Spring has sprung

Or at least winter receded for the weekend. It got up to 45 this weekend so Mark and I went on a bike ride Saturday and Sunday! Tons of people were out enjoying the nice weather. There is still snow on the ground, but I'm sure after this week (there's supposed to be lots of rain) it'll be pretty much gone.
Brunch Sunday....MMMMMMMMM!

Last Winter Weekend

Last Weekend Mark and I:


Friday:::
Watched Stranger than Fiction
Went Ice Skating at Tenney Park for the last time and played tag (and of course brought hot cocoa)
Ate a spinach and feta pizza at Greenbush bar and played I Spy and 20 Questions while waiting
Made chocolate chip and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Saturday:::
Went CC skiing at Kettle Moraine
Had lunch with Mark's friends Jeff and Jamie and their two adorable kids Emma and Isaac
(We split two sandwiches...the walnut loaf who's name is unappealing was quite delicious and we had a tomato dill soup with chunks of tomato in it)
Drove around enjoying the local scenic beauty so I could warm up
Did another ski loop at Kettle Moraine

Sunday:::
Made artichoke, spinach, feta omelettes for breakfast
Cleaned
My friend Jennell came up to visit and we went out for coffee and went for a walk
Made tempeh, mozzarella, pasta sauce hoagies

It was a wonderful weekend and I'm glad we got out and enjoyed our last winter weekend because all this week the snow has been gradually melting and with temps above 40 this weekend and rain in the forecast I'm sure we'll lose the rest of the snow.

Mark and I have been playing pick-up sticks a lot since we started dating. Mark won a crazy amount of games in a row putting us at something like me: 2 him: 9, but our current score is me: 8 him: 11. I'm making a comeback! We're playing best out of 1,000.

:-) :-) :-)

Graduate School Update

Well the past few weeks have been interesting with all my grad school news trickling in slowly. Now I've heard from all the schools, but I still feel like I'm on the edge of my seat and still approach my mailbox with excitement each day (even though there's no more news coming and I generally just get junk mail).

So the final tally:
Rejected from: UW and UTexas
Waitlisted (again) at UGA
Accepted!!! UTenn and USF

What this means...

Even if I end up getting into UGA (which I probably won't since they accept 2 people) I probably wouldn't get financial aid and thus would be unable to go.

USF offered me a tuition waiver and 10 hours of work a week at 12 bucks an hour with the printmaking professor. However, as far as the program goes USF was my last choice.

UTenn didn't offer me anything, but I really want to go there so I did further research on scholarships/financial aid and ended up applying for an assistantship through the Student Success Center. I did the application pretty last minute and after so many dead ends in assistantship attempts did not expect to hear back. However, a couple days ago I was contacted to schedule a phone interview for the position! It's next Tuesday. I need everyone to cross their fingers for me. Even though it's just an interview and there's a good chance I won't get it, it's hard to keep from getting excited. The more and more I've thought about and researched UTenn I think it's a really good fit for me, better than UW (though I love Madison). IF I got the assistantship that would provide me with a tuition waiver, a $13,000 a year stipend, AND health insurance. It'd be a pretty sweet deal. Though I don't know if it'll pan out I've started looking at apts in Knoxville and have developed an obsession fro googling how far random things are from Knoxville. I am most excited about Knoxville's proximity to the Smokies. It'd make for lots of fun camping!

I'll keep everyone updated about my plans for next year. Currently in Madison everything is melting. The temperatures are going to get up to 43 this weekend (which sounds downright warm to me)! I will miss all my fun snowy adventures...but am sure this new weather will provide other fun activities.

Cross Country Skiing at Devil's Lake

Ice Skating Tag

Mark and I playing tag at the ice skating pond. Unfortunately Mark is much faster than me...so I'm not really sure why I start this game all the time. I think I magically hope I became faster since the last time, but this hope never seems to pan out. Maybe I should start going without Mark to practice, but it's more fun with him. :-)



Life is good! :-)