These past few months have been busy as can be, but I don't even have that much to show for it. Mostly because every weekday consisted of work, lacrosse, work with lots of driving in between. Now the lacrosse season has ended and I have a little more time to breathe and blog so here is what else we fit in from April to May.
I thought my dream and bucket list moment of seeing the Aurora Borealis was going to happen, but unfortunately the solar flare wasn't quite as strong as predicted, and it never made it's way this far south. Someday... someday...
I had a Medical Practice Management conference at Villanova and took a picture in the same mirror as
last year. The conference center is the prettiest.
I attended many post-practice pasta parties with these lacrossers hosted by their Italian mothers. They know their pasta! Penne Vodka for days.
Paul ran the Entolmology booth for Rutger's Ag Field Day. He's served two years as Graduate Entomology Student Association President and this was his last hurrah.
I feel in love with these cute girls (their mom is the scientist that Paul went to Guyana with) and also thought this was the weirdest dog in the world.
I somehow convinced Kerri to hold one of the Madagascar hissing cockraoches. She hated it. hahaha
Ag Field Day is really the best, and as you can see behind us - the entomology booth is always the most popular. Come next year!
I taught Paul how to keep his hair out of his face when washing it, and he sent me this fantastic picture of my favorite animal in the world.
May 4th = Star Wars Day at Lacrosse Practice.
Right from practice we drove straight to Lancaster, PA for the Turkey Hill bike race. It was the best bike race ever because FREE ICE CREAM, free drinks, and free hot dogs and chips. It was a dream come true and I loved every second, including the huge cow and most especially Paul's 4th place finish (in the money)!
That night we headed back to Shippensburg and Marian trusted me enough to let me help her learn to ride a bike. She earns some American Girl Doll clothes if she is successful, so let's just say she was motivated. It was so fun seeing her make big progress.
The next morning Paul participated in his first mountain bike race. About an hour after they started I headed over to the finish line (bad thing about mountain biking is it's not spectator friendly). I heard someone yell "rider coming!" and guess who was the first person through those trees. Paul! First race = first place.
And since it happened to be Cinco de Mustacio... he had that lovely stache to display on the podium. Instead of picking up some gear for himself, he grabbed me a new bike helmet for his winnings. :)
More riding practice for Marian, and I couldn't get enough of how perfect and springy the Goates house looked that afternoon. We sure like having family close enough to spend weekends with.
When we got home I took out my bun and suddenly discovered that we looked like the most perfect early 90s couple, so I threw on a quick red lip and documented it for all of posterity.
New Jersey does spring right, and all the sudden it was green and lush and beautiful. One day driving home I discovered their were dandelion fluffs everywhere. It was magic and I bet the hoggies were thrilled.
Some of my seniors from the first team I coached at the Mount (2 years ago) came and visited and I loved it. This first team I coached will always have a special place in my heart, and now they are going to be Juniors in college and time is flying.
We had a very special treat of Paul's brother Devn coming to visit! He was doing some work at a hospital in Maryland and drove up to see us for a weekend. We took him to Jose Tejas, the best fajitas you could ever eat, and he and Paul loved acting like annoying boys/brothers for every picture that I tried to take of them.
After our stomachs were full of Fajitas we drove to Staten Island to take the Ferry over to NYC (Devn had never been and we had to convince him it was worth an afternoon trip). When we were getting our things our of our trunk it started to rain. I told Paul that we should get back in the car and let it pass, because if there is anything I have learned about East coast storms it's that they usually come on fast and furious. Someone named Paul did not believe me, and we walked the 2 blocks down the ferry and definitely got drenched, even with an umbrella. It was nuts.
Luckily, by the time we had crossed the Hudson the rains had stopped and we enjoyed a fun afternoon in Manhattan, starting with Times Square then a walk up to Rockefeller and Central Park.
One of the owners of this horse said to a little boy "watch out! he bites!" hahahah
Thanks to that torrential downpour, Central Park was the greenest. However, our cameras were having a hard time not whiting us out, so just ignore that fact and also try to ignore the bikini-clad Beyonce on Paul's H&M bag, because he was being annoying picture taker boy and wouldn't put it down.
Since we were so close, we strolled a few blocks West and spotted our friend Angel Moroni and enjoyed seeing the New York Temple.
Then we found the best tiny squished-in-their apartment and thought it could definitely be 12 Grimmauld Place and maybe I'm not a Muggle after all since I could see it.
These NYC Subway mosaics do it for me every time. Such a nice touch, don't you think?
When we hopped on the Subway to head back to the Financial District, these lovely ladies couldn't stop obsessing over Paul's beautiful hair. I mean, back off ladies. That hair is taken.
(I don't usually take and post pictures of strangers but I feel like this story is justification).
At church the next day I had to say goodbye to my sweet little friend Ingvuild. She's been here for the past few months while her mom was studying at Rutgers this semester. Now she's back to Norway and I will miss having her in my Beehive class at church. Her English was limited, and she was shy on top of that, but when I'd ask her to prepare something to share with the class, she would write it down carefully and read it out loud. She was an incredibly deep thinker, and had such a warm heart. She definitely gave me like four hugs goodbye and it made me feel good that she felt welcomed here.
Senior Day at Lacrosse the team gave me this prettiest bunch of flowers which I took the worst pictures of because we were in a hurry trying to get to...
Baby Kate's 1 year birthday party! Kerri made this amazing lamb cake, which also served as my breakfast for the next two days.
Kate loved Drew's graduation present from Kerri. Paul loved helping to pick it out.
We are forever grateful that the Hart's moved here to New Jersey and have become some of our best friends these past two years. I am so so so so so glad that even though Drew just finished his Masters at Rutgers, we will get to have them here for another year or so. Hooray for that!
And speaking of that friendship, this gchat happened...
Paul and Drew are always talking about the Killers and trying to scheme ways to get to a concert, so this was their perfect chance. Just a few hours later they were in the very midst of... Are we human or are we dancer?
My last week of lacrosse finished off strong with Harry Potter Day and our last bus ride after losing in the State Tournament. The girls were really impressive this year and they became a really strong and incredible team. Since we are only losing one senior, next year should be a really great year as well.
We headed to Pennsylvania for my first lacrosse-free weekend, and worked remotely there on Friday. Reuben let me use his room to work in and came and visited me often and made sure these squirrels kept me company.
He also had his first tee-ball game on Saturday morning and it was the best. Little dudes sitting in the outfield playing in the dirt just makes me laugh every time.
After his big game we headed into the woods and had a nice family hike in greenest of green Michaux forest.
Val got the group shot at the top that I failed to capture. It was fun being in nature with these people we love.
Back at the Goates house, Valerie let me dive into her amazing pressed flower collection and we made pressed flower/resin iPhone cases. She is doing this for a class in a few weeks, so I made several "examples" before I picked my favorite design and covered it in Resin.
That evening we had roasted brats and yummy pasta and enjoyed it in the backyard around the fire pit. These kids love their Uncle Paul, that's for sure.
From Val's, Paul headed straight to DC for a conference, and I drove back here to New Jersey and I felt so glad these flowers were still pretty enough to keep on display. There is something about having fresh flowers and plants in your house - life life life!
It's nice to be back at Talksoft without the interruption of lacrosse, and a few of us celebrated Charlie's birthday with some Stewart's Root beer Floats. YUM.
And that brings us to yesterday! When I went outside to eat my lunch, my tupperware steamed up like crazy. It has been a million percent humidity here the past few days, and Paul says it feels like Disneyland, or at least coming of off Splash Mountain.
Last night I spent some time in Paul's lab with him as he finished up some DNA extractions and I'll just end this post with a little brag time. This dude works so hard and I'm really proud of him for that. A career in academics can be really really competitive and scary so I'm proud that he is doing all he can to set up himself up for good opportunities and I know it's going to work out well for him. And yes, he is very excited about the 17 year cicadas. :)
