and if you are STILL wondering

then wonder no more!!  I just heard from the University of New England in Maine, and they have invited me for an interview at the end of January!!  I don't think I have stopped smiling, humming, dancing around since I read the e-mail yesterday morning.  I am just so shocked and proud and overwhelmed to have gotten to the next step of this whole future plan of mine.  It is finally starting to feel like it was all worth it, and even if I don't get in, I will know that I did everything that I could and I will take what I can from the whole experience and do it all over until I succeed.  I can not wait to get on that plane and be welcomed into town by my brother and sister, to show JP what our potential future next city looks like (not that I'm getting ahead of myself at all), and to show UNE exactly what I'm made of.   HOOORAYYYY!

pumpkin, pumpkin

Mmmm fall is in the air here for real, the leaves are changing and blowing all over the place, the air is crisp and perfect for lighting up a fire and listening to the wind.  It's my most favorite time of the year, and this weekend I didn't have to work or study or do anything in particular.  It was fantastic.  I went for a few bike rides (as you might have seen from my last post), shopped at some thrift stores, watched a movie, raked and of course made time for pumpkin carving.  I sure love me some pumpkin carving, and this year was no different.  Actually, it was a little different in that we had to contend with one extremely curious puppy who was eager to get in on all the action.  It was pretty funny to watch him try to sneak off with the tops of the freshly carved pumpkins, or lick the insides experimentally.  I think he might be a big fan of this time of year too!  While we carved, JP had some ribs on the grill, and did they ever smell delicious while we moved around the yard.  Mmmm hmmm.  It's nice to get some time to yourself once in a while away from the hub bub of normal life.  Here are a few pictures for you:

I think Yin was mostly just happy to have Oliver distracted and not jumping all around in her space, so she took the opportunity to sunbathe by the fence.

Our final products!  The pictures are pretty bad, but without flash my camera couldn't grab them very well.  We each did one and then did a collaboration on the one toothed one.  Of course, you can't carve pumpkins without roasting up some delicious seeds to chomp on.   So that is exactly what we did. Mmm.

In case anyone is wondering, I haven't heard from any schools yet.  And if you know me, you know that I am oscillating between feelings of hopeful patience, and extreme dread of the nebulous future that may not contain what I want it to.  Then I just take a deep breath and get on with it.

possibly the dorkiest thing ever, ever

Soooo, we share one car right now, and since JP works in Boulder he automatically gets it for those long commutes.  I scoot happily around balancing groceries precariously and moving around at a cool 30mph.  This has worked out really well for us, with the exception of a few things.  One of these things is that I can never take the dogs to the dog park on my scoot, and it gets dark so early here now that there just isn't any time for them to go!  Then I remembered bike trailers... and then I became obsessed with getting one and amping up my dorkyness.  There were a bunch on craigslist, but they were all pretty expensive and with my awesome skills at estimating, I wasn't even sure both pups would fit inside!  Luckily, goodwill came through for me again.  I was just browsing over piles of kids toys and underneath them I thought I saw a small tire.  Low and behold it was an InStep bicycle trailer!! Whaaa?  And only $35!  Our biggest problem was getting it in the car, but after that it was smooth sailing.  I pumped up the tires and they held air just fine (which was my only worry about buying it), I wiped it down to get rid of the cobweb-y debris, and snapped that thing on the back of my bike.

 

WOOOOOT.  It was pretty much amazing.  After settling the pups in back, which they kind of resisted a lot, they just cuddled together in a pile and were calm the entire trip, even when a dog passed us while at a stoplight.  That's pretty good!

It was so much fun!  I am so excited that it went so well, and now I can bring them out whenever I want!