2008 'Unorthodox' Holiday Newsletter

Greetings, near and far!

Welcome to our first Holiday update letter! We're going to simply fill you in on what's happened since our last post with a brief recap and links to each of our postings from earlier this year!

June-

Welcome!

July

Boxes, Boxes Everywhere!

Harnessing the Power of Craigslist + Fam News

August

We got Maui'd!(+ links to honeymoon pics!)

September

Strike up the band

Chicago Flooding

Caution: Professional Drivers, Do not attempt

October

A liberated weekend

Another One Bites the dust - Mike's Wedding

November

2008 Marching Band Season is DONE!

A road trip north brought us to Purdue for tailgating and trying to stay warm during the annual attempt to wallop the Hoosiers. The final score was 62-10. I think the Boilers stayed warmer in the stands with all that cheering!

 

Megan, James and Cody were good sports and tolerated our novice tailgate- what happens when all you know of game day is waking up early and reporting to the band drill field? No clue how to tailgate. We cooked up egg dishes the night before enthusiastically and doctored some hot chocolate. A great day was all wrapped up and packed back into the Jeep when we went to start the car and, click. Oops, we left the trunk open, the light stayed on and the battery died.

 

Hooray for friends who jump the car in the cold! We headed home happy, tired and with 2 i.u. fans sleeping in the backseat. Todd tried a new Starbucks energy drink on the way home. It worked, but yuck.

We wrapped up November with Thanksgiving at Cait's family's home in Glenview, Illinois. We played plenty of games with the family, mostly game system based (see glazed eyes battling with fake guns!) 

Cait's grandpa, Boppa, headed into the hospital the day after the feast with some complications from an "indoor climbing" accident a few weeks earlier. Some broken ribs and complications kept him over night and we're still hoping that he'll make it out of the hospital before Christmas. Hard to keep that octogenarian down. Good times were had meeting Cait's sister Chrissy's boyfriend. Then a jolly 5 hours road trip home landed us back in Bloomington.

Todd played his Senior euphonium recital on the 6th and had a great turn out! His parents drove down and Cait's family stayed over night. It was great to see our families and to enjoy watching Todd cap off his studies with an exciting and challenging performance.

Then we shared the news we'd learned of after Grand Nationals let out in November: Dec 2 was Cait's last day at her job. In a wave of layoffs, she was thrown a surf board and told good luck. A non-profit has to do what a non-profit has to do in a down economy with budget woes. She's thankful to have family and friends that care and feels lucky that at least she has experience working the system and job hunting from when she was laid off last May. How did people job search before the internet, or before Careerbuilder and Monster for that matter?! We're optimistic but with hiring freezes and layoffs surrounding us, a little part time work will go a long way until a full time creative position comes along. Cait's looking at places with LARGE in-house creative/marketing teams or design agencies/studios where her position is valued and not the first to take a budget cut. Hopefully she can stay in Indy but we will have to see. We'll keep you posted on search leads and results but it looks like nothing big will happen before the ball drops in New York in a few short weeks.

In other news, just today we came home from church to find a light haze of smoke in our apartment. Our olfactory skills told us it was plastic, maybe even electrical and we scanned the vicinity.  We opened the dishwasher and located the culprit. 

We can no longer measure 1/4 cup of anything, thanks to silly slots on the top rack that don't hold onto things. Then MUCH to our surprise... after countless loads in the dishwasher and living in our apartment 5 months, we discover another heating-element victim: a cutting mat that we've never seen before. That's right. 

Someone who was in the apartment BEFORE us had done this and never knew... It had dropped to the back of the washer, was clear and had been burned through the element so that it just sat in the back. We're so glad it never started a fire!!!

And to end on a happy note, we made some awesome chocolate cookies 

(email me for the recipe!) just yesterday and have a ton to enjoy and cover up the smell of melted plastic with. Todd has finals then we head to Chicago land for a reprieve. Tell us what you've been up too?! We're dying to hear from friends and fam that we rarely see!

God Bless and keep smiling!

Cait and Todd

(Leave a little message if you stopped by to read this! We love our friends and family and would like to know if it's worth keeping up our public banter...)

2008 Marching Band Season is DONE!

Shout it from the roof tops! Our crazy fall with marching band centric life is over! The final commitment for both of us happend over the past 5 days at the same event! Music for All hosted the Bands of America Grand National Championships at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the first time. Columbus North, the high school where Todd is on marching band staff, placed 9th on their day of competition and advanced to the Semi-Finals. A very competitive event, they did not move further but had a very successful season of growth and improvement, their reputation for being a great band getting stronger. (see Cait's take on the event: Tales of On-Site Event Graphics Production)

As Todd begins his midterms, Cait slips back into the pattern of pseudo-sanity, creativity and perhaps some freelance work before the holidays.

To get everyone up to speed, much has happened since Mike's wedding in late October!

Cait traveled to St. Louis from October 16-18th to help put on the Super Regional Championship for Music for All. Fast paced, unforgiving and again, highly rewarding. Quick turn around straight into more prep for the Grand National Championships in a week or two. Attempts to see local family were thwarted with the aggressive event schedule and left Cait wanting to see her St. Louis family even more!

November 1 : We headed to Purdue to witness a hard earned Boilermaker victory over Michigan at Ross-Ade Stadium! We caught up with Cait's mom and brothers and saw some friends. It's hard when you get very little time to talk and really visit but enjoying a game will tide us 

over until the next time. Pictures from top right, Sam greeting us at Slayter double fisting Dr. Pepper, Todd hugging Max and the Purdue Band gets to turn their hats around for a Big Ten win!

We were also lucky to get to hang out with Libby Gephart at the game while her dad was busy. I'm a pushover: totally caved to her request for cotton candy. And boy was it good! She shared some but ate it like she hadn't been fed in days. One behavior we left in our youth.

The following weekend was spent actually being in the same place for once! We cleaned, and went to see the movie "W." and ate a meal together! Simple things really but out of the ordinary for us right now yet. Planning for Thanksgiving in Chicago with Cait's family, Todd's upcoming Senior Recital at IU on euphonium, and Christmas in Indy & Chicago. Wrapping up his coursework, Todd is looking forward to student teaching this spring!

Next weekend is our trip to Purdue for the game against Indiana with some friends. After that, the holidays come fast and furious but we'll share our adventures as the season progresses.

Have a great week!

Cait and Todd

 

Another One Bites the Dust

Mike and Steph got married on Saturday, October, 25, 2008. Congrats, you two!

More pictures here!

Cait drove to Chicago, celebrated, stayed the night and drove back home. Todd went to a band competition with the marching band he is on staff with. Neither can wait for marching band season to be over :-)

That's all for now!

A Liberated Weekend

Work called me to spend time at the office this Saturday. That kept me from going to Kentucky for an event but allowed me to see the IU opera tonight with Todd. Details later. Where did this week go?

Caution: Professional Drivers, Do Not Attempt

Miles Cait puts on in a week: 543 plus any events on the weekend with work (15 hours) Miles Todd puts on in a week: 226 plus competitions on Saturday with his marching band (7 hours) Gas has remained at around $3.99 here in southern Indiana after hanging out around $4.15 for a while. Ouch. It's not a great year to be heavy commuters. Cait's been lucky enough to join a 4 person carpool that allows her to ease the impact on budget as well as car wear and tear. The idea is to drive 5 times in 4 weeks. Funny hours have her changing her schedule daily to meet up with the carpool after work but it all evens out. Todd drives to his high school band job 3 times a week and drives with classmates who also work there. Not bad. It's still taxing to be in the car as much as we are. The spring will be tough when we're both going over an hour in different directions 5 days a week. Needless to say we can't wait to live within a half hour at most of a job. The apartment is getting closer and closer to looking like a home. We've only been here 2ish months. That's not long right? Well, looking at my math at the start of this entry, if we got our 22 hours of commuting back, a lot could get done around the house. We're JUST starting to get into a routine. Sigh. This Friday is our friend Adam's wedding in Indy at the Historical Society. Should be really neat! One of the few weddings we can attend this fall together with Todd's band competition schedule. The following weekend, Cait heads to Kentucky to work her first Bands of America Regional. Neat! Downside- we drive there. More miles! A weekend where we spend less than an hour in the car will be a blessing. We walk to the grocery store as often as we can and try to go work out together when we have a night (hard: Todd has All-Campus Band on Monday nights, is at the high school Tuesdays and Thursdays, Teaches a euphonium lesson on Wednesday nights and has band competitions until really late on Saturdays.) Hawaii feels so long ago and so very far away. Still hanging on to the memories of floating in the clear blue water staring at fishies and hiking the crater from sunrise to noon. That's it for now, folks. Gotta rest up for the morning commute! CM

Chicago Flooding

My parent's home in Glenview, IL is practically an island! The flooding has happened quickly and they haven't even gotten hit by water from Hurricane Ike! Our center green area is drainage but despite being the size of almost a football field, it's filled and so is the street and the first third of our driveway! Check out these pictures my mom took with her phone!More pictures on my Flickr site: HoldTheCheese/ChicagolandFlooding Updates soon, CM

Strike Up the Band!

Singing the words to the Indiana University Anti-Fight Song (Indiana, you big banana...)was all we could do to make it through Band Day at IU! Cait got a chance to instruct the visiting high school flags... about 70 girls! The IU band department hired her for the day, she got about 45 mins with the girls and NO MUSIC!! :-(

It was a blast either way. The girls had fun and Cait got to perform with a flag on the field of Memorial Stadium. No, Purdue Fans, she didn't burst into flames from my gold and black blood boiling... and She made sure to fit the first to 8's of Hail Purdue into the flag work... happened to be the part that repeated all through the routine :-D Cait's joke that no one got but made her feel better. Todd's fellow students were super friendly and Cait had a lot of fun with them!

Notice the empty part of the stadium and the warm band members with their jackets off during pregame practice. WARM DAY! Here's Cait in her Marching Hundred Shirt for the day. She wore an undershirt with it so the fabric would make her break out in hives ;-)

IU won the game against Murray State! Cait was glad Todd could make it back from his band camp at Columbus North High School to join her for the game and our fence side view... no need for seats when the most familiar view if field level in front of a loud drum line. Cait wouldn't mind doing it next year... Todd'll probably have his own band responsibilities though!

That's if for now from the McCreadys.

We got Maui'd !!!

Still on Hawaiian time, work is hard to focus on. We had an absolutely amazing week that I can't wait to post pictures of and comment on. Here was the brief run down:
Sunday- 9hr flight, arrive, swim, pick up snorkle equip, eat, swim, sleep
Monday- 3am out the door for sunrise at Haleakala Crater, 6 hrs hiking, swim, eat, sleep
Tuesday- 1 mo anniv, morning sea kayaking and turtle finding, lunch, swim, eat good food, swim, sleep
Wednesday- wake early, explore state park and southern coast, eat, swim, eat, swim, sleep Thursday- wake, drive road to Hana, hike and swim in waterfalls, eat good food, sleep
Friday- sleep in, swim in ocean and look at fishies, eat, rest, play card games, shop, eat, swim sleep
Saturday- Cait's 25th B-day, more sea swimming and snorkleing, pack, check out, return equipment and eat Maui Tacos :-), shop, eat, fly 5 hours
Sunday-chill in LAX 1.5 hrs, fly 4 hours, pick up in Chicago, family b-day party in Glenview, IL, drive to Bloomington, Indiana, eat, watch Bob Saget get Roasted on Comedy Central, sleep More later, From the Honeymooners

Harnessing the Power of Craigslist + Fam news

I posted information about carpooling from A to B and got a taker for one way after work from B to A. Yay! I successfully sold our extra microwave and purchased a small book table making a net profit of $5. :-D If only Craigslist could help me unpack. Goodwill saw enough of our stuff while we were moving. Craigslist will get my unpacking love. I can't wait to be done with more of our unpacking! Big shout out to Lindsey and Brent Chismark on the birth of their first baby, Noah, on July 26! Lindsay is my first "old friend" to get hitched and preggo and now has a beautiful family started! My cuz Suzanne Derenski (and Mike) and Todd's cuz Angela Healy (and Josh) are both expecting. Fun news for the family and more reasons to keep in touch! Back to the working world... CM

Boxes, Boxes Everywhere!

I'll paint you a picture: 94 degree heat + humidity 1 sixteen foot UHaul 2 guys, a girl and a new apartment We officially made the move to Bloomington! Todd's been there since the 1st and I trailed him on our one week wedding anniversary. After a snafu with picking up the UHaul (Greenwood does not equal North Indianapolis FYI) things went better. Stresses, exhuastion and lack of space tried our nerves but by the time I headed to work on Monday morning (my first commute of many!) we really felt like a home was forming. The song "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat kept running through my head- happy reminders and a little mantra that saved patience. Excellent lyrics: "I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend Lucky to have been where I have been Lucky to be coming home again Lucky we're in love every way Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed Lucky to be coming home someday." Big shout out to our friend Matt who helped lift, lug and subdue tiffs. You were a God send! Cody also helped a bunch in the unload phase- huge help when we were all tired. Gratzi! The gang wrapped up the night with a trip to Cheeseburger in Paradise a few minutes from our new apartment. I splurged having a Pina Colada (a-MAZ-ing) and a bacon cheeseburger. It was beyond delicious. My fries disappeared into the still-hungry tummies of Matt and Todd. Sunday started slow, like it should. A recover phase that lead into returning the UHaul. We stopped by Crescent Donuts on the other side of town. It was our first time there and they only take cash. Apparently, we don't use cash very often. Our selection of a half dozen fresh homemade donuts and two milks rang up as more than we had in our pockets. Todd was awesome and cleaned out the change in his car- not beyond paying with nickels and pennies. We had committed to those donuts. The milk was placed back in the fridge. We drove across the street and got the same milk, with a debit card, for .20 less each. HA! We win! Donuts consumed, we extended our snooze alarm until noon. Just what we needed. Small victories after that included arrangement of couches/entertainment center and our kitchen table. Much larger victory was arranging the Queen sized bedroom furniture set in a twin sized room. One broken board (luckily not broken hand!) and averted disasters later we're done with that for a long time, or until we move... Wrapping up the night putting away clothes, Todd made a delicious homemade pizza. Served with the second half of a bottle of shiraz, he put on some great jazz music and we enjoyed a little time not moving. Our night cap with a dip in the pool left us ready to face a new week. No case of the Mondays for me. :-) Time to get back to work. -Cait

Welcome!

Hello friends, family and world! Stay tuned for ponderings, documentation and photos of our excellent adventures in our new life together. Our biggest transitions at the moment are moving, Todd finishing summer school and Cait starting a new job. Plenty to chatter about! I hope you'll stay in touch with us on here or at toddandcaitlin@gmail.com. Best wishes for a happy summer! Cait