life lately - a random recap

Man have I been neglecting this blog lately.  Although, I'm not as awful as it seems, as I have had many topics, ideas, and musings swirling around in my head, but unfortunately none of those made it down on paper, or keyboard, in a timely matter (if at all).  And so, here is a hodge-podge post about our lives lately:

We've watched multiple dogs - all within a close period of time.
[After which I got sick of walking through the front door and only smelling dog, so I did a thorough cleaning of all the floors and baseboards, including washing them on my hands and knees (made mom proud).  I vacuumed and febreezed all the furniture too, as those two littles got up no matter how many times we said no.  Love them dogs, but not the smells that multiples of them in one house seem to make.]

 
We had our first fire of the year in our new fire pit.
[Which we got in the spring and just put to use.  Summer always gets away from me...]

We completed more yard work.
[Where I got carried away with my non-electric hand trimmer and majorly trimmed half of a bunch of trees off since they are over our fence.  Col loves the end result and feels it opens up our yard a lot.  Even though we can see more light through to the neighbors' back yard, I like it too.  He said he knew that if I got going, I'd have it all down.  I can't help it; once I start cutting, my arms just keep moving!]

We attended our first Adoption S.T.A.R. picnic as a waiting family.
[I loved seeing the large turn out, meeting another new waiting family - who had a connection to us through our adoption of Mendon! - and seeing all the kiddos.]

I attended a seminar for work on social media.
[Which got me really excited and shouting to myself in my head, "I can do that!," over and over...until I remembered that at the moment, I do not have time to do that as I'm still working double duty.  But, once I'm able to fully transition, I can't wait to implement what I learned.]

Col's grandma had her 80th birthday.
[We celebrated with his mom's whole side of the family.  Another fun day of watching all the kids play and eating good food.]

I've had friend and family time.
[Bills training camp with a community group family.  Roomie time after an emotional day.  Visiting the newest community group baby.  Bridesmaid dress shopping for Rach's wedding - woot!  Redwings game with Col's fam.  Firemen's competition.  Lots of relaxing at home.]

We started obedience training with Mendon.
[She's actually quite well-behaved, and Col has done a great job training her.  But it's free through his work, so we thought, why not!  It can't hurt, and she'll love more time with other dogs.]

We've had moving on the mind for all of our parents.
[We've been assisting Col's rents with going through/selling stuff from their attic and garage as they prepare to move...sometime.  And we've been keeping up on my parents as they "moved" in with grandpa today, and will hopefully close on their new house soon.]

I'm working on organizing, re-arranging, and going though many areas of the house (again).
[I honestly think I'm nesting.  While I love myself a good organizing project any day, why else would putting clothes away turn into taking all of Col's clothes out of the closet and rearranging them by color while he and Mendon enjoyed a nap?  And check out Col's new tie storage solution!]