As usual I am doing a catch up post. I think this is the most lengthy one to date. It is hard to believe how much has changed in just a year and a half! Here it goes...
June 2012- Weddings!
My good friend Jen got married as well as my cousin Jessica. The weddings were on back to back weekends so Ben came to visit me in Kansas City for a week between the wedding celebrations. He also became BFF with Aiden.
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| Just Married- Jen and Nick |
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| Dancing with Jessica and the cousins |
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| Ben and Aiden playing Wii |
July 2012- Picnic Project
We participated in the interactive art installation called the picnic project (for the sake of brevity in this post read more about the Picnic Project
here). It was really cool to see it all come together, too bad it was such a sweltering day (we ate in the grass in the shade instead of on our little square of the blanket).
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| Tools for blanket stamping/designing |
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| The blanket coming together |
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| Keeping cool in the shade |
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| Amy & the boys on their square |
August 2012- Family Fun
August contained two road trips to Iowa. One to hang out with my dad's side of the family and another to hang out with cousins on my mom's side. For the first trip Michelle and I made the trip to Grandma's to meet up with Summer. At Grandma's we sorted through her trunks of old photos to catalog the photos and learn about the family. It was quite the process. It was also the weekend Michelle and I decided we would do RAGBRAI 2013.
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| My Great, great grandparents... |
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| Grandpa farming |
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| Grandpa and Grandma- Newlyweds I believe |
The other trip involved Amy and I traveling to Des Moines to meet Kristin and Evalie for Quilt Camp. I was going to give a crash course in quilting and we would (theoretically) make a quilt that weekend for the family to pass around...
September 2012- Back to School
While we technically go to school year round, Al and I were re-united in Memphis for the fall semester (our last semester together).
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| First day of 4th year clinic |
October 2012- Halloween at The Eye Center
Halloween is a big deal at the school's clinic. Every year there is a competition for various organizations/classes to decorate a suite in the clinic. This year a few of my fellow suite-mates and I decided we would decorate our suite. Our theme was "Under the See" (I'm so clever, I know). Anna and I made costumes for some of our fellow suite-mates. The suite won 2nd place, and Anna and I jointly won "best costume" for making our group costumes. We were pretty proud. To check out pictures of the clinic check out
SCO's Flickr page!
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| Work in progress |
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| Suite entrance |
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| Lots of jellyfish |
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| These costumes won Anna and I a $25 gift card to Starbucks :) |
November 2012- Part III
Just before Thanksgiving Anna and I took Part III of our national boards. We put that Starbucks gift card to good use by getting vanilla lattes to reward ourselves while practicing.
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| Anna "relaxing" the night before Part III |
December 2013- Goodbye Memphis
January 2013- RAGBRAI Party
January brought me to Des Moines for my last rotation. Michelle came to visit and we attended the RAGBRAI route release party. It was an exciting preview of what was to come!
February 2013- Bicycle, Bicycle, Bicycle
Since we were getting serious about actually following through with plans to do RAGBRAI I needed a bike. With the assistance of my roommate/landlord Mel I bought a road bike from the nice folks at
Beaverdale Bicycles!
March 2013- Coffee Connoisseur
Ben loves a good cup of black coffee. I love coffee of any quality with lots of cream and sugar. While visiting CR in March we tried out a coffee shop downtown that had some fancy new brewing method. Ben was not impressed and I was wondering where the sugar bowl was. Still it was a good time getting out and exploring the town.
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| High hopes |
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| The taste |
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| Not impressed |
April 2013- Baby Parker
While visiting CR one weekend Ben and I paid a visit to
Jodee and Blake's new place to meet their new bundle of joy. Parker is just the cutest!
May 2013- Busy Month!
Over the course of a long weekend I moved, attended my friend Mindy's wedding and traveled to Memphis for graduation! After a week of sitting in boring classes required for graduation, May 17th 2013, graduation day, arrived. It was a pretty big day for me: I graduated and Ben proposed. Needless to say there was a lot of celebrating that night!
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| Mindy & Jeremy's first dance |
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| Classmates at the Peabody rooftop party |
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| Aubrey surprised us by announcing (and proving) that he could finally tell Al and I apart! |
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| Sunset on the Mississippi River |
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| Each night leading up to graduation friends gathered at various places for drinks and catching up one last time |
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| Celebrating graduation and engagement on Beale with the family |
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| Celebrating graduation and engagement on Beale with the family |
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| Family! |
June 2013- Klang!
For the first time in 4 years my college roommate Kristin and I were in the same state! Jen, Kristin and I caught up one evening in Iowa City.
July 2013- 406 miles
July brought about RAGBRAI. I completed 406+ miles on my bike. Finishing the ride was one of my proudest moments.
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| Dipping our back tires in the Missouri River at the start of the ride |
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| Beautiful morning |
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| Taking a bus into town one evening |
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| Enjoying my favorite Iowa beer in Knoxville (the town where it is brewed)! |
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| Dipping our front tires in the Mississippi at the end of the ride |
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| I did it! |
August 2013- Settling in
I started to get in the routine of having a real job. The opticians are so sweet! Ben and I got all dressed up for my birthday dinner in IC. We also had some visitors to our apartment. I think Ben really enjoyed playing LEGO over his lunch hour with Kate!
September 2013- Trampled by Turtles
We traveled to Des Moines to take in an out door concert by the bluegrass band
Trampled by Turtles. They put on a great show! Go see them if you get a chance!
October 2013- Handmade Halloween
As in years past I made costumes. Ben and I went as Tina and Louise Belcher from the cartoon Bob's Burgers. It was my first real attempt at garment sewing. I think it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. We took pictures just after I finished the costumes and didn't take anymore at the party so please forgive the quality!
Until next time (or year)!
