Oh yea...and I got a master's degree

This post is meant to clear up confusion associated with my most recent graduation and degree. To practice school psychology, you need an educational specialist degree. To get this, you also get a master's degree. The master's degree without the Ed.S. degree will not get you very far. At the University of Delaware, it is a three year program. The first two years include coursework and practicum experiences. The third year is an internship. After the first year, you receive your master's degree, and then you keep going to school for two more years until you get your Ed.S. and actually become a school psychologist. The M.A. is more of a pat on the back for completing the first year. So yea, I guess it's kind of cool to get to put two letters after my name, and yea, it was fun to celebrate, but no I'm not done with school yet. 

Happy my hubs could actually stay for the entire ceremony this time....

The lovely ladies of the class of 2014

 Jumping for joy

Celebration picnic-Big thanks to all the mothers (and fathers?) who helped plan it! 

 

                                    Big lips courtesy of Lindsey's mom                                              Silly boys courtesy of.....?

It was a day of parties-after the party with my cohort, our wonderful friend from church insisted on having a joint party for Josh and I because my graduation was also on Josh's birthday. She has a new frozen yogurt shop that just opened up called Yolicious (and it's delicious!)

http://yoliciousfrozenyogurt.com/

http://www.facebook.com/YoliciousFrozenYogurt

so I agreed only in the hopes that it would be good for her business!  

And that was that! 3 degrees down, 1 more to go! I'm tied with Joshy now. Ha!

Epic Road Trip

Josh and I are currently in Mississippi for the summer, but before we came here, we took 3 weeks off to see family, friends, and see our beloved mountains out west again. We loaded up our Prius and it magically became the PUV-Prius Utility Vehicle. I honestly don't know why everyone doesn't own a Prius. We fit camping gear (2 sleeping bags, 4 man tent, 2 sleeping pads, tarp, 2 pillows), tennis rackets, a football, 2 large suitcases, 2 backpacks, a box of soil, 2 people, a 70 lb dog (and all that he needs), and a bike in/on this little car!

  

                                                                         Buster!

 

My FIL proudly showed us his garden.

 

The main event of the day was a whiffle ball game--there were only a few heated discussions on rules and technique. 

It was a short visit, but always fun to be there and see loved ones again!

Puppy Progress

Ok, so I couldn't wait to post some more pictures. Our sweet puppy has really grown up a lot in the 8.5 months we've had him so far (he's 1.5 years old now). He has come a long way, conquered a lot of his fears, and endeared himself to us forever. He is a wonderful companion, loves to be close to us, and will do anything to cuddle. Here are some pics of his time with us so far!

                                                          Frankie's first haircut! Our fluffernutter. 

Franklin went camping for the first time with us in November. He was terrified of the tent then. He is terrified of the tent now. It's a work in progress. 

He loves grass and will do a crazy dance when he gets a clump he thinks he's not supposed to have. 

 He'd rather be playing outside all day and gives great puppy dog eyes when he doesn't get to. 

He discovered stink bugs. He likes to squish them until the stink comes out and can spend hours playing with one. 

He pretty much lets us do whatever we want to him. 

 He went into a pool for the first time ever in May. As you can see, he's still pretty timid and hasn't quite mastered the art of finding the stairs to get out. It only took a few pushes and shoves to make him get in.  

Yea, so, I'm pretty much obsessed. 

I'm Baaaack! For the summer at least.

That's right, school's out for the summer, which means I have control over my life again! I have lots to catch up on, so I'm going to take it one post at a time.

 So after the marathon, we celebrated Christmas.

Longwood Gardens

We went on some hikes.

Above two: Rock State Park, MD

Kilgore Falls, MD 

Stroud Water Research Center

And we hung out with some friends. 

Delaware City

Yolicious

In the midst of all of this, we also did some schoolwork. I successfully completed my first practicum experience as a school psychology student! I worked 2 days a week in an elementary school and loved it. It was reassuring to realize that I enjoy the field I chose :) 

Stay posted for updates about....Franklin! Graduation! Ohio! Utah! and Colorado! 

Hopefully it will be as exciting as it sounds. 

Marathon 'tails

Ok so here are the tails. Most people say deets, I say tails.
I ran 26.2 miles! Huge life goal: done.
Will I do it again? The verdict is still out. Yes, I loved it, but yes, it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. As of right now, I am thinking I prefer half marathons, but keep in mind that I still can't walk or move like a normal person yet. That may change.
It was the Rehoboth Beach marathon and it was a pretty small race, around 750 people in the marathon. I liked the smaller race to start because it was less intimidating, but during the race it would've been nice to have more people around because there points when I was just running by myself.

 These 2 pics are from mile 11. Obviously still loving life and loving the fact that I am on a really long run for the first time in 3 weeks and that I am finally actually doing the marathon and not just thinking about it nervously anymore. I felt great for the first 11 or so miles.

 This is from mile 19, hating life. Wondering, am I crazy? Why did I want to do this? (this really did cross my mind). Miles 11-20 were rough. It just seemed to last so long and that part of the route took us through woods where there were no people or cars or any changing scenery. I wasn't necessarily in physical pain, but I was definitely mentally struggling. When I saw Josh, I couldn't even talk to him or I would've started crying. But as soon as I got to mile 20, I knew I could do it.

 This is from mile 23. From mile 20 on, I knew I could finish it. It was a short enough distance left that each mile I went seemed to really make a difference in how far left I had to go. I remember thinking, "You know you're crazy when you have 5 miles left to run and that seems really short."

 My goal was to finish in 4 hours. I was at halfway at 1:56 I think, so I knew that I could make it in 4 if I could keep the same pace and not stop. There were points when that was all that kept me going. Overall, I stopped to pee once, tie my shoe once, once because I cramped, and I think I walked a few steps at a drink station. So overall, pretty awesome.

  So happy to be done!

My medal. I want to wear everyday until my legs don't hurt anymore so that people will know why I am walking funny.

I had a Gu at miles 7, 14, and 20. I had water at miles 8, 15, and 21. And I had a piece of banana at mile 15. I had one piece of toast and a yogurt for breakfast. Overall, I was happy with my nutrition during the race. There was one point that I felt really hungry and I knew the Gu just wasn't going to cut it, which is why I had the banana. I didn't bonk and felt like I had the same amount of energy the whole race.

So that's it! I did it and I am so glad I did. I can't believe it, either. It has been a goal for such a long time that it seems surreal that I did it. Thanks to an awesome supportive husband and a body that didn't break (yet), I managed to finish.

Busy

I am too busy to blog right now, so go read Josh's update!
cyclientist.blogspot.com

Meet... Franklin!

Getting used to riding in the car

This is Franklin, the newest member of the family! Isn't he the cutest dog you've ever seen?!!! He is an 8.5 month old goldendoodle.
Josh and I have wanted a dog forrrrevvvverrrrrr, and we are finally in a situation that we can have one!
Josh found out last week that he can take a dog to his office during the day while he is working. His office is in a farmhouse, so it's perfect for a dog. Once we learned that, we started looking tirelessly for the perfect match for us. Thanks to Cesar Millan,we knew what we needed to do while we were looking and what we were looking for in a dog.
There is a dog trainer nearby who got Franklin from a puppy mill. He was 8 months when she got him and had lived his whole life in a kennel :( She rescued him and was trying to find a good home for him at the same time we were looking for a good dog!

Franklin's first run! Pooped. 

It was pretty much love at first sight. He is super calm and attentive to whatever we are doing and listens to us really well. The trainer only had him for 1.5 weeks, so he is not trained in anything, but we are working with him and he has already learned so much!

He hasn't had any accidents, can sit pretty consistently (esp. with Josh), and is very patient. He can also sit for his leash. He doesn't know how to jump (so sad!) so we are working on that. He also doesn't really know how to play or fetch, but he's starting to catch on! He acts just like a big puppy--very uncoordinated, big paws that he doesn't know what to do with, and curious. Everything is pretty new to him--toys, balls, running, etc.! It is so exciting to see him learn new things so quickly. 

 He loves his bed!

Tuckered out from us trying to teach him to jump!

We are so excited to have Franklin!! I am obsessed with him, so there will be plenty of pics. And he will go everywhere with us that he is allowed. I was a little disappointed that he couldn't come to church with us today (...ok, a lot disappointed), but hopefully that is the exception and he will be able to come [almost] everywhere else with us!