Back in The Ranch!

Kevin and I moved into our new house last week! I am now, officially, a Highlands Ranch resident once again! It feels great to be home. We are enjoying getting settled into our new home. We have so much more space that we had before. I love it! It's also great to be closer to my family again. Jill seems glad that I am home. I went to master's swim team with her yesterday and will be going again tomorrow and Friday. It feels great to be back in the water after a long time away.

We have had a great week. Kevin's aunt and uncle and cousins were in town, with another family they new. We had fun spending time with them. We went to the Rockies game to see the fireworks on Friday night and then we took the kids to the zoo on the fourth of July. I had a great time being dragged through the zoo by two five year-old girls. They were really fun. We also went to our niece's ninth birthday party at Boondocks. Kevin's five year-old cousin almost beat me at putt-putt golf. It was her first time golfing and she got two holes-in-one! Ok, she didn't almost beat me, but she played great for her first time. Yesterday, Kevin's sisters came over and we had a BBQ with my neice and nephew-it's so fun to spend time with family in our new house!

Also, over the weekend, my grandfather was in town. I hadn't seen him in about two years. I'm so glad he was able to come visit. I was able to show him my wedding album and talk to him for a while, so that was pretty special. I was also really glad he was able to see the new house.

I'll post pictures of the new house soon...as soon as I can find the camera. For now, we're just unpacking, enjoying my week off work, and enjoying being homeowners!

Big News!

Kevin and I bought a house! We've been planning to buy a house this summer for quite a while now. So, last weekend we went out looking, and found one we liked! We put in an offer on Tuesday, and the owners accepted our offer! We are so excited. The house is in Highlands Ranch, not too far from my parents. I am so excited to be closer to my family. I'll have a quite a commute to Boulder every day, but I am ok with the commute. We close on June 29, and are probably going to move in the weekend of July 4. We cannot WAIT!!!!

I am almost done with school! I only have one more class on Thursday, and then I'm done. Just one big project to worry about. I will be very glad when this week is over. June is shaping up to be a pretty big month for us!

What we've been up to!

Not a whole lot of new information to report here. We are really enjoying springtime in Colorado. I love how much the weather changes! We'll have 80 degrees one day and then six inches of snow the next. You gotta love it.

I am VERY quickly approaching the end of graduate school! I will be DONE five weeks from tomorrow. I have really enjoyed my graduate program. It has been a lot of work, but I am proud of myself. I am definitely ready to be finished though. I just figured out I only have 9 days of internship left. I am busy applying for jobs. This has proven to be a very intimidating experience! Each school district requires you to apply online. They each have different applications, even though they all ask for the same information, but each application takes about an hour to complete. Once everything is submitted, you have to wait to be called for an interview. So far, I haven't had any interviews, but I did get some good leads this week. Hopefully I'll have more to report in the next couple weeks.

I'm enjoying the summer movie season already! Kevin and I went to go see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I loved it and thought it was very entertaining. We also saw Earth (the Disney nature movie) and The Soloist. I am very excited to see Angels and Demons next week.

Overall, we're doing well! As soon as I find a job, we are going to start seriously looking for a house. That's going to take up a lot of our time this summer.

Partial Spring Break

East High School was on spring break this week, so I didn't have to go to my internship. Since I'm only getting paid to work 25 hours/week, I decided I was going to take it easy this week and actually only work 25 hours! I took Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday off, which was very nice! I worked Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Denver-metro area was in a Blizzard Warning! Kevin's school called a snow day before it had even started snowing. By the time I left for work at 7:20 a.m., there were a couple inches of snow on the ground. It took an hour and 20 minutes to get to work. I got to work at 8:40. At 8:45, I learned that CU had decided to close at 10:00 because of the weather. So I didn't even stay til then. I left and drove home because I wanted to beat traffic. I am so thankful I didn't wait because I don't think I would have made it home if I had waited! It was snowing like crazy and it was really windy! I love that weather, especially if I don't have to travel in it. We ended up with 17 inches of snow, which is more than we have had all winter!

Friday we had the memorial service for Kevin's grandmother, who passed away in November. We had a small service at Fort Logan National Cemetery, and then a longer service at the church. Kevin, his brother, sister, and dad all play brass instruments and asked me to play with them in the service. I was really excited to be included, but was pretty nervous. I really didn't want to screw up on something that important. The service was beautiful, and Kevin's older sister gave a beautiful talk.

It was fun to spend time with family. I got to know Kevin's cousin, David, much better. I also got to spend some time with his older sister, Katrina, and her kids, Kelly and Sean. They are soooo cute! Yesterday we went with them to the Butterfly Pavillion in Westminster, which I had never been to. It was really neat. They have butterflies flying all over the place and they also have spiders and other insects to look at. One of their main attractions is Rosie, a Chilean Rosehair Tarantula. They let people hold her! I am TERRIFIED of spiders, so I didn't think I'd be able to do it. But then Kelly, my 8-year old neice did it, and was looking at me like, Duh, it's your turn now Amy! So I did it! I'm so proud of myself for doing it. I surprised Kevin's dad. He didn't have time to get the camera out because he didn't think I'd actually do it. I think Katrina got a picture though. My parents and sister don't believe me. I got the sticker to prove it!

One Step Closer

So, I finished up my internship at Ranch View Middle School last week. I really enjoyed my time there. I was suprised by how much fun I had with the middle school kiddos! I met some amazing people, and am extremely grateful to everyone I worked with there.

Finishing at Ranch View means...starting somewhere new! I was supposed to do my high school internship at Rock Canyon High School in Highlands Ranch, but that fell through at the last minute. Luckily, I was able to arrange for an internship at:This is Denver East High School. I had my first day there today. It is a VERY different environment that what I am used to in Highlands Ranch! However, I think this will be a great learning experience for me. It will make me get out of my comfort zone a little bit, and I will get some wonderful counseling experience that should make me more marketable in the future. I am really excited about this internship. This school is huge (2100 students). That's the same size HR was when I was in school, but East definitely feels bigger. It's a beautiful building - it was modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Starting a new internship means...only 15 weeks of internship left, and 16 weeks total until I am finished with my Master's Degree. I am starting to get some "senioritis" and am ready to be finished! Just keep swimming, just keep swimming... Hopefully I'll be able to get a counseling job and Kevin and I will be able to buy a house!

Some sad news today...my kitty, Sammy, who I have had since I was 13 had to be put to sleep today. She was almost 15 years old and apparently her health got really bad this weekend. I'm very sad about this. She was such a sweet cat. At least she is in a better place now, and she let us know when it was her time to go.

Same Old, Same Old

Well, we haven't posted in a while. That's because there hasn't really been anything to tell! We spent Christmas Eve with my family (well, my dad, aunt, uncles, and cousins), and Christmas Day with Kevin's family. It was very nice and relaxing. Kevin and I bought ourselves a Christmas presents - Wii got a Wii!!! And Guitar Hero World Tour. We have been having a great time playing with it. I'm definitely getting better at guitar, but I stink at the drums.

Work has been a bit crazy. Just before Christmas, we had to move everything out of the office and into a teacher's office so they could remodel our office. Then, a couple weeks later, we had to move everything back into our new office. It looks so much better now! I can't wait til we get our new furniture and it actually looks like new office.

I've been keeping very busy with school and internship. My university supervisor came to meet with my site supervisor and I this week and it went really well. Other than that, I am learning a lot! I have a few more weeks left at RVMS, and then I will switch to a high school. I am very ready to be finished with school.

Kevin and I are starting to talk about buying a house! We kind of know where we want to look but a lot of it depends on if and where I get a counseling job. It's exciting to talk about it though!

Thanksgiving and Stuff

We're still keeping busy! We had one Thanksgiving dinner at Kevin's grandma's house, and another Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. I made an apple pie and it turned out pretty well! Kevin and I decorated our apartment for Christmas. Our tree turned out pretty well.

Some sad news...Kevin's grandmother (his mom's mom) passed away the Monday before Thanksgiving. We kind of knew it was coming, but it is still pretty hard, especially right before the holidays.

It's snowing like crazy right now. Kevin and I are both kind of hoping for a snow day tomorrow! It's so pretty out!