Written Out

I just realized over the past couple of days that probably the main reason I haven't been blogging as much lately is because of writing overload from class. While my second Penn State course has been much easier to handle overall, it really is a lot of writing with the weekly papers we are asked to compile. It seems I dump all of my (somewhat limited) creativity and energy into those darn papers and by the time I am finished, it's hard to write a blog post!
Luckily, I have some pictures from my new camera to post, which rescues me from having to do TOO much writing tonight. (I finished and turned in my homework last night, so I'm off the hook with school for a couple days.)
First off, I have to say that I LOVE my new camera. It's super small so I can take it anywhere. It's super thin, so I can put it in my pocket. Oh, and did I mention that it's PINK?!? :) There will be no excuses for not having lots of pictures now, unless I forget to bring it along with me. So far, I am doing pretty well. I have a whole montage of pictures for a peak into our lives over the past couple weeks.

Sorry for how weird the formatting came out. The way I arranged it was way different from the way it ended up being published.

The pups got a new bed for the living room. They really love snuggling down into the blanket we put on top. And it's round, so hopefully Perdi won't be tempted to chew on the corners and pull out the stuffing. :)










Perdi still likes to chew on bones...
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And it has been snowing off and on in Denver quite a bit. Nothing substantial, but enough for us to have needed to shovel the driveway a few times! The mountains have gotten at least 7-14 inches of fresh powder, which means we will be skiing this weekend!




Pongo went to work with me last weekend. He is so good, and just sleeps on his blanket under my desk while I work. He is great company when I am there alone.
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Last Sunday, we had crock pot roast with potatoes, carrots and roasted asparagus. It was SOOOO good, but smelling it cooking all day long while we were home was pure torture. :)







This is how I like Perdi the best...when she is passed out and super tired. In other words, NOT destroying anything!








On Monday, I came home to a funny sight. Perdi had chewed a hole in her kennel blanket and had gotten her head through it! It looked like she had gotten cold and wrapped herself up snug and warm.








This week and next week is "5280 week." Basically, its Denver restaurant week, where lots of really fancy restaurants offer nice meals for $52.80 per couple. On Tuesday, Matt and I ate at Fogo de Chao, a Brazillian steakhouse where lots of waitors bring you every possible kind of meat you could ever want on skewers, as much as you want until you are full! I went in thinking, "I will limit what i eat tonight." WRONG! You can not do that at a place like this. They start you off with a salad bar, move on to the meats, and end with a dessert.












Matt and I were so full after dinner that we had to walk around a little bit before getting in the car to go home. We got some cool pictures of the pedestrian bridge (left) and Union Station (below).

Last night we went to Old Chicago because they were having a drawing for St. Patty's day prizes. Matt won a T-shirt and I won this cool hat.

Matt emailed an ESPN blogger who had written a post about how the KU-MU game would be one of the better games to watch at the end of the regular season. Matt pointed out that if KU wins the rest of their games this season, the KU-MU game would be their 2000th win, which would add to the appeal. The ESPN blogger emailed him back! He was mighty proud of this...


Well there you have it! Tonight is a relaxing blog-with-a-movie-on type night. I will probably fall asleep warm in bed within a half hour or so. It has been a busy week as usual.

55.5 Hours

SOOO, you've probably been wondering what's been going on in our world lately, huh? Don't worry, this blog freeze hasn't been intentional this time. Everything is fine here!
Ever since the new year, we've been in crisis mode at work. We have a huge project due at the beginning of April and we've got a long way to go to get it done! I'm doing all I can to help. Getting up at 4 am to get my hours in before the night shift, training new hires and working A LOT. Last week I logged 55.5 hours (as per the title) and I probably would have done more if I had my computer longer! Funny thing is, time seems to FLY at work because we are so busy.
I've been frustrated for a while, but it's nothing I can really go in to here. Work is demanding. School is demanding. Running/jogging is lacking. Sometimes, it all seems so overwhelming until I get a little break somewhere. Last week, it was Matt cooking dinner and taking the dogs to the park so I didn't have to worry about it. This week, it was almost crying when I got to the end of my weekly school project to find this statement:
"No lesson report is required this week."
Whew! Huge sigh of relief there. Those reports take a good 3-4 hours to compose sometimes. At least for the week, I can come home and run or nap (or blog!) and do as I please! Case in point today. I took the dogs to the dog park AND blogged! I even re-potted a plant and bought dog food!
Valentine's weekend went way to fast, as most weekends do. I got home on Friday and Matt couldn't wait to give me my V-day gift. Although we had decided to keep it low key this year, he decided to buy me a new camera! (It's partly my birthday gift too.) Of course, I really felt bad when all I had to give him were Seasons 2 and 3 of "How I Met Your Mother." They didn't quite compare to a camera!
We had a nice dinner at home on Saturday and watched one of my favorite "chick flicks." (P.S. I Love You, for those who are wondering.) Both of us were so tired that we went to bed early and got something like 11 hours of sleep!
Sunday afternoon, we took advantage of having a free day and drove around looking at houses for a few hours. We still have no idea what part of town we want to settle down in, although we are leaning to areas pretty close to where we are now to keep our commute times down. We would love to live on the west side of town somewhere closer to the mountains (or in them!), but it's hard to justify adding hours of driving to our already long days right now. Plus, we like being close to the light rail and have a lot of our necessities down here (doctor, dentist, vet, etc.) So I imagine it's smarter to stay where we are, location wise. I really just can't wait to move in to a place of our own, but just the beginning stages of house-hunting are already stressful and we haven't even enlisted a realtor yet! (Maybe that's why it seems so overwhelming.)
Well anyway, that's a quick update for you all. Hopefully I will have lots of new pictures to share in a week or so! (We returned the silver camera because the pink model could only be ordered online and I decided I could wait a few more days for the pink one.) :) I already have a backlog of pictures from the past month or so I need to share. I hope you all enjoyed the video of our howling beagles!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Matt basically had a 5 day weekend starting last Thursday, which meant our puppies were free from their kennels for 5 whole days! Five days of freedom sure makes for some angry dogs when they have to return to slumber during the day. And you can be sure that let me know about it!

Among other things, Perdi is learning to howl! Most of the time, it's just little barks and yips. But when she howls, it's pretty darn cute. Hope you enjoy this video of the dogs "voicing" their thoughts about being alone all day when I got home. :)