Sunday, April 15, 2012

Hello, friends

Well, I guess I have already broken my New Year's Resolution.  I had said that I would update the blog at least once a month and I completely missed March!  To make up for that, I have broken this blog into two parts for your convenience.

March
Towards the beginning of the month, I met up with my friend Katie for dinner at Red Robin.  She and her husband Craig live near my parents so I drove up there for dinner and to see their house.  I had seen their townhome right after they had finalized the purchase, but before that had moved in and decorated it.  It was nice to see it all decorated.  They did a great job and it is a very cute little house!  I also got to meet their puppy, a Corgi named Rondo (after a player on the Boston Celtics basketball team).  Katie and I both agree that Rondo and Thor need to meet soon for a playdate!  As always, it was very nice to meet up with one of my oldest friends.

The day that Daylight Savings Time began this Spring was a little strange for me.  I was working Saturday night into Sunday morning, and it was odd to see us completely skip 2 am!  It was nice to only have to work 11 hours that night instead of 12, but I can't say it was nice missing out on that extra hour of pay!

I can't really say that we did anything fun on St. Patrick's Day because I worked all weekend.  I did, however, get to wear my cute shamrock scrub top that day!  IU Health is in the process of changing the dress code, so this was the last time I got to wear my St. Pat's shirt at work!  We will be wearing all red and black uniforms starting sometime mid-year.
Thor took a nap on St. Patrick's Day
Happy birthday to Grandma Ward and to Grandpa Seitz, who celebrated their birthdays in March!

On the 23rd, Matt and I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to the midnight showing of the movie "The Hunger Games."  I had read the trilogy that the movie is based on last summer and Matt had just finished the first book a couple weeks before the movie came out.  The theater was pretty full, but not as busy as I had anticipated.  The only other midnight premiere that I had ever been to before was one of the Harry Potter movies and "Hunger Games" was not nearly as busy.  The movie was good, and stayed pretty true to the book.  We are already anticipating the next movie in the trilogy, which I think should be out in Fall 2013.

During the weekend of the 23rd and 24th, Matt and I went down to Matt's parents' house.  Matt spent some time watching March Madness basketball with his dad while his mom and I went to a camp in Ohio for a scrapbooking weekend.  We arrived on Friday evening and scrapbooked until about 1 am.  We spent the night in bunks in a cabin, followed by an 8am wake-up, followed by more scrapping until 8pm that night.  Sheila worked on pages featuring pictures from Gatlinburg, she and Bob's mission trip to Laos, and Virginia Beach.  I was able to both start and finish my book with pictures from my trip to Nicaragua in 2009.  We enjoyed the games that the organizers had, and our table even won prizes in the "Wheel of Fortune" game!  The puzzle that we solved read, "Housework only comes before scrapbooking in the dictionary."  All four of the table-members won mini-scrapbooks and alphabet stickers!

After church on the 25th, we went over to Matt's cousin Amanda and her husband Matt's house to celebrate their daughter Stella's first birthday.  Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for about an hour because we had to get home so that I could work that night.  We did get to see her open presents and eat her cake, though, which are the most important parts anyway!  Also, Amanda and Matt will be having their second child in September!  Exciting stuff :-)
Happy 1st birthday, Stella!

Matt's brother Rob has a new job now and moved to Louisville, KY, in March.  He is now a web designer for Papa John's Pizza.  Congrats, Rob!  An added bonus of the new job is that Rob now gets to be closer to his girlfriend Leanne, who also lives in Louisville.

Matt's cousin Andy and his wife Push welcomed their first baby into the world on March 27th!  Their baby boy, Gyan Kenneth Marshall, looks super-cute in the pictures and we can't wait until we can meet him!  Congrats, Andy and Push!
Happy day of birth, Gyan!

On the 29th, Matt had a Dr. appointment in Lafayette so afterwards we stopped at Dog n Suds for dinner.  Dog n Suds is an old drive-in restaurant and we love their hot dogs and root beer!  Yummy!

On Saturday the 31st, Dad, Eric, and I participated in a marathon relay called the "Circular Logic Marathon."  We participated as part of a team and each ran a varying number of miles in order to complete the whole 26.2.  The race took place on a one-mile loop through a park in West Lafayette, so I spent the night at my parents' house and Dad and I left bright and early to drive up there to pick Eric up.  The race was very cold and a bit windy, but all three of us still ended up meeting goals that we had set for ourselves.  As we are all participating in the 500 Festival Mini Marathon on May 5, it was a nice training run.  Eric ran 10.2 miles (his goal was 10), I ran the next 7 (my goal was 6), and Dad ran the last 9 (which he practically sprinted!).  Our team, which we called "Team Road Rage," finished the marathon in about 4 hours and 7 minutes.  Afterwards, we went to Route 66 Diner and enjoyed delicious cheeseburgers smothered in peanut butter, a classic meal at both Route 66 and Triple XXX restaurants, local to West Lafayette.

Just keep running, just keep running...
Go, Eric, go!
Dad on the last lap of the relay
We had a good time tailgating next to the trail once we were done with our laps

April

Mom was on Spring Break the first week of April, so on Monday the 2nd I went up to Westfield to have lunch with her and to go shopping.  She and Dad will be going to Hawaii in September and she wanted me to help her pick out some cute clothes and accessories for their trip.  She got a really cute hat to wear on the beach, and I am in love with a t-shirt and long skirt combo that we picked out!  The shirt is hot pink and the skirt has bright pink, turquoise, and orange in it...perfect for Maui!  I was also able to pick out some new shoes for work (we have to wear all-black shoes now) and we went to Don Pablos for lunch.

We had a pretty low-key Easter because I had to work all weekend.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Easter service because I was not feeling well, but we did quickly exchange Easter baskets, which was fun.  Mom and Dad invited us over for Easter dinner, but we opted to just make a meal at home instead, which turned out to be a good plan since I was sick.

On Wednesday I finally went to Minute Clinic because I still felt bad and could hardly swallow because of throat pain.  Lo and behold, I was diagnosed with strep throat...yuck!  I was supposed to work that night but had to stay home since I was still contagious until I had been on antibiotics for 24 hours.  I also worked Thursday and Friday night, though I definitely would have preferred to stay home.  Luckily, after a lot of rest, Penicillin, and Tylenol, I am feeling much better now!

We don't really have a whole lot planned for the rest of the month, as we leave for Disney World on April 29.  We did just talk to Matt's parents, though, and they will be coming up for a visit this upcoming weekend.  We are planning to go to an Indiana Pacers basketball game with them on Saturday, which should be a lot of fun!

Whew, don't you feel better now that you are all caught up with the happenings of our lives?

Last week, we found a robin nest on our front porch.  Soon, we will have little baby birds!
Happy Spring!