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. :)