farmer's market

one thing i love about living in a small town is the fun summer time activities.  i love going to derbys, rodeos, summerfest, fairs, and farmer's markets.  i have been looking forward to this years' farmer's market since it ended last summer.

so, we all know that i have been a craft-a-holic for as long as i can remember.  it's what i do to de-stress.  i have been told for years that i should sell the stuff i make, but i've just never really gotten around to it.  it's kind of funny that most of what i make is for babies (but i do have some adult stuff too!) so, i decided since this will be my last summer in logan, i might as well take advantage of having a farmer's market practically in my backyard.  so, as of today, i will officially be selling my goodies at the merlin olsen park this summer.  you should stop by and say hi!

more "windy city" goodness

i guess it's finally time to wrap up my chicago get-away.  especially since it was almost a month ago.

i stayed with my friend lyra in her parents' condo in the john hancock building on the 87th floor.  it was fantastic and my ears popped 4 times just going up the elevator.   one day was dedicated to site-seeing and while lyra wanted to show the the fabulous city life, she had to go to a mandatory work meeting.  so, i was on my own.  but, with my iphone in hand, i made my way through the city and was able to see everything i wanted.

i made a stop at the water tower, toured the massive american girl doll store, shopped for hours on the magnificent mile, made my way to the big silver cloud thingy, saw the green river dyed for st. patricks day, passed the chicago art institute, walked 5 miles to the amazing shedd aquarium, hung out with all the 5 year olds at the aquarium, attended the dolphin show at the aquarium and cheered as loud as the next kid, made faces at the beluga whales and sharks, checked out the hershey store, got some famous garrett's popcorn, and ended the night off with dinner at rockit and sharing a chocolate coconut cream cheesecake from the ccf with the fabulous lyra.

it was a great day and my feet only hurt a bit by the end of the night :)

a sunset view from our room

my last day was spent at work with lyra at the university of chicago.  lyra is part of a fabulous cochlear implant team at the comer children's hospital there.  it was an unusual day in their clinic (or so i heard) and they weren't as busy as they normal are, but i met some great people and saw how they run their clinic.  i also was able to sit in on the testing and evaluation of a 22 year old girl who was born deaf and wanted to get a cochlear implant.  it was a great experience and made me love the field i am going into even more.

ehdi conference in chicago

so everyone keeps asking me why i randomly went to chicago. well, in our field there is a huge national conference held every year where professionals from around the country/world get together to discuss hearing loss detection in young children and providing the early intervention services these young kiddos need.  

ehdi= early hearing detection and intervention

well, my classmate maria and i were asked to present at this national conference in one of the breakout sessions.  we had done a research project over the last 8 months or so about strengthening the relationship between parents, pediatricians, and audiologists so that a child diagnosed with hearing loss will receive the most timely and efficient services available to diagnose the hearing loss, provide the parents with the information they need, and ensure they are receiving the support they need.  i guess someone thought it was a topic that is not discussed enough and wanted us to present on it.  oh boy.

i am terrified of public speaking.  i can hold my own when i'm talking to one person, or even a few people.  but stick me (the measly student) up in front of room full of professionals (possibly even my future employers) and i want to run away.  i just don't like that much attention on me and it wigs me out.

but i saw it as a good experience, something that will strengthen my resume, a good chance to do some networking, and would get me out to a city i'd never been to before. 

so, i planned to be there from sunday till thursday with the conference lasting from sun-tues.  the rest of the time was sight-seeing (but that will be for a later post).  the conference was great- i really did learn a lot, and we were able to meet up with a fabulous friend lyra (whom i met at last year's ehdi conference in dallas) who happens to live in chicago and took us out and about so we could see more than just the inside of the hotel.

the presentation was ok- i was crazy nervous and i think it may have shown at the beginning, but we got some good comments at the end and i've even had some pediatricians from ny contact us about doing their own study similar to ours.  hopefully next time it'll be that much easier.  

one night lyra took us to a huge mall for some shopping and out to a chicago landmark- portillos- for some chicago style hot dogs and fries.  another night she took us to gold star cinemas- a fancy-shmancy movie theater where you lay in big, comfy recliner seats, you're given pillows and blankets, and you have a button to push to summon your server to bring you some gourmet food off their menu.  we felt super ritzy.

the speech and audiology students from usu that were able to attend the conference

not what i wore in my presentation (i actually bought my first big-girl-dress-suit), but you get the idea

sight-seeing pictures to come!

went to chicago

... and loved it.  i'll post more details soon.

so proud

rather than studying for a huge test last night, i opted to watch these fabulous americans

win the gold

pretty sure i bombed my test (it was a doozie)

but boy, those events last night were incredible

and i may or may not have teared up during the awards ceremony for lindsey vonn.  

i'm such a sap

the olympics fill me up with so much usa pride!

a valentine's trip

when josh first told me he planned us a valentine's trip... to wendover... i may have laughed out loud.  what on earth is romantic about wendover?

but josh, along with our friend rj, planned a great couple of days for me and katie.

it all started with the fun bus.

the boys decorated our seats with hearts on the windows, bags filled with candy and love letters, and princess tiaras for us to wear.

the ride was great.  we played a few games of scrabble between the 4 of us and played bingo with the bus.  josh won us a whole dollar.

we made it to the montego bay, checked into our sweet (suite) rooms, and headed to the casino.

we ate some grub (well kind of...the buffet was nothing to be desired) and spend the rest of the evening hanging out and playing blackjack and winning.

the next day we got up, ate more grub, and played more blackjack.  then the boys surprised katie and i with appointments to receive full-body massages.  oh happy day!

while we were getting our massages, a very interesting thing happened.  the boys continued playing blackjack at the same table we were at before.  they started talking to a guy at the table.  a very loaded guy who was throwing down hundreds like it ain't no thang.  let's call him gary.  gary was in 'dover all by himself and was clearly looking for friends because he said he'd take us all out for dinner that night at the seafood buffet.  the boys were elated.

while at dinner with this 40-something old man, we found out some very interesting things about him.  he's from northern california and he's in the "medical business".  which is his lingo for growing marijuana for medicinal purposes (because remember, it's legal in cali?!).  he showed us pictures of all of his plants, told us how he harvested them, talked about his employees that are his "trimmers" and "testers".  wow.  

i made the mistake of asking him what he did before marijuana was made legal in cali.  "i sold it illegally".  double wow.

nice guy.  very generous.  but definitely interesting. 

after dinner the boys had another surprise in store.  they had tickets for the chinese acrobats of hebei (kind of like a cirque de soleil show).  it was fun and those crazy acrobats did some trippy stuff.

back to the casino we went to get in our last hoorah of blackjack.  while the boys were playing, katie spotted the acrobats heading into the buffet.  we couldn't help but take advantage of a fantastic photo op.

just before it was time to board the fun bus, we ran into gary again.  he offered to buy katie and i anything we wanted in the gift shop (might i add- the most ghetto gift shop i have ever seen).  we couldn't resist the tacky, little kids matching sweatshirts.  we will wear them with pride and think of our sugar daddy, gary.

we had a great time hanging out with katie and rj- eating food and gambling.  definitely a boys-style weekend, but it was way fun!

happy lovey-dovey day

to all my favorite blogger friends.  i sure love you all.

i hope you have a fabulous day full of chocolate candies, pink and red colored food, and spending time with the ones you love.

real soon, i hope to blog about our wonderful valentines wendover trip we took last week.  i just need to stop being so darn lazy.

but until then, just know you are loved.