Does this cat look like Seamus to anyone else?

He lives in our little backyard and he is not scared of Otis. It is so funny! He is really scraggly but he looks like a foofey inside cat - just like Seamus.

Today was Russell's first day of Wildland firefighter training and my third day at work. That equals Otis' first 8 hours home alone. We went to Target last night and bought him that huge toy. He didn't do anything bad so that must have been just what he needed. Anyway, Russell still isn't home so I'm not sure how his class went but work has been pretty good for me. I work at the Dept of Transportation - I basically do DMV stuff. It's pretty boring but I think it will work out really well when school starts in the Fall...

This is my newest nephew, Jacob Rodrigues. I had to put a couple pictures (courtesy Dad) up here to show off. The thing that really makes me sad about leaving Las Vegas - I won't even get to hold him. Look at his round little face!

Not a whole lot going on this weekend. Our yard sale shopping was totally unsuccessful but I didn't really have my hopes up. We took Otis for a walk down to Hyde Park and we saw this crazy squirrel on the way. Does it look to anyone else like he is about to jump?

Russell and I are both now employed!

To celebrate, we went exploring. Boise's Lucky Peak is like Las Vegas's Lake Mead. We thought we would drive over to check it out. It is a reservoir and a couple of rivers feed into it and there are mountains all around. When I saw the water, I could have killed someone for their boat. The water was so smooth, perfect for wakeboarding.

We ended up on a dirt trail going up and down some big ol' mountains. We saw three elk and we saw a deer. It was awesome. It is the end of June and we actually found snow up there! Check out this dandelion. When we lived in Chicago, Dad would get so mad at us for blowing the seeds away. Can you tell how huge this thing is?

I don't know why, but this sign really cracks me up. Experimental forest?

Things are going really well. We are liking it here in Boise. Tomorrow we are going to go yard sale shopping. We're hoping to find a desk and a bookcase. Wish us luck. I just found out that there is a market every Saturday morning on 8th Street (we live on 14th). I love it!

I stared at the back of this trailer for 12 hours...
It was a long trip but it really wasn't too bad. We barely got all our boxes into the apartment before we started throwing up - it was pretty bad. We didn't have anything to drink; we didn't have anything. We really just started moving around and getting things done today. Brooke called us on Sunday and we talked to Connor - he wanted to know all the details. He asked us if we threw up in the car or in the bathroom, did we make it to the toilet, where was the toilet. He was so funny.

This is what our apartment looks like. Russell and I had to laugh because we are on the same block as the only non-Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in all of Boise. It is really old but it's not too bad - the only really crappy thing is the parking. It seems like those sprinklers are on everytime we take Otis outside and the first time, he turned right back around to go back in. I don't know what we are going to do when it rains...

We took Otis down to the Boise River this afternoon. It was pretty cool. They have parks pretty much down the entire length of the river. We came to a bridge and Otis would not go across. I thought he was going to slip out of his collar he was fighting so hard. I finally had to go out to the middle of the bridge and try calling him.

We are still unemployed and I am already getting sick of daytime tv... I had 2 job interviews today, one tomorrow and 2 on Thursday. Cross your fingers for me. I think Russell may have gotten a Wildland firefighter job - I'm trying to convince him to keep looking because he'll probably be gone for a few weeks at a time. We'll see what happens.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RUSSELL!

Today is Russell's birthday. I would be pretty bummed out if I were him. He had to get up way early (still working on one last job) and all we did was pack the rest of the day. At least we had some good ol' burgers and dogs for dinner!

I can't believe we are moving in one more day! We still have so much stuff to do! We haven't loaded up anything. Eric and Paola got us walkie talkies for the ride - they reach up to ten miles! I think they will be fun to play with and hopefully they will help us pass the time a little.

I'm starting to feel a little sad about not being around for Sunday dinner...

Starting to Pack



We managed to get 6 boxes packed up today. Actually, it was 5 boxes - the bottom one never got opened... I'd say an altogether very productive day. Last night I made Whoopie Pies and Russell made ice cream. This morning, when we were all downstairs, Otis ate all but 2 of the Whoopie Pies. I still got to eat one for breakfast so I wasn't too mad.

It's just starting to sink in that we are leaving and I am really excited. It will be Saturday morning for sure now. We'll be heading out of town at about 2 in the morning just so we can make it to Boise before 5. It's going to be a long trip. Russell has only had his work cell phone for a while and he'll have to leave that behind. Oh, well. Boise, here we come!

Sunday dinner #1 - We have to get a good picture of Isabel with Otis before we leave for Idaho.


Sunday dinner #2 - We played a ridiculously long round of Uno...

So, I'm new at this but I was thinking, this may be a good way to keep everyone up on what's going on.

It is Thurday and Russell and I only have one more day left of work! I think we are more excited about that than moving. I think we'll be leaving early in the morning on Saturday, the 17th. It's a long drive and then we'll have to get out and move all our stuff. I have some pictures of the inside of the apartment but I don't want to scare anyone. I'll post some pictures once we get there.

This picture is old but I wanted to put something on here...