How hip are we? Greg and I are in an artsy, little coffee shop in Moscow, ID where he is studying and I'm surfing the internet (big surprise there!). We are so "with-it". :) Unfortunately I don't have anything incredibly exciting to write about this week. Dixie has been under the weather, so we haven't had too many walks to get out and take pictures. I have been spending most of the week preparing my application materials to apply for the Master of Fine Arts program at both the University of Idaho and Washington State University. I can't seem to get anyone from WSU to call or email me back though, so right now I'm focusing on the University of Idaho. Greg has been fairly busy with homework and grading papers this week, so our lives have been pretty average.

Shannon and I did get to go out for a run yesterday. It was nice to soak up some sunshine even if it was still cold and incredibly windy. The bad thing about running out in the open around the Palouse is that there is absolutely nothing to break the wind. No mountains, not many trees. Unless you get between some buildings, you catch the full force of the wind...it just happened to be right in our faces as we tried to run up the hill. Convenient. Sometimes you just have those days that you can't catch a break. My oatmeal overflowed and made a mess in the microwave, nobody would call me back from WSU, the wind was relentless during my run, I'm STILL unemployed. Ok, so maybe I'm being slightly dramatic!

On the plus side, the Seattle earthquake missed us! And we aren't getting all the cold, nasty weather that West Virginia is experiencing. Maybe this coming week will bring something a little more exciting to write about! Stay warm!

Cold Weather & Warm Recipes

The chill that all of you back home had last week must be heading our direction. The temperature has been in the single digits this morning. When Dixie and I returned from our morning walk around 11:00, it was only 7 degrees. It supposedly dropped below zero overnight. No wonder my legs were stinging! She and I walked to the downtown area where I took these pictures. The cougar is WSU's mascot. A few weeks ago, someone had wrapped a nice red and gold scarf around the statue's neck, but apparently a living being needed the warmth more than the cougar because the scarf wasn't there for very long. You can see that we got a few more inches of snow over the weekend. And of course, being the ferocious guard dog that she is...this 2nd picture shows Dixie protecting me from the inanimate object...just in case it had any ideas! Notice the hair down her back standing on end.

So on the subject of cold weather...Greg has requested some nice, hot crock-pot meals. I've done some vegetable soup and potato soup, but I really don't have too many recipes for things to make in the crock-pot. Now I happen to know for a fact that there are some really good cooks who follow this blog...so I'm putting out an open request for crock-pot recipes. You can post the recipe as a comment right here on the blog site, email it to me, or just send it via regular mail if you prefer. If anyone needs our address, you should be able to get it from any immediate family member. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I'm a little hesitant to put our full address on the internet for anyone to see. I look forward to all the delicious recipes we might get!! Stay warm!

Weekend Update

Ugh...more snow. It's not piling up nearly as quick this time around, but it is making a mess of everything again. And snow makes it very difficult to get motivated to do anything other than curl up under a blanket. We tried to combat the laziness with some fun activities on Friday night and also this morning.

Friday, we hit the rec center to play some volleyball in the pool. The water wasn't too bad, but apparently they didn't have the room heater on. Everyone was hunkered down in the water trying to stay warm. After volleyball, we ventured over to the CUB (the student union) for WSU's version of "Up All Night." This is just free food and activities for students and their guests on Friday nights as an alternative to going out on the town. Unfortunately, WSU's "Up All Night" is not nearly as good as West Virginia University's!! We arrived about an hour after things had started and the food (Chinese food, ugh) was completely cleaned out! We tried to get in on some of the games, but the lines were so long we gave up on that quickly. We tried to get in on the craft, but they were already out of supplies. We did hang around long enough to catch the entertainment act...a sword swallower. He was so booooring that we left before he got to the main part of his act. Oh well...it was worth a try.

Saturday morning's activity was much better. We hit the rec center with 4 other people for a doubles raquetball tournament. Not to brag, but Greg and I cleaned up, beating both teams (once). :) After that, we grabbed some basketballs for a little 3-0n-3 and Knockout. We might have been the laughingstock of the basketball courts, but we burnt off some major calories over the course of 2 1/2 hours. Which hopefully made up for all the gluten-free cookies we ate last night. I finally ordered some different types of flour to make my "all-purpose gluten-free flour" mixture. About 22 pounds of flour actually. It was quite a bit cheaper to order it in bulk. It just arrived Thursday night, so to try it out, I made some chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips Friday night. Wow. You'd never know they were gluten free. 30 cookies disappeared in a matter of minutes. Now you know why we needed to spend so long at the gym this morning!

Earlier this week, we hosted movie night and dinner. We've been having communal dinners with some friends almost every night of the week. I only have to cook about twice a week, but we've been eating some great food each evening. Greg is wanting to start a new tradition for each week. He wants to have a covered dish dinner where each person brings something that cost no more than $2 to make. It will be tough, but it will definitely call for some creativity and maybe a little extra hunting in the grocery store. It's hard to find items under $2 that will feed one person, much less a few people! We'll see if it catches on or not. Dixie and Ginny like movie night though. They both can start snoozing at the drop of a hat, so they get a little closer to cuddling up each time we get together. Greg had both of them on the couch with him this week. They look a little bored with the movie though... Greg must have picked that one out!

As far as our "daytime" life goes, Greg just had his first test on Friday. He should find out how that went on Monday. Still no jobs for me. Being a full-time dishwasher/clothes washer/dog walker/house cleaner/dinner fixer doesn't pay too well unfortunately. Well, I'll be sure to let you all know how Greg fared on his test....I can tell you're all dying to know! :)

Brrrr! I'm ready for Spring! Although we've been spared the below-zero temperatures that all of you back home are having...things still seem so cold. We have had very heavy frosts that are so pretty. Below is a close-up of a pine tree with all the little spikes of frost. This was taken about 3:00 in the afternoon. For about three days now, we've had frost that stays on all day long. At least it's not piles of snow!

Our yard is so small that Dixie doesn't get to do much playing or sniffing. She goes out to take care of business and then we make her come back in. So we've been walking up the hill to a park to let her (and Ginny) run around and blow off some steam these last two days. It's quite amusing to watch them follow each other around, seeing who can pee the most! This picture was also taken late afternoon. All of that white is frost, not snow. Dixie looks like she's ready to do some modeling...what with the windblown look, slightly open mouth, and "come hither" stare! This is Ginny and Dixie as we walked back down the hill to go home. You don't realize just how small Ginny is until you get her outside. She's only about 7 months old though, so I guess she's got some filling out to do. She and Dixie are the exact same color, so it's pretty funny to watch them walk down the street side by side.

This hill overlooks the park where we were playing. Dixie, of course, looked away from the camera at the very second we were ready to take the picture.
We're liking Pullman a little more each day. Unfortunately, the job I was hoping for didn't work out, so I'm on the hunt again. I guess most people probably fantasize about not having to go to work everyday...getting to stay home and be lazy...do whatever you want. When you have no choice about it, it's not always fun. Hopefully it won't last too long though. I have a few options out there, so let's hope all the pieces fall into place soon.

Greg is still enjoying school. So much so, that he is at the library on a vacation day! Things are coming back to him now, and I think he'll really enjoy it next semester when he gets to switch to a research assistant instead of a teaching assistant.

Our highlight this week was attempting to play roller-hockey. I have a newfound respect for hockey players. It's no wonder they have concussions and only a few of their actual teeth...it can be dangerous! If you're skating with Greg that is! :) Neither of us had been on rollerblades for quite awhile. The rec center has a small enclosed area for roller-hockey, and they rent out all the necessary equipment. I looked like the biggest dork of course...apparently when they got to me, the only helmet left was one with a windshield! It was so scratched up that I could barely see through it. Anyway, we played 2 on 2 with Shannon and Travis (who was an actual hockey player). We started by playing 3 on 1 against Travis...but soon decided that it would only be fair if he had one of us on his team to bring him down a few notches. 2 on 2 was much more even...although Greg and I definitely didn't come out on top. There were a lot of close calls, but there was only one wipeout. Out of respect for the athletes, I won't mention any names though (G-R-E-G!).

Greg didn't fare much better the next day when the four of us played raquetball and I landed a perfect shot right in his eye socket! Oops. I'm pretty sure I owed him from the time he hit me square in the face with a volleyball though. We'll call it even.

Well, I think that's about all the excitement we've had for the last few days. I'll let you all know whenever I find gainful employment...or just employment!

Dixie Goes to College

Dixie and I are thoroughly enjoying our down time this week. I haven't heard back from my interview yet, but Monday will either bring a job...or me working a lot harder to find a job! In the meantime, I've done some sewing (aside from Dixie's coat I'm working on a shirt for myself), checked out some library books, done some walking and jogging around town, and I've had a few moments of pure laziness.

All three of us should be fit and trim in no time if we keep a pace like we have this past week. The weather has been very nice, so we've taken advantage of that by leaving the cars parked. I went for a jog around the neighborhood today. I think this is the best way to figure out where things are, and the quickest ways to get around. Yesterday Dixie and I walked to a park to meet Greg during his lunch break. In this picture, both of them are more enamored by the piece of cheese that I'm holding than the photographer herself.

Today, I figured Dixie would be too pooped for a long walk, but she seemed eager to get out and about. As soon as I got cleaned up from my jog, Dixie and I set out all the way across campus to meet Greg at the library for his walk home. Dixie was in overdrive as we walked around on campus. So many people. So many potential petters! She was soaking it up. I'd even venture to guess that she was getting more attention than any other girl there. Greg mentioned to me later that he didn't think dogs were allowed on campus...maybe that's why she was getting so much attention. Oops. The walk was a little longer than we planned, and of course we had to come all the way back home, but she didn't seem to mind at all.

Greg is enjoying coming back to school, but even more, he's wishing he had never left. Apparently three+ years was too long to wait in between Calculus 3 and Calculus 4. Who knew??

With some of my downtime, I've been doing some research so that I can order the different types of flours I need to make the gluten-free commitment...again. Now that I'm starting with a fresh pantry, I should be able to avoid some of the more tempting things. I have eaten gluten-free (99% of the time :) ) since our 2nd or 3rd day out here, and I can certainly tell a difference. I made mom's pizza crust last night with gluten-free flour. It was different from the usual, but not too bad really. I could really go for some good brownies though. As soon as I get some more flour I'll give them a try.

Dixie's New Coat

You can tell that we're settling into daily life when all of our posts end up being about Dixie. My weekend project was making a coat for her. We found this Vera Bradley-like fabric in the clearance section at JoAnn Fabrics, so I got to work. To try it out, we took a walk down the street to Blockbuster. Dixie didn't seem to mind her new outerwear, but Greg was slightly embarrassed to be seen walking a dog in a dress. Oh well...Dixie and I almost matched, so I didn't mind. Below are some pictures before she got it dirty in all the slush.

As promised, we worked hard to get a picture of Dixie and her new friend. They are becoming more familiar with each other with each visit. We managed to get this picture of both of them curled up under Dixie's blanket. The picture may have been staged...and they both look slightly worried....but they'll be best buds in no time I'm sure.

Tomorrow is Greg's big day! He's going back to school....again. He won't admit it, but I think he's pretty excited. My interview on Friday went well, and I should hear something within a week. Saturday evening, we ventured out to watch the WSU basketball game. The Cougars beat Stanford 55-54. The last five minutes were great...the first part not so much. Check back soon to hear about Greg's first week of school.

Dixie's New Friend

We've been in Pullman for one full week now. We have the apartment situated (after purchasing a couch-in-a-box, aka a futon), we've explored campus and the town, and we've even met a few of the neighbors. Best of all...Dixie is on the verge of making a new friend! Ginny (as in Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter) the weiner dog puppy! They met the other night while some new friends came to visit. After the initial butt-sniffing, both seemed satisfied that the other was not a threat. They bonded over Dixie's "senior citizen" food, with Ginny sneaking one kernel of food at a time when Dixie had her back turned. They were on the verge of cuddling up together, but felt that the first meeting might be a little too soon for that. Maybe we can get a picture the next time Ginny visits.

As for the humans...we're doing fine. Still trudging through the slush and rain. Whenever the sun comes out we'll try to get some pictures of the town and campus for everybody.

Snow, Snow & More Snow!

A few months ago when Greg and I were calling about apartments, somebody here in Pullman told us that they received very little snow and had rather dry winters. Surprise! We have a few feet of snow during our first week in Washington. Yesterday was so cold that nothing melted. Today we woke to find a few more inches of snow on the ground, and more falling as this is typed. Below is our new place, we're the unit on the right. Notice how much snow has collected on the bumper of Greg's truck!



Although it's difficult to judge from this picture, my car probably has a foot of snow on top of it. Our parking lot is a few inches of ice, topped with a few inches of snow. Did I mention that we live on the side of a pretty steep hill??

This was our last day of driving, shortly after exiting Interstate 90 at Coeur d'Alene. For quite a ways, we were driving through a complete white-out. We averaged 22.5 mph for 90 miles!!

This is in Idaho. I'm really glad that sign wasn't completely buried...I might have missed the warning to watch for ice! :) Just down the road was a sign for a place to put chains on your vehicle that was almost completely buried.

This is the rest stop we took a break at right near the Montana/Idaho border. Check out the roof! Greg talked with a lady from Alaska who was just out driving around looking at scenery. She assured us that the roads would be better in Idaho. They weren't. As a side note, the mountainous section of Idaho is some of the most beautiful scenery we've ever seen. If we hadn't been pulling trailers, the drive might have actually been enjoyable!

We have everything situated in our new place now...just need some living room furniture. We've been exploring the campus and the town a little each day. The rec center looks great! Once school starts, Greg should be in excellent shape from walking straight up and down the hills in order to get to his classes. We are still relying on libraries for internet, as our laptop seems to be on the blink. Well, that's all for today...we'll keep you up to date! Here's hoping the snow stops soon!

News from Pullman

We finally made it. We're not exactly settled in (does sitting in camping chairs to watch a movie count as settled in??) we are getting there little by little. Our first night in town brought 5-6 inches of new snow on top of the mounds of snow and ice that already existed. Our first full day brought more of the same.

Dixie is adjusting well and has marked every corner within a 500 ft. radius of the apartment. She seems to enjoy having us home all day, and has been getting frequent walks. She even made a trip to McDonalds the other morning for breakfast.

We have some great pictures from our last day of driving that we will try to post tomorrow. We are dependent on the public library for internet right now, so bear with us. As for the last day of driving... it was looooooong. From the time we exited the interstate at Coeur d'Alene, we drove 90 miles in about 3 and a half hours! Ugh. But we made it in one piece.

Our air mattress is back in commission, we've hung a few pictures, and have a respectably filled pantry. Check back in the next day or two for some snowy pictures.