One Semester Down!

Hi all!  I greet you with relief and enthusiasm, as all of my final exams and term papers are complete.  Although stressful at times, I feel like my first semester at UNC flew by.

Thanksgiving break was relaxing and very nice.  Before we headed off to West Virginia, my cohort decided to have an AuD Thanksgiving Dinner.  A few of my classmates from the west coast weren't able to make it home for the holiday, so we wanted to make sure everyone got a good Thanksgiving meal with friends.  I made the mashed potatoes, and I found out the hard way that you can't chop potatoes in advance without putting them in water immediately.  Lesson learned.

A few days later, I enjoyed a second round of Thanksgiving with Mom & Dad, the Foxes, & the Widney's. We missed Chris & Abby, but they were off having a marvelous time in Nicaragua with Leslie & Carl Agsten. I must admit, when I saw pictures of the beach they spent Thanksgiving Day on, I did get a little jealous.

After Thanksgiving, Christmas was on everyone's mind.  Back in NC, classes were wrapping up and finals were looming.  Luckily, Evan and I found some time to enjoy decorating for Christmas.

The first decoration up was a wreath for the front door.  I made this Christmas wreath last year.  After a little bow-fluffing, it looked brand new!  I'm hoping to make a fun Valentine's Day wreath over the break.  Having something little on our door really brightens up the entrance. :)

 Next stop, we headed to Apex, NC (about 20 minutes away) to the Jordan Lake Christmas Tree Farm.  This little place was SO fun! There was hot chocolate, homemade mini doughnuts (Evan's favorite), homemade wreaths and decorations, ornaments, and of course, lots and lots of trees! Some were pre-cut, but we ventured out onto the farm and found the perfect tree for our apartment. It was a beautiful Saturday to chop down a tree - about 65 degrees and blue skies!

So many trees to choose from!

That evening we got the tree set up in our apartment, put on a Christmas movie, and decorated. Since we only have about 10 unique, fun ornaments (we bought one at the tree farm), we put those in the front and decorated the rest of the tree with a colorful assortment of bulbs.

We also found a really pretty tree topper at a local store in Durham, and Evan did the honors of placing it on top once the tree was ready. We've loved having this tree to brighten up the living room all month! I'm not exactly sure what kind of tree we bought, but it's been great! No needles are falling and it's staying nice and green.  I'm a little nervous to see what it looks like when we come back from break, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

The finished product!

Now that I'm finished with finals, I'm taking a few days to decompress in Carrboro.  Christmas shopping and painting will fill my week, and then I'll be heading home for a bit. Looking forward to seeing all my loved ones & friends that I've missed so much over the holidays. 

See you all soon! Happy Holidays!

-Molly

So Much to be Thankful For

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought it would be nice to stop in and say hello before I settle in for a long morning of writing about "localization abilities in children with cochlear implants".

Just a few more days until a well-deserved break, and Evan and I are getting excited to head home to West Virginia. We're lucky enough that our families are going to come together in Charleston to celebrate the holiday, and maybe even engage in some Black Friday madness. I'm looking forward to a busy house full of food, friends, family, and football. I've already told my mom I plan on contributing to the plethora of food by making some chocolate chip pumpkin bread and pumpkin spice puppy chow. Mmm! Did I mention I'm excited?

As I said in my last post, Evan and I travelled to Asheville, NC a few weekends ago to enjoy a nice dinner in town and then go backpacking for a few days. Downtown Asheville is such a fun area - we didn't get into town until pretty late (Asheville was a little more of a drive from Carrboro than we realized), but we enjoyed walking around downtown and dining at the Lobster Trap (hence Evan's fabulous bib). It was delicious!













The next morning we packed up our backpacks at the hotel and headed to Pisgah National Forest for a 2 day-1 night backpacking trip. We ended up combining a few trails to make our own 12-mile loop to hike over the 2 days we were there. We missed the peak time to see the leaves changing by about a week; still, the area was beautiful and some colors spotted the mountains.







We found a great spot to camp about half way through out hike. We ended up sharing our campsite with a large group from Clemson University, but we found a cozy little spot to put Evan's new tent!

The next morning we hiked out to a unique overlook to have lunch. This overlook was a bit off the beaten path, but was definitely worth it. The rock face overlook had a beautiful view of "Glass Rock". 

Content.

We even ran into a local couple nice enough to take our picture. That's Glass Rock in the right hand corner! (And that's where we parked, way down below!)

All in all it was a great weekend away to celebrate three years together. 

Since then, we've had a few quiet weekends at home. It has been really nice to not have any plans, especially because I think we're starting to earn the reputation of "weekend warriors". 

Well, my term paper is softly calling my name. Until next time...See you all soon!

-Molls

Happy Halloween!

It's been a while since my last post. I had a quick, but nice, fall break from classes mid-October, and I was lucky enough to head home for the weekend to see family and a few friends. I attended the WVU vs. Kansas State game, but I didn't really find that worthy of a blog post (yikes, Mountaineers!)

I did get to go up to Cooper's Rock, WV with my parents the morning before the game to see the leaves changing. Fall in WV is definitely something I miss.

Beautiful colors at Cooper's Rock

Some of my cohort & friends headed to a corn maze a few miles outside of Chapel Hill to enjoy the fall festivities. Evan and I bought some pumpkins to carve, too!

Posing for a shot after our hay ride!

Jack-o-Lanterns! Evan on the left, Molly on the right!

After break, studying for midterm exams dominated most of my free time over the last few weeks. Just in time for Halloween, however, I was able to relax a bit and have some fun. 

I present to you, the heroes from the original Ghostbusters film:

Evan perfected the ghostbuster look. He turned an old flight suit into a ghostbuster jump suit (from an Army surplus store) and wore the elbow pads with pride. His ghost pack was homemade and full of flashing lights and gadgets. Needless to say, everyone was impressed.

Who ya gonna call? Evan Widney!

Of course, there must be an antagonist for the heroic ghostbuster. This is where I come into play!

Remember him, the Stay Puft Marshmallow storming through the streets of NYC?

I wasn't able to figure out how to transform myself into a giant Marshmallow Man, but I do think I did a pretty good job portraying his attitude! Plus, I loaded up a tupperware full of marshmallows and let people enjoy a little late-night snack downtown. 

The good guy always wins.

We dressed up and celebrated the Saturday before actual Halloween. This also just so happened to be my and Evan's 3 year anniversary! It may not have been the most romantic evening, but it was certainly fun. In our version of the film, there is a whole lot of love between Stay Puft & the Ghostbuster. :)                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

This weekend we're going to do some belated anniversary celebrating by exploring Asheville, NC and backpacking in the western part of the state. I have heard wonderful things about the area and can't wait to check it out!            

We're heading out of town in just a hours, so until next time...

-Molly

Hello, Fall!

Despite wearing a summer dress in 80 degree weather last week, it looks like fall has arrived this week in NC and is here to stay. It's hard to believe I was relaxing on the beach with my parents a few weeks ago! I had a great time visiting them at the beginning of their fall beach trip with friends. I must say, it's awfully nice only being 3 hours from a beautiful beach!

They had a great week at the beach, and the day they came back through Carrboro, I ran an Oktoberfest 5K with some friends from my program. It rained (poured) for about 20 minutes of the race, but we had a great time! We've already decided to sign up for another in December, the "Jingle Bell" 5K!

Pre-Race, Pre-Rain shot with friends Sadie, Sarah, & Jenna!

After a full Saturday of running in the morning, meeting up with my parents and watching the Mountaineers beat Baylor (woohoo!!), and enjoying a new restaurant in Chapel Hill with Evan and the 'rents, Evan and I checked out the Carrboro Music Festival on Sunday. Carrboro is such a great small town - it seems like there's something fun going on nearly every weekend!

One of the many stage areas at the Carrboro Music Festival. This area is in front of Weaver St. Market, the local grocery co-op in Carrboro, and the center of town activities!

Enjoying the music festival!

After a great afternoon at the music festival, it was back to another week of class and work for Evan and I. We had a lot to look forward to, however, because the next weekend we went  to the World BeerFest at the Durham Bulls Stadium with a few friends. There were hundreds of beer vendors (both local and international) with a variety of beers to taste and it was a really fun event! Most unique beer I tasted? Banana bread beer. I literally felt like I was drinking a loaf of banana bread.

The Durham Bulls Stadium for BeerFest. Great time!

Posing with the National Bohemian Beer Man out of Baltimore, MD!

 After a fun evening at BeerFest, we hurried over to the nearest sports bar to catch the last half of the WVU vs. Texas game to watch another exciting win! Perfect end to a great night!

Watching the WVU game after BeerFest!

With midterms quickly approaching (one already down), it looks like a busy weekend of studying is approaching for me. Evan is heading to Lewisburg to spend some time with his family and enjoy a local "Taste of our Town" event. Next week I have a few days off for fall break and look forward to relaxing and heading to Morgantown for the WVU vs. Kansas St. game. 

Until next time, love you all!

Moll 

Visitors on the way!

It's been a while since I've had time to sit down and make a post, but I finally found a little bit of time to let you all know how things are going down here in NC. 

It's a beautiful fall day in Chapel Hill today; the weather has cooled off a bit this week and I've enjoyed a break from the humidity. I've been busy with classes and school screenings and Evan with work, but we've found some time to have fun these last few weeks as well. 

A couple weekends ago we attended the Tyler's Blue Ribbon, Bluegrass, & BBQ Festival in downtown Carrboro, which was very fun with brews, BBQs, and live bluegrass music at a local venue. There is a Carrboro Music Festival next weekend that I'm hoping we'll get to enjoy as well!

Enjoying the music at the bluegrass festival!

Quick shot of part of the bar - Look at all that Gold & Blue!

Last weekend, Evan's good friends Erik & Mike came to visit and it was fun to show them around the town. We all headed to Sammy's Sports Bar in Raleigh (about 30 minutes away), which is notorious for loving Mountaineer Football to watch the WVU vs. JMU game. This place is incredible!!! Having no idea what to expect, we pulled into the packed parking lot and saw that practically every car had some sort of a flying WV on it. Inside, there was a huge room dedicated to the WVU game with tons of fans. Seeing all the Mountaineer fans in NC was so great! We definitely plan on heading back to this bar for future games.

As I blog, my mom & pops are heading to NC for their annual autumn beach trip with friends. Lucky for me, Emerald Isle, NC is only about a 3-hour drive from Carrboro! They are coming to stay the night with us tonight and head the rest of the way tomorrow. They were nice enough to let me claim the couch at the beach house for a few nights as well, so I'll be heading to Emerald Isle for the weekend to relax and spend some time with them. Unfortunately, Evan has to work on Sunday (yuck!) and can't make the trip. They'll be stopping through next weekend to hang out for a day, so at least Evan will get to spend a little bit of time with them even though he can't go to Emerald Isle.  It's been almost 2 months since I've seen my parents, and I'm really looking forward to catching up with them! I'm sure the next post will contain lots of fun pictures from their visit!

Until next time...


Molly 

Hikes, Ears, and Labor Day Weekend

The view from our lunch spot! Sycamore Creek

Now that I can officially say that I've made it through my Au.D. orientation and a week of classes, I figured it was time for another post. Evan and I are still having fun finding new places to explore in NC. We are hoping to find a time to go backpacking in the western part of the state this month, but last weekend we decided to hop in the car and head to Umstead State Park in Raleigh for a day hike. We ended up going on a 7.5-mile looped trail called Sycamore Trail. It was a great afternoon! 

About half way through the hike we decided to pose for a picture!

Tons of fungi provided splashes of color on our hike; this was one of my favorites.

As I said, last week was my first full week of classes. On Friday, I also had my first day of clinical rotation. This semester, the majority of my clinical hours are coming from elementary school hearing screenings. I spent Friday working with some pretty adorable 1st graders at a local elementary school. The screenings were my first experience actually doing all the things I have been reading about for 4 years outside of a class lab. It was great, and I'm heading back to the same school tomorrow to screen the kindergarteners! 

Tailgating with classmates who have all headed in different directions this year!

This Labor Day Weekend was a blast. Evan and I headed to West Virginia on Friday evening to see the WVU vs. Marshall season football opener. We had a great time watching WVU whoop Marshall with Evan's parents at the game, and it was wonderful getting to catch up with friends before and after the game as part of the football festivities. 

It was strange not sitting in the student section, but we enjoyed sitting with Evan's parents, Kaye and Doug, and watching the game!

Mountaineer field...there's nothing better!

The only missing puzzle piece was that my parents were in Mississippi visiting Chris and Abby this weekend and we didn't get to drive to Charleston to see them. It sounds like they had a great time in Oxford, though, and we'll get to see them in a few weeks when they head this way for a little beach vacation. Today Evan and I are back in Carrboro and spending the day taking it easy and getting things ready for the rest of the week. It looks like we'll have our first visitor this upcoming weekend; Erik, one of Evan's best friends, is making the drive down to come see us and all our new town has to offer! 

Until next time...love ya, miss ya, come visit!


-Molly

Things are about to get real busy

Evan and I have had a great time getting to know Carrboro and it's surrounding areas. Evan has become familiar with Durham from commuting to Duke for work every day, we went to our first live concert in Raleigh this past weekend (Old Crow Medicine Show - lots of fun!), we have enjoyed the local grocery and farmer's market in Carrboro, and I have had so much fun exploring Chapel Hill and the UNC campus.

I am starting to figure out the bus routes around here, but my favorite way to travel is certainly on my new bike (happy graduation to me!). I'm still working on getting comfortable riding with traffic around town, but the triangle area is extremely bike-friendly! Evan and I rode on to the UNC campus last weekend and I hope to start biking to class a few days a week; it's only about a 3 mile ride.

Posing in front of one of UNC's famous landmarks - the Old Well!

My week-long orientation to the Doctor of Audiology program started today. I know it's going to be a lot of hard work, but I think I am going to love the program. All of the other students in my cohort seem to be great people and they come from all corners of the country. 

 

After a full day of information overload, I was lucky enough to come home and get a delicious meal prepared by Chef Evan on our new grill! I'm a lucky girl, what can I say?

Until next time...love & miss you all!

-Molly

The Big Move

After a 5-hour trek south to Carrboro, NC as a 4 car and a 18' UHaul caravan on Saturday, August 4th, Evan and I - as well as our incredibly supportive parents - were excited to arrive at our homey little two-bedroom apartment. After a few hours of unloading the vehicles and UHaul, the apartment looked like a city of boxes that would never fit into our new space (I really should have documented the 20+ boxes I kept tripping over in the main room). Still, after multiple Target and grocery runs, the number of boxes in the living room started to decrease by the time we feasted on Chinese food from down the road.

Our parents stayed until the early part of the week, and once they left it became real that we were on our own. For the first week we were here, I would wake up every morning thinking I was in Morgantown. Although I love this new adventure, new town, new experience... not an hour passes when I don't think about someone or something from West Virginia.  It took us a full week to really feel "moved in" and at home, but we love our new place.

Great-Grandma Fox's Dining Table - it cleaned up nice with some polish & reupholstered cushions!

All sorts of artsy things are happening in our living room. The canvas is part 1 of 4 that
 will be going over the couch in  the weeks to come!

Big thanks to Mom & Dad for helping to furnish our living room - the couch & chair look so great!!

Evan started his new job at Duke last Wednesday, but my graduate classes don't begin until next Monday. I have been left with too much time on my hands since I only know a handful of people down here so far. So, I'm trying out this blogging business...with the hopes of posting a little something every week to better stay in touch with friends and family far away. With that being said, I love you all & come visit us!