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!

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

B-E-A-utiful weather!

Willow River Falls (Wisconsin)

Seriously, I don't know what's going on this summer, but you won't hear me complaining. The weather lately has been absolutely amazing! I have yet to turn on my air conditioning (all summer!). Can you say lower utility bills? Heck yes!

In other news school is going so smoothly it's kind of worrying me. I'm used to being a little freaked out all the time and desperately needing every minute of my plan period, but lately it's been somewhat relaxing. We did get a bit of sad news this week, though. The teacher whom I was hired to replace died Friday afternoon of a heart attack. He was 35! He also has a baby boy who's turning 1 in October. Seriously, how unfair is life sometimes? Tomorrow the school is sponsoring a "hat day" where kids/teachers pay money to wear a hat and all the money is going to an educational fund for his son. I'm not a hat person, but I'll be sporting a Mizzou cap for the occasion.

Tomorrow we're doing a fun lesson that's taking full advantage of the wonderful weather, so I hope to post some pictures the kids take. Keep your eyes open.

Also, the Ride Like a Pro challenge is almost over (Friday's the last day). So far, with my rough estimates (I underestimated most of the times) I've biked over 650 miles this summer - since June. I guess they're recognizing the participants on September 13th when the Tour of Missouri comes through town. That should be cool :)

Well, after all that talk about teaching being a breeze this year, I must go finish planning part of tomorrow's lesson.

Currently Reading: The Off Season by Catherine Murdock

One would think...

That not having a job in the summertime would lead to me having more time on my hands meaning more posting. Ha! No such thing!

Fun things so far this summer:
1. Sand volleyball baby! Seriously, I'm addicted. It's bad.
2. Housework. You say dreadful?! I say F-U-N! Details on this latest derangement below.
3. MudBall '08 here we come!
4. WW is working! I might actually meet my 15lb by July 4th goal!
5. Calling all adorable puppies and kittens - volunteering at the Humane Society
6. Oh yeah, finished that duathlon...silver medal?! Still a little bewildered by that one.

Fun things waiting for me:
1. Float trip? I love float trips, anyone wanna go?
2. Minneapolis, gotta visit the little bro
3. Firemen Volleyball Tournament on the 4th - yay!
4. Finishing the bathroom in my parents house - all that HGTV might actually have helped!

So, I thought I'd be bored out of my mind, but my parents have definitely helped to quash that - in a good way. I told them I'd help out around the house. They built our house about...12 years ago, and there are parts that either need touching up or things that just never got finished. Two years ago they added a sunroom and it is still incomplete (no floors - besides the plywood), so I figured if I filled in all the nail holes and caulked around the windows/etc. they might actually finish it. It's lookin good. The other thing that I'm super excited about? They might let me finish the bathroom in the basement! I know that sounds like a weird thing to want to do, but I watch entirely to much DIY housework on HGTV and TLC and have always kinda fantasized flipping a house. So, what better to warm up on than a basement bathroom that doesn't even have walls? We'll see how that one goes.

Last year my friends and I participated in the local Big Brother Big Sister MudBall Tournament. It was a blast. Normally I don't enjoy wearing dirt, but it was pretty darn fun if I do say so myself. Well, turns out they're doing it again this year in about a month. Stay tuned for pictures.

I just completed my orientation to volunteer at the Central Missouri Humane Society tonight. I'm excited. I love animals. Love them. Just today I watched three kitties and three dogs play around at Mom and Dad's. Seriously, if I didn't teach, I'd probably do something with animals. They're so great and cute and can always cheer you up on a bad day. What's not to love?

So, I started Weight Watchers in May...like May 5th or something. So far, great! I mean, if you're looking for quick weight loss, it's definitely not for you. But seriously, it's not a diet. You just have to watch what you're eating. I always said before I could do weight loss on my own. I mean, my Mom and Dad are pretty darn healthy people, but I just never had the discipline before. Now, oh yeah. I have WI tomorrow here in CoMo, so hopefully this past week went as well as the week before (-3lbs!) that would be sweet and would put me at -12 total. My clothes are definitely fitting better and that's always a nice feeling.

The following are some pictures from our bike ride a couple days ago. I'm trying to take more pictures because, who doesn't love pictures?

Where we usually bike...flooded over.

A spot along the Katy Trail where they used to store explosives...or so Dad says.

The Missouri River, along the Katy Trail

Isn't this cool?! An arch (the only one) along the Katy Trail in Rocheport, MO, which used to be a railroad. It was so pretty! And nice and cool inside, which was nice.

Currently Reading: The Perfect Fit by: Louise Kean

Challenge

So, last year in June I started going to the gym with my Mom. Sound weird? Well, my parents are both really into being healthy. Dad rock climbs, bikes, runs and just generally moves around a lot. Mom is always trying to make recipes healthier. She used to bike a lot but now she goes to the gym a lot and just does weights and such. I love that my parents are healthy, hopefully that wears off, right? So, I started going five times a week with Mom. Running, a few weights here and there. You know, just trying to get back into it. Last year when I lived on my own I did...nothing. And I do mean nothing. It was pathetic. So, now I take a spinning class once a week at the local gym and manage to run at least three times a week for at least 30 minutes and then bike for at least 25 minutes afterwards. Well, my spinning instructor's been trying to convince me to do a duathlon and I think I'm actually gonna do it! Ahh! I just have to commit to it, then I can't back out...right? Well, Dad's going to do it with me, which I think will be cool. I'll just have to start running after I bike after I've run. Haha. We'll see how that goes.

I give up and admit. It's that time of the year. I'm ready for the summer. That's the one perk of my job, Summers Off! Unfortunately right now I'm going to have to take at least four classes this summer. Good thing is that 3 of the classes meet only one night a week, go CMU! So, it won't seem totally overwhelming. It just means that I don't really have a summer off. Course, last summer was pretty easy, so I don't mind :)

The kids are definitely also at the point of exhaustion. I'm getting trouble from those kids who've never caused a problem before. They're (the seniors) just ready to get out. And I can't blame them. I was so ready I got out my junior year and I never regretted it a bit. College was great, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with my students. It'll be interesting :)

Oh, and I'm looking at purchasing a new camera and little-impulsive-me is really looking forward to buying it and posting some new fun pictures!