I'm still alive!!!!

that's me mowing our lawn this summer...since my last post (i know forever ago) a lot has happened...early june dominic and i took a trip out to northern california...we went to a friend's wedding, visited napa valley and left with some of it's wine, stayed with our friend carrie in san francisco...
the view from the inside looking out at one of the vineyards we did a wine tasting at...amazing
up close and personal with the grapes and the owner of this small but fantastic vineyard...tres sabores...they make a great wine called por que no?
we made it back to bristol just in time for the 4th of july parade in town...the outhouse races are a must see at least once...
this is an annual tradition that people train long and hard to participate in...very amusing...
the rest of july was spent packing up our apartment for the big move into our new house...thura wasn't sure what was going on but enjoyed finding new places and things to play in and with...
she insisted on crawling into any spot that once held something...she needed to know what it felt like being there....
packing paper became a favorite new toy...
i think at one point she thought this might be her best way to make the move as well...
the move was successful...two weeks after we were in we held our first party...it was great...
dominic has created a removable wiffleball field in our backyard...
as summer ended it brought with it the beginning of dominic's traveling for work and the start to my school year...teaching pe and 3/4 is going great...i love being able to get to know all the kids in the school personally...
the beginning of sept found me back in minnesota for a whirlwind of a weekend when my sister faith got married...
this is the same pose we had about 10 years ago when all down in grand cayman...

homeowners...

well...a lot has happened since my last post...i am going to skip over all of it to the present day...dominic and i started looking online at houses in the area about 2 weeks ago...just to see what was out there...last week we went and took a look at a couple of them...one was amazing but too small the others were nothing special to speak of...then searching friday afternoon i found one on craigs list...since our realtor had her daughter's 2nd birthday party on sat. we emailed the selling agent to see if we could take a look at it...sat afternoon we went and looked at the house...neither of us was expecting a whole lot because how the exterior of the house being fairly simple...but we both fell in love with the interior...it is amazing...we came home called a mortgage company, got pre-approved and wrote up an offer with our realtor on sunday...we got the call this morning...they accepted our offer...we close on july 31st...we are excited but both somewhat is shock...we thought it would take a lot longer to find our "perfect" house...here are some pics...we have 10 acres...3 bedroom 2 bathroom...about 2000 finished square feet with another 1000 unfinished in the walkout basement...

first visit from a sister

well memorial day was creeping up and it was looking like dom was going to have to stay in michigan and keep working...so i was thinking it would be nice to go somewhere or have someone come visit me....i called joy up and we discussed her coming out...we found a relatively cheap flight and she showed up friday night of memorial weekend...sat had us in lincoln at the town wide yard sale...that was a new concept for both of us...we had fun walking around and seeing people...then i took her to the school that i teach at and up the lincoln gap....sat night we made our way down to the bobcat after some mimosas at home...we had a couple beers and some appetizers...needless to say the beer is strong and the bed felt good that night...sunday was beautiful...i took joy hiking up the bristol ledges...it was a lot of fun...sunday night we stayed in...made enchiladas and drank wine...monday brought a whole new experience for joy...wiffmorial....we headed down to seth's place about 1pm...everybody started showing up shortly there after!!! it was great...it rained but the game and the grilling went on...it was great for joy to see where i live and to meet my friends out here....it was also very good for me to have the company of my sister...love you joy...thanks so much for coming to visit!!!

physical education...

well it is official....i am the P.E. teacher at my school next year...i will be in the 3/4 multi-age classroom 50% of the day and then i will be the pe teacher...the pe position is 40% so that puts me at 90%...which is great!!! for those of you that don't know...i minored in pe when i was in my undergrad...i will have to some classes but hopefully not too many over the next 2 years...i am very excited about this and looking forward to being able to work with all the kids in the school....

the train ride of life

dominic's mom shelly sent this to me this afternoon and i thought it was insightful and well worth the view...remember to enjoy the ride!!!!

train

thanks shelly for sharing!!!

mother's day hike

well being as i am not a mother and don't have family to spend time with on mother's day i decided to take a peaceful hike up the mountain behind our place...i went up to the ledges...this is a place where you can see for miles...it was a pretty clear day...there were quite a few people up there that had the same idea i did...
this picture and the next two are pictures of our little town of bristol...it is a beautiful day here...sunny and 70 or so...perfect day to celebrate all the amazing mothers out there in our great world!!
thank you to all the mothers that have given so much of themselves to their children!!

chicks and elmer

one of my students asked me to come over and see the baby chicks his grandpa is raising...the pics aren't great because of the red heat lamp but here they are...they are so cute...i then got to see elmer the rooster and his girls...i walked away with a dozen eggs as well...
he is very protective of his girls...
this was a very fun and interesting day for me...not something you get the chance to see in the suburbs of minnesota!!!