We're BAAAaack!

Needless to say, I've never been an amazing member of the blogosphere.  After getting married and starting our life together, I figured blogging would be a fun way of keeping track of our new adventures together. Well, A LOT (understatement) has happened in the past 7 years of marriage (7 years officially on the 25th of this month!) and the last 3.5 years of "starting" the "The Gurnees" blog.

Robert and I have enjoyed adventures in home-buying, travel, a new puppy and most recently and most special, our baby boy!  It's hard to believe our Little Man will be 5 months....yes, F-I-V-E months....this upcoming Saturday.  Time has truly flown since Andrew's arrival and I hope to be able to catch many of our closest friends and family up to date with the goings on of our family.

Stay tuned for updates and pictures to fast-forward you to present day Gurnee-life. :)

holy moly, it's decemberrrr!!!!

It is December which means it's time for Christmas preparations, the celebration of Jesus' birth, colder weather, gift-giving, baking, decorating, yummy smells annnnnnd GRADUATION!!! :)

It's so weird to think that after 20 whole years of going to school, I will no longer be a student in 3 days. No more homework, papers, assignments, projects, or exams! No more weekday-evening-reading or being studious while Robert's enjoying his responsibility-free weeknights. No more weekends filled with the mental battle of choosing between fun or homework! Guilt-free weekends are SO very exciting to think about! :)

I'm excited...and I know Robert's also excited about all what our time will hold now that...well, I'll have WAY more time for life! :) I'm looking forward to more interesting, well-planned dinners, and more free time on the weekends for SLEEPING IN, running, traveling, living, and just having a REAL weekend! I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but I'm SO excited.

I'm so thankful for all of the support and guidance from so many mentors, professors, friends and colleagues at Old Dominion and I've been extremely blessed by all of the prayers, encouragement, kind words, and the solid foundation my friends and family have provided during my graduate school journey. Thank you!

More news to come about my FUTURE this week...just waiting on official stuff. ;) This time next week...you can call me MASTER!

4 months and 1 MS comprehensive exam later...

As you know, it's been a WHILE since I've posted. Lots of things have passed in these past 4 months and summer has come and, officially (as of today), gone. It's quite unbelievable...and so very sad. I love the summer so much for so many reasons...sunshine, beach, blue skies, warmth, beach, cookouts, long days, vacations, beach...

This summer, however, was sort of a different story; not quite the sun-shiney, happy summer season. My Master's Comprehensive Exam was scheduled for the end of August this summer. My BIG test on pretty much anything I've learned in the classes that I've taken during the past 2 years of studying at ODU. Yes, scary. Very. Scary. Studying was certainly not the most fun thing to do during the summer... I had a very hard time focusing early in the summer with the small amount of time I had while I was teaching in the Anatomy & Physiology exam in May & June. July was then filled with our annual beach trip, out of town visitors, having a little fun, and attempting to re-focus my efforts in studying. July flew by and I instantly and majorly felt the pressure for effective, quality studying to prepare at the beginning of August.

August was filled with library and coffee shop visits, freaking out, hours and hours of reading, thinking of the possible outcomes of my exam, reviewing potential exam material, more studying, becoming overwhelmed, and reading the Bible and praying fervently to the God who created all of the intricacies of the human body that I was studying. (Do you know how amazing kidney and cardiac physiology are? I know that are so very amazing and that only a Divine Creator could ever dream of and form such functional and purposeful, complex cells, tissues, organs, organ systems along with their the perfect coordination to allow us to function as we do. Amazing, I tell you.) :) Not only is he Creator, but He is my Comforter and my Friend, too. Reminding myself and being reminded that He cares for us always and in everything is a truth that carried me through my anxious thoughts and through my exam.

This was certainly one of the most challenging obstacles of my life emotionally, physically, academically, spiritually. I cried (...and cried and cried), I became tired of and from crying and mentally focusing for such long periods of time, I prayed, cried some more, read and prayed again. For some reason, I'm not super (*understatement) at coping with stress or with overwhelming situations and as a result...I cry. I think this very undesired emotional response was amplified exponentially by my anxiety: the unexpected and infinite possibilities questions my professors could ask me, the uncertainty of my focusing/studying the right material, longing for the test to be over, on top of the magnitude my performance had on the entire exam and therefore finishing the MS degree I had started all played into my thoughts. It seemed there wasn't a single moment that passed where I wasn't worrying, studying, or praying in August.

All I can really say is how thankful I am for my God and His placing such encouraging people, mentors, friends, and family during this entire process. I've never read and prayed his Word more specifically or as often as I had during this month and have come to realize how important this way of praying is. I am so very thankful to our Creator for providing exactly what I needed throughout my studying, in my growth and dependence on Him, and especially for His provision during my exam.

I praise God that this part of my life is over with and that my professors were gracious enough to grant me passing grades on all of the sections of my comprehensive exam! With the successful completion of this exam, hopefully I will be finishing my degree either this December or in May; I'm just waiting on credits and paper work to be approved by the University.

Thank you to all of you who encouraged, listened, and prayed to help me through this. <3

new addition...to our dinner repertoire!

I came across this recipe for Chili Chicken and Basil a while ago and I've wanted to try ever since! Robert & I both really love Thai food and I hoped this recipe was as easy and as yummy as the website claimed. The only things I did differently than what was in the recipe was making 2 servings, leaving out the fish sauce (couldn't find it at the store), and doubling..ok...tripling...the recommended garlic. :) We made some Jasmine rice along with the main dish--SO yummy. (I don't think it would have been as delicious if we used regular white or brown rice.) This dinner ranked pretty high for the both of us in the "let's make this again" pile! I'm so excited to have another yummy chicken dish in our recipe box!

Cilantro Harvest!

About 2 weeks ago Robert and I used some of our fresh cilantro for the first time in a lazy Sunday night dinner--egg quesadillas. The cilantro was so yummy, I could've just had a cilantro quesadilla. :) I had a hard time keeping my cilantro last year and am hoping it sticks around and stays healthy longer this summer than last. It's the perfect addition to so many dishes; so much bang for it's buck! mmm...sooo yummy! :)

Strawberry Cream Cake!

My mother is quite the woman...the best hostess and cook and baker and funny lady and most lovely and godly woman I've ever encountered and I've always wanted (and still want) to be just like her. :)

In hopes to show her an ounce of the grace and loveliness of what's she taught me (still working on that... ;) ) , starting last year I began inviting my parents over for a special Mother's Day dinner to honor her. Cooking for her is sort of weird being that she's done it for me all of my life and does it so well---it takes me much more thought, planning, time and all-out effort to orchestrate a fancy meal for such a talented lady but it is worth all of that and more for her.

This year I made a Martha Stewart dinner (like last year, too, actually) with Almond-Crusted Chicken, Orzo with Peas and Mint, and Strawberry Cream Cake! The chicken and the orzo were both pretty good. I felt they could've used a bit more flavor (nothing a little garlic or onion powder or butter probably couldn't help), but I would be willing to make either of the dishes again in the future sometime. As for the dessert, I've always wanted to make some sort of layered cake...I've owned round baking pans for almost 3 years now and have never attempted. This year, I finally found a recipe that sounded easy enough to experiment with my pans, super yummy, seasonally appropriate (mmm strawberries), and something I just knew my mom would love! The made-from-scratch cake, whipped cream, and juicy fresh strawberries ended up being the perfect end tp a sweet, special day honoring the sweetest, most special mother ever! :)

Mother's Day Flowers

For the past couple years, I've taken an early morning trip the day before Mother's day to Norfolk Wholesale Florist for Mother's Day flower arrangement inspiration and supplies. I buy several bunches of flowers to put them all together in special arrangements for the sweet ladies in our lives. I made an extra bouqet for one of Robert's grandmas, "Grandnini." Grandnini was in the hospital during Mother's Day weekend and we went to visit and brought her these flowers to cheer her up. :) This year I found pretty pink roses, daisies, irises, carnations, and some baby's breath and purple filler-type flowers--very bright and very springy--just the way I like it!

Orchid Conservatory

At the end of April, ODU's Orchid Conservatory arranged hundreds upons hundreds of their orchid plants that were in bloom. The green house is such a sweet-smelling, warm, and happy place. :) I had never taken advantage of the conservatory until this winter when some friends and I stopped in. It's the perfect place to stop in on the way to and from getting coffee in the winter! :)

While there are many plants in the conservatory you could find and purchase at Home Depot or Lowe's, there are SO many from different states, countries, and continents. Some plants look like spiders, slippers, daffodils, or fancy, dressed up blooms complete with sparkles and frilly ruffles. Here are a few of my favorites!

Robert took me to the circus and didn't leave me there!

It had been at least 15ish years since I'd been to the circus...for Robert, it had been longer! After we saw the elephant parade when the circus came to town, I wanted to go so badly. I suppose Robert read my mind when he asked if I wanted to go the Sunday afternoon when Ringling Brothers were in town! It was the best break for me at the beginning of the height of my end-of-semester work. :)

Several things were the same from what we could remember--elephants, confetti, tigers, tight rope walkers, motorcycles on highwires, strong men and bendy people. Some acts were the same with a few tweaks--we never remembered an attempt at a quadruple somersault on the trapeze and we could only remember about 5 motorcyles in the ball of steel--not like 10. :)

simple wonders

i love stepping onto my patio in the mornings to water my all of my little plants and to witness the simple wonders of new life; it never ceases to amaze me. i love starting out the day being reminded of Who has His hand in everything--even the small things.

Plasmodium falciparum

What you see here in these pictures are Malaria and mosquitoes on sugar cookies. Yes, I said MALARIA and, yes, I said SUGAR COOKIES. Malaria... as in the terrible, deadly disease one can contract after being bitten by a mosquito (Anopheles spp.) infected with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum...

Last week, I made these cookies and brought them into my Molecular Genetics class last Wednesday for our lunch-buffet. My professor, Dr. Cooper, for this class was my Parasitology professor last fall and just so happens to be a Malaria expert. Also, we had a guest speaker from Notre Dame, who's a friend/colleague of Dr. Cooper and, again, just so happens to be a Malaria expert. He's one of the leading researchers of Plasmodium falciparum, its genetics and specifically how its genetics affects its drug resistance (Dr. Mike Ferdig). Kind of a big deal being that the primary drug used for malaria decades ago has become resistant and there hasn't been a drug as cheap and effective.

While these gentlemen are very familiar with malaria, mosquitoes, and the havoc they can wreak...they were certainly not prepared to see malaria, mosquites, and cookies and experience wreaking havoc on those cookies! It was a great surprise, a fun addition to our Malaria discussion, as well as a perfect way to start winding down the semester! I'm hoping that if my brain didn't cut it for a good grade this semester...that these cookies will help me out.

You'll notice my rendition of the Anopheles species mosquito and an assortment of parasite red blood cell stages: ring stages, both young and mature trophozoites, and schizonts.

As always, I most certainly had amazing assistance and am quite pleased with this project that has brought together my love for cookies and biology. <3

BABY BASIL!!!!!

I'm so very excited to announce to you we have BABIES!!!! Lots of basil plant babies that are working so hard to peep out of the soil to greet the sun and soon flavor our dinners! I haven't posted on all the plants I've planted and seeds I've sown recently, but I planted basil and cilantro seeds about 10 days ago (Sunday the 11th) and I noticed these little green specs (seen in the above picture)popping out on Day 7 (4/28)! This was a lot faster than the seed packet indicated their germination period was (20 days!). After 10 days, the seedlings are coming up strong and I even noticed a few baby cilantro working his way up this morning when I watered all my plants! Hurray!

Elephants in Ghent

Last Monday evening, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus arrived in Norfolk and paraded their elephants through the neighborhood from the train tracks where they arrived to the Norfolk Scope for the circus this week! Can you SEE the enthusiasm? :P (well...at least from one of us!)

Since Robert & I have lived in Downtown, we've always managed to miss the elephant walk. Luckily, this year we both read pilotonline.com and caught word that they were coming our way! :) We (I) was not going to miss it this year.

After our Monday afternoon run/jogs (you guess who runs and who jogs) ;) and a quick dinner, we walked the route through Ghent that the elephants were supposed march from the train tracks to Scope. Low and behold, we finally saw their big trunks turn the corner of Colley Ave. onto Olney. We watched the workers calmly lead the elephants down the road....all the while PETA protesters were walking and waving their signs (quietly, which was surprising to me!). Robert & I ended up walking home alongside the elephants toward Scope where the elephants set up shop for the week.

It definitely wasn't SUPER exciting...but it was still fun to see the 6 elephants sway as they marched and grasp the tails of their friend in front of them. :)

Shamrock Marathon 2010

On March 21, 2010, Robert completed his 2nd marathon! After months of training (since about November), he was well-trained, physically fit, mentally prepared and all-in-all ready to go. This year, Robert's little brother, Bryan, who's a senior at UVA, also decided to take on the challenge of running the 26.2 miles down at the ocean front.

At 8am, the gun went off and the boys began to run. I was fortunate enough to pal-around with my father-in-law, Bob, for the morning to hop in the car together, chase after the boys, cheer them on at several mile markers, take pictures, and cheer even louder, and pass grapes and bananas to fuel the men. We were able to catch the boys at the 3, 5, 8, 11, 16, and 19 mile markers. It's always so interesting to see the many different size, shapes, ages, and gaits of all the participants in a marathon...which is quite guilt-laden and inspiring all at the same time. :)

The majority of the training the boys did was during our very cold, wet/snowy winter. I remember Sunday afternoons when Robert would strap on his running shoes and drive down to Sea Shore State Park to run 18 miles in 35 degree temperatures with ice puddles all throughout the trails. It certainly made me nervous, but I had faith. Bryan did most of his training in Charlottesville, which received feet of snow at a time and has several large hills to begin with. With all that hardcore training, I knew these boys could do it. Unfortunately, race-day was a very, very warm day in comparison to the climate the guys trained in, which made it a million times more difficult than perceived.

All throughout the first 16 miles the boys seemed strong and energetic. They'd smile and wave and keep on truckin'. Come mile 19, things made a turn for the worse... At this point, both Robert and Bryan had walked a little bit, had several cups of water at the stops more than normal, stopped to stretch, and grimaced. I was able to pass off some grapes to Robert at mile 19 (full of water, carbs, and sugar to keep him going!) and Bryan wouldn't take his banana. They both were beginning to cramp up at this point in time. Robert's calves were giving him a pretty big problem, but he persevered. The heat really did a number to the both of them--the water loss with all the sweat must have caused a major electrolyte imbalance which did not make their muscles happy. :(

Bob and I drove around to the 23 mile marker and waited and waited for the boys. Minutes passed, which seemed like eternity, and still...no sight of the boys. We then received a phone call from Bryan telling us he couldn't make it any further--this made me fear the worst for Robert. A few minutes later, Robert jogged to us, chugged some Gatorade, and pressed on. :) Bob & I had to wait around for Bryan to get dropped off at the mile marker we were at for quite some time. Unfortunately, the emergency cart took a really long time and caused us to miss Robert crossing the finish line. Poor Bryan couldn't move and just laid in the back of the car while Bob and I went to go find Robert at the finish-line tent. When we finally found Robert, I apologized to him for missing him cross the finish line, but he assured me "it was nothing to see...really, it was not pretty."

Even though it was a tough run for the boys, I'm so proud of my Robert for running and finishing the whole 26.2 miles this year! He may not have hit his time goal, but simply finishing is exciting enough for me. :) Not sure if he's up for another marathon...only time will tell. I imagine he will---he has his personal record to beat as well as the Gurnee family record to obliterate. Maybe next year?

Spring Evening in Downtown

This past Saturday, my school friends (Brian, Amanda, Kim and her friend Chris) and Robert and I took the Paddlewheel Ferry across the Elizabeth River from downtown Norfolk to downtown Portsmouth to finally celebrate Robert's birthday together. We planned on going out all together back in March, when Robert's real birthday is, but travel, spring break, colds, baby showers, and flat out tiredness got in the way of that plan. :) (March never seemed like such a busy month until this past year!) We went to one of Robert's favorite restaurants: The Bier Garden. I never really thought I'd enjoy German food, but this cute little restaurant has the most delicious pretzyls and pretzyl rolls! :) It was a perfect spring evenening to enjoy the ferry ride and dinner outside on the patio!

Catsup, Ketchup, CATCH-UP!!!

It's been a long time since I've blogged last and I figured I should just fast forward us all to the approximate present. My last post was early in the year...during the ginormous snow storm of 2010 and I have had very little time to sit down and organize pictures and think and write and update you....all 2 of you (who probably know what's happened and what's going on in our lives, anyways). ;)

Well, since the snow storm, not TOO much has happened, but here are a few things/highlights of the past 3 months. (Click on the headings to see the pictures that coincide with the subject. There are too many to just post a few on the blog.) :)


25th Birthdays
Holy moly. This year's age was a little hard to swallow. I remember giving James, my oldest brother, the hardest time about how old he was when he turned 25...well...now I realize this age is not that old and it's not such a terrible place to be in life. :) It's also nice that I'm not the only one in my house that's soooo old. While I may be an "older" woman, I'm only 3 weeks older than Robert - it's ncie to know he's deteriorating at about the same rate I am. :)

I spent my birthday day with my mom and our friend Donna at a fancy tea room in Chesapeake. It's a place we'd never been to for tea (something we like to do every once in a while) and it turned out to be one of the nicest, higher quality tea rooms we've been to. It was called With Flair Tea Room and was so nice!

My birthday evening, Robert surprised me with a fancy dinner at Vintage Kitchen which is a really nice restaurant at the bottom of Dominion Tower in Downtown. We love supporting local, smaller restaurants and especially those that try to serve locally grown produce and such--Vintage Kitchen was one of those. It was a great birthday date and everything we had was so delicious.

The day after my birthday, my mom & Donna threw a tea for the childrens music workers at church.... after we all enjoyed their tasty tea sandwiches and goodies, those crazy ladies surprised me with an amazing Chocolate Almond Cake. After the tea (and yummmmy cake), Robert & I went to an ODU basketball game with a bunch of friends from school and a few friends from church. Aftewards we headed to one of our favorite pizza places (Cogan's Pizza) to continue my birthday celebration. It was a great time scarfing down some good pizza (we LOVE their Margherita pizza!) and enjoying the evening with friends.


Baby Showers & Girly Fun
I attended 3 baby showers in 3 weeks in the month of March! One was for a friend from church (Mary), another in honor of my bestest bud (Amy), and another one for a friend of mine (Mandy) who I went to elementary and middle school with!

After Mary's shower, all of us girls (several who attended the shower) piled into my car and headed to church for a ladies dinner. We all shared a table and were were responsible for decorating it according to whatever theme we wanted. All of us girls are in the "Young Married" Sunday School class and so we decided to go with a Wedding theme! We decorated the table with a white table cloth, my china, pictures of all of us girls with our husbands on our wedding days, bows on the backs of our chairs, and a REAL wedding cake! I had quite a bit of help from my mom and our dear friend Donna making, designing and decorating the cake--it was a lot of fun and quite a challenge, but so worth it to try it out and experiment! All of us girls enjoyed the time to chat and enjoy each others company...all while our husbands hung out together and did manly things like eat steak and watch sports. :)

Catherine & I worked together to throw Amy her baby shower in March and had so much fun doing so! It was just great to help someone so special to us celebrate and prepare for her first baby, Carter. :) My mom & I baked and decorated a cake that matched the cups, plates, and napkins Catherine chose for the shower--I think it turned out too cute, if I do say so myself. Also, Catherine thought of a really neat idea for a decoration; we chose a bible verse to go with each of the letters of the Carter's name and hung each letter up, with its corresponding verse, on a clothes line. It turned out the craft project didn't only serve as a decoration for the shower, but Amy & Dave were able to use it as a decoration over Carter's crib--that made the work well-worth it and that much more special.


Puppy!!!
My parents decided to get a puppy early in the year--that has been a major highlight of the past few months! :) (i love puppies) I was able to go with mom & dad out to Chesapeake to pick out their puppy with them in February. I absolutely LOVE puppies (have i mentioned that i love puppies?) and just adore little Labrador puppies. I couldn't have been more excited the day we met all 14 puppies that we had to choose from! We found a swee,t little, light-colored, energetic, female puppy that day. Mom & dad picked her up in the middle of March when she was about 7-8 weeks old. It has been so much fun for Robert & I to go and play with little Josie and watch her grow in this past month. :) She is definitely wild and puppy-like, but she's so smart at such a young age and such a good doggie, too. :) i. love. puppies.


ODU CAA Champs
So, the first day of my spring break was the day the ODU men's basketball team was playing William & Mary for the CAA Championships title. One of Robert's cousin's, Emily, absolutely LOVES ODU bball. Another one of his cousins, Evie, and I drove up with Emily to get free student tickets and watch ODU take their first CAA title since 2005! I'm not normally a fanatic about sports, much less basketball, but it was definitely a fun time to hang out and see a major game like that. (I still can't believe we got our faces painted for the game...) ;)


College Girlfriends
At the conclusion of my spring break, I drove up to meet some of my best friends (Robyn & Julia) in Fredericksburg where we went to college. It was so sweet just to be able to pick up where we left off, visit our favorite restaurant (Sammy T's), coffee shop (Hyperion), icecream shop (Lee's), and college campus. This was my first visit to Mary Washington since I graduated in May of 2007!!! I still can't believe I hadn't been up to visit the campus or walk around before then. Mary Washington's campus is still as lovely as I remember. I never realized before how much I missed the open green fields, the shady trees on the main campus walk, the coordinating brick buildings and their massive white columns, and the overall refined feel that there is on that campus. It was a great feeling to be back to that place with some of my best friends with whom I had some of my best memories with!


Carter David
Amy & Dave's little Carter David Watson was born on March 31, 2010. One of the sweetest moments yet was Easter weekend when Robert & I were able to meet Carter. It was such a neat moment to see my bestest friend hold her own baby! For as long as we've known each other, shared so many memories together, talked about the future (boys, husbands, and family) and about growing up as old ladies together, this moment was priceless. Robert & I took some Easter cookies over to the Watsons and gave Carter his very first sugar cookie. ;)


Well, I think that basically catches you all up to life at the moment. Perhaps I'll be more on top of things now that the semester's about to end and (hopefully) life will slow down a bit. :)

Snow Day 01.30.2010

During the big snow storm of 2010, here in Norfolk, Virginia, Robert & I enjoyed a day of wandering around in the snow and enjoying a relaxing day.

Our day started off waking up to about 4-6 inches of snow. Here's a picture of Downtown Norfolk from our balcony. I set a bowl out on the porch to see how fast the snow was coming. After our soaking in the winter wonderland outside, we made snowman and snowflake-shaped blueberry & chocolate chip pancakes! They were super yummy and probably some of the fluffiest pancakes I've ever made in this home.

Robert & I suited up for a jaunt around downtown in the snow. We started our walk through our neighborhood to the Pagoda near the USS Wisconsin and Nauticus. The Norfolk mermaid apparently had a snowball fight before we got there. We continued our walk around the Wisconsin to Town Point Park. I found a good spot for a snow angel...I must say, it was probably the most perfect snow angel I've made in my lifetime...complete with a halo. We walked through the park towards Waterside and then found our way to Granby Street. It was pretty cool to see it snow covered, quiet, and peaceful.

After Downtown, we headed over to Ghent to lollygag. Brambleton sure wasn't busy in terms of car-traffic, but we saw several people out for walks on the Hague Bridge that connects Ghent to Downtown. At this time, the snow turned sort of to a mix with a bit more wind. The Hague wasn't only filled with chilly, choppy water, but packed with happy geese, ducks, and some very confused seagulls. :) We walked and walked and found ourselves near the Chrysler Museum, which was so pretty in the snow!



About 3 hours passed and we finally made it back home! After our looonnnng walk, I continued my mother's tradition of making Snow Cream. It was so delicious; it's a shame it doesn't snow more often. :) Once we got home, we had a lazy afternoon with Robert watching TV, me doing some homework and fixing a yummy pan of Momma's lasagna. It was nice to have the afternoon to put dinner together at a leisurely pace. Once we were done with dinner, we walked to the store and rented a movie. What a delightful end to a super day!

PS--there are a bunch of more pictures on our Picasa site!

Homemade Christmas ornaments! (yeah, it's February)

I had this idea to make ODU ornaments for a few of my close friends at school this Christmas long before Christmas rolled around. I already had the ornaments and the plan of attack, I just failed to attack this project til....January. :P I finished them sooner than I thought I would...but still, it took me a while to put the finishing touches on them and get them wrapped up. Once I had them all boxed up for delivery, I kept forgetting to take the gifts to them. I'm proud to say, as of Super Bowl Sunday, my friends finally had their Christmas presents. :)

Massanutten/Luray Caverns

Over MLK weekend, Robert, me, and a few friends of ours from ODU (I work with 2 of them) rented a cabin up in the mountains for a weekend of fun and skiing. We drove up on a Saturday, chilled out, and went night skiing! It had been pretty cold up in VA for a while but the few days before we drove up and during Saturday, it was probably about 50 degrees. The warmth made the snow pretty slushy and weird (very different than Colorado snow, for sure!) We had a good time skiing all night and then went back to our nice little condo where we stuffed all 10 of us. Good fun, games, food and friends. :)

When we woke up Sunday, it was still fairly warm out and it was sprinkling in the morning and switched back and forth to rain for most of the day. We made the decision to save $$ and head out for an adventure--we went to Luray Caverns which was just an hour away. I've always heard about the caverns and remember learning about them in elementary school, but it is far more amazing to see them in person. No description or picture could do the intricate scenery of all of the stalactites and stalagmites justice. It's another one of God's amazing wonders: the way the forms were made, how the 'tites and 'mites continue to morph and grow ever so slowly, as well as the crisp, clear, clean air down in the caves and how the formations play a part in that. It was just amazing to breathe in (literally) and witness. In the cavern, someone a long time ago figured out how to make an organ out of the formations--that was really neat to hear and wish they had someone playing the organ live. The caverns were an excellent alternative to skiing for the day!

Later that afternoon, Robert & another friend (Andy) went back to Massanutten for another round of night skiing, despite the wet, warm conditions. For the rest of that night, we enjoyed hanging out, eating some yummy tortilla soup (made by my friend Kim), and watching the US men's figure skating competition and some award show...a very lazy evening, but a perfect long day weekend for a bunch of grad students (and a normal working adult, like Robert). :)

Wish it would've been better skiing conditions, but all-in-all, I'm really glad we took initiative and had an adventure all together to the mountains.

Defenestration of Freemason

As residents of a 4th floor condo and lovers of REAL evergreen Christmas trees, taking down our tree and disposing of it poses a messy problem. We don't want to get pine needles all over the condo's hallways or in the elevator or staircase....so a few years ago, we experimented and determined that throwing our Christmas tree off our patio would be the best first step in disposing of our tree. :)

Robert tosses the tree and I catch it. Haha...not really, I'm just below making sure nobody gets in the way of the tree (and taking pictures). :)