our newest addition!

On Saturday, May 30th we welcomed Schatzi Sokolewicz into our home. She's a little girl, about 11 weeks old and will be a little smaller than Maverick. She has such a spunky personality and really gives Mav a run for his money. We are so happy to have another dog in our family...I just hope we sleep better than last night! :)

Some pictures:





I'm sure there will be plenty of stories and pictures to come.
Love,
Kate

HOLA!

Well, I'm happy to report that we have officially booked a trip to Cabo San Lucas to celebrate our 1-year wedding anniversary! The trip is scheduled for 7/19-7/25!! I'm super excited...1 month 30 days 15 hours 33 minutes and 28 seconds...but who's counting? :)

Gotta go work on my tan...
Kate

Decisions, decisions......

Life is full of decisions everyday. Some big, some small. Some individual decisions, some group decisions, some family decisions, some ground braking decisions. White bread or wheat? Get out of bed or snooze a little longer? Take this job or take that job? Buy this house or that house? Book a vacation or spend money elsewhere (the bought house)? It's crazy to look back & see what results came out of certain decisions. I guess the best guide to follow when making a decision is to follow what is important to you, what are you comfortable with, & what makes you happy.

Being a married man now, I am faced with decisions all the time, & try to keep in mind what is best in the long run for my family. Sometimes, I'm reminded by my lovely wife that its good to live a little once in a while. We're trying to decide now on several items: furniture for the house, outdoor items for the house, proper monthly savings, & vacations. Kate & I both feel it is important to travel & see different parts of the world we'd like to see, take some time off from work to relax, & spend a little quality time together without outside emails, phone calls, or anything else invading out time together. It really is great to be together somewhere far away from everything/everyone else, to just relax & enjoy being together. So with all that said, we're faced with the ecision to take a vacation this summer to a Mexican beach, or to spend that $$$ on some stuff for the house. This should be decided in the very near future.

So on to other topics & goings on. Life is going great. Summer is getting closer & the weather is really warming up. I just downloaded music on an Ipod Shuffle Kate got me & it's awesome. We got an inflatable pool for the backyard. Thinking about getting another dog. Carrie (Kate's younger sister) is coming to stay with us for the coming week & that should give our home a shot in the arm of youth. Should be a lot of fun hanging out & showing her around our area. So that's about it. Just wanted to check in with everyone & catch you up on some things. Take care, have a wonderful day!

--Josh

The Art of Marriage

The little things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted;
the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,
it should continue through all the years.

It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy.

It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.

It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.
-Wilferd A. Peterson

...this is one of my favorite poems, and was recited during our wedding. I find it a good reminder of what we promised each other, and how great WE can be.

Love,
Kate

blessed weekend

This weekend has been so relaxing and very productive at the same time (never thought that could happen)...

Josh and I both had Friday off, and boy was it a Good Friday! We slept-in until about 10:30 which is a huge accomplishment because we usually can't sleep in past 8am (mostly due to a licky dog). After tinkering around the house for awhile, we dropped Maverick off at PetSmart for a haircut, and swung by the AT&T store. I have just about had it with cell phone companies. I have been with AT&T since I first got my cell phone like 10 years ago, so I find it really hard to believe that they can't cancel my # on my parents' account and let me sign up on my husband's account AND get an iphone AND a data plan...I mean, its a win-win situation for them. UGH. So now, I have to wait another 8 months to get my iphone. By then, I'm going to be so over AT&T and their bs that I'll switch to Verizon!!! After sitting at the AT&T store for over an hour, we went to Garden Ridge (loves it), Calloway's Nursery and Home Depot.

Finally! We're home with a backyard full of plants! We finally dug a trench and buried the border for our flower bed, and laid a bunch of mulch around the crate myrtles and irises.

Saturday we spent the day planting all the awesome plants (Sea Thunder Plantation & Asianic Lillies), trimming the 20 bushes in the front yard, mowing & edging. Let's just say, we were both sun burned and exhausted by the end of the day.

another fabulous softball weekend

This weekend, we got to go to Austin!! Iowa State was playing UT, so we got to watch my sister play AND visit with friends and family! Traffic and crowds were crazy downtown because of Texas Relays, UrbanFest 2009, a skateboarding event and a UT football spring training game (and UT softball, of course)...all downtown around campus...but we still had an amazing weekend!

We had a yummy dinner at Kona Grill at the Domain on Friday night with my 2 bestfriends. Josh tried his first sushi (California roll) and he actually didn't spit it out or throw-up! Can we talk about this for a second? Josh is one of the healthiest people I know - he runs ALL the time, takes 2165123 vitamins everyday, drinks lots of H2O and visits the doctor regularly - but for some reason the boy won't eat a vegetable to save his life. He claims its because his parents force-fed him greenery as a child. Seriously, who's parents DIDN'T?? I just don't understand what tastes so bad about broccoli or zucchini? Of course, I could probably be a vegetarian...if it wasn't for my deep love of steak (and chicken)...oh well...I guess I'll just continue to make Josh take baby-steps towards veggies (you like that?).

Saturday was gorgeous; not a cloud in the sky and temps in the low 80s. Josh got a pretty bad sunburn on both knees and his face (such a ginger). ISU lost in extra innings, but it was a really great game and my sister had some awesome plays. After the game, we ran over to Josh's grandma's house who lives around the corner from my parents. All of his aunts/uncles and his dad were in town visiting with grandma, so we decided to swing by and visit for a little bit. Its always great seeing family, especially people we don't get to see that often! After family-time we ordered pizza, took showers and watched the Final Four while sipping the finest boxed wine Austin has to offer.

Sunday was a little different story; the winds were blowing 30 WPM and the temps were in the mid-50s...totally brutal when not prepared. Needless to say, we were ready for THAT game to be over! After the game, we hit up the UT co-op and got some awesome gear and headed back to Plano.

All in all, it was an awesome weekend and I'm really anxious to get back to Austin to see and do everything we missed this time. On the top of our list: my other bf Ashley and Juan in a Million.

tailgating before the first game with my dad

Josh and I during the first game

with my mom and sister after the first game

Josh and I after the second game

after the second game with my sister and mom

guess who!?

Doesn't she look weird? Maybe its the missing clown makeup? Dunno...but just thought I'd share!