Quick Successions: New Mexico Edition

Our semester, like all have been so far, is pretty busy. Hannah especially. She goes running down the sidewalk with me on occasion. I like how she will hold my hand then. Usually she tries to get away so she can explore.  Brian had his birthday. Hannah and I brought him lunch and we played at a park near campus for about 30 minutes. He teaches a class on Wednesday (his birthday). Thursdays we have a class together and I brought cupcakes. Friday, we went out to dinner at the Mexican restaurant by our house. Hannah has a cupboard in our kitchen. She has always played in it and stored stuff. It was the only one down low we didn't child proof. Lately she goes in there to watch Peppa Pig episodes on YouTube. I am home with Hannah all day on Wednesdays and we are all home together on Fridays. On Wednesdays we clean the house and do the grocery shopping and then we play. Sometimes we color, sometimes we play with the Little People and sometimes we play with Legos. Hannah...

One of the tough things about graduate school for us is that we don't have a regular daily schedule. Every day, when classes are in session, we do a different thing. We have a different wake-up time. We leave at different times. Sometimes I leave; sometimes Brian does; sometimes we all do. Our return times vary. The only steadiness comes on Sunday when we go to church.  But school starting again also means that we see our friends and have good times. On Saturday we went to the department picnic for grad students and professors. They have two a year: one in the fall and one in the spring. They are always at a park.  We always hit up the swings. This park had a giant cement turtle. The turtle was very unusual for playground equipment, but it made for good photo ops. Here are all of us who came. My major professor is very sweet to Hannah. Here she is pushing Hannah in the swing. I saw Hannah come up to hug her by the picnic tables, and then they were...

Friday was my birthday. It's a hard time a year to have a birthday if you revolve around school. We started class this week and we were tired and stressed from trying to get used to a new schedule. My boss made me a chocolate cake and I ate it with my colleagues. Brian and Hannah brought me flowers at work. Brian and Hannah also made me a mint ice cream brownie. I was able to talk to my sister and my friend in Utah on the phone. While I was talking, Brian and Hannah went to sleep and didn't wake up until about 8 p.m. That was too late to go to dinner so we finished the pot roast I made earlier in the week, ate the brownie and called it good. Brian ordered me several pairs of shoes online and let me pick the ones I wanted to keep. The best was a pair of black sandals. I wore out my old ones this summer. I had them for three years, so they had a good life. On Saturday, we returned the rejected shoes and then went to a birthday party for a 2-year old in Hannah's nursery clas...

We ended up in St. Louis at the end of this week and so we decided to go into the Gateway Arch and see what the zoo had to offer while we were here.  What a great summer this has been. So sad that school starts for Brian and I on Monday.   You can see me in my white shirt and Hannah in her lime green one at the base of the arch. Here we are looking over the city from the top of the arch. Picture with mom. Picture with dad. The inside of the arch at the bottom has a visitor's center. We ate at this restaurant. Brian and I watch Food Network sometimes and this was one of the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives profiled. The food was good.  Here are the pictures for the zoo. It was hot at the zoo, about 100 degrees, but we managed okay. My favorite animals at the zoo are the giraffes, Brian likes the elephants, and Hannah said her favorites were the flamingos. I was so excited that in St. Louis we saw a cardinal. I don't have comments a...

We rode the train back down from Scotland on a Saturday. It was crowded and much less pleasant than the weekday ride up. When we returned to King's Cross, we had a little time, so I talked Brian into pulling our bags a mile a so in order to see the Charles Dickens museum on Fleet Street. Dickens was born in Portsmouth, but he lived in London as an adult. This was the house he lived in for a few years after he became famous. The museum staff let us stash our bags while we walked through and we took a few photos of me kickin' it in Charles' house. He would have needed my help. He had about 10 children. His sister-in-law was actually named Mary and she lived there and helped out.  I liked that there was so much blue china in the house. I would not say I collect it, but I have quite a few pieces. This made me glad that I have my amazing laundry system at home. Dickens was a famous writer, but he was also a famous reader. He traveled and read his work and he also re...

We left for Scotland from King's Cross Station. This is where Harry Potter left to go to Hogwarts. This is not the station they used in the movies, but it is the one where people go to get their picture taken as they make use of platform 9 3/4. I got Brian just before he went in. :)  The train ride was very pleasant. We rode in the club car (where they sell the food) and it was quite quiet. The train went through several other places including York and Newcastle (where Lydia moved with Mr. Wickham after their scandalously patched up marriage in Pride and Prejudice).  The ride took a little less than four hours.  There are a lot of statues on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Some of my favorites are of David Hume (above) and Adam Smith (below). Hume was a philosopher and Smith was an economist. Smith is also buried in a cemetery that Brian and I happened upon in Scotland. Brian kept wanting picture in these booths. I could figure out what they were for. He sai...