lazy summer

We have had a wonderful week of laziness between the end of spring semester and the beginning of summer. The only thing that could have made it better would have been some more sun and warmer temperatures so I could sit out by the pool... I need some color on this pale body!!


This semester nearly killed me. I had great classes and I loved teaching but I had a HUGE load. The load I had is as much as I would teach as a full-time professor when I get a job. That would be great except for I had my own classes on top of that to deal with and I definitely don't get paid like a full-time professor! There is good news: I have now taught every class in the department that I will ever teach in my time here (unless of course the add a class). This will make the next two years easier, only in theory of course!

This past week (after the graduations and mushroom hunting) we have been relaxing, watching movies, and generally avoiding school work. Well I've been avoiding school work, Mikel still has to go to work. Starting tomorrow, I will be teaching two summer school classes through the month of June. I am team teaching both classes (Healthy Lifestyles and Ethical Issues in Athletics) with Brett. Basically, I'm doing this because I wanted to teach Ethical Issues and figured Brett had seniority and so the only way I would be able to teach is if I figured out an arrangement that I could get him to agree to! It should be fun and it's only the first session so after July 1, I will be done teaching for the summer. After that, we are going to Alaska (so excited!!) and I will be working a couple of volleyball camps. Then, a few classes, some teaching, a lot of dissertation work, and we can start thinking about our next adventure! 

mushroom hunting

Spring semester is finally over!! Last weekend I worked A LOT of graduations and since then I have been doing A LOT of relaxing!


Unlike ISU's one graduation ceremony, MSU has 19 different ceremonies in three different facilities over three days. It is crazy madness but makes for a lot of hours for me to work so I can't complain! 


Mikel has also been doing a lot of working; with the warming up of spring and summer, lawn mowers and other equipment are keeping him very busy! He did take a couple days off and go mushroom hunting with some friends from work. Although I didn't go this time, I think this is the only type of hunting I could do.... I don't have to actually kill anything, I don't have to be quiet, and I don't have to do it in the cold. That sounds way better than the other options! And they were camping... I love camping!

 They were looking for Morel mushrooms and found a lot! You can eat them; they are more substantive and meaty than other types of mushrooms but taste good. The texture of them get me a little bit but they're pretty good! They found three different kinds: white, black, and grey but apparently there are lots of different kinds. Besides the color, there is very subtle differences in taste but they're pretty much the same.

happy mother's day!!

We miss you!

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite people in the whole world, my Grandpa Bushman.


I miss him so much and think about him all the time. I wish I could share all that I'm doing and learning with him but it's good to know that he'd be proud of me and want to know all about what I'm doing (and how many credits I'm taking)!


I appreciate all the time I got to spend with him, all the lessons learned, rootbeer popsicles, and turkey sandwiches from Backstreet (turkey on rye, no mayo, light butter, lots of the good stuff-- why mess with a good thing?!).


This duck sits in our kitchen and reminds me of him everyday. There's no jelly belly candies in it but who eats the black ones anyway?!


I miss you, Grandpa but can't wait to see the rest of the Bushmans this summer!

super creepy

So I found this on a random discussion board and at first I thought it was just some scam or something but a lot of people had said they checked it out and they were really listed so I checked it out and I was on it too (as were my parents and a lot of people). It has addresses, phone numbers, income, interests, and lots of junk. It's really creepy. 

Anyways, here's what I found and the information on how to remove yourself...

"Spokeo: an online "phone book" publishes personal info about you... your credit scores, facebook photos, home value, income, age... 

Quite alarming. 

To remove yourself: Go to Spokeo.com. Type in your name. Copy the URL for the page you are listed on. Click on the privacy button at the bottom of the page. Remove. Confirm removal via the email they send you."

Just a heads up, if you have an old email address or one for junk I would use that one because there's probably then potential for getting junk email (better still in my opinion than my address being on the internet).