Merry Christmas!

The past month has been hectic, but at least the time moved quickly! I have another semester of teaching completed, and I finished two more grad classes (only four more to go!!!). I have to say that the last few months were far from thrilling, but I made it through it! My awesome fam and super husband have been most helpful and have been patient with all of my mood swings! I haven't had much time for friends, but I have enjoyed their emails nonetheless: )

The week before finals we had some more snow - but we only had enough for Callie to play in and not enough to cancel school (even the temperatures were in far below zero with the wind chill!).


Winter break has been full so far! I have done SO MUCH shopping - for others and myself! I was in need of some new clothes, and I found some great additions that were on sale! It was also fun to have some shopping buddies in my mom and sisters! On Monday, Claire, Lisa, and I went to the Legends. It was a fun sister day: )


I also made some treats and wrapped presents. Callie helped...sort of: )




A GIANT snow storm changed all of our holiday plans! On Christmas Eve I hit the gym and finished up a few errands. We braved the snow and picked up Grandpa for soup at Mom and Dad's. We were not able to make it to church: ( - but it was not safe to head downtown. Nick was an AMAZING driver and safely helped Grandpa and I reach our homes!

Our first married Christmas Eve


Nick cleaning the snow off of the car...HA!


Callie preparing to check out the snow drifts!


On Christmas day, we were VERY lucky that Butch and Timmy both have four-wheel drive, so we had transportation that was safe and could actually make it through the snow (sort of!). Butch picked us up at 8 AM! Ryan opened a few presents - including his sock monkey jack-in-the-box from us!) when we arrived, but some of his presents were with Tim.


Because of the storm, Tim and the girls had to stay in Norman, OK, the night before with all of Santa's gifts! They woke up early and made the rest of the trip. They joined us about 1 PM. My family came over about 2 PM, and we had a DELICIOUS meal-ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, noodles, green beans, stuffing, raspberry jello, rolls, corn pudding, and SO MUCH DESSERT! SO good! I left with my family about 4:30 and went to visit Grandma at Brandon Woods. She looked pretty in her pink polo and green cardigan! Butch and Nick picked me up, we went home to change and pick up Callie, and then we made our way back to Nick's parents' house for the rest of the evening. We opened presents, watched The Hangover, and played hearts until 1 AM! We had a busy and happy Christmas!

new book!

I have failed to keep with my daily updates, but I hope to make it a habit soon. I do have a post almost ready to go - I just always want to wait until I have time to post the pics that go with the posts: (

I am supposed to grading papers at school, but I needed a break! I thought I'd share a little about the new book that I am reading! I read all 488 pages of Jane Eyre with my Advanced English class over the last few weeks, so the day after I finished I went to pick up the book for the book club that I just joined. Wal-Mart did not have the book, so I impulsively bought the book with the lab on the cover that says it is a best seller...Lost and Found. I quickly read 50 pages at the gym, and I am looking forward to reading some more this afternooon. I will let you all (if you are still reading this - ha!) know how it is. So far, so good!

Happy Thanksgiving!

11/18 - Made it through the LONG day at school, and I was able to grade some papers! We did not have club this night, so I went to the gym in the evening. We wrote some more thank you notes, and Nick made us some yummy soup!

11/19 - Mom and I went to the Free State musical, Pippin! It was much better than expected, and I was happy to have company: )

11/20 - Nick and I had a quick bite to eat at Salty Iguana, and then we put up our first Christmas tree and set out some other Christmas decorations. After I ordered some pictures for scrapbooking, Nick and I shared a bottle of honeymoon wine (a cab from Kohler) and played cards. Callie was good all night, and she actually took a nap! It was a fun evening: )


11/21 - We were BUSY on Saturday! I worked out and graded some papers. Then, Nick and I had lunch at Ingredient and did some looking for Christmas presents. We went to Nebraska Furniture Mart to look for a trundle bed. I went to Mom's to scrapbook for the evening. Good day!

11/24 - After school, I dropped Callie off to be boarded, and then Butch and Judy picked me up to start out trip to TX. I was sad when I realized I had forgotten my bag of scrapbooking stuff to work on, but I quickly felt better when we picked up Nick and he surprised me with the movie Up! I had told him how badly I wanted to see it, so he rented it from Redbox and we watched on our drive. Such a thoughtful husband: ) The drive wasn't too bad, and we made it there about 1 AM.

11/25 - Wednesday I went on a short run through the neighborhood. They have nice wide sidewalks that wind around through ponds. After we showered up, we ran some errands and ate at Freebirds. In the afternoon, I had some time to finally put some apps on my iPod touch. It was kind of addicting - but fun: ) Wednesday night we played Apples to Apples, and laugh, laugh, laughed! So fun!


11/26 - Happy Thanksgiving! Today has been AWESOME! I went on a run this morning and have been relaxing ever since! Judy, Jenny, and Butch made a DELICIOUS meal! We STUFFED our faces: ) I think everyone took a nap at some point during the day - it was a good day!

snow!?!

Nick and I are waiting for the KU-Memphis game to come on the tv. The game has started, but there is another game on tv in its final minutes. Callie does not like the radio and being so cute: ) She keeps "talking" to the radio! Now, I think Nick is scaring her because he is voicing his frustrations that the game is not on yet! The game started after 9 PM, so I do not know that I will be awake for the whole game. I am making cookies now to help me stay up: ) I am working on my blog and writing thank you notes (still!) as well.

11/11 - Picked up the last ticket at BodyPump...at 5:05 AM! The class is now starting at 5:30 AM, so I have to be up even earlier! I do love the class, so I guess it is worth it; )

11/12 - Productive day overall. I found out my teaching schedule is changing some next semester, but I am hoping it will be okay.

11/13 - Nick received last-minute tickets to the KU-Hofstra game. It was our first time in Allen Fieldhouse as a married couple: )









11/14 - BUSY DAY! NIck and I woke up earlier than planned, so we finally finished Flash Forward! We tried to watch it - unsuccessfully - to watch it Thursday and Friday! I took Callie for a long run/walk, and then I dropped Nick and Paul off for the KU-NE game. I stopped at school and worked hard to have my lesson plans ready for this week. After a quick shower, I graded some papers and played with Callie. I was awake ALL NIGHT for the Awake 4 Awareness lock in at Free State. We had a great group of kids, and I was happy with how the evening went overall!



11/15 - I successfully slept from 6 AM to 1 PM and then took a shower. After four weeks without anything to drink but water for the H2O Project (aside from a few beers and a glass of wine), I went to my fave coffee shop, Bistro Bella, and had a bottomless cup of coffee and a honey almond waffle - DELICIOUS! I Skyped with sis as well, and she had me laughing out loud like a loser in the corner. HAHA. Here we are:

Nick and I went to the store, and I had my FIRST diet coke in 4 weeks...AMAZING. Somehow I was able to accomplish more than I normally do on the weekend, and I was able to head to bed at a reasonable hour!

11/16 - A lady at Brandon Woods told me I looked beautiful. I needed her comment - almost as much as I need a haircut: ) Ha! When I left BW, it was snowing like crazy! It snowed some during the school day, but this was like a blizzard! Check out my car!



11/17 - I graded eight papers at school today, so I am on pace to be done before Thanksgiving! I hope I can stay on track!!! Productive day overall (...except that I did not clean our bedroom as planned...).

I promise the last few weeks are coming soon!

Although it may appear that I quit blogging, I have not. I have a post waiting for pictures, and then I will post it! The last few weeks have been SO SO SO busy! I have promised myself that I will post tomorrow...

11/10 - Sis found out she has another interview in L-Town! YAY! I also realized I only have 21 days with each of my classes until the semester is over (20 if I do not count our final day!)!!! SO close! I also marked EVERYTHING off my to-do list for tonight. I graded everything I had set aside, cleaned the kitchen, dusted the living room, wrote 6 more thank you notes, and paid the bills!

Catching up...

Grrr. I lost some of my posts, and I am too tired to try to remember the good parts of those days: ( I will fill them in if I think of them. I am also having trouble with pictures. I guess blogging was not in the cards for me tonight: (

Here is a pic of Katie and Nathan's twin boys, Owen and Abram, and Brooke's daughter, Adalyn. So cute!



10/18 - ?

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10/20 - Conferences actually went well for once!

10/21 - Conferences went well...again!

10/22 - ?

10/23 - NO SCHOOL!!! I was busy all day, but it was a productive kind of busy! I was able to attend my favorite class at the gym after helping with the Social Awareness Club community sale. I clean A LOT, and I made some progress on my homework!

10/24 - Today was a great day overall because I was able to see friends and family in between all of my other responsibilities! Nick was busy at the KU game, so I took advantage of the day! I went to KC with Mom. We went to Crate and Barrel - I LOVE Crate and Barrel SO much! This is what I picked up!!!



Then, we went to Wal-Mart, and I bought some sweet pink crates, hanging files, and printed file folders to FINALLY organize the ridiculous amount of paperwork we have accumulated!

Our last stop was Archiver's. LOVE Archiver's, too! I bought the AWESOME scrapbook below, and I am actually feeling like a scrapbook of pics since our wedding may be possible!


After working out, grading some papers, etc., I joined Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Paul, Diane, and Hayley for a yummy meal! It was good to see family!

10/25 - ?

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10/30 - Pizza and a movie with Nick! Sadly I slept through the ending of yet another movie: (

10/31 - I had a busy day leading up to a Halloween party! LONG run/walk with Callie on a beautiful day - I did not want to work out AT ALL (I am blaming my flu shot!)...but I did! We had SO much fun at the party - we went as Mizzou fans. Ha! : )






11/1 - Daylight Savings: ) : ) : ) We had some extra sleep, and I was amazingly productive after a long night! I finally ran a few errands that I had been putting off as well. Yummy soup and sandwiches for dinner!

11/2 - Realized that I only have to complete two more assignments in my psychology class. SO close to being done with this HORRIBLY busy semester!!!

11/3 - Realized that Nick and I leave three weeks from today for Thanksgiving in Fort Worth! After a relaxing few days, I will return to school and only have two weeks before the week of finals - YES!

11/4 - Went to Applebee's with a gift card we received as a wedding gift, and then we watched a good movie - Pelham 123 - before falling asleep!

11/5 - I woke up early in anticipation of a busy day! After an awesome work out, I showered and graded some papers. I went to KC to watch the Free State soccer team play in the state championship. They lost: ( - but it was AMAZING they were there in the first place! The 11 seniors on the team were freshmen and sophomores the two seasons that I helped with the boys. SO proud of them and happy for Coach! I stopped by Archiver's (I may be obsessed...) and picked up some page protectors! I may be ready to scrapbook the months since our wedding!!! As soon as I reached Lawrence, I changed, and Nick and I went to Topeka. We went to Dick's and I bought some new Nike+ shoes before an awesome dinner at Olive Garden! Nick showed me his KTKA office, and we stopped to pick up a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, we were too tired to drink our bottle of wine! Ha! I was asleep on the couch before 9:45! We are old...: (



11/6 - Long run with Callie on a BEAUTIFUL day; )

no time - but a quick laugh!

I don't have time to catch up tonight, but I had to share this video. It will definitely be my highlight from today:

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Searching the Web

10/16 - I had a productive day at school without students. After visiting with G & G at Brandon Woods for a few minutes, I showered up. Then, Nick and I went to KC with Paul and Anne. We saw Owen Benjamin at Stanford and Sons. It was awesome to do something different and to laugh: )

I tried to find a video on YouTube, but I couldn't find anything REALLY funny that wasn't too rude - ha! This video is not nearly as funny as he was last night...but at least you can see him! I guess he is taking over the "Jingles with Jay" on Jay Leno.

10/17 - We woke up early to Callie barking. I'm still not sure if she was barking in her sleep or at something outside. It was strange - since she doesn't bark Nick and I both panicked and ran downstairs to see what was going on. We couldn't fall back to sleep after that: ( We had biscuits and gravy at Judy and Butch's house, and then we spent the morning cleaning out our garage. Both of our cars fit - YAY!!! SO excited: ) The weather has really changed, so I was afraid it would snow before we had a chance to move our cars back inside. Now I do not have to worry anymore: )

I made pumpkin bread tonight while Nick went with friends to watch the football game. The bread turned out okay, but I do not think I left it in the oven long enough. It tastes good, but it sort of sunk down after I took it out of the oven: (

I did have some time to play on the Internet tonight after grading during the game. Here are a few sites/items I like:

Zappos

My Nike+ is not working with my other shoes, and I REALLY want it to work: ( I do not have Nike+ shoes now, and I am wondering if it would help to have some. I know you do not have to have them, but I think it would be easier, and I do miss my other Nike+ shoes. These are $80 including shipping...

See Jane Work

I am hoping to organize some paperwork next weekend. I am hoping there will be some sort of "deal" at Office Depot in the paper tomorrow. I still have not decided how I want to organize either - hanging folders in crates? folders in file boxes?

I LOVE all of these and wish I could splurge on them all!

Christmas Ideas:

Half Broke Horses

I read about Half Broke Horses in People magazine. Since I loved The Glass Castle, I want to read this one as well!

A Big Little LIfe

I saw this book at Dillon's...and now I think I must read it. I LOVE dog books...because I love my sweet dog, Callie.

Surviving...

10/11 - Sunday was BUSY! I slept in - yes! - and then worked hard to grade papers and work on my IDT homework. I went to Body Pump in the afternoon and cleaned my room at LFS a bit, too. Nick and I went to Mom and Dad's for dinner with Tim, Claire, and Grandpa. We had yummy chicken that Mom made from one of Grandmom's recipes!

10/12 - Received this pic from my teacher-friend, Alice. I went to her baby shower on Saturday with Mom, and we had a great time. During one of the games, I mistakenly guessed that her baby bump was MUCH bigger that it actually is! Here we are laughing...

10/13 - I had a LONG day, but when I came home Nick surprised me with a hot ham and cheese sandwich: ) It is amazing what a well-cooked sandwich can do: )

10/14 - Made a middle-of-the-day decision to take Thursday off from school! Felt a sense of relief! Mom surprised me with a McDonald's parfait after school - YUM!!! Watched Modern Family with Nick: )

10/15 - VERY productive day! Slept until 7:30 AM, and goofed on the computer until 8:15 AM. Recorded grades until 11 AM, and then I hit the gym. After a shower, I went to the coffee shop and had a honey almond waffle, a banana, and a bottomless cup of pumpkin spice coffee for lunch and busted out some serious IT homework. When I came home, I recorded more grades while completing 3 loads of laundry. Then, Nick picked me up and we went shopping for our Halloween costumes. After dinner at Chipotle (with free coupons!), we grabbed bones for Cal and headed home. I did some lesson planning and folded some laundry, and now I am about ready for bed! I still have quite a bit to do this weekend, but I feel much better! Time for Flash Forward...

I Love My Husband!

Nick was (extra) AMAZING this week! I was super stressed - more so than usual for some reason - and not in a good mood AT ALL. I am lucky to have someone who understands me SO well...and loves me anyway!

10/6 - Instead of making fun of my new wrinkle-reducing night cream, Nick told me it smells like a bouquet of roses: )

10/7 - Nick made mac and cheese and hot dogs for dinner: ) We watched and laughed at Modern Family together. Nick wondered why I did not smell like bouquets when I climbed in bed without my night cream. Ha: )

10/8 - I have been SO stressed about our messy, messy house! Without complaint, Nick tackled Man-Town while I worked in the guest room. We did not finish of course, but we spent 45 minutes throwing away trash, organizing, etc. I feel much better, and he gave me the push I needed! We watched Flash Forward together - but I fell asleep before the end: (

10/9 - After a long week, I was sad that I did not have an amazing and relaxing weekend to look forward to. I was stressing about what to do Friday night for "date night", and Nick came up with the perfect plan! He came home and walked with me and Cal, then he made one of my favorite meals, and then he told me we were "going to Santa Barbara" by pouring me a glass of wine we bought on our honeymoon! So sweet! We also tried to watch a movie - but I fell asleep a few minutes into it (What's new?).

10/10 - I had told Nick I would take him downtown to tailgate before the KU game today, but I was VERY late! When I called Nick to tell him that I was going to wait for the awards after the run, he told me no problem! He did not complain at all, and he was happy and proud of me for winning! It was a great start to the day, and I am thankful he was so flexible!

WOW Run

This morning was the WOW Run at Body Boutique to support WTCS. It was SO cold - today's high was lower than the average low for this time of year! I do not know my official time yet, but it was okay considering the weather and the hills! I think I came in around 27:00...and it was good enough for first in my age group! Ha: ) There were not many people at this race, but it is still fun to say I was first!

I stuck around for the awards because I had a feeling that Andy had placed - I had no idea that I had! He was first in his age group, too!

It was also Danira's first 5K, and she placed third in her age group! I guess you could say that Free State teachers dominated the race - ha: )

I do want to write about running a little bit. Sometimes I think that people think that I was born a runner or that running is easy for me because I have always played sports and because I run several 5Ks throughout the year - but it is not. Running is still not easy for me, and I must say that I am proud of myself for running at all. Sometimes during races I want to stop, but I don't. When I had to run for soccer, I would stop. My body would shut down. Even if I wanted to keep running, I could not. At some point, I have figured out how to keep going. I have not been able to figure out why this changed happened, but I am happy that I am strong enough to push myself and my body. It feels good to run, and now it clears my mind and makes me feel good about myself. I hope I am able to run for years to come!

I have also decided that I will wear an Alzheimer's shirt and my Alzheimer's bracelet for all of my runs from now on. When running, I can't help but think about how lucky I am to be young and to be moving and breathing and to be thinking and feeling. I will wear my shirt to continue to raise awareness for a terrible disease that does not allow people to move and breathe and to think and feel.

Memory Walk

We honored Grandma last Saturday at the Memory Walk for Alzheimer's awareness. This was our second year, and we doubled our team to six! I hate this disease, and I hope that our efforts to raise money and awareness will help lead to a cure before the millions of people who are projected to face this disease have to.

Thank you to all who donated and/or took the time to learn about Alzheimer's Disease.