Hooky

Jason and I traveled down to Indy for the awards luncheon of the Indiana Crop Improvement Association yesterday.  Jason was presented with an award for outstanding graduate student work and the luncheon was lovely.  I only took one picture of the event, and it looks ridiculous because I was sitting in the front and center of the entire room.  But there were about 300 people sitting behind me, seemingly watching my every move, so I just took one picture.  The food was tasty, the speeches were inspiring, and the accolades were pretty fun, too.

But the best part of the day was just being together.  We left the kids at school and with friends, and just spent the day together.  We talked- uninterrupted- for a total of 2 and a half hours on the way there and back.  We had a bit of extra time when we first got there, so we walked around the nearby upscale mall, dreaming about our future home and what kinds of memories (and stuff) we might fill it with.  I let out an audible gasp when I discovered a See's chocolate shop, and, of course, we had to indulge.  We might have stopped by the Cheesecake Factory, too, but with the excuse of picking up a slice for the baby-sitting friend.

It reminded me of when we were first dating.  The hand-holding, the dreaming about the future, and did I mention the uninterrupted conversation?  It was refreshing to take a break from every day life and just reconnect.  We are going to Iowa next weekend to (hopefully) find a house, so we'll get lots of time to reconnect then, too, only with that added stress factor of figuring out where the heck are we going to live for the next 5 to 7 years.

Jason's school-to-work-transition plan has changed so many times in the last few weeks, I haven't really bothered to update the blog about it.  But the plan is set now, and we are moving forward.  Jason defends his thesis on Tuesday (Tuesday!) and then has about 3 weeks to edit and deposit it before he starts work for Dow on March 11th.  He will start his employment with them here in Indiana.  He will spend his first week as a Dow employee in Chicago at a week-long conference.  Then he will come back here and spend the next 3 weeks finishing up some publications and presentations that are coming from his thesis research.  He will report to work in Iowa on April 8th, which means we will be moving General Conference weekend (the first weekend in April).  Man, the best laid plans, right?

But that is, indeed, the plan.  The only constant of our lives is change, I suppose.

We're thrilled to be spending a bit more time here- more time for Leah to be with her kindergarten teacher that she loves so much, more time to be able to find and buy a house (although we're hoping to get that out of the way next weekend), and more time to wrap up the research-related work that Jason is doing at Purdue for Dow before he has a new job to focus on.  And instead of spending my first week in Iowa sans-husband (while he is in Chicago), I'll be here, surely throwing birthday parties for myself and playdates for my kids (somehow I turn into the world's best mom when we invite friends over).

It seems like the best scenario possible.  Now we'll see how it all really comes together... in the weeks to come!