I want to get caught up so I can talk about other things!!

The other things I want to talk about are Rob and Miranda's amazing wedding (and the whirlwind weekend that accompanied it), our 4th of July Party tonight and how we are going on a real vacation next week!

For now, here is my summer update:

I have about 1 month left of summer break. I feel really good about how it has gone. There have been weeks where I have felt busy, and weeks where I felt really lazy.

• My 10th masters class started just as school ended and even though it was a complicated subject (Educational Research), the assignments were fairly straight forward. Usually I get a week off in between classes, but I managed to finish the last week's assignments a week early so I got 2 weeks off.
• I signed up to take a class where you can get extra units (an get a pay raise) for working in your classroom over the summer. As much as I always try to avoid my classroom over breaks, it has been nice to go through some of the things that have piled up (I had items people donated to me 7 years ago that I have never used. I figured it was okay to finally get rid of them...) I moved furniture and started to plan next year, which made me feel better actually.
• I have consistently gone to the gym and paid attention to my calories with my fitness app on my phone. Believe it or not, I have lost 25 pounds since last summer. It is a bummer to be my height and shape, because I could lose that much and you can only sort of tell. I promise I am not just being hard on myself, since I am still wearing the same jeans comfortably as I was last summer (and the summers before that, come to think of it!) Anyway, I feel good at this size, but have realized that I will always have to pay attention to what I am eating, and I am okay with that.
• I have come to love: Qdoba, Zaky's Greek Cafe, a singer called Brett Dennen and Ewan Macgregor.
• I have read: Slaughterhouse 5 (for the 10th time), The Long Way Down and The Long Way Round, an Asian memoir called An Unpolished Gem, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
• I have done really good about not watching much tv. The last few weeks I have been going to the gym early and then getting ready there before going to school. There was a week there where I let myself be lazy and stayed home in my pjs all day. I think I mostly watched baby and reality shows. The thing that is so funny is that every summer I get hooked on reruns of 90210. (Last summer it was the first season showing early 90's fashion and drama in all its glory. This year it is the last season, which was on my senior year of high school. I have enjoyed seeing the hair styles that I was so envious of then, and hearing the music that was popular) That's not the funny thing, though. The funny thing the fact that John is hooked on it too! It airs back to back at 4:00 on Soapnet and every day for a week we couldn't eat dinner or do any work during those hours. He says he likes it for 2 reasons (the first is manly, the second is not): that they shoot the show on location and really driving cars, making the production value better for him than shows now, and second, Dylan is just cool and hard core. I didn't realize how serious it was until I got home late one day and said "Oh MAN! We missed 90210 today!" He looked at me sheepish and said "Well, YOU missed it. I didn't." He then proceeded to tell me the whole story line. :)
• I got to spend the day with my oldest friend Melissa and her husband Nick. They came down for a quick little getaway and to peruse some vehicles they found on craigslist. 6 hours and 160 miles later they found an Expedition they liked in Riverside. In spite of all of the driving, it was a fun adventure and it was nice to catch up with them.
• I have hung out with my mom, Aunt Judy, Kim, Jenn, Jennifer Baker, Delaney and have also enjoyed some solitary time and the extra time with John when he gets off early.
• I figured out how to refinance our truck and change our home and auto insurance policies, which will save us about $40 a month. This will really help with gas prices!

Other things that are coming up:

• Starting my penultimate (it means next to last. Doesn't that just sound cool?) master's class. I am super scared about it, because it is worth 800 points and we have to write a research proposal. I don't even know what that means or how to do it.
• possibly breeding Epiphone. She is at that age, and John decided he wanted to do it for the extra money for his truck. I said that I knew nothing about that, so he was welcome to take care of it. It turns out that his parents were willing to do most of the work, so we will see how that goes.
• John applied for a job at a school district, which is a dream of both of ours. Pray for us with that.
• My mom and Aunt Judy helped me design my closet ideas, so hopefully we will be able to get that done before school starts!
• I need to get a lot more hours for this class I am taking over the summer. I am not sure how I am going to spend 75 more hours in my classroom before August...

We got home last night at midnight and are having our 3rd annual 4th of July party tonight. We leave for his parent's again on Friday and are then going to Cayucos. My plan for this week is this: blog about our party, then about our weekend, then about some other summer hijinks before going on our trip. Also in this week I have to get a large load of research homework done before we leave so I won't be doing homework on the beach.

Wish me luck!