Lately

After one full week of working (and one full weekend to relax and reflect), I am so grateful for a career that I actually love. If you know me, then you know how much I like to plan. But you may not know how disappointed I tend to get with my plans sometimes. I have really been hoping that my choice of profession wasn't going to be one of those.

As it turns out, it isn't!

I had so much fun working with so many different children this past week: pre-K through high school, speech impaired to autism... you name it. I am definitely looking forward to working full time once the school year starts. August 4th will be here before I know it so now it's time to focus on plans for the rest of the summer!

I am going to visit one of my best friends from high school and her new baby this upcoming weekend. I haven't seen her since Christmas (she didn't even know the gender of the baby then!) and I can't wait to see her and her sweet little boy. (Although, I'm psyching myself out about being around a newborn.... They make me so nervous!)

I am going to be babysitting some of my little cousins at the end of the month. I am looking forward to spending some precious time with them and having some quality time with another of my cousins (she is tagging along to help and then we are taking a girls trip to the city as a treat!) Following that, I will be spending a week at the beach with one of my nearest and dearest friends and before you know it, the end of the summer will be here.

Add a little summer romance to the mix and you have all the ingredients for a fun and memorable summer!

Seriously?

Seriously.

Happy First Day of Summer!

(Insert Witty Blog Title Here)

I stumbled across my own blog yesterday (funny how that happens...) and realized that I've been a little slack in keeping it updated lately. The last post was about a puppy trip to the vet so I guess I will pick up there.

As of yesterday (the last puppy visit!) Linus is up to a whopping 15.5 pounds and Lucy is a more slender 13.6 pounds. The vet is fairly confident that Linus will be about 18 full grown and Lu will be about 16. I'm happy with those numbers! I never really wanted a little bitty dog, so I am glad that they will be almost "medium" sized. (It's still so funny to me that I can't leave food on the coffee table or else they will get a hold of it without even jumping up. I remember when they couldn't even jump off the couch!) They haven't have an accident in almost a week so I'm hoping that we've finally gotten the hang of going to the bathroom outside. Other than that, the vet recommended that I enroll them in a puppy obedience class... which might or might not have had to do with their behavior at the vet (they can be a little jumpy).

I officially started work today even though I only got to see two speech kiddos. It was a little weird not have a supervisor checking in on me every second, but I didn't flounder and I think the kids had a good time. So, yay. Haha.

My parents came up last weekend and my dad painted four walls in my apartment for me. Since I didn't have to move to a different city to start a job (and because my new job is just up the road), the smart move was to actually not move at all. So painting the walls was a great way to make my little townhouse feel more like a home and less like a generic, sterile apartment. I got new bedding for the master bedroom to top the weekend off and once I make some good money, I'm going to order a new bedroom suit! I'm looking forward to having some more drawer space and a bigger bed. And my dad is happy that someone else will be moving it into my apartment instead of him!

Anyway, this will have to do for now!

Seriously?

Seriously.

Puppy Puberty

Linus and Lucy have had a rather eventful twenty-four hours.

Last night, I kept seeing Linus's head bob up and down as I looked at him over the top of laptop. I was wondering, "What is he standing on?" Much to my horror surprise, I found Linus mounting and humping my poor sweet little Lucy. Granted, my roommate and I just laughed and laughed for about ten solid minutes after it happened.

By the time I got around to calling my mom to tell her what happened, I was laughing so hard that she thought I was crying. I think I was probably crying on the inside--who wouldn't after seeing their precious little puppies lose their innocence right before their eyes?

I had lots to update the vet about at our appointment this afternoon. After relaying the story about last night's little event, she said that it might also be a sign that Linus is fighting to be the dominant dog and that was a way for him to show Lucy that he wants to be the boss. I can live with that explanation. Needless to say, after their 20 week vet appointment in a couple of weeks, I am scheduling them to spayed and neutered.

Lucy is up to 12.8 pounds and Linus is a whopping 14.8 pounds! As often as I pick them up, my arms are really starting to develop some toned little muscles. :) They got their first rabies vaccinations today and finished the last round of their kennel cough vaccines. They go back in three weeks for their final rounds of puppy shots and then I won't have to take them back for shots for a whole year. (My bank account is very happy about this.)

Seriously?

Seriously.

Might As Well Have Twins

This week, Lucy and Linus turned 17 weeks old. Linus is almost getting too heavy to pick up and carry with one arm! They have a definite schedule now and are going longer in the morning and afternoons without any bathroom accidents. They scarf down each of their meals in a couple of minutes and have started to learn some basic commands. Here is a list of the commands that they seem to understand most of the time: no, sit, stay, up-up (to go up the stairs), out, and crate. I am really anxious for them to learn "drop it" and"down" but those are a little advanced for them right now. Either way though, they are getting so grownup!

To commemorate their getting older, I finally caved in and registered them with the AKC. Officially their names are now:

Byler's Lovely Lucia Gansa

and

Byler's Linus of Alexander

It's standard to use the breeder's name as part of their registered name. I call Lucy "Lucy Goose" all the time and wanted to use it in her official name, so "Lucia Gansa" is Spanish for her nickname. And if you know anything about me, Linus's name is pretty appropriate.

Here is a picture of my lovies from this morning: (please excuse the unmade bed!)

Linus (left) and Lucy (right)

They have a vet appointment on Tuesday so I will make sure to post their current weights and all that good stuff. I have a lot of friends that blog about their kids so I thought it would be fun to have a post about my "babies." :)

After two months of raising two baby puppies, I think I could probably handle twins at some point in the future, haha.

Seriously?

Seriously.

One Pretty Exciting Week

So now that I officially am employed, it's time to start all the official first job "stuff."

Tomorrow, I have a meeting at the Board of Education to start all my new hire paperwork. I will be signing my contract, picking my health/vision/dental insurance plans, and doing all the initial orientation stuff (I don't really know what all this involves yet but I'm hoping there aren't hours and hours of boring videos to watch, haha).

Then on Wednesday, I am going to meet the principal and assistant principal at the elementary school where I will be working. They are going to give me a tour of the school and then (fingers crossed) I am going to get a good look at my little speech classroom (I'm hoping they will let me take a few pictures to post on here for you all to see) and figure out what kinds of test and materials I will be working with in the fall. I am also hoping that I will get to meet some of the speech kids.

Everything is really falling into place! I have decided not to move - it's just easier and more cost effective for me to stay in my own little place. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, I will have saved up enough money to buy a living room suit and a new master bedroom suit. My dad has agreed to come up this summer and help me spruce up the place a bit (i.e. painting walls). He is the best painter I know so the walls will look amazing when he is done with them--instead of paint splattered haphazardly across a wall like it would be if I did it.

Now that I know what my life will pretty much be like for the next year or two, it's time to step back and let God take care of the things I can't plan. I sure don't know know what the next few years hold for me spiritually, physically (I am starting to train for a 5K this week so hopefully "physically means 20 pounds lighter!), and personally. But I'm hoping that since my mind is now at ease about my job, my living situation, and my finances, that all the other little things will fall into place on their own.

Seriously?

Seriously.

Hired!

So I said that I wouldn't post any job news until I actually had some, and well, now I do!

I have been officially hired to be the SLP at an elementary school near where I live! I am so excited. My caseload will be a super-wonderful mix of speech only kids, kids in a SID/PID class (that's severely intellectually disabled/profound for you folks that don't now), and kids in a special education pre-K class.

I am relieve that I do not have to move :) Instead, I will focus on getting things finalized around my current apartment (can't believe I still haven't unpacked some boxes!) and possibly getting some new furniture to spruce up the place a little bit.

As an added bonus, they also hired me to work as an SLP for summer school so I get to start making some good money before school starts back in August!

I'm so relieved to know that I met my goal of having a job lined up before graduation. It will be nice to be able to answer the question "So, do you have job yet?" definitively. Yes, I have a job.

Seriously.

Seriously.

Blog Slacking

For my three or four readers out there, I apologize for the utter lack of blogging over the past few weeks! The puppies eat up almost every second of spare time I have. Add that to the fact that I have been sick almost every day this month with sinus crud, stomach crud, and seasonal allergies, and the whole blogging thing kind of falls to the background.

That being said, this blog post is more for the sake of, "Yes, I'm alive" than presenting any sort of useful information about my life. As usual, I still have no clue what job I will be working after graduation. One second I decide to move home, the next it's moving somewhere new, and today, I'm actually considering staying put where I am. Who knows what the future holds? In the mean time, I'm refusing to post that I've made a decision until I've signed a contract and it's all done.

This girl sure does love to make a decision but it's exhausting keeping up with my own life. I can't imagine how confusing it must be from the outside looking in!

In good news, my puppies are getting soooo big! It's hard to believe that I got them four weeks ago and how much they have grown and changed in this short time! I should probably post a picture but I am trying to find a similar one from the first week that I had them so there can be a comparison. Lucy has turned into a big bully when she's awake and the sweetest thing ever when she's sleepy. Linus is generally in a state of "what's going on?" :) He is pretty laid back and is my cuddle bug.

It's weird to think that graduation is in three weeks.... I don't ever remember not being a student. So it will be different to be on the other side of the fence! Although I can say that I am very much looking forward to the absence of test, projects, pop quizzes, and final grades in my life!

Seriously?

Seriously.