A Million Plus Reasons

 I love my husband for a gazillion different reasons.  One of those reasons among the long list is from our little adventure this past weekend.  The short story version is that we had tickets to the Hawkeye game.  We hadn't been to a game together since our marching band days, so we were pretty excited to get to a game.  When we left C.R., the sun was partly shining and it was NOT raining.  So as you can expect when that rain started falling in the first quarter...we were "poncho-less" and armed only with my hot cocoa and B's pop.  Now I will admit that I might have been a bit crabby as I started getting wetter and wetter, but I was not going to mention leaving early from the game because I knew how excited B gets from the Hawkeyes and in addition we had pretty good seats!  However, by the middle of the second quarter Braedan looked at me and to my great relief mentioned that he thought we should go to M-town to pick up Taffy (a story for another day) and listen to the game as we drove in a dry car.  I don't know if it was the fact that it looked like we had taken showers in the middle of Kinnick during a football game, or the fact that we were shivering, but I couldn't have loved Braedan more at that moment!  It was one of those moments where I was trying to be tough to stay at the game for Braedan and Braedan was noticing how chilled I was...I think that those are the moments where you grow as a couple.  Now I didn't mean to make this a mushy post...but I love my husband!  And by the end of the day we were dry, warm and the Hawkeyes won :)

--M

As Life Speeds Up

It seems like summer went so fast!  All of the sudden the nights are cooler and geese can be seen flying south.  We love summer and this summer will always be a special memory for us...but we can't wait for fall!  After spending a very humid and hot summer in our apartment, we are glad to have some cool relief.  Fall is such a short season, but it is always exciting to see the beautiful colors that appear in the trees.  It seems like so many people love fall also...the change of seasons always are welcome!

Once school started and July ended, life sped up all of the sudden.  It wasn't that the days were busier, but since I teach mainly in the evenings and Braedan officiates in the evenings, the days fly by! 

As many of you know, I've had a challenge finding a music teaching position in the schools.  Right now in our area, there are no positions open.  Partly because of the budget cuts and I think partly because of the cycle of teachers retiring, etc.   In the meantime, I am going to start my substitute teaching adventure up again and that will hopefully (cross your fingers) keep my quite busy and maybe lead me to a permanent position.  I have been working as a (for lack of a better title) marching band assistant/ coach.  The district is small with only one director who needed another set of hands to work with her pit percussion section.  It has given me an opportunity to make some music connections in the area and I totally enjoy working with the students! 

In addition to working full time at the station, Braedan began his adventure in officiating local high school and middle school football games.  He had quite a few meetings and a couple tests to pass, but he did with flying colors and has three games under his belt already!  Though I don't understand that much about football, I like to go and watch him officiate--he does a great job!  I am kind of like his paparazzi; I try to take pictures while the parents of football players around me aren't paying attention.  I don't want to seem creepy...  My only problem with football is that the past few games I have watched have produced very chilly-windy rain during the 2nd and 3rd quarters...I guess I need to start dressing more appropriately...my flip-flops might need to retire for the season very soon :(

This past weekend brought more football and family visits.  I went to Aurora with my mom and visited Mimi and Gramps.  It was great to see them, I miss them already!  Braedan spent Saturday tailgating with his brothers and visited his parents.  We have said it before, but I'll say it again--we have been blessed with wonderful families!

Inspiration

One of my favorite things is to find inspirational phrases or sayings in unexpected places.  This saying was under my lemonade cap the other day and totally made my day!  When I was staying at Mimi's house in March (right around Easter), I found He is risen! in my egg carton.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it...I did try to take a picture of course, but it was fuzzy.  Now, really, doesn't that make you smile a little bit?

You've Got To Be Creative!

Braedan and I have been meaning to post pictures of our apartment for a while now.  We are still in the process of decorating it, we (I) am always moving things here or there to see if it works better in a new spot.  Our apartment it petite, so we are limited on space and have to be pretty thrifty with our funds...but I think we've been pretty creative on how things are arranged.  We are still deliberating on what pictures from our wedding/reception/honeymoon to put on the walls, but we are getting there.  So, now for your entertainment, here are some pictures of our cozy apartment from the beginning to now.

My dresser, we can actually fit 2 dressers in our room, imagine that!

B's manly dresser.

Thanks to the Pusateri grandparents, this shelf is perfect.  AND we finally have found a way to display the slate cross we got for our wedding!

When you live in a cozy apartment, this is the closest thing to a recliner that you can get.  A vintage, very comfortable rocking chair (we will re-upholster it someday) and a Target ottoman, perfect and comfy!

Our kitchen, one of my favorite areas.

A different view of the kitchen.

Our little table nook, thanks to Gramps and Grandma Battenschlag--the table fits perfectly!

I know it looks like our bed takes up our whole room, but it really doesn't!

The view you get when you first walk in the door, WELCOME!

Looking back towards the front door, don't mind our pile of shoes.

Our "office" area.

This was taken right after we got back from our honeymoon...wedding presents and luggage basically took up our entire apartment.  **Please note B's posters are still on the walls.

The windows face west, so we get pretty sunsets in the evening, if you discount the heat.

It's August and it's freaking hot!!!

Hello friends and family,
 So, it's kind of hot outside. It seems like no matter how long we run the air conditioner it's still not enough to keep the sweat off of us. To beat the heat, Miriam and I took a trip to the Coralville Reservoir to enjoy the sandy beach and nice cool water. It was a while since we were last there, our best estimate was about two years, so quite a long time, but it was nice to get back and enjoy the outdoors.
 Things have really started to pick up with my football officiating. Yesterday I officiated a scrimmage in Anamosa and I realized just how much I had yet to learn. Despite a lot of questions and missteps, the experienced refs were more than willing to give us pointers or tell us some techniques that help them. My first official game is still about three weeks away, but I'm already excited to get working and have fun!
 Miriam's eating leftover Olive Garden, thanks to a special treat from the Garrett parents (thanks mom and dad!) and we're just about to start hanging pictures up and watch football (I agreed to help hang up but we had to watch football while doing it, haha). Hopefully this week goes by fast, the weekend sure does.

It's Gone!

Well, after a long-long time of growing out my hair to donate it...it is officially cut off and on its way to being made into a wig for cancer patients who have lots their hair.  Basically, I have been growing out my hair since Braedan and I started dating.  It was a long couple of years trying to grow it out, but it is definitely worth it in the end.  A woman, somewhere, will benefit from my hair in a wig and then I got a cute haircut out of it as well.  Here are my before and after pictures :)

Please Vote for "June Skies!"

Hi everyone!  We hope this hot and humid weather is not getting the best of you.  I just keep telling myself that somewhere in January, I will be wishing for warmer weather, so we might as well enjoy it while it lasts!
So, on a whim, I entered a photo in a photography contest of Shutterfly.  Now, what would be spectacular is if I could get all of your votes for my picture titled "June Skies."  This is the picture (from our honeymoon) I entered:

So, what I need is:
1)  after 12:00 p.m. tomorrow (Monday), go to shutterfly.com,
2)  scroll down to the bottom right hand side of the page and clicks on the Summer Freedom Photo Contest. Here's a link to the picture! Awesome picture
3)  please click on the box and read the directions on how to vote for my picture.  My picture is titled "June Skies" and the picture with the most votes wins...so please vote!  
 Thank you!!!