Recent Developments

It was strange coming home tonight to no Matt. He has been home both Tuesday and Wednesday night, as those were his days off. I could definitely get used to having him home at night! It will be that way in about a month though. We are getting close!
I am not really thrilled with the hospital right now...it seems they have to make things as bad as possible for us before Matt switches to days. (I know this is not on purpose, it seems like they have thrown a lot our way lately.) They switched his days off (normally Thursday and Friday) to Tuesday and Wednesday. It was just nice for him to have a 4 day weekend after working so many days straight. Also, he has to stay at work until 11 pm now (a half an hour later than normal) because they suddenly felt that there was too much overlap with the day shift. Add to that the fact that he will be gone a total of a month for training between now and December...
I just keep telling myself it will all be worth it when things are finally back to normal. And it will. I do have to admit that it was really nice to have Matt be able to go to my last kickball game with me last night. I think our team captain was successful in recruiting him for next summer. It didn't take much convincing. :)
After starting my second Master's class this week, I have officially decided to switch programs. I am really frustrated with the lack of classes available to distance students. Both semesters, I have enrolled in classes that I am excited about, only to be told a week before the semester starts that they are not offering the distance section due to lack of enrollment. This semester, I was re-assigned to a class that is completely over my head and not of real interest to me.
On the bright side, I am switching to Penn State's GIS Master's program where they offer every class every semester. The classes are only 10 weeks long and I will finish the program 2 years faster than I would at Purdue. AND there is a girl that I work with who is starting the program as well, so I will have someone to study with. I feel so much better about this change, even though I love Purdue as a whole.
Looking over the Penn State course list, I can already see how much more relevant they will be to my everyday work life. Honestly, I don't now how I am going to be able to pick two elective classes out of the list of 10. I want to take them all!
So that's about all i have for tonight. There is plenty more to blog about, including my trip to Dayton and our upcoming list of activities and visitors. So much is going on...I feel like the summer has flown by in an instant. Soon it will be time to break out the ski gear again...

Finally, A New One

The rush of life is certainly surrounding me right now. But as I noted on Facebook tonight, I love the feeling of being busy, of having a purpose. Today, I spent over 11 hours at work...they went by in a flash. That usually never happens unless I'm busy and don't look at the clock. I am starting to really understand and appreciate my job. Or maybe I just have a renewed outlook on things after spending a week in the corporate headquarters in Dayton.
Anyhow, I have several blogs I have been meaning to publish for a couple weeks now, so I'll get started with the first. I am feeling a bit groggy tonight, so the rest of this blog will consist primarily of pictures from Alissa's third visit to Denver. As I said, this was a couple weeks ago. But better late than never!
On Friday night, I picked Alissa up from the airport and we headed downtown to grab a bite to eat. It was such a beautiful evening and we sat outside and watched the random people walk by. There were some interesting ones for sure...

Saturday, we tried to go camping. Matt and I weren't prepared and hadn't reserved a campsite, so we decided to drive up and look for one. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a SINGLE campsite, and gave up after driving around all day. I think all of Denver must have been camping that weekend...

Here is Perdi riding along with all of our camping gear.

Sunday, we went up to Breckenridge to ride the Alpine slide. (This is becoming one of my favorite places to take people.) We also went for a hike.

Here's Matt attempting to "freestyle walk" in the woods...and failing. :)

This one is pretty cool.

On our way back, we drove up over Loveland Pass. It goes up above tree line and is SO beautiful. You can also see the mountains that make up part of the Continental Divide.

Atop Loveland pass.

Wednesday, Alissa came to kickball with me. She got some great city shots of the mountains.


This is the view of downtown from the kickball park. (Cuernavaca Park).

The crazy pitcher with mismatched socks.

An action shot of me kicking. We lost the game...:(


It is so fun when Alissa comes out here. I particularly love all of the great conversations we have. I couldn't ask for a better sister-in-law!
*Alissa, I think you should do a "guest blog" and post some of your pictures. Let me know if you are interested!

All In a Week

Work life has been pretty crazy lately. Things are really getting into high gear on this year's airports and I am starting to realize just how many hours of overtime I will be putting in during the next 8 months or so. This is a good thing...as my supervisor says, "job security!" He and I will be heading to Dayton, OH next week to train our fellow photogrammetrists how to do the aerial airport surveys. I am a bit apprehensive, as this is my first official business travel and we will be gone a week! Not to mention the whole training part...I have a lot of things to finish up and prepare before we leave, including one incredibly difficult airport in the Appalacian mountains.
Purdue emailed me yesterday to tell me that they are cancelling the distance learning section of the remote sensing class I was going to take. They have done this both semesters I have been enrolled now, making me wonder how I will ever finish this degree. I really want to take the classes that pertain most to what I do, but that is proving to be rather difficult.
The funny thing is that they made me complete a "Plan of Study" to map out every class I would be taking each semester for the next 4 years. It had to be signed by my entire committee of advisors (four professors total). Every time I change the plan, they have to re-sign it, and considering I only have about half of the signatures I need just for the original plan and I submitted it in April, this is going to be another challenge if Purdue keeps cancelling the classes I have listed. I did get enrolled in another class, which I am positive is going to be a lot more of a headache. It's another satellite positioning class. It seems like I just can't avoid those, even though I had to drop the one I started last semester. I hope this one is better.
Through all of this craziness with work and school, it has been absolutely GREAT to have Alissa out here staying with us. She flew in last Friday evening and we have had some fun adventures since then. I will save those stories for another post. It will be sad to see her leave tomorrow...I am getting so used to having someone be at home with me in the evenings again! I know Matt enjoys having Alissa around in the mornings with him as well. It will be so nice when we get on the same schedule again! But we will still enjoy having guests at our house just as much. Perdi will also be upset when Alissa leaves. Her whole body shakes when she is wagging her tail around Alissa. Perdi also checks Alissa's door every morning when I take her and Pongo out, just to make sure that it's not open. She gets really excited when Alissa wakes up, so I hear.
Well that's about all the news I can think of for now. Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

Vacation Recap

It's been really hard to find time to blog lately! So many things have been going on since we got back from Rhode Island...I am finally sitting down to recap our trip (before I forget everything!). I have plenty of pictures to share so get ready!

We left Denver bright and early on the 31st...and arrived in Newark, NJ 3.5 hours later, where we were delayed for another 4 hours. Ugh! We got a picture on the plane to Providence, but we were so tired of airports and planes by the time this photo was taken, and just tired in general.

We spent some time Friday night catching up and chatting on the porch. It was nice and cool (though pretty humid by our Denver standards!) and fun to catch up with Ted and Susie, who are good friends from college.

Saturday morning, we had an awesome breakfast at a local restaurant. This is my cheddar broccoli omelette...SO GOOD!

After breakfast, we walked through downtown Newport to burn off some of the food. We pretty much walked everywhere while we were there, which was wonderful especially since I didn't run once! :)

This is Ted and Susie's house. It was really close to downtown Newport, the beach, and pretty much everything!

Later on Saturday, we took a drive along the coast. It was so gorgeous. We stopped a Brenton Point and walked down the coast a bit. Matt got some great pictures of the waves crashing.

This is bagel the beagle, who came along on our coastline drive. She looks mean here but it's all an act. Bagel is a very sweet and well behaved beagle, by our standards!

Saturday night, we had a great time dancing the night away at the Dockside, which was a bar/club. They had a great cover band and we ended up standing right up at the front by the stage.

The Newport bridge on our Saturday tour of the Navy base.

Sunday, we walked along the Cliff Walk. It was really foggy and overcast...my favorite weather! It made the ocean so mysterious. I think I liked it this way the best.

Susie and I on the Cliff Walk.

Just one of the many huge mansions in Newport.

Matt pretending to be the "King of the World" on our Cliff Walk adventure.

Foggy Newport on our walk back to Ted and Susie's.

Monday, we went down to the beach for a couple hours. It was a beautiful sunny day and a couple hours was all it took to get a little burned...ouch! The beach and ocean were full of red algae...that's what we're standing in here.

Newport Beach (in the sun this time). :)

Walking in the Atlantic. I had to at least put my feet in, even though I really hate water I can't see in.

We decided to climb up to the Cliff Walk to get back. Boulders and wet flip flops made it rather difficult, but we made it!

Later that afternoon, we went sailing! Ted and Susie had just learned and gotten certified to sail. It was their first time out by themselves, but they could have fooled us! They did a great job. Here are our wonderful hosts out on the water.

Matt and I with the Navy war college in the background.

Susie and I ran the jib sail. (it's the little sail in front.) I got to practice my sailing lingo as well. :)

A cute picture of Ted and Susie with the Newport bridge in the background.

Matt on the front of the sailboat, being a daredevil.

This is Matt's lobster dinner at the Black Pearl Monday night.

And here he is playing with his dinner.


Most of you probably know that I am not a big fan of seafood. For the record, I did actually try some lobster! I am still not a big fan...but I tried the clam chowder as well and it was pretty good!

A farewell photo at the Providence airport Tuesday morning. My face is so burned...

We have only been back in Denver for a week, but I am so ready to get back on a plane and go back! I love the Northeast (and some certain people there). :) We hope Ted and Susie can come out to Denver soon so we can return the favor and take them on all of our favorite Colorado adventures!

Hold, Please

As you all know, Matt and I spent the previous weekend in Rhode Island on vacation. We had an amazing time and I am working on a full long blog with pictures for you. I figured that since it has been a week since my last post, I would do a short one in the mean time.
I thought it would be awesome to come back to a 3 day week after a fantastic weekend. However, I got to the office yesterday morning with an inbox full of emails and the news that I will be travelling to Dayton for a week to train some folks in our main headquarters. I am excited at the chance to do some business travelling (in 2 weeks!) but slightly overwhelmed at the thought of training people with more experience than I have, as well as other events happening in life right now.
On a much MUCH more positive note, we are getting ready for Alissa’s third visit. I will pick her up from the airport tomorrow after work and I couldn’t be more excited! We are going to try to do a little camping this weekend, but if that doesn’t work out, (campsites are hard to reserve nowadays) we have plenty of other options to fall back on. I’m hoping that at the very least, we can go for a hike or just spend time up in the mountains. Summer is here for sure…it’s hot and dry (but at least not humid) during the day in Denver. It was pretty warm in New England too, so a mountain getaway sounds like the perfect thing to do this weekend.
Luckily, it cools off nicely at night in the city and I can still get some good running in. Last night I ran after dark because I didn’t get home from kickball until 8:45. I thought I would be out of shape after taking almost a week off, but I felt great and kept a nice pace. It was breezy and I could see lightning flashing off in the distance around me. I can’t explain enough about what running does for my sanity. Yesterday, I was so distracted with a million things going through my mind all day. After my run last night and a decent amount of sleep, I feel so much better today. For those of you who have problems sleeping, I would highly recommend a daily jog if you have the time. : ) It really clears the mind and gets you physically tired as well.
And one last bit of news...Matt has been given an official date for starting on the day shift. Drum roll please.....



October 5!



It is so nice to finally have the day in black and white. I can handle the next two months just fine, now that I know the end is in sight. A celebration is in the works...
I think that’s about all I have for now. Hopefully the New England post will be up tonight!