Happy New Year!

Oh dear. I'm not even going to explain my awful blogging, but rather apologize to all 3 of my loyal readers for my absence.

Let's see - what's been going on...

Matt and I went on vacation with his parents & aunt/uncle/cousins December 27th - January 3rd. We traveled out to South Lake Tahoe, California to go skiing at Kirkwood Mountain. Matt's younger sister Megan is a children's snowboard instructor out there. We ended up staying in a cute little cabin about 1/4 mile away from the mountain.

Matt's entire family are skiers or snowboarders. I, on the other hand, have never been clipped into skis in my life (well, save for a 1 hour cross country lesson when I was 8 and in girl scouts). I took a lesson the first day, did awful & hated it. I gave up after my lesson & just went back to the house to read. Because we were there for a week, and because the entire family skis, I figured I should give it another shot the next day. Matt took me up the bunny lift & took the time to teach me how to ski. He wasn't mean, he didn't ask me to do anything I wasn't capable or comfortable with, and I ended up learning & actually enjoying myself! I stayed on the bunny hills for most of the trip & had a blast. I was able to ski as I wanted and take breaks as I wanted (is it bad the bartender knew my beer choice whenever I sat down at the bar?) One unfortunate mishap of the trip - Matt's mom ended up tearing her ACL & MCL on New Years Eve during a fall. She seemed a bit bummed, but was grateful to have gotten a few days of skiing in & to be spending time with everyone.

In other news, during the week of January 12th, I began grad school. For those who don't know by now, I'm going back to receive my certification & masters in early childhood education. I hate to sound naive, but this is a LOT more work than I anticipated. I mean, I knew it'd be tough to juggle things, but I began feeling as if every free hour I have should be spent studying, reading or doing something for class, rather than enjoying myself. Only about 2 weeks in, I've been able to get myself into a routine & also allow myself time off to watch Illinois basketball games (who have been a very pleasant surprise so far this year! To think, I figured I picked a good 2 year span to go to school, assuming I wouldn't miss much good Illinois basketball!). I'm currently in class on Thursday evenings from 6-9PM & also attending an online class. Taking an online class is certainly something I need to get used to. At the moment, I have no working laptop, so it makes for difficulty in "attending" that class. I am getting a new laptop tomorrow though, so I'm hoping I'll fall into a better routine with that class as well.

Part of the certification process requires in-class observation hours. I went to my first observation yesterday & it was a really interesting experience. As an observer, I'm not supposed to interact with the children. I have a really tough time not making any sort of contact with them, especially non-verbal communication like smiling. I'm hoping I get more comfortable in that role, because yesterday I felt like a big elephant standing and judging a room full of toddlers.

Matt & I are heading down to Champaign this weekend for our first (and likely only) basketball game in Champaign. We're taking the Amtrak down (love taking the train) and meeting some friends for lunch before the game. I'm really looking forward to it.

One final note, I freaking love Facebook. It's been a pretty cool tool for reconnecting with past friends. It's fun to catch up on their lives, to see many with babies, etc.

I would promise to be better at keeping this updated, but we all know that's not true. Thanks for reading & enjoy your day!