fishing fun

Mikel has been doing lots of fishing on his days off of work.

This one is a crappie from ice fishing close to our apartment...

Today he went steelhead fishing in Ionia...

Lots of fun!!

our weekend adventure

So after we stopped at some random gas station to take a picture with the huge chicken, we continued on to Muncie, IN. I think we both agree that we don't need to go back to Muncie for anything. First, the traffic was TERRIBLE. Now, Muncie was not a big enough town to have the traffic we experienced. Also, we probably saw 3 or 4 fender bender accidents in the couple hours before Mikel dropped me off at the conference! It was just a weird town. Ball State University on the other hand was a really nice school with nice facilities! My presentation was very first up on Friday afternoon so I was able to get that over with an then enjoy the rest of the presentations. Mikel explored the town and the school while I at the conference and we got some time to relax back at the hotel and catch some Olympics. The conference is only two days long so Saturday afternoon we headed out to Columbus, OH.

These are some pictures of Ball State...

We took a sort of small highway to Ohio (Reta told us to-- that's our GPS) and passed some cool little towns on the way. This was a cool building in a small little town that we had to pull over and take a picture of...

After we got to Columbus we drove around, toured the campus, checked out the football stadium and basketball arena. We found a hotel for the night and headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.

We had to check this out for dessert as well!

We also stopped at Bowling Green University (where my conference was last year). Bowling Green reminded us the most of ISU...

Our trip finished with a stop in Ann Arbor to see Shad and Kala (two friends from ISU) who are both in Ann Arbor for different reasons. Shad is going to dental school at UM and Kala is doing an internship for her PT program. We had a nice late lunch with them and reminisced about Idaho! It was an awesome weekend and the only thing that would have made it better is if we would have had Monday off work for President's Day like everyone else!

We love adventures!!

This is what the midwest looks like in the winter. Actually, the sky looks a little bluer than we see most days but that is cut off corn covered in snow. 

This picture was from the middle of Indiana although it could be any number of states around here. This weekend we got to take a small adventure. We drove down to Muncie, IN, over to Columbus and Bowling Green, OH, and then to Ann Arbor before we came home. It was a great trip, my presentation went well and it was nice to get out of town for a bit. My presentation was on a research project about the perceptions of collegiate athletes towards collegiate coaching as a potential career (exciting, I know). 

Anyways, all the fun this weekend makes for a busy week catching up but it was definitely worth it! I have plenty of pictures to share but about 90 papers to grade so I'll get to those soon.

Oh and that large chicken from the last post was somewhere in a weird little town in Indiana where we pulled over to get gas. Who can pass up a huge chicken?! We had to get a picture!

Things have been so absolutely crazy lately that we've been hanging on for dear life. I am currently teaching 3 classes which is a bigger teaching load than our full-time professors have (obviously they have research and other school responsibilities but still). It's the same teaching load that our professors had at ISU. On top of the volume of classes, they are all new courses so there is LOTS of prep that has to be done. I love the classes- especially sport sociology- so I know I'll look back and think it was a great experience but right now it seems overwhelming!

Two weekends ago our friend Kala from ISU came to visit and we had a great time! She is in PT school and currently doing an internship in Ann Arbor where she doesn't know anybody so it was nice for all of us to see a familiar face. 


I had to work a basketball game on Saturday night but Mikel and Kala were able to get tickets. It was fun to show her the big time atmosphere and enjoy a game!

Of course we had to take pictures of the final four and national championship banners with the new one from last season!

We showed her around town, went out to eat, and hung out with some friends-- all in all, a great visit! She also greatly appreciated sleeping in a bed. Since she is only here for 8 weeks she only brought an air mattress, card table and banana chair. We told her we could loan us some of our extra furniture but she didn't bite!

Since then, I've been getting school in early and Mikel has been ice fishing a lot! We are headed to Muncie, IN and Ball State University tomorrow morning so I can present at a small conference (Midwest AASP- association for applied sport psychology). The conference is fairly short and my my presentation is very first so hopefully it will be a fun weekend!


We also got quite the storm this week. About 10 inches of snow in about 24 hours. It didn't shut down town but did slow us down a little! Hopefully things will slow down to at least a manageable pace soon!

I know everyone has been holding their breath over the Spartan logo drama so here's an update. Mark Hollis, MSU's AD, announced that, due to fan support, MSU would be maintaining the current logo. Apparently athletic departments do listen to their fans sometimes! 

In other news, teaching is crazy busy and I'm getting ready to present at a small conference at Ball State University in Muncie, IN next weekend. Mikel is going to go with me and then we're going to head to Indianapolis for the day. Should be fun!

Spartan drama

I'm sure this is not high on most people's priority list but MSU and Nike are causing quite the uproar here in East Lansing. Nike and MSU have apparently spent 2 years redesigning the Spartan logo for the football helmet and other Michigan State gear and, to say it lightly, it's not going over well!

There are newspaper articles, facebook groups, signs of protest at athletic events as well as chants during games.... people don't like the new proposed logo. I feel like I'm in an Athletic Administration class discussing how not to implement change and develop fan support...

This is a picture of the current logo on the left and the new logo on the left (with a little bit of commentary)...

It's been said to have a Leno chin. Although I personally like the current logo more, I probably won't be making a picket sign anytime soon!

Izzo had some harsh words for the critics as well. Apparently there's a "full reveal" coming in April so we'll have to see what MSU and Nike have planned.