Family = Love

I love my family, both our little trio here in Charleston and our extended family across Virginia. Rosie is definitely our "child," and we were so relieved today that she had an excellent surgery today. Yesterday, though, was amazing:

How cute is she? She did this for like 5 minutes before we realized we should take some photos and videos.

I love our puppy! Also, for final laughs....

Rosie decided to help Handsome do his ab exercises. I got my ab workout from laughing at the two of them! And yes, I do realize I just posted my awkward laugh on camera, but Rosie's too cute!

Basically, I just wanted to do a super quick update on our puppy. School is going well, although we're doing a fundraising project that is giving flashbacks to all the negative things that can happen in a fundraiser... So I'm just making myself take a step back and remember that it's not my program, and I don't have to make it a success or risk losing my job. So, I'm going to go for the things I want and can do, and just leave this program to the people who want to do it. :-) I do still want to get involved with the Charleston Friends of the Library if I have the chance, though! I'll have to see once I finalize my schedule for this semester with other classes and activities. I won't have my awesome Board members from FOLMC, unfortunately. I definitely miss some of them right now!

Speaking of things I miss, Handsome and I are trying to figure out some sort of travel plans. We realized we've taken a fairly big trip every year we've been together; even little travel-together like going to the Hokie games a couple weekends a season won't be happening, so I have a travel bug bite like whoa! I'm dying to go to Disney and visit it as an adult, and to see all the cool things they've added, so we're trying to see if we can make it happen next year (2012). For smaller trips, I hope we can go to Blacksburg even once, especially if we can make it when one of my favorite Californians ever is here (although it's a MUCH bigger trip than it used to be), and I'm pushing to get us to go to Biltmore at least once while it's decorated for the holidays! Maybe we can even go with my parents, since they should be here around Thanksgiving if all goes according to plan. :-D I'm so excited! I love my family. Also, Handsome's mom and aunt should be coming soonish, so that will be just an added bonus. It's lovely that we have such great families! The only thing that would make it better is if the Tweedles (and Tweedle Dum's spouse and pugs) could make it down, too.

On that note, here's a fluffy puppy (with her hairbrush by her side), and it's time for me to get some studying done again!

Cheers,

Woozel

P.S.- This weather has been amazing. Irene was not even a big deal, and it's been so beautiful out with the wind and the cooler temperatures! I love it so, so much. It's so different that anywhere I've lived so far, but we're really loving it!

Baptisms are my favorite.

I absolutely adore baptisms. Not only because I have a ridiculous love of children (which I admittedly do), but because of just everything a baptism signifies. It's a new beginning, a chance to reaffirm your place in your church life and community, as well as the simplest, most accessible form of stating your beliefs. Families come together for baptisms in a way only matched by weddings, which is just awesome to see. It's also just weird to think that in a few years, Handsome and I will be doing that ourselves. We'll be choosing the Godparents and dude, we'll have had a kid! Being Shepadoodle parents is definitely enough for now, though. Between grad school and the puppy, we're definitely busy enough! It'll be a new chapter in our lives, though, so we're looking forward to it as a far-in-the-future thing.

Speaking of new chapters...

For those who don't know (which is almost everyone, as we kept it pretty close to the vest for once in my life), Handsome was laid off at the beginning of the month and had to begin job hunting again, adding stress to the finals I was already freaking out about. He was about to start job hunting anyways, as the job was not as advertised, and we spent almost the same amount apart as we had when he was still up in DC. On the plus side, he was able to come on vacation with me and Rosie this past week! He actually went through the interview process and was hired while we were up in Norfolk, then had the meet and greet yesterday and is now working on getting the clearance stuff done! He'll be supporting the Navy, and thus indirectly supporting Tweedle Dee! I'm super proud of him for getting a job that he will love.

We had a wonderful vacation in Norfolk. We celebrated my parent's 31st wedding anniversary! (And my little cousin-in-law and OT-inspiration's birthday from afar.) I love that my parents been able to have such a wonderful, long union, as have Handsome's parents. :-) It's a wonderful example, one that Handsome and I definitely hope to emulate in the future. We also got to see my cousin and his fiance, whose wedding we won't be able to make, unfortunately. Handsome has no vacation time for the first six months of his employment, so we'll actually be spending our Christmas and Thanksgiving down here, too! I'm kind of excited to do the Charleston Christmas thing. We'll be visiting the Biltmore for sure at Christmas time, and hopefully we'll be able to go to see Savannah, too. I think Rosie will be super excited to not travel-- she is NOT a traveling puppy if she can help it.

Classes start again on this Wednesday, and I'm super excited that I got into an elective I really wanted to take! I can't wait for the opportunity to combine learning and service. :-)

Cheers,
Woozel

The End of the Semester!

I am so excited that it's almost the end of the semester! I have my last final on Wednesday, and after that, I will officially be done with my first semester of OT school. Despite being more than slightly brain fried from anatomy, I am still so in love with pretty much everything we've done so far in school. (Okay, I have to admit I'll be happy to be done with Human Anatomy, but still!) Surface Anatomy was one of my favorite classes, and I super much look forward to starting the pediatrics unit next semester. <3

It's hard to believe my summer in Charleston is almost over. I look forward to fall, so Handsome and I can start running again. I actually like running with Rosie, and I'll learn to run with Handsome. :-) I'm kind of an anti-social work-out person, unfortunately. I love just running with my iPod and only having the puppy for company usually, but since Handsome's the opposite, I'll try it his way. :-) Either way, fall will be a welcome change, and it's not too far away!

Handsome and I are both going home to Norfolk for a week next Thursday, and we are SO excited. We've been talking about Level 2 fieldwork, and it sounds like the Norfolk area is going to be a good place for me, so he and I are deciding if we're going to just relocate together there. I am pretty much 100% set on doing a Peds rotation, so CHKD would be an awesome place to do fieldwork, hopefully. I'll have to see! It seems off to be thinking about it when it's a year and a half away still, but I have less than 6 months until we need to really start thinking about it seriously.

When we get back home, we're going to take advantage of the nice break I have between classes and hopefully do some legit exploring around Charleston! I sadly haven't had the chance to introduce Handsome to the MUSC campus, so we're going to rectify that situation as soon as we get back from Norfolk. :-) We'll also take Rosie to the beach out at Isle of Palms and try introducing her to the ocean again, this time with her booties to protect her paws from the hot, hot sand!

On that note, time to get back to studying!

Cheers,
Woozel