Bragging rights

So, I'm going to brag on Mike a little here, because well, he deserves it! His office has been planning a workshop for the last couple of months. As a part of this workshop, Mike was going to be one-on-one with some attendees from surrounding municipalities and talking with them about their needs and basically outlining a rough 5 year plan for them during a breakout session. Needless to say, Mike was a little intimidated, because there was no way of knowing which town he would be paired with, or what kinds of questions they would ask him. So, being the proactive person that he is, he pinned his boss down this month and got a lot of questions answered for things that they don't teach you in school. I even learned something interesting in the process, because I helped quiz him a couple of days before. Did you know that when a city plans a water tower, they plan for each person to use 100 gallons of water a day? This seemed like an astronomical number to me!

Anyway, after all of his hard work in preparing for the workshop, it went super well yesterday. He was able to talk with two gentlemen for awhile, and I think he really knocked their socks off with how intelligent and knowledgeable he was. Because it went so well, he (and his boss) are hopeful that the office can start doing some work for this town. It was quite a bit of pressure to perform well yesterday, and Mike passed with flying colors!!

Let's see. Other news. Mike is in the basement as we speak mounting his new projector. I don't know all the specifications as how it is fancy, I just know it is. He ordered it before Valentine's day and has been working ever since getting the basement ready for it. This included rearranging furniture, buying a new couch, running wires in the ceiling, mounting shelves and painting the wall that we are going to project on with special white paint. I'm going to work on painting the other wall after I find curtain fabric. No, I won't be making the curtains myself. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate, no, make that loathe, sewing. One thing Mom wasn't able to pass on to me. :) So I've recruited her to make them for me.

The rest of life has been pretty normal lately. Just school and work and back home again. About the time April hits, life will start picking up and not slow down until September, so I'm enjoying this current lull for the time we have it.

Our Dallas trip went really well. We had lots of time with Gram and PaPa where much food was eaten and games were played. We were also able to spend time with Mike's friends in Dallas. The flights both were on time and no luggage was lost, which is always a success. We never used to check our luggage, but now with the new no liquids requirement, it's almost impossible not to check your luggage.

After we got back, I had a whirlwind of about 36 hours. I had to finish some homework after we got home Monday night and then had class at 8 the next morning in Champaign. I also had the career fair at school on Tuesday, so I had to take my suit with me so I could attend that. Then, I had a special late lecture for my finance class in the evening and was unable to drive home to Champaign because the roads were super icy by that point. Thank goodness Beth and Daniel live in the Champaign area!!

Thursday night and Friday morning brought us almost a foot of snow. As of now, the grass is starting to peek through again in some areas and it is super foggy outside. Mike and I took advantage of the snow on Saturday and went sledding at a nearby golf course before heading over to Champaign for an Illini basketball game. Yesterday afternoon/evening brought the Superbowl game which we watched with our small group.

As for today, one of my college friends asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding in July. I'm super excited. I kind of did the whole thing backwards since this is my first time being a bridesmaid. It's kind of ironic because Jenna and I met freshman year of college and we are both accounting majors. It gets more ironic because her fiance is a civil engineer, and then even more ironic because he grew up next door to Mike. He and Mike and Dan used to play together all the time when they were little. So I'm really happy for them and am excited to be there for her on their special day.

I had better go think about pulling leftovers out since Mike has a board meeting in Heyworth tonight and won't be home for too overly long before he has to leave again.