Oklahoma!!!

Summertime in Oklahoma! Mike will be participating in a REU (Research Undergraduate Experience) and the University of Oklahoma this summer. The REU program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) . He'll be working in a lab at the University on a research project all summer.

Now I'm not sure that Oklahoma was his first choice, but he applied to quite a few of them all over the country. And they can be really hard to get, so we are really excited for him! One of his professors taught there for a while and says that he will be in for a warm summer.

The downside of course is that he'll be gone for 9 weeks. He leaves the end of May and won't return until the end of July. I'm going to try and fly out to Norman, OK to visit him for a week or so around the 4th of July. Probably wasn't my first choice for a summer vacation - but I'm sure glad that I it is where I'll be going because it means Mike has this GREAT opportunity!

Kittens!

Yep - we got kittens. I am please to introduce you to Dexter (grey kitten) and CJ ( white & grey tabby).


They like to sleep all intertwined on our chair, its pretty darn cute!! Dexter is 6 weeks older than CJ, but they are about the same size. They both have such funny & different personalities.

Dexter is kind of 'the boss' of the two. He's not much for being held, but he will curl up on your lap and sleep for hours on end. He loves playing with toys, chasing toy mice, chasing ropes, and of course wrestling with CJ. I've never been around a cat that was as vocal either. He just talks to us all the time. It just cracks Mike and I up!

CJ has quite a personility, he just discovered the joys of toy mice, but give him a basket, box, bag, he's in heaven. He likes being held and curling up in your lap to sleep. But if he wants to play... he's been know to give a little nip at you as well. On the upside, he nips VERY slowly so he never actually makes contact with you, it's kinda funny. Here is CJ hanging out in a shopping bag.

He would not get out of the bag, even when we picked it up and moved it! To funny. We are enjoying our new kittens!!

Movin & Groovin

Triathlon - I finished the swimming pretty easily, no surprise there. And I have finished the running as well, but the bike... ah the bike.... I dread the bike... I've biked a total of about 60 miles... so I really do have 52 left to go. I haven't biked in a few weeks, so maybe I should start again. I think I might enjoy the bike better if I had a real bike and didn't have to use a stationary one at the gym (however that might just be an excuse). Mike on the other hand is awesome!! He finished the whole triathlon in 28 days!!! Unfortunately this whole thing was sponsored by the triathlon club here at Univ. of Idaho and they seem to have disbanded midway through the program - so no T-Shirt or awards celebration... but hey it got us moving!!

Speaking of getting moving - Mike and I ran in a 5k with some friends on Saturday! Neither Mike or I had done anything like this before so it was really a great experience!! Mike hung out and ran with me, we finished in 38 min 17 seconds -- Yeah! We probably ran 2/3 of it, so next time we'll try to run the whole thing!

We had a blast too, I won a nice cap in a raffle, Mike won a long sleeve T-shirt and of course we got the race t-shirts. It was actually sunny and I got a little pink on my nose, but boy does the wind blow out here!!

There is another run in a couple of weeks we are thinking about doing. I can't imagine with Mike's back/hip problems and my horrible knee we'll ever become 'runners' but I do really enjoy getting out for these shorter runs!

Oh - and if you look closely at our friends John & Kelly's (#196) feet -- they have these really cool, barefoot running shoes. The are supposed to allow them to run barefoot like, but still protect their feet. They were quite the topic of conversation.

Mike just had his 35th birthday -- but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet, so I'll do that soon! And tell you all about it. -- Have a great week everyone!