I finally wrote something on the DIY Chalkboard

Norie is pretty well over her cough and only woke up two or three times Saturday night. It was so amazing I woke up Sunday morning with the post communion canticle from the Lutheran Book of Worship in my head.

What, you're not Lutheran?

It starts, "Thank the Lord and sing his praise."

Now imagine me as a child singing with glee because the end of communion is pretty much the end of a Lutheran church service. Thank the Lord indeed.

That's pretty much the level of excitement that was occurring in my head.

I had the energy to take on a project and I wrote on the DIY Chalkboard.

I got inspired after finding this quote by Henry David Thoreau

I'd rather sit alone on a pumpkin

and have it all to myself

than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

Only thing is I wouldn't rather sit on a pumpkin by myself.

Hence,

I'd rather sit on a pumpkin with you.

I'm pretty sure Austin thinks it's cheesy.

I'd rather sit with him on a pumpkin anyway.

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

DIY Quilting Hoop Frame Wall Art

I love a "how to" post. This one isn't super complicated, but I love how it adds some interest and personality to a word print.

This is where a picture of the finished product would make sense.

Notice it's not there. That's because I haven't actually taken a picture of it hanging up. I assure you it is. I just don't have any photographic proof.

I got the print months ago for donating to Love Without Boundaries after Ashley of Under the Sycamore started the Incubator Project. The print was designed by her sister Lesley of Recipe for Crazy. Then I gave birth and it just sort of hung out in our spare bedroom with some other prints I need to frame.

I finally got motivated when I saw some quilting hoops at a nieghbor's garage sale not two days after I saw this picture from the Whatever Craft Weekend House. http://megduerksen.typepad.com/craft/2012/08/always-awesome.html

First I mounted it on a sheet of scrapbooking paper with these dots that I'm just totally in love with. It has the same super bright orange as the small lettering and really brings it out.


See those little words? They say

a bird doesn't sing

because it has an answer,

it sings because it has a

I'm so in love with the paper that I cut out the part that would be entirely behind the print with an Exact-O knife so I could save it for something else. They have matching fabric at Hobby Lobby. It makes me smile.

 

Isn't it lovely?

Anywho, I started with this big ol' hoop. You should go ahead an ignore the fact that I obviously forgot to document the print with paper until after this step. :)

That's the paper I saved to the left. :)

I cut a piece of some fabric I've had lying around for a while big enough to leave some excess and stretched it in the hoop.



Then I realized I needed the ribbon under the hoop too. Or at least I wanted it that way. I measured some ribbon I had leftover from some another project and re-stretched the fabric. Then I trimmed the edges so I had just an inch or so of fabric left all the way around.

Yes, those are baby feet in footie pajamas. I was working on this little project while home alone with Norie. Note to self: baby plus scissors is probably a bad idea.

After that I just taped down the fabric around the inside rim and used a couple of clothespins to hang the print from the ribbon.

It was done-ish, but I thought it needed something. This is the state it's been in the whole time that "Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries" has been on my list.

Then it hit me.

I used the bird silhouette from way back when Layla put a bird on it.

I managed to grab a blurry shot with my phone while it was still on the dining table.

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

Teething

I hate it. This adorable child has become an hourly (if not more) nighttime alarm. She's in pain and so am I. I hope it's through soon.

I slept so little Monday night that I went to bed right after I put her down last night. No project time. Just sleepy time. I was really glad I did too. It was the best half hour of sleep I got all night.

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

Faith

When I was in high school I had this book. I called it "Book." Not "my book," not "the book I write everything in," but "Book." It was it's name. It had everything in it. It had my schedule, my assignments, my thoughts on life. It was one of those composition books you could buy for like 97 cents back in the day. It was covered in stickers and drawings and had the dates written in French. I still have it somewhere. On the back it said,

Faith is not belief without proof,

but trust without reservation.

That's the kind of faith I have. I know it sounds a little crazy, but here's the thing. When you trust without reservation that there is some higher order to the world and that power is beneficent, life is your proof.

Some major stuff has been happening in my life this week. Some people would call it bad, but I've had this consistent and overwhelming sense that it's moving me in the right direction. Things are just falling into place. I'm randomly running into people at just the right time. I need a newspaper and a friend of mine randomly gets an extra copy on the same day. There is a path to the whole thing and I can't wait to see where it takes me.

And no. I didn't do jack on my 25 Things plan last night. I spent it working on some other, more important projects that came up. I have big plans for this weekend though.

The Best One

Here's the deal. I've been working each night, but I haven't actually been able to cross anything off the list. I've made tiny bits of progress though.

I contacted the manufacturer of my blinds about a bracket since they are weird and I can't just buy the standard replacement at a hardware store. I tried on Day 1 of this project without success. Turns out they don't sell parts so I have to find them myself. They suggested I check www.blindparts.com or www.fixmyblinds.com.

I also worked on cleaning off my enormous (we're talking roughly 3 1/2'x 9') dining room table.  Since only two of us currently eat at a table, the majority of the table is commonly used for random horizontal storage. I've gotten it down to about 40 percent or so of it's typical load, but it's still not even close to tablescape-able.

And that's are far as I've gotten. No pictures to report. No projects to cross off.


1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

I have to tell you this because it touched my heart. Hopefully, my husband is okay with that. He generally isn't into people knowing just how freaking amazingly sweet and endearing he is.

The other night I was getting dinner ready and Norie got hungry so I nursed her while Austin finished it. He asked which pork chop I wanted and when I said, "Whichever" he said, "I think you should get the best one."

I think I already did. :)

Instagramming Childhood

I had this (potentially crazy) idea that I would take pictures of Norie each moth to document her babyhood. Clearly, I did not yet have a baby when I came up with this idea.

You see, the thing about taking monthly baby pictures is you have to take the time once a month to take pictures of your kid. Like, not just whip out your fun while you're doing something fun or when they do something cute, but actually set aside time to focus on taking pictures of them.

I'm not good at that. We're too busy doing stuff and snuggling. Not that you should feel bad for actually doing it. More power to you if you actually get it done. its just not our thing. I am, however, really good at whipping out my phone and Instagram-ing our adventures.

I stressed about it a bit. Then I looked at the pictures I had taken of Norie this month. 

That is totally scrapbook worthy. Four month pictures: check.

Oh, and in case you're curious last Thursday I planted the mum by friend Nancy gave me in the dark just so I could claim another day of sticking to my 25 Things plan. I didn't take a pictures (because it was dark) and I didn't find time to post about it on Friday, but I did do something. :)

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

My Fall Mantel

You thought I wasn't going to post today, didn't you? Well you were wrong. I overslept this morning and didn't have time for coffee, breakfast or blogging. Then I realized 10 miles from home and midway through my commute that I had forgotten my wallet and couldn't buy coffee. I decided to feel blessed that I sleep in such a comfortable bed and am accustomed to having access to enough money to meet my needs.

Yes, of course coffee is a need. Don't be ridiculous.

Blogging about my work from last night had to wait until Norie went to bed tonight. Don't worry, I already finished my Day 4, but I'll wait until tomorrow to tell you about that one. Technically I'm cheating a bit on my 25 Things plan, but I'm okay with that since I'm cheating by using a project I got mostly done several days ago. I'm considering it over achieving since I've been meaning to work on one for years and I finally did. It's my fall mantel.

Every year there is a series of "It's Fall Y'all" Autumn Link Parties thrown by some of my favorite bloggers and one of the parties is about fall mantels. I've never had my mantel together to share one the day of the link party, but I thought I just might make it that year.

Yeah, that one. It was on Sept. 25th. I didn't quite make it. I did, however, finish my mantel for the first time ever (well, except for the writing on the DIY Chalkboard part).

This picture from the very first Whatever Craft Weekend was my inspiration.

Source: Whatever, http://megduerksen.typepad.com

I love absolutely everything about it. It's bright, it's cheery, it's colorful, it has pumpkins, and sunflowers, and bunting. It's fabulous.

I just noticed my version is lacking the white framed mirrors and I might have to do something about that. It has all the things I loved about the original though. I arranged some of the silk flowers I still have from our wedding with a fall arrangement I got last year and put them in vases I already had around the house. Austin sent me flowers in the striped vase way back in 2005. I added some fresh pumpkins (they might just be from the farm I worked on as a teenager) and hung a strand of paper bunting on sisal rope from the same nails we used for the bunting at the baby shower.

Can you tell bunting makes me really happy?

It's too late to add it to the fall mantel link party at Centsational Girl, but it makes me super happy every time I look at it.

Day 3 of my 25 Things plan and still going strong.

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

25 Things: Day 2

I did it. Again.

I know. You're shocked. Two whole days in a row is more consistency from me than you've come to expect.

Before I get to my accomplishment there are two other super awesome things I want to mention that happened yesterday.

First, our glorious new shiny refrigerator was delivered.

Isn't she pretty? Austin got her for roughly half of the MSRP and I am thrilled. It's a little big for the space, but that's about to change. I'm even more excited about that, but that project deserves its own post and really isn't going to get done in the hour between Norie and I going to sleep.

I also made Beer and Bacon Mac & Cheese for dinner. It had Halcyon in it. It was GOOD.

I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I can't. It was The Beeroness. If you like craft beer and cooking you should go subscribe to her RSS feed right now. It's amazing. She has about a million recipes I want to try and she obviously blogs during the day based on the quality of her photos. Don't get me started about fall lighting and blog photography when you have a full time job.

Short version: it sucks.

Slightly longer version: it sucks more when you don't feel like you have the time to import the pictures from your real camera and quickly snap some shots with your phone.

I promise I'll replace these pictures some weekend when I can take them during the day. Well, at least the ones of things I haven't eaten.

That brings me to my 25 Things plan.

I didn't have a ton of time so instead of using the prioritization I did the thing I thought I could finish the fastest and without making too much noise. I started this page months ago and only had a couple of bits to stick down and the month label to create. 

In case you are counting and wondering why my October page is about finding out I was pregnant if Norie was born in May, I found out I was pregnant about 6 weeks after conception (a.k.a. when I was 8 weeks pregnant). There is a page for September too since I was pregnant for the whole month even though I didn't know it yet. No wonder I felt so icky at the Great American Beer Festival. By the time we found out about her she was the size of a strawberry. We were trying so it was a major relief to find out I didn't just have some freaky weird endocrine problem. The blog posts around that whole situation would have been hilarious if I had been ready to tell people.

On a photographic note, if your infant has attempted to use the corner of your phone with the camera as a chew toy the images get blurry. Lesson learned; clean the lens.

Day 2 of my 25 Things plan: check.

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

Paper Bunting + Office Pinboard = Pretty Productive Workspace

I did it.

I worked on one of the projects from my list yesterday and actually finished it. Woo fricking hoo!!!!

Maybe it's sad how excited I am about such a little thing, but your ability to find joy in the little things is what determines whether your life is super fun or super boring. I choose to have a great time. :)

I took five minutes to pretty up my pin board a bit while I was at it. An attractive work space is really important to my mood and my productivity so it's totally legit.

Since I had already made some paper bunting for my fall mantel I just whipped this out from the leftovers I had precut (I thought I estimated how many triangles I would need pretty well, but I was off by about a third. Whoops.)

Want to know how to make your own awesome paper bunting? Read this post by Mel over at Adventuroo. I cut my paper into 4"x12" rectangles so the individual triangles would be skinnier and I skipped the letters. I stuck them to some sisal rope instead of ribbon because I like the texture it gives, but otherwise I did it just like she did.

There you have it. Day 1 of my 25 Things plan accomplished.

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

Booyah.

25 Things

You know how other people have blog posts with 25 somewhat random things? Mine are less random things and more projects.

Like entirely projects.

I have a huge list of things I want to work on at the moment. It got even bigger while I was sitting in the backseat on the way back from Denver with someone who was being a bit of a fuss face.

I may have had an extended Pinterest session when she finally decided to sleep. 

You know how I come up with lists of projects I want to work on (like here and here and here) and never finish them? I've got an idea for breaking that streak. I'm going to make myself accountable to you right here on my blog. Here goes in a somewhat, but not entirely, prioritized list...

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

Some of them can't even get done until things that are lower on the list are finished. For example, the unfinished Dream Dollhouse is on the front porch. Clearly, I will need to do them in an order that doesn't quite match the list. But here's the idea: I work on one every night. Some I could totally finish in a night. Others will take a little longer, but as of right now I am committing to working on one of them each weeknight and posting about it the next day.

Wish me luck.

I have a new niece or nephew!!!

Apparently this didn't actually publish from the road yesterday.

I don't know which because they won't tell me until I get to the hospital...in Denver.

Almost to Oakley. :)

It's a boy!

His name is Bryce Campbell Beardsley and he is perfect.

Norie is already telling him all about life. :)

She's also helping me blog.

I went to Michigan

You might have noticed I didn't post much last week. I went to Michigan for a work conference. It was super fun and I made some great connections. I also took a ton of pictures and instagrammed like a crazy person (@amberhibbs if you're interested).

The conference center grounds were gorgeous with lots of space to go for walks and about a million ground squirrels. I can't blame them. I would live there too if I was a little forest creature.


 There were presentations

and business card exchanges. AgLocal wasn't there. Someone I met at the conference had met with them the week before. I'm really excited about them though.

We went on tours of  the amazing facilities at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station.

They have a dairy with robotic milkers. They know each cow based on a tag they were and the cows decide when they want to be milked (within some minimum and maximum frequency constraints). I'm lactating so maybe I was a little over excited by them. It was really cool though.

 

The barn is the only Silver LEED certified barn in the U.S. It looks a lot like a standard dairy barn.


The cows also get to decide when they hang out in the pasture and when they go to the barn. Apparently when its time to switch pastures they wait around in the barn for the farm manager to shift the gate. I took some extras pictures of cows for my mom. She loves cows.


They fed us amazing, locally sourced food the whole time with multiple desserts at every meal. I'm pretty sure I gained back every ounce of baby weight I ever lost. It was so worth it.

We even had a bonfire which I thought was a little funny. The conference was about Carbon, Energy and Climate. I guess it counts as a field lab on the conversation of carbon to carbon dioxide.

 
On the last day I spent some time walking around the grounds of the Kelloggs' summer "cottage." It was a little nicer than the dorms I stayed in.

It's on Gull Lake which has the most amazingly clear fresh water I have ever seen. 

It was really fun, but I was really happy to be home. I'm not sure if Norie or Austin was happier to have me back.