2 down, one to go

We have returned from our trip to Chicago and Nauvoo. We are a little tired and about ready to leave for our third destination. We came home for the night and are headed to Houston to see a friend at his reception and hopefully to sneak in the sealing. It's just an overnight trip.

Here are a few picture teasers from our trip.

This is Ginny's favorite Chicago hot dog stand. It's slightly in the ghetto but definitely worth it. Everyone has their favorite pizza place and favorite hot dog place.

And, of course, this is the glorious Nauvoo temple. It's stunning and breathtaking!

Of course, more to come!

Shi-cah-geaux

Here we come! Tomorrow we leave for a week long vacay. I can't be more excited to get away from school work and work for a week! We have a lot planned.

Thursday we leave early in the AM and drive to Chicago. Ginny served her mission there a few years ago and we have a great opportunity to share in the experience of seeing some old friends and even some who Ginny taught. I love learning more about Ginny's history; it helps me become closer to her. She is super excited to see everyone. Plus, we are gonna have some great food, Portillos, Jimmy Johns, and, hopefully, some Culvers! Oh, did I mention we are leaving 80 degree weather for mid-50's. Oh, yeah!!! For those of you who don't me that well, I love the cold!

After about 5 days there we will head to Nauvoo, IL (a historical site for our church) for a few days. We are staying at a log cabin. We are a little worried about the cabin but super excited if it's what we think it is. Of course, we will hit Carthage on the way out. The only sad part about the trip is the Nauvoo temple will not be open while we are there. Sigh, I love that temple so much and this is the second time I've gone to this town and I couldn't do a session. The last time we went, I was asked to stand in for baptisms and we didn't have time to do an endowment session. Oh well, I guess that means I should have to go back.

Then we will head home for a brief night's sleep in our bed for a night and head to Houston for a couple of days. My good friend Ryan is getting sealed to his love and I'm super excited to see that.

Anyway, I've posted this so people will bug me to post pictures upon our return. Thanks!

Goodbye SELU! You will not be missed. Enjoy your time without us! We will not be looking back.

Still?

Ginny is still hard at work on her thesis. We have had some ups and downs as far as when she was going to graduate. Originally she was going to graduate in May. Now, however, due to some unforeseen circumstances, she will be graduating in August. She is still going through the hooding ceremony with the rest of her graduating classmates but will not officially graduate until the end of the summer. It is bitter-sweet. She will now get to have more participants for her study and be more proud of her thesis. It will make for a much better publishing.

I have one job down (it was a contracted job and is done for the semester). I am still working part time for a psychologist. My slated graduation date is August '12. If everything goes as planned and SeLU keeps offering the classes I need, I can graduate and move on to grad school. We are still unsure if we are moving anywhere.

We both are going to be spending our summer with Varsity Cheer, a company that hosts cheer camps all over the country. I'm pretty excited about it. We worked for them last summer and I'm looking forward to it again.

"A new life...what I wouldn't give to have a new life."

So a lot of new stuff happened today. First, I deleted my Facebook page. I was so entrapped in it. Ginny and I have done the optimal thing and combined our pages. Maybe I'll be posting on here more...ha!

Second, I tried soy cheese for the first time today. I recently noticed a problem of my body creating too much mucus. I am lactose intolerant which causes all kinds of digestive concerns. In addition, it also causes excess mucus in my throat when I ingest it. I put two and two together and I have a theory. Maybe my addiction to milk products is also causing mucus to build up in other parts of my body as well. If so, it makes a lot of sense, yeah?!?! So, I'm off of all milk products until the end of April. Hopefully I can notice a difference by then. I might actually have to create a study on myself and use May to ingest different types of milk products to see the effects, who knows. After tasting soy cheese, I might just go on a binge eating spree anyway. So, there you have it. I don't drink cow's milk anymore but now added to the list is ice cream, cheese (too many to list), Eddy's frozen custard, whipped cream (I guess I might have to actually use the tub now), cream cheese, sour cream, cream cheese frosting, cream cheese icing (yes, they are different), grilled cheese, Mexican food in it's entirety (ok, maybe not that far) and the list goes on and on. Could you give up all that for a month? UGH!