9.21.2013

This past Saturday, I had the honor to stand beside my brother and his new wife as they took their vows. The weekend was as beautiful as you can ask for this time of year, sunny and cool! The day went off without a hitch! As I stood there, watching the love in my brother's eyes, hearing the Scripture and music they chose, and the words they both said, I couldn't help but think their love is a love to last a lifetime.

The wedding festivities began on Wednesday for me. After the entire fam (by entire I mean Oregon cousin, LA great aunt, SD cousin, and the regular old Stewartville family) went and cheered Kaylee on at her tennis meet. She did fabulous and creamed Winona Cotter! I was so proud. Jacque and I headed to get our nails done next. I couldn't go with the wedding party since I had to work on Friday.

Friday after work, I rushed home and rushed to Bethel for the rehearsal. The rehearsal was such a fun time. Pastor Wahl did an amazing job working his way through the service of marriage and explaining each part. It was fun to have that intimate time with him and Will and Amanda. After the rehearsal, we all headed to Willow Creek Golf Course for a delicious Italian meal. Amanda's entire family joined as well as my entire family (entire as in parents/aunts/uncles/cousins, not the extended fam). It was a blast! Charlie graced our presence with a tie on! So cute!

Here's my little brother as a single man!

 Saturday morning, I arrived at Amanda's house around 7:30 with egg bake in hand. The bridal party enjoyed breakfast while getting our hair and makeup done.

SNAP! I was upstairs putting my makeup on when Amanda sent me this snap!

Here's Amanda heading to see Will for the first time on their wedding day. 

First embrace! Precious. 

The bellringers (flower girls) watching

Megan was a flower girl in our wedding, and she got to be in Will and Amanda's too! Lucky girl!

My little brother as a married man!

Charlie was unimpressed with the ceremony. It could be because it was during his nap time...

The wedding party took a trolley around town. Here's the married couple pouring champagne. 

Bridesmaids and the bride. 

Bell ringers!

Not so flattering....I don't know where this came from!

We were being sassy on the trolley

Around 7, Mindy came and picked Charlie up. They kept him overnight! It was so nice for Tony and I to have a night just the two of us (and my entire family :) ) 

Laura and I enjoying the night. 

I snapped this right after Will and Amanda let go! Proof that my parents danced the night away!

Again it was a beautiful wedding! I'm so happy to have Amanda as my newest sister-in-law!

Milestones

Charlie has reached a pretty big milestone in the past week: he is sitting up all on his own! He sometimes forgets and goes to reach for something and topples over, but for the most part he's our sitting little boy now! He even sat in a restaurant high chair today! (yes, I sanitized it Mindy ;) )

Here are some more shots from our 6th month photoshoot. I don't have the CD yet, so if you're family and waiting to order some, you'll have to keep waiting! I'll send out the link as soon as I get them! These are some she posted on Facebook:

Our little monkey boy

Charlie and his baby boy golf club from Uncle Will

Baseball boy! 

All Because Two People Fell in Love

TOES!

Autumn smiles.

Family fun. 

There's my boy!

Goodbye Michael!

Most of my friends and family have heard me say with great sadness that our friend and Bethel's Youth Director, Michael, is leaving our community to head south to Cedar Falls. He has been given the wonderful opportunity to help rebuild a high school youth program at, what sounds like, a wonderful congregation. We are VERY excited for him and his family on their new adventure, but I'm also filled with sadness.

Michael was the first person to truly challenge my beliefs on what worship is. I stepped outside of my comfort zone to look at how we worship and how we could do it differently. He has opened the door to many different ministries at Bethel for Tony and I. He's why we're a part of In Between, The Dream Team, Young Adult Ministry and why I'm on the Worship Task Force. I know it wasn't just him alone, God clearly was working through him to touch our lives in many ways.

We did get to worship with him one last time last Wednesday night with the Confirmation youth. The spirit was clearly among us as we sang and played our hearts out to God. There were several times that I had to step back from the microphone to hold back tears. I felt silly, but I got this feeling that the group would never be the same. Michael's passion, enthusiasm and energy was reflected in all of us while playing with him.

Michael, you WILL be missed! We pray only for the best on your new adventure!

6 Months

Friday our little man hit the big 6 month marker! Since it was the first week of school, Tony had to be a solo daddy for shots and check-up! Tony was a great daddy and was sure to bring lots of information back for me!

Here are the stats on our little big man:

Weight: 17 lbs 3 oz     45 percentile
Length: 2 feet 4 in       93 percentile
Head Circumference: 45.2 cm     86 percentile

They did a double measurement on weight just to be sure because he's growing taller a lot faster than he's growing heavier.

Charlie is a healthy baby boy! They said to start pushing water, so we started him on a sippy cup full of water. It's taking him a while to learn how to drink from it, but tonight he guzzled a bunch down! In case you were wondering on Charlie's solid food intake: He's now tried and demolished ice cube trays full of avocados, green beans, butternut squash and bananas. Tomorrow night we move on to peas.

Saturday morning we drove to Dodge Center to have 6 month/family pictures taken. Charlie smiled the entire time! He was such a good boy! He even SAT UP ON HIS OWN for the pictures! Ahh! He's growing so fast! Here's a teaser of the pictures to come:

Whew.

Whew. Day 2 of the school year is in the books. Sorry for lack of blog posts, but I've been in new teacher orientation or teacher workshops or teaching for the past 3 weeks. Life has gone quickly by me! I'm going to try to give a quick update without boring you all. Keep reading because I'll end with some great pictures from Labor Day weekend!

New Teacher Orientation was 4 days of craziness. I left for school at 6am every day, worked (cleaned, scrubbed and gutted) my classroom until 8 then headed to training until 4. One of the nights, Tony and Charlie joined me to help move heavy furniture. I sorted through one man's 30 years worth of teaching materials. That man did not throw one thing away! Yikes!

Last week was when ALL the teachers gathered for various workshops. I again left at 6 to work in my classroom. I was shocked to find my computer, the program copier and all other forms of technology/air conditioning to be shut down at the school. Come to find out, over the weekend the entire server fried due to the heat. We had NO technology! I know teachers survived without technology in the past, but it's nearly impossible now. I couldn't access any of my students' IEPs and I was meeting with parents that Tuesday! Yikes! We finally have our internet and computers up and running, but I'm still without a printer. Let me tell you, that is frustrating and parents were not very understanding about the situation.

Throughout teacher workshop week (Monday through Thursday) my new co-workers, all male, all over 50, took me to various locations in Austin to eat for lunch. I have decided that Austin has THE BEST places to eat: Piggy Blues, Top Noodle, Steve's Pizza to name a few!

After a week of frustrating technology, I was ready for my students to arrive Tuesday morning, and arrive they did. I have 8 kiddos on my caseload. I greeted them with a smile right away, and soon found out I had a room full of gems. Sure they have some pretty tough behaviors and emotional issues, but I can tell already that I'm going to have a great year with them. I'm learning more and more how to leave my students' issues at school and live my life at home. It's been tough, but so far so good! The first day was a long one for me, no prep, no break, no lunch. Come 3:15 I was racing to the bathroom and stuffing my face with a sandwich after that. Today was much better. I was actually able to eat and have a few minutes to myself. We'll see how tomorrow goes...

Anyways, that's what I've been up to! Now here's what we've been up to as a family!

Last Friday I said goodbye to my trusty old Impala. She had 212,000 miles on her! I said hello to my new shiny 2013 Chevy Equinox. Boy do I love my new car. I never thought I'd own a brand new car. I'm more of a used kinda girl. Tony and I actually argue over who gets to drive now!

Charlie and I left Sunday morning for a quick day trip to Madison. We stopped in LaCrosse to pick up Liv and made our way east. We met up with Heidi and Raegan on the capital lawn and enjoyed some yummies from the Taste of Madison. We bummed around Madison for a while, and then headed back home. By 9:30, Charlie and I were in our pjs and getting ready for bed. 

On Monday we went to Laur and Jill's for a zucchini fry! YUM! Charlie spent lots of time with Great Grandpa Bob and Great Grandma Jayne. 

He also had his fair share of cuddle time with Natalie the toothless cousin. 

Charlie loves his Harvey but was too distracted to smile. 

We ate supper at my parent's house on Monday night. Charlie wanted to share that he's now eating squash and loving it!

He had to visit with Grandpa Buck for a while.

And cuddle with Grandma Becky!

We have had a busy but great couple of weeks. I'll be sharing more of our busy lives in the near future!!