Merry Christmas!

So much has been happening lately I haven't had a chance to sit down and breathe, much less update. I was so busy at work the last few weeks trying to get everything squared away and ready for winter break, and it just seems the days go by faster with all the Christmas things, too. We've been busy every weekend, so finally I'm on Christmas break down and waiting for the cable guy to come hook up our cable! I'll try to update about as much as I can remember.

A couple of weeks ago we went out for Josh's work party and went to Prairie Meadows. His dad and wife were nice enough to give us each $100 to start gambling with so I should have stopped while I was ahead! I played the Sex and the City slot machine and was up to $200 at one point in time, but got greedy and walked away with only $27. (Better than nothing, right?) Then we've just been busy planning all the family Christmases and getting everything ready. On the last day of school myself and two other co-workers dressed up as Santa and his elves and handed out cookies and milk. The kids loved it!

I got the house all decorated right after Thanksgiving, but I've been putting some finishing touches on them. Jane came over and we finished the other curtains PLUS hemmed my sheer ones so everything is nice and even - I LOVE it! Plus I love looking at my tree every night...it's so great. <3


And Tyson got himself an ugly Christmas sweater the other day, so he's been wearing that proudly. I am not a fan of people who dress up their dogs for fashion, but Tyson really does get cold in the winter since his fur is so short, so we try to just get him nice fleece things to wear in the winter. He actually really does apprecaite it!

It's been nice to have some cheerful things to look forward. We had to put our 16-year-old dog, Lacey, to sleep this past weekend. It's been really hard on my whole family; dogs become a part of your family and it's almost like losing a child/sibling. The vet was nice enough to come to our house and let us all be with her on her blanket with her favorite stuffed animals. I haven't been able to go to my parent's house yet without crying, and today is the first day I haven't cried, so it's been pretty hard. She was a great dog and I spent so much of my childhood/teenage years with her. We did 4-H together and she won Nationals in Indianapolis one year, so we've been all over and she's been one of my best friends. I miss her a lot, but it was her time and I know she's chasing squirrels and enjoying doggy heaven. <3

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'm so excited to see family and things over the next two weeks. Now if it would snow it would be the best thing ever! :) xoxo

SURPRISE!

Andy & Laura had another ultrasound today and found out they're having another little girl! Kayden will have a little sister to play with now! I am pretty excited because I think as close in age as they are that a sister would be great - kind of like a best friend for ever right from birth! :) And little princesses are adorable. And on top of that, I just have this feeling I'll probably only have little boys, so being able to spoil little girls will be fantastic. She sent this awesome picture of baby #2 waving. So much more cooperative already than Kayden was! Can't wait to meet you Baby Meckley! (Due May 2nd).

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  We did - I love family time whether it's Josh's or mine. I also LIVE the holiday season. I starter listening to Christmas music 2 weeks before thanksgiving and I started slowly, but surely, putting out my decorations.
 
I was able to go Black Friday shopping with Jane and we stood in line at Wal-Mart for about 3 hours for some deals.  I ended up getting all my presents for Josh and I think I saved about $200 on him! Woohoo!  We went to the mall too, but I just got an ornament for the tree and then we came home.
 
Then on Saturday when we got home from my family's Thanksgiving in Omaha I got to put up my tree, lights and everything! I'd been working on some pinterest projects hanging ornaments in the kitchen window and my homemade ones didn't turn out so well so I bought some on Black Friday.  There's a picture of them hanging in the window.

Then I put a sheer curtain in our window to spice up the curtains we had and I put some twinkling lights behind the sheer and it looked nice!

There's also a picture of our tree this year (yes, I only have like 2 presents left to get) and Taytum was just SO tired from all the decorating!


  
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and is enjoying this great season! (I just wish it would snow a bit now. ;))

Happy Thanksgiving!

There hasn't been much to update everyone on since in reality, we haven't really done much. After we finished the bathroom it was such a relief we just wanted to hang out and do nothing and worry about nothing. We ended up going to see a movie last weekend and I've just been slowly knocking things off the Christmas list. I'm hoping to have most of it done on Friday (yay Black Friday shopping!). But I have almost everything wrapped and ready to go under the tree!

This weekend Andy and Kayden swung through for a little bit and I got to "babysit" while the boys drove around town a bit. (And by babysit I mean she napped and I just watched T.V. ha). Then we went to Hairball with Bryce, Jill, Guck, and Rachel. Hairball is basically like an 80's hairband that plays everything from KISS to Prince to Motley Crue to Journey. And they dress up and totally get into the parts. It's pretty much AWESOME and the tickets were only $15. I liked it, and considering we haven't done much lately it was a nice night out.

I've also been in the mood for doing more crafts. I am slowly, but surely, starting my Christmas crafts so they're all ready for the season. I need to make some sparkly ornaments to hang in our kitchen window, but I have almost all the other crafts done! I did this two this past weekend - one is an ornament wreath; super easy, but I bought all the ornmanets at the Dollar Tree so I didn't have much to work with, but it still turned out cute.

The other is a wine bottle that I took the label off and then stuffed it with lights and put a ribbon on it. It was SUPER easy and cheap, but not as cute as the painted one's at Hy-Vee; but I'm still proud of my handiwork ;).

I've also started the application process for the Drake Masters program in School Counseling. I am a little scared, a little excited, and VERY overwhelmed. It's been a lot looking for various things to send in, and getting everything rounded up. I am able to take a couple of classes before they accept/reject me after March 1st, so I'm ready to get the ball rolling. It's a BIG step in my future, but I am certainly looking forward to it!

That's basically it for now. I am REALLY excited about the Holiday season coming up. I get so excited sometimes I want to cry haha. I've already started listening to Christmas music and I am SO excited to get our tree up and shining! Can't wait! Once it snows..it will be beautiful. Have a happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there!

FINALLY!

It's finally FINISHED!! After days, weeks, months (May-November to be exact) I present, dream come true bathroom DONE:



There are a few minor things that need to be done (like caulking the window and such), but I actually got to shower in it last night and it was AMAZING!!! I LOVED having such space and freedom and the glass doors are just TOO cool!! It was literally the best thing ever and SO worth the wait!

So now we have TWO finished bathrooms! I couldn't be happier and more excited - Josh is seriously the most amazing guy out there and I couldn't be more blessed. :)

Big News!

We found out this weekend that Josh and I are becoming an Aunt and Uncle...again! Andy and Laura had a really cute way of telling us (Laura had on this cute shirt) to announce that they're expecting again! Baby Meckley is due May 2nd (2 days before Baby Halter is due) and only about 2 weeks behind Janell! Everyone is having babies...so exciting! Here's a cute picture of Laura and Kayden with the new addition ;)

I think everyone's rooting for a boy, but I wouldn't mind another little girl. They're pretty sweet. :)

Other than that we haven't done anything exciting. Finishing up the LAST of the bathroom this week. I think I can officially say we WILL be showering in it by next weekend. So that's great. Josh and I went up to the bar for a bit Saturday night - we didn't dress up but it was fun to see everyone who did! I had class today, boooooo, and I'm not ready to go back to work since we had Friday off. BUT...it's November on Tuesday and that means Thanksgiving and CHRISTMAS is right around the corner!<3

So crafty!

We've been spicing up the house lately. Josh has been (of course) working on the bathroom and getting that finished up. He grouted today so not too much longer until hopefully we'll be showering in there! (this weekend?!) While he's been doing that there isn't much I can help with. I've been trying to find a good way to keep the soap scum off the window in the bathroom, especially since we've been going back and forth with getting a glass shower door (and we don't have a water softner...which means the water here stains EVERYTHING. I HATE cleaning the stainless steel kitchen sink!) but other than cleaning the window, the space is too small for both of us to get in there and Josh is pretty particular about how things are done so I just let him do them. So, since I can't work on that, I've been doing some Pinterest craft projects! I did a pumpkin the other day and THEN spiced up my curtains!

I traced an "M" on the pumpkin...it still took a while, but MUCH better than actually carving!


And my biggest and best project is below. I've been looking for some wide striped horizontal curtains for EVER. And by forever, I mean years. I've always loved them...but I couldn't find any anywhere. Thanks to Pinterest, I found this neat website that has a tutorial about adding stripes WITHOUT sewing! SO great! (Since I don't know how to sew). It was definitely time consuming, and I wouldn't have been able to finish them in one night without Jane's help, but I LOVE the way they turned out! This is them before, just regular tan curtains:


During (the picture with one stripe is all I got done one night!)...




After!




I absolutely love the way they turned out!! I may have to just make my own curtains on the other side of the wall, since these turned out so great! :)

We did a lot of yard work today - mowed, trimmed the hostas, raked up the leaves, etc. I only have to work 4 days this week and I have Friday off (yay!). And Tuesday and Thursday are early-outs (even though we have parent-teacher conferences). We aren't going to dress up for Halloween this year (just too much going on) but I am excited to actually go out and see some friends next weekend! Yay!

Our life

this has been our life for the past 2 weeks...but it's going to be amazing once it's done. :) and it only adds to how much I love and appreciate all that Josh does for me. <3 floor coming this week!

Sunday update

This weekend was busy with friends, pumpkin patches, bathroom work, and prayers. So I'll start from the beginning...

First things first, I got my toes painted on Thursday and she put little Frankensteins on them - so cute! I love them! Then Friday night I went out to eat with some friends at Olive Garden...it was delicious! Loved spending time with my friends, too. Josh helped Andy out at the shop with a vehicle Andy is fixing up for Laura to drive since they only have one vehicle. It was a low-key night and I liked that.

Then Saturday we took Kayden to the pumpkin patch. She was a little young and feeling under the weather but it was still fun. She loved "driving" the little wooden car.



Josh got a lot done on the bathroom Saturday...I absolutely LOVE it, especially the accent pieces. I can't wait for it to be done.


And lots of prayers...my grandma took a turn for the worse so I'm waiting to hear back from my mom as to whether I need to head there right away today. Please keep her in your prayers and thoughts, we sure do appreciate it.

Hope everyone enjoyed this beautiful 80 degree October weekend. Xoxo

Sneak peak

here's a sneak peak at the tile going around our bath tub. :)

Bathroom progress

Well...we're thisclose to being done with our downstairs bathroom. Once we're done, I feel like I need to throw a "no-more-home-renovations" party; it has been a long road with these bathrooms! It just sucks that for the most part I can't help much since I don't know much about plumbing, electricty, or drywall. That, and our bathrooms are only made for about one person so it's hard to get both of us in there. We did get them painted though this weekend (thanks Jane for helping!) and now tomorrow Josh is going to start tiling....I have my fingers, toes, and everything else crossed that we get it all finished by next weekend. That would literally be great. Here is the progress as of tonight:


It's hard to see the color correctly because of the flash/lighting, but it's a really dark chocolate brown. I LOVE it and I think the white trim really makes it stand out. I can't wait to get our tile in...I absolustely LOVE the tile colors we picked out.

Also, tonight I had a photo shoot with the puppies outside since more of the leaves have fallen. :) I can't believe it was 86 degress in the middle of October...so AMAZING! <3



Also, if you're reading this, please put my Grandma on your prayer list. She's in the hospital right now with what they think were some small/mini strokes. God is definitely good, and His power has definitely been felt in the past few days with some great news for people around me - but just a few extra prayers up to him for Grandma couldn't hurt. :) good-night blog world!

It's almost Holiday Season!

It's almost the holiday season!! And by holiday I mean Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then the best thing ever...Christmas!! I love once it gets to Fall because there are SO many things to look forward to like decorating and spending more time with family and having the holidays off! I love buying presents and putting them under the tree and everything. I am super excited...this weekend I'm going to get out all of my Halloween stuff and put it all out. I literally cannot wait!

We're still working on finishing the downstairs bathroom, which really takes up all of our free time I feel like. We're on the verge of sanding, putting on texture and then painting! After that it's just tile and then putting everything in! I'm hoping to be completely done by the end of October; if not before. Josh is thinking maybe in a few weeks...after this bathroom project is done, hopefully we'll have a life again!

So aside from the bathroom we haven't done much. We went and helped Andy and Laura move into their new house in North English last weekend, and the weekend before they came to Baxter and we took Kayden to Monkey Joe's. It's amazing how big she's getting!
Us at Monkey Joe's

KK going down the slide!


I went to the craft show this past weekend and got some neat Halloween decorations...I'm still looking for some battery operated orange lights for my Halloween tree, so if anyone knows of a place to get some, please point me in that direction. Other than that, nothing exciting has happened - hopefully once the bathrooms get done we can get back to having a life and I'll have something exciting to blog about! :)

Remembering

I can't believe it's the 10th anniversary of 9/11 today. It seems like it was just a few years ago I was in 8th grade history class when our teacher turned on the tv and we watched the second tower be hit. It seemed so surreal. I remember coming home that afternoon and just watching the news coverage over and over and over again. It seemed like when you stepped outside there was this eerie feeling that washed over you. It's still something I have a hard time watching and hearing about, I always start crying. My heart just hurts from the pain not only the heroes who perished on 9/11, but also their loved ones still feel today. I also though have an immense pride in my country and will always get teary eyed when "I'm Proud to be an American" plays. Always remembering those whose lives were taken too soon, and, as one of my favorite quotes tells us, "If we learned nothing else from this tragedy, at least we learned that life is too short to hate" - Susan Dahl, wife of Jason Dahl, pilot of United Flight 93. I'm proud to live in the greatest country on earth. <3

We had a nice weekend of remembering, remodeling, and cheering on the Cyclones! Tyson wore his lucky jersey and ISU pulled out the win on Saturday! Josh has been finishing up the walls in the bathroom and hopefully in 3 weeks we'll have a finished bathroom!

I downloaded an app on my phone that lets me update so maybe I'll be able to update more often, but for now excuse the typos since I'm on my phone. :)

Updatin

Once school starts...my life is consumed. I've noticed that when I come home at night, I seem a little more tired, and I don't have much energy to do much besides clean up, cook dinner, and then maybe take the dogs for a quick walk (since the weather has been so nice). We haven't done much in the last month...I went back to work and Josh has been slaving away on the final bathroom project (we have a tub and some walls up right now! Getting there!). We have a new 7th grade Language Arts teacher and her and I have been working together to really update the 7th grade curriculum and really work together. So far so good! But it seems like one night a week we plan and it usually takes us from 3-5p.m. to plan out one week's worth of lesson plans, which is consuming when I still have to do my own for 8th grade as well. But I've liked it so far and we both have some great ideas - it's nice to bounce ideas of someone else at work. :)


I guess though I'll catch up from the last post. Josh's birthday was great; I always love birthday's, no matter whose they are! From me he got a new ipod, a signed Def Leppard poster, some work out shorts/pants, and an ISU shirt. He got lots of great things from everyone, he's a pretty lucky guy. We also went to the fair again and this time Josh and I rode this ride called "The Sky Scraper". The sign says you go 70mph like 165 feet in the air. We had both ridden it before (years before), and didn't think anything of it. Boy were we WRONG! My heart was beating so hard I thought it was going to jump out of my chest!! I feel like in my "old age" I can't handle heights as well, they're jumping up on my list of fears. This was NO difference. Even Josh got off the ride a little shaky and I think his exact words were, "I don't remember it being as intense when I was tweleve." Hahaha. Jane got some pictures of us on it though:
Us waiting in line (I'm excited!)

Getting strapped in:

Away we go!! At this point in time was when I started getting sweaty and my heart started beating super fast:

Swinging down!


Glad to make it off alive! I am a thrill seeker though, so anytime I can drag Josh on a rollercoaster or something, I'll do it, no matter what the height!

Other than that nothing too much to post...we had a low-key Labor Day. Some of our friends from Omaha came down and we were suppose to go boating, but of course, it rained ALL DAY. So instead they came over, we all hung out for a while, and then Alex and I went out in Des Moines with them. All-in-all it ended up being a nice night for just hanging out with friends.

Coming up we have a couple of weddings, and hopefully a finished bathroom project by the end of the month! Andy and Laura will be moving soon; only an hour away (and close to the outlet mall!). So I'm excited to see KK a little more often and definitely taking her and babysitting! :) Will post when something exciting happens and as always will keep you all updated on the bathroom project! xoxo

End of Summer

I can't believe how FAST summer went! Seems like just yesterday we were packing up the classroom and heading out to end the school year. Last week I went in and UNPACKED my classroom and got it all set up again - it really seems quite crazy! I always LOVE the fair, but it seems like once the fair starts, summer is over. It's kind of the signal of the end. But, we did a lot this summer and as always, I'm looking forward to snow and Christmas! :)

I was lucky enough to get to go to THREE concerts this past weekend! Friday night, we scored some late Jason Aldean standing room tickets for his Friday night concert at the fair. I went with some of my girlfriends and we had a BLAST! It was a lot of fun and we danced and sang at the top of our lungs! SUPER FUN!



Then Saturday night we took the boys and went to Def Leppard. They're one of Josh's favorite bands, and he'd already seen them once at the fair but he humored me and went again. I had a lot of fun and they played all of their old hits so it was a great time!



Then Sunday night Alex and I went to Glee Concert Movie in 3D! Basically it's just a 3D movie of their US tour, but it felt like we were at the concert! Plus we were the only people in the theatre so we got to sing and dance and cheer all we wanted, it was a lot of fun - ALMOST as good as watching them live.


Josh's birthday is also on Sunday the 21st so we've been trying to figure out what to do for that (and he says Thank you! to Grandma & Grandpa Medders for the card...it was the first card he got for his birthday! :)). Here's his pile of presents from me, and we went and got some good presents for him from his mom and Grandma Koppin so he'll be spoiled on his birthday! Plus I'm going to try and make his favorite breakfast for him on his birthday - biscuits and sausage gravy! I'll let you know how it turns out (if it turns out edible) haha!


Oh! And I've been meaning to post pictures of our COMPLETED upstairs bathroom! The only thing left is to decorate it, but I love the way it turned out! It's not a very big bathroom so we had to utilize the space we had, but I just LOVE using it and I feel like there's so much more room in it already!
Before:

Before:

After:




Josh did all this himself! Bathroom #2 is in the process now! :)

RAGBRAI

Yesterday we had RAGBRAI come through and it was so much fun! RAGBRAI is Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa and it's basically one big bicycle ride across Iowa! They start on the west side of the state and over the course of 6 days they ride across Iowa. It's a LOT of fun, especially at the over-night stops because everyone just parties all night long and the over night cities usually have a band and some entertainment. While Baxter wasn't an overnight stop, it was the only stop along the way serving alcohol, so it was a BIG attraction! I woke up at about 7:30 and there were already people coming through. Our house had a bike repair shop set up right next to it and a thing of free water so it was basically the first stop and everyone dropped their bikes and hung out in our front yard. I went out & saw Alex's family's set-up out on the highway then we all got together and went up to the bar. It was INSANE! So many great people and fun times - we loved it! Here are some pictures from the day:





They had a shot taker ice sculpture.


Once Josh got off work we went to Grinnell to the overnight stop and listened to the band for a while - SO much fun! I wish RAGBRAI came through Baxter every year! :)

Summer is coming to an end soon...August 16th I go back to work. But before that the State Fair is coming up and we're going to the Def Leppard concert...CAN'T wait!!