Blissful Blogger

My sweet sister-in-law, Bailey, tag me for this a few weeks ago and I thought it was about time I posted on it!  It is always nice to receive an award.  I know that I don't blog often enough, but this was a good excuse to get me around to doing it!


The rules of this award are to share 7 facts about yourself and then tag 7 other bloggers.  I will see if I can come up with 7 other bloggers to tag, but at least the ones I know will get to join in the fun with this little award!

Here goes, 7 things I am sure you've been dying to know about me:

1.) Stinson and I are finally getting a chance to enjoyed trued married life.  This may sound a little funny, but for the first two and a half years of our marriage our time together has been different than most traditional marriages.  The most time we got to spend together prior to his new job with Forest was 3-4 hours on Sunday if we were lucky.  With Stinson coaching football, both of us going to grad school, and my first few years of teaching our time together at night was very sporadic and short.  Now we get to enjoy dinner together most nights and all of our weekends!  We are loving doing many more things together, like spending Sundays watching football together.

2.) I LOVE football!  I have since I was little and it may be from all the Husky games my dad and I got to go to when I was little that fueled the love.  I remember when I was in high school and my Uncle Brian called one Saturday while I was home alone.  He was surprised by my response as to what I was doing that fine Saturday afternoon when I responded, "Watching football."  I guess it's a good thing that I married a football coach!  I love going to my students little league football games too!  Lesson planning during all of the Sunday games is one of my favorite things.

3.) I have known since I was in 3rd grade that I would be a teacher.  The past 3 years have been the best years of my life.  Waking up everyday to do something I love is truly a blessing.  I feel like God is using my career as a teacher to not only impact the lives of my students, but also to teach me so much about Himself and his love for me.


4.) This next one may be a weird fact, but something that most people are surprised about, especially when they don't know my family.  At 5'10" I am the shortest person in my family.  I feel like I am of average height, but being around people outside of my family reminds me that I am not of average height.  I have always wished I was just a little taller, 6' would have been nice, guess I have heels to make up for it!

5.) I love coffee and most mornings it is the highlight of my dive to work.  It helps me start my day out right!  I have made up my new favorite drink at Starbucks.  If you'd like to try here is what you tell your local Barista: tall americano with an inch of steamed breve (half and half) and 2 pumps of pumpkin spice.  Trust me, it's to die for!  Just don't spill it on your shirt because it will leave a nice stain, especially if it's white. ;)

6.) Just like my mom and sister-in-law, I am a Colorado girl.  There is nothing that I love more than the sight of the mountains.  Their majesty always takes my breath away.  Stinson and I would love to move back if that is what the future holds.  Along these lines, I am also super proud to be a Wyoming Cowboy.  I talk up UW all the time and would go back to Laramie in heart beat.  There is something really special about the people and sense of community in Wyoming.

7.) I am super excited to be an Aunt this January.  Sara and Kennedy will be expecting a baby boy then.  I am looking forward to loving on my little nephew and spoiling him rotten.  I've already bought several things (Sara I'll get around to sending them at some point), and know that there will be many more purchases ahead.  Lots of friends are starting to expand their families, so I am hoping that I can get Stinson on board with trying for one of our own this spring/summer.

Well, that's enough for now.  Here are the blogs I am tagging:

Project City

With Gratitude

Wrapped in Delight

WyoMegs

It's that Time of Year

I always know the school year is approaching because I start having back to school nightmares.  Students are showing up when my classroom isn't ready or I have a meeting that keeps me from picking my kids up from specials and they have been unsupervised for the last hour and I walk in to find utter chaos, I am sure you all have these dreams too!  These dreams never fail to wake me up in a panic only to realize that there is still 4 weeks until school starts.

I am excited for the school year to begin and get to know a new awesome bunch of students.  I know that this year is going to hold lots of new and exciting things, and that my students are going to accomplish some great things.  At the start of a new year, and especially this year, I miss my students from the year before.  I miss knowing their interests and the great relationships we have.  I think that this year will be especially hard because I had a special class last year that made a deep impact on me as a person and a teacher.  I will look forward to hearing all about their 5th grade adventures!

I have some big plans in store for this school year and I am hoping that I can make them all come to be.  Sometimes it is hard to figure out where everything is going to fit and what things are going to get tossed, but in the end it usually all gets done.  Yesterday I was at a math workshop, sounds boring I know, but it was one of the best workshops I have been to.  The author who gave the workshop, Greg Tang, was amazing and gave me so many great ideas about how to improve my math instruction.  It got me pumped up to be back at school.

I thought I would end this post with some highlights from my latest trip out to Colorado.  Each time I am out there I am reminded of how much I love it.  I really hope that one day Stinson and I are able to call it home, especially since the heat and humidity are about to kill me.  One of my dearest friends married the love of her life a couple weeks ago.  The wedding and events leading up to it were so beautiful.  It was one of those weddings that was so filled with love that you felt tears in your eyes at just about every moment.  Kristen of course was stunning, and Adam looked great too.  Everything was so perfect and so Kristen.  I know that God is going to pour out lots of blessings on their marriage.  There is no one more deserving of love and happiness than Kristen.

After the wedding I headed up to Cheyenne for my first every Cheyenne Frontier Days.  It was so fun to spend the day with my college roommates relaxing at John & Angie's gorgeous house just outside of Cheyenne.  The concert was also great and rekindled the country girl in me.  Before I headed back home for a little more time with Grandma, I met up with my dear friend Chrissie for a cup of coffee.  I love reconnecting face to face with good friends, I always seem to leave feeling refreshed.

I will leave you with a few of the many pictures from the wedding weekend!

Rachel & her precious baby Em, Court, Kristen & I on the Kristen's last day as a DenBoer

The gorgeous historic church that they got married in.

The bride and I...don't worry I didn't wear this to the wedding!

Some more great friends and I.  Loved reconnecting with Amber and Erin

The Bride and Groom- Can't you tell how in love they are?!

Me Dancing it up--there is a much more embarrassing one that I spare you

Chrissie and I enjoying the nice Laramie Summer Day!

Bit by Bit

The past few weekends have been dedicated to making the yard look nice. All of our sweat is starting to pay off. Our progress is not lightening fast, but it's coming along. The front of the house is the first finished project. It now has curb appeal! Next spring we'll do some planting to fill it in, but that'll be cake.
Here are some pictures of the front.


Before:

Here are some of the after photos

We did some work in the back yard, but I will post pictures of a more finished look.  Stinson has turned into quite the fan of doing yard work, this weekend was too hot for me to get into it.  Oh well, there's always next time!

Jenna is Married & Other Dean Family Happenings

Hi- it's been a while, in fact it's been so long that it would take forever to fill you in on everything, so let's just talk about what is happening right now!

First piece of exciting news is Stinson has a new job.  He is now a pharmaceutical sales rep for Forest. He officially started talking with doctors this week, and today is his first day out on his own.  He had a about 5 weeks of training, 2 at home and 3 in New York, and he is loving every minute of his new job.  It has been such a blessing.  It is wonderful to see him walk through the door with a huge smile on his face and hear all about his day.  Plus, he looks so handsome all dressed up in his suits!

This last Sunday my baby sister Jenna got married.  The wedding was so beautiful and so Jenna.  She has loved everything orange since she was a little girl and she fell in love with a pair of orange sunglasses.  It was no surprise to any of us when she chose orange as one of her wedding colors. She paired it perfectly with bright pink, and it was a wedding as bright as Jenna's bubbly personality.

The whole day was a beautiful tribute to Jenna and Brady's relationship, as well as to the love that God has given to us.  Everything was so Christ centered, and I know that He was glorified through their day. Their ceremony was perfect, as was there reception.  It was so fun to be with all of the people who know and love Jenna and Brady, as well as to hear their funny stories.

Jenna and Brady chose to get married on my parent's anniversary.  So while Jenna & Brady were celebrating the beginning of their marriage, my parents were celebrating their 29th wedding anniversary. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful parents.  Their marriage has been the best example for all of us kids of what a strong, Christ-centered marriage looks like.  It is so fun to see my parents still so in love and enjoying each other's company.

Enough with all the talking....let's get to some pictures.  Some of these were stolen from facebook because after the first part of the morning I was so busy enjoying the day with my sister that I didn't take too many pictures. I will share some from the rehearsal dinner too!

Here is the whole  Foster family all together at the rehearsal dinner- taken from the perspective of a 6 year old, so excuse the awkward angle

Here is Stinson and I with Grandma & Grandpa Foster

Dressed and ready to see her groom--one gorgeous bride!

Here is the bride and groom after their first look, off to take some pictures

Their rings on Jenna's gorgeous bouquet! 

The adorable flower girl, Mari, who stunned the wedding goers with her perfect step-together down the isle!

Getting some chocolate sponged out of her dress, no big deal!

Beautiful and delicious wedding cake

Close up of the dress--pre-wedding picture trying out the whole look

Trying to decide if they'll be nice, or smash the cake into each other's face

Smashing won...cleaning up

Ryan and I

My sweet sister-in-law and fellow bride's maid

One of my best friends Courtney and I 

While in Colorado I got to attend Kristen's shower... her wedding will be here in 19 days, I can't wait!

To Paint or Not to Paint

Stinson and I have been trying to decide what colors to pain the house.  We have talked about lots of different options for our house, but I am not quite sure what to do.  Things always seem like a great idea in my head, and then once I act on them they never quite turn out like I hoped.  So, I am going to ask some advice and opinions of those who wish to give them.

My initial thoughts on painting our house were to do the base color of the house a light shade of grey, pain the scallops that are under the eves of the house white, and paint the front trim black because we have a black iron fence on the porch and our screen door  frame is black too. We would top it all off with a red front door.

I think the black trim is a little risky, but I thought it might frame the house nicely.  Another thought for the trim is to do a darker shade of grey so the contrast isn't quite so drastic.  Here is a mock up of what it could end up looking like.  I think it would give you a better feel if the garage door were closed (which is white).  The garage is nearly identical to what the house would be.  We plan to do a test run on half of the garage before we fully commit ourselves!

This is a rough sketch of what it will look like from the Sherman Williams Site

Grey and Dreary Day

I am right on schedule for my once a month post.  Another month has almost passed, and I am crossing my fingers that the upcoming month will bring with it some nicer weather!  We had a few days in the middle of the month that got up into the 60's and 70's just to tease us, but the reality of winter came crawling back quickly.  This weekend has been nothing but grey skies.  Right now it is raining and hailing some.  I think I will just look at these to bring some sunnier thoughts into my day.

Today at Costco I also discovered that they sell Starbucks' tazo chai tea mix, which means that I no longer have to go to Starbucks to get my soy chai tea latte, I can just steam them at home!  Stinson was very excited when I shared the news with him.  I promptly googled how to fix my espresso machine upon returning home, and after it was fixed I steamed my first homemade soy chai tea latte!  I will probably make another after I am done posting to warm me back up!  On a random side note, I am super proud of myself for only buying what I NEEDED at Costco today.  Normally I walk out of the store with 2-3 things that I didn't need, but were such a great deal I just couldn't pass them up.

Training for my first half marathon is going fairly well.  I started out really strong and was doing great with keeping my eating habits in balance.  But about 4 weeks in I got shin splints pretty bad and had to take a week off.  My strong commitment to eating healthy has been hit and miss since.  I am working at getting back to being committed because the results I saw in the first 3 weeks were awesome!  I have kept off what I lost, I just haven't lost any more. :(  I am really enjoying running regularly, and have enjoyed the new friendship that has developed between my training partner and I.  I cannot wait for the race to get here and to move on to our next fitness event of the year!

The highlight of the month was a visit from two of my very best friends Kristen and Courtney.  Since living in the Kansas City area for nearly 3 years now, they are they very first friends to come visit.  It was so fun to be able to take them around to some of our favorite places in the area and to just spend time together catching up in person.  I feel so very blessed to have both of them in my life and to have had such an awesome friendship with both of them for over ten years.  I am so glad that my sister's wedding and Kristen's this summer will allow us more opportunities to get together this year.  I didn't take any pictures from our weekend because we let Courtney be our photographer.  So if you want to see a few check out her post about the trip.


God has been doing a lot of rearranging in my hear lately, but I will write more about that later, hopefully before March is over!

What's Your Word

So the last week or so I have found myself listening to KLOVE on my way to and from school because my favorite local personalities have been out of town.  Lisa and Eric are on in the morning and they have been talking about finding your word for the year.  At first I thought, na I have my fitness goals and that is enough for me.  I loved the idea and just thought that I would do it next year.  But, of course, God had other plans.  On Thursday I was driving home from coffee with a friend and a word popped into my mind. It was a word that spoke to my heart and something that I think I was unconciosuly working towards already.

What's the word?!  My word for this year is balanced.  I really feel that it is something I often struggle with.  I think that all too often I let my life get out of balance.  I feel it is a word that will carry into every area of my life.  I am going to live life balanced in my work, my work ethic for grad school, eating, exercising, my walk with God, time for others, time for my husband, time for myself, etc.

I know that it is going to be a challenge, but I think that I am already off to a great start.  I will keep you posted.

Thoughts on Running

I know that you are probably shocked to see another post from before at least a month has passed, but due to school being canceled again today because of "in-climate weather" here I am posting again.

I have been thinking a lot about running lately, probably because of my lofty goals that I have set to achieve this year.  It has been really hard the first two weeks to get myself motivated to run.  I have been following my training schedule, but grudgingly, and if I didn't have my sister or Cammie doing it with me, I probably would have been a lot less committed.  In my mind I know that it is not so bad, but once you get out of the habit, it seems like a very daunting task.  Often over the last two weeks my legs were sore and tired, and I just didn't know if I would make it through that day's workout.

Then on Sunday at church something the associate pastor said struck a chord with me.  He was talking about how he gave our lead pastor some advice about running in the snow, and how after his run our lead pastor shared with him what a great time with God his run had been.  During the message I felt like God was saying to me that committing my time to running can be a part of my daily time with Him.  It is a time for me to reflect, pray, or just be.  God has created our body to be a temple from himself to reside in, so this week as I thought about each run, I have looked forward to it because I have shifted my mindset to making it an act of worship and taking God out with for the miles I have to go.  I want to take good care of my body because it is something God created to be healthy and discipline, not something to indulge in its every desire or craving.

Yesterday after my run I felt so refreshed.  My heart felt lighter, and I looked forward to what the rest of the day had in store.  I can honestly say that I am excited to continue training and building up my miles to achieve the goals that I have set, and I am looking forward to seeing how God uses this time in my day to refocus and teach me.

It's a MIRACLE

No I did not win the lottery or find $100 and NO I am not pregnant, or anything close to a real miracle, I just thought I would get more of your attention with that title, did it work?!  I have been gone way to long to write about everything that has happened over the last few months, and I know that you really don't want to read about it all.  I will post some pictures of things happening around here over the last few months to catch you up.

I thought I would start my return to blogging by telling you about what I hope 2011 holds for me and some highlights that re to come. Here are a few things that I hope to complete by the end of 2011.

• Run the Olathe Wickedly Fast 1/2 Marathon in April (just started training, let's just say I wasn't as horribly out of shape as I orginally thought)
• Run the Hospital Hill 1/2 Marathon in June
• Train and compete in my first triathlon in July
• Run the Kansas City full marathon in October
• Eat healthy throughout the year to keep my body well fueled for all of this training
• Help my baby sister have the wedding of her dreams
• Be better at reconnecting with old friends
• Be open to the ways in which God will begin directing Stinson and I's path and future
• Finish my masters degree
• Continue to find new ways to connect with my students as well was way to support them
• Cherish time spent with family throughout the year
• Get back to blogging at least a couple of times a month

Well, I think that is enough writing for now.  I will let you enjoy some pictures!   If you still read this thing,  thanks!

My mom came to Kansas City for my birthday and go me my first pair of Uggs!  Love them both, but obviously I love my mom more.

At the beginning of December I headed to Detroit for a weekend to see my dear friend and college roommate Angie and her husband John.  Here is Ang and I in Ann Arbor in front of the University of Michigan student union

We spent Christmas in Seattle with my family.  Jennifer came to spend some time with the Fosters and enjoy the Nutcracker in downtown Seattle.

We spent New Year's Eve in downtown Seattle with my family.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with a view of the Space Needle and got to enjoy the fireworks show that they set off.  Here were are ready to start the new year.  We had a blast in Seattle.  I have tons more pictures, but you'll have to check my facebook to see them!

I promise from here on out to put more effort into this blog and keeping you up to date!  I am off to snuggle with the dogs!