Updates

It has been awhile. I had meant to post several times and even started to at least once, but I just didn't get it done. As a result, I likely have way more to say than I have time to write. So, I will try to make this the brief and exciting version of the last month.

One really cool thing that I did at the beginning of November is that I ran in a 5K (3.1 mile) race. It had been a long time since I had really done any serious running. I got back into it this summer at the urging of some friends and family. Running really does reduce stress for me. I know some of you out there are thinking that there couldn't be anything more stressful than running. I ran in a race in downtown Hartford and I surprised myself by running very well and I wasn't even that sore after. I ran the race in 24:29. I was shocked since it had been a long time since I had run in a race. I guess my competitive spirit came out.

We had a fun Thanksgiving. Michael and I were blessed to have my parents come to visit. They stayed with us for about a week. It was the most relaxing week that I had had in a long time. They came during the week of Thanksgiving break at UConn so work was slow. Plus, I got to have a 5 day weekend. It was also very nice to see my parents. It had been just shy of a year since I last saw them.

While my parents were here, we did some sight-seeing. We went to Gillette Castle and the Book Barn in Niantic, CT. For those of you who have not been to the book barn and who like to read, I highly recommend it. Although, I would suggest going when it is warmer. It was very cold looking around at the books.

On Thursday, Mom and I made dinner together. We made turkey, stuffing, green beans, rolls, gravy, mashed potatoes, and pie. We had a lot of fun doing that and we somehow managed to do it in my tiny kitchen. If you haven't seen it, let me just tell you that it not made for someone who cooks. I'll just leave it at that. Michael had a good idea to marinate the turkey in 7up and garlic. It was the most moist, tasty turkey I've ever had.

Friday was a very wonderful and crazy day. We had the wonderful opportunity to go to the temple to do the work for my Grandma (Mamaw) Trosper and several of my other ancestors. I got to do the baptism, confirmation, and initiatory for her. It was so peaceful to be in the temple. It had been awhile since Michael and I had been and I really enjoyed the spirit and the peace. I hope that someday I will be reunited with those that we got the chance to do the work for. I am glad I got to serve them!

After our temple visit, we went into Boston and walked the Freedom Trail. It was pretty fun. It gets dark fairly early now so we didn't have a ton of time to look around, but it was still nice. We got to see the Old North Church, Paul Revere's grave and a really neat Holocaust memorial to name a few things. My Dad and Michael also ran up to the Bunker Hill monument and the U.S.S. Constitution. They left Mom and I at Old North Church. While they were gone, though, the church caught fire (a pretty small one I am assuming), but they evacuated the area and called in four fire trucks. We were a little nervous being alone in downtown Boston, but at least we were together. By the time the guys got back to us, all of the excitement was over and they were both exhausted. It is a long way to Bunker Hill and there are 297 steps to the top of the Bunker Hill monument. I am told that they ran up it! Ugh!

We look forward to our trip to Pocatello for Christmas. We leave in just a little over a week. I am excited to get some much needed rest and relaxation. I hope I can survive my job until then.

Walktober

They have this really awesome thing here is Connecticut called Walktober. The part of Connecticut that I live in is called the quiet corner because it has not been developed nearly as much as the rest of CT or the East Coast. Well, every October they have an entire month of hikes and historical tours all over the quiet corner. I had a chance to go to a couple of these and I had so much fun. Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful places I got to see. Unfortunately, Michael did not get to go, but hopefully we will get to go back and see them together sometime.

The first one that I went one was a mill tour. We walked along the Nipmuck Trail and they showed us several places where there were ruins or evidence of past mills. That explains all of the names of roads with mill in them around here. I guess during the Industrial Revolution, this area was a big hub for all types of industry. But, we started the tour at a replica of Gurleyville Mill and I got to go in and see the workings and everthing.


The other two pictures that I have here are just beautiful spots that I saw along the way. It was enjoyable hiking along, although, I wish Michael could have gone with me.

The next two pictures are of the second hike that I went on. This one was at Goodwin State Forest. They talked about their new native gardens illustrating ways to create a native garden in multiple types of settings. The first picture is a bird and butterfly garden. I was wishing that it was spring and I could see all of the little critters enjoying it.

This is one of the views at Goodwin. I really liked this place and I would have never know it was there if it weren't for this program. I am excited to find out about all of the natural places so nearby. Isn't this beatiful!?

We have been very busy this past little while. Michael is always needing the computer to write papers and such, so I don't get much time to use it for blogging. He is taking a nap so I snatched up the time. I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. Although, I have never been a big fan of the holiday, I do like that it starts of the rest of the fun holidays of the year. I am already looking forward to the holidays because we will get to spend time with family!

Fall loves

Fall is my favorite season for many reasons. One of them is that everything is so beautiful outside. All of the leaves on the trees are turning here and since there are so many trees, it is especially nice. I wish I had a rake so that I could rake all of the leaves into a pile. I used to love doing that when I was a kid.

I also love the fact that it is a little cooler so I can wear sweaters and hoodies. Although, it got too cold too faster here is Connecticut. I have been freezing! I am already wishing it was warmer. It is going to be a long winter.

I also love that Fall brings General Conference. I really enjoyed Conference. I know that the talks are inspired because I always feel like the speakers are talking just to me. It was such an uplifting and hope filled Conference. I can't wait to get the Conference issue so that I can go through the messages again. What a blessing to be able to watch it!

Back to Busy

Well, Michael and I are very busy now since school started. We don't get to see each other nearly as much as during the school year. We have nearly opposite schedules on some days. Take today for instance. He has classes and clients from 9-4pm. I work from 2-10pm. Ugh! I hope we can get through this semester.

The scoop on my job situation is that they did finally put out the add for someone else to work in the stockroom. We have been working with three people for over a year now and there are supposed to be four people who work in the stockroom. The unfortunate thing is that they probably won't start until next semester since they traded the salary in for grad student help. I can't believe how unbelievably crazy it has been. Yesterday I ran around the entire day and came home exhausted. I am really not that thrilled to have to go back today. But, somehow we will have to get by.

Michael is enjoying his classes and everything for the most part. He has one class that I think will be pretty challenging especially since the book he has to read for it is as big as I am. He has found a way to make his long drives to Norwich for his internship on Mondays and Wednesdays enjoyable. He is listening to books on cd. He has listened to three or four books now.

One thing we have done recently is collect a bunch more books. In our house we are bookaholics (yes I made that up). I have told Michael several times that if you threw out the books and kitchen stuff that we own, there would be very little stuff left. We went to the Book Barn in Niantic, CT a couple of weeks ago and each got a couple of books. They also had a book sale at our local library on Saturday and we each got some more books. I am looking forward to the day when we have our own library. We probably have enough books to have a pretty good one right now. =)

Birthday Getaway!

Well, it has become sort of tradition since we have been married to go on a last hurrah or vacation right around my birthday. Being here in Connecticut, there are an abundance of things that we want to see. I have always wanted to go to Maine so we took a quick trip up there for two days. We stayed in a cute little bed and breakfast and enjoyed the scenery. Here are some pictures from our trip. The town we went to is called Kennebunkport (what a mouthful, huh?!).

The rocky coast of Maine. Isn't it beautiful?!

Me at the Franciscan Monastery. There was one in Kennebunkport and we enjoyed walking on the beautiful grounds there.

Michael climbing around on the rocks

The houses through the haze are the Bush compound. It is the summer home of former President Bush. We didn't get a great view of the house because it was so foggy.

Michael and I having fun

Our sand castle - we had a great time making it

This is the first one we built (Sand castle mark 1) being engulfed by water. Soon after it flooded, we moved further away to build our castle.

Michael at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge

Nubble Light house

We had a fun and relaxing time. It was nice to get away for a couple of days. I had always wanted to go to Maine. I had heard it was beautiful and it truly was. I want to go back again sometime!

Pennsylvania

Be sure to look at the next post too. I posted both of them today because I am behind. July was vacation month for us I guess. This past weekend we went to Pennsylvania to visit with Joni and Chase (Michael's sister and brother in law). They live in Indiana so we met in the middle at Harrisburg, PA. It was not quite in the middle but there were lots of things to see there so we decided to meet there. We went to Hershey, Gettysburg, and City Island park. We both enjoyed ourselves.

View from City Island Park into Harrisburg, PA

Chase and Michael trying to make the boat go in opposite directions.

Michael and I on the footbridge that crosses the Susquehanna River.

Yeah for chocolate!

Hershey's Chocolate World

Gettysburg!

View from Union lines across the field to the Confederates - sight of day 3 battling (Pickett's charge).

Michael at the eternal flame monument.

Joni and Chase

The monument to Robert E. Lee at the location of the Confederate lines.

The view from on top of Little Round Top

Michael on top of a cool castle monument

Michael and I in our hats

The Pennsylvania monument

It was a good weekend and we had fun visiting with family. I wish we lived closer to them! Hope you enjoyed all the pictures. I think this is more pictures than I have posted in the rest of the blog all together. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Vermont

Michael and I have gone to Vermont and Pennsylvania since I last posted. We went to Vermont with some friends from our church. We camped close to the birthplace of Joseph Smith. Michael and I enjoyed kayaking, site-seeing and time with friends. First we made a slight detour to go into New Hampshire. We had never been there. We went to a fort from the French and Indian war period. The fort was equipped with all kinds of fortifications.

A view of the fort from the lookout tower.

Michael and I on the lookout tower.

I am standing ina dugout canoe. I am glad I didn't have to make it. Talk about a project!

Michael is standing in a bedroom with a cannon hole opening.

The Waterbury, VT reservoir where we went kayaking. I didn't get to take any pictures on the kayak because there was no where to put the camera.

We also went to the Joseph Smith Memorial. It was so beautiful and there were so many nice flowers. It was such a peacful and nice place to be to end a restful trip. Joseph Smith was a true prophet!

Happy 4th of July!

Michael and I had an interesting 4th of July. We decided to go to Providence Rhode Island for the weekend. I had the day off and so did Michael so we took the chance to get out of town and do something fun. We went to a parade in Willimantic in the morning before heading to RI. That was an interesting parade. There were people protesting all kinds of things. They gave out everything from candy to live plants. It was fun and luckily not too hot.

As we were driving to Rhode Island, we realized that we forgot our map. We always have it with us normally but somehow we forgot it. So, we wandered around a bit more than we would have but we did learn that you always need a map.

There is a gigantic mall in Providence and we went there for awhile. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then made our way to our hotel. Which, by the way has no parking near it or any where else in downtown Providence UNLESS you have lots of money. Parking was very expensive.

The next day we went to the Roger Williams Park and Zoo. It had been a long time since either of us had been to a zoo so that was fun. I captured some good pictures. We had a lot of fun! There were some fairly unique animals there. I enjoyed the walk and the chance the spend time with Michael. It will be hard when he goes back to school in the Fall. I like all of this time with him!

I learn something new everyday...

Well, I think I learn something every day about Michael. He has been so good to me this week. Monday was a really hard day for me at work. I was pretty frustrated, but I didn't really tell Michael about it. He called me and asked if there was anything that I needed from the store. When he got home he had several surprises for me. He got me flowers just because. He also had a letter that I got in the mail from his sisters and a package from my Mom. I felt so loved by my family, Michael, and my Heavenly Father. I know that he loves me!

On Friday Michael did a construction project. I remember him telling me that he did some construction when he was younger but I didn't know that he liked it. He fixed the entry way counter at the Humphrey Center where he sees clients on campus. I went over to see him at lunch and I could tell he was in his element. I had no idea that he liked things like that. It was fun to see him get so excited about working on it.

The past two weekends have been eventful. We went to Six Flags last weekend and to the temple yesterday. Both were fun, but I definitely liked the temple more. It had been awhile and it was nice to go. It is hard to go during the semester. I am excited for the upcoming things that we will be doing this summer. We have lots of fun things planned for our weekends.

Well, Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there! I hope that they had a good day and that they know that they are loved.

Our trip to Idaho

I have just now found the time to post a blog. It has been awhile, but I wanted to wait until I could put some pictures on here from our trip to Idaho in the middle of last month. The first one there is of Michael with our little nephew Aaron who is a year old. The other picture is of Elizabeth (Michael's sister) and her husband when they first came out the temple. I am hoping to get some more pictures from Michael's mom of our trip. We aren't very good at taking them evidently.

We had a wonderful trip to Idaho. We spent a week there and it was a nice break. It was a little different from our typical visits because the kids were all still in school. We had lots of fun hanging out with Michael's Mom and Dad, though. The highlights of the trip would have to be (in no particular order):

1) Being there at the sealing of Liz and J.D.
2) Seeing lots of family - Michael's and some of mine
3) Playing several new and interesting games - Puerto Rico, Thurn and Taxis, and Pirates Dice
4) Eating at Taco Time!! It is the best fast food taco place hands down.
5) Watching Prince Caspian - what a great movie!
6) Plenty of reading time! I love books!
7) Not missing our flight - even though the first one was delayed by 45 minutes
8) Sleeping in!
9) Meeting our new little neice Rachel Kay Allen. She was such a cute little baby.
10) Having a much needed break from work and school!

We were glad to have a much needed vacation. It was just long enough that we were able to de-stress and relax. I had a great time. I was so glad that we got to see Joe and Joy and their kids who live in North Carolina in the airport on our way in and their way out. We also got to see Danny and Kathleen as we were leaving to go back to Connecticut.

Being in the temple and watching Liz and J.D. get sealed made me feel very grateful for my own temple marriage. I am grateful for Michael and all of his support and love. I don't know what I would do without him. We have really learned to rely on each other out here in Connecticut since we are so far from family. I am grateful to be blessed with such a great husband.

I also wanted to throw out to everyone a request. I am trying to read as many books as possible this year, and I would like recommendations of good books to read. It can be hard to sift through all the rubbish and find good books sometimes. If you think of something, post a comment on my blog or e-mail me with the recommendation. Thanks!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope that all of the mothers out there had a wonderful day! I have a wonderful mother that I am very grateful for. I wish I could be there to celebrate today with her. I also have a great mother-in-law! What a blessing it is to have mothers and families!

I finally got a copy of the journal that I am published in for my research at BYU. The journal that I am published in is Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, the April 2008 edition. My professor sent me a copy this week. It is neat to see myself in print, especially in a scientific journal.

Michael finished his semester on Saturday morning. He is done for the summer with classes and his TA job. He will start his internship at the end of this month, but I am so happy that he will not have homework again for several months. It will be nice to have him come home and just spend time with me. We celebrated the end with a fondue party and a movie. We are also excited to go on some weekend trips this summer to some of the cool places in New England. There is so much that we haven't seen.

I am just about to get over a cold and unfortunately I think that Michael has caught something now. He woke up this morning feeling sick. I am sure it is from the lack of sleep with all the studying he had to do in the past couple of weeks. Hopefully he will be feeling better by Wednesday when we leave to go to Pocatello.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures to share. I am planning on taking lots in Idaho, so I will be sure to put them up once we get back. Have a good week!

News and Notes

Spring has finally come to New England. We have had the most beautiful weather for the past couple of weeks. I am loving all of the beautiful flowers and all of the green. I do not enjoy all of the pollen that accompanies this process, though. Everything under the sun is blooming right now and I must be allergic to most of it. But, I still think that Spring is one of the better seasons, right behind Fall.

I wanted to clarify one thing from the previous blog. I am an environmentalist to the extent that I think that we are all stewards of the resources that we have on earth. I think that we will be held accountable for the way that we treat this land. We each need to do our part to conserve resources and care for the earth. If stewardship does not come from within, I don't think people will be able to be forced to care about the environment through policies. Okay, now I will step down off my soap box and go back to my post.

I am getting excited about our trip out to Idaho in just two and a half weeks. Michael's sister Liz is getting married on May 17, so we are going to go out there for that. I am excited to see Michael's family and to have a break from work. I am due for a vacation! We will be gone about a week. I am also excited at the prospect of seeing my new niece and two of my brothers and their families.

One cool thing that happened to me at work is that I got a Brick of the Week award. The Student Affairs department takes nominations from students, faculty, and staff of people that they feel have furthered the aims of education and UConn in general. Someone that I worked with on a recent lab must have nominated for one of these awards and I got it. I don't know who it was, but I felt honored that someone recognized the efforts that I put forth to prepare for that lab. It is nice to be noticed.

That's all for now. I will try to post pictures soon (after I take some =))!

Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! Most of you know that I am an environmentalist, so I thought I would remind you of this wonderful day set aside to remember the earth. Of course we should do what we can to remember to take care of the earth each day, but today is a special day. Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970. So, be sure to do something today to take care of the earth.

In honor of the day, I went to the Earth Day events on campus here at UConn. They had a recycled garbage art collection at the Benton art museum, a special display in the Co-op (bookstore on campus), and lots of other activities. I was excited to get a map of all of the farms in CT and places you can go to pick your own produce.

If you want to know more about Earth Day, go to the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day.

Conference

Well, I am still plugging along at work. I have taken a more active role in making it work and it seems to be going better. Although, we did have a meeting on Friday and I found out that I am to work the night shift in the Fall. I will be working Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights from 2-10pm. One of the classes that I will be supporting only meets in the evenings so that is why. I am excited to support this class but not to work nights. I hope that I get to see Michael some still. I already feel like I don't get to see him much now. We'll see if I make it through. I am glad I have a few months to get myself used to the idea.

Michael has been working hard on his studies the past little while. He has been staying up late lots of nights to get things done. He has a huge research paper that he has to do for next Monday that has no length limit but the students he knows who have taken the class say they wrote 30+ pages. Yikes! Sometimes thinking of all he has to do stresses me out.

General Conference was the highlight of this week. It was so energizing to hear the apostles, seventies, and the prophet speak. It was also neat to be apart of sustaining the prophet. I think that my favorite talks were Elder Ballard's, Elder Bednar's, and Gerald N. Lund's. There were some really great talks and I learned so much. I am excited to get the conference issue so I can read them again.

Well, just about a month and we are headed to Idaho for a wedding. Michael's sister is getting married. We are excited to visit with family and to have a break. I am looking forward to it.

Update

It has been awhile and I scarcely know where to start to update everyone. We have been very busy but we have also had time for relaxation. We took at trip to the coast for Spring Break. But let me relate a few other things first.

Michael and I keep pretty busy with church. I recently got called as the Cub Scout leader. I am still a Relief Society teacher too. Michael plays the piano for primary and he recently got called as the Institute teacher for the area. Michael is also very busy playing and singing for ward musical numbers. For Michael's birthday I actually got him a piano. I know his birthday isn't for another month but we decided to get it early. It is a great way to relieve stress for both of us.

Michael is getting into the busy part of the semester again and it is hard to snatch up time to spend with him. The picture below is a community genogram that he had to make for one of his classes. It shows the relationships that affect his current life and the current stresses he has. I guess that making them can be helpful in working with clients.










The other pictures here are from our trip to Mystic Connecticut. We spent two days there for Spring Break. It was nice to have time to spend with Michael. We stayed in a Bed & Breakfast. We also went to the Mystic Seaport. We got to go on board two of the ships that were there. We also got to see them working on restoring a ship. The town was set up to be from the 1830-1870 time period when there was a ton of ship-building going on in Mystic. It was very neat. We both needed the much deserved time off and it was a nice break from the normal rat-race.

























Michael also found out this week where he will be doing his internship. He will be going to UCFS in Norwich, CT. He will be working there trying to get his hours in for the last year of his program. Hopefully he likes the place since it was not his first choice. I think it may be better that he didn't get his first choice, though. We'll see. Hope you all have a good week! Happy Easter! We are going to spend the day with some friends from the ward, so it should be a fun day.

It is time for spring!

I never realized when we moved to New England that we would get so much snow! I mean, you hear about this part of the country and they usually do get a lot of snow, but good grief. Everyone assures me that this is a mild winter, but I can't believe it. I would hate to see a normal or severe winter. I am definitely ready for spring, though. I am ready to be able to go for walks and not freeze. I am ready for cheaper electric bills. I am ready for the green and the flowers. I guess the only thing that I am not looking forward to are mosquitoes and ticks. I am sure they have loads of them here since we live in a swamp and it rains so much.

This week was not one that I would not soon want to repeat. I have had some pretty stressful things happen at my job. I wish that I felt more supported and needed there. After all, we are short a person in my office. You would think that they would not want to lose anyone else. I am hoping that things will go better this week. If not, I will probably have to discuss the situation with my boss. Oh the joys of having a job! At least my boss is really nice and easy to talk to.

We had another book club meeting this week. I am really enjoying discussing the books and the social time with the sisters in my ward. This month we read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It is a page turner and fairly intense. I would not recommend it for light reading, but I did enjoy it. Of course, like most media these days, there were a few parts and some language that I didn't appreciate, but on the whole, I enjoyed the book. There are definitely some controversial issues discussed too.

Michael finished up the interviews for his summer internship this week. He interviewed at four places - Stafford Family Practice, Waterbury Hospital, Westbrook Family Services, and UCFS in Norwich. Unfortunately, many of them are far away. They are all in Connecticut, but that does not guarantee that they are close by. I am really hoping that he gets one of the ones that he liked. I just pray that gas doesn't go up anymore. The internship starts in June and will continue for about a year.

Have a good week everyone!

Chugging along

Well, it has been a long time since I posted. It is somewhat difficult to find time to get on the computer these days. I can't justify taking the time away from Michael when he has homework and most of my time on the internet is just blogging and e-mail. But, he is sleeping on the couch and I snatched up the time.

As you can tell from the title, it has been a tired beginning to the semester. Michael is SO busy! I can't imagine if he had any other demands on his time. He has I believe 15 credits of grad courses, several of which are extremely demanding. He started with clients a week and a half ago. Thankfully, he just has one right now. But, starting this summer, he will have an internship where he will take on more. He is a TA for a writing course and they write 5-6 papers each semester that he has to grade both the drafts and finals. There are 13 students in his section. He also has a group that he has to attend once a week for a cultural experience. To top it off, he is likely going to be called as the Institute teacher for the area. Hence the reason why he is snoozing on the couch. Ugh!

We did our taxes today and we were happy to see that we will get some money back and not have to pay anything. Living in Connecticut has made me really appreciate how good we had it in Provo. Money just doesn't go as far here unfortunately.

For me, things are going well. They started a book group in our ward Relief Society and I am loving it. We meet once a month and we have our meetings planned until May. We did that so that hopefully we can get all of the books read. My job keeps me just on the verge of sanity at times but at least it pays the bills. The best part about my job is that I am on campus and close to Michael. I also have a great boss who is very flexible and easy to talk to. We are still down a person, though, so we are busy all the time. I guess the nice thing is that I never get bored. There is no time for it.

We had a fun Valentine's Day. I got Michael a new journal and he had to find it with a scavenger hunt. He got me the movies Pride & Prejudice (the long one) and Sense & Sensibility. I am dying to watch them. I am lucky to have such a wonderful husband!

We are both looking forward to Spring Break in March, only three weeks away. I am taking some time off and we are going to go to either Boston or New York to see some of the sites. I hope things are going well for everyone else.

Happy New Year!

I know I am a little late but, I wanted to wish all of you a Happy New Year! The new year has been good to us so far. I hope that all of you are enjoying the new year of 2008. I can scarcely believe that we are already in a new year again. Where does the time go?

We spent New Year's eve at my parent's house in Indiana. We watched movies and ate junk food. We watched some pretty good movies too - Bourne Ultimatum, Next, and Star Dust. This has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember and it had been awhile since I had been home to celebrate this tradition. We had fun.

Michael and I also recently celebrated our 2-year anniversary. Sometimes it seems like it has been longer than that and other times I can't believe we have been married that long. Hopefully we will have many, many more years together.

I have been back at work for just over a week. Michael still has one more week before school starts. Although, he is already transitioning back into it. He has many of his textbooks and he has begun to read through them. I can't believe how many books he has! I am excited, though, that he has several books that we are going to read together.

Recently a co-worker of mine passed away. It was such a sudden thing. He was only 49. He was an amazing person and he will be missed. It was strange for me to think that he will no longer stop by to talk to us in the Stockroom. I went to the funeral and although I was not super close to him, I nearly cried. I take comfort knowing that he is somewhere better and that things happen according to the plan and will of our Heavenly Father.

It has been awhile since I posted pictures, so I will add some here at the end of this post. Enjoy!