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.

I know, I know...it's been a long time.

Yesterday was my last day working at the Pavilion. On Friday I head to the Puffin area. I was sad to leave. I like the staff and I'll miss my animals, but I am also excited to learn about a new area of the zoo. We went out to lunch for a little going-away party and I got some really nice presents from them.

I headed home Feb. 12 to help my mom after her eye surgery. There were definate highs and lows of the trip. My mom's surgery went well. Her recovery was a pain because she had to lay face down on a special chair all day. I enjoyed taking care of her that week. I think of all the times she took special care of me, like when I was sick or after oral surgery. It was good to play "mom" for once. I also went to a free Skillet concert at MTU. I've seen them at Cornerstone a few times and liked some songs but never really got into them. Then I heard some of the new stuff on the radio before the concert and then obviously at the concert, and I REALLY liked it. I bought their new c.d. and thoroughly enjoy it. I also got to see some friends that I don't get to see very often. I was able to go out to my dad's farm and go snow shoeing. Then Josh and Amy came out and we had our "Christmas" in February and had a wonderful dinner. Bad part of my trip was my grandpa on my dad's side passed away when I was up there. Unfortunately I didn't get to see him before it happened. I was very glad I was up there for the funeral though. He had a bad heart and we've been expecting it, but that still doesn't make it any easier.

Weather this week has been wonderful. Today it was 70 in the sun. I sat outside at Starbucks and read a book. Sorry for you guys in MN who are expecting a snow storm tonight. :(

We had a "winter storm" last week. All the schools were closed and I chose not to drive to the zoo. I didn't want to chance the icy roads. And how people were talking about the driving that day, I'm glad I didn't go in.

We had a Superbowl party last night. A few people from church came over and we ate a lot and drank a lot of pop. All I have to say is, sorry, mom...da bears didn't pull it off. I was worried after that first play. :)

Next week I am heading home to Hancock for about 6 days. My mom is having eye surgery so I'm going home to help out and to entertain her. I'll have to go out and play in the snow one day when I'm home.

It's cold. I don't like being cold. I've been cold all day. After work I stopped at a gas station to get a cappuccino to warm me up and it was gross.

Things here are going well. The weather has turned winter-like. It snowed yesterday and stayed on the ground for a good part of the morning. I had to work and when I headed out to work, the roads weren't too bad, but they were pretty bad in Asheboro. A truck in front of me slid on ice, turned around 1.5 times and smacked into a gaurd rail. Luckily I was far enough behind him that I didn't get hit in the process. I was the first car to reach him, so I was going to get out and see if he needed help, but then he drove off before I could pull behind him. I guess he didn't need help. The zoo was closed because of the weather so we got out at 3 instead of 5. Work is going good. I was able to catch meerkats and a fox last week at work. We needed to trim nails and frontline the meerkats and we switched our fox grouping around. It went pretty well. It looks as if I'm moving to the puffin area of the zoo. They also have auklets and muirs (all seabirds) and then a falcon. I'm excited for a new experience, but I will miss my area that I'm in now. I'm not sure exactly when I'm moving to the different department.

Tonight Ryan and I went to his school for the drama class' final. They all had one act plays. Wow, the kids have no respect for each other. There was so much talking and moving going on during each play. Anytime someone asked them to be quiet, they would just continue to talk. If they can't even respect their peers, I know for a fact Ryan gets no respect as an authority figure. The plays were pretty bad. The kids didn't project, so you could hear a line here and there. There were 2 good ones.

Tomorrow Ryan, Joy and I are going shopping. Maybe we will find some WEDDING stuff for Joy, since her and Thor are GETTING MARRIED!

Today the weather is sunny with a high of 75. I miss my family, but I don't miss the cold and snow.

Our New Year's Eve was uneventful. I had to work the next day so I ended up falling asleep on the couch around 10:00 and then Ryan woke me up at 11:45. I do hope 2007 is better than 2006. I realize compared to most people, our year hasn't been that bad. We have food, clothing, housing, jobs, etc. However, it just seemed like bad things kept happening, and they were all crammed into one year. I did a lot of crying, held a lot of bitterness, questioned God many time...but through it all I know He is good and things are going to work out. I am so blessed to have Ryan here with me because it would've been MUCH harder without him next to my side. I love you, Ryan.

Yesterday Ryan's family had to put their cat, Lucy, to sleep. Their other cat, Charcoal, was put to sleep last spring. Since I lived with those cats for many months, I grew attached to them very quickly, so the news saddens me. I can't handle any more animal deaths. In 2006, 6 animals I was close to died. And being that my profession is working with animals, I obviously love them, and it's a big deal to me.