Catching Up

Wow...where has time gone?? Between teaching, Master's and now wedding planning, it seems like there's barely any time to breathe in there! We've been really busy lately, and my nights quickly fill up meeting with florists, cake decorators, etc., and trying to just get the necessary items done as well. But, it's been going by SO SO SO fast and I cannot believe this week starts November! Then getting close to my favorite time....Christmas! YAY!

So, to catch up on all things, I'll start from where we left off - the engagement. Since then Josh and I have picked a reception place, gotten save-the-dates made, chosen colors, picked bridal parties, designed our reception favors, I have an idea on invitations, chosen a florist, caterer, and a DJ. WOW! It seems like we've gotten so much done, but I know there's still a lot to do! I'm still looking for a good place to rent linens (table and chair covers), so if anyone knows a good place please let me know! I'm going dress shopping next weekend and I cannot wait - obviously it's the most exciting part. And I've been contacting churches. Then we'll have a little breathing room for a while. Phew!

My Master's is moving a long at a nice little clip. Next year I'll get the bulk of my classes out of the way (10 classes finished by the end of 2013; as long as they don't get in the way of a wedding/honeymoon ;)). So I'll only have 4 left to finish before 2014 ends and I'll officially be a school counselor! So excited to reach for my goal. It's been some work, but definitely informational, rewarding, and exciting so far. Yay!

A few weeks ago I did another 5K (two in one year!). It was The Color Run and while it was fun, it was REALLY, REALLY cold that day. And it was very well organized; just not as much fun as Color Me Rad. Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was the way Color Me Rad was done, I'm not sure. Either way though, it was fun; I'll just know next time to ONLY do 5Ks when I know the weather will be nice!

I've also done a little Halloween decorating this year. I did my usual Halloween tree and then put lights in the windows and around the deck. But then I made a little ghost. So simple and SO cute!

Halloween is this Wednesday and Taytum is going to be a squirrel and Tyson is going to be a dinosaur.

I went out for Halloween this weekend and I was a bath loofah! I was only out for about an hour and a half, but still got to see some people, talk some wedding, and was home and in bed by midnight; and these are quickly becoming my favorite nights!

I also had a date with Kayden yesterday. She was such a good girl - we went to Wal-Mart to finish my costume and then got some McDonalds. We came home and she played outside with the puppies, we took a walk, we played inside and watched some T.V. She's turning into someone SO fun to be with - we actually just had a blast! I was pretty tired when she left, but it was worth it. She's pretty cute. :)

Other than that we've just been trying to make time to have fun and still spend time together. This week there were only two nights I got home before Josh went to bed, and he was getting ready for bed when I did get home! It's been so beautiful lately (80's last week!). So it doesn't seem like it's almost November. Almost time to get that Christmas music going....I can't wait! Until next time...xoxo

In case you were wondering...

After 6 1/2 years of love, tears and through thick and thin Josh has decided he wants to keep me around forever. I get to become Mrs. Josh Meckley around this time next year. We're engaged!

WonderFall

It's officially Fall here! We've been crazy on the go lately, and I haven't had time to update. Not to mention that my school computer won't log in to blogger because it has my @collins-maxwell e-mail programmed in. So I have to wait until I'm home to update and that doesn't really ever happen. So, since I have a few seconds to breathe, I figured I'd update everyone with what's been happening.

I finally finished the living room renovation. Josh hung up the shelf and I put the pictures in and wal-lah, it's done! So here are the before and after pictures.
Before:

After:

I LOVE the way it looks! I did the horizontal stripes all by myself too, so I'm pretty proud of that! Only thing left to do is get the new windows put in and then get some new faux wood blinds in there. It lets a lot more sun in on the south side too, and the puppies love basking in the sun in the afternoon. :)

We finally got the door for Josh's shed, but haven't put it on yet. I'll have to post a picture once we have that done.

School is in full force now, but this week will be the first real "full" week without craziness since school started. This past week was Homecoming and a lot of fun. CMB lost the Homecoming game against Nevada though so that's a bummer. But, it was Josh's 10 year anniversary since winning Homecoming king so we looked back on the memories! Haha..so funny!
Josh & Lindsay 10 years ago

Josh & Lindsay today!

My Master's classes are also going on as well. I have an online class that's actually a lot harder than I thought. It's Educational Research, and it's hard for me because I've never actually done a research class before in my life so it's a lot of learning for me. And the class is squished into a half semester so it is just going by really fast with back-to-back papers and assignments. My other class, Intro to Counseling, is every Thursday night and it's actually going really well. I really enjoy it, and I think this is going to be my "true" calling in life. It will be a busy two years, but so worth it in the end. I can't wait!

A couple of weeks ago our friends Lindsay and Colby had an ISU vs. Iowa game. ISU WON! So that was really exciting and Josh and I had on our ISU gear. :)

That kind of catches everyone up. We haven't done much lately, especially since I've started my MS classes and work is ramping up. Next weekend is the big craft show, and the weekend after that we're doing our second 5K, The Color Run! I'm excited for Halloween and then my favorite CHRISTMAS! Can't wait!

Bye-Bye Summer

Well...Summer is almost officially over. It's the last week of August, we survived the fair, Josh's birthday, and school started last Monday for me. I start my Master's class officially this Thursday (yay!), and I've got an online class to finish up by October 19th. So a lot of things to look forward to, but I can say I miss my lazy Sundays knowing I have nothing to do Monday morning. Only 175 days left until next Summer vacation. ;)

The fair was a LOT of fun! I went a total of FIVE times and had a blast every time! It was so much fun and I ate my way through the fair. Josh and I went three times so he got his fill of the fair too. We went a couple of times with friends and I even got to see my favorite morning show Elvis Duran and the Morning Show at the fair! Such nice, nice people and we were so excited to see them!

MMmmmm...CORNDOGS! My favorite!

All of us at the fair.

Josh & I with margaritas

On the Skyglider. :)

Meeting the morning show!

Lindsay and me with Skeery Jones

Us with the famous Elvis Duran!

So excited about our signatures!

Then it was time for Josh's birthday! He made out like a bandit: lots of new clothes, new workout shoes, a new iPod and I made him a homemade cornhole set thanks to Andy and Laura! He was surprised and I was so proud of myself for making the entire thing by hand; I even sewed the bags! So I learned how to use my sewing machine and made a set of cornhole bags in the process. My next endeavor will be to make a t-shirt quilt for us for this winter. Josh was pretty good about turning 27...only three more years until the big 3-0! haha.

A new saw!

Bag board!

We've also been putting the shed together! The only thing left it needs is a door! YAY! Josh is excited to have a place to put everything to store this Winter. I'm just excited there will be more room in the garage! It looks so good; matches the house perfectly.

We finally got everything painted and updated in the living/dining room! My goal this week is to deep clean and then I'll post before and after pictures! I still LOVE the way the living room turned out and the simple decor we went with. I sit and stare at it everyday I think.

School started again on the 20th. We went 1:1 iPads this year (every student 6-12 has his/her own iPad for the school year). It's been exciting, challenging, fun and scary all at once. I've been using it quite a bit with them, and they seem excited to use them and are excited about learning again. I hope this keeps up throughout the entire school year. I added a new friend to my classroom as well. He doesn't have a name yet, but I really love having him next to me at work. He keeps me company and whenever I sit down at my desk or walk by he always swims up. He's probably missing me this week (or missing being fed everyday??) so I'm excited to see him tomorrow! The students are naming him, so hopefully by this week I'll be able to make him a little name tag and he'll be an official CM member. :)

Like I said, I started my Master's for counseling this week and I couldn't be more excited to start the journey to becoming a school counselor. It will be a lot of work, but I think I'll learn so much and I've never been more excited to be a student again (I love school...just now that I pay for it I hate the money spent. :(.

It's going to cool down this week; enjoy the last few moments of Summer left! And I'll leave you with this adorable picture of Taytum & her friend Roxy (the Kunkel's long-haired Dachshund)

Current Project

Here is our current project...a shed! Josh is putting together a shed and I've been the right hand man. :) Can't wait until it's finished and I can paint it!

Expiring Summer

It seems that Summer is coming to a close. It's almost the last day of July, and August will be here in two days. That means Iowa State Fair, school starting, cooler days (maybe?), and Fall coming; and all of those things I look forward to. I absolutely LOVE the Iowa State Fair - so much that I could seriously go every day and not be tired of it. Not even one little bit. I cannot wait for my first taste of corn dog, cheese curds, lemonade shake ups, gyros, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches...and you get the idea. School starts soon too. Every year I do something new with the decorations in my room so it's always something fun to look forward to as well. Plus, all the students come back refreshed and excited for school and to see their friends and I get a new bunch of bright-eyed seventh graders...so it's always a good start. On top of gearing up for Friday night football games, volleyball games, and just enjoying the good weather. I cannot wait to decorate for the Fall season...and after Fall comes my all-time favorite holiday; Christmas. I get so excited I get tears in my eyes...cannot WAIT!<3 It's also been a brutally hot summer (I think I've mowed a total of 5 times?), so looking forward to cooler temps as well. We've been somewhat busy around here. We came home from the Ozarks and had days filled with re-doing the living room/dining room, Kayden's 2nd birthday, and finding time to have fun with our friends. so I'll recap a few things as of recently: Kayden's 2nd Birthday It's hard to believe how big K is getting! She's truly becoming so fun and aside from a few terrible two incidents, she's such a sweet, sweet little girl. She's funny and so smart; I love watching her grow! We got her a monkey backpack/leash since she loves to run around, a few outfits, and an Elmo movie. She was (of course) spoiled rotten!

Elliott is also getting big and starting to smile:

This past weekend we drove to Guthrie Center to the River Ruckus to see Eric Church, Chris Cagle and Frankie Ballard. To say it was packed is an understatement. This place was INSANE. There were virtually 25,000 at a small town county fair. It was a nuthouse. It was kind of scary at times to go to the bathroom or go to find anyone because you didn't know if you could find anyone again. And there were so many people in one place that their cell phone tower went down so you couldn't use your cell phone. So had you gotten lost you couldn't get ahold of anyone! It actually gave me some anxiety. But, regardless, we had fun and the concert was good (even though we couldn't see the stage and it was hard to hear :\)

We have been re-doing the living room/dining room and I am SMITTEN with how it has turned out. I have a shelf with some frames that I want Josh to hang before I take the final "after" photos so I'll post those when finished. It's amazing what a little paint and some new curtains will do! Josh's birthday is also coming up and I have made him something homemade this year. I'm excited to give it to him and it took a lot of work and some help from Andy; I think he'll like it! I also am going to try my hand at sewing with my new sewing machine to finish it up...wish me luck! And Josh's Grandma K is doing very well after surgery - she gets to come home tomorrow! I think her hip is actually doing a lot better than expected, just need to get her wrist better. So thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. Enjoy the last few days of Summer...it will be over before we know it!

Color Me Rad!

Summer is always so busy - it seems like it just flies by! It's already in July with only about a month and a half left to go before school starts again! I can't believe it. I am pretty excited for Fall though; I'll be starting my Master's at Drake to get my counseling degree and getting ready for Christmas is always my favorite thing. I am not wishing Summer away, but I absolutely love from June-December. It's magical from here on out. We went down to the Lake of the Ozarks again this year with our friends and had a lot of fun as always! We ended up staying down there for seven days; which is quite a long time. I was pretty much ready to come home by the end of it. I missed my own bed, my dogs, and a normal routine. So I was ready to come home, but it was a nice vacation and as always spent with good friends. Craig and Virg got a band for Saturday night so there were a lot of people there and we had fun. Here are some pictures from the week:

We got back on Thursday afternoon and on Saturday my friends and I turned around and drove to Council Bluffs/Omaha to run in the Color Me Rad race! Saying it was fun was an understatement. It was a BLAST! I was pretty tired because we'd just gotten home and I felt like I didn't even have time to unpack, but I headed up with my friends and we just had so much fun. We signed up to do one in October as well so I'm super excited for that as well!
Us all clean before

Throwing color on each other

At the end It was a lot of fun! I still have some color on me today, but for the most part it washed off in the shower. It was a lot of fun and my mom, aunt, uncle, grandma and grandpa all came out and watched so it was so nice to see them. Loved it! That's basically what we've been doing lately. We're going to Kayden's birthday this weekend (can't believe she's two!). And sending lots of prayers for Josh's grandma Koppin because she's going in for hip surgery this week. We're praying and thinking of her a lot so any extra prayers you all can send help too! It's been a pretty fun summer so far, and we still have great things to look forward to! :)