An August Update

Not too much exciting news from the past posting. I've been teaching summer school for the past month and training for a sprint triathlon. My days have been mildly full. Andy and I have also taken a couple of weekend trips: Alaska and Lake Alta (or Alta Lake? I can never remember.).

Juneau's weather wasn't very cooperative for touring but we still had fun. We couldn't fly anywhere due to the low hanging clouds. So, good ol' dad hooked us up with some land tours that were pretty cool. We went dog mushing, and held some puppies too!

These dogs are in training for the Iditarod dog sled race. Many of them, like the two lead dogs in the picture, participated in last year's race with our tour guide's husband. The team did quite well, they were 27th(-ish) out of a few hundred.

The dogs will run until the age of 8 years or so (my memory could be wrong, Andy may correct this later). After their racing days, they are adopted out to families as pets. The trainer said they are great family pets and really enjoy their rest and relaxation by that age. They don't require much exercise after several years of running. So, they can be pretty ideal pets for a person with a full time job. Yes, this is a small plug for anyone looking for a pet in the near future.

We took a short tram ride up the side of Mount Roberts. The clouds were too thick to really see any views of Juneau but the scenery was still beautiful.

We rode on a whale watching tour that fed us and took us north west to find some wildlife. We saw sea lions, eagles-from afar, and humpback whales. There were about 13 whale feeding together when we arrived. They are typically independent mammals but once in a while they work together to really feast. There is a lead female that sings to the others, telling them when to blow bubbles and when to swim up to the surface. The boat had a hydrophone that allowed us to hear the songs, it was really cool. The whales swim below a school of fish, blow bubbles that push the fish to the surface and then swim straight up, leaping above the water level, mouth open, landing on their portion of fish. The pictures don't do justice for the experience but here's one anyway.

Zip lining was our last tour of the trip. We were speeding through the rain forest (while it was raining) over the old pit mines from the gold rush. It was exciting and I totally wasn't scared or nervous at first.

How attractive the safety gear was!

More recently, while many of you were in Ocean Shores, we went to Alta Lake with Kyle, Tiff, Gabriel and some of Kyle's extended friends. We didn't take any pictures but it did have some great Eastern Washington scenery. Andy and I went tubing, jet skiing, and I even got up on water skiies.

Hopefully I will be going to Heron Island for Labor Day weekend?

Well, I will wrap up this post with a pic of the two men that I love. Halas totally thinks he is a human. He actually fell asleep sitting like this, head falling to his side and all. It was hilarious.

I hope all is well with everyone. We should see each other soon!

A summer time update

It's summer time and I love it. I've been cleaning
like a mad woman for two+ weeks for all of the
company that Andy and I have had.


A couple weekends ago, my college buddy came down from Canada. We went to sushi, then dancing. We had a blast as usual, that's all that needs to be said. Look at me and Gail. Don't we look so innocent?





Another good friend of mine from college has moved into the house with Andy and me. Julie just graduated from Colorado State (I think) with a Master's in Speech-Language Pathology. Along with her diploma, she brought her puppy, Simon. He's a five months old Springer Spaniel--soooo cute! Simon and Halas are getting along splendidly. They wrestle and chase to no end. It's fabulous not having to entertain either of them and they are still exhausted at the end of the day.


Andy's parents, Bruce and Diane, came up for the fourth of July weekend. If you know them, you know that they are so awesome. We can do anything and have a great time. We made fresh ice cream, barbecued, and they taught us a new card game: "Up and down the river." We took them to Gas Works Park for the fire works--a big thanks to Dennis and Jess for saving a spot for us--they were in awe of the show. Oh, we played shuffle board at the Knarr before the fireworks. It was a great day.


On Saturday, Andy felt a little under the weather so we laid low, which is a great excuse to eat a lot of yummy food. We ate breakfast at the Maltby Cafe. If you haven't been there before, you need to try it, just bring pants that have an elastic waistband. After we came out of the food coma from the Cafe, Bruce and Diane spoiled us with a abalone and crab dinner. WOW, what a meal!



They left Sunday morning, the weekend was top quality! They really are amazing people.

Now that our company has left, I get a break from cleaning. Well, only a little break. Having two dogs in one house can create a really hairy mess. This week I'm hoping to get a bit more serious about training. Most of you know by now that I'm hoping to complete a sprint triathlon at the end of the summer. The sprint tri is much shorter than a full triathlon so don't be too impressed. I think I'll participate in the Kirkland or the Mercer Island sprint tri in September. Let's hope that I don't have any more injuries before then.



Since Halas and I have had so much time together lately, I'll conclude this post with a super cute picture of him. I love our dog.

This will only happen once, thank you George Bush!
He gave me a bunch of money today :)

A month later...

Sorry guys, I gotta find a grove with this blogging thing, I always forget.
So some big events went down in this past month: I turned 24 years old, I was involved in a car accident and Andy and I almost moved to Idaho. Crazy!

My birthday was awesome. It was exactly what I wanted in a birthday, good weather, good food, drinks and great company. Thank you so much to everyone that helped with making my birthday celebration so much fun.

My car's axel was messed up, a wheel was bent and the other driver strategically hit three different panels making for a long stay in auto body shop. I still don't have my car back but i should get it this week. I'm thinking of it as a three week rejuvination at the auto spa.

To move on to something more interesting, Andy and I visited Twin Falls, Idaho last weekend. Overall, our idea of living there was "doable." It was what we imagined, not horrible but not somewhere we would try to live. There was beatiful scenery and offordable housing. I have some friends that just moved over there as well and we had a great time hanging out with them.
Andy did very well in his interview and was offered the job by the next Monday. However, he declined the offer by Wednesday morning. So, to releave some of you, we will not be moving to Idaho.

On the other hand, the possibility of moving to Spokane is a little stronger now. Last Monday and Tuesday, two women from the WSU and EWU's SLP grad program (that's the Speech-Language Pathology program I'm waitlisted at) came to my work to observe our program. One woman is the director and supervisor of the preschool that is within this SLP program. The other woman is a teacher in the school. They are thinking about including the little one's, about three years old, into their pre-school program as well. So, they wanted to see how we run our class.

They watched my class for almost two hours and it went pretty well. At snack time, while the kids are quietly stuffing their mouths, I started some small talk about the SLP program in Spokane. I mentioned that I was on the waitlist for each school. The teacher, not the director, said, "Your totally in!" I shrugged off her comment because I know that can't happen so easily but the women continued to inquiry about my application. The director took my name and asked my a few more questions. She told me she was "thoroghly impressed with my work" HOLY CRAP!
Then she went to my coworker that just graduated from this program and she and my boss gave me great reviews. My coworkers are so amazing! The director woman called each school right then and there and had my name moved to the top of the list! AHHH!

The next day she explained that there are no guarentees because someone has to decline for me to get in. However, many of the out of state people decline because the tuition is so expensive. So, she actually told me, "there is a strong likelihood" that I will get in. If there is good news, I should find out by mid-June-ish.

That's the update on my life. Other than the wicked virus/head-chest cold that I have right now, I'm reall happy. I feel like my life has been exiciting with all of these new opportunities arising.

Hey everyone, let's hang out soon, 'K? I love you guys

Take care and don't get sick!

I'm blogging now

Ok, I'm apart of the blogging crew now! My blogging cherry has been popped. It's a big day.