Hola! Como estas? Muy bien!

Well after 5 days in Mexico that's still about as much Spanish as I know.  Add gracias and una mas and that is the extent of my vocabulary.  Luckily that didn't hold us back!  Cory, Amanda, and I had a great time in Cancun!  The resort we stayed at was called the Riu Caribe, and it ended up being really nice.  The whole concept of 'all inclusive' is a genius one.  It was great to walk around and not have to carry any money or anything around.  I could eat ice cream everyday and eat steak - fo free! (ok so not really free we paid for it but still it seemed free!)  We spent most of our days laying around the pool or on the beach doing absolutely nothing but soaking up the sun.  I finished 4 books and got some pretty sweet tan lines. 

We planned a couple of extra activities as well.  One night we went on a pirate themed cruise ship. Out of the probably 40 people on the boat, we were 3 of 5 who spoke English as our only language.  The main pirate emcee would explain things in both Spanish and English, but we feel like we missed out on a lot of the story.  We figured this only enhanced the experience as it was probably pretty corny otherwise.  We cruised from Cancun to the Isla Mujeres where we saw a pirate show, had dinner, played some games, and had a mini dance party. While on the island I got called out to come on stage to play a game. It was a scavenger hunt and we had find certain items in the audience and thing bring them back to the pirate - the last person back would lose. It was interesting because he would explain what we were looking for in Spanish first, so I just took off running not knowing most of the time what I was looking for. I was the last person standing and won a t-shirt for my efforts.  It was extremely windy that night and it wasn't long until our boat ride turned into a scene straight out of Deadliest Catch.  The boat was rocking so hard that I was convinced we would end up having to swim back to shore.  This also only enhanced the experience, because the crew had people up dancing around the boat and soon the scene changed from Deadliest Catch to Titanic.  As the boat rocked everyone dancing would scream, cling to the railings, and topple on top of each other.  It was epic and hysterical!! 

We also went on a club hop which took us to 3 of the hot spots in Cancun: Congo, Senor Frogs, and Cocoa Bongo.  We had an extremely good time.  Senor Frogs was by far my favorite.  It was really laid back with a beach theme and even had a water slide running through the place.  Cocoa Bongo was a disco like place and they put on shows of famous singers such as Elvis, Beyonce, and Michael Jackson.  The people really looked like the singers and they would dance and lip sync along to their music videos which would play on these huge screens.  It was a blast!

We sadly left on Wednesday and went from 90 degrees in Cancun to a very sad 40 degrees in Minnesota.  It was really disheartening.  I started feeling better when Cody welcomed me home with a small Dairy Queen ice cream cake!  I'll leave you now with a slide show of some of the pictures of our trip.  I feel like there is more to say, but it's late and my clever blogger writing skills just aren't clicking (as if my blog posts are ever that clever anyway!).  So good night!

Workin hard, or hardly workin?

Like I said, I've been on the move a lot. I've spent the last three weeks on the road. The first week I spent 3 days in Topeka, KS. If you haven't heard, Hormel recently bought the Country Crock line of side dishes. I've been assigned to work on Team Tater (what the operations guy decided we should be called - clever, I know) and all the items are made at a plant in Topeka. I didn't mind going there since it was 80 degrees there that week. Last week I spent Tuesday - Friday at our plant in Atlanta, GA. I had been looking forward to this trip for awhile. It had been rescheduled a couple of times. I usually travel by myself, but on this trip we were running a couple of different trials so myself, Nate - who also works in R&D, Russ - operations manager, and Brett - marketing manager all made the trip down south. I've learned that traveling with Russ is the way to go. He arranged for us to do some fun things after our work in the plant was done. On Wednesday night, Merle (superintendent at Atlanta plant) took us out on his boat. The lake we were on was a huge resevoir and there was a lot of money on that lake! We saw house boats bigger than my actual house. Merle told us that one of the boats which was appropriately named "More than you know" is frequently featured on the travel channel when they do shows about house boats. It was incredible looking. We spent about 2 hours cruising the lake and only made it about half way across it.  Even thought it was only in the lower 70's, it was still a great night.  The lake was calm, and there were a ton of sailboats out on the water.  We got to watch the sunset, and after we docked, Merle took us to a little restaurant right on the lake.  We spent Thursday in the plant again, and then we were treated to an Atlanta Braves game that night.  I can't remember the last time I had been to a pro baseball game.  It was probably at least 10 years ago.  We had really great seats, however the game couldn't have been worse. The Braves were playing the Phillies and they got beat pretty badly.  Good thing I'm not a Braves fan! We sadly flew back to MN on Friday and back to the real world.  I'm hoping I can get more projects that take me back to Atlanta.  I think I belong in the south..... This week I'm on the road again.  I'm back in Topeka tonight for a meeting tomorrow and then it's back to Austin and I'm on a plane to Cancun Friday morning!!! I'll be sure to write and share pictures from the trip when I get back. Until then enjoy some of the sites from Atlanta  - tootles!

*Merle's boat the Z-Amore*

*More Than You Know*

*Captain Brett, Skipper Nate, and Gilligan Rachel*

*If Merle is back there who's driving the boat??*

*That's right - they let me drive*

*This picture is for Grandpa Joe - what sailboats do besides sit in the yard :)  *

*Turner Field*

On the go

Busy busy busy. That's how things have been going lately. Work has been going good, and I've been traveling a lot. I think I might have gypsy blood in me, because I love to be on the move. Don't get me wrong, I love a good lazy weekend of laying on the couch, but many times I'd much rather be going places and visiting people. Maybe it stems from all those weekends spent going to cattle shows on the weekends as a kid?? Anyway - it's been a pretty busy last couple of months. I spent one weekend at the end of March visiting Mallory with Jessie in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is definitely a fun city. Ironically, we spent almost the whole weekend pretending like we were in college again and spent all of Saturday laying around watching a marathon of America's Next Top Model. Sunday Mal gave us a driving tour of the city which included the Pabst Mansion, Marquette University, the place where serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer used to live, among other Milwaukee sights. The highlight of the weekend had to be riding a mechanical chili pepper at a Mexican restaurant. It was more like a kiddie ride than a mechanical bull, but it was hilarious. The weekend was epic for sure ;)

*Me, Mallory, Jessie*

Last weekend, Cody and I made the trip down to Ames to take part in VEISHEA. If you want to learn more about what VEISHEA is click here: http://www.veishea.iastate.edu/en/about_veishea/history_of_veishea/ Basically, it's a celebration for the university. This year was the first time I actually walked around on campus on Saturday. I didn't realize how many family events took place. Each college puts on different events to show the public a little about their program. I ran into Dr. Lonergan at the livestock pavillion and was able to catch up with him for a bit. The spring scrimage game was Saturday afternoon so ISU 911 was out in full force for tailgating. Sunday we had lunch with my other family - The Andersons. Lily is getting so big, it's hard to believe that she's 8 months old! Mark and Katie even dressed her in the Illini shirt I got for her. She is the cutest baby ever!! Overall, it was a great weekend spent catching up with my Iowa State peeps.

*Cody getting his first taste of Iowa State tailgating*

*Jessie, Mallory, Leah, Amy, and I*

*Lily is well on her way to becoming an Illini fan!*

*Cuteness!!!*

Curling Club

I just had to share my past weekend experience. A group of my friends, who also work at Hormel + a few extras, took a day trip to the twin cities on Saturday. We went around to a couple of really cool downtown bar and grill type places. One was called The Muddy Pig complete with pig decorations that I loved :) We also toured Summit Brewery. The brewery was all interesting and fun, but the real interesting part came a little later. We had planned on going to this outside festival called Firkin Fest in St. Paul. When we got there some of us decided that we didn't want to wait in line, but a few people in our group had already bought tickets. Conveniently located next to the festival was the St. Paul Curling Club. Some of my friends had been in before so we decided to go check it out. Now since curling has become an Olympic sport it has fascinated me. I'm not sure why, I think because I think of Olympic athletes as these amazing physical fitness types, and most curlers I've seen are bigger, balding men. These guys give me hope that I can also be an Olympic athlete ;) The curling club had nine curling lanes and there were probably at least 50 people in there to practice their curling. It felt like we were walking in to some secret society. They were even having their own spaghetti dinner, but I was assured it was open to the public. I wasn't brave enough to bother any of the serious curlers with my questions, but luckily Joni, who I work with at R&D, is from nearly Canada, North Dakota and her family curls. In fact, her uncle was at one time a champion curler. She tried her best to explain to me the rules and scoring. I watched the curlers curl (I'm thinking there's probably better terms to describe everything but I just like using the word curl) intently for awhile, but I most admit it got a little boring after awhile. Maybe I should have picked up a broom and asked to jump in a game! I was a bit intimidated by some of the more serious curler, like this guy --> Everyone was pretty jealous of his outfit. It was a pretty random afternoon. It was a lot of fun to get out of Austin and do something different. Maybe if you come visit we can all go back to the curling club!! I'll now leave you with some scenes from the curling club.

Just as a bonus - This is Cody. Cody is a nice guy. I like Cody. Cody likes me. That's all you need to know for now :)

Home Sweet Home

I realized that I have never shared pictures or details of where I live here in Austin. Let me first share a little background information about Austin, MN aka SPAM Town, USA (yes they actually call it that). Austin has a population of about 24,000 people. When you break this number down, Hormel employs about 800 people in Austin (this is a really rough estimate, I could be way off), the Hormel Institue which is part of the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota that does a lot of cancer and other medical research and employs several PhDs, grad students etc., and there is also the Austin Medical Center that is a branch of the Mayo Clinic that employs several hundred people (again, guessing). Of the remaining 22,000 or so people, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that 70% or more of the population is 60 years old + and retired. Someone once told me that Austin has the oldest average population in the state of Minnesota. I can't find this fact stated anywhere, but I wouldn't doubt it. The proof of this statement is shown on our streets when you want to drive the 30 mph speed limit, but you can only go 15 because of the old person in front of you. I include this fact, because it is important when talking about living situations here in town. Driving around town, it would appear that there are several decent looking apartment buildings that would be safe to live in. However, when you start doing research you'll find that these apartments are for "older adults only". So, unless you're a card carrying AARP member your renting options are very limited. When I started asking around work for some suggestions I got this story more times than I can count: "Well when I moved here I lived in this horrible apartment in a awful part of town, but it was cheap!" Austin may be a smallish town, but I'd seen some of the bad parts of town, and I was NOT willing to live there no matter how cheap. One day while driving around hoping to find somewhere nice to rent, I stumbled on to this group of townhouses on the edge of town called Murphy's Creek. They looked newer and really nice. I called and was able to come look at one of the units. While talking to the landlord I told him my situation and that I really needed a place to live within a couple of weeks because I had to be out of the intern housing I was in. At that time they only had a unit open immediately at a complex that was downtown. They were similar to the Murphy's Creek, but weren't in as nice of an area. Bill (the landlord) was determined to help me out. There was a girl that was planning on moving out because she was going to be the manager at the other units. She was waiting for the approval to go through before she could move. Bill was able to speed the process up and I was able to move in on the day I had to be out of my intern apartment. It couldn't have worked out better! I have a three bedroom townhouse, and I can see cornfields out of my window. It's more room than I need, but a three bedroom is what was available, and it was only a $25 more a month than a two bedroom. I love my place, and makes Austin feel a little more like home. I have a garage and a washer and dryer included. There's even a little running path through the woods next to my building. I definitely got lucky in finding this place. I might start thinking of buying a house in the next year or so, but for now I'm perfectly content here! I have plently of visit so come visit soon!

*Front entry*

*Downstairs half bathroom*

*From the front door looking in*

*Living room*

*Kitchen*

*Master bathroom*

*Extra bedroom/office/scrapbook room*

*Guest bedroom*
*My bedroom*

So much for resolutions

Well it looks like I've failed on my resolution to update my blog more regularly. I don't even have a good excuse as to why I don't. I think about it while I'm sitting on the couch watching TV, but I always fail to follow through with my thoughts/good intentions. I'm going to try and do better I promise! So now for the regular update on what I've been up to lately. I last left you with pictures from Thanksgiving and Christmas. I rang in the New Year with some of my favorite girls: my 4H House family. We all met up at Cory's house in Dixon, IL. We had 7 generations of our family there. I love that we're all so close. There aren't many familes that keep in touch that much after graduation, and to get 7 of us together at the same time is really awesome. Our theme for the weekend was "Wiggin Out", mostly we picked this for the photo opportunities that would come with wearing wigs. With an assortment of mullets, rockers, and afros - we were quite the sight! We spent probably a good hour just laughing at each other! We spent the night playing Rock Band on the Wii and games like Catch Phrase and Guesstures. There's never a dull moment when we're all together. We're so fun! :)


I kept pretty busy during January. I made a trip to Rochelle, IL for work and luckily avoided getting stuck there in a snow storm. I spent most of my weekends here in Austin. One weekend a group of us went skiing. We went to a place called Welch Village. I hadn't been skiing in probably 2 years, but I was pleasantly surprised how quickly it all came back. The place had a lot of trails, and makes Paoli Peaks in Indiana look like a little hill. We had a great time, and hopefully will be going back before winter is over.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for me. At the end of January I was able to make a trip to Champaign for the annual Judging Reunion and Dr. Carr's retirement party. Dr. Carr is sadly retiring this summer after 30+ years at the University of Illinois. He had a great turnout. I would guess there were around 300 people in attendance. All the girls from my team were there, and it was so much fun to catch up with all of them. They had a slideshow covering his time at the university and some of his past graduate students shared their memories of working with Dr. Carr. There were a lot of laughs and some tears. The university is losing one of its greatest professors. Dr. Carr has had such an influence on my life and I wish him all the best in retirement!

*Dr. Tom Carr, Candice, Stephanie, Dallas, and I*

Mom and Dad then came up the following weekend. It was so great to just hang out with them and relax all weekend. I found out that there was the World's Toughest Cowboy Rodeo was in Minneapolis that Saturday. So after Dad was a good sport for putting up with Mom and I at the Mall of America all day, we treated him to the rodeo. It was a lot of fun.



And then there was the second trip to Champaign. My friend, Leah, from Iowa is looking at U of I for a possible PhD. Our friend Mallory, who lives in Milwaukee now decided that she needed to check out the town before Leah could move there, and they asked me to be their guide. Of course, I couldn't turn down the chance to be in Champaign and combine my Iowa friends with my Illinois world! The weekend was epic to say the least. I was able to meet up with some of my wonderful 09 pledge class for dinner on Friday night. The weather was less than cooperative and I drove from Peoria to Champaign on a really snowy interstate so I was a little late for dinner. And then later that night I managed to get my car stuck in a snow drift. This story might deserve an entire blog post dedicated to it. Sadly, we didn't think to take pictures of us being stuck or of the handfull of people that showed up determined to push us out. To make a long story short, Leah, Mallory, and I are very grateful to Mallory's dad who pays for her AAA and to the very nice tow truck guy that pulled us out. To top the weekend off I was able to get us tickets to the Illinois - Michigan State game. The Illini pulled off an awesome upset, and it was so great to be back in Assembly Hall!! I think I've almost converted Leah and Mal to be Illinois fans! Lol!

*Me, Leah, and Mallory

The last few weeks I've been happy to not have to be traveling much. I love Illinois, but two trips in three weeks is pretty tiring! It's been great to be able to catch up with everyone though. While my weekends have been epic, my weeks continue to be fairly normal. I'm still playing volleyball, and I think I'm actually starting to get a little better much to the relief of my teammates I'm sure! Cory, Tiedemann, and I have booked our Cancun trip for the first week of May. I absolutely can't wait to lay on the beach and do nothing! This week I'm traveling to a Jennie-O Plant for work, and I'm back on the road this weekend to visit Rachel and David in Nebraska. Maybe I'll have some blog worthy stories to share and it won't be a month until my next post!