Updates in pictures (and a few words)...

Even my parent's beagle had fun at the wedding. All I'll say about our wedding is that it was exactly how I wanted it and I loved it. For more on the wedding, check out my Aunt's post here. I should be getting the pictures from our photographer soon, so maybe I'll say more then. :)

Our trip to Canada was great (besides that basket of fish and chips, which was just a greasy mess). Gorgeous, but wet. I'll take Missouri weather any day - even days like yesterday when the heat index was 105 degrees. Ew.

Tennessee was awesome. Really. Beautiful. The Smoky's are gorgeous. That falls behind us, Ramsay Cascades, was beautiful and worth the hike that made my butt sore the next day (all uphill...until you turned around of course, then you had to fight to stay upright all the way back down). Need an idea of how gorgeous? Let me show you:

Both of these are along the trail. Now for some mountain shots...

Left: The Smoky's being Smoky. Right: Erik after we encountered a bear on our hike. No joke. Needless to say we abandoned that trail and got on a nearby road and ended up running for a couple miles. This shot was taken shortly before we encountered two more bears. It was interesting. And fun :)

After our trips we had to puppysit for my brother and his girlfriend. Now, when I say had to, I really mean GOT to. She's so freakin adorable. See below for evidence.


Last week I started P90X. This is my hope. I hope that I can blog through my P90X experience, which will make me keep up with blogging a bit better. If I really impress myself I might even post pictures. Yesterday was my first experience with Kenpo X and I wasn't too impressed - it wasn't as fun as the hype made it sound. However, I am sore today - so some progress had to've been made, right? Today I have to do legs and back. I'm really hoping blogging through this will make me actually stick with it. Here's hoping!

Oh, and no more 3 month absences from blogging. At least not soon...I hope!

Currently Reading: Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner (I require at least 1 chick lit book per summer, please forgive me)

No excuses

I could say it's been awhile, and that would be true. I could try and come up with excuses, but my only excuse is that instead of blogging, I've been doing one of the following: reading, playing with my puppies (yes, that's plural), working on our house, or watching recorded episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond like the amazingly awesome person that I am. I keep telling myself to update, and then I put it off. Maybe now that I've done it I won't put it off for so long anymore.

First news: New puppy.

Her name is Sadie, and she's adorable.

We got Sadie about a month ago and we've discovered the following little jewels of information. She licks. A lot. Zoe loves having a playmate. They're both adorable (that was an easy lesson). Taking two dogs for a walk is a bit more of a commitment, and therefore doesn't get done as much. We (well, at least I) love it!

Reading. Wow. I've read so many books over the past few months. Just a few: North and South, Love and War, Heaven and Hell, Beastly, The Chocolate War, The Earth Children series (again!), Olive Kitteridge, Thin Wood Walls, Home of the Braves, Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery, Peak, The Appeal, Luna, Someone Named Eva, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, whatever the name of the book I'm reading right now, and at least 10-15 others which I've forgotten the names of at the moment, so look forward to just a couple reviews comin up. :)

Work on the house. Our bathroom is officially complete. Yay! We now have a dishwasher (which we got for free) installed in our kitchen which has new countertops and backsplash. We should be done painting the kitchen and putting the grout on the backsplash by next weekend, so I'll add some pictures then. We've also got a new flowerbed (pretty!) which E's mom planted for us, and it's awesome. Some advice? Take free plants from people. At least if you're not a greenthumb like me. It's awesome, and if they like it? More power to 'em!

E, Dad, and I competed in the Sedalia Fall duathlon this morning. It was pretty good. Besides the fact that I sucked it up on the bike portion (no surprise since I haven't been biking...at all...). It was pretty cool. Second in my age group, out of what...maybe two?

I wanted another puppy, but instead I decided to blog.

Why Summer's Great!

• I don't have to go to work. Seriously, who doesn't love that?
• The weather is generally awesome. Okay, I admit, last week when the heat index was 109 and you stuck to every surface as soon as you exited an air conditioned building wasn't that great, but come on! This week is pure Heaven. Simple as that.
• I have to ability to get SOOOO much done. Now, actually doing it is another story. :)
• Reading. All the time. Just finished the Harry Potter series for probably the third time. Yay for the movie comin out in a couple weeks!
• Trips. So far this summer I've only gone to Minneapolis, but there are plans in the works for Minnesota again and a trip to Kentucky for E and I :)
• Holidays. The fourth is one of my favorites because most of the family's in town and I always love that. :) Hello sand volleyball tournament!
  

Well, our bathroom is almost done. Don't hold your breath for pictures, cause we won't get the baseboards until this weekend, but I'll DEFINITELY post pictures as soon as it's done. I'm so freakin excited!

I also bought a paint sprayer for repainting the kitchen cabinets. I am NOT going to do them all by hand like I did the bathroom cabinets. Can you say brush strokes? Ugh. Paint and I aren't too friendly these days. I've painted the following in the past month: front door (three times, mind you), trim, bathroom cabinets, bathroom walls, bedroom, living room, hallway, and shutters. And, I still have the kitchen and the two bedrooms to go. I love paint, it changes a room immediately, but it does get a little old after awhile.

Today I finished our first flowerbed. The front of our house previously had no landscaping whatsoever. E and I built a flowerbed underneath the picture window yesterday, and I spent a couple hours (Ouch!) leveling out the soil, which was somewhat clay-ey (I know, not a word) and impossible, but I did get it done. I have a feeling my back won't like me tomorrow, but it looks SO much better out there. Once we actually have flowers growing maybe I'll post a picture of that, too.

The picture for today? Our adorable puppy and my pretty kitty getting better acquainted.

Okay, so Simon's still adjusting. But Zoe loves playing!

Holy Busy Schedule

So I've been bad. At blogging I mean. It's been really crazy busy lately, but only in a good way.

E and I are now homeowners. We are also proud dog owners (her name's Zoe and she's adorable!). I'm also a new(er) car owner. Um...and we've been moving. And if this counts, half my mouth is now numb from my dentist's appointment.

So, needless to say, I haven't had much time to update. That and the fact that we have no internet at our new house. Next Tuesday - one week from today - we'll be online. I have to travel about 30 minutes to use the internet now, but I'm okay with it, cause we have a house!

I'll be posting pictures soon. Of the dog, the house, and hey...maybe the car.

In the meantime I've read a couple great books: Hunger Games by Susanne Collins (I think) was A-mazing! Then I read The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne Duprau (the fourth book in the City of Ember series). It was good as well, but not as great as Hunger Games. Both books are for young adults, but I think almost anyone would like to read Collin's book. It's great. Besides that I've been reading Harry Potter books again. I don't think I'll ever get tired of them.

Well, I've gotta go register my car, paint some cabinets and the bathroom, and mow the lawn. I'll be better...I swear, once I have the internet.

All kindsa news.

:)

So E and I are officially under contract.

**me doing a happy dance**

We got a good price. They're fixing the roof. We close by the end of the month. I'm so freaking excited about making this house ours. Living with E. Having a puppy. Funness.

Speaking of puppies. My brother found a puppy. Seriously. He found a puppy wandering through his neighborhood dangerously close to wandering onto a very busy road. He rescued said puppy. Said puppy is adorably cute!! I know, that was repetitive, but come on. She's cute. He's put up notices about finding a lost puppy, but I'm kinda hoping no one claims her, cause I'll take her. Come on, you can't say that's not meant to be, right?

Outside of all that fun news, I've been ridiculously busy lately (hence the lack of posts in oh...about a month). Ouch. Recently, I've:

• Written my first graduate level English term paper. Ew.
• Graded 50+ dual credit essays in 1 day
• Found a house
• Made up finals for all my classes
• Baked a buncha cookies for the Senior BBQ
• Ran everyday. Seriously. What's up with that? I don't know when this exercise everyday thing started, but I kinda like it.

That's enough. :) Only 2 more days of school (with kids), then 2 more days of meetings and such. Then I'm free. I love every moment of my work-free summers. And this summer will be busy. Hopefully I'll accomplish all of the following:

• Fix yard at new house so a puppy can call it home!
• Fix kitchen (read: add dishwasher, get new countertop, get rid of faux brick backsplash, tile floor)
• Go to 3 weddings
• Go to Minneapolis to visit little bro!
• Float trip?
• Go to Kentucky to camp/bike/hike - really looking forward to this. Here's where I'd like to go.
• Buy a car.
• Another Minneapolis (or northward) trip with the fam

And I can't wait.

Currently Reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (again!!) by J.K. Rowling

Holy cow.

I don't know what's going on, but the closer it gets to the end of the summer, the more time seems to fly by. I feel like yesterday was Monday. It's crazy and it's freakin me out!

To DO List:

• Help E pack, they move next Wednesday! Ahh!
• Help E clean. This is the part I enjoy...making things neat and organized, and finally clean!
• Go to Minneapolis!! We leave Friday evening and I'm super excited.
• Study for the GRE - I'm nervous. Why do tests always make me so nervous?
• Take the GRE (next Thursday).
• Start actually planning some of my fall classes. I haven't looked at stuff for school since our last inservice day. I'm a bad teacher.
• Craft Camp!
• Go to Wisconsin with the family.
• Make slideshow for Grandmother.
• Send my transcripts to UMSL so they can complete the application process.

I'm sure there's lots more, but that's what's overwhelming me right now. And of course, I could have done a lot of that stuff earlier this summer, but no...I procrastinate.

In other news:

Yesterday was perfect for the following reasons:

Played with my adorable cousin!

Played with my other cousin's adorable new puppy!!

Played sand volleyball.

What's not to love about that day?

Currently Reading: Finished The Book Thief, looking for my next good read.