Halloween Party

This year for the optometry Halloween party, Nick and I decided to go as a famous couple. For those of you who don't know, Tony Romo is the quarterback for Nick's favorite football team, the Dallas Cowboys. He has been dating the pop singer Jessica Simpson for a while now. There was a big controversy called the "Pink Jersey scandal" in the news last year. Apparently, Tony Romo had been playing well until Jessica came to watch him wearing a pink version of his jersey. We tried to match their look, down to the pinky splint that Romo has been wearing this season since breaking his pinky in an earlier game. The second picture is to show the fake hair I found to better impersonate Jessica. We had a great night that ended playing Guitar Hero with friends.

Another Pumpkin Carving Night!

This weekend was Homecoming for Indiana University. The optometry school held a tailgate party for all the students and alumni, and it was even catered. We were in a tent right by the stadium, which was nice, but it was also very cold. We brought Herky along with us and enjoyed the free food. Since we weren't going to the game, a group of us decided to go to Musgrave Orchards to get apple cider and pumpkins.

We met up later that night at our friends' Tim and Jessica's house to carve the pumpkins. This time I decided to carve a University of Iowa tigerhawk, and Nick carved the grim reaper. We roasted pumpkin seeds, which I had never had before. I decided that I didn't really like them though...

Overall we had a great time!

Herky Hiking in Griffy Forest

Since Herky is doing so much better off his leash, I decided to take him for a hike in the Griffy Lake forest. He listened very well and had a great time running around.

Kacie's Birthday

My birthday celebration started a bit early, when Candice, Thai, Josh & Lezlie knocked on our door at 10:30 the night before my birthday. Candice had baked me cupcakes for my birthday! They all sang me Happy Birthday and we ate cupcakes.

Since I don't normally have any classes on Wednesdays, I had my entire birthday off from school! Unfortunately, Nick had to work, but I still had a great day. I started off by meeting a few friends (and Nick) for lunch at a local restaurant called Lennie's. They have great calzones, pizza, etc. After lunch, my friend Lezlie and I went shopping at the mall. Then I decided to take Herky for a walk in the forest near Griffy Lake (see other post). I had to go to a short meeting at the optometry school in the evening, but I got home about the same time as Nick got off work. We went to Kohl's to spend the gift card from Bill and Lisa (thanks!) and Nick got some work clothes too. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel (it was wonderful!), and then we just relaxed the rest of the evening. Thanks to everyone who sent me emails, Facebook messages, text messages, cards, and called!

Pumpkin Carving Party

Our friends, Candice and Thai, invited us over to their apartment for a pumpkin carving party last night. It was a lot of fun, and we met some other first year optometry students too! There was a lot of snack food like chips and salsa, vegetable pizza, "mummy hot dogs" (wrapped in crescent rolls), and a cheese and sausage tray. Between snacking, we played Guitar Hero and carved pumpkins. My pumpkin was the Scooby Doo pumpkin in the top middle of the picture. Nick's pumpkin was Frankenstein in the middle of the photograph. Thai wanted to carve a pumpkin that looked like his dog, Kip, but it didn't turn out exactly like he expected...it led to some good laughs though! After the pumpkin carving was over, we drove to nearby Smithville, Indiana to visit a haunted train. You didn't actually ride the train, it was very old, rusty and stationary, but instead you walked through the cars of the train which had been transformed like a haunted house. It wasn't too scary, but I definitely jumped a few times!

Herky Playing at Griffy Lake

Since Kinnick hasn't been able to run and walk as much as usual, Herky has a lot of leftover energy. I decided to take him by himself to Griffy Lake dog park. He played with several other dogs, explored the creek, swam in the lake, and ran through the forest. It was good for him to get some exercise (and a bath afterwards), plus he slept the rest of the afternoon! Sorry the pictures aren't great, they are from my cell phone.

It's a great day to be a Hawkeye!

On October 11th, the Iowa Hawkeyes came to Bloomington to play the Indiana Hoosiers. Nick and I had been planning to go to this game all year! We had tickets and decided we were going to tailgate before the game. Even though our tickets were in the Indiana student section, we decided to support Iowa and wore Hawkeyes shirts. Nick did wear an IU hat, but no one really said anything to us anyway. We got to the tailgate area around 9 am to find a good place, and we happened to find a spot next to some Iowa fans. One of the guys used to live in Marshalltown, so it was neat to talk to them. Four of our friends tailgated hamburgers, hot dogs and all the sides with us, but they were all wearing Indiana shirts. It was a noon game, and we got into the stadium just in time to see both the Iowa and Indiana marching bands perform before the game. The game was really exciting for us, but the IU fans around us weren't quite as happy. The game ended with a win for Iowa of 45-9!! We were hot, but really excited.

Happy Adoption Day Kinnick!

One year ago today we adopted Kinnick from the Bloomington Animal Shelter. We didn't do too much to celebrate his birthday, but he got a few extra treats and belly rubs. He is recovering well after his surgery last month and is off of pain medicine finally. He is also allowed to go play at the dog park for short amounts of time and run around with his doggy pals. He doesn't have to wear his t-shirt anymore since his incision has fully healed. But I thought I would share a few more pictures of him in his t-shirt because we had to modify it to make it big enough. The original gray t-shirt was too small to fit across his shoulders without rubbing on his incision, so I added a piece of Hawkeye material to make it looser. The video is of Kinnick licking his lips after getting all his pills in a big hunk of peanut butter (the only way he would swallow all of them).