Winter

I'm going to take this opportunity to break our blogging silence to let everybody know there are actual little white pieces of frozen water flying around in the sky outside! It won't last, but it's really Texas winter! We're getting pretty excited to see our family and friends in a few weeks.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Thirty-one years today. Hooray!

Mel got a haircut

Today I had 9 inches cut off my hair. I decided a while back that I wanted to grow it out and donate* it. It has been a long time since I have had hair this short and I am loving it! Here's a "before" picture:


That's definitely the longest my hair has ever been.

And here I am with my new 'do!


I feel about 5 pounds lighter.

*Most people are probably familiar with the Locks of Love donation program which creates wigs for children suffering from hair loss. I had intended to donate to this organization but after a year of growing out my hair, I was despairing of ever reaching the 12-inch minimum length requirement. Then I found out about the Pantene Pro-V Beautiful Lengths campaign, which creates wigs for women suffering hair loss from cancer and only requires a minimum length of 8 inches.

Aggie Football

Last weekend Jason and I finally made it to our first Aggie football game! They played the Aggies. Utah State Aggies, that is. We were having a great time until the third quarter when it began raining bugs. We were sitting in the upper deck close to the stadium lights and spent the rest of the game fending off the flying crickets, grasshoppers, and other Texas-sized bugs that zoomed in at us from all directions. It was quite distracting and more than a few people left because of it. Check out this picture of the bleachers directly under the stadium lights.


It's hard to tell in the picture but these bugs were straight-from-the-Amazon-rain-forest HUGE.


Click to view the album.
The Aggies did win, but it's the bugs that made it memorable.

Biking Video

Ok, so the last post (sadly almost a month ago) mentioned a video of my bike-ride home from campus. After all this time, here it is.

I promise I stopped at the stop signs.

We Moved to a New Apartment

Hello again everyone. In case you didn't catch the brief mention of this fact in a past blog post, we've said goodbye to 804A Autumn Circle and moved to a new apartment. This all took place on the first weekend of July, and was mostly painless. We had a lot of friends come to help us, adding three trucks to the UHaul we rented. Actually moving our things from one apartment to the other took only about 3 hours. What a blessing to have helpful friends!

The worst part of the whole process was the day after the move when we spent 8-9 hours cleaning the old place. Was that ever tiring!

It took several weeks, but we finally got all moved in and settled in the new place. It's always surprising to realize how much stuff you have. We had quite a time finding a place for all our things in this new, smaller apartment. Once we got everything put away and our pictures hung up on the walls, it began to feel more like home. I think Mel and I are used to it now. Mel definitely enjoys the extra space in the kitchen! And I certainly enjoy a shorter and more pleasant (read: less busy roads) bike ride to campus. (Stay tuned for a time-lapse video of my bike ride; I've been meaning to post it for a while now.)

Here are a few pictures to document the events. (I'm trying out the embedded picasa slideshow - just click the slideshow to head to the album on my picasa page.)

Our little sisters

This past Wednesday my sister Tina left for Kansas City where she will spend a year serving with Mennonite Voluntary Service.

Jason's sister Natalie is also about to embark on a year of service in Cuernavaca, Mexico with Mennonite Central Committee's SALT program.

We wish them both safety, wisdom and joyful attitudes as they begin their respective service assignments. We love you guys and can't wait to hear about your adventures!

At Tina's graduation from Goshen College. (It's worth mentioning that she was the only one of the 3 Histand siblings to graduate in just 4 years.)


Natalie kicking Jason's butt at Wii tennis.

Rain, Please

So, as you probably already know, it's really hot in this part of Texas. At this point I think we've had 25 of the past 28 days with temperatures over 100. In addition, we haven't really had a good rain since, oh, the middle of May. Needless to say, the land is pretty parched around here.

This first photo is out behind our old apartment. I actually took these photos on July 2, back before we moved. (That green patch on the left is constantly watered by a leaky faucet.)

And a closeup of the straw, errrrr, dried out grass. Not comfortable for barefoot walking. (I miss real grass!)
Yesterday we finally had a thunderstorm come through, though it only rains hard for about 20 minutes in a TX thunderstorm. Some rain is still better than no rain, and it looks like we might get a few more in the coming week. Here's hoping!

and people think libraries are boring....

We're all moved in! Many thanks to all of our wonderful friends who gave up a few hours of their 4th of July in 100+ degree weather to help us load and unload the moving van. We are very blessed to have such great friends! The place is starting to look a bit better but we still have a lot of unpacking to do.

Today was a fun day at the library. We have activities every Tuesday as part of our Summer Reading Program and today was Animal Day. We were visited by a dog, a horse, and a 200-lb tortoise as well as an assortment of snakes, iguanas, turtles and lizards. We had over 500 people show up for the event. It was a busy and tiring day but pretty fun to see how excited the kids got about the animals.


This big guy (aptly named Cow) followed his handler around like a puppy and was even giving kids rides.

Update

Our summer has turned out to be a bit busier than I expected, hence the absence of blog posts in the last month. We've been consumed with work, school, softball, vacation, and preparing for our move this weekend. It will be a lot of work, but this time we've got friends to help us - which will be very different from two years ago when we moved to College Station, didn't know anyone and had to unload the moving van all by ourselves! Our new place is a bit smaller and older than the place we're in now. But it's cheaper, and cheaper is what we wanted. We're happy about the fact that we'll be closer to the university, my work, and the church we go to. Plus we have friends who live in the same complex.

Our softball team is doing well. We're playing on a co-ed team in a city summer league and as of last night, our record is 4-2. The biggest surprise of the season has been the discovery that Jason is a wicked awesome pitcher (and batter - he had two inside-the-park home runs last night. TWO!).

The vacation we took this year was to South Dakota, where we attended a wedding of some friends from college and then stayed a couple extra days in a cabin with Jason's family and did some hiking, biking, kayaking, and frisbee golf. I've currently got a peeling sunburn to remind me of all the fun we had :).

My highlight of the day was discovering what the Blizzard of the Month is at Dairy Queen! We'll probably be going at least twice a week.

NBA Playoffs and Mel's Parents

LeBron and the Cavs got beat by the Magic and won't be playing for the NBA championship; I am crushed. This was supposed to be their season!

Nevertheless, Mel's parents had the opportunity of a lifetime to go see Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals in Cleveland on Saturday (May 30). That by itself is pretty awesome, and I couldn't help but to be jealous of them. But to top it all off, their seats were two rows behind the Cavs bench! And regular season Cavs games are exciting enough to begin with; I can't imagine how great the atmosphere is at a do-or-die playoff game!

The whole time I was watching the game I'd look very closely every time there was a shot of the Cavs bench, squinting to make out their faces on our tiny analog TV. (It definitely would've been nice to watch this game in HD). Well, I finally pegged down where they were sitting--it's pretty tricky when the people in the crowd are just little blurry blobs. Here's a photo pointing them out, along with a few other celebrities* sitting in the row in front of them (the 'friends and family of the team' row). And yes, I took a picture of the TV with my camera.

(click the picture to enlarge it)

The Sports Illustrated photographers also captured a photo of Jim and Linda behind their famous seat-buddies. It's much better quality of course.

-jason

*For those of you uninformed about sports, Mariano Rivera and A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) play for the New York Yankees, and Josh Cribbs plays football (kick returner) for the Cleveland Browns.

730 days of wedded bliss!

It's been two years today since Jason and I embarked on this whole marriage adventure. What a wild ride ;) We've got a softball game tonight which doesn't leave much time for celebrating, so later in the month we're planning to take a trip to Houston to see the Astros play the Tigers.

(This is Jason now. I just remembered that it was leap year in 2008, so it's actually 731 days. How's that for nitpicky?)

Rainbow

Last weekend, we went to see Angels and Demons at the theater. We heard some rain on the roof while the movie was playing, and sure enough, there was a thunderstorm in the neighborhood as we left. After managing to get in the car without being washed away, we made it home where the sun was shining brightly. As you may know, bright evening sun plus heavy rain off in the distance leads to rainbows. This one was especially surprising, because as we stood outside too look at it, the colors kept intensifying and then a second rainbow showed up as well! (For those of you interested, click here to read about rainbows on Wikipedia. It's physics!) The camera had a hard time capturing it well, but here are a few photos anyway.

Juno and Mel enjoying the view.

-jason

What is she?

Ever since we got our dog, we've wondered exactly what combination of breeds she is. The black lab part is obvious. But she's also got a very lean and streamlined physique, a narrow nose, and she can run like the wind. Our consensus? She's part whippet.







Maybe someday we'll do a dog DNA test and find out for sure...

Sorry Jason! At least it's not swine flu

Jason has the most incredible immune system. He hasn't been to the doctor since he was a little kid and I don't remember him ever being sick in the whole 6 years that we have known each other. In fact, we discovered early on that we don't even have to be careful about me not transferring my sick germs to him, even when I am highly contagious, because he just doesn't get sick, period. Well folks, the streak has ended. This past weekend we were in Goshen for my sister's graduation from Goshen College, and I unfortunately suffered from a cold the whole time. And for the first time EVER, Jason caught it from me! I feel very guilty yet slightly vindicated (it's pretty annoying being the only one in this relationship that ever gets sick - this month I also dealt with an ear infection and a persistent arm rash).

Here are some pics from a few weeks ago when I made a quick dash home to Goshen to attend a college friend's wedding:

me and my buddy Leners


the almost-Aurora reunion
(L to R: Alex, Erin, me, Leah [the beautiful bride], Lena, Rachel [honorary housemate], Char). Missing were Meryl and Abby, sniff sniff.

me and my Charlee

Mr. and Mrs. Gusler caught in a smile kiss

My fam: Tina didn't get the "wear red" memo. Rebel.

Biking

A 23 mile per hour wind in my face makes biking to school rather unpleasant. Please, somebody, turn off this infernal wind. \end of rant

Attempt to look on the bright side: perhaps 70 degrees and super-windy is better than the humid 85 I'll be up against later this summer.

Camping Disaster

Jason, Juno and I went on a camping trip last month. Unfortunately, it ended up being one of those "what more could possibly go wrong?!" experiences. It all started with the tent. As we were setting it up, we realized we were missing a very critical little plastic piece that connects the poles together at the top of the tent. Putting our two heads together, we came up with a solution that involved lashing the poles to each other with a rope then tying the whole thing to a nearby tree.

With that problem happily solved, we decided to take a hike out to a pond about 3 miles from our campsite. When we arrived at the alleged spot of the pond, we discovered that due to the recent drought conditions, it had completely dried up. Yep, that's a 6-mile round trip hike to see a dried-up piece of ground.

By the time we got back to our campsite, it was around 7 p.m. and we had worked up quite an appetite. In the fine Schmucker tradition, we had planned to make hobo dinners over the campfire. We were a bit concerned to find that our fire ring was actually set a couple inches off the ground, leaving about a foot between the grill and the fire itself. And due to the aforementioned drought conditions, we were adhering to a "charcoal fire only" policy. We optimistically set the dinner on the grill, finally proceeded to Plan B after waiting a full hour for dinner to cook. (It hadn't. At all. OK, so it was a little warm.) So out came the camp stove, which finished up the cooking process quite nicely (if a bit messily).

So having finished dinner around 9:30 p.m., we found ourselves ready for and in bed soon after. Now here's the "inconsiderate camping neighbors" part of the story. Sometime after 10 p.m., a family consisting of several noisy children, a barking dog, and an adult male with a very boisterous laugh drove into the area and proceeded to set up camp. There's nothing like trying to fall asleep to the sounds of car doors slamming, tent poles clanging, and children shrieking (Jason didn't hear any of this, of course).


The whole experience may have put us off of camping for a while. Well, at least until we can find that darn plastic tent piece...

Bats!

Yesterday on campus I was on my way downstairs to the lab. I walked down the hall to the elevators and there were two guys standing and pointing up by the ceiling in the corner. To my surprise two bats were hanging there in their usual upside down pose. I had not even a second to think "How in the world did bats get inside this building?" before another one buzzed right past my head. This third bat clearly was feeling bolder than the two hiding from the world, because it repeatedly flew up and down the entire length of the hallway, swerving around people's heads and generally flying about frantically like bats usually do. How's that for unexpected addition to an otherwise normal Thursday?

Juno-versary

One year ago today we brought home a cute little black puppy. So far she's been a great dog: playful, obedient, sometimes annoying, energetic, and super-cute. She just followed Mel up the stairs to go to bed, so I guess I should follow as well, otherwise Juno will come back down in a few minutes to make sure I'm coming too. Adios.

Go me!!

There's really no way to say this without sounding like I'm just giving myself a giant pat on the back, but maybe it's deserved: I gave blood today! And not only does that help to save someone else's life, it also fulfills one of my New Year's resolutions! Well, the exact resolution was to give blood regularly, which I fully intend to do. It's just nice to get the first time out of the way. I have donated blood before, twice actually, but both times I ended up catching a cold afterward (loss of blood = compromised immune system??) and I'm sorry to say that kind of killed my enthusiasm for donating blood. This time I liberally dosed myself with Vitamin C both before and after and am keeping my fingers crossed that I'll stay healthy.

Anyone else having success with their resolutions??

P.S. Just want to mention that my mom has been a big inspiration to me in terms of donating blood...she donates regularly, and has for years. When I grow up I want to be like her :)

Christmas, 2009 begins, etc.

Hello everyone,
Here's the rundown of our last month of 2008 and the beginnings of 2009:

As noted in the previous post, we left for northern parts early morning on Dec. 16. We ran into a bit of bad weather that extended our trip by about 3 hours, but finally arrived in Goshen around 4:30 a.m. Spent the next 10 days shuttling back and forth between Toledo and Goshen. Despite all the traveling, it was a great time and we ended up getting to see just about everyone we had hoped to see. We took our Nintendo Wii along and spent quite a bit of time playing Wii Sports with Jason's family. Grandpa Ed even got in on the action and played a round of golf! The weather did cooperate better on the drive back to Texas and we made it home in a mere 18 hours. We took our dog Juno with us and she traveled wonderfully. She stayed at my parents' house in Goshen the whole time and seemed to greatly enjoy having a larger space to run around in, having dogs to play with, and having more people to pay attention to her.

For New Year's Eve we got together with some friends to play games and hang out. This past weekend Jason headed back to Goshen (this time on a plane) to attend the wedding of a college friend.

We don't have many big plans for 2009...we hope to attend a few weddings as well as my sister's graduation from Goshen College. Probably the biggest thing on our radar right now is looking for another place to live. Our lease runs out in July and we are hoping to find a cheaper place with a fenced-in yard for Juno.




Until next post,
Mel