You will be greatly missed, Masha Bear.

My stress level right now is probably at an all time high. Yesterday our seal died. A co-worker and I found him about the same time. We only had him for a month and a half. It was amazing to see him progress in his training. Since he was a wild animal, he would first snap at us when eating. Eventually he learned how to take fish from us nice and calmly. We also trained him to target, which is basically touching a buoy on the end of a stick with his nose. He was doing so well with it. I remember one of the last times I fed him and I was thinking how cool it was to see how this wild animal is learning and beginning to form a relationship with me. You will be greatly misses, Jersey boy. We also have another pretty sick animal in my dept. along with issues with almost every animal we have. Not only is work stressful, but we are having major issues with the house we want to buy. Well, not the house itself but the company. And to top it off, this stress is causing some physical issues to me, which is causing me more stress. Will it ever end? I ask that question, but I know it will. Just please pray for me so I don't have a mental breakdown.

This is the house we are looking to buy. The only difference is we wouldn't get the brick accent on the front and we would get a country porch, which extends infront of the front window.

This is the floorplan of the house we are hopefully going to buy. It is in the works.

Update time...two weeks ago Ryan and I headed to Michigan. We stayed with Tech friends, Phil and Sandy, for two nights. We ate good food, played boccie ball, played cards, and played a lot of Nintendo Wii. Good times. On Friday we headed to the hotel in Auburn Hills for Joy and Thor's wedding. Friday night I hung out with the girls in Joy's hotel room. I got to see a lot of dear friends from CMU that I haven't seen for a long time. Ryan hung out with Thor and saw a band. Saturday was Joy and Thor's big day. She was beautiful of course. The wedding was flawless. The reception had good food and good company. We will be heading back to Michigan in a few weeks for Allyn and Paul's wedding. :)

It is Memorial Day weekend. The weather is wonderful. High 80's. Ryan and I have been spending some time at the pool. We also saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I love the south...I get to go swimming in May!

I know it's been a long time. Work is going great. I love my new job! I'm learning stuff everyday. I will start doing behaviors with the bears tomorrow, but have already learned to feed them, service their exhibit, etc. I just learned the routine for foxes last week. I am learning behaviors for the female sea lion as I go. I know most of them now. She's a lot of fun to work. And...we got a new harp seal last week! He was a rescue animal from New Jersey that couldn't be released in the wild. I got to work with him yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The four of us at work take turns. We work him about 3 days in a row, four sessions a day. Since he was a wild animal, everything is from scratch. Even hand feeding him took him a bit to get used to. We are training some basic behaviors, such as following us, going in the pool on command, and using a target pole. He follows us like a shadow when we are in his area. He loves his fish!

This weekend we are heading to Michigan for Joy and Thor's wedding! I am excited that I was able to rearrange my schedule so I could go. Ryan and I are driving up Thursday and will return home on Sunday. I'm also very excited because I get to see dear college friends that I haven't seen in over 2 years! Hooray for weddings!

This is Willie...he's always playing.

These are the sea lions I am working with.

This is one of the 3 arctic foxes I am working with.

These are the polar bears I am working with: Willie and Masha

Great news! I got a permanent, full-time job at the zoo. I will now be a Zookeeper 1 at Rocky Coast Mammals, working with Sea Lions, Polar Bears, and Arctic Foxes. I am SO excited about it. I start there on Monday. I will be back and forth between there and Puffin for this month, since Puffin still needs my help. It's amazing how God works because a few months ago I was very upset because I couldn't even interview for the position at the Pavilion because I didn't have enough bird and reptile experience. If I could have interview, I probably had a good chance at getting the job since I was already working there. However, I couldn't even interview, meaning I couldn't even be considered for the position. Then at the beginning of March a position at Rocky Coast opened so I applied and it was offered to me on Wednesday. God is good. And it's not just that it's a permanent job, but it is a permanent job in the department of the zoo that was my first choice. I'm very excited. I know I said that already, but I am. I've been waiting a long time for a permanent position. I am proud of myself. I worked hard for this.

You know when you are sleeping and you wake up and say something that makes no sense at all? It's not that you are talking in your sleep...you are awake, but just really out of it? Well, last night I apparently thought I knew what I was talking about when Ryan came to bed and I said to him "How many Puffin packages did we get? I swear I'm making sense." Then I paused a bit and thought about what I asked and added. "Nevermind. I'm not making sense." And rolled over and went back to sleep. What the crap is a Puffin package?

On Friday night Ryan, Joy, Thor and I went to the FREE Chris Daughtry concert in downtown Greensboro. It was insane. There was about 23,000 people there. It was great to see him. He's my favorite American Idol contestant. He's from here so he did a free concert. His new video "home" was filmed during the concert. It was fun except for the fact that I was standing in a tiny 1 ft by 1 ft square for about 4 hours and had a smoker right infront of us that had to light one up every 15 minutes.

I love spring! Today at work we played volleyball at lunch. It was gorgeous, sunny, and hot. After work Ryan and I picked up some food and went to a nearby park and ate dinner, then took a walk around the walking/bike path. I don't know what the temp was during the day, but at 6:30 this evening, it was 76 degrees.

Today is a big day. Today is the first day I get to wear capris and flip flops. :)

With my new schedule at work, I end up with a 4 day weekend once a month. I lucked out and my first weekend was my 4 day. Since Ryan and I actually have a whole weekend off together, we are heading down to Charlotte today. We are going to go shopping, see the production of "Holes" at the Children's Theatre, and possibly go to Discovery Place, which is an interactive museum there. We are spending the night, so we'll come back tomorrow afternoon sometime. It'll be a nice little getaway.

Peregrin Falcon

These are murres.

These are Puffins

This is an auklet.

I have started my new position at Rocky Coast Birds. I am working with a Peregrin Falcon, Horned Puffins, Parakeet Auklets and Thick-billed Murres. I completed my 4th day today and it has been going good. I'm already trained and on my own. There's not a whole lot to it. What I need to get better at is the animal observations. With approx. 80 birds in an exhibit, it'll take awhile to learn what is normal and abnormal behavior. They have colored bands to tell them apart. The birds are very personable. Some even eat right out of your hand. I'm still waiting to get pooped on.