So FINALLY the weekend rolled around and I was feeling better. Still mildly congested and sneezy here and there, but SO much better.

Friday night Louie and I went to what is possibly (at this time) our favorite Mexican restaurant, Lily’s. We had decided to postpone our now traditional Taco Thursday until Friday and met some friends for dinner. I had the shrimp diablo (camerones, which evidently I completely mispronounced while ordering and Louie thought it was very funny) and while the dish was spicy, it was good.

Saturday morning I had volunteer orientation/training at the Clowder House. This is the place with all the cats. Wow. It was totally overwhelming but amazing. There are cats EVERYWHERE in the building. Every possible place where a cat could be, there is a cat, possibly more than one. And it does smell like a lot of cats live there—mostly volunteering seemed to be cleaning up cat messes! I got a tour of the place, met a million cats (the director knew most of them by name, which I found very impressive) and then went to work on a few of the rooms. Litter boxes to scoop, blankets to shake out or replace with clean ones, water to refill, etc, etc. It was hard work but all the cats were adorable (well, mostly) and friendly. I saw a cat that really resembled the good doctor Oistrakh, and another cat who has to wear a cone because of a skin issue (not the same one as Chloe.) Mostly though, there were just cats everywhere. Did I mention that? The cats live there, and mostly seem to have a pretty good time.  I think I’ll be back!

After lunch (fresh eggs from a wonderful student!) Louie and I went to the Highway 44 Conservation area with the two dogs to do some hiking. I didn’t take any pictures for some reason (it actually wasn’t that scenic, which is likely the reason) and we just meandered around. We realized after we set out that we didn’t have a map of the area, so we just kept making a few turns and did eventually end up back where we started. It was a pretty warm day for once! We had a really nice hike, maybe 3-4 miles, and the dogs particularly loved it. Afterwards we went home and did some stuff around the house—laundry and stuff like that. We decided to get dinner out and went to a Vietnamese place we’ve gone a few times called Kim Ngan. Might I recommend the crepes (hold the pork for this one) and we also had tofu with lemongrass which was pretty good.

Sunday we met up with April to go the Thurteen Carnival at Washington University. We walked from her house which was a nice long walk (figured we’d burn up the funnel cake calories in advance.) The carnival was nice—lots of little rides, stands, snacks, etc. There were tons of families there. We decided to ride the Ferris Wheel, but they wouldn’t allow single riders, so we ended up doing it twice—once April and I went, and then after making the circle around the carnival and eating a funnel cake, Louie and I went on the Ferris Wheel. I was a little nervous at first but it was fun and a great view!

The rest of the day we worked more on house stuff and then finished watching the first season of Better Call Saul. It was a wonderful weekend!

Now I’m getting ready for a nice week of teaching. I was feeling a little negative in a previous blog post, and feeling like maybe I was complaining too much about being a teacher. It isn’t exactly where I saw myself, but honestly, most days the time flies by and the students are just so much fun. Sometimes it’s hard, and sometimes it’s a big challenge, and sometimes I just don’t even know what to do, but other times the students get so excited to learn and achieve new things, and it’s just delightful. I’m trying to embrace my life as it is rather than stress over what could be, what might have been, and what SHOULD be, which is certainly the worst one! I have certificates and ribbons to give to a few students this week and I know they will be happy.

I should try to blog more often than once a week! On the one hand I don’t feel like I have much to say, but I have so many fun pictures to share.

We are still dog-sitting—the dogs are ridiculous and huge and adorable.

I got my hair done. I love the color—the gray has been harder to cover than in the past so I decided to get it done properly.

It’s hard to see exactly what’s going on here. That’s Chloe sitting on Louie’s lap but also sort of sitting on Mackenzie’s head. No concept of personal space, that one.

I’m finishing this up while reading blog posts about various National Parks in Utah and listening to three animals snore, at various volumes. Life is pretty good