Valentine's Day

We had a pretty darn good Valentine's Day this year!  We kept it very low-key, which was nice, actually.

We got up early enough to make it to the gym before going to church.  After church, we stopped by McDonald's for a V-day treat...chocolate dipped cones and french fries.  Yum!  Then we went home long enough to get Satchel before we headed out to West Seattle.

This is actually the same place we ended up last year on Valentine's Day...Alki Beach.  We were excited to see how Satchel would react to the sand and the water!  And all the people and all the other dogs we were sure to run into.  :-)  He wasn't super sure about it when we started walking, but once we got onto the sand, he was a happy puppy. 

We actually walked down the beach to get our late lunch first.  We went to a place called Spud, which my friend Annie introduced me to this summer, and I took my parents there, too.  The Alki location is the original store, which was opened in 1934.  They specialize in fish and chips, and it was really good!  We ate on picnic benches outside so that Satchel could also hang out with people and a couple other dogs.

After lunch, we walked back down the beach to the car.  Satchel got to play in the little waves a bit.  It was funny to watch him...he kept trying to eat the bubbles.  :-)  He got to meet lots of other dogs, and he was petted by lots of other people.  He enjoyed running around in the sand and digging through the rocks and driftwood for sticks and other fun things.  We actually would've spent more time hanging out on the beach, but it started raining (harder than normal for this area), so we all got pretty wet and cold.

After getting home, we all crashed in the living room and took a nap before dinner.  :-) 

Oh, and for my Valentine's Day gift...Shawn got new tires for my car today!  Yay!!!  :-)

(I was going to post pictures, but I seem to be having some issues with my xD card.  I'll try to get some posted from the weekend within the next couple days.)

Two Week Recap

Wow.  Why am I being such a bad blogger lately?  Sure...I've been busy with the puppy and other things going on.  But surely that should just mean that I have more to write about, right??  Hm.

Okay...so here's a brief, two week recap, as best as I can remember it.

1.  Social: 

• I held a Super Bowl party!  Unfortunately, Shawn was out of town that day (I'll explain that in a minute...), and he took the camera with him, so the only pictures I have access to are what friends posted on Facebook.  We had a great time, though!  A couple friends came over early to help wear out the puppy before the game started.  But he actually stayed out for pretty much the entire first quarter, and he did really good with all the new people!  Those same couple friends stayed late and played MarioKart with me until Shawn came home.
• The day before the Super Bowl, I helped our friends Emil and Kristin pack all their things because they moved to Detroit.  I was very sad to see them go, and I already miss them.  They were some of the first people we became friends with here!

2.  Puppy:

• Satchel is growing like a weed!  We think he's gained about 4 more pounds since we had him at the vet a couple weeks ago for his shots...based on our super-accurate weighing method of holding him while we stand on the scale, we think he's about 20 pounds now.
• He's doing a good job at his PetSmart puppy training class.  He is always super excited to play with the other puppies in the class...and he's learning some things, too.  :-)  We're still working on most of the commands, but he has "sit" pretty good.  I somehow managed to teach him "come" one night while Shawn was at rugby practice, and we're currently working on "lay down," "leave it," and "fetch." 

3.  Rugby:

• Shawn is technically in pre-season right now, but he's been training hard, hoping for the opportunity to play Super League.
• On Super Bowl Sunday, Shawn got to fly down to Santa Monica, California, to play with the Super League team!  And his team won, 28-8!  He had a great day, despite the fact that he missed out on my awesome Super Bowl party.  :-)
• The season should be getting into full swing within the next few weeks, so hopefully we'll have some good weather on Saturdays coming up!

4.  Jobs:

• Shawn has been super busy at work.  He's actually been working 6 days a week for the last few weeks, which stinks for both of us.  But I'm proud of him for working so hard!
• My job is going pretty well.  My course load has lightened recently because I'm starting to mentor some new teachers.  I'm enjoying that aspect of the job!

That's us in a nutshell these days!  Once again, I promise to try to do a better job of updating the blog on a regular basis.

So Excited!!

Here's an example of an awesome reason to have a dog.  They get sooooo excited when you come home after being gone all day long!



Original Video - More videos at TinyPic