Hiking, Sadness, and Now

Much has happened since the last post.
- Last week, Shannon, Michael and I went hiking near Julian, Ca. Michael really loved it. It was his first taste of the great outdoors and he slept through most of it! I guess he feels at home in the wild?

- After 1 1/2 years, our first pet, Red Baron, our beta fish, has passed away. About a month ago, he began to have difficulty eating his food. He just couldn't seem to get it in his mouth. Gradually, he began to swim vertically and spent most of his time near the top. His bowl also became dirty a lot quicker. So... on Monday, we found him dead. He is now buried in our garden next to the alley. Rest in Peace RB.

- I began school last week. Tonight was my second "week" of class; I say "week" because we only meet once a week. It's pretty nice. It works well with my 3-day work week... hehe. My current classes are Advanced Pathophysiology and Advanced Health Assessment; both of these classes on a completely higher plane of learning from my previous classes. They're actually teaching us to diagnose patients and to begin to think of how to "work-up" the patient; this means employing diagnostic tests to see what's wrong with the patient so you can treat them. It's a bit overwhelming to say the least. So far I've actually read my assignments... we'll see how long that lasts.

- On Monday, Shannon began taking care of a girl 3 days older than Michael. She's super cute and has a completely different personality than Michael. Michael is loud, cries for everything and likes to fight us when going to sleep. This young girl is only loud when she's really sad, whines most of the time instead of crying and actually fell asleep when she was upset! Her cry is so pathetic that it's cute. Since the child isn't ours there will be no posted photos of her, sorry. But don't worry, here's a picture of Michael; he was ready for her.

- Currently, Shannon is sleeping; she's tired obviously. 2 infants will wear down anybody, especially when they're healthy. I'm about to go to bed; I have work for the next 2 days. Yah! Something to take my mind off school, sort of... I need to interview a sick person for my assessment class. Sigh... ~Mike