The Birthday Blues

I have to admit that my Birthday yesterday kind of sucked. Work was tough, I had a lot to do for school, I had class last night (4 hours of class!), and I didn't get to enjoy one min of my Birthday! BUT, I was very blessed by my co-workers who bought me bagels and flowers, and friends & family who sent cards & gifts or wished me a happy day on Facebook. Today is a different day! I am feeling more optimistic on my end of the term classes....and I only have one week left until I get a little break! WHOO HOO!

On another happy note... today is the first pick-up day for our veggies from Roots Farm. We signed up with them for our CSA this year and I cant wait to see what we got!

Athens Twilight

Yesterday was Athens Twilight Criterium (a 80km bike race around downtown Athens). To celebrate the race (and my birthday...I turn 27 tomorrow!) we had a little party at our house with our closest friends. Unfortunately, it rained - scratch that - PORED all day Saturday! We enjoyed some burgers, hot dogs, and dessert before heading downtown for the races. Of course, we all had to put on some rain gear so we wouldn't get too wet. We got downtown in time to watch the woman's race. It was a lot of fun and it was poring down rain! We saw a few small crashes in the woman's race and one BIG crash. I think there were at least 10 women in a big pile up of bicycles....it was crazy! We caught a few laps of the men's race before we decided to head home. After standing in the rain for a few hours we were all wet...the rain coats only did so much! It was a fun day, even though it rained. Cant wait for Twilight next year!!!

Behind!!!

This apparently is my life at the moment. I feel behind in everything! School has been keeping me busy and I am overwhelmed with the amount of homework I have to do and all of the fun spring activities that are going on around me. There is just not enough time in the day to do everything I want to do!!! I actually started writing this post on Monday and I am just now finishing it!

Last weekend was a whirlwind experience. Friday night Eric and I went to the Philosophy Departments Awards Dinner at the Georgia Center. Eric (along with several others from the department) was given his award for being an outstanding teachers assistant. The dinner was fun although I will admit, I had a hard time following some of the conversations revolving around Philosophy!

Saturday morning we got up to drive to the Mall of Georgia. We went to REI to spend some of Eric's birthday money, World Market, and of course Chipotle. Again, I wish we had a Chipotle here in Athens!! The rest of the afternoon was filled with running errands, and planning/helping a 60th birthday party for one of Eric's Philosophy professors. The graduate students planned a little skit to roast their professor. The party was great and the food was delicious!!

Sunday we headed to church and then quickly left to go to our friends son's birthday party. Mr Riley turned one and it was fun to hang out with them for a little while. We could only stay for 45 min, and then I was off to a group meeting for my capstone project. Once our meeting was done I headed to the Y, planted some more in our garden, made dinner, and had a little time to relax before hitting the hay.

I haven't had time to blog about our garden yet but here it is!



The hammock was my birthday gift to Eric. He enjoys using it very much and our garden it a perfect spot for it!

One last thing, the rest of our azaleas have bloomed and they are SOOO beautiful! I love this time of year in Athens!! Too bad I am too busy to enjoy it!

Eirc's Birthday

Friday night we went out with some friends to celebrate Eric's 28th birthday. Before joining some friends for drinks, Eric and I had a nice romantic dinner at La Dolce Vita downtown Athens. The food was YUMMY so I would highly recommend it!! After dinner we went to Trappeze and met up with a small group of friends. We had a great time and of course, I had my camera!

Panther Creek Falls

Last weekend we went on our first hike of the season (in GA) with our friends Michelle and Kelly. We went to Panther Creek Falls about an hour north of Athens. It was great to be outside and moving again! Most of the hike was fairly easy, there were a few steep ups and downs but nothing too rigorous. The best part of the hike is that the trail follows a river and after a 3.5 mile hike you are at a beautiful waterfall!







We stayed at the bottom of the falls to refuel with lunch, and to relax and enjoy the water. Unfortunately, the water was FREEZING...so we only got our feet wet. While relaxing Michelle and Kelly enjoyed a little nap in their hammock...



I don't think they knew I took this picture... :)

After some down time, we headed back up the trail and walked the 3.5 miles back to our car. We all agreed that it would be fun to do this hike again, preferably when we can enjoy a little swimming and maybe even spend a night camping by the river.

Spring Happenings

Since being back from Costa Rica we have been busy busy busy! Since I have been so busy, I haven't blogged in a while...this will be a long one!

My school session this Spring is challenging and I am waiting until May 3rd for it to be over so I will hopefully have some more free time! I will have two weeks off, then back to school for my final 8 weeks!! Right now I am working on my capstone project...which is the equivalent of your masters thesis. It is challenging but I am learning a lot. As the end of my program comes near, I am still trying to figure out my future. This has proven to be very frustrating in a small college town where there isn't a lot of room to grow unless you are connected to the right people. So for now, I will wait and see what opens up for me.

Eric has also been very busy with school. A few weeks ago he found out that he won an award for being an outstanding graduate teaching assistant at UGA. Wednesday was Honors Day at UGA and there was a ceremony honoring the students, faculty, and teaching assistants who won an honors award. Eric will also be honored next Friday by his department. I am so proud of him! Eric also found out Wednesday that he was accepted into the Future Faculty program at UGA. This program is a workshop that will help Eric prepare for being a teacher once he graduates from UGA. Again, I am so proud and happy for him!!

Spring it in full force here in Athens, GA. The pollen count here is ridiculous! This week there has been a yellow haze over everything! Your car, the roads, the wind, is all yellow. If you sit outside for more than 10 min, you will also be yellow. :)



Even though the pollen kind of sucks, everything has been blooming. The daffodils, tulips, saucer magnolias, and Bradford pear trees have all bloomed. The dogwoods, redbuds, and azaleas are in bloom now. It is so beautiful!! Here is a pic I got a week or two ago of our neighbors saucer magnolia, this tree is huge and super pretty in bloom!



My azaleas have also started blooming....



Today we went to the Growers Outlet in Loganville and purchased a lot of plants for super cheap! We planted a lot in our shade garden and in pots on our back deck. It was great to get my hands in the dirt! I will post more on that soon once I get some pictures of the plants, and some more time to blog. :)

Costa Rica: The last day

Our last day in Costa Rica was all travel. I'm not gonna lie, we were a little worried to get to the airport on time. Well, all of us were worried except for Eric. We got up at 3:30am to leave the B&B by 4am. We packed up the car and started driving. We were driving to a ferry that would take us from the west side of the peninsula across the gulf to the main land. This ferry would approximately save us 4 hours of driving time.

The ferry was supposed to leave at 8am and we were told to be there two hours early to guarantee your spot on the boat. If the ferry left at 8, we would have 3 hours to get to the airport. It was an hour and a half boat ride, and an hour and a half drive to the airport once we hit land again. We were cutting it close. Every time we told someone our travel plans, they looked at us like we were crazy to try and pull this off. Costa Ricans are known for their laid back attitude and are never in a hurry.

We got to the ferry at a little before 6. The sun was just starting to rise. We parked our car in the line and went to ask about buying our tickets. We got our tickets $20 for the four of us and the car to get on the boat. Not bad. They started loading not too long after that. At about 6:05 the engines on the boat started up. We were thinking, no way they are starting the engines now for an 8:00 ferry....we are leaving now! And sure enough, they decided to run an early ferry. This was a HUGE blessing. I am not sure if we would have made it in time if we had not caught the 6:00.

Since we were leaving so early, the worry of making it to the airport on time washed away and we enjoyed the boat ride. The sun was rising and it was beautiful coming up over the water. Of course, I took a lot of pictures....





We made it to the airport in plenty of time. The flight home was a lot better than the first flight. The landing was good. We got back in to our car (which felt extremely clean and new after bring in our rental) and drove back to Athens. All in all, our day was 16 hours of travel. We had a great trip with our friends Michelle and Kelly. Check out their blog for more stories and pictures. I almost wish we had never left. Having no worries and no responsibilities was really nice!

Our 2nd trip to Costa Rica was just as great as our first...we will definitely be going back!!

Costa Rica: Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve

On our second to last day in Costa Rica we went to the Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. It was a 30 min drive from Montezuma and we hiked 2 hours through the jungle to a beautiful secluded beach. My legs were sore from all of our hiking/climbing from the day before so this hike was giving them a good stretch! This was our first hike for the year and it was great! We didn't see any animals by the trails but we could hear the howler monkeys in the background. There were a lot of very large trees on the path. Here is a picture of Eric next to one of the large ones.



At the end of the hike was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The sand was white, the ocean was a brilliant turquoise and there were only a few other people there. It was perfect!




There were also a lot of hermit crabs at this beach. It was fun to watch them scurry across the sand. Sometimes you would see one fighting another. But here is a pic I got of one of the little guys. He was about the size of a quarter.



Unfortunately, while at this beach Michelle was stung by a jelly fish. The first thing I thought of was the episode of Friends where Joey and Chandler try to pee on Monica to soothe her jelly fish sting. I was prepared to help Michelle but luckily her hubby came to the rescue! I wonder who the first person was that peed on their friend/family to help a sting??

Needless to say, we didn't do any more swimming at this beach. We just spent and hour or so relaxing and then headed back on the trail. At the end of the trail was a hollowed out tree that was labeled "the bat cave". This may come as a surprise to most people, but I really like bats. I know it is weird, but they eat all of the bad bugs that try to eat me. So really the bat is my ally. So obviously I had to try and get a good picture of the bats. I didn't want to get too close but I got a few of the little guys. They were about the size of my fist.



The hike was great but I was definitely ready for some rest! Before heading back to the B&B we went out for a little reward...more ice cream! We had to go back to the restaurant from the night before. It was soooo good! After than we went back to the B&B to clean up, relax, and eventually went out for our last dinner in Costa Rica.