Last night John and I participated in the annual Reggie's Sleepout fundraiser. For those of you who are not familiar, it is a fundraiser for homeless youth and involves kind-hearted individuals like John and myself raising money and then sleeping outside for a night. Now, before I proceed, I would just like to point out the fact that the raising money portion of the event is the part that actually makes a difference; the sleeping outside part is merely for raising awareness (which, as social workers, we are very aware of homelessness). And on a side note, I would also like to mention that John and I have both been fighting what appears to be the flu all week and I had a fever all day yesterday prior to the event. And thus, John and I did not actually sleep outside all night, though we did stay until about midnight...

On the drive to the Drake stadium, it began to rain. The news never mentioned rain. The news never mentioned constant rain until about 11:00pm. And so, we were wet. But, at least we were in cahoots with people with tents; everyone that made cardboard box structures were scrambling for tarps and trying to keep their homes from disintigrating. The rain put a damper on time-passing activities though, since we couldn't do much but play Uno with 12 people crammed in a tent.

I should also mention, for those of you who don't know, that the Hawyeke's played a night game last night, against Michigan State. And to give credit where it is due, John did an excellent job of socializing with others and only sneaking peeks at the score on his phone, although he would have much rather been watching the game. He found a friend in fellow Hawkeye fan, Karen, and had someone to celebrate with when the Hawks pulled off a win in the last 2 seconds! (Though, Karen at least put her shoes back on before running outside of the tent to celebrate the win!)

So, technically we did not sleep in the cold and rain all night, but we did have a good time with our friends and with our team raised nearly $800!

Well, it appears that I was not able to stick to my mid-year resolution of updating this thing on a more regular basis. Given that I've made several excuses for my MIA status in the past, I will avoid giving you more and will just carry on as though there has not been a 3 month lapse in posts.

John and I went to San Diego a couple months ago to attend our good friends April and Richard's wedding and to spend some time with our toes in the sand and our minds work-free.




Here is the beautiful bride and her wonderful fella reciting their vows. Although I do not remember this part of the ceremony, I heard it was lovely. The next picture is of my sad face after recovering from my overheating/fainting episode that caused me to miss out on hearing April and Richards vows (still reeeallly sorry about that, guys!).










And now, I'd like to compile a list of things that I miss about San Diego:

- Slurpees
- Fume guards on gasoline nozzles
- Nordstrom
- BJ's Pizza
- Jamba Juice
- Five-lane interstates and people who know how to drive faster than 60 miles per hour
- In-n-out
- Toilet seat covers in public restrooms
- Real Mexican food
- Best friends
- Home
- Baby sisters and new nephews
- Charger fanatics

So, as you can see, our trip back to San Diego was a wonderful time. We truly enjoyed spending time with all of our friends, my family, and lounging by the ocean. We'll be back in California in about 8 months for our wedding - June 12th!