I've been reminded how quickly five-week summer
classes fly by! I took both my midterm and final for
Ethical International Policy and Human Rights. I
totally loved that class -- super interesting, learned
a lot. It feels amazing to have earned three credits
so quickly, but I'm a little sad it's already over! Of
course, the end of that class is certainly not the end
of classes.
After a quick weekend off, the second summer
session started. I'm studying National Security
and International Terrorism for the next five
weeks. Looking forward to it. The syllabus says
we should expect to dedicate 40 hours plus per
week. Lots and lots of reading. Fortunately the
subject matter is riveting to me. So, bring it on!
Alright. What else?
I went a little blondie with the hair last week.
Fun change. Also changed the color of the office.
It turned out great. (I'll post pics when it is
completely put back together.)
David's done some fast traveling lately --
A weekend in Chicago with Brian, Tracy,
Alex, his mom, and Jim for Sandy's 60th.
(Happy birthday, mom!) To California with
guys from work for training on new bidding
software the following Monday and Tuesday.
And this coming Wednesday through Friday
he'll be working on a bid in Albuquerque. He's
also been golfing, as usual. He shot a 78 last
weekend! Can you say rock star? So proud of him!
Meanwhile, I've really been working on
incorporating more girl time into my life.
The weekend he was in Chicago was great --
it gave me a chance to miss him (which I think
is really good once in a while), and it was the
perfect time to do some things on my own. I
had two scrapbooking sessions with Lindsay,
hung out with Jodi and her girls at their pool
one day, and went with Lindsay to pick up her
new puppy!
This is Tate. (Lindsay took these.)
She's pretty precious.
Anyway, I finished that weekend feeling totally
revitalised. It was amazing to me how refreshed and
happy I felt come Monday morning. Revealing,
actually. It was a good reminder that interaction
with people I really like is deeply good for my soul.
Everyone gets their recharge from different things,
and for a while there I was getting mine by spending
time with myself. I still like to do that, but I'm realising
that it's essential for me to have a balance between that
and the social. Just one of those self-awareness moments.
I've also been spending plenty of time with Norah
and Killian. They make me smile a thousand times
a day. Miss Norah weight has doubled since we
brought her home! She got a good report at her first
vet visit. I knew she seemed healthy and happy but
it was nice to have it confirmed, you know? We
haven't really done much training since she's still
so young, but she already sits on command (when
I'm holding a treat anyway), and she's been quite
reliable with potty training. We're thrilled she's
now sleeping through the night, but her internal
clock consistently goes off at 5 AM each morning.
We've compensated by going to bed a little earlier.
(It's a good thing for us -- from 9 to 10 PM we
usually just watched television anyway. So, it's
better to skip that and start our day earlier instead.)
Norah has also been much snugglier in the past
couple weeks. Killian was (and is) such a snuggle
bug that I just assumed she would be too. But it's
taken her some time to do that. When she does
curl up on us, it's a total treat. She's becoming
quite the queen - for example, she has discovered
the loveliness that is sleeping on a pillow. It doesn't
even concern her if our heads are already there.
She just curls up around it. Lately, her favorite
spot has been on her daddy's pillow at night. He
can't resist her cuteness, and I don't blame him.
This girl loves to be on her back --
The sleeping positions I find her in always surprise me.
When she wakes up, she always has the cutest sleepy
eyes and one or both of her ears is usually tousled.
It's adorable.
Such a fuzz ball.
They're such good entertainment, and I find myself so
attached that I just can't get enough. Even their
not-so-cute moments are cute to me. I took a
little nap on the couch the other day and woke
up to them playing tug with a pair of my panties.
I wonder which one of them got it out of the laundry?
Anyway, I love that they love to play together.
Getting a second puppy has turned out to be a
perfectly sane choice after all.
My favorite picture from the last couple weeks.
This looks horrifying, but I witnessed that the bite
stopped there. Thank god!
Daily game of tug.
Killian seems to have grown completely out of his
puppiness in the past month or two. He acts so
mature and takes such good care of Norah. He
even looks older to us -- like a big, fuzzy man dog.
He'll always be a puppy to me.
Summer is officially here. It's been 90 and over
since early May in Arizona. So, the warmth isn't
new, but our temperatures have been hanging
out over the hundred mark for quite awhile now.
In fact, it's been 113-117 all this week. (I've noticed
we haven't had any out of town visitors since it
got hotter!)
We're quite thankful for our pool. We've been
taking frequent dips. In fact, Norah was in there
on eight different occasions yesterday. Even
though that means we are drying them off a lot,
we're glad they're using it as a place to play and
cool off.
It makes for fun entertaining, too. Lindsay, Michael and
Tate joined us a couple weeks ago for a really fun day --
brunch, swimming, a round of Cranium Turbo, pizza,
and a movie. It was the first time Tate got to meet our
'kids' and they did great together!
We've been working on the backyard a little. Since
we've done some landscaping recently though, we
moved on to furniture. David got this umbrella a
couple weeks ago. I love that it gives us some height,
shade and color. (It's green - kind of hard to tell with
the sun in this picture.)
.jpg)
We found a great deal on patio furniture. Sears.
Who knew? It was on sale, plus we got an additional
10% off because it was the floor model. The lounge
chairs were "last season", which apparently translates
into slashed prices. Hey, good for us!
.jpg)
David searched high and low for this umbrella. I was so
proud of his relentless pursuit. Frankly, I think I would
have given up after the ninth store said they were out of
them. Not David! Not only did he get it, but you wouldn't
even believe the price break he found. It's lovely to have
some shade in the back yard and it's nice that we can
move it with the sun if we want.
It took three trips with my car to get all the furniture
home and two trips for the umbrella (since the first
base was broken), but we got it all moved and were
able to relax with it for the party we had on the 4th.
We're now done with home improvements for the
summer. Time to RELAX and ENJOY! Oh, and for
my mom friends, I now have some shade so you
and your little ones could come for a visit. Yes, I
mean you Jen, Julie, Kim, Tracy,
Eryn, Kelly, Betty...
Otherwise, I've just been studying and trying to
knock out this monster to-do list I created after
the spring semester wrapped up. I put a ton of
things on the back burner while busy with school
and company last semester, and it has been fabulous
to check some of it off. I may do a cartwheel when
I finish it completely.
In other news --
Aaron, Pam and their kids just got back from a
week in Disney with Pam's family -- All thirteen
of them. Looks like they had a great time. Man,
their kids are growing up so fast! I thought it was
fabulous that they had a chance to take this trip
together.
And -- two couples we know told us they are expecting!!
I don't know if either of them have gone 100% public. So,
I won't name names just yet, but I wanted to say
congratulations!!!
So, thanks for putting up with all the dog pics. I'm sure
no one appreciates them as much as I do. I'll promise
right this minute to share something of a different topic
next.
Until then, bonne weekend!
And good luck to any of you gambling on 7-7-07!
Might be a good night for a poker party.
Alright. What else?
I went a little blondie with the hair last week.
Fun change. Also changed the color of the office.
It turned out great. (I'll post pics when it is
completely put back together.)
David's done some fast traveling lately --
A weekend in Chicago with Brian, Tracy,
Alex, his mom, and Jim for Sandy's 60th.
(Happy birthday, mom!) To California with
guys from work for training on new bidding
software the following Monday and Tuesday.
And this coming Wednesday through Friday
he'll be working on a bid in Albuquerque. He's
also been golfing, as usual. He shot a 78 last
weekend! Can you say rock star? So proud of him!
Meanwhile, I've really been working on
incorporating more girl time into my life.
The weekend he was in Chicago was great --
it gave me a chance to miss him (which I think
is really good once in a while), and it was the
perfect time to do some things on my own. I
had two scrapbooking sessions with Lindsay,
hung out with Jodi and her girls at their pool
one day, and went with Lindsay to pick up her
new puppy!
This is Tate. (Lindsay took these.)
She's pretty precious.
Anyway, I finished that weekend feeling totally
revitalised. It was amazing to me how refreshed and
happy I felt come Monday morning. Revealing,
actually. It was a good reminder that interaction
with people I really like is deeply good for my soul.
Everyone gets their recharge from different things,
and for a while there I was getting mine by spending
time with myself. I still like to do that, but I'm realising
that it's essential for me to have a balance between that
and the social. Just one of those self-awareness moments.
I've also been spending plenty of time with Norah
and Killian. They make me smile a thousand times
a day. Miss Norah weight has doubled since we
brought her home! She got a good report at her first
vet visit. I knew she seemed healthy and happy but
it was nice to have it confirmed, you know? We
haven't really done much training since she's still
so young, but she already sits on command (when
I'm holding a treat anyway), and she's been quite
reliable with potty training. We're thrilled she's
now sleeping through the night, but her internal
clock consistently goes off at 5 AM each morning.
We've compensated by going to bed a little earlier.
(It's a good thing for us -- from 9 to 10 PM we
usually just watched television anyway. So, it's
better to skip that and start our day earlier instead.)
Norah has also been much snugglier in the past
couple weeks. Killian was (and is) such a snuggle
bug that I just assumed she would be too. But it's
taken her some time to do that. When she does
curl up on us, it's a total treat. She's becoming
quite the queen - for example, she has discovered
the loveliness that is sleeping on a pillow. It doesn't
even concern her if our heads are already there.
She just curls up around it. Lately, her favorite
spot has been on her daddy's pillow at night. He
can't resist her cuteness, and I don't blame him.
This girl loves to be on her back --
The sleeping positions I find her in always surprise me.
When she wakes up, she always has the cutest sleepy
eyes and one or both of her ears is usually tousled.
It's adorable.
Such a fuzz ball.
They're such good entertainment, and I find myself so
attached that I just can't get enough. Even their
not-so-cute moments are cute to me. I took a
little nap on the couch the other day and woke
up to them playing tug with a pair of my panties.
I wonder which one of them got it out of the laundry?
Anyway, I love that they love to play together.
Getting a second puppy has turned out to be a
perfectly sane choice after all.
My favorite picture from the last couple weeks.
This looks horrifying, but I witnessed that the bite
stopped there. Thank god!
Daily game of tug.
Killian seems to have grown completely out of his
puppiness in the past month or two. He acts so
mature and takes such good care of Norah. He
even looks older to us -- like a big, fuzzy man dog.
He'll always be a puppy to me.
Summer is officially here. It's been 90 and over
since early May in Arizona. So, the warmth isn't
new, but our temperatures have been hanging
out over the hundred mark for quite awhile now.
In fact, it's been 113-117 all this week. (I've noticed
we haven't had any out of town visitors since it
got hotter!)
We're quite thankful for our pool. We've been
taking frequent dips. In fact, Norah was in there
on eight different occasions yesterday. Even
though that means we are drying them off a lot,
we're glad they're using it as a place to play and
cool off.
It makes for fun entertaining, too. Lindsay, Michael and
Tate joined us a couple weeks ago for a really fun day --
brunch, swimming, a round of Cranium Turbo, pizza,
and a movie. It was the first time Tate got to meet our
'kids' and they did great together!
We've been working on the backyard a little. Since
we've done some landscaping recently though, we
moved on to furniture. David got this umbrella a
couple weeks ago. I love that it gives us some height,
shade and color. (It's green - kind of hard to tell with
the sun in this picture.)
.jpg)
We found a great deal on patio furniture. Sears.
Who knew? It was on sale, plus we got an additional
10% off because it was the floor model. The lounge
chairs were "last season", which apparently translates
into slashed prices. Hey, good for us!
.jpg)
David searched high and low for this umbrella. I was so
proud of his relentless pursuit. Frankly, I think I would
have given up after the ninth store said they were out of
them. Not David! Not only did he get it, but you wouldn't
even believe the price break he found. It's lovely to have
some shade in the back yard and it's nice that we can
move it with the sun if we want.
It took three trips with my car to get all the furniture
home and two trips for the umbrella (since the first
base was broken), but we got it all moved and were
able to relax with it for the party we had on the 4th.
We're now done with home improvements for the
summer. Time to RELAX and ENJOY! Oh, and for
my mom friends, I now have some shade so you
and your little ones could come for a visit. Yes, I
mean you Jen, Julie, Kim, Tracy,
Eryn, Kelly, Betty...
Otherwise, I've just been studying and trying to
knock out this monster to-do list I created after
the spring semester wrapped up. I put a ton of
things on the back burner while busy with school
and company last semester, and it has been fabulous
to check some of it off. I may do a cartwheel when
I finish it completely.
In other news --
Aaron, Pam and their kids just got back from a
week in Disney with Pam's family -- All thirteen
of them. Looks like they had a great time. Man,
their kids are growing up so fast! I thought it was
fabulous that they had a chance to take this trip
together.
And -- two couples we know told us they are expecting!!
I don't know if either of them have gone 100% public. So,
I won't name names just yet, but I wanted to say
congratulations!!!
So, thanks for putting up with all the dog pics. I'm sure
no one appreciates them as much as I do. I'll promise
right this minute to share something of a different topic
next.
Until then, bonne weekend!
And good luck to any of you gambling on 7-7-07!
Might be a good night for a poker party.
2 comments:
you're the best blogger ever! So thorough! Seriously! I had so much fun with you and D last night. I'm excited to play some golf tomorrow. We'll definitely need to bring the cameras and document this outing! :)
Lindsay
great blog.. i have had a great time here in phoenix.. such cool weather.. and such great story.. keep em coming.. m
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