Mudwater Triathlon

Andrew did an amazing job at his triathlon this past weekend. He had the third fastest time in the swim and finshed in 20th place overall out of 80 participants!! It was an extremely hot day, but everyone gave it their best effort. Great job Andrew!

Fourth of July 2011

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. All of my brothers and my sister with all significant others and children were in town. We had great family dinners, went to the pool, relaxed, shopped and of course the girls danced. I'm pictured here with my soon to be sister-in-law, Misty. The girls (my sister, Blythe, Sister-in-laws, Rachel and Lindsay and Mom) decided we needed to make sure she was up to the task of keeping up with us on our girls trip, so we had to go dancing. Although the band wasn't that great we still danced up a storm and livened up the dance floor. Misty is definitely a wonderful addition to our girls/family!

We did manage to make it to church on Sunday as a family. I know Mom and Glenn were very proud to have all of us there, taking up an entire pew. So, here is the fam: Jeremy and his fiance, Misty (September 3rd, woot woot), Rachel, Craig and my 15 month old neice, Evy; Tony and Lindsay; Blythe, Chris and their two boys Colton and Wyatt and Andrew and myself. What a good looking group!

The fireworks at the country club were great, but the fireworks the boys set off were the highlight and by boys I mean all of the men in the group setting off their own fireworks, not the children. It was a great time, I'm already looking forward to next year when we are all together again!!

Soaring Contest in Moriarty, NM

Andrew and I had a fabulous time in Moriarty, NM. We met a lot of very nice people and Andrew made it home every day!!

Two Year Anniversary

We had a fabulous anniversary dinner at the Gaslamp Grille. We reminisced about the past year and ate some wonderful food. After dinner we enjoyed watching a video of our wedding reception (that I couldn't figure out how to play on my computer until a couple weeks ago). We were able to see things that we were unaware of and relive some fun and entertaining moments. Here's to many more...

Penny Peters

As I was driving to work to clean my room before starting Summer I happen to see this little fluff-ball running around in the street. I stopped my car and she came right to me. I looked around to see if anyone was out with her or looking for her and then took her into school. She "helped" me all day in my classroom and at the end of the day I decided to take her home with me.


Andrew and I decided that Penny was a good name for this adorable little Toy Poodle and we started gathering things to give her a place in our home. Well, about five days in one of my friends told me that she had a some good friends that had lost a poodle and they told her how mean it was to send them a picture of Penny. I got to thinking about this family and how the mom stays at home with her realtor business and how the loss of their poodle must have left a hole in their hearts. Then I started thinking about Andrew's schedule with flying lessons, biking, training for triathlons and soaring and my schedule when school starts and classes this summer and travel. After looking at things logically we decided that this family could give her more attention than we ever could.


Even though we only had her for five days she had found her way into our hearts and it was really difficult to give her up, but in the best interest of Penny it was what we had to do.


We did learn something from this experience though. Our schedules will drastically change when we have kids and it is going to be sooo worth it!

My First Garden

Since this is my last week of school I got into Summer mode this past weekend. I finally figured out what I wanted to do with my (little) garden outside the front door and started working on it. The edging was fairly easy to put in and I am experimenting with some different flowers to see what can handle the kind of sun we get in that area throughout the summer. The one in the middle is from my mother-in -law. Thanks Sally! See it's still alive (the other ones were not so lucky :-( one out of three is my best record yet). If anyone has any good gardening tips I would be happy to hear them. I will post more pictures once they bloom.

Sprint Triathlon Spring 2011

I will let the picture do most of the talking, but let me set the mood... Have you ever woken up in a daze and realized it was too early to actually get out of bed? Well, that's when we woke up on Sunday. At 5:00 the alarm goes off and we start dragging ourselves out of bed. Andrew already had his bag packed with his shoes, extra shirts and anything else he needed for the morning. We stepped out into the garage and shivered as the 40 degree morning shocked us awake. We made it to the YMCA by 5:50 and Andrew set out his equipment

before heading to a meeting at 6:15.

The Director reviewed rules and said a prayer before sending all racers to their starting point. Everyone starts at the pool, then head to their bikes and finish

with a run. Hopefully I can get Andrew to write the race from his perspective because the pictures give you my perspective. Enjoy...

Mini Marathon 2011

Andrew and I completed the Mini Marathon in Indianapolis this last weekend. 13.1 miles of nothin' but fun! Andrew did an awesome job and ran for about 10 miles of the race. Becky (Andrew's sister) and I walked the race. Boy, we were ever happy to reach the end!

It was a fabulous weekend with wonderful food and, as always, great conversation. Our Finnish friend, UJ, was gracious enough to join us on the trip and he kept us on the edge of our seats with his mind reading and card tricks. For Mother's Day he made us all Finnish pancakes that were delicious.

We had a great flights to and from Indy and we look forward to more trips this Summer!

Too Long...

Wow, I just looked at this and my last entry was a blessed snow day. I guess it has been too long. I honestly can't remember everything that has happened since that time, but I will do my best recap.

Our very good friends Patrick and Nicole Grafton came up for a weekend to visit. We laughed, ate, drank wine and did everything else that sounds like an amazing weekend! Nicole took a discovery flight to see if she wanted to work on her pilot's liscense. We flew to Benton for a wonderful lunch and then flew around to show them Wichita from a "bird's eye" view.

For my Spring Break my mom, sister, two sister-in-laws and myself flew to Puerto Rico where we had an amazing, relaxing time by the pool and ocean.

Andrew has been a biking maniac, he rides at least 50 miles every weekend. One particularly windy weekend him and his friend Jeff rode north towards McPherson, but didn't want to fight the wind coming home so I drove up there and picked them up. I have some befoer and after pictures.

For the most part we have just been working hard, enjoying the beautiful weather when we can and looking forward to Summer. A nice break from work for me and soaring for Andrew. Everybody wins. Thanks for reading!

Snow Days

As many of you know, the weather has been a little crazy. We went from 70's to negative numbers in 24 hours. I have never had this many snow days since I've been teaching, it's been great! I had to take a picture of the final snow day email sent to us last Tuesday, February 8th.




I had a very lazy Wednesday, but still managed to iron, yes, I can do that, get the driveway shoveled (a neighborhood kid came by and asked if he could shovel our driveway for $5! He did such a great job I gave him $10), fix dinner and learn all about my new iPhone.

Everything is back to normal and we are working hard in the classroom to make up what was missed over the 6 snow days because our State Assessments are coming up fast. Ahhhh! I hope everyone is staying warm and safe!

Game Night

This past weekend (February 5-6) Andrew and I had a wonderful time staying in from the cold and playing games. We started with Act Your Wage, a very fun game created by Dave Ramsey. It's a lot like Monopoly, but you win when you pay off all of your debt. I beat Andrew two times (even though he made twice as much as me the second time).

After the game we still weren't ready to call it a night so I brought out a puzzle that I put together with my students last year. It's a panoramic picture of New York City. The picture is of us putting the last piece in place. I didn't know being an "old married couple" could be so much fun!

New York City

Well, Andrew and I flew to New York over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and had a wonderful time meeting his new girlfriend, Misty. We arrived Saturday afternoon and ate lunch then talked for hours at Jeremy's apartment. Misty works at Carnegie Hall so we were able to see a Beatles show there Saturday night. We enjoyed a very gospel church service on Sunday (I told Jeremy the music reminded me of a Veggie Tales movie, very fun!), then we grabbed more food and found a place to sit and yes, talk some more. We ended the weekend with a crazy karaoke session at a sushi bar. It was really great because we had a private room where the six of us (Jeremy invited a couple to join us) could just let loose and have some fun. It was a great weekend seeing where Jeremy lives and getting to know Misty.

The Holidays

Well, unfortunately we don't have any pictures to show you what our holiday break was like (because we were having so much fun) so, I will just have to do my best to describe it for you.
I had to work until December 22nd so we decided to drive to Kansas City that evening to get a head start on the long trip. Oh yea, we drove, which absolutely killed Andrew, but it was less stressful in the long run and really nice to have our own car while in Indiana. On the 23rd we drove to Chicago to spend some time with Kayme (my best friend from high school) and her family. It was fun to watch her kids, Addison and Madden, run around excited for Christmas. We enjoyed some wonderful Indian food and a "restful" night on a rug. :-) The next morning we woke up, said our goodbyes and drove to Carmel, Indiana to start the Peters' Christmas. We went to a wonderful Christmas Eve party where Andrew got to catch up with some friends and I met some new ones. Sally and Lee's church had a beautiful Christmas Eve service and then we all went home, had our Baileys and went to bed so Santa would come.

Christmas morning was filled with laughter, presents, surprises and a yummy breakfast! I spent the entire day in my pajamas mostly eating and napping. The rest of the trip involved trips to the gym (not my idea, but much needed after all the wonderful food I ate), catching up with friends and lots of bonding with family. It was a great trip! We drove straight through from Carmel to Wichita on December 29th. It really wasn't a bad car ride. We just had to be prepared to give up one day of our vacation. It was a great time for Andrew and me to talk about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness (I know, super cheesy).

We got home in time to see my brother, Jeremy, before he headed back to New York and other family members before everyone headed back to their homes. I spent the 30th and 31st organizing the house and getting everything settled before I headed back to work. New Year's Eve was very calm. I fixed dinner that we ate by candlelight, we watched a movie (The Princess Bride) and were probably asleep by 11. Just another old married couple.

My birthday was a fantastic day starting with breakfast in bed, continuing with beautiful diamond earrings from my wonderful husband, a great lunch with Mom and Glenn, the new Harry Potter movie and dinner with Dad, Kim, Madison and Annie. All in all it was the perfect way to spend my 29th birthday.

Now we are back to work and looking forward to new adventures in 2011!