Long Weekend

The last few days have flown by and thank goodness for that!  I spend hours each day thinking about what it will be like to live in our very first house.  I mentally rearrange the furniture in each room, imagine cooking dinner while Daniel practices his tuba, playing the piano in the afternoon while everyone's at class, taking our dog for a walk to the park down the street.... it goes on and on.  Robert's last night here we went over to the house to go over all the repairs that the inspector ordered.  They're just minor things.  A sprinkler needs to be fixed, the basement outlets need to be grounded, etc.  Nothing too big.  We also discussed what we can do with the yard.  There are a ton of weeds that need to be pulled out or sprayed.  I want to plant a bunch of flowers in the front yard, and we talked about planting some apple or peach trees in the back yard.  Since our room is in the basement, there are no windows directly outside.  Instead, there are windows and then holes dug out that go up to ground level.  The view out our windows now is silver metal.  Daniel and I have been discussing what to do with that.  We are thinking of planting some kind of vine or ivy that will grow up over the metal and cover it, but still let light in.  Or maybe some climbing roses.  The important thing is that light still gets in, but the ugly metal is covered up.  When we went through the house, it was overwhelming how much there is to do.  Besides moving in and acquiring a ton of stuff (washer/dryer, dishes, furniture, vacuum cleaner, lawn mower.......) we need to install a porch light, fix up the yard and plant flowers.  For the long term we want to get a shed for the backyard, build a fire pit, move the washer and dryer from a tiny closet into the tiled extra room, and a few other minor things.  There's just so much to do!  But I know it won't be long before we're all settled in our new house :-)

In the meantime I have to try really hard to focus on school.  At the moment I am surprisingly on top of things.  On Thursday I was feeling so stressed and overwhelmed from all the homework I had to do that I spent a few hours that night getting some of it done.  And now that I have a three day weekend, I have plenty of time to finish it up and start studying for finals.  It's really nice how my finals worked out this quarter.  I have one on Wednesday and one on Friday.  Then an optional final on Monday (I'll probably take it because I need to improve my grade) and then my last one on Wednesday.  I fly back to Phoenix Wednesday evening.  Daniel has to stay almost another week after that to clean up the building and close it down for the summer.  Then it'll be just a few more days before we're ready to come back and move in.

Last night Daniel and I went out on a date.  It has been so long since we've gone out just the two of us.  We usually work on weekend nights, or we go to a party or something where there are lots of people.  But last night we went to a Denver Brass concert and then out to a movie.  We saw Night at the Museum.  It was funny at times, but also surprisingly violent which I didn't like.  Overall it was good.  I don't know if it was worth the $15 ticket though. It was in the IMAX so it was a little more than usual.  We also went to a cupcake shop for dessert.  It was fun to see all the fancy decorated cakes they have there.  I couldn't help but think about our wedding.

Daniel and I finally booked all of our rooms for Europe.  We have also begun to think about taking guided tours to Versailles, Champagne, and Pompeii.  I think we decided against it for Versailles and Champagne because the train will take us there pretty easily.  Pompeii we need to do some more research.  Our trip is coming up so quickly!  Just another 2 months and we'll be in Spain!

We have also been doing research on dogs.  We both really want a samoyed, but they are hard to find as puppies.  You almost have to get one from a breeder unless you're okay with getting an adult.  We'll keep looking and see what's available in August when we're ready to bring one home.