Catch-All Room

Despite what feels like constant chaos in my house, I love decluttering and organizing the different areas whether it is a room, closet, or just a drawer.  There are certain parts that I've done over and over but there is one room that I have put off because it was so overwhelming.  I wish I had thought to take pictures before we cleared the room.  It is truly impossible to even imagine how bad it was.  But I guess that is why there aren't any pictures!  I did find a couple to show that it was actually a functioning room at one time.

This room used to be my daughter's room (as you can see from the random Winnie the Pooh items).  When she was about 8 years old we moved her down the hall to what was then a spare bedroom.  That's when the disaster started.  First, we took the water bed that was in the other room and put it in this room.  The problem is that we didn't actually set it up as a bed so we started piling boxes and general junk into the big open bed frame.  Finally, we came to terms with the fact that we weren't going to have (nor did we really need) a spare bedroom and got rid of the water bed.  We decided to use the room as a "study room" for Kayleigh.  We set up my parent's old kitchen table for her to do her homework.  A couple months later, she got a sewing machine for her birthday so it became her sewing room.  Then a few year's ago, she really got into baking so the table was used to store all her baking supplies.  

Kayleigh sewing back when you could actually see the top of the table.  

There was even enough room for the ironing board.

Through all this, the room served several other purposes as well including a place to feed the cats, store Bill's bowling and bike supplies, keep the paper recycling, and general junk collection place.   We used to clear the table off every year for Christmas and use it as a second table for the food.

Here is the best I could do for a disaster picture.  I took this last year to show Kayleigh's cake decorating supplies organization.  Yes, we tried to organize in the middle of a big mess.  We were trying at least! You can barely even notice what we were trying to show because there is also a tower of scrapbooking paper, a bike wheel, a bowling bag, a random cup from when I was in college, and a tea pot.  You'll have to just imagine what the other 90% of the room looked like!

Eventually that became too much of a hassle so we just started shutting the door. When we were remodeling the family room and computer room, we started simply piling everything from those rooms into any open space in here.  Then, as I decided not to move some of the stuff back into the original rooms, they started to collect dust.   It was terrible.  It was almost impossible to even find an open spot to feed the cats.  The worst part is that you look straight into this room when you walk in the house.  

One day about 2 months ago, I decided I'd had enough and started clearing everything out of the room.  We took the table down and then looked around at the space.  We decided that the bowling and biking stuff would get permanently removed and that the other items needed to be better contained.  Kayleigh and I ran to Target for something completely different but stumbled across these shelving units that were on sale.  Then we found the bins and everything came together.  

Recycling is still there but hidden in that basket in the corner.  This unit has several of our larger items that used to be under the table including a pressure cooker, serving dishes and Kayleigh's sewing machine,  And, of course, there is always Dot!

This is the other shelving unit.  We managed to get tons of stuff hidden into those containers but it is still all very accessible.  My scrapbooking supplies are to the left.

One of these is holding Bill's extra water bottles and the other is actually empty!

There are Kayleigh's baking supply drawers that we were trying to show off before.

All the other, larger, baking items are in these.  

Here's inside one.  I couldn't believe everything fit so well.

 

Just for reference, that is the main door to our house as seen through the kitchen.

And this is what you see now from the kitchen.  Much better.  And there is Dot, again,.

The room still isn't perfect.  You'll notice a huge piece of drywall still pushed against the wall (not sure what that was even bought for) but it is so much better.  Every time I walk in this room or even just glance in from the kitchen, I feel so good.  I wish I had done this years ago but better late than never!  

The dry wall along with Dot.  Can you tell it was almost dinner time when I took the pictures.  She couldn't figure out why I was in there without her food bowl!

Please tell me I'm not the only one with a energy draining junk pile in their house.  I guess all that is left now is to tackle the basement, or maybe the garage!

Be Nice

I silence my phone at work and I'm terrible about remembering to turn the ringer back on when I get home.  Most of the time I don't even pull it out of my bag.  Ask anyone I work with.  Many times they've sent me a text that I don't see until the next day at work.

Tonight Kayleigh had to work, though, and it is snowing again so I had it sitting next to me on the couch.  It rang and a number came up that I didn't recognize but I decided to answer it.  The man on the phone quickly apologized and said he was trying to call his sister and dialed wrong.  I told him it was OK and to have a nice night.  I was about to hang up when he said, "Can I tell you something?  I really appreciate you being so nice.  I'm having trouble reading with my bad eyes and it is hard for me to dial the phone and I really appreciate you being so friendly."  

After I hung up, I was thinking about how I could have just as easily been irritated and hung up on him when I realized that it was a wrong number but it was just as easy to be understanding.  It didn't cost me anything to say a few nice words and hopefully it made him feel a little better, too.  

So many times, people seem so irritated by the smallest things.  Especially online.  Facebook often almost pushes me over the edge with everyone's neverending complaints.  Seriously people, just be nice.  It isn't hard and I promise it won't hurt you!

And just to help everyone relax, here is a beautiful sunrise (don't let the snow make you mad!)...

Birthday Books

Look at this giant pile of books!  That makes me incredibly happy. It also makes me want to take the next month off work and just read.

Last week for my birthday, my parents gave me a check.  My daughter is used to getting money for her birthday and then deciding what to buy with it.  I've noticed that once you get older, that birthday money doesn't flow quite as freely as it used to.  Normally I would try to be more sensible with my money but this year I decided to be a kid again and spend the whole amount on fun things for me.

I've been on goodreads.com for a couple years now and I'm always adding books to my "to read" section.  Unfortunately that list just keeps growing because there are always more new books to read.  This year I made it a goal to actually read some of the books that have been on that list way too long. So I took this chance to go to amazon and loaded as many of the books into my cart as I could with the money I had.  Shockingly, not one of them is a cookbook!

Just for something different (I'll eventually need a break from reading) I also ordered a new smoothie powder that I've been wanting to try and a movie.  Really, I mostly only care about the books though!
Here's the books I decided to get:


"I Didn't Do It For You" by Michela Wrong
"Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks"
"More Than This" by Patrick Ness
"Handwritten Recipes" by Michael Popek
"The World Peace Diet" by Will Tuttle
"Aunt Dimity's Death" by Nancy Atherton
"The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap" by Wendy Welch
"Bootstrapper" by Mardi Jo Link
"How We Do Harm" Otis Webb Brawley
"The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
"Whole" by T Colin Campbell

I think my parents will be happy.  My dad will be thrilled that I spent the money on books - that's where my love of reading comes from.  My mom doesn't understand the attraction to books but she will be happy that I got something just for fun.

Off to read, but how do I decide which one?!

                                       My cat was just as thrilled with a new box to sit on!

Back to School Update

Hey, I just remembered I have a blog!  Actually even though it has been 2 months since I posted anything, I have actually been writing posts in my head all the time.  The problem was sitting down and actually writing them.  My chaos that I couldn't talk about before is continuing but it is becoming more routine so that shouldn't interfere so much any more.  Summer in general is kind of crazy which is funny because it is really only Kayleigh's schedule that changes but that seems to throw the whole household routine off.  And the worst part is just as I start to adjust, she goes back to school!

So, the ongoing process of getting my Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) designation.  I had planned to study about 6-8 weeks for the first part, take the exam, study for the second part, take that exam, etc. After studying about 5 weeks for the first part I was feeling pretty good about it so I decided to schedule the exam.  I was hoping to take it within the next 2-3 weeks.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any openings for almost 2 months.  I was horrified.  After freaking out for a couple days, I decided to move on to studying for part 2.  Now that I knew the time slots filled up fast, I went ahead and scheduled the second exam for 2 weeks after the first.

From the beginning I had mapped out my studying day-by-day to keep me on track and that became really important now that I was studying for two parts at once.  I ended up completing my study units for part 2, two weeks before my part 1 exam.  So at that point I switched back to reviewing part 1.  My study materials said that only 57% of the people pass the individual parts on the first try so that bumped my nerves to a whole new level!  I am happy to say that I passed part 1 on the first try.  I was so nervous and then so relieved, only to be followed by being nervous about the next part!

After I passed the first part, my co-workers got me a fruit bouquet and balloons which was fantastic.  I couldn't stop smiling for days.  I quickly realized that I had part 2 coming up in less than 2 weeks though, so had to come back down to earth and continue studying.  I passed part 2 on my first try as well.  I really can't believe it because I did not feel very confident.  I followed the study guide exactly how they suggested and I'm convinced that was the secret.  Shortly after passing part 2, we went on vacation so I haven't started studying for the third and final part yet.  I plan to start tomorrow.  Part 3 contains a lot more material (20 chapters in the study guide as opposed to 7 in the previous) so I'm feeling a little intimidated.  I'm sure I'll feel better once I jump into it though.

So I am living proof that you can do anything you put your mind to if you truly commit to it.  I had plenty of moments of doubt through the process but even though I haven't had to study for the past 20 years or so, I was able to get back in that mindset and do what I needed to do.

In a similar fashion, my husband just did something much larger than anything he did in the past as well.  We just got back from 10 days in Wisconsin where he competed in the Tour of America's Dairyland.  You can go here for their website and here for the Facebook updates if you are interested in more information. I have several posts planned about the competition in general and also what we did to plan for the trip, what we ate, and how Kayleigh and I fit in exercise around his races.  I'll give you a sneak preview though and tell you that he got first place overall for the 45+ Masters Category 3/4.  It was so exciting and, at least for me, completely unexpected.

Bill with Greg Hayes and Ross Giese

Masters 45+ Cat 3 & 4

Too Much Stress!

The last couple weeks I've been under a tremendous amount of stress.  I'd love to get it all off my chest but unfortunately it isn't something I can talk about.  What I can talk about though is how I did exactly the wrong thing when all this turmoil began.  I quit exercising and meditating and started eating junk food.  Granted, my junk food isn't nearly as junky as the typical American diet but still it caused my body to get very confused.  I quit sleeping but then only had enough energy to sit around watching TV.

The worst of it is behind me now (I think) so I'm going to make it a priority to get back on track.  I bought plenty of fresh produce last weekend so our meals should be automatically more healthy since I don't want it to go to waste.  Also, I'm off work until next Monday so exercising shouldn't be a problem.

Even though I am disappointed with how I let this issue disrupt my healthy lifestyle, it provided proof that I've been doing the right thing over the past couple years.  Normally it would have taken much less stress to completely mess up my stomach, give me constant headaches, and kick my IBS back into full force misery.  None of that happened.  Yes, my stomach has been very quivery and nervous, but I've been able to eat and overall I've felt pretty good considering the circumstances.  I haven't neglected any of my other activities.  I still get up every morning, pack Kayleigh's lunch, fix breakfast, go to her track meets.  I'm really shocked at how well I managed to compartmentalize that small but extremely stressful part of my life so that it didn't interfer with the rest of my life.  Oh yeah, and poor Kayleigh had her birthday fall in the middle of all of this!

This has been rambling and incoherent but I guess my main point is that although I didn't keep up with my diet and exercise routine over the past couple weeks, the good habits from the last couple years helped get me through this minor set back without too much damage.

I have tons of planned blog posts that I haven't got to this month so I'm going to make those a priority along with getting everything else back on track.  Stay tuned!

March Goals Recap

For March, I set 5 goals for myself.  Overall I'm happy with my results.  Two of them worked out so well I plan to continue.  The first success was drinking a glass of water every morning when  I first get up.  I managed to do that all but two days this month.  Now I'm so used to it, I feel funny if I don't drink water within the first half hour of getting up.

Parking in the back of the parking lot at work started off with a challenge because it was snowing the first day I went to work this month.  I was really tempted to pull into my normal spot but then I stopped myself.  I couldn't mess up a goal on the first day!  So I pulled all the way to the back and after a couple days discovered a hidden bonus.  I was actually able to get out of the parking lot much quicker in the evening because I didn't have to wait for everyone else before I could pull out of my spot.  So I walk a few extra steps and get home several minutes quicker!  Definitely going to continue that one.  There was only one day I parked closer but that was because it was raining and later in the morning I had to go to another location with someone else.  I didn't think it was nice to make her trek across the parking lot in the pouring rain so I parked in my old spot.

The exercising went OK.  I didn't always get it all in but I liked the variety of doing yoga, running and strength workouts.

I didn't meditate nearly as much as I would have liked but I did get more in than usual and I definitely felt calmer.

The sugar - well.... I really only gave this a half-hearted try.  I didn't make any cookies or anything like that this month but I still ate sugar.  I switched it from trying not to eat any sugar to just being aware of how much I was eating.

So overall it was a good month.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do something similar in April.  I have a couple hours to figure it out!

Back to School

When I was in college, I remember seeing a quote that went something like:

Every day do something for the sole reason that you don't want to.

I have no idea who said it and can't seem to find it now so I may be remembering it all wrong.  Regardless, the idea of stepping out of my comfort zone has always stuck with me.  So many times when an opportunity presents itself, my gut reaction is always to say no.  Even when it is something non-threatening like going out to lunch with someone.  Although, if I ignore my gut and do it, pretty much every time I'm happy that I did.

With my new job came the opportunity to get a new certification.  I already have one for a specialized area but this one is much more broad and covers every aspect of my profession (I won't bore you with details about auditing!).  I had actually considered doing this on my own when I was unemployed because I thought it would help me find a job.  Even though I'm now working, it can only help me in my current position and put me in a better position if I find myself unemployed again.

Even though I knew all this, when it was first suggested, I hesitated.  I've been out of school a long time.  This is a three part exam that will probably take about a year to complete.  That means hours and hours of studying and then concentrating through 2+ hours of testing at a time.  I was really tempted to say I didn't have the time to commit to it.  But then I realized that was crazy.  My daughter is in high school and always busy with her own activities.  She certainly doesn't need much of my time any more.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized this is actually the best time for me to do this.  Plus, what kind of example would I be setting for her if I didn't continue to improve myself?  I always tell her that you have to keep learning so it is only right that I lead by example.

So I agreed to work towards my certification.  I ordered a study program and immediately became overwhelmed!  But I quickly fell back into the routine of studying.  I worked out a plan of attack and scheduled all my study sessions for Part 1 in my calendar.  I'm now 5 weeks into it.  I'm hoping to take the first exam sometime in April.  Some of the sections have been easier than others but even when I struggle, I just keep going.  One chapter in particular is just killing me.  I've taken quiz after quiz and I feel like I'm getting worse!  But even when I get frustrated, I'm enjoying the challenge.  Losing my job last year was a bit of a blow to my confidence but now I can feel it coming back.  It feels good to take on a challenge and feel like I'm really accomplishing something.

Last year my big challenge was running that 5K.  Hopefully this will be just as successful as that!

March Goals

Back in December I had my workout goal of 2 hours a week including at least 4 miles of running.  That worked well to keep me motivated for a little bit but then that fell apart and wasn't really motivating me any more.  Kayleigh's track season started a couple weeks ago and Bill is training for his upcoming training camp (for cycling) so I decided I needed to come up with some kind of focus as well.  Last year I had the 5K that I was working towards but I don't really have anything specific like that this year.  Instead of picking one big goal, I decided to pick several enhancement kind of items that I could work on this month.  I'm generally happy with where I'm at right now but there are always small tweaks I can make.  I thought it would be good to have general health improvement actions instead of just exercising.  Here's the plan:

• Do yoga, running and ab workouts each at least two times a week.  I came up with this one because I was considering buying Insanity.  I decided I should prove that I was more dedicated to my current workouts before I spend money on a new one.
• Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning.  I usually drink a lot of water through the day but lately I've been so busy at work, I barely drink anything at all.  Starting the day with a full glass of water should get my day off to a good start.
• Park at the back of the lot at work.  I usually get to work early so a close spot is usually available but that doesn't mean I have to take it. 
• Meditate every day.  I already meditate on a regular basis but I'd like to increase it to daily.  I see a big difference in my stress level when I take the time to slow down for a few minutes.
• Reduce sugar.  That's my hard one!  I'm going to try to cut out most sugar and use only fruit, maple syrup, stevia,  or agave sparingly.  

I've managed to make it through the first two days but we'll see if I can keep it up.  I'm hoping by the end of March I'll see an actual improvement in my overall health, fitness and mental attitude.  

How To Have A Happy Day

We still have a lot of snow here and it is still very cold.  On Sunday they notified us that schools would be closed Monday and Tuesday and that our work start times were delayed.  Monday morning they closed both our businesses so we were all home for the day and the state closed all the roads.

This morning, I had planned to go to work.  Most of the roads were opened but they were still warning people that the conditions were very hazardous.  Bill leaves about an hour before me so he called and let me know that the intersections were very icy.  I put on multiple layers of clothing and headed out for work with plenty of time to spare.  First I struggled to get the garage door to open but luckily the car started fine.  I was happy to see that Bill had set the 4-wheel drive because I wasn't sure that I remembered how.  So I slowly headed down the driveway and at the end - stopped.  I tried to pull forward and my wheels started spinning.  I finally managed to pull forward but when I went back, I again got stuck.  I continued to do this over and over, trying different angles and speeds but couldn't make it into the street.  After several minutes I realized this was a sign that I really should not be on the road so I pulled forward and went inside.

After taking off several layers I sat down and was really unsure what to do.  I was irritated that I wasn't able to get to work, partially because I didn't want to use a vacation day but also because I'm tired of being stuck in the house.  There is nothing more I can clean or organize!  After a few minutes though, I realized this was a great opportunity to just focus on doing things that make me happy.  There was nowhere I had to go and nothing and had to do.  To make it even better, Kayleigh was stuck here with me!  So I decided to be happy and enjoy my day.

First I lit one of my favorite candles and watched some TV.  Once Kayleigh woke up, we made some muffins.  Her chocolate muffins were from a cookbook but I wanted to use up some mandarin oranges so I we had to adapt a basic recipe (I'll post the recipe tomorrow).  Then we watched a little more TV and ate lunch.

After lunch, we pulled out several games (non-electronic) and played all afternoon.  In case you're curious, I won 3 games of Battleship but Kayleigh won Bargain Hunter and Bonkers.

Throughout the day I learned that it is not a waste of time (or a vacation day) to sit back and pick things to do just because you enjoy them.  I hope to not have to wait for severe weather to do this again!  Although Kayleigh's school is cancelled again for Wednesday, I will hopefully be back at work, refreshed and happy.

 In case you can't tell, that says the temperature outside was -3.  We were excited that it warmed up!

 Tiger barely left my side all day.

 Kayleigh picking out a muffin recipe.












My favorite boy.













Playing Battleship - 1970's version.  Our other cat insisted on laying across Kayleigh's legs which may explain why I won!

Spaghetti Sauce

Hope everyone had a nice holiday.  We celebrate with my family on Christmas Eve and, for the first time ever, it was at my parent's house instead of ours.  Although I still cooked a lot of the food, it was nice to not have to worry about cleaning the house.  We had planned this change over a month ago and with the recent death in our family and our unfinished house projects, I was really glad it wasn't here!

Yummy snacks on Christmas Eve

Several years ago, we had pasta with your choice of marinara, Alfredo or pesto.  That was when we discovered that my niece, who usually wouldn't eat any of my food, loves my marinara sauce.  Funny enough, Kayleigh won't touch it!  This year my mom thought it would be easiest to have spaghetti so I brought the sauce, which we have now renamed "Lily's Spaghetti Sauce".  Kayleigh didn't eat it, as usual, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.

On Christmas day, Bill and Kayleigh used to go to his mom's house.  I'd stay home and try to get our house back in some kind of order after our Christmas Eve celebrations.  This year, obviously, Bill and Kayleigh had no where to go so we all lounged around and had a very nerdy Christmas watching these all day:

It was so relaxing.  We then had fajitas for dinner - not very traditional!  Also, the three of us have very similar senses of humor so one person would make a joke and we would just keep it going.  At one point we were laughing so hard we could barely breath!  It seemed wrong since we are supposed to be mourning but I think it helped Bill keep his mind off what is coming later in the week.  Overall I would say it was a pretty good Christmas considering the circumstances.

Looks like they planned their outfits but they didn't!

Spaghetti Sauce

1 1/2 T olive oil

1/3 cup onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 T tomato paste

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes1 cup vegetable broth or water

1/4 cup pine nuts, coarsely chopped

3-4 sun dried tomatoes, chopped

5 pepperoncini, chopped

1 tsp pepper

1 T salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat.  Saute the onion until nice and caramelized  Add the garlic and cook two minutes.  Add the tomato paste, Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper and cook for 2 more minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until the sauce thickens.  Taste the sauce after about 10 minutes and add more salt and/or sugar if needed.

NOTE:  If you don't have pepperoncini on hand, add 3 T balsamic vinegar at the very end.

Day Late and a Dollar Short

I didn't get a chance to post my weekly exercise challenge results yesterday.  I don't have the exact numbers at the moment but I can say that I didn't come close on the run distance or overall time.  Usually I don't think sitting on the couch watching TV is a good excuse to not exercising but last week it was.  My husband's mother has been battling cancer this year and passed away Saturday.  Last week we knew the end was near and I felt like I was being more useful watching TV and talking with Bill than I would have been on the treadmill.  This week probably won't go much better but that is OK.

On top of his mom, we also lost his sister's father-in-law the week before and my aunt has only been given a couple days.  It has not been a happy few weeks for our families but I've been overwhelmed by the support from our friends.  It has meant so much.  Today I went into work for half a day and one of my co-workers brought in a taco dip (vegan!) for me to take home so we'd have something to eat around the house while we made all the funeral arrangements.  I've only been at this job for 5 months but I have made such good friends already.  They have really been thoughtful and supportive and I can't begin to express my gratitude.

Blurry but delicious taco dip

The only positive exercise accomplishment I had last week was that I did my plank challenge every day.  I was amazed on Friday when I held it for 1.5 minutes.  I never thought I could do that!  Unfortunately tonight I was supposed to do 2 minutes but I completely collapsed at 1 minute 32 seconds.  I've decided to keep trying to reach the 2 minutes.  When I do, I'll continue the challenges from there so it will definitely take me longer than 30 days.  On the bright side, Bill tried it with me tonight and only made it 27 seconds so I feel pretty good about my time!

Happy Memories

Guess where we were last weekend!

Kayleigh was on fall break so right after cross country semi-state on Saturday, we left to spend a few days in Bloomington.  Up until a year ago I never really thought much about trying to persuade her to go to the same school as me but then she decided to major in Marketing.  Seriously, if you live in Indiana and want to major in business, you go to IU, right?  She has been hesitant to even consider it though mainly because she wants to follow her own path.  But the great thing about such a large school is that you can make it whatever you want.

So I decided to win her over to IU by taking her to visit the campus in the fall.  It is beautiful down there all year long but in the fall, the campus outdoes itself.  We were hoping to go for a run but never found time to fit one in.  We did plenty of walking though.

Apparently Kayleigh has never seen a chipmunk in real life.  Lucky for her, there must have been a chipmunk convention going on while we were there.  We couldn't turn a corner without seeing them!

I was actually a little nervous about the visit.  I have such great memories and I was afraid that seeing the campus again might tarnish some of them.  It has been about 21 years since I have been there but I immediately felt and home and remembered my way around just fine.  I loved it.  I felt like I got to go back in time for a few days.

Kayleigh seemed to like the campus and had a good time walking around Bloomington but she certainly wasn't going to act too excited!  She bought plenty of IU items though so I'm hopeful.  We'll just have to see.

One of the shocking things that has changed about Bloomington is all the vegan options.  I became a vegetarian while at school.  I started researching it my sophomore year (which wasn't so easy before the Internet!) but had to wait until my junior year to actually change my diet because it would have been impossible to be vegetarian in the dorms.  Now not only does Bloomington have a vegan restaurant (which we tried to go to but it was always packed), there were vegan options at every restaurant we visited.  It was fantastic.


 On Sunday we went to Scholars Inn Bakehouse for lunch.  We first went to The Owlery but didn't want to wait 45 minutes.  This restaurant was just down the street so we decided to try it out.

I got this veggie sandwich.  It was good.  Overall this place reminded me a lot of Panera.  My husband was quick to point out later that they sponsor a local bike racing team.

 After walking around for hours and hours, we decided to grab some ice cream before heading back to the hotel.  Is that vegan ice cream?  Yes it is and it was delicious!  We got this from Hartzell's where the people were unnecessarily rude but the ice cream made up for it.

 On Monday, I wanted to walk through the campus so Kayleigh could see how crowded it is during classes.  Unfortunately it was so crowded, we couldn't find any parking spaces and it took us forever to just drive around the outside of the campus.  So instead we went back downtown.  Kayleigh went to a running store and then we grabbed some soup at this restaurant to eat back at the hotel while we packed up.



Kayleigh's soup is the very non-vegan chicken tortilla but I got lentil spinach.  The portions were so large that I had half mine left over for lunch at work on Tuesday.









I really hope that Kayleigh ends up at IU so that I have an excuse to keep visiting for 4 years.  I forgot how much I loved it.  It is a long drive but completely worth it.