....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.

Welcome to the Big Top

I love, love, love the circus. Except for the elephants. This year was especially fun because Kevin was chosen by one of the Clowns to participate! Here are some of my favorite highlights of our trip to the circus this year!

A cute little preview...

Here's an adorable preview of the wedding...

A Little Picture Update...

Hello friends! I finally found my camera cord and would love to share a little of our summer through photos. I hope you enjoy!

Here is Kaitlyn & I enjoying the Taylor Swift/Keith Urban Concert! Before the show, we were blessed with the opportunity to meet Keith Urban!! He hugged her and said "Hey Beautiful, what do you wanna hear tonight?" To which, she very promptly replied "Taylor Swift". Ohhh, the joys of innocent childhood. :)

My future neices, Rachelle & Kristina came to the concert with us. We had so much fun!

We had a great time with our dear family friends: Jenny, Mike, Emma & Aiden at the 4th of July at the Red, White, & Boom Celebration Downtown

The 4th of July was a rainy and kind of chilly day here in Iowa (notice our sweatshirts and jeans!) But, we have a long-standing tradition to have dinner as a family and enjoy the fireworks - this year was no exception