Job Search

I am finishing my Ph.D. this summer and consequently I have been hunting for a professor job for the last 2 months or so.  In the last 2 weeks I had an interview at Bloomfield College in NJ and one in Naperville, IL at North Central College.  Here are a few pics from the trip to NJ.  Thankfully Lara and the kids made the trip with me.

Grant was in charge of navigation.

 

The trip went great and we were originally planning to stick around and do some sight-seeing.  However, my next interview was only a few days away and I had to get home to prepare and fly out to Chicago.  I went solo on that trip and absolutely loved the college and the area.  I got an offer and we decided to accept!  I'll be teaching biology, ecology, and botany.  We've got lots to do before we leave in August but are so excited! 

Memorial Day Camping

As is tradition, we spent this past weekend camping on Lara's family's property along the Clarion river.  We had a blast and I am putting in a few pics of the fun.  It was Gracie's first camping trip and she was an angel.  Grant has been asking to go camping and kayaking forever.  He even pretends to put a kayak on his toy trucks when he is playing.  He and I (along with Lara's brother, Jeff, and his son, Ryan) went on a nice float for over an hour down the river.  It was such a fun trip.

 

Here's a cool picture of a spider eating a butterfly!  Crazy!

Kilo

We had to put our poor little kitty to sleep last week.  As we mentioned before, he was in kidney failure.  He was getting too sick to eat and we knew there was no reason to let him suffer.  He was the first pet that Lara and I got together.  He was rescued from a shelter in Lubbock, Texas and made the trip to PA and back several times.  I brought him home with me the summer before my Mom passed away.  Mom said it was so great to have something so happy and full of energy in the house.  He was probably one of the worst cats that you could ever have.  He scratched things and yeowed at the top of his lungs if he couldn't find you (or if we locked him out of the room).  However, he had such a personality that we couldn't help but love him to pieces.  Grant used to say, "when I get older, Kilo will sleep in my room".  Nearly every night that we put Grant to bed Kilo would come up the steps with us.  He was a sweet cat and we miss him.

Happy Birthday Dad!

My Dad's birthday was this past weekend and we had a great visit.  Grant was so excited to see Papa Jim and didn't want to come home.  It was also great that we got to visit with my Aunt Mary.

 
I decided to post a few of my favorite pics from the past month since we haven't posted in so long.  These three are from Easter when Gracie wore her first dress.

This past month we have had Lara's parents dogs, Teddy & Willie.  Grant and Luna both really love having them around.  Here are a few dog pics from the month.

The rest are all random shots of us, mostly enjoying the nice weather we had throughout April.  Grant loves being outdoors and often argues that, "it's not cold outside, we can play out there".  He has been in quite a stage of disagreement lately.  Regardless of the topic, he says the opposite.  He's definitely trying to assert his independence.