Cleveland Weekend

This past weekend we spent several days in Cleveland with my extended family and luckily my mom was there visiting too. I haven't been out there in about 6 years and Jared hadn't met most of my family there so we thought it was a perfect opportunity to go now that we are in Wisconsin and it's only a drive away. For the most part we just hung out with everyone and didn't do a whole lot other then eat delicious food, but that was okay by us!

We visited the West Side Market, awesome food!

I got this huge crepe!

The house I grew up in, still looks the same

I got to see my best friend Addie, we were inseparable as kids!

I learned that colored pants are definitely not as popular on the 

east coast as compared to the west coast

Jared loved hanging out with my Oma's dog Scottie

He got new cycling glasses, he looks like Cyclops!

He was put to work doing "man projects"

My mom and her best friend, my "Aunt" Sally

My cousin Chris let Jared take his brand new 

Porsche 911 Carrera 4S for a little joy ride!

This was his face when he got back, perma grin for the rest of the night!

We went to the Cleveland Zoo one day

Cute little baby monkey!

My cousin Jess and I made some delicious tamales, 

pretty good for first timers!

With Jess

We were sad to have just missed meeting Jess' husband Mike, 

who has been at officer's training the past couple months.

With our Oma

My Oma and Te-Te decided I don't buy Jared enough treats

so this is what they sent us home with! (Not to mention a cooler full of food!)

It was a great time and we loved hanging out with everybody, thanks Oma for letting us crash your place! Thanks Tet for always making sure we were stuffed to the bone, I'm still trying to recover from the food intake!

Good News!

For those of you who are waiting for the announcement of a baby Gibbons you'll have to wait a little longer. . . BUT, I did get a job today, which is really good news! Before moving out here I had applied for several math positions at the community and liberal arts colleges around the area. I didn't think much would come of it because I honestly didn't know how competitive I'd be coming right out of school, but luckily a college here about an hour away had me interview and offered me the job today! My official title is a Developmental Math Specialist, so I'll be working in the Student Support Services department helping students who are struggling or behind with math. I'll teach a remedial math class and then spend the rest of my time helping students in an individual or small group setting. Only bummer is that it's a bit of a drive, but I'll only have to do it 4 days a week this coming semester and hopefully I can cut it down to 3 days a week for the next. Distance aside, it's going to be an great opportunity for me and I'm lucky to have found something so quickly out here, kind of a small (alright big) miracle!  So we'll both be slaves to the professional world come August, but at least our students loans will get paid off more quickly!

Got myself a road bike the other day, awesome perks of having Jared work for Trek. I decided that I need to get into better shape. It's not that I think I look bad or anything because I don't mind the way my clothes fit or whatever, but I just don't feel healthy ya know. Anyway, I went on my first ride this morning and it felt good, did 12 miles in just under an hour so I was pretty proud of myself!

Jared is stoked that he's finally converted me to road biking!

Wisconsin Weirdness

I'll give ten bucks to anybody who lives outside of Wisconsin, or who is not from here, that can pronounce these city names or street names correctly. . .

- Waunakee

- Waukesha

- Oconomowoc

- Monomonee

- Ashwaubenon

- Sheboygan

- Menomonie

- Kenosha

- Okauchee

- Koshkonong Way

- Egre Street 

- Trempealeau Trail

- Lalumiere Rd.

But don't worry my friends, if you ever come visit, you won't have to ever remember the street names because half of the roads and major streets go by either numbers or letters, and all of the locals use those instead of the full name i.e.

Windsor = 19

Washington Ave. = 151

Bristol = Hwy N

Grand Ave. = Hwy C

Stoughton Rd. = 51

You'd think there would be some sort of system for numbering and lettering these roads, but as far as I can tell there isn't! And when you get through the end of the alphabet, they just start naming the highways with double letters such as Hwy TT, DM, Bb etc. Confused yet?? Try living here!  But at least there's a Happy Valley Rd. here close to us, makes me feel like we're back in P-Town again haha