A Bloomington Weekend

Sunday was initally intended to be a day of rest, and boy, am I glad for that today! Rob and I have been making a point to preserve Sunday as a day of rest and so far, so good -- I just woke up from a long nap.

The reason we are both so tired today is because we had a full weekend! It started Friday night when we decided to invite some people over and have a game night. I made some pumpkin bars, (my philosophy is if Starbucks has their Pumpkin Spice Latte out then it's fall enough for me to make pumpkin bars) and we called some people from Rob's programs and our friends Conor & Kerri Angell, people we've been getting to re-know from our Taylor days. The people from Rob's program ended up coming a lot later, but Conor & Kerri came early and we had a fun game of Cranium first. Four of Rob's friends showed up later and we all played Catchphrase together and talked. I'm trying to learn the balance now of how much time I spend with Rob's friends getting to know them versus how much time he spends with them by himself. Obviously, I would much rather have everyone in our home instead of out in a bar somewhere, but on the other hand I get lost in their conversations about their classes and Spanish stuff. I think as everyone gets to know each other better our conversations will expand to things beyond Spanish and I'm glad for that. It's natural for them to all connect on the thing they know best.

Anyways, that was Friday. Saturday morning I got up and went to the Farmers Market as has become my tradition. The photo below shows how much produce I got for $26! I was pretty pleased about that.

Most things are a better deal at the market than in the grocery store, plus they are organic and by buying directly from the farmers we're able to put money right into their pockets. I feel good about that. The market is definitely a highlight of my week.

After I got back I made a big tabuleh salad to take to Rob's Spanish department picnic. I didn't really want to go, but we ended up meeting a really nice couple and hanging out with them for a while. As usual, I ended up having a good time once I was there. After the picnic we picked up Kerri & Conor and went downtown for the 4th Street Art Show. It was a typical outdoor art fair; it reminded me a lot of going to one of my dad's shows when I was younger. We didn't buy anything, but enjoyed looking at all the different art. We came home again and made a peach & blueberry cobbler because we invited some new friends over, Philip & Amy Moyer and their baby Levi. Philip's mom and my mom teach at the same school so they connected us. Philip is in Bloomington getting his PhD in choir conducting. We had a great evening getting to know them and will hopefully be visiting their church next Sunday.

This morning we visited the same church we went to last weekend, but went to the earlier, more traditional service with Kerri & Conor. We didn't like it as well & are more anxious to check out Philip & Amy's church than anything.

The weekends here are definitely different than the ones we had before in Upland, but we're glad for that. We made it an intentional goal to have more people in our home while we're here and so far we're succeeding with that! It's really nice to have new friends too.

Back to resting.... :)