August 2007 part 2

There have been a few changes to the Dailey family since the last update, so I thought I would take minute to update the blog. I've been hemming and hawing about going back to school to get my MBA. My VP recommended UM (which is where I spent a year of college back in 91/92). So I got in touch with them to see what I would need to do as far as pre-reqs as my BA in English didn't require many business-type courses. Part of my hemming was me procrastinating because I didn't want to take Calculus. Well, for UM, I don't have to, but there are 5 pre-req courses that I have to take. Of course, I put it off and put it off. Because of that, I thought I'd just start Spring semester -- all the courses are internet based, so I didn't think there would be much of a problem. After talking to my contacts at UM, I found out that doing that would push back a possible start in the MBA program by over a year. So I bit the bullet and submitted my application for non-degree seeking status!! I'm 5 days past the registration deadline, but there is room in the class (internet based) and I shouldn't be too far behind by the time I'm able to register and get my books. Rocky starts class September 6. And we will once again be attending rival schools!!

Our other big news is we are starting the hunt for our "real" house. Our goal/hope is to be in our "real" house by Christmas. We want to find something newer and depending on what we see tomorrow, we may build. There is a lot of new construction around here and some nice neighborhoods. We both have fairly specific wants for our house and sometimes it just seems that building to get exactly what we want might be the way to go. Our top desire is for this to be our "forever home" and not have to build again unless we decide to relocate.

August 2007

July turned into a busy month! Rocky is now gainfully employed by the Billings Gazette, the local paper as an on-line reporter. If you go to the above link and look under Multi-media, you can see some of his work. The timing was great. The week before, we got Maggie into day care at the YWCA. She is in a smaller class than the one in VA and seems to like it, though there are many more tears than before! Hopefully as she gets used to it, the tears will subside (for Rocky's sake). Rocky drops her off and I pick her up. He gets the hard part as I have to be to work by 7 and day care doesn't open until 7:30.

Grandma Alana drove out for a visit at the end of the month. She stayed over her birthday and mine. Maggie even stayed home with her 2 days while she was here. They had fun coloring, watching Maggie's shows and reading stories. I think Grandma was a little tired out after running after Maggie for 2 days. We also went to Zoo Montana. The Billings Clinic had a company picnic there. Maggie got to see lots of animals (and even got pecked by a chicken) and had her very first sno-cone -- her 2nd sno-cone she decided to wear, at which point we decided it was time to go home. Maggie seems to have shot up a bit in the past few weeks. We have had to do some clothes shopping for her. She is singing along with her shows and Grandma! Grandma got her to sing "Jesus Loves the Little Children." But when I asked her, she claimed she didn't know it. She surprised her day care providers by singing the ABCs to them. She is really starting to recognize her letters and numbers and is getting better at counting, though she loves to count to 3, regardless of how many items are there. "No!" is creeping it's way into her vocabulary more and more. Sometimes, you can tell she is trying to be funny.

We visited Great-Grandma Hansen this weekend. Maggie thought this would be a good time to show us she's ready to stop the afternoon naps (she's not!) We had lots of great food and Maggie loved visiting the horses that live near Grandma and going (out) "side!" It was Rocky's furthest trip west in Montana and his first time meeting Grandma. We got to see old pictures and some new pictures of all the cousins. We also heard a lot of great stories, which I need to write down so Maggie can hear them again someday. The drive along I-90 was beautiful. I keep expecting the mountains here to be like the mountains in Colorado. But there are so many ranges here with lots of prairie and farm land between. It is a stunning tribute to God's creation.