Booked our flights!

We went to the travel agency this evening after work to book our flight to England. We had to go through an agency so KU would pay for Jeremy's flight directly rather than us having to wait to be reimbursed. We now have our official flight times and we are super excited! We'll leave here on July 2 and return on August 1. This gives us 2 extra nights in London before Cambridge, and one night after before we come home.

Anyone have good suggestions of what we should do in London? I have some ideas but want to hear from you too!!

Next steps will be to book hotels for London and then start working on side trips for our weekends - we're thinking Dublin for sure, and maybe also one to Edinburgh.

Just two months left!

No place like home...

Our plans for Saturday night were pretty low key - I'd planned to go to Julia's to do some scrapbooking and Jeremy was planning to catch up on some reading. The weather seemed to have a few different ideas though! As soon as Jeremy got nice and comfortable taking a nap, we had our first thunderstorm warning of the evening. He grumpily turned off the weather radio, and then it went off again for a tornado warning. Of course, I'm a total weather nerd and I'd been watching the weather downstairs, and it was still pretty far from us, so we felt ok. Then another tornado warning came, and the forecasters thought we could be in the path of the storm.

Our friends Julie and Brandon called and invited us over to their basement - we basically just moved Julia's scrapbooking get-together there. I grabbed my ruby slippers and we rushed right over, laughing at all the other Kansans standing in their front yards with video cameras. We actually never scrapped... but our hosts kept us very entertained all evening! Here are some pictures from the night.

Jeremy and Molly taking shelter in the Urban's basement

Keri and Molly having a great conversation while the boys played Guitar Hero

Another shot of Molly - because who doesn't want to just keep looking at her? She's so precious.

Jeremy and Bryan rocking out. Tour begins soon! :)

Molly's siblings Ben and Grace were at the movies with other family members when the storm came through, so we got to hear about it when they came home. Apparently, the movie was stopped twice, but the biggest things we heard about were the polar bears and the sharks (they saw Disney's Earth).

Grace also told me her latest weather theory. Apparently, thunder is just the noise of the angels moving God's furniture around. Lightning always comes right before thunder, and that's because God has to turn on a light real quick to decide where to move the TV. If that's true, God needs to go on HGTV to show off the remodel after last night!!

Finally, because I'm a huge weather nerd, I thought I'd share some pictures of what we were missing while taking shelter. These pictures were posted online by other Kansans.

Clouds swirling near 6th and Wakarusa near Lawrence. The tornado came out of this about 20 minutes later. (nbcactionnews.com)

Lightning strike near Leavenworth. (nbcactionnews.com)

Damage in Leavenworth County (ljworld.com)

View looking north from 27th and O'Connell. (ljworld.com) For out of towners - this block is fairly close to our house, so this is a picture we could have taken if we were outside.

And finally, a tornado chasing video along I-70. (In case the video doesn't work, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCIqsElCMj4)

Hello, my name is Keri, and I am a nerd.

I discovered the coolest new website this weekend! Ok, well, new to me, but it's been around a while. It's called Goodreads. The best way I can describe it is that it's a social networking site (like facebook or myspace) but for readers. You can build your bookshelves to keep track of books you've read and books you'd like to read, and you can check out your friend's shelves and get suggestions from them. You can also write reviews and friend some authors. It's way cooler than I can give it justice to, so go check it out! If you want to be my goodreads friend, here's the link:

http://www.goodreads.com/friend/i?i=LTM2MDQ4Njc0MTY6MzY0%0A

Doctor's appointment

I've noticed that my blogs about doctor's appointments are not nearly as exciting as those of my friends... probably because mine involve pain and scarring and theirs involve cute new babies. But I know you guys are interested, so here's the latest update.

I went back to Dr. Laha this morning for my 3 1/2 week checkup. The healing in my foot is progressing really well. They x-rayed it (three views, mom) which I guess is standard procedure to make sure the inside is healing as well as the outside. He took a brief look at the x-rays and said they looked great, and he was going to examine them in more detail this afternoon to double check and call me if there are any problems - which he doesn't anticipate. The foot looks pretty good - WAY better than two weeks ago. He teased me that my middle toe is so bruised because he beat me with a hammer during surgery... haha. Nice. I think Dr. Laha just enjoys having a patient under 65, and is glad I can clip my own toenails (yes, there are old ladies out there who see a podiatrist just for this!!).

He showed me how to massage around my foot, gently, and said that this should get rid of the remainder of the bruising. He also wants me to start working on "bending my toes back and forth" which really means point and flex for those dancers out there. I've tried to point a few times, and it is quite the sight - my brain thinks it's working and you can tell my foot clearly isn't. Something to work on, for sure.

And the biggest news - I'm now allowed to start wearing matching shoes!! They need to be stiff soled, roomy at the toe, and rounded off - which translates to things like crocs and a few flat pairs of shoes I have, nothing too cute yet. As I start feeling comfortable and getting used to walking without a limp, I can add on other shoes as it feels okay. I'm hoping I'll be able to wear heels by Betty's wedding in June!!

I go back in three weeks for another check.

Hilarious!

Jeremy and I saw this video tonight on facebook (Thanks, Katherine!!) and thought it was too hilarious not to share. And no, hopefully this will not be our son someday.

Ok, I can not get the embedded video to work for the life of me, it crashes my browser every time. So, here's the link. It's still just as funny!!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1905976

Our weekend

Just thought I'd share some shots from our weekend so far. I realize it's not over, but it's supposed to be crappy weather tomorrow which means I'll spend the day in sweatpants - I'm not sure you need to see that! :)

This weekend was the KU-MU conference sponsored by the KU History Graduate Student Organization. We had a party last night at a Mexican food place downtown. Unfortunately, this place wasn't really prepared for hosting a large group like ours. The service wasn't so great (unless you went to the bar on your own), and the food was just okay. But, they had big buckets of ice on the table just for us! I guess they were afraid we'd run out?!? Here's Jeremy posing with the bucket, as well as the fine serving dishes they gave us - we shared a styrofoam plate.


Today, we took some food from Julia and I over to the Urban's house. Julia is out of town for her baby shower, so Jeremy helped me bring everything in. Here's a good close up of baby Molly, two days old today.



She found a perfect place to sleep all cuddled up in Jeremy's arms. I like to sleep in that spot too, so I was a little worried about the competition. :) She stretched to get comfy just as I snapped this picture so she looks longer than she really is. She is so tiny in Jeremy's long arms!


Julie and I went off to the dining room to work on birth announcements, and came back to find the kids playing Guitar Hero with one really big kid. Here are Ben and Jeremy in intense competition, and Gavin and Grace looking on.

Meeting Molly!

Just wanted to share a pic from our visit. Molly is so sweet and is even more adorable in person. She hardly cries at all - just once during our visit because the mean old doctor woke her up! (Just kidding, Dr. Cordova is very nice!) She's got deep blue eyes and more hair than I think I've ever seen on a baby. And then, fortunately for us, she let out a big poop so I can delay the baby fever for just a little bit longer. :) :)

Introducing Molly!

Congratulations to the Urban Family - Brandon, Julie, Ben, and Grace!! They welcomed their newest addition, Molly Isabel, this morning at 8:06 A.M. Julie says he looks just like Ben did when he was born. She weighs 7 lbs, 9 oz. Here are some pictures of Molly - the first one with proud parents Julie and Brandon. I am looking forward to meeting Molly this evening!