It's been almost a year!

I can't believe that it's almost been a full year since we moved to Wisconsin. As of today, we're about a week shy of 11 months. In a couple of weeks, it will be officially one year since I worked at NWU. I think that's just crazy! The year has gone by so quickly.

Maranda just finished up 6th grade last week and already she's getting bored with summer vacation. She decided that she wants to stay home this summer and not participate in any summer program. And, she will be 12 at the end of summer, so we figured she was getting to that age. Plus, while Mark works second shift and doesn't leave for work until 1:30 pm, that only leaves her on her own for a couple of hours. Now we're just coming up with a list of chores for her to do each week. If she's gonna be home, she gets to help with stuff. :) She may end up regretting her decision. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Mark was FINALLY offered a position with the State Department of Corrections. He starts their academy on July 9. He was quite excited to turn in his resignation letter the other day. For the next few weeks, he'll continue working security at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay. ( http://www.manitowocmarine.com/Facilities/BayShipbuilding.asp ) But, he's excited that he'll have the week of the Fourth of July off. I'm certain he'll be shooting off fireworks for the whole week.

Work is going well for me. Summer orientation is coming up fast, so it's starting to get to the stressful time of making sure all the details are taken care of. I'm also having a lot of fun planning for next year, now that I know what a school year looks like here. And, in July I'm headed to Boston for a few days to get trained on the research tool that I want to use for my research to complete my dissertation. I met with my advisor while I was in Lincoln a few weeks ago, and my goal is to present my dissertation proposal this fall (early - like Sept. or early Oct.), do my research, write the dissertation and defend it in July. That way I can participate in August commencement ceremonies when there aren't 5,000 people walking. I'm getting excited about being done!

I'm looking forward to taking some vacation time after summer orientation. I don't think we have any great vacation plans at this point. I think we're hoping to get the camper out and heading somewhere fairly close by for a few days, but other than that we'll probably just hang out at home. With Mark starting a new job, we won't really have time to go anywhere and gas prices make me not want to pull the camper very far.

If anybody wants to come visit, let me know!

Things I really like about Wisconsin:

1. Tornado season is like 10 days in mid-June and relatively speaking it's fairly calm.
2. Cheese curds
3. Frozen Custard (did I tell you? I'm trying to diet now...)
4. It's a heatwave if it hits 90 or above for 2 or more days in a row
5. Water everywhere...there are beautiful lakes, rivers, creeks (I wouldn't swim in the Fox River, but the lakes are wonderful)
6. It rains here...even though some of the lake levels are down, it's not the same kind of drought that Nebraska experienced while we lived there

Things I miss about Nebraska:

1. People here don't just reverse the name of their town/city/state to name events. :)
2. HyVee brand sparkling water....the flavors here just aren't the same, though I'm adjusting
3. I miss our pool that we had...even though we'd need a heater on it up here
4. and, of course, all of our friends (although several of you have moved in the past couple of years, so even Lincoln wasn't quite the same)

I know it's been forever since I last wrote something, so I hope that it won't be that long between now and the next time I post. I hope you're all having a great summer!