke than should come out of a human being, according to the people that saw it. I avoided looking at it like my life depended on it. The bartender grabbed the sick guy and escorted him out, but no one came to clean up the puke. Then the band started to play, if you can really call it that, and we had to leave because between the squawking of the lead singer and the incredible pumped up volume of the "music," we just couldn't handle it. So we headed over to John's to watch the end of a game of Solar Galaxy (a game I plan to never play) and then some cards. We finished off the night with a midnight rearrangement of John's apartment, which the three of us girls thought was a huge improvement. I have yet to hear what John's roommate thinks of our taste.

Today, the sun is shining and spring seems to be on it's way. It's a good day.

Birthday Pictures

I think I can safely say the birthday weekend was a success. It was really nice to see my family, and I'm looking forward to spending more than 24 hours with them over Spring Break. This drawing was a gift from Michelle, which I framed and now have hanging on my wall. I fall a little bit more in love with it every time I walk into my apartment and see it hanging there.






What this picture doesn't show is us messing up each other's cakes while my mom got the candles and then us trying to feel bad about it when my mom came back and expressed her displeasure at our cakes being less pretty. As you can see, we really pulled off the whole remorse thing rather well.

Italy

It's been voted a no. We're going to wait and do it right. I feel good about this decision - we have enough going on this summer without a trip abroad!