The Final Hurdle

What a whirlwind this last few weeks has been. With final projects, finals, and my re-test for licensing, I have stayed rather busy and a little stressed at times. Finally, it is all over and the holidays have come and are almost gone. Now, I get to unwind before the craziest semester of Ty's and my life begins. I found out that I passed the more difficult version of the Spainsh test and now I have officially passed the FINAL hurdle has been jumped to finish my education. Ty and I will both be graduating in May and looking forward to facing the real world head on. The reality of finding jobs is hitting and we are excited to hopefully be back in Chippewa with our families. There is still a long road ahead, but we are almost there and I feel my second wind coming. This last semester I felt ready to give up, but now, the senioritis has passed and we are ready to face our FINAL semester!

There are SO many updates that I just don't even know where to begin, but they will come with time. I AM off until January 23rd afterall. Wishing everyone Happy New Year, and we are going to enjoy our time off together before its over and the hustle and bustle of the semester starts all over again!

Senioritis

The end is coming! We are SO close to the end of the semester. We are really getting antsy to come home for Christmas Break. Thanksgiving was busy, but nice. Ty has started back working with his internship, but they made it so that he could work from school. It is so great to have him making money without have to spend it in gas to Chippewa. My student teaching placements came over break and I am getting the paperwork ready for taking my Spanish licensing test. Everything is coming together and this just makes me want to be done with school all the more, but there are still 3 weeks of classes and lets not forget finals! There is so much left to do, and so little time to do it. It is starting to hit us both that we are almost at the end and we just can't wait to move back home to be with our families. Senioritis is hitting and hitting hard! We can FINALLY see the end! Now all I have to do is finish my silly e-portfolio and pass my test and the real fun begins, STUDENT TEACHING! No more sitting in class, I will be TEACHING the class. Sorry Ty, you still have one more semester. Anyway, thats what's been going on. We are just praying that I pass this test, because I have to in order to student teach and graduate.

Adoption: A Beautiful Reminder

This last week Matt preached about adoption because it was Orphan Sunday (link to the sermon).  With one beautiful niece who was once an orphan, the sermon hit harder than expected.  I don't think that I stopped crying completely at any point in the sermon.  Not only did it challenge me to think about how I could help the orphaned, but reminded me of a beautiful picture that we sometimes forget. If we are in Christ we are all adopted and He has loved us as He loves his own son.

As our family has been waiting for the next baby Lukowitz (Sophia) to arrive from Ethiopia, I have been reminded of this picture.  The beautiful reminder that I did not do anything and God chose me to be his child and he loves me as His child in a perfect way no one else ever could.  Like my sister-in-law is doing now, he has prepared a place for me (in heaven) where I can be with Him someday.  Adoption is a beautiful reminder and I am so happy that God has placed Annie and soon Sophia who will be a daily reminder of how much He loves us and that He adopted us into his family.  We can't wait to move back to Chippewa so that we can see it and be blessed by it all the time. We are so blessed to have this beautiful reminder.

Up date and Family Photos

We have been busy to say the least. School is picking up and birthday season is back in full swing. Taylor's was at the beginning of October, Mom's was yesterday, Brittany's is coming in two weeks and so many more. We have been coming home every weekend and trying to see everyone which is SO great, But...school has kinda taking the backseat and it is starting to creep up, on me at least. Last Friday Brooke was kind enough to take some pics of Ty and I and of course I got to process the pictures. If you are my facebook friend you have already seen one. Here are the rest. Sorry that this couldn't be a longer post, but I have to get back to homework. Oh, and if you are interested, my amazingly talented friend Hannah has started her own etsy shop:)called RufflesandTulle. you should check it out by clicking on the name. Here is a preview of our little family's pictures! Hope you all are having a good week!

 

Weekend with a Capital W

This past weekend we spent in Madison. Hence the "capital." It was a LONG weekend. Ty had a Cartography conference down there starting on Wednesday night through Saturday. It was a nice little get away. He entered a giant research project in a poster contest with 22 other maps made by people from across the country. There were people who were grad students from Madison and Penn State (apparently two of the best schools for his program) who entered their posters, so his expectations weren't high. I am still SO proud of him. While he was listening to people speak from Google Maps and ESRI (the company that makes the software he uses in school), I was galavanting around in Milwaukee with Brittany and Alyssa, my sisters who live there. I was great to FINALLY see my sister's house they had bought last winter and hangout with them just spending time catching up. I hadn't seen either of them in months! WAY TOO LONG!

After a busy day of pretty much nothing but getting coffee and eating(its what McDaniels do),I headed back to Madison to see Ty. Friday was another day of conference and I was able to see Brittany and her husband Eric with Ty for lunch. We ate on state street and after they left I did a little shopping....AT GOODWILL! Thats right, there is a GoodWill on State Street! AMAZING! Call me crazy, but a brand new Banana Republic shirt with tags still on for 3 dollars is worth looking for! After the conference, Ty and I walked around the State Capital, and saw a familiar face, someone from Chippewa (Sarah Wallace) was there touring the capital with a friend for the State Tennis Tournament! Lyssa came Friday night and hungout. We ate(of course) and chatted. Then we walked around the Mall. Over all, it was a good trip. We enjoyed every moment with family and realized just how much we missed them.

New Neighbors

The week is almost gone and it feels like we just got home from a weekend in Chippewa Falls. Ty and I were talking in the car on the way to school today and we decided that this year has been flying by! We are so excited to be done, but we can't believe we are getting closer to that halfway point in the semester.

This week we have been just trying to study for tests and we were blessed with the opportunity to get to know one of our neighbors. She is a Korean graduate student and started talking to Ty about our car and ended up talking about how she didn't really know anyone. Then, today in the University Center, we ran into her. She was talking about her homework and it turns out she is studying TESOL and is having a hard time with the same stuff I am studying in one of my classes right now. We are SO excited to have the chance to get to know her and her two little girls that we hear riding their bikes around our building parking lot. What a cool thing. Other than that, we are just getting ready for the weekend and coming home to see family and friends.

Almost Friday, hang in there people...

Homework and Fox in Socks

Wow! I can't believe that another week has passed already. We have been so focused on schoolwork that it seems like we were just home and now we are ready to head back again tomorrow. Ty has been spending countless hours in the GIS Lab working on his many different projects while I have been studying for tests. Don't worry, we have been finding time to do some of the things that help us relax. Today, Brooke and Annie came up and we went to the Ethiopian grocery store and have coffee. It is always so fun to have them make a trip over during the week. I was able to read Fox in Socks to Annie in the car. For anyone who has EVER read that book, it is a tongue twister of a book. Now, here we sit doing homework and preparing for our 1 class tomorrow. Oh how we look forward to Fridays! That's all for now. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I just never remember to grab my camera and cord. Maybe next post!