Season's Greetings!

We're all wishing you a happy winter holiday, whichever one you choose.

We send out our wishes for peace, love, joy and friendship.

Love,
The Waechters

Here and Now

Every semester it seems like school and teaching get more intense. As I put more work into becoming a great teacher I find that my schoolwork also takes up more and more of my time. I'm looking forward to being done with school, maybe then I can stop working these 60-80 hour weeks! The thing about teaching and being a full time student is that the job never ends. I can spend eight hour days at school and come home and still have even more hours of work to do. I'm not complaining, I love academic life, but it does make me unavailable to my far-away friends and family a lot of the time.

Know that this is where I sit for a good portion of the time I'm at home. Remember that while I'm at my desk writing, reading or grading that I'm near my computer. When I procrastinate I check my email and Facebook often. While I'm not so great at sending tons of emails, I'm awesome at responding to them (hey, my students email me up to 20 times a day sometimes). Please, always feel free to reach out to me online. I'm almost literally, always here.

I plan to take lots of pictures of our Christmas decorations, graduation, campus life and a bunch of the events happening in the near future. Blogging is a fun way to avoid writing those 50 pages coming up here at the end of the semester. The upside? I don't have anymore 900 page books to read... Until January, that is.


Lots of love,
Allison, Doug, Isis, Arwen, Lego, Thor, Oscar and Lola.

Nero the fish does not send his love, he's too busy bashing his head into things. Sorry, all of our animals can't be nice.

Give Thanks

This year, we have so much to be thankful for. Doug and I are thankful for our first year of marriage, graduation, wonderful, supportive family, great friends (near and far), our menagerie of pets, new jobs, prospects of new jobs and all the fun we have when we're not working our butts off. We are acutely aware of how lucky we are and we are thankful for it every day, not just Thanksgiving. As we draw closer to the holiday season I get weepier by the day. It's the stress of the end of the semester and how much I love Christmas decorations.

I'm grateful for the small stuff too. I'm grateful for Tazo Chai Tea on cold, snowy days like today. I'm grateful for the beautiful setting I wake up to every morning, here in Boulder. I'm grateful for snuggly animals and my computer that keeps me connected to all the people I love. Today I'm grateful for the day off, I'll get to my real work eventually.

Wonderland Lake

I could never hope to express to you how absolutely gorgeous Boulder is. I am, however, going to try to take quite a few photos of campus and sights around town this month while we're out and about. I'd like to share our life here with you.

These pictures are from a walk we took around Wonderland Lake over Thanksgiving weekend. It was 60 degree and sunny, which made it more than warm enough to go out without a jacket. We took Lola and Olive on a walk around the lake, which butts up against the foothills. Mind you, Wonderland Lake is just a block away from our house. Lately, we've been heading over there quite a bit. The walk around the lake takes about an hour, depending on how you choose to go home. It's also great for runs and there's a trail that goes right to the dog park.

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl...

For so many reasons, Doug and I made the decision to adopt Lola. Here she is in my mom's kitchen, squeezing her tired eyes shut. Lola is a foxhound/lab mix (according the Humane Society) and she's around a year old (also according to the Humane Society). We don't know a ton about Lola's life before us, but what we've found out about her personality so far we love.

Lola loves walks, playing with Alaina's dog Olive and adores the doggie beds we've bought her. She also loves other animals a lot. Her greatest sadness since being with us is that the kitties didn't love her on first sight. She is so sweet to them and never chases. Her little face gets so sad when they hiss at her. However, we respect the rights of Queen Arwen and Empress Isis to assert themselves. They reign supreme in our household and we appreciate that, as does Lola. We're at a point now where we can all be in the same 10 yard radius and take naps, so that's great. Lola also loves the ferrets, she's a little to young and excitable to play with them, those big paws are a big as their heads! She hasn't quite got a grasp on how big she actually is yet. She still has all that puppy awkwardness.

Right now she's snuggled up in her bed in my office taking a nap, I know she wants to go on a walk with Olive in a bit, so I'll keep working at these posts. It's a good thing she's resting up, we're going on a walk around Wonderland Lake... Even though it's 11 degrees out, the sun is shining and it feels like at least 20... Can't wait.

Snow day.

We've had a lot of snow this year.

More marriage!

Our awesome friends Kurtis and Krystal are getting married in December and Krystal was sweet enough to let me throw a bachelorette party for her. We had such a fun time, there was even a dance party in the living room. We played some silly games, shared food, lots of laughter and a few drinks.

I have to say how incredibly lucky I am to have met the women that I have in the last few years. As the time draws near for so many of us to part ways for other jobs, PhD programs, etc. I am realizing that these are some of the brightest, strongest, most beautiful women I've ever had the chance to get to know. For all the stress that grad school brings it's more than worth it to have made these friends. Ok, I'm overly-emotional this week, it's the end of the semester... Blah, blah, blah. Honestly though, I couldn't ever gush enough about these ladies.

Above: the ladies. At some point that hand motion, coupled with the cry "Unbelievable!" became an inside joke among us. We're not emulating turkeys or anything, just being ridiculous.

Below: The beautiful bride-to-be and myself.

One year, new job...

So, this picture is pretty blurry, but it's possible that it articulates how fast things have been moving in the last year. We hit our one year anniversary on November 22. Even though we've been together for so many years it was fun and exciting to revisit the Hotel Monaco and Panzano, the spot where we got married.

Just before our anniversary we got some amazing news, Doug was offered a position with Pepsi Bottling Group. He's been working on a project with them this semester that gave him an opportunity to interview and they selected him! We'll be staying in Colorado for a while, which makes both of us so happy. We love living here and Denver was near the top of our "wishlist" for places to live. We're so grateful for all the folks praying for us and sending us all those good vibes! Thank you, you mean the world to us.

Doug will graduate in December and start work in January, so there will be lots of changes around our house. We've decided to stay in Boulder for a bit, we have a great situation here and the bottling plant is nearby so there's no real reason to move right now. I'll graduate with my Master's Degree in May, which I am looking forward to very much. I've had a great few years here with all the amazing folks I've met and grown with. Luckily, since we're staying in Colorado (and Boulder, for now) we'll still be very close. However, it's time for a job. I'll be applying to teach community college for next year in the Fall. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I love teaching and I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to have a career that I love and that is so rewarding.

We're looking forward to a fun December. Doug's parents will be visiting us for graduation, which we're really looking forward to. We'll definitely miss Chad though. Hopefully, the lovely Jeff and Kristie will be coming in late December and my friend Libby will be here at the same time. We're having a giant New Year's Eve party, so stop by if you're in the area. Dress is semi-formal and bring your dancin' shoes!

New Neighbors

This has been and insanely busy semester, but I'm going to post a bunch about what's been going on for those still paying attention.
First of all, at the beginning of the summer we got some awesome new downstairs neighbors/roomies. Pictured below are Alaina, Jean and Cathy. Cathy doesn't live with us, she was hanging out, being awesome and was forced into the picture. Alaina and I have known each other for a couple of years from school, it was great that she could move in. We've all been having a great time together. This picture was taken at our first all-house party. I'm lucky to have such beautiful and talented friends, and to live with two amazing teachers! We're a gaggle of girls in this house, as our pets are almost all female, leaving Doug with the ferrets in his "man club." I think he likes it. :)

Wildlife

So... This is a video that my downstairs neighbor (and good friend) took, yesterday morning. It was in our backyard! Scary.

Happy New Year!

Here we are again, another Fall semester. Sometimes it's difficult to believe that I've been in school for over twenty years, I'm only 27! It is strange that for the second semester in that time that I'm the teacher, as well as the student. I can't express what a gratifying experience it is to be a teacher and I hope that I have many more years of it ahead of me. Yet, there's something about this semester that's repelling me a little. I don't know if it's because I'm embarking on what may be my last school year in a while or exactly what. I just have this nagging feeling of sadness. It's like, whatever lies ahead after this year, it's likely that it'll never be like this again. I'll never be the student in the same way I am now, nor the teacher. Even if I were to pursue my PhD, which would be a pretty similar role to what I have now, it will be later and my life will have changed in all sorts of unimaginable ways.

So, cheers to the new year!

Back to School

Doug and I are getting ready to go back to school. Doug is going back for the last time, which I'm sure he's thrilled about. Me, who knows how long I'll be in school? Technically, I'm done Spring semester. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a job in education and won't ever have to leave.

Basically, all we've been doing is cleaning and stocking up on all the essentials. For us, school starting is like a nuclear holocaust. We sort of batten down then hatches and just try to take cover. So the month before school starts we buy paper products, toiletries and even food. We super-clean the house, knowing full well it might be Thanksgiving before it gets a good scrubbing again.

My office keeps doing a rotation of messy to clean during the week as I try to get organized. Finding places for all the books coming in is getting difficult, I'm running out of shelf room. This is why we are a couple with bookshelves everywhere, even our headboard is a bookshelf. I've been planning my class for the last week and that hasn't helped the situation on my desk. As I write lesson plans and lectures I litter the floor around me with notes and all kinds of books. I had all my literary theory books out yesterday, in addition to all my writing guides and things were pretty overwhelming.

I'm starting to put everything back together now and hopefully soon my workspace will make sense again. I don't know much about Doug's office. It's like a treehouse (with a ladder and everything) so I don't do much except poke my head up there every now and again. He's been up there for days getting all his stuff together so that he can graduate in December. He's so much more focused than I am when it comes to that stuff. I just putter around for a while then I pick up a book for a few hours. It's not that I'm not being productive, it's just that I have SO much to do. I think I have five books going right now that I'd like to finish before things start up again. Good luck to me, I doubt it will happen. The terrible thing about being a grad student is that the homework never ends. I should have been doing more reading over the summer... I say that every summer.

So, while I probably won't be posting as many pictures this semester I'm going to try to keep up with what we've got going on. I forecast that the blog will be a bit more about me, since during semester I become very self-centered. I'll try to check in with Doug once a day or so to make sure he's still alive. :)

Putting the "here" in Here.

Last year around this time we were just moving in. I had had it up to wherever with our last apartment and our not-so-fun neighbors so I started looking for a new place to live. Almost immediately we found this place. Our home came with a part-time roommate, Robin, who is the owner of the house and we don't see him much. Robin spends most of his time at his other home in the mountains. When we do it's great, he's doing so many amazing things. Anyway, it's been great for us to live here, we get the space we so desperately needed and a beautiful space to live.

Most of the blog so far has been about our trip and maybe this won't be so interesting for everyone... But... Doug and I have been doing so much work to get the house back in order since we got home that I really wanted to share. Vain? Yes, that's me. Isn't that why one starts a blog in the first place? I plan to share more of the "there and everywhere" parts of life soon. For now, here's "here."

The dining room

Doug's bamboo used to be in one of our fish tanks, I transferred it to this pretty vase (that used to be a candle holder) for the time being. It seems to like it.

Here you see the whole dining room and the front hall.

The front porch

Look at all my pretty flowers! Ignore that pot in the right corner, it's being moved out.

Yes, there's the water feature again, I just can't get over myself about it. I congratulated both myself and Doug for its success about a thousand times last night. That's not unusual, we're a sort of self-congratulatory pair. Mostly we just run around the house telling each other what a good job we've done. Then we complain about everything else. Hey, I never said we were perfect.

Cute little lights Doug hung for me, the glider and more flowers.

Here's a closer shot of the flowers. The petrified wood was all collected by my dad, my mom has a bunch too, it makes great garden adornment. I finally found a place to put those little birds I got in Mexico! Yay front porch!

The back deck

I worked really hard out on the back deck today. While we were gone there were quite a few storms. There was debris from the trees and even some shingles scattered around, so I got out there early this afternoon and picked it all up. I had to hose off my umbrella and all our deck furniture. It's all nice to sit in again. Please ignore the jungle that is the backyard.

Please note the sign that signifies that cocktail hour happens here. :)

The chaise lounges complete with the new table I bought today at Target (that's for you Mama). We needed a place to put our drinks (and books or magazines) when we lounge. The little table was a perfect fit.

The Kitchen

The kitchen didn't take a lot of work, though we did move that chair in from the dining room. At all our parties people congregate in the kitchen so we put our living room inside it. We have the dining room for our table and they're right next door. It's a cozy solution to a small problem. Doug and I probably watch TV in the kitchen more than anywhere else. Figures.

It's nice that there are bookshelves for my cookbooks. Those of you who were at my bridal shower may recognize that lamp. I love it dearly.

This is the kitchen itself. I'm about to mess it up to make dinner.

I'm lucky Doug does all the dishes for me. He's not so lucky that he has to clean it all up. He's very particular about the cleanliness of dishes. I shouldn't have said before that the kitchen didn't take much work. Doug works hard to keep the kitchen clean. Our counter tops are a dark green and it takes pretty much constant care to keep them looking neat and tidy.

The Family Room

This, clearly, is the family room. The exercise bike in the background is less than aesthetically pleasing, but I wasn't about to move it for this shot.

A closer shot of my new (antique) card catalogue. Perfect for a bookish girl like myself.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig.

So, now that we're home, you might be wondering what we've been up to. I'd be happy to share.

We spent the Fourth of July with my mom and I hung out for a few days to grovel to my cats for forgiveness. Isis still puked all over her carrier on the way home, don't worry. Overall, they seem thrilled to be here. What they don't seem particularly thrilled about is being fed by the timed feeder again. So sorry, kitties.

Doug and I were both pretty exhausted when we got here. What we'd kind of forgotten was that we hadn't really cleaned up the house before we left. I mean it was sort of clean, but everything was still in disarray from Spring Finals Mania 2009. So we've spent the last few days getting everything organized and back in order.

Above, you'll see our project for this afternoon. A water feature! We built it ourselves! Neat, yes? We also went to the farmer's market today and now I feel like I need a nap.

At any rate, we're glad to be home, glad to have the house clean and glad to have a while left in our summer to have a few more adventures. Check back in, I plan to keep taking pictures and posting.

That's What You Get For Waking Up In Vegas

Vegas. What can you say about it? It's kind of indescribable. I'll do my best.

Here's the view of the strip from our hotel room.

And here we are looking stunned by all the hustle and bustle.

We ate some good food (Bellagio Buffet, Burger Bar, etc.), we slept a lot and we walked the strip. That was about all we could handle from Vegas. It was so fun to go, but at the end of more than six weeks from home we were a little spent. Luckily THEhotel at Mandalay Bay is a great place to relax. We forgot to gamble (seriously), so that leaves me a gambling virgin, still. We're already married, so that was taken care of. All I can say is that we'll go back. I want to see a show.