Look what arrived this week...

It's really and truly happening. For some reason, it's really hit me this past week. Everything is coming together and I'm really getting married in 102 days. Wow.

My Favorite Boys

Last week I had the day off school to celebrate President's Day. We decided to use our afternoon to choose our tuxes - and we took my nephew Sam with us. I am telling you, that child is SO excited!!

He was so still while she was measuring him :)
"Tante, take my picture!! I'm so handsom in this suit!" Yes, Sam Michael, you certainly are!

"Tante, this isn't my real tuxedo right? Cuz it doesn't really fit right." "No Sam, for the 10th time, this is not your real tux - they will get another one that fits you just right." "Then this is just so you can take pictures to send to my mom to scrapbook?" "Yes, Sam, that is exactly right. Good listening."

Ah, what a day. :)

A Year of New...

First of all, Happy Holidays to everyone. I will have a picture update for you as soon as my computer at home is fixed! My two week vacation was glorious. I enjoyed relaxing time with Kevin and Kaitlyn, extended family, and got a little time to catch up with old friends. I so enjoy spending time with the people who make my life so wonderful.

It is unbelievable to me that it's 2010! 5 years since I graduated from college, 9 years since I graduated high school, 27 years since I was born. Time has been flying. 2010 will be a year of many changes for me...some big and some small - but changes none the less.

A new attitude: I am re-affirming my promise to choose to be cheerful in as many situations as possible.

A new me: I (along with my entire family) have begun competing in a biggest loser challenge. Yesterday marked one week from the beginning of this diet and wow, if only I had time right now to list the ways my life has changed. The amount of time it takes to eat healthy is amazing to me. I spend many nights coming home planning meals, counting calories, and going to the gym. I have dropped 4 lbs in a week - and am very hopeful I will be able to keep on track. The ending of the competition is the wedding, so check back for updates!

A new name: Speaking of the wedding, 19.5 weeks from now, I will have a new name!! That is beyond crazy to me!! There is so much still to be done, I'm trying desperately to just take it all in and enjoy this season of my life because I have been waiting a very long time for it to be my turn.

A new family: Marrying a man who already has a child brings an instant family. New traditions, new expectations, new opportunities to learn and share and love. Although I still long for a child of my own, having a step-daughter is something that is both frustrating and exhilariting all at the same time. It is something you simply cannot understand unless you have done it and I am very excited for the relationship we already have and the special bond we will get to build as she gets older.

Here's to 2010 - a year of changes for me - and my prayer is that it will be a year of blessings for you. :)

....check!

As many of you may or may not know, my sister and I coach a high school dance team here in our hometown. Actually, we started this dance team at our alma mater Pleasant Valley a few years after we graduated and it has been SO much fun to watch it grow into the amazing program that it is. I very much enjoy my time with the team and it has provided me an outlet besides the studio for my passion for dance.

This year, our team has helped me check another item off my "things to do before I die" list. This list was created in my head when I was in high school and has evolved and changed as my life has changed and I grow older and dream bigger dreams. This year, at only their 4th appearance at the Iowa State Dance and Drill Team competition...WE WON!! We are the Class 5 State Champions in jazz!!! It has been 4 days and I still get goosebumps when I type those words.

I will never, in all my life, forget the looks on their faces. I will never forget the sound of them screaming and shrieking. I will never forget them diving over eachother to hug eachother and us. I will never forget the days following when they were completely satisfied - everything they had worked for, we had. Being a dance team, it is not often we get alot of attention in our school. It was SO heartwarming to hear all the positive comments and read the congratulations emails from teachers and building/district administration. It's so amazing to watch the girls be commended for all their hard work and dedication, even before anyone was watching them.

I am both humbled and honored to be able to be a part of such an amazing and life-altering experience in their lives. And as a self-proclaimed, type A, list maker....I am LOVING that I can cross another thing off my life-long list!!

Engagement Pictures

As promised, here they are. Donna at Studio D Photography did a remarkable job. She is a good friend of Kevin's and we so enjoyed sharing this experience with her - she made us feel comfortable and was very easy to work with. Because Kevin is a photographer, we had a difficult time deciding on who to hire - but after meeting with her, I knew she was the one immediately. Her work is fabulous - and so is she! :)

Enjoy!

Hi Friends

Just checking in to notify everyone that I'm still alive. To be honest, I've been so busy with busy work, I haven't felt like I have anything exciting to chat about. I've logged onto my blog about 5 times, but nothing speaks to me to write about. So, today I'm just giving a little update on anything and everything.

Wedding planning is essentially done, except for the tiny details now. I have a few decisions left to make, but for the most part everything is done. Here is the hilarious part of all of it, I am usually a very indecisive, go-with-the-flow person - sometimes to a fault. Our nights usually go something like this; Kevin: "where do you want to go for dinner?" Me: "I don't care" Kevin: "What sounds good?" Me: "Eh, whatever". It drives him INSANE. I've determined it is yet another direct result of this glorious career I have. I spend all day making every choice for the 26 cherubs in my room. Every. Single. Choice. Can I go to the bathroom? Can I eat my snack? Can I sharpen my pencil? Can I go to the library? Where is the lunch count envelope? Can I write instead of read? Can I call my mom to tell her I forgot my lunch? You get the picture. So, back to wedding planning - I really hate making decisions...especially when I don't really have an opinion on the choices. End of rant. In other news, we got our engagement pictures taken over the beautiful weekend - I will post some of them soon! They turned out really great!

Grad school is going to be the death of me. Between the 900 pages (no exaturation) of articals I need to read and write reviews on for one of my classes and the 30 page research paper I need to write for my other class - I'm literally going out of my mind. I just keep repeating this phrase to myself: "nothing lasts forever." "nothing lasts forever." As my dad always used to tell me when I was a little girl, "Kate, tough times don't last, but tough people do". So, as I stand here as an adult, I'll take that advice Dad...and I'll keep putting one foot in front of the other, hoping these tough times don't kill this tough girl.

Pictures coming soon, hope all is well with everyone -

Lots of Love,
Katie :)

A new perspective...

So yesterday I was teaching math and one of my students was really struggling. The concept was adding zero's to find larger numbers (7x6, 70x6, 700x6, etc). Student L simply could not figure out what 7x6 was to begin with, much less the adding zero's part - so I made a suggestion I make daily during math. I said, "why don't you try to draw a picture". What I meant was, make an illustration that will help you to find the answer...draw 6 groups of 7 people, or draw 6 rows of 7 dots, or something to that effect. I made the suggestion, and continued pacing my classroom to observe other students.

I circled back to Student L only to find a rabbit, big as life, right there on his paper. I said, "um, what might that be?" He looked at me with such a blank expression and replied to me like I was the biggest moron on the planet, "it's a rabbit Miss D". I took a deep breath and explained to him that I meant to draw a picture to help him solve the problem and started such a picture for him to finish.

Lesson learned: say what you mean and mean what you say. Especially when it comes to math and rabbits.