July, july, july... (decemberists song, anyone?)

So for this 4th of July, we went with a group of friends to a friend's house for a porch cookout, then on to Parkland college for fireworks. it was alot of fun, but hot and we were surrounded by mosquitos. As much as I love the smell of bug spray, I hate the bugs more. Johann took some cool pictures of fireworks and our friends with sparklers.

My cousin Benji and his wife Wendy had a baby boy, Ilan. He is a cutie pie! I am so excited for them :) I hope we get a chance to fly out to California sometime soon to see them all.

June recap

So for the last month, the following has been going on:

Trips to the farmers' market, BBQs, lots of yardwork, benefit lunch for a friend's family (who was injured in a motorcycle accident), booked our honeymoon cruise and excursions, attended Ian & Jen's wedding in TX, booked a Mary Kay party, and...

I had been trying to think up things I could do for Johann for our 1 yr anniversary, so I repainted his office. I had originally painted it blue, hoping it would be the ash grey/military blue-ish color he likes. I did this about a yr ago, and he saw it and said it looked like a baby's nursery. I used to be so good at picking colors out, considering what they'd look like dried on the wall. He was right though, it was too light baby blue. So it got repainted to an actual grey this time. My friend Cheryl came over for day 1 to help me prep and start painting, she was a big help. It got done in about 3 days (I have to work in between, people). Johann's moved all his stuff back in now and enjoying the color much more.

So he thinks this was my gift to him, but I had been dropping little hints about it being the paper anniversary for a while. The whole time, I had actually been secretly planning for us to go to the Japan house for a tea ceremony, followed by origami classes. The Japan house didn't pan out, which was a bummer, but through luck and persistence, I found a 16-yr old origami instructor. She and I made plans to meet at a coffee house and surprise Johann. He loved it! He has been making paper cranes in his office at work since :) We also made lotus flowers and shapes like boxes and cups that can actually hold water.

Johann surprised me with paper... tickets... to see... ZZ Top! We had a blast!!! We drove to Normal, IL three days after our anniversary and got totally soaked in the middle of a major scary rainstorm (that had produced a lot of damage throughout the state). We parked at the nearest parking garage, but had to walk about 2-3 block to the venue, those blocks seemed to go on forever. We were FREEZING inside, but the show was really good. I don't remember the opening band, so that says something about them. There was an awful lot of camo at that show, by the way, just sayin. ZZ Top was awesome and I bought myself a T-shirt. As soon as we got out to leave, it started pouring again. We got into Johann's car and I couldn't stop laughing for a while at our luck. This was definitely a memorable show, I had the rain soaked undergarments to prove it :P Here's us, drenched and cold, but excited!

I'm glad we did some things together before I left town that weekend for Iowa City. I rode with Sylvia and we stayed at her parents house. Her bachelorette party was planned by her friends Jess and Andrew, who I met briefly at our last Easter potluck. Saturday, we went to a park with a lake and had another BBQ (so many already this summer). We had frozen margaritas at our picnic/bbq, which was awesome. Then we jumped in the lake, and I got both sunburned and mosquito/ant-bitten. After a power-nap and a shower, Sylvia and I got ready to go out on the town with Jess, Andrew and their friend Linda. We went to dinner at an awesomely swanky mod Italian place with Sylvia's parents. Then we went bar hopping until after 2 am, which ended at a little piano bar where Sylvia sang along to "Werewolves of London." Note: Do not get drunk with temporary tattoos on your person, it makes for a very interesting morning after ;)

A Much Needed Update!

My goodness it's been about 7 weeks since I wrote anything on here. Sorry, folks. Things have been busy busy busy. Last semester's chemistry class was very demanding of my time, though I know it doesn't take much time to blog.

So since my last posting, I have learned to drive stickshift (I still hate it), Johann put a new muffler in my car, and now I'm driving it again :) We also filed our taxes jointly, which may sound dorky to say this, but was very exciting!

We have been using the grill we got for our wedding alot- propane assisted charcoal= awesome! Thanks again to Tia Jenny and Tia Zabet for it! We have also beenb doing a lot of yardwork now that the weather is springy and all weeds are back. My daffodils died and my tulips were up for a short period of time. I had a single peony pop up, and now a single iris.

The end of April, we drove to Downer's Grove (a burb of Chicago) to help celebrate Will & Syvlia's upcoming nuptials. His family hosted activities and a brunch, which was a lot of fun. Johann and I got to meet the rest of Will's family and Sylvia's parents. Everyone was very nice and we had a great time- Brian (Will's twin) and I won the crossword puzzle contest! I felt so smart :) I also drove Johann's car all the way home afterwards (about 2.5 - 3 hrs on the highway). I think he was secretly proud of me.

I also hosted a Slumber Party, which was a lot of fun -but I ended up doing it the same day as the Illinois marathon, so it was really difficult to drive to our house that day. Shortly afterward, I had oral surgery to correct a badly receding gumline and I was out from work for about a week. It's still not healing right (4 weeks later), and I will probably have to go back in about 6 weeks to have another surgery. Argh! My stupid teeth need to start cooperating- actually, the gums do. Genetic periodontal disease sucks :( I also found out that I am allergic to Vicodin... the hard way. A week later, I had a full systemic allergic reaction to a mysterious item that we have not indentified yet. My allergist thinks it might be to an antibiotic I had since my father's allergic to Penicillin. We'll eventually figure it out, but allergy testing is expensive. I just don't feel like waking up with full-body hives and facial swelling again.

Johann's working on his third bike, another road bike which he just had custom painted- a very nice dark green color with gold trim. I will post pictures as soon as he finishes it. We also purged a lot of stuff from our house last weekend; we had a yardsale. Actually, I had the yardsale because it was the same weekend as the Number Theory conference. Johann had to attend because not only is it his field and full of his peers, but he gave a talk. He was one of only 2 grad students giving talks at this conference. He panicked about it, but as usual did really well. He gets compliments from big names in math whenever he gives a talk, I just wish he was a bit more confident about public speaking.

Well, that's all for now. Johann and I will be celebrating our 1-year wedding anniversary on Father's Day, June 20th. I am really excited and have some fun activities planned for us that revolve around the paper anniversary. Should be a fun surprise! Thanks for reading everyone- and don't forget you can sign up tobe a "follower" of this blog.

Mid March- Mid April Update

Well folks, since last posting there have been more goings-ons...

 

 Agro had his expensive eye surgery and has been healing well. He is no longer wearing a cone on his head (which was hilarious and pathetic at the same time). Here's a picture of him sticking his tongue out at me :P Then we had a little St. Pat's celebration at our house with friends. Agro was stilling wearing the cone at the time, and the vet office had fastened it to his collar with pretty green ribbon, so he was ready for the party.

I went to my first Pampered Chef party and had a great time. That night, Johann, our neighbors Liz & Paul, and I all went to see Cirque de Soleil's lastest installment- Alegria. It was wonderful! I love date nights, even double date nights. That was the beginning to my spring break, too. A great way to kick it off. Poor Johann spent it going to the office and meetings.

The next weekend, Johann helped me trade in my rusting Schwinn cruiser for a lovely vintage Raleigh Phillips from the UK. It's a smaller frame and fits me great! I've taken it out a couple of times with Johann; rides with him are fun.

The weather has become amazingly beautiful recently and we have been spending our weekends outdoors. Easter was also nice, and we held our annual potluck. We watched the movie "where the wild things are" and even went outside for a while. Some of the guys took turns trying out Johann's recumbent bike (a.k.a. the frankenbike).

My daffodils bloomed in time for Easter and then promptly got eaten by animals, and now my tulips are up to replace them. We've been doing a lot of yardwork this weekend- a lot or raking, sweeping, mowing, and bee-killing! I planted my new tomato plant in the topsy-turvy planter. I can't wait to start building up the herb and flower beds next :)

Well, that's all for now. Hope everyone had a great Passover & Easter holiday. Take care and enjoy Spring!

xoxo

A Whole Month Gone-By

I can't believe how much time I let pass without posting, I am a bad blogger.

Well, since early Feb, the Saints won the Superbowl :) I make a spicy gumbo every year for the big game, but this year it wasn't great in my opinion. You are your worst critic they say! I also had a biopsy done, which came back benign. Johann bought, moved, cut and installed insulation in our attic pretty much all by himself- I love how handy he is! He said it was my Valentine's Day gift- a warmer home (sounds goods to me). We don't usually celebrate with a fancy dinner or anything since every restaurant is packed. Our tradition is to rent a movie, order dinner and sit around in our pajamas :)

So looks like our spring break plans to go to Colorado have fallen through. Between Agro needing surgery on his eye, and me needing a gum graft again, our vacation may have to be very local. My vote's for St Louis or even to go oogle at the Amish a couple towns over.

Johann and I have both earned a vacation I think. He has been working hard teaching, studying, researching. He submitted his materials for a teaching award from the math department, which I really hope he gets. He got an award many years ago from the computer science department. He also might get published as a coauthor on a paper. So I am crossing my fingers for him right now. He works so hard for us and he makes me so proud.

Classes for me are hectic right now. I forgot an entire week's worth of due dates- so that was exciting. I can still save my grades though, so there's hope. I feel so scatter-brained lately, working 40 hours, then taking 7 credits of classes. It's quite exhausting. I also had a fever that sent me home from work for about 2 days over a week ago. And this weekend I am fighting some sort of sinus infection. Ugh.

I'm so glad our cabin fever is cured though, the weather has been warming up. The dogs can get their long walks back, I can get some much-needed sun and vitamin D. Johann won't have to ride his bikes in the snow or ice until next year.

We've got two social events planned coming up- this Saturday a St. Patrick's party and then next month, our annual Easter potluck. Looking forward to them!

Oh yeah, before I forget, neither of our cars will start :( Johann got stuck in downtown Champaign for over 3 hours last night while waiting for triple-A and the tow truck. He's been working on my car all afternoon in the rain. I love my husband! Going to make him a nice dinner to thank him. More updates on cars, dogs and us later.

xoxo Amber

February Funtime!!!

SOooooo, since my last posting, we hosted a 90's party on Sat Jan 23rd. It was a lot of fun and was filled with good/bad music :) Here's a picture, there were some awesome get-ups, old band T-shirts, and flannel.

One of Johann's office mates passed him preliminary defense and they went out to celebrate. Then two of our friends celebrated their birthdays, and we went out in a big group to dinner at Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano= yum! Sunday night we hosted a movie night and showed Aliens. So we've been very social lately, especially on weekends.

Yesterday, Agro had an appointment at the U of I vet clinic. He has this weird white spot on his left eye that has been slowly getting larger. We didn't notice this at all when we adopted him in June. But the vet seems to think it's benign and cut be cut out without compromising his eyesight. Oh the excitement! And Johann gave a talk today in the Number Theory Seminar and it went pretty well despite some technological issues.

All in all, a busy last couple of weeks and lots of fun!

90's Party and whatnot...

So yesterday was our nineties party, and it went pretty well. A lot of good dress-ups and old T-shirts. The music was good/bad/hilarious and we watched random parts of Pulp Fiction in between. I will try to get the pictures up on my facebook soon.

This past week flew by even faster than the last; that is starting to freak me out. January is almost over. I'm afraid I am going to open my eyes tomorrow morning, and we'll be in the middle of June or something. I need to start making lists of short-term goals to accomplish. Especially with respect to home improving.

Once spring is here, we need to put up a new fence. Right now, our rotten fence is missing whole boards and parts of boards. I feel like it's an eyesore. But considering some of the interesting things in this neighborhood, perhaps I am agonizing over it for nothing. It'll also be nice to have a fenced-in backyard where the dogs can play off-leash. Then we can look forward to backyard BBQ's!