Mr. Allen goes to NY and Back...

Well, we have finally made it...almost. Classes are over, one trip is finished, and now there are only two finals and one more trip for Joe before 'summer vacation'. For Joe, a full load of classes is 12 (or 13) credit hours, so he basically has 3 real classes and 3 hours of research credit. This is nice at finals because he really only has 3 classes to study for. So, one week from now I will be 'free'. It's funny how I have this feeling, even though I'm not the one who's actually sitting in the classes or meetings. Maybe it's because I get calls at random times during the day with Joe saying "honey, what do you think about _____?" and then not taking an "I don't know" for an answer. Whatever it is, it'll be nice to have him only working 20 hours a week for a couple months.

So, in the past two weeks Karen hasdone some really cute things. I don't have pictures of most of them because they all seemed to happen when Joe had the camera in NYC, but there are a couple of cute pics at the bottom. She has also learned how to sit up. Whereas previously if Karen wanted to sit up instead of lay down she would yell and make a fuss until Joe or I did something about it; now however she just sits up on her own. She's also started 'scooting' a little bit, though she still mostly rolls. She's getting really good at following me everywhere I go. One evening I left her with Joe while I went into the little girl's room. Upon exiting, I tripped over Karen who had followed me, preferring to sit by a closed door than to play with daddy. Some kids are just crazy huh?

Joe had a good time in NYC last weekend. He flew in Thursday afternoon/evening and stayed until Sunday night. He got to go to many of those 'cool' places that you see in tv and movies, like Central Park, Radio City Music Hall (where the NFL Draft was going on), and Ground Zero, just to name a few. He wanted to go to a broadway musical, but neglected to reserve tickets several months ago; the shortest waiting list was almost 200 people long. While he was gone Karen and I hung out. I did a lot on my cleaning list, and our apartment is starting to look clean. I think the worst of what I did was clean the blinds from all our windows (okay, so there are only 4 windows, but it felt like way more than that as I cleaned them all). I put 'em in the bathtub to soak, and they left a terrible ring. But now the light comes in the windows so much better! It's great! Also while Joe was gone I read a bunch of Harry Potter. We've preordered #7, and as part of my birthday present Joe says I get to read it first. I'm also excited for the movie of #5 that comes out just before the next book (July 13, just after we get back from Utah). Maybe we'll see the movie for our anniversary. Can any of you believe that it'll be our 4th anniversary this year? It's really gone by fast. Karen turns 1 in 19 more days. She's so cute and active now.

Well, I hope y'all did well on your finals, or at least did them ;) Let me know where you'll be in the summer. We'll be here for most of the time, but we're heading to Utah the first week or so of July, and then to Philadelphia for a few days in August.