THE Question and other events!

Hello all!

Until recently, I had been feeling a bit like a track stuck on repeat. Talking about the adjustment from Tanzania only entertains me for so long. I feel like college is a more recent memory than Peace Corps at times as mentally I'm very much back in the states. I had a conversation recently with another volunteer who is still in the country via Facebook and we were discussing how weird it is to change places. She feels as though America is just a dream while I sometimes think Tanzania was a figment of my imagination. I never thought being somewhere for so long could feel so unreal. An interesting dilemma.

As I'm sure you are all aware, my life here has been moving along quite smoothly! I returned just in time for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hannah's Wedding, a conference for Katie in San Francisco, Christmas, a trip to Chicago, New Years, Vail, and applying to graduate school! So by the time I realized I was back in the states and needed to do things, it was mid-January, at which point, it was time to pick up where I left off.

I knew when I left that things were likely to undergo a sort of 2-year pause and come back quickly when I returned. Day-to-day things have mostly followed that script although I have noticed a few central changes. But that's not what you want to hear about...

To spare you the unimportant parts of the process, I spent about 5 weeks figuring out the jeweler I was going to use and ordering the ring. It was a setting from a website that my jeweler suggested I look at since he was able to order and produce the ring in about a week. I got the ring on Friday the 10th and had already called her dad the Wednesday before, setting up the weekend.

February 12th was the day we started dating back in 2009 in Ithaca. Whether or not that would be verified by any of our friends, I don't know, as many of them might say we were dating up to 3 months before. Anyway, after spending our first two anniversaries apart, anniversary number 3 seemed like the right time to take the next step.

We started the day off by traveling to a home and garden show in Omaha. Katie and I have always enjoyed looking at options (and planning at least 32 variations) for homes and spaces so it was a fun way to start the day together. After a quick lunch downtown, we went to the Omaha Zoo because a previous trip 3 weeks ago had us leaving with a membership. We walked around the gorilla exhibit for a while which incidentally has some of the monkeys we would see in the rainforests around Tukuyu in Tanzania. Additional benefits of our membership include free IMAX movies which got us 2 tickets to a screening about the Grand Canyon (cool flyovers but a weak storyline). Afterwards, we walked through the Jungle building and headed down to the giraffes. Fortunately, the room only included a small group of people who were on their way out, and so, snatching the first time we were alone all day, I pulled out the box, dropped to one knee, and proposed in front of a group of curious young giraffes.

As you already know, she said yes! Which was followed by a surprisingly demanding period of frantic phone calling and congratulations. Perhaps we should have expected it, but calendars were apparently open and ready to be filled in next to the phone of just about everyone we called (for the record, we still don't know, although I can say don't worry about keeping space for it in summer 2012. Sorry guys!) Finally, about 2 hours later we were able to have our anniversary dinner at a local Greek restaurant.

Now, things are back to normal. The ring is a 1/2 size smaller and we're bouncing date ideas around. Valentines Day was spent with a couple friends and a six-pack so nothing terribly exciting. I was accepted to Minnesota and am waiting on Washington, Wisconsin, and Illinois-Chicago for decisions. No one has offered money yet so in reality no one has said they really want me yet. But I'm still optimistic!

My life is moving forward (actually quite a bit more drastically than I had realized before writing it down) but I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure what I'll be doing in a couple of weeks, let alone in 6 months or by my wedding day, but we'll get there!

San Francisco:

The Ring:

A Rivers' Ripple III

It is Super Bowl Sunday evening.  Sarah brought Olivia home from the party we went to as Olivia was ready for BED, so Sarah found a bit of time to get a blog post complete.
When last we posted here, it was October.  Where did the end of 2011 go? AND where did January go?
We enjoyed many fun times in the past few months.
Trips to the pumpkin patch, celebrating Olivia's first birthday, enjoying Thanksgiving, a bus trip to Austin, Christmas celebrations, and a ski trip were the highlights with many wonderful "everyday" days in between.
Olivia continues to learn new things everyday.  Lately she has begun to use the word "no".  My favorite times are when she tells herself "no" for something that she knows she isn't supposed to do--touching the outlets, for example.  Her favorite things to play these days are: babies, putting piggy (or homemade) coins in and out, and "cooking".  She also enjoys songs and books.
Brisco is now 5!  He celebrated his birthday in November with an extra treat.  He's happy to have company at home and enjoys anyone who visits.
Dan is hard at work on the websites for KWCH and is beginning to think about using his app designing skills to create an app for the iphones for KWCH news.  It will be a huge undertaking.  For leisure, he is playing with Bayless band--they are working on a CD right now.  He has also been playing some video games.
Sarah would like a few more hours to be able to accomplish some extra projects, but has been slowly chipping away at her list.  (I will have my photo book of Olivia's first year done...by May.)  She has been providing consult services for Rainbows 1 day a week and continues to watch Xander Mondays and Tuesdays.  By the end of Tuesday, she definitely needs a trip to the Y--toddlers who are testing their limits are a lot of work!
We hope your New Year is off to a good start--we are looking forward to seeing all it will bring.

Life at EcoHouse

Life at EcoHouse has taken some surprising turns. We like to think of ourselves as a little family, complete with references to a mom and a dad (I'm always dad, by the way, although mom isn't necessarily always a woman). And often it does feel like it, with Madalyn, usually 'mom,' and I generally being the ones to keep the house on course and in one piece. Unfortunately our small family's worse for the wear these days; two housemates just broke up after a year, one moved out at the semester, and one has all-but moved into his girlfriend's. We hardly know what to do with ourselves now, my attempts at shepherding the 5 of us in the house are getting considerably more challenging. Probably because Jack's analogy holds: the difference between shepherding sheep and shepherding people is that sheep have been through thousands of years of domestication. So much for Dr. Bob's leadership class and its methods...

Life outside the house is as well as usual. Classes are good (4 of them are philosophy ones), with just two that I don't ever want to go to. I'm on top of things with Philosopher's Corner, getting the next three meetings put together and trying some different things. EcoHouse just launched my project, a ridesharing initiative, to some initial success. I finally met my co-mentor, possibly the highlight of my night.

Even bigger news is that the sun comes up earlier now, something I can keep track of as I adjust the timer that runs my sun lamp every morning. It still sets much too soon, but at least I won't be waking up in the dark for too much longer. My life is typically busy, so I'm not sure what to share here, it works better when people ask me direct questions. Hopefully things are as good for everyone else too.

News from Edgemoore

It seems like Grandpa and I have spent most of last week at the Drs. office. But today he had his

first tests and they came out o.k. The Dr. said they found ulcers and are treating them with antibiotics but nothing bad.

Tomorrow will be the other test on the lungs. Hopefully it will go more quickly. Today we were there for 4 hours because the Dr got called for an emergency at the hospital.

As you can see on the picture we have some American finches (one of my favorite feathered friends). We had a big flock of them in the yard last week probably ( 20 or 30) just passing thru but about 8 of them decided to stay. Kat and I both spend a lot time watching them!!

Thanks to Andrew for coming over on Saturday to show his pictures from Africa. We really

enjoyed seeing them.

Love you all,

Grandma & Grandpa