Conference Fun

Tricia and I headed to Winona, Minnesota for a conference for high school religion teachers. We arrived via Chicago then La Crosse, WI, whose airport is even small than Helena's (which of course brings back so many memories of our whole family flying there for Colleen's graduation. Let's just say that Mom using the phrase SOL made the weekend amazing :).

The conference, hosted by St Mary's Press, was great! It was a great combination of inspiration and practical tips for the classroom. It was also wonderful to meet religion teachers from across the country. I loved talking to a few guys from Massachusetts...definitely had such strong accents!! It was also so fun that Gary was there. I first met Gary as a student at UP when he was a hall director. The joke was that I was on the Gary Hortsch plan to life...and here we were at the same conference many years later!!

Gary, myself, and Tricia

It's a Girl!

Today we had our 20 week appointment and ultrasound. The ultrasound tech asked us if we wanted to know the gender and I enthusiastically said, "Yes, very much so!" That part came toward the end of the appointment, but it was worth the wait. It was fun to see the baby again, this time SHE :) is so much bigger than the last time we had an ultrasound. The tech took tons of measurements of the baby--head size, femur size, heart size, etc. It was fun to see everything, and Pat really enjoyed the science of it all. She even switched into the blood flow mode a few times and Pat was excited.

After about 45 minutes or so, the tech said, "I think I know what you are having!" A few clicks later to verify she pointed out that we are having a girl!! It was so exciting!! We knew we would be very happy either way, but I was really hoping for a girl :) Pat was pretty open either way--although last week we did the old wives tale of dangling the wedding ring over my stomach and that said it would be a girl...so naturally, my scientist Pat wanted a boy to prove it wrong.

The one bummer is that they couldn't get a good profile shot. But thankfully that is something the midwives want too, not just me, so we get to go back next week for a short ultrasound to get the profile pic.

Last week when Colleen was over for dinner, we had a fun time taking pictures for our gender reveal announcement. It involved many, many outtakes; many, many laughs; making a boy and girl final version; and, then our final product:

SU Graduation

It's hard to believe I am now finished with my Ed.D.--dissertation submitted and approved, all course work done, comps passed. I think it will take a while for it to really sink in that I have finished the program. It will be nice to start with a summer without homework, papers, or research. Although I love the SU library, it will be nice to not have to go there each day :)

Here are some highlights from our graduation party and the graduation itself.

30th Birthday

Hard to believe that the big 3-0 is already here! Although the celebrations were sober on my part, I had a great time celebrating with friends and family!!  Friday night Pat and I enjoyed a great dinner at The Melting Pot. Neither of us had been there before and enjoyed the food and the novelty of fondue. We didn't quite realize it was so much food, or that you actually cooked your own meat :) We loved the evening together and opportunity for a fun date night.

In the morning I did a great hike around Deception Pass with the other birthday girls Elaine and Christen, as well as Erica, Madison, and Rachelle. We loved the hike--easy at parts, exercise at parts--and the views around the park. After our hike we enjoyed a great lunch complete the cupcakes compliments of Elaine!  For dinner my family and I went to the Chili Parlor. Ceej hooked us up with great food, as always! Some friends came to meet us for drinks after. Although I forgot to take pics for the most part we got a few as we celebrated.

Sunday we had a great day with my many of my Cohort members on Tana's tugboat. We cruised around Ballard, Fremont, and Lake Union out on the water. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and it was super fun to be on a tugboat. Pat talked with Tana's husband about the engine and other random engineering stuff :) Hard to believe my time with my cohort is coming to an end...but also exciting to be getting so close to graduation.

Here are pictures from a great weekend!!