Working Woman

Just wanted to let everyone know, if they haven't heard yet, I'm officially employed! This past week I accepted my offer, and I will be interning with Hormel Foods in Austin, MN in the research and development department. I'm excited about the opportunity, and I think I will learn a lot. It's still up in the air about what will happen in August (I may end up going home to farm yet), but I'm just happy to be working and making some $$$ :) This also means I have a lot of work to get done before I start at Hormel in June. I can't believe it's all coming to an end!

No real other news to report. I spent the weekend in Lincoln with Ace. After beautiful weather all week I was really excited for the weekend. But Mother Nature won another round, and the weather was cold, rainy, and gloomy all weekend. But we still managed to have a pretty good weekend. I got to visit Rachel and David for awhile on Friday and Sunday. They never fail to entertain me :)

This week I intend to get very serious about writing. My goal is to finish writing in the next two weeks so I have the last two weeks of May to kind of do what I want. I really want to help the girls in my pledge class from 4H House celebrate graduation in Champaign, but I just don't know if I'm going to have time to get down there. Also this week, me and my officemates' wives are dragging the guys to see Cats on Tuesday! I'm super excited, but I'm a nerd like that :) I'll have to update on how it was.

So that's it for tonight. Lots of work to do tomorrow so it's off to bed!

Slacking

Yeah it's been awhile again since I updated this....again. But to be honest this thing is the last thing on my mind most days. The job search continues. Most of you know that I've been offered an internship, and I'm probably going to end up accepting it. I think it will be a great experience and I will learn a lot, but I just hate that I don't know what will happen in August when the internship ends. I've just been trying to be positive and keep my head up, but to be honest there are days when I fail miserably at doing that. But I know everything will work out in the end....

When I'm not job searching, you can find me in front of a computer working on my thesis. It's coming along. Nothing too exciting to report about it.

On the more entertaining side of life, I got to spend 4 fabulous days at home last weekend for Easter. I wish I could get home more often. It was so great to just relax and re-charge for a few days. The river was out, yet again, and so I've been banned from coming home until after we're completely done planting corn because I seem to bring the water with me when I come home. Saturday we had Smith Easter at Sunday was Gognat Easter dinner. Needless to say I didn't spend the weekend being hungry! I got to see my mom's new kitchen which is AMAZING. She has a ridiculous amount of cabinet space and an overload of lights that she likes to call her "light factory". Of course the rest of our house isn't finished yet so when you first walk into our house it looks like we live in a poor man's shanty with a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling and bare walls with wires hanging out everywhere. I'm anxious to see what it will be like when it's finished. It won't be the same house anymore!

*Smith Easter*

*Egg hunting*

*The Smith Bunch Band*

*Mom and I failing miserably on the drums*

Of course no trip home would be complete without stopping in Champaign. I spent Thursday night visiting with everyone. I miss that town and all the people there so much. It was so great to see everyone and I hope I can make it back to celebrate graduation with my ohniners before the end of the semester!

*Dallas and I*

*4H House 09s*

I also got to spend some time with Adrienne while I was home. She got to come up to Ames a month ago, and I'm so glad that we've stayed such close friends even though I live so far away.

*Adrienne and I*

To wrap this update up. This past weekend was Veishea here at Iowa State. Veishea is a university celebration that includes a parade, food, and entertainment of all kinds. The spring football game happened to fall during the weekend so the guys brought out ISU 911 for one last time. I've had such a great time during my time at Iowa State and have been blessed to meet some really great friends. The past few weeks it's finally started to hit me that I'm almost done with college. From Wabash, to Illinois, to Iowa State I've collected an amazing group of people that I'm priveledged to call friends. It's been a great six years!

*Amy, me, Leah, and their friend Casey*

Well that's it for now. I'll try to write again soon, but I'm not promising anything!

Who says you can't go home?

Really who said that? That's just what I did this past weekend. Went back to Illinois and it was glorious! :) This time I even managed to convince Ace to come with me. We left Ames early Friday morning to avoid the snow storm that was supposed to hit. We rolled into Champaign around 5 and started making the rounds visiting people. It was such a great weekend. I got to see everyone I wanted to see (except I missed Megan again!). Mom and Dad came up and took Ace and I out to eat and then Rob came up Saturday night to help celebrate Lindsey's birthday. I miss all of my friends in Illinois so much. It was so great to catch up with all of them and get out of Iowa for the weekend.

Then it was back to reality this week. I finally finished my lab work the first week of February and have been working away on my lit review. It's slowly coming along. Between writing and job hunting I've definitely started feeling a little stressed. Looking for a job in a recession isn't any fun. There are jobs available but I'm almost too qualified for them. I'm going to have to take a job and work my way up. It's not the most ideal situation, but I just keep telling myself that it's all going to work out one way or another. If anyone out there is looking to hire a meat scientist give me a call!! ;)

Other than that, I've been pretty boring lately. I have been doing a work out class which has been hard work but really good. I've lost a few pounds and I think I'm going to sign up for the class again. Also, Adrienne is coming to visit this weekend so I'm excited to show her all that Iowa has to offer...hahaha.

So it's been awhile...

Wow I don't think I realized how long it's been since I updated this. Sorry but with the holidays and finals I've been really busy. I just got back to Ames last night. I got to spend about a week and a half at home, then I spent the New Years in Champaign. It was great to have the nice long break. I got to see everyone that I wanted to, and everyone had a good Christmas. I must admit I still wasn't ready to come back, but oh well. I got a new camera for Christmas. It's what I call a "big girl camera". I took a lot of pictures over break with it, but I'm still learning. I think I need a photography for dummies book or something. I haven't got them uploaded to my computer yet so I'll have to post some pictures later. I got back to Ames last night around 9, and I'm still getting everything put away and my room cleaned up. Right now though I'm going to sit down and get something down on my lit review. I've put it off long enough and I have to get something done before I go back to work on Monday. (Don't worry Mom I'm actually going to write!) So that's it for now. I'll update with pictures again soon I promise!

Meat Science!

I've got time for just a short post. After taking a pretty rough test this morning and a long lab this afternoon, I'm taking a little break at work for something more fun :) Just to catch everyone up, this past weekend my best good friend, Rachel Baum got married. It was a gorgeous wedding, and I'll have to post pictures and details a little later as all of my pictures are at home.

Tomorrow evening is the meat science club's annual appreciation dinner. I was asked to help finish up a slide show of random pictures from the past year. When I got the slide show I was so excited to see that a bunch of old meat lab pictures were included. And when I say old, I mean from around the 30's. I absolutely love old meat science pictures. It's crazy to see how much the industry has changed. No hair nets, no frocks most of the time, dirty floors...it's just fun to see. Here are a few to enjoy. I believe all of these were taken in the orginal Iowa State meat lab, which is now the livestock pavillion. Now it's just a big open space off the Animal Science building where sometimes classes are held and is the site for a couple of auctions and shows throughout the year. If you're squimish with animal carcasses then maybe don't look, but I promise they're not bloody or anything!

*Pork Carcasses*

*My favorite - really not sanitary at all*

*Beef carcasses and rounds on the table*

*Fabrication - Grandma Edith has a table just like those that I want one day*

*Pork bellies (bacon) and hams*

I love Halloween!

Oh Halloween. The one night a year when it's not strange to see people running around with crazy wigs, faces painted, or cardboard boxes cut out as some sort of costumes. Halloween in a college town is even crazier! The festivities here in Ames started on Thursday night. I went out for a little while to check out the costumes. Some of my favorties included Mario and Luigie who ran around all night just like the video games, four guys who wore cardboard boxes of different shapes and were tetris, there was a guy dressed as Hannah Montana, and Captain Crunch complete with a giant paper mache hat (I wish I would have had my camera). The best though was a robot. The body was all cardboard painted silver, he had cardboard on his feet and head and had eyes that lit up. We got the pleasure to watch him go down a set of stairs...it was hilarious! Last night I joined in on the Halloween fun. My friends here really get into dressing up and decided we should be 80's rockers. We had sequin tops made from fabric from Walmart, skirts, tights, heels, and ridiculous wigs that we generously sprayed with aquanet. We were quite the site and the night was really fun! A guy that the girls know was dressed as Slash from Guns and Roses and all of us together looked great! There wasn't a costume contest, but if there would have been, I think we definitely would have won!

*Me, Jessie, Sarah, and Leah*

Since Dad has been worried that I think too much about Halloween costumes and not enough about school, I'll give a little school update. I'm in the middle of my lab work for my project. It's so tedious right now and I just want it to be done with. But on the other hand I know that when it's done I'll have write my thesis and graduate and I don't want that to come too quickly! I've been having mini panic attacks trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I've kind of looked at what jobs are available but I just can't find something that I think I really want. Sometimes I wish that I wanted to be a teacher or nurse so that I know I could get a job anywhere. I know I'll get it figured out but it's just so stressful in the meantime. I really hate making decisions about life!

Other than that, life in Iowa is great. It's been in the 60's and 70's this week which I could really get used to. I know it will come back to get me in the end. Winter is coming and there's nothing I can do about it. I just hope there isn't as much snow this year! Rachel's wedding is in 2 weeks from today and I can't wait. It's the first wedding that I've been a bridesmaid in. It's going to be so fun to see everyone and maybe spend a day in Champaign. It's the same weekend of the International meats contest so Ace won't be coming with me. I hope to get him to Illinois at some point though!

Just call me Betty Crocker!

Success! So anyone who knows me, knows that sometimes my domestic skills are a little lacking. But, I've been trying to correct this. So when my professor was giving away apples, I decided to try and make my very first apple pie. I've made pie before, but never completely on my own. Brooke peeled the apples for me, and after a few phone calls to Grandma Betty...the pie was complete! And I must say it was amazing! The crust was delicious and it looked fabulous too!! I might not be so hopeless after all!!

Fall is definitely in full swing here in Iowa. We carved pumpkins this past week, and everyone can't stop talking about Halloween this weekend. The leaves up here are beautiful this year. I should go walk around campus and take some pictures. Even though I love fall, I can't help but dread the winter. I can feel it creeping up on me. It's been a lot colder and is supposed to be in the 20's tonight. I'm definitely not ready for the snow to come back. This southern Illinois girl was not made for Iowa winters!!

This past weekend was another busy one. My good friend, Dallas, who I judged with at Illinois, came to visit me and Brooke. Dallas and I stay in pretty close contact, but it was so good to get to see her and actually spend time with her. I miss her a lot! Ace also came to visit this weekend. It was homecoming here so we tailgated on Saturday. It was just overall a really great and fun weekend! I love having visitors and always feel a little sad when they're gone!

Well I need to wrap this up and look over some papers for class tomorrow...totally not like me to wait till the last minute :) I'm also watching my Colts lose to Tennessee. I'm really not sure what's wrong with them this season... Anyways, I'll leave you with some pictures from the weekend and our pumpkin carvings. Enjoy!!

*Our awesome front porch*

*I carved Frankenstein*

*Dallas, me, and Brooke tailgating*

*Ace and me*

*Dallas and me*