Busy weekends

The past two weeks have been very busy. Last weekend I got all the presents wrapped and prepared for a presentation that I gave on Tuesday. Jonathan has been studying non-stop for the GRE and his dedication is quite amazing. My  presentation went very well and I turned in my final paper today. Over this weekend I wrote an entire 23 page paper from start to finish! I will turn it in on Thursday and that will conclude my first semester in Grad School, which I must say turned out great. We are busy preparing for family coming, Christmas, and going on vacation. 

Thanksgiving, Friday

Friday we drove to see more family for Thanksgiving. We had a great time with the kids. 

Lovely first snow on Sunday morning.

Grayson decided to feed Bubba and Little Bette his french fries. It was so cute because he yelled "Bubba" each time he gave him one.
Little Grayson wearing the house shoes we got him.
Hamming up for the camera.
We all played with the Wii practically the whole weekend. The guys got a kick out of the golf game.
Happy kids and a great Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

Thursday we drove to meet family for Thanksgiving. 

We always have a lot of fun with Jonathan's siblings and cousins playing Nintendo 64 every year.
Lots of good food and more baking made for a nice Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving, Wednesday night

Wednesday night we had a little Thanksgiving with my mom, sister, Jonathan, and me. It was nice. We all said a little something that we were thankful for this year. I am thankful to have them living in town. 

Weekend Nov. 22 & 23

Last week I heard back on my paper that I turned in the week before... I got an A! And my professor is encouraging me to submit it for publication! I am very excited to produce a possibly publishable paper as my first one in Graduate School. I will probably be working to revise it for publication and hopefully submit it to some journals in the next few months.

Over the weekend, Mom took Amanda and I shopping. She got me two pairs of shoes, 3 dress jackets, a top, and new tights. Then she took us to lunch at Flat Branch. We had a great time. Once home, I set to work on my next paper. Sunday we went to Walmart to get supplies for the little Thanksgiving dinner we will have together (Jonathan, mom, Amanda, and me) on Wednesday night. We put up the Christmas tree on Sunday night. I love this season!! More studying finished off a very nice weekend.

Weekend Nov. 15 & 16

Work has been so busy the last couple of weeks, as I am training a new advisor to replace my friend and co-worker who went to a new job. School has been hectic too, finishing a mid-term and a 25 page paper. The entire weekend was spent researching my next paper which is due in 4 weeks. Mom took Jonathan and I to brunch at a coffeeshop downtown which was lovely. Overall a quite and studious weekend.

Not very interesting but wanted to post a picture so here is Zoie playing with a corn-filled heating pad/bag. She was having a real blast with it.

Hosting Education USA Advisors Nov. 13 & 14

A couple of weeks ago, our office had the opportunity to host 5 Education USA advisors from 5 different countries. There are over 500 Education USA advisors employed by our government all over the world who help their countrymen research the American education system and apply to our schools. Each year, 20 are selected to come to the US for a three week training. They spend the first week in Washington DC, the second at a regional conference, and the third in one state touring its schools. Each state has to put together huge applications to try to get the opportunity to host and this year Missouri was one of the five states. Naturally, our office of International Admission hosted the Advisors. We had lunch with them and then each of us escorted an advisor to various appointments on campus. That night, Jonathan and I co-hosted a dinner for all five advisors in our co-workers home. It was such a lovely meal and so great to talk to people from around the globe. Countries represented were Nigeria, West Bank, Argentina, Kyrgyzstan, and the Phillipines.

I would love to include a picture of us with the advisors but I'm not sure if they would mind their picture on a blog. :)

Making History 11/04/2008

We stayed up late Tuesday night to witness history. We are elated to see our country elect the first African-American president. Watching his acceptance speech was so incredible. We can't wait to see how he governs as our next president. Thanks everyone for voting!

Happy Halloween

Check out our awesome Barack-O-Lantern! We had a great Halloween night. We carved our pumpkin, ate pizza, and watched "I Am Legend". As scary as it gets for us. :)

Happy Halloween!

Witnessing History...Live 10/30/2008

On October 30th, five days before the election, we had the unbelievable opportunity to hear Obama speak, live at MU. Mom and I waited in line from 5:30 until we got in the gates at 8:00. Jonathan joined us after work around 7:30. Then we waited some more for Obama to arrive at 9:30pm. It was more than worth the wait. It was so wonderful to see people of all ages and ethnicities gathered in excitement about the election. It was estimated that over 40,000 people attended the event. It was perhaps one of the most incredible things I have ever witnessed. It was a night that I will never forget.

Spending time with Uncle Rob and Aunt Wilma

Last weekend we spent time with Uncle Rob and Aunt Wilma who had arrived on Friday. They came, as always, bearing gifts for the whole family. My favorite gift that they are always so sweet to bring is granola. They know how much I love it! Rachel and Matt brought over the kids and they all opened their presents too. Grayson was so cute saying "Hello" into the toy phone.

The boys went to Best Buy and bought a Wii. I'm sure they had way too much fun with it.

Gavyn, I mean The Hulk, showing off his Halloween costume a little early.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to go back the second weekend due to an enormously vast amount of homework to do. I have a midterm and 30 page research paper due next week so I had to lock myself in the house studying all weekend. I was able to sneak out of the house long enough to get my hair cut on Friday. It was long overdue- 7 months since my last cut.

Jonathan went fishing and camping with the guys and had a lot of fun. We do apologize for not getting to spend more time with Rob and Wilma while they are here. But we will certainly make plans to see them while we are in Belgium on vacation at the end of December/early January. And thank goodness for Skype!

See you soon, Uncle Rob and Aunt Wilma!

We just wanted to wish our Uncle Rob and Aunt Wilma a safe trip! We can't wait to see you this weekend!

Celebrating the Long life of a Wonderful Lady: the End of an Era

Friday night the world lost a living treasure when Beecee Jenkins, Jonathan's great-grandmother, passed away at 101 years old. It was awe-inspiring to hear her tell stories of the Titanic sinking, meeting Civil War veterans, and being struck by lightening. She was an amazing woman. Sunday we drove down for the visitation. Sunday night we stayed up late with Rachel, Lydia, Ricky, and cousin David playing goofy games. We had a great time with them. Monday morning was the funeral and it was a beautiful service. Although many tears were shed, everyone was very happy to celebrate the wonderful legacy that Beecee left behind. We were able to get pictures of her two daughters, 7 grandchildren, and 21 great-grandchildren.
Beecee's legacy: 30 in all.
We were on the watch for Obama signs all weekend, figuring that we wouldn't see any since it is largely a Republican area. We felt that it was such a neat coincidence that we saw this sign just as we left the cemetary. It kind of felt like Beecee's last hurrah, since she was the one of the only Democrats in the county.

Great news story from Norway

Hello everyone. Jonathan forwarded me a link to a great news story that appeared in Norway recently. I think it is a great read: http://leishacamden.blogspot.com/2008/10/not-that-it-matters.html. Check it out!

Long time no see

Hello! My apologies for not updating for so long. I have underestimated how busy I would be with full-time work and school. School is going great, I really love it. We are pretty wrapped up in the election and current events recently. We've watched every debate and cannot wait until next month to vote. Here's a few pictures from the last of couple weeks.
Mom bought Jonathan and I two beautiful bikes. We love them so much! They are comfort bikes. We had a wonderful long ride on the trail the weekend we got them but have not had time to ride recently. Hopefully that will change this week.

This is what Zoie has been up to. Mischief.

We've had a great time with Mom and Amanda since they moved to town. Amanda seems to be enjoying school and Mom has gotten involved at the Craft Studio and various festivals in town. Saturday we went to Ruby Tuesday for the salad bar. The picture was supposed to be us acting tough but I don't think I look tough and Amanda was laughing. Then we went to the mall. I spent most of the weekend doing homework.

Obama-rama has even spread to our local mall. Here are a couple of shirts that we found. I would have bought one if they had it in my size. Yesterday I called my best friend in Belgium and we had a nice long talk about the state of affairs in the US. The economic crisis is greatly affecting the rest of the world, including the EU. Most of Europe is waiting on the edge of their seat to see who will be elected. Obama-rama has spread far beyond our borders.

Okay, enough of politics. I hope everyone is doing very well and enjoying the coming of Fall. I will try to be better about taking pictures and posting!

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

Jonthan turned 25 on Friday and we had great fun celebrating. The festivities began early Friday morning. We had some Panera bread for breakfast and Jonathan received his surprise present from Mom and me. A new bike and all the necessary accessories. Now we can go riding together on the trail.
For lunch we met at our favorite restaurant.

An awesome veggie burger and pizza with a free birthday beer for Jonathan.

Friday night we drove to spend the weekend with family. Saturday we got to grill and see the Mikaela and Grayson.

Birthday fun concluded with a Birthday "Blast" from Sonic. Jonathan had fun with his candle.

Thanks everyone for a great Birthday!

Jonathan's early birthday celebration at Nakato

Labor Day weekend is a time of tradition for us. Every year, we celebrate Jonathan's birthday with his family by going to Nakato, a Japanese steakhouse. We were very excited to get to do this again this year, the 5th in a row.
Me, Jonathan, and sister Lydia.

Yummy veggie sushi rolls.

We love the performance of the chefs at Nakato.

Jonathan eating his birthday cake.

Sorry it's so fuzzy, but one of my favorite things about celebrating B-days at Nakato is that they take a picture. I have each one from the past five years and I love looking back to see how we have all changed over the years.