Stuck in Wisconsin

So my husband went to some training thing in Wisconsin for a few days (since Sunday) and they just announced due to weather his flight's been cancelled!!! He was supposed to fly out tonight red-eye and get in early this morning. So he and co-workers are getting a car and driving five hours to Chicago to fly from there. How awful! So please pray that he makes it to Chicago and home safely.

Since I miss my hubby...I thought I'd take us back in time...about one year ago to a little vacation we took. My husband has a great friend back in Vegas and his girlfriend likes to do something extremely awesome every year for his birthday. So we all rented a condo in Brianhead, UT...drove out...and had a great time using the fire place, cooking, playing games, snowboarding, watching movies, etc. Did I mention Brianhead got tons and tons (probably record breaking) snow that weekend and the trip involved digging people out of a ditch, a random snowball fight, and a new puppy. (Note: Not all my photos from the trip are at my work computer so you'll just have to deal with gaps in the story) Enjoy!

Arriving at the Condo with supplies...I thought this was an awesome picture I took. HUGE snowflakes!! And Anna guarding her food as usual...
Charlie guarding the room:
Snow puppy!!!
I can never get my husband to take a serious picture but I thought this was funny...they were posing for me...
Being silly
The puppies crack me up...look at Anna's face:

Me and the little stinkers...Charlie just wants to chase the rabbit that my husband swore was a deer.
On the way home our friends (who were at that point dog-less) decided to buy a dog. Ok, they had been thinking about it for a while. But at the gas station in the middle of nowhere we saw a sign posted for the cutest little puppies. Since the town was only two streets big...ok slight exageration...we swung by to see them. And voila...our friends had a new puppy...who could resist...
Ok...my husband could because I was begging to get one too. He is a smart man. Instead I became Aunt Amanda to the new puppy Koa:
The End!

Update!

I didn't realize that my last post was my 100th post! Yay!!! So what have I been doing in the last few days? I A) got a flu bug B) still doing devotions C) doing pilates D) studying :(

Good news! My little nephew who is such a little darling finally said the word "aunty" on the phone to me. He around three and a half and knows a few words (he signs though). I'd post a photo but I only post photos with permission.

I am also slaving away at a paper/presentation that I have to have done by February 17th for my in-Houston class over the weekend of February 22nd-24th. Three days of classes in Houston and I have to do a ten minute presentation on M.E.T.S. What is that you ask? It's Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standards. Sounds fascinating doesn't it? I actually am a bit but I'm a bit of a dork too :)

Winter Blues = Virtual Vacation

It is freeeeezing here in New York City. It's nice because the sun was out today but sometimes that just makes it all the more freezing :) So I thought I'd take a little trip down memory lane to back when we lived in Las Vegas. Ok, so this little jaunt was in late February, but still...it'll probably still be freezing here in late February. Oh and good tip for people visiting Las Vegas...head just ten minutes out of town and see what you find...gorgeous!!!!!

2006 - Trip to Calico Tank, Red Rock

Robb and Anna at the trail head:



We dared my husband to climb up this rock and in two seconds he was up...I was amazed and a little scared:



I love how red the rocks are...ummm...obvious why it's called "Red Rocks" ;)


Ok, so now we know the dogs weren't supposed to be in the water (I think I read that somewhere) but back then we didn't. Something about wild burros drinking or something. But the dogs were hot and it was fun watching them play (and they have all their shots...so...):


I think Anna looks like a water rat...my husband would kill me if he heard me say that...good thing he doesn't read this :)




This was Charlie's first time around water. He just would not get in the water...


Finally Robb just picked him up and tossed him in.


This is afterwards....he was not pleased (you can tell by that glare):


After the swim I took the dogs up on some rocks for a nice view of the desert and Las Vegas. I didn't have the camera on me....darn:




And back in the truck:



Hope you enjoyed the mini-vacation!

School Days

So I am back in full swing semester and I have three!!! classes which means I am working full-time and going to school full-time. But that also means I only have to take two classes this semester and then I'm done!!!

So curious minds want to know the classes I'm taking:

SLIS 5223 Metadata and Networked Info Organization Retrieval
SLIS 5740 Introduction to Digital Libraries
SLIS 5206 Information Retrieval Design

Fascinating stuff I know :)

It's great because I get to go to Houston, Texas in February for SLIS 5223 (I have to do a presentation..ahhh!!) and Denton, Texas in March for SLIS 5740. My husband is from both Houston and Dallas respectively and his mom now lives in Dallas. So he is going to go with me to the second one in March and we are going to spend a week traipsing around in Texas, visiting his family, etc. I'm excited because other than driving through the very tip of Texas on our way to New York, I have never been. So yay!!!! to new places!!

Sunday on Long Island

This past Sunday we decided to get some fresh air and get out of Manhattan. My husband's co-worker gave us a cool book for Christmas about hiking in New York City with dogs. So my husband researched one on Long Island and off we went. It wasn't really a hike so much as a walk. It was about four or five miles around Stump Lake and it was great! Ok...be prepared for an onslaught of photos:

Here's a view of leaving town:
Looking back at the city:
Stump Lake:
I must have taken ten photos before they finally were both looking at me...we'll all most...
Of course it's winter so I thought all the pictures would look kind of dull. So I started playing around with the color accent feature on the camera. This one is picking up the oranges:
This one the greens:
They were so patient while waiting for me to stop take pictures all the time:
My husband said the green moss everywhere reminded him of Ireland:
Me and my Charles:
Loved loved the green:
And the puppies even got to swim a bit...well Anna swims and Charlie pretends to. He waits until she gets the stick and then takes it when she gets to shore.

Here's Anna digging at a stick:
Almost got it!
Finally!
Awww...
Me and Charlie again:
I take a lot of photos of Charlie...can't help it :)
It was a gorgeous day for a walk:

Lil' Anna Bear

You've probably noticed by now that we have two dogs. Charlie Dog...yes that's his full name...is my dog and Anna Bear is my husband's dog. I may talk more about my dog...well for obvious reasons...but I love love Anna Bear too.

When I first met my husband, she was about five or six months old and just a bundle of energy. She was so spoiled too after a summer of hiking, camping, and sitting up front with my husband in the truck. So when I came along and we both couldn't fit in the front seat...she knew something was up and did not like it. She soon learned "where does the puppy ride?" (back seat) and tried her hardest to slowly push me out of the tent when we'd go camping. It was pretty funny actually. But we've slowly become buddies...especially when DH's out of town and I secretly let her cuddle with me on the couch or the bed (a total no-no).

So I'm going to post some photos of those days before "the dog" (Charlie) came into our life and regalled her to the backyard and the bed of the truck. When it was just the three of us:

In Alaska:


Outside Las Vegas:


She's such a water dog...even in the desert she'll find water:




And she loves chasing her freesbie or ball or pretty much anything:

More Reminiscing

Ahhhhhh!!! I might be signing up for three classes this semester!!! I might be insane and I might go insane...we'll see when I register tonight what I decide to do. So instead of thinking about the crazyness I might be signing up for, I'll do a little...

More reminiscing. This past summer my husband and I packed up our house, dogs, and a little lucky bamboo plant to drive across country from Las Vegas to move to New York City. Oh...and did I mention this was a mere three days after our wedding? Or was it two...that time is a blur. So here's a photo recap of our first week in New York City:

So our entrance into the city via New Jersey the night of July 7, 2007. It was about 10:00 or something and we had seen the fireworks coming in from Live Earth Concert.

After we unpacked the truck, lugged the dogs, our luggage, our camping gear, and the lucky bamboo plant up to our apartment...we crashed:
Here's our lovely little bare apartment...funny how it seems bigger now with our furniture and stuff in it. The kitchen:
We actually have a desk, a bookcase, and a file cabinet here now...crazy!
And we've managed to cram a California King into this bedroom...amidst other furniture AND the dog beds.
The next day or so we took a walk around our new neighborhood to see where we lived. This was mainly due to the fact that I hadn't even seen our apartment before we moved in (neither of us had seen it when we signed the lease papers...yikes!) and I had seen the neighborhood only once before.

Steps in Isham Park
Beautiful promenade in Isham
A street in my "hood"
And of course when we moved we sold all the non-essentials so we headed to IKEA for some necessities. Did I mention IKEA is in New Jersey?

This is New Jersey:
A common bridge scene (I won't tell you how long we were stuck in it):
Coming back to New York:
Love this one:
Ok...then a day or two later we got the dogs out hiking again in Inwood Park. We were so wiped out because we weren't used to the humidity coming from Vegas with a minus 500 humidity factor (ok not really...I'd be an awful weather person). But at least the scenery was beautiful:



I love trees

And we'll finish the week with our new kitchen table and a bottle of wine (the bamboo plant made it too).And of course Charlie is in the kitchen too:

The End!