6 Month Anniversary

It's hard to believe how fast time goes by. Dave and I have been married for 6 months already! Now, for some of you veterans that may not seem like a lot but it just feels like we just tied the knot. I think this officially means I'm no longer a bride :( how sad. I suppose it is time for me to pass on the torch. For our 6 month anniversary, Dave planned the most wonderful date ever! First he woke me up to give me a present, the long awaited camera! We then got up, we to the Botanical Gardens to take some shots, visited my cousin's new apartment and had a very nice dinner at the Signature Room which is where he took me right after her proposed. We then spent the night at Marriott in Chicago, which I will say we got to stay for free! That's one of the only perks of Dave living in a hotel most of the time!! This morning we got up and walked around downtown and re-visited the place where Dave proposed! The last thing we did was stop by Dave's parent's and share with them about all of our fun adventures. This was definitely a weekend to remember. Here are some pictures from our wonderful adventure as well as some of my first shots with my new camera. I hope to gain much more knowledge on how to use it well!

This is the tree guy at the botanical gardens. He reminds me of something out of the Never Ending Story.

Berries!

We got pretty cold almost right away, so we went into the green house. Well, my camera lens began to fog up but I thought it made a cool effect. So here is Dave with the fog!

Here are some random flowers in the green room. I have no idea what they are!

This one's my favorite, because it's fuzzy and it looks like it belongs on Sesame Street!

This is a picture of my cousin, Melinda and her roommate who is Sudanese! Dave had a great time talking with her and she complimented him on his Arabic. Apparently he has not lost his touch! Way to go!!

Meli's other roommate had a little dog named "Taco". He was way too cute and he even winked for the camera!

At the hotel we stayed at they had a giant gingerbread castle all made out of real things! It was enormous. This was probably may favorite little part of the castle.

I decided Dave need some glamor shots! Hopefully he'll get the hint that he needs to change his profile pic. Maybe one of these will do?

This picture is of the statue in front of the fountain where Dave proposed. He asked me to look up and instead I looked all the way up and stared at the Hancock building. Dave wanted me to notice this because it said "of the glory of the Lord". Much cooler than that building!

This is a picture of the Chookaszian Christmas card. We helped Dave's parents fold and stuff several envelopes today. I had a lot of fun!

And that is a little glimpse into our anniversary weekend! If 6 months is this awesome I wonder how much more amazing 1 year will be!!!

Our first Christmas tree and fire!

Last Friday was the day we decided to set up our Christmas tree. Dave was a little reluctant to get one at first but after some convincing he finally gave in! We have a beautiful 6ft. tree and hardly any ornaments on it! I told Dave we weren't going to buy any because I'm sure people will end up giving us some over the years. So, right now we have a total of 8!!!! I think it looks precious even though some of Dave's friends laughed at how bare it looked. Here are some pictures of us putting our tree together.

Here is Dave with our star!

Dave had the honor of putting our tree together

I got the honor of putting up our star!

Here Dave hugs the tree...as he is so overwhelmed by its beauty!

Our first tree! So...it's a little bare what can I say....it's still pretty to me! Notice the lack of presents under the tree. I'm expecting a nice BIG golden box ...:) and hopefully I'll be able to share with you what Dave got me! :) :)

Here are a few of my favorite ornaments:

OUR STAR

This one is actually one of my favorites. My friend Jess gave me this last year when Dave and I got engaged. See the man frog has a huge diamond ring behind his back! It's soo cute.

The Angel of Peace

And a shiny red ornament! It's pretty.

On top of putting our Christmas tree together, Dave and I have found some new things to enjoy our time together. Since we have limited time, we've had to be creative. There is some pressure in trying to make every date extra special but we have so much fun! One of our dates we put together a fire, drank some wine and had fruit, crackers and cheese on the floor. I think we also rented a movie to watch! Lots of fun!!! We've done this a few times and on one of the occasions I told Dave not to poke the log to get it to go out (it's not a normal log). Well he poked it anyway and the log was burning pretty intensely. We poured some water on the log only to cause lots of smoke. Our entire apartment smelled like burning wood. Well, we decided to go to bed and I woke up in the middle of the night trying to tell Dave that I thought it smelled terrible but he didn't pay too much attention to me. THEN! at 2 in the morning the smoke detector and carbon monoxide alarm goes off and Dave and I wake up in a panic. We opened the windows, went online to read about what to do. In the end , we were fine but boy was it a fun evening with an early wake up the next day.

Here are some pictures of our fire before the big incident!

I don't know that I'm supposed to give this away but Dave didn't actually build that fire. It was a special log that sets itself on fire after you light it. He was a little disappointed but I'm a huge fan of these logs...they even crackel!

Wine, Cheese and fruits

Here is a close up of what was on our plate!

Even though Dave and I don't get to spend to much time together, we really try to make the best of the time we do have together. Some of my favorite things we've done so far are:

1. We volunteered with our church to pass out meals for the Angel Food Network Ministry.

2. Last night Dave and I played Monopoly for 3 hours because I kept begging him to play with me until I won! He's such a great sport!!

3. Dave and I went to the Muvico Theatres to watch a movie and we ended up seeing a bunch of exotic animals. We got to hold a crocidile, monkey, snake, parrott, fox and Dave held a roach!!

4. We've had a few dinner dates where we will either go out or I will make a nice meal at home.

5. Sometimes the best dates are just when you're in the room together doing nothing!!!

Back to SCHOOL!

I don't know how many of you know this but I actually started my Master's program this year. It was a rather spontaneous decision as I completed my application with transcrpits and reccomendation letters in one week!!! Anyway as of three minutes ago I finished my first class! It feels pretty amazing even though I still have a bunch to go. I am getting my Master of Education in Leadership and Administration. I'm not sure what I will do with this yet, but I know that it will come in handy some day. The possibilities are endless as I could be a fine arts coordinator, department chair, principal, dean etc. Right now I am enjoying being a choir teacher and I can't wait until I have a few more years of experience. A little bit about my grad classes:
1. We've already had some people drop because they thought the work load was too much. It is a lot but it's not THAT bad! (whimps...j/k)
2. I am taking classes through Benedictine University in Lisle. It is only a 15 min. drive from my apartment which makes it great!
3. One of my high school teachers is taking the class with me! Weird but not that weird!
4. Since it is a Catholic University we get devotionals sent to us from the priest. I think they're cool! It's nice to get a small glimpse of what it would have been like to go to a Christian school.
5. Classes are only 5 weeks long...hence all the crazy amounts of work!

That's it! 1 class closer to graduation!!!

Keren

Being sick and married

So, I am sick for the first time as a married man. It has been a new experience. It started last Tuesday as a wicked sore throat and runny nose while I was in Atlanta. By Thursday morning I was feeling pretty awful and as I woke up to no one but the pillow beside me I realized how much I enjoy having a wife to sleep next to. I learned quickly that traveling while sick is not very fun. Getting home Thursday night and giving Keren a hug was a great feeling.

We spent the weekend together and she never denied me a hug or kiss on account of my illness. She made me special tea to drink and didn't complain when I blew my nose obnoxiously loud.

And what was her reward for being so wonderful? Well, she woke up this morning with a wicked sore throat and runny nose.

Official response to Baby-gate

I neither confirm nor deny the allegations of the below blog. The pictures were or were not taken out of context to show that I do like to spend time (on certain occasions) with babies. No further comment.

The Truth about Dave!!!

Today's post is simply to expose the truth about Dave. When I first met Dave he was not very good with children. In fact, I'm pretty sure he claimed that he didn't really care for kids all that much. Well, I believe that I have gathered up enough evidence over the past few years to prove that wrong. I believe Dave's love for children has grown and that he just secretly enjoys being around them. So, I am here to expose the truth about my husband ...the baby lover! Here is the evidence:

Here he is holding JT his little cousin. This was taken shortly after he changed baby Danny's diaper!!!

Here he is with Selah....now I said DAVE loves kids...not that all kids love Dave, as you can see....

This is the most recent piece of evidence that I have, here he is with the youngest baby he has ever held. Baby Kate!

And the 2nd youngest baby: AJ....Look how he watches football and continues to care for that baby.

This is some of the more early evidence I have. He is just learning how to hold a baby here. You can see JT isn't in the most comfortable position.

Here Dave plays hide and seek with TWO babies.

I don't even know who this baby is but he still held her!

His love for babies is world wide....here he is with a few Sudanese babies!

Korean baby! :)

SO THERE YOU GO... the truth: DAVE is a BABY LOVER!!!!

Things I (Dave) enjoy about being married to Keren

1) Sleeping next to my wife. I miss it a lot now that I'm traveling weekly.

2) When she shrugs her shoulders and says, "hmm mmm."

3) Knowing that I can get a clear, upfront answer on any issue from my best friend, my wife, even when it hurts.

4) That she is way into politics. I don't even need to watch CNN because she can summarize it for me. Politics are a big passion for me and it gives me great pleasure to discuss it with my wife. I'm also very passionate about sports. We are still working on get her excited about those.

5) She is a fantastic cook. I have liked every dish she has cooked (in fact, I have LOVED every dish, except one...).

6) She has an incredible faith in the Lord and faithful personality.

7) She takes dance lessons with me.

8) She is tight with my family and has a great family herself. Each family is unique, but great in its own way.

There are more, but that's a quick snippet.

Savannah, GA

One of the perks of Dave traveling is that I get to go visit him for free! Last weekend we decided to take full advantage of this and we planned a fun trip to Savannah, GA. There are a few interesting things that I learned about Savannah while I was there. First, I had no idea that Savannah is very historic. It is a civil war town and the buildings are just gorgeous! Along with this though, I found out that the city is the 2nd most haunted city in the U.S. which really creeped me out...especially since we were staying in a very old hotel. Our hotel was used as an old civil war hospital. It was beautiful with all of its original flooring and doors....yet very creepy. Dave and I took a tour of the city and of course it poured rain the entire weekend we were there. Here are some of the pictures of our hotel and on the tour.

This is a picture of the outside of our hotel. There were several wedding receptions taking place in the hotel. Savannah is also known for having beautiful squares everywhere. In fact, one of these squares is featured in the movie, Forest Gump, where Tom Hanks is sitting and waiting for the bus to come.

This is not our hotel, just a restored house that is very very old!

While on the tour we also stopped by a cathedral that was built in Savannah. This cathedral was gorgeous and the stain glass windows were just unbelievable. Here are a few pictures from inside the church.





The next day Dave had planned for us to go to an island right off of Florida and only 20 mins. from Savannah. Of course, the next day it rained even harder!!! The island itself was quite unusual and we really had no interest in hanging out there for very long. Here is a video of our driving experience!!! As you can see...most people were leaving the island while only a few odd folks like ourselves were driving towards the island.

We did not end up having an ocean view lunch...nor did we see an alligators :(

On the way back from the island we decided to not waste the trip so we decided to stop by a civil war fort. Dave loves the civil war and I have always wanted to visit civil war battlefields and forts. So, we stopped by and watched a video on the history of the fort and learned about a battle that took place there. We were able to walk around and see some of the actual battle wounds that the fort still showed. It was quite amazing!!

The Lord's Prayer

This summer I had the honor of singing at my friend Courtney's wedding. It was spectacular! Here is a video of me singing "The Lord's Prayer". Please note the person behind the taping was Dave. Also note the fact that he focuses more on the photographer than me in the middle of my performance! I think he thought he had really funny hair...or maybe he was trying to see if he had a NIKON D300. hmmm. I don't know! Anyway, here is the performance...it was a special moment for me!

A Baby!!!

Yes a baby! I am talking about my friend Brianna Saxer who just delivered her brand new baby boy!!! His name is A.J. and he is just a doll! If you're allowed to call a boy a doll! Dave and I went to meet him for the first time and he just mesmerized us the entire time. He is just the sweetest little bundle of joy! Here are some pictures of our first meeting with A.J. I can't wait to see him grow up!!

We both got a turn holding the baby, but of course as soon as it was Dave's turn the baby spit up all over him. Typical!

Dave's going to be a good father some day.......just not today :)

This is one of my favorite pictures! Look at how precious his little foot is!!

Here he is with his proud mommy!!

And of course with his proud grandma too!!