Wedding Weekend in Michigan
I flew to Michigan for the weekend to celebrate Beth as a soon to be bride!!! I flew out Thursday afternoon and spent 5.5 hours in Chicago O'Hare (awesome times) before landing in Detroit at 1am (scheduled landing was 9:45pm) and spending another hour on the runway 50 feet from the terminal because they wouldn't let us off in the storm. Beth and I got back to her condo at 3:30am...but the long day of travel was well worth it! Friday morning Jen flew in and we had breakfast at Beth's...Jen was my vice president while planning for the weekend. I was grateful for her help as she knows alot about these sorts of things!

After breakfast, Jen and I set off to Dexter to get ready for the shower and bachelorette party. We had our priorities though, first we stopped at the Dexter Bakery for cookies...they are amazing and unfortunately sold out for the week.

This is a random photo that some guy took with my camera. We asked him to take our picture in front of the bakery and then he grabbed my camera to take this shot...he was a little odd but we were in Dexter!

This is another random photo...my first time on an inversion table. Rita (Beth's mom) had one at her house...I didn't last much past this photo, my head felt like it was going to explode!

Friday evening we went to one of my favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor, Pizza House! They totally redid the place, it is super nice now. I got my favorite plate, a Chipati...basically a salad inside of giant, tasty pita bread.

After dinner, we decided to take a walk across the "diag" on Michigan's campus. It was really nice as we walked across but on the way back it started monsoon raining. So, the three of us ran back across barefoot and screaming...I am sure we were a sight to see!

Saturday morning was the shower at Rita's house out in her backyard. The weather was perfect!

This is a picture of the original Happy Halter club...Beth and Tracey invited me to join their exclusive club in 5th grade. Fortunately the club is no longer around but the friendships are.

And this is the amazing cake that Beth's Aunt Sharon brought to the shower. The cake matched the shower invitations that Jen made. Believe it or not, that entire cake was gone by Sunday morning!

After the shower, Jen and I ran into Ann Arbor to set up for the night and then met the bachelorette party at Dominics in Ann Arbor. Beth got to wear this amazing sash to dinner that night...at least we didn't make her wear a veil or anthing else wierd!

Then we had dinner at Mediterrano, Beth's favorite restaurant. Definitely another tasty spot in Ann Arbor. After dinner, we all went to a hotel and had a slumber party. Jen and I introduced the girls to the world of "Catch Phrase"...my favorite game in the world. And that may have been when the rest of the shower cake was consumed along with ice cream sundaes.

Sunday morning Beth, Jen, and I went to breakfast/lunch at Afternoon Delight, another of my favorites, before heading back to the airport. They have amazing muffins, though I do think Wooglins are still the best.

Off To the Land of Great Lakes

I am headed to Michigan for the weekend to spend time with Bethie! And, I am not even taking my bike, my computer or school work...it's going to be like a real vacation! It helps that I finished up finals and have 10 days off until the next term starts! :)

First Day of Therapy

Remember back in the day when your mom would take a picture of you on the first day of school? Well, today was my first day as a therapist. I lead my first therapy session this morning and am offically seeing clients now. I still have a ways to go before I become a doctor though, so I don't count as a "shrink" just yet! :)

Hairspray

With all the hype, Mary and I had to check out the movie Hairspray...it's actually pretty good. Definitely has a bit of the Broadway cheese attached to it, but overall it was entertaining and a nice break from writing papers and studying for finals!

Hoosier Time
I spent Saturday evening up in Denver hanging out with some of my friends from college. Beth, Ben, and I all lead Kairos together back at Indiana my senior year. Beth lives in Denver, Ben was visiting from Chicago/Bloomington, and Mike (Ben's friend on the right, also a Hoosier) just moved out to Denver this year. We ate at a Peruvian place called Cebiche and caught up on life...while Ben is jealous of our amazing weather and the mountains, I am definitely jealous of his opportunities to eat Laughing Planet every day!

Beth, Ben, and Mike, this photo is for you...I pulled it out of my colligete nats folder...just think chamois time...

Magic Jeans

The Today Show had a special on beauty products today which featured these special jeans. They are infused with shea butter and antioxidents which help to get rid of cellulite while you wear them! If you are interested in them, they are called Lytess-Cosmo jeans...

Two Weeks Left
There are only two weeks left of this term which means I am writing and writing a lot! In fact, I am procrastinating right now while I blog this! I have one paper down, just need to proof read it and than one more 10 pager to write...that's not due for another week and a half but I want to get it done as I am REALLY not excited about it. It is basically a glorified, 10 page book report! For those of you who haven't heard yet, this is for the class that I have heard the same lecture EIGHT times. And, of course, the book is on the same exact topic...in fact, I think the instructor may have memorized the book.

Wedding BBQ!

It's been a long time since we have had a BBQ, so Levi and Mandy's wedding BBQ came just at the right time! They had a BBQ to celebrate their marriage with all those Colorado kids that couldn't make it to WI back in May...they are so happy in this picture but really I think Mandy cannot wait to eat the cake that Levi was about to cut!

Happy Birthday Mary!!!

Life is Good

Christa and Amber came over this afternoon and I decided Amber has it good...as a baby you can do anything you want like make spit bubbles in your sleep and people think its cute! Imagine falling asleep as an adult and doing that, you would never hear the end of it.

Independence Day Grand Prix
So I was priveledged enought to spend 10 hours of my Fourth of July in my chamois (biking shorts)...while it was awsome to race on the Fourth, 10 hours in a pair of bike shorts is never any fun! This is first thing in the morning when Mary came to visit me, I was smiling because I had only been wearing them for about an hour at that point...by 10pm, I wasn't smiling anymore!

However, it was an awesome day because I got to race my first UCI (international race!) And I got my butt kicked, but that is okay because it was a good experience. The day started out with the Keirin. We start lined up across the track and then when the guns goes off, we all ride behind a motorcycle for 4 laps.

This is us behind the motorcycle...somehow I was lucky enough to be in the FAST heat. Both heats were fast but my heat happened to have some crazy strong pro and international riders and me...

The moto pulled off with 2 laps to go and then it was an all out sprint...that's me in the back pedaling as fast as I possible can and still getting dropped! Later in the day we had more Keirin rounds, a 60 lap Points race and then after an afternoon break I came back in the evening for a 200m...at that point my legs were absolutly fried and flat!

But it was super cool to race last night because we had a huge crowd watch before and after the fireworks that shoot off in the same park as the velodrome.

The Big Move
Saturday we loaded everything up and made the big move...a whopping six blocks down the street. It took two full truck/trailer loads plus four individual cars totally loaded plus two normal truck loads to get all of our stuff down the street. Appearantly we (I) have a lot of stuff!

Thanks to Laura, Eric, Lori, Josh, and Joel for helping out! The new place is awesome and we are living next door to ANOTHER Santa...there are quite a few in this town! The best part is we now have a garage for all of my bikes!!! :)