Weaving the golden thread: busy as a bee

I finally have a little bit of a break! Time to eat these yummy Rainier cherries that my wonderful husband picked up for me at the grocery store because I couldn't tear myself away from my books and notes. Time to watch those dark monsoon clouds roll in over the mountains, bringing thunder, lightning, and the promise of rain. Just a few days to savor, to do my own thing and maybe even bake a little! Perhaps I should even work on those knitting projects that I've promised! Come Monday, I go to the hospital to start my clinicals and I couldn't be more excited! For now, I'm quite content with the view out my window, laptop on my lap. Because I'm such a horrible writer, here are the changed we've experienced this past month in bullet form:

Losing Sammy. It's been a huge adjustment getting used to living without a demanding, needy pup.
Nursing school. It's been a time-consuming, not to mention, life-consuming change. Poor Jon is on his own for the most part on the weekends. I also have not chopped a single onion, used the garlic press, or turned on the oven since the second week of school.
We moved! We are new homeowners of a Southwest style house. We've been wanting a house of this style since we moved to Arizona. You can't have a house like this back home in Washington (especially for the price we got it for)!
We took in another dog. I really wasn't happy about this and felt really pressured to agree with it. But over crying many tears of frustration I decided to agree to it, since it would be helping out my father-in-law. Jon's parents moved to Malaysia at the beginning of this month and couldn't take the dogs. The airline wanted $6000 for one dog! I'm still not crazy about the dog, but I've warmed up a little to him. I just feel like it's WAY to soon after Sammy died. Right now I feel like I can't love another dog the way I love Sammy. This dog is also SOOO different from him. Here's the mutt, Dakota: