Oh jeez, how 'bout dem Yoopers, eh?

Why in the world would anyone in their right mind go to Michigan in the middle of February? Better yet, why in the world would anyone go to the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan at that time? For Michigan Tech's Winter Carnival and to see John and Kyle, of course!

Mike, Lucy and I began our epic journey last Thursday evening at the airport. It was a very smooth travel day, and before we knew it we had landed at the Houghton/Hancock Memorial Airport. We were greeted with hugs from Kyle and John before heading back to John's cabin, then after talking to the point of exhaustion, called it a night.

Friday morning we went out to explore the wonders of Winter Carnival, and were amazed at the detail of the ever-popular ice statues. This year's carnival theme was "Thousands of Pages Unfold in the Bitter Cold," so everything there had something to do with books. These impressive statues ranged from Narnia to the Bible and everything in between. After browsing the statues for a bit we found the dog sled rides--that's right, dog sled rides. They hooked up 4 of the dogs to a sled and took you around a small course that only lasted about 20-30 seconds, but it was still really cool. Plus now I can officially say that I have ridden on a dog sled.

This is the Jurassic Park statue we saw

Later that afternoon we headed out for snow-shoeing. We drove over to this place fondly known as "The Dredge": an old, worn-down dredging machine that's just sitting and rusting near the edge of the lake. We snow-shoed on land for a bit to get to the actual dredge before braving the frozen lake. Everything was covered in snow, so it was a bit tough to tell where the land ended and the lake began, but it didn't take long before we realized we were standing on frozen water. We actually got to walk inside the dredge, which was weird and awesome at the same time...the dredge was tilted at an angle but we were standing on the flat ice. I was slightly concerned about standing on a frozen lake, but John was quick to reassure us that we had at LEAST 6-8 inches of ice beneath our feet and had nothing to worry about.

John and Kyle in front of the dredge

Saturday morning we got up and started getting ready for our hike to Hungarian Falls that day. One of John's friends, Andrew, came with us, and even decided to bring along his frat's dog, a husky named Ace. We stopped by John's Uncle Alfie's house, who was to lead us on our way, then headed for the falls. The falls that we got to see were beautiful, and completely frozen. Little did I know that when we got to the first falls we were actually standing on TOP of the frozen waterfall (I really need to pay more attention when these Yoopers are leading me onto frozen water :P). After our hike we headed back to Alfie's house where his wife Mary kindly served us some delicious homemade hot chocolate and carrot cake. That night we went to the Michigan Tech hockey game (which they sadly lost), watched the fireworks that wrapped up Winter Carnival, ate pasties, and looked up the rules to Shotgun (it was a never-ending challenge throughout the weekend) before turning in for the night.

Looking out from the falls

Sunday morning we went to mass and breakfast with John's aunt and uncle before heading to the airport. When we got to the airport, however, we found out that our flight was overbooked and they were looking for people to give up their seats. We were willing to do just that, but the next flight out of Houghton wasn't until Tuesday, which we just couldn't do. Suddenly, Mike had a brilliant idea and asked about the possibility of giving up our seats and getting a flight out of Green Bay...Kyle was driving back down to the great land of cheese that afternoon, so we would be able to get a ride down with him and fly out the next day. Sure enough, flying out of GB wouldn't have been a problem, so we gave up our seats, got some nice travel vouchers, and hopped in the car with Kyle for a road trip down to Green Bay.

Wisconsin!

Since we were only in the Super Bowl Champ city for about 14 hours, we basically got the speed tour. We had dinner at Curly's Pub in Lambeau Field, explored the stadium atrium a bit, then got to see a few other random parts of the city. We met Mike's friends Emily, Rex and Carissa, then stopped by Kyle's house for one last quick goodbye. Mike's dad drove us to the airport the next morning, and after picking up some Packers gear and cheese curds, we got on a plane and headed for home.

Go Packers!

Basically, this weekend was pretty much awesome. We were blessed with warmer-than-usual weather, had great company all the time, and just had a lot of fun. It turned out to be a kind of mini vacation, one that we didn't want to end. It was a bummer to have to come back to real life, but I will always remember my awesomely random trip to the midwest :)

All of us together with Blizzard the Husky

It may be the end, but it's not over yet...

Well, it's another Sunday morning, and another day when I'm getting ready to head back to school after a break. This Sunday morning is different, however. I have just ended my LAST Christmas break, and am about to begin my LAST semester of college...holy crap.

As I look back on the last three and a half years, every semester seems to have some label of being an overall "good" or "bad" semester. I won't bore you with any of the details of previous years right now, but we'll just start with the most recent one. I mentioned in a previous post that this latest semester was neither good nor bad - we just didn't do a whole lot. We spent so much time working that I felt like we never really took advantage of the fact that this is our last year in the care-free world of college. Well, I am determined to change all of that this semester.

While this semester I will be busier than nearly any other, I feel like I will actually manage to have more fun. Every time I'm super busy, I always seem to manage my time better and make more time for the good stuff. I have a 3-day weekend this semester (which would be 4 if I didn't decide to work on Mondays), but that balance will hopefully help me to plan stuff out better. Here are some of the things that I'm hoping to do this semester (some of which I've already arranged, woohoo!):

1)Trip to Michigan Tech in February (already planned!)
2)Finally go to a Caps game (tickets bought!)
3)Go to La Tasca with my Spain friends
4)Go skiing
5)Try out lots of different bars (and figure out names of rail drinks)
6)Take advantage of weekend mornings and get off campus (maybe look for cafes?)
7)Make time for all of my different friends
8)Meet new people (or at least get to know others better - yes I know it's the end of senior year)
9)Do more service
10)Keep up my exercise routine
11)Keep my temper in check ;)

I'm sure there are plenty of other little things here and there that I want to make sure I do this semester, but this gives you the general gist. Plus, Dad just got home from the grocery store and we're getting ready to eat breakfast before heading back to school (I guess I should gather up those last few items scattered around the house). I really hope this semester turns out the way I would like. I know it will be busy and I know that I have a lot of responsibilities that I currently have to keep track of and that will be coming into my life in the next few months. I just want to make sure that I don't let this time slip away before I'm thrust into the real world.

Muddy Buddies and Glowstick Shenanigans

Before I get on with this post, I must apologize for the last one. It sounded a bit Debbie Downer of me, like the semester was going just the opposite of how I wanted it to and nothing was going right. Well, despite another jump in schoolwork to wrap up the end of the semester, the past two weeks have once again proven to be one of my favorite times of year in college. Sure there's a lot of work, but with it comes December, with December comes Christmas, and with Christmas comes FUN!!!!

I guess technically speaking I shouldn't be writing this post right now and should instead working on one of the three papers I have due within the next week. But I guess that shows what kind of a time this always proves to be...we always make more time for fun at Christmas. Last Saturday we made sure to do just that, me and my wonderful roommates - just my roommates - for a wonderful girls night in. Maura and I had already been planning our traditional "Love Actually" night, but luckily our other three roommates were able to join in as well.

We made the ritual batch of rummy bears before starting the movie, and this year, introduced a new tradition of the peanut butter/chocolatey goodness that is muddy buddies. Let's just say the muddy buddies - a recipe that calls for 9 cups of chex - did not last a full 24 hours. Then we all curled up in our living room and watched one of our favorite Christmas movies for the first time of the season, going "aw" and getting way too excited all the way through. Somehow we all wound up with crazy hairdos toward the end of the movie (Maura - funny bun at the front of her head; Heather - dweezle; Gab - Princess Leah hair; KB - pigtails; KP - ponytail with crazy clips/feather hair). We truly made it a night to remember...but it didn't end there.

Now that we had crazy hairdos, we had to actually act crazy...it just wouldn't be a girls night without it. And honestly, I'm not sure the rest of you could handle it. So here is a list, a brief summary if you will, of our awesome activities of the night...
1. Locking KP in the bathroom
2. Screaming out the window at random people walking down the street
3. Setting off Jim's car alarm to said walking people
4. GLOW STICKS!!!
5. Kati Bel getting glow stick stuff in her mouth
6. Realizing we can't hide from the people we're screaming at if we have glow sticks in our hair
7. Making up an impromptu, in-the-dark, glow stick not-so-choreographed dance to "Fireflies"
8. Tea time
9. Dance party!! (on video)
10. Scaring Joe when he knocked on the door.

And now you see where the "Glowstick Shenanigans" part of the title comes in. I apologize for not going into more detail about all the fun we had, but let's be honest...when I tell too much of stories it gets boring after a while. And I'm sorta out of my blog-writing groove, so you get what you get. Besides, I think all you may want is a general idea anyways...you may have wound up with a glow-stick to the face if you were actually here :P

This is how we locked KP in the bathroom...

Long Time, No Write

Well, as you can tell from the 2+ month gap in my posts, life has gotten to be crazy busy. While I would like to say that it is because I have been living up my senior year just as I'd imagined, sadly it's just the opposite. Professors have decided that, since we're seniors, it's time to crank up the work load. The worst part is, it's not just me...everyone else in my class has also been subject to the evil, never-ending flow of school work that continuously drains our lives. Even that friend that always encourages everyone else to take a break and have fun has been too busy with school. So much for enjoying the last year of the "easy life" before entering the real world.

While that all makes the year sound absolutely miserable, I can't lie...the year really hasn't been THAT bad. In reality, it's been about average - nothing too exciting, nothing too frustrating. And while I was hoping to get out into the city more, I've still been able to have fun with my friends, even if just for a little bit. And I must say, as excited as I am for Thanksgiving, I'm ready for all the Christmas celebrations that are bound to come when I return to school: Love Actually, rummy bears, peppermint mochas from Starbucks, all the classic Christmas excitement...the list goes on and on. Then next semester, I'm hoping that my new time management skills will help me keep on top of things so I can fully take advantage of - *drumroll please* - MY FOUR DAY WEEKENDS!!! You got it, I have off Mondays and Fridays, just the right way to wrap up senior year.

Now, you might be wondering what I'm going to be doing with those long weekends. Well, the hope is that I will be taking at least a couple of road trips to see my friends at other schools. As a matter of fact, one trip is already planned, but travelling by plane rather than car. Around mid-February, Mike, Lucy and I are going up to Michigan Tech in Houghton, Michigan to visit some friends and enjoy their winter carnival. You heard right, I'm going to the UP in the middle of February. Questioning my sanity yet? It's OK, so am I. But you know what, I think it'll be fun, and it will certainly be something different.

And now, for one last MCM Update...I FINISHED THE MARINE CORPS MARATHON!!! This has probably been the highlight of my semester thus far, and it was absolutely incredible. It was a bit of a rough start to the day since I couldn't find my pace group, but luckily I found them before the start of the race and they helped me through all the way to the end. I was so blessed to be able to train with such wonderful people and I couldn't have done it without them!

In Loving Memory

Just a few weeks ago, on August 23, 2010, we lost a very special member of the Phelps family--my Aunt Char, after a long, tough battle with cancer. An incredibly loving family member and friend, Aunt Char always managed to bring a smile to your face. A charming person through and through, she brought a renewed kindness to the world, a kindness that made life just that much brighter. I know I can't even come close to describing every amazing aspect about this incredible woman, but I'm going to give it my best shot with my own little tribute.

No matter what happened, Aunt Char was always there. She was there for me, too, but I never truly realized just how much until I thought about it recently. As a kid, I was always going over to Uncle Pat and Aunt Char's; whether Dad had a business trip or I was just going for a simple weekend visit, I always remember being there. Aunt Char was always taking care of me, and she amazed me every time I saw her. I remember going to the basement with her and looking around at her plethora of craft supplies, asking about what everything was and admiring her current projects. I loved to help her make tasty treats in the kitchen, while other times I just watched as she cooked away...often times getting distracted by her gleaming copper pots. If I happened to be spending the night, she would take the time to get me tucked in to the cozy little bed upstairs and would read me a book. And of course, who could forget the traditional giant globs of play dough we made at nearly every visit--each time a different color.

Then there were Aunt Char's crafts...from pots to baskets and everything in between, she was always making something. She made all sorts of little gifts for everyone around her, each one of them personalized. I will never forget each year at the beach, when we would all wake up on Easter morning and find special hand-made gifts from Aunt Char. She even made a scrapbook to capture all of those wonderful beach memories. She always brought such a wonderful spirit to the house, and I can still see her sitting on the beach in one of her giant sun hats.

When I first learned of Aunt Char's passing, of course I cried; but I don't think the reality had hit. While sad, we all seemed to take some sort of consolation in knowing that her suffering was over. Then came the day of the funeral; from the moment the casket was brought into the church through the entire mass, I couldn't stop myself from crying. The tears just kept flowing as I realized she was gone, remembering what a wonderful person she was and the joy she brought to everyone that knew her. While I know that she's in a better place, it still just doesn't remove that pang of sadness.

Yesterday's burial at Arlington was the last "official" event tied with Aunt Char's passing. It was a lovely ceremony, and the priest even requested to give her the honorary title of "general," one that she rightfully deserves. But while each service has come to a close, the pain that we hold is still there. We will each have to continue to work through it in our own way every day; and everyday we'll get just a little bit stronger, and know that with everything we do, she will be looking down on us, smiling.