The "G" word

On Thursday my advisor said the "G" word to me. Yep, GRADUATION. It was in a rather abstract and hypothetical context, mind you, but still. I might actually graduate after all! Hurray! He said (and this is VERY uncharacteristic of him) that maybe we should publish a smaller article, not in Science or Nature, on the work I've done recently (plus a few more things I'm still working on), rather than waiting for ALL of it to be done for the "Big Paper". (Ususally my advisor only likes to publish Big Papers). And he said I could probably GRADUATE on that paper, and then I could finish up the rest of the stuff as a post-doc while Kevin finishes up his Ph.D. WOOOOOO! Of course, this is all assuming that I get some more stuff to work as planned, etc. (and if there's one universal truth in research, it's that things NEVER go as planned) but I was still super excited to hear that my advisor is even thinking along those lines. Yay! Maybe I haven't completely wasted the last 6 years of my life after all!

So, obviously, my research has been going well the last few months. Wow, that is a strange thing for me to say/type. I'm very grateful--it makes such a big difference to how I feel to have things actually progressing. I still have lots of work to do, but I haven't felt this optimistic in a long time.

Kevin has been super busy of late, working on various papers and such for his advisor while also trying to release a new product for eFolder (that's the business he helped start before grad school and which he is now CEO for). It's nothing new--he's always super busy, but since about February it's been especially bad. He's also gone out of town like 4 times or something in recent months--mostly to conferences/trade shows for eFolder.

Last week we wrapped up this year's Stake Youth Conference (a 3 day event put on by our church for teenagers 14-18). I was in charge of registration and housing, which was no small task for a group of 250 people (we were actually combined with Peoria Stake as well, and they have twice the number of youth we do)! We had them all staying at host homes in the area--we had about 50 small groups to find places for, print maps for, etc. I also helped with the general running of things. All in all, it was quite exhausting. I slept for 11 hours the night after it was all over! It was a good conference--I think it was really good for the kids to get together and make friends and feel the strength of one another. The theme was "Forever Strong" taken from Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."

Kevin and I will soon be celebrating our fifth anniversary (which I can hardly believe)! We decided we wanted to spend some time in the mountains, so we booked a trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. (Yay for frequent flier miles!) I at first thought we would camp, but Kevin vetoed that idea--he has a thing for actual *beds*. I think it's because he's so dang skinny that he has no extra padding for sleeping on the ground. So, it's not going to be the budget trip I was first thinking of. But, hopefully it will be worth it--the park is supposed to be spectacular. If it would just stop SNOWING in Montana, we might actually be able to do some amazing hikes in those mountains. :) I've been looking like a dork wearing my new hiking boots around all the time (with shorts and other various things that do NOT go with them at all) trying to get them all broken in. I'm also trying to get ahold of some of these bad boys:

I have heard they help prevent blisters, especially for people like me who have hammer toes that rub together a lot. We'll see (that is, if I can even find any to buy). Has anyone else ever tried these before?

We're also going to spend the day in Chicago before our flight leaves from there, which is highly appropriate since that's where we got engaged! It should be fun. The best part about the trip: backcountry hiking = no internet access!