The past week and a half with a puppy and other exciting things!

So it's been about a week and half since my last post.  It just goes to show that this puppy thing is a lot of work! He has kind of taken over our life!  We love him, but boy does he keep us occupied.  I will try my hardest to be better!

 For the past week and a half we have been adjusting to the idea of continually watching our little Finley.  IF not, he immediately gets involved in chewing, biting, or peeing.  He is slowing improving on all those things.  He has had a few days with NO inside accidents. And when he does have accidents, it is usually our fault for not getting him out in time.  He has begun running to the stairs and sometimes even down to the door when he has to go! SO excited he is almost there, and it's only been a week and a half.  He has also learned how to come when called (unless some grass, twig, or leaves are more exciting), and also to sit and stay.  We are very proud of him!  He is also in some puppy classes at Petco, which are also going well.  We will have to see what this week holds for him.  He is definitely our spoiled little brat. 

I have about a week and a half in of my job as well.  Things are going pretty well.  It will be better when we get done with all the testing, and then I will be able to work with the children.  I will be given three groups of three to work with each day for one quarter, then we will do the testing all over again.  The other RTI"s that I am working with are great!  It has been great to get to know them, and look forward to working with them this year.  The job is half time, but for right now, I have been working quite a few full days.  Once September is over, I should be back to my half days. 

Yesterday, I went cranberry picking with Kari, a girl about my age that I work with.  We had a great time.  I brought Finley with me, and she had her black lab.  We went up to a beautiful ski area right outside of Fairbanks.  Boy did Finley love running free with the other dog, and eating all kinds of fun grasses, leaves, and twigs.  He eventually got worn out, and plopped down to sleep right in the berries.  He was very well behaved! Can't wait till he's bigger and can help warn us of moose and bear.  We didn't see a single thing while up there, but did pick tons of berries.  I will definitely be going back there before winter. 

Every night, we try to get out with Finley and discover a new place in Fairbanks.  We have done pretty well so far.  We've done walks in parks, along trails, in front of our house, and up at the UAF campus.  We look forward to continue getting out during our short Fall.  Supposedly Fall is about 2 weeks long, but it is just beautiful.  We will try to take pictures.  It is also time to start looking for the Northern Lights!  Now we just have to stay up long enough to get outside to look.  There will definitely be pictures up of those when we get them. 

After church, we were blessed to have the members over for "after church treats".  We had been wanting to get them over to see the house, since most have never been over here.  We wanted to show them how thankful we are for such a beautiful place to live.  Finley behaved really well, even when 6-8 kids were surrounding him on the floor.  After about an hour of washing dishes and cleaning up, I took a nice long nap with Finley.  We ended our night with another trip to a new park.  Finley had a very hard time coming when called tonight; he was more interested in the dirt.  We did see 3-4 beavers swimming in the river, coming up pretty close to the edge.  After another drive around UAF to try to see Mt. McKinley (no luck), we headed home.  Finley is asleep, and has been since I started writing.  Hopefully he sleep all night (which he's been doing awesome at! He has had zero accidents in his kennel!).

Church work continues to go very well.  The congregation seems to be very excited and full of ideas.  This makes us so happy!  God is truly blessing us through these individuals and families.  We have been blessed to sit down with members on the visits, and really get to know them. I am glad that I am able to go along with Jason.  Choir and Sunday school and both starting up in about a week, very excited to join these.  I will be teaching the younger group of kids for the year.  We are also going to be starting something BRAND NEW for Syndoulos.  There was much interest for a women's group (brought up by a member), so we have been meeting about that as well.  Very exciting!

I pray that everyone's August has gone smoothly.  May God bless your new year of school, teaching, working, and anything else you may be doing! Love and miss you all!

 Sleeping own underneath Jason's desk

 I love when he sleeps in my arms!

He really doesn't sleep all the time, it's just that those are the moments he is calm, and I can actually get a picture without him jumping up to try and get the camera!

 

ISn't he getting so much bigger!  Compare it to the previous post.  Also, he is getting darker, like his mom!

My delicious cranberries!