The last weeks...

Well, it's that time of year again: the time of year when all those final projects are due...you know the ones I'm talking about. These are the final projects that were assigned at the beginning of the semester that your professors kept reminding you to work on - advice which you blissfully pushed off to the side in pursuit of more immediate pleasures.

And now you're faced with the last two weeks of school and you have 4 papers due (3 are supposed to be about 15 pages each and the 4th on is only a 4-6 page paper), 3 presentations to run, and a VERY limited time in which to complete everything. I think that my problem is that I work very well under pressure. This quality has been reinforced time and time again and thus I haven't learned to do things in advance. Tonight, for instance, I had quite a bit of time to work on homework. However, I found myself unable to focus - trying to read articles and becoming easily distracted and finding other things to do (e.g. updating the blog!).

These next couple of weeks will certainly be busy for both of us, but I'm optimistic that things will work out in the end. We've decided that we'll hardly see each other this weekend because we'll be doing so much homework.

And now, I will attempt to do a little more homework before bed. Wish me luck!

Thanksgiving with the Landerholms

As has been the tradition for the past few years, my uncle Kurt (Landerholm) and his family have welcomed us into their home for the Thanksgiving Holiday. They live in Akron/Canton area of Ohio, which is about two hours from Pittsburgh. It's been great to be able to spend this holiday with family every year without spending so much time and money to fly to Wyoming.

For those of you who don't know my uncle Kurt and his family, here is an introduction. Kurt (my mom's brother) and his wife Nancy have three kids: Megan, Mark, and Scott (oldest to youngest). Megan's husband Bob, as well as Nancy's brother, Warren, and niece, Kaylee, are also here this year. Mark, however, is in Kenya on a Christian mission, and is probably warmer than most of us, but is a bit homesick. Finally, Megan and Bob brought their Yorkshire Terrier Shatzy (probably spelled wrong) and Warren and Kaylee brought their dog Baxter (also a Yorkshire Terrier). Parents, children (and dogs) alike are very kind and friendly, and there is never a time when we don't feel welcome.

As you can imagine, there really hasn't been a dull moment with all the people (and canines) in the house. Highlights have included celebrating Scott'sbirthday, watching the dogs meet each other and eventually starting to play together, football games (all the men except me follow college ball quite closely), board games (Cranium, Taboo, and Scattergories), meals (traditional Thanksgiving fare, but also other wonderful food), and some tv (especially the old series "Hogans Heroes" on DVD).

Saturday night is going to be a bit different. We have spots reserved to tour and eat in a nearby mansion. Once the home of a wealthy industrialist, the mansion will be fully decorated for Christmas. Some of the men aren't too very excited about this, but the women are pretty much unanimous that it will be fun. Afterwards we will drive through a local neighborhood known for it's Christmas lights. The sentiments about this part of the evening are very similar.

Well, this post took longer than I expected, and I need to get to bed, so that's all. Ashlee and I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

New Blog

Hello everyone!

Just thought that I would put the first post up letting you all know that we've just started a blog. I'm not really sure how it's going to go. Our hope is to keep in touch with everyone through the blog, since we don't do so well with emails.

We'll just be posting whatever comes to mind and different things that we've been doing.

I hope that you enjoy reading (and I hope that we're able to keep posting!)