Settling in

I think we are finally getting there...boxes are unpacked and things are looking somewhat normal around here. We are also getting into somewhat of a routine, although I am still adjusting to the whole school scenerio. It's strange to manage all of my own time again. Graduate school is dramatically different than undergradute. I'm taking 12 credits which is considered over full time. The reading alone is a bit suffocating after about seven hours of it in a day, but I'm coming along. Now...I just need to get a start on all of the big class progects.

Another interesting thing I have noticed since starting is they type of people who go to grad school. In a class or group before, there were always a lot of quiet or middle-of-the-road talkers and usually one or two that dominated the conversation. Now everyone wants to talk and everyone thinks they're right. And I'm included. I leave class with a ton of energy and ideas, but with a bit of a headache also. So many type A's in one room. Of course, three of my classes have 6 or fewer students, so that may have something to do with it. Ahh..and we cannot forget the multitude of wonderful smells I contend with on school days. When I get to Greely it's cow shit all the way related to the fertilizer plant. Tonight, about 10 miles out, it was the distinct smell of canned cat food (related to???) and then moldy musty dirty laundry smell. It's sort of a gamble on the backroads, but at least I don't have to deal with the interstate.

I am also in the process of planning Bernie's 30th birthday party. Most likely it will be a ski weekend at Vail or Breckenridge in mid-January. If anyone out there wants to visit around that time, let me know. It's a good thing I'm studying gerontology.

My dad is still dragging his feet about buying his plane ticket, which wouldn't be that big of a deal if he wasn't supposed to be here in 10 days. He needs to pull his head out of his ass because he and my mother CANNOT visit at the same time.

busy busy time

It's been awhile since I posted, but I don't take all the blame. My husband does not seem to want to take equal responsibility for this blog...

Anyway, we are finally moved into our house. It is a huge mess right now trying to unpack and get things ready for Bernie's parents who will be here in about 45 minutes. Yay, our dog is coming home! The paint colors mostly turned out OK, except for the yellow, which was somewhat institutional. I think it actually gave me my first migraine headache. So Bernie painted over it with a more tame orangy yellow, which looks much better.

School is busy, busy, and more busy. I have hundreds of pages to read every week, a paper due every week, and numerous huge projects to get started on. So far my time management hasn't been the greatest, although it was better this week.

I just got my mom her plane ticket to visit for my birthday. She plans to stay one week and is coming a few days after my dad visits for his own week. Planning his trip down has been complicated as he originally thought it would be fun to take the bus to Longmont and back. This might have been okay if it weren't for the 12 hour over-night layover in Billings. Now he's talking about taking the bus to Billings and flying from there. People who have a lot of time on their hands think in a very convoluted manner. I would think it would be worth saving the time for the extra $200, but whatever. A week with my dad should be interesting enough.

Congrats to Sara, Tyson, and Grace by the way! Welcome to the world Jack!

Weekend activities

We had an eventful weekend around these parts. On Saturday, we braved the trip into Denver to explore a bit. We went to a Rockies game-which was my first professional sports event. I actually quite enjoyed it and would not hesitate to go again. Yesterday we drove around in the mountains and went about 3/4 of the way through Rocky Mountain National Park. It was....very high. The road we took went over 12,000 feet which is the highest point on land that either of us had ever stepped foot on. For wildlife we saw a herd of about 30 elk (Bernie wishing for his gun and legality to shoot it there), ground mice/chipmunks, a marmot (yes, Sara, I will post pictures as soon as I can find a USB cord), and a furry catapiller. He was the highlight of my trip.

Now I am doing fun activities like laundry and ironing. My first day of classes are tomorrow. I'm with Kristen, feeling silly for being a bit nervous for yet another "first day of school." I actually already have homework in preperation for my statistics class-reading only, but still!

Congrats to Melanie on her new job with MSU Great Falls. Getting out of retail can't be a bad thing.

Our new house closes on Wednesday and then the ceiling removal and painting commences. I have almost settled on colors-yellow, light brown, and blue for the bedroom. I promised myself more bravery the second time around painting a house. Hopefully we can move in mid next week. It will be nice to cut 30 minutes off of my commute to school.

Hotel days

The wedding was a fairly good time. The service was a Catholic Mass, so it made little to no sense to me and it was a bit long. I loved that they had a small band playing Beatles music throughout. The reception was at a casino on an Indian reservation which was interesting. The food was really good (the london broil was anyway...there was no way I was trying the salmon) but it started at 2pm, which meant it was over by 6. Amy and I went out for awhile after that with some of our cousin's friends to a dueling piano bar. That was probobly the highlight of the whole trip. If you haven't been to one, try it out. Three Faggs married, ten to go!

We have been spending most of our time lately getting things sorted out for the new house. The biggest headache thusfar has been finding and scheduling someone to remove all of the popcorn ceilings (eeewww) and paint the inside. I hope to have all of this done so we can move in about two weeks. That means I will have to commute over an hour each way to school for the first two weeks. Amanda is not accustomed to traffic and the interstate, it is an awfully scary situation. Luckily, none of my classes start until 2pm which means my days of getting up early are over for the forseeable future. Not so for Bernie, who has to be at some of his shifts at 6am.

I am definately tiring of hotel life. Although I am enjoying Boulder...too bad the average house price is over $400,000. We are missing our dog quite a bit also. Bernie's parents plan to bring her back after we move it. Then my dad plans to visit the second week in October and my mom wants to come down for my birthday. I will admit that I am missing her too.

I had a strange dream last night. I was in my dad's house and two moose broke in and were chasing me around trying to kill me. Then Amy came to my rescue and the moose were as tame as kittens towards her. Strange.

In Washington

I am currently in Washington for my cousin's wedding. Here are a few photos of me with the Fagg clan:



My cousins Mary, Amy and Sarah with myself.
Sexy Ladies!

My dad and I

My aunt Jennifer and I

Our New House

Well, we have a house under contract to close August 27th. If anyone wants to see it go to coloproperty.com and search by MLS number (536793). It should bring up a house on Beech Circle. The listing price was $299,900. Our offer was $285,000 and we got it for $292,000. Exciting times as we will only have to live in this hotel for about twenty five days. They have done some updates to it already, including a new roof. The biggest downside is the popcorn ceilings which we may get a bid to have removed. I will also be doing some painting before we move in.

Most importantly, out dog will be pleased with the big yard. The yard feature is not as easily found in Colorado as it was in Montana. All of the new construction consists of large houses on tiny lots...I swear some of the yards are 5x5.

We have arrived

After a 12.5 hour trip on Sunday, we have made it to Boulder. We are staying at the Homewood Suites on the south side of town near where Bernie is working. He actually starts tomorrow. Then I will have to entertain myself for a while, at least until school starts on August 28th. I will be starting my MA in Gerontology at the University of Northern Colorado (the same school where the back-up punter stabbed the starting punter for his spot on the football team...nice!).

We were down here about three weeks ago for a househunting trip which did not yield a home. We looked at 50 houses then and 10 more today. We will be making an offer on one tonight. I will post more about it later.