Spring Break

Spring Break Fail!

This was definitely not one of my favorite spring breaks.  The weather was NOT spring like and last night we got about 6 inches of snow.  I was hoping to get a little sun this week but no such luck. Jason was in Arizona most of the week and I am still trying to figure out why I did not go with him. Even though the weather was not what I wanted, I did happen to get a few things accomplished 

Friday started with 80 degree weather that Jason and I enjoyed with a few drinks on our patio.

My painting inspiration

On Saturday we went to the Snake Parade in North Kansas City and celebrated my future niece and nephew's birthdays with Jason's family.

Sunday started with me going to a St. Patrick's Day Zumba class that my friend Lauren was teaching some songs at. Afterwards, Jason and I went to Home Depot to get paint supplies to start our first home improvement project.  We decided to start with our "dining room" that we want to make into a den/library.  Our house is full of wood trim and the thought of painting all of it white, overwhelmed me.  I looked online to see what paint colors worked best with wood trim.  My inspiration came from this picture I found on Pinterest.  The next 5 days consisted of 1st coat, 2nd coat, touch ups  and putting the room back together.   I am definitely not a professional painter but I am happy with the results.  I am hoping each time I paint, I will get better.  We eventually want to get some book cases and a few comfy chairs for the room.

Top: Final product(a little dark to see), Finally done
Bottom: Before=removed chair rail and wallpaper underneath, paint color before, 2nd coat

Besides just painting, Jason and I also went catering tasting to pick our food for the wedding.  We are happy with our choices and even happier with Hy-Vee's reasonable prices.  Here's to not going broke when planning a wedding.  I also ordered and received my Save the Dates, had lunch with some friends, and read a couple books.  Even thought the weather has not been spring break like, I am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.  9 weeks left until summer!!

St. Patty's Day!

Spring Break has offically begun! It started with 80 degree weather on Friday but the weather quickly changed to 40 degrees and cloudy on Saturday.  Jason and I started the St. Patty's Day weekend by watching the Snake Parade in North Kansas City.  I had never been and even though it was pretty cold, I hope we make it a yearly tradition.  Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Top: (dark) Green Beer!; Fire truck at the Snake Parade
Middle: Braving the cold; "snake" at the Snake Parade
Bottom: Renascence Festival Performers; Bag pipes!

Loves of the Month

I don't follow many blogs but I enjoy this one and loved her idea of posting her "Monthly Favorites."  Since it is the beginning of March, I thought I would post my favorite things from February.

 

Books:  Gone Girl and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.  I was reading Gone Girl for book club but loved it      so much I decided to read another one of her books.  They are both a little on the disturbing side but I love the twists in each of the books.  I am thinking of reading her third book Sharp Objects next.

Movie:  Argo. Jason and I rarely go to the movies but we rent everything.  Out of the many movies we watched in February, Argo was by far my favorite.

TV:  Scandal on ABC.  I love my ABC Player app on my IPad  I can go to bed when I want to and not miss any of my favorite shows.  Over winter break I watched all the episodes from this season on the ABC  app and became quickly addicted.

Eating: Dark Chocolate Acai with Blueberry.  These are super addicting and I don't feel as guilty eating them

Best Thing about February: It would have to be the 4 snow days we had.  Unexpected days off from work are always a nice thing.

Snow Days

In the past week we have had 2 big storms that have resulted in 4 snow days and about 20 inches of snow.  As long as I don't have to venture out in it, I love the snow.  Jason and I have just spent the days off watching movies and spending time with our dogs.  Our dogs LOVE the snow.  Aspen is like a kid in a candy store in the snow and Charlie just likes the fact that Aspen wants to play.   Here are a few pictures I took of the snow.

Out dogs LOVE the snow.  They would spend all day outside if we would let them.

On these snow days I have also completed some wedding planning.  I few weeks back I saw a Groupon for personalized wine labels and decided they might be perfect for our wedding.  I finally designed the label and can't wait to get them.  I hope they turn out!

Jason and I also decided to go with Hy-Vee catering, bakery, and florist for our wedding. We were first going to just do catering but you get a 10% discount off your total bill if you use all 3.  We really like their prices and have heard great things about their food.  We are looking forward to our tasting in March. 

Next up is Save the Date invitations and booking our honeymoon!!    

Engagement Photos

Last weekend my friend Sarah, was kind enough to take some photos of Jason and I.  We I wanted some nice pictures of us.  Jason is not a big fan of taking pictures but he was a great sport.  I could not be happier with how they turned out.  Here are a few of my favorites.

 

 





Lucky 19

One of the best parts of being a teacher are the many "holidays" we have throughout the year.  I really think they are made so that teachers can make it through the whole year without having mental breakdowns. This long weekend started with a beautiful day on Saturday.  60 degree weather! You have to love the roller coaster temperatures of a Kansas City winter. My friend Sarah was amazing enough to volunteer to take Jason and I's engagement pictures at English Landing Park in Parkville. Stay tuned for pictures.  

January 19th also marked my parents 39th wedding anniversary.  If you have very had the privilege of meeting my parents, you have experienced what a marriage should be like. I have had amazing role models of what a great marriage is.  They have laughed, cried, and remained each other's best friends throughout the years.  They have taught me that marriage is not always about flowers and rainbows (the good times) but also about how you learn to stick together through the rough stuff.  It is always a work in progress.  

January 19th also marks exactly 9 months to our wedding.  It will be here before you know it.  

It also marks one month until Jason and I's 3 year anniversary.  We had our first day on February 19th, 2010.  

None of this was planned.  I just realized the significance of the 19th this weekend but am beginning to think it might be my new lucky number:)

Looking Back at 2012

It is New Year's Eve which means another year has gone by. As I sit here, I have been thinking of everything that has happen this year, I thought I would share a few of the highlights.

January

Our year started off pretty bad when our house got broken into.  It was an awful experience that I don't know if you can ever get over.  They took minor things and our insurance company (Allstate) was AMAZING but I am still afraid I will come home to our house being broken into.  For all those renters out there, the $10 a month I paid for renter's insurance was SO worth it.  

The best thing that came out of this was that we got our baby, Charlie, the next day.  We had been looking at getting a dog but I just never could decide on what to get.  We went to Petsmart to get fish food and I went to check out the dogs that a local shelter had there. When I saw Charlie (Jacko at the time), I knew he was my dog.  It took me about 30 seconds to decide if I wanted to get him or not.  He has been the best dog anyone could ask for.  He is such a mama's boy and loves to cuddle on the couch.  Aspen has been such a good big sister and has taught him so much.  They are great friends and play constantly.  I can't imagine ever only having one dog.  

Feburary

Jason and I celebrated our 2 year on the 19th.  We usually combine Valentine's Day and our anniversary together.  We wanted to skip the crowds and stay home so we grilled steak and lobster tails and had apple crisp and ice cream for dessert.  It was perfect.

March 

March started with a visit to Arizona to celebrate my brother's graduation from his masters program.  It was great to spend the time with my family and to see my brother graduate.  I thought I made him a pretty cool gift and he seemed to like it.  

March also brought a much needed Spring Break from school.  It was beautiful the whole week and I spent most of it laying outside in the sun.

Jason also started his new job at Travois in March. This has been such a blessing and we both love the company.  They are very family oriented and always want their employees to put family first.  They have an onsite day care and you can bring your dog to work.  Can't get any better than that!

April

April brought more warm weather and the wedding of Jason's friend Mike and his now wife Megan.  It was in Wichita and Jason was one of the groomsmen.  It will definitely be a wedding to remember since we had to leave the wedding early because the tornado sirens started going off.  It was a crazy night with tornadoes touching down all around us but luckily we were safe.  

May

The hosts and the proud mama to be

May is always a long month to get through with summer break right around the corner.  May started with me helping host my friend Sarah's baby shower.  It was definitely a fun day with lots of cute baby clothes.

Of course May ended with the last day of school.  Since we didn't use any of our snow days, the students got out early and us teachers had to stay for exciting meetings.  We probably learned a ton of great things but with summer vacation right around the corner, I don't think I remember much from them.  

June

June is the beginning of summer break but it is also the beginning of summer school.  Most teachers think I am crazy for doing this but it is easy money.  4 weeks, 4 days a week, and 4 hour days.  Can't beat that.  It gets me out of bed in the morning and I have the whole afternoon to do things.  

June also was when Jason and I decided to start looking to buy a house.  We thought we were going to be able to go month to month on our current rental property but that did not happen.  We knew we were cutting it close but we were hoping to find something, close, and move in by August 1st.  When we first started looking, I didn't know if Jason and I would ever agree on a house.  After only 2 weekends and 10 houses, we fell in love with one of the 1st houses we looked at.  We went back and forth with offers for a week and finally agreed on a price June 29th.  It was just in time since I was leaving for Europe for two weeks 4 days later.  

July

July was definitely the craziest month of the year.  I left on the 3rd for my two week trip to Europe with my best friend Lauren.  We had planned this over a year in advance but little did I know I would be buying a house at the same time.  Our trip started off pretty bad with our plane being delayed almost 10 hours.  This also meant that our plans of celebrating my birthday on the 4th in a London pub never happened and we missed a whole day in London.  We just pretended it never happen and started our "real" trip on the 5th.  We stayed in England until the 7th and then headed to Germany for 3 days.  Then we traveled by train to Switzerland which was the most beautiful place I have ever been.  If you ever get the chance to go, you MUST go to there.  After Switzerland, we left on the train to end our trip in Venice, Italy.  We drank a lot of wine, ate a lot of food, and had Gelato everyday.  The trip was amazing and worth every penny.  I know 30 years from now Lauren and I will still be talking about how much fun we had.  

While I was in Europe, Jason was taking care of all the paper work and finalization of our new house.  He was also braving the record breaking summer we were having in Kansas.  It was a hot summer and I am so glad I missed 2 weeks of it. 

July ended with Jason and I closing on our first home!! We closed on the 30th and had to be out of our rental by the 1st.  It was a crazy, HOT 3 days but so worth it.  We loved our new home and can't wait to make many memories here.  

  

August

August brought more hot weather and me going back to school.  We started a week later than normal which was great since I needed that week to help get unpacked.  August 15th was also Aspen's 4th birthday.  We celebrated with carrot pupcakes.  She really seemed to enjoy them.  

September

The biggest and most important thing that happen in September is that Jason and I got engaged!!! It was one of the happiest days of my life and I can't wait for our wedding on October 19th, 2013

October

My parents came to visit for a week in October.  It is always great to see them and I wish I could see them more often.  We visited and booked our wedding reception site and bought my wedding dress.  October also is the month of my favorite holiday, Halloween.  My team and I dressed up as the 4 seasons ( I was winter) and I only got 3rd in the staff pumpkin carving contest.  I was pretty disappointed since I won last year.  This was also the first Halloween where Jason and I had trick-or-treaters.  

November

Jason and I hosted our housewarming/engagement party in November.  We had a great turn out and I really appreciated everyone driving up to our house. 

For Thanksgiving I made the drive up to Iowa since my parents were going to be there.  It was so much fun to spend Thanksgiving with so many family members and I hope this will happen more often.

December

I always enjoy the many traditions of December.  Holiday parties, Lauren's cookie decorating night, and Julie's cookie exchange. We had our first snow day of school even if it was the worst day to have one(the last day before break). We celebrated Jason's birthday at Kansas City Sea Life and I carried on my family tradition of oyster stew and summer sausage sandwiches.  We spent Christmas morning with just the two of us and had Christmas dinner with Jason's family.  

2012 has been a great year but I am looking forward to 2013.  Jason and I are looking forward to taking on some small home improvement projects and most of all our wedding!  I hope everyone has a great New Year and here is to 2013!