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!

House Hunting and Television Debut!

Well, it's been some time since I've written about anything. Work has been crazy for both of us! Dustin has been busy getting certified and I am trying to stay sane with hundreds of little children running around me every day.

We just found out that we can get a very nice tax credit if we buy a home before the end of the year. So, you know what that means....we are house hunting. We spent our weekend driving around Indianapolis looking for the perfect home and we discovered that houses can look amazing online if you have the right lighting and right photographer. At times I locked the car door for fear of our lives. Although the day was not a total loss. We did see many homes that could potentially be our dream home, but price was a factor. There was a beautiful home down town that we fell in love with that only cost a mere $300,000. That's not too bad for a starter home, right?

Anyway, we have been talking to banks to get this whole home buying thing started. It's very scary. We are planning on going out again this weekend to look at some more of our dream houses in a very nice (and by that I mean ritzy) neighborhood and we will attempt to take pictures so you can get an idea of where we want to live.

I was on tv last week. My boss at work also works at the local television station and has a show called "Indiana Expeditions." I was on his show when he talked about life cycles. It featured me, in my stunning lab coat, talking about plant life cycles. If you go to this website http://www.wfyi.org/indianaExpeditions.asp and scroll down to the section that says "Watch this episode online" you can click on #2 Life Cycle of a Plant and you will see the clip of the show that I was in. Dustin believed I was "cheezing" it, but I think I was just being my usual chipper self.

Other than that, a cold front has moved in the past week and it is once again bitterly cold outside. I do love winter...but it would be nice to see a little bit of spring.

Oh, and on a separate note, I am looking very forward to the release of the Twilight movie on DVD on March 21st. Paula, I know how much you appreciate this....finish the fourth book - I promise you won't regret it!

Flute Music

For those of you out there who were very concerned about Dustin's missing Native American Flute Music...all is right in the world again! The music has been found! After many attempts, minutes (which seemed like hours), and excessive begging from Dustin, I was able to locate the music between two very large textbooks on our book shelf. No, I truly did not hide it from him, but now that he has found his beloved music, I will forever be blessed by the beautiful music that will be played by the Native American Flute....a girl couldn't ask for more.

Lazy week...

Well, over the past week we have received another 4 inches of snow in Indianapolis. Crazy weather! Here are some pictures of Herby. He likes to lay on top of the couch and sleep a lot.

When Herby's not propped up on the couch, he finds another way to get comfortable....

I thought I would take the opportunity to take a picture of me and Dustin because I think we don't have enough of them.

At this moment, Dustin is upset because he cannot locate his Native American flute music. He seems to think that I know where it is and won't tell him. Could that possibly be true?

Well, that's it for now. I have a paper due at the end of the week about classical architecture. Wish me luck!