Happy Memorial Day!

We had a fantastic weekend at the lake! It was our first road trip with Deuce. We managed to turn a 6 1/2 hour trip into an 8 our drive down to Mt. Ida. We didn't make any stops until Joplin, but then we made the mistake of feeding Deuce in the Chick-fil-a parking lot. Then we realized that we should wait for him to do his business. We waited forever in the Chick-fil-a grass and he never did it...so we moved on.



We spent the rest of the drive being nervous that he would poop in the car, so we stopped on the side of the road...



In a hotel parking lot...



...and at a rest stop. For the record, he never did it.



We got there at midnight Friday night and spent Saturday out on the lake. Then we came back to the trailor and grilled some chicken. On Sunday we spent the day on the lake as well and then went and ate at a family favorite, Shangri La. I'll tell you more about that later. Mom and Dad and Tripp were great with Deuce and he did really good with them. Everyone adopted the "pack leader" status and Deuce was a good boy. I've realized that we talk about the lake quite a bit, but haven't really ever put any pictures up of where we stay etc. when we're there. Here some are!

This is C Dock. This is where our boat slip is. It is also dock that my Uncle has used and my grandfather. Kind-of a family tradition.



Here's looking back at Mountain Harbor. It didn't used to be this built up, but it's still heaven on earth.



"Bobbing"...what we do best.



Riding three males deep on a jet ski? Yes. They also darted off together to track a Bald Eagle...nothing like harrassing federally protected wildlife.



This is the famous Shangri La. My family has a lot of history here. It is a place that we have had a lot of family reunions at. In fact, there is a video of my grandparents dancing at a family reunion here and my grandmother is pregnant with my Dad in the video. It is also where my great uncle sat all the family down and told us about his six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. We also come to eat here EVERY time we're at the lake. They have the best pie in the world. Seriously.



Here's the trailor! Our little slice of paradise.



On our way back today we stopped in Fayetteville and ate at Slim Chickens. Yum. Deuce just sat and enjoyed himself under our picnic table outside! When we got back today we unpacked and got settled and ready for the week. I have an easy schedule of going up to school and getting my room finished up and closed down. I'll also start on some of my data entry for the school computer system. David has his last week of clinic class this week. This Thursday night Mom, Dad, Tripp, Mike, Kathy, and Ben are coming into town for David's white coat ceremony (Friday), so we're already looking forward to that. For dinner we went up to at Schlotzky's and took Deuce along. We're trying to take him with us as much as we can! He seems to like riding in the truck so far.

Lake Ouachita here we come!

Tomorrow is the last day of school! Woohoo! It is a late start, which means I get to sleep in, and an 11:00 dismissal, which means I get to come home early! There is a school-wide picnic at 11:00 and then I'll head home and try to get us ready to leave for the lake.

David and I did some preparations today. David mowed the yard and went to the grocery. I gave Deuce a bath (which he hated), cleaned the house and did a little bit of laundry. We also made some home-made salsa to take with us (thanks for the recipe Kristin!) We can't wait to spend the weekend at the lake.

Today I took a picture of my first class at Westminster. They were a great group and I loved learning about Westminster with them.



Taylor, Brenna, Josh, Mary Shelby, Skyler, Adora, Alex, Ethan, Paige, Ryan, Ethan, and Wyatt!

Deuce is growing! We definitely feel like he's gotten bigger since we got him almost 3 weeks ago. Cutie patootie. I hope he takes to the water at the lake this weekend!

Finally, A Sunny Weekend!

The sun and warm weather has finally arrived! We had quite a busy little weekend too! On Friday night we went to dinner with a woman that I work with, her husband, son, and another single girl that I work with. We now think we might have been invited right into a blind date setup (the woman's son and the single teacher that I work with). We got to go to Carrabas, which was delicious.

On Saturday morning we went to my class picnic. It was a picnic that people could sign up and pay for at the Fall Auction. There were about eight families that signed up and it was from 10:00-12:30 Saturday morning. David and I decided it would be good exposure for Deuce, so we took him along! The kids loved him and he did really good. He did get tired by the end but he hung in there and was very well-behaved a sweet. Here are David and Deuce enjoying the picnic.





This picture is of me and the kids (minus one that had already left) that signed up.

Saturday afternoon was gorgeous and I cleaned the house while David mowed the yard. Then we just spent the rest of the afternoon outside! We had Deuce outside in the front off leash and just enjoyed having him. Saturday night we ate outside at The Cheesecake Factory. Tonight we are going over to some friend's house from dental school for a mexican fiesta! Yum.

This is the last week of school YYYYEEEESSSSS. Can't wait to head to the lake for Memorial Day.

No Table Scraps

David has started his clinic class! Things are going wonderful and he even got assigned 17 people as patients! David has some reading to do tonight, but he plans to blog all that has changed for him in the next couple of days.

Things at school continue to come to a close. The kids are starting to get more and more antsy every day. I am going to be the K-2 RenWeb (new school computer system) next year, so I have some training coming up and I'll also be training the other K-2 teachers on the system. Should be fun...hopefully I'm computer competent enough to actually figure the system out!

We're loving our doggy and he is definitely showing us his little personality. He is full of energy but very controllable. He is also showing himself to be very trainable. He has learned sit and can even "stay" while we take 2-3 steps backward. When we first got him and started walking on the leash he was fantastic and we thought we had completely lucked out. However, a couple of days later he started pulling super hard on the leash and we got a sneak peek of the strength he'll have as an adult. We vowed to not give up and turn him into a good walker and he is improving every day. This morning and evening he did really good and hardly pulled at all. We ate outside tonight for the first time with him and promised ourselves to keep from giving him table scraps. So far so good. Bad news...our backyard is covered in poop. :)



Deuce really loves his dog house.



True love?



Dad, does this remind you of anything?

Here's a video of Deuce "fetching." It's a work in progress.

Wet Weekend

IT HAS RAINED FOR A WEEK! Never have I been so tired of the rain. Wet weather is not good for a puppy. The weekend has been good though. We have been so relaxed with no tests coming up. On Friday night we used a gift card to Spin Neopolitan Pizza (thank you cheer girls!) and rented a movie. On Saturday morning Deuce had a doctors appointment, and afterward, just like proud parents, we walked around Petsmart doing some shopping. On Saturday night we used a gift card to see "Iron Man 2" (thanks teacher appreciation week!)...which we loved. Deuce had his first crate accident this weekend, but no big deal. We're still so thankful he hasn't gone in the house. Here are some pictures from Saturday. After a doctor visit and a trip to Petsmart, Deuce was pretty tired.







Today after church we went to Pizza Shoppe with everyone from Sunday school. We have such a wonderful group...love all ya'll!

From Carpet to Hardwoods

This week has been such a wonderful break for me. Finals ended last Friday, and we have this whole week off before class begins Monday, May 17th. We will have 3 weeks of what is called "The Bridge Course," or stated another way, all the final information that we need to know to be in the clinic. After the bridge course, we begin seeing patients. I'm really excited to finally be done with the most difficult years of dental school, and am looking forward to this summer. I will also be taking my Part 1 - National Board Test in August, so I will be studying for that soon.

This spring, Rachel and I had discussed the option of taking up our carpets in the living room and cleaning/refinishing our hardwoods underneath, and decided to go for it on Monday. While Rachel was at work, I pulled up the carpet and hoped that the floors underneath were not in disrepair. Thankfully with a little help from Larry (next door neighbor) I got all the carpet and pads up and out of the house. The floors looked to be in good condition, but needed some TLC.

Since we were going to get Deuce on Monday evening, I replaced all the furniture and waited till the next day to pull up the "tack-board" and clean up this cake-like residue that the carpet pad had created. Rachel helped so much with the cleaning and scraping on Tuesday night, and the finished product turned out to look good.

Here are some pictures from the floor project:













Deuce is doing well, he does great on walks around the neighborhood, and learning to sit. We only wish he knew how to "sit and stay." We are working on it, so hopefully he will get it sooner rather than later!

Days with Deuce

And then there were four! Yesterday we picked up the newest addition to the family! He is a 3 month old pointer/vizsla mix. We brought him home around 5:30 (in the rain of course) and began to get him used to his new home. He is even cuter in person that he was on the interet and was a sweet dog from the get-go. We tried to spend some time just hanging out with him and letting him get comfortable with us. And of course, we tried to get him worn out so that he would sleep through the night.

The first night went surprisingly well. He didn't cry at all and didn't have an accident in his crate. We hope it's not a one-time performace and that we can have another good night tonight.

I went to work today and David enjoyed his time off working around the house, playing/training the dog, and running errands. He took Deuce on a really long walk all around the neighborhood this morning and then let him play in the backyard the majority of the day. When I got home we all went for another walk down to a creek and then came back and grilled burgers. He has been pretty well behaved, comes when he's called, and beginning to master "sit" and we're starting to work on "stay," "down," and "crate." So far so good.

Having a dog is a ton of work, but we're really enjoying figuring it all out together.

Graduation Time!

This weekend, right after David finished his last final of second year, we headed straight to Fayetteville for Tripp and Ben's graduation. It was a weekend full of family and lots and lots of eating. We ate everything from New York strip to Crawfish, to massive blueberry pancakes. Tripp and Ben both graduated with lots of "regalia" draped over them and we had a great time hanging out with family. My grandparents, "Granny and Grandad," and David's gradmother, "Grandma" were also in town to celebrate. It really was just a great time. We can't believe that not even our brothers go to the U of A now. We're so proud of you guys and the men that you have become. Keep it up! Here's a quick run-down of the weekend.

We got there on Friday and had dinner with the Rainwaters at Ella's at Carnall Hall (which is the dorm that my grandmother lived in her freshman year!). Saturday morning we had to divide and conquer between families. We both went to separate enginnering graduation brunches (Tripp=Industrial Engineer, Ben=Mechanical Engineer) and met up with the Geurins for pictures on Old Main Lawn. Then it was graduation and we managed to snag seats together. The graduation itself was great and we were so proud. After the graduation the Rainwaters left town and we had dinner with my family at Cafe Ru Orleans...really good fried food. On Sunday morning we had a mother's day brunch at Uncle Gaylord's (a restaurant...as far as we know, we do not have an uncle named Gaylord), saw Tripp, Scott and Joey's new apartment, and then headed back to KC! Here are a few great pictures from the weekend.















The big news for the week...besides the fact that David is officially a third year dental student...we are getting a puppy tomorrow! We found him online and he's a pointer/vizsla mix. We have been collecting dog gear for about a week and can't wait to get him tomorrow. We'll have plenty of pictures to blog. For now, here's Sooie getting acquainted with the puppy's stuff. We're still working on a good name for our little pooch!

Teacher Appreciation Week=Good

Teacher appreciation week is turning out to be quite the fun event. Today, the theme was "ready for summer." I receieved a beach towel, flip flops, two beach bags, a stainless steel water bottle, a fiction book, a water resistant picnic blanket, a chip and dip tray, a Panera gift card, and two "grow your own flowers/tomato kits." Last but not least, one of the moms in my class is a fantastic cake decorator and even does cakes for peoples' weddings. She came in late this afternoon with quite an amazing cake...





Pretty amazing! She worked so hard on it and included every child's name with a picture on the side. They loved looking at it and it's delicious! I have really wonderful parents and kids in my class.

What a Surprise!

Today, after morning meeting, I was walking down the hallway at work and realized that all of the students coming down the hall were carrying plants! I had no idea what was going on and then Sarah told me that this week is teacher appreciation week! Woohoo! What a pleasant surprise when the weeks are starting to drag on until the end of school!

Today was flowers, cards, and candy day. I was given tons of candy, cute home-made cards, a rose bush (wow!) and a pretty purple flowering bush to plant outside! Also thrown in were a cute set of stationary and an adorable yellow hand bag. Apparently there is more to come in the week, so I'm looking forward to it! Word around the teachers' lounge is that one day is called "gift card day." We're all hoping it's not just a rumor!

Go Buffaloes!

This week was a tough one for David. I know that he is getting tired, but it's just one more week. He has taken 6 finals total, and he has 6 more to go this week. Almost there.

On Wednesday, Sarah Busenitz and I went to a baseball game that a lot of the boys in our classes were in. They all play on the same team, so we decided to make a night of it and go see their first game of the season. They were SO cute in their baseball uniforms and they played as hard as they could. It was also fun to sit and talk with the parents as they watched their kids play.

Shaking hands after the game!

This week my friend Joanna, who I taught PreK with last year, came back in town from Thailand. She's been gone for almost a year, so I'm glad to have her back to hang out with. We met at Panera today to talk and catch up and we are going to go to the KCCS Spring Program together this coming Thursday.

We have a busy week this week. David of course, has 6 finals in five days. I have two grad school meetings on Wednesday night to set my summer and fall coursework to finish up my masters and a meeting at The Barstow School on Thursday night about the summer program. I am only working half days for most of the summer at the Barstow School, and I will be doing some extra work for WCA/HCA setting up the new grading computer system. Tripp and Ben graduate next weekend, so we're really looking forward to going to Fayetteville this Friday and spending time with family the whole weekend.