Hello my friend.

Yes, I missed the internet. I welcome you back my wonderful friend.

A short update in pictures follows.

E and our new puppy, Zoe. Such cuties.

Our bathroom before.

Our bathroom now...well, a couple hours ago. Now it's grouted, too!

Oh, and we discovered a hole in the floor under the particleboard. Yay. Go figure.

So, so far we've done the following:

• Installed a doggy door, yessss!
• Put a ceiling fan in our bedroom, oh yeah. I am in love with ceiling fans.
• Put a new light fixture in one of the guest bedrooms.
• Cleaned the yard. That was some work.
• Tiled/Grouted the bathroom counter.
• Added another sink in previously mentioned bathroom.
• Fixed light fixture so we can have a vanity light over each sink in said bathroom.
• Half painted the bathroom (had to wait to fix the wall above the vanity to paint the rest)
• Ripped up the really moldy particle board by the shower (and found the hole in the floor)
• Umm...picked out paint colors for the kitchen, which I'm not gonna start working on until the bathroom's done.
• Oh, and painted the previously ugly bathroom cabinets and put on new hardware.

Yay to fixing a house. I'm hoping we're done with our bathroom renovation by the 20th...can we make it? Seein that we'll be in Minneapolis all weekend, I'm wondering. But I'm hopeful!

Oh, and what am I reading lately? Nothing. ::Tear::

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

Could this be it?

E and I went house hunting today. Could this be the one? It's got a HUGE yard (a little more than 1 acre) and TONS of room inside. Hmmm....I'm excited!

Hopefully soon I can post pictures of our new puppy! Once we have one that is...

A political rant

So lately there's been all this news about states legalizing gay marriage. It's really exciting to think that we're progressing. Yet...at the same time, I'm so frustrated by people who seem to think that legalizing gay marriage will somehow affect their heterosexual relationships/marriages. I get it, I get that many people see marriage as their spiritual/religious union, but that's not what everyone views marriage as.

My brother sent me this link to a website about talking points for the conservative anti-gay marriage movement. I don't know if I'm just a bit close-minded in my opinion on the gay marriage issue, but it seemed like whoever came up with their talking points was arguing like a middle school/high school student would argue. The arguments just don't seem strong. I'm willing to listen to other people's arguments, but I still recognize when they're weak.

Like I said, maybe it's just because I can't possibly understand how people could condemn gay marriage (or any gay rights issue for that matter). Maybe I'm the close minded one. Hopefully not, but I'll admit it's a possibility.

:)

Currently Reading: The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov

I'm addicted

To The Biggest Loser. Seriously. They're amazing. I know it's an insane way to lose weight, but probably because I'm on my own weight loss journey, they inspire me to work harder.

Speaking of working harder?

I burned 1000 calories today. 45 minutes running, 45 minutes spinning. Ouch. Trust me, I took a long hot shower afterwards.

In lieu of a better title...

I've been a bad blogger. Every (other) day or so I think to myself, "Wow, Kate...you should really blog something." And then I think: You have nothing to say! Am I really that boring? One would hope not.

So what's been happening in my world lately?

• I am currently hosting a German. She's here with her students who are visiting from our sister city in Germany. She's their English teacher, and she speaks very good English (obviously!) So...that's going well so far - except that I feel bad kicking her out of the living room (one of two rooms in my small apartment) so I can watch the Biggest Loser. Oh well, I'll catch it online in a day or so.
• We're going to apply for a loan Friday!! Yay :) We don't have school Friday so E and I are going a couple places to get pre-approved for a loan. I'm very excited about this. Can you tell?
• The Central Missouri Humane Society is in the top 10 animal shelters - voting for the 1,000,000 $$ makeover starts on the 10th (I think!) Zootoo is the best!
• I'm a wonderful procrastinator. I'm supposed to be done with The Brothers Karamazov by tomorrow and I'm currently on page 487 of 735. Eeek.
• Above statement shows how truly wonderful I am at procrastinating. Hello? Blogging Kate?! Read!!
• Playing fetch with my cat (also currently do this) is hilarious. He's too darned cute.
• I have a 5K this weekend that I'm hoping to excel in. We shall see.

Okay, I'm off to read. Seriously.

Currently Reading: The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky