Whoops. Forgot to write

So I suppose moving to a new house keeps you busy, since I haven't written anything in nearly a year! Short version. We moved in - movers were rock stars. One of the three guys was having a grandchild as he labored. I will never use another company (All About Moving).
The first weekend was quiet. Everyone was away or busy, so we spent the first days alone in the house, which seemed much like a vacation home or some surreal practical joke. For the first few weeks I thought that something would inevitably go wrong and that they would come back and take back the keys, making some excuse and calling it all a big mistake. But noone came and we got comfortable. So comfortable that we decided to finally make a third member of the family. No, not children. Puppy! We found a breeder in Orange, MA (Caninekids.info) and waited the rest of the summer for her next litter. While waiting for her to be born and grow big enough for us to take her home, we distracted ourselves with the other wonders of life. I moved to a new classroom, Sarah and Geron had their beautiful wedding. I attended my first NFL game between the Giants and the Patriots (Courtesy of Brooke). I turned 30 (which involved a suprise theme party and a very drunken silly trip to King Richard's Faire). Emily and Yvonne conspired to get me to Emily's house where everyone was waiting in costume dress. There were turkey legs and lots of liquor. It was a delight and a true surprise. The new school year started with the Dream team (Sarah, Tara D, myself, and Danielle Matook's fiance, Jonathan Rheaume. I received my professional status from the town of Mansfield, the year began and continued swimmingly...And then the dog.

She was a purebred beagle. I met her on my birthday and got to take her home a few weeks after that.Ariadne is her name - we ruminated long and hard on that one. She is named after the Greek goddess, but also because her mother's name is Juno. We wanted something literary, and Ellen Page plays Juno in the movie and she also plays Ariadne in our favorite movie of the year, Inception. So it works on a lot of levels. We call her Ari for short. She was one of seven in the litter and the runt, I believe. She came out with a broken tail, so it's forever bent. She was so little once that she could stand on my hand. Now, she weighs 15 lbs. It was a learning experience and a stressful one training her. However, now she's almost a good dog and we have way more positive experiences than negative ones. She's a snugglebear and we love her to death. I still think it's a miracle that we have been able to keep her alive so long. We used Michael's old vet (even though they're an hour away) and got her all vaccinated and spayed and so forth. Only one emergency trip so far (she broke a nail at the dog park). She has a habit of swallowing socks, but at least the biting and gnawing on everything has stopped. She has separation anxiety, but she has learned to be in her crate, finally. Everyone loves her and I hate leaving her everyday. I'm not sure what I'll do when I have kiddos.

Since we've gotten Ari, life has been nonstop. I'm advising for the yearbook again this year. I also joined ski club and despite much fear and whining, learned how to ski relatively well for 5 visits. I have proposed my own classes this year for the summer institute and the MCAS have just ended, at least for English. There's more talk about budget problems and so forth, but we do this dance every year, so I'm trying not to be concerned.

The house is looking good. After six months of searching and shopping and paying for everything else, we got our living room furniture - it's leather. it's chocolate. it's luxurious. This weekend we got curtains to help protect it from the sun. Next month, lamps...And little by little we make the house our own. We've had a number of parties - The first was on Halloween and there was a snow storm, so it was small, but hilarious. We had a major Christmas one and almost everyone we knew came. It was grand fun and the house looked beautiful. The only down side was that my phone and mom's phone was stolen. Yikes. That set us back. We hosted Christmas Eve here and went to Maryann's for the day. (I think I may be done with family holidays but Emily, Sharon, mom, and I have worked out the major ones so they can be manageable in the future.) The last party was on St. Patrick's Day and people seemed to have fun at that one.

Other noteworthy events -
-We found an all you can eat sushi place in Stoughton with Emily and Josh.
-Live Bait is becoming a monthly ritual.
-I'm getting craftier, having started to be inspired by ideas on Pinterest.
-I started and ended a trivia gig at TGIF in Attleboro.
-Emily, Becky, Josh, Jon and I saw They Might Be Giants at Lupos. Next month, we see Cake together!
-I learned how to make sushi.
-There have been many trips to the dog park.
-I joined the condo association and got some stuff DONE around here already:) (Ripped out the bushes next to our parking spaces and cut down the ridiculous tree in front) -We've started to watch Mad Men and Game of Thrones, religiously.
-I'm about to take up archery.:)

So there's the sweet and low down of the last 9 months. I've been itching to write, so maybe I'll be back. At the very least, this should serve as a makeshift memoir.