Waite Adventures: November of 2008

This was a recover and clean from the last month, but it was still filled with our own Waite adventures. Craig presented a paper in Chicago at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association. It was so much fun. Why? Because I was there, that's why. Just kidding. We met up with our Ghana group (all but Ana) in Chicago. Jeff was presenting a paper too, so Katie came with him and we all stayed at Susan's apartment! Wow! I hope that wasn't too crazy for her. We started off by leaving Thursday after work and going to West Lafayette and spent the night at Heidi and Danny Pettingill's. I visited with my friend Chrissy who had just had her 2nd child, a little boy and then afterwards Heidi and Rachel Yarrington (Rachel Haines, my college roommate) planned a couple's volleyball night. How fun! Friday we left after lunch and drove 2 hours to Susan's apartment. We all settled in and just talked and reminisced. Susan took us to a Chicago style pizza restaurant for dinner. They make the pizza inside out with the cheese and toppings in the middle and the sauce on top. They were really thick too. You'd think that wouldn't be very good, but it was awesome!!!! I still think about that pizza every now and then. After putting kids to bed, we all stayed up to play games. You can't get a group of people together and not play games! Saturday we headed to the city. We planned to eat lunch and walk in the freezing weather in the city. Why? Because it's Chicago! My childhood friend, Claire Scott, lives in Chicago and wanted to meet up with us for lunch and trekking. Susan took us to a place, and I'm upset that I can't remember any of the names (I could always call her), that served Chicago hamburgers and hot dogs. I don't know what they do that no other restaurant does, but those were the best hamburgers I have EVER had. I'm not saying that there was some mystical aura of Chicago all around me that tainted my perception of the food because, seriously, it was some darn good food! The city is fun to walk around and we ended at this mirror globe thing. See this is what happens when you write about something over a year later. I'll have to ask Craig (who never forgets anything) and my Chicago friends to tell me the names. The guys split away to go and present their papers. We girls wanted to go, but couldn't unless we wanted to pay a lot of money. Claire invited us back to her apartment for some hot cocoa to warm up. After catching up with her on her life in Chicago, Susan, Katie, and I with kids in tow headed back to the subway to go home. Oh yeah! That was Rachel and Spencer's favorite part of the city trip....the subway. It's the tram that rides above and below the city. That night for dinner, Katie took us to a Costa Rican restaurant. She and Jeff go there every time they are in Chicago because it's the most authentic they've been able to find and they love Costa Rican food! It was good too. For fun, Susan took Katie and I to a Ghanaian or West African market that's in the city. We got to see African yams and palm oil and all kinds of little foods that we would never buy because it was expensive. I guess the cost of importing items is pretty pricey. On Sunday morning we awoke early to get back to West Lafayette for church. We had a big dinner at Heidi's afterwards with the Yarrington's invited as well. After lots of hugs, we parted and came back home. What a trip! I love love loved catching up with my friends and seeing their faces once again. I really miss my Ghana buds and hope that we can all meet up again someday. Thanks for the fun Susan!

Rachel and Spencer in their Ghana shirts.

Chrissy and her new baby boy.

The gang. Left to Right:Jeff, Katie, Susan, me, Rachel, Craig and Spencer.

Claire

Sexy Katie

Rachel and the city

Rachel, me, and Heidi

My parents came to stay for Thanksgiving week. I loved having my mom to help with the dinner, teaching me her tricks and also just helping so that we could eat at a decent hour! The guys golfed and we all shopped at the outlets on Black Friday.

my mom spent many many hours making this Santa in her doll's class that she is taking. She had to paint the ceramic face and hands herself and then of course so the outfit. She made one for each of her daughters and daughter-in-laws. I think it took her about a year to do all 6, each one in the color chosen by the recipient. I felt like blue. I love red, but I have a lot of red Santa's. Isn't it beautiful!