Amish Country Visit

We had rather cold, snowy weather while Lukas' parents were visiting at the end of January. On the day we went up to get them from the airport an ice and snow storm hit and we drove back home with white-out conditions. We were fortunate that their flight was not delayed, as it was one of the last into Philly that day due to the weather.

We did not have a shovel so the 6 inches of snow we got overnight was a bit daunting. Lukas was a wonderful husband and dug me out the next morning so that I could get to work, and then enjoyed a snowy day at home with his parents and Winston.

We got a shovel the next day so poor Lukas wouldn't have to use a bucket lid anymore and got both of our cars dug out the rest of the way. Fortunately that first dumping of snow was all we had to deal with so it was pretty manageable after a few days.

Even tho the weather took away most of our exploration opportunities, we made a sidetrip up to Intercourse, PA to check out Amish Country on the weekend. His parents have been up in Lancaster County, PA with us before but it is always a novel and enjoyable area to visit.

We visited a few of my favorite fabric and quilt shops, had a wonderfully yummy fresh made pretzel at "Immer Gut" (Always Good), and all in all had an enjoyable walk around town.

Here are some more  pictures to highlight our visit:



The ever present horse and buggy scene





I have a feeling they won't be stoping to fuel up here





This horse does not look quite up to the job... he must be German :)





And last of all... some pretty sweet Christmas Tree decorations :)





Lukas' graduation, yay!

Wow... I am really bad about blogging on here these days. I have switched over to my craft/quilting blog @ thiscraftyfox.blogspot.com - however I never post anything personal on there so I guess I need to pick up the slack here, hrmmm :)

ANYWAY... on to some awesome news... Lukas graduated with his MBA on the 30th of January! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!  His parents flew out from Germany to visit with us for a week and to attend his graduation which great and made the day all the more special for Lukas to be able to celebrate with them. I'm so proud of him... not only did he say he was done done DONE with school after his BA in International Business, he completed this Master's in a foreign language, while working full-time, and had an A GPA the whole way!

Other than that excitement - there is not really anything new going on here. Same apartment, same jobs, same big fuzzy dog, no additions to the family to announce now or anytime in the near future... same old same old I guess. But hey... no news is better than bad news I suppose :) .... if I happen to be browsing some pics later I will do some back-updates of the past 8 months but until then... enjoy checking out my crafts on the other blog and just email or call if you miss us :)

Graduation Day May 28th, 2010

I had a wonderful graduation day on Friday with my family and friends. I officially have my MA in German Literature, YAY! My dad drove out from Indiana, my Aunt Bonnie came from Tennessee, and mom and Lukas both took the day off as well to celebrate with me. It was a great (and short!) ceremony followed by a super yummy meal at The Cheesecake Factory. I received the graduate student award for excellence in the classroom, teaching, and for passing with honors on my comprehensive exams and my final GPA was 3.927... not too shabby ;-) Definitely glad to have finished so well and above all I am just glad to be finished!

We were able to spend Friday and Saturday with my parents and Aunt Bonnie and then Sunday again with my parents which was wonderful. I love having time with family, especially as I do not see them so often. It was a great weekend although busy and Im so glad everyone came out to celebrate this wonderful occassion with me!

My good friend Autumn graduated from the French department as well so it was great to share that day with her. I was also really happy that members of my German department came out to cheer for me. These grads are awesome and I know they will rock the comprehensive exams next year and hopefully I will be able to come cheer for them next Spring  as they graduate.

Not sure yet what the future holds... still have not heard back from CSC so I am getting a little nervous. I will probably have to start a real job search next week which is not going to be fun, I am sure. We are heading out to Kansas on Thursday to see my grandparents who are both not doing so well health-wise and it could be the last time I see either of them so I'm not even going to worry about anything else until after that trip.
I have a part-time job for the summer if needed and Lukas has a good job so we are counting our blessings and will hope for a good job for me to come up in the near future.

I passssssssseeeeeeeeddddddddddd!!!!

That rambling subject line is basically how elated I felt on the day of my  Master's exams when, after almost crying during the exam because there were 3 questions I could absolutely not answer because I forgot the plot of the books entirely, and after waiting 5 min in the hall for my teachers to decide... they came out and smiling said I passed! WOO HOO! I am 100% going to graduate on May 28th with my MA in German Literature. SO awesome! And, to make matters even better, I passed with a "high pass" which was VERY unexpected but pretty awesome too.

I have 2 papers due tomorrow and another paper as well as 2 finals next week. Somehow I will get through all of this even tho I am completely not motivated to do any more homework EVER again haha.

In other good news, I have a job interview next Friday at CSC, where Lukas works. I really hope that the interview goes well and I: 1. Get a job but 2. Get a good job that isn't just an ok starter position
Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Ok... back to those papers I suppose, blegh.

Test time is here!

Its so hard to believe that those 4.5 weeks already went by and I just took my written Master´s exam last week. It was pretty stressful to prepare for and although Im pretty sure that I passed and am taking the oral exam this Friday, I still have not heard anything from my teachers and I am getting a little nervous. I have a very full week of work and classes as well as Lukas´ induction ceremony into the business honors society on Wednsday... no clue when I am going to study for Friday! The written exam was difficult but not nearly as hard as the oral exam will be, as the written was rather open ended and left a lot of room for choosing my own works to discuss. Im getting super nervous every day but I guess all I can do is try to study bit by bit and hope in the end, Friday at 12.30 I will have something to say in front of a panel of teachers asking me questions about all of German literature for an hour, yikes!

Lukas is doing really great in school and Im proud of him for holding onto his 4.0 now through 7 classes. Im looking forward to his induction ceremony on Wednesday into the honors society. For someone who always told me how awful he is at school, he def. seems to be flourishing at Wilmington Univ. which is great. Im so proud of him for getting his MBA inspite of his negative attitude for school... it will definitely bless our family and increase our income as well as my chances of EVER being able to stay at home some point during our children´s lives. (Yes... those children I am still avoiding having and super freaked out by haha... but still, they are a future goal, even if a scary one, and its nice to know they will be taken care of by my hardworking husband and I.) Anyway, he is planning on doubling up on classes again one term this summer so that he can graduate at the end of the year which is fantastic. He will probably start looking for a new job which will be a financial as well as stress relief, since his company can be a bit frustrating at times. Who knows if we will stay around here... I guess we shall see what his current job offers when he has his MBA and what other companies in the area are looking for and offering. We are also toying with the idea of California because his brother lives out there, but Im not seeing it as a super realistic possibility unless if it was truly meant to be and the perfect job came along.

We shall see... that is all a while off. First I have to pass this exam on Friday, graduate on the 28th of May and find a job myself! Booooo to the real world, booooo :)

Otherwise life has just been a big ball of studying stress... not much interesting to report so I will leave it at that.

My dirty little secret...

So do you want to know my dirty little secret?... I LOVE RUNNING! Its only a dirty secret because it has been pouring rain for 2 days and I went jogging on Monday in the rain but held out for the sunshine today. I had no clue that I loved jogging so much until I jogged 3 miles straight today and then walked another mile with Winston and Luke and just felt amazingly good! I think its a combination of sunshine and warm weather after all of the rain we have had, and the adrenaline from getting off my butt, away from my homework and books and studying, and just getting out and getting active. I love Spring because it gets me to put my cranky-pants away and look forward to Summer :) Yay for Spring!

4.5 weeks until my comprehensive exams... other than the occasional jog basically ALL I EVER do is read and study, read and study, read and study... with a little bit of sleep mixed in there. I will be so elated when my written exams are done on the 30th, my oral ones are over on the 7th of May and then by the end of May I will be completely finished with finals/papers/EVERYTHING and graduate! WOO HOO!!!

But until then... 4.5 weeks of grueling work and studying... ugh... I CAN DO IT... RIGHT?!
(Can you see why I was so excited to get outside for an hour today? :-p)

New second blog

For anyone who reads this and loves online shopping/browsing as much as I do, I have a new blog I have started: http://wednesdaywindowshopping.blogspot.com/

I was going to combine both but I figured my family doesnt need to hear me rambling on and on about clothes and people who want to check out cute clothes don't need to hear me rambling on and on about personal stuff. Anyway, check it out, follow me if you like it, hope you enjoy my growing wishlist :)