Happy Birthday, Frankie!

Sunday marked a happy day in the Young family: Mom’s birthday! I won’t say how old she is for fear of retribution, although I think age is something you should be proud of! (We’ll see if I say that 20 years from now.) Maybe she wouldn’t care if I said… but I’m not taking any chances.

Gearry had to work, as usual, so Mom, Dad, Josh and I trekked down to Louisville to have dinner on the river at King Fish. It was a sunny, slightly breezy, gorgeous day, perfect for eating out on the deck and watching the river traffic and downtown Louisville.

Can Summer Please Just Stay Around Forever?

Well, no news can really top that of my last post (thanks to everyone who sent "congrats") but I thought I'd just write a small update to appease those who log on regularly and are saddened so often to find that I have not updated.

Gearry and I have taken up tennis, one of the few sports I've never really played but wanted to for a long time. Gearry loves racquetball, so he's also been wanting to give tennis a try. Suiting, since we live at a golf and tennis resort. Gearry bought me a racket for my upcoming birthday (it's pink and brown, for breast cancer awareness, and a portion of the proceeds go to breast cancer research... I love it!) and we got in our first match on Wednesday. We pretty much... stunk? I mean, I guess we didn't play too horribly considering we were both novice. But we played again Thursday evening with much better results. (i.e. some sense of hand-eye coordination). I can't remember the score, but I do know that Gearry won in 3 sets. Today, after I returned from volunteering at the animal shelter, we managed to cram in 2 sets before Gearry had to leave for work. He won the first set 6-2, and I won the second 6-3. So that means that tomorrow morning we have a tennis date so that we can play the third and final set and determine the winner of the match (hopefully me). We really need to stop adding additional fun sports to our lives, as it is growing increasingly difficult to decide if we want to go swim, run, bike, kayak, golf or, now, play tennis. Guess that's a good problem to have: options.

Hmm... not much else to report on. I've been sleeping most of the day since Gearry left for work, although I should have been working on research for my professor and studying for the NCAA compliance exam that I have to take on Tuesday, July 22nd. And, as we all know from recent experiences with the IU men's basketball team, knowing your NCAA compliance rules is pretty darn important. I have to get an 80% on the test, but it is an open book exam, so I'm not too stressed about it. But a little. Because I stress about everything (duh)... the curse of being a perfectionist/over-achiever. Oh, well... I needed a semi-lazy day (minus the volunteering and tennis).

Oh, I almost forgot... our vacation has finally been confirmed! Hillary and her husband Chris were making the reservations, so we've been waiting patiently. We are, for sure now, going to Hilton Head from Tues., August 26th through Sunday, August 31st. We've never been to Hilton Head, but Chris has and loved it, so suggested it for a couples' vacation. I have grad school orientation on Monday, August 25th, or we'd be leaving much earlier. Then I start grad school on Tues., September 2nd. So, basically, we're cramming this vacay into the absolutely smallest hole of vacancy I will have available for some time. But Hill's in grad school (master's of social work) at Ohio State, so it's hard to work around both of our schedules.

I'm really looking forward to the time away, however. Although I know my mind will be racing 100 miles an hour with all the thinking about the upcoming year, I hope I can sit back and relax a bit and charge up my batteries for the next 9 months or so. We're planning on lots of beach time, relaxing in the sun, biking, eating, tennis, kayaking, etc.

Celebration!

Thought I'd bring back the retro picture (dang, I don't even remember my hair being that long!) in honor of this fabulous, awesome, exciting, celebratory day. I, Stacey Young-Caudell, received some exciting news on Monday and wanted to wait to share it with everyone until it was made official and I signed my contract today.

I am the new graduate assistant coach of Indiana University Women's Varsity Rowing. Yep, COACH! As the G.A. coach I will be helping with the day-to-day administrative activities of the program as well as coaching at the varsity and novice levels for the upcoming 2008-2009 school year, while I am earning my certification and master's degree in elementary education.

SO... it's going to be an INSANE year (I will need lots of hugs and prayers, and some dog-sitters, I'm sure) with a full load of graduate classes AND a coaching assistantship, but I couldn't be happier. My four years of rowing were tough, but they were also some of the best of my life. I would venture to say that I learned much more from my rowing experiences than I did from my in-classroom experiences during my four years as an undergrad, and I'm happy to be able to give back to the program in this way. Plus, it pays for all of my tuition, fees and books, which just sweetens the deal.

I'm pumped to get started. I'll be at AuthorHouse until Aug. 15th and then will fully assume my new role. It's gonna be a long -- but good -- year, kiddos. I was always kind of sad that not many of my friends and family came to my races throughout my four years of rowing, so hopefully I can drag some people out to watch the Hoosiers as we head into what is hopefully a very proud and productive season.

You can read the official announcement here:

http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/w-rowing/spec-rel/070908aaa.html

GREAT Weekend.

Fourth of July 2008 officially ROCKED. It was a lot of time in the car (7 hrs. there, 7 hrs. back) but it was well worth the time and the incredibly sore back (sitting in the car for long periods of time inflames my back issues like WHAT).

Early on Friday I headed to Columbus, Ohio to meet up with Stebby and her cousin, Alicia. I stretched my legs and we grabbed some brunch at my favorite Columbus eatery, Northstar, with Hillary and Chris and then hopped back in the car for the 3 hr. drive to Wampler's Lake in Michigan, the site of Stebby's parents' lakehouse. I had been once before, for my bachelorette party, but this was the first time I had been in-season, and the first time with the extended Stebbins family. It was a blast! Stebby's parents are amazing (and know how to party) and her brother, cousins Alicia and Josh, and Josh's girlfriend, Missy, were all great. Below is a pic of the house from the end of their dock, taken on the night of the 4th. The little glowing things are luminaries that their whole section of the lake lights every year on the 4th. That evening we all hopped on their boat and went out to the middle of the lake to watch the fireworks people from various houses were setting off all over the lake. I couldn't believe these were private firework shows; many of them rivaled public shows in small communities.

We spent most of the weekend playing in the water, eating great food, playing Wii (I rocked at tennis, was OK at bowling and accidentally punched Stebby's brother in the head for real when we were boxing) and playing old-fashioned greats like charades. "Playing" seems to be the common theme.

Above are Stebby and Missy playing Wii. Not sure what game. I'm pretty sure this was a posed picture.

Above is the view from the bedroom I shared with Stebby and Alicia.

And above is the view from the back porch.

Toasty

Today was a glorious 85 degrees and Gearry and I spent much of it out on the boat with my (newly retired) dad. Sunny, sunny, sunny! Gearry, once again, looks like a lobster. You think he would have learned his lesson by now, right? SPF 4 does nothing for you, Gearry! And the sun was pretty intense. My nose is a little bit red, but I am otherwise unscathed. Gearry, however, is sitting here in his robe after being slathered with after-sun aloe gel. Silly Gearry. Nevertheless, the day was beautiful and it was fun being on the lake, rather than just looking at it all the time. I also discovered that I apparently have a great fear of geese. I was, to my credit, bitten on the foot by a goose when I was little. But the geese that would not leave us alone today caused me to curl up on the floor of the boat and hide myself under a towel. I just knew one of them was going to hop in the boat and try to eat my toes. Did you know that geese hiss? And have these big, nasty tongues? They hiss like snakes and stick their creepy tongues out at you. What's not to be afraid of?

I suppose I should do a quick run-down of Days #2 & #3 of our anniversary celebration, since I never updated. A super quick run-down. Had brunch in Nashville on Sunday afternoon, check into our cabin and relaxed for awhile before getting ready for dinner. Went to Bloomington for the Bloomington Slow Food dinner, a fundraising event for the Blooming Slow Foods Movement. The 7-course dinner was AMAZING and we got to sit with some really, really cool people who have done a lot for Bloomington through the years. We lucked out with an awesome table... we were the youngest by decades, but the conversation flowed freely. Unfortunately, so did the champagne and wine. Therefore, at the end of the 5-hour dinner, we found ourselves unable to drive back to Brown County to our cabin! Responsibility got the best of us and we ended up taking a cab back to our condo and crashing. In the morning Gearry had to drive back to Brown County just to pick up our stuff from the cabin we only spent about 3 hours in. That was the crappy part of the weekend. A little drama, and not exactly how we planned to spend our 1 year anniversary. But, it's over, and we're looking to plan a big trip for next year's to make up for it...

On Day #3, that Monday, after Gearry and I finally got over our dramatic evening the night before and made peace, we ended up playing 18 holes of golf here at Eagle Pointe, the first time we've played the course even though we've lived here since last June. We are both pretty crappy golfers, but it was a good time nonetheless. And by "crappy" I mean that we didn't even figure our scores at the end and we definitely cheated on a couple holes. (Whose idea was it to put water traps right where you tee off???)

I probably won't be writing for several days, just a warning. Tomorrow I have to work and then in the evening Gearry and I are going out with his friend Tim and his girlfriend Jessica for dinner and drinks and such. Tim and Jess are moving to California very soon :(

Gearry has to work all July 4th weekend (the pitfalls of a resort) so I am going to be enjoying Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Stebby's parents' lakehouse in Michigan (The Irish Hills area, about an hour and a half west of Detroit). I'm meeting her in Columbus, Ohio on Friday afternoon, we're grabbing some lunch with Hillary and then it's up to Michigan to chill and party all weekend! I looooove Stebby's family (so much fun) and their lakehouse is really cool (same place where we went for my bachelorette party) and I can't wait! Wish Gearry could join...

Anniversary Celebration Day #1

Yeah, so your anniversary is technically only one day... but when you're livin' it up, might as well make it three, right?

Today was Day #1, and it was fantabulous. Gearry never has a Saturday off, so that alone made the day great. Gearry and I are sitting here just relaxing a bit and drinking water (can you be hungover at 9:41 pm? I think so... too much wine at dinner) and getting ready for bed shortly. Big day tomorrow! This morning I woke up super early (yuke) and biked to the animal shelter to volunteer (yay!). 20 miles of biking and 2 hrs. of dog walking later, I returned and Gearry and I took the motorcycle into town to run an errand and enjoy some ice cream on this gorgeous day. This evening we went to 1875, one of the restaurants at French Lick. Connections are nice, of course, and after a wonderful and very large and very comped meal (well, after wine and tip we still paid $90 but that's way better than $200, right?) we headed home happy and stuffed.

Tomorrow morning we head to Brown County and are really looking forward to the Bloomington Chef's Dinner tomorrow evening. Apparently the theme of the weekend is "food," but for a chef and a foodie, I guess that's a good thing.

On Monday Gearry and I are going to play our first 18 holes of golf here at Eagle Pointe, even though we've lived here for a year now! And, I'm excited/sad to say, it will be my first game of golf EVER. Tonight we just messed around on one of the holes for a bit and I actually hit quite well considering my golfing experience has involved going to the driving range twice and a few scattered games of putt-putt. I have a pretty good idea of what will happen, though. I'm guessing around Hole #4 I will be beyond frustrated with my crapiness and relegate myself to just driving the cart. But, we'll see. My ridiculous competitiveness will likely kick in.

363 Days Later or So...

It is hard to believe that this coming Sunday will mark our first year of marriage. A year! It really seems like it was just recently that I was sweating out every last detail of our upcoming nuptials, so excited about the weekend that lay ahead. Well, now it's unbelievably a year later and I'm also excited about this weekend ahead... our first anniversary celebration.

Because we're planning a bigger trip at the end of August, right before I start school, Gearry and I decided to just do something small and close-by for our anniversary. We're both off Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Saturday evening we are going down to French Lick for some tasty (and free, as usual... whoo hoo!) dinner, per request of Gearry's chef. On Sunday (anniversary day) we are heading to Brown County early to peruse the shops, grab some brunch, do some wine-tasting and check into the cabin we rented for the night. It's just a couple miles outside of Nashville, looks nice and cozy and has a hot tub. Sunday evening we are trucking back to Bloomington to enjoy the 2008 Bloomington Slow Foods Chef's Dinner, a 7-course masterpiece with wine pairings held once a year as a fundraiser for the Bloomington Slow Foods Movement. Each of the seven courses is prepared by a different area chef and paired with wines from area wineries. Gearry knows most of the chefs well, of course, and I have a feeling it is going to be an absolutely delicious and fun way to celebrate the big "1." Then, of course, back to BC for the night. On Monday we don't have any solid plans; probably sleep in at the cabin and enjoy some lunch or something in Nashville before we head back to pick up the furbabies from our parents.

I kind of wish now that we had planned a bigger trip for our anniversary, but it didn't make much sense to me - since I'm going back to school in September - to schedule two big trips for one summer. We're hoping to truck it over the pond to Europe (predominantly Italy) next summer, so I like to think that we're saving up our pennies for that little jaunt with every "little" trip we take, rather than "big" trips.

So, lots to look forward to, but that makes it even more difficult than usual to get through this work day!

And about my potentially exciting developments in school from last post? Ehhh, don't think it's going to happen :( But I'll let you know.

Annnnnnd, my cell phone was pronounced dead on Wednesday morning, apparently the victim of some sort of overheating/explosion/detriment that caused the battery plug-in port to corrode and essentially burn the phone up from the inside out (complete with permanent marks on my formerly beautiful nightstand). There were no dramatic sounds or sights; it just stopped working. I had to order a new cell phone yesterday, which won't be in until Tuesday. So, until, then I'm old-schooling it. It is a weird, weird world to not have a cell. If you desperately need me, call Gearry or shoot me an e-mail.

Ewwwww.

I made a sweet slide into base last night during my softball game, but sweet comes with a price: For about the hundredth time this season I sliced and diced my left leg to pieces. Now it's burning and oozing and just all around gross, and I'm really tempted to post a picture to show you all my cherished/painful battle scar, but don't fear, I will spare you the disgust. Let's just say it's... ewww.

Aside from my massacred leg, today is absolutely glorious. Gearry had to go into work today for a special event (plating up a catered dinner for 1000 people... something to do with the circus... I don't know) so it's just me and the puppies today. I would rather have Gearry here, of course, but at least the weather is gorgeous (76 and sunny) and there's not much else to complain about.

This morning I went for a nice bike ride, my first since my left knee started acting up about a month ago. I've been working really hard to stretch, ice and rehab it, and it is doing much better. Now, hopefully, I can get back on the triathlon track, since it caused me to miss my planned first one on June 14th. I'm shooting for a sprint tri in Indy on July 19th, I believe, but we'll see what happens. I'm not going to go crazy trying to meet that goal, but at the same time I'd really like to. Mostly I just want to be able to bike, swim and run for fun, which means not screwing up my knee time and again.

After my bike ride (only about 8 miles, I believe) I went straight to the pool and got in about 20 laps in my unisuit. It's definitely heavier than a bathing suit, but I think it's going to work out well for tri purposes.

So, all that is done before noon and now I have the rest of the day to read, lay out, veg and - hopefully - work on my prof's research and a graduate assistantship application that I'm turning in for grad school, although they are requested a doctoral student, not a master's student, so the chances are slim. But there are some other very exciting possibilities looming in regards to grad school (ones I can't really discuss here, as I'm not sure who reads this). I will be sure to update with any news as the summer progresses. No matter what, I'm starting master's studies at IU this fall, but there is a possibility that it could be a really, really interesting opportunity depending on how things go.

Oh, and our beautiful flowers that I posted pictures of all died. Mmm, we didn't really do our research and no NOTHING about flowers, so we weren't aware that they bloom once a year, die, and then don't come back until next year. So now we have some nice green stems on our front porch. Oh well.

And for those of you who still haven't ever been by to see our house, come check it out! Open invitation. Maybe just call me first? Haha. Really, it's so beautiful here this time of year, I absolutely love it. And if I can just break down and finally clean/organize/finish our guest room/office, the house will be perfect.

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot...

The ever-trusty weather.com and my burning flesh every time I go outside tell me that with the humidity it is 88 degrees and currently feels like it is 92 degrees outside! Yikes. Needless to say, Gearry and I finally broke down and shut our doors and turned the air conditioning on. I'm all about conserving energy, but when you break into the upper 80s, lower 90s, it's just time to start using the man-made wonderfulness that is artificial air.

I mentioned in the last post that Gearry and I had finally found some flowers we liked for our front porch. We're picky, so for the last month or so we've just had empty pots of dirt sitting there waiting until we found the perfect plant accompaniment. They are asiatic lilies and they look great:



I heard so many boats out on the lake this morning when I took the dogs out for a walk. Dad is working, working, working for the next few weeks with no time to bring the boat up, but as soon as July 1st rolls around, he'll probably be up here a ton, and Gearry and I can't wait! It'll be nice to just walk down to Harbour Pointe and hop on the boat! I spent so much time on the boat growing up, and last year was probably the first year of my life that we didn't go out even once, thanks to the boat being jacked up. But the boat is as good as new and I'm ready for another summer of swimming, skiing, cruising and -- with gas prices as crazy as they are -- sitting on the water.

July 1st, for those of you who don't know yet, is my dad's last day at work. Yes, Gary D. Young is officially retiring. I am SO happy for him, and although it is going to be a big adjustment, I'm sure he'll be happy with the decision in the long run. I give him about six months before he gets bored out of his mind and starts his "second career" as is typical for young retirees. But, still, that's great. Life's too short to not do what you love, hence the reason I'm going back to school to get my certification and master's even though I feel like I should be well into my normal non-student life by now. But it's OK; life is a big, crazy, mostly fun or at least interesting adventure, so it seems.

Mom is on her way up to pick me up. We're going to head into town and enjoy the day. Library, a few errands, some shopping and dinner out. It's a little too hot to put poor Bailey and Zoey on the back deck while we're gone, so I think I'm going to (stupidly) let them stay inside. That usually results in disaster... yesterday, they were left alone for 30 minutes and that resulted in the shredded of the insoles of Gearry's work shoes and the continued shredding of our front door mat (they've been working on it for awhile). But, I'll puppy proof as best as I can!

Post #100!

My 100th post... well, technically "our" 100th post since this blog is supposed to be updated by both Gearry and me. Gearry has technically written 2 of the 100 posts, I believe, so I'll give him 2% credit.

Today, like yesterday, was another rainy, very stormy day. Gearry and I were both super grumpy the first half of the day -- not really for any particular reason -- so we canceled plans to go see a movie (we were sitting in the car in the parking lot of the theatre and changed our minds) but, luckily, we both got out of our funk and enjoyed the rest of the day doing a whole lot of nothing. We went grocery shopping, planted some pretty flowers on our front porch (pictures tomorrow... it was too rainy and dark today to get a nice shot), did a bit of house cleaning and baked some whole wheat honey bread.

We're starting to make our own organic bread. I figured I'm already a vegetarian, recycling, outdoor enthusiast, so why not add to my hippieness and start making homemade bread and granola? Honestly, it tastes better than anything you'll find in a store, it's less expensive (even with organic ingredients) and it's probably better for you... whole wheat flour, wheat germ and NO high fructose corn syrup (this is a common ingredient in most store breads). Plus, I sort of have a husband who is a chef and certified in baking and pastry arts, so I felt the need to take advantage of the "baking" part. He made a test loaf this afternoon and it turned out great. As I write he is in the kitchen whipping up enough dough for a few more loaves. We're making four loaves total; enough for one per week for a month (freezing the extras, of course) so Gearry will only have to bake once a month.

Most of the day, though, was spent doing lazing around, wishing it were a bit nicer outside, but enjoying the break.

Gearry and Bailey, watching TV.

Zoey watching TV/napping.