The end of my first summer spent in Ames is coming to an end very quickly. It was my first summer living on my own, and my first time living in my own apartment. At the beginning of summer I moved into Frederickson Court (Freddy) with DJ Soults and Chris Wersinger (who I work with at Engineering Distance Education) and their friend Arron Andrews. So far our living arrangement is working out well, although I love having my own private bedroom. DJ loves to cook and Arron loves to bake so we never have a shortage of delicious food and desserts in our apartment. We also have quite a lot of cookware for a small apartment of guys our age. Food right now seems to cost about $50 a week, which I am paying for off of what I make at distance education (EDE) and occasionally donating plasma at BioLife when things get tight.
The beginning of my summer started with the passing of my last living grandparent. My mom's mother, my Grandma Abbas has lived in the Ackley-Geneva Nursing Home for as long as I can remember, but during the last year of her life the quality of her health slowly started to deteriorate. I saw her a couple times shortly before her passing. Once was over the end of Christmas Break with my mom, the second was at the end of the spring semester with my Dad and my Uncle Rodney, and then being with my whole family once again when she passed May 22nd.
When I came back to Ames after my grandmother's funeral I was about a week into the Differential Equations class which, combined with working at EDE, took up most of my time this summer. I ended up with an A in the course which I am very happy about. Taking it during the summer made it a lot easier to do well in, I think.
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| Mudding |
This summer I have been very lucky to be able to see my girlfriend Audrey Hubbard much more than I originally expected. I got to see her at the beginning of June unexpectedly when her family invited me to come meet her paternal grandparents in Gowrie, Iowa. It was a great opportunity that allowed me to attend her grandfathers 50th anniversary of being a Vet in Gowrie. I got to spend the afternoon at the Gowrie golf course golfing with Audrey, her dad and brother, and then I spent the evening at their celebration where almost the whole small town of Gowrie showed up. That evening her family invited me to come out the next weekend and spend the day on the river with her family. I was incredibly excited! Audrey drove down from Dubuque to pick me up in Ames Friday afternoon and I spent the night mudding with her brother in their Jeep while she had to babysit. Saturday afternoon we packed up a cooler and left for the Mississippi River where we got to tube behind their family friend's boat. They have a two person tube so I got to ride with both her and her brother.
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| Tubing the Mississippi |
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| Our 4 mile run together |
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| 4th of July Parade |
The next opportunity I had to see Audrey was when they invited me out for the fourth of July weekend. I rode out to Dubuque with my friend Scott's girlfriend, Amy, and then the four of us got Dairy Queen that Friday night and walked down along the river together. Then Audrey and I woke up at 5 AM the next morning to run together for the first time since Audrey started running. We ran 4 miles of a marathon relay race. It was a lot of fun running along a flat gravel trail together with her. I bought a disposable camera to take some pictures of us together along our run. Then later that day we all headed out to spend the day on the river again. I had a great time being with her and her whole family that afternoon. That evening, we anchored our boat at the north end of the river up by the lock&dam and watched a Fourth of July airshow complete with fireworks over the river. It was incredible. Sunday morning I woke up to go to church with Audrey's family. After church we headed out of Dubuque to go spend Sunday evening and Monday the 5th (a holiday for me from school) in Gowrie with her grandparents again. This time we spent the night eating steaks, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob with one of her uncles and two of her cousins. After dinner we went and walked around the Gowrie fair. Audrey and I got sick from spinning on one of the rides there, but it was still a great time. Monday we walked in the Gowrie parade next to her Grandparents veterinary service float. The float was complete with ducks, rabbits, goats and chickens. What an amazing time I had that weekend.
Some weekend in between there I got to go home to Denton, TX to see my family, which I hadn't seen since my grandmother's funeral. While I was there I got to go swing dancing with in Dallas with my best friend Bryan Ricci and our good friend Shawna Lemley. While I was there I got to meet Bryan's new girlfriend Laura Stone who will be a freshman at Texas A&M this fall. It was a great time being back in Denton even though it didn't last long. Until that point I hadn't been home since spring break, and I hadn't seen Bryan since Christmas because he was on vacation while I was there for spring break.
My next trip home to Texas for the summer was with Audrey so she could meet my parents for the first time. I went home to Texas July 16th, a few days before Audrey was scheduled to arrive. Before Audrey arrived the death of my Aunt Debbie threatened to cancel Audrey's trip to Texas. She passed away very unexpectedly from liver failure. My family decided it would be best to send my Mom and Uncle Rodney up to Iowa together to be there for my Uncle Steven. She left Monday morning and Audrey arrived Tuesday night. Bryan and my sister were there at the airport to greet Audrey when she arrived in Texas. I made Audrey a burnt wood sign that said "Welcome to Texas Budsey" that Hannah and Bryan held while Audrey tackle hugged me. I drove back to Denton, dropped Bryan off at Albertson's and met my Dad at Taco Cabana for a late quick dinner. That night I took Audrey out to show her around a little bit of Denton and meet up with Bryan at his apartment. She saw the huge hole in Bryan's ceiling from the flood that occurred in his apartment just a couple days before.
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| Camping |
The next day Audrey, Hannah, Bryan and I ventured to the Galleria in Dallas so Audrey could experience high end shopping in Dallas. We ate at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries in the middle of the mall and then Audrey took Hannah on a girls shopping spree through Victoria's Secret and other stores. Audrey got to spoil my sister, and Bryan and I got to walk around and attempt to have guy time in a mall. We did manage to find an awesome shaving store while we were there though. After Audrey had her fill we migrated back to Denton and dropped Bryan off so he could take care of some things he had to to for the day. We ended up eating at a Chinese buffet because it was convenient and my sister had to get to youth group. Audrey got to experience GracePointe for the first time then while the youth were there. While Hannah was having youth group I showed Audrey Ryan and Guyer High School. We came back that night and decided to go to a drive-in movie. Audrey and I loaded up the cooler with a few drinks and headed out to Ennis, TX to watch the end of The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Toy Story 3. We got back late that night from Ennis and went straight to bed. Thursday was our day for camping. Bryan, Shawna, Audrey, Hannah, Robert and I all went up and spent the day at Ray Roberts swimming and grilling hot dogs. Around 5 or 6 Hannah and Shawna left. Robert stayed until about 8 or 9. Bryan, Audrey and I had a great time cooking burgers on the fire, playing truth or dare, and talking about life in general. Then we went and spent the night in our tents. In the morning we broke camp, hauled stuff out to the car, and went home.
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| Swing Dancing on the courthouse lawn |
Audrey and I had to leave right away when we got back to go pick my mom up at the airport. Audrey got a very brief introduction there to my Uncle Rodney and then we headed home. That night my family took Audrey out to eat at a mexican restaurant in Dallas and then drove her over to where JFK got shot. We walked around Dealey Plaza and had a nice time observing the Dallas skyline. Saturday afternoon was spent meeting swimming in Bryan's apartment pool, introducing Audrey to Garnett, walking around the square and swing dancing on the court house lawn. We even got interviewed by a random guy who was making a film for a film contest. He definitely got some great footage with us.
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| At the Rodeo in Ft. Worth |
That Saturday night my family left to go to Ft. Worth to attend a rodeo. Audrey and I had a great time walking around the Stock yards, watching barrel racing, bull riding, and calf roping. After the rodeo we discovered our ticket stubs got us free admittance to Billy Bobs right next door. We went in and watched a country band my Dad knows a little of perform and Audrey and I also attempted to learn the Texas-Two-Step together but pretty much failed at it. I danced a song or two with my Mom and sister as well. Oh and I played my favorite video game of all time (Hydro Thunder) with Audrey and I'm sad to say that she did much better against me than I would have hoped. (I beat her by half a second). After a while we all headed back to Denton and went to bed to wake up for church in the morning.
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| Dancing the Texas Two Step at Billy Bobs |
We woke up and went to GracePointe with my family for church. I had such a great time introducing Audrey to people there. That afternoon my family went out to eat at Babe's (MY FAVORITE RESTAURANT). Audrey enjoyed the southern dinner experience there, and then we all went home with our belly's stuffed. Garnett invited us to go see Inception with Garrett, so we went to Garnett's house to first meet "Norbert" her Norwegian Ridgeback dog and then to the Rave Movie Theatre. That night we went to have our last hang out with Bryan in which we walked around UNT's campus and got the full tour from Bryan. We got teary eyed when we had to say our final goodbyes to Bryan, but our time in Texas was coming to an end. I woke up Monday morning and spent it just cuddling with Audrey until I had to take her to the airport. It was extremely hard to say goodbye to her, but I kept thinking that the next time I got to see her was when she would be moving back to Ames. I went home yet that day and stayed the night with my family. I flew home Tuesday morning to Ames where DJ picked me up in his Prius which he can drive again now because of his good grade in Statics this summer.
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| My best friends in the world. |
Since my amazing trip to Texas my time in Ames has been spent working at EDE and also doing a whole lot of nothing. The past couple days I've played quite a lot of Halo Griffball with Nate Dobbels and Nick Mathis. Tonight was the first Preseason game of the Dallas Cowboys, which we won. And as of midnight (about 3 hours ago as I write this) I've been dating Audrey for 7 months. It has been a 7 very incredible months, and I cannot wait to see what the next 7 have in store for us. Its one week until Audrey moves back to Ames, a week and a half until my cousins wedding and two weeks until the first day of classes of my Junior year here at Iowa State.
I'm really excited for people to move back to Ames and for the school year to start. I want to get back to a routine, but I know as soon as I have homework again I'm going to regret that statement. Tomorrow I have a meeting with my adviser at 9 AM to discuss my degree plan so I should probably get to bed. I can't wait to write about the exciting stuff this semester has to offer.
My next trip home to Texas for the summer was with Audrey so she could meet my parents for the first time. I went home to Texas July 16th, a few days before Audrey was scheduled to arrive. Before Audrey arrived the death of my Aunt Debbie threatened to cancel Audrey's trip to Texas. She passed away very unexpectedly from liver failure. My family decided it would be best to send my Mom and Uncle Rodney up to Iowa together to be there for my Uncle Steven. She left Monday morning and Audrey arrived Tuesday night. Bryan and my sister were there at the airport to greet Audrey when she arrived in Texas. I made Audrey a burnt wood sign that said "Welcome to Texas Budsey" that Hannah and Bryan held while Audrey tackle hugged me. I drove back to Denton, dropped Bryan off at Albertson's and met my Dad at Taco Cabana for a late quick dinner. That night I took Audrey out to show her around a little bit of Denton and meet up with Bryan at his apartment. She saw the huge hole in Bryan's ceiling from the flood that occurred in his apartment just a couple days before.
