Mark and the Grad School Adventure

So! The semester after Christimas was was Mark's first semester in grad school! Yay! Mark was accepted into grad school, and after interviewing with a lot of different professors and looking at a few different programs he could work with, Mark accepted an offer to work at Zucrow Laboratories with Dr. Steve Son. Mark had been in AFROTC, but with having to do research for his RA appointment, there was physically not enough time in the day for him to be in the AF as well as school and church and work. So! We don't know what the future will hold for where we will go work, but it sure will be an adventure figuring it out :o)

So! For grad school Mark gets to work with "Energetic Materials"...which is just an impressive way to say explosives :o) he he he :o)

He works on several projects for Dr. Son, one of which involves introducing nano-particles into liquid rocket fuel. Pretty cool. The other project is a rocket called "ALICE" for Aluminum-ICE (I think coming up with clever acronyms is a prerequisite for research; it must be on the GRE somewhere). They take little itty bitty pieces of aluminum dust and mix it with water and freeze it...then they burn it!!

That is Marks favorite part :o)

I must say it is pretty intense when they run a test. I was able to go to a few of them. You have to wear ear plugs, and guys are dressed up in fire proof suits and face masks to load the fuel grain into the test tube. Then they are like running the checks, and everything is going so fast and anticipation is building, and then they start the count, and then SCHWOOM!! the ground starts vibrating and there is this really really big bright flash!

and like a second later, it is all over!!

It is really intense. After it is done, people are laughing and talking about how it went, and talking about the pressure and stuff, and purging the chamber. A couple of times Mark had to dash out behind the building with a bucket of water to put out the weeds that they caught on fire (Whoopse!) :o)

The labs that they have out there are really awesome and he loves working there. The facilities are really unique so he gets the chance to work on a lot of really different sorts of projects and get lots of experiences handling and mixing rocket fuel and stuff. And, I am really glad they have buildings with blast walls (REALLY thick reinforced walls) so that if bad things happen behind the walls...they stay safe :o) Staying safe is DEFINITELY the goal :o)

We will see about getting permission to post a video of marks work for you guys to see! Stay tuned!!

SNOW!

Yes, it is September...but I am trying to post in chronological order, so I am still, oh, around January in blog-land. Unfortunately, I found this video from mid December that I didn't post then...whoopse! So, I am posting it now. :o) Hopefully by the end of this weekend I can be roughly caught up so I wont be living in the past anymore. Its kinnda hard to not get confused :o)

We had a light winter as far as the snow was concerned. I wanted to build a SNOW CASTLE!! :-D We never did get enough :o( My view is, if it is going to be SO COLD...we may as well get to play in it ;o)

Hopefully we will get a chance this year!




Enjoy the snow!

FAMILY PHOTOS!!

When we were visiting my parents, we took family photos. Nani and the Remy were there, we were just missing the Teek and the Alex and alex and chio. We took JUMPING PICTURES!! They were so fun. Here is a sideshow of all the good times!



I love jumping photos since people in them always look so happy. And taking them is a blast. The thing about the jumping photo is the timing. ESPECIALLY when you have a group of people ;o). My particular favorites are the pictures in weird squatting positions.

Then we took couple pictures! :-D Cute Cute!

Me and Mark:



Nani and Remy



and Mom and Dad and the Goose!



SO MUCH FUN!!

Here are the Favs of the afternoon:









hehe! daddy is so cute! :o)


Fun times! :-D

LOVE YOU GUYS!! Next time, we will have to have the Teeks fam there too! :-D

The Invitations...da da daaaaahn...

So! My friend Amanda Baer was having a baby, and I was making invitations for her baby shower. My mommy said that we could make the invitations when we were visiting them in NM. Weeeelll, we didn't get to doing them, oh, until the night before we left. WHOOPSIES!!

We were up...SO LATE...doing card stuff. Again, I was filled with guilt (AND SUPER GRATITUDE) for the slave labor of my mom, the goose, and the handsome mark. Of coarse, I had to choose a card that had moving parts and little bows and was really complicated (I learned my lesson! )

Goose and Mark had a competition going for cutting up the little baby carriages. Mark was winning...and then Goose discovered that Mark wasn't cutting out the details, he was only cutting out the outline, so she declared herself the winner :o) We watched Monk while we were doing it :o) Thanks so much! It was really fun :o)

Here is the final product:



I brought back all the pieces we made and assembled a lot of the cards back in IN, and I decided that I wanted to make these cutesie little bears to go in them. I printed them off in the Purdue computer lab and colored them in class (I paid attention too)
I cut them out and made the cards in the NUCL louge, it was pretty fun. They have a paper cutter there...it worked out great :o)

New Year's Hair

The Nani is THUPER talented and she did me and the goosies hair for New Years! Mark and me and the mom and the daddy and the goosie went to the youths New Years dance ; goose went to scout out cute boys, and the mom and the daddy and me and mark went to chaperon! It was really fun. (Nani and the Remy had a previous engagment, so we missed them!) Here is the pictures of our hair:



Nani is THO talented! :-D

The Quilt!

da da daaaaaaahn.... :o)

I have a goal to make satin quilts for my sisters' children, vaguely patterned off a satin quilt I inherited (and loved to death) as a child. So! When we found out that The Teek was going to be having a baby girl (YAY!), me and my mom went down to the fabric store to pick out some purple satin to make a little quilt for her (the purple was supposed to match the little purple dress my mommy was making for her with yarn...oh the irony). My mom finished the little purple dress for baby chio, and there is a picture of her looking adorable in it here. What? No matching purple satin blanket you say? Strange.... *cough* *cough*

Lets just say procrastination won this battle.

Happy 2nd Christmas Chio...in January! :-D

Oh well! Its the thought that counts!

And, the only reason it got finished (over a year later) was because I enlisted the slave labor, I mean help, of my sister the gooth and the mommy. Ahhh....we look great too, dont we? This should go in some fancy quilting magazine I think, pj's and all. I am particularly fond of the stray piece of thread that wandered into my impeccable coiffure. ;o)


Here you can see that we have put a little lamb in the middle.


The lamb is really what hung up the whole situation with the Quilt. I had a little picture of the lamb, and I couldn't enlarge it very well, and I had this crazy idea about putting the picture on a piece of glass with a lamb behind it (a.k.a. a jurry rigged projector) and then tracing it to the wall. We had LOTS of fun trying that over and over....with a flashlight...

"Stop moving it goose!"

"I'm not moving it, I'm breathing...breathing doesn't count as something to stop doing!"

:o)

Eventually we ended up tracing it to paper, and then cutting out the paper, and then tracing that to the quilt... then we quilted it!



Ta-Da! The lines are not really straight, but they are a far cry better than the poor quilt I made for Alex. (sorry, alex, that your quilt looks so funny :o( I didn't mean for it to look retarded)

Goothie helped me to draw the lines on this quilt, and it is much easier with help. About 3/4ths of the way through, my mommy started helping, and then the lines were AWESOMLEY straight. She had some magic trick that she did to make the lines straight...but I cant seem to remember what the trick was.... maybe that is why all the lines I have done have been crooked...whoops! But! Again, it is the thought that counts.
Here I am, looking fabulous while binding the edges. Ah...the finished product! Thanks so much for helping the mom and the gooth! And chio, I hope you like it! (even though you didn't get to use it while you were a baby...) *MUAH!*

Sterling and Susans Wedding!

Yay!! We also got to go to Sterling and Susans wedding while we were in NM! It was so nice :o) They were sealed in the Albuquerque NM temple for time and all eternity :o) We we able to help out at their reception. I sent my spy, Nani, to take pictures for me while we helped in the Kitchen ;o) Thanks Nani! It was loads of fun and we were so happy we got to see them start their life together. We love you guys!!

Here are a few pictures!

What a happy couple! Susan totally looks like a princess :o)



me and the gooth and lindsey divett (she is so cool :o)

It was so nice to get to see them again, and to be able to help out in a small part. We love you guys!!

Navidad Festivities!!

Bring on the festivities!! Man do I love Christmas!

So! Grandpa and Nan and Nani and Remy came over for dinner at my parents (not for Christmas Eve dinner , but later :o) So it was like celebrating twice, meaning more food and family time! WHO-RAY! It was so nice! :-D


Naturally, a picture of the table pre-meal. Yum Yum!

After dinner we all went into the living room and did Christmas activity stuff, so Daddy has his laptop, and Mark is armed for a pillow fight :o) Jk! We had music time! Mom and daddy and the gooth played a trio on the piano (it was hilarious, I mean daddy you play great). They had to do it a couple of times since daddy got, er, distracted and made everyone laugh, and then lost his place :o) Me and Mark sang "Do you hear what I hear". We had some more musical numbers, and then later that evening we brought out the guitars, and mommy and grandpa and the gooth played guitars while we all sang carols together for a while. It was really wonderful. You cant really tell from this video, since it so close to my face and the mikes are bad, but it was really fun and pretty while we were singing. Next time, I will NOT sing while taking the video, since all you can hear pretty much is my off key voice. But! You can still see other people doing interesting things, and Grandpa and Mommy playing, so that is nice too :o)



After singing with the guitars, I asked if we could bring out the bells (I like the bells! I think the gooth was less than thrilled ;-) he he!) I think playing with the hand bells is really fun. It is especially fun when not everyone knows what they are doing. Everyone gets a hand bell (or, 2, or 6) and then you get out a hymn book and play carols. You pick out the note that is yours, and then when every you see it come along, you are supposed to ring your bell. It is REALLY fun, and funny. My daddy liked to pick the bells he had so that he had minimal notes to play :o) I think there was a song when I only had one note to hit...and i missed it! oops! It is really, really fun.

Here are nani, remmy, and the gooth lounging on the couch...

... and here they are armed and ready with their bells (remy is so funny :o)
You can also see Grandpa's hands here too. He and nan are wizards at the hand bells, let me tell you :o)

Here is a movie of us playing and singing with the Bells. It is REALLY funny :o) It kinda sounds like someone is shooting a xylophone :o) And, I think Mark's bells sound like they are hitting the camera, whoops! He he! But in real life, it was lovely, and lots of fun. Next time, I am going to have to let someone else have my note while I take a movie so I can get a good one, you really, really cant tell anything of the pretty aspect from this video.



Mark thinks we have potential to accompany the Mo-Tab. ;-) Spot on, that husband of mine, spot on :o)

And here are Mark and I, totally exhausted, holding our bells. Mark is such a trooper! He looks like he is going to pass out in this one :o( We havent had much sleep.

We got a lot of practice in before Cathy and Devin and Trish and Brendon came over, so they were subjected, i mean treated, to a musical number before they joined us :o)


It was LOTS of fun! I love love singing Christmas carols, it is so much fun, and there is such a wonderful spirit about them.

It was SO NICE to get to see grandpa and nan, and get to spend time with them over dinner and singing. And it was really nice to get to see Devin, Cathy, Trish, and Brendon too while we sang songs. It is so nice to get to go home and visit, and have lots of family so close :o) Can't wait till we get to see you again! LOVE YOU ALL!! :-D

Christmas at the Evans!

(Evanses? I don't know if that is supposed to be plural or not... Evans' ? Oh well!)

So! We got to NM...and it was WONDERFUL! :o)

Mom and the Nani and the Gooth were at the airport to come and get us, we got Dions on the way home (YAY!) started the turkey in the oven when we got to the house, and then drove to Santa Fe to save my daddy ( well, my daddy's PDA, but its close enough ;o) he he!!). It was a really pretty drive and lots of fun. :0) My mom told us some of her Santa Fe stories, it was really nice. We were able to drive home just about sunset--the BEST time to drive around in the mesas. What a great way to say hello to NM!

After we got home, we made food, and visited. :o) We had a lot of time to visit since we didnt eat till quite late :o) In fact, we read the Christmas story before we had dinner :o) I was really really wonderful :o)


And mom and the gooth had the house all decorated for Chrsitmas! Here is a view of the christmas village! Right now it is cluttered with stuff that Mark and I are supposed to take with us, but I LOVE this village :o) It is so much fun and so pretty. On the Piano is the Christmas nativity. I can always remember this nativity when we decorated for Chrsitmas :o) On the shelves above there are two more nativities, and they stay out all year round (my mommy loves nativities :o)

Here is the Gooth at the table...GETTING READY TO EAT THE FOOD!! :-D WAAAAIT GOOTHIE!! WAIT FOR ME!! :o)
yuuuuuummmmmmyyyyyy........mmmmmmmmmmmm..........

And here we are post eating :o) I love these two pictures. Can you tell we are sleepy?
Yep! love the juxtaposition of the above two photos :o)

And here is the Christmas tree!! This does it no justice, whatsoever. This my moms "crystal tree" and it has the prettiest, sparkliest, decorations ever. It is so fun to just turn the tree on and dangle the decorationgs in the lights :o) it makes little rainbows! It always seems like you cant find an end to all the pretty little bables in this tress, there are not too many of them that are the same. Unfortunatley, with the flash, all you can see is green and a little bit of white and gold, but it is still pretty :o) We spent LOTS of time admiring the tree :o) There is angel Moroni at the top :o)



Goose with her talones (be afriad! She bites!) :-D

And with that, let me just say: MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOODNIGHT! (sorry it took me until July to post these photots! ...)

Aiports and stinky feets :o)

After safely making it to the airport, we got on a plane and flew to NM!

Because of the new airport policies, we only checked one bag; I was a packing nazi and limited what we could pack--meaning only one pair of packed shoes/person (poor mark wanted to brings nice shoes, and tennis shoes, and workout shoes. He had to pick only one to conserve space. What a bummer!) I chose that I would pack only sunday shoes. Since we live in freezing Indiana, I had been wearing marks REALLY BIG WARM HIKING BOOTS, and his BIG FLUFFY SOCKS SUPER WARM SOCKS. As I only packed one pair of other shoes to take to NM these are the shoes that I had to wear as my "functional shoes". Lets just say, in the nice warm airport terminal, MY FEET WERE DYING! Luckily, I had an idea:

"Hey Mark, I am going to go to the restroom"

"ok, do you want me to watch your bag?"

"sure, I'll be right back"

"oh, ok"

--a few minutes later...

zzzzzzzzip! stuff - stuff- cram- stuff


"What are you stuffing in the suitcase?"

"My socks"

"You took your socks off?!"


Yep! I decided that life would be better if I took my socks off. For those of you who are unaware, this is a bad idea. :o) Apprently, the socks help to keep your feet from getting all hot and sweaty in the shoes, and are an integral (not optional) part of wearing shoes. Who knew?!?

Mark explained all this to me when I was shocked my feet were MUCH less happy after removing my socks. Now, not only were they hot, they were sweaty, and itchy and getting scratched by the work shoes.

As a last resort, I decided I needed to take my shoes off while sitting in the terminal, and while on the plane. I tucked them under me while I sat crossed legged on the benched, coloring story books. I felt pretty awesome. And smelt pretty awesome. Mmmm...hot leathery work shoes feet smell in a crammed airplane.

I tried to keep them on for as longs as I could, but it was TERRIBLE! I guess I am one of those people that make holiday travel so wonderful.

Anyway! Lets just say that made it extra wonderful when we got into ABQ to see my parents, the goose, and the nan and remmy. :o)

and we were there...FOR CHRISTMAS EVE!! :-D