Christmas in SoDak

It felt great to DRIVE home to our parents houses this year for Christmas. We spent a few days with Mom and Dad Meendering and a few days with Mom and Dad Gee. Here are a few pictures from our time at home visiting family and friends.

Moving.....

Here are some pictures of loading the moving truck...our drive....and unloading the moving truck. The drive was eventful to say the least. Our check engine light came on the moment we entered Idaho and stayed on until we were 4 miles outside of Omaha and our windshield washer fluid froze as we were going over the mountain pass and so we had to stop periodically on the snowy roads and clean our windows with swifers that we had in the car. We were happy to arrive in Omaha and were greated by Mom and Dad Meendering and our friends Rachel and Sam. Rachel and Sam drove all the way from Peoria Illinois to help us unload the truck before heading to Wisconsin for Christmas. They are the best! They stayed in Omaha for the night to help us celebrate being back in the Midwest...unfortunately, I got a horrible case of the stomach flu and they had to celebrate without me!

Our last few days.....

Our last few days in Eugene were a whirlwind. We both moved all of our things out of our offices and our moving truck left. We lived for the last week in our apartment with just the essentials and a blow up mattress on the floor. Grant and Nicole had a going away party for us on Friday. I can even describe how much fun we had. I will never forget it. It was bittersweet and a perfect way to enjoy one last night with all of our friends. On Saturday we went out to a late breakfast with friends, cleaned our apartment, packed our car, and went to dinner with friends. On Sunday morning we had breakfast at Grant and Nicoles, with them and Tom and Donna and left from their house to start our drive to Omaha. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone and the life we have known and loved for the last 5 years! A special thanks to everyone for everything you did to help us move. The pictures will be out of order...but that reminds me that I should post some pictures of packing our moving truck.

Girls Night

A few years ago my department started the tradition of having "girls night" every term or so where all of the graduate students, faculty, and staff get together for a fun night of good food and good company. Sadly, this week was my very last girls night. Here are a few pictures with some of the great women I have had the chance to work with and become friends with.

Going Away......

Dr. Klug (the head of my department at Oregon) and his wife Marlyn were nice enough to have a going away dinner for us this week with some of our friends from work. We are starting to realize just how hard it is going to be for us to leave all of our friend in Oregon. Thanks Dr. Klug and Marlyn! We are really going to miss you.

Urgent Care

Yep....our first trip urgent care as a couple. Jon broke his clavicle in 2 places and separated his AC joint few days ago playing flag football with some friends. We went to urgent care and ended up waiting for 4 hours before we were seen! Jon is doing well and is on the mend. I keep questioning whether he did this on purpose so he wouldn't have to help with the move! I freaked out a little bit about how we are going to load our truck, drive across country, and unload our truck with jon not being able to move his right arm. Luckily we have great friends that have agreed to help us every step of the way. I will try and find a picture of jon in his sling to post...but I am not sure if we have one yet.

Jen and Kids Visit Eugene

Our last week in Eugene we were blessed with a visit from my sister, connor, julia, ali, and stephan. It was so great to have them come and see our place and see our lives in Eugene before we make the big move back to the midwest. We toured around campus, went to the beach for the day and flew kites and searched for shells, hiked up to a lighthouse on the coast, played glow in the dark mini golf, and had lots of video game tournaments on jon's childhood playstation.

They were troupers to stay at our place because most of it was already packed in boxes. They helped us pack at nights and connor even put the very first box in our moving truck. I will never forget their trip out to see us. We love you guys....thanks for coming!!

Illustration Author

Jon did some of the illustrations for a book his former Master's degree degree adviser at the UO published. The book turned out beautifully and I am so so proud of him. He worked very hard on these illustrations and he now has them published in a textbook!