Winston Fischer 3rd

Winston Fischer 3rd! My first dog! I never had a pet in my life before and was actually a little bit scared of dogs as I never had any experience with them. Tiffany really wanted to have a dog and we finally got Winston this summer after talking about it a lot and Tiffy spending hours (maybe days ;) ) searching for a great dog for us. A mid size female dog was the goal and we found a big size male dog. A mix of Newfoundland and Labrador. We love him! He is a mellow dog and fun to hang out and surprises us with some barks every other day confirming that he has a bark indeed. He is very pretty with nice white spots in different parts of his body which makes him look even more friendlier and pretty. We got him when he was 45 pound and six month old and now he is 10 month and 75 pounds. We think that he will probably be around 90 pound when he is fully grown. We already went to Doggy school with him to teach him the basic. We still continue (trying at least) to train him at home with the method of positive training from the Doggy school. As he is still a puppy he loves to chew on people (luckily not on furniture) to show them how much he likes them. At the beginning he is very shy with everyone but if you leave him alone and bribe him with treats he warms up to new people. Once he starts chewing on people we know he likes them. One of the coolest thing is to come home on and have Winston wait by the door (he knows the sound of our car and comes to the door once he hears it) and being so excited to see us and have a big smile on his face. That definitely makes Home even more homier! It is def. not easy to have a dog and to take care of him but it is def. worth any effort. Besides going on long walks and playing fetch Winston loves to dance. He is def. a very fun dog even in times when he is licking your leg and the only thought you have is yuck. But that is his way of showing that he loves me ;).

A simply wonderful simple day...

Yesterday Lukas and I decided to go to the Newark reservoir to go jogging/walking around sundown. It is such a beautiful peaceful place to go for a walk, especially as the sun is setting. As much as I love Glasgow park, not having the noise of the cars on the road makes such a difference! It will be especially nice when Lukas and I move right next to the reservoir and can go walking/jogging there everyday, especially when we get an energetic dog that is going to need the exercise! :) It was nice to get a 6.2 mile work out in... but even better that for around 4 of those miles I got to walk and talk with Lukas and just enjoy the fresh air and peaceful setting with him. That to me is good quality time... just being able to unwind together, enjoy nature, and chat about our days.

Before we went on our walk I tried my hand at a 5 ingredient recipe I had borrowed in a magazine from my mom. Im pretty skeptical about cooking because I hate wasting ingredients and having things not turn out in the end but I figured I could spare 5 ingredients and give it a try. Suprisingly it turned out super yummy! It was a chicken and tortelli dish with peas and a yummy cream cheese with onion sauce. Sounds pretty impressive to me, since I cant cook at all, but it was super easy. The best part is I could leave the peas and chicken out of half of it, add mushrooms for myself, and both of us had a great meal we liked!

After my cooking experiment and our lovely walk, we watched Pink Panther 2 together. It was pretty funny... not as good as the first one but good for a sequel none-the-less. Such a wonderful and relaxing evening at home with my hubby... definitely a needed respite from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Ok my daily life is pretty easy and boring... but with school/work/life in general it seems like Lukas and I just dont have enough quality time together other than dinner and random tv watching before bed so I was excited for our "home date" :) Its the little things that make this life sweet and yesterday definitely did that and more.

Cold lonely summer....

Ok apparently summer doesn't officially start until Father's Day but it had better warm up then on Sunday because Im so sick of being cold! Im free from classes and I still just stay inside and read all day because 1. Everyone moved away so I have no one to play with, and 2. Its so darn cold and rainy here there is no chance to play outside. Bah...

I guess that is what Im SUPPOSED to be doing this summer anyway, reading a ton of books and preparing for my comprehensive exams, but some entertainment or escape from my apartment atleast would be nice. ~sigh~

Im starting to realize just how much I miss having close friends around. I have several new "friends" from church and other places who are great to spend time with once in a while, but even they are mostly moving away or are busy with their own families and kids. Its hard to get to know people, especially when you either are married and they are not, or you are not part of the "mommy club" and they are. Now that Im not only busy with graduate school but also kind of in between both groups of people Im around, it is really hard to form stronger bonds with them and that makes me sad.
Life was much easier as an undergrad... more time to play and more people to play with.
And those people who I do have such strong bonds with I only get to see once a year, if Im even lucky enough to see them that often.

I was however fortunate in the past week or so to be able to spend a lot of time with my friend Judith before she moved to NYC since we were both free from grad school stress and that was fantastic. We went to Newark night, which was.... interesting to say the least. Had a few dinner and game nights, went to the gym, mostly random stuff but it was nice getting to know her a lot better. I really wish I would have had more time to spend with her during the school year because she is an awesome girl and a great friend and Im really going to miss her. Fortunately she is only 2.5 hours away right now and I will go visit her next month before she moves back to Germany :)

So yea, as Im obviously very blue and lonely right now, Im looking forward even more to our trip to Indiana over the 4th of July weekend. We are going to stop on the way in Ohio for a day to visit one of my best friends, Carla, and that is going to be so awesome. Wish I had more time with her but I will take what I can get! Then I get to see my friend of 10+ years, Becky, in Plymouth and my family so that is going to be great as well. I never thought I would be so excited to go back to the Midwest but I guess seeing the people I love there makes it a very exciting place to visit.

Other than my complaints, things are pretty calm (read: BORING) but good around here. Lukas just finished his second MBA class and now has a break for the summer for which Im sure he is VERY grateful. School isnt his favorite thing and Im really proud of him for going back and getting his MBA and doing such a good job at it. Its hard enough for me to focus completely on school, not sure I could do that AND work full-time. Definitely grateful for his sacrifice and effort, but so glad the poor kid gets a break to play during the summer too!

Now that Im done rambling/complaining, I suppose I should get back to reading. There is a nice stack of German books waiting to be read and studied and unfortunately they won't read themselves.

Here's hoping for sunnier days and looking forward to visiting friends soon and friends coming back to visit Delaware too!

There is sunshine in my soul today... and outside!

This weekend's weather is AMAZING! It was 88 yesterday, is 90 right now... but unfortunately Im stuck at home with a really bad headcold, ack! Thank goodness for Dayquil but there really is only so much it can do!

Fortunately Lukas and I were able to get over to Glasgow park and go for a nice 2.5 mile walk in the sunshine together and then enjoyed the sunny weather by doing errands and couch shopping, definitely a great relaxing Saturday. The first one in a LONG time where we havent had to do any homework, woo hoo!

Some good news other than the sunshine... Lukas and I for sure have a new apartment, woo hoo! I was getting really worried because the deadline was getting pretty close but fortunately we have a 1 bedroom + den apartment to move into at the end of July right before we go to Germany. Joy of joys, no more living in a tiny shoebox!! So excited that we will finally have more room to have people over, enjoy being at home, and even have a small spare bedroom in the den for when people come to visit, SUCH a nice upgrade even if it is still small by normal people's standards. AND that means I DEFINITELY get a dog August 15th which is SUPER awesome in my book :) Lukas is still warming up to the idea but he already said yes and wont back out now because he loves me... so hopefully eventually he will love our dog too :)

Another thing that made me happy this week... I got observed by my teaching coodinator 2 weeks ago, who Im super intimidated by. I had a talk with her this week about how that went and she said I was a great teacher, had a list of things that I did well in the classroom and her only comments for improvement were actually helpful and didnt make me self-concious and cry so I was super excited! AND I won a book award for my achievments in the classroom through the German club or something like that, so that is pretty cool too. Definitely awesome for my first semester teaching, espec. for someone who feels like passing out when speaking in front of a crowd! Definitely owe half of the success to my awesome students who did a great job paying attention and participating that day and who make my job A LOT easier by being such great students.

So there is my sunshine report for the day... in spite of being sick there is sunshine outside and sunshine in my soul... cant get much better than that :) (other than being healthy I suppose haha but hey, we cant have it all!)

Wonder of wonders, miracles of miracles!!

Im so scared that something REALLY bad is going to happen because I have had 2 awesome miracles happen in the past week which is so overwhelming but seriously is making me look for the plague of locusts to strike next.

Perhaps this isnt that big of a deal to most of you, but the first miracle was one I definitely did not see coming! I have been bugging Lukas for months now about getting a dog... actually since we started dating and talking about maybe getting married I started bugging him about how I WILL have a dog as part of my family. We are moving into a different apartment in August and they allow pets and I was sooooooooo excited because by then it will have been about 4 years since I have had a pet living with me (other than my moms cats) and if you know me that well its a REALLY big deal! So anyway I was really hoping we could get a dog when we move... after several conversations ending with Lukas saying we will talk about it later and me crying because im a sensitive wuss we finally had a serious conversation about it while taking a walk on Sunday and..... Lukas finally agreed that I can have a dog in the middle of August! WOOOOOOOO HOOOO! He seemed kind of upset afterwards, I think he is being a very nice husband for doing something that is going to make me VERY happy but at the same time having an inner conflict thinking on no what wrath have I unleashed on myself by allowing this! haha... seriously tho, he has never had a pet and is kind of scared of dogs, so I definitely understand his aprehension. Its going to be a big process finding a dog that works with our needs, future family goals, size constraints due to the apartment, and fear factor from Lukas but where there is a will there is a dog! :)

Ok second miracle which is actually even cooler than the first, if that is even possible! :)
Lukas' friend Robin is getting married in Switzerland at the end of July and Lukas really wants to go. Robin flew out from Germany to Chicago for our wedding and it would be really nice if Lukas could be there for his. The major problem tho is that July/August is the biggest travel time to go to Europe which means SUPER expensive tickets! They have been fluctuating between 1000 and 800 which is way too expensive for our poor 2 person family. Lukas' parents nicely offered to help us out a bit, but still the prices needed to go down a few hundred dollars for us to still be able to afford for Lukas to go. There is no way I was planning on going tho... it was going to kill our budget enough to send him.
We thought maybe he could go in May when the prices are only 400$ round trip which is perfect, but I still had school and could not go with, and then he would miss his friends wedding and maybe not see him at all, which would have been a bummer.

BUT wonder of wonders... even tho I checked this morning and the prices were 820$ a person... Lukas randomly checked this evening and they were only 500$ per person! AMAZING! So we quickly booked his flight after checking a few times to make sure it wasnt the wrong dates, just a one way ticket, etc. Then after we got to thinking about it... with the help from his parents and some smart budgeting in the next few months, we can totally afford for me to come too! So we quickly booked my ticket as well and then I did a happy dance. Ok for me its more like wiggling and jumping around every 5-10 minutes randomly :)

ANYWAY.... so not only does Lukas get to go to Germany for a week, I get to go too and we get to go to his friends wedding in Switzerland which is pretty sweet and see his other friends and his family and its just awesome :) We fly out the day after my birthday and then about 10 days after we get back I GET A DOG! Seriously my 26th birthday is going to be the BEST EVER at this rate :)

We hopefully move into our new apartment on July 25th, 4 days before we fly out to Germany, so hopefully that all works out without problems and doesnt mess up the outpouring of miracles and blessings we have in store for end of july early august :) They havent found us an open apartment yet so please keep your fingers crossed for us since if it doesnt happen before about the 20th of this month it isnt going to happen and we are stuck here and I get no dog so yea.... one more miracle PLEASE!!!!

Short update....

Not much else is going on, Florida has basically been the highlight of this semester.

Im teaching German 105 now which is basically the first German class these kids take. I like my students a lot but they can kind of be pains in the butt, like normal college kids, and its a lot of work on top of my classes so Im still 50/50 on whether I like it or not. I was REALLY blessed and got an awesome class tho, I dont have any problems like most of the other teachers so I am definitely thanking my lucky stars for that! I just need to remind myself of that when they are being whiney and having an off day... or week... :-p

My 2 classes are going well that I am taking. Lukas also started his first class for his MBA last week so we are both mostly sitting around these days doing homework together. Kind of boring but hey... that is life I guess. Im really proud of him for going back to school, espec. since English isnt his native language... I know how hard it is taking classes in a foreign language!
He should graduate Spring of 2011 and I will be done Spring of 2010 so hopefully I will get a job for a year or so and then we shall see where the wind takes us after that. On to bigger and better things I hope!

For now I guess life is just homework, homework, homework, with maybe some fun in between with friends. We went to the birthday party of my german friend Judith (in pink) which was a lot of fun. It was all girls and Lukas which was kind of funny... but he is friends with her too so she was nice and invited him :) She is probably going back to Germany this summer and finishing her studies there which makes me sad. She is definitely one of the coolest people I have met here in Delaware since we have moved back and I am going to miss her alot. Its hard being so busy with grad school and not having time to hang out with people and knowing they will be leaving soon... sadness... :(

Went also went Iceskating about a month ago with a friend (wow, its been that long... insane) which was fun. Im kind of lazy and just let Lukas pull me around but he was a good sport about it and didnt let me fall down, not even once :)

I guess its all about finding good times in between the work that makes life happy and makes the work seem not so bad. I really need to work on that more... there are so many people at school and at church I would love to become better friends with and have missed so much time already because I have been so busy with school and half of them are leaving this summer and never coming back. I guess I will just have to make the most of the next few months and find time in between the reading and teaching and papers and and and and and and and and.... :-p

Florida Trip Update!

Its totally been FOREVER since Ive posted, holy cow... Im not really sure anyone reads this all that much tho so maybe I dont have to feel so bad, haha.

Anyway, in January we had a great week long trip to Florida to visit my friends Sam and Lindsay. They are awesome and it was nice to have some warm weather although unfortunately it was rather cold while we were there... but we had 2 sunny days and it was warmer than Delaware so I cant complain!

We went to St. Augustine and checked out the beach one day and also got to drink from the fountain of youth! No joke... crazy tourist trap, nasty water, but hey... atleast Im going to live forever, right?! lol







Lukas and I went to Sea World which was AMAZING... seriously one of the coolest places I have ever been...amazing shows. I recommend it to EVERYONE!


Otherwise we visited Sam´s school, saw a butterfly garden, saw some gators, and generally just had good times hanging out with our friends and enjoying the vacation.

TONS more pictures on Facebook if you are interested... and if you arent on Facebook, well then, I guess you just arent cool enough to see the rest of our pictures then! (Yea mom, that means you... if dad, aunt bonnie and uncle john even all have facebook you know you are falling behind! haha)