Mali and Sean's wedding June 4, 2011: Bridesmaids

Georgetown Graduation

This past weekend I traveled up to Washington DC to watch Ben graduate with his masters in Sports Industry Management from Georgetown University. His Mom, Dad, Sister, and Maggie joined us and it turned out to be a great weekend.

I was a stalker with my camera's zoom and got some great creepy close-ups of Ben during the ceremony:


The graduate:
With his dad, mom, and sister:
Ben wearing his cool velvet turquoise master's hood. I had one of those too (I think it was silver) and they are so weird looking.
Ben and a very tired Maggie taking a break from shopping on M street. So many people stopped to take pictures of her. She handled it very well, she is a diva and loves attention, but it wore her out for days.
Me, Ben, and the very sleepy Maggo:

Next week we head to Louisville and from there to Northern Wisconsin for Mali's wedding where I will be the most fabulous maid of honor. I can't believe the wedding is in less than TWO WEEKS! And Mali, if you are reading this, that means only TWELVE DAYS TO GO! What the what!!??!!

PS: I expect my itinerary soon so I can commit it to memory and chose appropriate outfits for each event.

Done with our first year in PhD School!

I did it! I completed my first year at UNC, grades are still pending but I'm 90% confident that I passed. This past semester was the most intense and rigorous of my entire schooling career. I think that is saying a lot as my educational history includes 4 years at St. Olaf and 2 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I think I learned more than ever before and I can actually apply what I'm learning directly to my work at NIEHS.

So now I get to enjoy a summer of ONLY having to work 9 to 5! How much better does that get? I can leave work at the end of the day and have evenings and weekends all to myself. This will mean lots of happy hours with other friends working in Research Triangle Park this summer (there are actually quite a few of us). It almost seems to good to be true.

This weekend I am going to my best friend Mali's bachelorette party in Chicago, which I have organized with lots of help from the other bridesmaid, Babs, and a few great friends living in Chicago now. I could not have planned everything without their help and I'm getting really excited for the weekend ahead. Hopefully everything goes smoothly but once I'm there I will be soooo ready to just enjoy the weekend.

The day after our last final my friend, Nadia, flew to South Africa where she will be spending the next couple of months working. She will be blogging about her experience so check out her blog at: http://impalas-in-my-backyard.blogspot.com/

Oh and I am getting a puppy! I have to wait until August when I move into my new house which has a huge backyard! I will keep you posted as soon as Pup Search 2011 begins.

Have a great day and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!!

DC Cherry Blossoms 2011

Ben and I went to check out the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin in DC this past weekend. We weren't sure if we would make it out because the weather went from sun, to hail, to heavy rain, to finally a beautiful day.

We first stopped by my favorite museum in DC, the Museum of National History, to see the restored flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner. The song was written by Francis Scott Key who witnessed the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812.

We also saw the First Ladies exhibit which displays many beautiful dresses first ladies have worn over the years (favorites included Helen Taft's and Jackie Kennedy's). We also saw the white, one shoulder Jason Wu dress and Jimmy Choos that Michelle Obama wore to the inaugural ball. It was pretty amazing up close.
After the museum, we walked around the Washington Monument and caught some of the Cherry Blossom Festival in action.

Then we went down towards the Tidal Basin where we could see the Jefferson Memorial in the distance.
The whole basin is lined with thousands of cherry blossoms which are only in bloom for a short time in the spring. 1000 Japanese cherry blossom trees were a gift from Japan in 1906, planted in March 1912.

Carolina Blue

It's been sooo long since I've updated. The reason is school is in high gear (only 1.5 months until summer vacation) and it is kicking my butt.

But here is some good news! I got a brand new 2011 Honda CRV! And it is allll mine, no more depending on the rents for car insurance. But I love it, it's gorgeous! And yes, the color may resemble carolina blue....

UNC is doing well in the NCAA tournament, and so is Wisconsin so far! The tourney is always so much fun to experience in Chapel Hill (when UNC is doing well) so it makes March much more bearable. Now I have excuses to stop studying and go drink a beer (to watch the game in a bar of course, I can't afford to have all the game channels!).

Maggie is along for the ride:
Exams and other sorts of torture are over at the end of April. So I'm really looking forward to Mali's bachelorette party in Chicago the first weekend of MAY! I am the maid of honor so I think there is a bunch of stuff I'm supposed to do, but we'll figure it out. The wedding is in June so Ben and I are driving up to Louisville to visit his family and the Maggie, then we are flying to Northern Wisconsin for the wedding. I cannot think of a better way to spend my vacay!

Maggie and Meadow

Ben's brother got a new puppy named Meadow. She is only 6-7 weeks old and loves hanging out with Maggie and 'sharing' toys. (Maggie doesn't like to share because she grew up an only puppy, I can relate). But they are both learning, and WAY too cute!

At least I TRIED

I'm not really much of a cook or a baker, but this year I decided to try making something to bring to the Superbowl party instead of the usual (and very lazy) fallback of chips and dip.

This is no recipe/cooking blog but if you want to make Kyla's Special Greenbay Packer cookies for tonight's game:

1) Buy sugar cookie dough
2) Buy green and yellow frosting
2) Make the cookies with directions on the package
3) Let the cookies cool
4) Decorate the cookies despite your limited skill
5) Eat the cookies that you accidentally mixed the green and yellow frosting's together and they look really gross.
6) Impress everyone