What happened to June??

So I realized that tomorrow is July and it blew my (non-existent...I mean, who wears them in the summer) socks off!  It also made me realize that I have not been keeping up with this blog.  The purpose of this blog is to serve as a journal to help us remember important moments as time keeps slipping by.  So...I will continue to try to work in the short time it takes to create a blog entry on a more regular basis.

June was a busy month!  I wrapped up my eighth year teaching in St. Paul.  It was a good year and I'm looking forward to beginning with a new group in the fall.  I am in the middle of summer school, however.  Whenever I teach summer school I find my self asking why?!?  But, now that we only have 6 days left and my class sizes are at a whopping 9, 11 and 10 I realize why.  Money!  I swear that anyone who says they teach summer school for the love of teaching is lying through their teeth.  I do need to stress that there's nothing wrong with the kids I have, I think they're perfectly fine, but come on...no air conditioning, 2 hours classes and hearing about how all the non-summer school teachers are spending their days is just too much sometimes.  But, like I said, I signed up for this and it's nearing an end already.

Another exciting development on the home front is our refinance.  We had our house appraised and kept our fingers crossed...tight!  It was a gamble because there's a huge range for what houses in our area are selling for.  So once we heard back that our house appraised for what we needed it to and that we are officially NOT under water, we continued with the refinance process.  We locked in at a 3.75% interest rate and were previously at 5.75%.  That, coupled with a couple of other things is going to save us lots of money every month.  Like car payment lots.  We have always thought about getting a Maserati.  We'll keep you posted if that ends up in our garage, but don't hold your breath : )

We had a couple of big events to attend in June: Grandma's half marathon and our first father's day.  They both happened to fall on the same weekend which made for a busy weekend but also very fun and Emily was a trooper for the whole thing!  My sister, 2 brothers and Patrick all ran Grandma's Half Marathon.  It was a nice cool day for the runners and they all did great!  Emily had a great time spectating and we can't wait to get out there to cheer on daddy for his next race.

Run Daddy!!

The Team

The Road Crew

The whole group

Just us

With uncle Greg

Maybe someday Em!

We also celebrated our first father's day!  We started with Emily giving daddy her presents, followed by brunch at the Harrisons and dinner at my family's house.  We also celebrated Karen's birthday since she was in town for Grandma's which worked out perfectly.  Although busy, it turned out to be a lovely day!

With grandpa John

Love you daddy!

Happy birthday Karen

Since it is officially summer, we're getting to do things like go swimming!  Since baby swimming is more like taking an outdoor bath without the soap, it's not too exciting but sure does help on those hot days that we've been having.

Hanging in the pool

The down side of June occurred last weekend, June 23.  It was finally time to say goodbye to our beloved family dog, Beanie.  She has been such a big part of our lives for 15 1/2 years.  I remember when we got her - Christmas morning 1996.  She was a surprise to us all except my dad who chose her for our family.  We all loved her very much but my parents and brother, Pat, were the closest to her.  She lead a good life of eating garbage, scavenging for food scraps, escaping from the house, hunting grouse with Greg, going fishing with Greg, chasing snowmobiles, getting into most everything that was "off limits", running around the farm with my dad and Pat, following my mom around, persistently begging for rotisserie chicken and eating wrapping paper.  She was a lucky dog and we were even luckier to have her in our lives.  We will all miss her, but she will remain in our heart and memories forever.

Beanie <3

With June coming to a close we are looking forward to starting July off with a bang (haha, get it?!).  We are going to take Emily to meet her great grandma and great grandpa Harrison later in July and are going to spend some time at Izaty's with the family.

Have a fun and safe 4th!
More to come...
The Harrisons