Well - we are now in countdown mode...Solsti will be here sometime in the next week or so and we could not be more happy! Watch for video from the airport and tons of pictures! Yes - I am a little obsessed but it has been a bad week for missing my Buppas...

Solstice Son Ash

DOB: March 22, 2009

Arriving: Around May 7th, 2009!

Age in Pic: 2-3 weeks

...until the little guy arrives...and pics will be coming very soon! Kim has chosen our little guy, after a bit of a mix-up! For some reason, he had gotten us mixed up with someone else and thought we wanted a "mellow" pup! Hahahahaha! After a quick email and a whole lot of laughing...he has picked our little guy for us! Can't release pics yet...he likes to wait until he knows which person is getting which puppy for all on the waiting list - but he does tell us that Solsti is the "most enthusiastic male from Echo and Shappa's litter"! Yippppppeeeee! He should be here around the first/second week of May and then it is on! We are up to the challenge and more than ready.

Taking this week to chill - have a few things to do for the charter school - but mainly catching up with family and helping in-laws with their new computers. Will post picture of Solstice as soon as we can!

...and our little guy should be here in about 23 days or so! YES!! I cannot wait and will post many pictures once we have him in our little human paws! Kim has his eye on two of the pups (color and such)for us and he will know more over the coming week or two as their personalities continue to grow.

As for the life part: It is a busy one! We have submitted our Phase One application to Grand Valley State University and are waiting to hear back from them. For those who do not know it (and we kept it under cover for a while), a group of Capella friends and community members are proposing to open the first virtual charter school in Michigan. This has been a dream of mine ever since I worked with my at-risk students through Upward Bound and it seems it will be coming true! We are working on the grant applications right now, have a community meeting on April 16th at the Colon library (5:30 pm start), and I am keeping very busy with this - presentations, pamphlets, press releases, etc. ...on top of...

Just finished my faculty training (4 weeks) at University of Phoenix and will be teaching at their undergraduate college, Axia, starting the last week of April. I am still teaching at ITT Technical Institute and hope to pick up a few more sections there in there 2nd half of the semester. I love it!

The other major happening in my life is the completion of my proposal for my dissertation. I have gotten feedback and am working on making changes to Chapter 3 now to resubmit to Dr. Sims (aka Dr. Rod, or Aussie) by the middle of the week.

In the meantime, Brian is playing many shows with his death metal band, Ritual Suicide (next show at Oades on May 1st) and will be opening with Tripology (his cover band) on May 8th at Planet Rock for Crazy Train and Halloween.

Briana spent Spring Break with her mom and we missed her like crazy. She came home last night and talked to Brian and I for about 3 hours straight. It's nice to have her home - but she loves to "bag" (her word) on her Dad and I as she is deterred from doing so on the "other" side. We love it and her quick wit is a never ending source of entertainment! She is good (like her dad) at it!

Whew! Back to the real world now - more grading of papers and creating of presentations...I love being busy - keeps me out of trouble and makes the wait for Solstice that much easier!!!