Sunday, April 26, 2009

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!)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

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!!!!