Spring time makes me feel fine!

It has been a while sense I have had the time to post something. I wanted to give a recap about the last couple of weeks. Well I finished last semester and did pretty well. Not as well as I had hoped but I feel like I did my best and that is all anyone could ever ask. At least that is what my mom has always told me and she is a very intelligent lady. I had about three weeks "off" from school. One of those weeks I was able to drive up to Washington. It was so nice to be home and enjoy the nice weather. Every time I get a chance to go see my parents I try to make it down to the beach as much as possible. This time I had Jackson with me so I took him to see how he would do in the water. Well lets just say it was his favorite thing by the end of the trip. At one point this lady had it as her mission to get him to retrieve things from the water. She had success and he love to fetch now! He is not so much a fan of swimming but he does like to get things out of the water and then drop them a long way away from you. This will be an on going process I think. Other then spending time with Jackson I spent lots of time with my Dad which I love to do anytime I can. He was able to help me build a food stand for Jackson. Its pretty cool. I think it is amazing that someone can just build things like that. I wish I knew things like that...
Anyway, other than spending time with my pops I was able to see my Grandma. It makes me sad to think about her sometimes. She has really declined but is staying stable at this point. She did know who I was which is wonderful. I was so scared that she was not going to remember me. SHE DID! In fact another lady said that I was her granddaughter and my grandma was very quick to correct her. I was sad to only get to spend a short amount of time with her. Both of us cried when I left. She told me that she loved me and then I gave her a kiss on the cheek. I hope that is not the last time I will see her. I feel bad that I can't see her more often but I know my mom goes and sees her everyday so that makes me feel better. Enough of the sad stuff. I was able to see some of my friends from high school which is always nice. We all got together for dinner. Fun to spend time with those ladies. It's so crazy to me that four out of the six of us has or are having babies. I know this is a normal time in life for this to happen but wow. That's about it for my trip to Washington. It was beautiful and I can't wait to go up and see everyone again.
After I got home I started training for the Nike Woman's Marathon. This race is an annual race but I will not be running it until 2010. I have been training for about two weeks now and loving every minute of it. Its nice to have Ruby along for most of the runs. She loves to run so it makes it fun! I have not found a running buddy here yet. I miss Michelle and Brighid that used to run with me in California. But I will just have to keep at it. My hope is to train for over a year so that I can loose some weight and improve my over all marathon time. I am shooting for 5hr 30 min. I am well on my way as my average mile at this time is about 11:25. I can't wait to see what will happen over the next year. I guess we will see how it goes. Running in Idaho is much easier then in California. The air is clean here and I am at a higher elevation which helps the lungs develop. I am also going to be doing a ton of hill training. I will try my hardest to keep this more up to date as to my progress.
Lets see what else. Oh yes Jackson. We love this dog but goodness he drains our already low bank account. As many of you know he has had an ongoing injury in his shoulder. It is called an OCD lesion and he had to have surgery last Friday. They where able to get it taken care of but it was very expensive and he is not kenneled for 4 weeks... He is starting to feel better and these next couple weeks are going to be hard. Last night Brent parents came over and Jackson proceeded to whine the entire time. I think he was trying to tell them that he was lonely and he needed a hug...
I have some exciting news. I was offered a position at the hospice agency I interned with last semester. I was offered a position doing volunteer coordination/ hospice social work. This is a wonderful thing because I will be able to do my clinical placement there and get paid for it! What an answer to prayer. Also I will be able to keep my current job. So that is so exciting. I start next week and I can't wait!
Brent is doing really well. Still working away and hoping for a new job... We are both so thankful that he has a job so we try not to complain too much.
That is about all for now. Keep us in your prayer and thought as we do for all of you! We love you and we miss you!