Closing in two weeks!

Hi everyone!

Well, Dustin and I finally have everything situated with the new house. We close two weeks from today on July 24th! Scary! It finally hit me today and then I realized that I haven't even started packing yet!

We have so much to do...and much of it is just changing our address and setting up utilities! Yuck! I hate doing stuff like that because it's so tedious.

We're so excited though and can't wait to finally have a yard for Herby to run around in, privacy, and no rent!...except we will have a helfty mortgage payment. :) Believe me, we are going to have a crazy house warming party on that huge deck.

We have been buying stuff for the house here and there. Our biggest purchase has been our new tempur-pedic bed. You gotta love those 4th of July sales. We aren't sleeping on it yet because we are moving shortly and don't want to have to try to move it when it's not in its packaging. So, it is being stored over in Erik's second garage.

Dustin starts his radar class in August and will hopefully be fully certified by the end of the year or early next year. Yeah! The museum is staying busy with summer. Our newest gallery Take Me There: Egypt and the traveling exhibit King Tutankhamen have brought in a lot of visitors. I have met a lot of people from the surrounding states and even some from Europe who have come to see the new exhibits.

Keep us in your thoughts as we begin the process of moving our junk from one house to another. Everyone...have a great weekend!

House

Here is the house Dustin and I have put an offer on. It is located in Brownsburg, which is a suburb of Indianapolis. It is over half an acre of land, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, and basement. We're accepting the sellers counter-offer and hope that everything goes well in the inspection.

Living room fireplace...


Formal Dining Room...

Master bath/shower...

Smaller bedroom...probably use this as an office...

2nd bathroom...

Big, beautiful backyard with wrap around deck...

Front yard...

Front of the house...

For whatever reasons, we did not take any pictures of the kitchen. :( It is completely updated with tile floor, new cabinets, kitchen appliances, and granite countertops. Think good thoughts and hope everything goes well with the paperwork! This could be our new home!

Oklahoma!

Well, Dustin and I just got back from vacation. We spent the week back in good ol' Oklahoma. It was a busy week filled with visiting with family and friends, eating lots of food, and witnessing the marriage of two of our good friends.

Here is a picture of the bridesmaids...well, the back of our heads at least.

This is me with Mrs. Dickinson and my old roommate from St. Greg's, Kay Maxey. The Three Musketeers!

Here I am with Kay and her fiance, Dean.

Here is the happy couple after the pastor made it official - Mr. and Mrs. Joey and Natasha Dickinson!

Although we were in Oklahoma for Natasha's wedding, we did find some time to spend with our family. Here is a picture of Dustin and Trevor paying homage to the "redneck ninja" by demonstrating the correct posture for a "judi chop!"

We ate at some great restaurants in OKC incuding Sushi Neko and La Baguette, shopped at stores that we can't get in Indy (Super Cao Nguyen and Canterbury British Imports), drove by our old apartment, visited friends and even volunteered at the Natural History Museum - just for fun! We still didn't get to get at Hideaway Pizza, Flip's, Deep Fork Grill, Ted's, or Abuelita's, but I guess it just gives us some incentive to come back. :)

We are back in Indiana and really enjoyed seeing everyone on Oklahoma. We are still on our house hunt. We hope to have a home in the next three months...because our lease is up then. :)

Dustin is experimenting with planting key lime seeds. My strawberry plant has so far given me one strawberry, but I see more on the way. There is one lonely lily left on my plant, which will fall off by tomorrow, there are no more blooms on our orchid, and our mint is growing out of control.

It's humid outside and Dustin and I have determined that we are back on our diet! Lots going on and summer has just begun...Until next time...

Turkey Run State Park

This past week I was attending a Sustainability Workshop at Turkey Run State Park. It was a long week and now it feels great to finally be home. We were able to go to a lot of interesting places.

Turkey Run is famous for its trails. There are lots of canyons, waterfalls, and a really neat suspension bridge.

Here is Sunset Point. It gives you a perfect view of...well, what else?...a sunset!

We also made a trip to an Amish Farm...

Here are some pictures from Shades State Park which was just up the way from Turkey Run. You can't tell from this picture, but there is about a 50 foot drop to the left and right of me. We were on our way to climb Devil's Backbone.

Here I am with a couple of my colleagues from the Children's Museum - Sean and Michele. We made our way to the bottom of the canyon to a stream and looked for crinoid and brachiopod fossils and geodes! It was about 15 degrees cooler and quite a sight.

All in all, it was a really cool place and had a great time!

Spring Semester is Finished!!!!!

Well, I have to say that procrastination has a whole new meaning for me. This semester I had to take a museum architecture course. Being a biology major, this was definitely out of my comfort zone. I started off the semester on top of things...reading my articles, writing papers on time, etc. Then I realized that I do not enjoy learning about architecture and started putting things off until about one or two weeks before a paper was due. Well, today was the due date for my last unit. Let me tell you about procrastination...I finished writing my second - and last- paper about 5 minutes ago. There were some late nights typing. Anyway, I am glad it's over and done with and only two more semesters until the Master's is complete!

Dustin and I are still looking at houses. We hope that the set of houses we look at on Monday will be the last ones and then we can make a decision on where we want to live.

Any-hoosiers, I thought I would share my excitement in finishing my semester with everyone and now it's time for a celebratory drink!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday, Dustin!

What a week it has been. After a wonderful Easter spent with some friends here in Indianapolis, Dustin and I have both gotten sick! It started off with the typical sore throat and then progressed into fever, coughing, aches, runny noses, and congestion. Both of us have had to call in sick - more than once - this past week! I think and hope we are on the mend now. I still have a wicked cough and Dustin's voice sounds like he is going through puberty again, but I think we have already been through the worst part. By the way, Mucinex is a wonderful product!

Anyway, Dustin's 28th birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated it today because both of us have to work and we have different schedules. I surprised him with a linen driving cap (the kind that the old school paper boy would wear) and the 4th season of "Northern Exposure." I was pretty stealthy getting these presents because Dustin had no idea that I got these for him. I baked him a pineapple upside down cake and we were feeling well enough to go see a few houses for sale.

If you have the time, make sure you wish Dustin a happy birthday! We will continue to get better and keep you posted on our house hunt!

Chicago

Well, Dustin and I had a pretty exciting weekend. We decided it was finally time to get outside of Indianapolis! We headed to the Windy City of Chicago, IL with our friends Erik and Mark. Our first stop was Chinatown. To work up an appetite, we all posed in the square with our appropriate Chinese Zodiac signs.

Then we headed across the street for some Dim Sum at the Phoenix Restaurant. It was just as good as I remembered it...

And then before we left Chinatown, we had to have some delicious bubble tea! Sorry, no pictures of that one, but it was yummy!

With the help of our friend Erik, the real reason we went to Chicago last Sunday was to watch the musical "RENT" at the Oriental Theater. It was awesome! If you are a "RENT" fan, you will be jealous....Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp reprised their roles as the original "Mark" and "Roger"! Teresa was extremely jealous. :)

It was a great trip and a great performance! As we were traveling back to Indianapolis, the Chicago weather decided to be crazy and snow was falling as we left the theater. It followed us until we were about 45 minutes north of Indianapolis. I'm just glad we didn't crash or die because the roads were slick and it was 2 am. Thanks for the defensive driving, Erik!

So, until next time...maybe we will attempt Cincinnati or Louisville! Happy Easter!