Home Alone

Tomorrow morning Brett leaves for the Regional American Chemistry Society meeting in Indiana. He is presenting his research work and poster at the meeting as well as sitting at an ISU booth to recruit students and graduate students. He is leaving around 6:30 tomorrow morning, so I will be home alone all day until I have to go to work. Then when I come home from work in the morning Brett will still be gone and I will sleep at home alone all day on Thursday. Then I will wake up Thursday and go to work all night and when I get home Friday morning Brett will still be gone and I will sleep all day by myself. And how is this different than any other day when he is gone at school and I am sleeping at home all day by myself, or at work at night you might ask? BECAUSE HE WILL BE IN A DIFFERENT STATE, not just down the street at school. Ever since we spent 10 weeks apart when I was in Illinois as an intern, I have dreaded being apart again. I mean, what if something breaks on my car and I don't know how to fix it, or if something starts leaking in the house and I don't know what to do, or what if it storms, or what if I don't have hot water because something went wrong or the AC stops working.....I mean think of all the things that could possibly go wrong!!

And so, if you read this, think of me as I am home alone sleeping with my 2 cats, as my wonderful husband is away being all smart. I think I will survive.

Starved Rock State Park

On Saturday I woke up at about 6:30 (way too early) and was just wide awake. The idea for us to go to the State Park for the day just popped in my head. I wanted to get outside and get out of the house for awhile and do something just the two of us. So we got ready for the day - packed some water and headed out! The park is about an hour drive north of our house. Pardon the gross, sweaty pictures - it was hot out! We hiked/climbed/walked/waded in waterfalls for about 4 and a half hours or so. We walked in the water beds, through mud, over rocks, over sticks, under trees. Overall it was a fun adventure together. The only sad thing was when I was walking through mud trying to balance on a log, the camera fell out of my pocket right in the mud. It still works, but the shutter is a little slow to open and close when you turn it on and off. Enjoy this post loaded with pictures!

The last month....

This last month has just FLOWN by, and in some ways, not much has happened, but in other ways, a lot has happened. Pardon if that makes no sense at all. The month of May: Brett finished his first year of grad school with all A's and a paper accepted for publishing with some research he was working on in the journal, Nanotechnology. It hasn't actually been published yet, and he is not the only author. He also started taking a summer class which isn't all that exciting thus far, and is doing research things the rest of the time. I am still working, and the hospital still has really low census everywhere, with some units closing at times because they have no patients. On the 26th we celebrated our 4 year anniversary. I worked the night before, so I slept all day while Brett was at school. That night we went out to eat and then relaxed at home the rest of the night. Brett got me these beautiful peruvian lilies. They are still blooming and are gorgeous!


The month of May also brought on more bathroom renovations. We (and by we, I mean Brett) were trying to finish what we started in the bathroom last July.


We tore out the whole floor and wall paneling. To make the floor actually level, Brett used shim type things to level it from wall to door. Then put a new floor in, and then what is shown in the last picture is glueless linoleum. It is so weird to walk on that floor and not have it squeak! Currently the bathroom has a sink/vanity, mirror, toilet and cupboard in, and the existing shower - I just don't have a picture of that yet. There are a few wall pieces that are not in yet, but we ran out of time to finish before our company came Memorial Day weekend. It needs those wall pieces and trim left and then I think that it is! Brett is kind of waiting until it is not 90 degrees outside because to glue the wall paneling on we need to have the windows open so we don't get high/pass out :) I'm so glad to have a handy husband like Brett. He also put in an exhaust fan, switched the outlets, moved the toilet back about 3 inches (to remove the silly little thing that was behind the toilet which served no purpose), and moved the sink plumbing just a tad to work with the new vanity. Who knew I married a chemist AND a plumber and electrician. When it is all finished, I'll be sure to take more pictures. I also planted a few flowers in the backyard. I WAY underestimated the amount of space I had for plants/flowers. I only used about 1/4 of the space in my little "flower garden". But what is there looks nice so far! Next year I suppose I will expand it a little more. Dan and Kiki Jongewaard and baby Gabriel came to visit over Memorial Day weekend and I only have one picture to prove they were here! It was a lovely visit. We spent time snuggling and playing with Gabe, showing them around Normal, just visiting, relaxing and playing games. So thankful they took the time to visit us all the way in Illinois!


Since this post has gotten entirely too long, I will have another post about our Starved Rock State Park adventure next!