Well, it certainly has been a long time since I've been around this-here-neck-of-the-woods. There are a lot of things to catch up on since my last post in October... :/ I once had a goal to blog more frequently, but now I realize that kind of goal is not realistic for me. I find that I am pretty good about blogging in the summer, but not so much during the school year. So, today's post if more of an update of what's been going on in the Lorenz world since this past October...
In October, we started fostering dogs as a way to "interview" for a new addition to our family. We had gone back and forth on whether or not we were really ready for a second dog, so fostering seemed like a good way to introduce ourselves and Lucy to the idea of having a another fur-child in the house. We had Harvey (a whippet) for a bit before Luke's uncle adopted him in November. We knew right away that Harvey was not the dog for us, but we are happy to see him in a good home. Harvey was adopted the day before Thanksgiving, and we were already lined up to take in another foster dog the day after Thanksgiving. In the 24 hour period where we were down to a single dog, Lucy moped around the house and seemed to really miss Harvey. Then, we met Kale.
We were a bit nervous about bringing Kale home. Kale is a Great Dane/Pit Bull mix, and since neither of us had much experience with the pit bull breed, we weren't sure how Kale would be in our home. Luckily, Kale turned out to be a wonderful dog and meshed well with Lucy. Kale is about 4 or 5 years old, and we fostered him until March (more on his adoption later...)
In December, Lucy turned 1 year old and we had a great time celebrating the holidays with our families.
January was pretty uneventful, and in February, we made it up to Crosslake with Luke's family, and some of Luke's sister's friends. Since they shut down the water during the winter, we had managed to get a living social coupon for two discounted nights, plus a food voucher. We managed to keep ourselves very entertained (human curling was probably the highlight of the trip!).
March was a pretty big month in our world. It included a casino night, where I came out with $1 more than I left with! It was pretty exciting. I had gambling and loosing money, so when we found the $1 tables, I jumped on them and was able to play more than 4 hands.
Another amazing part about March was that Kale got an application for adoption. We had been considering keeping Kale, but we wanted to give others a chance first. Once the application came in, and I started to respond to the emails the potential adopter was asking, I started to cry frequently. At that point, Luke and I decided that if this didn't work out for Kale to be adopted by this other family, that we would officially make him a part of the Lorenz family. Luckily for us, the family who was interested lived in Canada, and since the rescue we were fostering for does not adopt out of the country, they were unable to pursue him any longer. That night, we sent the coordinator an email letting her know of our intentions, and by the end of the week, he was officially ours! While there are still sometimes when we realize life would be a lot easier with one dog, we are so happy that he is ours forever. Old Man Kale Monster is ours, and our Lucy Goose couldn't be happier to have a brother.
Also, at the end of March/beginning of April we found out that we would be welcoming a niece or nephew into our family in December! We're pretty excited for Luke's sister and her husband, and are looking forward to having a baby to practice on before we decide to add some non-furchildren to our own brood in the next few years.
April also brought on the time of year that all teachers in my district loath- this is the time of year that probationary teachers (such as myself) find out whether or not they have been pink slipped or get to stay on for the next year. Last year, I was pink slipped until I was able to re-interview for my job. This year, when my principal pulled me into her office, I was nervous, but that all went away when she said that she was able to retain a position for me for next year. I was pretty much reminded by her that we are overstaffed in English, but thank goodness for the fact that I am almost done with my reading license program...
Update to be continued...
