Casey "wows" the crowd

Casey and Jason came in second for dog+human entries at the Rocky Mountain Lab Rescue's 5k race this weekend. We were a bit worried about how Casey would respond to all the dogs and people around at this fund-raising event for the rescue society we work for but were more than pleasantly surprised (as were the other's who had seen him before) with his behavior! He even got a sporting new neon-orange vest to wear when we go out running or walking that says "Adopt Me" on it in hopes that someone will want him in the next 1.5 weeks before we leave. We're hoping, since he already has separation anxiety issues, that he won't have to go to yet another foster home - I can't imagine how he would handle more transitions.

This last weekend was the second weekend at our house with no Internet service and we could definitely get into it! We ended up reading books, throwing a football around, going on long bike-rides and dog walks, going to church and the race event, watching basketball and movies, and just in general kicking back and really enjoying the enforced by lack of Internet-service break from work.

This afternoon we're enjoying our favorite glass-study room at the local library, but this morning we spent at home with Jason working away on Chile background research and I on getting my course ready for this summer. Pray for the right TA for my course - someone I can work with well and will also be a big help to the many details that will need to be handled and who can learn in the process as well. Also, Jason would really like to get the Chile background research done before heading to UND as time will be hard to come by once we arrive.

And something we're really excited about: We'd been wondering what to do with our house and after a challenging sermon given at church a few weeks ago about using the talents God's entrusted to you, we decided to ask there if someone needed a house to stay in (could house-sit for us while we're away). It ended up that Jason got immediately routed to the Missions pastor and he immediately had a name on his lips, a phone number in hand, and the person was a former missionary currently working in Longmont! So we called her and over the past few weeks have met and talked. It seems like the perfect match and she'll move in next week to our upstairs, we'll move our stuff downstairs (so we can come and go as needed in the next half year), and she'll have a place to stay while she's in in-betweens and we'll have someone to stay in our house while we're out-betweens ;). We're really thankful and feel good about it so hope that it proves to be as good as it currently looks.

Another fun thing that's happening is that two of our partners in Paraguay will be at UND-SIL this summer. Ivo, our deaf friend, will be helping in a course that teaches people how to learn and analyze language that isn't written down, and Mirta, our primary hearing guide while in Paraguay and the leader of the team we went down to do research with, will be taking courses. We're excited to see them again - not just for a brief time but for 2 whole months! What unexpected fun!