Long Time, We Know...

So that last that was written about was all of the excitement and work that came with the inland hurricane. While that event really DID impact the rest of the summer, we were still able to take a few trips (whether down the road or down to Florida). Currently, I'm amazed to learn how few photos we can really put on here with the storage size of our blog. Looking at some options, but not too concerned, just letting you know that we'll probably start putting the majority of our photos on Facebook. That could work...

4th of July
The 4th of July was the ideal summer day, just as it should be. My (Steve's) parents came down and Ellen joined us for grilling out. There were only five of us, but the menu you made it sound like "Thanksgiving in July." We cooked on a giant grill (each of us essentially had our own charcoal pyre) and we ate everything from grilled corn and vegetables, to bleu cheese burgers and grilled peaches. Fireworks were a bit of a bust from a pyro's perspective, but lots of fun opportunities none-the-less. If you've ever gone on top of your roof to see the fireworks from surrounding neighborhoods, just think of your roof being 180 feet in the air.

Florida Trip
Any chance we can get, we make our way to Florida. This was the first trip, though, that we took with Liz's parents. There were a couple dissapoints with the weather and our favorite restaurant being closed, but we still managed to score some time in the sun, some saltwater taffy, and we even got to see a dolphin or two.

Strawberry Picking
We just happen to live in a gorgeous and plentiful place when it comes to outdoor opportunities and food. We decided to take the opportunity to go strawberry picking one weekend and learned a few valuable lessons: 1) picking fruit yourself is most definitely worth the work, 2) don't soak strawberries to clean them and think it's a good idea, and 3) anything you put fresh strawberries on is automatically tastier.

Sunset Concert Series
I think colleges and the communities they are in always fall into a romantic phase while the majority of students are gone. That tends to be the time that joint events occur; for us, that is the Summer Concert Series. The Summer Concert Series is an ongoing set of concerts that alternate between occurring on-campus and in a local park off-campus. The music serves as background noise and an excuse to get together and it is well worth it. FREE concert and sometimes you even get a BONUS contact high.

For pictures highlighting the above listed events, please view Steven's or Liz's Facebook accounts in the photo album named Carbondale Summer Fun. If you do not have Steven or Liz as friends, that's your first mistake.

The Inland Hurricane

It has been awhile since we've blogged, and a lot of the delay came from knowing that our next entry would be this one. While this event made it on national news for a split second, it somehow stayed out of the natural catatrophe spotlight that our dear media friends have gotten us all addicted to watching.

On the final day of finals (a big move-out day for us), we were hit by what we thought was going to be a strong thunderstorm, at most a tornado. As sirens went off, I (Steven) started heading back to my building to start emergency protocol and figured it'd be a hard enough task with parents in the building. On my short walk back, I was actually able to feel the wind pick up enough to scare me, and by the time I made it to the building, things had started taking a turn for the worse. I was able to make an announcement through our fire panel system about two minutes before our building was hit and power went out. The storm literally just kept punching at us for approximately 15 minutes before relenting. Of those fifteen minutes, we had lost power after the first four.

During this time, Liz did an amazing job taking care of an injured student that made his way into our building for shelter (he had been picked up by the wind and thrown into a fence, cutting deep in between two of his toes [update: he received stitches and is fine). A number of vehicles were smashed by fallen trees and a few individuals freaked out to the point of causing some commotion.

The National Weather Service classified the storm as an "inland hurricane" and I've gotten an image to give you an idea of what we dealing with.

The pictures don't do much credit to the storm, but here are some pictures of our home. Out of 17 floors, only 2 received no damage. The main issue was blown out windows and frames and leaks due to roof damage.

This is the type of event to teach you how little time it takes to do so much damage. Our staff was asked to volunteer to stay longer into the summer to assist with housing issues. Our building was one of the only buildings with any sustained emergency lighting (it lit most of the hallways, but no rooms). So, Schneider Hall became what we referred to as "Refugee Hall" for about a week. Three to four staff meetings were held each day to assess the situation on campus and in town.

After a couple days, our dining team had received a shipment of vegetables and fruits that raised our spirits beyond belief. Each day had been a "cookout," so seeing some green food was exciting (and Liz was even able to get some pineapple!). The other thing we had learned to miss was cold drinks and ice.
With our spirits lifted, we were able to keep up all of the hard work of fire walks (making sure no fires started up from busted lines) and shelter operations. Liz volunteered during this time to help serve lunch, which almost always had lines early and stayed late.

Some random things you'd never think of and some changes we experienced:

1. Without power, our staff realized that when our cell phones died, we would be unable to tell the time. All of the sources of time that we used were electronic. Leave it to my grad, Kevin, to rig up a charger out of batteries for his and my phones...

2. Wildlife changed. All of the birds disappeared and then reappeared as what Liz and I called "ground birds." They were nesting and jumping around the branches in the grass. All of them. Our domestic squirrels disappeared (except for one with a broken leg) and "wild" squirrels appeared. And salamander-looking things popped up.3. I wasn't able to get a good picture, but even still we have small pieces of glass anywhere that you would see rainwater collect (sidewalk cracks, curbs, etc).

4. It is disheartening to feel that nobody outside of the experience understands the magnitude of the event. It makes it really difficult to feel that your experience was validated. Which reminds me, we had counselors in the dining hall checking on people. Not sure how successful they were (they didn't show up until a few days into the event), but nice idea.

Anyway, amazing work. These pictures would be perfect if Liz were in them, but otherwise good.

P.S. Thanks for helping me get out of the tree, Kevin.

The Misadventures of Liz & Steve: The Little Grand Canyon

So soon, you ask?

With nice weather comes awesome opportunity. Liz had the day off today, so I took a vacation day as well. We started the day with a great breakfast and packed up to visit the Little Grand Canyon.

I did a little research and found a few things causing me some pause, like:

-The rock ledges serve as snake dens for the copperhead, cottonmouth, and timber rattler, along with a few nonpoisonous species.

-Contains slopes up to 80%.

-Flash floods occur in the canyon.

-Extra caution should be used where the trail is near the bluffs.

-Be aware of hunting seasons.

-Poison ivy, dead snags and poisonous snakes are present in the canyon.

And all of that was from the TOURISM website! Umm...Liz?

"Let's go, and if we change our mind, we can just go somewhere else!"

Needless to say, we packed our bag and headed for the canyon. Being the true road-trippers we are, we had our handy-dandy Garmin doing all of the navigating. By the way, these are the best tools to have if you want to see something new. It lead us through an Amish country amidst other places.

As we approached, though, our GPS looked something like this.

If you are familiar with GPS's at all, you'll see what's missing. Any sign of any road.

Realizing that was the end of its assistance, Liz made it a point to take a number of photos of the map we found next to our car.

After that, we began our hike.

Overall, it was going quite well. We most definitely saw a snake, had issues keeping track of the trail, and were eventually eaten alive by mosquitos. You see, you're probably thinking Grand Canyon thoughts: open to the sun, rock edges, etc. In reality, we were in the middle of the woods, following a dense swamp/creek for parts of the hiking.

About two miles in, we lost the trail. We considered exploring a bit further, but this would have been the third time somewhat guessing. Also, the exploration would have been taking place on a muddy slope covered by dead leaves, allowing for a fantastic fall. So at that point, we mustered up our resolve and intentionally went back into the mosquitos' nest to get out of the woods.

After four miles of hiking, we hadn't seen anything "grand," but had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (even though we were too out of breath to say it).

On our way home, we found an old cemetary and parked the car to check it out. There were a number of old graves, the one I found most interesting had a handshake carved into it. After very brief research, all I could come up with was that a handshake isn't too uncommon, and often represents one leaving the world in peace and good order.

The trip this morning was full of peace. We saw Amish women tending gardens, clothes on the line, men raising a barn, experienced driving through expansive orchards, saw a small church, and spent time in an old cemetary.

Liz made a comment about how the majority of people know so little about what is right around them. All of our experiences today were within half an hour of our home, but people who have lived here for years have never seen what we saw.

On the flip side, the lives of the people we witnessed today have little interest in experiencing anything "outside of their world" with little reason to. They are at peace and are self-sustaining. It is just amazing to think of how many small, tiny worlds fit into one big one.

Glad to have not had to dig a plot to bury one of us in from a snakebite or fatigue, we headed home, had a sandwich, and took a nap.

The Misadventures of Liz & Steve: The Great Cardboard Boat Regatta

Yes! Hallelujah! The weather is gorgeous!

That's right, Readers, we are back outside again!

The upside to our location in Southern Illinois is that we have an amazing amount of opportunities to take day trips and a lot of outdoor options as well. The downside to winter, though, is that there is absolutely no desire to travel and snow isn't nearly as appealing up close as it is through a window. But with wonderful weather, we had the opportunity to bring the summer in right.

While many don't consider it summer until the students get away from campus, today was to good of a day to let it pass. The mood has improved, the trees have bloomed, and the opportunities abound. Just a walk through campus leads to events. It isn't uncommon to pass an informal game of ultimate frisbee, our women's softball team playing, students fishing at the lake, book sales, etc.

Today, we checked out a tradition that SIUC has (and it was way bigger than we expected): The Great Cardboard Boat Regatta. I found out about it when one of my RAs asked if it would be possible to use the Hall Council room to build a boat. Needless to say, it lead to some questions. "Why are building a boat?" and "Why are you building it like that?" After a brief tutorial on how to use a tape measure, Jason constructed the boat you see below.

Liz and I had decided to check it out, and we invited Ellen along for the fun. None of us realized how big of a deal it really seems to be. This is a community-wide event and very family-friendly. It was great to see little kids from the community throwing water balloons at some of our college kids. It seems that the university really does have good relationships with the community.

We took pictures of some of the "competition," including The Banana Boat, The Water Weasel of Doom, The Short Bus, and The Yellow Submarine.

As far as Jason's maiden voyage on the "Summer Breeze", he had my grad, Chris Jones, at the helm.

As soon as the "Summer Breeze" hit the water, Jason struggled a bit to get in the boat (read this as foreshadowing...) , but off they went!
It seemed as if all was going well as they began to round the second buoy, except Jason seemed to be getting shorter.

And then... ...it was over. Similar to its ancestor, "The Titanic," the boat took on water gradually and then toppled. Fortunately, this was all too common (The Yellow Submarine didn't make it one paddle-length from the shore) and there was assistance. Today was a fantastic way to start the summer early and we look forward to what is to come. Summer concerts, weekend events, outdoor opportunities...this is going to be fantastic!

The Awaited Update!

So the blog is coming out of hibernation.

I think Liz and I are both weather people. The sunnier, the more work I accomplish; the cloudier, the more relaxed I am and less likely to do work. When it comes to temperature, oh boy. The colder it gets, the crankier we get. It really does seem to be some form of hibernation. We take less misadventure trips, do more in the apartment, and this also seems to collide with a lot of work on the job-side of life. However--the cold weather is losing the grip it once held, the sun is showing up a bit earlier, and we are getting outside again (today we were able to successfully take a walk around campus in flip-flops)!

To catch you up to speed, not much has happened recently in our little family life.

Liz took an amazing trip to Padukah, Kentucky last week and loved every minute of it. She went with a few of her friends from work, Jessi and Susan. The favorite part of Liz's day was sitting on the riverfront eating ice cream (Liz has since determined that living near a body of water would put her in a constant state of relaxation, so we'll keep an eye out with the next search). Liz has a great photo of all three of them together, and once we get it on the computer, we'll pass along the picture to you.

While Liz was in Padukah, I was hanging out in Seattle for The Placement Exchange. I had brought the camera with me, and only took one picture...and it was lousy. Highlights of the trip were friends and food. I was able to catch up with a lot of UCA people, including: Brandi, Calvin, Lindsey, April, Joe, Sheets, and Jenni. The food that I had the chance to experience ranged from the wonderful places we all know (Cheesecake Factory...twice) to some other really great places including the Icon Grill (who can do things with macaroni and cheese that I didn't know was possible) and Beth's Cafe. We had seen Beth's on the Travel Channel's "Great Places to Pig Out" and went there for breakfast the next morning. Three of us shared one of their famous Twelve-Egg Omelettes (the smallest omelette you can get, by the way, is 6-egg). I believe I ate between 5 and 6 of the eggs myself. Here's a couple snapshots one of our recruiters got with her phone.

You'll notice that it comes out on a pizza pan; what you do not see is the layer of hashbrowns between the omelette and the pizza pan.
Yes, we finished it.

On a completely different note and super-exciting--We have new cell phones! Yeah, it is a big deal. At what other time in this blog's history have so many words been bolded in a row?

New phones, new numbers, new carrier (Sprint), and the ability to text unlimited! If you would like a chance to see what these wonderful phones look like, you can check out Liz's Lotus and my Rant.

Anyway, that's all for now. We're expecting to start our explorations again next week, so tune in for updates!

Gift Madness

Yay, my 25th birthday! I got a gift I have wanted for a very long time. Steve gave me a record player for my birthday. It was a record player with much drama attached.

So Steve and I get rid of stuff we don't use frequently. I have been holding on to some records that I have been collecting ever since I was in college, with the intention that some day I would own a record player. I got into one of my lets throw everything out moods and decide that it was time to toss the records. I placed the records in the Goodwill box. Steve, trying to save the records, had a wonderful idea that someone we know might want them. This was a couple of weeks before my birthday. The next week, I was working at a different branch than I normally work at and this wonderfully kind of eccentric girl was working with me. She started talking about records and I remembered I had mine in the car. I asked her if she was interested, and she was like total. Luckily, she made sure I actually wanted to get rid of them and said if I ever got a record player to let her know. When I told Steve that night that I gave them away he had a look of shock. I perceived it as a look of disappointment and started crying.

For those of you who don't know, I cry all the time. Crying is how I get my emotions out, no matter what the emotion: sad, happy, fear,..etc.

Probably my biggest fear is letting my husband down. At the time, this is exactly what I feel I have done. So while feeling horrible and crying, he is trying to make me feel better without telling me what he purchased for my birthday. Somehow he gets me to calm down, case forgotten: until my birthday rolls around a week later. I am sitting on the couch. He brings me my gift and I have no idea what it could possibly be. The box was huge.

I open it and I got my record player that I have been wanting for years.

Fortunately, he got a picture taken before I started crying. I was excited to have my own record player, but upset for having essentially ruined his birthday gift that he bought a month earlier and could not wait to give me. The crying did not last long due to the record store in town, and I knew Susanne would not have a problem giving my records back. So after all of the drama, I recreated, all was well in the world of Liz and Steve and our new record player with records.

And yes, artist today still record on vinyl.

Last/First Holiday of the Year

Hey, everyone, the blogging time machine is finally catching up close to the present!

This post picks up where the last post left off. Those of you in Residence Life understand everyone having to take a hit at some point regarding duty. Liz and I usually take New Year's Eve if it looks like we have to take the hit. This year, though, it paid off nicely.

The month between the fall and spring semester is the only time that this hall doesn't have students residing in it (during the summer it will host summer conferences). We figured we needed to take advantage of all our great resources at such a perfect time.

So we had a party and invited over some of our friends from our small group. We intended for it to be a small gathering. We really did. However, it grew just a smidge. Still less than twenty people, but more than the eight (including us) that we anticipated.

The night included a lot of good unhealthy snacks and a lot of games. Rockband on the projector was a bigger hit than we expected, and we also played pool, ping pong, and air hockey. In the apartment, we had a movie playing and a good game of Taboo happening.

Part of the excitement of the night was anxiously awaiting the birth of one of our newest group members, Maylin (who was finally born on January 2nd). Maylin's older brother, Marshall, however, was present and active. He mastered the red drum first and then added the yellow.All in all, each passing month has us feeling a little more connected. It was interesting to see that in five months time we have gone from complete strangers without a clue to where we are now. We have some friends we can call on, an idea of where to go and what to do, and our apartment has become our home.

Meet our friends! This is Rick and Miranda. They'll definitely be parents this time next year.

This is Eric and Alec. I don't believe they have intentions of having kids any time soon.
Below is Rob and Rebecca. Rob has just been shot in the ear by Rick with a confetti gun. Bad, Rick. Rebecca had brought Marshall home by this point, but Maylin came back to the party, still in her mommy's tummy.
And the last to introduce for the evening, Matt and Jacinta. They're in our boat, and would be happy to have a kid a year from now.
As far as New Year's resolutions go, we didn't make any. We rather make our resolutions as soon as we come up with them, otherwise procrastination is just too dang easy.

Here's to a good year and looking forward to looking back on it.