Carolina

Honestly, I should be reading for my class that starts tomorrow, but I just can find anything interesting about supply and demand equations and curves.

As mentioned in the previous post, we got pictures of the South Carolina and North Carolina state signs. Here's the proof!










So, this isn't the only thing we did on vacation. I have a bunch of pictures, well, a ton of pictures I want to post on here, but rather than overwhelm you with all of them at once, I'm gonna break it up into several posts. Plus, I really need to read the next 50 pages in my Econ book before tomorrow. Doesn't that sound like tons of fun?

Here's a taste of what's to come...Micah as he first discovers sand.

Mission Accomplished

Currently I'm riding in the car down I-95 while Tom is driving and Micah is snoozing in the back. (It's amazing how much I can get done via my iPhone and a little dead time in the car.) We are still on vacation in SC, but we left the beach today to head out on a mission. I needed pictures of the state sign. This road warrior mission actually started about 7 years ago back when Tom was in school in KY and I was in MS. We did quite a bit of driving back in those days to visit each other, friends, and family. During that time we grew fond of road trips and set a goal for ourselves: Visit every state and take a picture of the state sign by the time we're 30. Until today we hadn't marked any states off of our list in over 18 month. I'll post NC and SC when I get to a computer!

My turn to drive... Later!

Grad School

It's official! When my interview was over this morning, I got all of the information from my advisor about signing up for classes. I'm a student. Again.

Classes start on the 24th and I'm not so sure I'm ready to enter the academic world again. It's been almost 5 years since I've been in a classroom. Thankfully, I won't be required to be in the classroom again. Regis University offers their MBA program online as well as in the classroom. I am attempting the online track, but I can switch back and forth to meet my needs. Also, since my job will pay for two classes per calendar year, I'm only planning to take those two classes per year. With that said, I should be finished up in 5 years...yes, I said 5 years. That seems like a really long time to take 10 classes, but if I spread things out it's FREE. On the other hand, I may decide to go straight through and pay for part of it myself. Who knows? I'm going to take it one class at a time.

Vacation

This Saturday we leave for our very first family vacation with Micah. I can't wait to see what Micah thinks of the beach. This will be the view of the ocean from our condo in South Carolina.

Now, if I could only make the next three work days go by a little faster...

Happy Early Birthday

Saturday afternoon Tom and I took Micah in to JCPenney for his one year portraits. When we went in we were only hoping that Micah would behave and get a few shots of him smiling and digging into a cake, but never imagined we might have started Micah's modeling career.

When we come in the door, they all know our names and the photographers love getting to work with Micah. I suppose that means we frequent there a little too much, but I love the work they produce (most of the time). He's a big flirt too which probably adds to his popularity.

When the shoot was over, the photographer asked if we would be interested in signing a waiver for Micah's photos to be displayed in the JCPenney Portrait Studio in the Park Meadows Mall and also to be entered to the national ad campaign. Of course I said yes. So, if your going to be in the area pop your head into 'Penney's to see Micah displayed on the wall in a few weeks and I'll keep you posted if he makes any ad campaigns.

I'm posting a few of the proof shots, but you can see all of them at www.smilesbywire.com. Use the customer name: natalie deen and the Access code: LTPP0725119460JCP.



I'm pretty sure the above image will be the one on display.











And finally, my favorite...

Into the Wild

For those of you not from the Rocky Mountains, this is an elk. This is a common occurance around these parts. Well, not so much in the city, but more anywhere west of C470. We spotted this one along with a couple of his friends as we were coming home from our visit to Evergreen to see Grandma Mavis.


It felt great to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life with Mavis in her cabin in the woods.


Micah really enjoyed eating Mavis' wonderfu cooking. Our picky eater actually ate lasagna, garlic bread, and strawberry jello. He liked playing with it too.



This morning we enjoyed the fresh air while we walked around Three Sisters.




Thanks for having us, Mavis! We enjoyed our visit.

Patio Party

It's been two years in the making. When we started working on our backyard a couple years ago, we decided we wanted a paver patio right off of our deck. It's been nothing more than a weed garden in the mean time, but today that all started to change. Check it out below.





It should be finished up tomorrow. I can't wait. I believe we will have to wait until next year to get any new patio furniture since all of the stores have already had their summer clearance sales. Oh well. We can still enjoy our old furniture on the new patio.