So my big boy turned three last week (April 23rd)!! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. He and Bella have changed our lives so drastically that I can't imagine not having them!
I baked pupcakes and we had a little celebration...Happy birthday puppy!!
For the first time since December 16, 2007 I opened my dissertation file. I was at a writing retreat for three days with a group of faculty working on articles, books, or even for a couple their own dissertations. I feel good about opening the file and making necessary revisions and making some headway into the last couple sections. However after three days of writing I remembered why I hated it so much and quit the first time. I will be taking Wednesdays out of the office for the rest of the summer to continue my writing, but no more three day stints like this!!!
well....until August when I'm signed up for another retreat...FIVE days of writing!! Hopefully by that time I will be finishing up the proposal and moving on to the next phase. (Keep your fingers crossed!!)
While I'm out here...I'll go ahead and post an update. I FINALLY got my new car! I've been looking at new vehicles since last August as my lease was going to expire this summer. I started exploring the ones I was interested in and shopping around. I decided in October that I wanted to get a Ford Flex but the deals were really not happening. I was finally able to work out a deal at the end of February and ta da....a new car! LOVE IT!!!
So, I got back from Florida and jumped right into the busiest time of my academic year. Our university registers for the entire academic year in three weeks. Good news it's finite and will be over soon. Bad news 1800 students think they can only see you in this three weeks of the year. Ok, that's not true but a whole lot of students do wait until the last minute which makes this time so hectic. Probably won't see much of me until April.
However, I've been tagged so I felt obligated to post. Maria tagged me to play the Fourth Picture Game where you go to the fourth file in your picture folder. Then choose the fourth picture and post it on your blog.
Here ya go....ends up being a folder of pictures that I keep on my ipod of our "family". I keep most of my pics off the laptop and on a portable drive so this was funny it ended up being this picture.
The "kids" and I on the dock on Drummond Island (Upper Peninsula, MI) Summer 2007 during our summer vacation.
I'll tag Leslie and Selena
Friday morning Brad and I decided to get up early and hit the beach before anyone else to see what we could find in the way of shells. We agreed that I would get up at 6am and call him. I woke up at 5:45am and stepped on the balcony. It was so COLD that I jumped back under the covers and decided we were nuts to be doing this. The news said it was 48 degrees out! Next thing I know Brad calls and says I'm up, dressed, and in the lobby...get down here! So I did and we went out. We were the ONLY ones on the beach besides the beach rake guy. It was SOOOOO COOOLD that I can't even describe it. I couldn't feel my feet or legs and the wind made it hard to breathe. It was also VERY dark at that time of the morning so I'm sure we walked over some good stuff. We walked down to my shell ledge that I found on Thursday to find it covered in sand. By this time the sky had lightened and we started heading back. We found quite a few large cockels which were nice. I picked up a couple sand dollars and a "pink plaid" one. I don't remember what they are called but they are one of my favorites. We made it back to the hotel at 7:15am and the hotel staff looked at us like we were crazies. We kept asking ourselves...do you think you can get pneumonia from doing this?
Sessions let out at noon and I grabbed my book and headed to the pool. It was just too windy to sit on the beach. I found a nice secluded sunny spot and wrapped up in my pool towel like a blanket. I read for a while and then fell asleep and took a much needed nap.
When I awoke it was low tide again so I decided to brave the wind one more time. This time everything I picked up were the "pink plaid" ones and a few sand dollars. I couldn't believe how many plaids there were. It must be due to the wind but there were also 10 pretty big moon jellies washed up on the shore just in the stretch that I walked. That seems like a really high number! Here's a picture of my entire day's haul:
I grabbed dinner at an italian restaurant down the street and then on the walk back found a store called "The Serious Cookie". That sounded intriguing so I went inside to find these monster baked goods. I selected the chocolate chip. See the highlighter for size comparison, it's HUGE!
Then back to the hotel to watch the sunset from my balcony. Now I'm in my jammies and in bed and it's not even 7:30. I think I'll do that work I needed to do last night and a little bit more reading.
Tomorrow is the big beach day...I can't wait!!!
