AASP conference

This past weekend I was at the AASP conference in Providence, RI. I was a part of a symposium presentation on specialization in sport with my advisor and two other students.

We had a room of over 100 people with other people standing and there was a crowd that overflowed into the hallway.

Here are a couple pictures of our presentation room. Very cool!
This is the room from the front...

And of me at the podium from the back...

Without a car I didn't get out too much but did see a little bit of Providence, more later!

new toy

This is Mikel with his newest hobby! He's been tying flies with his new kit from his parents and is loving it. Now he just has to find some time that he is not hunting so he can go fishing and try them all out!

birthday boy!!

These pictures have been sitting on my computer since last Sunday... whoops!

 Our wallets aren't exactly bursting at the seams for extravagant birthday celebrations but we did make it out to a DELICIOUS dinner for Mikel's birthday last Sunday night. We went one of our favorite restaurants here, Tomato Bros, for some amazing Italian food. We were excited to take a couple of our friends with us to introduce them to a wonderful meal and they loved it as much as we do!

Mikel's pasta seafood deliciousness (I obviously don't remember the name)...

 And my chicken picatta...

Other than that, Mikel is just hunting, fly tying and working and I've been doing school, teaching, and volleyball. It's been a fun semester but it has definitely been one of our busiest!

go green!

Another busy week! Mikel has been working a lot and then hunting every other chance he gets trying to get a deer.

Monday and Tuesday were normal days, busy with school and work but on Wednesday I got to travel to Ann Arbor with volleyball for their match against University of Michigan. UM is currently ranked first in the conference and #15 in the country. This is just the second day trip I've taken with volleyball and it's always fun to see how different teams travel.

This is at the UM gym for practice Wednesday morning. Their gym is built in what used to be a swimming pool and only seats 1,800 but it makes for a great atmosphere!

This is what it looks like filled up for the match. All the yellow shirts on the opposite side of the floor are members of their student section who are CRAZY hecklers! MSU played well but lost 3-1.

Unfortunately, on the way home we figured out that Mikel's phone had finally died (he's had it FOREVER) so we had to get him a new phone on Thursday. Two hours later, we walked out of the Verizon store with a sweet new phone so he's excited.

On Friday, Mikel worked in the afternoon and I went to volleyball practice. Friday night I worked Midnight Madness for the men's and women's basketball programs in the Breslin Center. It truly was madness as we hit capacity and had to turn away thousands of people who showed up too late! The doors didn't open until 9:30 but when I showed up to work at 7:45 there were huge crowds outside already. 

Not to mention there was a hockey game going on as well on campus and the homecoming parade which shut down the main street in town! It took Mikel soooo long to get home after he dropped me off at work. 

Luckily, I got off of work fairly early because I also worked the homecoming football game on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day so with my layers of clothes, I was actually warm!

You can see the tiny corner of orange in the stadium where the University of Illinois fans were sitting but the rest of it was all green!

Our football team won yesterday 26-6 and are now 7-0. It's the first time since 1966 apparently that they've been 7-0 so it's an awesome time to be in East Lansing! Saturday night Mikel had to work and I went to the MSU volleyball game. They had a great win over #20 Northwestern and are now 11-8. This was their first win over a ranked team this season and they won handily 3-0!

Whew! Now it's Sunday and I should be getting school stuff in order, Mikel's at work, and I'm going to be playing intramural volleyball this afternoon with some of my ex-students. Then we're going out to dinner with some friends for Mikel's birthday! 

it's a good day to be a Spartan!

Need I say more?!

Much to my Uncle Roger's dismay, it was delightful to see the Spartans win the Paul Bunyan trophy for the third consecutive year! This is the first time since the 60s that MSU has won three times in a row (and we've been here three years, coincidence??). Also, UM hasn't beaten MSU in basketball or football since 2007 since Mike Hart (for Michigan running back) referred to Michigan State as UM's "little brother". For the record, that is 1,070 days. Not that players probably need anything extra to fire them up for this rivalry game but I bet Hart wants that little comment back!

On top of that, the volleyball team also came back off of nearly upsetting #7 Illinois and took care of Wisconsin tonight. Whew, good day for the green and white!

Brrrrrr!!!!

 The leaves are starting to change colors and I love this time of year! Jeans and sweaters/sweatshirt weather is the best!!

On the other hand, I had to work the football game against Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon and FROZE my behind off!! The temperature wasn't too bad (in the 40s) but there was a steady wind out of the north straight into my face for five straight hours. BRRRRR!!! No amount of clothes could have protected me from that (although I tried).

After the game I realized the ridiculous number of layers I was wearing. Here's a couple snapshots:

That is a pair of silk long underwear (top and bottom), pants, Mikel's socks, warm boots, long-sleeve shirt, MSU fleece, Columbia winter jacket, windbreaker, scarf, beanie, and gloves. I looked like an oompa loompa  but, had it not been for the wind, I would have been TOASTY! Ignore the fact that none of that actually matches, I just have to have khaki pants on and a black top. Everything under that is a bonus!

There are three more games this year so hopefully the wind stays away!

On a side note, Josh is coming to visit this weekend and we're excited to see him!