Back in the Swing

I've decided to try to post things a little more regularly. August 1 was a long time ago! I never really was the diary-type of gal. :)

Here's a summary of the past five months (wow, that's embarassingly long ago):

1) Jeremy and I went on a cruise to Alaska with his parents and older brother. We had a wonderful time, and the weather was absolutely beautiful! We flew up to Seattle to meet them, then sailed to Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan.

In Juneau, Jeremy and I took a bike trip down a mountain while Ann, Kevin and Jeffrey went whale-watching.

In Skagway, we took a motorcoach through the northwest corner of British Columbia and into The Yukon Territory to take an old train down through the mountains. Breathtaking!

In Ketchikan, we rode on of those Ducks--the bus that can go into the water. It was neat to see the city from a different angle. "City," I guess is a relative term. Ketchikan is Alaska's fourth-largest city, but has a year-round population of only 8000 people! Another interesting fact--the city has a series of boardwalks and stairways that count as streets. The city maintains them just the same as they would a paved road for cars. We were in Ketchikan (and sitting on the Duck) when it was announced that Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, was going to be John McCain's running mate.

2) After arriving back in Seattle, Jeremy and I stayed for an extra few days over the Labor Day weekend. Neither of us had been to Seattle before, so we wanted to take some time to explore that area. At the time we booked our flights, I was considering applying to the University of Washington for my MBA, and this would have given us a good chance to check out the city and the campus. During our visit, we stayed downtown and were able to walk or take the bus anywhere we wanted to go. Pike Place Market was awesome! We went there several times, and probably could have spent another few days just wandering around. We got to go to the original Starbucks and the original Sur la Table store--a chef's paradise! It was a very relaxing few days.

3) November is a fun-filled month in the Goetsch house: Thanksgiving, my birthday, and (drum roll) hunting season! Jeremy counts down to this every year, and could probably tell you at any point during the year how many days there are until opening day. He hunts here in Mississippi every once in a while, but hunting with his family in Wisconsin is "real" hunting for him. Since the regular gun season in Wisconsin is only nine days long (one week plus the two book-ending weekends), he likes to spend as much time as possible out in the woods. He got a beautiful 8-point buck and is now proudly displaying a photo of it on our fridge. We also celebrated by 25th birthday while we were back visiting family. My parents had a personal chef come into their house the day after Thanksgiving to give us all a cooking lesson and introduce us to some new recipes. I'm a huge fan of Italian-style food, so we had things like veal scallopini and eggplant parmesan. And, instead of a traditional birthday cake, we had "Flaming Birthday Bananas!" Sortof like Bananas Foster, but no ice cream. Just a sugary rum sauce lit on fire--awesome!

4) We spent Christmas at home again this year. It's difficult to travel back to see family for every holiday when you live 800 to 1000 miles away, and we're enjoying the chance to develop some of our own traditions. We had Christmas Eve dinner with some wonderful friends of ours, Mike and Luiza Morawski. This is the second year in a row that they've been so generous as to have us over for the meal. Mike's parents were visiting from Sweden, and it was really nice to see them again, too! We call all of them our Swedish Family. :) Mike's family is originally from Poland, so we always learn something new from them. For example, it is a Polish Catholic tradition to not eat meat on Christmas Eve, just like a Friday in Lent. So, we had a lot of seafood dishes plus Luiza's traditional Brazilian Christmas lasagna (go figure!).

5) At the end of the year, I had some vacation days to use up (saved in case I needed to travel for MBA interviews), plus some extra time off from my employer around the holidays. So, Jeremy and I enjoyed two 5+ day-long "stay-cations" between Christmas and New Year's. We relaxed, made some delicious food, decorated the tree, made progress on our construction upstairs, and enjoyed the company of my cousin and his family for a long weekend. Mike and Mary live in Springfield, MO, and their son, Eli, is as cute as a button! He's about two and a half years old, and is fascinated (obsessed?) with tools. So, he naturally wanted to spend as much time as possible upstairs helping with the construction. Mike and Jeremy found a great outlet for him "fixing" the slide at the park with a blunt screwdriver while Mary and I worked some shopping magic at the Pottery Barn and Williams & Sonoma outlet stores. Score!

6) Over the course of late fall and throughout the winter, I finished all of my MBA applications and interviews and have finally heard back from all four schools I applied to--St. Thomas, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Indiana. I was amazed (and humbled) when I found out that I was accepted to all four! I'm waiting to hear about any potential scholarship information from Ohio State and Indiana, and will then be able to make a decision about where to go. I am thrilled to have so many wonderful options to choose from!

I think that's about all for now. If you made it to the bottom of this post, congratulations and thanks for your dedication!