Wind storms, Court Case, and Karate!

There has been alot of goings on lately! I thought I should probably do an update so that I wouldn't get stuck with another 6 month one=).

We had a huge wind storm last week! It knocked down part of our huge tree in the front yard and narrowly missed the power line and house. We also lost our metal shed behind the house. We found it the next morning crumpled in the woods about 75 yards from where it had been! The wind just picked it up and threw it........crazy. We also were without power for a few days. No fun. We were so bored and it was so dark at night....and quiet. I didn't realize how much ambient noise is in the house until we were without electric.

Here are some photos from that adventure:

Here is where the shed used to be. You can see the metal crushed in the woods.

Here it is up close.

Dad, John, and Zach are trying to pull the hanging dangerous limb. Thank goodness no one got hurt!

In other news, we had our court hearing on Wednesday to determine a temporary parenting plan concerning Kole. I don't want to write details on the web, but mainly it went pretty well. Call me or email me if you want to know more than that! I am more that happy to share it with family and friends....just not random cyber space people. I just wanted to thank everyone for praying for us about this situation. I felt more calm than I anticipated I would and I am sure it was because God answered those prayers.



School is going well. My students are now in the relationship unit. It is so interesting to learn about my students. I am really enjoying teaching them better ways to communicate with their families, siblings, and friends. Zach is going great. He is working very hard with his job right now, pushing himself to the max. He is just so good at what he does! They finally broke ground on the transitional housing project that he has been working on for such a long time now. He has really babied this project and I know that it is such an acomplishment to get it to the building stages. He is such a wonderful person and I am so glad that he is mine=).




Kole-man is doing well. He has been counting his "good" days at school because Zach has told him that when he reaches 100 he can have a puppy. We will see how long that will take...ha. Honestly, though, Kole is doing really well at school. He is reading!!!! I couldn't believe how well either. He had told me he was practicing reading at school and he knew some words but when he brought home the Dick and Jane book and read through the whole thing......I was amazed. He really sounds words out and figures them out! Once he has sounded them out he just remembers them as "sight" words. I knew he was smart, but man, I just am so impressed with how fast he is catching on to this. He has already read through the second Dick and Jane book and he can's wait to start the third. Being an avid reader myself, I love it!!!!!




Kole also finished up his karate class first session on Wednesday evening. He did really well! He got an award and was so proud of himself. Here are a few pictures and a video.

Here is the whole class!

Kole getting his award

"Sparring"

Snow Days....YEA!

SNOW DAYS!!!!!! Today we had a snow day, and yesterday was a snow day too! This is a teacher's favorite time of year (except for the summer of course=).

We were kinda lazy yesterday. On snow days, I like to do things I can not normally do during the week. I baked FOUR loaves of bread! Three regular white loaves in the oven, and one wheat loaf in the bread maker. I cut one loaf up and made french toast for dinner last night (we are fans of breakfast for dinner). We ate the whole loaf. It was delicious if I do say so myself.

Zach didn't have to go in to work yesterday because it was so bad out, so he got to work in the "man cave" for a few hours and then just hang out with us. Zach and Kole shoveled snow, though I think Zach did most of the shovelling. I salted. Everything is iced over now, though, but atleast we got a little workout!

The freezing rain started coming down around dark so Kole and I went sled riding. We went soooo fast down the hill because it was a sheet of ice!!!

This is the crazy snow man we made with the "perfect kind of snow" as Kole says.

Yes, his eyes are mandaran oranges. The carrot nose. Twigs for hair. And last but certainly not least, beef jerky for the mouth. We are a creative bunch.

Kole was freezing by this point!





And I will leave you with a short clip from Karate class last week. He didn't have a nap this day and you can tell by the lack of attention span. Anywho, enjoy!

Here it is folks....

The last 6 months:

September:

I started my new job at the end of August and it has been so rewarding (and challenging). I really like what I am doing! I wasn't sure if I would but with each month it got better and better. I think that my students have really enjoyed FACS class and have learned some valuable info, though I think that I am actually the one who learned the most!

Kole started into a pre-K program. It started well ( atleast as far as we knew). More on that later.

Prepping for the wedding. This was stressful! Getting all of those last minute details finished and trying to make sure that we were are prepared as could be was way more of a challenge than I could have ever imagined.

Overall, September was a busy month for us but we got through it.

October:

Wedding! Otober the 4th we were married at Deer Park Country Inn. It was so amazing and everything I could have ever wished for. We were so pleased with how everything turned out.

Our First dance with the bluegrass band in the background.

The awesome cake! Thanks, Aunt Donna!

Right after we had the ceremony! I like this pic.

Kole is such a ham. We got alot of these super cute photos of him because of that trait.

My awesome flowers! They did a wonderful job on these and I loved them.

Some love.

The guys.

The girls.

The siblings.

Ok so you get the picture. Actually there are 634 of them! I have yet to make a book with the best but I did narrow it down to just 75 awesome ones. The photographer was seriously jumping out of bushes shouting cheese at any and every given moment.

Staying at Deer Park was a wonderful experience and I am so glad that we did. We really enjoyed being able to relax there before and after the festivities.

In other news......We went on our honeymoon in October! First to Williamsburg where we skipped the Colonial part and went to the outlets!. Then on to Ocracoke which is the last island of the outers banks of NC. It was so beautiful. A small quaint town with kickin coffee, miles of national seashore, and really good food at Howard's Pub. We stayed at an awesome Villa...At the Castle! This was our View........The Harbor!

Overall a great trip! We really missed Kole though and were glad to get home and try out the new house!!! The house has been wonderful and we are enjoying the new found space.



When we came back from Honeymoon, I got served papers (the Schmidt is taking me to court for parental rights) and we found out that Kole's pre-k was not really working out. Ends up the guy that ran the place was a huge jerk. He told us he didn't like Kole. WHO DOESN"T LIKE A FOUR YEAR OLD?!?!? Needless to say, we pulled him outta there pretty quickly and it was so amazing the change in him just getting him back to his old school. He is doing great and learning so much there....and they LOVE him!



Also in october:


Halloween: Kole was a robot, Zach and I didn't dress up and I really wish we would have. Guess theres next year!

Our Pumpkins...these were fun!

October as super super crazy with much goings on.....but it was so awesome as well!


November:


Thanksgiving, Koles B-day, and much inbetween! Sadly, this is the only picture I have to represent November. This is the aftermath of Kole's Birthday...it is the morning after I believe.

December:

Christmas, parties, and cookies. It was a good month overall, though we will really miss Papaw. He was such an amazing person and example for all of us.

YUMMMY
Kole's Christmas Card PhotoOur mismash of a tree=) Matching "overhauls" as kole says. We had so much fun on this trip.
These are repeat pics but I wanted to post them again=).January:

New years eve (celebrated at home with close friends), Koles Karate class.

New years was so much fun! We played guitar hero and had good food with friends at home. There wasn't much else to do and we ended up really enjoying ourselves so we might just make it a tradition!

Kole started Karate this month and is having a blast with it. He can not wait until Wednesday of each week. It is a six week program, once a week for about 45 minutes. Each class, if he listens well, he gets a stripe on his belt. Last week they practiced punches, this week was blocks. Kicks are next. By the end, they are actually going to use the moves on each other! The class is for 4 to 6 year olds so I have a feeling that this is going to be hilarious! He is the tallest child (except for an autistic child who is 8) in the group which consists of around 13 students. One the first day we realized that his best buddy from school was in the class as well as our new neighbors son! That was really exciting for Kole. Here are a couple of videos of Karate class (watch for the dancing at the end)!

So, there you go folks, you are up to speed. This has taken me hours to do so I have learned my lesson and will never go for six months without blogging. I promise. If you want to see more wedding Pics you can visit my facebook page. I have posted most of them there.

Much love to all!

It's coming....

So I am sitting at my desk in Fairview, reading everyone's blogs. I haven't posted since we were all wearing tank tops.
I apologize.
I am sure that no one is checking my blog anymore. But if you are hanging on by some glimmer of hope that I will soon update my blog, the time has come!!!

Except that time is not this very minute. You see, I am on my work computer at school. I have no pictures to show with this computer. And I will not sum up the last 6 months of our lives without some pictures.

Speaking of, if any one wants to see some wedding pictures I have posted some (180) on facebook and plan to post the rest this evening. It is time I stopped neglecting my cyberworld people.

You can trust me. Come back in a week (or less) and there will so much wonderment to behold, it will blow your face clean off.

Until then, my faithful bloggers.

The Fair and a New Friend.....

So here it is, folks! The offical pictures of the Mannington Fair in all its glory. Enjoy! We certainly did!

This child had no fear! He made friends on every ride he was on.

This is the most awesome picture, simply because this is what we did that night at the fair (watch Kole), and because of Dad's expression!!!

Kole waas obviously excited.....the entire night.

This ride scared me. Kole kept ducking down to where I couldn't see him over the edge. Not good !

SO fun, and he made another friend...!

The alligator roller coaster. Hands up and screamin' like a girl the whole way!

This was so funny to watch.

Any ride that goes up in the air with my child is terrifying to me!

Look at that sky!

This was actually the first ride of the night. He was so pumped!

Here are a few pictures of another friend. We often go as a family on walks on the rail trail. There is often pretty flowers and good scenery that we enjoy. On our last walk, Kole and I collected some queen anne's lace and some green wheat looking plant. We put them in my mason jar flower vase and they have been very pretty for a while now on my kitchen table. As I was sitting at the table the other night, I saw something unusual on one of the flowers. Here it is:

He must have been very small when we picked the flowers and grew on my kitchen table! On claser inspection, I noticed that a few of the queen annes lace looked as though they had thier head eaten off. Haha. This is how he grew so big!!! By eating my flowers!!!!







I promptly took the whole vase outside, where this little guy, along with the flowers, now live on the patio table.

I took so many photo's of him because he really is a good lookin' caterpillar!

Thats all for now.

The house is offically under contract!

Here it is my friends and family! This is the house that Kole and I will be living in until october the 4th, when Zach will join us. In approximately thirty days (right when school starts....ahhh!) we will be moving! Now, this is all dependant on the inspection, which we think will go just fine (positive thinking). Everything else is well underway (scheduled the inspection, financing, etc.)

I am so excited I could pee my pants! Haha. Tiff will get that one.

Other than this big news, all else is going well. I am ready to start packing.

We are supposed to be relaxing.......

It is summer. I am not working (except for an occasional day at the daycare). I am not sure how I ever found time to work with the busy schedule that I have been keeping! But we sure are having fun while being busy.



There were several things I wanted to do for fun this summer and so far, only one has been accomplished. Between registering for gifts, house hunting, traveling to the wedding site to pick out flowers and a menu, house hunting, figuring out wedding invitations, house hunting, keeping my favorite neice, house hunting, and ...........so on and so forth, we haven't stopped yet.



We spent an entire day looking at houses yesterday. We went everywhere, and out of ten, saw three that we liked. One was a flip house that was nice, but on closer inspection, there were some things left undone and it had puddles in the basment. Not good. Another was extremely nice, with an awesome kitchen, right price, modern everything, and a nice backyard. But, it was in an undesirable location. The third that we liked was awesome. Cathedral celings, nice size bedrooms, an awesomely redone basement (or man cave as Zach called it), and an acre of yard for the man. It is pricey though and is in Colfax, which will mean a bit of a drive for both Zach and I for work. But we do have some good friends who live there and could walk to thier house. There were woods behind the house and a horse pasture beside the house. Both great views. It had a nice deck as well.



Heres a link to it if you want to take a look. http://www.idxvow.com/cgi-bin/ncwvidx/pitrolo/mls.cgi?view=res.cgi&show=yes&mls=10060688



We were so tired yesterday after it all, that we haven't fully discussed the next step. I'm not sure if we are going to keep looking or make on offer.....

So there is the update on the house hunting.



I have kept Keirrabelle a couple of times the past few days. I got to pick her up last night and keep her today while Kait and Cerik work on their trailer. She and Kole have been enjoying each other and Kole is learning how to deal with a younger kid being around and needing attention. I think it is good for him. Keirra is such a pleasure to have around. She is so fun and loving and energetic! Here is a picture of them hanging out.

Planning for the wedding has taken up a good portion of my time this summer as well. Stuff is getting done though. The bridesmaids dresses came in, Zach picked out and ordered his tux, the flowers have been selected, mom got to see the site in Buckhannon, the registry is complete (only a few minor fixes and additions...), the tree farm has been contacted about the favors, the wedding coordinator is getting together a menu for the rehearsal dinner and finalizing the wedding menu, the invitations and being printed today by an awesome graphic designer friend, and the guest list is complete! The shower is still a work in progress and there are some other minor details that need to be addressed. But the show is on the road! I would like to have all of the main stuff out of the way by the time school starts because I know I won't be able to think much about the wedding when it does.

On a completely different note, please keep Zach's mom in your prayers. She will be having back surgery on the 28th and we all are a little nervous. In addition to some other current unfortunate events , this time is very stressful and scary for her. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Let me see, what did I forget???? Probably a ton but my brain is a little scrambled and overwhelmed right now. I'll post more later.