Don't forget about your husband (aka Breckenridge Trip)

This trip was a huge first step for me. It was the first time I left my baby boy overnight...for two nights, in fact. I feel like I handled it all rather well. I missed my baby like none other but also had a blast with the most important man in my life, Dylan.

We went on hikes, explored Breckenridge, had a blast at Oktoberfest, and just plain enjoyed spending time together...with just the two of us...and no other outside influences.

Lunch in Breck

Hiked up to the top of a waterfall - Mohawk Lakes Trail

Mohawk Lakes Trail

OKTOBERFEST!

Waterfall at McGullough Gulch hike

Don't get me wrong, I missed my little man like crazy! He is the light of our lives, but it's always a great reminder for me that he can't be our whole lives. After all, what will life be like 18 years from now when he leaves us to go explore the world on his own? I would hate to look back and see so many opportunities where I let our relationship go and didn't work at it.

So, while life gets busy and so easy to focus all my attention on our baby, I have to keep in mind how important it is to nurture my relationship with my husband. After all, if our relationship is healthy, that makes for a much healthier family environment! I know Lincoln will thank us some day for that!

A Sobering Thought

This Friday Dylan and I went to a fundraiser in honor of a little guy who is no longer with us.

His parents said it best:

"Super heroes reside in the hearts of small people fighting big battles."

Logan's life was cut short due to the side effects of Congenital Muscular Dystrophy in 2013 after just 17 months, but the strength and courage he demonstrated will never be forgotten. "Logi Bear's" calm and peaceful demeanor, as well as his infectious smile and beautiful eyes lifted the spirits of those around him. His happiness and love of life, even through difficult circumstances, provided an inspiration that will carry on through the work of the Logan Baker Foundation.

The Logan Baker Foundation is dedicated to curing Congenital Muscular Dystrophy and supporting organizations that help children to reach their full potential.

If you feel the call to donate, here is the link for donations online:

Logan Baker Foundation Online Giving Page

 

 

I've also known others who had children that have struggled with cancer or other diseases/illnesses. These children are fighters, and the saddest thought of all is when they lose that fight.

 

Sometimes we become so comfortable with our lives that we forget to count our blessings, and having a healthy child is definitely one of those blessings!

 

Labor Day Weekend

I've been absent from the blogging world for a while. Since I went back to school, I found it very hard to find time to blog. Plus, I didn't really have much to say other than day to day school stories. So, here I am...back at it...finally!

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to St. Louis to visit some friends we hadn't seen in ages. We had a great time catching up, playing games, and meeting their new little one.

Lincoln and Ian

Isaac was such a little helper!

Lincoln and Isaac (L loved Isaac!)

Back to being a working mom

It's that time of year again...waking up early, school supplies, students, school. I love the beginning of the school year. It happened a bit early for me this year as I changed districts and had to undergo new teacher orientation...again...for the third time...I've got to stop changing districts! But, the school year has started. I'm beginning my 10th year of teaching. As I say that, I can't believe it's been that long. Where have the years gone? I am excited to say, though, that after 9 years, I'm still loving what I do and am looking forward to a bit of a change...going from 7th grade to 8th grade language arts. Gotta love those middle schoolers! (I know I do! I couldn't imagine teaching any other age group.)

With going back to work means that Lincoln went back to daycare after being away from it for two months. I was surprised at how nervous I was when we dropped him off for his first day. I had those thoughts every mother has like:  Will he get along with the other kids? Will he make friends? Will the kids be nice to him? (However, usually those thoughts are when your child is a 5 year old not a 7 month old.) Needless to say, there were no issues with the other kids, but there was the issue that he didn't really nap ALL DAY LONG! You have to understand that my baby takes two naps that are at least two hours a piece! For him not to nap was a pretty big deal. Well, every day it's gotten steadily better. I think he just needed to settle in, and hopefully he'll get back to his normal napping routine.

Life is going to get really crazy here soon, and I'm looking forward to every moment!

Summer 2013 Recap

As the 2013-2014 school year is quickly approaching (I go back on Friday...Yikes!), here's a recap of our summer.

To start with, I always make a to do list in the spring of things that I don't have time to accomplish during the school year, and to make my husband feel like I'm accomplishing something over my break (not that he asks for it, but it makes me feel better). This summer's to do list changed a few times due to the unexpected move. Here is what ended up on the list:

1. Organize photos - DONE! I downloaded all my photos and videos off my phone and organized those into folders. (If you are an iPhone user, you know how time consuming that job is! When you have 500 some odd pictures, it takes a bit of time to organize.)
2. Update Lincoln's baby book - sort of done...this is really an on-going project through his first year.

And that's it. What I didn't have down was the obvious when you move to a new place...unpack, organize, put up pictures, etc. The list is pretty sparse this year, but I give myself a free pass since we moved.

Now, for the fun part...what did we do this summer? Usually, we go on at least one vacation away from home every summer, however that did not happen this year. With moving and Dylan starting a new job, it just wasn't in the cards. So, we spent this summer at home. (We are going to Denver in September though, so I'm super excited about that - sans Lincoln!)

We started our summer off right by visiting my brother's family in Texas. The whole family made it down, and we had a fabulous time!

Lincoln meets his cousin, Presley, for the first time.
 

Lincoln's first trip to the zoo. He loved looking at the animals, and then got tired and took a snooze.

Fort Worth Zoo
 

I moved out of my home away from home classroom at Washburn Rural Middle School. This was a sad moment. I worked with the BEST group of people and loved every minute of my four years there. I became a better teacher because of my colleagues who constantly pushed me to improve!


We also moved out of our first home as a married couple. This was a bit sad as well. This was the home where we became a family.

the last picture in front of our Topeka home

We went to the pool in the new neighborhood. Lincoln loved watching the little kids splash and jump in the pool.

Lincoln started solids! He loves his food!

Sweet potato mustache

We went for lots of walks around the neighborhood and park.

On July 4th, we went to Lincoln's first Royals game. You can see that post here.

Kaufman Stadium

Dylan's family came to visit before Adam and Nicole headed out to Ireland. This visit corresponded with remodeling our new kitchen. (Phase 1 and Phase 2)

Aunt Nikki protecting L's ears from the loud noises!

We spent time at Sea Life Aquarium. Lincoln was absolutely enthralled with the fish!

And last, but not least, we played.

It may not have been the summer of exciting trips, but it was the first summer where I got to be a mommy to my little man, moved to a new house, and tried to enjoy the small moments of summer.

Shawnee Mission Park

When Dylan and I were looking at houses, we realized over time that the Shawnee, Kansas area was more our style. We didn't like the hustle and bustle of Olathe, where we spent most of our house hunting time. It was just too busy, too trafficy (yes, I made that word up), and too populated. So, we geared our attentions to the north a bit and fell in love with the quiet of northern Johnson County, specifically Shawnee. We have really enjoyed our little area of Kansas City, and yesterday we checked out Shawnee Mission Park for the first time.

This park is a little gem in the middle of the city. It has pretty much everything you'd want in a park...nice walking trails, a small lake, biking trails, hiking trails, and a dog park. I do have to mention that poor Sadie does not frequent dog parks. We're afraid that something will happen or she won't listen to us. They make me nervous. The poor girl will have to live with going for a walk with us instead.

Shawnee Mission Lake - you can catch up to 50 crappie at one time!

Lincoln and I in front of the lake

walking trails

If you're in the area, I highly recommend checking it out!

Kitchen Renovation Phase 2

The kitchen renovation phase 2 is complete, or at least almost complete. We got our new countertops installed last week, and I love them!

tore out old counters

cut off the raised part of the island

Before

After - new countertops!





a better view of the granite

Obviously, we need new stools. I go pick those up from Nebraska Furniture Mart on Friday, and I got them on sale! Score!  

 

 

 

The reason I said almost complete is that the installers have to come back to readjust the counters so the overhang is consistent all over. Also, they cut the island an inch smaller than we requested, so we're deciding if we'll take the money off he said he'd give us or get a new slab. Why can't anything go smoothly the first time? Such is life, I guess.

 

Phase 3 is new backsplash. We haven't decided when we'll get around to that but considering there's a half inch gap between the existing backsplash and the counters, it might need to be pretty soon. More to follow! 



Day 22: Rant About Something

I'm skipping around on my days because I'm pretty much over the blogging daily thing (as most of my friends have also stated). I wasn't even going to post this one but after spending 5 minutes trying to post a comment on Chelsea's blog, I have my inspiration...

Is anyone else fed up with the stupid letter, number combinations that you have to enter to prove you are not a computer? I mean, come on! First of all, they aren't real words which makes it difficult to decipher the uneven font. Then, in a very hazy picture you get random numbers. Ridiculous!

And by the way, this one looks easy but the four I tried before this weren't.

The Bracks' Visit (aka Daily Blogging Fail!)

So, I'm not that far into my adventure in blogging, and I've already failed at blogging every day. But, I feel okay about it because I've had company this past week. We've had a great time, and I just haven't had a chance to sit down and blog. (Plus, we've been dealing with the install of our countertops and redoing plumbing...that's a different post later on.)

Before my brother and sister-in-law are off on their adventure to Ireland, they came up our way to visit. Yes, you heard me right, they are moving to Ireland for two to three years. How cool is that? We'll be visiting them in March of next year, and I can't wait! I've been wanting to go back to Europe for ages.

Anywho...we've had a great week of hanging out and catching up.

Lincoln's 7th month picture (a little late)

riding Maddie like a horse (not frowned on in this establishment)

Our first time at Sea Life - Lincoln was fascinated!

Sadie and Maddie were pooped

Aunt Nikki protecting Lincoln's ears from the loud noises

Great-Grandma Birdie even made it down!

Selfie!

Kitchen Renovation Phase 1

I didn't like today's topic so I made the executive decision to start blogging about my kitchen renovation. When Dylan and I bought our new house, there really wasn't much we had to do to it. The people who lived here before us actually had pretty good taste. Hard to believe, I know! (or at least similar taste to ours...I consider that good taste.) When we bought this house we knew we needed to do two things...put in a fence - done! and revamp the kitchen. Now, Dylan just thought that would include new countertops. I had other visions in mind.

Phase 1 of the kitchen reno is painting. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, Dylan LOVED the red walls.

Before

 Of course this was not brought up until I had already primed them and painted part of the kitchen (and after I had already brought home paint chips, by the way).

primed walls

the first color - Autumn Fog

The first words out of his mouth were, "Oooh." I knew then that he hated the color. Then, "Doesn't it look baby blue?" Baby blue??? That was not the look I was going for. I wanted a cool gray, blue color, more gray than blue. Apparently, this one had way too much blue. I did agree that it just wasn't the right shade (and of course...I bought a gallon of the paint when in actuality I only needed less than a quart...typical).

So, two more samples later, and repainting a few times, I we settled on Urban Sunrise...no blue at all.

After

Phase 1 is complete! Phase 2 is new countertops which will be installed next Thursday. Updates to follow!

Day 12: Something I miss

The first two things that enter my mind immediately are my family that lives far away and college.

First, my family. Since I've grown up with a military family, we were always used to moving around often and living all over the country (and world, for that matter). So, it's no wonder that as we got older, my siblings and I decided to live all over the country as well. I settled here in the Kansas City area and luckily my parents retired here too! My sister has lived all over but is pretty settled in North Carolina because her husband is in the military and is stationed there. My brother is living in Texas because his wife is from there. You know those people from Texas that can't imagine living anywhere else?

A funny side story to this is that when my nephew was born here in Kansas City, my sister-in-law's father sent up soil from Texas so that Logan would "be born on Texas soil." Now that's commitment to Texas! I love them and think it's great that you have that kind of passion for a place!

I desperately miss them all. While it's fun to go visit them in these different places, it doesn't make up for the day to day life that we miss.

Summers Family circa 1997

Nate, Nichole, and me in Germany

The second thing I miss is college. This is more of a nostalgic miss. I miss the idea of not really being a real adult. You don't have responsibilities other than to get your butt out of bed and get to class (and how many of us weren't all that great at doing this one?). You can do what you want when you want. My husband and I will reminisce about our college days sometimes, and we both agree that it was a wild ride! But, life goes on and we grow up to the next phase in life.

Day 11: Sell yourself in 10 words or less

Devoted, compassionate, loyal, life long learner, stubborn, loving, quick to judge. That's 11, but oh well.

Day 10: Things that make my heart happy

There are so many things that make my heart happy. Where to start? Well, obviously my little family makes me extremely happy.


Easter 2013

My big families also make me happy.

Summers Family May 2013

 

Brack Family July 2012 (yes, I was pregnant in this photo)

 

I also have to mention my fabulous friends. Of course there's so many other things, but to me, the people in my life make it worth living!

 

 

Day 9: A moment in your day

I often feel like the life of a teacher is one with a split personality. During 9 months of the year, you are constantly busy with lesson planning, working with students, being a wife and a mother. Then, the summer comes and life changes a bit. Don't get me wrong. I'm still pretty busy over the summer (especially now that I have a little man to take care of), but life slows down a bit. You see, teachers need downtime. They need to recharge. (I'm sure most people need this in their job but we also need an emotional purge.) We put so much of our heart and soul into our job and our kids that we need some time away to recharge and be ready to give it all once again for that new crop of kids to come.

So, what's a moment in my day like right now?

It's a little bit of this...

and this...

 

and even some of this.

  While my summers look a little different these days, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Fourth of July Fun

Since moving to Kansas City at the beginning of June, Dylan and I really haven't had a chance to have, what you would call, fun. Every spare moment has been unpacking, rearranging furniture, putting furniture back where you originally had it, staining a new fence, and the list goes on. You know, it's all part of moving to a new house.

So, for the Fourth, we decided we needed to do something FUN! We settled on a Royals game. Lincoln has never been, and we hadn't gone in over a year, so it was past due. After all, part of the reason we wanted to move back to Kansas City was for all the great things to do. Even though we still had chores looming, we decided to leave it behind, even if it was for just one day.


Lincoln and I before the big game!

Dylan and Lincoln in front of the fountains.

 

The family at the K!

Lincoln was a trooper! He was fascinated by all the sights and sounds.

 

But, like all good things, they must come to an end. By the time the 8th inning rolled around, Lincoln decided he'd had enough. The fact that he was tired, and the Royals just hit a grand slam home run did not help his disposition. We did something that Dylan has sworn NEVER to do...leave a game early! Well, I guess life changes when you become a father.

As an added bonus, we came across a free concert at Park Place in Leawood.

Lincoln was jamming out!

Even though Lincoln didn't get a chance to see any fireworks, we still had a great day! It's kind of hard when you go to bed at 7:30. Maybe next year he'll be up long enough to see the fireworks, but I'd say this was a great first 4th of July! Happy birthday, America!