I keep thinking about writing this post and then putting it off...today is Labor Day, though, so it seems like a good deadline to wrap up summer!
Here are some of the things we've been up to lately:
Travel & Family
I've posted separately about our wonderful cruise with the Cook family, which was also our main vacation for this year. We had a great time!
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| me & Mark with the cruise ship in the background |
In May, we also got to see my parents, who visited us in BG. They were especially happy to see our new house, and Dad took the lead on the project of getting all the holes in the walls patched up and repainted. Everybody pitched in, but he really worked hard on this--it was a bigger job than I'd realized! And the walls truly do look as good as new. We also went out for tea, visited the national Great Lakes Museum, stopped by campus to see Mark's office and the new turf field, and spent some time exploring downtown BG. Here are some pics:
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| Dad working on touch up paint |
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| the four of us at Clara J's for tea |
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| our proper tea tray |
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| National Museum of the Great Lakes |
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| Mom, me, and Mark with the BGSU letters |
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| Mom & Dad with my favorite downtown mural |
Friends
I'm always hoping to see my friends more often during the summer, and I think I did pretty well this year. We also got invited to a big party to celebrate Jon's 50th birthday.
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| 50th birthday cupcakes |
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| at Clara J's with friends |
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our tea tray (look at those cute hat-
shaped sugar cookies on the bottom!) |
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at the Sundae Station for a send-off of some
Common Meal friends who moved to Colorado |
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| with Angela at the Wood County Fair |
Mark and I were also invited to three weddings/receptions this summer! We were able to attend the receptions for Olivia (Mark's best friend's daughter) and for a couple from the marching band (the bride was also in my writing class a couple of years ago). Unfortunately, we had to miss the wedding of two recent grads who were both in the drumline! But Mark saw some great pics online--we knew a lot of folks in the wedding party.
Around the House
July marked six months since we moved in!
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| Mom G took this nice pic of us in front of the house |
This summer, it's been great to spend time on our big covered porch out back (where I'm writing this now, actually :-). We've also enjoyed seeing what kinds of plants we have around the house and having the HOA take care of all of our lawn care. This neighborhood also has lots of birds and other wildlife--we've seen many deer and frogs and an occasional racoon or opossum. The neighbors out back also have two cats who roam the neighborhood. One is especially outgoing and has approached us on walks and on the patio to say hello.
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| big hostas on one side of the house |
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happy hydrangea plants out front
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the neighbor cat, Singham, walking
across the grass between yards |
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one of my most impressive bird sightings:
a great blue heron in the neighbor's yard |
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| Mark took this pic of a frog on our porch |
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| two fawns walking across the backyard |
We bought some additional patio furniture so more people can sit and hang out together out back, and the bar stools we ordered in the spring were finally delivered in mid-July. We have really enjoyed having that extra seating at the kitchen island!
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| my favorite spot on the patio (new chairs & tables) |
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another angle of the patio furniture
(most without cushions on) |
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| kitchen island with bar stools |
Work
Mark was especially busy with work this summer--his first in the full-time role. As usual, he also ran drumline auditions and a rehearsal weekend, but he was also more involved in budgeting, purchasing, student leadership training, and a variety of other projects.
In May, he also attended an Athletic Band Symposium in Virginia for the first time. At the end of July, the marching band (minus the incoming students) performed by invitation at Put-In-Bay during their "America 250" event. There was lots of great press and social media coverage!
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drumline students
(photo from BGSU Facebook post) |
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FMB about to march off the ferry
(photo from BGSU Facebook post) |
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marching in the parade
(photo from BGSU Facebook post) |
I wasn't teaching this summer, but I did have a couple of smaller work projects going on. I continued meeting with my colleague from the Spanish department to work on the class we'll be teaching together in Spring 2027. I was a member of the Bargaining Council for our Faculty Union, which involved a few meetings and researching some assigned topics to provide notes for the team who will be negotiating our new contract this year.
I attended the virtual conference for the Consortium on Graduate Communication, read a few professional development books, and worked again as a writing consultant for the faculty writing retreat on campus in July. This year, I asked if I could participate, too, so when I wasn't consulting, I was also there working on my own projects.
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attending the virtual conference from the porch
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a quiet corner to work outside during
the writing retreat on campus |
There was quite a bit of uncertainty throughout the summer about my fall teaching schedule, so I decided to delay some of my class prep until things were settled. In the end, that worked out well: I have a very streamlined schedule with only two preps, so it was manageable to get everything ready before classes started.
Odds & Ends
We were very pleased that Walt Churchill's Market in Perrysburg hosted another chile roasting event this year. Just a short 20 minute drive up the road, and we had another case of roasted green chiles to prep and freeze.
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| chile roasting in the parking lot at Walt Churchill's |
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my chile peeling and chopping station
(the kitchen island was great for this!) |
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| chile peeling & seeding complete |
I also made regular visits to our downtown BG farmer's market on Wednesdays, only now I'm driving there instead of walking like I used to. Can't beat the fresh summer tomatoes!
The other main activity for me this summer, as usual, was reading a ton of books. It's always fun to have those days when I can start and finish a book in one day! I also took lots of walks around our neighborhood, which we've learned is less shady than our old one...I ended up more tan than I've been in a long time, and I learned from Mark's habit to wear a hat most of the time.
Overall, it was a good summer, and here we are already two weeks into the fall semester.
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| selfie on the first day of school in my campus office |
