Summer Vacation

For today and tomorrow, I am again on "real" summer vacation--no teaching, no meetings, no nothing. It's kinda nice! The house is awfully quiet during the day, but I'm that much more glad to see Matt at the end of the day. :) He commented to me recently also that I have been super relaxed and easy going and just seem to be less anxious and have a lighter heart all around (and that he can't wait til we come to a time when I stay home, seeing what a different it makes in my stress level). He also allowed as how he knows the undercurrent of stress during the school year is because he knows I care so much and want to do the best I can. But we are enjoying this little preview of "life at time" while it lasts. :)

Today I've been tidying the house. Every now and then, it just needs a more asserted effort and getting everything back to ship shape. :) And especially since we'll be on vacation before I know it, I'd love to have everything "spotless" before we prepare for that. No one likes to come home to a dirty house, particularly when you have unpacking, etc. to take care of.

Sammy has been my buddy these days at home. I think she didn't know what to think at first with me being home all day. She would try to stay awake all afternoon and see what was going on. Now she knows--nothing too exciting or worth skipping her nap for--so she's back to her normal routine overall. We have made one adjustment with her as of late though. We have started leaving her gated in the kitchen when we go out, instead of in her crate. She is doing a GREAT job! Not one time have we found her outside the kitchen when we've come home. Usually, we actually find her asleep around the corner by the fridge or asleep.... in her crate! But at least she has the option to be out and stretch out or chill wherever she wants in the kitchen. I'm so proud of her for not getting into things! :) My goal is to extend her times out while we're gone to where we can hopefully leave her in the kitchen when school starts again. She would love that, I'm sure. :)

One more thing while we're on the topic of Samantha. Yesterday I called our vet to try to reserve a kennel spot for her while we're away. I hadn't called waaaaay ahead of time, because I figured there would be other kennels in Gville if our vet was full. Well, our vet was full. So I tried finding somewhere else.... small city syndrome strikes again! I was starting to worry about what we'd do with her! We'd love to bring her, but both families have some special things going on, and we didn't want to throw Sammy in the mix of those. Anyway, I tried a place the vet recommended, but they only board cats. I called the other one I saw in the yellow pages, even though it's far away and the wrong direction for us to head out of town, and no one answered! I emailed my mom and asked her to pray that we could find a spot for Sammy, and not 5 seconds later, our vet called back and said they'd make a space! They moved a small dog out of a the medium dog kennels (to the small dog kennels) to make a place for Sam with the medium dogs! God is so good! I am so thankful for such a tangible, in my face reminder that He knows and cares about every detail on our hearts. :)

I'm off to tidy some more and let Sammy in from her romp around the yard. :) We hope you have a great day and see the Lord going before you as well!

Love,
Becca