Preparations & Celebrations

These past few days have been spent helping mom in whatever she needs. We have company coming this weekend and our house is a mess (as usual!). I have been trying to help in the cleaning, but its hard to get motivated when there's more important stuff to be done. Like spend time with my sister and her kids or hang out with grandpa.

Yesterday (May 27) was a big day. It was my late Grandma's birthday. She passed away April 5th and would have been celebrating her 78th birthday. I think this is her best birthday since she got to spend it with her Angels and Savior. However, for all of us she left on earth, it was a tough day. My sisters, nieces, brother-in-law, Steve, and I took Grandpa out to lunch. After lunch, we went to her grave and put flowers and a birthday balloon on her vase. My nieces each had a balloon that they wrote messages to Grandma on. We then said "Happy Birthday Monkey" (we called Grandma & Grandpa the Monkeys because of a joke between my mom and Grandpa when she was little) and the girls released their balloons to go up to Grandma. After our little celebration, I took Grandpa home and stayed with him throughout the afternoon. While he napped, I dusted his house (it was the first time I was able to clean the house without grandma shoving money down my shirt).

The evening closed with my parents and aunt taking Grandpa out to dinner. I invited myself and went along for the ride. After dinner, I returned to mom and dad's house to try and clean up some more. I stayed up pretty late and should be working on it now, but I don't feel the greatest. So I am lounging on the couch watching tv while I can get away with it. Mom had to take dad to the doctor today. He recently had a mole removed which came back as a melanoma (cancer). He has to have another procedure done today to remove more tissue and make sure the cancer had spread further than the mole.

A Bumpy Ride

I guess I shouldn't complain about the flight back from Colorado since this one was on time (as opposed to the five hour delay we had on the way there). The weather was super windy which made for quite a bit of turbulence. You know it's bad when the pilot announces to fasten your seat belts (even though the sign was already lit) because it's going to be a rough flight. Turbulence and screaming baby aside, the flight was on time(ish) and we made it back to good old Indiana.

Upon arriving at Mom & Pop Willis, I discovered a small death in our little Ackerman family. Despite mom swearing she fed my fish while I was gone, Clyde the Catfish died. Instead o being his normal jovial self (he tended to spazz and run into the fish tank walls) he was laying side-ways on the bottom -- not a good sign for a fish. I am surprised he lived this long (HA, I got him in November with 2 other fish, Melvin and Herman. Herman is the only survivor). Last week Clyde got stuck in the air tube and my mom just happened to see it happen and got him out of the tube before he died then. I guess fish don't have nine lives like cats and Clyde spent his two. Oh well, we weren't sure how to move the fish and tank to Jackson when we move at the end of June, so that just takes some stress off of moving. We'll see if Herman is still around for our move.

Our first day back in Indiana was spent eating out with my sister, nieces, and mom at McAllisters for lunch. I got mistaken by a lady for a worker. She gave me this long spiel about her table when I finally laughed and said I didn't work there. The lady was embarrassed but I thought it was funny. She said I had a confidence about me (who knew?!). After lunch today, we all went to Grandpa's house to bug him for awhile. Mom was supposed to prep the house for this weekend's festivities (stories to come!) but I changed her plans by "forcing" her out of the house. I guess I shall repay her by making dinner and cleaning up the kitchen. Steve will spend his evening being a hermit on his computer. I'll let him enjoy his next few weeks doing whatever he once since he will soon enter the workforce and not have as much free time.

Colorado Update

By the end of last night, Steve wasn't feeling the greatest. After an afternoon nap in a cold basement, Steve woke up quite chilled. He took a hot shower, which warmed him up; however, we soon learned it was a 102 degree fever that was warming him. While I ate dinner with the Ackerman clan, Steve slept on the couch feeling weak.

We had been staying on an air bed in the basement, but the basement was too cold to continue staying down there. Steve's dad and sister moved the bed up to the living room so that Steve could rest comfortably in a warm room. We ended our evening watching a movie. After a great debate and input from several people, we went with "The Invention of Lying." At the end of the movie all that could be said about it was that we spent a dollar and lost 1 hr and 39 minutes of our life. In short, don't watch it -- not worth the time!

Steve woke up this morning feeling a lot better. We took it easy today by being lazy while the rest of the fam went hiking and to a jazz festival. Steve and I did head out to Goodwill where I made out with a "Best of Friends" vhs set for $2 and Steve got "Memento" for $2. We might try and convince the family to watch it later... we'll see how that goes after last night's movie fiasco :)

Colorado or Bust

Yesterday, we headed to Indy airport to catch our flight to Colorado. Steve's brother Ian is graduating high school and we are headed West to join the family. Our flight was to leave at 4:30. We sat on the tarmac for about 10 minutes when the captain announced a mechanical problem. After sitting on the plane for about an hour, they announced that a piece was coming in from Milwaukee and wouldn't be at the airport until 9:30, pushing our flight to 10:45.

Lots of people on the plane missed their connections and the airport was crazy with people. The airline gave us a food voucher to eat dinner on. We used the airports Wi-fi and watched an episode of House while eating hotdogs. I just happened to look over my shoulder to where our gate was and realized that the huge line of angry people was gone -- our plane had boarded without an announcement! I hurried Steve to get off the computer and get our stuff together because I did not want to miss our flight after waiting 5 hours. The piece the plane was waiting on arrived sooner than expected and our time was pushed up to about 9:30. Re-boarding the plane was unorganized and the crew ended up doing a roll-call to see if everyone made it back. We finally arrived in Colorado around 1:30am our time (11:30 pm CO time).

Ian's graduation was at 8am Friday morning. It was outside in a football stadium. Ian was the valedictorian and made a lovely speech. We sat on the sunny side of the stadium. Steve was concerned he would burn, but I think we came out of it okay. Now we are just being lazy and enjoying spending time at the Ackerman's.

Goodbye Purdue, Hello Life

This past weekend marked Steve and my four years at Purdue. Steve graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering; while I got a degree in Secondary Social Studies Education. Purdue means a lot to us since it is where we met each other. Completing this chapter makes me excited for what lies ahead; however, I know it comes with moving to a new location which terrifies me. I keep reminding myself of Philippians 4:13 "I can all things through Christ. . . " ( I have a feeling this will be repeated a lot in the next few months!).

Steve's family came in for graduation and it was nice to be able to hang out with them the few days that they were here. We went out to eat the first night followed by the annual Bonus Item Run at Walmart. We made out with some Juicy Juice, Muffin tops, and a pack of gum (the gum for me, the rest for Steve). After the ceremony we hung out in their hotel for awhile. Then some of the family went to see the Purdue Glee Club perform while others saw the new Robin Hood. It was a pretty good movie; although if you ask Steve he says it was bad because they ruined it with romance.

Steve's family left on Sunday to head back home. We will be going out to Colorado later this week for Ian's (Steve's brother) high school graduation.

Here are some more pictures from graduation :

Road Trip !

Steve and I (well mostly me, he accepted the fact back in October when he accepted the job offer) have finally accepted that we are moving to Jackson, TN. This acceptance came with a road trip to Jackson in order to find a place to live. Our goal from the trip was to leave Jackson knowing where we would live upon returning. The goal wasn't exactly met but I'll get to that (keep reading, oh the suspense!).

Day 1 -- Monday

Consisted mostly of driving... okay well, that's all we did. We left Russiaville around 1pm (12pm Jackson time) and didn't arrive until 8:30 Jackson time. Steve took me to dinner at Old Town Spaghetti Store. It was delicious and conveniently located across the street from our Hotel. The rest of the night was spent rotting in the Hotel and watching Pawn Stars on tv.

Day 2 -- Tuesday

Our first full day started off with the relocation lady picking us up at the hotel. She took us around all morning to several different apartments. We had a top pick by the afternoon, but had a prospect on a rental house we would visit the next day. So a final decision would be made on Day 3. After seeing several different apartments, Steve and I decided to venture out to Civil War sites. We plugged in an address that we found in a brochure into our GPS and went off on an adventure. Mandy (our GPS) took us the back way to a site known as The Battle of Britton Lane. We only got halfway when we had to turn around because the road that we were on had been washed out with all the rain that TN has gotten recently. So we rerouted our trip and eventually found our destination:

This site was in the middle of nowhere, with no one around, so it made for a creepy experience. The flags marked a mass grave while the log cabin in the back was used as a hospital. Lots of the plaques were missing and there was a creepy confederate soldier mannequin located in a covered wagon. We left this site and went down the road to see the Denmark Presbyterian Church:

This church was used as a prison to hold union soldiers captive. The door to the church was wide open and Steve walked right on in . It looked too run down and creepy to me, so I chickened out and just stood at the door. Steve found an old piano and "tickled the ivories". Pretty cool to think that we were this close to history.

Day 3 -- Wednesday

Steve had to run to the Pringles Plant to sign some papers and have a doctor's check-up. Once that was all done, we stopped by the Craiglist house. It felt like a dream come true -- 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage and located just down the road from the plant. The owner lives in CA so we just met the current tenants and looked around. After the visit we called the owner and expressed our desire to rent from him. We negotiated a move-in date with him, which he would have to negotiate with the current tenants. So we left Jackson awaiting the phone call saying whether this would be our new home.

Now I sit here writing this blog, catching up on life (no internet for 3 days!), and we got the phone call. The move-in date was negotiated and works out just as we wanted it! Now we have to undergo a formal application process and sign the lease, but so far it all looks as its a go.

Moving Day

Moving day, Friday May 7: I have been dreading this day for weeks. Not just because it involves a lot of physical and brain activity, but because this day marks the end of my four years at Purdue. So much has happened in the past four years and I can not believe that it has come to an end.

This day started for me at 5:45 am. It is my last day of student teaching at Wainwright. It does not feel like it's over yet. Ten weeks have flown by and I never thought I would be this confident as an educator by the end of those weeks. I brought in pop for all the kids and some students brought in cake and brownies to share with the class. Some students shared that they would miss me while others were celebrating my departure. Oh well, they're in for a treat when my cooperating teacher takes over the class on Monday. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in the classroom on Monday to see the students readjust. The hardest part of saying goodbye to Wainwright was saying goodbye to my cooperating teacher. Mr. Delp is one of the best teachers I have ever seen. I was truly blessed to get to work alongside him and gain from his wisdom. I know its not a real goodbye because he's always an email away and I know I will still need much advice from him!

Once the school day was over, I said my goodbyes and left. I arrived to my apartment for the last time in order to help my parents and Steve finish packing and moving out of the apartment. Of course we waited for the last day of our lease to move out, which happened to be rainy and overcast. Dad and Steve were racing against the clock to get the furniture loaded into the truck and on the van's trailer in order to arrive to Russiaville before the real rain hit. Once it started to rain, dad said, "time to head out." Steve and dad took the first load while mom and I stayed behind. We finished gathering the rest of my stuff, cleaned the apartment, loaded up the car and said goodbye to Pointe West #3 for the last time. It hasn't hit me that Steve and I are homeless right now. In my head I'm pretending that we're spending the weekend with Mom & Pop Willis. We'll see how long I can believe my psychosis.

I wanted to be able to only pack stuff once, but that was another delusion I keep believing in. Stuff was crammed into boxes which now sit in my parents' garage. Within these next few weeks I am going to have to reorganize and repack boxes. Then the moving company has to come and inspect my packing job... hopefully i will only have to repack once!

What a Wacky Wednesday

Yesterday, my cooperating teacher let me leave early. I got done teaching by 1:30 and the last hour was a prep hour and team. Since I only have 2 more days, there is no need to prep for anything or go to team. I got home and started packing some more things in the apartment. My Mom and Grandpa came up around 3 to help pack up boxes. Once the kitchen items and closet were all packed up, we loaded up the van and they left with it full.

I could not have gotten our apartment packed up by myself. Steve has helped with stuff up high and with the moving the boxes, but my mom has been a blessing with the organization of the packing. I think it’s from her years of experience as well as helping my siblings pack and move. That’s one of the many perks of being the youngest (as well as being your parents’ favorite child).

After Mom and Grandpa left, I realized I had packed up the rice I was going to make and bring to Bible study (oops!). So instead, I made the rest of the homemade cookies in the fridge and brought them along with left over Girl Scout cookies. Bible study was at Mitch & Alice’s (check out her blog mitchandalice.blogspot.com, she worked on it during study!). We ate tacos, biscuits, and random cookies, had great discussion over the end of our book (When Sinners Say I Do), shared prayer requests, and had great fellowship. This is when the night’s craziness began. . .

We decided to stay at Mitch & Alice’s and have a Shutter Island movie night; however, once the guys got to the movie place, they discovered it wasn’t out yet. Plan B involved Godzilla and playing board games. Julie and Carl joined the group and the madness began. While watching Godzilla, Jared convinced his wife Becca that Godzilla had a giant squid friend who caused havoc alongside Godzilla. Then, we played wits and wagers where we all learned that no one really knows nothing and Steve is a huge cheater.

After the failure of Wits & Wagers we played Buck-Wild – game where you have to get your partner to repeat words and phrases previously written by each game participant. We shared many laughs not only at the crazy words people wrote but also trying to get our partners to say the words. In the end Alice and Julie tied with Steve and I. We were up way too late (especially since I had to be up at 5:30 the next morning), but it was totally worth the great memory and laughs shared with some awesome people.

New Chapter

Since Steve and I are about to start a new chapter in our life, I figured there's no better way than to blog about our adventure. We have started packing up our first apartment together in preparation for a pit-stop at my parents' house. We will be shacking up with Mom & Pop Willis for about 6 weeks before heading down to Jackson, TN.

This week has already been crazy, and it's only Tuesday! Steve has been done with finals since last week, and has been living the dream all week. He has no schedules tying him down, no assignments (other than his last grading assignment) needing attention, and an apartment to himself all day while I teach from 7-3. This is my last week as a student teaching. It's a little bittersweet. I have really developed as a future educator these past ten weeks and know I have way more to go. The last week involves me policing students while they "work" in groups on a huge project.

While my days are filled with teaching, my nights are filled with cleaning and packing up our apartment. Yesterday, my mom and sisters came and helped me pack up some boxes. They were such a blessing! I hadn't even begun to think about how to pack and they jumped right in and got the ball rolling. I think there's another packing party planned for tomorrow.

The rest of this week will be interesting with teaching, packing, and saying goodbye to Purdue. Steve was sick last week (even though he just claims Allergies, although allergies are not contagious as I keep reminding him) and I have been blessed with being sick this week (of course!). I guess it's better to be sick now while teaching is easy and I have help packing. (Plus, I'll be moving in with mom this weekend, and she pampers me when I'm sick :) ).

Here are a couple pictures of our first apartment together --

View of Living Room from Entrance:

View of desk in Bedroom:

View of Kitchen & Entry from Living Room: