Thanksgiving 2010

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving that started in Wichita on Thursday with dinner at my mom's. My brother Tony and his wife, Lindsay were there and we just ate ourselves into our first food coma. It was a wonderfully lazy day, with football, naps and neverending food. We spent the evening at my Aunt Janet's house spending time with my dad's family including my grandparents that drive in from Arkansas every holiday. Luckily they were eating the next day so we weren't tempted by anymore food. After our visit we went home to pack for the plane ride to Indiana the next day.

We had wonderful weather for our trip and landed around 6:00 Friday evening. As always, we enjoyed a great dinner, great wine and great conversation throughout the evening. The next day started with going to the gym (what?!? who's idea was that...Becky). We all survived and maybe forced down a little more food because of it, at least I did. The preparation for lunch continued and around 11:00 the family (Sally's side) started to arrive. It was a fun time of catching up and watching the cousins wrestle around. The food was awesome and again, we ate ourselves into a food coma. It was another day of eating, conversation and more eating.

The next morning we went to church where the whole family went up to light the advent candle (I didn't burn the church down, whew!). It was a wonderful holiday and we are always sad to leave. Luckily this time we are only three weeks away from seeing everyone again, yay Christmas!

Catch up...

Okay, I know it's been a while, but I am going to try and catch you up on what Andrew and I have been up to. This is basically middle of October to middle of November, not to Thanksgiving yet. Thanks for being patient and continuing to check the site (Sally :-)).

We went to Iowa to see my cousin's little girl, Callie, and had a wonderful time. While we were there we were lucky enough to go to an Iowa vs. Wisconsin game. The tailgating was a new experience for us and the "walking tacos" were yummy! It was a short stay, but full of lots of fun! This is a precious picture of Callie looking bright eyed at the camera sitting on her mom's lap.

One Saturday evening we ventured to the west side to take in Annie's, my little sister's, basketball game. She did a great job guarding and is really aggressive when it comes to getting the ball. We thought we were only staying for one game, but had so much fun we decided to stay for both games. My dad is her coach and he did a great job throughout the game of encouraging the girls to keep trying when they missed a shot, or messed up on a play. It was a lot of fun to watch!

Mid-November we journeyed to Dallas, TX to drop off Ava (Andrew's mistress, I mean glider) to have some more work done on her over the Winter. While we were there we stayed with our friends Nicole and Patrick Grafton, who always show us a good time. They live in a fabulous little area with wonderful shopping and great restaurants. We had a relaxing Saturday with shopping, eating, watching football (go OSU!) and playing with hair, the girls not the boys. It was a lot of fun!

We had to return a little earlier than we wanted to from Dallas because I invited my students to join me at a Youth Symphony Orchestra concert that afternoon (before we planned the trip). It was an amazing concert. Students from 4th grade up to Seniors from the Wichita area were playing and the orchestras were phenomonal. Unfortunately, only three of my students were there, but hey, maybe in one of those three some musical interest sparked and that's all I can hope for. Later that evening some friends had invited us to hear Leo Kottke play at the Mary Jane Teall theater. He is an incredible guitarist and it was another wonderful evening with friends. Needless to say, it was a busy day.

Look for more to come...

Bridesmaid for a weekend

I had a fabulous (and busy) weekend. My very good friend, Molli, got married and I was honored to be in her wedding party. All of the fun started Friday afternoon with a Bridesmaid luncheon, then on to manicures and pedicures. We had about an hour between the end of nails and the beginning of the rehearsal to get ready.

The rehearsal went off without a hitch and then it was on to the Oldtown Hotel for some reminiscing and story telling. After dinner we went enjoyed a good old fashion slumber party complete with Zumba and lots of fun girl talk!

The wedding morning started at 7:00 with a quick shower and then off to hair by 8:00. We had a great time hanging out, eating breakfast and starting the morning off right with Mamosas.

After our hair was sufficiently hairsprayed we headed to Von Maur to beautify our faces.

After everything was firmly in place we headed to the church to get dressed and start the pictures. After Molli and Kyle had their "moment" where he saw her for the first time, the wedding party piled on a party bus and headed downtown for some pictures.

The wedding went off without a hitch and Molli was a beautiful bride. The evening ended with a fabulous reception at Crestview Country Club. The food was fabulous, the wine was fabulous and the dancing was fabulous! So as you can see, it was a fabulous weekend!

My New Bike

I got my first new bike in, I don't know how many years. It is AWESOME!! I even road 20 miles on Sunday with my mom. I feel like a real biker now with my helmet, gloves and all the cute new outfits in my future. I can't wait for all of the adventures on my bike!

McConnell Air Show

This last weekend (Sept. 25-26) we had a fantastic air show in Wichita put on by McConnell Air Force Base. Well, I should probably say that we didn't actually go in to the air show because the wait to get on the bus was approximately 2 hours. We decided it wasn't worth the wait, however, we found a great location at the Cessna Activity Center, to watch all of the festivities. We were right in the flight path for the the Thunder birds and they were AMAZING! I think the next time the air show is in town we will just go straight to the Activity Center and set up our grill and start there.Even Addison enjoyed watching the planes (from the car anyway).

Cheering for a Stud

I am just going to piggy-back on Andrew's blog and tell you how exciting the Triathlon was from my point of view. We did have to wake up very early, but even my adrenaline was running high as Andrew prepared for the day. It was chilly that Sunday morning and I was not dressed appropriately for the cold, but I knew I had to forge ahead (because it was all about me). We stood around for a while and then the director pulled everyone together, talked about the rules, prayed for everyone (which I thought was awesome) and everyone took their places.

The swim was awesome! Andrew passed two people as my mom and Glenn cheered him on from the sidelines. Some might even describe his swim as poetic (but I'm probably biased). I had never seen him swim before, but he just looks so graceful in the water. He is so long that he covers about half the pool with just a couple strokes. Needless to say, I enjoyed watching the swim.

When he got out of the pool we all chased him over to the bikes and continued to cheer as he transitioned into bike mode. It was definitely chilly so I'm sure the wind on the bike was not fun. For a while we just stood around, but then decided that we should jump in the car and take off after him. Mom drove and Glenn and I yelled out the windows and took pictures. We went by him and decided to stop at a turn point to wait for his arrival. There were several other people there to and we had a blast yelling for all of the bikers zooming by. We eventually saw Andrew, hung around for a little longer and then started the drive back to the Y for his arrival on the bike. We saw him make the last trek home and then he started the run.

As he put his bike away and turned to start his run we could see pain in his eyes. We watched him run off and then stood around waiting for his return. I fully expected to see him walking on the way back because it looked like he was in so much pain when he left. However, as he came around the corner he was at a steady jogging pace. I was impressed by his motivation to finish strong. We were all cheering him on as he crossed the finish line and then smelly hugs and congratulations were given all around.

It was a very exciting day for us both. I am so proud of him for an awesome race and it was fun to be on the sidelines cheering him on. I can't wait for the next one, except I will probably try to be a contender...

Indoor/Outdoor Triathlon

This morning (Sunday 9/19) I completed my first Triathlon. It was an Indoor/Outdoor hosted by the YMCA. 400 yd swim, 13 mile bike, 3 mile run. Results are posted at http://www.ymcawichita.org/UserFiles/File/events/nwtri091910-overall.html

http://www.ymcawichita.org/UserFiles/File/events/nwtri091910-malefemale.html

For those of you that don't want to look, I finished 56th overall, 44th for the men. Time 1:17:20
My splits were:
Swim 5:12
T1 1:47
Bike 40:05
T2 1:26
Run 28:50

Kinsey was a trooper, waking up at 5:15 for the adventure. She's done several half-marathons where I got to cheer her on, and she didn't want to miss this opportunity for pay back.

I had a friend, Jeff, who I have been swimming with also in the race. (9th) He has helped me get ready, taking me on bike rides, etc. He was running next to me when the hail storm hit. (His van lost its rear window too.) We tied for the second fastest swim among everyone.

First the SWIM. The hardest part for me was the start. You "plop" in, or in my case, drop in next to the wall, go down about 8 feet, then push off the wall. There was a bit of a traffic jam in the first 100, but after I passed two people, I had clear water ahead. After 400 yds, i was in 7th place.

They told us to use the ladder, I swear!

Then, the transition. Apparently, transition is the opportunity to make up or lose alot of time. I struggled with the shirt, the socks, the shoes. Nancy and Glen came to cheer me on, nothing like sitting on the ground, trying to put on your shoes, with your adoring fans yelling at you. =)

Actually, they were great. It was nice having a cheering section. I'll let Kinsey blog about that side of the race.

Okay, so after T1, the first transition, I was on the bike. It took about 4 miles for me to catch my breath from the swim. But, I just kept pushing it, and averaged 16.3 MPH. Not bad for a 20 year old mountain bike. Now it was my turn to get passed. The road bikes were doing 18-20 mph, and it didn't take long for my swim lead to errode.

T2 went alot faster. No shoe change, so all I had to do was park the bike. Took off running. My goal was to run the whole way. And except for about three steps at the turn around/water station, I ran the whole way! I haven't figured out how to drink from a cup and run at the same time. Maybe next year.

The run actually got easier/better as it went. I even pushed the finish (as my lungs are reminding me now.)

Overall, I really enjoyed the race. The cheering was awsome (thanks Honey and Glancy.) I'll be looking for an aquabike event next year. That's a tri without the running. Oh, and now I am saving my pennies for a road bike. No sense giving up the swim lead because of equipment!

Andrew's Turn at the Keyboard

Well I had an interesting week. And Kinsey said I should tell you about it. It kind of revolves around my first triathlon, which I completed today. More about that later.

I have had to start running, which is not something I do (but Kinsey has done and was an awesome resource.) So, after getting a new pair of running shoes, I was running at the gym Wednesday night, when all hell broke loose. I saw the storm building when I left work, but I had know idea what was about to happen.

20 minutes into my run around the indoor track, the rain and little hail started to fall. Nothing too bad. Then, larger hail (golf balls) started to hit the metal roof at the gym. (The track is on the second floor.) "Oh crap, those could leave a dent," I thought, as I kept running. Then, I heard what sounded like a bowling ball hit just above my head. Then another, then another. Well, they weren't bowling balls, but they were softball size hail stones. After the hail came the wind and the rain. I knew it was bad when the roof at the gym starting leaking. I mean raining indoors. The damage was so bad, the building won't reopen until Monday.

You can imagine my excitement, when I finally got out of there and to my car. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Just goes to show you why exercise is over rated. Cars can get destroyed! Now I get the grown-up task of dealing with insurance. To quote my good friend, Scott, "Good times."

Parents for a Weekend

Maybe weekends are just wonderful in general, but this one was so much fun! Like the title says, Andrew and I became parents for the weekend. I have been babysitting/nannying (whatever the appropriate term is for the age I am ;-)) for twins, Luke and Eleen for about three years now, since they were two, I'll let you do the math. Every now and then I get lucky and have them for a whole weekend. It's like parent-in-a-bag. I take them for three days, play with them and do lots of fun stuff and then Andrew and I get to go back to being just us again. It's the best of both worlds.

This weekend we did so many fun things. We started with a family dinner at the Olive Garden to celebrate Andrew's and Kim's (my stepmom) birthdays. The twins were very well behaved and even got to go to Orange Leaf afterwards. What a treat!

Saturday morning we (and by we I mean the kids) woke up early and started off with a great breakfast, then we went to Dillons to shop for snacks that Eleen needed to take to her class for this coming week. While we were there we stopped in the Halloween aisle because these crazy five year olds love anything spooky. They started trying on the masks and I had to take some pictures. They were so cute! I finally tore them away from that aisle and we headed home to put everything away.

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to play with chalk outside. We made the world's longest hop scotch and drew pictures of them, me and Andrew on the driveway. By then it was almost time for lunch and Andrew had a fabulous idea to go to a fly-in. We drove over to the grass runway and watched all of the planes fly in. The kids loved it (and so did I). I took a ton of pictures with the kids by every airplane, ran around for a while and then hopped back into the car to go to the new Maya Angelou library by our house. While at the library we noticed a playground and the twins enjoyed playing on the monkey bars for a while. Needless to say everyone was exhausted so we went home and watched a Magic School Bus video Luke checked out from the library. It was about bats. He got it because it had vampires on it, see, everything scary. We took a little nap and then woke up and played a "grown up" game together. They didn't know the name of it (you can tell by the pictures why) we just called it the donkey game and they were really good at it. Lots of fun for Andrew and I. After that we got ready to go to my mom's for dinner.

My friend Ginger brought her two kids and the four of them had a great time together. By the end of the night Broc and Zoey had shared their silly bands with Luke and Eleen and they were calling themselves the glow buddies because the bands glow in the dark. It was very cute and we got some funny pictures out of it. Luke and Eleen were exhausted by the time I got them home. They basically fell into bed, and so did I!

Sunday, Andrew was nice enough to take the morning shift so that I could go for a run and clean up without little ones pestering me. However, he lucked out and they were still asleep when I got back from my run, but I still enjoyed a peaceful shower while he played with them downstairs. So, we all had breakfast, the kids were given baths and we headed to church. Andrew and I had never arrived at church with kids so this was a new experience for us. We found the appropriate Sunday School class for them and Eleen even new one of the girls already in there, it worked out great. We kept Sunday pretty low key, they were still exhausted from the day before. We went back over to my mom's where they watched the movie, "Bolt" (so cute!) and then played with the grass sled my mom has. It is a great outside activity, Mom and I even joined in for a couple rides. We left and ran some errands and then made the final trip back to their house. They were so quiet while I made dinner that I suspected bedtime would arrive early, and it did. I read to them for about forty minutes and around seven they were either fast asleep or very close to being asleep.

Now I am home enjoying my peace and quiet, but also enjoying reminiscing over this entertaining time together and looking forward to the next time I get to "play parent" for a weekend.

Labor Day

I have officially survived the first three weeks of school! That can only mean one thing...my first three day weekend, Yay!! Andrew and I had a great Labor Day weekend. Friday was his birthday so we had a wonderful dinner at Mike's Wine Dive. Andrew was spoiled with gifts such as new black socks, new brown socks, a new shirt and now the good stuff, an IHome to use for his new alarm clock. Overall I think he had a great birthday. Maybe he will write about it sometime (hint hint).

Saturday was pretty low key. I did stuff around the house and Andrew was able to soar, finally. It's been a rough season.

Sunday we went to a baptism for the son of my friend, Lori, and then we had the brilliant idea to bike over to my mom's house. For anyone who lives here, do you remember how windy it was on Sunday? We made it over in one piece, with a couple of spills and road rash to prove we actually rode our bikes. When we made it to my mom's we decided to go swimming. However, this wasn't just fun in the sun swimming, this was hard core, lap after lap after lap swimming. Andrew is training for a triathlon and I was helping him practice (and maybe gain some confidence in swimming to do my own triathlon someday). After the fun of swimming (which is an exhausting sport by the way) we made the trek home on our bikes. We ended our wonderful day with a dinner at Hangar One with the Fosters.

Monday Andrew got up and rode 20 miles on his bike. He met a friend on the west side and they rode with the wind and against the wind for 20 miles! I'm so impressed! I ran with my mom and then we wanted to try out our new swim strokes so we wouldn't forget what we learned the day before. It was another exhausting day filled with exercise, food and quality time together. I hope everyone had a great three day weekend like we did!!

First Week of School

Well, school has begun again. Actually, it's been a great start! My class is very cooperative and my Love and Logic training is actually working! Yay! I still have a lot to learn, but it is very nice to come home with energy, I'm sure Andrew feels the same way.

Andrew was AWESOME during the first week of school. He made dinner every night. I didn't get home until around 7:30 every night and was exhausted just from getting back into the swing of things, but every time I opened the door something good was cooking. I asked him if this was going to continue, but he very politely responded, "Hell No." We started sharing the responsibility this week. Well, it's only Monday, but we have a plan for the rest of the week.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a great year. I don't have any pictures of the entire class, but this picture illustrates pretty well what I am feeling at this point in the year. I'm sure it will get easier...

Wedding in Michigan

Andrew and I had another fabulous weekend! We were in Michigan about an hour north of Detroit for Andrew's brother's wedding. Nic and Meghan were married Saturday in the church she grew up in. She was so beautiful Nic cried as he saw her walking down the aisle (not an uncommon occurance for the Peters' boys). The pastor did a great homily that included marital advice from the congregation. I was honored to be asked to sing The Wedding Song (There is Love) during the ceremony. Everything went great. The reception was a blast. It included lots of dancing, a photo booth and amazing Italian food. As far as I'm concerned the day went off without a hitch.

As always it was great to get closer to Andrew's family. I got lots of one on one time with my sister-in-law, Becky. She's always great at listening, being a child therapist and all. As always my father-in-law, Lee continued to crack me up with his craziness that I don't know how to describe and my mother-in-law, Sally was as thoughtful and sweet as she always is. (Okay, I know you are all reading this, but I need everyone to know what a great family I married into, I'm not sucking up, I promise).

Andrew and I made it safely home. Just in time for the first day of school, tomorrow. I'm sure there will be many more blogs to come. I'll try to keep it to funny things my students do instead of how I want to tear my hair out.

Well, we survived our first year of marriage. Even though we felt we were very well prepared because of book studies, "Friday Night Chats" and (what we thought were) great communication skills, there was still a lot to learn.

Our first year was filled with learning opportunities, miscommunications, laughter, tears and a lot of wine. We wouldn't change a thing!

Our one year anniversary was a fabulous time to remember that wonderful day where all of our friends and family came together to celebrate our love. To reminisce we decided to go through our wedding album while eating the top of our wedding cake (which turned out to be yummy) and toasted the memories with champagne. The day was concluded with a couple's massage and a wonderful dinner at Luciano's where we enjoyed a little taste of Italy.

We are looking forward to the next year and what it may bring. With many more years to come and many memories to make.

Adventures in Llano, TX

I guess I write this like you are sitting in front of me and we are having a chat (with tea and an English accent apparently). I just came back from my first soaring contest in Llano, TX. I was not real excited about going, but it turned out to be a very fun experience. The contest started on Monday, but unfortunately for Andrew the weather wasn't great and he didn't get to fly until Wednesday.

On my first day of crewing Andrew landed out (not at the airport). Luckily my good friend Nicole was with me because I didn't have a clue what I was doing and she was there to keep me laughing about it. Another one of the contestants and his wife (John and Vivienne) helped me hook up the trailer to our car so that I could go get Andrew out of the field. All of the people helping us were very concerned that two city girls wouldn't be able to handle this, but we felt confident that we could handle anything that came our way.

Then we met Bryant. As it happened, Andrew landed in a field that had a lock on the gate. We had to get a key before I could get to him. Bryant owns a car lot in Llano and everything about him screams "I'm a Texan, I like to make people feel inferior to me and I don't like planes (especially in my field)." Needless to say he was not the easiest person to deal with. He ended up sending us out to his land with two of the men who work the land. It turned out really well because the two men helped Andrew put the plane in the trailer.

I was in contact with Andrew this whole time and his directions to get me to the field included "turn at the goats." This is what we were dealing with. All in all, it was a great adventure. Something we can laugh about for many years to come.

The rest of the days were calm. There was a lot of waiting in the hot sun, but Andrew landed at the trailer every time after that. I couldn't believe it was so fun, but it turns out that I was able to get to know everyone really well and the soaring community are some of the nicest, most helpful people I have ever met! I will even surprise myself by saying, "I can't wait until next year!"