Hello!

Hi there, have we met? I'm Kris...you must be Kris's blog. You look familiar but I can't place from where. We must have been friends a long time ago.

*sigh*

There have been a few things that have come up in the last couple of weeks where I thought, "gee! That would be a great blog post!" For example, Patrick Swayze dying. I distinctly remember being at an 8th grade graduation slumber party at Linnea Kuhlmey's and watching Dirty Dancing on VHS and using the remote, which had a CORD, because this was 1989, to rewind to see if we could Patrick Swayze's butt as he crawled out of bed after he and Baby had their big moment. The answer was that you couldn't, which was probably what kept it at a PG rating. But that movie was the first time I thought "Hey...there's an awkward smart girl who catches the attention of the super good looking hero. It Can happen." At various time through my own awkward years and even into my less awkward but confused and conflicted adult hood, there would be the line "no one puts Baby in the corner" and I would smile. I realize this reads as incredibly dorky and not a little teenaged-ish but it does hold a dear place in my heart.

Classes are going pretty well. I have a stats class that has started to kick my butt. The first few weeks were a pretty decent review of what I already knew but now we are on to formulas that mix numbers, letters and greek symbols. I never considered myself a purist but I just don't think my brain knows how to make sense of those combinations. So I've been spending a lot of work on that.

I'm helping facilitate a class for first-year Construction Engineering students around the area of leadership and learning. There a few of them that don't look a day over 15. They are really exciting to work with in terms of being at the beginning of their academic careers and the growth I can see occurring on a weekly basis. Some of them are also a little skeptical of the "soft" stuff we are talking about so it can be a challenge to keep them engaged. But it does feel great to be back in the classroom.

Willy continues to be great. He had his first vet appointment since moving to Ames is a healthy 30 pounds. He can be a bit squirrely, as most puppies can be, but his endearing factors outweigh his annoying ones.

That sums it up as halftime of the Packer game has ended. Go Pack go!