Dear me...

Well, it's been a while now hasn't it. Almost two months! Shameful. And so much has happened. There was the adventurous camping trip with the Petersons, the great weekend visit from our dear Telle's, the "art table" that wouldn't fit in the car at Goodwill, my, "let's paint everything green" phase, oh, and the tragic "Sobie" saga. Well, I'd best get started...

Rome and I drove to Shenendoah National Park to meet my good friends from college, Jane and Erik Petersons, and their baby daughter Meredith for two days of hiking and camping fun. It was QUITE the adventure, but we eventually found each other in the sprawling park and, after much deliberation, found an acceptable camp site and set up home. (ours was the miniscule green tent...)

The weekend after our awesome camping trip we welcomed our family, Scott and Maryana Telle, for a few days of visiting. We had a sweet, if chilly, picnic at a nearby park the day before they headed home, as well as a few heated and highly competitive games of Clue. Maryana and I may or may not have acquired a very fuzzy bear outfit for a baby at the nearby baby consignment store as well... ;)

The unfortunate "art table" I excitedly picked out at Goodwill apparently looked a lot smaller than it was in actuality... We had to employ a hammer to hack the legs off of it to fit it in the car after recalling the "NO RETURNS" sign inside the store... Oh, and a very gruff southern woman invited herself to help us maneuver the mangled, nail-infested (and by this time unidentifiable) table into our car. But, after all that, we got it in, brought it home, and you guessed it, I painted it green. (Along with a sweet mirror I found at a different thrift store earlier that week)

Now for the truly difficult part of this post...

Sobie

Rome and I deliberated long and hard about whether or not to get a puppy. Finally after weeks of conversation, we decided to go for it and after finding a great ad on craigslist, we started out on what would become "The Tragic Sobie Saga". *insert a moment of silence for the painful memories this unearths*

Alright, well. We started out on our 40 min drive to meet these puppies in Big Island VA. We traversed many a gravel back road until we came upon the right one, complete with rust eaten cars in the yards, random dogs running the streets (and at times racing our car!). We had fond the correct road but the house number we needed was nowhere in sight, the road seemed to end. So, we took a chance and followed a wooden, hand painted sign that said "Gun Shop" up a VERY narrow road on the side of a steep mountain. At the top we spotted a tiny shack, which I suppose was the gun shop, with a goat tied up right outside of it. There was also a house nearby, with an open front door. "Why don't we ask?" I suggested, terrified. This was SO, so creepy. At that moment a true southern man came walking out of the house and down the stairs toward our car. Rome pulled closer and rolled down the window. He very politely addressed the cowboy-hatted man, but neither of us were prepared for what happened next. The gruff-looking man slowly produced a small, black, microphone-looking device and held it to his throat before replying in a chilling, metallically robotic voice, "ya go back down this here hill and tarn leyuft and keep goin straight." We were stunned, quickly thanked the formidable man, and backed out of there as fast as possible. But this was only the beginning. We returned down the narrow hill and pretty easily found the correct house. No to meet the puppies. As we pulled into the driveway Rome was convinced that the license plate of the car parked there had a "kkk" in it... goodness, as if we weren't shaken up enough already! But no, he had read wrong. The owners of the puppies were very friendly and after a short trek to the back yard and a quick whistle we saw two tiny roly poly pups tumbling out of a kennel toward us. Well we were pretty much smitten, but decided to wait a day to decide. We agreed to come back the next day to pick one up. Monday afternoon brought much preparation for our new addition to the family and by 2pm we were making the trip back out to Big Island to pick out one of the two pups.

They were Boxador puppies, half Labrador and half Boxer, and very adorable. We chose the bigger of the two and named her "Sobachka", puppy in Ukrainian. Sobie for short.

Our life with Sobie lasted almost a full five days, but during that short time we realized we couldn't keep her, what with the very uncertain living situation come June. It was horrible. Many tears ensued, especially after we were able to find someone who really wanted her, and so quickly too!

We drove about 40 minutes with Sobie and al of her new gear, to a Walmart in Appomatox where we were to meet her new family and say goodbye to her. It was awful. But her new family loves her, and they saw how sad we were when we had to give her up. They have been so kind as to text and email updates about her, even sent some pictures earlier this week! They love her, but so did we. And we won't forget her. *Insert much sobbing*

Well there you have it. And now I best return to our apartment to see how the irate law students are getting along with their studying. Good heavens.

Until later then...