Hope Still Flies

"King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving here in the States! I definitely had an eventful week full of lots and lots of driving. 

Wednesday Michael, Sarah and I drove back to Wichita. Thursday, Michael and I had Thanksgiving lunch with his dad, and then had dinner with his mom, brothers and grandparents. All of it was mighty tasty, and it's always good seeing everyone! I had to split pretty quick though to drive back up here because I had to work bright and early for Black Friday. After that, it was back to Wichita. 

Saturday morning I went to visit a coworker who just had an adorable baby boy. I got to hold him for a few minutes and it was amazing. Babies are awesome. :) Then Saturday afternoon Mike and I drove to Dodge City for a wedding. It was beautiful! Sadly we had to drive right back to Wichita after it was over. 

Then, Sunday, my family celebrated Thanksgiving. Lots of tasty food and good times all around. Garrett and I spent some time outside and I got some pictures of him. He's growing into a handsome, and smart, little man.

We play a card game called Hand and Foot a lot in our family. I tried to get a picture of everybody smiling... my mom and sisters did a great job. Craig acted like Craig, and Michael said he was looking important, which means like a mob boss.

But yeah, my dad even made his amazing salsa for Thanksgiving and I got to bring some home...

...but nowI can't eat now because I picked up the flu that was going around the family. Definitely not a good way to start the last few weeks of school. Getting behind at this point would be pretty horrible, so I'm hoping it's just a 24 hour thing. 

How is everyone else doing? I really didn't mean to fall off of the blogging Earth. It's just been crazy.

"Wanted" by Joshua Radin

I can only say, "Gaaah school has kept me from updating" so many times. But it's true. Life. Work. School. It's been hectic. All of my midterms happened in the last two weeks, so there's been a lot of studying and such.

Studying?? A college student?? What?!

But that's what's been going on. And when I haven't been doing the school/work/studying/sleeping/eating thing, I've started a new workout routine that involves running and doing the NYC Ballet Exercise DVDs. It's been something I've wanted to check out for awhile and I love it. It's a great workout to help posture, legs, back, abs... pretty much everything. 

It does make me realize how ungraceful I am, though. 

Can't win 'em all. Have to settle with my math/science brain.

And work on not needing to control every situation. (That...should probably be another blog post).

But I've convinced myself, Michael, Sarah and Shawn that we should run the 5k Turkey Trot next month. I've always wanted to do a 5k, but never got around to it. Now I'm forcing myself to when I can barely run a mile. Cause that sounds like a good idea. I keep hoping that my soccer-player-lungs will come back to me. They've gotta be around here somewhere, right?

Maybe??

Meh.

That is all for now... here's a few more pictures of this past week/weekend...

He never lets me take pictures of him...

Madi being a soccer master.

Mini-soccer player master.

Megan being an awesome tumbler.

Beth and I wearing shirts that our aunt and uncle made. Garrett looking unsure.

-"Everything Falls" by Fee

I really don't listen to the radio much anymore, but I heard this song awhile ago, and then Kathryn from sytycd quoted it on her twitter the other day when I very much needed to hear it.

I spent this past weekend in Wichita celebrating Gage's 9th birthday. I'm not exactly sure when he grew up so much... But it became evident he's quickly approaching his teenage years at his (tackle!) football game...

Seriously. I'm pretty sure this was just yesterday.

Anyway... We stopped by the pumpkin patch after his game, and I got a couple pictures of Garrett, who kept picking the pumpkins up and bringing them over to me.

And one more cute one of Garrett from the park that night...

Anyway... It was a good weekend. I've been missing my family, so that was good. Now it's back to work and school. After Michael got home from his rehearsal last night, he told me about his schedule for next semester. From the sound of things, next semester is going to be busier for both of us than this semester. Which seems ridiculous and not possible if you ask me, but... I'm proven wrong a lot.

I'm walking a fine line between being so, so incredibly proud of Michael, and all he's accomplishing, and being completely selfish about hating how much he's gone. I know it comes with the territory of being married to a musician, and I think I remember knowing what I was getting myself into... it's just hard. I leave before he gets up in the morning, and usually fall asleep before he gets home during the week. 

I'm also not sure how he does it... Class, rehearsals, work, sectionals... I think he eats somewhere in there, but I can't keep track anymore. I know that I miss him, though. It's rough. I'm hating myself for being such a downer about him being gone. I understand things could be much worse... I'm just not used to not having my best friend around to vent to. And when he is here, I feel bad for venting, because goodness knows he's going through much worse.

So here I am, venting on my blog. I'm sorry. 

Anyway. The weeks are flying by here. I can't believe we're almost to the middle of October already. The trees are turning gorgeous colors, we're hitting midterms and I feel like shoving my head through a wall after Transport Phenomena and all that jazz. 

Okay. Enough rambling and putting off English homework. :)

"Breathe" by Anberlin

Carissa over at lowercase letters is having miscellany monday! So click on the button and go check out her blog. She's hilarious. Her kids (and she) are adorable. Lots of win over there.

{1}

I love three-day weekends. And since I don't have another one until November, I'm enjoying this day. We had a friend come and visit yesterday and today, but sadly he's leaving soon. Mike and I plan on relaxing the rest of the day. I can't wait.

{2}

Without fail, once school started and I got stressed out with my homework, my face broke out like whoa. Which only makes me more frustrated, which makes things worse. Sigh. My skin had been so great this summer. Laaaame.

{3}

Fall is coming. We're getting cold fronts coming through that keep knocking the horrible 90's humid weather back into the upper 70's and lower 80's. But, of course, my allergies have come back with a vengeance. Hardcore.

{4}

The campus Career Fair is in a couple weeks. I'm already really freaking out, even though there's no reason to. This is the big way to get internships for the summer of 2011, and for most engineers it's getting harder and harder to get a job after you graduate if you haven't had an internship. Eek. Pressure much? I've been researching companies that I'm interested in working at in KC and Colorado.

Hello, being a grown-up.

{5}

Speaking of... I've started watching HGTV. I used to think that as the most boring channel ever. Ever. But my dad was watching it when I was visiting last month, and now I'm addicted to House Hunters. I love laughing at people who don't pick a house picked on pain color (really?!) and trying to guess which one they'll pick. Plus I get to fantasize about buying a house. One day.... One day.

{6}

Stores are putting out their really soft and cuddly winter baby clothes.

Uh oh.

This does not bode well for my "Problem".

{7}

I drove back to Wichita Friday after I got out of class. Got to hang out with Beth and baby G. Garrett's getting ridiculously big. He and Beth make hilarious faces at each other, and he likes saying "'hank 'ou". He's adorable. Two of my favorite pictures from that night....

Gah. I miss them already. I've been pretty homesick recently. Just gotta keep truckin' on.

Until the next time I get away from Transport and Thermo...

Today's song of choice is supposed to be a song that makes me sad...

But like I said yesterday, there aren't too many songs that make me sad. After thinking about it this morning, I decided that "This Woman's Work" sung by either Kate Bush or Maxwell is going to be my choice. Overall, it's just a sad song, plus, they did a dance to it on SYTYCD that was absolutely heartbreaking.

Here's the dance. It's hard to watch without getting emotional if you've known someone who's been really sick before.

I get chills everytime I watch it.

I'm having a pretty lazy day today. I went to the pool this morning with Sarah and got some sun before it got ridiculously hot. I'm going to catch up on some tv shows and movies this afternoon, I think. Sounds like a plan to me. I got Mike's computer to cooperate again... So a few random pictures...

I'm pretty sure I've posted this one before... but it's one of my favorites...

I went out to Tuttle Creek Lake... I didn't get too many good pics, but I love this one of the geese.

Haha. Baby G... He kept trying to eat the rocks & we kept pulling them out of his mouth. I caught him in the act here... looking up at Beth and putting a rock into his mouth. What a troublemaker. :)

Good times, dear bloggers. I'm off to watch the rest of Shutter Island... or maybe Teen Mom. Or Firefly. Or OTH. Decisions, decisions...

much love,

alex

My least favorite song...

This one's hard too. I can listen to just about anything at least once, and I can't figure out what is my least favorite at the moment. I'm not big into rap & hip-hop, so I'll probably have to say...

...or pretty much anything by this kid. He's... kinda cute and all... but I just can't get into his music. I just want to pat him on the head and send him off to play in the sandbox. Meh.

As promised, here are a couple of pictures from when Beth and Garrett came to visit...

Bath time...

Checking out the water at Pillsbury Crossing...

He's so adorable. I just can't get over it.

There are plenty more pictures... but Gimp decided to crap out on me.. so maybe I'll have some more tomorrow. :) 

I hope everyone's having a great Monday!!

much love,

alex

-"Lead Me" by Sanctus Real

I'm in love with this song. It's beautiful and awesome, and if you haven't listened to it, you should. Here's a link to them performing it live at Air 1.

I was going to use the word menagerie in my title until I read that it's a "live collection of animals"... Whoops.

Speaking of music, this past week on So You Think You Can Dance, the musical guest was a new singer/songwriter whose song they used a few weeks back for a dance. I'm a huge fan of lots of music, (especially anything piano/orchestral) but she also had two people dance along with her singing. Beautiful. All the videos I can find can't be embedded... so here's a link. Last one for this post, really.

As usual, I got all sorts of great pictures when I went back to Wichita for my birthday. So here's a large number of pictures...

Gage made himself a shirt for my birthday... It said Happy Birthday and Go K-State. When'd he get so big?!

This was my Grandma Seals' favorite flower... and this one just happened to bloom the morning of my birthday. =)

One night I headed out to take pictures of some of the storm clouds that were off to the south, plus a beautiful sunset... That only got more beautiful once I decided to leave.

I went with Beth and the kids to the pool one day... How adorable is this kid?!

Finally, on the drive home, I stopped to take pictures of a sunflower field.

I have about four billion other pictures, but I think that's probably enough for now.

My birthday day itself was pretty low key. My mom and dad made me lunch, Michael and I went shopping and got dinner, then we went to my big sister's house. She, me, Michael, my brother Craig, and sister-in-law Anastasia, all went out for a couple drinks. I'm not much of a partier, so it was perfect. I loved it. Perfect 21st birthday.

Except I didn't get carded. Oh well.

This weekend, Michael and I went and saw Despicable Me on Saturday. Oh. My. Goodness. It was adorable. This... was my favorite part...

It still makes me laugh, and I've been quoting it since Saturday.

Yesterday we had another couple over, and Michael grilled steaks. Mmmm. Then we went and saw Inception. It was pretty amazing. Definitely one you have to pay attention through, but what else would you expect from Christopher Nolan?? Probably one of my favorites. 

Today and tomorrow I'll be trying to baby-proof the apartment. (Unsuccessfully) Because Beth and Garrett are coming to visit!! I finally bugged Beth enough to come up here, and I'm excited. So I'm off to clean!

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

-"Greatest Story Ever Told" by Five Iron Frenzy

Back to posting song lyrics. It makes me happy. Happy happy.

The past week's been good. Minus the US losing last Saturday. The wedding we went to was beautiful and fun, between a guy we went to high school with, and a chemical engineer a couple years ahead of me. They're both going to grad school to get phd's... He's going to be a medical physicist, and she's going to be a biomedical engineer (I believe). Yet, they're both very strong in her faith, which is always a great thing to see.

But this week has just been work and being in slight disbelief that it's already July. And slightly freaking out about how much my textbooks are going to cost. Science books masked with math = expensive textbooks.

My big sister asked me to take pictures of Garrett this past weekend since he turns 1 on the 7th. (I'm not sure how this happened. I kept telling him to stop growing so fast.) But here are some of my favorites.

Isn't he adorable?! I love that little man. I also love his big siblings.

That one is a family favorite. Mainly because it shows personalities perfectly. At least, it shows Megan's. These kids are growing up too ridiculously quickly too. This is from when I went to visit them when they lived in Texas, summer of 2006.

I can barely believe it. 

So overall, life is still uneventful. I had to open at work this morning... 6 am comes too early no matter what day of the week it is. But now we're having a lazy day at home. Well. I am. He's looking up a ridiculous amount of baseball, basketball and football cards in hopes of getting some money.

I really do mean a ridiculous amount though. Probably close to 1000.

It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Tomorrow we'll be laying low until heading to our friend's house for a BBQ party. I was hoping to get pictures of fireworks, but there's a pretty good chance of rain, in which case we'll eat lots of food, watch movies and play games. 

(I'm actually hoping we get rained out. I'm too much of a worry wart to enjoy too many fireworks.)

I'm hoping to give more exciting updates soon. Today I'm going to makeover my blog, so if it looks iffy for awhile... I apologize. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and have a good 4th!!

-"Whisper and a Clamor" by Anberlin

The semester is winding down here... Full week this week, next week is "dead" week, and then there's finals week. Already! This semester's flown by, thankfully. My tests are done for the semester, and there's only a few assignments left before finals. Yay! I'm not sure what to do with my free time. So I've been watching One Tree Hill (go figure... I'm almost done with season 5. Eek.)

With the end of the semester brings the second half of spring... and all sorts of spring storms. (As the storms this past weekend in the South showed...) I'm all right with the thunderstorms, but I've been ridiculously scared of tornadoes since I was little. It's a little unrealistic, and as a scientist, I know the odds and everything, but that doesn't seem to help me. I think it's the fear of losing everything... I'm not so good with that.

But I'm working on it. We'll see how this spring goes.

Since life's been fairly uneventful, I haven't been updating. The biggest news has been the addition of our new car... my Bug. I inherited it from my grandma, and it's pretty much the best car ever. I named her MarJe (... like Marge) and she's doing awesome. It was about time we got rid of Mike's car.

I'll end off the post with some pictures I took when I went back to Wichita a couple weekends ago.

I miss them... Hopefully I'll get to see everyone again in a couple weeks.

I hope everyone else is doing awesome!!!