1 week down.

23 more to go.

First week of Joey being gone really hasn't been too much of a change. After this week is over it will be the longest we have been apart :( We are both keeping nice and busy though so I don't think we will notice the separation too much. Joey started school yesterday and has a decent amount of homework to do...He is already hating having homework again haha. Sucker. Welcome to my life! He is able to ride his bike from the apartment to school which will be nice ALL YEAR ROUND woot! He had school pictures taken which by how he posed on our skype date last night they will probably end up looking like this

After his first day of what they call "immersion" he went bowling with his classmates. From Joey's observation it is looking like business school kinda revolves around drinking. The bowling party had buckets and buckets of beer. He said there will be cocktail parties and gatherings at bars a plenty scheduled in these next couple years. Lucky for Joey he will know how to look the part from his experience of watching Madmen.

This weekend I am excited because I get to house sit for someone in my ward and watch their dog. It will be nice to have a canine in my life again because I miss my Gertie! Also their house is absolutely awesome so it will be a nice change of scenery from my sad apartment with only an air mattress and a swivel chair to label as furniture.

Gertie is adjusting to the new place pretty well Joey says. She has a dog walker come during the day while Joey is at school for 12 hrs a day during immersion. Joey has found a couple dog parks, none that are up to par of Madison's dog parks, but they will get the job done. One even has a swimming hole of some sort. Gertie had no interest in that though.

From both Joey and Gertie the verdict is that Houston is H-O-T. Glad I am up north until Houston cools down some!

officially freaking out

My mind has been in denial since February that Joey and I are going to live apart for approx 154 days...it finally became real for me yesterday...yeah I am officially freaking out. Yesterday we sold our bed and blew up our air mattress to sleep on that night. That's when it hit me that Joey wouldn't be sleeping next to me, sitting in the same room as me, watching tv shows with me, eating with me, etc with me for a long time.

Obviously I started crying laying on our plastic smelling "queen size" air mattress. Joey being the great comforter he is told me that I don't need to cry, it won't be that bad. Not the big hug/mutual cry sesh I was looking for, but he's right. We are both going to be crazy busy with school, and will be having tons of skype dates, texting olympics, phone calls, visits (hopefully more than just Thanksgiving!)

I think as hard as this experience will be, the next few months are going to be good for us. I am SO excited for December to come so I can get down to Texas ASAP, but I am going to enjoy my last few months as a Sconnie too. I am experiencing so many emotions right now its ridiculous. I don't want Joey to leave, but then I do because that means we can see each other sooner. I am excited to leave Madison to be back with my man, but I am going to miss Madison terribly! I am ecstatic to graduate college (finally), but I am sad to be ending that chapter in my life!...grad school??maybe...prolly not...wanna have babies before I'm 40.

Anyhoo Joey packed up the wagon to the rim. He is all set to head to the Big-A state of Texass. Luckily Gertie was there to help him pack because I have been working on my online class 24/7! Thank you professor who I will not name that assigns far too much work for a summer course!

Gertie:"no dad that box goes over there, and don't forget my tennis ball."

Gertie the co-pilot

Texas Bound!

Tomorrow morning I might not be as optimistic as I am right now about this situation. Luckily I have lovely friends to take care of me and take me fencing tomorrow as a distraction! En Garde!

don't mind the noise

i have been experimenting and exploring the html side of my blog. don't mind the awful layouts and things. i will have it all worked out in the near future when i have more time to play around with it. if anyone has tips for me in figuring out stuff with blogger- layouts, buttons, headers, etc. i am all ears! as you can see i am in need of some help.

As for the Platers we had a gorgeous saturday. we slept in, had a delicious breakfast (minus the hashbrowns that i messed up), did some spring cleaning, i ran a billion errands, and we finished off this gorgeous day with a walk with gertie in the super cute nakoma neighborhood...where gertie pooped 3x and we only brought one bag...awkward. i was planning on taking pictures (of the walk not gertie pooping) but spaced it. joey and i were talking about plans for the next few months and how we are going to take on the challenge of moving him to grad school while i stay here for my school, what we are going to do with all our stuff (sell it), the animals etc. lots to plan and lots of stress, but all for another wonderfully exciting chapter in our book of life! (cheesy? probably)

Little perks today: cashing our coins at the bank. joey was thinking $40. I was thinking $70. how about $169?! boom baby! that is some serious quarters! I got to meet my friend's newborn stella at the hospital. had a wendy's frosty at lunch.

i am hoping that sometime next week we will be officially announcing where joey will be going to grad school. he has been accepted to rice which is in houston, but he was also accepted to the u of u. we are expecting the official acceptance package from the u any day now to see about scholarships. we will keep you posted!

which will we pick?