The New Year

I REALLY needed my winter break after a hectic fall semester! It proved to be very snowy - which made me slow down a little bit and enjoy just hanging out!

A few days after Christmas I was able to head with Jane to Kansas City for Malinda's baby shower! She is due in less than two weeks now, and I am SO excited for her and her husband, John. They are amazing people and will be awesome parents - I can't wait to meet their little guy: ) Malinda's sister, Jenny, hosted the shower at her cute house, and we had delicious snacks and holiday nog! We some shower games that had us all laughing, but my favorite part was reminiscing and sharing stories: ) I miss these girls a lot: ( Malinda is the cutest little pregnant mommy-to-be...

Me and Malinda


Malinda with her Mom, Tami, and her sister, Jenny (Aren't they beautiful!?!)


Group shot!


To celebrate the new year, Nick and I headed over to his parents' house for snacks and games. We had a good time...and stayed up until after 2 AM! I had not done that in a long time: )

Me and my new sis at midnight!


Me and my love after our midnight kiss!


I have some busy weekends coming up, so I have been working hard all week! I know the next couple weeks will be hectic at school, but I am willing to be a little stressed out to hang out with my friends and then head to Austin for the KU-TX game! SO excited!!!

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 - ?

10/26 - ?

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10/28 - ?

10/29 - ?

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; )