Die Buchwalds

Happy third anniversary to us! As I sat down to write this entry, it occurred to me that a LOT of third things are happening this year. Spider-Man 3, Shrek The Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, Beth graduating from high school (she’s the third grandchild to graduate on that side of the family), Maddy’s third birthday, Abby’s third birthday and of course our third anniversary. Next Easter will also mark the third anniversary of the day Matt became Catholic!

I looked back over our last two anniversary reviews and saw that it was right around our first anniversary that we finished watching Star Trek: TNG Season 1. Two years later, we have Season 7 in our queue. We <3 Netflix.

This last year has been nothing short of a great learning experience. I learned how to survive all by myself in a relatively strange place in our new house – just me and the cat – for three whole weeks. Matt learned the hard way what project start up can be like. We discovered that mowing a 3/4 acre sloped yard with a pushmower is a lot harder than it looks and we found out that there is such thing as too much snow and sometimes you really do have to shovel out the driveway.

Our year has had quite a few car mishaps, too. Matt’s radiator cracked in August, right before his warranty expired. Then, my car needed quite a bit of work in order to pass inspection and now it’s broken again. It started leaking anti-freeze this past Saturday and we’ve been (and will continue to be) too busy to really figure out what’s wrong with it. Until life slows down a little, we’ll be experimenting with single-car living.

Having two cats has been wonderful. Linus came to us in September as a housewarming gift from the Hirth clan. He’s still such an imp of a kitten but he and Ratzi are great company for each other. As is par for the course, Linus is the “neglected” second child… I haven’t uploaded any new pictures of him since December. He has changed so much in these last 6mos… and the pictures exist… I just haven’t put them in our gallery. He is very much the spoiled second child as well. He follows us around begging for our attention and visitors dote on him because, well, he insists on it. He’s still naive enough that he lets 4-year-old JJ pick him up, carry him around and just generally abuse him as only a 4-year-old can. Ratzi, on the other hand, has decided that Matt and I are about the only acceptable humans. He runs for cover when he hears the door bell.

Matt has now had just about every type of medical imaging test. In January, his foot mysteriously became swollen. After numerous tests and a few different prescription drugs, his foot is still just a little bit puffy and all the doctor has to say now is walk on it & call him if it gets worse. Thankfully, it hasn’t gotten any worse.

We’re really enjoying becoming involved at our new parish.

I went back to teaching 5th grade because I’m just not ready to do Confirmation prep with the 8th graders. I had a great group & can’t wait to meet next year’s class. Sister Genie, our DRE, is trying to talk me into grad school with the idea that someday I can have her job. She’s supposed to be getting me some information about getting full scholariship from the diocese. I’m not sold on the idea because we all know I drive into Pittsburgh as little as possible, but I told her I’d look at the information.

I attended my 12th annual March for Life with the group from our parish and I think I might finally be ready to do more than just fill a seat on the bus. After 12 years I’m starting to feel confident that I can at least help coordinate the trip a little.

Together, Matt & I are going to try to attend World Youth Day next July in Sydney Australia. Our parish is ogranizing a group of about 60 people from three parishes. Beth is planning to go, too, and we’re really excited about sharing this experience with her. We’ve been selling hoagies like crazy people to try to fundraise.

Last night, we started our celebration by going to the drive-in to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Today, we’ll have donuts, maybe some waffles, too, and watch The Princess Bride as usual. Later we’re going bowling and to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.

And now it’s time to recap my goals from last year:
1. Thyroid is mostly fixed… my bloodwork results still aren’t quite where I think they should be but I feel OK and the doctor thinks the numbers are good so here we are.
2. No job for Amy! As it turns out, when one is careful to create a manageable budget, money seems to appear out of thin air. Sometimes the extra income would be nice, but we’re both much happier with the current arrangement, so I’ll continue as a domestic engineer until we have a reason to re-evaluate.
3. Matt spent his Monday nights working on the paper while I taught CCD, but it’s still not done :(
4. I’ll have to find the house goals post & see how we did, but I’m sure our plans changed at least 10 times.
5. Ratzi has a friend! He’s still a little pudgey but he’s not fat! Yay!
6. Still workin’ on it.

Goals for Marriage Year 4:
1. Fundraise enough to pay for our WYD trip
2. Be a more organized & effective CCD teacher
3. More house projects – another post for another day :)
4. Get back to scrapbooking – I have no excuses to not scrapbook
5. Get caught up and stay current with gallery pictures
6. Continue saving money to replace my car
7. Get our mortgage ready to have the PMI removed
8. Get life insurance
9. Start really saving for retirement
10. Continue to encourage Matt to finish his paper
11. Plant something in my flower bed next spring
12. Walk a lot to get ready for the big hike in Sydney
13. Top Secret Project yet again

P.S. Matt is the best husband a woman could ask for.

Posted in Marriage,Year-in-Review | By Amy at 9:01 am | Comments(0)