Welcome to Maryland! Home of the Atlantic Ocean, Zero Garages, and New Species of Insects

The past two weeks have included:

1. Doug graduating
2. Our wedding
3. Moving half way across the country
4. Doug starting his new job
5. Unpacking our new house

So now that I finally have time to take a breath, here are the details.

1. Dr. Douglas Stone graduated! (Self explanatory)

2. Doug and I got married!  (Also self explanatory)

3. It took us a few days but we managed to pack the U-Haul with all of our stuff, including 3 kayaks, 2 and a half bikes, one full set of hockey gear, and 4 hockey sticks.

After 2 full days of driving (I should say, of Doug driving) we made it from Madison to Maryland, plus another full day to unload the truck.  We set up a set of speakers and blasted an iPod to make it go faster, plus we got quite the weightlifting workout in!

4. The house we chose is a convenient 5 mile bike ride from the University.

On Friday, Doug's boss invited us out to lunch with him and his wife.  Doug biked and I rollerbladed the 5 miles.  It's a nice route, with some fun downhills (depending on which way you're going) as long as there aren't any cars coming of course :)

5. Unpacking is proving to be tedious (shocker, I know).  While most of our stuff is still in boxes, we have a completely unpacked kitchen, complete with artwork by our favorite 5-year-old.

We also have a working TV so that we can watch the Navy football games, and a lovely family room floor on which we have played Ticket To Ride more than once (I'll win one of these times!).  These small victories have come at the expense of endless hours of cleaning and disinfecting the house (the kitchen and bathrooms were a little scary when we first got here).  Also, apart from having a space to air out and store my hockey gear, Doug has full claim over the basement.  This is due to the fact that he has had to kill multiple different types of bugs down there, all of which I have never seen before.  I guess that's one way to remind me that we're not in Minnesota anymore!  Well that, and the lack of garages :)

My Wedding Dress' Job

The wedding is just one week away.  All of the big stuff is done, but I'm still planning on spending a few more afternoons with Heidi working out the details.  And of course, time spent with Heidi (especially in her garage) means Chipotle for lunch.

(We always work very hard)

Anyways, I've been told that I must be crazy to eat Chipotle the week of my wedding, let alone more than once!  To that and to all the articles, blogs, and websites that talk about losing weight for your wedding I say they are all crazy, not me!  I've seen my fair share of facebook posts to the extent of "We're engaged!  Guess I need to start that diet now . . ." as if that is the most important part of the exciting news.

I'm not going to get on my soap box and say that I haven't worried about my weight with my wedding dress over the last nine months, because I have.  But I have gotten past the crazy "I'll just lose 15 pounds" phase. I call it crazy, because that's exactly what it is!  I've learned more about the different silhouettes, colors, and details of wedding dresses throughout my engagement than I care to admit, however one of the important things I did learn is that WEDDING DRESSES ARE MADE TO FLATTER YOUR BODY (and not the other way around).  Shocker, I know.  The key was to find one that I love (without worrying about anyone else) and my attitude will reflect it.  Not to mention that Doug will love it as long as I love it (at least, he better!).

I don't need to be a size 2 to look good in my wedding dress.  In fact, at 6 feet tall, I would probably be in the hospital for malnutrition if I was a size 2.  Now, no offense to all the wonderful women out there who are naturally petite.  I'm not saying that being skinny is bad, I'm saying that starving your body for the sake of fitting into a dress is bad.

There are more important things than just the way I look.  This summer, I spent almost every non-rainy day rollerblading, including a 40 mile trip in under 4 hours, followed by hiking and climbing.

In order to accomplish that, I had to increase the amount of calories I was eating.  On another adventurous note, Heidi and I are biking/rollerblading to our old high school and back this week and we will be recovering by way of a Chipotle burrito (Have you guys guessed what my favorite place to eat is yet?).

I would like to see a malnourished, 6 foot tall, size 2 try to rollerblade 40 miles.  While we're on the subject, I would like to see that same 6 foot tall, size 2 try to hip check a male college hockey player, putting him on his back.  I've been able to do both, and I will also look damn good in my wedding dress.

(Sorry guys, no dress photos.  Can't ruin the surprise!)

Let's Go Climb A Tree!

Two years ago I met someone who has turned into my tree climbing partner in crime.  It is amazing how many tree pictures we both have . . .

Just Go Up!

A little under two years ago I sat across from Chris at an interview.  Although she ended up asking me how old I was (an HR no-no) the interview went well and I ended up getting the opportunity to work with her for the past couple years and watch our friendship develop.  In a couple weeks, we are both moving on from Jack Link’s; Chris to Texas, while I go to Minnesota.  Taking as many chances as possible to hang out (literally), I took Chris rock climbing yesterday!  Paco, Mitch and Doug came too.  Of course I fell off the wall and scraped up my arm pretty badly right in front of them as they were getting their safety orientation.  But it was a fun group to be a part of when it came to trying to conquer different rock faces.

Go Chris Go!

Everyone had a good time, and we all climbed well.  There were a couple times when someone would pick a ridiculously hard rock face and we would spend an hour taking turns trying to get higher than 5 feet off the ground.  But everyone got to the top!  And Chris cranked out a couple V0s like a pro. 

This was one of the rock faces that seemed to stop us about 10 feet up.

Paco got to the top!

Doug conquered the yellow 5.10!

And I managed not to drop him!

Onward Glide to Devil's Lake!

Living in Madison, Devil's Lake is an easy one hour drive away, making it the perfect place to escape from the craziness of the week.  This past weekend, Doug organized a large group from St. Paul's to go camping at Devil's Lake.  Knowing that the drive would be too easy, he decided to up the stakes and have a group bike there instead.  Of course, I think biking is silly, so I decided I would rollerblade the 40 miles (and a ferry) instead.  Here's the before picture, when we are all still so happy, not realizing what is ahead of us.

Not everyone was biking (or rollerblading), so we had lots of nice people like Josh, Marco, and Allison who were willing to drive all of our stuff up to the campsites.

We left a little after 9am.  The three cyclists were nice enough to stay with me until we snaked our way through Madison and Middleton.  After that it was just me, my camelbak, and my cell phone.  I managed to not get lost, and made it all the way to the Merrimac Ferry at mile 29 in 3 hours.  I was grateful for the half mile to rest and stretch, but I received quite a few weird looks.  I mean, who wouldn't want to rollerblade on a ferry?

The last 10 miles were interesting.  A mile after the ferry, I ran out of water.  I called Doug a few miles later to see if he could wait for me with his waterbottle.  He doubled back and met me at the South entrance of the park.  The last 3 or 4 miles were the worst.  There was a mile long hill that took me about 20 minutes and several breaks to climb.  We ended up going the wrong way around the lake to get to the North campsites.  I had already made it all the way to Devil's Lake, and had started to go around the lake so I decided I was done.  Doug called Josh, who came to our rescue!  When we got to the campsites, I chugged my entire Nalgene, and a Gatorade.  

WE HAD MADE IT!

To celebrate we swam in the freezing cold lake, while the rest of the group hung out on the beach.

It wouldn't be a trip to Devil's Lake without at least one hike up the bluffs.  We found quite a few places to boulder.

And Luke found lots of opportunities to conquer nature . . .

It was fun to hang out with friends, even if half of them didn't camp overnight.  We cooked supper over the campfire, sang songs, made s'mores, and played charades.  

The next morning we had fun watching Doug make pancakes without a spatula.  Don't worry, we also made sure that he got to eat as well.

   

Afterwards, we packed up and posed for our "We Survived!" picture.  

I wasn't crazy enough to try and rollerblade back as well.  The cyclists had an interesting time on the way back due to a strong headwind.  Everyone did get back safely, some were just a little more soaked by the rain than others.  

Another awesome weekend adventure for the books!

The Engagement

Well it happened . . . Doug proposed Friday night!  We are both very excited to begin this new chapter in our lives together.

 He set up every detail for the night.

It started as many of our dates.  We were celebrating our one year anniversary (2 months late...).  It began by getting all dressed up for the occasion.  Doug looked very dashing in his three piece suit and hat.  We tried our hand at cooking a chicken pad thai recipe together.  There was prep work for the meal that gave us enough time to get a fire going and enjoy some dancing.  The meal required all 4 hands, but it turned out delicious.  I set the table while Doug got the wine ready.  Then he took me upstairs, gave me a book to read and said not to come out until he came up and got me.  15 minutes later, Doug was back, and led me downstairs.  All the lights were off, there was classical music playing in the background, and the room was lit by dozens of candles throughout the entire room with rose pedals all around.

We enjoyed our homemade supper.  When I tried to clear the plates, Doug told me to wait, that he wanted to dance with me.  The music had ended, so Doug sang while we danced.  When he finished Doug told me he loves me, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him.

Of course I said yes!

After the fact, I found out how he figured out my ring size.  He was very sneaky!

I play in a women's hockey league in Madison.  All of our home games are at the Shell, on the UW campus, half a mile from Doug's house.  Since parking on campus is hard to find, and almost never free, Doug would shuttle me to my games and then park my car back at his house (or so I thought!).  In December he came up with a plan to drop me off at my game and then go to my apartment since I keep my house keys on the same chain as my car keys.  Unfortunately right after he came up with this brilliant idea, I found a lot on campus that I could park in for free on Sundays, meaning I didn't ask Doug to drive me for over a month.  When I finally did he took his calipers from work, went into my apartment, found my jewelry, and measured a couple of my rings.  As any good physicist would, Doug took notes.

Apparently simply asking one of my friends would have been to complicated!  But I wouldn't have it any different.  Doug did manage to thoroughly confuse the sales women when he went in saying that my ring size was 692 thousandths of an inch.  Good thing he brought his calipers with to the store to measure sample sizes!

Well that's the story, a homegrown one, but an adventure nonetheless.