Week of Walks and Work and Whatnot

It's been cold here this week.  Cold, but dry, which is a change for us here in the Pacific Northwest.  It's better than rain in my opinion, at least for a change.  Davan and I were both hoping for snow, but, other than the flurries I shared with you, it's been a bust for snow.  It's supposed to get warmer, but also wetter starting tomorrow.  Actually, as I look outside now, I see clouds gathering, which wasn't the case when we were out walking this morning.

We've been walking a lot, but not necessarily walks from the book.  I like walks from books, as we often discover new things about our town, but I also really like walking in our neighborhood and not driving anywhere.  My various foot injuries are either improving or maintaining, so I'm trying not to be shy about actually using my foot for mundane things like walking.  And standing.

We started out to do a walk from the book on Saturday evening, but ended up doing a different walk. 

 Still, it was a lovely evening out and we had a glowing dog, so all was well.

On Sunday, we did do two walks from our walk book.  Both were out toward Gresham.  One of them was in an area we've never spent time, even though we lived in Gresham for many years.  It went through an urban wilderness area that was nice, then through a neighborhood that wasn't so nice.

The second one was only a mile right in downtown Gresham, which we are well familiar with.  I suggested we invite my MIL to join us then go out to dinner after, as she lives in Gresham.  She was up for it.

We see her a lot less now that I'm working.  She used to come over for dinner every other week, but doesn't like to be out late, which makes dinner after I get off work not good timing for her.  We haven't figured out a good substitute yet.  This worked well for Sunday, though.

And we got to eat at one of our favorite Gresham haunts - the Szechuan Open Kitchen.

Ranger had to brace herself from falling off the seat on the way home.

Davan has had some ongoing scholarship application things to deal with.  I got a call Tuesday evening from a representative for the German exchange program people wanting to schedule an interview with Davan.  We scheduled for the very next morning, which totally freaked Davan out.  After she got home from Zig Zags, we looked up interview questions and did some practicing.  We looked up college interview questions, which seemed like the most applicable.  She did great with them right off the cuff, but was able to do some polishing.  Still, she was quite nervous.

Wednesday morning I made her take Ranger for her morning walk alone (I was feeling my ankle that morning and decided on a bike ride for myself instead), which turned out to be a good, calming thing for her to do.  We drove there and it was, well, really informal.  All the preparation and worry was really for naught.  I tried to give Davan and the rep some time to talk without me, but the rep kind of drew me in and we just pretty much sat around and talked.  I guess we'll see.  If nothing else, it was a good introduction to interviews.  Some preparation was done, but it was also very non-threatening.

We celebrated the successful interview with lunch at Noodles and Co, as we were near one. 

Also on the scholarship front, Davan got an email on Thursday saying that one of her recommendations was missing for the scholarship that is her top choice.  She was nervous about going to the person who was recommending her and asking him about it, but she did, he was great about it and they both tackled the issue.  He had already submitted it, but not only re-submitted it, but called to talk to them, which Davan did as well.  However, they were closed on Friday causing them both to just leave messages, so Davan spent the weekend worrying about it, as that was also the deadline for the application.  Yikes!

We started a puzzle and finished it.

I served Davan breakfast in bed and with a nod to nostalgia, made her a teenage version of the toddler trays, then kid trays I used to make her.

Davan is reading The Year of Living Dangerously by Quinn Cummings, which we both read, enjoyed and laughed out loud with.  While it's not necessarily my favorite book on homeschooling (I have a soft spot for The Teenage Liberation Handbook, for instance), I do recommend it.

There are some changes at work I'm not loving, but I'm trying to give it time to see if I come around.  Still, that made the fact that Anthony had a four day weekend while I not only did not, but had a day camp (not my favorite work related duty) to do on Monday kind of difficult. 

Davan's trip is coming up soon.  As she updates each day, right now, she only has one Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday and Monday here before leaving.  I'm excited for her, but trying not to think too much about her being gone so long.  Anthony and I are queuing up movies we want to see that she wouldn't like.  Other than that, we've promised to just sit around and stare at each other, doing nothing fun and only talking about mundane things while she's gone.  LOL