BLU (enough said)

I LOVE MY PUPPY! Like OBSESSED! You know it's bad when you want to go buy dog treats more than clothes! For anyone who knows ME, there is something wrong with that sentence coming from my mouth, but its SO TRUE! He is the cutest thing ever!!!!!!

Pablo and I bought him from an Adopt-a-thon where aside from all the shelters and pounds, there was this private company where this woman fostered puppies. Blu is a Blue Lacy, a very rare breed, mix of an English Shepherd,  greyhound, and WOLF, explain that! It is the state dog of Texas, bred to hunt wild boar (not something our sweet, little Blu will be doing). SO... we tried to figure out a witty, unique dog name and he had blue eyes (which is very rare for the breed) and he is a BLUE Lacy, so we thought BLU was so clever! Hahahah.. not! We actually just tried calling him a million names and Blu was the only on that he ever really responded to, so Blu it was. And I got a tad bit creative with the spelling right? A little credit?

Well, without further ado, here is the BEST DOG there ever was....... Blu.

The First day he came home

Christmas Morning

We got him a new reindeer toy, he LOVED it

And killed it... then took a nap

Up and onto a steak bone (organic of course) haha

Yum

Onto another reindeer since he killed Prancer

Another nap with Mama

New Years Eve

Blu and Pab

So cute

Same picture, I just had fun editing

I own a House!!! That makes me an adult, right?

So in late September, Pablo and I bought our first house! Yes, BOUGHT! What a job, trying to find exactly what we want and then house-shopping, but it was all pretty fun! Pablo happens to have a great friend (Jason) who has been a realtor in ABQ for a long time, so that was a major help. He took us all around showing us TONS of places. We were semi-distraught after looking at about 30 homes, but Jason repeated over and over again that when we saw it we would KNOW. And we DID! This is our new built in 2005, two bedroom, two bathroom house! Best part is the backyard! I love it…

Here you go Jamma!!! Sorry for the LONGEST delay!

Cricket Hill, our corner lot!

SOLD! Woooo

Before we moved in. (That's the previous owners car)

Our living room

Our dining area (its a BIG great room)

my thanksgiving centerpiece

Our meal!

Our cute kitchen

Pabs and my bedroom

Decor in our bedroom, can you tell I love candles?!

(I need pics of master bath and guest bedroom- to come later)

Guest bathroom (not the best picture) Its a lilac purple color with all black accents and AMAZING artwork :)

On to the back yard!

Our awesome gazebo with bamboo shutters!

Our swing! We love to come out and drink morning coffee!

Second trellis that is outside of master bedroom. It gets the huge white flowers, so gorgeous

Pathway along side of house to garage

Well that's pretty much it! The guest bedroom is about the same size as the master and its bright brick red! We have a lot of color in the house, which I like! And I love that it is so open, so I can cook and still be talking to someone in the living room. It's a great entertainment house, which Pab and I love to do. We have done quite a few improvements already, new stove, dishwasher and microwave. Pablo has installed more up-to-date things, like motion lights in the bathrooms, laundry room and garage. A new faucet, accent lighting, dimmer lights. Its great! Hope you enjoyed!!!

On our way to church now, have a great Sunday!!!!! xoxoxo

Where I Work...

Happy Sunday morning!!! I just made a big cup of coffee and thought I would continue my blogging. Sorry it has been a few days, I took my first two sick days last week L no fun. So…

Starting in August, I began working for the Veterans Administration as a Neuropsychological Technician in a research lab. I am involved in numerous federal government studies, focused on various things from PTSD to stroke survivors. My primary responsibilities are testing patients (doing all sorts of neuropsychological tests, language, memory, spatial, movement, and psychomotor skills). I spend most of my time testing, scoring and analyzing the results and interpreting what they mean for that individual. I have now been partaking in more data analysis tasks and was asked to be a co-author for papers to be published in a Neuropsychology Journal! I am so excited!! I really like my job so far, a lot of paperwork sometimes, but I really feel like I am helping people and contributing to a greater good being involved in Research. Before I give you the pics, I just want to share a bit of history. So, I work in  the Mental Health building aka Building 1. It was the first building of the original VA hospital, so it is realllly old! Also, there are porches built all around the building because it was during the time of the TB breakouts and they had all of the patients sleep outside. So I have my own little porch off of my office. Kind of weird to think about that I work everyday in a TB patient room! Here are some pictures...

My Office

 My Desk!

Views from my office

 An apparatus I hook patients up to for our movement testing. Its like a big video game!

Do not disturb! Haha

The new hospital building

Where I Live...

So, I thought since Albuquerque is quite a bit different from Firenze, and no one has really been to Albuquerque (except Caroline!) I would put up some pics so you guys can see where the heck I am!!


Albuquerque (ABQ) is ridiculously spread out, so it is split into different sections of town (North Valley, NE Heights, West Side, etc.) We live in the North East part. It literally takes 45 minutes to drive from one side of Albuquerque to the other, and we happen to be very well located, more in the center. The mountains are to the East and the volcanoes to the West... The mountains here are called the Sandias, which means "watermelon" in spanish. In one of my pictures you can clearly see why, the sunsets here are so beautiful. Here are some pictures of the whole city...

Beautiful huh?

Wow, hello old Blog!!!

It has been THREE years since I have updated this blog, can you believe it?!?! Looking back at my Italia adventures almost made me cry! The best times of my life were there! But... life goes on right? And I have new adventures to share with everyone! I thought it was about time to update my family and friends away from me, because NO ONE lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with me! haha
So... basically, since 2007 (short version), I went back to Lake Forest College and finished up school a semester early graduating in December of 2008. I then moved to ABQ and got my first apartment with Pablo! This was said to be the WORST year to graduate college and I was definitely feeling the repercussions of the bad economy. No job = no money. I was having a really hard time being on my own. Having a long distance relationship with the love of my life for two years was awful, so I picked up and moved to Albuquerque first chance I got, and didn’t really think things through beforehand.
During the summer, I moved back to Chicago with my family there and spent the summer living off the rents! Haha, just kidding (not really)! It was a great summer spent with the family, weekends at our lake house, sleepovers in my room with my little sisters, late night talks, etc. I soaked up a lot and began job searching again and found a job in Albuquerque at the Veterans Administration doing neuropsychological research.
Now… I am back in Albuquerque with Pab; we have since bought our first house (September 2009) and a Christmas puppy about two weeks ago! I will repost these important events with pictures in the posts to come.  Well, that was three years in a nut shell, but I am happy to be back and am COMMITTED to updating this blog more frequently. Let’s call it another New Years Resolution! Happy New Year 2010!!!!!!!!!