On a hot hot day in ...November???

Okay, so enough of this nice warm weather. I can't even justify coming inside to a nice cup of apple cider (which I have been craving the last few weeks). It is just too unseasonablely warm. I still don't believe that it is really the officialy "holiday season". Today it was 78 degrees in Pensacola. I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt and actually broke a sweat while vacuuming my car outside.
Lately, I have been checking the blog daily, as I normally do, hoping that I will find a new blog appear! However, obviously that has not happened in the past few weeks. Then I noticed how long it had been since I had last posted a blog and started feeling a little bit guilty. So here I am posting a blog. We have so much going lately but still I am trying to think of things to write. So I suppose you will just get a laundry list of it all.
As you all know, Derek was in Seattle training for two weeks but now is in Idaho (some days Boise, some days Jerome, most nights Twin Falls) so he is sure putting the miles on. He is starting his field development with an agent in Jerome named Colin. As Derek is not licensed in Idaho yet, they decided that his time would be better spend from Wednesday until the next Sunday in Florida with me. (And also to visit top agents in the Florida panhandle... but partly because I am here :) I am very excited to be able to see him, if only for a short time. On December 2, it is back to Seattle for him to finish up his training for another 3 weeks. I will not see him until we move to Idaho then. But I know that those three weeks are going to FLY by!! Mom and Dad and Julia and Jo are coming in Dec. 11 and then graduation and all that hullabaloo begins. Plus, I am finishing up with finals, work, getting the house ready to be moved, cleaning, holiday baking, etc. so I am keeping myself quite busy :) We are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with Derek's parents (but they don't know he is coming, it will be a surprise!!) I cannot wait. I think Clay is smoking a turkey (Iwanted a fried turkey as no one frys turkeys up north but obviously, I was vetoed :( But I sure am looking forward to mashed potatoes and all the other goodies that Thanksgiving brings.
We have started our house hunt in the Boise area. Derek has been doing most of the hunting and I have been giving my input of tiny thumbnail photos of each home. We are trying our best to find a house that is suitable for now as well as further down the road. Yesterday, Derek found his two dream homes in Kuna, ID. You may be thinking to yourself, where is Kuna, ID?? (which was the first thing that come out of my mouth...) but, it is south of Boise, so basically what Meridian is to the East of Boise but much smaller. Kuna has experience huge growth in the past few years but is still a very small community of about 12,000 people. However, it is in very close proximity to both Meridian and Boise. Because it is a smaller town and south of Boise, the commute into Boise will be much easier than driving from Meridian or Nampa (which is where we originally began looking). If you are interested in viewing these houses that we like the MLS numbers are #98321375 and #98332882 . The first number is our favorite but the second one is about 3 miles closer to Boise. We are not sure about anything yet but feel free to insert any input you may have.
Today, Dutch was a very lucky dog because he got to go for a ride with his momma. At first we were just going to drop off some recycling (which is like a 5 minute drive round trip) but on the way, I decided to go to the car wash and wash my car. So off we went to the new car wash that has really neato looking vacuum cleaners. The car wash itself was mediocre but it sure got Dutch excited!!! He had no idea what was going on and the black scrubbers just kept coming and squirting soap at him. Luckily, the windows were rolled up tightly and Mom protected him. After the car wash, I decided to test out the vacuums which were VERY SUCKY!!! I mean literally. I do not think that my carpets in my car have ever been that clean and it sucked up dog hair like no other!! Normally I have to follow behind with a lint roller to get everything. While vacuuming though, I realized that Dutch was in the car and was probably going to shed on the drive back (because it is still SOOOO hot here - he'll have another thing coming when he gets to Idaho and is bald...) so I decided that I would try to vacuum his coat to prevent shedding. I think that I got the vacuum a little too close to his face and he jumped out of the car and proceeded to run all over the parking lot of this car wash which happens to be on the busy road in Pensacola at about, 5:15 PM. I thought for sure he was done for. Luckily, we had instilled very good behavior in our dog (ahem) and when I said, Dutch, let's go for a ride, he came right on back and jumped in the car (as long as the vacuum cleaner stayed far away from his face - one can never be too careful with beautiful jowls such as Dutch's). Anyway, long story short, my car is clean and my dog is safe. So all in all, things are pretty good down here in Pensacola. Even with the heat. I have many things to be thankful for and I am thankful for each one of you!! I cannot wait to have everyone together at Christmas time. It is sure to be a memorable Christmas season:)
Love to all!
sharon