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!

There's no place like home

I realize this post is out of order, but I really wanted to share some of these pictures. I keep trying to learn about my "big girl" camera. I've done quite a bit of reading to learn how to use the custom settings and make sure I'm using the camera to its full capability. While I was home for Thanksgiving, I had some really nice days to play around with my camera on the farm. I've included some of my favorites. At Grandma's I was able to see the new addition to our shop. I always thought our shop was big, but with the addition it looks really big! We hired some nice Amish men to build it, and my Dad became quite convinced he'd found me the perfect husband. I'm still worried that he's going to try to trade me for some horses or something! The addition is large enough to store our combine, and Rob's new toy, a John Deere sprayer, and there's still a lot of room to spare. Who knows what they'll find to buy to fill the empty space... I was also really amused to come home to see Grandpa's sailboat parked in the yard. I didn't know he'd bought a sailboat. Apparently he's planning some sailing trips down the Embarass River??? My favorite pictures are ones that I took in our pasture. There was a really pretty sunset one evening so I ran out back and starting experimenting. I love the results! My favorite picture I posted about a month ago. Some of the rest of these look similar, but I like all of them. I hope you enjoy them too!

Welcome 2010!

Happy belated New Year everyone!! I'm always excited to see a new year come. A year can bring so many changes. Looking back at 2009, I graduated with my masters degree, started a great new job with Hormel Foods, and have met many new friends here in Austin. I can't complain too much about 2009, but I can't wait to see what 2010 brings me. Right now, though I wish it would bring me some warmer weather. I don't know how much more of this I can take. Last night the low here was supposed to be -18, and that's before the windchill factor! I think the temperature barely reached double digits maybe twice this week. This week is supposed to bring temperatures in the 20's - heat wave!

Just a little update on my life. I was able to spend 5 fabulous days at home over Christmas. I fled the state of Minnesota Tuesday night in order to avoid winter storms that were to occur Wednesday and on Christmas Eve. Luckily, I made it home without having to drive through any bad weather. My break started out with the Illinois-Missouri Braggin Rights game in St. Louis Wednesday night. Mom and Dad, me, and Joe - a guy dad works with, all traveled to St. Louis to cheer on the Illini. I have always heard about how much fun this game is, and I have always wanted to go. It was really cool to see the sea of orange. This game has become a huge rivalry, and cheers for Illinois/Missouri would break out on the street and even in the restaurant before the game. Unfortunately, our cheers for the Illini didn't work, and we lost the game. It was the first time in 10 years that Missouri had won. I was disappointed, but we still had a good time. I can't wait to go back again!

Christmas Eve was Smith Christmas. We of course had to take the traditional "grand kids in front the Christmas tree" picture. Rob and I were informed we would only be exempt from this picture when we had kids of our own. Looks like we'll be included for awhile. Justin has gotten so tall that next year I'm afraid I'll have to join the front row with Clayton! Because of my new job with Hormel, this Christmas was the year of SPAM themed gifts. Justin, Clayton, and Randy all got SPAM t-shirts, and Grandpa Joe was the lucky winner of the variety SPAM pack full of all the assorted flavors that SPAM comes in. He was quite excited about it. Grandpa actually really loves SPAM, so he was excited to be stocked up! Because of Clayton's love of bacon, he was given several packets of Hormel Bacon. Nothing says love like meat products at Christmas time :)

Christmas Night was Gognat Christmas. Somehow we all escaped from taking the traditional grand kid picture, and for some reason none of us pointed that out :) The yarn bows and some familiar looking wrapping paper made their appearance again, as did the traditional wrapping paper fight. Everyone got a Santa to take home, and I got some great cooking supplies that I can't wait to try out!

Overall, it was a great trip home. I miss everyone lots, and I wish I could make it back more often. Unfortunately, I didn't take any farm pictures on this trip. The weather didn't cooperate, and it was rainy most of the time I was there. In the coming posts I'll post some of the pictures I took over Thanksgiving. I'm going to attempt to update more often in the new year, and hopefully make this more entertaining!

Hormel Prom, a Blizzard, and all things Christmas!

Hello everyone from frigid, not so fabulous Minnesota! It's officially winter. I was able to live in denial of the fact that I live in the arctic, up until last Wednesday. It started snowing Tuesday night but didn't seem like it was going to be quite the storm everyone was predicting...or so I thought. I woke up to 40+ mph winds and probably about 10 inches of snow on Wednesday morning. Luckily for me, my townhouse is apparently in the perfect place for snow drifts. I could see the neighbors bare sidewalk while I couldn't even open my front door. I also discovered another fun fact that morning, my car is HORRIBLE in snow. I already suspected this, but my suspicions were definitely confirmed after getting stuck and pushed out by my kind neighbors three different times...and this was just in the driveway! I work with nice people, and someone offered to come pick me up. I need to take some pictures, because the snow is not going anywhere anytime soon!

In other news, this past weekend I attended the Hormel Austin Plant formal Christmas party (AKA Hormel Prom). I've made quite a few friends who work in the plant, I and was asked to go by one of the supervisors I know. The night was really fun. It was held at the Austin Country Club. The supper was delicious, everyone looked great, and I got to dance all night :) R&D has its own Christmas party, but it's not till January. Hopefully it will be just as good of time!

My house is looking very festive for Christmas time. I may have gone a little overboard. I have a big tree, a small tree, and some other small lights here and there. I like it though, and I'm contemplating leaving the tree up until at least mid-January! I can't wait to come home for Christmas next week! My plans are once again up in the air after some really interesting phone calls late this afternoon informing me that a line trial I'm doing is being moved to next week instead of the week after Christmas. As long as I can get to St. Louis by 8:30 on the 23rd to meet Mom and Dad for the Illinois-Missouri Bragging Rights Game I'll be happy!

*Amanda & I at Christmas party - I failed at taking pictures and this is the best picture of me in my dress*

*Me & Heidi - I also failed to get a picture of me and my actual date! *

*My natvity scene with lights*

*Tree*

*I thought I would throw in a picture that was taken while I was home over Thanksgiving. This is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken*

*Another random picture of my successful Paula Deen Pumpkin Pie. The middle got a little brown but it tasted delicious!*