To Bart:
I memorized this poem in my first college English course. I recited it so well I actually got an A and decided that I should major in English (nothing like making major life decisions on a whim, right?). I thought the words spoke so beautifully of how a marriage should be. Little did I know that it was actually possible and that just a few years later I would have that very thing. I wish I could say it better (or even not in a poem since you are a scientist and not a poet) how much I love you, but this will have to do. Here's to three wonderful years! (starting tomorrow)


Most Like an Arch This Marriage

by John Ciardi

Most like an arch—an entrance which upholds
and shores the stone-crush up the air like lace.
Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.

Most like an arch—two weaknesses that lean
into a strength. Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyances become a term
naming the fact that teaches fact to mean.

Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,
what’s strong and separate falters. All I do
at piling stone on stone apart from you
is roofless around nothing. Till we kiss

I am no more than upright and unset.
It is by falling in and in we make
the all-bearing point, for one another’s sake,
in faultless failing, raised by our own weight.

P.S. I really hate it when people post sappy things on their blogs, but here I am doing it again. I guess love will do that to a girl, huh?

On Friday we got 28.5 inches of snow:


Today we got another 14 inches -- and a day off of work!


And this is what we did while we were snowed in:
(Hint: we want you to be impressed with our scores. We are very proud of them. If you aren't impressed, just pretend that you are.)


Here's hoping for another one!

Katie's been to 38 states:


Bart's been to 32 states:



Bart and Katie have been to 18 states together:

(Not bad for three years.)

Not counting airports.
Plus Washington DC (which isn't a state).

Where have you been?
http://www.epgsoft.com/VisitedStatesMap/VisitedStatesMap.html

I'm just a good worker, hard worker, determined worker. Here I am posting during my new job. I'm incredible. Or maybe I should just be more proactive. . . ? . . . Naw.

I put this comment on Becca's blog, but thought it would be a funny post. Or maybe I'm just amused by myself.

I just had an ultrasound recently and it was disgusting. Did you know that you can get an ultrasound in your eye and that they put the goop directly in your eye and roll that thing around on top of YOUR EYE!?!! I thought I might vomit. I even told that to the tech.

Bart and I will probably be MIA for a little while because, well, I basically just got a new job--without asking for it. Pretty exciting, huh? I am now working as an Executive Assistant for the Chairman, or should I say, Chairwoman, of our department. The proposition was sprung on me at 4:30 Tuesday afternoon (right in the middle of my watching Teen Mom). Goodbye entertaining TV at work days... Oh, and my old boss is so sad right now (READ: pissed that he has to do my work and doesn't know how). Guess I get to put all of those anal, organizational abilities to good use. I think this will be an awesome diet for me--when you don't have time for lunch or breakfast, those holiday pounds sure do come off quickly! (Or at least that's what should happen!)

Oh, and, um, of course there is my even more busy husband. Bart's work on his paper is really picking up speed and we are simply bracing ourselves (and getting really excited) for all that will come when he is published and we get closer to his graduation. YOU CAN DO IT BART! I love you!

It is literally CRAZY TIME around here.

And I didn't even mention our Branch because we haven't yet been to church yet. That will be a barrel of laughs, or should I say flu-like germs, once we finally get to a Sunday.

Oh, but we did have the gas company come to our house on Monday night because we had a gas leak. Have we really only been home for 4 days?

If this seems disjointed, that's a perfect representation of what my new job is like. Can you handle it?