monday in illinois.

We are having a wonderful...relaxing time in Illinois!

We had a party on Saturday night to celebrate our marriage! Someone had the bright idea that we should feed each other cake....oh goodness. We were both being nice and polite until Jery decided to smear BLUE icing all over my face...So I quickly scooped up some icing and rubbed it all over his face! Then proceeded to make him promise he wouldn't do this again at our wedding *I was fine with it in my jeans and shirt.. my wedding dress.... I doubt I'd be so thrilled* I am sad to say that the only pictures from this endeavor came our blurry..

The next morning I took Michael to the train station bound to Chicago. He went to visit his sister for a few days! Later in the day we drove to Iowa *I love how outside of Texas you can actually travel from state to state*.. The Mississippi River divides Illinois and Iowa, and every winter it is home to lots of bald eagles. Apparently they leave on "March 1st" so we were a few days late! We did get to see a couple though.. It is pretty incredible.

here is one of the eagles..

Today we took Chris out to Argyle State Park outside of Jery's home town.. It is beautiful. It is covered in pine trees.. I could sit out there and read a book all day smelling the pine enjoying the peace and quiet.

This is a "water hose" in Illinois.. look at all the pine trees in the background.

I <3>

We also went down to the "old bridge" out by his moms.. It's has been closed for some time now, but gives you a since of adventure when you walk across it..

If you look close you can see the water flooding...

Probably the best part of the trip thus far however has been a gift from mother nature. Something that is almost annoying to them here, but something we don't seen often in Texas..

*RAIN*

I can honestly say that it has been blissful to open the window and listen to the rain.. One might think it would be a damper on a spring break vaca.. but not in my eyes.. I was amazed at how long it has been since I've seen rain.. I wish I could just bottle it up and bring it home with me! The ground here is soaked.. even just walking around you can feel how saturated the ground is!

Samson and Harlii are doing great! They are enjoying the wide open spaces and behaving quite well! We let Samson outside and he runs all around but stays pretty close to the house.. aside from constantly getting muddy *from the glorious rain* he stays out of trouble! They are both awe struck by the cats, but the cats are so found of them.. but I am thankful they are being good!

here is the little man enjoying life in the street..

Kimmie wasn't too sure about them at first.. but she's coming around!

after a long day of running and playing... please notice that he covers three fourths of a queen size bed....

Illinois.

WE MADE IT!

After a slightly long..restless drive we made it to Jery's mom's. We left Abilene about 4 yesterday afternoon and got here about 6 am! Samson spent about 5 hours in the bed of the truck.. which didn't go well so we let him ride in the cab the rest of the way *four people, one jack russell, one great dane, one truck, lots of miles... SNUG*!

We slept for a few hours and are now showering and getting ready for the day! I have not seen Samson and Harlii this spunky in forever!!!!! Samson just begs to be outside and runs like crazy! His mom lives out in the country with a pretty big plot of land so he has all the room he wants!

unproductive.

Today, the day before we leave for spring break in Illinois, was suppose to be a super productive day. It has turned out to be the complete opposite.

This is what we should have. Packed bags.

.....We haven't gone to get our suitcases from the storage unit.


I did do laundry. Slightly important since it hasn't been done in two weeks.. In the midst of laundry I discovered I suck at this -
Seeing that I have been unproductive today.. Jery's shirts weren't taken to the dry cleaners. Therefore I was left to iron them.. that didn't go so well. Thank goodness for ABUs that don't need to be ironed, and dry cleaners for shirts that do.

Well we are off to play catch up on the things I haven't accomplished today. I have such a wonderful and understanding husband.

flowers.

I have never been a huge fan of flowers. Bottom line: they die. They are so pretty and exciting when you first get them and then shortly after they die. Very sad.

I do however love roses. They are beautiful and can be dried. I still have every rose I have ever gotten at my moms house!

But I have found a new love in flowers. tulips.

They are absolutely beautiful. I am afraid they don't last long and sure they aren't a good flower for drying, but that is ok. ACU always plants new flowers for special events, and the latest one was Sing Song. They put these huge pots outside the campus center and planted red tulips. They really are such a pretty flower!

So aside from my new love of tulips.. I want a garden. Jery and I have been talking about all the things we are going to do when we move to England.. I want to go see every garden in the entire country! And I want to plant my own! I'm not sure how well this will work with Mr. Samson roaming around, but I'm going to attempt!!

Just my random thoughts for the day. Enjoy.

pictures.

Just a couple new pictures of our pups... Samson has gotten HUGE! They had just gotten baths and were running around without collars...

Miss Harlii!

Mr. Samson

He has such a fun personality!

I mentioned in another blog that we celebrated Noah's first birthday this Sunday.. here are some pictures from that..

He was excited to have accomplished a child's toy... GO CHRIS!

The sweet Becker family... Noah was tired of pictures by this point.

Singing happy birthday to Noah!

Emily and I!

He is an ADORABLE one year old!

Joslyn and Haily!

silly.

I attend an interesting university.

University policy - MWF you are allowed 9 absences before being dropped from the class - sounds fair.
My 400 level, senior class - you are allowed 9 absences before being dropped from this class.
My 100 level, freshman theater class - you are allowed 5 absences before being dropped a letter grade.

Please someone explain to me how it is that I can miss 9 classes of a high level seemingly important class, but I can only miss 5 of a silly theater class that contributes NOTHING to my field of study.

Here is my dilemma - I have missed this theater class three times thus far in the semester. All for things that I could not avoid. I have legitimate proof that I was somewhere that required me to miss this class. I have two more school project that will be approved by the university that are going to require me to miss this class. And my wedding. So because I am participating in school activities, went to the doctor, and was required to attend a meeting I am going to get a B at best in this silly class. I understand that I could have moved my wedding around and not had to miss class, but that is only once absence. There should be no reason why this particular teacher makes up his own attendance policy. If you are an upper level class that is important for one's career field.... make up all the attendance policies you want. However, if you are a freshman level required class don't be ridiculous. Accept university forms as a reason for me not to be in your class and don't drop my grade. Get over yourself and stop pretending that any of us care about your class.

That is my soap box for today. *still a great post to come*

downhill.

It has been made clear to me that my blogging skills have been lacking this week! I have found myself with a to-do list that is never ending. I have also found guilt for blogging instead of being productive. I'm not exactly sure what to do about either of these problems, but I'm certain that God will guide me from now till May and every day that follows.

We are headed to Illinois this week, and I think the excitement is making it difficult to concentrate. It never fails that the week before spring break is the craziest week of the semester *I might beg to differ come finals week which is also conveniently our last week in the states..but for now we'll stick to this* It is a busy week in school, but also at home. We are addressing more invitations than we know what to do with, we are attempting to pack and get everything ready for Illinois, I have several volunteer duties this week, I have tests and papers all week, and Jery, aside from working crazy hours, is attending briefings on how to have a "smooth move"... I have begun to realize that we are in the downhill slope of these months. The last three months seem to have flown by and I have a feeling the next three will go even faster. Busy weeks and busier weekends between now and the day we board a plane.

We have made a decision that our dogs will not be joining us in May. The cost of bringing them to England before they have completed their quarantine time is unreal and frankly not worth it. They will be staying in Texas until sometime in July. I attempt to keep these thoughts farthest from my mind, but know that the day we leave will be harder knowing we won't see them for a couple months. Again.. God will get me through those days too!

I went to a couple doctors appointments on Friday to work on my medical clearance! As soon as the doctor faxes those papers we will be ready to go before the board! We also went to my sweet sweet baby cousin Noah's birthday party this weekend! Last year around this time we were all frantic. He did not have the easiest birth and spent several days follwoing his birth in the NICU! Today, however, he is a beautiful, healthy, ADORABLE one year old! As soon as we figure out how to get pictures off our new camera I will post some pictures from his party!

Now I must go and study statistics. I have an interesting blog coming for all your military folks.