Weekend in the Sierras

We went to a wedding (one of Andy's Stanford teammate's) in the Sierras Saturday. On Sunday we got a chance to visit one of our favorite places: Calaveras Big Tree State Park.

A walk around our woods

Wild Geranium

May Apple, so often the buds get frosted. Seeing those beautiful blooms is a treat.

Dad/Grandpa found patch of white Morels. They are always larger than the brown morels.
I put a teaspoon beside the one I propped up so you could judge the size.

Jack in the Pulpit, we have several this year. A nice surprise.
Take time to enjoy the beauty where you are! Love, Grandma/Mother

Happy Birthday Sharon

Thought you would enjoy this picture taken in Alpena around your second birthday. Hope your day was special all the way to the end!

Spring at cabin

The successful Morel mushroom hunter. Found them along Mulligan Road .

Planting a couple dozen Norway Spruce along Log Pile Road. First one in lower right corner. In addition we walked the roads and read. Rain in the night was very noisy on that metal roof!!

Stopped at Carol and Charlie's on way north to share lunch with them in the gazebo.
Azalea along driveway were beautiful.

Don's apple orchard is beautiful and in full bloom. If every bloom is an apple there will be bushels and bushels to pick in the fall! Got home and our apple trees are pretty too.
Wooded areas along the highway were covered with trillium in bloom. So pretty.

Sue Neller's 70th birthday

Lauren Kersten, age 7, painted this horse picture in her art class!
She told her Mother it should be Aunt Sue's because she likes horses.

Our annual birthday photo. Sue, Suzanne, me.

Hi! Remember me?

Hello Everyone,

I know that I have fallen off the map lately.  Apologies for that!  Things have been busy, and getting to the blog has been de-prioritized.

I have been living the graduate student life here in good ol' Burlington, VT.  Teaching research methods, a computer lab class for undergrads, has been an adventure.  I love teaching them almost as much as I love complaining about them!  Now that the semester is wrapping up, I am feeling the heat to finish my thesis.  It will be a lot of cramming things in at this point, it appears.

 Post-Easter Brunch hike

Also recently, my squad on the UVM fencing team (women's epee) won the national title in the collegiate club fencing championships.  We earned a shiny trophy and gold medals!  We beat the Rutgers team in the championship matchup, and it was a close, exciting finish.  Happily, I did not have to fence against U of Michigan; they were knocked out in an earlier round of the tournament (as was MSU).

Here I am with my teammates and my coach giving the stink eye :)

In big news, I was just offered a job as a research economist at a local consultancy today.  I suppose this means that I am going to be living in Vermont for a while!  Sticking in one place will be a change of pace, I think for the better.  It is beautiful here, and I have some good friends and connections.  I am feeling very grown up and excited to be starting in my first career-oriented job.  I am finally an economist!  And, yes, for those who are wondering, this means the pink in my hair has been significantly toned down.

*hugs* all around!

Graduation Day, April 30, 2011

Congratulations to Karli and Stephen