Time for a real post of what Mike and I have been up to. Mike is still working on securing locations for his coffee shop. Yes that's right, not one location, but multiple locations. He's looking to possibly open the first by early to mid March. We're very excited- it feels like we've been waiting forever, but it's so close now! I promise to post pictures of the spots as soon as it's ok to announce to the public. Mike has also been working as a temp worker in the kitchen at the hospital. It's been fun for him to get to practice speaking Spanish with a couple of his co-workers.

I am about halfway through my dietetic internship at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. This week is my first week of staff relief. It's a really great deal where I pay the university to work for a whole week while the dietitians take vacations :) It's actually been going pretty well. I'm covering the RD who works in the medical intensive care unit and also with bone marrow, kidney, liver, and pancreas transplant patients. It's been tough, but it has been much smoother than I anticipated. Also, I was accepted to the College of Public Health, so starting in June I will be working on getting my Master's degree in Public Health with an emphasis in nutrition and exercise. I'm able to apply the credits I'm receiving through the internship towards my degree, so I'll be able to finish with the degree by December 2006. I'm ready to be done with school, but this is a deal that's hard to pass up!

Mike and I got to spend Christmas day with his family and we had a great time. Then we went last Friday to have the Kennedy family Christmas in Newton. It's so great to be married and get to spread out the holiday even longer!! I was on vacation last week so I got to work on my "Learn to Knit" kit I got from Mike's parents for Christmas. I am happy to say that I finished my scarf last Sunday. I love knitting, so much fun! I checked out a few knitting books from the library, so I've decided to start my next project- a purse. It's quite a bit bigger than the scarf, so I'm sure it will keep me busy for awhile.

We got an exciting new addition to our apartment this week when we put together our new entertainment armoire. Our old tv stand broke during the moving process this summer, so we've been borrowing a stand from my parents until we could buy a new one. It's been quite the process. The first set we bought had a few broken pieces, so Target let me exchange the pieces, but when we got them home, they were terribly mismatched. So Monday night, my parents came over with the van and helped me take the whole set back. Then we drove all around Cedar Rapids searching for another Target that had one in stock and we finally found it. But when we got that one home it had a broken piece also. Fortunately this piece was hidden and didn't need to match, so I ran back to the Target where my old one was still sitting and got the piece from there. What a mess! So anyways, Mike and I spent Tuesday night putting it together. It was a little tough to set up, but now we love it. It makes our living room feel bigger for some reason.
That's about it for now. I'll post pictures of my scarf and the armoire for you all to check out.
--Alicia