Celebrating a wonderful life

Last weekend, we received the sad news that my grandpa Perry passed away. Austin and I traveled home for the funeral last week and it was an emotional time for all of us. While we all will miss grandpa very much, we were able to reminisce about the great times and happy memories with the rest of our family. After coming home on Wednesday I wrote down a few of my favorites:

-seeing grandpa and Austin sitting on the couch sharing stories at each and every holiday we saw him :)
-driving a van full of grandkids to the cabin in Minnesota
-taking my cousin Whitney and I to the rodeo
-cheering for the bad guys in all the movies and musicals we watched, much to my dismay!
-interviewing him for an article I wrote about the zoo for my high school newspaper
-seeing him at all of my concerts, musicals, and my high school graduation
-crows at Christmas time...
-numerous cook-outs and hay rack rides in the backyard during October (and often times with a cake for my birthday!)
-running out to the barn to let him know coffee was ready, to see what he was building, or just to say hi

We miss you, grandpa, and we are thinking about all the ways to honor your life as we continue our own life's journey!


Grandpa and Grandma at honors night back in high school

Spring into spring

We got back home from Salt Lake City on Wednesday night after a great trip out west! Austin really enjoyed the conference and we both had a nice time skiing. The second day we had over 8 inches of fresh powder, which is the most that either of us had ever skied on! I'd be lying if I didn't say it was hard, especially after a full day on the slopes, but we had an awesome time despite our tired legs :)

It's spring here in Florida now, lots of flowers blooming and warmer, humid weather on the way. It will also be a busy season for the two of us as Austin tries to complete his proposal defense and gets ready for a summer in Japan while I try to get some experiments and lab work done. We've both been working together to get our wedding planning stuff done, we're making good progress and I don't think there will be much to do this summer while Austin is away.

More news and updates to come in the next couple of weeks, stay tuned!

engagement announcement

Our engagement announcement in the Omaha World–Herald
http://www.legacy.com/celebration/omaha/celebrations-announcement.aspx?n=erica-anderson&aid=155856764

Blogging on a cool winter's morning

...and by cool I mean 32F and winter I mean our Florida 'winter' ;)

We've had a lot going on in the past week and a half. I'm trying to get caught up on the oscar nominated movies again this year, so last Friday we went out and saw The Artist. It was really nicely done and a good show overall. My favorite this year is still Midnight in Paris, though. Only 2 weeks to see the rest of the 7 movies on my list, yikes! On Saturday we did a little bit of work and then went to a friend's house for poker night. Not a high turn-out but we had a good time!

On Sunday after church we had a really good talk about life and the future, covering all of the topics our pastor wanted us to go over before our next counseling session. There's really not a lot that we didn't agree on but it was great to put everything on the table and lay out expectations and concerns for the future. We then followed it up with another great session with our pastor on Monday. I feel like even though we don't really have any major "issues", we're a LOT better off than we were without the sessions and without vocalizing our concerns or ideas about the future. We're both working on keeping up this dialogue as we move forward and look to the days after September 1st!

This weekend I had a meeting in Pensacola, and Austin was sweet enough to come along and help drive. The weather wasn't agreeable for lounging on the beach but we did get to enjoy the scenery in my free time. We both thought the peninsula was absolutely beautiful and want to come back to enjoy the beaches again this spring and to do some camping as well. When Austin brings his camera over I'll try to upload a few pictures.

Wishing a happy Sunday to all!

The Wall

Our cute wall painting lasted almost a week before another club painted over it. I managed to get a picture with my phone the day before it was gone.


Next up on the wedding planning to do list: Newspaper announcements. We're almost ready to get them submitted, then it's off to the next thing on the list :)

Life in the GNV

Austin and I have had a very blessed month so far! School/work have been going well; neither of us have classes this semester so all we have to do is lab stuff, which is really nice. Austin is going to try to do his qualifying exam this spring so he will be busy focusing on that for a while, but I know he will be well-prepared when the big day comes!

We've also been able to do quite a few fun this this month already. Last weekend we went to the theater at the Reitz to see a movie (free for students, woo hoo!) and did some shopping as well. This weekend I did my 30-mile bike ride, a lot of work but really fun as well :) That evening we made some graffiti on The Wall. It's a large concrete retaining wall off of 34th street (a really busy road) and right across from our apartment). Austin had done it twice before, I had never painted anything but had always talked about how I wanted to. So last night we took our can of white paint, a "roller" (a normal paint roller but with a towel wrapped around it), and a "brush" (a small dust broom) and made our mark on The Wall! After making a political statement about voting independent for the student government elections, we did a cute Austin + Erica sign as well :) After washing the paint off, we ate dinner and then went downtown to our favorite hipster pool hall. We had some beer and I had whiskey and ginger ale (delicious!) and played pool, darts, and foosball with a few of our friends. All in all a great day!

Today we also did another Gainesville activity that I hadn't done before: Lake Wauberg. It's a recreational area owned by UF with canoes, outdoor sports like volleyball and soccer, rock climbing, and mountain biking. We got in free with our student IDs and walked around for a bit before playing a round of frisbee golf. I'm not very good but Austin is a good and patient teacher ;)

It's also been a beautiful weekend outside, and both of us feel very blessed to live in a place with so many fun things to do and great weather to enjoy them!

In other news, we've also been getting ready for life after Sept 1st 2012. We decided to go with a 2 bedroom apartment with all new appliances in the same complex we are both in now. I'll move into the new room in May and sublease my current room and Austin will move in after the wedding. It's not a terribly fancy place but it's nice and simple and will be a good place to transition into our new routine.

Well, that's most of the news from down south. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon exploration of Lake Wauberg today. You can click on each image to see a larger version. Enjoy!

We've got our list and we checked it twice!

We had a really lovely Christmas back in NE. No snow but nice sunny weather with no blizzards or travel troubles is a blessing!

In addition to eating Christmas cookies, exchanging gifts, and celebrating with friends and family, it was also a week filled with wedding planning. It made for a fast-paced break but we got a lot done so it was definitely worth it. Here's all the things we got to check off our list:

-Walk-through of reception venue and food tasting
-Met with the photographer
-Booked a florist and got our flowers mostly figured out
-Booked a bakery and picked out a cake design (and tasted it, of course!)
-Reserved a DJ
-Picked out bridesmaids dresses
-Bought my dress(!!!)
-Met with our pastor and sorted out the ceremony order and wording for prayers/vows
-Looked at rings at Borscheims and got an idea of the design we want for each band

The next few months will be focused on getting addresses for save the dates and invitations, picking out invites and programs, and thinking about the smaller details (bridesmaids accessories, shoes, etc) along with keeping busy in our normal work and life routines.

Until next time, happy new year!