busy, busy, busy... sort of

Thought I'd post an update on what we're up to down here in MO...

I'm "done" with my thesis and waiting to get proofs back from the Graduate College so that I can print the final version and submit it to be bound. In the mean time, I've been working part-time for the school to bring some more cash into the house. The rest of the semester will be working on a manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.

Atalie has been training for her half marathon coming up in a few weeks. She has slacked off a little, but now it's crunch time (as if you can cram for a half marathon). She's up to ~10 miles as of right now (yay!) so she'll probably be ok on race day.

As some of you know, I'm addicted to a new drug: rock climbing. The past two Saturdays we took day trips down to Arkansas so that I might get my fix...

Trick or treat!

We started Halloween with something a little different this year... a 10K race! My friend Jackie and I are training for a half marathon in December, and part of the training includes running in a smaller race or two. The weather was beautiful and the atmosphere was very encouraging, so the 6.2 miles felt better to run than any of my exercise sessions have been yet, despite more uphill areas than I expected or prepared for. I'm not speedy but I jogged the whole way, and with more topography than I'm used to, I suppose my 1:07:10 time wasn't too bad. After the race, Patrick & I were busy decorating, cooking and cleaning all day for a little party we hosted that night. Our place had great ambiance, the food was delicious, and there were some creative costumes! The weekend was tiring, but overall very enjoyable. :) Take a look!

Meeting at Pat & Jackie's before the race. It was a chilly morning when I put my number on, but later I got warm and had to unpin and repin it to my shirt w/o stabbing myself while running, since I wanted to take off my jacket!

Patrick got this picture of the crowd gathered at the starting line in front of the store. We're about ready to take off!

I'm almost finished! Patrick & our buddies were cheering me on!

Our decor included jack-o-lanterns! Here's Patrick's- it didn't feel so well and had a bit of an accident on our cupboard.

Mine is a bat that looks a little like an owl.

Isn't Jackie's costume awesome?! :) She made it herself! Pat is Sam Adams (he made the vest on his own). To their left are our friends Ben & Scott.

It looked really funny seeing the two of them kiss though!

Derek made a great Captain Ahab, and Erin made a cute Moby Dick when she flipped her fins around. :)


You can see more of Pat's costume in this photo, which looks really good. And Patrick dressed up as his German grandpa- some of his pieces were authentic! (I think he looks quite cute. hehe!) He even had an Oktoberfest mug from Germany he broke out later.

I raided my closet and dressed as frumpish as possible. I think it worked! haha! Notice the lipstick on my teeth and smeared on my face- my friends seemed to like that small touch- and the Happy Valentine's day button. If I had turned around, you'd see the granny panties sticking up out of my pants.

October Rock Climbing at Horshoe Canyon Ranch

A few weeks ago was Missouri State University's fall break; so with the 4 day weekend, Patrick & our friends decided to go for an extended rock climbing trip. They left on a Wednesday night (the 14th), climbed all day Thursday & Friday, and I joined up with them after work for the rest of the weekend. After a full day of climbing on Saturday, I wasn't sure how they held out for so long, because even that was tiring & challenging. However, it was a good time & we all saw improvement in our performances, so that must have been what fueled them!

Patrick is already past the overhang, and nearly to the top to finish setting up the route!

At Horseshoe Canyon, somebody has to climb up first to set up the anchors/rope/etc.. Here I am, about to clip into a bolt on my first route lead-climbing!

Patrick and Jackie climbed routes next to each other so she was able to get this awesome picture of him with an autumn view in the background.

Patrick climbed a route ahead of me and waited at the top so he could make sure I set up the anchors properly and could get a new perspective caught on camera.

The view was a fabulous reward for making it to the top of a route.

When we got back from climbing on Saturday, I found this guy waiting for me on my sleeping bag in the tent! (shudder) I'm not looking for another roommate, so I promptly escorted him out!

Birthday Celebration

Last Monday, as most of you know, it was my birthday. It consisted of a day of work (yay), a quick hour at the climbing gym, and then dinner at Houlihan's. Atalie surprised me with a hangboard (something to train on for rock climbing). She mentioned that she was thinking of getting one a while back, but then told me she wouldn't since she said something. I fell for it and she got the information she was looking for. She made blueberry-raspberry-blackberry cobbler as well and we ate that Tuesday because we were too full from dinner Monday.

Unrelated to the birthday, we got a gently used kayak from our friend Derek. He gave a really good deal and we're both excited to get out on the water... one problem: we only have one kayak!


The hangboard mounted above spare bedroom door.
Doris with the kayak strapped on top. She looks so hot!

I'd like to bring to your attention the following...

After talking to people about our Branson trip, I've discovered they didn't realize that we posted a video on our Day 2 blog. If you want to take a look, there's a "play" button underneath the still shot of the turtle, Savannah. Click it, and you'll see a short segment of me feeding her! Just wanted to let you all know since we'll try to keep videos in mind for future posts, and as I'm rather excited about that, I don't want you to miss them. Keep your eyes open for play buttons! :)

Happy Birthday, Patrick!

I just wanted to take a moment to semi-publicly do a shout-out to the birthday boy. He turns 26 today! We all love you and wish you a fabulous day, and a happy year ahead, Patrick!

Branson: Day 3

We ended our weekend in Branson by touring Talking Rocks Cavern. Following our underground exploration, we went to the Amish Country Store where we bought a few homemade food items like jam, macaroons, and vanilla beans. Our Branson trip ended with a BBQ lunch from, and a stroll through, the Autumn Daze Arts and Crafts Festival. We were very tempted by a few things but managed to keep our money in our pockets. It was nice for just the two of us to get away for a weekend and spend some time together. Plus, I can cross it off the list I've been making of things I have the chance and would like to do while living in Missouri. Now in addition to remembering this trip with fondness, we can look forward to another weekend (perhaps somewhere else) sometime in the not-too-distant future!

This is flowstone, but it is also known as bacon. It does look similar to the food (especially when back lit), but from this underneath perspective, I think it resembles tentacles too! The formations are quite unique.

In a narrow corridor of the cave, we paused for a Patalie picture!

Beautiful, natural wonders. What's sad about these particular stalactites is they were broken off (in part during the first exploration of the cave, and possibly more so by tour participants when the cave was under other management) and will never grow back since they are no longer in the path of water that slowly helps create them.

In some of the pictures, the texture of the rock is not captured. But here, you can see the glisten indicating the cave was wet and drippy. This area will continue to grow, but again- very slowly. About 1 inch per 100 years, the tour guide had speculated, and that's not even the slow ones either. She said that shows how caves are one of the most non-replenishable natural resources. Makes you appreciate the concept of conservation and respecting the beauty and complexity of the planet God created and gave us!