Sophie the Schnauzer

Sophie Spike Haugo is my adorable Miniature Schnauzer.  This month, she turns four years old.  I'm kind of obsessed with her.  We love each other very much.  Here are a couple of pictures from this week.  Every time I download pictures from my phone, I realize more than half of them are of my dog.  Whatever.  She's like my kid.  And I'm totally OK with that.

On Wednesday night, I picked up Sophie from mom's house.  She wanted me to pick her up and then wouldn't let me put her down.  This is a pretty typical Sophie hug.

Sophie was quite confused with all the confusion of the video crew on Thursday.  This is Sophie's confused look.

Friday, we both got our hair done.  I'm a little jealous of Sophie.  She also got a mani/pedi (and a sweet bandana!).

And in honor of tomorrow's big day - Mother's Day - I thought I'd share the fortune from one of my lunches this week.  It's very appropriate.

I love you, mom!  Thanks for being awesome!

New Chapters

The month week has been filled with a lot of activity.  Josh was in St. Louis for work because he accepted a promotion.  Mom was in the hospital for a weekend.  I went to Chicago for KBIS.  I had a bunch of photo shoots for work.  My older sister got engaged to a guy she's dated for about three months and is planning a September 4 wedding in Las Vegas.  My 14-year-old sister thinks she should go to Warp Tour this summer.  My dad decided he isn't going to bring his Canadian girlfriend back to America this summer.  And in all the craziness, Josh received a full academic scholarship to attend the University of Iowa Law School starting this fall.  Sorry if I'm on repeat.  It's been a crazy week.  We plan to move Josh into an apartment in Iowa City where he'll spend the next three years earning his JD.  I'm so proud of him!  I have always believed in him and knew something good would come his way; it just took a little longer than Josh originally thought.  Five days after Josh received the good news about his scholarship, he received another job offer.  I guess it's true that things come in threes.

We decided since I have such a great job and we want Josh to focus full-time on law school, that I'll stay living in our townhouse while Josh is in Iowa City.  Michaun said it best when she said it's like Josh is gone full-time for work (say, traveling like her husband used to do) except Josh gets holidays and summers off.  This weekend, Josh and I plan to look at apartments.  We know he wants to live close to campus, and preferably on the West side of the river.  After looking online, we realize there are lots of options, however the good options are pretty few.  We've never looked at apartments before, so this will be a first for us.  Wish us luck.  It's a jungle out there, and from what I know, they don't love Iowa State fans...which is kind of too bad for us.  I wonder if I should take my Iowa State license plate cover off my car for the next three years...

Boyd Law Building at the University of Iowa

Photo Ready

Today I had a photo shoot at my house.  My co-worker had been looking for a dining room, and rather than create a set to get the environment he needed, he asked to use my dining room.  The large sliding doors create lots of great natural light, and he knew I'd be a great homeowner.  The best part - they took down the giant mirror that filled the majority of the back wall in the dining room. 

This is a picture of what the room looked like when we first moved in the fall of 2007.

This is before we installed our new floors in January 2009.

The new floors really updated the room.

I painted the walls from green to blue, and then to blue.

And now, the mirror is finally gone.  No more awkward stares while eating dinner.  No more awkward mirror checks mid-conversation.  Thank God.  I'll post photos once the photo shoot is done (and I have made the room my own).  I can't ruin the surprise of the story!  It will appear in the winter 2013 of the magazine.  You'll just have to wait.

Prop boxes

I had to let out the hem in the curtain panels to lengthen them.

And then I hemmed the panels.

Primping the model and the set.

Wade taking photos of photos.

Some of the photography equipment.