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